the rumors are true!

Over at @liberalcurrents.com you can find so many wonderful essays, but you can also find #HalfTheAnswer with @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social and I. We asked so many questions in 2025, and had so many excellent and informative guests on the program; who, you might ask? Well, we’re glad you asked. 🧵

Congress wya?!

“…Therefore we need not expect to have better states until we have better men; till then all changes will leave every essential thing un-changed.”

“Everybody wanna be king for a day; everybody wanna get rich right away…”

The juxtaposition of the words and the images here is *chefs kiss*

"Trump's Venezuela Attack: It’s All About the Oil, Stupid!" Here are five times Donald Trump himself admitted that illegally attacking Venezuela and toppling Nicolás Maduro was aimed at seizing the country’s massive oil reserves. From me for Zeteo:

Venezuela's state apparatus appears very much intact and independent you can't conquer another country with a speech act

Polls conducted in late 2025 show that most Americans, by a 25-50 point margin (depending on question wording), oppose the use of military force against Venezuela. www.gelliottmorris.com/p/americans-...

It is time for EU leaders to establish a clear (if confidential) strategy and red lines for a Trump takeover of Greenland against the will of Greenland and Denmark. /1 www.theguardian.com/world/2026/j...

"The motivation is simple, and ancient: empire. Saturday marked the formal debut of an imperial America, led by a president who recognizes no law, save that of the jungle."

The New York Times has just confirmed that 40 civilians died in President Trump's invasion. This is the aftermath in one area

What a headline. Dreadful. Unthinkable to have to imagine even just a year ago.

New euphemism for "bottomless corruption and naked abuses of power" just dropped

Deeply bad stuff going on

This is exactly what corruption looks like: power used as a commodity, war treated as a profit center, and human lives reduced to line items. This isn't leadership or strategy-it' pay-to-play imperialism, and it's indefensible.

@washingtonpost.com “audacious” you mean ILLEGAL; WTF is wrong with everyone?!?!?!?

Because he’s a power intoxicated man; an absolute psychopath given more power than he should have.

It is bad to do this and we should not

Rep. Seth Moulton comes on CNN and starts by saying: "Is anyone going to just stop for a second and be honest? This is insane. What the hell are we doing? We've got a lot of problems in America today, and invading / occupying / running Venezuela does not solve any of them."

Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, called President Trump on Saturday to personally object to strikes the U.S. had conducted in Venezuela and to the capture of its leader, Nicolás Maduro. Mamdani accused Trump of violating international law.

Following the chat w Matt, we had @nateo.bsky.social on to go over the book, The War on Science, which, in fact, is a part of the real and actual war on science. What strategies do the authors of this trash use to downplay the threats from the right and fabricate threats from the left?

@matthew.flux.community knows what Republicans know, & wants the rest of the country to know too. So, #HTA & #TheTheoryOfChange did a pod episode together to go through it all. What can @democrats.org learn from their fascist, reactionary counterparts, & how could it help to better our country?

With ICE an Border Patrol operations revving up further, we brought @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social back on the show to recount her experiences following these groups across the country. What did she witness in Chicago, Portland and beyond? What does it mean for all of us? Why do they hate America?

Is everyone lying to you about illness, disease, and vaccines? Depends on who you ask lol Well in this chat, we asked @joho.bsky.social about his book an how the far-right grifters lie and hurt the country and society with their conspiracies & ridiculous anti-health drivel. Stay healthy and safe!

Also very on point right now with everything going on across the oceans and down in Venezuela, @katz.theracket.news came on to discuss these modern gangsters of capitalism, the older ones, plus where we are seeing similarities & differences. Imperial dreams do not die so easily.

Speaking of foreign wars and shit policy, we brought on @attackerman.bsky.social of @foreverwars.bsky.social to discuss NatSec from 9/11 to now. With the current Venezuela situation occurring and the peak stupidity of the Trump admin, this chat is really important. Support Spencer and stay educated!

And then, continuing on our education system, we brought on @derekgottliebphd.com to talk policy. How is the current administration different from the prior ones from W to Obama and Biden? Why are people strange about the education system, & why not just start learning w your kids? We investigate.

We weren’t done going over the Portland ICE facility either, and brought the traveling livestreamer @awkwardlyaudrey.bsky.social on to get into more details regarding what she’s seen since she got to town in the fall, how the various officers and counter protesters are treated and behave, etc.

@johnpfaff.bsky.social joined us after Daniel to talk criminal justice reform, the history of ICE, crime and its causes, mass incarceration and so much more! John sheds some light on areas that the current administration would prefer were left dark, & we are all better for the education to be sure!

The Tucker Carlson-Nick Fuentes interview was so fucked up that we literally had to have a whole episode just about it with the brilliant @danielharper.bsky.social of the #IDontSpeakGerman pod. We went deep into the backstories and little cues between the two and it is as dumb a chat as you’d think.

@audrelawdamercy.bsky.social is a really brilliant and busy individual, but she found some time to come on the show and talk her book The Originalism Trap, what the trap is exactly, how goofy originalism is when examined, civil rights, SCOTUS, and so much more. Follow @ballsandstrikes.org too!

History teaches, but it takes people to understand and apply these lessons across their individual and collective lives. With that in mind, we got the great @antisocialstudies.bsky.social to come on and talk about the past, what from history can help us dealing with Donny right now, and much more!

Ever wonder what it’s ACTUALLY like at the Portland ICE facility? Well @caitlinmoriah.bsky.social acted as eyes and ears on the ground and hung outside the facility with Jack the Chicken Suit guy to get the tea and the real insights that much of the news media is missing or ignoring. HTA got you.

We then had to get to the #MAHA movement and the climate deniers. To discuss those topics and more, we brought on @walkerbragman.bsky.social to go through the people who helped bring us here, the dark money that funded it, and the ways disinformation is packaged and spread!

The eminent #JohnGhazvinian then found some time to join the show to go over #Iran, its history, how we got to this position vis a vis US relations, the JCPOA, the idiocy of Trump I, the continued idiocy of Trump II, and what the future might hold. With current events in mind, the chat was crucial.

@jaredlholt.bsky.social & @michaelehayden.bsky.social of the #postingthroughit pod then joined us to do a deep dive on the infamous right-wing "busybody journalist" Andy Ngo, his work demonizing Muslims in grad school, his transition to online political influencer and professional victim, plus more!

Then we brought on @diplomatofnight.com again to go through the violence happening in Palestine, what Israel is doing, the “ceasefire” and how Palestine can be rebuilt even as Bibi and Donny leer over it with malevolent ideas and violent tactics.

@letsgomathias.bsky.social came on the show to explain #Antifa, how it exists as a boogeyman for the right, what kinds of activities they are engaged in, the difference between doxxing a teacher who practices inclusivity and doxxing one who wants to convert students into Nazi soldiers.

@jsweetli.bsky.social then found the time to join us to go through media mistakes and misconceptions. MedBeds, these goofy fascists, inconsistent standards for free speech and freedom of the press, and the scammy nature of our president and his public statements, and much more!

The #EducationWars are here. So, to discuss what that means and what the right wants to do to our education system and greater society, we brought on @jackschneider.bsky.social and @jenniferberkshire.bsky.social of @haveyouheard.bsky.social to go through it with us. A convo you won’t want to miss!

Which brought us to the fascinating chat that Caitlin and I had with friend of the show @mattpolprof.bsky.social. It was a Kirkified episode where we got to know some of the thoughts within Kirk’s work, as well as about far-right thinkers & their journey through the past two decades. Stay educating.

With our Marisa chat enjoyed, we moved on to what @edburmila.bsky.social calls the chaotic neutrality of the @democrats.org; we discussed the centrist arm of the party, its zombie-like shuffle through this era of authoritarian overreach, what went wrong over the last half-century & much more!

The wonderful @marisakabas.bsky.social came on after Amanda to go more into the Charlie Kirk discourse, Ezra Klein, whitewashing in the media following his death, media pushback against reality & a lot more. Always a valuable discussion with Marisa; make sure you’re following The Handbasket too!

And then came the groyper chat. @noturtlesoup17.bsky.social joined us for the first time to educate us regarding groypers, why the alleged Charlie Kirk shooter was NOT one, wtf Nick Fuentes is, his backstory and rise to prominence and so much else. Amanda follows these folks so you don’t have to.

While so many folks worry about the words @democrats.org use in discussing the issues of the country, Caitlin and I asked @dcinbox.bsky.social about what Democrats and Rs ACTUALLY say, messaging, the fallout from perception and consistent Republican messaging, and so much more! Super important chat

American democracy is ailing. This can be seen across American domestic policy - as well as in such things as attacking Venezuela and abducting their President. And so we brought on one of LC’s patron saints and friend of the show @jacobtlevy.bsky.social to give us both insight and perspective.

After we got into the anti-vaccine movement, we brought on the great legend #AdamHochschild to discuss the current moment in American history, how similar & different it all is to the post-WWI America we are now over 100 years away from, and if we are indeed in the midst of a new American Midnight.

But we had to bring @stevanzetti.bsky.social back to go over his recent work documenting the history and present of the American anti-vaccination movement. Who is drawn into it? How did we get here? Why don’t people trust vaccines despite their usefulness and the boon they have been to society?