PAC It In

Jared Yates Sexton and Nick Hauselman start with the Democratic Party's implosion: the DNC is $2 million in debt, sitting on a fraction of the Republicans' $128 million surplus, and chair Ken Martin is about to be scapegoated for a crisis decades in the making. The base has stopped giving money, and the gap is being filled by PACs and dark money flooding races like the Michigan primary between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed, where $30 million in outside spending, paid social media posts, and a consultant with Palantir ties are propping up the establishment candidate. Then it's the Iran war: Trump wanted to escalate with boots on the ground and was told the U.S. simply doesn't have the missiles. Over 600 troops have been wounded without a single boot on the ground, and the Houthis are still setting ships on fire in the Strait of Hormuz. The guys connect it all back to oil dependency, the death of the postwar order, and why nobody in power wants to have any of these conversations. Support the show by signing up for our Patreon to hear the full Weekender episode each Friday as well as specials and live shows: http://patreon.com/muckrakepodcast. The Muckrake Podcast is independent media with no corporate backing, and it only exists because of listeners like you.