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The Left Place
by Ted Millar
If you're a progressive who loves discussing politics, music, books, and history, you've come to the Left Place! This no-frills podcast is a look at the politics, events, culture, and concerns of a forty-something parent, poet, and teacher trying to make sense of all the pandemonium that is America. Become a Patron! theleftplace.substack.com
Episodes
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Perfect Candidate
He sired five children with three women, all toward whom he was unfaithful. One dalliance was with an adult film actor just after the third and current and current wife gave birth to the youngest child. He’s been running a shady New York real estate empire inherited from his sociopathic father…
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No, it's NOT A JOKE--Trump is going to try for a third term
The 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution states: No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be…
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We are not powerless. We have agency. We can all do something.
Have you had enough yet? Are your outrage cylinders getting burnt out? The late great progressive talk radio show host and activist Joe Madison used to say almost daily on his show, “Everyone can do something.” He was constantly exhorting his audience to, as Madison’s good friend and fellow radio...
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Days of Broken Glass
In the overnight hours of November 9 through 10, 1938, German Jews were subjected to one of the first major government-sanctioned incidents of routine violence that would characterize their mistreatment for the next seven years. Kristallnacht, or “The Night of Broken Glass”, was so named because…
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Get ready for ICE to be investigating your taxes (among other things)
Enjoy your popcorn watching the MAGA base implode over the apparent cover up of the coveted Epstein files. That is a legitimate story, not the distraction the regime and some media outlets are insisting. But it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that, while we’re focused on that scandal…
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Dead Language
The official story is we didn’t see it coming. Except we did. It was in the atmosphere, daily growing more rancid. It was in the water we shouldn’t have drunk. It was on the screens from which we couldn’t divert enough attention to notice we were about to careen into a wall. “Normal” developed so...
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The Big Beautiful Deception
Hopefully the Democratic party is working on its messaging since that is the area in which it fell short during the prior administration. We can’t wait until next year’s mid-term election cycle or 2028 to start pumping out explanations about how both parties aren’t “the same” and the ways the...
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While Congress was voting for more tax breaks for the morbidly rich, the White House withheld education funds
Amid all the wall-to-wall coverage of the republi-cons’ so-called Big B******t Bill that barely passed the Senate in the wee hours Tuesday and just made it through the House again for a final vote, something horribly vital may have bypassed your breaking news filter. Authoritarian regimes always...
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To My Fellow Democrats: We resist Zohran Mamdani to our peril
With the New York City mayoral Democratic primary victory of Assembly member Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic establishment finds itself at a crossroads—again. Before I launch into the bulk of my argument here, let me start off my speaking directly to my fellow Democrats: This is not a time for the...
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First Putin. Now We're Netanyahu's B***h.
With few exceptions, major military conflicts are distractions weak leaders engage in to bolster their popularity. We saw this in the 1980s when British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher started a 10-week war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands and the South Georgia and South Sandwich…
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The police state is here. The question is, how many will care?
When asked to contemplate a so-called “police state,” most will likely think of Nazi Germany. And they would be correct. That is probably the most quintessential example of a police state in the last century. Others might conjure present-day China, North Korea, Russia, Iran, or Egypt. Those would...
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Democrats Need to Run on Biden's Record, Not From It
Like it or not, we have to give republicans credit for some things. The most important is in their consistent (albeit fraudulent) messaging. Through the use of over 1,500 right-wing radio stations, about 700 religious stations pushing republican memes and candidates, and several hundred…
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"The American" Used to Be a Badge of Honor. Now It Might Be a Reality Show.
We’ve finally reached that point where we can’t even tell the difference anymore between a legitimate news headline and Onion satire. But I can assure you what you are about to read is 100% true. If you have any doubt, feel free to fact-check it. Ready? The United States Department of Homeland...
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Teetering on the Precipice of Dictatorship
The United States of America is quickly becoming a dictatorship. Wait…what? you’re thinking. North Korea is a dictatorship. Afghanistan. Not us. Not the United States! While we may not have devolved into a repressive Orwellian dystopia the likes of which we pretty much universally categorize…
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Making Segregation Legal Again
Remember learning about the Civil Rights Movement in school? We learned how Rosa Parks refused to move to a seat at the back of a segregated bus when the white driver demanded she do so, leading to the Montgomery bus boycott. We learned, of course, about Dr. Martin Luther King and his famous “I...
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We Are All Mahmoud Kahlil
“Then they came for…” Such is the refrain of Pastor Martin Niemoller’s iconic Holocaust poem, “First They Came”. Mahmoud Khalil is a name that should be on the tip of the tongues of all Americans who value the sacrosanct first amendment. If you aren’t yet familiar with him, be prepared to be...
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The Only Thing the S.A.V.E. Act Would Save is More Republican Victories
84% of women change their last names to their husbands’ when they get married. Most just start using their new surnames, maybe changing their drivers’ licenses, using them on official documents; some go so far as to get new Social Security cards but many do not. Very few, though, if any, go…
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This Week in Fascism: The Death of the Independent Free Press
Get ready for more glowing, gushing reporting of the convicted felon and his second administration’s criminal empire. The United States of America, the-once “shining city on the hill,” took several more steps toward fascism this week when the White House announced on Tuesday that it and it alone…
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We Are the Company We Keep
Historians William Strauss and Neil Howe’s generational theory of “the fourth turning” argues each generation is comprised of four 20–22 year “turnings,” or cultural attitudes about society. Four turnings make up a saeculum, Latin for “a long human life” or “a natural century.” Meticulously…
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The Seeds of World War 3 Are Being Sown Right Before Our Eyes - And We're on the Wrong Side
Three years ago, Democratic nations watched in concern and horror as Russian forces marched unprovoked into Europe’s largest democracy, Ukraine, attempting to finish what Russia had started in 2014 when it invaded and re-occupied the Crimea in Ukraine’s easternmost region. The United States…
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Oh, yes, they WILL deport Americans
“Then they came for…” Such is the refrain of Pastor Martin Niemoller’s icon Holocaust poem, “First They Came”. Its theme, of course, is that eventually everyone becomes a target of a despotic regime intent on eliminating its perceived enemies. It starts with one marginalized group, but most…
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Get Ready — More Tax Cuts for Morbidly Rich Are Coming
For at least the past hundred years, the republican party’s singular agenda has been cutting taxes for the wealthy, well-connected, and corporations. Just about every so-called “policy” the party supports is subterfuge for this objective. Cutting regulations? Tax cuts. Reducing government…
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FAFO* Files: Week 1
Has it only been a week since the felon didn’t put his hand on the Bible to take the Oath of Office? Only one week down in what is sure to be a very long four years full of frustration, litigation, predation, and, of course, betrayal. So, for all those who fucked around in November thinking “both...
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Instead of Watching a Racist Get Inaugurated on MLK Day, Let's Spend the Day in Service to Our Communities
Anything going on next week? Oh, yeah. We’re getting a new president. Are you planning on watching our first convicted felon president get inaugurated on Monday? You know what else Monday is, don’t you? Martin Luther King Day. That’s right — we’re inaugurating a racist on a national holiday...
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Biden (Still) Isn't Going Quietly Into that Good Night
In the week leading up to President Joe Biden’s exit from the White House, it’s understandable to shift more attention toward the incoming administration (especially since we will be inaugurating a racist felon on Martin Luther King Day) and assume the outgoing one is running out the clock to...
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As We Say Goodbye to President Carter, Let's Not Forget Republicans' Treason to Deny Him a Second Term
Amid all the obligatory tributes to former President Jimmy Carter today as we lay him to rest, did any of them happen to mention how Ronald Reagan’s campaign committed treason—yes, treason—to deny the 39th president a second term? Of course there is no shortage of reports of the 52 American...
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New York Students and Teachers Won’t Have to Take the Heat Much Longer
No surprise, 2024 was hot. Also no surprise, it was the hottest year on record just like 2023 before it, and 2022 before that. Prediction: this year is going to surpass all of them. There is literally nothing the climate crisis does not affect, from immigration to food supplies and prices…
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The Time for Democrats to Get Serious About Medicare for All is NOW
The millions of Americans who lost their lives unnecessarily due to for-profit health insurance companies’ avarice so far hasn’t moved the needle. History has repeatedly demonstrated that some of society’s most pervasive issues do not get the attention they deserve until an authority figure,...
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Biden Isn’t Going Quietly Into that Good Night
In the 27 days until the inauguration of the most corrupt individual ever to ascend to the nation’s highest office (again), it’s easy to get caught up in the painful headlines about the federal budget, the debt ceiling, woefully inappropriate cabinet and ambassadorship appointments, and general...
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Other Than Protecting Birthright Citizenship, the 14th Amendment Could Also Bar You-Know-Who From Holding Office
The convicted felon a month away from getting his former job back is, naturally, making headlines lately because of his desire to attempt to revoke birthright citizenship, a guarantee in the Constitution’s 14th amendment, from natural-born citizens of immigrant parents. He claims he can do it by...
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Is this the genesis - or denouement - of progressive media?
In 2019, I wrote the following in a piece titled, “Here We Go Again: The Corporate Media Is Ready To Repeat 2016: The corporate media is in an abusive relationship with Donald Trump. No matter how many times he attacks with claims of “fake news,” and calls journalists the “enemy of the people;”…
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Our Republic is Hanging on by Its Fingernails
Happy Fourth of July! Check out James Earl Jones reading Frederick Douglass's icon speech "What to the Slave is the 4th of July?" Of course, we're still in the midst of the pandemic, and some students in Alabama have decided to have a little fun by holding "COVID parties" to bet on who gets sick...
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Are all the changes making your head spin yet?
Thank you for tuning in to another episode. What a week! If there was still any doubt Donald Trump is a traitor, there was another example this week when the New York Times published a story about his being briefed on a Russian military intelligence unit offering Taliban-linked militants bounties...
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Happy Juneteenth!
This is our twentieth episode! Thank you, listeners, for your support (and patience). Today is Juneteeth. And if you don't know what that is, click here. Contrary to what Donald Trump said about "nobody had ever heard of it" before he "made Juneteenth very famous", Juneteenth is actually a paid...
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Change is in the air (unfortunately so is the virus)
What a week in America! So much went on. We're still protesting in the streets over police brutality, which the police are meeting with--what else?--more brutality. Something we need to be very mindful of is the government's inclination toward authoritarianism at times of unrest, which we're…
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Kieck Week!
My old friend Frank Kieck joins me this week to read from his forthcoming book The Son of Macabre: The Man With a Thousand Passions and discusses film, music, and writing. Enjoy! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a…
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A Voice of Sanity (?) From the Breach
What an..shall we say, interesting, time to be alive in America. We are simultaneously gripped with a 1918-type pandemic, a 1929-type economic collapse, and 1960s-type civil unrest. I really do think George Floyd's murder at the hand of Minneapolis police officers was the proverbial straw that...
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Emergency Episode: An Open Appeal to Joe Biden
This is a special episode appealing directly to former Vice President Joe Biden. The United States should not be this broken. Our failure to respond proactively to the coronavirus/COVID-19 pandemic has hobbled our already ailing economy and led to the needless deaths of over 100,000 Americans.…
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We Are a Failed State...But We Don't Have to Be
It's 2020, and we're still using our police forces as slave patrols. This week, we lost YET ANOTHER unarmed black man to police violence. As riots ensue all over the nation and the person in the White House posing as a president instigates more violence, we find ourselves at the same point we do...
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This Memorial Day, Let's Include in Our Thoughts All the Victims of Trump's Coronovirus "War"
This Memorial Day, let's remember all the ways the Trump administration is pimping our military. The most recent example: 40,000 National Guard soldiers helping states test residents for the coronavirus and trace infections are being told their deployments will end June 24--one day before they...
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What the hell is going on around here?!
I have titled this episode what I find myself frequently asking. Two racists have finally been arrested for their February lynching of an African American man guilty of jogging while black. I read a draft of a recent poem I completed titled "Latest Episode". In what is sure to perpetuate trumpism...
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Amid the Mess, Canada Proves Civilized Democracies Can Implement Sensible Gun Legislation
One week after reporting the New York Board of Elections screwed all former Democratic contenders for president by cancelling the primary, a NY judge has reinstated it. One week after reporting this year will the hottest in recorded history, a new recent study shows a billion people will live in...
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Pandemic, climate change, and a SERIOUS blow to democracy
Boston Globe: Sanders campaign blasts New York state party after it cancels Democratic presidential primary due to coronavirus New York Times: New York Board of Elections Cancels Democratic Presidential Primary The Guardian: Meteorologists say 2020 on course to be hottest year since records began...
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Who's Going to Vote for Trump After His Supporters Die of COVID?
So who's going to vote for Trump when so many of his supporters are falling for the wealthy corporate brainwashing behind the "re-open" movement? Trump and the billionaires who know he's got their back are taking advantage of Trump supporters' ardent dedication by leading them to slaughter. Like...
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Meet the Veteran Who Trekked Across America
This episode features college professor, author, veteran, and activist Tommy Zurhellen. Tommy discusses his cross-country walking journey last year from Oregon to Poughkeepsie, his work with Hudson River Housing, his non-profit organization VetZero, and his writing. As we approach Memorial Day,...
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Starving the postal service to prevent mail-in voting?--Bob Dylan's new song--Biden or bust?
Could a Bush-era law designed to destroy the United States Postal Service really be a Republican strategy to prevent any chance at mail-in voting for the November election? In Trump's 'Merica, don't assume anything is too far fetched. Coming on the heels of his first new song in eight years (and...
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Bernie Bows Out
Sorry if I seem a little dark this week, but Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign. Although this isn't surprising, it's nonetheless both discouraging and encouraging. Of course, we wanted to see Bernie take it all the way the DNC convention this summer, as he did in 2016; but even though it…
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Are you alive or dead?
I hope you liked "Kieck Week" last episode with my buddy, writer Frank Kieck. This week, I discuss the millenia-old stoic concept of "Alive time" vs. "Dead time", and connect it to several prominent artists who used their stay-at-home orders productively instead of just stuffing their faces and...
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The Left Place (Trailer)
--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ted-millar/message Get full access to The Left Place at theleftplace.substack.com/subscribe
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Rolling Along As the World Comes Unglued
Today's show is one of the most packed so far. I begin with about 30 seconds of Bob Dylan's first original song in eight years, "Murder Most Foul". Still in the midst of the COVID-19 coronavirus, I update listeners on the latest CDC advisory, news from NY Gov. Cuomo, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
If you're a progressive who loves discussing politics, music, books, and history, you've come to the Left Place! This no-frills podcast is a look at the politics, events, culture, and concerns of a forty-something parent, poet, and teacher trying to make sense of all the pandemonium that is America. Become a Patron!
theleftplace.substack.com
HOSTED BY
Ted Millar
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Left Place have?
The Left Place currently has 50 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Left Place about?
If you're a progressive who loves discussing politics, music, books, and history, you've come to the Left Place! This no-frills podcast is a look at the politics, events, culture, and concerns of a forty-something parent, poet, and teacher trying to make sense of all the pandemonium that is...
How often does The Left Place release new episodes?
The Left Place has 50 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Left Place?
You can listen to The Left Place on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Left Place?
The Left Place is created and hosted by Ted Millar.
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