Shows
Jiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E18) Tampon Tim Walz and His Wacky Transgender Kidnappings: Part 2As governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz signed an education bill mandating that menstrual sanitary products be made available, free of charge, in all public middle and high schools in Minnesota — and that they be available to all students who menstruate; not just girls, but also non-binary kids, and trans boys. Walz also signed legislation that made Minnesota a “refuge” state for trans people, who would be granted access to gender-affirming care and shielded from some of the legal effects of anti-trans laws passed in other states.
Now that Walz has been tapped as Kamala Harris’s running mate, Trumpers have bee...
2024-08-1907 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E17) Tampon Tim Walz and His Wacky Transgender Kidnappings: Part I As governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz signed an education bill mandating that menstrual sanitary products be made available, free of charge, in all public middle and high schools in Minnesota — and that they be available to all students who menstruate; not just girls, but also non-binary kids, and trans boys. Walz also signed legislation that made Minnesota a “refuge” state for trans people, who would be granted access to gender-affirming care and shielded from some of the legal effects of anti-trans laws passed in other states.
Now that Walz has been tapped as Kamala Harris’s running mate, Trumpers have bee...
2024-08-1613 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E16) Fentanyl, Guns, Abortion: Gloria Johnson Slams Marsha Blackburn on a Whole Other “Tennessee Three”Fresh from winning the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, Tennessee State Representative Gloria Johnson — one of the “Tennessee Three” famously known for their protests after the Covenant School shooting in Nashville — updates host Tish Durkin on her plan to upset incumbent Senator Marsha Blackburn. That plan is to meet Blackburn where she is: on the wrong side of the issues that matter most to real voters in Tennessee.
2024-08-0635 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E15) Pro-Military, Anti-MAGA: Common Defense political director Naveed Shah Reclaims Patriotism for ProgressivesU.S. Army vet turned veterans’ advocate Naveed Shah joins host Tish Durkin for a conversation that runs the gamut: from the necessity of the PACT Act to the insanity of active-duty families on food stamps, with accusations of “wokeness” in between.
2024-08-0236 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E14) Move Over, Cat Ladies! JD Vance Has Dissed Divorced People, TooIn the worst vice-presidential rollout ever, JD Vance has become famous for cruelty toward unmarried childless women and nostalgia for the stay-in-the-marriage era of battered wives. In this quick take, host Tish Durkin notes an even bigger group of vulnerable Americans that Vance has also attacked: divorced women — and men.
2024-07-2904 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E13) Keep My Voting Rights Out Of Your Lying MAGA MouthJoe Biden leaves the presidential ticket, Kamala Harris smoothly sails into his place — and MAGA starts crying “foul!” on behalf of the 14 million Democrats who voted for Biden only for him to bow out before nomination. Speaking as one of those 14 million, host Tish Durkin would rather be dead than have her vote or voice defended by the Christo-fascist cult that tried to deny the will of the American people in 2020. Whether the president had been replaced by Harris, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore, Josh Shapiro or some other sane, unindicted non-insurrectionist, Durkin would have been absolutely delighted to be “...
2024-07-2511 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E12) Oh My $#@??! God…Why Not Kamala?…Calm and Clarity Restored: A Post-Debate Meltdown in Three PartsHost Tish Durkin rides the roller coaster that is life as a Democrat since Joe Biden’s implosive debate. First, she loses her mind, and her lunch, at the performance of the glaringly old president. Then she wonders why so much of the what-now conversation has skipped straight over the perfectly good, definitely-not-old vice president. Finally, she arrives at the only conclusion that any normal, small-d democrat can reach: At this point, any number of potential alternatives might or might not run better than Biden — but Biden on a ventilator is better than Donald Trump at his absolute best. Ther...
2024-07-0819 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E11) Polling Is Trolling, Part 7394Host Tish Durkin has said it before and will say it again: ignore the polls. They’re basically bin liner. Lest this sound like happy talk to calm the nerves of Biden supporters freaking out over the bad numbers that are sticking to a good president, consider Michigan — where Biden’s numbers may be artificially good. In that swing state's Democratic primary in February, more than 100,000 Michigan voters backed “uncommitted,” and many insist they remain a definite ‘no' on Joe. This isn’t a game ender, but in a tight race, it could be a game changer. Yet this does not show u...
2024-06-1309 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E10) Black Like TrumpDonald Trump insists that his status as a convicted felon actually helps him — and not just with his base, but with a crucial part of Joe Biden’s: African-Americans. Trump and his GOP swear that Trump’s legal troubles make him relatable to Black men in particular, because they are all victims of a justice system that is rigged against them. Once she is finished choking on that ridiculous argument, host Tish Durkin shows how Biden can turn it right back on Trump, by having African-American male surrogates hammer, and re-hammer, the many, many ways in which a rich and famo...
2024-06-0617 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E9) MAGA MEN ARE MICEIn rhetoric, MAGA men are made to run the world. In reality, they don’t even rule the roost.
Kansas City Chief/conservative Catholic spokesmodel Harrison Butker recently went viral admonishing female college graduates to stay home and support their husbands‘ worldly dreams. Meanwhile, Samuel Alito became the second MAGA man on the Supreme Court who couldn’t keep his own wife away from the insurrection. (Clarence Thomas was the first.) Host Tish Durkin considers the talk versus the walk.
2024-05-2314 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E8) Not Every Campus Is ColumbiaTo look at the mainstream media — let alone the right-wing media machine — there isn’t a college in America that isn’t being torn apart by pro-Palestinian demonstrations and the anti-semitism they are said to feed and feed upon. Host Tish Durkin suspects that the truth of these protests is much more complicated. In part one of an ongoing look at the academic wars, she visits the encampment in her own backyard: Princeton.
2024-05-0211 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E7) MAGA Thinks Your Car Has A Right To Bear ArmsEveryone knows: MAGA has made it easier and easier to buy guns, carry guns, transport guns. Everyone needs to know: MAGA has also made it easier and easier to steal guns. Along with the steep rise in the number of Americans who own guns has come a steep rise in the number of Americans who leave guns lying around, unsecured in their cars or trucks — and, therefore, a steep rise in the number of criminals who just break in and help themselves. Every year, a conservatively-estimated 40,000 firearms are stolen from unattended vehicles, which are now the nation’s number one...
2024-03-2814 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E6) In Defense of Katie BrittOK, host Tish Durkin is never really going to defend Alabama senator Katie Britt, who would be scary with or without her weird and widely-panned response to Joe Biden’s State of The Union address. But she does think it’s worth attacking some of Britt’s attackers.
2024-03-1406 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E5) I Am Thrilled Joe Biden Is Running Again. Is That Allowed?In the giant funhouse mirror that is American politics today, this may be the weirdest distortion of all: by any objective measure, Joe Biden has created one of the most successful administrations in modern U.S. history — and members of his own party are palpably, if not openly, wishing they could get rid of him.
Jobs and wages are up. Crime and inflation are down. Crumbling roads, bridges and ports are being pulled back from the brink of collapse. Thanks to Donald Trump’s blocking of a hard-won bipartisan deal on border security, even immigration is packing less...
2024-03-0714 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E4) In Vitro HyperventilationLast week, the Alabama Supreme Court handed down a decision which stated that embryos frozen for purposes of in vitro fertilization count as full human children, and the GOP had a massive collective heart attack. This is bizarre because, for purposes of forbidding abortion, this same GOP has put infinite money and muscle into legislation, jurisprudence, field operations and propaganda fiercely dedicated to its supposed conviction that embryos — and zygotes and blastocysts and just about everything past a gleam in Daddy’s eye — count as full human children. Could it be that “pro-life” Republicans are far less interested in the absolut...
2024-02-2919 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E3) Fact vs. Fantasy: Senator Michael Gianaris Takes The B.S. Out of Bail Reform In 2019, the New York State legislature passed significant bail reform. In 2020, crime spiked nationwide. The MAGA-mired GOP raced to connect the two — and a number of big-name Democrats ran right along. Fast forward to today: Bail reform, albeit amended, remains largely in place — but in New York as elsewhere, crime is on the decline. Host Tish Durkin welcomes Michael Gianaris, Deputy Majority Leader of the New York State Senate and author of the Bail Elimination Act, to take a deep breath and a clear look at what turns out to be the not-remotely-awful truth about ensuring that, as a rule...
2023-12-1436 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E2) California ReamingFox News hyped its recent Ron-DeSantis-vs-Gavin-Newsom smackdown as a great debate between red and blue. Of course, it was really just a chance for the two governors to bash each other by drawing the supposedly-great contrast between their two states. Notwithstanding her impulse to side with Newsom over the dark lord of book bans, reproductive surveillance and fossil fuels, Tish Durkin finds it’s the whole boxing-match premise that really needs to be knocked out. After all, Florida actually is California, just at an earlier stage of its economic miracle. Instead of jeering California for its population losses, DeSantis shou...
2023-12-0712 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS3 E1) At Last, A National Consensus on Abortion: GOP “Compromises” Enrage Left, Right and CenterThe whole point of Jiu-Jitsu Red to Blue is to leave the usual (if well-taken) lefty talking points to the usual (if wisely-spoken) suspects, and focus on the myriad of ways in which the MAGA-mired GOP is actually weak on every one of its alleged strong suits. Every now and then, however, an exception must be made. In light of the unexpectedly strong Democratic showing in the most recent round of elections, everybody noted that the post-Dobbs abortion outlook has, yet again, turned out to be very bad for Republicans.
In this reboot of regularly scheduled episodes...
2023-12-0717 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsBreaking News: A Good ShutdownIf the U.S. House of Representatives go dark for an indeterminate period of time to figure out who its leader is, this podcast can go quiet for a few weeks, quite literally to hear its new voices. Host Tish Durkin signs off until mid-November, one year before the all-important election of 2024. The Halloween candy will likely be gone, but the turkey won’t yet be gobbled, when JiuJitsu Red to Blue comes back, with new and intriguing partners in political conversation.
2023-10-0502 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E28) BUH-BYE, BRIBERY BOBThe stunning indictment of Democratic senator Robert Menendez might not seem like a great counterpoint to MAGA — but if you ask host Tish Durkin, it is. Three reasons why: It refutes the GOP gripe that the Department of Justice does not go after Democrats. It leaves plenty of time for New Jersey’s Democratic primary voters to pick a fresh, clean candidate. And, given the calls from state and local co-partisans for Menendez to resign, it shows that Democrats, unlike MAGA Republicans, have their limits in terms of how far they will go to preserve, protect and defend the croo...
2023-09-2217 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E27) DEMOCRATS: RIDE (WITH BIDEN) OR DIE (BY SUICIDE)Another week, another round of Democrats claiming to admire the accomplishments of Joe Biden’s first term while calling upon him not to seek a second. Clearly, these people have never heard of Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan, both of whom sailed into the White House on the backwinds generated by Democrats bellowing against the leader — their own leader — already occupying it. As Reagan might have put it: here we go again. Perennially mocked and underestimated, Biden has pulled off one improbable feat after another — on infrastructure, on NATO, on workers’ rights — and is trying to pull off many others — on...
2023-09-1513 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E26) LABOR AND DELIVERYAnother week, another real Biden achievement for real Americans that almost nobody has noticed. Host Tish Durkin draws attention to just one of the significant pro-worker rulings made by the National Labor Relations Board since it has been run by pro-worker Biden appointees. Thanks to Team Joe, unions will once again be able to unionize, and employers will less able to stop them they have been in a very long time. Contrast that with the record of Donald Trump, who talks a good game about the American worker — the same American worker that Trump’s NLRB tossed under every bus t...
2023-09-0713 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E25) NO DEBATING DEMOCRACYLast week's GOP presidential primary debate seemed to cover the whole range of issues, from abortion to Ukraine, with climate change and the economy in between. But with the exceptions of Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson — two horses so dark they are barely in the race — every candidate on the stage self-destructed in answering the question that mattered most. Asked whether they would support Donald Trump if he became the nominee of their party, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott and Doug Burgum all said, or indicated, “yes.” Meanwhile, over on the platform formerly known as Twitte...
2023-08-3115 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E24) MAGA CANCELS POLITICAL CULTUREThe absolute most important thing missing from the first Republican primary debate was definitely not Donald Trump. It was any serious discussion of the most serious issues facing the United States, because MAGA won’t allow any. Climate change, immigration, gun safety, public education and racial justice are just a few examples of the pressing issues that aren’t issues so much as labels for a whole host of sub-issues that urgently need to be hashed out before solutions can even be attempted. But in too much of the country, they aren’t being hashed out because MAGA won’t even a...
2023-08-2415 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E23) ISSUE WON: THANKS, OHIO!For years now, Ohio has been moving right ideologically. But on August 8, the people of the Buckeye State were just plain right. Asked to weigh in on Issue One, a ballot initiative aimed at squashing majority rights in general and reproductive rights in particular, voters of both parties didn’t just say “no.” They shouted "NO F*&@!ING WAY”, handing a 14-point defeat to Issue One and an even greater humiliation to the hypocrites who pushed it. Host Tish Durkin resists the urge to interpret this result as a good omen for Democrats — but does see it as something better: a w...
2023-08-1712 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E22) MAGA SEZ: TRUMP'S AN IDIOT, JURIES ARE FOR JACKASSES AND LET'S HAVE KAMALA PICK THE NEXT PREZAnother month, another criminal indictment for Donald Trump — and that means another flood of MAGA lies, distortions, distractions, ironies, hypocrisies and willful self-mortifications. Yet again, they insist: up is down, black is white, the vice president decides what electoral votes to count, and conspiracy to defraud the American voter is a right under the First Amendment. It’s hard to counterbalance the weight of even a few such horrendous “arguments", but host Tish Durkin gives it a try.
2023-08-1014 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E21) OF BARBIE AND BLACK HISTORYIn the biggest culture-war duel of the summer, Barbie: the Movie competed against another blockbuster — and it wasn’t Oppenheimer. It was the coincidentally-released Florida state standards for the teaching of African-American history. While MAGA went nuts over a barely-seen cartoon map and gender-warring dolls, Democrats (and a few Republicans) took aim at the state-sanctioned soft-pedalling of slavery. Host Tish Durkin compares the controversies.
2023-08-0311 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E20) UKRAINE ON (OR OFF) THE MAGA MAPIn any universe that values democracy, war-torn Ukraine is the center, and NATO is the indispensable force of gravity. In the mind of MAGA, Ukraine is an invisible dot on a map that no American need bother looking at, and NATO is an old bit of clutter America might as well throw away. Host Tish Durkin delves into the distinction between those polar-opposite positions — and why it truly, madly, deeply matters.
2023-07-2722 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E19) DID YOU HEAR ABOUT ALL THE CATASTROPHES JOE BIDEN HAS KEPT FROM HITTING AMERICA?Of course, you haven’t. Between MAGA and the media, Joe Biden would get more attention for tripping over a sandbag than for saving the world. Host Tish Durkin lists a few of the major disasters that have not hit the headlines because they have not happened: the crippling strikes that have been avoided, the global economy that has not crashed, the giant surge of migrants across the southern border that has not come — all due, in no small part, to the quiet but persistent efforts of the Biden White House. Time for some loud and persistent efforts to highli...
2023-07-1315 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E18) MOURN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY?Independence Day has come and gone, but there’s no end to the fireworks over what, and whom, to celebrate. In this encore episode, host Tish Durkin revisits a theme of even greater relevance than it had when first recorded in 2022: the true legacy of America’s founders — a legacy that MAGA claims to defend, but works hard to destroy.
2023-07-0621 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E17) WHEN SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYESWhen smoke gets in your eyes... and the fire is thousands of miles away, it’s time to stop denying climate change. When a million extra people die in the peak year of a pandemic, it’s time to stop equating COVID-19 with the flu. When the prevalence of guns and that of gun deaths both happen to skyrocket, it’s time to stop feigning blindness to any connection between the two. When the President of the United States orders up an insurrection, it’s time to stop pretending that he had no idea he’d actually get one. MAGA has l...
2023-06-2909 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E16) GLENDA JACKSON, KING LEAR, AND THE GLORIOUS REWARDS OF THE FREE LUNCHWhat does a great British thespian-turned-lefty-firebrand-parliamentarian have to do with the congressional arm of the American right? In this Summertime Short, host Tish Durkin riffs on the coincidence of two events in one recent week: the death of rags-to-resplendence actor/politico Glenda Jackson and the issuance of the MAGA-minded Republican Study Committee's budget proposal for fiscal 2024. Jackson exemplified the massive human potential that can be unleashed by the much-maligned "government handout"… which the RSC prides itself on cutting to the bone, and beyond. “This cold night will turn us all to fools and madmen,” said Jackson, as Lear. And MAGA's...
2023-06-2210 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E15) HEY, MAGA: IF HILLARY SHOULD HAVE BEEN INDICTED, WHY DIDN’T TRUMP’S DOJ INDICT HER?Another scandal, another round of Republicans trying to spray the stench of Donald Trump all over his adversaries. Ever since the unsealing of the stunningly specific federal indictment of Trump, Republicans from the Speaker of the House on down have been crying foul over Trump’s being criminally charged for document-handling infractions they deem very similar to those taken by the former Secretary of State and the current president. Democrats (and a few lucid Republicans) have rightly stressed that Hillary’s basement plus Biden’s garage does not equal Trump’s toilet. But MAGA does not seem to realize the implic...
2023-06-1520 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E14) WAKE UP, MAGGIE (DeSantis)In Iowa last week, Ron DeSantis meant to summon the best of Winston Churchill as he called for a war on “woke.” What he actually evoked, though, was the worst of Margaret Thatcher. Host Tish Durkin points out the eerie similarities between the present-day DeSantis “don’t say gay” (or Black) assault on education, and Thatcher’s 1980s version of the same. That version found its most potent expression in the infamous Section 28 — a homophobic provision that lasted 15 painful, pointless years before being so discredited that the Tories officially disavowed it. Yes, Ron, we all know that two plus two equals four —...
2023-06-0711 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E13) A REALITY CHECK FOR RONFlorida governor Ron DeSantis has officially entered the race for president, positioning himself as the young, brash right-winger who can deliver Trumpism without Trump. In one media-hyped announcement after another, DeSantis has served up such chunks of MAGA red meat as recruiting military vets to teach in public schools, creating a law enforcement unit exclusively devoted to fighting “election crime,” and very publicly sending a planeload of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard while vowing to dump many more poor, displaced people in many more rich liberal playgrounds. Once the cameras are gone, though, the realities set in, the results skew do...
2023-06-0120 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E12) NO, BOTH PARTIES HAVE NOT GONE EQUALLY NUTS, PART IINo matter what their political stripe, nice, normal Americans all seem to agree on one thing: while Republicans may have gone crazy-far to the right in recent years, Democrats have gone just as crazy-far to the left. Host Tish Durkin urges nice, normal Americans to snap out of this consensus because it is built on nothing. Having previously tackled health care, child care, voting rights and the economy, Durkin moves on to climate change, immigration and free trade to make her point, which is: Democrats are, by and large, where they have been for generations. It’s Republicans who ha...
2023-05-2517 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E11) TOWN HALL AS DOWNFALL: SHAME ON CNNNot to be out-Foxed in its quest for right-wing viewers, CNN recently hosted a town hall that amounted to a Trump rally. That spectacle has come and gone, but consider what remains: the distinct sense of a mass media willing, yet again, to play on Trump’s terms. Host Tish Durkin looks back in anger — and forward in apprehension.
2023-05-1811 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E10) NO, BOTH PARTIES HAVE NOT GONE EQUALLY NUTS, Part ILately, many Americans have accepted the theory of political relativity. This is the oft-expressed notion that while Republicans may have gone far right in recent years, Democrats have gone just as far to the left. This theory is baseless, and issue by issue, host Tish Durkin debunks it. On health care, child care, voting rights and the economy, Democrats are, by and large, where they have been for generations. It’s Republicans who have moved miles rightward — and backward.
2023-05-1113 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E9) AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 LIES ABOUT ABORTIONAbortion is a serious matter, but host Tish Durkin can’t help but laugh out loud at parts of the recent Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Abortion and Women’s Health. The biggest joke: the travelogue of abortion restrictions in “civilized” Europe offered by MAGA Senators Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz. U.S. senators really ought to access Google before they deny access to abortion based on foreign legal frameworks of which they clearly know nothing. The vast majority of America’s women would not enjoy Lindsey and Ted’s Repellent Adventure — and far too many of America’s women would not e...
2023-05-0418 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E8) OLD AND OLDERNow that President Joe Biden has officially announced that he is running again, his supporters and detractors alike have launched into a fresh round of fixating on his old age. But as host Tish Durkin points out, it’s his opponent who will be the candidate of old ideas….very old ideas. Whether the GOP nominates Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, or someone else, that nominee will have to bear the standard of today’s Grand OLD Party — a party whose stances on issues from abortion to climate change to public health to voting rights literally belong in a museum of...
2023-04-2711 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E7) NO GETTING AWAY FROM MAGAOn a spring-break trip to Spain, host Tish Durkin hopes to swap her obsession with current U.S. politics for a crash course in Iberian history…only to find threads of current U.S. politics running all through Iberian history, from the trashing of Muslim-built aqueducts by the followers of the "Catholic kings" to the smashing of Spanish social advancement by Francisco Franco...
2023-04-2011 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E6) NATIONAL RIFLE INFATUATION, PART IIYes, we have already moved on to Louisville — but host Tish Durkin is still processing Nashville via an all-too-typical MAGA interview given right after Uvalde. With an assist from similarly gun-glorifying Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and a super-friendly Fox interviewer, Rep. Tim “we’re not gonna fix this” Burchett runs through the usual pretend excuses (The Constitution) and problem-plagued solutions (arming teachers, deifying school doors) that have long enabled Republicans to sound concerned about gun violence without being so. Now, though, the GOP is working diligently to make it harder for troubled young people to obtain mental health care, yet...
2023-04-1316 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E5) NATIONAL RIFLE INFATUATIONHost Tish Durkin schools MAGA Congressman Tim “We’re not gonna fix this” Burchett — and, by extension, the NRA-bound GOP — on the facts about mass shootings. In the first of two episodes devoted to parsing one short, sadly-typical interview that Burchett gave Fox in the wake of Uvalde, Durkin delves into the latest irony around Republican calls for improved mental health services (it’s not just about funding). She also questions the wisdom of citing the Oklahoma City truck bomb as an argument against regulating firearms (the chemical component used by Timothy McVeigh is now heavily regulated, and McVeigh didn’t get h...
2023-04-0614 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E4) THEY SHRUG AT THE SLAUGHTER OF LAMBSAnother school, another shooting. There are no words for the massacre at Covenant School in Nashville, but host Tish Durkin tries to find some. Her main political question: which party should be viewed as out-of-touch and crazy? Democrats, who agree with the vast majority of Americans — and gun owners — that there is nothing unconstitutional about restoring the gun-safety laws that worked just fine for most of American history? Or Republicans, who treat Black History Month and gender-neutral restrooms as mortal dangers, but greet the serial murder of schoolchildren with the attitude, calmly voiced by Tennessee’s own GOP Congressman Tim Bu...
2023-03-3009 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E3) SHAMELESS VACUOUS BACKWARDHost Tish Durkin analyzes the MAGA reaction to the failure of Silicon Valley Bank, particularly on the parts of presidential hopeful Nikki Haley and her all-but-declared rival, Ron DeSantis. Whether blaming the mess on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, the imaginary recklessness of SVB depositors, or Joe Biden’s supposed love for coastal billionaires over good, plain flyover folk, the GOP nominees have got it spectacularly, comically wrong — so wrong as to beg the question: if this is what young, vigorous minds come up with in response to a crisis, is ole Biden the one whose mental acuity we really ought...
2023-03-2316 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E2) REBOOTING THEIR OWN RIOTJanuary 6, 2021 was a bad day for America, and a worse one for the GOP. Yet, by releasing thousands of hours’ worth of footage of that event to Fox firebomber Tucker Carlson, Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy has blown the whole thing right up again. But will it blow up in his face? Host Tish Durkin analyzes why this is a strategy for MAGA — and a travesty for everybody else.
2023-03-1617 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsS2 E1) BACK TO BATTLEHost Tish Durkin sets the stage, and the terms, for another round of political JiuJitsu. Her goal: expose, explain and ultimately explode the myth of real-life, “real American” policy competence that the MAGA-bound GOP has spent years effectively spinning about itself. From crime to COVID to the constitution; from education to the economy…the myth of GOP superiority is only as powerful as Democrats allow it to be. Let’s not wait for 2024 to take it down — one Thursday, one issue, one ludicrous irony at a time.
2023-03-0917 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE25) WELCOME TO READERS OF OPRAH DAILYA mini-episode today. It's a quick hello and welcome if you've landed here by way of Tish's current piece in the Oprah Daily. With 2022 behind us, we're also in the process of rebranding the show to "Jiu Jitsu Red to Blue." And yes, we're STILL crushing the GOP under the weight of its own arguments.
2023-02-0106 min
Jiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE24) THANK YOU GOD (and Nevada)Against all odds, the midterms have left Democrats – and democracy -- in shape to fight another day. And with Republicans in firm control of Florida, Texas, Ohio, and the House of Representatives, there will be plenty of fighting to do. Nonetheless, this Thanksgiving, host Tish Durkin serves a heaping platter of Thank The Lord, with a generous side of That Could Have Gone So Much Worse and a big fat slice of “we just might be OK.”
2022-11-2413 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE23) MIDTERM MUNCHIESWhat’s a rookie political podcaster to do when her recording slot falls on the afternoon of the election, before any results are known, but the episode won’t drop until two days later, when (much of) the outcome has become clear? Host Tish Durkin tries to focus on truths worth telling no matter who’s won what on November 8. But mostly, she pigs out on Halloween candy and panics.
2022-11-1011 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE22) IF I HAD A HAMMER…IF I HAD A HAMMER… I’d strike a blow against political violence from anyone, anywhere, for any reason, says host Tish Durkin. But right now, a strike against political violence is most likely a strike against the current, Trumped-up GOP, which has come to be divided between those who promote the use of physical aggression and intimidation against their ideological opponents, and those who tolerate or rationalize such activities. Paul Pelosi, the 82-year-old husband of the Speaker of the House, has survived the brutal attack made on him in his own home. But given the GOP role in and...
2022-11-0725 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE21) HYPOCRISY, THY NAME IS WOMANOf all the ways in which the G.O.P. loves to depict Democrats as weirdly out of touch with “real Americans,” semantic gender-baiting has become their absolute favorite: Democrats are such apologists for the transgender fringe; such prisoners of political correctness, goes the gleeful Republican party line, they can’t even say what a woman is! But in a post-Roe world, host Tish Durkin argues, it’s the rigidly-biological G.O.P. concept of womanhood that is dangerously bizarre.
2022-11-0312 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE20) SPEECH PATHOLOGYIn last week’s explosive debate between candidates for the U.S. senate from Pennsylvania, giant, stroke-surviving Democrat John Fetterman struggled to articulate views that are widely shared by the public, while slim, trim Mehmet Oz had no difficulty whatsoever letting far-right fringe positions roll right off his TV-trained tongue – and Oz, by most accounts, came out the winner. In this week’s Midterm Mini, host Tish Durkin portrays this debate as the midterms in miniature: Democrats taking a beating for falling short on style, Republicans getting a pass on substance…and the country heading for disaster if this holds
2022-10-3113 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE19) “G.O.P” SPELLS ECONOMIC DISASTER, PART THREEA political party that ignores the clear and present dangers of climate change and covid is itself a clear and present danger to the American economy. Yet somehow, the GOP has managed to deny, distort and downplay the first two, while maintaining a reputation for mastery when it comes to the third. In the last of a three-part series, host Tish Durkin argues that “bad on climate change and covid, but good on the economy!” is both a commonly-expressed sentiment – and a catastrophic contradiction in terms.
2022-10-2717 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE18) WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVINIf historical trends hold and the GOP wins back the House of Representatives, Americans will learn a whole new six-word phrase for “catastrophe”: “Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.” At every pivotal moment -- from his post-insurrection decision to revive a politically-flatlining Donald Trump to his recent wavering on Ukraine to his plan to pack Congressional committees with whatever extremists may be due to join them -- the would-be Speaker has shown that he’s as MAGA as anyone if that’s his path to power. In this week’s Midterm Mini, host Tish Durkin urges all non-MAGA Americans to cast their...
2022-10-2411 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE17) “G.O.P” SPELLS ECONOMIC DISASTER, PART TWOMany Americans dislike Republicans’ stances on such issues as insurrection, abortion, voting rights and climate change – but trust them on the most important issue of all: the economy. But the undertax-and-overspend party of runaway debt, budgetary roulette, and business-development boondoggles does NOT deserve to lay claim to superior economic stewardship. In number two of three episodes on this all-important topic, host Tish Durkin reminds everyone of the GOP-wrought havoc that is Foxconn – emphasis on “con.”
2022-10-2015 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE16) CONCESSION STANDSIn 2000 and in 2016, Democratic presidential candidates Al Gore and Hillary Clinton both won the popular vote, both had legions of supporters who believed they had also rightly won the White House – and both accepted, for the good of the country, that they had lost. In 2020 and ever since, Donald Trump and his supporters have maintained that he won, up to and far past the point of violent insurrection. Host Tish Durkin blasts the craven effort of the GOP to equate the spoken election objections of disappointed Democrats with the physical, functional and anti-constitutional election denial of enraged Republicans from th...
2022-10-1715 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE15) “G.O.P” SPELLS ECONOMIC DISASTER, PART ONEMany Americans dislike Republicans’ stances on such issues as insurrection, abortion, voting rights and climate change – but trust them on the most important issue of all: the economy. Host Tish Durkin scours the past fifty years for a good reason why the undertax-and-overspend party of runaway debt, budgetary roulette, and business-development boondoggles should lay claim to superior economic stewardship …but, alas, she comes up Trump.
2022-10-1313 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE14) POLLING IS TROLLINGIn this week’s Monday Midterm Mini, host Tish Durkin laments the rise of polling as the decline of American politics. The more elections are treated as horse races, the more electorates are drawn in to playing the odds rather than weighing their options – and the more voting becomes nothing but a sucker’s bet.
2022-10-1010 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE13) CAN THE DEMOCRATS BEAT THE DEMAGOGUES?Host Tish Durkin picks the formidable brain of Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, one of the best-known and best-regarded think tanks in Washington, D.C.. Their topic: the GOP’s competence-free claim to the issues of crime, immigration and inflation – and Democrats’ urgent need to seize the initiative on all three.
2022-10-0635 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE12) PEE-BRAINED: THE GOP IS ATTACKING SPECIAL NEEDS FAMILIES, ONE ANTI-TRANS TOILET MEASURE AT A TIMEClearly, the GOP war on gender-neutral restrooms is meant to be a war on transgender people – and that would be bad enough. But all wars have collateral damage. Host /autism mom Tish Durkin knows first-hand who’s getting shot down in this one: the elderly, the handicapped, and those with special needs, who often find themselves out and about with a caregiver of the opposite gender. Trans people aren’t the only ones who stand to benefit from a humane, inclusive approach to the most essential of public spaces – and they aren’t the only ones who stand to suffer fro...
2022-10-0308 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE18) WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVINIf historical trends hold and the GOP wins back the House of Representatives, Americans will learn a whole new six-word phrase for “catastrophe”: “Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.” At every pivotal moment -- from his post-insurrection decision to revive a politically-flatlining Donald Trump to his recent wavering on Ukraine to his plan to pack Congressional committees with whatever extremists may be due to join them -- the would-be Speaker has shown that he’s as MAGA as anyone if that’s his path to power. In this week’s Midterm Mini, host Tish Durkin urges all non-MAGA Americans to cast their...
2022-10-0111 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE11) WHITE ELEPHANTThe current, Trumped-up GOP sells itself as the party of white grievance, leaving Democrats to cower as the party of white guilt. Meanwhile, it’s actually the Democrats who do white voters the most good, and Republicans who cause them a shockingly well-documented amount of harm. Searching past and present, host Tish Durkin asks: Why don’t Democrats get (or take) more credit for their job performance as it affects white Americans? And how do Republicans keep escaping blame?
2022-09-2917 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE10) THE GOP PUTS THE "MESS" IN MESSAGERelentlessly loud, clear and consistent, GOP messaging is often hailed as brilliant – especially by Democrats, who are reliably stunned and scared to death by it. In our first Midterm Monday Mini, host Tish Durkin asks whether GOP messaging IS brilliant – or is it merely brazen? Are they offering Americans a powerful narrative – or just a bunch of stories that they themselves can’t even keep straight?
2022-09-2609 min
The Playbook PodcastSep. 22, 2022: Trump vs. James, appeals panel rejects Cannon rulingThe two big stories in Trump World:1. In a Wednesday night ruling, a three-judge federal appeals panel sided with the Justice Department, blocking “aspects of … Judge Aileen Cannon's ruling that delayed a criminal investigation into highly sensitive documents seized from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate,” write Kyle Cheney and Josh Gerstein.Two of the three judges were Trump appointees. Their decision was unanimous. And it was unsparing.From the ruling: “Plaintiff suggests that he may have declassified these documents when he was President. But the record contains no evidence that any of these re...
2022-09-2205 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE9) INSANE ASYLUMThe U.S. southern border is making big headlines, but the U.S. government is making little progress in alleviating the humanitarian, legal, and political crisis unfolding there. Red-state governors Abbott, DeSantis and Ducey are putting migrants on planes, on buses, and above all on camera, hoping to blame blue states and shame asylum seekers at the same time. But what do such Republicans really want? Host Tish Durkin looks back at decades of congressional failure to achieve comprehensive immigration reform – due, more and more, to GOP success in demonizing immigration. This problem works wonders for the current, Trumped-up GO...
2022-09-2217 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE8) SECOND THOUGHTS: HOW THE GOP IMPERILS THEIR FAVORITE AMENDMENTHost Tish Durkin takes aim at the pro-gun extremism of the GOP. As rising gun violence leads to renewed calls for gun regulation, the question becomes: how much further can 2A absolutists go before they become a threat to the 2A?
2022-09-1513 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE7) CAPITOL SHATTER ≠ BLACK LIVES MATTERHost Tish Durkin examines the GOP-drawn equivalence between the insurrection of January 6, 2021 and the riots that shook some American cities in connection with the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020.
2022-09-0815 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE6) STOP THE REAL STEAL: DON'T LET THE GOP ROB AMERICA'S FOUNDING FROM THE REST OF USHost Tish Durkin explores a major mystery of history: how the GOP has managed to market itself as the great defender of America’s founders, even as it works hard to destroy everything that those founders fought hardest for. Even mention the possibility of removing a marble image of a Washington, a Jefferson, a Franklin, and the GOP will declare war on the “woke” mob. Actively attack the best of such men’s legacies – on religious freedom, the peaceful transfer of power, and reason-based governance, just for starters -- and the GOP will show up with a big brass band (and...
2022-08-2818 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE5) TOO CRUEL FOR SCHOOLMaking the most of COVID and the culture wars, the GOP is trying hard to make itself the party of keeping kids safe in school, and (some of) their parents dominant in school systems. Host Tish Durkin asks: what will really happen if the GOP succeeds?
2022-08-1916 min
Jiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE1) ABOUT YOU – WHO IS THIS PODCAST FOR?It’s for you! Especially if you’re a nice, normal person who usually tunes out of politics and who pretty much thinks both parties have lost their minds. Host Tish Durkin totally understands why you feel that way, but will try to talk you out of it! Republicans and Independents are most welcome – provided you are open to hearing why your ’22 midterm vote should go to big-D Democrats as the one and only way to save small-d democracy.
2022-08-1517 min
Jiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE2) ABOUT JIU-JITSU RED TO BLUE – WHAT IS THIS PODCAST ABOUT?Host Tish Durkin measures today’s Republican party by its own yardsticks. Largely leaving aside such hot topics as January 6, the 2020 “stop the steal” debacle, and Black Lives Matter, Jiujitsu Red to Blue challenges the way in which the GOP is widely and perennially trusted on other major issues. The GOP successfully touts itself as tough on crime; strong on the economy; laser-focused on common-sense, back-to-basics education, and true to the founding values of our nation. Jiujitsu Red to Blue begs to differ.)
2022-08-1516 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE3) THE GOP IS SOFT ON CRIMEHost Tish Durkin digs into the facts and figures to ask whether Republicans have earned their reputation for doing whatever it takes to keep our streets safe from the bad guys and the Democrats who coddle them. Spoiler alert: They haven’t.
2022-08-1514 minJiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsE4) ABOUT ME – WHO IS THIS PODCAST BY?Short answer: Tish Durkin, a recovering political journalist, relapsing political junkie and rookie political podcaster. Loooong answer: tune in and hear how Harriet Tubman, Australian aboriginals, the de-Baathification of Iraq and the long-haul exhaustion of special-needs parenthood led one woman to a life of pontification from her house in New Jersey.
2022-08-1535 min
Jiu-Jitsu Red to Blue: Crushing MAGA Under The Weight of Their Own ArgumentsTRAILER FOR JIU-JITSU RED TO BLUE: CRUSHING THE GOP UNDER THE WEIGHT OF ITS OWN ARGUMENTSIn Jiu-Jitsu Red to Blue, recovering political journalist Tish Durkin flips the current, Trumped-up GOP right back on its boasts about itself, evaluating one Republican claim to fame per episode.
As the all-important, democracy-determining midterm elections approach, two facts are widely accepted by the U.S. political class: one, most Americans will vote on crime and the economy; and two, this is great news for Republicans, who have successfully sold themselves as strong on both issues and a great many more: national security; fiscal responsibility; good old-fashioned three-R’s-not-LGBTQ-or-CRT education; our proud, traditional American heritage. In Jiu-Jitsu Red...
2022-08-1405 min