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Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly-ish polling roundup. It’s officially impeachment season again. On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy announced that he’s directing three House committees to start investigating whether [...]

The second Republican presidential primary debate is less than two weeks away, so time is running out for GOP contenders to meet the Republican National Committee’s qualification criteria. To make [...]

On Wednesday, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney announced he would not run for reelection in 2024. On the surface, the electoral impact of Romney’s decision is minimal — his seat should [...]

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. nrakich (Nathaniel Rakich, senior elections analyst): For a long time, the economy has been seen as a big [...]

Among the most politically tuned-in, last week saw the kind of hand-wringing and accusations of bias surrounding the polls that you’d usually expect from the final two months of a [...]

Among the most politically tuned-in, last week saw the kind of hand-wringing and accusations of bias surrounding the polls that you’d usually expect from the final two months of a [...]

In his presidential campaign, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has pitched himself as a transformational leader who has reshaped the politics of his home state. His 2022 reelection by 19 percentage [...]

Presidents are getting older and older. Former President Donald Trump was the oldest person to assume office when he was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2017, and President Biden broke [...]

Now that we are on the other side of Labor Day and summer is subsiding, this is — as tradition goes — when focus on political campaigns really begins to [...]

Now that we are on the other side of Labor Day and summer is subsiding, this is — as tradition goes — when focus on political campaigns really begins to [...]

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. ameliatd (Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux, senior reporter): The residents of states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan are used to having [...]

Usually, Labor Day is considered the traditional start of campaign season — but here in 2023, it marks the end of the competitive phase of two heated special elections. Neither [...]

At last week’s Republican debate, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy arguably made the biggest splash of any candidate. Sharing center stage with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the entrepreneur spoke more than any [...]

Once more, with feeling: It has been a couple of weeks since former President Donald Trump’s latest indictment (this time in Georgia, in connection with his efforts to overturn the [...]

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. maya (Maya Sweedler, senior editor): The first Republican debate last Wednesday featured eight candidates — none of whom [...]

Is the 2024 Republican presidential primary already over? If you just look at the polls, you’d be forgiven for thinking so. Consider the state of the states: Several polls published [...]

This is a special end-of-meteorological-summer installment of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast. Galen Druke speaks with pollsters Kristen Soltis Anderson and David Byler in an episode made entirely of “good or [...]

When Congress voted in May to restart student loan payments this fall — and then the Supreme Court overturned President Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan in June — Alexa Goins [...]

The crew discusses their takeaways from the first Republican presidential primary debate in this late-night edition of the FiveThirtyEight Politics podcast. You can listen to the episode by clicking the [...]

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Youtube Channels

The Diplomatic Lounge – A Belgian Sage in Cuba, veteran of the old school diplomatic corps, offers his wit and wisdom
Last Week Tonight – Breaking news on a weekly basis
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– The why of politics and the why of the economics

Geopolitics
Caspian Report – We try to make sense of our world by cutting through the noise and analyzing geopolitical trends
Kraut – Insightful history and geopolitics
Wendover Productions – How our world works. From travel, to economics, to geography, to marketing

China
China Uncensored – Hong Kong-based China criticism
ADVChina – Serpenta and Laowhy69
Serpentza – South African expat in China now US
Laowhy86 – American in China

News
60 Minutes
Now This World – Topical explainers about the world around you
The Atlantic
Vice News – Most important news of the day with context, insights, and on-the-ground reporting

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Podcasts

538
Cover the latest in politics, tracking the issues and “game-changers” every week.
Making Sense with Sam Harris
His writing and public lectures cover a wide range of topics—neuroscience, moral philosophy, religion, meditation practice, human violence, rationality—but generally focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live.
Pod Save America
A no-bullshit conversation about politics hosted by former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer and Tommy Vietor. It cuts through the noise to break down the week’s news, and helps people figure out what matters and how they can help. They’re regularly joined by journalists, activists, politicians, entertainers, and world leaders.
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Podcast is the weekly audio production of the Lawfare staff in cooperation with the Brookings Institution. Podcast episodes include interviews with policymakers, scholars, journalists, and analysts; events and panel discussions. 
The New Abnormal – Molly Jong-Fast & Rick Wilson
Blunt truth and dark humor for a world in chaos. A Daily Beast podcast hosted by Rick Wilson and Molly Jong-Fast.
The Weeds – Vox
The Weeds is Vox’s podcast for politics and policy discussions, digs into the weeds on important national issues, including healthcare immigration, and housing.
Serial – This American Life
Stories of people grappling with this politics.
War on the Rocks – Ryan Evans
National security. For insiders. By insiders.
Wind of Change – Pineapple Street Studios
Spies. Secrets. Soviets. And tight leather pants.

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Politics Books

An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by John Locke – 1689
A Modest Proposal – Swift, Jonathan – 1729
Common Sense – Thomas Paine 1776
Leviathan – Thomas Hobbes – 1651
No Logo – Naomi Klein – 2009
On Liberty – John Stuart Mill 1859
Republic – Plato 380 BC
The Federalist Papers, The – Alexander Hamilton & James Madison & John Jay – 1788
The Fire and Fury Inside the Trump White House – Michael Wolff – 2016
The Mass Psychology of Fascism – 1933
The Open Society And Its Enemies – Karl Popper – 1962
The Wealth Of Nations – Adam Smith – 1776

BONUS:

My Political Platform

biganimfinal

I thought it would be fun to put it on paper to finally get it out of my system, so here’s my “enlightened libertarian moderate” platform. Basically, it’s a generous welfare state with conscription and dog-eat-dog capitalism.

Call this my 21st Century Moderately Progressive Libertarian platform.
Elect me president and I will..


Militia
– Ask not what your country can do for you
-This is the cornerstone, and would probably require a constitutional amendment. Mandatory 2-year coed military service at age 18, which includes a generous tuition for college or technical training afterward. Let’s call it Militia. You can opt-out with a hefty cash payment, or just not make it past boot camp, but you permanently lose the benefits of citizenship – the right to vote, run for public office, be on juries, and bear arms. If Militia is missed for whatever reason, citizenship could be earned later than age 18, but the financial reward would be eliminated and the length of service would be extended somewhat.
Handicapped people (or asthma, autism, etc) would go though special needs boot camps and work in support/IT.
In peacetime Militia would work in either peacekeeping operations led by the UN or NATO or work in FDR-style federal works programs and law enforcement.
Militia would solve many problems such as unnecessary wars, student debt, and youthful ennui. Also, all immigrants would be required to perform this service, even having spanish (or Cantonese!) only brigades. Quakers and others religious groups can qualify for conscientious objector status (if a nonmilitary support role isn’t peaceful enough for them) but the benefits of citizenship will be denied.

Voting and Electoral
-Eliminate the electoral college
-Massively invest into blockchain open-source election software development

Economy
-Lower corporate taxes and regulation
-Raise personal taxes, keep it progressive, eliminate all deductions
-Eliminate the minimum wage completely
-End all farm and coal subsidies
-Promote a 100% paperless cashless government
-Put reduction of our national debt as a top priority of government policy.
-Return to the gold standard, possibly somehow converting the dollar into a Bitcoin style currency
-Abolishing all corporate welfare, including the Import-Export Bank
-Abolishing all non-environmental regulation of agriculture, including subsidies. Large scale hemp cultivation re-legalized and taxed.
-Support and expand all free trade agreements.
-No corporation is too big to fail. Creative destruction must be embraced.
-Moderate slavery reparations via postgraduate degrees

Environment
-Expand environmental regulation with carbon credits; solar and wind power credits greatly expanded
-Maintain EPA at current levels. Halt Keystone.

Foreign Policy
-Stop being the global policeman – do not take sides in international conflicts, especially in the Middle East. We should have not meddled in Libya, Syria, Grenada, Iraq, Afghanistan or Vietnam – basically every conflict since Korea. This includes Israel, which although is a natural ally and is our friend and a beacon of light democracy and hope in the Middle East, is mighty enough to stand on its own. However, if Israel is ever invaded, help them to the utmost. Update 2022: EXCEPT UKRAINE!
-Push for a free Kurdistan carved from parts of Turkey Syria and Iran as a free economic zone to encourage investment to pay for reparations for surrounding governments.
-Don’t give Putin an inch.
-Be a fire breathing, drone using hawk when it comes to nukes.
-Halt all international aid programs
-Increase special ops and drone technology and expand Obama’s reliance on use of drones and Bin Laden-style assassinations.
-Close Guantanamo

Education
Encourage privatization with school choice and vouchers.

Health & Homefront
-Keep Obamacare, expand to single-payer but limit the spending for those over 65 to manageable levels commensurate to the young.
-Offer free counseling, rehab, and jobs to all drug and alcohol addicts in FDR-style federal work projects.
-Relax FDA restrictions of orphan drugs (i.e. smart drugs, performance-enhancing supplements proven to be safe)
-Legalize and normalize assisted suicide
-Expand abortion rights
-Eliminate private prisons
-Allow handguns and rifles and open carry to remain legal, but ban all assault rifles, increase screening, increase penalties for gun violations, offer buybacks for guns
-Legalize drugs on the federal level but offer funds for state-level enforcement. Take all savings and reinvest into drug treatment programs

Law and Order/Immigration
-Heightened sentences for violent offenders and crime in general, with financial penalties significantly increased
-Legalizing all drugs on the federal level including cocaine, meth, and heroin and immediately releasing all drug prisoners. Tax drugs. States however are free to regulate as they see fit and would play a key role in preventing a return to the Great Binge of the late 1800s.
-Offer free housing to homeless people, it’s cheaper than what we have now. Possibly put them to work with Militia
-Eliminate the death penalty, which while deeply gratifying from a social vengeance perspective has frankly proven to be too costly and sometimes we killed the wrong guy.
-Relaxing gun control laws, but requiring insurance.
-Beefing up federal internet law enforcement, possibly a whole new Federal Internet Crime bureau
-Expand immigration for those with high-tech skills
-Make Militia mandatory for able-bodied immigrants for citizenship. Immigrants who do any crime within 10 years of military service get deported and recorded into an expanded national database.
-Rather than focus on keeping immigrants out, I would focus on making them prefer their own neighboring countries. Militia can help them on public projects, schools hospitals, and crime control.
-Work more with local churches and synagogues in sponsoring persecuted Christians, Jews, Sikhs, Muslims, etc.

I wouldn’t have a chance of winning… “Hi, elect me, I’m gonna put all you Millennials in boot camps.”

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