Across the political spectrum, corruption seems to be the big news of the day. Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez was indicted today for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes. Meanwhile, ProPublica reported that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas secretly attended Koch Network donor events that could be in violation of federal law. (And, let’s not forget the former president’s indictments.) We’ll discuss the role of the press and the Department of Justice in trying these cases. Then, we’ll play Half-Full/Half-Empty and debate whether shorts on the Senate floor should be the new norm.
Here’s everything we talked about:
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- “Time to brush up on the Food and Forage Act of 1861, everybody” from Washington Monthly
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- “UAW will widen strike against GM and Stellantis but not Ford” from The Washington Post
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- “The IRS Is Going to Know if You Sold Taylor Swift ‘Eras’ Tickets” from The Wall Street Journal
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- “How do companies decide what to name AI tools?” from Marketplace
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- “Spanglish branding is reaching Latino consumers” from Marketplace
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- “How the orange egg yolk trend was hatched” from Marketplace
If you’re fan of the show, grab some merch, including half-priced hoodies this weekend! Donate $8 a month and get a cozy “Make Me Smart” hoodie just in time for fall!