Will Democrats Pull Defeat from the Jaws of Victory?

Overwhelmed? That was me with diabetes. Hey, I'm Jabron. Between teaching and coaching, managing diabetes felt like an extra job. With the Freestyle Libre 3CGM, I get real-time glucose readings and have the insights to make informed decisions. My life feels lighter now. Learn more at freestyllibre.us. The views expressed should not be used for medical diagnosis or treatment as a substitute for professional medical advice. Individual circumstances may vary for prescription

only. Safety info found at freestyllibre.us. Hey, I'm Niall Rogers. This fall, I'll be driving across the country meeting some of today's coolest and most fascinating artists. We'll explore the stories before the moments that changed everything. Because every musician remembers the moment where it all began. Experience Before the Moment. A Lincoln Original Series

on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Your Sausage McMuffin with Egg didn't change. Your receipt did. The Sausage McMuffin with Egg Extra Value Meal includes a hash brown and a small coffee for just $5. Only at McDonald's for a limited time. Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.

Okay, here we go. Stand by. Three, two, one. The thinking atheist. It's not a person. It's a symbol. An idea. The population of atheists in this country is going through the roof. Rejecting faith. Pursuing knowledge. Challenging the sacred. If I tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth. Not because I put my hand on a book and made a wish. And working together for a more rational world. Take the risk of

thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way. Assume nothing. Question everything. And start thinking. This is the Thinking Atheist Podcast. Hosted by Seth Andrews.

I hope you don't mind having a little extra to listen to here in the month of November. This is just a bonus release once again. Runs about 15 minutes or so. When I find something online that relates to the headlines of the day or the times we live in, I like to bring those articles to you. Sometimes I read them myself if there's not an audio version. That's exactly what I'm going to do today. It's based on a post

which just went live from American historian Heather Cox Richardson. And if you are not subscribed to Heather Cox Richardson, go to all of her social medias, go to Substack and subscribe immediately. Somehow, over the past several years, she has managed not just to educate the rest of us about American history as it relates to today, but to keep a measure of optimism. And given the blue

tsunami of the midterms, perhaps that optimism was warranted. But many of us have had a question. And I'm a proud Democrat. I'm a liberal, whatever, progressive. But we've wondered, will the Democrats again pull defeat from the jaws of victory? We are herding cats. We have a lot of passion. We have a lot of verve. We have conviction. We have values. But we are crap at organizing.

Meanwhile, the white right Christian nationalist authoritarian sociopaths on the other side of the aisle are extremely good at organizing, and they are extremely well-funded. So many are wondering, do we even have a plan moving into 2027? And that is what Heather Cox Richardson addresses in an article that she posted just midnight last night. I mean, just a few hours ago. She never sleeps,

apparently. And I'm going to read the entire Substack article verbatim to you. And I'm going to link it in the description box so that you can grab it, copy it, and share it on all of your pages as well. But I want to bring it to your attention because I have the platform to do so. The article posted near midnight, November 5th says this. Incoming chair of the House Judiciary Committee, Jamie Raskin, Democrat Maryland,

posted today, quote, House Democrats are in the fight to bring government back from the brink of authoritarianism. We will shine a light on President Trump's quid pro quo, coin-operated pay-to-play corruption, and renew American government as an instrument for the common good. Raskin told MS Now that he intends to subpoena the law firms that struck deals with Trump to learn more about alleged

coercion from Trump. He also said he intends to investigate Attorney General Todd Blanche for his refusal to produce documents required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act and for the Department of Justice's persecution of those Trump considers enemies, including James Comey, Letitia James, Adam Schiff,

Mark Kelly, Maggie Goodlander, and Jason Crow. Raskin also told Greg Sargent of the New Republic that the Judiciary Committee will work with Democratic appropriators to defund Trump's corrupt prosecutions. We have the power of the purse, Raskin told Sargent. We'll be working closely with our Appropriations Committee partners to make sure that we're doing everything we can to cut off money

that is being used for political harassment and persecution. Representative Robert Garcia, California, is in line to chair the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Yesterday, he told reporters the committee would focus on four major areas. The first is the Trump crime family. Garcia noted that a Russian

oligarch paid for Don Jr.'s wedding party, the Saudis invested $2 billion in Jared Kushner's business, and Eric Trump is on the board of companies that are getting Pentagon contracts. Trump himself has pocketed billions from crypto schemes. The other three areas on which the committee will focus are the Department of Homeland Security and the abuses of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, ICE,

corporate corruption, and those associated with sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. Amon Javers of CNBC reported today that Senator Ron Wyden's Finance Committee staff intend to dig into J.P. Morgan's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein with a particular focus on the conduct of high-ranking executives and their

handling of the bank's relationship with the disgraced financier. Yesterday, the Senate posted new job listings, including one for an attorney to lead the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee's work on, quote, government ethics and anti-corruption legislation and to participate in the committee's oversight and investigations work. Gabe Kaminsky of CBS News reported today that

Democrats plan to investigate the finances behind Trump's presidential library. Last March, Trump said he, quote, doesn't believe in building libraries or museums and that the building is most likely going to be a hotel. Nevertheless, Trump's foundation, which is run by Trump's son, Eric, and son-in-law, Michael

Boulos, told the IRS it was building a library. The foundation says it will raise $950 million by the end of 2027. Money has poured into the foundation from companies Trump sued and that settled based on promises to contribute to the fund. People eager to avoid Trump's wrath have also contributed. A former

advisor told Kaminsky, the library is one of the last few places he can squeeze people for money. Meanwhile, Trump appears to be acting, as President Abraham Lincoln once said of Major General William S. Rosencrantz, confused and stunned like a duck hit on the head. He has remained largely quiet about the election, but is continuing to talk about his projects in Washington, D.C., apparently afraid those

projects will now come to a halt. He wanted his triumphal arch approved today so work could start immediately. Tonight, his handpicked commission voted as Trump wanted, agreeing to approve the arch. But just before midnight, Judge Tonya Shutkin stopped construction for 14 days.

This afternoon, in his first action after the election, Trump issued an executive order designating the Oval Office and cabinet room of the White House a national landmark and federal landmark to prevent future presidents from altering them. He told reporters he wanted to, quote, make it impossible for anybody to ever destroy this incredible space.

Although the nation's founders envisioned the executive mansion, it wouldn't officially be called the White House until 1901, As a modest space that demonstrated the president was not the king. Trump has splashed so much gold frippery around the place. Former President Barack Obama joked during the campaign that it looked

like Saddam Hussein opened a cheesecake factory. While the president focuses on his legacy, the rest of Obama appears to be panicking. The right wing is trying to blame Tuesday's wipeout on the Iran war or on Vice President J.D. Vance's negotiation of the disastrous memorandum of understanding that last June turned the

conflict from an upfront clash into a simmering conflict. But polls before the election showed that although the American people were upset about many things at the top of their complaints about the Trump administration was corruption. Fittingly, the value of Trump's social media company and his meme coin plummeted yesterday after the results of the election became clear. Annie Massa of Bloomberg noted that the

dramatic drops suggest that investors, quote, may be anxious about the implications of the election for the businesses with links to the president, which are now expected to receive fresh congressional oversight.

And wouldn't that be refreshing? That's my little editorial there. The article says the idea of oversight appears to be worrying people other than investors, and some appear to be thinking not of the American people, but of how to get themselves out of the range of fallout from Tuesday's losses.

Today, Harmeet K. Dillon resigned from the Department of Justice, where she dismantled the department's civil rights division, the central cause for which Congress created the department in 1870. As Perry Stein and Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post report, on her watch, more than half the lawyers in the division and hundreds of career staffers left. Rather than continuing the work of protecting

vulnerable minorities from discrimination, she turned the department to pushing Trump's social agenda, including purging the country of, quote, "woke ideology." Matt Cohen and Junior Rivas of democracy docket recall that under Dillon, the administration stopped defending voting rights.

Dillon also led the administration's effort to take control of states' voter rolls and push the Republicans' extraordinary mid-decade redistricting campaign. Outgoing Representative Thomas Massey, a Republican in Kentucky, posted today that when Congress returns next week, he expects to get the necessary signatures for a discharge petition to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act II.

That measure will enable survivors to get their own records, state attorneys general to prosecute crimes, and Congress to sue the Department of Justice for keeping critical files hidden. Massey also vowed to force a vote to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth when the House returns to work next week. And multiple Republican sources told Adam Kankren, Sarah Ferris, Zachary Cohen,

and Elena Trine of CNN that they think the measure will pass. Massey added on social media that the one condition under which he won't reintroduce the articles of impeachment against Hegseth is if Hegseth resigns first. Hegseth promptly posted a video in which he sounded panicked. He appeared to be appealing to Trump, in which he called the impeachment articles a "sham" and added, "Just like they tried against

President Trump twice, didn't work against President Trump and it won't work with me." The word corruption in this case is not just about laws being broken, but about the old-fashioned idea that the body politic has been corrupted. The old word for a physical disease by money. That sort of corruption is also under the microscope now. Michelle Goldberg at the New York Times noted today that

the only person who took a bigger hit on Tuesday than Donald Trump was billionaire Elon Musk. Musk poured almost half a billion dollars into the election in an attempt to preserve Republican control of the Senate and to guarantee that taxes stayed in the hands of Republicans. Goldberg recalls that Musk almost single-handedly funded the campaign of Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton, Texas' current

Attorney General, whose opponent, Democrat James Tallarico, won the election by 12 points. She also notes that it sometimes seemed that Tallarico was running against Musk as much as he was against Paxton, at one point telling a rally, quote, "Elon Musk wants our land, he wants our water, he wants our tax dollars, he wants his very own personal United States Senator." Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa also called

attention to Musk's power in the state through his relationship to Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The election made it very clear that the American people do not want the data center build-out Republicans have touted. Today, tech firms lost billions of dollars in market value as investors worried about regulation of an industry in which investment was already faltering because of concerns that the industry would not

deliver the returns leaders promised. As Rachel Klune and Osman Chia of the BBC reported, Nvidia lost $400 billion, more than 9% from its market value. Elon Musk, SpaceX, and Tesla together lost more than $300 billion in market value. The seven tech companies called the Magnificent Seven, including

Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla, lost a trillion dollars yesterday. The Nasdaq Composite, the Index of publicly traded information technology companies lost almost $2.5 trillion. The election saw a quiet but dramatic move to address the corruption of money in politics. On Tuesday, voters in Montana overwhelmingly

approved a ballot initiative to stop the flow of corporate money into political campaigns. The measure echoes a law passed in Hawaii in May, but is the first to go directly to voters. Rather than going after the political spending that the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United versus Federal Elections Commission

decision protected, the plan capitalizes on the fact that corporations are created by states. It simply says that the state can deny the power of corporations, trade associations, non-profits, and other "artificial persons" to donate to political causes. Businesses chartered in other states can't spend political money in the state. Only 34.5% of

Montana voters opposed the measure. More than 65.5% voted yes. Eric Petrie of the Brennan Center for Justice, which protects voting rights, told Mike Leonard and Jordan Fisher of Bloomberg Law the fact that this passed with near super majority support in a very red state shows how deeply upset the public is about the

role of money in politics. And that's the end of the article. Heather Cox Richardson always puts links to her sources at the bottom of the Substack articles. I encourage you to check it out. And of course, again, subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson. So the question remains, as we approach January, will the Democrats be organized enough? Are they going into the next two years with a plan? And do they have the

votes to actually implement the plan? I had mentioned earlier I am not a fan of this idea of kumbaya across the aisle conciliatory language. These people, the Republicans, the right-wing, the Christian nationalists, the grifters, the conmen, the anti-democratic agents of chaos, we don't want the time of day. I don't want to be allies with them. I don't want to build a bridge to them. I want to roll past them over them. I want to build a future that does not include them because they have forfeited

their right to sit at the table. But does what Heather Cox Richardson just said mean That maybe we actually do have a plan and that that plan may produce results? Follow The Thinking Atheist on Facebook and Twitter for a complete archive of podcasts and videos, products like mugs and t-shirts featuring the

Thinking Atheist logo, links to Atheist pages and resources, and details on upcoming free thought events and conventions. Log on to our website, thethinkingatheist.com Games on a break? Don't doom scroll. Try rips on underdog.

Play a digital pack, rip it open, and reveal a real physical card. Football, basketball, even Pokemon. Packs start at just $5. Ship it straight to your door or sell it back instantly at full market value. Max value up to $125,000. Download underdog and get in on the chase. Deposit $5, get 5 free packs. Real rips, real cards, real cash. Only on underdog. Unleash your dog. 18+ terms apply. Top grails are extremely rare. This is Gemma Speck from the psychology of your 20s.

You know that feeling when your skin just needs a tall drink of water? That's what Clinique Moisture Surge 100 Hour Moisturizer is for. Moisture Surge 100 Hour Moisturizer absorbs instantly and hydrates for 100 hours for plump, glowing skin. That's right, 100 hours. It is a lightweight, oil-free gel cream, safe for sensitive skin. It's allergy tested and fragrance-free. I use

this all the time. It makes my skin feel so fresh and plump and glowy. Even under makeup, I still see an amazing difference. It never leaves my skin oily or tacky. Try Clinique Moisture Surge 100 Hour today at Clinique.com. Feels like Moisture Surge.

Hey, I'm Niall Rogers. This fall, I'll be driving across the country meeting some of today's coolest and most fascinating artists. We'll explore the stories before the moments that changed everything. Because every musician remembers the moment where it all began. Experience Before the Moment,

a Lincoln Original Series on the iHeartRadio app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts.