Joe 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 Whether the president had been replaced by Harris, Gavin Newsom, Gretchen Whitmer, Wes Moore, Josh Shapiro or some other sane, unindicted non-insurrectionist, Durkin would have been absolutely delighted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 “disenfranchised” in such a Trump-thwarting way.

Host 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. Therefore, anyone who is not a delegate, an operative, or a member of the Biden inner circle needs to quit fretting over the question of who would be the best Democratic nominee, and get back to work defeating the worst Republican imaginable.

Host 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 up in public polls, in which Biden’s numbers are the same as they were before the October 7 Hamas attacks. So: beware the polls. Better yet, ignore them.

Donald 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 famous white real-estate heir who has got other people paying millions to cover his lawyers’ fees is *nothing* like the average Black defendant, and has no business pretending he is.

In 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.

To 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.

Everyone 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-source of stolen weapons. Whether sold on the black market or repurposed right away, these weapons are clearly used to commit further crimes. This has become a huge problem for — and danger to — law enforcement. But for all their anti-crime, pro-police screaming and shouting, MAGA politicians refuse to do a thing about this. In a number of state legislatures across the country, Democrats have proposed the most basic, common-sense measures to promote safe gun storage in vehicles, by imposing very mild penalties for failing to do so — and Republicans have resisted. Clearly, they think the right to bear arms extends to not just to Americans, but to Americans’ cars and trucks, even when there’s nobody inside who could possibly need protecting. Host Tish Durkin is not surprised. But on behalf of the thousands of people who inevitably become victims of this MAGA malfeasance, she is appalled.

OK, 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.