Unf*cking The Republic

This week we connected some dots that should scare everyone—Russell Vought’s think tank’s 7 step playbook for refusing to seat elected members of Congress, a raid on Ilhan Omar’s home, and Trump name-dropping Vought as someone about to make history. Then we looked at France, where the eurozone’s version of our debt problem is playing out without the escape hatch of a sovereign currency (a useful reminder of exactly what we’d be dealing with if the dollar ever loses its privileged position).
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:38
Quick Takes: 00:01:34
Phone A Friend: 00:04:54
Max Notes: 00:07:19
Killer Left Take of the Week: 00:30:53
Chart of the Week: 00:31:51
Outro: 00:33:25
Resources
Today: Pete Hegseth Vows to Livestream Execution of Fort Hood Shooter
ABC10: Why Trump is reopening his effort to remove Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook
PBS NewsHour: Kimberly Guilfoyle’s full speech at the Republican National Convention | 2020 RNC Night 1
NewsNation: Kimberly Guilfoyle accuser speaks out: ’I paid her $300K’
Ziwe: Hasan Piker Is an Iconic Guest
The Bitchuation Room (with Francesca Fiorentini)
Common Dreams: Israel Has Demolished Majority of Villages in Southern Lebanon—Mostly After the Ceasefire
USA Today: Trump hints at ‘big surprises’ to come ahead of midterm election
The Hill: Trump teases diesel announcement, big move from Vought
The Wall Street Journal: What Might Russ Vought’s ‘Tremendous’ Surprise Actually Be?
Bradley Onishi: American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy
CRA: Can Congress Seat a Member-Elect Who Vows to Destroy our Constitution?
Politico: DHS agents search Rep. Ilhan Omar’s home
Vote In Or Out: The Project 2025 Progress Report
The Trump Tracker: What’s Been Implemented
The Hill: Bill to claw back public media, foreign aid funds clears key Senate hurdle with Vance breaking tie
Project 2025 Tracker
Ray Williams: Project 2025: The Architects Are Taking a Victory Lap
The Heritage Foundation: Project 2025 Publishes Comprehensive Policy Guide, ‘Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise’
Aeroswift Legal: The Orchestration
ProPublica: “We Want the Bureaucrats to Be Traumatically Affected”
ProPublica: The Shadow President
CRA: Who We Are
CRA: Policy Brief: Assessing the Marxist-Muslim Alliance Aimed at America’s Heart
Library of Congress: Victor Berger: Topics in Chronicling America
Britannica: Victor Berger
Daniel Greenfield: The Constitutional Case for Keeping DSA Members Out of Office
FindLaw: U.S. Code - Unannotated Title 2. The Congress § 26. Roll of Representatives-elect
GovInfo: Enrolling Members; Administering the Oath
United States House of Representatives: The Honorable Kevin F. McCumber
Newsweek: Jeffrey Toobin on How Trump Could Intervene in Midterms
Wikipedia: Gregory Bovino
MPRnews: 24 hours after Bovino’s departure, ICE activity appears unchanged
The Latin Times: Homan Warns Larger ICE Crackdown During Doral Speech: “Wait Until You See What We Do in 2027”
The Latin Times: ICE Says It’s Deported 356,000 People This Year While 70% of Detainees Have No Conviction
The Latin Times: Homan Says ICE ‘Isn’t Going Anywhere’: What His Threat Means for 5 Immigrant Hubs
CBS News: Rep. Ilhan Omar’s D.C. home searched by Homeland Security investigators
Reuters: US immigration authorities raid home of Democratic Trump critic Ilhan Omar
DailyWire: ICE Investigating Rep. Ilhan Omar, Homan Confirms
CNN: Rep. Ilhan Omar responds after federal officers search her home
Zeteo: How Many Israelis Were Killed BY ISRAEL on October 7th?
Paul Krugman: What’s the Matter With France?
UNFTR Resources
Video: On The Record 10-13-26 (Trump’s Secret October Surprise: What Is He Planning?)
Episode: Project 2025.
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Max and 99 are back for another round of Omnibus. They hit headlines on what comes after hyperpolitics and whether the DSA becomes a career vehicle or a disciplining force, and the botched Tennessee execution. Then they tackle listener emails on the historical case that federal spending was never tied to tax revenue, what you’d call a hybrid of social democracy and democratic socialism, and the real estate collapse accelerating the credit crunch. Enjoy!
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:35
Headlines: 00:05:33
Emails: 00:33:21
Beyond the Bullshit: 01:01:34
Memberships: 01:19:21
Outro: 01:19:40
Resources
The Guardian: Christa Pike is ‘up and walking’ for first time after failed execution, lawyer say
Jacobin: What Comes After Hyperpolitics?
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Become a member at unftr.com/memberships.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility
Intro music by Hold Fast.
Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week we diagnosed the economy as a giant zit—good numbers on the surface, all of it concentrated in AI investment and stock market gains for the top 10%, while wages fall below inflation, consumer confidence hits a 12-year low, and the 10-year Treasury just blew past its 2007 peak. Then we looked at what the pop actually looks like: a private credit unwind that drags the banks with it, a Fed that can’t buy its way out this time, and Scott Bessent left holding the bag. The Buffett Indicator is sitting at 235%. Maybe that’s why he retired...
Chapters
Intro: 00:00:42
Quick Takes: 00:01:24
Max Notes: 00:06:35
Killer Left Take of the Week: 00:21:10
Chart of the Week: 00:22:15
Outro: 00:23:16
Resources
CBS Sunday Morning: Alan Alda on fighting Parkinson’s with laughter
This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von: Zohran Mamdani
NBC News: U.S. bombers scrambled out of U.K. airbase after threats
CNBC TV-18: Pete Hegseth’s ‘Just Warriors’ Speech: ‘No Fatties, No Wimps, No Radicals’
Bloomberg Television: Brazil Real Surges After Bolsonaro Takes Surprising Lead
ABC News: US monitoring reported fatal case of pneumonic plague in Russia
WSWS.org: With complicity of media and Democrats, Trump prepares major escalation of Iran war
ADP: National Employment Report
Bureau of Economic Analysis: Personal Income and Outlays, August 2026
The Conference Board: US Consumer Confidence
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Employment Situation Summary
Steve Rattner on Substack
Schwab: Fed Hikes in 12-0 Vote, Commits to Inflation Fight
Bloomberg: Treasury 10-Year Yield Hits Highest Since 2002 on Rate Outlook
Squire Patton Boggs: The Private Credit Market: The Data Behind the Headlines
Federal Reserve: Monetary Policy Report – July 2026
Federal Reserve Bank of New York: Remarks at 2026 U.S. Treasury Market Conference, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York City
CNBC: Fed meeting recap: Warsh says inflation is still too high as Fed hikes for the first time since 2023
Yahoo! Finance: Trump slams the Fed rate hike, says he told Warsh ‘you might as well vote with the board’
CNBC: Warsh’s regime change at the Fed pushes ahead – and meets resistance
CNBC: Warsh faces Fed independence test as Bessent moves in on central bank’s turf
PWC: Private credit’s next phase — growth under pressure
International Monetary Fund: Bank Lending to Nonbank Financial Institutions Continued To Increase Rapidly in 2025
Democracy! Now: Lula vs. Bolsonaro (Again): Brazil’s Presidential Race Goes to Runoff as Right Wing Makes Gains
MacroMicro: US - Total Market Cap (% of GDP)
UNFTR Resources
Video: On The Record 10-06-26 (Trump’s Economy is a Giant Zit.)
Episode: Private Credit: Just Because We’re Not Talking About It Doesn’t Mean It’s Not a Problem.
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If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Become a member at unftr.com/memberships.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility
Intro music by Hold Fast.
Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Private credit headlines have calmed down in recent months. It could be because these debt markets are doing just fine...or it could be because we’re too distracted by wars, exploding bond yields, and gas prices. But just because there haven’t been high-profile bankruptcies like last year’s First Brands or Tricolor doesn’t mean there isn’t trouble brewing in the opaque private credit markets. Consternation about these portfolios is growing: redemption requests are outpacing inflows, reports of massive payment-in-kind adjustments keep surfacing, and credit default swaps on private credit-backed loans are popping up. This crisis may not be as concentrated as the 2008 meltdown, but the numbers are bigger. And at the center of it all is a market we can’t see.
Resources
Federal Reserve: The Rise in Mortgage Defaults
Bloomberg: SoftBank’s OpenAI Debt Gets Costlier, Riskier and Even Bigger
The Japan Times: Apollo mulls raising SoftBank loan to $9 billion for OpenAI bets
IFR: Trading frenzy builds in hyperscaler debt and CDS markets
LSEG: Get ahead of the September index roll
Yahoo! Finance: Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft Are Hiding $3 Trillion in Debt On the AI Boom’s Hidden Ledger
Yahoo! Finance: Blue Owl Capital (OWL) Ties Into Meta’s $50 Billion Hyperion Expansion
Reuters: Private credit bosses hit back at ‘misinformation’ over First Brands collapse
Reuters: Private credit roundup: Software marks and Blackstone’s backlog of redemptions
Bloomberg: Private Credit Defaults Are 1%, 6% or 19%, Depending Who You Ask
UNFTR Resources
Video: How AI Debt Could Blow Up Private Credit.
Essay: Private Credit: Just Because We’re Not Talking About It Doesn’t Mean It’s Not a Problem.
--
If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Become a member at unftr.com/memberships.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility
Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Max and 99 are back for another round of Omnibus. They hit headlines on the Paramount-Warner merger as a preview of what oligarchs do when anyone tries to govern them, plastic fusing with coral reefs in a new phenomenon researchers are calling “plasticoral,” and rapid third-country deportations getting the Supreme Court’s temporary blessing. Then they tackle listener emails on whether this era is an aberration or just capitalism unmasked, DSA overreach and the pace of the left, and the real arguments against raising corporate taxes.
Chapters
Intro: 00:01:02
Headlines: 00:24:06
Emails: 00:34:33
Memberships: 00:55:30
Outro: 00:56:19
Resources
The New York Times: Supreme Court Allows Rapid Third-Country Deportations, for Now
Big by Matt Stoller: Paramount-WB Isn’t Just a Loss, It’s a Prelude
Wired: Plastic Is Melting Onto Corals
Instagram: Hermit Crab Conservation Project
UNFTR Resources
Episode: The Montreal Protocol.
Video: How AI Debt Could Blow Up Private Credit.
--
If you like #UNFTR, please leave us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify: unftr.com/rate and follow us on Facebook, Bluesky, and Instagram at @UNFTRpod. Visit us online at unftr.com.
Become a member at unftr.com/memberships.
Buy yourself some Unf*cking Coffee at shop.unftr.com.
Visit our bookshop.org page at bookshop.org/shop/UNFTRpod to find the full UNFTR book list, and find book recommendations from our Unf*ckers at bookshop.org/lists/unf-cker-book-recommendations.
Access the UNFTR Musicless feed by following the instructions at unftr.com/accessibility
Intro music by Hold Fast.
Support the show: https://www.unftr.com/memberships
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.