Kagro in the Morning

Kagro in the Morning - February 9, 2024

David Waldman fortifies us for our weekend with an extra dose of vitamin KITM: Yesterday was a good day for Donald Trump, and if it was a good day for anyone else, that would be purely unintentional. TV cameras on SCOTUS would’ve revealed the Justices rolling up their Candy Crush scores as lawyers for whomever said whatever. After consideration and debate they will, of course, rule for state’s rights, or not, whatever. Last year Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk ruled against distribution of the abo...

Kagro in the Morning - February 8, 2024

It’s all falling apart for Republicans. They might even be in disarray! But since their voters don’t appear to want anything done, we’re not sure yet whether they’ll get away with it. They may fare worse among Republican Senators than they do with the voters. Those guys just seem to want chaos, and always have, just like Greg Dworkin says. To no one’s surprise, the bluff was called and the “border bill” tanked. There’s just not much about the immigration situation that stands up to scrutin...

Kagro in the Morning - February 7, 2024

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin haul in Wednesday’s raft o’stories almost overladen with wacky. First, the thing driving Republicans crazy this morning and for the foreseeable future, besides Taylor Swift, is that gnawing realization that they might not be the smartest people... or even the “smart” people in the room. On Donald Trump’s orders, Gops shot themselves in the foot on immigration, making their one strength their biggest weakness. Their Mayorkas impeachment vote was hilarious. M...

Kagro in the Morning - February 6, 2024

It’s Tuesday, so it’s David Waldman and Joan McCarter put a good half hour into figuring out Republican strategy this year, which is about double what the Gops have done, and they regret even doing that much. Their problem is that they got what they demanded, so now they have no choice but to reject it. Mitch McConnell killed the bipartisan border bill 3 hours after supporting it. Mike Johnson backstabbed the Senate so he could kill it. Dick Durbin cannot do wrong, so Dems cannot do right....

Kagro in the Morning - February 5, 2024

Yes, for maybe a decade now we at KITM have been kind of obsessed. Our entire focus is, it would seem, one name, over and over. You’d think that name was the only one we know... but not today.  Last night, Tracy Chapman made the ‘80’s great again. And Céline Dion. And, OK, we should mention Taylor Swift once more. David Waldman and Greg Dworkin try to make it feel like a normal Monday. Oh, and another guy we talk about, Donald Trump, is ahead in the polls… But what does that really mea...

Kagro in the Morning - February 2, 2024

Okay, campers, rise and shine — and don't forget your booties 'cause it's coooooold out there today! Wait, it’s not so bad this year… Maybe that’s a symbol we’re turning a corner, a new Spring of understanding, empathy, a blossoming of… Or, global warming. Either way, you know David Waldman and KITM will always return. When the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago, staff tried the “That locked door behind the dresser? Oh, that’s nothing.” gambit, and it worked. That was some Obi Wan move by Trump valet...

Kagro in the Morning - February 1, 2024

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin start the month off right, or more or less “left”, which is a pretty good place to start. Our top news story for today: Taylor Swift, or as I call her, “Tay-Tay”, because of her Japan-Nevada Superbowl body double... It is tough coming up with better/worse conspiracies than the ones MAGA have. Those folks would be pretty hilarious if some of them weren’t killing people. Not only with beheadings either, but drownings have been becoming popular recently. As lo...

Kagro in the Morning - January 31, 2024

It’s Wednesday! Not a post-primary Wednesday, but aren’t they all post-primary Wednesdays from now on? Not if Greg Dworkin has anything to say about it, and he has a lot to say about it to David Waldman on today’s KITM.   First — MAGA goes full incel by Taylor Swift-boating the Superbowl, the Music Industry, Americana, love and all that is good in the world. Many great men, tears in their eyes, reassured Donald that he’s at least twice as F’-able as Taylor.   But I digress. B...

Kagro in the Morning - January 30, 2024

I know we don’t really care about Lauren Boebert very much, but it’s funny that she moved from the 3rd district to the 4th district, and came in 5th. And this despite having some other, equally f*@k3d-up Republicans as her opponents. On the 14th Amendment front, former MT Gov. and RNC Chair Marc Racicot argues for disqualification. Meanwhile, the guy who would be disqualified is outraged that the court trying him for fraud was worried that he might still be committing fraud, and was of cou...

Kagro in the Morning - January 29, 2024

Well, apparently there was no news this weekend other than Taylor Swift and the football guy. But Greg Dworkin was convinced that other things happened. Oh, here’s some news: Trump is terrible. I mean, just the worst. Only slightly worse than his supporters, of course. Speaking of those terrible people, they are — with no sense of irony — headed to the border in their own caravan of chaos. Meanwhile in Washington, Gop officialdom won’t take yes for an answer. Of course, if the courts say...

Kagro in the Morning - January 26, 2024

Today, David Waldman reveals one weird trick that will shock you, or he will read and comment on the news. Find out which on this Friday KITM! California Assembly Bill 83 is titled “Political Reform Act of 1974: contributions and expenditures by foreign-influenced business entities”, but might be better known as the “Money Out, Voters In!” bill, designed to defend democracy by closing the Citizens United loophole allowing foreign money to flood elections. Representative Jamie Raskin likes ...

Kagro in the Morning - January 25, 2024

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin deliver us to the weekend! Almost! Give us another day or two, we’ll get there! Speed demon Donald Trump kicked into high gear lately when posting about E. Jean Carroll, then Nikkki Haley. Who knows what his next sleepless night might bring? Sure, we would all want Haley to stay in the Gop primary. Donald Trump might blow a blood vessel on live TV, and Nikkki is happy to remind the whole lot of them of their recent shrinkage. Alas, we don’t pay her bills. On ...

Kagro in the Morning - January 24, 2024

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin returned to this morning’s KITM with the very latest in news and punditry. So, if you had that in the office pool, congratulations. Another primary down, (ok, the last one was a caucus) another set of losers. Ok, they’re all losers, but who’s the biggest loser this time? Some say Nikkki Haley blew it. Some say that, allowing for her lower vote total, Haley did just fine. Donald Trump begs to differ. Sure, Donald Trump can be a pretty poor loser, but he real...

Kagro in the Morning - January 23, 2024

It’s Tuesday! Time for David Waldman to welcome Joan McCarter to talk of many things… but first the upcoming Gop primary, as tomorrow it’ll be outgoing and what’s the fun in that? With Ron DeSantis out, where does the coveted incel gamergate vote go? Now it’s become a pulse-stopping two-person race! (But only if Donald Trump’s pulse stops.) It’s bold outsider Nikkki Haley Hare vs. the steady reliability of Tortoise Donald Trump... A Trump vs. Haley debate will require subtitles, though. ...

Kagro in the Morning - January 22, 2024

Monday, David Waldman, Greg Dworkin and KITM. Here we go again! Oh, so close! Ron DeSantis called off his presidential run in second place! What did he do wrong? Was there anything that Ron did right? In his campaign DeSantis was a cruel, stupid, egotistical authoritarian to a fault, so everyone knew his heart was in the right place, MAGA-wise. His body count was second only to the Donald’s. It’s just that with prime Trump still on the menu, who needs a meatball sub?  Well, it’s up to Nikk...

Kagro in the Morning - January 19, 2024

It’s Friday, so David Waldman packs 5 days of punditry into our two hour sack: Senate passed a short-term spending bill, Congress cleared it, by suspending the rules. Thanks goes to Democrats without whom nothing could be possible. Ecuador is letting go of its pesky democracy in order to take on the threat of the drug gangs that they had packed into leaky prisons following neighboring El Salvador letting go of its pesky democracy in order to take on the threat of the drug gangs that they...

Kagro in the Morning - January 18, 2024

We are LIVE! We salute Justice Putnam, host of the West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy, following this show on Netroots Radio, for climbing the internet pole out back and plugging us back in, or whatever he did. David Waldman’s and Greg Dworkin’s wisdom can again be enjoyed milliseconds after it occurs to them. Lovable jerks! A popular trope in fiction that has a hard time translating into real life as real jerks aren’t really lovable. The completely fictional protagonist of the television pro...

Kagro in the Morning - January 17, 2024

Quit tapping your app, David Waldman was not streaming “live” today. He is “here”, though, and as yesterday recording so that you only need to defer your punditry gratification for a short while. Now that Greg Dworkin is here also, we have to talk about the Iowa Caucus again, but only for a moment as the Gop primary quickly moves on to dumber things. Sentimental favorite Ron DeSantis got second, yet you got to hope that cute little cuss survives for a few more states. The big news is that ...

Kagro in the Morning - January 16, 2024

Hey, what in the Eastern Orthodox Boxing Day is this? Turns out it was nothing, just something in the intertubes that froze up, so no “live” show. However, David Waldman, cozily ensconced in KITM World Headquarters close to the warm friendly crackle of his kitchen microwave, remained undeterred and pressed on… that is, the “on” button for the recorder: Yes, there was that thing in Iowa. Ron DeSantis lost badly, Nikkki Haley lost worse, and Donald Trump didn’t even win well. When TFFG wins,...

Kagro in the Morning - January 15, 2024

It’s Monday and David Waldman leads this morning’s charge with Operation “Kagro Morning”. The underinformed won’t know what hit them. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is another holiday that is celebrated through somber reflection, which I guess most of them are supposed to be, with the possible exception of National Nothing Day tomorrow. Greg Dworkin reminds us that if it wasn’t for Connecticut hospitality Dr. King’s dream might not be as inspired. Casaba-headed reactionary Charlie Kirk was r...

Kagro in the Morning - January 12, 2024

Can you believe it? It’s David Waldman, KITM, and Friday, once again. Circumstances are again forcing us to learn about some other country and some other group of people... And as usual, those circumstances involve us dropping bombs on that country and those people. Today, we leaf to the back of our atlas in order to find the country of Yemen, somewhat the home of the Houthis, the latest folks in the Middle East to piss us off. Not that they don’t deserve the back of Uncle Sam’s hand, yo...

Kagro in the Morning - January 11, 2024

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin will be allowed to speak on their own behalf today. Annnd they’re rounding the bend! It’s Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, neck and neck heading into Iowa! Now that Chris Christie is out, that race is up for grabs! Gops finely tuned to every nuanced policy detail and scrupulously balancing every gradated point reached their somber conclusions, and it looks like it’s Nikki’s to lose! (Although Donald Trump does maintain a slim lead.) Baby Jesus could personally...

Kagro in the Morning - January 10, 2024

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin return for a LIVE Wednesday KITM.  We’re all getting the hang of it this year! How embarrassing is it to be a Republican? Hunter Biden played with them this morning until it just became boring and sad. Soon, each House Gop will have been Speaker, as each previous member Leeeeeroy Jenkins into the maw of another spending deal talk. As Ace KITM Correspondent Rosalyn MacGregor has often told us, Republican antics in Michigan would embarrass any stooge.  In Flo...

Kagro in the Morning - January 9, 2024

David Waldman is back, just like Tuesday! You can always rely on those two. President Joe Biden reminds us that Donald Trump is the losingest loser whoever lost, followed exclusively by Lost Cause losers who love losers and losing.  Trump is busy losing court cases this week.  Judicial Estoppel, John Stossel, Collateral Estoppel… There’s nothing Donald Trump won’t do or say  to escape the law. Dick Nixon rolled over in his grave faster than usual today as Trump tried to get a DC court to...

Kagro in the Morning - January 8, 2024

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin woke up bright and early to bring us our first Monday KITM of the year! They stayed awake too!  Joe Biden delivered a stemwinder-barnburner of a speech centered on January 6, and not just for people who use “stemwinder” or “barnburner” to describe speeches. The events of January 6 are burned into the minds of millions of Americans, though yet to light a single candle in Donald Trump’s dim consciousness. Nonetheless, minions, lackies, and cult members have all...

Kagro in the Morning - January 5, 2024

David Waldman posits a few questions on today’s show. Questions for which careful, or even casual listeners of KITM might know the answer. For instance, what do you have to lose from taking Hydroxychloroquine? Ok, that was an easy one. What about that January 6 riot at the Capitol, bad thing or no? And, Donald Trump… Insurrectionist, or treasonous bastard? Right, again! The questions get tougher from here on out. Trump received at least $7.8M in payments from foreign governments as pre...

Kagro in the Morning - January 4, 2024

Where’d we go? Sleepyhead David Waldman clocked in late yesterday and Greg Dworkin’s Raft O’ Stories went adrift. The good news is, David’s back on schedule, and Greg has a XL boatload of polls and punditry for us today.   About those polls… Half of the world will be going to some sort of poll this year. So, a million polling prognosticators are out there with differing methodologies and rates of success. All of them had better make certain that they are paid upfront, and take the...

Kagro in the Morning - January 3, 2024

Don’t anyone go accusing me of sleeping on the job! I do the job after I sleep! Even if I choose to do my sleeping during, you know, the time when most people anticipate that I’ll be doing my job. So, that happened. But then I decided I’d better read and discuss at least an hour’s worth of material today, or we’ll start falling behind. Over in Ivy League Land, where people are used to falling behind if they don’t do their reading, we have the unfortunate case of Harvard President Claudin...

Kagro in the Morning - January 2, 2024

2024! Are you still writing “2023” on your checks? (btw, what is a “check”?) David Waldman, finally able to wear his two-button shorts on the air without copyright infringement, delivers possibly the least teeth-gnashing news day of the year. Bridget Ziegler, the anti-LGBTQ mom recorded in three-ways, is so “last year”. Let’s welcome Clarice Schillinger, the pro-COVID, anti-public school, woke-battling mom, charged with running underage drinking parties and fist fighting teens. The Unite...

Kagro in the Morning "Encore Performance" - January 2, 2023, airing January 1, 2024

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin wish you all a happy LAST year! (Because we're re-running our Jan. 2, 2023 episode!) It’s not a prediction per se, but a nice objective.   2023 won’t be a good year to avoid gun deaths. New Year's Eve parties featured the usual accidental shooting deaths, and related casualties and injuries.   Not universally beloved Pope Benedict’s death might just reshape the Catholic Church, or maybe not.   Congress votes for a new speaker of the House t...

Kagro in the Morning - December 29, 2023

Kagro in the Morning - December 28, 2023

That’s it. We’ve officially run out of holidays to take off this year. David Waldman and Greg Dworkin have returned for the second day in a row. Nikki Haley wasn’t about to get caught with a trick question on the cause of the Civil War. It was, however, a simple question that Nikki thought needed a trick answer. Surprised by someone who could so easily raise more than her, Lauren Boebert is working to not risk losing her grip on power without getting another handhold first. 10 inches o...

Kagro in the Morning - December 27, 2023

We’re back! Greg Dworkin was rarin’ to go, rounding up happenings from the extended holiday weekend. That included a reminder that while polling a year out from the election is often worthless, it’s perhaps valuable to ask people whether a criminal conviction would change their minds about voting for Trump. So, someone did.   I don’t know if you’ve heard this, but the economy is doing a lot better than the so-called experts said it would be. But so-called experts get a lot of things wro...

Kagro in the Morning "Encore Performance" - December 27, 2022, airing December 26, 2023

Travel day! We'll be back live for Eastern Orthodox Boxing Day. But for now, please enjoy this look back in our short-hop time machine! Today, David Waldman presented a limited edition KITM, offered live only to a select audience in his kitchen this morning, but now publicly available at an amazingly low price! Are Rooibos and Yerba Mate teas any good? One way to find out.  Just Security sums up the January 6th Select Committee’s final report, and The Bulwark focuses on the Trump coup’...

Kagro in the Morning "Encore Performance" - December 26, 2022, airing December 25, 2023

Our Boxing Day '22 show fills in for VI Kal. Ianiuarius. KITM gave the staff the whole day off for Christmas this year, allowing us to be here all the earlier next morning for Boxing Day! The first rule of Boxing Day is you do not sing Boxing Day carols. Instead, David Waldman and Greg Dworkin of course croon only the best Christmas songs written by Jewish men, (All of them.) including that anti-nuclear annihilation ditty, “Do You Hear What I Hear?”, and the Ukrainian export, “Carol of the ...

Kagro in the Morning - December 22, 2023

Today might not be the holly-est nor jolliest, but it sure is beginning to feel a lot like the weekend. David Waldman helps us to constructively fill two more hours before we can open presents. Yesterday, Donald Trump said that he was not a crook, assuring no one on earth, although Donald did knock off one more day of being not held responsible until he can hide in a casket, which has been his sole ambition for over 70 years. The 14th amendment is not the “magical cure-all” that finishes T...

Kagro in the Morning - December 21, 2023

And, lo, David Waldman brings us good tidings of great joy, and Greg Dworkin with his Thursday Raft o’ Stories and Boatload of Punditry and Polls™. Amdt14.S3.1 is getting coverage like Luke 2:8-14 this week. SCOTUS will need more than originalism to excuse the decision 6 of them would really wish to be making. Gops would prefer that the Supreme Court would keep its nose out of Constitutional matters, and yet this case just might be the enema they’ve all needed for the last 8 years. On th...

Kagro in the Morning - December 20, 2023

Great news! Greg Dworkin floated by this morning on his raft o’ stories, and managed to regale us with the latest news until we lost sight of him about a half hour later... Excellent news! The Colorado Supreme Court has ruled that Donald Trump is ineligible to run for president. David Waldman wasn’t that sure he could do a whole show on the subject, but he underestimates himself. The folks who normally hold the Constitution as gospel and vice versa, and who also remind us that the US isn...

Kagro in the Morning - December 19, 2023

On the KITM Holiday Countdown we’re running out of holidays to count down. As it is Tuesday, we did count down the minutes till David Waldman welcomed Joan McCarter, but didn’t expect her to bring many glad tidings. The Gop has no Christmas joy to send Ukraine. Germany will be permanently deploying troops for the first time since World War II. Leonard Leo will make sure Supreme Court stockings are overflowing this year, as he has in years before. Clarence Thomas will continue to ho-ho-ho f...

Kagro in the Morning - December 18, 2023

Some of you might be taking the holiday off today, but not David Waldman, and not us at KITM World Headquarters. Greg Dworkin might be lost in the Connecticut outback without his mukluks, or he might be just sleeping in, we aren’t sure. Rudy Colludy Giuliani was ordered to pay $148 million in damages to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, whom he had defamed. Giuliani will spend the next weeks defaming them some more, which gives him something to do while waiting for his criminal cases to begin. ...

Kagro in the Morning - December 15, 2023

David Waldman enters his “Friday Era” today, which counting inclusively from the Ides, would fall upon the... well, depending on the Augustus or Sextilis derivation, would… heck, politics does complicate everything, including us getting to the weekend. Sometimes things aren’t so complicated. CNN reports that a collection of raw Russian intelligence disappeared under Donald Trump, which is exactly where most would predict it would disappear. Donald lost a full 10 inches of highly classifi...

Kagro in the Morning - December 14, 2023

David Waldman welcomes us to this week’s Penultimate KITM Special, which features this week’s ultimate Greg Dworkin appearance, and you can’t beat that. Jack Smith’s bold interlocutory appeal, which hopefully is the interdigitary case to finally cut through Donald Trump’s interstitial bullshit, seems a huge play but is a good bet. The Dow is surging with the Joementum of Bidenomics. Is Jerome Powell’s Fed pulling off a soft landing? Stock and Bond markets sure think so. Remember, never g...

Kagro in the Morning - December 13, 2023

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin round up the election news, the court news, and everything in between.  The Supreme Court will hear a challenge to an obstruction law used on January 6th insurrectionists. It all depends on what their definition of corruption, is. Special counsel Jack Smith made a gutsy move to ask the Supreme Court to decide whether Donald Trump has absolute immunity before he spends any more time prosecuting him. It seems like a simple decision, but the Supremes could mak...

Kagro in the Morning - December 12, 2023

David Waldman never does anything halfway. Except for today. Today David is “out”, but only halfway, leaving a brand-new, recorded live, special 1-hour KITM : Donald Trump’s plan for the last 50 years has been to postpone justice for his actions until he’s dead.  So far, so good, I guess, but it would be nice if someone could find a way to hurry him along. Jack Smith just might have come up with a way to short-circuit Trump’s endless postponements of his March 4 criminal trial. On Monday...

Kagro in the Morning - December 11, 2023

David Waldman and Greg Dworkin continue our KITM Holiday Countdown. We’re halfway through one, and have only a few more to go this year! Remember Alex Jones? Yeah, he’s back on whatever Twitter is now. Can we not attend to that crap over there anymore? I will move as many links as I can to Threads or Blue Sky, but if I can’t I will try to give you a heads up, like for this one. Anyhow, we have too much other crap to deal with.  Donald Trump is blowing away his primary competition, whil...

Kagro in the Morning - December 8, 2023

What happened when the U.S. failed to prosecute an insurrectionist ex-president? Well, we already failed to prosecute Jefferson Davis, the President of the Confederacy. So, what happened? It’s a long story… which happens to be David Waldman’s specialty, especially for Friday KITMs.   It turns out even that story wasn’t long and involved enough to stand up to a full two hours of Kagro scrutiny.  So, we brought in a recorded segment from Seth Chipman, entitled “What Hamas Promises, Iranian...

Kagro in the Morning - December 7, 2023

David Waldman awoke from his long winter’s nap this Hanukkah Eve morning to activate the mighty KITM World Headquarters bank of computers. One of those slept in until about 9:02. Greg Dworkin, punctual as ever, actually managed to sleep after witnessing the best the Gop has to offer in their final presidential debate. 4 losers entered the debate stage last night. 4 losers left at the end. Nikki Haley didn't remotely win then, and has no chance of winning now, but did lose the least. Sentimen...

Kagro in the Morning - December 6, 2023

Against all odds, David Waldman and Greg Dworkin have returned for Wednesday’s KITM. (The odds were actually pretty good.) Donald Trump doesn’t sound like a guy who wants to be president, which of course he never has. Trump has always wanted to be a dictator, but this time Donald hopes to be less inept at becoming one. Kash Patel already has a truckload of jackboots ordered from Temu. Donald promised Sean Hannity that he’d use only the tip of his dictatorship this next time, but if he only...

Kagro in the Morning - December 5, 2023

David Waldman counts down the days… and doesn’t find a lot. 2015! That’s when I signed my million-dollar contract to write summaries for KITM. (It wasn’t stipulated over what span of time we were talking.) We were heading into an election that year too, but that one was just some low stakes affair. This year is different. 2024 brings us Republican candidate Donald Trump, well known philanderer, fraudster and cad. And worse, lately Trump has been considered an “agent of chaos” who fully i...

Kagro in the Morning - December 4, 2023

A relative of David Waldman makes it out to 104! Congratulations! That is quite an achievement, Donald Trump won’t be 104 until the year 2050. Old people remember so much. For instance, I can recall “2015”, back when I was a greenhorn summary writer, making only, oh… adjusting for inflation… well, anyhow back then I couldn’t understand how Donald Trump made it onto every KITM, before he had even won a single primary. Now I get it. Donald Trump is just so fun to talk about. Trump is always ...