Krystal Kyle & Friends

For Episode 273 of KK&F we’re talking to reporter Murtaza Hussain from Drop Site News to talk about the latest juncture of America’s war in Iran. Today, Iran officials join the U.S. for peace talks in Islamabad. Iran has submitted a ten-point plan to establish peace in the region, and it remains to be seen what Trump is willing to accept. He’s pretending that working to prevent future Israeli bombings in Lebanon was never part of the deal, part of his erratic and profoundly untrustworthy strategy. No matter what, knowing our president, he’ll find a way to tout the outcome of his disaster of a war as a win. But the plan proposed by Iran requires major concessions from the U.S., which, in its hubris, has previously made clear that it expects absolute capitulation from Iran. At the same time, all is not lost — Trump has accepted the framing of the talks Iran has provided, and made it clear that he’s desperate for some resolution. What remains to be seen is just how much he can swallow given the weak negotiation position the US enters with.We cover a lot more in this episode, from the conflict’s economic ramifications to Europe’s reaction, Israel’s role in and perspective on the war, and much more. We’re grateful to Murtaza for joining us for this conversation, and we hope you enjoy. Thank you for keeping us ad-free! You can listen to this episode on major streaming platforms. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

She proudly owns the title of “the biggest pain in Ron DeSantis’s ass” — so you know Angie Nixon, candidate for Senate in Florida, is doing something right! Angie’s status as probably the most vocal and involved state legislator comes from her background as a union organizer, as well as an organizer for other grassroots causes. Angie is fighting for these causes in a state run by some of MAGA’s biggest names, whose victories have been supported by massive, craven rollbacks of voting rights.As Angie puts it, there’s “more of us than there are of them.” Though Trump and the Mar-a-Lago set have sought to create the Sunshine State in their own image, we have cause to believe that coalition can’t hold, and Angie’s potential win in the Senate race would be a major sea change. As she points out, Trump has a Democratic representative! And hey, he voted by mail. Krystal and Angie have a lively conversation about Angie’s grassroots, pro-union and progressive campaign, what it means for the state of Florida, and what her path to the seat is.Thanks for listening. You can listen to this podcast on major streaming platforms, like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Episode 271 with Luke Thomas lets us talk to a wide-ranging political commentator, someone who’s covered everything from the MMA world to (most recently on Luke Thomas Gets Political) lefty politics and current events. We really enjoyed getting political with Luke to talk about the war in Iran, Trump’s larger litany of blunders and if/how/when it’s going to catch up with him.America is making worse than a fool of itself in Iran, as weeks of casualties and destruction have piled up and Trump’s war (co-fought with Israel, of course) is losing him major support. As we watch gas prices go up, we also watch Trump continue to lock in on his senseless war, and it’s becoming clearer and clearer every day that not only do our elected officials have anything but our best interests in mind, but they also just can’t govern to begin with. This belongs to a larger international context, from the kidnapping of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro to Trump’s squeezing of the Cuban government and people to pursue his own economic and political agenda there. Trump should be scrambling to save face with his base. And he’s pursued a pretty shoddy, patchwork half-plan to make “peace” in Iran, but that hasn’t worked either! Meanwhile, what remains to be seen is also how he continues to try and cover up his (extensive) presence in the Epstein files. We talk about the unraveling regime, Trump’s own view of his image and legacy, and the role progressive politicians have to play here to help take down our tyrant.Thanks for joining us for another week of KK&F! You can listen to this episode as a podcast on major streaming platforms. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

In Episode 270 of KK&F, we sit down with Josh Citarella to talk about our blackmailing president, his Epstein links, and his inane, catastrophic World War III in the works. There should be absolutely no getting around it, but Trump and his people, while they continue to wage an absolutely senseless war in Iran, have done everything they can to distract from this low point in American politics. AOC has called out what seems so obvious to the part of the American public that refuses to be deceived: it seems very likely that Trump was involved with blackmail, and it seems clear to her (and to us) that Trump is a central member of the Epstein Class. What’s more, the files suggest Epstein and his affiliates were central to the development of online right wing culture factoring into everything from Gamergate to Pizzagate to Qanon. It’s not a pretty picture of the darkest corners of the internet, but it’s a necessary and detailed one, and we hope our conversation serves as a provocation to acknowledge and challenge that increasingly influential part of our culture. You can listen to this episode on major streaming platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

On Episode 269 of KK&F, featuring Vaush and Guy Christensen, we’re having a necessary conversation about the dead-end politics of the Democratic Party and what’s holding us back from organizing collectively at the grassroots level as the American public. The major setback, perhaps, is that the center-left and left lack a cohesive vision to move forward. Bernie ‘16 and ‘20 gave people something to rally behind, acknowledging what makes life in America so unbearable and unsustainable for working- and middle-class people, and de-emphasizing dead-end identity politics without denying the major effects of race- and gender-based discrimination on economic stability and social life. We arrive at the realization that moving beyond electoral politics as a limiting framework (but, to be clear, without abandoning it, and while continuing to see it as a primary site of class struggle) is the only thing that will allow us to collectively think beyond the day-by-day horrors Trump and his cronies foist upon us to keep our heads down and our noses to the grindstone.Thanks for joining us for this conversation. And thank you for keeping us ad-free! You can listen to this podcast tomorrow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and other major streaming platforms. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

We have the fabulous Breaking Points producer Griffin Davis joining us on the show this week, Besides the possibility of a successful left-wing Tea Party, the continuing urgency of abolishing ICE, we also on the absolutely essential historical context missing from Camila Cabelo’s recent comments on the suffering in Cuba. In fact, hearing that someone had made such a comment, you might be inclined to assume that they had the decades-long US embargo of Cuba front of mind. It’s isolated Cuba and deprived it of essential resources, and, maintained by Democratic and Republican presidents, it stems from ongoing Cold War red-scaring and the usual US extractionist imperialism. But no! Cabelo’s criticism was for the Castro government and its inheritors, and we talk about what’s wrong with this picture.AI regulation is more of an imperative than ever, and the discussion of the threat of automation taking jobs from workers in a country without UBI came well before AI. But the advent of ever more sophisticated forms of AI has moved its reach into the white-collar workforce, and as it strengthens its stranglehold on increasingly vast swaths of American industry, the time is now to protect jobs and legislate against economic monopoly. We talk about all of this and more. Thanks for tuning in! You can listen to this podcast on major streaming platforms, like Spotify, Pandora, Apple Podcasts, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

We’re keeping it Krystal & Kyle this week to discuss the beginning of arrests related to the revelations of the Epstein files (with the high-profile arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor). Plus, more on Zohran Mamdani’s political bind and strategic compromises, the life sentence given to former South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol, and more.A lot has been made on the American left about Zohran Mamdani’s endorsement of Kathy Hochul for re-election as New York governor. The move struck some as a surprise. After all, Hochul is very much a mainstream Democrat. She endorsed Mamdani, but she does not belong to the tradition of class-struggle politics that elevated Zohran to an incredible upset in the mayoral race. Now Mamdani has returned the endorsement, and the distance between his own political commitments and his endorsee’s has caused friction among some of his supporters. Our discussion of this topic focuses on the thin line Zohran is walking when it comes to sticking to his principles and actually making sure that they are realized in successful policy. We also talk about how the bombshell of the Epstein files release (with much more to come, if the government is actually held to the law) is revealing a shadow government of moneyed interests at the helm of American politics. Billionaires guilty of the most heinous and brutal crimes have yet to face real repercussions. Now, the arrest of disgraced former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor shows that the shock of the information unearthed in the Epstein files may actually cause some political consequences. We fit this discussion into the context of class warfare, contextualizing it with considerations of how those implicated by the Epstein files’ release have the power to scapegoat and attack immigrants, trans people, and other civilians they designate as “political enemies” to distract from their behavior.Thanks for tuning in to KK&F. You can listen to this episode this evening on major streaming platforms. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Even Tim Pool is distancing himself from Trump, and that’s how you know it’s REALLY not good. PrettyBadLefty, or Brandon, is the host of The Discourse with Brandon and a regular Majority Report contributor. We talked to Brandon about how revelations of the Epstein files, the ICE raids, and more are wreaking havoc within Trump’s base. Trump’s approval ratings are catastrophically bad, and it’s connected to what was clearly his significant presence in Epstein’s circles. Right-wingers like Alex Jones have rejected what they see as the “hoax” going around about the president, refusing to admit that Trump was a major associate of Epstein’s. But from Trump’s recent and major dip in favorability, we can see that the administration and coalition have been massively and irreversibly fractured by the release of information about his Epstein involvement. Meanwhile, we’re advancing rapidly toward the loss of voting rights in the U.S., while right now some Americans have seen that their home states are willing to throw those rights away without putting up a fight. A lot depends upon the ability of grassroots organizers and allies in government to thwart Trump’s attempts to steal elections and crown himself our ruler again.We hope you enjoy our conversation. This episode is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and other major streaming platforms. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Good Politic Guy AKA Mac joins us to break down the biggest news of the week — which contains some major bombshells and revelations about the future of this country, including the increasing precarity of the economy as we know it. Layoff and unemployment rates are skyrocketing, and the cost of living in the U.S. is higher than ever; AI is playing a significant role in eliminating jobs and prompting layoffs, and that role is only going to increase. We foresee that the rise of AI companies will be major step in the consolidation of capital in a tiny section of our economy.As far as the Epstein files are concerned in this episode, we’ve basically learned that the most powerful men in our society participated in a vast child sex trafficking ring but also went to the greatest possible lengths to hide it and to protect its major architect, Jeffrey Epstein. Revelations about the role of billionaire overlords like Bill Gates and their deference and loyalty to Epstein reveal the manipulative powers Epstein wielded over those who willingly participated in his disgusting crimes.Thanks for listening. You can listen to this episode when it’s released tomorrow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

On this special episode of KK&F, investigative reporter Ken Klippenstein shares info from insiders about the Trump admin’s growing surveillance machine. From those leaks, he’s learned that Border Patrol and ICE have been gathering sensitive personal data on anyone even suspected of having a connection to anti-ICE activity or resisting the immigration raids on their cities. That info, according to info Ken got from a Border Patrol agent, includes license plates, biometrics, and names of civilians they view as a threat. Krystal’s interview with Ken lets us get into the nitty-gritty of what’s actually going on within the shadowy evil of DHS, what it will mean for people affiliated and unaffiliated with resistance, and what we can do while the government struggles to cement its control over American life. This episode is available to everyone via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, and other major streaming services. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Andrew Tate and Clavicular at the club, singing Kanye’s “Heil Hitler” on the way… we’re calling it the right-wing freakosphere, and its gross, mask-off embrace of fascist culture needs to be studied so it can be eradicated. As we discuss with A Bit Fruity host Matt Bernstein, that space is fracturing right now in a fascinating way. Clavicular is, for example, different from the Candace Owens type of antisemitic conspiracy theorist. Then there’s the whole TPUSA Charlie Kirk brand of more traditional conservatism. These factions are increasingly running afoul of each other and can’t find totally common ground.These right-wing influencers’ public displays are absolutely linked to hatefulness and the desire to oppress entire groups of people right-wingers view as subhuman, and also, they’re not all based in the exact same ideological tendencies. We think about how the point has often been to “trigger the libs,” and the more triggering the actions and words are, the more fascist salutes and insanely evil statements happen on camera, the more these people have fulfilled their goal. We’re seeing that these people increasingly aren’t putting limits on what they’re willing to say and that they actually feel more and more emboldened (and platformed) when it comes to testing those limits as much as they can. It’s pretty depressing to watch all of this play out among the state-run terror Trump is raining down on American communities like Minneapolis, where literal five-year-old children are being put in concentration camps. F**k all of this. We need to dismantle the platforms these people have, to radicalize their followers against violence and fascism, and to take away the power the right-wing influencer world has to rot our society.This episode is available on major streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Youtuber and legal expert Pisco joins us this week to lay out the case for why ICE is guilty of murder. As ICE continues to terrorize Minneapolis, kidnap residents, and perpetuate violence after the murder of Renee Good, Trump is throwing around a ton of horrifying comments showing his awareness of different legal and electoral ways to officially shut down this country’s accountability to the people. To think that the Army and National Guard could be in the conversation when it comes to shutting down popular resistance puts us in the position of having to put our lives on the line for constitutional freedoms. And throwing out the midterms will ensure that Republicans can retain power the American people increasingly don’t want them to have. It’s also a great rehearsal for doing away with presidential elections and making sure we’re stuck for the foreseeable future with a fascist con artist.We think through the avenues of legal and political authority that could prevent these nightmarish outcomes by holding Trump, Vance, and their national takeover at bay. The Supreme Court will play a huge role in all of this, and we should keep our eyes on them to exercise the power they have been given to stop exactly this kind of situation. When it comes to preventing illegal election cancellations or the invocation of the Insurrection Act, the opportunity to intervene and pull the U.S. back from the brink is theirs. There’s cautious optimism in our conversation that this truly unique moment of terror will force the Supreme Court to recognize the importance of rejecting Trump’s fascist moves. Still, like so many other political actors and institutions, the Court’s willingness to actually act on that recognition is up in the air. In our discussion, we imagine, for better and for worse, what will actually come next.Thanks for listening! You can catch this episode on major streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pandora, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Senate candidate Graham Platner joins us to discuss the murder of Renee Good by ICE agents mere blocks from where George Floyd was murdered only a few years ago. Now, residents of Minneapolis have seen truly how far Trump’s government is willing to go to create a reign of terror over working class people and peaceful dissidents. Good’s wife was forced to witness her killing, covered in her blood. It’s an unthinkable image of cruelty that has ignited communal resistance against ICE’s violent rule, premised upon hatred of immigrants and revealing its sadistic targeting of women, too. The people of Minneapolis have, for years now, lived at the eye of the storm of fascism, and they’ve come together in solidarity to keep each other safe and call attention to the brutality.Following the murder of Renee Good by ICE agents mere blocks from where George Floyd was murdered only a few years ago, residents of Minneapolis have seen truly how far Trump’s government is willing to go to create a reign of terror over working class people and peaceful dissidents. Good’s wife was forced to witness her killing, covered in her blood. It’s an unthinkable image of cruelty that has ignited communal resistance against ICE’s violent rule, premised upon hatred of immigrants and revealing its sadistic targeting of women, too. The people of Minneapolis have, for years now, lived at the eye of the storm of fascism, and they’ve come together in solidarity to keep each other safe and call attention to the brutality.In this episode we discuss what that organization could look like, what is already happening, and why the abolition of ICE is, as it’s been for nonwhite immigrant communities for so long, a matter of life or death. We’re grateful to Graham for joining us for this truly heartbreaking and sobering episode that makes us confront this decisive moment in our country’s history. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Taylor Lorenz, a leading journalist tackling contemporary issues in internet culture, rejoins us to go off on current trends pushing young men to embrace conservative expectations of their physiques. Clavicular is a streamer who’s used his platform to advance aesthetic standards for men based on reactionary, profoundly superficial and often dangerous ideals of masculinity. Many such cases. Clavicular is getting a lot of notice lately because of some comments he’s made about supporting Gavin Newsom over JD Vance, applying those standards in ways that capitalize on ideas of physical dominance and superiority. Clavicular’s own dad was a bodybuilder, and that’s shaped his foregrounding of “looksmaxxing,” encouraging young men to pick up on toxic ideas that define worth through conforming to unhealthy physical criteria. This is the realm of the groypers, and from what Taylor’s seeing through her work on the subject, it’s a terrifyingly dominant ideology spreading online and affecting young men.This also provides us with an opportunity to think critically about the faults of JD Vance and Gavin Newsom. We don’t have time to get into everything that’s wrong with JD Vance as a political figure. But here’s what we picked out for our discussion: He’s an incredible hypocrite who has sold old anti-Trump political commitments down the river. Vance has proven himself willing to say and do anything, putting down his own family members, to grab at power and latch on to what the MAGA base wants to see from him if they’re willing to vote him into higher office. (Yikes!)It’s a jam-packed episode, one that takes on contemporary political and cultural trends we’re going to have to contend with seriously to make sure that younger generations of voters are not radicalized to profoundly conservative and inhumane ideas about what masculinity means and who should run our country. Even if it’s not the most lighthearted conversation, we think there’s a lot to learn here, and we hope you enjoy! This episode’s available to everyone via major streaming platforms. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

Lefty commentator Keith Edwards joins the show this week for a discussion on the reign of terror and violence Trump has brought to America in under a year of his second term. As a prominent independent news host, Keith is also a great source of insight into the challenges presented to lefty independent media during the Trump years, and we get him to talk through all of it with us.Is it time for accelerationism? We talk about how everything just seems to be getting worse, and how Trump is hitting the gas on destroying American life. There’s always the belief that, as we put it, voters have to “touch the hot stove” and see how bad things can get (and they’re getting pretty bad!) before they fully reject and denounce Trumpism. After all, most anti-Trump politicians are famously bad at offering alternatives that appeal to working-class voters. At the same time, it might be the case that the possibility of coalition between liberals and leftists seems closer than ever. The Republican coalition is undergoing an absolute meltdown, with fragmentation over everything from Trump’s handling of the Epstein files to antisemitism and Islamophobia in the party. We’re looking at a political landscape that could blow up at any moment. Keith takes us through the moment we’re living in and where the conventional arrangement of American politics is headed.Thanks for joining us! You can listen to this episode now on major streaming platforms, as well as here on Substack. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe

It’s relatively normal these days to see candidates expect to ride into office based on buzzy, attention-grabbing social media campaigns, but as we saw with Zohran, that’s only a small piece of the bigger puzzle New Yorkers are thinking about when they cast their vote. Name recognition can play a big role, too. But Cameron Kasky, Parkland survivor and anti gun violence organizer, has what members of political dynasties and incumbent leaders don’t have: a new vision that responds to the kinds of changes — universal healthcare, social housing, and gun violence prevention — that everyday people are thinking about on a day-to-day basis. We also talk honestly about the struggles his campaign will face. It basically goes without saying that other candidates have money — dirty money, family money — on their side. Grassroots funding and support will make a big difference in this race. It’s also difficult to be the only candidate brave enough to raise political consciousness about what truly isn’t working for his potential constituents: pointing out what needs to change is already tough, and getting people on board with a vision to change it is even harder. Cameron has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, meaning he’s also going to have to battle Zionist opposition, and as you may remember from Zohran’s campaign, that opposition is willing to go extremely low. But Cameron’s big sell is that your paycheck shouldn’t be eaten up entirely by rent and healthcare, and it also shouldn’t fund human rights abuses abroad. We think it’s a compelling vision that could form part of a progressive tide sweeping American politics.Thanks for tuning in. You can listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Pandora, Spotify, and more. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit krystalkyleandfriends.substack.com/subscribe