Friends,
This week’s Amped Up was like a jolt of lightening. David Shuster and I came in hot, and we stayed there.
From the jump, we called the government shutdown what it is: a government held hostage by feeble men doing the bidding of a wobbly, wussified, weak, wannabe king.
Mike Johnson, father and “porn monitor” to son-of-Mike-Johnson, has become Trump Epstein-file hall monitor.
Johnson’s turned the House into a faux-prayer-circle for authoritarianism, as he refuses to seat Adelita Grijalva, newest elected Dem Congresswoman. Why? Because she’s the the 218th vote that releases the Epstein Files.
And keeps the government shut down, because Johnson, as Trump’s little appendage, spends most of his time staring at him with a creepy reverence one might want Freud to explain, and doing whatever Trump asks of him. Stephen Miller with glasses.
Before our amazing guest—Congressman Greg Landsman—even arrived, we tore into Trump’s latest stunt. No, not the troops deployments to Chicago and Portland—though that too.
His ordering the attacks on Venezuelan boats with zero congressional authorization. The New York Bar Association is now calling these strikes “murder.” And they’re not exactly what you’d call an ideological peer of Moveon.org.
But a professional body, and one that usually blushes at strong language. And, yep, they used the M-word to describe actions by Trump that violate the Constitution and disregard basic humanity.
I said it on air, and I’ll say it again: this is what happens when power meets impunity.
David connected the dots to the Bush-Cheney “Curveball” fiasco. How the lying whispers of a wealthy Iraqi with a corrupt, right-wing agenda helped take us into a disastrous war.
Different decade, same playbook.
Then Congressman Greg Landsman joined us, and the conversation shifted from fury to strategy.
Greg’s an old friend, a fighter from Cincinnati who beat a MAGA, leisure-suit-combover fossil to win his congressional seat.
Greg came ready to talk about the shutdown, the corruption, and how billionaires like Musk and Thiel have rigged both democracy and the economy—because they’re intricately linked—to serve themselves.
He said it plainly: this didn’t “just happen.” It was engineered. We must un-engineer it. And start as soon as humanly possible.
We discussed cowardice in Congress—how virtually every GOPer, and especially micro-d*k Mike Johnson, bows to Trump on ICE, sending unwanted troops into our cities, tariffs and every other abuse of power, instead of serving the people.
Greg did what we’ve been waiting for from Dem electeds--his message was:
1) easily understandable for a 3rd grader, because it’s straightforward, and sadly true
2) goes like this: SNAP, Obamacare subsidies etc., are taken from us and given to weirdo billionaires like Musk, Thiel and Bezos by Trump and MAGA.
TLDR; Trump & his billionaire pals are picking our pockets, taking what we need for food, insulin and rent and handing it over to Bezos’ to pay for his $40 million second wedding.
You don’t choose which message to run on, the economy or democracy--it’s the same message! They’ve stolen our freedoms AND our economic security.
When we pressed Greg as to why more Democrats aren ‘t saying this out loud, he didn’t flinch.
We have to, and to keep saying it. Otherwise we lose the narrative and the country.
Greg also went deep on what it costs to stand up. He’s was on the list of the gunman who murdered Melissa Hortman, the Minnesota State House Speaker. His daughter has had nightmares.
He told us faith and self-care are what keep him going—and that political violence is solvable, if we stop normalizing it and start legislating accountability. “Sometimes,” he said, “you’ve got to flip a few tables.”
I couldn’t agree more.
By the end, David and I found ourselves echoing Greg’s urgency. We have to fight smarter and angrier.
We can’t separate democracy from economics, or justice from survival. Every cut to Medicaid, every tariff scam, every billionaire tax dodge—it’s all the same assault on ordinary people, it takes dollars and cents directly out of our pockets.
When we signed off, I reminded our viewers what Amped Up stands for. We speak truth, we laugh at the absurd, and we never forget why we’re angry: because we still give a damn.
Decency and democracy are worth the fight. Greg Landsman proved that today.
We don’t save democracy by hoping someone else will do it.
We save it by showing up—loud, relentless, unyielding—wherever power hides and people are hurt. The billionaires have their lobbyists, the authoritarians have their mobs, but we’ve got something stronger: each other.
Every share, every subscription, every conversation that cuts through the noise is an act of resistance. Talk to your friends. Challenge the lies.
Support the fighters. Fund the truth-tellers. Vote like democracy depends on it—because it sure as hell does.
They’ve built a machine to break this country. We’re building a movement to rebuild it. Let’s make damn sure we do it together.
No kings. No dictators. Just us — saving American democracy, one honest fight at a time. Don’t forget to click below for our 20% off deal! ⤵️⤵️⤵️
