SCOTUS just blocked Donald Trump's attempt to use the U.S. Postal Service to interfere with mail-in voting ahead of the 2026 midterms — but is the fight over election integrity really over? Brad Onishi and Dan Miller break down the ruling, the dissents from Alito and Thomas, and why Mike Johnson could try to pull a "January 3rd" power grab reminiscent of January 6th.
Then: a viral photo from a UT Austin football game reignites controversy over white nationalism in the GOP. Brad and Dan connect the dots between Bo French, the True Texas Project, Christian nationalist pastor CJ Engel, and a pattern of Nazi-adjacent scandals rocking Republican campaigns this week — from a Senate staffer's Nazi military exercises to congressional candidates with white nationalist ties.
Interview:
Sunday, September 20, 2026
Not Today, Fascists! (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)
On Constitution Day, we celebrate a legislative win for a Washington, D.C., memorial to Forgotten Freethinking Founder Thomas Paine.
Then, popular podcaster Jennifer Welch tells us about her new book, Not Today, Fascists: The Lies That Got Us Here, and the Truths That Will Reunite Us.
Interview:
The War on Empathy (Conspirituality podcast #326)
Humans are social animals. We’re not the strongest, fastest, or even best adapted to our environment. But what we excel at is our ability to work together, which means we’ve been able to adapt to every environment, a true outlier in the animal kingdom. And a big reason for that is our ability to empathize with others.
Basically, empathy is the ability to step into someone else's shoes, understand what they are thinking or feeling, and share in that emotional experience. The main types of empathy are cognitive, affective (or emotional), and somatic.
Derek looks at the first two in segment two through the lens of Paul Bloom’s work, but given a recent book by Lebanese-born Canadian marketing professor, Gad Saad (which Matthew covers in segment three), we thought we’d look at how empathy is being used, and potentially distorted, in modern society. Or, as Julian starts with, how it’s being weaponized on social media by Christian nationalists.
Interview:
Basically, empathy is the ability to step into someone else's shoes, understand what they are thinking or feeling, and share in that emotional experience. The main types of empathy are cognitive, affective (or emotional), and somatic.
Derek looks at the first two in segment two through the lens of Paul Bloom’s work, but given a recent book by Lebanese-born Canadian marketing professor, Gad Saad (which Matthew covers in segment three), we thought we’d look at how empathy is being used, and potentially distorted, in modern society. Or, as Julian starts with, how it’s being weaponized on social media by Christian nationalists.
Interview:
Is Jared Kushner a 'walking conflict of interest'? (Tonya Mosley; Fresh Air podcast)
How Jared Kushner is mixing U.S. diplomacy with his billion-dollar business.
Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker staff writer Dexter Filkins says while Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is a U.S. special envoy negotiating peace, he's also working on private business deals, raising billions in some of the same countries. “He's potentially a walking conflict of interest,” Filkins tells Tonya Mosley.
Interview:
Pulitzer Prize-winning New Yorker staff writer Dexter Filkins says while Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner is a U.S. special envoy negotiating peace, he's also working on private business deals, raising billions in some of the same countries. “He's potentially a walking conflict of interest,” Filkins tells Tonya Mosley.
Interview:
Let’s Be Honest about Why You Are a Christian or a Muslim: Your Forebears Murdered Their Way into Your Mind (Richard Carrier blog)
Christianity, as with all religions, started in one tiny place, when the rest of the Earth was populated by a wildly marvelous diversity of religious beliefs—and yet, curiously enough, the concept of warfare over religious differences was virtually nonexistent. Most people in ancient times believed it was proper to respect the gods of other peoples. This changed on a global scale when Christianity was spread, quite literally, by the sword. Those who attempted to assert their religious differences were harassed, tortured, robbed of their land and belongings, even killed. Before it achieved political power, Christianity was a small sect, a heresy against the Jewish faith, that had to accept equality among all the other religions of the Roman Empire. Yet it was the first religion to openly attack the religions of other people as false (the Jews, at least, were a little more tactful). Needless to say, Christianity only truly flourished when it had the ability to eliminate the competition—when it had the full support of Rome’s Emperors after 313 A.D., and when, in 395 A.D., every religion other than Christianity was actually outlawed...
It is not a coincidence that the two most widespread religions in the world today are the most warlike and intolerant religions in history...
So why are convictions still so strong when it comes to the certainty of such amazing claims as God and heaven or the miracles of Jesus? Though theologians still answer this question with the claim that it is evidence of their truth and God’s grace in the world, the real answer is that many are essentially afraid not to believe, a fear whose encouragement is built into each religion itself—as we saw, for example, in the quotations from scripture above. Besides threats of hell, we face an almost insurmountable degree of peer pressure when it comes to our religious convictions. Some still say to themselves that if everyone else believes it, it must be true. After all, how could so many people be that crazy or misguided? Some might jokingly call this the “lemming” effect, but it is no small force in society. Ask yourself how often you have held a serious critical discussion about the reasons and evidence supporting your beliefs. If you think about it carefully you might realize that the support for some of your beliefs is so vague or weak that the same reasons and experiences could just as easily support any religion on earth, including voodoo and alien mind control...
In the final analysis, the only reason you or anyone today is a Christian or a Muslim is because your forebears murdered their way into your mind. Had Christianity and Islam behaved peacefully and with tolerance and acceptance, and taught rather than threatened, abused, and poisoned to crush and displace its competitors and dominate society like an abusive tyrant, no empire would ever have been Christian or Islamic. The religions you would find familiar and socially accepted and providing of all the things you want, from answers to community, kindness and honesty, would be tolerant heathen pantheons. There might still have been corruption and villainy, but it wouldn’t have been the norm, and it would more freely and easily have been called out and diminished...
Christianity and Islam cannot survive true religious freedom because they only exist today because of their core DNA of religious oppression. By violently colonizing the globe, Christianity colonized your mind. You are only a Christian or a Muslim because of mass global murder. Not because of evidence, utility, or wisdom...
It is not a coincidence that the two most widespread religions in the world today are the most warlike and intolerant religions in history...
So why are convictions still so strong when it comes to the certainty of such amazing claims as God and heaven or the miracles of Jesus? Though theologians still answer this question with the claim that it is evidence of their truth and God’s grace in the world, the real answer is that many are essentially afraid not to believe, a fear whose encouragement is built into each religion itself—as we saw, for example, in the quotations from scripture above. Besides threats of hell, we face an almost insurmountable degree of peer pressure when it comes to our religious convictions. Some still say to themselves that if everyone else believes it, it must be true. After all, how could so many people be that crazy or misguided? Some might jokingly call this the “lemming” effect, but it is no small force in society. Ask yourself how often you have held a serious critical discussion about the reasons and evidence supporting your beliefs. If you think about it carefully you might realize that the support for some of your beliefs is so vague or weak that the same reasons and experiences could just as easily support any religion on earth, including voodoo and alien mind control...
In the final analysis, the only reason you or anyone today is a Christian or a Muslim is because your forebears murdered their way into your mind. Had Christianity and Islam behaved peacefully and with tolerance and acceptance, and taught rather than threatened, abused, and poisoned to crush and displace its competitors and dominate society like an abusive tyrant, no empire would ever have been Christian or Islamic. The religions you would find familiar and socially accepted and providing of all the things you want, from answers to community, kindness and honesty, would be tolerant heathen pantheons. There might still have been corruption and villainy, but it wouldn’t have been the norm, and it would more freely and easily have been called out and diminished...
Christianity and Islam cannot survive true religious freedom because they only exist today because of their core DNA of religious oppression. By violently colonizing the globe, Christianity colonized your mind. You are only a Christian or a Muslim because of mass global murder. Not because of evidence, utility, or wisdom...
Trump ally Stephen Miller leads sweeping push to accelerate removal of migrant children
Stephen Miller is leading an unprecedented and intense White House drive across a host of government departments to accelerate the removal of undocumented immigrant children from the US, using tactics that critics say are cruel and racist and, in some cases, flout federal law, the Guardian has learned…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/19/stephen-miller-trump-migrant-children
What the Hell? (Part 2) (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast) It's In the Code 206
Can God be perfectly good and perfectly just and still send people to hell? What’s at stake with questions like these? How do adherents of high-control religion respond to questions like these? Check out this week’s episode to hear Dan’s discussion of why the doctrine of hell fundamentally calls God’s goodness and justice into question.
Interview:
Karl Rove Announces He Will Vote Democrat In Fiery Rebuke Of GOP: 'I'll Have No Part Of It'
"The GOP has a growing number of Bo Frenches—and not only in Texas," wrote Rove. "Conservativism and the party it dominates have an increasing number of bigoted advocates of a 'heritage America' composed of white descendants of the original European settlers."
He continued, "There are 'just asking questions' Jew-haters, misogynists who worship hypermasculinity, conspiracy nuts seeking clicks for profit, and religious bigots who won't differentiate between Muslim terrorists and Muslim American patriots."
https://www.yahoo.com/news/politics/articles/karl-rove-announces-vote-democrat-150338309.html
The Case for Heaven is Dismissed (Lee Strobel response) (Paulogia on YouTube)
Best-selling author Lee Strobel explores heaven, hell and the afterlife in the theatrical-release documentary, THE CASE FOR HEAVEN. We look at the film, its claims and the evidence presented to see whether we can be convinced that heaven awaits.
Interview:
Elderly man allegedly beaten to death in Virginia Walmart by parents of employee
Bert Atienza and teen worker reportedly exchanged words before parents showed up and allegedly attacked shopper…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/19/elderly-man-beaten-to-death-virginia-walmart
I Took a Gay Conversion Course for Christian 9-Year-Olds. (Drew McCoy/Genetically Modified Skeptic on YouTube)
Christopher Yuan is an Evangelical Christian who made a class called the Holy Sexuality Project. It's awful.
Interview:
Celebrating the 250th with Revisionist American Christian Nationalist History
The Museum of the Bible exploits is location on the National Mall and the credibility of downtown Washington Museums while Trump demonizes Smithsonian Museums…
https://axismundinetwork.substack.com/p/axis-daily-brief-celebrating-the
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