View this post on the web at [link removed]
Cliff’s Note: Hey BAM crew! Wanna help Blue Amp Media with just a click? We’ve got an ad for a genuinely great product for men — perfect timing for holiday shopping!
Great for you guys. But also for our female subscribers who need a gift for a husband, son, dad, brother. Ya got it right here!
Clicking thru helps us grow, so we can spend more time fighting fascism and amplifying democracy. So please click on the ad, grab a great product I’ve been using for years, and support independent media all at the same time!
Happy Thanksgiving!
— Cliff
Folks, welcome back to Amped Up! If you needed proof democracy’s not just alive, but kicking, yelling, and occasionally drop-kicking fascists in the shins—yes, when they go lower, we go lower!—today’s show had ya covered.
We had a hell of a convo, and not just because David Shuster looked like the world’s most well-rested cable-news veteran thanks to our sponsor, Particle for Men [ [link removed] ] (use code BLUE30). A face cream that somehow makes David look like he sleeps more than four hours a night.
You wanna fight fascism and wrinkles at the same time? Particle is your guy…or gal. Just sayin’, if saving democracy came in this bottle, it’d moisturize as well [ [link removed] ].
But before we get going, BREAKING NEWS from a new poll in Tennessee’s 7th District that is nothing short of stunning. Aftyn Behn — a Democrat running in a district Trump won by 22 points and where former Rep. Mark Green routinely cruised to victory — is now statistically neck-and-neck with Republican Matt Van Epps.
According to The Tennessean, Behn trails by just 2 points, well within striking distance and light-years from where a Democrat “should” be in a district gerrymandered ruby red. This is the political equivalent of a Bernie Sanders reissuing his book “Fight Oligarchy” and a Koch Brother (the alive one) writing the foreword.
BAM Guys!
Tired of eye bags, dry skin? Me too til I tried Particle for Men [ [link removed] ].
Made for real guys’ skin, Particle ends puffiness, smooths crow’s feet, soothes after shaves.
I’ve used it for years — I’m the ad.
🔥 Black Friday Deal: [ [link removed] ] Use code [ [link removed] ]BLUE30 [ [link removed] ] at checkout, [ [link removed] ]30% off [ [link removed] ]!
Click now while it lasts!
But today wasn’t about eye bags—it was about moral clarity. And no one brought more than our guestNick Paro . Veteran, Substack powerhouse, civic bulldozer, and a thoughtful, grounded political voice we need out there fighting for us.
Nick joined us on the heels of the Mark Kelly & Co. military oath controversy. Ya know, where the Trump regime decided that six Democrats who served in our military or intelligence reminding service members to disobey illegal orders—illegal orders—is somehow tantamount to treason.
So Trump’s trying to threaten, intimidate, and investigate Mark Kelly. Mark Kelly. Veteran, astronaut, caretaker for his wife, Gabby Giffords, former Congresswoman, nearly assassinated by a lunatic responding to the kinda stochastic terrorism Trump’s spouting.
Knowing all this, I don’t know how Trump can even talk to Kelly without his bone spurs flaring up.
In any case, Nick cut through the BS, laying out the reality every soldier knows. Your oath is to the Constitution, not to a man, or wannabe king, and whatever bottle of whiskey is sitting on Pete Hegseth’s desk when you walk into the so-called “Department of War.” Nick took us through mission command, the legal structure of military obedience, and why “I was just following orders” won’t cut it in the U.S. military.
David was his usual fire today, too, reminding us how deep the rot goes. When he talked about Kristi Noem’s criminal contempt exposure, the growing paths to impeaching the orange hobgoblin, and how Republicans are terrified with the Epstein files about to drop, you could feel in the air what we’ve been feeling a lot lately.
The tide has shifted, left dead fish on the shore, and is telling us, from Epstein to MTG, his polling among onetime supporters to his economic sabotage, what’s coming. And David, in Shuster-ific form, did no sugarcoating.
This was where Nick really came alive. He talked about community building—veterans linking arms, creators lifting each other up, the “fuck-you-left” stepping into its rightful place. No apologizing for moral clarity, no soft-pedaling constitutional truths, but standing tall and being loud.
He talked about men taking responsibility without turning into the grievance-soaked rage puppets The Right cultivates. And to paraphrase Sollozzo from The Godfather, all those politicians they carry around in their pockets, like so many nickels and dimes.
Nick also discussed elevating powerful voices—from Melissa Corrigan to Ellie Leonard—and why this moment demands organized courage, not polite despair. And then we got into the hard stuff.
Impeachment as a constitutional duty, state Attorneys General using their legal jurisdiction to prosecute federal corruption, turning donors against corrupt incumbents, and pressuring institutions that have been asleep at the wheel.
Nick hasn’t been doing this that long, but he has the moral clarity of a man who’s been fighting trench warfare for years. When he said, “They have to be afraid of losing their jobs,” I know David and I were like, “right on.” Hell, I think half the chat stood up and applauded.
We even touched on the overlooked battlegrounds—Arkansas, Tennessee, Missouri—and why abandoning these states is political malpractice. Imagine if we’d been messaging that +22 Republican district in Tennessee with the special election coming up, we might even be the favorite.
Trump has scrambled up the maps with his chaos, cruelty, corruption, criminality, and incompetence. The map isn’t fixed like it has been for the past quarter-century. People are changing. The anger is real. And if we organize, speak plainly, and stop letting the fascists control the language and put them on defense—we win.
The show was passion, strategy, humor, constitutional literacy, veteran insight, and a little bit of skincare—all working hand in hand, sometimes with face cream [ [link removed] ]—to defend democracy. That’s what Amped Up is.
And that’s who we are.
Today, Nick Paro reminded us why we fight: because it’s our time. Our moment. Our country.
Every time you click and buy Particle for Men [ [link removed] ], you’re helping keep independent journalism alive and thriving, and supporting Blue Amp Media’s growth.
Unsubscribe [link removed]?
