Blasphemy on the Ballot: Tallarico's Gospel Problem
Friday, August 28, 2026
You're listening to American Ground Radio with Louis R. Avallone and Stephen Parr. This is the full show for August 27, 2026.
We open by tearing into Philadelphia DA Larry Krasner's comments about wanting a "paperweight" from the wreckage of Trump's planned White House ballroom, walking through why that rhetoric crosses the line from political disagreement into celebrating the destruction of federal property, and how the broader culture of "blow it up, burn it down" language is fueling real threats against the president.
We get to our Top 3 things you need to know: President Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America" amid the trade standoff with Canada, the Third Circuit's ruling that the assault case against Congresswoman LaMonica McIver can proceed, and the release of ICE agent Christian Castro from a Texas jail after Minnesota's extradition lawsuit was tossed as premature.
Our American Mama Teri Netterville joining us to reflect to reflect on the life and legend of Dolly Parton including a moving story about her music showing up at a family funeral and a look at how she became one of the few truly unifying figures in American life, right down to turning down the Presidential Medal of Freedom three times so it wouldn't look political.
We dig deep on two fronts: the Trump administration's new requirement that states conduct random manual audits of paper ballots to keep their Homeland Security election funding, which we frame as basic quality control rather than an attack on election integrity, and a close read of Texas Senate candidate James Tallarico's campaign theology, where we lay out chapter and verse why his claims about a non-binary God, abortion, and religious pluralism don't square with scripture.
We also weigh in on New York Mayor Mamdani mourning a Rikers Island inmate's death without a word for the man he's accused of murdering, before landing on a Bright Spot: General Mills announcing its U.S. cereal lineup is now free of certified synthetic dyes, a shift we credit to RFK Jr.'s Make America Healthy Again push merging with MAGA consumer pressure.
We close things out with a Say What on a Georgia teacher's classroom "gas station" for second graders, and a Moment of Whoa honoring Mandy Patinkin's new gig as honorary team captain for the U.S. fencing team heading into the 2028 LA Olympics.
Listen now wherever you get your podcasts, visit AmericanGroundRadio.com, and join the conversation at 866-AGR-1776.
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