Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins Nicole Sandler every Friday for a spirited and no-holds-barred discussion about our world and what happened in it throughout the week. Today, it's Jack Smith's brief explaining to the court why the former guy's actions on and around January 6 do not fall under the heading of "official presidential business" and that his case must be permitted to go to trial. Plus the VP debate, the complete disconnect between Trump world and the political and cultural norms under which we live, and more...

It's Thursday and Howie Klein of Down With Tyranny is back with us this week. We have lots to talk about from the Veep debate and just how creepy JD Vance is... and we'll get a status update on how the Blue America PAC endorsed candidates are faring.
Plus a farewell to another friend. Getting old sucks, but it beats the alternative, I guess.

Every Monday we check in with Jonathan Larsen who tells us what's happening in our world at thefuckingnews.substack.com. Here at the Nicole Sandler Show, we use language like that, but apparently some are squeamish about expletives, so Jonathan is launching a second substack newsletter. He'll fill us in on that today, along with more important news like a second assassination attempt on TFG and the Trump campaign's latest attempt to pit Americans against Americans. Plus my thoughts on how we're coping with the sickening racism, xenophobia and contempt for our fellow human beings by Trump and his minions...

It's a Thursday, so we have a date with Howie Klein of Down with Tyranny & the Blue America PAC. It's not like there's a shortage of things to discuss... in fact, too much news for a one-hour show. There was the SCOTUS hearing this morning on Trump's ridiculous concept of absolute immunity (but there are some ridiculous people sitting on that extreme bench these days), the were 3 members of the AZ Republican House voting with all the Dems to kill the 1864 abortion ban (now goes to the senate and then the governor?). The FCC restored Net Neutrality rules killed by TFG's administration, and the FTC said no more airline junk fees. Of course TFG is still nodding off in a Manhattan courtroom where his first of four criminal cases against him is being heard. But Howie asked me an important question this week that I never answered, and the "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame" class of 2024 was announced, and I think they need to change its name to the Popular Music Hall of Fame.

And today was one of those days. My guest never showed... so it was a Friday ...

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Although I don't think that invoking "I told you so" is a good look, Howie Klein gets a pass today should he care to say it. Today's the day that the reality hits that the Build Back Better act will not pass the senate before the end of the year. I guess I'm guilty of wishful thinking. Despite knowing deep down that Biden was the wrong man to lead us out of the Trump disaster, I tried to stay hopeful. I gave him the benefit of the doubt. And I don't put all the blame on him for the situation in which we now find ourselves... but he is at the "the buck stops here" desk. Is it realistic to expect the president to control members of Congress in his party? The Republicans do. I used to think the Democrats were *better* because they didn't take marching orders or recite talking points. But perhaps our side could use some of that discipline. We'll talk with Howie Klein today about that, and try to figure out how to turn this thing around. Good luck to us. At the top of the show, a quick conversation with Arthur Delaney of Huffpost who had a run-in with Joe Manchin yesterday. The senator called him "bullshit." Seems nice.

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It's Wednesday, 10 days before Christmas, and it's clear that Congress wants to go home for the holidays, as they're getting a lot of work done. Debt ceiling - check, NDAA - (unfortunately) check. Funding the government - (through mid Feb anyway) check. But wait. There's more! We should be on high alert and no one should be allowed to leave DC before the Right to Vote bill and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act are passed and signed in to law. And, of course, there's the Build Back Better legislation which Joe Manchin is still threatening to kill. Whether either of those happens is still to be determined. But frankly, if they don't fix our voting issues, they may as well just stay home after the holiday break, as our democracy will be lost. Today, Will Bunch, columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, returns to the show. His latest column deals with last weekend's tornado disaster that took over 100 lives and exposed the big problems that haven't been fixed in our country. And we'll begin with an interview I taped with Ryan Grim of the Intercept yesterday. He has more information on that Medicare privatization scheme we've been talking about, Direct Contracting Entities, that you need to know about.

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Our favorite legal expert Lisa Graves joins in at the top of the show to talk about the contempt of Congress charges against Mark Meadows and the significance of the text messages he received on January 6, imploring him to get Trump to stop the siege, that we learned of last night.

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It's a mixed-bag kind of Monday. There's a lot going on that should be discussed, and the guest I had lined up had to cancel today, so it's just us. A day without a guest gives me time to get to some of the stories I've missed in the last week, and to take calls from listeners. Feel free to call in: 954-8896410 or Skype to nicolesandler. Nothing is off-limits. A few things that I'll get to today: Shake-ups at all three cable news giants- will this usher in a new era? LOL Gavin Newsom proves that California did right by keeping him in office. He strikes back at SCOTUS beautifully! Time Magazine name its Person of the Year, and I'm confused Tornadoes demolished entire towns in five states this weekend, killing upwards of 100 people Author Anne Rice died, and I have a story about her... actually about one of her books. And I'm sure it's not what you think it is, unless you were a Mark & Brian listeners in LA in the early 90's.

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I'm always honored when Lisa Graves joins me to lend her legal expertise to the discussion about the trials and tribulations of TFG and, of course, the machinations of the once Supreme, now Extreme, Court.

Lisa has the bona fides... she served as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Policy Development/Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice under Attorneys General Janet Reno and John Ashcroft, Chief Counsel for Nominations for Senator Patrick Leahy on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Deputy Chief of the Article III Judges Division of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts with oversight of the Financial Disclosure Office and more, and as an adjunct law professor at George Washington University Law School. She also worked as the Senior Legislative Strategist for the ACLU on national security and civil liberties, and held other posts.

Although Lisa generously shares her knowledge with us on this show, she does so in her capacity as a private citizen. These days, her day job is as the founder and Executive Director of True North Research, a national investigative watchdog group that works with journalists and other researchers to shine a bright light on the dark money fueling regressive agendas targeting vital institutions in our republic, such as our courts and public schools.

Graves is one of the nation’s foremost experts in exposing how special interests distort public policy and try to thwart the public’s interest in a thriving and inclusive democracy and to impede measures to protect our environment and mitigate climate change.

I don't run through her CV and experience as often as I should when she's on the show, so I wanted to put it down in writing... Today, Lisa joins me to talk about the beginning of the first-ever criminal trial of a former president, about that former guy's inability to follow the most basic rules of decorum inside a court of law (or anywhere else for that matter), David Pecker's testimony that proves Trump talks about himself when he decries "FAKE NEWS" and more.

On the SCOTUS front, tomorrow - the final day they'll hear arguments this term - they'll hear Trump's farce of a claim that he enjoys "absolute immunity" as a former president... of course today, the antediluvian men on the court showed that they believe they should control every aspect of a woman's life, including her health care.

I'm always talking about the importance of having other interests and diversions from the steady onslaught of news, politics and disinformation. For me, I find rewarding escapes in my painting and by listening to music. Today, we'll take a musical diversion with singer, multi-instrumentalist and all-around talented musician Ben Harper and producer Sheldon Gomberg. In a session taped Tuesday evening, we talk about everything from the music they're recording together to the Beatles "Get Back" documentary, to activism, skateboarding and lots more. It was treat for me. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed speaking with Ben and Sheldon.

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Congress is actually getting things done -- the senate even came to a deal to raise the debt ceiling with little to no bloodshed. Actually, the person taking the heat for making sure we don't default is none other than Mitch McConnell, as he's getting attacked by Trump and his minions for not completely destroying the good faith and credit of the US. Opposite world indeed. It's Thursday, so Howie Klein is here. The way things are going, we need to elect a whole slate of progressives next November. We'll find out about some of the best prospects today.

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Despite the fact that Congress appears to be getting some work done, our government is broken, perhaps beyond repair. It's not like we haven't seen this coming. We've been watching the slow motion moved toward fascism for many years now. Red flags are being raised from almost every direction. This week, it was in the form of a terrifying article from Barton Gellman at The Atlantic who confirms our worst fears, January 6 was just practice. The coup is in full-swing. We all know it but seem to be powerless to stop it. My first instinct is to call Digby. So we will. Heather "Digby" Parton is one of the original progressive bloggers from the early days of the netroots. Today, Digby's Hullaballoo is at digbysblog.net, and she also writes a regular column for Salon.

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It's one of the Tuesdays in the month when GottaLaff is here! Laffy's been working on moving to Canada. In her spare time, she peruses the Twitters for breaking news and clever comments, and brings us her Tweet Spot. Plus, we'll bid farewell to a few familiar faces: Brian Williams, Chris Cuomo, Angela Merkel and Devin Nunes! Maybe we'll come up with a list of others who we'd like to see join them...

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Tomorrow is the end of open enrollment for Medicare. The means that before midnight Tuesday night, Dec 7, you can change what type of Medicare plan you're enrolled in. I already knew and was warning my listeners about the realities surrounding Medicare Advantage, and we'll get into that again today. But this article was about the government's newest scam to privatize Medicare and turn it over to big moneyed interests. (Read the article at https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/11/30/congress-asleep-switch-biden-continues-trump-era-ploy-privatize-medicare.) This new "experiment" was launched in the final months of the Trump administration, and should have ended as they exited. But it didn't. Instead, the Biden administration is continuing this policy that would neither save money nor provide better care, but could fully hand traditional Medicare over to Wall Street investors and other profit-seekers, resulting in higher costs for patients and lower-quality care. Diane Archer is president of Just Care USA, and was quoted in the article I liked to above. She joined me on today's show to explain how the Direct Contracting plan continues the march toward privatization of Medicare...

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Today was only the second day of Trump's first criminal trial and I honestly don't think he'll survive this one, let alone three more! But I guess we'll eventually find out.

With no cameras allowed in the courtroom, the media is left to its own creativity to bring the action to the public. Some outlets are doing a better job of it than others, but I thought we'd call on an actual journalist to help us navigate the coverage.

Brian Karem was the last man standing (literally) at Playboy where his official job title was senior White House correspondent. He's covered every presidential administration since Reagan, sued Donald Trump three times successfully to keep his press pass, spent time in jail to protect a confidential source, covered wars in the Middle East, and is the author of seven books, the latest of which is Free the Press. He writes a column for Salon.com and thankfully joins me on this show fairly regularly....

We've got a lot to jam into our last hour of the week today. We'll start with Jason Leopold, who has another two FOIA victories that earn him bragging rights. One of them resulted in 10 redacted passages from the Mueller report being made public(!). The other has to do with multiple allegations of CIA personnel and sex crimes involving children. But we'll move to a much more pleasant topic for the second half of the show. Variety's Chris Willman will join us to talk music-- specifically Peter Jackson's epic 8-hour "Get Back" documentary about The Beatles. Since Jason Leopold is, like me, a huge music-phile, he's going to stick around for the Chris Willman interview. The more, the merrier!

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Every Thursday for the better part of a decade, we get together with Howie Klein. Howie writes at DownWithTyranny.com, and runs the Blue America PAC, identifying and raising money for real progressive candidates running for office. Plus, some scary info about the clandestine privatization of Medicare, started under Trump and continuing under Biden.

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I'll admit it... I have The Beatles on my mind. We're in the middle of "Get Back," the new documentary on the last album and live performance from the greatest band in history. But I've already learned a few things from it. Relationships are complicated. Life isn't fair. Working within a group is often more difficult than the solo route. And even the biggest band in the history of the world sometimes needed a reset to clear their minds and souls and reconnect with themselves and each other. It means letting go of old hurts and obstacles and allowing yourself to move forward. It sounds easier than it is. But at this point in our lives, after four years of Trump, almost two years of a global pandemic that keeps mutating and coming back, and the frightening rightward shift in our government, it's going to take a lot of work to keep us from getting too disillusioned or depressed. We must emerge with a renewed commitment to stopping the fascist takeover of our democratic system. Kelly Carlin is a friend of the show. She's been on with me a number of times over the past few years. In addition to being the only child of one of the greatest comedians of our time (and following in his footsteps in a small way), she found her own voice in helping others to find theirs. Kelly has been leading groups in mindfulness and meditation and more for over 15 years. She has a Masters in counseling (Jungian) psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and is a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach. She leads weekly webinars as well as Women on the Verge, a 12-month coaching program supporting women. And at the end of every year, Kelly has led a Winter Solstice year-end retreat, helping participants to let go of the losses, failures and worse from the year ending, and clearing our minds for a fresh start in the new year. Kelly's Winter Solstice gathering is open to the public for the first time this year, happening on Dec 11. She'll tell us all about it, and will have a special offer for listeners of this show who want to participate. And for everyone else, you'll pick up a few tips to get on the right track to take on 2022. Of course, before Kelly comes on, I'll tell you about what happened at the Supreme Court today. And then, thank goodness Kelly will join us, as I'll certainly need someone to talk me down from the ledge we seem to be teetering on...

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Charles Lenchner has been one of the unsung heroes of the progressive movement for as long as I've been covering the movement. He was one of the original occupiers at Occupy Wall Street. He's a co-founder of People for Bernie. He's Executive Director of Organizing 2.0. He's part of Progressive Hub and Roots Action, and the list goes on and one. He's the epitome of the OUTSIDE part of the inside/outside strategy of activism. And yesterday I learned that he grew up in Israel, and today holds dual citizenship. Yesterday was the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Charles shared his story of growing up in Israel, a wrote an essay on his experience as a Jewish teenager in Israel opposed to the occupation. Charles joins us today... we'll talk about both his #PalestineDay story and his progressive activism, which is sorely needed right about now!

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With the 2022 midterm elections looming, we turn our attention to the state district maps. They're re-drawn every 10 years as new data from the census is released. Unfortunately, this year we're dealing with a very flawed census (sabotaged by the Trump administration) and Republican rule of a majority of the state legislatures who oversee the redistricting process. The first step to fighting back is understanding what we're dealing with. So today, David Daley returns to the show. He's written extensively about the problem in his two books, "Ratfucked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count" & "Unrigged: How Americans Battled Back To Save Democracy."

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Welcome to a new week. As expected the first criminal trial of Donald Trump is now underway in a NYC courtroom. Both sides delivered their opening statements and the first witness began giving his testimony. The prosecution started strong with David Pecker as the first on the stand. Notwithstanding his quite appropriate name, the former head honcho of the National Enquirer who ran interference for TFG with his "catch & kill" schemes to deal with stories that would be damaging for the orange one, will return to the stand when the court reconvenes tomorrow morning. Unfortunately, this trial will not be televised, but the court announced today that they'll release transcripts... before the end of the following business day. Not exactly the instant gratification we're used to. So today I'll share some insights from Laffy's Mastodon account. It is Monday, so there's some fucking news to get to with Jonathan Larsen, the man behind thefuckingnews.substack.com. What are you waiting for? Subscribe now. You can sign up for free (though if you're in a position to chip in a buck or two to support his work, we'd appreciate it!)

A musical thank you card

It was exactly 21 years ago today that I took my daughter Alison from the orphanage in Kazakhstan where she spent her first 18 months to start our new life together! Twenty-one years ago yesterday, which was Thanksgiving, a judge in a freezing cold courtroom there made it official, Alison was my daughter! We call Nov 23 and 24 our "Forever Days"... Welcome to our story!

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It's Tuesday, and Laffy's here today. Plus our favorite court watcher will join in too. Brandi Buchman covered every trial going on for Courthouse News until a few weeks ago. Thankfully, she's back on the beat, this time for Daily Kos. She'll check in with us for the second half hour of the show. It's Thanksgiving Week, an important anniversary for me, the Charlottesville jury is in, and we have tons to talk about today. So join us for our pre-turkey day gratitude fest...

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It's easy to be down on the Democrats right now. I'm constantly invoking that old adage about Democrats always "snatching defeat from the jaws of victory." I can't help it, it's just their track record. But I got a bit of an awakening in the form of an email on a list I subscribe to, filled with real progressives from a cross-section of backgrounds. The author of that message is Mike Lux, and I invited him to join us today to give us a different perspective on how the party works (or doesn't), from the point of view of a progressive working in the trenches. So, today' we'll begin with Mike Lux, and I hope you'll listen with an open mind. After all, consider the alternative to being a Democrat in the US today. It's not an option.

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Thank goodness I already had Aaron Rupar booked for today's show, because I'm actually (temporarily) at a loss for words. The jury in Kenosha WI just found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts. I don't recognize this country anymore. The second amendment has swallowed the first. We actually began the day on a good note, as the House finally passed the Build Back Better bill. Of course, it now goes back to the senate where Manchenema can kill anything good in it. Aaron Rupaar is the guy who used to cover all things Republican for Vox and his Twitter feed was filled with OMFG videos. His Twitter feed continues in the same realm (@atrupar), but he's now doing his own substack newsletter (aaronruppar.substack.com), so can cover whatever he wants. I know what we're talking about today though...

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It's another really strange day in Amerikkka. But it happens to be Thursday, so Howie Klein is here. I know we'll talk about Paul Gosar's censure, the insanity that is today's GOP, the trial-palooza in progress. And I'll certainly ask Howie about his latest article posted at DownWithTyranny.com: "Many Voters No Longer See The Democrats As Even The Lesser Evil". These are scary times, indeed.

Each Friday, we get to spend an hour with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net for a conversation about much of what happened that week. This week was pretty remarkable in that Donald Trump is finally on trial for some of his crimes. By the time we finished recording this morning, the entire jury and six alternates had been seated. It appears that opening statements are possible on Monday. Stay tuned...

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Jack Rice was going to join us yesterday, but we got our time zones crossed. So he's here today, and he'll answer all of my questions about the three cases we've been discussing -- Kyle Rittenhouse, the three men who killed Ahmaud Arbery, and the federal civil case against nine organizers of the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, VA. Of course, I'll have a few questions about the January 6 prosecutions, Steve Bannon, and the penalty for refusing to comply with a subpoena. You might want to take notes. We're covering a lot of territory today!