So Trump flew to China, brought Eric and the Nvidia guy instead of any actual China experts, accomplished nothing on Hormuz or Taiwan, got a lecture from Xi about Sparta and Athens, and came home. Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net and I spent an hour plus breaking down what it all means — plus Kash Patel snorkeling a war grave, which is exactly as bad as it sounds.

I've been waiting to talk with my favorite legal expert Lisa Graves about this latest, most despicable outrage from the Extreme Court. Just last week they gutted what was left of the Voting Rights Act. Lisa breaks down how we got here- from Roberts, who started his career as a Reagan revolutionary attacking the VRA's effects provisions, to the neo-Confederate legislatures that instantly moved to bleach Black representation out of Congress the moment the ruling dropped. We also talk Leonard Leo's sudden billions, C. Boyden Gray's deeply troubling family history, Linda McMahon calling teachers non-professionals, Trump literally saying on camera that he doesn't think about Americans' financial situation, and — most importantly — what we can actually DO about all of this.

Spoiler: it's court reform. And Lisa makes the case better than anyone.

Today I needed a laugh — and honestly, so did you. We kick things off with the best Trump impression on the internet, JL Cauvin. Today's guest is Mark Malkoff, author of Love, Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan's Journey to Find the Genius Behind the Legend, about the man who invented late night as we know it. We get into what Carson really thought about Trump back in the '80s and '90s, whether he would have survived today's TV landscape, the Don Rickles cigarette box story you've never heard, and what's happening to late night now that Colbert's show is ending. Plus: my husband calls in to correct my geography. As he does...

One of my favorite columnists, Will Bunch, national opinion columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, took a road trip. Last week, he left Philly and showed up in New Orleans, along with ICE. Yeah, on purpose. He reported on the ugliness these unqualified goons spread in their wake. Will returned home to PA just in time to hear Dump's word and brain salad that he spewed over the people who went to hear him for 90 minutes at the Mount Airy Casino, which itself has a shameful, storied past. Will joins me today with some of his observations.

Back in 2012, People for the American Way put out the campaign button on today's show graphic. They knew it then, but the Democrats never pushed the issue enough. It was and still is the Supreme Court, stupid! The Extreme Court yesterday heard a case that will likely give the guy in the Oval Office even more power than he's already grabbed. And the case they heard today could likely open the campaign contribution floodgates even wider than they already are. Law Dork's Chris Geidner joins me today to help us understand WTAF it all means!

Mondays are inevitable and, these days, so is a lot more fucking news. On Mondays, I'm joined by Jonathan Larsen of The Fucking News, who injects humor and the necessary expletives to accurately present so much of what we're forced to endure every day... the Boat Murders, the Immigrant mistreatment and bigtry and racism, the Extreme not-Supreme Court, the lies, illegal pardons, D'ump's ego and more...

It's been 10 days since our last gathering with Marcy Wheeler as we did last Friday's show on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. And it's been quite an eventful 10 days at that! On today's show. we cover much of what happened during that time-- from yesterday's arrest of the alleged Jan 6 pipe bomber to Pete Hegseth's many problems including Signalgate and the Murder Boats, Trump's sickening pardons, the prosecutions of James Comey, Maurene Comey, Letitia James and John Bolton. Then there are the two truly hated men in DC, Mike Johnson & Kash Patel. Oh, and the National Security Strategy which is terrifying. And more... a lot more.

"America's Dirty Secret" is what today's guest, Catherine Coleman Flowers calls the problem she is devoted to fixing, and it's a problem that's not much-discussed unless you live in some of the poorest rural communities in the US where it's more prevalent that most of us realize.

Catherine Coleman Flowers is an environmental and climate justice activist. She's been called the "Erin Brockovich of Sewage" because her work focuses on improving sanitation and water infrastructure in places where it is disgustingly unavailable.

In regular English, shit stinks and raw sewage dumped into your yard and leeching back into your house is literally toxic!

I also invited friend of the show, host of the Environmental Coffeehouse, Sandy Schoelles to join us for what I promise will be an enlightening conversation.

If you're not terrified by Trump, you're not paying attention. I'll share some of the latest as I share latest news and things that should terrify all of us. As for AI - Artificial Intelligence- I'll admit that I'm not an expert. So I have one joining us today.

Rahul Powar is and AI expert and cybersecurity entrepreneur. And he'll help us understand what about AI that we should fear, how it should be used and what it is capable of doing. That includes the good, the bad, and the really, truly ugly!

And we'll begin with a creative satirical song and video about Whiskey Pete Hegseth by @scaredketchup on Youtube . Yes, it utilizes AI...

Perhaps the headline should have read "Reel" News, because today's guest's website (under construction) is ReelPoliticalNews.com.

With so much insanity coming at us from the White House, I wanted to get someone who is an actual journalist covering it all to help us catch up. Back in my Air America days and for a few years following that network's demise, I used to have a daily news update from the (now defunct) Talk Radio News Service. One of the correspondents there was Jon-Christopher Bua, who I always enjoyed speaking with. I found him recently on Bluesky (@jcbua.bsky.social), and invited back on the show. He is the founder and White House Correspondent for Reel Political News, and he's our guest today on the show.

Thanksgiving was always my favorite holiday for more than the obvious reasons. And now it's even more special.

I'll explain with some not just good, but excellent news. Don't worry, there is the usual news that deserves the Fucking News title as we usually bring you on Mondays with Jonathan Larsen of thefuckingnews.substack.com.

And yes, he's here today too.... But first, there's that really good news that I'll share at the start of today's show. Then we'll get in to the outrageous shit, and the rainbow that is hopefully coming on the other side!

We asked and you voted.. so we're here today. Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins me on Fridays to try to make sense of the news of the week. Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, we're dong it today. And that's a good thing and this short week felt like a year!

The Nicole Sandler Show has been on the air/net in one form or another for a long, long time. For probably 10 of those years, I had a few regular guests. One of them is my old friend who's known to the social media world as @GottaLaff (or Laffy). She used to run a breaking news website called "The Political Carnival" and built a huge following on the old Twitter. We became fast friends and, as I said, appeared on my show weekly. Occasionally another semi-regular, Amy Simon, a cultural HERstorian of ShesHistory.com would join Laffy and Me. We named ourselves The Gliberal Goddesses. Amy joined in halfway through for a reunion on today's show.

Yes, my favorite expert on the law, Lisa Graves - @TheLisaGraves.bsky.social - will join us in the last half-hour of today's show. I had invited her to discuss today's SCOTUS opinions, but they weren't the big ones we were hoping for (or dreading). There's still plenty to discuss, like yesterday's important wins in the ballot box in Virginia! Though- as I'm posting this came the news that judge has struck it down. More details tomorrow!

And you know I have a few things to say about how the orange bloviator tried to block the Democrats from doing what he suggested first, claiming that when the Dems do it, it's illegal and immoral, but when he does it, it's brilliant and we're entitled to it.

Each Monday we bemoan the start of yet another week, filled with the news of the orange pig in the White House. So each Monday I'm joined by Jonathan Larsen of TheFuckingNews.substack.com to discuss the news with his usual snark and the occasional f bombs too.

Thursday of this week is Thanksgiving and I have more than a few things to be grateful for. It was 25 years ago today that my daughter Alison left the orphanage where she was living and came home with me. We call it our 'forever day'! And there is actually some good news to share today too!

Another Friday has arrived and with it another weekly chat with independent journalist Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net on The Nicole Sandler Show.

There was so much to talk about today so we went even further into overtime than usual. So, we discussed the latest on Russia/Ukraine, and the murderer from Saudi Arabia who came to DC to be treated like a hero by the orange one.

Marcy explained some of the good news from this week which includes a federal court denying Texas' motion to stay the order blocking their new congressional map (along with the Republican's lawyer gunking things up).

Then there are the Comey and Letitia James prosecutions and of course all of this week's developments regarding the Epstein files.

And more....

As usual, the orange man continues rotting. This time he's suggesting that six Democratic House members are guilty of "SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR - punishable BY DEATH". Yes, that was a direct quote from his early morning social media ramblings. Our friend, Heather 'Digby' Parton wrote about that this morning at digbysblog.net - her long-running blog "Digby's Hullabaloo" where she rose to fame as one of the OG pioneers of the progressive blogosphere. She's since added her regular columns at Salon.com where her wisdom is regularly on display.

My chats with Digby are not only informative, but also cathartic. Join us for today's group therapy session!

At the end of yesterday's show, I made the mistake of believing Mike the meeker Speaker Johnson who inferred that the Senate under John Thune would collude with him to delay passing the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Thune instead allowed it to pass by unanimous consent. But I was correct in my assumption that Dump's directive for Bondi to open a new investigation into Epstein and only Democrats (wtf?) would allow them an excuse for not releasing the files. Sure enough, Bondi basically admitted that today and D'ump, despite his promises to, has not yet signed the bill.

Same old..... So, maybe it's time for a General Strike! Today on the show, I spoke with Eliza Blum, cofounder of the website GeneralStrikeUS.com and General Strike US Coordinator about their efforts to get Americans to sign on, and to join their first organizing call this Saturday, Nov.22 at noon Pacific/ 3 Eastern at bit.ly/whygenstrike

I knew today was going to be a huge day filled with news, but it turned out to be bigger than I thought. So I invited a real journalist, Brian Karem, to join me on today's show. There was much to cover, as the day began early with a presser outside of the Capitol with Epstein survivors. The Orange Dumpkin welcomed his soul brother MBS to the Oval Office, which was more sickening than I imagined. The House 'debated' before voting on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which passed 427-1... but not before the Meeker Speaker little Johnson hinted that it'll pass in the House, but said wait until John Thune gets hold of it in the senate... Well, that something that he, Brian Karem and I all got wrong. I'll explain in my show notes which you can find at nicolesandler.com/11-18-25 or at nicolesandler.substack.com.

Jonathan Larsen, the man behind "The Fucking News" and the Jonathan Larsen Substacks joins us every Monday to help explain wtf is happening in the news. Today, we will discuss wtf is going on with Dump threatening war with Venezuela. He has original reporting on the whole f'n mess at jonathanlarsen.substack.com.

Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net joins me every Friday to recap both the momentous and the newsworthy events of the week that you might not have heard enough about. Obviously this was a heavy-duty week. Unfortunately, I've been out of commission and certainly didn't pay as much attention as I usually do this week as I've been dealing with the death of my dog Jaxson, who was a member of my family. My baby boy.

But Marcy brings us up to date not only on the Epstein emails that dropped on us like a bomb, but the keystone cop-like prosecutors of this administration and, as you'd expect, much more.

It's Nicole Sandler, back on this Thursday, Nov 13. I was out earlier this week because my dog Jaxson, my fur baby, got very sick Monday and we lost him. I could probably use a few more days off, but Jason Leopold was scheduled to join me, and he's a dear old friend, so I thought I could make it through... For the most part, I did.

Jason is the government-anointed "FOIA Terrorist," and with all the news and Epstein emails that dropped yesterday, the timing to have Jason on couldn't be better. He's been writing an ongoing series about the pedophile and Trump BFF and the 18,000 emails they uncovered at Bloomberg News where he's a Senior Investigative Reporter. Their latest on Epstein focused on the money laundering scheme he had going alongside the federal sex crimes that have been virtually shrouded for decades. Jason also recently started his new podcast, Disclosure and, of course, has his weekly newsletter, the FOIA Files, so you can keep up with his work when he's not here on my show.

Every Friday, we wrap up the week's news with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. And this was certainly a momentous week! Just this morning, Marcy posted a blueprint for much of today's discussion in a post titled "May This Week Be a Pivot". I second that emotion!

It's Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. I was dreading yesterday's Supreme Extreme Court hearing regarding the felon's illegal and unconstitutional tariffs because of how the court has demeaned itself by bending over backwards to appease the dick-tator over the past year. But to my layperson's ears, it sounded like they - or at least enough of them - have finally reached their limit.

And it wasn't only me. The actual legal experts who I read seem to have heard what I did yesterday. But, of course, when the Extreme Supremes are in the picture, I like to turn to my favorite legal expert, Lisa Graves. Though she's currently on a book tour in support of the excellent WITHOUT PRECEDENT, Lisa will take an hour off today to spend with us, explaining what happened yesterday and what the ramifications might be.

Tom Steyer is running for governor of California and still hasn't taken my advice from 2019. We dig into the full California governor's race — who's in, who's out (looking at you, Swalwell), and what to think about the candidates left standing. Then we go to the Wayback Machine for my actual December 2019 interview with Steyer, where I made the case — live on air — that he should put his $100 million into rebuilding progressive media instead of a presidential run he had no chance of winning. He disagreed. Respectfully. And here we are.

After that: Kash Patel filed a $250 million defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic — and his own lawsuit appears to confirm several of the things he's claiming are lies. Classic. Plus, Trump is reading from the Bible tonight on camera (pre-recorded, naturally), The Onion takes over InfoWars, the Iran war is affecting condom supply, and the tariff refund website is off to a "glitchy start" (that's the diplomatic version). My guest Dayna Steele from Today's Facts joins to break down what's real and what isn't in today's news — and shares the exciting news that her one-woman show is heading to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August.

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. Yesterday was Election Day. It was about as close to a clean sweep as possible, with the people rebuking D'ump and taking back control. And hopefully, showing what's still to come.... That's not all we're talking about today. This morning, The Supreme Extreme Court heard arguments about the felon's illegal and unconstitutional tariff debacle that has cause prices we pay for just about everything to skyrocket.

Joining me on today's show to discuss what it all means - as only he can - Driftglass! One of the OG progressive bloggers of the blogosphere (at driftglass.blogspot.com), Driftglass also co-host the Professional Left Podcast with his with, BlueGal Fran...

This year, my birthday falls on election day, something that wouldn't necessarily warrant a day off. But when my daughter tells me she's coming to town to spend my birthday with me, that's another story. So I figured we'd go back in time to Nov 4, 2016. That year, election day fell on Nov 9, so this was just a few days out. I was truly mortified at the idea that Donald Trump could actually become president. But we still had a few days left of relative sanity.

Those days I did a daily news segment with the Talk Media News Service. On that particular day, the correspondent was Bob Ney, former Congressman from Ohio who got caught up in the Jack Abramoff scandal and did time in jail. (Google them if you're not familiar with the sordid story!)

Then Brad Friedman of the BradBlog and BradCast joined in and so did actress and activist Mimi Kennedy.

A slice of life before the world went completely mad...

I'll be back tomorrow with OG blogger Driftglass. We'll have to ease back in to the real world slowly and with lots of humor...

It's the Nicole Sandler Show for Monday, Nov. 3. Election Day is tomorrow. Unfortunately it's an off-off year so we don't get to dump the garbage, yet. But some of us will be able to get rid of some annoying trash, so there's that.

Please vote! As he does on Mondays, Jonathan Larsen brings his latest scoops from thefuckingnews.substack.com and jonathanlarsen.substack.com. And we'll do our best to make light of the really dark and evil plans being cooked up in what's left of the White House. Are we having fun yet?

It's Friday, October 31, 2025! Nicole Sandler here, finally here in my newly rebuilt studio in our new home. Hopefully we'll stay at this one for a while!

Today is Halloween, but every day is frightening in this D'umpster fire of a nation these days... Thankfully, Marcy Wheeler is here to help us muddle through much of what transpired this week. I'm not much help today because I've been in moving hell. The good part of it was that I opted for more music, less of the old, addled, orange incapacitate squatter in the oval office.... But here we go....

Today is the final day of my move, so we're up and running for good from the new home studio after today's special pre-Halloween episode, and this one is scary as Trump. David Daley literally wrote the book about gerrymandering. Now make that books, as he's written two more sequels since the original, Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count, was released in 2017.

Now that Trumpkin has enlisted his army of dirty tricksters to figure out how to use the gerrymander to guarantee a few more congressional seats from Texas are held by Republicans, he's coercing other Republican governors to do it in their states too. When the Texas story began heating up, I invited David Daley back on the show to explain just wtf is going on. This episode originally aired August 12, 2025.

Yes, this episode is frightening. I hope it scares the bejesus out of everyone how hears it because we are the ones who'll save us...

It's the day before Halloween. Since today's the day we have to be out of the old house and do a walk-through with the slumlord so we can get our security deposit back, I have to run another 'Best of' show. So I figured I'd pull out a truly frightening episode to run today.

This episode originally aired on August 12 of this year. Here's what I wrote about this episode on that day:

Just a couple of hours before I hit the air today at 3ET, the Washington Post sent a breaking news alert with the headline, “Texas Republicans dare Democrats to stay out of state another month.” (gift link)

They further explain,

In other words, the Republicans who rule the Texas state legislature, following the Oval Office felon’s directives, are stretching the norms of the gerrymander to do away with any districts that might vote for the Democratic candidates in the 2026 midterms.

Redistricting in the middle of the decade? Not a regular occurrence. Is it illegal?

That’s one of the questions I have for David Daley, author of three books on the subject. The one that started it all was Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn’t Count. He followed that with Unrigged: How Americans are Battling Back to Save Democracy in 2021. Unfortunately, the landscape has since changed.

Dave’s newest book, released in 2024, is Antidemocratic: Inside the Far Right’s 50-Year Plot to Control American Elections.

Dave is also the former editor of Salon.com, and is a senior fellow at FairVote, who advocates for ranked choice voting and proportional representation, so he knows this subject.

Dave gave us the lay of the land regarding gerrymandering, apportionment and where we currently stand, and it’s not a pretty picture.

I'll be back live tomorrow to wrap up the week with Marcy Wheeler on a new edition of Emptywheel Fridays on the Nicole Sandler Show.

It's Wednesday, October 29, 2025. I've been in and out over the last few weeks because we moved, again. I'm exhausted and every inch of my body hurts. But I somehow managed to rebuild my studio in the new digs. Today, we take it out for a spin.

Today I'm thrilled to welcome Jim Earl to the show for the very first time. You know I like to deliver the news with some snark and attitude, especially when the news is as fucked-up and evil as it's been for much too long. Jim's the perfect guest to help me do that.

You know Jim Earl even if you think you don't know him, but you know him! First of all, he's a former writer/performer for The Daily Show (even has an Emmy to show for it). He's a veteran of Air America Radio where he wrote and performed on the best morning show I never worked on, "Morning Sedition" as well as WTF with Marc Maron (RIP- the show, not the man) and National Lampoon's Final Edition. He thankfully quit the Jimmy Dore Show in disgust. He even wrote for the first incarnation (2016) of The Fucking News, which we dip into with Jonathan Larsen on Mondays...

With all of those defunct jobs, it's no wonder that Jim Earl is obsessed with death. OK, I don't know that that's the case, but one of his Substacks-and his book-- are called "Mourning Remembrance: A Collection of Mocking Obituaries". Again, Halloween week.... He also writes "Jim Earl's Substack of Bile" where he says he likes to "spew ill-informed nonsense about current events, stupid and horrific". Perfect for dealing with the dumpster fire in DC...

March 6, 2020 was a Friday. As I wrote in the description back then of that day's show, "We made it to the end of a horrible week that included a brutal Super Tuesday, the end of a number of campaigns, a stock market crash and the global explosion of the coronavirus. We have two great guests today: Jason Leopold of BuzzFeed News whose lawsuit might bring us the unredacted Mueller Report (read about it here), and OG blogger Heather “Digby” Parton (find her blog here, and at Salon here) to help me muddle through this crazy week that was!

Of course now, five years later, Jason Leopold shares his FOIA Files from his current work home at Bloomberg News, and Digby's still plugging away at the same places linked above. And we're still screwed...

Nicole is almost done moving, so will be back here full-time with all-new live shows. In the meantime, we're listening back to some past episodes that are still relevant today. In August, she read an article by Professor of Sociology Dr. Art Jipson about a frightening religious sect that's been working its way into all branches of our American life. Actually, seven. And instead of branches, they refer to them as Mountains. Government is just one of the seven. This White "Christian" Nationalist movement is also known as the New Apostolic Reformation or NAR. Who better to teach us what we need to know than a professor, Art Jipson.

It's Nicole Sandler, back live in the studio today, 10/24/25. I've been in and out as I've been moving, but I don't miss an Emptywheel Friday show unless it's completely unavoidable! After today's show, I'll break down my studio and move it to the new house where it'll take a few days to rebuild it. So I'll have a couple of Best of shows to start next week, and then I'll be back from the new digs.

Although it feels less certain we'll actually reach the end of the week intact these days, we have. Sadly, the East Wing of the White House has not. That's where Marcy Wheeler and I began today's weekly wrap up of what transpired during the week.

As usual, we covered a lot of ground today, starting with the White House grounds that will soon have D'ump's Epstein Ballroom with his new luxury bunker built beneath it.

We spoke a lot about the many forms of corruption D'ump and his so-called administration have and are engaged in, including his ongoing quest to bilk the American public out of our hard-earn dollars. In this case, $230 million of them because we dared to investigate, charge, try (and find him guilty) his crimes. Well, some of them, anyway. Sadly, we never even got to the most serious ones...

We talked about the "purported interim US Attorney" Lindsey Halligan and her idiotic stalking of Lawfare's Anna Bower via Signal chat, and then proactively attempting to say the 33-hour long text conversation was "off-the-record."

NY Attorney General Letitia James was arraigned this morning. She, of course, pleaded Not Guillty. Trump freaked over a TV as run by the Ontario, Canada government, so had a social media tantrum and cut off all trade negotiations with our neighbor to the north. And a reminder that his illegal tariffs go before the Supreme Extreme Court in two weeks! We discussed the wannabe dictator's latest pardons for play and extrajudicial murders of people who happened to be in boats off the Caribbean...

Yes, it was a busy episode. Strap in!

For more news, come on over to nicolesandler.com/10-24-25 or subscribe to nicolesandler.substack.com.

It's a Monday and, unfortunately, the news doesn't stop churning over the weekend... A new friend of the show is Dr. Art Jipson. In addition to being a professor of sociology at the University of Dayton and teaching those impressionable college students, he's a prolific writer on substack and a few other venues, writing about the issues in the news that are so troubling to us. And he hosts a weekly radio show on WUDR! Today, an important film I saw last night about AI and why I'm even more frightened now, and how it could affect every aspect of our lives... and more!

While Nicole is out moving, she's running some newsworthy shows from the past and throwing in a couple to take our mind off of the crap coming from Washington DC. Today we’ll take a break from the depressing, stress-filled world of news and politics to talk about the best job ever. Today’s guest is Paul Rappaport who spent his career at Columbia Records promoting rock records to radio and wrote a wonderful book recounting those glory days, GLIDERS OVER HOLLYWOOD: AIRSHIPS, AIRPLAY AND THE ART OF ROCK PROMOTION.

I'm back live today - Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025.

If you watch TV, you've no doubt been inundated with commercials touting "Medicare Advantage." If you listen to this show, you've heard me tell you, consistently over the years, that Medicare Advantage is neither Medicare nor an advantage.

Wendell Potter returns to the show today. We've spoken often over the years since he first appeared before Congress on June 24, 2009 as the first health insurance industry whistleblower to testify about the corruption built into this system. He's kept up his advocacy for we, the people and what should be our right to affordable, humane health care. Wendell runs the nonprofit Center for Health & Democracy, and as publisher and executive editor of HEALTH CARE un-covered at healthcareuncovered.substack.com.

I always make sure to invite Wendell on around open-enrollment time to help you all navigate the muddy health insurance waters. This year, the waters are not only muddied, they're filled with D'ump's shit too.

For more of today's news, find today's post over at nicolesandler.com or by subscribing to nicolesandler.substack.com.

While Nicole is out moving from one house to another, she's running some shows from the past that are relevant today. This one originally aired four years ago this week, Oct. 26, 2021. With the rise of Donald Trump to dear leader of the Republican party and wannabe dictator for life, er, president, came the unmasking of white supremacists in America. Today, we'll get the history behind our nation's giant leap backwards. Our guest is Kathleen Belew, one of the two editors of a new book released the day this show originally aired, A Field Guide to White Supremacy.

The Nicole Sandler Show for Monday 10-20-25

I usually bemoan the beginning of a new week, but Saturday's No Kings Day rallies instead energized me, as I hope it did you. There's power and strength in numbers, and we numbered 7 million plus around the nation this weekend!

As I've been busy with packing and moving, I didn't go into Phoenix on Saturday, opting instead to go to the rally in my town of Chandler Arizona, where an estimated 5,000 like-minded, democracy-loving neighbors turned out. All shapes and sizes, colors and species, from typical humans (like yours truly) to inflatable zebras, unicorns, pigs, chickens very many others somewhere in-between.

The official estimate places the number of people who attended one of the 2700+ events around the country at just around 7 million. Each Monday, I'm joined by Jonathan Larsen, a veteran of the corporate news media who, like so many of us, went the indie route to be able to report the absolute truth with no overlords dictating what he can or can not say. To accomplish that, he publishes two Substack newsletters. His snark-filled, expletives included, funny take on the news while reporting the truth comes out every morning via TheFuckingNews.substack.com. His original reporting, with a more serious tone, can be found at JonathanLarsen.substack.com. He brings it all here to my show each Monday, including today.

For the rest of the blog and more news, subscribe to nicolesandler.substack.com or come over to nicolesandler.com.

Another seemingly endless week comes to a close, but not before we've had a chance to talk about it with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. We began with three detentions this week. The first, an ICE officer driving drunk with his kids in the back seat in Florida. The second is Portland Protestor Robby Steamroller explaining his arrest to Tim Miller at the Bulwark. And the third, Marcy wrote about Sydney Reed who was arrested in July for filming ICE making arrests when one of them pushed her causing a boo boo on the agent's hand. Jeanine Pirro tried to charge it as a felony but wound up with an embarrassing acquittal.

We also talked about Trump's vindictive prosecutions of his "enemies" Jim Comey, Letitia James and John Bolton. And, of course, tomorrow's No Kings Day 2, wherever you are. I'll be back here live on Monday. Until then, be safe! Peace out.

While Nicole's out moving, she's running some shows from the past that are essential listening today. First, from March 19 of this year, Alex Lawson, executive director of Social Security Works brings us some hard truths to understand. Then Nicole takes us back 17 years to the day to Oct.16, 2008. She was filling in for Thom Hartmann on Air America radio and had a few minutes with Melissa Etheridge just weeks before the Nov 4, 2008 presidential election.

Nicole is out for a few days between now and the end of the month, so she's running some shows from the past that are still applicable today. Today we go back to Jan 16, 2024. She spoke with Erin "in the morning" Reed and Boca Britany Somers about Trans Rights in the US.

The Nicole Sandler Show for Tues, Oct. 14, 2025 This Saturday, Oct 18, millions of people will take to the streets for a massive peaceful protest on the day designated for the second No Kings Day. Though the poor fools who believe the lies and propaganda fed to them by this law-breaking, fascist administration and its cult members like Speaker Mike Johnson are afraid of blow up frogs, furries, clarinet-players and creative sign carrying people of all ages and colors who are against fascism in any form, these 2500+ planned protests across the nation (and the rest of the world, I'm sure) will be fun, peaceful, and constitutionally-protected examples of free speech and our right to peaceably assemble and protest. Today, we'll talk about why protests matter, how the "right" (wrong) are trying to mislead (lie) and frighten you into believing we are an organized terrorist group called antifa (which doesn't exist) who "hates America" (a direct quote from the Meeker Speaker). That's one reason I call it Opposite World! I'll share some examples of how those of us who oppose D'ump's authoritarian ways are joining in. And I'll be joined by Eric Hensal, veteran progressive strategist who says that the No Kings protests are a good start, but we need to do more and incorporate more strategy!

Today is a legal holiday here in the US. The Pumpkin in chief declared it Columbus Day, which it already was, despite the facts we've learned about Christopher Columbus. Many of us prefer to, instead, use the misguided holiday to honor the people who were here long before Columbus or other explorers set foot on this land -- the Indigenous People. Meanwhile, Trump was in Israel this morning celebrating the "end" of the war and taking credit for the long-awaited release of the remaining 20 still-living hostages kidnapped from Israel just over two years ago by Hamas. And he's still crying because he didn't get the Nobel Peace Prize. Will someone please tell him that you don't get a peace prize for waging war on your own country's citizens? Anyway, it is Monday, so thankfully Jonathan Larsen joins in from thefuckingnews.substack.com to help us parse it all.....

Every Friday, Marcy Wheeler joins me from emptywheel.net to discuss the craziness that happened since we spoke the previous Friday.

So today, we talked about D’ump’s invasion of Chicago and Portland and how those cities and others are pushing back. Then there was the Senate Judicary Committee’s oversight hearing of the batshit crazy Attorney General Pam Bondi and her sickening, contemptuous display of disrespect in her performance for the orange man. We also discussed the government shutdown and its ramifications , the Nobel Peace Prize that did NOT go to Dumpo, and more.

It's another Emptywheel Friday! Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net graciously joins us each Friday to talk with me about the news that hit since we spoke last week. I'm running on Springsteen fumes today (he played Phoenix last night for THREE amazing hours ) but Marcy Wheeler and I still had a full show: Orban lost in Hungary, the DOJ is reversing convictions of Jan 6 convicted terrorists, Trump is losing Catholics while fighting the Pope, and ICE agents are being charged in Minnesota. Come hang. 

I’m back today. I’m sorry there was no show yesterday, but I was at the Emergency Room until about 2AM yesterday morning. When I awoke in the morning, I wasn’t feeling well and was exhausted. So, I decided to take care of myself and rest. But I'm back today, I got started with a rant about how frightening things are in this country right now. Lisa Graves was here last week to talk about the law, the extreme court and her new book, Without Precedent. Of course, so much happened this week that I felt compelled to ask her about. So of course, she’ll be back again soon!

We are one week into this government shutdown and it doesn’t appear to be opening back up any time soon. Today is the 260th awful day since Trump took office again, meaning there are still 1200 days until this term ends. And today also marks two years since Hamas’ deadly, horrific attacks on Israel, provoking a deadly, horrific war that’s still raging in Gaza.

I dealt with all of that on today’s show… starting with David Dayen, executive editor of The American Prospect, and the shutdown.

It feels like deja vu all over again. It is weird that the weeks go by so slowly, yet it seems as if Mondays come too quickly. It must be a sign o’ the times...We begin each week with a discussion about some of what’s going on with Jonathan Larsen, who writes about the news with the snark and expletives it deserves at thefuckingnews.substack.com. He also does quite a bit of original reporting without the expletives. You find those stories at jonathanlarsen.substack.com.