The Nicole Sandler Show

The House passed the Biden-McCarthy debt ceiling deal last night with more Democratic than Republican votes. Was it a great deal? No. But did the Dems come out ahead of the Republicans? Without a doubt. Well, that's my take. As for what Howie Klein thinks? We'll find out today. You never know with Howie. One of the things I'll ask him about today is his post at Down With Tyranny in which he basically says that the three members of Congress vying to replace Dianne Feinstein in the Senate -- Katie Porter, Barbara Lee and Adam Schiff -- are all progressives, and he actually defends Schiff as just as progressive as Lee!

The House today is voting on the Biden-McCarthy deal to raise the ridiculous debt ceiling. David Dayen of The American Prospect returns to the show today to bring us up to date on what's happening and how we got here. I call it a deja vu because we've had this conversation before -- 12 years ago, in fact. On July28, 2011, we talked on this program about President Obama's deal with a Republican-led Congress, the first time the GOP weaponized this ridiculous provision that allows the good faith and credit of the US to be threatened. Today we find out that we, as a nation (or more accurately, our "leaders") haven't learned one damn thing.

The first day back after a long holiday weekend is always tough. But here we are. News was made while America was using the day set aside to remember those lost in battle to buy mattresses and gorge themselves on food and beer. OK, I'm over-generalizing, but we really do need to step back and assess our priorities from time to time. And this would be a good time to do that. With the debt ceiling negotiations ongoing as the holiday weekend began, I was taken aback that the so-called cable news channel MSNBC opted to run the Rudy Giuliani story on repeat Monday afternoon into evening instead of offering some semblance of news, but that would be asking too much. (I guess they all had mattresses to buy or steaks to grill or something...) Today, I was happy to receive Will Bunch's newsletter. Will Bunch is a national columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and, thankfully, in today's edition, he gave a good roundup of what transpired while America was celebrating all of our war dead... or something. So, after I start the show by lamenting that my town suffered yet another mass shooting (when will it ever end?!?) and share a few other thoughts, I'll welcome Will Bunch back to the show and let him tell you what the media missed about the laughing stock that was the fascist Florida man's ridiculous presidential campaign launch and more! At the start of the show, I mentioned an article I wrote encouraging the rest of the world to issue travel advisories against vacationing here due to danger from guns, and it's finally happening, 10 years later! Here's the original column.

Monday is Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer. So today, I'm joined by my friend Boca Britany Somers for a special Trans Summer Kick Off in honor of the fascist Florida man who had the gall to announce his candidacy for president this week... We'll have a gay old time!

Sometimes life just doesn't make sense. Although today's show isn't really about two governors, it does involve two (actually three) southern governors whose actions were not reflected in the paths their lives and careers have taken. But, in all fairness, one of the stories hasn't yet reached a conclusion, so the odds are pretty good that fairness will win. But we'll see. I'm talking -in the second instance- of Florida's sad excuse for a governor. Ron DeSantis, who signed the bill into law just yesterday that will allow him to run for president without resigning as governor first, made his candidacy official yesterday, launching his campaign on Twitter Spaces. Yes, the correct response to that is "Twitter what?" . The little-known audio only section of Twitter did exactly what we expected: It crashed! The headlines "Failure to Launch" wrote themselves. Meanwhile, the day before, we heard from two former Alabama governors, one of whom I know much more about that the other. The one I don't know is Robert Bentley, a Republican, who resigned from office before he could be removed. The other is Don Siegelman, a Democrat, and one of the best Democratic governors from the south who could have been (and should have been) president. If only he hadn't been targeted, set-up and prosecuted (persecuted) by the nefarious forces on the right, likely led by one Karl Rove. --Click here to hear my interview with Gov. Siegelman about his story from June 12, 2020 ---- Siegelman was accused of bribery and convicted based on lies and fabrications from the right, and he served a sentence as an actual American political prisoner. Unfortunately, the Democratic president Barack Obama did noting to right the wrongs perpetrated on him by those who sought to discredit him. He's not coming on to talk about that today, though. Instead, Gov. Siegelman joins me to talk about an op-ed he and Gov Bentley co-authored for the Washington Post earlier this week, expressing their regrets for going along with the death penalty when they each had the power to refuse.

Today's the big day! The Fascist Florida Man Ronald DeSantis is officially declaring his candidacy for president in 2024 this evening. We knew it was coming; we just didn't know where, exactly when or how he'd do it, but now we do, and it's par for the ridiculous course that is this authoritarian Trump-in-training. You could almost hear the jeering and laughs accompanying the announcement that the big campaign kick-off event would take place on Twitter with one of the few people on the planet who's as big a laughingstock as is the FFM (fascist Florida man) and TFG (the former guy) -- Elmo, er, Elon Musk. I know, you're thinking "on Twitter? Huh?" But wait, it's even better... it'll be in a Twitter SPACES. Say it with me now, a Twitter WHAT? Twitter Spaces is akin to a party line! As telephones were just being introduced, many people shared the same line... so if you picked up the phone to make a call, you might have to wait until another call finished... or you could just join in. "Spaces" are audio-only group calls. I know what they are, though I've never actually participated in one, and can't understand how a serious presidential candidate would ever launch their campaign in this manner. Then again, nothing about DeSantis is serious except for his quest to be a dictator. So, DeSantis makes it official tonight, on the first anniversary of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX, so I thought I'd combine both occasions for today's show because they are absolutely related. Stay tuned and find out how...

The word on the street is the DeSantis will make it official tomorrow, declaring his candidacy for president on 2024 with an announcement live on Twitter Spaces with Elon Musk. Twitter Spaces? That's like a phone party line, right? Either way, I guess I'll miss it. But I continue doing my civic duty as someone who still (unfortunately) lives in Florida to warn the rest of the nation (and planet) about the sorry, sniveling, authoritarian, dictator wannabe and keep him as far away from the White House as is possible. Today on the show, I'll share more writings to show you that yes, it could happen here (and already is). And I'll be joined by Maria J. Stephan who has a new article at Salon.com, "The Battle Against Fascism: Lessons on how to beat back authoritarianism from abroad". Let's get all anti-fascist together! -- ANTIFA!

The news is that Ron DeSantis is going to declare his candidacy for the presidency this week, as ridiculous as that is.... So I figured we'd spend the better part of this week enlightening the rest of the world about what we've known about moRon DeathSentence since he was elected.... and no one knew anything about him before he became governor, as he was just some snivelly back bench nobody congressman. Strap in, and feel free to call in (954-889-6410) with any questions about the fascist Florida man. If I don't know the answer, I'll do what he does and make something up.

We wrap up the week today with another visit from independent journalist Marcy Wheeler. She does a better job of covering the actual news dealing with national security and the various investigations into the former guy (and all news items related) than I see anywhere in the corporate mainstream press. You find her work at emptywheel.net. I'm honored that Marcy checks in with us every 3-4 weeks or so, and fills the hour with information. Today is no different. We mostly discuss the Durham report that was released on Monday, on the 4-year long investigation into the oranges* of the Russia investigation. (Yes, I know it was supposed to be the origins, but TFG couldn't remember the word origins. Yikes.)

Howie Klein is a fascinating man. We first met some 30+ years ago. At the time, I was doing music radio in Los Angeles and Howie was President of Reprise Records. When he saw the writing on the wall ahead of the AOL/Time Warner merger in 2000, he took the payout and got out just before everything started going to shit. Howie quickly pivoted and turned his energies toward electing progressives to office. He began blogging at DownWithTyranny.com, and formed the Blue America PAC with other progressive bloggers Digby and John Amato. And they're all still going strong. When I moved from music radio to progressive talk, Howie quickly became a regular guest, eventually joining me weekly. We've been at it for well over a dozen years already. You'd think we'd run out of things to talk about. But sadly, the state of politics today insures that we'll never be at a loss for topics - and politicians - about which to talk. Today, aside from wherever the conversation takes us, I'll definitely ask Howie about Dianne Feinstein. Howie lived in San Francisco back in the day and was friendly with Harvey Milk. I've heard that Harvey shared his private feelings about the former Mayor of SF, now the sickliest senator in Congress who refuses to stay home...

One sure-fire way to get me to return for a live show is to have Digby booked as the guest. I've been taking a few days to try to regain some sanity as I've been struggling with some demons lately. Still struggling, but happy to be here today to talk with Heather "Digby" Parton. She's the Queen... the OG progressive blogger who's been at it with Digby's Hullabaloo since the start, fighting the good fight. (Though in my current state of mind, I keep asking if anything can stop the descent into full-blown fascism, and haven't come to a decent answer yet...) Anyway, I've unplugged from most of the news in the past week or so, I've been catching up this morning and things are even worse than before. Should be a lively discussion today.

I'm going to see Melissa Etheridge in concert tonight, so will not have a live show today. So I thought you should enjoy Melissa today too. So it's a Flashback Friday. I'll share three of the many interviews I've done with Melissa in the 35 (gasp) years since her first album was released in 1988. We start with an interview from October of 2008. It was three weeks before the Nov 4 2008 election that gave us President Obama! The second interview I'm sharing is from five years earlier. It was Christmastime 2003, and Melissa joined me on the air at WXRV/Boston 92.5 The River for an interview and performance. And we wrap it up with an appearance on my show from 2014... Enjoy! And I'll see you Monday.

We have a euphemism in our house. Instead of announcing the need to take a shit, we merely say it's time to Trump. Well, CNN Trumped itself last night. The so-called Town Hall which was, in reality, a Trump rally hosted live on CNN, was itself a Trump of massive proportions. But now you know exactly what CNN is... and it and Trump are on the same level. Trump inducing sickness. I started out watching it, thinking that I had to for my work. But about 20 minutes in, I could take it no longer and simply left the room. I was done. Howie Klein is here today. If I had to guess, I'd say he didn't watch last night's spectacle. And I wouldn't blame him. We still have George Santos to talk about, if that is indeed his name

It's a Monday with Elie Mystal! Given the overwhelming number of cases where justice has not been served in recent days, weeks and months, we're past due for a visit with Elie Mystal, Justice Correspondent for The Nation and author of ALLOW ME TO RETORT: A BLACK GUY'S GUIDE TO THE CONSTITUTION. Thankfully, he joins us today for the better part of the hour. Don't be late!

Freedom of the Press is such an important pillar of a democracy that it's enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Here in the so-called land of the free, we pride ourselves on our freedoms. So would it surprise you to learn that the US came in at a barely respectable 45th place in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index? This year's rankings were released yesterday. I'm joined by Clayton Weimers, director of the US bureau of Reporters Without Border, RSF.org, who'll explain the findings and why a free press is such an important pillar in any democracy. Of course, we'll being with late breaking news. Today, the Proud Boys are convicted, more from the Clarence Thomas/Harlan Crow grift, and whatever else the day throws at us before showtime.

As we lurch ever closer to X-Date - the day when the US government can no longer use extraordinary measures with our money to avoid hitting the ridiculous debt ceiling now appears to be coming on June 1 -- neither side is budging. It's been a few years since we've dealt with this unnecessary crisis, but because the Democrats control the White House but the House is controlled by a magaT contingent intent on blowing up the nation, many of us have been getting a bit nervous. Thankfully, The American Prospect today launched a new "X-Date: A Debt Ceiling Newsletter" in which they promise to bring us the latest status, news and information about the issue until there's some resolution. Today, I'm joined by Ryan Cooper, managing editor of TAP, who'll give us a primer on the ridiculous obstacle and how we can get past it...

Responding to the recent revelations about serious ethical breaches at the US Supreme Court, the Senate Judiciary Committee this morning held a hearing on Supreme Court ethics... or the lack thereof. It was another frustrating journey through Opposite World. Instead of yelling at the TV, I invited Lisa Graves to join us today to weigh in on the situation. Lisa is no stranger to the Senate Judiciary Committee, having served as its Chief Counsel for Nominations under then-chair Patrick Leahy - or to the DOJ where she was Deputy Assistant Attorney General under both Janet Reno and John Ashcroft. Today, Lisa heads up TrueNorth Research. She usually appears on this show as a private citizen speaking for herself and not for her organization, today she'll appear in both roles, offering her own opinion as well as the statement of the watchdog organization she leads.

It's a new week and a new month, so I figured it was time for a reset. There are so many investigations of and political perils swirling around the former guy (who also inexplicably happens to be the frontrunner for the Republican nomination for president), so today we'll check in with lawyer and author Teri Kanefield, who's been covering all of them on her blog at terikanefield.com. You can also follow along on Twitter and Mastodon... We'll begin with a recap of the crap that put me in such a lovely mindset last week, and I'll tell you about our upcoming trip too, if time permits.

Howie Klein's been out for a couple of weeks, but he's back today, no doubt with stories to tell. And plenty happened here while he was gone. We'll also get a quick visit from Lucas Kunce, running to unseat Josh Hawley in the US Senate from MO.

It's completely my fault. I screwed up the date when booking him on the show last week, and had gremlins knock me off the air on Monday. So today, we try again. In the third edition of his book, CONFESSIONS OF AN ECONOMIC HITMAN, John Perkins explains how he and those who do the same work he did as Chief Economist at a major international consulting firm are actually working to, in a nutshell, destroy the world. That's certainly paraphrasing and perhaps oversimplifying his message, but that is the gist of it. In this edition of his NY Times best seller, he shows how China has picked up the slack and taken the helm for what he describes as the third EHM wave that's infecting the world. Not to leave us all wondering what we can do about it, Perkins has a prescription. All that said, if you enjoy the show and can afford it, I hope you'll support this show. What's News has been discontinued because I can't monetize it. If you appreciate this show and would like it to continue, please consider donating: nicolesandler.com/donate-2 IF not, that's ok. Enjoy the last few weeks of the show.