The Nicole Sandler Show

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.

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 Karemwas the last man standing (literally) atPlayboy 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....

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!)

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...

Another Thursday has arrived, which means we have two things going for us today: 1. Howie Klein is here and 2. Tomorrow's Friday so the weekend is near. This has been a crazy week at a moment in history that promises to be among the craziest, certainly in our lifetimes! The number of jurors seated in the first criminal trial of TFGDJT has dropped from 7 to 5. Why? Because the defendant is intimidating potential jurors, thumbing his nose at the judge's orders not to do that. And the media is also complicit. We'll discuss that and more. Like the madness of Marjorie Traitor Greene who today introduced a few batshit amendments, including one to fund those pesky Jewish space lasers at the southern border. You can't make this stuff up...

The first criminal trial of Donald Trump to convene is on recess today (no Wednesday sessions, per the judge), but it was a busy Tuesday as seven jurors were seated. Five more plus six alternates are expected by the end of the week, with opening arguments as soon as Monday. So today's circus was in Congress, where House Republicans walked their articles of impeachment for DHS Secretary Alejandro Majorkas, and the nonsense continued. I'll run down the latest on those and other stories, and then we'll get to today's main attraction: Project 2025, or the GOP's plan to bring down democracy in the USA. It's a topic I've been concerned about, but wasn't sure who to invite on the show until last week, when I get a message from Rachel Bitecofer imploring her readers to follow a new substack by Tiffany Torres Williams called Project 2025 Takedown. So I subscribed (project2025takedown.substack.com) and invited Tiffany on the show. To add an interesting element, Tiffany had considered herself a "conservative Republican". Oh I have so many questions for her...

Have you ever thought about running for office? Now would probably be a good time to do so. Republicans have effectively taken over state legislatures, city councils and school boards, doing great damage to our institutions along the way. And their embrace of a dictatorial conman as their presumptive presidential nominee is a mortal threat to our democracy. The stakes have never been higher, and no elected office is unimportant. School boards have become intense battlegrounds. With groups like Moms for Liberty and Turning Point USA trying to indoctrinate our kids while dismantling our public educational system, it's time for those of us on the side of education, democracy and facts take back control. Today, I've invited two women who I met this weekend while they were canvassing in my neighborhood. One of them, Zeyna Pruzhanovsky, I met a month or two ago when she first stopped by. She's running for a seat on the Chandler Unified School District Board. Joining her yesterday was Laura Metcalfe, who's running for Maricopa County School Superintendent. They'll join me live in the studio to talk about what's at stake and what made them decide to jump into the race. I'll also bring you up to speed on Day 2 of Trump on Trial, and the Supreme Extreme Court who heard the case of one of the 1-6 insurrectionists that could impact the prosecution of both Trump himself and others who stormed the Capitol that day.

It's April 15. Have you done your taxes yet? Remember when TFG was in office and he told us we'd be filling out our taxes on a postcard? Yeah, not so much. But he's in a Manhattan courtroom today as his first criminal trial begins... And of course, Jonathan Larsen is here with the fucking news. And I'm in the perfect fucking mood for it. I just spent the morning at the doctor's office and she thinks it IS gout. FML.

I am honored that the independent national security journalist Marcy Wheeler, whose original reporting you can find at emptywheel.net, joins me on my show every Friday for an hour-long discussion of the news that matters and, for the most part, hasn't been reported accurately or with enough urgency elsewhere.

Today, in addition to preparing for Monday's beginning of jury selection in the NY fraud case involving the payoff to Stormy Daniels, I was thrilled to be able to congratulate Marcy for her journalistic prowess! She went the extra mile to intervene in a CIPA case in 2022 that now will impact the Mar A Lago classified documents case that Judge Aileen Cannon seems bound and determined to not treat fairly (my convoluted language to try to express her general support of TFG).

Howie Klein has been doing a weekly segment on my show for more than a dozen years now. He and I first met some 30+ years ago on Los Angeles where I was doing (really great) music radio and he was President of Reprise Records. When Howie exited the music biz, he turned his energies toward getting real progressives elected to office. He began blogging at DownWithTyranny.com. In 2006, Howie joined forces with Heather "Digby" Parton of Digby's Hullabaloo (digbysblog.net) and John Amato of CrooksandLiars.com. They created the Blue America PAC, enlisting the help of Jacquie Propps (@Jacqrat) to help with the organizational aspects of running a PAC. Jaquie wrote "Fighting The Right Wing Since 2006" for the Blue America blog to reacquaint the blogosphere with Blue America, now in its 18th year. (Read it at https://blueamerica.crooksandliars.co...) We agreed that with the most consequential election season of our lives underway, this would be a good time to get some of the players together to recognize the work they do and shine a spotlight on this year's group of Blue America endorsed candidates. So, joining Howie and me today -- Digby, of course. And Tom Maxwell. Huh? Tom Maxwell is a musician. You probably know him from his time with the Squirrel Nut Zippers. In 2006, Tom contributed a song, "Have You Had Enough?" --sung by Rickie Lee Jones - to one of the first Blue America campaigns, that one to oust the predatory Republican Speaker of the House Denny Hastert. It was a success and the campaign was a hit. And the rest, as they say, is history! They'll all join in at around the 30 minute mark. But we'll start with some news and memories spurred by the news that OJ Simpson has died. Open the floodgates....

I'm new to Arizona. We moved here from Florida for a number of reasons, chief among them was the fact that AZ was trending bluer while FL has become Fascist Central. Well, yesterday Arizona's Supreme Court reinstated a law that was in effect until 1973 when Roe v Wade came into effect and legalized a woman's right to choose what happens with her own body. Since that 1864 law was never officially removed from the books it was still in effect once Roe was overturned. ARGHH. I attempted to get some AZ officials and others to discuss the ramifications of yesterday's news to no avail. That makes sense as I'm guessing this is an all hands on deck moment. So, I thought back to how we dealt with the Supreme Court overturning Roe two years ago. It was June 24, 2022 when they did the unthinkable. The following Monday, June 27, I spoke with the man regarded as the father of the birth control and abortion rights movement, Bill Baird. I was introduced to him by the always brilliant Barry W. Lynne. When we spoke almost two years ago, Bill had just turned 90! As is too often the case, we had some technical difficulties, but it's worth hanging through them to meet and learn about Bill Baird. I hope he will give you the inspiration he's given me during incredibly awful times like these.... We'll begin with a song from Jill Sobule that she wrote after Texas enacted its disgusting Fetal Heartbeat bill that outlawed abortion after six weeks. (From Wikipedia: The Texas Heartbeat Act, Senate Bill 8 (SB 8), is an act of the Texas Legislature that bans abortion after the detection of embryonic or fetal cardiac activity, which normally occurs after about six weeks of pregnancy. The law took effect on September 1, 2021, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied a request for emergency relief from Texas abortion providers.[1] It was the first time a state has successfully imposed a six-week abortion ban since Roe v. Wade, and the first abortion restriction to rely solely on enforcement by private individuals through civil lawsuits, rather than having state officials enforce the law with criminal or civil penalties. The act authorizes members of the public to sue anyone who performs or facilitates an illegal abortion for a minimum of $10,000 in statutory damages per abortion, plus court costs and attorneys' fees.)

Another busy day in today's strange new world. We begin today with breaking news from my adopted state of Arizona where we moved from Floriduh because AZ was a bit less fascist... Well, today the AZ Supreme Extreme Court upheld an 1864 near total ban on abortions. The only exception is to save the life of the mother. Yeah, I'll have a few words on that one to start today's show. While we're on the subject of abortion, the orange weather vane backtracked on his promise of a national abortion ban yesterday only to be criticized by some of magaT world, including the sycophantic Lindsey Graham. TFG lashed out so Lindsey did what Lindsey does and dropped to his knees to do magaman's bidding. You can't make this shit up. Then, I'll speak with the author of a new book hits the shelves today. TRIPPED: NAZI GERMANY, THE CIA, AND THE DAWN OF THE PSYCHEDELIC ERA by author Norman Ohler recounts the reason psychedelic drugs are classified as dangerous narcotics. Of course, one need look no further than the Nazis. Figures.

Well, so far no rapture but we did see the eclipse here in Arizona! It's another Monday so we start the f$^king week with more f$^king news from Jonathan Larsen at thefuckingnews.substack.com because someone's got to do it!

We couldn't end the week and usher in the weekend properly without a visit from Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. As she does each Friday, Marcy will walk us through the latest developments in Trump Trial World, including the batshit whack-a-doodle-ness of Judge Aileen Cannon who is doing TFG's bidding so much to his liking that he publicly promised her a Supreme Court nod if he's somehow re-elected. As someone suggested last week, the subtitle of this show is "You can't make this shit up!"

It's a Thursday, so Howie Klein takes a weekly break from writing at DownWithTyranny.com and vetting the best candidates for the Blue America PAC to support. There's no shortage of topics to discuss today, but I'm running late as I spent the morning at the doctors office and urgent care trying to figure out what's going on with my foot. (Stay tuned for another episode of the Mal-ladies, where we discuss what ails us. Ugh) I also have to share a few words from one of the people I most respect in this world, Chef Jose Andres. I'm just sick about everything today.

If you're thinking that in the US, all may theoretically be created equal, but we're sure not treated equally under the law. It's a fact that those with money, fame and power get away with (almost) murder. And if Donald Trump did, indeed, shoot someone on Fifth Avenue? Well, let's just say the jury's still out on that one. And if TFG has any say, the trial would be perpetually delayed. Of course I have a million questions for Lisa Graves, the unofficial legal expert of the Nicole Sandler Show, having to do with Teflon Don. But wait, there's more... There's our Supreme Extreme Court, where ethics apparently aren't a requirement to be a Justice. And there's an organization made up of Republican Attorneys General (RAGA) who've fully transitioned from public servants who serve the law to more magats perverting the law to support TFG.

Yes, we're in the Threats era of the Trump tour of America's court rooms. The National Lampoon magazine cover depicted on today's show graphic is a classic! It's an actual magazine cover from 1973. it was funny because it was so absurd and obviously a joke. But the current incarnation of Donald Trump isn't making humorous threats. His threats are serious. Deadly serious. Judge Merchan who's overseeing the first of the criminal prosecutions against TFG just had to revise his gag order to include language that prohibits the orange menace from threatening family members of court personnel. He violated that gag order just moments after the order was revised. Just what is law enforcement doing about it? Not a whole lot, from what I can tell. Our pal Spocko was wondering about the same thing, and he has a new post up at Digby's (https://digbysblog.net/2024/04/01/a-6... ). He'll check in with us too

The big guns come out on Mondays.... From Rachel Maddow and Jen Psaki to Jon Stewart and now Jonathan Larsen of The Fucking News! He's here every Monday to help kick off the week with a dose of news that you're not getting from the corporate mainstream media. Today Jonathan Larsen is breaking news that will be released to paid subscribers at thefuckingnews.substack.com concerning one of the more concerning underbellies of the US government... The Family, the National Prayer Breakfast and now... NASA? Jonathan will fill us in. But first, Easter blasphemy from TFG, his daughter-in-law, and plain truth from the editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer...

Every Friday is a good Friday here because Marcy Wheeler is our guest for the whole hour, recapping most of the important news of the week. Today we touch on the Ronna NotRomney McDaniel/NBC News mess, the latest Trump trial news, Trump financial issues and gag orders, the Supreme Extreme Court, Julian Assange and Hunter Biden too... And we wish Marcy Wheeler a very happy birthday too!

Today is Thursday, so we have our weekly get-together with Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny.com and the Blue America PAC. Last week, you may recall, Howie brought along a guest --Jersey City Mayor and already declared-candidate for NJ Governor in 2025 Steven Fulop. The conversation concerned the race to replace corrupt Sen Bob Menendez from NJ. Fulop had reversed his endorsement of Tammy Murphy (wife of NJ's current governor who's being term limited out of office) in favor of Congressman Andy Kim. Hmm, Murphy dropped out of the race just a couple of days later.... Today, among other stories, I'll ask Howie about his experience with the former senator/would-be spoiler (via No Labels), and why his VP candidacy with Al Gore at the top of the ticket was the first time Howie didn't vote for the Democrats in a presidential election.

This time she really will be here! I confirmed it. And I spent all day yesterday rebuilding my studio so I think I've exorcised the gremlins, at least for a little while. I hope... Barbara McQuade is a former US Attorney, professor at the University of Michigan Law School, co-hosts the #sistersinlaw podcast, and is an MSNBC legal expert. On top of all that, she just released a new book, ATTACK FROM WITHIN: HOW DISINFORMATION IS SABOTAGING AMERICA. We get to talk under the backdrop of NBC pulling back their offer to former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel to be a paid analyst after an uproar from staff and the public.

We cannot let the month of March - Women's History Month - end without a visit from Cultural HERstorian Amy Simon, creator of "She's History: The Most Dangerous Women in America Then and Now" and its various incarnations over the years. So Amy is here today to shine a light on some of our unsung heroines. It's fitting on the day that the Supreme Extreme Court heard the case the could roll back women's bodily autonomy rights to the stone age... But first, Rachel Maddow must have heard my pleas yesterday, and called out NBC News and MSNBC management for their sick and truly dangerous hiring of Ronna Not-Romney McDaniel and normalization of the fascists trying to overturn our democracy!

Despite our wishes for an endless weekend, Monday has again arrived. And with it, lots of F&#king News! So in the tradition of Rachel Maddow, Jen Psaki and Jon Stewart, Jonathan Larsen is here every Monday morning to tell us wtf is going on. A few things in the f&#king news today: Ronna McDaniel NBC kerfuffel, TFG in a NY courtroom, penalty payment day has arrived, no government shutdown this time, motion to vacate again, SCOTUS hears the mifepristone case this week.... I could go on, but you should just listen...

Marcy Wheeler reports the important news daily at emptywheel.net. She joins me on Friday's to recap what the highlights (and lowlights) from the week. Today, the latest Comer farce impeachment inquiry hearings and the various pending cases against him. Plus NBC News' latest hire and more...

Howie Klein of DownWithTyranny.com has done a weekly segment with me on this show for more than a dozen years now. We mostly talk politics, often music and occasionally other subjects too. And fairly regularly, Howie brings along a guest. It's usually one of the Blue America-endorsed candidates, but today's guest is slightly different. Steven Fulop is the Mayor of Jersey City. Tonight he'll deliver his 11th State of the City address. He's already announced his candidacy for NJ Governor; that election happens in November of 2025. So you might ask, "why today?". Well, that has to do with his endorsement in the race to replace corrupt Senator Bob Menendez (who hasn't yet announced whether he'll run for re-election. I think it's a safe bet to say if he did, he'd lose, badly.). Anyway, Mayor Fulop this week withdrew his endorsement of Tammy Murphy, the wife of NJ's current Democratic Governor Phil Murphy, and threw his support to Congressman Andy Kim. We'll discuss that and a lot more. But we open the show with a big breaking news story for which I must thank AG Merrick Garland! I'm vindicated in my dislike of Apple products as the DOJ filed an antitrust suit against them for their monopolistic practices, especially concerning iPhones! It's about damn time!

FIGHTING MAD: RESISTING THE END OF ROE V. WADE is the title of a new book of essays about the recent SCOTUS decision in Dobbs overturning a 50-year precedent that gave women "reproductive autonomy". One of the editors, Krystale E. Littlejohn guests today to showcase the wide range of experts fighting back for our rights. The title FIGHTING MAD also works when describing the Democrats who sat through another ridiculous episode of the GOP's impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden this morning which was more of a circus than a hearing, deeply embedded in opposite world.

Today ushers in the first day of Spring! It's only fitting that it's also the first day of the rebooted Bruce SPRINGsteen tour, and it's kicking off in Phoenix. It is Bruce so of course I'll be there. Yes, I'm giddy. There's nothing like a Springsteen concert!

I'm glad today's guest is a fellow music lover. Jason Leopold's seeing him in LA on April 4... but he's not here to talk Bruce today. These days the man who's been dubbed the "FOIA Terrorist" by our government just launched "The FOIA Files," a weekly newsletter through Bloomberg News, for whom Jason is now working.

I had invited Jason on the show to promote the newsletter. But when I reached out to him about it last week, he was in an undisclosed location working on a big story, using only burner phones. He'll give us the scoop today... but it has to do with the story I told you about on Friday with Marcy Wheeler about the FBI agents in Florida who served Trump the search warrant at Mar A Largo and were not very happy about it. (Houston I think we have a big problem).

The 2024 presidential election is in full swing. My husband David and I were fortunate enough to be at a Biden-Harris event in Tempe, AZ yesterday where the featured speaker was our favorite member of Congress, Jamie Raskin.
I hope to have him on the show sometime soon for a real interview, but we got to say hello, shake his hand, take a photo and hear him speak for about 30 minutes. It was one of the best political speeches I've ever attended, and he did it extemporaneously - no notes, no teleprompter. Just his quick wit and brilliant mind.

I started recording his speech and let it roll for the whole thing. It was so brilliant that I'm going to share the whole thing with you today.

After hearing from Congressman Raskin, we'll check in to see what's happening in my former state of Florida with my old friend Hillary Keyes, who's trying to keep some blue in that place...

Fridays are special aside from the obvious reasons. Marcy Wheeler, an independent journalist who covers legal and national security issues better than the corporate media at emptywheel.net, is our standing date to wrap up every week.

Today we'll talk about the breaking news out of Fulton County, GA where Fani Willis will remain on the case as long as Nathan Wade doesn't, from NY where DA Alvin Bragg agreed to a 30-day postponement in TFG's fraud trial that was supposed to begin in 10 days, to the Aileen Cannon court in Florida where she's doing Trump's bidding in the stolen classified documents case, to the Robert Hur House Judiciary Committee hearing and more. Yes, it was a busy week...

Today, I'll once again go into overtime. Last week we covered the State of the Union address.

Today, I'll pay tribute to a dear friend and amazing musician who died yesterday. Angela McCluskey's is not a household name, but I've been a fan and friend of hers for coming up on 30 years. She was in a band called Wild Colonials who we championed when I worked at KSCA fm 101.9 in Los Angeles in the 90s. I thought I'd share with you a live session from December 9, 1996 when the band joined me on the air for an interview and performance.

I hope you'll stick around and enjoy the music and get a feel for Angela's larger-than-life personality, and understand why I'm already missing her.

It's Thursday, so time for our weekly get-together with Howie Klein of downwithtyranny.com & the Blue America PAC. This week, both Biden and TFG clinched their party's nominations, so buckle in for a loooonger than our already ridiculously long election season and all that comes with it.

There's lots of political news to discuss with Howie today, but I'll certainly save a few minutes to talk about this week's losses (of some amazing musicians)...

Because sometimes you just need to sit with a brilliant friend and shoot the shit about all the craziness in our world. That's how I approach the shows when Heather "Digby" Partonis our guest.
Digby is, of course, one of the OG bloggers of progressive politics. Her Hullabaloo blog is still a daily must-read, as are her columns at Salon.com.
I love it when Digby is my guest because I truly adore her and love our conversations, which can go in any direction. We never know where it'll go until the interview progresses.
Too bad there's nothing big happening in the news to discuss today /sarcasm

Post-show note from Nicole:Never mind! Time to fire my producer again as she apparently forgot to re-confirm Barb McQuade and send the Zoom link, so Barb will be rescheduled in the next week or two. Time to go flog Nicole again. JFC, you'd think she'd learn by now how to do her job. Legal scholar and analyst Barbara McQuade became known to many of us due to her spot-on punditry on MSNBC and her role in the sistersinlaw podcast. Now she's sharing her expertise -compounded by her past work as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, her private practice, and as a law professor at the University of Michigan Law School in a new book, ATTACK FROM WITHIN: HOW DISINFORMATION IS SABOTAGING AMERICA.

Mondays. They happen like clockwork every week, coming right after the weekend to put an official end to our fun. So on Mondays, we check in with Jonathan Larsen of The Fucking News  to help ease us back into the work week with an irreverent discussion of the serious shit happening in our world.

Jonathan joins in at the bottom of the hour... And we check in with Spocko who fact checks the crazy rebuttal from Katie Britt who apparently learned one thing from the head of the Republican party: how to lie!

While the rest of the nation is struggling after losing an hour yesterday morning for Daylight Savings Time, here in Arizona our clocks stayed on standard time. You'd think that would make me happy, right? Well, I didn't lose an hour of sleep, but I did lose an hour of show prep time!

This show still airs from 5-6pm ET/2-3pm PT... That means here in AZ, I hit the air at 2pm instead of 3 each weekday afternoon... I'll try not to be late.

I always look forward to Fridays for the obvious reasons: the weekend and Marcy Wheeler! Emptywheel.net's Marcy Wheeler and I have a standing date every Friday to discuss the week's happenings in Trump Trial and other national security and other news of importance. Today we speak on the morning after President Joe Biden's State of the Union address, likely the last time before the convention that he'll have the opportunity to speak to the nation and the world. My quick review? He hit it out of the park, exactly what we needed at this juncture. Marcy Wheeler is a self described SOTU fan, so we begin with her thoughts on what happened last night. Of course, we'll also bring you the latest news in insurrectionists, the extreme court, and lots of other somewhat related news to complete the hour. But today is SOTU Bonus day. After Marcy leaves, we'll go into overtime!

It's been a politically busy week in the US, so we have lots to discuss with Howie Klein of downwithtyranny.com and the Blue America PAC today. Super Tuesday solidified Trump as the Republican nominee with Nikki Haley dropping out. California finalized its two senatorial candidates who'll be vying for Dianne Feinstein's former seat, and Katie Porter isn't one of them (but she did something really stupid after she lost)... What else did we learn from Super Tuesday? I'll ask Howie. And, oh yeah, tonight's the State of the Union. And in case you hadn't heard, Joe Biden is old. /snark.

A new book is out and making waves because it points out an ugly truth about a huge swatch of this nation. Following yesterday's Super Tuesday primaries, the top of the 2024 presidential ticket is now set. It'll be a rematch between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, as if we didn't know that would be the case.

What has changed is the political landscape of middle America - or Rural America.
Tom Schaller, Political Science Professor at University of Maryland, Baltimore and journalist/columnist Paul Waldmanhave co-authored a new book that helps to explain the divide: WHITE RURAL RAGE: THE THREAT TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.

After a quick recap of yesterday's (and today's) developments, I welcome Tom and Paul back to the show to talk about the ugliness plaguing our country.

Well, they sure took their sweet time to stick a dagger in the heart of democracy and now the Supreme Extreme Court is dragging it's feet before it strikes the death blow. Rather than immediately put us out of (or increase our) misery quickly (like they did in Bush v Gore 2000), they're draaagggging it out another six long weeks. Yes, the court will hear TFG's bullshit case where he's claiming "absolute immunity" for his actions related to the January 6 insurrection that he led! It took the court three weeks just to say they would hear the case (also a horrendous decision), and now they're obviously delaying hearing the case. One can only assume it's to help their dear leader, the twice impeached, orange tinted, failed former occupant of the White House. To add insult to injury, Clarence Thomas - who never should have been confirmed in the first place - refuses to recuse himself, despite overwhelming evidence that his wife, Ginni Thomas, not only participated in the planning of the Jan 6 coup attempt, but was a major instigator and funder of the whole mess. To help us understand this and how the laws have been so perverted, LISA GRAVES returns to the show. Lisa is executive director of True North Research, which investigates and exposes those distorting American democracy and public policy. She then went on to helm the Center for Media and Democracy, the group who gave us ALEC Exposed and who took on and publicly exposed the Koch Brothers. Previously, Graves was Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Office of Legal Policy/Policy Development and served as Chief Counsel for Nominations for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Patrick Leahy.

Making Mondays suck a little less... Mondays come every week, inconveniently at the end of a weekend.

It's difficult to make that transition from down time to work time, especially when the work involves the (usually depressing) news.
Today is no different! It began with the Supreme/Extreme Court deciding unanimously that TFG will be on the primary ballots, saying that regardless of whether or not Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies, it's up to Congress to make that call, not the individual states. So, D'ump will be on the Colorado ballot tomorrow and in the other states who had ruled against him.

Even with that setback, we'll attempt to make the news fun today as Jonathan Larsen, proprietor of The Fucking News will inject humor and snark into his roundup which, today, has lots of new reporting about the GOP's ridiculous impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Friday was always my favorite day of the week, and now even more so since we started spending Friday's shows with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. Having a tough time keeping all of the Trump trials straight? Somehow, Marcy stays on top of it all. Each week she answers whatever questions I throw at her, and she does it without consulting notes or quick searches. She just covers it all and somehow is able to speak off the cuff about it. Today, we'll talk about the Supreme Court's decision to take up TFG's immunity defense, Hunter Biden's closed door deposition, the status of the documents case in Florida and lots more. Once again, buckle in... these Emptywheel Friday shows are a bumpy ride!

Big news broke yesterday while we were on the air - and I missed it! I didn't see that the Supreme Court finally announced their decision to hear TFG's appeal regarding his ridiculous claims of absolute immunity. So we'll deal with that at the start of the show - and really get into it on Friday's show when Marcy Wheeler is here.

The other big news from yesterday was Mitch McConnell's announcement that he'll step down as Senate Minority Leader in November (but will remain in his senate seat). That's something we'll discuss with Howie Klein today. It's a really important issue when considering what candidates you vote for this year!

**Programming note of frustration. The long-awaited news from the Supreme Court about TFG's appeal of the DC  Circuit Court decision agreeing with the lower court that he has no immunity came down about 20 minutes in to the show today. But because it was live, I didn't see the emailed alert until the show ended. Apparently a couple of people posted it in the YouTube chat room, but I only see a fraction of what's posted during the show. So I missed it. I really do need to hire a producer. We'll deal with it tomorrow...

Yesterday's show about that teenage gang of neo-Nazis indoctrinating even younger kids was so heavy, so I thought we'd lighten the mood a bit today -- after recapping today's news from Mitch McConnell finally stepping down to Hunter Biden sitting for that closed-door deposition and more...
And then, my favorite diversion.... music. More specifically Rocking Women!
Veteran music journalist Katherine Yeske Taylor interviewed 20 women who rock for her new book, SHE'S A BADASS: WOMEN IN ROCK SHAPING FEMINISM.
Rock on!

There's a meme making the rounds  featuring a photo of some Trumper idiot with a swastika and the text "I did Nazi this coming" ...to which I call Bullshit.

The Nazis made their presence known in an unmistakable manner in Charlottesville. They regularly display their flags in Florida at Disney World, no less. Just two weekends ago, they marched on Music City, Nashville.

Jordan Green, investigative reporter for Raw Story, spent months investigating a heinous group of teenagers who recruit even younger (white) kids to indoctrinate them nice and early. For his troubles, he's been stalked, threatened and worse by these same "kids" who terrorize blacks, Jews, LGBTQ+call and other perceived enemies. They call themselves 2119.
Jordan Green joins us today to tell us about his investigation, stories and now his fight to protect his family and himself.

Be sure to read the stories he wrote on this subject:

⁠Stalked by Nazis: How extremists tried to stop me from reporting on their violence

⁠⁠Inside the neo-Nazi hate network grooming children for a race war⁠⁠Parents of ‘2119’ Nazi teens haunted by fear and regret Yes, it can - and does happen here!

We ended the show today with the latest song from The Marsh Family, a tribute to Alexei Navalny, "Sit for the Road"

Grrr, it’s Monday already. I try to escape from the real world on weekends so make an effort to avoid all news if possible. That makes Mondays even worse, as I start early catching up.

Thankfully, Jonathan Larsen is here each Monday to share his reporting and tell us what went on while I was pretending nothing was happening… Jonathan writes a daily substack to share his work with you. Subscribe at thefuckingnews.substack.com.

Plus, I ventured out in to the world of AZ politics this weekend and it was a pleasant surprise!

Marcy Wheeler covers the news at emptywheel.com like no other news outlet today. Best of all, she's independent and reader supported, so no corporate overlords or sponsors to please. She just reports truth, an important rarity these days! She joins me every Friday to bring us up to speed on the latest news, somehow keeping all of the players, trials, offenses and the rest of the chaos in Trump world straight.

Howie Klein, the man behind DownWithTyranny.com and the Blue America PAC joins me every Thursday for some plain talk about politics. In election years, like this one, we talk a lot about specific races -- many of them where Blue America has endorsed a candidate. Today, Howie wrote about two races whose primaries are in full swing right now -- the CA Senate seat to replace Dianne Feinstein, and Adam Schiff's current congressional seat that he's vacating to run for the open Senate seat. That's the district Howie lives in. So we'll get the inside scoop on what's going on there. It's also voting time for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.. (For those who don't already know, Howie's career before he moved into progressive politics full-time was in the music industry. His last position was president of Reprise Records!) Howie lamented on the Book of Face about the lousy choices on his ballot...

Rachel Bitecofer is a political scientist who doesn't mince words. Her new book, HIT 'EM WHERE IT HURTS: How to Save Democracy by Beating Republicans at Their Own Game is out and should be required reading for all of us concerned about the future of this American experiment. I'm excited that Rachel returns to the show today to teach us how to win!

I had hoped that the Supreme Court would have handed down its decision on Trump's move to appeal the DC Circuit court's ruling that he has some made-up 'absolute immunity' from virtually any crime because he once occupied the Oval Office, but no such luck. Perhaps tomorrow when at least one decision from the Extreme Justices is expected.

Regardless, Lisa Graves returns to the show today in her capacity as a private citizen who happens to have impeccable legal bona fides (just check out her bio at truenorthresearch.org).
I'll get her thoughts on when, and how the court may rule, and many other issues including True North Research's latest dive into Leonard Leo and dark money, and John Oliver's offer to get Clarence Thomas to resign from the high court.

If I hadn't taken last Monday off to hang with my daughter, I'd probably be enjoying a President's Day holiday off, but I couldn't justify it.

Besides, I put together an open for Jonathan Larsen's The Fucking Newssegment, and I didn't want to wait another week to play it.

From Special Counsel David Weiss's bs case against Hunter Biden falling apart after his big witness, Alexander Smirnov, was arrested and charged with making it all up(!) to a photo of sawdust on a table saw that they claimed was cocaine to Fani Willis on the stand defending her right to a modicum of privacy and more, Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net is here to tell all in our regular Friday get together. Buckle in. It's a wild ride!

I spent the last week enjoying my daughter's first visit to Arizona and honestly did my best to steer clear of the news as much as possible. She left last night and I've been catching up. Oh my, the shit really has hit the fan all week, and today is no exception. As I'm writing this and setting up today's show, Fani Willis is on the stand in Fulton County, GA in a suit brought by Trump allies attempting to have her removed from the case due to her alleged misconduct with a prosecutor she hired for this case. So, we'll discuss a bit of that, some of what happened while I was gone, then Howie Klein joins in for the second half hour...

We end my week of vacation shows with a flashback to February 14-- Yes, it's Valentines Day. It's also the anniversary of the mass school shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.

Laffy's been taking some time off from her regular appearances on the show. Since I'm on vacation this week, we go back to one of her shows from the past

Last week, a video of my friend and former colleague Jim DeFede questioning a Republican member of Congress from South Florida went viral. I'm happy his regular diligence in reporting was recognized and praised so widely!

Jim DeFede is the last Florida guest I had on the show before leaving the fascist state. I thought I'd share that program today...

Since it's Emptywheel Friday and I'm on vacation, I thought we'd go back to Marcy Wheeler's first appearance on this show-- October 12, 2011.

Then we go back to this date in 1996.. I was hosting mornings on KSCA/Los Angeles. That morning 2/9/1996 we were broadcasting live from a Starbucks in Encino with our musical guests Joan Baez and Dar Williams!

August 17, 2021 was the day after President Biden pulled the last troops from Afghanistan, finally ending our longest war. It was an ugly end to an ugly war, and we dealt with it on the show that day.

It was also the 52nd anniversary of the last day of Woodstock, billed as three days of Peace and Music. I was joined by Melanie for a treat of an interview. I'm sharing it today to honor the woman who passed away just about a week ago.

When it rains it pours, and I'm not even in California anymore. After yesterday's long-awaited decision on the former guy's non-immunity, there was another opportunity to almost feel sorry for Republicans. The new, inexperienced and in-over-his-head Speaker of the House learned nothing from his Democratic predecessor who NEVER brought a vote to the floor without knowing she had the votes to win, lost... spectacularly. Of course, the assist goes to Rep Al Green of Texas, who left his hospital bed to vote, causing a tie, and another GQP loss. When I get through the new news, we'll dip into the old news as I reconnect with an old friend. Actually, an old boss! I came across Charlie Seraphin's new book on Facebook with some curiosity. I think the last time I saw Charlie was the day I left the CBS radio building in Los Angeles for my new job at KLOS in June of 1990! The book the piqued my curiosity is called THE STORY OF YOUR LIFE: WRITE YOUR OWN OBITUARY. OK, we'll talk about it.

Because of big breaking news this morning, Marcy 'Emptywheel'Wheeler makes a special Tuesday appearance on the show to talk about the decision by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals on TFG's claims of 'absolute presidential immunity.' As we knew, there is no such thing, and the bipartisan three-judge panel ruled so unanimously, releasing their decision this morning.
Since I'm on vacation for a week after tomorrow, Marcy Wheeler jumped on the Zoom with me this morning to discuss what it all means.

Jonathan Larsen has spent many years in the progressive news broadcast biz -- you knew him before you knew him from Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC, and Morning Sedition and The Rachel Maddow Show on Air America Radio, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, to name just a few of his credits. Now he's back with an imperative newsletter, The Fucking News (thefuckingnews.substack.com). And he joins me each Monday for a recap and a preview of what happened last week and what might and could happen in the week just starting. Come hang with us today!

Every Friday we get together with Marcy Wheeler who does real journalism over at emptywheel.net to get the latest on the various trials, hearing, indictments, and drama surrounding the failed, twice impeached former guy who once again wants to occupy the oval office (but is really only running because he sees it as his only way to stay out of jail). Today, Marcy explains the story she singularly broke regarding the warrants issued in the Hunter Biden so-called investigation and lots more.

It's Thursday, so Howie Klein is here from his perch at Down With Tyranny and the Blue America PAC. Since election season is here, he's bringing on one of the Blue America-endorsed candidates for Congress, Jerrod Christian, running in Ohio's 12th District.

There's a potpourri of news today, so we'll attempt to cover as much of it as possible. From Taylor Swift causing Republicans to lose their collective shit, to a shit show in the senate as social media CEOs get a taste of their own harassment. No guest today, so it's up to you to weigh in on all that's going on in our opposite world.  Anything goes.

Last Wednesday, we were expecting journalist Brian Karem to pop into the Zoom room at any moment. That moment never came. When I invited Brian on the show, he told me that he had pool duty that day, but should be on the tarmac at LAX where he could jump on the air with me while waiting for the president to get back to the plane. Unfortunately, the Secret Service had a different idea that day, and Brian was unable to join us. So we'll try again today when, I think, he'll be in a more accessible position. We'll find out soon enough.

He's baack! I've been a fan of Jonathan Larsen's before I knew his name. He worked behind the scenes on some TV shows you probably watched -- he helped create and launch Anderson Cooper 360 at CNN, worked on Countdown with Keith Olbermann for about five years, then created and ran Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC. Did I mention that he also worked at Air America Radio as Executive Producer of Morning Sedition with Marc Maron and The Rachel Maddow Show? Now you get it, right? Well, Jonathan Larsen just relaunched his daily irreverent news roundup, The Fucking News. (Subscribe at thefuckingnews.substack.com). He'll join us today for the first of what I hope will be a regular segment on the show because we all need the fucking news delivered with the attitude it deserves!

Every Friday we recap the week in Trump trials and legal issues facing our democracy with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. Today, the latest in the Trump tantrums at the second E Jean Carroll defamation trial, which he throws on purpose to command the media's attention who are busy watching his sideshow instead of covering the important news he's distracting them from. And the persecution of private citizen Hunter Biden, the false equivalencies pushed by the magaT contingent, and lots more...

Howie Klein  of ⁠Down With Tyranny⁠ took off for a few weeks over the holidays, and then another couple to battle Covid. Thankfully he's back today in time to tell us about TFG's latest troubles, about Matt Gaetz's resurrected troubles, about the impending blue wave and whatever else we have time for. (Awesome artwork courtesy of Down With Tyranny's official artist Nancy Ohanian)

Primary Night Coverage isn't going to win any awards for suspense! The networks called it for Trump just moments after the polls closed in New Hampshire last night. And despite pronouncements to the contrary by the idiots at Fox, they called the Democratic primary for Joe Biden shortly after, even though his name wasn't on the ballot thanks to some DNC nonsense. Yawn. Until Trump is convicted, it'll continue like this. Then, all bets are off.