The Nicole Sandler Show

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

A bit of what's news for now

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

A bit of what's news for now

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

A bit of what's news, for now

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

A bit of what's news for now

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

A bit of what's news for now