The Nicole Sandler Show

A bit of what's news for now

Misery loves company, so come hang with GottaLaff and me today. Sometimes the best humor comes from despair, so we should be a barrel of laughs today. Seriously though, things aren't that bad... are they?

A bit of what's news, for now

So, the progressives caved and lost their leverage. I hope with every ounce of my being that Pramila Jayapal knows what she's doing. The fact is, the progressives got played. On Friday night, every Democratic in the House except for six voted for the "bipartisan infrastructure bill" or BIF, as it was euphemistically called). With the help of 13 Republicans who had the backbone (or death wish) needed, they got it across the finish line. A giddy Nancy Pelosi then sent it to the President's desk, where it'll sit for a week until Congress returns from recess. Of course they need another break. After all, the next one isn't for another two whole weeks, when they'll take off for Thanksgiving. And their next deadline isn't way off the in the distance -- December 3. That's when the government will both run out of funding and will hit the debt ceiling. Seriously. They're taking this week off? And you wonder why we can't have nice things. Meanwhile, this *BIF* is the hard infrastructure bill. We need the other one, the "Build Back Better (BBB) Act"... you know, the human infrastructure bill, to pass in order to get any real investment in mitigating the climate disaster. So why are members of Congress and the administration touting this first part of the package as something to help fight climate change? I'll ask our guest today. RL Miller is the founder of Climate Hawks Vote (climatehawksvote.org), and Twitter ranted over the weekend about just what the BIF actually does regarding the climate catastrophe...

A bit of what's News, for now

I'm so disappointed in our Democratic Party. That statement stands alone. It says nothing about how vile and evil the Republicans are. In fact, both of today's political parties are guilty of malpractice and much worse, but that has nothing to do with the fact that the Democrats really suck. I'll have a few words on this topic. Hopefully I can string them together into a sentence that's understandable. I didn't sleep well last night, but then what else is new? Today I'll speak with someone who took a break from calling the obstructionists Democrats who are not only hurting our chances of passing something consequential, but they're also hurting their own re-election chances next November. Collin O'Mara is president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. He'll tell us why, for the future of the planet, it's imperative that we pass the Build Back Better Act through the reconciliation process...

A bit of What's News for now

Last night sucked. People are pissed and they're blaming the Biden administration and the Democrats. And I can't say their blame is totally misplaced. The Democrats have allowed their entire agenda to be hijacked by two Senators out of 50 whose priorities are their benefactors instead of their constituents and the future of this democracy. Rather than dwell on the election disappointments, we'll find out what's being done to hold the insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol on January 6 accountable for their actions. The only journalist I know who's dialing in to every hearing and reading every brief is Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. Marcy is our guest today for most of the hour, explaining that justice moves slowly but the wheels are in motion. We've got to take the good news whenever we can get it! A program note: I'm taking the day off tomorrow. It's my birthday! So a "best of" show will stream on our audio channels, but there won't be a video feed. Any requests? Just put 'em in the comments section. Do you want news and politics, or would you rather take a musical break with one of my classic artist interviews? Let me know!

Abit of what's news, for now

Driftglass is one of the OG progressive bloggers, and he's still at it, preaching sense to the masses at driftglass.blogspot.com. He's been kicked off of Twitter, but he won't be silenced. I've been a fan of his for at least a decade, and I just learned that we're kindred spirits... we're both Scorpios. So, during our mutual birthday week, I figured we could put our minds together and fix all that's wrong with the world... or our little corner of it, at least. Sadly, there's no shortage of things to bitch about, er, fix... Be warned, snark and sarcasm are in generous supply.