The Nicole Sandler Show

A bit of What's News for now

As recently as 2006, the Voting Rights Act was renewed regularly by a unanimous vote of the senate. So what changed? Why did the Senate Republicans just block even opening debate on the Freedom to Vote Act last week, for the THIRD TIME? That's one of the many questions I'll ask of Jennifer Cohn, election security advocate, writer & attorney when she joins us on today's show. Once we get past the why this is happening, we'll find out the what... as in what evil plans they've put in motion to steal the next and subsequent elections. And they do it while they accuse our side of "the steal". These people project their worst impulses on to us. And as most children under the age of around 11 are quite familiar, they're playing the old "I'm rubber, you're glue" game... everything you say bounces off of me and sticks to you. Sadly, the result of this game is much more consequential. We truly risk losing what's left of this democracy..

We made it to Friday, so we've got that going for us. Unfortunately, it was a rough and bumpy week, as the Democrats in Congress can't seem to get their shit together. The media seems to take pleasure in dumping on Biden and his agenda, as if to prove they're equally critical of both sides (even when both sides aren't equally reprehensible, but that's an issue for another day). Alex Lawson is Executive Director of Social Security Works (socialsecurityworks.org), and was one of the panelists on a Bernie Sanders live stream earlier this week, that also included AOC, Rev Dr. William Barber, along with Bernie and a few others to again explain what's in the Build Back Better reconciliation package that's being whittled down at the whims of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Alex will join us at the top of the show for a status report on where we are with getting this thing across the finish line. Then I figured we could all use a bit of stress relief heading into the weekend. Dr. Cassandra Leah Quave is a medical doctor, but also an EthnoBotanist, a leader in the field of medical botany. Her new book is "The Plant Hunter: A Scientist's Quest for Nature's Next Medicines". Since Manchinema won't let Medicare negotiate drug prices, maybe we can learn to heal ourselves the natural way... Strike that last paragraph.. the guest somehow wasn't aware we were supposed to talk today, so we didn't. Perhaps another time. Instead, I ranted...

A bit of what's news for now

A bit of what's news for now

Watching Congress navigate a couple of bills that would actually improve the lives of millions of Americans in one fell swoop is becoming a nail biter, stress-filled exercise. We're used to Republicans obstructing the progress Democrats try to make. In this case, it's two alleged Democratic senators - Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema who are keeping the president from being able to enact substantive change in this country, and delivering what could be a death blow to Democratic control of Congress. Today, Republicans in the House are balking at the Democrats' investigation of what happened on January 6, pretending that an insurrection by Trump loyalists storming the Capitol was no big deal. Good thing it's Thursday and Howie Klein of Down with Tyranny and the Blue America PAC is here to talk about it today.

A bit of what's news for now

I was wrong when I thought the stress would let up after we get TFG out of the White House, and it did, temporarily. With our future on the line as voting rights are under attack, while Trump and his cronies are still roaming freely even after fomenting an insurrection at the Capitol, as the Democrats in Congress fall all over themselves to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, and COVID continues to infect and kill people, we're all on edge, anxious and depressed. The best medicine thankfully doesn't depend on our dysfunctional health insurance system, as it's generally free. Laughter! Actually humor is quite important when it comes to absorbing information. A Pew study conducted around the time Jon Stewart exited the Daily Show found that viewers of humorous news shows such as The Daily Show and The Colbert Report exhibited higher retention of news facts than those who got their news from newspapers, CNN, Fox News, or network stations. So, today, I welcome the very funny Noel Casler back to the show. Many will remember Noel as the guy who worked on The Apprentice some years ago, and has said what he witnessed while working for and around the D'ump clan. These days he hosts his own podcasts, posts weekly "Car Rants" on YouTube, and does standup comedy. We'll have some fun with the news as we get serious about laughing about what's killing us. Seriously.

A bit of what's news for now

GottaLaff has been in Canada for a few weeks, scouting for her family's eventual move to the Great White North... We'll get the scoop on what it takes to move from the US to Canada, and also take a peek into her Twitter stream to see what's happening in the news.