The Nicole Sandler Show

A bit of what's news for now

I really tried to unplug this weekend and remove myself from politics, news and the rest of the insanity that's stressing me out during the week. I was somewhat successful, but the big questions keep cutting through the calm. I even stopped watching Bill Maher, as he finally completed his long-in-the-works jumping of the shark last week when he defended the vaccine and mask deniers. So I didn't watch him Friday night, but his warning about what's in store for us pierced my peaceful respite and made me listen even if I didn't want to. But the warnings are there, shouted from the rooftops by Bill Maher and Medhi Hasan. The problem is, the corporate mainstream media isn't being honest and, for some reason, won't tell you that the former guy has never stopped plotting and planning his coup. It's in full swing. As Maher said, slow-motion coup in effect. With all that's going on, I figured today was a good day to invite Dave Johnson, OG Progressive blogger doing his thing these days at seeingtheforest.com to try to make some sense out of the ridiculous.

A bit of what's news for now

We made it to the end of another fucked up week. As bad as last week was, this one was possibly worse. No end in sight to the break within the Democratic Party. As Bernie Sanders summed it up so well, 2 senators have the right to disagree with the other 48 in the caucus and to even get some compromise, but they don't have a right to derail the agenda favored by the other 48 members along with the vast majority of Americans and the President of the United States. As much as I agree with Bernie, our dysfunctional (and unconstitutional) senate allows for exactly that kind of hijacking. And as sad as it makes me to admit it, the Democratic Party is wholly incapable of fixing the problems necessary to fix this country. That leads me to an interesting farewell letter written by a friendly acquaintance of mine. Guy Saperstein was on the show a few months back, explaining why he's moving to France. Well, his move is just about here, and he penned a missive that lays out exactly what's wrong with this country, and why he's leaving rather than staying to continue to fight. I'll share it on the show today, but you can follow along at https://scheerpost.com/2021/10/07/why-im-leaving-america/. With so much at stake, it's time for another visit from Heather "Digby" Parton, one of our side's OG bloggers who's still one of the best speaking truth to power...

A bit of what's news, for now

We dodged a bullet this week, but just barely, and only temporarily. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is playing a dangerous game while accusing the Democrats of politicizing everything when he's the guy actually politicizing everything. That's what they do. It's classic projection. They engage in heinous, often illegal behaviors but accuse the Democrats of doing what they themselves are guilty of. It what I call "Opposite World". We're experiencing it happening in real time and there's seemingly nothing we can do about it. Well, we can call them out. And that's what we'll do today. It's Thursday, so Howie Klein is here and will certainly add some color commentary as we discuss the obstructionists, the liars, the members of the Republican wing of the Democratic party and a lot more...

A bit of what's news for now

That's not hyperbole, it's a fact and something must be done about it. Our guest today is Jen Senko, writer/director of the film, "The Brainwashing of My Dad" that was released in 2016. Yesterday, the book, "The Brainwashing of My Dad: How the Rise of Right-Wing Media Changed a Father and Divided Our Nation-- And How We Can Fight Back" was officially released, and the timing is perfect because things are getting worse. I hope you'll listen to this interview, read the book, watch the film, and then take action. We'll try to figure out what we can do. Knowing we have a problem is the easy part; fixing the problem is the challenge we must address... before it's too late!

A bit of what's news, for now

We're less than two weeks away from hitting the debt ceiling, an unnecessary risk especially during a historically precarious time. But here we are. Writing in a Washington Post Op-Ed, Zachary D. Carter (who was on this show just last week), said of this situation, "There is no economic rationale for this threat, and its consummation promises no political advantage to anyone. It is a preposterous, silly and breathtakingly dangerous situation." So he proposed meeting it with an equally "preposterous, silly and perfectly painless legal trick: minting a single platinum coin with a face value of $1 trillion or more." Actually, the idea foe minting a platinum coin has been floating around for a few years now. Today's guest, Rohan Grey, actually wrote the "Automatic BOOST to Communities Act" with Congressman Rashida Tlaib's office. The bill was introduced last year, as the COVID-19 pandemic had just taken hold and forced a nationwide shutdown. Tlaib's bill proposed sending every person residing in the US a debit card loaded with $2000, and refilling then with $1000 each month until we were clear from the pandemic. It would be funded directly from the Treasury, using its legal authority to create money via coin seigniorage, by minting two Trillion-dollar platinum coins. The main logic behind this idea is that no government debt issued to pay for the program-- it's paid for by the platinum coins. Rohan Grey is an Assistant Professor at Willamette Law, and is president of The Modern Money Network (https://modernmoneynetwork.org), and a proponent of Modern Monetary Theory. He was referred to me by Stephanie Kelton, a regular guest on this program. Of course, there's other news to get to, and an update on why I was out yesterday-- more reasons we need to fix our fucked up health insurance extortion system.