The Nicole Sandler Show

If you've listened to my show, you know that I often refer to myself as an "atheist Jew". My Judaism comes by way of heritage, family, generational stories and history. I have real disdain for organized religion of every stripe, and have often commented about how virtually every war ever fought had its basis somewhere in religion. I've been struggling since the news broke of the Oct 7 attack by Hamas terrorists with the images that play on a loop in my mind. Making it worse is the reception I've gotten from some listeners, former friends and former political allies, and complete strangers who think that, because I believe that Israel has a right to exist and defend itself, that I am a "Zionist who loves genocide." I do my best to explain my feelings, but these people who resort to calling me names and worse don't want to listen, they want to tell me how I feel. They have no clue. I hope they're listening today. I happened upon a thread on Threads.net from a man named Mo Husseini that captured my attention through all 55 parts. I immediately identified with him when he described himself: "I am a proud Palestinian-American. I care deeply about Palestinian rights to freedom, security, and self-determination. But I am also profoundly aware that true long-term freedom, security, and self-determination for Palestinians cannot exist without creating a reciprocal reality for Israelis. There is no path to freedom that begins with oppression of the other. That is not freedom. That is a Pyrrhic victory that will turn to ashes in your mouth. We are, both peoples, stuck on the world’s worst fucking amusement park ride, an eternally shitty and utterly predictable carousel of suffering." It goes on and I hope you'll read the whole thing. It's posted on Medium in article form here: Mo joins me in conversation on today's show. I hope you'll join us. ***Post show note from Nicole: I truly appreciate Mo joining me today. We didn't agree on everything, but we did find common ground where it was most important. That is the need for both sides to stop the shit and start talking. That's an oversimplification, but so it goes. In the meantime, there are two films you should watch: Oslo and Screams Before Silence. 

Ahh we joke, but that's how the news gets digested better. Every Monday, I'm joined by Jonathan Larsen who writes at TheFuckingNews.substack.com. Mondays are difficult enough, so I figure it's best to ease back into the new week with a bit of humor injected into the normal awfulness of it all. Today we'll have some actual funny observations about the news, something that was mostly missing from Saturday night's Nerd Prom (aka WH Correspondents Dinner). Then there's the lovely revelations about SD Gov Kristi Noem as a dog murderer, college campuses racked by protests, Bill Barr says the quiet hyprocritical parts out loud (nothing really new there) and not only will he vote for TFG if convicted, he admitted that TFG often spoke of having Americans killed. Nothing much to see here... move right along...

Each Friday, Marcy Wheeler takes a break from writing at emptywheel.net to join me for a conversation about what happened that week. This week was insane, and ended at the Supreme Extreme Court. That hearing consumed much of today's show, with a few minutes at the end dealing with Trump's current criminal trial, underway in Manhattan.

It's a Thursday, so we have a date with Howie Klein of Down with Tyranny & the Blue America PAC. It's not like there's a shortage of things to discuss... in fact, too much news for a one-hour show. There was the SCOTUS hearing this morning on Trump's ridiculous concept of absolute immunity (but there are some ridiculous people sitting on that extreme bench these days), the were 3 members of the AZ Republican House voting with all the Dems to kill the 1864 abortion ban (now goes to the senate and then the governor?). The FCC restored Net Neutrality rules killed by TFG's administration, and the FTC said no more airline junk fees. Of course TFG is still nodding off in a Manhattan courtroom where his first of four criminal cases against him is being heard. But Howie asked me an important question this week that I never answered, and the "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame" class of 2024 was announced, and I think they need to change its name to the Popular Music Hall of Fame.

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 Karem was the last man standing (literally) at Playboy 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...