The Nicole Sandler Show

Well, they sure took their sweet time to stick a dagger in the heart of democracy and now the Supreme Extreme Court is dragging it's feet before it strikes the death blow. Rather than immediately put us out of (or increase our) misery quickly (like they did in Bush v Gore 2000), they're draaagggging it out another six long weeks. Yes, the court will hear TFG's bullshit case where he's claiming "absolute immunity" for his actions related to the January 6 insurrection that he led! It took the court three weeks just to say they would hear the case (also a horrendous decision), and now they're obviously delaying hearing the case. One can only assume it's to help their dear leader, the twice impeached, orange tinted, failed former occupant of the White House. To add insult to injury, Clarence Thomas - who never should have been confirmed in the first place - refuses to recuse himself, despite overwhelming evidence that his wife, Ginni Thomas, not only participated in the planning of the Jan 6 coup attempt, but was a major instigator and funder of the whole mess. To help us understand this and how the laws have been so perverted, LISA GRAVES returns to the show. Lisa is executive director of True North Research, which investigates and exposes those distorting American democracy and public policy. She then went on to helm the Center for Media and Democracy, the group who gave us ALEC Exposed and who took on and publicly exposed the Koch Brothers. Previously, Graves was Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice in the Office of Legal Policy/Policy Development and served as Chief Counsel for Nominations for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Patrick Leahy.

Making Mondays suck a little less... Mondays come every week, inconveniently at the end of a weekend. It's difficult to make that transition from down time to work time, especially when the work involves the (usually depressing) news.Today is no different! It began with the Supreme/Extreme Court deciding unanimously that TFG will be on the primary ballots, saying that regardless of whether or not Section 3 of the 14th Amendment applies, it's up to Congress to make that call, not the individual states. So, D'ump will be on the Colorado ballot tomorrow and in the other states who had ruled against him. Even with that setback, we'll attempt to make the news fun today as Jonathan Larsen, proprietor of The Fucking News will inject humor and snark into his roundup which, today, has lots of new reporting about the GOP's ridiculous impeachment of DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Friday was always my favorite day of the week, and now even more so since we started spending Friday's shows with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. Having a tough time keeping all of the Trump trials straight? Somehow, Marcy stays on top of it all. Each week she answers whatever questions I throw at her, and she does it without consulting notes or quick searches. She just covers it all and somehow is able to speak off the cuff about it. Today, we'll talk about the Supreme Court's decision to take up TFG's immunity defense, Hunter Biden's closed door deposition, the status of the documents case in Florida and lots more. Once again, buckle in... these Emptywheel Friday shows are a bumpy ride!

Big news broke yesterday while we were on the air - and I missed it! I didn't see that the Supreme Court finally announced their decision to hear TFG's appeal regarding his ridiculous claims of absolute immunity. So we'll deal with that at the start of the show - and really get into it on Friday's show when Marcy Wheeler is here. The other big news from yesterday was Mitch McConnell's announcement that he'll step down as Senate Minority Leader in November (but will remain in his senate seat). That's something we'll discuss with Howie Klein today. It's a really important issue when considering what candidates you vote for this year!

**Programming note of frustration. The long-awaited news from the Supreme Court about TFG's appeal of the DC  Circuit Court decision agreeing with the lower court that he has no immunity came down about 20 minutes in to the show today. But because it was live, I didn't see the emailed alert until the show ended. Apparently a couple of people posted it in the YouTube chat room, but I only see a fraction of what's posted during the show. So I missed it. I really do need to hire a producer. We'll deal with it tomorrow...   Yesterday's show about that teenage gang of neo-Nazis indoctrinating even younger kids was so heavy, so I thought we'd lighten the mood a bit today -- after recapping today's news from Mitch McConnell finally stepping down to Hunter Biden sitting for that closed-door deposition and more...And then, my favorite diversion.... music. More specifically Rocking Women!Veteran music journalist Katherine Yeske Taylor interviewed 20 women who rock for her new book, SHE'S A BADASS: WOMEN IN ROCK SHAPING FEMINISM.Rock on!  

There's a meme making the rounds  featuring a photo of some Trumper idiot with a swastika and the text "I did Nazi this coming" ...to which I call Bullshit. The Nazis made their presence known in an unmistakable manner in Charlottesville. They regularly display their flags in Florida at Disney World, no less. Just two weekends ago, they marched on Music City, Nashville. Jordan Green, investigative reporter for Raw Story, spent months investigating a heinous group of teenagers who recruit even younger (white) kids to indoctrinate them nice and early. For his troubles, he's been stalked, threatened and worse by these same "kids" who terrorize blacks, Jews, LGBTQ+call and other perceived enemies. They call themselves 2119.Jordan Green joins us today to tell us about his investigation, stories and now his fight to protect his family and himself. Be sure to read the stories he wrote on this subject: ⁠Stalked by Nazis: How extremists tried to stop me from reporting on their violence ⁠⁠Inside the neo-Nazi hate network grooming children for a race war⁠⁠Parents of ‘2119’ Nazi teens haunted by fear and regret Yes, it can - and does happen here! We ended the show today with the latest song from The Marsh Family, a tribute to Alexei Navalny, "Sit for the Road"

Grrr, it’s Monday already. I try to escape from the real world on weekends so make an effort to avoid all news if possible. That makes Mondays even worse, as I start early catching up. Thankfully, Jonathan Larsen is here each Monday to share his reporting and tell us what went on while I was pretending nothing was happening… Jonathan writes a daily substack to share his work with you. Subscribe at thefuckingnews.substack.com. Plus, I ventured out in to the world of AZ politics this weekend and it was a pleasant surprise!

Marcy Wheeler covers the news at emptywheel.com like no other news outlet today. Best of all, she's independent and reader supported, so no corporate overlords or sponsors to please. She just reports truth, an important rarity these days! She joins me every Friday to bring us up to speed on the latest news, somehow keeping all of the players, trials, offenses and the rest of the chaos in Trump world straight.

Howie Klein, the man behind DownWithTyranny.com and the Blue America PAC joins me every Thursday for some plain talk about politics. In election years, like this one, we talk a lot about specific races -- many of them where Blue America has endorsed a candidate. Today, Howie wrote about two races whose primaries are in full swing right now -- the CA Senate seat to replace Dianne Feinstein, and Adam Schiff's current congressional seat that he's vacating to run for the open Senate seat. That's the district Howie lives in. So we'll get the inside scoop on what's going on there. It's also voting time for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.. (For those who don't already know, Howie's career before he moved into progressive politics full-time was in the music industry. His last position was president of Reprise Records!) Howie lamented on the Book of Face about the lousy choices on his ballot...

Rachel Bitecofer is a political scientist who doesn't mince words. Her new book, HIT 'EM WHERE IT HURTS: How to Save Democracy by Beating Republicans at Their Own Game is out and should be required reading for all of us concerned about the future of this American experiment. I'm excited that Rachel returns to the show today to teach us how to win!