The Nicole Sandler Show

The word on the street is the DeSantis will make it official tomorrow, declaring his candidacy for president on 2024 with an announcement live on Twitter Spaces with Elon Musk.  Twitter Spaces? That's like a phone party line, right? Either way, I guess I'll miss it. But I continue doing my civic duty as someone who still (unfortunately) lives in Florida to warn the rest of the nation (and planet) about the sorry, sniveling, authoritarian, dictator wannabe and keep him as far away from the White House as is possible.  Today on the show, I'll share more writings to show you that yes, it could happen here (and already is). And I'll be joined by Maria J. Stephan who has a new article at Salon.com, "The Battle Against Fascism: Lessons on how to beat back authoritarianism from abroad".  Let's get all anti-fascist together! -- ANTIFA!

The news is that Ron DeSantis is going to declare his candidacy for the presidency this week, as ridiculous as that is.... So I figured we'd spend the better part of this week enlightening the rest of the world about what we've known about moRon DeathSentence since he was elected.... and no one knew anything about him before he became governor, as he was just some snivelly back bench nobody congressman. Strap in, and feel free to call in (954-889-6410)  with any questions about the fascist Florida man. If I don't know the answer, I'll do what he does and make something up.

We wrap up the week today with another visit from independent journalist Marcy Wheeler. She does a better job of covering the actual news dealing with national security and the various investigations into the former guy (and all news items related) than I see anywhere in the corporate mainstream press. You find her work at emptywheel.net. I'm honored that Marcy checks in with us every 3-4 weeks or so, and fills the hour with information. Today is no different.  We mostly discuss the Durham report that was released on Monday, on the 4-year long investigation into the oranges* of the Russia investigation. (Yes, I know it was supposed to be the origins, but TFG couldn't remember the word origins. Yikes.)

Howie Klein is a fascinating man. We first met some 30+ years ago. At the time, I was doing music radio in Los Angeles and Howie was President of Reprise Records.  When he saw the writing on the wall ahead of the AOL/Time Warner merger in 2000, he took the payout and got out just before everything started going to shit.   Howie quickly pivoted and turned his energies toward electing progressives to office. He began blogging at DownWithTyranny.com, and formed the Blue America PAC with other progressive bloggers Digby and John Amato. And they're all still going strong.  When I moved from music radio to progressive talk, Howie quickly became a regular guest, eventually joining me weekly. We've been at it for well over a dozen years already. You'd think we'd run out of things to talk about. But sadly, the state of politics today insures that we'll never be at a loss for topics - and politicians - about which to talk.  Today, aside from wherever the conversation takes us, I'll definitely ask Howie about Dianne Feinstein. Howie lived in San Francisco back in the day and was friendly with Harvey Milk. I've heard that Harvey shared his private feelings about the former Mayor of SF, now the sickliest senator in Congress who refuses to stay home...

One sure-fire way to get me to return for a live show is to have Digby booked as the guest. I've been taking a few days to try to regain some sanity as I've been struggling with some demons lately. Still struggling, but happy to be here today to talk with Heather "Digby" Parton. She's the Queen... the OG progressive blogger who's been at it with Digby's Hullabaloo since the start, fighting the good fight. (Though in my current state of mind, I keep asking if anything can stop the descent into full-blown fascism, and haven't come to a decent answer yet...)  Anyway, I've unplugged from most of the news in the past week or so, I've been catching up this morning and things are even worse than before.  Should be a lively discussion today.

I'm going to see Melissa Etheridge in concert tonight, so will not have a live show today. So I thought you should enjoy Melissa today too. So it's a Flashback Friday. I'll share three of the many interviews I've done with Melissa in the 35 (gasp) years since her first album was released in 1988. We start with an interview from October of 2008. It was three weeks before the Nov 4 2008 election that gave us President Obama! The second interview I'm sharing is from five years earlier. It was Christmastime 2003, and Melissa joined me on the air at WXRV/Boston 92.5 The River for an interview and performance. And we wrap it up with an appearance on my show from 2014... Enjoy! And I'll see you Monday.

We have a euphemism in our house. Instead of announcing the need to take a shit, we merely say it's time to Trump. Well, CNN Trumped itself last night. The so-called Town Hall  which was, in reality, a Trump rally hosted live on CNN, was itself a Trump of massive proportions. But now you know exactly what CNN is... and it and Trump are on the same level. Trump inducing sickness.  I started out watching it, thinking that I had to for my work. But about 20 minutes in, I could take it no longer and simply left the room. I was done.  Howie Klein is here today. If I had to guess, I'd say he didn't watch last night's spectacle. And I wouldn't blame him. We still have George Santos to talk about, if that is indeed his name

It's a Monday with Elie Mystal! [http://twitter.com/elienyc] Given the overwhelming number of cases where justice has not been served in recent days, weeks and months, we're past due for a visit with Elie Mystal, Justice Correspondent for The Nation [https://www.thenation.com/authors/elie-mystal/] and author of ALLOW ME TO RETORT: A BLACK GUY'S GUIDE TO THE CONSTITUTION. Thankfully, he joins us today for the better part of the hour. Don't be late!

Freedom of the Press is such an important pillar of a democracy that it's enshrined in the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Here in the so-called land of the free, we pride ourselves on our freedoms. So would it surprise you to learn that the US came in at a barely respectable 45th place in the 2023 World Press Freedom Index? This year's rankings were released yesterday. I'm joined by Clayton Weimers, director of the US bureau of Reporters Without Border, RSF.org [http://rsf.org/], who'll explain the findings and why a free press is such an important pillar in any democracy. Of course, we'll being with late breaking news. Today, the Proud Boys are convicted, more from the Clarence Thomas/Harlan Crow grift, and whatever else the day throws at us before showtime.

As we lurch ever closer to X-Date - the day when the US government can no longer use extraordinary measures with our money to avoid hitting the ridiculous debt ceiling now appears to be coming on June 1 -- neither side is budging. It's been a few years since we've dealt with this unnecessary crisis, but because the Democrats control the White House but the House is controlled by a magaT contingent intent on blowing up the nation, many of us have been getting a bit nervous. Thankfully, The American Prospect [http://prospect.org/] today launched a new "X-Date: A Debt Ceiling Newsletter [https://prospect.org/economy/2023-05-03-x-date-debt-ceiling-newsletter/]" in which they promise to bring us the latest status, news and information about the issue until there's some resolution. Today, I'm joined by Ryan Cooper [http://twitter.com/ryanlcooper], managing editor of TAP, who'll give us a primer on the ridiculous obstacle and how we can get past it...