The Nicole Sandler Show

Today is Thursday, so Howie Klein joins us from Down with Tyranny and the Blue America PAC where we usually talk politics. And there's lots to talk about today, including the travesty unfolding in Nashville right now as the TN state legislature is seeking to expel three Democrats from the legislature because they dared to stand with the protestors following last week's mass school shooting in Nashville.  But  Howie was a music industry icon back when we first met in Los Angeles almost 30 years ago. Before he was president of Reprise Records, Howie worked with Seymour Stein at the groundbreaking Sire Records. Stein died this week, so I'll ask Howie to share what he did that was so important.  But we'll start today with John Nichols, national correspondent for The Nation magazine, and from a family who's been in Wisconsin for, I believe, seven generations. On Tuesday, Wisconsin voters made sure the state's Supreme Court would be controlled by Democrats, thereby blocking the Republicans from enacting an ancient provision from putting another nail in the coffin of  women's reproductive rights.

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It's Wednesday. The former guy was arraigned yesterday and pleaded NOT guilty to all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. I will not play any audio of the orange one's awful-on-so-many-levels- speech from Mar A Lago last night, but I will debunk some of the bullshit he spewed. And yes, we have the transcripts of the hearings too... Plus... Students across Florida are walking out of school today to protest the fact that kids are being killed in their schools and our elected officials are doing nothing to stop it. In fact, in many places- - including Florida -- they're making life more dangerous. I'll speak with Alexis Dorman today. She's a sophomore at Florida State University in Tallahassee, a volunteer with Students Demand Action [https://studentsdemandaction.org/], and helped lead today's walkout there.

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History was made today when a former US president was arraigned on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy. The phone lines are open today for your thoughts as we digest the day's news. Read the full indictment here [https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/74a68faf-fccb-4d65-91e3-479c81df590d.pdf]. And this is the "Statement of Fact [https://www.washingtonpost.com/documents/84fba797-216a-490c-b75d-d77bca6d10f3.pdf]s" that really explains all the legalese in the other one. Thankfully, Lisa Graves [https://truenorthresearch.org/lisa-graves/]— former deputy assistant Attorney General for nominations under both AGs Janet Reno and John Aschroft– joined in to give her personal opinions on what happened.

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Ideally, we would have done this interview during March, but honestly, women's history shouldn't be relegated to just one month. Ya know? So today, after we cover the latest news on arraignment watch and the further fascist makeover of Floriduh, we'll learn about the American First Lady who basically performed her husband's role of president after Woodrow Wilson suffered a stroke -- Edith Wilson. I didn't even know her name until I learned of this new book, UNTOLD POWER: THE FASCINATING RISE AND COMPLEX LEGACY OF FIRST LADY EDITH WILSON.  Today, I'll speak with the author, REBECCA BOGGS ROBERTS. (Note from Nicole: I need to fire my producer. She left up Rebekah Jones' info on Rebecca's chyron... Her Twitter is @RBoggsRoberts and her website is rebeccaroberts.org.) But we'll start the show with a brand new production from Randy Rainbow, and I think it might be his best video yet!

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What a way to end the week! I always look forward to a visit from Cory Doctorow [http://pluralistic.net/]. He's a brilliant bestselling author, journalist and activist. The last time he was here, we spoke about his newest nonfiction book, CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM [https://bookshop.org/a/1630/9780807007068]. Today, he's here as his new science fiction novel, RED TEAM BLUES [http://redteamblues.com/], is garnering excellent reviews, but Amazon/Audible won't sell Cory's audiobooks because of a pesky rule - the DRM (Digital Rights Management)- that Cory will not agree to. He'll explain what that all means, as it's way too involved for me to explain here. (But go to redteamblues.com [http://redteamblues.com/] to get the book via the Kickstarter campaign.) I promise, every time Cory Doctorow is on, it's a fascinating conversation from which I learn a lot, and am sorry when it ends! But we're kicking off the weekend with the news that the Manhattan Grand Jury voted to indict Trump yesterday, making history. Could it be that no person here is above the law? The jury's still out on that one!

A bit of what's news for now