The Nicole Sandler Show

Mondays are inevitable. Sadly, in recent weeks, the news on Mondays has been tragic and today is no exception. We're still reeling from the spectacle in the Oval Office on Friday and coming to terms with the fact that the man occupying the White House has aligned us with Russia over our allies in Europe. And as further proof that Dump is trying to crash the economy, the stock market took a huge dump today after the orange thing announced that his 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada would go into effect tomorrow.Jonathan Larsen of thefuckingnews.substack.com will be along to talk about the shit show.I'll start the show with what might be my favorite song parody from the Marsh Family. They turned "Puppets on a Kremlin String" around in about 24 hours. It's the perfect commentary on what we witnessed on Friday that we wish would have never happened...

Today is Friday, when we get together with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net to recap much of what happened in the week leading up to our conversation. We record these shows on Friday mornings here in Arizona/Friday afternoons for Marcy in Ireland.Today, while we were recording, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelinskyy arrived at the White House to meet with Trump, ostensibly to sign a deal for Ukraine to compensate the US for our help in defending them against Russia. I had the tape-delayed coverage running on a computer screen off to my right. When Marcy and I finished taping, I turned up the volume in time to hear the US president and vice president attack Zelinskyy in an outrageous spectacle that should be the end of this administration.I watched that surreal scene unfold and then replay for the next couple of hours. We saw President Zelinskyy get in his car and leave the White House. I'm still in shock. Although Marcy and I had already recorded the show for today, I knew I couldn't just run it as usual without addressing this sickening, embarrassing moment that history will not look kindly on. I reached out to Marcy who agreed to jump back on the line to start the show live with me so we could address the situation.I have no idea what will happen next, I just know that it's not a great time to be alive.Slava Ukraini.

I know. I escaped Florida after living there for half of my life. I don't have many kind words to say about the state that has mostly become a bad joke. But I'll sing their praises if the people of Florida come through on April 1. (And I'm not talking about an April Fools prank!)There are two special congressional races in FL being held that day to replace two of D'ump's cabinet nominees. Matt Gaetz left Congress as the rep for District 1 when he was ridiculously nominated to be AG. Thankfully we dodged that bullet and no longer have Gaetz in Congress. Rep Mike Waltz resigned from his seat representing FL6 to become D'ump's new national security advisor. The special election to fill those two seats from Florida is set for April 1, with the deadline to register this Monday, March 3. Early voting begins March 22.Today, the Democratic candidate running from FL6, Josh Weil, joins Howie Klein and me on the show today. Find out more about him and support him at joshweil.us.As usual, we'll start with the latest news....

The current regime has announced that they are following the authoritarian's handbook when it comes to controlling the media. Banning the AP from the Oval Office and other press events with the liar-in-chief wasn't enough for them, so now they've decided that they will decide which reporters and media outlets will be allowed to cover the office of the president in the WH Press Pool. The NY Times' chief White House correspondent Peter Baker likened the move to "how the Kremlin took over its own press pool and made sure that only compliant journalists were given access."Thankfully, David Dayen - executive editor of The American Prospect and one of the best journalists working today - had already agreed to be our guest today. In addition to the never-ending torrent of shit being propelled against the wall (and there's another ton of it today), I'll ask him about the current state of a free press in the US and what these actions portend.

A huge part of surviving this assault on our nation from within is our ability to maintain our sanity. One lesson I've learned in the past five weeks is that some days are better than others. I look forward to those mornings when the usual pit in my stomach doesn't fully form and I'm able to make it through the day without dissolving into a trembling mess. So far, so good today. I like days like these because I'm more able to catch up on my reading and somehow digest the avalanche of surreal news that ,on a day when the stress, anxiety and depression take over, render me incapable of dealing with it. Sadly, those bad days still outnumber the good ones. But I know it's something I must keep working on because giving in to despair is not an option.On days like this, I like to find the good news. There was actually a bit of it from the Supreme Court, if you can believe it. The extreme court today actually sided with a man whose constitutional rights were violated by prosecutors who wouldn't correct false testimony at his trial. The extremes actually directed the Oklahoma courts to vacate his conviction. A huge step in the right, er, correct direction.I'm encouraged by watching videos of Senator Bernie Sanders who's embarked on a "Fight the Oligarchy" tour - going to Republican districts, encouraging citizens to stand up and demand their representatives stand up to the Trump/Musk regime and for the constitution...I'm thrilled that Heather "Digby" Parton is my guest today. I love talking with Digby any day, and read her blog (at digbysblog.net) every day. We'll talk about today's breaking news and how we continue to fight the oligarchy and save our future.

Despite our best efforts to keep the weekend going, Mondays inevitably arrive. And with Mondays come the reality of the shit that hit the fan over the weekend. And the madness began Friday evening when we learned that D'ump has his unqualified, drunken idiot of a Secretary of Defense fired the highly qualified chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. At "The Nation," Joan Walsh's article on this travesty carries the headline, "Make No Mistake, This is Trump's Worst Move Yet".And that says something, as we know the moves he'd previously made.Joan Walsh joins me today to discuss wtf is happening and assist me in my search to find reasons for optimism...

With the D'ump/Musk regime working at breakneck speed to destroy our democracy, it's hard to keep up with it all. That's one reason I'm so grateful that Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net sits down with us for an hour (or more) each Friday to help us understand what happened that week. Since Marcy is in Ireland and I'm in Arizona, we record these sessions right around noon ET. By the time it goes live at 5ET/2PT, some things may have already changed .. as is the case today.When we got around to discussing the case of NYC Mayor Eric Adams, we were still waiting on Judge Ho's ruling on the DoJ's order to drop the bribery and corruption charges against him. Shortly before 2pm ET, Judge Ho refused to immediately close the case. Instead, he appointed an outside lawyer -- Paul W. Clement, US solicitor general under Pres GW Bush - to advise the court on the matter.The Washington Post reporting that the "judge noted that 'there has been no adversarial testing' of the government’s push to abandon the Adams prosecution — a controversial move that prompted the resignation of at least eight federal prosecutors, including Danielle Sassoon, the former acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York.“Normally, courts are aided in their decision-masking through our system of adversarial testing, which can be particularly helpful in cases presenting unusual fact patterns or in cases of great public importance,” the judge wrote."This means that Judge Ho won't decide before mid-March whether to grant the dismissal of the case against Adams.As for the rest of what we covered on today's show... who knows?

I've long theorized about our existence in "Opposite World" but never has it been more apparent than today as the sitting US President lies to the world about who started and is responsible for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war, now in its third year. The ONLY chance we have at making it out of this mess with any semblance of democracy in place is in the hands of Congressional Republicans. We only need a few in the House and four in the Senate, but are any of them willing to challenge the self proclaimed King of America and put their country and our constitution ahead of their jobs? I wouldn't bet on it, as was clear this morning when Kash Patel was confirmed as Director of the FBI.It's Thursday, so Howie Klein will step away from his writing at DownWithTyranny.com to talk with us about the mess we're in...

He famously tussled with the orange one during Trump 1.0, and thankfully he's still on the beat.Brian Karem gained notoriety as the White House Correspondent for Playboy magazine last time around. Playboy is no more, but Karem is writing at Salon.com, hosting his podcast (justaskthequestion.com) and raking the muck... Today we'll talk about the administration's crimes and missteps. the Oval Office banning the AP, the role of media during a crisis like this and more...

I try to follow what's happening closely, but there's only so much my mind and psyche can handle. I'm quite fortunate to have Marcy Wheeler as a friend who joins me every Friday to recap much of what happened in the week just ending. At least much of what we need to know. (We'd need much more than an hour to cover all the shit they throw at the wall in any given week!)Today we cover a lot of territory, but focus in on the "Thursday Afternoon Massacre" at the DoJ, as the Attorney General (sic) has ordered prosecutors to drop the criminal charges against NYC Mayor Eric Adams (bribery, corruption, you name it) so that he can help President D'ump do his vile and dirty deeds to immigrants.We record these Friday sessions before noon ET, so more unthinkable betrayals of the law and the trust of the American people may have happened since... Read Marcy Wheeler at emptywheel.net and follow her at emptywheel.bsky.social for the latest. (While you're there, I'm @ nicolesandler.bsky.social too.Get the full blog post at nicolesandler.com/2-14-25