The Nicole Sandler Show

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

My friend Lisa Graves served in the Justice Dept under Attorneys General Janet Reno and John Ashcroft in both the Clinton and GWBush administrations. She's been chief counsel for nominations under then Senate Judiciary Chair Patrick Leahy, and her CV has many more examples of her legal bona fides. These days, Lisa is Executive Director of the watchdog group True North Research, but she appears regularly on this show in her personal capacity as a citizen, not representing any organization.With all of the actions taken by this new horrific administration over the last 25 days, what I understand is that the vast majority of them are not only illegal but unconstitutional. Today, Lisa Graves returns to the show to try to help me make some sense out of what's going on.

I frequently exclaim that we're living in 'Opposite World'. It's a place filled with gaslighting where things are pretty much the exact opposite of what we're being told. D'ump and his cult followers, while screaming that WE were stealing the election are actually the ones who've been stealing OUR votes. Remember the newish warning: Every accusation is a confession.In his new film, VIGILANTES, INC: AMERICA'S NEW VOTE SUPPRESSION HITMEN, Greg explains how they've been doing this and why Donald Trump is sitting in the Oval Office again. You can see it for free right now at gregpalast.com, on YouTube and Amazon Prime.I hope you'll watch both the film and my interview with Greg Palast, share them widely, and work to insure this never happens again.

It's been a long time since my 8th grade civics class. I did learn a lot from Mr. Patton back then, but I haven't brushed up on much of what I learned then since. But we're being told a lot of stuff about our government, and the newly empowered administration is doing a lot of things that appear to be not only counter to what I learned, but also unconstitutional. Speaking of the constitution, we hear we're either approaching a constitutional crisis or we're smack dab in the middle of one. But do we really know what a constitutional crisis is. And how do we deal with one when it happens?Tom Schalleris a political science professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. I first met & interviewed him years ago when he was a political columnist for the Baltimore Sun. We also spoke about some of his books including his latest,WHITE RURAL RAGE: THE THREAT TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY.I couldn't think of a better guest to invite on to help us get back to basics so we can understand what's happening in and to our country today as we attempt to make sense of the nonsensical.We'll start with some of the latest news, then get some important knowledge from Dr. Schaller.

Our list of things inevitable is growing. It's no longer just death and taxes. To that we know that Monday will always arrive and with it more fucking news. So we get it out of the way... Each Monday I'm joined by Jonathan Larsen who actually compiles the news every fucking day at thefuckingnews.substack.com - and then does more original reporting at jonathanlarsen.substack.com too. And he hangs out with us on Mondays to talk about as much of it as we can.Today, some good news is tempered by a depressing thought. It's the new existential question of our surreal life... who can enforce the laws in a system of checks and balances when the "executive" won't recognize the other two branches authority and power?

Although it feels like a decade, we've reached the end of the third workweek of the D'ump 2.0 administration and it is the shit show we anticipated. But the Democrats in the House and Senate finally seem to get getting the hang of fighting back and protecting our democracy.Each Friday, I'm joined by one of the best independent journalists working to keep us informed, Marcy Wheeler. Emptywheel.net is her home base, and it should be on your daily reading list. As this week comes to an end, there's a lot to digest. Digestion is difficult when your stomach is in knots, but hopefully we can help get you through the nausea and into a more productive space. The alternative is unacceptable.

Well, now the senate Democrats are getting the hang of it. Instead of just granting unanimous consent to end debate, allowing the Republicans to to ram through D'ump's horrendous cabinet nominees, it seems that they're finally getting in the fight. The debate began yesterday morning at 10:30am ET. They went all night long and are still going strong. The rules allow up to 30 hours of debate, so the Dems are apparently going to use every one of those hours to slow down the process. The judiciary branch - you know, one of the three CO-EQUAL branches of government has also begun stepping up to stop the convicted felon in the White House from gutting the 14th amendment, blocked Trump's co-president Leon from further accessing government databases, pushing tonight's ridiculous buyout offer for federal employees to resign, setting a new hearing for Monday. And the filibuster is delaying the vote on Project 2025 architect Russell Vought's nomination to be the new Budget Director. And there's more... It's Thursday, so Howie Klein joins us from DownWithTyranny.com and the Blue America PAC to weigh in on what he's writing about at DWT too.

There's a lot going on today. We do have a guest in the second half hour of the show. Catherine Coleman Flowers is one of the leading environmental activists of our time. Her new book, HOLY GROUND: ON ACTIVISM, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE, AND FINDING HOPE, is just released. And the timing couldn't be better because we can certainly use some hope right about now. I almost canceled today's show as I debated going to the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix to participate in today's 50501 "Build the Resistance" protests. I'll explain on the show why I opted not to go today.. But the more research I've done into it, the more grassroots it appears to be, and I'm so happy about that. We got calls from Joe who went to the CA state capitol in Sacramento, and Rebecca who went in Idaho, and both reported really great experiences. So I'm thrilled that I found a website that's now serving as a central hub for a very grassroots movement. It's at BuildTheResistance.org. With the horrific pronouncements and plans coming from the mouth of our would-be dictator, more than ever, despair is not an option. That's one of my constant mantras these days as I walk the tightrope between anxiety, depression and the future.

Well, technically, she's there, in Canada, and back on the show for today. GottaLaff (known to many as Laffy) is an old friend who used to do a weekly segment with me on this show for many years. She began working to move from Southern California to Canada when the orange menace was in office the first time, a process that took until this past year when she & Mr. Laffy were able to get residency and officially move. Between the move and the stress of doing this work, appearing weekly with me got to be too much for her, so she took a break from our regular get-togethers. But she's back today. You can still follow Laffy at GottaLaff.bsky.social and @GottalLaff@mstdn.social. And I'm nicolesandler.bsky.social and nicolesandler.substack.com.

The coup is in full swing and we're not going to take it. I just had to say that right off the bat. D'ump went golfing this weekend, but on days 12 & 13 of this unconstitutional regime, his minions were hard at work... especially Elon Musk, WHO NOBODY CAST A SINGLE VOTE FOR. He has seized parts of the US Treasury that pays our bills and installed some kids barely out of high school who have access to all Americans' most sensitive data. They told us what they were going to do in Project 2024, that the Convicted Felon insisted he knew nothing about, yet most of the 300 ridiculous Executive Orders he's already signed are directly lifted from that manifesto. And enough Americans fell for it or just stayed home on election day to give him the go-ahead to complete the coup he started during the first time they put him in power. Today is Monday, so I'll be joined by Jonathan Larsen of thefuckingnews.substack.com who's doing a great job covering Trump's ongoing attempt to destroy the United States of America and our constitution. It's all hands on deck time. Let's do something about it.

Every Friday, we check in with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net - one of the best journalists out there - to discuss what happened during the week. Given that this week we saw the senate confirmation hearings for the worst of D'ump's cabinet picks, it's no wonder that the shit show keeps getting even shittier. Not only did we have to hear from RFK Jr., Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard, but this week brought another flurry of unconstitutional executive orders and pronouncements, firings of non-partisan career professionals, and an unprecedented mid-air collision between a Blackhawk Army helicopter and a passenger plane over Washington DC and an administration blaming it on DEI. I couldn't make this crap up if I tried. This administration doesn't even have to try. They just do it. And will keep doing it until we stop them.

Howie Klein of Down with Tyranny and the Blue America PAC returns with lots to say about the wholly unqualified people who the convicted felon in the White House has chosen to be in his cabinet. The senate confirmation hearings are running ad nauseum, many concurrently so we can't possibly cover all of them. But we'll do our best today. In addition to the testimony, much of which was filled with lies and non-answers, we'll also expose the failures of many of the Senate Democrats who cast unconscionable votes in support of some of the worst cabinet nominees in history. And we'll recognize and thank those who did the work we elected them to do, asking tough questions and voting against nominees who should never have a seat at the table.

As the saying goes, the best laid plans... Lisa Graves, the unofficial legal expert of the Nicole Sandler Show, was supposed to be here today to help us get through the senate confirmation hearings for the would-be cabinet members in this new so-called administration. Unfortunately, Lisa was in a meeting that never ended. Good thing (I think) there was a lot going on today, including Robert Kennedy Jr's confirmation hearing in the Senate Finance Committee. We'll get Lisa back on soon... in the meantime, today's hearing was a tragedy (to almost quote RFK Jr on abortion...)

I'm thrilled and honored that Heather Cox Richardson is returning to the show today. We spoke once before, the week that her latest book, DEMOCRACY AWAKENING, was released. She's back today because she's one of the voices I hope everyone will hear, and I'm persistent! Her nightly "Letters from an American"- which inform and comfort me - sits atop the most-read list at Substack. Her Facebook live talks are like hearing from an old friend who always knows the right things to say. Heather Cox Richardson is an American historian. She's a history professor at Boston College and author of seven books, in addition to her nightly "Letters". I only wish I'd had a teacher like her. At least we can all learn from her. I do, every day.

How is this only Week 2? We've got our work cut out for us... Save the date! Heather Cox Richardson joins us tomorrow, so don't be late! Today, as we do on Mondays, we'll recap some of the important news of the day. Jonathan Larsen of thefuckingnews.substack.com is here to help us try to make sense of the insanity of it all.

Well, it's Day 5. We made it through the first working week of the Dump 2.0 reign, though it hasn't been easy. And it feels like a long year already. Thankfully, Marcy Wheeler is here from emptywheel.net each Friday to chat with me about what happened and make sure we know what we need to know. We cover a lot of territory today, and get some warnings about what to expect in the near future. It's all hands on deck time. I keep saying that you need to find the reliable sources of actual news that you can trust. Marcy is one of the best there is. It was an ugly week one, but hopefully we can help put it in perspective for you.

Nicole Sandler finds a few slivers of light in the darkness of the first four days of our new world order.