6-28-17 Nicole Sandler Show – News & Views with Cliff Schecter
My old friend Cliff Schecter returned to the show today to talk about Mitch McConnell and what he's done to our democracy over the past decade, including his latest offense -- Trumpcare.
“Republicans complain the pushback against Trump is ‘unprecedented.’ Are they serious?”
Today's Los Angeles Times letter to the editor, because our voices matter: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has accused the Democrats of unprecedented obstructionism because they were performing their constitutional duties of asking for financial and ethical screening of Cabinet nominees. This is another outrageous example of the Republicans’ assault on the truth. (“Republicans in Congress gambled on Trump and won. Here's why they're worried now,” Feb. 17) Have we forgotten that right when President Obama took office in 2009, the Republican leadership in Congress planned a no-honeymoon strategy of all-out resistance to Obama, even though the country was [...]
“The big winners were the Koch brothers, Karl Rove and their colleagues.”
I read a tweet the other day that said the winners of the midterm elections were black lung and poverty. I've been too frustrated, disappointed, disheartened, and plain old angry to write up my feelings about the election outcome. I won't give up fighting for what's right (meaning, left), but right now I'm in no mood to put my thoughts down, because concentrating that hard on a topic that infuriates me that much will just intensify my feelings. Besides, I am trying my best to obey my doctor's orders and de-stress as much as possible. So instead, here are today's Los [...]
Weird, Creepy Politics
Three weeks out from election day, Nicole talks about ugly politics. Salon's Thomas Frank guests to discuss his latest interviews with Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Plus John Brody of Backus Nurses/AFT on Ebola preparedness, Wendy Davis' ad, and Alison Lundergan Grimes' voting record too.
Happy Indigenous Peoples Day!
Happy Indigenous Peoples Day! Nicole kicks off another week with Howie Klein on the political landscape three weeks before election day. Aaron Krager was in Ferguson over the weekend for #FergusonOctober, two months after Mike Brown was killed. Plus an update on the high school threats last week.
History Keeps Repeating
We know that history tends to repeat itself. Today is the 51st anniversary of the March on Washington, which brought us Martin Luther King, Jr's "I Have A Dream" speech. It's the 46th anniversary of the infamous police riot that broke out during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, when police brutalized thousands of anti-war protesters on nationwide television as the demonstrators chanted, “The whole world is watching.” 57 years ago today, North Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond began an (unsuccessful) attempt to filibuster the Civil Rights Act of 1957. He spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes, setting a record [...]
Guns in the News… Again… and Again…. and Again…
One of the saddest things I've heard recently was not only that a 2-year old in Kentucky was shot dead by her 5-year old brother with a "Cricket" gun that he had gotten as a gift, but that their grandmother told a local TV station 'It was god's will. It was her time to go, I guess.' The list of shootings that are described as "accidental" but are actually acts of extreme negligence goes on and on and on and on and on and on.... and so too many of them involve children too young to know better and certainly too young to [...]
Opposition World
The ugly part of politics is the politics. "Oppo Research" is an ugly necessity for anyone in a campaign. You have to know who your opponent is, especially the ugly parts of their history. It's the ugliest part of the ugly side of politics, which is in itself, usually an ugly game. But not all candidates use the oppo research they gather in the same way. There are some unspoken "gentlemen's rules" - but it seems as if Mitch McConnell doesn't know or care. Mother Jones, the go-to magazine if you have a surreptitious recording to leak these days, [...]
Monday Morning – The Nicole Sandler Show
It's Monday, so that means we get to re-live some of the high and low points from yesterday's Talking Head shows with Crooks & Liars' Nicole Belle. It's a weekly segment we call "Fools on the Hill." Here's what we'll hit on today, with links to all the clips, and Nicole's descriptions of them: We’re six weeks away from the midterm elections and the media is in full swing determining the narratives that are going to take us through the elections. It appears that the media wants us to be wildly dissatisfied with Obama and associate his policies with that [...]