It's a busy Thursday on the show, as the race tightens. Nicole welcomes Howie Klein back to the show to talk about all of it! MoveOn's Ben Wikler tells us about their record-breaking endorsement of Bernie Sanders. And it's Driftglass Thursday too!
Nicole attempts to have a positive outlook on the future in the wake of the election debacle. The Nation's Katrina vanden Heuvel gives her analysis and tells about her recent meeting with Edward Snowden. Plus She's History's Amy Simon too.
Americans have really short memories. It was less than a year ago that the Republicans shut down the US government for 16 very long days. And now Mitch McConnell is threatening to do it again. I suggest we take those threats very seriously. To refresh our country's collective memory loss: First, Federal employees were furloughed for a combined total of 6.6 million days, more than in any previous government shutdown. At its peak, about 850,000 individuals per day were furloughed. That number fell once most Department of Defense civilian employees were able to return to work as the Pentagon implemented the [...]
Sometimes it feels as if we're taking on the whole world. That's because caring, responsible people just can't sit idly by while the world is crumbling around us. It's why we fight back against the immoral assholes who scream "Get out" to refugee children whose parents risked their lives on the remote hope they'll find better futures here. It's why we recoil in horror when the images of bombed schools and hospitals with blood and bodies strewn senselessly about cross our TV and computer screens. And why we fight back against the big moneyed interests whose only agenda seems to [...]
Greetings from the land of hanging chads and stand your ground insanity. It's also a state where registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 4,587,502 to 4,128,098, yet the GOP controls both chambers of the legislature and all cabinet positions. Maybe it's the heat combined with the humidity that make people vote against their own best interests time after time. Regardless of the reasons, Florida has a chance to rid ourselves of some of the DUH that's infected our land. But to do that, Floridians have to vote in the August 26 primary, and vote for the only progressive Democrat in the race. If [...]
The Supreme Court has now adjourned until the first Monday in October. My only wish is that they all ride off into obscurity. Or at least the five of them who insisted on being on the wrong side of everything today. The justices decided to wait until today to render their final two opinions - one that sticks a knife through the heart of organized labor in the US, the other further eroding the separation of church and state - and underscoring the second class citizen status of women in America. The first decision offered this morning was in Harris v. [...]
Once again, I feel as if I've entered Opposite World, where up is down, in is out and everything is completely backwards. I didn't meant to quote the Talking Heads, but it's the lower case talking heads who are making my brain hurt right now. First of all, the talking head making the most sense about Iraq right now is... Shephard Smith!?!?! Yes, the man who is relegated to keeping his sexuality safely hidden in the closet because his employer is Faux News is, once again, speaking the truth. This time, he's saying what I'm thinking about Iraq. If [...]
My outrage over the right wing hypocrisy concerning the release of Bowe Bergdahl continued over the weekend, and boiled over after John McCain made his zillionth Sunday show appearance yesterday, with Candy Crowley at CNN where he proclaimed the five Taliban members traded for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who was being held prison of war, were "hardcore military jihadists who are responsible for 9/11" and should have been detained indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay or some other U.S. prison. "First of all, I wouldn't release these men," McCain told CNN host Candy Crowley. "Ever?" Crowley wondered. "Not these men," McCain [...]
"When will they ever learn?" -- Pete Seeger The answer, sadly, is never. Mankind has waged war since the beginning of time. If it were up to me, world leaders who wanted to send their nations' youth to battle should, instead, meet one another in an arena and fight to the death. Maybe that would end the killing. Back in World War I & II, soldiers returning from the battlefield were described as being "shell shocked". Today it's Post Traumatic Stress. Regardless what you call it, people who experience the madness of war, of watching their fellow soldiers blown to bits [...]
On Memorial Day, we remember those killed in battle. I think that now includes those who were gunned down on the streets of Anytown, USA. On Friday night, it was the Isla Vista community at UC Santa Barbara. You probably didn't hear about the three people killed and two wounded in two separate shooting incidents yesterday in Myrtle Beach, SC . If you think mass shootings happen way too often in the US, you'd be correct. If your stomach can handle it, read Mother Jones' "Guide to Mass Shootings in America", updated on May 24 to include Santa Barbara. Sadly, [...]