Happy holidays, friends! This week, we have a special treat for everyone -- we're welcoming back the authors of our four favorite books of 2016 to celebrate their accomplishments and hopefully convince you that if you need last-minute or late gifts for people you love, you couldn't do better than these reads. With us today: David Dayen, author of CHAIN OF TITLE; Thomas Frank, author of LISTEN, LIBERAL; Sarah Jaffe,  the author of NECESSARY TROUBLE; and our own Eliot Nelson, who wrote THE BELTWAY BIBLE.Do you want some more festive? Well we have got some more festive. Oregon Representative Earl Blumenauer is with us today, with an important Christmas message: fruit cake doesn't have to suck. It really doesn't! And Congressman Blumenauer should know because he has perfected a fine fruitcake recipe, and he's using his baking skills to give back to his community.Finally, I guess we wouldn't really be "on brand" if we didn't give you guys some bad news, so...what have we got? Oh, yeah, here's a real kick in... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Four Books That Should Be On Your Holiday Reading List

An inside-the-beltway show that's truly for beltway outsiders. Each week the HuffPost Politics team offers an entertaining alternative to the Sunday shows you've stopped watching. Along with their outside the beltway guests, join Arthur Delaney and Elise Foley as they analyze the news of the week and explain why it should matter to you. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

News & Politics

News

The government is on the verge of another shutdown, which is lots of fun for people who like political drama but less so for people who work in government, benefit from government services and think that Congress should be able to do its job.
Then we travel to south america: Nicholas Casey from the NYT is here to tell us what the hunt for Venezuela’s most wanted man tells us about the political and economic crisis in the country.
And the White House was employing a dude who couldn't get a full security clearance because he allegedly abused women, but the president is still there.

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Government Workers Await News Of Whether They Have Friday Off

Republicans are helping President Donald Trump undermine an investigation into his campaign's collusion with the Russian government, revealing that Trump is now in full control of the GOP.
Trump delivered his first State of the Union address, but I had a hard time hearing it because my dog kept barking at the TV for some reason. 
And you might have seen news stories about people getting thousand dollar bonuses because of the new tax law. These stories have been very misleading, and we can explain why.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Trump Truly Owns The Republican Party Now

The government's open, but where do we go from here? Democrats want legal status for 700,000 Dreamers, and they'll ultimately need President Donald Trump to make it happen. We talked to Michael Steel, a former aide to House Speaker John Boehner.
American infrastructure is a mess, and in Orlando, it's hurting poor people of color. HuffPost's Julia Craven looked at the effect of unchecked highway construction on one neighborhood.
And there have been major gerrymandering developments in Pennsylvania and voting rights developments in Florida. HuffPost's voting rights reporter Sam Levine will catch you up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Only President Trump Can Save The Dreamers

In this special dispatch, So That Happened takes a look at the Schumer Shutdown. Or was it the Trump shutdown? Did Dems cave? Or was this the best they could have hoped for? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The So That Happened Shutdown Special

The government might shut down this week and this is the ONLY podcast that can tell you HOW, WHY and also WHO to blame. We interviewed Congressman Ted Yoho, a conservative House Republican who definitely blames the Democrats.  
Republicans in Congress say text messages between two FBI agents have totally compromised the special investigation into Trump's campaign. What's more likely is that Republicans compromised the agents' marriages by exposing the affair they were having. 
And this week, the question of Trump's mental and physical stability reached its savage climax. Is the president crazy? We're the ONLY podcast that has the answer. 

 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Four Books That Should Be On Your Holiday Reading List

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