Allison Gill of Mueller She Wrote joined me today with two huge stories she broke this week — and it's only Tuesday! First, the FOIA request she filed after ICE raided children's dormitories at the Dilley detention facility in Texas, confiscating letters, crayons, and drawings from kids after ProPublica published some of what they'd written. Six months later, DHS finally responded — and only nine of the ninety-one records they found. We went through them together, including a letter from a nine-year-old girl asking a federal judge not to deport her family.(Tissues needed here!)

Then Allison walked me through how Donald Trump suing Capital One backfired spectacularly — the bank's court filings revealed money laundering across Trump's steak, wine, water, golf, and payroll businesses, and the same lawyer representing him is the one referred to the bar for the fraudulent IRS settlement. We also touched on Senator Wyden's new report on JPMorgan Chase, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of America failing to report Jeffrey Epstein's suspicious transactions for nearly twenty years, and Todd Blanche getting voted out of committee toward a full Senate confirmation vote for Attorney General.

After Allison's segment, Spocko called in to talk accountability for Elon Musk and DOGE's damage, and Nebraska's new Medicaid work requirements — plus I take a personal detour into what I was going through ten years ago this week, when I was diagnosed with lung cancer and grateful, every single day, for the insurance I could only get because of the Affordable Care Act.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

If you didn't know that the Trump Crime Organization would pull off this scam too you've had your head in the sand. I'm running late this morning trying to pull all the pieces together as I do it all alone... But we'll go through the bullshit that will become official tomorrow as the Dumpster Fire and his evil spawn will be granted immunity from all of their tax fraud over the past 50 or so years... and yes, he'll wind up getting his slush fund to pay off his army of insurrectionists too -- using our tax dollars to do it. I'd say un-fucking-believable, but it's completely believable. I just sucks.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's Friday, which means it's time to dig deeper with Marcy Wheeler of emptywheel.net. This week we're covering a lot of ground: Iran outmaneuvering a US military running low on munitions, the stalled confirmation of Todd Blanche for Attorney General, wild new details in Jim Comey's legal filings, domestic violence allegations against Rep. Max Miller and the Republicans defending him, Elon Musk's continuing election crimes, and the slow-motion unraveling of Trump's DOJ. Grab some coffee, or perhaps something a bit stronger (if that's your choice!) it's a full one today.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today's news kicked off today's show: Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination gets pulled after he refuses to put in writing that Trump's IRS "slush fund" scheme is dead — and two Republican senators aren't buying it. Then, the never-ending question of whether Mitch McConnell is alive, dead, or somewhere in between, plus Trump's new AI "pre-crime" policing plan straight out of Minority Report, and Kash Patel's defamation lawsuit over being called "googly-eyed" gets thrown out of court. (Well, they ARE googly eyes and creepy too!)

In the second half, I talk with Erin Riley about her new book, The Mighty WMMR: An Oral History of Philadelphia's Rock Radio Revolution — stories from the golden age of terrestrial radio, breaking Springsteen and Billy Joel, and life behind the scenes at one of the country's most legendary rock stations.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Dr. Anthony Fauci took the Fifth Amendment today rather than let Senators Rand Paul ,Josh Hawley & others on the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committees bait him into a "gotcha" moment during a hearing designed from the start to manufacture a scandal. Driftglass joins me to talk about why — tracing Fauci's decades of public service back to the earliest, most frightening days of the AIDS epidemic, and explaining how the modern right's scapegoating of him follows the exact same playbook used against Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton before her.

Before we get into it, I catch you up on my long weekend in Tucson and Bisbee with my daughter — Mt. Lemmon views, a copper mine tour, and a serious temptation to just keep driving south into Mexico. Then it's on to the DNC's stunning debt under chair Ken Martin, a disastrous White House Correspondents' Dinner, and the deepening rift between the Democratic Party and Jewish voters. Plus a preview of tomorrow's guest, Erin Riley, on her new book about the history of legendary Philadelphia rock radio station WMMR.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Marcy's back! After a two-week break -missing one Emptywheel Friday - Marcy Wheeler and I dig into everything that happened while she was gone — and it's a lot. We spend most of this episode on press freedom, because two major stories are unfolding right now and only one of them is getting coverage: the New York Times subpoena mess tied to the "flying bribery palace" leak, and the far less-covered case of Minnesota journalist Georgia Fort, where the evidence suggests DOJ fabricated new claims against her after failing to get an arrest warrant the first time. And of course, a lot more including the ongoing Epstein fallout, Trump's Saudi Arabia nuclear deal chaos, the resumed war with Iran, Pete Hegseth's rough hearing, and Arizona primary results. Plus: sheep, apparently there are too many of them in Ireland.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

No news, no parody today — just a conversation I've wanted to have for a long time. Nona Lee spent over two decades as a trailblazer in professional sports law, becoming the first woman, first woman of color, and first openly gay woman to hold a string of executive positions with the Phoenix Suns, Phoenix Mercury, and Arizona Diamondbacks. She built the Diamondbacks' legal department from the ground up and was part of the first all-woman team to win an MLB salary arbitration hearing.

Then, in the middle of all that success, she walked away to found what's now called Truth is. Consulting. DEI work that, in this administration, has become something people are almost afraid to admit they need. We talk about her book, "The Truth About Us," the difference between the truth we show the world and the truth we carry inside, and why she believes we can feel helpless without ever letting ourselves become hopeless.

Find Nona's work at truthisconsulting.com and her book, "The Truth About Us: A Call to Confront Bias, Embrace Empathy, and Build a More Inclusive World," wherever books are sold.

As always — this show is 100% listener-supported. No paywall ever. If you can, please consider supporting the work at nicolesandler.com/donate-2

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

One of the progressive blogosphere's originals, Driftglass always has terrific wisdom to share, whether on a Wednesday or not. Today, we dug into Arizona's primary results — my district's new Republican nominee Mark Lamb is a "God, guns, and getting some" (as best I could recall) former sheriff with a few swinger, sexting and plain old sex scandals ongoing, who appears to live on his Tennessee ranch, which does not seem to be in Arizona. Meanwhile, while my pick, Nurse Elizabeth Lee, won with 65% of the Democratic vote yet got zero mention on the tiny bit of local news I happened to see last night. Driftglass and I also talked a bit about Illinois politics, and I finally told my true-life hurricane and earthquake survival stories. Plus a preview of tomorrow's guest, Nona Lee, author of "The Truth About Us."

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's primary day in Arizona, and the characters -er- candidates on the ballot could fill a Carl Hiaasen novel. I dig into the AZ-04 primary between Rep. Greg Stanton and progressive challenger Kai Newkirk, why the local DSA guide warned about risking a "fascist ghoul" taking the seat, and why I've been urging a vote for Stanton despite my meh opinions about him. Then there's Mark Lamb, the AZ-05 Republican frontrunner facing a serious sex scandal & more that Turning Point USA allies tried to silence at a recent district meeting. There's the Biggs vs. Schweikert race to challenge Gov. Hobbs. A quick item about missing Howie Klein right now and his upcoming memoir, and a mini review of Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. To wrap the show, I pull from the archive: my full 2019 conversation with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, now running in the Democratic primary for Michigan's open Senate seat, on Medicare for All, the Mueller report, and running for office as a proud Muslim candidate.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Today was Day Two of the Senate confirmation hearings for Todd Blanche in his quest to be our next Attorney General. I could have told you it wasn't going to go well, and probably did. But once again, I'm truly sleep deprived and that set the tone for the day today, which began by watching the early morning hearings --but then I had to leave to get an ultrasound. And, of course, Medicare and the imaging center set the tone for the rest of the day, in a not-good-way.

I finally got home and started the show, which quickly veered off to a topic very different from the hearing... We talked about the Massie amendment to the NDAA that the House was voting on yesterday, when half of the Dems found their spines, something they should've done a decade or two ago.

I did take some great listener/viewer phone calls and, by the end of the show, decided to make it long weekend. Marcy Wheeler is out tomorrow, and now so am I,

I hope you'll come back Monday by which time I plan to have recharged myself and forge ahead into the awful unknown.

Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy