So That Happened

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...

This week, we bring you a Democratic party autopsy, of sorts. But it's not likely to be the one sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee. And in fact, much of it was written before the election took place, and written by our guest, author Thomas Frank, whose 2016 book, "LISTEN LIBERAL" now, in many ways seem prophetic. But speaking of the Democratic National Committee, their future is now up in the air and it won't be settled until a new leader for the organization is chosen. And the way it's shaking out, the race to run the DNC could come down to Minnesota Representative Keith Ellison and outgoing Labor Secretary Tom Perez who, on the surface, don't appear to be all that different. So what's all the shouting about? We'll take a deeper look. Meanwhile, the Cabinet of president-elect Donald Trump is taking shape and it's looking more and more like an exercise in irony, as the candidate who ran against elites continues to populate his administration with people who will, if anything, be even more... &#

President-elect Donald Trump doesn't just use his phone for tweeting. Apparently, he's also taking and making frequent calls with other world leaders. And hey, it's good to get to know other people. But there is some concern that Trump's communications abroad are being done off-the-cuff, without the benefit of briefing from the foreign policy community. And in a couple of examples, his mere phonecalls have had the potential to undo long-standing foreign policy goals and alliances. So, should this worry us? We're going to find out. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress are already making plans to fulfill one of their longstanding goals -- the dissolution of Obamacare. But there's a catch: right now, the GOP doesn't have a plan in place to serve as a replacement. It's been sort of an ongoing thing with them, actually. So with the chance to repeal looming, Republicans are looking to pull off a maneuver called "repeal and delay" -- that is, if they convince everyone in their caucus to go along with it. Finally,...

Over the course of the presidential campaign, president-elect Donald Trump was quick to make elaborate promises to working class Americans, promising to do away with Washington's business as usual, usher in an era of tough dealmaking, and revive the country's moribund manufacturing sector. Three weeks after the election, Trump has earned himself something of a win in the area, with a claim to having saved a thousand jobs at Carrier from going to Mexico. But how different from the status quo was this Carrier deal. Joining us to walk us through it is Scott Paul, the president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing. Meanwhile, while we're sorting through whether or not Trump's first foray into working-class populism is sustainable or not, we're going to be taking a look at how he's proceeding in his efforts to, as he says, "drain the swamp" in Washington. It's a noble goal, to be sure, but it's hard to look at the way his cabinet is shaping up and see a lot of hope. What's so different about Trump's...

It's Thanksgiving week, and by the time you hear this podcast, President Barack Obama will have already performed his ceremonial turkey pardoning duties. But here in the last few months of his presidency, Obama will have more acts of mercy on his mind as he heads for the exits. Today we'll discuss presidential pardons and commutations, and whether or not Obama will fulfill an ambitious clemency plan. Meanwhile, as Trump mulls the activities he'll pursue at the beginning of his presidency, attention has turned to his infrastructure proposals, which are typically the sort of thing that could earn him a lot of bipartisan buy-in. But is Trump's plan on the level, or is it just another con? Joining us to discuss the matter is journalist and author David Dayen Finally, Congressional Democrats are still at sixes and sevens, nursing their electoral wounds, girding themselves for a lame duck session, and planning for the years ahead. We'll catch you up with what Democrats are thinking about up on Capitol Hill...

So *that* happened, Donald Trump is now President-elect of the United States. With this somewhat unexpected victory, the So That Happened team takes a deep dive into the messy transition process for Trump, and questions what will happen to the Affordable Care Act, and the future of America's foreign policy.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Welcome to our official 2016 post-mortem. Emphasis on the mortem. So, let's remember my first rule of political thermodynamics: an object in fucked-up motion tends to stay in fucked-up motion until a force sufficient to the task arrests it. That force did not materialize in this election. We'll try to get started down the path to explaining why that is. Meanwhile, the polling industry spent the bulk of election night coming to the numbing realization that the mechanics of their enterprise need to be newly recalibrated. We are joined once again by HuffPost Pollster's Ariel Edwards-Levy who will endeavor to explain what went so badly wrong. Additionally, for every winner there is a loser -- in this case Hillary Clinton, who's political fortunes rose and fell in dramatic fortunes over the course of an evening. We'll take a look at the remarkable circumstances that led to her having to concede this election, and what can be drawn from a speech she never anticipated having to give. Finally, it's not too soon...

We have finally come to the end of this election cycle. It was too long and mostly terrible. And we're probably kidding ourselves that everything is going to be fine just because it's over. But let's end it anyway. At this point, you probably want to know what's going to happen in a few days time. You're probably looking to polling experts for certainty. One of our in-house polling experts is here to help. Keep calm. Look at the polling aggregate. And remember that there is always a margin of error. Meanwhile, you have probably been wondering just what is going on over at the FBI ever since its director, James Comey, announced that the agency was pursuing a new and not-totally clear angle on the Clinton email scandal, despite longstanding Bureau traditions of keeping the hell out of the way of electoral politics. Former Justice Department official Matt Miller joins us to discuss Comey's decision to politicize the FBI by injecting the agency into our lives at this late date. It's not all 2016, thank God....

This week, with the election winding down, Donald Trump is running out of creative ways to spend Republican money on himself. But the wily old grifter has still got it, and now people who thought they were donating to a presidential campaign have actually bought copies of the Art Of The Deal. We'll take a look at Trump's ability to rook gullible Republican donors. Meanwhile, the media has been having a debate about Trump's voter base. On one side you have people who believe it's entirely driven by racial resentment. On the other, you have those who insist it's all rooted in economic anxiety. But what if the real problem is that we've all just taken sides in a dumb debate? Joining us to travel to a middle ground is University of Connecticut history professor James Kwak. Additionally, the 2016 election cycle has been a real boon for the factchecking industry. Interest in fact-checking among readers is seemingly at an all-time high. And thanks to Donald Trump, there is a never-ending supply of material. And...

This week, the season of debates has finally ended, with Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and her Republican counterpart Donald Trump doing battle in Las Vegas, Nevada. And the emerging headline from the final head-to-head tilt is that Donald Trump doesn't seem to be planning for a peaceful transition of power, refusing to promise to accept the result of the election. That shouldn't pose a threat to our democracy at all, right? Well, for all the attention that Trump gets whenever he goes out of his way to deform our democratic norms, it's worth asking ourselves how our civic foundation has come to be so rickety that a glorified reality-teevee huckster can so readily endanger it. Joining us to discuss whether or not there was some notable rot in our foundations that we should have noted much sooner is Rolling Stone columnist and author Matt Taibbi. Finally, for all you history dorks out there, we have a special treat for you today, author and historian John Cooper Miller, Jr. is on the show...

This week, with the help of WikiLeaks, we've finally gotten some real insight into Hillary Clinton's famous speeches to Wall Street elites, and you'll probably be shocked to learn that many of the policies she happily advocated in those circles are a little bit different from the economic agenda she's pitching now. We can't be sure, but it seems that Clinton is some sort of centrist? But the big question is whether or not Clinton might be pulled from these positions as the tide of conventional wisdom is changes. And speaking of those changing tides, last week, Jason Furman, the chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers gave a speech in which he all put rejected the deficit-hawk consensus that President Barack Obama and most mainstream Democrats had embraced during Obama's first term in office. In its place, Furman advocated for a new view of fiscal policy and its application, and Furman is going to join us today to discuss it further. Finally, as Republican legislators abandon Donald Trump in...

This week, it's all about hot vice-president on vice-president action, as largely forgotten white guys Mike Pence and Tim Kaine laced them up in Farmville, Virginia. Who won? Who lost? Will it matter in the end? Surely our thoughts will be worth the zero dollars you paid for them, but we will offer them to you, humbly, anyway. Plus we'll set up this weekend's presidential debate between the two people that American actually cares about. Meanwhile, it is possible that things could get worse for Wells Fargo? Weeks after getting beat up in the press for massively defrauding their own customers, the beleaguered bank is getting savaged by Wall Street analysts, shedding business partners, and trying to satisfy critics by clawing back compensation from executives. Plus, did you hear about all the military veterans that the bank has mistakenly tossed out of their homes? Alexis Goldstein from Americans for Financial Reform joins us to discuss whether we should just burn this bank down to the rafters. Finally...

If there's been one issue that has animated the presidential race this year, it's got to be the future of trade. The Obama administration's efforts to get the Trans-Pacific Partnership in place have been met with resistance. The issue has been central to Donald Trump's pitch to the middle class. Hillary Clinton, somewhat recently and conveniently, has also come out against the TPP. So, great. But here's a question: anyone have any new ideas? As it happens, yes, Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a new paper out that promises a progressive approach to globalization. He joins us to discuss it. Meanwhile, do you feel that the media has given short shrift to Hillary Clinton's actual policies? Well, we have some good news: the Huffington Post's own Jonathan Cohn recently spent some time in Brooklyn at Clinton's HQ, and discovered that it has a nougaty, wonkish center that's not only the hub of Clinton's campaign effort, but an engine that's reshaping the Democratic Party's whole...

I don't know if you've noticed this, but when people talk about how it came to pass that Donald Trump is the presidential nominee of a major political party and looking more and more like he could win, one group that often gets the blame is...well, us. The media. Has the press become the brilliant ally of democracy's gravedigger? Joining us to sort through this is the New Republic's Brian Beutler. Meanwhile, we return to the matter of Wells Fargo bank, who face huge fines for having feathered their bottom line on the backs of a massive scam perpetrated against their customers. This week, Wells Fargo head John Stumpf was called before Congress to answer for his bank's malfeasances, and while there were the expected pyrotechnics from Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, there were also helpless shrugs from other parties. We're joined by Slate Columnist Haleine Olen to discuss the matter. Finally, are we headed toward yet another government shutdown? Probably not. Hopefully not! But once again, Congress...

This week, we have a bank dork treat for everyone as we are joined by author and historian Eric Rauchway, to talk about his most recent book, "The Moneymakers" and how FDR getting our currency off the gold standard is the gold standard of economic policy. Meanwhile, a bill that would allow the victims of terrorism to sue the states that sponsor such acts has passed the House and is on the way to the president's desk, where it is sure to be vetoed. However, this bill has such broad and bipartisan support that we may be on the verge of a first-ever Congressional override of an Obama veto. How did the White House end up here? We'll lay it out. Finally, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has levied a huge fine on Wells Fargo bank, after it was revealed that thousands of Well Fargo employees were routinely, and purposefully, charging their customers bogus fees. It was a dumb and venal scam that we're all glad was caught out by the CFPB. But can a hefty fine cure a diseased corporate culture?  See

Summer vacation is over, school's back in session. and the long hard march to Election Day is the only thing filling our days. Fortunately, we are sharing this journey with one of our favorite guests, MTV News' Ana Marie Cox. She joins us today to talk about the renewed focus on Donald Trump's shady dealings with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, and how the Bondi story serves as unique platform to discuss the way the media has treated both the Trump and the Clinton campaigns over the past year. Meanwhile, in case you've forgotten, America is still facing a Zika crisis, especially in the Gulf Coast states, where mosquitoes carrying the virus have established a foothold. You may also recall that we have this thing called "Congress" that is supposed to provide the means by which the Zika crisis is averted. Well, once again, Congress has managed to cock up their response. We'll break down the Zika week that was, and the solutions that aren't coming. Finally, we return this week to our previous coverage of...

This week, joining us in the studio we have documentary filmmaker Steve Mims, whose latest movie, "Starving The Beast," details an ongoing crisis in public higher education. After decades of funding cuts, our great public universities are finding themselves increasingly vulnerable to the whims of agenda-setting politicians and post-crash "disruptors" who are angling to redefine these universities' missions and curricula -- leaving them as shadows of their former selves. The movie is coming soon to a theater near you, hopefully it gets there before the emergency it describes. Meanwhile, are capitalism and democracy headed for some kind of nasty break-up? That's the provocative contention of influential British economist Martin Wolf, who recently took to the pages of the Economist to suggest that the pace of globalization may be pushing us to make a choice. Given the state of our politics, where cash rules everything around us, it could be that this choice is already being made for us. Finally, they say... &#

This week, we have got the latest storm and stress from the 2016 presidential race. The Associated Press rocked the Clinton campaign's world after they released a report detailing new concerns about the Clinton Foundation, alleging that foundation donors got better access and treatment from Hillary Clinton's State Department. Clinton's defenders have pointed to the fact that the AP failed to prove any evidence of quid pro quo. We're here to remind you that this is exactly what a defender of the Supreme Court's Citizen United decision would say. Over in the Trump campaign, they are working hard at the pivot they've promised to make for months, and the most interesting thing that's emerged is that on the reality-television host's signature issue -- his draconian approach to immigration -- Trump no longer seems to know what he either believes or says. Did Donald Trump mean it when he said his Republican rivals were soft on immigration? And if so, why does he suddenly seem to prefer the immigration policies... &

This week, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump opted to shake-up his campaign for what seems like the twenty-third time. Paul Manafort, who was the campaign's manager -- and who was thought to be a force toward professionalizing the wayward effort -- is out. His replacement, Steve Bannon of Breitbart News, heralds a shift toward allowing Trump to fully fly his freak flag. Hopefully this is amusing to the aliens who watch over us. Meanwhile, in an effort to contend more substantively with Trump, we're going to wade into what's turning out to be a hot media debate -- are his followers fueled by racial animus, or by economic anxiety? And to that end, we have a rather interesting interview for you, with Republican lobbyist who thinks that a Clinton presidency would be much better for the GOP than a Trump presidency. This lobbyist wishes to remain anonymous, for obvious reasons, so you'll get to enjoy our first foray into digital voice alteration! Finally, we turn to Obamacare, which faced some bad...

This week, we are going long on the politics of protest and the short term legacies of movements that have become an essential part of the public discourse. First up, we welcome journalist and author Sarah Jaffe to the program to discuss her forthcoming book, "Necessary Trouble: Americans In Revolt," which documents everything she has learned about the various protest movements that have emerged in post-crash America after spending years in the field with them. Meanwhile, we are marking the two-year anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown and the protest movement that emerged shortly thereafter, to consider what effect they've had in changing the conversation on the criminal justice system in Ferguson, Baltimore, and beyond. Finally, we are pleased to welcome Zephyr Teachout back to the show, now officially the Democratic party nominee for the House of Representatives in New York's 19th district. After a long career in taking on big issues like government corruption and economic justice, we'll ask... &#