So That Happened

This week, the 2016 race was roiled by the announcement that former GOP nominee and 2012 loser Mitt Romney was, against all logic, getting his band back together to mount yet another run for the White House. This has baffled everyone, including the Huffington Post's Amanda Terkel, who joins us to form a chorus of confused noises. Elsewhere, the past few weeks has seen the age-old battle between Wall Street and Main Street re-enjoined with American taxpayers facing the prospect of the Volcker Rule getting delayed. But the spines of the Democratic minority have suddenly stiffened. We'll talk about why with Zach Carter and Arthur Delaney. Finally, President Barack Obama is pitching a plan to reform paid family leave for Federal workers. We'll discuss the implications of the plan, and its potential to spur similar reforms elsewhere.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, radical militants from a pseudo-Islamic death cult murdered twelve members of the staff of French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo in their Paris office, ending any hope we had that 2015 would be a respite from 2014's garbage and misery. Meanwhile, the new year has ushered in a new Congress -- so far bringing us the same old stories: a leadership fight with John Boehner, a rift over budget policy, and the perennial question, "Can our government govern." Finally, the 2016 race is now officially underway, and right off the bar we have one of those silly, unserious rows between two rivals. Is there any chance that we might actually raise the bar in this election? L-O-L.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, President Barack Obama announced that the United States would make an effort to normalize relations with Cuba, ending a decade long policy of distance that had been surprisingly effective in doing nothing in particular. We'll talk about the new plan, and who is hopping mad about it. Meanwhile, a Seth Rogen-James Franco comedy has been cancelled, because North Korea apparently now dictates what movies we watch in our spare time? How did something so simple get so out of hand? And finally, we're taking a look back at 2014: a great year for garbage monsters. What are our least favorite things about the past year? Well, this is going to take a while.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

So That Happened, Episode 13: The CIA Torture Report Was A Chronicle Of Depravity And Incompetence This week, the Senate's report on CIA torture was released into the wild, and while the redactions were thick, it nevertheless read as a thoroughgoing chronicle of depravity and incompetence that will, at the very least, ruin hummus forever. National security reporter Ali Watkins is here to walk us through the report. Meanwhile, last week we introduced you to the CROMNIBUS -- the lame-duck budget bill that needed to be passed to keep the government working. This week, legislators got lathered up about a Wall Street poison pill that came along with the bill, leading to new fractures and strange alliances that could come to define the legislative fights ahead. And speaking of the CROMNIBUS, the bill also contained language that may scuttle the efforts of the District of Columbia to decriminalize weed. It's another blow to a group of Americans who have never had fair representation in Congress.  See

This week, hard on the heels of the Ferguson grand jury decision, a grand jury in New York City returns no indictment on the police officer who choked Eric Garner to death on the streets of Staten Island. Can the cops be stopped before they kill again? Meanwhile, America's first brush with an Ebola outbreak has been resolved, but President Barack Obama wants to do more to prevent the next one. Will Congress come through, or has interest with Ebola faded now that it's no longer a sexy, midterm election issue? And finally, we would like to introduce a new work to your political lexicon: CROMNIBUS. We'll tell you what a cromnibus is, and how it could totally screw up your life.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This week, after several months of "will-he-or-won't he" wonderings, President Barack Obama went ahead on his own and issued new executive actions to fill the space where a comprehensive immigration reform bill should be. We'll sort this out with HuffPost immigration reporter Elise Foley. Meanwhile, the Senate came one vote shy of approving the Keystone XL pipeline -- all because Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) got the notion that willing the pipeline into existence might rescue her all-but-doomed re-election prospects. HuffPost environmental reporter Kate Sheppard is here with her observations on this strange week in the life of the Keystone debate. Finally, have you heard about this CIA torture report? This long-awaited investigation of the troubled period in the War On Terror was supposed to be nearing its release. But that's now in doubt as legislators and the White House fight over redactions. We'll find out what secrets we can with HuffPost's national security reporter Ali Watkins.  See acast.com

So, that happened: This week, President Barack Obama announced his full-throated support for "net neutrality," a term that basically means "don't let Comcast turn the Internet into a dystopian mess" -- unless you're Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and then you think it's "Obamacare for the Internet." Speaking of, this weekend marks the beginning of another period of Obamacare enrollment. Health care reporter Jeff Young joins the podcast to tell consumers -- old and new -- what they need to know about buying insurance from the health care exchanges. Finally, we'll talk about the latest threat to the Affordable Care Act: a daffy legal case that threatens to end the subsidies that Obamacare customers are using to -- you know -- continue staying alive.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

So that happened: And we mean this literally just happened. The 2014 midterm elections are in the books, and for the Democratic party, it was one big coast-to-coast Red Wedding. "Drinking and Talking" host Sam Stein joins the podcast to pick through the wreckage and answer some questions: What are the next two years going to be like? What can Democrats learn from this historic waxing? And can they manage to flip this script in 2016?  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

So that... is about to happen: Tuesday, November 4th is Election day, and we've enlisted Huff Post Pollster's own Mark Blumenthal to set the table. We'll talk about the marquee event of Election Night -- which party will end up control the Senate -- is shaping up. Mark will let us know whether and how the polls we've been paying attention to are wrong. Most importantly, we'll discuss the reasons why we may not actually know the results of the election by the time election night ends.  See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.