Hello listeners it is Thursday September 28th 2017 I'm your host Scott Bland and you are

listening to Politico's nerd cast We're going to start off this week talking about the story of the week, the devastation in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria.

We're going to have defense reporter Jacqueline Klimus in the studio.

She was in Puerto Rico this week with the military as recovery efforts are ongoing there.

Take a listen to her conversation with Senator Marco Rubio on the plane.

What are your questions as you prepare to land in Puerto Rico?

I think we have to kind of understand. There's a couple challenges in these storms.

So first is what are your immediate needs? What do you need in the next 24, 48, 72 hours, 7 days, 10 days, life and safety type issues? And then sort of long term, begin to understand what are the long term,

challenges to restoring power and other critical infrastructure.

We'll also be talking once again about Alabama.

Senator Luther Strange lost his Republican primary in the

special election there on Tuesday. Former State Supreme Court Judge Roy Moore, a

very controversial Firebrand conservative Republican, will be the nominee.

We're going to talk a little bit about what that means and what it would mean if he makes

to the Senate.

Eliana Johnson has a really good story out this week about the establishment Republican

nightmare scenario that is looming on the horizon.

And it's not so great for Democrats either. And then for our final segment this week

we're going to talk a little bit about Donald Trump and the NFL. The president set off a storm of protests among players

and some owners in the league last week

with his comments about players choosing

to kneel during the national anthem

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