I know this is and old question that had a lot of comments a while ago but I really don’t recall what was the official answer and couldn’t find it so here it goes again.
Can you Scavenge a program if you don’t have another program in your grip or heap??
I’m not sure we’ve had an official reply, but by the rules as written it should technically be illegal to do so.
No you cannot
So if I do have a program in my hand, do I have to show it to my opponent or maybe call a judge??
If you have a program in your hand, but not in your heap, then it’s up to your opponent whether or not a judge is desired.
Wait are you sure? The new ruling seemed to suggest you can since the act of firing the effect would cause a copy of your program in the heap that you can trigger off of. I’ll look for it, though. Maybe I read into it too generously.
EDIT: Found this on page 5.
When a card has a trash ability that is triggered, any reference
to the game state within that resolving effect is based on the
game state as it was at the moment of trashing, but with the
trashed card considered a new copy of that card in Archives or
the heap.
The issue here isn’t the trashing, but the fact that you can’t even play Scavenge for the trash because there isn’t a legal target required to even play Scavenge. So the “trash ability that is triggered” portion of that never happens.
Yep I’m aware. I was pretty generous in reading that clarification as pertaining to Scavenge, actually, because it even specifically calls out cards with trash abilities which Scavenge is not. Disregard me. 
How does the timing on Political Operative work with Jackson Howard? I was under the impression that the runner could use Pol Op in response to Jackson rez to prevent the corp player from using Jackson’s return 3 ability, but the rules state: “Whenever there is an opportunity to trigger paid abilities, rez cards and/or score agendas (usually at the beginning of a turn and after each action), the player who is currently taking his turn gets the first opportunity to act. He can trigger as many abilities, rez as many cards, and/or score as many agendas as he wishes in the order of his choosing. When he is finished, the other player gets the opportunity to act.”. Doesn’t this mean the Corp should be able to rez Jackson and use his paid ability before the runner can react (assuming the corp doesn’t pass priority for some reason)?
Correct. Councilman can stop the rez, but PolOp just means that leaving him on the table through any paid window becomes a risky proposition.
Edit: Oh, there is one case in which PolOp can stop a Jackson shuffle. If he is already rezzed when you install the PolOp, you have priority during the next paid ability window. Just to be super duper clear, though, you can’t do this “in response” to a corp announcing they are activating Jackson (in game terms, it is not a “prevent” effect), you have to activate PolOp before the corp’s window.
you can use Political Operative in response to a Jackson Howard rez to prevent his drawing ability, but not his remove from game to shuffle cards from archives ability
Some oversimplified cliff notes for common game situations:
Preinstalled councilman vs. unrezzed Jackson: Jackson loses.
Surprise install councilman against unrezzed Jackson: Jackson loses.
Preinstalled Pol op supporting an archives run vs. unrezzed Jackson: Jackson wins.
Pre installed Pol op stopping “draw 2 cards” action: Pol Op wins.
Pre installed Pol op wants to remove rezzed Jackson after corp discards down to max hand size: Jackson wins.
Pre installed Pol op wants to remove rezzed Jackson after Demolition Run, Utopia Shard, or any other effect taking place during the Runner’s turn: Pol op wins.
Surprise install Pol op against rezzed Jackson: Pol op wins, but only if the corp doesn’t pop Jackson between click actions when recognizing the HQ success condition has been met.
Surprise STREET PEDDLER Pol op install against rezzed Jackson: Pol op wins, but only if the corp doesn’t pop Jackson during 4.3 of the enabling HQ run. Which is nice if that’s also a Demolition Run.
And a major note, there’s lots of weird standoffs where a Pol op can be sitting on the table for a long time and a Jackson can be sitting on a table for a long time, and either player can decide in any paid ability window that they’ve changed their minds on the value of shuffling in 3 Hedge Funds, and whoever who is the first to use a paid ability window to so will get their way.
Scavenge isn’t a trash ability, it’s an event that has an additional cost. A trash ability is one with the little dustbin symbol on.
What happens in the case of:
Preinstalled polop vs rezzed Jackson that has been used to overdraw but has not started to discard yet.
corp can still pop jackson immediately after any draw, but if they want to wait for the discard, the runner can kill him first
Right. The corp says “Move to discards”, runner says, “before the priority window after your third click closes, I plop Jackson”.
Yeah that is what happened recently, essentially it gives the corp, after overdrawing, the choice to either keep the agendas in hand or discard and them and lose them to the steal.
The looming threat of an installed polop is powerful indeed.
Unless the corp goes draw2, draw2, Medical Research Fundraiser, most players are just going to Plop the Jackson before he can overdraw. Though it’s a bit complex to determine what’s actually optimal with precision.
Tallie Perrault:
Whenever a gray ops or black ops operation is trashed after resolving, you may give the Corp 1 bad publicity and take 1 tag.
Terminal operations:
After you resolve this operation, end your action phase.
UFAQ:
Ending the action phase then advances the game to the discard phase. This skips the paid ability window that would normally follow the end of an action, ceases the resolution of any other pending abilities or effects, and invalidates any conditional abilities.
What happens if I play a Black Ops Terminal operation against Tallie?
Nothing, it seems. Poor Tallie. Maybe Terminal Operations are far too quick for a journalistic investigator to cover.