LISTEN online HERE— iTunes podcast HERE
GARY SHTEYNGART left Russia for the US in 1979, when he was 7 years old—part of the deal where Jimmy Carter gave the Russians American grain and Brezhnev gave the Americans Soviet Jews—win-win! Shteyngart’s story, told in his new memoir LITTLE FAILURE, is self-mocking, sarcastic, tender, and hilarious. Watch the trailer HERE. Gary will be reading Little Failure at the Skirball on Thurs Jan 16 at 8pm. Tickets $10 HERE.
Plus: The Los Angeles labor movement and its allies are campaigning for the highest minimum wage in the country: $15/hour. Even more amazing, we are likely to win. NANCY COHEN will explain; she wrote about it for The New Republic. #RaiseLA
Also: Breaking in to the FBI office in Media, PA: In 1971, unknown activists stole files from an FBI office outside of Philadelphia, and proceeded to expose Bureau abuse of power and illegal surveillance. Now the burglars have surfaced and told their story in the book The Burglary by Betty Medsger. SETH ROSENFELD will explain—he’s author of the award-winning SUBVERSIVES and spent two decades suing the FBI for their files on the Free Speech Movement. (Left: two of the burglars today, John and Bonnie Raines.) WATCH the video HERE.
Also: the most effective political operation the American left has seen in decades: the Working Families Party of New York.
Dick Cheney came to the Nixon Library this week to talk about his new book, Heart. When our most hated vice president visits the library of our most disgraced president, you look forward to a good night. So my friend Howard and I went to Yorba Linda, expecting a festive evening of Obama-bashing and a twisted trip back through the glories of the Bush years. . . . . continued at TheNation.com,
LISTEN online
LISTEN online
Also: In the Coen Brothers’ new film,
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WHO KILLED JFK? Joe Kennedy did it — because the kid had gone liberal on him. It’s my favorite Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory, and it’s presented in a wonderful novel, Winter Kills, by Richard Condon. Condon is best known as the author of The Manchurian Candidate . . .
LISTEN online 
LISTEN online
I haven’t read all 1,000 JFK assassination books, but I do have five favorites: at TheNation.com: