Living in the USA

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Trump’s TV speech, and his declining situation, politically and mentally: Six years after he lost the 2020 election, Trump is still trying to find someone, anyone, to tell him he won. Trump said that last night’s speech was about the 2020 election but really it was about the 2026 elections – and Trump’s efforts to cause people to doubt the vote counters because he knows Republicans are set to suffer great losses in the upcoming midterms – Harold Meyerson comments on Trump’s bad week leading up to the speech.

Also: Trump believes the teaching of history really matters—that’s why on July 4 he issued a 162-page attack on the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. Yale historian Beverly Gage comments – her new book is This Land is Your Land: A Road Trip through US History.

Plus: from the archives, “Trump and Golf”: The Saudi-backed LIV golf league returned to Trump’s Doral Resort in April 2025 – an early sign that Trump family business deals using Saudi government financing were going to continue into the new presidency. The legendary sportswriter Robert Lipsyte comments on Trump and golf. (broadcast originally in August 2017)

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The Democrats in Maine have got to pick a new candidate to replace Platner by July 27th. As we’ve learned from Kamala Harris, replacing a candidate this late is hard – but​, Harris carried Maine by 7 points in 2024, the Democratic candidate for governor there leads by 15 points, and Susan Collins’ approval rating is negative. So, what​ chance ​does new Democratic candidate ​have to defeat Collins? Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: Jamie Raskin, Democrat from Maryland, talks about Congress reforming the Supreme Court, and the House challenging Trump’s corruption. His article in the current issue of The Nation magazine is “We Must Restore Congress as the Predominant Branch of Government.”

Plus: The Court ended Temporary Protected Status, TPS, for Haitians (and others), but that does not mean deportations will begin immediately. Instead most of those with TPS will be given an opportunity to contest a deportation order or apply for remaining on a different basis. Amy Wilentz comments on the current responses in New York City, Miami, Springfield, Ohio, and in Congress.  7-10-2026

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On the Supreme Court today there is a 6 to 3 majority—I hesitate to call them ‘conservatives’ because they have been ripping apart tradition so drastically—right-wing Republican rule; Harold Meyerson comments on the “week of do this but don’t do it here decisions”.

Trump​’s biggest losses in the Supreme Court rulings announced this week were on birthright citizenship—widely anticipated—and the voting rights case where the majority ruled states could count ballots mailed but not received by election day. His biggest win was abolishing independent agencies except for the Federal Reserve. David Cole has our analysis—he’s the former legal director of the ACLU.

Also: This July 4th, the 250th anniversary of the signing of Declaration of Independence, is an anxious and unhappy holiday for Americans this year; as threats to our democracy have not be this dangerous since the Civil War. The question: “What is to be done?” is visited in “Common Sense 2026″—it’s not a TikTok video, not an instagram post, but a pamphlet, inspired by “Common Sense” by written Thomas Paine in 1776—Alan Minsky, its author, explains.  7-3-2026

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In New York City, Zohran Mamdani’s three candidates for the House all won, showing that Mamdani has “one heck of a lot of clout in New York”. Meanwhile, some point out that Democrats should be focusing NOT on DSA victories in urban areas, but on the districts that voted for Trump – Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: Election protection: defending Ohio’s biggest voter registration group, and blocking Trump’s attacks on voting by mail: Norm Eisen, co-counsel on the first Trump impeachment, comments.

Plus: How protest pushed ICE to abandon most of its warehouse detention center plans, and pressured Georgia Republicans to abandon their redistricting plans – John Nichols explains.  6-26-2026

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Trump says his memo of understanding is a big win for him because Iran has pledged NOT to develop nuclear weapons and to open the Strait of Hormuz. But, that only “gets us back to what the status quo was before Trump decided to go to war” and “the Iranian pledge not to develop nuclear weapons, that’s a pledge they made 40 or 50 years ago”. Next: News from Ohio, where Trump’s favorable rating has gone from 58% to 42% – Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: In his campaign against elite universities as centers of resistance, Trump hasn’t been able to force Harvard to submit. And it seems less likely now that they will settle. Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy has our analysis.

Plus: the essential workers at our supermarkets: Ann Larson talks about poverty wages and worker solidarity. Her new book is Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View From Behind the Supermarket Register.  6-19-2026

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Democratic strength, and Democratic divisions, in primaries from L.A. to Maine—Harold Meyerson has our analysis of the week’s political developments.

Also: Can AI write poetry? Good poetry? Katha Pollitt decided to find out. She’s an award-winning poet herself, and a columnist for The Nation​.

Plus: From the archives: We remember George Harrison with Allan Kozinn; he​ was music critic for The New York Times and wrote of the George Harrison obituary, as well as the book “The Beatles” (originally recorded in December 2001, one week after George Harrison died).  5-12-2026

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California’s next Governor will likely be Xavier Becerra – as a former California Attorney General, he has a record of suing Trump; but is also known to be a corporate-friendly Democrat. Still, ​with California’s notoriously slow count, it is too soon to call. Meanwhile, the 35% Karen Bass has in the LA mayoral race, “reflects the lack of enthusiasm” among LA voters – Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: Primaries in Iowa, New Jersey and elsewhere tested the strength of progressives in the party. John Nichols has our analysis.

Plus: From the Archives: Girl Groups of the Sixties: Raw emotion, youthful energy, and teenage angst in a 4-CD Rhino box set: One Kiss Can Lead To Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost & Found. Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote, “to hear all these long-suffering voices is to realize that feminism didn’t arrive an instant too soon.” Gary Stewart, who died in 2019, produced the 120-track collection along with Cheryl Farber, in 2005. PLAYLIST: “Needle in a Haystack,” The Velvelettes (1964); Nobody Knows What’s Going on in my Mind but Me, The Chiffons (1965); Nothing but a Heartache, The Flirtations (1968); I Never Dreamed, The Cookies (1964); “I’m Blue (The Gong-Gong Song),” The Ikettes (1961). (Originally recorded in 2005.)  7-9-2026

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The big picture of national politics: Trump is not just sinking in the polls, he’s accelerating into the most unpopular and toxic parts of his presidency. People are focused on the economy, they want the war in Iran finished – instead, Trump is pushing his billion-dollar ballroom and his slush fund to pay-off the white-supremacist insurrectionists – Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: Trump’s Billion-Dollar Ballroom is a familiar kind of corruption, but his slush fund to pay the insurrectionists and paramilitary groups that commit violence in his name is an unprecedented attack on democracy. Rob Weissman of Public Citizen explains, and also talks about the immense, and immensely unpopular, proposed Arc d’Trump.

Plus: I met Elmore Leonard, who died on August 20, 2013 at age 87, only a couple of times, but he was a memorable guy, totally unpretentious about his massive accomplishments: 45 novels, including many best-sellers, almost a dozen made into movies and TV shows, and a reputation among the literati as one of the great writers of dialogue in our time. When I spoke with him in 2000, he had just published Pagan Babies, a comic novel on the unlikely subject of genocide in Rwanda. (Originally recorded in October, 2000 and later published in LARB on August 20, 2013.)  5-29-2026

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The primary elections results this week show the success of Trump’s revenge campaign — and the limits of that campaign. Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: History on the March: The American Historical Society has filed a lawsuit and a federal judge has ordered the Trump White House to comply with the Presidential Records Act.

Next: State legislatures have a lot of power in America—the States Project focuses on expanding that. Daniel Squadron explains. His new book is The Fourth Branch: How State Government can Save Our Union.

Plus: Your Minnesota Moment: Today, Minneapolis prosecutors charge an ICE agent with assault and lying.  5-22-2026

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Last week was one of the roughest for Democrats since Trump won the election in 2024: The Supreme Court ended Black congressional representation in most of the South and opened the door to the creation of several more Republican House seats, and then the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the state’s initiative that created four more Democratic House seats was invalid. Nevertheless, Trump is so unpopular that Democrats remain strong favorites to retake the House in November. Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: During the first part of the 20th century, 100,000 Eastern European Jews joined a socialist organization that opposed Zionism. Their organization we call the Bund, and they believed that Jews should fight for full rights wherever they were, not for a new homeland somewhere else. Their motto was “Here, where we live, is our country”—that’s the title of a new book about them by Molly Crabapple. Adam Hochschild comments.

Plus: Historians on the March: Tennessee’s anti-communist curriculum.  5-19-2026