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John Nichols comments on the appointment of Robert Mueller as special prosecutor, and its significance for the impeachment scenario: he argues that the lack of transparency over the months and perhaps years of Mueller’s work will not be good for democracy.
and Ari Berman reports on the Supreme Court’s excellent ruling in the North Carolina voting rights case, and on Trump’s miserable “election integrity” commission.
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Trump firing FBI Director James Comey, and the Republican loyalty to the president — make it more likely the Dems will retake the House in the 2018 elections–and launch an impeachment investigation: that’s what Harold Meyerson argues.
Also, Laura Poitras talks about her film about Julian Assange, “Risk.”
Listen HERE
John Nichols on the House Republicans’ vote to repeal and replace Obamacare–he says the Democrats have an obligation to resist.
Plus Margaret Atwood on the shocking relevance of “The Handmaid’s Tale” on Hulu;
and Katha Pollitt says “It’s not McCarthyism to demand an investigation of Trump.”
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RICK PERLSTEIN says “I thought I understood the American right. Trump proved me Wrong.”
And the great BILL McKIBBEN talks about the People’s Climate March, coming up in Washington this Saturday. We’ll have a rundown of all the sister marches in southern California – from Santa Barbara and Ventura to Riverside to Irvine– and also the LA Sister March in Wilmington, in the LA Harbor area.
Also, our favorite county supervisor, SHEILA KUEHL, talks about the “Resist Los Angeles” march on Monday May 1 – starting in MacArthur Park at 11. says “I thought I understood the American right. Trump Proved Me Wrong.”
Listen HERE
TOM FRANK has been on the road in the Red States with his book Listen Liberal – we ask whether he thinks Bernie could have beaten Trump.
Also, JOHN NICHOLS comments on Fox News firing the horrible Bill O’Reilly—and on Democratic candidates for the House in Georgia and Montana.
Plus: Steve Bannon, the fascist maniac, is out of the big economic decision-making at the White House, and the calm bankers from Goldman Sachs are in: DAVID DAYEN will talk about what that means for tax reform, and for our future.
Listen HERE
Trump seems to have changed his mind about a lot of things in the last day or two –it seems like Putin is no longer his number one friend, China is no longer his number one enemy, and Steve Bannon is no longer his number one “chief strategist.” Harold Meyerson comments.
Also: how we got from Ferguson to Trump’s election: Chris Hayes explains—his new book is “A Colony in a Nation.”
Plus: Is Trump like Nixon? Is collusion with the Russians to win election sort of like Watergate? We’ll ask John A. Farrell – his new book is “Richard Nixon: The Life.”
Listen HERE
Katha Pollitt of The Nation traces the ways Trump has made feminism cool.
Plus: Chris Hayes reviews Trump’s defeats and disasters–
and John Nichols talks about the Gorsuch filibuster and what comes next — at the Supreme Court, and in the Senate.
Listen HERE
The House GOP abandoned its vote to repeal Obamacare and replace it with TrumpCare, I mean RyanCare. On ”Trump Watch” we have comment from John Nichols of The Nation.
Also: Why do many white workers who voted for Trump still support him? The Nation sent D.D. Guttenplan to the rust belt to find out— he’s returned now with his report.
Plus: The City of LA has expanded its sanctuary policy – but the County sheriff is pulling back from the crucial question of the jails. We’ll speak about it with Ahilan Arulanantham, legal director of the ACLU of southern California.
Listen HERE
Sheila Kuehl talks about all the ways Los Angeles county has taken a stand against Trump. LA County is bigger than 44 states; Sheila is one of five elected members of the Board of Supervisors.
Also: The endless war in Afghanistan: now it’s Trump’s. Andrew Bacevich comments on America’s longest war — 14 years long and no end in sight.
Plus: Harold Meyerson talks about Trump’s bad week: a budget facing lots of opposition, a health care “plan” facing lots of opposition, and a second Muslim travel ban that’s been blocked by the courts.
Listen HERE
Congressman Ted Lieu of Los Angeles talks about TrumpCare, the new Muslim Travel Ban, and the call to investigate wiretapping of Trump Tower.
Also: “High Noon” was the 1952 Western where Gary Cooper has to face the bad guys alone, because the local townspeople are all cowards. Glenn Frankel, the Pulitzer-prize winning author, says it’s an allegory about the Hollywood Blacklist – and he thinks there are parallels to today. His new book is High Noon.
And Mark Rosenbaum is the attorney at Public Counsel who’s been on the front lines of the fight against Trump’s Muslim ban. Yesterday he argued the first case of a Dreamer they’re trying to deport, in Seattle, and he represents the Afghan family that was detained for more than 40 hours at LAX last week despite the fact that they had visas and had been vetted for entry into the country.
Talking about politics, thinking about the Left.
The podcast “Living in the USA” is the online version of “Living in the USA” at KPFK radio, hosted by Jon Wiener and broadcast live Fridays at 4pm at 90.7FM in LA, also streaming live at www.kpfk.org
New episodes posted every Friday afternoon, at livingintheusapod.com and Apple Podcasts.