Start Making Sense

Mobilizing Against Trump in Week 3: Rebecca Solnit and Leah Greenberg

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Understanding our power: “If you’re always consumed by the next outrage, you can’t look closely at the last one.” (Ezra Klein) Last week, Trump tried to stop payment of all federal grants and assistance. But people rose up in protest, and within a day Trump rescinded the entire effort. How did we do it? What does that tell us about him–and about our power? Rebecca Solnit comments – her new blog is “Meditations in an Emergency.”

Also: Trump’s strategy of flooding the zone with executive actions is intended to paralyze the opposition. But there’s lots of grassroots mobilization underway right now, and one of the biggest organizers of that mobilization is Indivisible. Leah Greenberg will explain the group’s strategy and tactics — and this week’s work assignments — to get four Republicans to vote “No” on Trump’s four terrible nominees. Leah is one of the co-founders and co-executive directors of Indivisible.

Transcript HERE   2-5-2025

Chris Hayes: How Trump Wins the Battle for Attention

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Our attention is limited. That makes it valuable, Chis Hayes says– not just to us, but to those who’d like to exploit it. Chris’s new book is The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource; before he became host of “All in with Chris Hayes” on MSNBC, he was The Nation’s Washington Correspondent.

Also: Your Minnesota Moment: officials in sanctuary cities and counties in Minnesota face threats from the Trump administration. Host Jon Wiener explains the threats to undocumented residents from Stephen Miller, and the response from Minnesota’s Attorney General Keith Ellison.

Transcript HERE   1-31-2025

How We Got Here, plus Thanking the Undocumented

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How Trump ‘won’: In 2024, 244 million Americans were eligible to vote. 31.5% voted for Trump, 30.6 % voted for Harris, 38% did not vote. Trump won the same share of the eligible voters as he did four years ago (32%), But Harris’s share of eligible voters fell by 3.5 points compared to Biden. Why did 7 million Democratic voters stay home? Harold Meyerson has our analysis—he’s editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: now that Trump is preparing to round up and deport undocumented residents, we want to thank them for everything they’ve done to make America good. It’s a sentiment they don’t hear nearly enough—especially the “unaccompanied minors,” who have “shown more bravery in their young lives than anyone in Trump’s administration could ever dream of.” Gustavo Arellano will explain—he’s a columnist for the LA Times whose father came to the US in the 1960s in the trunk of a Chevy.  Transcript HERE   1-22-2025

DNC v. Trump, plus Solidarity v. Trump

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As we prepare for Trump to take office next week, we’re getting ready to challenge him and his people in the upcoming elections later this year. But before that, we have an important election in the next few weeks: the Democratic National Committee will elect a new chair on February 1 to prepare for the battles and the campaigns to come. For our analysis we turn to John Nichols.

Also: Trump promises to deport millions of undocumented residents, while Republicans in Congress threaten a nationwide abortion ban. Meanwhile parts of the mainstream media are caving in to Trump. How can individuals help at this point? Katha Pollit has some suggestions about groups that deserve support.

Transcript HERE  1-15-2025

Defending the Undocumented, plus Uncovering Hidden Wealth

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On this episode of Start Making Sense: Trump’s ‘dictatorship on day one’ will feature executive orders to deport undocumented residents. Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law & Policy at UCLA Law School, will explain the legal strategy to be deployed by the sanctuary states and cities,

Also: Not everything is about Donald Trump. The Geneva Freeport, for example – where it doesn’t matter who is president of the US. The Freeport is a place where the world’s richest people hide art, jewelry, and other wealth from tax officials, creditors, and sometimes spouses. Atossa Araxia Abrahamian has our analysis–her new book is “The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World.”

Transcript HERE  1-10-2025

The Dylan Movie, and the Trump Books

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The endlessly elusive Bob Dylan seems an unlikely candidate for a Hollywood biopic. John Powers, Critic-at-Large on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” talks about how the new movie “A Complete Unknown” captures a defining moment in his career — and in American culture .

Also: Our holiday reading guide: Dozens of books about Trump were published at the end of his first term, some selling millions of copies. Now that he’s coming back, it’s time to look at what some of those books had to say about him. Host Jon Wiener presents his list, including the one with the best title: “A Very Stable Genius.”

Transcript HERE  1-1-2025

Working-Class Wins—Plus, Hot Rod Racing

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Hotel and restaurant workers in Los Angeles won a $30 minimum wage last week; Disneyland workers are going to get $233 million in back pay; and Wisconsin public employees regained collective bargaining rights. Harold Meyerson reports on some victories in the class struggle in America.

Also: a special feature: Novelist Rachel Kushner reports on the world of Nostalgia Drag Racing, where people make machines—with their hands. One of them is her teenage son.  12-20-2024

Why Kamala Lost, plus Trump Family Activities

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Kamala Harris lost not because Democratic voters switched to Trump, Steve Phillips shows, but because of a massive failure of the Democrats to turn out their base.

Also: In a new episode of “The Children’s Hour,” Amy Wilentz reports on “Lives of the In-Laws” – Ivanka’s and Tiffany’s – and comments also on the rise of Eric’s wife Lara, and about the latest schemes of Ivanka’s husband Jared Kushner.

Transcript HERE  12-11-2024

What Can Stop Trump, plus Project 2025 – the Dumb Parts

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“Our worst enemy right now is not Trump himself, but fatalism about our ability to stop him.” That’s what David Cole says – he recently stepped down as National Legal Director of the ACLU, after 8 years and hundreds of lawsuits against the first Trump administration.

Also: Project 2025,the Heritage Foundation’s famous 900 page book, is partly “”too dumb to accomplish anything at all”–that’s what Rick Perlstein says. The rest, he says, can be read as a useful catalog of how we should focus our resistance.

Transcript HERE  12-6-2024

Exploiting Trump’s Weaknesses; plus Mass Deportation in US History

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Matt Gaetz dropping out as Attorney General nominee was a major setback for Trump, which exposes his vulnerabilities and weaknesses. Harold Meyerson reports on the divide in the Senate, and then between the MAGA movement and Republicans on Wall Street and in the corporations.

Also on this episode of Start Making Sense: Trump’s plan to deport millions of undocumented immigrants is terrible, but the idea of expelling people considered undesirable is not unprecedented in the American past. Eric Foner reviews that history, from the Native American “Trail of Tears” to the pre-Civil War proposals to free the slaves and send them to Africa.  Lewis: A Life.”  Transcript HERE   11-27-2024