Trump Watch

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What the Democrats can do about newly-confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when they win the House in November and take control of the Judiciary Committee in January: John Nichols talks about investigations that could lead to the filing of articles of impeachment–and some other possibilities.
Also: D.D. Guttenplan talks about some alternatives to those old white Republican men who shouted and pouted and voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing – his new book is “The Next Republic: the Rise of a New Radical Majority.” 10/11/18

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Amy Wilentz of The Nation talks about Kavanaugh, Trump, and women –the women in the hearings, in Kavanaugh’s past, and in America.
Also: John Nichols on Kavanuagh confirmation politics in the Senate–and how Mitch McConnell is killing the senate.
Plus: Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the Law School at UC Berkeley, says the Supreme Court will soon have FIVE Republican justices, all of whom were seated illegitimately.  10/4/18

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Did Trump’s Supreme Court nominee try to rape a 15-year-old girl when he was 17-years old, 36 years ago? Was he telling the truth when he said he did not, and how much should it matter now?  Amy Wilentz commengs.
Also:  Michael Moore’s new film, “Fahrenheit 11/9” opens tomorrow — David Edelstein, chief film critic for New York Magazine, explains why he thinks it’s a must-see film.
Finally: Michael Moore on his film, “Fahrenheit 11/9”–and why it’s about many things seemingly unrelated to Trump.  9/20/18

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Republican Senate candidate and current Florida Gov. Rick Scott challenged Trump today on Puerto Rico casualty figures; SCOTUS nominee Kavanaugh has been accused of sexual misconduct, and measuring the Blue Wave now that Obama has joined the campaign — Harold Meyerson has our political update.
Next, Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress, has quit the House to run for state Attorney General in Minnesota. What was he thinking? David Dayen reports.
Plus: Unions are fighting for their lives and Betsy DeVos wants to put more guns in schools — Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation for Teachers, comments on the politics of education.  9/13/18

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After 40 years as a war correspondent in Indochina and then an investigative journalist, Judith Coburn became a private investigator, working mostly with death penalty defense cases. We talk with her about Surveillance Capitalism in the Age of Trump.
Next, Florida’s general election for governor will feature two candidates who could not be more different: Andrew Gillum, a black progressive, and Ron DeSantis, “a fully ‘Trumpacized'” conservative — John Nichols reports.
Plus: We might have reached peak-Trump, but Gary Younge says, “if Dems want to win, they’ve got to motivate their base.”  Gary of course is a columnist for The Nation and a fellow at The Nation Institute as well as an award-winning writer for The Guardian. 8/29/18

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Trump’s attorney Michael Cohen pled guilty on Tuesday to many crimes of bank fraud and tax fraud, but there were two really significant ones: payments of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels (real name, Stephanie Clifford) and Playboy model Karen McDougal–on orders of the president. Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments.
Also: Around the world, mothers and pregnant women are undervalued, discriminated against, and punished.  We talk with Katha Pollitt about how most of it has nothing to do with Donald Trump — indeed Bill Clinton and the Pope bear more responsibility.
Plus: Farah Griffin of Columbia University comments on Aretha and Angela, and Aretha and Obama. 8/23/18

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Amy Wilentz comments on the mental and emotional status of the president, as analyzed by 27 psychiatrists in ‘The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,’ a book edited by Bandy X. Lee. The book was number four on the New York Times bestseller list.
Also: Would Pence be worse? Jane Mayer of The New Yorker reports—she interviewed more than 60 people in search of answers, including Pence’s mother. Several say he’s wanted to be president at least since high school.
Plus: America After Trump: E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post argues that Trump has mobilized progressive political forces that can transform America—and he reminds us that Trump never had a majority of voters, and is the most unpopular presidents in our history. E.J. is co-author of ‘One Nation After Trump: A Guide to the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet-Deported’–it’s out now in paperback.  8-16-18

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Left politics can win all over the country, not just in New York City and Chicago and LA – that’s what Mike Lux says, he’s a longtime strategist for the progressive movement and Democratic candidates, and his new book is “How to Democrat in the Age of Trump.”
Katha Pollitt is not happy with leftists calling Trump a “fascist” – maybe there’s a better term for his attacks on democracy, which have a lot in common with authoritarian leaders in Russia, Turkey, Egypt, Hungary, Poland, and other places. The foundation for all of them: austerity, pushed by the big banks and right-wing parties, which creates the economic anxiety that fuels racism and anti-immigrant sentiment. 8-8-18

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August 1968, 50 years ago: fighting the police outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, while the whole world was watching: it was the culmination of an overwhelming year for the anti-war movement. But where was young Donald Trump? Todd Gitlin, activist, sociologist and author of “The Sixties: Years of Hope, Days of Rage,” comments on politics then — and now.
Plus, John Nichols says the Trump era is NOT a golden age for American journalism — cutbacks and mass layoffs have crippled our news media, just when we need them the most. 8/2/18

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Pulitzer prize-winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold died July 21; Harold Meyerson talks about how he taught readers in LA about the new immigrant city around them–by exploring immigrant neighborhoods and their restaurants. Harold also reviews Trump world after Trump’s worst week.
Also Tom Frank explains how we got from Obama to Trump — his new book is “Rendezvous with Oblivion.”
Plus Bob Zaugh tells amazing and true stories about the LA draft resistance movement in the Vietnam era. He helped organize the exhibit, “We Won’t Go: The L.A. Resistance, Vietnam and the Draft,” on view at the Getty Gallery of the Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles until August 19th.  7/26/18