Trump Watch

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Campaign update: Michelle Obama campaigned in Milwaukee today for endangered progressive Senator Russ Feingold — and our JOHN NICHOLS was there. He says she was terrific. John is Washington Correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

And 84-year-old ELMORE LEONARD has just published his 48^th novel: Djibouti.  We’ll ask him about his famous “rules for writing” (originally broadcast 2/28/2004)

Also: How to Win Elections: JAMIE COURT explains how to win grassroots campaigns, pass ballot box laws, and get the change we voted for.  Court, a longtime organizer of ballot campaigns and other initiatives, is the author of The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell. WATCH Jamie’s 30-second video now running in Times Square on the Jumbotron HERE.

KPFK kicks off a special twelve-hour Lennon 70^th birthday celebration Saturday Oct. 9 at noon, and I’ll be hosting the first hour.  We’ll be listening to my interview with Yoko last week, plus the new “Stripped Down” versions of the great songs on “Double Fantasy”— remixed to bring up Lennon’s voice and remove some of the rest – starting with “Starting Over” and “I’m Losing You.”  We’ll also be featuring my long-ago interviews  with Abbie Hoffman and Pete Seeger about Lennon.

Plus;  highlights from the great documentary “The US vs. John Lennon,” featuring the bed-in for peace, Beatle record-burnings, and Geraldo Rivera, Tariq Ali and Gore Vidal on Lennon.
It’s the KPFK fund drive, and we’ll be featuring as thank you gifts the DVD of “The US vs John Lennon,” plus the new “Double Fantasy Stripped Down” CD, and a few surprises.  Please listen – and please call 818-985-5735 and pledge during the show!  Saturday noon-1:00pm, 90.7FM, streaming live at www.kpfk.org.

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Bob Dylan in America: SEAN WILENTZ talks about Dylan’s work as a songwriter and performer and his deep roots in Amercan culture.  His new book is Bob Dylan in America – Martin Scorsese says it is “as thrilling and surprising as listening to a great Dylan song.”  We are featuring the book as a premium in our fund drive – please call and pledge during the show, 818-985-5735, or online at kpfk.org.

Also: JOHN NICHOLS with our political update – how bad are things for the Dems?  Why is Wisconsin’s progressive hero Russ Feingold in trouble?  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.  DOWNLOAD the entire new issue of The Nation HERE.

Plus: a chat with YOKO ONO about her plans for Oct. 9, which would have been John Lennon’s 70^th birthday.  KPFK will feature a 12-hour John Lennon special on Oct. 9 – I’ll be hosting noon-100pm, featuring lots of rare audio, and the documentary “The U.S. vs. John Lennon” on DVD as a fund drive premium.

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America’s “Ministry of Global Policing” — ANDREW BACEVICH critiques Obama’s wars – a continuation of the policy, for 60 years, under which the US military has been ready to intervene anywhere at any time.   Bacevich’s new book is Washington Rules: America’s Path to Permanent War. It’s on the best seller list this week.

Also: democracy and slavery: In the era of emancipation of Reconstruction in the 1860s and 1870s, the federal government promised former slaves equality and political rights, including the vote.  That history is told by ERIC FONER – he teaches history at Columbia University, and he’s the author of Forever Free: The Story of Emancipation and Reconstruction. (Originally broadcast 1-25-2006)

Plus: the conservative assault on the constitution: ERWIN CHEMERINSKY explains the Supreme Court’s dramatic shift to the right and how it has given presidents, police and corporations unprecedented power.  Erwin is founding dean of the law school at UC Irvine; his new book is The Conservative Assault on the Constitution.

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HARRY SHEARER‘s new documentary  “The Big Uneasy” tells the story of the flooding of New Orleans that resulted NOT from a “natural disaster” but rather from failures of the levees — the film opens in LA on Friday at the Sunset 5  for a one-week run. WATCH the trailer to “The Big Uneasy” HERE.

Plus: The epic story of black migration out of the South –Pulitzer-prize winning journalist ISABEL WILKERSON tells that story in The Warmth of Other Suns. She will be speaking at the LA Public Library ALOUD series, 5^th and  Flower streets downtown, Wed. nite at 7:00 pm — reservations free but recommended: HERE.

Also: The end of the American university? ELLEN SHRECKER talks about the assault on academic freedom and the take-over of higher education by corporate money and priorities.  Ellen is professor of history at Yeshiva University and has written extensively on the Cold War red scare; her new book is The Lost Soul of Higher Education. Joan Scott calls it “at once a grim forecast and a rally cry.”

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In the Delaware Senate primary yesterday, Tea Party Republicans “ditched a seemingly certain November winner for a likely loser”–and thereby lost whatever chance the GOP had to take over the Senate.  JOHN NICHOLS will explain – he’s Washington Correspondent for The Nation, and he writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Plus: Fifties TV was not just sitcoms selling soap and toothpaste – powerful groups and corporations sought to use the new medium to influence the masses.  ANNA McCARTHY tells that story – she’s co-editor of the journal Social Text, she teaches in the department of Cinema Studies and NYU, and her new book is The Citizen Machine: Governing by Television in 1950s America.

Also: Women won the right to vote 90 years ago – it’s hard now to realize how strongly men fought to keep them out of the polling booth.  CHRISTINE STANSELL reminds us what happened, and what the consequences were – she is a Distinguished Professor of History at the U. of Chicago, she’s written for the New York Times op-ed page and The New Republic;  she’s written many books, most recently The Feminist Promise, 1792 to the Present.

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HAROLD MEYERSON says American workers face a “God-awful” future — “Millions have lost their jobs. Millions have had their lives put on hold or thrown into reverse.”   It’s time for a massive public works program — but is Obama’s big enough?  Harold is a columnist for the L.A. Times and the Washington Post and editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Plus: AMY WILENTZ reports on her return to Haiti last month — as the country prepares for an election, to be held ten months after the earthquake.   Amy wrote about her trip for The New Yorker: “Running in the Ruins.” Her book The Rainy Season: Haiti Then and Now, is out now in a new paperback edition.

Also: KATHA POLLITT has just returned from a year in Berlin; she says “IT’S BETTER OVER THERE.” Germany doesn’t have the kind of destitution we take for granted in the United States, especially for African-Americans. The strong German safety net keeps people from plunging into the abyss.  Katha is a poet, essayist and columnist for The Nation; she has been named the recipient of the American Book Award’s prestigious “Lifetime Achievement” prize for 2010.

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New Orleans now, five years after Katrina: we’ll speak with poet, novelist and essayist  ANDREI CODRESCU about what has changed there, and what hasn’t.  Andrei edits Exquisite Corpse: A Journal of Letters and Life; he wrote the memorable New Orleans Mon Amour;  his new book is The Poetry Lesson.

Also we’ll speak with historian MICHAEL BELLESILES about the violent and ugly America of 1877.  His new book is 1877: America’s Year of Living Violently. Michael teaches history at Central Connecticut State University.

Also: China just passed Japan as the number two economic power in the world – and yet China is still ruled by a Communist Party. Historian JEFF WASSERSTROM will explain some of the paradoxes here – Jeff writes for Foreign Policy the Christian Science Monitor, and the Huffington Post, and is chair of the history department at UC Irvine. He is co-founder of the blog ChinaBeat.org, and his new book is CHINA IN THE 21^ST CENTURY: WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW.

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Primaries in Florida and Arizona Tuesday tested the Tea Party’s strength among Republicans and the power of a billionaire to win a Senate Democratic nomination.  JOHN NICHOLS reviews the results – his new post at TheNation.com is “Sex, Drugs and Bill Clinton.”

Also: the “Ground Zero Mosque” in lower Manhattan — should it find another site, out of “respect for the 9-11 families,” and the ADL argues?  STEPHEN ROHDE explains why “It is wise, it is right, it is good for that mosque and community center to be built in that place.”  Stephen is co-president of Progressive Jewish Alliance and chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace.

Plus: “Mad Men” is the best series on TV right now – NATASHA VARGAS-COOPER talks about sex, literature, politics, and of course advertising on the show – and how it portrays the “cultural matrix” of the early sixties.  The New Yorker called her MAD MEN UNBUTTONED “the richest of the “Mad Men” books.”

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From the Pentagon Papers to WikiLeaks: DANIEL ELLSBERG talks about secrets, lies, and war — from Vietnam to Afghanstan.  We will be featuring the documentary about Daniel Ellsberg, “The Most Dangerous Man in America”, on DVD as our fund drive thank-you gift this hour.  The film was nominated for the Oscar for best documentary.  The Washington Post called it “an exemplary piece of nonfiction filmmaking,”  “a wily caper flick that just happens to revolve around one of the most crucial chapters in recent American history.”

Also:  TOM FRANK just finished a two-year term as the voice of left wing sanity at the crazed op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal – he was there in 2008 when “the market god collapsed” — And he was there when it was revived.  Tom’s books include What’s the Matter with Kansas? and The Wrecking Crew.  He starts a new column for Harper’s in December.