Trump Watch

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Maybe you heard the news: yesterday President Obama signed the health care bill into law — the most sweeping social legislation enacted in decades and the true end of the Age of Reagan. We’ll have comment from HAROLD MEYERSON of the Washington Post op-ed page and JOHN NICHOLS, Washington correspondent of The Nation magazine, each assessing the achievements, and the limitations, of what the Democrats did.

Scary new Harris poll: GOP Beliefs about Obama: “He’s a Socialist”: 67% agree;  “He’s a Muslim”: 57% agree;  “Not born in the US”: 45% agree;  “May be the Anti-Christ”: 24% agree.  (And I thought the antiChrist was . . . Johnny Rotten!)  More info HERE.

Also: How a well-connected oil company revolutionized the way America makes war – and why Obama still needs them: PRATAP CHATTERJEE talks about the past and future of Halliburton and its former subsidiary KBR. Pratap is senior editor of CorpWatch and has written for the Financial Times, the Guardian and The Independent of London. His book Halliburton’s Army is out now in paperback.

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ERIC FONER looks at the changes in the social studies curriculum approved by the Texas Board of Ed – and what the new standards tell us about conservatives’ vision of American history. Their favorite topics: the Confederacy, the military, and religion; topics they cut include slavery, labor, and feminism.  WATCH Eric on “The Colbert Report” on Comedy Central Tuesday night HERE;  READ the Texas curriculum changes HERE.

Also: Columnist HAROLD MEYERSON says “the road to America’s economic recovery starts in LA”: with a sales tax increase passed in November 2008 by L.A. County’s voters to construct new rail and bus lines — a major environmental and stimulus program that won’t add to the federal deficit.  He wrote about it in his column for for the Washington Post op-ed page.

And historian IRA BERLIN analyzes four epic migrations of African-Americans: the slave trade; then the relocation of a million slaves to the interior of the antebellum South; then the move by six million blacks to northern cities a century later; and since the late 1960s, the arrival of black immigrants from Africa and the Caribbean.
Ira teaches at the University of Maryland; his new book is The Making of African America: The Four Great Migrations.

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The largest open pit mine in California is the the US Borax/Rio Tinto mine in Boron, where  the company has locked out neary 600 members of the ILWU Local 30 after workers rejected demands that they surrender any union role in the labor process. MIKE DAVIS reports on the Boron workers in the new issue of The Nation magazine; TERRI JUDD is a union activist who drives a 1600-horsepower loader in the mine.  More info: http://www.boraxminers.com/

Also: “Consider the Germans”: TOM GEOGHEGHAN notes that, since 2003, it’s not China but Germany, “that colossus of European socialism,” that has led the world in exports. Germany has somehow managed to create a high-wage, unionized economy without shipping all its jobs abroad or creating a massive trade deficit, or any trade deficit at all.  Tom is a labor lawyer who wrote about Germany for the March Harper’s.

Plus: Debunking 9-11 Conspiracy Theories: DAVID AARONOVITCH is a columnist for The Times (London) and a recipient of the Orwell Prize for Political Journalism. (Other winners: Patrick Cockburn and Robert Fisk.)  His new book Voodoo Histories is “a brilliant, sparkling, and witty demolition” of  9-11 conspiracy theories, “and an analysis of why otherwise intelligent people are so ready to believe in them.” – Ian Kershaw, author of Hitler.

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The fastest-growing, most dynamic capitalist country in the history of the world is the People’s Republic of China today.  PETER HESSLER has lived in China for the last ten years as a staff writer for The New Yorker; he spent months in a development zone, hanging around with businessmen and with workers.  Peter’s new book is COUNTRY DRIVING: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory.

Plus: HAROLD MEYERSON says “Like earthquakes, Goldman Sachs can strike anytime. Its work can slumber undetected for years, only to erupt, unanticipated, with catastrophic consequences.”  He looks at how Wall Street greed and secrecy are bringing misery to Greece and endangering the European Union.  Harold writes an op-ed column for the Washington Post.

Also: The past and future of capitalism: historian JOYCE APPLEBY says capitalism isn’t an expression of human nature, but the specific result of some unlikely developments, mostly in England.  She emphasizes that capitalism is as much a cultural as an economic system.  Joyce’s new book is THE RELENTLESS REVOLUTION: A History of Capitalism.

For the record: the KPFK fund drive will feature a guest host at 4pm today.

For the record: the KPFK fund drive will feature a guest host at 4pm today.

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AMY WILENTZ has returned from a week in Haiti. “the problem is this,” she writes: “will people care about Haiti the way they did about New Orleans?  for the next three or four years, until the job gets done?”   She’ll talk about lessons from the streets in the art of survival. Amy is the award-winning author of The Rainy Season: Haiti Since Duvalier.
READ Amy’s “Haiti and the Art of Survival: Lessons from the Streets”  HERE

Plus: The DANIEL ELLSBERG documentary “The Most Dangerous Man in America” has been nominated for an Academy Award! The film opens Friday at the Music Hall in Beverly Hills, and we’ll be featuring passes to the show as add-ons to our fund drive premiums.
WATCH the trailer to “The Most Dangerous Man” HERE.

Also: we remember HOWARD ZINN, who died on Jan. 27. His People’s History of the US has sold more than two million copies – and he’s been an inspiration to activists since the 1960s. We’ll play some of our interviews with Howard, and feature the DVD of his Voices of a People’s History as a fund drive premium.
WATCH Howard Zinn’s interview with Bill Moyers HERE

For the record: the KPFK fund drive will feature a guest host today at 4pm.

(Guest-hosted by Alan Minsky while I was on jury duty–thank you Alan!)  Our president gives his first State of the Union speech tonight at 600pm, and apparently Obama will call for an across-the-board three-year spending freeze to placate Republicans who say the deficit is a big problem.  Question: Do ordinary people really care about the deficit?  And don’t we need a much bigger deficit right now? JOHN NICHOLS will comment: he’s Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Plus: The Supremes’ Blow to Democracy: last week the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that it was okay for corporations to spend unlimited money to overwhelm elections.  ERWIN CHEMERINSKY will comment: he says the same 5-4 majority that said corporations must have “free speech” has drastically limited free speech for others.  Erwin is founding dean of the UCI law school.

Also: The Culture of Fear: BARRY GLASSNER explains why Americans are afraid of the wrong things: Terrorists, Criminals, Drugs, Minorities, Teen Moms, Killer Kids, Mutant Microbes, Plane Crashes, Road Rage, & Vaccines.  “The Culture of Fear will amaze you, make you upset, and give you a new resolve to do what’s best for this country.”—Michael Moore.  Barry teaches sociology at USC, and was featured in Bowling for Columbine.

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It’s the first anniversary of Obama’s taking the oath of office, and the day after Obama lost the contest to replace Ted Kennedy with a Democrat.  Losing that 40th vote in the Senate is a disaster for the healthcare bill, the Democrats, the White House, and a lot of the American people.  Obama’s errors are no secret: helping the banks instead of providing jobs for ordinary people, and failing to fight for — and explain — a  healthcare reform bill (now opposed by a majority).

Is it all over now?  Will Obama follow Bill Clinton’s example, and focus on doing a few things the Republicans don’t object to?  We’ll have historical perspective from ERIC FONER, political commentary from JOHN NICHOLS, and  strategic analysis from HAROLD MEYERSON.