Trump Watch

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FEMA declared in August 2001 that the three mega-disasters most likely to hit the US were (1) a terrorist attack on New York City; (2) a Category 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans; and (3) a major earthquake on the San Andreas Fault. Now we’ve had the first two. Is L.A. next?

For comment and analysis we turn to DAVID L. ULIN. His new book, The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith is out now in paperback. Mike Davis calls the book “a wry, hugely original, and scary exploration of the unstable boundaries between science and folk magic in California’s culture of disaster.” Dave Ulin is also the new editor of the Los Angeles Times Book Review.

ALSO: Does New Orleans have a future?

ANDREI CODRESCU, the poet and novelist born in Romania who lives in Louisiana, says “New Orleans had a great period, and now it is going to sink into some kind of glorious mess, like Venice, and become just a tourist spot. People will come . . . to feel the grandeur of what was once there.”

PLUS: the life and music of Jimi Hendrix:

CHARLES CROSS is the author of Room Full of Mirrors: A Biography of Jimi Hendrix. Charles Cross will be reading and signing at Book Soup on Sunset Strip at 7pm Wed.
PLAYLIST:
“Hey Joe” (Smash Hits)
“Purple Haze” (Smash Hits)
“All Along the Watchtower” (Experience Hendrix)
“Room Full of Mirrors” (The Jimi Hendrix Experience)

QUOTABLE: Bill Maher’s message to George Bush: “Mr. President, this job can’t be fun for you any more. There’s no more money to spend — you used up all of that. You can’t start another war because you also used up the army. And now, darn the luck, the rest of your term has become the Bush family nightmare: helping poor people. Now it’s time to do what you’ve always done best: lose interest and walk away. Like you did with your military service and the oil company, and the baseball team. It’s time.”

RECOMMENDED: “This American Life: After the Flood.” GREAT interviews – listen online at http://www.thislife.org/ scroll down to “After the Flood.” Click on the Real Audio icon.

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As we’ve followed the news from New Orleans, it’s been a week of sadness and anger that’s been pretty overwhelming at times. Mainstream network news has been outraged by the president’s indifference to human suffering there, so we can do something else. We can ask, do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?
For comment, we turn to HARRY SHEARER, who has been living in New Orleans part of the year. He’s the host of “Le Show” on KCRW, and also a star of The Simpsons on Fox TV, and he wrote about New Orleans for the L.A. Times op-ed page.
PLAYLIST:
Louis Armstrong, “Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans?” (The Great Chicago Concert 1956)
Fats Domino, “Walking to New Orleans” (The Fats Domino Jukebox)
Dr. John, “Iko Iko” (All By Hisself – Live at the Lonestar)
Mahalia Jackson, “When the Saints Go Marching In” (Live at Newport 1958)
The Marsalis family, “Struttin’ with some barbecue” (The Marsalis Family Live)
Neville Brothers, “Brother John” (Uptown Rulin’)
“I’m not sure, but I’m almost positive, that all music came from New Orleans.” —Ernie K-Doe, 1979

ALSO: The destruction of New Orleans presents a defining moment in American politics. HAROLD MEYERSON talks about the “stuff happens” presidency, and about how the president’s failures might affect everything from the Supreme Court to the war in Iraq. Harold wrote the cover story for The American Prospect this month, “Their War Too,” on the pro-war pundits. He also writes for the LA Weekly and the Washington Post op-ed page.

More stuff to read in the LA Weekly:
“The heart of the matter”: Bill Bentley’s great piece on New Orleans music
“A New Orleans Journal”: Ben Ehrenreich’s compelling eyewitness reporting

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STEAL THIS VOTE: ANDREW GUMBEL, U.S. correspondent for the British newspaper The Independent, “documents the simple truth: Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election.” – Paul Krugman, New York Times. Gumbel tells better than anyone else the historyof votes bought, stolen, lost and litigated – because of a corrupt political environment created by both parties. His new book is Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America .
More stuff to read: Andrew Gumbel responds to the “posse of internet screamers” who have called him a “conspiracy journalist” and a “left-wing hack.”

Plus: FROM BAGHDAD TO GAZA: MARK LeVINE talks about the human face behind the veil of “the axis of evil” – from young feminists wearing headscarves to Muslim metal heads. Mark teaches Middle Eastern history at UC Irvine and writes for the L.A. Times, Tikkun, Le Monde, The Christian Science Monitor, and the Huffington Post; his new book is Why They Don’t Hate Us: Lifting the Veil on the Axis of Evil.

Also: “MACK THE KNIFE”: when Bertold Brecht wrote the song in 1928, he considered Mack the embodiment of the perfect capitalist — vicious like a shark. What happened to “Mack the Knife”? Will Friedwald explains: his book is Stardust Melodies: A Biography of 12 of America’s Most Popular Songs. (originally broadcast 6-18-02) PLAYLIST: “Mack the Knife”: Threepenny Opera/Original Cast (1954); Louis Armstrong (TV, 1965); Ella FitzGerald “Live in Berlin” (1960); Sonny Rollins “Sax Colossus” (1956).

NEW AUDIO: Listen to Tom Hayden, “An Exit Strategy for Iraq Now”

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COMMIE GIRL GOES TO CRAWFORD: REBECCA SCHOENKOPF, who writes the great “Commie Girl” column for the OC Weekly, flew to Texas last week to visit Cindy Sheehan at Camp Casey. She also got a glimpse of President Bush, but only on TV at the hotel bar: “The president looked happy, relaxed, pretty great, and he should have,” she says: “his schedule that day had included a nap, lunch with Condi, some fishing, some ‘reading,’ a two-hour bike ride with reporters and a Little League game. It did not include a visit to Camp Casey.”

ALSO: THE GODLESS CONSTITUTION: Did the Founding Fathers want America to be “a Christian nation”? ISAAC KRAMNICK says the Founding Fathers had no problem with a Christian people — but they were firm in their insistence on a secular government. His new book is The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State.

PLUS: BACK FROM BAGHDAD: DAVID ENDERS of Mother Jones spent the past month in Iraq – he returned to Falluja, where US forces brought massive destruction and left a devastated city. His new book is Baghdad Bulletin: Dispatches on the American Occupation.

An exit strategy for Iraq now: TOM HAYDEN explains how to do it: shift from a military model to a peace process. Tom wrote about it for the L.A. Times op-ed page on Tuesday.

Gaza update: today the Israeli army moved in on Jewish settlers who are resisting the pullout, and Palestinians prepare to return to land they lost in 1967. ROANE CAREY will comment; he’s a senior editor at The Nation and co-editor of The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent.

Also: KARL FLEMING began his life in the bleak, poverty-striken tobacco landscape of North Carolina. He went on to become one of the key civil rights reporters of the sixties, covering Bull Conner’s fire hoses and police dogs in Birmingham in 1963, the Birmingham church bombings, and the murder of three civil rights workers during Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964. now he’s written a stunning memoir: Son of the Rough South.

It’s Gaza pullout time! The long-awaited, and long overdue, withdrawal of Israeli settlers from the Gaza strip begins this weekend. Is this the first step towards a broader withdrawal — or the last? ROANE CAREY will comment; he’s a senior editor at The Nation and co-editor of The Other Israel: Voices of Refusal and Dissent.

Also: “Can America be happy?” America’s first great radical, Tom Paine, asked that question in 1776. His answer: “As happy as she please.” The unruly energy, democratic ideas and profound sacrifices of the American Revolution came not from the fabled “founding fathers.” They came instead from the bottom up. UCLA historian GARY NASH will explain: he says the American revolution was a people’s revolution; his new book is The Unknown American Revolution.

Plus: The story of black popular music: behind the funk of George Clinton, behind the Memphis soul of Otis Redding, stand the gospel music of Sam Cooke and Mahalia Jackson. ARTHUR KEMPTON will explain — his new book is Boogaloo: The Quintessence of American Popular Music. PLAYLIST: Mahalia Jackson, “Take My Hand Precious Lord”; Sam Cooke & the Soul Stirrers, “Touch the Hem of His Garment”; Otis Redding, “I’ve Been Loving You too Long”; George Clinton, “Flashlight.”

A Socialist in the Senate? Vermont’s Socialist congressman Bernie Sanders seems set to win one of the few US Senate seats next year where no incumbent is running. JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation will explain.

Also: The Bush economy: our economic mythmakers hold that technology will overturn hierarchies, and that the democratizing of information and finance will lead us to a virtual social revolution. But, as DOUG HENWOOD demonstrates, the gap between rich and poor has never been so wide, and wealth never so concentrated. Doug’s new book is After the New Economy; he also edits the Left Business Observer.

Plus: GREIL MARCUS talks about ELVIS COSTELLO (originally broadcast 9-25-2001). Playlist: “What’s So Funny ‘Bout Peace, Love and Understanding?”; “Less than Zero” (live in Dallas); “Shipbuilding” (“just a rumor that was spread around town”); “All This Useless Beauty”; “Every Day I Write the Book”

New in the audio archive: Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times talks with Jon Wiener on Radio Nation about the conservative Supreme Court justice who became a liberal: Becoming Justice Blackmun
Streaming audio: http://thenation.audioblog.com/deluge/d6cd1d5d-6ca5-115e-1563-fda82ee817ba.mp3
podcast: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RadionationPodcast

Should Roe go? KATHA POLLITT looks at the argument of Democratic Party insiders who ask whether abandoning abortion rights would win back white Catholics and evangelicals. Katha is author of Subject to Debate and a poet, essayist, and columnist for The Nation, was recently awarded the number 74 spot on right-wing hack Bernard Goldberg’s list of 100 People Who are Screwing Up America.

Also: REBECCA SOLNIT talks about her wonderful new book A Field Guide to Getting Lost — it’s a book about uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire, and place. She’s an activist and award-winning writer; her last book was the indispensible Hope in the Dark.
WEB EXTRA: Read Rebecca Solnit, “Taking the Measure of Victory,” at TomDispatch.com

Plus: THE SECRET HISTORY OF DISCO: Peter Shapiro talks about the way disco brought a polysexual, polyracial, polymorphous celebration — to a space beyond the reach of church, state and family; the way it became a worldwide phenomenon; and the way it ended in a homophobic, racist backlash. His book is Turn the Beat Around.
PLAYLIST: Bee Gees, “Stayin’ Alive” 1977, #1
Gloria Gaynor, “I Will Survive” 1979 #1
Sister Sledge, “We Are Family” 1979 #2
Chic, “Good Times” 1979 #1

“The Iraq war is over – and the winner is — Iran.” That’s what JUAN COLE says — he’s professor of history at Michigan, and he writes the famous “Informed Comment” blog about Iraq.

Also: Bush nominated John G. Roberts to the Supreme Court; how bad is this guy? DAVID COLE will explain; he’s The Nation‘s legal affairs correspondent, professor at Georgetown University Law Center, and author of the award-winning book Enemy Aliens: Double Standards and Constitutional Freedoms in the War on Terrorism (New Press), out in a revised paperback edition this month.

Plus: what do Eminem, Johnny Cash, John Lennon, and R.E.M. have in common? All see their their music in relation to social and political issues — that’s what they told ANTHONY DeCURTIS, contributing editor to Rolling Stone and author of In Other Words: Artists Talk about Life and Work. PLAYLIST: Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, “Folsom Prison Blues”; R.E.M./Michael Stipe, “Losing My Religion” (Live–Athens GA); Eminem, The Marshall Mathers LP, “****/Kill You”; John Lennon Collection, “Instant Karma”

WEB EXTRA: Karl Rove update: “Luckily for Bush, it is not a crime to change the grounds on which you’ll pledge to fire someone.” — Jon Stewart. Watch Jon Stewart on Karl Rove

ROBERT SCHEER talks about Karl Rove’s crime: “To try to conceal the fact that the President had lied to the American public about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program, Rove attempted to destroy the credibility of two national security veterans and send an intimidating message to any other government officials preparing to publicly tell the truth.” Scheer of course is a syndicated columnist and co-author of The Five Biggest Lies Bush told Us About Iraq.

Plus: It’s the 100th anniversary of the Wobblies! PAUL BUHLE has written a fabulous graphic history of the IWW: Mike Davis says “tell the bosses to go to hell and buy an extra copy of this wonderful history.”
The Travelling Wobbly Show opens in LA Sunday, July 17; reception 7-9 pm: at The Workmen’s Circle, 1525 S. Robertson Blvd, LA; 310 552 2007.

Also: GANG OF FOUR launched a post-punk scratchy, funky sound and sang songs about exploitation in love and work. Their 1979 debut album “Entertainment!” has had a huge influence, and now it’s been reissued by Rhino. We’ll speak with co-founder and singer JON KING and listen to some key songs.
PLAYLIST: Gang of Four, “Entertainment!” Rhino R2 78428
#2 “Natural’s Not In It”: “the problem/of leisure/what to do/for pleasure. . . ”
#4 ” Damaged Goods”: “your kiss so sweet/your sweat so sour . . .”
#7 “I Found That Essence Rare”: “the worst thing in 1954 was the bikini . . .”
“To Hell with Poverty” (single)

More stuff to read: Jon Wiener criticizes Alan Dershowitz (and praises Arnold Schwarzenneger), on the LA Times op-ed page Monday: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-wiener11jul11,1,6360784.story?ctrack=1&cset=true