Living in the USA

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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

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Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect analyzes Trump’s tumultuous post-Putin week, perhaps a turning point for Republicans–at least some Republicans.
Also: Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the Law School at UC Berkeley, talks about the worst things about Brett Kavanaugh, and about his greatest vulnerabilities in the upcoming confirmation hearings for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.
Plus: Does your job make a meaningful contribution to society? David Graeber posted that question on the internet – a million people clicked on it, and many posted answers. Now his book about those answers is out – it’s called ‘B.S. Jobs,’ and it casts dramatic light on our economy and politics.  7/19/18

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Amy Wilentz, Guest Host:
Laurent Dubois, author of “The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer,” and Alan Minsky, KPFK Program Director, and founding member of the People’s Game Football Collective, explore the world of the World Cup.
Plus: Jeff Wasserstrom, American historian of modern China and Professor of History at the University of California, Irvine, talks about Xi Jinping, Trump and China today.
Last,  James North, author of “Freedom Rising,” a first-hand look at apartheid South Africa, talks about the trouble in Haiti–not random violence, but focused on elite targets. 7/13/18

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The Supreme Court gave the green light to anti-abortion ‘pregnancy crisis centers’ in California, and the campaign to overturn Roe v. Wade is under way — we talk with Katha Pollitt about the future of abortion rights with Trump’s Supreme Court.
Next up, David Cole, Legal Director of the ACLU, and legal affairs correspondent for The Nation, talks about voting rights and the ACLU in the age of Trump–and says “vote like your rights depended on it.”
Finally: Trump in June: the bad, the ugly, and the merely inexplicable — Amy Wilentz comments on politics in a really bad month.  7/6/18