Living in the USA

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It’s been a really bad week at the Supreme Court Unions: for unions, for stopping gerrymandering, and for replacing Justice Anthony Kennedy: Harold Meyerson of the American Prospect reports on what we should do now.
Also: The only Republican in the House from LA County, Steve Knight, is facing a strong challenge from first-time Democrat Katie Hill. He’s against Obamacare; she’s for Medicare for All — and her chances look good. Dana Goodyear of the New Yorker reports.
Plus: Despite Trump’s reversal on family separation at the border, the crisis continues. Sonia Nazario, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and author of “Enrique’s Journey,” a book that detailed experiences of Latin American children immigrating to the US, joins us today to talk about Trump’s fake news, the experiences of migrants, and how we might improve family detention while people are waiting for their asylum hearings.

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Over 11,000 immigrant children are being held in detention centers across the US: Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments on the political disaster for Trump–and the Republicans–of his family separation policy.
Plus Zoe Carpenter of The Nation reports on the inside of a Border Patrol children’s detention center in Texas–and the uncertainties those children now face.
And Ahilan Arulanatham, Legal Director of the ACLU of Southern California, has the latest on family detention litigation–and what people can do to help.

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Seymour Hersh won a Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for his expose of the My Lai massacre—he was a 33-year-old freelancer at the time. Since then, he’s won pretty much every other journalism award. He’s worked as a staff writer for The New York Times and The New Yorker. He’s also written a dozen books, most recently Reporter: A Memoir.
Plus: Since Trump took office, the Democrats have flipped 44 state legislative seats. What will it take to repeat that to win control of the House and the Senate?  John Nichols explains.  6/14/18

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Trump asked for, and got, a ten percent increase in defense spending this year – even though the American military is the most massive, the most technologically advanced, and the best-funded fighting force in the world. But in the last fifteen years of constant war it has won nothing. Tom Engelhardt comments; he’s the legendary editor who created and runs the TomDispatch website, and his new book is “A Nation Unmade by War.”
Plus: Trump and Syrian refugees: During Obama’s last year, about 10,000 were admitted to the US; so far this year, the number is eleven. Wendy Pearlman explains – she interviewed hundreds of Syrian refugees across the Middle East and Europe. Her new book is “We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria.”   6/8/18

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After reviewing Trump’s growing confrontation with Europe, Yanis Varouvakis concludes that ‘Trump Isn’t Stupid.’ Yanis is a former finance minister of Greece who took office in 2015.  He became a European-wide celebrity when he resisted the demands of Europe’s bankers for austerity as Greece held out for restructuring its debt, –But then the government submitted and Yanis left office.  Now he has co-founded an international grassroots movement that is campaign for the revival of democracy in Europe. He’s written many books, most recently “Adults in the Room” and “Talking to my Daughter About the Economy—or, How Capitalism works—and how it fails.”
Also: there are 219,000 women in prison in the United States — Rachel Kushner’s new novel, “The Mars Room,” is a story about of one of them. She’ll be in-studio to talk about it.  5/31/18

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Is Trump crazy? Amy Wilentz talks about The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, a book edited by Bandy X. Lee, in which 27 psychiatrists and mental-health experts give their assessments of the president. The book was number four on the New York Times bestseller list.
Also: Trump and the NRA: at the beginning of the 2016 campaign, Trump’s status as a gun person was uncertain — but he succeed in tranfsorming himself during the campaign. The Nation’s George Zornick reports (recorded after the Las Vegas shootings).  5/24/2018

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Trump’s plan on pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal is to pressure Iran to restart negotiations on terms more favorable to the US—but that’s never going to happen, says Michael Klare. And Trump has no Plan B – except for war—which could quickly involve Israel fighting in Lebanon against Iran’s ally Hezbollah, which has thousands of rockets aimed at Israeli cities.
Also: the coming showdown in Texas between populist Democrats and establishment Democrats: D. D. Guttenplan has returned from the Lone Star State with a report on the political transformation underway there.
5/17/18

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The amazing news from Korea about the prospects for peace and de-nuclearization: historian Bruce Cumings of the University of Chicago comments, warning that the Washington consensus opposes a treaty. His books include “The Korean War: A History” and “North Korea: Another Country.”
Plus: Trump’s greatest political vulnerability may not be Russiagate, but rather his financial and tax crimes. David Cay Johnston has been investigating and reporting on Trump’s finances for nearly 30 years. He won a Pulitzer Prize at The New York Times, and now he’s editor-in-chief of DCReport.org.  (Trump Watch 5/10/18)

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Full Employment is emerging as a key component of Democratic platforms — Harold Meyerson talks about the history and the prospect of a new “Jobs for All” program–and the current support for it, not just with Bernie Dems, but with onetime centrists Corey Booker and Kristin Gillibrand.
Plus, the Trump re-election nightmare could come true — Tom Frank talks about why (it’s the economy!) and how we can stop it.
Lastly, Mueller’s Questions and Trump’s Answers: Bob Dreyfuss of the Nation comments on the changing story about paying Stormy Daniels, and about Trump’s options in the face of the release of Mueller’s questions for him.
Trump Watch podcast, 5/3/18

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On Wed. April 25 the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the Travel Ban 3.0 case (Trump v. Hawaii) — David Cole, National Legal Director of the ACLU, for comments.
Plus, the legendary Washington political journalist and author of “Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and Richard Nixon’s Downfall,” Elizabeth Drew, reviews “A Higher Loyalty,” by James Comey.
Lastly, it has been 50 years since Columbia ’68 — Mark Rudd, political organizer, mathematics instructor, anti-war activist and onetime member of the Weather Underground, shares his lessons for the left: “build the base!”  4-26-18