Living in the USA

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Michelle Obama‘s greatest political moment came in October, when she spoke about Donald Trump’s Access Hollywood groping tape.  During the preceding eight years, she limited herself to campaigning against childhood obesity — but even on that seemingly innocuous feminine topic, she was defeated — by Big Food and agribusiness.  Amy Wilentz wrote about Michelle in 2008 for the Washington Post.

Also: Andrew Bacevich reviews eight years of Barack Obama’s wars and foreign policies, starting with Iran and Afghanistan and including cyberwar.  Bacevich wrote about the topic for The Nation’s special issue on “The Obama Years.”

And Harold Meyerson talks about Trump’s choice for secretary of labor — fast food exec Andy Puzder (or is it “Pudzer”?), who wants to replace workers with robots — and about what mainstream economists learned –too late — about the effects of free trade on the once-industrial midwest.  Harold wrote about it for The American Prospect, where he is executive editor.

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For America’s working class,both minority and white workers suffer, but in different ways: white employment has fallen, while people of color face low-wage work for years to come.  HAROLD MEYERSON of The American Prospect reviews the grim evidence about changes in the labor market over the last decade — and talks about what we need to do to change things.

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In France, they compare Trump to Marine Le Pen.  In Italy, to Berlusconi.  In England, to Brexit.  Amy Wilentz is back from Europe, where people are talking, of course, about Trump–and how much more powerful he is than their own local versions.
Also: How to Stop Trump: David Cole, incoming Legal Director for the ACLU, has some ideas.
And Harold Meyerson reviews the situation in Washington, and in Indiana, where Carrier Air Conditioning has agreed to cooperate with Donald Trump and keep 1,000 jobs in the USA–making America great again. 11/30/16

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LA is  the biggest sanctuary city in the country – Police Chief Charlie Beck and Mayor Eric Garcetti have declared they will refuse to cooperate with any Trump initiative to round up and deport undocumented immigrants – and now Trump’s incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus says Trump will cut off federal funds if LA remains a sanctuary city.  HAROLD MEYERSON comments.

Also: we’re still working to understand how Trump won.  ADAM SHATZ of the London Review of Books argues that Hillary never should have been the candidate– later in this hour.

Also: getting away from all that – sort of.  TOM LUTZ has been on the road, traveling to many far-away places.  His new book is And The Monkey Learned Nothing.

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In California Republicans are virtually powerless.  Hillary got 61.5% of the popular vote, highest proportion in the country (except for Hawaii).  Even Orange County, legendary as Goldwater Country, voted Democratic in the presidential race – first time since 1936.  NARDA ZACCHINO explains — her new book is California Comeback: How a Failed State became a Model for the Nation.
Also: MIKE DAVIS analyzes the voting and argues that the real revolution of 2016 wasn’t Trump’s–it was the rise of the Bernie Sanders movement.
And JOHN NICHOLS argues that the Electoral College is fundamentally unfair.

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Our tasks now: Mourn, Resist, Organize: KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL lays out the path ahead as we confront the reality of Trump as president-elect.
Also: JOHN NICHOLS on the Democrats after Clinton.
and LAILA LALAMI on the most vulnerable people in the new Age of Trump: Muslims in America.

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On our day-after show on KPFK, HAROLD MEYERSON says Hillary’s biggest problem wasn’t FBI director Comey–it was the legacy of her husband Bill’s turn toward globalism and deregulation, which left an angry and fearful and declining white working class.
Also: KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL says we need to mourn — and then we need to resist and organize.
and AMY WILENTZ talks about the election, and the frightening prospects of Trump’s presidency.

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Gary Younge has spent a month in the rust belt city of Muncie, Indiana, talking politics with people there.  The Trump supporters are well aware of his faults, but say they need “something big” to change things for them.
Plus: Katha Pollitt asks whether Trump’s misogyny will spark a wave of women’s political action.
Also, Tom Frank talks about email: he says the John Podesta emails—released by Wikileaks—tell us much more about how America is run than Hillary’s do.
And Adam Shatz argues that Obama’s presidency provoked a white backlash—and rekindled a spirit of black resis

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HAROLD MEYERSON says Trump seems uniquely horrible, but is relying on a standard Republican electoral strategy: repress the vote.  Hillary meanwhile is doing everything possible to turn out the vote.
Plus: TOM FRANK talks about the media treatment of Bernie Sanders: it was terrible.
And JOHN NICHOLS comments on some candidates we actually like — for the Senate, the House, and the Minnesota State Legislature.

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John Nichols talks about some of our favorite progressive candidates—for the Senate (Deborah Ross in NC), the House (Angie Craig in MN), and state legislatures—who show what good politics look like these days—and who have been endorsed by “Our Revolution,” the Bernie Sanders political group.

Also: Tom Hayden, who died on Sunday at 74, meant a lot to a lot of us, including Katrina vanden Heuvel—she comments on his amazing life as an activist and writer. Tom was a long-time member of the Editorial Board of The Nation and a frequent contributor to the magazine’s pages.

Plus: The documentary filmmaker, Deia Schlosberg, who was arrested while reporting on a climate-change protest in North Dakota. She is now charged with three counts of felony conspiracy and faces a possible sentence of up to 45 years.