Living in the USA

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OLIVER STONE talks about his “Untold History of the United States,” a 10-part documentary series on Showtime, Mondays at 9 (and other times) – this coming Monday is episode 3 on The Bomb–video preview HERE.   Companion volume, co-authored by Peter Kuznick: info HERE.   More info at The Nation, HERE.

Plus: HAROLD MEYERSON on Washington politics—and that fiscal cliff we hear so much about.  Harold writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: ERIC FONER comments on “Lincoln,” Steven Spielberg’s highly-praised film about passage of the 13th Amendment banning slavery.  Spielberg’s point: Lincoln freed the slaves.  Eric says that’s not quite right—first we had the abolitionists; and then during the Civil War the slaves did a lot to free themselves.  Eric’s book The Fiery Trial won the Pulitzer Prize and the Bancroft Prize; it’s out now in paperback.

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“It wasn’t even close,” says JOHN NICHOLS at TheNation.com.  John will talk about Obama’s two-million vote margin.  John was MSNBC’s man in Ohio last night, reporting for Rachel Maddow & Co. from the Teamsters’ Hall in Toledo.

Also: TOM FRANK will talk about what Obama will do with his win: pursue “the grand bargain” and make a deal with Republicans to cut the budget.  Tom’s new book, Pity the Billionaire, is out now in paperback.

And HAROLD MEYERSON will look at the Senate races, where Democrats triumphed across the board — and billionaires failed to put their candidates in office.  Harold writes about politics for the Washington Post op-ed page and The American Prospect, where he is editor-at-large.

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“Ladies, don’t fall for Moderate Mitt!” – that’s KATHA POLLITT’s advice.  She’s a poet, essayist and columnist for The Nation.  PS from Katha:  “Did I mention that the gender gap is huge this year?”

“Mitt Romney’s America is the America that was,” HAROLD MEYERSON says.  “Barack Obama’s America is the America that will be…. And the distance between the two is greater, perhaps, than in any election we’ve had since the Civil War.”  Harold writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect, where he reported recently on politics in Florida.

Plus: ERWIN CHEMERINSKY on the Supremes: “If Romney wins, we can expect a frighteningly conservative high court. A victory for Obama could mean a liberal majority for the first time since 1969.”  Erwin is founding dean of the Law School at UC Irvine and wrote recently for the LA Times op-ed page.

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THE SECRET HISTORY OF DISCO: Peter Shapiro talks about how disco brought a polysexual, polyracial, polymorphous celebration — to a space beyond the reach of church, state and family; how it became a worldwide phenomenon; and how 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.

also: JOHN NICHOLS on the presidential race, and on Massachusetts, where Democrat Elizabeth Warren is ahead, and Wisconsin, where Democrat Tammy Baldwin is ahead.  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and a frequent guest on The Ed Show on MSNBC.

Plus: TOM FRANK says there is one grand political issue that defines our time – in the words of Elizabeth Warren, “the system is rigged.”  Tom writes a column for Harper’s–this month he writes about Paul Ryan as a fan of Rage Against the Machine.  Tom’s new book Pity the Billionaire is out now in paperback.

Romney debates Obama tonight at 6: we’ll get ready for the debate at 4:00 with RICK PERLSTEIN: will the candidates say anything they haven’t said a thousand times already?  Will the pundits declare Romney the winner because he didn’t make another terrible “gaffe”?  Rick is the author of the classic Nixonland; he wrote about the Republican National Convention for The Nation.
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Also: with BOB DYLAN’s new album “Tempest,” we’re back in the old, weird America: SEAN WILENTZ will comment; he’s the official historian-in-residence at the official BobDylan.com website, and author of Bob Dylan in America, our featured thank-you gift in the KPFK fun drive today (along with the beautiful vinyl version of “Tempest.”)   Please call and pledge during the show: 818-985-5735, or online at kpfk.org.

BOB DYLAN’s new album “TEMPEST”: GREIL MARCUS comments on Dylan’s  return to “the old weird America” of murder songs, ballads and tall tales.   Greil’s  decades of writing about Dylan are collected in the volume Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings 1968-2010.
Playlist: “Scarlet Town”;  “Long and wasted”;  “Tempest”: “The watchman he lay dreaming/ Of all the things that can be/ He dreamed the Titanic was sinking/ Into the deep blue sea.”
Listen HERE

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What happens when Americans find out what Romney tells his big contributors about the 47% who support Obama?  We’ll have analysis from JOHN NICHOLS, Washington correspondent for The Nation, and from RICK PERLSTEIN, author of Nixonland, who talks about Romney since Tampa.  WATCH Rick Perlstein video on the Republicans HERE;  READ Rick Perlstein on the  Chicago Teachers’ Strike HERE.
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Also: BOB DYLAN’s new album “TEMPEST”: GREIL MARCUS comments: his  decades of writing about Dylan are collected in the volume Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings 1968-2010.
Playlist: “Long and wasted”; “Scarlet Town”; “Tempest”: “The watchman he lay dreaming/ Of all the things that can be/ He dreamed the Titanic was sinking/ Into the deep blue sea.”

LISTEN online HERE — SUBSCRIBE to iTunes podcast HERE
The rise of a new American security state: Pulitzer-Prize winner DANA PRIEST of the Washington Post reports on a world so vast no one knows how many people it employs, how much money taxpayers spend on it, or whether “counterterrorism” and “homeland security” accomplish anything worthwhile.  Dana is co-author of  Top Secret America–it’s out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 8/11)

Also: RUSSELL BANKS is one of our best writers – in his novel, Lost Memory of Skin, his protagonist, “The Kid,” is a registered sex offender forbidden to live within 2,500 feet of a school or park – and thus forced to join a homeless camp under a Florida freeway bridge.  The book is out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 8/11)

plus: The US effort to “Rebuild Iraq”: how about this: a plant producing frozen chicken — in a country with no electricity for refrigeration? PETER VAN BUREN worked for the State Department during the “surge,” and recounts the way billions of dollars were lost to waste and fraud.  His book is “We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People”–it’s out now in paperback.  (Watch chicken plant  PR video HERE.)  (originally broadcast 8/11)

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Today we have a special Democratic National Convention broadcast: TOM FRANK says that, even though Obama continued Bush’s TARP, Bush’s secrecy policies, and Bush’s drone program, and adopted Romney’s health care proposals, the Republicans have denounced him as a “socialist.”  Tom writes the “Easy Chair” column for Harper’s.

Plus: HAROLD MEYERSON says 100 years ago the political challenge to the power of great wealth was more significant than it is today — look at Teddy Roosevelt in 1912: he fought for a federal minimum wage, an end to child labor and federal insurance that covered “the hazards of sickness, accident, invalidism, involuntary unemployment and old age.”   Also:  a legal right for workers to unionize.  Harold writes for the Washington Post op-ed page and The American Prospect.

Also:  The Real Romney – SCOTT HELMAN of the Boston Globe may know more about Mitt Romney than anybody else in journalism – he’ll talk about the things Romney himself won’t: Romney and Bain Capital, Romney in Massachusetts politics, and Romney as a Mormon.  He’s co-author of  The Real Romney, out now in paperback.