Living in the USA

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What should young people do when faced with the ruinous cost of college?  Mitt Romney has the answer: don’t ask the government to help, but instead “shop around” to find the best deal in the marketplace of educational choice.  TOM FRANK says “massive indebtedness changes a person, maybe even more than a college education does.”   Tom wrote about student debt for the June issue of Harper’s; his new book is Pity the Billionaire.

Also: A PEOPLE’S GUIDE TO LOS ANGELES – the indispensable new book – offers an assortment of eye-opening alternatives to L.A.’s usual tourist destinations. It documents 115 little-known sites in LA where people have fought for equality and justice.  Co-author LAURA PULIDO will explain – she is s Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at USC.  A People’s Guide is our featured thank-you gift in the KPFK fund drive today – please call and pledge during the show: 818-985-5735.

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Report from Fukushima: REBECCA SOLNIT visited the disaster zone in northern Japan.  “Disasters in the West are often compounded by the belief that human beings instantly revert to savagery in a calamity,” she says.  “But in Japan, the greater problem seems to be conformity.”  Rebecca wrote a Fukushima diary for the London Review of Books.  She’s the author of A Paradise Built in Hell: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster.

Plus: Tomorrow night, 5/10, George Clooney will host an Obama fundraiser at his house in Laurel Canyon – it’s the biggest presidential fundraiser in history, $12 million, and demonstrators will be there, calling for more aggressive action to prevent foreclosures.  PEGGY MEARNS of the Campaign for a Fair Settlement will explain – the message to Obama is “Keep Americans in our houses, and we’ll keep you in yours.”

Also: Politics and economics: HAROLD MEYERSON says “the good times are gone – long-term prosperity may be a thing of the past.”  Harold writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

ELIZABETH TAYLOR’s on-screen persona repeatedly introduced a broad audience to feminist ideas: that’s what M.G. LORD says.  She argues that, from National Velvet (1944) to Butterfield 8 (1960), Taylor “lived her life defiantly in public—undermining postwar reactionary sex roles.”  M.G.’s new book is THE ACCIDENTAL FEMINIST: How Elizabeth Taylor Raised Our Consciouness.

Plus: Politics, from Kabul to Madison: our weekly update from JOHN NICHOLS, he’s Washington Correspondent for The Nation and he blogs at TheNation.com; his most recent book is Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street.

Also: BRADLEY MANNING remains in military prison, charged with leaking nearly half a million classified government documents to Wikileaks – but CHASE MADAR says he deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom for blowing the whisle on criminal violations of American military and international law.  Chase’s new book is The Passion of Bradley Manning.

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Today the Supreme Court hears arguments about Arizona’s notorious SB 1070, the “papers please” law that targets Latinos who look foreign. DAVID COLE will comment: he teaches cons law at Georgetown, he works with the Center for Constitutional Rights, and he writes for The Nation and the New York Review.  His most recent book is Less Safe, Less Free: Why America Is Losing the War on Terror.

And we have the 20th anniversary of the Rodney King riots coming up – we’ll talk about them with MANUEL PASTOR – he’s Professor of American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California where he also serves as Director of USC’s Program for Environmental and Regional Equity and co-Director of USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.  READ Manuel Pastor’s “Lessons for LA” HERE.

Plus: DAVID CORN of Mother Jones will talk about Washington politics – he’s a regular on “Hardball” with Chris Matthews on MSNBC, and his new book is Showdown: The Inside Story of How Obama Fought Back Against Boehner, Cantor, and the Tea Party.

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Apple’s factory workers in China: we’ll speak with ROB SCHMITZ, the China correspondent for American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” and JEFF WASSERSTROM, historian of China at UC Irvine.  Rob exposed the errors in Mike Daisey’s now-infamous story for “This American Life,” and last week Rob got his own look at the Shenzhen plant of Apple supplier Foxconn in southern China.  Jeff will sketch the larger context for understanding factory workers in China today —his book Chinese Characters: Profiles of Fast-Changing Lives in a Fast-Changing Land, co-edited with Angilee Shah, will be out in September.

And we’ll speak with ADAM HOCHSCHILD about his award-winning book To End All Wars. It’s about anti-war activists in WWI, and Adam will be speaking at the LA Times Festival of Books at USC on Saturday at 11am in the Hancock Foundation auditorium, info HERE.

Also: We’ll ask HAROLD MEYERSON “why is this economic recovery different from all other economic recoveries?”  Harold writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

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RACHEL MADDOW: JOHN POWERS considers the sunny and smart MSNBC host and her excellent new book DRIFT:The Unmooring of American Military Power.  John wrote about Rachel for The American Prospect; he’s critic-at-large for NPR’s “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross, heard by 4.5 million people on 450 stations.

Plus: GUSTAVO ARELLANO asks why Americans love Mexican food so darn much – and what’s so cosmic about a burrito?  Gustavo writes the legendary “Ask a Mexican!” column and edits the OC Weekly; his new book is TACO USA.

Also: TAVIS SMILEY talks about the rich and the rest of us. He was recently named to TIME‘s list of 100 “Most Influential People in the World.”  He hosts that late-night talk show weeknights on PBS, heard locally on KOCE at 11pm. He also is co-host of Smiley and West on KPFK Saturdays at 11am.  He’s also a best-selling author, and now he has a new book out, with Dr. Cornel West: The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. WATCH his Martin Luther King-PBS Special HERE.

LISTEN to streaming audio HERE: Josh Kun on LA 3-28-12
“Trouble in Paradise”: JOSH KUN talks about popular music subcultures in LA, 1945-80. Josh teaches at USC and is curator of the exhibit at the Grammy Museum, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., downtown LA, and he will host “A Night at the Ash Grove” at the Museum on April 5.
PLAYLIST: Johnny Otis, “Harlem Nocturne” 1945; Ritchie Valens, “La Bamba” 1958; Thee Midnighters, “Whittier Blvd” 1965; Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth” 1966; Beach Boys, “Heroes and Villains” 1967.

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For decades nobody thought an individual mandate for medical insurance would be unconstitutional – until two years ago.  Now it looks like the Republicans on the Supreme Court may strike it down. WILLIAM E. FORBATH reviews this week’s arguments before the Supremes – and the politics behind them.  Willy teaches constitutional law at the Univ of Texas law school.

Also: “Trouble in Paradise”: JOSH KUN talks about popular music subcultures in LA, 1945-80. Josh teaches at USC and is curator of the exhibit at the Grammy Museum, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., downtown LA, and he will host “A Night at the Ash Grove” at the Museum on April 5. PLAYLIST: Johnny Otis, “Harlem Nocturne” 1945; Ritchie Valens, “La Bamba” 1958; Thee Midnighters, “Whittier Blvd” 1965; Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth” 1966; Beach Boys, “Heroes and Villains” 1967.

PLUS: FORMER SENATOR RUSS FEINGOLD says the cynical exploitation of the fears generated by 9/11 have undermined our ability to adjust effectively to America’s new place in the world.  His new book is WHILE AMERICA SLEEPS: A Wake-up Call for the Post-9/11 Era

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Were conservatives always this crazy? Only 12 percent of Mississippi Republicans believe Barack Obama is a Christian.  And of course there’s Rush Limbaugh.  But RICK PERLSTEIN says this is nothing new;  “they’ve been this crazy for a long time.” Rick is the author of the classic Nixonland and writes a column for RollingStone.com.

Plus: Mitt Romney won the Illinois primary last night; he also says Obama wants higher gas prices and Obama has hurt, rather than helped, the current economic recovery.  HAROLD MEYERSON will comment — he writes a a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: sometimes ordinary people fight injustice; sometimes whistleblowers refuse to sell toxic products.  EYAL PRESS looks at unlikely resisters demonstrating different kinds of moral courage.  His new book is BEAUTIFUL SOULS: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times.