Living in the USA

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Our war on Xmas: listening to BOB DYLAN’s Christmas album! Is this a joke — or a tragedy? SEAN WILENTZ explains — he’s official historian at the official Bob Dylan website (he also teaches history at Princeton.)  READ Sean Wilentz on Dylan’s Xmas album HERE.
PLAYLIST: “Here Comes Santa Claus”; “I’ll Be Home for Xmas”; “Must Be Santa,” “Winter Wonderland”; “O Little Town of Bethlehem”  (originally broadcast 11/11/09).

Plus: Egypt: The year in review. From the glorious Arab Spring in Tahrir Square to the disturbing election results this month–ADAM SHATZ comments.  His essay “Whose Egypt?”  appears in the London Review of Books, HERE.

Also: American politics: the year in review.  HAROLD MEYERSON looks at the Republicans, the Democrats, and the Occupyers.  Harold writes a column for the Washington  Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

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In the upcoming Iowa caucuses, Republicans like  anti-war Ron Paul–and Democrats may vote for “Uncommitted” rather than Obama. JOHN NICHOLS explains – he blogs at TheNation.com.

Also: TOM FRANK talks about the “bottomless sense of grievance” on the right today – for example, the “Team Infidel” people who blast Korans with shotguns—see their YouTube video.  Tom wrote about “Semper Infidelis” for Harper’s in December; his new book is Pity the Billionaire.

Plus: GREIL MARCUS on The Doors.  They remain at the heart of “the mythic life of their generation” – and their music still “shimmers with the dread that is with us still.” Greil’s new book is The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years. Playlist: “Light My Fire” (live at the Matrix), “L.A. Woman,” “The End,”  “Gloria” (Live).

And we’ll pay tribute to CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, a frequent guest on the show — with an exerpt from our interview about God is Not Great. Christopher died on Saturday.

Republican states have been changing their laws to make it harder to vote – now activists are challenging those laws, and yesterday Attorney General Eric Holder finally suggested he might enforce the laws the prohibit discrimation in voting, especially when they target minority voters – ARI BERMAN of The Nation will report.

Plus: blacks and guns in America.  ADAM WINKLER looks at the twisted history of guns and gun control in the US.  Today it’s the left that wants gun control, but for most of American history gun control was the program of conservative whites who wanted to keep guns out of the hands of black people. Adam is professor of constitutional law at UCLA; his new book is GUNFIGHT: The Battle of the Right to Bear Arms in America.

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Manufacturing in America: 54,000 American factories have closed in the past decade.  What would it take to bring some of them back from China?  HAROLD MEYERSON reports on differing strategies – match Chinese wages; or beat the Chinese with productivity; or provide government support for manufacturing.  Harold writes an op-ed column for the Washington Post op-ed page and works as editor-at-large of The American Prospect, which features his report, “Back from China?”

Also: Protest in China: the year in review.  JEFF WASSERSTROM talks about strikes and economic actions; environmental protests about a toxic chemical plant: and widespread anger over the cover-up of a high speed rail crash–all of which make for anxious times for the CCP.  Jeff is chair of the history department at UC Irvine; recently he compared the Pepper Spray Cop meme with the Chinese Tank Man.  His latest book is China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know.

Plus: The United States of Fear: TOM ENGELHARDT argues that, since 9-11, our leaders in Washington have sent the US down the “Soviet path,” pouring American treasure into the military, war, and national security – and driving our country towards the cliff.  Tom edits the indispensable Tom Dispatch; his new book is The United States of Fear.

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Occupy LA: 1,400 LAPD cops cleared the encampment at City Hall park in the middle of the night last night, arresting  almost 300 people.   ALAN MINSKY was there, reporting for KPFK — we’ll talk with him about the night, the Occupy movement, and of course the future.

Also: the Democratic Promise of Occupy Wall Street — William Greider of The Nation says that, while politics in Washington “now resembles an ecological dead zone,” the Occupy Wall Street movement is — “exhilerating.  ”   We are “witnessing a rare event—the birth of a social movement.”

plus: Live from Cairo: MARK LeVINE reports on the elections, and election violence, in the Middle East’s most important city.  Mark teaches Middle Eastern history at UC Irvine and is a columnist for Al Jazeera English

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The OccupyUSA live-blog at TheNation.com tracks the movement across the country and the world with updates often every 5 minutes: it’s the work of GREG MITCHELL – he has a new book out, 40 Days That Shook the World: From Occupy Wall Street to Occupy Everywhere.

Also: REBECCA SOLNIT says “If you ever doubted whether you were powerful or you mattered, just look at the reaction to people like you (or your children) camped out in parks from Oakland to Portland, Tucson to Manhattan”—the militarized police attacks on Occupyers from Manhattan to UC Davis. Rebecca wrote for TomDispatch.com.

Plus: Newt Gingrich’s cruelest campaign: replace school janitors with child labor.  JOHN NICHOLS talks about the current Republican front-runner – he’s Washington correspondent for The Nation and blogs for TheNation.com.

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Monday night the Occupy Wall Street camp in Manhattan was destroyed by the NYPD; today the activists are back, but barred from camping overnight.  RICHARD KIM, executive editor of The Nation will comment on what Occupy has accomplished and what’s next – his report, “The Audacity of Wall Street,” has been posted on 3,400 Facebook pages, and he was a guest on MSNBC last week.

Today’s show is part of the Pacifica National Archives annual fundraiser – we will be asking listeners to support the Archives’ Campus Campaign, to place audio collections in high schools and colleges across the country.  Please call and pledge during the show 800-735-0230 or online here.

Special feature: RY COODER’s new song for the Occupy movement, “Wall Street Part of Town”–world premiere!

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Voters yesterday rejected right-wing overreach with an unbroken string of Democratic and progressive victories: HAROLD MEYERSON comments on the defeat, 61-39, of the Ohio law stripping public employees of collective-bargaining rights, and the defeat in Mississippi, 57-43, of a sweeping antiabortion initiative.  Harold writes for the Washington Post and The American Prospect.

Also: TOM WAITS has an amazing new CD out, “Bad as Me” – SASHA FRERE-JONES of The New Yorker will comment.  SEE the “Visibile Tom Waits” HERE.

And FRANCES FOX PIVEN says Occupy Wall Street “has already made the concentration of wealth at the top of this society a central issue in American politics.  Now, it promises to do something similar when it comes to the realities of poverty in this country.” Piven, “the professor Glenn Beck loves to hate,” wrote about it for TomDispatch.com; her latest book is Who’s Afraid of Frances Fox Piven?

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Occupy Wall Street made a stunning showing over the weekend – we’ll talk about the different manifestations around Southern California with ALAN MINSKY, KPFK program director.  My personal favorite: Occupy Irvine – more than 500 people marched on Saturday.  Who would have thought?

Also: It’s time to abolish the death penalty in California – with an initiative on the November ballot.  JAMES CLARK, southern California coordinator for the SAFE California Campaign, will explain the strategy—and the need for volunteers to help gather signatures.

Plus: RY COODER has a book out: Los Angeles Stories is a collection of  noir-ish tales of  L.A. in the late forties, and the outsiders and oddballs in the old downtown neighborhood Bunker Hill  and out  in Venice Beach.  Los Angeles Stories is our featured thank-you premium, along with Ry’s new CD, “Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down.”  Today’s NYTimes suggests Ry Cooder’s Song “No Banker Left Behind” as an anthem for the “Occupy” movement: watch “No Banker” HERE.
Please call and pledge during the hour: 818-985-5735 — or at kpfk.org.

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Last night Senate Republicans blocked Obama’s jobs bill, which would have taxed millionaires to fund infrastructure construction, repair schools, and rehire cops, teachers, and firefighters who have been laid off.   Meanwhile,  Occupy Wall Street grows.  JOHN NICHOLS will comment–he writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Big Bill Broonzy – he left the Mississippi Delta to become a leading Chicago bluesman of the 1930s, singing about racial injustice alongside Pete Seeger and Studs Terkel; then traveling to Europe to ignite the British blues-rock revival of the 1960s with Eric Clapton and Pete Townshend. BOB REISMAN explains – his new book is I Feel so Good: the Life and Times of Big Bill Broonzy.
Playlist: “Black, Brown, and White,” “This Train,” “I Feel So Good.”

Also: Whatever happened to the American left?  MICHAEL KAZIN says socialists. anarchists and communists never won much political power, but nevertheless their utopian spirit brought far-reaching cultural change.  And then there were the Abolitionists: we could learn a lot from them.  Michael’s new book is American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation.