Living in the USA

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Jared Loughner’s Glock:  KATHA POLLITT says “it used to be that after a spectacular killing there would be a lot of hopeful/ rueful talk about keeping in from happening again.”  But now the Democrats have abandoned gun control — even though “it was the gun.” Katha wrote about guns for her latest column in The Nation.

Plus: TOM WAITS is the brilliant singer/songwriter with the growly voice and the haunting music.  Barney Hoskyns talks about his life and music – his bio, Lowside of the Road , is out now in paperback.   Playlist: “Jersey Girl,” “16 Shells from a 30 ought six,”  ”I’m Big in Japan,” “Get Behind the Mule.”  (originally aired 7/22/2009)

Also:  One, Two, Many Chinas: Chinese President Hu Jintau is meeting in Washington today with Obama – we’ll have comment from JEFF WASSERSTROM, he writes for many places including The Daily Beast, Foreign Policy, and The Nation, and he has a new co-authored piece at Time.com this week.  His new book is China in the 21^st Century – What Everyone Needs To Know.

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HAROLD MEYERSON says the lesson of the attack on Gabrielle Giffords and 19 others in Arizona is that “conservatives promote a paranoid culture that makes America a dangerous land.” Harold’s new op-ed for the Washington Post cites Glenn Beck as exhibit number one.

Plus: Obama goes to Arizona: ARI BERMAN says the president should follow the example set by Bill Clinton after the Oklahoma City bombing: Clinton told the far right, “There is nothing patriotic about hating your government.” Ari writes for The Nation; his new book is Herding Donkeys.

Also: historian IRA BERLIN talks about recent immigration from Africa and the Caribbean — his book The Making of African America is out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 3/17/10).

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Abolish the filibuster: JOYCE APPLEBY is one of nine historians, political scientists, and law profs sponsoring of a petition urging the senate to get rid of Rule 22 permitting the “invisible filibuster” for which they gathered 332 signers.   Joyce, professor emerita at UCLA, wrote about the filibuster for the L.A. Times.

Also: BARBARA EHRENREICH talks about Americans’ “unwholesome love affair with Positive Thinking.”  She says losing your job, or your home, is not “an opportunity.”  Her book BRIGHT SIDED: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking has Undermined America is out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 11/11/09) Read the Journal of Happiness Studies HERE.

Plus: Obama Year Three: ARI BERMAN talks about what happened in the lame duck Congress and Obama’s agenda for the coming year: anything there about jobs?  Ari is a political correspondent for The Nation;  he’s also written for Rolling Stone and the Guardian. His new book is Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party, where he says it’s time to revive the 2008 grassroots Obama movement.

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The Progressive Honor Roll of 2010: JOHN NICHOLS names the names of some of our political heroes; number one is Bernie Sanders.  John is Washington Correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.   “Most Valuable Online Activism”: Progressive Change Campaign Committee, HERE.

Also: The Museum of Jurassic Technology is one of the treasures of Los Angeles–it’s a weird and wonderful place on Venice Boulevard that attracts art fanatics from around the world.  Founder and director DAVID WILSON raises big questions about really small art.  (originally broadcast 6-19-2001).

Plus: THELONIOUS MONK wasn’t a naive, childlike, eccentric character – that’s what historian ROBIN KELLEY says.  He talks about the life, the times, and the music of  “an American original.” Robin teaches at USC; his book Thelonious Monk is out now in paperback.  PLAYLIST: “‘Round Midnight,”  “Well You Needn’t,” “Straight No Chaser,” “Sweet and Lovely” – 1947 Blue Note sessions.  (originally broadcast 10-21-09)

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For our year-in-review show, we’ll ask HAROLD MEYERSON what happened to Obama in 2010? Why did he make so many concessions to Republicans?  Harold writes op-ed columns for the Washington Post and the L.A. Times, and he’s editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: Islamophobia — the year in review: MAX BLUMENTHAL of The Nation will look back at the alarming rise in attacks on Muslims and Islam in the US, ten years after 9-11.  Max is the author  Republican Gomorrah; read his new piece “The Great Fear” at TomDispatch.com HERE .

Plus: BOB DYLAN’s Christmas album: is this a joke — or a tragedy? SEAN WILENTZ explains — he’s historian-in-residence at the official Bob Dylan website, and his new book is Bob Dylan in America.  READ Sean Wilentz on Dylan’s Xmas album HERE. LISTEN to samples 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)

For the record: KPFK today is pre-empting my show for special fund drive programming.  Please pledge — call 818-985-5735, or online at kpfk.org.

For the 30th anniversary of Lennon’s murder, we’ll do a one-hour special featuring excerpts from Lennon’s last interview, rare clips of different versions of “Give Peace a Chance” performed live at different shows; and a chat with GREG MITCHELL, former editor of Crawddaddy (and current blogger at TheNation.com) about his meetings with Lennon in New York in the 1970s.

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ROBERT REICH on Obama’s economy: the Senate has failed to pass unemployment extension, and is getting ready to approve tax cuts for the rich.  Robert Reich was secretary of labor under Bill Clinton; his new book is Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future.

Our Haiti update from AMY WILENTZ: elections last Sunday – no results yet.  And almost a year after the killer earthquake, a million people are still homeless. And now there’s a cholera epidemic.  Amy wrote about the elections for the New York Times op-ed page.

Lincoln and slavery: how our greatest president changed his mind about abolition, war, emancipation, and black voting rights, and why he gave up the idea that freed slaves would have to leave the US:  Columbia University  historian ERIC FONER explains — his new book is The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.

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MIKE DAVIS talks about CHALMERS JOHNSON, our most brilliant and acute critic of American empire, author of the award-winning Blowback and more recently The Sorrows of Empire and Dismantling the Empire. He died Saturday.  Also we’ll listen to my last interview with Chalmers.
READ Tom Engelhardt on Chalmers Johnson’s passing HERE.

Plus: DANIEL ELLSBERG has been arrested more than 60 times – but not for the Pentagon Papers.  In this interivew he recalls his anti-war activism in — and out — of jail.

Also: GREIL MARCUS has been writing about BOB DYLAN since the mid-sixties, working with “a fan’s intensity and a detective’s persistence.”   Greil’s new book, collecting 40 years of criticism — and ending with Dylan’s performance on election night in 2008 in Minneapolis, is Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings, 1968-2010.
Playlist: “With God on our Side,” Live 1964 at Philharmonic Hall (with Joan Baez); “Like a Rolling  Stone,” Best of the Original Mono Recordings.

It’s the Pacifica Archives fund drive, and we’ll be featuring Pacifica audio documentaries on Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon:  for Jimi Hendrix, an amazing show featuring rare recordings and interviews with blues singer John Hammond (who befriended the young Hendrix in Greenwich Village in 1966), Chas Chandler from The Animals (who brought Hendrix to England and became his manager), as well as Hendrix biographer David Henderson.

The Pacifica Archives Campus Campaign places unique historical audio in college and school libraries: 180 hours of audio in two volumes from the vault:  Civil Rights, 1968, Women’s Studies, The Environment, Malcolm X, Noam Chomsky, and Studs Terkel, Black Power, and more.  Presented in mp3 format on 18 discs, this set requires a pledge of $250 — please call during the show — or pledge online HERE.