The new book Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul, by Clara Bingham, is an oral history of 1969-1970. It’s surprisingly moving and powerful.
Read my review HERE.
What Happened in California? The Nation podcast 6/9
Listen HERE
E erything you need to know about the California primary, where Hillary got 56% and Bernie 43%—John Nichols explains it all to producer Alan Minsky.
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Also: Andrew Cockburn of Harper’s Magazine explains how Obama’s drone “kill list” is approved—and what happens after.
Andrew’s book Kill Chain: Drones and the Rise of High-Tech Assassins is out now in paperback.
And: because politics isn’t everything, we talked about the great Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar Wai with John Powers—the films include “In the Mood for Love” and the cult favorite “Chunking Express.”
John is critic at large on Fresh Air with Terry Gross–his book WKW: The Cinema of Wong Kar Wai is out now.
Does Bernie’s Movement Have a Future? The Nation podcast 6/2
ernie Sanders’s campaign rallies in California have brought out more than 100,000 people—many of whom think he can win the state’s primary next week. Nicky Woolf of Guardian US has been following the campaign; he thinks they may be right.
Also: Elizabeth Warren seems to be Donald Trump’s most effective critic—and she seems to enjoy the work. Margaret Talbot of The New Yorker comments.
Plus: Can the millions of Bernie supporters become a long-lasting force in American politics? D.D. Guttenplan examines four efforts to organize progressives for the years after November 2016.
Pico Diary #3: LA Review of Books 6/2
When the circus came to Pico Blvd;
a look inside the karate studio;
and the mystery of the Pico Teriyaki House: they’re never open, but the guy is always in there.
http://blog.lareviewofbooks.org/essays/pico-diary-3/
Can Bernie Win California? KPFK 6/1
Many of Bernie’s supporters think he can win the California primary next Tuesday. Could they be right? Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments.
Plus: Most “independent” voters in fact have long-standing ties to one party or the other—very few swing from one party to the other between elections. Joshua Holland of The Nation has the facts.
Also: The Somali terrorism trial in Minneapolis ended today—three men in their twenties accused of conspiracy to commit murder outside of the US and providing material support for a terrorist organization. Matt Pearce of the LA Times reports on the surprising Somali community in Minneapolis.
Can the Democratic Party be United? The Nation Podcast 5/25
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B ernie Sanders has stopped his direct attacks on Hillary, and he’s been able to make some strong appointments to the platform committee for the Democratic National Convention. Is the unification of the party underway? Harold Meyerson explains.
Plus: Most “independent” voters in fact have long-standing ties to one party or the other—very few swing from one party to the other between elections. Joshua Holland has the facts.
And Tom Frank examines the “Hillary Doctrine,” her long-standing commitment to microfinance as the best way to help poor women around the world. It doesn’t work, he argues. Tom’s new book is Listen, Liberal!
Bernie on the Move in Southern California: KPFK 5/25
Bernie is holding big rallies all over southern California this week—Santa Monica on Monday (left), Anaheim and Riverside on Tuesday, Lancaster today, Ventura tomorrow. John Nichols has our political update.
Also on today’s show: What Happened to Sandra Bland? To understand that, you have to begin way before she died in a Texas jail, a year ago. Debbie Nathan reports on one black life that mattered.
Plus: Historian Eric Foner takes up the question that has troubled Bernie Sanders’s supporters for months: Why didn’t more black people vote for Bernie? How come so many African-Americans support Hillary?
Donald Trump Knows the Age of Reagan Is Over. Does Hillary? TheNation Podcast 5/19
LISTEN HERE
H illary will have to do something different to beat Donald Trump, Bruce Shapiro argues— because appealing to moderates, like the Clintons did in the nineties, is not going to work this year.
Also: The #BreakFree climate protests have mobilized tens of thousands in direct actions against coal, oil, and gas companies around the world. Zoë Carpenter reports.
Plus: Patrick Cockburn, who Seymour Hersh has called “the best Western journalist at work in Iraq today,” gives us an update on Iraq, Syria, Libya, and ISIS. His new book is Chaos and Caliphate: Jihadis and the West in the Struggle for the Middle East.
Hillary Is Trump’s Dream Opponent: The Nation Podcast 5/12
Listen HERE
D onald Trump’s ideal opponent is a member of the establishment, Steve Fraser argues—the kind that used to be called a “limousine liberal.” Hillary Clinton, he argues, fits the bill perfectly.
Also: The only way Trump could win, says Ari Berman, is through suppressing the vote of Democrats in half a dozen swing states. A state-by-state survey suggests he’s unlikely to succeed.
And historian Eric Foner takes up the question that has troubled Bernie Sanders’s supporters for months: How did Bernie lose the African-American vote to Clinton? One reason: voting for Hillary for many in black America is one last chance to vote for Obama.
“Boom Bust Boom”–Terry Jones on Economics:
KPFK 5/11
LISTEN HERE
“Boom Bust Boom” is the delightful new film made by TERRY JONES of Monty Python. it explains economics to everyone, and answers three big questions: 1. Why do crashes keep happening? 2. Why are students taught crashes do NOT happen? 3. Will we ever learn from our mistakes?
ALAN MINSKY comments–the film features the economic theories of his father, Hyman Minsky.
Also: HAROLD MEYERSON on the “hostile takeover” of the GOP–by a man named Trump.