The recount: waste of money, or exercise in democracy? The Nation Podcast, 12/1

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Jill Stein has raised almost $7 million to pay for recounts in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.  John Nichols says it won’t make Hillary president, but it is a normal electoral practice; critics on the left say the real problem is not the count, but rather vote suppression, voter disfranchisement, and the electoral college.

Also: We’re still thinking about Fidel, who died Saturday—Katrin Hansing, who has studied and written about Cuba for two decades, and served as a leader on The Nation’s Cuba trips, comments.

And Walter Mosley, author of the Easy Rawlins mysteries, proposes a “shotgun marriage” between capitalism and socialism.  His new book is Folding the Red into the Black, or Developing a Viable Un-Topia for Human Survival in the 21st Century.

Trump: The View from Europe: KPFK

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In France, they compare Trump to Marine Le Pen.  In Italy, to Berlusconi.  In England, to Brexit.  Amy Wilentz is back from Europe, where people are talking, of course, about Trump–and how much more powerful he is than their own local versions.
Also: How to Stop Trump: David Cole, incoming Legal Director for the ACLU, has some ideas.
And Harold Meyerson reviews the situation in Washington, and in Indiana, where Carrier Air Conditioning has agreed to cooperate with Donald Trump and keep 1,000 jobs in the USA–making America great again. 11/30/16

How to Stop Trump: The Nation Podcast 11/24

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In 2002, we had Bush and Cheney in the White House with Republican control of the House and the Senate and a Republican majority on the Supreme Court. Nevertheless virtually all of Bush’s most outrageous “national security” initiatives were reversed – because of citizen action and groups like the ACLU. David Cole says the lessons for us as Trump comes to power are clear.

Also: We’re still trying to understand exactly how Trump won. Gary Younge spent a month in Muncie, a rust-belt city in the Indiana heartland; he reports that Trump won there not because of Republican enthusiasm for Trump—there wasn’t much of that—but because Democrats lacked enthusiasm for Clinton.

And Michelle Chen talks about resettlement programs for Muslim refugees in Minneapolis and elsewhere—how they succeed, and what Trump might do to stop new refugees from entering.

LA, America’s Biggest Sanctuary City, vs. Trump: KPFK 11/23

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LA is  the biggest sanctuary city in the country – Police Chief Charlie Beck and Mayor Eric Garcetti have declared they will refuse to cooperate with any Trump initiative to round up and deport undocumented immigrants – and now Trump’s incoming Chief of Staff Reince Priebus says Trump will cut off federal funds if LA remains a sanctuary city.  HAROLD MEYERSON comments.

Also: we’re still working to understand how Trump won.  ADAM SHATZ of the London Review of Books argues that Hillary never should have been the candidate– later in this hour.

Also: getting away from all that – sort of.  TOM LUTZ has been on the road, traveling to many far-away places.  His new book is And The Monkey Learned Nothing.

Mike Davis: The Real Revolution of 2016 was not Donald Trump’s: The Nation podcast 11/17

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Trumpism is inherently chaotic, Mike Davis argues, and won’t last long, while the emergence of the Bernie Sanders movement has the potential to transform American politics.
Plus Joan Walsh looks at how Hillary lost women voters she needed, and what comes next for feminist politics.
Also, Kai Wright revisits Trump supporters on Long Island, and reconsiders the place of race in America since Obama’s 2008 Philadelphia speech on race.
And Adam Shatz argues the vote in the Rust Belt shows Hillary never should have been the Democratic candidate; but Bernie Sanders couldn’t have beaten Trump either.

California: Hillary 62%, Trump 31%: KPFK 11/16

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In California Republicans are virtually powerless.  Hillary got 61.5% of the popular vote, highest proportion in the country (except for Hawaii).  Even Orange County, legendary as Goldwater Country, voted Democratic in the presidential race – first time since 1936.  NARDA ZACCHINO explains — her new book is California Comeback: How a Failed State became a Model for the Nation.
Also: MIKE DAVIS analyzes the voting and argues that the real revolution of 2016 wasn’t Trump’s–it was the rise of the Bernie Sanders movement.
And JOHN NICHOLS argues that the Electoral College is fundamentally unfair.

The End of Clintonism: Harold Meyerson on KPFK 11/9

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On our day-after show on KPFK, HAROLD MEYERSON says Hillary’s biggest problem wasn’t FBI director Comey–it was the legacy of her husband Bill’s turn toward globalism and deregulation, which left an angry and fearful and declining white working class.
Also: KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL says we need to mourn — and then we need to resist and organize.
and AMY WILENTZ talks about the election, and the frightening prospects of Trump’s presidency.

Pico Diary: Election Day — LA Review of Books 11/8

At Factor’s Deli on Pico in Beverywood, a dozen carts are lined up, filled with party platters ready to be delivered.  “Those have to be for parties tonight,” I say to the woman who must be the catering manager.  She says “One lady told me ‘it will either be a celebration, or a suicide party.  Either way we need a deli platter.”
… continued at LA Review of Books Blog HERE

 

Trump: The View from Muncie

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Gary Younge has spent a month in the rust belt city of Muncie, Indiana, talking politics with people there.  The Trump supporters are well aware of his faults, but say they need “something big” to change things for them.
Plus: Katha Pollitt asks whether Trump’s misogyny will spark a wave of women’s political action.
Also, Tom Frank talks about email: he says the John Podesta emails—released by Wikileaks—tell us much more about how America is run than Hillary’s do.
And Adam Shatz argues that Obama’s presidency provoked a white backlash—and rekindled a spirit of black resis