Life in the Ruins: Amy Wilentz on Haiti–KPFK 1/16

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Haiti Since the Earthquake: AMY WILENTZ reports on life in the ruins, and on the failures (and occasional successes) of relief and recovery efforts.  Fact: most of the $379 million initially allocated by the US for aid to Haiti after the earthquake did not go to Haiti or Haitians; one-third went to the US military.  Amy’s magnificent new book is FAREWELL FRED VOODOO: A Letter from Haiti.  READ Amy’s new report from Haiti in The Nation HERE ;
SUPPORT Dr. Megan Coffee at TiKayHaiti.org.

Plus: TOM FRANK on the secret behind Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln: historian Doris Kearns Goodwyn—“uninspiring to the point of boredom.”  So how did her work come to define our era?  Tom wrote about Spielberg and Goodwyn for his Harper’s column this month, HERE.

Also: the My Lai massacre was not an isolated incident; millions of innocent Vietnamese civilians were killed and wonded by American forces—“a My Lai a month” is what award-winning reporter NICK TURSE calls it.  His decade of research in secret Pentagon archives and interviews with vets and Vietnamese are the basis of his important new book, KILL ANYTHING THAT MOVES: The Real American War in  Vietnam.

Eight Things I Miss about the Cold War: TomDispatch 1/15

It couldn’t be a sadder thing to admit, given what happened in those years, but — given what’s happened in these years — who can doubt that the America of the 1950s and 1960s was, in some ways, simply a better place than the one we live in now?  Fifty years ago, college was cheap, unions were strong, and we had no terrorism-industrial complex. . .
. . . continued at TomDispatch.com, HERE — also at TheNation.com HERE — or Mother Jones HERE – or Salon.com HERE — or Huffington Post HERE — or Daily Kos HERE — or Alternet HERE — or Truthdig HERE — or History News Network HERE — or Redit HERE – with 480 comments!

The Noir Forties: L.A. Review of Books, 1/15

DETOUR is an ultra-low-budget 1946 film noir that packs an undeniable punch. “He went searching for love,” the Detour poster said, “but fate forced a detour” — to accidental murder. The film is one of Richard Lingeman’s touchstones in his new book The Noir Forties: The American People from Victory to Cold War. . . .
. . . continued at the L.A. Review of Books, HERE.

Rick Perlstein: Why I’m a Liberal: KPFK 1/9

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Radicals use “liberal” as a synonym for all that is anemic, weak-kneed, and not really leftist at all. “I own it,” RICK PERLSTEIN says, because “liberalism, done right in this all-too-reactionary nation, is always already radical.”   Rick this week has started a thrice-weekly column for TheNation.com.

Also: Orange County Republicans: the doomsday scenario.  The white-hot heart of the GOP outside the South is Orange County, California; and yet it was in Orange County that Republicans lost the key state assembly seat that gave Democrats a supermajority in Sacramento.  GUSTAVO ARELLANO will explain — he’s editor-in-chief of the OC Weekly, where Scott Moxley’s cover story on the GOP appears this week.

Plus: the slave ship Amistad set sail from Havana in June, 1839 with a routine delivery of human cargo.  But the 53 Africans being held captive managed to take control of the ship and steer for freedom.  MARCUS REDIKER will tell that story—he is Distinguished Professor of Atlantic History at the U. of Pittsburgh and author of the wonderful new book, The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom.

The Problems with Obama’s deal on the “cliff”: KFPK 1/2

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The problems with Obama’s deal on the fiscal “cliff”—HAROLD MEYERSON explains – he’s editor at large of The American Prospect and he writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page—where his new piece is “Lessons from the Longshoremen,”  HERE.

Plus: DAVID COLE asks the question “Who Pays for the Right to Bear Arms?”  His answer: Black America.  Young black men die of gun homicide eight times more often than young white men.  David teaches Constitutional Law at Georgetown; his gun piece appears on the NYTimes op-ed page today, HERE.

Also: What Lincoln did, and what he didn’t do, to free the slaves: yesterday was the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation: ERIC FONER will comment – he teaches history at Columbia and won the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.
READ Eric Foner on the Emancipation Proclamation in the New York Times yesterday HERE.

Largest Mass Execution in US History – The Nation 12/26

December 26, 1862: thirty-eight Dakota Indians were hanged in Mankato, Minnesota, in the largest mass execution in US history–on orders of President Abraham Lincoln. Their crime: killing 490 white settlers, including women and children, in the Santee Sioux uprising the previous August.
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Lincoln’s treatment of defeated Indian rebels against the United States stood in sharp contrast to his treatment of Confederate rebels. . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com, HERE

Calvin Trillin: 2012 Politics in Verse: KPFK 12/26

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CALVIN TRILLIN has written an epic poem about the 2012 election–for example, a verse on Michelle Bachman, to the tune of the Beatles song:  “Michelle, our belle/Thinks that gays will all be sent to hell.”  Trillin writes for The New Yorker and serves as The Nation‘s Deadline Poet; his new book is DOGFIGHT.

Plus:  JOHN NICHOLS with The Nation’s Progressive Honor Roll for 2012: from Bernie Sanders to Boots Riley, from Marcia Moody to Jane McAlevey, we salute activists, movements and politicians.

Also:  it’s time to listen again to BOB DYLAN’s 2009 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).

Tarantino vs. Spielberg on Slavery: The Nation 12/25

Two films about American slavery in the Civil War era are currently playing in theaters.
Steven Spielberg’s film “Lincoln” begins with a black soldier reciting the Gettysburg Address.
Quentin Tarantino’s film “Django Unchained” begins with a black slave being recruited to kill two whites murderers. . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE