John Nichols on Politics: KPFK 11/20

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We need a progressive candidate in 2016–and Elizabeth Warren says she is not running.  JOHN NICHOLS says “Bernie Sanders might just have to run.”  Sanders says there must be a progressive alternative to the conservative Republican politics of cruelty and cuts and the centrist Democratic politics of compromise with the conservatives.  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and blogs at TheNation.com.

Elliot Mintz John LennonAlso: ELLIOT MINTZ was a legendary late-night host on KPFK in the 1960s and 1970s–today he returns to our airwaves to talk about the heroic days of alternative radio.  Elliot was also a best friend of John Lennon and Yoko Ono, especially during Lennon’s “Lost Weekend” in L.A. in 1973, and after 1980 he hosted the weekly syndicated radio series, The Lost Lennon Tapes for almost four years.
This hour will be part of the national broadcast of the Pacifica Archives annual holiday fundraiser.  The Pacifica Archives are our history!  Please call and pledge during the hour: 800-935-0230.

Chile’s Elections, 40 years after the Coup: KPFK 11/13

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40 years after the military coup that overthrew Salvador Allende, the two leading candidates for president of Chile are daughters of air force generals were were on opposite sides in 1973.  Conservative candidate Evelyn Matthei’s father was promoted by Pinochet to run the air force.  Socialist challenger Michelle Bachelet’s father opposed the coup, was tortured and died in prison.  The election will be Sunday Nov 17.  UCI historian  HEIDI TINSMAN will explain; her new book, Buying into the Regime: Grapes and Consumption in Cold War Chile and the United States, will be published in February.

 Also: Girls in prison need health care – and LESLIE ACOCA has been working on ending the incarceration of girls  through access to health care. Thanks to the Girls Health Screen, LA is now the first county in the United States to provide health care in locked settings just for girls.

The end of WWII is usually remembered in terms of Auschwitz and Hiroshima, genocide and nucear holocaust; but it was also a beginning—for Algerians and Vietnamese and Indonesians seeking independence from colonialism.  IAN BURUMA tells that story in his amazing new book 1945: YEAR ZERO.  He has written more than a dozen books and is a frequent contributor to the New York Review.

 

Life & Loathing in Israel: KPFK 11/6

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A fearless report on Israel from award-winning journalist MAX BLUMENTHAL, who shows how the occupation is destroying democracy and civil liberties for Israelis as well as Palestinians.  His work has been published in the New York Times, the Guardian, and The Nation. He wrote the bestseller Republican Gomorrah.  His new book is GOLIATH: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel.
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Also: a memoir of Polish-Jewish reconciliation: LOUISE STEINMAN found light on a dark journey, visiting Holocaust sites, learning about 800 years of Polish-Jewish history, and then finding Poles seeking the truth about the not-so-distant past.  Her new book is THE CROOKED MIRROR. 
She will be in conversation with Jack Miles at the ALOUD series at the downtown LA Public Library Thurs 7:15pm: info HERE.  READ the Crooked Mirror blog HERE.

Plus: JOHNNY CASH: the unvarnished truth about “the man in black,” a musical genius who was humbled by addicition.  ROBERT HILBURN has written the definitive biography; the music critic for the LA Times knew Cash well and was the only music journalist at the legendary Folsom Prison concert in 1968.  His new book is Johnny Cash: The Life. Playlist: “Folsom Prison Blues” live;  “I Walk the Line”;  “Hurt.”  Watch the “HURT” video HERE.

Visiting Glenn Greenwald in Rio: KPFK 10-30

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GLENN GREENWALD is the American journalist and former columnist for the Guardian who has been the main source for Edward Snowden’s revelations about NSA spying and surveillance.  Greenwald lives in Rio de Janiero,and NATASHA VARGAS COOPER just got back from spending five days with him.

Plus: TOM FRANK went to Raleigh, North Carolina, for the strike by fast food workers —we’ll have his report.  Tom writes a column for Harper’s.

Also: OLIVER STONE’s Untold History of the US, the 10-hour documentary, is out now on Blu-Ray – we’ll speak with him about why he moved from feature films about the American past to a TV documentary series.
WATCH the trailer for “Oliver Stone’s Untold History of the US”  HERE.

 

Bill Ayers’ Weatherman Memoir: LA Review of Books 10/29

It’s not hard to understand what Bill Ayers and his friends in the Weather Underground were thinking in the early 1970s, when they made plans to bomb the Capitol and other sites. The Vietnam War was raging, Nixon was president. The American people were so distracted by the media, or blinded by ideology, or bought off by consumerism that they would never wake up; except, that is, for Bill Ayers and his friends. They saw what was going on. . . . ”
Review of Bill Ayers’ “Public Enemy”: continued at the LA Review of Books HERE

6 Questions for Jonathan Lethem: The Nation 10/10

Jon Wiener: The star of your new book [Dissident Gardens] is Rose Zimmer, the “Red Queen of Sunnyside” in the 1950s—you also call her “the Last Communist,” in capital letters. Where did you get Rose?

Jonathan Lethem: The mystery I was trying to explore was my grandmother’s political dark matter. As a kid, by the time I knew her she wasn’t talking about these things. But there was a famous photo of her in Life magazine in 1938 marching against Hitler in Manhattan. She was very proud of this photo, and it was an indication that she had been an activist and had lived the life of a dissident.
. . . continued at The Nation, HERE.

Bob Dylan: ‘Another Self Portrait’: KPFK 10/9

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Bob Dylan: Another Self Portrait 1969-1971: 35 previously unreleased tracks.  After Blond on Blond and then Nashville Skyline, Dylan was done with fitting into other people’s categories. While the sixties were crashing, he retreated to Nashville and Woodstock to play with musicians who loved the sweet and weird old songs as much as he did. We’ll listen to key cuts and speak with SEAN WILENTZ, the official historian-in-residence at the official BobDylan.com website and author of Bob Dylan in America.

Also Valerie Plame is the former CIA officer who was outed in 2003 by the Bush White House after her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson, challenged Bush’s rationale for invading Iraq.  Now she has a new book out, her first work of fiction – it’s titled Blowback.  We’ll speak with her about fact and fiction about the CIA.
Valerie Plame will be in conversation with Robert Baer  Wed., 7:30pm, at New Roads School, 3131 W. Olympic Blvd., Santa Monica; Tickets, $25  HERE.
WATCH the  Global Zero video HERE .

 

America at War: Andrew Bacevich on KPFK 10/2

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ANDREW BACEVICH has grim and eloquent critique of our military system—he was an army officer for 23 years and now teaches at Boston U.  His new book is Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed their Soldiers and Their Country. READ Rachel Maddow’s review in the NY Times Book Review, HERE.

Also: Maybe you heard the news: Republicans shut down the government.  JOHN NICHOLS will comment: he’s Washington correspondent for The Nation and his most recent book is Dollarocracy.

Plus: The project of restoring and protecting the L.A. river has reached a crucial turning point, as the Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to a $453 million plan to restore 11 miles of the river but leaving the rest hard to reach.  LEWIS MacADAMS will explain – he’s the cofounder and president of FOLAR, Friends of the LA River.