This Is Disaster Relief Under Corporate Power: David Dayen, plus Amy Wilentz on Mary Trump

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Senate Republicans introduced their new trillion-dollar economic stimulus bill, which they call “The HEALS Act.” It’s woefully inadequate, says David Dayen—and part of life in the age of corporate power—the subject of David’s new book, Monopolized.
Plus: Trump’s unfortunate childhood: Amy Wilentz talks about Donald, Fred Junior, Marianne, Elizabeth, and little Robert—as described in the new blockbuster bestseller by Mary Trump, daughter of Donald’s brother Fred Jr., Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man.  7-30-2020

Portland and protest: David Cole, plus Ella Taylor on TV and Mike Davis on LA in the Sixties

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The Feds vs the Protests in Portland: David Cole, National Legal Director of the ACLU, explains what’s at stake there.  He also proposes one way to reduce police misconduct: reduce enforcement of misdemeanors, which account for 16 million arrests annually.
And Ella Taylor reviews a documentary on the ACLU’s legal battles of the past few years–the fight for immigrant rights, voting rights, abortion rights and LGBTQ rights.
Also, Mike Davis talks about LA in the Sixties –the fight in those years against the LAPD and for black lives continues today.  7/30/2020

Naomi Klein: Pandemic Capitalism and the Black Lives Matter Protests; plus Zoe Carpenter on Portland and Ivy Meeropol on Roy Cohn

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The pandemic has slowed the speed of life under capitalism, Naomi Klein suggests in her recent conversation with Katrina vanden Heuvel—and that has created greater empathy and solidarity, expressed in the unprecedented support for the Movement for Black Lives. But the “Screen New Deal”—the virtual classroom and workplace—are bringing greater isolation and increasing corporate power.
Plus: Zoë Carpenter reports from Portland on the ominous developments there involving federal agents in camouflage in the streets attacking protesters—over the objections of local and state officials—which Trump says he will take to other Democratic cities.
Also, how Roy Cohn gave us Donald Trump: Ivy Meeropol talks about her new documentary on Roy Cohn, “Bully. Coward. Victim.” It’s playing now on HBO on demand. 7-23-2020

Fascism comes to Portland: Harold Meyerson; Disarm the Police: D.D. Guttenplan; plus Ella Taylor on TV

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Trump’s “performative authoritarianism” is a campaign ploy designed for Fox News—that’s what Harold Meyerson says about Trump sending federal forces into the streets of Portland to grab activists off the streets.  Harold is Editor at Large of The American Prospect.
Plus: it’s time to disarm the police—that’s what Don Guttenplan argues.  He’s editor of The Nation.
And film critic Ella Taylor is back with virus-time TV recommendations: this week, two Netflix shows about Brazil: an animated feature on migrant labor, and a documentary about the crisis of democracy there.  7-23-2020

To Fight the Virus We Need a Massive Campaign of Disruption: Gregg Gonsalves, plus Meagan Day on the Eviction Crisis

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The increasing number of cases of Covid-19, and of deaths, should be scary to everybody, Gregg Gonsalves says. A direct action campaign of disruption is necessary to bring the changes we need—something like the Act Up movement of the eighties. Gregg is an assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health and the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, and he writes regularly for The Nation about the pandemic.
Also: We’re heading for an eviction crisis. On July 31 the direct cash payments of the CARES act expire and right now Republicans in Congress are not renewing it or anything like it. That means millions of people won’t be able to pay their rent on August 1. Meagan Day comments—she’s coauthor of Bigger than Bernie: How We Go from the Sanders Campaign to Democratic Socialism.  7/15/2020

Defund the LAPD–Kelly Lytle Hernandez; plus BLM is everywhere; Amy Wilentz on Ivanka and Ella Taylor on “Stateless”

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Black Lives Matter-L.A. says “defund the LAPD.” And the sherriffs, and the school police. Kelly Lytle Hernandez explains – she teaches history at UCLA, and she’s the recipient of a MacArthur ‘Genius” grant.
Also: Black Lives Matter protests are everywhere, including some fo the most unlikely places: Zoe Carpenter reports on what’s been happening in Laramie, Wyoming; Florence, Alabama; and even Vidor, Texas—it’s a former Ku Klux Klan haven that Texas Monthly described as the state’s “most hate-filled town.”
Plus: another episode of “The Children’s Hour,” stories about Ivanka, Jared, Don Junior, and Little Eric, with Amy Wilentz. This week Ivanka gets in trouble for wearing a mask – and Don Junior’s girlfriend tests positive.
And Ella Taylor talks about the new Netflix series “Stateless,” about a refugee detention camp in Australia, created by and starring Kate Blanchett—and also about “The Old Guard,” starring Charlize Theron, it’s the first superhero movie directed by an African-American woman, Gina Prince-Bythewood.  7-16-2020

Mike Davis: The Problem with Dr. Fauci; plus Amy Wilentz on Ivanka, and Debbie Nathan on Rembering Sandra Bland

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Mike Davis argues that, while Dr. Anthony Fauci has been handed a golden opportunity to speak truth to power, America’s most respected doctor remains a team player in an administration bent on disaster.
Also: another episode of The Children’s Hour—Amy Wilentz with stories about Ivanka, Jared, Don Jr., and little Eric. This week, Ivanka is in trouble for wearing a mask—and Don Jr.’s girlfriend tests positive.
Plus: Black Lives Matter: Sandra Bland’s was one of them. This week is the fifth anniversary of the death of Bland in a Texas jail—July 13, 2015. What happened to Sandra Bland? To understand that, you have to begin way before she died. Debbie Nathan reports on the life, as well as the death, of Sandra Bland. (This segment originally broadcast in April, 2016). 7-8-2020

Why the US is the World’s Sickest Country: Harold Meyerson; plus Ella Taylor on ‘Perry Mason” and Sandra Bland Remembered

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The US accounts for 4 per cent of the world’s population, but 25 per cent of the people who have come down with COVID-19 and 25 percent of those who’ve died from it. How did the richest country in the world –that spends the most on health care–become the sickest? Harold Meyerson comments.
Also: in our ‘news you can use’ segment, Ella Taylor talks about the new L.A. noir detective show, “Perry Mason”–and about the wonderful HBO series “My Brilliant Friend,” about two girls growing up poor in Naples in the Fifties.
Also later in this hour: Black Lives Matter, and Sandra Bland’s was one of them. This week is the fifth anniversary of the death of Sandra Bland in a Texas jail—July 13, 2015. What happened to Sandra Bland? To understand that, you have to begin way before she died. Debbie Nathan reports on the life, as well as the death, of Sandra Bland.  7-9-2020

Venice vs. the LAPD: in 1969, and L.A. Now: LA Times op-ed

July 4, 1969, was a day of festive parades and picnics across Southern California: Pacific Palisades had its annual “Americanism” parade, the West Covina parade had two Vietnam vets for its grand marshals and Claremont had an “Old Tyme Parade.”
Venice didn’t have a parade at all.
continued at LATimes, HERE