The El Paso Attack: Joan Walsh; Sy Hersh’s memoir; D.D. Pennebaker remembered

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After Trump’s tweets about the El Paso killings, Beto’s response was the one of the best: “He’s not tolerating violence, he’s inciting racism and violence in this country.” Joan Walsh, National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation, examines the mainstream media’s failures in covering Trump.
Also: Seymour Hersh, one of our heroes; he says “don’t underestimate Trump.” He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1970 for his expose of the My Lai massacre—he was a 33-year-old freelancer at the time. Since then, he’s won pretty much every other journalism award. He’s worked as a staff writer for The New York Times and The New Yorker. He’s also written a dozen books, most recently ‘Reporter: A Memoir.’
And we remember D.A. Pennebaker–the legendary documentary filmmaker whose “Don’t Look Back,” about Bob Dylan’s 1965 tour of England, made film history. 8/8/19

America After El Paso: Joan Walsh and Katha Pollitt, and D.D. Guttenplan on the Green New Deal

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After Trump’s tweets about the El Paso killings, Beto’s response was the one of the best: “He’s not tolerating violence, he’s inciting racism and violence in this country.”  Joan Walsh, National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation, examines the mainstream media’s failures in covering Trump.
Also: Trump gets worse every week.  Two years ago we had massive nationwide protest demonstrations–so why don’t more people take it to the streets these days?  Nation columnist Katha Pollitt has been thinking about that.
Plus: last month was the 50th anniversary of Americans walking on the moon.  What would it take to get a similar mobilization today of money & effort—and vision–-to combat climate change?  D.D. Guttenplan comments – he’s editor of The Nation. 8-7-19

Trump’s Escalating Racism: A Sign of Political Desperation? Harold Meyerson, plus Jeet Heer on Al Franken and Paul Krassner remembered

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Are Trump’s recent racist tweets part of a political strategy, or an uncontrollable personal impulse?  Harold Meyerson comments – and also proposes ways to end the potentially devastating divide among Democrats over a Green New Deal.  Harold is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.
Also: Was Al Franken railroaded, when he was forced to resign from the Senate in the face of #MeToo complaints about unwanted sexual touching and kissing?  Jane Mayer wrote a long report on the case for The New Yorker and concluded “Yes, he was railroaded,” but our national political correspondent Jeet Heer disagrees: “The social change it represents is so necessary,” he argues..
And we’re still thinking about Paul Krassner, the sixties anarchist activist and editor of “The Realist” – he died July 21st – we re-play an interview where he talks about how he got Norman Mailer to come out against masturbation.  7/31/19

Trump and Immigrants: Laila Lalami; plus Michael Walzer on Organizing, and Michael Ames on Bowe Bergdahl

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Trump’s target in the 2020 election will be immigrants, ‘The Other Americans’—that’s the title of the new novel by Laila Lalami. Her last novel, “The Moor’s Account,” won the American book award and was a Pulitzer finalist. She’s written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, Harper’s, and The Guardian, and she’s a columnist for The Nation.
Plus: we talk about organizing to defeat Trump–about movement strategies and tactics, & political issues and campaigns. Our guest is Michael Walzer — His new book is “Political Action: A practical guide to Movement politics.”
Also: during the presidential campaign, Donald Trump often talked about an American soldier in Afghanistan who became the longest-held American POW since Vietnam. Trump said was quote “a dirty rotten traitor” who should be shot or thrown from a plane. He was talking about Bowe Bergdahl, that story is told in a new book, “American Cypher”–we’ll speak with the co-author, Michael Ames. 8/1/19

Is Trump Crazy? Would Pence be Worse? Amy Wilentz & Jane Mayer, plus EJ Dionne: America After Trump

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Amy Wilentz comments on the mental and emotional status of the president, as analyzed by 27 psychiatrists in ‘The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump,’ a book edited by Bandy X. Lee. The book was number four on the New York Times bestseller list.
Also: Would Pence be worse? Jane Mayer of The New Yorker reports—she interviewed more than 60 people in search of answers, including Pence’s mother. Several say he’s wanted to be president at least since high school.
Plus: America After Trump: E.J. Dionne of The Washington Post argues that Trump has mobilized progressive political forces that can transform America—and he reminds us that Trump never had a majority of voters, and is the most unpopular presidents in our history. E.J. is co-author of ‘One Nation After Trump: A Guide to the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-Yet-Deported’–it’s out now in paperback.
7/24/19

Democracy in Trouble: Astra Taylor; plus Viet Nguyen on Refugees

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Democracy is not doing well these days – we have Trump, and Brexit, and a host of other examples. Astra Taylor has been thinking about that: she talks about the paradoxes of rule by the people, the many ways it’s being frustrated, and why it remains at the center of our hopes for the future. Her new book is “Democracy may not exist, but we’ll miss it when it’s gone.”
Also: Trump will make hatred and fear of refugees and immigrants a central theme of his reelection campaign next year – and so we turn to Viet Nguyen – he’s a Pulitzer-prize winner and recipient of a MacArthur ‘Genius” grant – and he says “call me a refugee, not an immigrant.” His book “The Displaced,” featuring writing by refugees,is out now in paperback. 7/22/19

How Trump Happened: Joy Reid; plus Jared’s Mideast Peace “Plan”: Amy Wilentz

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Racial anxiety was more important than economic anxiety in motivating Trump’s voters, Joy Reid of MSNBC argues. A key factor in Trump’s victory was nostalgia for a white, Christian America where men were still in charge. And of course Hillary fell short not only with male voters but with voters of color overall. Joy’s new book is The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story.
Also: Jared Kushner’s Mideast Peace Plan, announced in Bahrain to an audience of billionaires and Gulf potentates, promised $50 billion in economic development funds to Palestinians—if they would abandon their aspirations for an independent state. Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis participated in the conference. Amy Wilentz, a longtime contributing editor at The Nation, comments – she was Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker.  7/19/19

Democracy Is Not Doing Well: Astra Taylor, plus Katha Pollitt on Travel to Mars

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Democracy is not doing well these days – we have Trump, and Brexit, and a host of other examples.  Astra Taylor has been thinking about that: she talks about the paradoxes of rule by the people, the many ways it’s being frustrated, and why it remains at the center of our hopes for the future.  Her new book is “Democracy may not exist, but we’ll miss it when it’s gone.”
Also: travel to Mars–now there’s a way to get away from Donald Trump!  Elon Musk, the billionaire who is co-founder of PayPal and Tesla, wants to build a colony on Mars.  Katha Pollitt thinks that’s not a good idea.  Actually she thinks it’s a terrible idea, but one that tells us something about the world we live in.
7/17/19

Trump’s Census Defeat: John Nichols; Anti-Immigrant History: Linda Gordon; MAD Magazine RIP: Jeet Heer

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Today, Trump admitted defeat on is effort to add a citizenship question to the 2020 United States Census — as he addressed cameras live from the White House Rose Garden, we turned to John Nichols for comment.
Next: Walls have been used against immigrants to the US before Trump– historian Linda Gordon talks about the 1920s, when anti-immigrant hostility conquered Congress.
Also: MAD Magazine (1952 – 2020): Jeet Heer on the death and influence of “one of the major showcases for media criticism in America.” 7/12/19

Joy-Ann Reid: How Trump Happened; plus Amy Wilentz on Jared’s Mid-East Peace Plan

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Racial anxiety was more important than economic anxiety in motivating Trump’s voters, Joy Reid of MSNBC argues.  A key factor in Trump’s victory was nostalgia for a white, Christian America where men were still in charge.  And of course Hillary fell short not only with male voters but with voters of color overall.  Joy’s new book is The Man Who Sold America: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story.
Also: Jared Kushner’s Mideast Peace Plan, announced in Bahrain to an audience of billionaires and Gulf potentates, promised $50 billion in economic development funds to Palestinians—if they would abandon their aspirations for an independent state.  Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis participated in the conference.  Amy Wilentz, a longtime contributing editor at The Nation, comments – she was Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker.
7/10/19