The Facts of Russiagate have been Obvious for a Long Time: David Klion on Putin and Trump, plus Amy Wilentz on Trump’s Mental Status and Bill McKibben on Climate Change

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For our year-in-review show, we open with a Russiagate update with David Klion – he says it’s basically a corruption scandal whose basic facts have been obvious for a long time—and one that should bring down Trump’s presidency.
In a lot of ways, Trump himself was the biggest story in 2018–we ask Amy Wilentz the key question: “is Trump crazy?” She discusses 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.
And the biggest story of the year, for all of humanity, has been catastrophic climate change —Bill McKibben says “it’s not just an environmental issue.” 12/27/18

Progressive Heroes of 2018: John Nichols; Gustavo Arellano: the OC, & David Cay Johnston on Trump

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2018 was a big year for progressives — John Nichols with the Progressive Honor Roll names some names — on our year in review show.
Next, we talk with Gustavo Arellano about the biggest change in California politics in decades: how the OC.the white-hot heart of right-wing politics in the nation, turned blue.  Gustavo is now a staff writer for the LA Times.
Finally, David Cay Johnston reports on Trump family financial fraud, saying, “Nixon’s crimes are pebbles compared to the mountain of tax cheating by the Trumps.”
12/26/18

2018: The Year of the Progressive–John Nichols, plus Erwin Chemerinsky on Obamacare, and Atossa Araxia Abrahamian on left internationalism.

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John Nichols presents the highlights of The Nation’s annual Progressive Honor Roll—our heroes in Congress, in state politics, and in leading protests at the border.
Also: is Obamacare unconstitutional? A federal judge ruled last week that all of Obamacare violates the constitution if he’s upheld by the Supreme Court, 20 million people will lose their insurance coverage. The case has the potent name “Texas versus the United States.” Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at UC Berkeley, explains why that ruling is likely to be rejected at the Supreme Court—by vote of 9-0.
Plus: right-wing authoritarians have been coordinating political campaigns and disrupting elections across national boundaries – a project masterminded by Donald Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon. It’s time now for the left, especially the American left, to go on the offensive and reclaim its tradition of internationalism. Atossa Araxia Abrahamian reports on the project of Yanis Varoufakis—and Bernie Sanders—to organize a Progressive International.  12/19/2018

 

From George Bush 41 to Donald Trump: Harold Meyerson, plus Eric Foner on Frederick Douglass–and Us

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George H. W. Bush paved the way for today’s Republican party with his racist Willy Horton campaign. He also nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and pardoned the Iran-Contra conspirator whose trial would have exposed his own abuse of power. Harold Meyerson explains — he’s executive editor of the American Prospect.
Plus: Frederick Douglass, the black abolitionist, was the most famous black American of the 19th century. Historian Eric Foner says Douglass’s political ideas can help us in our struggles today. 12-13-18

 

William Barr: Another Jeff Sessions? David Cole, plus Dave Lindorff on Pentagon Accounting Fraud and Marc Cooper on the Revolution in Armenia

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Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, William Barr, is more qualified to do the job than Matt Whitaker–but so are thousands of others. His record, however, show’s he as bad as Jeff Sessions—if not worse. David Cole, National Legal Director of the ACLU and The Nation’s legal affairs correspondent, explains.
Also: a report on The Nation’s investigation of Massive Accounting Fraud at the Pentagon – Dave Lindorff found that $21 million cannot be accounted for. For decades, he says, the Pentagon has been “deliberately cooking the books to mislead Congress.”
Plus: the Armenian Revolution: “a small light of hope and progressive democratic change in a Europe increasingly shadowed by authoritarian and dictatorial forces, especially in most of the former soviet-bloc states of Eastern Europe.” That’s what Marc Cooper says—he’s spent months in Yerevan, where elections on Sunday confirmed the victory of the revolutionaries.  12-12-18

 

How George H.W. Bush Paved the Way for Trump Pardons: Harold Meyerson on the dark side of Reagan’s successor.

The second-worst thing Bush did was his last act as president: pardoning many of the Iran/Contra conspirators, in order to block investigation of his own breaking the law. That points the way for Donald Trump to follow his example — by pardoning the people who might testify against him.
(The worst thing?  Nominating Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court.)
. . . continued at TheNation.com, HERE  12/5/18

The Missing Politics in Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’: Amy Wilentz, plus Kai Wright on the Midterms

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Michelle Obama declares in her new memoir, “I am not a political person, so I’m not going to attempt to offer an analysis” of Trump’s victory. That’s her stance in the rest of the book as well. It seems strange for the person the New York Times called “The most outspoken first lady in modern history.” What’s going on here? Amy Wilentz comments.
Plus: The Democrats won the midterms by the largest popular vote margin for either party in the history of midterm elections — larger than the Watergate midterm after Nixon resigned in 1974, 44 years ago. But there was a deeper and more significant victory hidden behind those numbers, Kai Wright argues: the political mobilization of millions of people of color in the South. 12/6/18

 

The Dark Side of George H.W. Bush: Harold Meyerson, plus Katha Pollitt on White Women and Trump and Eric Foner on Frederick Douglass

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George H. W. Bush paved the way for today’s Republican party with his racist Willy Horton campaign, nominated Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court, and pardoned the Iran-Contra conspirator whose trial would have exposed his own abuse of power. Harold Meyerson explains — he’s executive editor of the American Prospect.
Also: Katha Pollitt finds lessons from the midterms about white women who support Trump – she argues that they are unlikely to change their minds, and that we’d do better following the example of Stacey Abrams and mobilizing the nonvoters.
Plus: Frederick Douglass, the black abolitionist, was the most famous black American of the 19th century. Historian Eric Foner says Douglass’s political ideas can help us in our struggles today. 12/5/18

 

Michelle Obama’s Carefully Scrubbed Memoir: Amy Wilentz on the missing politics in ‘Becoming’

In LA, Michelle’s event was not at a bookstore, but rather at the Forum in Inglewood, where the Lakers used to play. It has 17,000 seats and was sold out for her event. She has similar venues in other cities. It’s not your typical author appearance. . . We’re interested in what the book has to say about politics, because hers were maybe more complicated than she let on. . . .
continued at TheNation.com, Nov. 30, 2018, HERE