The Mail Bombs and the Midterms: Harold Meyerson, plus Guerilla Theater in L.A.–Hieronymous Bang

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From the mail bombs sent to prominent Democrats, to Trump’s efforts to distract voters with stories about migrants on the march in Mexico — Harold Meyerson analyzes the state of the midterm elections, now less than 2 weeks away.  Our special focus: the swing districts of southern California, of course.
Also: pop-up Guerilla theater in Los Angeles: the great Hieronymous Bang explains what’s going on with the political play whose name cannot be spoken on the radio, and Alan Minsky joins in.
10/25/18

 

Can Progressive Momentum Transform The Democratic Party? Jeff Cohen, plus Sasha Abramsky on Arizona and Joan Walsh on Georgia

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What lessons have the Democrats learned from the disaster of 2016?  Jeff Cohen talks about the progressives’ fight to win the party away from dependence on corporate contributions —and instead to mobilize the grassroots.  Jeff is one of the co-authors of “Democratic Autopsy—One Year Later” at TheNation.com.
Also: Arizona is a red state, ground zero for Trump’s anti-immigrant politics, but it’s changing.  Sasha Abramsky has returned from Tucson, with a report on how and why the Democrats seem likely to flip a key House seat there.
Plus: A historic challenges to the Republicans is underway in Georgia, where Stacy Abrams is campaigning to become the state’s first black governor, and first female governor.  The polls have her tied with her opponent, a far-right figure endorsed by Trump.  Joan Walsh just got back from Georgia with a report.  10/18/18

Voting Rights in 2018: Sasha Abramsky on Florida, plus Rebecca Traister on the politics of women’s anger

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The most important voting rights issue on the ballot in 2018 is restoring the voting rights of 1.4 million ex-felons in Florida. An initiative on the ballot there would repeal one of country’s worst Jim Crow laws–and it seems likely to pass. Sasha Abramsky has that story.
Also: the political power of women’s anger: Rebecca Traister has been thinking about that. Her new book is called “Good and Mad.”  10/18/18

Rebecca Traister: The Politics of Women’s Anger

Q: The New York Times page-one headline after Brett Kavanaugh’s testimony read, “A Nominee is Rescued By a Display of Rage.” I wonder if you have any comment on that?
Rebecca Traister: One of the things I write about in the book is the issue of whose rage is taken seriously as politically valid and politically consequential. . . .
Continued at TheNation.com, HERE  10/12/18

Impeach Kavanaugh? John Nichols, plus D.D. Guttenplan on Mobilizing a New Radical Majority

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What the Democrats can do about newly-confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when they win the House in November and take control of the Judiciary Committee in January: John Nichols talks about investigations that could lead to the filing of articles of impeachment–and some other possibilities.
Also: D.D. Guttenplan talks about some alternatives to those old white Republican men who shouted and pouted and voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing – his new book is “The Next Republic: the Rise of a New Radical Majority.” 10/11/18

Women’s Anger—and Kavanaugh’s Rage Rebecca Traister, plus David Cay Johnston on Trump’s tax crimes & John Nichols on impeaching Kavanaugh

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Rebecca Traister sees in the Kavanaugh hearings a typical case where women’s anger was marginalized or made to sound hysterical or infantile or threatening—but men’s anger was taken to be valid and righteous. But that is changing, she argues: women’s anger increasingly is “in the beating heart of many political and social movements.” Her new book is Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.
Also: David Cay Johnston talks about the “Mountain of Tax Cheating” by Donald Trump, as exposed in the massive New York Times report on where Trump’s money came from, and the violations of tax laws in his past. David is a Pulitzer Prize–winning reporter who has written for The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times and is now editor of DCReport.org.
Plus: What the Democrats can do about newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh when they win the House in November and take control of the House Judiciary Committee in January: John Nichols talks about investigations that could lead to the filing of articles of impeachment. 10/10/18

Kavanaugh & Women: Amy Wilentz; plus John Nichols on the Senate & Erwin Chemerinsky on Supreme Court

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Amy Wilentz of The Nation talks about Kavanaugh, Trump, and women –the women in the hearings, in Kavanaugh’s past, and in America.
Also: John Nichols on Kavanuagh confirmation politics in the Senate–and how Mitch McConnell is killing the senate.
Plus: Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the Law School at UC Berkeley, says the Supreme Court will soon have FIVE Republican justices, all of whom were seated illegitimately.  10/4/18

Yes We Have an Activist Community Fighting Kavanaugh: Joan Walsh, plus D.D. Guttenplan on a new radical majority & Michelle Chen on the Fight for $15

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Joan Walsh explains why we lack confidence in the re-opened FBI background check into Kavanaugh’s past, and talks about the activists who are fighting the nomination, and the senators who need to be told “do not vote for this man.”
Plus: D.D. Guttenplan talks about some alternatives to those old white Republican men who shouted and pouted at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last week–his new book is “The Next Republic: the Rise of a New Radical Majority.”
And while the eyes of the nation search for news on the FBI investigation of Brett Kavanaugh, the hard work of fighting for social change goes on–for example in St. Paul, where a campaign for a $15 minimum wage is being fought right now.  Michelle Chen reports.

Michael Moore: How Democrats Paved the Way to Trump

Michael Moore: I live in that other world, where I watched The Apprentice. If we were able to ask everybody listening to this right now, “How many of you watched The Apprentice every week when Donald Trump was the host?” I’m guessing not many would say “I did.”
JW: I didn’t.
MM: Of course you didn’t. You don’t waste your time with crap like that. You went to college, and you’re an enlightened, educated person.
JW: Aw, shucks.
. . . continued at TheNation.com, HERE   9/21/18