Hillary’s ‘What Happened’: Sarah Leonard, plus Bob Dreyfuss on Paul Manafort and Todd Gitlin on Ken Burns

Sarah Leonard of The Nation says Hillary’s campaign memoir “What Happened” has its enjoyable parts, but fails to recognize the populist forces that explain what happened.
plus Bob Dreyfuss on the Robert Mueller’s coming indictment of Trump campaign chief Paul Manafort —
and Todd Gitlin replies to critics of Ken Burns’s Vietnam series on PBS — it’s a powerful portrayal of the reasons the war was a disaster, he argues.
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Hillary’s ‘What Happened’: D.D. Guttenplan Reports; plus David Dayen on Betsy DeVos & Harold Meyerson on Repealing Obamacare

Hillary’s book about what happened in her loss to Donald Trump – called ‘What Happened” — doesn’t really explain what happened, says D.D. Guttenplan of The Nation, and is significant mostly for what it says about her role in setting the agenda for the future of the Democratic Party.
Plus: the horrible Betsy DeVos – billionaire opponent of public schools, and now Trump’s Secretary of Education: David Dayen comments on her work on behalf of the student loan “servicing” industry, and for-profit colleges.
Also: the Republicans’ last and final attempt to repeal Obamacare is underway; Harold Meyerson reports–along with news about the California legislature declaring the entire state a sanctuary for undocumented people.
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Trump’s Campaign Chief Paul Manafort Faces Indictment: Bob Dreyfuss, plus Sarah Leonard on Hillary’s book and Todd Gitlin on Ken Burns’s Vietnam.

Bob Dreyfuss reports the big news in the Russiagate scandal: the first indictments. Robert Mueller, the special counsel, has told Trump’s campaign manager Paul Manafort that he’s about to be indicted. And not only that: Manafort has been the subject of a court-ordered wiretap for years.
Also: Hillary’s new campaign memoir ‘What Happened’ has its engaging moments, says Sarah Leonard of The Nation, but the former candidate still doesn’t really understand the populist political forces responsible for her loss.
Plus: Todd Gitlin responds to critics of Ken Burns’s 18-hour documentary for PBS on the Vietnam war. It makes the anti-war case powerfully, he says; it presents Vietnamese understandings of the war brilliantly, and it’s fair to the anti-war movement.
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Tom Frank on Hillary’s “What Happened” plus Joan Walsh on Mike Pence & Harold Meyerson on Bernie’s Medicare-for-All bill

Hillary’s book about ‘What Happened’ has a clear message, Tom Frank says: “don’t blame me.”  Tom is now a columnist for The Guardian US edition.
Also: Is Pence Worse? Do we really want Trump out? Joan Walsh says ‘yes’ to both.  (She’s a political analyst on MSNBC and National Affairs correspondent for The Nation.)
And Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments on the Medicare-for-all bill introduced in Congress yesterday by our man Bernie. He says it’s not only necessary, it’s “strategically savvy.”
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Hurricane Politics and Climate Change in the Age of Trump: Mark Hertsgaard and John Nichols, plus Alfred McCoy on Cyberwar with China

Scott Pruitt, who Trump appointed to head the EPA, says we should be helping victims of the hurricanes in Florida and Texas, and not debating climate change. Mark Hertsgaard disagrees: He says we still need to debate the politics of climate change, because the deniers still have a hold on the media. The debate, however, should not be about whether climate change is real—that’s scientific fact—but about what we should do to slow it down.
Also, John Nichols talks about hurricanes, toxics, and Trump’s EPA under Pruitt—he’s a disaster for the environment, because he’s spent his career defending the oil and gas industry.  John’s new book is “Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse.”
And Alfred McCoy reports on the Pentagon’s plans for war with China, which they are planning to fight in space and cyberspace. The Chinese, he reports, have more powerful supercomputers with better satellite communications and a stronger capability to hack our systems—that’s why we might lose.  His new book is “In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of US Global Power.”
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Trump’s 180 on Dreamers and DACA: Harold Meyerson; plus John Nichols on Trump’s EPA & Bob Dreyfuss on Facebook and the Russians

Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect talks about Trump’s 180 on DACA and the Dreamers–and what kind of deal the Democrats should make to pass the DREAM Act.
Also: Hurricanes, Texas Toxics and Trump’s EPA: John Nichols comments on “one of the most dangerous people in America” – Scott Pruit, head of Trump’s EPA.
And Bob Dreyfuss explains what we now know about Facebook taking money from Russians for political ads, and answers the question, ‘Who is Felix Sater — and why is Trump so afraid of him?”
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Behind Trump’s Heartless Attack on the Dreamers: John Nichols, plus Elizabeth Holtzman on Impeachment and Joan Walsh on Mike Pence

John Nichols says Trump sent Jeff Sessions out to announce that the administration was targeting the Dreamers for deportation because Sessions has always been bitterly anti-immigrant, and helped bring that constituency into Trump’s base.
Also: Trump could fire Mueller or pardon all of his targets—but that won’t protect him from investigation by the state of New York, and Mueller has formed a partnership with New York’s state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman. Elizabeth Holtzman explains—she’s a former member of Congress from New York who won national attention for her work on the House Judiciary Committee during Watergate.
Plus: You’ve probably had this debate with your friends: Do we want Donald Trump to resign or be impeached, which would leave us with Mike Pence in charge? Would Pence would be better, or worse, than Trump? Joan Walsh has been thinking about this too—and she’s got some hard evidence and an original analysis.
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The Political Roots of Houston’s Flooding

A Q&A with The Nation’s Managing Editor, Roane Carey, who spent the week trapped in Houston — studying the history of 100-year floods, and developers’ fight against local groups seeking limits of development of prairie flood plains.
At TheNation.com, HERE