The white nationalists who marched in Charlottesville use the Confederacy as a symbol of white supremacy, says award-winning historian Eric Foner. Is Donald Trump a neo-Confederate? To call him that suggests he has coherent ideas—which clearly he does not. He does know that these kinds of people are part of his political base—as he made clear on Tuesday in his defense of the white-nationalist demonstrators in Charlottesville.
Also: if you understand golf, you understand Trump. Golf is a game for “successful greedheads and their wannabes,” says legendary sportswriter Robert Lipsyte. It’s a waste of space and water, and it poisons local aquifers with chemicals. And it represents all that is retrograde and exclusionary in American life. Lipsyte asks, Doesn’t that remind you of our president?
Plus: The FBI raid on Paul Manafort’s house shows that Robert Mueller’s investigation of the Trump campaign’s collusion with Russia has entered a more aggressive phase. Manafort could become a “cooperating witness,” providing testimony against Trump and his family in exchange for immunity. Bob Dreyfuss reports.
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Frank Rich: Wallowing in Watergate–Will the Trump Presidency End Like Nixon’s?
“Wallowing in Watergate” is a phrase that Nixon used after two months of brutal Senate Watergate hearings in July, 1973—the “what did he know and when did he know it” part of Watergate. With his typical faux-piety, Nixon said, “Let others wallow in Watergate, we are going to do our job.” That’s the sort of thing we’ve heard other presidents say when they’re under attack for scandal, including the current one.
… continued at TheNation.com, HERE
Robert Mueller’s GOP Defenders: Bob Dreyfuss; plus News about Bernie w/Benjamin Wallace-Wells & Katha Pollitt’s Advice to the Anxious
How come Trump has stopped hinting about firing Robert Mueller? Maybe it’s because Mueller has a growing number of supporters among Republicans. Robert Dreyfuss reports. Plus the news about the FBI raiding Paul Manafort’s house–and what it means for Jared Kushner.
Also: Bernie has been busy: Benjamin Wallace-Wells has been travelling with Bernie Sanders, who has done rallies in more than a dozen states over the last few weeks. He’s pretty much won the Democratic Party to his agenda — but is there a Democrat who can run in his place in 2020?
And Katha Pollitt has some advice for the anxious and the depressed among us on how to survive the coming months of the the Age of Trump. It’s all based on her advanced non-scientific survey.
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Frank Rich on How the Trump Presidency Ends–Plus Joshua Holland on Trump voters & David Cole on the resistance.
Frank Rich has been “wallowing in Watergate,” as he put it, and found some fascinating stuff about Trump’s situation today and Nixon’s a year before his fall. Also: the ways Nixon was significantly stronger than Trump in resisting impeachment and resignation.
Also: Joshua Holland has some significant new evidence about Trump voters and why they voted the way they did. He discusses what the evidence tells us about whether those who switched from Obama to Trump can be brought back.
Plus David Cole, legal director of the ACLU and legal correspondent for The Nation, talks about the resistance. He’s found some lessons by looking outside the United States, drawing from other countries facing autocratic leaders to inform our work in the Age of Trump. The book he edited and introduced, Rules for Resistance, is out now.
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Bob Dreyfuss on the Russia Investigations–plus David Cole: Could Trump pardon himself? and Nancy MacLean on the Roots of the Right
What Did Trump Know About Russian Money-Laundering, and When Did He Know It?– Bob Dreyfuss of The Nation reports on new evidence about the connections that Donald Trump is desperate to conceal.
Plus: David Cole, legal director of the ACLU, considers different ways Trump could end the work of the special counsel investigating his campaign’s collusion with Russia: He can fire the Attorney General and order the firing of the special counsel; he can pardon his son Don Junior and his son-in-law Jared Kushner. But can he pardon himself?
Also: The Deep history of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America – historian Nancy MacLean explains the southern roots of libertarian ideology, and its ties to resistance to civil rights. Her new book is “Democracy in Chains.”
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Surviving the Trump Years: Katha Pollitt’s Guide for the Anxious and the Depressed. Plus John Nichols on Medicare-for-All and Rosa Brooks on the generals.
We’re six months into the Trump era—and how are you feeling about the world today? Katha Pollitt conducted an unscientific survey. She found anxiety and depression, but also wisdom about working together over the long haul: We will defeat Trump (if he doesn’t defeat himself first).
Also: One good result of the Republicans’ failure to repeal and replace Obamacare is the growing support for a single-payer, Medicare-for-all system—not just among the public, where it’s always been popular, but also among Democratic Party leaders. John Nichols comments.
Plus: It seems like the military is becoming everything in the Trump administration. The president just made a general his chief of staff, and has another heading the Defense Department—and yet another as his national-security adviser. That led us to a conversation with Rosa Brooks about “how the military became everything.” Her book, How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything, is out now in paperback.
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What Power Does Trump Have to Stop the Russia Investigation? David Cole Q&A
David Cole, Legal Director of the ACLU and legal correspondent for The Nation, discusses the ways Trump could fire Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. All the ways, he argues, would be acts of desperation based on what the Russia investigations would uncover.
Read HERE
The Trump Kids in Trouble: Amy Wilentz; plus Rick Wartzman on jobs and Harold Meyerson on the Senate GOP
Amy Wilentz comments on Jared Kushner’s congressional testimony about that meeting with the Russian promising dirt on Hillary, and 6-year-old Arabella “interrupting” the NY Times interview with Trump in the Oval Office.
Also: Rick Wartzman on the rise and fall of good jobs in America–his new book is The End of Loyalty.
And Harold Meyerson analyzes the latest efforts of Senate Republicans to repeal and replace Obamacare–and considers the Jeff Sessions situation. (recorded Thursday evening, before the vote).
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The Desperation of Donald Trump: David Cole; plus George Zornick on healthcare in the Senate and Joshua Holland on happiness in Denmark
David Cole, legal director of the ACLU and The Nation’s legal-affairs correspondent, argues that Trump would only be talking about pardoning himself if he was desperate—because he knows what the special counsel is likely to find—and is thus willing to pay a tremendous political price to avoid impeachment.
Plus: The Senate GOP healthcare bill is confusing—that’s the way they want it, says George Zornick: It’s their only chance of repealing Obamacare. (recorded Tuesday afternoon, before their bill failed).
And Joshua Holland explains why Danes are so much happier than Americans: It’s not just because Donald Trump is not their president. Josh wrote and narrated the animated video at TheNation.com.
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Jeff Sessions should be impeached, not fired: John Nichols; plus Al Franken
John Nichols of The Nation opens the show with comments on Jeff Sessions‘s past, present, and possible future–Sessions is featured in John’s forthcoming book, Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse.
And Al Franken talks about the dangers of humor in politics, about the voters who supported Trump, and the need for a public option in health care in America. He also answers the question, “Is Jeff Sessions a lying little weasel”? His new book, a numer one bestseller, is Al Franken: Master of the Senate.
Listen HERE