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.
Listen HERE

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.”
Listen HERE

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.”
Listen HERE

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?”
Listen Here 

 

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.
Listen HERE

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

Robert Mueller’s Brilliant Tactics Against Trump: Watergate Veteran Elizabeth Holtzman Explains

Elizabeth Holtzman, who served on the House Judiciary Committee that brought articles of impeachment against Nixon, reviews the case against Trump at this point — and what special counsel Robert Mueller is doing to protect his investigation.
Also: Trump vs. Trans soldiers and sailors: the ACLU is taking him to court for violating the equal protection clause of the bill of rights. Chase Strangio explains.
And John Nichols of The Nation talks about his new book Horsemen of the Trumpocalypse, and what Trump’s people been doing about the floods in Texas–especially Steven Mnuchin, Mike Pence, and Elaine Chao.
Listen HERE

Houston Developers’ Losing Battle With Climate Change: Roane Carey, plus Erwin Chemerinsky on Trump’s pardon of Joe Arpaio and Bob Dreyfuss on Seth Rich.

Roane Carey, The Nation’s managing editor, reports from Houston on the political battles there: Developers have defeated local anti-growth groups, but they can’t stop the climate changes that have brought unprecedented rainfall and flooding.

Plus: Erwin Chemerinsky, the new dean of the law school at UC Berkeley, says Trump’s Pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaio is “outrageous”—because it violates the separation of powers, and encourages the police to ignore Latinos’ constitutional right to liberty.

And if you wanted to discredit the idea that Russians hacked the DNC and sent what they found there to Wikileaks to help Donald Trump, you’d need a counter-theory—right? Bob Dreyfuss looks at the leading Republican counter-theory, and how it crashed and burned.