Trump Without Bannon: The Emptiness at the Center–Amy Wilentz on What Jared Wants

Jon Wiener: We heard for months about the hostility between Steve Bannon and Jared Kushner. Now Jared has won the battle. But why was this battle being fought, in the first place?
Amy Wilentz: There’s an emptiness at the center of Donald Trump.  He doesn’t like policy, doesn’t want to read about policy, doesn’t want to think about policy. What he does is take advice. If you have then two warring factions who disagree on policy and also disagree on final goals, you’re going to have huge problems.
. . . continued at TheNation.com, HERE

It Was 50 Years Ago Today: Abbie Hoffman Threw Money at the New York Stock Exchange

On August 24, 1967, fifty years ago today, Abbie Hoffman and a group of friends invaded the heart of American capitalism, the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. They threw money from the visitors’ gallery onto the floor, and the brokers and traders there leapt into the air to grab the dollar bills floating down. Trading was interrupted, briefly. News coverage was massive. . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com, HERE

Trump/Nixon: Frank Rich ‘Wallowing in Watergate’; plus Robert Lipsyte on Trump & Golf, and Bruce Dancis on Abbie Hoffman

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: 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: It was 50 years ago today: Abbie Hoffman and friends invaded the heart of capitalism, the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, and threw money from the gallery onto the trading floor. Bruce Dancis explains what happened on Aug. 24, 1967–he was there.
Listen HERE

Steve Bannon’s Exit: All Power to Jared Kushner? Amy Wilentz , plus John Nichols on Trump after Bannon, and Joshua Holland on Russia and democracy.

Steve Bannon says his departure as chief strategist at the Trump White House leaves the Wall Street Democrats led by Jared Kushner in charge there. Is he right? Amy Wilentz, our Chief Jared Correspondent, outlines the differences between Jared and Bannon on key issues.
Also: John Nichols says the Bannon forces, funded by right-wing hedge-fund billionaire Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, will continue to fight with an “inside-outside” strategy—since their allies Sebastian Gorka and Kellyanne Conway remain part of Trump’s inner circle, now pressured from outside by Bannon and Breitbart News.
And Joshua Holland takes a new tack in the debate over whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Russians: he examines Russian interference in democratic elections across Europe, which have nothing to do with making excuses for Hillary’s defeat.
Listen HERE

Why Steve Bannon Calls White Supremacists ‘Clowns’ and ‘Losers’

In Steve Bannon’s now-famous call to Robert Kuttner of The American Prospect the day before he was fired, Bannon described the white supremacists who had marched in Charlottesville as “losers” and “a collection of clowns.” Of course, those are the same sorts of people Bannon mobilized to vote for Trump, the most loyal part of his base. I asked Joshua Green about that . . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com HERE

White Nationalists, Neo-Confederates, and Donald Trump: Q&A with Eric Foner

JW: The Confederate statue that was ostensibly the focus of the events in Charlottesville was of Robert E. Lee, who surrendered at Appomattox in 1865. What can you tell us about this statue?
Eric Foner: The key thing to remember about this statue, and most of these statues, is that they have very little to do with the Civil War. This statute was erected in 1924, almost 70 years after the end of the Civil War. It was erected at height of Jim Crow, the height of the era of segregation, disenfranchisement, and lynching.
continued HERE

Steve Bannon & Donald Trump: Joshua Green; Plus Harold Meyerson: the Q&A that brought Bannon down

Joshua Green talks about Steve Bannon’s relationship with Donald Trump —Green’s best-selling book is “Devi’s Bargain: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Storming of the Presidency.”
Plus: Bannon was fired because of his interview with The American Prospect — Harold Meyerson, The Prospect’s executive editor, talks about the interview, who said what, and how it happened.
And the story of the big fight against big oil and big money in one city: Richmond, California. Steve Early will tell that story—his new book, with a foreword by Bernie Sanders, is “Refinery Town: Big Oil, Big Money, and the Remaking of an American City.”
LISTEN HERE

White Nationalists in Charlottesville & the White House: Eric Foner; Plus Bob Dreyfuss on Paul Manafort & Robert Lipsyte on Trump and golf.

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.
Listen HERE

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.
Listen HERE