Trump Watch

Kamala Harris is not a popular figure in American politics, and the vice presidential candidate for Biden's reelection campaign in 2024 is unusually important because of his age. What to do? Harold Meyerson comments.Plus: COVID remains the number 3 cause of death in the US, after heart disease and cancer, with almost 3,000 deaths every week. But Biden and the Democrats are ending the federal COVID emergency. Is that really a good idea? Greg Gonsalves doesn’t think so -- he’s the Nation’s public health correspondent and a professor of epidemiology at Yale..Also: Sunday is Oscar night in America! and, as usual, we have a lot of complaints about the nominations. So does John Powers, critic at large on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. We’ll talk about this year’s films we didn’t like—and some we thought were wonderful.Finally: Your Minnesota Moment: the story of the Japanese temple bell that ended up in Duluth.

Israel’s new far-right government, headed, again, by Benjamin Netanyahu, is working to undermine democracy for Israelis and advance Israel’s annexation of Palestinian land. Provocations by Israel in the West Bank have been followed by settler pogroms against Palestinian villages. Saree Makdisi provides comment and analysis of how Israel is “destroying the fantasies of liberal Zionism.”  Also: the worst thing that happened to Black History during Black History Month was not Ron DeSantis banning critical concepts and approaches - it was the College Board revising its new African American Studies curriculum to meet all of his demands. But now scholars in Black History, Black Studies and related fields are fighting back. Kimberlé Crenshaw will explain. Plus: Walmart is the biggest employer in America, and the Walton family, the children of Walmart founder Sam Walton, is the richest family in the world. The company has raised wages and become more socially conscious-but it provides a case study of t

Harold Meyerson says American Jewish organizations haven't said much about the recent attacks by the Netanyahu government on Palestinians, and on Israeli democracy. The big exception is J Street, which is leading a delegation of members of Congress to Israel this week.Also: John Nichols reports on the good news from Wisconsin, where the liberal candidate came out way ahead in the primary for a new state Supreme Court Justice.Plus: Our Black History month feature this week: Elie Mystal explains why “our constitution is not good.” He's The Nation's justice correspondent, and his book is "Allow Me to Retort."

"The 1619 Project" miniseries on Hulu sets a new standard for documentaries about Black life and history in America: Robin Kelley explains. Also Black history, banned in Florida—and excluded from the College Board’s recommended AP Black Studies course. Robin is one of the historians whose work has been targeted. Also: the Royal Family and “The Crown”– you know, Queen Elizabeth and Charles and Diana, and the Netflix series about them. Gary Younge explains why he loathes the monarchy in Britain, but loved “The Crown” on Netflix.Plus: Should the Supreme Court base its decisions on what it can discern about the original intent of the framers? That’s what the “originalists” say – and they dominate today’s court. Erwin Chemerinsky disagrees. He’s dean of the law school at UC Berkeley and author of many books, most recently “Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism.”

Joe Biden's State of the Union – where shouts and jeers from the wild and crazy Republicans seemed to end up helping him – Harold Meyerson comments.Next: “The government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation”—that’s QAnon’s crazy idea, and 30 million Americans say they mostly agree. Chris Lehmann comments.Also: Fintan O’Toole’s personal history of Ireland since the fifties: how a country dominated by a corrupt Catholic church came to legalize gay marriage and abortion -- by referendum. His much-honored ‘personal history’ of Ireland, titled “We Don’t Know Ourselves,” is out now in paperback.Plus: For Black History Month we revisit an interview with Isabel Wilkerson on her book about the great migration of Black people out of the South: "The Warmth of Other Suns".

House Republicans are refusing to raise the debt limit, threatening that the US will default on its bond payments.  But the Constitution has the solution for President Biden – that’s what historian Eric Foner says.  He joins the podcast to shed light on a little-known section of the 14th Amendment. Next: Republicans continue to work to limit teaching about Black Americans’ place in our history. Meanwhile, the 1619 Project, the book offering what the authors call “a new origin story” about the United States, was released as a docuseries on Hulu.  Martha Jones, a historian at Johns Hopkins University, and one of the contributors, talks about the battle, the book, and the larger project. Also: we’re still thinking about Victor Navasky, who died on Jan. 23. He was editor or publisher of The Nation for 27 years, starting in 1978, and author of several books, including one about his life in magazines, titled “A Matter of Opinion.” We’ll listen to our conversation about

Every Republican voted against the clean energy tax credits that made up the bulk of the Inflation Reduction Act.  Yet, the clean energy projects, for solar, wind and battery technology – are going to Republican states.  Why?  Harold Meyerson comments. Plus: Kyrsten Sinema, the Arizona senator who quit the Democratic Party in December, is up for reelection next year, and will be challenged by progressive Democrat Ruben Gallego. Steve Phillips points to evidence that her chances of reelection are poor. His new book, “How We Win the Civil War,” has a chapter on Arizona politics.Also: What if government provided a basic income to all residents? Something like $1000 a month? How much could that change inequality and poverty? Sasha Abramsky reports on the experiment in Los Angeles with Universal Basic Income.

Senator Bernie Sanders gave a major speech on Tuesday about the lives of working Americans – Harold Meyerson comments. Also: the coming primary for Diane Feinstein's senate seat.Plus: the UC TA strike: just when you thought you were out, they pull you back in – with "attestation" forms to dock back pay. Nelson Lichtenstein explains.Also: Abortion remains a potent force mobilizing liberal and progressive voters in the upcoming 2023 state legislative races – John Nichols has our analysis.And Joshua Holland explains why people in Denmark are so much happier than people in the USA.

After a 30-year campaign, Yale finally recognized UNITE-HERE as the union representing TAs. Harold Meyerson reports - and also on the Teamsters as they prepare to strike against UPS in August.Plus: If you were planning a future coup, what could you learn from the failure of Trump’s efforts on January 6? Fintan O’Toole says it would need a better story—not attacking Congress, but “defending democracy.” He teaches at Princeton, and is the author most recently of We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland.Also: who’d want to see a movie about Harvey Weinstein? Well, the film She Said, about the two New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story, is not about Harvey; it’s about the system that protected him. And it’s really good. Katha Pollitt comments.

Harold Meyerson analyzes the Republican failure to elect a Speaker of the House - and what it tells us about the future of the new Congress.Teaching Assistants and other grad student employees at the University of California won a historic victory in their strike last month. What does that mean for other universities and other union organizing campaigns? Nelson Lichtenstein joins the show to comment. Also this week, Andrew Bacevich talks about our “very long war” going back to the sixties, and the relative insignificance of Donald Trump. Bacevich's new book is On Shedding an Obsolete Past: Bidding Farewell to the American Century.

For our end-of year show we are featuring some of our favorite book segments from 2022, starting with Elie Mystal, The Nation’s Justice Correspondent, who says our constitution is not good.  His new book is “Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution.”Plus: “Bad Mexicans” – that’s what the revolutionaries of 1910 were called as they fought on both sides of the US-Mexico border against the robber barons and their political allies. UCLA historian Kelly Lytle Hernandez tells that story, and talks about her book on race, empire, and revolution in the borderlands.Also: We know a lot about the bad things J. Edgar Hoover did, but it turns out there’s a lot we didn’t know. Historian Beverly Gage explains; Her book is “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover & the Making of the American Century.”

The biggest strike in the country this year, and the biggest in the history of American universities, may be over-- after five weeks of picketing and protests, the union representing 48,000 grad student employees at the University of California announced a settlement offer by the university, and members are voting this week. Nelson Lichtenstein has our analysis.Also: For our holiday show, we want to talk about the Christmas Truce of World War I -- it’s a unique event in the history of modern warfare.  Adam Hochschild will explain.Plus, our Christmas music special: Bob Dylan fans have been puzzled and troubled by his Christmas album, “Christmas in the Heart”,  ever since he released it in 2009. To help figure out what Dylan was doing, we turned to Sean Wilentz--he’s the official historian at the official website BobDylan.com, and he also teaches American history at Princeton. 

The new mayor in LA, Karen Bass, the former community organizer and former head of the Congressional Black caucus, LA’s first woman mayor, was sworn in on Sunday, and her first act was to declare a state of emergency to address homelessness.  Harold Meyerson comments.plus: In the biggest strike in the nation this year, the strike by University of California graduate student employees, one group of strikers—the postdocs--settled, and another agreed to go into mediation—the Teaching Assistants, who are refusing to grade final exams for tens of thousands of students. Nelson Lichtenstein has our report.Also: We know a lot about the bad things J. Edgar Hoover did, but it turns out there’s a lot we didn’t know. Historian Beverly Gage explains; Her new book is “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover & the Making of the American Century.”

National Politics after the Raphael Warnock victory in Georgia - Harold Meyerson comments. Also, the UAW after the UC strike.Plus: historian Nelson Lichtenstein on the divide-and-conquer strategy of the University of California administration in facing grad student employees on strike.And Joan Walsh on how Warnock won - she's National Affairs correspondent for The Nation.

Hundreds of thousands of young immigrants brought here by their undocumented parents since 2007 are not eligible for DACA. But now they are eligible for jobs–at the University of California. UCLA law professor Ahilan Arulanantham explains.Also: The left has hated J. Edgar Hoover for a hundred years ever since the Palmer Raids of 1919, the attacks on radicals that began his career. Now there’s a terrific new biography of Hoover, called “G-Man” - the author is Beverly Gage.Also: the fight against air pollution in the port communities of Los Angeles, where 300,000 people, mostly Latino, live next door to oil refineries, chemical facilities,  and one of the largest oilfields in the nation. For decades they’ve been fighting for basic rights and a cleaner environment.  Eliza Moreno has that story.

48,000 Grad student employees at the University of California are on strike in the largest strike in the history of higher education and the largest strike anywhere in the US this year. But how come the auto workers' union represents teaching assistants and research assistants? Harold Meyerson explains.Plus: For Thanksgiving we chat with Father Greg Boyle of Homeboy Industries, a beacon of hope for young men in LA coming out of gangs and prison. (originally broadcast in January, 2018).

How the best Democratic candidates won - Harold Meyerson comments. Also, the inevitable announcement from Donald Trump.Plus: LA Times columnist Gustavo Arellano on the defeat of sheriff Alex Villaneuva, Rick Caruso's campaign for Latino votes, and red-baiting in Orange County.Also: Joan Walsh of The Nation says Herschel Walker looks like a loser in the Georgia senate runoff.

Barack Obama lost 63 seats in his first midterm. Trump lost 40. Biden will lose 6 or 8. How did the Dems do it? Harold Meyerson has been thinking about that.Also, The Nation‘s top political writers analyze the good, the bad, and the ugly of the midterm elections, and find keys to building a winning coalition for 2024: D.D. Guttenplan, Elie Mystal, Joan Walsh, John Nichols, and Chris Lehmann.

In the key swing states of Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada, the union UNITE-HERE has the biggest ground game of any organization - Harold Meyerson explains what they do, how they do it, and why they are so good at it. Also: How can we save democracy from white nationalism and right-wing authoritarianism? Steve Phillips argues https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/civil-war-isnt-on-the-horizon-the-original-battle-never-ended/ (we need to organize and turn out the millions of non-voters) – people of color and young people – with a long-term, data-based strategy. Steve’s new book is “How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good.” Plus; Stacey Abrams, running for governor in Georgia, is behind in the polls of likely voters. But her whole strategy is to organize and mobilize people who do NOT vote regularly – to expand the electorate with young people, people of color, and those the political scientists call “low-propensity voters.” She explain

Election day is less than two weeks away. What should the Democrats' closing message be? Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments. Also: Mike Davis, author and activist, radical hero and family man, died on Tuesday, Oct. 25. After talking about his life and work, we play part of an interview with him on this podcast from November, 2016, one week after Trump was elected. Plus: The Trump years are not the only time American democracy has been threatened – the World War One years, when Democrat Woodrow Wilson was president, were another. That’s what Adam Hochschild argues –his new book is “American Midnight: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy’s Forgotten Crisis.”