Some really good news from Georgia: Stacey Abrams is running for governor! Alongside Raphael Warnock for reelection as senator. Harold Meyerson comments - also, news from Texas and California. Also: being Black in America, and being Black in France: Gary Younge will talk about Josephine Baker, the Black American dancer who went to Paris in the twenties and later renounced her American citizenship. She was interred at the Pantheon, alongside Voltaire and Rousseau, last week. Plus: Father Greg Boy...
Dec 10, 2021•54 min
Unions are taking up the fight against Amazon - notably the Teamsters, notably in Southern California. Harold Meyerson explains. Also: gerrymandering - and the wild card at the Supreme Court. Plus: The new Omicron variant of Covid-19: Gregg Gonsalves argues that it serves as a reminder of how little we're doing on pandemic prevention. Meanwhile, Republicans are describing Omicron as a Democratic plot to bring back mail-in voting. Also: Gustavo Arellano talks about "The Beatles: Get Back," the am...
Dec 03, 2021•57 min
Racial justice and injustice in America today. We are relieved by the guilty verdicts and life sentences for all three men charged with murdering Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick Georgia. But we’re still thinking about the Not Guilty verdict for Kyle Rittenhouse, charged with shooting three people, killing two, during the street protests over the police shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. John Nichols comments on that trial, and its broader significance. Also: Racism in Americ...
Nov 25, 2021•33 min
Our politics commentary with Harold Meyerson starts with the House preparing to pass Biden's Build Back Better bill, then to Glasgow for the climate summit, then Texas where Beto is running for governor. Plus: We’ll talk about politics and pleasure with Rebecca Solnit --she’s probably best known as the author of “Men explain things to me.” Now she has a new book out - it’s called “Orwell’s Roses.” Also: Your Minnesota moment, news from my home town of St Paul, where the city attorney has announc...
Nov 19, 2021•57 min
The House will pass a Build Back Better bill next week, maybe--Harold Meyerson explains. Plus: A comic novel about Ethel Rosenberg? Francine Prose has written one--"The Vixen"--and it's terrific. Also: EllaTaylor on "Passing," the film about a Black woman passing for white in New York City in the 1920s - playing now on Netflix.
Nov 12, 2021•1 hr 2 min
Tuesday was a dark day for Democrats: Republican Glenn Youngkin’s victory in Virginia was not particularly surprising. But how did he manage to present himself both as a Trump supporter and as a more moderate, less crazy kind of country club Republican? Harold Meyerson has our analysis. Plus: how a small group of people challenged an unjust law and changed history: Eric Foner talks about the Underground Railroad and its challenge to the Fugitive Slave Act in the years leading up to the Civil War...
Nov 05, 2021•46 min
Obama spent months negotating with reluctant Dems over his health care bill. The result: massive losses in the midterms. Is Biden making the same mistake with Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema? Harold Meyerson comments. Also: who really runs Haiti: the government, or the gangs? the kidnappings suggest it’s the gangs – and the leader of the gang that kidnapped 16 Americans has openly expressed political ambitions. Amy Wilentz will explain. Plus: John Coltrane: of course he was the tenor player who s...
Oct 29, 2021•53 min
The latest on the Democrats’ reconciliation bill: Harold Meyerson reports on the big cuts demanded by Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Also: gubernatorial elections threaten Democratic power in Virginia, and Republican power in Texas. Plus: The Nation’s sports editor Dave Zirin talks about what he calls “The Kaepernick Effect” – how an NFL quarterback who had never been an activist made “Taking a knee” THE symbol of protest against racial injustice, & how hundreds, if not thousands, of young athl...
Oct 22, 2021•49 min
What’s the best strategy for the Democrats for 2022, when the odds are against them for holding the House and Senate? Pundits say the Dems should stop talking about climate, immigration, and the police. Harold Meyerson disagrees. Plus: draft resistance in the Vietnam era: there’s a new documentary, “The Boys Who Said NO!" with it’s online launch this weekend, and an online event Sunday at 5pm featuring Joan Baez, Daniel Ellsberg, and others--we’ll speak with one of the resisters featured in the ...
Oct 15, 2021•58 min
Biden backed the Progressive Caucus in insisting that the bipartisan infrastructure bill not be voted separately from the reconciliation bill. But the question remains: What does Kyrsten Sinema want? Harold Meyerson comments. Also: The co-founder of Black Lives Matter LA, Melina Abdullah, will talk about the LAPD showing up in force at her house twice in the week since she filed a lawsuit over last year’s similar incident – we call it ‘swatting,’ and we also call it retaliation. plus: we’ll talk...
Oct 08, 2021•53 min
How to cut the cost of the Democrats’ “Reconciliation Bill” without eliminating programs? Harold Meyerson says make it a four-year bill program instead of ten. Also: reapportionment in California, and a new mayor for LA. Plus: Civil rights attorney Carol Sobel talks about the LAPD’s dramatic increase in the use of dispersal orders in response to the protests of the last couple of years--declaring “this is an unlawful assembly” & “you are ordered to disperse.” Carol represents Black Lives Matter ...
Oct 01, 2021•58 min
Our Washington political update starts with the Fox News report, “Democrats tee up filibuster reform by forcing issue on immigration, voting rights.” Harold Meyerson comments on that – and on reports that Dan Quayle saved American democracy on January 6. Also: Amy Wilentz on Haitians and Haiti – and Joe Biden’s disastrous decision to deport those 15,000 Haitian refugees who crossed the border at Del Rio, Texas, sending them back to a country ravaged by assassination, earthquake, poverty, and gan...
Sep 24, 2021•56 min
Harold Meyerson on the sweeping Democratic victory in the California recall: its national significance for the 2022 midterms, and where it leaves California Republicans (with Larry Elder as their leader?). Also, our national politics update: today’s Reconciliation Report, and episode 15 of What Does Joe Manchin Want? Today: the Dems’ revised voting rights bill. Later in the show: this week is the 10th anniversary of Occupy Wall Street and “we are the 99 per cent” - we’ll have an assessment of th...
Sep 17, 2021•57 min
Democrats are headed toward passage of both the bipartisan infrastructure bill AND the reconciliation bill: Harold Meyerson reports. Plus: Abortion politics and Republican power – Rick Perlstein explains the long history of how abortion became a Republican issue – starting in 1972, His latest book is “Reaganland.” Also: our favorite documentary of the summer that just ended was “Summer of Soul” -- John Powers liked it too – he'll explain why.
Sep 10, 2021•58 min
America’s longest war came to an end on Monday as the last troops left Afghanistan, 20 years after we started fighting there. How much have the disasters around the Afghan pullout hurt Joe Biden and his agenda? How much will it hurt the Democrats in the midterms next November? Alan Misnky comments. Also: The life, and death, of Ethel Rosenberg, the accused “atom spy”: who was she before she was framed by the FBI, before she called their bluff, and went to her execution? Anne Sebba has written a ...
Sep 03, 2021•59 min
Joe Biden is betting that voters care more about health, education and jobs than about Afghanistan--Alan Minsky explains. Plus: What Americans owe Afghan women: Katha Pollitt has been talking to women who lead Afghan women's organizations. Also: 'Chair' is the new campus comedy starring Sandra Oh, on Netflix: Ella Taylor has our review.
Aug 27, 2021•58 min
Afghanistan in American politics, past and present: Harold Meyerson explains why the disastrous end of our Afghan war won’t matter in the elections in 2022 and 2024. Plus: the Taliban Triumph: Andrew Bacevich comments on 20 years of American hubris and ignorance, promises made, and promises broken. Also: there was only one member of Congress who voted against the authorization for the use of force in Afghanistan, back in 2002: Barbara Lee from northern California. Now there’s a documentary out a...
Aug 20, 2021•57 min
The great comics artist Art Spiegelman, who won a Pulitzer Prize for Maus, has a new book out: Street Cop, illustrations for a story by Robert Coover, published by Isolarii.com. He talks about working on that during the pandemic, and about his most controversial drawings – at the New Yorker, and The Nation. Also: here’s a new book about the sixties--about the heroism, and the disasters, of the movements of that decade. The authors are the brother and sister team David Talbot and Margaret Talbot-...
Aug 13, 2021•59 min
The deficiencies in the bipartisan infrastructure bill will be remedied in the big one that Dems aim to pass via reconciliation, says Harold Meyerson. Also: The significance for Progressives of the defeat of Nina Turner in the Cleveland House primary: Alan Minsky comments. And Gregg Gonsalves explains three things Biden needs to do to stop the gobal spread of the Delta variant, and the next variants that will come along.
Aug 06, 2021•48 min
The one trillion dollar infrastructure bill has made it to the floor of the Senate—where it is expected to pass. Bipartisanship lives! Harold Meyerson comments – also on the California recall, and on the most successful economic justice movement of the past decade: the Fight for $15. Plus: the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights. It’s known today as the heartland of Chicano culture. Historian George Sanchez will explain how its multicultural, interracial past made it a bastion of progressi...
Jul 30, 2021•56 min
Senate Republicans blocked taking up the bipartisan infrastructure bill on Wednesday-Democrats are trying one more time to satisfy GOP demands on this one. Harold Meyerson comments. Also: “Utopian” has been a term of abuse in politics for a long time now, synonymous with “irrational” and “impossible.” Instead, we are told, we should focus on realistic plans to improve things. But The Nation is publishing a special issue in defense of utopia. Jeet Heer explains how the dreams of a good society ke...
Jul 23, 2021•51 min
Biden’s Big Budget: Harold Meyerson comments on the Democrats’ agreement to spend $3.5 trillion, and on Bernie’s new status as the architect of some of the most progressive elements of the bill. Plus: plutocrats in space. Also: triumphs and disasters of the sixties: there’s a new book about the movements of that decade, about some of heroes, and some of the problems. The authors are the brother and sister team David Talbot and Margaret Talbot--David is the founder of Salon.com, and Margaret writ...
Jul 16, 2021•1 hr 4 min
The Supremes gave the green light last week to Republican moves to make it harder to vote -- that gives Democrats and voting rights groups more work to do. Harold Meyerson comments. Also: “Critical Race Theory” has been attacked on Fox News nearly 1300 times. It’s being banned from public schools and colleges in something like 15 Republican states. But what IS “critical race theory”? And why is this happening now? Kimberlé Crenshaw explains; she teaches law at Columbia and UCLA, and she’s probab...
Jul 09, 2021•1 hr
First, the divorce last May, and then Warren Buffett resigned as a trustee last week; so, who exactly IS Bill Gates, the second richest man in the world, giving his money to? Tim Schwab, writer of award-winning reports on the Gates Foundation, explains. Next Up: the political transformation of Kyrsten Sinema: Aida Chavez of The Intercept reports. Also: Dr. Seuss Enterprises took six of his books out of print because they contained racist drawings. Katha Pollitt comments. And, Obama's best-sellin...
Jul 02, 2021•59 min
Tuesday Republicans blocked the Senate from even beginning to consider voting rights legislation. Chuck Schumer said afterwards, “In the fight for voting rights, this vote was the starting gun, not the finish.” Now what? Harold Meyerson comments. Also: Most of us think of Jimmy Carter as a failure as president, the Democrat who opened the door to Reagan, and the only president whose work AFTER leaving office was better than his work IN office. Kai Bird says we need to reconsider Carter and his p...
Jun 25, 2021•58 min
Republican efforts to make it harder to vote, and easier for their judges and state legislatures to reverse elections they have lost, may backfire: Harold Meyerson comments. Also: rethinking the Green New Deal. Also: Katha Pollitt talks about a new book of advice for men – Jordan Peterson’s international best-seller “Rules for Life”. Rule Number One: “stand up straight, with your shoulders back.” And our TV critic Ella Taylor will review “In the Heights,” the wonderful new Lin Manuel Miranda mus...
Jun 18, 2021•57 min
What does Joe Manchin want? Doesn’t he want Democrats to have equal voting rights? Without filibuster reform, Republican attacks on voting will broaden. Alan Minsky explains: he’s Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America. Plus the earthquake in Israeli politics: Amy Wilentz comments on the end of Bibi Netanyahu, after 12 years as Prime Minister, and on the new governing coalition that includes for the first time in Israeli history an Israeli Palestinian Islamist party as part of th...
Jun 11, 2021•58 min
Progressives and Biden: the infrastructure plan and the threat of a bipartisan “compromise”; Biden’s ‘American Families Plan,” $1.8 Trillion for workers, students and families, financed through higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans—and healthcare reform, which will pass only with filibuster reform in the senate. Plus: Enbridge Line 3, the tar sands pipeline through northern Minnesota, will face nonviolent direct action protests this Monday, organized by the Treaty People Gathering. also: Whit...
Jun 04, 2021•1 hr
A group of moderate Republicans led by Mitt Romney are offering Joe Biden a bipartisan compromise on infrastructure-one trillion that would fund traditional roads and bridges, leaving out all of his proposals for a Green New Deal. Will he go for it? Harold Meyerson comments. Also: As many Democrats urge Biden to take steps toward self-determination for Palestinians, Adam Shatz recalls the life and work of Edward Said, the most prominent voice of Palestinians in America until his death in 2003. P...
May 28, 2021•1 hr 3 min
Harold Meyerson talks about breakthroughs in the House and the Senate on Palestinian human rights. Also: remember Jared Kushner's mideast peace plan? Plus: The Palestinians’ ‘Second Front,” inside Israel: Saree Makdisi explains the roles of Palestinian citizens of Israel in the current crisis. Also: our TV Critic Ella Taylor talks about “Crime of the Century,” the new Alex Gibney documentary on HBO about how Big Pharma pushed Oxycontin, which has killed half a million Americans.
May 21, 2021•1 hr 7 min
