Living in the USA

Victory for the United Auto Workers in their strike against the big three automakers, GM, Ford, and Stellantis. Harold Meyerson, editor-at-large of The American Prospect , explains what’s in the new contract, and what it took to get there. Also: A cease-fire in Gaza is only the beginning of what Israel and the Palestinians need. D.D. Guttenplan, The Nation ’s editor, argues that “both peoples will...

The Biden administration says Israel's planned invasion of Gaza "lacks achievable military objectives." And yet Biden supports it. Harold Meyerson examines this contradiction. Also: Adam Shatz says Israel’s disregard for Palestinian life after the Oct. 7 terror attacks has never been more callous or more flagrant. But Israel can’t extinguish Palestinian resistance by violence any more than the Pal...

Biden's trip to Israel, Israel's attack on Gaza, politics in the US and Israel: Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments--and talks about why he left DSA; and Amy Wilentz, former Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker, provides analysis.

The UAW won a historic victory when GM agreed that workers in EV and battery factories would be covered by the union contract.  Harold Meyerson comments on that, and on Israel’s war with Hamas. Plus: Voters in Maine will decide next month whether to turn the state’s private utilities public. If that happens, it would be a huge step toward dealing with the climate crisis, and a model for other...

Kaiser Workers' strike this week is the largest by healthcare workers in US history. Harold Meyerson comments. Also: ethnic politics in California. Plus: Our politics today is haunted by the failures of Bill Clinton—the “centrist” who "triangulated” with Republicans, lost on healthcare, and proclaimed that “the era of big government is over.” Nelson Lichtenstein will explain Clinton’s tu...

Joe Biden joined a UAW picket line on Tuesday – the first president ever to do so. Harold Meyerson comments. Plus: the right-wing supermajority on the Supreme Court has returned to a case about racial gerrymandering in Alabama, where Republicans have defied the Court’s order.  Dahlia Lithwick will comment about that, and about her book Lady Justice: Women, the Law, and the Battle to Save Amer...

The UAW is being criticized by the corporate-Wall Street wing of the Democratic Party for seeking ‘too much’ in their current strike.  Harold Meyerson responds. Plus: We face two kinds of insecurity in our lives today, Astra Taylor argues: existential insecurity, the unavoidable issues of life and death, and manufactured insecurity—intended to make workers more submissive to authority. C...

Harold Meyerson reports on a major victory in the California state legislature that will raise pay for fast food workers from $15.50 to $20. Also: those Trump polls. Plus: the news from Haiti, where the UN, with US support, is authorizing a new security force. Made up of mostly Kenyan troops, it's supposed to restore “law and order” in Port-au-Prince. The Nation's Amy Wilentz reports. Also: Gary Y...

Harold Meyerson analyzes Biden’s weak poll numbers, and our historic upsurge in labor activism. Plus: September 11th is the 50th anniversary of the coup that overthrew Salvador Allende in Chile, ending 150 years of democracy there and putting the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Power. Marc Cooper will comment. Also: Every night, more than a million people read Heather Cox Ri...

The Biggest news from the NLRB in decades: Harold Meyerson reports - also: the auto workers prepare to strike. Also: Harvard's first woman president, Drew Faust, talks about how she became a civil rights and anti-war activist in the sixties: her new book is "Necessary Trouble."

There seems to be progress toward a settlement of the strikes by Hollywood writers and actors--Harold Meyerson reports. Also: if it was a good strategy for Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to charge Trump with four felonies, is it also a good idea for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to charge Trump and 18 other people with a total of 41 felonies? Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the law sc...

Public Libraries are often wonderful places, but they have become targets of right-wing attack in the culture war. Sasha Abramsky reports on the battle in one small town in Eastern Washington state.  Also: Cornel West should not run as a 3rd party candidate, but in the Democratic Primaries--that’s what D.D. Guttenplan says – he’s editor of The Nation. Plus: A comic novel about Ethel and Juliu...

Ohio voted on a referendum that would make it harder to amend the state constitution – including the addition of the right to abortion. The amendment lost, abortion rights won – Harold Meyerson comments. Next: Should Trump have been charged with incitement of insurrection, or at least violence? What’s the line between free speech and incitement? If Trump sincerely believed he’d won the e...

Finally we have Trump's indictment for his crimes around January 6. Harold Meyerson comments; also; Trump's continued support among voters. Also: A conversation with John Powers about the two hit movies of the summer, "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer." John is critic at large on the NPR show "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross.

The Teamsters won a historic victory in the new contract with UPS, setting the stage to take on Amazon. Harold Meyerson reports. Also: where is Melania? Plus: Hollywood actors and writers have been on strike–the Writers Guild of America since May, and the Screen Actors Guild since July 14. The studios are showing no signs of settling. WGA member and Nation writer Ben Schwartz joins the show. He ar...

At last Trump will face charges for his real crimes - insurrection on Jan. 6. Harold Meyerson comments. Also, an update on the Hollywood strikes. Plus: Florida's war on Black Studies- historian Robin Kelley talks about the resistance. And Joan Walsh recalls her experience of RFK Jr. a decade ago at Salon.

130,000 actors are joining 12,500 screenwriters in the biggest Hollywood strike since 1960. Harold Meyerson reports. Also: the Supreme Court in 2023 wasn't all bad -- David Cole explains. Plus: D.D. Guttenplan argues that Cornel West should run, not as the Green Party candidate, but in the Democratic primaries.

The Summer of Strikes in Los Angeles continues, with hotel workers picketing hotels from Santa Monica to downtown on July 4 weekend, plus Teamsters preparing to strike UPS and Actors in negotiations with the studios. Harold Meyerson reports. Also: After affirmative action: what should progressives do to help people of color and other working class students attend college, and pay for it? John Nich...

There are two big strikes in the works in L.A. right now: hotel workers and actors. 15,000 hotel workers are preparing to strike; and 200 people – including City Council and State Assembly members – were arrested during a UNITE HERE local 11 protest. Also, 160,000 actors are on the verge of joining the 11,500 writers already on strike. Harold Meyerson comments. Next: Crossing the abortion borderla...

How can Democrats win back at least some white working class swing voters? We have some striking new research about that. Katie Rader discusses the issues that are most likely to mobilize them. Next: Doctors these days are caught between caught between the Hippocratic oath – “first, do no harm” – and “the realities of making a profit from people at their sickest and most vulnerable.” Eyal Press re...

Cornel West is running for president - he can only help Trump win, argues Joan Walsh, National Affairs Correspondent for The Nation. also: You might think Republicans would take a breather after banning abortion in the states they control, but no! Instead, they’ve set their sights on a new target: no-fault divorce. The Nation ‘s Katha Pollitt reports. Also: historian Brenda Stevenson talks about t...

On Strike: An Actors strike looms as the Writers in LA and New York enter the sixth week of their strike. Meanwhile, 12,000 dock workers walked off the job in Southern California after contract talks deteriorated in recent days; they also shutdown operations in Oakland, Seattle and Tacoma. Also, Biden's achievements include infrastructure, economic recovery from the pandemic, investment in high-te...

Biden's debt limit deal has left progressives unhappy--Harold Meyerson says it's the best we could have expected under the circumstances. Also: The ideological roots of the January 6 insurrection go back decades before Trump entered politics — back to the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. Jeffrey Toobin will explain. His new book is ‘Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of...

The Minnesota legislature has passed a sweeping pro-worker labor bill that will require paid sick days, ban captive audience meetings during union drives, and more – Harold Meyerson reports. Also: Has Planned Parenthood gotten too cautious and too corporate? Are the risk managers running the organization? Eyal Press reports on the courage of independent abortion services, and the failure...

Workers won union recognition is some significant places in the past week.  Harold Meyerson reports on interns and residents in Philadelphia joining the SEIU, a bus factory—in Georgia!—joining the Steelworkers, and dancers at a strip club in LA joining Actors Equity. Plus: Progressives and Biden: what is to be done—about the 2024 election? Bhaskar Sunkara, president of The Nation , comments....