Living in the USA

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...

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” --...

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 fr...

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.

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...

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 mov...

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 varian...

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. Historia...

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 pub...

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 an...

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 th...

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 o...

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 lea...

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.”...

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 tha...

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...

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...

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 HB...

Rachel Kushner reports on Palestinian life inside the refugee camp that's inside Jerusalem, and on the current crisis--her new book of essays is "The Hard Crowd." also: Harold Meyerson comments on Gavin Newsom's plan to give money to almost all Californians, and to provide massive funding for homeless housing and universal preschool. and our critic Ella Tayor talks about “The Underground Railroad,...

Mazie Hirono, Senator from Hawaii: She’s the only immigrant currently serving in the Senate, and she was the first Asian American woman elected to that office, starting in 2013. She talks about the need for filibuster reform and Supreme Court reform, about the storming of the capitol on January 6. Her new autobiography is Heart of Fire: An Immigrant Daughter’s Story. Plus: Harold Meyerson talks ab...

Joe Biden's American Families Plan, his Covid Relief bill, his infrastructure proposal, and his vaccine rollout mark him as the boldest and most successful president since FDR--Harold Meyerson explains. Also: Republicans keep complaining about Hunter Biden--Amy Wilentz comments on his memoir of suffering and addiction. Plus: The Oscar for Best Documentary went to "My Octopus Teacher" -- Ella Taylo...

The guilty verdicts in the Derek Chauvin trial in Minneapolis made history—and came only after millions of people took to the streets, for months, in hundreds of cities across America; and only after a decade of sustained organizing by Black Lives Matter. Jody Armour comments—he’s the Roy Crocker Professor of Law at the University of Southern California, and author of "N*gga Theory: Race, Language...

At the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, the union lost the vote by more than 2 to 1. What happened? Harold Meyerson has our analysis—also comment on hazard pay for grocery store workers, and corporations for voting rights. Plus: Should Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer retire? That would give Biden a chance to nominate a younger replacement – he’s promised a Black woman. Also, our TV crit...

For nearly half a century, America’s leading corporations have offshored work -- to lands where labor is cheap, and they’ve also offshored profits -- to lands where taxes are low. Now Joe Biden and the Democrats are trying to do something about that. Harold Meyerson explains. Also: Protest continues to grow over the recent displacement by the LAPD of the homeless encampment at Echo Park Lake, whic...

Joe Biden has redefined "infrastructure" to include workers - Harold Meyerson explains what's in the biggest 'public works' bill in 50 years. Also: Big Pharma profits while the Global South waits for covid vaccines: Gregg Gonsalves comments. And Ella Taylor talks about "Bloodlands," a BBC thriller set in Northern Ireland 20 years after the end of "The Troubles" -- when a murder investigation threa...