Living in the USA

Biden’s next big thing: after the success of his $1.9 trillion covid relief bill, Biden’s economic recovery bill is ready for prime time. Harold Meyerson explains. Also, the Democrats’ voting rights bill – and the unlikely union organizing Amazon workers in Bessemer, Alabama. Also: Michelle Obama’s memoir is out now in paperback - It’s called “Becoming,” and it has sold more than 14 million copies...

Bernie Sanders and Biden’s $1.9 trillion covid relief bill: it’s the most important piece of social legislation at least since Medicare in 1966, 55 years ago. The bill that became law is nothing like Joe Biden’s politics over the last 30 years--nothing like the Democrats under Obama, or Clinton--and very much the culmination of Bernie’s politics over the same period. Plus: Black Lives Matter versu...

Joe Biden’s 1.9 trillion dollar covid relief bill is about to become law, seven weeks into Biden’s presidency. It’s a huge achievement. Harold Meyerson comments. Also, Chesa Boudin, the recently elected progressive district attorney of San Francisco, talks about prisoners as parents—he grew up with parents in prison (David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin). And our TV critic Ella Taylor talks about “Night...

Joe Biden is becoming a working class hero, after the strongest statement in support of unions since FDR: Harold Meyerson talks about support for Amazon workers in Alabama. Also: Katha Pollitt takes up the question, what can we do about the 74 million people who voted for Trump? Plus: Eric Foner will talk about Will Smith’s new 6-part series on Netflix--it’s about the 14th Amendment, which establi...

Biden’s Pandemic Relief Bill should pass the House Friday–-it includes child benefit payments for every family with children. But in order for Biden’s plan to be included in the bill, it can only be for a year. Mitt Romney has proposed a permanent program – that’s what we really need. Also: Rick Perlstein talks about the future of the Republicans with Trump defeated – how divided are leaders over...

Biden’s economic recovery plan: Harold Meyerson comments, starting with the latest obstacles to keeping the $15 minimum wage in the Senate bill that goes to reconciliation – also, is aid to state governments a “blue-state bailout”? Also: UCLA has gotten a multi-million dollar grant to establish an archive of the age of mass incarceration, starting with 177 boxes of LAPD records from the seventies...

Harold Meyerson says the devastating new footage of the rioters shown on Day Two of the impeachment trial underlines Trump's failure to try to stop them, the most undeniable grounds for a guilty verdict on his impeachment trial. Also, Alan Minsky of Progressive Democrats of America makes the case for the $15 minimum wage, and looks ahead at Biden's plans for reviving American manufacturing. And El...

Biden's $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill: Harold Meyerson says he won't reduce it. Also: the Republicans, and the impeachment. Plus: Biden and Black America: Barbara Ransby comments. And Ella Taylor reviews "Dear Comrades!", the Russian film about a massacre of striking workers in Russia in 1962. Finally, we remember Rennie Davis -- he died on Feb. 2.

Biden's first week was filled with bold and necessary executive orders, and a plan to pass pandemic economic relief without Republican support--Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect explains. also: Gary Younge talks about the coming fight with Trump and Trumpsim, starting with the insurrection of January 6. plus: Ella Taylor reviews "White Tiger," the Indian rags-to-riches film that combines sa...

The inauguration of Joe Biden was delightfully normal--Harold Meyerson comments on what happened -- and what didn't. Plus: Alan Minsky, Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America, discusses the challenges facing the Congressional Progressive Caucus--and the opportunities. And our film and TV critic Ella Taylor reviews "Assassins," an amazing documentary about the assassination of the b...

The impeachment vote barely papered over the growing crisis in the Republican party, says Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect. Harold comments also on security at the Biden inauguration. Also: Eric Foner provides some historical perspective on the attack last week on the capitol. Plus: Ella Taylor talks about the new documentary “MLK/FBI”, on J. Edgar Hoover’s attempt to “destroy” Martin Luth...

The Trump mob attack on the capitol should have been expected, says Harold Meyerson--Trump himself had been calling for it for weeks. But it signals an irreparable split in the Republican Party. Also: Priorities for vaccination against covid-19 need to be based both on science and on ethics - Gregg Gonsalves explains. And Ella Taylor talks about the documentary "Dissident," on the murder of Jamal...

A year, and a decade, of political challenges: Joan Walsh reviews the fall and rise of Kamala Harris, the return of Joe Biden, and the deepening problem posed over the last decade by white voters who now support Trump. Also, Amy Wilentz looks back on how things went in 2020 for Ivanka, Jared, Don Junior and Little Eric. And Ella Taylor talks about her favorite films of 2020 – starting with Ma Rain...

2020 began with Kamala Harris dropping out of the first primary, and is ending with Trump blowing up the Republican Party - it was also the year of the biggest protests in American history, organized by Black Lives Matter. Harold Meyerson comments. And we're still thinking about John le Carré, who died last week—he was 89, and one of the greats, author of two dozen books people called “spy novels,...

This week the US began vaccinating people against covid-19, and we consider proposals to establish a coronavirus commission, empowered to investigate the many failures in the fight against covid-19: is that something progressives should fight for? Mike Davis says “Yes” – and explains what’s at stake. Also: Will Donald Trump pardon Ivanka and Jared—and Don Junior and Eric? What exactly are their cr...

L.A. elected a new progressive district attorney last month – George Gascon – and he just announced the sweeping changes he will make, starting with an end to cash bail and to sentencing “enhancements.” Jody Armour explains: he’s the Roy Crocker Professor of Law at USC, and his new book is “N*gga Theory: Race, language, unequal justice, and the law.” Also: last week the Supreme Court heard argumen...

Joe Biden got six million more votes than Donald Trump—so how come the Democrats did so poorly in the Senate and House elections? Harold Meyerson has an analysis – and some comments on how the Dems could win the Georgia Senate runoff. Also: how are the Trump kids dealing with the refusal of their father to admit he lost the election? Amy Wilentz will comment—on another episode of The Children’s Ho...

All eyes are on Georgia now, as the campaigns for both senate seats are underway to determine which party will control the US Senate. For Democrats, the starting point for winning in Georgia is the historic work of Stacey Abrams. When she ran for governor of Georgia in 2018 as the first African American and the first woman candidate, she got more votes than any Democrat in Georgia history, includi...

Mike Davis on Trump voters: Latinos in south Texas and white workers in the rust belt—and Biden’s big mistake: allowing Trump to claim "the economy" as his issue, instead of connecting jobs to controlling the pandemic. Also: Monday we had good news on a covid vaccine from Moderna, created with a billion dollars of taxpayer funding. Gregg Gonsalves takes up the question, Why does Moderna get to kee...

Harold Meyerson argues that none of Trump’s tactics to hold on to the White House will succeed—the lawsuits are ridiculous, the proposals for Republican state legislatures to send their own Trump electors to Washington won’t work. But the fact that Trump got more votes than any Republican in history gives him a lot of power over the party. Also: the huge victories Black Lives Matter won at the pol...

Harold Meyerson considers the consequences of failing to win control of the Senate--and points to dozens of far-reaching executive actions Biden could take without Senate approval. Plus: Joan Walsh of The Nation says, 'It shouldn't have been so close." and TV critic Ella Taylor reviews "The Queen's Gambit," the proto-feminist story about the first female chess champion in Cold War America.

Harold Meyerson reviews Biden’s excellent recent poll results in swing states, and looks at the Democrats’ long standing problem with white male voters, and what can be done to bring them back into the party. Also: The one union that’s doing door-to-door precinct work during the pandemic. Also: ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ – the new Aaron Sorkin film - is the most-widely reviewed movie in America...

Maybe the November election will have a big enough vote for Biden so that it can’t be challenged in court; maybe the Republicans won’t dispute the outcome. But maybe they will – we’ve had other disputed elections in our history -- of course we had the Supreme Court stopping the count in Florida in 2000--and there was another one, much less well known–the election of 1876. For some comparisons we t...

When Attorney General Bill Barr told the House Judiciary Committee recently that voting by mail on a large scale presented a “high risk” for “massive voter fraud,” Pramila Jayapal challenged him—with evidence. She’s co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, she represents Seattle, and she talks about the fight against Trump for voting by mail. Her new book is Her new book is "Use the Power...

Pence faced an impossible task in the VP debate Wednesday night - defending Trump's inaction on the pandemic; but Kamala Harris also faced challenges: she couldn't be an angry black woman. Harold Meyerson comments. also: Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown talks politics and history, and the lessons Biden should learn from his recent reelection in Ohio, where he won by 8 points in a state Hillary lost by 6...