Living in the USA

Trump's immunity defense has been denied by the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals; the Republican-controlled House has failed to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas; and other GOP failures – Harold Meyerson comments. Also: The case for disqualifying Trump as a candidate, based on the 14th Amendment banning those who have engaged in insurrection from holding publi...

Trump's legal and financial crises are deepening, and Nikki Haley isn't quitting - his mental deterioration is becoming more evident, and she is making it a campaign issue. Harold Meyerson comments. Also: California moved one step closer to universal healthcare on January 1, when it expanded coverage to all low-income residents, regardless of immigration status. Sasha Abramsky will report. Plus: A...

In the New Hampshire Republican primary, the first in the nation, Trump got 54%, Nikki Haley got 43% – and, 42% of NH Republicans say that if Trump is convicted of a crime, they would not vote for him – Harold Meyerson comments. Also: John Nichols talks about Biden's big win in NH, and Trump's furious victory speech. Plus: Mazie Hirono, Senator from Hawaii: Last week, out...

John Nichols reports on Monday’s Republican caucuses in Iowa, and explains why Iowa is the state with the biggest shift from blue to red between Obama in 2008 and Trump in 2020. Also: The new film "American Fiction," starring Jeffrey Wright, takes up the question, do Black writers have to "write Black"? The film is based on the novel "Erasure" by Percival Everett, which is considerably wilder and...

“Trump’s Lawyers Invite Biden to Assassinate Him.” That's the headline at Prospect.org -- Harold Meyerson explains. Plus: Only Joe Biden can stop the war in Gaza: Israel's war in Gaza has been going on now for three months, and the IDF said over the weekend they plan to keep the war going for another year. Amy Wilentz talks about Netanhayu’s use of the war to hold on to power. Also: the lies...

For many,​ the upcoming presidential election ​is a source of dread and pessimism. Harold Meyerson talks about sources of hope in 202​4 – including Trump's upcoming trial for attempted insurrection and the promise of ongoing progressive political action by America's youth. ​Also: Hope is different from optimism – it’s an embrace of uncertainty, and a basis for action. The...

Our holiday giving list: Katha Pollitt presents her list of groups that need—and deserve—our support: Gaza aid, abortion assistance, and organizing against Trump. Also: On Christmas Day, 1914, after five months of unparalleled industrial-scale slaughter, British and German soldiers stopped fighting and exchanged gifts, sang Christmas carols, and played soccer. It’s a unique event in the histo...

Harold Meyerson comments on the Colorado supreme court's ruling that the constitution prohibits Trump from serving as president because he participated in an insurrection. Also - class struggle in 2023 - the year in review. Plus: Why have some feminists been reluctant even to acknowledge that Hamas members raped Israeli women and girls on Oct. 7? Katha Pollitt comments. Also: "parents rights" fail...

The War against Gaza: How we got here, where we need to go: David Myers comments. Also: The left in Israel today. Also: Joe Biden has historic achievements as president, but polls show him to be the candidate least able to defeat Donald Trump in the 2024 election. Democrats need someone else to run and an open primary. Harold Meyerson will argue that Biden must not run again. Plus: the story...

Striking hotel workers have occupied Century Blvd., the approach to LAX, and are planning a posada, reenacting Mary and Joseph's search for lodging in Bethlehem, on Friday evening--Harold Meyerson comments. Also: Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, spent Thanksgiving weekend in Israel. She will report on meetings with shared society groups and peace movement leaders. She’ll also discuss the ro...

Trump doesn't have a platform, he has an enemies list; but the Heritage Foundation has 922 pages on its to-do list if Trump should return to the White House in 2025. Harold Meyerson explains. Also: People with very different visions of what a just peace between Israel and the Palestinians might look like must work together to stop the war: That’s what D.D. Guttenplan argues.  He’s Editor of T...

Joe Biden faces a split in the Democrat electorate over Israel and Palestine--Harold Meyerson has some recommendations. also: Why we need the Israeli left now more than ever: Dahlia Scheindlin explains. plus--California is a place to write home about. David Kipen reads some examples - his new book is "Dear California: Letters and Diary Entries."

Today we have two segments from the archives about Palestinians; neither is about the current war—and one about Trump and refugees. Rachel Kushner reports on her visit to a Palestinian refugee camp in 2016; Adam Shatz talks about Edward Said, the leading voice of Palestinians in the US before he died in 2003. And later in the show: One of the defining features of Trump’s politics has been the way...

John Nichols has our analysis of Tuesday's election victories in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. But those victories came right after a series of very bad polls for Biden - especially a new NYTimes Poll that shows Trump leading in 5 out of 6 swing states. Could Biden’s poll numbers really be that bad?  Harold Meyerson comments. Later in the show: What is Israel’s endgame in its war...

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...