Trump Watch

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 argues that the studios and streamers are likely to fracture before the unions do.Also: Fintan O’Toole’s personal history of Ireland since the fifties: how a country dominated by a corrupt Catholic church came to legalize gay marriage and abortion — by referendum. His much-honored ‘personal history’ of Ireland, titled “We Don’t Know Ourselves,” is out now in paperback. 

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 Nichols comments.Plus: what does it mean to be a politically committed writer? That’s the central question of Adam Shatz’s new book, “Writers and Missionaries: Essays on the Radical imagination.” Adam is The Nation’s former literary editor and the US editor of the London Review of Books.

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 borderland from Texas to New Mexico: Amy Littlefield describes the heroic work being done in both states to provide help to people seeking abortions, one year after the repeal of Roe, and reports on the new obstacles being raised by anti-abortion forces.Plus: From the archives: Katha Pollitt learned to drive at age 51 – she wrote about that experience for The New Yorker; and in 2015, she was played by Patricia Clarkson opposite Ben Kingsley in the film version, Learning to Drive. This interview was first recorded in 2007.

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 reports on the ways doctors are fighting back. Plus: When Joe Biden announced the theme of his reelection campaign he said that the Democrats are the party of “freedom.” But the Republicans claim that they are the defenders of freedom. Who is right?  Eric Foner has the answer – he’s the author of “The Story of American Freedom.”

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 the Black family under slavery and after. Her book, a history of the enslaved family in America. is “What Sorrows Labour in My Parent’s Breast.”And we have an episode of Your Minnesota Moment: the state joins National Popular Vote!

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-tech, investment in climate. . . how come other people, even the Democrats, have trouble remembering that? Harold Meyerson comments.Next: Shasta County, California, north of San Francisco, is a pretty place, but right wing extremists have taken over the Board of Supervisors there. They’ve driven out public health workers and pushed to make the county what they call a “Second Amendment sanctuary.” They're dubbing it a blueprint for the rest of the nation. The Nation's Sasha Abramsky reports.Plus: From the archives: Isabel Wilkerson on her unforgettable book about the Great Migration, "The Warmth of Other Suns” – recorded

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 Right-Wing Extremism.’Also: a conversation with Margo Jefferson about her memoir, “Constructing a Nervous System.” It’s out now in paperback.

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 failures of Planned Parenthood.Plus: The secret history of the Koch Brothers: how the key to their empire, and their fortune, is a refinery south of St. Paul. "Kochland" author Christopher Leonard has that story.

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.Also: Ron DeSantis is campaigning for president promising to “stop woke history.” That is, to stop teaching about slavery and its legacy of institutional racism. Adam Hochschild found the history guide DeSantis wants: the Hillsdale College “1776 Curriculum.” He reports on what’s in it —and what’s not.

The latest polls indicate voters think Biden is too old. Should the Democrats nominate someone else? Harold Meyerson comments.Also: an update on the Writers’ Guild strike against the hollywood studios, with Josh Gondelman – he’s an Emmy-award winning writer for his work on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, on HBO. He’s also a regular on NPR’s news quiz show, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me.Also: one of the Senate Democrats up for reelection in 2024 is Sherrod Brown of Ohio, one of our heroes --we spoke with him in 2020 about politics and history, and how he has won reelection in a state that is increasingly Republican.

At midnight on Monday, 11,500 Writers' Guild of America writers went on strike seeking a new film and TV contract. The writers voted for the strike by a historic margin: 98% in favor; 2% opposed. Harold Meyerson of The American Prospect comments.Also: Anatol Lieven is back after three weeks in Ukraine, where he found soldiers determined to win, and Russian bombardment doing surprisingly little damage.Plus: D.D. Guttenplan argues that it’s time to impeach Clarence Thomas, on the grounds of misconduct; also, it's time to remove and replace Diane Feinstein, on the grounds of her inability to perform her duties, especially on the Judiciary Committee, where her absence has denied the Democrats a majority.

Tucker Carlson's audience, 3.5 million, is a lot smaller than his pioneering predecessors in right-wing media; Harold Meyerson comments. Also: recent labor victories in LA.Plus: A neighborhood in Port-au-Prince fights back against the gangs. Amy Wilentz comments on the news from Haiti. Also: Anatol Lieven is back after three weeks in Ukraine, where he found soldiers determined to win, and Russian bombardment doing surprisingly little damage.

Fox News created a frankenstein - and the story isn't over yet: Harold Meyerson comments on the Dominion Voting Systems settlement.Also: Afghan girls who escaped from the Taliban: the boarding school that evacuated its students from Kabul during the chaotic withdrawal of the Americans. SOLA, the School of Leadership Afghanistan is the place where Afghan girls study to become members of the generation that will one day lead a peaceful and united Afghanistan. The founder, Shabana Basij-Rasikh, will explain.Plus: John Nichols will comment on how the fight for abortion rights will be a key issue for Democrats in the 2024 election, especially after Republican judges have tried to ban medication abortions.

The latest move by a Republican judge to ban the abortion drug Mefipristone is likely to turn out more Democratic voters, says Harold Meyerson. Also: Trump's Easter Sunday tweet.Plus: We know a lot about the bad things J. Edgar Hoover did, but it turns out there’s a lot we didn’t know. Historian Beverly Gage joins the podcast to explain. Her new book is “G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover & the Making of the American Century" -- it's been nominated for an LA Times Book Prize, which will be awarded next week.

Progressive Brandon Johnson won the Chicago mayoral election: Harold Meyerson explains how he did it, and the lessons for progressives.Also: The landslide victory of the progressive candidate in Wisconsin’s Supreme Court race, Janet Protaisewicz, ten times bigger than Biden's, shows how abortion wins elections--John Nichols explains. plus: Will Trump's indictment on 34 felonies change anything in the 2024 election? Or had everybody already decided what they think about Donald Trump? Chris Lehmann reports.

Last week's 3-day strike in LA by public school custodians, food service workers, teachers' aides and bus drivers won a 30% pay increase--Harold Meyerson reports.Also: How minor league baseball players organized a union for the first time in history: Kelley Candaele and Peter Dreier report.And Dahlia Lithwick talks about some of the heroes of the Trump years: the women lawyers who fought him on the big issues—the Muslim ban, neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, and voting rights. Her book is “Lady Justice” has been nominated for an LA Times book award.

Harold Meyerson comments on the fed, the banks, and the billionaires; also, the coming indictment of Donald Trump.Plus: American women in 2023: the news is bad, but it’s not all bad. Katha Pollitt explains.Also: the largest anti-war demonstrations in American history were protests in the fall of 1969--with more than two million people in the streets demanding “End the War in Vietnam.” But did those demonstrations help end the war?  Historian Chris Appy comments on the new documentary, “The Movement and the ‘Madman,’” on PBS American Experience March 28.