KPFK - Beneath The Surface

Guest: Daniel Hernandez, Mike Parker, Ed Broadbent

Daniel Hernandez, just back from Tijuana, reports on the harrowing conditions inside the migrant refugee camp for migrants from Central America, where thousands are sheltering with hopes of entering the US.
Mike Parker , who worked for 32 years in auto in Detroit, looks at what is behind GM's decision to close five plants, four in the US and one in Canada, affecting some 15,000 workers and their families as well as the towns and cities from Lordstown in Ohio to Detroit in Michigan.
Ed Broadbent, former NDP Leader and Member of Parliament from 1975-1989, hails from Oshawa, Ontario, the site of the GM plant in Canada to be closed. Ed's father was a clerk at GM and his still living uncle, at 104, was on the GM picket line in Oshawa in 1937 in the strike that brought industrial unions to Canada. We get Ed's reaction from Canada -- from the Prime Minister to the Union, and what Ed, described as the "best Prime Minister Canada never had" thinks the political leaders should be doing now that GM (bailed out with billions from Canada) has turned its back on its workers.

Guest: Matt Karp, Sarah Mason

Matt Karp on what the boost in Democratic Party fortunes portend: they will control the house, but he says their professional-class politics are a cul de sac -- when what we desperately need is a political revolution driven by the needs and aspirations of the multiracial working class.
Sarah Mason on her experience driving for Lyft. Her article, the featured '''long read''' in The Guardian, '''High score, low pay: why the gig economy loves gamification,''' is a window into the stark new world of work for the precariat. We ask Sarah how workers are motivated, essentially in game mode, to do insane amounts of driving, and whether the insertion of the algorithm into the traditional class struggle has changed the way workers can fight.

Guest: Mike Davis, Alex Caputo-Pearl

Mike Davis, urban theorist and prolific writer, joins us for a "Tale of Two Fires," contrasting the Paradise and Malibu conflagrations, which he says is like comparing two Californias. We get his take.

Alex Caputo Pearl, President of UTLA (United Teachers of Los Angeles) is addressing another sort of fire, the one that is threatening public education. Alex joins us to explain the issues behind the historic 98% strike authorization vote from the UTLA membership, issues that go to the heart of the competing visions for public education from the union and the district that is in austerity and downsizing mode, while the union is pushing for smaller classes, more funding, more staff and the needs of students and education as a whole.

Suzi Weissman

Guest: Michael Hiltzik, Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos

Pulitzer prize winning columnist Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times on Props 8 and 10 appearing on the ballot Nov 6. Props 8 and 10 seek to regulate huge for profit kidney dialysis clinics and the ability of localities to enact regulations on rising rents, respectively. The takeaway? Profiteering is behind the No campaign on both Props, whether by Wall Street or Dialysis firms.
Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos analyzes last week's Brazilian election that brought the ultra-rightwing Jair Bolsonaro to power, promising to clean up corruption and crime by killing tens of thousands. Pedro Paulo Zahluth Bastos explains the distribution of the vote, Bolsonaro's economic, political and foreign policy strategy, and what we can expect for Brazilian democracy and Latin America.

Guest: Gustavo Arrellano, Matthew Aaron Richmond, Barbara Artson

Gustavo Arrellano on why winning blue in Bakersfield and Fresno is even more important than in Republican Orange County, because it could be a template for winning back small towns and rural America.

Matthew Aaron Richmond in Sao Paolo explains the support for Jair Bolsonaro, the ultra-rightwing leading candidate in today'''s second round of the General Election: how did Bolsonaro gain his formidable base among the poor? And why do these constituencies support him when his economic policies will hurt them?

Barbara Artson in conversation about her new book "Odessa, Odessa" -- a multi-generational tale of a family'''s exodus from oppression to the promise of cultural, religious and economic freedom in the US, a story that evokes the immigrant experience and resonates particularly for today.

Suzi Weissman

Suzi Weissman

Suzi Weissman

Guest: Meagan Day

Meagan Day on the banality and toxicity of the Brett Kavanaugh confirmation to the Supreme Court. Her latest article in "Jacobin" looks at just how ordinary Brett Kavanaugh is: "juvenile, arrogant, sexist ... an unremarkable guy who was born on a conveyor belt to power, without much obligation to distinguish himself from his peers." Meagan says his ordinariness points "to a larger truth: the people running the show are callous and dangerous, but they'''re also astonishingly average. ... They would hate for us to realize this." We get Meagan's take on why the Republicans fought so hard for such a flawed candidate -- there are many suitable candidates on the Federalist list. We also look at this watershed moment that has added the Supreme Court to the list of discredited institutions, creating a crisis of legitimacy for the Supreme Court, and possibly for the FBI as well after its less than cursory "investigation" into Christine Blasey Ford's serious allegations of Kavanaugh's sexual misconduct. We now have the least popular Supreme Court nominee in memory appointed by the most unpopular and corrupt US President in modern history, finally confirmed by a Senate that is one of the least representative bodies in any more or less democratic country in the world. Plus, we ask Meagan about the fight back and where we go from here.