A day before President elect Joe Biden takes office, there are a flurry of cabinet nominee confirmation hearings to rush through ensuring that critical positions are filled during the transition. There are five nominees being vetted by lawmakers: Lloyd J. Austin III as Defense secretary, Antony J. Blinken for State secretary, Janet Yellen to head the Treasury Department, Alejandro N. Mayorkas for homeland security secretary, and Avril D. Haines for the position of National Intelligence Director. Responding to questions about raising the federal minimum wage, Treasury Nominee Janet Yellen said this. Ms .Yellen pushed lawmakers to be aggressive about stimulating the failing U.S. economy during her hearing. National Intelligence nominee Avril Haines, during her opening remarks stressed the importance of keeping intelligence gathering and dissemination free of politics and also took an aggressive posture on China. The antiwar group Codepink has denounced Haines as a “torture-apologist & drone-lover.” 

Alejandro Mayorkas, as homeland security nominee also addressed lawmakers. As the son of Cuban immigrants, Mayorkas was Deputy Secretary of homeland security under President Obama and expressed his horror at the Capitol riot during his opening statement on Tuesday. Biden’s team announced an ambitious plan to overhaul the nation’s immigration system in a proposal that he plans to send to Congress on Wednesday, his very first day in office. The proposed bill includes border enforcement but also an expansion of the U.S.’s refugee programs that were heavily curtailed under the current administration. And, most importantly, it includes an 8-year path to citizenship for the nation’s roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants. 

Mr. Biden has also made history with his pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Rachel Levine, who is currently Pennsylvania’s Health Secretary, would be the nation’s first transgender person to lead HHS if she is confirmed. In a statement released Tuesday Mr. Biden said, “Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic — no matter their ZIP code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability — and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond.” In another decision warmly welcomed by progressives, news broke that Biden was planning to end the Keystone XL pipeline project upon taking office as well. A Gallup poll published Tuesday found that nearly 70% of Americans approve of the way Mr. Biden is handling his transition to the Presidency—not as high as Barack Obama but higher than Donald Trump. 

As federal troops provide security for Wednesday’s inaug...

FEATURING EMILY MCARTHUR – On Friday President elect Joe Biden laid out an ambitious economic stimulus package during which he made a forceful case for why the federal minimum wage ought to be $15 an hour. The movement to “Fight for $15” gained traction years ago from labor groups in the face of stiff resistance. One of the earliest places where the minimum wage was successfully raised to $15 an hour was Seattle, Washington, where the newly elected openly socialist City Council member Kshama Sawant campaigned for the hard-won victory. Now, those who have long viewed her presence on the City Council as anathema to maintaining the status quo are pushing to recall the fiery activist and politician, just a year after voters reelected her.

Emily McArthur, campaign manager of the Kshama Solidarity Campaign.

FEATURING MIKE KONCZAL – The “free market” we are told by its proponents is the best path to prosperity for all. “Free enterprise” is a right that subsumes other rights. Freedom from regulations will unlock wealth. This is the myth that America is steeped in. Rarely if ever, do our politicians demand that we center our freedom to live full lives, work reasonable hours, access health care, etc.  

But American history is filled with the struggle to define freedom as centering on human needs. Telling that story in a new book is my guest.

Mike Konczal is a director at the Roosevelt Institute, where he focuses on economics, inequality, and the role of public power in a democracy. He is a co-author, with Joseph Stiglitz, of Rewriting the Rules of the American Economy. His new book is called Freedom from the Market: America’s Fight to Liberate Itself from the Grip of the Invisible Hand. 

President elect Joe Biden on Thursday gave a major speech outlining an ambitious economic stimulus package he calls the “American Rescue Plan.” The proposal includes a substantial amount to tackling the pandemic and also providing direct aid to Americans and to state and local governments. Here is Mr. Biden listing the highlights of a massive economic package totaling nearly $2 trillion. Progressive Democratic Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Cori Bush called out the fact that the plan included $1,400 stimulus checks to Americans even though Biden had promised $2,000 checks. However the Biden team has countered that the $1,400 would be in addition to the $600 checks that Trump signed into law in December. As Trump leaves office more signs emerge of a serious economic downturn with retail sales dropping for the third month in a row as per newly released Commerce Department data. But billionaires are thriving having sucked up a trillion dollars from the economy into their coffers over the past year alone.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during her weekly news conference on Friday named Lt. General Russel Honore to head a probe of the security failures in the January 6th Capitol attack. She said, “There is strong interest in the Congress in a 9/11 type commission” to examine the violent white supremacist riot. Pelosi even hinted that some lawmakers themselves may be under scrutiny. The Speaker did not reveal when she would send to the U.S. Senate the Article of Impeachment that a majority of House Representatives voted on against President Donald Trump. According to a New York Times report, “Some Democrats said she might wait until Monday, Jan. 25, or longer to allow more time for the Senate to put in place Mr. Biden’s national security team to respond to continued threats of violence from pro-Trump extremists.” A new poll by the Washington Post and ABC News has found that a majority of Americans—56%–think Trump should be removed from office and disqualified from running again. A small majority of 52% blame Republicans for backing Trump in his untrue claims about election theft. 

There continue to be repercussions from the January 6th Capitol attack. Representative Emanuel Cleaver, a member of the House Financial Services Committee has called for companies to stop processing financial transactions for those known to have participated in the riot. A retired Air Force officer was among those that have been arrested most recently for their role in the attack. The man,

FEATURING GENEVIEVE LAKIER – As House Representatives were casting their votes to impeach Donald Trump for a second time, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Wednesday made a series of posts attempting to explain his decision to permanently ban the President from his platform. After years of allowing Trump violate Twitter’s community standards because of his title as president, Dorsey explained that his company, “faced an extraordinary and untenable circumstance, forcing us to focus all of our actions on public safety.” While many can argue that the de-platforming of Trump is good for democracy, more questions now arise: Is it enough? What about others who echo Trump’s lies? And, what about Twitter’s enormous power to allow or disallow communication on a platform that hundreds of millions of people use?

Read the article Genevieve recently co-wrote  on Slate.com called The Court, the Constitution, and the Deplatforming of Trump.

Genevieve Lakier, Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. 

FEATURING PAUL KENDRICK AND STEPHEN KENDRICK – The past two decades have seen their fair share of close Presidential election races, including the 2000 and 2016 races where Republicans narrowly prevailed. But one extremely close and historic Presidential race which shifted the political landscape for a generation was the 1960 election of Senator John F. Kennedy, who beat candidate Vice President Richard Nixon by a razor-thin margin. Pivotal to the outcome of that race was an “October surprise” involving the incarceration of none other than Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Telling the story of how the freeing of Dr. King swept Black voters toward a Democratic President in a new book are my guests, the father-and-son team Stephen Kendrick and Paul Kendrick. 

Stephen Kendrick and Paul Kendrick are the co-authors of Douglass and Lincoln: How a Revolutionary Black Leader and a Reluctant Liberator Struggled to End Slavery and Save the Union, as well as Sarah’s Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America. Their new book is called Nine Days: The Race to Save Martin Luther King Jr.’s Life and Win the 1960 Election. 

The House voted to impeach President Donald Trump over his role in inciting an insurrection at the Capitol, with a vote of 232 to 197. Ten Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to impeach and while that is a very small percentage of GOP lawmakers in the House, it is ten more than those who voted to impeach in December 2019. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explained why the House voted to make Trump the first President in history to be impeached twice.  It remains to be seen when Pelosi will send the Article to the Senate for a trial. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has now signaled publicly that he is considering whether or not to vote against Trump—a stunning change of posture after 4 years of protecting the President at all costs from paying any political price for his misdeeds. He is expected to not take up the impeachment trial in the Senate if it is sent to the body while he remains Senate Majority Leader for the next few days. While there is some disagreement as to whether Trump can be convicted after he leaves office – particularly from his supporters – legal experts say he can indeed be convicted as an ex-President. There is speculation that Trump’s trial could begin on January 20th, inauguration day, when President elect Joe Biden takes office. 

President Trump, whose Twitter megaphone has been cut off, released a tweet-like statement through his Press Secretary’s account saying in part, “In light of reports of more demonstrations, I urge that there must be NO violence, NO lawbreaking and NO vandalism of any kind.” He then released a highly scripted video statement echoing the same and where he pretended as though he was entirely cut off from the riot, violence, and insurrection he incited. 

In an insider account of Trump’s last days at the White House, the Washington Post on Wednesday explained that the President’s daughter, son-in-law, and Vice President Pence among others, “persuaded Trump to film the video, telling him it could boost support among weak Republicans. They asked him not to mention impeachment, and he didn’t.” The report also explained that, “he is said to be doing little these days besides watching television and fulminating with this coterie of loyalists about Republicans not defending him enough.” One official explained, “He is feeling increasingly alone and isolated and frustrated.” Additionally, the piece pointed out that Trump is increasingly angry with his lawyer Rudy Giuliani who failed to move the needle on legal challenges to the 2020 election and has, “instructed aides not to pay Giuliani’s legal fees.” 

During the House impeachment debate, one Republican,

FEATURING JEET HEER – The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to impeach President Donald Trump over his role in inciting the Capitol riot last week that led to at least 5 deaths. Trump makes history for becoming the first President ever to be impeached twice. House Democrats moved with lightning speed to introduce an article of impeachment, debate it, and vote on it. 

What comes next as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell remains surprisingly undecided about whether to vote on convicting Trump? What does the impeachment mean for Trump and the future of the Republican Party? 

Read his latest articles is one entitled, “The Enablers of Insurrection Should Be Ostracized.”

Jeet Heer, national-affairs correspondent at The Nation.

FEATURING BRANKO MARCETIC – The Capitol riot on January 6th has left lawmakers rattled. Many, including Progressive Democrat Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, say they came close to imminent danger and even assassination. As more details of the attack come to light, it appears clear that the situation could have been far worse. Pipe bombs that inexplicably did not go off were found at the headquarters of both the Democratic and Republican National Committees. Armed men were readying a distribution of weapons and Molotov cocktails. And, more violence is being planned for the coming week. 

It is in this context that a bill aimed at curbing “domestic terrorism” by Congressman Bill Schneider, that was passed by the House last Fall is being revived. But critics worry that such an act, if passed into law, will only further erode civil liberties and curb legitimate protest.

His latest article is entitled “We Don’t Need New Terror Laws to Defeat the Far Right.”

Branko Marcetic, staff writer at Jacobin magazine and a 2019-2020 Leonard C. Goodman Institute for Investigative Reporting fellow. His new book is called Yesterday’s Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. 

The House debated and voted on an article of impeachment against President Donald Trump over his role in inciting a domestic terror attack against lawmakers at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. With less than 10 days to go before he leaves office Trump was the target of angry denunciations by House Democrats who accused him of being a danger to the nation. Lawmakers remain shaken by the horrific attack last week that left 5 people dead. As of this recording the hearing continues but Democrats, who hold a majority in the House, are likely to prevail in their efforts, making Trump the first President in the history of the nation to be impeached twice. Here is House Speaker Nancy Pelosi addressing the House. PLAY VIDEO. House Majority leader Steny Hoyer also spoke, citing the words of his Republican colleague Liz Cheney who Trump had targeted by name in his Capitol Hill speech shortly before his supporters launched their attack. Hoyer quoted Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who is one of several GOP lawmakers joining Democrats to impeach Trump. Democratic Representative Jim McGovern accused Trump-supporting Republicans of aiding and abetting the President. Minnesota Democrat Ilhan Omar, who Trump and his supporters have directly targeted on many occasions, also made the case for impeaching Trump in strong words. 

The House took up the impeachment vote just after Vice President Mike Pence spurned a resolution asking him to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove Trump from office. The New York Times published an extraordinary account of the confrontation between Trump and Pence last week where the President, using misogynist language according to insider accounts, demanding that Pence, “can either go down in history as a patriot or you can go down in history as a p****.” Trump wanted Pence to abuse his ceremonial role of certifying the 2020 election results to enable him to seize power. Pence demurred. 

News broke on Tuesday that Trump’s most powerful and ardent enabler Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, privately backs his impeachment. McConnell had decisively ensured Trump was acquitted of impeachment charges a year ago. According to the New York Times, McConnell, “believes that Democrats’ move to impeach him will make it easier to purge Mr. Trump from the party.” Additionally, “a dozen Republican senators — and possibly more — could ultimately vote to convict Mr. Trump in a Senate trial that would follow his impeachment by the House.” 

On Tuesday the Justice Department held a press conference announcing that its investigation into the Capitol riot was unprecedented in its scope. U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin warned that many of the participants would face serious charges including those related to sedition.  A 70-year old white man from Alabama named