The Last Day of Voting in the California Recall

We begin with the last day of voting in the California recall election following last night’s rally at which President Biden was stumping for Gavin Newsom calling the governor’s right-wing talk show host challenger Larry Elder a “Trump clone” while making it clear the outcome has national repercussions. Joining us is Larry Gerston, Professor Emeritus of political science at San Jose State University and a political analyst for NBC television in the California Bay Area. He is the author of a number of books including California Politics and Government: A Practical Approach, Not So Golden After All: The Rise and Fall of California and Recall! California’s Political Earthquake. We discuss Elder’s Trumpian claim that he has “detected fraud” even though the votes have yet to be counted, and the possibility that if Newsom has a strong showing, Democrats will move to reform the state’s recall process which is blatantly undemocratic and easily gamed for partisan purposes.

 

The All-or-Nothing Bill That Has Progressive and Moderate Democrats at Loggerheads

Then we get an analysis of the “all or nothing” nature of the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill into which the Democrats have stuffed all of their priorities in order to get around the senate filibuster, but in doing so risk ending up with nothing to run on in 2022 unless the progressives and moderates can find a way reconcile their differences because their chances of holding the House and Senate are already slim. Eric Levitz, who writes for New York Magazine’s Daily Intelligencer where his latest article is “3 key Divides in Democrats’ Civil War Over the Biden Agenda,” joins us.

 

An Update On Venezuela Where Maduro Is Propped Up By Dollars From Those Who Have Fled

Then finally we get an update on the once-rich oil state of Venezuela now having lost over 15% of its population who have fled hyper-inflation, food and medicine shortages and political repression. Joining us from Caracas in Virginia López who was a correspondent for The Guardian and Al Jazeera English and has a recent article at The New York Times “Venezuela’s New Lettuce-Based Economy Is Good Enough for Now” which points out that remittances in dollars (called lettuces in code) from those who have fled, are propping up the unpopular government of Maduro.