On this episode of Start Making Sense, the author of Hope in the Dark looks ahead, and Danny Goldberg explains how the Rodney King riots led to greater control of the LAPD.
Protesters rally during the “No Kings” national day of protest in Los Angeles, California on October 18, 2025.(Frederic J. Brown / AFP via Getty Images)
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No Kings Day on Oct. 18 was the largest peaceful protest in American history. Rebecca Solnit comments, and refutes Republican statements about violence on the left. Her most recent book is “Orwell’s Roses.”
Also: the fight to control the LA police: a decades long effort that culminated in 1992, after the Rodney King riots, when longtime police chief Darryl Gates was forced out. Danny Goldberg comments – at the time he was board chair of the ACLU of Southern California Foundation, and his new book is “Liberals With Attitude.”
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No Kings Day on October 18 was the largest peaceful protest in American history. Rebecca Solnit comments, and refutes Republican statements about violence on the left. Her most recent book is Orwell’s Roses.
Also: the fight to control the LA police: a decades long effort that culminated in 1992, after the Rodney King riots, when longtime police chief Darryl Gates was forced out. Danny Goldberg comments—at the time, he was board chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, and his new book is Liberals With Attitude.
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Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
After Senate Democrats block the SAVE act, Trump is likely to declare a national security emergency – claiming China could interfere in the midterms – as a basis for restricting voting. David Cole comments; he’s former legal director of the ACLU.
Also: Congress must challenge Trump’s war on Iran and assert its constitutional duty to take up War Powers resolutions and assert its primacy over matters of war and peace. John Nichols explains.
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Jon WienerTwitterJon Wiener is a contributing editor of The Nation and co-author (with Mike Davis) of Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties.