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Trump vs. LA—Plus, Rachel Kushner’s Creation Lake

On this episode of Start Making Sense, Harold Meyerson on the fight against ICE in Southern California, and Rachel Kushner on her latest novel.

Jon Wiener

July 9, 2025

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Trump v. L.A.—Plus, Rachel Kushner’s ‘Creation Lake’ | Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

Trump’s ICE is attacking undocumented people in LA County because there are a lot of them — maybe a million, out of a total of 3.3 million Latinos, and also because LA is one of the most Democratic counties in the country. And LA has a big and militant alliance of immigrants rights groups that are fighting Trump. Harold Meyerson will explain the deportation battle in Southern California at this point. 

Also: Rachel Kushner will talk about the informant and provacateur who infiltrates an anarchist eco-commune in rural France – the central character in her award-winning novel, “Creation Lake” – it’s out now, in paperback.

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Trump’s ICE is attacking undocumented people in LA County because there are a lot of them—maybe a million, out of a total of 3.3 million Latinos, and also because LA is one of the most Democratic counties in the country. And LA has a big and militant alliance of immigrant rights groups that are fighting Trump. Harold Meyerson will explain the deportation battle in Southern California at this point. 

Also: Rachel Kushner will talk about the informant and provocateur who infiltrates an anarchist eco-commune in rural France—the central character in her award-winning novel, Creation Lake—it’s out now, in paperback.

Subscribe to The Nation to support all of our podcasts: thenation.com/podcastsubscribe.

The Nation Podcasts

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.

Trump, from Minneapolis to Caracas—Plus, How Capitalism Came to Communist China | Start Making Sense
byThe Nation Magazine

As Trump’s support collapses, he has lashed out in two directions–sending an unprecendented number of ICE agents to Minneapolis, where one of them murdered Renee Good, and sending the military to Venezuela, where he says he has seized control of the oil industry. Harold Meyerson comments.

Also: Twenty Minutes Without Trump: There’s a new TV series about how capitalism came to Communist China, 30 episodes made for Chinese TV by the great Hong Kong director Wong Kar Wai, running now on the Criterion Channel. John Powers, critic-at-large on Fresh Air with Terry Gross, 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.


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