Report from occupied territory where he laid out issues were grappling today, stop and frisk, alienated communities, Police Brutality. These are back and its incumbent upon the nation i think to have debates about where these different moments come together and diverge. I totally agree, and i would add, this is another example, because i go with katrina on the cruises fundraising cruise, we had a panel and Jesse Jackson was on this, the beginning of this cruise, and he got off the ship after the first half, and on the panel, our columnist eric walterman, who is a very smart person, who goes out of his way, i keep telling him, to make unnecessary enemies. I love eric, and hes a really good writer, and i look forward to his column regularly. Eric said after jesse was off the boat, just in passing on this panel, im very glad that the first black president obama had been elected was not Jesse Jackson but was barack obama. At which point Jeremy Scahill brilliant Investigative Reporter and catholic worker writer said that is the most racist comment ive ever heard and all hell broke loose, and other things happened on the cruise, but thats another kind of issue on which there are differences of opinion in the liberal Left Community and in the black White Community and so the nation is not immune from having differences and im very glad katrina is dealing with them these days. I was going to say the nation is also changing the whole concept of the cruise. I thought you were going no, i am proud that one thing i started last year, trips to cuba, and i say that because its charles bittnor has been involved with them but i was at the reopening of the Cuban Embassy this past monday which was an extraordinary moment to see the 1961 flag be reraised at the embassy, but its values aligned, the nation for more than 55 years has been fighting for cuban independence from u. S. Imperialism, et cetera, but its also a mark of a changing journalistic environment, not to get too downtoearth here, but i dont know if you saw National Journal closed its print edition a week or so ago, and the publisher in doing so basically said weekly print journalism cant survive anymore. I would disagree. I know victor would disagree. The nation is not National Journal. Quegs were a publication of views, not winning the morning. I dont know if it you follow that expression inside the beltway who is going to win the morning. That is not what we try to do. But you do seek additional revenue, and the cruise was victors brilliant, its both something where you build a community. Its what these publishers call events. These are our events. We dont have sponsored events like the atlantic. Were not going to aspen to mingle with the inside the beltway crowd. Were doing the Community Building and the cuba trips have been wonderfully powerful and informing both citizens, but also informing our coverage and making new kinds of alliances in a moment where its ill just anyway. The mojitos are very good. You have a question . Well, i have been very impressed with the discussion, the willingness to be so open to actually talk some about controversies in the press room, having to do with covering Jesse Jackson, whether or not to endorse him, how to endorse him, and so on, and im curious about your coverage of Jesse Jackson. I know its been extensive. Its gone on for many years. The coverage deals primarily with income inequality or poverty. Recently with Police Brutality and ending it, but at the same time he has been very involved in promoting diversity, particularly in the work setting, and yet there is almost no mention in the nation of his work, and we go all the way back to 1996, when pepsico had executives disparaging blacks in withholding talking about withholding evidence for a federal discrimination lawsuit, and Jesse Jackson actually spoke out and called for a boycott, which hastened the settlement of that lawsuit and yet there wasnt a single thing mentioned in the nation. I might refer you to joanne wippiciewski wrote a 5,000word article, what was it, ten years ago, victor . I think in there she, really was a full wideranging portrait of Jesse Jackson but i do agree with you. Jesse jackson comes through the nation every five to six months, i say to give us sort of our secular sermon. He comes in the room and he walks around the table, the conference table, talks to all the interns, asks them if they have student debt, meets with everyone and he talks about whats on his mind and it is the case that he has been very involved in these last couple years and Silicon Valley. Exactly. And trying to push for more diversity in an area which is going to define this countrys future, and weve been meaning to, and ive talked to people who are working with him. Im delighted you do that. We do follow him. I will say weve given more attention partly because when he comes in to talk to us. At the end he mentions the Silicon Valley work but hes leading with voting rights, leading with moral issues on his mind, not that this isnt. Oh good, im absolutely delighted because i looked, i looked really carefully to see if you had covered his thing about the boycott with texaco and his work with Silicon Valley and there was not a single mention so im absolutely delighted to hear that. Thank you. Thank you. Question . The president ial race is shaping up pretty asymmetrically, and [ laughter ] i like that expression. I wondered, since clinton would be the new, uhm, the new john kerry i guess, uhm, whether Bernie Sanders would be the new nader, i mean whether people would view Bernie Sanders as spoiling clintons run or something, and i also as a side issue wondered what you think the future of donald trump might be. [ laughter ] oh, wow. Ill let you open. It doesnt matter what i think is the short of it. Im happy to tell you what i think, but i think its very important that Bernie Sanders is running. I think one of the, personally i think this, i dont want to speak for the nation here, that one of the consequences of his running is that Hillary Clinton has adopted most of his Domestic Program and i think thats a good thing for the country and the democrats, and Hillary Clinton herself in the long run. I think he has very little chance of getting the nomination, but i hope the dialogue and conversation continues to play out, and a part of me hopes that im wrong in what i think is going to happen. On donald trump, i would call on Marvin Kittman who is sitting in our audience who is a new jersey lapsed columnist for newsday but he publishes his own stuff online and hes my expert on anything that has to do with trump, and people like that. Marvin, by the way, when we ran our satire mag keep, we ran marvin for president of the United States. He was running against barry goldwater, and he was running on abraham lincolns 1864 platform, which called for the freeing of the slaves, the Unconditional Surrender of the south and the reinforcement of the garrison at ft. Sumter. And sitting behind him Richard Lingeman was his holy ghost writer so thats my thought about this. I think, could i i think one thing that i find fascinating about Bernie Sanders run is how you see millions of americans meeting him for the first time, which is a testament to our media system which is blocked, someone like Bernie Sanders. Last year was the first time he appeared on meet the press. John mccain is on every other week. Be it contributes to this downsize politics of excluded alternatives and millions of people looking beyond the label socialist and saying wow, these are ideas that i agree with. These are ideas that i havent heard about ever. Theres a great power in that. The nation last year started an editorial line which ises were not endorsing anyone right now for sure but we seek a competitive primary because what we want is a contested set of ideas. You want new ideas. You want debate so i think its very exciting and Bernie Sanders is someone the nation has been covering close on to 30 years. He comes through the nation every time he does the Steve Colbert show which is now over but he came through in november and he sat and he talked to us in the interns and he talked about his ideals, ideas, why he might run and not run. Then he asked people should i run inside the Democratic Party or independent candidate . This was a real insight to me because there were 35 people in the room. I think it would have been different prenader. Two people said run as an independent. The rest said run inside the Democratic Party. Ralph nader did not want to do that and in that, he did expose the antidemocratic nature of so much of our system to get on the ballot would have caused Bernie Sanders half of his time, to get on tv and explain why he was running as an independent socialist, so i think its exciting. Donald trump i think elections are a mirror of a country, in addition to other things, put up a mirror to, and i think hes not in the knownothing tradition, which elevates him too much. [ laughter ] i think hes someone who is an entertainer, but has decided and its so in sync with the Republican Party platform, that the rich can do anything, they can rewrite the rules. They can do anything, and hes going to be above it all. He is not going to be constrained by the rules, and i dont know, hell be on that stage in cleveland. Cleveland i was just saying, cleveland not this weekend the following weekend is convening of black lives matter, thousands of activists. The following weekend is the first gop debate. Cleveland is going to to, if it survives. Question . Question . Good to see both of you, and see you looking so well. You alluded earlier to the period of time that it takes for the seed of a social change idea to germinate and bear fruit. I wonder if youd venture any guesses as to what seeds are being planted now that we can look at, well, some people can look at 25 years from now, and then see the fruit being borne. I had trouble hearing that. He asked, he said we were talking about how the seeds of the future change, the seeds of future are important ideas, are sowed decades before they appear. What seeds do you think are being planted now that will have political influence, importance . Is that fair . Yes. Great question. You know, i think to take something that is not resolved in my own mind, the whole impact of the internet on questions of privacy and how it affects the First Amendment and how it relates to our intelligence community, how that plays out in the long run, it seems to me is going to have a deep impact on our democratic society, and to me, its cause for alarm rather than a seed being planted. That is a good thing, and so thats one thought. I was struck today that one of our long time contributors, gara alpavitz was in the New York Times with an interesting editorial called socialism american style which was essentially retrieving radical ememts in our countrys history. The tva, the alaska sovereign fund, and i think there is a fundamental questioning now of capitalism, and i dont need to tell you why, and you have a pope who is extraordinary making Bernie Sanders seem like a centrist traveling around, but i think that is in question, and at the same time i think were in the fight of our lives in terms of corporate power, and the lack of citizens control of their lives, but somewhere in there its certainly not placid period, and i think that is very important. Finally, the future, i think what john, not just but the lifting up again of diplomacy as a way of resolving conflict is something this countrys imagination has lost, but at the same time, we are possibly on the cusp of a new cold war, and in there could be the seeds of destruction, and terrible damage to all, so much of what i think people in this room care about. Timothy is the cohead of the cold war center. I think you should have a discussion about are we confronting a second cold war . What does that mean for the future of not just this country but i dont i i dont believe we are entering a new cold war, but that doesnt mean there arent people who want one. The difference now is that the challenge is not one that could involve our extinction. This is not our differences with russia, which are i believe great are not at the level that they were when the United States and the soviet union were superpowers. I would disagree but thats a different debate. I think there were rules then and i think in some cases the rules are not set in the ways and there is reckless talk of use of Tactical Nuclear weapons because people have forgotten and are distanced. Anyway action requethe nation played an important role. This is a congealed consensus right now about u. S. russian relations and the nation as it has through time is at least challenging that, its seeking debate, one hand clapping in the media and the political world and youre right there, is a war party. I think another area where the seeds of radical change are being, i wouldnt say planted, but are out there right now, has to do with sexual identity, and the new, there was a piece in the times yesterday on how the new marital law may lead to polyga polygamy. I have a daughter who just made a documentary about transgendered children, and whats happening with them for front line. The world is changing on that front in a major way, and peoples attitudes are already changing, and whats going to happen there, your guess is better than mine probably. We have two questions. Just think of the social change that we have witnessed. Its just, think of the social change that we have witnessed in the last decade. Yes. Sir . Hi, thank you for this presentation. I believe it used to be said of reagan that he was teflon coated and i think that also may be applied to some of our liberal leads, the woman was complimenting Jesse Jackson, but i havent seen much attention to his engagement corporations in ways that maybe werent truly representative of the populous interest that he claims to support. For years hes been wanting to diversify wall street, and he was doing that project to get more diversity there. It seems perhaps he would have been better off challenging the interests of wall street rather than engaging in that process of engaging, who is raising money and it would be interesting if people such as he were held accountable. Robert redford you could call his tv channel the jpmorgan channel. His environmental chaired formerly by Fred Schwartz years ago he was lambasted by bob fitch but gave us nafta, its recently green washed fracking in california, and illinois, and if you look closely its a very corrupt, conflicted organization. Theres the daughter of enrons biggest shareholder on their board while they were legitimizing selly Belford Malkin whose husband owns the empire state building. Anyway i would find it interesting, if we could have more coverage of that, Robert Kennedy memorial, green wash sweat shops, taking money from sweat Shop Companies and it would have been interesting to ask some of our liberal leaders how can you legitimize this. Thank you. Thanks. I think weve done some of the toughest coverage on environmental conflict of interest, but you know, in we have pissed off a lot of people. We havent taken up every issue you mentioned but we have done at least twothirds over the last 25 years. Victor could tick off, but we take on many of the conflicts, and dont shy away from them, and you know, it speaks to the independence we prize. We dont really were unlike any other, most publications in terms of the advertising is not really our base. I could cite another example, victor spoke about it in a documentary film made on the 150th, to mark the 150th which is we were one of the first publication to expose the link between cigarette smoking and cancer. That takes an advertising free or liberated from advertising publication. Johann hawery took on the big green. Mark dowery, names if you havent checked them out but that independence i think is one big reason this place has survived for 150 years. [ inaudible comment ]. Sir, somebody elses turn, thank you. A thank you for this presentation. Im interested in how your work might be affected by the changes that have occurred in the nature of argument on the other side. In the late 70s that you were talking about, i could read the nation and think about approaches in policies on poverty, for example, and then i could read the neoconservatives and they would have different approaches. Now if we want to talk about an issue like climate change, half of the people deny that it even exists, they sort of have created an alternate reality of facts. So when youre trying to express opinions, the question is, can they even get through or do you have to take a step back and say well, lets go back to the facts first. I dont know if that has an impact on what you do or it would seem to me that it probably would have to have some impact. You want to take that . Ill just give you a personal opinion about magazines of opinion like the nation. Yes. I think one of the reasons in my view that print should and will survive is that it is a place where you can put forward fo