This week on So That Happened, the Huffington Post’s weekly news roundup podcast: Washington lawmakers began crawling out from under the wreckage of the failed American Health Care Act. The bill largely foundered because of deep divides within the House Republican caucus, with House Speaker Paul Ryan and establishment leaders on one side, and the insurgent House Freedom Caucus on the other. But now, they have a common enemy at least, in the form of President Donald Trump ― who has spent the last week lashing out at both sides, raising an obvious question, where does everybody go from here?
Meanwhile, this week the president unveiled his Executive Order on Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth, a measure that would roll back steps taken by his predecessor to reduce carbon emissions and keep America on track to hit its climate change targets. Trump has framed this endeavor as one that would end what he calls the “War on Coal,” and which would supposedly bring back mining jobs in coal-rich Appalachia. Trump’s one of the few national politicians in recent memory who’s engaged with this part of the country, which is a good thing. What’s not as good is making promises that you can’t keep, and restoring coal country to its former glory looks to be a very heavy lift, if not impossible. We talk with the Huffington Post’s Paige Lavender about West Virginia coal culture.
Finally, we’re joined by professor and author Michael Kazin, whose new book “War Against War: The Fight For American Peace, 1914-1918” tells the largely forgotten story about the mass movement in America that tried to keep the country out of World War I, and what today’s activists can learn from their efforts.
“So That Happened” is hosted by Jason Linkins, Zach Carter and Arthur Delaney and produced by Zach Young. Send us an email at sothathappened@huffingtonpost.com.
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