Justice Archives - Keeping Democracy Alive: Recent Episodes
Burt Cohen
What do you know about Bolivia? If you’re like me, you knew about Evo Morales, the first indigenous president, known as the Nelson Mandela of the Andes. Well the former landholding elite is back in power. And the IMF dictated
The post From Indigenous Power to Fury in the Streets appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
I may have multiple myeloma but I am not multiple myeloma. Same is true for people with Alzheimer’s. On this slightly shortened show our guests are Dr. Anthony Goodman and his wife Meredith who helps him out. Tony is a
The post June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month; Time to Destigmatize appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
In a world of smart homes and cities, data is the coin of the realm. Everyone is vulnerable, nothing is too private. We consumers are unintentionally paying for our own surveillance. The fourth amendment is taking a beating in the
The post With Smart Everything, Your Data Will be Used Against You appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
After decades of having to look “Tough on Crime”by jailing teenagers, notably people of color, at last we’re seeing the end of adult prisons housing kids. Forty four states have dialed back the sequestering of kids in medieval fortresses where
The post Freer Kids and Safer Streets appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
Think billionaires have no impact on your life? Think again. We never blame billionaires for our day to day problems even though they deserve it. For example billionaires buy up housing projects then up the rent. And as business owners
The post People and the Planet: Burned By Billionaires appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
Researchers are beginning to understand why some of us demonstrate what is called “moral courage” and others do not. In fact, most of us actually have a warped sense of our own moral courage. We like to think nothing would
The post The Trump Era and the Psychology of Moral Courage appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
Innumerable people have tried over many years to stop the forever wars between Israel and Palestine. With the world now horrified by the use of starvation as a weapon, the urgency of a resolution has never been greater. Even if
The post A Blueprint for A Future Israel/Palestine appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
The appalling criminalization of ordinary people. No charges, no conviction, just sweep up people who, as he said: “look like illegals.” Blatantly circumventing constitutional law. And in the big, ugly bill, passed 7/3, spending for jail space and ICE skyrocketed.
The post His Insatiable Appetite for Prisons appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
There is in fact great abundance in America. The problem is not just the greed of the top percent but also the 21st century version of real estate redlining. Many are shut out. There is a huge demand for affordable
The post We Know What NIMBY means. But Here’s a New Twist: YIMBYism! appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
Locking people up and deporting immigrants is on the rise. The adults face punishment (as if that works) and their children hide from the judgement and stigma of other kids and school administrators. They are of course totally innocent and
The post Addressing the Unique Stigma on Youth Impacted by Incarceration, Detention, and Deportation appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
You may have noticed a continuing trend of Democratic candidates sheepishly rushing to some imaginary center, and how well that hasn’t worked! On this show, Richard Eskow, former head writer for the Bernie 2016 campaign explains how it seems candidates
The post The Time is Now. Left-Populists: Unshackle Your Imaginations appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
What we’re seeing today is a far cry from justice. Today’s policy of cruelty toward immigrants is an abject failure, yet it’s impractical to have a totally open border with Mexico. As with most solutions, the answer has to involve
The post Immigration Justice: Is it Even Possible? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
No question, it’s all about re-connecting with the working class: People without a college degree, lowering the cost of health care, championing the self-employed, addressing the transportation problems of the heartland. Our guest today Paul Glastris Washington Monthly editor in
The post Time for Democrats to Post a Clear Agenda for America appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
More and more women are steering great philanthropies. In the current Chronicle of Philanthropy, Christine Ahn is co-author of this article: To Fight Growing Militarism, Philanthpy Should Embrace a Feminist Playbook. The subtitle is Around the world, feminist activists have
The post Feminism and Philanthropy: Powerful Combination appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
The reason we have minimum wage laws is to ensure a basic standard of living. But in America, the federal minimum wage is still what it was in 2009: $7.25. And in developing nations to which big corporations outsource jobs,
The post A Global Minimum Wage = a Stronger Worldwide Economy appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
You remember: “that’s not who we are,” related to January 6, 2021? Turns out, maybe it is who we are. Was this too an outlier: Greensboro North Carolina November 1979 when the KKK shot and killed five people demonstrating for
The post Greensboro ’79: “White Supremacy Done Correctly” appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
You know the saying “hurt people hurt people.” Well, our guest argues “healed people heal people.” Most of us look away from the terribly failed system of justice, but Notre Dame Professor Jason Springs offers us a new path that
The post Restorative Justice Works Where Retribution Fails appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
In light of the Israeli state’s massive assault on Gaza, and now Lebanon, the question comes up: What does it mean to be a Jew? Our guest veteran New York Times sportswriter Robert Lipsyte says being a Jew entails certain
The post On Rosh Hashanah: Netanyahu, The Israeli Right, and Jewish Identity appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show.
Some might call it “cruel and unusual punishment,” arresting, sweeping the parks, bulldozing homeless encampments. Others believe if people are poor it’s their own fault. On this show, the Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis of The Kairos Center discusses an essay
The post Criminalizing The Unhoused Gets Us Nowhere appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Colonialism: Now it’s called corporate globalization. As the energy appetite of the west continues to accelerate, so does extractivism, without the consent of the people directly affected. In this revealing discussion, Professor Avi Chomsky explodes the many myths we white
The post Avi Chomsky: 21st Century Colonialism and Extractivism appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The ideal breeding ground for the Covid virus: A place where people were forced to have constant close contact with each other and with the wider community. In other words: prisons. You know how awful it was for us on
The post Jails and Prisons Were a Hotbed of Covid. Needlessly. appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
It’s not high on people’s reason to choose a president, but the power of pardons today is often corrupt and the promise of a pardon has been known to encourage crimes. In this discussion of her forthcoming book, Law Professor
The post The Power of Pardons and Democracy appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Unions have achieved some historic victories recently. But though many workers are curious, there’s still reluctance to joining a union. As co-author of a new report called “Union Curious,” UC San Diego’s political economy professor John Ahlquist explains on this
The post Union Curious in the Mid-2020s appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Many Americans say they are people of faith. But how many of us integrate our faith into our daily lives? Philip Berrigan was one of America’s most faith-driven people. Our guest is Brad Wolf, author of the new book on
The post Ministry of Risk is it’s Own Reward appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Across the United States there is tremendous support for a taxing the wealthiest among us. So why doesn’t it happen? Well, in Massachusetts, it has. As Inequality.org’s Sam Pizzigati explains in this segment, there was powerful resistance to the new
The post Inspiration from Massachusetts: A New Wealth Tax Works appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
They wanted to stop abortions, instead there were more after the Dobbs decision than before. One the first segment, Mother Jones magazine writer Julianne McShane tells how women are maintaining their reproductive rights despite the attacks. And on the second
The post AntiChoice: In A Hole, Keeps Digging appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Imagine a Supreme Court whose only agenda was “equal justice under law.” It was real. Unlike today’s court, which is openly an arm of the MAGA movement, when that court ended legal segregation 70 years ago, the Chief Justice was
The post When the Supreme Court Was About Fairness to All appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
America is an outlier: here it’s commonly accepted that if you succeed or fail you deserve it. We believe we make our own luck. And we blame ourselves for what’s really random bad luck. But that’s counterproductive, according to the
The post Rugged Individualism And The Role of Luck appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
CEOs cry that shorter work weeks will bankrupt their companies. The reality is a 4 day work week around the world has already brought results that are “off the charts.” A shorter work week means more jobs. And people lose
The post A 32 Hour Work Week: The Time is Now appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
For many decades the Supreme Court was reliably on the side of voting rights. Incrementally, quite steadily, the justices have chipped away at our constitutional rights. On this show Professor Josh Douglas and I discuss his new book: The Court
The post The Court Versus the Voters: Who’da Thunk it?! appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Another Earth Day has come and gone, and how are we doing? The 19th and 20th century systems of control of the earth have failed; there’s a connection between famines, global warming and empire. Especially in the face of climate
The post The Earth for Humanity: A How-To appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
It’s a systemic problem: what is “reasonable,” what is acting “in good faith” when America’s police violate citizens rights or even kill them? As of now, police are protected, enjoying unique immunity which no one else has. In this show
The post Shielded: How Did Police Become Untouchable? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
In light of the Israeli state’s massive assault on Gaza, the question comes up: what does it mean to be a Jew? Our guest veteran New York Times sportswriter Robert Lipsyte says being a Jew entails certain responsibilities and obligations;
The post Netanyahu and Jewish Identity appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The intent is humiliation, eating away at one’s humanity. How can that make one a better person? Former figure skater Keri Blakinger’s new book Corrections In Ink tells the story from the inside and asks: does locking up groups of
The post “As if We Were Trash.” One Woman’s Prison Memoir appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
In her new book Of Rule and Office: Plato’s Ideas of the Political, Princeton Professor of Politics Melissa Lane shows how the orange one serves both anarchy and tyranny. Better politicians use virtue and justice to achieve success, and get
The post Plato: The Benefits of Acting Justly appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Politicians know the consequences of voters being ignored.There are tens of millions of people who used to be middle class but a revived Poor People’s Campaign just may connect and inspire. According to today’s guest, campaign policy director Shailly Gupta
The post Waking the Sleeping Giant: 85 Million Americans appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
When you’re in a hole, stop digging. The currently pervasive approach to abuse disorder is a total failure; it exacerbates the problem. Could it be time to stop doing that? On this show experts in the field with personal knowledge
The post Not Punishment: Treat Addicts as Full and Complete Humans? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
“Those kids.” It’s tough enough being in the 9th grade, but imagine if your parent, aunt, or uncle were behind bars. Democracy needs citizens to feel part-of, but these kids feel left out. On this show Amy Friedman of “POPS:
The post Kids With Loved Ones in Prison appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
They’re not supposed to be an arm of either political party. The word “supreme” means above it all but that’s not what we’ve got in 2024. The majority often contrives constitutional reasons to impose a right wing agenda. How can
The post The Supreme Court: How Can We Fix it? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
If the plaintiffs get their way, Moore vs United States could be the wedge that prevents a wealth tax. Guests on this show are law professors and authors Joseph Fishkin and William Forbath whose op-ed in the New York Times
The post The Case Before the SupCo That Could Hjiack a Wealth Tax appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The Republican led Congress declared antiZionism to be one in the same as antiSemitism. But is that accurate? Judaism has been around for thousands of years, Zionism only 150 or so. Does the Israeli state get to define my Jewishness?
The post Who Defines the Jewish Self? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
No one wants to be labeled “anti-Semitic.” But there’s a massive yet secret Israel-run spy network not only spying on American university protesters but intimidating them, affecting their lives and job prospects. On this show author James Bamford reveals the
The post Israel’s American Objective: Create Fear Among Students appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Used to be labor unions were seen as being limited to white working class men and as such lacked power to make real change. With the wins by the UAW and writers union, writing in the New Republic author Raina
The post Powerful Left-Labor Coalition Emerging appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Authoritarianism. Anti-Immigrant. White men fearful of losing control. Books banned, free press shut down. Widespread domestic spying. Dissent criminalized and many jailed tortured and killed. In his new book, American Midnight: The Great War, A Violent Peace, and Democracy’s
The post American Midnight: The Early 20th Century Model for Trump? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
We value the right to control our bodies. But is there really reproductive fairness and justice if those who want to be a parent face unchosen infertility and are denied access and face social stigma? The new book is called
The post Real Democracy and Infertility appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Overwork, uniquely stressful conditions, patients suffering. Blaming individual caregivers with personal failures results in fewer and fewer professionals when the need by boomers is growing exponentially. On this show, David Schenck author of two previous books on ethics and healing
The post Blaming Caregivers When It’s the System appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Imagine being a judge and having a mandate to break up families! Today’s guest, noted children and family lawyer Jane Spinak talks about her new book The End of Family Court: How Abolishing the Court Brings Justice to Children and
The post Time to End Family Court? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Their language is illegal where they live. They can not give their kids Kurdish names. A continuing legacy of European imperialism. Americans owe Kurds gratitude for beating ISIS in 2014. Our guest Kani Xulam, director of the American Kurdish Information
The post Righting a Century Old Wrong: Free Kurdistan From Middle East Prison appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
What passes today for populism is anything but! It’s astounding that the far right calls itself that when they are the total opposite. Labor historian and author Steve Babson on this show clarifies the meaning of the word “populism:” and
The post Trumpism: Opposite of Populism appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The standard story is not the truth: The surprising reality of America’s founding shows we were created for insider rule, a stable hierarchy but not justice. On this show UPenn Law School professor Kermit Roosevelt III discusses his eye opening
The post Get Back to America’s Founding Ideals? No; Leave the Standard Story Behind appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
It’s a tale of fiction but in his new book Altar to an Erupting Sun well known activist and author Chuck Collins tells the story of the main character Rae Kelliher who, facing her own death, makes a bold, shocking,
The post Seriously Radical Action To Defend the Earth appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
In our 300 year old system of an adversarial combative system of justice, there is no mechanism to prove and protect the innocent. In his newly published book, The Plea of Innocence, author Tim Bakken argues that prosecution really has
The post What Can Be Done About Injustice in Our Justice System? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
“Nothing in this story makes sense,” but it’s all too real. So says today’s guest Jordan S Rubin whose new book is titled Bizarro: The Surreal Saga of America’s Secret War on Synthetic Drugs and the Florida Kingpins It Captured.
The post The Real War On Fake Drugs appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
It’s a systemic problem: what is “reasonable,” what is acting “in good faith” when America’s police violate citizens rights or even kill them? As of now, police are protected, enjoying expanded immunity which no one else has. In this show
The post Shielded: How The Police Became Untouchable appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The Trumpist right today has had no small success erasing the productive history of liberalism. Today’s guest is author, lecturer, and journalist for The Washington Monthly David Masciotra who in this show talks about the renewed interest in Ted Kennedy,
The post How Ted Kennedy’s Liberalism Strengthened America, And Still Can appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Though most of us never see it, instead of doing ethical justice, there’s a whole factory system routinely, intentionally turning injustice into revenue. On this show law professor, lawyer, and advocate for impoverished children and adults author Daniel Hatcher describes
The post How Our Justice System Commodifies Children and the Poor appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Children have fewer filters: when they see and experience injustice they’re not scared to draw pictures of the truth. In her new book Drawing Deportation Art and Resistance among Immigrant Children author Silvia Rodriguez Vega tells of the human creativity
The post The Power of Kids Drawing Deportation appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
All refugees lives are threatened equally, so why are Ukrainians handed the welcome mat as it is denied to most others? On this show, Columbia University Professor and co-author Helen Benedict shares what she’s found in the new book Map
The post Only Refugees Who Look Like Us Are Welcomed. appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
At this time of year, we all think about giving. But what are philanthropists all about? To launder a plutocrat’s reputation, preserving great wealth and maintaining dominance and control. Our guest Edgar Villanueva has a new book, a second edition
The post The Self-Serving Purpose of Philanthropy appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
At the World Cup and other global sporting events, all kinds of workers are exploited. And under the guise of rescue and saving souls involved in the sex trade, evangelical, business interests, politicians, and police make out quite well. Harm
The post Profitable Panic: Busting Sex Workers at Qatar World Cup appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Though the angry white supremacist right grabs today’s news, the truth is the Christian Left has much deeper roots in American history. According to the Reverend Quardricos Bernard Driskell, the religious left has always been part of the fabric of
The post An American Tradition of Christian Left appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
In our 300 year old system of an adversarial combative system of justice, there is no mechanism to prove and protect the innocent. In his soon to be published book, The Plea of Innocence, author Tim Bakken argues that prosecution
The post Restoring Truth to the American Justice System appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
It may appear to be a rogue court today but the truth is the Supreme Court has long led the fight against democracy. Our guest today historian Steve Fraser points out that the liberal Warren Court was the real aberration.
The post The Tyranny of the Supreme Court is Nothing New, It’s Tradition appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The opposite of conservatism is a police state. Yet public figures who call themselves conservative are crushing many of our traditional civil liberties and our legal rights. This according to Jacob Hornberger founder and president of the Future of Freedom
The post “Conservatives” Are Disastrous to Civil Liberties appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The intent is humiliation, eating away at one’s humanity. How can that make one a better person? Former figure skater Keri Blakinger’s new book Corrections In Ink tells the story from the inside and asks: does locking up groups of
The post “As If We Were Trash.” A Woman’s Memoir of Prison appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Justice Scalia claimed to be an Originalist: did he mean only propertied white Christian men have rights? Perhaps the actual intent is still consent of all the governed. In the 21st century, are we not all entitled to participate in
The post Today’s Supreme Court: Not All May Participate in Democracy appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Though the angry white supremacist right grabs today’s news, the truth is the Christian Left has much deeper roots in American history. According to the Reverend Quadricos Bernard Driskell, the religious left has always been part of the fabric of
The post We Know the Religious Right: Where is the Christian Left? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Divide and rule. It’s worked quite well for many decades. When sectors of America are made invisible, behind walls, it takes away the power of democracy. In their new book Standing Up, Tales of Struggle, authors Ellen Bravo and Larry
The post The Unique Success From Undoing Intentional Invisibility appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The attack on traditional rights is at the vanguard of the culture war, reproductive rights are the floor not the ceiling. Religious nationalists cherry pick what they mean by liberty. We can wish Samuel Alito was an outlier but he’s
The post The Real Intent of Alito’s Assault on Privacy appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
It was not intended to be this supreme. But since Brown v Board of Education desegregating schools, even Democrats have been complacent and yielded too much authority to the court. America’s founders focused on freeing our government from oligarchs. But
The post Supreme Court Too Supreme appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
One might think it was purely an honor, but it can be brutal. Especially for women. Sexism may generally be more subtle now, but not always. In this discussion of her new book, Shortlisted: Women in the Shadows of the
The post Shortlisted for Supreme Court: Like Police Interrogation appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
You’ve heard of the famous Christmas Truce of 1914 between the trenches of the British and German soldiers. These were indeed brave men. But that was not the only such event: there were desertions, mutinies, and fraternizations. Today it seems
The post The 1914 Christmas Truce: Powerful, Brave, and Not So Isolated appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
In the name of advancing the public good, protecting Americans from dangerous diseases, in the mid twentieth century, certain humans became guinea pigs. It used largely marginalized groups like people in mental institutions, often times children, who became subjects of
The post What Are the Rights of Human Subjects of Science Experiments? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
In his new book, The Privatization of Everything, author Donald Cohen directly takes on the myths which have led to intense concentration of power a an wealth and offers ways to reassert what America’s founders had in mind. Despite the
The post Why Privatization is the Wrong Tool for the Common Good appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
How can one have optimum performance at your job when you have to hide your identity? There was fear of disruption by having openly trans troops in our military. But the truth is the only disruption was from people in
The post Why the Fear of Trans Troops in the Military? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
It was called the Gilded Age. In the late 19th and early 20th century, there was extreme wealth and everybody else (remind you of another time?). Wall Street bankers back then were getting robbed, someone had to protect them. In
The post Making the World Safe for Plutocracy: The History of American Policing appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
When she came onto the civil rights stage, the men assumed she’d sing, not speak. But Fannie Lou Hamer was a force. As author Kate Clifford Larson tells the amazing story in her new book Walk With Me, she stood
The post For Inspiration Today: Fannie Lou Hamer In the Early 60s appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Let’s face it: the current Supreme Court is hostile to democracy. Even if Congress passes the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the voter suppression right wing will take it to this Supreme Court which will decide voting rights. Does that
The post Pack The Court! appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
You may not have heard of Rich Trumka who passed away suddenly August 5th. From working in the mines of Pennsylvania he served as president of the AFL-CIO from 2009 to 2021. Our guest today is once and future president
The post After Rich Trumka: Now What for Labor? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Everyone knows the tax code is there to serve the richest Americans. But when it was created, the tax code was actually intended to tax only the richest. The Progressive era was a way out of the last Gilded Age
The post America Will Be Lots Richer With No Billionaires appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Remember Nixon’s “law and order?” It was a clever way to get whites to buy into racist repression. On this show author historian Alfred McCoy (who revealed government heroin distribution to GIs in Vietnam) says the continuing “war on drugs”
The post The Intent of the Drug War: Repress Black People appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
When VP Kamala Harris went to Central America, Honduras was not on the list of stops. She has reason to not want to appear with their right wing president. He is supported by the powerful global extractive industries, but there’s
The post Berta Caceres Trial Will Test Biden’s Central America Policy appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
It’s a rich country full of poor people. With his teaching pencil as a symbol, from the countryside Pedro Castillo is the winner of the very tight but certified free and fair June 6th presidential election. The candidate of the
The post Rural Teacher Elected President in Peru While the Right Claims Fraud. appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Michael Winship writes: “Despite Joe Biden and Kamala Harris being in the White House, we remain in existential peril.” A big step toward tyranny is Senator Joe Manchin who announced he will not support an end to the filibuster which
The post Manchin: Ego Rules Over Patriotism appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Women in the military know they are more likely to be attacked by men of their own company than by an enemy. It’s been a long tradition that reports of sexual abuse are crushed. Commanders protecting their own reputation takes
The post Sexual Assault in the Military: Foxes Guarding the Henhouse appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
When Roe v Wade was decided in 1973, many thought the matter was settled. Nearly 50 years later, the new Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that could overturn that landmark decision. On this show abortion law historian professor
The post Supreme Court Case Threatens Roe, But It’s Not Over appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Thanks to January 6th, the word sedition is in our consciousness again. Trump is more likely guilty of treason than of mere sedition according to the former director of the CIA and our guest, history teacher and essayist William Pruden
The post Sedition and Democracy appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The message of his calm kneeling and centuries of racist violence is: you could be next, black person. Chauvin knew only 1% of police killing black people are even prosecuted. There have been others caught on film in broad daylight
The post Hands in His Pockets as He Kills George Floyd appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Americans talk about the surge at the border, but the real point is everyone has a right to stay home. Today’s guest Avi Chomsky says that under Biden, Trump’s cement wall is instead outsourced to a militarized high-tech barrier. Do
The post Border Crisis? How About A Right to Stay Home appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Even if it never makes it on TV, progressive action does make a difference. There’s a place for all activists, forcing hidden problems and opportunities to the fore. Our guest Dinah Yessne has a new book called Politically Defined. There’s
The post Unknown Activist: Challenges, Successes, and Rewards appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Pounding on windows, yelling Stop the Count; the tactics of physical intimidation (led by the president’s men) succeeded in crushing democracy in the US election of 2000. On part one, our guest historian Robert Toplin tells the story where fear
The post Democracy Lost to Powerful Men in 2000, but Women Saved it in 1937 appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
So much we have to learn from January 6th. On the first part of today’s show History Professor Robert Schneider calls it a “Populist Transgression,” without a legitimate grievance. Other uprisings and disruptions are purposeful. He likens Trump to Mao:
The post A Carnival of Breaking Stuff and Lynching: January 6th appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The greedy hyper-wealthy cheer on their Republican advocates as they fight to crush democracy. But a lot of American millionaires are also patriots and recognize that more democracy is needed to build the common good. On this show, Morris Pearl,
The post Patriotic Millionaires Boosting Democracy through HR 1 And More appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
They are often pictured as competitive opponents, but Malcolm X and Martin Luther King were “The Sword and the Shield” leading the same revolution with the shared goal of human dignity. On this show, Dr Peniel Joseph talks about his
The post A Surprising Team for Justice: Malcolm X and Martin Luther King appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The Trumpian mob attack on the Capitol shocked America. We thought “this is not who we are.” But maybe it actually is, more than we’d thought. If we dare to look at our history, it was not such an exception.
The post January 6th: Not Who We Are? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
On part one: By strict legal standards, Donald Trump is obviously guilty. But the impeachment trial is a political not a legal proceeding, the Republican majority senate is the jury. And according to Marjorie Cohn, former president of the National
The post Two-fer: Senate Trial Realities and Biden’s China Conundrum appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
When one thinks of people in poverty, what judgements come up? Did you know that the vast majority are working often two or three jobs? When you go to a bank or a mortgage, do they ask you how much
The post Broke In America: Policies Not People Are To Blame appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The Electoral College was born in a hasty compromise in the 18th century. Could it finally be about to change and enable more democracy? Though you probably haven’t heard of it, the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact is moving steadily
The post We Can Make the Popular Vote Rule appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Sure, the south was defeated militarily, but their attitudes remained, as we saw in the January 6th insurrection. What we saw is not a fringe, in fact it has deep roots. Disunity is traditional in American history. People in the
The post One Nation Indivisible: Really? Forever? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
From its birth in one block in New York City to more than a thousand town squares, the conversation began ten years ago. It was the first social media driven movement and as Heather McKee Hurwitz writes in her new
The post Occupy Wall St. 2011 Was Just The Start appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Why do we keep investing our national treasure in policies which make us much less secure? Part of the reason is what our guest calls the “fire-hose of content” from the 24/7 news cycle. Our foreign policy affects us all
The post Stop American War Billions Marching Us To Disaster appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
With his gleeful displays of cruelty, is it possible that Donald Trump performed the service of waking us all up to cruelty commonly in national and corporate policy? In his new book, Cruelty or Humanity: Challenges, Opportunities, and Responsibilities Australian
The post The Beginning of the End for National Cruelty? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
Ousting Trump is not enough. Getting back to the normalcy of tremendous economic injustice is not enough. With unprecedented wealth owned by a very few, close to 50% of Americans are at the edge of real poverty. Guest is Reverend
The post The Push Biden’s Going to Need appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The word treason has been thrown around a lot lately. By Trump against his detractors and also leveled at Trump for seeking to stage a coup against America. On this show one of the nations leading authorities on the law
The post Treason: What Is It Really? appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
It was a momentous election. In blue states and red, voters overwhelmingly passed measures legalizing cannabis and, in Oregon, decriminalizing all drugs. So many people have been hurt, families have been separated, and the drug war has failed miserably to
The post Ending the Drug War Got More Votes Than Biden or Trump appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
They went from a tiny group at the fringe to the third largest political party in Greece. In the birthplace of democracy, after a five year trial, the most significant anti-fascist trial since Nuremberg, the Golden Dawn has been convicted.
The post Greek Fascist Party Convicted as a Criminal Gang appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The framers of our Constitution intended the judicial system to be the “least dangerous branch” of government. They did not foresee today’s powerful national parties having the ability to short circuit democracy. As we see in action now, on this
The post Supreme Court: The Power to Obstruct Democracy appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
We know about voter suppression against African Americans but what about Indigenous Americans, Indians? The effort to disenfranchise the 2% of the national population is not a secret, yet nearly unknown. On this show author Jean Schroedel shares disturbing findings
The post Voting in Indian Country, A View from the Trenches appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.
The often successful tactics and techniques of America’s crime syndicate have not gone unnoticed by Trump and his gangs. In his new article: “The Mobster in Chief: Will the November Election be Decided in the Streets?” returning guest John Feffer
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The right wing Republicans outsmarted Democrats. Starting in 2008, they understood the path to grabbing and holding power goes through state legislatures. They could see that their white older male base is eroding and that they don’t need to compete
The post Restoring Democracy: It’s a Tough But Do-Able Fight appeared first on Keeping Democracy Alive.