Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen
By Burt Cohen
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Description
Democracy is not a spectator sport, it requires informed participating citizens. On Keeping Democracy Alive, we delve into dynamics that both inhibit democracy and reinvigorate it. looking into issues from: domestic economic issues to foreign, labor, trade, and education policy, NSA spying, the drug war, prison, police, and judicial issues, electoral and protest politics, middle east realities, right and left wing populism, environmental and energy issues, the wealth gap, and internet issues. Including such issues and movements as the Occupy Movement, Citizens United, safe energy, Jewish Voice for Peace, Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign, Progressive Change Campaign Committee, Spiritual Progressives, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Foreign Policy In Focus, Institute for Policy Studies, Wealth for the Common Good, Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, BDS, Campaign for America’s Future, TransPacific Partnership, NORML and MPP, the OffNow Coalition, The World Bank and IMF, The Birch Society, and many more. We talk with authors of important new history books for insight into current dilemmas. The idea is to empower listeners with facts behind current problems and with specific opportunities for them to make positive change to revitalize democracy Guests of note include: Gore Vidal, George McGovern, Claire Conner, Medea Benjamin, Adam Hochschild, Ben Cohen, Bernie Sanders, Anna Gyorgy, Marjorie Cohn, Elias Isquith, Zaid Jilani, Merle Ratner, Peter Van Buren, Brian Kahn, Allen Brownfeld, Michael Hill, Joyce Horman, Debra Sweet, Ken Gloss, Zephyr Teachout, Rev. Bruce Shipman, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Steven Jonas, Alex Pareene, Michael Kazin, Richard Eskow, Patrick Smith, Jules Feffer, Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, Eric Zuesse, Guy Saperstein, Richard Rothstein, Chuck Collins, Astra Taylor, Bryan Stephenson, Margaret Flowqers, Kevin Zeese, Roger Hickey, Bob Borosage, Bruce Dancis, Philip Smith, Sean McElwee, Amanda Marcotte, Shane Trejo, Noam Chomsky, MJ Rosenberg, Hedrick Smith, Ellen Brown. Subscribe to RSS Feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/BurtCohen
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CleanTax Day 2018: Billionaires Thank Us! | It’s the same only worse. Much worse. While the Trump/Ryan tax law won’t really hit until next April, there is no question the beneficiaries are those at the very top of the wealth pyramid. Regular income earners will be subsidizing | 4/17/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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2 |
CleanInternational Hero Bill Richardson and International Threat Trump | He’s brought back hostages from North Korea, Cuba,Iraq and Sudan. He was governor of New Mexico, US ambassador the UN. He won my vote for president in 2008. Bill Richardson’s record is exceedingly impressive. On the first half, Governor Richardson | 4/12/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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3 |
CleanMillions of Jobs Are Disappearing. The Answer? $12,000 for Everyone?! | How radical can you get? Well, Nixon was on board with the idea in 1971. Entrepreneur and author Andrew Yang’s new book is titled The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income | 4/10/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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4 |
CleanTrump’s Massive Corruption Troubles//April4’68 Plus 50: Action, not Dreams | Stormy Daniels and the Russia investigation grab all the headlines about Trump, but his flagrant violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution is the best chance to get him removed. “Emoluments?” Our first guest CommonDreams. | 4/3/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanSaudi Power in Washington: Harming America in the Middle East | Americans are just beginning to learn about our deadly role for the Saudi war in Yemen. For many decades and many presidents, the Saudi royal family has held great sway in Washington. Today the famine and cholera outbreak in Yemen, | 3/29/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanPeace Coming to Korea? It Could Happen! | Because of factors beyond his control, Trump’s meeting with Kim Jong-Un may actually succeed. The new leadership of China, and especially of South Korea, have much to gain from fostering a real peace between North and South. And despite the | 3/27/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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7 |
CleanStates Crack Down On Dissent | Much of the national agenda is enacted at the state level. The popular protests of The Dakota Access Pipeline scared the crap out of oil companies and they are using something called ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) to draft cookie-cutter | 3/22/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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8 |
CleanImmigrants More Likely to Be Law Abiding Than Americans as a Whole | Immigrants under Trump are painted as the dangerous “Others.” Yet despite the successful campaign of fear, the reality is immigrants are more likely to be good hard working, law abiding citizens than Americans as a whole. | 3/20/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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9 |
CleanRussia/Trump Scandal Stands in the Way of Preventing a Big War | You read that right: The chances of a big war between the US and Russia are greater now than ever. But the Russia/Trump scandal effectively prevents the dialogue essential to preventing a war. Our guest Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief | 3/6/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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10 |
CleanFor Our Common Empowerment, Let’s Learn What Works | All too often in recent decades social, cultural, and political movements have worked in isolation from one another. But there’s so much to learn so none has to reinvent the wheel. Among the more successful movements has been that of | 3/1/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanTeens As Targets. Parkland and Kent State: Real Change Coming? | Change only comes after enough innocent blood soaks into America’s soil. Is it enough now? Forty eight years ago, the war came home. From the Kent State Massacre, college students learned they were not safe exercising their first amendment rights. | 2/27/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Many American Wars No One Notices | We don’t even know we’re being kept in the dark. America’s wars are everywhere. With the mainstream news focus on all Trump all the time, major stories affecting us all get virtually no attention. Did you know, for example, that | 2/20/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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13 |
CleanAmerica First Means China First//Trump’s “Infrastructure Plan” a Gift to Polluters | On the first part, we try to talk with author Dilip Hiro in London about his new article “Donald Trump Offers a Helping Hand to Russia and China,” but the connection most regrettable. If you can bear with the poor | 2/15/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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14 |
CleanGrit Is Not Enough: Structural Barriers Remain To High School Kids | The pervasive myth of kids just needing “grit” and lifting themselves up by their own bootstraps is false and is doing real harm.Our guest today Linda Nathan spent fourteen years as founder and co-headmaster of Boston Arts Academy, Boston’s only | 2/13/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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15 |
CleanToday’s Wars: Still Trying to Win Vietnam | The military brass sees new wars as a way to finally do what we should have done in Vietnam, and that is: Win. Guest on this show is Major Danny Sjursen, a U.S. Army strategist and former history instructor at | 2/6/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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16 |
CleanSowing Chaos: Good Strategy? | Since September 11, American citizens have yearned for safety and security from further attacks. But instead of reducing violence and terrorism, there’s no question our policy has been very effective at sowing chaos everywhere. | 2/1/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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17 |
CleanHeartland Dems to Washington: You’re Killing Us! | It used to be that everyone in the Midwest knew “FDR is for people like us” and they voted solid Democrat. Not any more. On Part One, conventional wisdom is that Democrats will most likely make gains in congress in | 1/25/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanBreaking the Cycle of Cynicism: It Can Be Fun | Americas founders intended us to enjoy real power. Yet powers that be have convinced many of us that we are powerless. From many years of community organizing Gordon Whitman’s new book shares what he’s learned can work to empower average | 1/23/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanTrump Was Set Up By Putin | Russia aims to weaken America. Putin was determined to stop Hillary Clinton who was exceptionally hawkish toward Russia. He found a perfect candidate in Trump. Incredibly enough, a similar story was written as as a political thriller novel by well | 1/18/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanWeapons Industry on AutoPilot Under Trump | What actually works to make us safer? Much of recent military policy has actually worked to strengthen our 21st century enemies. Why is it that the defense industry is so effective at convincing members of both parties that we really | 1/16/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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Clean16 Year Old Girl Takes on Israeli Military | If you are a sixteen year old girl, standing up to the men of the Israeli military is highly risky. You may not have heard of Ahed Tamimi. She is being held in an Israeli jail for slapping an Israeli | 1/11/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanCuba 2018: Neither Heaven Nor Hell | Talk about great mysteries: what do you think of when you hear the name Cuba? Cigar chomping communist dictator? People yearning to breathe free and live like Americans? We get one small picture here while the rest of the world | 1/9/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanDisobedience: Democracy Depends on It | “Just following orders” is no defense. In a democracy we assume that individuals in society will take personal responsibility and disobey immoral commands. But as many experiments have shown, people rarely question orders from authorities. | 1/2/2018 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanDemocrats: A Party in Need of Reboot | Democrats have gone from a state of shock to one of denial. It’s time to face up to what needs to be done to win in 2018. On this show, former Congressman Paul Hodes discusses how we blew it and | 12/28/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Real Pre-Christian Meaning of Christmas | While some argue Christmas is really an international religious Christian holiday, that is just not the case. On this show, Burt’s guest is the Reverend Selena Fox, a Wiccan priestess, interfaith minister, Pagan elder, author, and lecturer in the fiel | 12/26/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanChristmas/Hanukkah: Strength Through Generosity Not Domination | It’s more than the similar time of year. According to guest Rabbi Michael Lerner, of Tikkun Magazine and chair of the Network of Spiritual Progressives, both holidays mark times in which people without power successfully took on the powers of | 12/24/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanBringing Democracy into the 21st Century | Democracy in 18th century America worked fairly easily. Nearly 250 years later, we are the least democratic of all the world’s republics. Right, left, or independent: nearly all Americans feel frustrated that the ability for average citizens to have p | 12/19/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe New Danger of Trump and Jerusalem | As of Trump’s unilateral declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel, the threat of a wider war is now much greater than with North Korea. So says Patrick Lawrence foreign affairs columnist for salon.com and The | 12/14/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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Clean28th Amendment to Restore Democracy? Vietnam Being Fought Again | Millennials may think of democracy as something we older people remember. The infamous Supreme Court “Citizens United” decision took legitimate power from the average American and shifted it to big concentrated money. Some Americans have not given u | 12/12/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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30 |
CleanShaping the Future of Work After Trump | FDR’s fixes of the 1930s were great for the time: bolstering unions, unemployment insurance, social security, and creation of new jobs rebuilding our infrastructure. Eighty years later, it’s time to adapt the New Deal to the 21st century and create | 12/7/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Widening Gulf Between Judaism and Israel | The notion of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state is more of a myth now. According to our guest Rabbi Lev Baesh, who has a unique resume, it’s not so much of a Jewish state anymore and it has | 12/5/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanBernie Sanders: Not Just Rebuilding; Re-imagining Puerto Rico | They’ve been forgotten in the face of so much other news. The millions of Americans of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands are still largely without electricity three months after the hurricanes. They’ve been forgotten. But on November 28th, | 11/30/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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Clean400 Wealthy Americans: Don’t Cut Our Taxes | The only reason for the Trump “tax reform” bill is that a handful of donors demand it; after all, they invested heavily in Trump and congress expecting a healthy return. But not all in the top five and one percent | 11/28/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanTeenage And Muslim in America | You think being an American teenager was challenging, try being a good Muslim on top of it. It’s a tiny minority in our culture. Most Americans know very little about what life is like as a Muslim in our country. | 11/21/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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35 |
CleanNo Mercy: Long Term Effects of the Subjugation of the South after the War | The union was “pinned together with bayonets.” In his new book The Long Road to Antietam, How the Civil War Became a Revolution, Professor Richard Slotkin traces the battle of egos between President Lincoln and his General George McClellan and | 11/15/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe “Alt-Right” and Zionism//Kurd and Catalan Future? | What is a nation? Richard Spencer’s “alt-right” looks to Zionism as a model for an exclusionary Aryan homeland in America. The white supremacist says he “turns to Israel for guidance.” Jewish Americans have a long history of inclusiveness. Wha | 11/9/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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37 |
Clean’67 March on the Pentagon Plus 50 | Few moments in history can be seen as pivotal. The anti-war movement took such a turn on October 21, 1967 when at least 100,00 Americans took their protests directly to the war making hub: the Pentagon. What did it mean, | 11/6/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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38 |
CleanNovember 2, 1917: The Beginning of the End for Palestine | Since when do the people who actually live in a region get to participate in deciding its future? The British always knew best. People in India and all their colonies were not ready yet to govern themselves. And besides England | 11/2/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanBreaking Wall St’s Grip on Democratic Party | When big easy money is involved, it’s hard to push back. But that’s exactly what Democrats must do to win future elections. Robert Borosage talks about his current article “Wall Street Has Some Advice for the Democratic party…And Democrats Need | 10/27/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanA Step Not Taken: FDR’s Four Freedoms and Real National Security | What works to shore up America’s strength in the world: pure military domination or using a Roosevelt idea: The Four Freedoms, including freedom from want? In this 2012 discussion with Roosevelt Institute Senior Fellow David Woolner, | 10/26/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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41 |
CleanBusiness and Public Education = Segrenomics | Both parties in recent decades have bought into the idea that letting private business needs dictate the direction of public schools will help education. According to Noliwe Rooks, director of American Studies at Cornell University, | 10/24/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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42 |
CleanBig Pharma And The Mahdis Who Kill Americans | A group of families of Americans killed in Iraq have filed a lawsuit against many big pharmaceutical companies who allegedly paid bribes to Mahdi forces who killed family members. USA Today correspondent Aamer Madhani investigated and reports that t | 10/19/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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43 |
CleanColonel Wilkerson: “We Are Supporting the Most Dangerous Group in the World” | It’s true. Former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson explains that our tax dollars are giving a big boost to our enemies Al Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula. While the news media focuses | 10/17/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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44 |
CleanAntifa: Fascist “AntiFascist” Gangs | Italian writer Ennio Flaianon says “Fascists are divided into two categories: the fascists and the anti-fascists.” Both are gangs focused on violence. The American “antifa” actually beat up those they identify as fascists. | 10/12/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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45 |
CleanSpanish King Undermines Himself// Getting Serious about Kids and Addiction | One part one, we look at what is being done to address young people’s addiction in new ways. The old law enforcement focus has failed. And on the second half, we delve into the tense situation in Spain. Sebastiaan Faber, | 10/10/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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CleanThe Tradition of Government Spying On Us | It’s those others. Not good Americans who dissent. At least that’s what Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Ford thought when their administrations unleashed many agencies to spy at will on us. On this show, Dr. William Burr, Senior Analyst with the | 10/5/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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47 |
CleanCrushing Democracy In Spain | The Madrid government is pulling out the stops to crush a referendum on independence for Catalonia, now a region of Spain. The national police have ripped down posters, detained over 700 mayors, shut down printing presses, attacked the website of | 9/28/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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48 |
CleanPBS Vietnam Series: False Balance; Resorting to Old Familiar Stereotypes | It’s what our guest, Vietnam historian Jerry Lembcke argues is a false balancing, leaving things where they were before we started watching it. America’s war in Vietnam was not as Ken Burns claims: begun in good faith by decent people. | 9/26/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
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49 |
Clean2018 Chances for Democrats//Carpe Diem Politics | “Based on everything, it appears Democrats will most likely make gains in congress in 2018.” Do you think most likely is good enough? Being risk-averse weakens our chances. Author of The Great Divide: Story of the 2016 US Presidential Race | 9/19/2017 | Free | View in iTunes |
| 49 Items |
Customer Reviews
Fresh, timely & relevant to todays big questions in society
Burt seems to be able to examine the underlying powers and challenges seeming hell bent on destroying this experiment called democracy - Rick Pickford Chair - Seacoast Arts & Cultural Alliance
From the progressive point of view
About democracy and the state of the people's power today, not only in the US, but how events worldwide may influence our democracy. Host is curious and wants to learn and share how democracy is and is not functioning for all.
Good for people from left
Sometimes Interesting discussions and guests.
To be honest, I would give it 4 stars except with ratings inflation that would do them a disservice. I do think people should know about it and decide for themselves.
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