Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

By Burt CohenSociety & CultureNewsPolitics
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Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen episodes

  • BDS at 12: The Fight Against it Shows It’s Working
    It took a long time but Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions worked to end South African Apartheid. Now powerful forces are working in the US congress to penalize businesses and individuals who express support for BDS against the State of Israel. This is of course a dangerous slap against our traditional First Amendment rights. But the high level fight against the BDS movement shows it is working. At this, the twelfth anniversary of the movement, Anna Baltzer, Director of Organizing and Advocacy for the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights talks about victories and makes a clear distinction between anti-Semitism and criticism of Israeli policies against Palestinians. Citizens of the US have a great deal of power to make a difference.
    1 hr
  • Is the Democratic Party Determined to Keep Losing?
    The Democratic Party has been compared to a doomsday cult: no matter how thoroughly their assumptions are refuted by reality, they just dig in deeper, with devastating consequences for America and the world. They rejected the most powerful candidate in memory in 2016 and went with yet another lackluster middle-of-the-roader in Georgia’s special election. Twenty eighteen is upon us. Another not-as-bad-as-they-are candidate won’t cut it. To win, we must stand clearly for our traditions. According to guest author Nicolas JS Davies, the Democrats demise started with the DLC in the early 90s, abandoning working people for easy corporate money. The lesson is not complicated; the vast majority of Democrats on the ground get it clearly. As Davies puts it: “the sleeping giant of democracy is stirring beneath the astro-turf.” We can do it.
    1 hr
  • America’s Founders on “Independence” Today
    Independence day: It’s not just about choice of things to buy and consume.  Recovering corporate CEO and Huffington Post columnist Richard Eskow on this show shines a light on just how far we’ve veered from what the founders meant by Independence and how far we’ve strayed from their vision of America. It’s not without hope, though.
    1 hr
  • US Pilots As Bait in War With Syria
    In the 21st century, it seems every new war is a “humanitarian intervention.” Our guest on this show, Jim Kavanagh of Counterpunch defines that as just more “missionary imperialism.” As the US quickly ramps up its war against the government of Syria, baiting attacks by Syria and Russia, the use of Sarin gas allegedly by the Assad government, is the justification du jour. Kavanagh argues the real goal is to break up Syria in service to the Saudis and Israelis. He argues that “the war on ISIS is a sham,”and that Iran and Russia are more seriously fighting ISIS, as we back aggressive oppressive regimes in Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The American war in Vietnam was ended by protests, Kavanagh asks why is the resistance movement now silent? A good question.
    1 hr
  • A New Consideration of Uses of LSD
    LSD has long been feared. No question, it is uniquely powerful. But does it have potentially uniquely powerful benefits as well? On this program, Dr. Phil Wolfson delves into many aspects of the substance; the foolhardiness of the drug war, and the new research into potential application of LSD when it comes to addiction and depression. And it can help couples counseling as well. A very interesting and worthy discussion.
    1 hr
  • Juneteenth and the Racial Wealth Divide
    Celebrated in 45 states, a lot of people don’t know about Juneteenth. It was the day in 1865 when formerly enslaved people learned of the Emancipation Proclamation. But what kind of freedom was it then and where is it today? Our guest Jessicah Pierre of the Institute for Policy Studies looks at some issues most whites would rather avoid. She argues that instead of social programs being a handout to black people, “slavery was a handout to white people.” How far have we come, really?
    1 hr
  • The Right Took Over the Republican Party; Liberals Can Learn from Them//A War The West Can’t Win
    Millennials would make a big mistake to give up on the Democratic Party. There is proof that liberals are successfully taking it back from the corrupt corporate wing. On the first half, In These Times staff writer Theo Anderson specifies how it’s working, state by state. And he reminds us that we can learn from the right wing, which was crushed in 1964, only to own the party by 1980. Patience and perseverance is called for. And on the second half, international relations and military history professor Andrew Bacevich talks about why western belligerence can not be successful against ISIS, and he suggests what can work.
    59 min
  • Truth as an Effective Political Weapon: Corbyn//Use Public Money to Fund Public Projects
    Is truth still the first casualty of politics? Not in the UK, where Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn stunned PM Teresa May. He dared to tell the truth; authenticity works. So says Marc Weisbrot of the Economic and Policy Research Center. And on part two:  How do you like paying interest to use your own money? According to Mike Krauss of the Public Banking Institute, it doesn’t have to be that way. We can replace the privately held Federal Reserve system and use the treasury to directly finance public projects. And save a ton of money.
    1 hr
  • More Than Just Hacking; We’ve Become Like The Soviets
    As we are bombarded by endless news about Russian hacking, interfering with our democracy, a more subtle yet equally serious concern is how much we have become like our former enemy. What we value most of all about The United States of America, the many traditional freedoms which we have for all our existence taken for granted being seriously eroded. Dominance by the military, the press as enemy, truth tellers being called traitors, secrecy in control, a surveillance state, official news agencies. That’s sure not the America I grew up with, it is more like the Soviet Union. William Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel USAF and history professor talks about how much we have become like our enemy. As he calls it, “America’s Real Red Scare.”
    1 hr
  • Kill It To Save It
    The forces currently in power may actually believe that by killing democracy they are saving America. Or they may just be driven by simple greed. In his new book: Kill It to Save It; An Autopsy of Capitalism’s Triumph Over Democracy, author Corey Dolgon argues that before we can restore democracy, we must first understand what has happened to it. A pivotal point was the ascendance of Ronald Reagan. Since then many Americans have accepted their powerlessness and bought into the belief that the corporations can fix everything. He argues that in the place of real freedom, “guns have become junk freedom.” And he says of Democrats: “neoliberal corporate hegemony is not a vision that can win.”
    59 min

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