Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

By Burt CohenSociety & CultureNewsPolitics
Download on the App Store

Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen episodes

  • Yippies, Satire, and Fake News: Paul Krassner Today
    He published The Realist from 1958-2001. A magazine of satire that afflicted the powers that were. Paul Krassner along with Abbie Hoffman launched the Yippies to inspire young people in the late 60s, mixing rock and roll with politics. And it worked. The 21st century occupy movement is a direct outgrowth. On this discussion Krassner talks about his good friend Lenny Bruce and the subversive power of humor. How satire is real fake news but fake news is not satire. Things that have to be said. Like how Trump lifted the boulder off the white supremacists and other undesirables hiding underneath. Krassner is a man of history and looks optimistically to the future. And don’t forget to check the Disneyland memorial orgy on his website!
    1 hr
  • Truth is the Beliefs of the Strong: Trump and 1984
    How dangerous is it that Americans are adjusting to truths changing by the hour? What is official truth now may not be so tomorrow. It’s all up to Trump’s White House. We mere citizens must accept and believe the dictate of the day. Sound familiar? As guest Rebecca Gordon writes: “In Orwell’s 1984, there was a slot in the wall where Winston Smith worked, a memory hole into which inconvenient documents could be fed to be consumed forever in a huge basement furnace.” Truth today is being intentionally erased, we are to believe official truth; yesterday’s realities on climate change, foreign and domestic policy, any records which are dissonant with official truth are non-existent. Even in the digital age, it’s being done. The University of San Francisco philosophy professor explains in her essay “Down the Memory Hole: Trump’s United States of Amnesia.” Of course we can fight back.
    1 hr
  • Prisons Don’t Work; How To Do Better
    You can’t incarcerate people into mental health. Prisons are a very old concept and it’s time to ask: Do they accomplish the goals for which they were created? What can we do with dangerous people if we do away with prisons, how can we protect society? Maya Schenwar is guest on this eye-opening discussion about her book Locked Down, Locked Out. She says instead of healing, “Incarceration is tearing society apart.” Dehumanizing inmates helps no one. Today people are locked up for being poor. So what can we do? How about barber shops for restorative justice!
    1 hr
  • American Guns Mean Mexican Slaughter
    In the American war on drugs, the Mexican drug cartels work hand in glove with the  federal, state, and local police. Most of the guns used in the tens of thousands of killings in recent years come from (guess where) the United States. And those 43 students were disappeared in September 2014 because they witnessed heroin being offloaded by local authorities and so had to be silenced. Three with personal knowledge of the bloody realities in Mexico are now touring the US to let us know the truth and to encourage change from the bottom up. One of the three guests on this show is Maria Herrera Magdaleno (who does not speak English) lost four of her eight sons to the criminal/police gun violence. American gun manufacturers are making hundreds of millions of dollars in guns to Mexico. Germany used to export guns there but stopped when they learned of their abuse. Perhaps we can make some changes too.
    1 hr
  • Is Trump a Threat to National Security//What is Net Neutrality?
    Imagine being an intelligence professional. At great personal risk, you gather information crucial to America’s security. Then you have to share that information with the president. How would you feel when he blithely give those secrets to the Russians, of all people? Some agents have called it their worst nightmare. On part one of the show , Fiscal Times national correspondent Rob Garver opens up this painful and dangerous new reality. And on part two, Net Neutrality: a good thing or not? One one hand it sounds good to require strictly equal internet access and service, but on the other hand, with no investment incentive for internet developers, everyone who uses the internet could be adversely affected. Our guest is Everett Ehrlich, former undersecretary of commerce in the Clinton administration, and a fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute.
    1 hr
  • Military Worship Threatens Our Democracy
    Who better than a military person to talk about the dangers of what he sees as a worship of all things military? Major Danny Sjursen commanded troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and here talks about his deep concern about military, instead of civilian, leaders directing policy. Saving your buddies is one thing, so of course you want more of everything. But more is not always better and in many cases, can make problems infinitely worse. We are today over compensating for the exaggerated stories of mistreatment of Vietnam veterans. And he finds especially dangerous the current belief that if left on their own, the military would have won that war. He argues that we can only have a republic if civilians are in control of the military. It’s a question of perspective, and on that, civilians have the advantage.
    1 hr
  • On the Ground in Yemen: Famine Approaches
    What can winning look like if the nation is decimated in the process? Sara Tesorieri speaks to us from Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, where she is working with the Norwegian Refugee Council to provide desperately needed humanitarian aid. The situation is on a razor’s edge for millions of Yemenis. While as an NGO worker, she has to avoid political statements, she explains that the blockade of the port, which brings in 90 percent of the country’s needs, and the constant bombing are causing the approach of a famine of biblical proportions. And it’s all caused only by humans. And on the second part we talk with Medea Benjamin about the realities of the US alliance with Saudi Arabia and the damage it causes to the region.
    1 hr
  • LePen Lost But Is Far From Defeat
    How much did the election of Trump turn French voters away from the right wing populist Marine LePen in the May 7th election? To what degree is her party, the National Front, still racist? What is the danger of normalizing that far right party? Though she lost by about two to one, French politics expert Daniel Solomon (who writes for The Forward) explains that the economic challenges faced by incoming president Emmanuel Macron (a centrist) are daunting and that the National Front is anything but dead. French national identity was also a factor, Solomon explains, and what it means to be French remains to be determined. That promises to be a challenge. And, as with the new US president, Vladimir Putin and what Solomon calls the “illiberal international movement” connected deeply with LePen and remains a serious threat.
    1 hr
  • Tax Policy: the 1% and Racism//Trump a War Criminal Already?
    Tax breaks for capital gains are a form of class privilege. So says history of US capitalism professor Julia Ott. It’s better public relations for Southern senators than outright Jim Crow, but taxing capital gains less than ordinary income was designed to help bolster the one percent as it keeps African Americans down. A fascinating discussion. And on part two, legal expert Marjorie Cohn makes the case that Donald Trump has already earned the title War Criminal. A very strong charge, of course. Give a full listen and let me know what you think.
    1 hr
  • The Clintons and Obama Started Trump’s War on Immigrants
    Imagine your very existence being seen as proof of guilt. The blatantly racist anti-immigrant policies Trump is known for did not originate with him. In fact, as our guest Avi Chomsky, professor of history and coordinator of Latin American, Latino, and Caribbean Studies reveals, Presidents Clinton and Obama, along with candidate Hillary Clinton all enacted harshly punitive laws against immigrants. They made the problem far worse. The theater looked better but Obama was known as the Deporter in Chief, Bill Clinton created more illegals, while Hillary called for sending children back to dangerous violent situations. Luckily most Americans are against such racist policies and are fighting for justice. And winning. Listen in.
    1 hr

About Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

From the publisher's feed

Keeping democracy alive

More shows like Keeping Democracy Alive with Burt Cohen

Ralph Nader Radio Hour by Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader Radio Hour

1,199 Listeners

The MeidasTouch Podcast by MeidasTouch Network

The MeidasTouch Podcast

50,410 Listeners