Zipcode Zero

Sean Dempsey is an acclaimed author, entrepreneur and Libertarian Party activist. 

In this conversation, Sean Dempsey discusses his background in the Libertarian Party, his views on the current political landscape, and the moral framework of libertarianism. He expresses disenchantment with the political choices available, particularly in the context of the upcoming elections. Dempsey emphasizes the importance of free speech and the dangers of censorship, particularly in relation to recent political events. He critiques both major political parties for their roles in curtailing individual liberties and discusses the insidious nature of corporate cronyism in America. The conversation also touches on employee rights, corporate control, and the historical context of child labor laws, ultimately advocating for a free market approach to these issues. In this conversation, Sean Dempsey and Kevin Maley explore the unintended consequences of legislation, the evolving nature of the security state, and the political polarization surrounding it. Finally, they make predictions for the upcoming election, highlighting the potential outcomes and implications for the future.

You can find Sean's new book "The Investor's Warp Whistles" at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Investors-Warp-Whistles-Financial-Investing-ebook/dp/B0DFW58HNS

Twitter: @realseand

Chapters:

00:00
Introduction to Sean Dempsey

02:08
Political Disenchantment and Voting Decisions

04:35
Understanding Libertarianism

09:33
Libertarian Perspectives on Foreign Policy

14:31
The Importance of Free Speech

19:30
Censorship and Its Implications

24:20
Corporate Power and Libertarian Views

35:08
Corporate Power and Freedom of Contract

35:59
Free Speech and Employment Rights

38:58
Corporate Surveillance and Employee Rights

41:09
The Evolution of Labor Rights

45:53
The Role of Government in Labor Relations

48:02
Child Labor and Economic Policies

54:44
The Security State and Political Shifts

01:10:26
The Importance of War Declarations

01:12:10
The Consequences of War Authorizations

01:15:54
Historical Context of War Declarations

01:18:03
The Role of the Federal Reserve in War

01:21:56
The National Security State and Proxy Wars

01:25:02
The Nature of International Relations

01:27:19
The Future of American Politics

01:29:45
Predictions for the Upcoming Election

01:40:13
Closing Thoughts and Book Promotion


Transcript:

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Urban Deer Hunt:  https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt

Clinton Friedrichs is a former Republican Hill staffer who worked for Representative Will Hurt (R-TX), Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE). He joins Zipcode Zero to talk about his perspective on the presidential and down ballot elections.

Topics include: 
- JD Vance and a (possibly) changing GOP
- Kamala Harris's strategy and vision vs. that of Donald Trump
- The impact of immigration
- Races to look out for in Ohio and Texas
- Possible election outcomes in Congress and what that means for either candidate's legislative agenda
- When we can expect to know the results of the election

And much more.

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@KevinAMaley
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Music
Urban Deer Hunt:  https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt

 The Federal Republic of Germany is a country with a long and rich history. It’s a country that is best known in the West as central to the dominant geopolitical struggles of the 20th century – namely the two World Wars and the Cold War. Today, it is one of the largest economies in the world and the economic powerhouse of Europe – having risen from the ashes of destruction and an artificial division that lasted nearly 50 years.

 Or was it artificial division? Was it perhaps instead the case that the fault lines within the state we know today as Germany date back to Roman times? And that those fault lines can help understand everything from the disbursement of the reformation to the rise of the Nazis? 

To explore those questions and more, I am joined today by the acclaimed writer and historian James Hawes – author of “The Shortest History of Germany”, an international bestseller that covers over 2,000 years of history.

On the show James and I discuss a range of topics, including:

• How Britain inadvertently set up Prussia to conquer its neighbors and proclaim a German Empire in the 19th century
• How that German Empire became the center of arts, sciences, economics and philosophy before the First World War
• Why Germany set its eyes to the East as a focal point for expansion in both World Wars
• How one half of Germany was able to bounce so quickly back from destruction after 1945 to overtake every other European economy
• What the Ukraine War and the rise of the AfD mean for the future of German
• And more

James Hawes grew up in Gloucestershire, Edinburgh and Shropshire. He took a First in German at Hertford College, Oxford, then did a postgrad theatre studies in Cardiff, Wales. Having failed as an actor, he worked as an English teacher in Spain. In 1985-6 he was in charge of CADW excavations at the now-UNESCO World Heritage site of Blaenavon Ironworks. He took a PhD on Nietzsche and German literature 1900-1914 at University College, London 1987-90, then lectured in German at Maynooth University (Ollscoil Mhá Nuad) in Ireland between 1989 and 1991 before doing so at Sheffield University and Swansea University.

James has published six novels, all with Jonathan Cape. He turned to creative non-fiction with a Kafka anti-biography, Excavating Kafka (2008) which became the subject of a BBC documentary. In 2015, Englanders and Huns was shortlisted for the Paddy Power Political Books of the Year 2015. The Shortest History of Germany, published in May 2017, reached #2 in the Sunday Times bestseller charts in April 2018, being pipped for #1 only by Noah Yuval Harari. The Shortest History of England appeared in October 2020 and reached #4 in the Times bestseller charts in July 2021.

James has reviewed and/or written for every UK broadsheet, on topics from DIY to Prince Philip. His journalistic high-points to date were the cover-story for The New Statesman in September 2017 and the long read The England Delusion in Prospect in August 2021; this was publicly described by Prof Ciaran Martin, CB, founding Chief Executive of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, as “a really brilliant essay on the historical origins of UK constitutional tensions”. He has appeared on Radio 4 Today, Channel 4 News, Sky News and GB News.

In 2022, he was “series story consultant” and key on-screen commentator in the eight-part BBC TV series “Art that Made Us”. He also wrote the accompanying book.

His next book will be The Shortest History of Ireland.

If you like the show, please remember to hit like, subscribe and share.

Enjoy the show!

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Urban Deer Hunt:  https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt

Yesterday Minnesota governor Tim Walz was announced as Kamala Harris’s running mate for the Democratic ticket in the 2024 presidential election. 

To discuss that pick, and the state of the race, I’m joined today by Michael Baharaeen, chief political analyst at The Liberal Patriot Substack as well as writer of the Checks and Balances Substack.

Michael and I discuss the Walz selection, key issues animating the race, what to look for in the House and Senate and what reforms we might like to see in the political process.

If you like the show, make sure to describe, like and share with friends. Enjoy.

Liberal Patriot: https://www.liberalpatriot.com/

Checks and Balances: https://michaelbaharaeen.substack.com/

Twitter: @mbaharaeen

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Donald Trump vs. Joe Biden. Who will win?

Sean Dempsey is dedicated libertarian stalwart and party member from the great state of New Hampshire. As a stalwart leftist (me) and dedicated libertarian (Sean) we breakdown the first 2024 presidential debate. God help us all. 

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@KevinAMaley
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Urban Deer Hunt:  https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt

“Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longa be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. " - John F. Kennedy, 1961

For over half a century, from the end of the Second World War to the turn of the millennium, avoiding nuclear war has been a key pillar of American foreign policy – guided by arms agreements, communication and common sense.

But today, many of those controls have faded away or ceased to exist – and the Bullet of Atomic Scientists – has warned we’re closer to the nuclear precipice than we have ever been before. 90 seconds to midnight, to use their terminology.

In fact in one of the most recent near misses, in the steppes of Eastern Europe, U.S. intelligence officials estimated that in the fall of 2022 it came down to the flip of a coin as to whether or not Russia would use a tactical nuclear weapon to stave off a Ukrainian offensive.

So how did we get here? Why has the fear of nuclear catastrophe faded from the public imagination even as the threat has increased? And what the hell happened in Ukraine that brought us so close to the edge? Today I am joined by The New York Times' W.J. Hennigan to discuss.


Bill, as he goes by, is serving as the lead writer for an ambitious, NYT series on nuclear threats and the challenges our world faces in combating proliferation. Bill has deep expertise covering the U.S. military and national security issues. He has reported from more than two dozen countries across five continents, covering war, the arms trade and the lives of American service members.

Bill come to the Times from Time magazine, where he was most recently a senior correspondent. In 2021, he received the Gerald R. Ford Journalism Prize for Distinguished Reporting on National Defense for his series on the role of the U.S. military throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. Last year he was part of a reporting team that received the Society of Professional Journalists’ Sigma Delta Chi Award for Washington Correspondence on the Jan. 6 attack and its aftermath. Before joining Time in 2017, Bill worked for more than eight years at The Los Angeles Times, where he covered the Pentagon and the defense industry. He has earned several awards and citations, including the Associated Press Media Editors Award for international perspective and the National Press Club’s Michael A. Dornheim Award, and he was part of a team of journalists who won the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Reporting.

Twitter: @wjhenn

At The Brink Link: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/03/07/opinion/nuclear-weapons-nytimes.html

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@KevinAMaley
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Urban Deer Hunt:  https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt

Today’s guest is Ryan Grim, author of the new book “The Squad – AOC and the Hope of a Political Revolution”. 

Ryan Grim is the Intercept’s Washington bureau chief and cohost of the show Counter Points. He was previously the DC bureau chief for HuffPost, where we led a team that won a Pulitzer Prize. Grim has been a staff reporter for Politico and the Washington City Paper as well as a contributor to MSNBC and The Young Turks. He’s the author of the books We’ve Got People: From Jesse Jackson to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the End of Big Money and The Rise of a Movement, and This is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America. He is the host of the podcast Deconstructed and lives in Washington, DC.

In the book, Ryan recounts the rise of progressive forces in the Democratic Party since the 2016 Sanders campaign and how they have helped reveal tension points within the left, including on identity vs class, establishment vs insurgent and grassroots vs big money politics. We talk about all those themes and more. 

If you enjoy the show, please remember to hit like and subscribe. Happy holidays to all and enjoy.

Book:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250869081/thesquad

Twitter:
@ryangrim

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@KevinAMaley
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Urban Deer Hunt:  https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt

We’re now in two months of the Israel-Gaza War and after a brief ceasefire, the fighting has erupted again. 

I think its hard to understand this current conflict without understanding the history of Israel and Palestine, and how it led to where we are today

To help with that understanding, today’s guest is Dr Zachary Foster

Zach is a historian of Palestine, having gotten his PhD in Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He’s a distinguished fellow at the Rutgers Center for Security, Race and Rights. He also runs the PalestineNexus.com, which offers an invaluable newsletter, accessible research and even courses you can enroll to learn more. 

Zach and I go through a brief history of Israel and Palestine over the course of the 20th century, including why Jews emigrated to Palestine, the impact of the 1917 Balfour Declarationand why Palestine effectively became a british colony that was critical to the imperial interests of the empire, the post World War II partition of Mandatory Palestine, the humanitarian catastrophe that came out of the 1948 and how Israel came to occupy the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. We also talk about the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel and dive into the horrific conditions of life in Gaza today.

It’s a lot to cover but Zach was the right man for this job – his deep knowledge of the history is incredible and the insights he offered made for a really substantive, meaningful discussion. It’s been one of my favorite shows so far and I hope you all find value in the conversation.

If you do, don’t forget to download the show, share clips with friends, and help spread the word about Zipcode Zero. Enjoy

Website
PalestineNexus.com

Twitter
@_ZachFoster

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Foreign policy is all over the news these days as wars rage from The Middle East to Eastern Europe. To help get a better sense of those issues, as well as what a better, more values based U.S. Foreign Policy could look like, I am joined today by Matt Duess. 

Matt is the Executive Vice President at the Center for International Foreign Policy. In the past Matt has served as a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, he served as a foreign policy advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, he was president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace and an analyst at the Center for American Progress. So he comes very well credentialed.

Matt and I had an interesting discussion on Israel and Gaza, the causes of the invasion of Ukraine and whether or not the U.S. is interested in peace, NATO expansion into the Pacific and what the rules-based international order is really about.

If you like the show please remember to hit like, subscribe and share. We’re still running our annual t-shirt contest and currently have Dave Iacucci in the running to take first place, so if you want that swag then get active.

Enjoy the show. 

Twitter:
@mattduss

Website:
https://www.internationalpolicy.org/

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@KevinAMaley
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Urban Deer Hunt:  https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt

Today’s guest is former Congressman Mike Capuano, who represented Massachuetts’s 7th Congressional District from 1999 to 2019. 

I pick Mike’s brain on a wide range of issues, including, of course, Israel and Gaza, Ukraine, what he thinks of Matt Gaetz’s demands, whether or not we should abolish the Senate and what he thinks of an old proposal to combine Boston, Cambridge and Somerville

This Thanksgiving I’m thankful for all you listeners and your ability to follow, like and share the show. We’re coming up on our annual t-shirt contest which I’m excited to share more details about in the future. For now, enjoy the show.  

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Representative Capuano previously served as a member of Congress for twenty years, initially representing the interest of the 8th District. Following redistricting in 2013, he was elected to serve the 7th District of Massachusetts including his native Somerville, parts of Boston, Cambridge, and Milton, and the communities of Chelsea, Everett, and Randolph. Capuano began his life in political office as a member of the Somerville Board of Alderman at age 25, where he would write one of the first sanctuary cities ordinances in the country. He eventually ran successfully for Mayor in 1989, a role which he held until 1999 when he was elected to Congress. During his time in Washington, Representative Capuano was a passionate advocate for urban issues, founding five Congressional caucuses including one each for former Mayors, Community Health Centers, and Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, as well as Sudan and Korea. He was also a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and long-time advocate for a single-payer health care system. He served on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Financial Services committee. During his tenure, he helped to secure federal funding for affordable housing redevelopment in Roxbury, increased resources for community health centers and medical research, and major transit investment like the Boston area Green Line extension. He earned his BA from Dartmouth College and JD from Boston College.

Twitter
@mikecapuano

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@KevinAMaley
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Urban Deer Hunt:  https://linktr.ee/urbandeerhunt