Author Archive

Burt Cohen

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How significant a change in policy toward Latin America does Obama’s trip to Havana mean? As Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy research explains, while the opening to Cuba is beneficial, it seems the American tradition

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Between 1945 and the Reagan era, Americans understood that work benefited all and when productivity when up, all stakeholders shared in the rewards. Of course that all changed. But in his new book “Shaping the Future of Work: What Future

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CultureJusticeNational PolicyPodcastRacismSocialismWomen

He’s a mirror of our culture, the question is: will America look in the mirror? Guest on this show is Erin Aubry Kaplan, author of the new book “I (heart) Obama,” and a long time writer about the black experience

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National PolicyPodcastReligionTake ActionWomen

How did a pink flower beat the world’s only superpower? After 15 years, 2200 Americans dead, more than a trillion dollars The US has not been able to pacify one of the worlds poorest nations. One of the worlds leading

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CultureEconomyJusticePodcastWar

http://media.blubrry.com/keeping_democracy_alive/dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/48358971/Brexit.mp3The European Union was supposed to mean a continent of nations united by democratic ideals. Instead power and decision making has become more concentrated and centralized. First it was Greece, then Spain threatening to pull out of the EU, now

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JusticeNational PolicyPodcastWarWomen

She may not be trusted on many things, but at least she never claimed to be a peace candidate. If you liked the Bush/Cheney policy of selective “humanitarian intervention,” you’ll be fine with Hillary Clinton’s positions. Researcher and author Nicolas

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EnvironmentFiscal PolicyNational PolicyPodcastWar

From the point of view of foreign policy and pentagon insiders, the candidate with the most realistic platform to ensure our national security is Bernie Sanders. Guest Robert English, former Pentagon insider and expert on Russia and the USSR, explains

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Throughout American history there have been times, rare moments in which the political establishment’s movers and shakers quiver as their best laid plans have gone awry. Their too-often successful efforts to keep citizens believing that we are powerless are on

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The 2016 New Hampshire Presidential Primary is history. No one predicted a 22 point blowout for Bernie Sanders. The establishment of both parties was flattened by the results. What the heck happened? Media talent trainer and consultant John Kosinski puts

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CultureEconomyEnvironmentGunsNational PolicySocialism

The myth of the rugged individualist settling the west is just that: a myth. The work needed to tame the wild and vast open spaces was not done with a lasso. The white people who populated the massive west needed

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CultureEducationFiscal PolicyNational PolicyPodcastPopulismSocialismTake ActionWarWomen

He’s a leading contender, surging in the polls but the Democratic Party is wielding a real war on Bernie Sanders. According to Princeton history professor Matt Karp, it’s without precedent. Bernie Sanders is clearly carrying on FDR and LBJ Democratic

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CultureEducationEnvironmentGunsNational PolicyPodcastSocialismWarWomen

When Americans hear the word socialism, they feel frightened. Bernie Sanders has looked to the nations of Scandinavia for models, while Hillary Clinton runs away from that. What is reality? On this show, Ann Jones (author of Kabul in Winter

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CultureGunsPodcastWarWomen

Of course our democratic system of government comes from Italy. So do chocolate, cigars, and hammocks. Instead of simple brute force, the Italian style of empire building relied on commerce and culture. Guest Christopher Kelly (Italian by marriage) talks about

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It’s no accident that critical thinking is fast dying in America. Former president of the National Trial Lawyers Howard Nations talks on this show about how jury trials and democracy itself has been adversely affected by this intentional dumbing-down of

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CultureEducationJusticeNational PolicyPodcastRacismTake Action

Work hard, do well at school, play by the rules and you’ll do OK. That does not seem to apply to the more than 2 million young Americans whose parents may have fallen through the large cracks in our broken

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CultureEconomyEducationEnvironmentFiscal PolicyPodcastPopulismTake Action

No question, FDR was our greatest Democratic president. Though we have, at least for the moment, gone beyond the recession of 2008, perhaps we’ve merely swept the problem under the rug, along with opportunities for real economic security. On this

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EnergyIsrael & PalestineNational PolicyPodcastReligionWar

On January 2, 2016, our great ally, the Saudi government, cut the heads off 47 prisoners, including the revered Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Shiite Iran was none too pleased. Tensions between them are at an all time high. Guest on

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CultureGunsNational PolicyPodcastPopulismSocialismWar

In the Christmas Truce at the beginning of what was then The Great War, and other lesser know fraternizing between “enemies,” it took courage to question the madness. Still today, Christmas is the one day of peace, while we feel

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EnergyGunsNational PolicyPodcastReligionTake ActionWar

All the presidential contenders and all of Washington’s top brains repeatedly call for the wealthy Arab states to lead the war on ISIS. Why aren’t they doing it? Former State Department whistle-blower Peter Van Buren explains why.

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CultureJusticePodcastTake ActionWomen

The ice princess, the black widow. Since the circus of a trial on 1990, Pam Smart has remained in jail with a sentence worse than for Charles Manson. It was a made-for-the-movies spectacle in which the judge said he wanted

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CultureEconomyFiscal PolicyJusticePodcastPopulism

When the combined power of the Troika–European Central Bank, European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund–puts the squeeze of austerity on places like Spain and Portugal, a lot of people feel severe economic pain. But in the Iberian countries, they

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GunsJusticePopulismRacismReligionTake ActionWomen

Talk about threats to democracy and to America itself: The Trump phenomenon is blatantly racist, xenophobic, and fascist, more and more from both parties are recognizing this. Does Trump give voice to what many Americans secretly feel? In this discussion,

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CultureEconomyEnvironmentFiscal PolicyJusticeNational PolicyPodcastPopulismTake ActionWomen

Chuck Collins, founder of Wealth for the Common Good and senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies talks about the new report on the top .01 percent and the impact on our democracy. They are not job creators as

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CultureNational PolicyPodcastRacismWar

Of course President Roosevelt knew the Japanese would do something, their oil had been cut off, yet we can conclude he did not know about the specific attack. What no one expected was the transformation of America from a nation

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National PolicyPodcastTake ActionWar

The mainstream media paints a simple picture: Turkey was merely defending itself. But America’s ally, Turkey’s Erdogan, sees his greatest enemy as the Kurds as he works behind the scenes with ISIS. He doesn’t want Russia attacking ISIS and its

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EducationEnergyNational PolicyPodcastReligionTake ActionWar

On the first half, international relations and military history professor Andrew Bacevich on why western belligerence can not be successful against ISIS, and suggests what can work. And on part two, there is a move to once again prohibit those

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GunsIsrael & PalestineJusticeNational PolicyPodcastRacismReligionWar

The horror of ISIS terrorism today grew from the “peace” imposed by the most powerful Western nations on the former Ottoman Empire at the finish of the first world war, a war that never ended. Many more civilians were killed

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EconomyJusticePodcastTake Action

SuperPACs are one of the greatest threats to what remains of democracy in the USA. These slippery legal entities circumvent campaign finance laws and enable huge money to own government and elections. The founders idea of democracy is destroyed by

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CultureEducationJusticePodcastSexualityTake ActionWomen

Is there a worse crime than child abuse? Is the complicity by knowing adults just as bad? Is there something about the very nature of authoritarianism in schools? Guest on this show lived through an atmosphere of abuse in a

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