It started out so promising: peaceful revolutions for self-determination. From Tunisia through Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and of course Syria. Now Tunisia is the only stable secular democracy, and on this show author and professor Rebecca Gordon sheds light on

Perpetual war is now widely accepted. Henry Kissinger’s unique apparently amoral approach to assertion of his and America’s power still casts a shadow on America, both domestically and across the world. This new book: Kissinger’s Shadow, The Long Reach of

A hundred were killed in a peaceful rally in Ankara: who did it and why? It seems to have been ISIS, which our ally, the Erdogan government of Turkey, is actually helping. meanwhile our enemy, Putin’s Russia is helping to

The truth is finally out: Put in power and protected by Henry Kissinger, it is just now revealed that Chile’s Dictator General Pinochet personally directed the assassination of two on Embassy Row in Washington DC. And while President George W

You may have thought our schools, at least the better ones, successfully tackled the problem of institutional racism. But in this surprising new study, well-established assumptions based on style of clothes, culture, and, really, skin color serve to keep down

There are a lot of similarities and differences: They are both men over 65 but England’s Jeremy Corbyn is a traditional Labourite leftist while Bernie Sanders is an all-American left-leaning Democratic populist. But both campaigns earned their descriptions as political

The Tea Party these days looks with fondness to the 19th century as a time of rugged individualism and unemcumbered free markets. As with so many mythic images, reality is exceedingly different. Like corporate personhood? Thank the railroads. Ever notice

Despite the fact that the US inadvertently created ISIS and is still arming the wrong people, and despite the fact that the US and Russia seem to be on opposite sides, Ambassador Peter Galbraith argues the region is on a

American Exceptionalism: it’s beyond mere national pride, it is an insistence that we are above the normal rules and that we are God’s gift to the world. Of course if we know someone who feels this way about him or

Recently released emails reveal that then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton enabled the success of the military coup in Honduras in 2009 which overthrew a democratically elected president. Why should we care? It was the same old American heavy-handedness which creates

Started under Reagan in 1983, the drive to put public education in the hands of for-profit interests has greatly weakened education, done real harm to thousands of kids, and weakened our real national security. Today’s guest is John Kuhn who

We’re all familiar with 1776. But before the actual separation from England, there was revolution across the land. The spirit of 1774 was focused on class-blind democracy and a lot of what happened then, with powerful actions from the grassroots

We’ve all seen the images: refugees crammed in rubber rafts, mobbed trains, young children drowned in the seas. Hundreds of thousands are leaving war zones in hopes of a better life. But in Europe there are those who want to

What was the actual intent of America’s founders? The far right has too often gotten away with claiming the mantle of the values of America’s founders. Even Glenn Beck has stolen the title of Thomas Paine’s 1776 pamphlet Common Sense

As the worlds number one jailer,  Americans are finally starting to pay attention to our unique mass incarceration. Author James Kilgore knows about the issue from the inside. His new book is Mass Incarceration: A People’s Guide to the Key

Ferguson. Staten Island. Even small town cops are armed like soldiers. The list of disturbing and excessive police violence is lengthy. How did we get here? How is it that the militarization of police has become so widespread across America?

Republican presidential wannabes fall over themselves to see who can hate Iran the most. And of course, ISIS is despicable. Yet with all their state run beheadings and human rights abuses, somehow Saudi Arabia remains America’s best Arab ally. Guest

Just three days after Malaysian flight MH-17 was shot down near the Ukraine Russian border, Secretary of State Kerry had all the answers. Renowned former CIA analyst Ray McGovern is convinced the secretary of state did not so much inform

Would any other country have gotten away with it? It might be best called Israeli Exceptionalism. After a 51 day war on the Gaza Strip, more than 2,200 Palestinians died and the infrastructure was devastated. Seventy seven Israelis died, all

We’ve all seen the results of economics imposed from the top down. Sometimes it works well, other times we’ve seen communities devastated as a result of this process. But in Cincinnati, there’s an idea taken largely from success in the

Uniting traditional left and right, legislators from all 50 states endorsed a message to the federal government: let us make our own laws on marijuana. Sponsor of the NCSL resolution NH Rep Renny Cushing talks about how and why states

Trading land for peace. Overwhelming military force. Drawn out negotiations. Compromises on this or that. None of it has worked nor can it when it comes to creating a sustainable peace in the Israel/Palestine region. Viewing the decades long crisis

Most of the world seems to think that the State of Israel and Judaism are one and the same. They are not. Where Judaism is thousands of years old and lived for peace with Muslims and Christians in what Rabbi

It was a sneak attack on December 7, 1941, of course. But what yanked traditionally isolated Japan into the militaristic imperialist century? Largely hidden, but exceptionally significant, is a cruise into the Pacific in the summer of 1905. Using his

It was forty years ago, and what have we learned? In the wake of public outcry over government spying on citizens, in 1975 Senator Frank Church led an investigation into abuses and the threat on our fourth amendment. Dick Cheney

It might be all over for democracy when it comes to citizens’ right to know what they’re about to eat. Chemical companies are spending many millions to pass a bill to ensure GMOs can not be labeled. Not sure 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. Our guest on this show

The power establishment in both parties is trying to portray Bernie Sanders’ social democrat campaign as being somehow foreign and un-American. But it’s just the reverse. The swing to the plutocratic right is what’s outside actual American tradition. Democratic socialism

Standing up to economic bullies; that’s what the people of Greece voted to do. The creditor cartel, led by Germany, was determined to keep the screws tight, allowing for no restructuring of their unaffordable debt. But though the rejection of

There are big jets and big media, but there’s also a one person gyrocopter and local media. Former postal worker Doug Hughes on April 15 flew his ultralight on to Capitol grounds with the goal of drawing attention to the