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

Did you know the place with the most stringent gun control was the South? Or that alcohol had a lot to do with the creation of the Bill of Rights? Though of course they couldn’t see into the 21st century,

Banishing the Confederate flag from public buildings might make some of us all feel as if we’ve done something to stop racist violence. But given how easy it is for right wing politicians to do it, will the gesture really

Remember the boisterous chants of “We’re Number 1!” and “USA! USA” when Osama binLaden was taken out? Exceptionalism is beyond mere national pride, it is an insistence that we are above the normal rules and that we are God’s gift

It may be the most heated of all disagreements: For decades each side has been locked in bitter conflict, each wanting to obliterate the other. ProVoice: How To Keep Listening When the World Wants A Fight is a new book

http://media.blubrry.com/keeping_democracy_alive/www.dropbox.com/s/x8n2agzv9ogjyc5/EcstaticNationKDA.mp3?dl=0The past isn’t even the past: questions and debates from mid 19th century remain fierce today. Such things as the locus of legitimate political power: federal or state sovereignty? Have we really ever faced up to the evils of slavery?

Bernie Sanders campaign is on fire at the moment. But it’s been said that when Americans hear the word Socialism, they stop thinking. Yet a clear majority actually agree with socialist positions on issues. Have we come far enough away

Remember when we thought the internet, being “open,” might be a leveler of power, putting the tools of creation in everybody’s hands equally? The reality is our digital devices are new shackles chaining us to corporate America and to government

Though Iraq is less than 100 years old, it’s just about finished. Twenty Four year State Department veteran Peter Van Buren talks about what he sees as the last throes of what was never a real nation, with optimism for

Marriage and family law used to be so simple: men ruled, period. But with the expansion of what a family means,  a whole world of potential legal issues comes up. There can be friendly, not scary, contracts, explains guest Martha

A huge crowd greeted Bernie Sanders a few days ago. Why is there such widespread enthusiasm? Because Americans on the left and right are fed up with the new status quo: a government owned and controlled by the very richest

Opposition to the so-called Patriot Act has grown so strong that many on both sides of the aisle in Washington would like to take credit for letting it expire. But rather than just letting it die a peaceful death, they

Many remember the Clinton years fondly. But the presidency of Bill Clinton was, on the domestic side, “just as damaging to the nation as George W Bush’s was on the foreign policy side.” This according to guest Dr. Steven Jonas

Did you know the US has some 300 troops on the ground there? That makes Moscow very nervous. Did you know about waves of political assassinations by the government we support? And that the European Union is not happy with

Who cares if the government keeps lying about Vietnam? It was 50 years ago, let’s just forget it. Problem is the effects are very much with us to this day. And the Pentagon is spending $65 million of your money