Podcast
Brit Election Was Actually a Win for Anti-Globalist Left–Really!
Hard to imagine but the mainstream media has it wrong. What has been pictured as a crushing blow was actually a victory for progressive politics in the UK. Across Europe and Britain, working people are standing up against what our
Hong Kong Explained
Chinese leadership in Beijing is very insecure. They control many distinct regions of the vast country and what’s going on right now in Hong Kong makes them worry about leakage. Former Hong Kong and China correspondent for BusinessWeek Dave Lindorff
Plundered Iraq Rising Up
It didn’t start with W’s 2003 war on Iraq. The British have plundered what is now Iraq since the 19th century. After the incredible economic and physical devastation and perhaps a million deaths, though little noticed in the news, the
The Crucial December 12th British Election Explained
Consumed with Brexit, the old upper and lower class divisions are themselves divided. According to professor Kenneth Surin, a Brit teaching at Duke, the decision made by voters in the upcoming general election will be of major importance. On one
The Kurds are a Nation; Why Don’t They Have a State?
We all know that, thanks to Trump giving them a green light, Erdogan’s Turkish military is now aggressively slaughtering the stateless Kurdish people. Kurdish women warriors were exceptionally effective in their fight against our common enemy ISIS. Yet Trump abandoned
The Truth On Bolivia//Believing Trumps Lies
Bolivia’s first indigenous president Evo Morales brought better lives to many of the dispossessed, yet he was recently overthrown. What of the role of the US and Brazil’s right wing leader Bolsonaro? On part one Bolivia scholar Nicole Fabricant explains
Deport the Immigrants and Radicals: Trump’s Precedent 100 Years ago
We were all startled by Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant frenzy launched in 2015. But there is solid precedent. In an article in The New Yorker, acclaimed author of many history books, Adam Hochschild tells the tale: When America Tried to Deport
When Political Parties Lose the Consent of the Governed: The Civil War and Donald Trump
Why did so many Obama voters go for Trump in 2016? What happens when party elites don’t know how to react to changes of popular opinion at the ground level? While they may try to do both: keep the elite
A New Deal That’s Also Green
The New Deal aspect of the Green New Deal often gets forgotten. The goal now as in the 1930s is to make the state the instrument of the popular will. Democratizing the economy, making it work for the common good,
The Blues: Education for the Liberation of Black and Brown Girls
All too often, schools function as a pipeline to prison for troubled kids. Kicking out troublemakers, punishing for bad attitudes leaves kids feeling they are disposable. Authoritarian models too often make schools feel like locations for punishment, when they can
The Psychological Base of “Powerarchy”
We traditional Americans are doing what we can to take on oligarchy, plutocracy, and patriarchy.But our effectiveness is limited if we do not figure out the whys and hows of what our guest Melanie Joy calls “powerarchy.” Her new book
Democrats Took The Wrong Lessons from McGovern 1972
Conventional Democratic Party wisdom is that McGovern lost to Nixon because he was too liberal, and as a result of that belief, ever since that loss party insiders have trended steadily to the right. But if today’s measuring tools had
Cruelty Steers the New Supreme Court Docket
It’s not only Trump who is pushing cruelty. Since right wing Republicans have very successfully gained control over the third branch of government, the judicial branch, we should expect to see many examples of cruelty dictating decisions by the Supreme
Impeachment: Restore Entitled “Centrist” Ds and Rs to Power?
No question: today’s biggest unsolved problems came at the hands of the so-called centrists of both parties. Historian and author Professor Andrew Bacevich argues that while of course Trump must be removed, the constant focus of impeachment is a way
A Real Solution To Refugee Crisis
Across Europe tens of millions of refugees are living in horrible conditions, as countries erect razor wire to keep them out. Our guest today Tim Horgan of the World Affairs Council argues it is best to keep people where they
Thom Hartmann: Hidden History of Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America
It’s become “a nearly despotic branch of government.” But wasn’t the Supreme Court created to be a check on the powers of the executive and legislative, making certain they adhere to the Constitution? Author Thom Hartmann is a progressive national
Trump and “Disloyal Jews”//The Corpse of Franco and Democracy in Spain
Did Trump mean to be anti-Semitic with his insistence that Jewish Americans who vote Democratic are disloyal? According to our first guest, civil justice advocate and attorney Mark Bello, without question yes, Trump is anti-Semitic. And he says Trump is
The DNA of Democracy: It’s A Recessive Gene
We take democracy for granted, but as author Richard C.Lyons tells it, democracy is a recessive gene. Tyranny is much more able to dominate. Tyranny? What does that ancient word even mean? In his new book: The DNA of Democracy,
Trump and the ‘Gated Communities’ of Afghanistan
Could Trump get something right? Retired US Army officer and prolific writer of military policy analysis Danny Sjursen compares how the brass In Washington sees Afghanistan versus the empirical knowledge from people on the ground. The commanders see Afghanistan as
Not Just “Bread,” To Win Democrats Must Offer “Roses Too,” A Sense of Meaning
What keeps Trump was his false version of “Roses.” An uplift from everyday dullness. Looking at the upcoming election, our guest today Professor Ed Simon argues that “those that will be the most successful will be those that speak of
BoJo’s Brexit Helter Skelter
He’s often said to be England’s Trump. And many hope his reign as Prime Minister of the UK will be the shortest in British history. How much damage will Boris Johnson do to formerly great Britain? The chaos is astounding.
Climate Change Serves Oil and the Pentagon
Melting polar ice caps is great for the rapacious oil and gas industry. Trump denying climate change and wanting to buy Greenland is actually part of the logic of what drives our military policy. Our guest on this show journalist
Evangelicals Quit Nixon: Why Do They Stick With Trump?
When Nixon lied, it was an earthquake. Now Trump lies many times a day. Does it matter? Why is it that evangelicals remain solid with Trump? How is it that evangelicals no longer care about his personal immorality? Do Christian
Concentration Camps-Never Again!//Red Summer 100 Years Ago
Did you ever imagine we would have actual concentration camps in America? What would you have done in Germany in the 1930s? Never Again means never again. On the first half, Sara Caplan talks about the new grassroots movement called
Woodrow Wilson And Trump: Fanning the Flames of Hate
Trump is not the first. Author of many history books Adam Hochschild writes: “The last time we had anything similar from Washington was almost exactly 100 years ago and it, too, involved a flood of angry rhetoric and a fear
The New EuroFascism//Slavery Ended Had Brits Won 1776?
On the first half of the podcast, from Barcelona Spain, professor of political philosophy and journalist Santiago Zabala reports on the rise of the new European nationalistic fascism. He answers these questions: What is it? Why is it happening? How
Fault Lines In the Constitution: Unseen Until Too Late?
It’s not perfect. Much as we’d prefer to see the 1787 Constitution as a rock solid always-dependable foundation, our guests argue there are fault lines that we can not see but are always there. In their new book Fault Lines
Recreating a Democratic Economy: Our Founders Vision
If America’s founders saw where we are today,thy might have thought King George won the war. Instead of democratic control over the common good, a government of by and for the people, today it’s an 18th century style oligarchy. In
“Go Home” Rhetoric is as American as Immigration Itself
It’s a long and oscillating history: America welcoming immigrants and telling them to go home. As Washington Post senior editor Marc Fisher explains, it didn’t start with Trump: “there’s a long history of rejecting “different” Americans:” Eastern European, Irish, German,
Are Most Americans Unpatriotic?
If we criticize Trump, we don’t love America. If we learn history, we are disloyal. You know that’s what a lot of people on the right (in larger numbers than we’d imagined) are claiming. But what is Patriotism? Does the