Civil Liberties Archives - KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show

In our 300 year old system of an adversarial combative system of justice, there is no mechanism to prove and protect the innocent. In his soon to be published book, The Plea of Innocence, author Tim Bakken argues that prosecution The post Restoring Truth to the American Justice System appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

It may appear to be a rogue court today but the truth is the Supreme Court has long led the fight against democracy. Our guest today historian Steve Fraser points out that the liberal Warren Court was the real aberration. The post The Tyranny of the Supreme Court is Nothing New, It’s Tradition appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Even in safe spaces for gay men, there is subtle racism and stratification if one is not white. On this show, Professor Anthony Ocampo talks about his new book Brown and Gay in LA, including pressures from Mexican and Filipino The post Being Gay, Brown, and Immigrant appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

You may have thought it began after 9/11. But it really all started in 1947, as National Security Archive Scoville Fellow Rachel Santarsiero explains. The focus of our huge arsenal then quickly shifted from Germany and Japan to the perceived The post 75 Years of National Security State: America? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

The opposite of conservatism is a police state. Yet public figures who call themselves conservative are crushing many of our traditional civil liberties and our legal rights. This according to Jacob Hornberger founder and president of the Future of Freedom The post “Conservatives” Are Disastrous to Civil Liberties appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Justice Scalia claimed to be an Originalist: did he mean only propertied white Christian men have rights? Perhaps the actual intent is still consent of all the governed. In the 21st century, are we not all entitled to participate in The post Today’s Supreme Court: Not All May Participate in Democracy appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

The attack on traditional rights is at the vanguard of the culture war, reproductive rights are the floor not the ceiling. Religious nationalists cherry pick what they mean by liberty. We can wish  Samuel Alito was an outlier but he’s The post The Real Intent of Alito’s Assault on Privacy appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

There used to be a long held American tradition of opposition to colonialism and that government served the common good. FDR’s vice president Henry A Wallace was an outstanding visionary. Then a corrupt political machine performed a bloodless coup at The post A Successful Coup in 1944 America appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

The words seem so obviously neutral and just technical. In her new book “Does Skill Make US Human?” author Natasha Iskander reveals that the language of skill versus unskilled is being used to justify dehumanizing workers in Qatar, much the The post “Skilled/Unskilled” New Political Categories appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

In his new book, The Privatization of Everything, author Donald Cohen directly takes on the myths which have led to intense concentration of power a an wealth and offers ways to reassert what America’s founders had in mind. Despite the The post Why Privatization is the Wrong Tool for the Common Good appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

It was called the Gilded Age. In the late 19th and early 20th century, there was extreme wealth and everybody else (remind you of another time?). Wall Street bankers back then were getting robbed, someone had to protect them. In The post Making the World Safe for Plutocracy: The History of American Policing appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

It’s not like displaying a large red cross protects doctors from attack anymore. Yesterday’s Covid heroes are today vilified by some. Across the globe, health care workers have become routinely targeted. For example in Myanmar, since it is not an The post From Heroes to Targets: Medical Workers Under Attack appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Let’s face it: the current Supreme Court is hostile to democracy. Even if Congress passes the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, the voter suppression right wing will take it to this Supreme Court which will decide voting rights. Does that The post Pack The Court! appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Remember Nixon’s “law and order?” It was a clever way to get whites to buy into racist repression. On this show author historian Alfred McCoy (who revealed government heroin distribution to GIs in Vietnam) says the continuing “war on drugs” The post The Intent of the Drug War: Repress Black People appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show...

Thanks to January 6th, the word sedition is in our consciousness again.  Trump is more likely guilty of treason than of mere sedition according to the former director of the CIA and our guest, history teacher and essayist William Pruden The post Sedition and Democracy appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Americans talk about the surge at the border, but the real point is everyone has a right to stay home. Today’s guest Avi Chomsky says that under Biden, Trump’s cement wall is instead outsourced to a militarized high-tech barrier. Do The post Border Crisis? How About A Right to Stay Home appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

Fossil fueled fascism is not limited to the west. The roots of India’s ruling party go back to Mussolini and Nazis. Repressing minorities as they increase wealth and power of the autocratic rulers. The US is tight with Prime Minister The post The Rise of Fascism: It’s India’s Turn appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

So much we have to learn from January 6th. On the first part of today’s show History Professor Robert Schneider calls it a “Populist Transgression,” without a legitimate grievance. Other uprisings and disruptions are purposeful. He likens Trump to Mao: The post A Carnival of Breaking Stuff and Lynching: January 6th appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio...

It was either another civil war or ratify a backroom deal to choose the next president. In that deal, the rights of newly emancipated people were sacrificed. Moving on from abolition, white northerners figured locking in white supremacy and the The post 2020 Not the Worst Election; 1876 Was appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

The word treason has been thrown around a lot lately. By Trump against his detractors and also leveled at Trump for seeking to stage a coup against America. On this show one of the nations leading authorities on the law The post Treason: What Is It Really? appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

The framers of our Constitution intended the judicial system to be the “least dangerous branch” of government. They did not foresee today’s powerful national parties having the ability to short circuit democracy. As we see in action now, on this The post Supreme Court: The Power to Obstruct Democracy appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

He called our current history education in our schools “a form of child abuse.” Teaching critical thinking and the real history of America would be shut down in Trump’s “Patriotic Education.” The popular 1619 Project and Zinn’s Education Project which The post How Trump’s “Patriotic Education” is Anti-American appeared first on KDA Keeping Demo...

We’ve seen it on the nightly news: the police, the tear gas, the fires, and the wall of moms. Our guest today, David Rovics is there in Portland Oregon and he explains that the city’s police protected the far right The post Unsafe to Protest? Realities Behind the Portland Picture appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .

As Trump kicks off his fall campaign, and we wonder who is behind it, who benefits from destroying our republic, here is the story. The religious nationalists see him as a fierce leader. They believe God sends such kings to The post The Attack on Democracy: What’s Behind Trumpism appeared first on KDA Keeping Democracy Alive Podcast & Radio Show .