Building A New America With Jonathan Arias.

My discussion with Federal District Court Judge Jed Rakoff on his new book Why the Innocent Plead Guilty and The Guilty Go Free.

If you viewed the mass demonstrations of 2020, you might have the impression that the majority of the country supports police reform. If you thought so, you may want to think again.Polls from the Pew Research Center indicate that, while approval for police has declined slightly over the past five years, Overall support for police still remains high But despite this support, ….most people polled regardless of race – about 90% – agreed that police should be better trained in nonviolent alternatives to deadly force.This leads us to the political slogan “Defund the police” … a slogan that has been intensely debated over the past year.    But how many people really know what it means?Will defunding the police lead to chaos and disorder as some voters fear?   And Is this fear being used by certain politicians to prevent serious reform?On the other hand …. Does the slogan mean that funds should be diverted away from police departments and, instead, reallocated to non-policing forms of public safety? Activists use th

The infamous fact is that we in the US spend vastly more on healthcare than any other country without necessarily getting better services or outcomes.  The last time I checked, we spend about 20% of our national GDP on healthcare.  Anecdotally, I know tons of people, including myself, who have dealt with outrageous and unpredictable medical bills. In fact, in a 2009 study in the American Journal of Medicine, 62% of bankruptcies were caused by medical issues.  With that said, how should we view healthcare?  As a commodity like anything else that we consume?  Or as a social good, as a right, where any and everyone receives proper and affordable healthcare?   With the complexity of this issue, we could only do it justice by covering it in 2 parts. In part one, we dive into the area that most concerns us: cost.  We discuss the role that insurance companies, hospitals, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies play in cost.In part two: we compare the US system to other systems around the world.  You may be surprised b

Most people know that our country attempts to separate political power by dividing it amongst three government branches: legislative, executive, and judiciary.  Regarding the legislative branch, political power is further divided into two parts:: the House of Representatives and the Senate.  Lately, the Senate has been in the news for multiple reasons, most prominently for this raging debate over the Filibuster.  It’s a debate that’s been raging for decades but has returned because Democrats have a unique opportunity to pass sweeping voting rights legislation and a tremendously $1.9 Trillion Coronavirus relief package.  Democrats made huge promises to their voters during the 2020 election.  And when people vote, they expect those promises to be fulfilled.  Why else would you vote?Democrats, however, are at grave risk of disappointing their base largely because of this quirky filibuster rule.  Today we’re going to learn more about how the Senate operates, about the filibuster, and how it affects you.  And with

Most people know that our country attempts to separate political power by dividing it amongst three government branches: legislative, executive, and judiciary.  Regarding the legislative branch, political power is further divided into two parts:: the House of Representatives and the Senate.  Lately, the Senate has been in the news for multiple reasons, most prominently for this raging debate over the Filibuster.  It’s a debate that’s been raging for decades but has intensified because Democrats have a unique opportunity to pass sweeping voting rights legislation and a tremendously $1.9 Trillion Coronavirus relief package.  Democrats made huge promises to their voters during the 2020 election.  And when people vote, they expect those promises to be fulfilled.  Why else would you vote?Democrats, however, are at grave risk of disappointing their base largely because of this quirky filibuster rule.  Today we’re going to learn more about how the Senate operates, about the filibuster, and how it affects you.  And w

Although we just finished one of the most important national elections of our generation, another key race is heating up in New York City.  In 2021, New York City will elect a new mayor to replace Bill de Blasio.  In this episode, I’ll be sitting down with one of the mayoral candidates to see why she believes she’s ready to lead Gotham. I have the wonderful pleasure of interviewing Dianne Morales, a native New Yorker, Afro Latina, and the former executive of one of the most instrumental social services programs in New York City, the Phipps Neighborhoods.  She’s an outsider to politics, but an insider to the issues that affect millions of New Yorkers.   

American monopolies dominate, control, and consume most of the energy of our entire economic system; they function the same as cancer does in a body, and, like cancer, they weaken our systems while threatening to crash the entire body economy.  American monopolies have also seized massive political power and use it to maintain their obscene profits and CEO salaries while crushing small competitors.In this episode, I speak with Thom Hartmann, America's #1 progressive radio host, to discuss his new book The Hidden History of Monopolies - How Big Business Destroyed the American Dream.

The novel coronavirus has catapulted the world into uncharted territory.  As arguably the most disruptive pandemic of our generation, it has forced the entire globe into a state of panic and confusion.  More than ever, the public has had to rely on experts for guidance and solace.  But in an atmosphere of significant political polarization and distrust of public institutions, our efforts to control the pathogen has been all the more difficult.  While this moment poses a formidable challenge, medical and economic experts have been working extremely hard to attenuate the damage of this global pandemic.  In this episode, I get the wonderful opportunity to discuss paths towards recovery with such an expert.  Dr. Zoë M. McLaren is an Associate Professor in the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and an Affiliate of the Health Econometrics and Data Group at York University.  Dr. McLaren’s research builds the evidence base to guide health and economic policy by developing rigorous

The internet and social media have restructured the traditional media landscape by allowing anyone to bypass the traditional gatekeepers with a smartphone and an internet connection.  In the past, you had to be chosen by media executives; now you can choose yourself and bring your creations directly to your consumers.  While this has created unprecedented levels of collaboration and creativity, it has also resulted in intense competition for the attention of people - more people means saturated markets.  Though the traditional gatekeepers may have lost power, new gatekeepers have taken their thrones: social media platforms.  After all, notwithstanding the new perceived levels of creative potential, all creators must still go through a few platforms.   In this sense, the new gatekeepers are now algorithms, determining who sees your work.  Technology companies, already powerful and concentrated, have the potential for becoming even greater behemoths.   In this episode, we sit down with University of Minnesota e

As a result of the economic damage caused by COVID-19, New York City is facing a budget deficit of about $9B for the current fiscal year and a similar deficit in subsequent years.  Some commenters say that this is the most significant fiscal crisis we’ve faced since 1975, even factoring in the 2008 Great Recession.  For obvious reasons – because we’re in a global pandemic – the circumstances from 1975 are different, but there are still many similarities between 2020 and 1975.  For example:The City has begun to make significant cuts to city servicesPeople are out of work, and unemployment is at record levels In a press conference addressing the current gap, the Mayor raised the possibility of borrowing funds to cover operating expenses;Crime is supposedly risingThe president has scapegoated New York City for the problems caused by COVID; andFederal Senators have suggested that New York should go bankrupt.The importance of knowing history is what to avoid.  So in this episode, we are going to gain political, so

In part two of this special two-part series, I continue my conversation with CUNY Law Professor Victor Goode about the 1960s Civil Rights movement's connection to today.  In this episode we discuss:why structural racism is cloistered from legal challenges against it;how black wealth was significantly curtailed in the 2008 Great Recession; how the National Conference for Black Lawyers became the Legal Arm of the Movement for Black Liberation;how the FBI used the Counter-Intelligence Program to blunt the Civil Rights movement and how a similar program is in effect today;how accusations of Communism against Civil Rights advocates have been a potent weapon against progress;the dangers of ideology;our shadow government.  

“If there’s no struggle, there’s no progress.  Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation, are people who want crops without plowing the ground; they want rain without thunder and lightning; they want the ocean without the roar of its many waters.The struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, or it may be both. But it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.”Frederick Douglass uttered these words over 100 years ago but they remain relevant today.  With protesting occurring on every part of the earth, decades from now, we will reminiscence about this era as one of the most important in American and world history.  The only other movements that remotely compare to this one are the Civil Rights and the Anti-Establishment movements of the 1960s.  In this episode, I sit down with CUNY Law Professor Victor Goode to analyze the similarities and differences between what’s happening now and what happened then in the 1960s civil rig

Our First Amendment guarantees the right to a free press.  In order for us to have a healthy democracy, the citizens –– people like you and I –– have to know what's happening in the world and, especially, what’s happening in our government.As the French writer Albert Camus once said:“A free press can, of course, be good or bad, but most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.”Our freedom, it appears, requires a certain degree of knowledge about society’s everyday affairs so that we understand how things should work in order to diminish corruption and impropriety when institutions, including government, are left unexamined. But in our world of pressing deadlines, financial obligations, and distractions, acquiring this critical knowledge has become increasingly difficult.  How practical, for example, is it for the common person to know about the Dakota Access Pipeline issue or the increasing tension between the United States and Iran, while balancing the responsibilities of lif

The events that erupted on May 29th in response to the killing of George Floyd symbolize the turmoil we’ve experienced intensely over the past five years.  Countless are the numbers of complaints we all have, but a major one is the rate at which our democracy seems to be deteriorating because of incompetent and dangerous leadership in the White House. During the 2016 presidential run, what shocked many about Trump’s decision to run was not only the fact that he was running but the unusual nature of his conduct. Take the way he used threats of violence.  From encouraging his crowds to beat up protestors at his rallies to threatening to lock up his political opponents: threats have been a consistent rhetorical tool.His questionable conduct doesn’t end there.  When confronted by the media about his lies, he resorts to labeling all criticism as fake news. When his arbitrary executive orders are struck down by federal court judges, he chastises them on Twitter and appoints judges — at a blistering rate — who will

The Coronavirus has put societies around the world in perilous positions.  It’s infected millions of people and unfortunately killed thousands.  On top of the loss of life, it’s also caused economic turmoil and obliterated economies,  The U.S. now has the highest coronavirus death toll in the entire world.  And the virus has struck New York City the hardest and has concentrated the most in the borough of Queens, where I so happen to live.With deepening concern over how both the federal and local governments are handling this crisis, it brings us to a topic we covered in an episode last year about the Emergency Powers of the Executive branch and the President specifically. In light of this pandemic, I think it’s important that we examine this topic again. The Constitution is not explicit about what a President can do in an emergency.  However, the Oath that the president takes requires him to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.  Considering this oath, Presidents throu

Thomas Jefferson is quoted as saying that "a properly functioning democracy depends on an informed electorate."   If a government is by the people, and for the people, – as the Constitution says – then knowledge is an indispensable ingredient to a democracy.  When Jefferson said this, he couldn’t have possibly predicted the powerful technologies we possess now.  Before the internet, the barrier to knowledge was that information wasn't readily available.  Today, ironically the problem is that there’s too much information - and to make matters even worse, there’s an overabundance of misinformation.   Consider the term 'fake news.'  It's a notorious term that became infamous just a few years ago.  And debates are still occurring on whether it influenced the 2016 election.  But fake news has always been around.  Propaganda is nothing new.  When I was a kid, I remember being in the supermarket and seeing this tabloid newspaper called 'Weekly World News.'  It’s still around.