CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power, War Resister
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The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails To Save Us From Pandemics or Itself
COVID-19 did not cause the current economic devastation to billions of people around the world. It triggered the crisis. It illuminated the inherent instability in the capitalist system itself. Capitalism exacerbates unemployment, inequality, racism, and patriarchy and threatens the health and safety of workers and our communities.
We are in the worst economic crisis since the great depression of 90 years ago. Half of the American population is poor or near poor. Twenty million people are unemployed. It is estimated that 400,000 Americans will die from COVID-19 by the end of the year. Most of these people will be Black, Latino, the poor and the elderly.
The large corporations have bought out both the Republican and Democratic parties. Neither one of these parties has put forward an effective plan on what to do to get us out of this catastrophic situation.
Guest – Professor Richard Wolff, author of The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails To Save Us From Pandemics or Itself. Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program of International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. His previous books are Understanding Socialism and Understanding Marxism.
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Julian Assange Extradition Case Update
The decline of democracy and the rule of law, already advanced under Obama , has accelerated under Trump. By his own admission it is widely known that President Trump will not consent to leaving office if he loses the election. What is not so widely known is the case that he caused to be prosecuted against journalist and whistleblower Julian Assange.
Assange is being railroaded in the Old Bailey courthouse in London in an effort by US government, in collaboration with its British ally, to extradite Assange and send him to the federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia to be tried under the 1917 Espionage Act.
Assange told the truth about American war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan back in 2010. He is 49 years old and in terrible mental and physical health. If he loses and is sent to the Eastern District of Virginia for trial and successfully prosecuted, which is a given, it will be the death of free journalism and a blow to the first amendment which is a keystone of our democracy because it involves the right to learn.
Assange Defense
@defenseassange – Nathan Fuller twitter
Defend.wikileaks.org
Guest – Attorney Nathan Fuller who has been attending Julian Assange’s extradition hearing in London. He leads the London-based Courage Foundation and the director of the newly formed Committee to Defend Julian Assange and Civil Liberties.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Supreme Court, Truth to Power
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Socialist Perspective of Pre-Election Society In The United States
The word “chaos” best describes the current American public health, economic, race, and political situation. America leads the world in the number of COVID-19 cases and in the number of deaths which are now approaching 200,000. President Trump lies when he promises the quick development of a vaccine. He attacks the head of the Center for Disease Control and advises not to wear masks and leads huge rallies of maskless supporters.
The economy is a disaster. Perhaps 20 million people are unemployed. Small businesses are shuttered. The economic stimulus package has run out. Millions face eviction. Hunger is rampant especially among children. Democracy and rule of law are being trashed.
President Trump has cast doubt on the efficacy of the upcoming election first suggesting that it be postponed, then advising his supporters to vote twice, and assuring people that unless he won the election would be fraudulent. He has indicated that if he loses the election he will not vacate the White House in January 20, 2021.
Despite the unprecedented mass demonstrations of perhaps 20 million people in the streets since June, cops continue to murder people, especially black people, with impunity. The Republican convention put forward no platform to address the catastrophe. President Trump spoke at all for nights presenting himself as the solution for all of America’s problems.
The best that could be said about Joe Biden is that he’s not Trump. He has run a lackluster campaign and now finds himself neck and neck with Trump who got 60 million votes in the last election and whose popularity seems undiminished.
Guest – Doug Henwood, an economic, finance, and political analyst. He is host of the radio show Behind the News. He is a contributor to Jacobin magazine and a contributing editor to the Nation magazine. His latest book on Hillary Clinton is called My Turn.
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President Trump And The 2020 Election
What if President Donald Trump is voted out of office on November 3, 2020 but on January 20, 2021 when he is scheduled to vacate the White House he refuses to go. His lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen predicted this in his congressional testimony before he went off to prison.
President Trump is already casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election which is less than two months away. He says there will be massive voter fraud, that absentee balloting, which will be widely prevalent because of the Covid crisis, is easily open the fraud.
Can Trump send federal troops to Washington DC, or other cities? Can he deploy the National Guard of the various states? Can he suspend habeas corpus, arbitrarily detained people, or declare martial law? Can he investigate opponents, freeze their assets, control communications, initiate a foreign crisis, or get help from attorney general William Barr? What can we do about it?
Guest – Attorney Marjorie Cohn, the past president of the National Lawyers Guild and former professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Chris Hedges Analysis Of Pre-Election Society In The United States
We are living in extraordinary times. At the same time we face both tremendous danger and extraordinary opportunity.
The danger comes from a failed state, a failed racist capitalist state they cannot afford safety let alone opportunity to its citizens. Our opportunity comes from the massive social mobilizations that we have not seen in 75 years. A young generation has risen up. White people are involved with black people who are providing leadership. Perhaps 20 million have taken to the streets.
Trump is desperate and resorts to stoking fear of violence, race baiting, lying, explaining to his followers that all the unrest is due to agitators, antifa, Marxist and socialists.
The Democratic Party has chosen to oppose Trump with Joe Biden. The best you can say about him is that he’s not Trump. He has vowed to veto a medicare for all bill if it comes across his desk and has suggested that police violence could be curbed if they shot people in the legs, not the chest. He is for giving police departments more money. The worst you can say about Biden and the Democratic Party is that they are not a bulwark against fascism.
The big financial backers of the Democratic Party crushed the Sanders campaign indicating they would rather have Trump than a social democrat who would cost them money and raise expectations. Sanders for his part missed his historic moment, twice, when he refused to break from the Democratic Party in both 2016 and 2020.
Instead he performs the function of a sheepdog herding people back into a moribund capitalist party that has nothing to offer as a way out of the combined climate, economic, race, the health crisis, and nuclear annihilation and nuclear annihilation
Guest – Chris Hedges about where we are at, how we got here, and what to do next. Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. He was the foreign correspondent for the New York Times for 15 years and served as middle eastern bureau chief. He is the host of Emmy award nominated RT America show On Contact and the author of numerous books Including America: The Fairwell Tour, Empire of Illusion, and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.
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Global Peace Film Festival 2020
At the end of September each year since 2003, the Global Peace Film Festival has used the power of the film to advance peace on earth. The Festival views “peace” not as the absence of conflict but as a framework for channeling, processing and resolving conflict through respectful and non-violent means. This year, the festival will be virtual, and runs from Monday September 21 until Sunday October 4.
In keeping with the spirit of the festival, the films highlight themes such as civil rights, environmental justice, ethics, human rights, immigration, LGBTQ+, music, social justice, voting, wellness and wildlife. Each year, our program is carefully curated to create a place for open dialogue, using the films as catalysts for change.
Guest – Nina Streich, The Global Peace Film Festival founder and executive director.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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Update:
- Hosts Remember Attorney Kevin Zeese
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President Trump And The 2020 Election
What if President Donald Trump is voted out of office on November 3, 2020 but on January 20, 2021 when he is scheduled to vacate the White House he refuses to go. His lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen predicted this in his congressional testimony before he went off to prison.
President Trump is already casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election which is less than two months away. He says there will be massive voter fraud, that absentee balloting, which will be widely prevalent because of the Covid crisis, is easily open the fraud.
Can Trump send federal troops to Washington DC, or other cities? Can he deploy the National Guard of the various states? Can he suspend habeas corpus, arbitrarily detained people, or declare martial law? Can he investigate opponents, freeze their assets, control communications, initiate a foreign crisis, or get help from attorney general William Barr? What can we do about it?
Guest – Attorney Marjorie Cohn, the past president of the National Lawyers Guild and former professor at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego.
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Detroit Will Breathe, et al, v. City of Detroit
Black Lives Matter protests have occurred in Detroit since May 29. For the first five days Detroit Police responded to the protests with excessive force. They used tear gas and rubber munitions, and freely using batons and shields to assault and beat protesters. In total, they arrested more than 400 protesters.
The local NLG chapter joined the Detroit Coordinated Legal Defense Coalition to provide legal support. The other groups are: The National Conference of Black Lawyers, Detroit Chapter; the Detroit Justice Center; the Neighborhood Defender Services; the Wayne County Criminal Defense Bar Association; and Michigan Liberation. As well, the protesters formed an organization called Detroit Will Breathe, which continues to hold daily protests.
On August 31 the Coalition filed a civil lawsuit against the Detroit Police Department to obtain injunctive relief from the use of unlawful violence against protesters. Detroit Will Breathe, et al, v. City of Detroit.
On Sept. 4 the court granted in part the plaintiffs’ motion for a Temporary Restraining Order. Police Chief Craig is continuing his public relations campaign and continuing to falsely claim that the Detroit Police have acted lawfully.
Guest – Detroit attorney Julie Hurwitz, a longtime National Lawyers Guild member based out of Detroit, Michigan.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Targeting Muslims, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Update:
$600M to Settle Flint Water Crisis Litigation
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Julian Assange Update August 2020
President Obama prosecuted and imprisoned more whistleblowers than any other president. But President Trump did one thing that Obama did not do. He indicted Julian Assange for conspiracy under the Espionage Act charging that in 2010 Assange and his publishing organization WikiLeaks released truthful information about American war crimes.
Obama held off making such a charge because the US government has never before gone after a publisher; not even the New York Times for publishing the Pentagon papers.
Assange sits in solitary confinement in the notorious Belmarsh prison in London. He awaits the outcome of the USA’s extradition request.
His partner, Stella Moris, the mother of their two young children said: “Julian is being targeted by the United States for the crime of journalism. He helped expose the war crimes and human rights abuses which the US would have preferred to keep hidden from public view. He revealed the killing of unarmed civilians and the torture of innocent people. No one has been held responsible for the serious crimes Julian has exposed. This extradition aims to entomb and silence him forever.”
He is in bad shape mentally and physically. Nels Melzer, The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture visited Julian and reported that he was being tortured by the months on end of solitary confinement. He hasn’t seen his lawyer in five months nor his companion and their two children. He can’t prepare his defense. He was finally given a computer but the keys were glued down. When he last appear in court he could barely pronounce his name. Defend.wikileaks.org
What is at stake is the future of free journalism. Journalists have a right to publish and we, their audience, have a right to learn. This is what the US government is attempting to take away.
Guest – Nathan Fuller, the American head of the London-based Courage Foundation and the director of the newly formed Committee to Defend Julian Assange and Civil Liberties.
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Open Letter To The Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League pretends to be a civil rights organization, but the ADL is not an ally. It has a legacy of supporting racist policing, surveillance, colonialism and the silencing of social justice activism. It has branded itself as a civil rights organization in ways that conceal and legitimatize is right wing activities, undermined the rights of Black, immigrant, queer, Muslim, and Arabs.
In August 2020, 100 organizations signed an open letter exposing the ADL. Among the signatory organizations whose work Law And Disorder has covered on this radio program include the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild and Palestine Legal.
These 100 organizations signed an open letter announcing the publication of a pamphlet written by a working group with contributions from the American Friends Service Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Palestine Legal.
Guest – Lesley Williams, member of the coordinating committee for Jewish Voice for Peace in Chicago, the advisory board of speakers bureau for Jews Against Anti-Muslim Racism, and a founding member of the Tzedek Chicago, a non-Zionist pro social justice synagogue in Chicago. She is the author of “The Anti-Defamation League Kills the Black Jewish Alliance” and “We Can’t Fight Anti-Semitism and anti-Black Racism in Isolaton“. She works with a local coalition of teachers and activists to bring Palestinian history into school curricula.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Truth to Power
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USPS, Election Integrity and the U.S. Postmaster General
Hours after Democrats asked Postal Service officials to testify on Capitol Hill about new policies posing “a grave threat to the integrity of the election,” Nancy Pelosi cut short the House summer recess. Representatives will vote on legislation to block new changes at the USPS that voting advocates assert will undermine casting mail ballots during the pandemic.
As we’ve been reporting, the new postmaster general Louis DeJoy—a staunch Trump supporter—wasted no time enacting such changes as ending overtime pay and removing some sorting machines. Not surprisingly, these changes have created great delays in service. In response, the White House chief of staff has indicated openness to provide emergency funding to help the USPS deal with a surge in mail-in ballots.
DeJoy has significant and personal financial interests in the Postal Service’s corporate rivals and contractors. The November election is expected to bring in up to 80 million ballots by Americans nervous about in person voting because of COVID 19. The Postal Service notified states in July that it might not be able to meet their deadlines for delivering last-minute mail-in ballots. As a result, state attorneys general are considering suing the administration.
President Trump has unabashedly criticized mail voting as vulnerable to fraud. At the same time he requested an absentee ballot from his now home state of Florida.
Guest – Chuck Zlatkin, legislative director of the New York Metro Area Postal Union.
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The Black Alliance For Peace
Politically this is a time of great opportunity and great peril. The economic, racial, and health crisis we have been put in will deepen in the coming months. As the pandemic spreads, the depression gets worse and racist police brutality does not go away. There has been a massive corporate bail out disguised as a stimulus package. It has left millions of people jobless, broke, sick, and facing homelessness.
Trump and his Republican Party, venal and incompetent, have given up trying to contain the pandemic, ameliorate the economic catastrophe, or rein in the police. The Republicans left Washington two weeks ago refusing to pass an economic package that would aid the unemployed, which now number more than 30 million. 175,000 people have already died from COVID-19 and millions face eviction.
The massive demonstrations in the streets, black led with the support of the majority of whites, has been an insurgency unprecedented in American history.
Guest – Ajamu Baraka was the 2016 vice presidential candidate of the Green Party. He is a leader of the Black Alliance for Peace, a contributor to Black Agenda Report and an activist in the Black is Back Coalition.
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