Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Immigration, Right To Dissent, U.S. Militarism
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Leadership Failure Within The Democratic Party
The unfolding events in Los Angeles after Donald Trump called up the National Guard in violation of federal law and his threat to invoke the Insurrection Act are but his latest assault on democracy and the Constitution. Lawyers, social justice organizations, and watchdog groups are fighting back in over 245 lawsuits against the Trump administration winning over 180 injunctions. Last Saturday, thousands of NO KINGS rallies were held in every state of the Union.
But many are asking: Where is the Democratic Party in all this? Opinion surveys show the public is not impressed with Democratic leadership. What are Democrats in Congress and in state governments doing to oppose Trump and offer the American people an alternative? And what more should they be doing?
Guest – Alan Minsky, the Executive Director of Progressive Democrats of America (PDA). Previously, Alan was the longtime Program Director at KPFK Radio Los Angeles and the coordinator of Pacifica Radio’s national political coverage. Progressive Democrats of America was founded in 2004 to transform the Democratic Party and our country. PDA seeks to build a party and government controlled by citizens, not monied interests, with policies that serve the public and the planet. PDA is proud to say that they transformed American politics by successfully drafting Bernie Sanders to run for President as a Democrat in 2016.
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Protests Erupt Over University and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Partnership
A controversy is brewing at St. John’s University in Queens in New York—an institution known for its Catholic and Vincentian mission to serve the poor, the immigrant, and the marginalized. A recently announced partnership between the university and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has sparked backlash among faculty, students, alumni, and human rights advocates. In dispute is a new Institute for Border Security and Intelligence Studies, a training center for homeland security professionals created in collaboration with CBP’s New York Field Office.
Since the announcement, more than 900 members of the St. John’s community have signed a petition calling for the immediate termination of the partnership. They contend that working with an agency accused of human rights violations—notably against immigrants and communities of color—is in opposition to the university’s core religious and moral code. The petition to university leadership, notes concerns about academic freedom, the safety of immigrant students and faculty, and the ethical implications of normalizing CBP practices on campus.
Like any controversy, there are many angles. Supporters of the partnership cite the benefits of real world training and federal job opportunities. However, our guest today will tell us about potential downsides.
Guest – Professor Gary Mongiovi’s main area of specialization is the history of economic ideas, particularly those of John Maynard KAYnes and Karl Marx, and non-mainstream approaches in economics. Recently he has been working on the ideological role that economics plays in society. He has been a member of the editorial board of the Review of Radical Political Economics since 1994. His writings have appeared in the Cambridge Journal of Economics, Catalyst, Critical Sociology, Social Research, Metroeconomica, and The Nation.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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A Genocide Foretold: Reporting on Survival and Resistance in Occupied Palestine.
The world looks on in horror as Israel continues its genocidal assault on the Palestinian people. According to Benjamin Netanyahu, “the only inevitable outcome will be the wish of Gazans to emigrate outside of the Gaza Strip,” he told this to lawmakers at a leaked closed-door meeting. “But our main problem is finding countries to take them in.” According to our guest today, Chris Hedges, the Israeli war in Gaza “marks the end of a world where humanitarian law, conventions that protect civilians…matter.”
In a recent piece, Hedges claims that “the genocide in Gaza is part of a pattern. It is the harbinger of genocides to come. It puts to rest the lie of human progress, the myth that we are evolving morally. Only the tools change. Where once we clubbed victims to death, or chopped them to pieces with broadswords, today we drop 2,000-pound bombs on refugee camps, spray families with bullets from militarized drones or pulverize them with tank shells, heavy artillery and missiles.”
Guest – Chris Hedges, the journalist and author spent two decades as a foreign correspondent serving as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for The New York Times where he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of 14 books including War is a Force That Gives us Meaning, Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt, which he co-wrote with the cartoonist Joe Sacco, and The Death of the Liberal Class. His recent book is A Genocide Foretold: Reporting on Survival and Resistance in Occupied Palestine.
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The MAGA Ideology and the Trump Regime
As V.I. Lenin observed, “There are times in history when nothing happens for decades and other times when decades happen within days” He should know. He was the leader of the Russian revolution which overthrew the feudal Tsar and changed the history of the 20th century. We are living in a time when history is unfolding very rapidly. Trump and his coterie of the upper 1/10 of 1 percent aligned with the mostly lower middle class MAGA movement have taken huge steps upending and overturning the kind of democracy, however, limited by race and class, that we have lived with since gaining independence from England 250 years ago.
We are experiencing the transition to a new absolutist executive. Trump and the ideologues who have shaped his MAGA movement is a president who acts on the premise that whatever he does is lawful. He claimed full power to close down departments like the Department of Education, impound congressionally authorized spending, deport people without due process, while ignoring the courts. This is what he calls “a unitary executive.”
The classic definition of fascism is that it is one of the political forms that capitalism may assume in its monopoly imperial phase. It has a material foundation in a tenuous alliance between sectors of the extremely rich monopoly capitalists and a mobilized lower middle class. The key to fascist rule is the privatization of large parts of the government on behalf of the monopoly class. This ideology now in ensconced in the White House.
The right wing is opposed to environmental governance, they don’t believe in climate change. They are against open borders, universal healthcare, and green energy. Those who advocate for these beneficial movements are called “cultural Marxists.”They refer in a derogatory way to all contemporary progressive political causes. They call it “woke.” They use the term as it means to belittle all social justice struggles against racism and inequality, Its most common usage is as a racist dog whistle.
These fascists want to secure their rule by getting control of the entire cultural apparatus of society, a process that the Nazis, the German fascists of their time,called “bringing it into line.” The current attack on universities is the most recent example.
Guest – John Bellamy Foster is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Oregon. He is a prominent scholar on ecology and the author of many books, including “Trump in the White House: Tragedy and Farce”. Professor Foster is the editor of the venerable socialist magazine “Monthly Review“ and the author of the article The MAGA Ideology and the Trump Regime in its recent May 2025 issue.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law
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Placeless: Homelessness in the New Gilded Age
Homelessness in the USA has reached catastrophic proportions. In New York City alone 125,000 people are homeless. One out of eight children in public school are homeless. Shelters for homeless people are overflowing. Many sleep outside or in the subway system. Their conditions of life have driven many of these people over the edge.The problem is long-standing and quite evident.
There’s a lack of affordable housing. Why? Because building affordable housing is not as profitable as building luxury housing. How realistic is it to get money for affordable housing when the oligarchy in power lacks empathy and only seeks to enrich itself, shift money from the bottom to the top, and poor people have very little political clout in the two party system.
Guest – Patrick Markee is a prominent advocate and policy analyst known for his extensive work on homelessness in New York City. He worked at the Coalition for the Homeless for several decades. Markee’s forthcoming book Placeless: Homelessness in the New Gilded Age pinpoints systemic factors such as economic and equality, housing affordability, and policy decisions that have perpetuated homelessness since the regular administration 40 some years ago.
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Silencing Those Speaking Out Against The US-Israel War In Palestine
All across this country, academic freedom is under severe attack. Why? Well, at colleges and universities, professors and students who dare to speak out in defense of the Palestinian people and condemn Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people, have been censored, disciplined, fired, deported, and arrested. Universities are told who they can hire and what they can teach under the threat of the cut-off of grant money. This is so that, in our ever more authoritarian country, centers of opposition can be brought into line, as they were in Germany. And these attacks on academic freedom are not limited to actions by university administrators, but include those by the federal government, as well.
Visiting scholars, adjuncts and lecturers without tenure have had their contracts terminated, or haven’t been renewed. Some had their classes suddenly cancelled. Faculty members who espouse views contrary to official U.S. policy vis-a-vis the Israeli-U.S. war in Palestine have been criticized in ways that have trampled on their reputations and hurt their careers. As an excuse for this present-day McCarthyism, college and university administrators, and President Trump, often claim their censorious actions are undertaken only on behalf of ensuring their Jewish students feel “safe” on campus and to fight so-called “anti-Semitic speech and actions” on campus. But there is a distinct lack of evidence to support their claimed motivation. In fact, the largest pro-Palestinian actions on campuses are often organized by Jewish groups, such as Jewish Voice for Peace.
We ask our guest Professor Alan Wald about McCarthy-styled witch hunts against academic personnel, and learn how federal law is being misused as a mechanism of political repression against academia. We’ll also discuss the role that controversy over slogans such as those condemning Zionism play in this new attack on academic freedom, and what strategies are best employed today by the opponents of Israel’s war in Gaza against these attacks, as the ever more deadly Israeli-U.S. war in Palestine continues.
Guest – Professor Alan Wald, the H. Chandler Davis Collegiate Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan…which, I might add, is my alma mater. Professor Wald has authored nine books related to today’s topic. He has been a socialist scholar since the 1960’s, and is currently an editor of the journal Against the Current, as well as a member of the editorial board of Science and Society. Professor Wald is also a founder of the University of Michigan’s Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine committee.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Supreme Court
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Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes
Today, Republicans are the ruling party in the United States. They control the presidency, the Senate, and the House of Representatives. But they also control the Supreme Court, which is the one institution that is supposed to oversee the legality and constitutionality of what the other two branches do. The Supreme Court has a super majority of six conservative justices, all of whom were appointed by Republican presidents, and three of whom were appointed by Donald Trump himself.
We are joined today by Prof Leah Litman, the author of a compelling and timely new book, Lawless: How the Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes. Prof Litman’s premise is that the “the Supreme Court is repeatedly elevating the feelings, sentiments, and political views of the Republican Party” and that the conservative justices consistently reach pre-ordained results that strictly conform to the Republican platform and then they justify those outcomes using high-minded judicial language to give the patina of objectivity. She points out that “Republican-appointed justices seem to think that the real victims of discrimination today are the Republicans, who no longer enjoy the kind of outsize influence, political power, and social standing they once did.”
Guest – Leah Litman is a professor of law at the University of Michigan and a former law clerk to Justice Anthony Kennedy. She is a co-host of the popular podcast Strict Scrutiny and she received the Ruth Bader Ginsberg award for “scholarly excellence” from the American Constitution Society.
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US Supreme Court Revokes Legal Protection of Venezuelan Nationals
In an emergency order issued on May 19, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to revoke legal protections that the Biden administration had granted to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals.
Only one justice publicly dissented: Ketanji Brown Jackson. Just days earlier, at a legal conference, Jackson delivered the Court’s strongest public rebuke yet of Trump-era attacks on judges who have blocked Trump’s policies on immigration, halting federal grants and contracts, and firing government workers. Her 18-minute speech earned a standing ovation.
In January, the Trump administration announced plans to end Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelan nationals—a designation that shields individuals from deportation due to civil unrest and unsafe conditions in their home country. The U.S. has seen a sharp rise in its Venezuelan population, driven by mass displacement stemming from Venezuela’s ongoing political, economic, and humanitarian crises.
Earlier, on March 31, U.S. District Judge Edward Chen issued a nationwide injunction blocking the termination of TPS, preserving protections for an estimated 350,000 Venezuelans and allowing them to continue working legally until at least October 2026, or until the legal challenge was resolved. Judge Chen raised concerns that the administration’s move may have been discriminatory and lacked a sound legal basis. The National TPS Alliance.
Guest – UCLA law professor Ahilan Arulanantham is a leading civil rights attorney and former MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Before joining UCLA, he spent nearly two decades at the ACLU of Southern California, the last two as Senior Counsel. He previously served as a federal public defender in Texas, and clerked on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Widely recognized for his work defending immigrant rights, he has twice been named California Lawyer of the Year and is a multiple-time honoree on the Daily Journal’s Top 100 Lawyers list.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, War Resister, worker's rights
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Jewish Voice For Peace
As Israel’s expanding genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank continue, with more than 47,000 confirmed deaths and many more unconfirmed killed, the Trump administration continues its unconditional military support of Israel, while waging its own war at home against the movement for Palestinian rights. Trump has intensified his attacks by labeling pro-Palestinian protests as “antisemitic” and using that excuse to cancel student visas, deport pro-Palestinian activists, and revoke federal grants to major universities.
Guest – Professor Barry Trachtenberg serves on the Academic Board of Jewish Voice for Peace and the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism. He holds the Rubin Presidential Chair of Jewish History at Wake Forest University in North Carolina. He is a historian of modern European and American Jewry, and the author of three books on the Holocaust and the revolutionary roots of modern Yiddish.
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DOGE: Targeted Purge And Deferred Resignation
A growing coalition of lawmakers, labor unions, and community advocates is rallying against what they call an “illegal and anti-democratic” takeover of the federal workforce. Members of the American Federation of Government Employees recently joined Senators and Representatives on the steps of the Office of Personnel Management in Washington. They demanded the removal of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency—known as DOGE—from federal authority. Their message was clear: DOGE is dismantling merit-based civil service protections under the guise of “efficiency,” threatening thousands of federal workers in the process.
The rally spotlighted the damage already done—more than 175,000 federal workers have been laid off or pressured into “deferred resignation.” Most of those affected, including more than 50,000 veterans, are victims of targeted purges that circumvent due process. Courts have already ruled against DOGE in over 25 cases, though legal battles continue as DOGE seeks expanded access to agency data and systems.
AFGE and its allies argue that DOGE’s agenda is not rooted in actual reform, but in political cronyism. Musk’s directives, which include replacing experienced civil servants with political loyalists and eliminating oversight roles like inspectors general. AFGE President Everett Kelley called DOGE a symbol of “blatant disdain” for the federal workforce in his four decades of union service.
Baltimore People Power Assembly and The Harriet Tubman Center For Social Justice
Guest – Alec Summerfield, is staff counsel of the National VA Council at the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO. He is also an anti-Zionist Jewish advocate for Palestinian rights. We’ll hear how his background informs his activism and why AFGE’s resistance to DOGE is part of a broader movement to defend democracy and protect public service from authoritarian erosion.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Freedom Of Speech, Gaza, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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A New Nuclear Non-Proliferation Agreement Amid Tension
In 2015 the United States and Iran negotiated an agreement designed to allow Iran to develop peaceful uses of nuclear energy, but not nuclear weapons. That agreement was terminated in 2018 during Trump’s first administration, and sanctions on Iran were re-imposed, sanctions that have proven to be very damaging to Iran’s financial well-being. Now, Trump has said his new administration is prepared to enter into a new nuclear non-proliferation agreement with Iran. But at the recent conclusion of what was the third round of U.S.-Iran negotiations on the issue, negotiations that appear to have gathered momentum, Israel’s Netanyahu has demanded that even Iran’s nuclear program for peaceful uses be dismantled, something Iran has steadfastly refused to consider.
Will Israel be successful in opposing Iran’s development of a nuclear program even if it is limited to peaceful uses? If Iran will not agree to give up its peaceful uses of nuclear energy, is a war between Israel and Iran inevitable? Meanwhile, the back-and-forth attacks by Israel on Iran and Iran on Israel continue. Just last week the Houthis, an Iran proxy, dropped a missile near Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. All of this raises the question, “Would the Trump Administration join Israel if it waged war on Iran, perhaps including its nuclear facilities and how would other Middle Eastern nations respond if war did break out between Israel and Iran and, perhaps, with the United States fighting alongside Israel?”
Guest – Richard Becker is the Western Regional Coordinator of the ANSWER—Act Now to Stop War and End Racism—Coalition, and the author of Palestine, Israel the U.S. Empire and of the book The Myth of Democracy and the Rule of the Banks.
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Entrenching Authoritarianism: Expanding the Terrorism Framework and the Infrastructure of Surveillance to Repress Expression and Stifle Dissent
Recently, the Center For Constitutional Rights along with a group of four human rights organizations together with legal clinics published a new report urging the United Nations to denounce the accelerated disintegration of democracy in the US. The report focuses on the US government’s increasing criminalization and repression of free speech, dissent, and protest under the guise of “national security.” The report was then submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is scheduled to formally review the United States compliance with its human rights obligations in November. The link to the report is above.
Guest – Attorney Nadia Ben-Youssef, the Advocacy Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights is quoted saying “Our hope is that the report sounds the alarm for the international community to act with greater urgency to challenge this administration and its belligerent efforts to dismantle constitutional protections and international law.” She directs all advocacy around issues related to the promotion of civil and human rights. Together with the legal, advocacy, and communication teams, Nadia identifies opportunities for the Center for Constitutional Rights to make strategic cultural and political interventions that shift public narrative and policy on our issues.
