Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Right To Dissent, Truth to Power, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister, Whistleblowers, worker's rights
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How The United States Took Out The Nordstream Pipeline
The war in Ukraine is illegal. It’s a violation of international law. Peace forces in the United States are demanding a ceasefire and negotiations and the recognition of Russia’s legitimate security concerns. At the same time, we recognize that the Russians were provoked by the United States and NATO in to invading Ukraine, having placed so many military bases and bombs on Russia’s border.
The latest development of enormous economic and political consequences is the American blowing up of the two pipelines that provided cheap Russian natural gas to Europe. The great investigative journalist, Seymour Hersh, has recently discovered and published a hugely significant investigative article on Substack, proving that the United States,despite its vehement denials, was in fact, responsible for the blowing up the pipelines.
This was done to prevent the integration of Russia into the European economy. Because now the United States and Norway sell liquefied natural gas and natural gas, to Western Europe at four or five times the price of Russian gas.
Guest – Seymour Hersh, has won a Pulitzer Prize and five Polk awards, beginning with his expose of the My Lai massacre in Vietnam where American troops killed 500 women, children and old men. His important articles were published in the New York Times, the New Yorker, and other mainstream media outlets. But his article on the US blowing up of the two pipelines had to be self-published on his Substack platform.
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Denouncing The Horrors Of Socialism
On February 2nd of this year, the now Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution “ denouncing the horrors of socialism.” It passed overwhelmingly in a 328–86–14 vote. More than half of the Democrats voted for it, while 86 voted against it and 14 voted “present“. The resolution is made up of lies and half truths. We urge listeners to read it for themselves. It is online. The resolution is three pages in length and 99% of it consists of a series of whereas clauses pointing out with the Republican authors of the resolution believe are examples of the “horribles” of Socialism.
What is socialism? Socialism has never really existed anywhere yet there have been attempts starting with the great Russian revolution of 1917 which effectively ended the slaughter of World War I. It was overthrown in 1991 when the USA and others successfully restored capitalism. What would a socialist society be like? First of all it would be democratic politically and economically and it would not be run by the one percent.
America has a rich history of electing people with a socialist vision. Socialism would illuminate racism and economic want. It would provide for education and healthcare, housing and employment for everybody. Production would be for human needs, not for profit. It would clean up the environment and eliminate the threat of catastrophic man-made climate change.
Guest – Jeff Mackler is the National Secretary of Socialist Action and was their candidate for president in 2016 and in 2020. Mr. Mackler also serves on the Administrative Committee of the United National Anti-war Coalition, or “UNAC”. He is the Director of the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal and a steering committee member of the National Julian Assange Defense Committee. A lifelong activist, Jeff Mackler is the author of 25 books and pamphlets and political, economic, and anti-US imperial war movements.
Hosted by attorneys Michael Smith and Jim Lafferty
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Racist Police Violence, Torture, Uncategorized, Violations of U.S. and International Law
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Ending Structural Police Violence And Abuse
On January 7, after an unlawful traffic stop, several police officers in the SCORPION unit of the Memphis Police Department beat, kicked, punched and tased Tyre Nichols, who posed no threat to the public or the officers. He died in the hospital 3 days later. SCORPION, which was disbanded following Nichols’s death, stands for Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in our Neighborhoods. In reality, SCORPION’s targets – as with similar such units around the country — were primarily Black men. Far from restoring peace, these officers escalated the violence and killed Nichols. The officers later lied about stopping him for reckless driving and the police chief admitted there was no legal basis for stopping Nichols.
One month later, in his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden introduced Nichols’s parents who were in the audience and he called for police reforms. We all know that racist police violence is nothing new. It has shown itself over and over throughout our history, and has led to calls for reform of the police, and abolition. But structural and systemic racism and police violence persist nevertheless.
In spite of the worldwide outrage at the public execution of George Floyd in 2020, and several superficial reforms, police killings continue to increase, not decrease.
Guest – Jonathan Moore, civil rights attorney in New York City who, since the late 1970’s, has specialized in police and governmental misconduct, employment discrimination, First Amendment advocacy, and international human rights. Jonathan represents the family of Eric Garner, who was killed in broad daylight in 2014 by the New York City police for allegedly selling loose cigarettes. He was also the lead attorney in the New York “stop and frisk” case in 2013 that led to the historic ruling that banned the practice as unconstitutional. And he represented the Exonerated Five (formerly known as the Central Park Five) in their successful wrongful conviction case against the City of New York.
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The Secret Files: Bill de Blasio, the NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform
The issue of police reform looms large across the nation, with daily reports and images of lethal police violence against Black and Brown persons striking a collective raw nerve. A new book by journalist Michael Hayes reads like both an investigative report and a gripping saga of the nation’s largest police department. Its protagonists are the New York City Police Department (NYPD), its powerful union, Black and Latino New Yorkers, and the Mayor. The book is “The Secret Files: Bill de Blasio, the NYPD, and the Broken Promises of Police Reform.”
Bill de Blasio, mayor from 2014 to 2021, focused his campaign on making the NYPD more accountable to the public. Previously, while serving on the City Council, he introduced legislation to expand the purview and clout of the watchdog agency, the Civilian Complaint Review Board. While in office, de Blasio tried to end the NYPD’s long-standing “stop and frisk” policy, among other pernicious practices. But from the beginning of his tenure, after two officers were fatally shot in Brooklyn in December 2014, the police department and its union doubled down in opposition to reform. One example was to effectively prevent public disclosure of internal investigation files or the identities of police officers known to be the subjects of those investigations.
Guest – Michael Hayes, in addition to his recently released book, Michael has long reported on the policies and practices of U.S. police departments and covered major criminal trials across the country.
Hosted by Attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Marjorie Cohn and Julie Hurwitz
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Civil Liberties, Human Rights
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The Movement To Stop “Cop City”
Less than two weeks after Atlanta police fatally shot an environmental activist, officials held a news conference to announce they are moving forward with plans to build a massive police and firefighter training center. Protesters have dubbed the $90 million Atlanta Public Safety Training Center “Cop City.”
Plans to build the training center have met with opposition from the local community and out-of-staters. Trees would be felled, undermining the city’s efforts to save its tree canopy and increasing the risk of flooding. Others oppose the center for its practice of “urban warfare” and its proximity to poor and majority-Black neighborhoods. The Atlanta Police and Fire Chiefs claim the center will replace substandard trainings and boost morale. The police department especially has had difficulty hiring and retaining officers.
The January 31 news conference came nearly two weeks after the January 18 police killing of an activist known as Tortuguita, after officials claimed that the 26-year-old shot a state trooper. Officers said they fired in self-defense, but protesters question the police narrative, noting the lack of body camera footage of the shooting. Joining us to talk about Stop Cop City and the national epidemic of police violence is Kamau Franklin.
Guest – Kamau Franklin is a former practicing attorney from New York, the founder of the national grassroots organization Community Movement Builders, and co-host of the podcast “Renegade Culture.”
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No Equal Justice: The Legacy of Civil Rights
Professor Peter Hammer is the Director of the Damon J Keith Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State Law School, and has long been a strong advocate for shining light on the intersection of race, class, power and the law. He has published scores of articles and books covering such critical issues as the Flint Water Crisis, the Detroit Future Cities, healthcare, education, racism and capitalism, among others.
What brings us here today is that he and his colleague, Professor Emeritus Edward Littlejohn, recently wrote a critically acclaimed book No Equal Justice: The Legacy of Civil Rights Icon George W. Crockett Jr, just released in 2022. This book tells the amazing story of George W. Crockett and his trailblazing life. He was the grandson of a slave and son of a carpenter. Crockett became the only Black graduate of University of Michigan Law School in 1934, the first Black man to work as a staff attorney for the United Auto Workers in the 1940’s, the first Black law partner in the first integrated law firm in the country in the 1950’s, one of the first Black men to be elected as a judge on Detroit’s criminal court in the 1960’s, and the oldest African American ever elected to the U.S. Congress.
He was also, along with Ernie Goodman and Maurice Sugar, one of the founders of the National Lawyers Guild, the first integrated bar association in the country, in which he played a critical role during the civil rights movement of the 1960’s, including the creation of the NLG Committee to Assist Southern Lawyers.
Hosted by Attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Marjorie Cohn and Julie Hurwitz
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Racist Police Violence
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The January 6 Report
The January 6 Report” by the House January 6 Committee has just been published by Harpercollins. It is a page turner. Most strikingly, the report documents the multi-pronged attack that Trump plotted. The crucial point made by the January 6 Committee report is demonstrating the profound misconception to view the January 6 invasion of the Capitol as merely a group of Trump supporters gone wild. The plot was not limited to the January 6 violence at the Capitol.
Rather, as the report documents, January 6 was a culmination of months of plotting by Trump to overthrow a lawful election and stay in power. He came very close to accomplishing a coup d’état, a blow against the state. Democracy in the United States, however limited, would’ve ended.
The American constitution was written in Philadelphia in 1787. Benjamin Franklin was there. When they concluded Franklin famously said “we have a republic, if we can keep it.“ Can we keep it? Will Trump be indicted by the Department of Justice and convicted for the criminal activity he orchestrated in order to keep himself in power, after losing the election two years ago by seven million votes? If he is not indicted, what will be the impact on the future of democracy in the United States?
Guest – attorney Stephen Rohde who recently reviewed The January 6 Report with a forward by the author Ari Melber. Rohde’s review appeared in “ Truthdig” and in the LA Progressive“. Attorney Stephen Rohde is a constitutional scholar, past Chair of the ACLU Foundation of California, an author of books on the Constitution, who frequently reviews books for the Los Angeles Review of Books. And Mr. Rohde is a leader in the national campaign to free the imprisoned investigative journalist Julian Assange.
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Martin Luther King Jr. : A Dream Realized
We take a look at where the long struggle to end racial injustice stands in the United States today. Oh, some progress has surely been made, but to say we’ve a very long way to go before Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream can be considered “realized” is both true and also a sad and gross understatement; a sad commentary on the role that white privilege and racial hatred continue to play in the United States, hundreds of years since our founding.
Guest – Attorney Sharon Kyle is the publisher and co-founder of the LA Progressive on-line newsletter and a former president of the Peoples College of Law, a law school in Los Angeles established by the National Lawyers Guild and other minority bar associations. Sharon Kyle is a member of the board of the ACLU Affiliate of Southern California and is its representative to the national board of the ACLU. Sharon Kyle is also an active member of the Los Angeles area Julian Assange Defense Committee; a member of the editorial board of the Black Commentator.com. Years before immersing herself in the law and social justice, Sharon Kyle was a member of several space flight teams at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Crony Capitalism, Human Rights
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The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself
We all know almost instinctively that there is a connection between politics and economics. Today we talk with Professor Richard Wolff about that connection. We live in a world in economic turmoil, all the more so because of the US and NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.
At home in the United States, we have the greatest wealth disparity and income disparity in a century. When Standard Old,now Exxon, owner John D. Rockefeller died he was worth $3 billion. Now Jeff Bezos is worth about $180 billion. There has not been a national increase in the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in decades. Half the people in America are poor or near poor.
There has been a dramatic increase in labor militancy by American workers not seen since just before and just after World War II. US world hegemony is starting to fray even as the military budget increases.
This month Congress passed a budget bill with half of it going to the military. The military received 45 billion dollars more than they even asked for. What is going on? What are the prospects for political action independent of these two capitalist parties?
Guest – Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, NYC. He is the founder of Democracy at Work and host of their nationally syndicated show Economic Update. His latest book is The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself, which can be found along with his other books Understanding Socialism and Understanding Marxism at www.democracyatwork.info.
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Israel’s Far Right Agenda
As reported in the New York Times, less than two weeks into its tenure, Israel’s new and extreme neo-fascist right-wing government has already undertaken a wave of items from its far-right agenda. Items that are designed to weaken the judiciary, entrench Israel’s control of the West Bank, and bifurcate the military’s chain of command so as to give far-right ministers greater control of matters related to Israel’s occupation.
It is likely to have profoundly negative implications for the Palestinian people, as well as profound implications for the already dismal chances of finding a peaceful resolution of the decades long Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Even a great numbers of Israelis have grave concerns about its new government and what its announced plans may mean for them.
Guest – Sandra Tamari is a Palestinian organizer and the Executive Director of Adalah Justice Project. She was the Co-chair of the Steering Committee for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights from 2015-2018 and a lead organizer of the Palestinian contingent to Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Racist Police Violence, U.S. Militarism
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You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You’re Innocent
There is a common belief that if you’re arrested, you are probably guilty because “where there’s smoke, there’s fire.” People assume that only the guilty confess to crimes because why would an innocent person confess to a crime they didn’t commit? And when a person pleads guilty or is convicted by a jury, that’s the end of the matter, in the minds of most people.
In fact, many innocent people are arrested, especially people of color, due to racial profiling and other forms of discrimination by law enforcement. Implicit bias often infects the case as it moves through the criminal legal system – from the initial police stop, to interrogation, arrest, charging, trial and sentencing. This is particularly tragic when a person is charged with a capital crime for which the death penalty is imposed and that sentence is carried out.
However, it is estimated that 10,000 to 20,000 people are currently serving time in prison after being convicted of crimes they did not commit, largely due to prosecutorial misconduct and police misconduct. Unfortunately, even when exonerated, the psychological and physical damage done is so extensive that many people are never able to fully recover from the trauma. In addition, when the wrongful conviction is solely the result of prosecutorial misconduct, those convicted have no legal recourse to be compensated for the wrong done to them because of prosecutorial immunity.
Guest – Justin Brooks criminal defense attorney and law professor has spent decades working to free innocent people from prison. The Founding Director of the California Innocence Project, Brooks is the author of the provocative new book, “You Might Go to Prison, Even Though You’re Innocent.” In it, he discusses false identifications, junk science, lying snitches, and incompetent defense lawyers – which too often lead to the imprisonment of innocent people.
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Junior ROTC In High Schools: Pressure To Join
On her first day of high school, Andreya Thomas and several other freshmen at Detroit’s Pershing High School learned they were enrolled in a class called J.R.O.T.C., or Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps. School administrators told them the program was mandatory.
Funded by the U.S. military, the program required students to wear military uniforms in class, recite patriotic declarations, and obey orders from an instructor who often yelled at them. When several tried to drop the class, school officials refused permission, even though the Pentagon says that requiring students to take the programs runs counter to its guidelines. The New York Times recently learned that thousands of public-school students were enrolled in J.R.O.T.C. either as a requirement or through automatic enrollment. Most of the schools with high enrollment numbers were attended largely by nonwhite students and those from low-income households.
Critics of Junior ROTC say that the program’s militaristic discipline prioritizes obedience over independence and critical thinking. And as we reported earlier on Law and Disorder, and now noted by the Times, the program’s textbooks often rewrite or downplay the failings of the U.S. government. With its concentration in schools with low-income and nonwhite students, some claim J.R.O.T.C. encourages students to enlist in the military rather than explore other routes to college or jobs in the civilian economy.
Guest – Rick Jahnkow works for two San Diego-based anti-militarist organizations, the Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities, or YANO, and the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft. We spoke earlier with Rick about YANO’s J.R.O.T.C. textbook review project.
Hosted by Attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Marjorie Cohn and Julie Hurwitz
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