Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, War Resister
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On Friday, following the taping of this show, the UK High Court ruled that the ban on Palestine Action, which we examine, was unlawful.
Our guest Fahad Ansari released this statement: “With jurors repeatedly refusing to convict individuals for smashing up Israeli weapons factories and now the High Court quashing the government’s proscription of a group dedicated to that goal, it is evident that the British public overwhelmingly opposes Britain’s support for Israeli genocide.”
British Movement Lawyer Exposes Being Targeted By Senior Politicians and Cointel Police
When repressive governments around the world attack their own people and liberal democracies fight back, some of the first responders are movement lawyers. Unlike cowardly law firms that capitulate in advance, as we have seen here in the United States, movement lawyers work hand-in-hand with activists not merely challenging what the government is doing but putting the government itself on trial.
The roots of movement lawyering in the United States can be traced back to the civil rights movements of the 1960s and 1970s, where lawyers challenged laws that upheld segregation and other forms of discrimination. These lawyers used the legal system not just as a passive tool but as an active agent of change. They helped litigate landmark cases that desegregated schools, secured voting rights, dismantled discriminatory laws, challenged draft laws and questioned the legality of the Vietnam War.
The founders of this program Law and Disorder, Michael Ratner, Michael Smith, Jim Lafferty, and Heidi Boghosian are all prominent movement lawyers. But movement lawyers are not confined to the United States.
Guest- Fahad Ansari, is a senior civil liberties solicitor based in London. As a movement lawyer, he developed a niche in representing individuals and communities affected by counter-terrorism legislation, state surveillance, and discriminatory policing. His career has been defined by taking on some of Britain’s most sensitive cases including representing those stripped of their citizenship on grounds of national security and representing Hamas in its 2025 application to be removed from the British government’s list of proscribed terrorist organizations.
The Hamas case resulted in Ansari being smeared by senior politicians and targeted by British counter-terrorism police and the government agency that regulates the practice of law in the UK.
On August 6, 2025, Ansari was stopped by officers at the port of Holyhead as he returned from a family holiday in Ireland with his wife and four children. Ansari said the bulk of the questioning was about Palestine Action, a group recently proscribed under the Terrorism Act. He was also asked about Hamas but refused to answer, citing client confidentiality. Ansari said he was held by police for three hours, fingerprinted, photographed and swabbed for DNA and told to remove his face ID and pin from his phone or face arrest. The following day, the contents of his phone were copied by the police.
Ansari said that “In the decade that I have been involved in national security cases, I have never heard of lawyers in England being targeted to this extent because of their clients. Some have complained that representing Hamas brings the profession into disrepute. Yet, what really undermines the integrity of the profession is when unpopular clients are unable to secure legal representation because of fear of public opprobrium and state intimidation.”
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Michigan Movement Lawyer Mark Fancher
As we celebrate Black History Month, conversations often drift toward a comfortable, sanitized narrative of progress. But our guest today, Mark Fancher, has spent his career in the uncomfortable spaces where the struggle for racial justice remains ongoing, contested, and— for far too many communities—urgent.
Mark recently retired as Senior Staff Attorney with the Racial Justice Project of the ACLU of Michigan. But his commitment to justice did not begin there. A longtime leader in the National Conference of Black Lawyers and an active member of the National Lawyers Guild, he has devoted decades to challenging the systems that produce inequality—not merely documenting them.
In Michigan, those systems are stark, and those injustices are often enforced by the badge. Black residents comprise roughly 14 percent of the state’s population, yet account for nearly half of those incarcerated. That disparity is not incidental. It reflects policies, practices, and policing strategies entrenched over generations. Mark has litigated the human consequences behind those numbers—from confronting a culture of brutality in the City of Taylor, which he described as functioning like an “occupying army,” to defending Black officers such as Johnny Strickland, who faced retaliation within their own departments for speaking out.
Mark is no stranger to the friction that truth-telling provokes. More than a decade ago, at a “Unity Breakfast” in Muskegon, his remarks about white privilege and police misconduct prompted audience members to walk out. He was labeled “divisive.” But as Mark reminded them then—and reminds us now—Dr. King did not preach comfort. He taught the oppressed to confront injustice without fear and without retreat.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminalizing Dissent, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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Jewish Voice For Peace: West Bank Divided and Conquered
Our guest today is Leta Hirschmann-Levy, a young Jewish New Yorker, who just returned from a solidarity delegation to the Israeli militarily occupied West Bank of Palestine. Ms. Hirschmann-Levy is a leading activist in Jewish Voice Peace, a writer and an actress. Her grandparents on her mother’s side were German Jewish refugees from the holocaust.
Israel has killed at least 1000 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since October 7, 2023. The murders are part of their project to ethnically cleanse the West Bank and East Jerusalem and make them free of Palestinians. Peace seems less and less possible.
The West Bank was invaded and taken by Israel during the 1967 war, a war that was initiated by Israel against its neighbors, especially Egypt and Syria. The West Bank has been occupied by the Israeli military ever since. It is the longest occupation in history. Despite Israeli propaganda, there’s no such thing as a liberal occupation.
Over 700,000 Israeli settlers have since moved into the occupied territory with the intent of preventing the West Bank from being part of a future Palestinian state, a Palestinian hope which the Israelis have vowed to never allow.
The territory is run on an apartheid basis with complete segregation of Jews and Arabs who are isolated by a 20 foot cement wall that snakes through their land. Arabs must use their own roads, are issued distinct license plates, suffer the indignity of military checkpoints, go to their own schools and live in separate communities at the base of hills occupied by Israeli settlers.
They are constantly surveilled and harassed by the military which keeps thousands of Palestinians, including children, in prison, many tortured and detained with no charges against them. Hundreds of their homes have been destroyed, their ancient olive trees uprooted, and their water supplies stolen. It is this situation that our guest went to observe.
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The Blue Road To Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved The Way For Autocracy
In 2016, a man famous for humiliating people on television with the catch phrase, “You’re fired,” was elected president of the United States. Many were surprised – chief among them, his opponent, Hillary Clinton.
But others, like our guest for this segment, saw it coming, and believes the Democratic Party could have done so much more than it did to avoid it.
Today, in the midst of Trump presidency #2, the country is as polarized as ever. How did we get here? And where are we headed? Is there a way to avoid the US slipping into a country where only the wealthiest enjoy power, resources, liberty and justice?
Guest – Norman Solomon, author of the new book, The Blue Road to Trump Hell: How Corporate Democrats Paved the Way for Autocracy. Norman is the national director of RootsAction and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is the author of more than a dozen books including War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine. Solomon has written about politics for many publications including The Hill, The Nation, the Guardian, Common Dreams, the LA Times and Salon.
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Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, Violations of U.S. and International Law
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University Capitulates To Censorship Policies
VI. Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution, observed that sometimes decades go by without very much happening and other times decades happen within weeks. In a sense we are living through such a time. It is comparable to the great transformation several centuries ago, when feudalism was finally subdued and capitalism flowered. The obligations of the master to the serf were severed and workers were left on their own in the new ruthless capitalist society.
The harshness of capitalism was ameliorated by social legislation, most notably by the reforms instituted in the 1930s in the Roosevelt era when we got Social Security, unemployment compensation, government jobs, workers compensation, and later Medicare and Medicaid and food supplements.
These ameliorative measures are now targeted and have been partially been taken away by the ruling rich, the new kings of capital, the 800 and some billionaires we have in America now and their MAGA movement led by the odious Donald Trump. One of the goals of the MAGA movement,which they’ve been largely successful, has been to dominate relations over the major institutions of our society, including the mass media, the Supreme Court, independent government agencies, major law firms, the Congress, and most lately, the large private universities, such as Harvard and Brown and Columbia.
Guest – retired Columbia University Professor Rashid Khalidi held the Edward Said Chair of Middle Eastern history for nearly two decades. He is the author of numerous books, including The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017. Although retired he had been scheduled to teach his long standing popular class on Middle East history. After Columbia University capitulated to the Trump administration with respect the administration taking control over the university, Professor Khalidi was no longer able to teach his class in an honest unfettered fashion. We discuss the situation and his open letter denouncing the perfidy of acting Columbia University president Carol Shipman in her school’s capitulation and we put this in historical context.
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US-Brazil Relations Diverge
The United States isn’t the only country grappling with profound political polarization. As the 2026 presidential elections in Brazil draw near, the world’s eyes are on the criminal prosecution and house arrest of its former president, the far right, Jair Bolsonaro, sometimes known as the Trump of the Tropics.
In 2022, Bolsonaro lost re-election, but it was by one of the most narrow margins in Brazil’s history. And his supporters and allies continue to hold substantial influence within Brazil’s government. Donald Trump is a personal friend and ally of Bolsonaro, and since the latter’s prosecution, he’s levied massive tariffs against Brazil and imposed sanctions against the country’s chief judge, including revoking his U.S. visa.
Our guest sees the fraying of US-Brazil relations to be troubling. Brazil is the world’s fourth largest democracy and seventh-largest economy. It has the greatest biodiversity on the planet, and is known as the earth’s lungs because it is home to a third of the world’s rain forests. The air we breathe literally depends on Brazil.
Guest – James N. Green is Professor of Brazilian History and Culture at Brown University, and former President of the Brazilian Studies Association. He is the author or co-editor of eleven books on Brazil, including Brazil: Five Centuries of Change; Beyond Carnival: Male Homosexuality in Twentieth-Century Brazil and We Cannot Remain Silent: Opposition to the Brazilian Military Dictatorship in the United States. Professor Green serves as National Co-Coordinator of the US Network for Democracy in Brazil, and he’s the President of the Board of Directors of the Washington Brazil Office.
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Become A Supporter of Law and Disorder
CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Freedom Of Speech, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, War Resister
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Dangerous Threshold: Long Range Implications Of Bombing Iran’s Nuclear Facilities
In a dangerous escalation of U.S. foreign policy, Donald Trump announced on June 22 that the U.S. had bombed 13 Iranian nuclear facilities in support of Israel. The Israeli-Iranian conflict has already left hundreds dead—including scores of civilians—and now risks igniting a wider regional, if not global, war.
While Trump claimed to broker a ceasefire, Israeli missiles struck Iranian targets just hours later. Iran denied any retaliation but was quickly blamed for alleged missile fire—charges used to justify further Israeli attacks. Trump publicly rebuked both nations, saying he’s “not happy with Israel,” even as White House officials praised his supposed diplomatic intervention. With the region in crisis, global powers maneuvering, and questions mounting over legality and legitimacy, we examine the broader implications for peace, international law, and U.S. democracy. BreakthroughNews
Guest – Brian Becker, national coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition and a longtime critic of U.S. imperialism and military intervention. A leader of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, he’s also a leading voice in the movement to end the occupation of Palestine.
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Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy
Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy is a new book by our own co-host Heidi Boghosian. Heidi explains how the erosion of civics education combined with widespread digital illiteracy, leaves Americans vulnerable to manipulation—by Big Tech, foreign adversaries, extremist movements, and even our own government. She argues that we’re not just under-informed—we’re being actively rewired by the very systems we depend on daily.
Yet people are fighting back and taking cyber citizenship seriously. They include librarians teaching patrons to use Tor, activists leveraging open-source tools, educators using justice-themed games to teach critical thinking, and whistleblowers risking everything to expose abuses by governments and tech giants. Heidi’s earlier books include Spying on Democracy and I Have Nothing to Hide, and her writing has appeared in outlets like the LA Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the ABA Human Rights Journal. She’s on the Advisory Board of the Georgetown Center on Privacy and Technology and the Media Freedom Foundation.
Guest – Heidi Boghosian is executive director of the A.J. Muste Foundation for Peace and Justice, a charitable organization providing support to activist organizations. Before that she was executive director of the National Lawyers Guild. Her book ““I Have Nothing to Hide”: And 20 Other Myths About Surveillance and Privacy was published in 2021 (Beacon Press). She received her JD from Temple Law School where she was editor-in-chief of the Temple Political & Civil Rights Law Review. She has an MS from Boston University’s College of Communication and a BA from Brown University.
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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, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Illegal Immigration, Supreme Court, Targeting Muslims, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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Chris Hedges: Trump 2.0
Trump 2.0 is qualitatively different from his first term in office. This time Trump and his allies have brought down a tsunami on us, creating fear and chaos. Tens of thousands of government workers have been fired. Thousands have been deported, some to a torture prison in El Salvador. Due process was ignored. The court orders challenging this have been ignored, as well.
With his extreme tariff measures, Trump has damaged our economy, and it looks like there may be a recession down the road. Trump has promised to use the Army and National Guard to suppress protests. Should there be an act of violence committed by a lone wolf, Trump could use it as an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the troops. This is all too reminiscent of what happened in Germany when a lone wolf set fire to the German parliament building. Hitler used this as a pretext for suspending civil rights and civil liberties and outlawing the communist and socialist parties, which were huge at the time.
Moreover, and most importantly, not only politics, but the culture of our country is being changed, as well. The Department of Education has been disbanded. Books are banned. Certain words are forbidden. Universities have come under Trump’s control, starting with Columbia University in New York City The great Kennedy Center, a mecca for U.S. culture, has been taken over by Trump and his Philistine allies.
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. Chris’ forthcoming book is titled A Genocide Foretold.
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The Great Moral Crime Of Our Time
Israeli -American killing of the Palestinian people living in Gaza is the great moral crime of our time. Gaza is a strip of land 25 miles long and 5 miles wide situated on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea immediately South of Israel. It used to have a population of 2.3 million people and was one of the most densely populated areas on the planet.
The Palestinian people have been murdered by American made bombs dropped on them from American planes and American drones for the last year and a half. A short cease-fire, was recently unilaterally broken by Israel, which resumed the killing in preparation for the removal of the entire population to the Sudan or the Sinai desert in Egypt.
Guest – Philip Weiss is the founder of Mondoweiss, a news and opinion website known for its critical perspective on Zionism and Israeli government policies as well as his support for Palestinian rights. Weiss, a former mainstream journalist, launched Mondoweiss in the mid 2000s as a personal blog before it evolved into a larger platform. His background includes work with publications such as the New York Observer and Esquire magazine. Overtime, Mondoweiss has built a team of contributors and has become a significant voice in progressive circles when it comes to Middle Eastern policies.
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