CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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Trump in the White House: Tragedy and Farce
The great issues of our times are the return of fascism to the United States and Europe, climate change, and the stagnation of the world capitalist economy. These great issues are pressing and interconnected.
We used to think that the experience of World War II guaranteed that no politician would ever advocate the ideas of fascism.
But the election of Donald Trump a year ago has caused a serious reconsideration of fascism and it’s relationship to capitalism and to democracy.
The neoliberals paved the way for Trump. Now he and the forces aligned with him have put our democratic institutions under attack in order to protect the rule of the wealthy. The attacks include the right to vote, labor unions, public education, an independent news media, independent public universities, the privatization of much of traditional governmental functions and making it almost impossible to launch a new political party.
The election of Trump is a political development that for concrete sociological reasons allows us to see it for what it is, as a type of neo-fascism. Only by identifying the phenomena correctly can we effectively fight it.
Jack London wrote a century ago in his famous book The Iron Heel that “There is a shadow of something colossal and menacing that even now is beginning to fall across the land. Call it the shadow of an oligarchy, if you will; it is the nearest I dare approximate it. What is nature may be I refuse to imagine. But what I want to say was this: You are in a perilous position.”
Guest – John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon. He has written widely on political economy and has established a reputation as a major environmental sociologist. He is the author of Marx’s Ecology: Materialism and Nature (2000), The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences (with Fred Magdoff, 2009), The Ecological Rift: Capitalism’s War on the Earth (with Brett Clark and Richard York, 2010), and The Theory of Monopoly Capitalism: An Elaboration of Marxian Political Economy (New Edition, 2014), among many others.
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Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America
The spectacle of President Donald Trump and the palace intrigue in the White House has served daily to distract people from the political strategy and accomplishments of the radical right, which is taking over the Republican Party.
Over time, the GOP has been transformed into operation conducting a concerted effort to curb democratic rule in favor of capitalist interests in every branch of government, whatever the consequences. It is marching ever closer to the ultimate goal of reshaping the Constitution to protect monied interests. This gradual take over of a major political party happened steadily, over several decades, and often in plain sight.
Duke University Professor Nancy MacLean exposes the architecture of this change and it’s ultimate aim. She has written that “both my research and my observations as a citizen lead me to believe American democracy is in peril”.
Guest – Professor Nancy MacLean, whose new book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America, has been described by Publishers Weekly as “a thoroughly researched and gripping narrative… [and] a feat of American intellectual and political history.” Booklist called it “perhaps the best explanation to date of the roots of the political divide that threatens to irrevocably alter American government.” The author of four other books, including Freedom is Not Enough: The Opening of the American Workplace (2006) called by the Chicago Tribune “contemporary history at its best,” and Behind the Mask of Chivalry: The Making of the Second Ku Klux Klan,named a New York Times “noteworthy” book of 1994, MacLean is the William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy.
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Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Supreme Court, Truth to Power
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The Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht
It’s been four years since a jury found that then 29-year-old Ross Ulbricht guilty on charges related to operating a Dark Website called the Silk Road that sold, among other things, illicit drugs.
The case was a high profile one, and Rosshad come to be known by some as the face of the Dark Web. He was convicted on seven charges—including a “kingpin” charge—and now-retired Judge Katherine Forrest imposed two life sentences and 40 years… Ross is a young, non-violent, first-time offender serving two life sentences, plus forty years, without parole. He was not convicted of selling drugs or illegal items himself, but rather of creating an e-commerce website that others chose to use for that purpose. No victim was named at trial, and prosecutors had not even sought such a long sentence.
Corruption, abuse, evidence tampering and multiple violations of Ross’s rights cast serious doubt on the legitimacy of Ross’s conviction and sentence within the legal community and with the public.
In a 2016 appeal, defense attorneys outlined a litany of improprieties and abuses in the investigation and trial. Perhaps most serious was that the court precluded information about two corrupt federal agents investigating Silk Road who are now both serving prison sentences for corruption. Last year the Supreme Court denied to consider the case.
Guest – Ross’s mother, Lyn Ulbricht joins us to talk about a petition for clemency to President Donald Trump. Free Ross Ulbricht.
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Attorney Client Privilege
What is the attorney-client privilege? And to whom does it apply? Generally speaking, the privilege is owned by the client and unless the client waived her rights her lawyer is barred not only from revealing any information about the client but even revealing who the client is.
An exception in the case of the FBI raid and Donald Trumps attorneys Office, Home, and hotel room was made on the grounds that there is a fraud exception to the attorney-client privilege. Defenders of the attorney-client privilege, even if it has to do with protecting Donald Trump, have argued that it is illegal and unprincipled for the Justice Department to get a search warrant from a federal magistrate and violate the principle.
Guest – Minneapolis Attorney Carla Kjellberg, has worked with victims of child sexual assault who have sued priests, litigated sensitive family law matters, and worked with unions and political activists.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Cuba, Truth to Power
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Gov. Ricardo A. Rosselló Announces Resignation After Massive Protest Fills Streets
President Donald Trump’s recent attacks on four congresswomen, people of color, telling them “to go back home” echoes the dehumanizing demagoguery of fascist strong men who use race baiting to scapegoat and divide and conquer. Victimizing Latinos has been a strategy of Trump’s ever since the election when he called Mexicans criminals and rapists.
After Hurricane Maria wrecked the American colony of Puerto Rico in 2015 killing nearly 3000 people and severely damaging the electrical grid, Trump went to San Juan and was videoed throwing rolls of paper towels to people.
Guest – Attorney Natasha Bannan, former National Lawyers Guild director. She currently works as associate counsel at the New York City-based Latino Justice. She graduated from CUNY Law School where she was editor in chief of the CUNY Law Review. She wrote an article for this journal titled Puerto Rico’s Odious Debt: The Economic Crisis Of Colonialism. She is also on the Board of Directors of the Center for Constitutional Rights.
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Venezuelan Embassy: Embassy Protection Collective Update
In a violation of international law, on May 16, 2019 more than 100 police, many with military gear, invaded the embassy of Venezuela in Washington, DC and arrested four Embassy Protectors who were in the embassy with the permission of the Venezuelan government to protect it from takeover as part of a US coup against the elected Venezuelan government of Nicolas Maduro.
The US had attempted to install Juan Guaido as the president of Venezuela and on May 30th right wing coup supporters attempted to take over the Venezuelan embassy in Washington DC. This coincided with another attempted coup by Juan Guaido in Venezuela. Guaido failed in his coup attempt.
The embassy in Washington, DC is the property of Venezuela and under international law the United States must protect and is not allowed to enter it.
A group of Americans known as the Embassy Protection Collective moved into the embassy to prevent its hostile takeover. Up to 70 people were sleeping in the embassy as embassy protectors.
The State Department, Secret Service, and the Metropolitan police force allowed a pro-coup mob to lay siege on the embassy. People were blocked from entering the embassy. Food was prevented from being brought in. The electricity and water were cut off.
Although the coup against the Maduro government failed, the Embassy Protectors were arrested when the US government raided the Venezuelan embassy. The final four Embassy Protectors, Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers., Adrian Pine, and David Paul were arrested and face federal prosecution. If convicted they could be imprisoned up to one year and fined up to $100,000 each.
Guest – Kevin Zeese is a US lawyer and political activist. He helped organize the 2011 Occupy encampment in Washington DC. Kevin Zeese is currently the co-director of The Organization Popular Resistance.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, FBI Intrusion, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Truth to Power
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Bronx 120 Report 2019 Questions Largest Gang Take Down
Three years ago, on April 27, 2016, SWAT teams and about 700 NYPD officers, with federal law enforcement present, raided the Eastchester Gardens public housing project and nearby homes in the Bronx. One hundred 20 people, almost all young black and Latino men, who were indicted after the pre-dawn raid. Prosecutors called the “largest gang take-down in New York City history.” At the time we covered it on Law and Disorder.
Preet Bharara, then U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said the 120 were members of two violent, rival street gangs that had “wreaked havoc” in the neighborhood for years and were responsible for at least eight murders. The NYPD police commissioner at the time, William Bratton said: “These gang members do not belong on our streets…Instead they belong exactly where they are going, to federal prison, for many years, where they won’t be surrounded by their buddies, they won’t be close to their families, and they’ll no longer be free to terrorize the neighborhoods in which they grew up.”
Visit – Bronx120.Report
Although the press covered the raids for a few days, over the past 3 years, few journalists have followed up. A new report, published prior to the raid’s third anniversary reveals troubling facts about the prosecution. It also raises questions about due process, the abuse of federal conspiracy charges, and the criminalization of social relationships in communities of color.
Guest – Babe Howell, a co-author of the report and a professor at CUNY School of Law. Professor Howell studies gang policing practices and teaches Criminal Law, Criminal Trial Advocacy and Lawyering Skills. A graduate of Harvard College, Professor Howell received her J.D. from New York University School of Law where she was a Root-Tilden Snow Public Interest Scholar.
Professor Howell’s scholarship focuses on the intersection of the criminal justice system and race. She is particularly interested in the effects of policing of minor offenses and alleged gang affiliations and the impact such policing has on the legitimacy of the criminal justice system and communities of color.
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Period Equity Tax
Thousands of health and personal care items in the United States are exempt from sales tax. That includes items like shampoo, chapstick, and Viagra. But notably missing from that list are menstrual products. To-date only nine states include tampons and sanitary pads from their tax exempt list. Seven more have introduced legislation aimed at doing the same. Three of the seven — Nebraska, Virginia and Arizona — introduced their legislation this year.
In her book, Periods Gone Public, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf chronicles what she calls a lack of “period equity.” She writes that managing menstruation “is a critical aspect of the lives and civic participation of more than half the population,” and should be considered when making policy.
Much of her advocacy has focused on fighting against what’s dubbed the “tampon tax.” It’s an example of women paying a premium for various products, known as the “pink tax.”
While there is no specific tax on tampons, in states that don’t tax medical and health supplies, tampons are excluded from those tax-exempt categories.
Guest – Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, a leading voice for equitable menstrual policy in America, her 2017 book Periods Gone Public lays out a pro-active policy agenda. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, Time, Newsweek, the Nation and other publications, she serves on the boards of Support the Girls,The Cup, and Girls Helping Girls. Period., and is an Advisory Board member of ZanaAfrica Foundation, which provides menstrual health education and products to girls in Kenya. An attorney with expertise in nonprofit management and development, she is a vice president of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law.
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Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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Data Collection Experiment: Google’s SideWalk Labs In Toronto
Last year Law and Disorder featured a segment on Sidewalk Labs, a data-oriented smart city in Toronto. Sidewalk Labs is a firm owned by Google parent company Alphabet. We covered critics’ concerned about residents’ privacy and how data would be used.
Last week, Sidewalk labs has released a 1,500-page development proposal for its planned “smart” neighborhood. They claim it will integrate physical, digital, and policy innovations to take on affordability, sustainability, quality of life and generate economic opportunity. Critics assert, this is an experimental model for a surveillance state and covert data collection.
Sidewalk Lab’s plan is a radical departure from the principles that have guided city planning in Canada since citizen participation and accountability came to the fore in the era of renowned Canadian-American urban planner Jane Jacobs.
Mariana’s recent article.
Guest – Mariana Valverde, Professor at the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies at the University of Toronto. She’s an urban studies scholar whose research interests include public-private partnerships, governance and infrastructure.
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Impeachment Analysis Of President Donald Trump
Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s May statement on his investigation and report revived calls to impeach President Donald Trump. Such calls rest on solid legal ground. There is already more than adequate evidence supporting at least seven articles of impeachment – four more than President Richard M. Nixon would have faced had he not resigned in 1974.
Trump obstructed the administration of justice by attempting to fire Mueller, to curtail his investigation; he ordered White House counsel Donald McGahn to falsify the record to conceal these attempts. He fired FBI Director James B. Comey because of “Comey’s unwillingness to publicly state that Trump was not personally under investigation. He also sought to protect himself from an investigation into his campaign,” because he knew it would uncover facts about the campaign and the President personally that Trump could have understood to be crimes or that would give rise to personal and political concerns.”
He tried to dissuade Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen, Roger Stone, and other witnesses from cooperating with the government. The non-cooperation of Manafort and Stone made it impossible to establish the exact nature of the relationship between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
All of those are violations of Article I of the Constitution, and Trump has violated Articles II through VII, as well.
So the internal debates are not about the legal grounds. They pertain to strategy. And these debates are fracturing alliances among liberals and the left.
Guest – Attorney Abi Hassen is a criminal defense attorney, technologist and co-founder of the Black Movement-Law Project. He was formerly the Mass Defense Coordinator at the National Lawyers Guild and a union and community organizer. His podcast is Against the Law. Against The Law Podcast Link
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Afghanistan War, CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Iraq Veterans, Iraq War, Military Tribunal, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Supreme Court, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Lawyers You’ll Like: Attorney Nancy Hollander
Occasionally Law And Disorder has featured interviews with significant attorneys. We call this segment of the show Lawyers You’ll Like. One such attorney is today’s guest, Nancy Hollander. She has been practicing criminal defense lawyer in Albuquerque, New Mexico and has been a partner since 1980 in the law firm of Freedman, Boyd, Hollander, Goldman, Urias, and Ward.
Nancy Hollander‘s practice has largely been devoted to representing individuals and organizations accused of crimes, including those involving national security issues.
She was one of the attorneys in the landmark Holy Land Five case. She won whistle blower Chelsea Manning’s release in 2017 when President Obama commuted her sentence from 35 years to seven years. Although not currently representing Manning she has met with her recently. Manning has been jailed for two months for refusing to cooperate with a grand jury in Virginia which is investigating Julian Assange of WikiLeaks. Manning released the famous Iraqi war log video showing American war crimes in Iraq to Julian Assange of WikiLeaks. He is in prison in London awaiting extradition and trial in Virginia where he faces 175 years in prison if convicted of Espionage Act violations. She represented Mohamedou Ould Slahi, whose release she obtained after he served 15 years in Guantanamo without ever being charged.
Write to Chelsea Manning:
Chelsea Manning – AO181426
William D. Truesdale Adult Detention Center
2001 Mill Road
Alexandria, Virginia 22314
Guest – Attorney Nancy Hollander has been a member of the firm Freedman Boyd Hollander Goldberg Ives & Duncan, P.A. since 1980 and a partner since 1983. Her practice is largely devoted to criminal cases, including those involving national security issues. She has also been counsel in numerous civil cases, forfeitures and administrative hearings, and has argued and won a case involving religious freedom in the United States Supreme Court. Ms. Hollander also served as a consultant to the defense in a high profile terrorism case in Ireland, has assisted counsel in other international cases and represents two prisoners at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. Nancy is co-author of WestGroup’s Everytrial Criminal Defense Resource Book, Wharton’s Criminal Evidence, 15th Edition, and Wharton’s Criminal Procedure, 14th Edition. She has appeared on national television programs as PBS Now, Burden of Proof, the Today Show, Oprah Winfrey, CourtTV, and the MacNeill/Lehrer News Hour.
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Supreme Court: Cable Companies Can Limit Public Access
Last month United States Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 decision written by Brett Kavanaugh decided that TV cable companies can, in the words of our guest, losing plaintive DeeDee Halleck, “censor whatever, whoever, and whenever they want.”
Cable companies like Manhattan Neighborhood Network can now limit public access that carry TV shows to be available in hundreds of cities and towns.
The Supreme Court held that Manhattan Neighborhood Network is not subject to First Amendment constraints, that the free-speech clause of the First Amendment prohibits only governmental, not private abridgment of speech and that MNN is a private company.
Judges Cavanagh, Robert, Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch is found against the free-speech argument of Halleck and her co-plaintiff Jesus Melendez. Judge Sotomayor wrote the dissent which was joined in on by Ginsberg, Breyer and Kagan.
Guest – Deedee Halleck one of the plaintiffs in this case and among the top media activists. She’s co-founder of Paper Tiger Television and also the Deep Dish Satellite Network, the first grass roots community television network. She is Professor Emerita in the Department of Communication at the University of California at San Diego.
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