Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Surveillance, Torture, Truth to Power
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Vaccine Passports, Privacy And Civil Liberties
New York State became the first in the country to premier a Covid-19 vaccine passport. They call it the Excelsior Pass and proponents say it’s a safe and efficient way for people to return to sporting events, concerts, Broadway theaters and other large group settings. You show a QR code proving a recent negative test or full vaccination.
The pass is voluntary and lets New Yorkers upload their official results—from a number of different vaccination sites and labs—into the system to verify that the person holding the pass meets the standards for entry. The state first used the pass at a Buffalo Bills football game in January after which they monitored attendees for 14 days after and discovered “almost negligible” transmission.
Registration in the program requires three pieces of information: Name, date of birth, and zip code. The pass is matched to vaccination and testing records using a series of questions to prevent fraud. When the person arrives at a venue, all they have to do is show a photo ID with their code, which will generate a green check mark at the venue.
New York state officials say they’ve been in close talks with surrounding states about integrating systems, but their neighbors say it’s not the priority. What are vaccine passports and who is considering implementing them? Connecticut, for example says it doesn’t have immediate plans to roll out a vaccine passport, although Governor Ned Lamont has said it’s possible to see private sector solutions if demand grows and if the technology is proven effective.
Guest – Attorney David J. McGuire, executive director of the ACLU of Connecticut. McGuire also is the chair of the Connecticut Special Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, serves on the state’s Racial Profiling Prohibition Project Advisory Board, and is a member of the Commission on Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the Criminal Justice System.
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Attorney Flint Taylor : Police Brutality And The Derek Chauvin Trial
The cruel and sadistic police murder of George Floyd last June on a Minneapolis sidewalk was videoed by a courageous 17 year old bystander. Her video was viewed by Americans across the country and the world. It captured Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, smirking, with one hand in his pocket as he knelt for 9 minutes and 29 seconds on George Floyd’s neck. Floyd was handcuffed behind his back and restrained by two other police officers at the time. He begged for his life, called for his mother, and repeatedly said “I can’t breathe!”
Onlookers gathered in protest as the murder progressed but their intersession was of no avail. George Floyd‘s life drained out of him. He lost his pulse. Still Chauvin persisted, kneeling on a dead man. An ambulance came to take away George Floyd’s corpse.
People responded, it was massive and sustained. In some two thousand cities across America 20 million people, white and Black , Black lead, protested in the streets. More than demanding that George Floyd’s killer be brought to justice, they demanded that police departments be defunded, that police be controlled by the community, and that ending police murders of Black people be brought to halt once and for all.
We are now in the midst of the trial of killer cop Derek Chauvin. Millions of Americans are watching the trial. It seems to them that this latest racist police outrage is the culmination of so many past murders. They are asking, what is to be done?
Guest – Attorney G. Flint Taylor is a founding partner of the People Law Office in Chicago starting out over 50 years ago representing the family of Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, Who was assassinated by the Chicago Police Department with the help of the FBI. He has represented numerous police torture survivors during the past 33 years. Taylor was one of the lawyers involved in the struggle for reparations and has chronicled the decade long fight against Chicago police torture in his award-winning book “The Torture Machine : Racism and Violence in Chicago.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Crony Capitalism, Habeas Corpus, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Sensing Injustice: A Lawyer’s Life And The Battle For Change
We are going to spend the entire hour with attorney Michael Tigar to discuss his just published magnificent memoir Sensing Injustice: A Lawyer’s Life And The Battle For Change.
By the time he was 26, Michael Tigar was a legend in legal circles well before he would take on some of the highest profile cases of his generation. In his first US Supreme Court case, at the age of 28, Tigar won a unanimous victory that freed thousands of Vietnam war resistors from prison. Tigar also led the legal team that secured a judgment against the Chilean Pinochet regime for the 1976 murders of dictator Pinochet opponent Orlando Letelier and his colleague Ronnie Moffit in a Washington, DC car bombing.
He then worked with the lawyers who prosecuted Pinochet for torture and genocide. A relentless fighter of injustice, Tigar has been counsel for Angela Davis, Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (H.Rap Brown). Tigar the Chicago Eight, and leaders of the Black Panther Party, to name only a few. His book is about stories, people stories of injustice, struggle, and sometimes vindication as he put it. Michael Tigar is a magnificent storyteller with a dry wit and a prodigious memory. Monthly Review link to Sensing Injustice
Guest – Constitutional attorney Michael Tigar, professor emeritus from The Washington College of Law and has taught at the University of Texas and Duke University. He has practice before the Supreme Court, arguing his first case when he was 24 years old. Tigar has written or edited more than a dozen of important books including “Law and the Rise of Capitalism.“ He has worked for over 50 years with movements for social change as a human rights lawyer, law professor, and writer. Since 1996 he has practiced law with his wife Jane B. Tigar. Michael Tigar’s blog Tigarbytes.
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Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Prosecution of the Bush Administration, Supreme Court, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Moving The Bar: My Life As A Radical Lawyer
Michael Ratner’s memoir Moving The Bar: My Life As A Radical Lawyer will be available at OR Books. As listeners know, Michael Ratner was one of the most important civil rights attorneys in our era. He spent his life fighting on behalf of those who state and empire sought to crush, from the leaders of the prison uprising at Attica to Muslim prisoners held in Guantanamo, to Julian Assange.
Michael Ratner (1943–2016) worked for more than four decades at the Center for Constitutional Rights becoming first the Director of Litigation and then the President of what Alexander Cockburn called “a small band of tigerish people.” He was also the President of the National Lawyers Guild. Michae Ratner handled some of the most significant cases in American history. This book tells why and how he did it. His last case, which he worked on until he died, was representing truth-telling whistleblower and now political prisoner Julian Assange, the editor of WikiLeaks. Ratner “moved the bar” by organizing some 600 lawyers to successfully defend habeas corpus, that is, the ancient right of someone accused of a crime to have a lawyer and to be brought before a judge. Michael had a piece of paper taped on the wall next to his desk at the CCR. It read:
Four Key Principles Of Being A Radical Lawyer:
1. Do not refuse to take a case just because it is long odds of winning in court.
2. Use cases to publicize a radical critique of US policy and to promote revolutionary transformation.
3. Combine legal work with political advocacy.
4. Love people.
We hear interviews about Michael Ratner with Chris Hedges’s show On Contact, Attorneys Eleanor Stein, Richard Levy and David Cole.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Truth to Power
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The 1871 Anti-Klan Act And The NAACP Lawsuit
Black Mississippi Congressman Benny Thompson with the support of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (the NAACP) last month sued former president Donald Trump, his disgraced lawyer Rudy Giuliani, the fascist group Proud Boys, and the Oath Keepers, a far right organization of ex-military and policemen.
Thompson used the 1871 Anti-Klan Act as a basis for his lawsuit. He alleges that there was a conspiracy between Trump and the other defendants to stop Congress from doing its business when Trump incited the January 6, 2021 ransacking of the Capitol.
The 1871 Anti-Klan Act was passed for precisely this purpose. 150 years ago, six years after the conclusion of the Civil War, the southern losers who wanted to keep slavery in another form, formed the Ku Klux Klan to murder, terrorize, and harass Black people for registering to vote, voting, running for office or performing their duties after getting elected.
The launching of this lawsuit is an extremely positive development. It’s chances of success would be increased exponentially if the fight was extended beyond the courtroom and masses of people were mobilized behind it. This is a lesson to be learned from Attorney Michael Ratner.
Guest – Black rights and socialist activist Malik Miah, an advisory editor for Against the Current magazine and a regular contributor to the Australian newspaper, “Green Left Weekly”. Malik Miah is a retired airline mechanic and trade unionist at United Airlines in San Francisco.
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Ross Ulbricht: Petition For Clemency
Seven years ago a NY jury found Ross Ulbricht guilty on charges related to operating the Silk Road website. The site was a Tor-hidden site, and used Bitcoin, triggering an all-out FBI search to determine the operator’s identity. The 29-year-old convicted on seven charges, including a kingpin charge, and Judge Katherine Forrest imposed two life sentences and 40 years without the possibility of parole, for the young, nonviolent and first-time offender.
The sentence was far longer than prosecutors sought. The website sold, among other items, illicit substances. Ross wasn’t convicting of selling illegal drugs but rather of creating an e-commerce website that others elected to use for that purpose. At trial, no victims were named; rather rampant corruption, abuse, evidence tampering and several violations of Ross’s rights cast doubt in the legal and technology communities on both the conviction and the extraordinary sentence.
In the 2016 appeal, defense attorneys presented a litany of improprieties in the investigation and the trial itself. One of the consequential of these was the court precluding information about two corrupt federal agents investigating Silk Road who were sent to prison on corruption charges. The Supreme Court refused to consider the case. So supporters spent the past four years preparing to petition Donald Trump for Clemency.
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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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Surveillance, Truth to Power, War Resister
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- Commentary By Attorney Jim Lafferty: Christian Nationalism
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Activists Face Felony Charges In Action Denouncing Elijah McClain Murder
On September 17, 2020 at least six anti-racist activists were arrested in an action denouncing the Colorado police, notably for the murder of Elijah McClain. In the summer of 2019, three Aurora Colorado police officers put 23-year-old McClain in a chokehold and medics injected him with ketamine. The young violinist and massage therapist went into cardiac arrest, was pronounced brain dead, and died three days later.
The social justice activists now face a litany of felony charges, and possible decades in prison, on charges that include “kidnapping.” Four of those arrested — Russel Ruch, Lillian House, Joel Northam, and Eliza Lucero — are considered protest leaders and are members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Police made a spectacle of the arrests, sending what many assert is a threatening message to other activists. Police followed Russel Ruch to Home Depot where they arrested him in the parking lot; five police cars surrounded Lillian House as she was driving; and a S.W.A.T team was dispatched to Joel Northam’s home. According to the 30-page arrest affidavits, the police used livestream footage, call transcripts, and social media posts to build a case against those arrested.
Guest – Lillian House, one of the four protest leaders. More information at Denverdefense.org
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The Current Risk of Nuclear War And Treaty Restoration
When Donald Trump was president, the Democrats called him Putin‘s poodle. They falsely claimed that Russia influenced the election and caused Hillary Clinton to lose to Trump. Clinton famously said “all roads lead to Russia.“
But the truth of the matter was quite different. Despite Trump seemingly adoration of Vladimir Putin as a strong man, American policy towards Russia was not completely friendly. The question now is what will Biden do?
The risk of nuclear war with Russia has been a grave concern since the cold war of the 1950s. Under Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama American nuclear policies were such that the threat of war including accidental war was never reduced. With Biden as president will this change? Will there be a restoration of nuclear treaties and a de-escalation.
Guest – Ray McGovern former CIA intelligence analyst, Ray briefed President George H. W. Bush every morning on intelligence matters, particularly with respect to Russia. He is a founder of VIPS, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity and a contributor to the blog Common Dreams.
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Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Impeachment, Supreme Court, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Paul Robeson: Ballad of an American by Sharon Rudahl
Paul Robeson, like John Brown before him and Malcolm X after him, was an American of great courage and great accomplishments. Like John Brown and Malcolm the powers that be, vilified him and attempted to reduce him to obscurity. Robeson was born the son of a slave in Somerville, New Jersey In 1898. At Rutgers University he was a Phi Beta Kappa, graduated at the top of his class, and delivered the valedictorian speech. He won 16 letters in sports; football, baseball, track and field, and basketball. He had a beautiful bass voice and sang in the choir. He briefly played professional football and graduated from Columbia Law school.
He was an outstanding actor performing on both stage and screen in America and England. As a concert performer he traveled the world singing spirituals, labor songs, and folk songs of American Blacks. He was outspoken in support of civil rights, union struggles, anti-colonialism, and asserted himself as a socialist.
Because of this he was repressed by the reactionary forces in America in a period of time after World War II known as McCarthyism. In August 1949, a concert that he was to headline in Peekskill, New York was broken up by fascists. The next year a national concert tour had to be canceled because theaters refused to book him. His passport was taken away. He couldn’t travel. He was told he could have it back if he promised not to “ criticize the treatment of American Negroes in the US which should not be aired abroad.“
He was heard before the house un-American activities committee in 1956 and asked why he didn’t stay in Russia. He replied “because my father was a slave and my people died to build this country and I’m going to stay here.“ His films and recordings were taken out of circulation and he disappeared from textbooks and halls of fame. Of Paul Robeson, Cornell West has said that “he was an artistic genius moral titan and courageous freedom fighter whom we must never forget.“
Guest – Sharon Rudahl, author and artist who recently published graphic biography “Paul Robeson: Ballad of an American.” The book was edited by Paul Buhle and Lawrence Ware. Sharon Rudahl marched with Martin Luther King as a teenager and began her career as a cartoonist with anti-Vietnam war underground newspapers. She was one of the founders of the 1970s era feminist “Wimmen’s Comix.“ She is best known for her graphic biography “Emma Goldman: A Dangerous Woman.“
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Constitutional Scholar Stephen Rohde On Impeachment
The American people are enmeshed in and victimized by four overlapping, intertwined and perhaps irreversible crises. They are medical, economic, racial, and political. The Covid 19 virus has infected over 25 million people. It has killed at least 430,000 of us and it rages on unchecked. Half the people in the US are poor or near poor. Twenty million or more are unemployed and their numbers are growing. Hunger and homelessness are widespread. Racism has been institutionalized in our country ever since its founding as a white settler colonial state. Politically except for the scattering of a few progressives there really is no party or leadership that represents the interests of the vast majority of our people.
Former president Donald Trump has been impeached by the Democrats in the House and will stand trial in the Senate beginning the week of February 8th.
He received 75 million votes in the 2020 election, more than he received when he won in 2016. Even though he lost last November his power is barely diminished. He will likely be acquitted of the charge of inciting an insurrection on January 6th. With the help of most of the 50 Republican senators the Democrats won’t be able to get the 60 necessary votes to convict him and prevent him from running for president again. Thus he will continue to control the Republican Party.
There is the possibility of his running again that helps keep him as the powerful leader he has become and keeps the Republicans in line, fearful as they are of being primaried and losing their own power and privilege. Only a few Republicans have shown the integrity and courage to oppose this venal, cruel and cunning man.
Guest – Attorney Stephen Rohde is a constitutional scholar, lecturer, writer, political activist and retired civil rights lawyer. He is a founder and Chair of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace, past President of the ACLU of Southern California, and a Past Chair of Bend the Arc: a Jewish Partnership for Justice. He is the author of two books American Words of Freedom: The Words That Define Our Nation and Freedom of Assembly and co-author of Foundations of Freedom: A Living History of Our Bill of Rights. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, Truthout and American Prospect, and is a regular contributor to the Los Angeles Review of Books.
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