Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Immigration, Violations of U.S. and International Law
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How to Stop a Nuclear War – Part 2
Two weeks ago, we spoke with award-winning journalist and filmmaker Paul Jay about his upcoming documentary, How to Stop a Nuclear War. Scheduled for release in fall 2027, the film draws on in-depth interviews with Daniel Ellsberg and is narrated by Emma Thompson. It examines just how close humanity has come to nuclear catastrophe — and why Ellsberg’s decades-long warnings about nuclear policy and power remain urgently relevant today.
We ran out of time in that conversation, so we’re very glad to welcome Paul Jay back to the show to pick up where we left off. Today, we’ll continue our discussion about the ongoing nuclear threat, how it’s shaped by political and corporate interests, and what the public needs to understand in order to push for meaningful change.
Guest – Paul Jay, award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and founder of theAnalysis.news. Jay has spent decades investigating the inner workings of government, corporate power, and military policy, combining investigative rigor with a storyteller’s clarity. He is currently working on a new project, How to Stop a Nuclear War, a groundbreaking documentary set to be released in the fall of 2027 based on extensive interviews with Daniel Ellsberg and narrated by Emma Thomson. Through rare interviews and in-depth research, the film examines how close humanity has come to nuclear catastrophe—and why Ellsberg’s warnings remain urgently relevant today.
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New York City Council Member Organizes Against ICE Raids
We are at a turning point in the history of the United States. If the people in the city of Minneapolis, can defeat ICE, they will have demonstrated they can win anywhere. This is a strong momentum in rolling back fascism here in the USA. ICE, above all, is criticized as being a terrorist outfit with a purpose to terrorize the population. Yet in contrast, ICE claims to be looking to capture and deport illegal immigrant criminals. It has a massive budget of $179 billion for the next three years. They have sent 3000 agents into Minneapolis and outnumber the Minneapolis police force five to one.
Two weeks ago, Renee Good, a poet and mother of three children was murdered during a confrontation with ICE agents. The official claim is that she’d threatened an ICE agent with her car. Last week Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse at the VA hospital was murdered during an anti-ICE protest. Did Kristi Noem, the Trump appointed head of the Department of Homeland Security lied when she said that Pretti was out to massacre ICE agents? Both murders were filmed by people in Minneapolis and showed widely online and on television, exposing ICE for what it is, and the government for the false narratives it attempts to spread.
If they can get away with it in Minneapolis it will spread fear in Los Angeles and New York, or Philadelphia and Memphis, Washington DC and Portland, Maine, or everywhere and anywhere. Despite ICE’s huge budget of billions, it can be defeated. The actions of the people of Minneapolis have inspired communities with hope. And without hope, we tend to do nothing.
What can we do to resist and defeat ICE? The people of Minneapolis have shown the way. They’ve created a network of people working together, providing aid and support, block by block, Signal chat by Signal chat. They’ve provided food for those afraid to leave their homes, driven their kids to school, protested in the streets constantly, no matter how extreme the cold weather.
We speak today with New York City Councilwoman Alexa Aviles. She represents the heavily immigrant neighborhood of Sunset Park in Brooklyn, New York, and has been organizing against ICE.
Guest – Alexa Aviles is a socialist and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America (the “DSA”). She was born in Puerto Rico, the youngest of seven children. She came to the United States as a young girl. Aviles attended Columbia University and recieved her Master’s degree in public administration. She’s the mother of two daughters. Before being elected to her position on the City Council in 2021, she worked for decades in social justice work. She was elected to the City Council five years ago and ran on a platform supporting affordable housing, workers’ rights, immigrants, and environmental health. She’s Chair of the Immigration Committee of the Council.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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How to Stop a Nuclear War
In 1947, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists created the “Doomsday Clock” to draw attention to the existential dangers posed by human technology. The time was set to seven minutes to midnight, with midnight symbolizing destruction of life on Earth. Just two years before, in 1945, the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world saw firsthand the potential of a nuclear annihilation.
As World War II was ending, a different kind of conflict was underway: the Cold War. And over the next four decades, the United States and Soviet Union competed for nuclear dominance—not only through foreign policy and military strategy, but also on the home front, using propaganda and retaliation against critics. Throughout this period, people of conscience, like Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in the early 70s, repeatedly sounded the alarm. Ellsberg and others warned that there was no way to “win” a nuclear war. If one side launched a nuclear weapon, the other would inevitably respond, leading to mutual destruction.
Today, more than 30 years after the end of the Cold War, the nuclear arms race continues. According to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, nine nations continue to stockpile nuclear weapons, including the US, Russia, China, Israel, Pakistan, France, the United Kingdom, and North Korea.
Last January, a week after Donald Trump began his second term as president, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock forward to 89 seconds to midnight—the closest humanity has ever come to global catastrophe. The Bulletin announced that it will update the time this week. Whether the clock is set closer to midnight or not, the question remains: Is there time and the will to change our trajectory, to learn from the past, and avoid a path to global destruction?
Guest – Paul Jay, award-winning journalist, filmmaker, and founder of theAnalysis.news. Jay has spent decades investigating the inner workings of government, corporate power, and military policy, combining investigative rigor with a storyteller’s clarity. He is currently working on a new project, How to Stop a Nuclear War, a groundbreaking documentary set to be released in the fall of 2027 based on extensive interviews with Daniel Ellsberg and narrated by Emma Thomson. Through rare interviews and in-depth research, the film examines how close humanity has come to nuclear catastrophe—and why Ellsberg’s warnings remain urgently relevant today.
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The Imperial Bureau: the FBI, Political Surveillance, and the Rise of the US National Security State.
The forces of American fascism are rapidly consolidating in our country. It is chilling to think that President Trump has only been an office for one year. American fascism is considered to be a unity of the MAGA forces around Trump and certain billionaire sectors of the capitalist class. Their project, like those of the Nazis in Germany, is what the Germans called “Gleichschaltung” meaning “bringing into line.”
In America,independent centers of power have been brought into line. Universities, the large law firms, the media and much of the court system. The Supreme Court is now subservient to the dictates of the Trump administration. President Trump is working to get more people and institutions to knuckle under. We talk today about the threat to crush the left with the recent issuance of his National Security Presidential Memorandum 7. It is known as NSPM7.
The genius of the U.S. Constitution, which limited power by setting up a system of checks and balances, has been sidestepped as President Trump now essentially rules by executive order. The Supreme Court uses the shadow docket to avoid public consideration of cases involving liberty.
Congress is not consulted about declaring war as President Trump ordered the secret bombing of Venezuela and kidnapping of its leader and his wife. The Voting Rights Bill has been gutted. It’s not illegal for big corporations to contribute any amount of money they want. Both the Democratic and Republican parties are subservient to big capital. The old form of democracy, however, limited by race and class, has almost disintegrated.
In the recent months, the world has watched as ICE has terrorized populations in major American cities. Already its budget is $11 billion. They are seeking to hire another 10,000 recruits. The DHS vetting process has recently come under scrutiny revealing it as careless and negligent. Some are recruited from gun shows. Recruits are given a $50,000 signing bonus with salaries ranging from $49,000-$89,000 a year. NSPM7 supplemented by the Attorney General’s memorandum targets among others those who speak out against racism, war, injustice, misogyny, capitalism and white Christian nationalism.
Guest – Chip Gibbons has written about NSPM 7. Mr. Gibbons is the Policy Director of Defending Rights and Dissent. His organization has awareness of the perils of this memorandum. He edits the Gaza First Amendment Alert. He is also the author of the forthcoming book The Imperial Bureau: the FBI, Political Surveillance, and the Rise of the US National Security State.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
Placeless: Homelessness in the New Gilded Age
Being homeless is not a reflection on the inadequacy of a person. It is not a moral issue even though right wing figures such as President Trump‘s former lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and Andrew Cuomo, the failed candidate for mayor in the 2025 election in New York City maintain that essentially cruel position. They were against giving people subsidized homes and treatment, if they required it, for health problems, addiction problems, or job training.
Homelessness is a consequence of housing affordability, inequality, systemic, racism and pro-capitalist government policies. It is more profitable for the real estate industry to build housing for the rich rather than the poor. There is more profit in luxury housing, not so much in working class housing. New York City is the greatest example of the homeless situation that exists throughout the USA. On any one night 130,000 people sleep in shelters. 90% of them are Black or Latino. One out of seven children in New York City public schools are homeless.
Guest – Patrick Markee has written a powerful, moving, common sense account of a social problem whose solution is entirely possible. His book Placeless: Homelessness in the New Gilded Age is an eloquent rendering of the plight of human beings who I don’t have a home, they don’t have a place in our world. Mr. Markee has had more than 20 years of experience working as an advocate for homeless people in New York City and his work with housing across the country. He is the former Deputy Executive Director for advocacy of the Coalition for the Homeless., New York’s premier homeless advocacy organization and a member the Board of Directors with the National Coalition for the Homeless. He is the author numerous research studies on homelessness and housing policy and has written for The Nation and The New York Times book review.
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Hard Regime Change In Venezuela
Barely into the new year in the early morning hours of January 3 the Trump administration successfully and brutally and illegally attacked Venezuela kidnapping the president and his wife. 80 people were killed including 32 Cuban soldiers. They flew Nicolás Maduro and his wife attorney Celia Flores to a Brooklyn jail. The plan is to try them in an American court in lower Manhattan on the laughable pretext, they were drug runners whose country “stole” American oil. And further, according to President Trump, hordes of Venezuela killers and murderers and rapists were released across American borders to savage American citizens.
That next morning, we woke up to arrogant boastings of Trump and his his secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, whose body is tattooed with a huge crusader cross, that they plan to “run” Venezuela, “make lots of money” reclaim “their “ oil and give it to the multi-national corporations such as ExxonMobil to exploit.The United Nations was organized after World War II to prevent precisely what has happened. Aggressive war was outlawed. The War Powers Act-was passed by the U.S. Congress, a half century ago, precisely to prevent secret aggression against foreign countries and required congressional approval, which was not sought or obtained prior to the invasion.
Protest against this invasion continue across the United States. People took the streets, remembering how the war on Iraq, which killed 1 million people was fought allegedly that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, which is known to be a lie.
Guest – Jeff Mackler is the National Secretary of the U.S. political party, Socialist Action and its candidate for the U.S. presidency in 2016 and 2020. He is a member of the Administrative Committee of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) and the Director of the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal in Northern California. He was a national leader of the defense committees of Julian Assange and Lynne Stewart. Jeff was the Coordinator of the “Dialogue With Cuba” conference in 2000 at the University of California at Berkeley, the first institutionally-sponsored Cuba conference in U.S. history. Attended by 2000 U.S. social justice activists and leading scholars representing a broad range of academic and social fields, the dialogue saw 30 leading Havana-based Cuban scholars and social and political leaders exchange views with their U.S. counterparts.
Jeff is the author of some 20 books and pamphlets including “CIA/Crack in America,” a detailed history of the U.S. government and its agent, Oliver North, importing tons of crack cocaine from the Columbia Medellin cartel. to sell in Los Angeles to illegally raise funds for the Nicaraguan Contras. Other books and pamphlets by Jeff covered the Mexican Chiapas Rebellion, Ukraine, Syria, Nicaragua, Libya, the South Africa anti-apartheid struggle and, most recently a critique of the NYC Zohran Mamdani Democratic Party/DSA mayoral election campaign.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Prison Industry, Right To Dissent, Supreme Court, Torture, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister, Whistleblowers
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Remembering Michael Ratner
Hosts Heidi Boghosian and Michael Smith interviewed some of Michael Ratner’s closest friends and colleagues as part of a special broadcast highlighting Michael Ratner’s legal work and mentorship. The special also marked the upcoming release of Michael Ratner’s autobiography Moving The Bar: My Life As A Radical Lawyer published by OR Books. We hear from attorneys including Eleanor Stein, Richard Levy, Ray Brescia and David Cole.
Michael Ratner’s pathbreaking legal and political work is unmatched. He provided crucial support for the Cuban Revolution and won the seminal case in the Supreme Court guaranteeing the right of habeas corpus to Guantanamo detainees. Michael also challenged U.S. policy in Iraq, Haiti, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Israel-Palestine. This book is a testament to his unflagging efforts on behalf of the poor and oppressed around the world.
– Marjorie Cohn, Professor Emerita, Thomas Jefferson School of Law
Michael Ratner personified lawyering that brought both radical and human values into challenges to the use of governmental power to violate the essence of the Bill of Rights. From the torture of prisoners after 911 to the massive racial profiling by the New York Police Department, Michael’s voice and vision continue to resonate. This book provides a powerful testament to the spirit of this extraordinary man.
– Attorney Bill Goodman
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In Memory of Attorney Peter Weiss
Attorney Peter Weiss was a frequent guest here on Law and Disorder. He was a guest several times to discuss pressing issues of nuclear policy, International Human Rights Law and the Royal Dutch Shell Settlement and in 2007, Peter was a Lawyers You’ll Like guest.
We go now to hear that 2007 interview co-hosted by Michael Ratner and Michael Smith. Peter Weiss died one month short of his 100th birthday on November 3, 2025. Peter was the founder and head of the Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy. His field was international law. He won the historic case for universal jurisdiction which allowed foreign war criminals to be tried in the United States under certain circumstances.
Mr. Weiss is a graduate of Yale Law School and was the principle author of the draft brief on the illegality of threat or use of nuclear weapons used by many countries in making written submissions to the International Court of Justice in the 1996 nuclear weapons advisory opinion. Mr Weiss served as counsel to Malaysia at those hearings. He has published several articles on the ICJ opinion, including in the fall 1997 issue of Transnational Law and Contemporary Problems. Mr. Weiss litigated the seminal case establishing the right of victims of torture to sue their torturers in US courts (Filartiga v. Pena-Irala).
Since his retirement in 1996 from Weiss Dawid Fross Zelnick & Lehrman, a leading trademark firm, he has been Senior Intellectual Property Counsel to The Chanel Company Limited. He is also a founder and former President of the American Committee on Africa and former Chairman of the Board of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington. He has also long been an activist for peace in the Middle East and is currently a member of the Arab-Jewish Peace Group in New York and of the Executive Committee of Americans for Peace Now, which supports the Peace Now movement in Israel.
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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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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Human Rights, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law
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Locals On Edge As Right Wing Christian Company Builds Community
A quiet rural county in Tennessee has become an unexpected frontline in a national struggle over identity, democracy, and belonging. Jackson County—a small Appalachian community of rolling hills, family farms, and a slowly revitalizing town center—is now at the center of a political and ideological clash. Longtime residents are facing a wave of out of state White Christian nationalists developers. Their stated goals include rolling back civil rights gains, discouraging women from higher education or voting, and expelling immigrants who are already U.S. citizens.
At the heart of this effort are developers RidgeRunner and New Founding; they’re buying up hundreds of acres to create an ideological enclave and consolidating local political power. RidgeRunner’s CEO, Josh Abbotoy, has sold land to two podcasters, Andrew Isker and C. Jay Engel. These “ambassadors” state publicly that they want to attract “hundreds or thousands” of people to Jackson County who share their Christian nationalist vision.
Locals fear the county is being used as a pilot site for a broader national strategy: intentional migration to reshape rural America and take over local governments. In a place where county elections are often decided by fewer than 300 votes, the danger isn’t theoretical. A disciplined ideological bloc of just a few hundred people could rewrite policy, alter governance, and silence dissent.What’s happening in Jackson County is an example of a growing pattern across the country: planned ideological enclaves, politically motivated relocation, and increased activity under the banner of Christian nationalism.
Guest – Kimberly Silvestri is a homeowner in Gainesboro, she’s a former professional pilot with a background in science. She’s currently working on her Master’s degree.
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International Law And U.S. Soldiers Refusing Illegal Orders
The extent to which Donald Trump is willing to go to dismantle of the rule of law at home and abroad is breathtaking and dangerous. In some cases, leaders are pushing back but in other cases major institutions are enabling Trump’s lawlessness. In a recent 90-second video organized by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (Democrat of Michigan), two senators and four Congress members, all U.S. military or CIA veterans, took turns reading a statement addressed to active service members, urging them to refuse to follow illegal orders. “Like us, you all swore an oath to protect and defend this Constitution,” the lawmakers said. “Our laws are clear. You can refuse illegal orders…. No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution.”
In Truth Social, Trump immediately responded: “It’s called SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Each one of these traitors to our Country should be ARRESTED AND PUT ON TRIAL.” In subsequent posts, Trump wrote: “LOCK THEM UP???” … “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR, punishable by DEATH!” Trump also reposted a statement saying: “HANG THEM GEORGE WASHINGTON WOULD!!” Now the Department of War is investigating one of the Senators, Mark Kelly for “serious allegations of misconduct,” threatening to call him back to active duty and court-martial him.
Meanwhile, on November 17, 2025, the UN Security Council enshrined Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, put its imprimatur on Israel’s genocide, and granted colonial control over the lives of the Palestinians to the United States, which has aided and abetted the genocide. The Council adopted Resolution 2803, by a vote of 13-0. Russia and China, both permanent members of the Security Council, could have vetoed it. But they abstained. The resolution incorporates Donald Trump’s “peace plan.” It grants control over Gaza to the U.S.-led “Board of Peace” and it orders the deployment of a U.S.-led occupation force called “International Stabilization Force (ISF).” Trump will oversee both colonial bodies, in collaboration with Israel. Palestinians will not be allowed to participate in their own governance.
Guest – Marjorie Cohn is Professor Emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, Dean of the People’s Academy of International Law, and former president of the National Lawyers Guild. She is a legal and political analyst who does media commentary and writes columns on Truthout and other outlets, and she a former host on Law and Disorder radio. Her most recent book is Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.
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