Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Right To Dissent, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, War Resister, worker's rights
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Oligarchs and Billionaires Reshape Economic-Political Landscape
We’re living at a time of profound changes in the institutions that previously governed our society. One hundred years ago V.I Lenin, the leader of the Russian Revolution, observed that sometimes nothing changes for decades and at other times decades-long changes occur within several days.
This is what is happening now in America as the old institutions, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the universities, the media, the government, including Congress, governmental agencies, the elite law firms, educational institutions and most recently long-standing tariff policy are being reconfigured as instruments of authoritarian rule.
More than 800 billionaires form the upper crust in America. Three people alone own as much as the entire bottom, half of the population. Democracy, the rule of the people, however aspirational, no longer prevails. We have become an oligarchy, a majority of our people ruled by a relative handful. Our institutions have rapidly changed to reflect this new reality.
We are governed by an amoral man who’s only interest is in power and money, which is another form of power.
Guest – Professor Henry A. Giroux, author of many books and articles, including most recently a piece in Counterpunch titled Abducting Bodies, Silencing Dissent : Mamoud Kailil and the Rise of State Terrorism. Professor Giroux currently holds the McMaster University Chair for Scholarship in the Public Interest in the English and Cultural Studies department and is the Pablo Frère, Distinguished Scholar in Creative Pedagogy. Henry Giroux has authored many books, most recently with Anthony DiMaggio, titled, Fascism on Trial: Education, and the Possibility of Democracy.
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Critical Media Update: War Made Invisible
With respect to the Israeli/U.S. war in Gaza, peace talks limp along; Israel has accelerated its war in Gaza and the West Bank; and recent remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and president Donald Trump, make it clear that both countries intend, if they can do it, to ethnically cleanse all of the Palestinian people from Palestine, thereby bringing about the expected end result of their genocidal war on the Palestinian people.
Meanwhile here in the United States, President Trump has seized upon the claim of rampant anti-Semitism on our nation’s college and university campuses to deport non-U.S. citizen leaders in the movement on the campuses in support of the Palestinian side in the war, and to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the campuses until they eliminate the “anti-Semitic atmosphere on our campuses.” And, according to our guest today, press reporting in the mainstream media on the war has been less than clear and balanced.
Guest – Norman Solomon is the co-founder of RootsAction.org and Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, and is, in fact, the author or co-author, of 12 books, most touching on today’s topic in either close or tangential ways. His books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. The paperback edition of his latest book, “War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of Its Military Machine,” includes an afterword about the Gaza war.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, War Resister
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Taxpayers Against Genocide
The Israeli genocide in Gaza continues without any end in sight, resulting in the slaughter of over 50,000 Palestinians, with over 113,000 wounded. Meanwhile, the United States is escalating its support for Israel. Donald Trump is sending obscene amounts of military aid to Israel to help fuel the extermination of the Palestinian people, while threatening to take over the Palestinian homeland and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
But most Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the war in Gaza; support for Israel in the United States is at the lowest its been in 25 years and support for the Palestinians is up 6 points since last year. About 60% of Americans support a ceasefire in Gaza.
So the question is what can be done to restrain the US government from its costly, illegal, and inhumane support for Israel’s war in Gaza?
Taxpayers Against Genocide – TAG- has an answer. TAG is a grassroots mass movement comprising of over 1,000 U.S. taxpayers. Countless federal tax payers repeatedly called, emailed, petitioned and peacefully protested their congressional representatives and U.S. government officials to stop using their tax dollars to fund what had become clear was a genocide in Gaza. After almost one year of having their congress members refuse to meet or consider their constituents’ pleas, a group of Northern California taxpayers formed TAG in fall 2024 and filed a federal class action lawsuit arguing that it is illegal to use tax dollars for genocide. But the case was dismissed on February 10th, 2025.
Undaunted, TAG is not giving up. On February 19th TAG launched a National Call to Action. With the support of National Lawyers Guild attorneys, on the day this program will be broadcast, April 7th, 2025, TAG will submit a comprehensive report to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) and on April 30th, TAG will file an official complaint with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Guest – Attorney Margaret DeMatteo is a movement lawyer and former class member of Donnelly et al. v. Thompson, et al. , a class action brought by the grassroots Northern CA group Taxpayers Against Genocide. She is currently working on an imminent submission to the United Nations Human Right Council’s Universal Periodic Review of the United States, based on its complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Guest – Attorney Huwaida Arraf is a Palestinian American attorney and human rights activist. She is a co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, supporting Palestinian popular resistance on the ground in the occupied Palestinian territory and also an organizer with the Freedom Flotilla to break the siege on Gaza. In the US, she practices civil rights law and is an active member of the National Lawyers Guild.
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The Dangerous Militarization of AI and the Profiteering Behind It
A recent exposé by investigative journalist Peter Byrne, titled One Ring to Rule them All, and published by Project Censored, reveals the unsettling extent of Silicon Valley’s deepening ties to the military-industrial complex. Byrne traces the rise of Palantir Technologies—founded with seed money from the CIA and ominously named after the all-seeing stone in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Today, Palantir stands as a $200-billion powerhouse, fueling AI-driven military operations across the globe.
Byrne’s investigation uncovers how Palantir and its sister company Anduril Industries, has built an AI weapons consortium that appears to skirt antitrust laws, monopolize Pentagon contracts, accelerate the militarization of artificial intelligence, and bypass essential democratic oversight. His reporting lifts the curtain on the hidden architecture of autonomous weapons systems and exposes Silicon Valley’s quiet but profound military takeover. At the heart of the story is a troubling shift: AI systems that could soon make life-and-death decisions without human intervention.
Byrne also draws a sobering parallel between today’s AI-fueled war economy and the era of the Gilded Age robber barons. But this time, the stakes are even higher—not only economic inequality, but also the global proliferation of algorithmic warfare. His work raises a critical question: Are we witnessing the construction of a 21st-century “Ring of Power” capable of dominating both markets and militaries?
Guest – Peter Byrne is a veteran investigative reporter with decades of experience uncovering the dark intersections of Silicon Valley, Wall Street, and the ever-expanding military-industrial complex. His work, frequently featured by Project Censored and other independent outlets, has consistently exposed the hidden mechanisms behind surveillance, privatization, and unchecked corporate power.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Illegal Immigration, Targeting Muslims, War Resister, worker's rights
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How Weak Opposition Strengthened Capitalist Order
We, as ordinary people, are experiencing a profound change in the nature of who holds power in America today. Our constitutional democracy, however limited by race and class, is being replaced by an oligarchy, that is to say, the rule by the super rich few over the many. The separation of powers between the Congress, the Executive, and the Supreme Court has all but been eliminated. We are getting what the oligarchs wish for, “a unitary executive” where Trump is attempting to rule by executive decrees.
He and Musk want to cripple, shrink, and eliminate various government agencies that we have won to protect us. They include the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Institute of Health, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Social Security Administration. They are perpetuating a hoax that all they want to do is eliminate fraud and waste and corruption.
Trump has now been in power for seven weeks. It took Hitler one month, three weeks, and two days to consolidate his dictatorship. He had legally been appointed as Chancellor. After a mentally unhinged person set fire to the German parliament, Hitler got a law passed revoking the German people’s civil liberties so they could not speak out or organize. Trade unions were banned. Then shortly thereafter he got the infamous “Enabling Act” passed which gave him the power to legislate by decree. His power was thus consolidated
Opposition by the Democratic Party to the transformation here in our country has been feeble. They welcomed Trump into the White House and pledged cooperation. Despite Trump‘s falling popularity – more people oppose him than support him – the Democrats have not mobilized people in the streets nor have they come up with a broad program for better wages, jobs, housing, healthcare for all, housing for the unhoused, the end of deportations, an opposition to the ongoing Palestinian genocide
Guest – Margaret Kimberley, a New York-based writer and activist. She has been an editor and senior columnist for Black Agenda Report since it’s inception in 2006. She is a contributor to the anthology In Defense of Julian Assange.
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Advances For Workers Through Independent Political Action
It’s one thing to wring our hands in despair over the re-election of Donald Trump and decry his out of the gate authoritarian, neo-fascist assault on U.S. democracy and governance. It’s quite another to offer, and begin to employ, a comprehensive strategy for not only combating the new Trump Administration, but to also advance a political ideology that challenges conventional wisdom over what is needed to make our country a truly democratic country, and a country that meets the needs of all its people, not simply its billionaire class.
Yet the billionaire class just keeps getting richer and more powerful. Last year the world’s five richest billionaires increased their wealth by $542 billion. Elan Musk’s wealth alone is fast approaching half a trillion dollars. And globally we are seeing the highest levels of inequality in human history.
So today we’ve invited to the show a guest with a radical vision of what is needed to not only defend against Trump’s dictatorial moves and legislative plans, but in a vastly more profound way bring about the end of the unjust and exploitative capitalist system of the rich in America, and replace it with an equitable and democratic system of governance.
Guest – Kshama Sawant, a socialist economist who was elected to, and served 10 years on the Seattle, Washington City Council. Her election and her advancement of a strong progressive agenda on the Council was often national news. WorkersStrikeBack.org
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Criminalizing Dissent, Freedom Of Speech, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, War Resister
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Federal Court Challenges to Trump Administration Arguments
The number of active lawsuits in federal courts challenging Trump administration arguments has now topped 100. In 21 of those cases, judges have already issued temporary restraining orders or preliminary injunctions, effectively stopping, at least for now, parts of Trump’s agenda.
For example, as reported in the New York Times this past Sunday, trial court judges have blocked for now Trump’s mass firings of civil servants, Musk’s access to sensitive federal agency data, the relocation of transgendered women inmates to men’s prisons, the pursuit of immigrants inside houses of worship, and the freezing of up to $3 trillion of federal funding to the states. And in a very important case, a federal judge entered a final judgment reinstating the head of the federal watchdog agency. And just yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump Administration halting the sending out of those billions of foreign aid dollars.
But it must be pointed out that in a number of preliminary victories against Trump’s actions, the government, though losing the first round in the case, have nevertheless stalled in obeying the court’s orders. And Trump, himself, posted the absolutist notion that, “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”
Five of the judges who have ruled against Trump were appointed by Republican presidents, one by Trump himself. As a result of Trump’s losing record in court cases so far, there is now talk on the right of seeking to impeach judges who rule against the Trump Administration. And the number of death threats judges are experiencing from the public have gone up alarmingly, as well.
Guest – Stephen Rohde is a civil rights activist, author, and constitutional scholar. He practiced civil rights law for almost 50 years. He currently serves as chair of the Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace (aka ICUJP), which was formed in the wake of 9/11 for the purpose of organizing faith-based communities to call for an end to war and violence. He is also a past President of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, and past Chair of Death Penalty Focus, and Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice. Despite that long list of affiliations, today he’s not speaking on behalf of any of those organizations.
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Free Speech Protections Threatened Under Trump Administration
On March 4, 2025, President Donald Trump threatened to cut federal funding to colleges that permit what he calls “illegal protests.” This statement on social media has sparked a wave of reactions from civil rights groups as a direct attack on fundamental freedoms such as speech and assembly.
In his post, Trump echoed ideas from previous executive orders, including his 2019 order and one issued in January, which specifically targeted pro-Palestinian student protests on college campuses, calling them antisemitic. But Trump’s latest comments go further, asserting that any protest deemed illegal would lead to harsh consequences, including the imprisonment of agitators and expulsion or arrest of American students. The details, however, remain unclear, particularly around how the government would define “illegal protests” or the enforcement of such measures.
Trump’s latest threat has reignited concerns about the balance between freedom of speech and government intervention on college campuses. It also raises important questions about the rights of students, faculty, and protesters in the context of broader political and social movements.
Guest – Attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard from the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and the Center for Protest Law and Litigation in Washington, DC. Mara is one of the nation’s leading litigators defending protesters and winning numerous reforms in police practices at mass assemblies and demonstrations.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, Violations of U.S. and International Law, War Resister
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Remembering The Legacy of Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter passed away on December 29, 2024, at the age of 100. His legacy in human rights has left an indelible mark on global diplomacy. Elected in 1977 as the 39th President of the United States, Carter made human rights a central theme of his administration. He believed that as a global power, the US had a responsibility to champion freedom, dignity, and justice for all people, regardless of nationality or political system. This vision led to the introduction of policies aimed at addressing both the internal injustices within the U.S. and the broader human rights violations occurring around the world.
One of Carter’s most significant achievements in this realm was his focus on condemning authoritarian regimes and promoting democratic movements. His administration applied pressure on governments, particularly in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, to uphold human rights standards, often linking U.S. foreign aid and diplomatic relations to a country’s record on human rights. Though controversial at times—especially in relation to U.S. alliances with regimes like those in Iran and Egypt—Carter’s commitment to human rights was revolutionary in its directness.
Beyond policy, Carter also helped create lasting institutions that would carry forward his vision. The Carter Center, founded in 1982, became a beacon for promoting democracy, advancing health, and improving human rights globally. Through the Center, Carter personally monitored elections, mediated peace talks, and worked to eliminate diseases that disproportionately affected the world’s most vulnerable populations. After leaving office, Carter’s work as a human rights advocate set a new precedent for U.S. foreign policy, showing that human rights can—and should—be a priority in shaping international relations and peace efforts.
Guest – Mischa Geracoulis is a journalist and critical media literacy expert. Mischa is the Curriculum Development Coordinator at Project Censored, and serves on the editorial board of the Censored Press and The Markaz Review. She writes about journalistic ethics and standards, press and academic freedoms, identity and culture, and the protracted disinformation campaign against the Armenian Genocide. She is author of the forthcoming book to be published by Routledge, Media Framing and the Destruction of Cultural Heritage.
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War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of its Military Machine
The United States is engaged in constant, if often invisible, wars. Or, if not invisible, at least not accurately and fully reported on in the corporate media. Thereby leaving the people of the United States far from fully informed as to what and where U.S. military troops are stationed or engaged in military action. For example, while there has been a great deal of media coverage of the U.S. supported Israeli war in Palestine, one would have needed to pay extra close attention to that coverage to know that the U.S., even before that war began, had 40,000 U.S. troops stationed in the area. Or that the Biden Administration has just recently sent at least 1,500 more to join them. And how many of us know that late last year retired Israeli Major General Yitzhak Brick, said that, and I quote: “All of our missiles, the ammunition, the precision-guided bombs, all the airplanes and bombs, it’s all from the U.S. Everyone understands that we (Israel) can’t fight this war without the United States.
So last year, Norman Solomon, our guest today, wrote a much noted and much-admired book titled, War Made Invisible: How America Hides the Human Toll of its Military Machine. And that book has just been reissued with an up-dated afterword about the Gaza War, by the author. Naomi Klein, best-selling author of The Shock Doctrine, says the book is “A Staggeringly Important Intervention”. Noam Chomsky, says Solomon’s book is a “gripping and painful study of the mechanisms behind our invisible, but perpetual, national state of war.”
Guest – Norman Solomon is the co-founder of RootsAction.org and Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, and is, in fact, the author or co-author, of 12 books, most touching on today’s topic in either close or tangential ways. His books include War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.
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Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Gaza, genocide, Human Rights, Targeting Muslims, U.S. Militarism, War Resister
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Taxpayers Against Genocide: Lawsuit Against Congress Members For Approving $26.38B In Military Aid To Israel
On December 19, 2024, a coalition of human rights activists and organizations filed a class action lawsuit against California Congress members Mike Thompson and Jared Huffman. The lawsuit alleges that the representatives misused their authority by approving $26.38 billion in military aid to Israel, despite evidence that these funds contribute to ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Supported by more than 500 plaintiffs across Northern California, the case highlights growing public demands for accountability in U.S. foreign policy. It was filed by the group Taxpayers Against Genocide.
At the core of the lawsuit is the argument that Thompson and Huffman ignored clear evidence of war crimes committed with U.S.-provided weapons, effectively forcing their constituents into moral complicity. Plaintiffs describe profound emotional and moral injuries resulting from their representatives’ actions, emphasizing the ethical responsibility to prevent taxpayer dollars from funding human rights violations.
Sign up to the TAG mailing list: classactionagainstgenocide@proton.me
The lawsuit seeks declaratory and injunctive relief, aiming to halt military aid to Israel and secure accountability for decisions made in Congress. With plaintiffs ranging from seasoned activists to ordinary constituents, the case represents a significant legal challenge to U.S. military support for Israel amid increasing scrutiny over its devastating consequences for Palestinian civilians.
Guest – Seth Donnelly, a Sonoma County resident, former Bay Area high school teacher, human rights advocate, and one of the founders of Taxpayers Against Genocide.
Guest – Maria Barakat, a Lebanese Palestinian antiwar activist, sociologist of law and society, and public policy expert specializing in equity from UC Berkeley. Both Seth and Maria are plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
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Judges Who Issued ICC Arrest Warrants Against Netanyahu Accused Of Being Anti-Semitic
On November 1, when the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity, Netanyhu accused the judges of “anti-Semitic hatred toward Israel.”
When Donald Trump vowed to crack down on campus protests by invoking the Insurrection Act to enlist the US military, he warned American colleges and universities that if they do not “end antisemitic propaganda,” they would lose accreditation and federal financial support.
Today, one of the oldest and most virulent forms of hatred – antisemitism – is being weaponized as a cudgel to silence opposition to Israel’s war against the Palestinians. If you criticize Israel, you are an “antisemite.” If you condemn Zionism, you are an “antisemite.” If an international court, with 125 member countries, dedicated to what Kofi Annan called “the cause of all humanity,” accuses Israel (and it is important to note, also Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif) of war crimes, the judges (from France, Benin, and Slovenia) are guilty of “antisemitism.”
The founders of Israel willingly took on a known risk when they established a Jewish state, choosing sacred religious symbols, the Star of David (Magen David) as the official state insignia on the nation’s flag, the menorah as the official state emblem, and Hebrew as the state’s official language. In 2018, the Knesset doubled down by passing a law designating Israel the “Nation-State of the Jewish people.” The chairman of the special legislative committee that drafted the law, described it as simply confirming “the founding principle on which the state was established,” that “everyone has human rights, but national rights in Israel belong only to the Jewish people.” The Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said the law “contains key elements of apartheid.”
During the highly contested debate over Zionism in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, anti-Zionists and non-Zionists repeatedly warned that establishing a Jewish state would pose grave dangers not only to indigenous Arab inhabitants, but to Jews around the world. Today that complex history has been largely replaced by an official, sanitized version that doggedly erases the many Jewish voices that have sounded well-grounded alarms over the establishment of a militarized theocracy.
Guest – Professor Marjorie Feld is the author of a new, groundbreaking book, The Threshold of Dissent: A History of American Jewish Critics of Zionism. She is a professor of history at Babson College and the author of Nations Divided: American Jews and the Struggle Over Apartheid.
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