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Law and Disorder is a weekly independent civil liberties radio program airing on more than 150 stations and on Apple podcast. Law and Disorder provides timely legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and practices of torture exercised by the US government and private corporations.
Law and Disorder June 10, 2017
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Daniel Ellsberg: Julian Assange’s Case And The Doomsday Machine
Two weeks ago the Trump administration announced it had indicted Julian Assange in the Eastern District of Virginia on 17 counts of violating the 1917 Espionage Act. Assange is currently in the Belmarsh prison hospital in London. If extradited, tried, and convicted he faces 175 years in prison.
The Espionage Act is a 102 year old law used initially to imprison the great socialist Eugene V Debs for an anti-World War I speech he gave in Canton, Ohio and also used to crush the industrial workers of the world, the IWW, a large antiwar union at the time.
In 1971 it was famously used against Daniel Ellsberg who released the Pentagon papers to the New York Times and other media outlets. Lately the Espionage Act has been used against many truth telling whistleblowers during the Obama and Trump administrations.
This is the first time it is being used against a journalist.
Wikileaks Defense Funds:
Guest – Daniel Ellsberg, educated at Harvard and Cambridge and has been an activist since the 1970s. Ellsberg’s latest book, The Doomsday Machine, is an extensive study of nuclear theory and nuclear policy. In 2018 he was awarded the Olaf Palme prize for his “profound humanism and exceptional moral courage.
From 1957-59 he was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows, Harvard University. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard in 1962 with his thesis, Risk, Ambiguity and Decision. His research leading up to this dissertation—in particular his work on what has become known as the “Ellsberg Paradox,” first published in an article entitled Risk, Ambiguity and the Savage Axioms—is widely considered a landmark in decision theory and behavioral economics.
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Law and Disorder June 3, 2019
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Updates:
- Two MOVE9 Members Released From Prison
- Julian Assange Update
- Never Get Rid Of Newspapers…The Headlines Alone Make Them Worth Keeping
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Suicide Increase In The United States
Suicide ranks among the top ten leading causes of death in the United States. As rates have generally fallen in other developed nations, the number of suicides per 100,000 rose over 30 percent between 1999 and 2015.
Those in midlife had the largest uptick in suicide. Researchers find that two social factors have contributed to this trend: the weakening of the social safety net and increasing income inequality.
One study of suicide in the U.S. found that the rising rates were closely linked with reductions in social welfare spending between 1960 and 1995. Such expenditures include Medicaid, a medical assistance program for low income persons; Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children; the Supplemental Security Income program for the blind, disabled and elderly; children’s services including adoption, foster care and day care; shelters; and funding of public hospitals for medical assistance other than Medicaid.
While their suicide rates are on the decline, three European nations still have rates higher than the U.S. They are Belgium, Finland and France.
Guest – Stephen Platt, Emeritus Professor of Health Policy Research at the University of Edinburgh, UK. His research focuses on the social, epidemiological and cultural aspects of suicide, self-harm and mental health. He is an adviser on suicide prevention research and policy to NHS Health Scotland and the Scottish Government, the Irish National Office for Suicide Prevention and Samaritans.
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Law and Disorder May 27, 2019
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Museum of the City of New York
The Museum of the City of New York has two terrific exhibits, one permanent, on social change activism at the Puffin Foundation gallery, the other, just up on May 1st, called “city of workers, city of struggle“, also sponsored by the Puffin Foundation.
The great American social historian Howard Zinn wrote that significant social change comes from below. These two exhibits demonstrate this.
If you live in New York or plan to visit the city you might like to check them out. And for you far away listeners you’ll get a good virtual visit by going to the museums website at mcny.org
The permanent exhibit on social change activism is most relevant in today’s dire times of climate change and threatened nuclear catastrophe. The exhibits show by way of photos, documents, and videos how 14 past struggles were conducted and the gains that were won.
They include exhibits from the movement to abolish slavery, and the civil rights movement up to Black Lives Matter. Other exhibits bring to life anti-nuclear organizing, climate change activism, and the success of the mass mobilizations that won over public opinion and ended the war in Vietnam. Although the activism exhibit is permanent it is not unchanging. Right now a new section has been put up covering the struggle of trans people.
A second gallery exhibit, which opened on May 1, examines how the labor movement transformed New York. Called “city of workers, city of struggle” the exhibit shows how New York City, after two centuries of struggle, became the most unionized large city in the United States.
Guest – Steven H. Jaffe, Ph.D. the curator who organized the labor movement exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York.
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Current Analysis Of U.S. Threats Against Iran
In late 2017 and early 2018 Iran was shaken by a wave series of protests. Economic hardships from austerity measures spawned demonstrations that spread to more than 80 cities and towns, in a public showing of discontent not seen since the 2009 presidential elections there. American policy is aimed at exacerbating the hardships.
After the signing of a historic nuclear agreement in 2015, American and Iranian diplomats grew acquainted in a departure from the past when they weren’t allowed to talk. Many were hopeful that more talks on other topics might happen, including conflicts in Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Yemen.
But then Donald Trump became president he pulled out of the nuclear deal and blamed Iran for the Middle East’s problems. He added Iran to the list of countries whose citizens would be banned from entering the United States. He designated the Iranian revolutionary guard is a terrorist organization.
He put severe economic sanctions on Iran causing terrible hardships to its citizens. He is trying to limit their sale of oil. He sent an aircraft carrier to the region and recently threatened to obliterate the country.
Guest – Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies, where she works on anti-war, US foreign policy and Palestinian rights issues. She has worked as an informal adviser to several key UN officials on Palestinian issues. Her books including Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN, and Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict.
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