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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 January 30, 2023
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The January 6 Report
The January 6 Report” by the House January 6 Committee has just been published by Harpercollins. It is a page turner. Most strikingly, the report documents the multi-pronged attack that Trump plotted. The crucial point made by the January 6 Committee report is demonstrating the profound misconception to view the January 6 invasion of the Capitol as merely a group of Trump supporters gone wild. The plot was not limited to the January 6 violence at the Capitol.
Rather, as the report documents, January 6 was a culmination of months of plotting by Trump to overthrow a lawful election and stay in power. He came very close to accomplishing a coup d’état, a blow against the state. Democracy in the United States, however limited, would’ve ended.
The American constitution was written in Philadelphia in 1787. Benjamin Franklin was there. When they concluded Franklin famously said “we have a republic, if we can keep it.“ Can we keep it? Will Trump be indicted by the Department of Justice and convicted for the criminal activity he orchestrated in order to keep himself in power, after losing the election two years ago by seven million votes? If he is not indicted, what will be the impact on the future of democracy in the United States?
Guest – attorney Stephen Rohde who recently reviewed The January 6 Report with a forward by the author Ari Melber. Rohde’s review appeared in “ Truthdig” and in the LA Progressive“. Attorney Stephen Rohde is a constitutional scholar, past Chair of the ACLU Foundation of California, an author of books on the Constitution, who frequently reviews books for the Los Angeles Review of Books. And Mr. Rohde is a leader in the national campaign to free the imprisoned investigative journalist Julian Assange.
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Martin Luther King Jr. : A Dream Realized
We take a look at where the long struggle to end racial injustice stands in the United States today. Oh, some progress has surely been made, but to say we’ve a very long way to go before Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream can be considered “realized” is both true and also a sad and gross understatement; a sad commentary on the role that white privilege and racial hatred continue to play in the United States, hundreds of years since our founding.
Guest – Attorney Sharon Kyle is the publisher and co-founder of the LA Progressive on-line newsletter and a former president of the Peoples College of Law, a law school in Los Angeles established by the National Lawyers Guild and other minority bar associations. Sharon Kyle is a member of the board of the ACLU Affiliate of Southern California and is its representative to the national board of the ACLU. Sharon Kyle is also an active member of the Los Angeles area Julian Assange Defense Committee; a member of the editorial board of the Black Commentator.com. Years before immersing herself in the law and social justice, Sharon Kyle was a member of several space flight teams at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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Law and Disorder January 23, 2023
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The Supreme Court Is About To Eviscerate The Right To Strike
Sixty-four years ago, workers and unions gained protection from state lawsuits while pursuing unfair labor practice claims with the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). On January 10, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a case that threatens to unravel those protections. A company called Glacier Northwest is suing the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local Union No. 174, after 85 truck drivers walked off the job. If the high Court rules in favor of Glacier, unions will have to defend against costly lawsuits. And that will likely discourage them from going on strike. A Court decision is expected by the end of June.
Seventy-one percent of the U.S. public supports labor unions. That’s the highest number since 1965. And with an increase in economic inequality, union strikes are on the uptick.
Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.2 million workers in the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien remarked that: “Workers in America have the fundamental right to strike, and American workers have died on picket lines to protect it.” In recent years, however, the ultra-right-wing Supreme Court majority has issued decisions systematically eroding these rights.
Guest – Attorney Marjorie Cohn is a legal and political analyst who provides commentary on local, national and international media. She is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, a member of the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers and the board of Veterans for Peace. Her most recent book is “Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral, and Geopolitical Issues.” Marjorie Cohn at Truthout
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You may have heard about the shaming of parents who let their son or daughter walk to school by themselves, or ride public transportation alone. They’re often ridiculed on social media and cast as neglectful. But in some instances, the consequences have gone beyond public shaming.
In 2015 parents in Silver Spring, Maryland made national headlines they were investigated for child neglect for letting their children, ages 6 and 10, walk home from a park by themselves.
In another case Lenore Skenazy, a former New York Daily News columnist was called America’s worst mom after writing a column in 2008 about why she let her 9-year-old son ride the subway by himself.
Last year, Utah passed a law making it not a crime for parents to let their children play in a park without supervision or walk home alone from school. This is hopeful news for our guest Lenore Skenazy who has been advocating for so-called free range parenting laws for many years.
Under the law, neglect does not include allowing a child, whose basic needs are met and who is of sufficient age and maturity to avoid harm or unreasonable risk of harm, to engage in independent activities such as going to and from school by walking, running or bicycling, going to nearby stores or recreational facilities and playing outside.
A recent U.S. Census showed that 7 million of the nation’s 38 million children between the ages of 5 and 14 are left home alone on a regular basis, while the average time spent alone is six hours per week. Only a few states legislate an age under which kids may not be home alone.
Guest – Lenore Skenazy – New York City columnist-turned-reality TV show host got that title after letting her 9-year-old son take the subway, alone. In response to the enormous media blowback, she founded the book and blog, “Free-Range Kids,” which launched the anti-helicopter parenting movement. She has lectured internationally, including talks at Microsoft Headquarters and the Sydney Opera House, and has written for everyone from The Wall Street Journal to Mad Magazine. Yep. The Mad Magazine. And she’s a graduate of Yale.
Hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian and Marjorie Cohn
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Law and Disorder January 16, 2023
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The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself
We all know almost instinctively that there is a connection between politics and economics. Today we talk with Professor Richard Wolff about that connection. We live in a world in economic turmoil, all the more so because of the US and NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.
At home in the United States, we have the greatest wealth disparity and income disparity in a century. When Standard Old,now Exxon, owner John D. Rockefeller died he was worth $3 billion. Now Jeff Bezos is worth about $180 billion. There has not been a national increase in the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour in decades. Half the people in America are poor or near poor.
There has been a dramatic increase in labor militancy by American workers not seen since just before and just after World War II. US world hegemony is starting to fray even as the military budget increases.
This month Congress passed a budget bill with half of it going to the military. The military received 45 billion dollars more than they even asked for. What is going on? What are the prospects for political action independent of these two capitalist parties?
Guest – Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, NYC. He is the founder of Democracy at Work and host of their nationally syndicated show Economic Update. His latest book is The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself, which can be found along with his other books Understanding Socialism and Understanding Marxism at www.democracyatwork.info.
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Israel’s Far Right Agenda
As reported in the New York Times, less than two weeks into its tenure, Israel’s new and extreme neo-fascist right-wing government has already undertaken a wave of items from its far-right agenda. Items that are designed to weaken the judiciary, entrench Israel’s control of the West Bank, and bifurcate the military’s chain of command so as to give far-right ministers greater control of matters related to Israel’s occupation.
It is likely to have profoundly negative implications for the Palestinian people, as well as profound implications for the already dismal chances of finding a peaceful resolution of the decades long Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Even a great numbers of Israelis have grave concerns about its new government and what its announced plans may mean for them.
Guest – Sandra Tamari is a Palestinian organizer and the Executive Director of Adalah Justice Project. She was the Co-chair of the Steering Committee for the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights from 2015-2018 and a lead organizer of the Palestinian contingent to Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.
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