August 11, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs

The Young Lords: A Radical History; and Aerial Investigation Research Pilot Program And Persistent Tracking

Historically, the role of street protests is so intrinsic to reform in this nation enshrines protection for mass assemblies in the Bill of Rights. Yet one vibrant and impactful group of revolutionary activists in protest history has received virtually no attention, namely the Young Lords.

As the nation erupts in protests against racially-infused police violence, the Baltimore Police Department has just launched a six-month, day-time aerial surveillance experiment. A Texas billionaire has funded the project that is being operated by an Ohio-based company, Persistent Surveillance Systems. The plane flies overhead and records the movements of everyone in the city.

August 4, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs

People’s Law Office Files Suit To Stop Paramilitary In Chicago and USPS Crisis During Pandemic: Update

Military forces were sent out to crush the demonstrations, to dominate the streets. Dressed in camouflage uniforms without identification they plucked protesters off the street, kidnapped and interrogated them, and then released them. They used teargas, pepper spray, and fired rubber bullets. They beat people severely with batons and focused their attacks on paramedics, National Lawyers Guild legal observers and journalists. Trump has indicated that he plans to send his para- military forces to Chicago. Black Lives Matter in that city and several other activist organizations have banded together and sued Trump to prevent this.

Former Postmaster General Megan Brennan in April asked the House Oversight and Reform Committee for a $75 billion relief package based on the earlier forecasts. The request was approved, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, package volume has actually increased. But experts say its not a matter of if the USPS will deplete its funds, but when.

July 28, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs

Democracy, If We Can Keep Keep It: The ACLUs 100 Year Fight For Rights In America; and Dakota Access Pipeline: Update

The American Civil Liberties Union was formed 100 years ago in 1920 in a climate of fear in our country not unlike what exists today. Ellis Close has written an important history of the ACLU titled Democracy, If We Can Keep Keep It: The ACLUs 100 year fight for rights in America.

July has been a legal roller coaster ride with respect to efforts to shut down the Dakota Access and Keystone XL Pipelines. First, a judge invalidated federal permits saying that the Army Corps of Engineers failed to address the potential damage from oil spills in the Dakota pipeline. He ordered the company Energy Transfer to stop pumping crude oil through South Dakota. On the heels of that order, a federal appellate court temporarily blocked that shutdown.

July 21, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs

Attorney Marjorie Cohn: Trump, Assange, Democracy And Rule of Law

Trump has successfully put 198 young, reactionary, and some ignorant judges on the federal bench. He has illegally called out troops to violently disperse peaceful protesters in the park in front of the White House. Trump has threatened the personnel of the International Criminal Court who are attempting to investigate US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. These include the crime of torture.

July 14, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs

Police Unions Are Racist Power Brokers in Opposition to Movement for Black Lives; and First Amendment Auditor: Big Nick South Florida Accountability

When they commit violence against civilian,s abusive police in the United States are protected in various ways. The power elite, whose property police protect, have given them almost complete legal immunity from successful lawsuits for damages under the doctrine of qualified immunity. Police unions act as power brokers in opposition to the rights of victimized citizens.

In October of 2010, a judge actually signed a settlement where the US government agreed that no federal statures or regulations bar people from photographing the exterior of federal buildings. The US government agreed to issue a directive to members of the Federal Protective Service on photographers rights. A decade later, the rights attained in this decision are recently being put to the test in whats known as First Amendment audits.

July 7, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs

Cobalt Mining Case Update; and American Spring: Unfolding Crisis

Tech titans Apple, Google, Microsoft, Tesla and Dell aided and abetted in the death and serious injury of child laborers working in African cobalt mines. That's the claim put forth in a class action lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C. by International Rights Advocates. Guest - Attorney Terry Collingsworth, speaks.

The Chinese word for crisis consists of two characters. One means danger, the other means opportunity. We currently are in an historically unprecedented situation fraught with both danger and possibilities. Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin once remarked that sometimes nothing happens in decades and other times decades happen in a few weeks. This is our situation now. We see an American spring unfolding. Guest – Glen Ford, editor of the Black Agenda Report.

June 30, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs

Attorney Marjorie Cohn: Trump, Assange, Democracy And Rule of Law

Without democracy and the rule of law there can be no significant social change. However, much democracy was constricted by race and class before the attacks on September 11, 2001 and before Trump, democracy and the rule of law are now facing lethal attacks on many fronts.

Attorney Marjorie Cohn, professor emerita at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law is a former president of the National Lawyers Guild, a criminal defense attorney, a legal scholar, and a political analyst. She writes books and articles and lectures throughout the world about human rights, US foreign policy, and the contradiction between the two. She has testified before Congress and debated at the prestigious Oxford Union.

June 23, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs

Police Spy on Student’s Social Media; and Co-conspirator For Justice: The Revolutionary Life Of Dr. Alan Berkman

In late 2016, a trove of emails revealed that law enforcement had been monitoring the social media accounts of Black Lives Matter protesters. In Minnesota, an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force used a confidential information with access to private social media communications about a BLM protest and fed that information to local police. It turns out that such tracking is routine among local and federal police agencies to keep tabs on lawful First Amendment protected activities of dissent.

After battling recurrent cancer for half his life Dr. Alan Berkman died in a New York City hospital on June 5th, 11 years ago. Alan was first struck by cancer when he was in prison, accused and then convicted for his political work in the political underground. He was a leader of the small May 19th movement, an offshoot of Prairie Fire then controlled by those in the Weather Underground. Alan and his comrades did non-lethal bombings of political targets, including an FBI office and the U.S. Senate, to protest American imperial and racist atrocities.

June 16, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs

Aerial Investigation Research Pilot Program And Public Privacy Breach; and President Trump Withdraws From The Treaty On Open Skies: Part 2

As the nation erupts in protests against racially-infused police violence, the Baltimore Police Department has just launched a six-month, day-time aerial surveillance experiment. A Texas billionaire has funded the project that is being operated by an Ohio-based company, Persistent Surveillance Systems. The plane flies overhead and records the movements of everyone in the city. Michael Harrison, Baltimore Police Commissioner, has justified the nearly $4 million experiment by saying, There is no expectation of privacy on a public street, a sidewalk. He clarified that the plane will not film while persons are inside their homes.

The chance for nuclear war which would destroy human life on Earth has never been higher. Just last week President Donald Trump withdrew America from The Treaty On Open Skies. This treaty is an agreement between 34 nations that allows each country to fly over each others territories. The treaty is designed to provide transparency and mutual observation of military developments. He also withdrew from the Intermediary Intermediary Ballistic Missile treaty with Russia. As a consequence the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists has pushed the hands of its doomsday clock on its magazine forward to almost midnight

June 9, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs

President Trump Invokes 1807 Insurrection Act; and President Trump Withdraws From The Treaty On Open Skies: Part 1

Last week Donald Trump announced his readiness to invoke the 1807 Insurrection act to enforce order inside the United States. From the Rose Garden he vowed that if city and state leaders did not take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents he would

Last week President Donald Trump withdrew America from The Treaty On Open Skies. This treaty is an agreement between 34 nations that allows each country to fly over each others territories. The treaty is designed to provide transparency and mutual observation of military developments.