National • News & Public Affairs
Law and Disorder
Law and Disorder is a weekly, independent radio program airing on several stations across the United States. Law and Disorder gives listeners access to rare legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and the horrendous practices of torture exercised by the US government.
Law and Disorder is a weekly, independent radio program airing on several stations across the United States. Law and Disorder gives listeners access to rare legal perspectives on issues concerning civil liberties, privacy, right to dissent and the horrendous practices of torture exercised by the US government.
This program examines the political forces and legislation that are moving the United States into a police state. Four of the top progressive attorneys and activists host the program and bring an amazing, diverse line up of guests from grassroots activists to politically mindful authors. Most importantly, Law and Disorder brings access to attorneys who give insights to some of the most controversial cases. Law and Disorder will sometimes be the generator of news within the radio echo-chamber throughout the country.
Program website – http://www.lawanddisorder.org/
Recent Episodes
September 22, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs
Chris Hedges Analysis Of Pre-Election Society In The United States; and Global Peace Film Festival 2020
We are living in extraordinary times, we face both tremendous danger and extraordinary opportunity. The danger comes from a failed state, a failed racist capitalist state they cannot afford safety let alone opportunity to its citizens. Our opportunity comes from the massive social mobilizations that we have not seen in 75 years. A young generation has risen up,White people are involved with black people who are providing leadership.
The Global Peace Film Festival has used the power of film to advance peace on earth. The Festival views peace not as the absence of conflict but as a framework for channeling, processing and resolving conflict through respectful and non-violent means. This year, the festival will be virtual, and runs from Monday September 21 until Sunday October 4, 2020.
ListenSeptember 15, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs
President Trump And The 2020 Election; Detroit Will Breathe, et al, v. City of Detroit; and Hosts Remember Attorney Kevin Zeese
President Trump is already casting doubt on the legitimacy of the election which is less than two months away. He says there will be massive voter fraud, that absentee balloting, which will be widely prevalent because of the Covid crisis, is easily open the fraud.
Black Lives Matter protests have occurred in Detroit since May 29.For the first five days Detroit Police responded to the protests with excessive force. They used tear gas and rubber munitions, and freely using batons and shields to assault and beat protesters.In total, they arrested more than 400 protesters.
ListenSeptember 8, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs
Complaint Filed Against Judge Demanding Release of Attorney In Chevron Case; and The Tragedy of American Science: From Truman To Trump
Last week dozens of legal organizations representing more than 500,000 lawyers along with more than 200 individual lawyers submitted a judicial complaint against Judge Lewis A. Kaplan in New York. The violations were directed at human rights lawyer Steven Donziger who won a historic judgment against Chevron in Ecuador to clean up the pollution caused by decades of oil drilling with no environmental controls. The complaint documents is a pattern of ethics violations committed by Judge Kaplan, a former tobacco industry lawyer.
Science came out of the enlightenment. Research then was unbiased and done in the interest of the public. This is no longer the case with the militarization of science and its corporatization. In our times biased research has been conducted to show that tobacco doesnt cause cancer, that chemicals and pesticides used in agriculture do no harm, that opioids will not kill thousands, and that there is no such thing as human caused climate change.
ListenSeptember 1, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs
Julian Assange Update August 2020; and Open Letter To The Anti-Defamation League
President Obama prosecuted and imprisoned more whistleblowers than any other president. But President Trump did one thing that Obama did not do. He indicted Julian Assange for conspiracy under the Espionage Act charging that in 2010 Assange and his publishing organization WikiLeaks released truthful information about American war crimes. Assange sits in solitary confinement in the notorious Belmarsh prison in London. He awaits the outcome of the USAs extradition request.
In August 2020, 100 organizations signed an open letter exposing the Anti-Defamation League. Among the signatory organizations whose work Law And Disorder has covered on this radio program include the Center for Constitutional Rights, the National Lawyers Guild and Palestine Legal. These 100 organizations signed an open letter announcing the publication of a pamphlet written by a working group with contributions from the American Friends Service Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace, and Palestine Legal.
ListenAugust 25, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs
USPS, Election Integrity and the U.S. Postmaster General; and The Black Alliance For Peace
The new postmaster general Louis DeJoy"a staunch Trump supporter"wasted no time enacting such changes as ending overtime pay and removing some sorting machines. Not surprisingly, these changes have created great delays in service. In response, the White House chief of staff has indicated openness to provide emergency funding to help the USPS deal with a surge in mail-in ballots.
Trump and his Republican Party, venal and incompetent, have given up trying to contain the pandemic, ameliorate the economic catastrophe, or rein in the police. The Republicans left Washington two weeks ago refusing to pass an economic package that would aid the unemployed, which now number more than 30 million. 175,000 people have already died from COVID-19 and millions face eviction. The massive demonstrations in the streets, black led with the support of the majority of whites, has been an insurgency unprecedented in American history.
ListenAugust 18, 2020 National, News & Public Affairs
Gullibles Travels: A Comical History of the Trump Era; and American Spring: Unfolding Crisis
Since Trump began his presidential campaign four years ago comedians have been complaining that because he is so preposterous its hard to satirize him, that he is self satirical. This has been true until recently with the publication of Marvin Kitman's Gullibles Travels: A Comical History of the Trump Era.
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.
ListenAugust 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.
ListenAugust 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.
ListenJuly 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.
Read MoreJuly 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.
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