Forty years ago. Bill Astor was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. In this conversation with Dick Price, himself a Vietnam Veteran, the two military veterans reflect on two decades of military service and their participation in a system deeply embedded in America’s military-industrial complex. While Bill Astor never directly engaged in violence, he critically examines the paradoxes of serving in an institution that preaches peace through overwhelming firepower. Drawing on his experiences and historical scholarship, he critiques America's reliance on military force as a default solution to global problems—from Vietnam to Iraq to Gaza. Dick Price, on the other hand, is a combat veteran. He returned from Vietnam an anti-war protestor. The two veterans challenge the mythology of American exceptionalism and question whether the U.S. has become the very "evil empire" it once opposed, with an ever-expanding global military presence and an insatiable appetite for war cloaked in the language of defense and democracy.

This conversation was launched as a result of an essay written by William J. Astore and published by the LA Progressive titled, Too Much Bombing, Not Enough Brains.

The LA Progressive is a daily digital publication. Our website is https://www.laprogressive.com

Is Donald Trump Bullying Judges and Law Firms? Has he taken a page from Hitler’s playbook?

It appears that Trump is bullying America's legal system. Nine of America’s largest and most powerful law firms have surrendered to President Donald Trump’s illegal threats. They demeaned themselves by agreeing to provide an astonishing $940 million in free legal services to causes chosen by Trump and the firms while also agreeing to discontinue their DEI policies. Fortunately, other firms refused and are fighting back. Trump bullied the legal system by following Hitler's playbook. The most ominous parallel is to Nazi Germany, where Adolf Hitler successfully bent the German legal system to his will, with the complicity of German lawyers and judges, just as Trump bullied America's legal system.

Dick Price and Sharon Kyle interview Stephen Rohde —a writer, lecturer, and political activist. For almost 50 years, Stephen Rohde practiced civil rights, civil liberties, and intellectual property law and has won significant First Amendment victories in state and federal appellate courts. He is a past chair of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California and past national chair of Bend the Arc, a Jewish Partnership for Justice.

See read articles written by Stephen Rohde, go to:

https://www.laprogressive.com/author/stephen-rohde

On April 25th, the FBI arrested Hannah Dugan, a circuit court judge who serves on the Milwaukee County Circuit Court in Wisconsin. She was taken away in handcuffs, a highly unusual maneuver–specifically, Judge Dugan was handcuffed and arrested by FBI agents at the courthouse where she presides, during court hours. The arrest was conducted publicly within the courthouse premises. She was led out in handcuffs, a move that has drawn criticism from legal professionals and observers who questioned the necessity and manner of the arrest.

Because this arrest is raising ire in the legal community, we asked former judge Bill Blum to give us a sense of whether the Trump administration's behavior was unwarranted. Is this behavior a sign that Donald Trump is launching an attack against the judiciary branch of government?

You can read more on this issue by going to:

https://www.laprogressive.com/law-and-justice/trump-administration-arrests-wisconsin-judge

You can find more content like this on a variety of social justice issues at:

https://www.laprogressive.com/