USA, Land of the Free

USA, Land of the Free. Uh-huh.

Young Black Man Jailed Since April for Alleged $5 Theft Is Found Dead in Cell

http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/young_black_man_jailed_since_april_for_alleged_5_theft_20150829

Black ex-cop files suit after he and his son were beaten by other cops

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/09/28/1425598/-Black-ex-cop-files-suit-over-he-and-his-son-being-beaten-by-other-cops?detail=email

United States of Orwell

We live in an Orwellian, Kafkaesque, Atwoodian police state. Those authors have nothing on us, because you can't make this shit up:

Murder charge for woman who took abortion pill

OK, the charges were suddenly dropped today, but she still spent 3 days in jail for it. AND she still faces charges of "possession of a dangerous drug." Because, dontchya know, the morning-after pill is a "dangerous drug."

This country is so fucked up.

Chris Hedges: The Wages of Rebellion Part 2

There are so many videos on YouTube of speeches by the great Chris Hedges. You can have a field day watching them. I feel honored that I've met Hedges and broken bread with him several times. He is one of the most upstanding, virtuous people I have ever met. He is a poet, a philosopher, a visionary, a historian, a Cassandra for our age. 

His books are as infuriating as they are inspiring. And if you don't read his weekly column at Truthdig or Nation of Change or Truthout -- well, put the frigging New York Times and Washington Post aside once in a while and read somebody with integrity, somebody who doesn't suck up to power, who is unafraid to tell the unvarnished truth. If you have time to read a mainstream newspaper or watch network TV, you have time to read Hedges. The following quote comes about 3:30 into the clip:

"How do you revolt?
". . . I want people to understand when you seriously revolt what the state does to you.
". . . revolt itself is a moral imperative. That asking the question as to whether it can succeed is the wrong question. Revolt is not finally about what we achieve . . . revolt is about what we become. 
". . . I don't fight fascists because finally I believe that I will win. I fight fascists because they are fascists."

United States of Depravity

In a perfect corollary to the entry I posted earlier today, we have the following story from the Washington Post. It's impossible to imagine the depravity of this country anymore. Reality surpasses the most sick, twisted thing you could ever come up with: 

Junked Rapiscan scanners get second life

Since the radiation-emitting, independently untested Rapiscan strip-search scanners were removed from airports last year -- at the cost of millions of dollars to taxpayers -- what's happened to them? 

UPDATE to Cecily McMillan Case

A couple of updates to the case of the injustice carried out against Cecily McMillan, which I wrote about earlier today. 

The updates are from the UK paper the Guardian, which has given this story comprehensive coverage throughout, unlike the American mainstream press, which, if it covers it at all, usually buries it -- in the case of the New York Times, in the NY Region section, even though it's a case with national implications. 

(Oh, and I'm still looking for it at NPR, whose website shows nothing about the case. Surprise, surprise.)  

Cecily McMillan, Victim of Police Assault, Found Guilty, In Jail

In the continuing cavalcade of innocent people put in prison in this country -- the vast majority of whom are poor and/or people of color -- we now add Cecily McMillan, an Occupy activist who was assaulted by a New York City cop and who is now in jail for it.

You read that right. She was assaulted by him. Yet she is in jail. And he -- with a history of committing abuse -- is walking free.  

Great News: Lynne Stewart Finally Released

In a rare bit of good news, perfect to start the new year, wrongly jailed lawyer Lynne Stewart has finally received compassionate release. Democracy Now reports:

The civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart has returned home from prison after a federal judge ordered her compassionate release. Stewart is 74 years old and dying from late-stage breast cancer. Viewed by supporters as a political prisoner, she had served almost four years of a 10-year sentence for distributing press releases on behalf of her client, Omar Abdel Rahman, an Egyptian cleric known as the "blind Sheikh." Stewart arrived to a group of cheering supporters in New York City on Wednesday. Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman and Renée Feltz were at the airport to cover the homecoming and speak with Stewart about her time behind bars and her plans to continue fighting for political prisoners — and for her own life — now that she's free.

WTF: Cops Shoot at Unarmed Man, Hit 2 Bystanders, Charge Man with Assault

Another in our continuing series called WTF. When I first read the following headline, I was sure it had to be from The Onion. But it's not. It's real:

David Simon on American Empire

Baltimore -- and national -- treasure David Simon has done a lot of speaking on the ills that afflict this country and the dark path we're treading. I can't say with authority that his views are sought out more by the foreign press than our own here at home, but it sure seems that way. The Wire, after all, one of the most brilliant series in television history, was repeatedly dissed by the Emmys, while it was devoured by audiences and lauded to the skies in the U.K.

Stop Putting Kids in Solitary

Solitary confinement is torture. It has been understood to be such for decades. It's torture when you subject an adult to it, but it's beyond barbaric when you subject children to it. Yet that's what this country is doing.

This country is barbaric. We will have no way to change it unless we acknowledge that. You have to recognize and acknowledge something before you can change it.

This post relates to the one I did earlier today. Watch this video. Sign the petition. Pass it on. We are torturing our children:

LUV News Sunday 21 July 2013

As I wrote here, I do LUV News on the weekends. Here was today's (Sunday's) newsletter (minus the story on Brandon Toy, which I had already done as a separate post here):

Rallies for Lynne Stewart

Lynne Stewart, another victim of our country's paranoia and abuse (the prisons are full of them), has been denied compassionate release. She's dying of cancer. Rallies are being held for her next week: on Tuesday, July 9th, in New York City, and on Friday, July 12th, in Washington, D.C.

Foley Square, Lower Manhattan Courts, 4-7 pm, with march to 500 Pearl Street.

Columbia Heights Civic Plaza, 14th Street & Park Road, NW, 5:30-8 pm.

More info at the International Action Center.

Originally published at Reader Supported  News.

Free Lynne Stewart

By William Boardman, Reader Supported News

Author's Note: If you search "Lynne Stewart" on RSN, you'll find 22 articles including, most recently, "The Persecution of Lynne Stewart" by Chris Hedges, April 22, 2013.

n the American justice system, even when a prisoner is not sentenced to be executed, the bureaucrats of the U.S. Justice Department's Federal Bureau of Prisons still have extra-judicial ways of making sure a politically targeted prisoner will die in jail.