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Prisons: America's slave empire

Chris Hedges
Truth Dig
Sun, 21 Jun 2015 18:33 UTC
Image
© IBWC KC / YouTube
Three prisoners—Melvin Ray, James Pleasant and Robert Earl Council—who led work stoppages in Alabama prisons in January 2014 as part of the Free Alabama Movement have spent the last 18 months in solitary confinement. Authorities, unnerved by the protests that engulfed three prisons in the state, as well as by videos and pictures of abusive conditions smuggled out by the movement, say the men will remain in solitary confinement indefinitely.

The prison strike leaders are denied televisions and reading material. They spend at least three days a week, sometimes longer, without leaving their tiny isolation cells. They eat their meals seated on their steel toilets. They are allowed to shower only once every two days despite temperatures that routinely rise above 90 degrees.

The men have become symbols of a growing resistance movement inside American prisons. The prisoners' work stoppages and refusal to co-operate with authorities in Alabama are modeled on actions that shook the Georgia prison system in December 2010. The strike leaders argue that this is the only mechanism left to the 2.3 million prisoners across America. By refusing to work—a tactic that would force prison authorities to hire compensated labor or to induce the prisoners to return to their jobs by paying a fair wage—the neoslavery that defines the prison system can be broken. Prisoners are currently organizing in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia and Washington.
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House

American Dream denied: Home ownership rates in U.S. hit lowest level in two decades

Andre Damon
World Socialist Web Site
Thu, 25 Jun 2015 16:50 UTC
Image
The economic recession that began with the collapse of the housing market in 2007 officially came to an end in June 2009—more than six years ago. But by most indications, American households are significantly worse off than they were at the depth of the downturn. Despite the drop in the official unemployment rate, household incomes have fallen, wages have stagnated and student loan debt has soared.

A study by Harvard University's Joint Center For Housing Studies released on Wednesday points to another sign of the widespread economic distress affecting broad sections of the US population: the persistent fall in the share of households who are able to achieve the "American Dream" of homeownership.

According to "The State of the Nation's Housing 2015," the share of American households who owned their own home fell to 64.5 percent last year, the lowest level in two decades, based US Census data. This was down from a homeownership rate of over 69 percent in 2004, and was unchanged from the homeownership rate in 1985, three decades ago.

The fall in homeownership was prevalent in all age groups, but younger households were among the most affected. The ownership rate for 35-44 year-olds was down 5.4 percentage points from 1993, and has hit a level not seen since the 1960s. Only slightly more than one-third of households headed by those aged 25-35 owned their own homes.
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Gold Coins

Russians pay less tax than you - and other reasons to admire the bear

Marco Polo
Russia Insider
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 16:17 UTC
ruble
Russia gets a bad press. Literally. In fact Western media coverage of Russia is almost always extremely negative. That would be excusable if it was mostly accurate, but in fact it's usually blatantly wrong. The reality of Russia is far removed from the fiction that we're meant to believe. As investors, understanding the difference is essential. Here are just some of the surprising things about Russia that you probably don't know.
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Heart

A story of courage through art: Valentina Lisitsa plays concert in Donetsk

Alexander Mercouris
Russia Insider
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 15:56 UTC
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Valentina Lisitsa - Hero Pianist
A uplifting concert from a heroic pianist banned from performing in Toronto for her opposition to the war being waged in her country

Amidst all the horror of the Ukrainian conflict, 22nd June 2015 produced a moment of true heroism.


The pianist Valentina Lisitsa — prevented from performing in Toronto because of her opposition to the war being waged in her native Ukraine — performed a concert in Donetsk.

This was a true anti-war concert - commemorating those who fought fascism on the anniversary of the Nazi attack on the USSR (Operation Barbarossa).


Comment: See:

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Handcuffs

Ex-Baltimore cop pulls back dark curtain on corruption culture


RT
Wed, 24 Jun 2015 00:50 UTC
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© Reuters/Evan Habeeb
A former Baltimore detective has started tweeting daily examples of police brutality, false arrests, and lying in court, which he said he witnessed over the course of 11 years serving in the Baltimore Police Department (BPD)

Michael A. Wood, Jr. used nine tweets on Wednesday to blow the whistle about things he had "seen & participated in, in policing that is corrupt, intentional or not."

Wood wrote that he will tweet some examples each day "so that we have time for ?s, reflections, and improvement in between."

Comment: Does he have an agenda to get people riled up?

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Sherlock

Autopsy report in death of Freddie Gray shows single 'high-energy' injury


RT
Wed, 24 Jun 2015 18:21 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Adrees Latif
The Baltimore man who died in police custody in April suffered a single "high-energy injury" that broke his spine, most likely caused by the sudden slowing down of the police van, says the autopsy report obtained by the local press.

Gray had no previous injuries indicating a neck hold or caused by physical restraint by police officers who arrested him on April 12, says the report obtained by the Baltimore Sun on Tuesday. Assistant medical examiner Carol H. Allan concluded that Gray may have gotten to his feet inside the van, and was thrown into a wall during a sudden change in direction.

Though his death fit the medical and legal definition of an accident, Allan ruled it a homicide because the arresting officers failed to follow safety procedures "through acts of omission." The officers shackled Gray's wrists and ankles and loaded him into the van on his belly, rather than belting him into a seat as Baltimore PD guidelines called for.
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Eye 1

Veterans Affairs police officers file lawsuit against VA alleging management spied on them


RT
Wed, 24 Jun 2015 18:14 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Marcos Brindicci
More than 20 police officers have filed a lawsuit claiming that management of the Veterans Affairs medical center spied on them in their break rooms through video cameras and microphones.

The lawsuit, filed by 24 Veterans Affairs police officers, claimed they discovered the bugging when a colleague alerted them that their chief of police "may be monitoring their activities," on January 19, 2014.

Five days later a group of officers found a camera with a microphone mounted on a support bracket hidden behind CCTV monitors. Indicator lights on the device were covered up in black tape. When officers covered up the microphone to discuss their find, the chief of police, Jerry Brown, entered the control room demanding to know what the officers were doing, and ordered them to draft statements about what was happening, according to the complaint.

Officers subsequently found another hidden camera and microphone in a break room in March, 2014. Footage and audio recordings from this camera were used by the police chief to make disciplinary charges against one of the plaintiff's in the suit, Luis Rodriguez-Soto, which included a two-week suspension without pay, according to the complaint.

Comment: No one is safe from government surveillance, even government employees themselves.

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Eye 2

Father describes son's harrowing neglect and torture leading to his death while in police custody


RT
Wed, 24 Jun 2015 18:08 UTC
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© Facebook
Frederick Farris, the father of Keaton Farris, who died in US police custody, told RT patients with mental health problems need better supervision. His bi-polar son died from a lack of food and water with Farris Sr. saying he was treated as a "subhuman."

"It is so harrowing and so ridiculous the amount of neglect, torture," Frederick Farris, Keaton's father said.

"We would like to see all inmates receive proper medical attention, food, water, that's needed to be healthy, and be monitored and checked on a reasonable amount [of time]," the father added.

Farris mentioned that his son had received just 20 percent of the water needed by someone to survive, let alone live a healthy life. The water supply to his cell had been shut off because Keaton had previously put a pillow in the toilet, which caused his cell to flood.

"This blatant disregard, they treated him like a subhuman. My theory was that he was crying out for help because no one was checking up on him," Keaton said, mentioning that his 25-year-old son was"compassionate and had a great smile."

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Arrow Down

Dominican Republic deporting thousands of Haitians who have lived there for generations

Amalia Perez
Truthout.org
Tue, 23 Jun 2015 00:00 UTC
deportation haitians dominican republic

Haitian Migrants Face Mass Deportations from Dominican Republic
Beginning this week, the Dominican government will move forward with the deportation of an estimated 210,000 allegedly Haitian refugees living in the Dominican Republic (DR). A large majority of them have lived in the Dominican Republic for generations, have never visited Haiti or spoken Creole, or were brought over from Haiti as children.[1] They will be rendered stateless under the DR's draconian immigration laws, which targets and expels those "dark-skinned Dominicans with Haitian facial features" who cannot prove, with birth certificates or citizenship papers, they legally belong in the DR.[2]

The Dominican government has been creating a stateless underclass out of those of Haitian descent for decades, however, the decision to deport them in massive premeditated quantities—despite fervent opposition by foreign governments and international legal and humanitarian bodies—is a decisive escalation from structural violence to physical violence at the hands of President Danilo Medina's government. The prevalence of antihaitanismo, a pejorative ideology which "serves elite interests well and has even been accepted by the great majority of the Dominican people as part of their political culture", has its roots in the era of Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo, whose regime infamously warned against "Haitianizing influences, whose consequences will always be extremely fatal for Dominican society."[3] This ideology pulsed throughout the Parsley Massacre of 1937, in which the Trujillo regime murdered upwards of 20,000 alleged Haitians on the basis of whether or not they could trill the "r" in perejil, the Spanish term for parsley—a perverse semantic exercise that often proved morbid for native Haitian Creole speakers.[4]
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Heart - Black

Leaked photos show New York Times staff mimicking mass killings


RT
Wed, 24 Jun 2015 17:59 UTC
Image
© Reuters / Gary Hershorn
The headquarters of the New York Times
Two leaked photographs show top New York Times staff in poses making fun of mass killings shortly after they happened.

An unnamed former New York Times employee provided Gawker with the photos, which were then published on Tuesday. They show an apparent disconnect between the NYT image of decorous professionalism and literal images of staff making light of mass death.

One photo shows the longtime NYT opinion page editor Andrew Rosenthal wielding a fake M16 rifle and a bottle of wine over staffers stained with fake blood, recreating the June 2001 Nepalese royal massacre. The massacre was committed by the Crown Prince Dipendra, who took the lives of nine people including the king, queen, as well as his own. One of the weapons that he used was an M16.

The calendar on the wall indicates that the reenactment also occurred in June 2001, when the memory of the tragedy would have still been fresh in the minds of the public.


Comment: These journalists apparently have a lot of free time on their hands, probably because they don't actually produce any copy but just regurgitate government propaganda.

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