Commentary
Commentary
US Criminal Justice: Why the Two-Tiered Justice System is Really THREE-Tiered
Ken Peeples: TIER ONE- Impunity, immunity, zero accountability and ‘Let’s make a deal.’ ... the Justice Department rushes to the negotiating table to play “let’s make a deal” with the political, corporate and financial elite ... TIER TWO- Marked leniency and merciful prosecutions ... it is reserved for ordinary people, mostly white, who have some degree of wealth and privilege. The law tends to treat this tier with compassion and mercy. ... TIER THREE- Predatory prosecution and mass incarceration ... The individuals in this tier are poor and working class and experience heavy policing, draconian drug laws, and mandatory minimum sentences. Black and Brown people (and sometimes poor whites) are usually targeted. Individuals in Tier Three do not receive the leniency that the folks in Tier Two enjoy...
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Jun 21, 2018, 3:08pm
Commentary
End the Wars to Halt the Refugee Crisis
Ramzy Baroud: Europe is facing the most significant refugee crisis since World War II. All attempts at resolving the issue have failed, mostly because they have ignored the root causes of the problem. ... The disturbing truth is this: Europe is accountable for much of the mayhem under way in the Middle East. Right-wing pundits may wish to omit that part of the debate altogether, but facts will not simply disappear when ignored. ... European politicians should honestly confront the question: what are the reasons that lead millions of people to leave their homes? And fashion equally honest and humane solutions...
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Jun 20, 2018, 4:12pm
Commentary
As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights turns 70, it’s time to resurrect its vision of global sharing and justice
Adam Parsons: What are the political implications of meeting the established human right for everyone to enjoy an adequate standard of living? In short, it necessitates a redistribution of wealth and resources on an unprecedented scale across the world ... the significance of its 25th Article, which proclaims the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living—including food, housing, healthcare, social services and basic financial security ... the United States has persistently rejected the idea that economic and social rights are full-fledged human rights ... In short, implementing Article 25 would call for a redistribution of wealth, power and income on an unprecedented scale within every society, in contradistinction to the prevailing economic ideology of our time—an ideology that falsely views economic and social rights as inimical to “wealth creation”, “economic growth” and “international competitiveness”...
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Jun 19, 2018, 12:03pm
Commentary
'This is huge': black liberationist speaks out after her 40 years in prison
Debbie Sims Africa, the first freed member of a radical Philadelphia group many say were unjustly imprisoned, talks about reuniting with her son and defends the Move members still locked up: ‘We are peaceful people’ ... The first member of a group of black radicals known as the Move Nine who have been incarcerated, they insist unjustly, for almost 40 years for killing a Philadelphia police officer has been released from prison. ... She was 22 when with her co-defendants she was arrested and sentenced to 30 to 100 years for the shooting death of officer James Ramp during a police siege of the group’s communal home on 8 August 1978. ... the shot may have come from the opposite direction to the basement, raising the possibility that Ramp was accidentally felled, by police fire...
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Jun 18, 2018, 11:53am
Commentary
San Francisco’s First Black Female Mayor Defies the Liberal Litmus Test
Jamilah King: London Breed officially became San Francisco’s first black female mayor Wednesday ... In a state that’s deep blue, in a city of progressives, she’s considered a true moderate. But what exactly that means isn’t totally clear. ... In many ways, Breed is the latest in a long line of black politicians who have seemingly been at odds with the city’s white progressives. ... Breed has spent years cultivating relationships with longtime black power players, proving to some that while she touts her humble beginnings, she’s actually a consummate insider. ... She went to the city’s public schools, so she’s deeply invested in fixing them. She grew up in poverty, so she’s uniquely equipped to understand issues like homelessness. Her sister died of a drug overdose, so she understands the need to tackle addiction. Her brother is currently in prison...
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Jun 15, 2018, 12:54pm
Commentary
Supreme Court Affirms Native American Treaty Rights to Harvest Salmon
Terri Hansen: The decision upholds 19th century promises and should increase the number of fish for everyone. ... The Supreme Court affirmed the treaty rights of tribal nations in Washington state today (June 11) in a case that also confirms the treaty rights of tribes throughout the West. By ruling to leave in place a lower court decision mandating that the state of Washington replace salmon blocking culverts with passable ones, the Court upheld the treaty rights of tribes to have sustained access to their First Foods: salmon. ... "In 2018 the Supreme Court still recognizes that our treaties are the supreme law of the land. It’s not just a piece of paper that was signed in 1855. We never gave up these rights. We reserved these rights in exchange for most of the land in western Washington.”...
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Jun 13, 2018, 3:48pm
Commentary
Foundation of Anti-Imperialism
Kevin Zeese: The United States has had a policy of imperialism beginning after the Civil War. The US way of war, developed against Indigenous peoples, spread worldwide as the US sought to extend its power through military force, economic dominance and diplomatic hegemony. ... Imperialism is driven by what Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. identified at the end of his life, the triple evils of racism, capitalism, and militarism. Lenin described imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism. Imperialism has justified mass slaughter, resulting in the US killing 20 million people since WW II...
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Jun 12, 2018, 4:31pm
Commentary
The Great Waking Up
Robert Koehler: A smallness of mind has a chokehold on American political power and awareness. Maybe what I mean is that it has control over the money. ... “The money just isn’t there” — to provide universal healthcare, to create environmental sustainability to ensure that everyone has clean drinking water. ... But “the money,” whatever that actually is, remains quietly, unquestionably present to maintain a suicidal status quo of expanding war, prisons, border “protection” and, of course, environmental exploitation. ... We possess a fair amount of freedom of thought and action. Maybe it’s not enough to dislodge the entrenched, money-blessed military-industrialism that is our ruling god — but maybe it is, if we can foment a Great Waking Up and start undoing the harm we have been inflicting on ourselves for so long now...
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Jun 11, 2018, 10:50am
Commentary
Israel’s Attack on the USS Liberty: A Half Century Later, Still No Justice
Jeffrey St. Clair: In early June of 1967, at the onset of the Six Day War, the Pentagon sent the USS Liberty from Spain into international waters off the coast of Gaza to monitor the progress of Israel’s attack on the Arab states. The Liberty was a lightly armed surveillance ship. ... Only hours after the Liberty arrived it was spotted by the Israeli military. The IDF sent out reconnaissance planes to identify the ship. ... The Liberty was flying a large US flag and was easily recognizable as an American vessel. ... Soon more planes came. These were Israeli Mirage III fighters, armed with rockets and machine guns. As off-duty officers sunbathed on the deck, the fighters opened fire on the defenseless ship with rockets and machine guns. ... After more than two hours of unremitting assault, the Israelis finally halted their attack...
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Jun 9, 2018, 12:23pm
Commentary
What Took Down ACORN May Take Down the Rest of Us
David Swanson: ACORN was my first unacceptable job, the first place I worked where the purpose was to make the world a better place. I’d had jobs where I’d tried to do that. I’d had jobs where I’d determined I couldn’t do any good. I’d quit them all. Then I got a job at ACORN and all was right with the world. Or, rather, all was right with me because I was able to try to improve the world. And we damn well did. We saved people’s homes (tens of thousands of them), we took money from banks and gave it to their victims. We raised wages. We formed unions. We protected immigrants. We trained people to be active decent and completely inappropriate human beings constantly striving to improve things. ... It was destroyed by rightwing propaganda, corrupt media, and liberal cowardice....
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Jun 8, 2018, 1:46pm
Commentary
Disneyland workers face ruthless exploitation. Their fight is our fight
Bernie Sanders Disney is a $150bn corporation, which made $9bn in profits last year. It received a $1.6bn tax break from the Trump tax giveaway to the rich and, interestingly, has received hundreds of millions in local tax breaks from the city of Anaheim. ... The average hourly wage for Disneyland Resort workers in real dollars dropped 15% from 2000 to 2017, from $15.80 to $13.36. Today, over 80% of Disneyland workers make less than $12 an hour. Almost three-quarters say that they do not earn enough money to cover basic expenses every month. Over half of Disneyland employees report concerns about being evicted from their homes or apartments...
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Jun 7, 2018, 12:03pm
Commentary
The Blatant Conspiracy behind Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s Assassination
Edward Curtin: Early in 1968, Clyde Tolson, F.B.I. Director J. Edgar Hoover’s deputy and bosom buddy, a key player in the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., expressed both the hope and intent of those making sure that there would never be another president by the name Kennedy, when he said about RFK that “I hope someone shoots and kills the son of a bitch.” ... Senator Robert Kennedy was a marked man. And he knew it. That he was nevertheless willing to stand up to the forces of hate and violence that were killing innocents at home and abroad is a testimony to his incredible courage and love of country. To honor such a man requires that we discover and speak the truth about those who killed him. ... Right from the start the conspirators had intricate plans in place just in case questions were asked. Plans to confuse. False leads. Fallback stories. Something far beyond the ken of the 24 year old Sirhan Sirhan...
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Jun 5, 2018, 4:28pm
Commentary
The American Way of War: Evolution Stops Here
Robert Koehler: America does what it wants. ... this secretly defined, self-obsessed, unelected entity that purports to be the United States of America, all 325 million of us, but is, in fact, a narrowly focused amalgam of generals, politicians and corporate elites who value only one thing: global dominance, from now to eternity. ... There’s nothing in this controlling consciousness devoted to creating — or imagining — a world without nuclear weapons or a world free of war and poverty. ... One reason the nation’s leaders are able to keep waging wars that do not, in fact, keep America safe is because the harm they cause is almost totally borne by the other...
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Jun 4, 2018, 10:48am
Commentary
UN: US inequality reaching a dangerous level due to Trump's 'cruel' measures
Ed Pilkington: Donald Trump is deliberately forcing millions of Americans into financial ruin, cruelly depriving them of food and other basic protections while lavishing vast riches on the super-wealthy, the United Nations monitor on poverty has warned. ... “This is a systematic attack on America’s welfare program that is undermining the social safety net for those who can’t cope on their own. Once you start removing any sense of government commitment, you quickly move into cruelty,” Alston told the Guardian. ... Millions of Americans already struggling to make ends meet faced “ruination”, he warned. “If food stamps and access to Medicaid are removed, and housing subsidies cut, then the effect on people living on the margins will be drastic.”...
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Jun 1, 2018, 10:33am
Commentary
Why do white people keep calling the cops?
Khury Petersen-Smith: What do the viral videos showing angry white people trying to police people of color tell us about racism and anti-racism today? ... As historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz writes in An Indigenous People’s History of the United States, “During nearly two centuries of British colonization, generations of settlers, mostly farmers, gained experience as ‘Indian fighters’ outside any organized military institution.” ... During the years before the Civil War, laws effectively deputized whites to capture Black people escaping slavery in the South. ... The notion that Black people are criminals to be policed has become part of the daily diet of American life, even in the post-civil rights era. ... a primary feature of DHS’s (Department of Homeland Security) activity from the start has been the cultivation of public participation in the racist policing of ordinary people — usually Muslims and people of color, of course — by other ordinary people...
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May 30, 2018, 12:25pm
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