americanwanderlust:

Really and truely.  This is a fucking absurd charge.  Terrorism charges for Protesters, and the US government sinks lower and lower.

growfoodraisehell:

One of the several banners dropped today in Austin, TX in solidarity with those arrested in Chicago.

(via theyoungradical)

fuckyeahmarxismleninism:

An estimated 15,000 people marched in Chicago yesterday against the NATO warmakers’ summit, despite an overwhelming police presence and scare-mongering in the media.

The police, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and the corporate media are working overtime to…

lifeisliterallylimited:

Policemen thugs in riot gear push protesters away from the site of the NATO Summit in Chicago May 20, 2012. Baton-swinging police clashed with anti-war protesters marching on the NATO summit in Chicago on Sunday and a lawyers’ group representing the demonstrators said at least 12 people were injured, some with head wounds from police batons. 

REUTERS/Adrees Latif

(via theyoungradical)

theyoungradical:

inothernews:

WORST AMENDMENT   Getty Images freelance photographer Joshua Lott is arrested by police while covering protests on the first day of the NATO summit in Chicago.  It’s unclear if Lott has been charged; his photos from the protests have been published by numerous Getty affiliates, including the Los Angeles Times.  (Photo: Spencer Platt / Getty Images via The Guardian)

What part of “a free press” do police departments not understand?

they understand it completely, they just don’t give a fuck, this needs to be realised sooner rather than later.

(Source: Guardian)

anarchyagogo:

According to a recent investigation by the Swedish news show Uppdrag Granskning, Sweden’s telecommunications giant Teliasonera is the latest Western company revealed to be colluding with authoritarian regimes by selling them high-tech surveillance gear to spy on its citizens. Teliasonera has allegedly enabled the governments of Belarus, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Georgia and Kazakhstan to spy on journalists, union leaders, and members of the political opposition. One Teliasonera whistle-blower told the reporters, “The Arab Spring prompted the regimes to tighten their surveillance. … There’s no limit to how much wiretapping is done, none at all.”

(via theyoungradical)

rdrandomthoughts:

PROPS to this girl

(Source: narcelx, via theyoungradical)

eupraxsophy:

It’s been two years since the Deepwater Horizon disaster unleashed 4.9 million barrels of oil on the Gulf of Mexico. In the midst of the disaster, BP and its contractors did everything they could to keep people from seeing the scale of the disaster. But new photos released Monday offer some new insight to just how grim the Gulf became for sea life.

The images were released in response to aFreedom of Information Act request that Greenpeace filed back in August 2010, asking for any communication related to endangered and threatened Gulf species. Now, many months later, Greenpeace received a response from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that included more than 100 photos from the spill, including many of critically endangered Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles dead and covered in oil.

Most photos are missing dates and descriptions, though the FOIA request covered the period of April 20, 2010, to July 30, 2010. But they’re pretty shocking—which is probably why they weren’t made public at the height of the spill. “It just makes me furious,” said John Hocevar, a marine biologist who works for Greenpeace. “I had so many conversations with people in various government agencies working on the Gulf spill, and I feel like they were hiding things from all of us.”

“The White House was sitting on this stuff for over two years, at the same time they were saying everything was fine, that the oil was gone, and while they were rushing ahead with plans for new drilling in the Gulf, the Arctic, elsewhere,” Hocevar continued. “It’s just not okay. This is not an acceptable type of collateral damage.”

Mother Jones has requested comment from NOAA but had not received a response at press time.

Jump below the fold to see some of the photos that have been kept under wraps for the past two years:

Click the hyperlink title of this post to see the grim toll for yourselves. It’s remarkable how quickly we’ve moved on from this disaster, even though its effects will be felt for generations. 

(via theyoungradical)

theamericanbear:

Palestinian hunger strikes: Media missing in action | Richard Falk

Can anyone doubt that if there were more than 1,500 prisoners engaged in a hunger strike in any country in the world other than Palestine, the media in the West would be obsessed with the story? Such an obsession would, of course, be greatest if such a phenomenon were to occur in an adversary state, such as Iran or China, but almost anywhere it would be featured news, that is, anywhere but Palestine. It would be highlighted day after day, and reported on from all angles, including the severe medical risks associated with such a lengthy refusal to take food, with respected doctors and human rights experts sharing their opinions.

At this time there are two Palestinians who were the first to start this current wave of resistance to the practice of administrative detention, Thaer Halalheh and Bilal Diab, enduring their 70th day without food. Both men are reported by respected prisoner protection association, Addameer and Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, to be in critical condition with their lives hanging in the balance. Examining doctors indicated recently that both detainees were reported to “suffer from acute muscle weakness in their limbs that prevents them from standing” and are under the “dual threat” of “muscle atrophy and thromohophilia, which can lead to a fatal blood clot”.

Despite this dramatic state of affairs, until today there has been scant notice taken by Western governments, media and even the United Nations, of the life threatening circumstances confronting Halalheh or Diab, let alone the massive solidarity strike that is of shorter duration, but still notable as a powerful expression of nonviolent defiance.

In contrast, consider the attention that the Western media has been devoting in recent days to a lone blind Chinese human rights lawyer, Chen Guangcheng, who managed to escape from house arrest in Beijing, find a safe haven at the US embassy, arrange a release and then seek an exit from China. This is an important and disturbing international incident, to be sure, but is it truly so much more significant than the Palestinian story as to explain the total neglect of the extraordinary exploits of thousands of Palestinians who are sacrificing their bodies, quite possibly their lives, to nonviolently protest severe mistreatment in the Israeli prison system, and by extension, the oppressiveness of an occupation that has gone on for 45 years?

Continue →

(via theyoungradical)

(Source: fuckyeahmarxismleninism, via theyoungradical)

Cohort size matters: democracy is in danger as young people’s disenfranchisement accelerates

(via rumagin)

understatement of the week? who writes this shit? have they ever been out of their office? democracy? where?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?

(via theyoungradical)

What he wrote^

(Bolded for emphasis.)

(via theyoungradical)

israelfacts:

A Palestinian woman waves her national flag after she managed to climb atop an Israeli military vehicle during a demonstration by hundreds of people gathered outside Ofer military prison near the West Bank city of Ramallah on May 1, 2012 in a show of support for thousands of prisoners held in Israeli jails, many of whom are on hunger strike protesting for their basic human rights.

She, along with other protesters, were sprayed with ‘skunk’ water and pepper spray (video) — from just a few inches away — by the Israeli army, who also fired tear gas and rubber bullets. (Photos: Abir Kopty / Reuters)

From Mondoweiss:

Now in its second week, a mass hunger strike is spreading across Israeli prisons with some 2,000 Palestinians protesting for their basic rights: an end to solitary confinement and imprisonment without charge, and access to education, media and family visits. And while prisoners in the Karameh (dignity) hunger strike have yet to achieve their goals, after 14 days without food, they have successfully mobilized Palestinian society and pressured Israeli authorities—in ways that are reminiscent of the first Intifada.

Known as the “battle of the empty stomachs,” the open-ended strike began on April 17, 2012, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, with an initial 1,200 protestors. Within days the strike spread to other prisoners. Now the number of strikers has increased to over 2,000, with new groups joining daily. 105 Fatah affiliated prisoners held in Israel’s Eshel detention facility are the latest group to announce their participation, which will begin tomorrow.

The sudden increase in protesting Palestinian prisoners is also accompanied by hunger striking Egyptians who are held in Israeli detention. Last Friday 40 of the 63 imprisoned Egyptians joined the protest to demand their release, which was planned to take place that same day. However, after negotiations between Egypt and Israel on a gas pipeline failed, Israel punitively canceled the prisoner release, inciting the protest.

(via theyoungradical)

There are two very large and influential prison companies in the United States who are manipulating the system to make sure they have plenty of business: The GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut) and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA). In the first part of this two-part series, I will explore The GEO Group’s influence peddling; next week, I will look at CCA.

If you have any doubt in your mind that improving society and lowering the number of prisoners in our country (normally considered a worthy social goal) is a threat to the prison industry business, all you need to do is to read about that concern in The GEO Group’s 2011 annual report:

In particular, the demand for our correctional and detention facilities and services and BI’s [a prison industry company Geo acquired in 2011] services could be adversely affected by changes in existing criminal or immigration laws, crime rates in jurisdictions in which we operate, the relaxation of criminal or immigration enforcement efforts, leniency in conviction, sentencing or deportation practices, and the decriminalization of certain activities that are currently proscribed by criminal laws or the loosening of immigration laws. For example, any changes with respect to the decriminalization of drugs and controlled substances could affect the number of persons arrested, convicted, sentenced and incarcerated, thereby potentially reducing demand for correctional facilities to house them. Similarly, reductions in crime rates could lead to reductions in arrests, convictions and sentences requiring incarceration at correctional facilities. Immigration reform laws which are currently a focus for legislators and politicians at the federal, state and local level also could materially adversely impact us.

This is an industry that needs misery, long sentences, rounded-up undocumented immigrants and increasing crime to flourish. In order to keep the prison beds filled, The GEO Group and others have paid out millions of dollars to lobbyists, federal and state legislators, and governors to allow our immigration problem to go unsolved, to make sure that no drugs are decriminalized and that an ineffective War on Drugs continues, and to make certain that long term prison sentences, like California’s three-strikes-and-you’re-imprisoned-for-life laws, keep a steady flow of revenue and profits flowing to their shareholders. They are also hoping that our national drop in crime is just a temporary trend.

(Source: sarahlee310, via theyoungradical)

(Source: frompalestinewithlove, via theyoungradical)

amodernmanifesto:

In May, the 99 percent will open up new avenues of resistance as activists around the world gear up for the intensification of popular protest and direct action.

And we’re back! After months of relative quiet, interspersed with a handful of mass protests and radical events — like the general strike in Spain and the re-occupation of Wall Street — our movement is on course to escalate into a massive social orgasm of non-violent popular resistance against the diktat of finance capital and the military-industrial complex.

Long left for ‘dead‘ by the mainstream media and political institutions, we once again finds ourselves in the luxury position of the underdog — capable once more of harnessing the element of surprise to grab the system by its proverbial balls when it least expects it; twisting, twirling and turning right where it hurts.

Who knows what this spring will bring! Perhaps May 2012 will forever be remembered as the month in which the worldwide resistance against a defunct global capitalist system spiraled out into orbit? In its latest tactical briefing, Adbusters alluded to that legendary spring 44 years ago, urging us to be inspired by the revolutionary legacy of May ’68, while avoiding the failures and pitfalls that beset the social movements of the past.

(via theyoungradical)

Obama: Clark Kent at home, Imperial Superman Abroad.

Tom Engelhardt of TomDispatch, calling a spade a spade. Very important and relevant points made. For instance:

Almost unnoted in the U.S., for instance, American drones recently carried out a strike in the Philippines killing 15 and the Air Force has since announced a plan to boost its drones there by 30%. At the same time, in Yemen, as previously in the Pakistani borderlands, the president has just given the CIA and the U.S. Joint Operations Command the authority to launch drone strikes not just against identified “high-value” al-Qaeda “targets,” but against general “patterns of suspicious behavior.” So expect an escalating drone war there not against known individuals, but against groups of suspected evildoers (and as in all such cases, innocent civilians as well).

And:

At home, on issues of domestic importance, Obama is a hamstrung, hogtied president, strikingly checked and balanced. Since the passage of his embattled healthcare bill, he has, in a sense, been in chains, able to accomplish next to nothing of his domestic program. Even when trying to exercise the unilateral powers that have increasingly been invested in presidents, what he can do on his own has proven exceedingly limited, a series of tiny gestures aimed at the largest of problems. And were Mitt Romney to be elected, given congressional realities, this would be unlikely to change in the next four years.

But:

[T]he power of the president as commander-in-chief has never been greater. If Obama is the president of next to nothing on the domestic policy front (but fundraising for his second term), he has the powers previously associated with the gods when it comes to war-making abroad. There, he is the purveyor of life and death. At home, he is a hamstrung weakling, at war he is — to use a term that has largely disappeared since the 1970s — an imperial president.

I wonder if the American public realizes the havoc President Obama is wreaking in the Middle East and South Asia. Amazing how the majority of the US media filters reality to keep one nation completely unaware of what its regime is carrying out in other countries. That, or people just don’t care.

(via mehreenkasana)

he can tell pre~written jokes well. that’s apparently enough for a lot of people.

(via theyoungradical)

The media is disgustingly censored in the US, so many people are unaware of the scope of what is happening in the world. The government as is desires ignorance, disinformation, and inaction. That way they can keep their game running. It doesn’t matter what they get around to doing for anyone, as long as they hold on to, and grant themselves, as much power as they can.

…they need to go. All of them, and the whole system they’ve created. We can do better.

(via theyoungradical)