Sen. Merkley Condemns Trump's Decision to Indefinitely Jail Migrant Kids
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-23
| The Trump administration is moving to indefinitely detain migrant children and their families, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to issue a new rule today to withdraw from a 1997 federal court settlement known as the Flores agreement, which put a 20-day limit on migrant family detentions. We speak with Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who made headlines last year when he was barred from entering an o…
truthout.org/video/sen-merkley-condemns-trumps-decision-to-indefinitely-jail-migrant-kids/

'Crime does pay': CNN hires disgraced ex-FBI director Andrew McCabe
rt.com | 2019-08-23
What does one get for leaking to the media, lying to federal investigators about it, and allegedly participating in a plot to derail an American election? If you answered jail time, too bad. The correct answer is a job at CNN. | …
rt.com/usa/467172-mccabe-cnn-russiagate-hoax/

Israel's Online Occupation of Palestine
Miriam Deprez | progressive.org | 2019-08-23
How a Facebook post can land you in prison.
progressive.org/dispatches/israels-online-occupation-of-palestine-deprez-190823/

Ramsey Orta denied early release from prison
WeCopwatch | indybay.org | 2019-08-23
While the murderer of Eric Garner walks free, Ramsey Orta sits in a state prison in upstate New York. As many of you may know, Ramsey was denied early release from prison this week.
indybay.org/newsitems/2019/08/22/18825593.php

More Russiagate unraveling? Ex-CEO says FBI instructed him to have relationship with Maria Butina
rt.com | 2019-08-23
Former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne has told media that he was ordered by the FBI to initiate a romantic relationship with imprisoned Russian gun activist Maria Butina, seemingly confirming claims made by her lawyer. | Byrne, who resigned from the online retail company on Thursday, explained to CNN's Chris Cuomo that he had been asked by the FBI — on the orders of then-director James Comey — to "rekindle a romantic relationship" with Butina. | Taken aback by the claim, Cuomo interjected: "You believe that Jim Comey knew that you were being asked to do these things in the name of the United States gove…
rt.com/usa/467136-butina-byrne-fbi-informant-russia/

Lawsuit Challenges Trump Administration Attack on Endangered Species Act
Earth Justice | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-23
Environmental and animal protection groups today sued the Trump administration over its new regulations that dramatically weaken the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Earthjustice filed the lawsuit on behalf of Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Natural …
globalresearch.ca/lawsuit-challenges-trump-administration-attack-endangered-species-act/5687031

Free speech v free enterprise? Lawsuit over big tech censorship strikes at core of American values
rt.com | 2019-08-23
A looming court battle over social media censorship challenges America's dual devotion to free speech and free enterprise, an analyst told RT, arguing that popular platforms like Facebook have essentially become public utilities. | The DC Court of Appeals has agreed to hear the merits of a lawsuit brought against Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter by conservative commentator Laura Loomer, who accused the big tech giants of conspiring to silence her political views. Loomer has been banned from several major internet platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Medium, and PayPal. | The case has sparked…
rt.com/usa/467120-loomer-big-tech-lawsuit-debate/

Statewide protest says 'Black Lives Matter'
pip.hinman | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-23
Indigenous rights Zebedee ParkesIssue 1234 Australia #Black Lives Matter justice SydneyAboriginal rights activists and supporte…
greenleft.org.au/content/state-wide-protest-says-black-lives-matter

Selected Articles: The Geopolitics of the Kashmir Crisis
Global Research News | globalresearch.ca | 2019-08-23
Online independent analysis of US-led wars, rampant corruption, corporate greed, civil rights and fraudulent monetary transactions is invariably relegated to the bottom rung of search engine results. | As a result we presently do not cover our monthly running costs which …
globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-geopolitics-kashmir-crisis/5686917

Sen. Merkley Condemns Trump's War Against Migrant Families as U.S. Moves to Indefinitely Jail Kids
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-23
The Trump administration is moving to indefinitely detain migrant children and their families, reversing decades of U.S. policy. The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services is expected to issue a new rule today to withdraw from a 1997 federal court settlement known as the Flores agreement, which put a 20-day limit on migrant family detentions. We speak with Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who made headlines last year when he was barred from entering an old Walmart where the government was detaining about 1,500 immigrant children in Brownsville, Texas.
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/23/jeff_merkley_trump_administration_child_separation

Trump orders indefinite jailing of detained immigrant families, attacks birthright citizenship
wsws.org | 2019-08-22
Democrats have largely backed Trump's attacks on immigrants, with the New York Times describing his concentration camps as "family detention centers."
www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/08/22/immi-a22.html

A Louisiana Parish Jailed a U.S. Citizen for Being Latinx. We're Suing
aclu.org | 2019-08-22
Officers in a Louisiana jail held a U.S. citizen for four days on an immigration hold simply because of his skin color and name. | Ramon Torres had been a U.S. citizen for nearly ten years when he was detained for four days on an immigration hold — despite having a U.S. passport, a Louisiana driver's license, and a Social Security card, and despite that fact that a court ordered his release. | Torres' ordeal began in August 2018, when he was pulled over and arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Torres, a naturalized U.S. citizen since 2009, was carrying multiple forms of identification, inclu…
aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/louisiana-parish-jailed-us-citizen-being-latinx-were

Former Staffer Details Abuse Inside Chicago Child Detention Center
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-22
| In the past two years, many articles have been written exposing the link between Chicago based nonprofits and the broader system of mass detention and child separation at the border. Thanks to the work of community organizers and journalists with ProPublica, the existence of a network of nonprofits acting as child prisons for hundreds of so-called migrant detainees in Chicago has been…
truthout.org/articles/former-staffer-details-abuse-inside-chicago-child-detention-center/

Los Angeles County Votes to Stop Construction of New Jail-Like Facility, Adding Momentum to National Abolition Movement
Francisco Aviles Pino | theintercept.com | 2019-08-22
"A jail is a jail is a jail. It is not enough to change the name of the facility," said LA Board of Supervisors member Heidi Solis.
theintercept.com/2019/08/22/los-angeles-county-mental-health-facility-abolition/

From 'felon' to 'justice-involved person': San Francisco fights crime with PC language
rt.com | 2019-08-22
Amid a rising tide of crime, inequality, and literal human waste, San Francisco, California has chosen to sanitize — language. Felons, offenders and addicts will now have to be called new, more politically correct names. | The new "person-first" language guidelines were recently introduced by the city's Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. From now on, a convicted felon released from jail will be called a "justice-involved person"
rt.com/usa/467097-san-francisco-felons-persons-language/

Bernie Sanders Backs Rescinding Medals for Wounded Knee Massacre
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-22
| This week 10 Democratic candidates and one independent in the 2020 presidential race, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, addressed indigenous communities at the first-ever Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa. During the two-day event, candidates individually answered questions from a panel of tribal leaders and Native American youth and elders on issues including treaty rights, voter suppression, and murdered and missing indigenous women. | TRA…
truthout.org/video/bernie-sanders-backs-rescinding-medals-for-wounded-knee-massacre/

Collusion in Brazil's judiciary brings the curtain down on the rule of law
susan_p | greenleft.org.au | 2019-08-22
corruption Tony RosenbergIssue 1234 Brazil Operation Car WashMessages between Brazil's federal prosecutor, Deltan Dallagnol, who led Operaàßà£o Lava Jato (Operation Car Wash) and then-judge, Sergio Moro, have revealed that the evidence used to jail Brazil'…
greenleft.org.au/content/collusion-brazil-judiciary-brings-curtain-down-rule-law

Warren Apologizes to Native Americans; Sanders Backs Rescinding Medals for Wounded Knee Massacre
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-22
This week 10 Democratic candidates and one independent in the 2020 presidential race, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, addressed indigenous communities at the first-ever Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa. During the two-day event, candidates individually answered questions from a panel of tribal leaders and Native American youth and elders on issues including treaty rights, voter suppression, and murdered and missing indigenous women.
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/22/frank_lamere_native_american_presidential_forum

We Have Been Here Before
Brandon Shimoda | thenation.com | 2019-08-21
We Have Been Here Before…
thenation.com/article/japanese-american-internment-migrant-detention-camps/

US to allow indefinite detention for migrant children following rule change
rt.com | 2019-08-21
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced a change in policy that could see migrant children detained indefinitely, replacing a previous restriction limiting confinement of undocumented minors to 20 days. | The department announced on Wednesday that it would terminate the 1997 Flores Settlement, which set requirements for detaining migrants, arguing the rules contained a "loophole" that drives illegal immigration into the US. | "By closing this key loophole in Flores, the new rule will restore integrity to our immigration system and eliminate the major pull factor fueling the crisis," acting Home…
rt.com/usa/466992-indefinite-detention-migrant-children/

Trump plan: Split migrant kids from parents, with no time limit
Mark Gruenberg | peoplesworld.org | 2019-08-21
WASHINGTON–In yet another manifestation of Trump administration hatred for non-white migrants seeking to cross into the U.S., top Trump officials announced a new detention rule to split migrant kids from their parents — with no specified time limit on the splits. "A child is no longer a free pass" into the U.S. for the parents, …
peoplesworld.org/article/trump-plan-split-migrant-kids-from-parents-with-no-time-limit/

An Arizona Law Requires Surveillance of People Who Are Presumed Innocent
aclu.org | 2019-08-21
The government cannot take shortcuts around constitutional rights. | A pillar of our democracy is the presumption of innocence: before a person has been convicted of a crime, they are considered completely innocent under the law. Yet across the country, people who have not been convicted are punished–both explicitly and implicitly–based on the mistaken assumption that they are dangerous, purely on the basis of an accusation. We do not live in a society where you can be incarcerated or monitored simply because you have been accused of a crime. Doing so violates constitutional rights, fuels mass incarce…
aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/arizona-law-requires-surveillance-people-who-are

Warning over increasing violence at Pentonville Prison
The Canary | thecanary.co | 2019-08-21
Violence fuelled by gangs, drugs, debt and "volatile young prisoners" has "increased markedly" at one of the country's oldest and busiest jails, inspectors have warned. | Violence has shot up by more than 50% since 2017 at HMP Pentonville in north London, the Inspectorate of Prisons said on Wednesday. | Inspectors found the prison was unsafe and plans for activities, rehabilitation and release were not good enough. | In the last six months there have been 264 assaults on staff and inmates and 61 fights, compared with 196 and 65 respectively during a previous inspection. | The problems were "clear and serious" wit…
thecanary.co/uk/news/2019/08/21/warning-over-increasing-violence-at-pentonville-prison/

Over 500 Lawsuits Already Filed Days After Child Victims Act Goes Into Effect
Staff | truthout.org | 2019-08-21
| This is Part 2 of our conversation with two New York state legislators, Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, who helped pass the Child Victims Act in New York. The state law, which went into effect last week, extends the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse and includes a "lookback period," giving survivors of any age a year to take legal action even if their cases had expired under the old statute of limitations. Over 500 lawsuits have already been filed.
truthout.org/video/over-500-lawsuits-already-filed-days-after-child-victims-act-goes-into-effect/

Over 500 Lawsuits Already Filed Days After Child Victims Act in New York Goes into Effect
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-21
This is Part 2 of our conversation with two New York state legislators, Senator Alessandra Biaggi and Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou, who helped pass the Child Victims Act in New York. The state law, which went into effect last week, extends the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse and includes a "lookback period," giving survivors of any age a year to take legal action even if their cases had expired under the old statute of limitations. Over 500 lawsuits have already been filed. Both Biaggi and Niou are sexual abuse survivors, and they have spoken about the importance of the Child Victims Act in personal…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/21/child_victims_act_biaggi_niou

Trump is Taking More Money for Raids and Detention. Congress Should Stop Him
aclu.org | 2019-08-19
Without congressional checks, ICE and CBP will continue to overspend and overstep. | The budget for Trump's turbo-charged immigration enforcement and border militarization is now larger than ever. And just last week, we learned that ICE plans to redirect even more money to further expand immigration detention and enforcement. The plan is currently being reviewed by congressional appropriato…
aclu.org/blog/immigrants-rights/immigrants-rights-and-detention/trump-taking-more-money-raids-and-detention

Health Care Imperialism: Looting the World's Doctors
David Penner | dissidentvoice.org | 2019-08-19
To poach and rely on highly skilled foreign workers from poor countries in the public sector is akin to the crime of theft. — "Migration of Health Workers: An Unmanaged Crisis," The Lancet, May 28, 2005 What is striking about the tyranny of the medical industrial complex is not only its unconscionable oppression of the …
dissidentvoice.org/2019/08/health-care-imperialism-looting-the-worlds-doctors/

"Humanitarian Aid Is Never a Crime": No More Deaths Volunteers Drop Water in Desert to Aid Migrants
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-19
Volunteers with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths have been venturing into the harsh Sonoran Desert for years to leave life-saving supplies for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Longtime volunteer Scott Warren was charged with three felonies for the alleged crime of providing food, water and shelter to migrants. After a hung jury in June, he is now facing retrial on two felony counts and faces a possible 10 years in prison. As he awaits his next trial as well as deals with misdemeanor charges in another case of aiding migrants, Democracy Now! followed him into the Sonoran Desert for his first trip…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/19/humanitarian_aid_is_never_a_crime

Activist Scott Warren, Facing Federal Charges for Aiding Migrants, Says He Won't Be Deterred
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-19
We broadcast live from Tucson, Arizona, where the government recently put humanitarian activist Scott Warren on trial amid the ongoing policing of the U.S.-Mexico border, separation of families, and cruel and inhumane conditions at immigrant jails across the country. Warren, a longtime volunteer with the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths, was charged with three felony counts for his alleged crime of providing food, water and shelter to migrants in Ajo, Arizona. The immigrants had arrived at the doorstep of a humanitarian shelter after a perilous journey across the Sonoran Desert. At the same time, he and othe…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/19/no_more_deaths_scott_warren

US Trained Honduran Police Get Medieval as Political Prisoner Edwin Espinal Released
Adrienne Pine | mintpressnews.com | 2019-08-16
The Honduran corruption canard keeps the focus on police resources and individuals rather than on the pangs of privatization, and so it is often the line favored by the U.S. State Department.
mintpressnews.com/honduras-political-prisoner-edwin-espinal-released-us-trained-police-medieval/261374/

The Great Land Robbery: How Federal Policies Dispossessed Black Americans of Millions of Acres
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-16
Over the 20th century, black people in the U.S. were dispossessed of 12 million acres of land. Half of that loss — 6 million acres — occurred over just two decades, from 1950 to 1969, a period largely associated with the civil rights struggle. This mass land dispossession, which affected 98% of black agricultural land owners, is part of the pattern of institutional racism and discrimination that has contributed to the racial wealth gap in the United States. Many of the driving forces behind this land theft were legal and originated in federal policies, as documented by Vann Newkirk, staff writer at Th…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/16/vann_newkirk_great_land_robbery

The Challenges of Breastfeeding as a Black Person
aclu.org | 2019-08-15
How our workplaces and healthcare system create barriers to breastfeeding. | The fight to protect individual choices about reproductive care, including breastfeeding, is an ongoing battle. The central lesson of the reproductive justice movement is that choice means little without access. That lesson applies equally to breastfeeding. | Though laws, in the workplace and other contexts, are in place to protect the right to breastfeed, many low-income women and w…
aclu.org/blog/womens-rights/pregnancy-and-parenting-discrimination/challenges-breastfeeding-black-person

SPLC publishes Opportunity Costs: Unequal Justice in Alabama's Community Corrections Programs
splcenter.org | 2019-08-15
A new investigative report published today by the Southern Poverty Law Center reveals serious flaws in Alabama's community corrections programs, an otherwise promising system for diverting people from the state's prisons.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/15/splc-publishes-opportunity-costs-unequal-justice-alabamas-community-corrections-programs

The BDS movement calls to boycott three anti-Palestinian German clubs
SAMIR | bdsmovement.net | 2019-08-15
The BDS movement calls to boycott three anti-Palestinian German clubs: PACBI StatementConne Island, Golden Pudel and : //about blank are complicit in Israel's oppression of Palestinians | Cultural Boycott Right To BoycottAugust 15, 2019…
bdsmovement.net/news/bds-calls-to-boycott-three-german-clubs

BDS condemns antisemitic, fascist forces in Germany and worldwide
patrick | bdsmovement.net | 2019-08-14
BDS condemns antisemitic, fascist forces in Germany and worldwide: BNC StatementOur nonviolent movement opposes all forms of racism and racial discrimination. | Right To BoycottAugust 14, 2019 | By: | | Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) …
bdsmovement.net/news/bds-condemns-antisemitic-fascist-forces-germany-and-worldwide

"River of Fire": In New Memoir, Sister Helen Prejean Reflects on Decades of Fighting Executions
Staff | democracynow.org | 2019-08-14
The Trump administration is moving ahead with plans to resume the death penalty after a more than 15-year moratorium. This week Attorney General William Barr proposed fast-tracking executions in mass murder cases, and last month ordered the execution of five death row prisoners beginning in December. The federal government has executed just three people since 1963 — the last being in 2003. The death penalty is widely condemned by national governments, international bodies and human rights groups across the world. Experts say capital punishment does not help deter homicides and that errors and racism in the…
www.democracynow.org/2019/8/14/sister_helen_prejean_federal_death_penalty

Expanding Involuntary Confinement is Not the Answer to Solve Gun Violence
aclu.org | 2019-08-13
Institutionalizing people against their will is usually a mistake. | In the wake of last weekend's tragic shootings, President Trump did what he does best: stoked fear and cast blame. He proclaimed that "we must reform our mental health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people, not only get treatment, but when necessary, involuntary confinement." | There are two things wrong with the idea of involuntary commitment as a solution to gun violence. First, focusing on people with identifiable mental disabilities won't help. The data is clear: men…
aclu.org/blog/disability-rights/integration-and-autonomy-people-disabilities/expanding-involuntary

Unequal Justice: John Roberts' Dark Legacy of Voter Suppression
Bill Blum | progressive.org | 2019-08-13
Plaintiffs are litigating voting rights cases in Alabama, Georgia, Texas, North Carolina, and several other states. Some will succeed, some will fail, but all will be more uncertain and expensive thanks to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
progressive.org/dispatches/unequal-justice-john-roberts-dark-legacy-of-voter-suppression-blum-190812/

Weekend Read: Neo-Nazi leader must pay more than $14 million in damages
splcenter.org | 2019-08-10
A federal judge has ruled in an SPLC lawsuit that neo-Nazi leader Andrew Anglin must pay more than $14 million in damages for using his website to launch an antisemitic campaign of terror against a Jewish woman and her family.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/10/weekend-read-neo-nazi-leader-must-pay-more-14-million-damages

Over 132,400 Opposed Trump's Anti-Trans Health Care Plan
aclu.org | 2019-08-09
A proposed rule would undermine protections for transgender people and others facing discriminatory denials of health care and insurance coverage. | The Trump Administration has shown it will stop at nothing to undermine access to health care for marginalized communities. Most recently, the Administration has proposed to undermine critical protections against sex discrimination in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, the Health Care Rights Law. Instead of combatting discrimination in accessing health care a…
aclu.org/blog/lgbt-rights/transgender-rights/over-132400-opposed-trumps-anti-trans-health-care-plan

New Civil Rights Memorial to be installed on 54th anniversary of Voting Rights Act
splcenter.org | 2019-08-05
Jimmie Lee Jackson was beaten and shot by Alabama state troopers during a peaceful voting rights march on Feb. 18, 1965.
splcenter.org/news/2019/08/06/new-civil-rights-memorial-be-installed-54th-anniversary-voting-rights-act

Oklahoma Victims Compensation Program Disproportionately Denies Funds for Black Victims
aclu.org | 2019-07-31
Data shows that Black victims are often denied compensation for the very same crimes as committed against white victims, who did receive compensation. | Tiras Johnson, age 23, was unarmed when he was shot and killed in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His family was devastated by his death, and they were struggling to pay for Tiras' funeral. Like many victims' families, Tiras' mother applied for financial compensation through the Oklahoma Crime Victims Compensation Act in order to cover his funeral costs, but instead received a surprising response in the mail. | The letter, addressed to Tiras' mother, Netarsha, explained that h…
aclu.org/blog/racial-justice/race-and-criminal-justice/oklahoma-victims-compensation-program