(2020-05-15). 'It would be best if intra-Afghan talks began while US still has significant military presence' — envoy. rt.com 
The United States has heard positive reports about the formation of an inclusive Afghan government, US Special Representative Zalmay Khalilzad said on Friday, adding that a new date for intra-Afghan peace talks is under discussion. | Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Khalilzad said it would be best if intra-Afghan talks began while there is still a significant US military presence in Afghanistan, Reuters reported. | The pace of prisoner releases and disagreements over the Afghan government's composition have both helped delay intra-Afghan talks, which were to begin on March 10 under a February 29 US-…
(2020-05-15). How a teenager in the '60s South became a Communist. peoplesworld.org 
Once upon a time, and sadly, not so long ago in the grand scheme of history, a young high schooler in Virginia spent his summer, the summer of 1964, watching the Civil Rights Movement play out before his eyes. Little did this student, Scott Marshall, know how life-changing that first Freedom Summer would turn out …
(2020-05-15). Ari Berman on Voter Suppression and Coronavirus. fair.org 
Media…
(2020-05-15). 'We were totally helpless': Russian woman jailed for SLAPPING 'abusive' Californian husband, mother tells RT. rt.com 
What looked like an intercontinental fairytale romance turned into a story of domestic violence, when a Russian woman was arrested for slapping the American husband her mother says abused her. | When she married a Californian man last year, 30-year-old Krasnodar native Alina Alipatova couldn't have imagined that the line between romance and fear could be crossed so fast. She met her future husband while holidaying in Miami and quickly fell in "big love" with him, the woman's mother, Elena Gertsog, told RT this week. | Once engaged, the happy couple spent two months at the Californian's house in San Luis Obispo…
(2020-05-15). AquAlliance files lawsuit against water transfers from Sacramento River watershed. indybay.org The lawsuit states, "These water transfers would drain both surface and groundwater resources from the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River watersheds, imposing significant and irreversible threats to the people and sensitive species that rely on these water resources and associated aquatic and riparian habitats."
(2020-05-15). Biden Can't Return Things to Normal, Because Trump Is a Normal US President. That's the Problem. strategic-culture.org To be clear, this is not a good thing. Trump has kept the bloodthirsty imperialism, corporate cronyism, Orwellian oppression, neoliberal exploitation and police militarization that holds the US empire together ticking along in basically the same way as his predecessors, in some ways more egregiously and in some ways less so.
(2020-05-15). Rally At Tesla: Jail Musk! Workers Health & Safety First & Lives Over Profit. indybay.org Tesla North Gate | Industrial Dr & Fremont Blvd, Fremont, CA 94538 | www.google.com/maps/place/Tesla+factory/@37.4845369,-121.9355029,4163m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x808fc7348cf1502f: 0x86cfbef39088e346!8m2!3d37.5039468!4d-121.9622337?hl=en…
(2020-05-14). There Is Only One Way to Prevent Mass Deaths in Prisons: Let Them Out. thenation.com There Is Only One Way to Prevent Mass Deaths in Prisons: Let Them Out…
(2020-05-12). "Losing the Fabric of the City": COVID-19 Took Chicago Black Lives First & Exposed Structural Racism. democracynow.org 
We look at the coronavirus pandemic's disproportionate toll on African Americans through the story of Chicago's first 100 recorded deaths. A report by ProPublica found that 70 of the first 100 people to die were African American. Black people account for 30% of Chicago's population and 72% of COVID-19 deaths. We speak with ProPublica reporter Adriana Gallardo, who contributed to the report "COVID-19 Took Black Lives First. It Didn't Have To." She says the story paints a picture of "sophisticated structural racism" in Chicago.
(2020-05-11). Headlines for May 11, 2020. democracynow.org COVID-19 Cases Mount as States Reopen Economies, NY Investigating Deaths of at Least 3 Children Linked to COVID-19, Bronx Hospital Investigating Nurse Who Shared Video of Medical Staff Speaking Out About Lack of PPE, Cheyenne River Sioux Defies South Dakota Order to Remove Coronavirus Checkpoints, Another COVID-19 Case Confirmed at White House as Barack Obama Blasts Trump's "Chaotic" Response, Hunger-Striking Immigrant Women Released from California Prison, U.S. Continues to Deport Haitian Immigrants, Including Those with COVID-19 Infections, WSJ: Trump Planning to Ban H-1B Visas, Three Prisoners Die at Chino Fac…
(2020-05-11). SPLC fights to keep children out of juvenile detention, other confined settings during pandemic. splcenter.org …
(2020-05-08). "A Lynch Mob": After Months of Inaction, 2 White Men Are Charged with Murder of Ahmaud Arbery in GA. democracynow.org 
The two white men caught on camera shooting and killing Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old African American man, were arrested and charged Thursday with murder. The arrests came two days after video of the attack in February was shared with the public, sparking widespread outrage. Today would have been Arbery's 26th birthday. We speak with civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents the Arbery family and formerly represented Trayvon Martin.
(2020-05-08). Headlines for May 8, 2020. democracynow.org U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Pass 75,000 as Trump Sidelines Top Medical Experts, Trump to Be Tested for Coronavirus Daily After Valet Tests Positive, Vigil at White House Honors 88 Who Died from "Trump's Abhorrent Failure to Protect Nurses", U.S. Unemployment Claims Soar to 33.3 Million Amid Pandemic | , Democrats Promise "Rooseveltian" Coronavirus Relief Bill | , Mitch McConnell Prioritizes Judicial Confirmations as Senate Returns Amid Pandemic | , Data Shows 35 of 40 People Arrested in NY for Social Distancing Violations Are Black | , Texas Stops Jailing Lockdown Violators; Nebraska Ends Reporting on Meat Plant COVI…
(2020-05-08). HIGH-FREQUENCY failure of combination antiretroviral therapy in paediatric HIV infection is associated with unmet maternal needs causing maternal NON-ADHERENCE. thelancet.com The success of early infant testing and cART initiation strategies is severely limited by subsequent cART non-adherence in HIV-infected children. Although there are practical challenges to administering paediatric cART formulations, these are overcome by mothers who themselves are cART-adherent. These findings point to the ongoing obligation to address the unmet needs of the mothers. Eliminating the particular barriers preventing adequate treatment for these vulnerable women and infants need to be prioritised in order to achieve durable suppression of viraemia on cART, let alone HIV cure/remission, in HIV-infecte…
(2020-05-07). How being a passenger almost put a man behind bars for life in Alabama. splcenter.org When Roberto Cruz dozed off in the passenger seat of a blue Jeep Cherokee on June 23, 2003, he had no idea that he'd end up in Alabama, let alone sentenced to life without parole in a prison there.
(2020-05-06). Ecuador's Moreno govt persecutes opponents as coronavirus catastrophe exposes its neoliberal war on public sector. thegrayzone.com Sentencing former President Rafael Correa and Jorge Glas to eight years in jail and barring them from public office for…
(2020-05-06). SPLC's Civil Rights Memorial Center publishes children's activity book online. splcenter.org …
(2020-04-17). This Quarantined Holy Week I'm Thinking of a Brother Jesuit in Jail by Billy Critchley-Menor, SJ, The Jesuit Post, April 8, 2020. kingsbayplowshares7.org It's because of Holy Week that we can approach the Coronavirus crisis with the hope we do. It's because of Holy Week that we approach death the way we do. It's because of Holy Week that Christians are anything at all. There is no doubt, and you will read this in so many tweets these…
(2020-04-17). 'The Only Logic of Trident is Omnicide' Christopher Helali Interviews Peace Activist Martha Hennessy, Left Turn, Winter 2020. kingsbayplowshares7.org Martha Hennessey is a longtime anti-war activist and the granddaughter of Dorothy Day, the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement. She is 62, a retired occupational therapist, and grandmother of eight. She has been arrested and imprisoned protesting nuclear power, war, the use of drones, the torture of prisoners in Guantanamo and other prisons, and…
(2020-04-06). April 2020 Update and Second Anniversary Video. kingsbayplowshares7.org 
Dear Friends, This April 4th marked the second anniversary of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 disarmament action. It's also a time of grave danger for people around the planet with the emergence of the novel corona virus, especially among the poor, the imprisoned, the homeless, the sick, communities of Color, the elderly, and the marginalized….
(2020-02-04). Biden Threatens Lawsuit to Halt Release of Real Iowa Caucus Results. theantimedia.com American democracy—ain't it grand?>
(2020-05-15). Jailing people who use Covid-19 as bioweapon would be 'discrimination.' So better lock up everyone instead? rt.com 
Accidentally spreading Covid-19 is wanting grandma dead, say opponents of ending lockdowns. Yet activists now worry that proposed laws to punish those who threaten to spread it deliberately would discriminate against minorities. | A Florida man spat and coughed on a police officer responding to a domestic violence call, and faces up to five years in prison on a federal charge of biological weapons hoax (he was negative for Covid-19). Another man in Texas, who falsely claimed on Facebook that he paid someone to spread the virus at local grocery stores, was charged with the same thing. A Michigan man who wiped h…
(2020-05-15). Roaming Charges: Unmasked and Anonymous. counterpunch.org 
I'm hyped for some ObamaGate action, as long as its about things that matter: health care plan designed by Heritage Foundation, bailing out Wall Street, failing to close Gitmo, droning US citizens, Afghan surge, the jailing of whistleblowers and legal harassment of journalists, the Libyan and Honduran coups, mass surveillance, the funding and arming of proxy wars in Yemen and Syria, record deportations, Deepwater Horizon, new nukes (both power plants and weapons), etc…