NYTimes: Drug Deaths Reach White America
"Congress has historically treated drug abuse as a malady afflicting mostly poor, minority communities, best dealt with by locking people up for long periods of time. The epidemic of drug overdose deaths currently ravaging white populations in cities and towns across the country has altered this line of thinking, and forced lawmakers to acknowledge that addiction is a problem that knows no racial barriers and can be best addressed with treatment."
White Privilege 101: The Bundy Brigands are Now Openly Threatening and Harassing People in Oregon
"As I have written about elsewhere, done interviews about, and discussed more generally, if the Bundy Brigands who are engaged in an armed "standoff" in Oregon were "Muslims" or people of color--especially African-Americans--they would at worst be dead by now or at the very least in jail.
The Bundy Brigands have begun to amplify their noxious, aggressive, and threatening behavior towards local authorities and residents who live in the area around Burns, Oregon.
I have made a small change in the language of a recent report from CNN about the Bundy Brigands in order to highlight how the double standard for white, right-wing, domestic terrorists enables their bad behavior and insulates them from consequences, i.e. what conservatives like to call "personal responsibility".
South Korea’s Betrayal of the “Comfort Women”
"On December 28th, 2015, the foreign ministers of Japan and Korea, suddenly and hastily announced a “resolution” to the “comfort women” issue, women trafficked and exploited as sexual slaves by the Japanese Army during WWII. This involved an apology by the Japanese prime minister, and the creation of fund for reparations.
“The issue of ‘comfort women’ was a matter which, with the involvement of the military authorities of the day, severely injured the honor and dignity of many women,” said the Japanese Foreign Minister. 1 billion yen ($8.3M) was also promised to the fund to assist the 46 surviving comfort women."
NYTimes: Georgia Prosecutors Seek Indictment of Officer Who Shot Unarmed Man
"DECATUR, Ga. — A Georgia prosecutor said Thursday that he would seek a felony murder indictment against a white police officer who shot and killed Anthony Hill, a black man who was naked and unarmed at the time of his death."
NYTimes: New York to Appoint Monitor to Review Police’s Counterterrorism Activity
"The settlement does not explicitly prohibit any methods that are currently allowed, and the city does not admit any wrongdoing. Police officials said that many of the provisions of the agreement — such as barring investigations based solely on religion, race and ethnicity — simply codified changes that had already been in place. But civil rights lawyers say some tactics that investigators used over the past decade violated the Constitution and probably would not have been allowed if anyone outside the Police Department had been reviewing the investigative files."
Tamir Rice Prosecutor Indicted Innocent Men, But Not Killer Cops - The Daily Beast
"Attorneys for Rice’s family cried foul as McGinty allowed the officers to take the oath and read prepared statements to the grand jury with no cross-examination, and he released reports justifying the killing written by outside experts, which the family’s attorneys denounced as biased.
Last month, he made disparaging remarks about the Rice family and their lawyers, appearing to accuse them of seeking to profit from the child’s death through a pending lawsuit."
South Korea, Japan Reach Deal On Women Forced Into Sexual Slavery
"The deal included an apology from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and an $8.3 million aid fund from Tokyo for the elderly former sex slaves."
U.S. plans raids to deport families who surged across border - The Washington Post
What kind of person, what kind of President would let this happen? He knows what is the right and just thing to do and he is choosing evil. This is worse than ignorance. It is either bad will or cowardice. Shame on President Obama, shame, shame, shame on this Christmas day.
Six Video Frames at the Center of the Tamir Rice Case - The New York Times
Police are to often reckless and dangerous. Their average IQ is 104. We need smarter and better educated police instead of taking the left overs that the corporate world does not want. Policing has to stop being an employer of last resort for the Donald Trump supporting element of the working class.
Cuomo Moves to Pardon Former Youthful Offenders
"Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said on Sunday that he would seek out and pardon thousands of people who were convicted of nonviolent crimes as teenagers but have since led law-abiding lives.
Envisioned as a way to remove stubborn barriers to employment, housing and other services, the pardons would be available to anyone who was found guilty of a nonviolent felony or misdemeanor that was committed while they were 16 or 17, provided they have spent at least a decade without any additional convictions. Under his plan, Mr. Cuomo intends to invite those people to apply for — and virtually be assured of receiving — a governor’s pardon, as long as they meet several other criteria."
Intelligence Should Recruit Like Google
When defense efforts are broad and untargeted, they will inevitably fail.
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