"Privacy, not surveillance, is what must be justified now, though that was true before Boston. The elites either don’t see it or simply pretend not to, but the authoritarianism unleashed by 9/11 has become institutionalized, normalized, and ubiquitous. The surveillance state didn’t need Boston to implement its policies, though the bombing will certainly be used to accelerate them and further marginalize dissent."
I'm a global citizen, with an academic backgrund in the Middle East and Africa. Cities around the world feel like my home. I'm a professional Educator, which means something both in and out of public schools in the Bronx. And I believe in Solidarity. Wherever I am. Notes from my travels, research, and encounters tend to end up here...
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May 14, 2013
May 11, 2013
"
That year, according to the city’s measure, about 46 percent of New Yorkers were making less than 150 percent of the poverty threshold, a benchmark used to describe people who are not officially poor but who still struggle to get by. That represents a rise of more than three percentage points since 2009, when the nation’s recession officially ended.
By the city’s definition, a family with two adults and two children could earn $46,416 a year and still fall within 150 percent of the city’ poverty level. Unlike the official but rigid federal poverty level, the city’s measure balances the added value of tax credits, food stamps, rent subsidies and other benefits against expenses like health and day care, housing and commuting that reflect New York’s higher living costs. The city says a two-adult, two-child family is poor if it earns less than $30,949 a year. The federal government sets the level at $22,811.
Though more New Yorkers were working in 2011 than the year before, larger shares of children and working adults were classified as poor in 2011, and the proportions of Asians, noncitizens and Queens residents — overlapping groups — each rose by more than four percentage points since 2008.
"—
City Report Shows More Were Near Poverty in 2011
(via jayaprada)
May 7, 2013
Deported While Unconscious: American Hospitals Quietly Deport Hundreds Of Undocumented Patients
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Days after they were badly hurt in a car accident, Jacinto Cruz and Jose Rodriguez-Saldana lay unconscious in an Iowa hospital while the American health care system weighed what to do with the two immigrants…I remember hearing about this happening in Chicago a couple years ago. I didn’t realize it was so widespread. Horrifying. Can you imagine waking up after a car accident and realizing you’re in a totally different country?
May 5, 2013
"
“According to the World Medical Assembly’s Declaration of Malta, in cases involving people on hunger strikes, the duty of medical personnel to act ethically and the principle of respect for individuals’ autonomy, among other principles, must be respected.
“Under these principles, it is unjustifiable to engage in forced feeding of individuals contrary to their informed and voluntary refusal of such a measure. Moreover, hunger strikers should be protected from all forms of coercion, even more so when this is done through force and in some cases through physical violence.
“Health care personnel may not apply undue pressure of any sort on individuals who have opted for the extreme recourse of a hunger strike. Nor is it acceptable to use threats of forced feeding or other types of physical or psychological coercion against individuals who have voluntarily decided to go on a hunger strike.”
"— United Nations’ Statement on Guantanamo Hunger Strikes
May 4, 2013
UN: Force Feeding Gitmo Hunger Strikers Violates International Law
President Obama this week defended the US’s policy of force feeding detainees in Guantanamo Bay who are protesting their due process-free indefinite detention by going on a hunger strike.
On Wednesday, UN human rights officials declared that force feeding amounts to torture, saying “it is unjustifiable to engage in forced feeding of individuals contrary to their informed and voluntary refusal of such a measure.”
…[A]ccording to the World Medical Assembly’s Declaration of Malta, in cases involving people on hunger strikes, the duty of medical personnel to act ethically and the principle of respect for individuals’ autonomy, among other principles, must be respected. Under these principles, it is unjustifiable to engage in forced feeding of individuals contrary to their informed and voluntary refusal of such a measure. Moreover, hunger strikers should be protected from all forms of coercion, even more so when this is done through force and in some cases through physical violence. Health care personnel may not apply undue pressure of any sort on individuals who have opted for the extreme recourse of a hunger strike. Nor is it acceptable to use threats of forced feeding or other types of physical or psychological coercion against individuals who have voluntarily decided to go on a hunger strike.
They also called for an immediate end to the indefinite detention without charge or trial of 166 prisoners at Gitmo, warning “the continuing and indefinite detention of individuals without the right to due process is arbitrary and constitutes a clear violation of international law. This situation is particularly clear with respect to those prisoners—at least 86—who have been cleared for transfer by the Government of the United States of America,” but have been denied their freedom still.
(Source: jayaprada)
May 3, 2013
(Source: politicianlove, via verbalresistance)
May 1, 2013
Obama: Guantánamo prison 'not in the best interests of the American people'
Let’s see how this goes in terms of follow through…..
April 29, 2013
(Source: fuckyeahmarxismleninism, via amodernmanifesto)
April 26, 2013
Residents from devastated mining communities near Barnsley, England, put out banners on the day of union-buster Margaret Thatcher’s funeral, April 17, 2013.
April 24, 2013
"Gang evidence ( to justify solitary confinement in CA state prisons) comes in countless forms. Possession of Machiavelli’s The Prince, Robert Greene’s The 48 Laws of Power, or Sun Tzu’s The Art of War has been invoked as evidence. One inmate’s validation includes a Christmas card with stars drawn on it—alleged gang symbols—among Hershey’s Kisses and a candy cane. Another included a poetry booklet the inmate had coauthored with a validated BGF member. One poem reflected on what it was like to feel human touch after 14 years and another warned against spreading HIV. The only reference to violence was the line, “this senseless dying gotta end."
— http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/solitary-confinement-shane-bauer?page=2
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Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy.
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Che and Gagarin
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Leftists are not liberals.
Leftists are not liberals.
Leftists are not liberals.
Leftists are not liberals.
...
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One of the worst things to happen to Islam is the Islamic revolution in Iran.
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For all you undecided voters out there...
Take a look at Jill Stein in the Green Party… someone who has truly stood by her...
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For the upcoming US elections, think about the way in which the American elites have been able to exclude a large and important amount of people...
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Oh, snap.ROMNEY: Let's talk about the other big one --LEHRER (interrupting): No, let's not.
