Our Turn To Dream

When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" 50 years ago, he had no idea Jim Crow would be replaced with another oppressive system: mass incarceration and the drug war. It's our turn to dream. Nixon started the drug war just 8 years after King's "I have a Dream" speech. Both Reagan and Clinton continued it. In 2013 a study found that more black men were incarcerated then were enslaved in the 1850. It's our turn to dream how to end mass incarceration. If you have a felony on your record, it's harder to get a job and you also cannot get many forms of public assistance. In Dothan, Alabama, T.O.P.S. is offering support for people just getting out of jail-everything from clothes to GED. This is one way to end mass incarceration. It is important to see the links between civil rights, voting rights, and the drug war.

Outfoxed • Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

And another lil' reminder on the consequences of #Corporate #Fascism...

Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price

Well, just a reminder on what the ugly face of a #Corporate #Fascist looks like - watch and learn.



As one woman in the documentary so eloquently put it when she described the #Walmart business model: "Plantation Capitalism".

Donny Rico Episode #5: Be The Victim

"In essence, this case is an effort by Chevron to retaliate against Ecuadorian villagers, their lawyers, and their supporters for suing, bringing public pressure, and petitioning government agencies to hold Chevron accountable for violations of human rights. The district court's decision below, if allowed to stand, poses a severe threat to the rights to expression, association, political participation, and access to courts guaranteed by the First Amendment. If the vaguely defined scope and heavy penalties of RICO – enacted to support law enforcement efforts against organized crime syndicates – may be wielded by private parties against public interest groups and activists who engage in First Amendment-protected activities to seek to hold those private parties accountable, democracy itself is threatened."



— Amazon Watch, Amnesty International, and 15 other human rights and environmental NGOs



#CorporateFascism

#Corruption

#Ecocide

Songwriter's Notebook: US History Lesson Plan

Songwriter's Notebook: US History Lesson Plan



"This is the outline for what will eventually be an online course in US history, which will be written by some combination of me and an actual historian, and musically annotated by me.  I'm going to need technical help, too, in terms of interactive graphics on the web so people can interface with the course in different ways -- chronologically, geographically, etc.  Feedback welcome!"



— David Rovics

There's a Massive, Illicit Bust of Edward Snowden Stuck to a War Monumen...

This morning, free speech advocates in NYC held a press conference to demand the confiscated Snowden bust be returned to the artists.

A local gallery has already agreed to exhibit the work while the artists submit an application to legally install the sculpture through the New York City Parks Department. In other words, New York could soon have a permanent monument to the whistleblower who challenged NSA surveillance. But first we need to free the statue!

Petition by FFTF:
https://cms.fightforthefuture.org/snowden-bust/



#Snowden may still be in exile for exposing the NSA’s crimes, but we can honor his efforts to hold the US government accountable by making sure this artwork gets released.

TPP: The Dirtiest Trade Deal You've Never Heard Of

If you feel like every week there’s always another looming threat to the future of free speech on the Internet, it’s because there is.



The root of the problem is that too many decisions that impact Internet freedom are made by government bureaucrats and corporate lobbyists behind closed doors and without public input.



Right now, U.S. Congress is planning to pass a “Fast Track” bill that will make this situation even worse by ramming through secret agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership - #TPP - that could lead to more censorship and less privacy online.



We all should have a voice anytime there’s a major decision that impacts our rights. Period.









Here in the #EU we have a similar struggle with equally horrendous #TTIP…