Police state abuses, live in Fergistan (video)

Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Ryan Devereaux (FirstLook.org/TheIntercept); Amy Goodman, Juan Gonzalez (DemocracyNow.org, 8-20-14)

Do Americans know they're being spied on in Ferguson and all throughout USA?

Rubber Bullets, Tear Gas and Jail: Ferguson Police Crack Down on Journalists Covering Protests

Obama watches (firstlook.org/theintercept)

FERGUSON, Missouri - Protests over the fatal police shooting of unarmed 18-year-old Michael Brown have continued for a 10th night in "Fergistan, USA." Protesters are calling for the arrest of a killer cop, Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, who shot the unarmed teenager six [to eight] times, including twice in the head.

Guns in police hands (ThisModernWorld)

According to The New York Times, Attorney General Eric Holder and top Justice Department officials are weighing whether to open a broader civil rights investigation to look at Ferguson’s police practices in general.

Meanwhile, the Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the Ferguson Police Department to stop harassing and detaining journalists. At least 11 journalists have been detained while covering the protests sparked by the shooting of Brown. We speak to Ryan Devereaux of The Intercept. On Monday night covering the demonstrations, he was terrorized, shot by a rubberized bullet, arrested, and jailed overnight in spite of -- or possibly because of -- identifying himself as a member of the media.

 

"Not Acceptable in a Civilized Society": Pastor on Ferguson Police Targeting Traumatized Youth

 

"They Are All Michael Brown": State Senator Defends Protesters Seeking Justice in Police Shooting

 

Stop the Violence from Ferguson to Gaza: 90-Year-Old Holocaust Survivor Arrested in St. Louis

HEADLINES 

• Police: 47 Arrested on 10th Night of Protests in Ferguson
• St. Louis police murder black man miles from protests
• Top U.N. human rights official: "Apartheid is flourishing" in parts of U.S.
• NFL players hold up hands in solidarity with Ferguson
• Pentagon defends its program That Supplied Military Gear to Ferguson Police
• Grand Jury to consider NYPD chokehold killing of Eric Garner by group of officers on pretext of selling loose cigarettes
• Israel resumes its criminal assault on civilian Gaza Strip; 11 Palestinians murdered
• Israeli-Palestinian truce talks break down in Cairo
• Oakland: Protesters continue bid to block unloading of Israeli ship [protest and blockade of ship will continue farther north]
• Islamic State says U.S. journalist James Foley was publicly beheaded in revenge for Iraq airstrikes
• Iraqi forces seek to reclaim Tikrit from Islamic State
• Ebola deaths top 1,200; Liberia imposes curfew, isolates slum
• 31 arrested in Ferguson protests overnight; 2 shot during unrest
• Brown Family attorney: Autopsy backs up witness accounts of fatal shooting
• Obama raises concerns about police militarization in post-shooting paramilitary crackdown
• Israel, Hamas extend truce for 24 hours; key differences remain
• U.N. agency: Gaza can’t return to blockade conditions
• Israel blocks Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch from Gaza
• Obama hails "major step" as Kurdish, Iraqi forces claim to retake Mosul dam
• Islamic State video threatens attacks on Americans
• Ukraine, rebels trade allegations of civilian killings
• Unidentified warplanes strike militias in Libya
• Tens of thousands rally in Pakistan anti-gov’t protests
• Nazi resister returns Holocaust medal to Israel after Israel kills relatives in Gaza
• Autopsy: Michael Brown shot 6 times, twice in head
• [Distant, possibly racist] Missouri governor orders National Guard into Ferguson as protests flare [on latest revelations of police cover up]
• Syrian gov’t renews airstrikes on ISIL

VIDEO: "We are all Michael Brown" — NYC parents whose kids were murdered by police rally for justice 

• "A Human Rights Crisis": In unprecedented move, Amnesty International sends monitors to Ferguson [Egypt calls for US military restraint]
• Armed w/ military-grade weapons, Missouri police crack down on right to protest over Michael Brown murder
• The killing of Michael Brown: Missouri Police shooting of unarmed black teen sparks days of protests 
• Noam Chomsky: Israel’s actions in Palestine are "much worse than Apartheid" in South Africa

A Night in Ferguson: Rubber bullets, tear gas, and a jail cell

Ryan Devereaux (firstlook.org/TheIntercept, August 19, 2014)

Late Monday evening, after many of the major media outlets covering the protests in Ferguson, had left the streets to broadcast from their set-ups near the police command center, heavily armed officers raced through suburban streets in armored [military] vehicles, chasing demonstrators, launching tear gas [and potentially lethal projectiles] on otherwise quiet residential lanes, and shooting at journalists. Their efforts More

Intercept reporter shot with rubber bullets and arrested while covering Ferguson protests

John Cook (The Intercept, Aug. 19 2014)

Intercept reporter Ryan Devereaux was arrested this morning while on the ground covering the protests in Ferguson, Mo. According to St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer David Carson, who witnessed the apprehension, Devereaux [was needlessly shot with a projectile] and a German reporter he was with were both taken into custody by members of a police tactical team. They were handcuffed and placed... More

Our "terrorist" tracking system by the numbers

Ashley Wells, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly; Jeremy Scahill and Ryan Devereaux (The Intercept, "Barack Obama’s Secret Terrorist-Tracking System, by the Numbers"

Support independent cartooning: join Sparky's List—and visit Tom Tomorrow's Emporium of Fun, featuring the new book and plush Sparky! (The Nation/ThisModernWorld.com).

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Biggest group on watchlist not terrorists

Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept.

 

Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database -- a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments more -- than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category -- 280,000 people -- dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.

1984: The numbers are shocking and aimed at something far more sinister than "terrorism."

 

Peter, are you targeting American citizens?

The documents, obtained from a source in the intelligence community, also reveal that the Obama Administration has presided over an unprecedented expansion of the “terrorist” screening system. Since taking office, Obama has boosted the number of people on the no fly list more than tenfold, to an all-time high of 47,000 -- surpassing the number of people barred from flying under [Unprecedented President] George W. Bush.

 

Obama and Nixon (TTDB)

“If everything is terrorism, then nothing is terrorism,” says David Gomez, a former senior FBI special agent. The watchlisting system, he adds, is “revving out of control.”

 

The classified documents were prepared by the National Counterterrorism Center, the lead agency for tracking individuals with suspected links to international terrorism. Stamped “SECRET” and “NOFORN” (indicating they are not to be shared with foreign governments), they offer the most complete numerical picture of the watchlisting system to date. Among the revelations:

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When Guns Are Everywhere in police hands (Tom Tomorrow/thismodernworld.com)

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• The second-highest concentration of people designated as “known or suspected terrorists” by the government is in Dearborn, Michigan -- a city of 96,000 that has the largest percentage of Arab-American residents in the country.
• The government adds names to its databases, or adds information on existing subjects, at a rate of 900 records/day.
• The CIA uses a previously unknown program, code-named Hydra, to secretly access databases maintained by foreign countries and extract  data to add to the watchlists.

Puppet "Capt. America" and Nixon (thenation)

A U.S. counterterrorism official familiar with watchlisting data told The Intercept that as of November 2013, there were approximately 700,000 people in the Terrorist Screening Database, or TSDB, but declined to provide the current numbers. Last month, the Associated Press, citing federal court filings by government lawyers, reported that there have been 1.5 million names added to the watchlist over the past five years. More

UN: Is America "the land of the free"?

Pfc. Sandoval, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Kevin Uhrich (pasadenaweekly.com, 4-8-14)

The Mirror Turns: UN Human Rights Committee says...

This Modern World (Tom Tomorrow)

Despite our government’s many military entanglements and abuses of authority at home, most Americans still maintain a pretty high opinion of our country and the way our government treats its citizens and others around the world. 

  

The thing is, the unquestioning zeal regularly expressed for “our way of life” by cheerleading mainstream media personalities and politicians isn’t something that’s universally shared, according to a recent report issued by the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

What's America really like? This map shows some snapshot traits (koalogist.tumblr.com)

 

Whereas it is usually the United States that stands in judgment of other countries, and has traditionally used the UN to justify the wars it’s waged since the Korean Conflict, the script has been flipped in this case, with America now being portrayed as a bully and a villain, not only abroad, but at home as well. 

Uncle Sam (Big Brother) is watching

“The committee’s recommendations highlight the gaps between US human rights obligations and current laws and practices,” said ACLU Human Rights Program Director Jamil Dakwar in a statement issued last week by the organization’s national office. “The Human Rights Committee rightly called out the United States for setting dangerous examples from counterterrorism operations to an unfair criminal justice system to inhumane treatment of migrants.”

Local reactions to the report released on March 27 were no less critical of the United States, as well as the American media, few of which gave much play to the committee’s findings.

Heads or Tails, Lesser Evil vs. Greater Evil...

“It is shocking that media in Los Angeles [capital of the world] -- print, broadcast, and social -- have nearly entirely ignored what can only be called a factual but nevertheless horrifying, detailed indictment of violations of human rights in our country,” said local civil rights activist Marvin Schachter. Schachter is a longtime member of the ACLU, both its Southern California and Pasadena Foothills chapters. He is also a member of the Pasadena United Nations Association. More

The METTA of Martin Luther King Jr. (video)

Jason Espada; Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Pat Macpherson (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly: MLK DAY!

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Christian minister, with his friend, fellow peace activist, and anti Vietnam War agitator, the Buddhist monk Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh

Remembering Rev. King and the March on Washington, D.C. (history.com)

 

There are parallels between Dr. King’s ideas and the Buddha's teachings on metta (universal loving kindness).

 

Both figures show us love as a method of personal and social transformation. There are a few places where they overlap and in some ways potentially complement one another.

Metta is the traditional step-by-step method of Buddhist loving-kindness practice. It begins with oneself, moves on to those who are closest to us [usually our spiritual teacher(s)], and aims to reach a magnitude that includes everyone. It is a universal or illimitable state, one of the "Divine Abidings" (Brahma Viharas), because eventually it includes all living beings in all directions without bias.

Trayvon Martin teaches us that it is not over.

By contrast, Dr. King drew on Christian sources to speak of love. The first parallel is his teaching on the different types of love. "There are three words for 'love' in the Greek version of the New Testament; one is the word 'eros,' a sort of esthetic, romantic love. Plato used to talk about it a great deal in his dialogues, the yearning of the soul for the realm of the divine. And there is and can always be something beautiful about eros, even in its expressions of romance. Some of the most beautiful love in all of the world has been expressed this way."

It is interesting that Rev. King, a Baptist minister, starts here. It is an expression of love we can all relate to, not one too high up in the clouds. Metta practice also begins with the feelings we have for those closest to us. But the Buddha points out, as does King, that there is more to love.

Dr. King in living color in D.C. (easternct.edu)

Metta teachings from the outset have us distinguishing between attachment and a purer (more altruistic) love between people. Basically, if we crave for something in return, if we are motivated by possessiveness, or if it is liable to turn into something else -- such as anger or hatred if it is unrequited -- then it is done with attachment (clinging, upadana) not with metta. 

We must be clear about this. King goes on to speak of another kind: "Then the Greek language talks about 'philia,' which is another word for love, and philia is a kind of intimate love between personal friends. This is the kind of love you have for those people [whom] you get along with well, and those whom you like on this level you love because you are loved."

  

MLK (meditationandspiritualgrowth.com)

This is also something we have all known in our lives. I recently came across a beautiful teaching on the most noble qualities of friendship in Fr. Wayne Teasdale's book, A Monk in the World. In it, he mentions the tradition of Latin Christianity, which "places the emphasis on friendship’s spiritual character, calling a friend in the monastic context acustos animi, or a guardian of one’s soul." 

Teasdale adds, "All friendship requires other centeredness," and this is "really knowing our friends’ hearts.

No more racism, sexism! (FEMEN)

It includes committed friendship’s usual intense affective power, but it also serves our friends’ ultimate well being." That metta practice moves from oneself, or those closest to us, to our friends, is intended to touch this vital quality of caring in us, to awaken and enhance it so we can share it with more and more people. There is refinement of our love, an elevating quality that we develop.

King concludes the passage: "Then the Greek language has another word for love, and that is the word 'agape.' Agape is more than romantic love, it is more than friendship. Agape is understanding, creative, redemptive good will toward all [humans]. Agape is an overflowing love which seeks nothing in return."

MLK, John F. Kennedy, and other prominent civil rights activists in black history

  

In the same way, metta aims to become mature love. In contrast to Christian methods, which have many wonderful features, the strength of the Buddhist tradition of metta is that it sets out a path of practice that shows us what step we can take next. This brings us to a second parallel teaching, one King called The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life.

The peace activist diet (PETA)

"There are three dimensions...length, breadth, and height. Now the length of life as we shall use it here is the inward concern for one’s own welfare. In other words, it is that inward concern that causes one to push forward, to achieve [one's] own goals and ambitions.

The breadth of life as we shall use it here is the outward concern for the welfare of others. And the height of life is the upward reach for God. Now you [have] got to have all three of these to have a complete life.

"Now let’s turn for the moment to the length of life. I said that this is the dimension of life where we are concerned with developing our inner powers. In a sense this is the selfish dimension of life. There is such a thing as rational and healthy self-interest. Before you can love other selves adequately, you’ve got to love your own self properly.

MLK, Thay, Dr. Browne (digitalunion.osu.edu)

"And you know what loving yourself also means? It means that you’ve got to accept yourself."

 

It is great King started here. A lot of us have problems being kind to ourselves. And even if it is not essential as the very first step towards loving others, from a Buddhist point of view, it is still something we all need to learn to do if we are going to make progress in our metta practice.

 

United We Stand - with love/metta

One of the skillful means in metta is that we should start with whomever we find easiest and progress from there. After cultivating thoughts wishing others well, beginning with those most dear, for days or weeks or months, we have some metta to work with.

We then start to see how we, too, are worthy of respect and the kindness of others.

For some people this is a long process, but it is something we can all do. This is very encouraging. 

MLK made our collective dream a reality!

"Now the other thing about the length of life: after accepting ourselves and our tools, we must discover what we are called to do. And once we discover it we should set out to do it with all of the strength and all of the power that we have in our systems.

"Be the best of whatever you are. And when you do this, when you do this, you’ve mastered the length of life.

"Now don’t stop here, though. You know, a lot of people get no further in life than the length. They develop their inner powers; they do their jobs well. But do you know, they try to live as if nobody else lives in the world but themselves.

 

10 Things About MLK (history.com)

A lot of people never get beyond the first dimension of life. So I move on and say that it is necessary to add breadth to length. Now the breadth of life is the outward concern for the welfare of others, as I said. And a [one] has not begun to live until [one] can rise above the narrow confines of...individual concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity."

 

Let's laugh and end racism (sodahead.com)

Metta is just this -- starting with what is nearest to us and extending outwards, becoming more and more inclusive until it reaches what are called the Divine Abodes: universal love, compassion (the active side of love), appreciative joy (happiness in others' success and happiness), and equanimity (non-bias) -- all born of the strength of our dedication. (Let us return to equanimity or upekkha, further on as it is a quality so impressively demonstrated by King and others in the Civil Rights movement). More