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marmar
marmar's Journal
marmar's Journal
July 3, 2013
from TomDispatch:
The Dictionary of the Global War on You (GWOY)
Definitions for a New Age
By Tom Engelhardt
In the months after September 11, 2001, it was regularly said that “everything” had changed. It’s a claim long forgotten, buried in everyday American life. Still, if you think about it, in the decade-plus that followed -- the years of the PATRIOT Act, “enhanced interrogation techniques,” “black sites,” robot assassination campaigns, extraordinary renditions, the Abu Ghraib photos, the Global War on Terror, and the first cyberwar in history -- much did change in ways that should still stun us. Perhaps nothing changed more than the American national security state, which, spurred on by 9/11 and the open congressional purse strings that followed, grew in ways that would have been alien even at the height of the Cold War, when there was another giant, nuclear-armed imperial power on planet Earth.
Unfortunately, the language we use to describe the world of the national security state is still largely stuck in the pre-9/11 era. No wonder, for example, it’s hard to begin to grasp the staggering size and changing nature of the world of secret surveillance that Edward Snowden’s recent revelations have allowed us a peek at. If there are no words available to capture the world that is watching us, all of us, we’ve got a problem.
In ancient China, when a new dynasty came to power, it would perform a ceremony called “the rectification of names.” The idea was that the previous dynasty had, in part, fallen because a gap, a chasm, an abyss, had opened between reality and the names available to describe it. Consider this dispatch, then, a first attempt to “rectify” American names in the era of the ascendant national -- morphing into global -- security state.
Creating a new dictionary of terms is, of course, an awesome undertaking. From the moment work began, it famously took 71 years for the full 10-volume Oxford English Dictionary to first appear! So we at TomDispatch expect to be at work on our new project for years to come. Here, however, is an initial glimpse at a modest selection of our newly rectified definitions. ........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175720/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_oed_of_the_national_security_state/
The Dictionary of the Global War on You: Definitions for a New Age
from TomDispatch:
The Dictionary of the Global War on You (GWOY)
Definitions for a New Age
By Tom Engelhardt
In the months after September 11, 2001, it was regularly said that “everything” had changed. It’s a claim long forgotten, buried in everyday American life. Still, if you think about it, in the decade-plus that followed -- the years of the PATRIOT Act, “enhanced interrogation techniques,” “black sites,” robot assassination campaigns, extraordinary renditions, the Abu Ghraib photos, the Global War on Terror, and the first cyberwar in history -- much did change in ways that should still stun us. Perhaps nothing changed more than the American national security state, which, spurred on by 9/11 and the open congressional purse strings that followed, grew in ways that would have been alien even at the height of the Cold War, when there was another giant, nuclear-armed imperial power on planet Earth.
Unfortunately, the language we use to describe the world of the national security state is still largely stuck in the pre-9/11 era. No wonder, for example, it’s hard to begin to grasp the staggering size and changing nature of the world of secret surveillance that Edward Snowden’s recent revelations have allowed us a peek at. If there are no words available to capture the world that is watching us, all of us, we’ve got a problem.
In ancient China, when a new dynasty came to power, it would perform a ceremony called “the rectification of names.” The idea was that the previous dynasty had, in part, fallen because a gap, a chasm, an abyss, had opened between reality and the names available to describe it. Consider this dispatch, then, a first attempt to “rectify” American names in the era of the ascendant national -- morphing into global -- security state.
Creating a new dictionary of terms is, of course, an awesome undertaking. From the moment work began, it famously took 71 years for the full 10-volume Oxford English Dictionary to first appear! So we at TomDispatch expect to be at work on our new project for years to come. Here, however, is an initial glimpse at a modest selection of our newly rectified definitions. ........................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175720/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_the_oed_of_the_national_security_state/
July 2, 2013
"Pure" Capitalism Is Pure Fantasy
Thursday, 27 June 2013 15:24
By Richard D Wolff, Truthout | Op-Ed
As the global economic meltdown drags most of us through its sixth year, one kind of explanation is heard often and from several sides, including the libertarian right. The crisis since 2007, we are told, is not capitalism's fault or flaw. That is because capitalism is not the system we now have; it is not the systemic problem the world now faces. If only we could "get back to" something like "pure" capitalism, that would dissolve our economic woes.
Policy prescriptions flow smoothly from this explanation. We must end the bad economic system we now have. "Crony," "gangster," "casino" and "monopoly" are among the adjectives designating today's actually existing - impure - capitalism. It fails to achieve all the progress and prosperity that a pure capitalism would deliver. Those who reason in this way then denounce one or another of the demons they believe to have rendered capitalism impure. Those demons - external and antithetical to pure capitalism - include big government, monopolies, the Federal Reserve, welfare, taxation, labor unions, etc. Their intrusions interfere with pure capitalism and block its intrinsic efficiency. They prevent economic justice: how pure capitalism would allocate incomes according to each person's and each enterprise's contributions to economic output. Those demonic outside institutions distort economic rewards to favor "special interests." And so the economy and society suffer.
By celebrating pure capitalism, such arguments can criticize the economic crisis without sounding anticapitalist. They reaffirm their loyalty to capitalism in the abstract even as they attack its concrete here and now. The trick is to identify the present system and its enduring, deep crisis as anything but capitalist.
This is fantasy. Impure capitalism is the only kind we have ever had. For example, government always accompanied capitalism. Government often served a rising capitalist class to undermine, defeat and destroy other classes. In the French Revolution, the rising class of merchants, bankers and small capitalists captured state power and used it to undermine French feudalism. American revolutionaries took over government from Britain and used it to facilitate the growth of capitalism in the United States in countless ways. Those include the wars on native people and the taking of their land; the enabling and often also building of crucial infrastructure (harbors, canals, railways, roadways and airports); the Civil War and its aftermath; the postal system; the judicial system (police and courts to adjudicate disputes); modern public education and so on. Capitalism without government is a fantasy. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/17256-pure-capitalism-is-pure-fantasy
Richard Wolff: "Pure" Capitalism Is Pure Fantasy
"Pure" Capitalism Is Pure Fantasy
Thursday, 27 June 2013 15:24
By Richard D Wolff, Truthout | Op-Ed
As the global economic meltdown drags most of us through its sixth year, one kind of explanation is heard often and from several sides, including the libertarian right. The crisis since 2007, we are told, is not capitalism's fault or flaw. That is because capitalism is not the system we now have; it is not the systemic problem the world now faces. If only we could "get back to" something like "pure" capitalism, that would dissolve our economic woes.
Policy prescriptions flow smoothly from this explanation. We must end the bad economic system we now have. "Crony," "gangster," "casino" and "monopoly" are among the adjectives designating today's actually existing - impure - capitalism. It fails to achieve all the progress and prosperity that a pure capitalism would deliver. Those who reason in this way then denounce one or another of the demons they believe to have rendered capitalism impure. Those demons - external and antithetical to pure capitalism - include big government, monopolies, the Federal Reserve, welfare, taxation, labor unions, etc. Their intrusions interfere with pure capitalism and block its intrinsic efficiency. They prevent economic justice: how pure capitalism would allocate incomes according to each person's and each enterprise's contributions to economic output. Those demonic outside institutions distort economic rewards to favor "special interests." And so the economy and society suffer.
By celebrating pure capitalism, such arguments can criticize the economic crisis without sounding anticapitalist. They reaffirm their loyalty to capitalism in the abstract even as they attack its concrete here and now. The trick is to identify the present system and its enduring, deep crisis as anything but capitalist.
This is fantasy. Impure capitalism is the only kind we have ever had. For example, government always accompanied capitalism. Government often served a rising capitalist class to undermine, defeat and destroy other classes. In the French Revolution, the rising class of merchants, bankers and small capitalists captured state power and used it to undermine French feudalism. American revolutionaries took over government from Britain and used it to facilitate the growth of capitalism in the United States in countless ways. Those include the wars on native people and the taking of their land; the enabling and often also building of crucial infrastructure (harbors, canals, railways, roadways and airports); the Civil War and its aftermath; the postal system; the judicial system (police and courts to adjudicate disputes); modern public education and so on. Capitalism without government is a fantasy. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/17256-pure-capitalism-is-pure-fantasy
July 2, 2013
"Pure" Capitalism Is Pure Fantasy
Thursday, 27 June 2013 15:24
By Richard D Wolff, Truthout | Op-Ed
As the global economic meltdown drags most of us through its sixth year, one kind of explanation is heard often and from several sides, including the libertarian right. The crisis since 2007, we are told, is not capitalism's fault or flaw. That is because capitalism is not the system we now have; it is not the systemic problem the world now faces. If only we could "get back to" something like "pure" capitalism, that would dissolve our economic woes.
Policy prescriptions flow smoothly from this explanation. We must end the bad economic system we now have. "Crony," "gangster," "casino" and "monopoly" are among the adjectives designating today's actually existing - impure - capitalism. It fails to achieve all the progress and prosperity that a pure capitalism would deliver. Those who reason in this way then denounce one or another of the demons they believe to have rendered capitalism impure. Those demons - external and antithetical to pure capitalism - include big government, monopolies, the Federal Reserve, welfare, taxation, labor unions, etc. Their intrusions interfere with pure capitalism and block its intrinsic efficiency. They prevent economic justice: how pure capitalism would allocate incomes according to each person's and each enterprise's contributions to economic output. Those demonic outside institutions distort economic rewards to favor "special interests." And so the economy and society suffer.
By celebrating pure capitalism, such arguments can criticize the economic crisis without sounding anticapitalist. They reaffirm their loyalty to capitalism in the abstract even as they attack its concrete here and now. The trick is to identify the present system and its enduring, deep crisis as anything but capitalist.
This is fantasy. Impure capitalism is the only kind we have ever had. For example, government always accompanied capitalism. Government often served a rising capitalist class to undermine, defeat and destroy other classes. In the French Revolution, the rising class of merchants, bankers and small capitalists captured state power and used it to undermine French feudalism. American revolutionaries took over government from Britain and used it to facilitate the growth of capitalism in the United States in countless ways. Those include the wars on native people and the taking of their land; the enabling and often also building of crucial infrastructure (harbors, canals, railways, roadways and airports); the Civil War and its aftermath; the postal system; the judicial system (police and courts to adjudicate disputes); modern public education and so on. Capitalism without government is a fantasy. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/17256-pure-capitalism-is-pure-fantasy
Richard Wolff: "Pure" Capitalism Is Pure Fantasy
"Pure" Capitalism Is Pure Fantasy
Thursday, 27 June 2013 15:24
By Richard D Wolff, Truthout | Op-Ed
As the global economic meltdown drags most of us through its sixth year, one kind of explanation is heard often and from several sides, including the libertarian right. The crisis since 2007, we are told, is not capitalism's fault or flaw. That is because capitalism is not the system we now have; it is not the systemic problem the world now faces. If only we could "get back to" something like "pure" capitalism, that would dissolve our economic woes.
Policy prescriptions flow smoothly from this explanation. We must end the bad economic system we now have. "Crony," "gangster," "casino" and "monopoly" are among the adjectives designating today's actually existing - impure - capitalism. It fails to achieve all the progress and prosperity that a pure capitalism would deliver. Those who reason in this way then denounce one or another of the demons they believe to have rendered capitalism impure. Those demons - external and antithetical to pure capitalism - include big government, monopolies, the Federal Reserve, welfare, taxation, labor unions, etc. Their intrusions interfere with pure capitalism and block its intrinsic efficiency. They prevent economic justice: how pure capitalism would allocate incomes according to each person's and each enterprise's contributions to economic output. Those demonic outside institutions distort economic rewards to favor "special interests." And so the economy and society suffer.
By celebrating pure capitalism, such arguments can criticize the economic crisis without sounding anticapitalist. They reaffirm their loyalty to capitalism in the abstract even as they attack its concrete here and now. The trick is to identify the present system and its enduring, deep crisis as anything but capitalist.
This is fantasy. Impure capitalism is the only kind we have ever had. For example, government always accompanied capitalism. Government often served a rising capitalist class to undermine, defeat and destroy other classes. In the French Revolution, the rising class of merchants, bankers and small capitalists captured state power and used it to undermine French feudalism. American revolutionaries took over government from Britain and used it to facilitate the growth of capitalism in the United States in countless ways. Those include the wars on native people and the taking of their land; the enabling and often also building of crucial infrastructure (harbors, canals, railways, roadways and airports); the Civil War and its aftermath; the postal system; the judicial system (police and courts to adjudicate disputes); modern public education and so on. Capitalism without government is a fantasy. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/17256-pure-capitalism-is-pure-fantasy
July 2, 2013
from truthdig:
America’s New Cold War: Why the Allies Side With Snowden
Posted on Jul 1, 2013
By Robert Scheer
There is a depressing statistical comparison that should shame all of us who voted twice for Barack Obama’s ascent to the White House. Our man, a former constitutional law professor who pledged to reverse the Bush administration’s abuses of national security concerns, has charged seven government whistle-blowers, including Edward J. Snowden, with violating the Espionage Act. That’s more than double the combined three charged with leaking classified information by all previous presidents, George W. Bush included.
The defense of his unprecedented prosecution of those who dare tell us the truth is that we live in particularly dangerous times, an obviously absurd notion given the civil wars, foreign threats and other sources of mayhem periodically experienced by most of the world’s nations. At its best, the “metadata” aggregation, including the logs of all email traffic and telephone calls, is a paranoid assault on our right to personal space enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. At worst it is an out of control grab for worldwide power over the new information age.
As a New York Times account Sunday suggests, “A close reading of Mr. Snowden’s documents shows the extent to which the eavesdropping agency now has two new roles: It is a data cruncher, with an appetite to sweep up, and hold for years, a staggering variety of information. And it is an intelligence force armed with cyberweapons, assigned not just to monitor foreign computers but also, if necessary, to attack.”
A surveillance power run amok? The latest disclosures from Snowden’s leaks published in the German magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday turn out to have nothing to do with national security and everything to do with a compulsive and unseemly snooping not only into the lives of ordinary citizens throughout the world but also into the diplomatic correspondence, including trade and other negotiating strategies, of some of our closest allies. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/americas_new_cold_war_why_the_allies_side_with_snowden_20130701/
Robert Scheer: America’s New Cold War: Why the Allies Side With Snowden
from truthdig:
America’s New Cold War: Why the Allies Side With Snowden
Posted on Jul 1, 2013
By Robert Scheer
There is a depressing statistical comparison that should shame all of us who voted twice for Barack Obama’s ascent to the White House. Our man, a former constitutional law professor who pledged to reverse the Bush administration’s abuses of national security concerns, has charged seven government whistle-blowers, including Edward J. Snowden, with violating the Espionage Act. That’s more than double the combined three charged with leaking classified information by all previous presidents, George W. Bush included.
The defense of his unprecedented prosecution of those who dare tell us the truth is that we live in particularly dangerous times, an obviously absurd notion given the civil wars, foreign threats and other sources of mayhem periodically experienced by most of the world’s nations. At its best, the “metadata” aggregation, including the logs of all email traffic and telephone calls, is a paranoid assault on our right to personal space enshrined in the Fourth Amendment. At worst it is an out of control grab for worldwide power over the new information age.
As a New York Times account Sunday suggests, “A close reading of Mr. Snowden’s documents shows the extent to which the eavesdropping agency now has two new roles: It is a data cruncher, with an appetite to sweep up, and hold for years, a staggering variety of information. And it is an intelligence force armed with cyberweapons, assigned not just to monitor foreign computers but also, if necessary, to attack.”
A surveillance power run amok? The latest disclosures from Snowden’s leaks published in the German magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday turn out to have nothing to do with national security and everything to do with a compulsive and unseemly snooping not only into the lives of ordinary citizens throughout the world but also into the diplomatic correspondence, including trade and other negotiating strategies, of some of our closest allies. ................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/americas_new_cold_war_why_the_allies_side_with_snowden_20130701/
July 1, 2013
Published on Jun 25, 2013
Is journalism being criminalised? Interview with Dirty Wars author Jeremy Scahill
In the wake of whistleblower Edward Snowden's leak of NSA files, Jeremy Scahill, author of Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield and featured reporter in the new documentary film of the same name, says under the Obama administration journalists are being intruded upon and whistleblowers are being charged with crimes. Scahill is also a national security correspondent for the Nation.
Is journalism being criminalized? Interview with Dirty Wars author Jeremy Scahill
Published on Jun 25, 2013
Is journalism being criminalised? Interview with Dirty Wars author Jeremy Scahill
In the wake of whistleblower Edward Snowden's leak of NSA files, Jeremy Scahill, author of Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield and featured reporter in the new documentary film of the same name, says under the Obama administration journalists are being intruded upon and whistleblowers are being charged with crimes. Scahill is also a national security correspondent for the Nation.
July 1, 2013
WASHINGTON -- Interest rates on some new federally backed loans for college students are now double what they were last week.
Subsidized Stafford loan interest rates went to 6.8 percent on Monday because Congress didn't strike a deal to keep them low. That translates to an extra $2,600 per student in costs. It affects roughly a quarter of all federal borrowers.
The effects aren't immediate, though. That's because most students sign their loan documents when they return to campus in the fall. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/student-loan-double_n_3529166.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037
Student Loan Rates Double After Congressional Inaction
WASHINGTON -- Interest rates on some new federally backed loans for college students are now double what they were last week.
Subsidized Stafford loan interest rates went to 6.8 percent on Monday because Congress didn't strike a deal to keep them low. That translates to an extra $2,600 per student in costs. It affects roughly a quarter of all federal borrowers.
The effects aren't immediate, though. That's because most students sign their loan documents when they return to campus in the fall. ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/01/student-loan-double_n_3529166.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037
July 1, 2013
from truthdig:
Bowl Phone Sex
Posted on Jun 30, 2013
By Chris Hedges
ELIZABETH, N.J.—I am drinking coffee and eating doughnuts in the backroom of a church in Elizabeth, N.J., with Gloria Blount, who has been in and out of Union County Jail over the years, Irene Pabey, who spent about four months there, and Alveda Torrado, who was behind its walls for 18 months. The women, part of a prison support group I help run, are talking about the “bowl phone.”
Union County Jail is a 13-story facility with about 800 prisoners in the center of the depressed city of Elizabeth. Female prisoners are housed on the top floor, men on the floors below.
The prisoners usually are forced to spend 23 hours a day in their cells. There isn’t much structured activity and there are no educational classes. Prisoners who have good disciplinary records—they are referred to as trusties and wear green as opposed to khaki uniforms—are allowed to work in the kitchen or clean the jail but they are not paid.
Life behind bars in Union County jail and some other American penal institutions revolves around an improvised system of cell-to-cell communication through the plumbing. Known as the “bowl phone,” it crudely replicates the speaking tubes in ships that sailors once shouted through. Drained metal toilets are used as megaphones to build friendships, carry out courtship, fall in love—although the lovers may never meet—have phone sex, pray and carry out religious conversion, pass news about court cases and families and exchange gossip. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/bowl_phone_sex_20130630/
Chris Hedges: Bowl Phone Sex
from truthdig:
Bowl Phone Sex
Posted on Jun 30, 2013
By Chris Hedges
ELIZABETH, N.J.—I am drinking coffee and eating doughnuts in the backroom of a church in Elizabeth, N.J., with Gloria Blount, who has been in and out of Union County Jail over the years, Irene Pabey, who spent about four months there, and Alveda Torrado, who was behind its walls for 18 months. The women, part of a prison support group I help run, are talking about the “bowl phone.”
Union County Jail is a 13-story facility with about 800 prisoners in the center of the depressed city of Elizabeth. Female prisoners are housed on the top floor, men on the floors below.
The prisoners usually are forced to spend 23 hours a day in their cells. There isn’t much structured activity and there are no educational classes. Prisoners who have good disciplinary records—they are referred to as trusties and wear green as opposed to khaki uniforms—are allowed to work in the kitchen or clean the jail but they are not paid.
Life behind bars in Union County jail and some other American penal institutions revolves around an improvised system of cell-to-cell communication through the plumbing. Known as the “bowl phone,” it crudely replicates the speaking tubes in ships that sailors once shouted through. Drained metal toilets are used as megaphones to build friendships, carry out courtship, fall in love—although the lovers may never meet—have phone sex, pray and carry out religious conversion, pass news about court cases and families and exchange gossip. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/bowl_phone_sex_20130630/
July 1, 2013
from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:
Getting Past Stars and Swipes Forever
June 29, 2013
By Sam Pizzigati
Almost ten generations have come and gone since 1776. Yet the giants of 1776 still fascinate us. Books about Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington still regularly dot our best-seller lists.
What so attracts us to these “founding fathers,” these men of means who put their security, their considerable comfort, at risk for a greater good? Maybe the contrast with what we see all around us.
Today’s men of means display precious little selfless behavior. Our CEOs, bankers, and private equity kingpins remain totally fixated on their own corporate and personal bottom lines. They don’t lead the nation. They steal from it.
So who can blame the rest of us for daydreaming about a time when a significant chunk of our elite showed a real sense of responsibility to something grander than the size of their individual fortunes? ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/getting-past-stars-and-swipes-forever/#sthash.wxROlhsv.dpuf
Getting Past Stars and Swipes Forever
from Too Much: A Commentary on Excess and Inequality:
Getting Past Stars and Swipes Forever
June 29, 2013
Back in 1776, public-spirited patriots emerged from the ranks of colonial America’s privileged. But our corporate elite today seems to offer up only thieving, tax-dodging parasites. Why such a contrast?
By Sam Pizzigati
Almost ten generations have come and gone since 1776. Yet the giants of 1776 still fascinate us. Books about Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington still regularly dot our best-seller lists.
What so attracts us to these “founding fathers,” these men of means who put their security, their considerable comfort, at risk for a greater good? Maybe the contrast with what we see all around us.
Today’s men of means display precious little selfless behavior. Our CEOs, bankers, and private equity kingpins remain totally fixated on their own corporate and personal bottom lines. They don’t lead the nation. They steal from it.
So who can blame the rest of us for daydreaming about a time when a significant chunk of our elite showed a real sense of responsibility to something grander than the size of their individual fortunes? ...................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://toomuchonline.org/getting-past-stars-and-swipes-forever/#sthash.wxROlhsv.dpuf
July 1, 2013
Listen: http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-capitalisms-social-costs
by Richard Wolff.
Published on June 29, 2013
Updates on Obamacare's "penalties," a Parisian suicide, neglect of community colleges, and how inequality worsens itself. Interview with psychotherapist Dr. Harriet Fraad on why US workers don't fight against their economic decline. Response to listener's question on how to prevent socialism from deforming into Stalinism.
Professor Richard Wolff: Capitalism's Social Costs (audio)
Listen: http://rdwolff.com/content/economic-update-capitalisms-social-costs
by Richard Wolff.
Published on June 29, 2013
Updates on Obamacare's "penalties," a Parisian suicide, neglect of community colleges, and how inequality worsens itself. Interview with psychotherapist Dr. Harriet Fraad on why US workers don't fight against their economic decline. Response to listener's question on how to prevent socialism from deforming into Stalinism.
July 1, 2013
from truthdig:
Bowl Phone Sex
Posted on Jun 30, 2013
By Chris Hedges
ELIZABETH, N.J.—I am drinking coffee and eating doughnuts in the backroom of a church in Elizabeth, N.J., with Gloria Blount, who has been in and out of Union County Jail over the years, Irene Pabey, who spent about four months there, and Alveda Torrado, who was behind its walls for 18 months. The women, part of a prison support group I help run, are talking about the “bowl phone.”
Union County Jail is a 13-story facility with about 800 prisoners in the center of the depressed city of Elizabeth. Female prisoners are housed on the top floor, men on the floors below.
The prisoners usually are forced to spend 23 hours a day in their cells. There isn’t much structured activity and there are no educational classes. Prisoners who have good disciplinary records—they are referred to as trusties and wear green as opposed to khaki uniforms—are allowed to work in the kitchen or clean the jail but they are not paid.
Life behind bars in Union County jail and some other American penal institutions revolves around an improvised system of cell-to-cell communication through the plumbing. Known as the “bowl phone,” it crudely replicates the speaking tubes in ships that sailors once shouted through. Drained metal toilets are used as megaphones to build friendships, carry out courtship, fall in love—although the lovers may never meet—have phone sex, pray and carry out religious conversion, pass news about court cases and families and exchange gossip. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/bowl_phone_sex_20130630/
Chris Hedges: Bowl Phone Sex
from truthdig:
Bowl Phone Sex
Posted on Jun 30, 2013
By Chris Hedges
ELIZABETH, N.J.—I am drinking coffee and eating doughnuts in the backroom of a church in Elizabeth, N.J., with Gloria Blount, who has been in and out of Union County Jail over the years, Irene Pabey, who spent about four months there, and Alveda Torrado, who was behind its walls for 18 months. The women, part of a prison support group I help run, are talking about the “bowl phone.”
Union County Jail is a 13-story facility with about 800 prisoners in the center of the depressed city of Elizabeth. Female prisoners are housed on the top floor, men on the floors below.
The prisoners usually are forced to spend 23 hours a day in their cells. There isn’t much structured activity and there are no educational classes. Prisoners who have good disciplinary records—they are referred to as trusties and wear green as opposed to khaki uniforms—are allowed to work in the kitchen or clean the jail but they are not paid.
Life behind bars in Union County jail and some other American penal institutions revolves around an improvised system of cell-to-cell communication through the plumbing. Known as the “bowl phone,” it crudely replicates the speaking tubes in ships that sailors once shouted through. Drained metal toilets are used as megaphones to build friendships, carry out courtship, fall in love—although the lovers may never meet—have phone sex, pray and carry out religious conversion, pass news about court cases and families and exchange gossip. ..................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/bowl_phone_sex_20130630/
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit, MI
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,066
