MatrixLeaks

    Inside One of the Nation’s Most Shocking Juvenile Justice Scandals As we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Gideon v. Wainwright, the landmark Supreme Court decision that gave poor defendants the right to counsel, it would be nice to celebrate. That case, taken together with the 1967 decision In re Gault, which gave juveniles the same rights in court as adults, stands for the principle that process matters in our system of justice; when faced with the awesome power of the state, the accused — rich or poor, old or young — must be properly armed. Two recent books put a damper on the celebration, revealing just how random and impoverished justice can be, and how flimsy the right to counsel. In “Kids for Cash,” the investigative reporter William Ecenbarger tells the story behind a corruption scandal so brazen and cruel it defies imagination. Between 2003 and 2008, two Pennsylvania judges accepted millions of dollars in kickbacks from a private juvenile detention facil...

Here are a couple of definitions of karma: A) the total effect of actions and conduct during successive phases of existence, regarded as determining destiny; B) the principle of retributive justice determining one's state of life. So, there you have it, as the man who hundreds of millions worship as Lord had put it: " As ye sow so shall ye reap." One need not be too deep in the study of American history to realize that we , as a nation, sure as hell sowed a lot of evil and selfish deeds. Let us simply look at the 20th and early 21st centuries to browse a bit. To really study in more depth the scope of what our country has done to others, please get William Blum's book Rogue Nation. This writer, for this commentary, will focus on a few tidbits of the Karma we have created, and , as Chalmers Johnson so aptly phrased it: Blowback. Perhaps we should sit down with those angry white males and females who wish to close our Southwestern borders to the ' hordes ...

Mysterious, covert cell towers placed across U.S. cities found to intercept your phone calls and texts There's something really fishy going on with the mainstream media right now. Multiple outlets such as Reuters and CBS News are reporting a story which they would normally dismiss as a "conspiracy theory." According to these news outlets, rogue cell phone towers known as "interceptors" have been discovered across America, and they don't belong to communications companies, the NSA or the U.S. military. They reportedly snoop on your private phone calls by intercepting cell phone signals, then relaying them to other towers. "Rogue cell phone towers, the type that can intercept your mobile calls and data, are cropping up all over the United States, including here in Chicago," reports CBS News. "Seventeen fake cellphone towers were discovered across the U.S. last week," reports Reuters in an article on Yahoo Finance.  "Rather ...

Hundreds of children are believed to have been kidnapped in Africa and brought to Britain for brutal voodoo rituals, a UN watchdog said, urging London to do more to combat the scourge Hundreds of children are being kidnapped in Africa and bought to the UK for voodoo rituals, a UN watchdog said, also voicing alarm about the number of British pedophiles who prey on children abroad. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) urged Britain to do more to stop this brutal form of people trafficking. “We’re concerned about reports that hundreds of children have been abducted from their families in Africa and trafficked to the UK, especially London, for religious rituals,”  Kirsten Sandberg, head of the CRC and a former Norwegian Supreme Court judge, said Thursday. She said that trafficking for rituals was part of a wider problem where thousands of minors are brought to the UK, who end up being child prostitutes or being sexually exploited. The CRC advise...

Israeli Politician’s Comments Calling For Killing of Mothers of Palestinians Trigger International Backlash The situation in Israel and Palestine continues to grow worse on both sides. First you had the savage murder of three Israeli teens. Then you had the retaliation burning of a Palestinian teenager. Now protests are erupting all over Israel and the world on both sides. Some of the coverage is focusing on statements made by Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Shaked on Facebook that day before three Israeli men went out and picked up Muhammad Abu Khdeir, 16, at random and burned him alive. Shaked’s post calls Palestinians “little snakes” and declares that “the entire Palestinian people is the enemy.” Now comments by Israeli Knesset member Ayelet Shaked has caused an international outcry including   contributing to a continuing rift with Turkey . Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has denounced the remarks and denounced Israel in an analogy to the Nazi regime. The ...

    Bible Skeptics on the Rise The American Bible Society recently found a rise in the percentage of Americans who view the Bible skeptically, according to its Annual State of the Bible report. Since 2011, the percentage of those who believe that the Bible is "just another book of teachings written by men that contains stories and advice" has risen from 10 percent to 19 percent of those surveyed. The report, conducted by  Barna Group , details Americans' beliefs about the Bible, its role in society, its presence in U.S. homes and other information about the best-selling book of all time. "With four years of data from American Bible Society's State of the Bible research, we are now able to see trends in attitudes about and behaviors around the Bible," said Roy Peterson, president and CEO of American Bible Society. "The increasing polarization in attitudes about the Bible has implications for us as a nation and for our churches and families....

If you’re a typical family, you’re considerably poorer than you used to be. No wonder the “recovery” feels like a recession. A  new study published by the Russell Sage foundation helps explain why many families feel like they’re falling behind: They actually are. The study, which measures the average wealth of U.S. households by income level, reveals a startling decline in wealth nationwide. The median household in 2013 had a net worth of just $56,335 -- 43% lower than the median wealth level right before the recession began in 2007, and 36% lower than a decade ago. “There are very few signs of significant recovery from the losses in wealth suffered by American families during the Great Recession,” the study concludes. Wealth generally comes from two types of assets: financial holdings and real estate. Financial assets have more than recovered ground lost during the recession, thanks largely to a stock-market rally now in its sixth year. The S&P 500 index, for in...