By Dave Zirin - February 19, 2013

...[T]here is little to admire about Michael Jordan at 50. If anything, the more you learn, the more you recoil. We all know the story of the pro athlete who ends up bankrupt. But what happens to the athlete who gains the world yet still stews in a state of perpetual dissatisfaction? This is Jordan. He’s no longer the smiling, gravity-defying movie star from Space Jam. Instead, he’s more like the glowering recluse from Citizen Kane.

By Marcus Day - 19 February 2013

Nearly 50 prisoners launched a hunger strike on February 4 at Pontiac Correctional Center, a maximum-security prison in central Illinois. As of February 16, almost two weeks later, some 25 inmates remained on the strike...The protest comes in the midst of increased overcrowding and growing violent confrontations.

By Patricia J. Williams - February 18, 2013

Drugs are ubiquitous in this country, and yet we know that some people have the privilege of doctor-prescribed intoxication, while others are thrown into dungeons for seeking the same relief. We know that the war on drugs is heavily inflected with Jim Crow–ism, economic inequality, gun culture myths and political opportunism...We divert resources from mental health or rehab, and allocate millions to militarize schools...The result: the war on drugs has metastasized into a war on children.

Extrajudicial killing is official US policy. Drone wars normalize it. Obama decides who lives or dies. He appointed himself judge, jury and executioner.

By DAN SIEGEL - February 15-17, 2013

Oakland’s community is in turmoil over crime and policing. A sharp increase in robberies, burglaries, and homicides has the public, especially middle class home owners, demanding solutions. Community activists, particularly young African Americans, Latinos, and their allies, continue to oppose police tactics that target them regardless of criminal activity.

America's no democracy. It wasn't established to be one. It never was and isn't now.

By Katha Pollitt - February 16, 2013

If the president can order the killing of American citizens abroad should he decide they are involved with Al Qaeda, can he assassinate suspected Al Qaeda-connected US citizens in London or Berlin? What about a suspect’s teenage son, a junior in a Canadian boarding school? If he can drop hellfire missiles on a house in northwestern Pakistan because he believes a terrorist cell is meeting inside, could he blow up a motel in Florida where supposed terrorists are staying and chalk up any dead vacationers as “collateral damage”?

Michael Ruppert is a former LAPD cop. He knows its dark side well. He witnessed it firsthand.

Author and longtime activist Nancy Kurshan’s new book, entitled Out of Control: A Fifteen Year Battle Against Control Unit Prisons, has just been released by the Freedom Archives. Kurshan’s book documents the work of The Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML), which she co-founded in 1985 as a response to the lockdown at the federal prison in Marion, Illinois. It quickly turned into a broader campaign against control unit prisons and human rights violations in US prisons that lasted fifteen years, until 2000.

By Yves Engler - February 15th, 2013

Alongside one of this country’s biggest corporations, Stephen Harper’s government has entangled Canada in one of the most controversial decisions of Obama’s presidency. The Conservatives have lobbied vigorously in support of Calgary-based TransCanada’s plan to build a $7 billion pipeline to take up to 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast.

By Malcolm X Grassroots Movement - February 15, 2013

As many historians and commentators have pointed out since the release of Dorner’s manifesto, the Los Angeles Police Department is a notoriously racist institution. The Ramparts Division scandal of the late 1990’s is one recent reminder of how racist and corrupt the institution is, and to what extent the judiciary and other branches and institutions of the US government support its actions.

By Laura Gottesdiener - AlterNet

They say that religion is the opiate of the masses, but it seems that the opiates of the religious are anti-depressants...Some states have startlingly medicated populations.

By Dave Zirin - February 13, 2013

[Royce] White has been battling the [Houston] Rockets over how they would deal with issues surrounding his mental health. The first-round draft-pick has an anxiety disorder that affects how he handles everything from flying to practices. He has made it clear amidst an avalanche of criticism that his mental health is more important than his contract or career. Throughout this difficult fall, White has become a crusader for change...

Obama's State of the Union address didn't surprise. It reflected rogue leadership. It was beginning-to-end demagogic boilerplate. Defending the indefensible took center stage. Rhetoric substituted for progressive policies. Bombast assured business as usual.

Obama's annual State of the Union addresses reflect beginning-to-end doublespeak duplicity. Empty rhetoric signals business as usual.