The OPOL Report: Free at last!

Hallelujah! Albert Woodfox is free!

Albert Woodfox released from jail after 43 years in solitary confinement US’s longest-standing solitary confinement prisoner set free in Louisiana after more than four decades in form of captivity widely denounced as torture

Albert Woodfox, the longest-standing solitary confinement prisoner in the US, held in isolation in a six-by-nine-foot cell almost continuously for 43 years, has been released from a Louisiana jail.

Woodfox, who was kept in solitary following the 1972 murder of a prison guard for which he has always professed his innocence, marked his 69th birthday on Friday by being released from West Feliciana parish detention center. It was a bittersweet birthday present: the prisoner finally escaped a form of captivity that has widely been denounced as torture, and that has deprived him of all meaningful human contact for more than four decades.

For the duration of that time, Woodfox was held in the cell for 23 hours a day. In the single remaining hour, he was allowed out of the cell to go to the “exercise yard” – a small area of fenced concrete – but was shackled and kept alone there as well.

Last November James Dennis, a judge with the federal fifth circuit appeals court, described the conditions of Woodfox’s confinement. “For the vast majority of his life, Woodfox has spent nearly every waking hour in a cramped cell in crushing solitude without a valid conviction,” he said.

In a statement released by his lawyers, Woodfox said that he would use his newfound liberty to campaign against the scourge of solitary confinement that at any one moment sees 80,000 American prisoners being held in isolation. “I can now direct all my efforts to ending the barbarous use of solitary confinement and will continue my work on that issue here in the free world.” 

In other news, millennials want free stuff:

CHELSEA CLINTON MAKES $900,000 FOR DOING ALMOST NOTHING

A feature of oligarchy is the dynastic ascension of new leaders, children who rise to positions of power and wealth simply by the luck of birth. We welcome Chelsea Clinton to the club.

Earning $445 Per Second at NBC

Unlike most well-to-do young people who, after a decent education, take a series of unpaid internships and entry-level positions to begin working their way up some corporate ladder, Chelsea jumped more than a few rungs. Despite never having attended journalism school or otherwise having worked in the field, Chelsea was hired by NBC News to do feel-good stories as part of their “Making a Difference” series. Though the starting salary for such positions is already a chunky $100,000-200,000, Chelsea is being paid $600,000 a year for the same work.

Or less work. Here is a list of Chelsea’s recent NBC stories:

— June 10, NBC Nightly News, on diabetes. — June 10, Today show, on a car accident in New Jersey. — June 5, NBC Nightly News, General Motors safety scandal. — June 4, Today show, missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. — June 4, NBC Nightly News, about people pointing lasers at aircraft. — June 3, NBC Nightly News, food-borne illnesses. — June 2, Interviewed the Geico gecko, an animated character who sells insurance.

All told, in her almost three-year tenure at NBC, Chelsea has worked on all of 14 stories.

Business Insider calculated since starting work in November 2011, Chelsea earned about $26,724 for each minute she appeared on air, or $445 per second. As in one-two-three = $1335, there’s your month’s rent.

NBC has an eye for talent, at least the talent of children of important politicians. In 2009, it hired George W. Bush’s daughter Jenna to serve as a correspondent on the Today” show. In 2011, it hired Senator John McCain’s daughter Meghan as a contributor on MSNBC.

Read more about the fabulous life of a child of the oligarchy

Speaking of Clintons, you might enjoy this:

Mike Malloy: The Clinton Agenda Is Bullshit x YouTube Video

Thanks for that, Mike. Well said, brother.

Bernie Sanders Rides High Favorability To Crushing Every GOP Candidate In New Poll

By Jason Easley on Thu, Feb 18th, 2016 at 11:02 am

Democratic presidential candidate leads in every potential matchup with Republicans in the new Quinnipiac University poll.

Yep, it's true, that old electabilty argument got turned on its head.

There's nothing like a democratic insurrection to bring out the authoritarians and the fascists. Who would have ever thought that the democratic party would come to hate democracy?

Lobbyist Superdelegates Tip Nomination Toward Hillary Clinton

Lobbyists are not only staffing and financing Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, they’re also tipping the nomination process in her favor by serving as so-called superdelegates to the Democratic National Convention.

Bernie Sanders won the New Hampshire Democratic primary by more than 22 percentage points and by doing so, earned 15 delegates to Clinton’s 9. So it came as a shock to many observers when Clinton, despite losing the second biggest rout in state history, walked away with the same number of delegates.

That’s because Clinton had the support of six New Hampshire unpledged delegates — better known as superdelegates — consisting of prominent elected officials and members of the Democratic National Committee, who have the same power as the delegates chosen by voters. An Associated Press survey found that superdelegates nationally overwhelmingly supported Clinton.

And our pal, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, tells us exactly why we need superdelegates - to foil democracy (and those nasty grassroots activists):

Un-Democratic Party: DNC chair says superdelegates ensure elites don’t have to run “against grassroots activists” Critics say the unelected superdelegate system is rigged. Debbie Wasserman Schultz basically admitted this is true

Thasss despicable!

Yep, superdelegates are about the establishment cheating democracy. At this point, we’ve been cheated to within an inch of our lives. We need to throw the cheaters out.

It’s not just the Democratic party that doesn’t give a shit what we think, it’s the entire political class. It’s time to clean fucking house!

Have you ever felt like the government doesn’t really care what you think?

Professors Martin Gilens (Princeton University) and Benjamin I. Page (Northwestern University) looked at more than 20 years worth of data to answer a simple question: Does the government represent the people?

Their study took data from nearly 2000 public opinion surveys and compared it to the policies that ended up becoming law. In other words, they compared what the public wanted to what the government actually did. What they found was extremely unsettling: The opinions of 90% of Americans have essentially no impact at all.

This video gives a quick rundown of their findings — it all boils down to one simple graph:

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Now, if nothing else about Hillary gives you pause, this should:

The Next Act of the Neocons Are Neocons Getting Ready to Ally With Hillary Clinton?

AFTER nearly a decade in the political wilderness, the neoconservative movement is back, using the turmoil in Iraq and Ukraine to claim that it is President Obama, not the movement’s interventionist foreign policy that dominated early George W. Bush-era Washington, that bears responsibility for the current round of global crises.

Even as they castigate Mr. Obama, the neocons may be preparing a more brazen feat: aligning themselves with Hillary Rodham Clinton and her nascent presidential campaign, in a bid to return to the driver’s seat of American foreign policy.

Yep, neocons and Hillary. It's for real. Srsly. Fkn neocons.

How fucked up is that?

People keep demanding to know how Bernie is going to achieve his goals in the face of a hostile, do-nothing Congress. The answer is those ratbastards have got to go!

How do you magically do that, people want to know.

The answer is hiding in plain sight. Nearly half of eligible voters never vote. Non-voters are sometimes characterized as low-information types, but let's consider why else people might not be voting.

They don't feel represented – people are more discerning than we may think. It's hard to get the victims of a scam to voluntarily participate.

Politicians aren't doing anything for us. They're just holding us at bay. Obama characterized his job as standing between the bankers and the pitchforks. This has become the game. Change nothing, hold the rabble at bay.

Bernie's plan hinges on the American people finally rising up. If they do, anything is possible, if not, we're back at square one to stagnate and devolve as the empire crumbles around us and the climate goes to hell.

There are huge opportunities opening up for real progressives (for a damned change). This is the grassroots part of the revolution. By the time Bernie takes office we’ll be the biggest mass movement this country has ever seen. I’ll be writing about it. It’s gonna be YUUUUGE! The rise of the Berniecrats! It’s a new day in America. Yes we fkn can!

Grass Roots for Sanders 2016Donate to Berniecrats HERE!Bernie’s Army Is Running for Congress

Bernie Sanders’s political revolution is predicated in part on mobilizing the public to change the direction of the country. Naysayers carp, and not without reason, that this is impossible, with Republicans having a lock on the gerrymandered Congress for the near future. But to change that state of affairs, you need Sanders Democrats—progressive leaders willing to compete for marginal seats and battle from inside the Capitol Building.

The army is out there. This past week, I interviewed three candidates for Congress, all running in seats currently held by Republicans, who have endorsed Bernie Sanders. They may not all win­—some might not even represent the Democrats in the general election—but they exemplify a new energy in the party, expressing pride in liberal ideas instead of fleeing from them, ready to work the levers of the system to achieve progress wherever possible. The greatest gift Sanders—the longtime independent—has given to the Democratic Party is to inspire a progressive revolution from within.

DAVID DAYEN

There is a wave of new Berniecrats on the rise. Our own Angela Marx, and many others around the country. AGuyFromCarolina has an excellent diary on this here: Here's Bernie's Revolution: Introducing “Sanders Democrats”

Yep, this revolution is for real.

So let’s get busy supporting Bernie’s army.

Step 1, we take the White House. Step 2, we take congress.

All around America, smart people are waking up to a stark realization. 

Robert Reich: Bernie is our only hope for real political change If the goal is to end big money's chokehold on our democracy, then the choice this election is no choice at all

Cool new Bernie ad made by fans:

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