HBO DOCUMENTARY
It is a hole, an abyss, that entombs and gradually devours the mind, soul, and spirit — solitary confinement in an American prison.
The images and sounds of this concrete hell are omnipresent: shackles, screams, cursing, cameras, somber guards, cold cement, the clanging of steel doors, rage banging its head against small glass portals, angry fists rapidly banging on metal, guards doing clipboard checks and counts and inmates pacing relentlessly in minuscule cells like wild animals.
A new HBO documentary: Solitary – Red Onion State Prison, a supermax facility in Virginia that houses the worst of the worse, captures the sights and sounds.
It does so without the fanfare, bells, and whistles or scared-straight manuscripts or music. It is plain and simple. Straight up about what happens to people inside these solitary confinement cells and those who guard them.
It’s worth watching, keeping in mind the victims of hardcore criminals who were terrorized, tortured, maimed or killed.
The Digie Zone Express
A friend, former co-worker and fellow Journalist Diane Valdez Washington will interview moi about journalism for an article for her website The Digie Zone Express – thedigiezone.com. She also a blog: www.dianawashingtonvaldez.blogspot.com (online memoir).
I have known Diane since 1982. She is soft spoken but is a fearless investigative reporter. Diane wrote a book about The Killing Fields: Harvest of Women.
The book exposes the Mexican killing fields that claimed the lives of hundreds of women at the Juarez, Mexico border. Diane’s intrepid reporting unraveled high-level corruption, a drug cartel running amok and many other things.
A movie starring Jennifer Lopez and Antonio Banderas was made based on the book.
While investigating and doing research for the book, Diane was threatened by people in Mexico who weren’t happy that she was poking her nose around and asking tough questions about these female victims.
To buy her book click here: Harvest of Women.
My Recent Posts on News Stories
Recent news stories and the comments I posted:
HEADLINES: Flynn Is Said to Have Talked to Russians About Sanctions Before Trump Took Office — Washington Post.
Just Saying: This involves a man accused of compromising national security and undermining the U.S. government.
Fire him and launch a criminal investigation.
According to the timetable about what happened, Putin talked to Flynn and didn’t retaliate, as he promised, after Obama kicked out Russian spies and diplomats from U.S.
The facts showed that Putin favored Trump and meddled and sabotaged American elections.
Flynn advised Putin not to retaliate against U.S., indicating that Trump would lift economic sanctions against Russia.
Americans, especially the democrat politicians, should demand to know whether Trump knew anything about Flynn’s meeting with Putin. They should be relentless in making Trump’s tax returns public. The returns would map out if there are any ties with Russian billionaires and if so, how much Trump owes them?
This is about national security, and Trump, who is mentally unstable, is not beyond compromising America’s secrets for his own benefit and profit.
Trump has trashed and made vulgar and crass remarks about foreign leaders and allies and about actors, actresses, and many others. But he has yet to criticized America’s biggest nemesis, Putin, about Syria and Ukraine.
Trump represents a clear and present danger to the United States.
HEADLINES: Senators From Both Parties Move To Prevent Trump From Lifting Russia Sanctions – Huffington Post:
Just Saying: The Russian economy is in trouble. Lifting the economic sanctions will strengthen it. It will also strengthen the Russian military, increase the declining popularity of Putin and raising Russian threats to Norway and Ukraine where tensions are high. In Ukraine, there are Russian incursions into that country, reports of bombings. U.S. Marines are now in Norway. U.S. troops have never been in Norway since World War II and it has to do with Russia’s growing military threat.
Trump wants to lift the sanctions because he sees business opportunities opening for him and his billionaire friends, especially those in the oil industry. Trump will put his family and friends and financial interests above the interests and concerns of America, the country’s national security and the free world safety.
Putin should withdraw its troops from Syria and Crimea and stop threatening its neighbors before the economic sanctions are lifted.
This is an opinion piece published in December in the New York Times about Russia’s economy by Sergei Guriev is the chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in London.
https://www.nytimes.com/…/in-russia-its-not-the-economy…
RUSSIAN DISSIDENT’S WARNING ABOUT PUTIN
PUBLISHED JAN. 17, 2017
PUBLISHED FEB. 2, 2017
Garry Kasparov: ‘Putin’s main philosophy is confrontation’