#Maximillian Alvarez

[theoutcastrogue]

The John Oliver segment on solitary confinement. Which is torture. See also this video from the Real News Network, where "Mansa Musa, who spent 48 years in prison, talks about what John Oliver’s recent Last Week Tonight segment on solitary confinement gets right and what it leaves out, including the fact that solitary was used to isolate Black Panthers and other radicals entering the prison system in the ’70s."

"When I got locked up and I went into Maryland Penitentiary in ’73, they had what they called the hole, and the hole would have been consistent with the concept of solitary or isolation, because they basically had made about four or five cells and they would isolate people in them that they deemed to be unruly. But overall, you had punitive segregation, which was you stayed locked in your cell, but you was in an environment where you had access to people, you could talk to the person in the cell next to you.

But when solitary confinement reemerged, when they started locking up radical elements, the Black Panthers, the Weathermen, Puerto Rican nationalists, anybody who was fighting, anybody who was antiestablishment, anybody who would stand up for human rights and self-determination, that’s when it became a tool, a mechanism to suppress that. This massive prison population exists and in its existence it creates a threat. The threat being the potential for organization, and organizing to combat and fight fascism, racism."

— Mansa Musa

"John Oliver and his team of writers talk about the reemergence of solitary in the 1980s, coinciding with the explosion of the prison population. So we’re entering the age of mass incarceration, more people are coming into the prisons, and the way that they explain it is that there’s overcrowding, there’s fighting, and then solitary emerges as this punitive weapon to try to get this prison population under control.

But what you’ve added to the conversation is that, you, like our dearly departed brother Eddie Conway, like so many other radicals that we’ve talked to on this show, knew they were targeted for solitary confinement because they are these radical elements coming in, they’re going to organize, they’re going to talk to other inmates, they’re going to build and develop that revolutionary consciousness.

So for a prison warden, they’re like, “Well, we don’t want that, so let’s just isolate these guys.” That was a really crucial additional context to the John Oliver segment. I just wanted to clarify for folks watching and listening, like you said, before solitary really became the weapon of choice in the prison system, there were other proto mechanisms for isolating, proto solitary confinement mechanisms."

"Albert Woodfox, another lifelong activist and Black Panther, was incarcerated after being wrongfully imprisoned for over 40 years, spent over 44 years in solitary confinement in Angola, was released I believe in 2016, and died only a few years after that. Just the thought of 44 years in solitary confinement breaks my brain a bit."

— Maximillian Alvarez

[berniesrevolution]

The Real News Network

by Maximillian Alverez

The train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio catapulted the degraded condition of the US’s freight rail network into national consciousness. But workers have been sounding the alarm for years. Long hours, short staffs, poor sick leave, and dangerously extended trains have raised the risks inherent in railroad operations for workers and the public in order to fatten the profit margins of corporate rail carriers. While the Department of Transportation has called for stricter regulation in the wake of East Palestine and other recent disasters, rank-and-file workers say it’s not enough. The problem is not simply one of inadequate regulation, but the power of private, profit-driven interests to shape what is ultimately public infrastructure. 

Thus comes the call to nationalize the railroads. But how might this be accomplished, and how effectively can it solve the problems plaguing the rail system today? Journalist and professor Kari Lyderson and former Railroad Workers United General Secretary Ron Kaminkow join TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez to discuss current issues in the US rail system, and the potential solutions nationalization could offer.

[plethoraworldatlas]

Immigrants helped build this country, a fact no amount of racism or xenophobia can erase. Immigrants, including children, work in fields and factories, driving our economy. A group of immigrant men were working late last Tuesday night, filling potholes on Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.

At 1:27 am, the Dali, a massive cargo vessel, 948-feet long and laden with roughly 4,700 shipping containers, lost power and rammed into the bridge, causing it to collapse. Two survived the disaster, six died. Only two of their bodies have been recovered from the cold, murky water of the Patapsco River.

Their tragic deaths occurred as increased immigrant arrivals are being exploited by former President Donald Trump and his right-wing extremist allies to foment division and to boost Trump’s presidential campaign. Just hours after the bridge collapse, FoxNews host Maria Bartiromo, interviewing Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott, attempted to link the maritime disaster to immigrants at the U.S.’ southern border:

“I want to understand the threats or the potential threats that this country is facing right now given the wide open border, the fact that we don’t know who is in the country. The FBI is looking… to ensure there was no foul play.”

“While we’re being talked about as like this invading horde that’s coming to destroy the country, what does this story actually show us? That immigrants are filling our potholes at night so that we can have a smooth drive to work in the morning.”

This is the same dog-whistle racism that Trump invoked in 2015, launching his first campaign: “When Mexico sends its people…They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.” Trump continues his white supremacist ranting, saying at a recent Ohio campaign rally, “I don’t know if you call them people… These are animals and we have to stop it.”

Maximillian Alvarez, editor-in-chief of the Baltimore-based Real News Network, interviewed coworkers of the deceased. He said on the Democracy Now! news hour, “While we’re being talked about as like this invading horde that’s coming to destroy the country, what does this story actually show us? That immigrants are filling our potholes at night so that we can have a smooth drive to work in the morning.”

The six who died while working on the Key Bridge were hardworking men, from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador.

Miguel Luna was a welder, a 49-year-old father and grandfather, a native of the Usulután Department in El Salvador, ravaged by the U.S.-backed Salvadoran military and paramilitaries in the 1980s. He played on the professional soccer team in the town of Berlin in his home region. His widow, Maria del Carmen, owns a food truck. Miguel was a beloved member of his community.

Miguel and another victim of the collapse, Maynor Suazo Sandoval, were members of CASA, an immigrant rights non-profit founded in 1986 to build solidarity with those impacted by the U.S.-backed violence in Central America. CASA wrote, “Maynor migrated from Honduras over 17 years ago, and he alongside his brother Carlos were active members in the activist committee of Owings Mills… Carlos said ‘He was always so full of joy, and brought so much humor to our family.’ He was a husband, and father of two.”

Details are still emerging of the other named victims, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Mexico and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Guatemala. Their bodies were found inside a pickup truck, submerged in the river. Two more victims, also reportedly from Mexico and Guatemala, remain unnamed by their respective governments.

Details are still emerging of the other named victims, Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Mexico and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Guatemala. Their bodies were found inside a pickup truck, submerged in the river. Two more victims, also reportedly from Mexico and Guatemala, remain unnamed by their respective governments.

Millions of enslaved people also built this country, a point worth remembering as we mourn the immigrant laborers on the Key Bridge. The bridge was named after Francis Scott Key since, while watching the British navy bombard Fort McHenry in 1814, not far from where the bridge was built in the 1970s, Key wrote the poem that would become the national anthem. His poem has four stanzas, the first made famous as “The Star Spangled Banner.” Key was a slave owner, and denounced those who fled enslavement in 1814 to fight against the United States, for the British, who promised them freedom in return.

“No refuge could save the hireling and slave, From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave,” Key wrote in his poem, words left out of the national anthem, but which nevertheless noticeably rhyme with “Land of the free and home of the brave.” This should be considered by those tasked with naming the replacement bridge.

The lives of Miguel and the five other workers have been cut short, but the hatred of immigrants, sadly, is alive, well and growing this election year. Pledges from President Joe Biden to quickly open Baltimore’s port to commerce parallel campaign rhetoric on both sides to “shut down” the southern border to people seeking asylum.

“Immigrants like Miguel are building bridges to connect communities, not building walls to divide them,” CASA wrote, eulogizing Miguel Luna. Let those words inspire an embrace of immigrant communities, an anthem we can all rally around.

[sataniccapitalist]

Amazon fired him for union organizing—1.5 years later, he's still fighting to hold them accountable

Back in August of 2022, we spoke with Matt Littrell, a picker at the Amazon warehouse in Campbellsville, Kentucky, and one of the lead organizers in an effort to unionize Amazon facilities in Kentucky. When we spoke with Matt, Amazon had just fired him in suspected retaliation for his organizing activities, citing "performance" issues. Since then, Matt has been dragged through a Kafka-esque legal process to hold Amazon, the second largest private employer in the US, accountable for violating workers' rights. In this episode of Working People, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez checks back in with Matt to discuss recent developments in that process, including reaching a settlement with Amazon, which the National Labor Relations Board is now challenging, leaving Matt in legal limbo.

Matt's LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/UnionizeAmazonKY

[ironverseocs]

New Gods • (original universe by @alexander-alec-lightwood) My OCs + Hogwarts Houses

forever tag list: @arrthurpendragon @foxesandmagic @ocappreciationtag @ochub / dm or send me an ask if you’d like to be added :)

character full names and godhood under the cut:

Hufflepuff

Maximillian Aubert & Julian Garcia-Alvarez New Lugh & New Neptune

Ravenclaw

Philberta “Philly” Mertons & Eleonore “Nora” Frisk New Daeira & New Ptah

Gryffindor

Finneas & Isaiah Thomas Old Loki & New Cupid

Slytherin

Martin Vasco “Marco” Amundson & Keely Gabiera New Hermes & New Honos

[alanshemper]

O'Brien is in hot water as rank-and-file Teamsters speak out against his appearance at the Republican National Convention this week. The International Brotherhood of the Teamsters President was the sole union president to make an appearance at the RNC, and the audience's tepid reception to his anti-corporate message might help explain why he was the only union man around. Rank-and-file members have attacked O'Brien's appearance as undemocratic, harmful to union members of color and LGBTQ Teamsters, and politically unproductive. Longtime Teamsters organizer John Palmer sits down with TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez to discuss the speech, and why the union deserves better.

[immaculatasknight]

Exposing the lies

[bobguz]

Haiti's real crisis isn't gangs—it's foreign occupation w/Jafrik Ayiti

The drumbeat of intervention is rolling once again for Haiti. Since last year, plans have been laid for a US-sponsored intervention in Haiti, nominally led by Kenya, ostensibly in the name of fighting "gang violence" in the Caribbean nation. While corporate media has breathlessly pushed the narrative of a lawless Haiti overrun by criminal organizations, such framing deliberately excludes the role of the US and its allies in the so-called Core Group in destabilizing Haiti over the past 20 years in particular—not to mention the past two centuries since Haiti's independence. Quebec-based activist Jafrik Ayiti joins The Real News to help set the record straight on Haiti's history, and how the social disorder splattered across the front pages of Western media outlets has been manufactured by the very governments now calling for intervention. Studio Production: Maximillian Alvarez Post-Production: Alina Nehlich

[christinamac1]

Could Israel’s War in Gaza Spiral Into a Regional War?

Since the early days of this war, the conflict has not been contained to Gaza. Is a regional conflict with Iran, Hezbollah, and other actors on the horizon? SCHEERPOST, By Maximillian Alvarez and Chris Hedges / The Real News Network 12 Jan 24 Over three months into Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, there is little hope the carnage will stop anytime soon—and with each passing day, the danger…

[allthestorieshavebeentold]

🌊Welcome🌊

Hello! My name is Sin, welcome to my blog. I’d like to use it to write fanfic, poetry, or just anything I want really. Let me know if you have character requests, I’ll list some characters below that I’d write for.

Leon Kennedy (Resident Evil)

Johnny Silverhand (Cyberpunk 2077)

Vicktor Vektor (Cyberpunk 2077)

River Ward (Cyberpunk 2077)

Panama Palmer (Cyberpunk 2077)

Judy Alvarez (Cyberpunk 2077)

Jackie Welles (Cyberpunk 2077)

Billy Hargrove (Stranger Things)

Steve Harrington (Stranger Things)

Nancy Wheeler (Stranger Things)

Johnathon Byers ((Stranger Things)

Finnick Odair (Hunger Games)

Peeta Mellark (Hunger Games)

Katniss Everdeen (Hunger Games)

Johanna Mason (Hunger Games)

Arthur Pendragon (BBC Merlin)

Gwaine (BBC Merlin)

Merlin (BBC Merlin)

Percival (BBC Merlin)

Lancelot (BBC Merlin)

Morgana (BBC Merlin)

Elyan (BBC Merlin)

Mordred (BBC Merlin)

Guinevere (BBC Merlin)

Felix Millstone (The Outerworlds)

Parvati Holcomb (The Outerworlds)

Ellie Fenhill (The Outerworlds)

Vicar Maximillian De Soto (The Outerworlds)

Nyoka Ramnarim (The Outerworlds)

Shiro (Voltron)

Keith (Voltron)

Lance (Voltron)

Hunk (Voltron)

Pidge (Voltron)

Matt (Voltron)

Cat Brannock (Aurora Rising)

Tyler Jones (Aurora Rising

Scarlet Jones (Aurora Rising)

Finnian De Seel (Aurora Rising)

Kaliis Gilwraeth (Aurora Rising)

Aurora O Malley (Aurora Rising)

Zila Madran (Aurora Rising)

[theoutcastrogue]

But the most debilitating time of the year for prisoners is the holiday seasons because that’s the memories that they bring into the prison system from their childhood: The happy times, the good food, the grandma’s cooking, the presents, the interacting with families. All that’s taken away, and it’s taken away and it’s not replaced with anything. There’s no packages. Used to be Christmas packages, you could get stuff. There’s no special events during the holiday season because the guards are taking off their vacations and so on. So, most of the time you are locked in the cell, and so you don’t even get to talk to your family on a regular basis on the telephone. And the depression is so intense throughout the whole area that it creates a sense of doom. Everybody’s sad. People that can get high are getting high. People that can get drunk, get drunk because they can make… jump study or whatever. People that have no recourse at all might go out and run the yard, or might do calisthenics all day. But the absence of relief that you get during the holidays with the family and friends and all that stuff, it’s so intense that every little incident is exacerbated. I’m angry. I’m mad. And so, it’s the transfer of hostility and it’s transferred because the oppression of the prison system doesn’t allow you to speak out and say we want this or we want that or so on. And so, we transfer it to each other. You bumped into me. Watch where you’re going. [...]

Reach out in any kind of way you can. Send a card, send a letter. If it’s an email system, email. Send money for the commissary. Send books. You can definitely send pictures. You have to go through some process. But try to reach out and make as many contacts as possible with your loved one. Encourage the family members to do the same thing. Every little bit helps. Every little bit lightens that burden of the massive depression that holiday seasons bring in the prison system. And you will hopefully bring somebody home that’s less damaged than the prison system intended to make them.

[constitutionaladvocate]

Antifascism beyond Antifa w/Shane Burley and Maximillian Alvarez | The M...

bill of rights news

[agreenroad]

Abby Martin: How the media manufactures ‘bloodlust’ for war - YouTube

Abby Martin: How the media manufactures ‘bloodlust’ for war – YouTube

https://youtu.be/XUVxdM5giKE From the moment Russian troops invaded Ukraine the entire corporate media apparatus in the US moved to 24-7 coverage, filling airwaves with talking heads relentlessly beating the drums of war. TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with longtime journalist and activist Abby Martin about how the media’s manufactured “bloodlust” for war makes us all less safe…

[st-just]

I wouldn’t exactly call this a coping mechanism; it pretty much always makes me feel worse. It helps me “put things in perspective,” sure, but that’s kind of the problem. People who urge it on you don’t ever tell you this, but perspective can be a horrifying thing.

Maximillian Alvarez