The Guardian has the article Sandra Bland’s death in police custody puts spotlight on Texas jail standards.

Last week the Sheriff’s office said in a statement: “All plastic trash liners have been removed from all cells in the Waller County Jail, pending further direction from the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The two deficiencies noted by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards… are being corrected and all inmates are monitored hourly for face-to-face observation.”

Apparently you don’t have to be an expert to know that large trash liners do not belong in jail cells. See my previous post Why the large, hang yourself garbage bag?

There are more jail videos that have been made available. The Guardian article leads to a video of Sandra Bland’s booking. I have not been able to view some of the other videos that claim to have been posted. The one you can view on The Guardian web site is in the article More Sandra Bland jail footage released by Texas authorities.

Judge says move is partially in response to conspiracy theories about her death

Footage shows Bland arriving, being questioned and having mugshot taken

Yes, of course the judge is going to choose to show you the videos that seem to refute the charges against the authorities. If there are videos incriminating the authorities, you can be pretty sure that they would not choose to show you those. Until a truly independent agency is allowed to view all the unedited videos, the few that are released prove almost nothing.

This email from DFA (Democracy For America) is a terrific statement about how to react to the message of the protesters at Netroots Nation 2015 Convention.

Great YouTube video, Gov’t Sells Sacred Native Land To Foreign Mining Company!

Apparently the US Government hasn’t historically taken enough from the Native Americans. So John McCain and friends decided to step it up and sell some Apache sacred ground. The way they defend the theft is priceless. (If you think this is important, please share)

From Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp

This may or may not be NSFW

It is just amazing how oligarchs and corrupt politicians can justify taking advantage of people. Make them an offer they can’t refuse, and then tout how they accepted your offer.

This YouTube video is titled Seriously, vote for Bernie Sanders.

There is a lot of wisdom in this video if you can stand just a few harsh words.

Warning: NSFW – Not Safe For Work viewing.

The Daily Kos has a post Australian comedian tries to make sense of American gun laws—nailed it! featuring the video below.

Comedian Jim Jeffries tackled one of the most controversial subjects in the U.S. gun control laws.

Jeffries was once the victim of a home invasion in which he was tied up and beaten with his girlfriend, who was also threatened with rape. You’d think he’d have some cause for carrying a gun, no? Wrong! He brilliantly nails why Americans need to make a case for more gun control.

Warning: NSFW – Not Safe For Work

Apparently The Daily Kos published the blog post, From Yesterday’s NYT: Sandra Bland Prosecutor Inadvertenly Shows His Cards on Friday, July 24.

Why the “paper of record” failed to note the completely obvious factual misstatement by the DA regarding the time it takes for trace marijuana to leave the system is confounding but hardly surprising these days. The propensity for MJ to hang in the bloodstream for much longer than other drugs is general knowledge, not something on the cutting edge of medical science that has yet to be determined for crissake.

I left the comment titled Why the large, hang yourself garbage bag?

Why did the Sheriff’s department deploy a garbage bag in her cell that was big enough to hang herself with? What did they expect her to have with her in her cell that would have filled up such a large receptacle on a daily basis?

Do they place such bags in all cells, or just the ones where the detainee needs to be hanged?

Where is the video of all the traffic by her cell for the three days she was held? Who is saving these records for safe keeping?

Where are the “journalists” asking these questions? Where are the public and the politicians asking these questions of the authorities, the US “justice” department, and the “journalists”?

We just cannot let them get away with this, this time.

If you want to help my comment stand out among the 429 other comments, you can add your own reply to it.

Bernie Sanders’ web site has the transcript of Remarks by Senator Sanders at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His vision for this country is one we should all want to achieve. He closed his speech with the following paragraphs:

I believe the time has come to say loudly and clearly: enough is enough. This great nation and its government belong to all of the people, and not to a handful of billionaires, their Super-PACs and their lobbyists.

​Now is not the time for thinking small. Now is not the time for the same-old, same-old establishment politics and stale inside-the-beltway ideas.

Now is the time for millions of working families – black and white, Latino and Native American, gay and straight – to come together, to revitalize American democracy, to end the collapse of the American middle class and to make certain that our children and grandchildren are able to enjoy a quality of life that brings them health, prosperity, security and joy – and that once again makes the United States the leader in the world in the fight for economic and social justice, for environmental sanity and for a world of peace.

America striving to be a “leader in the world in the fight for economic and social justice, for environmental sanity and for a world of peace” is something that inspires. Being first in military power or economic might is not very inspirational as far as I am concerned. There is something to be said for making the world a better place for everyone, not just for me and my family.

MSNBC has the article Racially fraught legacy where Sandra Bland died.

But the story of the public’s mistrust goes beyond personal details of Bland’s life and further back in time than when the circumstances of her untimely death began with a routine traffic stop. Appealing to a community skeptical of the official account of Bland’s death as a suicide, Waller County District Attorney Elton Mathis acknowledged this week the root behind palpable lack of trust behind the investigation.

Not only skeptical about the authorities there in Texas, but also about all the “journalists” who write about this story.

I have a few questions about this incident that I have not seen answered in any of the stories. Admittedly, I have not read all the stories.

What was Bland doing in jail three days after the minor traffic infraction? I think I recall reading that she had a high bail that she could not meet. I think the sum was $5,000. Who was it that set a bail of $5,000 for a minor traffic infraction? What does this person have to say about setting that bail? Who was the public defender who represented Bland at the bail hearing? Was there a public defender? Where are the videos of the three days she was held captive? What was her treatment like? Why would a jail use a large trash receptacle in a jail cell that would use a trash bag so large that it could be used for suicide? This is not the first prisoner who ever used such a trash bag to commit “suicide”. Why wasn’t the sheriff’s office more aware of this history? Or were they completely aware of this history? Who are all the people that Bland came in contact with after she was arrested? What contacts was Bland allowed to make to help her seek her freedom? What was she told that would make her situation look so hopeless to her that she might commit suicide?

Aren’t there any reporters who are interested in asking these questions? If they have asked these questions, but have been stonewalled, wouldn’t they want to report this very fact? Where are the editors of news outlets who wonder why these questions have not been asked? Where is the public who should be outraged that these questions have not been asked, and answered? Where are the Presidential candidates who want to know these answers?

Slate has the article Why a Fight in Massachusetts Over Kindergarten Funding Is Getting Ugly.

State Sen. Eric Lesser, a Democrat from Longmeadow, told me he has received more calls about the kindergarten budget cuts than any other item vetoed. “These were grants that were aimed at enhancing kindergarten access in high-poverty urban areas,” Lesser said. In the city of Springfield alone, he said, “It would represent as much as a million dollars in cuts and require significant layoffs of teachers and paraprofessionals who help so much in the early years.”

Did the people in Massachusetts who chose Charlie Baker to be our governor know what they were getting? I find it hard to imagine that they didn’t know, and I find it hard to imagine what they were thinking.