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In his statement on Tuesday, President Obama said that, “The American people refuse to be terrorized.” Detailing the various ways in which the people of Boston moved quickly to aid the injured, the president said, “If you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil—that’s it. Selflessly. Compassionately. Unafraid.”

This is an admirable sentiment, and quite true in many respects. But it’s not the complete picture. Our actions, the actions of a government that acts in our name and with our consent, showed quite clearly that, after 9/11, the American people were terrorized. And the fact that our government is still unable or unwilling to fully confront its adoption of torture, and hold accountable those responsible, is evidence that we still are.

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— Matt Duss, Torture Report

buzzfeed:

Eerie Images Of Boston On Lockdown

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Like far too many Americans, Debbie Marler of South Point, Ohio has her own foreclosure horror story. It involves one house, seven fraudulent mortgage assignments, three foreclosures, as many states, and five years. It ruined her career prospects, threatened her retirement security, and turned her life into what she calls “a living nightmare.”

One woman’s nightmarish odyssey through the system that was supposed to help get her back on her feet.

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100percentmen:

It just bears repeating. 

oy. Your Tumblr to follow today.

kateoplis: THE SAUDI MARATHON MAN | The New Yorker →

kateoplis:

“A twenty-year-old man who had been watching the Boston Marathon had his body torn into by the force of a bomb. He wasn’t alone; a hundred and seventy-six people were injured and three were killed. But he was the only one who, while in the hospital being treated for his wounds, had his apartment…

A must read. 

A History of Terrorism on U.S. Soil →

Since the invention of dynamite in 1867, ideological radicals on both the left and right have used the awful spectacle of explosives to draw attention to political causes, to protest policy, and to inspire fear. Although the means and methods of such attacks have changed dramatically, there have been few more jarring images of this country’s social and political upheaval than those left in the wake of an exploded bomb.

Five Lessons from the Gosnell Abortion-Clinic Controversy →

The Gosnell case certainly represents a failure by the state of Pennsylvania to protect women. Enacting more regulations that make safe, pre-viability abortions more scarce would be precisely the wrong lesson to take from it, and would mean more Gosnells, not fewer. Making abortion safe, legal, and accessible for all women is more important than ever.

On Guns, "Better than Nothing" Doesn't Cut It →

Our government is designed to act slowly, and perfect compromises often leave a bitter taste of defeat in both parties’ mouths, but the thousands more who will die before the year is out don’t have time for Congress to surf the lowest common denominator.

"And I bet you never saw a 105-year-old blonde before. I decided to be a blonde this morning. Whatever the occasion is I dress up for it … If I see September, I’ll be 106 … I want to go to a nightclub and everything."

— Alyce Dixon, who everyone wants to be when they grow up.

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It’s conceivable that the mainstream Democratic left could strike out on its own—building a political movement that is willing to take on centrists in primary fights, to refuse to support the Party’s grand bargains that undercut working people and to take the risk of sitting out elections where there is little distinction between the candidates of different parties. In short, a strategy that forces the Party to act in the interests of the majority it claims to represent.

But that requires that progressives abandon the hope that the future will fall into their laps if they are just patient and follow their leaders. If you believe that, you would have believed the sign that hung for years in the window of a tavern in the neighborhood where I grew up: “Free Beer, Tomorrow.”