The Fact of Sisyphus

Barrett Brown, whose column received the 2016 National Magazine Award for columns and commentary, is an imprisoned U.S. journalist and the founder of Project PM, a crowd-sourced investigation into the cyber-industrial complex. In 2012, the FBI raided his house, and later that year Barrett was indicted on 12 federal charges relating to the 2011 Stratfor hack. The most controversial charge, linking to the hacked data, was dropped, but in 2015 Brown was sentenced to 63 months in prison. For more information about his case, and to contribute to his legal defense fund, please visit the Free Barrett website. If you’d like to send him a book, here’s his Amazon wish list. Brown's ebook, Keep Rootin' for Putin is available as a free download. Barrett Brown #45047-177 FCI Three Rivers Federal Correctional Institution P.O. Box 4200 Three Rivers, TX 78071 https://freebarrettbrown.org/ https://twitter.com/@FreeBarrett_ https://theintercept.com/2016/07/09/barrett-brown-the-fact-of-sisyphus/ Barrett Brown 2016-07-09T11:45:01+00:00 Partly as a consequence of my natural rambunctiousness, I’ve spent a total of five months over the past few years of incarceration being held in 23- to 24-hour-a-day Special Housing Unit confinement cells, collectively and informally known as “the hole,” at three different prisons and in stints ranging from six to 60 days; indeed, my first three Intercept columns were composed from the SHU over at Federal Correctional Institution Fort Worth. But as these were given over largely to rambling self-promotion and some rather intemperate attacks on several contemporary novelists, I’ve never gotten around to providing a real sense of what it’s actually like to live in one of these federal dungeons. The chief thing to keep in mind is that dungeons vary. The most fundamental division lies between those in which inmates are kept singly in cells along a corridor set off from the rest of the prison and purposefully denied human contact to one extent or another, and those in which two prisoners are kept together in such cells, usually with a window or metalwork grill on the door through which inmates can communicate with others in their corridor via the age-old medium of shouting. The first — known as solitary confinement to everyone but prison officials, who’ve gradually replaced the term with an assortment of euphemisms — is often conflated in the public mind with the second, lesser-known setup, but at any rate the nature of one’s detention is such that human contact is either intentionally and elaborately absent or haphazardly and excruciatingly omnipresent. Even within these two categories, one finds a great deal of variation from institution to institution, but day-to-day SHU life at FCI Fort Worth should make for a useful baseline. There, a weekday begins at 6 a.m. when the lights in one’s cell come on. A few minutes later the rectangular slot in one’s door is unlocked and a guard pushes in a plastic tray containing breakfast along with a couple of little plastic bags of milk. It’s rather dehumanizing, this matter of having to drink milk out of bags like a common Canadian, but getting breakfast in bed every day makes up for it. Fifteen minutes later the guard comes back and takes up the trays, and then one of his colleagues will walk down the hall jotting down the names of those who want to go outside for one’s permitted daily hour of weekday recreation. Having compiled the list, the guard goes back to his station and tries to arrange things such that incompatible inmates aren’t placed together in the same recreation cage. This sort of reminds me of the old riddle about the farmer who has a fox and a rooster and a bag of corn but can only take one at a time across the river in his boat and the fox will eat the rooster and the rooster will eat the corn if either pair is left together unattended (the solution, incidentally, is to shoot the fox, because it’s a fox). If you are indeed going to rec that morning, the guard opens the hatch and you back up to it and put your hands through to be handcuffed, and then your cellmate does likewise regardless of whether or not he’s going out as well, as the door isn’t ever supposed to be opened until both occupants are cuffed. When the door does open, you walk out backward before being patted down and scanned with a hand-held metal detector, led out to the courtyard, placed in one of several large cages with your scientifically designated playmate, and then uncuffed through the slot in the gate. After an hour of kicking around a deflated basketball while yelling old Symbionese Liberation Army slogans at the other prisoners, you’re cuffed back up through the gate slot and returned to your cell. A bit later we get lunch, and then dinner a few hours afterward, followed by mail. Three days a week we’re cuffed up and taken to the other end of the hall for showers. On weekends we generally don’t leave our cells at all. It’s a schedule that leaves prisoners with a great deal of free time, much of which tends to be spent in sleep or exercise. The chief workout routine in the SHU, as well as in jail units and other locales where even improvised equipment can be hard to drum up, is something called burpies, which entails an alternating series of push-ups, squats, and leg thrusts and which I refer to as Berbers because “burpies” is vulgar. Not that I do them anyway, or any other exercise, and I’ve never approved of excessive sleeping, either, for life is not meant to be spent in rest, but rather in conflict or preparation for future conflict. barbed_3 There is one common SHU activity in which I do happily participate, though, simply because it’s something that can’t be done elsewhere and naturally I’m trying to experience all the touristy prison things before my release just in case I don’t come back for a while. The SHU is the only place of which I’m aware where it’s socially acceptable to yell random nonsense where other people can hear it. Now, much of the yelling that people do through gaps under the door or the crack between the door and its mounting or the metal grills that serve as windows in some units, as the case may be, is entirely purposeful communication consisting of gossip, plots, threats, lyrics, Symbionese Liberation Army slogans, vows, requests, and commercial offers, and this sort of thing will go on throughout the day, with peak times occurring after meals and other periods when everyone tends to be awake (as to how those commercial offers are accepted, there is a process known as “fishing” or “shooting the line” by which small items may be transferred among inmates, but a full column’s description will be required to do it justice; suffice it to say that string and persistence are involved). But in addition to all of this more or less mundane intercourse, there’s also a wholly distinct and inimitable element of shouting-for-the-sake-of-shouting. Some of this takes the form of memes; at Seagoville Federal Detention Center, for instance, the guards once brought in a drunk off the compound who, after being placed in his cell, spent the next hour banging on the door and yelling out some sloshy, inconsequential narrative that he would punctuate every few sentences with the refrain, “They hear me but they don’t FEEL me, though!” Thereafter this phrase became a very popular meme that would be shouted out several times a day; it had been incorporated into the vibrant oral culture of our particular SHU corridor. But SHU shouts can be, and often are, more or less apropos of nothing. I myself was fond of drinking six or seven lukewarm cups of the freeze-dried instant coffee we can buy from the weekly commissary cart, going up to the door grill, and calling out in a raspy, feminine voice, “My brother is coming … with MANY FREMEN WARRIORS” about 20 or 30 times in a row, often capped off with a triumphant, “Meet the Atreides Gom Jabbar, grandfather!” And it wouldn’t occur to anyone to inquire as to why I’d done this; people in the SHU wake up every morning with a sort of preternatural awareness that someone could start yelling out lines from David Lynch’s highly underrated 1984 film version of Dune at any moment and will either assume that the yeller needed to do this to feel self-actualized or, alternatively, that he’s one of the untold thousands of mentally ill prisoners whom U.S. prison authorities have allowed to languish in punishment cells for years on end (though in my case, people tended to recognize me by voice as the guy who was always kicking around the deflated basketball and calling for death to the fascist insect that preys on the life of the people). Aside from sleeping, screaming, and exercising, there’s also reading. Federal SHUs generally have book carts that are rolled up the hallway once a week; inmates crouch next to their door slots to view the selections and point to what they want. Prison book carts are always exciting, tending to be largely composed of donations from ancient rural branch libraries that have just given up and closed down or whatever, such that one can always expect to find a stray gem or hilarious oddity. On one occasion I grabbed an award-winning 1962 volume on Jefferson by Dumas Malone in which the claim that the third president engaged in a sexual relationship with the slave Sally Hemings is dismissed as “wholly unwarranted.” But my best find to date remains the early ’80s sci-fi novel I came across a couple of years back in which the U.S. has fallen under a dystopian theocracy after having rather unwisely elected a Mormon president. Fortunately, SHU inmates are allowed to receive books through the mail from commercial retailers just as we can in the prison itself, with the only difference being that we can’t get hardcover books lest we use them to make shanks. When the editors at The Intercept sent me a hardback copy of the new Jonathan Franzen tome Purity last year, I was only given it after a guard tore off the cover. This was a rather upsetting thing to have witnessed, though halfway through the narrative I was kind of wishing he’d finished the job. I try to keep a copy of something by Hegel with me at all times as well, not so much with the intent of reading it straight through, but rather as a means by which to play a little game I’ve invented called Shut the Fuck Up, Hegel, You Fucking Fraud. What you do is, you flip to a random page in any volume of Hegel’s works and look for the inevitable instance of hyper-oracular nonsense, such as this line I just randomly came across from page 129 of Lectures on the Philosophy of History: The spread of Indian culture is prehistorical, for history is limited to that which makes for an essential epoch in the development of spirit. On the whole, the diffusion of Indian culture is only a dumb, deedless expansion, that is, without a political act. The people of India have achieved no foreign conquests, but have been on every occasion vanquished themselves. Then you write in the margin, “Shut the fuck up, Hegel, you fucking fraud.” And from page 51: What spirit really strives for is the realization of its own concept; but in so doing it hides that goal from its own vision; it is proud and quite enjoys itself in this alienation from itself. “Whatever, douche.” Indeed, to live in the hole is to be thrust into a world in which everything must be repurposed and all possibilities pursued. One day I decided to compose a list of unnecessary people throughout history and had jotted down Ezra Pound, the Emperor Aurangzeb, Carlos Mencia, Charles IV, and Gary Bauer when it became clear that I’d cast my net too wide, at which point I abandoned the project. Instead I tried to decide which city I’d destroy if I had the chance, other than Houston. I eventually decided on Singapore, which I feel has been setting a bad example for the other cities. SHU time is a time for remembrance. I thought of all the strange and interesting people I’d met throughout my incarceration, such as the fellow who would conclude all of his assertions with the phrase, “Even a small child knows that.” Among the things a small child knows, it seems, is that sentences handed down for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamines tend to be much harsher in Texas than in California and that a particular guard who works the morning shift is kind of a dick sometimes but not always. There was also the guy who feted me with coffee and candy bars during a weeklong transit stop at a local jail, at one point showing me the program from his father’s funeral a few years prior; the cover bore a photo of a man dressed all in yellow, right down to his cape and top hat, and who apparently went only by the name Yellow Shoes. As noted in the program text, Yellow Shoes was survived by well over 30 children. His father had been a famous East Dallas pimp, my friend explained, somewhat unnecessarily. Now he himself had been indicted as a drug dealer when in fact he was a pimp like his father before him, something he planned to explain to the judge at the first opportunity. Frankly, I’d say he had a strong case. Finally, SHU inmates also spend some variable portion of each day reflecting on the astonishing degree of injustice they’ve had the chance to observe, as well as cultivating a healthy contempt for the system that perpetrates that injustice and the society that continues to permit it. Some months ago I asked The Intercept to file a Freedom of Information Act request with the Bureau of Prisons in pursuit of all records pertaining to yours truly in hopes of documenting further instances of government misconduct to add to my collection. Recently the BOP provided us with 175 pages, all of which we’ve posted online — including the fully one-third that the BOP has completely redacted. Tellingly, some clear and potentially criminal wrongdoing actually crops up even among those pages that the agency has not gone so far as to completely blank out, as we’ll see in a moment. First, let’s get the vital statistics from Ben Brieschke of the BOP’s notoriously shady South Central Regional Office, who prepared the cover letter: After a careful review, we determined 89 pages are appropriate for release in full; 28 pages are appropriate for release in part; and, [sic] 58 pages must be withheld in their entirety. Most of these redactions are being justified under two FOIA exemptions, one of which is intended for those files or portions thereof “which would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions,” with the other pertaining to those bits of information “which could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or personal safety of an individual.” This latter consideration certainly sounds serious, and one can get a sense of the peril to which BOP staff are forever subject by the fact that first names are blocked out with the “(b)(7)(F)” box throughout these documents, lest they be tracked down by violent ex-prisoners or what have you. One can likewise get a sense that even the BOP doesn’t buy its own bullshit in this regard by the fact that it has failed to block out the first name of a member of the BOP’s Special Investigative Services (SIS) security division, and in another document has left in the typed-out first, last, and middle names of some dozen other officers and staff, an act of negligence that — what was that phrase again? — “could reasonably be expected to endanger the life or personal safety” of the individuals it itself has just fully identified, if we take the BOP’s own word for it (though in my infinite benevolence, I’ve asked The Intercept to block out the names in question, for all men know of my great regard for the comfort and well-being of American law enforcement officials). Of course, the reality is that despite these names having sat on the internet for weeks before I came across the regional office’s slip in my paper copies and had them redacted, no one has been endangered by the BOP’s incompetence here, as the (b)(7)(F) exemption is less a necessary security measure than it is a convenient smokescreen by which to cover up its own misconduct. And at many institutions, employees tend to be less wary of inmates than they are of the administration itself; when medical staff at several BOP prisons spoke to USA Today earlier this year about the bureau’s despicable tendency to regularly use them as prison guards rather than, say, having them work full-time providing the medical care that’s already in short supply, all of those coming forward chose to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation. Speaking of retaliation, have a look at this inmate progress report prepared by two Fort Worth staff at the end of August 2015 in which I am commended for my “good sanitation” and continued FRP payments (the monthly restitution I’ve been ordered to pay to my corporate “victims”). Elsewhere it’s noted that I’m “currently participating in the GED program” (until recently the BOP refused to acknowledge that, in addition to my good sanitation, I’m also a high school graduate; as a result I had to sign up for high school equivalency classes). And here are the signatures of the staff members in question, S. Vanderlinden and M. Gutierrez, along with my own, perhaps not terribly impressive signature. Now take a look at this other document composed 12 days later, after I’d been thrown in the hole again, and signed by the very same two staff members, which I was never supposed to see. Now it seems that I’ve shown “poor institutional adjustment,” “poor program participation,” and even “poor living skills” — true enough if we’re talking about signature design — and thus must be moved to a medium security prison immediately. This would be my new favorite illustration of the casual criminality that has long marked the BOP’s operational culture had I not also acquired this other, even more extraordinary specimen — the latest response from the BOP regarding the Administrative Remedy complaint I filed over a year ago regarding the retaliatory seizure of my email access, the first of a string of bizarre incidents at Fort Worth that would culminate in the confiscation of my notebook outside the law library. As I’ve noted before, the Prison Litigation Reform Act of 1986 — passed during a period in which U.S. domestic policy was being determined largely on the basis of questionable anecdotes — requires that inmates who wish to sue the BOP and its employees first complete an arcane and multilayered regimen of paperwork to the satisfaction of the BOP and its employees. Inmates who find that the process itself is being violated by the BOP and its employees are free to file another complaint for review by the BOP and its employees. Astonishingly, this process is not always free from abuse by the BOP and its employees. When we last checked in on my own complaint about my email access having been seized by BOP Washington liaison Terrance Moore an hour after I’d used it to alert a journalist to BOP misconduct, the regional office had rather despicably claimed that my appeal had been late, even though it clearly hadn’t, as the failure by the warden’s executive assistant Jerry McKinney to respond to my BP-9 form within 20 days of the day he logged it in, as well as his failure to request the 20-day extension to his own deadline until well after his first deadline had passed, as well as his failure to meet even that extended deadline, allowed me to consider this a rejection at the institutional level and freed me to proceed to the regional level, as is noted in the BOP’s own policy guidelines — except that I couldn’t, because, as I’ve also documented via forms signed and dated by McKinney himself, McKinney failed to return the original documents to me for another month despite messages I sent over the internal staff notification system requesting that he do so. Finally he brought me back a triply late and thus invalid rejection — even handing it to me nine days after the date it was signed, as is again documented by his own dating and signature. The regional counsels know this fully well, and also know that just a few days later I was placed in the SHU and thereafter shipped to Oklahoma for processing and then to my current prison, where I filed my regional appeal as soon as I received the box containing my legal papers. They know this because, as I learned recently when I complained that the BOP was now apparently violating the law by holding some of my mail for nearly two weeks, I’m on some ultra-rare and secretive classification known as “Inmates of Greatest Concern,” which requires that everything I do be monitored and scrutinized for the benefit of some unspecified outside agency. Nonetheless, the region rejected my appeal due to it being “untimely,” made an inappropriate request that I obtain “staff verification” that this wasn’t my fault from staff at a prison I am accusing of systematic retaliation and whom I have no means of contacting since I’m no longer housed there, and demanded that my appeal be reduced to a single typewritten page and resubmitted, all within 15 days of the date of this rejection, which just happened to be 15 days prior to my receipt of it. Thus I’d been given zero days to comply, including mail time. I documented the entirety of this in a column months ago and wrote back to the region’s legal counsel, explaining in detail why his requests were impossible. Several weeks later I received another rejection notice in which the counsel ignores my explanations and maintains that I missed the deadline, although he himself seems confused as to when that deadline actually was since he lists it as having fallen on two different dates. And just so I understand that the zero days thing wasn’t a mistake, the rejection notice is dated December 4 — and they’d delayed mailing it to me such that it didn’t even arrive at the warden’s office until December 29. This time, then, I’d been given negative 10 days to comply. My email access was finally reinstated several months ago by the security staff at my current prison, who immediately determined that there was no legitimate reason why I shouldn’t have it; my continued pursuit of this process is intended to force an admission of wrongdoing from the BOP as well as to illustrate how it actually operates. This, after all, is the only procedure by which my 200,000 fellow federal inmates are able to protect the last human rights remaining to them, whether they’ve been subject to ongoing retaliation, or they’ve been kept in the hole for years on end contrary to law and all decency, or they’ve been beaten while in handcuffs, or they’ve been denied basic medical care — all issues that have been encountered by people I’ve known and interviewed over the past few years. Here’s a list of grievances logged in at Fort Worth in 2014 and 2015, which we’ve obtained via another FOIA request; keep in mind that for every complaint filed, there are dozens of incidents that go undocumented because veteran inmates are aware of the near impossibility of getting heard by the court under a system that can be violated without consequences. Imagine spending a year in the hole due to a mistake, trying all the while to get a court to order your release, and getting back a demand that you include two extra copies of a document and that you do this six days ago. This sort of thing happens regularly, throughout the system, although the problem appears to be particularly systematic in this regional district. The truly disturbing part is not that this happens in the first place, but rather that it will likely continue happening despite now having been fully documented. For it is not just the prisons that are broken, but the media as well. To help illustrate the manner in which the press has become largely incapable of performing its necessary watchdog role even when large parts of its job are done for it, and how certain parties have managed to benefit from this state of affairs, next time we’ll discuss why it is that I happen to be in prison. We’ll also talk about a man named Peter Thiel. As it happens, these subjects are very much intertwined. Quote of the Day: “At the very outset we have the antithesis between the goal of the state as the abstract generality on the one hand, and the abstract person on the other; but when subsequently, in the course of history, personality gains the ascendant, its breakup into atoms can only be held together externally; then the subjective power of rule comes forward as if summoned to fulfill this task. For abstract legality is this; not to be concrete from within, not to have organization from within; and this, having come to power, has only an arbitrary power as contingent subjectivity as what moves it, as what rules it; and the individual seeks in the developed private law solace for his lost freedom. This the purely secular reconciliation of the antithesis.” — Fucking Hegel Drawing by Paul Davis. Fee donated to Barrett Brown’s legal defense fund. 49 Comments Threads Latest William St. George July 10 2016, 5:37 a.m. The Hegel quotes, especially the last one, are extremely reminiscent of the sort of thing a university student might write having taken a Benzedrine tablet the previous night before a test in the Philosophy of History — obviously a mistake as witness the incoherence of the types of thoughts resulting. So what might Hegel have been taking. I do not think even in the original German the last quote could really be said to have any meaning but rather pieces of meaning stuck together by a beleaguered mind. Great piece of writing by B. Brown. Eventually fitting all this together in a book will be wise. Another Soul On Ice or Soul On Computer Chip. ↪ Reply AtheistInChief July 10 2016, 3:34 a.m. We’ll also talk about a man named Peter Thiel. I can’t wait. — Fucking Hegel ↪ Reply Rick July 10 2016, 1:14 a.m. Fucking brilliant. Hang on. ↪ Reply Yes July 10 2016, 1:00 a.m. You’re brilliant, Barrett. Stay strong. You deserve so much better than your current situation and I hope that it will change for the better as soon as possible. ↪ Reply cwradio July 9 2016, 9:21 p.m. I always enjoy your posts, Barrett; they’re good for at least 5-6 belly laughs. I’m glad you’ve kept your sense of humor in a system that has run aground against its Peter Principle. Corrections by insects! ↪ Reply altohone July 9 2016, 7:34 p.m. Always entertaining and enlightening BB. A few questions came to mind- How was the $890.000 or so in restitution calculated? I saw no mention in the documents, nor whether it was being collected for disbursement to the “victims” or kept by the state. I’d appreciate it if anybody has a link… or perhaps BB will cover it in the forthcoming piece he alluded to this round? Why are they redacting publicly accessible news articles? How is it that cursive is used by guards on these forms? Is printing or at least legibility not a consideration? How is that nobody else in the SHU is familiar with Dune? I never understood the “grandfather” thing though… anybody? Thanks. ↪ Reply nfjtakfa ↪ altohone July 9 2016, 8:35 p.m. She was talking to her grandfather on her mother’s side at the time. Baron Vladimir Harkonnen was Lady Jessica’s actual father under the secret Bene Gesserit breeding program, and so Alia Atreides was his the evil Baron’s granddaughter – just as her brother Paul, the Kwisatz Haderach, was his grandson. ↪ Reply altohone ↪ nfjtakfa July 9 2016, 10:45 p.m. I should have expected that to be the question that gets answered. Not that I don’t appreciate the reply. OK, so why the big stink about Jessica only having daughters so the two families could finally be brought together? The grandfather thing seemingly makes that redundant… but also explains the unexpected success of the breeding program. It’s been 30 years or so since I read the book… maybe I should pick it up again. The movie made no prior references to these facts. Maybe it was too hard to suspend disbelief that the Baron could spawn a beauty like Jessica. But grandchildren marrying each other makes Herbert a bit more twisted than I remember. ↪ Reply photosymbiosis ↪ altohone July 9 2016, 11:15 p.m. “But grandchildren marrying each other makes Herbert a bit more twisted than I remember.” That’s just the modern perspective; it was pretty common in the era of divine kings and queens – they didn’t want to pollute the royal blood with that of commoners, so keeping it all in the family was not unusual, accounting for the relatively high rate of inherited genetic disorders in various royal dynasties. https://owlcation.com/humanities/The-Habsburg-Jaw-And-Other-Royal-Inbreeding... Other good Frank Herbert quotes: “I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” (Dune) “We are plagued by a corrupt polity which promotes unlawful and/or immoral behavior. Public interest has no practical significance in everyday behavior among the ruling factions. The real problems of our world are not being confronted by those in power. In the guise of public service, they use whatever comes to hand for personal gain. They are insane with and for power.” (Dosadi Experiment) ↪ Reply nfjtakfa ↪ altohone July 9 2016, 11:26 p.m. It was never about just bringing any two families together in particular so much as the Bene Gesserit were always trying to produce a truly prescient male (that they could control) as a main goal of their breeding program. By producing a son a generation or two earlier than they wanted (for her Duke Leto Atreides) it meant they weren’t yet prepared, it wasn’t at the time and place of their choosing and they would never control him. Back-story: The Reverend-Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam blackmailed The Baron, who didn’t like women sexually, into their breeding program and he was so angry he raped her violently. She in turn used her Bene Gesserit abilities during the rape to get some revenge of her own and infect him with the disease that then plagued him for decades, making him grossly fat with ugly sores everywhere. (book “House Harkonnen,” I believe) In the original Dune, the Baron only learned of his grandchildren as a died at Alia’s hand from her personal Gom Jabbar. Jessica and the BeneGesserit never told him Jessica was his daughter with Helen Mohiam. And Alia was, after all, a Reverend Mother with access to “other voices” (ancestors, mostly previous Reverend Mothers) from before she was born, as Jessica went through the water of life transformation while pregnant, making Alia what they called an abomination. She knew from her ancestral voices within what he didn’t, and informed him of it as he died. Some of this back-story was filled in years later in a series of many books written by Frank Herbert’s son Brian together with Kevin J. Anderson. They’ve written some 14 books in the Dune Universe filling in the complete back story of the Butlerian Jihad and the Great Houses with prelude, including the Machine Universe of Omnius and Erasmus – and even series far into the future of Frank’s original Dune. Um, I guess I’ve sort of read them all – for decades now. They’re in fact still at it with a couple more already in the works according to Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Herbert ↪ Reply photosymbiosis ↪ nfjtakfa July 10 2016, 12:51 a.m. Please, the Brian Herbert books are awful, awful, awful! One of the most pathetic efforts to flog a parent’s name into a literary cash payoff ever seen. Utter garbage, bottom of the barrel scrapings. Frank Herbert had a real grasp of how dictatorships and empires rise and fall, and he wove in ecology and history in a unique way. That drivel produced by his son is embarrassingly bad in contrast. ↪ Reply nfjtakfa ↪ photosymbiosis July 10 2016, 2:58 a.m. Some weren’t that great, but some weren’t nearly as bad as some of Frank’s own efforts either. Especially in my younger years I devoured fantasy / sci-fi realms as a form of escape, although less so for that reason the last decade so much as author chasing. For instance, for a year or three in the ’08 – ’10 time frame I couldn’t get enough of R.A. Salvatore and read most everything he ever wrote. When I read for entertainment or escape it’s never about construct so much as storytelling and being taken elsewhere, like with good music – if the storytelling transports you places that can be enough. And please yourself, btw, I never recommended the books or made any claims about them whatsoever. But I’ll tell you this, I’ve never read a single Brian Herbert / Kevin J. Anderson book of the Dune universe as bad as Dune Messiah, which I read the year it was released, by Frank Herbert himself. ↪ Reply altohone ↪ nfjtakfa July 10 2016, 4:54 a.m. Well, I was specifically referring to the dialogue in the movie where Jessica was berated… I skipped the quotation marks due to uncertainty about the precise wording, but the gist is accurate… bringing the two families together part. I’m sure the movie isn’t true to the book, but your response suggests the dialog in the movie was actually false, and that is surprising. ↪ Reply photosymbiosis July 9 2016, 7:06 p.m. Thanks for the inside view of the federal prison complex, it’s very enlightening. My immediate inclination was to compare-and-contrast the above report with the Russian prison complex as described in Don’t Trust Dont’ Fear Don’t Beg, by Ben Stewart. I don’t think I’d like either one much, although the Soviet system seems to have more opportunities for cell-to-cell communication via the sock relay system – doroga. On the other hand, the quality of the food in Russian prisons seems much lower: http://www.alternativesjournal.ca/community/reviews/dont-trust-dont-fear-don... Here’s how the Greenpeace detainees were welcomed by the other prisoners – an educational note: The best of day and time to you, all arrestees! Here is hoping this note finds you in good health and strong of mood. Here is the deal. There is us and there is them, there are thieves and there are stars. The stars have stars on their shoulder plates, and those, dear friends, are the guards. Then there is us, we are the arrestees. We are the thieves. Now, the doroga is most important, it keeps us as one, together, in solidarity. It is what keeps us alive. If there is anything you need, you will have it. All you need do is ask. You will not sell or buy things, no, you are expected to give. If you have something, you give it. If you need it something, it will be given to you. If you want to be a part of the doroga, you are welcome to join our community of ropes, you will be supported, you will be given what you need. If however you are afraid to be a part of the road, we understand, and you will still be given support. But do not interfere with the doroga. If you interfere with the road, you will be punished, you will no longer be one of us, you will be one of them. You will no longer be a thief. You become a star. Here’s another nice feature of the Russian prison complex: “You are not permitted to be rude. Hard cursing is not allowed against another prisoner. One is permitted to say, “I hate this fucking shit” but you can’t say “Fuck you.” You will treat other arrestees with respect. Hilarious, Russian prisoners treat each other more politely than many TI commentators do. Funny isn’t it? But then, those who engage in such tactics are most likely “stars”, I’d say, out to disrupt conversations – although when you have to share a cell with people, it’s probably wiser to be polite. Food for thought? Here’s another interesting feature of the Russian prison complex, one that could be imported to the United States: Below that there’s another category. Former employees of law enforcement agencies. Cops. Prosecutors. There are a lot of them in prison, there’s lots of crime that goes on in that sector of society. Bribery, murder, everything. And they end up here. They have their own cells as well. They keep themselves to themselves, otherwise they tend to get killed. One of the reasons killer cops and dishonest prosecutors and dirty federal agents from outfits like the FBI and DEA and ATF tend to avoid prison time is that judges worry about their fate in prison; they’d be hated by everyone. However, if you set up segregated prison units for such people, the justice system might be more willing to throw them in jail. Great idea, isn’t it? Works for the Russians, apparently. Here’s some more good advice: “Don’t trust anybody in a uniform,” says Vitaly. “The more faith you put in the authorities, the more it hurts when they screw you over. To trust the police is to disrespect yourself. And don’t fear because whatever you’re scared of, you can’t stop it happening. What will be will be. Your fear changes nothing, but it hurts you, so let it go. And don’t beg because it never works. Nobody ever begged their way out of SIZO-1, so don’t sacrifice your dignity on a false promise. There’s no point being nice to the guards, the investigator, the prosecutor or the judge. Your pleading only makes them despise you more.” All in all, It seems like the U.S. federal prison complex is the more Stalinist one, with all the solitary confinement games and efforts to prevent prisoners from developing support networks and obsessive fears along those lines; in addition the U.S. won’t put crooked members of the justice system in jail, while the Russians do. Again, thanks for the report from the inside. ↪ Reply Stuart Meade July 9 2016, 7:05 p.m. Thx for the good read Barrett and for getting the systemic nonsense meant to silence and bury prisoners in the system and protect the BOP from the law, out there. One question for a future column? Does this ‘stonewall’ extend to those attempting to get review of their convictions? ↪ Reply Lana July 9 2016, 6:55 p.m. Love to you Barrett. Thanks for documenting the outrageously unjust processes suffered by incarcerated persons & sorry you are going through this. Totally with you on both Franzen and Hegel. You might enjoy the very straightforward “Listen Little Man” by Wilhelm Reich, just a thought. ?? ↪ Reply Lana ↪ Lana July 9 2016, 6:57 p.m. Those question marks were supposed to be a smiley face, what a mystery ↪ Reply br'er rabbit July 9 2016, 6:35 p.m. Love the Hegel bits . . imagine the translator. I’d suggest “Jung’s seminar on Nietzsche’s Zarathustra” next but don’t want to destroy your angst. Look forward to your next dispatch. ↪ Reply Wnt July 9 2016, 4:48 p.m. Barrett Brown’s verbal flyswatter led me in a few steps to http://search.freedomarchives.org/search.php?view_collection=344 , a collection of the mimeographed newsletters of the “above-ground support group of the SLA”, and truly a wonderful resource for the budding historians around here. (Apparently the group would be much easier to understand if one or more of the people reporting about it in media would try) Alas, I don’t know if there’s any way he could read it. ↪ Reply Baldie McEagle July 9 2016, 3:09 p.m. Barrett had better be careful. Next time they will give him negative TWENTY days to comply. The bureaucrats are inhuman but, thankfully, they prefer round numbers that can easily be recorded. ↪ Reply Brian T July 9 2016, 2:13 p.m. Wonderful writing, Barrette. You are our new Hunter S. And though many do not realize it, we desperately need your artful pros in our lives. Not to mention your important work reviewing books. ↪ Reply Si1ver1ock July 9 2016, 2:06 p.m. I agree, Hegel is a bit of a chew. Instead, we should send Mr. Brown the collected books of Carlos Castaneda. Start with The Active Side of Infinity and read backwards. In solidarity with Mr. Brown , I shall reread the book Camp Concentratin by Thomas Disch. Louis Sacchetti is a poet and pacifist imprisoned for refusing to enlist in the war against Third World guerillas. Sacchetti and the other inmates are used in perverse scientific experiments, and Sacchetti is infected with a germ that raises intelligence to incredible heights while causing decay and death. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/553907.Camp_Concentration ↪ Reply Nate July 9 2016, 1:51 p.m. Poor Barrett. Thrown in the hole for refusing orders, drinking toilet hooch, and taking morphine. A real victim. ↪ Reply Brian T ↪ Nate July 9 2016, 2:06 p.m. “They hear me but they don’t FEEL me, though!” ↪ Reply John Kelly ↪ Nate July 9 2016, 4:17 p.m. Poor Nate, throws in his petty and sadistic little jabs, not realizing that he seems like an execrable little TWAT by comparison with the brilliant and hilariously anti-authoritarian human being he is attempting to smear. The poor Nate. It must feel very small. ↪ Reply Nate ↪ John Kelly July 9 2016, 8:31 p.m. How are they petty and jabs when he’s the one publishing them for all to see. At least I read them! You should as well, they give you a much better idea of what happens. Here’s some other facts from his file, some of which are just the full quotations that he referenced in his article: * “Mr. Brown has maintained poor institutional adjustment since his arrival at this facility on February 25, 2015. He has received two Greatest severity level Incident Reports.” * “His security level increased as a result of poor program participation, poor living skills, and three Incident reports.” * Barrett has paid less than one percent of his restitution. * When busted on opiate use, stated: “I am guilty, I did it.” Sanctions included 90-day loss of phone, email, commissary (ouch), visits (man, that’s harsh), and 30 days in the hole. “Inmate Brown…displayed a poor attitude during this investigation.” Barrett’s characterization of taking the morphine pill: “I’m afraid I’m back in the hold after failing my latest ‘random’ drug test which tested positive for one of the little morphine pills that people sell here. I know it was stupid of me, so it’s not necessary for everyone to explain that to me again. Please keep in mind that I’m an untreated substance abuser living in a ??? with literally a thousand drug dealers… * Two months before this, Barrett was placed in the hole for alcohol use. An officer searched “Brown’s locker and found a coffee mug full of homemade intoxicants” which “tested .400 with the Alco-sensor IV” (potent!!) When the officer questioned Brown if he was intoxicated he responded. “No, but have you?” (LOL). “He bought it from the hooch distributor within the unit.” “At his hearing he stated “I’m guilty.” This time “he displayed a fair attitude during the investigation.” * So to put this in a timeline, Barrett got sent to the hole for alcohol in June 2015. He got out in July 2015. One month later he was back in the hole for drugs. * Despite his abuse issues and comments about being untreated, his August 2015 Progress report says “Mr. Brown declined interest in the Residential Drug Abuse Program. He has not participated in any drug education programs.” The next review indicates he has to “enroll and complete the 100-hour drug abuse program within 12 months. Remain incident free until next review.” ↪ Reply Sillyputty ↪ Nate July 9 2016, 7:11 p.m. Dammit, Nate. I thought you were better than that. I was reserving Barret’s fantastically creative Hegel line for CraigSummers, but: “Shut the fuck up, Nate, you fucking fraud.” ↪ Reply Karl ↪ Nate July 9 2016, 7:56 p.m. Hey Nate, don’t let the rabble get you down. I suspect that Mr. Brown would rather have one honest response to this self-deprecating conveyance of his Sisyphean misadventures than a hundred obsequious reflections whose feigned sympathies utterly fail to reflect even a rudimentary understanding of the author’s comical madness as he attempts to reconcile his unfailing propensity for self-aggrandizing craftiness and deceitfulness in a penal system that is designed to view such behavior as being antithetical to its unyielding intention of frustrating, and eventually pacifying, such anti-authority impulses. ↪ Reply nfjtakfa ↪ Karl July 9 2016, 8:48 p.m. Say, decent “Fucking Hegel” impression. ↪ Reply Karl ↪ nfjtakfa July 9 2016, 9:26 p.m. Say, decent “Fucking Hegel” impression. This comment is a perfect case in point of those whose demonstrable ignorance requires them to reflexively focus on and reflect a single element of a deeply nuanced and highly sophisticated article with the hope that they too can be perceived as being aesthetically possessed of the author’s artistic sensibilities. Yes, we get it nfjtakfa… You hear him, and you feel him, and you would be him, but for the fact that you are not him. ↪ Reply Kitt ↪ Karl July 9 2016, 9:01 p.m. Excerpts: ‘The Elements of Style’ Strunk And White ↪ Reply Karl ↪ Kitt July 9 2016, 11:20 p.m. Hi Kitt. Long time, no insult. Let me respond to your criticisms of style by referring you to the opinions of your fellow sheep on such matters: Your fawning over the rules as if some benign entity made them is a pure authoritarian wet dream, and you are a petty oozing carbuncle… especially when compared to B.B. – John Kelly Nicely said. I’m reminded of the types who dwell on typos and grammar to avoid the content too. – Altohone ↪ Reply altohone ↪ Karl July 10 2016, 4:38 a.m. And, speaking of twats that aren’t here for the content… The true sheep can’t face reality. Baaaa. ↪ Reply Nate ↪ Karl July 9 2016, 9:22 p.m. Karl, I don’t even consider them a rabble, just some people commenting in a forum. I don’t believe their sympathy is faked (maybe hollow) but that they don’t know any way to express it other than fawning and drooling all over his articles. As if his pariah status renders his articles immune to criticism. They don’t seem to mind that in spite of Barrett’s intentions to “expose wrongdoing” in the prison system, he himself keeps breaking the rules and doing wrong. He mostly takes the low hanging fruit: talks about screaming in the SHU for comedic purposes, when a lot of people in SHU are mentally ill and not just creating funny material for TI; the guards are morons, admin staff cannot spell, etc. So as is clear, I don’t sympathize with Barrett’s self-inflicted plight. But reviewing his 177-page FOIA record attached to this article, the one thing that made me feel for the guy was seeing his visitor log: Mother, father, grandmother. That’s it for the timeframe presented. I’d imagine while serving time, you learn who your real friends and family are. ↪ Reply Karl ↪ Nate July 9 2016, 9:56 p.m. Karl, I don’t even consider them a rabble, just some people commenting in a forum. Rabble are defined by their tendency to act as a herd as they have a natural tendency to engage in group think. Group thinkers are reflexively prone to attacking anyone who reminds them that they themselves lack authenticity. It is deeply ironic (and highly humorous) that demonstrable group thinkers like Kitt, Mona, nfjtakfa etc. find themselves defending the very person who would clearly hold their type in utter contempt. ↪ Reply altohone ↪ Karl July 9 2016, 10:59 p.m. And, speaking of projection… ↪ Reply John Kelly ↪ Nate July 9 2016, 10:09 p.m. No. I enjoy the in-your-face bravery of this man. Your fawning over the rules as if some benign entity made them is a pure authoritarian wet dream, and you are a petty oozing carbuncle… especially when compared to B.B. Those, like you, who care more about rules than they do about the incredibly cruel punishment meted out by your sadistic masters, are mentally ill, empathy-free little toadies who just can’t resist piling on when someone is being made to suffer for no fucking reason. “He broke the rules”… oh well then, chop off his hands and make him eat them. No punishment is too harsh for these terrible rule breakers. ↪ Reply altohone ↪ John Kelly July 9 2016, 11:09 p.m. Nicely said. I’m reminded of the types who dwell on typos and grammar to avoid the content too. But I’m laughing that he spent time reviewing and quoting the FOIA release to attempt to defend himself by regurgitating information we all already knew but couldn’t care less about. ↪ Reply Nate ↪ John Kelly July 10 2016, 1:02 a.m. Your fawning over the rules as if some benign entity made them is a pure authoritarian wet dream Yep, I sleep with a copy of prison rules under my pillow. Seriously, it doesn’t take a genius to understand that a prison must have rules, including ones that restrict drugs and alcohol. Those, like you, who care more about rules than they do about the incredibly cruel punishment meted out by your sadistic masters, are mentally ill, empathy-free little toadies who just can’t resist piling on when someone is being made to suffer for no fucking reason. Made to suffer for no reason!? Alcohol and drugs = “no reason.” Got it! He broke the rules”… oh well then, chop off his hands and make him eat them. No punishment is too harsh for these terrible rule breakers. Very melodramatic. ↪ Reply John Kelly ↪ Nate July 10 2016, 1:42 a.m. Thanks for making the case for your consideration as authoritarian tool of the day. Winning! Rules that have excessive punishments attached are not about anything but sadism. I don’t give two fucks whether or not B.B. gets drunk or high… well, actually I think he should be able to if he so desires. There is no harm attached except for the punishment… the punishment that gives sad little fucks like yourself a such a raging hard-on. Prisons need to be abolished for non-violent “offenders”. They are place of rape, torture, medical neglect, and murder… not to mention taking people’s freedom for trite reasons. You are sick, and there is no cure for what ails you. ↪ Reply Nate ↪ John Kelly July 10 2016, 3:10 a.m. Thanks for making the case for your consideration as authoritarian tool of the day. sighs I think we need to wrap up this discussion. You get more juvenile by the moment. I don’t give two fucks whether or not B.B. gets drunk or high… well, actually I think he should be able to if he so desires. It really doesn’t matter what you think. Your safety isn’t at stake. Drugs + Alcohol + Criminals = What Could Go Wrong!? I’m sure that while pondering your decision you considered the safety of both the guards, inmates, and the public. Those rapist and murders that describe would surely show restraint with the drugs & liquor. Get a grip. The irony of your argument is that if a federal prison was knowingly allowing drinking and drug use, or facilitating its smuggling into the facility, there would be criminal charges directed at the staff involved. But Barrett is a brave guy so he get’s a waiver. Uh, no. Rules that have excessive punishments attached are not about anything but sadism. Hey, there is one thing we can agree on! Segregation should not be the punitive option of first resort, and that the list of punishments assessed for Barrett’s drinking and drug use was very harsh. Especially the length of stay in segregation and the removal of visitation. There is no harm attached except for the punishment… the punishment that gives sad little fucks like yourself a such a raging hard-on. Prisons need to be abolished for non-violent “offenders”. They are place of rape, torture, medical neglect, and murder… not to mention taking people’s freedom for trite reasons. You are sick, and there is no cure for what ails you. Again, stop typing your emotional response and ponder what harm there may be if inmates are using drugs and alcohol in the institution. This is not controversial. And spare me your faux indignation and breathless insinuation about hard-ons for punishment; it only makes you sound like a petulant child. ↪ Reply John Kelly ↪ Nate July 10 2016, 3:50 a.m. Impressive levels of stupidity demonstrated by authoritarian ass-hat. Thanks, very revealing. Harm? hah! The only harm is perpetrated by sadists like you. ↪ Reply Nate ↪ John Kelly July 10 2016, 4:32 a.m. Insults are the arguments employed by those who are in the wrong. I wish you a good night Mr. Kelly! ↪ Reply Rick ↪ John Kelly July 10 2016, 1:19 a.m. Well said. I’m passing this one on. ↪ Reply Donald Brown ↪ Karl July 10 2016, 12:00 a.m. Reactionaries are often a hoot, but pseudo-intellectual reactionaries are a hootenanny. How painful it must be to fall short of the level wittiness and intelligence one fancies oneself to possess. Perhaps belittling one’s superiors, like a yappy chihuahua nipping at the pack’s alpha’s ankles, offers some consolation, offers a fleeting sensation of adequacy. ↪ Reply Karl ↪ Donald Brown July 10 2016, 2:08 a.m. Reactionaries are often a hoot, but pseudo-intellectual reactionaries are a hootenanny. Reactionary? This is a very interesting charge. Care to provide one jot of evidence to back it up? I have dozens of posts on the intercept website – so you can begin there. Of course terms like “reactionary” become very malleable to anonymous putzes like yourself when challenged. Yet I am enticed by the prospect of your brilliance. Please enlighten us all with your insight and I will gladly consider the rest of your claim that you and yours are my “superior.” Absent that evidence however, you will just prove to be another one of Mona’s many sock puppets like nfjtakfa et al… (Hi Mona). keep it coming, every insult from the likes of you (and yours) is merely another feather in my bonnet. P.s. Nice touch using Barret’s last name. ↪ Reply bahhummingbug July 9 2016, 1:48 p.m. First of all Barrett Brown, chin up: it’s clear this fucking Hegel dude likes to talk just to hear his own head rattle. There’s a lot of that going around. He’s probably a big wig at some prestigious university of higher education. Having gone all the way through the 9th grade, I read Dune. While I enjoyed the book, I could detect no semblance between it and ‘the movie’. Idk what’s wrong with you … but it’s severe whatever it is. What I don’t understand is: why do you owe Peter Thiel money and how do you get/access Email? This sort of reminds me of the old riddle about the farmer who has a fox and a rooster and a bag of corn but can only take one at a time across the river in his boat and the fox will eat the rooster and the rooster will eat the corn if either pair is left together unattended (the solution, incidentally, is to shoot the fox, because it’s a fox). Ah, this is most likely why you’re in Jail Barrett Brown. First you take the chicken over. Then you take the bag of corn over and Bring Back the chicken. Then you take the Fox over. Finally, going back for the chicken again. xo bah. ↪ Reply metalgear July 9 2016, 12:39 p.m. Hang in there Barrett your half way thru I talked to you in the past on one of those mini-chatroom thingies you were brilliant and you still are When you get out you’ll stake your claim you already have a good job and rep ↪ Reply nfjtakfa July 9 2016, 12:35 p.m. You give me great hope, Alia, I too might survive such torment with humor and sanity intact. ↪ Reply