Stephan:   I consider the American gulag to be one of the principal symptoms of the country's profound social breakdown. I have said this before but it is worth saying again, we have five percent of the world's population and twenty-five percent of the world's prisoners, and the whole system is glaringly racist. North Korea, for instance, which media constantly describes as an authoritarian government, and it is, is Double-A ball compared with the United States when their prison systems are compared. Think about that. And then consider that America is in the active business of mass torture. Here is some data; it is beyond despicable. Yes, there are some very bad people in prison, but the social outcome research makes it clear that the way the U.S. treats prisoners is inferior to most other developed nations.  Compared with Kim Khardashian, media hardly talks about any of this, and I can't remember the last time a politician commented.