REALITY- By now everyone should know the story of Trayvon Martin. An unarmed high school football player carrying candy and a cell phone was gunned down in the night by a man who had no official authority. Sadly this story would not be remarkable (as this kind of thing happens all too often) but for the fact that the local police failed to investigate the crime immediately. Instead they took the word of the guy with the smoking gun in his hand and no visable wounds what so ever. In short, the killer said that it wasn't his fault because when he shot and killed the unarmed teenager he said that it was in self defense. The local police didn't investigate in order to corroborate they simply accepted the killer's story at face value and let him go free.
This would have been the end of the story if it had not been for the efforts of Trayvon Martin's parents who had to take their case to the nation via television interviews. Having been turned away by the local police, the family of Trayvon Martin was forced to plead for justice on The Today Show.
Most people, when they lose a child under any circumstances, need to be comforted by friends and family while the details of caring for the deceased are seen to by others. A natural grieving process takes place, we're all familiar, or will one day become familiar with it from one perspective or another. Sybrina Fulton had to go on television before the man who murdered her son Trayvon was even arrested for the crime.
More than a month had passed since George Zimmerman had shot Trayvon Martin in the chest in what Zimmerman claimed to be self defense. Trayvon Martin was talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone that tragic night. She reports that the last things that she hears are that Trayvon asked someone "What are you following me for?" she heard a man's voice reply "What are you doing here?" Martin's girlfriend then hears what she describes as "the sound of pushing". Trayvon Martin's phone went silent. Trayvon's girlfriend, who remains anonymous, believes that Trayvon was the one who was pushed by the other man.
No one really knows for certain what happened next, except that George Zimmerman fired his handgun while it was aimed at Trayvon Martin's chest. Zimmerman claims that the smaller unarmed teenager attacked him from behind. A 911 call that reported the incident at first as "someone screaming outside" captures the sound of someone in a high pitched cry for their life just before a gunshot silences them. Two experts have studied the tape of that 911 call and they report that the voice heard crying out for help was definitely not the voice of George Zimmerman. The experts say that they don't know for sure if the voice heard screaming for help is Trayvon Martin as there was no sample of Trayvon Martin's voice for them to compare it to.
George Zimmerman was finally arrested and will be tried for second degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon's mother, posted a special mother's day video.
Here's the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KaOw4cQEHs
Kelly Thomas was a mentally ill homeless person who was also unarmed and murdered. Kelly was beaten into a coma by 6 members of the Fullerton California Police department. 5 days later he was taken off of life support and Kelly Thomas died never having regained consciousness.
Kelly Thomas' murder, unlike Trayvon Martin's, was caught on video surveillance cameras. Although it still took almost three months for any arrests to take place as the police were claiming that Kelly had been "combative" with the six officers and that two of them had suffered broken bones at the hands of Kelly Thomas. Later the police changed their story to fit emerging facts and said that no one involved in the incident suffered any serious injuries. No one except Kelly that is. Currently two officers stand trial for second degree murder charges in the beating death of Kelly Thomas.
Here is a link to the full surveillance video from that tragic night on youtube.com.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6yaeD-E_MY
George Zimmerman and the six Fullerton County police officers who killed Kelly Thomas have at least two things in common.
1. They are all murderers.
2. They are all bullies.
Bullies, people who think that they can do whatever they want to whomever they want because they're bigger, stronger, more well trained and armed, or richer than you. No matter who you are you know what a bully is.
Which brings me to Mitt Romney. Who, it has been recently revealed, spent his high school days bullying closeted homosexuals for the sheer joy of hurting someone else. So it has been reported, one time Mitt Romney actually chased down a student and cut all his hair off of him. Because "Romney didn't like how the kid looked". Then there was another man that Mitt Romney suspected of being homosexual and so every time Romney heard that classmate say anything he would tell the student "That'a girl".
Mitt Romney ran his business in much the same fashion, bullying smaller companies into bankruptcy while he and his corporate friends reaped all the spoils, getting rich off of the destruction of other people's lives.
Mitt Romney is now the Republican Nominee for President of The United States of America. And he is still a bully.
Republicans love bullies, because republicans are bullies. Not every last republican, I doubt Ron Paul could be considered a bully. Unless you count the fact that he hasn't stopped pretending to run for president even though he has lost a few times already. Now that I think of it, the way Ron Paul is all racist and anti-abortion kind of makes him more like a bully in his way of thinking.
The thing that all of these bullies have in common is their mentality. The attitude of a bully is one that says 'I can hurt anyone I don't like and you better not stop me either because you should be glad that I'm not hurting you.'
That is a crazy way of thinking. It is the same line of thought that empowers every racist to claim superiority over someone else because they might be a little bit different from them. It is the same line of reasoning that leads to murders, rapes, and other such human abuses like torture, economic tyranny, and political domination.
Mitt Romney, as a bully himself, has the same attitude towards those that he considers beneath him that George Zimmerman had when he looked at Trayvon Martin and pulled the trigger. The same mentality that led six police officers to climb on top of a defenseless 120lb man and beat him and kick him until he stopped moving.
The mentality of a bully.
I don't think that I'm overstating this. Mitt Romney is a bully don't vote for him unless you want him to punch you in the stomach and take your lunch money.
And As Always,
REALITY- Although it is what George W. Bush did wrong, President Barack Obama must project strength. By allowing The Republicans in Congress and on Television to dictate terms in situations like unemployment benefits, corporate accountability, and Bush tax cuts for the top 2 percent The President has lost support among many groups of people. The town where I live is pretty racist. (The town's people here I should say are racists. The town itself, a location with no emotions, is as ever neutral.) Folks here have been laughing at President Obama's Administration openly since before he was officially nominated, but now I have overheard members of the African American community expressing their displeasure with The President's seeming inability to combat The Republican Agenda both in Congress and in the court of public opinion.
Not that anyone has noticed or remembers that President Obama, or his orders, have been responsible for...
1. Ending The Second U.S. / Iraq War, and not yet starting any new wars in Iran or Syria. Like I said at least not yet.
2. Reversing the downward spiral of the largest financial collapse in American history since The Great Depression. You remember, it was that giant finacial meltdown that was caused by the failed policies of former Republican President George W. Bush "1/20/2001-1/20/2009" and his Republican, G.O.P., right wing pals.
And last but not least...
3. The Killing of one Osama Bin Laden.
It's true, it happened, I remember it.
I saw it on Saturday Night Live even.
Bush claimed to have been trying to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden since 2001. Obama accomplished in three and a half years what George W. Bush failed to do over the course of 7 plus years. President Obama's Administration gave the orders that lead to the death of Osama Bin Laden.
The Republicans have been in total control of the framework of the overall national debate and the content of President Obama's arguments by way of that control. So much so that the American people have all but forgotten that the Republicans had their chance to get Osama Bin Laden and The Republicans failed. President Obama required only half the time that The Republicans had had to terminate the most wanted man in history.
In any case, President Barack Obama had better get ready to be debated off the stage by whichever Republican whom finally becomes their selection for candidacy. You all know that these are not the actual 2012 Presidential debates right? The Republican Candidates are only practicing for the real debates against the real President of The United States Barack Obama. You all know that that is all that they are doing on television every week right?
Almost like minor league baseball players, The G.O.P. Candidates are taking televised batting practice. Crushing lobbed grapefruits out into deep right field hoping to make it to the big show. Although they are already on a big show aren't they? The Republicans have created a, what might as well be, weekly 'reality' TV show around their primary election cycle. Scheduling more than 20 televised debates amongst themselves and not inviting any outside opposition.
The Globetrotters at least invite the Washington Generals to play the basketball games. The audience would be less impressed I think if The Great Harlem Globetrotters took to the court alone. Winning games 212 to nothing because there was no real opposition. While party debates on either side rarely if ever actually invite any opposition during their debates, it's important to remember that everyone you see on the Republican debate stage is on the same team. Each one playing a role. Like pro wrestling, these Republican presidential candidates are not trying to hurt one another only trying to make the eventually chosen candidate appear to be as strong as possible.
The Undertaker doesn't really want to injure his demonic brother Kane when he hits him over the head with a steel chair. The chair-shot is meant to be exciting and to be a visual spectacle. The fans are meant to see Kane survive the big chair-shot by The Undertaker so that you know that Kane is very resilient and that Kane can take on anything, can survive anything, even a big chair-shot from The Undertaker.
Or even sharing a debate stage with President Obama. In wrestling they call it doing a 'job' or putting the other guy 'over'. Established performers like The Undertaker and Newt Gingrich do 'jobs' to put newer younger talent 'over' in order to create a newer younger 'star' so that the business that the two talents share can continue on into the future. The older talents do this in order to solidify their own future in the business.
The season of Republican 'reality' show style "presidential" debates has worked to create newer younger 'stars' within the Republican Party. 'Political stars' that may generate enough fan recognition to stand on the same stage with Barack Obama and survive his chair-shots. If I were working close to the president I would have him arguing with Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in order to prepare the president for the Republican assault machine that is all warmed up for him.
Ps. Here's a top three list of International boogeymen who have left the political map on President Obama's watch...
1. Osama Bin Laden,
2. Moammar Gadhafi,
3. and Kim Jong Il.
And As Always,
REALITY: After 80 days of marching, and being beaten by police, Occupy Wall Street is still going strong. The principles that have brought so many people out into the streets remain intact. Economic justice, meaning the wealthy paying their fair share of the taxes in order to keep our nation great. As best as I can tell that is the one value that unites all of the various groups of Occupy Wall Street Patriots. They want a piece of the pie nothing more nothing less. Everyone in America has worked for America in some way shape or form at some point in their lives. All Americans deserve to enjoy the benefits of living in America.
That having been read, there is a group of Americans who do not feel this way. They are the Americans who believe that, because of their good fortune, they deserve some sort of extra ability to rule over everybody else. Jesse 'The Body' Ventura once said "It's better to be lucky than good". He should know he went from bad-guy wrestler with little mobility to Governor of the great state of Minnesota. I've heard the phrase "virtue is its own reward", that is of course because no good deed goes un-punished. Suppose that wealth should be its own reward. Isn't being wealthy enough for you?
Seriously folks, the Americans who are better off than most live easier more fun-filled lives don't they? They sure have no excuse not to be living easier more fun-filled lives. Speaking for myself I feel as though I would be able to enjoy life quite comfortably on a fraction of what the wealthy claim that they are unable to spare for the coffers of the Internal Revenue Service. Country and tax collector be damned my great grandfather owned a company full of people that worked very very hard for a long long time. This means (somehow) that I the modern wealthy man, who inherited that company after a childhood of entitlement, need not contribute to my country in any way that doesn't involve me acquiring more wealth without having to work.
There are indeed great contributions made by companies like this. Not enough that the average person can enjoy them but contributions none the less. Instead of paying taxes major corporations throughout the United States and the world spend billions of dollars paying lobbyists to convince politicians that the best interests of the corporations are also the best interests of the lawmakers of The United States Congress. If this were truly so, corporations wouldn't need to spend that kind of cash trying to make it so.
Right or wrong? Who cares? Right and wrong, for too many Americans and indeed most major U.S. corporations, has been replaced with 'good for business' and well the business world doesn't really have a 'wrong' anymore. I could say inefficiency but they don't care about that, the major corporations in America today are as wasteful as possible. More care is given to handing out six figure bonus checks, and finding new phrases to refer to them by because 'bonus check' or 'bonuses' just sounds bad after you collect hundreds of millions of dollars in free no strings taxpayer money. Wait so tax-payer money goes in but no taxes are paid out? Hhmmmm I think I might have discovered the secret of becoming and staying wealthy. It's the same as the pirate's code: "Take what you can, and give nothing back!"
Just because a person has more funds than another, it does not mean that they are better or worse than the person who has less funds. To me this is a simple enough concept. Take away both of their wallets and you will see what is plain. People are equal. Each person on this planet has an equal right to equal standards of enjoying life. Work is work, 'job' or no 'job', everyone works. Everyone should be free.
Just becuse a person has wealth, that does not automatically grant him power. It grants that person a responsibility to those less fortunate. A responsibility that today's American corporation, willfully ignores in the name of their one and only true god of worship.
Money.
Ps. Jesse 'The Body' Ventura once said "It's better to be lucky than good". He also said "Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat". I'm just sayin'.
And As Always,
REALITY- On the order of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, The New York Police Department re-took Zuccotti Park from Occupy Wall Street Protesters at around 1am Tuesday Nov. 8th. They used the cover of darkness, covered badge numbers, and the now standard pepper spray, metal baton treatment. The Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, stated that many warnings were given and that all their motivations for the forcible removal of Occupy Wall Street from Zuccotti Park were in the interests of sanitation and public safety. And if that were so then Bloomberg would actually re-open the park to protesters, after it has been swept and cleaned by the propper authorities, in complience with a court order signed by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lucy Billings, a former civil liberties lawyer, that allows Occupy Wall Street protesters to return to Freedom Plaza (AKA Zuccotti Park). Instead Mayor Bloomberg will keep Zuccotti Park closed until the court order can be "clarified".
At least 70 people were arrested over night, including members of the Associated Press. NYPD Officers even arrested a woman in a wheelchair. 5000 books at the Occupy Wall Street Library were destroyed along with all communication equipment. Inspite of all of this the Occupy Wall Street Livestream continues as does the Occupy Wall Street movement itself. in the words of one protester "The park is clean - it smells like clorox and broken constitutional amendments".
Yeah sure the park needed to be cleaned. Did you need to ambush sleeping people in the middle of the night and beat them with batons and spray them with pepper spray? Sure say the NYPD, as far as they're concerned that is the fun part. No one involved in any way with The NYPD or any other police force would ever publicly admit to this opinion, but it is exactly how they look at it.
The behavior of the police in Oakland California and now in New York City are just the latest examlpes of how a majority of the cops really feel. They like their jobs because every once in a while they get to beat people up and break their stuff without fear of reprisal. Again they'll never admit to it in public.
It's a game to them where they hold all the cards. The protests must remain non-violent. The police do not have to adhere to any such rule, in fact it is in their interests to incite violence in any way that they can in order to create an excuse to escelate the sitation to where the police can use any tactics they please and get away with it. Any tactics to clear the protests. The NYPD have the weapons and the authority, The Occupy Wall Street Protesters have the numbers and the truth. The NYPD officers don't risk what the brave men and women who are Occupy Wall Street risk. The protesters are peacfully standing up for their rights, while the cops are standing around on the job collecting overtime. Peaceful protesters versus well paid state mercenaries with weapons.
The Occupy Wall Street Protesters have to await a judges ruling on the court order that allows them to return to Zuccotti Park. The ruling is said to be due around 3pm est.
Unilt then the NYPD Occupies Zuccotti Park, like a parody of the protests themselves. Again to the authorities all of this is a joke. That is the catch, they won't take the protesters seriosly as long as they're non-violent, so they provke violence and then deal with the protesters in the only serious manner that they know. That is to say a violent manner.
At 4:50pm est. it was announced that the original court order had been overturned and that the Occupy Wall Street protesters were not allowed to return to Zuccatti Park with tents and sleeping bags. By 6:30pm Zuccotti Park was filled once again by Occupy Wall Street. Where do we go from here? General Strike.
Peace Vs. Violence.
Good Vs. Evil.
And As Always...
REALITY- This is what happens when people of principle stand up for their rights. They are immediately reminded exactly why it was that they hadn't tried to do so before now. Because when anyone steps out of line they are dealt with by the police. Unless by stepping out of line you mean billionaires stealing billions of dollars from people who will never have that kind of cash. The cops ignore you if your crime is to hoard wealth through a corrupt system that stopped truly being a system the instant that it failed to serve the needs of the less fortunate. A system is not a system if it does not function.
On the 40th day of The Occupy Movement people from all over the world are rising up together to demand economic and political justice for themselves and their children. Oakland California has just seen a particularly brutal siege by police that left many injured and one U.S. veteran shot in the head with a tear gas canister and in critical condition at the time of this writing. Police all over the world have responded in very much the same way. Arrest, attack, and attempt to demoralize. The Police in New York have been resorting to what's been called "Stop and Frisk". Which has officers randomly stopping anyone they choose, according to race in many cases, and subjecting the citizen to a pat down frisk. They have also been offering arrested protesters a deal that would expunge their arrest just so long as that person is not arrested again (for protesting) for six months. The NYPD had no right to arrest the peaceful protester in the first place, all that this tactic does is to serve as a deterrent from returning to a protest site for fear of facing jail time. Dirty tricks at best, The Constitution of The United States of America guarantees any American Citizen the right to peaceful assembly and if necessary protest. To petition the government with prayer if you will. At least most of the protests sites have remained peaceful. Unfortunately not all.
The Police in Oakland, California have resorted to heavy use of tear gas, and atomized metal batons to disperse peaceful unarmed demonstrators. Occupy Orlando was evicted last night, and there have been more than 500 arrests at Occupy Atlanta. One man in Austin, Texas was arrested for sleeping.
What are they doing that is so dangerous that you need that many cops, that many batons, and this much noxious chemical gas to attack them? It is not that they are protesting. Necessarily, it's not that they are in camping in public without a permit, and if that's really a law anywhere then that law is really unconstitutional. The Constitution supersedes any such laws, particular during times like these. The real reason that the establishment and its police force can't allow these protests to continue is because that the brave souls at each Occupy location are setting an example for all the lost souls that continue to power the greed machine. The establishment has begun to fear the prospects of actually having to deal with the Occupy movement at a bargaining table if they should inspire a general strike to occur across The United States and eventually the world.
Strike, in particular if you work for an organization or company that you know to be dishonest, corrupt, or otherwise at fault or contributing to the problems we all face as Americans. Those who work at banks would be an obvious example of someone who the establishment would rather didn't wake up. Someone who they like that they trained well who would be somewhat difficult to replace. Strike, if you're tired of breaking your back for just enough while someone less worthy collects way too much to do so very little.
The only problem with that is who is going to feed all these angry, hungry people? How will they stay warm? Occupy Wall Street has been collecting donations in cash and in the form of warm clothing, blankets, sleeping bags. Anything you can think of that people would need while they try to survive the winter outdoors. A New York winter. www.occupywallstreet.org
Who is going to help?
Anybody?
Anyone at all?
Until then The Occupy Revolution marches on.
And As Always,
