Trayvon Martin

[seemslikeadream]

[JackRiddler]

Two facts JR is overlooking:

National elections are a sham

Obama IS a Republican masquerading as a Democrat.

The first one cannot be a fact but a conclusion drawn from many facts, while the second is a matter of labeling. I am not overlooking either. I fundamentally agree with both, but refuse to turn these into absolutes, to oversimplify to the point where I can no longer see clearly, or to devolve into slogans (ossified conclusions) that substitute for thinking.

Or, to quote another current thread: "Just How Certain ARE You?"

And their second purpose in life, behind greasing the rails for the Corpotocracy, is to preserve the illusion, especially in an "election" year, that we live in a Democracy, and that voters actually have a say.

Here we disagree: Neither of the above. Most of them believe in their own bullshit, and in many cases are too dumb to question it. They tend to believe the Pledge of Allegiance and not know the Declaration of Independence. Even when they're profiteering, they think it's the right thing (the easiest thing in the world is to brainwash yourself into confusing the good with your own interest). They consider it important to keep people from becoming "cynical." Their first purpose in life is to raise money for campaigns, to stay in the spotlight and keep feeding their ego, to expand their personal influence and riches, to cut whatever deals help them secure their position, to keep their own people employed (like Ron Paul having six relatives on his payroll), to keep control of their own political machines, to keep dividing the spoils of office up among their friends and allies, and, incredibly, to have their own team win. To help their team win, they will even endanger the illusion that we live in a democracy by engaging in election fraud, voter suppression and campaign finance fraud; these are also facts. All of this turns governmental politics into a giant self-service store for moneyed interests. Add a lifetime of additional brainwashing in capitalist ideology, in which the good of the rich and the corporations is the good of the nation and the world, and voila. They look forward to leaving office and turning into consultants at ten and twenty times the salaries.

[justdrew]

Like it or not, a nation of voters and non-voters make these decisions...

Prove it.

Prove what? That a hundred-whatever million vote, another hundred million-whatever don't, and that most of the votes are actually counted? That most everyone accepts the results as accurate? That few question the system's legitimacy and even fewer question how it is structured to prevent reform, force false dichotomies and allow only a narrow range of policy options, if that? That most reformists naively hope to accomplish their aims by playing the game anyway? That sometimes, on rare occasions, thanks to the right constellation of power factors on a given issue, this naivete pays off?

it's fine for some to think it's irrelevant, and undeniably there are serious issues with American Democracy, but we have to play the game both ways. As you say, it's considered legitimate by the vast majority, so like it or not, we've got no choice but to vote for the "field boss who doesn't use the whip so much"

The theory that it's ALL illusionary is right in a way, but wrong as well. Choices are made this way, and turning ones back on it isn't going to help in the long run or short.

[Simulist]

it's fine for some to think it's irrelevant, and undeniably there are serious issues with American Democracy...

Yes, and one of those problems is that American democracy does not exist.

But it's also worse than that; because for the masses to believe that American democracy does in fact exist forms the basis of a trap: the reliance upon the very system that enslaves us as a means to free ourselves.

It hasn't worked. It won't work. Something entirely new is required.

[beeblebrox]

And their second purpose in life, behind greasing the rails for the Corpotocracy, is to preserve the illusion, especially in an "election" year, that we live in a Democracy, and that voters actually have a say.

Here we disagree: Neither of the above. Most of them believe in their own bullshit, and in many cases are too dumb to question it. They tend to believe the Pledge of Allegiance and not know the Declaration of Independence. Even when they're profiteering, they think it's the right thing (the easiest thing in the world is to brainwash yourself into confusing the good with your own interest). They consider it important to keep people from becoming "cynical." Their first purpose in life is to raise money for campaigns, to stay in the spotlight and keep feeding their ego, to expand their personal influence and riches, to cut whatever deals help them secure their position, to keep their own people employed (like Ron Paul having six relatives on his payroll), to keep control of their own political machines, to keep dividing the spoils of office up among their friends and allies, and, incredibly, to have their own team win. To help their team win, they will even endanger the illusion that we live in a democracy by engaging in election fraud, voter suppression and campaign finance fraud; these are also facts. All of this turns governmental politics into a giant self-service store for moneyed interests. Add a lifetime of additional brainwashing in capitalist ideology, in which the good of the rich and the corporations is the good of the nation and the world, and voila. They look forward to leaving office and turning into consultants at ten and twenty times the salaries.

Apples to oranges, you seem to be speaking to what motivates politicians, Nordic seems to be speaking to the net effects of their actions. In this sense you are both correct.

[Simulist]

^ That.

[Freitag]

Police: Zimmerman says Trayvon decked him with one blow then began hammering his head

7:36 p.m. EST, March 26, 2012|

By Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel

With a single punch, Trayvon Martin decked the Neighborhood Watch volunteer who eventually shot and killed the unarmed 17-year-old, then Trayvon climbed on top of George Zimmerman and slammed his head into the sidewalk, leaving him bloody and battered, law-enforcement authorities told the Orlando Sentinel.

That is the account Zimmerman gave police, and much of it has been corroborated by witnesses, authorities say. There have been no reports that a witness saw the initial punch Zimmerman told police about.

Zimmerman has not spoken publicly about what happened Feb. 26. But that night, and in later meetings, he described and re-enacted for police what he says took place.

In his version of events, Zimmerman had turned around and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from behind, the two exchanged words and then Trayvon punched him in the nose, sending him to the ground, and began beating him.

Zimmerman told police he shot the teenager in self-defense.

Civil-rights leaders and more than a million other people have demanded Zimmerman's arrest, calling Trayvon a victim of racial profiling and suggesting Zimmerman is a vigilante.

Trayvon was an unarmed black teenager who had committed no crime, they say, who was gunned down while walking back from a 7-Eleven with nothing more sinister than a package of Skittles and can of Arizona iced tea.

Zimmerman's account

This is what the Sentinel has learned about Zimmerman's account to investigators:

He said he was on his way to the grocery store when he spotted Trayvon walking through his gated community.

Trayvon was visiting his father's fiancée, who lived there. He had been suspended from school in Miami after being found with an empty marijuana baggie. Miami schools have a zero-tolerance policy for drug possession.

Police have been reluctant to provide details about their evidence.

But after the Sentinel story appeared online Monday morning, City Manager Norton Bonaparte Jr. issued a news release, saying there would be an internal-affairs investigation into the source of the leak and, if identified, the person or people involved would be disciplined.

He did not challenge the accuracy of the information.

At a Monday news conference, Trayvon's mother, father and their lawyers called the report that their son was suspended from school because of a marijuana baggie irrelevant and needlessly hurtful.

Trayvon's father, Tracy Martin, said "even in death, they are still disrespecting my son, and I feel that that's a sin."

His mother, Sybrina Fulton, said, "They killed my son, and now they're trying to kill his reputation."

Supporters have held rallies in Sanford, Miami, New York and Tallahassee, calling the case a tragic miscarriage of justice.

Civil-rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton headlined a rally in Sanford on Thursday that drew an estimated 8,000 people. The Rev. Jesse Jackson on Sunday spoke at an Eatonville church, where he called Trayvon a martyr.

Zimmerman has gone into hiding. A fringe group, the New Black Panther Party, has offered a $10,000 reward for his "capture."

One-minute gap

On Feb. 26, when Zimmerman first spotted Trayvon, he called police and reported a suspicious person, describing Trayvon as black, acting strangely and perhaps on drugs.

Zimmerman got out of his SUV to follow Trayvon on foot. When a dispatch employee asked Zimmerman if he was following the 17-year-old, Zimmerman said yes. The dispatcher told Zimmerman he did not need to do that.

There is about a one-minute gap during which police say they're not sure what happened.

Zimmerman told them he lost sight of Trayvon and was walking back to his SUV when Trayvon approached him from the left rear, and they exchanged words.

Trayvon asked Zimmerman if he had a problem. Zimmerman said no and reached for his cell phone, he told police. Trayvon then said, "Well, you do now" or something similar and punched Zimmerman in the nose, according to the account he gave police.

Zimmerman fell to the ground and Trayvon got on top of him and began slamming his head into the sidewalk, he told police.

Zimmerman began yelling for help.

Several witnesses heard those cries, and there has been a dispute about whether they came from Zimmerman or Trayvon.

Lawyers for Trayvon's family say it was Trayvon, but police say their evidence indicates it was Zimmerman.

One witness, who has since talked to local television news reporters, told police he saw Zimmerman on the ground with Trayvon on top, pounding him — and was unequivocal that it was Zimmerman who was crying for help.

Zimmerman then shot Trayvon once in the chest at very close range, according to authorities.

When police arrived less than two minutes later, Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose, had a swollen lip and had bloody lacerations to the back of his head.

Paramedics gave him first aid but he said he did not need to go to the hospital. He got medical care the next day.

The Department of Justice last week opened a civil-rights investigation into what happened, and Gov. Rick Scott appointed a special prosecutor, Angela Corey, the state attorney for Duval, Clay and Nassau counties.

In an interview with the Sentinel on Monday, she said it is too early to say whether she would leave it to a Seminole County grand jury, which local prosecutors had decided to convene April 10, to decide whether to charge Zimmerman with manslaughter or some other crime.

Her two-lawyer team worked through the weekend on the case, she said, and it will take several more days, perhaps a week, to decide how best to proceed.

She would not comment about any specific pieces of evidence, including what authorities have learned from a 16-year-old Miami girl who may have been on the phone with Trayvon as he and Zimmerman came face to face.

Benjamin Crump, one of the family's attorneys, told reporters last week that the girl told him she heard the two exchange words then a sound that she believed was Zimmerman pushing Trayvon.

Corey said her office has routinely challenged self-defense claims and will pursue charges in this case if the evidence supports it.

Link

[Nordic]

The theory that it's ALL illusionary is right in a way, but wrong as well. Choices are made this way, and turning ones back on it isn't going to help in the long run or short.

We don't need to turn our back on it, we need to reclaim it. We are being served false choices by the people who game the system. The system could work, but not as long as it's run 100% by the people who have figured out how to control it.

Basically a peaceful revolution of sorts is required. Or maybe not even all that peaceful. Whatever it takes to get the levers of control away from the crooks who currently have their mitts on them.

Why even bother playing a game that's fixed? If that game is murdering people, stealing everyone's money, stealing your basic human rights from you and destroying the planet, isn't it time to clean house? WHY PARTICIPATE IN SUCH A GAME AT ALL unless you fix it first??

[Hugh Manatee Wins]

Murdering a Martin just before the anniversary of the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. by US gestapo has the psyoperators scrambling to embed racism on their front pages and staging events.

[Marie Laveau]

That photoshopped pic of Kennedy?

That's why I believe NOTHING I see anymore. I don't care who purports to put it out.

Of course, I've felt that way ever since 'Forrest Gump.'

[Marie Laveau]

Per Zimmerman's comments:

He must have one hell of a bunch of photos of his abuse, then, eh?

Or "gone into hiding" until his wounds heal? Harder to refute after that, I suppose.

[JackRiddler]

The Usual Racism from The Usual Suspects.



(back cover often goes together)

[seemslikeadream]

A Furious Lawrence O’Donnell Interrogates Empty Chair After George Zimmerman’s Lawyer Cancels

by Frances Martel | 10:31 pm, March 26th, 2012

George Zimmerman‘s attorney, one Craig Sonner, seemed a bit out of his league when he tried to answer such difficult questions from Anderson Cooper on Friday as “where is your client?” and “did he tell you what happened that night?” So it may not be that big of a shock that he canceled his appearance with Lawrence O’Donnell last-minute tonight. What may come as a surprise is that O’Donnell went on and did the segment anyway, interrogating an empty chair about who was paying its legal fees and what it feared it would have to argue to keep his client out of trouble.

The segment began with O’Donnell reporting first on some of the new developments of the Trayvon Martin story, including Zimmerman’s new claims of self-defense. He then noted that Sonner was meant to appear at the top of the hour, and not only canceled, but just “walked out of the studio”– a point that led O’Donnell into a five minute or so lecture consisting of reasons why, perhaps, Sonner wouldn’t want to appear, of assurances that he could not imagine Sonner rescheduling with O’Donnell, and O’Donnell’s assertions that Sonner could not feel particularly comfortable about his client’s chances if he wouldn’t go on the show. “He literally run away,” O’Donnell railed, “he is in our car right now taking him away from the studio.” Accusing him of “getting away with the craziest stuff any lawyer has attempted to get away with,” he warned his audience to watch him if he resurfaces anywhere else.

O’Donnell then turned to the segment his show planned with Sonner, showing the chair from which Sonner should have reported in Orlando. He did not, of course, but that did not stop O’Donnell from actually conducting his interview. He began asking questions passionately– “Who is paying you?,” “Did you represent Zimmerman in the domestic violence case in 2007?,” “Do you have photographs of your client’s broken nose that night?”– until he exhausted his list of questions, raising his voice dramatically at the empty wooden chair staring back at him helplessly from Orlando, bearing no answers.

The “interview” via MSNBC below:

[seemslikeadream]

What Everyone Needs To Know About The Smear Campaign Against Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)
By Judd Legum on Mar 26, 2012 at 6:59 pm

Over the last 48 hours, there has been a sustained effort to smear Trayvon Martin, the 17-year old African-American who was shot dead by George Zimmerman a month ago. Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, said, “They killed my son, now they’re trying to kill his reputation.”
Thus far these attacks have fallen into two categories: false and irrelevant. Much of this leaked information seems intended to play into stereotypes about young African-American males. Here’s what everyone should know:
1. Prominent conservative websites published fake photos of Martin. Twitchy, a new website run by prominent conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, promoted a photo — purportedly from Martin’s Facebook page — that shows Martin in saggy pants and flipping the bird. The photo, which spread quickly on conservative websites and Twitter, is intended to paint Martin as a thug. As Twitchy later acknowledged, it is not a photo of Trayvon Martin. [Examiner]

2. The Sanford Police selectively leaked irrelevant, negative information about Martin. The authorities told the Orlando Sentinel this morning that Trayvon was suspended from school for ten days “after being found with an empty marijuana baggie.” There is no evidence that Martin was under the influence of drugs at the time of his death, nor would prior possession of marijuana be a reason for killing him. It’s unclear what the relevance of the leak was, other than to smear Martin. [Orlando Sentinel]

3. On Fox News, Geraldo said that Martin was dressed “like a wannabe gangster.” Bill O’Reilly agreed with him. The sole evidence is that Martin was wearing a hoodie. Geraldo added that “everyone that ever stuck up a convenience store” was wearing a hoodie. [ThinkProgress; The Blaze]

4. Without any evidence, prominent right-wing bloggers suggested that Martin was a drug dealer. Right-wing blogger Dan Riehl advances the theory, also advanced in a widely linked peice on a site called Wagist. There does not appear to be any evidence to support this claim whatsoever. [Riehl World View]

5. Without any evidence, a right-wing columnist alleged that Martin assaulted a bus driver. Unlike Zimmerman, Trayvon has no documented history of violence. This allegation continues to be advanced by a blogger on the Examiner even after the real reason was leaked to the police and confirmed by the family. [Miami Herald; Examiner]

6. Zimmerman’s friend says Martin was to blame because he was disrespectful to Zimmerman. Zimmerman’s friend Joe Oliver said that Martin would not have been shot to death if Trayvon had just said “I’m staying with my parents.” Of course, Zimmerman was not a police officer, and Trayvon had no duty to tell him who he was or where he was going. [NBC News]
The final part of the effort to smear Trayvon Martin is to link him and his supporters to irresponsible fringe groups like the New Black Panthers and marginal provocateurs like Louis Farrakhan. Threats by these groups are serious and should be investigated, but they have nothing to do with Martin or his supporters. The leader of the effort to associate Martin with these groups is Matt Drudge. You can see how he is framing the story today here.

Ultimately, whether Martin was a perfect person is irrelevant to whether Zimmerman’s conduct that night was justified. Clearly, there are two different versions of the events that transpired on February 26, the night Trayvon was killed. There are conflicting statements by witnesses and conflicting evidence as to who was the aggressor. Zimmerman has the right to tell his side of the story. But his opportunity to do this will come in a court of law after he is charged and arrested. In the meantime, Zimmerman’s supporters should stop trying to smear the reputation of a dead, 17-year-old boy

[AlicetheKurious]

There had better be an official police report complete with photos of Zimmerman's supposed injuries, and a medical report from the doctors who examined him the night he shot Trayvon Martin.

All these attempts to smear the boy's reputation are disgusting. Maybe even actionable.