EMMYdiocracy
Mediocracy is a situation which can occur in a democracy in which mediocre people prevail. The society is then subordinated to a quasi-egalitarian ideology in which words and ideas are redefined by mediocre people, to be convenient for mediocre people. Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was a frequent critic of mediocracy in contemporary Western countries. || This where the tag cloud goes if the tag cloud loads:
So now George Zimmerman, who shot and killed Trayvon Martin in February, appears to have tried to hide his assets during the time he was seeking bail, etc. Some in the progresso-sphere are ecstatic with the news, which seems like proof that Zimmerman is a multi-dimensional bad guy who needs to go to jail.
As regular readers of this blog know, I believe Zimmerman did wrong that February night. He comes across as a wannabe cop who initiated the confrontation that he then claimed justified his killing Trayvon Martin. Similarly, it’s not too hard to believe that Zimmerman might have sought to hide or obscure assets as bail was being considered: scared and naive people do stupid things all the time. Dumb ones do stupid things all the more often — that, after all, is how we know they’re dumb.
The thing is, focusing on Zimmerman’s financial gamesmanship is, like focusing on drone war, noticing only the mosquito, not the elephant. Zimmerman apparently shuffled comparatively small sums of money around to avoid federal notice … which may, in the end, lead him to get charged with some kind of financial fraud. It will also likely make the blogosphere feel smug and satisfied in its condemnation of him.
Meanwhile, the Masters of the Universe who collapsed the global economy and, more recently, lost JP Morgan Chase some $4 billion (and who created the elaborate financial instruments that promoted Europe’s possible collapse) face … what criminal prosecution? What jail time?
And why is this? Because if you play with enough money, you either get politicians to write laws making your financial gamesmanship legal, or your transactions are so utterly complex that no “jury of one’s peers” can possibly unpack them. Either way, the issues are complex and difficult … unlike Zimmerman’s artless deception.
I’ve said it before: I believe that George Zimmerman belongs in jail for what he did to Trayvon Martin. But seriously, folks: his financial games are far down the list of things that ought to draw your attention or your anger. They may be easy to understand, but that doesn’t make them important.
Indeed, if I was a Master of the Universe, I’d be thrilled you were pissed off at George Zimmerman. Because then you’d be ignoring me.
(via bapeonion)
A person selling gun range targets modeled after slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin says that their “main motivation was to make money off the controversy.”
WKMG’s Mike DeForest reported on Friday that the unidentified seller told him that the targets “sold out in 2 days.”
“The response is overwhelming,” the seller said.
While the item appears to have been removed from GunBroker.com, a cached version of the page was still available at the time of publication.
Photos of the item, which was titled “10 Pack Trayvon Martin Targets,” showed crosshairs over a hoodie similar to the one Trayvon Martin was wearing when he was shot by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in February. The figure has a bag of Skittle in his pocket and is holding what appears to be a can of iced tea, similar to what Martin had purchased before being gunned down. The pack of 10 targets was being sold for $8.
“Everyone knows the story of Zimmerman and Martin,” a description on the targets reads. “Obviously we support Zimmerman and believe he is innocent and that he shot a thug. Each target is printed on thick, high quality poster paper with a matte finish! The dimensions are 12″x18″ ( The same as Darkotic Zombie Targets) This is a Ten Pack of Targets.”
The seller’s ID was listed as “hillerarmco” from Virginia Beach, Virginia. A website by the same name is registered to Hiller Armament Company in Virginia Beach, but the associated phone number had been disconnected.
Zimmerman attorney Mark O’Mara told WKMG that this type of “hatred” just makes his client’s defense even more problematic.
I don’t even have commentary. Let’s go bungee jumping with the creators and buyers. We can conveniently forget the cords.
(via paxamericana)
Oh, bless your poor little white heart. A black teen was murdered and it took over a month of activism to even begin the process of justice. God fucking forbid this case makes you feel “racial tension.” It’s not like you’ve ever had to worry about being murdered in your own neighborhood because of the color of your skin.
First thing that needs to be noted is that we just had another police shooting of an unarmed man in Austin, Texas on Thursday night.. This happened after the report was compiled, so add another name to this grisly toll..
Second, folks have got to understand this is not coincident, it’s quite deliberate. Police have moved from a point of trying to de-escalate or prevention to a shoot first ask questions later policy..
The list below are just noting the deaths at hands of the police, its not highlighting the enormous amounts of brutality and outright disrespect many in the Black community have to endure on a daily basis.. The report below is to say the least disturbing and underscores a low wage war going on in our communities…
Twenty-eight Black People (27 Men and 1 Female) Killed by Police Officials, Security
Guards, and Self-Appointed “Keepers of the Peace” between January 1, 2012 and March
31, 2012
- 28 cases of state sanctioned or justified murder of Black people in the first 3
months of 2012 alone have been found (due to under reporting and discriminatory
methods of documentation, it is likely that there are more that our research has yet
to uncover)
- Of the 28 killed people, 18 were definitely unarmed. 2 probably had firearms, 8
were alleged to have non-lethal weapons.
- Of the 28 killed people,
. 11 were innocent of any illegal behavior or behavior that involved a
threat to anyone (although the shooters claimed they looked “suspicious”);
. 7 were emotionally disturbed and/or displaying strange behavior.
. The remaining 10 were either engaged in illegal or potentially illegal
activity, or there was too little info to determine circumstances of their
killing. It appears that in all but two of these cases, illegal and/or harmful
behavior could have been stopped without the use of lethal force.
…
I have a feeling this guy would probably say he’s not a racist. Because it’s never ever that, is it? And he’d probably also claim to be a God-fearing family-man. Maybe he’d be surprised to learn that most of us are just disgusted by such fucking ignorance:
Miami-Dade fire captain Brian Beckmann made the following entry on his Facebook page last week on the same day that State Attorney Angela Corey announced she was charging neighborhood watchmen George Zimmerman with the murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin:
“Listening to Prosecutor Corey blow herself and her staff for five minutes before pre-passing judgment on George Zimmerman. The state seeks reelection again, truth aside. I and my coworkers could rewrite the book on whether our urban youths are victims of racist profiling or products of their failed, shitbag, ignorant, pathetic, welfare dependent excuses for parents, but like Mrs. Corey, we speak only the truth. They’re just misunderstood little church going angels and the ghetto hoodie look doesn’t have anything to do with why people wonder if they’re about to get jacked by a thug.”
Beckmann later deleted the post and defended himself, writing, “I am a private citizen and have the same right to freely express an opinion on any subject that anyone else does. I choose not to embellish or alter the facts as your employer chose to do.”
And FOR THE RECORD:
Martin’s mother, Sabrina Fulton, is employed as a program coordinator at the Miami-Dade Housing Authority. His father, Tracey Martin, works as a truck driver. Neither of the parents is “dependant” on welfare.
The article reports that Miami-Dade fire rescue will investigate Beckmann’s comments. Hopefully they’re looking into whether this guy has the mental / emotional capacity to supervise anyone, but especially anyone who is even slightly different than him (not white, male, bald, and racist). In the meantime, no one should be surprised if Beckmann becomes both an instant celebrity with the local tea party “patriots” and a Fox “News” hero with appearances scheduled throughout the rest of the week.
The Martins lost their child because of a nut with a gun and all the rightwingnuts can do is find new and increasingly inhuman ways to blame the victim and his family.
(via paxamericana)
Twenty-eight Black People (27 Men and 1 Female) Killed by Police Officials, Security Guards, and Self-Appointed “Keepers of the Peace” between January 1, 2012 and March 31, 2012
- 28 cases of state sanctioned or justified murder of Black people in the first 3 months of 2012 alone have been found (due to under reporting and discriminatory methods of documentation, it is likely that there are more that our research has yet to uncover)
- Of the 28 killed people, 18 were definitely unarmed. 2 probably had firearms, 8 were alleged to have non-lethal weapons.
- Of the 28 killed people,
11 were innocent of any illegal behavior or behavior that involved a
threat to anyone (although the shooters claimed they looked “suspicious”);7 were emotionally disturbed and/or displaying strange behavior.
The remaining 10 were either engaged in illegal or potentially illegal
activity, or there was too little info to determine circumstances of their
killing. It appears that in all but two of these cases, illegal and/or harmful
behavior could have been stopped without the use of lethal force.
(Source: hyperbody, via paxamericana)
Neo-Nazis are currently conducting heavily armed patrols in and around Sanford, Florida and are “prepared” for violence in the case of a race riot. The patrols are to protect “white citizens in the area who are concerned for their safety” in the wake of the
Trayvon Martin shooting last month, says Commander Jeff Schoep of the National Socialist Movement. “We are not advocating any type of violence or attacks on anybody, but we are prepared for it,” he says. “We are not the type of white people who are going to be walked all over.”
Because nothing diffuses racial tension like gun-toting racial separatists patrolling an already on-edge community.
Congressman Bobby Rush dons a hoodie in support of Treyvon Martin, violating House dress code.
(via topmetesla)
Vigilante Madness in Pearland…Not Just in Sanford, Not Just Trayvon Martin!
It was just another Tuesday evening in a normally quiet neighborhood in Pearland, Texas, where kids are often found playing with one another and driving go-carts.
A family had just returned from Galveston on a spring break excursion, when upon their return, all of a sudden the unthinkable happened.
“You don’t belong in this neighborhood!”
These are the words that Jules Moor, a 13-year old black child, says that Deanna Johnson, a middle-aged white female, said to him after Johnson slammed her 2011 Jeep Wrangler into his go-cart on Tuesday, March 13, 2012.
STRUCK BY VEHICLE - According to court documents obtained from Jules’ attorney, Sylvester Anderson, Jules went for a ride in his go-cart in his neighborhood with another 13-year old boy who had been spending spring break with the Moor family. A third minor boy, another friend of Jules’, rode a small bicycle behind the go-cart.
Jules saw two cars behind him while driving back home, so he decided to drive his go-cart completely off the road to his right onto the grassy edge of the neighborhood park to avoid being in the way of traffic.
It is then that Jules states that Johnson swung her vehicle across the south-bound lane of the road, ran over the curb onto the grass and deliberately and intentionally rammed her vehicle head-on into the go-cart.
According to Jules, Johnson got out of her vehicle and confronted the boys in a hostile and threatening manner yelling “Where do you live? Who are your parents?” while shaking her finger at the kids. Jules goes on to say, “With all due respect, Ma’am, I live down the street,” to which Johnson allegedly tells him that she didn’t care and that she was calling the police.
Jules called his mother and told her that Johnson had hit his go-cart and didn’t know why.
A MOTHER DISRESPECTED
“He thought he was going to die,” said Theresa Moor, mother of Jules. “All I could do was stop what I was doing, grab my keys and make my way to my child.”
As Theresa arrived, she saw that the go-cart had been damaged severely and learned from Jules that Johnson had accused the boys of not living in the neighborhood. As Theresa approached Johnson to find out what happened, Johnson put her palm up to her face in a dismissive manner, refused to talk, went back to her truck and rolled up the windows.
Frustrated at the way things were transpiring, Theresa contacted the police and several Brazoria County Sherriff’s deputies arrived.
According to Theresa, she overheard Johnson claim that she was trying to “detain” the boys because they looked like some kids that they had seen earlier riding bicycles onto the driveways of houses in the neighborhood.
EXTERNAL INJURIES, INTERNAL SCARS
Jules and the other 13-year old boy in the go-cart sustained back and neck injuries as a result of the wreck. The boys had collars placed on their necks, were placed on stretchers and taken by ambulance to the emergency room of Southeast Memorial Hermann Hospital. They were treated and released, but Jules has since been diagnosed with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) and is seeing a therapist regularly.
According to Theresa, her son has been completely traumatized and has not been the same after the ordeal. He doesn’t wish to talk about the wreck.
“My son is not the same,” says Theresa. “He doesn’t want to play outside anymore or leave the house alone. I just don’t know why she did this to my child.”
DUE PROCESS
It is still unclear why Johnson decided to do what she did. Johnson never apologized for ramming her truck into the go-cart and jeopardizing the lives of the three children and according to witnesses, was seen laughing as she spoke with the Sheriff’s deputies.
Johnson was not arrested or drug-tested upon the admission of her actions. The Sheriff’s department Captain that came on the scene decided not to arrest Johnson upon consulting with the District Attorney.
“I don’t think this was handled properly,” says Anderson.
(Source: thepeoplesrecord, via paxamericana)
