Sunday, December 30, 2012

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THE HOLY GRAIL


By Robert Illes
King Arthur: Now stand aside, worthy adversary. 

Black Knight: 'Tis but a scratch. 
King Arthur: A scratch? Your arm's off. 
Black Knight: No it isn't. 
King Arthur: What's that, then? 
Black Knight: [after a pause] I've had worse. 
King Arthur: You liar. 
Black Knight: Come on ya pansy

  November 7th, 2012 – What a relief – in fact, a great pleasure – it is now to watch and/or listen to Mitt Romney, Rush Limbaugh, John Boehner and Fox News. After all this was the day after November 6, 2012 – the date of what was about as crushing a victory for Democrats as could have only been fantasized on November 5th via pre-legal pot (in certain states). In fact for a party of the right, it is ironic how wrong the Republicans and their flacks could be. There was no Dick Morris/George Will/Karl Rove predicted Romney landslide, there was no recapture of the Senate.  Mitch McConnell’s silly determination to make Obama a one term President (and 300 filibusters in support of same) ultimately floundered like a turtle on its back.  Trump birtherism was just stupid hairism.
Now, the day after their mighty and sweeping fail, these once fearsome and forever disgusting sociopaths elicited no fear.  The junk yard dog has lost his teeth.  The mean nun had her knuckles rapped by the Archbishop. Mighty Casey had struck out and languished weeping at his locker. Gandhi was prime minister, and the British Empire was sent home.  There was justice in the world.  Shane had gunned down Jack Wilson and the Rykers. There would be peace in the valley.
They were instantly irrelevant and silly. Karl Rove’s blown $300 million dollars, and stunning melt down on network TV when it was clear the computer network that was supposed to flip the Ohio vote didn’t were awesome to watch.  Whatever attempts ten Republican governors and their crony secretaries of state in ten “battleground” states made to suppress the vote, or flip the vote, or rig the outcome, all failed dismally. 
The Koch Brothers, Dick Armey, Foster Friese (please, with that name!), Morty S. (aka Sheldon) Adelson were not, after all, a league of supermen, and Citizens United was not the invincible Mr. Corporation; he may be human but he was human after all.
So let O’Reilly blab, and Hannity shriek about the war on Christmas.  It’s over. Go home and talk to your family.
At least that was the thinking on November 7th.  Surely they would take this all in, and seriously reflect on how far from reality the Tea Party and Norquist balloons had taken them.
But as the weeks unfolded since 11/6, it was clear defeat was hard to swallow. And that’s to be understood. Well, understood up to a point.
Indeed, initially there was some concession only of their “tone” being reason for defeat, not their policy – how stupid was it that Murdock and Akin blabbed about their feelings about rape and abortion (the very same policy as Paul Ryan – but he was wise enough to count that among his lies by not even mentioning it, rather than lying about it).  Clint Eastwood and the chair was no help.  And it was ceded, nobody liked that guy Romney anyway or his wicked wife anyway.  But for those things, the Republican Party was alive and well. Obama caught a few lucky breaks. Denial. And hey, what mandate? Boehner, failed vice presidential candidate and Ayn Rand denier Paul Ryan and Republican flacks floated a freshly concocted Frank Luntz explanation: no mandate for Obama because, after all, the American public returned the Republican house to power (minus a dozen seats or so, of course) – proof they want divided government! Denial. And, of course, disingenuous since gerrymandering in 2011 had a lot to do with protecting Republican districts.
And before the inkavote ink had dried, there was Romney doubling down on his meme of the Obama having sewed up the freeloaders and takers.  (The sweet irony would come later, when, after straggling precincts had finally tallied their votes, Romney’s popular vote total will stand, in history, at no less than 47%). Denial.
Okay, I’m an empathetic liberal. Sure there’ll be a period of denial, and then that would be followed by anger. Check. Negotiation. Check. And acceptance… no. No acceptance. Back to anger. Back to  denial.
Remember the Black Knight bit from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. “Just a scratch!” There is obviously something beyond denial which that knight possessed, and now seems to have overtaken the Republicans at least in this lame duck period.  It could be called many things, but we all recognize it: delusion.
[King Arthur has just cut the Black Knight's last leg off] 

Black Knight: All right, we'll call it a draw. 
King Arthur: [Preparing to leave] Come, Patsy. 
[King Arthur and Patsy ride off] 
Black Knight: [calling after King Arthur] Oh, oh, I see! Running away, eh? You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what's coming to you! I'll bite your legs off! 

There is a meme in some religions and 12 step groups that says “act as if…” Usually, it’s for the goodness of well being and self esteem, and grounded in reality. Act as if you are brave. Act as if you are happy.
But it’s difficult in an election to act as if you won, when you got shellacked.
And so the headless, legless Republican knight trudges on. Boehner demands concessions from a President in this so-called “fiscal cliff” debate, “concessions” for stuff roundly rejected by the voting public.  John McCain and three luckless sidekicks decided to go after Susan Rice, the well respected Ambassador to the United Nations, because her name was floated to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. Rice was blasted as being, basically, stupid for her dumb ass comments on Meet the Press and other “Sunday shows” – as if these shows are sanctioned by some government agency – about the attacks on the Benghazi consulate on September 11.  They took the baseless attacks on Rice a step further – not only should she be kicked to the curb, but instead, the newly re-elected President was advised by this committee of losers - even before he nominated anybody - to pick Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts (the same guy these same folks allowed to be “swift boated” in 2004 during his failed Presidential run).
The curious side effect of Kerry’s resignation, of course, would be that his Massachusetts senate seat would become vacant and perhaps would almost certainly be an opening for a comeback of Scott Brown who had been handed his butt in the recent election by Elizabeth Warren. Could it be that Machiavellian? Well, oddly, three of the four Senators who trashed Rice – McCain, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Susan Collins of Maine – actively campaigned for Brown. Hmmm.
They lost, remember, and yet deign to call the shots. Denial or delusion? Do they look pathetic, stupid, weird, crazy? Yes, but as G. Gordon Liddy once said, “The trick is not minding.”
And so, regardless of the way America is “trending”, the Republican governors in the aforementioned “swing states” are feverishly concocting anti-abortion, pro-gun, anti-union stripping bills in the dead of night.  As we debate the fiscal cliff and murders in Connecticut, they are quietly knitting in the basement as it were (these people do not sleep), trying, in the case of Pennsylvania and Ohio, to weave a new way of counting electoral votes, based on congressional districts won, so that their states are no longer “winner take all”.  Thumbing their nose, as they have all year, at the bloody battle for voting rights, young punk secretaries of state like John Husted of Ohio desperately connive to stop the wrong people from voting – not with firebombs or beatings, but with bureaucratic morass and long lines.  And since the wrong people succeeded in voting anyway, on November 6, he and others like him will see what he can do about blunting the full force of those damn votes.
The Republicans seem to have an issue with “majority rule”.  In the Senate, they routinely filibuster to stop the majority from ruling. In the general electorate, they must plot to enable their victories even with fewer votes than the other guy gets.  They have their sociopathy covered: Democratic victory didn’t count anyway, it was stolen, you know, by Acorn.  Or there was de facto bribery – so many giveaways were offered up to brown people, naturally they would happily stand in line for 10 hours. Curses! Foiled!  All that Citizens United money down the drain!
For now.
And so there is a quest for Holy Grail of winning by other means.  Bush did ascend to the Presidency despite losing popular AND electorate votes via the Supreme Court in 2000, but that well cannot be expected to quench ever again.  But as their patriotic duty, they must find other ways - so convinced are they of the value of their policies that they must not allow the electorate to hurt itself, lest those policies don’t get enacted? Certainly the simplest thing to do is to act as if, and hope wimpy Dems cave.  Declare victory, and DON’T depart the field.
And then there are the methods of cheating.  But till they take hold, they flail and hope enough are convinced that they DIDN’T really lose. That they are still relevant, dammit. It’s Obama who’s doing nothing about the “fiscal cliff”. He’ll have to try harder because even though he won, big, he’s out of touch with the American people, he doesn’t have a mandate, he’s still a Muslim communist, we really won and we hold all the cards.
The Republicans have truly become the vaunted Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  They have lost a stunning election, and declaring it was “just a scratch!” The knight’s other arm went. Then his legs. But he remained breathtakingly defiant.  In denial. deluded. Here is full Monty Python clip: 

Saturday, September 15, 2012


OHIO BURNING:

of Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman and Hursted

 
Civil rights workers Mickey Schwerner, James Chaney and Andrew Goodman were released from the Philadelphia (Mississippi) jail by deputy sheriff Cecil Price around 10:30 PM the night of June 21st, 1964 after being held five or six hours.  What they didn’t know is that Price had set them up for an ambush further up lonely Route 19 as they headed back to Meridian.

Few things have changed since the recent political conventions. Romney continues opening his mouth with two results: the lies are coming out and the foot is going in.  The feverish attempt to make some political hay out of the recent Cairo and Benghazi embassy attacks - and resultant murder of American diplomats - landed in the same ballpark as some of the greater presidential campaign horrors of all time – right up there with daddy George Romney’s own “I was brainwashed” 45 years ago.  The difference between father and son gaffes, are, of course, senior Romney was telling the truth. Son Romney, as usual, lied.
 
The reason for the flailing and unpresidential remarks on an international event that was still breaking is blatant: after the Democratic convention, aided by a stirring string of oratories by Bill Clinton, Michelle Obama, Julian Castro, Sandra Fluke, Jennifer Granholm, John Lewis, John Kerry and my personal favorite, Deval Patrick, President Barack Obama emerged as the clear favorite in all polls, in all polls within polls, in all swing states. “Democrats need to grow a backbone! “said Patrick. “… I will not stand by while Barack Obama is bullied out of the White House,” He continued with rising passion. “We can’t let SuperPacs tell us who is going to be our next President, or congressman. We’re Americans. We make our own decisions.”

At an earlier campaign stop, Barack Obama said, in response to the crowd: “Don’t boo. Vote!”

Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman had come from New York to join the Freedom Summer project, specifically designed to help black Mississippi citizens register to vote. James Chaney was a CORE activist from Meridian. Deputy Price again pulled them over, but this time had two carfuls of local Klansmen with him. The three workers were placed in the back of the police car. One of the Klansmen, James Jordan, got into the passenger seat. They drove a few miles to a small side road. 

Nobody, it seems, really likes Mitt Romney, or wants him to be President.  He’s proven to be beyond mendacious, devoid of specific ideas. Similarly mendacious and ill equipped for the job is his running mate, Paul Ryan a virtual “mini Mitt”. His campaign and his super rich pals Adelson, Koch and Rove et al. have spent tens of millions of Citizens United bucks in ten swing states, saturating their airwaves with advertisements, yet he’s only lost ground.  He is losing in polls on likability, foreign policy, and trust. He is losing heavily with women, and Latinos, yet is doubling down with the anti-women warriors and anti-immigrant stalwarts at the extreme of the Tea Party.  And a recent poll among blacks shows him trailing Obama 94% to 0.

Zero.

So one might ask, why is this man still smirking? Does he seriously expect to win?

Yeah.  They can cheat.  They can prevent Democrats from voting, especially those 94 to 0 black people in places like Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Richmond, Miami and Cleveland.

Here is John Lewis from the Democratic national convention:

"My dear friends, your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful, nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union. Not too long ago, people stood in unmovable lines. They had to pass a so-called literacy test, pay a poll tax. On one occasion, a man was asked to count the number of bubbles in a bar of soap. On another occasion, one was asked to count the jelly beans in a jar—all to keep them from casting their ballots. Today it is unbelievable that there are Republican officials still trying to stop some people from voting.  They are changing the rules, cutting polling hours and imposing requirements intended to suppress the vote.”

Did you read that? “The most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.”  The vote is sacred, yet at this vaunted Democratic convention, Lewis was pretty much the only one to underscore its being threatened. Obama made a passing mention. Bill Clinton, in his 45 minutes of captivation, did not.

The cars stopped on the lonely road. Schwerner, who had the specific hit ordered on him by Grand Dragon Sam Bowers of the local Klan, was pulled from the car first. Wayne Roberts put his left hand on Schwerner’s shoulder and shot him in the heart with a gun in his right. Goodman was the next to be pulled out of the car and shot dead. Chaney, the black man, was saved for last. He ran, but they caught him. He was beaten ferociously, then shot three times. The bodies were loaded into their station wagon. They were taken to a friendly farm, and buried at the site of a dam. They were covered with tons of dirt. This got the attention of the FBI. Informants cracked, and a semblance of justice was served. But this event led to the Voting Rights act of 1965, and Mississippi was led into the 20th century.

“Don’t boo. Vote,” said Barack Obama at a campaign rally. That’s right, the polls can be bubbling over with optimism, but will mean nothing if people don’t show up to vote.  And they will mean nothing if people show up to vote, and can’t.

And so we come to Mitt and mini-Mitt’s last chance to win in 2012: stopping enough potential Democratic voters from voter. Or make it incredibly confusing just to register. Secretary of State John Hursted, born two years after the 1965 Voting Rights Act was signed into law, is typical of the gaggle of Republican Secretaries of State in key swing states doing his best to thwart Democratic voting in Ohio. Many of the voters targeted for the infamous “Voter I.D.” laws and who will be most injured by the limitation of early voting days will be the elderly, the young, and minorities – mostly black (read likely Democratic voters).  The Voter I.D. seems reasonable, and indeed such a law challenged in Indiana was upheld in 2008 – by Antonin Scalia and the Supreme Court.  But the requirement to get this ID is often daunting, requiring birth certificates that are long lost, travel to department of motor vehicles offices (whose hours have often been cut back, oddly enough), and the like.  Hursted, executing a law passed by the legislature, says it’s all about combating “voter fraud”. But a guy in Philadelphia (not Mississippi, Pennsylvania this time) let the cat out of the voter suppression bag:  Pennsylvania's House Majority Leader, Mike Turzai: “(Legislation requiring) Voter ID, which is gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done!”

Similarly, Mississippi Senator Theodore Bilbo, in 1944, declared "If the poll tax bill passes, the next step will be an effort to remove the registration qualification, the educational qualification of Negroes. If that is done we will have no way of preventing the Negroes from voting."

“On another occasion, a man was asked to count the number of jelly beans in a jar,” said John Lewis. And he would know.

Lewis was a civil rights hero long before he came into Congress. He was beaten and bloodied throughout the south, working with Martin Luther King and others, in his efforts to register mostly black voters.  He and his coworkers were so thwarted by Sheriff Jim Clark in the city of Selma, Alabama that he sought help from the greater civil rights movement. And so a protest march was organized to go from Selma to Montgomery. Part of that involved crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

On March 7, 1965—a day that would become known as "Bloody Sunday”– Lewis and others led over 600 marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. They were met by police and state troopers. When the marchers stopped to pray, the police and mounted troopers charged the demonstrators, beating them with night sticks. A national television network broke away from presenting “Judgment at Nuremberg” (just to add to the irony), and broadcast the melee live before 60 million viewers.

Lewis's skull was fractured, but he escaped across the bridge, to a church in Selma. President Lyndon Johnson was moved to act.

John Hursted of Ohio, 2012, no doubt following orders (no pun intended vis a vis the just mentioned Judgment at Nuremberg) first got attention as part of this disturbing widespread voter suppression scheme when he agreed to allow Republican leaning counties to have early voting, and extended voting hours, but not the Democratic leading counties. Since this seemed an even more direct partisan scheme than Turzai of Pennsylvania copped to, Hursted was quickly compelled to correct this. He did; he simply cut back extended weekday voting for everybody, such a non partisan guy he is. But he still was determined to roll back the 3 day voting prior to Election Day. That would include the African-American church tradition of “take your souls to the polls” the Sunday before election day. Meanwhile, two Montgomery (not Alabama, Ohio this time) County officials voted to allow their voters to vote on weekends, since that wasn’t specifically precluded from Husted’s order.  Hursted, ever the dutiful martinet, said they were violating his memo, and told them to stop interfering with his efforts. They refused, and, after a “hearing”, were fired.  

And as for the rollback of voting the three days before election day, a federal judge said nonsense, that’s worked fine the last few years, rescind that order. Former Republican Senator Mike DeWine, now state attorney general, was determined to appeal this ruling. And Hursted refused to rescind it, in defiance of the judge. The judge slapped him back, and Hursted suddenly agreed to comply.

Such is the determination in this Koch Brothers / ALEC world to put a big thumb on the playing field (as if unlimited campaign contributions was not enough). But as Reverend Al Sharpton says while everybody thought the south’s Jim Crow was gone, but he has re-emerged albeit in disguise, gussied up as Jameson T. Crow, Esq. But with the same results as his ancestor.  This time it’s Voter ID’s not jelly beans.

President Johnson spoke to a joint session of congress to present the Voting Rights act of 1965: “Even if we pass this bill, the battle will not be over. What happened in Selma is part of a far larger movement which reaches into every section and state of America. It is the effort of American Negroes to secure for themselves the full blessings of American life. Their cause must be our cause, too, because it is not just Negroes but really it is all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.”

Johnson purposefully used the civil rights movement anthem of “we shall overcome”.  No doubt that was also the moment Richard Nixon hit upon the Southern Strategy for 1968. But that’s another story.
This voting rights act was not just the culmination of efforts of Lewis, and King, and so many others, and the martyring of the three civil rights workers, but also the millions who gave their lives in World War II. And the culmination hasn’t culminated. The voter suppression is rampant in the United States this year. Ohio is burning, but so is Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Indiana, Virginia, Michigan. Colorado. Young white guy John Hursted perhaps should read some history, for he is taking on a rather awesome responsibility to nullify all that people fought and died for.

John Lewis, seeing a new battle in 2012 after hoping it had been won in the 60’s – like all the other battles being refought on other fronts this year: "I've seen this before. I've lived this before. Too many people struggled, suffered and died to make it possible for every American to exercise their right to vote. We have come too far together to ever turn back. So we must not be silent. We must stand up, speak up and speak out. We must march to the polls like never before."

Patricia Carroll, the black CNN camera person who had peanuts thrown at her at the Tampa Republican Convention, said: "I can't change these people's hearts and minds. This should be a wake-up call to black people.  We were living in euphoria for a while. People think we've gone further than we have."

What we risk is the election of Grover Norquist’s dream generic president: one who has digits that can work a pen and sign what is placed in front of him by a Republican dominated congress. Is that focused greed goal worth trampling on the graves of Schwerner, Chaney and Goodman, who died defending our right to vote?   

Oh you bet it is. 

 “Agitate!” said Frederick Douglass, when asked by a young man about what to do to make the society a better place. “Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!”

Douglass was one of the first black fighters for civil rights, including voting rights – in the 19th century.  Apparently, it doesn’t end.

 
http://www.laprogressive.com/schwerner-chaney-goodman/

Friday, April 6, 2012

TRAYVON’S PUNCH


By Robert Illes
The best news I heard
about the ongoing Trayvon Martin case is, it turns out, before he was shot to
death on February 26, 2012, he allegedly punched his assailant George Zimmerman
in the nose, and pummeled him on the ground.
Now I don’t believe that for a second, and this likely fable is no doubt part of the
scheme to torch the victim’s character (and cover Zimmerman’s ass), but if
anybody deserved a punch in the nose, and a good old school ass kicking, it is
George Zimmerman – even if it’s just in fiction.
But quite possibly Trayvon did throw a punch, when this latter day
Barney Fife seemed to be stalking him. Was
he a robber? A predator? At least Barney of Mayberry had a uniform, a badge and
was a real deputy sheriff. George Zimmerman didn’t even reach Fife standards…
with the added difference there was no genial supervisor, like Sheriff Andy, to
make sure George kept his gun unloaded as he neighborhood watched for “fucking
coons” roaming about. But this Barney Fife had his gone loaded with real bullets.
Anyway, for me, at least there is the newly minted image that Trayvon went down fighting for his life – “standing his ground” don’t you know, in the spirit of Jeb Bush’s NRA written law. And by the
way it is called the “stand your ground” law, not “follow a guy around and
shoot him” law. Meanwhile, at this writing, Sanford cops evidently continue to leak despicable info about Martin, ever molding this All American kid into one of those very scary gangstas, stoked on reefer, lurking
beneath a hoodie, wearing gold teeth and having the nerve to walk on our public
streets, freaking out white people. And the Orlando Sentinel seems compelled to
dutifully publish these leaks, Drudge-style.
And then there’s one Mr. Joe Oliver, self-styled Zimmerman supporter and
friend (in some vague sense), making the media rounds, even suggesting the
encounter was a “him or me” situation. “One of them was going to get shot that
night.” Oliver also dismissed Zimmerman’s 2005 violent encounter with a cop and
subsequent anger management training with “people change!”… claims George said
“goons” not “coons” on the 911 tape, citing “My daughter says 'goons' is a term
of endearment!”… and that he recognizes it was his dear friend wailing for help
on tape, not the soon to be dead kid.
By contrast, the only new info on George
Zimmerman himself, other than Oliver’s rambling speculations, seems to be his
new smiling picture.
What makes it most curious is that all the
concrete indicators, such as the 911 tapes, and certain of the ear-witnesses, among them Martin’s
girlfriend who was on the cellphone with Martin moments before the shooting
point to Zimmerman’s being the stalker and the perpetrator. Perhaps that is true, perhaps Zimmerman was in
a fight for his life. But this we know:
had he stayed in his car and stopped following Trayvon as ordered, there would
be no story. Conversely, there seems to
be no concrete indicators of Martin being the aggressor.
But we’ll probably never know key facts,
considering the ultra shoddy police work. Hey, I watch Forensic Files and CSI
franchise –I know it’s de rigueur for the investigation cops arriving
at the crime scene take photos, note bloody noses or bloody shirts, DNA on the
victim’s hands (to see if in fact he did punch George), etc. The cops on the
scene, responding to another of Zimmerman’s countless 911 calls, took note of
none of this – except for Zimmerman’s word.
Zimmerman’s account of being punched and pummeled lacks credibility for
these reasons, and the fact that it mysteriously has taken weeks of cable news
reportage and Limbaugh’s setting who’s on which side of this tragedy for this
rather astounding information to “leak”.
And perhaps weirdest of all, no effort was
made to reach Trayvon’s next of kin for at least three days. His father even
made a call to his cell phone, which of course went unanswered. They also
managed to do a drug test on the young man, but not on Barney Fife II. Was
George that well connected?
Late breaking news has a detective on the
scene calling for Zimmerman to be charged. A witness says her information was
ignored. The entire credibility of the Sanford Police Force was immediately in
question. Were they hamstrung by the Jeb Bush law or was it the good ole boys
at work? After the news broke – and all
hell, nearly a month after the shooting, the Police Chief stepped down and a
special prosecutor was hired. But the police leaks continue, and so do the
protests, and right wingers drawing lines in the sand.
As now portrayed, and the reason for turning
Trayvon into the next Tupac, it is indeed a classic case for the “Stand Your Ground”
law: Poor Zimmerman is confronted by a black gangsta punk (not an All American
black kid as initially, and inconveniently, portrayed), and, fearing for his
life, blows him away as if in an NRA wet dream.
So as the story has progressed, like much of
just about anything in the news these days, we are no longer merely talking
about a tragic incident in an obscure suburb of Orlando. Rather, it has become a significant,
all-encompassing tipping point in our national discourse. There are more than
just a paranoid shooter, a dead teenager, bereaved parents, angry blacks and
frightened whites.
George Zimmerman’s fateful decision to ignore
the dispatcher’s admonition to stand down have the Sanford police dispatcher
and pursue the “fucking coon” may yet turn out to be one of the most
significant moments in this election cycle, and, in turn, in the nation’s
history. Hyperbole? Well, maybe for people not paying attention till now.
Trayvon Martin has punched something bigger
than George Zimmerman’s nose. An actual punch, not lawyer spin. It’s not even
my spin. It’s real and it’s palpable.
What started out to be a human tragedy just
about everybody, including Malkin, Limbaugh, Geraldo, Fox, Friends and even
assorted Republican presidential candidates could sympathize with, somebody saw
an opening – Frank Luntz, Karl Rove, David Koch -- who knows?
And a huge reason for concern. They HAD to
get out in front of this, Grover Norquist-style – drown it in the bathtub! Too
many people, from Obama on down, were being compassionate and caring and
sympathetic about this situation. See, compassion,
care and sympathy are all anathemas to the right wing. And Americans coming together, united –
around the wrong thing of course (9/11 was OK) – that’s really dangerous. It screws
up the whole divide and conquer strategy.
Such stuff causes people to vote Democratic,
and do things like rethink gun laws, pervasive racism – everything! It all goes
back to the master plan. Must preserve the master plan! And that goes back to a long string of
legislation, particularly about gun rights, and self-defense rights.
Everybody on the right rallied to the cause
– of defending George Zimmerman.
There’s Fox, Friends and Geraldo to the
rescue: it was the hoodie! And “look,
the Obama campaign is selling hoodies!
Why are they politicizing this, bringing race into this, dividing
people?” As they divide people. And, of course, the ever reliable Limbaugh:
“(Zimmerman) was being a little overzealous!” And then there’s Andrew
Breitbart’s heir apparent, self hating, anchor baby Michelle Malkin, posting
online a more pleasant, happy photo of Mr. Zimmerman, rather than the dour one
we are used to. But next to that
picture, by contrast and in order to advance the agenda, was supposedly a photo
of Trayvon Martin from his Facebook page, with lowered pants and hiked up boxer
shorts, gangster-style, giving the finger. Death penalty for him!
Of course, turns out, in true to the
Breitbart tradition, it was NOT a real picture of Martin, and, with or without
shame, was soon taken down.
But of course all of this is simply a
diversion for the real story, the big picture, The Master Plan.
Going back to 2005, about the time George
Zimmerman was punching cops and taking anger management courses, the “Stand
Your Ground” law was almost wholly written by the American Legislative Exchange
Council, (ALEC), a shady group cynically fueled by the Koch Brothers, major
corporations and such advocacy groups as the NRA. Fearful there weren’t enough
guns and shooting situations available, the NRA got their puppets in the
Florida legislature to pass “Stand Your Ground” and Jeb Bush to sign it.
Apparently to make sure he signed it properly, there was an NRA lobbyist Marion
Hammer standing over the governor’s shoulder as he did so.
Since then, dozens of Floridians have been
shot and some killed by individuals citing the “Stand Your Ground” law – i.e.,
if I feel threatened in public (not just in my house or car), I can take out my
trusty piece and “defend” myself. And
since then, dozens of other states have eagerly passed the same loophole ridden
law. In one case, Democratic Pennsylvania
governor Ed Rendell vetoed it. But his Republican successor, Tom Corbett,
signed it.
Elections have consequences.
Yes elections, those goddamn elections. Also
part of the Plan. And that is where the Citizens United comes in, perhaps the most
despicable and infamous 5-4 decision since Bobby Thomson’s homer beat the
Dodgers. Citizens United of course enables unlimited bucks to be poured into
elections by corporations, anonymously. Why? Because the corporations love
capitalism but hate actual democracy. Of course they want to elect Republican puppets
to local, state and national office, in order to effect (and write, thanks to
ALEC) laws that affect – or more specifically, don’t – affect them, get rid of
the pesky Democratic Party supporting unions, lower taxes for gizillionaires,
reduce government regulations that interfere with gizillionaires befouling the
air, running crappy coal mines or Gulf drilling rigs, more privatization of
services such as mail delivery, cops, prisons. Prisons, where scary punks of
color like Trayvon can be warehoused, as a service to states and funded by
taxes other people pay.
And so that brings us to the 99%’rs, the
“Occupiers”, who are wise to and fed up with the direction we are being taken
by the Koch Brothers, Karl Rove, the Supreme Court, the NRA, Exxon and the
other usual suspects. This is precisely what “Occupy” was bitching about, with
a lot more to bitch about every day, in fact, the many, many things represented
by the Trayvon case: ignorant or incompetent or corrupt authority, racism,
guns, corporate written laws.
It’s all there, and that is why the right
wing is desperate to manage the message.
Like pulling the thread on a cheap Chinese
made suit sold at Kohl’s, the consequences can be enormous. If the Trayvon Martin case makes people think
about “Stand Your Ground”, and how idiotic stalker Zimmerman is trying to hide
behind it, and how absurd it is to have a wild west atmosphere with guns guns
guns everywhere. And how crappy this and
other crazy draconian laws are (vaginal probes, union busting, voter
suppression, etc). This is a big deal, and
could easily get out of hand, what with Al Sharpton and everybody else talking
it up. And getting bigger.
The story has to be reframed - stat! Make Trayvon the perp, that’s
easy.
And, as always, as an added bonus – there’s
political hay to be made! Obama mourns black kids not white ones (well except
for Christina Taylor Green, the 9-year-old killed during the Gabbie Giffords
spree).
And so it has gone. Will it work? Not if
people in the 99% start to finally pay
attention. With this case, they just might. If folks see the bigger picture of
what this incident represents, then, the teenager in Sanford with so much
potential will not have died in vain.
Trayvon Martin may have punched us all in
the nose. Hopefully, if not before, it will get our attention now.