The OWL

Sunday, July 14, 2013

'PROOF' : "INTENT"

YOUR "Legal" "I.Q." ??

Before we wade into the coming discussions of the "Trayvon" Trial; we should first check out our "Legal I.Q." ? Remember when Defense Attorney O'Mara pleaded with the all-white (one "near-white") female jury to "disregard their common sense"? Why did he do that?

He knew that members of juries (and, especially THIS jury) rarely have legal training.

For instance, he probably knew that words like PROOF, have strict legal definitions that change with varying facts of a case. But, for most juries, PROOF boils down to whatever A member will ACCEPT as "proof". It depends on what lies deep in the recesses of a juror's mind.

He also knows, I'm sure, that INTENT, similarly has many and varying legal definitions. To determine what Zimmerman's intent was in the case, we would have to probe deeply into his mind; into his state-of-mind. O'mara did everything the law allowed to deny us from getting a glimpse of Zimmerman's "Intent" in this case. He did so by keeping Zimmerman off the Witness Stand, and, thereby, avoiding his cross-examination by the Prosecution.

When jurors are carefully selected, a good attorney can virtually guarantee that certain "facts" and "evidence" will, (or will not), pervade the thinking of the juror, to gain fair consideration. Religious beliefs, and racial beliefs, are examples of the kind of forces within an individual's mind that will work in predictable ways -- thereby making it impossible to "prove" anything! Playing consciously or sub-consciously to a juror's prejudices becomes crucial to the desired outcome. We saw a lot of that in this case.

These factors have to be taken into account whenever judicial trial is chosen to seek "justice". "
Truth remains elusive. Lying under oath was rampant in the trial. Both parents claimed it was their son screaming for HELP!

Stay Vigilant! Don't trip over your own thought processes.

WHOSE "DOG" IN THIS FIGHT ??

White "Finger-Pointing" Begins??

The mayor of Sanford, Florida, came on "Meet The Press" this morning, and claimed for Sanford: "We don't have a dog in this fight" !! Who the hell is "WE"??; the white citizens of Sanford (more than 70%)?; the "Hispanic" citizens of Sanford (less than 20%)?; the black citizens of Sanford (slightly more than 10%?). He is supposed to be the mayor for ALL Sanford citizens!

If "WE" are not "in the fight", who the hell is?? The Defense Lawyers? The Prosecution Lawyers? The State of Florida (less: "WE" in Sanford)? Where do Trayvon and his family reside? (On the MOON, I guess). This jerk who "serves" Sanford is, sadly, typical of urban leadership in this country; but he fails ALL of his citizens; just as those carefully selected women who formed that jury did. This is what lynching looks like in the 21st century in these United States.

Insofar as the non-white citizenry of Sanford, and the nation, are concerned; I'm afraid the same old rickety machinery of "Civil" Rights will be rolled out to "fix" our problems. That is "so 20th Century"! The youth of this nation (of ALL COLORS) will be betrayed, unforgivably, if we do that!

The United States Senate, for more than a generation, led by the likes of Senator Hatch of Utah, has been very carefully "packing" courts all over this country with "their kind" of federal judges. The late Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, who was a national expert on this topic, warned us about "White Robes" being swapped in favor of "Black Robes". The Defense Team, in the Martin Case, did a brilliant job of using the "law" to subvert Justice.

This event in Sanford is simply the "Cherry" atop a "crap-cake" that the Republican Party began cooking up for us since the administration of Richard Nixon. A great deal of money has been invested, and the corruption is clearly visible in all branches of our federal government, as well as in our state governments. Nothing less that hands-on involvement by all citizens, at all levels, is required.

I spent two years (2003-2005) living in Miami, working through the Miami-Dade Chamber of Commerce to get an in-depth look at that city and its several "communities" for an evaluation of small and mini-sized businesses owned by non-whites. One thing I learned in those two years, was that the state of Florida plans its construction of "prison-beds", based upon the number of black males who fail basic reading tests in THIRD GRADE! Who "governed" that state when I was there? Jeb Bush! He was our "Benefactor" for "Florida-2000" and all of our "horrors" in the wake of 2000.

Stay Vigilant! Trayvon has "outed" all of us.

Saturday, July 13, 2013

A NATION IN SHAME !!

Using "The Law" to make Murder "Legal"!!

Whether or not you have legal training; a blind man could see this coming! As signaled in my July 12, 2013 Blog: Riding "THE ELEPHANT" to "INNOCENCE" ??; "Justice" from the " Hell Hole" still has that familiar foul smell. This nation's vaunted "justice system" is, once again, crapped on by its own. This time, the deed was aided by white women! That must be the "improvements" we got from being "color blind" and "post-racial"!

Whites in this country know better than to believe, in any way, that justice was done today; for anybody! The problem is that the "good" whites do too little to make any significant change.

For non-whites in this gun-totin' country, its long past time to return to the practices of my parents and theirs before them. Take charge of raising and educating your children in ways that they can protect themselves and prosper in this society!! For Pete's Sake!; the slaves did a better job at that than we're doing!! The slaves taught their children to read, when they, themselves, could not. The slaves taught their children how to survive the kind of crap we're seeing paraded before us, (and the world), over the past several years.

We've enriched a Media, and a Political Party, both of which have gorged themselves on Race, and now we're on the verge of seeing our country turned into something none of us will recognize (unless you lived in Germany in the 1930s).

Vigilance is the price of Liberty! Action, at all levels, is long overdue! Time for THINKING, NOT "FEELING", or praying! The Angel is dead. The Devil goes free.

"CPAC" NATION ??

Are We Headed for "Romney-Land"??

As the United States Senate escapes from the T.V. cameras to contemplate its bowels, we continue to feel the water rise, and our sense of "drowning" as a nation increases. For some of us, since the 1980 election of "Ronnie"; and for everyone else, after 9/11; a sense that something is seriously and fundamentally wrong in our nation; has been with us.

After losing his bid for the Presidency in 2012, Mitt Romney appeared before CPAC http://nation.foxnews.com/mitt-romney/2013/03/15/mitt-romney-s-full-cpac-2013-speech, and told the following to continue their assault on government from our state-government level. Last week, the 50th state passed "concealed-carry" gun laws. The Congress recently defied more than 90% of the people and refused to deal with gun control. You don't have to be paranoid to suspect that there is a stealthy coup underway in this country today. The U. S. Senate is beginning to look like the "Alamo"!

If we dig deeply, we will find the "root" that runs back to the old, southern, white "gentlemen" who dominated our government since our founding. Power and assertiveness of blacks and Hispanics, is growing. Curiously, those two groups were the people hated most by those combatants in the Alamo. As for the Senate; the Senators from the South (Graham's "Hell Hole"), cannot be considered "gentlemen".

Senator McConnell laments that these are "dark days" for the Senate. We can wonder if he is taking credit for that condition, or complaining that, unlike the House, the Senate still functions.

In Romney-world, the "53%" would rule over women and minorities, while making dissent impossible. From gun laws, to women's health, to voter suppression; we can no longer deny that we are in the grip of a nation-wide movement.

Unlike the shooter in Connecticut, the shooter in Florida, after being allowed to walk free by local police, has appeared before the nation and the world in a jury trial. The trial proceedings, thanks to the individuals who fashioned and conducted his defense, took us all deep into the psyche and mind-set of our white citizens, emphasizing their fear of black males. The picture painted is both pathetic and despicable! It does not portend a very peaceful future ahead for the citizens of this country.

Media and Politics are twin forces that continue to "torque" our society to its breaking point.

Stay Vigilant! Romney-Land; Do we need to "go there" ?

Friday, July 12, 2013

Riding "THE ELEPHANT" to "INNOCENCE" ??

The "Original Sin" -- New View!

At this point in the Trayvon Martin murder trial, Mark O'Mara, defense attorney, is making his summary to the all-female jury. After taking great pains to exclude blacks from the jury, the attorneys are tip-toeing around the central element in the case -- racial beliefs and attitudes in this country. O'mara, in his summary defense of Zimmerman, invokes the Constitution of the United States; which not only excludes blacks from the benefits of the Constitution; it excludes blacks from the human race! (The Roberts Court is taking us back to Taney; and beyond?)

Everyone (who has an I.Q. above 10) knows that this case revolves around race. The facts that Trayvon is dead, and that Zimmerman shot him, are not in dispute. What is in dispute is whether Zimmerman is guilty of Murder-Two! O'Mara applies tortuous reasoning, mixed with gender condescension, in his "conversation" with the women on the jury. It is consistent with the air of condescension exhibited by the Defense toward the female judge in the case.

Although the judge is allowing the jury to consider a lesser charge of Manslaughter: O'Mara is basing his pitch to this jury as if the only charge they will consider is Murder Two. That is because the "beyond a reasonable doubt" factor applies in the Murder Two charge. So far, the Prosecution has left the door wide open for "doubt" in the testimony they have presented.

By excluding anyone who can speak legitimately regarding racial beliefs and attitudes toward criminals and "justice" in this society, O'Mara has created a huge elephant to "ride" toward "innocence" or "acquittal". (Johnny Cochran with a twist??) As with Cochran, O'Mara is staying within his racial "comfort zone", hoping the jury shares that zone.

To encapsulate his odds, O'Mara has taken multiple opportunities to go with Zimmerman before the most racist televised media we have; and has said nothing while his client lied and contradicted himself in regard to the facts of the case. This way, he poisons the public's mind by appealing to prevailing prejudices.

Over the past year and eight months, we've seen this national view of race play out in the public's response to the Republican's (the other riders of "elephants") staunch refusal to comply with the results of the 2012 election. These events should make it plain to everyone, regardless of race, (with an I.Q above 10), exactly where we're headed as a nation and as a society!

Stay Vigilant! What did the Constitution have to say about Mexicans? About Latinos? Stay tuned.

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

"RABID" INDIVIDUALISM

The "Struggle" Continues

Frontline's airing last night of their documentary showing the economic plight of Two American Families, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ , should tie together, for all citizens of this country, and the world, exactly what is happening, economically, to ALL of us!

Following the financial struggles of two families, one black, and one white, as they raised their children over a period of 20 years; they paint a grim picture of what lies ahead for this nation, and this planet -- unless we change our ways.

We have entered a phase of "individualism" in the "developed" nations, that pit race against race, wealthy against poor (within all races), husbands against wives, and children against everybody! In the "developing" nations, incomes were rising slightly (until recently-- they are beginning to slow and plateau); we're seeing this phenomenon played out in tribal and religious strife. This type of rabid individual and social behavior will, eventually, consume everything! There will be no "dream" (American, or otherwise) for anyone to pursue.

We've been here before! Read David Kennedy's "tome", Freedom From Fear, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_M._Kennedy_(historian), and you will get the full picture. The "rabid individualism" of the 1920s produced the social and economic devastation of the 1930s. The cure, then, for those economic and social ills, was the establishment of "stakes" in our economy for all classes and races, and a "Social Contract". That solution held until 1980. With the election of "Mad Ronnie" and the rise of the extreme right, those social stakes began to be destroyed; resulting in the economic rot we see rising in our country today.

From the founding of this nation, we have worshipped the "individual", (think explorer, conquistador, pioneer, cowboy, mountain man), while ignoring the cooperation and community they required to produce every "achievement" we now point to as a nation. From the beginning, the black slave and the native peoples were excluded from humanity, and from history, in the minds and the belief systems of the encroaching whites. That way of life is playing out under the demographic impacts of ageing and declining birth rates.

At the same time, we're busily destroying the Federal Government's powers that produced the cure to our economic ills in the 1930s. Get the picture??

Stay Vigilant! Let's get back to "basics"??

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

A TALE OF TWO GRANDFATHERS

"Non-White" ECONOMICS?? (About: Money & Choice)

A "special blessing" from a long life, is "Grand-Children". As a grandfather, I often reflect on my own; one I knew well, learning a lot of my life skills; the other, stayed in the "shadows", appearing at times like some "phantom" , and seen by few.

Both were born in the late Nineteenth Century; both were businessmen. One provided well for his wife and children; the other did not. My father had to quit school at the age of 12 to become the "man of the house", in 1918. His father deserted the farm that year to take up a life made possible by the Volstead Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volstead_Act. What money he made (it was rumored to be substantial) did not flow down to any of us.

My mother's father opened his Haberdashery and Dry Cleaning business in 1907, on the side of Main Street reserved for "Negro" businesses in a rigidly segregated town. He struggled, battling both black and white enemies, to stay in business for 50 years. His sister, Mattie Bridgewater, and her husband, Tyler, were key participants in the "Black Wall Street" phenomenon that occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the 1920s.

My mother, along with her sister and brother, lived privileged lives in the 1920s, that included college educations. I learned my work habits and my financial management skills from those grandfathers: directly from my mother's father, and indirectly (through my father) from his dad.

Our national economy (and global economy in many ways) is passing through a phase unlike any we've seen before. We all may have to study closely what my parents and all citizens in this nation did to survive the Great Depression. Community, in many manifestations, served them all well, regardless of race. We won't be that fortunate. The pernicious social and political conditions today result from deliberate assaults on the concept of "community" in any form except "financial". Religion has abandoned its historical role in the lives of the citizens of this nation; preferring to follow the politicians as they grub for money and power.

All the more reason to re-visit tried-and-true methods of attaining economic security. Those economic methods may become more important now than ever before. Things like: not funding your enemies, know where your money goes, manage your money closely, delay material consumption.

Above all, know who you can trust to be honest, and who can be trusted to handle money well.

Stay Vigilant! Know who gets "paid" for what you "watch"!!