Shooting of N.Y. Police is a Tragedy

The volleys of political attack are flying back and forth.  Protests against police shooting people in questionable circumstances versus the murder of police officers.  

My stepson works in Stockton.  He is a fireman and EMT.  He tells us about the climate down there, the mean streets.

He talks about the filfth, the depressing circumstances, the crime, the violence.

His  former girlfriend, also an EMT in Stockton, actually was part of a "game" that counted the murders and bet that Stockton would beat other cities for the most homicides.

Most of these homicides were by firearm.

So the African-Americans protest along with liberal whites about the alarming rate of police initiated shootings.  And Fox News rails about the shooting of the two New York policemen casting blame on the liberals for supporting the protests.  

And we all scream at each other, vying for political advantage with a general population that more and more doesn't give a damn.

That's right:  doesn't give a damn.  In the recent elections, people did not show up to vote.  The conservative base did show up some and the result is a more conservative representation than really exists in the country.

So we will be entertained by their high jinks for a couple years, alientating and intensifying the depression of the general population that things are so wrong nobody can do anything.

And what is wrong?  There are places in this country that no white person would go into.  There are places in this country that no person of color dare traverse.  The penalty for this is violence and possible death.

We all know this,  We also all know that there are millions of young people of color incarcerated for everything from shoplifting to getting high on marijuana (that is legal in several states) and have been recruited into street gangs who exist to kill and intimidate.  

In short the mean streets are getting meaner.  The homocide rate in Stockton will probably set another record in 2015.  

And it seems that nobody gives a damn.  

And this is by design.   Many conservatives are using the "there is no racism, its all fixed" and liberals who brag about the "growth of the African American Middle Class", have chosen to ignore the issue.

The issue that still plagues America is gun violence coupled with racism.   And, since it now is anchored by the incarceration epidemic that has seen the jailing and criminalization of millions of people, certain areas of the country are getting to be shooting galleries.

Police and Firemen have to patrol these mean streets.  These streets, of inner Stockton for example, none of us will go into.  But Police and Fire personnel do everyday.

And there is great danger.  And they sometimes shoot first and ask questions later.

And that is the point.   The issue is NOT that police are inhuman animals shooting children.  The issue is racism is still very much with us all; coupled with a gun culture that has everyone armed.

You reap what you sow according to the old saying.  Violence begets violence.  

Guns are easy to get.  Movies and video games glorify gun violence.  Children learn that problems can be solved with a gun.   And we jail people of color for practically spitting on the sidewalk, put them into jails where gangs rule; and then wonder when people are released that they are much "meaner" than when they went in.

We have all created this.  We perpetuate it when we turn on MSNBC or Fox and revel in the opinion that supports our personal stereotypes:  that cops are evil, or that black men are evil.

And the society spins further into the vortex of despair and violence.

Merry fricking Christmas.  

Does Anyone Think Anymore

Ok, let's postulate for a minute.  Let's assume that the ancient Supreme Court ruling that First Amendment Rights are conditioned by the "yelling fire in a crowded theater" analogy.

The point of the ruling is that free speech is not unconditional.  There are times when free speech must be compromised.  Common sense does count for something, even by mega-corporations like Sony who must have thought they were bullet proof from stupid!

We see that in legal cases all the times free speech is NOT unconditional.  Grand Juries cannot divulge their deliberations.  There are penalties if a juror breaks this demand of silence.

The mess over the immature and probably not funny "The Interview" is a good example of wrong First Amendment assumptions.

Sony, without any preparation for possible fall out, produced a film that postulated that a couple idiot media wonks  would be recruited by the CIA and attempt to assassinate the  North Korean Dictator.   This is the same dictator who has sponsored cyber attacks in the past on suspected opponents.  This is the same dictator who possesses nuclear weapons.

This comes on the heels  of the disclosure that the CIA tortured dozens of suspected terrorists.  Then, once the report came out, the CIA and conservative politicians went on a rant that the report was unfair; that torture was good in that it developed actionable intelligence.  And this mess had no effect on deranged Islamic extremists?  There is little doubt that the practice of torture helped the terrorist cause, in a real sense making martyrs of them!

So, the CIA that admitted widespread torture, that violated international law, is depicted by a comedy film trying to assassinate an North Korean dictator as a "good " and rational group?

Really????

And America, tone deaf to the maximum, is in an uproar that Sony's "free speech" has been abrogated.  Many are calling for action.  What, should we bomb them for being upset that a film proposed killing their leader?

Really?  How would we feel if North Korea made a film about killing our leader?

There is no free speech at risk here.  Sony intended to make money with a film that uses a spy agency training a couple idiots to kill the leader of another country.

And North Korea got mad.  And it appears they cyper -attacked Sony.  It appears they punished irresponsible free speech.

This attack by the way,  shows the ridiculouly low security American computer systems use.  It also shows that Sony had no plan B, and never considered any blow-back from a notorious unstable regime.

It also shows that Americans are an incredibly arrogant lot!

In a real sense Sony yelled fire in a crowded theater and got nailed for it.  And there is nothing anybody can really do about it.


Look, I rarely agree with the NRA, but they are right when they focus on violent movies and video games that encourage gun violence.   Video game violence has been proven to drive unstable individuals to violence yet media companies continue making them.  Movie violence sells in the American market, so the idea that a gun can solve problems by blowing the opponent away, is repeated incessantly.

So don't cry when some disturbed young person comes to school and shoots someone. Demand that gun violence be curbed by irresponsible media companies!

And, Sony making a film that makes fun of killing a leader that many disagree with is in the same vein.  It isn't funny to North Korea for sure to watch a plot to poison their leaders.  In a very real sense Sony screamed fire in a crowded theater.

Finally, why does the media react so massively when a terrorist, be he/she a deranged individual or an organized group, strikes?  During WWII there was an agreement to not show dead American soldiers for at least two years of the war.  This was done for morale and intelligence purposes (showing dead soldiers while America  was losing the war and divulging battlefield locations were agreed upon taboos).

Today, the "free world" is locked in a struggle with Islamic terrorists.  And, America's media companies show absolute no restraint in covering their insane acts of violence.

And there is no doubt that offering free publicity does NOT discourage acts of violence.  In fact,the  media everyday uses violence and sex to sell products with absolutely no regard for blowback.  Similarly, the idiotic handling of "The Interview" certainly did not discourage crazy acts from the North Korean regime.  In fact, it encourages them.

You yell "fire" in a crowded theater, you are irresponsible, then don't come crying to us if you pay for it.  And stop encouraging  terrorism.  Sony just lost millions because of media crying fire in a crowded theater.

Free speech is NOT unconditional.

The Tragedy of Ethnocentrism

Today I got an email from a friend who railed against multi-culturism.  It seems in Canada Moslems are complaining that required P.E. classes infringe on their religious right.  The article claimed that the "political correctness" of having empathy for that position and seeking to accomodate that must "finally" end.

I see this position all the time.  The railing at "political correctness" that sees cultural diversity as somehow un American, unpatriotic and "we are simply sick and tired of it" .  The article resorted to the cliche, "If they don't like Canada's Laws then let them leave".

Today, in the United States, we see an anti-immigration movement that attacks cultural differences, language differences, and brands many law abiding citizens or non-citizens as dangers or threats to "America".

So, I asked my friend what Canada and the United States had done to those cultures that were already here when Europeans and other "immigrants" came into conflict over land?  You know, that pesky genocide thing!

What happened?  You all KNOW what happened.  The "dominant" culture destroyed the other cultures in short order.  This was done through religious "order" through direct military action and genocide.

Today, we see the "Redskins" as the mascot of a NFL team in the United States' Capitol.

And if you say anything, you are attacked as being overly "politically correct".

I can and probably should list the literally thousands of etnocentric destruction of culture that western civilization has manifested on millions of people over the past five hundred years.  I could mention the World Wars, the genocide that western culture has perpetrated on the world.

But we still get the "wounded" statements that "political correctness" is "endangering" our way of life.

I have a news flash for you, at the present rate WE are endangering our way of life more every day than ANY immigrant or different cultural group.

Western Civilization as a culture is the dominant culture in the world.  China and India are trying full time to be more western.  And, they are fouling the environment, possess nuclear weapons, and spend more money on "defense" than on their chilrens' welfare.

The United States, the present leader of western civilization as a culture, poisons the air, burns fossil fuels as fast as we can, and spends more money on "defense" (war) than any other country on earth.

And if the day comes when the button is pushed, and the world is plunged into the dark ages of hell, what culture is supreme then?

The Ravaged Middle Class

Today, yesterday, almost everyday we read how the gap between the rich and the rest of us widens.  

In the rare time that conservatives even comment on this, we hear excuses:  its the global economy, its usually laziness or government deficits.  If only we could give the rich more, then the trickle down theory would work.  Of course the vast economic empirical evidence shows no such re-distribution of wealth ever has worked.  When the wealthy get more tax dollars back they hoard them   

Today, the gap between the rich and the poor, and the distribution of wealth in the United States is worse than during the run up to the Great Depression.

The Great Depression was tripped off by a gap in distribution of wealth, speculation in the Stock Market, and the global economy.  Those same conditions are more in evidence today than in 1929.

In short, we stand on the edge of a cliff.  Moreover, the House of Representatives has a higher majority of Republicans than when Hoover was elected in 1928.  This fact is troubling to say the least.  

And what happened then?  Disaster.  What are set up for again?  

Elizabeth Warren warned us a couple days ago in her impassioned speech to the Senate.  She warned the weakening of regulation on Wall Street derivatives (gambling) was dangerous to our already stratified economy.  She warned that the incessant push of Republicans to deregulate the economy was suicide.  

And the middle class voted for them in 2014.

That's right, there is no getting around it.  The American People spoke with a small voice (voter suppression works) and today the majority of governors and state legislatures are red.  Republicans control 2/3 of the government (the Legislative and the Judicial Branch).  Separation of powers is precarious at best.  

Of course the states where the bulk of population is, still trends blue.  But there is no ignoring the fact that America has decided, in these dangerous economic times to once again trust Republicans with our financial future.

And the Republican position?  Its the same as it was in 1928.  no regulations, cut government, cut taxes and incredibly balance the budget.  This was a recipe fordisaster!  

For you Econ 1 students out there this DEPRESSES DEMAND and leads to slow or more likely reverse economic growth.  In short, it opens the door for another 2008 or more likely 1929.

And the ravaged middle class?  They have suffered incredibly at the hands of conservative "leadership", suffered the largest loss of wealth as an economic class than since the Great Depression of 1929, and still vote Republican.

The Koch Brothers and others have spoken.  They have spent billions rigging elections in red states, electing state and local puppets who always vote their way.  

The key fact here is those Americans who remember the Great Depression are mostly gone.  There is no one who remembers the grip of terror that held the nation and the world on the edge of economic collapse.  This of course led to fascism growth throughout the world and plunged the world into WWII.  

So, our fooled middle class have opened the gates for the destruction of us all.

Poverty Flats

If there was ever a more vivid example of what extremism can do, it was what Redding went through the past six years.  We endured a period of Tea Party majority on our city council that just about broke the city.

The Tea Party is a right wing organization that borders on fascism.  Their guiding principle is never compromise on anything, they are always right, the left is an enemy that has to be destroyed and compromise is impossible because of their Constitutional driven principles.

The truth is that they are bankrolled by right wing corporations, the Koch Brothers and others, who have declared war on  participatory    democracy in the United States.

So Redding wound up ranking almost dead last in a Gallup Poll concerning the worst places in America to live:  and the poll was taken from Redding residents.  The right wing mayor at the time actually tried to invite Gallup to Redding a second time, desperate to change the  truth.

Redding traditionally has used a bi-partisan, actually non-partisan approach to running the city.  It uses a City Manager approach and has been highly regarded across the state as a well run bureacracy in so far as public administration is concerned.

In short, Redding works.  Cadd, Jones and to a certain extent Bossetti were able in a short time to undo much of that.

Selected right wing fanatics (I know one of them well) stormed city council meetings to berate the City Manager, call for key official's firing and made the meetings so miserable the Council voted to put public comments at the END of the meeting.

Look, The Tea Party does not believe in conventional government.  They believe that to dismantle government by starving in to death by cutting taxes is good; even if this means less public safety.  Councilman Jones even went so far as publically calling for the firing of the city attorney AND the city manager.

He also championed making Redding a charter city, with a politically powerful mayor, conveniently timed to possibly take effect when HE would become the mayor.  Thankfully it failed.

And Dick Dickerson, a true public servant in every way, lost by a few votes to Mr. Cadd, who then turned around and blew up the city council's remaining ability to work together.

The citizens of Redding, in the ruins of what as once a well run city, finally threw the bums out; only Cadd remains unfortunately.

This my fellow citizens is what extremism can do.  This is what bad government looks like.  This is what gets Redding rated almost last as a nice place to live.  This is what makes Redding what it once was:  "Poverty Flats".

Had enough yet?