Sunday, July 21, 2013

We Are All Trayvon





















In her 7/20/13 post, "At the Trayvon "rallies"---"Hundreds gathered in Los Angeles, San Francisco and other California cities Saturday morning," Ann Althouse reports, "At the Miami rally, Trayvon Martin's father spoke, and the NYT describes the crowd as "dozens of people.""

250 miles away in Sanford, FL, where George Zimmerman had been forced to shoot Trayvon Martin, the protests that police and journalists had been anticipating failed to materialize. According to the NYT:
As protests over the verdict unfolded across the country, it became clear in Sanford that the widely forecast unrest was unlikely to come to pass. "We might be angry about the verdict," said Larry Williams, 55, as he sat in the air-conditioned chill of his friend's barbershop in Goldsboro on Monday. "But why go out and do anything you would not want to do?"
So, on Monday, people carried on, some with heavier hearts than others. Shauna Rollf, 24, who works at the Taste of Thyme Cafe, said business was lighter than normal because Sanford residents were avoiding all the reporters and camera crews prowling through downtown. Like others, she was awaiting the day the news media swarm left. "I think everybody's kind of exhausted," she said.
A few blocks away, a dozen pastors, city officials and perhaps a hundred residents, black and white, filed into the New Life Word Center Church for a noontime prayer service. They prayed for peace and racial reconciliation, and they prayed for the Zimmerman and Martin families. "God, we realize there is no winner in this situation," one pastor said, as those gathered raised their hands heavenward, crying out, "That's right."
The new police chief, Cecil E. Smith, also spoke from the altar, praising the town. "Everybody wants us to go out and act up," he said. "We are peaceful in the middle of an issue that has divided our country."

Meanwhile, in NYC, "[a]s the crowds of thousands shouted, "We're all Trayvon Martin,"" the Rev. Al Sharpton "announced a plan to hold a protest in the capital in August to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech," and also added, "We're going to keep the focus on the Justice Department because Trayvon Martin had the civil right to go home that day," and "We cannot have a society where any one of our children can be taken based on someone feeling they had the right to stand their ground. Well, what about Trayvon's right to stand his ground? And what about our right to stand our ground?"

Between the vale of the grieving father, attended by dozens, and the mountaintop upon which the Rev. Al Sharpton basked in the glow of thousands, there lies a vast inconsistency.    

In the Catholic Church, even the unbaptized are permitted to perform emergency baptisms if done so with required intention; for the baptizer is merely the conduit of grace. Regardless of our opinions of Rev. Sharpton, let us hope that at the capital in August he will be an instrument of grace toward the realization of, as President Obama recently said, "...becoming a more perfect union--not a perfect union, but a more perfect union."

100 comments:

Trooper York said...

President Obama says “It could have been me.”

“Ladies and gentlemen thank you for being here today.”
“I have been asked to express my opinion on this tragic situation and I have thought long and hard about what to say about it. I thought about not addressing it but in the end I felt I had to speak out.”
“Please stop abusing Kayne. I could have been him 35 years ago. I could have hooked up with a slutty white bitch with a big ass. I mean they were all over me in college. They wanted a little jungle fever but not with a scary Fity Cent type. You know a nice clean presentable non-threatening brother. With good weed. That was me all over man. I got a lot of pale poontang back in the day.”
“In my life I have had much the same problems as Kayne. I like to sing and dance even though it makes me look kind of faggy. I mean I am so good I could be a waiter at Paula Deen’s wedding. You think my boys let me get away with that shit. Haters gotta hate.”
“Plus all the crap he had to take when he interrupted Taylor Swift. The same crap all you fools pulled on me when I interrupted Hillary. Let a black man assert hisself and all you pansies in the press wet your panties.”
“So in conclusion I have to say give a brother a break. Stop busting on Kanye. I could have been Kayne.”
“Thank you and God Damn America.”

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Yea. "we are all Trayvon" depends very much where I am, seems to me.

good post deb.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I think MLK would be sickened that these liar race-hustlers are using his name to promote what he was trying to end.

rhhardin said...

Name a star after Trayvon. It's $24.95 or something.

bagoh20 said...

So Isn't the real story after all that build up that most people are not idiots and the protests didn't happen?

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I'd be willing to attend a get-together to remember Trayvon so long as cold cuts are served.

pm317 said...

A special thank you to our pathetic media.

After the verdict, I heard many AAs on TV using the word child to describe TM and I wondered why child? Connecting the dots this (see belowin italics and the link) is what the media did in the first days of this shooting and you all remember the 5 year old pics of TM plastered on TV. But what is despicable is that these race hustlers are still using the word child to describe him now to dupe low information voters. How many who are protesting still think he was a child?

An almost equally egregious error continues to be made by those who cite, in support of the proposition that GZ is clearly a racist, the “fact” that he racially profiled a seven-year-old black boy, calling 911 to report the child’s suspicious behavior. When George Mason Law Prof. David Bernstein read this claim repeated by a fellow law prof on a listserv (see part VI), it struck him as so implausible an action for any non-insane individual to have taken that he spent one minute with Google and discovered what should not be surprising to anyone who hasn’t already committed to a narrative of that night and decided that they have GZ’s number: it’s just flat wrong (more below). Shortly after reading Bernstein’s post, I myself encountered a law professor perpetuating the same myth, this time in a serious, edited publication, The New Republic (emphasis in original):

. . . Zimmerman was an edgy basket case with a gun who had called 911 46 times in 15 months, once to report the suspicious activities of a seven year old black boy.

As Bernstein notes, the confusion seems to be the result of carelessness by The Daily Beast, followed by reliance by other journalists, scholars, and lawyers on The Daily Beast rather than on primary sources readily available on the Internet.

LINK

rhhardin said...

The real story is subversion of the US justice system by Obama but at least blacks seem to be smarter than Obama thinks.

Or Imus for that matter, who also thinks blacks are dumber than rocks, which is why they need his concern.

pm317 said...

@AprilApple


The niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. says she is not a fan of the viral image of her uncle wearing a hoodie in support of Trayvon Martin. The image, created by artist Nikkolas Smith and spread widely by activist Van Jones on Twitter, shows a contemplative King wearing the garment, which has become a symbol of support for the slain 17-year-old.

“I can almost promise you Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would not wear a hoodie,” said Alveda King on the Andrea Tantaros radio show Tuesday when asked about the image. Alveda King is a former state representative in Georgia and a right-wing anti-abortion activist and minister.

King said she and two of her cousins are calling on Americans not to “fight or debate” about the case, which she thinks did not raise any significant racial issues.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I've stayed away from this subject because it is replete with thought inconsistences.

For instance.

By highlighting this case, they way it has been done, aren't we saying that profiling is good?

We are just not doing it right?

It's confusing.

Paco Wové said...

In what parallel, bearded-Spock universe is Al Sharpton a "civil rights leader"?

rhhardin said...

Profiling is mathematically sound. It's for filling in missing information with the fewest mistakes.

Life is filling in missing information.

The question is when is who allowed to do that.

That depends on the consequences of mistakes, mostly.

chickelit said...

And he shall be Trayvon
And he shall be a good man
And he shall be Trayvon
In tradition with the family plan
And he shall be Trayvon
And he shall be a good man
He shall be Trayvon


Trayvon (2013) El Tune John

pm317 said...

Lem, calling it profiling is itself bad. It is just one resident who seemed to think he had a responsibility to his community calling the cops to see what it was about. The concept of profiling in this case to hold needs Zimmerman to consistently and constantly call the cops anytime he saw a black person in his community. According to the police call, he didn't even conclude that the person he saw was black when the dispatcher asked him. He said he seems black.. what seems to have caught his attention was the way TM was behaving.

edutcher said...

The communities refuse to be organized.

I blame all those Perry Mason reruns for educating people about the Rules of Evidence.

PS Choom's one big moment when he really could have been "Trayvon":

At a party for rich Lefties thrown by Tina Brown (somehow, that's the icing on the cake) back in '03, one of the Radical Chic spotted His Awesomeness, didn't know him from Adam (or Hoss or Little Joe), and, since he was one of the very few blacks in attendance, asked him to go fetch a drink.

rhhardin said...

Trayvon wasn't hurt by Z's profiling. He was hurt by his own profiling of Z. He figured Z was unarmed and so he could take him in a fight.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Protests fail to materialize because pretty much everyone knows (even if they don't want to say it outloud) that Trayvon was a punk ass creepy gansta wannabe and he got what was coming to him by jumping an unknown man in the dark.

It had nothing to do with anyone's race, color, ethnic identity. It had to do with how you act. Act like a punk.....die like a punk.

Always assume that the other person is armed, ready and able to retaliate if you decide to ambush him or her. Always.

Trayvon thought he was invincible and a gangster. He found out otherwise. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Rh @2:29

The problem is, as I see it, that if cant even admit to what is plainly in front of us, then it is just an exercise in futility.

rhhardin said...

I can profile Treyvon for you. I haven't followed the case so I fill in missing information by profiling.

He's a thief, he's a young male, he's out walking slowly looking at stuff, he's more likely than average to be casing the joint for something to take, even if he lives in the neighborhood.

The latter information lowers the odds, the rest raise it.

Nothing about that relates to black.

The black part is made irrelevant by the thief part. You know he's a thief because we know that.

You don't have to profile black as making thief more likely. That information is not missing. So it doesn't matter any longer that he's black.

Profiling at work. Playing the odds.

bagoh20 said...

What Trayvon did simply proves that the profiling by Z underestimated the real danger from Trayvon which was violence more than theft. It also proves that he was clearly not just a kid with candy and ice tea. They don't break your nose and pound your head into the pavement. If that is typical, then what the hell are they putting in those skittles.

bagoh20 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lem the artificially intelligent said...

@rh

Could we consciously alter ourselves in such a way that we stop playing the odds?

rhhardin said...

Profiling is bad for the same reason that whites only privately owned motels is bad. Everybody in a region's culture does it and it makes it impossible to travel sensibly for blacks.

So there a compromise made on association rights for some types of businesses.

If a little is good, more is better.

Antiprofiling is the perfection of that excess.

But profiling is just Bayes Theorem. It's math. It's true.

You can make bad assumptions as input but given the assumptions you'll probably make, it's true.

I wonder, I have not seen it, but I'd bet the probability that you're a thief given that you're black was a lot lower before blacks had MSM appointed leaders and acting white was a bad thing.

I think of Thomas Sowell, Justice Thomas, Walter Williams childhood stories.

pm317 said...

Nothing about that relates to black.

This. And the race hustlers could not get 'GZ is a racist' meme and now they have started this other tack, he profiled TM because he was black -- no GZ profiled TM as a thief because of his behavior. We should deny them that propaganda of profiling by race because it does not fit and if we allow them to use it, it is even more insidious and nebulous than race.

rhhardin said...

You'd be paralyzed. Just because the chair supported your weight last time doesn't mean that it will this time.

Better check everything.

Watch out for the floor as you walk to it.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

You'd be paralyzed.

I'm thinking about the up-side.

pm317 said...

You can make bad assumptions as input but given the assumptions you'll probably make, it's true.

Depends on the sample size for the basis of your assumptions. How strong is your assumption based on prior experience? If 8 out of 10 prior samples turn out to be thieves, the next random sample you come across has a higher probability of being a thief.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Baseball is impossible in a state of paralysis.

Down-side

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Ha!

Baseball is a profilers Disney land.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

pm317- Thanks. That is what actual HOPE sounds like.

rhhardin said...

There's the secretary problem.

You interview a pool of N applicants.

You can't go back but have to hire on the spot.

What rule do you follow to get the best secretary?

I stipulate that we're talking about female secretaries, just to help be interested in the problem.

I forget the answer but for large N it's let 1/e of them go by, about a third, and hire the first after that that's better than the best you've seen.

The downside is that you might wind up with the last applicant, but it's the best you can do.

That's sort of profiling on experience.

bagoh20 said...

"Just because the chair supported your weight last time doesn't mean that it will this time."

Well, that one actually may be a valid concern.

edutcher said...

While the ugly truth is pretty much what DBQ said, the Messiah and all his supporters remain indifferent to less politically useful deaths.

In Chi-town, 4 dead, 9 wounded, including 1 dead and 3 wounded at Altgeld Gardens, where Choom tried to organize a community once.

I believe it was subsequently declared unfit for human habitation.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Mccarver discussed a meme going around pro baseball that basically says "a strike-out is an out".

He then proceeded to knock that theory down.

We leisurely mess around with what things mean we destroy things.

pm317 said...

Have you all looked at this video? It was on Legal Insurrection and I don't know who Larry Elder is but more of him please. One class of people for generation can't keep thinking they are the victims. At some point they have to turn the corner and leave past behind where it belongs. I see more people and a certain party getting enriched by this than the affected masses who need to move to a better place. Just an immigrant point of view, outside looking in.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

W/o the consistency of math baseball would be impossible.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Profiler extraordinaire.

This thing has gotten so strange, Zimmerman has an approval rating.

I don't know how to even approach that.

Amartel said...

"After the verdict, I heard many AAs on TV using the word child to describe TM and I wondered why child?"

There was a script. Profiled, stalked, and killed a child. Lie, lie, and truth and legalistic semantic misdirection. Repeated and repeated. Then the scattered and incomplete debunking/factual reports repeated the script (although some say ...). Then they have to "balance" the facts so the lies are repeated again. Along with other lies and omissions. Like the "all white jury" and that police told Zimmerman to stand down. And that's just scratching the surface of the media fraudulence. In a perfect world, GZ would end up owning NBC. Make that puke Chris Matthews do his entire show in Incan, the language of white people.

bagoh20 said...

" I don't know who Larry Elder is but more of him please."

He's a talk show host out here in L.A. "The Sage of South Central" Totally free enterprise, boot straps conservative Black guy, but ain't nobody got time fo dat. He's a lawyer too, but isn't everybody?

Amartel said...

"Regardless of our opinions of Rev. Sharpton, let us hope that at the capital in August he will be an instrument of grace toward the realization of, as President Obama recently said, "...becoming a more perfect union--not a perfect union, but a more perfect union."

High on the list of Things That Are Not Going to Happen. Sharpton doing anything whatsoever that would (1) qualify him as an instrument of grace or (2) promote a more perfect union. Maybe by mistake. So, okay, point taken.

Amartel said...

Elder's a talk radio guy out of LA. We used to get his show up here in NoCal. He's really good.
Also this guy (found via McCain's blog) who makes the same points from a different perspective):

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=george+brotherman+youtube&mid=09B6A1AFD561B07816AA09B6A1AFD561B07816AA&view=detail&FORM=VIRE2

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

.. as President Obama recently said, "...becoming a more perfect union--not a perfect union, but a more perfect union."

The not a perfect union link goes to Obamas presser where he said Trayvon could have been him years ago.

Rabel said...

There are several reasons why we won't see major violent disturbances over the Zimmerman verdict. A few are:

1. The case for anger over injustice is weak. There is deliberate misinformation out there and many have been fooled, but the reality of what actually happened is hard to avoid.

2. If you got something, you got something to lose. More people today have something to lose than they did in times past. Between Affirmative Action and government entitlements we have greatly diminished the number of Black people who are truly in desperate straits and are willing to risk their status for a cause.

And the primary one:

3. The police today are much, much more powerful than they were 30 years ago. They have superior intelligence capabilities; greater numbers; better personal and mobile armor; ample air support; more powerful weapons, both lethal and non-lethal; better organization and tactics; and lastly, they are simply more physically capable despite the increase of females in the force. When's the last time you saw a male street cop who didn't look like an NFL linebacker? Kitted out in all-black, armored combat gear, they are seriously intimidating and seemingly indestructible. A large scale violent incident would be smashed before it got off the ground. If fired upon, the response would be overwhelming.

Resistance is futile. And people, Black people in particular, know this.

pm317 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
pm317 said...

More from Jeralyn and comments there are always interesting add value. Here is one such:

Gwen Ifill who I have always respected said today on Face the Nation that the president stands shoulder to shoulder with Holder in believing if Trayvon was white he would be alive today. She also repeated the falsehood about Trayvon lying in the morgue for days unidentified. She said this deeply troubled the president. Let's unpack that statement, so we are to believe the leader of the most advanced intelligence agency in the world cannot get accurate info from local law enforcement? Or how about parents responsibilities, in what circumstances is it in the parents power to alert authorities and hospital about a missing kid out without ID?
We know the facts, Tracy was notified within one hour of his missing person report. Tracy admitted it was not Travyon screaming during meetings with investigator in the first few days after the shooting, Tracy contacted Ben Crump on Tuesday, maybe because he realized Trayvon had beat up the man who shot him. Just maybe.

Michael Haz said...

White reporters are always shocked when black citizens don't riot the way white reporters expect they will.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

It's the media and the democrat party (same thing) whipping everyone into an angry frenzy all while lying about the facts of the case that is so culturally damaging.

Rage for votes.


ndspinelli said...

Billy Martin had a rule for his pitchers. If you threw a Latin player a first ball, fastball strike, he would fine you. It didn't matter if the batter swung and missed. The profile was that Latin players almost always swing @ the first pitch, whether it's a strike or not. Jorge Bell once said, "You don't get off the island[DR] by walking. You get off the island by hitting." Martin was a bigot, but his profiling of Latin players was based on tendencies and facts.

I thought some baseball profiling might offer a different perspective.

Palladian said...

It's telling in the first place that everyone was conditioned to refer to one of the parties by his first name and the other party by his last name.

Chip Ahoy said...

El Pollo I love that song. Have it on Two Rooms. Cover by Bon Jovi. Says on the insert, Bon Jovi said, "We hear a song and instantly go, Man, I wish I wrote that song!" And he wails. He wails so hard it makes you wail too, operatically, A bit of nonsense song but whattheheck, "He shall be Levoooooooon." Just that forces me to put it on right now.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

...the reality of what actually happened is hard to avoid.

A while ago I would have snaking the hell out of you.

I was wondering if I should even admit to that.

should I be all trayvon, all serious, all joking... that's another thing ... the all or nothing, no wiggle room, suckitude terms in which some things are presented for consideration.

It seems to me that a 'conversation' under those conditions is doomed near impossible.

Palladian said...

3. The police today are much, much more powerful than they were 30 years ago. They have superior intelligence capabilities; greater numbers; better personal and mobile armor; ample air support; more powerful weapons, both lethal and non-lethal; better organization and tactics; and lastly, they are simply more physically capable despite the increase of females in the force. When's the last time you saw a male street cop who didn't look like an NFL linebacker? Kitted out in all-black, armored combat gear, they are seriously intimidating and seemingly indestructible. A large scale violent incident would be smashed before it got off the ground. If fired upon, the response would be overwhelming.

I hope you're not suggesting that the disgusting militarization of American law enforcement is a good thing.

edutcher said...

Here's a WSJ piece to back up Palladian's view.

Funny, we don't hear from the ACLU on this.

I guess when it supports the Lefty agenda, it becomes Constitutional.

Synova said...

I have to say... what are the chances that Al Sharpton will be an instrument of grace and reconciliation?

He's suddenly relevant again, has a platform again.

He's going to give that up?

Chip Ahoy said...

Also, when you sign that song, it is very clear who Alvin Tostig is because you point to him the whole time. That part goes very quickly, too fast to follow for most unfortunately, there will be confusion. In real life you would have to explain it, but singing it is different, there it is very clear, if you catch the blur that spells the unusual name Alvin Tostig. That was in a zipped strip that is a NYT headlines, not really a headlines, but a printed segment and like a typewriter the name tapped mechanically like a typewriter and that fast while pointing with the other hand, over there, in a spot convenient for you, born today, right there point, emphatically, and he, pointing at where you place Alvin Tostig, "shall be L.E.V.O.N." emphatically. Most emphatically Alvin Tostig is Levon.

So there is never any of this, "Who the heck is Alvin Tostig?" stuff. Alvin Tostig is Levon.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

It's telling in the first place that everyone was conditioned to refer to one of the parties by his first name and the other party by his last name.

Trayvon - Zimmerman

Geraldo Rivera "interviewing" Zimmerman's brother on the radio.

Are you Jewish?... Are you Jewish?... Are you Jewish?

Rabel said...

"I hope you're not suggesting that the disgusting militarization of American law enforcement is a good thing.'

Not at all. Just stating the facts.

And while you're here, would you be so kind as to interpret Lem's 4:04 for me. I'd ask him directly but I'm worried he might snake me if I do. Sounds painful. :-)

Chip Ahoy said...

Sharpton is the "smells like ass" part of sorting. He's dropped immediately. And now looking at him with his head way way WAY to big for his suit, he smells like already dead ass. He has no relevance. Not even to initiate an indecent race war. Fail.

Not odd at all seeing Jeanel (Superman's second cousin) discussing, old school vs new school, racially dismissing the law, and doing that right next to Al Sharpton, death itself right there looking at us. A few seconds of that, smells like, smells like, double pack bang discard to the pile of useless information. Give them three good seconds and they''ll blow it every time.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

That Talk Left site tries to let constitutional consideration hold preeminence.

I find that if we do that... lets say we took a meeting where Obama wants to converse... I would tell him mr president you swore an oath to the best of your ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.
You loose me when you say you could have been the decedent.

pm317 said...

ACLU Reverses Course on DOJ Investigation of Zimmerman..

On July 18, 2013, just 4 days later, the ACLU wrote this letter to Attorney General Eric Holder protesting even the consideration of bringing federal civil rights or hate crime charges against George Zimmerman.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Snarking!

Amartel said...

The "more perfect union" line is from the preamble to the Constitution. Unattributed of course.

The stuff about being "profiled" as an AA man (followed in dept stores, hearing locks click on car doors, women hold their breath and clutch their purses in elevators): THIS is the context that explains rage? I've been followed in dept stores. I've heard a car door lock click while I was passing by. (Warning to elevator purse-clutchers: I know you're out there and I'm coming for you.) The point being, this is some very weak tea. It's insulting to be profiled when you are innocent but it's NOT a credible justification for mass incoherent rage as a way of life. Unless you want to talk about it all the time. Then you can really get yourself worked up. Also, there's the paranoia factor. Just maybe the mall cop is following you because you're both walking in the same direction. Then there's the fact that everyone profiles. Everyone. And everyone profiles everyone. You're profiling right now. And someone's profiling you. Change your profile if you don't like it.

Obama wants to deploy "resources" (OPM) to change the profile of AA men and boys. (Or talk about it so someone else gets the message and does it for him. The wuss.) But aside from us being out of OPM, "the government is here to help" is the kiss of death. They built the profile. The government blames the poor profile of the black community on historical wrongs. (Racists of the past.) How convenient. But that's only about half the story, if that. They never acknowledge their own current and ongoing role in perpetuating and expoiting that poor profile. Keeping people angry and suspicious and contemptuous of each other. Keeping people poor. Keeping people beholden. Then sucking up resources to address the problem. Sharpton has made a great living off those "resources." From Tawana Brawley, to Freddie's Fashionmart, to the Crown Heights, and now Trayvon Martin. Has he gone too far this time? Will the people he's exploiting finally realize they're being led about? Possible, but not likely.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

This whole Trayvon thing is boring. I mean rallies with at best a few thousand and most of them in the dozens. People are too busy to care about this.

The only driving force is the media and it is not all that effective in ginning up the outrage.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Palladian... It is not a good thing.

edutcher said...

pm317 said...

ACLU Reverses Course on DOJ Investigation of Zimmerman..

On July 18, 2013, just 4 days later, the ACLU wrote this letter to Attorney General Eric Holder protesting even the consideration of bringing federal civil rights or hate crime charges against George Zimmerman.


Don't forget the FBI's finding that Z wasn't "racial" (whatever that means).

They don't want to look foolish.

Well, any more than normal.

The Dude said...

CCW holders everywhere hope that all the attendees at those rallies are Trayvon. It's a good start.

William said...

Zimmerman has been the underdog in this battle. He is hated intensely by most blacks and Hollywood celebrities. Powerful politicians, including the President, have expressed their disapproval of him. The media has reported on exculpatory evidence reluctantly, if at all. Most media figures think he's some kind of oafish bully. Their dislike of him is palpable........Despite that, he was found not guilty. That was by no means a slam dunk verdict. Very few people can survive such relentless vilification from such powerful people.......We'll see how history records this. I have a diminished view of the media because of this, but they're the ones who write the history books.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I've always had problems with how Obama talks. "vote is the best revenge" etc...

It seems to me that Obama sets for himself a standard of rhetoric that is not commensurate? with the high standards of constitutional ... what's the word i'm looking for?

Something similar is "happening" - in the Obama administration things happen) in the military.

Obama rhetoric on sexual assault in the military may constitute "unlawful command influence."

Obamas choice of political expediency comes at the cost of the more perfect union to a more divided one.

Maybe Obama should go on a listening tour... or something.

deborah said...

Bago:
"So Isn't the real story after all that build up that most people are not idiots and the protests didn't happen?"

Yes. And what DBQ said in her first para @ 2:29:
"Protests fail to materialize because pretty much everyone knows (even if they don't want to say it outloud) that Trayvon was a punk ass creepy gansta wannabe and he got what was coming to him by jumping an unknown man in the dark."

(Thanks, Lem:)

deborah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bender said...

You begin with your knee-jerk template response to everything, then when the facts do not fit with that narrative from the playbook, you combine that with the absolute refusal to ever admit that you are wrong, could be wrong, then you have the spectacle of having to ignore reality, continuing to push, push, push what is laughably false, with the result that those who are invested in the lie and narrative continuing to go along, but everyone else who cannot but help see through the transparency of it all perhaps going through the motions of feigned outrage, but not finding the energy to keep it up, especially when it is the pimp of the Tawana Brawley farce pushing it all.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Zimmerman has been the underdog in this battle.

I went looking for a Coliseum video but its just going to take too long and I don't have a point, other than the underdog getting thumbs up and thumbs down and that's why Zimmerman has an approval rating?

Michael Haz said...

Shouldn't people riot for things that would be helpful? Like Hooked on Phonics; why don't people riot to demand free Hooked on Phonics from the government? Or remedial math classes during summer.

Unless the plate glass workers union is sponsoring the riots.

As it is, the riots are all about Let's Get Al Sharpton Some Money.

Bender said...

And that is the tragedy of it all -- that so many people are invested in the narrative, invested in the lie, that they continue to push it in a long drawn out process of societal suicide, as they have for decades of Democrat rule in the cities despite crashing and burning, together with their own cultural promotion of looting and rioting (Detroit, Los Angeles, New Orleans, etc.). That George gets all chewed up and spit out although he is innocent of any substantive wrong against Martin is not the tragedy -- he must be sacrificed to the greater good after all.

Freeman Hunt said...

The Trayvon thing has been especially helpful in one way. You can easily scan your social media services to find out who believes whatever the TV says.

Aridog said...

Amartel said...

The stuff about being "profiled" as an AA man (followed in dept stores, hearing locks click on car doors, women hold their breath and clutch their purses in elevators)...

I hold that Obama was making up every bit of that speech...making it up from experience he might have read about somewhere, but never experienced himself, ever. He does that a lot, read his first book.

He has to be the core of any narrative, therefore has to inject himself in to any narrative getting national attention. I had an uncle like that, in a simpler way...he liked to bowl and to hear him tell it he had bowled with virtually every famous bowler in the land, even those who died before he was born.

harrogate said...

"Resistance is futile. And people, Black people in particular, know this."

Now THERE'S something we can all agree on, it seems. Possible exception of Ted Nugent notwithstanding.

edutcher said...

William said...

We'll see how history records this. I have a diminished view of the media because of this, but they're the ones who write the history books.

No, only the first draft. After that, the facts start to come out and things change.

People's view of 'Nam is a lot less "Platoon" than "The Green Berets".

edutcher said...

harrogate said...

Resistance is futile. And people, Black people in particular, know this.

Now THERE'S something we can all agree on, it seems.


If that were so, we'd be singing "God Save The Queen" and not "My Country, T'is Of Thee".

Black people don't resist because they're part of the system. The system doesn't go without them.

But they do need to be able to blame The Man when they look at themselves and realize their failure.

It's white people that resist and have been resisting for 80 years.

That's why the Demos are trying to do to white people what they've done to black people.

deborah said...

Synova:
"I have to say... what are the chances that Al Sharpton will be an instrument of grace and reconciliation?"

My point was that even with any greed and vanity connected to his motives, he can shed grace, even if he does not actually believe what he is saying. It is possible that over time events with blacks and whites coming together will slowly bring us toward a national healing, or as close as we may be able to.

(Also, Lem, the link to the presser contains a transcript if you scroll down.)

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

You can easily scan your social media services to find out who believes whatever the TV says.

Freeman!

deborah said...

Freeman:
"The Trayvon thing has been especially helpful in one way. You can easily scan your social media services to find out who believes whatever the TV says."

Being kicked out of a play group is another good indicator.

Freeman Hunt said...

The television could say anything. It could say that water had all suddenly turned to poison through French magic, and there are people who would be saying weeks later, "It is so sad about all the water. I can't believe those French magicians did that!"

Freeman Hunt said...

Deborah, heh.

Freeman Hunt said...

I wonder what the correlation is between believing television and believing email forwards.

Bender said...

We'll see how history records this

The same way as that famous case of rape committed by those racists at Duke. A lot of yelling followed by "never mind" as they move on to the next manufactured racial bonfire.

Bender said...

They'll record it the same way they have all those cases of nooses being left on peoples' doorknobs and swaskitas drawn on their cars -- silence, as it turns out that they did it themselves.

Amartel said...

"I hold that Obama was making up every bit of that speech...making it up from experience he might have read about somewhere, but never experienced himself, ever. He does that a lot, read his first book."

Yeah I know. All his anecdotes have a familiar ring to them. At first I assumed this was because I'm only about 5 years younger and grew up with a lot of the same cultural experiences. Well, minus the incessant Marxist cant from Grandpa and Uncle Creepypants that he was subjected to. (I'd feel sorry for him if only he hadn't taken it all directly and literally to heart. F- in Questioning Authority.) Anyway, then I started thinking he's latching onto cultural references as if he actually lived them. We know he was a shy fat kid, probably lived in his head a lot, wanted to be that guy on Mod Squad or Hawkeye on MASH or whatever. Michael Jackson Pre Molestation Rumors. Now that he's rich and famous and powerful he wants to convey a more spectacular, more meaningful, more politically convenient formative experience. A rise from humble beginnings. Same thing happened to a judge out here in the Northern District of California. James Ware. Had the same name as a kid down south who was subjected to terrible civil rights violations. He started out hinting that he was that guy, then later openly passed himself off as the same guy. Finally got outed as a fraud. Still on the bench.

AllenS said...

This country needs a million George Zimmerman's walking the street.

bagoh20 said...

"I have to say... what are the chances that Al Sharpton will be an instrument of grace and reconciliation?"

He's the Black Meade of community building, reconciliation, and healing.

I know, I know, but I couldn't resist. I'm in a weakened state.

Aridog said...

And we also need more hot roast beef or pork sandwiches. Best damn food there is...for 60 years of my life anyway.

Amartel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fen said...

"We're all Trayvon Martin"

Really? All of you? You beat down and attempt to murder people who look at you funny or "diss" you?

Guess I should buy more ammo.

Fen said...

"The stuff about being profiled as an AA man (followed in dept stores, hearing locks click on car doors, women hold their breath and clutch their purses in elevators)..."

Never happened to Obama. Like his girlfriend in Dreams of My Father, its a composite.

Icepick said...

Another, important, reason that there wasn't trouble in Florida when the verdict came out is because we've had a wet summer, and we had some heavy rain that day and evening. No one wants to riot in the rain.

Michael Haz said...

Why are we not talking about tampon earrings??

The Dude said...

bagoh20 said...

"I have to say... what are the chances that Al Sharpton will be an instrument of grace and reconciliation?"

He's the Black Meade of community building, reconciliation, and healing."

I like that construct. Jeantel is the annalogue - a bloated inarticulate drugged and drunk harpy with fake hair, changing her story on a daily basis, being lorded over by a violent patriarch, promoted far beyond her meager social skill set and tiny IQ to a position in progressive enclaves, sounding like a babbling fool, carrying on about things she knows nothing about, growing ever more unintelligible and all the while demanding that we try harder and that we should not be ugly.

Look in the mirror, bitch!

Rabel said...

Hey 60, we got rules around here.

Justice For Laurence!

rcocean said...

I'm just glad there wasn't a clash between the TM supporters and the GZ supporters.

MSM created story. GZ black = no story. TM white or Hispanic = no story. GZ called Jorge Zimmerman = no story.

Original story: 220 lbs. scary white kills 140 lbs. Child out for Skittles in gated Southern community. White police chief lets him walk.

Original story = total fabrication.

Blowback for MSM = zero. As GZ stated "those assholes always get away with it".

William said...

Physicists claim that by observing a phenomenon, you sometimes change the nature of that phenomenon. I wonder how this fame will change the arc of Ms Jeantel's life. Prior to this incident she didn't look like she was on the fast track to anything but diabetes. Now she has more fame than Beyonce's ex singing partners. Someone has offered her a four year college scholarship. There will be people rooting for her and people rooting for her to fail, but people will take note of her.......I sincerely hope it turns out well for her. Fate didn't deal her many high cards, and I don't even think she knows what the rules of the game are. (Well, who does?). She probably has some good qualities that are not immediately apparent. She certainly has some bad qualities that are hard to ignore. It will be interesting to see whether this brush with fame will cause the good qualities to flower or the bad qualities to multiply......I can see people like Beyonce and Kanye West picking up on her and then dropping her after the moment passes.