Welcome to the Hunger Games, Eureka

[UPDATE Below - Posted specially for the people of Eureka]
[UPDATE II - No accountability and blanket impunity - police granted de facto legal right to kill at will - A law unto themselves. The Grand Jury is NOT a Court of Law.]
N.Y. cop not indicted in chokehold death
New York grand jury declines to indict in the death of man who died after police officer put him in a chokehold.

---

For want of something better, Eureka could easily be a city in District Seven.

The land Panem, or it's Capitol District where the Elite .01% live in unimaginable opulent luxury, dominating over their pandering, servile subjects, is where the people are all mostly gutless cowards - not unlike the United States of today. They give their children away for the State to play their deadly games, practice summary executions, torture and murder them at will without so much as a whimper from anyone of repute. Look no further than the number of children shot down and imprisoned - look no further than your neighbor.

The children - more importantly the young people (10 to 30 years), have no idea how their parents and grandparents have looted their rightful inheritance; betrayed them to a life of abject worthless beings, lawless corruption and wanton anarchy. They, the older generation, have taken from them all the resources they need to grow to become strong, prosperous individuals; someone of legitimate value; morally, ethically, physically and spiritually. For young people the Capitol system dominated by the Point Zero Nine Percent is permanently broken. The Law is whatever some insane lying lunatic chooses to personally impose at the time. Impunity for the elite criminal is codified by establishing "the need to only look forward, never back." This same principle was established locally when District Attorney Paul Gallegos decided not to enforce the law regarding the police murder of Tommy McClain. Now the people of Eureka, no thanks to E.P.D. Chief Andrew Mills determination, can suffer the in-your-face insult and deprivation every time they have to deal with or interact with Stephen Linfoot and Brian Stephens. In particular, know that Linfoot is motivated by his psychosis and fear that ravages his every thought. Know that you to can be shot dead for whatever he thinks or believes you are. To him and his otherwise trained compatriots their fear induced nightmares are as real as night and day - the imaginary movie scenario playing out within their crazed minds.

Rather than hold these murderers to the most menial of an accounting, the local police authorities rewarded them for their crimes.  And all with complicit acquiescence from the Eureka community.

acquiescence  noun
1. the act or condition of acquiescing or giving tacit assent; agreement or consent by silence or without objection
2. Law. such neglect to take legal proceedings for such a long time as to imply the abandonment of a right. [Emphasis mine.]

While the police murder of Tommy McClain never achieved the national recognition of the negro boy in Ferguson, MO the issues are the same. The problem or issue is not about justice for black people versus white people. Nor is it really about the poor underclass or I should say, other class versus the Elite wealthy upper class. As far as I know, Tommy McClain was white, but judged and executed the same as a black person. The real issue is he had the temerity to stand up for himself and to enforce the most meaningless, menial self-defense of one's personal self as a human being in his own home - something thugs and bullies cannot tolerate and still justify their existence. That is why he was killed. He exposed them for who and what they are. They judged themselves by extrajudicially murdering him. That lawless murder directly indicts every person living and working in Eureka. Either they enforce the law and accountability, eliminate the impunity or they all become complicit in the crime.

The wanton deaths of Tommy McClain and Michael Brown and so many more children are a living indictment, not only of their killers, but of everyone that votes and supports the lawlessness they call a "nation of laws," the same system that sanctifies and justifies the sanctioned anarchy and murder.

Welcome to the Hunger Games, Eureka Version 2.0 - they are not about the future, they are about NOW.

--Joe

PS. Don't make the mistake of answering or going to the door with a Black and Decker 3.6 Volt Lithium Ion Screwdriver in your hand, if it's a Eureka Police Officer, he or she will shoot you down like a rabid dog in a heartbeat. If you should be outside working, be doubly cautious because an antagonistic neighbor could call and report you flashing a gun around in public and that's a death sentence. 

---

[UPDATE - Sunday, November 30, 2014]
If you have any doubts about my meaning Eureka, read this article. Considering I've only found one or two other local blogs and one letter to the North Coast Journal about the murder of Tommy McClain, essentially nothing, says more than any street demonstration could ever hope to say. This excerpt really speaks to Eureka's delegitimization as a law abiding community of any substantive worth. No universal outrage, no moral indignation and absolutely nothing about enforcing the law.

Welcome to the Sixteenth Century

"As bad as this is, the worst part is that there are millions of people who aren’t elites, who aren’t rich enough to financially survive a lost job or a divorce or a sick kid, but who think this is just fine. Those people vote for the system not just in elections, but by their hatred for their neighbors. Who could have predicted so many citizens would enjoy watching their neighbors thrown out of their houses rather than figure out some way to help? Who would have thought so many citizens would be thrilled to see families broken up and deported? Who would have thought so many citizens would be happy to drink oil instead of water for any reason? Who would have thought that so many citizens would prefer not just to let corporations pay so little to their neighbors, but also to support cutting off all government benefits to those workers? Who would have thought so many citizens would be happy to have some government agent collecting their phones and email and internet search histories?"

****
It seems to me that this nation is infected by a nameless, faceless dread, a fear of something awful just beyond our ability to grasp. The media, right-wing politicians and demagogues, acting on behalf of their filthy rich patrons, actively exploit that fear to get what they want: a divided nation at war with itself.

****
But really, a few immigrants are the problem?

It’s a mirror image of the US. The “Other” is the problem. It isn’t the unjust distribution of wealth, it isn’t the exploitation of the worker by the filthy rich, it isn’t unequal schools, it isn’t poverty or any other structural condition. It’s witches. It’s demons. It’s unholiness. It’s impurity. It’s smoke.

It isn’t fixable. The most you can hope for is bottling up that rage and fear in fewer and fewer people. Instead the media stokes those fires. Self-ordained ministers tell people that it’s sin that cause fires and floods and earthquakes and eclipses. Rage freaks like O’Reilly and Limbaugh and the incomparably stupid Hannity tell their listeners that the end times are coming. Politicians like Lindsey Graham shriek that terrorists are coming to kill them while they sleep. These pre-moderns are now in control of both the House and Senate, and the Supreme Court.

I’m thinking about being a bit fearful myself. [Emphasis mine.]

 When he gets done being fearful and he will, he will start acting in harmony with what he knows to be true, what he just wrote. He will stop cooperating with the fear, the fear mongers and deal with the threat, whether it be a hateful neighbor or thug cops.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

There are many things to be thankful for. Most of all, the precious life we share with all living creatures on this Earth. So, be safe out there, everyone.

Enjoy the day.

--Joe

... and I'm Couth

How Did We Get Here?

Democrats are paying heavily for their political failures — and for ditching the working stiff.

By Donald Kaul

Dick Tuck, the legendary political prankster and wit, once ran for local office in San Francisco and lost. His concession speech, in its entirety: “The people have spoken — the bastards.”

Now, you know me — I wouldn’t say anything like that about the recent elections. It’s vulgar and I’m couth.

However, if the shoe fits…

Perhaps it’s safer to quote the Sage of Baltimore, H.L. Mencken, who said: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

The 2014 midterms were a Mencken moment.

It was a disaster for the Democratic Party, of course. They lost every election that was possible to lose and a few that weren’t. But it was an even greater disaster for the American people.

Statue of Free Enterprise, an OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib

Faced with an onrushing manmade climate crisis, U.S. voters have now elected a congressional majority that denies global warming. (Did I mention that it’s also a majority financed by oil, gas, and coal money?)

Burdened with a reverse Robin Hood tax structure that robs the poor to give to the rich, voters elected the people who are most adamant that the rich, the richer, and (most of all) the richest be taxed lightly (if at all) lest they cease creating jobs.

Whether they create jobs or not.

Angered by the political gridlock in Washington, Americans not only reelected the leaders of the Republican obstructionist caucus, they substantially increased its numbers.

Frustrated by President Barack Obama’s inability to clear up the mess in the Middle East (Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and all that), they backed the party that made the mess in the first place and has yet to so much as apologize for it.

The result is that We the People find ourselves at the mercy of cynical manipulators joined at the hip with true-believing ignoramuses.

How did we get here?

I blame the Democrats for having lost their identity as a progressive party of the working stiff. The Democratic Party is instead…nothing at all. It’s a collection of political strands that pull in one direction and push in the other.

Moreover, it’s leaderless. Obama has his virtues — he’s bright and reasonable — but he’s an awful politician. He makes Jimmy Carter look like Lyndon Johnson.

Nothing makes this clearer than his treatment of the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Essentially, he made a speech and let his crack federal bureaucracy handle the details.

To make a long story short, it didn’t work. The rollout was horrendously inept, and Obama did next to nothing to sell the plan to a confused public until it was too late.

Into the resulting vacuum the Republicans injected a never-ending barrage of vitriol. Without being very specific, they characterized the plan as an unparalleled disaster. And they did it on a daily basis. For two years or more, Republicans could hardly broach any subject — the war, the economy, the weather — without including a rant on the evils of making health care more widely available.

Regrettably, this demonization of health care carried the day, even though the plan overcame its early problems to become a success. Its flaws were exaggerated. Its virtues became secrets.

That’s a failure of political leadership, which Democrats paid for heavily.

There’s talk now in Washington of a new spirit of cooperation between the two major parties. This talk is generally between people who start drinking before noon.

For the past six years Republicans in Congress have done everything in their power to delegitimize President Obama. They’ve questioned his citizenship, his patriotism, his intelligence, and his religion. They did that while narrowly controlling one house of Congress.

To think that giving them full control of both chambers will make them kinder, gentler, and more amenable to compromise requires a leap of faith available only to saints and fools.

May God help the United States the next time we have to raise the debt limit.

OtherWords columnist Donald Kaul lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. OtherWords.org 

---

[Mirrored from Otherwords.org]

--Joe

The Diseased Face of Impunity

While these people celebrate, the city of Eureka dies. For Police Chief Andrew Mills to promote Brian Stephens to Captain in full justification of his blatant statement to this community that "early findings of the investigation revealed McClain had reached for a replica handgun in his waistband and Linfoot was justified in firing his weapon" is as foul an obscenity as there ever was. All I can say, is every citizen of Eureka will be sorry for the day they ever heard of Andrew Mills.

Welcome to Mexico. Your life isn't worth a pinch of rat shit.

If this murder stands, justified, then there is absolutely nothing stopping the Eureka Police from doing anything they want any time they want. What's next for the EPD? Death squads?

Tommy McClain did NOTHING to threaten anyone. The ONLY threat that existed was in the scared crapless, paranoid men's sick minds that brought pointless violence to Tommy McClain's home. The really corrupt sick bastards in this community are the people like Andrew Mills that justify and support such sickness, lawlessness and paranoia.

You wanted them Eureka, just like this country, the old voters anyway, wanted conservative Republicans running congress, well now you can just live with the consequences. When the District Attorney agrees with Chief Mills your deal with the Devil, everyone that voted, is sealed.

Here's the link to: Eureka police shooting investigation awaits DA's decision - Read it and weep. The war has only just begun.

--Joe

MANDATE - In A Pig's Eye

The Republicans in this country believe the November 4th election gave them a mandate to rule this country and take out the gutless criminal Barack Obama, or at least finish delegitimizing his presidency. What the blowhard Republicans should do is sit down, collect their pay, shutup and go home. The majority non-vote delegitimizes the election - there is no mandate. One third of legal voters do not possess the legal right to rule over two thirds of the majority and more than 0.01 percent of the richest do.

The Non-Cooperating, Non-Voter has spoken.

This System, the American System of Governance from Federal to local, for all intents and purposes, is defunct. Where a government derives its power and authority from the people, this government is impotent, bankrupt. As are the laws enacted. Clearly, where legitimacy for any election in a democracy requires a quorum, the election failed miserably. So, now what.

The Times Standard newspaper had an editorial and and article on this:
1. Voter turnout mediocre in Humboldt County, poor statewide

2. Editorial: Voter turnout leaves much to be desired

"If turnout were a test, Humboldt County's electorate earned a solid "F" on Tuesday."

Then there is Senator Bernie Sanders on Democracy Now:

Senator Bernie Sanders says. "I fear that we may be on the verge of becoming an oligarchic form of society where a handful of billionaires control not just the economy, but the political life of this country. And that’s just something we’re going to have wrestle with."

Actual election turnout far lower than reported

And if you are really, really interested in a meaningless expression of an exercise in futility, go over to the local prognosticator's blog of all thing politic for a bellyful useless bullshit.

---

man·date
noun
1. an official order or commission to do something.
2. the authority to carry out a policy or course of action, regarded as given by the electorate to a candidate or party that is victorious in an election.

---

[Picture source]

--Joe

Vote-A-Joke

Vote Your Heart Out – Fool

Tomorrow, if not already, all patriotic, community-minded, citizens will be voting in the misguided belief that they are having their say in running this country, thus proving to everyone how valuable they are as Americans and as individuals. They honestly believe that their vote makes a difference; that they make a difference. Yet, year after year, millions of American voters deliberately vote directly against their own self interests. They consistently vote in and retain the most corrupt, amoral, gangster thugs, liars, mass murderers, psychotic, insane, deluded, morons in this country. And I am not just talking about Republicans.

The question, is that a difference or a choice between the offered and predetermined Democrat, Republican, Independent or some other? Did the voter have any say in the selection of these “offered” people or are they just selecting between one corrupt politician and another that's been given them by the real people in power?

Then there is the large battery of laws or propositions offered, everything from A-Z, and One to ... Q, Z or P! Pick your number or letter, for what it's worth. Like LAW means something in this town or this country anymore? Just look at the Eureka Police Department and its new police chief, what's changed for the better? Then there is a new District Attorney - "Fleming spent 25 years as a Deputy District Attorney and has served as the Deputy County Counsel the last two years." What's that tell you? Hear anything from her lately on the police killing of Tommy McClain? No. I didn't think so.

For over six weeks I've looked to see if anyone had the courage to post something, anything, on the local blogs about the killing of Tommy McClain and the total lack of any accountability. I've looked for comment from those running for local office or reelection – Nothing. I've looked for comments or questions from anyone – Nothing. I've looked in the local papers for any outrage that no one has enforced an independent, neutral legal accounting – Nothing. Fact is, there is never anything about LAW – What's the big deal? All those cops did was make a justifiable “mistake.” Just a little boo boo is all. What's the big deal? So, some kid got shot down like a dog for nothing - so what? Can't have the LAW get in the way of or interfere with all the bullshit election propaganda.

I almost forgot, there is the Facebook page “Justice for Tommy McClain.” There are comments by the page author that make my ass ache, e.g., “On October 30: “Mystakes are made but not lies! Tommy is not the person officer mills claimed him to sound like. He did ...” And that is just one example. Plus in this day of built-in spell checkers and online dictionaries, typing this is inexcusable: “Mystakes” and tends to reduce the overall value and importance of the person killed, the page's message and intent as reflected in the nearly 2,500 “Likes.”

Just when time was about to run out before the elections the North Coast Journal posts this letter in their paper, where I also found it online: “Public Safety Funding?” This benign piece of milk toast is better than nothing, but shows the writers first priority - the election. Nothing about lack of or intent to enforce the law or to hold any elected official accountable. At least someone, one person, had the courage to write something about Tommy McClain - points well taken.

Then there is this:

"In 2011, he (Kansas Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach) began promoting a digital name-matching program used to scan electoral records and flag anyone whose name appears on the voter rolls in more than one state. It’s called Crosscheck. And across the country, 27 states are using it to investigate possible voter fraud. Among them, 22 have an election board controlled by Republicans." Jim Crow Returns: Interstate "Crosscheck" Program Could Strip Millions of the Right to Vote - on Democracy Now.

So, there you are Voter. Your vote is about as worthless as you are.

--Joe