Oh So It's A "Gift" Now?

First the Pope, now Tim Cook:

Tim Cook: 'I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me'

Personally I could care less who's anus Tim Cook wishes to put his penis into. I also didn't need an announcement to know just what he is. I also did not purchase Apple stock because of what Tim did in the privacy of his own home.

This comment however is beyond the pale. Firstly it implies that those of us who are not homosexual, that would be the vast majority of us, are somehow lacking a "gift from God". That's utter bullshit and he ought to be called on it.

Secondly, in nature strict homosexuality = genetic dead end. Therefore it is not biology's "gift" but rather a genetic kiss of death (particularly if you are the last of your line). Of course we are moving into a new realm of artificiality (which I will post upon soon..so much so much) where this kind of bullshit can be thought of as reasonable.

But this is all to be expected in a society in which people think they deserve some kind of special attention and consideration because they are not white, male and heterosexual.

Christian Bale Moses Commentary vs. Accurate Portrayals

So the news is that some folks are upset because Christian Bale, a white male playing a character set in pre-colonial, pre Roman empire, Egypt (located in Africa for those who don't know) said that Moses was barbaric and schizophrenic.

73% of people polled said they would see the Moses movie so long as there aren't any blatant "mistakes" in the movie.

Apparently the fact that there are white people playing Africans in Africa doesn't phase these folks one bit.

Isn't That A Cluster Bomb?

Since the height of the protests, the department has spent almost $25,000 buying 650 teargas grenades, smoke-and-gas grenades, smoke canisters and “hornets nest” CS sting grenades, which shoot out dozens of rubber bullets and a powdered chemical agent upon detonation

Sounds like a less than lethal cluster bomb to me.

It has spent a further $18,000 on 1,500 “beanbag rounds” and 6,000 pepper balls, paintball-style projectiles that explode with a chemical irritant when they strike a protester. The department uses LiveX branded pepper balls, which are billed as ten times hotter than standard pepper rounds.

Honestly I don't think any of that is necessary. But then again, I'm OK with a level of force that most people are not comfortable with.

Observers from Amnesty International said in a report earlier this month that an excessive police reaction to a small minority of violent protesters who threw bottles in Ferguson had run the risk of killing demonstrators and impinged on their human rights.

They noted that the so-called “less-lethal” ammunition shot at crowds in Ferguson – such as wooden bullets, beanbag rounds, and rubber bullets – “can result in serious injury and even death”. The report found that “at least two children were treated for exposure to teargas” during the protests.

“Equipping officers in a manner more appropriate for a battlefield may put them in the mindset that confrontation and conflict is inevitable rather than possible, escalating tensions between protesters and police,” said the report.

Amnesty Intl. can STFU. They are like that nurse who love to talk about their rights and shit but never want to talk about their obligations and duties. People throwing rocks at police should feel glad that they are lucky enough to be met with less than lethal force. There are MANY MANY alternatives that could be used.

And Amnesty, like many other liberal groups like to place the blame for situation on the wrong people. If someone is killed by a less than lethal round shot by a police officer due to some "protestor" throwing a bottle at him or her, the responsibility lies with the idiot who threw the bottle.

Nobody who takes to the street peaceably (that does not mean quietly) should have to worry about actions by the police (other than usual crowd control). But if some criminal minded people with their own agendas come in and gets somebody hurt or dead, its that person's fault. Full stop.

Alexander Reid Ross: Liar

Writing in Counterpunch:

With the police behavior in Ferguson—assaulting crowds, killing people, spreading misinformation, and making false arrests—as well as the response from hate groups like the KKK, the riots in Ferguson, which began with peaceful protests until the police reacted with brutality, threatens to become another putsch; a historic victory for the revanchist right wing and the undoing of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, just as Wilmington was part of the undoing of the Civil Rights Act of 1875 that found its keystone in Plessy v. Ferguson.

Anyone who has been following the actual events in Ferguson knows full well that the riots in Ferguson did not start with police "brutality". The stores that were looted were done because the folks who wanted to did so and the police were explicitly told to stand down and let it happen.

Alexander is yet another person who believes that it is always the fault of someone else for the behaviors of certain people.

Study finds white people associate superhuman words with black people

This isn't actually anything new.

n a series of experiments, psychologists show that white people were quicker to associate superhuman words (ghost, paranormal, spirit, wizard, supernatural, magic, and mystical) with black faces relative to white faces. Also, when explicitly asked, white people indicated that a black person was more capable of possessing superhuman qualities—and would need less medication to alleviate pain—than a white person. [My underlines]

That last part reminds me of a story of a black woman in a hospital during either Jim Crow days or thereabouts. She was having a baby and the doctor had a set of interns with him. He allegedly told the interns that black women were like mules and could just pop out babies without much pain or fuss and so it wouldn't be necessary to provide much pain medication. The report was that the woman, hearing this made sure to hollar and scream as much as possible in order to show how much an ass that doctor was. I cannot verify the story of course. The thing about that claim, particularly in the past was that it likely stemmed from two phenomena: 1) The bush system among certain groups in Africa where circumcision is practiced (male and female) usually has a requirement that the person being cut no cry out or otherwise show [much] discomfort while being cut. Such a display would likely disqualify that person as being able to move on into social adulthood or otherwise show them to be a coward of sorts. The possible value of silence in the face of pain and discomfort may well have survival value. 2) The punishment of enslaved Africans would no doubt lead to having to literally work though pain. After all, after getting whipped, you don't exactly heal in a few hours. Therefore it is likely that many Africans not only acquired, as a survival tactic, the ability to deal with high levels of daily pain, but possibly taught their offspring how to deal with it as well.

Pot, Meet Kettle.

A Justice Department spokesman has called the leaks “irresponsible and highly troubling”. The spokesman added: “There seems to be an inappropriate effort to influence the public opinion around this case.” [My underlines]

When Gov Jay Nixon called for a trial of officer Wilson prior to any fact finding or the results of a grand jury, he was engaged in an "inappropriate effort to influence the public opinion around this case". Where was the Justice Department [sic] when that occurred?

When US Atty General Holder went to Ferguson talking about how he understands as a "black man", he was engaged in an "inappropriate effort to influence the public opinion around this case." Where was the reprimand? Matter of fact why wasn't he fired on the spot?

If the Justice Department [sic] wants to be credible it must either deal with all parties engaging in "inappropriate efforts" or it should shut up and be quiet. That is what we call equal justice. It's not that hard.

St Louis Regulations on Security Personnel

Last night I posted on the autopsy of Vonderritt Myers and the fact that the officer involved in the shooting was off duty and working security for what is assumed to be a private entity. I mentioned that this fact proves troubling since it would appear that "security" personnel are under stricter limitations as to what they can do and how far their jurisdiction goes. Here is St Louis's web page on private security firms:

he Private Security Section is responsible for the processing, training, and licensing of all applicants for security licenses in the City of St. Louis. With the exception of St. Louis Police Officers, all persons performing a security function in the City of St. Louis must be licensed to do so through the Private Security Section. This includes police officers from other jurisdictions who are working in the City of St. Louis.

My reading of this is that St Louis PD officers do not have to go through the PSS but I think they still have to follow the rules outlined in the text, particularly:

Watchman – A person employed without police powers and without authorization to carry weapons or protective devices. A watchman performs the tasks of observation and reporting on or in a designated area and may include patrolling a public street. A watchman has no powers of arrest, search or detention and must wear an approved uniform....

Security Officer – A person employed with certain police powers to protect life or property on or in designated premises. A security officer’s powers exist only within the established property owned or leased by the contracting employer and to incidents occurring on the premises. If qualified, a security officer may carry a firearm and certain protective devices.

You'll note that a "watchman" has no police powers. So even if an off duty police officer was employed as a watchman he cannot up and run after a "suspicious male". Now we know from the report that the officer was wearing his uniform. Since the above text says that uniforms must be worn, it is possible that the officer was employed as a watchman. In which case he was NOT authorized to chase anyone who is simply "running away" without having witnessed some crime.

If however the officer was employed as a security officer then his abilities are expanded. But these powers only extend to the property "owned or leased by the contracting employer". I would have a hard time agreeing that some private entity could lay claim to a public street or sidewalk or random bushes that the officer claimed Vonderitt jumped out of. So if it was the case that the officer was acting as a security officer, it would have to be shown that he was acting to protect property owned by the contracting firm.

Thus far I have not seen any information naming the company that this off duty officer was working for but it seems that such information would be highly relevant towards the legality of this officer's actions.

[Update]

Found Kansas City's regulations

The legal authority vested in a sworn law enforcement member working off-duty employment is limited to the enforcement of federal law, state statutes and municipal ordinances. Officers cannot use police authority to enforce a private employer’s policies and regulations.

Enforcement of federal law, state statutes and municipal ordinances. Again, since running away at the sight of a person in a police uniform is not a crime under any of the aforementioned codes, under what authority did that officer begin to make chase (if St Louis is under the same or similar regulations as Kansas City).

Autopsy of Vonderitt Myers Raises Questions

Now this is muddy.

Wecht says Myers was shot eight times – six of those shots were fired at his back, possibly as Vonderit ran from the police officer.

Wecht showed the wounds in Vonderit’s legs and said one of the shots shattered his femur.

Wecht also says Vonderit was shot in the groin and the fatal shot was to the right side of his head between his eye brow and ear. Attorneys for Myers’ family say the shots are consistent with what eye-witnesses said at the scene — that Myers was running away from the officer.

I think the shot to the head is going to be most problematic. The claim is that Vonderitt shot at the off duty cop working security (for who?) One question is whether under the law an off duty police officer has the same privileges as an on duty officer when it comes to dealing with "suspects". That is, can he chase folks acting "suspiciously"? If fired upon, can he give chase and return fire? And lastly, do we have evidence to support the claim that the gun jammed 3 times?

Unlike the Wilson-Brown confrontation where Wilson is acting under color of law, I'm not entirely sure that this off duty cop is covered the same way while working "security" (for who?).

The incident that led to the shooting began about 7:30 p.m. CT when an off-duty officer noticed three men near the corner of Shaw Boulevard and Klemm Street in St. Louis. Police Chief Sam Dotson said during a news conference that the men began running when they saw the officer, who responded by chasing one of them. The officer was working as a security guard at the time, but wearing his St. Louis police uniform, Dotson said. [My underlines]

Is it proper for an officer working a private security firm to be wearing his police uniform? What are the regulations about that. This is important, IMO, because it's one thing to run from a police officer (as was claimed) it is another to run from a rent a cop. Furthermore running is not a crime unless one has been detained by an officer. There was no report of the officer/security guard detaining or asking to detain Vonderitt.

So STLPD is going to have to explain the protocols of it's officers working security in STLPD uniform. It is going to have to explain the powers they have when off the clock and working for a private agency. It is going to have to explain whether a officer working for a private company has "shoot to kill" jurisdiction or even "shoot" jurisdiction outside of the private property being "secured".

This is definitely NOT a Michael Brown situation.

Stolen Water

Reading the Detroit News:

But a woman said her water bill jumped $600 after neighbors helped themselves to her outside faucet, using it so often they broke the handle.

The woman, Barbara Russo, said she didn't blame her neighbors for their actions.

"If you treat people like animals, you can only expect them to behave like animals," she said.

See that's theft. You can't blame the government for neighbors who steal water for their own use and who don't even have the decency to knock on your door and offer to pay you for the water they use. See this "I have a right to free shit" is THE problem in this whole thing.

Mind you it's not everybody.

lls, have led to residents helping neighbors by giving money, jugs of water or running hoses to their homes.

My hat is off to these people practicing collective work and responsibility and cooperative economics. They either understand or will understand it is this concept that lead to the building of water works in the first place. And why it is how civilization grows and spreads. But those people who stole $550 worth of water from Barbara did so NOT because of the water shut offs. No. They are WHY there are water shut off's in the first place. They are the people that feel that they have a God given right to take what other people have worked and earned. The have no regard for anyone except for themselves and only see other people and institutions as something to game and exploit.

Strong Arm Robbery, Felony Assault On A Peace Officer and Attempted Murder

he police officer who fatally shot Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., two months ago has told investigators that he was pinned in his vehicle and in fear for his life as he struggled over his gun with Mr. Brown, according to government officials briefed on the federal civil rights investigation into the matter.

The officer, Darren Wilson, has told the authorities that during the scuffle, Mr. Brown reached for the gun. It was fired twice in the car, according to forensics tests performed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The first bullet struck Mr. Brown in the arm; the second bullet missed.

The forensics tests showed Mr. Brown’s blood on the gun, as well as on the interior door panel and on Officer Wilson’s uniform. Officer Wilson told the authorities that Mr. Brown had punched and scratched him repeatedly, leaving swelling on his face and cuts on his neck.

This is what y'all are marching for?

Never, Mr. Johnson said, did Mr. Brown reach for the officer’s weapon.

This is not the first time Johnson was caught lying.

This is what y'all are marching for?

“What the police say is not to be taken as gospel,” Mr. Crump said, adding that Officer Wilson should be indicted by the grand jury and his case sent to trial. “He can say what he wants to say in front of a jury. They can listen to all the evidence and the people can have it transparent so they know that the system works for everybody.”

And Mr. Crump is absolutely correct. We don't have to take what the police say as gospel. We do however get to look at the evidence and see how it lines up with witness testimony. And the witness testimony is largely supportive of the police story. And given THAT, a grand jury is likely to not indict.

He added: “The officer’s going to say whatever he’s going to say to justify killing an unarmed kid. Right now, they have this secret proceeding where nobody knows what’s happening and nobody knows what’s going on. No matter what happened in the car, Michael Brown ran away from him.”

The "secret proceeding" is what we call a grand jury. As a lawyer he knows this. What he is trying to do is get the public to think that this is some kind of legal anomaly. That somehow the grand jury is illegitimate. Shame on him. I'd actually think he deserves some kind of censure from the bar for his implication.

Secondly, having just committed a felony assault on a peace officer. That officer is not required to "not shoot" just because the assailant decided to run. Crump knows this. Crump also knows that whether Brown ran away is also irrelevant because he wasn't hit while running away. He was hit while approaching the officer (who he had just assaulted and tried to kill).

But I know Crump is only doing his job. Like Wilson's lawyer will be doing his. And how, I hope, everyone else involved is doing. So I won't slight Crump for that. His liberties with the facts? They should be pointed out by journalists when they report.

Witness Adds New Perspective To Ferguson Shooting

While fake revolutionaries continue to make asses of themselves in public, people under oath are providing witness testimony to the grand jury

One Canfield resident — who said he saw the killing of Brown from start to finish and talked to the grand jury recently — has given the Post-Dispatch an account with some key differences from previous public statements from other witnesses.

Among the recollections of the witness, who agreed to an interview on the condition that his name not be used, were:

• After an initial scuffle in the car, the officer did not fire until Brown turned back toward him.

• Brown put his arms out to his sides but never raised his hands high.

• Brown staggered toward Wilson despite commands to stop.

• The two were about 20 to 25 feet apart when the last shots were fired.[my emphasis]

This story is consistent with the overheard audio that surfaced soon after the shooting. it also supports the theory, supported by the autopsy that Brown did not in fact have his hands up over his head but rather low in a manner that suggests that he would rush the officer.

This latest witness, who is black, told the Post-Dispatch that Johnson took off running toward West Florissant Avenue after the first shot went off inside Wilson’s police SUV.

Interesting.

In the latest account of the Brown killing, the witness said he saw Wilson’s police SUV stop near Brown and Johnson as they were walking in the middle of Canfield Drive. He said he heard Wilson say something to them, but not what. He said Wilson drove past them, then backed up.

This aligns with the earliest stories that came out about the incident. Wilson was responding to the robbery that Brown had just committed (or attempted to). When Wilson told Brown and Johnson to get out the road he was unaware of the description of the suspect. I think that he turned around because the description came over the radio and Wilson realized that it was the person he just hassled about being in the street. Of course we would need radio communication recordings to confirm this. The other more unlikely theory is that Brown said something offensive to Wilson. Wilson drove off and thought about it and decided to go back to Brown to confront him on whatever was said. I just do not see why a police officer who is on the way to a reported robbery would stop that over being mouthed off to.

The witness said he had been on the right side of the police SUV and did not have a clear view of what happened on the opposite, driver’s side. “There was a tussle going on,” he said, adding that he believes he saw Wilson’s hat fly off.

He then heard a shot and saw Brown run, followed by Wilson. He said Wilson aimed his handgun at Brown and yelled: “Stop! Stop! Stop!”

This witness has just confirmed that Wilson was assaulted by Brown. Assault on a peace officer is a felony in Missouri

7. Assault of a law enforcement officer, corrections officer, emergency personnel, highway worker in a construction zone or work zone, utility worker, cable worker, or probation and parole officer in the second degree is a class B felony unless committed pursuant to subdivision (2), (5), (6), or (7) of subsection 1 of this section in which case it is a class C felony. For any violation of subdivision (1), (3), or (4) of subsection 1 of this section, the defendant must serve mandatory jail time as part of his or her sentence.

So regardless of what Brown did up to the point that he and wilson had their dispute, once he struck the officer, it was an entirely different ballgame.

The witness said Brown did stop, mumbled something he could not clearly hear and took a step toward Wilson.

“When he stepped foot on that street, the officer told him to stop again, and he fired three shots,” the witness recalled. “When he (Brown) got hit, he staggered like, ‘Oh,’ and his body moved. Then he looked down.

This would explain the gap in shots that we heard in the recording released by CNN.

“His hands were up like this (he gestures with arms out to the side and palms upward), and he was looking at the officer and was coming toward him trying to keep his feet and stand up. The officer took a few steps back and yelled, ‘Stop,’ again, and Michael was trying to stay on his feet. [my underlines]

This is why the autopsy showed the entry wounds lining up Brown's arm before the head shot. I said then and it is supported by this witness that the autopsy shows a person that does not have his hands up in the air but rather arms to his side.

“He was 20 to 25 feet from officer, and after he started staggering, he (Wilson) let off four more rounds. As he was firing those last rounds, Michael was on his way down. We were thinking, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, brother, stop, stop.’ He was already on his way down when he fired those last shots.”

The witness said Wilson didn’t have to kill Brown. “It went from zero to 100 like that, in the blink of an eye. ... What transpired to us, in my eyesight, was murder. Down outright murder.”

This part is probably the most damaging to Wilson. Well actually it is the ONLY damaging testimony. It could be argued that once Wilson saw that Brown had been struck and was arguably (though not definitively) a real threat, that Wilson ought not to have fired the remaining shots. You may conclude that it was gratuitous. The problem is that a criminal conviction requires "beyond reasonable doubt". There is enough reasonable doubt present in the evidence and witness statements thus far to clear Wilson of any charge that requires intent or malice. That would leave only charges that require showing negligence. With that I don't see how anything beyond reasonable doubt could be offered to support that kind of charge. Wilson had been assaulted, hence Brown just committed a felony. An arrest able and mailable offense. He failed to follow the lawful orders of a peace officer ("Stop! Stop! Stop!") and if the previous witness testimony that Wilson fired his final shots while backing up are supported by other witnesses, it will be argued that Wilson did fear for his life (whether it be because Brown was big and black or because Wilson was still moving towards him). Such a fear of his life, while acting under color of law will unlikely pursuade any fair jury that Wilson is guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

I would be surprised if Wilson is indicted on anything at all if the claims of this witness that the jury members are being "fair" are accurate. If there is an indictment I expect the trial to be short and for Wilson to not be convicted.

Iraq's WMD's

Not "active" development and "ready to deploy" as Colin Powel and Bush claimed. But they were there. Click the link. Read.

Programming

Since I recently posted on Slate's erroneous statistics as to the levels of justice system involvement black folks have (and I don't mean as lawyers for the defense), let me take it back to the 1990's. See what a lot of people don't realize is that music is a means of programming people to do bad things.

Even as a child, due to the training I received and what I consider my general affinity for decency, I didn't quite get into what we can refer to as gangster rap. I like(d) rap but I was more on the conscious raising type (which, looking back contained a lot of erroneous messages themselves). But other artists had some content that could be quite dangerous to those with less affinity to decency and morals and lesser impulse control. For example let me share some of the lyrics of Black Moon's "Reality (Killing Every Nigga)":

I represent the original head
Killing the original dead

Let me stop here for a minute. "original" in AA black vernacular is usually a reference to "original man" which is a common reference to black men. However in this case we have a dual layer message. "Dead" is a common reference to those on a "dead level", a Masonic reference to those who are unenlightened. Thus an "original dead" can mean not only a "dead original man" or dead black man, but also a black man who is unenlightened. Thus the "killing" in this reference can be seen as a "conscious" reference to killing 'sellout black men" who are "Original dead".

Check my dialect from my diaphragm
You got your nine by your waistline and
Me and my niggas don't give a damn
We got the Bucktown Boot Camp attitude kill a man
Timberland make me general

Here we start with the obligatory gun talk. The obligatory kill talk. The obligatory beat down "Timberland make me general" talk.

That's light at night puffin' the L by the grip and now
I smoke so much Li I hallucinate
Ill visions in my head
Everybody must dead

[Hook: repeat 4X]
Killing every nigga in sight
Killing every nigga in sight
Killing every nigga in...

Self explanatory.

I wake up in the morning..(we puff Li) I wake up in the evening...(we puff Li) Check the blahzay blah

Get up and get ready to work? PShaw....Do homework? Study? Pshawwww.....weed man...weeeed.

Don't you hate niggas who make records for bitches
It's all about the blunts
Fuck them stunts
Now, what ya want is what ya get
Like biggety bitch bend over blow me

Here is a shining example of how to be a man.

Original crooks never get dissed
If we get dissed
Niggas get that to the back
Five where he at?...(right here!)
Another mission to be dissing
Now who do I be dissing bitches
God, fuck the intermission
It's about killing the nigga
The one playing the bigger
The one playing the sucka ducks with my trigger
Feel the buck coming on in the set

One thing that's very important here is the admission that they are being crooks. See it's not that they don't know any better. They just think that they can get away with it all.

All over America there are black parents who are playing shit like this to their children. They are singing these lyrics in front of their children. They are teaching their children not only the lyrics but the attitude promoted in these songs. And they don't have a problem with any of it.

And when their kid gets 3 shots center mass by the police they have a problem. They never thought for a minute that they had programmed their kids for destruction with lyrics like the above.

Forensic evidence shows teen shot at St. Louis officer, police say

Gunshot residue tests and ballistics evidence indicate that Vonderitt D. Myers Jr. fired a gun at a police officer before being fatally shot, police and union officials said Tuesday.

The police department issued a statement saying that forensic scientists from the Missouri Highway Patrol crime lab found gunshot residue on Myers' hands, shirt and inside the waistband and pockets of his jeans. Police said that although gunshot residue can be present on anyone near a shooting, the results show levels consistent with Myers being the shooter, because the police officer was standing too far away.

The residue also was found on Myers' right hand only, police said.

Lets compare that to witness testimony:

State and city leaders have urged the Justice Department to investigate the death of Vonderrit Myers Wednesday night, fearing he was targeted because he was black. Police say the white officer who killed Myers was returning fire, but Myers’ parents say he was unarmed.

The Griot They said he was what? Unarmed?

Late Thursday night following a quiet candlelight prayer vigil for Myers, hundreds of people joined a more rowdy gathering to protest his death.

“This here was racial profiling turned deadly,” state Sen. Jamilah Nasheed, a St. Louis Democrat, said at a news conference Thursday.

A candlelight vigil for a known criminal. Really? I told ya'll about these fake revolutionaries

Syreeta Myers said her son was holding a sandwich, not a gun. “Police lie. They lied about Michael Brown, too,” she told The Associated Press by phone Thursday.

Well sure there are police who lie. Guess who else lies?

I know folks are all mad at The Ghost for keeping it 100% and not lying or covering up information to keep on the "right side" of the topic. But see, The Ghost won't be getting you killed for his ego career or blog traffic. Who else is gonna do it?

There are a lot of white liberals riding this on some MLK Jr, Civil Rights Movement fantasy. There are a lot of black "wanne be relevant" "leaders" out there trying to make press for their books and trying to get speaking engagements. I'm telling you black folks...these folks mean you no good at all. They wish to keep you all like babies. The Ghost wants you to get up and stand up on your own. You should want that too.

RE: Black and Blue at Slate

Jamelle Boui makes a huge blunder over at Slate:

The glib response to stats on blacks and police is to cite so-called “black crime” or “black criminality.” But this depends on a major analytical error. Yes, blacks are overrepresented in arrest and conviction rates. At the same time, “criminal blacks” are a tiny, unrepresentative fraction of all black Americans. If you walked into a group of 1,000 randomly selected blacks, the vast majority—upward of 998—would never have had anything to do with violent crime. To generalize from the two is to confuse the specific (how blacks are represented among criminals) with the general (how criminals are represented among blacks). Statisticians call this a “base rate error,” and you should try to avoid it.

What Jamelle should avoid doing is not understanding the point about "black crime".

While it is certainly the case that the vast majority of black people do not commit crimes. That is not the point at all when it comes to policing and "black crime". First lets deal with one problem with Jamelle's point:

1)"If you walked into a group of 1,000 randomly selected blacks, the vast majority—upward of 998—would never have had anything to do with violent crime."

Well actually:

For Black males in their thirties, 1 in every 10 is in prison or jail on any given day.

And the rest of the nifty chart:

So I don't know where Jamelle got her information from but it's wrong. I'm not surprised though because the vast majority of black folks who are up trying to defend the dignity of black folks (which is a noble thing) are really not clued in to just how messed up our group is. They really have not sat down with the statistics and reports and seen how bad it is, particularly for those of us who are poor. One of the reasons for this is because the media, where many people get their impressions on who does crime, particularly murder, the race of individuals who commit these crimes are regularly and purposely left out or the crime simply not discussed. If you want to know who committed a crime in a given place you usually have to know the neighborhood or city.

Take St. Louis since it's on people's minds: in 2013, of 113 homicides, 111 of them were black people. When you have that kind of situation, you simply cannot, in anything resembling good faith, write what Jamelle wrote.

The truth of the matter is that in many places, crime committed by black males constitutes the vast majority of the crime committed in those jurisdictions. Having said that, lets directly address Jamelle's confusions claim:

To generalize from the two is to confuse the specific (how blacks are represented among criminals) with the general (how criminals are represented among blacks). Statisticians call this a “base rate error,” and you should try to avoid it.

How blacks are represented among criminals: Way out of proportion to their population in the country. How criminals are represented among blacks: Way out of proportion to their population in the country as compared to other populations in the US.

Hopefully that clears things up. Probably not, it's been shown that left leaning individuals have a hard time with maths.

Remember....

Cornel West will be let go and will return to his nice house and job Union Theological Seminary. He will continue to make his rather large salary. Ya'll negroes in Ferguson will go back to places you don't own. 60% of you will STILL be dependent upon welfare for your income. A certain percentage of you will be hopping a bus to the wealthier areas of St.Louis where you will beg put in applications for jobs.

And your fake revolutionaries will have changed nothing but will have gotten their names and faces in various media. The "leadership" of the NAACP and the likes will get some bucks out of "diversity" and "sensitivity" training.

You remember my words. I'm gonna come back to this in exactly one year and we'll see how many local businesses have been started. How much unemployment has dropped. Who runs the area and how much crime occurs.

Beware of Fake Revolutionaries

Ahh youth. I remember back in the day when I was more "on fire" then "clued in". So swept up in what needed to be "torn down" but not putting too much thought about what needs to be built up. Luckily I was never so "on fire" that I was cavalier about risking other people's lives on my flawed though well meaning ideas. However; there are a lot of fake revolutionaries out there who will do so. Ferguson has a few

Organisers of demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri, promised to intensify their protests over the killing of Michael Brown if the officer who shot him does not face criminal charges, warning police that they are prepared to die on the streets for their cause.

Ready to die on the streets over Mike Brown without even a proper airing of facts? That's dumb. Secondly, in all seriousness THIS is worthy of life giving? Really? No. No it's not.

Three prominent members of the protest movement that sprung up after the deadly police shooting of Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old, told a rally in New York on Tuesday night that there would be a fierce backlash if a grand jury declined to indict officer Darren Wilson.

Lets just forget that it is alleged that Brown assaulted the police officer and during that scuffle the police officer's gun went off in his vehicle. That simple allegation means nothing? Really? Doesn't matter? Really? Because you do realize that if that happened that is not only assault on a police officer but it can also be considered attempted murder. So you do realize that the shooting was not about the store robbery or the walking down the street. Right? These are the fake revolutionaries. Real revolutionaries do not deceive the people to get them to action.

“If they can’t serve justice in this, the people have every right to go out and express their rage in a manner that is equal to what we have suffered,” said Ashley Yates, a co-founder of Millennial Activists United, who was arrested last week while protesting in Ferguson.

What justice? Do these individuals have facts at hand that the rest of the public does not know? That the Grand Jury doesn't know? Furthermore; Exactly WHAT have YOU suffered? Serious question. I know what the business owners suffered. I know what Brown suffered. But "we"? We who? And suffered what exactly? If you're gonna ask folks to come out "prepared to be shot and killed" you should at least give out the details. Real revolutionaries lay out detailed grievances.

“We’re going to take our anger out on the people who have failed us, and if they are prepared to deal with that, then let them have at it,” said Yates. Poe said that while people in America often expected “casual revolution”, Ferguson may be “the moment when we can’t do that”.

Failed you? Did I read that right? This "revolution" is over what white people "failed to do for you"? What kind of BS revolution is that? That sounds like some begging revolution to me. That sounds like a "we are going to throw a tantrum (riot) because you won't do x,y and z for us" revolution. Note to fake revolutionaries: Doing for self is the highest form of revolution.

More than a week of unrest followed Wilson’s fatal shooting of Brown on 9 August after the city officer stopped the 18-year-old and a friend for jaywalking. Several witnesses have said Brown was shot while fleeing and when his hands were up. Police say he assaulted Wilson.

And of course the actual evidence shows that Brown was NOT shot while fleeing but was actually facing the officer and in various witness statements moving towards Wilson. But hey facts don't matter much to the fake revolutionary. Secondly The initial stop was not for jay walking. Jay walking is when you cross a street against a light or between lights. Walking down the street is called impeding the flow of traffic. In both cases you can be stopped by a peace officer because under the law you are putting yourself at risk for death as well as the obstruction of traffic.

Police cracked down on the protests with a militarised presence including armoured vehicles and dozens of armed officers in riot gear. Demonstrators were shot with teargas and rubber bullets. More than 220 people have been arrested since the protests began. A grand jury in St Louis county is now considering evidence gathered by a county police inquiry.

No mention of the looting of stores. No mention of the "snitched get stitches" spray painted on the side of a store to warn owners about cooperating with law enforcement. No mention of the gun fire. No mention of any of that (and more). We're supposed to believe that folks were just marching down the street like it was the Caribbean Day Parade in Brooklyn. But again, fake revolutionaries aren't interested in facts.

The three activists said that in addition to the arrest of Wilson, protesters were demanding that Bob McCulloch, the prosecuting attorney for the county, whom they accuse of pro-police bias, to step down from the case, or for the Missouri governor, Jay Nixon, to remove him. They also want the resignation of Ferguson’s mayor, James Knowles III, and its police chief, Tom Jackson, over their handling of the crisis.

Well certainly one can question police bias. I'm sure it can be proven. I think that there is a bias in all prosecutor's offices towards believing the story of a police officer. Even the idea that they have 24 hours or so before they even have to answer questions (a situation civilians are not afforded) is a sign of bias. I think the increasing use of video cameras is a great way to overcome this bias because the camera does not take sides. However; the issue here is about facts and folks not liking what they point to. What sane person would give into demands of a population that is not interested in facts? I wouldn't. And if you want the mayor out of office you should be able to use your 60% majority status to remove him at the ballot box. Is voting too hard for the fake revolutionary?

Speaking in the ballroom in Washington Heights where Malcolm X was shot dead in February 1965, they defended protesters’ conduct in previous clashes. Poe criticised what he called the “intellectual set” who analysed race relations but “didn’t show up and didn’t want to get shot when the teargas came out”.

Hey, if your dumb ass wants to get shot over Mike Brown, over streets you didn't pave, houses and apartment complexes you do not own and businesses you do not run or governments you did not create or operate but beg from, then you go and do that. That's why you're a fake revolutionary.

The real "intellectual set" knows that if you want to have a real change in Ferguson and elsewhere, then folks gotta buy up the businesses that supply essential services to the residents. They need to buy up the real estate. They need to get themselves into the governing structure cause, you know, government is a necessary part of any organized revolution. We the "intellectual set" know this. This is what was going on in Jackson MS. with Chokwe. Do you see this fake revolutionary using Chokwe as an example? Nope. This fake revolutionary doesn't know shit else but begging white folks (via riots) for shit they don't have a clue how to develop themselves.

And ultimately this is how you know a fake revolutionary when you see one. They are all about the violence. They are all about the death. They are all about the begging. They are all about the tantrum throwing (riot). They are all about ignoring pertinent facts. They are all about excusing the behavior of the people they wish to put into harms way for their petit riot revolution. They are the "Revolutionary Fronts" in Sierra Leone, Liberia and elsewhere. They are ready to kill, rape, maim and use children to kill. They're not ready to build though. Building is hard. Building takes patience. Building takes long term planning. Building requires setting rules of conduct for your society. Building requires enforcing those rules. In short, building is more hard work than most of these fake revolutionaries are capable of.

Asked during a question-and-answer session “are you ready to die for this?”, Poe said: “Don’t come to Ferguson if you aren’t ready to die. Stay at home, as it could happen.” Yates said: “I can say this with 100% certainty: all three of us have had moments in the street where we realised we could die right there.”

I agree with Poe. If you have any sense whatsoever, stay at home. Really. Do not let these fake revolutionaries get you killed for their own vanity. If you really want to make change in Ferguson (and other places). Deal with the high rates of black crime. When you bring that down you bring down the need for police to be in these places. You do realize they are their because of the crime right? Get together among yourselves and get a pitch to the rich black folks in your state. The ball players, etc. Put a plan together for them to establish or buy out the local businesses and then run them with or by locals. There are a LOT of things that can be done to deal with the real deal issues in Ferguson, but getting yourself shot while rioting is not one of them. Unless of course you are a fake revolutionary. In which case, go for it.

Understating The Problem

I have a few posts on the issue of technological changes and the impending problems it will pose for society as large swathes of the population becomes essentially unemployable. And in a capitalist society, unemployable means "useless". And in the current climate a useless man is one of societies easiest to dispose.

Here's a video of a PBS video on robotics. It contains a lot of problematic statements that a serious reporter should have pointed out either during the interview or within the narration.

I feel it's important to address some of the points.

What's going on right now in the second machine age, is overcoming the limitations of our individual minds

Keep this in mind. We know how the bell curves. There are people with exceptional intelligence and there are those with low intelligence with most of the population around the median. What is happening is that those at the far right side of the curve are creating drones to (or that will) take the place of the work done by those to the left of them. The people on the far right side of the curve are the most vulnerable and the danger creeps along. Also as anyone paying attention knows you don't simply put a low intelligence person into a high intelligence job. Furthermore the job market, in terms of skilled labour, particularly those skills needed to program and engineer are pyramid in shape. There are way fewer opportunities at the top of the pyramid than there are on the bottom.

Right now this 3D printing machine is just being used to generate a miniature, but other ones are being used to make things like dental implants....

Baxter which only costs about 20 thousand dollars

Baxter, the factory robot to do tedious jobs that people don't want to do costs a company $20k. Takes no sick days. Takes no vacation days. Works 24 hour shifts. Lets break that down to an hourly wage: That's 20,000 divided by 365 to get the daily rate of $54. Divide that by 24 hours and you get a whopping $2.28/hour. Well below minimum wage. NOw think of all those restaurant workers looking to get a "livable wage" of $10-$15 an hour for "only" 40 hours a week of work, plus health insurance. At the low end of $10/hour that 40 hour work week for 52 weeks comes out to 1 Baxter...plus health insurance. That's only 40 hours, to Baxter's 168.

And consider this. After one year. Baxter is essentially free labour. Only costing the company electricity and whatever maintenance Baxter requires. And be certain that Baxter will NOT cost 20k in maintenance every year.

Moreover says Brook, Baxter is keeping plants and jobs state side by cutting costs

Get this logic? By using robots to replace humans, which is what we call unemployment, keeps jobs state side. Yes, I found that confusing too. I hear this faulty logic all the time. We're keeping jobs here because we're keeping factories here. No. You're losing jobs to either outsourcing OR automation. Outsourcing is immediate. Automation is slower.

Oxford researches predict that half of all US jobs will be automated away in the next few decades

Half of the working population replaced by automation of some sort in the next few decades? That's "keeping jobs state side"?

Even the flippers will need a fallback now that a machine can supposedly grind out 360 gourmet burgers an hour. And speaking of food.. *advert for pizza making machine* Italy the land that brought us hand made pizza, now brings us machine made (2.5 minutes).

So Pizza Hut, KFC, Taco Bell, Burger King, Wendys, McDonalds. All those employees. like the ones protesting...

No, actually you're not. You just don't know it yet.

$15/hour? When Baxter and Pizza Machine move into these establishments with their $2.20/hour costs which allows the establishments to operate 24-7 without employing 3 shifts of staff, but rather perhaps a contract cleaning company (assuming roomba doesn't do the job) and a service guy for the machine. Don't say you weren't warned.

...More Baxter's mean less factory jobs. "But getting more from less is good news overall"

Good for who?

It's good news for us as an economy, as consumers...

A little economics lesson. In order to be a consumer, one must have disposable income to spend on that consumption. Currently since US citizens are not handed a check from the government, such as is done in oil producing states, that income is from jobs. So if the jobs are gone, so are the consumers. This is not rocket science.

In the first machine age a lot of agricultural jobs that were eliminated but the country responded by providing wide spread education and as a consequence we were able to move to a new set of occupations, a new set of skills

I'm not a history expert but the above sounds like a whitewash of US history to me. This guy apparently knows nothing of the great migration north to factory towns to build the cars, railroads, buildings, etc. that came out of that machine age. What really happened for the Manual Working Class was that they traded farm labour for factory labour. Therefore I don't think this guy's argument that education suddenly changed the labour pool is accurate. There are at least 3 stages. Agriculture to manufacturing to intellectual property. The latter was indeed informed and the result of education and technologies that grew out of manufacturing, but it was not a re-education of the manual worker, it was the replacement and removal of him. and yes, mostly HIM.

As robots get more and more capable...we have to teach this generation of humans a new set of skills

Lets go back to my discussion of the intelligence and job pyramids. Most people are not cut out for certain work that a "knowledge economy" requires. So at some point you just cannot "teach new skills" to a large number of people. Furthermore automation makes it so that even if you have these skills it is likely that there will simply not be enough openings. In which case you might as well be untrained.

Education in America has been focused on getting people to follow instructions, but going forward we're going to need more creativity. Simply following rote instructions, software is pretty good at doing

Translation: Anything that is repetitive and does not vary [much] in execution is going to be done away with. Hear me longshoremen?

Lets keep in mind that there are still a lot of things that computers and artificaial intelligence and robots are still lousy at.

Your average 5 year old is lousy at Algeba. Won't be like that forever though.

Their very ineffective negotiators

Has anyone seen the classified ads for "effective negotiators"? Is that a profession? If so how many people does that industry currently employ? How much does it pay?

They can't lead a team of people

But if there are no people to lead.....

They can't communicate subtleties the same way

And that's important in what factory job? In what manufacturing job is that important? In what medical imaging job is that important? List the number of mass employment jobs that require subtlety.

Give me specific jobs that if young people are watching what do they do?

We've got Bridges and roads and ports that are crumbling. The physical plant in our schools are desperately in need of repair. There's no robot out there that can do any of those jobs yet.

Notice the "yet". And notice the Chinese 3D building houses

A Chinese construction company is building houses that can be mass-produced using a 3D printer. Using a mixture of cement and construction waste, the houses can be produced for under $5,000 (£2,970). The walls and structure of the house are printed layer by layer using a process that allows up to 10 complete houses to be printed in one day

This guy is lying and he knows it. Road construction is quite rote and is mostly mechanized. Next time you see road construction going on see how many men are standing around. Take note of all the machines in use. One removes the old road top. Another sprays some black stuff on the ground. Another pours asphalt. Another rolls over the asphalt and smoothes it out. Another machine is used to paint the lines. All of that can be automated. ALL of it. With technology available right now.

In the near future "construction worker" will be someone with a tablet watching a job site that used to employ 20 or so men. Yes, men. Continuing:

There's an explosion of opportunities in jobs that involve interacting with other people from sales people to nursing, elder care, kindergarten teachers

Wow.

Firstly, does anyone other than me note that the vast majority of the jobs listed by this fellow are held by women? I have pointed out repeatedly that the first victims of automation will be men and this will have dire consequences for male-female relationships.

Secondly in terms of nursing and elder care. We are already seeing a movement to robots in those areas as well. The Japanese are very much at the forefront of robot care for their aging population.

Thirdly: Did this guy say salespersons? Seriously? Does this person really think a nation of 330 million people are going to become salespersons for a living? That's the future they see and they don't see a problem with that?

I'm not a technophobe but there is going to have to be a serious change in how society works for this oncoming automation. There will simply not be enough jobs to go around. People may end up being entrepreneurs to try and get by but I don't see that kind of work replacing the lost incomes and as said earlier no income = no consumption.

Spanish nurse’s Ebola infection blamed on substandard equipment

When I saw that an Ebola patient was sent to Spain, I commented online "so it begins". I said at the outset that it was a huge mistake to import people with what is essentially an incurable disease into countries in which it is not native. That once it left it's "home" it would spread (possibly mutate).

Some people objected to that statement because it "seemed racist". Well "seemed racist" got 1400 girls raped in England. "Seemed racist" is preventing a serious confrontation with the high levels of homicide in black communities. How many more avoidable things have to happen while we seek to not "seem racist"?

Lets be clear: No one from an Ebola zone should be allowed to leave that area until it is proven that they are not infected. None should be allowed to enter any other country until that epidemic is done. If there are institutions and countries with advanced medical care, then float a ship and take care of those persons off-shore.

There is way too much hubris about how "advanced" the medical facilities are in the US. Understand that there are always human error. There are always the liars. There are always those who honestly had no clue. The reason for the strict rules and procedures is to minimize the human fallibility element. But too many people in these advanced societies think that rules don't apply to them. They see rules as inherently unfair and since "unfair" is definitively bad to them, they are against them. How many people get to be dead before we put a stop to these imbeciles who are incapable of saying "no" to people they sympathize with?

Staff at the hospital told El País that the protective suits they were given did not meet World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, which specify that suits must be impermeable and include breathing apparatus. Staff also pointed to latex gloves secured with adhesive tape as an example of how the suits were not impermeable and noted that they did not have their own breathing equipment.

The nurse was part of a team attending to missionary Manuel García Viejo, 69, who died four days after being brought to Carlos III hospital on 20 September. The same team, including the nurse, also treated missionary Miguel Pajares, 75, who was repatriated from Liberia in August and died five days later.

Staff at the hospital said waste from the rooms of both patients was carried out in the same elevator used by all personnel and, in the case of the second patient, the hospital was not evacuated.[my underlines]

I truly hope this is limited and short in duration, but one day our unwillingness to do what has to be done will cause a pandemic that could have been prevented.

ISIS’ Ammunition Is Shown to Have Origins in U.S. and China

Who woulda guessed that?

In its campaign across northern Syria and Iraq, the jihadist group Islamic State has been using ammunition from the United States and other countries that have been supporting the regional security forces fighting the group, according to new field data gathered by a private arms-tracking organization...

It suggests that ammunition transferred into Syria and Iraq to help stabilize governments has instead passed from the governments to the jihadists, helping to fuel the Islamic State’s rise and persistent combat power. Rifle cartridges from the United States, the sample shows, have played a significant role.

A note from someone quite familiar with the history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade: Same shit happened there. Outside weapons introduced to a society that does not and cannot produce their own usually leads to a lot of bad things happening that would not have ordinarily happened. Remember, the weapon sellers don't care. They just want to profit.

You'll notice the mention of China. The chart shows the China has a minuscule representation in the current arms.

Of course as I usually mention: It is pretty "funny" that these Jihadists who hate the infidels so much love to use the technology developed and sold by them. None of them think its so odd that this superior way of life doesn't seem to be able to produce modern technology.

In Liberia, One Woman's Singular Fight Against Ebola

Some time ago I wrote a particularly "sharp" piece (among others) in regards to the Africans, particularly doctors who live their lives in Europe and America while the people in their home countries depend on volunteer (usually white) doctors from Europe for basic medical care. Some people didn't appreciate my critique of those people, who usually complain about racism and non-acceptance in their adopted countries. Now with Ebola surging folks have a chance to think on the importance of my commentary.

ocal doctors were horrified. Fatu Kekula was trying to care for her family, sick with Ebola, at home using nothing more than plastic trash bags, a raincoat bought in the market, boots, a surgical mask and gloves.

They called, urging her to be sensible.

“Doctors called and told me to leave them right alone and not go anywhere near them,” the 22-year-old nursing student said. “I couldn’t. They’re my only family... Every day, Fatu said, she called for an ambulance and begged for help. For more than two weeks, none came.

Two weeks? Calling Flavor Flav!

Garvey asked: Where are your men of great affairs?

I ask: Where are your modern hospitals and why are your doctors treating rich people in other countries?