Unarmed civilian, police deaths still zero sum game to some‏

It's both surprising and dismaying to me how so many folks in my social circle view the current racial divide regarding policing minority communities as a zero sum game. In their mindset, there is only one issue: unarmed folks wouldn't die if only they obeyed the cops. They will never admit there is a problem of racial profiling and overuse of excessive force, whether a filicide of bullets into an unarmed man or applying a deadly chokehold on a unlicensed street vendor. They will never admit a cop should be prosecuted for such deaths, even when the death arises from incompetence or malice. They attribute police deaths at the hands of a mentally disturbed person to the protesters or the president or the mayor or the attorney general, some even shamelessly claiming these leaders are fomenting a new race war.

 

It's the old 'zero sum game whereby anything admitted to regarding the problems of the ghetto, from massive unemployment in an otherwise growing economy to overzealous police stopping and sometimes killing unarmed citizens, is seen as further diminishing the diminishing white majority. That is tragic because it only delays the solving of institutional problems that lead to senseless deaths, now including police as well as unarmed citizens.

 

Having contributed in a small but invigorating way to achieve full civil rights for blacks and other minorities for over half a century, I've found such work no zero sum game. Every advancement in full citizenship for others, whether due to skin color, religious / non religious affiliation, or sexual orientation improves the citizenship of everyone. Those too blind to see this reality sadly continue to figuratively bang their heads against the wall hoping reality will go away.

The real hacking story of 2014

For Bush era torturers within both the administration and the CIA , the Sony hacking story couldn't have come at a better time. Just when we were having a long overdue discussion of the need to prosecute the torturers and their bosses and enablers, mainstream media got bored; turning instead to a hacked movie company and their cowardly cancellation of a movie to divert the public from real news. Now every American knows not only Sony was hacked, they know the US pinned the blame on North Korea and likely hacked them back without revealing the proof. But they likely don't know that many, if not most computer hacking experts doubt the government version since their reasoning doesn't fit the black white, case closed narrative preferred by the media. They also likely don't know the biggest hacking story of the year is the CIA hacking into Senate investigators' computers in an effort to derail the Senate's expose of CIA and Bush administration torture activities. The government loves the help the media gives them to cover up truly heinous conduct by providing the public with bread and circuses instead of substance.

Rumors of Dow's death greatly exaggerated

In 2009, the Wall Street Journal opined that Obama radicalism was killing the Dow
Today, December 23, 2014, the Dow expired at 18,024.17.

R.I.P. Wall Street Journal delusion.

Germany's turn to spin wheels of war crime justice

Back in 1946, the US spearheaded the charging of German WWII leaders for war crimes. Many were imprisoned and some executed. The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg called the waging of aggressive war "essentially an evil thing...to initiate a war of aggression...is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime, differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.

Sixty-eight years later it's Germany spearheading to effort to have US leaders charged with war crimes. The Berlin based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, has begun the process of indicting members of the Bush Administration by filing criminal complaints against the architects of the Administration's torture program. Wolfgang Kaleck, the general secretary of the group argues: “By investigating members of the Bush administration, Germany can help to ensure that those responsible for abduction, abuse and illegal detention do not go unpunished.”

Germany is taking the lead because one of its citizens, Khalid El-Masri was pulled off of a bus in Macedonia by US government agents, sodomized with a drug, and taken to the secret base that was identified only as Cobalt in the CIA torture report. Not only was El-Masri illegally tortured, he was a victim of mistaken identity. After four months the US learned of the mistaken identity but continued to hold him while deciding how to explain their boo-boo. Afterwards, they released him, dropping him off somewhere to resume his life. El-Masri's captures' last words were likely, "EXCUUUUUSE US!."
Bush and his war criminal buddies will not only likely not be prosecuted, they'll live out their resplendent lives in mega million dollar luxury, making more millions writing self serving memoirs, and in the case of Dick Cheney, bleating on TV that the torture report was a "bunch of crap.'

But should Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld or Rice slip up and travel to a country like Germany that learned its lesson and now follows international law, they might find themselves wearing pinstripes while opening up their wallets to hire a good war crimes lawyer.

UPS, Fed Ex, still playing catch up with United States Postal Service over Christmas rush.

The seven figure salaried mucky-mucks at UPS and Fed Ex have opened up their wallets a little wider this year trying to avoid the melt down they experienced last year in the frost and snow. In two words they 'blew it' last year, playing the Billionaires that bashed Christmas while the USPS quietly went about their 24/7/365 job providing Chevrolet service at Chevrolet prices. At UPS and... Fed Ex it was Cadillac prices for Yugo service last Yuletide. This year they've added over 50,000 seasonal workers and poured billions in infrastructure to avoid delivering presents days after Santa hit the Caribbean for a well earned rest. Over at the Postal Service it business as usual. Their only worry is survival from the Congressional lackeys trying to destroy the USPS on behalf of the Wolves of Wall street.