Posted on 07/14/2013 2:34:51 PM PDT by SatinDoll
A very interesting thing happened in the Zimmerman fiasco.
The state, in its closing rebuttal arguments, appealed to the hearts of the jury, not to the evidence.
Florida is an odd state when it comes to criminal law. In most states the prosecution gets its closing argument, then the defense. In most states the defense goes last, which is in line with the premise that one is innocent until proved guilty, and the defense gets one last stab an introducing reasonable doubt.
But in Florida the prosecution gets a rebuttal -- they get the last word before the jury retires to deliberate. And in that closing argument the prosecution argued for the use of the jury's heart.
In doing so they admitted they had not put on a fact-based case -- their duty -- to obtain a conviction. Since their job was to put on such a case, and they had a duty not to bring a case which was not fact-based as such would constitute malicious prosecution, in this case for political purpose, the fact that the prosecution made this appeal is a point few are focusing on but where we should all be directing our attention -- because it is the salient issue at the bar and has been since the Sanford Police Chief was fired for his refusal to go along with the railroading of a crime victim who lawfully defended himself.
The prosecution admitted prosecutorial misconduct in open court, and it followed other factual misconduct, including the intentional suppression of exculpatory evidence they had in their possession.
The problem for the race pimps, and I include Eric Holder and Obama in this directly, along with Angela Corey (who ought to be disbarred and imprisoned under 18 USC 242) and the State of Florida, including its governor Rick Scott who has failed thus far to put a stop to Corey's shenanigans despite having the clear authority to do so is that the race pimps produce nothing in this nation but rely on those of us who do produce so they can have tax revenue to "spread around" to the beneficiaries of their policies.
But you can't force the producers to produce.
We are well beyond the point where producers have every right to say "screw this!" and walk off into the sunset, enjoying whatever Mai Tais they can purchase on the beach with whatever they have accumulated, producing nothing for the rest of their days and simply adding more and more to the welfare and povery pimp sucking sound until the government collapses under its own weight.
We have seen instance after instance where gross, outrageous crimes by those who are "well-connected" are left unpunished, such as Tan Man Mozilo and Corzine, among others. Where the role taken voluntarily in exchange for legally skimming off transaction fees (E.g. the CME) in policing margin and capital adequacy is eschewed when it would lead to having to cover losses due to their lack of attention (e.g. MF Global.) When the very same exchanges (all of them) sit back and watch patterns of conduct that strongly suggest blatantly unlawful activity under the Securities Act (order patterns not intended to execute but rather to game markets as just one example) and do nothing. We have seen regulators sit back and ignore "industry" engage in various dodges around front-running law, such as the "confidence survey" early releases to those who pay money, not to mention all the other firms that are doing the same thing (no, UMich is hardly the only entity pulling this crap.)
Not all of this is per-se unlawful conduct and some of it might not even be unlawful under the black letter of the law, just as it's not "unlawful" for an entire industry to set itself up to effectively extort money from Americans (health insurance) in exchange for nothing, since you can typically buy the services in question for cash for what would otherwise be your "co-payment" or "deductible." It is only the threat of bankrupting you by putting together a "chargemaster" price list that is 500% higher that allows insurance companies and other providers to actually have a market for this so-called "insurance" -- a product that doesn't even fit the definition of insurance (pooling of risk against unlikely events for which one is expected to lose the money paid in premiums.) The people screwing you like this even meet behind closed doors and collude in their acts -- a blatant violation of the Sherman Act in virtually any other line of business.
The reason this sort of thing isn't unlawful is that the various industry "mavens" have gone to the government and jiggered the law such that they can get away with whatever it is that they'd like to do today. All of this is adverse to your interest and it is why laws like Dodd-Frank are 1,000+ pages, where Glass-Steagall was less than 40. The modern-day way to obtain advantage isn't to produce a better product or service, it is to go to the government and get them to hit your opponent over the head with a baseball bat. Witness Tesla, which has been told in several states it cannot sell cars because the company refuses to follow a forced franchise model -- a law that mandates additional layers of overhead for which the customer must pay rather than letting the market decide whether or not that overhead is objectively reasonable by resulting in a better ownership experience with the customer making the choice by buying or not buying from a given supplier.
People rarely focus on the real issues -- in government or elsewhere -- because if you do then you're forced to deal with the ugly reality of what you're promulgating and why. The race pimps are all ignoring the fact that Trayvon Martin was on top of Zimmerman and beating him when he was shot. That's what the evidence shows. The entirety of the case prior to the point where Martin threw a punch is immaterial. You do not have the right to physically attack someone because they're walking in a place where they have a right to be as they live there, even if you're being "followed." You do not have the right to respond to someone asking you a question by decking them. The factual timeline of events placed Martin with four minutes after he broke off contact with Zimmerman to contemplate not being "respected" and then to return to the apartment where he was staying, a walk of some 50yds that would require less than one minute. Instead he decided to double back and physically assault Zimmerman.
But the evidence doesn't just show an assault, it showed that Martin deliberately mounted Zimmerman, cutting off his ability to escape the confrontation and continued beating him. The physical evidence showed lacerations on Martin's knuckles consistent with the repeated striking of Zimmerman with his fists and no lacerations on Zimmerman's hands. In other words, Zimmerman didn't strike Martin with any material amount of force and in fact he probably didn't hit him at all.
We all have a right to life but you do not have a right to place anyone else in reasonable fear that you are about to take their life or do them great bodily harm. When you mount someone in a fight who has fallen and continue beating them you have crossed the line between a fight and an act of aggression that reasonably leaves the person you have mounted believing you intend to seriously injure or kill them. That's the standard for the use of deadly force in lawful self-defense and that standard is exactly where it should be.
It's unfortunate that Trayvon Martin is dead but he is dead by his own hand. Had he walked back into the apartment after he was "disrespected" by the "creepy-ass cracker", as Dee-Dee testified, he'd be alive. Had he assaulted Zimmerman by punching him, knocking Zimmerman to the ground and then walked off he would still be alive. It was Martin's sole decision to mount a fallen man who he just punched and who was grossly physically inferior in ability to him, then continue pounding on him, demonstrating through his actions that he intended to do great bodily harm or kill, that led to his death.
That is what the jury found.
That is what the former Sanford Chief of Police found and he was fired for his findings -- findings that have now been vindicated by the adversarial criminal legal process.
That's because that is what actually happened, as I pointed out at the beginning of this circus.
Now the government has a problem -- the race pimps are refusing to accept truth. But the producers of this country, and an awful lot of young people who are the producers of tomorrow, saw what happened -- including the willful and intentional distortion of the facts by both the media and the State -- and they get it.
As well they should.
We've seen many so-called "flash mobs" running around Michigan Avenue in Chicago along with other parts of the country. Bands of modern-day brigands robbing people and assaulting them smug in the knowledge that until the courts forced the issue it was illegal to carry a concealed weapon for protection in Illinois. This meant that you had the choice between being a criminal and a victim -- that's not exactly what defines civilization, is it? You might be able to argue that carrying the means of effective personal defense is "unnecessary" if there were no brigands, but unfortunately there always have been and there always will be, as those who would steal from you or worse have always existed and always will.
The people in our state and federal government who created a lynch mob mentality and fed it with lies for the specific purpose of screwing the victim in this case had better reflect on what they've done, sit down and shut the **** up. Not because there will be violence but because they cannot force those of us who are not violent but are productive to produce, and we can choose to not produce, withdrawing our consent in a form and fashion that the government cannot challenge or address.
THAT, not Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and the rest of the poverty pimps, is what our government officials ought to be contemplating this morning. Angela Corey should be standing in the dock under indictment for obstruction of justice, the IT director who was fired for blowing the whistle on the state's intentional corruption of this trial should be reinstated with back pay and a formal apology, the City of Sanford owes their former police chief an apology and reinstatement as well and Governor Scott damn well needs to appoint a special prosecutor to detail all of the laws that the poverty pimps and apparatchik in the State and Federal governments violated in Florida where Florida Law governs (including The Federal Government funding protests before Zimmerman was charged) -- and refer all of it to a Grand Jury for indictment and prosecution.
If this doesn't happen, and I don't expect it to by the way, then Governor Scott should expect there will be more people who will simply refuse to produce, as should the Federal Government as well.
The same applies to the rest of the clown-car brigade with the serious issues our nation faces, whether it be rigging of financial markets, the outrageous scams in the "health-care" system -- or putting a man on trial because he successfully defended his life in the gravest extreme.
There is not a damn thing that the State or Federal government can do about it should people just like me make exactly that determination and choice, walking off and reducing the state and federal government's tax revenue to the point of collapse.
And that, my friends, is what I believe that you, if you're a producer, should contemplate doing this morning -- and make damn clear that yes, that's a threat, it's a lawful threat, and the government can either stop this crap or face its destruction through the entirely lawful removal of your consent through reduction or outright cessation of production.
Ann Barnhardt has been extolling at length about "starving the Beast". This is the same as what KD is discussing above.
I have been looking for work these past three years, but at age 61 it obviously is not in my future. I support myself by selling odds and ends on Ebay and Craigslist, never earning more that $450 a month. The house is paid for in full as is the 17-year old vehicle on the driveway out front. Lawn and planting beds around the property are being converted into edible vegetables plantings. I only spend $10 a week on food.
I am a producer only for my own survival.
All of you should think hard about an alternative to feeding the Beast.
“All of you should think hard about an alternative to feeding the Beast.”
Oh, Sweetheart, I am SO with you on this! Been planning my escape for quite some time. Got side-tracked due to a divorce and a scumbag ex who used all of our retirement savings for wine, women and song before I could stop it.
These past few years have been both a political and personal hell for so many of us. I know many others who are well past the point of no return.
I’m right behind you!
BTTTTTT
In all due respect, this article reminded me of Bernie de la Rionda’s closing argument the other day. It was all over the place.
“Not because there will be violence but because they cannot force those of us who are not violent but are productive to produce, and we can choose to not produce, withdrawing our consent in a form and fashion that the government cannot challenge or address.”
BUMP!
And America is a full-on fascist tyranny now.
That's not true at all. The prosecution gets to go last because it has the burden of proof. That's true in Federal courts and I don't know of a single state where it's not true also. Karl doesn't know what he's talking about here.
“F*ed”
Faed?
Feed?
Fied?
Foed?
Fued?
Fyed?
The blood of an Irishman?
I believe the end has already been written and I agree with much of what Karl says.
However, my life remains full and I work hard at my job, enjoy, love, and cherish my family, and help others as I see fit. I won’t “withdraw from the system” because the system is simply the landscape in which I live - no different than the mountains I look at now outside the window.
I am angry at what our nation is doing to my young children and their futures. However, I will still teach them to love, live, and enjoy life for what it is - a short moment in time. In an effort to be wise, I also devote some of my time and energy to preparing to care for my family and others if the need arises. We already provide much of the food we grow and produce to help others.
I will continue to be a producer because that is what God demands of me. I can’t control the rest of the landscape or story beyond trying to do the right thing. My kids will grow up and hopefully understand their father was a producer who provided a good life for them and others. I hope they follow my example and provide for those around them after I am gone.
Withdrawal for the sake of political argument places politics above the moral obligations of God. I can’t do it and respectfully submit that your path is not the answer. Furthermore, I would respectfully submit that the system will collapse of it’s own weight, through no fault of either of us. The government is already borrowing and printing money far beyond what is being produced and the math is impossible no matter how much they tax us.
Good Lord, this is good!
I agree with Rooster. While I appreciate the sentiment this is a bit of pie in the sky thinking. If all producers in FL were to stop producing tomorrow don’t you think other not-so-moral individuals would step in to take their places? And short of WWIII starting, how many will endure the inconvenience of raising their own food - especially all those living in apts.? I think a better place to start is to petition Gov. Scott to start the special prosecutor machine rolling and if he refuses to do the right thing then vote him out of office and advertise far and wide why he should be handed his hat. Let’s find someone that will have a back bone to face down the corruption in the state and the corruption that is engulfing our nation by the hours and minutes. Scott was not my first choice for governor while I was a FL resident but he has done some good things. I’d like to think he has the moral rectitude for the fight but if not Floridians should let him know in no uncertain terms.
Thanks for confirming what I was thinking. Karl is generally well-informed so that assertion by him on the order of arguments caused me to question what I thought I knew.
For a closing argument, this would be inappropriate. But it's not a closing argument - it's a discussion of the undelying causes and supports of the Zimmerman fiasco.
And it doesn't go far enough.
The bottom line of the article (and its discussion) is that: "The reason this sort of thing isn't unlawful is that the various industry "mavens" have gone to the government and jiggered the law such that they can get away with whatever it is that they'd like to do today."
But no one asks how this can be possible. Everyone accepts that it simply IS possible - that that's what the nature of the "law" is, something that can be bought and paid for, manipulated and changed by those in power or with money. And it's true, anywhere else, that's what law has always been throughout history. But not in America.
Americans are living a schizophrenic life concerning their own laws. They are in denial about the fact that what cannot be denied them under their unique Constitution, is somehow being massively denied to them. Because they are afraid of examining exactly how that denial is being accomplished, by an enemy that does nothing BUT deny them that legal protection 24/7.
Ultimately this issue is unavoidable - the fate of the country literally hangs in the balance. Things are getting worse and worse for the same reason a breakaway train running downhill goes faster and faster. It used to be that Americans understood the difference between rights and privileges, between common and statutory law, and between natural persons and corporations. And to the extent they did, they could fight back against the evil powers trying to take over the country.
But few people know or care about these things anymore, for a plethora of reasons - the sabotage of schools by liberal teachers, the sabotage of culture by liberal hypocrisy, the sabotage of manhood by feminists, and the general undermining of critical thinking altogether by political correctness. As a result, the imposition of corporate status on free human beings in the name of collectivism of every stripe has run amuck - and THAT is why the arguments in this article are taking place unrestrained, and even accelerating.
I wrote an analysis of Robert's Obamacare ruling that pointed out that Roberts tried to draw attention to this exact problem, and used his ruling to shine a laser beam it, only to be massively by the very country he was trying to teach. So when I reflect on how massively the country has either missed or denied this heroic effort of the Chief Justice, I don't feel so bad about not making the best seller list myself (for anyone who still thinks Roberts just threw in with the liberals, find out (for starters) when the Supreme Court ever had an exact 4-1-4 split before).
Still, it's hard to watch one's country be so openly and methodically destroyed when the solution to the destruction is so readily at hand - but for the will of its still (barely) free people to grasp it.
One Stone, Two Powers: How Chief Justice Roberts Saved America
I think you are suggesting the producers should ‘shrug’. A great concept but there will be much pain for everyone before the system corrects itself. Many, including, the good folks, would not survive...
Wow! You really summed it up beautifully. I was just taking a walk with my boy on a nice summer eve knowing the Republic is collapsing around me. I wondered briefly if some Roman did the same a long time ago knowing the Barbarians were up and over the gates and his boy would face them. I wish it was on my watch, but it looks like it will be on his.
I knew two inventors who were initially drinking the Kool-aid (They said they felt “Sorry” for me when I didn’t want to give The Won a “chance”) right up to the point when Obama spoke with Joe the Plumber and mentioned that he believed in redistribution of wealth. My friends were then 100% against him -they couldn’t understand why the proceeds from their cutting edge technology which they worked to develop just about 7 days a week should be redistributed to someone else.
The husband would be accepted in more boardrooms if he had credentials to match his expertise so he had been contemplating a Phd - which was not something he wanted but seemed to need to get in the door at some fortune 500 type businesses.
They ended up campaigning against the ‘One’ and when he was elected, sat back in shock and then developed “Plan B” because it was no longer “worth it” to pursue “Plan A” (bring cutting edge technology to market) during a time that the government had a stated intention of making sure they redistributed proceeds.
They moved out of state and went to live in the sticks and home schooled so that hubby could pursue the PhD for 4 years (Obama’s) term. They continued working on their patents etc. but had no intention of bringing anything new and profitable to market until the government was reconstituted or realized that no one wanted to produce if it was to be taken from them. Both husband and wife took up part-time, lesser-skilled technical labor on the side to put the macaroni on the table and they began gardening etc. Since he was re-elected I really doubt they have changed course but are probably amassing a stockpile of patents and ideas for development which they will share with no one until it benefits them to do so. So full-time, top-tier technology intellect dropped down to part-time low tier tech.
And as some have said on this thread, skilled laborers in their upper years are currently excluded from the workplace. Again, top tier skills exit the marketplace.
PS: I believe the term for producers who don’t produce will become “Refuseniks” in the new regime.
O.M.G..... I can't take it anymore. The word "shenanigans" needs to be furthermore stricken from all conservative discussions of the Left. If any word conveys a less serious, less dire, less criminal intent than "shenanigans" I don't know what it is.
Shenanigans are something 8-yr-old children engage in when they put a whoopie cushion on dad's chair. The hard-core American Commie Left does not engage in "shenanigans."
And they portray conservatives as evil, murderous, greedy, oppressive haters. To rebut them with “shenanigans” is not helpful.
8^\
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