Saturday, November 12, 2011

RACE, WHITE PRIVILEGE, AND CLASS AT PENN STATE

Just when you think things at Penn State can't stink anymore than they already do...think again.


Is it merely a coincidence that those sexually assaulted by a rich white old man happen to be poor black kids?  I don't think so.  Is it mere coincidence that the assaults on poor black kids are covered up by a conspiracy of wealthy white guys?  Again, I think not.


I know some of you think I always drag racism and white supremacy into every single thing.  Well, the truth is sometimes it is damn hard not to in a country built on such.  Throw in class and you have America.  Penn State is America.


Very sad.


Very sick.


The following is from Op Ed News.


Did Race Explain Penn State's Blind Eye to Sex Scandal?

By  




Enough of the ghoulish, sordid facts are known about the Penn State University child sex scandal to say this. The alleged child rapes were known by some athletic department members, up to and including the football program boss, JoePa, Joe Paterno. The rumors, or worse, knowledge of the rapes may have been known by or at least heard of by others still unnamed that could eventually be a winding tangle through university staff, faculty, administrators, trustees, and corporate donors, and politicians.




The two prime offenders charged with the crimes were not some causal locker room jocks and hangers on, but long term, respected, and highly positioned athletic department mainstays. The Second Mile Foundation that served as a cover for the alleged rapes by its founder, the disgraced and accused child rapist Jerry Sandusky was not some fly-by-night, drive by, fast buck operation, but a well-established foundation that had been in business for more than three decades. Sandusky was with the Foundation from the start in 1977 until just last year. Even as the scandal unfolds, it is still in business. It has a big, impressive, full bodied website that boasts of its accomplishments, has three offices, and is actively soliciting donations. The reporters that have tried to get a comment from foundation officials have been summarily hung up on.




There will be more sordid facts and cases to emerge in the coming days and almost certainly more alleged victims will come forth and tell their stories. This poses the question that's bantered about, agonized over, and reams of opinion written, and that's why those who knew didn't blow the whistle on and insure that the cuffs were slapped on the offenders years ago? The stock answer is that it was a case of fear, protectiveness, ego (Paterno's), football deification and prestige, decades of institutional sports cronyism and the bushels of money that Penn State and other big time Division 1 schools haul in every year from their flagship football programs. This is all true.




  But with the strong hints and now the public finger point by a parent of one of the victims that the victims were in her words " Blacks about 10-12 and had a tall slim muscular build."   The Second Mile Foundation's founder and accused Jerry Sandusky openly bragged that it was in the business of helping "underprivileged" youth, always the polite code word for poor, at risk, young blacks and Hispanics, it's hardly a stretch to connect the dots to race.




Put bluntly, if Penn State officials kept their yaps shut for years in the face of open knowledge of and strong suspicions of the child rapes and the victims were young black males, than the last dot connected is the charge that black lives are routinely devalued when it comes to officials taking action to protect them. This charge has repeatedly been leveled in serial murders, inner city gang carnage, and against child service agencies that ignore or downplay repeated reports of abuse when the victims and the abused are black. That's only part of the problem. Race can't be separated from poverty or "underprivileged" in the parlance of Sandusky's The Second Mile Foundation. A study in the March issue of the Journal Pediatrics,   "Racial Bias in Child Protection? A Comparison of Competing Explanations Using National Data," found that poverty was a huge determinant not only of levels of abuse. The study predictably found that a disproportionate number of the reported child abuse cases in 2009 which spanned the gamut from neglect to child rape were African-American children. The study directly linked the abuse to poverty. Parents and caregivers that are desperate to provide their children with a pathway out of harm's way from any and every type of abuse that comes with poverty latch on to organizations that promise to provide resources, mentoring, nurturing, and a protective environment for at risk black children.




The Second Mile Foundation that so persuasively and passionately marketed itself under its accused founder Jerry Sandusky, and with the resources, clout and national name recognition of Penn State University's premier football majordomo Joe Paterno to boot, as just such an organization would be hungrily grabbed at as the ticket out of the ghetto for the kids. Given the name and the prestige of those behind this Foundation, why would anyone in their wildest nightmares ever think or suspect that colossal evil lurked underneath the façade of its alleged unadulterated philanthropic and do good aims?




In the days to come as more details unfold about how the Foundation under Sandusky used its good name to commit alleged serial heinous crimes, all with the tacit blessing of Paterno and university officials,   the hard suspicions and hints   that the target of the crimes were young black males may well be confirmed. If that's the case, then the deep soul search that university and others everywhere that turn a blind eye to child abuse must undergo will be rudely forced to confront one more horrifying possibility. And that's that race was one more reason for that blind eye.


Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is host of the weekly Hutchinson Report Newsmaker Hour on KTYM Radio Los Angeles streamed on ktym.com podcast on blogtalkradio.com and on thehutchinsonreportnews.com
Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/earlhutchinson


Earl Ofari Hutchinson is a nationally acclaimed author and political analyst. He has authored ten books; his articles are published in newspapers and magazines nationally in the United States. 

Friday, November 11, 2011

POLITICAL PRISONER FRAN THOMPSON



Today I introduce you to Fran Thompson, a woman serving life in prison for killing a stalker who broke into her house and was poised to attack her.  There is very little information out there that I could find about Fran.  This is partially because she pretty much refuses to ask for help and disdains pity.


On infoshop news I found the following:


Regular readers of the ELP Newsletter will be aware of the name Fran Thompson. In the Newsletter, ELP lists her as "An eco-activist serving life for shooting dead, in self-defence, a stalker who had broken into her home".

But who is Fran? Fran is your typical eco-activist.

On the outside she campaigned long and hard for the issues she cared about. Her campaigning included protesting against nuclear industry, intensive animal farming and environmental destruction. This campaigning made her unpopular in her home area, which was a rural farming area in Nebraska. Now one day, one of Fran' s farming neighbours decided that he wanted to get his hands on the land which Fran owned. To obtain the land he asked Fran to marry him. Fran declined. However this guy was not going to take no for an answer and started stalking her. The stalking got so bad that one-day he broke into her house. Terrified of what he might do to her, Fran grabbed a gun and defended herself. He sadly died from a gunshot wound.

At her trial the Judge refused to allow the Jury to consider a plea of self-defence and Fran was convicted of murder.

Fran hates "poor little Fran" articles being written about her and has never sort out prisoner support. In fact the international eco-prisoner support movement may never of heard about Fran if it wasn't for the fact in 1997 she contacted the British "Vegan Prisoners Support Group" asking them if they could help her secure vegan food. The VPSG passed on Fran's details to an ELP volunteer and ELP has supported Fran from then on. Fran is a lovely woman who deserves all the support we can offer her.


Fran Thompson #1090915
HU 1C
WERDCC
Post Office Box 300
Vandalia, Missouri 63382

WHAT DOES NUMEROLOGY, LUCID DREAMING, ETC. HAVE TO DO WITH OCCUPY KANSAS CITY

Honestly, I just don't get it, so I am asking.

Okay, to start with let me say that:
I practice yoga with my exercise regimen almost every single day
I have been lucid dreaming for as long as I can remember (just didn't know that is what it was until people discovered they could make a few bucks off of teaching others how to do it)
I have meditated at times in my life
I have studied various brands of mysticism and find some of them fascinating 
Okay, that said, I have never figured that any of that stuff (including mysticism, spirituality, meditation) had anything to do with the overthrow of capitalism or the smashing of the state.  All of the above may enhance your personal life or just make you feel better or get you in touch with the great "something," whatever. I've no trouble with that kind of thing.  Just don't tell me you are going to change the world with it.  Had this debate in the 60s and as then I felt that turning mysticism, spiritualism and all of that fun stuff into some sort of movement for change actually simply benefits those in power.  Divert the "masses" from dealing with real issues in the real world and you can just keep right on ruling...kinda like drugs.


The poster below says, "race, religion, politics, beliefs, culture" are superficial differences.  Oh, really?  Sure, everything is connected to everything else, and in that respect everything is "one" but within this Oneness there is quite a bit going on besides "wholeness" and "rightful energy."  I am just saying you can't hide all that we see and experience behind  "spirit and love."  If only it were so easy.  How much benefit do you suppose all the species that go extinct on Friday will get from this "Movement and Meditation?"  How many dams will disappear in the bliss of meditation?  How many innocents suffering in conflicts all around the world Friday will be saved from death through numerology or lucid dreaming?  How many dying from cholera and malaria will miraculously recover on Friday via numerology? Face it, people have been "infusing" themselves with "rightful energy" for thousands of years and there is not one iota of evidence of any of it having had any effect whatsoever on exploitation, repression, war, hate, bigotry and all the rest.  Struggle in the real world has shown some effects on all these things.  Slavery in America ended via violent conflict and struggle not through anyone getting in touch with their inner being.  The Vietnam war ended because of the courage of the Vietnamese people who fought for national liberation for decades.


Individual personal growth does not a revolution make.  Religion is the opium of the masses.  It may be good for the soul, and that is fine, but lets quit promoting the absurdity that we can make the world a better place if only we join hands and chant Ommmmmm.


I wish.


So, what I simply don't understand is why is the main item highlighted for the past few days on the Occupy Kansas City web page  the following.

Direct Action

11:11:11: MOVEMENT OF MEDITATION - A DAY OF DIVINE SPIRIT AND LOVE
      People world-wide come together under the guise of prayer and spirit 
On Friday, November 11th from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. people of all ages will gather for an international day of world healing.  A world wide call to join forces on 11/11/11 is an attempt to send out healing energy, meditation, prayer and intentions of peace. 
Kansas Citiens will gather at the Liberty Memorial Park (Pershing Road & Main Street) next to the Buffalo statue just North/West of the Occupy sight).  The Liberty Memorial is a very powerful central spot in our city, though this event is not directly affiliated with the Occupy movement, but rather this 11:11:11 gathering is designed to infuse any and ALL movements of revolution with love, respect and spirit.  
In addition to the full day of meditations planned, there will also be live art, painting, drumming, chanting, song and dancing all throughout the day.   Participants are encouraged to bring their own customs, to DRESS WARM and bring their own FOOD/DRINK. 
Mission: “It is time we occupy love and the divine intervention that spirit plays in our lives.   We will gather on 11/11 to infuse our lives and our movement with the rightful energy we have been gifted.  Our intention is to transcend superficial differences that divide us – race, religion, politics, beliefs, culture – to acknowledge, experience and honor the essential bond that unites us all as one interdependent organism.  We also intend to evolve in both consciousness and action so that each of us learns to perceive the whole, relate to others in wholeness, widen our definition of ‘we’ to be all inclusive and become evolutionary leaders for a peaceful, holistic, sustainable world. 

Day Activities Include:
10:30 a.m. YOGA with Theresa Goodman and Kid’s Yoga with Lindsay Love
11:00 a.m. Opening Ceremony with Aislinn Firehawk
11:11 a.m. Moment of Silence
11:30 a.m. Numerology Information Update & Meditation
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. Peruvian Shamanism Ritual Cleansing
1:00 p.m. Light Center Meditation led by Adam and Christee
1:20 p.m. Lady D Meditation
1:30 p.m. Sahj Kaya Message from the Mother
1:40 p.m. Jeri Birdsall Chanting Meditation
2:00 p.m. Lucid Dreaming with Sarah Aluna Verse
2:30 p.m. Didgeridoo Healing with Ricky Yutuc
3:00 p.m. Liberty Memorial History (it IS VETERAN’S DAY!)
3:15 p.m. OM Circle and photo
3:30 p.m. Lotus Meditation with MissConception
4:00 p.m. Interplay with Devi Wetterer
4:30 p.m. KConscious Poets
5:00 p.m. Musical Open Jam 
Participants are encouraged to continue their evening at one of several 11/11/11 events happening around the city on Friday night.  Special thanks to the Zeitgeist movement for providing the PA and to the Occupy Movement as well as the Liberty Memorial parks and rec for providing the space. 
Any questions may be directed to Sara Glass with the VibeTribe KC.
I have questions, but not for Sara, but for Occupy Kansas City.
  1. Is 11:11:11: MOVEMENT OF MEDITATION - A DAY OF DIVINE SPIRIT & LOVE an Occupy Kansas City event (or an Occupy Kansas City endorsed event)
  2. If not, why is it so prominently featured on your web page
  3. If it is an Occupy Kansas City event (or endorsed by Occupy Kansas City), why?
Your web page describes Occupy Kansas City as,
Occupy KC is a movement of citizens who have come together to reclaim our democracy from the 1% who have hijacked it. We are holding Wall Street accountable for the fiscal recklessness and criminal perversion of the democratic process. We are people like you who know it’s time to say “Enough!” We will not remain passive as formerly democratic institutions become the means of enforcing the will of the only 1-2% of the population who control the majority of American wealth.
How do you figure any of the above events, let alone all of them advance any of that?


Again, I have nothing against anyone hosting such an event.  Many people will find it all interesting and enjoy it.  I just can't figure out what it all has to do with Occupy Kansas City.


Just asking. 


PS: THIS IS A LIGHTHEARTED POST OFFERED IN THE SPIRIT OF DIVINE SPIRIT AND LOVE

JOE PATERNO AND OCCUPY OAKLAND: SOMETHING VERY WRONG

I have nothing to add to this from Edge of Sports.  It is from yesterday and refers to the night before.


Penn State and Berkeley: A Tale of Two Protests

Last night, two proud universities saw student demonstrations that spiraled into violence. On the campus of Penn State University in State College Pennsylvania, several hundred students rioted in anger after the firing of legendary 84-year-old head football coach Joe Paterno. At the University of California at Berkeley, 1,000 students, part of the Occupy USA movement, attempted to maintain their protest encampment in the face of police orders to clear them out.
At Penn State, students overturned a media truck, hit an ESPN reporter in the head with a rock and made every effort at arson, attempting to set aflame the very heart of their campus. They raised their fists in defense of a man fired for allegedly covering up the actions of a revered assistant who doubled as a serial child rapist. The almost entirely male student mob was given the space by police to seethe and destroy without restraint.
At Berkeley, the police had a much different response. Defenseless students were struck repeatedly with batons, as efforts were made to disperse their occupation by Sproul Hall, the site of the famed Mario Savio–led free speech battles of the 1960s.
Two coasts and two riots: a frat riot and a cop riot. Each riot, an indelible mark of shame on their respective institutions.
The difference is that at Berkeley, the Occupiers—a diverse assemblage of students, linking arms—pushed back and displayed true courage in the face of state violence. They would not be moved. These students are a credit to their school and represent the absolute best of a young generation who are refusing to accept the world as it is.
At Penn State, we saw the worst of this generation: the flotsam and the fools; the dregs and the Droogs; young men of entitlement who rage for the machine.
No matter how many police officers raised their sticks, the students of Berkeley stood their ground, empowered by a deeper set of commitments to economic and social justice.
No matter how many children come forward to testify how Joe Paterno’s dear friend Jerry Sandusky brutally sodomized them on their very campus, the students at Penn State stood their ground. They stood committed to a man whose statue adorns their campus, whose salary exceeds $1.5 million and whose name for years was whispered to them like he was a benevolent Russian czar and they were the burgeoning Black Hundreds.
Theirs was a tragic statement that proud Penn State has become little more than a company town that’s been in the lucrative business of nursing Joe Paterno’s legend for far too long.
I spoke this morning to a student who was at Sproul Hall and another resident who was a bystander at State College. The word that peppered both of their accounts was “fear:” fear that those with the space and means to be violent—the police at Berkeley and the rioters at Penn State—would take it to, as Anne, a Berkeley student said to me, “a frightening point of no return.”
I would argue that this “point of no return” has now actually been reached, spurred by Wednesday night’s study in contrasts.
November 9 was a generational wake-up call to every student on every campus in this country. Which side are you on? Do you defend the ugliest manifestations of unchecked power or do you fight for a better world with an altogether different set of values? Do you stand with the Thugs of Penn State or do you stand with Occupiers of Berkeley? It’s fear vs. hope, and the stakes are a hell of a lot higher than a BCS bowl.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

THE EMPIRE STANDS NAKED IN GREECE



It's late and I don't have time to comment much.  The two articles below from From the Greek Streets tell the tale of the coup that landed a big time Eurobanker as the top dog in Greece.  Sometimes you have to see these things to believe them.  Not only does the emperor have no clothes, neither does the Empire.  Me thinks, this may not sit so well some of the people of Greece who have this way of expressing their anger.



Junta for ever!

They’ve been paving the way for quite some time now. The Nation is in danger; an array of incomprehensible fictitious capital and speculative economics posses a very tangible threat to the livelihoods of the people. A pressing need for people to cease resisting the onslaught of capital and to line up behind whatever national saviour comes their way. A pressing need for a return so some sort of normality, anything resembling social peace, a pressing need to return to order.
In the words of a poet, “order smells of human flesh” — and, according to the anarchist slogan that tweaked those words years later, national unity has that distinctive smell, too. A serious-looking banker asks for consent and for people to bear whatever sacrifices come their way. Whoever said bankers lack a sense of humour? Even at the time of his demotion from vice-president of the European Central Bank to prime-minister of the Greek section, this humanoid finds the strength to joke about. And this, in face of one of the deepest crises capital has faced on this continent’s soil for so many years: at this exact time, sovereignty has swiftly and unhesitatingly lifted the veil of representational democracy, the veil of any democratic procedure whatsoever. What’s to surprise us?“Sovereign is he who decides on the state of exception.”
And so, they’ve decided. They’ve taken something enough of us were burbling for years and thrown it out into the open. If this isn’t fear, what is? If this isn’t our  best opportunity in a lifetime to expose the democratic regime for the shambles that it is, when would it possibly be?

Upper caption: "single-party government of national salvation". Lower caption: "multiple-party government of national salvation." From the blog Antistachef, http://antistachef.wordpress.com

Lucas Papademos, of the European Central Bank, is the new prime minister in Greece: the bank d’etat is now complete

Lucas Papademos, the former vice president of the European Central Bank (only until last year) has been demoted to the position of the Greek Prime Minister. The democratic regime is finally fully revealing itself for what it is – a regime does not bother with the sham of elections when things get too tight. How desperate an attempt to maintain any resemblance of order, how doomed the ruling class seems, united in its dismay.
Lukas Papdimos is presented as a new face in poltics by corporate media, well not so new, here pictured 10 years ago when he was director of the Bank of Greece,  smiling and clapping the day Greece entered Euro-zone,  together with the then PM Costas Simitis. Papadimos became vice-president of the European Central Bank when it was funded , he was director of the Bank of Greece and senior economist in the USA  Federal Reserve,  in 2010 he was appointed unpaid consultant to to the then Prime Minister G. Papandreou, it is well known that bankers offer their help for free.

RIOTING PENN STATE STUDENTS STINKING UP THE PLACE

what is wrong with these people
Everyday something worse happens happens at Penn State that makes the place seem to be a moral cesspool.  I know, I am sure that most of the people at Penn State, students and faculty, are shocked by the worst scandal in the history of college football, by the fact that so called responsible, moral adults turned away in the face of child rape and decided to protect their football coach and their football program.


Last night more than 1000 Penn State students turned to violence to express their disapproval not of child rape, not of  the cover up of child rape, no, that wasn't the reason.  These blockheads and worse took to the streets angry that Coach Joe Paterno, who for more than a decade kept quite about the child rapes occurring around him, was finally fired by the Board of Regents.


Unbelievable.


Unconscionable.


Downright sick.


The following story comes is taken from PennLive.com



Suspects have been identified in riots after Penn State's firing of coach Joe Paterno, police say



STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Investigators were reviewing video footage and identified numerous suspects who could be charged with riot, attempted arson or other counts after a peaceful demonstration over the firing of Penn State football coach Joe Paterno turned unruly.

PSU students protest firing of Joe PaternoPSU students protest firing of Joe PaternoPenn State students hit the streets of State College to protest the firing of head coach Joe Paterno.Watch video
Crowds toppled a television news van and at least one photographer was pelted with a rock when thousands of people gathered in downtown State College late Wednesday, police said.

"The crowd initially was a peaceful demonstration against Coach Paterno's firing. The crowd quickly turned from a peaceful demonstration to a riotous mob," State College police said in a statement Thursday. "The mob attempted to light vehicles on fire, and tore down light posts and street signs."

Some people threw rocks, bottles and hard objects at police and citizens, authorities said.


Penn State coach Joe Paterno and his wife Sue on the front porch of their house, address students
EnlargePenn State coach Joe Paterno and his wife Sue on the front porch of their house, address students after Penn State University Board of Trustees announced the resigning of president Graham Spanier and firing of football coach Joe Paterno. Paterno announced his retirement at the end of the season earlier Wednesday. JOE HERMITT, The Patriot-NewsJoe Paterno fired by Penn State University Board of Trustees gallery (36 photos)
In the statement, police estimated the crowd totaled as many as 4,000 to 5,000 people and that officers made numerous orders to disperse, but eventually had to use pepper spray. About 100 police officers were downtown, many wearing helmets.

Authorities did not say how many arrests had been made.

Paterno had announced earlier Wednesday that he planned to retire after the season and expressed remorse for not having done more after he learned of sex-abuse allegations that had been lodged against a former longtime assistant coach. On Wednesday night, the board of trustees announced his immediate firing.

Meanwhile, a group that advocates for the rights of people abused by Catholic priests released a statement cautioning Paterno's supporters to think about the consequences of their actions.

"As for the students who are rallying around Paterno, we hope university officials will ask them to consider the anguish their actions are causing the victimized children as well as other members of their community who are victims of sexual violence,"BishopAccountability.org said in the statement.

"To observers of the Catholic crisis, this phenomenon is sadly familiar," the group said. "The students are similar to the parishioners who rally around abusive priests and complicit bishops. This kind of deference to powerful authority figures helps create a culture in which victims are silenced and officials feel entitled to hide crimes rather than calling the police.