Crime Etc.

If you didn't see the Arias status conference yesterday, here is a link to the video.

It's hardly worth bothering to watch. Jodi Arias wore a bun hairstyle to court, but that is about the only notable thing about the proceeding.
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The WSWS has some scathing commentary about the Zimmerman acquittal.
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An earlier commentary by the same site is here:

The naked miscarriage of justice announced Saturday night has triggered protests in cities across the United States. From the political establishment, beginning with President Barack Obama, it has evoked pious and hypocritical admonitions to "respect" the verdict and honor the “rule of law.” Behind such sanctimonious statements from media commentators, lawyers and officially designated “civil rights leaders” is an awareness of the explosive state of social relations in America and the potential for an event such as the acquittal of Martin's killer to spark upheavals.

Obama posted a brief statement on the White House web site Sunday that declared, “We are a nation of laws, and a jury has spoken.” This was written by a president who has effectively suspended the Bill of Rights in order to carry out the illegal surveillance of the entire US population and untold millions more people around the world, and has ordered the drone assassinations of thousands of people, including American citizens.

The murder of Trayvon Martin and acquittal of his killer reflect a deeply dysfunctional society. The prosecution case, undertaken in the first place only under pressure from popular protests denouncing the failure to charge the killer, was conducted in an ineffectual manner, with police who testified for the prosecution barely bothering to conceal their sympathy for Zimmerman.

If you can be shot and killed for merely walking home alone after purchasing some items in a convenience store and your killer gets away with it, NOBODY is safe. Certainly minority groups aren't.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

For the record, last night's interview with Zimmerman juror B37. I'd hide my face and be anonymous, too, if I were that damned stupid.

I guess there's a part two as well from this evening.



Of course she already decided she was going to let the killer off the hook.

Zimmerman Acquitted

As the world knows, murder defendant George Zimmerman was acquitted this evening in the murder of teenager Trayvon Martin.

Like I had said before, it was one of those cases where you couldn't predict the outcome.

The verdict is incorrect, but there is nothing now that can be done except for the family to sue him in civil court:

George Zimmerman was acquitted Saturday in the shooting death of Miami Gardens teenager Trayvon Martin after a wrenching five-week trial that provoked a national discussion around the thorny issues of race, profiling, self-defense laws and gun control.

The neighborhood watch captain who fatally shot Trayvon in the heart during a violent struggle 17 months ago, smiled slightly after a court clerk read the verdict aloud in Seminole County courtroom 5D with Zimmerman’s family present. Trayvon Martin’s parents were not in the courtroom.

On the single count of murder in the second degree: Not guilty, the clerk of court announced. Had he been convicted, Zimmerman faced the possibility of life in prison.

After almost three weeks of testimony, more than 50 witnesses on both sides and 60 pieces evidence, the jury — five whites, one Hispanic, mostly mothers — deliberated for about 16 hours over two days. Though Zimmerman did not take the stand, they concluded that he rightfully defended himself when he shot the teen in a Sanford townhouse complex on February 26, 2012.

Video:

George Zimmerman Trial (Updated)

Trial is finished and has gone to the jury.


Earlier: I should have posted this last night and scheduled it for early this morning since the trial is on Eastern Daylight Time. I kept forgetting to do it, and now that it is just about over, I might just as well forget it.

Defense is giving its closing arguments, and I believe the prosecution will have rebuttal.

Then it goes to the jury.

Anything could happen here. Zimmerman should be convicted because he stalked the poor kid to begin with and took it upon himself to be judge, jury, and executioner, but that doesn't mean he won't walk.

The link to the live stream is right here.



Defense closing Part One:




Part Two:




Part Three--Rebuttal:




Jury Instructions:




Source





I suspect this will take awhile and could wind up being a hung jury.

George Zimmerman Trial

The trial is now in closing arguments, as defendant George Zimmerman refused to take the stand in his defense in the murder of Trayvon Martin.

This has been one speedy trial.


The link to the live stream is right here.


The replay of closing arguments:

Part One:




Part Two:

George Zimmerman Trial

The link is right here.

On a related note, this has got to be the stupidest headline in the history of the world: EXPERT: ZIMMERMAN WAS IN WORSE SHAPE THAN MARTIN.

How in the hell can you be in "worse shape" than somebody who has been shot dead?

George Zimmerman Trial

The link is right here.

At least this is a speedy trial that isn't being dragged out for months on end.

George Zimmerman Trial

You can view the trial here.

It is the defense's turn. I have been catching the trial off and on over the past couple of weeks. I haven't followed it the way I followed the Arias trial (which was mostly because of local interest with her being from nearby Yreka, California).

I can't make a prediction on how the jury will decide. Because Zimmerman decided to take the law into his own hands, he should be convicted at least of voluntary manslaughter. It may be, however, a case of a jury believing the prosecution didn't prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt or disprove the idea of self defense.

This jury is sequestered, unlike that ridiculous jury in the Arias show trial. The Arias trial was a disgrace to the American system of justice.

The replays in case you miss this trial are here. This person is known to upload the replays very quickly.

George Zimmerman Trial

You can watch it at this link.

News Round-Up

George Zimmerman Trial: There are many live feeds of this high-profile trial, including this one.

Video:

Etc.

If you want to watch the live stream of the George Zimmerman trial, it is here among many places.
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The megarich Albertson family is trying to destroy public education in Idaho by trying to force all K-12 students to go to online "education." They especially like the Michael Milken-founded K-12, a total scam operation.
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Etc.

If you want to watch the live stream of the George Zimmerman trial, it is here among many places.

I am very, very, very slowly trying to catch up on this trial. I am still two days' behind.

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I don't know if it is for naught, but many faculty and students at the University of Minnesota are up in arms over TFA.
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This is from three years ago, but it still holds true now and all over the country: A principal who simply doesn't like you can kill your career with any kind of "unsatisfactory" rating or put you on a "plan of assistance." I had one mentally unstable principal who wrote me up on a bunch of bullshit while having had a history of cheating on his wife and banging subordinates, and the last one didn't do anything about it but kicked me to the curb to cover her ass.

To this day, I have no work at all in any field in any kind of stable employment.

I am currently applying for a training program for people over 55, which at least would start getting me a regular income. I can't rely on substitute teaching to fill the bill.

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He's King Midas in reverse: Everything he touches turns to shit.

Etc.

Live stream of the George Zimmerman trial is here, among many places.

A person named "croakerqueen123" over at YouTube has uploaded all of the videos so far of the trial, just as she, like a number of others, uploaded the entire Jodi Arias trial for those who missed the live feed.
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The WSWS doesn't think much of the USSC's decision regarding the Voting Rights Act:

The Supreme Court decision targets the democratic rights not only of African Americans, but the entire working class. It removes a legal barrier to restrictions on the right to vote and encourages new efforts to curtail the franchise.

With consummate cynicism, Chief Justice John Roberts attempted to present his assault on the Voting Rights Act as a step, reluctantly taken, to pressure Congress to update the measure and bring it into conformity with present conditions. This pose of legalistic objectivity is belied by his role in the 1980s as President Reagan’s point man in attempting to weaken the act.

By effectively discarding the law’s enforcement mechanism, which requires Alaska and eight southern states, plus parts of seven other states, to pre-clear any changes in voting procedures with the federal government, Roberts gave these jurisdictions a green light to enact any changes they desire.

The Roberts court makes up shit, period.
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I agree the whole "gay marriage" issue is merely a diversion on both sides to keep attention away from the neoliberal assault on the masses in order to further enrich the elites:

The embrace of gay marriage by the Obama administration, large sections of the Democratic Party and even a growing number of Republicans and conservative business groups underscores the degree to which identity and lifestyle politics in its various forms—race, gender, sexual orientation—has become a vital element of bourgeois politics.

This serves as a mechanism for diverting attention from the assault on democratic rights, the expansion of war, the growth of poverty and the widening chasm between rich and poor.

Pro-Democratic Party organizations have promoted issues of identity and lifestyle as a means of obscuring these basic class issues, as a means of diverting attention from the reactionary policies of the Obama administration. The Democratic Party uses general support for equality to obscure its fundamental agreement with the Republicans on attacking the working class all down the line.

It is quite telling that bourgeois politicians and media are devoting so much attention to the Supreme Court’s gay rights rulings, while the court’s outrageous and wholesale attack on basic democratic rights, embodied in its decision striking down the Voting Rights Act earlier this week, garners dwindling attention.

I never understood all of the blather about the "right" to marry by gays anyway. Who gives a shit about a relatively inconsequential "right" when everything else is being destroyed?
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High heels should have died out for good after the early 1960s. The fact they have made a comeback proves many women really are stupid and will do anything to get the attention of men, and face it, that's why many women wear these torture devices.
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Etc.

If anybody cares to watch the live stream of the George Zimmerman trial, it can be viewed here among many places.

I haven't followed the case much at all; I am watching the replays of Day One.

What a contrast between the courtrooms here and in the Arias trial. The Zimmerman judge has control of her courtroom, and there is no showboating antics by either side. It's low-key to the point of being boring.