Sass the police of the white elite and they will kill you

A friend told me all she knew was that a white policeman shot and killed a black teenager. She asked me what had really happened.  I said:


The black kids did not heed and instantly obey when the police ordered them-- in what I’m sure was a derogatory fashion--  to get on the sidewalk instead of walking in the street. That’s the entire basis of the whole encounter.  When the black kids sassed them back the cops were enraged, especially the killer.  Even when Michael Brown was trying to appease him and walking in the “correct” direction the cop kept firing at him…most of the bullets into his back. The kid had his hands in the air.  He even said: “Don’t shoot me.” 

There are cell phone videos which the authorities are doing everything to suppress.  The white cop killed him because the cop was in a rage of hatred because he thought the black kids “dissed” him. That’s it, pure and simple. But now the entanglement of lies lies lies. 

All this takes place in an environment of permissible and encouraged racism from the Ferguson police that has been going on for decades.  Over all this time the police became more and more empowered in their attitudes to treat black people as inferior subjects.  The store robbery police tried to connect after the fact was not known at the time by the police in the car that was harassing the kids. Police found that out later when they went back to the station and tried to connect it as part of their development of what they would be testalying, the word  American police made up themselves to describe to each other what they were doing in courts and reports. 

Fact never to be forgotten:  the police were so disordered about this that they insisted on leaving Michael Brown’s body in the street for FOUR hours and didn’t allow anyone to touch it, cover it, or go near it.  There is no better proof that cops and civil authorities of Ferguson had gone berserk behind their closed doors as they tried desperately to figure out a way not to be held accountable for the outright and unjustified killing.  If it had been the middle of the night the police probably would have moved the body in order to try to falsify what happened. Once it had happened in the clear light of day they were desperate.

Everything going on now has to do with the police trying to maintain their power along with a determination not to blamed for what they have done wrong.  The magnitude of the police reaction to the protesters is another proof of the knowledge inside the police and civic officials that a wrong and evil act was perpetrated. In a more innocent example, it resembles a child who talks louder when he realizes he is being caught in a lie. 

Second Fact never to be forgotten: For decades police continuously stopped cars and levied fines on those in the black community, an encouraged practice that funded a large part of the city's budget. Abusing black people in this way had been going on so long it was a very short step to shoot to kill just because one of them had the temerity to sass a policeman.

If you watch “Democracy Now” on Link TV you'll get all the real facts directly. This news program and The Nation magazine are the only consistently reliable sources of reporting that allows people to know what is going on in the country, without the spin, distortions, avoidances, elisions and outright lies of the commercially owned and controlled media. 

Web of life

I've been meditating on the web of life and how we humans -- as part of our journey called "progress" -- have acted more and more in innumerable ways as if it had nothing in the world to do with us. Astounding.

Who Cares About Butterflies?

Sept 11 2014 Who cares about butterflies?  They’ve always been around.  The gravely diminishing population of the Monarch butterflies is something humanity would scarcely have noticed at another time.  However we now live at a nexus calling for us to see and approach differently the world in which we live.  Humanity’s next evolutionary step has to start now, a step in which we think in new ways about the web of life within  which we have our being.  Mankind as the conqueror of nature and the entitled rampant killer has to give way to another way of thinking.

Not just for new concepts of morality but for survival of the web of life – which we have rarely considered with the relevant and necessary vision.  Mankind’s path of triumphalism has been predicated on a vision of humanity as above and apart from nature. Earlier in the 20^th century politicians and developers boastfully said:  “We will make the deserts bloom,” not realizing that the deserts already bloomed in ways differently than suburban gardens.

We need to become seers (see-ers) and activists.  Today’s example is “Roundup,” Monsanto’s herbicide, a poison similar to the “Agent Orange” used to devastate lives and the countryside in the Viet Nam war.  “RoundUp is made of glyphosate, the primary active ingredient and Agent Orange of our time,” according to Natural Society.

Read more:  http://naturalsociety.com/still-eating-agent-orange/

Using herbicides like Monsanto's Roundup on genetically engineered (GE) crops is destroying a significant portion of the Monarch butterflies breeding habitat.

We are asked to implore the the U.S. government to take urgent action in listing the Monarch butterfly under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

https://www.rainforest-rescue.org/mailalert/969/monsanto-vs-monarchs-millions-of-butterflies-disappearing

Androcles Says: Elephant killings Increase

Androcles Says: Elephant killings Increase

Elephant killings Increase

Animal protectors and other groups cannot withstand the growing massacre of elephants for their tusks.  For a long time I've winced every time I see an "ivory" object on Antiques Roadshow even though they carefully point out that these items are from elephants killed a very long time ago, even though they say they will not show "new ivory."  I wrote to the show today.

" Dear Directors, Editors, and Producers of Antique Roadshow – With countless others I am a fan of your programs. However, I  am asking you to reconsider the showing of even antique ivory objects.  The argument is made that these objects represent human artistry from long-dead elephants.  However, even the special sound of an appraiser’s voice saying “ivory” can ignite the desire in human beings to possess ivory objects.  Just as even the wearing of antique furs encourages others to buy new furs.  I note that you do not feature furs – an excellent decision.

Please think about the influence of showing antique ivory – you may think of it as subtle.  Rather,  it is a compelling message causing humans to want to possess such vaunted things.  The caveats -- pointing out that this is antique ivory -- do not have the power to override the concomitant praise given to the object. Saying “ivory” is the cultural equivalent of saying “diamond.” It impels a desire in the consumerist peoples of the world.  The proof of this statement lies in the ravening business of killing elephants for their tusks, a business which is growing rather than lessening.

Take a higher road.  The killing of elephants by poachers has reached one every fifteen mintues.  Please join the consciousness now arising which calls on us to regard the web of life as humans have never regarded it before.  We live WITHIN it, not apart from it, not above it.  We must develop new approaches to thinking and caring about it – for the sake of our souls, for the sake of life itself.  Every destructive act resonates more than we have ever realized before.  Please become part of the new realization, the new way to be a human on the living planet, our only home.  Please stop praising and appraising the sad relics of dead elephants, no matter how humans may have tried to transform them.  It’s not actually so different from showing a lamp shade made of human skin, no matter how “beautifully” it may be done.

Thank you for reading this letter.  A response would be most welcome"

THE WAR IN AMERICA YOU NEVER SEE IN THE NEWS

A war within America grows more aggressive every day – never seen in the news --  the war against animals and insects such as bees.  Thousands of animals are killed every day by the US Department of Agriculture Wildlife Service (USDA WS) and the U.S. Forest Service.  Yes, hundreds of professional killers hired by the government go to work every day in America  to produce as many animal corpses as possible. 

 To learn more, on the Internet go to Defenders of Wildlife, In Defense of Animals, and World Wildlife Service.  Among the many animal groups these three are the ones I interact with most frequently.

These groups keep us informed about local, state and national bills concerning animal welfare and, more somberly, the ongoing massacres organized by the federal government,  paid for with taxpayer money.  Some states have their own programs of killing.

I am distressed beyond endurance about government spending of tens of millions of our tax dollars to kill more than 100,000 wolves, bobcats, foxes, black bears and other native carnivores every year.

See below for a listing of just some of the animal-kill news from today.

What does it matter? 

No American citizen has been allowed to vote on the government’s massacre of "wild" animals in the west. The real push to kill them comes from wealthy businessmen and ranchers of the cattle industry who impel these actions in exchange for their campaign contributions. All land is for the cattle industry – they get the government to kill all other creatures to increase their convenience and profits.  No one has voted to turn the American west over to the cattle industry.  American advisors continually counsel "emerging" countries to protect rather than kill their native wildlife since the native animal life is such an integral part of each country's identity and heritage. What about  America? These animals are as American as you and I.

We have to look differently into humanity's place on earth. All humans, including Americans, exist WITHIN the web of life -- not apart or above it. Why continue to ignore the signs that illustrate the need for us to become guardians of the web of life? Not just for moral reasons but for survival itself. No one knows where the tipping point is as we trample about in the web of life as if our rubber stamping of the bottom line policies of out dated capitalist practices would ultimately protect or save us.  Really?

The killing of wild horses and wolves and the other native American animals sends a message to children and to all the peoples of the world. Nothing is so powerful as the example.  Do we want to continue using killing as a knee-jerk solution to mis-labeled “problems?”  The dollars these animal killers fold into their bank accounts are for today. The destruction is for eternity.

In the new consciousness now arising about humanity's place on earth we see clearly that it's not just a momentary choice but a necessity to become guardians rather than senseless destroyers of the web of life. We are not apart or above it.  Within it we have our being and our hope.  No one knows whether or if a human soul exists.  If it does, can you think of a more abiding place than the web of life itself?  

TODAY’S ANIMAL MASSACRE NEWS;

--In Montana the state legislature has a bill to increase the number of otters the state is allowed to trap and kill.

--At Bush Airport in Houston they are killing thousands of birds.

--In Kentucky they are using gas chambers identical to those used in the Nazi genocide to kill cats, dogs and other animals at shelters

--In Annapolis Maryland they have contracted with the U.S. Wildlife Services to kill deer in a 90 acre woodland.

--The City of Berkeley in California has proposed to kill  up to a thousand of California Ground Squirrels and Western Pocket Gophers in Cesar Chavez Park, formerly known as Berkeley Landfill,  situated along San Francisco Bay.

--Idaho and its macho governor, Butch Otter, hold rallies to kill wolves. The state now is revealed as using traps to torture and crush lynxes. The government appears to want the state to contain only commercial development and housing tracts. Earlier this year, Idaho officials hired a hunter/trapper to kill two entire wolf families in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area, and then, in cooperation with USDA Wildlife Services, gunned down another 23 wolves from helicopters. Idaho State Senator, Bert Brackett sponsored a bill to allocate $2 million of taxpayer money to kill hundreds of wolves.  Idaho officials stood by private parties who conducted wolf and coyote killing contests, with no objection to a private foundation's $500 bounty for each wolf killed.

--In Holley, New York the Fire Department is gearing up for the eighth annual fundraiser “Squirrel Slam,”  which gives prizes to persons, including children of 14 and upwards,  who kill the most and largest squirrels.

--Many large companies, especially Proctor & Gamble, continue to torture and kill thousands of animals such as rabbits and cats by out-of-date and ineffective “testing” so they can boast of cosmetic and other products as being hypo-allergenic. Representative Jim Moran of Virginia introduced a new bill to end animal testing in cosmetics,  H.R. 4148, entitled the "Humane Cosmetics Act," which would prohibit animal testing in the U.S. cosmetics industry and phase out the sale of cosmetics tested on animals in other countries.

Moran said "The U.S. can and should phase out the use of animals in cosmetic safety testing. Not only are animal-based tests fundamentally inhumane, they also rely on outmoded science that can fail to accurately predict safety for humans." 

--Companies such as Monsanto, Dow, Bayer, Syngenta and others are completely free of government enquiry and sanctions as they make millions on pesticides containing  neonicotinoids, or "neonics," a class of pesticides that many scientific studies have linked to the devastating decline in bee populations across the country. It has been proven that these neonics are toxic to bees. Yet the EPA remains silent and inactive on this matter.

When I have written on the White House or presidential Comment Site, I receive meaningless public relations answers such as the following auto-signed by the President: “My Administration will keep working to protect animal welfare in areas where there is a role for the Federal Government.  Please know I value your perspective, and I appreciate your thoughts on how we can meet our responsibilities.” 

 

This language is appalling in light of the government’s role in animal massacre.  This president has descried elephant poaching in Africa – good for him – but he remains blind and silent to the animal killing war in the United States.  He is not alone – no other president has addressed this tragic American activity.

Why pursue such a cause as animal rights?

I spend a part of every day at my computer with several animal activist groups who organize petition and letter writing campaigns for politicians, corporations, university medical schools and government officials. These groups question, protest and give information about the never ending killing, especially of wild animals in the west, information that is never in the “news,”  which by the way is never news but a distortion, a formulaic and lop-sided glancing glimpse at reality. These sign-up (sigh-up) campaigns usually have a line asking us to personalize the messages.  Someone emailed me that it was a waste of time to write anything personal. A good point really.   Here’s what I said.

Much of the time I do only add my name to petitions because I know that adding another number is the most help I can give.  I know that in general nobody reads these words. You say the Joe Shmoes delete them without reading them. Of course they do – they are part of the sleepwalkers who make up most of humanity.  I know they are there.   Nothing in life is so difficult as communication.  I just keep on and I think it’s better to use the best mind I have at any given moment in this great planetary crisis that most people think is not occurring. Killing our animal co-inhabitants is a significant and deeply meaningful part of the assault on the web of life itself.

Once I’ve written personal comments I post them on my blog and sometimes on Facebook, and to some on my email list. Sometimes when I write to University presidents and people like that I get an answer.  I got an answer from a sheriff a couple of times, a few times from editors. Quite often I get an answer from politicians too, although I know the actual letters don’t have much of a chance to get to them. 

I will continue to write my thoughts and hope that they may edge someone here and there a little closer.  A stranger responded negatively to one of my Facebook comments about wolf and coyote killers – she said it was the first time she had ever seen or heard anyone use the term “wealthy ranchers.”  She thinks there is no such thing. !!!!  I won’t respond because it’s impossible to communicate with anyone who makes such a strange statement, a statement that illuminates so clearly her world which she thinks is the only world.  The obstacles we face are complex and quite terrible, really.  And THEY think the same thing about us.  !!!!   We all think we’re on the right side. 

As humans we can be wrong about anything at any time. In the so-called “wild” a creature who chooses a certain place to walk may be killed and eaten for the mistaken choice while another on another track goes free to live another day. As humans we have thought of ourselves as being superior to nature – a word that can now be interpreted by some of us as the “web of life.” For a long time and still today for some of us, nature is something we conquer…exploit…turn into commerce…transform…fear…think of as a danger.

Some random thinkers referred to the idea throughout time, as far as we know -- the thought that the essential being of our lives is within, not separate from the web of life. Being human, for all our triumphalism, does not mean we can actually transcend nature – the ultimate proof of that lies in the process of our lives and our deaths.  

It has been a complicated dimension of many variations and kinds of persuasion  – the idea that we can be separate from nature, that we are superior to the web of life.  We walk on that path whistling distortions we think will make us safe.  We think our descendants can walk on the same path.

In my small view I feel compelled to think that a different approach to our co-inhabitants on the planet could lead us to different ways of being.  Why do we remain “kill first … take first … win first?”  What has it brought us that we really wanted if we can be truly quiet to think about it for a time?    Evolution awaits us. 

Global Hunting Glorifies Killing Animals

GLOBALHUNTS@AOL.COM  is the contact for Aaron Neilson whose Facebook page shows him smiling and holding his rifle over the corpses of many animals, elephants, lions, bighorn sheep and so on.

I wrote to the company today:

Dear Aaron Neilson -- Killing so-called animals  with modern weapons is not so far from opening fire on other humans in unprotected situations. This approach is out of date and evil. I know you will scoff at what I think. But enlightened visions see another approach to our co-inhabitants on the planet.   Seeing and caring for other creatures leads us to see and understand the web of life, to which we belong. We are not above it, we are within it.  In the web of life is where we have our most essential being and we have no other home.

Killing animals and glorifying yourself for doing so is to proceed backward against common sense and the reality of right now. It illustrates you as an ignorant bully.  All the assault rifles in the world cannot make you into the man you wish you were.  I have seldom seen anything so ugly as your web site, which I note has space only for” likes.”  You may censor out from the page those who have other views but that does not disguise who you are or keep others from seeing you as an ego-obsessed killer of unarmed and helpless creatures, a person who sees beauty in others as a signal to murder by pulling a trigger.

There is no equality and no contest between a person armed to the teeth and an unprotected animal.  It is not  “hunting.”  It is killing.  You are a blight on life itself.