Nothing New Under the Sun

There has been some discussion about whether there is a post-Rittenhouse embrace of violence on the right, as evidenced by the folks who want to now claim that Club Q patrons got something they deserved. I note that Trump attorney and sometime fart-snuffer, Jenna Ellis, wants to let us know that the real tragedy isn't so much that they were murdered, but that they probably died without the grace of Jesus entering into their hearts. They are just burning away in hell, and you know what?

Jenna Ellis does not mind that. She is sure enough of her own salvation that she doesn't think judging is a bad look for her--even if she has born false witness regarding an election. She wouldn't know how to start the day if she didn't know who she wanted to watch burn if she was given an all-access seat up yonder, to you know. Watch folks burn.

What other reward is there? 

Tim Pool was accusing everyone at Club Q as being "groomers" because that word is nearly as beat to hell as "woke". Instead of meaning a single individual who courts and isolates victims for their own gratification, it in his usage is "anybody who lets kids know queer people exist" which is really weird, because queer people do exist and knowing that isn't harmful. 

Sure--why don't you go storm a Southern Baptist church, tough guy Tim?  Go talk to some folks at the Vatican. Speak out about why the words "GOP politico" and "child porn" go together like peanut butter and marshmallow fluff. (Look, you go search some links yourself and get as sick as you need to be. But let me suggest Ruben Verastegui, Ralph Shorty, Charles Young, and Dennis Hastert for a start.) 

Zimmerman Sells His Gun

I do not know or actually care what George Zimmerman's current financial or employment situation is, but I have to suppose it isn't especially great since the notoriety of killing a 17-year old followed by having his personal history of aggravated hotheaded shitbaggery aired to the public isn't really great to have as the unspoken part of one's resume, and legal fees are a biatch--amirite?

Still and all, it must trouble him to think that he is parting with this particular symbol of his ability to crash into a moral dilemma, fuck it up, and walk away physically unscathed, because this particular shooting iron bagged the most unusual prey--didn't it? And even amusing oneself by rubbing salt in the wounds of the young man's parents probably isn't quite the same as having that little fetish item hanging around where he could feel the kind of security only a gun lets you have. The security to get out of your truck and confront a suspect-looking black kid in a hoodie because you know you got Mr. Problem-Solver on you. The kind of security that, if Mr. Zimmerman did not have it, he would not be in this situation--and his victim would possibly be in college? Or graduating this year?

Where Are They Now? George Zimmerman Edition.

Well, this ol' boy is either showing his true colors or got wrecked by the attention. Don't know which and don't care. Life doesn't push you to do what you wouldn't do--you end up doing you.

And he's all Confederate flags and racialist slurs at the moment.

So. There's him.

George Zimmerman is In the News. Again.

I think at this point, even people who wanted to view Zimmerman's slaying of a 17 year old a year and a half ago as just an unavoidable tragedy enacted as a part of his lawful exercise of his 2nd Amendment rights may have to consider whether, after three traffic stops and two domestic incidents since his acquittal, this guy is simply not the posterboy you want for responsible firearm ownership and good citizenship.

Actually, this recent development in the ongoing Zimmerman saga seems to be more of an indication that he regularly makes poor choices and treats aggression as a tactic of first, not last, resort. In comparing and contrasting the two 911 calls made by Zimmerman and his girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, his credibility is shaky at best and his blaming Scheibe for breaking a table along with the assertion that Scheibe was pregnant with his child (later refuted by the police) seem "off"--if he was inside the home and she was outside, her narrative that she was being forced outside by Zimmerman makes more sense than his assertion that she had gone crazy on him, given that:

The former neighborhood watchman, 30, pushed Samantha Scheibe, 27, from their Florida home at gunpoint and barricaded the door with furniture, according to the sheriff's office.

At some point, you would think that maybe, just maybe, leaving quietly was a good option, as opposed to inviting more drama? You'd think at some point, it might just dawn on everyone that Zimmerman is not a mere innocent bystander in the slow-rolling train wreck that his life's become over the last two years?  You might even wonder if that has dawned on George Zimmerman, yet.

Well. Of course it hasn't.  He will probably continue to have apologists, of the sort who always believe heroes are downtrodden by The Man and women always lie. But it's awfully pathetic to be more self-deluded about Zimmerman's situation than he is, himself.

Welp. I don't know if this means anything.

But George Zimmerman's attorney is, like, just done with this guy. 

A spokesman for Mark O'Mara, who succeeded in winning an acquittal for Zimmerman in the racially charged Trayvon Martin murder trial, said O'Mara will not represent Zimmerman in any future litigation including his divorce and any possible charges resulting from the Monday incident involving his wife and father-in-law. 

O'Mara will still be Zimmerman's lawyer in a defamation suit pending against NBC and in the remaining motions stemming from the Trayvon Martin trial, including a motion to reimburse Zimmerman's attorneys and a motion to censure the prosecution. 

O'Mara appeared to struggle with his anger at his client during Monday's incident in which he went to Zimmerman's house while police were still there. During a press conference later, O'Mara was asked if he had any advice for Zimmerman, and he answered, "Pay me."

 Damn. I did notice it was O'Mara who, right after the incident with Zimmerman's wife, after George was like "what gun?" and the police were like "we didn't find a gun" who was like "The gun was holstered under his shirt, and it stayed there the whole time."  (But it sure was there, wasn't it?)

I get the feeling this is the kind of client that could make a guy tired.

George Zimmerman: This Friggin' Guy

So, this afternoon, George Zimmerman was picked up from his in-law's house for threatening his wife and father-in-law, maybe with a gun. It's almost as if he got the message from some major life event that the threat of violence, even armed violence, is completely socially acceptable. And it looks like he is not being charged. I don't know what could go wrong, there. Do you?

I mean, really. Do you?

They'll Say My Foot Was in the Right Place, I Hope

This is a clip from an interview with Juror B37 from the Zimmerman trial who was given a pretty soft interview by Anderson Cooper. She has a book deal lined up to discuss a variety of things, like, I guess, how she made up her mind before the trial, and how she thinks that peaceful demonstrations that actually got a trial to come about were "riots", how this trial was certainly not about race (Heavens!)and a whole lot of other odd foolishnesscompelling details.

In America, one can sometimes be assured of getting a jury of one's peers.

I think it's interesting that she referred to the defendant in the trial as "George" throughout the interview and that she wholly believed the testimony of a man who did not testify. I will look forward to seeing her story on the remainders table at the 99Cent Store.

You Could Say They Found Someone Guilty. Just Not Zimmerman.

I know there are people who believed that George Zimmerman would be acquitted all along, or just never let themselves hope that a jury might, in the end, find the slaying of a 17 year old boy a criminally objectionable act, but I did hope. Not that it's good for much. To me, they had it from Zimmerman's own mouth that he wanted to stop one of those "assholes" from getting away. He told the 911 dispatch that he was following this kid. The police were on their way. They didn't need Zimmerman to be on this kid, but he was. He got out of the car, and as for the events that transpired between then and the shot, the only word we really have is Zimmerman's.

Because the other person who was at the scene from start to finish is dead, and can't speak for himself.

So what did the jury believe? I know the media is bound to coax statements from them and get some kind of answer about "reasonable doubt", but I can't help but feel like the real answer is something they would, not one of them, say aloud:

Trayvon Martin was guilty.  In their eyes, George Zimmerman had to be acting in self-defense, because, really--look! Just look!

And that pisses me off, because Martin never should have been on trial. This never should have been about his right to be on the street, or to wear a hoodie, or to be black, or to breathe. It should have been about whether the defendant knowingly drew a gun on that victim with the intent to kill him. And for the life of me, I don't see anything reasonable about doubting that that was what the gun was for.

I was livid the other day when FOX News personality, Geraldo Rivera, stated that the ladies of the jury would, had they been armed, killed Trayvon Martin even sooner than Zimmerman had. Who was he to say that? What sense did that even make? Wouldn't I, a middle-aged white lady myself, have not even gotten out of the car? Wouldn't I have seen he was young enough to be my own son, and just hope he got himself home to the people waiting there for him?  And now Geraldo is at least half-right about how that jury would have looked at a young black man. And I am just sad. Sad for the family who never got their young man back home. Sad for the jury who sat in judgement, not over the killer, but the slain.

I'm sad for the prosecution, who have nothing to congratulate themselves over, because between all us on the internet? I think they half-assed it. I'm sad for the defense team of George Zimmerman, because they will live with themselves and I don't even get that. Except Don West. He looks like he can. I hope that's an act.

I'm sad even for George Zimmerman and his lying wife and the gun-loving closet racists that will fete him for the near future. Because they just got all their wrongness justified and why start seeing where this was a miscarriage of justice now?

But I am crying for Trayvon, because that young man is in his grave, and this trial spat on it. He was someone, and who and what he would become we will not ever know. Because Zimmerman only saw a "fucking punk". And then six people who sat through this trial and wanted to get on home to their families--agreed.

You Know, I Would Not Call This A Good Opening Statement

George Zimmerman's attorney started his opening statement with a "knock-knock joke".   I'm not really an expert in these things, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is mighty unusual for a murder trial. It's not that humor can't be used as a humanizing element, it's just, well:--it's a "knock-knock" joke.  And the punchline seems to be, "Hey, you lucky bastids, enjoy jury duty."

When you consider that the prosecution opened with George Zimmerman's own, obscenity-laden words during the 911 call just prior to the Trayvon Martin slaying:

"Fucking punks. These assholes always get away."

which I've always considered the most damning evidence of what was going through Zimmerman's mind, it really strikes me that the defense has started out unspectacularly enough that I wonder if it's by design.