BALTIMORE - WHY OH WHY?

Sooner or later a Baltimore had to happen.  Another African American male death, 25 year old Freddie Gray, linked to the police screamed its way into the headlines and all hell, literally, broke loose. These high profile deaths are not isolated incidences that only hit the communities they tragically occur in. Each one evokes a response which is additive to the others and finally the dam burst. Once again the temptation is to analyze the incident in one dimension - so sucks to all those who yelled police brutality at every previous incident can't those pinkos see “What the police are dealing with”. 

But before Jay H. Ell goes any further he needs to make it quite clear that the looting, arson, battery, and violence perpetrated opportunistically is reprehensible and needs to be prosecuted to the fullest possible extent. The reason the mayhem was able to take root beyond the few agitators that started it was as a result of all that the precedents in the past nine months making it easy to whip up the mob. In addition the presumption that individual police have done wrong in the death of Mr. Gray is just that, a presumption. (Already there is inappropriate trial by the media about evidence as to whether the deceased fatal injury was self inflicted or not). Having made those observations it is still reasonable to assume that there is something fundamentally amiss when there are serial deaths of black men at the hands of police. 

It is also about time there was an honest discussion of the perceptions of those who ascribe to the simplistic narrative that it is either police brutality or African American lawlessness that is at fault.

WHAT THESE INCIDENTS ARE NOT INDICATIVE OF

These incidents are handled on an ad hoc basis like the mass shootings that also punctuate space - time with monotonous regularity, like they are anomalies to an otherwise normal situation. There is a temporary deep soul searching, finger pointing, exhaustive analysis of the specific incident and its sequelae with usually an unsatisfactory outcome because even where there is, in the eyes of the layman obvious indications of a homicide an acquittal follows as the law is generally designed to assume that the police are the experts when it comes to the use of force or not. The broad sweeping assumption of the civil liberty defenders then follows that we are that we are dealing with widespread police brutality. An argument that is countered by the 335,000 strong Fraternal Order of Police who steadfastly maintain that they do not support rotten apples. As Jay H. Ell has repeatedly blogged this is not a merely a police problem but a societal one. The police are at the fault line between the frustrated and angry African American community and the law and order society and are merely carrying out what society expects them to do. (Blog; The NCPD Shooting and the Supporting Culture).

Also the African American community in every incident, as a whole, have condemned these obscene gratuitous acts of violence and plunder. Lead usually by the victims’ families and community and church leaders there are pleas to desist from violence as they rightly point out that this behavior detracts from the martyrdom  and memory of the departed and will not help remedy the situation. 

It has been argued that the police and the area leadership being unrepresentative of the community they serve is the root cause of the problem. An exhaustive op ed piece in the Wall Street Journal of April 29, 2015 effectively puts paid to that. The contributor, James L. Riley points out that Baltimore with 63 percent of its residents black, have an African American Mayor, President of the City Council and Chief of Police in addition to 40 percent of its police force being black. So that doesn’t cut it. The problem is deeper than representation although it obviously doesn’t help if the community isn’t represented.

WHAT IS IT THEN?

The irresistible inference is if this is not a community representation or a police problem is that the African American community is inherently bad and intellectually handicapped. The supporters of this theory are careful not to phrase it quite like that but whatever they argue it is code for the bald statement that these guys are lazy, good for nothing, mentally challenged, immoral and rapping hoodied criminal elements. They would argue that the fact that the black community has the highest unemployment rate, highest incarceration rate, the highest poverty rate and highest mortality rate is because their behavior warrants it. They are subject to the same laws as everyone else, have the same opportunities to achieve the American dream but they squander it all. They point to the fact that America as the land of the immigrant sees penniless refugees rise to the top. Why cannot these descendants of liberated slaves, who have been afforded the voting right, been assisted by Affirmative Action and have been showered with countless assistance programs get their act together?

Where does this argument fall down?

Immigrants to the USA are different from all other Americans from the second generation onwards. Anyone who comes to America has had to jump through a million hoops and humiliations to get here  - even those immigrants the Americans actually need. They are by definition “exceptional” people who have come here for a reason and are motivated to succeed. They are not moaning about the system, at least not in the beginning, and expect to work like lunatics. Often they have been toughened up by political oppression or come from a society that offers them little hope or future and are seizing every opportunity with both hands. An immigrant has many disadvantages besides not being able to run for the Presidency not the least of which he or she does not know the system and has to learn the culture. So you cannot compare any group of even second generation Americans to the immigrants.

The argument that the African Americans are somehow different intellectually and otherwise to the white and Asian groups is belied by the fact that so many rise to the top of their fields. Why we even have an African American President! In the professions, armed forces, business, academia, trades and in the entertainment and the sports arena there are endless standard bearers from this so called “challenged” group. There just seems to be a massive gap between those that make it and those that don’t. A gap incidentally that is slowly but surely materializing in the other groups in America.

Having said all that it must be made clear that the African American historically has been discriminated against in America. Lest we forget just 50 short years ago the Civil Rights leaders effected the most incredible disciplined campaign to gain their constitutional voting rights. This campaign was lead by one of the key intellects and leaders of the twentieth century, Martin Luther King. To jump to today, just one pertinent example where discrimination still is rampant, is their profiling by the police. They are far more likely to get jail time and even be arrested for the same crime as other racial groups and on and on. They live in areas where the schools are worse, facilities scarcer where unemployment is higher and often where the best and easiest employment opportunities are in the illicit drug industry with its accompanying crime and violence. The unemployment rate of black male youth in Baltimore is estimated between thirty and fifty percent. In short a large body of African Americans are caught up in the cycle of poverty and cannot seem to escape it. If six of you share a room and are not really getting enough to eat and are trying to study it has to be an uphill battle.

So what is the answer to break this poverty cycle? Well the answer is a national one and not only one directed to the African American Community and needs a determined effort to create higher wage earning jobs and educational opportunities. How did Eisenhower get the great American boom going? Well he subsidized education with the GI Bill and initiated great infrastructure projects that required professionals, skilled workers and manual laborers. Everyone paid their share under Eisenhower and the maximum tax rate was ninety percent and this Republican had a death tax too so the coffers were never empty. 

Well this is not a complete answer as there is a need for education and liaison between police and community,   police cameras and all those good things as well that have been enumerated again and again as well as an awareness of the African American community that they too have to respond to the overtures and control the disruptive elements in their community. This would be a long process. However a process that is long overdue. The African American community don’t need handouts they need opportunity and once all this has been effected Affirmative Action can be disbanded.

Why has this whole issue got the feel of the fruitlessness of arguing for gun control? One wonders what it will take for our legislators to begin to get down to solving the root causes of so many problems that repeat and repeat themselves. The inevitability of episode following episode, to the extent that one becomes numb and dejected when yet another scene surfaces only to be followed by the same old script blurted out by the media who are more than satisfied just to turn it into yet another ”one off” as they ready themselves to move onto the next predictable catastrophe.

THE GOP LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE AND MY FAIR HILLARY

Just like in My Fair Lady’s Ascot Horse Racing scene, “Everyone who should be there was there” at the GOP Presidential Leadership Conference in New Hampshire last weekend.  Not only were every one of the nineteen suitors for the GOP Presidential nomination there, so was “My Fair Hillary”. Without Hillary the entire two day bun fest would have been a total disaster as she was the central item on the agenda - just like Eliza Doolittle was at that Ascot Opening Day.  

For practical purposes the only major difference between the Republican Presidential wannabes was how they characterized the Democratic heir apparent to the Presidency. They worked up a real head of steam one foretelling a bigger disaster than the other if Hillary occupied the West Wing of the White House. For variation there was a reciting of her life to date that was allegedly strewn with blunder, mishap, incompetence, catastrophe, lies, hypocrisy, naked ambition, fraud, graft, racketeering, cynicism, socialism, brutal capitalism and naked greed. 

SMEAR SMEAR SMEAR AND REALITY IS LOST

The tactic of the GOP Presidential Hopefuls, the GOP in general, Fox News, Limbaugh, Koch Brothers, Rove, Heritage Foundation and the like cabal is simple - smear Hillary of the face of the earth and whatever emerges from the GOP Primary must win. As they are all intellectually bankrupt this is the most logical and only avenue available. The fact that it never worked with Obama is not a deterrent and they believe that Hillary and Bill’s personal financial success is a fertile field to explore and smear. 

The highly succesful International Clinton Foundation that has effected change and alleviation of suffering, by definition must be getting money from everywhere in the world and the smear is that those people only gave money because Hillary as Secretary of State sold America in exchange. Every deal must be examined and interpreted as the same criticism can be levelled at the Clintons in relation to donations to their Foundation as can be to candidates for campaign contributions. The revelations have already started and although one can hardly compare altruistic activity with naked political bartering it has to exposed to the cold light of day. This will be done by the media as a whole because don't forget Hillary has to be pulled down a peg or two to slow her down and bring her closer to the field and make it a horse race. 

This is all so rich from those who in effect support laundering money into tax free havens, pay 15% income tax, export jobs oversea, were the midwifes of allowing elections to be bought and whose Godfather Dick Cheney's company Halliburton has transferred its headquarters to Dubai. Halliburton, having been a major beneficiary of Cheney’s war in Iraq, garnered non bid contracts in Iraq for a billion smackers. Rand Paul a GOP contender went as far as to say the Halliburton contract was the reason Cheney went to war.

Smear is a two edged weapon as the GOP’s Romney found out in the last election. They are the party of non regulation where money is the morality so you would think they wouldn't want to go there, but necessity is the mother of invention.

Not only is the smear a two edged sword it becomes difficult to recognize valid criticism when it comes along so the Democratic base who have now been exposed to fifteen years of indiscriminate and often baseless attacks on the Clintons from Whitewater to murder will not even bother to weigh the evidence  dispassionately. In addition the media can only focus on one issue at a time so Hillary sucks up all the oxygen not giving the GOP contenders any air. One last point the electorate are only really bothered about matters that directly effect them like taking away their Medicare and saying that half the American population are takers while everyone knows that the givers are really the biggest takers.

The advice of Larry Kudlow a doyen of Republican economists, to the GOP, is to lay off Hillary as all it does is anger women and minorities. He exhorts the GOP candidates, "To show us what youv'e got".  

HILLARY WAS THE MAIN ITEM AT THE OPENING

But back to the main event - the opening day at the GOP’s Ascot. There was not too much attacking each another, merely general warnings like - beware of young Senators as they have had no experience and are not yet ready for prime time. That was accompanied by a not so subtle comparison of the fearless three, Rubio, Cruz and Paul with Obama who also after only two years in the Senate made his move for the Presidency. That is pretty heavy stuff because up until the very day before the conference Barak was the number one bogey man or should Jay H. Ell say bogey person. The Washington politicians of course claimed a worldly wisdom over the parochial Governors while the non politicians believed that no one from Washington should go back to Washington to run the country.

This gathering was to formerly anoint Hillary as public enemy number one. There was a bit of nostalgia for good old yesterday, (April 18, 2015), from two of the old school, Jeb and Chris Christie, who maintained that Obama was still the worst. However, this minor deviation from the central thrust of Republican Party Policy from its assembled creme da la creme was papered over as all agreed that electing Hillary would give Obama a third term. 

Below are a few of the choicest sayings that the GOP standard bearers propounded in relation to Hillary. (To paraphrase Professor Higgins,”He would never let a woman into Washington”). 

Scott Walker: Hillary Clinton was aloof and she had never shopped at Kohl’s, (A Mid West chain clothes store for the middle class). So its Scott who is the people’s candidate not Hillary.

Mike Huckabee: He claimed that as he was from Arkansas he had run against “The Clinton Machine” for every office he had ever run for. 

Lindsey Graham: The biggest smear of them all - “Bill and Hillary did a better job of selling Obamacare then Obama did”.

Carla Fiona: Was first off to use the licentious Bill smear alluding to the fact his hormones had got out of control and had clouded his judgement. 

Rand Paul: Also claiming that Hillary was a fat cat, “When Hillary Clinton travels they are going to need two planes - One for her and her entourage and one for her baggage.”

Other participants included Governor Jindall of Louisiana,and former Texas Governor Perry. An interesting participant was Ohio Governor John Kaisch who has been pretty effective at bipartisanship. He is one of the few Republican Governors who accepted Obamacare as he argued that it would be unethical to deny his citizens health care. His problem is getting to first base or to persist with the simile, getting out of the starting gate. Then there is Ben Carson who is full of sound and fury reminiscent of Herman Cain. Last and the least is the greatest, Donald Trump who keeps telling every one that he is serious about running for President. Nobody believes him as he always says that but ironically this time Jay H. Ell does.

So most of the themes devolved around Hillary. In addition to the personal stuff and that by definition she was as bad or worse than Obama she was also deemed useless as Secretary of State being responsible for all the world’s problems - Putin and the rest. Then there was the centerpiece of the attack - carry on Benghazi and off course the E Mails. (The Foundation had not yet surfaced). 

FOX KNOWS THAT THE CURRENT GOP MANTRA WONT CUT IT

Fox News in their post Conference News release focused on Hillary’s possible Democratic challengers as well as the anti Hillary diatribe. The Dem contenders look like a Whose Who list of Democratic Party Office Bearer nonentities.  Fox News had high hopes for them however maintaining that if the Democrats started taking them seriously then Hillary would be in serious trouble. The good news for the three is that Fox News is blowing their trumpets. The bad news is that their potential followers are not avid fans of Rupert Murdoch’s megaphone. The three are:

Governor O’Malley from Maine: He is positioning himself to Clinton’s left. More social security, higher minimum wage yada yada… However in an extensive interview with public radio he refused to criticize her. He thinks if he wins Iowa where he is over seventy points behind Hillary he will change the whole dynamic of the race. Indeed he will.

Former Senator Webb from Virginia:  Main contribution to the debate is that he is against the Iran deal. Join the club. 

Governor Chafee from Rhode Island: He is running on one of Obama’s Platforms against Hillary - that she voted for the Iraqi war. 

Interesting that Fox news didn’t dredge up Elizabeth Warren who has broken the record for the number of times she made it clear that she wasn’t running for President, 

THE GOP RACE A REAL HORSE RACE.

At this early stage the field is really bunched. Different polls have a few candidates heading them but no -one ever hits a twenty percent acceptance. Straw polls have favored Rand Paul with about fifteen percent. Jeb and Scott have headed several of he conventional polls and the most recent CNN poll has Jeb at 17%, Scott12%, Rand and Marc 11%, Huckabee 9% and Cruz 7%. The last CNN poll not so long ago had Ben Carson and Chris Christie leading and now they are at 4%. Of the polls conducted over the past six weeks two show Bush ahead and two show Walker ahead both tiny acceptance figures. The CNN poll surprisingly gives Rubio the best shot against Hillary trailing by 14%  and Bush trailing by 17% whereas the rest are hitting a 20% deficit and above. All of these percentages translate into landslide victories for Hillary. 

The biggest nightmare for the GOP would be a repeat of the Romney debacle with all these contestants tearing into each other pushing the party further and further to the right. In that cycle each of the contenders took a turn at leading the pack till Romney outstayed the lot and the GOP establishment nearly dropped dead from exhaustion. Reince Priebus, the GOP National Chairman hoped to counter this by axing the number of debates but what he couldn’t axe was how early this all started and the number of candidates cluttering up the field. 

Just in case anyone thinks Hillary can be blown in the Dems Primary the CNN poll showed her at 70%, Biden the next closest, 11%, and the Fox News 3 challengers, O’Malley, Webb and Chafee at between 1% and 3%. Meanwhile she is playing it at as lower key as possible because she is a sitting duck for the media. With her numbers it is hard to keep up the exitement in this horse race. However, if the hottest news the Press can eke out on her is what she ordered at Chipotle she will be happy. 

WHAT THE H.ELL IS WRONG WITH JAY H. ELL?

Reading through this blog Jay. H. Ell wonders what he is thinking and even worse writing. For example the whole Primary process is a madhouse and commenting on it rationally is irrational. Instead of having a Primary runoff in every state on the same day one is subjected to this ludicrous ongoing spun out staggered stuttering production. The first two races in Iowa and New Hampshire, two tiny little states, have an incredible influence on the whole outcome. Then in order to keep the tension going disproportionate coverage is given to nonentities and the top runners are mercilessly butchered - all in the interest of creating reader and viewership so as to be able to sell soap. (Blog: The 2016 POTUS Race - It's Hillarious).

Jay H. Ell is feeding into the narrative  by treating any nobody, who is totally unrealistic about his or her chances, as a celebrity and quoting them as if they were speaking words of wisdom and represent more than themselves and a small constituency.  Also he is locked into basing his arguments on the current polls which will change as the media weighs in over the next two years, helped on by the blunders that the candidates feed them and the dirt that is dug up.

Jay H. Ell is as guilty as any of the pundits but he rationalizes that he has a responsibility to his readers to churn out the garbage with the rest of them. His is a more balanced garbage, he believes, and he would like to hope with a touch of humor. At least he knows he is blogging garbage and he is not selling soap.

Jon Stewart, as reported in Time, couldn’t go through another one of these elections again. Watching all those channels all day, was “ incredibly depressing”. Bearing in mind the drivel that Jay H. Ell has just chronicled one gets his drift. 

WHAT IS PERTINENT.

By the way one pertinent comment - if the GOP Tea Party wannabes were really committed to their cause and not their own megalomania they could easily win the Republican Presidential nomination. If you add the support of Walker, Paul, Rubio, Cruz, Huckabee and Carson, (the hard core), you get almost Hillary like numbers. So maybe there is some “good” in encouraging them all to continue with their race and let Bush, Jeb, that is win like Romney, by default. 

In addition to once again spell out the GOP modus operandi - reduce Hillary to rubble and then one of them can rise from the ashes. 

To end where we begun at the Ascot Presidential opening day.

“What a smashing positively dashingly spectacle was the GOP Presidential Opening Day”.

PS: CARRY ON BENGHAZI PART 3

Incidentally, the House Select Committee on Benghazi has just asked Hillary Clinton to appear twice before it. This in spite of the fact of the fact that there were 19 full oversight meetings and 114 oversight activities, innumerable other activities relating to their investigation including the "full review" of thousands of documents. In addition there was a 2 year "comprehensive and exhaustive" investigation by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Inter alia they found that there was sufficient security provided by the CIA and the latter bravely assisted the State Department and their personel and saved lives. The Committee found that the early Intelligence on the motivations of the attack were inaccurate and to cut a long story short "mistakes were made" in generating Ambassador Rice's talking points. 

Clinton's own investigation into her own State Department resulted in a negative finding on four officials who had lapsed in relation to the incident. One resigned and three were placed on Administrative leave. She immediately implemented all the recommendations of the report. 

So all that public money and time was wasted to try and prove a conspiracy between Hillary and Obama and the pilloried Ambassador Rice to cover up the Secretary of State's incompetence in the deaths of the Embassy personnel. The media covered the bohaai but have failed to educate the citizenry of the outcome. The smear is news the report is a bore. Benghazi is still THE plank in the GOP aramentarium against Clinton and that fact tells it all. (Blogs: Stopping Clinton in 2016 Starts at Benghazi, 1/17/13 and Carry on Benghazi: Stop Hillary, Part 2, 5/16/13).

By the way Hillary has appeared before the Committee previously where she was told she faked her brain hemorrhage to delay appearing before them....

THE 2016 POTUS RACE - IT’S HILLARIOUS

With the announcements of Cruz, Paul, Rubio and Hillary the 2016 Presidential Derby is off. It is hard to believe that we still have 20 months to go and that the media are going to do all they can to keep us in suspense over every yard of this race. It is exhausting to reflect what we are going to be put through, especially, bearing in mind what we have all been through just to arrive at the starting gate. So steel yourself for the cliff hanging journalism that is going to keep us transfixed to the box while flipping through our e mails, social media and the like, in case G-d forbid we should miss a minute of it or a detail. Every nuance will be visited and revisited, analyzed and reanalyzed, regurgitated and chewed upon till every last possible interpretation has been wrung out of it all, 24/7, on more and more channels. The media frenzy will make it nail biting and gripping even if the race is one long yawn. (Blog: “Hillary, the Media Run Presidential Horse Race and Her E Mails”.

SECOND VERSE SAME AS THE FIRST

The depressing part of it all is that there is no end to this ongoing saga as one four year POTUS election cycle is concertinaed into the next. The script never changes other than the details and of course the dramatis personae. After the next 20 months when the debates, the primaries and then, finally, the election is over, we are supposed to have a two year honeymoon period, where the President is the greatest thing since Abe Lincoln, (or maybe in this case Mary Lincoln), both in America and the world. Well its never two years because after a year there is the run up to the midterms. There the President’s agenda gets its first public test. Invariably he does not do too well and then he/she? goes into a defensive mode for the next two years as he/she? wants a second term to be able to fulfill his/her? agenda. 

Thus there is another two year presidential campaign in the final 2 years of the first term. The President then wins a second term but the Congressional numbers decrease or do not recover enough from the first midterms so as to make life difficult. This time there is no official honeymoon. Then in the next midterm the President, who is now unrecognizable from the fresh optimistic young looking candidate of six years earlier, is so gray and tired that one cannot but help feeling sorry for him. The POTUS receives another electoral blow and is declared a “lame duck.” as the cycle and speculation for the next President begins. Who needs this vertiginous existence?

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS

As Jay H. Ell mentioned the details change. The first time around Obama’s honeymoon lasted two days and the second time around he refuses to ride into the sunset like any respectable ‘lame duck”. But he broke the mould. One out of every five Americans still believe he wasn’t born in America and the same five believe Ted Cruz was, even though he really was born in Canada. The POTUSES all reside in the, now inappropriately named, White House and all their wives are elevated to the position of First Lady even though they never ran. Now the Founding Fathers, not Mothers you note, never envisioned that Hillary would be First Lady unelected as well as elected and that makes Bill unconstitutional as the first man to be an unelected First Man. If Hillary is elected there will be a lot of firsts just like there was when Jordan Spieth won the Masters. (One doesn’t realize what a sexist society we are in till one realizes it. Just in case you think that the Masters is called the Masters by chance it is not. Only because everyone created one big stink a few years ago did the Augusta Country Club change their constitution and invite a woman, (one only), to be a member of their august(a) Club which hosts the Masters, not the Misses, every year). The furore subsided as apparently one Miss, among all the Masters, was as good as a mile.

HILLARY IS THE MAN

Any rate where was Jay H. Ell, oh yes Hillary. Hillary is odds on favorite to win the Presidency just because it is finally a women’s turn. Presumably we will go back to white men after that - as Bill O’Reilly of Fox News said, “This used to be a white man’s country”. Now between you and Jay. H. Ell, this Clinton has more going for her than just being a woman, having been in politics for about fifty years, First Lady, (unelected), US Senate and Secretary of State, but it is the woman thing that she is pushing and that she is a daughter, wife, mother and grandmother - all womanly things. She also believes that it is time for a woman POTUS. To paraphrase  what Churchill said, “Trust America to elect the right demographic after they have tried every other one”.

HILLARY STARTS NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER

For everyone waiting for Hillary to announce her Presidency in front of the Benghazi Embassy in battle fatigues with sweat and blood dripping, while on cell phones to Putin and the POTUS  and using her own server to e mail Bill that she was singlehandedly holding the Embassy, there was a big let down. After the sound and fury of Ted and Rand and then a dramatic Marc, it was all so everyday and ordinary, especially juxtaposed with the all high sounding odds the GOPers were shouting, including the wannabes like Jed and Scott Walker. All she did was in a two minute social media videotaped event was join in with ordinary people who just happened to represent every demographic in America. It was a populist message couched in the simplest terms focussing on the economy. She wanted people to get ahead in a society where the deck was stacked in favor of the other people, (the one percenters minus her). The people needed a champion and she wanted to be it. Foreign policy, her forte, Hillary was tossed off at the end with a commitment to keep the Homeland safe.

She followed this up by scooting of into a van called Scoobie, to cross half of America to talk to these selfsame people that featured in her Presidential announcement especially the selfsame people in Iowa. She in turn was followed by half of America’s media people half of whom thought her entrance was masterful and the other half who maintained it was banal. They were all screaming out for detailed policy statements so that half of them could crucify her and the other half could praise her. So let it be with Hillary. There is little doubt that in her simple announcement she connected with every demographic and let it be known that she was in it for them. She was not going to a coronation she was going connecting.

THE GOP SECOND STRING

Only the GOP second string is in the race as yet and their focus was on grandiosity. They all screamed that Hillary should be more specific, but she can and they can’t. Her base is not worried about gay rights, amnesty for immigrants, minimum wage, taxing the rich…. Hillary obviously will leave wiggle room for her big financial backers but at least she is in sync with her electorate. 

The forty three year old Rubio made his declaration in front of Miami’s Freedom Tower, the Cuban refugees’ Staten Island. America needed new ideas and he was the new kid on the block to deliver. He attacked Obama’s Israeli policy and humped it onto Hillary which is the theme of all the Republican runners. Rubio no doubt has a future and he is not going away. He carries far more gravitas than the other two and has to be a pain in the neck to his mentor Jed. Jed championed him and now when he needs him to deliver the Hispanic vote his protege wants it for himself. Is nothing sacred?

Libertarian Rand Paul also wanted to get rid of Washington and chuck out the IRS and is making an attempt to connect with minorities. He is certainly different but every time he takes his Libertarian views to their natural conclusion he gets into trouble. “He is unafraid to challenge the status quo”. Another bright young guy who is a prisoner of his own philosophy and into the bargain has managed to antagonize the Tea Party, which is in fact the GOP.

Ted Cruz is the purest of the pure Tea Partiers although he will have plenty of competition. Like the others he is for the constitution, for family, (traditional of course),stripping Washington of power, a hawkish foreign policy and like all the others against Hillary.

All three as everyone else on the other side wants to lump Hillary with Obama. They all want to run against Obama. Heavens knows why as they loose every time but it is the only policy they all agree on.Then they are all for Israel and to sanction Iran, improving the economy but to a lesser or greater extent they are stuck with the Party’s antiquated social agenda and stymied by their own financial philosophy that can only make matters better for the one percenters.

WHAT’S NEXT?

So we are waiting for the GOP heavy hitters, Jeb from Florida and Scott from Wisconsin. It is going to be a long hot summer times two as these five and the Republican third string, also yet to join, duke it out. Its hard to see any winner emerge that can beat Hillary. Jeb’s tactic is to win by as little as possible so that he doesn’t find himself into a Romney like position. GOP Chairman Reince Priebus’s nightmare scenario is back again as the GOP candidates eat each other up and chew through wads of money,

Hillary is going to make this election about the economy, the rights of all groups, and inequity in pay. The GOP believes their best chance is to make it about Foreign Affairs which ironically is Hillary’s strong suit. It is unlikely that Hillary will bite. Obama is doing her front running on equal pay and the like and ignoring the tough decisions on foreign policy that she can fudge later as the electorate are not too interested. 

Everyone now needs real money to contest. Gone are the days that fifty million dollars looked respectable. That is now needed for openers. Of the candidates officially running only Cruz is likely to have that parameter as a stumbling block. If Hillary is not contested then she will have all of a billion plus and by some estimates two billion. If she is contested it will be by a no hoper whom she would not be diverting too much cash on and just getting her nationwide infrastructure in place. (Please Joe Biden spare us. Has the guy got no insight?  It’s very worrying that he is a heart beat from the Presidency).

Money buys everything including researchers. According to Fox News, American Rising, a Republican research group have a 100 researchers digging up dirt on Hillary. Dirt is needed in the Primary States and the big money hubs such as New York, San Francisco and Boston. What an awful waste of cash why not just make the dirt up? The biggest smear on Obama cost nothing just saying he wasn’t born in America. Donald Trump, (when will he enter?), claimed to have hired investigators who had found the full story and he then admitted he was lying for the good of the country to focus attention on the lie. People still believe the story. 

So just state with all the gravitas in the world that you have learned from Clinton insiders that Hillary is a cross dresser. Then show a picture from her waist down wearing slacks and photoshop a fly onto her slacks and wallah you will have her and the whole Democratic Party denying it and you would give the media another crises to discuss with all the usual suspects on the all the usual panels on all the usual channels weighing in. Most important the same folks who would still believe that she murdered Vince Forster, (even though Kenneth Starr after months of dirt digging said she didn’t), will believe this.

While there is a long long way to go Jay H. Ell cannot see Hillary losing unless she falls of her horse. In the meanwhile America will remain in permanent status electionious and all the intravenous ativan in the world will not stop the jerking.

For whatever unconscious reasons Jay H. Ell bucked his cynicism and sat down to blog this all. Maybe he is addicted and if he doesn’t comment he will suffer from withdrawal symptoms. 

Watch this space for Jeb and Scott the real contenders.

It really is Hillarious.

NCPD SHOOTING AND THE SUPPORTING CULTURE

There is so much profoundly disturbing about the shooting of a 50 year old African American man, Walter Scott, by a White Police Officer, Michael Slager of the North Charleston Police Department, (NCPD), that one does not where to begin. The alleged cold blooded murder comes at a time when there have been a slew of similar high profile incidents, within a relatively short space of time, where law enforcement is seemingly immune from the consequences of what appears to be a homicide to the lay person. Starting with the vigilante Zimmerman killing of Travyon Martin and continuing with the Ferguson slaying of Michael Brown, the choking death of Errol Garner on Staten Island, the shooting death of 12 year old Tamir Rice in Cleveland and the downing of John Crawford 111 in a Walmart in Dayton, the unfolding pattern of events has been the same. - a black male is shot in circumstances where a minor offense is alleged or under circumstances that even the most cursory investigation would have counseled caution. 

What then follows seems scripted. There is an uproar by the body politic, protests, dry explanatory statements from the police who claim they were acting out of self defense or fear of life and limb, a smear of the victim, and where there are judicial proceedings of one sort or another the bar is so low or the system so weighted that the defendants are exonerated. One would like to believe that with the video and the first hand credible courageous evidence of the witness to these events that this is an open and shut case but stick around ….

It is hard to face up to the reality of what is being presented as one believes that law enforcers, in general, are upright, take the trust society puts in them seriously and that these are just isolated events, as they may well be. However the time has come to probe deeper into these incidents. The video cellphone has rocked our unconditional faith in law enforcement much in the manner that DNA evidence did in questioning of the guilt of some of those languishing in jail or death row for rape and murder. The North Charleston Mayor admitted that if it wasn’t for the video it was unlikely that the arraignment of Office Slager would have materialized. How does one now feel about the two hundred odd police shootings in South Carolina, of whom 79 succumbed these past five years, where in every instance no culpability was found? (Like DNA the video camera will help exonerate as well as convict defendants in the years to come).

THE CONTEXT OF THE POLICE BEHAVIOR

Ferguson Missouri 

One also questions how on earth this type of behavior can occur in a vacuum? In Ferguson Missouri a Justice Department investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, (FPD), following the Michael Brown death, a culture of corruption and mal fides was found to be present through the whole law enforcement and town legislature system. The town was being financed by fines and court fees disproportionately being dished out to the black citizens. The City Manager pressured the Police Chief to collect more fines and the latter delivered. This objective was achieved and officers were evaluated on “productivity”. 

The report states that this culture impacted the behavior of the Officers in the day to day activities where they illegally harassed citizens usually black. Infringements included constitutional violations such as penalizing free speech, improper stops and arrests, interpreting harmless behavior as threatening and the use of excessive force. The statistics show that African Americans were the group far more likely to suffer from these practices.The officers were not subject to review or disciplining for these endemic violations.

These aforementioned abuses were aided and abetted by a Municipal Court that acted in a draconian fashion backing up the extortionist behavior of the police. The report cites numerous examples of increases of fines and ever increasing court costs. African - Americans were far more likely to have extended court stays, arrest warrants and less dismissals of their cases. Ninety -two percent of the arrest warrants issued by the court were for this population group. The racial bias of these activities is reflected in that over ninety percent of the citations and arrests warrants were of African Americans. The overwhelming reports of police violence against alleged offenders involved Black Citizens as did all the incidences of police canines' bites.

At the time of the death of Michael Brown there was substantial mistrust of the FPD and the investigation of the Justice Department negated the argument of the Ferguson officials who maintained that the protests were due to outside agitators. The report resulted in high profile resignations including the Chief of Police, the City Manager and the Judge of the Municipal Court. It is a pity that Prosecutor McCullough didn’t resign too.

So it is not unreasonable to conclude that Michael Brown’s violent death at the hands of the police took place in a culture of police and city bias to towards the African American citizenry of Ferguson.

Cleveland Ohio

In Cleveland  a twelve year old African American Tamir Rice’s death occurred, under highly questionable circumstances as confirmed by the police video. A Justice Department investigation into the Cleveland Police Department, (CPD), had been initiated at the behest of the Mayor of Cleveland following community wide protests at the behavior of the Department and a statement by the Ohio Attorney General that there was “systemic failure” of the CPD.  The investigation concluded that the Department used “unnecessary and excessive” force in violation of the fourth amendment. The types of excessive force the report detailed were “deadly force including shootings and head strikes”. Similarly the overuse of tasers, chemical spray and fists were listed. The CPD was criticized for violent behavior towards mentally disabled citizens some of who just needed welfare assessments. The officers were cited for dangerous or poor tactics that made violence an inevitability. 

It is reasonable to conclude that Tamir Rice’s death took place in the context of a dysfunctional Police Department that had been cited for endemic, unnecessary and excessive force.

WHAT ABOUT NORTH CHARLESTON?

As soon as the first hand report accompanied by a video evidenced  the penny dropped with the NCPD and the City of North Charleston. Michael Slager must have wondered what had hit him. He never saw the bus coming!. He was fired from the NCPD and charged with first degree murder without bond. The City of North Charleston is purchasing body cameras for all officers and the legislation in the South Carolina Congress for body cameras for all South Carolina officers is suddenly on the fast track. Lessons had been learned from the arrogance of other police departments, cities and States who just stuck to their guns in similar circumstances. So there has been some progress….. Jay H. Ell would hate to think that the Republican Mayor was motivated because he is up for reelection in a constituency that voted 71 percent for Obama in the 2012 election.

It is early days yet but what can be learned about the culture of the police in North Charleston? More will transpire later so let us begin by examining the information that was provided by the NCPD and Slager himself prior to the release of the cell phone video. Jay H. Ell can only imagine that it will get worse for Slager. The post mortem results hardly can to be corroborative of the early narrative of the shooting. 

Slager’s edited radio dispatch call.

Firstly, there was the release of an edited recording of the radio dispatch call that Slager made of the incident. (The immediate question is how does an officer who is ostensibly in fear for his life have the time to give a running commentary of the situation and the follow up question is why was this released report an edited version of the interaction?)

“In foot pursuit - black male green shirt black pants”

The  radio report edits are here so it is impossible to know what happens in the interim other than a call goes out to all police in the area then seconds later: 

“Shots fired. Subject is down. He grabbed my taser”.

“Everyone is ok except the subject, (sic), …. it looks like to the chest  to the right side. Unresponsive… another gunshot wound to the buttock”. 

At the immediate debriefing also on videotape Slager explains, “He grabbed my taser”.

Jay H. Ell will not insult the intelligence of his few readers with how this was designed to fit in on a cover up of the shooting but in the cold light of day, which this type of incident is never exposed to, all this will not jive with the subsequent unfolding of events.

NCPD statements prior to the video emerging.

The first statement within a few hours of the event emanating from the NCPD reinforced and embellished on the cover up version of Slager. The statement referred to a traffic stop “gone wrong”. The officer was said to have deployed his department issued Taser and the suspect gained control of it and attempted to use it against the officer.  The officer then resorted to his service weapon and shot him.

Again in the light of subsequent events Jay H. Ell will not insult the intelligence of anyone by pointing to the lies in this other than to say another dimension has been added to the cover up, the official stamp of the NCPD. In what may be a potential crime Slager is acquitted without there being as much as the slightest investigation. Slager has very little to worry about - maybe some rationalization after the post mortem that the suspect turned his back on him as he shot and that his gun jammed and he went on firing or whatever - does it really matter? Slager had been there before and he knew the drill. 

The Dominican Republic immigrant Feidin Sanatana’s video

As the subsequent phone video shows Officer Slager goes through a charade of handcuffing the dead suspect - presumably to add credence to his story as to what a risk this guy posed to him and to reinforce how frightened he was that he even had to handcuff a “wounded” man - remember he had already reported that Scott had been shot in the chest and the buttock. He nonchalantly moves an object, assumed to be the taser from the place where the shots were fired from to where the body is now. “Not to worry the boys will back him up”, as they do - backing him up that there was CPR was a nice touch. (Officer Slager faced a similar situation at least once before when confronted with a serious complaint of grievous assault and there had been no repercussions then). He is sure the  suspect in the fleeing green shirt had a rap sheet a mile long, he had after all resisted arrest and “fought” with him - What is a law officer supposed to do?

One other damning piece of hubris is that the video shows Slager staring at videographer Santana and the latter acknowledges that he did. Slater carries on doing what he did to cover up his alleged crime - “Who is going to believe this dark guy? It will be my word against his”. Santana then gets close to Scott and Slager and he is told to leave the scene.

The three minute video is so indelibly etched in the psyche of America that one needs hardly needs to go through each frame and it will be referenced where relevant.

A New Witnesses to the “altercation” emerges

Subsequent to the release of the video an additional eye witness described what she saw when Slager caught up with Scott. She explained it was like a tussle with Scott saying, “What do you want?”, “What did I do?”, type of thing. She categorically maintains that she did not hear Slager shout stop but heard the shots. Thus, a Miss Gwen Nicholl’s corroborated Feidin Santana’s testimony of the event prior to the latter turning on his phone recorder. Santana, who is mature beyond his years, saw Slager on top of Feidin and heard the sound of the taser go off. He reports that he, like Ms. Nicholls, never saw Scott go after the taser and “He never tried to fight he just wanted to run away”.

The perceptions and behavior of Feidin Santana, the immigrant Dominican Barber 

What struck Jay H. Ell more than else about the culture surrounding the NCPD was through the eyes, perceptions and the behavior of the young barber who witnessed and videotaped this crime scene on his way to work. He has reflected that he immediately new the magnitude of what he recorded and he felt his life may be in danger. He wanted to get out of Charleston and start his life anew elsewhere. His life had changed in a matter of seconds. He at one stage wanted to erase the tape. He maintained that, “He is still scared”. The follow up question was of whom is he still scared and why? His lawyer answered for him. “There are other officers who said they gave CPR who are still around and Feidin wants to know how he can get protection”.

After reading the police report on the incident Santana decided go to the police. He told them that the police officer wasn’t abused and that he had witnessed everything and he had recorded it. One of the police asked him if it was true that he had a recording and then told him to wait. Santana became scared as he felt that the interview was going the wrong way and absconded. A decision that his lawyer confirmed was “very wise” under the circumstances as there were other law enforcement officers that now could be potentially investigated for the cover up.

In spite of all this Santana felt that the family needed justice so he decided to give the video to them. When asked to comment on the impact that this incident might have had he concluded that it would detract from the positive image that Latin America has of the USA. He also believed that it was important to expose this type of abuse of minorities by the police.

Needless to say the family did not give the video to the police but rather to the New York times. .. Houston we have a problem…..

WHAT NOW?

Arising out of the earlier incidents mentioned above President Obama established “The President’s Task Force on 21St Century Policing" which released its first report this March. The basis for the investigation was the distrust that exists between too many police departments and too many communities where ,“Too many people, particularly young people of color, do not feel as if they are being treated fairly”. Inter alia the objective of the task force, that had input and representation from every involved group, was to foster strong collaborative relationships between law enforcement and those that they serve.

One of the themes addressed in the conference was that it was society that made some of the unpopular laws that the police carry out, for example the draconian drug laws that have criminalized so many. In addition as Jay H. Ell has tried to point out the police force is sometimes a reflection of the society they operate in. One of the Task Force’s overarching recommendations was to promote community based initiatives that address the core issues of poverty, education, health and safety.

There were lists of recommendations such as independent police investigations into alleged improprieties, transparency of the workings of law enforcement and training in diversity and communication.

So well meaning people are aware of the problem which is not just a policing problem. The latter are in many ways just doing what the community they operate in expects them to do. And never lose sight of the fact that there are many well functioning communities with functional law enforcement.