America the Beautiful - While It Lasts

By Mort Rosenblum, Mort Report Dispatches

25 September 17

 

ust about every metro rider here knows the game. When a big-mouthed guy with weird hair distracts people's attention, someone is going to get his pocket picked. Americans back home ought to take heed.

While our mutant P.T. Barnum hogs the Big-Top spotlight, little-noticed sideshows are savaging our schools, abusing civil rights, hamstringing the press, tampering with voter rolls and widening the abyss between rich and desperate.

Regime change can repair some of the damage. But Donald Trump's circus from hell is also plundering our national heritage -- from parks, wildlife habitats, forests, oceans, waterways and wilderness to sacred native-American ground.

Even if Trump leaves office before 2020, some depredation is already irreparable. And he is rushing to put new destructive policies in place for quick corporate profit before the rest of us he is sworn to serve finally wake up.

From the breathtaking Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah to vast Pacific Ocean marine reserves, protected areas may soon be opened to mining, logging, grazing and commercial fishing.

Scott Pruitt, as Environmental Protection Agency chief, is supposed to protect the environment. He does the opposite in secrecy worthy of the NSA. His staff, isolated from his inner sanction, is obliged to take a course on stonewalling.

The course intro asserts: "Enemies of the United States are relentless in their pursuit of information which they can exploit to harm US interests." We know because it was leaked to Associated Press. And, of course, EPA did not comment.

There is no excuse for ignorance. Despite Trump's efforts to discredit the press and punish leakers, reporters are sounding alarms, even in Rupert Murdoch's Wall Street Journal. The New Yorker, among others, digs into detail.

National dailies recently revealed a memo the White House tried to keep secret. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke proposes using the century-old Antiquities Act to open up 10 national monuments and slash the area of at least four of them.

The hit list includes Bears Ears, 1.2 million acres of mountain splendor with 100,000 significant Indian sites, which Barack Obama protected last December. No significant oil or minerals deposits have been reported within its boundaries.

Salt Lake City Tribune reporters unearthed documents and a map that Utah legislators submitted to the Interior Department showing how Bears Ears could be reduced in size by 90 percent.

The New York Times focused on a push to lift a ban on assessing deposits beneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. That, it said, is "a possible first step toward opening the pristine wilderness area to oil and gas drilling."

Thomas Pyle of the Institute for Energy Research told the Times: "The last thing enviros want is to get a more accurate picture...because it could be extensive. I don't think $50 a barrel oil is going to last forever. What are they afraid of? ...All of a sudden they're afraid of science?"

That is the crux. According to Trumpthink, only tree-hugging "enviros" care about ecology, the commons or future generations. More sensible people want profit now and big cars full of cheap gas that doesn't come from shifty Arabs.

This misses the larger picture. "Energy independence" stirs patriotic zeal, but it is about politics more than economics. Fossil fuels are fungible - available from eager sellers on four continents beyond the range of Middle East intrigues.

America must pump oil, tap natural gas and keep strategic stocks to ensure supply and to help stabilize world prices. The economy needs it. But ravaging land and polluting water for every last bit tests the limits of human cupidity.

Our boom, under Obama, cut world prices by more than half. Russia and OPEC, hardly "America First" fans, kept on producing. For all the damage done, many U.S. fracking and other costs have ended up as unprofitable tax write-off.

A global glut eases pressure to reduce carbon emissions. Coal and hard metal mining does yet more irreparable damage. Now Trump is pushing aside safeguards Obama left in place to open even more land for oilfields and orebeds.

"Energy independence" plays a large part in the turmoil and terrorism the United States faces beyond its own borders.

Look at Venezuela where I started a life of reporting in the early 60s. It was then a stable, prosperous democracy, rich from its oil with a solid middle class and not much crime. I was a yanqui, but no one told me to go home.

Hugo Chavez, a leftwing populist elected in 1999, dominated the legislature and packed the courts. Against strong opposition, he kept the lid on until he died in 2013. The new guy, an ex-bus driver named Nicolas Maduro, lacks his flair,

Chavez funded lavish social benefits with $100-a-barrel oil. Maduro tried to maintain them with half the income. Today, starving, lawless and hyper-violent, Venezuela would be a basket case if it could afford a basket.

Those 32 million neighbors need help from the United States. Trump threatens to invade. He lumps hapless Venezuela with North Korea and Iran on his personal axis of evil list. Now South Americans, like Mexicans, mostly hate us.

Oversupply destabilizes the Gulf. It adds complexities to Vladimir Putin's play for power; Russia exports more oil than Saudi Arabia. The impact on Nigeria feeds endemic war with Boko Haram and tension in the Niger Delta. And so on

In Europe, people see corporate avarice, narrow focus and public apathy as defining a new America. Many were stunned at Trump's infantile U.N. antics, pushing Kim Jong-un to hostility even China may not be able to calm down.

Europeans can trade elsewhere if necessary, but many are alarmed at an incredible shrinking America. They need help to confront climate calamity, growing demagogy, and rising human tides as millions flee poor countries.

Here in France, I hear more outrage about those threatened parks and monuments than I do back home in America. French friends gush especially about l'Oo-tah, l'Arizona and life on the rez.

At Bears Ears, the Navajo can use all the help they can get. Tribal attorney general Ethel Branch told Reuters, "We are prepared to challenge immediately whatever official action is taken to modify the monument."

That is just one dramatic case. From Maine to the South Pacific, civil servants on our payroll, in offices displaying our flag, are looting natural resources and national treasure in plain sight.

Public outcry, pressure on legislators and support for conservationist groups that pledge to sue the government to a standstill can slow the Trump juggernaut. But that will take a long, sustained battle of attrition.

Randi Spivak of the Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity put it simply enough in an appeal for support:

"Zinke and Trump only understand exploitation and greed. These irreplaceable public lands belong to all Americans, and we all lose if our natural inheritance is exploited for corporate gain."

Any White Cop Can Kill a Black Man at Any Time

By Don Fitz, teleSUR

25 September 17

 

n 2011, St. Louis cop Jason Stockley fired 5-7 shots at Anthony Lamar Smith, killing him. Stockley claimed that Smith was selling drugs and shot him to defend himself. The story was briefly reported as another drug deal gone bad.

But the case turned out to be a lot more than that. Kirkwin Taylor reported that he and his 5-year-old son had been riding with Smith and were at a fast-food restaurant with him. Taylor was inside when the police approached. He disputed that Smith had drugs and a gun. "I wouldn't have had my son in there if there was a gun."

When Stockley first approached Smith's car, he carried his own AK-47, an unauthorized weapon, as well as his police gun. Was it possible that Smith sped away because he was terrified of the cop?

Stockley received a 30 day suspension for carrying the AK-47 and resigned from the police force in 2013. He moved to Houston TX to take a lucrative management job. After a wrongful death suit resulted in $900,000 damages the City's prosecuting attorney found new evidence and charged the former cop with murder in 2016.

A device from inside the police car recorded Stockley telling his partner, “I'm gonna kill that ******!” as they chased Smith at over 80 miles per hour through St. Louis streets. A video showed that after Stockley killed Smith, he went back to the police car, grabbed an object and placed it by the victim.

The prosecuting attorney charged that Stockley had planted a .38-caliber revolver so he could claim “self-defense.” Tests showed that the gun had DNA from Stockley but not from Smith. The prosecutor also pointed out that it would make no sense for an officer who had killed a suspect to handle the evidence.

Stockley decided to not request a jury trial, so that a single judge would decide his fate. That was Judge Timothy Wilson. His attorney was probably well aware that of 83 cops charged with killing civilians during the last 12 yearsnone has ever been convicted in a “bench trial.”

Judge Wilson waited almost a month to announce his decision. During that time, the media observed that, with the charge of first degree murder, he could be the first white cop ever to receive a death sentence for murdering a black man. But they also said he could be given a sentence of life in prison, or be convicted of second degree murder. As a side note, they mentioned the theoretical decision of “not guilty.”

But, in the days immediately before the September 15 announcement of the verdict the tune of TV news stories changed. Now they featured the new Missouri Governor Eric Greitens (a Donald Trump Republican) and the new St. Louis City Mayor Lyda Krewson (a Hillary Clinton Democrat) calling for “calm” when the verdict was announced.

The two had unique election histories and distinct political styles. In his 2016 campaign for Governor, Greitens gained national infamy for his TV ads with automatic weapons hinting at eagerness to shoot opponents of his ultra-right agenda.

In her 2017 campaign for Mayor, Krewson won notoriety for her promise to shut down New Life Evangelistic Center, the only full service homeless shelter in St. Louis that served a predominantly black population in a spiffy white downtown loft district. Running against five black candidates who divided the votes of their community, Krewson won the Democratic nomination with only 32% approval.

The atmosphere in Missouri toward white cops killing black men is probably not unlike AnyState, USA. On the first anniversary of Michael Brown's death, a group of police in Columbia MO announced it was having “Darren Wilson Day” in order to celebrate that cop's killing the unarmed teenager.

Then, as St. Louisans waited for the verdict on Jason Stockley, they witnessed another bit of local color. Richard Geisenheyner hung a sign by his confederate flag flag saying "SLAVES 4 SALE.” The Liberty Plaza MO man claimed he did it because he was “tired of the government telling him what to think.”

Two days later, on September 15, the verdict was announced and the community was stunned. Jason Stockley would not get the death penalty. He would not get life imprisonment. He would not get 30 or 20 or 10 years imprisonment. He would not even do one day in jail. Judge Wilson decreed that he was innocent and set him free. Free to make buckets of money writing memoirs of the agony he claimed to feel. Free to become a cause célèbre of the Ku Klux Klan.

When exoneration of the killer cop hit the air, within minutes Zaki Baruti, leader of the Universal African Peoples Organization and Green Party candidate for governor in 2000, had pulled together nine people to protest by the courthouse. Within a few hours, the crowd of demonstrators mushroomed to hundreds.

Everyone who participated had their own thoughts about what happened. My mind went back three years, to when the St. Louis County Grand Jury decided not to indict Darren Wilson for the murder of Micheal Brown. Wilson went on the air giving the line that got him off the hook. He explained that when he saw Michael Brown, “He looked like a demon.” Apparently, since Brown looked demonic, St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch decided to withhold evidence from the Grand Jury, which probably had something to do with the failure to indict Wilson.

Everyone knew what the verdict meant: If he could not be convicted of any crime, the judge's decision said that no white cop should ever be convicted of killing a black man, regardless of the evidence against him.

St. Louis police were pulled from many regular duties and announced that they were unable to provide security for weekend events which were canceled across the city. Investors moaned the loss of revenue from cancellation of concerts. Dozens of schools let students out early that day.

By Monday, students had walked out of class in at least 3 high schools and 2 universities. In addition to street demonstrations, hundreds marched through shopping malls. There have been so many spontaneous marches that no one knows for sure how many people have participated – several thousand for certain by Wednesday, September 20.

As demonstrations spread across St. Louis City and County, Greitens appeared with National Guard tanks announcing his willingness to do whatever necessary to maintain order. Having a more gentle approach, Lyda Krewson showed herself to be one of those Democrats who agree that Black Lives Matter while cooing that White Property Matters even more. Krewson appears daily on TV with Acting Police Chief Lawrence O’Toole – she assures protestors that she feels their anguish while the cop promises to lock up “agitators.”

Corporate media praises police from a variety of municipalities for their “restraint.” But that's not what protestors say. Many report being harassed, gassed, and arrested by police as they attempt to leave evening demonstrations.Mackenzie Marks had to wash her eyes after “They boxed us in and started pepper spraying us.”

A funny thing happened at Central Reform Congregation (CRC) on Friday night. Feeling threatened by police as they marched from Kingshighway and Pershing, demonstrators found sanctuary at CRC. According to eyewitness John Chasnoff, police promised not to attack them if they got off the street.

After things quieted down and demonstrators tried to go home, police pepper sprayed them, forcing them back inside. Then the police showed the media where CRC had red paint splattered on it, and, TV did as prompted and reported that demonstrators had vandalized CRC. But why would anyone vandalize a synagogue that gave them sanctuary? It does not add up. The pieces only fall into place if it was a police provocateur who did the damage.

The Riverfront Times reported that at 7:30 pm on September 17, a cop “driving an unmarked patrol car put the blue Impala in reverse and shot through an approaching crowd, narrowly missing protesters.” As everyone is acutely aware of the August 21 murder of an anti-racist by a white supremacist racing his car into a crowd in Charlottesville VA, the police action in St. Louis was a not-so-subtle reminder of what the boys in blue can get away with.

Press gives scant attention to police hostility as it focuses almost exclusively on windows being broken in downtown St. Louis the night of the verdict and the Delmar Loop the following night. That happened at the same time as several members of the Green Party of St. Louis held an emergency meeting at my house, just off the Delmar Loop.

We could hear the constant humming of police helicopters overhead. Buses with windows darkened so you could not tell if they were filled with National Guard troops or were empty to cram in protesters passed in front of and behind the house as Greens discussed how to make the demand for justice central part of Rev. Elston McCowan's campaign for Alderperson of Ward 2.

Since the corporate press increasingly echoed the police verbiage that property damage was caused by “agitators,” the Green Party felt a need to challenge the universality of that myth. Recognizing that property had, if fact, been damaged, a September 19 Green Party press release questioned whether police actually began it. The release noted that…

“1. In the 1960s, the US secret police agency, the CIA, introduced massive amounts of drugs into black community in an intentional effort to destroy the arising movement for black self-determination;

“2. Throughout the Viet Nam war, and ever since, police departments across the country have sent agent provocateurs into crowds to incite individuals to act violently in order to justify police attacks;

“3. Police agents infiltrate organizations and suggest violent behavior;

“4. Individual police often keep a 'throw-away' gun in their car to plant it on victims they kill.”

The statement ended by asking for an independent investigation of police responses to the Stockley acquittal and stated that a refusal of the Mayor to do so would indicate her participation in a cover up of police violence.

Why did Judge Wilson set off a bomb by exonerating Stockley? In the critical issue of Stockley's throwing the gun into the car, the judge said he had to believe the cop's claim that it was already there because “A heroin dealer without a gun would be an anomaly.” This was despite the report that the friend who had just been riding with victim Anthony Smith reported that Smith did not have any heroin or a gun.

The judge's decision means that a Klansman who is worried that he might not get away with lynching can become a cop. When he has an urge to kill a black man, he can chase him down a city street at 80 miles per hour, smash into his car, point a gun at him and fire it several times, go back to the cop car to get heroin and a gun, throw them on the body without even bothering to wipe his fingerprints off, and get ready for a press interview where he feigns remorse over a killing which was “unfortunately necessary.”