Citizens Media Resource: September 2014

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

What if this was not a middle-aged white guy?

This Nashvillian promotes the gun culture and the culture of deadly violence by openly and notoriously carrying large firearms in public. Of all the causes that should be trumpeted for the greater good, the NRA-Remington-Smith&Wesson-Your Congressman is wholly unworthy.

He says that the cops now know who he is and what's his game, and they pretty well leave him alone.

But, imagine this were a young man, or a young man with long hair, or an African-American man. Do you think he would even be alive by now, to parade in front of Hillsboro High School and make a statement about his rights?

Click for story in The Tennessean.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

Police Execution in St. Louis Totally Captured on Video

While we have heard much about Michael Brown, who was shot and killed by police Aug. 9 while he had his hands up and was unarmed in Ferguson, Missouri, we have heard less about the St. Louis Police killing of another young black man just four miles from Ferguson and 10 days later -- that was actually captured on video. Click to see story and two videos -- one of police press conference and one unedited.

Wish List of Research

1. Who makes money on war? And on military buying, protecting and occupying? Yeah, we already know, but let's audit this with excellent research that lays out who profited and continues to profit from our invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afganistan....or any other military activity and occupations, past or present. We have at least 823 foreign bases that the U.S. admits to; those are paid for by taxpayers, and the military bases are there principally to guard the oil for Exxon-Mobil. I believe we will find that taxpayers spend a huge amount on corporate welfare and subsidies to giant corporations, whose profits obviously are more important than the lives and limbs that are sacrificed in military actions. While we are at it, we should study who makes money from natural disasters, and how they get handed huge government contracts---in a no-bid rush, of course, since it is an emergency. There are capitalistic exploiters who feed off this as an industry; they are just not so long-established as what President Eisenhower called "the military-industrial complex."

2. Economic impact of legalizing use and sale of marijuana. There's another economic stimulus and revenue raiser. It would be regulated for safety and legal for individuals and small outfits to grow and sell. With the chance for broad participation, and the exclusion of monopolistic takeover of the market, many Americans would have the opportunity to be entrepreneurs.