Different Day, Same Shit.

After seeing George Zimmerman lurch from crisis to crisis, I figured it's only a matter of time before he eventually finds himself behind bars. In the meantime, he's found new notoriety as a fledgling artist of sorts:

It appears George Zimmerman has turned to painting, and is selling his own, original artwork on eBay not one week after prosecutors dropped domestic violence charges against him.

Now the painting has a bid of almost $100,000.

The canvas painting appeared on the auction website Monday. A picture of the artwork shows a U.S. flag painted only in various shades of blue, with the words "God, One Nation, with Liberty and Justice for All," stamped in white letters on the flag's darker blue stripes.

Zimmerman's brother, Robert Zimmerman Jr., has confirmed the auction is real, and said the painting is, indeed, the work of his brother, who was acquitted of murder in July for the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford.

The painting's starting bid was set at $50, plus an additional $40 for expedited shipping from Sanford, according to the auction page. As of 10:50 p.m. Monday, the winning bid was $99,966. Bidding was set to end early Monday, Dec. 22, at 12:55 a.m. EST.

However, I can't help but feel that I've seen that image before...



Oh.

I've seen people paint and draw from reference pictures. Under normal circumstances, this would likely be lauded as a great effort from a freshman-level high school art class. It certainly isn't worth a hundred grand in dead presidents.

But that's not the point. These days, plenty of designated bad guys turn to art for stress relief and a quick buck. Paul Bremer, for one. Then there's the contemplative shower scenes of a certain George W. Bush. Guys like Charles Manson have all the time in the world to create works of art.

Not that they shouldn't make art, but Zimmerman's efforts smack of profiteering based on his notoriety, even though the man himself says differently:

First hand painted artwork by me, George Zimmerman. Everyone has been asking what I have been doing with myself. I found a creative, way to express myself, my emotions and the symbols that represent my experiences. My art work allows me to reflect, providing a therapeutic outlet and allows me to remain indoors :-) I hope you enjoy owning this piece as much as I enjoyed creating it. Your friend, George Zimmerman

Or your worst nightmare if you happened to be a 17-year-old black kid on a dark suburban street. It just irks me that a man who wantonly chased down and eventually murdered a young man for the crime of being a minority in a place he supposedly didn't belong is not only allowed to walk the streets a free man, but also gets the chance to play up a sympathy angle, create a "kinder, gentler" image and profit immensely by tapping into the arts.

And the reason for the very first picture of this post? It describes exactly how I feel about George Zimmerman.

Some of us have an Inner Child. Others have an Inner Nigger. Is Holder the president’s conscience? Or his Inner Nigger?

A lot of people went off on the fine chap in the above photo for that quoted line. And why not? "Inner Nigger"? Come on, son. It was the fact that he dropped the dreaded N-word on a relatively mainstream Internet site that was beyond the pale for most folks. And I'll admit, I got caught up in the initial outrage over it, too.

My first inclination was to jump on the laptop, piggyback on whatever open Wi-Fi hotspot I could find and just go with the flow. In the immediate days after Rich Benjamin's assessment of President Obama's post-Zimmerman trial introspective, I would have verbally whipped this D.L. Hughley-lookin' mofo's behind up and down the block like your momma did that one time, with the Hot Wheels race track.*

But life outside of DDSS got in the way of that. So now I'm approaching this with a clearer head. Pangs of spoon-fed outrage subside with time and distance from the subject at hand.

So let's see what this Rich Benjamin feller's piece is all about:

Finally the president has spoken about George Zimmerman’s acquittal. Even as the country waited for his singular response – the nation’s leader and a law professor who once looked like Trayvon Martin – the president danced around the issues. And what a dramatic anti-climax, listening to the president refuse to say anything insightful or profound about the acquittal. In signature professorial style, the president gave us the “context” to the episode and to black people’s “pain.” But he didn’t offer a meaningful opinion on the episode’s hot molten core: racial profiling, vigilantism, and “Stand Your Ground” laws.

The one complaint I noticed from those in the black community about President Obama's speech is how he didn't get down deep into the nitty gritty of what's ailing the community. He wasn't as aggressive as some folks wanted him to be. Instead of jolting America awake over the unending saga of racism towards blacks (young males especially), his speech remained, as Benjamin puts it, "safe and airy."

I did my own review of the president's speech and what I said within still stands: the president is not just the president - he's "America's President™" and any attempt to voice his own deep-down personal outrage over this injustice would cause many Americans to tune him out. As Benjamin himself notes:

From a tactical standpoint, it’s wise for the president to avoid discussing race and Trayvon Martin. Many white Americans don’t want that discussion. Many whites avoid that discussion due to their sincere ethical desire to wash the stain of racial differentiation from our nation; they see themselves as Reverend King’s color- blind disciples. Still others avoid the topic because they suffer from racial fatigue. They feel harassed and hectored by so-called race hustlers. Enough with that: They want to focus on the technical and legal aspects of Zimmerman’s acquittal.**

So the president, as always, remained as presidential as he could be while attempting to address his own frustrations over Trayvon Martin's death, Zimmerman's trial and everything in between.

But Eric Holder doesn't have to be so presidential, which is Benjamin's point:

Meanwhile, Attorney General Eric Holder delivered trenchant thoughts on the acquittal, demanding action. Before an audience of supporters, Holder recently called for a full investigation of Martin’s death after Zimmerman’s acquittal. Holder vowed that the Justice Department will act “in a manner that is consistent with the facts and the law. We will not be afraid.”

“We must stand our ground,” he told supporters.

And this is where the whole "Inner Nigger" thing comes into play. In Benjamin's assessment, Holder's playing the role of Obama's so-called "blacker conscience," someone who's able to speak truth to power without worrying about being tarred and feathered with the "angry black man" moniker. But I have a bit of a problem with that.

What if Eric Holder's just being his own man? What if the above words aren't Holder playing point man for Obama's innermost thoughts, but rather Holder's own commitment towards insuring that justice is actually served on this matter? And how come the media constantly attempts to force the attorney general into that role?

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Of course, Holder's been outspoken before. After all, this is the same guy who called America a "nation of cowards" for studiously avoiding any serious conversation on ethnic relations. After countless well-meaning white Americans patted themselves on the back for being so forward thinking in voting for a black president, this came as a grievous insult. To many whites, the whole thing just smacked of utter ungratefulness from a black community that not only didn't seem to appreciate their efforts, but went out of its way to chastise their many, often times misguided, attempts in accepting and empathizing with black Americans.

As a result, I sense many white Americans have decided to throw in the towel on black rapport and instead are retreating into a unique form of racial cynicism. Because their often insincere, paternalistic and patronizing attempts often went over like a solid tungsten balloon, many white Americans have decided to shed their "white guilt" and instead call a spade a spade, if you get the drift.

That's where things like "race realism" and the constant arguments about the N-word and its usage come from. It's also where guys like Rand Paul get their allure - instead of incessant black appeasement that seems to get white Americans nowhere, there's the refreshing libertarian perspective that isn't afraid to accept certain interpretations of crime stats and the belief in natural black criminality as gospel. They're no longer afraid to tell blacks to "stop whining" or wonder why blacks simply can't do as various immigrants have done and blend into the greater American fabric instead of, and I believe I'm quoting some of the darker corners of the Internet, "wallow in their own filth." Ultimately, they're free to tell themselves "it's okay to be white," as though it was some sort of curse imposed upon them as other minority groups take advantage of their generous nature.

But enough about that. In summation, Holder's reputation as "rogue Negro" to the president's "magic Negro," whether actually deserved or not, continues to ring true in many corners. I don't think that deserves him being referred to as the president's "Inner Nigger," "repressed Id," "blacker conscience" or anything of the sort. If the president wants to break character to have a "real talk" moment, that's entirely his prerogative.

As for Rich Benjamin, I'm not as upset with him as I was before. I understand where he's coming from. Like many folks, I wish he didn't have to resort to the N-word just to get his point across.

On the other hand, it is what it is. How he makes his point is his own prerogative. After all, it got people's attention, mine included.

*That shit hurts.
**Note the bolded. When Americans claim to want a colorblind perspective of the case, this is what they mean. However, sticking to the technical and legal while disregarding the racial paints a completely different picture of the entire case, one that disregards over four centuries of ingrained and institutionalized prejudices, bigotry and anger - things that often lead to the Emmit Tills of the world being exposed to a unique and deadly form of "justice."

So, Juror B29 thinks George Zimmerman got away with murder. From the BBC via Milt Shook:

At least one juror in the Zimmerman trial - one without a book deal and who seems relatively honest, explained in an ABC News interview why the jury felt they had no choice but to find him not guilty. The culprit, as suspected, was Florida law.

The juror, who went by the name of "Maddy," also said Zimmerman "got away with murder".

Maddy was the only non-white member of the six member jury, and she said the whole trial was basically a "publicity stunt.". Based on the law and the jury instructions they received, she said they couldn't find Zimmerman guilty.

Maddy is a mother of eight who only recently moved to Florida from Chicago and there's probably a part of her that wants to move back. She said she feels as if she should apologize to Trayvon's parents.

It's easy for yours truly to come down on Juror B29 like a ton of bricks. In spite of the tremendously flawed jury instructions, I feel there's still something she could have done if she genuinely believed in Zimmerman's guilt. From the sound of it, she was pressured into going along with Juror B37 and the rest.

It's a bit too late to apologize to Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin for not bringing their son's killer to justice. I'm sure she thinks she feels their pain.

She doesn't, because she can't. To say that she does is just another slap in the face out of many. That's something the family does not need.

Being the President of the United States is already hard work. Being one who happens to be a man of color in the aftermath of one out of a long string of horrific miscarriages of justice is a task of nearly-Herculean proportions, especially when countless people have their own expectations of what should or shouldn't be said.

As someone occupying a seat of immense global power, you'd think that a man like the president would have a great deal of latitude over how to publicly express his feelings on Trayvon Martin. Unfortunately, the man's obligated to play the role of "America's President™" and any attempt to voice his true feelings in a way that seemingly sides with one side of the aisle would be conflated into favoritism.

One commentator over at Abagond felt that the president did not show the outpouring of emotion or the fluidity of speech that he displayed during the Sandy Hook tragedy. Watching the speech myself in its entirety, what I saw was a man who's literally walking on oratorical eggshells - a man attempting to voice how he feels about the Zimmerman trial and its effects on the black community without disrupting, diluting or invalidating the message in the eyes of a mainstream audience that's sensitive to perceived judgement and slights, despite being more than comfortable with issuing their own.

I've taken the time to unpack my own thoughts and feelings about the president's speech, highlighting sections that stood out to me as I see fit, thanks to the convenient transcript posted in its entirety over at Huffington Post:

The second thing I want to say is to reiterate what I said on Sunday, which is there’s going to be a lot of arguments about the legal issues in the case -- I'll let all the legal analysts and talking heads address those issues. The judge conducted the trial in a professional manner. The prosecution and the defense made their arguments. The juries were properly instructed that in a case such as this reasonable doubt was relevant, and they rendered a verdict. And once the jury has spoken, that's how our system works.

Unlike former president Jimmy Carter, the president never says he thought the jury made the right call or that he agrees with the jury's decision. He only mentions that the above is how the system "works" in this country. The matter of whether the trial was actually conducted in a manner resembling professionalism is left up for debate.

You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.

There are very few African American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. There are very few African American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me -- at least before I was a senator. There are very few African Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.

Here, the president highlights the history of suspicion being cast upon black Americans regardless of activity or intention. He's right - 35 years ago, he would have been just another Trayvon Martin, more so if he grew up in a place like central Florida. He doesn't go into the infamous "talk" that every black male gets as he gets of age - in my opinion, that's a missed opportunity.

Now, this isn't to say that the African American community is naïve about the fact that African American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system; that they’re disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence. It’s not to make excuses for that fact -- although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context. They understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history.

And so the fact that sometimes that’s unacknowledged adds to the frustration. And the fact that a lot of African American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that African American boys are more violent -- using that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently causes pain.

The president responds to the old chestnut of black-on-black crime by saying, in essence, "yes, we realize it's a problem. We're not stupid." He deftly links the problem to poverty and America's own screwed-up history, not to any sense of innate black criminality. He also goes on to explain how the assumption of black criminality affects and frustrates to no end young black men who are most definitely not criminals, but are assumed to be by America at large.

I think it’s understandable that there have been demonstrations and vigils and protests, and some of that stuff is just going to have to work its way through, as long as it remains nonviolent. If I see any violence, then I will remind folks that that dishonors what happened to Trayvon Martin and his family. But beyond protests or vigils, the question is, are there some concrete things that we might be able to do.

Considering how there have been relatively few, if any riots in the aftermath of the case, I find this bit of preemptive advisory from the highest authority of the land to be a bit...unnecessary.

Along the same lines, I think it would be useful for us to examine some state and local laws to see if it -- if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case, rather than diffuse potential altercations.

I know that there's been commentary about the fact that the "stand your ground" laws in Florida were not used as a defense in the case. On the other hand, if we're sending a message as a society in our communities that someone who is armed potentially has the right to use those firearms even if there's a way for them to exit from a situation, is that really going to be contributing to the kind of peace and security and order that we'd like to see?

At one time, most states featured a "duty to retreat" clause in their self-defense laws. With the advent of "Stand Your Ground," the duty to remove oneself from a dangerous situation before resorting to lethal force went out the window. The end result has been a string of cases where one side or another would have lived had it not been for the over-zealousness that a SYG policy offers to those involved.

What I and many others would like to see is SYG be suspended or preferably terminated across the board until a saner self-defense policy can be developed.

And for those who resist that idea that we should think about something like these "stand your ground" laws, I'd just ask people to consider, if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened? And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws.

As I said before, if Trayvon Martin had been an actual, visible threat - armed or not - it's likely that Zimmerman would have gladly followed the 911 dispatcher's advice to leave the "heroics" to the police. Seeing someone who was not only defenseless and not surrounded by people who could, at the very least, scare him off, Zimmerman took an opportunity only rank cowards could love - the opportunity to harass and scare someone who was visibly weaker than he was to justify his own preconceptions. When it became apparent that Trayvon Martin would put up some kind of defense, Zimmerman escalated to lethal force.

To answer the question as it was intended, the realities of Trayvon Martin's racial background and standing, combined with a deceased Zimmerman's resources (in the form of his father, Judge Robert Zimmerman, Sr.) and America's own opinions of armed or potentially armed black males, it's likely he would end up with the same or worse treatment that Marissa Alexander suffered at the hands of the justice system for a mere warning shot. 20 years for Ms. Alexander, a possible life sentence - or the death penalty - for Mr. Martin.

There has been talk about should we convene a conversation on race. I haven't seen that be particularly productive when politicians try to organize conversations. They end up being stilted and politicized, and folks are locked into the positions they already have. On the other hand, in families and churches and workplaces, there's the possibility that people are a little bit more honest, and at least you ask yourself your own questions about, am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can? Am I judging people as much as I can, based on not the color of their skin, but the content of their character? That would, I think, be an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy.

America has never been comfortable with discussing race or any policies that have anything to do with race. The president wants the people to carry on dialog among themselves and their families. I don't see that working too well, either. People are often locked into what they want to think unless it touches them in an extraordinarily personal way.

I think we could use an honest, national dialogue about race, but that's a long time coming, if it ever comes. In the meantime, it's my personal opinion that the black community should do everything it can to protect itself and its most precious commodity - its children - as much as possible. That's about the only thing that can be realistically done.

At least until the president or someone else decides to risk the political capital and do something to bring about a fundamental positive change in ethnic relations and civil rights.

And that's the thing that I think pisses off many people more than anything else. The fact that the president has the most powerful platform in the world to bring about genuine social change as he pleases, yet he seemingly does nothing with it. Of course, he does well when it comes to quietly bringing game-changing mandates and bills into play through the so-called "11-dimensional chess" game. Unfortunately, people want change they can readily see and immediately feel.

President Obama was voted into office based on that desire for change and for the first three months, it seemed like he was in a position to do anything he damn well pleased. When it became apparent that he wasn't going to grab the bull by the horns, but instead guide the bull around with carefully placed feed, Americans expecting swift change were miffed, to say the least. He seemed like a lame duck long before his second term.

Lyndon Baines Johnson understood exactly what he was risking when he signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In the end, it cost the Democrat party its entire wing of Dixiecrat hangers-on.* In light of the GOP's various attempts to ensure monolithic power throughout America, would it really be wise and prudent for the president to risk his own political capital and the possibility of complete GOP dominance for the foreseeable future by, say, ushering in Universal Heathcare whole-hog? That's a good question for anyone to ask...

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Not too many people are happy with the president's speech. White conservative commentators felt the president should shut the hell up about race. Black talking heads feel he should talk about it more and in a much more direct manner. Those on the "professional left," the so-called "emoprogs" and "puritopians," are extremely offended over the possible implication that they are not as "colorblind" or "post-racial" as they thought and extraordinarily miffed over black media being more preoccupied with the outcome of the Zimmerman trial than with drones, the NSA or Edward Snowden's next cross-continental stop as he searches for asylum.

Nevertheless, the president said what he was able to say and he still managed to bring his message forward in a clear and concise manner. No, I'm not completely satisfied with his speech, but I feel he did exactly what was required of him as President of these United States.

*Some say that it eventually worked out for the better. Too bad we got Reagan's right-wing revolution out of it.

- Detroit is officially bankrupt. Or at least it would be hadn't a judge ruled the city's Chapter 9 bankruptcy filing unconstitutional:

Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie E. Aquilina issued the orders Thursday and Friday, including a temporary restraining order, in an attempt to halt the Chapter 9 filing by Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr. The judge says the bankruptcy filing “…will cause irreparable injury” to the pensioners.

“In order to rectify his unauthorized and unconstitutional actions described above,” wrote Judge Aquilina, the Governor must (1) direct the Emergency Manager to immediately withdraw the Chapter 9 petition filed on July 18, and (2) not authorize any further Chapter 9 filing which threatens to diminish or impair accrued pension benefits.”

- Fiery White House journalist and former correspondent Helen Thomas has died at the age of 92. Being a mainstay of the White House press pool through 10 presidencies is no small feat.

- A man walks into a bank and gets swindled:

(Philip L. Ramatlhware, an immigrant from Botswana) was 48 years old at the time and disabled, after being hurt in an accident as a passenger on a Greyhound bus. His English wasn’t good, he had no college education and his last job had been at a fast-food kiosk at the Philadelphia airport. In April 2008, he received $225,000 in a settlement for his injuries, part of which went to pay legal fees. He was holding the settlement check when he walked into the branch.

Immediately he was referred to a broker for a “financial consultation,” according to an arbitration claim he filed against Citigroup. The broker assured him the money would be invested in “guaranteed” funds and that he could have access to them whenever the need arose, the complaint said. Ramatlhware gave him $150,000 to invest. The broker put $5,000 into a bank certificate of deposit, bought a $133,000 variable annuity and invested the rest in a series of mutual funds.

Less than six months later, Ramatlhware had lost $40,000, according to the complaint. Citigroup settled the case in 2010 for $22,500, without admitting liability, according to a report on the case by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

- Scottie Nell Hughes, Director of the Tea Party News Network and unabashed ultra-conservative*, thinks that rape victims who abort their pregnancies should be locked up and serve the same amount of prison time as their rapists:

FUGELSANG: “Let’s say Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion becomes illegal. If a woman is raped and she goes to a doctor, and the doctor terminates the pregnancy – Please tell me who deserves the longest jail sentence? The rapist,the doctor or the woman? In order.”

HUGHES: “Across the board.”

FUGELSANG: “All three of them?”

HUGHES: “Go for it!”

Let's just say if Scottie Nell Hughes found herself in that position, she'd find any and every excuse that makes her exempt from the above. That's just what conservatives do.

- George Zimmerman won't be getting his gun back thanks to the DOJ. However, a Florida gun store has kindly stepped in to give him another one, free of charge. Now if someone would be so kind as to give Trayvon Martin his life back...

- Rush Limbaugh doesn't think the N-word is racist anymore. Neither does David Sirota. Hans von Spakovsky, John Nolte, Ben Shapiro, Dan Riehl, Joe Walsh and Todd Starnes all think that racism is "dead" and the president is a "race baiter" of the highest order. All deserve the DDSS Award for Excellence in Rank Stupidity, lovingly crafted out of pigeon droppings, old Klansman robe cloth and discarded anti-abortion bill clippings.

By the way, if you can turn your sink faucet into a flamethrower, thank your local gas-drilling operation for giving you a neat party trick to impress friends. It's not like you actually drink tap water...

*Considering you have to be ultra-conservative for that gig, a bit of an oxymoron there.

If you haven't already figured it out, the fine chap in the above picture is Walton Henry Butler of Port St. Joe, Florida. He didn't do much, just shot himself a nigger, is all:

"The below signed affiant states that through his investigation and interview with the suspect, Walton Henry Butler, Butler did admit shooting Everett Gant in the head with a .22 cal. Rifle which caused series [sic] bodily injury. During an interview with Walter Butler he said he shot a “nigger.”

"There had been an incident earlier in the day when Pamela Rogers came to Butler’s apartment with a child and the defendant called the child a nigger and Ms. Rogers became upset and left the residence. Through the investigation it was learned that the defendant had made several racial remarks to the black children in the apartment complex. The victim Everett Gant went to the defendant’s residence to talk with him about the comments when he was shot. The victim Everett Gant was shot in the face causing great bodily harm he was transported to Bay Medical Center where he was listed in stable condition.

"After Walt Butler shot Everett Gant he stated he shut the sliding glass door with Everett Gant lying outside the door, called 911 then finished cooking supper, sat at the kitchen table and began eating.

"When Sheriff Nugent arrived on scene he made contact with Butler by phone, Butler told him to come in he was eating dinner and had put up the gun. Butler was sitting at the table and acted as if it was an inconvenience when he was asked to stand up and handcuffs were put on. He said he did not understand the problem. He had only shot a nigger.

"On September 17, 2012 the victim Everett Gant died from complication from injuries obtained in the above incident."

Guys like Butler don't really need Stand Your Ground laws to feel privileged enough to shoot some pesky people of color. SYG just makes it easier for these guys to justify what they've done and escape justice later on. At least Butler was immediately charged, but I bet he's wishing he could get Zimmerman's jury right about now.

Anderson Cooper snagged an interview with Juror B37. If you feel like chugging down an entire bottle of Listerine or keeping your head as close to the wastebasket as possible at any point of the above interview, feel free. I can understand.

Don't want to watch? Think Progress has a rundown of the most mindblowing parts of the interview. You might want to hold on to that wastebasket.

By the way, Juror B37 also has had a book in the works. She can thank Genie Lauren for putting an end to that.

- Until the State of Florida sees fit to rescind its "Stand Your Ground" laws, Stevie Wonder will no longer perform there. Or in any other state with similar laws, for that matter:

"The truth is that—for those of you who've lost in the battle for justice, wherever that fits in any part of the world—we can't bring them back. What we can do is we can let our voices be heard. And we can vote in our various countries throughout the world for change and equality for everybody. That's what I know we can do.

"And I know I'm not everybody, I'm just one person. I'm a human being. And for the gift that God has given me, and from whatever I mean, I decided today that until the Stand Your Ground law is abolished in Florida, I will never perform there again. As a matter of fact, wherever I find that law exists, I will not perform in that state or in that part of the world.

"Because what I do know is that people know that my heart is of love for everyone. When I say everyone I mean everyone. As I said earlier, you can't just talk about it, you have to be about it. We can make change by coming together for the spirit of unity. Not in destruction, but in the perpetuation of life itself."

Strong stands are needed in times like these. My hat goes off to Stevie.

- According to friends and family, George Zimmerman wants to go to law school. If anything, he'd be a shoo-in numerous police departments throughout Florida and the U.S. How about putting in an application to the NYPD?

- U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder finally calls the "Stand Your Ground" laws into question. But not too harshly, lest he gets shat on even harder by conservatives and Zimmerman supporters:

Today – starting here and now – it’s time to commit ourselves to a respectful, responsible dialogue about issues of justice and equality – so we can meet division and confusion with understanding, with compassion, and ultimately with truth.

It’s time to strengthen our collective resolve to combat gun violence but also time to combat violence involving or directed toward our children – so we can prevent future tragedies. And we must confront the underlying attitudes, mistaken beliefs, and unfortunate stereotypes that serve too often as the basis for police action and private judgments.

Separate and apart from the case that has drawn the nation’s attention, it’s time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods. These laws try to fix something that was never broken. There has always been a legal defense for using deadly force if – and the “if” is important – no safe retreat is available.

But we must examine laws that take this further by eliminating the common sense and age-old requirement that people who feel threatened have a duty to retreat, outside their home, if they can do so safely. By allowing and perhaps encouraging violent situations to escalate in public, such laws undermine public safety. The list of resulting tragedies is long and – unfortunately – has victimized too many who are innocent. It is our collective obligation – we must stand our ground – to ensure that our laws reduce violence, and take a hard look at laws that contribute to more violence than they prevent.

Last up:

Some people out there are thinking that if Trayvon Martin's and George Zimmerman's circumstances were swapped, the outcome would still have been the same. Allow me to introduce you to the case of a certain John H. White and Daniel Cicciaro. White is Black and Cicciaro is white:

Mr. White was convicted of shooting Daniel Cicciaro, 17, point-blank in the face on Aug. 9, 2006. Daniel and several friends had left a party and showed up Mr. White’s house just after 11 p.m. to challenge his son Aaron, then 19, to a fight, and had used threats, profanities and racial epithets. Mr. White awoke and grabbed a loaded Beretta pistol he kept in the garage of his house in Miller Place, a predominantly white hamlet on Long Island.

Mr. White testified that Aaron woke him from a deep sleep the night of the shooting, yelling that that “some kids are coming here to kill me.” Mr. White said he considered the angry teenagers a “lynch mob.”

He said their racist language recalled the hatred he saw as a child visiting the segregated Deep South and stories of his grandfather’s being chased out of Alabama in the 1920s by the Ku Klux Klan.

Mr. White testified that his grandfather taught him how to shoot and bequeathed him the pistol he used.

A lawyer for Mr. White, Frederick K. Brewington, insisted in his summation that this was a “modern-day lynch mob” and that Mr. White considered it “history replaying itself.”

Mr. White stood his ground against a few punks who, if left to their own devices, would have seriously injured or even managed to kill his son. For his troubles, he'll spend the next five to 15 years in prison.

Meanwhile, a man who went out of his way to pursue, corner, wrestle with and eventually kill a 17-year-old teen now has his freedom and, if he wants it, his gun.*

The above is further proof why claims of this country being in a so-called "post-racial" phase ring hollow. History has shown that the justice system will defend white hooligans who amass lynch mobs and terror gangs, all the while incarcerating blacks who dare defend themselves. This is why we are pissed.

Right about now, some conservative reader is shaking his or her head in disbelief, prepared to say the "liberal" justice system regularly springs "black mobs" all the time. I suggest that reader take a look at the arrest stats he or she loves to use to justify natural black criminality so much.**

*If I were George, I'd reconsider that offer. Being in a dark room with only your conscience and a loaded semi-auto for company can do some strange and permanent things to a person.
*In short, a black mob that breaks into a white home will get put down hard, one way or another.

Ta-Nehisi Coates thinks the Zimmerman jury made the right choice. Yours truly thinks the Zimmerman trial had the wrong kind of jury.

Meanwhile, the hits keep on coming in light of Zimmerman's acquittal:

Keep posting the "Treyvon: Angel of God" stories.

Treyvon Martin was no saint.
* He had a history of criminal behavior,
* he had been suspended 3 times from school (the most recent of which for vandalism),
* he had been kicked out of his mother's house due to his behavioral issues.
* the prosecution went overboard to hide text messages detailing Treyvon's drug use and racist comments. (while at the same time attempting to portray Zimmerman as a racist)

Combine the above with Treyvon's proclivity for physical violence... It was only a matter of time before Treyvon ended up dead or in prison.

Zimmerman just made it happen faster.

Little boy with candy my ass.

Judging by Frankie SayRelax's posting history, he's firmly committed to the image of "Treyvon Martin" as a worthless thug of the lowest order. That would be Frankie's problem alone if not for the millions of people out there who think just like him, to varying degrees.

Trayvon isn't alive to tell his side of the story or defend his own character against those who wish to defame him and others like him. Zimmerman's liberty is contingent on his story of defense against a so-called "thug," otherwise he would be made to account for his actions through legal means. Now all that's left is possible civil action and, if Zimmerman doesn't watch his step from here on, extralegal means of action.

A 17-year-old doing stupid things 17-year-olds do to bolster their nonexistent "street cred" in light of the "gangster" culture propagated by mass media (post pictures of guns, brag about being handy with fists, etc.) does not make him a "dangerous thug." Of course, no one considered Eric Harris or Dylan Klebold "thugs" until it was too late.

Nope, George Zimmerman did the world a favor by ridding it of one less "thug," at least according to our friend Frankie and those like him. The only comfort and solace that Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin have is the knowledge that not everyone thinks like Frankie. The world isn't completely filled up with assholes.

BETWEEN me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it. All, nevertheless, flutter round it. They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem? they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil? At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require. To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem? I answer seldom a word.

W.E.B. DuBois pondered this question in the first chapter of "The Souls of Black Folk." In light of the George Zimmerman verdict and its affirmation of all that's been wrong with this nation for generations, it bears repeating among the millions of black Americans living here.

"How does it feel to be a problem?"

It's a long story. Long story short, America as a collective entity hasn't quite come to grips with what to do with or how to treat a people who, just a scant 150 years ago, were considered nothing more than farming implements and thus unworthy of being considered full human beings. Old habits die hard and learned behaviors prove hard to unlearn. After generations of learning how to loath and despise your fellow former farming implements, it proves hard to finally accept them as human beings.

George Zimmerman tapped into this national stream of consciousness to fulfill his fantasy of being a "neighborhood hero." It resulted in the death of a young man who, if it weren't for his misfortune of being born a seventh son in a land that merely tolerates and ultimately ridicules his presence, would have been home that fateful night with that pack of Skittles his brother asked for.

Trayvon Martin's death was treated as a "no harm no foul" moment by law enforcement until local and national outrage built up. His murderer's trial was treated as a vindication of his actions and an indictment of his victim's existence. By all accounts, mainstream America won't mourn the loss of someone it saw as "a problem."

Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil. I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows. That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination-time, or beat them at a foot-race, or even beat their stringy heads. Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the worlds I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine. But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them. Just how I would do it I could never decide: by reading law, by healing the sick, by telling the wonderful tales that swam in my head,—some way.

With other black boys the strife was not so fiercely sunny: their youth shrunk into tasteless sycophancy, or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white; or wasted itself in a bitter cry, Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house? The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.

Black Americans have spent countless generations as outcasts in their own house, shunned and loathed unless they could somehow be of service for mainstream America's benefit, whether it be in self-depreciating entertainment, quiet servitude or harsh and unrelenting manual labor. Perhaps Trayvon Martin didn't pay heed to it that night, but he was an outcast in the very neighborhood he thought he would have been safe in. The constant and unending perception of he and others like him as "problems" to be "solved" dovetailed with Zimmerman's desire to "solve" that "problem."

The absolute refusal to see black Americans as anything but collective problems and individual successes (but only within strict, narrowly defined confines) and eager willingness to glamorize the worst traits and rumors about a collective people is how the Sanford police department refused to see anything wrong with murdering a young black male with little to no cause. It's also led to a sympathetic legal climate where generous concern was shown for the perpetrator's "unfortunate" predicament, as encouraged by his defense team. The six jurors, five whites and one Hispanic for buffering concerns of racially motivated impropriety, were merely messengers delivering a statement that rings true for black Americans the nation over: "We see you as a problem."

Oddly enough, Native Americans understand how it feels to be a problem. After decades of the U.S. "solving" the problem with forced migrations, mass genocide and sequestration onto rapidly shrinking reservations, the Native American problem is slowly solving itself through mass alcoholism and suicide. Since black America proved too resilient for that treatment, it's taking legally sanctioned acts of malice, as delivered by police departments throughout the nation, to solve the problem. Mass media and it's constant portrayal of blacks as dangerous beings or laughable buffoons is another way of encouraging solutions to the problem. Even groups like the Ku Klux Klan once helped out by solving the problem in their own unique way.

The heart of the so-called "problem" lies with an unstoppable and long-coming shift in sociopolitical power between mainstream America and America's minority groups. The fear of Reconstruction heralding the arrival and cementing of black political power drove the ex-Confederate backlash and the institution of measures to stymie said power. The fear of the Civil Rights Act as a milestone for reclaiming black political power fueled the ex-Dixiecrat backlash and the conservative "silent majority" movement that resulted in the formation of the GOP as we know it today. The fear of Barack Obama as a harbinger of things to come in terms of black political power drove the Republican backlash, the formation of the "Tea Party" as its weaponized arm and the unleashing of rabid racism, sexism and discrimination among the once largely quiet unreconstructed. To look any closer would warrant its own discussion in the near future.

Throughout its history, America feared that particular problem getting out of hand. That night, George Zimmerman "feared" a particular problem "getting out of hand." Funny how retrospective history can be.

RT @profblmkelley: I have a nine-year old who followed the trial with me. This verdict made her feel afraid. @lauradeethomp
— Matthew Elliot (@matttbastard) July 14, 2013

As it should the parents of any black American child, especially in this day and age. Especially when full-grown adults have no compunction against seeing young black children as "thugs" or "thugs in training."

The irony of this entire tragedy is if Trayvon Martin was every bit of the cannabis-consuming, jewelry-stealing gangster thug he was purported to be, Zimmerman would have stayed in the car as he was instructed by 911 dispatchers. Rousting an otherwise defenseless young kid going about his business based on preconceptions is one thing. Doing the same to a genuine thug with no fear of jailtime will likely get you seriously hurt or murdered.

Instead of being murdered at the hands of a man too mentally and behaviorally inept to be a real police, Trayvon Martin would likely still be alive, albeit dealing with a civil lawsuit against the Sanford police department on brutality and civil rights grounds.

Had Trayvon Martin been "Todd Martin," a creature every bit as photogenic and "all-American" as could be, George Zimmerman's fate would had been as good as sealed. Had George Zimmerman been "Tray Zimmerman," his date with the needle would be chiseled in stone. Had it been a "black on black" affair, no one but Martin's parents and friends would  have cared. Black on black murders are considered an effective way of solving the black problem.

How does it feel to be a problem?

If you're asking, it feels downright shitty. But maybe it's mainstream America that's the problem.

The grand tradition of the all-white jury came through for the man accused of killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. "Not guilty" of second-degree murder, "not guilty" of manslaughter, either.

Yours truly isn't shocked at the outcome. The die was cast in the beginning and America's preoccupation with stereotypes and assumptions played out on a grand scale. All the defense had to do was make the jury wonder if George Zimmerman did America a service by snuffing out a "typical ghetto thug." From all indications, it worked.

And so goes a story that's played itself out time and again with depressing regularity. You know, the one about how a black American was killed out of various racially motivated assumptions, only for his killer to walk free with few, if any, repercussions. It's an age-old story with no end in sight.

Knowing that Zimmerman will likely spend the bulk of his life sheltered away from understandably angry black Americans is cold comfort to Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin. They have to live with both a dead child and the relative freedom of the man who murdered him.

Meanwhile, other black parents are left wondering if their son or daughter will end up being the next victim of  someone entitled of their preconceived notions and assumptions. As I've said before, it's a story that's as old and as predictable as the sun rising and setting.

I think it's high time for me to acquire a passport and think about life outside of the United States for a while, for my sanity's sake. Any black American wanting to start a family should do likewise.

As I've probably mentioned earlier on, I haven't kept a close eye on the Zimmerman trial, primarily for my sanity's sake. More to the point, I stayed away from the live feeds, the rapid-fire blog posts and the constant stories and opinion pieces that flood in hour after hour. I stayed away because the more I heard and saw what was going on, the more apparent the outcome's becoming. It's like seeing a train creep silently upon an unknowing and unwitting pedestrian - you know what's coming and there's nothing you can do or say to stop it, except hope and pray for a last-minute miracle.

Maybe I should have more faith, but having faith in a justice system largely geared towards systemic injustice is rather difficult. Using history as a guide, you can see the same thing play out over and over again with depressing regularity. The only difference is the audience. Whereas a local audience and a simple (and possibly biased) blurb in the local papers sufficed, there's now an entire nation and quite possibly a global audience watching, and for good reason.

The outcome of this case will reverberate throughout the entire nation. It'll prove whether there's actually some semblance of justice in this troubled land of ours or if the same old song will play once more. It'll show that a young man's life doesn't have to be forfeit just because someone deemed him a threat to be rid of. Or it'll confirm that someone's life is always subject to the whims of others based on their appearance or others' perceptions of them and others like them. It could prove to be either a chilling turning point in this nation's history or it could be a small glimmer of hope and some form of justice for a grieving mother and family.

A story like the one unfolding in Sanford, Florida is one that grates on the soul. It's a stress that only a person whose been in the victim's shoes can understand, in my humble opinion. To keep a laser-targeted focus on this story would be to expend all of my own mental and spiritual energies and then some. It would mean being thoroughly ensconced in an awe-inspiring envelope of anger and hatred that takes one's mind to some tremendously dangerous and downright evil places. It's a feeling that often finds its way out through a variety of destructive and counter-productive outlets.

It's a feeling that the likes of Sean Hannity are vaguely aware of. However, they hope to capitalize on those feelings and turn them into examples, indictments and warnings. Such things wouldn't exist if the capacity for justice wasn't limited by the malice and anger of those who'd rather see their fellow men and women burn in the flames of their own impotent anger just because. Just because their parents and society taught them to fear and loathe them. Just because they're a convenient scapegoat to blame when things get rough. Just because a certain segment of people would rather see them return to their original condition to enrich their own coffers.

Just because they're the "other." The assigned punching bags. The load. The people who are relied on for so much yet blamed for many ills.

There's a story playing out in a Sanford, Florida courtroom and it's a story we've seen and heard countless times. The only question is whether the ending will be the same or if six women will manage to deviate from the storyline and deliver a much different conclusion.

Courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel

Right about now, George is probably hoping that out of those 40 potential jurors, his defense team can narrow those down to 12 fine folks who'll follow in the grand tradition of the all-white jury.

Last time on DDSS, yours truly left you with the image of George Zimmerman sweating bullets over jury selection, hoping he wouldn't end up with, ahem, a jury of Trayvon Martin's peers, so to speak. With the selection of six women, five of whom are white and one who's Hispanic, George can rest a little easier. Looks like what I said about the grand tradition of the all-white jury is slowly coming into fruition.

To my understanding, Florida courts only require a jury of 12 in capital cases where the death penalty is on the table. That leaves the fate of Zimmerman and the opportunity for justice to be truly served hinged on the decision-making processes of six female jurors and if needed, one or more of their four alternates (consisting of two men and two women).

I don't like where this is going. Not one bit.

Let's take a look at the jury, courtesy of the Orlando Sentinel. Parts that stand out to me are highlighted as follows:

B-29: A nurse on an Alzheimer's ward who is black or Hispanic, has several children, is married and lived in Chicago at the time of shooting. She said she doesn't watch the news, preferring reality television: "Right when we got here, I got cable... I love my reality shows." During jury selection, she said she was arrested once in Chicago.

B-76: A white, middle-aged woman who said Zimmerman had an "altercation with the young man. There was a struggle and the gun went off." Has been married 30 years, and is unemployed. She formerly worked with her husband in his construction company. Her 28-year-old son is an attorney in Seminole County. She also has a daughter, 26, has been a victim of non-violent crime and rescues "a lot of pets."

B-37: A middle-aged white woman who has worked for a chiropractor for 16 years and has many pets. She described protests in Sanford as "rioting." Her husband is an attorney. She has two daughters: A 24-year-old dog groomer and a 27-year-old who attends the University of Central Florida. She used to have concealed weapons permit, but let it lapse. Her husband also has one.

B-51: A retired white woman from Oviedo who has a dog and 20-year-old cat. She knew a good deal about the case, but said "I'm not rigid in my thinking." She has been in Seminole County for nine years, is unmarried and has no kids. She previously lived in Atlanta, and used to work in real estate. She also ran a call center in Brevard County which she said had 1,200 employees.

E-6: A young white woman and mother who used to work in financial services. She used this case as an example to her two adolescent children, warning them to not go out at night. She has lived in Seminole County for eight years, and is married to an engineer. She was arrested in Brevard County, but said she "was treated completely fairly." Her husband has guns.

E-40: A white woman in her 60s who lived in Iowa at the time of the shooting. She heard national news reports and recalls the shooting was in a gated community and a teenager was killed. She described herself as safety officer, is married to a chemical engineer and loves football. She has a 28-year-old son who's out of work. She said she's very well versed in cell phone technology, and has been a victim of crime.

And the alternate jurors:

E-54: A middle-aged white man with a teenage stepson who wears hoodies. He recalled seeing photos of Zimmerman's head and face that show injuries. E-54 loves golf and genealogy, and said he's been married for five years to a technical engineer. He grew up in Seminole County and has a teenage stepson.

B-72: A young man who is possibly Hispanic, does maintenance at a school and competes in arm wrestling tournaments. He said he avoids the news because he does not want to be "brainwashed." He grew up in Chicago, is single and an alumni of Phi Beta Kappa. He is very physically active, and was a high school athlete. He said that he doesn't believe you can determine a person's strength based solely on their size or how they look.

E-13: A young white woman who goes to college and works two jobs, one of them as a surgical assistant. She heard the shooting was a "racial thing." She said she could be a fair juror "just because I don't really know that much." She is single, has lived in Seminole County for 17 years and attends church. She also owns and rides horses.

E-28: A middle-aged white woman who has worked as a nurse for 26 years. She knew little about the case and has no opinion about Zimmerman's guilt. She has lived in Seminole County since 1985, and has been married for 28 years. Her husband is a teacher and they have two adult children, 27 and 23 years old.

These are the people tasked with determining whether George Zimmerman will be convicted for the murder of Trayvon Martin or be cleared of his current charges. In addition, the judge in the case, circuit Judge Debra S. Nelson, is disallowing the prosecution from presenting two audio experts who maintain that the source of the screaming heard on 911 tapes was most likely Trayvon Martin.

Little wonder the Martin family had to turn to the power of prayer in hopes of getting something vaguely resembling justice. This trial has all the elements of a monumental clusterfuck, one with deep-setting effects that could last for years, if not decades. Let's pray that it turns out otherwise.

George Zimmerman's trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin is well under way, with the court entering its second phase of jury selection. Right about now, George is probably hoping that out of those 40 potential jurors, his defense team can narrow those down to 12 fine folks who'll follow in the grand tradition of the all-white jury. Attempts to besmirch Martin's character as just another punk/thug/criminal-in-training whose forced departure from this plane was a net benefit came in the form of the following cell phone video shot by Martin of two unknown men fighting one another over a bicycle: