In Zimmerman's Defense

It seems there are a few who feel Trayvon Martin was just an innocent victim. Let’s look at the evidence and facts that were presented at the trial.

George Zimmerman saw a person he believed didn’t belong in the area. Fact: There had been a large number of break-ins in the area. Fact: Trayvon Martin was walking home after going to the store, which is not illegal. Zimmerman did follow Martin, which is not illegal.

Fact: Zimmerman lost sight of Martin and started walking back to his car. On the way back to his car Zimmerman was confronted by Martin. Evidence shown in court showed that Martin struck Zimmerman in his face causing his nose to bleed. This is a crime of assault. Zimmerman fell to the ground and Martin jumped on top of him, hitting him and pounding his head on the sidewalk. Again this evidence was show in court and is a crime. Zimmerman had committed no crime to this point.

Sometime during this fight Zimmerman felt that his life was threatened enough that he could die. Example of this is the referee who was punched in the side of his head by a player and died two days later. Zimmerman took his handgun out, which he had a legal right to have, and shot Martin, who died from that wound. Evidence showed that Martin was on top of Zimmerman at the time he was shot. This is a tragedy but under our laws you have a right to defend yourself against great bodily harm.
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IT’S ONLY THE BEGINNING

The MSM is blowing off the bankruptcy of Detroit (surprise, surprise). Any talk of Detroit is swept under the run, it’s a “one off”.

The only problem, of course, is it’s just the beginning. Cities, towns, entire states (like Illinois), even the Federal government is bankrupt. They’re all being kept alive by issuing debt. More debt (bonds), onto already massive piles of debt. None of it can ever be paid back. Public/private debt is more than $54 trillion.

In case you missed this article. Many big American cities are heading for a fall. Nobody wants to live in these cities any longer, but not everybody can move away from the crime. Most have been run by democrats for decades, and the same cycle that brought down Detroit will bring them all down sooner or later. Eventually they run out of other people’s money. Socialism simply doesn’t work, never has and never will.

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A Message From Dan Bongino

I have been torn over this but I feel, given the current circumstances, the need to speak out. Although I will never share privileged information or violate the oath I took to serve as a Secret Service agent, I must describe to you the inner workings of the DC "Bubble" to demonstrate how you are being manipulated.

This administration is sadly using the tragic events in Florida in a coordinated effort to ensure continued division, rather than the desperately needed sense of unity. The 2014 election cycle headwinds are blowing strongly against the administration's policies on the economic, healthcare & education fronts, & they are eager to change the conversation. Although every administration plays politics, this one has taken politics, & the building of "Division-Capital", to the extreme in the absence of any political capital, which has been squandered on the failure of Obamacare & the continued economic malaise. The recent statement by HHS Secretary Sebelius, comparing the growing opposition to Obamacare to the fight against "lynching", is despicable, deserves bi-partisan condemnation & is further evidence of this disturbing strategy.

I had a front-row seat to this "Bubble" & extend these words to you because the sowing of division capital is very real & it is extremely damaging. Insiders consistently reach out & say to me that they feel as if they no longer work for the government but for the administration's political efforts.

This shell game being played by the administration is profoundly shameful because it makes no effort to diagnose the problem but attempts to misdirect your attention from it. Racism is a very real problem, that much is undeniable, but real efforts to bridge the divide between communities are ignored because they may not result in the administration's desired political outcomes. Every calculated sound bite & inflammatory statement is designed to ensure Americans identify with being part of a group, which they define for you, rather than being part of OUR America. The reason is simple. When you identify with a group first, they will inevitably define for you the ways in which that group is under attack, which forces you into a psychological silo of defensiveness. They have used this method of attack to consistently divide a nation desperate to be unified.

We can starve racism to a painful death by employing common-sense solutions that defy the administration's misleading narrative. We can make illegal employment discrimination economically debilitating to the fools who engage in it by enabling parent-choice in education & ensuring that the next generation of doctors, lawyers, scientists & engineers are densely populated with minority representation. We can propose healthcare reforms which empower individuals & not bureaucrats, intent on condemning our lower income minority communities to sub-standard government clinics, & we can move to repeal economic policies which have destroyed opportunities for our minority entrepreneurs such as the Davis-Bacon Act.

I am sorry to have to write this but I cannot stand idle while the sowing of conflict & division overtakes a very necessary national conversation about the immoral disparities in America that need not be. We are one America, not a series of individual Americas. Our strength is in what we share in common, not what divides us. The only path forward is unity & the courage to stand against & expose the politics of division.

No Child Left Behind?

House Republicans want to do away with a signature Education Department program. On a party line vote, they passed a bill to dismantle the troubled No Child Left Behind law. The legislation would eliminate federally required student testing. The Obama administration immediately issued a veto threat. An alternative Senate plan would give local school districts more flexibility, but keep the federal government as the arbiter of what's a good school improvement plan. No Child Left Behind was enacted in 2001 by a bipartisan coalition.

HUD's New 'Fair Housing' Rule Establishes Diversity Data for Every Neighborhood in U.S.

To ensure that "every American is able to choose to live in a community they feel proud of," HUD has published a new fair-housing regulation intended to give people access to better neighborhoods than the ones they currently live in.

The goal is to help communities understand "fair housing barriers" and "establish clear goals" for "improving integrated living patterns and overcoming historic patterns of segregation."

“This proposed rule represents a 21st century approach to fair housing, a step forward to ensuring that every American is able to choose to live in a community they feel proud of – where they have a fair shot at reaching their full potential in life,” said HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan.
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Ban Goldman Sachs From Playing In Commodity Markets

Federal Reserve Review
On Friday Reuters reported that the Federal Reserve is going to review the 2003 decision that allowed regulated banks to trade in physical commodity markets: “The one-sentence statement suggests the Fed is taking a much deeper, wide-ranging look at how banks operate in commodity markets than previously believed, amid intensifying scrutiny of everything from electricity trading to metals warehouses.” Reuters goes on to say, “While the Fed has been debating for years whether to allow banks including Morgan Stanley (MS.N) and JPMorgan (JPM.N) to continue owning assets like oil storage tanks or power plants, Friday's surprise statement suggests it is also reconsidering whether all bank holding firms should be able to trade raw materials such as gasoline tankers and coffee beans.” 
Big Banks & Unintended Consequences of Fed Policy
The Fed is finally getting that the Big Banks are canceling out any intended good that may accrue to wealth creation by pushing up stock prices, if at the same time these same financial institutions also push up commodities like oil, gasoline, copper, heating oil, wheat, corn, and soybeans with the same cheap QE stimulus money.
The fed is trying to weed out some of the unintended consequences of their QE stimulus program. Because on one hand they are trying to stimulate the “Wealth Effect” with higher stock prices, but these bankers have so much cheap capital available to them, and with the fed mandate to boost asset prices, they cannot help but juice up commodities at the same time. 

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Aged Dog Who Gained Fame For Tender Photo With Owner Dies

One of the nation's most beloved pets has passed away, reports CBS Minnesota.

Schoep gained national attention after a photo of him and his owner in Lake Superior went viral. He was 20 years old.

A message posted on the Schoep and John Facebook page said simply, "I breathe but I can't catch my breath ... Schoep passed yesterday, more information in the days ahead."

Schoep was a lovable shepherd mix, who lost his sight to cataracts and struggled with arthritis and hip problems.
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3 Psychological Factors That Can Trigger Male Suicide

Recently I received a review copy of the book, Lonely at the Top: The High Cost of Men’s Success by Thomas Joiner, Ph.D. I was happy to offer a review.

Dr. Joiner is one of the world’s leading experts on suicide and has published two previous books, Myths about Suicide (Harvard University Press 2010) and Why People Die by Suicide (Harvard University Press 2005).

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MAN UPLOADS WIFE’S EXPLOSIVE TEMPER TANTRUM ON YOUTUBE (ONE OF THEM HAS REPORTEDLY MOVED OUT AND FILED A RESTRAINING ORDER)

(Warning! Video has very strong language)

A man’s wife threw an absolute temper tantrum when her husband wouldn’t take her to the lake on a Saturday. She didn’t realize he was video recording the entire fit and planned to upload it on YouTube.

The man in the video, Jim, apparently had already planned to do household chores and car maintenance on this particular Saturday. He says this is the way his wife regularly acts when “she does not get her way.”
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It May Not Quite Be 'Super,' But July's Full Moon Is A Stunner

July's full moon may not technically be "super," but it is still a sight to see.

By most definitions, the full moon on Monday is not considered a "supermoon" — the full moon that occurs each year when the moon is closest to Earth — although the moon is still quite close to the planet. This year's supermoon fell in June, but the two full moons in the months which flank a supermoon are almost supermoons as well.

A full moon shined on May 25, at 12:25 a.m. ET at a distance of 223,327 miles (359,410 kilometers), only 1,503 miles (2,419 kilometers) farther away than the supermoon of June 23.

Monday's full moon will occur at 2:16 p.m. ET, so Americans will not get to see the exact moment it's full. Technically, folks in the eastern half of the country didn't see last month's supermoon at its peak because it set just before it was exactly full.

At moonrise around 8:17 p.m. ET on Monday (about six hours past full), the moon will be only 223,258 miles (359,299 kilometers) away — or 1,434 miles (2,308 kilometers) farther than the supermoon at its closest distance. More

Doctor Diagnoses Female Patient With A Painful Case Of 'Ghetto Booty': Complaint

JACKSON, Tenn. – A woman in Tennessee filed a complaint with the Tennessee Department of Health after she said a doctor told her that her back pain was caused by her ‘ghetto booty.’

“I think I blacked out after he said ‘ghetto booty.’ I think my mind was just stuck on the phrase because I couldn’t believe he said that,” Terry Ragland, 55, said.

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Zimmerman Speech Obama Should Have Give

My fellow Americans:

I am your humble servant. You have entrusted me with the tremendous honor and responsibility to serve you as president. I am not president of black America, Hispanic America or white America. I am not president of liberal America or conservative America. I am president of the United States of America.

Regrettably, as a nation, we have become divided. I confess that I have contributed to this division. For this failure in leadership, I ask your forgiveness.

We were each created equal by a God of forgiveness. It is now time that we do as He commands; that we forgive one another as we are forgiven and that we come together, once and for all, as one America.
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Gasoline Supplies Highest For July Period Since 1992

Refiners actually try to keep low inventories to have illusion of ‘tighter’ markets
Gasoline supplies had a substantial build in inventories, up 3.1 million barrels, and looking back at the EIA data, July is in the heart of the summer driving season, and refineries run at their highest utilization rates. Well, there has never been a period in July where inventories are as high in gasoline supplies as currently exists in recent energy statistics. We have to go all the back to 1992 to find supplies for the July period higher than they are right now, and it isn`t by much. 

Oil Market Propaganda
It is funny all the propaganda that consumers get fed as to why they pay so much at the pump, it is all total hogwash. The oil market is one of the most rigged markets that actually have fundamental uses for the product. Stocks are rigged in many ways, earning`s reports are gamed via stock buybacks to beat on the EPS, but these companies are really missing bad if you look at the revenue misses. Mind you, revenue targets are set so low that these companies cannot possibly miss, yet companies have been missing consistently for the past couple of years. 

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Actor Dennis Farina Dies at 69

Dennis Farina, the actor and former Chicago police officer who played coiled, hot-tempered characters in movies and on television, died Monday in Scottsdale, Ariz., from a blood clot in his lung, his publicist said. He was 69.

Farina, who starred as characters on both sides of the law, was perhaps most memorable as short-fused Miami gangster Ray “Bones” Barboni in BarrySonnenfeld’s sharp comedy crime thriller Get Shorty (1995).

He won an American Comedy Award for the role and shared a SAG nomination for outstanding performance by a cast with John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Danny DeVito, et al.
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Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Plant At Risk For ‘Early Retirement,’ Report Says

Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant was listed as one of almost 40 nuclear reactors across the U.S. that is at risk of closing early, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy and the Environment at Vermont Law School.

The lone commercial nuclear power plant in Maryland might be on its way to early retirement for primarily economic reasons, the report’s author said. No dates were given for any reactors on the list and the author insists he’s not making predictions.

A spokeswoman for Constellation Energy Nuclear Group, the owner of Calvert Cliffs, said in response to the report that there are no plans to retire the plant early. The company brags on its website that the plant got a 20-year extension of its license in 2000 after replacing the steam generators.
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Man Found Not Guilty In Shooting Of Unarmed Teenager In Greece NY

Dateline: December 18th 2009. A jury found Roderick Scott not guilty in the shooting death of Christopher Cervini in April of 2008.

The jury deliberated for two days and asked for some court testimony to be read back before rendering the not guilty verdict.

The incident began when Scott confronted Cervini and two other teens stealing items from a neighbor’s car. Scott approached the teens with his gun drawn and ordered them to freeze and wait for the police to arrive.

Scott testified that he acted in self defense when Cervini allegedly charged at him saying that he was going to get Scott. Cervini, who was unarmed, was shot twice. He was 16 years and four months old when he died of his wounds.

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Maritime Museum's Admission Lowered To $5 During Town's Bicentennial

ST. MICHAELS — On Saturday, August 10, the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels is offering a discounted $5 admission in honor of the Battle of St. Michaels bicentennial being organized by the Town of St. Michaels.

“We wanted to give back to the community on the anniversary that brought about the legend of the Town that Fooled the British,” said CBMM Vice President of Constituent Services René Stevenson. “The museum has deep roots in the St. Michaels community – through its founders, volunteers, members, and visitors. We hope the discounted rates will bring more of our community out to experience the event and our campus.”

The $5 admission is good from 9am to 6pm on August 10, and available for all visitors ages six and up, with CBMM members and kids under six admitted for free. Admission gives access to CBMM’s 18-acre waterfront campus and 12 exhibit buildings, as well as the skipjack Rosie Parks restoration and CBMM’s newest exhibit, “Navigating Freedom: The War of 1812 on the Chesapeake” in the Steamboat building.
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Prescription Drugs Now Kill More People In The US Than Heroin And Cocaine Combined

Prescription opioid painkillers are responsible for more fatal overdoses in the U.S. than heroin and cocaine combined, according to the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
Opioid painkillers include prescription narcotics such as like Vicodin (hydrocodone), OxyContin (oxycodone), Opana (oxymorphone) and methodone.

"An epidemic of prescription drug abuse is devastating American families and draining state and federal time, money and manpower," Rep. Hal Rogers (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a press release.

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It's A Boy!

Born at 4:24 p.m. U.K. time, weighing 8 pounds 6
ounces.

Smithsonian Institute Honors Eastern Shore Historian Of African-American Family

FEDERALSBURG, Md. — If you are looking for history about Federalsburg and Caroline County, a new place to look is the Smithsonian Institute as the National Museum of African-American History and Culture recently accepted a book by local historian Irma Harper.

Harper, 89, of Federalsburg, began documenting local history 72 years ago by going through land records. The culmination of her life’s work came when the Smithsonian Institute accepted her book “Here Lies Sarah Phillips.” This book contains the history and genealogy of seven generations of the Phillips Family, a black and mulatto family in Caroline County, dating back from the early 1700s to today. Sarah Phillips was the mother of a son who fought in the Revolutionary War and had two grandsons who fought in the Civil War.

“I’m very proud the Smithsonian Institute wanted my book about the Phillips family,” Harper said. “I’m glad to have this happen because I enjoy learning about people and their heritage.”
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