caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Five years ago this past Sunday Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd. Three other officers assisted, also pressing their weight upon Floyd’s prone unresisting dying form, and/or warning bystanders back—at one point with mace. There were many bystanders. Who pleaded with the officers to cease and desist. But the officers preferred not to. Some of these bystanders were filming Floyd’s murder, and the officers knew that. But they didn’t care. To them, what they were doing was Normal. Floyd was a miscreant, suspected of paying for a pack of cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill—he needed to go first to the jail, and then, hopefully, the penitentiary. This, was the officers' Duty. They ordered Floyd out of his own vehicle, at gunpoint, and then instructed him to get in a police car. Floyd said he was panicky, claustrophobic, having trouble breathing. They threw him in the car. Then Chauvin decided he didn’t want Floyd in the car, and drug him full-length off the passenger seat and onto the street. Floyd lying with his chest pressed to the asphalt, Chauvin then kneeled on his neck. For nine minutes.

Chauvin had been kneeling on necks for years. As had law jockeys all across the nation. Such was Normal. Chauvin and two of the other officers now murdering Floyd had kneeled on a neck earlier that very month. Nobody said shit. Chauvin while on the force had previously killed people. Nothing happened to him. In September of 2017 he had bashed a 14-year-old black youth on the head with his flashlight, spouting blood, then kneeled on the child’s neck for 17 minutes. There was video of that one, too. But, such, was simply Normal. So Chauvin was then free to go. To go kneel on more necks. One of Chauvin’s cop confederates in murdering Floyd had previously kicked, beaten, knelt on a man, busting out his teeth—the man was given $25,000 to try to find more teeth; the cop stayed on the force. Such, such: Normal.

Sixteen times Floyd said he couldn’t breathe. Chauvin was unmoved—miscreants always be lying-ass about such shit, especially when they are of melanin. One of Chauvin’s confederates blithely (wrongly) opined if Floyd could talk, he could breathe. Another chortled to the crowd, “this is why you don’t do drugs, kids.” When Floyd said “I’m about to die,” Chauvin said, “relax.”

Shortly after, Floyd fully relaxed. Forever. Not moving. Not breathing. A confederate suggested checking his pulse. There was no pulse. Chauvin, he kept his knee, on the lifeless neck, until the ambulance arrived.

That Floyd died, Chauvin and his confederates gave no shits. That certainly didn’t mean they’d done anything wrong! Miscreants in contact with police die all the time. And, when they do, it’s the fault of the miscreant. Especially when, as with Floyd, they are of melanin. Cops learn this from the very top. As when LAPD chief Daryl Gates pronounced that chokeholds weren’t a problem, it was instead the fact that black people have an “anatomical defect in their necks,” that causes them to react with more distress than “normal people.” They die because they are mutant. No doubt some anatomical mutantcy, in Floyd, had croaked him, too.

When, the day after Floyd died, Chauvin and his three confederates were fired, they were stunned. The fuck? How could they have done anything wrong? They were just doing what law jockeys had been doing in the US for 450 years! They knew they were being filmed, shit-yeah, and that just shows what they were doing was Normal—else they would have left off! For even after the coming of the cameras, killer cops continued to be told of their (now-recorded) killings—yes, that’s Normal. So why was everyone in the nation, and even the world, now suddenly screaming hang ‘em high? Something clearly had gone aberrant in the humans. Chauvin was the first white Minnesota police officer in the history of homo sapiens to be charged with the murder of a black man—not once, going all the way back to the monolith, had such a thing occurred!

What happened to Chauvin & Co., is they ran into steam-engine time. Charles Fort observed “it steam engines when it comes steam-engine time.” Meaning a thing doesn’t happen, until it does; when it’s time for it. You can’t predict it, you can’t control it. Like the storming of the Bastille. That imposing edifice stood for centuries as the symbol of the absolute unchecked power of French kings: people were imprisoned there solely because in some way they had offended the bigly. But when it was finally stormed, it had mostly fallen into disuse—there were only three people in there. But that was the time, when came Bastille-storming time. Similarly, the murder of George Floyd may have been no more egregious than many other such murders. But that was the one when among the Americans it became no mas time—something’s got to be done about these cops killing these melanins! A similar moment arrived when Daryl Gates’ boys went all “gorillas in the mist” on Rodney King. Every 30 years or so, the Americans awake to the fact cops routinely beat and kill black people for No Reason. And then they get worked up about it. For a while.

Been having trouble uploading X posts lately. This was a test.

More fascistic "war fighter" performance art by Pete Hegseth at the Korean War Memorial. "Hegseth stresses importance of Korean War as rumors swirl of U.S. troop cut on the peninsula." https://t.co/C458PevERo

Saturday Night Fever, 21st Century

Chaos unfolds in downtown L.A. as large mob vandalizes police car, train, businesses

Officers had to form a skirmish line to clear a large mob that vandalized a Metro train, a police car and several businesses in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday night.

Ten minutes till noon, Monday, and the sun is finally coming out. But everything is soggy and wet here at the farm. Will head back home this afternoon and finish this OT for Tuesday morning.
Did get a lot done since Friday morning when we got here.

Folk Festival Weekend

I've been going to the Florida Folk Festival for about 35 years. So I won't be around today. Over the years I've posted several columns about it. Last year the topic was Pete Seeger. The year before I featured the town of White Spring and the Suwannee River where the festival is held. A few years ago I introduced some of the Florida songwriters I admire. This year I want to feature film maker, David Hoffman, who has been recording folk musicians for decades. He also makes documentaries on other topics. So here's a taste of his films...

(53 sec)

Afternoon folks!

Happy holiday weekend! We've got some stuff to amuse you for a bit, here. Starting off with some Chicago blues, we've got a live Junior Wells album from the 60's followed by an album of Otis Spann tickling the ivories for you. After that it's on to the father of British blues, Alexis Korner. Then it's back to Texas for an album from a fine guitarist Anson Funderburgh and the Rockets, after which we bounce back to Britain again for a live album from Chicken Shack later in their career. After that we've got some folky/acoustic kinda blues from Tom Ball and Kenny Sultan which segues nicely into a classic album from Leon Redbone. We finish off in the diversity department with some prog rock from Gentle Giant.

Enjoy the tunes and have a great holiday weekend!