Open Discussion – May
Caterpillars, moths, butterflies, a certain roach, and all creatures great and small,
Here’s sending love to all of our 763 subscribed followers. Although three of those followers are not good-faith followers, I send them love anyway because love covers a multitude of sins.
Yahtzeebutterfly has written a piece for Black American History for the month of May. My goal is to get it published by tomorrow. Also, I am working on accepting two blog awards that we have been graced for nomination and hope to have the acceptances posted by this weekend.
Meanwhile, the world of politics seems to have taken over the media. Cruz and Kasich have withdrawn from the GOP race. Neither of the two former George Bush presidents plan on endorsing the presumptive nominee, Donald Trump. Bernie Sanders won the primary in Indiana and vows to continue his campaign. A federal judge said Wednesday he may order Hillary Clinton to testify under oath about whether, while she was Secretary of State, if she used a private email server to evade public records disclosures.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year found that Florida’s system of sentencing the convicted to death is unconstitutional. It ruled that Florida’s system gave too much power to judges rather than juries to impose capital punishment. Now, the lives of approximately 400 death row inmates hang in the balance as Florida’s Supreme Court decides if their sentences should be changed to life in prison.
Web Based Email? You Might Want To Change Your Password
Reuters reports that Russian hackers have stolen about 272.3 million email accounts including smaller fractions of Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft.
What’s On Your Mind?
Please feel free to use this thread to share whatever is on your mind, discuss anything, post new events, updates on other events, or to say “hello”. Here’s a question to start … When you hear the media report on polls, have you ever been polled for your opinion? Do you know of anyone who was?
Posted on 05/05/2016, in open discussion, Potpourri and tagged death penalty, email hack, open discussion, politics. Bookmark the permalink. 11 Comments.
We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident 
Nominations close on May 10th.
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Happy Cinco de Mayo!
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On this day two years ago NY Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver delivered this speech titled “Justice for Farmworkers Day.”
Here is an excerpt:
You can read and/or listen to his entire speech at this link:
http://assembly.state.ny.us/Press/20140505a/
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Greetings! I’ve been gone for some time, by choice, I had to pull away…a bit of self-preservation. Certainly not because of anyone here, but because of ‘events’ that were overwhelming. Victims. We know who they are, we know who escaped justice here on earth. To say it is disheartening would be an understatement. Each event, every single one, hit me in my core.
I’m writing today because of something I heard three nights ago. My mind immediately pictured two individuals – Trayvon Martin and Kendrick Johnson – and I want to ask a question of everyone first before continuing because this may have been discussed, in which case, I would have missed it having not been here.
I recall questioning when photographs of Trayvon, face down on the grass, were shown, why were his ankles crossed? Immediately I sought out photos of Kendrick and there I saw the same thing…while tightly wrapped in that mat, his ankles were crossed.
Has this been discussed already? Was this ever mentioned in autopsies or the court system from either the prosecution or defense? I dislike opening wounds even though I know this is “Open Discussion,” but I either missed something or, well, my memory is worse than I imagined!
If anyone could give me a heads-up about my question I’d appreciate it and in the event this hasn’t been discussed, I will explain my reasons. Thanks in advance xoxo
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Pilcherje!! It’s so good to see you. I understand how overwhelming it can be.
I remember the photo of Trayvon face up with ankles crossed. It was taken by Manalo, and was my impression that in order for the State to present that photo, it also had to accept Manalo’s photo of Zimmerman’s head boo-boos. What the State did was show that Zimmerman lied about turning Trayvon over, face-down.
Is there a reason why Trayvon’s and Kendrick’s ankles were crossed? Not that I know of.
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For the past few weeks I’ve been going back to Trayvon’s murder too. I’m beginning to better emotionally handle going over the evidence, trial testimony, etc.
I believe Trayvon & Kendrick’s death scene pictures are unreliable because both boys bodies were disturbed before official police tech photos were taken.
Whoever found Kendrick had to have moved things around to find him there & then he was moved more to check to see if he was alive.
But It seems to me the only way the boys would have their ankles crossed like that is because their bodies were flipped over when they were already dead?
Particularly With Trayvon, we have Zimmerman’s inconsistent stories. I think he said he was on top of Trayvon when Smith showed up in one story & something else in another.
Other ppl said he asked them to help him holding him down (after he was already dead..)
Others said they saw him smothering him & get up and walk back & forth..
The Cop, witnesses & Zimmerman all have different stories of what happened.
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Shannon! Nearly a year before finding this from you! I only just found the ICON in the right upper corner where responses are. Mercy. My apologies.
I agree, Trayvon and Kendrick’s photos are unreliable and the “witnesses” just as unreliable. Since rigor doesn’t set in until between 2-3-6 hours, I still cannot fathom the crossing of the ankles in both victims. What I was going to say of that was as I’d heard it from one of Joe Kenda’s shows – whether a victim is struck from behind or in front and stabbed or shot, a “dead fall” results in the automatic action of crossed ankles as the victim is “dead” before falling.
I didn’t then and still do not believe Trayvon said “you got me”…as if Zim was playing cowboys and Indians. I really could swear I’d seen a photo of Trayvon on his stomach with his ankles crossed. And I know I saw the photo of him on his back, ankles crossed.
When I saw Kendricks’ photo, I saw the same thing. There was absolutely no way he could extricate his self from that mat, but it made me think too that had he been alive when placed in there, crossing his ankles wouldn’t have made a difference for him in such an uncomfortable position to begin with . I really feel he was dead, instantly and quite possibly rolled up tightly within that mat.
Cases such as these are so disturbing. I’m still feeling emotional about them. Yet I know the families have the deepest pain.
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I’m gonna find the pic Jon took of Trayvon, supposedly before police came. I avoided pics as much as I could & between you & Xena I’m confused. I thought Jon’s pic was of him face down.
I’ll come back to this later.
But I’ve been thinking of Trayvon lately & debated whether to say high to Sybrina.
I get nervous about tweeting her because I can’t be normal & say happy New Year. I’m angry & don’t want to say anything that would offend her. I want her to get justice. Trayvon deserves to have the value of his life recognized LEGALLY! I’m positive his murderer will be punished I just wanted it to be publicly for what he did to Trayvon & his family.
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Just alittle music that may make you cry……
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Butterflydreamer.
WOW! I’m speechless — watched the video twice. Thanks so much for sharing it.
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