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Happy 4th Of July: Here Are 10 Ways America Is Number 1 — That Are No Reason For Celebration

NB Commentary: American Exceptionalism is a hodgepodge of deluded definitions of what it means to be exceptional. In reality, there is no real value in this exceptionalism except that it is highly overrated and seriously undermines any reality that one might wish their brain to travel through.
The Media hype about how great America is, which probably should be stated the USA, is the burning flame of this delusion. It tends to give folks the idea of being better than the rest of the world and that in and of itself gives them the right to impose their “betterness” on the less fortunate creatures who don’t have a clue about how to run their lives without the help/ better known as intervention from the USA.
This bandage over the eyes of the citizens of the USA has them sullied in the eyes of those who meet the brunt of the swift hard kick that comes from American Boots on the ground. How great is great and what does it mean? I could add a few more to this list of ways that America ain’t so great, but suffice it to say, that without mentioning the pervasive inequality between the haves and the have-nots, the USA does a serious disservice to its credibility when trumping around telling others to run their governments and live their lives as Americans do.
Unfortunately, there are enough other folks out there, who risk their life and limb to come here, as they too, have swallowed the hype that America is better than any other “free” country in the world. They soon find out that that is not the case, quite the contrary. They see that they too will be stepping over the homeless, subjected to bigotry, inequality, low wages and disruption in family life as they attempt to assimilate and get their Lion share of the American pie.
This dichotomy can only create a nation filled of delusional, paranoid, socio-pathic, psychopaths swimming a a pool of cognitive dissonance. So Yeah, What does the 4th of July mean? Ask Fredrick Douglas.

http://www.democracynow.org/embed/story/2016/7/4/what_to_the_slave_is_4th


Happy 4th Of July: Here Are 10 Ways America Is Number 1 — That Are No Reason For Celebration
JULY 4, 2016
As Americans don their red white and blue sequence bar-b-que aprons and raise their flags, ironically made in China, in an effort to “celebrate their freedom,” we should be asking ourselves this 4th of July, what freedoms do Americans really have?
We are under constant surveillance, our every move under a microscope by government goons, “protecting us” from “terrorists.”
We are under the constant threat of violence from the State for possessing a plant, or having a tail light out, or simply walking down the street.
Americans are constantly paranoid of those blue and red lights popping up in the rearview mirror that most always end in extortion and could very well end with a visit to the hospital, being locked in a cage, or worse.
In the Land of the Free, police killed more people in just one month of this year than the United Kingdom has in the entire 20th century.
In the Land of the Free, police kill at more than 70 times the rate of other first world nations.
In the Land of the Free, we are told to “fear the terrorists” but US police kill 58 times more people than all terrorist activity against US civilians since 9-11!
State-sanctioned deprivation of rights, liberty, and life, is that what we call “Freedom” these days? The exact opposite of what the founders meant when they signed the Declaration of Independence.
Sadly, when people do begin to question this paradigm of violence against the citizens and the usurping of freedom, blame is quickly associated and directed toward whichever corporate puppet is in charge, then they just go back to sleep — resolute in the notion that they can vote those bastards out and it will all be fixed.
Boobus Americanus then slips back into la la land, cheering on the police state as if they are fans on a football stadium sideline. “My team is winning! USA! USA! USA!”
But your team is not winning, Boobus!
Just for a moment, can we stop chanting that “USA is number one”?
Can we remove the patriotic blinders for a moment and take a look at the categories in which we are actually number one?
Because it’s certainly not freedom.
According to the 2014 Legatum Prosperity Index released in November, in the measure of personal freedom, the United States has fallen from 9th place in 2010 to 21st worldwide—behind such countries as Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Uruguay and Costa Rica.
Other such rankings systems show the US as low as 46. Yet somehow, Americans still believe their leaders when they say that terrorists “hate our freedom,” as if the ‘terrorists’ took down the first 45 freest countries and are just now getting to us!
No, we are most assuredly not number one in freedom.
But, we are however number 1 in,
Prison Population:
The job of law enforcement in America today is enforcing every arbitrary edict in the land to maximize profits for just a few private prison companies who are paid with stolen money (taxes). Because order followers don’t question any of their orders, it has lead to 65 million Americans (about 22% of the population) having criminal records. 
This vicious cycle has become a phenomenon known only as recidivism.

Obesity:
Of all the major industrialized nations, America is the most obese. Mexico is #2.

Child abuse death rate:
The United States has the highest child abuse death rate in the world. Many of these deaths happen in State-approved foster homes after children are ripped from their parents’ arms because their parent took part in some arbitrary victimless crime, like smoking marijuana.

Hours spent in front of the television:
Nobody watches more television per week (28 hours) than Americans do. Americans are far better at keeping up with the Kardashians than they are about putting an end to government corruption.

Teen Pregnancy Rate:
The US leads the world, by a wide margin in teen pregnancies. This is in spite of public schools offering vaginal implants for birth control to 11-year-old girls without their parents’ permission.

Prescription Drug Use:
Americans are not even close to being in the top 10 healthiest countries in the world, despite consuming far more prescription drugs than the rest of the world.

Citizens Killed by Police:
In Canada, the total number of citizens killed by law enforcement officers in the year 2015, was 23; 52 times less than the U.S.
If we look at the United Kingdom, police killed 3 people in 2015, one person in 2014, and 0 in 2013. English police reportedly fired guns a total of three times in all of 2013, with zero reported fatalities.
From 2010 through 2015, there were eight fatal police shootings in England, which has a population of about 52 million. By contrast, Albuquerque, N.M., with a population 1 percent the size of England’s, is approaching 40 fatal police shootings in that same time period.
China, whose population is 4 and 1/2 times the size of the United States, recorded 4 killings by law enforcement officers in 2015. Police in America killed 302 times more people than China!

Debt:
The United States has accumulated the biggest mountain of government debt in the history of the world.
As for the citizens, there is more credit card debt in America than anywhere else in the world. There is more mortgage debt in America than anywhere else in the world. And, there is more student loan debt in America than anywhere else in the world.

Crime:
According to nationmaster.com, the United States has the most total reported crimes in the world, by a long shot.

Arbitrary, immoral and downright evil laws:
How ironic is it that the Land of the Free has the most laws on the entire planet?
Attorney Harvey Silverglate argues that the average American commits three felonies a daywithout even knowing it. Although it has been estimated that there are over 3000 types of federal criminal offenses, no one knows the exact number for sure.
At any given time, a police officer could walk up to you and find you in violation of some arbitrary law. It is a mathematical certainty.
So, next time your chest begins to fill with patriotic puff, stop for a second and realize that Americans are number one, but in such a bad way.
In the meantime, however, we still have the freedom in this country to inform ourselves and others. Only through a lesser ignorance will these horrid tyrannical traits subside.

Humanity is involved in a struggle, as we have always been, but there are much more of us now. Inciting peaceful change has never been more important. However, so many well-meaning individuals go about inciting this change with blunt force. This has to change.
If you truly want to make the world a more peaceful place, you have to become a more peaceful person. Petty infighting, personal attacks, vitriol, and hate are the tools of tyrants and also of those who only claim to be awake.
Peace is true professionalism.
Next time you’re cringing in a public setting, listening to Joe Six Pack spout off NFL stats like an ESPN commentator, wait for an opportune time and plant a seed.
Hey Joe, speaking of the Kansas City Chiefs, what do you think of wide receiver, Dwayne Bowe and his arrest for having weed? Do you think its cool that he was deprived of his freedom for having a plant? How can we legitimately call this country the land of the free when that can happen to someone?
Be the change that you want to see in this world.
Matt Agorist is the co-founder of TheFreeThoughtProject.com, where this article first appeared. He is an honorably discharged veteran of the USMC and former intelligence operator directly tasked by the NSA. This prior experience gives him unique insight into the world of government corruption and the American police state. Agorist has been an independent journalist for over a decade and has been featured on mainstream networks around the world. .

Category:

4th of July, child abuse, death, debt, drugs, Frederick Douglas, governments, holidays, obesity, police brutality, prison, racism, USA

NB COMMENTARY "Missouri carries out eighth execution this year after rejecting concerns over ‘inhumane’ sedative"

Missouri carries out eighth execution this year after rejecting concerns over ‘inhumane’ sedative

EXCERPT: “Johnny Sutton, the lead prosecutor at Trottie’s trial, said …………………….‘He hunted them down,’ Sutton said. ‘The self-defense claim is absolutely ridiculous. He kicked in their door. … They already were worried about him. He was making threats and trying to run her off the road.‘This one was so cold and calculated.’ 


NB COMMENTARY

I fail to understand how one type of murder is better than another type of murder. For example, if I planned to kill someone after a 20 year stay locked up in my basement, would that not be considered per-meditated murder?

How any of this “killing” makes any sense, is beyond me. 
Killing another person who killed another person does not bring that person back, nor can the latter go and get them and bring them back. It’s a total waste of time and resources.

I also wonder about the so called “witnesses”. Aren’t they complicit in this murder? No they didn’t pull the trigger, but weren’t they at the scene of the crime? How many people have been arrested and jailed for just being there?

I wonder about the mental stability of this entire system that condones, implements and financially supports this type of murder, that is blatant and cold, and out in the open with no question of who done it. Yet others are arrested, tried and convicted, sometimes even wrongfully and given the death penalty.

What a backwards psychology!

How does the person who administers the punishment sleep at night without nightmares and visits in the dream world from the person they just killed. Yet, this society wishes that the so-called convict sleep restlessly forever, with no peace in their lives ever.

And, quiet as it’s kept, the so-called criminal given the death penalty has friends, family and loved ones too. What makes their pain of the loss of their loved one less than the loss of the family who feels so right in killing the criminal who killed their mother, brother, sister, father or friend??

These and other questions plague my mind as I watch the way the human beings treat each other. And in this case, they are actually conversing, debating and fighting over which way to kill someone is more humane.  I am not sure what the DSM-IV would diagnose this condition of the mind as, but it is certainly a pervasive mental illness.
 

A Missouri inmate became the eight was put to death in the early hours of this morning for the killing of two people during a restaurant robbery in 1998.
Earl Ringo Jr., 40, was executed at 12:22am by lethal injection after a plea for a stay of execution – based on irregularities in the use of lethal injection drugs in the state – was refused.
Ringo’s last words came from the Quran and expressed belief and wishes for after death. He wiggled his feet as the process began, breathed deeply a few times, then closed his eyes, all in a matter of seconds.

Earl Ringo Jr., 40, was executed today for the killing of two people during a restaurant robbery in 1998
He had declined to request a last meal, eating instead the Salisbury steak and macaroni and cheese offered to other inmates.
In the early hours of July 4, 1998, Ringo and an accomplice killed delivery driver Dennis Poyser and manager trainee JoAnna Baysinger at a Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Columbia.
Both victims were shot dead at point-blank range.
The run-up to Ringo’s execution was shrouded by controversy, as Missouri continues to use the sedative, midazolam, despite claims that the pre-execution drug is inhumane.
Earlier this year in Ohio, Oklahoma and Arizona.
In April, gruesome scenes accompanied the execution of Clayton Lockett, a murderer and rapist who shot his 19-year-old victim and ordered a friend to bury her alive.
It was a full 43 minutes after the drug was administered in the Oklahoma execution chamber that the convicted killer died. During this time, Lockett thrashed violently, lurching forward against his restraints, writhing and attempting to speak.
Willie Trottie, who turned 45 Monday, shot and killed 24-year-old Barbara Canada, and her brother, Titus
Willie Trottie,
who turned 45 Monday,
shot and killed 24-year-old
Barbara Canada,
and her brother, Titus

Witnesses described his body twisting, and his head reaching up from the gurney, before the curtains were drawn around the chamber obscuring Lockett’s final minutes from public view.
In January, convicted murderer and rapist Dennis McGuire appeared to gurgle, gasp for air and convulse for around 10 minutes after being sentenced to death using an experimental two-drug concoction including midazolam. 
Chilling scenes also occurred in the Arizona execution chamber in July, when Joseph Rudolph Wood took nearly two hours to die from the lethal injection. 
Witnesses told how the murderer appeared to be struggling to breathe after the sedation and then gasped desperately for breath at least 600 times before falling still. 
Ringo’s attorneys had argued that the drug could dull his senses and leave him unable to express any pain or suffering during the process.
They had asked a federal appeals court to postpone the execution until a hearing over Missouri’s use of midazolam. 
Attorney Richard Sindel claimed that Missouri’s use of midazolam essentially violates its own protocol, which provides for pentobarbital as the lone execution drug. But the courts and Gov. Jay Nixon had refused to halt Ringo’s execution over the concerns.
The Missouri Department of Corrections says it administers midazolam before executions and not as part of its execution protocol.
‘It should not be lost in the national debate over the death penalty that Earl Ringo Jr. was responsible for the murders of two innocent Missourians. For 16 years he avoided payment for this crime. Tonight he has paid the penalty,’ Missouri’s Attorney General, Chris Koster, said in a statement.
A clemency petition to Nixon had also cited concerns about the fact that Ringo was convicted and sentenced to death by an all-white jury.
Ringo was sentenced to death by lethal injection (file picture).  His execution is the eighth in Missouri this year

Ringo was sentenced to death by lethal injection (file picture).  His execution is the eighth in Missouri this year
Murderer Joseph Rudolph Wood took nearly two hours to die
Convicted murderer and rapist Dennis McGuire
Chilling scenes accompanied the executions of Joseph Rudolph Wood, left, Dennis McGuire, centre and Clayton Lockett, right, who were all administered the pre-execution sedative midazolam
On July 3, 1998, Ringo told his accomplice Quentin Jones about his plan to rob the Ruby Tuesday restaurant in Columbia, where he once worked. Jones agreed to join him.
Before sunrise on July 4, Ringo and Jones hid behind a grease pit in the back of the restaurant. Poyser and Baysinger arrived and entered the restaurant. Ringo followed them and shot Poyser, 45, killing him instantly.
He then ordered Baysinger, 22, to open a safe. She pulled out $1,400 and gave it to him.
Ringo gave the gun to Jones, who stood with the weapon pointed at Baysinger’s head for a minute and a half before pulling the trigger.
Interviews with restaurant workers and former workers led police to Ringo. Detectives found a blue ski mask, gun receipt, bulletproof vest and other evidence at the home of his mother.

THE CASE OF WILLIAM HAPP

Happ - who raped and killed Angie Crowley, 21, in 1986 - died by lethal injection in 2013
Happ – who raped and killed Angie Crowley, 21, in 1986 – died by lethal injection in 2013
William Happ, 51, was the first death row inmate to be injected with midazolam hydrochloride.
The execution began at 6.02pm at Florida State Prison. Happ’s eyes opened and he blinked several times.
He closed and opened them again two minutes later. He then yawned and his jaw dropped open.
At 6.08pm, the official overseeing the execution tugged at Happ’s eyelids and grasped his shoulder to check for a response. There was none.
A minute later, Happ’s head began moving back and forth and shortly thereafter his breathing stopped. 
He was pronounced dead at 6.16pm.
Ringo admitted to the robbery but claimed the shootings were in self-defense. He was convicted in 1999 and sentenced to death.
Jones, of Louisville, Kentucky, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison, but he was spared the death penalty when he agreed to testify against Ringo.
Jama Brown, who was married for to Poyser for 24 years, asked that people remember the victims.
‘I can only tell you there is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him or wonder what my life would be like today, not only for myself, but for my kids,’ she said. 
In a statement she added: ‘Please do not make this about how executions shouldn’t take place. Put your effort on how we can stop people from committing these terrible actions.
‘Please remember these two wonderful people who just wanted to go to work on the Fourth of July to support their families.’
Ringo’s execution is the eighth in the state this year and the tenth since November.
St. Louis Public Radio reported last week that Missouri administered midazolam to all nine inmates put to death since November. Corrections department spokesman David Owen said midazolam ‘is used to relieve the offender’s level of anxiety’ and is not part of the actual execution process.
The execution was one of two scheduled for today in the U.S. This afternoon Texas plans to execute Willie Trottie for killing his common-law wife and her brother in 1993.
Trottie’s execution will be Texas’ eighth this year. Florida has performed seven executions in 2014, and all other states have a combined six.
Both Missouri and Texas use pentobarbital as their execution drug but decline to disclose where the drug is obtained.
‘They don’t tell you what it is and where it comes from,’ Trottie told The Associated Press. ‘What I’ve learned in 20 years here on death row is all you can do is say, ‘OK.’
‘I’m ready whichever way it goes. If God says, ‘Yes,’ I’m ready.’
Trottie, who turned 45 Monday, shot and killed 24-year-old Barbara Canada, and her 28-year-old brother, Titus, at the Canada family home in Houston. Canada’s mother and sister were also wounded.
Lawyers for Trottie argued in their appeal that the one-time deliveryman and security guard suffered poor representation in his initial trial. 
They said his counsel failed to present witnesses who would have told jurors Trottie and Barbara Canada were romantically engaged at the time of the killings. Late Monday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the appeal.
Trottie said he and Barbara Canada were on ‘good terms’ despite an on-again, off-again relationship. Trottie said he was defending himself against Titus Canada, who shot first. He said the shooting of his wife was accidental.
‘It wasn’t like I just walked in there and gunned her down,’ he said.
Johnny Sutton, the lead prosecutor at Trottie’s trial, said evidence showed that’s exactly what happened.
‘He hunted them down,’ Sutton said. ‘The self-defense claim is absolutely ridiculous. He kicked in their door. … They already were worried about him. He was making threats and trying to run her off the road.
‘This one was so cold and calculated.’ 

Category:

confinement, criminal, death penalty, death row, execution, extreme, governor, jail, jury, justice, law, order, prison, prison industrial complex, prosecutor, psychosis, trial, warden