Christian Schneider - Stupid M@th@rf$ck$r

By Jeff Simpson

For a time everyone respected and was sad to hear the news that Prince had passed.

Scott WalkerVerified account ‏@ScottWalker  Apr 21Wow. Growing up in the 80s, the music of Prince was a big deal. What a shock!

Then in typical right wing media fashion, Scott Walker was also praised as having the tweet of the day:

Politicians went crazy with tweets after Prince's untimely death Thursday, but Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker did it best.

Scott WalkerVerified account ‏@ScottWalker  Apr 21Dearly beloved. We are gathered here today. To get through this thing called life...

Seriously, USA Today called out Scott Walker as being brilliant for plagiarizing Prince's lyrics on the day Prince died.   Not to mention that a quick search of twitter and you see too many tweets to count with the same thing.

Randi Rhodes ‏@randiradio  Apr 21Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to get through this thing called life. And if the elevator ever brings you down

Apparently Scott Walker says the same things everyone else is saying but he says it best!    I wonder if Paul Singer has ordered his fathead of Scott Walker for his office wall yet or not?

Speaking of fatheads. Christian Schneider has had enough.

See while everyone jumped on the bandwagon of a private phenom who kept to himself, a funny thing happened along the way.  We found out that Prince was such a private person, that he had actually been giving to and supporting many causes without feeling the need to broadcast it.

Prince supported Black Lives Matter.  He also forced InStyle Magazine to hire a black woman to interview him in 2000. sent money to the family of Trayvon Martin, paid for solar panels for people tp put on their houses in the poorer areas of Oakland(double whammy, minorities and alternative energy), helped start the #Yeswecode, was a forty year Union member and strong supporter of the working class, made a point to elevate and mentor women in music.

The stories are endless and still trickling out, including one more I want to share.  A few years ago, the great drummer from Madison, Clyde Stubblefield, was diagnosed with bladder cancer and like most musicians was without insurance.  While his friends held some fundraisers for him(remember we have a coffee can healthcare system in America), it was Prince who heard about it and stepped up and paid the $80,000 bill that Mr. Stubblefield still owed.   Most of these stories being told now were done with the condition of anonymity.    That is who Prince Rogers Nelsen was.  

All of these stories coming out has made our friends on the far right very uncomfortable.  How can someone with Prince's resources dedicate his life to helping the poor, the working class, women and minorites instead of chasing every single dollar he could?   How could he do acts of kindness and not brag about it?   How could there be more to the person than the tiny talented recluse we see pop up on rare occassions?

That kind of human spirit and giving character is what leads to stories like this from Christian Schneider.    Schneider is employed by the Bradley Foundation and on loan to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, as the person they call when they need to get ahead of a stroy or change a narrative.   Mr. Schneider desperately tries here and fails as miserably as New Coke.

Good grief. First of all, there's a 95% chance none of you mourning Prince's death had listened to anything he recorded in the past quarter of a century. When he played at halftime of the Super Bowl in 2007, you said to yourself, "Hey, he used to be great!"
 And no, Prince did not make you the person you are today. You know no more about sex or life or the color purple than if he had never existed. If you learned about "compassion" from a guy who reportedly didn't allow employees to look at him in the eyes, perhaps some counseling is in order. (The only lasting effect Prince had on preteen boys in 1984 was forcing them to daydream about the feminine wonders to be found in Lake Minnetonka.)
 But the compulsion to grieve so publicly is simply too much for people today to resist. It's almost as if there is some government bureau taking note of who expressed sadness over Prince's passing and who didn't. It's not like saying "so sad Prince died!" on Twitter goes into your compassion bank, to be cashed in at a later date. You won't be on trial, and the judge says, "Well, he did steal that car and ram it into that hospital for puppies, but then again, he also seemed pretty shaken up about Bowie's death."

I could point out that social media is part of community and when some people grieve, they need community to help them.  However I am certain that it would go right over Mr. Schneiders head(unless it had a check attached).

 “Supporting people in grief means being with them in their pain and sorrow and taking our cues from them and what they need. It’s not helpful, logical or useful to pass judgment, and in fact, I think it’s precisely that judgment that often causes grievers the most pain.”

The reality is Schneider does not care of you grieve, how you grieve or that the great and talented Prince is no longer with us. Schneider's task was to try and diminish his legacy and get you to not look under the surface to who Prince was.  

The more we admire and hold up people who use their celebrity and gifts to help mankind, the more their silly version of "I built this and no one helped me" or the "drag yourself up by your bootstraps" and other just as ridiculous memes of the far right wing are becoming.  

In the age of information, the goal of certain people is to make sure you are not privy to certain information.  It is unfortunate that the largest newspaper/media outlet in our state allows that to happen and gives him a forum of faux credibility.

If you want to read a truly great and comprehensive eulogy of Prince I recommend this one.

Here is Prince's iconic performance at the half time of the 2007 Super Bowl! 

Will Lena Taylor Dare To Show Her Face

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that Sybrina Fulton, the mother of the late Trayvon Martin, is coming to Milwaukee next week.

My first thought at seeing the news was to wonder if sellout State Senator Lena Taylor would dare to show her face.

Taylor had voted not only for the concealed carry law, but also the Castle Doctrine law, which is similar to the "Stand Your Ground" law that allowed George Zimmerman to kill Martin in cold blood and get away with it.

But then again, Taylor has already shown that she has no shame.

The Classy Wiggy

James Wigderson, the paid blargher/political hack whose work appears in such incredulous propaganda sites such as MacIver Institute (for the Criminally Insane) and White Wisconsin, strikes again with a post that pretty much epitomizes the right's attitude to the legalization of murder.

Wigderson would rather get his undies in a bundle about a kid lighting a blunt of what's left of an American flag than actually give a damn that a black kid was murdered in cold blood for new reasons other than being black and wearing a hoodie.  Nor does Wiggy care that the murderer has gotten away with it and that the vigilante will get his gun back so he can kill again.

I'd say the young man lighting his blunt has showed more class than Wiggy.

The Hypocrisy Of Lena Taylor - The Trayvon Martin Edition

Bo Morrison

When the news came out that George Zimmerman got away with murder partially due to Florida's "Stand your ground" law, I remembered that we in Wisconsin have a similar law called the Castle Doctrine.  And it was this Castle Doctrine Law that was allowed the murderer of Bo Morrison go free.

Bo Morrison was a twenty year old black man that was shot and killed in West Bend about the same time that Trayvon Martin was murdered.  As with the Trayvon Martin case, Bo Morrison's murderer was able to get away with shooting a young black man, even though there were some questionable and suspicious behaviors from the shooter.

The biggest difference is that Bo Morrison's killer didn't even have to go to court.

I also remembered that State Senator Lena Taylor voted for not only the concealed carry law, but also voted for the Castle Doctrine that allowed Bo Morrison's killer go free.

I wondered what Taylor's reaction to Zimmerman getting away with murder was, so I checked her Facebook page.  What I found was not surprising, but still very disappointing:

If the gentle reader can't make that out, she wrote:

Words cannot express my disappointment and concern about the Zimmerman case, and the constant trend of JUST LESS fairness, instead of Justice in our US court system - ESPECIALLY for people of color.

She couldn't even bring herself to mention Trayvon's name.

And then to complain about there being less justice in the courts - especially for minorities- was just too much for me.

She bloody well passed a bill that allowed Bo Morrison to be legally murdered and she is not complaining of less justice for African Americans?   She is as guilty as the man that pulled the trigger of the gun that killed Morrison.

If Taylor had any remorse or was feeling the least bit upset about Trayvon Martin's murderer getting away with it, she would have vowed to have the Castle Doctrine repealed.  Instead, she makes one lame quip without even mentioning Trayvon's name.

At the time of Morrison's killing, there were rallies and calls to repeal the Castle Doctrine, which like the law in Florida, is nothing more than legalized murder.  One of the most vocal opponents to the Castle Doctrine was then Representative Tamara Grigsby.

Interestingly, it came to light that Grigsby and Taylor do not have a mutual admiration relationship.  Wouldn't

it be wonderful to have a true progressive like Grigsby - or Mandela Barnes - take Taylor out in the next election?  Not only would the constituents in that district finally get some actual representation for a change, it would take one more seat away from the Republicans.

Getting Away With Murder

One fateful night a year and a half ago, George Zimmerman thought he'd be a tough guy by becoming a one-man vigilante party.  He donned his gun and went out for a stint of "neighborhood watch."

In his patrol, Zimmerman saw a young man that was wearing a hooded jacket and eating Skittles.  Zimmerman immediately suspected this young man of being up to no good, for no other reason than the child was black.

Zimmerman, against advice from the police, started following the young man.  Not only did he follow him, but he confronted him, provoked him and attacked him.  The young man fought back.  It was only then that Zimmerman "felt afraid for his life" and pulled out his handgun.

Trayvon Martin died that night at the hand of George Zimmerman.

It was not a justified murder.  It was the act of a cowardly racist bastard.

But Florida has a "Stand Your Ground" law, which we have learned apparently means that you can legally provoke someone to the point of getting them to act so that you can shoot them.

In other words, it let's one get away with murder.

As long as your white.

A black woman who fired a gun in real self defense against her abusive husband had just been sentenced to 20 years in prison, even though she didn't even hurt anyone.  When she claimed the "Stand Your Ground" defense, she was quickly denied this.  Her problem was that she didn't have the right skin color or the NRA-sponsored attorney's to defend her, like Zimmerman did.

And if there was any doubt that this was about race, look at some of the early reactions from the idiots that came out in support of Zimmerman.

My most sincerest hope is that the family of Trayvon Martin takes Zimmerman to court for wrongful death so that Zimmerman cannot profit off of his murderous ways.  My next most sincere home is that Zimmerman lives long enough to pay them.

A Mother's Day Message From Trayvon Martin's Mother

http://secondchancecampaign.org/