New Year, Same Blog…
It’s 2014. Time marches on. The threads march on…
I just turned 60. Two days before my birthday, a car pulled out of a stalled lane on the freeway right in front of my motorcycle. Crash, and whonoze went flying. If there had been traffic coming behind me in my lane, I probably would have been run over. If I had landed differently, I could have received bones, or a head and/or neck injury. As fate had it, I wound up with nothing worse than bruises and a healthy dose of road rash.
Before we hit a logical post-limit on this thread, the second anniversary of Trayvon Martin’s murder will probably have passed. It would be nice to think that something positive will have happened by then. But GZ is still Teflon, the SYG laws are still on the books, and Amerikuh is still gun crazy. Well, maybe even more states would have passed SYG laws by now if not for Trayvon’s tragedy. Maybe lives that would otherwise have been lost by now (or in the future) have been saved (or will be saved) by that…
Will karma ever catch up to GZ? Will Angela Corey ever let Marissa Alexander leave her house? Will Michael Dunn be convicted for murder in the shooting of Jordan Davis? (The trial is scheduled to start Feb. 7). Will Theodore Wafer be convicted in the shooting of Renisha McBride? (On Dec. 19th, a judge bound him over for trial.) Will GZ ditch the Latex and spring for some oils as he continues his career in fine art painting?
We shall see.
If you’re bold enough to make any predictions for 2014, feel free to post them below.
And if you want to comment on Chris Christie, or some other topic that seems even remotely connected to our conversations, go right ahead. No need to ask my permission (I do have a delete post function if things get out of hand.) Mi bloga es tu bloga!
whonoze 
I am so relieved you had minor injuries…..that’s for starters and it’s so good to hear from you period !! So many of the members of Team Trayvon disappeared from the scene when Fogen was found not guilty.
I believe his luck will run out at some point. You can only tempt fate so may times before you get smoked. I’ll bet he never got paid for his fine art either…..it looks like almost all of the bids were fakes………..besides, where the hell does an unemployed Taaffe get 100K from anyway??????????
I believe Dunn will be well done and in prison. Even a FL jury has to see he was shooting while intoxicated at kids because he hates Rap. There was no weapon and he can’t pull a Fogen and say he was scared or attacked.
I believe Wafer will be convicted as well…..he opened a door so he could have a clear shot…..reality is a bitch for him on that one.
Sooooooo Happy Birthday and stay safe…..(that’s an order!)
Thanks racer! Good to ‘see’ you too.
Speaking of Chris Christie. It couldn’t happen to a nicer guy!
Finally, a use of the ‘-gate’ suffix that actually fits the original. Christie is so Nixonian, his middle name should be Milhous. Maybe he’s been possessed by the spirit of Tricky Dicky? After all, Nixon too was a ‘moderate’ by today’s standards.
One might observe that unlike BridgeGate, Watergate wasn’t implicated in getting anybody killed. (When Florence Genova, 91, or Fort Lee, NJ lost consciousness on 9/9/2013, an ambulance was called but the EMTs got stuck in the traffic jam caused by the lane closures. When they finally arrived, they were unable to revive her and she died in the hospital later that day.) But then, Nixon had the whole Vietnam thing, so Christie’s got a ways to go to get that kind of blood on his hands. But ‘combative tough-guy’ that he is, he’d probably be the neo-cons dream if he did ever reach the White House, ready to sent in the troops to set straight any pissant towelhead or RodmanBFF that gave him any guff.
Hmm, Christie gets nasty when people dis him or fail to do as he says… Where have we seen that before?
As a NJ resident I see and hear his arrogance all the time. I couldn’t agree more.
Happy New Year- I’m glad you are ok- that’s quite a flying start!
You’re just too tough to ever be really hurt. 😉 seriously, how scary for you but in a way the fact you even walked away from a car hitting a motorcycle is a great bday present. Cars don’t even see motorcycles. Very lucky for you and us!
Thanks for letting us introduce a new thread. Have some notes I’ll post tomorrow. Over 2000 pages were released. It made no sense but neither did nixon’s order to break into Psychiatrist Office. He was ahead by 30%.over McGovern. This payback by christy also doesn’t seem to have an obvious purpose. Rachael Maddow has different theory I’ll post tomorrow.
As for tub, they have subpoenaed honeypot and she has a Fed. Attorney so she may have to share what she knows.
Put bacon It. A get well present. Hilarious and short ad is well worth it. Enjoy Whonoze!
Whonoze, happy belated birthday! Sorry to hear about the accident but happy to hear you weren’t seriously injured. How about your bike? Do you still have wheels?
There are so many cases pending. Along with those you mentioned, I’m also waiting to hear the results of Trevor Dooley’s appeal. (The opening brief was recently filed.)
“…the SYG laws are still on the books…”
and they and the Zimmerman case are still totally unrelated.
That said, a belated congratulations on both joining those of us on the downhill slide and on surviving the efforts of that automobile to prevent you from doing so.
Ah, that new thread smell, nothing quite like it.
Now, unitron, you know that that isn’t precisely true, because there was SYG language in the jury instructions.
The case continues to be the Charlie Foxtrot From Hell, but stay tuned…
But that language was not there at the request of the defense, and Zimmerman never claimed that the SYG provision, which removes the duty to retreat, had anything to do with his case. Instead, he claimed an inability to retreat, and regular old fashioned self-defense.
There was consideration at one time of having an immunity hearing to keep the case from ever going to trial.
O’Mara may have slipped up and referred to that as an SYG hearing because the present immunity clause of the Justifiable Use of Force law, and the various SYG clauses were introduced at the same time back in 2005 or 2006, and law enforcement and others have been shorthanding it all as SYG.
I think the then Chief of Police, when he was explaining why they couldn’t legally arrest Zimmerman that night, also made the mistake of referring to the immunity part of the law as SYG.
It’s the immunity clause, and not any of the SYG stuff, that prevents people both from being arrested and dragged through the criminal court process on the hope that enough evidence will turn up later, but also prevents them from being dragged into civil court.
If one could read the minds of lawyers who do civil work, like wrongful death cases, and who profess to wanting SYG overturned, I suspect that one would find that what they’re really out to get overturned is the immunity clause.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0776/0776.html
776.032 Immunity from criminal prosecution and civil action for justifiable use of force.—
(1) A person who uses force as permitted in s. 776.012, s. 776.013, or s. 776.031 is justified in using such force and is immune from criminal prosecution and civil action for the use of such force, unless the person against whom force was used is a law enforcement officer, as defined in s. 943.10(14), who was acting in the performance of his or her official duties and the officer identified himself or herself in accordance with any applicable law or the person using force knew or reasonably should have known that the person was a law enforcement officer. As used in this subsection, the term “criminal prosecution” includes arresting, detaining in custody, and charging or prosecuting the defendant.
(2) A law enforcement agency may use standard procedures for investigating the use of force as described in subsection (1), but the agency may not arrest the person for using force unless it determines that there is probable cause that the force that was used was unlawful.
(3) The court shall award reasonable attorney’s fees, court costs, compensation for loss of income, and all expenses incurred by the defendant in defense of any civil action brought by a plaintiff if the court finds that the defendant is immune from prosecution as provided in subsection (1).
History.—s. 4, ch. 2005-27.
unitron,
That could be so.
*Something* needs to be done, because the current setup is terrible: kill somebody with no other surviving, full witness, and then assassinate the character of the decedent so as to impugn their beyond-the-grave ‘testimony.’
To me, there is a yawning chasm between killing a bonafide intruder in one’s home, and creating a situation in one’s neighborhood that culminates in death for somebody else. I think that the least bad thing GZ is, is a lying, ‘loose cannon.’
Hat tip to Xena at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for this story:
Brother Mistakes 13-Year Old Sister For Intruder And Shoots
Thankfully, she was only wounded. It sounds to me like the authorities were talking horse sense in that particular case.
Glad you’re OK Whonoze. Happy New Year!
Thanks for the new thread, Perfesser!
Belated Happy Birthday. Glad to hear that you survived that accident with only minor injuries. Road rash sucks, but it’s kind of an ‘occupational hazard’ for bikers, isn’t it?
I realize that probably nobody but me cares about this, but in poking around the Wayback Machine archives, I found an earlier posting by wagist owner/operator Dan Linehan, and buying Internet domains seems to have been somewhat of a mania for him:
Wayback Archive
Are we in some kind of national meltdown, or is it ‘just Florida’ again?:
CNN 20140113
Is it rude to do things that annoy other patrons in a theater? Yes, and that would include spattering them with blood. Oh, and killing.
GZ’s education/career goals these days:
twitter therealGeorgeZ
“Psychology,” presumably so that he could hone his manipulation skills.
He still appears to have nothing to do besides twittering his thumbs.
The Kelly Thomas homicide is very troubling, to say the very least:
wikipedia 14 January 2014 at 13:04
Horrible.
Is it worth noting that, historically, Orange County, CA is ‘conservative?’
Just thought I’d pass on this quote from a commenter on one of Andrew Cohen’s pieces about the TM homicide:
The Atlantic 20130713
Presumably the writer was talking about Concealed Handgun License training.
One of the (many) problems for me is that I suspect GZ didn’t think his life would be the same, but rather better.
No, not necessarily during those few minutes up to and including the moment that GZ took careful aim and put a bullet into TM’s heart, but rather afterwards in jail, when he had all of those (recorded for posterity) telephone conversations.
Put it on the list of reasons why I can’t feel sorry for GZ if he can’t find anything more productive to do these days than paint-by-number with latex house paint, and tweet sanctimonious religious quotes.
Or perhaps what he was thinking was that better or worse, at least his life wouldn’t be ended that night.
@unitron,
“Or perhaps what he was thinking was that better or worse, at least his life wouldn’t be ended that night.”
Perhaps, but GZ’s own description of taking careful aim (so as not to hit his own, other hand), and his vital signs shortly after the homicide don’t lend themselves to the story of somebody who was in fear for his life:
CNN PDF Copy of the EMS Report
That, and GZ’s ‘matter-of-fact’ tone as reported by Witness #13 Jonathan Manalo when the former asked the latter to call wife SZ: “Just tell her I shot someone.”
Schiebe is rhapsodizing about GZ on twitter:
twitter @samantha_khope 1:45 PM – 14 Jan 14
She doesn’t appear to have any sense of irony about how at odds her effusions in January 2014 are with her 911 call and initial statements about him back in November 2013.
Hi everyone. Just popped by for news after a forced absence.
Congratulatory pieces first, a belated very best wishes for this new year to all, while to the bloga owner, relief for your lucky escape from whonoze what, as well as a very happy 60 years of “juventud acumulada” (“accumulated youth” for any monolinguals) which at least you can rely on to be always on the upward trend!
I can only come to read these past months. Typing I feel like the little mermaid but with fingers instead of feet. I have an autoimmune thing that attacked my elbows a couple of times, annoying but no big deal, which in December went big time for my hands, and more especially my fingers, and even more especially for my finger tips! Painful, with no treatment except trial and error and I must only trial the errors ‘cos it’s proving real stubborn. Even when it seems to be curing the slightest knock on a finger flares it all up again. It will go, I’m assured, it’s when that’s the conundrum, meanwhile my fingers have to go on tiptoe !
Happy New Year, gbrbsb. Sorry to hear about your health problems.
(“The Little Mermaid” was one of Hans Christian Andersen’s stories, along with the “Little Match Girl,” that always wrenched my heart when I was a little girl.)
gbrbsb, how ghastly for you.
As someone who “used to take things apart to see how they would have worked”, the idea of having such limited hand use is just mind boggling. I can’t began to imagine how you can cope with a condition like that.
I hope it reverses itself at its earliest possible opportunity, and in the meantime it’s good to see that you’re still in existence with at least your sense of humor in good health.
@unitron,
Well, and that’s just the ‘non-essentials.’ It behooves all of us to appreciate any good health we might have.
Why, thank you unitron. Yes “ghastly”… and that’s just in appearance !
I’m a hands on too, albeit not usually one of those who after reassembling some gadget they’ve taken apart discovers they have “enough parts left over to make a lighter” (well, “lighter” was back in smokier times so it’s likely some other utilitarian object now much more pc) making it horribly hampering so more than “cope” I call it resigned resignation.
@gbrbsb.so sorry to read about your terrible pain. Try pot. Lots of info on how helpful it is for inflammation. If you can’t smoke it, bake some in brownies. Florida is voting on making it legal and so tons of helpful info comes across.
Here’s an ‘interesting’ tidbit from an opinion piece about the Florida theater shooting:
Ruben Rosario at Twin Cities dot com
(boldface in below quote my emphasis)
I’d like to see some confirmation on that, but if true, wow.
So nobody can use their phone in the theate–except Reeves’ wife? Not to mention Reeves gets to pack heat in the theater (also against the rules)?
That case is so messed up. Just for starters, they’d better take a close at Reeves to see if he has dementia.
If he doesn’t, then maybe, like GZ, he has some variation on Irritable Bowel Syndrome. That is to say, he might be an Irritable Bowel. (With delusions of authority.)
Some interesting commentary at The Truth About Guns forum with regard to the Florida theater shooting (although it seems to me to be a lot less ‘temperate’ than its commentary in the early days of the TM/GZ case):
TTAG
Heh.
All joking aside, there seems to be a lot of people who should stick to watching movies at home.
Is using your phone in a movie theater rude? Yes.
Is throwing popcorn at somebody rude? Yes, of course.
Is shooting somebody for using a phone, and throwing popcorn rude? Do you need to ask?
Another editorial on the Florida theater killing (and this one with a couple of valuable tidbits of information that answered a couple of my questions):
Tom Jackson at the Tampa Tribune
I read from Danny Warrior’s wordpress blog (that’s only intermittently available) that he may be having problems with hackers.
I don’t doubt for a minute that it could happen, because the Internet is full of people with sufficient skill to do that but who have the emotional maturity of a maladjusted fourteen-year-old.
They can cause honest Netizens to crowd that fine line between hyper-vigilance and paranoia.
My best to Danny Warrior, Xena, and all who brave the Internet with honest intentions.
Don’t let the sock puppets and outright hackers get you down.
Word Press dot com blogs are maintained on Word Press servers. For anyone to hack a Word Press blog, they would have to do so by going through Word Press servers. It’s been done in the past, but it affects many, many blogs, not just one.
I am suspicious when I hear a blog administrator say that their blog was hacked, but there is no report issued by Word Press that their system was compromised.
Thanks for the good wishes. 🙂
@ Xena,
What DW actually said (caveat: DW’s wordpress blog tends to go “private” frequently and without warning)
DW’s blog at wordpress
Please don’t think I agree with everything DW says; it’s that I tend to feel empathy for anybody who says that they’ve ever been hacked or feel cyberstalked.
BTW, I’ve read your posts about the nasty comments that (presumably) land in a moderation queue at your blog. Terrible, but sadly not at all surprising.
You are welcome, my girleen. Keep up the good fight.
wordsalad
Nice meeting you wordsalad2009. It’s good to know that you visit my blog. Please feel free to also comment.
If I’m reading Danny correctly, someone tried signing into his Word Press account. I have no clue how he would know that. Either you sign-in, or you don’t.
First-time comments from anyone to my blog go into the moderation queue. What was happening for months was that harassers were using proxy IP addresses. The moment I blacklisted one, they used another. I ignored it for several months then got tired of it and cut the harassers off from the accessing my blog through proxy IP address websites.
Their comments weren’t just filthy; they also threatened to slander me. Since Dec. 2012, they have accused me of having about 5 different names and with each name, they paint me and the blog in a bad light. All that did was give me staying power and increase the number of subscribers. Some visited my blog after reading the slander, wondering if it was true, finding it isn’t and that they like and agree with what I post.
Another insightful comment about Concealed Carry (the language about “OFF DUTY” pertains only to those who have official duties, of course):
Police One dot com
Well, I pretty royally messed up the HTML on post # 5789.
Hey, at least I didn’t get it hung up in moderation, causing Perfesser whonoze work. };-)
Hi, gbrbsb!
I just thought I’d say that; don’t reply if your fingers are hurting too much.
Thanks, WS. Yes I meant to reply earlier but typing is so laborious and daily business needs sorting too so life has to go very “pasito a pasito” for me at present.
Oh yes, “The Little Mermaid”… no sacrifice too great for loyalty, honour and love even when not requited. A lesson of humanity’s capacity for supreme selflessness and generosity, while the “The Little Match Girl”, a lesson in humanity’s capacity for supreme selfishness and mean spirit. Both too sad for today’s kids, going by how my cousin kept them from hers until a much later age than when I sobbed myself to sleep with them and swore to emulate the one and save the other.
@ gbrbsb,
Nice to see your ‘fonts,’ but don’t feel that you always have to reply, and risk aggravating your condition. I just wanted you to know that we think about you, and want you to get well and be happy.
Funny about those old folk tales, isn’t it? They’re really just another form of art, and art is subjective.
I loved many of Andersen’s stories, but those two always horrified me when I was a little girl, despite his attempts to soften the endings with spiritual overtones. Even as a child, I wasn’t much of a believer, so I wasn’t ‘consoled.’
For me, they were a bit like that old child’s prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep…” No way did I want to go to sleep if there was a chance that I might die. };-)
Then there is “The Red Shoes.” The wikipedia article on it gives some background on the inspiration for it, albeit unsourced:
wikipedia on The Red Shoes
Eh, I guess that’s a reminder that the good old days weren’t always so good.
All right, this piece is far from new (August 2012), but I hadn’t read it until today, so it was ‘news to me,’ and entertaining in the bargain:
Salon 20120813
(expletive-masking asterisk in below quote mine)
Heh.
Let me hasten to add that I don’t like to tar all conservatives (or all gun owners) with the same brush. I think most are basically good, honest, concerned citizens, but there is a fringe.
That fringe largely consists of loose cannons and the cynical propagandists who manipulate them.
Angela Corey opines about press coverage of legal cases:
Naples News 20140118
Eh, she could be right about this, but she would seem to be practicing law in the wrong state if she doesn’t like the ‘Sunshine’ laws.
Well, then there’s that whole corruption thing.
All wrong — this Fox News headline:
All wrong — in California, girls can use urinals in the boys’ restroom
Here I was trying to envision anatomical females using urinals, so I couldn’t help but click on the story.
Mommy,–I gotta mouthful of fishhook.
It turns out that all the writer appears to be concerned about is girls in the boys’ lavatories and locker rooms.
I feel sympathy for people who feel for whatever reason that they were born in the ‘wrong’ body. I don’t understand it, because despite my numerous ‘unfeminine’ attributes, I’ve never doubted my basic, inherent femaleness. I’ve only doubted the roles females–and males–are expected to play in society.
I can only hope transgenders aren’t making difficult-or-impossible-to-reverse changes in their bodies based on some cultural brain-washing about gender.
I wonder if ultimately this won’t change public bathroom culture in the United States in a positive way. That is to say, toilet stalls with floor-to-ceiling walls, and doors. Same thing with showers.
That way, we can all perform our corporeal eliminations/ablutions in privacy, and get back to other matters.
*sheesh*
GZ is trying to rewrite history again (boldface my edit):
the ‘real’ GZ at twitter 20140119
Ah, if only you had taken the stand during the trial, you white-livered liar.
OK, I’ve been ignoring this one for too long:
the ‘real’ GZ at twitter
Oh, I don’t think so. From early press coverage of the case, my impression was that GZ might be a overzealous, bumbling do-gooder. Then I heard that non-emergency police call of his, and realized it was a lot more complicated than that.
Then, during his April 20, 2012 bond hearing, GZ ‘apologized’ to TM’s parents, and I realized how in conflict that was with his remarks during his NEN call:
GZ DURING NEN CALL: “…late teens….I don’t know where this kid is…”
GZ AT BOND HEARING: “I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son. I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am….”
Once I saw the video of the hearing (as opposed to reading a transcript), I realized that his attorney O’Mara also probably realized he was a liar.
I think O’Mara interposed himself between his client and the camera while ‘questioning’ GZ, because the former was still so new to the case that he didn’t have confidence in his client’s ability to lie with a straight face.
That ‘apology’ during the bond hearing was about as close as GZ ever got to testifying. He was safe in doing that, because he couldn’t be cross-examined by the prosecution–unlike during the actual trial.
Yeah, I think a lot of people hate GZ, but that’s not because of media ‘lies’ about him, but his own lies.
They hate the fake GZ character that GZ makes up almost as much as they hate the person they suspect he really is: a manipulative liar, and an unrepentant killer. A guy with no real character.
GZ tweets that he’s no longer living in the eastern time zone:
the ‘real’ GZ at twitter
Did GZ really move out of eastern time zone, or is this just a smokescreen?
*shrug*
If GZ really wanted the outrage and controversy over his killing of TM to subside so that he could have some semblance of a normal life, refraining from tweeting about the minutiae of his so-called life would be a good start.
That probably won’t happen because he can’t survive without narcissistic supplies.
More pro-GZ spin, this time from one of his legal enablers, Mark O’Mara:
Orlando Sentinel 20140120
Oh, this is a good idea (not):
the ‘real’ GZ at twitter
Hat tip to Xena at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for alerting me to this story about criminals who hack into webcams, and take pictures of the owners (and in one case, tried to extort the webcam owners):
BBC 20131113
Per brother RZJR, GZ has finished another ‘painting’:
RZJR at twitter
Hmmm, I can think of other captions for that image, the cleanest of which would probably be
“Portrait of the Killer as a Young Thug.”
What do you suppose he used for paint this time out–ketchup and mustard?
That picture shows up as the third picture when you search for “Angela Corey” on Google Images. It came from this article. Yeah, he probably chose this picture knowing full well it would direct people to this particular article. Wonder if the image is public domain or does somebody own it? If the latter, somebody needs to slap him………… I mean, slap him with a copyright infringement lawsuit about using this published picture. I’m not a lawyer, but come on!
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/353633/angela-coreys-checkered-past-ian-tuttle
Sure. He’s playing to his new support base. Truth be known, he’d play to any group that supports him, because that’s the only thing he believes in: “I Like GZ.”
Judging from the clothes and accessories Corey was wearing, it was taken at a press conference after the trial. A contemporary image has an “AP” credit on it.
The reality might be that GZ should be grateful to both AC and the governor, because ultimately they probably were the ones that pulled his fat out of the fire.
The corruption is both wide and deep, but no matter how I look at it, what I see is a needless death.
I think that GZ was having a bad day (indeed, a bad stretch that had gone on for at least a couple of months), and created a situation out of thin air that culminated in him deliberately–and needlessly–killing an unarmed seventeen year old.
Wouldn’t you have loved to listen in on that three minute phone call between GZ and SZ that fateful evening?
No, I’m not suggesting that SZ deliberately egged him on to homicide, but she might have been upbraiding him about his various failures, and his response was to go out looking for some ‘instant gratification.’
Ya know, their financial problems might not have been as severe had SZ continued to work after they married. I wonder if the reason she didn’t was that GZ was in the process of isolating her so that he could control her.
Now GZ’s trying to continue to profit from killing. Get a real job, worm.
Somebody on the annettekblog wordpress blog hoped that GZ was indeed out of Florida, and therefore out of Corey’s reach.
Actually, that was insightful in a roundabout way. GZ has been making cracks, not only about Corey, but the governor. Maybe he feels ‘safe’ in doing so because he isn’t in FL anymore.
Eh, wherever he is, it’s just a matter of time before he screws up again.
Actually, it might happen sooner rather than later if people start to ignore him. When his narcissistic supply dwindles, he’ll start acting out.
Alex Ruthrauff at Wonkette weighs in on GZ’s ‘artistic’ offerings:
wonkette 20140123
Oops, bad HTML, plus I forgot to put in a Not Necessarily Safe For Work caveat about the content at the link. Sorree.
Hat tip to Xena and her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog.
O’Connor has another update at her ad hoc blog, zimmermanverdict dot net. I’m going to link the blackbutterfly7 blog instead, as Xena already has a link to the (ten minute) YouTube video, plus an interesting screen cap and commentary:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress
There are some ‘interesting’ allegations from an unidentified gentleman interspersed throughout the video, including that Zimmerman was indeed packing heat at the scene of the domestic incident with SZ, but managed to hand it off to Scheibe who hid it in her purse.
If true, what a little fool Scheibe is. Her poor, poor daughter.
Another hat tip to Xena for alerting me to this story:
Jacksonville dot com 20140123
The Facebook page for John M. Phillips, attorney for photographer Rick Wilson:
John M. Phillips at facebook
No ‘joy’ yet on an actual lawsuit.
I suspect that they might be getting an expert opinion to confirm that GZ’s painting is indeed a trace job of Wilson’s AP-copyrighted photograph (it’s pretty obvious that it is), or information that GZ has sold it for profit.
A commenter at the New York Daily News with sharp eyes noticed an important omission in GZ’s trace job: the crucifix around Corey’s neck, plainly seen in all contemporary photos of her taken at that press conference.
So–Corey can wear a crucifix, but ‘Nosferatu’ can’t bring himself to trace it? };-)
I wonder what Z’s actual process is for making these ‘paintings’. Obviously, he starts with photos pulled from the web. The Corey pic looks like it’s been run through several Photoshop filters — posterization, and color replacement. Getting it to look like what I assume he wants, given the semiotics of the color palette, would actually take a bit of skill in PS. I wonder if he has help. Maybe Scheibe is an uncredited collaborator? The real question is how he gets his manipulated image onto paint-on-canvas. Given the high degree of correlation with the original, I doubt it’s freehand. (If he can do that by eye, he’s been in the wrong line of work…) I’d guess he has to have some means of projecting the image onto the canvas, and then paint over the projection. (He could go to Kinko’s and get a big blow-up of his graphic, and then paint over that, but then it would be on paper, not fabric…) So, unless he’s going really old school and having slides made from his PS image, the dude is flush enough to afford a video projector. (Or maybe Samatha bought him one as a gift for being such a great boyfriend.)
I’m reminded that John Wayne Gacy was also a painter. And Hitler, natch.
@ whonoze,
Orlando Sentinel 20140124
It’s really a ‘natural,’ seeing as GZ was already an experienced “projectionist.” };-)
Don’t miss the gawker article Whonoze linked and the comments.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/george-zimmerman-painting-ap-ceast-desist.html
There Whonoze, here is link to AP’s cease and desist letter to Jane Weintraub. Sorry above link isn’t correct!
Gawker discusses GZ’s latest ‘painting’ with it’s typical snark:
http://gawker.com/in-case-anyone-was-curious-yes-once-again-he-used-an-1507712824
BTW, the photographer doesn’t have a case. GZ’s alterations are “transformative” enough to significntly alter the meaning and purpose of the source material, and thus fall under The Fair Use doctrine.
Heh. Too bad about the potential lawsuit. Myself, I just don’t like the idea of the killer continuing to profit from his killing.
BTW, I haven’t been able to see this yet, but it’s ‘intriguing’ to say the least. WESH says they have an exclusive interview with GZ’s painting ‘teacher’:
WESH at twitter
Let the ‘fun’ begin. };-)
OK, I was finally able to view the interview. It’s with a guy named Jeff Sonksen ,and he is (inexplicably to me) sympathetic to GZ’s ‘plight.’
Hey, Jeff, point taken about a lot of people profiting from the death of TM, but it sure seems to me that of all people, the the killer should not profit.
Gawker commenter says rotoscoped. Thanks for the gawker link! Very witty
Gawker commenter doesn’t know shit. Rotoscoping is something else: an animation technique where cells or cell elements are drawn from projections of footage of live actors. In some of the old Disney films, the human characters are rotoscoped, while the anthropomrophic animals are animated from scratch. For those who remember the 80’s, the music video for ‘Take On Me’ by Aha is a paradigmatic example of rotoscoping technique.
As David Hockney has argued convincingly, artists have been using projection as a painting aid for centuries, though keeping the camera lucida a secret of the trade.
Oops, didn’t see this earlier. Per mentor Sonksen, GZ used “projection,” and I wouldn’t really have any real problem with that, save the restrictions I mentioned in comment #5832 (use copyrighted images only with permission, give credit, and stay away from the subject of TM).
Yeah, rotoscoping can be seen in this Betty Boop cartoon (Cab Calloway was rotoscoped as a walrus):
YouTube
What about that quote. Can I post a pix of a well known person e.g., the pope and then add
“only the rich are allowed into heaven”
Pope Frances
@ 2dogsonly,
I must be in my dotage, because I’d been struggling to understand what you meant here:
I think I finally get it now. GZ was pretending that he was quoting Corey saying something she didn’t actually say, and in fact neverwould say (unless she was blotto or something).
You’re saying that GZ was doing something that bordered on libel?
Dunno, I suspect it would be seen as “fair use” parody of a public figure.
It does kind of point to GZ being out of Florida, and thus out of Corey’s reach. If he was still in FL, she wouldn’t necessarily have gone after him over the parody per se, but she could have been laying for him. All he would have had to do was achieve flatus the wrong way.
Then again, according to O’Connor, GZ has been getting away with ‘murder’ ever since being acquitted of murder/manslaughter.
Of course, we don’t know for a fact that GZ has profited yet from his ‘art,’ unless you want to count publicity.
Well, that was quick.
https://twitter.com/puffytuffy/status/426820607540330496
AP already sent cease and desist letter to Jane weintraub who replied she no longer represents tubs but will forward the letter.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/01/george-zimmerman-painting-ap-ceast-desist.html
Geez, is it me or WordPress?
Here is link.AP already sent cease and desist letter to tubs’s former lawyer, jane weintraub! who is forwarding it to him as she no longer represents him.
It just keeps getting ‘better,’ doesn’t it?
ABC 20140124
GZ is talking a lot of smack, Paul. Smack him.
It’s a small accomplishment to be sure, but GZ’s Corey canvas has a good bit more aesthetic merit than his kitschy flag painting. I’ll be Marissa Alexander would appreciate it. Some wealthy person (Oprah?) should buy it and give it to her. Maybe she could paint a few added words on it (or a Duchampian moustache), and resell it for for a bundle. That would let her buy a much nicer house to be confined in.
Which begs the question… where’s the Marissa Alexander defense fund, and why isn’t it raking in the dough? Hmmm…
Hey, I don’t even want to compare her to YouKnowWho. Matter of fact, I can’t think of too many people I’d want to compare to him, outside of Gacy, etc.
Ya know, if GZ had actually created something out of his own head, rather than ‘rotoscoped’ a copyrighted image without permission or credit, and that something was not at all related to his killing of TM, nobody would say jack squat.
Which, I suppose is the point. As Ruthrauff said, that flag ‘painting’ would be worth about ten bucks. Actually, I think Ruthrauff was being over-generous.
The Corey painting is less primitive-looking, true, but what would it be worth if it wasn’t a ‘potshot’ by a killer still trying to milk his fifteen minutes?
Hey, maybe GZ can’t get a real job, despite his numerous ‘admirers,’ because they prefer to admire him at a distance.
The maggot should go on welfare. We’d have been paying for his keep in prison, anyway.
Eh, this was unfair of me, and not just to some of the people on welfare who are only temporarily down-and-out, but to maggots.
Maggots are useful nowadays in the treatment of gangrene. When they’re done gorging themselves, you say, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” before you throw them in the incinerator.
Per whonoze:
For those who might want to know more about Hockney and his theories, this is an interesting piece:
Guardian 20011007
I wonder what the late great Gore Vidal thought about it, seeing as he didn’t think much of photography as an art (I didn’t agree with Vidal on that particular subject).
Is it okay to use photography as a tool in creating art? Sure, as long as the artist respects others’ copyrights.
Is it okay to profit from killing somebody? I certainly don’t think so.
In other case-related news:
Orlando Sentinel 20140124
Now, that ‘unchallengable’ testimony because it was disguised as an apology would be another matter. (“I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son. I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am…”)
I think O’Mara knew GZ was lying through his teeth when he made that ‘apology.’ What I’ll probably always wonder about is whether MOM or GZ came up with the idea to do it in the first place.
Sorry folks, but there’s no legit copyright case here. It’s not just a “that’s how the law works” thing, but that it would be seriously wrong if the AP could squelch GZ. There are much bigger issues at stake here: namely First Amendment rights vs. property rights, and the proper definition of “property” in the first place.
(Fair Use was one of my areas of academic research in my professor days, and I know a lot about it.)
The history of copyright case law is one of large corporate interests (most prominently Disney with Mickey, and Mattel with Barbie) using their economic power to bludgeon small independent voices who ought to have valid Fair Use claims into submission by advancing legal threats those voices do not have the resources to defend. This trend finally shifted for the better a few years back when a group of Free Expression advocates secured pro bono representation for artist Tom Forsythe defense of his “Food Chain Barbie” photo series against infringement charges brought by Mattel.
The work:http://www.tomforsythe.com/food-chain-barbie—r-prints.html
Ultimately, the Federal Court ruled that Mattel’s case was ‘frivolous’ and ordered them to pay $1.8 million in fees and expenses.
Compared to the !st Amendment issues involved here, GZ and his paintings are such small fry as to be microscopic. And if you read down and in to the stories about the AP and photographer Rick Wilson’s complaints against GZ, you’ll discover that they are EXACTLY intended as a broader push-back against Fair Use, and an attempt to regain corporate ‘ownership’ control, and profit of images of public events.
If the AP was ever successful in bringing GZ to court over “Angie C.” I would enthusiastically testify as an expert witness on GZ’s behalf (though there are far more authoritative experts on the subject than I am, who I’d guess would be glad to do this as well.)
Of course, wordsalad is right that no one should profit from killing somebody. However, the just method of achieving this would be to let GZ create whatever he wants, sell it for whatever he can get, and for the Martin family to sue him for the proceeds, which would then be donated to the Trayvon Martin Foundation.
Perfesser whonoze–
“Food Chain Barbie”–heh.
I see your point about corporations getting even more power than they have now (and what they have now is ridiculous).
I remember some lawyer a few years back (I can’t remember the name) talking smack on the subject of music copyrights. When asked whether people should be sued for humming a tune (that they didn’t own, and didn’t pay a royalty for using) while walking down the street, he answered “yes.”
However, will TM’s family run into that infamous two year window problem, which is now only a little more than a month away, or is that a separate problem?
Word salad RE: statue of limitations
I believe the two year does not begin to roll until the date of jury verdict. If it’s from date he was murdered, only a few days remain but that doesn’t legally make sense to count from date of death.
whonoze,
In a quick look around the Net for a definite answer, “findlaw” had a broken link for Florida. };-) However, this outfit said:
expertlaw dot com
Of course, that site didn’t say anything about wrongful death. The closest they got was “wrongful conduct.”
Whonoze, how does this compare?
Artist Shepard Fairey got in a legal dispute with the AP after he used an AP photo in his famous Barack Obama “HOPE” poster. Fairey sued the AP in an effort to get a court declaration that he did not violate AP’s copyrights when he made the Obama image. The AP countersued, saying the uncredited, uncompensated use of its picture both violated copyright laws and was a threat to journalism.
Claims between the news agency and Fairey were settled in 2011, with Fairey agreeing to pay the AP $1.6 million.
I have no idea why Fairey caved, and I don’t have the energy to look up the details right now. Off the top of my head, though, I’d say he would have had a good chance of beating the AP suit in court. But judicial decisions in the few cases that do go to court are not exactly consistent with one another — they vary for instance depending on which Federal Court District hears the case, and so on. Fairey might have been facing an unfriendly judge, and just decided the $1.6 mil wasn’t worth his time and energy. Must be nice to have that kind of money to pay off the AP sharks… I remember when Fairey was just a down-at-his-heels street artist with massive hipster cred, but no money.
In theory any sort of significant transformation could lead to a work being considered Fair Use, but in practice some sorts of transformations are already rooted in precedent, and thus easier to defend. The most prominent of these is ‘parody’ or ‘satire’ stemming from the 2 Live Crew case. The rappers had been sued by Roy Orbison’s publisher Acuff-Rose for their NSFW (mis)use of “Oh, Pretty Woman.” Now, the reason this went to court is that both sides were well off enough to pay for the lawyering, but as is the norm in copyright cases, the party with the most money and power won. 2 Live Crew were a huge money-making act at the time, backed by Time/Warner, the largest media conglomerate in the world. Anyway, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the parodic nature of the 2 Live Crew take-off was protected. 2 Live Crew had to pay a rights fee to Acuff-Rose, but they weren’t assessed damages and the song was not withdrawn from the market.
Now if we look at Shep Fairey’s ‘Hope’ it certainly isn’t a parody of anything. What it does is take a routine news photo of Barack Obama looking rather presidential and amplify that subtext to a mythic/archetypal level via abstraction, simplification, color choice etc. Now that’s transformative enough for me, but I’m not the Judge. The AP would likely have argued that Fairey didn’t change the work enough because they owned a heroic-looking photo of Obama, and Fairey used it to make a heroic-looking painting….
So you can already see, I’m sure, how GZ’s painting is a different case. The AP owns a photo of Angela Corey looking like a tough prosecutor, which Z used to made a painting of Angela Corey looking like some kind of hell-spawn demon. It’s not exactly what we usually think of as ‘parody’ since it’s not funny, but it totally inverts and subverts the meaning a typical viewer would assign to the source photo. It doesn’t mimic the source material, it attacks it. Should be open and shut, really…
Of course, the AP could care less what a judge might eventually decide. They’re doing what big rights holders always do when they feel their interests are threatened. They’re trying to scare GZ into withdrawing the painting by promising to have an army of razor-toothed shysters biting at his ass 24/7 from now ’till doomsday. Most folks, faced with the prospect of having to devote massive amounts of time, energy and — most of all — money to defending themselves, just fold their tents and go away quietly. But that’s not in GZ’s playbook. He is a paragon of delusional self-righeousness. Trayvon Martin turned around, looked GZ in the eye and said, “What you following me for?” — subtext: ‘Man, you are doing something wrong here, so cut it out.’ We all know how GZ took that accusation, and how that encounter turned out. ‘I am GEORGE ZIMMERMAN. I am the Good Guy. I do no wrong. He who challenges me is going against God’s Plan!’ Trying to intimdate GZ is like putting out fire with gasoline. He loves this shit. He’s back in the news! He’s got something new to Tweet smack about. The AP juts gave the forgotten little boy a shiny new toy and a huge spotlight to show it off to the world. He’s in heaven.
And Z’s pathological narcissism is much in evidence in the fact that he seems utterly blind to the irony of the fact that he is now making a free speech claim. When news organizations made a slight edit in what he actually said to Sean Noffke, he went ballistic, and sought to sue everyone in sight for defamation. Yet now he feels totally free to create to create derogatory images of Angela Corey. What hypocrisy! But that’s not illegal, and GZ has a First Amendment right to express himself… just as NBC had a first amendment right to decide what clips from his police call were important enough to put on the air…
@ whonoze,
Boy howdy, what you said, the whole thing.
It’s not just at the federal level, nor just civil cases. I already knew that, but apparently I need occasional reminders. I just wish they weren’t so painful like the atrocious decision in the Martin homicide. That one really offends my sense of justice.
Don’t you go tempting me with dreams like this. };-)
In a more ‘perfect’ world, GZ would get intensive psychotherapy to break through his denial.
I reported tubs’s flag painting to support@shutterstock.com. They won’t issue any license not even an expanded one for a ” derivative” painting used in any manner and even purchasing the license, credit must be given to original painter. Original painter can sue shutterstock for up to 10k for not enforcing their own contract.
If tubs used it without paying shutterstock, the painter can come after them and then tubs.
Also, John Phillips is going to be on HLN Monday representing the Angie photographer but AP owns that and the photographer is free lance. I would guess AP paid for the image in return for complete rights to it. AP is that mammoth corporation you spoke of and got over 1 million from Fairey.
The John Phillips guy is in deep trouble for accepting payment for a Univ. Of Alabama football player. He was the go between and they have him on video accepting 10k check. I think the football player’s last name is Dunne, coincidentally. It’s big news in Alabama! But innocent until proven not, etc.
He represented the parents of the teen murdered by Michael Dunne who has NO money, zero zip nada. When he said he had negotiated a settlement with killer and all money would be going into a scholarship, the reporter could not get the amount or name of scholarship from him. Just danced around. I believe the criminal attorney or prosecutor said here’s a dollar and we’ll just say my client settled to get you to STFU..he seemed like a terrible hanger on with the Martins.
2dogsonly,
Eh, could be. I’m remembering what Shakespeare said about lawyers.
This is a very legalistic country. You know you’re in trouble when you realize that even our national anthem was written by a lawyer. };-)
It’s getting pretty tangled:
John M. Phillips at twitter
“You know you’re in trouble when you realize that even our national anthem was written by a lawyer. };-)”
But only the lyrics, speaking of copyright infringement.
http://www.colonialmusic.org/Resource/Anacreon.htm
@ unitron,
Oh sure, a lot of national anthems were built on older, popular melodies (e.g. La Marseillaise). That way, The Little People already ‘knew’ the song. Of course, a lot of that went on before copyrighting was a widespread practice.
Here’s a ‘tasty’ tidbit about “God Save the Queen/King” for ya (boldface my edit):
wikipedia
Having wound up with La Marseillaise, I’d say the French got the better of that deal.
As did moviegoers in that scene in “Casablanca”.
Oh, and interesting information about the shutterstock situation.
In the end, I suspect that it might come down to how the original artist feels about GZ. I wonder if that’s what it is in Wilson’s case.
It’s a great tune, isn’t it? Makes me all verklempt, so long as I don’t pay attention to the lyrics (they’re pretty ‘martial,’ like those of our own.)
As I don’t really speak French and can only figure out a word or two of the lyrics, they don’t spoil the experience for me.
I don’t speak French either, but if you read the English translation of the lyrics, some of them are not for the faint of heart. You’ll probably do well not to read them and spoil the experience. Just enjoy the melody.
I’m surprised Ted Nugent hasn’t covered this. It’s not just bloody, it’s kind of — oh, I don’t know — Fascist maybe?
The “Children’s Verse” at the end is especially charming… love the bit about the coffins…
—–
Arise, children of the Fatherland,
The day of glory has arrived!
Against us tyranny
The bloody banner is raised (repeat)
Do you hear, in the countryside,
The roar of those ferocious soldiers?
They’re coming right into your arms
To cut the throats of your sons and women!
To arms, citizens,
Form your battalions,
Let’s march, let’s march!
Let an impure blood
Water our furrows! (repeat)
What does this horde of slaves,
Of traitors and conjured kings want?
For whom are these vile chains,
hese long-prepared irons? (repeat)
Frenchmen, for us, ah! What outrage
What fury it must arouse!
It is us they dare plan
To return to the old slavery!
To arms, citizens…
What! Foreign cohorts
Would make the law in our homes!
What! These mercenary phalanxes
Would strike down our proud warriors! (repeat)
Great God ! By chained hands
Our brows would yield under the yoke
Vile despots would have themselves
The masters of our destinies!
To arms, citizens…
Tremble, tyrants and you traitors
The shame of all parties,
Tremble! Your parricidal schemes
Will finally receive their reward! (repeat)
Everyone is a soldier to combat you
If they fall, our young heroes,
The earth will produce new ones,
Ready to fight against you!
To arms, citizens…
Frenchmen, as magnanimous warriors,
You bear or hold back your blows!
You spare those sorry victims,
Who arm against us with regret. (repeat)
But not these bloodthirsty despots,
These accomplices of Bouillé,
All these tigers who, mercilessly,
Rip their mother’s breast!
To arms, citizens…
Sacred love of the Fatherland,
Lead, support our avenging arms
Liberty, cherished Liberty,
Fight with thy defenders! (repeat)
Under our flags, shall victory
Hurry to thy manly accents,
That thy expiring enemies,
See thy triumph and our glory!
To arms, citizens…
(Children’s Verse)
We shall enter the (military) career
When our elders are no longer there,
There we shall find their dust
And the trace of their virtues (repeat)
Much less keen to survive them
Than to share their coffins,
We shall have the sublime pride
Of avenging or following them
To arms, citizens…
—
Maybe it was written by one of Wayne LaPierre’s ancestors. Next to this stuff, he comes off like a squish.
War brings out everything in human nature: the best, the worst, and everything in between.
It makes me think of that line (and I can neither quote it exactly nor remember the author right this minute) about the umpteenth soldier in the raping queue throwing the skirts of his victim up over her face so that he wouldn’t have to see those impossible eyes.
I wonder if LaPierre is conflicted over his ancestry. Far right wing types aren’t generally known for being Francophiles.
@ whonoze,
Your comment about the irony of GZ, in his Corey ‘painting,’ putting words in her mouth that she didn’t say (publicly, anyway) when he’s trying to sue NBC for editing his own words may be bearing strange fruit:
NBC 20140124
Orlando Sentinel 20140128
the ‘real’ GZ at twitter
GZ no doubt meant this particular tweet to come off as jocular, but his Freudian slip is showing again, methinks:
the ‘real’ GZ
Ya know, I only just now noticed this little problem in Stutzman’s OS piece:
What’s the problem? It wasn’t December 18 that GZ was reportedly served with divorce papers while in jail for alleged domestic violence, but rather November 18. That’s like 37 ‘working’ days.
What was the reason for the heel-dragging on SZ’s side?
The only trail We the Little People have in this particular case (GZ being served with divorce papers while in jail) is press reportage. However, December 18, 2013 seems plainly wrong, because there is an official document regarding GZ’s arrest and incarceration back on November 18, 2013:
WTSP PDF of Arrest Report 20131118
It’s one thing when Stutzman makes a mistake in the dates, but most of the rest of the press seem to be following suit. Are they all just copying her, or what?
‘Tis a puzzlement…
Well, I realize that I’m more than a day late and a dollar short, but I just want to comment on the passing of folk music great Pete Seeger on Monday, January 27, 2014.
I never was much of a folk music fan, but Seeger was a remarkable person.
Read the transcript of Seeger’s interrogation by the House ‘Un-American Activities Committee in 1955:
Pete Seeger dot net HUAC hearing transcript
Seeger described himself as a “communist with a little ‘c’,” but not to the committee at that hearing, because his point was that the HUAC had no business doing what they were doing.
I think Seeger actually was a communist with a big “C.” That is to say, Seeger seems to have been a genuine unselfish person who wanted to share everything with everyone (unlike Stalin et al).
Well, maybe he was a little greedy where cake was concerned (see anecdote told by Arlo Guthrie in a Time magazine piece about Seeger). };-)
If you believe in an afterlife, then you can believe that Seeger went to join his wife Toshi, who died in 2013. I don’t personally believe, but it’s a nice thought.
I probably shouldn’t even bother with this, but now GZ seems to be arguing on twitter about whether he’s “cholo”:
the ‘real’ GZ on twitter
The term does have a Peruvian origin, per wikipedia:
Hey, GZ is proud of his African-Peruvian great-grandfather?
Great, but it seems to me he should have been that way before he created a sh*t storm by fatally shooting an unarmed African-American teenager.
Claiming to be that way now just seems, oh, I don’t know–convenient?
GZ at RadarOnline 20140130
This could be ‘interesting.’ How many people would pay in the hopes of seeing GZ get pasted?
GZ is just the ‘gift’ that keeps on giving, isn’t he?
There is just so much wrong with this that anybody and everybody could go on and on about it.
Which is probably exactly what GZ is hoping will happen, toxic narcissist that he is.
Philly dot com 20110307
George Diaz at the Orlando Sentinel 20140131
Per Support Online Hip-Hop:
SOHH 20140131
So why would GZ deem DMX a suitable candidate?
If I had to guess, it’s that DMX has a tough image–and an extensive criminal history. GZ is probably hoping that he’ll look ‘good’ by comparison.
No joy, killer boy.
All Hip Hop has these tidbits:
All Hip Hop dot com 20140201
Let’s see..GZ is five-foot-eight, and Game is six-foot-five. Yah, that’s a good match in boxing.
Actually, there is at least one way that Game would be the ‘perfect’ opponent.
It was a picture of the heavily-tattooed, heavily-muscled, fully grown Game that Internet propagandists tried to pass off as one of the slender, seventeen-year-old Trayvon Martin.
Incidentally, Game has recently added another tattoo to his collection: Trayvon Martin.
I think Feldman and his ‘client’ are just throwing things out there to see what might stick.
It’s difficult to find a single word to describe GZ, because even “killer” without any supporting adjectives would be inadequate.
I’d say the word that comes the closest would be “assholic.”
DMX is apparently itching to get in the ring with GZ. TMZ reports:
Now THAT’s how you do pre-publicity for a boxing match.
I think it says something about how the world has come to know GZ that none of the posts I’ve yet seen about GZ’s desire to box have noted the “irony” that during the trial he was painted as as a shlub with no self-defense skills, while TM made out to be a trained fighter.
So I guess GZ must have found a better trainer since then, as he seems to have learned how to box in just the last two years, despite being in hiding from the NBPP and his wife, getting arrested for various beefs he squeezes out of and what not.
But wait. GZ told RadarOnline:
Psst, George: Boxing TRAINING may be good for maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but in actual BOXING, you get hit in the head a lot, and you can’t pack a 9mm in your waistband to use in case you get it over your head.
Yeah, it seems terribly convenient that during the trial GZ was painted as a basically defenseless guy who had no choice but to shoot, but now he’s a fightin’ machine who sez “Bring it on.”
Oh, and did you catch that remark from Feldman that the worst thing anybody might get in one of his boxing matches would be a bloody nose?
Them’s killin’ words, boy.
BTW: having just discovered the WordPress control panel for comment threads, in addition to switching-out the “Mystery Man” generic avatar for something more colorful and less ominous, I’ve also set the number-of-links-that-will-force-a-comment-into-moderation up to four.
What is the source of that “Mystery Man” avatar?
I’ve also set the number-of-links-that-will-force-a-comment-into-moderation up to four.
That might be too much temptation for the HTML-challenged among us (me). };-)
TMZ 20140202
Eh, not to mention worried that if he doesn’t make every effort to sensationalize the event, they might not get any pay-per-view revenue.
Good luck with that (not).
Just wanted to give Xena at her blackbutterfy7 wordpress blog some ‘link love,’ so that decent Netizens can see a sample of the kind of cyber-harrassment to which she’s been subjected:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140201
Keep your head up, Xena girl.
Wow, hat tip to Xena for this insight. Recently, GZ tweeted a picture of actor Robert Downey Jr. with the caption, “Listen, smile, agree. And then do whatever the f*ck you were gonna do anyway.”
I had seen that tweet myself:
the ‘real’ GZ at twitter 20140201
But hadn’t thought too much about it Xena did, though:
Xena’s blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog 20140202
Yep. GZ was advised by the dispatcher “OK, we don’t need you to do that (follow the ‘suspicious’ person).”
GZ acknowledged that advice by replying “OK,” but then proceeded to do whatever the f*ck he already had in mind to do–which was to continue hunting TM.
I just thought I’d note the passing of actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died Sunday at the age of 46.
I don’t understand why Hoffman, an actors’ actor who seemed to have it all, relapsed into such a terrible behavior after 23 years of clean living, but this Atlantic piece had an observation that spoke to me:
The Atlantic 20140203
My condolences to Hoffman’s family.
The Urban Daily 20140203
Yup, no matter how GZ tries to spin it, it’s still squitter, and nobody likes to get splashed with that.
A link to SZ’s financial affidavit courtesy of “Art Tart” at Nettle’s annettekblog at wordpress (I don’t think I’d seen the actual document before):
ABC PDF 20130905
Some of the items in the debt section are ‘interesting.’ Both SZ’s Honda Accord and GZ’s Honda Ridgeline had substantial monies owed, for a total of over $34,000.
There was also over $3,700 owed to the IRS for 2011 taxes.
Despite the (many) thousands in various debts that GZ had SZ pay off in 2012 using donated ‘defense’ funds, they still have over $100,000 in debts, and most of it appears to be pre-homicide debts (over $34,000 in car loans and over $54,000 in student loans).
Hat tip to “towerflower” at the blackbutterfy7 wordpress blog for putting together a timeline of significant dates in the Z divorce, and especially for getting the date of GZ being served with the divorce papers correct, unlike most of the press (boldface my edit):
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140203
In other news, boxing promoter Damon Feldman tweeted yesterday that he would be announcing GZ’s opponent next Tuesday:
hollywoodbox11 at twitter 20140203
One of the (many) things I find ‘interesting’ about this alleged upcoming boxing match is the almost deafening silence coming from clan Z about it (I believe GZ himself only mentioned it once with a link to the RadarOnline interview).
Are they ashamed? They should be.
I just checked wordsalad’s references to Xena’s blog, and posted this there re: the Downey tweet:
GZ seems to be gloating, dropping hints that “yeah, I murdered the kid and got away with it, ha ha!” As Xena just rightly noted, the Downey quote is a pretty obvious reference to Z’s interaction with Sean Noffke. And the whole Celeb Boxing thing is framed within a ‘yeah, I know how to fight,” bravado that indicates Adam Pollock was lying his ass off at trial when he said GZ was ‘soft’ and had no fighting skills.
I’m wondering how the hell THIS little pissant got so fortunate as to be covered in Teflon. (God’s plan? I don’t think so… “Luck is not the hand of God.” — Kurt Vonnegut) I’m enjoying watching Chris Christie’s guano juggernaut fall apart piece-by-piece. But I’m wondering how a truly big-time 😉 player like Christie can have it all unravel while Z has put out as many exposable lies and incriminating clues and remains untouched. Perhaps it’s just that screwing up traffic on the GW is a bigger deal to most people than the death of a black kid from Miami Gardens. Or maybe it’s just that GZ is so obviously a fool that the forces who could take him down actually do have bigger fish to fry. It’s kinda annoying, though.
Memo to GZ: If there was a just and righteous God, and He had a plan, you’d be dead and Phillip Seymour Hoffman would still be alive.
Heh.
Not to mention Trayvon Benjamin Martin, who would have turned nineteen tomorrow but for his fatal encounter with a person who had (and continues to have) way too many issues to list in a single sentence–GZ.
Somehow, I missed this ‘charming’ tidbit from RadarOnline’s interview with GZ (boldface my edit):
If I had to choose from that list, it would be the Michelin Man, who despite his pneumatic appearance and nature has a reputation for drinking nails.
As to real world candidates, Huffington Post is reporting that promoter Feldman reached out to Kanye West, and I can only hope West has the good sense and taste to say “No.” That’s what everybody should say.
GZ’s version of “the dog ate my homework”:
Orlando Sentinel 20140204
Yah, I’m sure law enforcement kept his divorce papers because it’s not like they have any accountability procedures for things they take from inmates…
Can’t wait for them to produce a copy of a receipt that GZ signed for his possessions.
Also, he was in the cooler for, what, all of two days?
Time and Date Business Days Calculator
Take two off of that, and he still had way, way more than twenty days to respond.
Actually, GZ didn’t have time to respond to the divorce papers because he was busy putting out cones on the Fort Lee ramp onto the GW. Which, of course, was all part of a traffic study.
A study to determine whether traffic congestion might be alleviated if GZ were appointed captain of the GW Bridge Watch.
Today, February 5, 2014, Trayvon Benjamin Martin would have celebrated his nineteenth birthday but for George Michael Zimmerman, a guy with a truckload of issues and an itchy trigger finger.
I’m agnostic, but if there is such a thing as an afterlife, I can only hope that Trayvon is at peace in it.
Q: What’s the most frequently heard question in the home of a May-December relationship?
A: Honey, who was that on the phone?
This excerpt from a Vanity Fair piece about the break-up of Rupert Murdoch’s marriage to Wendy Deng is ‘interesting,’ to say the least:
Read Wendi Deng Murdoch’s Mash Note About Tony Blair 201403
Ya know, I can see Deng having herself a toy boy, but former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair? And Eric Schmidt of Google? Hmmm….
Methinks that Uncle Rupe wanted to get rid of her for some other reason, probably that he couldn’t control Deng, and I don’t mean her sexuality per se.
Murdoch and Deng are both apex predators.
Demetria Irwin at The Grio argues that nobody should watch GZ fight anyone because GZ’s sole claim to celebrity is that he killed somebody:
The Grio 20140205
I couldn’t agree more on a purely moral basis, but like whonoze, I worry on a more pragmatic one that trying to ignore GZ completely could cause him to act out, and do something even ‘worse’:
blackbutterfly7 at wordpress 20140204
Does GZ, as both whonoze and tchoupi have suggested, have Narcissistic Personality Disorder? I’m not a psychologist, but he certainly seems to fit the description.
However, even if he does have NPD, that would not preclude him from having other problems listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
This piece at The Atlantic, although not specifically about narcissists, makes some good observations:
Can Psychopaths Be Rehabilitated? 20140205
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that GZ is a psychopath, but he is clearly not well (and probably hasn’t been for decades). He’s also, thanks to a miscarriage of justice, free and armed.
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Georgina? (Cue “The Sound of Music.”)
This has been a public service announcement from an affiliate of GZ Watch. };-)
Ironic commentary by O’Mara…..
http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2014/01/15/ac-later-theater-shooting.cnn.html
Yeah, I’d tell O’Mara to shut the h*ll up, but then I remember that CNN is paying him to be a talking head. Even though GZ never paid him per se, O’Mara’s now got a national-level, recurring gig as a result of that trial. You know, not to mention the forty grand in defense fund donations he spent on his firm:
Orlando Sentinel 20130130
It’s all too ‘beautiful,’ isn’t it?
The 40 grand is really peanuts. I’m actually glad that O’Mara is getting some compensation because he’ll never see a penny from GZ unless they’re successful with the NBC lawsuit.
That’s weird, my gravatar looks like a pawn piece in a chess game.
That might be because Perfesser whonoze made some changes to the blog settings back on the first of the month.
My gravatar went from a simple silhouette to some little quilt-motif-looking gravatar that seemed a little too similar to other little quilt-motif-looking gravatars for my taste, and I decided that it was time for me to suck it up and make my own gravatar.
Somebody with the handle “Robert Zimmerman (Sr)” posted on the Conservative Tree House today warning that the media continues to distort the ‘truth’ about his son:
TCTH 20140206
One of the more interesting of his allegations was that it was “widely reported” that his son has sold a painting for over $100,000.
ahem
It was ebay’s software that first ‘reported’ that little factoid. Of course, as many Net observers have speculated, the whole thing could have been a fraud, and GZ didn’t make a dime.
If RZSR really wants the world to know the truth about that ebay auction, hey, speak up, Daddio.
My uneducated guess is that GZ does not talk to his family so I doubt they really know what he’s up to.
My uneducated guess says you’re right. Further, there are reports that he was estranged from his family prior to the homicide, so they didn’t know what was going on with him even then.
They appear to have been mostly parroting GZ’s stories, with a possible exception of that ‘lovely’ one about GZ cooking dinner for SZ on the evening of February 26, 2012.
Then what was that phone call at 18:48? SZ in the living room calling GZ in the kitchen to tell him where the spices were?
“They appear to have been mostly parroting GZ’s stories, with a possible exception of that ‘lovely’ one about GZ cooking dinner for SZ on the evening of February 26, 2012.”
Don’t recall that one at all.
Who was the source for it?
deadspin 20140205
(Asterisk my edit)
GZ, DMX, and Feldman all need to find a way to earn a living that doesn’t depend on a dead teenager.
Everybody else needs to vote with their money by boycotting this event.
The “fight” is not a done deal, as news reports indicate no contracts have been signed, and DMX is “negotiating” with Feldman about his appearance fee. This may all be theater: if the “fight” never takes place GZ, Feldman and DMX will have already generated enough publicity via the run-up that the actual event would be superfluous. Also, none of the news stories have even mentioned a potential carrier for the PPV, and one wonders what national video carrier would risk sullying their reputation by making this available to the viewing public.
I also imagine that negotiations for a WWE-style fixed fight would be difficult. I doubt either participant would agree to “lose” or even agree to “a draw.” The immense cultural baggage driving the narrative of a GZ/black-rapper confrontation would demand a “winner”, and I doubt either GZ or DMX need money bad enough to be willing to handle the mantle of “loser” of a titantic contest between racialized cultures. If there actually IS a “bout” I would be fascinated to see how they choreograph it in the face of such a dilemma. I wouldn’t pay to watch it, but ti would certainly show up on the pirate video sites quickly, and I’d definitely download it to satifsy my curiosity. I’m not a gambler, but if I was, I’d put my bets on the proposition that this story will yield a lot more news coverage over the next month or so, but the event will never actually occur.
@ whonoze:
You could well be right about this match never coming to fruition, but I can’t see how the publicity would benefit anybody (but then, I don’t think I’ve ever bought into the philosophy that there’s no such thing as bad publicity).
Since the advent of so-called “Reality TV,” there’s been no shortage of atrocious stuff on television. I don’t necessarily think all reality TV is bad, but some of it is pretty terrible.
I dunno. Both Feldman and DMX are reported as having child-payments to make. GZ, obviously, is up past his beady eyes in debt. I can actually see GZ taking a fall if he could receive assurances that DMX wouldn’t actually hurt him.
See the scenario: GZ takes a fall and (a) gets to wallow in sympathy from the usual category of suspects (b) hopes that a ‘cathartic’ release will lessen hatred against him (b) last but certainly not least, pockets some cash.
I’d be struggling with myself not to watch it under any circumstances. I don’t think the guy deserves any attention beyond “Where is he?” because he’s free and armed.
RZSR’s statement under oath(by way of DailyKos and AxiomAmnesia):
Daily Kos 20130829
AxiomAmnesia’s copy of RZSR’s Statement Under Oath
I’ve put up a new thread for discussion about/around/tangential-to Lisa Bloom’s forthcoming book, “Suspicion Nation: The Inside Story Of The Trayvon Martin Injustice And Why We Continue To Repeat It.” Since it’s not actually available yet, there’s not much to talk about now. Let’s keep the general discussion here, and go to the new thread when we actually have something to say on that topic.
Damon Feldman strikes me exactly the kind of guy who would announce his (as yet unfinalized) “celebrity boxing match” between GZ and DMX on the eve of Trayvon Martin’s birthday intentionally, thus gaining two days of national publicity: one for the predictable outrage by Rev. Al Sharpton and others at the timing of the announcement, and a second for his apology. This guys denials strike me as about as credible as Chris Christie’s.
(emphasis in last paragraph by whonoze)
Yeah, Feldman strikes me as somebody who falls somewhere in between admirable and despicable, and probably a lot closer to the latter. Here’s a profile on him:
Philly Mag dot com Damon Feldman Profile: King of the D-List
Now, as to outright despicable? That would be GZ. A couple of the factoids that seem to come through on this ‘celebrity’ boxing match (a) GZ seems to have been the one to initiate contact with Feldman (b) GZ signed a contract with Feldman.
For those who think it’s all BS: consider the picture of GZ in a boxing pose that accompanied the Radar Online piece. If that was a photoshop job, I’d think we’d have read plenty of detailed dissection thereof on the Net by now.
My take: it might well be all BS, but it’s BS of GZ’s devising.
Maybe Zimmerman is involved in this promoter’s scheme, but his own Twitter account has had nothing to say about it other than an initial mention of the Radar Online article in a way that’s not conclusively an endorsement of same, and which could even be interpreted as meaning “here we go again with more BS from the outfit that published the entirely fictitious account of W8’s hospitalization and battery of tests”.
Actually it’s been dead air over there since Tuesday.
Funny way of going after publicity, it seems to me.
But I guess we’ll eventually see.
@ unitron,
In my tiny opinion, GZ has a ‘funny’ way of going after a lot of things.
Radio dot com 20140207
CBS 20140207
It does indeed sound like Tyson’s come a long way. If there is a hereafter, Cus D’Amato is smiling.
The Grio 20140207
So, yeah, it’s not definite that DMX is going to be the opponent, however:
If GZ wasn’t going to participate in this ‘celebrity’ boxing match, you’d think he’d be all over Feldman for saying he was, wouldn’t you?
And on another front, O’Mara’s been removed from the lawsuit case against NBC (by his own request):
Orlando Sentinel 20140206
BET 20140207
Yup, no attempt on GZ’s part to keep a low profile after his acquittal.
Hmmm:
TMZ 20140208
hollywoodbox11 at twitter 20140208
Damon Feldman at twitter 20140208
A spectacle that is at once grisly and sad: milking a dead cow.
A nugget of info from a Reuters piece on the boxing match cancellation (boldface my edit)?:
Reuters 20140209
The one element that isn’t easily ‘explained away’ (with regard to the idea of GZ not being a willing party to all of this) is the Radar Online interview with the picture of GZ in a boxing pose.
Does anyone have any reliable and proven info on the date that particular picture was taken, or by whom?
@unitron,
Not me.
The picture accompanied the Radar Online piece, and you could only see a cropped version (a small portion of GZ’s fist appears in the lower right-hand corner) when you view the article. To see the full picture required signing up for Pinterest via Facebook or email. (URL one is presented with when clicking on the picture):
Pinterest
Fee free to burrow around in that mile-long URL to see what you can discover.
Still if it wasn’t him, wasn’t a recent picture, or wasn’t in some fashion authorized by GZ, don’t you think he would have said something?
Would that not have been a highly appropriate thing for him to tweet about? You know, assuming that there’s any legitimate reason for him to tweet to begin with…
Insofar as I know, GZ only tweeted about the article once, and that appears to have been within a couple of hours of it being ‘published’ by RO.
This is the same guy who tweets about all kinds of things, including claiming not to know who various people who’ve been highly critical of him are, like Christi O’Connor and Nancy Grace.
I don’t claim to even begin to understand a lot of what Zimmerman does or why, but I learned early on in this case to not be in a hurry to believe anything reported in the various media about it or to think that they’d given me the entire story.
Sure. But it doesn’t look ‘good’ to me that GZ tweeted a link to that RO article within a scant few hours of its publication.
Meanwhile, here’s a ‘tasty’ tidbit from Rolling Stone:
Rolling Stone 20140208
Boldface my edit:
2 million…seriously????
Yah, that’s a nice little chunk of change, isn’t it? One wonders what the ‘contenders’ stood to make.
I don’t know anything about the former promoter and if he’d ever made that kind of money before. That is, was it realistic that he would have made that much money on this, or was it more of an exaggeration, because this whole thing was set up to test the waters. If things looked promising, he might have made a few bucks, but if he was being inundated with calls to stand down, then he still got exposure. Now, by saying “look how much money I walked away from. I’m really a nice guy, no, REALLY!!”, he’s able to garner sympathy votes (What that will get him in the future, who knows.)
Maybe he offered Zimmerman a decent chunk of change to “borrow” his name and his silence while he spins this yarn to the public, getting free publicity for himself (Feldman), especially after he “does the right thing”, and George figures he can be the most hated man in the country or he can be the most hated man in the country with a bank account larger than it was, and so he decided to take the money and keep quiet.
It’s just a theory, not necessarily even one that I believe, but it does seem to fit the facts.
I never believed tubs would get into the ring with anyone based on his jail calls..such a wittle baby, I’m chilly, din din was late, didn’t get my meds, didn’t get my rest. And then his gym guy said he couldn’t fight his way out of a paper bag.
But scamming, yep, he is good at that. Many many instances of that. One of his big supporters has that fake graduation picture on her web site. Yep, Unitron, I will go with your position. Both are scammers so let’s get together and I’ll give you,some money for your name recognition.
That is a believable to me.
That’s not my position, it’s a theory, based on available evidence and some conjecture.
If I conjectured differently, I could come up with other theories that would also not violate the available evidence.
My position is that we don’t yet have enough information.
My other position is all lowercase.
My other other position, sadly, is nowadays more likely to come from an AARP brochure than from the Kama Sutra.
@unitron….Kama Sutra….thanks, now I have to scrub weird thoughts out of my head 🙂
@ unitron,
Could be. It also could be that GZ is keeping mum because of the NBC lawsuit. Getting involved in a celebrity boxing match doesn’t exactly help his claim that he’s only a public figure because of the ‘machinations’ of the press.
Of course, as I understand it (and it is a muddle to me), the NBC lawsuit can’t proceed until any ‘sanctions’ action against the prosecution in his homicide case is resolved.
In the meantime, he has to have a roof over his head, and food.
Where is he living these days, do you suppose?
He threw that little tweet out there about not being in Eastern Time Zone anymore, but that could have been a red herring.
His ‘girlfriend’ Scheibe?
His BFF Osterman?
His parents?
A wealthy ‘sympathizer?’
I’m a little puzzled myself about Judge Nelson’s whole “both sides agreed to postpone the lawsuit ’til after the trial, so it can’t go forward until the question of sanctions arising from the trial is settled one way or the other” ruling.
Either the prosecution loses in a sanctions hearing or they don’t, but the jury’s verdict is going to remain in place either way, and the lawsuit is about events and effects from before the trial, so I don’t see why the lawsuit has to wait upon settling the sanctions thing if both parties to the lawsuit are willing to proceed.
Maybe there’s some obscure legal technicality I missed out on knowing about because of not going to judge school.
As for Zimmerman’s silence and the NBC suit being connected, I don’t think not talking about a boxing match in which you will be appearing before or during the course of the suit being argued in court is going to make much difference.
Which raises the possibility that Zimmerman never had any connection to this promoter in the first place and was leaving it all uncommented upon for some reason, or that there was and is a connection but there was never going to be a match.
If someone was saying I was going to be in a boxing match about which I knew nothing and of which I had no desire to be a part, I’d probably deny it to anyone who would listen, but George may feel his circumstances dictate a different approach.
But if I was going to be in something to make money and more publicity means higher ticket sales, I’m not sure I’d see the point in remaining silent about it.
So at this point I only know that I don’t yet know enough to know what’s really going on.
Yeah, I don’t know if this all falls under the heading of “there’s no such thing as bad publicity.” I’ve never really understood that myself.
I linked a profile of Feldman back on the 7th. Here’s one about his backer billionaire Alkiviades David:
The Hollywood Reporter 20121004
@ 2dogsonly,
GZ is a toxic narcissist.
Word salad: GZ’s is a toxic narcissist.
But only with ” a little help from his friends”…h/t to Beatles
If you want to see Angela Corey prosecute – as opposed to throwing a case-, watch the Michael Dunn case now playing live. Croakerqueen123 also throws them on you tube w/o breaks the evening or next day of.
@ 2dogsonly:
Yeah, GZ has had a lot of enablers. And continues to attract new ones. More and more, I become convinced that he has NPD (but probably has other DSM disorders in the bargain).
Thanks, but I just don’t have the stamina to get too mentally/emotionally invested in another case that might turn into a travesty of justice the way GZ’s trial for murder/manslaughter did.
For better or worse, I’m riding the TM/GZ train to the end of the line. I’m actually hoping that the end of that line is near. I have a feeling that once the two year anniversary comes around (and no civil lawsuits can be brought), the feds will finally speak their piece. I might not like their answer, but at least I’ll have one.
Hopefully, the most interest in GZ I’ll be able to muster at that point is “Where does this ‘his brain is squirming like a toad’ killer live?” in the same way one might want to know where other kinds of habitual predators live.
Is anybody else besides me getting whiplash?:
The Source 20140210
BTW, I recommend reading the whole piece; it’s got all kinds of interesting tidbits.
@ unitron,
In partial answer to your question on another forum (who first contacted whom about the ‘celebrity’ boxing match), I read a press piece that said “an associate” of GZ first contacted Feldman. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact article again for linkage because there is so much press on the subject now.
If it’s true that it was “an associate” of GZ to make first contact, my money would be on RZJR.
Hey, practitioners of the Kama Sutra need also to be practitioners of yoga, or they’ll probably end up seeing a practitioner of chiropractic.
‘P.S. I left you a ‘partial’ answer to a question of yours (on another forum) here at whonoze’s forum:
whonoze at wordpress 20140210
What I keep coming back to is that Radar Online ‘interview’ with the picture of GZ in a boxing pose.
Sure, Radar Online isn’t exactly a bastion of good journalism, but would they go so far out on a limb as to fabricate a whole interview, plus fabricate a picture (or use a real one of any vintage without permission)?
They’d be setting themselves up for punitive legal action from lawsuit boy GZ. You know, if there’s still a lawyer willing to take no-pay GZ as a client.
Incidentally, a google images search for that picture turned up a copy at New York Daily News, but the picture has Radar Online logo in bottom left-hand corner.
Regardless of who contact whom first, it looks to me like another case of poor judgment on GZ’s part to get involved in yet another scheme to capitalize on the death of TM.
Is GZ desperate for money? Probably, but I think he was desperate for money back on February 26, 2012, and he shouldn’t have been, given that he seemed to have a job that paid over $50,000 annually.
Now it looks like Feldman may be dropping out the picture, but Alkiviades David is coming to the fore (boldface [sic] my edit):
Orlando Sentine 20140210
Based on reading that profile of him, my guess is that David’s gonna do what he’s gonna do (within the law), because he’s a bad boy billionaire.
The announcement about proceeds going to the TM foundation is a semi-sop thrown to appease people who don’t like the idea of the match. I say “semi” because David probably isn’t scared about any ‘threats,’ but he would want people to watch the match rather than boycott it.
Now, GZ getting bloodied, and all proceeds going to the TM foundation? Oh yah, I can see GZ getting bloodied for free (not).
I can see billionaire David ponying up some bucks for the TM foundation–and paying GZ on the side.
Remember, Alkiviades, the current limit on non-taxable gifts is $14,000. (Me giving a billionaire financial advice–we have officially entered the Twilight Zone.)
As long as we’re already in the Twilight Zone, a semi-bizarre coinkydink: I was idly wondering what David’s very Greek first name (Alkiviades) meant, and a quick google tells me that it can also be spelled Alcibiades.
You know, Plato’s buddy. Now, let’s see, which GZ buddy was it that was such an Alcibiades fan…
Wow. Shirley Temple died today. RIP, Dimples.
If not already following the case and you’re interested in the Michael Dunn case (shooting of 17 year old Jordan Davis at a gas station after dispute over loud music), it seems that the defendant will be taking the stand today. Live stream here.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/story/news/local/michael-dunn-trial/2014/02/06/michael-dunn-trial-live-video/5262617/
I understand from skimming headlines that they might actually wind up this case today?
That seems fast, but then GZ’s trial didn’t take all that long once they got past the preliminaries of hearings and jury selection, etc.
I hope they convict Dunn. Just from what little I’ve read about the case, he comes off like a guy that killed not out of self-defense, but rather anger.
Well, TMZ has a telephone interview with promoter Alkiviades David:
TMZ 20140210
The big takeaway is that David admitted GZ hasn’t agreed to any Fight Club-style match as yet.
I’m thinking the only kind of bare-knuckled action GZ likes involves him using knives and firearms.
TMZ’s owner/operator and lawyerHarvey Levin didn’t even address the legality of a bare-knuckled fighting match (it’s illegal in many countries).
Not that a detail like that would trouble a billionaire. I imagine that David could easily find a host site, and fund everything needed to make it happen.
No, again, I suspect the biggest stumbling block is stumblebum Zim.
In an incredible coinky-dink, Univision published an ‘exclusive” interview with GZ yesterday (link courtesy of Nettles at her wordpress annettekblog):
Univsion 20140210
The clip is only about 33 seconds, and appears to be a promo.
Puede que hayas sido encontrado legalmente “No culpable”, pero eso no te hace inocente, mentiroso.
Here’s the latest from Damon Feldman with regard to the ‘celebrity’ boxing match with GZ:
<a href=”http://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/02/11/george-zimmerman-fight-march-15/’>Philly dot com 20140211
We need Miss Marple to figure out what the heck is going on.
The Eightfold Path to Kicking GZ’s Sorry Behind.
Per David, it was already going to be a bloodbath. What is ‘Fight Club’ besides a bloodbath?
The TM Foundation might have already told David that they want no part of this. In order to maintain some semblance of decency, a donation to some other charity may be made.
Oof! I messed up the HTML in post #5970. ‘S’all right so long as it’s still readable, and more importantly, doesn’t hose the thread…
News13 20140211
Q: What’s ‘thug’ music?
A: I dunno, what kind of music does Dunn like?
On the stand, Dunn said that he didn’t recall saying “I hate that thug music”. But he conceded that if he said anything, he would have called it “rap crap”. Oh yeah, that makes it better if he didn’t use the word “thug”. (insert sarcasm).
@ wassointeresting,
Yah, it doesn’t look too good on him that it’s his own fiancee testifying that he’d said “I hate that thug music.”
I was reading commentary over at the Root, and somebody observed that loud music didn’t justify murder, otherwise most of us wouldn’t have survived our teens.
Heck, I crank it up even now. One of these days I’ll probably get offed for playing anything from Armstrong to Bach to Zappa. Oh wait, I’m white–and female…
Hat tip to Xena at her blackbutterfly7 wordpress blog for alerting me to the latest ‘celebrity’ fight match update from TMZ:
TMZ 20140211
<
blockquote>
As we reported … FilmOn.com CEO Alki David wanted Zimmerman to fight multiple high profile opponents in a fight-club style match … and said he would donate all profits to the foundation created by Trayvon Martin’s family.
But late today the foundation told TMZ it would NOT take any money from the fight, saying it “stands boldly against any act of violence” and would reject David’s donations.
Kinda what I figured the foundation would say.
Good.
It was always safe to offer to donate the proceeds to the foundation because there was no way they could ever accept it.
So we have 2 producers who got free publicity for themselves without actually setting up and delivering on a fight.
But I don’t think the final shoe has dropped on this celeb boxing story.
I don’t know how well that publicity worked out for Feldman. David is another matter.
And then there’s GZ…
Ya know, if you really want to know the provenance of that “Dukes Up” picture of GZ, you could email the author of the Radar Online article: aryland at radaronline dot com.
Man, I am having a bad HTML day.
Tsk. Tsk. Alki David. The first rule of Fight Club is YOU DO NOT TALK ABOUT FIGHT CLUB!
But really, GZis beyond the Fight Club stage. He’s already a one-man Project Mayhem.
… hey, there’s a career move for GZ! If he replaced the actor who plays “Mayhem” in those Allstate commercials, insurance sales would REALLY go up.
Yeah, put it on the list of ways David is a bad boy: he talked about Fight Club.
All joking aside about a job for GZ, please, universe, give this alphahole a job where I don’t have to see or hear him.
Orlando Sentinel 20140212
This divorce is ‘interesting’ for one main reason: the contention that SZ should be required “to pay all debts incurred by the parties prior to the dissolution of marriage.”
Hmmm, would that mean the $2.5 million racked up because of GZ killing TM?
I would think GZ would have to prove that SZ was somehow ‘at fault’ for the homicide. Otherwise, GZ is just squittering again.
Meanwhile, GZ appears to be racking up even more debt:
avvo dot com
As a side-bar, I feel sorry for those two doggies. They are blameless victims. Where are they living these days?
Oops, I forgot about all that “for richer or poorer” marriage vows stuff.
This is probably all just typical legal posturing in a divorce, but the divorce itself does present the tantalizing prospect that something about the homicide may be revealed.
Hey, I can dream, can’t I?
Univision has a ‘new’ 01:56 clip on GZ, but it appears to deal with the various legal scrapes he’s been in since his acquittal on murder/manslaughter charges:
Univision 20140212
Towards the end of the clip, they show the same woman apparently talking with GZ, and then GZ looking the same as he did in the clip from 20140210: very short hair, clean-shaven, heavy-set, and wearing the same clothes (shirt under a sweater).
Hey, if Univision has a new, exclusive interview with Killer Boy? Cough it up.
Ask and ye shall receive. Univision Noticias has a Youtube video (link courtesy of Nettles at her wordpress annettekblog), and at the end of it, they indicate that they’ll be showing an interview “ESTE DOMINGO 7PM/6C” (This Sunday at 19:00/18:00 Central):
You Tube 20140211
I see an hour-long program on Univision called Aqui y Ahora (Here and Now) in that time frame. That appears to be it, because I also found this link at Univision:
Univision 20140210
Yeah, I bet he’s “triste.” Horror of horrors, he’s not universally admired.
Well, now CNN is advertising an interview with GZ on what appears to be their daily morning talking-head show (NewDay) this coming Tuesday, between 06:00 and 09:00 Eastern Time:
CNN twitter 20140214
They show a picture of GZ that looks quite similar to the clip at Univision: close-cropped hair, clean-shaven, heavy-set, wearing a shirt under a sweater.
Depending on your view of these things, the advantage/disadvantage of the CNN interview over the Univision one is that GZ presumably will be telling lies in English.
Apparently Hal Boedeker of the Sun-Sentinel has gotten an advance look at the CNN interview of GZ:
Sun-Sentinel 20140214
Gee, you don’t suppose it’s because GZ might be a remorseless narcissist?
With regard to the upcoming GZ interviews on Univision and CNN: On the one hand, it is bad to feed his apparently insatiable appetite for attention, but on the other hand, they represent two more opportunities for GZ to screw up in public, recorded for posterity.
Just for starters, I hope body language experts will assess his ‘performances.’
And who knows, he could even say something the feds find interesting…
Orlando Sentinel 20140215
GZ addressed the issue of the ‘celebrity’ boxing match (boldface font my edit for emphasis):
“[N]ot right.”
The whole thing was “not right” from the get-go, but my guess is that GZ probably only began to think it was “not right” once the original promoter (and convicted fight-fixer) Damon Feldman dropped out, and the new promoter billionaire Alkiviades David announced that the match would be something more akin to “Fight Club.”
The article is full of jaw-tightening tidbits, including that GZ is now essentially ‘homeless,” and suffering from PTSD. The world’s smallest violin, bub…
More droppings from the Univision interview in the Daily Mail article:
Daily Mail 20140215
A link to an English translation of GZ’s Univision interview (courtesy of Nettles at annettekblog at wordpress):
Annette Kelley at scribd 20140216
I haven’t read the whole thing yet myself.