Fourth Annual crystelZENmud World Peace Award 2011

There comes a time on every inhabited Planet, when a developmental juncture leads in two directions; towards oppressive Fascism, or towards an reinvigorated 'Enlightenment', born of Reason, and running joyfully away -- from 'Despair'.

Our Planet Earth has passed a Century in global strife, for the economic control of primary Resources as a function of Market Domination. There is little dispute (except from the Controlling Class) as to the gains generated by the exportation of Death Toys, the domination via hegemonic wars, the fine art of Conquest Capitalism.

Fascists around the globe, sitting in Control Class positions (Central Banks, Governments, CEO-ranking Industrialists, Media CEOs and their 'faces'), assured themselves of their invincibility, inevitability, in perpetuity...

Until 2011.

In a global arising, first directed against Dictators of the Arab countries, and then against, in egalitarian spirit, the vast network of the One Percent, voices of the People echoed in strident demands. From Tunisia, Egypt, and other Arab lands, to Wisconsin and America, in Greece and Spain, Europe's States declared that they also, were loathe to continue being subjected to the whims of the Dictators (Economic) who had gambled with States' tax and revenue streams.

This small blog, as a voice of Logic and Reason, has unanimously awarded its Fourth Annual Global Peace Award 2011 to a vast contingent of disparate voices, seeking the Better World of Tomorrow, in their State, their Country, their Planet.

They are WE: the Ninety-Nine Percent, who seek to raise and educate healthy children, while working productively in an unbiased Economy, free to Associate and Voice their Opinions.

They are WE: the Ninety-Nine Percent, who recognize the failings of US-modeled Capitalism, as taught in Business Schools to US and Foreign-born students.

They are WE: who choose to stand up to Fascism in individual Protests, amassing a Common Voice and thereby Singing the Praises of our Life on Earth, shared until we die.

They are WE: and We are ALL

... and although we have not won yet, not in the USA, not in North America, not in all the Americas, not in All the Planet, WE will WIN... Tomorrow.

And the rest of this Millennium will be Good.

/°/***/°/* crystelZENmud *\°\***\°\
© 2011

STEAL THIS BLOG-post (common sense in the face of brutality)

Solidarity, people!

forgive the veiled reference to
Abby Hoffman's iconic
'Steal This Book' 

Disclaimer: this is hopefully 'common sense' advice: the author is not a lawyer, and arrested protesters should turn to their attorney or the NLG for professional assistance or advice!

I write to the people in our streets and occupying OUR public property of the United States, the men and woman of OUR vast land, and our brothers and sisters overseas: this post is Vital Information and should be shared, saved, disseminated bookmarked, etc.

It could mean your SURVIVAL, in Court or... in Life.

Chapter One: your Consciousness

Simply, it's hard to remember at the street, how to be 'arrested'; make sure you have the NLG (National Lawyers' Guild) local chapter number INDELIBLY printed on your skin (forearm suggested);

Remember every cop show you ever saw: the rights being read or spoken are your Miranda Rights: 'the Right to remain silent' applies even more during a protest arrest. These will be revisited below.

Chapter Two: your Evidence

Are you, or someone with you filming an out-of-control Police 'crack-down' on nonviolent protesters?

Remember: whoever is closest to the microphone, or you on your iPhone or 4-gen phone (mine is HTC), should ALWAYS - at least ONCE per two minutes announce the TIME and DATE. Something like this:

“This is zenmud productions:
it's 23h05, I'm at 15^th and Colfax, facing northwest... this is zenmud productions: it's 23h07, I'm at 14^th and Colfax, facing south... (continuously!)”

This will establish a higher threshold for the video as legal evidence of oppressive and illegal police actions. 

For still photo shots, having a wristwatch with date serves if you can take every 10th (or less) photo with the time and date.


Chapter Three: your Opponent

You are (I presume) a non-violent civil disobedience disciple, and you want to both state your views and keep the peace amongst like-minded protesters. Yet you are an Unknown Crowd to your opponent.

With their Kevlar, Tasers, Sound Cannons, Batons, GUNS and 'team-work' (they are much more organized than you are!) they operate in synch, under 'color of the law' and yet... they are human, and will certainly be carrying a mindset that is, frankly, similar to your own emotive state. They react to pressure in various ways, and implement 'marching orders' with the verve of a Marine breaking out of the forest.

Know this.


Chapter Four: your Arrest

When things get out of control, 'the tie goes to the winner' (under State authority), and the zip-ties go around your wrists. Youtubes show how to get out of Ziptie handcuffs, but do you want to add the count of 'escape from capture' to the mysterious charges you are being charged with?

Are you being read your Miranda rights?  Do you know when those rights come in to play? That would be 'before interrogation', not necessarily the moment you are restrained. But police become expert at 'listening' and even a tirade against them may perhaps be admissible if you can't keep quiet: do that!

Read the Miranda below, from the Court Decision that created it:  

...The person in custody must, prior to interrogation, be clearly informed that he or she has the right to remain silent, and that anything the person says will be used against that person in court; the person must be clearly informed that he or she has the right to consult with an attorney and to have that attorney present during questioning, and that, if he or she is indigent, an attorney will be provided at no cost to represent her or him.

Your Fourth Amendment? 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Within the Fourth Amendment lays the 'Exclusionary Rule'; courts were (in more rational days) quite stringent in enforcement of police procedural rules under this clause for the admission of evidence.

Know this: seek any avenue to have the Police evidence excluded to the degree you want YOUR evidence to prevail.

And yet the Fifth Amendment stands above as your shield against speaking, especially when the Police have violated your First Amendment Right to free speech, may have illegally searched your person or property (leave VERY LITTLE in your tent, if you are that lucky), and could easily intimidate you through interrogation techniques shared around the world, epicenter ABU GHRAIB.

The Fifth Amendment give you the right against self-incrimination:

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

Know this.




Chapter Five: your Case

Arrested (by whom? If at all possible find out as soon as possible)? Going to prison, hopefully without abuse. End of story after booking, or whatever... (I move on to the abuse cases)


An arrest under color of Brutality? Did your Officer (or Officers) use excessive force, illegal actions or otherwise 'come unglued'? You may be a victim of an Officer under the influence of unauthorized Prescription drugs.


I used to write extensively about the international regulation of Anti-Doping regulations for the World of Sport: this body of transferable knowledge is available to anyone who brings comments forth. One impressive 'ally' in that world was Dr Gaffney, of Steroid World (another focused blog), and I am glad to find him interested in Police Abuse of Steroids as well. The link above goes to his blog's collection of various cases of demonstrated abuse by Police in America.


Several states have investigated this, but maybe no State has been more transparent about it, as has New Jersey... 


In New Jersey, The Attorney General's Steroids Study Group published its hard-hitting report only this last July (2011), and reading it is enthralling: hundreds of Police (in one State!) using their taxpayer-paid medical care to purchase (via a certain 'Dr FeelGood': named in Report) millions of dollars' worth of drugs, taken simply to improve their musculature and not for a legitimate medical reason. In the world of Sport, Athletes require a 'TUE': a Therapeutic Use Exemption; these are issued by the Medical Officer taking legal responsibility for the issuance of a Prohibited Substance found on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).



It is highly doubtful that hiring municipalities are held to a systemically wide, uniform system of employee drug testing, especially for their Police (under the 'who would think it?' theory), as is the world of sport. Yet, Police have no more right to be illegally medicated than you, I, or any Professional Cyclist, amateur or NFL players (a list in no way limited to these categories...), and...


TESTED Officers found positive and without legitimate medical 'extenuating circumstances', standing over you with a Fury in their eyes? Broken ribs, teeth, fractures or deep bruises from thrusting baton-points; sonic canyons, tear gas or flash grenades... some 'authorized' personnel may have taken their 'initiative' outside the scope of that authority.
And...

Those Officers found 'positive' for Steroids or Amphetamines, or any other 'narcotic' that they (ironically) should be prosecuting and not consuming themselves, are losing 100s of thousands of dollars in liability cases, for the Abuse they've offered victims of criminally-dangerous drug-taking Jack-booted goons (who sadly, remain the 'scabs' of the 99 percent...



It's in the report: know this.


Call the NLG (If you read Chapter One above, you should have the phone-number on your arm, in indelible ink. (Magic Marker: name and phone of 'contacts' may help if you are unconscious...!) Know these things; they are what they are because of the Country we have: for good or evil peeps...



This IS the year: I posted this elsewhere on Facebook today, on the Occupy Denver page:

"377 days until the SHIT-STORM of 2012"

people... don't waste time 'reinventing the wheel' with each idiological (intentionally misspelled) opponent who wants to WASTE your time in 'blame-games' for the sake of their egos! 


They're either in 'the trenches' with you, or bringing you protest-supplies, or sharing YouTubes and articles around the world in support of 'our' efforts, or they don't realize they are WASTING precious time, not having the benefit of an 'A' in inertia-studies...


... because...


There are TWENTY-FOUR presidential elections next year, around the world!


From USA-France-India to East Timor and Russia...


don't spin your wheels peeps!


March and Occupy...!


This is THE YEAR... three-hundred and seventy-seven days"

... tick-tock ...

___________________ we've only just begun...

SNOW all day... Snow all night?

/°/***/°/* crystelZENmud *\°\***\°\
© 2011

Lost Job, Found Occupation

Fall fell, little ZEN'rs...

It's been too long away from this certain keyboard, and we at ZEN Central are quite depressed... the Occupy movement, one day in advance of the massive October 15th Demonstration date, seems to have come full face into the JACKBOOTED predictions of no other than George Orwell, whose comments in 1984 are themselves prevoyant of the times in which we find ourselves...

It dawns on some of our experts, that the One Percent (who rule America with an iron-gloved fist bashing down on sane regulation with every legalized BRIBE they offer to Congresscritters on either side of the aisle...) well some of us think that those ultra-snobs, who have sent the better part of their moneys overseas to safe banks in cities where French or Schweitzerdeutsch is spoken (or the Bahamas, the Caymans, etc...)... well some of 'we' think that 'they' should go the way their fortunes went... into



EXILE...

So as you float your boat of state, as you drive to work, think about why the election we face in 2012 is the most important of all American history...

Because either We, the Ninety-Nine percent will win, OR 'they' will... the One percent who always win...

/°/***/°/* crystelZENmud *\°\***\°\
© 2011 a zen productions article

Time to re-think the Blog crystelZENmud

Yessirree bob, li'l ZEN'rs...

When faced with a choice of writing here, or writing on Facebook... there's a tug away from my dear old blog, and to this sexy 'new' 'Social Network'... so trust yourself, and watch as crystelZENmud takes a small short already-in-progress hiatus, to re-emerge sometime in the next month with renewed focus, writings and hopefully, videos...

Until then, enjoy the snows of Colorado, here in the end of the third week of May...

/°/***/°/* crystelZENmud *\°\***\°\
© 2011

It takes a year, sometimes: inside the US and out

Wisconsin's somehow-majority Republican Fascist anti-American War Party members fired a shot reminiscent of Adolph Hitler's first anti-union strike in 1933, today, in decoupling their fiscal responsibility Bill from their anti-union posturing, and turning same into a true fight against Labour.

So be it... yet is Wisconsin ready for a reintroduction of Hitlerian fascism?



You can read any source anywhere... and if you're reading this, welcome! What an honour to have caught your eyes for mere breaths of time, moments of life, the pulsing of bloodstreams throughout our mutual beings... yet without comments from you, gentle Readers, we at ZEN Central have no clue of your satisfaction, your inquiring mind, wanting to absorb... the nexus of momentum analysed by our trusty gnomish brains...


Something about the "Arab Street"... as Thomas Friedman used to say it, many other pundits included those words as if describing something they 'knew'. And they may by far 'know it' more than I do, but there may be a difference.


I don't want to 'understand' the "Arab Street" through any Western prism.


I'd hope to understand a small part of it, through a 'native prism'... how Libyans have found the courage, individually and 'in numbers', to affront a 'Supreme Guide qua Dictator', and forage through their own belongings to constitute the arms of a real 'Army of Liberation'... anyone who can stand up to Ca-Daffy Duck (aka Gaddafi),as this man evidently will... (photo AP) ... is worthy of governing their tribal lands, maybe even a country.


Will they be 'democratic', or some form of simple dictator (let's face reality, somewhat... it remains to be seen, in Tunisia, Egypt or Libya (if!), whether some insane Bush-dream of 'democracy' is going to 'show up' just like CNN cameras to a hurricane neighbourhood, or whether some modern alternative to both dictatorships or democracy breeds new life into Saharan countries.


Wisconsin's pressure-cooker-Legislature put that State into a clear position supporting Fascist business/government alliances that won't resolve budget problems, and also serve to provoke a strong anti-Fascist wave of discontent that is perfectly malleable as we posture ourselves this summer for the next US marathon presidential inquisition (of 'new blood').


Is Scott Martin's regurgitation of Hitler's Main Early Manoeuvres enough to pull the Wisconsin 'Arab' into the streets of Madison? A great many people question how rabid are the not-nationally-known Wisconsin Republicans, their insidiously lock-step Tea Party allies, and how far towards Berlin 1938 they could possibly move?


While Sarkozy trotted home tonight, after (mais bien sûr!) realizing his image-makers had struck a coup (he smirks, not un-Bush-like) with their suggestion that he JUMP on the Libyan-rebel bandwagon, thus allowing him to pretend that he has actually done anything substantive, the rest of the EU was prancing out of step with Napoléon Sarkozy. Tant pis, Nico!


Wisconsin? Libya? Hitler? Ca-Daffy (Duck!)? Walker?


Funny, that: Walker and his people (inside and supporters outside) are probably thinking they are the 'opposition'... but Poli Sci 101 tells us different.


Oh, for the opposites that attract... hungry Libyans long-fatigued by Ca-Daffy-ism, in a similar place with the Wisconsin pro-Labour movement, protesting the incumbent and succeeding in their principal tasks, where those go towards bettering the lives of the greater number of citizens.


This late night ramble rumbles out of this keyboard, and into your screen...

Viva Libya!
Viva 'the Street'!


/°/***/°/* crystelZENmud *\°\***\°\
© 2011

PREVIEW of TIME'S "MEN OF THE YEAR 2011" (and Women)

It's OFFICIAL! TIME magazine just announced its 2011 "Person of the Year" award, which goes to the Men of Egypt (and if TIME forgot the women, we at ZEN Central did not!)!


This isn't anti-anything...





It is the opening of a new dawn: do we owe it all to the War Criminal President? Damn I hope not...


Oh! The women of Egypt also!




Time to Party Like It's 1999! Or 'Walk Like an Egyptian' (proudly, dignified)...


A satirical look at our exciting new 2011!

/°/***/°/* crystelZENmud *\°\***\°\
© 2011

... Jack CairoACK ...

Hello Li'l ZENers, to the last Eleven Months of the Year 2011...

Some readers have queried ZEN Central about any new writings to appear, and this author appreciates every SMS, text msg, phone call or email contact: thank you all, Gentle Readers.


2010; the 'Year of Transition', with ol' ZENmud taking a chance on finding some guidance in a misguided fashion, by dwelling optimistically at one of America's poorest Web businesses. It shall remain nameless in this column.


We wouldn't want to offer even 'negative publicity' to a website which daily reinforces its -F- rating with the Better Business Bureau; which, to some marketing angels, apparently never exists (with the possible exceptions of "Bhopal//Dow", "Gulf of Mexico//BP", or even "Rocky Flats//Dow" (did we 'getcha' with that third one?)).

Titling this essay 'Jack CairoACK' may be preposterous;
it may be judicious.

Being a distant, younger literary admirer of The Original Jack Kerouac, and his Beat classic opus On The Road, with its most poignant (à moi) segment (it responds to my perpetual 'Look for America' attitude...), regarding his visit in 1949 to Sonny Lawson Field, a small baseball park located at 23rd and Welton St. in uptown Denver (being mere blocks above downtown Denver). How did America-traversing Kerouac see this wayside oasis in a more vibrant Denver (post-war)? He gave us this:

Down at 23rd and Welton a softball game was going on under floodlights which also illuminated the gas tank. A great eager crowd roared at every play. The strange young heroes of all kinds, white, colored, Mexican, pure Indian, were on the field, performing with heart-breaking earnestness....
Near me sat an old Negro who apparently watched the games every night. Next to him was an old white bum; then a Mexican family, then some girls, some boys – all humanity, the lot. Oh, the sadness of the lights that night! The young pitcher looked just like Dean. A pretty blonde in the seats looked just like Marylou. It was the Denver Night; all I did was die.

Down in Denver, down in Denver
All I did was die.

Having spent post-parental-divorce years in Denver, with (for a period of over a year) a job downtown, I spent every working morning and evening at the opposite corner, southwest: the company Van sat there, every night, in a barb-wired, chain-linked fenced-off parking lot, and I gazed over at the lights and green grass of Sonny Lawson Field. It was a demoralized, and demoralizing area when I frequented that neighborhood, hurriedly. It was my nature to walk fast to it, and retreat as quietly as possible, in those still-racially charged days.


That very year - 1976 - was when I first read On The Road, and his revelations became mine. I opened my eyes to the Soul-saturated sinews of this Dharma-Denver, now more depressed. Saying 'Five Points' in my era was rushed and hushed, yet to Kerouac it represented the 'Best Jazz between Kansas City and Los Angeles'... or was it Chi-town: Chicago? Only ghosts and phantoms of riffs gone silent, remained in the winds which wound down these concrete ribbons.


Kerouac found (in one vein) what he sought out endlessly, driven by the squeals from the stands, the 'attaboys!' from the field: America can 'play' together, sometimes, some days, even when it can't work together, or live together, or abide each other. He wrote about his Denver Night twenty-seven years before I knew he had one... nine-thousand, nine-hundred Denver Nights before.


Before the Korean War?


Before Joseph McCarthy scapegoated all of Hollywood, and J Edgar Hoover drove Charlie Chaplin into exile?


In the midst of America's return from WW II's 'racial tolerance' to our rampant, historic racism, which Jack K must certainly have experienced, the quote above points optimistically toward a too-rare tolerance in Society, to be exalted, yet Kerouac benefited from the naivété of Communist-chasing governmental players, in Congress and the FBI, in writing what assuredly would have been seen, if published some fifteen years later (for On The Road) as more subversive.

Kerouac ... CairoACK?

Across the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and up-river on the Nile, Egyptians are looking à la Kerouac for the country that fulfills more realities than myths, while a mythic reality... the Mubarak-ian reality, totters.

Mubarak's universe, of course, represents autocracy repressing (or bribing) those classes of citizens in due course, to achieve some semblance of 'Egypt' that has created a stagnation (similar in fact to our US stagnation ever since Reagan breathed Oval Office oxygen), since Egypt signed its peace Treaty with Israel.


The Cairoic events of these last two weeks attracted the latest media frenzy, fed by 'Social networks' passing of first-to-second-hand information. YouTube has a video showing what may be one of the earliest feminine Cairoine's call to her countrymen for aid... for 'protection' of the women who were ready to stand for Mubarak's withdrawal from power.


Are those purported supporters, who ripped into Tuesday's and Wednesday's protesters, actually off-duty or civilian-clothed Egyptian police or military? Publicly, the Armed forces appeared to be taking a neutral stance, by saying it wouldn't strike down 'the Great People of Egypt' (thus appearing to weaken Mubarak's hold on power?). The Parisian newspaper Le Monde reports that Mubarak has 'had enough' of being President, and would gladly leave, yet fears that determination because of 'the chaos' it would leave in his parting... Yet a reader/commentator to that article (as we are all now, thanks to the Web) reminds us that NATO has spent Billions to 'support' democratic 'movements' (in Afghanistan and Iraq); are we supporting Mubarak or the 'democratization movement' in Egypt?


Thus is any CairoACK writing today, metaphorically euphorically, about the mix of Egyptians who've joined to promote redress of their economic and professional stagnation under Mubarak's near-pharonic rule? Has he found his "23rd and Welton" futbal field, where Copts, Christians and Islamic children kick their ball towards one of two goals, to the screams of parental or friendly supporters? Or is the 'street game' simpler than this supposes? Who needs a stadium of any size when Tahrir Square is serving for the manifestations? Is their game simply survival, or victoriously outlasting the Mubarak regime?


In the history of the development of the Internet, Egypt fared as well as South Africa in leading all statistics on Internet growth and density: Africa was 'wired in' from those two ends. Egypt, under former President Sadat, sought some semblance of Peace with Israel. Mubarak, who had become President upon Sadat's October, 1981 assassination, has enjoyed billions in US Aid, prime seats at 'all the right tables' in terms of geopolitical posturing, and a personal enrichment that is certainly impossible to ascertain.


While Jack Kerouac was watching baseball in North Denver, and then writing about it all, in 1949 and 1950, Hosni Mubarak was graduating ('Class of '49') from Egypt's "Egyptian Military Academy for officers ([whose] alumni include one of Mr. Sadat’s assassins)" (National Post)


Kerouac seemed to search for that 'We, the People' aspect of our American Story.


Mubarak? Pure ambition, apparently, drove him into that realm where military connections gravitate. Mubarak's fortune is estimated to be roughly 30-40 Billion dollars, and to be well-invested in the "usual Suspects' Banks". Between the US, and Switzerland, as well as Britain, much of Hosni's family nest-egg remains accessible, should any case similar to those brought against Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines be a forebearer of justice. So are Mubarak real estate holdings in London, Los Angeles, New York and Washington.


His people... (the supporters) would of course be more affluent, more travelled, more Capitalist; they would not be the type of Egyptians playing "23rd and Welton" styled futbal à la Kerouac.


The great Egyptian people may not have to go the distance many Peoples face, when seeking more-or-less pacific 'regime change'. The extent to which Mubarak's 'boys' can crack down on 'the people' (whether in or out of uniform) depends on the number of democratic demonstrators: if that grows in reaction to repression, Mubarak's Louis Vuitton luggage should be dusted off! Yet if repression chills demonstrators' numbers, resilience could be an asset for Mubarak.

A barbaric Mubarak, could bring out a hundred Ja'q CairoACKS...

... and that's a good thing ...

/°/***/°/* crystelZENmud *\°\***\°\
© 2011