Zimmerman and the Jury Trial System

Demonstrators held a peaceful rally in Beverly Hills against the George Zimmerman trial verdict, but 17 people were arrested during a rally that turned rowdy in Victorville, California, authorities said Wednesday night.

The block immediately west of Highland Avenue in Hollywood is a tourist Mecca. The Famed Grauman’s Chinese Theater is there. Almost immediately next door is the Dolby (Former Kodak) Theater that is home of the Academy Awards show. Across the street is the El Capitan Theater. See pictures in the Los Angeles Photo Gallery.

I have visited this area dozens of times. But since the Zimmerman trial the area has become a center for demonstrations against the verdict. That has led to criminals storming the streets to steal whatever they can. It’s just an excuse for criminal behavior that some believe will not result in punishment. They are wrong. The police have made arrests.

I have served on many juries both civil and criminal. Once in the deliberation room all of those jurors struggled to reach the correct decision.

The O.J. Simpson murder trial resulted in a not guilty verdict. There were no demonstrations even though many believed him to be guilty. Both the prosecutors and the defense attorneys did their best to convince the jury.

I know of no better system to determine guilt or innocence. Highly capable lawyers do have a bearing on the outcome. O.J. Simpson’s lawyers were among the best. If Zimmerman was Black and Martin was White would the verdict been different? I believe the answer is Yes. There is racial bias/bigotry in this country and I hear some of it almost every week. Still this is the system. The law must prevail.

Demonstrations are permitted. Vandalism is not.

Multi Level Marketing – The Big Scam

Those involved or in the know call these businesses MLM. Three of the best known companies are Amway, Herbal Life and Mary Kay Cosmetics.

It’s all based on hope! The people at the top do make a lot of money. Despite what the Federal Trade Commission says MLMs are pyramid schemes where the people at the bottom make little or nothing. MLMs grow primarily through recruitment of new sales people.

Multilevel marketing (MLM) companies employ a network of independent salespeople who sell products directly to people in their community. These salespeople earn income based on their personal sales, as well as the sales of people they recruit to work for the company. The Federal Trade Commission says that a company only qualifies as a pyramid scheme if its salespeople are paid primarily on the basis of recruitment, as opposed to the sale of a retail product or service.

In 2011, about 25% of Herbalife’s salespeople achieved so-called “leader status,” qualifying them for commission checks. Of these top sellers, active leaders received a median annual income of $637. Meanwhile, the top 0.6% had a median compensation of $336,901, according to company filings.

Primerica Life, a life insurance company, has used a different twist to the MLM business plan. Each year about 200,000 people pay $99 to be a Primerica agent. The promise is that you can earn $100,000 per year. About four people per month have achieved that goal out of the 15,000 who pay the membership fee each month. The catch is that fewer than 20% pass the licensing exam. They do not receive a refund of the $99.

Sources for this piece are Businessweek June 30, 2013 and http://money.cnn.com/2013/01/09/pf/multilevel-marketing-industry/index.html

Proletariat

It’s a French word meaning “The class of industrial wage earners who, possessing neither capital nor production means, must earn their living by selling their labor.” In Marxist theory they are the class of wage-earners, especially industrial workers, in a capitalist society, whose only possession of significant material value is their labour.

The Congressional Budget Office has issued a report saying that the lowest earning 20% of Americans have seen their income increase by 18% since 1980. The highest earning 1% saw their earnings increase by 275% in the same period. At the same time the number of middle class families declined. Those middle class families have become even poorer.

From the CBO report:

The share of income going to higher-income households rose, while the share going to lower-income households fell.

The top fifth of the population saw a 10-percentage-point increase in their share of after-tax income.
Most of that growth went to the top 1 percent of the population.
All other groups saw their shares decline by 2 to 3 percentage points.

In other words the proletariat has increased in numbers even as the richest became even more wealthy. The reason? The outsourcing of manufacturing, along with increases in technology, has reduced labor requirements. America just does not need as many middle management workers.

The social issue is the question, how will we feed and support a society that offers declining opportunity for those who lack technical skills? Most people recognize the question but neither private enterprise nor government is prepared to discuss the issue.

Perhaps the majority, by their behavior, are saying, “Who cares? The stock market is up, my house value is up and cars are selling well. So what’s the problem?”

U.S. Health Care – Not so Good

12 years ago, the World Health Organization released the World Health Report 2000. Inside the report there was an ambitious task — to rank the world’s best healthcare systems.

The results became notorious — the US healthcare system came in 15th in overall performance, and first in overall expenditure per capita. That result meant that its overall ranking was 37th.

The nation ranked number one is France. Italy is number 2, U.K. is number 18, Canada is number 30.

A 2012 report by Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation provided results of a world wide study of Infant Mortality Rate (Total Deaths per 1,000 Live Births). Of 209 nations Afghanistan is in last place at 121.63. Bermuda is in first place at 2.47. Italy in 5^th place at 3.36. France in 6^th place at 3.37. United Kingdom in 27^th place at 4.56. Canada is 33^rd at 4.85. U.S.A. is 40^th at 5.98. Details at http://kff.org/global-indicator/infant-mortality-rate/

CNN reports that Nearly 50 countries have attained universal or near-universal health coverage by 2008, according to the International Labor Organization. Several well-known examples exist like the UK, which has the National Health Service, and the Canadian public health care system. Wikipedia lists the countries.

Oh yes there are reasons to oppose universal / socialized medicine. Someone other than your doctor will have to decide if the procedure is appropriate. Currently In the United States it is your insurance company.

LA Observed

Los Angeles is a busy city. Not only does 40 % of all imports to the USA enter the country through the Los Angeles-Long Beach ports but this is the city that brings entertainment to the world. This is the place where all the stars shine. LA Observed offers links and information in a concise package. The link is on the right. For now just click here.

Money Wasted on Border Security

Forgiving someone after breaking a law is amnesty. Both Republicans and Democrats are interested in Hispanic votes for their party. Neither cares about the well being of the country. The Los Angeles Times reports that The $46-billion security package in the immigration bill would benefit aerospace, technology and security companies, as well as border states. This is an unnecessary expenditure.

We can obtain substantially reduced illegal entry into the United States by denying undocumented workers employment.

Emphasis is on Hispanics because they are the largest group of illegal aliens. It has been reported that 40% of those in the country illegally are not from Latin America. Under current federal law, it is illegal for any employer to hire, recruit or refer for a fee any alien not authorized to work in the United States. For first offenders, there is a $250-$2,000 fine per illegal employee. For a second offense, the fine is $2,000-$5,000 per illegal employee. If the administration simply enforced the law there would be no problem and amnesty would not be an issue.

So why haven’t we simply enforced existing laws? My guess is that leading members of both political parties do not have the stomach to deny anyone a job. In addition companies that hire illegal aliens have a lobby that is successfully impeding government action against employers.

We need a new immigration law that provides for both migrant workers and high tech workers. The Senate bill would encourage more illegal immigration.

Best Place to Sit on an Airplane

The Boeing 777 crash in San Francisco brings one question to mind. Where is the best place to be seated to survive? ABC and CNN both say aisle seats near an exit. Popularmechanics.com had this seating chart on survival rates.

Leica and the Jews

This article came to me via an e-mail. I do not know the original origin or author. There is a Wikipedia entry titled Leica Freedom Train.

David Bancroft

The Leica is the pioneer 35mm camera. It is a German product – precise, minimalist, and utterly efficient.

Behind its worldwide acceptance as a creative tool was a family-owned, socially oriented firm that, during the Nazi era, acted with uncommon grace, generosity and modesty. E. Leitz Inc., designer and manufacturer of Germany ‘s most famous photographic product, saved its Jews.

And Ernst Leitz II, the steely-eyed Protestant patriarch who headed the closely held firm as the Holocaust loomed across Europe, acted in such a way as to earn the title, “the photography industry’s Schindler.”

As soon as Adolf Hitler was named chancellor of Germany in 1933, Ernst Leitz II began receiving frantic calls from Jewish associates, asking for his help in getting them and their families out of the country. As Christians, Leitz and his family were immune to Nazi Germany’s Nuremberg laws, which restricted the movement of Jews and limited their professional activities.

To help his Jewish workers and colleagues, Leitz quietly established what has become known among historians of the Holocaust as “the Leica Freedom Train,” a covert means of allowing Jews to leave Germany in the guise of Leitz employees being assigned overseas.

Employees, retailers, family members, even friends of family members were “assigned” to Leitz sales offices in France, Britain, Hong Kong and the United States, Leitz’s activities intensified after the Kristallnacht of November 1938, during which synagogues and Jewish shops were burned across Germany.

Before long, German “employees” were disembarking from the ocean liner Bremen at a New York pier and making their way to the Manhattan office of Leitz Inc., where executives quickly found them jobs in the photographic industry.

Each new arrival had around his or her neck the symbol of freedom – a new Leica camera.

The refugees were paid a stipend until they could find work. Out of this migration came designers, repair technicians, salespeople, marketers and writers for the photographic press.

Keeping the story quiet The “Leica Freedom Train” was at its height in 1938 and early 1939,delivering groups of refugees to New York every few weeks. Then, with the invasion of Poland on Sept. 1, 1939, Germany closed its borders.

By that time, hundreds of endangered Jews had escaped to America, thanks to the Leitzes’ efforts. How did Ernst Leitz II and his staff get away with it?

Leitz, Inc. was an internationally recognized brand that reflected credit on the newly resurgent Reich. The company produced cameras, range-finders and other optical systems for the German military. Also, the Nazi government desperately needed hard currency from abroad, and Leitz’s single biggest market for optical goods was the United States.

Even so, members of the Leitz family and firm suffered for their good works. A top executive, Alfred Turk, was jailed for working to help Jews and freed only after the payment of a large bribe.

Leitz’s daughter, Elsie Kuhn-Leitz, was imprisoned by the Gestapo after she was caught at the border, helping Jewish women cross into Switzerland . She eventually was freed but endured rough treatment in the course of questioning. She also fell under suspicion when she attempted to improve the living conditions of 700 to 800 Ukrainian slave laborers, all of them women, who had been assigned to work in the plant during the 1940s. (After the war, Kuhn-Leitz received numerous honors for her humanitarian efforts, among them the Officer d’honneur des Palms Academic from France in 1965 and the Aristide Briand Medal from the European Academy in the 1970s.)

Why has no one told this story until now? According to the late Norman Lipton, a freelance writer and editor, the Leitz family wanted no publicity for its heroic efforts. Only after the last member of the Leitz family was dead did the “Leica
Freedom Train” finally come to light.

It is now the subject of a book, “The Greatest Invention of the Leitz Family: The Leica Freedom Train,” by Frank Dabba Smith, a California-born Rabbi currently living in England .

Thank you for reading the above, and if you feel inclined as I did to pass it along to others, please do so. It only takes a few minutes.

Memories of the righteous should live on.

The Meaning of the Fourth of July

The meaning of the Fourth of July is clearly enunciated when we watch the news from Egypt. A democratically elected president was removed from office by a military force.

The Associated Press reports that Egyptian authorities shut down four Islamist TV stations, banned the Muslim Brotherhood’s newspaper and raided the office of Al-Jazeera’s Egypt affiliate in crackdown on media considered sympathetic to ousted President Mohammed Morsi. Of course this action brought an outcry from rights groups.

Even when Americans don’t agree with the government’s actions we use the ballot box to remove the unwanted official. There is no military action. There are no riots in the streets.

It is my understanding that Mohammed Morsi was an assistant professor at California State University Northridge. He obviously understands how democracy functions. Others in Egypt may not understand the democratic process.

Even when we disagree in the United States, we know there is a process.

Amnesty – Comprehensive Immigration Reform

Amnesty. Synonyms are Official pardon, General pardon, Reprieve, Forgiveness.

Senate Bill 744, the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill has one substantial flaw. It is amnesty. It would immediately provide legal residency to millions of illegal aliens. They may have entered the country legally on a visitor’s visa or passport or they may have snuck into the country without any legal documentation. In both instances they were never given permission to live permanently in the United States.

My concern is the message that this Senate bill sends to the world. That is if you can manage to sneak into the United States and find employment we will ultimately grant you a green card and the opportunity to become a citizen. Thus this will not be the final wave of illegal immigration. It will be the second wave of illegal immigration. President Reagan’s amnesty law was the first. This law will be marked as an invitation for many more to sneak into this nation.

Everyone will agree that bolstering the border with 24-hour drones, 20,000 new Border Patrol officers and 700 miles of fence are good ideas. The idea that new immigrants must pay fines and fees, know English and be in good standing after undergoing background checks are good plans. However, the reality is that there are communities where English is rarely used. We provide citizens with ballots in many languages. There is no motivation to learn English. There is no motivation to participate in American culture.

I am not contending that all illegal aliens are refusing to become part of American culture. I am contending that large numbers of them do not integrate because they are part of communities that insulate them from American life.

Dearborn, Michigan has a large Arabic/Muslim population. Comfortable for them. They live in a ghetto or barrio like community of their own making. The do not have to mingle with American society.

San Fernando, California is 92.5% Hispanic. The surrounding community is primarily Hispanic. If you work there or nearby you do not have to learn English. It is a Hispanic’s destination for those coming to metropolitan Los Angeles.

These are just two of the many ethnic communities that are insulated from American culture.

Participate in American society? They ask, why should we when we have brought our culture with us?