Weed ’em and reap. ~Author unknown

What is a weed?  I have heard it said that there are sixty definitions.  For me, a weed is a plant out of place.  ~Donald Culross Peattie

native peoples practiced sustainable harvesting and sowing that involved controlled burns as part of their land management. 

LASHKAR GAH, AFGHANISTAN – APRIL 01: (FILE IMAGE) U.S. Army Col. Paul Calbos walks through an opium poppy field on April 1, 2006 near Lashkar Gah in Helmand province in southern Afghanistan. European cities risk higher numbers of heroin overdoses as Afghanistan’s record opium poppy crop floods cities with the drug, the UN has warned. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

I learn more about God
From weeds than from roses;
Resilience springing
Through the smallest chink of hope
In the absolute of concrete….
~Phillip Pulfrey, “Weeds,”

But a weed is simply a plant that wants to grow where people want something else.  In blaming nature, people mistake the culprit.  Weeds are people’s idea, not nature’s.  ~Author Unknown

M.O.A.B – Mother of all buds ®

studies show, THC good for sick kids too

Water Melon Seeds:

Most slave were doctors, they knew the benefits of the Watermelons, known affectionately as “August hams,”

 

A weed is but an unloved flower.  ~Ella Wheeler Wilcox

 

Plan a Perfect Sidewalk garden-all kids

Crabgrass Was King | Eat The Weeds and other things, too

While we try to get rid of crabgrass in America in parts of Africa crabgrass (fonio) is a staple grain, and as forage it can produce a whopping 17 tons per acre.

Crabgrass can grow on bowling balls in airless rooms, and there is no known way to kill it that does not involve nuclear weapons.  ~Dave Barry

We can in fact only define a weed, mutatis mutandis, in terms of the well-known definition of dirt – as matter out of place.  What we call a weed is in fact merely a plant growing where we do not want it.  ~E.J. Salisbury, The Living Garden, 1935

Soil Vs. Dirt: What is the difference?

Babies Know: A Little Dirt Is Good for You

Training the Immune System

“What a child is doing when he puts things in his mouth is allowing his immune response to explore his environment,” Mary Ruebush, a microbiology and immunology instructor, wrote in her new book, “Why Dirt Is Good” (Kaplan). “Not only does this allow for ‘practice’ of immune responses, which will be necessary for protection, but it also plays a critical role in teaching the immature immune response what is best ignored.”

Soil contains microorganisms, decaying organic matter, earthworms and other insects.  Soil is a living environment.  The earthworms and insects aerate the soil and add to the organic matter of the soil through their waste and when their bodies decay.

Dirt is basically dead soil.  It does not contain any of the above.  You can add organic matter (compost) to dirt to revitalize it.  The organic matter will provide food for beneficial microorganisms so that the ecological system can start to regenerate.

“If a healthy soil is full of death, it is also full of life:  worms, fungi, microorganisms of all kinds …  Given only the health of the soil, nothing that dies is dead for very long.”
–  Wendell Berry,  The Unsettling of America, 1977

 

“The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.”
–  James Oppenheim

 

“If I wanted to have a happy garden, I must ally myself with my soil; study and help it to the utmost, untiringly. Always, the soil must come first.”
–  Marion Cran, If I Where Beginning Again

100 Things You Can Compost

The following list is meant to get you thinking about your compost possibilities. Imagine how much trash we could prevent from going into the landfills if each of us just decided to compost a few more things!

From the Kitchen

1. Fruit and vegetable scraps
2. Egg shells (crushed)
3. Coffee grounds
4. Coffee filters
5. Tea bags (Make sure they are made of natural materials like hemp or cotton, and not rayon or other synthetics. If in doubt, just open it and compost the tea leaves alone.)

 

• Decayed leaves create what is called leaf mulch. The structure we used to know as a leaf breaks down into a loose lace-like texture that eventually decomposes quickly into the soil. Leaf mulch in bare soil will be pulled down into the soil by earthworms: it is their favorite food!

 

Excerpt From: The Healing Grace of California Poppy

Below is my final assignment for Angie Goodloe’s Herbalist 101 course.  Be warned, it’s lengthy!  But there’s a surprise at the end.  If you have any interest in herbalism, I highly recommend Angie’s course.  It’s full of information, provides plenty of opportunity for you to get intimate with herbs and make those medicines.  And  Angie provides plenty of feedback and encouragement in her responses to the assignments. Fun stuff!

Also, Angie is currently offering the course at an absurdly low price ($35!).  I assure you, the course is worth far, far more than that!

California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica)

Alternate names: Copa de ora, Dormidera (the Drowsy One, since this ‘sun-worshipping flower’ closes its blooms at night)

Family: Papaveraceae

Patterns of the Poppy family are showy flowers with 2-3 sepals that shed early, petals in multiples of four, lots of stamens.  They often have milky sap in their stems.  Many plants in this family contain narcotic alkaloids.  Narcotics depress the central nervous system, sedating and offering relief from the feeling of pain (analgesic). [I’m noting Family characteristics in anticipation of work I’m doing with the Kamana Naturalist Training Program.  Currently in that program I’m journaling Plants, which will soon include detailing all the native plant families of my area.]

With that “Family background” in mind, let’s explore this beautiful herb …

The state flower of California, California Poppy is aptly chosen for this honor.    For countless generations the native peoples of California carefully cultivated this plant–as they did with many others–for food and medicine in monocropped expanses on hillside and in valleys.  European settlers thought they had arrived in untouched wilderness.  Not so.  The native peoples practiced sustainable harvesting and sowing that involved controlled burns as part of their land management.

It is said that north of Pasadena early Spanish sailors guided by a golden hillside in spring — a hillside shining with the bright orange-gold of the California Poppy.  It is also said that this was one reason they dubbed this coast “the Land of Fire” (the other reason being that there were indeed fires a-plenty due to lightning strikes as well as due to the dry, arid summers).

The Yuki tribe used it for toothaches, it was food for the Sierra Miwoks, the Ohlone used it for sleep, the Wintu used it to heal newborn baby belly buttons

The Nisenan ate the leaves either boiled or roasted with hot stones and then laid in water.  The Pomo mashed the seedpod or a decoction of it on a nursing mother’s breast to dry up her milk.  And the plant was given to babies as a sedative and placed under the bed for better sleep.  Other tribes rubbed a decoction of the flowers into the hair to kill lice.  The root juice was taken to relieve stomachaches and tuberculosis, and as a wash for weeping sores.

The plant itself: is a perennial or annual (further north) to 2 ft. tall with mostly basal with bluish-green lacelike leaves.  When I lived in the Pacific Northwest, the plant was an annual.  Here in my backyard in the San Francisco Bay Area, the plant is definitely a perennial.  The plant in these photographs is one that has been thriving since our arrival here last June.

The flowers sit atop a flattened rim on long stalks.  The flowers are of four shiny petals bright orange to yellow in color, sepals fused into cap, and falling off when it flowers.  Many stamens.  The fruit is long and slender, containing many black seeds.   It’s so satisfying to collect the seeds!   Just pluck off the dried pods and pop them into an envelope.  The plant flowers from February through November.

The plant is found in grasslands, hillsides, and open areas, in well-drained and poor soil, from Southern California up through Washington.

In terms of modern-day herbalism California Poppy has these characteristics.

Taste: Bitter

Energy: Cool

Organs affected: Liver, Heart

Actions (according to Lesley Tierra): calm the Spirit (I most definitely agree!)

Properties: Sedative, analgesic, anti-diarrheal, antitussove. diaphoretic, antispasmodic

Indications: anxiety, nervous tension, agitation, neuralgia, pain relief (including acute), nervousness, sciatica, herbes, shingles, heart palpitations, insomnia

Dose: rounded teaspoon of chopped plant as tea, drink 1-3 times daily; fresh plant tincture: 20-60 drops 1-4 times daily.  For sleep problems, take 20-40 drops one hour before sleep, then again right before bedtime.  For bedwetting in children over 5 years old, use with horsetail, 10 drops of each twice/day.

A mild sedative and analgesic, this plant is suitable even for children, though may cause a mild ‘hangover’ headache the next morning if used in excessive quantities.   Lesley Tierra writes: “California poppy wonderfully sedates, calms and relaxes the nervous system, treating symptoms of anxiety, nervous tension and agitation.  As well, it repairs nerves and alleviates nerve pain, especially from sciatica, herpes and shingles.  It is also used for heart palpitations and insomnia due to nervousness.

Contraindications: large amounts used sometimes cause nausia. Better not to use it during pregnancy.

Collecting: Gather the whole above ground plant and dry it.  Or tincture the whole fresh plant.  When I tinctured California Poppy in the past, I used the whole plant, including

The Health and Nutrition Benefits of the Coca Leaf

Coca leaf is  rich in beneficial antioxidants, including ones that help to protect the integrity of blood vessels.coca leaf, which is used as a flavoring ingredient in Coca-Cola.

Nutrition Benefits of the Coca Leaf

The coca leaf has been found to be a valuable dietary supplement. Several studies analyzed the nutrition characteristics of the coca leaf. Two notable ones include, a 2009 study published in the Food & Nutrition Bulletin (Can coca leaves contribute to improving the nutritional status of the Andean population?, Penny, Zavaleta, et al.) and a1975 Harvard study (Nutritional Value of Coca Leaf, Duke, Aulick, Plowman). They found that per 100g the leaves contained:

• Carbohydrates (44.3 g)
• Protein (19.9 g)
• Fat (3.3 g)
• Fiber (14.2 g)
• Vitamin A (10,000 – 14,000 IU)
• Vitamin B1 (0.58 – 0.68 mg)
• Vitamin B2 (1.73 mg)
• Vitamin B6 (0.58 mg)
• Vitamin C (1.4 – 53 mg)
• Vitamin D (trace amounts)
• Vitamin E (16.72 mg)
• Calcium (990.18 – 1749 mg)
• Copper (1.1 mg)
• Iron (26.8 – 45.8 mg)
• Magnesium (197 – 225 mg)
• Phosphorus (637 mg)
• Zinc (2.63 – 3.8 mg)

.

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	Erythroxylum coca rooted plant 1 year old rooted Erythroxylum coca plant the Incas domesticated this plant, tells the story of the Inca army made an extract of the leaf and chewing (to a bolus of leaves in the buccal mucosa) and extracted the juice from the leaf to mitigate the cold, hunger and fatigue, so the coca leaf was a vital element in the survival Inca

Iran-Contra: Who Leaked Ronald Reagan’s 1985-1986 Arms-for-Crack for holding Hostages Deals?

Ten American sailors were reportedly being held by Iran after two US Navy riverine patrol boats entered Iranian waters  hours before US President Barack Obama is due to give his final State of the Union address before Congress.

Backers of CIA-led Nicaraguan rebels brought cocaine to poor L.A. neighborhoods in early ’80s to help finance war — and a plague was born.

TEVA IRAN IWI

(22) A Mossad agent admits that, in 1984, Mossad planted a radio transmitter in Gaddaffi’s compound in Tripoli, Libya which broadcast fake terrorist trasmissions recorded by Mossad, in order to frame Gaddaffi as a terrorist supporter. Ronald Reagan bombed Libya immediately thereafter.http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/04/false-flags-2.html

IWI

IWI

TEVA IRAN IWI

‘US pressuring Israel to stop killing Iran nuclear scientists’ http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/business/gov-rick-scotts-drug-testing-policy-stirs-suspicio/nLq8f/

Backers of CIA-led Nicaraguan rebels brought cocaine to poor L.A. neighborhoods in early ’80s to help finance war — and a plague was born.

REAGAN’S HEART OF DARKNESS–A Legacy Of Pain South Central Los Angeles

Ronald Reagan Meets with the Taliban
“These Gentlemen are the Moral Equivalents Of America’s Founding Fathers.” – Ronald Reagan 1985

 President Reagan, as President was the country’s most notorious drug trafficker  history has ever known–More than One Generation of American Citizens having resultantly been destroyed by his election and subsequent Presidency

 SAM SMITH The nausea-inducing elevation of Reagan into someone he never was is another triumph of rightwing spin being swallowed whole by a media that not only doesn’t know the facts, it doesn’t even think it has to, for it, too, has become just another part of show business.

“It is clear that each US government agency which had a relationship with Noriega turned a blind eye to his corruption and drug dealing.

Backers of CIA-led Nicaraguan rebels brought cocaine to poor L.A. neighborhoods in early ’80s to help finance war — and a plague was born.

 

Guns haven’t made us safer: TrickleDown hasn’t made us richer; Global warming is real; Fair taxes/reasonable regulation aren’t Socialism Patrick Jennings ‏ ‪@PatJennings

 JUAN COLE – I remember seeing a tape of Reagan speaking in California from that era. He said that he had heard that some asserted there was hunger in America. He said it sarcastically. He said, “Sure there is; they’re dieting!” or words to that effect

GLENN KESSLER WASHINGTON POST – Reagan’s spending cuts barely nicked the fastest-growing parts of government, his tax cuts reduced revenue so much that later in his tenure taxes had to be raised repeatedly, his regulatory approach was criticized for leading to the savings and loan crisis and his unbalanced budgets to a near-tripling of the federal debt in eight years.

PHIL GASPER, COUNTERPUNCH – Reagan refused to mention AIDS publicly for six years, under-funded federal programs dealing with the disease and, according to his authorized biography, said, “Maybe the Lord brought down this plague,” because “illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments.”

 TOM CARSON, VILLAGE VOICE – Ronald Reagan is the man who destroyed America’s sense of reality – a paltry target, all in all, given our predilections. It only took an actor: the real successor to John Wilkes Booth. In our bones, we had always been this sort of bullshit-craving country anyhow, founded on abstractions:

“For many Americans, this was a time best forgotten,” said Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP and a longtime civil rights activist. “He was a polarizing figure in black America. He was hostile to the generally accepted remedies for discrimination. His appointments were of people as equally hostile. I can’t think of any Reagan policy that NEGUS’ would embrace.”

The former actor and California governor offended blacks when he kicked off his 1980 general election campaign by promoting “states rights” — once southern code for segregation — in Philadelphia, Miss., scene of the murder of three civil rights workers 16 years before. Early in his first term, Reagan ordered some of his toughest budget cuts in Medicaid, food stamps, aid to families with dependent children and other “means tested” programs that were critical to large numbers of lower-income black families. Until a public protest forced Reagan to back away, his Agriculture Department sought to cut the school lunch program and redefine ketchup and relish as vegetables.

JOE STRUPP, EDITOR & PUBLISHER – The death of Ronald Reagan has become yet another reminder that news organizations often turn sentimental at the death of a former leader, no matter what legacy he or she leaves behind. . .The overwhelming praise for a president who plunged the nation into its worst deficit ever, ignored and cut public money for the poor, while also ignoring the AIDS crisis, is a bit tough to take. During my years at Brooklyn College, between 1984 and 1988, countless classmates had to drop out or find other ways to pay for school because of Reagan’s policies, which included slashing federal grants for poor students and cutting survivor benefits for families of the disabled.Not to mention the Iran-contra scandal, failed ‘supply-side economics,’ the ludicrous invasion of Grenada, 241 dead Marines in Lebanon, and a costly military buildup that kept us closer to nuclear war than at any time since the Cuban Missile Crisis, besides leaving us billions of dollars in debt. And should we even mention the many senior Reagan officials, including ex-White House aide Michael Deaver and national security adviser Robert McFarlane, convicted of various offenses? What about Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger indicted but later pardoned by the first President Bush? “It is clear that each US government agency which had a relationship with Noriega turned a blind eye to his corruption and drug dealing,

 

In 1970 he had written a paper  in which he called for martial law in case of a national uprising by black militants. Among his ideas were “assembly centers or relocation camps” for at least 21 million “American Negroes.” Those words come from a time when Giuffrida was the head of then-Governor Reagan’s California Specialized Training Institute, a National Guard school. 

“This is an operation, this is an exercise, this is an objective which is going forward because in the long run . . . it is the only way that will be able to prevail [against anti-war protests.]”

Addressing the kickoff of Cable Splicer, Governor Reagan told some 500 military and police officers:

“You know, there are people in the state who, if they could see this gathering right now and my presence here, would decide their worst fears and convictions had been realized — I was planning a military takeover.”

General Anastasio Somoza, of the rightist regime, invited Sandino to meet in Managua for peace talks. Sandino agreed, and upon his arrival Somoza summarily seized and executed the man. The revolution was finally subdued, and in 1937 Somoza became dictator. From 1937 to 1979, Nicaragua was ruled autocratically by two successive generations of the Somoza family.  On August 22, 1978, twenty-four Sandinista guerillas stormed the national palace at Managua, and by July 17, 1979, the Sandinistas had formally taken power. The Sandinistas quickly wrote and passed a provisional constitution, The Fundamental Law of State. This constitution guaranteed human rights that were previously ignored by the Somoza regime. It guaranteed equal justice under law, the right to free expression, and the abolition of torture. It seemed that the people were already benefiting from this great revolution, which truly did liberate them.

With the discrete help of the US, these so-called counter-revolutionaries, or contras, began a guerilla war on the Sandinistas. Despite the irony of this switch in positions, the contras, indeed, became guerillas (revolutionist; terrorist.) right after the Sandinista guerillas had ousted them from power. Though the Reagan administration was officially forbidden by congress to support the contras, the US secretly provided financial aid for them. Through Ollie North and the highly controversial Iran-Contra Affair, the US provided the contras with endless financial aid stemming from profits from an illegal arms trade with Iran.

 Democratic Anti-Contra-War Campaign The socialist oriented Left had a natural affinity with the Leftist Sandinista Revolution. Reagan administration officials illegally sold arms to Iran and used the profits to illegally supply arms to the Contras The conference issued a statement declaring that “the United States government bears a direct responsibility for the long suffering of the Nicaraguan people”

“Once you set up a covert operation to supply arms and money, it’s very difficult to separate it from the kind of people who are involved in other forms of trade, and especially drugs. There is a limited number of planes, pilots and landing strips. By developing a system for supply of the Contras, the US built a road for drug supply into the US.”“Former CIA agent David MacMichael

In 1984, U.S. officials began receiving reports of Contra cocaine trafficking. Three officials told journalists that they considered these reports “reliable.” Former Panamanian deputy health minister Dr. Hugo Spadafora, who had fought with the Contra army, outlined charges of cocaine trafficking to a prominent Panamanian official and was later found murdered. The charges linked the Contra trafficking to Sebastián González Mendiola, who was charged with cocaine trafficking on November 26, 1984, in Costa Rica.

Reagan Administration admits Contra-cocaine connections

On April 17, 1986, the Reagan Administration released a three page report acknowledging that there were some Contra-cocaine connections in 1984 and 1985, arguing that these connections occurred at a time when the rebels were “particularly hard pressed for financial support” because U.S. aid had been cut off. The report admitted that “We have evidence of a limited number of incidents in which known drug traffickers have tried to establish connections with Nicaraguan resistance groups.” The report tried to downplay the drug activity, claiming that it took place “without the authorization of resistance leaders.”^[8]

Kerry Committee

Main article: Kerry Committee report

In 1986, Senator John Kerry and Senator Christopher Dodd proposed a series of hearings at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding charges of Contra involvement in drug trafficking; the hearings were conducted by Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the Republican Chairman of the Committee. The report of the Committee, released on April 13, 1989, found that “Contra drug links included… payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies.” The U.S. State Department paid over $806,000 to known drug traffickers to carry humanitarian assistance to the Contras.^[9]

Gary Webb[edit]

Former DEA agent Celerino Castillo alleged that during the 1980s Ilopango Airport in El Salvador was used by Contras for drug smuggling flights with the knowledge and complicity of the CIA. These allegations were part of an investigation by the United States Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.^[10] Castillo also testified before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Between 1996 and 1998 the Central Intelligence Agency investigated and then published a report about its alleged involvement in cocaine sales in the US. This was prompted by the journalist Gary Webb‘s report^[11] in the San Jose Mercury News alleging that the CIA was behind the 1980s crack epidemic. Gary Webb alleged through his Dark Alliance series that the government had been complicit in the trade of drugs in the inner city through the use of a kingpin named Freeway Ricky Ross. According to the Oakland Tribune, “In the course of his rise, prosecutors estimate that Ross exported several tons of cocaine to New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and elsewhere, and made more than $600 million in the process.”^[12][13][14]

 

• ‘Powerful reminder’: Ted Cruz flashes back to Ronald Reagan’s 1985 Thanksgiving address (twitchy.com)
• Watch: Ronald Reagan Delivers Stirring Radio Address to the Nation on Thanksgiving in 1986 (ijreview.com)
• ‘No Ronald Reagan on the scene today’ (wnd.com)
• Who Killed the Kennedys? Ronald Reagan’s Answer… (thecentralkentuckypatriot.wordpress.com)
• Maher: Reagan was a ‘square in a cowboy hat who had sex with a woman he called Mommy’ (rawstory.com)
• Art Imitates Life, Life Imitates Art – Brooklyn Cowboy or Lone Deranger? You Decide! Part 1 (poxamerikana.wordpress.com)
• Ronald Reagan’s Message To The GOP (themoderatevoice.com)

The Naval Versions of Reagan, Clinton, and Obama (sago.com)

• Who Killed the Kennedys? Ronald Reagan’s Answer… (thecentralkentuckypatriot.wordpress.com)
• Maher: Reagan was a ‘square in a cowboy hat who had sex with a woman he called Mommy’ (rawstory.com)
• Art Imitates Life, Life Imitates Art – Brooklyn Cowboy or Lone Deranger? You Decide! Part 1 (poxamerikana.wordpress.com)
• Ronald Reagan’s Message To The GOP (themoderatevoice.com)

The Naval Versions of Reagan, Clinton, and Obama (sago.com)

• Obama-contra (freebeacon.com)
• Crime History, Nov. 21, 1986: Oliver North, Fawn Hall begin shredding Iran-Contra evidence (dccrimestories.com)
• The Long Shadow Of Iran Contra (esquire.com)
• Obama’s Iran-Contra Moment (dish.andrewsullivan.com)
• NYC Mayoral Candidate De Blasio supported suppressing internal dissent, clamping down on a free press, antisemitism and persecuting the church and labor unions (atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com)
• President Ronald Reagan and the Real October Surprise (johnhively.wordpress.com)
• “We the People (or the 1%)” Bringing In Blacks with No Constitution – Skin Colour and the Constitution (ustaxpayerswill.com)
• Burke, Paine, and Reagan (nationalreview.com)
• Reagan’s Press Secretary Repeatedly Laughed At AIDS (bilerico.com)

Related articles

• Fight the right-washing of Nelson Mandela’s legacy (salon.com)
• Fox News Slimes Mandela: “A Great Man…But A Communist.” (jeffwinbush.com)
• Mandela was on US terrorist watch list till 2008 (alethonews.wordpress.com)
• Brian Dooley: Mandela, The United States, And Bahrain (huffingtonpost.com)
• Ronald Reagan’s Shining City Of Exceptional Immigrants (forbes.com)
• Reagan’s Press Secretary Repeatedly Laughed At AIDS (bilerico.com)
• Maher: Reagan was a ‘square in a cowboy hat who had sex with a woman he called Mommy’ (rawstory.com)
• Of course Rick Santorum is now comparing Obamacare to Apartheid (deathandtaxesmag.com)
• weird things I learned today about Nelson Mandela (busblog.tonypierce.com)

Children taken away too soon; Many times forever USA #PrisonIndustry

https://twitter.com/AlgebraPoints/status/399411742192590848

https://twitter.com/AlgebraPoints/status/399421329570398208

ALL WE NEED IS TO BRING CONFLICT RESOLUTION TRAINING SKILLS INTO THE CLASSROOM

MEASURING TRIANGLES OUR FAVORITE THING

The Algebra Project

Marvin Gaye asked “What’s Going on”

 

Children in Prison Industry

 In the beginning stages of Vernon’s incarceration it was hard especially being only sixteen amongst grown men, murderers, gang bangers and robbers.  It wasn’t no Disneyland, but he made it and as they say “Only the Strong Survive” and he’s done just that…..Survive!

From Jr. High School to #PrisonIndustry

Born in Los Angeles, California Vernon Steward was a young active go hard in the paint type of juvenile.  He started writing as a hobby, really just the lyrics of his own raps.  He always was inspired by 2Pac and his wisdom and his big cousin taught him a few things too.  After getting in some trouble and going to prison so young Vernon realized it was a major blow to himself and his family.  However while being incarcerated He grew up to be a man, a great man, an intelligent young black man at that!

Vernon’s writings didn’t begin until he started his struggle day in and day out using it as a form of positive release.  It wasn’t until later that he realized he could really do something with it, and being incarcerated did not always have to be the end.  Incarceration at an early age for most may have been the end of the road.  However Vernon used life’s lessons as inspiration and motivation to put a pen to a piece of paper and allow his own thoughts and experiences to flow making for incredible pieces of literary greatness.

CASH FOR KIDS

 

Children  taken away too soon; Many times forever USA #PrisonIndustry

Closing the PipeLine

The United States #PrisonIndustry stands alone worldwide in imposing sentences of life without parole on juveniles. The U.S. achieved this unique position by slowly and steadily dismantling founding principles of the juvenile justice system. Today a record number of people are serving juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences in the U.S. for crimes committed before their 18th birthday. Sentences of life without parole are often erroneously believed to translate to a handful of years in prison followed by inevitable release. The reality is that a life sentence for a child without parole means that the Baby will die in prison. Copyright @ 2012 by The Sentencing Project. Reproduction of this document in full or in part, and in print or electronic format, only by permission of The Sentencing Project

Mississippi is a state long recognized for it’s systemic and systematic racism and bigotry, particularly towards Black Americans.

The findings by theMississippi Department of Justice expose this latest case of Jim and Jane Crow-ism to the world with its findings that Black students were being disproportionately targeted for a ‘School to Prison’ pipeline.

The Equal Justice Initiative reports:

Meridian police automatically arrest public school students when called by school officials, often without determining if there is probable cause. Students are then put on probation, sometimes without proper legal representation, and are required to serve any subsequent suspensions from school in the juvenile detention center.

The system has led to students being incarcerated in the detention center for dress code violations, flatulence, profanity, and disrespect.

“The students most severely affected by these practices are black children and children with disabilities in Meridian,” the Justice Department said in a letter to Mississippi’s governor, attorney general and various officials in Meridian and Lauderdale County.

“These entities, working in conjunction, help to operate a school-to-prison pipeline that routinely and repeatedly incarcerates children for school disciplinary infractions,” the letter alleged.

If the matter isn’t corrected soon, the Department has said it will sue the Lauderdale County Youth Court, the Meridian Police Department and the Mississippi Division of Youth Services, a division of the state Department of Human Services.

This article was written by JG Vibes and originally published at The Intel Hub

On Wednesday civil rights lawyers filed a lawsuit against the local government of Meridian, Mississippi, and other defendants for operating what has been called a school-to-prison pipeline in which students are denied basic constitutional rights, sent to court and incarcerated for minor school infractions.

The lawsuit says children who talk back to teachers, violate dress codes, and commit other minor infractions are handcuffed and sent to a youth court where they are denied their rights.

According to CNN:

“Also among the defendants were Lauderdale County, judges of the county’s Youth Court and the State of Mississippi Division of Youth Services.

About 6,000 mostly African-American students attend grades kindergarten through 12 in a dozen schools in the Lauderdale County School District.

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Roy Austin said Wednesday that Mississippi officials had failed to cooperate with the eight-month investigation.

“We had no choice but to file suit,” Austin said, giving examples of what he alleged are unconstitutional actions taken by the school district and court which include:

• Children are handcuffed and arrested in school and incarcerated for days at a time without a probable cause hearing.

• Children detained wait more than 48 hours for a hearing, in violation of constitution requirements.

• Children make admissions to formal charges without being advised of their Miranda rights.

• Children are not routinely granted legal representation during the juvenile justice process.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1.         Summary of the Recommendation 

This recommendation encourages the federal government, states, and school districts to pass laws and implement policies that will secure the right of every child to a high-quality education.   It also encourages attorneys and bar associations to help secure that right through improvements in state and federal law, representation of students, parents, and organizations, and community legal education.

2.         Summary of the Issue that the Resolution Addresses

Despite widely shared belief that every child deserves a high-quality education and ever growing recognition that a good education is essential both for individual opportunity and for societal well-being, fulfillment of that right remains out of reach for many, and disproportionately so for children of low-income families, children of color, children with disabilities, and other distinct groups.   And while some existing laws require that certain elements of a high-quality education be provided to at least some students, those provisions of law are often not well understood, implemented, or enforced.  The setting of standards for what students should achieve and for measuring whether students achieve it must be accompanied by actions to identify, and ensure that students get, the quality education that will enable them to achieve.  Without that, the goals remain unreached and the right unfulfilled.

3.         Please Explain How the Proposed Policy Position will Address the Issue

The recommendation seeks to address the barriers to making the right to a high-quality educational program a reality by calling upon state and federal legislative bodies and state, federal, and local education agencies to adopt and implement laws and policies that: (a) define the contours of that right, i.e., the core elements of a high-quality educational program to which every child is entitled; (b) ensure that schools provide those elements and have the resources to do so effectively; (c)  focus the functions of the agencies which oversee schools — federal Department of Education, state education departments, and school districts — on fostering schools’ provision of those elements of quality; (d) improve implementation and enforcement of existing provisions of law related to the provision of high-quality education; (e) enable students and their families to  and strengthen their voices in decisions that affect the quality of education they receive.   The recommendation calls upon attorneys and bar associations to help facilitate these efforts in seeking improved laws and policies, in representing children and their families to remedy denial of rights to high-quality education, and in community legal education and other assistance to help parents, students, schools, school systems and others understand and obtain improved implementation of laws advancing the right to high-quality education. Those very basic actions – defining the right and then aligning the programs of schools, the functioning of overseeing education agencies, implementation and enforcement of relevant existing laws, the voice of beneficiaries, and the active engagement and support of the bar – are necessary to attain that right.

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• • • An epidemic of life sentences (jsonline.com)
    • The Sentencing Project releases “Life Goes On: The Historic Rise in Life Sentences in America” (sentencing.typepad.com)
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    • Ga. Man Sentenced to Life Without Parole for Slayings of 8 Beaten in Mobile Home. (abcnews.go.com)
    • ‘In for life: out on parole’, violent criminals released from prison early (q13fox.com)
    • School Yards, Prison Yards, and Graveyards (jerrylwarren.com)

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Healthcare Stocks Up as Obamacare Takes Hold/Stop Fighting Blacks

 

Healthcare Stocks Up as Obamacare Takes Hold/Stop Fighting Blacks.

WHO IS SELLING PRISONERS

ALEC and News Corporation (parent company of Twentieth Century Fox, Wall Street Journal and Fox News)^[21]

Gov. Michael Easley; Richard Vinroot ; Candidate Dennis Wicker; Gov. Mike Foster ; Gov. Ronnie Musgrove Mark rubio; Rick Scott

Private Prisons in the South

http://www.followthemoney.org

MY DISTRICT BEFORE GOV BROWN SELLS PRISONERS:

TABLE 1: Top 20 Contributors Into District

Contributor	Total	% of Total	Sector
HEALEY, LAURETTE	$48,000	2.15%	Candidate Contributions
CALIFORNIA STATE COUNCIL OF LABORERS	$23,500	1.05%	Labor
JOHNSON, BRIAN	$20,000	0.90%	Uncoded
PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERS IN CALIFORNIA GOVERNMENT	$15,800	0.71%	Labor
CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION	$15,600	0.70%	Labor
CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS	$15,600	0.70%	Finance, Insurance & Real Estate
FOOD & COMMERCIAL WORKERS LOCAL 770	$15,600	0.70%	Labor
SERVICE EMPLOYEES LOCAL 721	$15,600	0.70%	Labor
PECHANGA BAND OF LUISENO MISSION INDIANS	$14,700	0.66%	Government Agencies/Education/Other
CALIFORNIA NURSES ASSOCIATION/NATIONAL NURSES ORGANIZING CMTE	$13,800	0.62%	Labor
LOS ANGELES POLICE PROTECTIVE LEAGUE	$12,700	0.57%	Labor
CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF HIGHWAY PATROLMEN	$12,000	0.54%	Labor
CALIFORNIA DENTAL ASSOCIATION	$11,700	0.52%	Health
TIME WARNER CABLE	$11,700	0.52%	Communications & Electronics
BARONA BAND OF MISSION INDIANS	$10,500	0.47%	Government Agencies/Education/Other
STATE BUILDING & CONSTRUCTION TRADES COUNCIL OF CALIFORNIA	$10,300	0.46%	Labor
SERVICE EMPLOYEES LOCAL 1000	$10,300	0.46%	Labor
CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF FORESTRY FIRE FIGHTERS	$10,000	0.45%	Labor
AT&T	$9,900	0.44%	Communications & Electronics
CALIFORNIA ASSOCIATION OF HEALTH UNDERWRITERS	$9,800	0.44%	Finance, Insurance & Real Estate

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