.
Can't help but appreciate @reuterspictures photographer, Jim Young, for this ironic capture. #SeasonsGreetings indeed: image via Ahmed Sirour @AhmedistheOne, 24 November 2014
Taylor Swift’s performance of Blank Space at the American Music Awards included lots of pop theatrics -- from fire outbreaks to poison apples and ... picture frame choreography: photo by Christopher Polk /AMA2014 via The Guardian, 24 November 2014
A scene from tonight's unrest in #Ferguson: "Season's Greetings" (@AP_Images - Charlie Riedel): image via Mashable News @MashableNews, 24 November 2014
BREAKING: Same squad car that was trying to run protesters over is now on fire. #Ferguson: image via TheAnonMessage @TheAnonMessage, 24 November 2014
Selena Gomez debuted her new song The Heart Wants What It Wants at the AMA show: photo by Kevin Winter via The Guardian, 24 November 2014
#Ferguson police seem to think excessive use of force will silence folks angry about their excessive use of force: image via Zach Green 140 @elect, 24 November 2014
Walgreens on fire and people are rushing in before it burns down to loot more goods: image via Paul Lewis @PaulLewis, 24 November 2014
BREAKING: Dozens of squad cars advance into central #Ferguson. This is as close to martial law as we may get tonight: image via TheAnonMessage @TheAnonMessage, 24 November 2014
A protester walks out of a store with goods after the announcement of the grand jury decision Monday: photo by David Goldman/AP via The Guardian, 24 November 2014
Smoke bombs are fired on the crowd in #Ferguson after decision not to indict #DarrenWilson: image via CNN Video @ CNNVideo, 24 November 2014
Iggy Azalea and Jennifer Lopez closed the AMA show with the debut live outing of their single Booty: photo by Image Group LA via The Guardian, 24 November 2014
A scene from tonight's unrest in #Ferguson: "Season's Greetings" (@AP_Images - Charlie Riedel): image via Mashable News @MashableNews, 24 November 2014
A protestor in all black is now tagging buildings. Here's one. #Seattle #FergusonDecision #MikeBrown: image via Mitch Pittman @ Mitch Pittman, 24 November 2014
burning up corporate businesses #Ferguson: image via Bassem Masri @bassem_masri. 24 November 2014
AutoZone on fire #ferguson: image via Bassem Masri @bassem_masri. 24 November 2014
Little Caesar's burns in #Ferguson: photo by Robert Cohen @kodacohen, 24 November 2014
Protesters seen thru shattered window of county police car in #Ferguson: photo by Robert Cohen @kodacohen, 24 November 2014
Man blocks police tactical vehicle in front of the I Love #Ferguson store: photo by Robert Cohen @kodacohen, 24 November 2014
Seasons Greetings in #Ferguson: photo by Robert Cohen @kodacohen, 24 November 2014
STL @stlcountypd car burns in #Ferguson: photo by Robert Cohen @kodacohen, 24 November 2014
#Ferguson protesters in #Oakland shut down westbound I-580: image via SF Chronicle @ sfchronicle, 24 November 2014
Thousands protested tonight in #Oakland after the #FergusonDecision: image via KQED News @KQRDnews, 24 October 2014
RT @UnToldCarlisle LOS ANGELES: 10 Freeway from La Brea backed up for miles after #Ferguson protesters block freeway: image via Revolution News @NewsRevo, 24 November 2014
I went to college less than a mile from here. Never saw a group of people shut interstate down. #Ferguson: image via Nicholas J,C. Pistor @nickpistor, 25 November 2014
Cars burn at a car dealership in Ferguson: photo by Larry W. Smith / EPA via The Guardian, 24 November 2014
Protesters parade in the parking lot of a burning auto parts store in Ferguson: photo by Tannen Maury/EPA via The Guardian, 24 November 2014
Police arrive at a business in Dellwood, Missouri, as cars in a parking lot next to the building burn: photo by Charlie Riedel / AP via The Guardian, 24 November 2014
A man walks past a burning building during protests in Ferguson: photo by Jim Young / Reuters via The Guardian, 24 November 2014
Looters run out of a store in Ferguson: photo by Aaron P. Bernstein via The Guardian, 24 November 2014
A protester holding a flare runs on Highway 580 in Oakland, California: photo by Stephen Lam / Reuters via The Guardian, 24 November 2014
Unfortunately this is what happens when you have a President who is enamored of the mob, as opposed to being President of all the people.
ReplyDeleteFerguson as a community will be
scared and ruined as a destination for atleast a generation. Poverty and frustration will persist in that anybody with any brains will not now move there or start a business. So much for the "Community Organizer," helping
Ferguson.
Not all reckless drivers crash but they have an increased likelihood of doing so. Not all
who display thuggish behavior are
shot dead for not much but they do
enter into a danger zone.
The President should have been on
the streets last night leading the
"calm," he spoke of.
Elmo St. Rose,founding member of
UJOIN (union for jobs or income
now) summer 1964...a community
organization, a Sol Alinsky clone.
Notting Hill, Watts, Handsworth, Ferguson: not done yet.
ReplyDeleteWB, The list will grow and the anger and outrage will require ever greater levels of oppression everywhere, so that "calm" may be achieved -- "calm", that magical euphemism for "social order" (in the form of "terrified obedience") which is always on Bibi's tongue, when he is generously requiring it of subjugated Palestinians.
ReplyDeleteElmo, I doubt that having any President, even one of those peckerwood Klan-robe-in-the-closet types now straining at the civility leash to get into the Casa Blanca, descend with an entourage of secret service in X-Man glasses, into the streets of that town, would have cured the centuries of institutionally embedded and confirmed racism inscribed in the history of this country, which is in fact worse now than it was 60 years ago, when you and I were beginning to become approximately conscious and were under the lovely illusion it would be only a matter of time until indeed all men and women were equal.
The kid was walking home to his grandma's house to sleep on the couch when the cop shot him.
"Well, if one really wishes to know how justice is administered in a country, one does not question the policemen, the lawyers, the judges, or the protected members of the middle class. One goes to the unprotected — those, precisely, who need the law's protection most! — and listens to their testimony. Ask any Mexican, any Puerto Rican, any black man, any poor person — ask the wretched how they fare in the halls of justice, and then you will know, not whether or not the country is just, but whether or not it has any love for justice, or any concept of it. It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have."
-- James Baldwin, No Name in the Street, 1972
Dear Tom,
ReplyDeleteThe county I live is 33% black
and there is a lot of easy harmony here. The past will always be with us in some way.
Robert Creeley: "you are never far enough away from where you once were."
Walking in downtown Little Rock
gazing at the old State House...
stately a symbol of the old, and the old South...on the sidewalk
plaques dedicated to individual
Freedom Riders of the early 60's.
Watch the movie "42" have things
changed?....on the ground in real life they have. Does much remain to be done?? How do you change the world, one day and one life at a time.
Did I ever tell you about the time back in college before the
civil rights bill was passed about
the demonstration me and Freddy
who later became a Zen devotee of
sorts organized against George Wallace...the dean called us in
and wanted to know if we knew
Muhamed Ali was supposed to show.
No we didn't know, and he didn't
show. By the way just reading a
biography of Joe Kennedy....didn't
know he was so anti-Semitic...ps
I don't know what the Palestinians
have to do with Ferguson...but stretching can be good for the body,unless you don't believe in the right to self defense.
Great magical moment in my life
when Jackie Robinson stole home
on Yogi Berra in the World Series.
Can be seen on the net. And
Mississippi Burning reminds me that Andrew Goodman's dad was at
a family occasion and I still have
the musical instrument he contributed to buying for me. So
I do vividly recall the past and
President Obama's election was
another miracle that occurred
in America, like Helen Keller's amazing life,etc. He still has a chance to live up to
it.
Elmo,
ReplyDeleteThe county I live in is racially extremely disparate, and the sky is full of helicopters, the streets afire with violence and anger, once again tonight.
Joe Kennedy was kept hid away in the depths of the Compound in the later Empire years, but in his day, though he famously didn't drink (his sons were offered an annual bounty to follow this noble example), the man surely ran as much illegal and legal alcohol through this country (Haig & Haig, Dewar's, Gordon's), and, while remaining out of the limelight (he was an embarrassment for the boys, particularly in his association with McCarthy), probably wielded as much backroom political clout in his several urban powerbases (one of these was Chicago, where, as he owned the Merchandise Mart, I occasionally worked for him, sort of) as any American of his time.
Not that the sons were arguing with the fortune; never hurts to have those millions in your pocket when you want to purchase a Hahvud accent, a fake American aristo pedigree, and the presidency. I think Joe, again always in the shadows, also took care of a lot of the heavy moving, connection, influence-rigging, all those good things that go into the construction of political power.
And yeah, by the way, the people teargassed in Ferguson have been receiving a different kind of support (as you mention my mentioning it) from Palestinians, who have sent along the useful knowledge that slathering Maalox on a rag and wiping out your mouth, nose and eyes is one useful tactic in defending yourself from the militaristic policing methods of an occupying force.
(The Mike Brown thing did bring back memories of of Emmett Till.)
thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble in Ferguson resonates rather with today's NYRB piece about criminal justice. (as no doubt they planned it to)
Thanks, Michael.
ReplyDeleteSometimes what's closest to hand is the hardest thing to make out with any clarity.