tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post7053392083616555914..comments2024-03-27T18:00:02.032-04:00Comments on Sardonicky: Thug Is the New BlackKaren Garciahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-46575358863357534872015-04-29T14:56:58.286-04:002015-04-29T14:56:58.286-04:00Why doesn't President Obama say that criminals...Why doesn't President Obama say that criminals and thugs caused the deaths of Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, and so many others? Why doesn't he say there is no excuse for that violence? Why doesn't he say 'They aren't policing. They're murdering folks'? Since when did property crimes become so important to him and human life so diminished that he considers VANDALISM the big crime? <br /><br />President Obama has remained silent for the past 6 years in response to racist slurs and verbal attacks, and by doing so he has failed to protect everyone affected by racism, not just himself. I'm sure he thought he was being noble, turning the other cheek and remaining silent with his chin held high, regarding his winning the Presidency twice as response enough. Too bad he sees everything through his own shortsighted and precious eyes. <br /><br />Yes, racial tensions have been simmering for a long time and for good reason, but he's done nothing but sit back and watch it come to a boil and now the kitchen's catching fire. Oh well, he can always mobilize his national security police state apparatus to protect the corporate state when/if they feel threatened but they're not in those neighborhoods. In the meantime, maybe the PTB can cook up some good old Shock Doctrine-type Disaster Capitalism to clean out and cash in on all those blighted neighborhoods. <br /><br />Isn't it funny that keeping the country and world safe for Capitalism is pretty much Obama's only heartfelt concern? Witness his real passion and gutsy FIGHT, even against his own party, for TPP. <br /><br />It is now a fact that when/if Big Business feels threatened by protesters, that can and will be considered a National Security threat. Thugs and mere protesters will become labeled Terrorists! just as PETA protesters are. The Gov't can put up with a Nevada rancher brandishing arms and defying them, but you'd better not pose a threat to current or even future corporate profits or there will be hell to pay. <br /><br />Protestors be advised and act accordingly.annenigmanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-5824928446128570982015-04-29T09:43:57.831-04:002015-04-29T09:43:57.831-04:00If and when governors ever get around to practice ...If and when governors ever get around to practice the wisdom of nonviolence as a matter of course, then we might take seriously their pleas for calm in the middle of a blowback prompted by frustration with the government's default exercise of uninterrupted injustice. Of course, if governors practiced nonviolence day in day out, there would be no such thing as uninterrupted injustice. And statistics would reveal dwindling, not rising, numbers of the oppressed.<br /><br />Here’s the link to the Ta-Nehisi Coates essay that I believe Karen was referring to. And here’s the last paragraph of his essay that brought me to the day's meditation:<br /><br />“When nonviolence is preached as an attempt to evade the repercussions of political brutality, it betrays itself. When nonviolence begins halfway through the war with the aggressor calling time out, it exposes itself as a ruse. When nonviolence is preached by the representatives of the state, while the state doles out heaps of violence to its citizens, it reveals itself to be a con. And none of this can mean that rioting or violence is "correct" or "wise," any more than a forest fire can be "correct" or "wise." Wisdom isn't the point tonight. Disrespect is. In this case, disrespect for the hollow law and failed order that so regularly disrespects the community.”<br /><br />http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/04/nonviolence-as-compliance/391640/Jay–Ottawahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10360356126450612113noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-67660837544110980312015-04-29T08:13:45.484-04:002015-04-29T08:13:45.484-04:00Around here, when I read the word "thugs"...Around here, when I read the word "thugs" being thrown around, I know that some looting is going to happen. Crackdowns on crime tend to happen where developers want to grab the real estate-- this is called "neighborhood stabilization". Stabilization involves displacement of poor people and tax incentives to property developers to support our national religion-- rising property values. <br />Katnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-85051540242906871282015-04-29T06:59:09.060-04:002015-04-29T06:59:09.060-04:00Thug …
"That boy ain't a gangsta, fo'...Thug …<br /><br />"That boy ain't a gangsta, fo'sho'. Look at how he walks, he's a thug. Life. That's the saddest face I've seen in all my life as a teen."<br /><br />“As Tupac defined it, a thug is someone who is going through struggles, has gone through struggles, and continues to live day by day with nothing for them. That person is a thug. And the life they are living is the thug life. A thug is NOT a gangster. Look up gangster and gangsta. Not even CLOSE, my friend.” – Urban Dictionary<br /><br />“It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.” - Mark Twain<br /><br />America’s quiet surrender to “perception management” via the corruption of language…<br /><br />"We live in a time of barbarism and the barbarian elites employ an army of linguistic and cultural manipulators to justify their conquests. The great crimes against most of humanity are justified by a corrosive debasement of language and thought - a deliberate fabrication of euphemisms, falsehoods and conceptual deceptions… Euphemisms are a form of collective anesthesia – to tranquilize the population not directly affected by state violence.” - James Petras<br /><br />“‘Thugs’ = Niggers #KnowTheCode”- Questlove, drummer and leader of The Roots, the house band for the Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon<br /><br />“What these elite, embedded voices share is their participation in an essentially class war, the long war of the rich against the poor. That they play their part in a broadcasting studio or in the clubbable pages of the review sections and that they think of themselves as liberals or conservatives is neither here nor there. They belong to the same crusade, waging the same battle for their enduring privilege.” – John Pilger<br /><br />"Calling them thugs? Just Call Them Niggers," exasperated Baltimore city councilman Carl Stokes tells CNN’s Erin BurnettDenis Nevillenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-55286982495218202142015-04-29T03:24:42.094-04:002015-04-29T03:24:42.094-04:00Karen.....Your point is well taken-- “This is exac...<br />Karen.....Your point is well taken-- “This is exactly how Nixon came to power after the last spurt of race riots in the 60s and 70s, post-MLK assassination. The racist rallying cry was "Law & Order." <br /><br />And it’s made worse by our election of judges and prosecutors. What else are they going to run on but tough on crime? Would their ads say Judge so and so disproved phony police testimony and released many wrongly accused suspects? And then the pols run on welfare fraud, and then on ‘dependency’. See Adam Liptak article from 2008 on how other countries don’t elect judges, they appoint them and the effects. <br /><br />But I will say I thought CNN did a pretty good job Tuesday night from Baltimore, and at Ferguson I recall. Seems they do ok when they go to locations and get into the crowd, instead of opining from the studio. Better than Msnbc last night. They had Van Jones commenting and some others. Don Lemon and others detailed how Baltimore citizens got out there and engaged with the crowd, influencing people to go home for the curfew. Interviewed a wide range of locals....some children, some mothers, local activists and constructive law enforcement experts. Got those views across. It was different from their usual blather. <br /><br />Wolf Blitzer the other day had to remind us of the damage by protesters in Ferguson, but at least added --- ‘most of the protests were peaceful’, as an aside. Could have said the townspeople tried to protect storefronts, too. <br /><br />Would it have been better for Bal to keep the schools in session? There the kids are safe and in an organized environment. <br /><br />Didn’t know about demands for payment for the SC video from bystander, Santana. NYT article quotes a lawyer: <br /> “The search for justice is served by turning the video over to law enforcement.....The news media, he said, appeared to be in the “search for revenue.” ........the time for “fair use” has passed.”<br /><br />“At some point it’s not newsworthy anymore and you are using it for commercial benefit,” <br /><br />Re the ‘cease and desist letter to media about showing it: “I think that the people who might be put off by this are the media outlets that had it for free. Now they will have to pay.”<br /><br />A lawyer for Mr. Scott’s family said the relatives remain grateful to Mr. Santana and have no problem with him receiving a financial benefit.<br />“Without the video, we would not be where we are right now,” said Justin Bamberg, one of the family’s lawyers.<br />Meredith NYCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-12577006209632341572015-04-29T00:32:14.310-04:002015-04-29T00:32:14.310-04:00Bruce A. Dixon's blog in Black Agenda.
Lorett...<br />Bruce A. Dixon's blog in Black Agenda.<br /><br />Loretta Lynch is Condoleeza Rice With A Law Degree.<br /><br />My hunch was correct as this is a scorching report of Ms. Lynch's history in Black Agenda. There is no way of forwarding it but we have reason to fear this new appointment. Obama has done it again.Pearlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-50391942760408438132015-04-28T23:27:31.145-04:002015-04-28T23:27:31.145-04:00Speaking of instigation, here's a video of Wol...Speaking of instigation, here's a video of Wolf trying in vain today to get a rise out of activist Deray McKesson. It wasn't happening. Fuck Wolf and fuck CNN.<br /><br />https://youtu.be/NyYdKD0af78 Willnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-44912130864635187582015-04-28T22:38:56.036-04:002015-04-28T22:38:56.036-04:00Obama's 'Thug' is the new 'Bum'...Obama's 'Thug' is the new 'Bum' and Obama is the new Nixon.annenigmanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-21207153702096897262015-04-28T21:10:04.168-04:002015-04-28T21:10:04.168-04:00Meredith,
It is so obvious that CNN is in the ins...Meredith,<br /><br />It is so obvious that CNN is in the instigation business. They are practically praying for riots in the streets again. If it bleeds, it leads.<br /><br />We rarely see the endless loop of the South Carolina shooting any more, because the guy who filmed it on his cellphone wants money from the networks. You can't blame him at all, because the networks are raking in the ad revenue off the suffering of others, disasters du jour and war, war and more war.<br /><br />Ta Nehisi Coates wrote a succinct blog post touching on what I did, although much better than I did. He says that demands by the media and politicians that everybody just calm down right in the middle of a war that the police state essentially started is a tad premature and disingenuous, to say the least.<br /><br />The right wingers are off the rails as usual. Very gleeful that their race-baiting techniques and thug-wording are being co-opted by the mainstream. <br /><br />This is exactly how Nixon came to power after the last spurt of race riots in the 60s and 70s, post-MLK assassination. The racist rallying cry was "Law & Order." They were able to gin up the Silent Majority to fear black people and rev up patriotic support for the Vietnam War at the same time. Archie Bunker became a hero instead of the satiric object of scorn his creators intended him to be.<br /><br /> They're pulling the same crap now, only now it is much, much worse due to nonstop media saturation.Karen Garciahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612731479365562803noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-974773076690597683.post-57023636035611974692015-04-28T15:04:43.142-04:002015-04-28T15:04:43.142-04:00Any opinion on this Karen?
An aggravating factor ...Any opinion on this Karen?<br /><br />An aggravating factor in the Baltimore burning/looting must be the media’s showing the Grey video of him being dragged by cops, his scream,and the constant use of other videos of police brutality for months. They show evidence, but what about the negative effects from a sensation pushing media? <br /><br />Now while reporters/pundits talk, we see split screens of replayed video violence constantly, some with audio---that’s new. <br /><br />We heard repeatedly the scream of the victim, while he was dragged by cops, while they tell us about his broken spine and lack of medical attention. We are having to get used to horror. The callousness is overwhelming. Unless you become hardened to the callousness. <br /><br />If after the 10th time or so, you look away to just listen to the reporters/commentary, you hear the background audio underneath their talk. If you mute the sound, and look at the subtitles, you see the SC man, Scott, running away while the cop shoots him in the back, or Freddie Gray being dragged, or a bunch of cops ganging up on Erica Garner and choking him. We’re told again he said I can’t breathe. We know, despite the video the jury refused to indict, and those cops are on the job now. And that the police union head defended them. So with each replay, thousands by now. even with quick references to it,we get new exposures to it, and the awful associations. What's the limit? <br /><br />As for terminology----90% of protesters will remain lawful, but some will burn and destroy. An entire CVS was burned down and also a senior residence being built, etc. The news spotlights those. “Thugs” may be a dog whistle---but also some are using it to distinguish the vast majority of peaceful protesters from burners/looters. Otherwise the great white public out there will put them all in 1 basket, and we get more polarized. What is the best way to do talk about this? Maybe do away with labels entirely. <br /><br />But TV media must start using more judgment and restraint on the videos of killings/brutality/beatings. Cut back on the frequency, show them at certain times only, with warnings they’re disturbing. Children see this. Label them. Kids should learn about this, but not be exposed to constant violent cop videos. Or let people go to the web sites to see them-- so they make the choice, instead of having it imposed on them at any time. The families of the dead know that the death of their relative is being shown over and over on TV. <br /><br />Also escalating anger is TV audio of bleeped profanity by the police, insulting citizens from the get go. We hear the bleeps while pundits opine. Repetitions of this are poisonous. <br /><br />TV broadcasters may fear losing viewers for sponsors if they cut back on these, while the channels that keep them gain viewers. Repetition may get people used to them. But some viewers may turn with relief to channels for news without repeated videos. They don’t need constant visual reminders of brutality, they can picture it for themselves. Of course children are totally manipulated by media <br /><br />Obama today cited federal funds for cop cameras. Will media have access to these for constant viewing in our homes? What will be the effect on the public? Will they lead to less abuse? The Garner jury had the video. <br /><br />Meredith NYCnoreply@blogger.com