BOSTON — An emotional Mayor Marty Walsh condemned the riots that tore Boston apart Sunday night, marring a day of peaceful protest and creating new burdens for a city and businesses already struggling with the coronavirus crisis.
"This was the very last thing that our city quite honestly needed," Walsh said at a Monday afternoon press conference.
Walsh thanked peaceful protesters, police and fire departments, and the National Guard. But he criticized those who took protests in memory of George Floyd as an opportunity to spread violence, fear and destruction. Floyd died in Minneapolis after a police officer arresting him knelt on his neck for nearly 9 minutes.
"I want to say to all of those peaceful demonstrators: Your works, your testimony, your call-to-action move me," Walsh said. "And you are moving our society forward. And we will continue that conversation and lead that progress because that is who we are in Boston."
Photos: Boston Begins Cleanup After Protests, Riots
"But what happened in downtown after the protests ended was an attack on those values," he said. "And it was an attack on our city and its people."
Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins said she was "exhausted" by racial injustice.
"People are fed up," Rollins said. "To the white community that is waking up to see this rage, we have been telling you this forever."
She expressed outrage at what it has taken for the conversation regarding race to get this far.
"It is completely ironic to have to say to you, 'Please don't be violent please keep your voice down, please be silent and comply with all the police's requirements,' when in fact it is those very people that murder us with impunity," Rollins said. "But that is where we are right now."
Rioters will be prosecuted, Rollins said.
There were 52 people arrested during the riots. Boston police Commissioner William Gross said 24 of those people were from outside Boston and two from outside Massachusetts. One out-of-stater was issued a summons.
"I'm telling you, folks, the negative actions will not deter us from remaining together as a community," Gross said.
Boston was one of a number of cities across the country that saw peaceful demonstrations, rooted in anger and frustration at police mistreatment of African Americans, devolve into chaos this weekend. The death of Floyd, who is black, sparked anger that has been bubbling for years.
Boston called in for help from Massachusetts State Police, surrounding community police, including Chelsea police officers in riot gear, as well as the National Guard. Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowds that had begun to riot. People set fire to a police cruiser, lobbed rocks and sticks and water bottles at police, and, according to Rollins, even shot at officers at one point. Looters were caught on live television stealing goods from retailers from Zara to CVS on Newbury Street.
This article originally appeared on the Boston Patch
Monday, June 1, 2020
Down on one knee, Paleface! White penitence over racism and police murders plunges new depths of piousness and pointlessness - by Guy Birchall - 1 June 2020
A prayer meeting organiser in Houston split his congregation
down racial lines so the white half could kneel and beg for forgiveness
from the black half. Such self-flagellation doesn’t heal divisions, it
highlights them.
However, the organiser, a gentleman going by the name of Trey 9, took it upon himself to split the mixed-race crowd along racial lines. Having got the black congregants on one side of the basketball court and the white on the other, he then proceeded to get the Caucasian contingent to kneel on one knee and beg for forgiveness from their “black brothers and sisters”.
As many on both sides burst into tears, Trey, speaking for his fellow white people, prostrated himself and asked that they be forgiven for years and years of “bigotry and racism” and said “we’re sorry” on behalf of the “white race and the brown race”. After a couple of minutes of this rambling, the black half of the congregation also take a knee and they pray together. The clip has predictably been hailed as “powerful” and “emotional” on Twitter.
How on earth is this sending out the right message? What exactly are these white people apologising for? I may be wrong, but I highly doubt that any white person in this particular crowd has been an avowed racist, or even accused of being one, at least until the horrifying video of George Floyd being knelt on by Officer Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis appeared last week.
It seems unlikely that anyone at this meeting has a secret history of previously being a Grand Dragon in the Houston chapter of the KKK. It is obviously right for racism to be called out, and it is obvious that it still exists in America, but how does highlighting our differences help?
Large parts of the left in the US seem intent on bringing about segregation again. They keep wanting to divide the races, so often do you hear of instances on college campuses where there will be “black only safe spaces”. How is implying that the very presence of someone from another race makes you feel unsafe help promote unity?
Why is it necessary for blameless people in the present day to apologise for the sins of the past, just because some of the evils were committed by people the same colour as them? As a prayer group surely they are aware that the Bible teaches that “Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin.”
The display in Houston is one of cringeworthy arrogance. Where does Trey 9 imagine he gets the right to speak for the entire “white race”? It would take an enormous amount of self-regard to imagine that he even spoke for the Caucasian population of Houston, but the entire white race? It seems unfair to say that the people of Minneapolis are responsible for the actions of one policeman, still more illegitimate to imply that George Floyd’s death is the fault of the people of Houston, but the entire white race? Is Trey suggesting that white Croatian fisherman or white Finnish mechanics are in some way culpable as well?
These ostentatious displays of self-flagellation do not help heal racial divisions, they only serve to heighten them. The answer to some white people being racist is not to try and make all white people feel guilty for being white. This video is far more likely to push those inclined to sympathise with white supremacy more quickly into the arms of Right Winger Richard Spencer and the proto-fascist Daily Stormer.
A great man once said that he had a dream that his children would “one day live in a nation here they will not be judged by the colour of their skin, but by the content of their character.” People are individuals and should be treated as such. Defining people by their race doesn’t defeat white supremacists. It plays right into their hands.
................
Guy
Birchall, British journalist covering current affairs, politics and
free speech issues. Recently published in The Sun and Spiked Online.
Follow him on Twitter @guybirchall
Saturday, May 30, 2020
New Zealand Teenager rescued after trying to cross Cook Strait in a dinghy
A teenager is lucky to be alive after he became stranded while trying to cross the Cook Strait in a dinghy and had to be rescued.
news.com.auMay 29, 202012:42am
Three
men were rescued from the ocean by fellow boaters after their vessel
took on water and capsized in the Atlantic Ocean near Jacksonville,
Florida, on Sunday, April 26, re...
A
lucky teenager has managed to survive a night on New Zealand’s often
treacherous Cook Strait in a three-metre wooden dinghy after being
rescued Thursday morning.
The
18-year-old set off from Kenepuru Sound in New Zealand’s South Island
around 10pm Wednesday before heading through Pelorus Sound and crossing
the strait.
Bound for the Porirua coast, northwest of Wellington, the young man contacted the Harbourmaster alerting them he had broken down off the coast around 9am,” the New Zealand Herald reports.
Police were able to geolocate him using his cell phone location and he was located around 12km west of Mana Island. A Westpac helicopter directed police to his location.
The young man was in reasonably good nick, slightly cold but not hypothermic and very lucky Wellington Maritime Police Senior Sergeant Dave Houston said.
“He’s lacked preparation to do essentially a 100km voyage in a dinghy,” Houston said.
“In his situation, he didn’t check the weather forecast and lucky for him, it was probably the best weather conditions you could actually get.
“We’ve got strong tides that go through the channel, lots of rips and unsettled water. It’s all quite unpredictable and can change at the drop of a hat.”
The conditions on the water would not have been great in a dinghy, MetService said.
While swell conditions overnight yesterday for Cook Strait were almost non-existent with a swell around one metre, there were winds of up to 20 knots – around 40km/h.
The teenager was not an experienced seaman and was very lucky given how dangerous Cook Strait could be at times, Houston said.
The
small outboard motor used to power the dinghy had broken down when the
teenager called for help – his cell phone was also going flat, Houston
said.
Greater Wellington Harbourmaster Grant Nalder said when he got the call he initially thought it was a hoax.
The teenager did not sound stressed when he called, did not sound like he was in a panic and was very casual about needing a tow.
Anyone in distress on the water should dial 111 to get emergency services moving more quickly, Nalder said, advising people to carry personal locator beacons too.
Houston spoke to the teenager’s mother during the rescue operation this morning and told the Herald she was very concerned for his welfare. She was elated once he was rescued.
The teenager told police the journey had been “quite rough” in patches and Houston said he was saturated after the ordeal.
The teenager would not be required to foot the bill for the rescue and at this stage he would not be facing any charges either.
There were fishing rods on the back of the dingy but Houston did not think the teenager had attempted to catch anything.
While the outcome was good and no one was hurt, the voyage was a great example of what not to do, Houston said.
“While the man did have a lifejacket on and carried his cell phone, he had not checked the weather conditions and was not an experienced seaman,” he said.
“Everybody going out on the water needs to remember to wear a lifejacket, check the conditions and only go out if it is calm and go out in daylight.
“You need to have all proper safety equipment and be an experienced and capable seaman if you are going to make this coastal voyage.”
If the teenager had not called police, they would not have been able to locate him using the phone’s data and it could have been a very different outcome.
And while Houston would not go as far as to say the decision to try and make the journey overnight in a small vessel was crazy, he did advise against it.
Meanwhile, harbourmaster Nalder reiterated those comments, saying the journey was somewhat ambitious.
“I don’t really advise small boats with no lights being out in the dark either … There are better ways of crossing the Cook Strait, like catching the ferry.”
This article originally appeared on the NZ Herald and has been republished with permission.
Bound for the Porirua coast, northwest of Wellington, the young man contacted the Harbourmaster alerting them he had broken down off the coast around 9am,” the New Zealand Herald reports.
Police were able to geolocate him using his cell phone location and he was located around 12km west of Mana Island. A Westpac helicopter directed police to his location.
The young man was in reasonably good nick, slightly cold but not hypothermic and very lucky Wellington Maritime Police Senior Sergeant Dave Houston said.
“He’s lacked preparation to do essentially a 100km voyage in a dinghy,” Houston said.
“In his situation, he didn’t check the weather forecast and lucky for him, it was probably the best weather conditions you could actually get.
“We’ve got strong tides that go through the channel, lots of rips and unsettled water. It’s all quite unpredictable and can change at the drop of a hat.”
The conditions on the water would not have been great in a dinghy, MetService said.
While swell conditions overnight yesterday for Cook Strait were almost non-existent with a swell around one metre, there were winds of up to 20 knots – around 40km/h.
The teenager was not an experienced seaman and was very lucky given how dangerous Cook Strait could be at times, Houston said.
The teen became stranded when his dinghy broke down. Picture: NZ PoliceSource:Supplied
Greater Wellington Harbourmaster Grant Nalder said when he got the call he initially thought it was a hoax.
The teenager did not sound stressed when he called, did not sound like he was in a panic and was very casual about needing a tow.
Anyone in distress on the water should dial 111 to get emergency services moving more quickly, Nalder said, advising people to carry personal locator beacons too.
Houston spoke to the teenager’s mother during the rescue operation this morning and told the Herald she was very concerned for his welfare. She was elated once he was rescued.
The teenager told police the journey had been “quite rough” in patches and Houston said he was saturated after the ordeal.
The teenager would not be required to foot the bill for the rescue and at this stage he would not be facing any charges either.
Police said the teen wouldn’t be facing any charges over the incident. Picture: NZ PoliceSource:Supplied
While the outcome was good and no one was hurt, the voyage was a great example of what not to do, Houston said.
“While the man did have a lifejacket on and carried his cell phone, he had not checked the weather conditions and was not an experienced seaman,” he said.
“Everybody going out on the water needs to remember to wear a lifejacket, check the conditions and only go out if it is calm and go out in daylight.
“You need to have all proper safety equipment and be an experienced and capable seaman if you are going to make this coastal voyage.”
If the teenager had not called police, they would not have been able to locate him using the phone’s data and it could have been a very different outcome.
And while Houston would not go as far as to say the decision to try and make the journey overnight in a small vessel was crazy, he did advise against it.
Meanwhile, harbourmaster Nalder reiterated those comments, saying the journey was somewhat ambitious.
“I don’t really advise small boats with no lights being out in the dark either … There are better ways of crossing the Cook Strait, like catching the ferry.”
This article originally appeared on the NZ Herald and has been republished with permission.
Sunday, May 24, 2020
California: 2000 Rally Against COVID-19 Lockdown - (SF Gate ) 23 May 2020
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It was the largest protest rally in Sacramento so far over COVID-19 shutdowns — with haircuts on the side.
.
At least 2,000 demonstrators came to the Capitol on Saturday to march around the grounds, feast on barbecue and demand that Gov. Gavin Newsom lift his restrictions on business, religious gatherings and other trappings of everyday life.
.
The demonstration, dubbed Liberty Fest, was a cross between a tailgate party, music festival and political statement. Organizers said it would be country’s largest Memorial Day weekend protest against coronavirus stay-at-home orders.
A massive throng gathered along 10th Street, facing the west steps of the Capitol, with hundreds arriving hours before the official noon start. Two busloads came from Southern California, organized by anti-vaccination protesters.
While the crowd was peaceful, at least three demonstrators briefly hopped the temporary fence installed weeks ago along the sidewalk on 10th Street to keep protesters away from the west steps.
One man tried to give California Highway Patrol officers a copy of a 10-page treatise on the constitutional duties of law enforcement and allegations involving former Bay Area gang leader
Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow, who was sentenced to life in prison for murder in a wide-ranging racketeering case that also snared former state Sen. Leland Yee in 2014. The officers refused to accept the document and let the man return to the sidewalk. Then two other men hopped the fence as well but immediately slipped back into the crowd.
Rock and country music played over a loudspeaker as some of the protesters marched slowly around the perimeter of the building. A flatbed truck, set up for speeches and live music, bore the sign, “Jesus, heal this land,” and signs vowing to recall Newsom were plentiful. An airplane circled overhead, towing a banner that said “End his tyranny” and depicted Newsom as Hitler.
Haircuts, manicures and other services performed in close quarters remain prohibited for the time being under Newsom’s phased-in approach to resuming economic activities. At least one protester decided she would provide haircuts anyway.
La Donna Christensen, 39, a Roseville cosmetologist and hair stylist, set up six temporary stations on the sidewalk by the west side of the Capitol. Despite warnings of a license suspension from the state Board of Barbering and Cosmetology, she was out to show that haircuts aren’t hazardous..
“We’re going to do haircuts for donations, basically try to show that being in the cosmetology industry … is one of the most sanitary industries in the state,” she said. “Why do they close down the salons but we can go to Home Depot, Walmart, Target? It’s ridiculous.”
Jennifer Joseph, who drove up Friday night from Orange County, had her 9-year-old son, Jordan, get one of Christensen’s first haircuts.
“It’s time to open up the state,” Joseph said, adding that Jordan had been happy to let his hair grow out. “This isn’t the country I grew up in.” Joseph’s mother said that because she was donating the money to Christensen, instead of actually paying her a fee for her grandson’s haircut, she believed that wouldn’t jeopardize the Roseville woman’s license.
More than 100 CHP officers strolled through the Capitol grounds. Unlike previous rallies, when they were jeered by some protesters, they didn’t don helmets or line up along the fence line guarding the west side of the Capitol. They closed 10th Street to vehicle traffic as a portion of the crowd spilled onto the street and the parking circle that marks the eastern edge of Capitol Mall.
Newsom has opened up much of the California economy in the past two weeks, including restaurants and shopping malls. But demonstrators demanded that Newsom go further to revive an economy that has seen unemployment quadruple since his shutdown order took effect in mid-March.
“We’ve got to reopen everything now,” said Thinh Nguyen, 38, a manicurist whose North Highlands nail salon has been closed. His father, Vuong Tat Nguyen, who served in the South Vietnamese army, led a sizable group of pro-Trump demonstrators chanting, “Four more years.”
Wearing a scarf that merged the American flag with the flag of his homeland of South Vietnam, Thinh Nguyen said Newsom is overstating the COVID-19 risks. He added that he isn’t convinced Newsom will allow him and other manicurists to reopen anytime soon.
“Whatever he says is all lies, this governor,” he said.
Many in the crowd shared Nguyen’s belief that the risks of the coronavirus have been exaggerated. “It’s a lot of hype,” said James Reed, a medical marijuana grower from Siskiyou County.
His pot farm hasn’t been shuttered by Newsom’s order, but he said, “It’s not my livelihood that I’m worried about.”
Many of Newsom’s critics are demanding the right to go to church. Thompson, the pastor of 412 Church in Riverside County, said in an interview he appreciated President Donald Trump’s announcement Friday that he would order governors around the country to allow religious institutions to reopen. But Thompson added that Trump’s comments really aren’t necessary.
“It’s not up to the government to tell the churches what to do,” said Thompson. He added that his 412 Church in Murrieta has “been open full for the past month.”
Pressure is growing on Newsom to allow churches to reopen. The U.S Justice Department recently warned him that prohibiting religious services is unconstitutional — even though federal judges have turned aside legal challenges brought by California churches against Newsom’s order. Meanwhile, a large group of California clergy has vowed to reopen their churches for services May 31.
For his part, Newsom said Friday he would issue new guidelines on religious services within days. A large group of California clergy has vowed to hold in-person church services May 31.
Meanwhile, Newsom won a legal victory late Friday when a federal judge in Sacramento refused to allow a health club owner to reopen.
U.S. District Judge John Mendez refused to grant Sean Covell, owner of three Fitness System clubs in Sacramento, Lodi and West Sacramento, a temporary restraining order that would have overturned Newsom’s restrictions. Covell said Newsom’s order violated the First Amendment, but the judge said gyms have nothing to do with freedom of speech. On Saturday, Covell appealed to his gym members to donate to a GoFundMe account to keep his staff on the payroll.
Saturday’s rally was organized by various “Reopen California” organizations demanding the Newsom end California’s restrictions, as well as the CHP’s temporary ban on state property. Previous rallies at the Capitol have drawn hundreds and one resulted in multiple arrests.
One group arriving at the Capitol Saturday, an anti-vaccination organization called the Freedom Angels Foundation, said it chartered buses from Southern California — sold out at $30 per adult and $50 per family, according to the Angels’ website. The anti-vaccination activists planted oversized needles in the ground festooned with slogans like, “This is witchcraft.” Another sign claimed that a coronavirus vaccine would be used as a “weapon of mandated depopulation.”
Demonstrations have erupted nationwide over stay-at-home orders, and have included business owners concerned about their livelihoods, parents worried about their children being locked out of school or church and people angry that their right to protest has been curtailed.
The Reopen California Facebook page has 170,000 members. Its members have varied interests; some are fighting California’s vaccination laws while others are mostly focused on Newsom’s executive order.
California’s protests have been tense at times — 32 people were arrested at the Capitol on May 1 after hundreds refused CHP orders to disperse. Subsequent demonstrations have been a lot calmer as protesters stuck to the sidewalk while CHP officers guarded the western perimeter of the Capitol grounds.
A website advertising Saturday’s demonstration said: “This is a non-violent rally. No violence will be tolerated and anyone displaying violence and/or destructive behavior is not associated with the rally and disavowed by the other participants.”
The CHP banned protests at the Capitol after a huge throng demonstrating on the grounds in late April ignored social distancing guidelines. Conservative groups have challenged the ban in court but so far have been unsuccessful.
———
San Clemente, California police won't allow anti lockdown protest to open up beach parking lot - 23 May 2020
Friday, May 22, 2020
World On Fire: Drama Series of WW2 - 22 May 2020
World on Fire, written by Peter Bowker and directed by Chanya Button, Thomas Napper, Adam Smith and Andy Wilson, is a World War II drama that first aired in the UK in September 2019—on the eightieth anniversary of the outbreak of the war—and then in the US on PBS in 2020.
The ambitious, sprawling seven-episode series (or its first season) follows characters from five countries and takes place in France, Britain, Germany and Poland. Colored by anti-war and anti-fascist views, it is an admirable effort to trace the carnage of the war through the experience of working class and middle class characters, rather than prime ministers and generals.
The Second World War, the bloodiest conflict in human history, led to some 70 to 85 million deaths and vast, almost unimaginable destruction. As such, how could it not still remain a complex, recurring subject for artistic treatment?
World on Fire was generally well received and enjoyed audiences that averaged six million or so viewers per episode in Britain. That it held on to its relatively large viewership is a testament to the fact that Bowker’s creation maintains a level of drama, suspense and human interest throughout.
The series opens in 1939 in Manchester, England, at a protest against a rally held by Oswald
Mosley’s British Union of Fascists and its paramilitary wing, known as the blackshirts. The protesters are the ones arrested by police. Among them are Harry Chase (Jonah Hauer-King), from a family of means, and his working-class girlfriend Lois Bennett (Julia Brown). Neither Harry’s uppercrust mother Robina (Lesley Manville)—“I have a soft spot for Mosley”—nor Lois’ father Douglas (Sean Bean)—a bus conductor, pacifist and shell-shocked veteran of the Battle of the Somme in World War I—endorse their offspring’s relationship, for class reasons.
Harry is soon off to Warsaw where he is a translator for the British Embassy. Lois also joins the war effort, entertaining the troops as a singer, while her brother Tom (Ewan Mitchell) signs up with the British navy rather than go to jail for a petty offense.
On the Polish-German border, US radio reporter Nancy Campbell (Helen Hunt) learns that Hitler’s army is preparing a blitzkrieg through Poland. Based in Berlin, her broadcasts are closely monitored by her Nazi minder. Meanwhile, Harry falls in love with Kasia (Zofia WichÅ‚acz), a Polish waitress whose brother and father have joined the resistance. Battle scenes include the courageous, but doomed defense of the post office in Danzig against the German onslaught, during which Kasia’s father is murdered.
Harry marries Kasia to get her out of Poland, but the latter tricks him into returning to England not with her, but with her young brother, Jan (Eryk Biedunkiewicz). Back home, Harry reconnects with Lois, who becomes pregnant, but understandably breaks with him over his relationship with Kasia.
On the war front, Nancy begs her nephew Webster (Brian J Smith) to leave Paris, where he works as a doctor. His lover is Albert (Parker Sawyers), a black jazz saxophonist who is a Nazi target on account of his race, his homosexuality and his “degenerate” music. Paris falls to the German forces in June 1940. In Berlin, Nancy defies Nazi menacing to help her neighbors, the Rosslers, hide their daughter’s epilepsy from Hitler’s deadly eugenics.
Harry, who enlists, is an officer in France with the British Expeditionary Forces, supervising the digging of foxholes and tank traps. Lois shows up to sing for the troops, but wants nothing to do with Harry, who is torn by his love for two women.
As tens of thousands flee Nazi-invaded Belgium, Harry and his unit head for the last route out of France—the evacuation from Dunkirk. The platoon comes across an ambulance of traumatized, shell-shocked British and French troops, including Senegalese soldiers. Harry takes responsibility for them. He, his men and their charges reach an overwhelmed field hospital run by Webster, and evacuate by sea as the Luftwaffe’s bombs rain down.
Finally, now part of the Special Operations Executive, Harry’s first mission is to parachute into Poland and intercept a resistance group that has been identified by the Nazis. Kasia, who narrowly escapes the gallows, is one of the resisters.
A second season is in preparation.
Along with its more intimate narratives, World on Fire dramatizes a number of critical military conflicts and horrific events in the early stages of World War II. The murderous, aggressive Nazi campaign generates resistance in every quarter, except the poshest. Families are torn apart, countries destroyed, lives and minds are lost, so inhuman is the terror and violence.
World on Fire adopts a soberly realistic and serious attitude toward history. That approach already flies in the face of a good deal of contemporary cinema that makes history fit into an ideological schema or agenda and/or simply invents it as it goes along (Inglourious Basterds, The Favourite, Wild Nights With Emily, etc.). The series is effective and intelligently done. It imaginatively and thoughtfully dramatizes the contradictions of human behavior without providing easy moral answers in every instance.
For example, the German factory owner, Rossler, feels obliged to join the Nazi party to divert attention away from his epileptic daughter, a candidate for the euthanasia program. He is a bitter opponent of fascism, but must operate his establishment as if he were not, for there are Nazis in his workforce. The pressure is acute—psychologically and physically debilitating.
For his part, Harry is not acting badly when he marries his Polish paramour Kasia, even though he also loves Lois. His intention is to save Kasia’s life. Also, as much as Douglas does not want to see son Tom return to combat, he refuses, for better or worse, to allow Tom to become a conscientious objector for opportunist reasons, so deep is his commitment to pacifism. Even the upper class Robina begins to soften around the edges and let go of her thoroughgoing snobbery. (Although, in this case, the series might have been made more politically pointed if Robina-Manville had remained a fascist sympathizer. In the British ruling elite and upper middle class, there were many who cheered on Hitler’s murderous attacks on Jews, Communists and Socialists, and the German invasion of the USSR.)
Most affecting are the scenes of global flight involving people from many nationalities, the young and the old, soldiers and civilians. These are reminiscent of today’s mass refugee crisis and the displacement of millions of people on a world scale. Furthermore, the brutalities of war are vividly depicted.
As well, World on Fire has clearly been influenced by the contemporary rise of extreme nationalist and fascist forces. Its unusual international scope and the conscious decision to shoot in different locations speaks to that. The mini-series is a less nationally-based examination of the world war than one has generally seen in the past. Moreover, the various protagonists draw the viewer in, their conditions are real, the problems are often life-and-death and at odds with the trivial matters on which so many films pivot today.
“World on Fire is a drama about World War II, told from a multinational perspective,” said writer Peter Bowker in an interview with Period Dramas. “I wanted to write a drama where we invested in a Polish family, a French family, just as much as we emotionally invested in a British one. …
“I deliberately set out to tell stories that weren’t traditional war stories,” the screenwriter continued.
“I wanted to write about what it was like to be a Senegalese soldier who found himself at Dunkirk.
What it was like to be gay in Paris, when you’d escaped to Paris to celebrate your sexuality and then the Nazis invaded. What it was like to be a conscientious objector with two children.
“What it was like to be an ordinary apolitical German family, who just hoped Nazism might be a passing phase and who had a child that was at risk because she had a disability.
“They struck me,” he said, “as stories that have remained largely untold, but also struck me as contemporary in our current preoccupations with nationality and borders and refugees, and what constitutes a genuine refugee and what constitutes genuine need.”
Bowker added, “I read a lot about the euthanasia programme that the Nazis put into place. It started about ten months before the war. Initially, it was directed at adults with long-term mental health problems and severe disabilities. It extended fairly quickly to the monitoring of newborns and children with disabilities. Essentially it was a dry run for the Holocaust.”
These are all legitimate and even commendable concerns or ambitions.
While there is an innovative element to Bowker’s global, humane and anti-war viewpoint and framework, World on Fire’s general approach to the historical traumas of the 20th century is relatively conventional, conforming uncritically to the official view of World War II as a monumental fight for democracy against fascism.
This has significance under conditions in which the grave threats of world war and fascism have re-emerged. World on Fire suggests legitimate horror at their re-emergence, but sheds little light on why such phenomena developed in the 1930s and why they are developing today. The origins of fascism are never considered in the series. Hitlerism might simply be some natural disaster that befell humanity, rather than the outgrowth of the crisis-ridden capitalist system. The same can be said for the war itself.
The series’ ideological conventionality helps explain why it accepts a superficial, anti-communist reading of the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939. The incursion was reactionary and characteristic of the Stalinist regime, which by that time had betrayed every basic principle of socialism and internationalism, but World on Fire takes the opportunity to imply that Nazi Germany and the USSR were merely two versions of totalitarianism and equally mortal enemies of the Polish people. This is made explicit in a scene in which two Polish resistance fighters are fleeing Soviet forces. One says: “I thought the Russians hated the Germans.” The other replies: “They do, but they hate us Poles even more.”
Overall, however, taking into account its defects and blind spots, World on Fire offers a rational and intriguing orientation toward titanic historical events, which, one hopes, will only encourage the viewer to look more searchingly into the upheavals of the past century.
Tuesday, May 19, 2020
Is This Tomorrow? America Under Stalinism - A Red Scare Comic Book from 1947
In 1947 the Catechetical Guild Educational Society in St. Paul, Minnesota put out this warning against Communist infiltration. The inside cover provides this dire statement:
“The average American is prone to say, “It can’t happen here.” Millions of people in other countries used to say the same thing…. Today they are dead – or living in Communist slavery. It must not happen here!”
Communist Jones lays out his diabolical plan: take advantage of the drought that is besieging the country. Use the crisis as a means to seize power.
Brown can rely on Hollywood to corrode American morals. The respect for life will have to also be squashed.
Naturally, the workers need to grow to resent the rich capitalists.
And so, there is murder in the streets. White vs. Black, Labor vs. Capitalists,.. the American populace is divided and at each other’s throats.
At last, the time was right for Communist Jones to make his move. He has found an ally in Washington DC – the Speaker of the House, Collins.
First, he needs to get the president and vice-president out the way.
As “luck” would have it, it has been arranged for the president and vice-president to appear together in a parade.
It would be a shame if anyone threw a grenade at them…
Of course, this makes Collins the new president. Communist Jones props him up to be the hero we deserve, beating the drought.
Collins is weak, and easily hands over much of his power to Communist Jones.
Communist Jones gathers the top generals together and has them wasted. Now there is no one to stand in the way of his plans.
Communist Jones nationalizes everything, and ensures the schools are under his thumb.
Book burning time.
And, finally, it’s time to take our guns and kill the Catholics.
Anyone who doesn’t fall in line is sent to Alaska…
Finally, Communist Jones is delivering his victory toast when this happens…
Clearly, he’s been poisoned. No matter. His replacement is ready to fill his shoes…
THE END.
https://flashbak.com/tomorrow-red-scare-comic-book-1947-391142/?_sft_category=cold-war-2&sf_paged=2
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Concert billed as first live show in pandemic ordered by Arkansas to cease and desist (NBC News) 13 May 2020
By Elisha Fieldstadt
An
Arkansas venue planning to hold a country music concert with more than
200 people on Friday will be served a cease-and-desist letter, the
state's governor said Tuesday.
"You can’t
just arbitrarily determine when the restrictions are lifted. That is
something that is done based on a public health requirement," Gov. Asa
Hutchinson said during a news conference regarding an "intimate solo acoustic performance with Travis McCready" scheduled for May 15 at the Temple Live event space.
The Arkansas Department of Health issued a directive last week that said that starting on May 18, indoor venues could hold events with 50 people or fewer,
and must adhere to other guidelines like arranging seating 6 feet
apart. Venues that wanted to hold events with more than 50 people must
be operating at less than 34 percent capacity and also submit a plan to
the department.
"Clearly, it is three days
before we determined it was an appropriate time to open up to a limited
capacity in some of those informal venues, and even if you’re going to
have 250 people at a venue, you still have to have a specific plan that
would be approved by the Department of Health. None of that was done in
this case," Hutchinson said of the McCready show.
The Department of Health will be sending the venue a cease-and-desist letter, Hutchinson said. On Wednesday morning, tickets for the show were still on sale.
A message seeking comment from Temple Live, which is in Fort Smith on the border of Oklahoma, went unanswered Wednesday.
Mike Brown, a venue spokesperson, told NBC affiliate KNWA last month
that as far as he knows, the show is the first announced since
coronavirus shutdowns began in March. He said the event would be in line
with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
(Travis McCready: "Ride With Me" on The World-Famous "Viva! NashVegas® Radio Show" 4:25 min)
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