“The Poetry of Protest” our show in the Gallery of Art and Design at the University of Central Missouri of large prints of photographs from rallies, protests, marches, and demonstrations opened on September 26th. The exhibit closed on October 28th.
The exhibit is closed.
We left an open notebook with blank pages and pencils on a podium next to the exhibit title wall. The last comments:
Awesome: Thanks for all the clear evidences of democracy. It was truly enjoyable.
So important that children in the future know that were those of us who stood up against the war on democracy, truth, kindness [and] the environment – oh, yeah [and] the nuclear war being waged against women. Thank you for preserving this so the protests are not lost.
According to news reports at least one individual associated with Donald Trump’s (r) campaign has been indicted by a grand jury. There could be perp walk videos later today. Prepare yourselves:
Pass the popcorn.
Former Innocent Kid @Johngcole
Hey wingnuts- guess whose campaign manager didn’t just get arrested by the FBI?
We just saw the television ad running in the Kansas City media market paid for by the “Missouri Alliance For Freedom – Grace River PAC” attacking Hillary Shields (D), a candidate in the 8th Senate District special election. Mike Cierpiot (r) is the republican party candidate in the election.
Mike Cierpiot (r) [2017 file photo].
It was easily established that the premise of the ad is a lie.
A lot of money has been passed through to the PAC, including:
C171144 10/26/2017 Missouri Alliance For Freedom – Grace River PAC Missouri Senate Campaign Committee P.O. Box 754 Jefferson City MO 65102 10/24/2017 $20,183.00
[emphasis added]
The Missouri Senate Campaign Committee is the republican state senate PAC.
They helped pay for the ad. They own it. They probably don’t care. They probably think they can get away with it. They’d be right.
Hillary Shields (D), the Democratic Party nominee for the 8th Senate District November special election.
Part one of Putin’s Revenge, a PBS Frontline investigation into the role Russia’s Vladimir Putin played in influencing the 2016 U.S. election, explores the rise of the Russian dictator and the events that determined his behavior toward the U.S. In the process it tells us how almost the first action that Putin took after assuming the role of Prime Minister was to engineer the takeover of independent TV broadcasting stations by rich “friends” of the Russian state apparatus personified by Putin. Since more than 90% of all Russians get their news from TV, this was an important step toward imposing an authoritarian state under Putin’s control.
Why is this interesting?
Almost as many Americans as Russians are dependent on TV for their news. Sinclair Broadcasting controls much of that news – and Sinclair, known for its conservative tilt, seems to be happily cavorting in Donald Trump’s grimy bed, perhaps even conspiring to make sure that the only news Americans get to see is friendly to Trumpland denizens
What does Sinclair get out of this relationship? First off, the proposed merger between Tribune News and Sinclair, which has been in danger of flunking the monopoly tests that the FCC uses to evaluate such mergers – precisely so that no company can take total control of American news sources – will come up for a vote in November. Wanna bet how Trump’s FCC, headed by a new chairman, Mitch McConnel’s boy, Ajit Pai, will vote? If the merger goes through – likely a foregone conclusion – seven out of ten Americans will potentially be getting their news from Sinclair. Second, the FCC just voted to relax long-standing rules that mandated that news outlets own and operate a station in the locale where they broadcast, moving us one step closer to content controlled, remotely distributed “news reports” that Sinclair has specialized in producing.
Sinclair is already a media player in Missouri. In the St. Louis area where I live, it owns ABC affiliate KDNL (broadcast channel 30). The merger would put two more stations in St. Louis under Sinclair’s thumb, KPLR and KTVU (broadcast channels 11 (CW) and 2 (Fox)). That’s three out of the four major St. Louis broadcast stations, folks. And broadcast is where many, often older, citizens get their local news.
And just consider what Sinclair has done with local news reports on KDNL: it’s gotten rid of them. And what have they put on in place of local news? Are you familiar with the rightwing radio noisemaker, Jamie Allman? If Sinclair dominates the local TV environment, I suspect folks in and around St. Louis will become more familiar than they like.
That’s because, instead of the local news programs that are traditionally broadcast at 5:00 and 10:00 pm, KDNL currently airs the Allman Report, a half hour blitz of honest-to-God fake news (the real thing, not Trump-labeled fake news.). To be fair, when challenged, Allman calls it “commentary,” not news, but it still occupies the niche we associate with local news broadcasts and, in the absence of any real local reporting, seems to be intended to fill that void.
This given, I thought I’d check out the Allman Report, so I watched the program all the way through last Wednesday. Here’s some of the highlights of what watchers learned in a single half-hour:
The President of Thrive STL, Bridget Van Means, was on the show to promote the latest TRAP law, SB5, that has come out of the Missouri legislature. Thrive, for those of you who aren’t aware of the organization, has made a name for itself by offering religiously-slanted, anti-birth control sex education in local schools. Thrive STL also runs several anti-abortion “crisis pregnancy” centers in the area. If I had taken Van Means at face value, I would have learned that the St. Louis Planned Parenthood clinic was a veritable abortion charnel house that has attempted to hide its bloody deeds by silencing the sirens of the ambulances that visit the clinic in higher numbers than anywhere else in the U.S. SB 5 will mandate that sirens be heard and women warned about the dangers of abortion. Whoopdie do. Van Means also wanted me to know that colonoscopies are more highly regulated than abortions – which, she believes, fully justifies the numerous restrictions imposed by SB5 – despite the fact that the consensus of most medial professionals is that they are medically unnecessary.
FACTCHECK: After being sued by an anti-abortion group, the infamous Operation Rescue, the St. Louis Fire Department released documents detailing the number of emergency pickups at the Planned Parenthood clinic from Jan. 2009 to April 2016. So what’s the appalling truth? There were 58 emergency calls during a period that saw 135,000 patient visit to the clinic. Moreover, at least half of these calls were not associated with abortion, but with other services offered by the clinic. As for the greater regulation of colonoscopies, they’re 10 times more likely than abortion to result in lethal complications – hence the more stringent regulations that insure similar survival outcomes.
Two members of the elected St. Louis School Board came on to tell us why control of the school board should revert from the Special Administrative Board (SAB) back to the elected board. The big takeaway here, judging from Allman’s response, was the astounding fact the elected board had not been in charge of St. Louis Schools for the last ten years. I guess he slept through all the Sturm und Drang that resulted in the appointment of the SAB. He certainly provided no further context to help folks understand the situation. My big takeaway: The President of the elected board allowed as to how folks are taking their children out of St. Louis schools and sending them to private or charter schools because they’re so bothered about the fact that the elected school board is being ignored.
FACTCHECK: Don’t know much about the merits of the current elected board, but I seem to remember reading that the loss of students from the public system predates the schism between the two boards and has a lot to do with the general factors that bedevil underfunded public school systems that serve poverty-stricken inner cities. It is a fact, nevertheless, that the SAB has brought the system back to a fully accredited status – and that it is currently involved in preparing to address the status of the two boards, two important facts that were, as I remember, not discussed.
In a final editorial segment, Allman asserted that recent revelations about how the DNC and the Clinton campaign had funded the research that went into the infamous Steele dossier somehow meant that Hillary Clinton was really the one that Robert Mueller has been investigating. Yeah, I know. Crazy, right? Allman did allow that the research had initially been commissioned by Republicans, but, then declared with utter confidence, though without any evidence, that the responsible Republican was none other than the nefarious, anti-Trump Jeb Bush.
FACTCHECK: The Steele dossier grew out of “oppo” research, common to all modern political campaigns. Nothing criminal there, nothing to trigger an investigation (although that won’t stop Republicans from “investigating it” – anything to divert attention from Trump’s ties to Russia). Nor was it ever used. The only criminal activities involved were laid out in the findings of the dossier which have excited the interest of the Special Counsel, Robert Mueller. It was, we have now learned, initially commissioned by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative Website whose bills are paid by a prominent Republican donor, Richard Singer, a supporter of Marco Rubio during the GOP primary. No Jeb Bush.
An interesting incidental tidbit that popped up during a call-in segment suggests that things aren’t necessarily going to be roses for Josh Hawley’s effort to take Claire McCaskill’s seat. A sweet elderly-sounding lady told Allman that she could never vote for Hawley because he didn’t kiss Trump’s feet (a bit of literary license here, but you get the drift).
FACTCHECK: Time will tell.
In case this partial resume of Wednesday’s program hasn’t properly horrified you, bear in mind that the disgraced sex-offender and rightwing rage-machine, Bill O’Reilly, is currently in negotiations with Sinclair for a two-hour show to run on the broadcaster’s local stations starting at either 6:00 or 7:00 pm.
It looks like Putin’s favorite puppet has got the playbook – American version – down cold.
C171196 10/27/2017 Raise Up Missouri Sixteen Thirty Fund 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite 300 Washington DC 20036 10/26/2017 $250,000.00
[emphasis added]
That’s quite a boost.
C171196: Raise Up Missouri
Committee Type: Campaign
2725 Clifton Ave
St Louis Mo 63139
Established Date: 07/18/2017
[….]
Ballot Measure History
Ballot Measures Election Date Subject Support/Oppose Initiative Petition To Raise State Minimum Wage (Raise Up Missouri) 11/06/2018 Raise State Minimum Wage Support
[emphasis added]
C171196: Raise Up Missouri
Committee Type: Campaign
2725 Clifton Ave
St Louis Mo 63139
Established Date: 07/18/2017
[….]
Information Reported On: 2017 – October Quarterly Report
Beginning Money on Hand $33,424.50
Monetary Receipts + $195,945.00
Monetary Expenditures – $11,056.01
Contributions Made – $0.00
Other Disbursements – $0.00
Subtotal $184,888.99
Ending Money On Hand $218,313.49
“The Poetry of Protest” our show in the Gallery of Art and Design at the University of Central Missouri of large prints of photographs from rallies, protests, marches, and demonstrations opened on September 26th. The exhibit runs through today.
We left an open notebook with blank pages and pencils on a podium next to the exhibit title wall. We get comments.
January 20, 2017 – Kansas City,Missouri – photo by Jerry Schmidt
Exhilarating! Thank you for taking the time and using your talent so effectively. I am grateful for every voice raised in outrage – particularly yours, because you have given expression to and an outlet for our collective grief. Thank you.
This morning three individuals who were in one of the images in the exhibit came to the gallery.
January 21, 2017 – Women’s March – Kansas City, Missouri – photo by Michael Bersin
Courtesy of Christian Cutler.
We’re the three queers in the tree! We came to see your exhibit; thank you for capturing all these moments in history. We are moved [….]
Looking through these pictures I’m reminded of a quote from Hamilton: “History has its eyes on you!” [….]
“The Poetry of Protest” our show in the Gallery of Art and Design at the University of Central Missouri of large prints of photographs from rallies, protests, marches, and demonstrations opened on September 26th. The exhibit runs through October 28th.
We left an open notebook with blank pages and pencils on a podium next to the exhibit title wall. We get comments.
January 20, 2017 – Kansas City, Missouri – photo by Jerry Schmidt
September 5, 2017 – DACA Protest – Kansas City, Missouri – photo by Jerry Schmidt
August 6, 2017 – Keystone Pipeline Protest – Lincoln, Nebraska – photo by Michael Bersin
January 21, 2017 – Women’s March – Kansas City, Missouri – photo by Michael Bersin
Terrific shots, and an altogether thought provoking display. I couldn’t help but notice the intensity of expression that Mr. Schmidt caught in many of the portraits; when you combined that expression with the subject’s attire (or even that of the people around them) the photo took on a kind of time suspension. The photo of the man in a green hat was especially striking – between the man, [and] the woman just to his left who is wearing a yellow cap, I could almost imagine this having been taken in the 1930s which in itself is an interesting experience for the viewer.
Another favorite: the gentleman in a PYO t-shirt [and] a red bandana on his face. [….] The expression in the gentlemen’s eyes suggests to me a kind of resignation/fatigue that again reminds me that the struggle is anything but new.
[….] The horse group picture is interesting for the same reasons as the photos I’ve mentioned already. Their expressions are much “older” than their attire which makes for a jarring juxtaposition, something I (well, now you can tell, clearly) find thought provoking.
The lady in scarf photo I like for different reasons. Her expression coupled w[ith] the luminosity of the photo in general just speaks to me one word – “optimism”. So much so that, had you told me that it was a staged photo for an advertisement I would have aid, “OK, well, that’s laying it on a bit thick, no? [….]!” But the fact that it was a ‘real’ shot just makes it too good for words. Here again, the clothing adds an unexpected dimension to the way I perceive any “message” of the flag symbolism. The fabrics she wears are all soft [and] she is completely covered by layers of the things she wears. It gives me a message that we are “covered”/”encapsulated” by the notion of “country”, that, for good or bad, it is bigger than the individual. But the women’s face really draws the eye in (her smile is arresting) [and] then sends the viewer’s eye out, because you wonder what she was seeing that caused her to react. Coupled with the light, as I said before, it just gives a hopeful, optimistic effect.
[….] I just want you both to know that I didn’t just think “ah, these are nice shots”. I found them to be a thought provoking, multi layered experience. “Poetry” was a great title for this exhibition. [….]
This is an historical exhibition of the times we are living in. Having been in demonstrations in the 60s, I did not think we would have to do this again. Unfortunately we do.
We must never forget that progress has never occurred without such protests. These are pictures of the best in our country.
Let’s celebrate that and never forget that we must stand against the reactionary forces moving our country back.
C171144 10/26/2017 Missouri Alliance For Freedom – Grace River PAC Missouri Senate Campaign Committee P.O. Box 754 Jefferson City MO 65102 10/24/2017 $20,183.00
C171144 10/27/2017 Missouri Alliance For Freedom – Grace River PAC Liberty Alliance 7509 NW Tiffany Springs Pkwy Suite 300 Kansas City MO 64153 10/26/2017 $102,000.00
[emphasis added]
“7509 NW Tiffany Springs Pkwy Suite 300 Kansas City MO 64153”
That address for Liberty Alliance looks really familiar.
It is:
C171144: Missouri Alliance For Freedom – Grace River Pac
Committee Type: Political Action
7509 Nw Tiffany Springs Parkway Ste 300
Kansas City Mo 64153
Established Date: 05/17/2017
[….]
Treasurer
James C Thomas Iii
7509 Nw Tiffany Springs Parkway Ste 300
Kansas City Mo 64153
[….]
Why, it’s the same address. Exact even.
Do you suppose they passed the check over a cubicle wall? Jut asking.
Oh, and back in July:
C171144 07/14/2017 Grace River PAC Herzog Contracting 600 South Riverside Road St Joseph MO 64507 6/27/2017 $50,000.00
[emphasis added]
My, isn’t that generous?
Wait a minute:
C171080 08/01/2017 Liberty Alliance Herzog Railroad Services Inc. 600 South Riverside Road St Joseph MO 64507 7/27/2017 $100,000.00