'Contemporary History: One (Street) Artist's View: (How's It Working Out?)'

Over two years have passed, the masked supplicant offering a partially

depetaled flower to this cop, has part of his answer for

the 'GREAT 'LEFT HOPE' of Obama, the Republican billionaires and

billionaires really do have their tax cut cemented in the future (and

probably for all time in the midst of the worst recession in modern

history, while people cling to jobs and are losing houses at an

unprecedented rate). Obama's Administration gets criticized, even from

within, for not 'explaining' that it has passed near-record legislation,

including health care reform, that has eluded EVERY past president.

How's it going? Obama said he and the Democrats got a shellacking,

Palin's being groomed by media magnate Rupert Murdoch to unseat

Obama in two years, and even her daughter who conceived while under

18 and then unwed, is being made a national figure. What's going on

here? How does this photo fit in; was it prescient or off its mark

entirely? Is it 'art' or 'garbage' in light of events. If surreal, perhaps then

it's art, as art follows life, and political life in 21st C USA is more than a

little surreal, agree?. Your ratings, critiques and remarks are invited and

most welcome; Please submit a helpful and constructive comment,

thank you in advance for your submission; and in this response 'on

topic' will be very liberally construed, and there is no 'right answer'.

Thanks and Enjoy! John

To start off the discussion, those lightning bolts are really 'electricity' and seem to be a statement about 'electronic voting' and the claim that the previous general election in Ohio had been 'rigged' by Diebold Corp which made the voting machines and the states such as Wisconsin which distributed them so few in liberal college town Madison thousands of would-be voters stood by for hours past poll closing which courts extended for them.

Claims were made and proved to the California Secretary of State that certain machines were easily rigged, hacked, and no paper trace which lead to rules (perhaps laws, I am not sure) that there be a 'paper trail' with voting machines to prevent (reveal) ballot stuffing.

There was Democratic concern that electronic votes would be stolen by Republicans who were trying rather successfully to purge voting rolls of traditionally Democratic voters.

The 'safe' thing then espoused was the 'write in ballot' which left a paper trail and could be counted manually; events then may have eclipsed that.

Oregon has only vote by mail now and is by far a leader in a sense over California, but experts affirmed to the CA Secretary of State it was easily possible for many vote-stealers criminally with malware to steal votes by hacking CA's voting machines then leaving no trace, with there was no trail, even a paper one.

The more things change the more things stay the same.

It seems certain from history that if Kennedy had not had Mayor Daley and his vaunted political machine steal so many votes in Chicago, in 1964, a Democratic stronghold, Kennedy very well might have been an also-ran to new President-elect Nixon, who was resilient and later became president anyway (then disgraced his office).

Ben Franklin:  You have a Republic, sir, if you can keep it!'

(US is NOT a democracy, it is a Republic (representive democracy, in which Senators, Representatives, Lobbyists and $$$$) make the laws and the President signs them (or not).

;~))

of

;~(((

Depending on your view.

john

John (Crosley)

The masked man, wearing gloves and a backpack seems a little disturbing.  It conjurs images of the Taliban, but at the same time is contrasted by the flower he appears to be offering to the policeman.  To me that brings back an image of a hippy placing a flower in the barrel of an M16 at Kent State.  The Obama mural is something different,  maybe the cop is there to stop the onslaught of negativity that seems to be starting to swirl around him.  He seems to be giving away a lot of his soul lately.  The election may have been some sort of referendum, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what it was actually about.  I think people are upset that the econoomy is still dead, at least for anyone not making millions $$$.  But that really happened long before this guy got on the job.  And now he caves in on the tax bill?  We'll never get the budget under control if we're not willing to swallow some harsh medicine.  But that's really a rant and has little to do with the image.  Other than to say it does seem to spark some thought on my part.

Bob Belanger,

Rants from this historical photo, taken before the election two years ago, was one of two reasons I posted it to encourage.

The other was it was pretty good, and I didn't post it then when it was more topical (shame on me!, but at the same time with 1500 photos posted now, I have had to draw the line somewhere.

Notice (which you did not I think) the gloved had of the masked man is in the shape of a pistol, but it is the color of a glove, and seems to be a hand - for a trompe l'oeil (mistake of the eye -- intentional I think).

And the mask is more of the sort that cops from foreign nations and clandestine operatives from this one use when they don't want to be identified, rather than 'criminals per se' (although the use of a mask is always suspect.

Constitutionally 'masks' are not necessarily protected, having been used by the Ku Klux Klan, and therefore they were not protected by any of the Constitutional Amendments relating to granting new freedoms to slaves and applying federal laws to the states. 

Interesting, hunh?  States can probably stop or regulate the use of masks is my reading, though there would be a 'free speech' and 'anonymous speech' blow back and a First Amendment showdown, I'm sure.

Thanks for jumping in; this is the ideal photo for it.

I don't judge the comments here; I just provide a place and a jumping off point.  Obama's actions have not been explained well, though he seems to have though them out well; he's just not been a good explainer and his legislative record has been unexcelled in recent time . . . .but no one seems to know that.

He probably (with Bush too) saved this country's economy, but he's being attacked for what he did, because he hasn't explained it in lay person's terms.

I give him good marks on what he's done, but poor marks on communicating -- perhaps he's too cerebral to connect with what the poor people need to be told or too tone deaf to understand how to do it.

Or too compromised by not having quite enough of a majority last time to get what he needed without too much compromising and not being able to project an image of strength -- he looks far weaker than I think he is.

Those are personal thoughts (maybe he is weaker than he appeared to be in the campaign of 2008?)

john

John (Crosley)

p.s.

One thing's certain, he's certainly smarter than Truman, but Truman knew how to lead; Obama still needs lessons, I think, in how to get respect as a leader despite remarkable but unseen accomplishments - only Johnson may have exceeded what he's accomplished with the Civil Rights Act, in which Johnson sacrificed the Dixiecrats and Democratic control of the South to get Civil Rights, then blew his presidency on the Viet Nam War and invading Cambodia, all for a made-up war.

A least Afghanistan, for all it costs is not made-up like Iraq, even if unwinnable.

john

jc.

Though they appear to interrelate, it appears to me that each the left and right graffito were placed there at separate times and by separate factions.

I think the mural, right, was first, but I may be wrong; it's just a hunch and therefore speculative.

john

John (Crosley)

I generally don't just take photos of 'art' (even interesing 'street art') unless there's some element that I can add as photographer and that here is catching the juxtaposition of the two.

jc

Who is the poet (British I think) who wrote; "a mule in a tuxedo is still a mule"?

Meir, it helps if you relate your comment to the photo or its subject(s) in some way or they just strain the mind and provide no relief.

I'm not stupid and there are multiple subjects here:  which one is the mule:

The saying is 'traditional' I've learned, not ascribed to any particular one person but more on the variety of being a folk saying.

But please read your comments before you post them, and try to view them from the point of view of those who read them so we can see if they try to relate to something in the photo (or in the other comments).

Please give us some help.

OK?

john

John (Crosley)

Hi John,

I did notice the gloved hands as well, but my rant was moving me away from the aspects of the image.  I do think it's an interesting aspect, like the mask, but in my take it's the same as the mask.  I'm not aware of hand gestures and whatnot, but I see the gloved hands as a means to remain anonymous (leave no trace).

On Obama, I'm very disappointed in his recent actions.  I agree that he's made some great steps in the first 2 years but he totally caved in on the tax cuts.  Why?  The other side has been blocking and watering down legeslation the whole time.  Health reform is nothing compare to what it should be.  Now they say they'll repeal it.  And, since when is 60 votes a majority in a 100 seat chamber?  You think the other side made legeslating anything easy in the last 2 years, just wait for the tea party to show up in January.  The best thing he could have done is gone all in on the tax cuts.  Make the other side defend their position and keep hamering away until you get the unemployment extensions.  He could have let ALL the tax cuts expire and adopt some of the recomendations from his commision and rewrite the tax code.  Now, he'll never make progress on his agenda.  If the economy makes some recovery over the next 2 years the other side will be taking credit for pushing for their tax reform plan.  Gitmo will never be closed.  We will not be out of either combat entanglement any time soon.  Health care is in jepordy as is all entitlement spending.  And it's called entitlements because whose that recieve them are entitled to.  They're not a form of a handout.  Those that recieve these actually paid into them.  And they're in jepordy, my mom recieves these entitlements and whenever the political ball gets kicked around, she's getting hurt.

Anyways, I continue to rant.  Thanks for posting and replying.

Bob

1.  How's it working out?

2.  Great liberalness will be applied to what is 'on topic' (essentially).

You are right on topic.

This is a historical document, this photo, though some may not yet recognize it as such because it is so recent.

And it is difficult to interpret; there is no clear guide, and hence maybe then it is 'art' (subject to interpretation?)

In any case, this photo's power, if it has that, not only is in its beauty (if it has that with its impressive colors) but in its evocative powers with a viewer such as you.

I happen to have some similar thoughts to you, but then so do a great number of those who helped elect Obama who think he should show more spine OFF the basketball court.

On the other hand, he has a view of civil discourse.

The problem may be that in order to show his vision of civil discourse, it may not be to 'cave in' but then the American electorate is almost evenly split on certain issues, and the Republicans are expert at dividing the electorate along certain ideological lines that have little to do with their own agenda (which is smaller government, repeal Social Security, repeal welfare of any kind and any sort of 'entitlement' and 'all for us and none for them because we got ours' and to heck with them.

We're in America's new gilded age, but the tide has lifted all boats, even poorer households have computers that would have put the computers that guided Explorer I into space to shame.  Often those computers are on a mobile phone/computing device such as an I-Phone, so no direct comparison of standard of living is possible, and the TV or two in every household is likely to be a 46 or 52 inch screen, even if the people inside are struggling to make ends meet.

The goal posts have been re-arranged (not just moved).

Prosperity nowadays, and its reverse, poverty, now mean something else.

Read Steinbecks letters and observations (published in a London newspaper or just in private papers) about conditions in California migrant camps in the '30s to re-think the Luddites who say despite a very severe recession that we're somehow in a new Depression.  And I have been very severely damaged by this recession, so I'm not talking from some ivory tower, but I maintain perspective.

Ultimately, for you and me at least, this photo has been a worthwhile study; a success within its modest scope.

Thanks for letting me know your thoughts; discussion is the staff of life.

Even if you disagree, (but are honest about why).

john

John (Crosley)

Thanks John,

I do enjoy the process of thought and this image is one that got me interested.  I also enjoy your thoughts.  I guess I have an image in my mind of "progress" and maybe it comes in small bites.  But I'm reminded of king Sisyphus.  We seem to move the rock but before we know it it rolls back again.  And, at times it's clear that we're losing ground, the rock gets lowered deeper everytime it rolls back.  I used to think our collective politics were more like a pendulum and it would swing back and forth around a centeral kind of identity.  I'm begining to believe that's not the case anymore.  May because I'm not in the mainsteam of thinkng, I don't know.  But when I see the divide between the top and bottom, it's scarey.  On the other hand, I think that there's a MINORITY in our politics that seem to be better at pushing an agenda and stoping ones that they don't agree with.  The majority complies, maybe because of the power of money behind the wrekless, shortsighted policies, like tax cuts for everyone while the budget baloons.  He's another reference to Nero who famously fiddled while Rome burned.

Anyways, another rant,

Thanks for the chance to share,

Bob

Some activist part of the ultra rich and ultraconservatives cynically have enlisted to influence ordinary voters, the linchpin issues of 'guns, gays, and God' to insert at their expense a divide within American culture, with the ultimate goal being the elimination of most extensive forms of government and a return to a 'gilded age', with no social safety net.

If you fall, you tumble and if you don't bring any safety net of your own, maybe you die . . . . that's life (and death).

All that in favor of enlisting those self-same people to help them dismantle government by harnessing issues that do matter to them, more than their own economic well-being (Guns, Gays and God).

The hoi poloi have less interest in those issues, but they know how to manipulate them to get the majority (or the blocking minority) they need.

That's how I read it now; agree or disagree?

john

John (Crosley)

John, sometimes it occurs to me that you have always been near the epicenter of political earthquakes.  You were surely at Columbia in those last quiet years before the likes of Mark Rudd, and you caught Nixon with his eternally wary eyes right there on the street, not to mention gas-masked guardsmen with rifles and other signs of those times.

The times they keep a changin' and so does politics.  This shot could become a period piece for sure.

--Lannie

You certainly know my personal history - I watched Mark Rudd foment revolt (revolution that does not succeed is styled by those who prevail as 'revolt' but by those who win as 'revolution' ;~)) ) at Columbia College personally with my eyes, but at night, and I don't think that moment I had a camera, plus he was surrounded by activists, so if I took a photo it might not have been safe there on the walk as 116th Street (closed) extends through the Columbia University/Columbia College campus.

Yes, I also caught Nixon at the height of his popularity.  Did you read in the New York Times today his recorded conversation with Rosemary Woods (secretary) and others about his views on Blacks, Jews, Italians (and others)? 

They were straight out of Stereotype 101!

Amazing, a sitting president should have had such views; they are most revealing; which I think show partly why Nixon was so paranoid. 

A lifelong Orange County, CA resident, I don't think he knew how to handle a culturally diverse society -- anything other than 'white bread' standard, balloon loaf unsettled him - caused stereotype alarm bells to ring in his head.  No wonder those who didn't like him and feared him, did so; he was personally a very frightened man by those around him except his own close circle - Dick Nixon as a scared man, triumphing over his fear using 'hook or crook', as the end justifies the means,  I guess,  in the triumph of white bread over multi-grain.

But at least he had curiosity.

That may be why he is now known to have escaped the White House and gone onto the capital mall on protest evenings to talk to the protesters (all done clandestinely, but later reported on -- just no photos.) 

At least he had some curiosity about why he was not liked, unlike George W. Bush who had little curiosity, was convinced God sent him, and to hell with what others thought.

The bayonet-bearing National Guardsman and his gas mask are a classic:  it's a huge over-reaction to what 'might have been' in some commander's eyes, but if the commander had been on the ground nearby, he would have noticed students didn't have their own gas masks which many brought if there were trouble expected, plus the assembly was promoted as being 'for peace', peaceful, and not to make violence. Protesters brought balloons and were in a festive mood which anybody present could see.

Not only is that photo a sign of the times about campus protests, it is a classic about 'misreading a situation' which adds to the contrast and irony depicted therein.

This photo is a little harder to read, I think, but the depictions of Obama, no electronic voting for fear the votes will be 'hacked' and stolen by Diebold Corp., (president and founder of which was a HUGE Bush supporter, and well-considered to have the propensity to engage in 'dirty tricks' (a la Dick Tuck?).

But massive vote theft through clandestinely hacked software is on a much more grand scale than dressing up as a trainman and waving a signal at a locomotive engineer to move a campaign train from its stop while candidate (Nixon) was speaking.

The latter was on the scale of a prank/practical joke, and within limits, comical, even if criminal.

But stealing millions of votes is more on the order of a vote 'genocide', and many Americans believed it was easily possible for that to happen, and in a close election, for the democratic election process to be thwarted.

Such may have determined the Bush/Gore election very easily.  There really was no clear vote winner in that election, and the Supreme Court almost tripped over itself to elect (select) Bush - viz. remarks of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor about the possibility of a Gore presidency.

The photo's left hand side for me is pretty easy to read; the right hand side harder.  It suggests peace between those who did not want to be 'seen' (hence the hood), and the 'State' here represented by the authority of a police officer.

The flower certainly seems to be a peace offering, and the cop, with one hand on nightstick, and the other in the position of swearing an oath ('Right hand up, sir, and I'll administer the oath), seems here to be swearing to tell the truth . . . . maybe 'uphold the law?' which some feel was thwarted in Bush/Gore and in later, continuing electronic voting scandals.

Your reading is up to you; I can only try to interpret, something I didn't do at the scene. I just recognized it, recorded it for study later, like a botanist putting seeds or leaves in a jar, or a biologist  taking samples in the field for study later.

I think that's how my photos sometimes are; they sometimes are today's record to be studied with the reflection of time, especially when they involve political subjects.

Thanks for a very astute observation, Landrum.

john

John (Crosley)

I also was in Viet Nam (as a civilian), almost blundering my way over there, even though I previously had sought a position with AP (in my own naiive  way) as a 'combat photographer' for them.

I think when I had left AP Photo Chief (legendary Hal Buell's) office in New York in 1968 that day, he told stories abou this naiive guy who wandred in with no experience and a portfolio of ten good photos.

And how he told me to 'go  find a job at a small newspaper, put photos on the wire, 'if we like them, we'll come and get you.'  As he shook my hand with his right hand and with his left, escorted me to his door (goodbye kid, and smirk inwardly.)

I was at three different campus protests.

I wrote stories for two moon shots from most unlikely places, one from San Francisco (laser bounces off mirror put there by astronauts), and one from Reno (film reveals lightning strike on Apollo moon shot rocket, which I viewed, from a local scientist's film at University of Nevada, Reno).

Hal Buell flew to the West Coat to meet me again and invite me to New York City to work with him.  (funny how sometimes some smirk very long in the face of my sincerity).

I certainly have had a way of being a canary in the atmosphere of  modern life's changing times, at least from time to time.

I may be the ultimate baby boomer; a sort of more erudite Forrest Gump.

This is part of my life's chocolates.

john

John (Crosley)

Editing disappeared before I could amend to read civilian 'war photographer' in Viet Nam, though I really didn't see much combat.

john

John (Crosley)

"Yes, I also caught Nixon at the height of his popularity.  Did you read in the New York Times today his recorded conversation with Rosemary Woods (secretary) and others about his views on Blacks, Jews, Italians (and others)?"

Yes, I saw that.  The ink stains are not drying in a flattering way for his image, to say the least.

One of those "others" was, guess who?  Irish-Americans.  Turns out we can't hold our liquor, according to the Big Dick.

--Lannie

"Truman knew how to lead; Obama still needs lessons, I think, in how to get respect as a leader despite remarkable but unseen accomplishments"

Regrettably so, John.  And this is going to be a tough Congress that will be convening in January for the next two years.  After that?  I don't even try to predict there.

If Rupert Murdock fails in trying to foist Palin off on us, this country might have a chance.

--Lannie