#BlackLivesMatter Blocks Major Interstate (I-70 St. Louis)

The Kardashians. I don’t the understand the fascination with these type of silly reality TV shows. Sure, at first it was slightly amusing (like watching a car wreck at a NASCAR race). But many people are glued to these type of programs all the time. The latest Kardashian news made a Florida TV anchor walk off the set. The "news" that day was that Kylie Jenner had named her pet rabbit "Bruce"!

Bread and circuses: That's how I had it explained to me.

PBS: The Emperor Augustus was well aware of the risk, but was keen to keep the poorest plebeians happy enough and reasonably well fed so that they would not riot. He began the system of state bribery that the writer Juvenal described as "bread and circuses".

Free grain and controlled food prices meant that the plebeians would not starve, while free entertainment – such as chariot races and gladiators in amphitheaters and the Circus Maximus – meant that they would not get bored and restless.

Wiki: Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is metonymic for a superficial means of appeasement. In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace, as an offered "palliative."

Its originator, Juvenal, used the phrase to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns. The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the commoner.

In other words...keep the people fat and dumbed down.

And speaking of circuses: Recently #BlackLivesMatter blocked a major interstate (I-70 in St. Louis) in both directions, keeping people from going about their business, like getting to work on time. And what about emergency vehicles? If your grandma was laying in the back of an ambulance, how would you have felt? People were really pissed off when Chris Christie had slowed traffic on the George Washington Bridge.

At the Daily Kos (a website that strongly supports Hillary Clinton) they wrote: "I watched with a mix of horror, anger and relief. Horrified that the driver had willfully driven into a group of people. Anger that the officer actually looked back at the vehicle, saw it plowing into the people and kept walking away."

Watch the video below (at 1:09 into the 5 minute video) and you be the judge. Also, near the 4-minute mark is a very hard body slam. (This video was edited for length — the full 35-minute video is here, posted for the St. Louis American.)

If I was going to be late for work, and another tardiness may have put my job in jeopardy, I might I have also PLOWED nudged my way through the line of protesters too.

IMHO, this disruption of a major interstate accomplished nothing but to give the city of Ferguson and the movement #BlackLivesMatter more negative publicity. The spectacle was just another "circus" — but without the bread. While watching this video, I had wished I had watched the Kardashians instead.

The rebuttal goes something like this:

• Sometimes protests have their downside, but it wouldn’t be a protest if it didn’t cause some disturbance. Should protests be conducted and allowed only inside an empty stadium where no one is affected?
• Truckers have protested working conditions by slowing traffic to a crawl on interstates. Truck Convoy Protest Left Major Delays on Capital Beltway
• Or how come this didn’t make the national news, since it’s quite similar to what was done by #BlackLivesMatter: Youth Jail Protesters Block Highway Ramp.
• Or this one: Traffic was at a standstill near Biscayne Boulevard in Miami's Midtown about 6:40 p.m. The protest's message was diverse. A woman was holding a sign that read "Black Lives Matter" and another sign said "Justice for Israel." A man had a flag representing the hackers activist group Anonymous. "We are young, we are strong; we are marching all night long," the protesters said.
• Or this one: "About 14 child-care advocates were arrested on misdemeanor charges of blocking a roadway after sitting in the middle of L Street in front of the California Capitol on Wednesday afternoon, halting traffic for about 45 minutes.

But then again, a counter-rebuttal might go: "Yes, but those people didn't interrupt Bernie Sanders' speeches. And do 2 or more wrongs make a right?" The protesters were also chanting, "Whose streets? Our streets!" Yes, everybody's streets, not just the protestors' streets.

Al Jazeera: Police killings of Latinos spark less outrage than when victims are black: Families of Latinos killed by police push for a Brown Lives Matter movement. #BrownLivesMatter

Washington Times: Police kill more whites than blacks, but minority deaths generate more outrage. #WhiteLivesMatter

From a recent email I received from 99er:

I have been disgusted sickened and angry beyond belief at the senseless murder-by-cop problem in this country for a VERY LONG TIME, and it seems to be getting much worse every day.

With that said, I will admit I do not know what it is like to be "a person of color" in this country; and to be the victim of racism — BUT NOT ALL of these crimes are AGAINST blacks and Hispanics.

I for one am sick to death of blacks who are racist against whites, and somehow see that as "OK" or justified. I call BULLSHIT on that, as haters will always feel justified, but never really are.

My beef with BLM [#BlackLivesMatter] is their insistence on being the ONLY issue to be addressed — as if that problem is any worse than Vets who die waiting for medical care, or those that are still uninsured who cannot afford life-saving treatment.

There are many other issues which also demand resolution in our world today, not the least of which is the poverty issue, especially where children are hungry and/or homeless and have no choice in the matter.

Bernie Sanders did the right thing by employing a defense to the disrupters, and I for one can hardly wait for the first chance to see the next selfish disruptive jerk at a #FeeltheBern rally who'll get shouted down by thousands of folks chanting "WE STAND TOGETHER". Anyone who finds THAT unacceptable deserves to be oppressed, lest they continue to oppress others.

Al Jazeera: Four white civilian men carrying military-style rifles and sidearms walked a riot-torn street in Ferguson, Missouri. The men identified themselves as members of Oath Keepers, which the group reports, has about 35,000 members nationwide — and says there are African-Americans among its ranks. The Southern Poverty Law Center has described Oath Keepers as "fiercely anti-government", but does not consider them a hate group. The St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar condemned the appearance of the group: “Their presence was both unnecessary and inflammatory.”

Yes, it's ALL "inflammatory". And it doesn't help that the mainstream media helps incite this for advertising ratings. The fast-food workers protesting for a $15 minimum wage was much more widespread, but they got scant coverage in the news because they didn't riot, burn, loot and block major interstates.

Maybe EVERYBODY just needs to go home and cool off for a while — and maybe watch an episode of The Kardashians.