From Mob-Speak to Murders: Are We Normalizing Mayhem?

The Greta Thunberg meltdown (with which I sympathize), the Zelensky call (with which I don't), the Khashoggi anniversary. The madness is endless.

Mob-Speak and Murders: Normalizing Mayhem? This guy—Charlie the Motorcycle Mutt—has nothing to do with the rest of the stories here, but I think he's hilarious. Photographed him last Sunday as his mistress was getting off her scooter near my apartment in Paris. For more of my shots around town, follow me on Instagram. Also, a couple of book notes: From November 12 to 17, the BookBub site will be offering the e-book versions of Our Man in Charleston: Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South for a mere $2.99. You might also want to check out my Amazon author page, which has, among other things, links to back copies of this little letter to friends. The last few days have been busy, watching everything from Greta Thunberg's meltdown over, well, the global meltdown, to the growing heat turned on Donald Trump because of his obsessive efforts to drag foreign leaders into the U.S. 2020 election campaign, and at the same time rewrite the history of 2016. This is what I had to say about Thunberg on France 24: https://youtu.be/AAzKUrXXshQ And this is some of what I had to say about Trump's antics. It's a point I have made before. Trump has never believed in the rule of law, only the rule of lawyers: https://youtu.be/3t1OZhGwrOk Anna Nemtsova and Adam Rawnsley and I worked on a long story about Trump and Rudy Giuliani—who has gone from being America's Mayor to Trump's craven and crazed consigliere—and the longstanding ties both men have to some very shady Ukrainian characters in "Little Odessa" a.k.a. Brighton Beach, Brooklyn: https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-and-rudy-giuliani-connections-to-sam-kislin-and-ukraine-corruption-go-back-decades?ref=author We marked the anniversary of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, an act I am sure Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman regrets, but probably more for the way it was carried out than because a thorn in his side was removed. People are working hard, still, to find out what Trump knew and when he knew it about the butchering of Khashoggi—and how Trump managed to excuse it. That becomes apparent in the article and the conclusion is clear enough: MBS won. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-treacherous-ties-to-a-murderous-prince?ref=author Cheers, Chris Below, downstairs at Harry's New York Bar on Rue Daunou in Paris. I don't know what Mathilde and Vashima were shaking up, but they looked like they were having fun. Copyright © 2019 Christopher Dickey, All rights reserved. You are receiving this because you were on my personal mailing list, and this is in fact a personal account. But please do feel free to "unsubscribe." Our mailing address is: Christopher Dickey 555 W 18 Street The Daily Beast New York, New York 10011 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

Scenes of "Yellow Vest" Violence in Paris France — It's a Revolt. But Is It a Revolution? My Pics from the Last Two Saturdays

Talked a little about this on CNBC.

Wrote about it on The Daily Beast.

Will be talking about it and writing about it a great deal more on MSNBC and The Daily Beast this weekend.

Taunting police, braving the teargas on Nov 24 

Art gallery on Avenue Kléber damaged on Dec 1

Crowd of gilets jaunes  and casseurs at Arc de Triompher on Dec 1. Graffiti on the monument reads "Yellow Vests Will Triumph" 

Taunting police at the Etoile on Nov 24

Tear gas canisters in torn-up pavement on Dec. 2

Cars burning on Rue Beaujon, a few blocks from my apartment.

Smashed window on Avenue Wagram Nov 24

Woman covering her face in a cloud of teargas near the Etoile on Nov 24

Digging up paving stones to throw a people and things 

Tear gas gun on Dec 1

Looking out through the window of Le Drugstore near Arc de Triomphe on Nov 25, the day after the first riot

Iconic image of "Liberty" smashed by vandals who entered the Arc de Triomphe on Dec. 1 (AP photo I modified for details)

In the middle of the tear gas cloud on Nov 24

Burned out branch of Credit Lyonnais on corner of Rue Monceau

The arsonists had gone to work, and black smoke mingled with teargas on Dec 1

"We'll be back." Dec 2

And yet, every other day of the week the city was calm. This photo is from Wednesday evening, 5:21 PM

Many of the "casseurs," like soccer hooligans, saw the violence and the confrontations with police as a sport. This guy was shooing a video of himself with police coming up behind: "They're charging!"  But they weren't.

The day after Dec 1: This café is right beneath the TV studio where we shoot live shots. I go there all the time. The vandals tried to break into a car dealership next door. If they had set the cars inside on fire, the people in the studio would have been at great risk.

The day after Dec 1, surveying the damage at a burned out lawyer's office at the Étoile. 

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Plywood and graffiti to ward off vandals on the Champs Élysées — seems to have worked.

Burned out Restaurant La Belle Armée (formerly La Grande Armée) near Étoile.

The Day after Dec 1: "Yellow Vests = Antifa" scrawled on Arc de Triomphe

The night after Dec 1: the graffiti has all been removed from the Arc de Triomphe, and Avenue de la Grand Armée is calm. 

The Day after Dec 1: Lovers on Avenue Kléber