Absolutely no surprises here. Move along.

Ferguson: No indictment

Far from being strong enough to support a conviction, the evidence did not even measure up to the much less demanding standard of supporting an indictment.

Obama speaks

He supported law and order without enthusiasm though not quite without conviction while suggesting with his entire demeanor that the decision was unjust and he was among those "disappointed and even angry."

His focus was on the need for change, and it was obvious the change he thought necessary was relief from white racism.

He spent much time on urging the police of Ferguson to exercise restraint, carefully distinguishing those who are violent from those exercising understandable and lawful protest of this grand jury decision.

He observed that the police are essential and necessary, especially for crime ridden black neighborhoods, but promised progress and change in getting rid of bad apples and otherwise making law enforcement "more fair."

He did not scold the black community for jumping to conclusions like mirror images of white racist trash in the bad old days of the deep South and behaving like thugs and criminals.

Instead, his view is that police need to earn the trust and respect of the black community.

Unbelievably but not at all surprisingly, a hundred and fifty years later he invoked the legacy of slavery and said outright that black "mistrust" of white police is "understandable."

He urged the AG and federal agencies to work with states and cities on reforming the police to make them better, more racially representative, more deserving of the trust of the communities they police, and so on.

Apart from his unenthusiastic rejections of violence and looting, he had not one word to say in criticism of the acts or attitudes of the black community throughout this entire, wholly unsurprising display of black hatred of whites.

Riots, businesses trashed, building burned in Ferguson

[Update.

All the same, this is excessive.

John Hayward at Human Events on Ferguson

/Update.]

Morning Joe's chief topic for the ride to work seemed to be events in Iraq and Syria.

PS.

If both the grand jury refused to indict and AG Holder's Justice Department can't find enough to proceed for a civil rights violation you would think Holder and his boss both just might be open to the thought that the grand jury got it right and they had it wrong from the start, just like the black protesters and rioters and criminals of Ferguson.

Doesn't look it, though.

Perhaps they justify their own refusal to be guided by the evidence with the thought that sometimes the guy is guilty but you just can't prove it.

Quite true.

But how do they know the guy is guilty?

Oh, right.

He's white.

Update, 11/25.

Maybe I've been misreading him or maybe O is becoming more nuanced and cool-headed as the days pass.

He no longer seems to be channeling Rev Al in his worst days.

Not at all.