Mickey Z
Cool Observer
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Muhammad Ali says:
When life gets you down kids, just keep swimming.
Fascist messages in studio films, ones i can think of now are Spiderman’s ‘With great power comes great responsibility’ (mildly colonial), Batman Begins’ ‘Become fear to fight fear’ (yuck), though my personal favourite is one I saw with my cousin Milo a couple years back called Mac And Me in which the aliens’ parents come to earth to find him and in the last scene become US citizens in a courtroom swearing to protect the country from enemies foreign and domestic and the song playing over the credits is ‘You’re Not A Stranger Anymore.’
Posted by Owen on from Barcelona 09/25 at 08:46 AMOwen, there’s always this tagline from “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”:
“History is about to be rewritten by two guys who can’t spell.”
It provokes images of W. and Jeb at their daddy’s knee.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 10:11 AMAnybody watch Russert interview the president of Jefferson Parrish on Meet the Press just now? Russert was getting angry, defending the federal government, trying to lay all of the blame locally, using some “facts” uncovered by some nitpicking bloggers...Broussard(sp.) had said that bureaucracy murdered many people in Louisiana three weeks ago, right after Katrina...and that his boss’s mother was one of the people in the old age home who were abandoned…
today, he tore russert a new one and challenged anyone on his “channel” or any other channel to debate the facts...he said it must be nice for these bloggers and maybe even russert to be sitting there with their coffee and working toilets living in dreamland...he said, he hasn’t had a good nights sleep in weeks he has been working so hard...so, he said, give him a good night sleep and he will debate anyone anywhere on the facts...the federal gov. bureaucracy murdered people.
Man, does russert piss me off. he gets all detailed oriented on this guy, but he has bush (insert any other politician/expert/media personality here) in an interview and lobs softballs.
Posted by JOS on from Guaynabo 09/25 at 10:13 AMDidn’t see it, JOS...but guys like Russert remind me of two quotes:
“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”
-Upton Sinclair“There is an odor to any Press Headquarters that is unmistakable… the unavoidable smell of flesh burning quietly and slowly in the service of a machine.”
-Norman MailerPosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 10:17 AMthat’s what I get for watching crap TV…
anyway...good morning, Mickey and Owen. Hope all is well.
Great to see the humongous impact the protest made yesterday (sarcasm).
I hear there were tons of people, but hardly saw a thing on the news.
Mick, you said something about a final blow to the superficial facade that is “America?”
Posted by JOS on from Guaynabo 09/25 at 10:19 AMin reference to Rita...I think this to happen...and soon.
Posted by JOS on from Guaynabo 09/25 at 10:21 AMmeant to say “I think this has to happen...”
I can’t take much more.
Posted by JOS on from Guaynabo 09/25 at 10:22 AMgreat mailer quote...catch you all later.
Posted by JOS on from Guaynabo 09/25 at 10:23 AMThanks for stopping in, JOS. Talk to you later.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 10:26 AMHi everyone......the Pro-war rally is on c-span right now. We, all of us, have to come to grips with the fact that many US citizens, not just the government, love war. That is just the way that it is. That is who we are as a people. War is us, and war is the U.S. They are pointing out, at the pro-war rally that it is an all volunteer force. They are right. If the anti-war people gave as much support to the Conscientious Objectors as they do to the others, maybe it would help.
Posted by RMJ on from at the world-wide protest 09/25 at 12:01 PM“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
- Goebbels
Posted by Owen on from Barcelona 09/25 at 12:13 PMOwen, The statement that you post is important....the government controls the education and the educators themselves have been brain-washed. We are lost in an endless loop....a mobius band of ignorance. (Oh, I like that statement. I will have to use that one in an essay.)
Posted by RMJ on from in the Mobius band 09/25 at 12:23 PMI would like to write a few words honoring Filiberto Ojeda Rios who was shot and killed by federal agents this weekend at his home (hideout) in Hormigueros, PR. Filiberto was a leader of the Macheteros, a group who fought for Puerto Rico´s independence from the US in the 70´s and 80´s. He was killed as the Independence party celebrated the day Puertor Ricans won independence from Spain over 100 years ago, a day called the El Grito de Lares, or the scream of Lares, a town here in PR.
I will be posting a more detailed story this week on my blog. Thanks
Posted by JOS on from Condado 09/25 at 02:02 PMThanks, JOS. I’ve written about the PR independence movement, e.g. http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey05032003.html. I think I’ll put something together now.
Nice one, RMJ: a mobius band of ignorance.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 02:21 PMHello Mickey & Rosemarie & JOS & Owen -
There is very little information about yesterday’s demonstrations, even on the Left web-sites. On MSNBC, there’s is ONLY a link to this story: “Hundreds Rally to Support Iraq War.”
Bang! ( Or, no: “Whimper...” )
That’s that.
Months and months of what must have been very hard work, organizing a gathering of 100,000+ people, and it’s barely a footnote, on the next day!Odd, that after centuries of these sorts of “outbursts,” we’re unable to come up with something a bit more effective and significant. The country rushes headlong into fascism and we all rush to DC to scream out our opposition. Of course, since the population of the US lives everywhere else, no one hears us.
We’re so brainwashed that we still believe that we need to take all of this energy to the “Centers of Power,” to make a change -
when, in actuality, we need to inform ordinary people… It’s the ordinary people who will force a change, if there’s to be any change…Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/25 at 03:07 PMMass protest as a tool is not doomed to failure...if you do it the way they do in, say, Bolivia or even France. If several hundred thousand or maybe millions blocked highways, shut down commerce, etc., it would be a lot different that picking a weekend to march in circles carrying a sign. I’m not demeaning yesterday’s protest but clearly it offers no threat to the status quo. If anything, it props them up by presenting the illusion of a gov’t open to dissent.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 03:38 PMMickey, I agree. Marching in circles maybe does more harm than good because it reinforces the myth. I don’t know what to think about this which I received in my mail today. Total labor strikes and boycotts would work, if there was a way to make them happen.
http://www.legitgov.org/essay_southwell_arming_the_left_is_the_time_now_102203.html
Posted by RMJ on from in the Mobius band 09/25 at 03:50 PMRMJ: If they think the time is ripe is to organize their own version of the Zapatistas within an oblivious nation consumed with consuming, count me out of that plan. It reminds me of Rexroth, who wrote about “the self-appointed bureaucrats of the New Left” who “preach massive confrontation and deploy massed ranks of defenseless students as though they were the armies of Frederick the Great.”
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 04:15 PMFor those who are interested, some images from the march:
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/24Sep05.html
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2005/09/57673.htmlPosted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 04:24 PMCan we be sure that story about Ellen was really a hoax? It may have been fictional, but it rang truer than anything the man himself has said. I say the jury is out until Robertson officially denies having a creepy obsession.
Posted by Harry on from 09/25 at 04:35 PMThis hoax denial convinced the original was a hoax: http://tinyurl.com/7fjzr. However, Harry, I agreeL It sure sounded like something he’d say (except, perhaps, for his mention of the Tonys at the end).
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 04:43 PMIn Seattle, in 1919, there was a massive general strike which shut down the whole city for five days. It’s estimated that 100,000 workers stopped working. A variety of labor unions joined together and formed a General Strike Committee, and nothing moved without authorization from this committee. Vehicles delivering goods bore signs: “Exempted by the General Strike Committee.” The crime rate decreased, and there was virtually no chaos anywhere, though the army stood by, waiting for any excuse to interfere. One of the labor newspapers printed a poem from someone named Anise. I’ll reproduce it here, as a simple paragraph:
“What scares them most is that NOTHING HAPPENS! They are ready for DISTURBANCES. They have machine guns and soldiers, but this SMILING SILENCE is uncanny. The business men don’t understand that sort of weapon… It is your SMILE that is UPSETTING their reliance on artillery, brother! It is the garbage wagons that go along the street marked “EXEMPT by STRIKE COMMITTEE.” It is the milk stations that are getting better daily, and the three hundred War Veterans of Labor, handling the crowds WITHOUT GUNS, for these things speak of a NEW POWER and a NEW WORLD that they do not feel at HOME in…”
Afterwards, the mayor said: “The so-called sympathetic Seattle Strike was an attempted revolution. That there was no violence does not alter the fact… The intent, openly and covertly announced, was for the overthrow of the industrial system, here first, then everywhere…”
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/25 at 04:50 PMBeautiful, Joe. Do you have a link where I can read more?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 04:54 PMHi Mickey, thanks. I’ve been shoveling rocks, and running inside, now and again, to read and occassionally post. I just took this stuff from our esteemed wise man, Mr. Zinn. People’s History, Chapter 15, “Self-Help in Hard Times.” I’ve been rereading portions, of late, and these passages, which struck me quite powerfully, came immediately to mind when I was reading posts here, today.
This is what we need to do, eh? Only we need it on a grand scale. Of course, the Reich would probably declare martial law, while the media would relentlessly blast away at the insanity and lawlessness of the participants.
Extrapolate any of the possible - or impossible -scenarios of revolt, and it’s hard to imagine that they wouldn’t blow us away fairly quickly. However, I’m always hopeful that magic and miracle will appear, here and there, and give us some unexpected edge… Sooner or later, somewhere in this Land of the Snore, a good seed has to take hold and begin to grow tall and strong.Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/25 at 06:01 PMThere’s so much in that book that no matter how many times I read it, I find something new.
I’ll agree, Joe, that with the power of the media it’s tough to envision any form of protest being taken seriously but drastic situations have a way of opening eyes...and that can be good or bad.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 06:14 PMYes, it’s a great book, isn’t it, Mickey? I’ve been skipping through it, here and there, since some time in the 1980’s, and generally, it’s still new and amazing. It’s that sort of book we’d all love to write, “one day.”
Well, it does seem as though eyes are opening, right now, but the government and it’s media are struggling mightily to close them as quickly as possible. Any drastic situation might take us over that imperceptable “threshold,” after which time our possibilities might dramatically increase. At the same time, it might just turn into some variation of the post 9 - 11 situation, where we’ll essentially be in Germany after the Reichstag fire…
Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/25 at 07:02 PMPS -
About some sort of armed insurrection here:
I’m not buying a gun. Period.
A waitress I worked with in Seattle, married an ex-SEAL. We’d all get stoned, occasionally, and he’d talk about his training and experiences.
It seems to me that just 50 of those guys could crush a thousand or more well armed, fairly well trained amateurs -
never mind the motley groupings which would surely arise in such a situation. It’s simply impossible for most people to grasp how good these guys are at fighting and killing. There are LOTS of SEALS, as well as a variety of other vicious, super-trained groups. There are also groups composed of the very best, most insane members of the SEALS and the other Elite forces, which take on special assignments.
Unless tens of millions of people take to the barricades, any attempt to go toe to toe with these guys is simply suicidal.Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/25 at 07:15 PMDid everybody see this about the armed dolphins ? I am still trying to find out what happened with the 3 mice that were lost from the lab in NJ....the ones infected with the plague.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1577753,00.htmlPosted by RMJ on from in the Mobius band 09/25 at 07:30 PMWhat a scenario, huh Joe? A second revolution in America? You’d have the right-wing militias with their guns wanting to fight the troops and the troops hunting down subversives. Most of the citizens would be stuck on highways or ratting out anyone and everyone to authorities.
If the two hurricanes are any indication, things can spiral out of control in a flash. We’re all so spoiled and so dependent on oil. So vulnerable.
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 07:33 PMRMJ: What if those dolphins teach all the other dolphins how to shoot and they form an underwater army?
Posted by Mickey Z. on from Astoria 09/25 at 08:06 PMWhat nauseating news, Rosemarie. These people are obsessed with bringing nightmares to life -
for the common good, of course.
“My children are hungry and sick, can you help?”
“Sorry, Lady! We spent all the money teaching dolphins to kill.”Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/25 at 08:30 PMWe are spoiled and vulnerable, aren’t we, Mickey?
If things get really weird, however, I imagine we’ll toughen up pretty quickly, and do what needs to be done. Whatever “that” might be, at the time.
Your post called to mind a scene in Grapes Of Wrath, where Tom Joad and family were stopped at a small gas station, gassing up, before crossing the Mojave(?) desert. One of the attendants said: “You guys have a lot of guts, crossing the desert in a jalopy like this.” Tom Joad replied:
“Don’t take guts when there’s nothing else you CAN do...”Posted by joe on from Oregon 09/25 at 09:54 PM
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