cheese it, the cops!

honestly, get the hell over this kenneth cole twitter thing. there's nothing that shouldn't be the subject of a joke. nothing at all. that's one of our few redeeming features as a species.

i have to say: that people can watch what states do - can see and experience the incredible, the total asymmetry of power they introduce, the insane forces of violence they unleash - and not simply draw the anarchist conclusion, is really sad and not really comprehensible.

Harp solo

you have to seriously consider that tomorrow is d-day in cairo, that the press repression today is a preparation form the crackdown tomorrow. 

notes from my friend in yemen, who was out in the protests today. she describes them as 'pitiful,' for one thing led by the token opposition islamists, in what she thinks was a deal with saleh.

 

it was so organized

obviously a deal between the gov and these guys

they split the city between their protestors

ppl werent even allowed to chant

we went out there

and once it started

there were dudes on a podium

with their stupid Islah propaganda

yada yada

and then

at 11:30

told the ppl to leave

that bastard wont learn until they attack him in his palace

i discovered today

that we're a totally different ballgame

moreso that i thought

ppl here

are so easily manippulated

"opium of the masses" is NOT a figure of speech here (reference to qat)

the ppl were chanting

and yelling

it was encouraging

they were demanding saleh's fall

and then

the party leaders arrive

and how do they shut ppl up?

they put quraan on the speaker

everyone has to be quiet

and then it was speech after 

speech

of bullfuckinshit

islah propaganda

she says that they're getting info out of egypt. every time they shut down al jazeera, aj finds a new frequency. she also says that she and her friend were the only women at the protest.

 

a website called 'consciencelaws'  has reprinted a piece i did for the latimes a couple of years ago.

i guess i don't understand why the american channels are covering anything else, much less going with the car commercials. tahrir is really really bad. al jazeera is certainly the best option right now. 

of course, yemen is interesting. it's almost comical that saleh just decided to make exactly the same announcement as mubarak, almost word-for-word. an important demand that the whole world can get behind is despots with more originality and flair. i wonder whether anything's happening in libya; i'd love to see qaddafi get a good beatdown.

this idea that pro-mubarak demonstrators are hitting the square is disconcerting; that looks like a provocation. surely one of the possibilities here is provocation to deadly crackdown. we may see how groovy this army really is.

a lot of commentators seem to think, with david ignatius, that 'The military's the right ally for protesters seeking change." wait let's think about that for a second. actually their only notion is that they can get rid of mubarak and hold on to the regime. well, that's ignatius for you!

you know, if obama doesn't have anything to say except the same blahblahblah, he doesn't need to 'address the american people.' if all you've got is the same cant about orderly transitions and aspirations, then wait until your thinking, if any, does actually come up to speed with events. come up with something, or just go back to your bedroom and watch more cnn. right he's stuck in a difficult dilemma etc. ok, well, shutting up is one of the options, because this is liable to look very different in 48 hours.

i ragged on cnn for giving us a big old dose of charlie sheen yesterday as the world changed. however, let me say this: their coverage has been amazing in many dimensions. the reporters they have on the ground - ben wedemen, nic robertson, and arwa damon, for example - have been exemplary, and they know arabic. so while some people thought that the folks in the square were celebrating when mubarak announced he wouldn't run for re-election, arwa knew they were enraged. the analysis too: they're working with fouad ajami this evening: about as clear and eloquent as could be imagined. this is exactly why 24-hour cable networks can make sense, and no one does it even close to as well. the hosts are a mixed bag, but wolf blitzer, for example, is smart and steady as hell.

let me say that i too am subject to the derangement of ideology: i tend to feed in everything i can, say, to an anarchist perspective. but at least i have some notion of the problem, and i'm trying! i do have to do better though.

i do kind of regard zizek as a role model: you know, semi-schizo philosopher marries lingerie model; bold counter-intuitive positions, etc. but honestly, these maoists are frigging crackers (badiou too). well of course i guess maybe i'm still prosecuting the anarchist vs marxist schtick that goes back to karl himself and proudhon. still, um, 45 million dead (and that's before the cultural revolution) might give one pause, even if you are a...theoretician. i'm not sure that the inspiring ideals can really compensate for the stench of the corpses. and actually the vision and corpses are closely related: it is totalitarianism pure and simple all day every day and that gets you straight to the rule of delusional idiots such as your hero. that these folks are kind of inspiring a whole wing of the left to return to the era of ideology doesn't really speak well for anybody involved. well zizek isn't coming to confiscate your farm and then impose on class enemies such as yourself that merry incompatible combination: forced labor and starvation. instead he's lecturing here and there. good! but if an actual movement reviving the masshomicidal left does come into focus, we'd better respond with a shitload of well-aimed ridicule and molotov cocktails.