Opera Glasses and Popcorn
Francis Bacon’s Red Pope, I think from 1962… anyway here is a link with lots of his Popes…
Seems to be a good time to make use of Bacon and his lens… his platform and cage without bars…
******************************************************************
An Opera Glasses and Popcorn view of Politics and the Assembled Multitude...
Marisacat -
- Real independent observations on current events with a particular fondness for the follies of the Big Box Blahgers.
Deflates bloated egos like a champion fencer in a balloon warehouse.
- Alan Smithee
Marisacat -
"...polish on a mud wallow"
- Meteor Blades [May 24 at Mcat]
Marisacat -
"... doyenne of donkle deconstruction"
- Who is IOZ [January 2 2007]
Marisacat -
"... hardened professionals and their primary strength lies in their being completely unconflicted."
"... the primary difference is that on the level of criticizing other blogs and bloggers, they can actually do some damage."
"... Not what I look for in a liberal blog product."
- peeder - MLW, Daily Rant [3.24.07]
Democracy NOW! / Amy Goodman Electronic Intifada / General Content Press TV / Middle East News Press TV McClatchy Headlines The Real News Reuters / Politics
|
on one stage reading their poetry"
"I think Allen Ginsberg standing up there reading - putting himself on the line - was one of the two bravest things I've ever seen. Remember, it was '55. People had crew cuts, and they looked at you like you were misplaced cannon fodder. The country was being run by Luce publications. It was a dangerous, cold, ugly time, and it was scary. . .
In all our memories no one had been so outspoken in poetry before. We had gone beyond a point of no return. None of us wanted to go back to the grey, chill, militaristic silence, to the intellectual void - to the land without poetry - to the spiritual drabness. We wanted to make it new and we wanted to invent it and the process of it as we went into it. We wanted voice and we wanted vision."
-Michael McClure
Over and over, in election year after election year, GE and MidTerms both… the Dems start to purr and preen, they stretch luxuriously - at just being TOLD they are going to win [...]
It never fails.
... in February of 2002, looking over the already joyless congressional stragglers willing to be drafted for duty… they barely dreamed, yet, it was even possible (Howard, a different person then, had not arrived to say it could be done)… but one thing was clear, we could not rely on the party to swing it. Could not. You could smell it, they would screw the deal. And I am not talking about Howard and primary issues here. By the end, that was a passing political story. Chuck it on the heap.
[...]
Upshot? The Republicans make it thru. They hold on.
If you click on La Louche the picture or the words, it leads to the Amazon PayPage, a way to ... oh let's say help with the cat can deliveries.
Thanks to all who made the very kind suggestion.
On a personal level, an abundance of red always reminds me of violence (abundant red isn’t that common in nature either, that I’ve seen), consequently when religious leaders cloak themselves in red, it unsettles me.
I notice it’s far more common to find performance stages backlit with red and restaraunts/night spots painted entirely red than it seemed to be previously. I don’t understand how people calmly chat or enjoy among all that red, it particularly makes caucasions look ghastly and ill to me.
goodnight all……..
Thomas Frank weighs in on that SF incident, the one the Dems rushed to use his book to explain. I read something from Ehrenreich in the aftermath and she opened with a recounting of begging Frank to write something.
I don’t think she will like this much. I don’t think he is for either of the Dem party swanks. Both of whom, imo, are pro trade deals that shit on American workers. And I think Frank caught that slither in the original [supposedly oiffending] quotes. …
of course it’s to late to do much about it, but anyone in nor cal who still has plants outside might want to bring the tender ones it. freeze warning for the north coast, marin and napa.
speaking of priests, former bishop and current center-left president-elect fernando lugo just ended the right’s 61-year grip on paraguay.
so that leaves colombia as the sole right wing regime in south america, unless i’m forgetting one. wonder if this will mess with bush’s new paraguay ranch.
Opposition victorious in Paraguay.
One for the road:
“There are times when one would like to hang the whole human race, and finish the farce.”
- Mark Twain
Why I’ll probably vote for Obama: because he’s the best of a bad lot and better than McCain.
If there were a viable third-party candidate I’d vote for him/her, but it doesn’t look like there’s going to be one anytime soon.
I will tell the thread something. I put up what interests me. Others may do so as well.
I never ran this site as so many small sites are run. some chosen topic and threads that must conform. Perhaps no one noticed or it did not register, but people can post here, as they wish and not even bother to read what I post, in the blog text or in comments.
I have never in my life proselytised, attempted to change anyone’s vote. I have said repeatedly that Obama should win, obviously I say that not for idealistic reasons but for pragmatism. All of the people in love with him should live with the reality.
I just fall into the “Oriana Fallaci” pile, I won’t vote for any of the jokers and thus sneeze on myself. Others mileage varies.
America is moving hard and fast to prohibitionism, but not realistic regulation and proper protectionism. America is moving hard and fast to a society utterly mired in deceitful “correctness” and a world of instant show trials, denunciation and rejection. We should be sure to deny as well.
If Know-Nothings have prevailed for decades we now are entering the newly re-established era of the knee jerks.
It may not be worth observing and commenting on.
#9 Good comment Marisa.
And TV especially now treats politics like another gossipy ‘reality’ show and that makes things more knee jerk than ever.
Just read that the right-wingers have a new 527 slime machine, the first of many for 2008 no doubt. By November we’ll be disgusted with the lot of them.
MCat,
Thanks for rescuing that comment with the Counterpunch link, and giving it such prominent play.
In reading through the various comment threads re the RC Church and the Nazis, a couple of points:
The top Nazis themselves were anti-clerical, but both the Catholic and Lutheran churches were well entrenched among the population, and there was only so far the regime would go in acting against them. It should be remembered that the Nazis were always afraid their appeal was of the Miles-Wide/Inches-Deep variety, one reason they didn’t ask the population to make the kind of sacrifices the British and US governments demanded of their citizens, the memory of how hardships on the home front had helped to bring about defeat in 1918 being very fresh in their minds. Indeed, they tread very lightly with their euthanasia program (i.e., the “mercy killing” of the mentally and physically disabled) because they knew the Churches were opposed to it, and indeed clerical denunciation was a large factor in it’s being discontinued. The response of Catholics, including the clergy, was not monolithic. A number of Catholics, as well as priests/bishops/cardinals were enthusiastic Nazis (especially in Austria), many others were opposed to the regime and helped organize what little domestic resistance to it that existed. Also, at least half of the German population were not Catholic, but Protestant, with Lutheran being by far the largest denomination, and some of the most outspoken resistance to the Nazis that came from the pulpit came from the Lutheran Church, most famously from Pastor Martin Niemoller, who although a passionate nationalist and conservative (with anti-Semitic opinions), was a staunch opponent of the Nazification of the Protestant churches.
My feeling about Ratzi is that he was an enthusiastic Nazi, and while he obviously couldn’t have done very much having been so young, I believe the extent of his participation in whatever activities he took part in has been covered up, and a more-or-less anti-Nazi past invented for himself and his father. No one with his background should ever have been so much as considered for the Papacy, but then this is an institution that has given the world such pontiffs as Alexander VI, who held orgies in the Vatican, and Julius II, who spent much of his papacy at the head of plundering armies. Both of these gentlemen also fathered offspring, which was very common among pre-Reformation popes. Julius was also probably bisexual, and a number of recent popes have been rumored to have been gay.
And my reply to ‘slime 527s’ (are we in Casablanca) is that obama should do better. Afterall I read that Axelrod is the main spokesman, one of them,.shoved in front of cameras to say that “Mayor Daley has not done anything illegal”. Way to go.
But again, as I have stated in the past, too often, most of the time, Democrats explain themselves badly, adopt either avoidance or deer in head lights response. Or they go windsurfing and blow off shouted reporters questions. Bad in elections, which with so much money now in elections business, we will never get free. All i see is a so called Democratic base cravenly desperate to elect someone (either of them) who will not end the war, will increase the military, will expand the war on terror and will remain rock solid with israel.
I should bother? sorry, not for me.
Took me years to figure out why Democrats do so badly when pinned, either fairly or [gasp horror choke scream] unfairly…, They believe in nothing. Thus no strength. They DO believe in elections, but not the vote. A less than tidy conundrum.
Obama fell to a tic under hsi right eye in the debate. Bad news. Among other weak or evasive responses. Worse news than the debate questions themselves.
I noticed, MCat. And I greatly appreciate this site because of it.
JJB 11
yeah I agree Ratzy was an enthusiastic Nazi youth. It is just so fitting that we get an ultra right winger, dressed in the richest of clothing from hundreds of years ago… And the Democrats will be hardly less obsequious than the R and Bush have been.
Again I am not voting for her, but Hillary is going on Olberman tongiht despite his fist clenched diatribes agaisnt her. I am sure it is easy to find the text of his most clenched.
Obama, who gave his famous race speech in front an invited sympa group, unlike Jack Kennedy who went to white anti papists, clergy and others, in Texas no less for HIS, might wanna try some political courage. After all, it is the shallowest sort of courage.
here is a link to the YouTube of his March 12 scream at her.
Bacon is my favorite painter, coincidentally…
Olbermann is annoying. He should stick to sports.
JJB – and don’t forget Scheler. He was the original Nazi philosopher [and extremely influential on 'philosopher of the reich' Heidegger]. Scheler was the Catholic philosopher of his age.
lucid
yeah I love Bacon… I saw the big show at the Met in… ’75 I think.. and a couple in between. I went down to Los Angeles for the retrospective at LACM, think htat was 91.
************
HRH
agree.. so called liberal commentary in this country is not a breakthru, it is basically less odiferous scheisse. In that almost all of it is tied to the party.
I think the silliest (and worst) gas bag is Ed Shultz.. and i was not surprised to learn he used to b a conservative R (I realise at one time there were liberal R, but not for some time and very very few in the West, we were blessed with the Bircher / Reagan / reactionary factions) and now ES plows the somewhat ascendant Dem games.
All we really get is propaganda on the good days and demagoguery on the less good days. About it as I see it.
Ugh, Cyndeeeee on The View today for the whole hour as a co-host. Not one question asked that wasn’t 100% Puff.
“And TV especially now treats politics like another gossipy ‘reality’ show”
And why shouldn’t they? That’s all the campaigns themselves are focusing on. Cheap shots and gotchas. I only wished, at the last debate, Georgie and Chuckie would have pulled out all the oppo crap they have gotten from the campaigns, quoted them in full, including the “return address, then asked those stupid questions.
Sure, the media has blame in allowing themselve$ to be manipulated but the campaigns are driving it and are full of shit when they stand back the pull that teary wide eyed “the big bad MSM are picking on us, sniff” crap.
“Not one question asked that wasn’t 100% Puff.”
You mean no one asked her how she felt when her husband called her a cunt? Quelle surprise.
I will say they were a lot more confrontational with Michelle Obama. ABC is now officially Fox Jr. and NBC isn’t far behind.
wilfred…
well Cyndi is on some good anti anxiety meds. That si my guess… In 00 she would fall to chewing her lips in public. ANd this at small living room get togethers.
Strange woman.
************
aemd
yeah I agree. I am tired of the whining from the candidates and surrogates. Deal with it. Beat it. Do better.
There si more “stuff” beating around the edges on Obama. To say nothing of Hillary. Obama’s big problem, one of them, is that he came from a mixed race, liberal left enclave of a big northern city. And it seems neither he nor his handlers bothered to be ready for the onslaught.
The really bad thing is I have no idea what, if anything, he believes in as a candidate.
Well, whatever. But don’t moan.
Jimmy Carter says he has made a Middle East breakthrough. It will be interesting to watch the Bush Administration and Olmert kill it.
I jsut saw the FP piece on Jimmy and Hamas.
As if Israel will permit anything. At all.
Apparently Hillary has dropped her latest ad, “Who do you think is tough enough” that had a fleeting clip of Osama in it … I have not seen the ad. And not sure how long it ran.
Stories on it, but not a link to the ad (I don’t think) rides at the top, right, of the Josh Marshall page
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/
Speaking of Israel….what a cast of characters – would love to sit in on this trialRupert Murdoch Firm Goes on Trial for Alleged Tech Sabotage
Our “Black” and “Female” candidates in a nutshellThe Sorrows of Race and Gender by Robert Jensen/Counterpunch
“….the radical analyses of the feminist and civil-rights movements — the core insights of those movements that made it possible when I was young to imagine real liberation — are no longer recognized as a part of the conversation in the dominant political culture of the United States….they have been pushed even further to the margins, almost completely out of public view.
….
The irony is that Clinton and Obama, who today are viable candidates because of those movements, provide such clear evidence of the death of the best hopes of those movements. Those two candidates have turned away from these compelling ideas so completely that neither speaks of patriarchy and white supremacy. These are not candidates opposing imperialism and capitalism but candidates telling us why we should believe that they can better manage the system.
….
…these candidates offer a political ideology very different from that which animated the best of the movements that made it possible for them to run.
….”
Hmmm, I sniff new job opportunities for the outsourced…Hotel bed bug testers for the elite and their kids in college dorms…
“The really bad thing is I have no idea what, if anything, he believes in as a candidate.”
IMO, this is not by chance but a campaign choice. An empty suit can be filled with anything. Change, Hope, Compassion, Strength, anything at all. In the end, it’s just a faction fight.
“But don’t moan.”
LOL, you got it. Sweet Jesus, they’re running for ruler of the Big Bad Empire not class president.
I get the sense that KO is broadcasting directly to DK.
And all that implies.
probably already noted here but I didn’t see it:
It seems Ratzy is a cat person.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/21/us/nationalspecial2/21cats.html
China seeks to ‘educate’ Tibetans
Major powers never cease to try to “educate” minorities and look how well that’s turned out around the world.
IMO, this is not by chance but a campaign choice — aemd
yeah I agree, because I have tried.
he apparently was on Smerconish this am, very bullish on bombing Pakistan. I looked for a text or partial, all Ben Smith offered was this:
I followed the link in the text and it led to a promo page for the radio hosts carried there. I think it streamed it when it was happening.
Link to Smith/Politico
I say we send Hillary Obama and McCain, they each bomb their preference. Let them fly the damned planes.
33. Well, so was that evil genius Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
Words fail me…what an evil dwarf……
Bush seeks to cement legacy of ties with Canada, Mexico
“….
I chose New Orleans for our meetings with Mexico and Canada because I wanted to send a clear signal to the people of my country that New Orleans is open for business,” Bush said at the North American summit. “It’s a good place to visit and the after the devastation of Katrina, it’s become a hopeful city.
….”
37
hmmm maybe the quotation marks I’ve been using are why I’m having some bad luck with links
Try this link
if that doesn’t work remove the space after “http:” in the following link:
http: //ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jmKuBNlBk0kzs6GTa4n8q6–MkVQD906DUL80
no. 35,
Presidents used to believe in such things as plausible deniability when arranging coups d’etat, assassinations, etc. Now those seeking the Oval Office brag about how they’ll be only too happy to off anyone they think the US would be better off without. Whether Ike or JFK actively sought to murder Patrice Lumumba and Fidel Castro, they didn’t go around bragging they would do it.
no. 37,
My sister-in-law spent a week in NO last autumn with a group from her church doing what they could to rehabilitate a couple of homes. Vast sections of the city are still in ruins, and are for all intents and purposes uninhabitable. The only areas that have been properly fixed up are the ones tourists frequent. The members of the group slept on the floor in a church community center, and then walked 2 blocks to another building to take showers. I believe there were at least a couple of functioning toilets in the building where they slept.
39
JJB
Good on your sister-in law and her group! There are so many things Bush Cheney et al should be in chains for…this “Election” is a fucking farce…….
(speaking of elections, I have one in spam after comment 29)
One thing church groups and youth groups and some college students on spring break HAVE done is go to NO for the really hard work. Little enough credit for it…
agree on “plausible deniability”… now it is advertised, they all do it. Hillary at the debate at Howard promised to “blow the Sudanese pilots out of the sky”. The media reported cheers. I was listening, there were indeed cheers but there were also audible boos.
They also pull the ‘God Bless America’ mess. The whole thing is a decades long “mission creep” from National Prayer Breakfast, one nation ‘UNDER GOD’ and so on. Thru anti communism to now feral and rabid anti foreign terrorism.
Or whatever pathology we are living thru.
Sorry!
Just found diane in spam file… comment is up thread at #30…
Democracy NoW did a segment on Aime Cesaire… here is a tidbit:
Speaking of Democracy Now
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/4/21/headlines#16
And a prominent pro-Palestinian activist in Texas has died after drowning in a lake. Riad Hamad was the founder of the Palestine Children’s Welfare Fund and raised millions of dollars through his organization for schools, charitable organizations and hospitals. Local police say Hamad was found gagged and bound in the lake. While police say he likely committed suicide, questions have been raised over his death. Prior to his death, Hamad had been under FBI surveillance. In late February, FBI and IRS agents raided his office and seized forty boxes of tax returns and other documents. No charges were filed at the time, but investigators claimed they had probable cause to investigate wire fraud, bank fraud and money laundering. Riad Hamad was fifty-five years old.
moiv sent me local links to the story of the drowning. Really, hardly an question it looks like murder.
45-46
Local TV news reported that the woman who first called 911 said that the “body was wrapped in duct tape.”
No indication at all …
I love a country dedicated to electioneering … brings out the best in everybody. Sort of like power itself.
God forbid the American people EVER look at themselves. Til then it is Nixon or Reagan or Carter or Bill or HIllary or whoever comes next… after Bush, who of course did everything alone.
moiv sent me local links to the story of the drowning. Really, hardly an question it looks like murder.
There has to be something missing from the Democracy Now headline. I can’t imagine they’d let that pass without comment unless some intern just stuck it up without thinking and Amy just read it off on autopilot.
How exactly does one bind one’s own hands in duct tape tightly enough that one’s self-instinct for survival would not kick in an break free of the duct tape while drowning?
my ex (we’re still really good friend, btw) got really upset w/ me when I dragged her through a Bacon exhibition at MOMA years ago. Standing in front of the Screaming Pope was frakkin’ amazing. Powerful stuff.
How exactly does one bind one’s own hands in duct tape tightly enough that one’s self-instinct for survival would not kick in an break free of the duct tape while drowning?
The same way a woman kills herself with the handcuffs restraining her in a holding cell …
MitM – I think I came accross Bacon pretty late in life [maybe 18, or so], but from the first time I saw prints of his paintings, his depiction of corporeality hit me more deeply than any other painter before or since. I haven’t had the opportunity to see a very full collection – only what MOMA has on permanant display – which is maybe 4 paintings – and the various small collections held by other east coast museums. But when I was in college I almost always had a Bacon collection checked out of the library, if anything just to get stoned and lose myself in the images.
The big Bacon exhibit at the Met in ’75 (think it was then) was wonderful. About 12 or 15 of his big paintings framed in substantial gold leaf frames. It was very evocative of Italian paintings of a size and era. Stunning show.
The LA Co Museum show in 91 was broader, all sizes and range of media, not all paintings. Not well hung but still wonderful. And some from the Met show still in their original frames.
A short IOZ post on the PA primary.
Change You Can Reprieve In
That is a hoot… if it matters to IOZ Barack gets out of Dodge first. Hillary is spending election night in Scranton (I think) in PA anyway. Then on to Indiana for both of them.
I saw the small show MOMA did in the ’90s. It was in a gallery downstairs, focused mostly on the Popes. Stunning stuff.
I didn’t discover him until I was older still than you were, and I have my ex to thank for my interest (and limited understanding) in art. One thing we like to laugh about is going to see the biopic Edvard Munch at the student center. They had a bad print, and a worse projector, and every time the movie would start to get really intense the film would start to melt. For some reason, this memory is really, really funny. She explained to me WHY “any child could paint that” was wrong, what Picasso was doing when he painted women so that I could see both sides of their faces.
54
My favorite in the linked selection is Study after Velazquez’s Portrait of Pope Innocent X 1953. I’d love to see that in a gold leaf frame.
Four Sketches from Gitmo
LInks to all four are in that post. Follow the links there to get the whole story.
José Can You See? Bush’s Trojan Taco
America is Dump City.
Great post on hip hop:
LOTS of good details on the interlocking webs of the music/infotainment bizness, then:
Excellent post.
Tony Snow Joins CNN as Political Contributor
Oh here is a tidbit.. I just read on the FP of the NYT (I am sure i am behind)…. Tony Snow to join CNN.
LOL.
Scents and sensibility
I had a link to Poynter about the Snow announcement go to SPAM, I think.
RFLMAO
Here is a laugh…
Kalliefornia wants to tax “all things p0rnographic”, including DVDs and strip clubs … an additional 8%.
Where to begin. And the tax? Supposedly to ‘off set the bad effects of pron’.
North Carolina Democratic Presidential Debate CANCELLED
Bummer!
(Back to the couch. Had my pupils dilated during an eye exam today and they’re still sore.)
69 — Oh darn. Guess I’ll have to resort to the next best thing, hitting myself in the head with a sledge hammer until I lose consciousness.
Oh darn. Guess I’ll have to resort to the next best thing, hitting myself in the head with a sledge hammer until I lose consciousness.
I for one was looking forward to the flag pin issue being discussed in more detail.
I just stocked up on popcorn. Now I’ll have to find other uses for it.
Route Itinerary (Harrisburg, PA to DC) for April 28th Trucker/Citizen strike in DC, if anyone is interested, or knows someone who might be.
Oh screw this politics shit. Come and fly over Victoria Falls. Follow the links to a full-screen version, I couldn’t embed it on SoapBlox.
This way
I knew there had to be a reason I liked this guy:
Morales: Scrap capitalism, save the planet
Yes, yes, and um, yes.
How long before they take him out?
This is a close as I can come so far to finding any text of Morales’ remarks in the labyrinthine UN website:
I might be in spammeration.
Thanks for that melvin…
8)
How long before they take him out?
That was my first thought too. The man is obviously a commie lunatic! I’ll bet he wears socks with his sandals.
Clinton on Iran Attack: ‘Obliterate Them’. Oh mon dieu. Yet people laughed about Kucinich’s department of peace. Who’s looking crazy now?
nu thred………………………………
LINK
A palimpsest of a cartoon of a fossil of a caricature of a straw man from fifty years ago:
It’s the perfect dkos diary, and could have been written by the Imbecile of Berkeley himself. The most pitiful part is that it is probably written by someone thirty years younger than me.
I give up.
Gideon Levy: Like gang warfare
Obviously, Olmert doesn’t have to do anything since whoever wins the WH will just make sure it’s business as usual over there.
82. I feel like I need a shower after that one.