tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post8053825945045981144..comments2024-03-29T03:05:29.525-07:00Comments on Qlipoth: Casting "The Prez"Qlipothhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17343878659776948134noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-7373502065881533362008-02-13T16:54:00.000-08:002008-02-13T16:54:00.000-08:00just amazing the confidence with which it endorses...just amazing the confidence with which it endorses itself and celebrates the transformation it enacts, from the declaration of power of organised labour to the individual professional success of celebrities. We (each) can lose that weight! We (each) can make it in Hollywood! And these celebrities, visions of success, sing of themselves, serenade and inspires us with their success and wealth and healthy wholesome attitoods.<BR/><BR/>when asked on that clip what he would actually like changed, will i can says "education" and then, the real thing, The Dollar! The thing which really does concern his celebrities. much of their assets are surely dollar denoinated! this is no joke! and bob dylan's son flippantly says "stop the war..." like snidely, ironically, ironic snidely, like oh this bozo forgot the number one issue, even though its the "hot issue", he forgot to mention it, so typical. <BR/><BR/>si, se puede, <I>pero</I>....Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-82838940228822920072008-02-13T16:15:00.000-08:002008-02-13T16:15:00.000-08:00a bit like "yerupeenisation".a bit like "yerupeenisation".Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-19592801932888529442008-02-13T16:14:00.000-08:002008-02-13T16:14:00.000-08:00good god.but this is the logic of advertising. lik...good god.<BR/><BR/>but this is the logic of advertising. like when a song becomes a jingle and that it was ever a song is forgotten.Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-32370736539657853902008-02-13T15:34:00.000-08:002008-02-13T15:34:00.000-08:00The war on history:Amid shouts of “Si Se Puede,” t...The <A HREF="http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/01/si-se-puede-oba.html" REL="nofollow">war on history:</A><BR/><BR/>Amid shouts of “Si Se Puede,” <B>the “Yes We Can” Obama catchphrase translated into Spanish,</B> Obama promised the local union that their struggle would be one that he’ll fight for in the White House and also one he’s been fighting for years.kenomahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05704482861801818818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-77510200395479985322008-02-13T13:30:00.000-08:002008-02-13T13:30:00.000-08:00"what message do you hope to send to fans and to t..."what message do you hope to send to fans and to the voting public?"<BR/><BR/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBn7FEtn0E8&feature=related<BR/><BR/>this is, astonishingly, not a parodyLe Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-12948419395534447812008-02-13T13:21:00.000-08:002008-02-13T13:21:00.000-08:00anon, that parody is indeed funny, and painfulanon, that <A HREF="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gwqEneBKUs" REL="nofollow">parody</A> is indeed funny, and painfulLe Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-90521045443389430962008-02-13T12:49:00.000-08:002008-02-13T12:49:00.000-08:00qlip - so funny, and the thing is that piece and l...qlip - so funny, and the thing is that piece and lessig are in the "same space" - they could actually debate one another from these postures. Speaking the same language.Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-34976523881122773332008-02-13T12:31:00.000-08:002008-02-13T12:31:00.000-08:00US propaganda has always been really good at this ...US propaganda has always been really good at this coopation, creating an America tyhrough which US imperialism and capital gets to take credit for the very counterculture and pop culture which arises against it and which is internationally an object of affection. The US can't be the enemy of people of colour worldwide - the US is Tupac Shakur! <BR/><BR/>the video is working within this tradfition and logic of cooptation. but one can say it is not pressing bad buttons in the public, it is pressing the good buttons, it is exploiting those good buttons. which is better than pressing the bad buttons, whipping up fears, playing on deep racism and misogyny and xenophobia, diverting anger towards scapegoats, as the competition favours (and evidently it's stopped working, which is good). But this just shows how easily the spectacle neutralises and contains all the energeries which exist; antiwar feeling is very strong but the establishment, the democratic party, has managed to exploit that feeling and contain it, neutralise its possible effects. the Obama campaign has ended up being the locus of all these tactics of exploitation and containment, the spectacle work, the image work and abstraction work, which allows US imperialism and US capital to coopt the very opposition it engenders, and to take credit fo(r it, to dress itself in that oppositions moral and cultural qualities, as if it were the patron and underwriter of that opposition and not its relentless enemy.Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-21736572014036514422008-02-13T12:29:00.000-08:002008-02-13T12:29:00.000-08:00This comment has been removed by the author.Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-68498811481972236032008-02-13T12:09:00.000-08:002008-02-13T12:09:00.000-08:00Do We Really Want Another Black President After Th...<A HREF="http://www.theonion.com/content/opinion/do_we_really_want_another_black?utm_source=onion_rss_daily" REL="nofollow">Do We Really Want Another Black President After The Events Of <I>Deep Impact</I>?</A>Qlipothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17343878659776948134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-71518036169521775012008-02-13T11:41:00.000-08:002008-02-13T11:41:00.000-08:00change our wheaties box. we can have a makeover. t...change our wheaties box. we can have a <I>makeover.</I> that's what change is - a new look. (marylin monroe getting of a plane is asked by a journalist admiring her outfit "is this a new marylin?" and she said "oh no it's just a new dress.") we can elect a black president. period. that "in itself" is what we are striving for - a black president who, everybody knows and accepts, can't even <I>talk</I> like a mainstream centre lefist, has to pledge allegiance to the israeli extreme right, has to say "we're ninety percent of the way to racial equality" precisely <I>because</I> he is black and <I>the media is maniacally racist.</I> it is this same spectacular logic that saw thurgood marshall's supreme court seat filled with clarence thomas, his polar political opposite, and ruth bader ginsburg and stephen breyer, crazed neoliberals, treated by the media as old school progressive liberals just because they're jewish.<BR/><BR/>so, you can't have actual old school progressive liberals on the court, but you can have their images, two jews and a black guy. Brand Progressive!Qlipothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17343878659776948134noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-14130078325272826232008-02-13T11:22:00.000-08:002008-02-13T11:22:00.000-08:00Lessig's relationship to reality is normal now. It...Lessig's relationship to reality is normal now. It reminded me of another law professor, this one reacting to the calculation that over a quarter of the footnotes in the 9/11 Commission Report refer to testimony obtained through torture:<BR/><BR/>"One critic of U.S. use of harsh interrogation techniques says that while the Commission Final Report remains credible, it was a mistake to base so much of it on what was retrieved from the interrogation sessions. Karen Greenberg, director of the Center for Law and Security at New York University’s School of Law, put it this way: "You read it, the story still makes sense, forgetting the interrogations. What matters - who did it, who planned it - looks like the right story. But it should have relied on sources not tainted. It calls into question how we were willing to use these interrogations to construct the narrative.""<BR/><BR/>http://deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/01/30/624314.aspx<BR/><BR/>As if the same narrative could just as easily have been arrived at without relying on torture. As if the Commission, faced with an embarrassment of reliable and unimpeachable testimony to back up the official story, ignored all those "sources not tainted" and decided to pig out on the torture-derived testimony, just for the hell of it. As if this travesty only calls into question how the commission was willing to use such testimony, and not why they needed to. <BR/><BR/>A liberal law professor, critic of the administration, thinks the report is ok even though much of the evidence was obtained illegally, because it "looks like the right story."<BR/>This is where we are right now.<BR/><BR/><BR/>Incidentally, that video was creepy... and I'm talking Jim Jones creepiness.kenomahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05704482861801818818noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-30700841926451300722008-02-13T11:12:00.000-08:002008-02-13T11:12:00.000-08:00What I think is so suspect about that whole "Yes, ...What I think is so suspect about that whole "Yes, we can" video, about Obama's speeches, is that "to change" , "to hope", "can" are TRANSITIVE verbs! You hope for something, you change something, you can do something. But with Obama the object is always missing. Yes we can! We want change! The Audacity of Hope! To me that's what makes his presentation the quintessence of faux progressivism: the gestures of change, without the content. (Of course it's deliberate & it's smart marketing too: if you leave out the object of change, hope, etc. everybody can identify with it.)Murrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17303355500905196102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-50047612145624930402008-02-13T10:41:00.000-08:002008-02-13T10:41:00.000-08:00http://www.runcynthiarun.org/http://www.runcynthiarun.org/Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-3416249868389690502008-02-13T10:39:00.000-08:002008-02-13T10:39:00.000-08:00which is not to say he is not the least objectiona...which is not to say he is not the least objectionable actual contender now - that's obvious.Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-60819364410244137762008-02-13T10:30:00.000-08:002008-02-13T10:30:00.000-08:00"from sea to shining sea" for pity's sake. our man..."from sea to shining sea" for pity's sake. our manifest destiny.Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-10722314692095150252008-02-13T10:28:00.000-08:002008-02-13T10:28:00.000-08:00and the fact is, even the images are exploiting so...and the fact is, even the images are exploiting some nuances, positioning, flavouring, while his words - he sounds exactly like Nicholas Sarkozy. We are one people, we are one nation...why is Kareem there? He got so rich he evidently has forgotten what it was that inspired him not to be lou alcindor anymore. it is the seamless wedding of this exploitable history-memory-genuine popular thing with this hideous bullshit, the seamless melding, the vacuuming out of meaning from language, the mix n match of spectacle that is only possible in spectacle and if spectacle is completely surrendered to. Glammy young women, dreadful sacchrine tune, empty slogan, guy actually wearing a che-esque obama tshirt! <BR/><BR/>(sorry, just watched the whole thing, just...sometimes i think i must be dreaming.)Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-21285003222120610652008-02-13T10:11:00.000-08:002008-02-13T10:11:00.000-08:00thanks rent party...what i have to say about that ...thanks rent party...<BR/><BR/>what i have to say about that is;<BR/><BR/>i am a sentimental person, no one would call me hard; i get choked up easily; one of my first activist jobs was helping a lawyer, who hung up on his wall a picture from the New York Times front page, the postal strike, when the postal workers overthrew the union leadership. The picture showed the postal workers meeting at madison square garden - you may have seen it - near the stage, all these older postmen from queens and brooklyn, all white, all in the forties and fifties, physically lifting all the younger postal workers, mostly black and latino, onto the stage, picking them up and hoisting them onto the stage to take over the meeting.<BR/><BR/>That was the 70s. The lawyer I worked for used to look at that picture and tear up - so did I. How can you not?<BR/><BR/>that Obama video is a FAKE. It is EXPLOITATION of people's feelings, memories, aspirations, solidarity. It is a very good fake. It works. And if one has to have fake, better fake of that, then the bush fake and the fox news fake.<BR/><BR/>But still, it is a fake, ersatz, bogus, not image but <I>mere</I> image which is plastered over to disguise a reality that is the all out war on everything it is dressing itself in. It is the bombing of aghanistan to express principled objection to the oppression of afghan women: it is orwellian, it is Nike Swoosh as a symbol of feminism and antiracism, it is exactly what is in fashion in spectacle, racism marching under the banner of antiracism, subjection of women marching under the banner of feminism, fascism under the banner of antifascism, etc..<BR/><BR/>Still its a very impressive fake and it is hard to resist even this, the <I>appearance</I>, just because it says something about your neighbours, the people around you, this is still what appeals to them, this is still what expresses our aspirations - we haven't changed and our beliefs and wishes haven't changed. It reassures us of this precisley by exploiting that, because it has no chjoice - this is what is there to exploit. This is what we feel and want. <BR/><BR/>For that reason it is hard to just reject, to say, no I'm not going to accept the spectacle instead of the reality; I am not going to accept the mere image as a substitute for politics; I'm not going to accept V for Vendetta instead of the impeachment of the president and vice president. But I agree that it is in many ways a good sign that this video had to be made - that this is the pr campaign, the branding, the strategy that the professionals have assessed can win, that this is what appeals to people, and draws their assent, and that this is replacing a several year trend is shocking nazi upblowing macho style jingoistic hideousness.Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-72107052287340492772008-02-13T08:06:00.000-08:002008-02-13T08:06:00.000-08:00Or: could it be more like, O. is the best we can d...Or: could it be more like, O. is the best we can do now in the *mainstream* - and/but other things have to be done outside that?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-39543954560637279742008-02-13T08:03:00.000-08:002008-02-13T08:03:00.000-08:00I don't disagree - with the post or any of the com...I don't disagree - with the post or any of the comments. Still, there is this:<BR/><BR/>http://whyaminotsurprised.blogspot.com/2008/02/yes-we-can.htmlRent Partyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05172304380312568465noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-83707605182844201262008-02-13T07:41:00.000-08:002008-02-13T07:41:00.000-08:00"Yeah, in case the system doesn't melt away after ..."Yeah, in case the system doesn't melt away after all, Obama's brand will have a problem."<BR/><BR/>yes, now that the federal government is actually <I>insolvent,</I> the currency at historic lows, the bubbles bursting, the real depression on the horizon, the ruling class untaxable, the working class wholly immiserated, wall street would like to appoint The First Black President. Hand this huge, bankrupt, thoroughly corrupted, polce state banana republic to The First Black President.Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-70403327713387609892008-02-13T06:59:00.000-08:002008-02-13T06:59:00.000-08:00Atrios had a funny post a while back with "shorter...Atrios had a funny post a while back with "shorter" candidates, something like this -<BR/><BR/>Edwards: "The system is corrupt and I will fight it..."<BR/>Clinton: "The system is corrupt but nobody can work so well within it as I can..."<BR/>Obama: "The system is corrupt but I am so awesome that it will melt away..."<BR/><BR/>Yeah, in case the system doesn't melt away after all, Obama's brand will have a problem. Instead of all their personal hopes and dreams people project on him now, they will start projecting some very very different things...Murrhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17303355500905196102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-16878422560653466242008-02-13T06:24:00.000-08:002008-02-13T06:24:00.000-08:00if the whole victory is spectacular - the spectacl...if the whole victory is spectacular - the <I>spectacle</I> of "Obama as the prez" is what people are openly asked to choose and be satisfied with - then it can be easily spectacularly turned into loss; if the whole thing is image, then to reverse or alter it is just a matter of image manipulation as well. if there is no political reality connected to and anchoring this image, the image is up for grabs, free floating, can be manipulated by propaganda and media however the most powerful choose. And of course this is not just around Obama - this is across the board; it applies to every candidate. Lessig like Obama - but the same kinds of spectacle-focussed arguments are made for Clinton, and the desperation in the media to create this Two Firsts! Pick One! thing by really bizarre levels of marginalisation of Edwards (who all polls showed was actually the most "electable" in a race against any republican candidate, and was also the most progressive candidate, which is not saying much in this company, but he was the clear progressive of the pack), is just totally exposed and unashamed. Hilary and Tears. Edwards and Hair. Not just "in passing" but actually advanced as the substance of this contest - how will America look with a president who cries? with a man who gets expensive haircare? These questions, America's brand image, are actually treated, not as the "show" with a laugh, the unfortunate but inescapable corruptions of politics by media, but as the genuine <I>substance</I> of national level electoral politics. Close your eyes and imagine....Lessig is like a visitor from planet baudrillard.Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-91377738865284228622008-02-13T05:43:00.000-08:002008-02-13T05:43:00.000-08:00he is someone we can forgive for not talking about...he is someone we can <I>forgive</I> for not talking about anything serious or taking any kind of even edwards-ish old democrat pro-labour positions because it's obvious that <I>he can't</I>, the spectacle will portray any discussion of bankruptcy laws or new orleans housing or anything at all even traditionally centre-left as "race poker" - so there's a reason he sounds like william f buckley and this is he <I>personally</I> has to if he wants to <I>win</I> the pageant and achieve the spectacular First.<BR/><BR/>it's like that joke, really drunk guy in a bar says to the bartender, i'm not drunk! i'm totally in control of myself; if you slide that glass down the bar, i can fill it up with piss as its sliding, without losing a drop.<BR/><BR/>bartender says bullshit;<BR/><BR/>guy says - bet you fifty bucks I can.<BR/><BR/>bartender says okay. Guy stands up on the barstool and undoes his fly. bartender says ready? he nods, and bartender sends the glass sliding dow the bar. the guy starts to take a piss, aiming for the glass, jumping from stool to stool, splashing everywhere. the class comes to the end of the bar with maybe a drop of piss in it.<BR/><BR/>bartender says - you're drunk and you lose.<BR/><BR/>guy gives him fifty bucks, laughing happily.<BR/><BR/>you're so drunk you're happy to lose fifty bucks on a stupid bet! says the bartender, himself delighted and laughing.<BR/><BR/>no I just bet that guy over there at the table two hundred dollars that I could piss all over the bar and make you happy about it.Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18174466.post-18160171768207085982008-02-13T05:33:00.000-08:002008-02-13T05:33:00.000-08:00"To be fair to Obama, he doesn't really have a cho..."To be fair to Obama, he doesn't really have a choice: if he would say anything, just anything of substance, a mere slip is enough, he would be an angry negro, not ready, immature, a divider, etc."<BR/><BR/><I>Exactly.</I> This is part of the same problem. But it is playing with this - him personally, he is acting in constraints, he can only be where he is with the backing of wall street of course, it's "not his fault" so why should <I>he</I> be punished or judged? as if he were an academy award contestant, not his fault the script stank! why take out the crappiness of cocaculture on him! There is not even a drop of reality left in the prez of america pageant ceremonies. So the catastrophe of the constitutional dismantling and the intensification of exe'cutive power is all off screen and irrelevant and this years' oscar is all about the "first"...so many people I know say "yes yes but the spectacle matters, and it's a symbolic victory and at least he's not a member of the clinton bush crime family", but who can deny what will happen is all the disastrous economic and fiscal policies will really unravel and reach their height of catastrophe under the First Black President. Under the First Black President, the US press, the nytimes, will swiftly acknowledge in headlines that AMERICANS ARE POOR LIKE THIRD WORLD POPULATIONS. Two months after inauguration, you will see major papers saying The US STARTING TO LOOK LESS LIKE SWEDEN AND MORE LIKE BRAZIL. Or maybe the pretext for the final power grab will be his assassination, which would allow journalists to get just enough film of crowds of angry and distressed citizens (think venezuela, that one clip of a guy with a cut on his head getting into a limo played over and over in weeks leading up to the coup, or new orleans where it was accomplished without any film at all) to concoct a ninety second report of digicivil war with.Le Colonel Chaberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18090919492176021408noreply@blogger.com