Battling the Basiji

Okay. So. Looks like the police are about to be mobbed.

What the hell can *I* do about this? Write Obama? What do I say? I mean, Jesus! And it’s not like this kind of murder by the bushel basketful doesn’t happen every minute of every day somewhere from Philly to Compton, from Iran to Darfur.

So, what do I do? I have the luxury to choose to ignore all this. I can totally tune out and go about my life as if we weren’t all related until this shit lands on my doorstep. And quite honestly, at one point I had to go on a news blackout during Rodney King, Katrina and basically you have to seek out information about what’s really going down in Pakistan and so many other places.

So short of flying to Iran and trying to break up the fight, what do I do? It’s not that I don’t want to do anything, it’s just that I am impotent, useless, a voyeur.

There’s only so much we can do. We can help spread the word. We can show solidarity. But ultimately it must be their revolution, the people’s. We should not de-legitimze it or rob them of their victory by interfering directly. Any revolution that appears imposed from the outside will likely not long survive.

Right now, though, based on those crowds, I’d say that the two groups who are most scared at the moment are the Iranian old guard and American neo-cons.

@Serolf Divad:
+1

@Serolf Divad: Are you kidding? The neocons are jerking off at the videos and blood and excitedly talking on the phone about how to game the situations to 1) provoke GOP attack on Obama, 2) provoke non-stop Fox News attack on Obama, 3) incite neonazi assassination attempt on Obama and 4) game whatever junta emerges to seize control of Iran for maximal profit and bloodshed.

@Serolf Divad: I dunno. France helped us when we were getting our asses kicked across the room…

@FlyingChainSaw:

Two reasons why I disagree:

(1) The people of Iran have now been humanized. Much harder to bomb the very same people we gathered around the TV to cheer and support.

(2) If this is successful, the new order in Iran will be warmly embraced by and welcomed into the community of nations. It will not, however, be a puppet satellite state of Israel, which is the only way a popular uprsising could bring the neocons any joy. There’s a reason they were rooting for Ahmadinejad from the get go.

@Serolf Divad: Things will be quite tense in re Afghanistan and Iraq, whatever the outcome.

@JNOV takes a little english to doctor the spin: Give time, money and/or blood to the International Red Cross/Red Crescent. They may be very busy in the coming weeks.

@Serolf Divad: Re: No. 1 – I agree. This really undermines the thought that they are one monolithic block of unChristian brown people that the neocons would have gladly bombed indiscriminately, to be celebrated in song by John McCain. As for Israel, this really undermines any thought they may have had about bombing them any time soon.

@Nabisco: Jr and I will do!

@Serolf Divad: @redmanlaw: 1) you give the American public too much credit. They will howl for the deaths of the mud people like the blood-thirsty monsters they are, pretty much on command. Fox News connects Obama’s appearance in Egypt to unrest Iran and subsequent uptick in gas prices and everyone will be calling Limbaugh asking for the assassination of Obama and bombing of Tehran and 2) true, but the community of nations does not control the massive flows of covert funding that neocons can command to undermine any new order in Iran, and leverage the subsequent chaos for private interest. Doubtless, CheneyCo has been talking over who in the Iranian military would be most receptive to a little subsidy.

John Hodgman’s “First Nerd” Speech re: Obama at the Radio and Television Correspondent’s Dinner, for a dose of hope and good humor.

http://gawker.com/5298073/john-hodgmans-broadcast-correspondents-speech-obama-is-the-first-nerd?autoplay=true

@FlyingChainSaw: Doubtless, CheneyCo has been talking over who in the Iranian military would be most receptive to a little subsidy.

I’m sure that Cheney’s goons can dust off four years worth of lost business in short order.

@redmanlaw: Hodgman’s guide to “matters Hobo” will be our bible if the economy does not recover.

@Nabisco: Who said the business was lost? Doubtless it was sold to a shell controlled by CheneyCo to effect arm’s length appearance.

@Promnight: Does it have a chapter on how to gut and cook a neonazi militiaman?

@FlyingChainSaw: That is something that need not even be said, you simply treat them as you would a very large squirrel.

@Promnight: You think Huckabee’s recipe would work?

redmanlaw: Like the neocons care who gets bombed. Remember their reaction after 9/11? “Sure, bin Laden’s a bad guy. Now how about cleaning out Hussein?”

In thinking about it more, it seems that the GOP has put Hopey in an impossible situation. If the protests succeed, they can claim that they were out front while Obama did his whole “diplomatic response” thing. If it fails, and if Obama goes to Iran after it’s all done, talks with Mahmoud will be totally seen as appeasing a guy who stole an election.

You can say that Obama’s been stuck, playing catch-up from the get-go. Say something supportive, and your favorite challenger becomes Mr. American Puppet. Say nothing, and you get tagged with inaction.

@chicago bureau: If they don’t care who gets bombed, I’d like to have them send a bottle of this Tanqueray 10 everybody (well, TCatt and SFL) is talking about. In the meantime, its the Tempranillo someone brought to the party last week. Been busting my ass all fucking day getting the non-tiled (tiled by me except for a 1/2 bath) half of the house ready to sand the oak floors. Daddy needs a drink now.

@redmanlaw: You’re doing the sanding? Those stand-up power sanders can shake your fillings out.

@Dodgerblue: /wakes up in recliner at midnight Mtn time . . .

Some dudes are spending most of the week here. Followed this guy’s truck twice recently down by my office and I figured it was a sign. Nice cat originally from Mexico who does good work. We’re thinking we may as well paint after that since the house will be fucked up anyway. Our neighbor across the arroyo got his place re-stuccoed and it looks great. Seems to be the thing to do these days around here.

Happy Father’s Day to Stinque dads and dads of Stinquers.

@redmanlaw: And to you.

Mrs. DB and my kids are taking me to a L.A. Sparks game tonight. We used to go often when the kids were younger. I’ve been missing hanging out with a couple thousand Black lesbians so this should be fun.