Showing posts with label Berlin Bleibt Berlin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Berlin Bleibt Berlin. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

How It Ends

Smoke And Ghosts

Fuk Off To The Sea

A king, who had brought suffering and disaster to his people, finally died. His funeral was attended by massive crowds from all corners of the nation, who in almost complete silence walked past the funeral bier of the Great Leader.

Observing the crowds was an ambassador from another country, surprised by what he was witnessing. He said to his secretary, "This bastard treated his people as chattel, lied to them, and when the plague descended he did nothing but lie and steal from them -- and yet they come to grieve!" His secretary replied, "They come, not to grieve, but to make absolutely certain he truly is dead."
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Over 200,000 new cases of SARS-CoV2, and two and three thousand deaths from complications of the disease, are reported in America every day. 

It's easy to forget that it didn't have to come to this. ~ 400,000 People dead; many more will suffer 'Long Covid' effects. The number of deaths, the suffering and anguish, amplified by the incompetence and sociopathology of The Leader -- still screeching that the election was stolen from him; that the nation is "angry"; adding the veiled threat that this is a "dangerous" time.
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Long ago, I interviewed persons who had interacted regularly with Hitler, for an academic writing project. Later, under different circumstances, I located and interviewed members of a particularly vicious cult with a violent end.

My questions varied -- but in essence they were all the same: How did it happen? Why did you assist someone so clearly disturbed, so incapable of real empathy, so capable of bringing about real evil? I never received a common answer; don't think I really expected to find one.

In the past four years, there hasn't been a single day that I haven't asked about The Leader: He's a bully, a liar, a grifter; he's mentally ill. He denied reality, now 400,000 people are dead; the United States is more fragile than it's been since 1860; how can you believe in -- this malignant thing ??

No one has been able to provide an answer to that question about The Leader. He appealed to the some of the worst aspects of human nature. The Leader enabled people to be cruel, violent; to believe obvious lies, and to hate. That's his legacy.

And, I will not speak or write his name. Not any longer. Let him Fuck Off To The Sea.
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Last Acts: The Leader was busy after the election. Loyal satraps like Graham and Giuliani made calls to Republican officials in swing states, nosing around to see how amenable they were to a little election fraud (none were). There were baseless lawsuits; bizarre conspiracy theories. In early December, several meetings were held at the White House to discuss tactics in contesting, even overthrowing, the election which may or may not have included a Proud Boy leader or two.

In late December, The Leader himself repeatedly called the Georgia Secretary of State, who ducked all but the eighteenth attempt. He pressured the man to commit election fraud. The Secretary recorded the call, and released it to the media. It was clear The Leader, a week from the Congress' accepting the votes of the Electors and certifying Biden's victory, was still in utter denial about losing the election.

On January 6, Congress was in session to certify the Elector's votes. At the same time, The Leader spoke to an extremely large crowd -- many brought to Washington on chartered busses paid for by Koch groups, donations from individuals (like Ginny Thomas, wife of a Supreme Court Justice). Standing behind a podium bearing the Presidential seal, The Leader primped and pranced; he savored the energy of a crowd of tens of thousands. 

He essentially told them to march to the Capitol. Whatever happened, would happen. After his speech, he didn't do what he'd promised, and walk to the Capitol with them. He returned to the White House and watched televised images of the mob he had created in action, as it unfolded. He was 'delighted', 'pleased'. 

The Leader Makes A White Power Hand Gesture To Adoring Masses

When some in his inner circle suggested the riot was "bad optics", The Leader became angry and sullen. When Congressional Republicans made panicked calls from lockdown inside the Capitol, some approached The Leader to suggest he make a statement. Defuse the situation, end the violence.
 

A request was made from the Congressional leaders at the Capitol: bring Washington, D.C.'s National Guard units in (as D.C. is not a state, only the President can release them). The Leader's swinish eyes narrowed, his mouth slumped into a busted, downturned scrawl in the ochre pudding of his face. He refused. 

Then, when it was clear the riot had already resulted in 'bad optics', aides convinced him to make a video statement, delivered in a wooden voice after the riot ended -- and even then, he still said the election was stolen, describing his supporters were "special... we love you", but that they should go home now.

Long After The Riot Ended, A Call For Healing, Sort Of

The next day, after the roll of dead had risen to two police officers (one dead of injuries received at the Capitol; the other a suicide) and four of the rioters, The Leader released another video, speaking from a podium in an even more detached, emotionless voice, he urged peace and condemned the violence. It was just for show, and everyone knew it.

He spoke of "handing over power to a new administration", and ended by saying to his True Followers, "I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning; there's never been anything like it... will only grow stronger by the day." 
... Trump taped a short video calling on Americans to act peacefully following pressure to do so from Vice President Pence, daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner and other advisers. Trump later told aides that he regretted doing it and that his supporters did not like the video, two officials said. (Washington Post)
At the same time, the White House's flag was not lowered to half-staff in honor of the Capitol PD officers, though nearly every other U.S. flag in Washington had been.
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Aside from the shock of the violence -- that a rightist mob would break into the Capitol, pushed by The Leader, enabled and coddled (even assisted) by Republicans in Congress, is important. Using a threat of violence to compel a deliberative body to overturn national election results is crossing a significant red line. 

One week later, The Leader was Impeached on a single Article: incitement to insurrection. The far right chitters with threats and continued radicalization, feeling they have nothing to lose, hoping for their fabled Boo Galoo.
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Watching the White Riot unfold via streaming video from outside the Capitol building, I sensed the same spontaneous Shit-Happens energy that I remember from long-ago mass antiwar actions. The energy of the crowd as it rushed up to the Capitol seemed like video of the 2004 tsunami in Sumatra: the ocean surge, initially laps on shore, just a few inches of water. Then it became a foot of water, pulsing more urgently; and suddenly, the ocean is flooding in without stopping, now four or five feet and rising. 

This is what revolutions feel like; we're soaking in it.
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It's likely there was a smaller organized group, or groups, inside the Capitol with a specific agenda, hidden by the cover of a mass disturbance. The march had been organized a month before; plenty of time to research and plan; that should surprise no one. 

This is The Leader's legacy, too. I don't feel I am living in a country where, no matter what, we're all Americans. I think -- just as the MAGAs do -- that The Other Side will stop at nothing to destroy the country. The White Riot was just a sample, "only the start... getting stronger by the day".

But, together with the Covid pandemic -- the White Riot and feelings that we can no longer trust each other may be the impetus for an expansion of the American security state: Patriot Act 2.0. As with 9-11, it's too good an opportunity to lose.

Meanwhile, our Oligarchs running social media, the Oligarchs that own news and entertainment networks, pay no penalty for hooking suckers on lies and dopamine. They become richer and richer, and claim innocence; 'free expression' 'free speech'.  And every day, angry Cletuses are radicalized to hate, and envy, and to dream of revenge.

If I have to see Mark Zuckerberg's smooth, Aspergerish face one more time, sputtering about how his poorly-led corporation is unfairly blamed for assisting societal dissolution, I'll throw up.
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Peter Wehner, Republican New York Times contributor who wrote on November 5, 2016 about what The Leader's presidency would be like, appeared on PBS News Hour last night to observe
We're in an epistemic crisis... there has been an assault on truth and on reality, that [The Leader] has led, and his party was a part of, and his Base was a part of. We now live in a world where we don't just have policy differences -- we're living in different moral universes, different epistemological universes; we don't have a common set of facts, even a common reality. And when you lose that, it's very difficult to put it back together again... 
But if you don't... a free country can't continue. Ultimately, your politics breaks down and your society breaks down... there's no ability to have dialogue. [The Leader] did this... it wasn't just the lies; it was this intentional assault on reality, which ...spreads a kind of disorientation in the public that has tremendously damaging and long-term effects.
Wehner's opinions ignore the development of the American Right since 1974 towards authoritarianism, 'christian' Dominionism and (with the Leader) proto-fascism. It also ignores the devolution of both Republican and Democratic parties into extensions of a neoliberal, globalist perspective, which benefits a limited number of people with wealth. 
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Being in America, now, is like walking into a crime scene. The victim is still here; blood and numbered cards for the photographers still dot the floor. There are witnesses to interview, security camera video to review, leads to pursue. If you have to throw up, do it outside.

And, there's a weird calm hanging over everything that only seems to appear in the wake of incredible violence. You go about your business, live your life, with the knowledge of what has happened hovering just behind everything, like smoke; like ghosts.

It's a great relief to see The Leader deposed, no longer with any legitimate authority.  I do not wish him well, or his Issue, or his Base.

Where the Biden administration will take us, no one knows. May all of us be well, and safe.
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Friday, December 14, 2018

Random Barking Friday: Euro-Girls

Eee-Urrp u. Deutschland

All kinds of stuff is happening with Euro-Girls. This just another way of saying that it's year-end, and things at the Place O' Witless Labor are heating up so budget dollars can be spent. The Ghost Of Exmass Past has arrived, and that Guy With The Salmon Mousse is just outside. And the time and energy for Das Blog is slim.

So we offer The New and Improved Theresa May, struggling for relevance in a World That Doesn't Care.


But, let's skip To Hell With the politiki.  Woof ! Muss Sein. Es ist so:  Enjoy.

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Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Berlin Bleibt Berlin



Berlin is a good town; in the arts, there's a great deal happening that's amazing -- and now yet another terrorist attack in Europe appears to have been carried out there, in the Charlottenburg district, near the Kaiser Wilhelm Church. At least twelve are dead and over fifty injured; the brainless coward perpetrator ran off is still at large.

Germans I've spoken to in the past few years have been very matter-of-fact in saying that they expected terrorist events to occur in their own country; and they have. This one happened against a backdrop of a million migrants seeking asylum in Germany, and a resurgence of rightist, nationalist politics which smacks of the nazis organizing before 1933 -- and no one thinks this attack will be the last.

Still, Berlin is a good town. Let's keep the people there in our thoughts.

Obligatory Cute Street Art Pooch: Jeder Deutscher Ein Tierfreund.
Berlin has more street art than any other capital city in Europe.
(Clicky = Bigger)

Friederichstrasse; The Checkpoint Charlie Museum
(Click -- Nett u. Spass !)

Night In a Restored Section Of Neukölln
(You Know The Drill)
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Monday, March 21, 2016

Am Grünen Strand Der Spree

Frühling

(Photo: Ebertstrasse, Berlin; ©Wikimedia Common)

 Unter Den Linden, Lovis Corinth, 1922
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Thursday, July 12, 2012

Natur

What I'm Missing


Thunderstorm Over Berlin, June 29 (Pawel Kopczynski / Reuters)
Click On Image To Expand: Einfach und Spaß!


Sunday, April 15, 2012

...Am Grünen Strand Der Spree

A River Runs Through It


Bodemusee At North End Of The Museums Insel; Monbijou Bridge
At Left, The Pergammon Museum And Neue Galerie Further On;
Fernsehturm At Alexanderplatz In The Background (per.ch)

If you know much about Berlin, you probably remember that the river Spree curves up through the city from the south, tracing a lazy S[pree]-shaped path back down before turning north again; eventually, it makes its way to the Baltic. It was the main reason Berlin came to be; the city began as two trading posts on either side of the river, southwest of what is today the Alexanderplatz.


Tour Barges Navigate Locks On The Spree At The Friederich
Bridge; Berlin Cathedral In The Background (per.ch)

For hundreds of years, rivers in Europe like the Spree were the principal means of getting trade into the city -- everything from fish to timber, beer, hides, cloth and vegetables -- before the advent of the train and the automobile. Today, the Spree is a highway for tourists and some private traffic -- and the Wasserpolizei, of course.


UBahn Station At Wittenbergplatz; KaDaWe On Tauentzienstrasse
In The Background. (per.ch)

...And aside from a river running through it, another kind of river travels through the city -- but that's for another post.

(Incidentally, these pictures of Berlin were taken by a vacationing Czech (or Slovak) in July of 2010. You can see their full photo collection of their journey around Berlin here.)


Saturday, December 10, 2011

Immerhin

Berlin Bleibt Berlin


The Wall At Potsdamer Platz; March, 2009 (Wikimedia Commons)

Because it isn't all about Angela, you know.


Sunset, 2009, Looking Southwest


Sunday, September 18, 2011

Wir Sind Die Piratenpartei!!

Berlin Tells Chancellor Merkel's CDU: ARRRRRRR!

Harrrr! Und (Trotz Der Witze) Dann Ihr Hab Gesiegt!

Ooo. Here's some news: Elections were held in the Mark of Brandenburg and Stadt Berlin today -- meaning Germans were going to the polls, even though there was Bundesliga action on the teevee. And when Germans voluntarily give up watching soccer to vote, it's serious. Trust me.

The vote went decisively for the Center-Left, rather than Chancellor Angela Merkel's Center-Right coalition.

Per Bloomberg News, The SPD (Social Democratic Party, the Socialists), the main German opposition party to Merkel's government, "extended their 10-year rule in the German capital after beating Merkel’s Christian Democrats [CDU] into second place." Merkel’s coalition partner in the Brandenburg-Berlin Council, the FDP (Frei Demokratische Partei, or Free Democratic Party) lost all its seats in a Regional Assembly for the fifth time this year.

This appears to be significant, though Berlin's politics don't necessarily reflect the rest of the country. But, it's clear that voter sentiment towards Merkel's policies, principally the 'New Austerity', won't win her any votes and may eventually remove the CDU's Center-Right coalition in a populist-SPD comeback.

Klaus Wowerweit, the extremely popular SPD (and openly gay) Regierender Bürgermeister of Berlin, not surprisingly won an easy re-election. But most surprising of all, the Pirate Party, Die Piratenpartei (be advised their site is in German, so Gib' Ihren Deutsch An!), ran a slate of candidates on platforms of digital freedom -- principally free access to wireless and Net Neutrality -- and won a not-statistically insignificant 8.9% of the city-wide vote.

This is significant because even if a portion of those who voted Arrrrrrrr! did so as a protest, it means support for the coalition which pushes Merkel's policies is deteriorating. We'll see.

Meanwhile, Fünfzehn Mann auf des toten Mannes Schrankoffer - Yo Ho Ho, und eine Flasche auf Broadband! And three Hochs! for the Pirates Of Berlin!


Sunday, June 26, 2011

Peter Falk, 1927 - 2011

I can't see ya, but I know you're here.

Ex-Angel: Falk As Himself In Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire (1987)
(Photo: The Unstoppable dvdBeaver: Sing 'O Canada'. Right Now.)

He's on the other side of the fence, now, and for real. Those writing his obituary can fill in details of his career. I'll remember Falk for Columbo (which made him a household name, after nearly twenty years of paying his dues as an actor). But I also remember him for cameos, like the grandfather in The Princess Bride; and, particularly since he appears in one of my favorite films, Wings Of Desire.

Falk's appearance was a bit like Columbo's, an Everyman conjured up out of clay as common as yours or mine. He always seemed to pay his audiences the best compliment through characters that reminded us of our humanity -- that we face the same struggles in a world we don't know the meaning of; rumpled and preoccupied, but in a self-mocking, genial way.

Spazieren; that's what grandma would've said; 'Go spazieren'...

And, frankly: In a film, who else would you cast to portray a former angel but someone who seemed to have knocked about (and been knocked around) a bit; trustworthy, streetwise, but not cynical: Look, pal; we're all just tryin' to get by, here; so don't worry. We'll take care of it, whatever it is. Now, where did I put -- oh, it's here ; ah, good. Yeah. Now; where were we? Oh, right...

So another Mensch leaves us. And as I've observed before, the world has a limited supply of Mensches.
“This is, perhaps, the most thoroughgoing satisfaction ‘Columbo’ offers us,” Jeff Greenfield wrote in The New York Times in 1973: “the assurance that those who dwell in marble and satin, those whose clothes, food, cars and mates are the very best, do not deserve it.”


Friday, June 17, 2011

Ich Hab' So Heimweh Nach Dem Kurfürstendamm

Berlin Webcam Near the Zeughaus, Looking Southwest Down The
Unter den Linden To The Brandenburger Tor; Neue Wache Hidden
On The Right, And 'Alte Fritz' In The Traffic Island At Center

Google Earth View Showing Approximate Position Of Webcam (Red
'X') And The General Berlin Vicinity (©2011 Aero West/Google;
Click For Larger Image. It's Easy And Fun!)


Monday, November 9, 2009

Vereinigung



Vereinigung means 'unification' - and discussing the significance of the reuniting of Germany's West and Eastern halves would take more space and time than I have (as I'm posting this from my Place Of Employ™).

The main reason is, most people in the United States can't be bothered to understand what November, 1989 meant from a European perspective, not to mention a German one -- and while it's a little simplistic to describe it as the real end of the Second World War in Europe, that's close.

Germany's history is marked by both extremes of the human spectrum: High Culture, Art and Philosophy; Totalitarianism and Industrialized Genocide. Since 1918, Germans have been asking themselves, one way or another, How the fuck did this happen? Jeez; we were doing so well, and then -- bam! We're at war! Then, we lost -- and we're broke! We're pushing wheelbarrows full of money to buy a loaf of bread, and tomorrow it's two wheelbarrows! So we work like crazy, and pull ourselves out of the hole -- and then... bam! The Depression!

Thanks, America! Boy, we didn't see that coming!

Then this Guy shows up and starts yelling about Commies and purity and Germany, and how we don't ever have to be Losers, ever again -- we all said, Jawohl! All right! Yeah, baby! Then -- bam! We lost again! Except this time, we had the shit bombed out of us, and we're all complicit in over ten million murders!! Holy shit!

The 20th Century, for Germany, could be summed up in How am I going to live with myself after this? and What's going to happen when I get out of bed tomorrow?

When the Wall 'fell' (starting about three hours from now, twenty years ago), it was more than a reunification of a national group which shared the same language. It was the beginning of a process for the Germans -- and to a lesser degree, most Europeans -- to come to grips with their national, cultural and political past -- everything from the Holy Roman Empire to the Holocaust. They would have to answer the questions, Why? How? What does it mean to be German, after all this? and, Where do we go from here?

(Incidentally, as 1989, '90 and '91 unfolded, this was no less true for other parts of Europe, occupied first by the nazis and then by Stalin's armies. Some countries, such as Czechoslovakia and Poland, Bulgaria, Romania and the Baltic States could do it without bloodshed, more savagery and genocide; Yugoslavia did not.)


Crowds Of Germans At Bochum For the 2006 World Cup

Germany has managed, in the past twenty years, to redefine itself -- without amnesia, without bankrupting itself, and without falling back on failed political models. A lot of people, in Europe and elsewhere, looked at its reunification with a sense of foreboding (not without reason) -- but, while no one should ever be allowed to forget what the Germans have been responsible for (and the majority of Germans, as it happens, fully agree with that), the face of Germany is also changing.

I was recently in a 1 California bus on the way to the Embarcadero, when I overheard a couple behind me, talking in German -- very unselfconsciously, with an assumption that no one else could understand what they're saying. They chatted about San Francisco, the differences between Berlin and American Intracity buses (Germany's = Cleaner, more fuel efficient; Muni buses "smelled like piss", and they couldn't believe the City alowed it), and seemed to have the same general feelings about life in These United States as most Germans I've met. They feel America has a long, long way to go, in almost all senses.

They were still talking when I got up to leave, so I turned in their direction for a few seconds. Outwardly, they appeared Indian, as if they'd just flown in from Mumbai, but they were speaking an unaccented German. Their cultural observations which I'd overheard were ganz typisch Deutsch -- and I considered: These are children born of parents who came to Europe in the waves of immigration during the 1970's and 80's, and are first- or second-generation Germans.

On my way off the bus, I had to move around them, and excused myself in German as I did so. I did it in part to be polite, and partly to remind them not everyone in America is a cultural moron -- and, like any German I've ever done this to in years of riding San Francisco's buses, they were surprised. Perhaps I shouldn't have been, but I was pleased.