Potboiler Fantasy

2011_2_09 Potboiler Fantasy

Finished another drawing last night, an atypical work. How do I describe it? Well, it is three fantastic figures in huge pot, another figure outside the pot, with a fiery mandala on the outside of the pot, which indicates whatever is in the pot is ‘cooking.’ In the back of my mind were two things: memories of my catholic youth and stories about certain martyrs who were killed by boiling them in oil; and images from Alchemy, the ‘Bath of the Philosophers,’ especially that image I have seen in several books of Christ in a ‘bath’ with an alchemist stoking the fire with a bellows. Two of the figures look like creatures in that bar scene in “Star Wars,” and the third figure is off to the side and of a somewhat different character, less grotesque but still fantastical. One of the Aliens has the head of a crock, a long neck like a giraffe and two tits on its neck, and a crown on her head. The other has a snake-like neck and a head that combines a snake with a bulbous effect. Very strange indeed! Its right arm is visible on the right side of the format, with its right hand shaped like a gun. Why? I don’t know. Maybe he is Jared Loughner’s true self. The third figure is a variation of an image I have used twice before. He has a long stiff beard, a bird’s beak, a checkerboard jacket, a black circle oh his right deltoid, and head compose of concentric circles with stars visible inside two rings. At the center of the circles is a white and empty smaller circle. He’s a mystic traveller of some sort; he stares off to the right, perhaps gazing at depths the two aliens have no notion of. There are stars inside two of the concentric circles, some are white, and some are black. The stars are repeated on the outside of the pot, inside the mandala. There is one other creature alongside the pot, a cow-like critter that seemed to be braying for all he’s worth.

Surprise, surprise! The house defeated a Republican bill to extend the Patriot Act when 24 Republicans joined Democrats to vote it down 277-148 (in a process that required 2/3 vote.) Eight Tea Party types joined the no vote.

There is a crisis reaching critical mass in our judicial system as Republicans continue to block Obama’s choices for the circuit court with delaying tactics, once more playing politics rather than doing the right thing. But the White House has been slow to nominate too and the confirmation process in the senate is dysfunctional as well. In short, they are not keeping up with the need for enough judges, not replacing those who are retiring. When Obama took office there were 54 vacancies. Now there are 101 with 46 of them considered in an emergency status.

The federal stimulus package provided $58.5 billion for food stamps. The program helped 43.6 million people in November 2010. Half of them were children. Before the recession the program was serving 26 million people. The money spent also helps the economy.

President Karzai wants all reconstruction and development units that support NATO troops should be phased out, as the Afghanis do not want them changing their country by outside whim and attitude of knowing what’s best for a people they don’t really understand.

I haven’t watched any TV news yet today but yesterday Omar Suleiman made some remarks that came across as threats to folks in the square downtown--that the government would not tolerate them staying there very much longer and may have to call out the police. The crowd yesterday was the biggest yet. It would be suicidal for the police and the leaders of the old guard to fire on that many of their citizens. Could they be that stupid? They have had their way for so long they can’t stand the idea of the rabble pushing them around.

(Saturday: The revolution succeeds)
On the 18th day of the uprising that became a revolution, Feb. 11, Mubarak finally realized his day was over and he resigned the presidency and the Military assumed the temporary custodial care of the government until the election next September.

Yesterday and events of last night will take an honored place in my memory, as vividly as the assassinations and other events of the sixties and seventies. First it was Tunisia that chased out its autocrat, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who had been in office for 30 years, who fled to Saudi Arabia. Tunisia is a relatively small Arab state with 12 million citizens, while Egypt has a population of 85 million and is regarded as the, so to speak, the flagship Arab state, the historical and cultural center of the Arab Universe. Nonetheless, Egypt’s “little brother,” Tunisia showed it what was possible and “big brother” picked up the baton and began its revolt. And as I write this thousands are demonstrating in Algiers, with riot troops out and helicopters in the air above the crowd. All freedom-loving people are hoping that Egypt ‘s success will spread the contagion through North Africa into the states of the Levant. If the revolution remains largely secular and pluralistic, Israel will probably be safe, or at least as safe as it is now.

For 30 years the 18 million citizens of Cairo were under the thumb of the hated “emergency law” which sanctioned a secret police who could throw people in jail indefinitely without a trial. This revolution was definitely a youth revolt, as all the pictures of the Arab Street indicate, as the children of those who had suffered the most under Mubarak road their parents anger and frustration to a triumph of the will of the younger generation. It was thrilling to watch it all unfold, in one of television’s greatest moments.

On Friday night the rumor was that Mubarak was going to step down, give up the presidency, and the crowd in the square were pent up with excitement. They felt that way because a military spokesman said that would happen. But instead he simply delegated powers to his chief crony, Omar Suleiman, and would hold on to his title as president as new committees work on reforms prior to the elections in September. He referred to himself as the father of his country and struck a tone of Father-Knows-Best and he wanted the children to behave and quit this nonsense in the streets. He revealed he just doesn’t get it, remaining paternalistic and patronizing to the bitter end. The anger, frustration and disappointment in the massive crowd were palpable, but somehow it was contained; it never translated itself into an anarchist fury of destructiveness. They maintained their stance of non-violence, which I thought was close to miraculous. Plans were made to walk over to the presidential palace in the morning.

Now, what happened between the end of that Friday night speech and Saturday morning about 9:30 Tucson time, when Suleiman made his brief announcement on State TV that the president had stepped down and was on his way to his vacation home at Sharm El-Sheik by the Red Sea. Apparently, the military stepped in and forced him to give it all up once and for all, twisting his arm to get out of town. Whatever they actually said, he complied, seeing no other options at that point. Hearing the news the crowd erupted in cheers and shouts that went on and on through the night, as unbridled joy and celebration burst out of tens of thousands of delirious Egyptians.

Many question remain and a rocky road is no doubt ahead for the movement that brought about the change, but the first big step has been accomplished. Three cheers for the youth of Egypt!!