The proper definition of reformism should hinge, not on the means we use to build a new society or on the speed with which we move, but on the nature of our final goal. A person who is satisfied with a kinder, gentler version of capitalism or statism, that is still recognizable as state capitalism, is a reformist. A person who seeks to eliminate state capitalism and replace it with something entirely different, no matter how gradually, is not a reformist.

"Peaceful action" simply means not deliberately provoking the state to repression, but rather doing whatever is possible (in the words of the Wobbly slogan) to "build the structure of the new society within the shell of the old" before we try to break the shell. There is nothing wrong with resisting the state if it tries, through repression, to reverse our progress in building the institutions of the new society. But revolutionary action should meet two criteria: 1) it should have strong popular support; and 2) it should not take place until we have reached the point where peaceful construction of the new society has reached its limits within existing society.

-- Kevin Carson, from Mutualist.org: Free-Market Anti-Capitalism

Wow. Yes. I couldn't possibly agree with this more. This is one of the best things I've ever read regarding the whole never-ending argument about reform versus revolution.

Carson is a good writer and has a lot of very interesting and wise things to say, in the process of explaining the flavor of anarchism that he espouses, "mutualism." I don't agree with his non-collectivist view, and I don't think I concur with his prioritization of "the market" - a little voice in the back of my head keeps saying "you can't have a market economy without capitalism. Can you? how can you be anti-capitalist and pro market?" And yet that's what he's claiming to be.

So, I dunno. You get some interesting mixtures of good and bad ideas, wisdom and foolishness coming from the same head, a lot of times. Further proof that you can't just swallow whole any one ideology. I guess I'm not a mutualist.

Just uploaded a few photos (click on these to go to my flickr pages and see a few more. search on tag 'iowa' to see a few from last time I was here) just to give you an idea what it's like here on the outskirts of Shellsburg, Iowa. It's very green compared to 3 months ago when I was here before.

This morning I walked into town to the post office and back to mail some stuff but also I haven't been getting enough excercise so a long walk was in order. It's only about a mile and a half(?), but better than sitting on my ass. It's hot and really humid here.

Bill Conroy of NarcoNews brings us an excellent article about Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban who has been working for the CIA for years, and allegedly blew up a Cuban passenger jet in 1976.

Carriles has snuck into the U.S. expecting to get asylum and escape from being extradicted to Venezuela, where they want to try him for the airline bombing. But he made himself too visible, too public, so now the Bush administration is in a bind.

The photo here is of a mural/grafitti painted on the cement bank of the Rio Grande between Juarez and El Paso. I saw it last week and didn't know the story, so I didn't really understand what it was referring to. Now I do.

Anyway, read the article, it's good.
These kind of situations should receive more media coverage. They're fascinating, and stories like Bill's display amazing feats of investigative, muckraking-style journalism that this country needs to be exposed to more. I'm sure stories like this would do well in the marketplace (of ideas and money) because they're edgy and interesting, but politically the mainstream press won't touch them, for fear of trouble with BushCo. So much for the idea of a free media.

In addition to the official "personal," this goes under the "mean spirited" category, as well as the "groan" and "there goes the neighborhood" categories. So beware.

I was looking through the archives of the little mailing list that started with a few very cool friends in Portland, a thing we use mainly just to invite each other to bad movies, usually, and gossip about silly internet humor. I guess maybe now that I'm back in gringolandia but still far from my best gringo amigos, I was feeling like I wanted to catch up on their doings.

Well, the list has gradually been expanding to include a wider and wider circle of friends of friends and aquaintances to where for the last year or so there have been some people on the list who have never ever met and probably never will. This is in stark contrast to its beginnings in summer 2002 when it was all people who saw each other and did cool stuff together almost every day. Well, alas, now the final nail is in the coffin, and another reason for me to be glad I'm not now in Portland, and will soon be leaving for good: I look through the June archives and find that my old San Francisco flatmate, who I absolutely detest, has moved to Portland and has just joined the list. Fucking A.

Now I'm not saying there's nobody that I don't not get along with on the list. There's one cabron in particular that is also in my email "asshole filter", but at least our troubles developed after we were already on the list, and he's moved away from Portland anyway. But this other guy, I absolutely can't freaking stand him. I guess that's what happens when you live in an overcrowded apartment that you can't move out of without leaving the whole city because of astronomical rent, with someone for 6 years, someone who you previously knew but not well enogh to know what an asshole they were.

Oh and I guess the other ingredient there in that recipe is "when you're me, an easily annoyed, hard to please dork with expectations for everything and everyone that are way too high..." It must be hard for some friends I know who seem to get along with everybody, to see me getting into these hateful conflicts. Another asshole that wants to sue me or kill me has repeatedly said, amongst other childish and not very creative insults, that I don't get along with anyone, but this is obviously bullshit. I just don't have any tolerance any more, at this stage of my life, for assholes. There is just occasionally the fuckwad that I cannot, will not, put up with. I always give them plenty of chances to redeem themselves, I always put up with their shit and am exceedingly generous and forgiving for way too long, but eventually my patience runs out. But it's not like this happens all the time. Out of the hundreds of cool people I know, I can count on just one hand the assholes that have elevated themselves into this pantheon I'm talking about. And I should stress that, like in George Carlin's great skit, I make a big distinction between an asshole, a scumbag, and a jerkoff. The latter 2 are much easier to forgive and forget, but the first, it's just hard to deal with them.

suspira [espanol for sigh]... well, I guess I can see a bright side in looking through the portland keyhole, and that is that I found out mi amigo Reverend Phil has a blog in which he describes his adventures biking to L.A. for Bikesummer 2005 and all the, I am sure, entertaining insanity that that involves. That makes me smile... I look forward to reading more of it.

Okay, sorry for this vindictive rant. I promise the next entry will get right back to the dark visions of opression, struggle, and injustice that keeps you coming back to this fine blog. :-)

The rest of my photos from my trip are now online. This last batch is from Mexico City, Mazatlan, Chihuahua, and Juarez. It took way too long to get them all up there, but anyway, there they are. Now I can get on with more important things, like my film.

It's so strange, the shift in surroundings and habits this week. The biggest change is just being constantly exposed to the toxic infosmog of the Internet, tempted by it, soaking in it for hours and hours. Hot and cold running cyberspace, for free, whereas before, for 3 months, 1, maybe 2 hours a day all I could afford, money and timewise, to spend in front of a computer. And all the excercise I used to get, walking around strange cities.... Well, now that I'm done with this relatively pointless gesture of organizing and uploading all these photos, now maybe I can impose some discipline on myself, be productive and healthy and get my shit together.

from the PCASC mailing list:

Today, the White House sent CAFTA to Congress. The news was made
official in a USTR press release. This move follows on the heels of a
pro-CAFTA press conference held by President Bush this afternoon.

CAFTA could move to the floor for a vote as early as next week. If
you oppose CAFTA, NAFTA and the Free Trade Agenda, this is a time to
be on high alert. [and take action]

The administration is trying to buy-off Republicans from states with
a strong sugar industry, but the sugar industry announced that they
will not accept the deals offered by Bush so far. Remember your
history: NAFTA faced similar opposition but ultimately passed by a
one vote majority in a midnight vote on the House floor. We can't
afford to let up pressure on CAFTA.

Continuing my massive photograph bonanza in the wake of my 11 weeks of travelling, today I bring you a set of photos from San Cristobal de las Casas, in Chiapas, Mexico. I spent about 16 days in this city and took a lot of interesting photos. A good portion of them were of the great grafitti and stencils which are pretty prevalent and often political there. enjoy!

You may have seen a few of them before, but I have posted today the best of the rest of my photos from Guatemala. It's way too many, about 200, I am the first to admit, but it was hard to pare it down even that far. I had more than 300 to start with. What do you do when everything is beautiful and strange for 6 weeks and you want everyone you know to see just how beautiful and strange it was? Aren't I good to you?
Si, soy muy chido, si? ja ja ja...

Podscope is a search engine for searching the content of podcasts . When you get the results you can actually listen to the few seconds where your search word was said, right there on the results page. It apparently uses voice recognition, and it sort of works, though one of my test words was "Chiapas" (still thinking about the Zapatistas) and amongst the results was an item about podcasting wherein the person speaking said "chopping the sound off the end," and that evidently got heard by the computer as "Chiapas." But anyway, a very cool web tool.

Interesting. The constant march of progress. hah.

In solidarity with the EZLN who yesterday went on red alert, I just posted a collection of photos I took a bit less than a month ago while studying spanish in Oventic, one of the Zapatista Caracoles. I have over 800 photos I took in Guatemala and Mexico over the last 11 weeks that I just started going over today, but I decided to upload these first. Vive Zapatismo!

Enjoy and be inspired...