[Nettime-bold] Baffler #9, Dalai Lama, Police Brutality

Howdy champs. The world under Bush is going to a very hot hell faster than you can say Texas Chili.

Eryk, you have said some things like "a convenient rationale afforded to Soviet Communism and Genius 2000." I don't think that's fair or kosher. In fact, I have to insist you read Frank's essay in Baffler #9. Better yet, buy Baffler #9. It will help to clarify our differences of method and possibly save our mutual understanding. I was hurt and insulted by your suggestion that I am a dictator and that Genius 2000 is dictatorial.

Also, let's talk about Peppermint and Bukoff. If by saying I must stop attacking them you meant stop discussing them, I respectfully dissent. I mean to discuss a great deal in my book, including many people. My future books will also discuss people and what they do.

The Dalai Lama kicked off his US tour here in Minneapolis Monday. I will not have a chance to speak with him, but Jesse Ventura will.

On KARE-11, the NBC affiliate of the religious right here in my town, they did a story on the DL right after a touching story about how happy and comforting the execution of Timoteo McVeigh will be to a sister of one of the victims of his murderous bombing. The DL was asked if the treatment of Tibetans by the Chinese government ever made him angry. He replied, "Sometimes, yes."

The DL is believed to be the incarnation of Buddha. I am the incarnation of the Judeo-Christian Messiah or Savior, the Son of Man.

I would like to one day write scathing, humiliating, discrediting prose about Mr. William Safire, who had an editorial about the "Faithless 14" nations who voted us (USA) off the UN Human Rights Commission. Safire is a piece of shit. Fuck him and his noxious quasi-literary propaganda. I am going to hold him to account, and enjoy the effort with a breezy conscience.

Maybe Cary isn't to blame for anything. All I asked him to do was either contribute a statement or video footage to the first edition; watch the first edition and comment on it; and not plagiarize me. No on all counts. Tommy Sherman became the hatchet man who wrote against me without naming me. Hence I designated them misfeasant.

If any of the artworld had any guts or integrity, Genius 2000 would have been a major influence on the 2000 election. By their perfidy Pat Lichty, David Ross, and GH helped elect George Bush. Bush is quite arguably the most brutal and comprehensive tyrant in the history of civilization.

We disagree on so much these days Eryk. I am preparing a lawsuit against the police for injuring me very severely while in custody for drunkenness. I'm not saying I am wise and proper in having drunk to excess on May 4, but I am saying that enormous bodily harm inflicted simply to retaliate for verbal insults is improper behavior for anyone in a police uniform and carrying a police gun.

Frank's essay in Baffler #9 --the entire issue actually, frontispiece, graphic aids, section titles, and cover art--exemplifies the differences between you and me Eryk. Perhaps these differences are only a passing climate of summer, and perhaps they are more.

I am going to Dan Schneider's poetry group Friday. I want two poems to bring. Briggs, please send me your best poem of one page or less. Eryk, I would like you to do the same. If you prefer not to, I would like someone else on the list--even a lurker--to send one. If no one sends anything I will supply the second poem.

The topic for the Genius 2000 Conference 2001 is "Constitution: The Summer of Genius." I demand that Thomas Frank be informed of the Genius 2000 Network. If no one else contacts him I will.

Other works by Thomas Frank:

The Conquest of Cool

Commodify your Dissent (contributor)

One Market Under God

I would also like to encourage Briggs in his attempt to contact Timothy McVeigh before he is exterminated. The attempt will fail but it will be a responsible, conscientious statement against the death penalty.

One day, there will be a category of law known offically as "art crimes." This day is already here.

William Blake said, "I saw no God in any finite organical sense, but believing then as I do now that honest indignation is the voice of God, I cared not for consequences but wrote." I value this text.

My band Shlagel and I have prepared a musical tribute to Thomas Frank. It is a rock and roll song titled "Completely Frank," and a few bars of it can be heard in the first musical interlude of the Video First Edition, immediately preceding the shot of the aerated bacterial growth tank. I've asked my guitarist Pat to upload the song to our band site at http://www.geocities.com/shlagelus and soon this request will be granted.

I am also somewhat offended by your flip tone in announcing the current issue of 1000 Ridiculous Tragedies, Eryk. Perhaps our political beliefs are too divergent in this time of fascist annihilation to admit of a wholesome artistic amity. I do not hate you for this, but if it is true I prefer the fact to be in the open.

Lawyers may check the Ramsey County Jail records regarding my arrest.

Viva Zapata,

Max Herman

The Genius 2000 Network

http://www.geocities.com/genius-2000/WinonaLaduke.JPG