I Am in That Uneasy Peace of Equal Powers Which Makes a State; Then I Communicate by Passing Papers, Proclamations, Orders, Through My Bowels

POLITICS

. . . for all those not in love.

     I've heard Batista described as a Mason. A farmer who'd seen him in Miami made this claim. He's as nice a fellow as you'd ever want to meet. Of Castro, of course, no one speaks.

     For all those not in love there's law: to rule . . .  to regulate . . . to rectify. I cannot write the poetry of such proposals, the poetry of politics, though sometimes - often - always now - I am in that uneasy peace of equal powers which makes a State; then I communicate by passing papers, proclamations, orders, through my bowels. Yet I was not a State with you, nor were we both together any Indiana. A squad of Pershing Rifles at the moment, I make myself Right Face! Legislation packs the screw of my intestines. Well, king of the classroom's king of the hill. You used to waddle when you walked because my sperm between your legs was draining to a towel. Teacher, poet, folded lover - like the politician, like those drunkards, ill, or those who faucet-off while pissing heartily to preach upon the force and fullness of that stream, or pause from vomiting to praise the purity and passion of their puke - I chant, I beg, I orate, I command, I sing -

William Gass, In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, 1968

• Fleabus did not win WFMU's station mascot contest. This adorable dalmatian from Estonia did. Fleabus, above hearing the news, rolled over on her back and demanded her belly be rubbed. Lessons can be learned. Fine metaphors abound.
• The election.
• Abandon shit: frank luntz among many others, argues that the election was an expression not of enthusiasm for republicans, but of extreme disaffection with the way we are governed. "People say Washington is broken and on the decline, that government no longer works for them — only for the rich and powerful." in order to express that, they voted republican. it's like you expressed your happiness through extreme despair. next time around, you'll be able to express your continued alienation by voting democrat. you can show how much you hate power and privilege by voting for hillary clinton.
• The Democrats May Not Recover! screams this Guardian article.
• Moron at Salon says Obama finally gets it! vis Republicans!
• The Secret Democratic Plan to Win! OK, here's today's monologue - as long as Democrats run as just less-shitty Republicans there will always be victorious shitty Republicans. It is perfectly reasonable for the majority of Americans who are not partisans to choose the more adept assholes if the choice is between proud assholes or hypocritical assholes.
• Dark Age America: the End of the Market Economy.
• Today in King of Anarchists! Point! Counterpoint!
• Must be left in the dark.
• The medium of the English language.
• Two trilogies, one scifi, for those of you who do.
• Oh dear, I am judged unworthy again. I agree!
• More Peter Hammill!

THE TRAGIC CONDITION OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY

Bernadette Mayer

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

Give me your gentrificatees of the Lower East Side including all the well-heeled young Europeans who’ll take apartments without leases

Give me your landlords, give me your cooperators

Give me the guys who sell the food and the computers to the public schools in District One

Give me the IRS-FBI-CIA men who don’t take election day off

Give me the certain members of the school board & give me the district superintendent

Give me all the greedy members of both american & foreign capitalist religious sects

Give me the parents of the punk people

Give me the guy who puts those stickers in the Rice Krispies

Give me the doctor who thinks his time is more valuable than mine and my daughter’s & the time of all the other non-doctors in this world

Give me the mayor, his mansion, and the president & his white house

Give me the cops who laugh and sneer at meetings where they demonstrate the new uses of mace and robots instead of the old murder against people who are being evicted

Give me the landlord’s sleazy lawyers and the deal-making judges in housing court & give me the landlord’s arsonist

Give me the known & unknown big important rich guys who now bank on our quaint neighborhood

Give me, forgive me, the writers who have already or want to write bestsellers in this country

Together we will go to restore Ellis Island, ravaged for years by wind, weather and vandals

I was surprised and saddened when I heard that the Statue of Liberty was in such a serious state of disrepair & I want to help

This is the most generous contribution I can afford.