Monday, February 22, 2016

Scrub Brush Abhorred Him with a Horde of Welts



  • Left last night to dry, not sure how many more washes, the latest in Shutting Up.
  • Obviously not here, but I am better at shutting up at work, especially now that the friendly-nosy from all other departments at work seek me out to talk about the suck, and I don't.
  • The weight of the sky.
  • Mary Scully for president: Why aren’t you instead supporting/campaigning for Bernie Sanders? Most broadly, I disdain his candidacy because he is running as a Democrat. The DP’s chief function is to manage the more liberal voters, to co-opt social movements, to control political opposition from the left. It tries to destroy independent social movements and harness them to an electoral perspective. In that regard, it’s been very successful—particularly with civil rights, feminist, and LGBT activists. In particular, I am appalled at Sanders’ support for apartheid Israel; his opposition to immigrant rights; his support for US wars, including drone bombing. I parted ways with the DP in 1968 over the question of the Vietnam War and I have never found a reason to reconsider that. Sanders’ populist rhetoric doesn’t cut it for me—especially because he is nothing more really than a left shill in the Democratic Party—a role that many have played over the years to rope in and re-commit disaffected liberals to the DP. What do you think of the Bernie Sanders campaign? I think it’s useful for educating people about the character of the DP. When he loses the nomination to Clinton, he will—as he promised—try to commit his supporters to her. The old left shill maneuver. But of course the sole purpose of the left shill is to drain off activism. Every election means a dramatic decline in political protest. That’s observable going back decades. It’s hard to pull off even modest-sized antiwar actions. It’s impressive that thousands respond to his populism but the political level is uncritical and amorphous.
  • Let me repeat myself: Sanders is -.06% less shitty than HRC who is -.06% less shitty than whichever wad of fuck runs for the GOP. And if Mary Scully had a puncher's chance at election, she'd be -.06% less shitty than Sanders.
  • And can we at least give Trump credit for mercilessly mocking the House of Bush into ruin?
  • I have learned to nap
  • I know the term scrub to describe what googlebot is doing when it pings this blog every thirty seconds for the past 96 hours is wrong, but what the fuck is googlebot doing when it pings this blog every thirty seconds for the past 96 hours?
  • Tomorrow always knows.
  • I have two friends urging J.G. Ballard on me. I tried Crash 25 years ago and hated it, I've not tried since, and I've friends who loathe Ballard. If anyone wants to sway me one way or the other, PLEASE.
  • Further autovariations.






THE IMAGINE COPPERHEAD

Andrew Hudgins

Without intending to hide,
the imagined copperhead
hid on the path ahead,
unseen on bronze leaves, unheard,
and a mortal likelihood   
at every step. This was childhood,
mine, the wood’s jihad   
against a boy who’d
intruded among monkshood,
wasp, tick, and nettles haired
with needles. Scrub brush abhorred
him with a horde
of  welts, bites, and stings, but he’d
never seen a copperhead,
though he’d looked hard
taking, as he’d been ordered, heed.
The snake wasn’t a falsehood,
though, to him. Dread
was his nature, and he hared
through sunlight and shade, head
swiveling for the copperhead
he’d begun to covet, the ballyhooed
killer a camouflaged godhead
on which his inborn faith cohered,
and his priesthood.



4 comments:

  1. Wait. If something is -.06%, i.e., Negative Percentage, LESS shitty than something else, then isn't it MORE shitty than that thing. Something about math, negation. I don't know. Asking for a friend.

    ReplyDelete
  2. 'Crash'; Meh. 'Atrocity Exhibition' (It was the story, "Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan" that made me look; you have to admit that it's a catchy title); Ahh, I don't think so.

    Ballard gets some Cred with me only for 'Empire Of The Sun', because it's more autobiographical. There's juice in it. In the same way that I'll eat at a friend's if they're serving fish but know everything else they cook will be a tragedy, I'd give 'Empire' a try as a stand-alone read, and not a door into Ballard's other writing.

    Oh -- and, Soylent Green is People. Sadly, not the Right People.

    ReplyDelete
  3. VIDEO: OBAMA CRACKS JOKE ABOUT SCALIA’S DEATH
    President grins after making joke at late Supreme Court justice's expense

    http://www.infowars.com/video-obama-cracks-joke-about-scalias-death/

    During his National Governors Association speech Monday, President Obama joked there was a lot to get done during his final days in office, including “appointing judges.”
    “Some of you may be in the final year of your term, working as hard as you can to get as much done as possible for the folks you represent, fixing roads, educating our children, helping people retrain, appointing judges, the usual stuff,” the president jested, as the crowd in attendance burst into laughter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. "Life In These United Snakes": A friend asked about the reported circumstances of Scalia's passing.

      The place he had gone was a "ranch" (Dude? Bunny? We don't know). The 'manager' said he found Scalia in bed, the sheets barely mussed, in a "state of perfect repose", and there was talk of a pillow over his face. The judge pronounced death *over the telephone*, and *there was no autopsy*.

      This, for an Associate Justice of the Supremes. god knows what they would've done if it had been someone truly important lying there -- like the Director of the Texas State Fish 'n Wildlife department, or the Davy Crockett stand-in for the Fall O The Alamo reenactments, or something.

      "So, whatcha think happened?" my friend asked.

      "Oh -- Blow and Hoors," I replied. "Not that we'll ever know."


      [Insert canned laughter here]

      Delete