I got a call from the White House, from the President himself, asking me if I’d do him a personal favor. I like the President, so I said, “Sure, Mr. President, anything you like.” He said, “Just act like nothing’s going on. Act normal. That would mean the world to me. Can you do that, Leon?” “Why, sure, Mr. President, you’ve got it. Normal, that’s how I’m going to act. I won’t let on, even if I’m tortured,” I said, immediately regretting that “tortured” bit

BIG NEWS! In the private democracy I live in I have been outvoted, per usual, 2 to 1, and Lucy and Babalu will be Fred and Ethel, the sillyass reason is unimportant (I didn't ask so don't know what it is, I eat the (wine I drink the bread) vote results and will honor the vote and not claim it rigged, nor crash a fucking unwatchable NBA game and then fall asleep as I'm booed). Too, turns out Ethel nee Lucy is NOT a Scottish Fold, a relief, actually, since I've read that Scottish Folds come with many unpleasant and debilitating for the cat health issues

Good news for me if not for you: I'm back on this drug, it helps me cope more than even tending this shitty blog

BIG NEWS! Two posts before this one post (the link above), when Fred and Ethel were still Lucy and Babalu, I mentioned Lambert Strether, a character in Henry James "The Ambassadors," and remembered digibud Lambert and later wondered whether he (both the alias and the person using the alias) still online, and yes, look here and then bookmark it and read daily! 

NEW OLD NEWS! I have done zero research into Graham Platner's history and character deliberately, I said to a question asked me yesterday by a chaired History professor renowned as a Liberal Sage with a specialty in New Deal history, though I noted that every professional (and amateur) Liberal and Corporate Democrat I would expect to campaign against a threat from the Left has united to fight Platner harder than they've ever fought Tronald Dump, so Platner can't be all *that* bad. He has a fucking Nazi tattoo, said chaired History professor, who lives one zip code east of mine and has the same congressman. You work on Jaime Raskin's campaigns, I said, he funds the Israeli genocide in Gaza and the Israeli ethnic cleansing of the West Bank and now southern Lebanon, you still voting for him? A Nazi tattoo is more disqualifying than funding genocide and ethnic cleansing and imperialist land theft? Chaired History professor informed me, That's different and fuck you





BIG NEWS! Fellowjeff's Noise & Syrup, my very favorite show of hundreds in the thirty years I've been listening for hours daily to WFMU, is on this Summer's schedule, the song above and below from the first show this morning!

For the record, if Platner is elected I fully expect him to fund the neverending Israeli genocide in Gaza and the Israeli ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and now southern Lebanon and to vote in general like all motherfucking Corporate Democrats, it's just illustrative that Corporate Democrats' Job One is to destroy even the most minor threat from the Left, I said to the other professor engaged in the conversation at the Circ Desk after Chaired History professor stormed out. Yup, second professor said
What the wounds are telling us
The Censorship Industry and the Exploitation Model of Digital War Capitalism
"I am very aware that lately I have been rather bitter"
Three Dualities of the American Political Psyche
"I originally entitled this essay Who Will Declare The Butlerian Jihad? but then, well, someone did, and it just so happened to be the fucking Pope"
How Washington Is Building a Surveillance State Without Calling It One
Silicon Valley looks for Lebensraum in the Bible Belt
The Invention of Antifa					The 2026 FIFA World Cup in the US is becoming a spectacle of greed, social exclusion, and authoritarianism
Football (not helmetball) Considered as One of the Fine Arts
"The difference between Russia/Qatar and the USA is Russia/Qatar used the World Cup to hide their human rights abuses, and the USA are using it to flaunt them"
The Most Racist World Cup In History
The Nazi World Cup				10 Things Liberal Democrats Do NOT Find "Unsettling" (unlike the VERY "Unsettling" Graham Platner)
The End of Five Centuries of Western Hegemony?
Are we living in an interregnum?					Dollar Hegemony?
Your retirement savings are about to make Elon Musk a trillionaire
We are ruled by motherfucking sociopaths
I. HATE. MOTHERFUCKING. DEMOCRATS.
Motherfucking sociopaths manipulating motherfucking crackers
I. HATE. MOTHERFUCKING. DEMOCRATS.
Oil execs building corporate militias, fearing "Bastille" moment over gas prices
Philly Cops Admit That They’re Tracking “First Amendment Activity” Critical of AI
"Trump prevented everyone from celebrating near the game. He made everyone show up hours early. Women could not take in a bag. He inconvenienced the entire city. And then he fell asleep"
Do Americans really know how much the world hates us?
Establishment Attacks On Platner Are Classic Woke Attacks On The Populist Left
United States of Assholes		United States of Assholes		United States of Assholes		United States of Assholes
The Only Way Out Is Together					How Long Does It Take to Plan a Bridge?
There’s Something Living Inside Fog
United States of Assholes		United States of Assholes		United States of Assholes		United States of Assholes
when a president's leisure trip to New York City was a national scandal for a week
Maggie		William T. Vollmann’s four-volume spook show
We are ruled by motherfucking sociopaths
{ feuilleton }			Live Cure		2026 June 3
Colour of Abstraction				All the Versuses of Life
Someone bluskied a photo of a gorgeous Joseph Cornell collage which made me think of this John Ashbery essay
An oral history of the New York School poets
Infinite Jest,’ the Internet, and the Politics of Reading
Why the American Novel Refused to Grow Up
Fellowjeff did a fill-in early past Saturday morning and played this favorite earworm of mine							☟

BOUNDEN DUTY

James Tate

               I got a call from the White House, from the

President himself, asking me if I’d do him a personal

favor. I like the President, so I said, “Sure, Mr.

President, anything you like.” He said, “Just act

like nothing’s going on. Act normal. That would

mean the world to me. Can you do that, Leon?” “Why,

sure, Mr. President, you’ve got it. Normal, that’s

how I’m going to act. I won’t let on, even if I’m

tortured,” I said, immediately regretting that “tortured”

bit. He thanked me several times and hung up. I was

dying to tell someone that the President himself called

me, but I knew I couldn’t. The sudden pressure to

act normal was killing me. And what was going on

anyway. I didn’t know anything was going on. I

saw the President on TV yesterday. He was shaking

hands with a farmer. What if it wasn’t really a

farmer? I needed to buy some milk, but suddenly

I was afraid to go out. I checked what I had on.

I looked “normal” to me, but maybe I looked more

like I was trying to be normal. That’s pretty

suspicious. I opened the door and looked around.

What was going on? There was a car parked in front

of my car that I had never seen before, a car that

was trying to look normal, but I wasn’t fooled.

If you need milk, you have to get milk, otherwise

people will think something’s going on. I got into

my car and sped down the road. I could feel those

little radar guns popping behind every tree and bush,

but, apparently, they were under orders not to stop

me. I ran into Kirsten in the store. “Hey, what’s

going on, Leon?” she said. She had a very nice smile.

I hated to lie to her. “Nothing’s going on. Just

getting milk for my cat,” I said. “I didn’t know

you had a cat,” she said. “I meant to say coffee.

You’re right, I don’t have a cat. Sometimes I

refer to my coffee as my cat. It’s just a private

joke. Sorry,” I said. “Are you all right?” she

asked. “Nothing’s going on, Kirsten. I promise

you. Everything is normal. The President shook

hands with a farmer, a real farmer. Is that such

a big deal?” I said. “I saw that,” she said, “and

that man was definitely not a farmer.” “Yeah, I

know,” I said, feeling better.