https://jasonpreu.com/2018/02/24/thirteen-ways-of-looking-at-our-problem-after-wallace-stevens/
Political Muck
Behavioral Therapy
We're the monarchs of the night.
We need not speak, only breathe.
We're not perfect and we're not the same.
This world is good enough if we let it be.
Deserts bloom after hard rains.
We are all dancing in god's mind,
radiant, draped in silver and gold.
If we know what we say we know
then what should we fear?
This morning, I woke,
made coffee,
and watched murder
on the television.
We’re Missing Out
No matter the season, we cannot wait for the weather to change. We must have hot showers to fight the blistering cold. We're always missing something. We've got all kinds of thoughts about - whatever it is, we just can't wait to find out. Still the weather's always changing. And we must keep our feet on this slowly-shifting ground. We must keep our hearts open, keep that beating sound around. The weather outside may be just perfect this time of year. When we miss out we really miss out. Heartache pays off when you're buried in snow and can't feel a thing. We have to keep our feet right here on this salinated ground. Listen to the clock hands moving. See the dark lights lining the lane? The weather is not afraid to quit because it knows we can't handle the fear of missing out. The weather knows a thing or two about delicate positions. It knows we live in flimsy houses built close to rising tides.
2 Haiku for Anti-Common Sense
An anti-vaccine conspiracy is leading the anti- to mask up Human behavior makes no sense, driven by fear; more rare, by love
#Winning
My penis was eaten by an old catfish
After my brother tore me down
My sister/wife put me back me together
From all the parts that she had found
She had to take a golden phallus
And strap it to my groin
Then we made love all night long
Got her pregnant with a baby boy
And that little boy, well he growed up
To do his daddy proud
He found his murderin’ uncle hiding away
And the circle of violence spun round
The circle of violence spins round and round
With no beginning, with no end
I learned the hard way the circle never slows down
Violence always wins
Listen to me while you’re breathing hard
I said violence always wins
Oh, listen to me while you’re seeing stars
Violence always wins
It ain’t hard to see the cosmic truth
Peace and love are real fine virtues
But they don’t hold a candle to the old 1, 2
Because violence, steady violence,
Violence, always violence,
Always wins
The American Abyss
America will not survive the big lie just because a liar is separated from power. It will need a thoughtful repluralization of media and a commitment to facts as a public good. The racism structured into every aspect of the coup attempt is a call to heed our own history. Serious attention to the past helps us to see risks but also suggests future possibility. We cannot be a democratic republic if we tell lies about race, big or small. Democracy is not about minimizing the vote nor ignoring it, neither a matter of gaming nor of breaking a system, but of accepting the equality of others, heeding their voices and counting their votes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/09/magazine/trump-coup.html
This is a sobering assessment of recent events and things to come. I can highly recommend Snyder’s book, On Tyranny, in addition.
The Land That Never Has Been Yet
The Land That Never Has Been Yet – Scene on Radio
www.sceneonradio.org/the-land-that-never-has-been-yet/
You’re Picking a Fight…and You’re Losing That Fight
Why hold them so tight?
Why not let them go into the wild world
for which they are not prepared?
Why argue their nation of smoke, mirrors?
Aided by machines into an early grave,
buried under rounds of unspent ammunition,
cameras at the ready,
revolution of righteous ignorance.
When the air clears,
the unshaved wave
returns home, confused, provisional victors,
keepers of a false faith.
When the police arrive,
they do not run.
This is because they
have never understood the luxury of choice.
The coming confrontation between the American press and the Republican Party
The GOP is increasingly a minority party, or counter-majoritarian, as some political scientists put it. The beliefs and priorities that hold it together are opposed by most Americans, who on a deeper level do not want to be what the Republican Party increasingly stands for. A counter-majoritarian party cannot present itself as such and win elections in swing districts. So it has to be counterfactual too. It has to fight with fictions. Making it harder to vote, and harder to understand what the party is really about— these are two parts of the same project. The conflict with honest journalism is structural. To be its dwindling self the GOP has to also be at war with the press, unless of course the press folds under pressure.
https://pressthink.org/2020/11/the-coming-confrontation-between-the-american-press-and-the-republican-party/
In unsurprising news, Trump continues to tamper with the election
Putting this man in prison already.
Jason Preu 
You must be logged in to post a comment.