LullaBye a Bernie

Sarah Vaughan

Mel Tormé

Amy Winehouse

Ella Fitzgerald

Stan Getz

WordSWordsworthy!

The French Revolution as It Appeared to Enthusiasts at Its Commencement 

 

By William Wordsworth

 

Oh! pleasant exercise of hope and joy!

For mighty were the auxiliars which then stood

Upon our side, we who were strong in love!

Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,

But to be young was very heaven!—Oh! times,

In which the meagre, stale, forbidding ways

Of custom, law, and statute, took at once

The attraction of a country in romance!

When Reason seemed the most to assert her rights,

When most intent on making of herself

A prime Enchantress—to assist the work

Which then was going forward in her name!

Not favoured spots alone, but the whole earth,

The beauty wore of promise, that which sets

(As at some moment might not be unfelt

Among the bowers of paradise itself )

The budding rose above the rose full blown.

What temper at the prospect did not wake

To happiness unthought of? The inert

Were roused, and lively natures rapt away!

They who had fed their childhood upon dreams,

The playfellows of fancy, who had made

All powers of swiftness, subtilty, and strength

Their ministers,—who in lordly wise had stirred

Among the grandest objects of the sense,

And dealt with whatsoever they found there

As if they had within some lurking right

To wield it;—they, too, who, of gentle mood,

Had watched all gentle motions, and to these

Had fitted their own thoughts, schemers more wild,

And in the region of their peaceful selves;—

Now was it that both found, the meek and lofty

Did both find, helpers to their heart's desire,

And stuff at hand, plastic as they could wish;

Were called upon to exercise their skill,

Not in Utopia, subterranean fields,

Or some secreted island, Heaven knows where!

But in the very world, which is the world

Of all of us,—the place where in the end

We find our happiness, or not at all!

 

 

 

Monanarchic Take 5ive

Let's Play Favorites

Reign of Kindo

Kings of Convenience

Queen

 

Duke Ellington

Prince

Shock & Awe

I remember when, back in the day when I was alive and studying Modern Languages, one of my projects was a closer look at the use of the  English language in the press.   

Not only did I find extremely biased language (not surprising) but also language designed to confuse.  

That's not so bad in a headline, ambiguity or a 'catchy' phrase, whose purpose is to draw in the reader, to incite curiosity for a story.   

There has been a deterioration in that respect, because there was a time, not v long ago, when headlines were more interesting and smarter.  

What usually tended to happen would be that the better the headline:

1. The more humor there was in it;

2. The less important the story was, and;

3. The more it tended to have a wordplay in it.

Now there's a hook, it seems, but it's all pure baiting now, and usually leads to nothing because there is usually no story to begin with.  Especially when it comes to internet headlines.

I wonder about 'the press' as opposed to 'the media'.    Newspapers.  They hardly sell anymore. Owning a newspaper isn't economically profitable.  One wonders, then, why magnates own papers.  Average ppl stopped buying them long ago.  More and more I  tend to think they now exist as a way for sold out politicians and gov'ts to justify some action or other.  I think papers have turned into an indirect tool of power as opposed to a check on power.  

I think the mechanism now is for a gov't or a department / agency of the state to 'leak' a story or piece of news, real or fake,  that they for some reason need ppl to get behind. 

The journalist then writes it, hiding the source (protected), and the same gov't source then uses the story s/he leaked as a reason to act. 

"We must do X because ______ paper broke the story that ________ has been involved in _______ against our interests." 

It's clear that there's no public trust in the media anymore, written  or watched.  The less trust or respect there is for the 4th estate, the more desperate it becomes, the more the 'stories' become non-stories, because it's obvious that the real stories, the actual news, aren't being delivered anymore. 

It was always a little like this but now it's huge.

Every now and then there's your lone journalist still doing his work.

I believe there are some activities which are linked to a vocation. 

1. The clergy

2. Medicine

3. Teaching

4. Politics

5. Journalism

"Un journaliste aujourd'hui c'est soit un chômeur soit une pute."  (A journalist today is either unemployed or a whore .)  Alain Soral

There are v few v good any of the above, anyway.   Excellence is rare by definition.

Donald Trump doesn't end up being the GOP candidate for POTUS for no reason.   

And even if Bernie Sanders ends up having to swallow Hillary Clinton's nomination (typo domination) filled with irregularities, he probably never dreamed he'd be this popular among US citizens.  

Both of them have been surprised by Events.  

I think they decided to run only to stir things up a little, and didn't imagine that in so doing, they would open up the space for real discussion about the topics which actually matter to ppl, right or wrong, in the country and in the world, and even more so, they didn't think that they'd open up the space that shows to everyone who bothers to look that there is lip service payed to democracy, especially in Democratic Party primaries.  It simply doesn't exist.   The Emperor is naked.   There are many reports of fraud in the Democratic Party's primaries.  

It's almost like when, in Sci-Fi films, as Zizek says, a character pushes a button he thinks anodyne, harmless, and suddenly the entire room s/he's in starts to collapse.  

 

Bernie Sanders is the natural candidate to oppose Trump.  In my mind, only Bernie Sanders has a chance to win against Trump-- that is, without cheating.

Hillary Clinton is under federal criminal investigation.   How can the Democratic Party -- and President BarrackObama!--- support her?!?!?   

Can we imagine what would be said if Bernie Sanders or and especially if Donald Trump were under federal criminal investigation, and became the nominee?  I don't think any TV channel or newspaper would be as cool about that as they are now with  Hillary Clinton!

I've got to take my hat off to the US electorate for its capacity to surprise the world.

 

Such are the incoherences, inconsistencies, and contradictions in this late, high stage of capitalism in the USA, that voters made this election one of the most interesting things in politics in recent history.    Thanks, USA!  Without irony, this is very exciting.

(And it makes Lenin ever more relevant, incidentally, especially his 1917 essay Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism.  This book makes him seem like a time traveller. Like Dr Who. Some ppl believe in palm reading, in clairvoyants, etc, and reading this book one either draws the conclusion Lenin was a prophet / psychic, or one decides, instead, that there is method in this capitalistic madness; it's not random, 'crazy', or unpredictable.)

If I were Bernie Sanders, now would be the time I'd say 'Fuck off' to Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party and the Establishment, and I'd go over to Trump and say "Do you really want to do something exceptional? Do you want to Make Politics Matter Again? Let's work together now."  

Political Shock & Awe.  

Show everyone what Hillary Clinton represents, and since Barrack Obama has backed her, shame on him, he represents the sHame thing she does now.

The stranglehold internationalized finance has on the economy, on countries, on sovereignty, on peoples' aspirations.

At the very least, if  I were Sanders, I'd remind ppl, over and over again, of Hillary Clinton's personal involvement in the overthrow of at least one democratically and legitimately elected gov't in the Americas, in 2010--- Honduras.

Carnaval no Outono, Brazil's Fall

"O deputado Jair Bolsonaro extrapolou qualquer limite. Ele deu parabéns a Eduardo Cunha, disse que seus adversários perderam em 1964 e, por fim, elogiou os militares do golpe e dedicou o voto ao coronel “Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, o terror de Dilma”.

Dilma foi colocada no pau de arara, apanhou de palmatória, levou choques e socos que causaram problemas graves na sua arcada dentária. Aos 22 anos.

Ela militava no setor estudantil do Comando de Libertação Nacional (Colina), que mais tarde se fundiria com a Vanguarda Popular Revolucionária (VPR), dando origem à VAR-Palmares. 

Essas sessões de torturas foram realizadas no Destacamento de Operações de Informações - Centro de Operações de Defesa Interna (DOI-CODI) de São Paulo, e também em uma prisão da cidade de Juiz de Fora, em Minas Gerais.

Ustra foi responsável pela morte de pelo menos 50 pessoas nos porões do DOI-CODI no período em que chefiou a instituição. Ele também chefiava o DOI-CODI quando a presidente Dilma foi presa e torturada.

Muitos brasileiros lutaram contra a ditadura e deram sua vida pela democracia ainda jovem que temos hoje. Se hoje podemos discutir e questionar um governo do qual divergimos, também devemos isso a pessoas que enfrentaram a ditadura. Ver uma fala como esta ser aplaudida no plenário da Câmara em um processo de impeachment conduzido por corruptos é emblemático. Não dá pra ter dúvidas quanto ao risco que corremos hoje."

Luiza Erundina

19 de abril 2016

*****

Dilma Rousseff, no seu julgamento, 1970

 

"Representative Jair Bolsonaro went beyond what is acceptable. He congratulated Eduardo Cunha, said his adversaries lost in 1964 and, at the end, complimented the officers of the coup d'état and dedicated his vote to "Col. Carlos Alberto Brilhante Ustra, Dilma's terrorizer."*

Dilma was put on the 'pau de arara', beat up, shocked, and punched in the face which caused severe damage to her jaw. At 22 years of age.

She was an activist in the students' section of the National Liberation Commando (Colina), which later merged with the Popular Revolutionary Vanguard (VPR), which started VAR-Palmares (Palmares Armed Revolutionary Vanguard).

These torture sessions took place in the Detached Operations of Information - Center of Operations for Domestic Defense (DOI-CODI) of Sao Paulo, and also in a prison in the city of Juiz de Fora, in the State of Minas Gerais.

Ustra was responsible for the deaths of at least 50 people in the basements of the DOI-CODI in the period during which he was director of the institution. He also directed DOI-CODI when President Dilma Rousseff was arrested and tortured.

Many Brazilians fought against the dictatorship and gave their lives for the still young democracy we have today. If today we can discuss freely and challenge a government with which we disagree, we owe it also to the people who stood up against dictatorship. To hear a speech such as the one applauded in the National Congress during an impeachment process conducted by corrupted people is emblematic. There cannot be doubt about the risk we incur today."

Luiza Erundina

19 April 2016 

 

*****

 

Translation by: BelParis

 

*****

 

 

 

 

A date with the date

The Unknown Citizen

W. H. Auden, 1907 - 1973

(To JS/07 M 378
This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State)

He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a
   saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Instalment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content 
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace:  when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his
   generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their
   education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.

V 4...

4M4TEVR

Marvel vs DC

I will watch Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee with President Obama eventually.  

I dread it, I have to be in a v good cheerful and forgiving mood to see it and come to it with a more neutral disposition, somehow temporarily deactivating my prejudice about politicians making lobster salad of the office ppl gave them the legitimacy to occupy, especially if they're going to behave like they're celebrities instead of civil servants. 

Y'knowhat I expect at the moment when I think of it?  For Jerry to be too pally with Obama and for Obama to erroneously interpret that as a good thing. It's not a good thing.  A president is not supposed to be 'pals' with anyone in public.  But I realize this makes my butt look like an archeological finding.

And pluswhich that train has long sailed since President Obama in his 2nd mandate played friendly basketball with Batman and Spiderman -- or should I say Bruce Wayne and Peter Parker? -- in a fundraiser for the Democratic Party.  

It's better than taking money from corporations, but by comparison with how Bernie Sanders' campaign is being funded ? It's a joke -- or should I say Joker? --  since Sanders has so far collected more money from individual donors only, averaging $30 each (as of 23, 24 or 26, I can't quite remember which, December, 2015 according to MSNBBCNN), than Obama did in his last campaign, even accepting corporate 'packages' (previously known on 24 as bribes). 

There is one thing that still gives me reason to suspend judgment:  Obama is, after all, a professional politician, so even if Jerry Seinfeld behaves like they're formal equals, the truth is Obama will most likely be 411 steps ahead.   Not that I think Jerry would be out to 'catch' Obama in anything since it is an entertainment show.  

Yet this is precisely the problem.  The informal quality of such 'interviews' tends to give bad ideas to the less astute politician.  Relax?  And all Hell hits Pandora's fan mailbox. 

Be that as it may, sooner or later I'll bite the 30 pieces of SilverBulletSpoons I wasn't born with, slay this vampiric dragon hanging over all our mixed metaphoric heads once and for all time, and kiss this episode of CCgC & of historic shame on the cheek before the cock crows thrice.  

Then I'll sit down and write a truly bombastic paragraph about it.

Given the superhero smorgasbord above, it could reasonably start:

"Once upon a time, a Marvel comic walked into a White House and saw a professional DC comic..."