Category Archives: Uncategorized

Am I just being paranoid? I hope I am.

I honestly don’t know where all of this leads. I’m out of my depth here. Just consider that I am asking the below as QUESTIONS, and I am asking as a layperson where national security is concerned.  And I apologize in advance if I am being alarmist.  I have learned to expect the worst from Donald Trump.

1) If things escalate in Washington, D.C., is it possible that the president could order the military to fire on civilians? Is that the worst-case scenario here?

2) If there is a lasting military presence inside the United States under Trump’s control, does that have implications for election integrity? Could it conceivably mean he is better positioned to interfere with (or suspend) elections?

3) How worried should we be about the reports (and photos) of military units who claim to be with the Department of Justice when asked, but who wear no names or identifying insignia? What is going on with that?

I would love to hear people in the media reporting about this and seeking out informed opinions.

 

 

The Piker Press will publish three more of my poems.

I do realize that publication announcements are the last thing on anyone’s mind right now, given what is going on in our country.  (It is still our country, isn’t it?)

But I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Sand Pilarski over at The Piker Press for accepting three more of my poems.  The online magazine will publish “Bumblebee” on August 24, “prayer upon an empty hilltop” on September 14, and “Contagion Is a Despot Poet” on October 19.

Stay safe, my friends.

It is times like this when I like to remember one of my favorite quotes:

There are those who will say that the liberation of humanity, the freedom of man and mind, is nothing but a dream.

They are right. It is the American Dream.

— Archibald MacLeish

 

 

 

Cover to “Liberty Comics” #2, Tim Sale, 2008

Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.  Image Comics.

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The George Washington Masonic National Memorial — filtered.

This is the well known monument in Alexandria, Virginia — with a little photo editing.

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Cover to “Give Me Liberty” #1, Dave Gibbons, 1990

Dark Horse Comics.

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I still can’t ****ing believe it. 

I still can’t ****ing believe it.  I can’t believe the President of the United States had tear gas and rubber bullets fired at peaceful protesters last night so he could clear the way for a photo op.

This is junta bullshit.

Look at the footage.

Look at the cops beating people with batons so that this ****head could stand in front of a church with a Bible over his head.

This is not America.

 

 

“Column of the Pharaoh Taharqa, with Temple Ruins at Karnac,” by Louis Haghe after David Roberts, 1849

Colored lithograph.

V0049339 Column of the pharaoh Taharqa, with temple ruins at Karnac,

“How Do I Love Thee? (Sonnet 43),” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for right.
I love thee purely, as they turn from praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints. I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life; and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

 

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Engraving by Thomas Oldham Barlow, 1880

Cover of Le Petit Journal, Oct 7, 1906

Depicting the Atlanta Race Riot of 1906.

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Quick tip.

If you want to see even 1 percent of what is happening in America’s cities right now, put aside Facebook and WordPress and get on Twitter.  There is an abundance of footage from cell phone cameras and from local news stations.

Even before the current national crisis, I consistently learned 100 times more from my Twitter feed than from other platforms.  (Of course it depends largely on who you “follow,” but still.)