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Monthly Archives: October 2024

6 jan 2021/a mob surges toward the Capitol building/where vote certifications are being kept

the mob was urged to “fight like hell”/but the  phrase “peaceably and patriotically” was also in there

violence ensues

the man who urged watches/he does not interfere/though he knows full well/that all he has to do/is get in front of a microphone and say

“Hey, stop with the violence already. What part of ‘peaceably and patriotically’ didn’t you understand?”

no, he continues to watch. continues/to watch./he gets word/that some are chanting HANG MIKE PENCE!/not much later he texts a message.

the message is not “Knock it off, you guys! You are not being peaceable!”/no, the message boils down to “Shame on Mike Pence for not doing right by me!”

and much later he delivers a message via microphone./ part of the message is “Go home.” part is “We love you.”

the concept of “the elephant in the room”/is insufficient for the events/of 6 jan 2021.

many more than one elephant is required.

“Luck is hot and people funny.
Everybody’s fond of money.
Lost a chance and sell your mother.
Win the pot and buy another.
Other people fall and crash:
You could win the pot of cash!”

Cordwainer Smith (Norstrilia)

Candidates are on the Net/With fancy cardboard signs/Help us win! Our goal’s not met!/Please be our Valentines!

I have given till it hurts!/It’s not enough, they say./Sell your houses! Live in yurts!/THEY win, you’ll REALLY pay!

Save the puppies! Save your souls!/Help Joe get his new kidney!/Help Steffy’s face be free of moles?/Fate dealt her trash cards, didn’ he?

I am broke. Fudge it! Alas!/Jumpstart may deliver/Needed funds to save my ass,/I, the Compulsive Giver.

***

Afterword: The asks for money for this and that has grown to epic, epidemic proportions on the Internet. And if you give, you poor sap, they have evidence that you are a soft touch, and they ask you for more and more.

My poor Uncle Jim died near-broke in 1993. On the side of his bed he didn’t sleep on there were huge stacks of correspondence with charitable organizations, some legit, some predatory. My advice to generous souls: Make a budget for charitable contributions AND KEEP IT. (PS: I try, but I can’t, but not by much.)

hair and sky and pearl and cat/eminence and feltoid hat/underwear and spiffy suit/praise the lord and pass the loot

fabrics that have needed bleaching/consciousness that suffers leaching/in a world that’s splashed with hues/colorless relief can’t lose

now cars are also tvs also backseat drivers and scolds also spacecraft with a mission control

and that’s just some of the good news

most of them start with a push of the button and a foot on the brake and some of them even have self-folding side mirrors like the shields of the batmobile

some of them do without the internal combustion engine which is inherently inefficient and evil, instead generating horsepower far more silently and correct with an electric motor

carworld is no longer in need of paper maps

there are cupholders and no windwings

but i still prefer to walk