You never know what we'll churn up in cleaning a stall
Bribery is corruption. And that’s what we have in big-money political donations. Yes, it’s for a campaign. But it’s no “donation.” They’ll want their money back, in spades. From the public purse.
At least Donald Trump is admitting as much. As for the others? Follow the money, if you can.
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Where does genius find safe haven?
How does it fly across the centuries?
Where does a Laundromat fit in the action?
Who’s serving your coffee this morning?
You’re new in town, aren’t you?
Maybe welcome?
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How can we have political equality when one voice can pay to drown out all others? Or buy off all the candidates?
The flood of campaign spending from the super-rich has already corrupted our democracy. At what point does it destroy it?
Conservatives like to quote Lord Acton, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Now it’s time to look in the mirror.
Repeal Citizens United.
One way or other.
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Not just big government – big business, too.
And, for the record, the labor movement’s anything but big anymore.
So where’s the balance?
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When it comes to the cloud over Hillary Clinton’s emails, a natural question would ask, “What was she thinking?”
In light of serious Wikileaks involving other diplomatic matters, I wouldn’t be surprised if she feared the official site would be compromised, targeted, already hacked, or simply betrayed by a disgruntled employee. Confidentiality, like it or not, is part of international diplomatic maneuvering.
Hillary learned early that not even the White House was safe from intrusions by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, who somehow left notes on the guest room pillows.
You’re not paranoid if there’s a reasonable expectation of attack. Had somebody suggested to her to go another route? It could have been viewed as prudent, perhaps.
Just a hunch. We’ll see.
As I said at the time …
I’m a sucker for writing that stays close to the grain of everyday experience. The charge often leveled against such transparency or luminosity accuses such work of being “superficial” or even “banal.” (Recently, I saw a blast of “shallow” fired at one poet, and I’m still angry – maybe I just don’t have a lot of patience anymore with work that baffles me more than it informs or moves emotionally or spiritually. After more than a quarter-century of returning repeatedly to his pieces, I’m still amazed at their depth and continuing revelations.)
You also seem quite aware of what I call the “motor oil” dimension, something I think is required in the sustained voice of any current, authentic American artist: an ability to acknowledge the oil stains and discarded cans in the American landscape – urban or rural. It comes up as cigarette butts, the Port-o-John, the neighborhood Arby’s, or the sounds you detail. Makes the beauty of the turtles all the more authentic. (By the way, what is the sound of a turtle’s voice?)
Turtles – like serpents – go into realms humans cannot. Must be part of their mythological empowerment.
Hmm, thinking of Snyder again, how his Riprap & Cold Mountain Poems came from summer employment, as a forest fire lookout atop icy Sourdough Mountain, while yours was more Siddhartha-like along a muddy river. Also, of the gentle humor I’ve admired so much in Brautigan’s work, also present here.
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For my own resulting poems, click here.
When it comes to Bernie Sanders’ chances in a national election, much discussion seems to revolve around his self-proclaimed “socialist” identity. The critics say it would repulse most voters in the heartland – and that’s why he wouldn’t get far on the road to the White House.
While he wouldn’t be the coalition builder Hillary Clinton embodies, I’m not so sure Bernie’s really a socialist. But as I look at his positions, the label I see is “hippie.” Or as I’ve been arguing, hippies came – and still come – in all varieties, few of them fitting the mass-media stereotypes. Bernie could have been living down the dorm hall from me, or even in the rundown apartments we rented.
Early in the race, his rallies did look like hippie reunion time. All we needed was the right band to dance to. And now? It’s a youth movement, ripe for the Revolution of Peace & Love.
At least our alternative isn’t another Hubert Humphrey, rest his soul. No, I suspect Hillary was also a hippie – one of the intense ones of the activist sort.
And both with something resembling a social conscience.
Trying to define exactly where Donald J. Trump stands politically brings up a reminder of his hand in the casino business. The roulette wheel goes round and round before eventually landing somewhere.
Maybe somebody wins, but a lot more lose.
And the house always profits.
No wonder I’m getting dizzy!
Just what’s his game, anyway?
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents.”
Maj. Gen. Smedley Darlington Butler, USMC
— from War Is a Racket
Donald Trump seems to believe he deserves the White House just because he was born here. Meaning, well, somewhere in the upper crust.
That’s not how it works.
Just ask anyone who’s had to work his or her way up through a company, rather than be born to its owners.
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But what about Jeb Bush? Strange you should ask.
Jnana's Red Barn 