Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Poem*


Them Russians have made this a very difficult
Christmas for Americans because Putin is evil!

Them Russians have pilfered our clothes and
made us run naked into the abyss of our dreams.

Them Russians have put our heads on a block
and brought a bloody blade down upon our necks.

Them Russians have taken our  humor to Mars
and made it a plaything for Putin's henchmen.

Them Russians have stolen our freedoms and
traded them to Raul Castro for a barrel of rum.

Them Russians made us despise democracy
and cringe every time we hear Hillary cackle.

Them Russians abused the good name of Fyodor
and gave us thousands of inferior novelists.

Them Russians have greased us with Slavic
idioms when all we ever knew was Noam Chomsky.

Them Russians have seized our souls and placed
them in an unbearable coldwater flat in Omaha.

Them Russians have forced us into the fields
to harvest the crops amid our New Gilded Age.

Them Russians have destroyed our democracy and
given us dear illusions we hold like rare gourds.

Them Russians are armed to the teeth and
threatening our innocence amid the "war on terror."

Them Russians have created the wealth gap
in America and caused our hunger in St. Louis.

Them Russians have created our American anger
and the racism storming through U.S. cop shops.

Them Russians are giving our Democrats and
plutocrats a vodka headache and thirty lashes.

Them Russians have little in common with you
while you are under the spell of CNN and FOX.

Them Russians have designed a colonial U.S.
that gifted us an enormous opioid dependency.

Them Russians want to take our healthcare and
give it to the profiteers lurking in Topeka.

Them Russians want to steal American babies
and send them to work camps in Siberia.

Them Russians have turned our Christmas
into a disaster and abysmal holiday in Utah.

Them Russians have destroyed our ability to
think for ourselves and now we're all Russians!

Them Russians have surrounded the Statue of
Liberty and mocked our corrupt institutions.

Them Russians have infiltrated our CIA and FBI
and made love with our lists of poor dissidents.

Them Russians have taken over our media and
embarrassed the animals in the Bronx Zoo.

Them Russians have done it again and
tricked us and turned Santa Claus against us.

Them Russians are the same mean old Russians
who plotted against our Christmas in 1962 Idaho.

Them Russians are so dangerous that we need
more bombs to scare them away and save Christmas!

Them Russians O them Russians who want to ruin
our Christmas O them Russians are everywhere!


*With apologies to A. Ginsberg


TS

The Crying Game

The woman is so goddamned delusional she needs to be hospitalized and put on reality-based drugs to help her come to her senses.

I had people call me sexist and a misogynist simply because I didn't support her.  I am neither, but I can tell you that the level of political discourse throughout 2016 was at its lowest ebb in my lifetime.

What an insufferable and miserable human being she has become, and her supporters are in lockstep.

I'm really, really happy she's not our president.  She offered absolutely nothing in her campaign and wonders why she lost?

Sanders and the Russians did it!  Well, inept people do often blame everyone but themselves.  Her enablers are as deplorable as Trump's, albeit more arrogant, self-serving, privileged and entitled.

Trump is awful obviously, but much of the population has a better understanding now of what has been happening since Reagan, who was senile when he took office, fucked America over.

A pol like Clinton wouldn't have changed anything for the better--that's the unacceptable reality. This country needs to change, and both political parties are unwilling to address our problems. They would rather gloss them over with the fantasies--in variant and sick lies--that Clinton and Trump both want you to believe.

Ever heard of a two-headed coin?  Every time you call tails, you'll lose.


TS

Them Bad Russians

Any new left party needs to abandon the fraudulent tactics of so-called “identity politics,” in which a basically pro-corporate Democratic Party has sought to appease and cajole support for its corporatist candidates and agenda by catering to individual issues of various groups leaning its way by default. Instead, the really big issues need to be tackled head on: expanding Social Security, making Medicare universal for everyone of all ages, restoring genuine progressive taxation on the wealthy, ending foreign wars, closing overseas bases and slashing the military, obeying international law (including treaties with sovereign Native American nations), making public college free to all, nationalizing support for primary and secondary education so that all communities have well-funded, quality public schools, declaring a national mobilization to quickly end reliance upon fossil fuels to combat climate change, and creating jobs for everyone through a massive public spending program on job training and infrastructure repair and modernization.--DL

Yes, sir.  That is the ticket, and nothing else will do.

This is very good as well.


TS

Yep

Exaggerating the degree of fascism serves no useful purpose. But the portents are nonetheless real, nowhere better seen than in cutting beneath the surface of the final presidential debate. The absence of policy-discussion itself mocks professions of political-ideological differentiation between the major parties. There really is very little, a consensus on the militarism-advanced capitalism nexus which by itself prevents alternative courses of action leading to other than cosmetic variants of what I am terming centrist fascism, a lockstep of ideology, structure, and political culture concentrating power of elite groups which themselves are unified in thought on what might be called full spectrum dominance, whether we speak of foreign economic policy, the environment, or other areas defining modern times.--NP

The good professor says so.

Fortunately, the World Series starts tonight so that we might find an escape route for the short-term, mere days before the election.

Speaking of--watch the show of inevitable militarism, patriotic fervor, and asinity that comes with baseball.

Will the first 100 Days come replete with a nuclear exchange with Russia?  Them bad Russians...

Bonus coverage:  Talking points.


TS

from Harlot of the Tub

Act 2
Scene 7:
Time: the present

Uriah's funeral procession comprised of soldiers and bureaucrats. Bathsheba in false mourning, veiled in black. Full military honors, flag draped casket. Joab in full-dress uniform, medals shining, comforting the widow. David and Amnon, heads bowed, walk slowly behind the casket. The procession stops in front of a dais and microphone. Joab steps forward, clears his throat to speak:

Joab: Ladies and gentlemen, friends, associates, fellow warriors, Bathsheba--we are gathered here today to pay our final respect to a brave man who gave his life for his country. A man whose love of these United States was an inspiration to all who had the pleasure to live and work beside him. I have known soldiers--it is my business to know them--and I can state unequivocally that no finer soldier than was Captain Uriah exists in the United States' military, nor has ever existed.

(Joab clears his throat, drinks water, wipes his brow with a handkerchief)

As we prepare to lay Uriah in his final resting place here in Washington, I ask only that you contemplate for a time this dutiful man's record. It speaks volumes.

(a projection screen unrolls above the dais; a series of grainy 1970s sports highlights play as Joab continues)

Third in his class at West Point. First at Annapolis and second at the Air Force Academy. Football star who rushed for 300 yards in one game for Army, averaged 25 points per game and 15 rebounds for Navy. Impressive numbers for a sophomore, but they pale in comparison to is junior season, when he rushed for 400 yards in one game for Navy and averaged 30 points and 20 rebounds a game for Army.

(the mourners are impressed; a murmur filters through the crowd)

At the Air Force Academy he was the coxswain of the NCAA champion rowing crew, winner of the prestigious science gold medal, and a rhetorician of the highest caliber.

(nodding and enthused recognition in the crowed; slight applause)

A Navy pilot, he distinguished himself at three consecutive Tail Hook Conventions by refusing to participate in any overtly sexist scandals, such as the running of the gauntlet or drunken displays of sexuality. A virtuous man, he refused to drink alone or have what is commonly referred to as a dark day.

(another smattering of applause)

He wore a beatific smile at all times and rubbed the heads of street waifs around the globe. He gave generously of his time to the FBI and CIA.

(louder applause)

He recorded seven kills in Panama while inflicting minimal collateral damage upon our great friends the Panamanians. He recorded three kills in Grenada and too many to count in Desert Storm. He fought along side the rebels in Afghanistan and, later, advised the Russians. Later still, he fought along side the Afghanistan Army and cut off the head of the Taliban. He was a friend of Osama bin Laden before he was the enemy of Barack Obama! History bears witness!

(uproarious applause)

A friend of the stars, he turned down the leads in the Hollywood version of "A Broadway Life," and the Broadway version of "A Life in Hollywood." Why? To concentrate on his divinity studies at the New York Theological Conservatory. I laud this man, you are correct, and never was a man more deserving...

(pause as Joab is breaking down; hushed silence)

I ask you to bear with me. I loved this man. As I dry these tears I remember Uriah's quick wit, his engaging intelligence, his love of family, his gentleness...

(Bathsheba pretends to faint, falling back into the arms of David and Amnon; they help her sit down in a chair, kneeling beside her. The crowd mutters concern)

Offered a job playing trombone in NBC's house band, he refused, saying he hadn't time. He was, after all, the director of the All Navy Big Band.

(crowd refocuses on Joab and applauds)

The word my friends, warriors, Bathsheba--is loyalty. Uriah breathed it as others breathe air. It filled his lungs and permeated his soul. L-o-y-a-l-t-y, ladies and gentlemen! You know how to spell it. I can only pray you know what it means...

(As Joab is winding down, spelling loyalty, Absalom and his entourage of whores join the crowd of mourners; the mourners are aghast and shout expletives at them. Absalom raises a bottle of whiskey over the whores' heads and pours as the women drink as much as they can. He drinks himself and waits for the crowd to quiet down. He finally speaks to Joab.

Absalom: What a show this is! What great theater! General, you are a star!

(the mourners boo Absalom, who seizes the microphone)

General, all of you--you bray like a-s-s-e-s!



TS