;)
Monday
May152023
May 16, 2023
Evening Update:
The New York Times liveblogged developments in the debt-ceiling standoff: "President Biden and congressional leaders in both parties emerged from a White House meeting on Tuesday offering glimmers of hope about eventually reaching a deal to raise the nation's borrowing limit, even as they conceded they were still far from averting a default that could come as soon as June 1. After an hourlong Oval Office meeting, Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters that he could see a deal reached by the weekend, but he said negotiations about spending cuts remained far apart. The administration said Mr. Biden would cut short his seven-day foreign trip that begins Wednesday, skipping visits to Papua New Guinea and Australia to be on hand for talks."
Marie: Earlier today, I linked a Guardian story about a lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani that included this allegation: "The lawsuit also included an allegation that Giuliani asked [the complainant Noelle] Dunphy 'if she knew anyone in need of a pardon' because 'he was selling pardons for $2m, which he and President Trump would split'. The complaint added that he told Dunphy she could refer people seeking pardons to him as long as she avoided 'the normal channels' of going through the office of the pardon attorney, a role within the Department of Justice, which could be subject to public disclosure." In her first segment, Nicole Wallace of MSNBC ran a segment on the suit. NYT reporter Michael Schmidt reminded us that a story he & Ken Vogel in January 2021, reported a story that had, well, surprisingly similar content:
"A onetime top adviser to the Trump campaign was paid $50,000 to help seek a pardon for John Kiriakou, a former C.I.A. officer convicted of illegally disclosing classified information, and agreed to a $50,000 bonus if the president granted it, according to a copy of an agreement. And Mr. Kiriakou was separately told that Mr. Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani could help him secure a pardon for $2 million. Mr. Kiriakou rejected the offer, but an associate, fearing that Mr. Giuliani was illegally selling pardons, alerted the F.B.I. Mr. Giuliani challenged this characterization.... Mr. Kiriakou said he also broached his quest for a pardon during a meeting last year with Mr. Giuliani and his associates on another subject at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, which involved substantial alcohol. When Mr. Giuliani went to the bathroom at one point, one of his confidants turned to Mr. Kiriakou and suggested Mr. Giuliani could help. But 'it's going to cost $2 million -- he's going to want two million bucks,' Mr. Kiriakou recalled the associate saying." ~~~
~~~ I guess we know now why, as he was being ushered out the White House door, Trump pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D), who went to jail for attempted to sell the U.S. Senate seat Barack Obama vacated in 2021 just before he became president.
Sad News from the Gossip Pages. Jesse Paul & Nancy Lofholm of the Colorado Sun: "U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert has filed for divorce from her husband, Jayson, the Garfield County Republican announced Tuesday. The couple has been married for roughly two decades.
~~~~~~~~~~
Adam Cancryn, et al., of Politico: "The emerging outline of a debt limit deal between [President] Biden and House Republicans has fed growing dismay among progressive Democrats over the White House's negotiating strategy -- and raised fears that a president who once dared Republicans to test his resolve is preparing to give on a host of GOP demands to make the issue go away. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) described herself as 'very concerned' about the direction of the talks, including mentions of a long-term cap on spending and additional work requirements. The unease by progressives about both, she said, has been conveyed to the White House.... The rising discontent on the left complicates an extremely delicate negotiating period for Biden, who is slated to meet Tuesday with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and other congressional leaders before leaving for a weeklong international trip to Japan and Australia.... The White House argues it is not actually negotiating over the debt ceiling, but merely having budget negotiations with a debt ceiling component attached."
Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "As [President] Biden campaigns for re-election, he is trying to bridge an educational divide that is reshaping the American political landscape.... College-educated voters are now more likely to identify as Democrats, while those without college degrees are more likely to support Republicans.... Mr. Biden rarely speaks about his signature piece of legislation, a $1 trillion infrastructure bill, without also emphasizing that it will lead to trade apprenticeships and, ultimately, union jobs. 'Let's offer every American a path to a good career whether they go to college or not, like the path you started here,' Mr. Biden said at [a] trades institute.... The White House says apprenticeship programs, which typically combine some classroom learning with paid on-the-job experience, are crucial to overcoming a tight labor market and ensuring that there is a sufficient work force to turn the president's sprawling spending plan into roads, bridges and electric vehicle chargers. Mr. Biden has offered incentives for creating apprenticeships, with hundreds of millions of dollars in federal grants for states that expand such programs." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is a reason why it's good to have an older president, one with an institutional memory. When I went to college in 1962, unions were strong, and a line worker at say, the Ford Motor Company, made more money than I ever hoped to make, even as I embarked upon the journey to earn a college degree. A great appeal then to obtaining a college degree, or at least get through a few years of college, was not to get rich but to be able to carve out a career in some kind of "office job." Working as a teacher or other civil servant, as an accountant or an office manager was not considered to be better paying, but it was both more prestigious, far less physically taxing and often less dangerous.
Your Tax Dollars Going Down Rabbit Holes. Charlie Savage, et al., of the New York Times: "John Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who for four years has pursued a politically fraught investigation into the Russia inquiry, accused the F.B.I. of a 'lack of analytical rigor' in a final report made public on Monday that examined the bureau's investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign was conspiring with Moscow. Mr. Durham's 306-page report appeared to show little substantial new information about the F.B.I.'s handling of the Russia investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, and it failed to produce the kinds of blockbuster revelations impugning the bureau that ... Donald J. Trump and his allies had once suggested that Mr. Durham would find. Instead, the report -- released without substantive comment or redactions by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland -- repeated previously exposed flaws in the inquiry, including from a 2019 inspector general report, while concluding that the F.B.I. suffered from a confirmation bias as it pursued leads about Mr. Trump's ties to Russia." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Read on. The Durham "report" sounds less like a report than a documented conspiracy theory that -- after four years of "investigating" -- couldn't find any facts to support it. David Corn of Mother Jones, appearing on MSNBC, called the report a "seven-million-dollar opinion column." Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC went full deconstructionist Seinfeld & called it "a report about nothing." ~~~
~~~ Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "The report, coming almost four years to the day since [John] Durham's assignment began, will probably be derided by Democrats as the end of a partisan boondoggle. Republicans will have to wrestle with a much-touted investigation that has cost taxpayers more than $6.5 million and didn't send a single person to jail, even though [Donald] Trump once predicted that Durham would uncover the 'crime of the century.'... Much of the FBI conduct described by the Durham report was previously known and had been denounced in a 2019 report by the Justice Department's inspector general, which did not find 'documentary or testimonial evidence of intentional misconduct.'"
~~~ Politico's report is here. The so-called Durham report, via the DOJ, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The AP report, by Eric Tucker, is fairly comprehensive.
Courtney Kube & Carol Lee of NBC News: "Some defense and congressional officials believe the White House is laying the groundwork to halt plans to move U.S. Space Command's headquarters to Alabama in part because of concerns about the state's restrictive abortion law, according to two U.S. officials and one U.S. defense official familiar with the discussions.... The White House directed the Air Force last December to conduct a review of the process that led to the Trump administration's decision to move Space Command's headquarters from Colorado to Huntsville, Alabama. The review was ordered up in the months after Alabama's law banning nearly all abortions, including in cases of rape and incest, went into effect last summer. The law is considered among the most restrictive in the U.S.... The White House said Alabama's abortion ban was not a factor in its ongoing review of the decision to build Spacecom's permanent headquarters there."
Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The Internal Revenue Service audits Black taxpayers at significantly higher rates than other Americans, Commissioner Daniel Werfel told lawmakers Monday, confirming earlier findings by researchers at leading universities and the Treasury Department. In a letter to the Senate Finance Committee, Werfel said the agency would review audit algorithms for certain anti-poverty tax credits to search for systemic racial bias. Tax examiners do not know the race of the people they are auditing, but the algorithms the IRS uses to monitor fraud around the earned income tax credit -- one of the U.S.'s largest social safety net programs -- target filers that make errors on their returns and do not report business income. The result, the researchers found, is that the algorithms are more likely to identify Black taxpayers for audits." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Here's why you want a Democratic appointee to be running an institution with the power to be extremely abusive. Werfel says he'll try to fix the discriminatory algorithms, and that's believable. A GOP appointee would most likely shrug off the criticism as impossible to adjust.
Luke Broadwater & Remy Tumin of the New York Times: "A man armed with a baseball bat and demanding to see Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia, attacked and injured two staff aides ... with what appeared to be a metal baseball bat ... in a destructive rampage inside the congressman's Fairfax, Va., office, the latest episode in a surge of political violence across the country. Xuan Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax, was facing charges for one count of felony aggravated malicious wounding and one count of malicious wounding, according to the Fairfax City Police Department. He was being held without bond. Police said they had not yet identified a motive, and Capitol Police said in a statement that the suspect was not known to them.... The two aides [were] taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update: "Speaking later to reporters on Capitol Hill, Mr. Connolly said the attacker struck one of his senior aides in the head with the metal bat, and hit an intern in the side -- on her first day on the job. 'Imagine your first day in the office,' a man 'comes in with a baseball bat and beats you,' Mr. Connolly said.... 'This is a gentleman with a long history of mental illness,' Mr. Connolly said. 'He's been engaged in bizarre and untoward behavior in the past, including violent behavior. And he decided today, for whatever reason, to descend upon us and inflict more of the same. He needs intense treatment, I think.'" The AP's report is here.
Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., asked a judge to dismiss ... Donald J. Trump's efforts to have her disqualified from leading an investigation into whether he and his allies interfered in the 2020 election in the state. She also asked the judge, in a 24-page court document filed on Monday, to reject a request from Mr. Trump to suppress the final report of a special grand jury that weighed evidence last year in the election meddling case. Ms. Willis was responding to an earlier motion filed by Mr. Trump's lawyers that accused her of making biased statements over the course of her investigation."
Amy Wang & Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Newly obtained emails indicate that several individual donors were willing to fund the official portraits of [Donald] Trump and former first lady Melania Trump for the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, but that the Smithsonian ultimately agreed to instead accept a $650,000 contribution from Trump's Save America PAC. The donation marked the first time in recent memory that a political organization has financed a former president's portrait for the museum, as they are typically paid for by individual donors solicited by the Smithsonian.... Museum rules dictate that portraits of a former president cannot be unveiled if that person runs for office again. Therefore, [Smithsonian spokesperson Linda] St. Thomas told The Post that the museum probably would not release the names of the two artists commissioned until after the 2024 presidential election. If Trump wins that election, the portraits would not be displayed until after his second term, per museum rules.... Though unusual, the donation is legal because Save America is a leadership PAC with few restrictions on the use of its money.... Most of the money in Trump's PAC comes from small-dollar donors responding to emails and other solicitations."
** Criminal AND Raunchy (Allegedly!). Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "A former associate of Rudy Giuliani sued the former New York mayor, presidential candidate and attorney to Donald Trump for $10m on Monday, alleging 'abuses of power, wide-ranging sexual assault and harassment, wage theft and other misconduct' including 'alcohol-drenched rants that included sexist, racist and antisemitic remarks'. Filed in New York state, Noelle Dunphy's suit includes the allegation that Giuliani 'often demanded oral sex while he took phone calls on speaker phone from high-profile friends and clients, including then-President Trump'. Giuliani is alleged to have told Dunphy 'he enjoyed engaging in this conduct while on the telephone because it made him "feel like Bill Clinton"'.... The lawsuit also included an allegation that Giuliani asked Dunphy 'if she knew anyone in need of a pardon' because 'he was selling pardons for $2m, which he and President Trump would split'. The complaint added that he told Dunphy she could refer people seeking pardons to him as long as she avoided 'the normal channels' of going through the office of the pardon attorney, a role within the Department of Justice, which could be subject to public disclosure.... The suit contains remarks it says were recorded." Read on. "Borat" has a part in this lawsuit. The AP's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Jacob Kornbluh of the Forward: "Dunphy claimed Giuliani made comments about "'freakin Arabs' and Jews,' and that in one instance, talking about Jewish men, 'implied that their penises were inferior due to "natural selection."' She also alleged that Giuliani, who served as an attorney for former President Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial and after the 2020 presidential election, mocked Jewish people for observing the holiday of Passover, which marks the exodus from Egypt. 'Jews want to go through their freaking Passover all the time, man oh man,' Giuliani is quoted as saying in one of the recordings mentioned in the lawsuit. 'Get over the Passover. It was like 3,000 years ago. The Red Sea parted, big deal. It's not the first time that happened.'" MB: Does Giuliani think Christians should "get over" the crucifiction, which was supposed to have happened 2,000 years ago? What exactly is the sell-by date for religious myths?
~~~ Marie: This woman may be a complete loon who is making up stuff. On the other hand, if she has recordings that incriminate Giuliani and/or others, the woman's mental stability probably won't matter much to prosecutors.
Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams: "On the heels of similar decisions last month, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday delivered 'another win for climate accountability,' rejecting fossil fuel corporations' attempt to quash lawsuits filed by the city of Hoboken, New Jersey, and the state of Delaware.... The Supreme Court's decision means that both of these cases will now move forward in state court.... There were no noted dissensions on Monday. However, like last month, Justice Samuel Alito, who owns stock in some fossil fuel companies, did not participate in the decision about these two cases -- but Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whose father spent nearly three decades as an attorney for Shell, did."
Health Services Spared, For Now. Emily Baumgaertner of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court on Monday temporarily blocked a lower court decision that overturned the Affordable Care Act's requirement that all health plans fully cover certain preventive health services. The move by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans will put on hold a decision from March that had threatened insurance coverage for recommended services like depression screenings for teenagers and drugs that prevent transmission of H.I.V. The Justice Department had appealed the decision, and the appeals court's stay will stand while the appeals process plays out."
Presidential Race 2024.
Whoopty-Doo. Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: "Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to soon declare a long-shot campaign for the White House against the president under whom he served, pitching himself as a 'classical conservative' who would return the Republican Party to its pre-Trump roots, according to people close to Mr. Pence. Mr. Pence is working to carve out space in the Republican primary field by appealing to evangelicals, adopting a hard-line position in support of a federal abortion ban, promoting free trade and pushing back against Republican efforts to police big business on ideological grounds. He faces significant challenges, trails far behind in the polls and has made no effort to channel the populist energies overtaking the Republican Party."
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "ReAwaken America's association with anti-Semites did not stop Donald Trump from calling into the [group's] rally [at the Trump Doral Saturday] to offer his support. 'It's a wonderful hotel, but you're there for an even more important purpose,' he told a shrieking crowd, before promising to bring [ReAwaken's co-founder Michael] Flynn back in for a second Trump term.... Flynn has long been a paranoid Islamophobe, and toward the end of Trump's presidency, he emerged as a full-fledged authoritarian, calling on Trump to invoke martial law after the 2020 election. Now he's become, in addition to an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist and QAnon adherent, one of the country's most prominent Christian nationalists.... The issue isn't whether the next Republican presidential candidate is going to be a Christian nationalist..., [but] what sort of Christian nationalism will prevail.... Trump ran afoul of some more traditional evangelical leaders ... [when on Monday] he criticized the six-week abortion ban [Florida Goobernor Ron] DeSantis signed in Florida.... [But f]or the religious following that Trump has nurtured, he's less a person who will put in place a specific Christian nationalist agenda than he is the incarnation of that agenda.... If a Republican wins in 2024, the victor will preside over a Christian nationalist administration. The question is whether that person will champion an orthodoxy or a cult."
Beyond the Beltway
California. Les Miserables, American-Style. Sam Levin of the Guardian: "Surveillance footage from a Walgreens in San Francisco shows the moment a private security guard killed a young transgender man accused of shoplifting. The footage captures the guard tackling and punching Banko Brown, 24, on 27 April before fatally shooting him as he exited the store. The video, as well as the announcement by the San Francisco district attorney's office it will not seek charges against the guard, is likely to reignite protests, which have popped up in San Francisco and spread through California since the killing, with activists demanding criminal prosecution and calling for increased investments in Black trans youth. Brown was a budding community organizer known for helping Black transgender youth and had been struggling with homelessness in the weeks before his death.... San Francisco police initially arrested [guard Michael] Anthony.... But the district attorney [Brooke Jenkins] released him days later, saying in a statement that security video 'clearly' showed the guard had acted 'in self-defense'.... The guard told investigators Brown had taken 'some beverages and a few snacks'." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Shoplifting food is a petty crime that usually doesn't even garner jail time. It is not a capital offense. Assuming Levin's report is correct, Brown was fleeing at the time Anthony shot him dead; therefore, he did not pose an immediate threat to Anthony or store patrons & personnel. This is Jean Valjean all over again, but American style, where instead of getting a five-year prison sentence for stealing a loaf of bread, you get death. Yes, Americans are worse off than les miserables.
Florida. Still Longin' for de Old Plantation. Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis signed legislation on Monday that largely banned Florida's public universities and colleges from spending money on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and imposed other measures that could reshape higher education at state schools. The legislation also restricts how educators can discuss discrimination in required, lower-level courses -- by forbidding the teaching of 'identity politics,' for example -- and weakens tenure protections. Mr. DeSantis signed it at New College of Florida, a public liberal arts institution that the governor has aggressively sought to transform, replacing trustees with conservative allies and engineering the appointment of a new president. The governor ... was met with loud protests on Monday.... The law has outraged faculty, free speech groups and students, particularly people of color and gay and transgender youth, who see it as a political assault on academic independence and anti-bias efforts. But Democrats could organize little opposition in Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature. 'If you want to do things like gender ideology, go to Berkeley,' Mr. DeSantis said at the bill-signing ceremony." Politico's report is here.
Missouri. Punish the Messenger. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: "Mary Walton thought her teacher repeatedly saying a racist slur in class last week was wrong, so the 15-year-old sophomore at Glendale High School in Springfield, Mo., pulled out her phone and started filming, the student's lawyer said. She recorded him saying the n-word twice before he appeared to notice what she was doing.... [The teacher caught her.] Days later, she was suspended for making the 55-second video, according to her lawyer. Mary and her mother, Kate Welborn, 44, are challenging the punishment and demanding the district apologize.... Officials maintain that, although the teacher's actions were inexcusable, students are prohibited from recording in class without prior approval.... On Monday, Principal Josh Groves announced that the teacher, who was initially placed on administrative leave, is no longer employed by the district." ~~~
Mary was exercising her First Amendment right when she started recording -- to hold a public official in a position of power to account, no less, according to Shelley.... She -- knowingly or unknowingly -- became a journalist by chronicling an important event. -- Dan Shelley, president and CEO of the Radio Television Digital News Association, who attended Springfield public schools, in a letter to the school superintendent (partial paraphrase) ~~~
~~~ Marie: If they still allow subversive books like dictionaries in the district, school officials should look up w-h-i-s-t-l-e-b-l-o-w-e-r.
Way Beyond
Farnaz Fassihi & Hiba Yazbek of the New York Times: "The United Nations for the first time on Monday officially commemorated the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the war surrounding the creation of Israel 75 years ago, drawing a sharp response from the Israeli ambassador to the world body. The event -- marking the Nakba, or 'catastrophe,' by Palestinians -- was attended by the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas; many member states from Asia, Africa, Central and South America and the Middle East; and representatives of the African Union and the Arab League, who delivered speeches. The United States and Britain did not attend.... To Israelis, the creation of their state was a heroic moment for a long-persecuted people that deserves celebration. But to Palestinians, it was a moment of profound national trauma."
Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Early-morning strikes rocked Kyiv early Tuesday, with several missiles fired in a short period of time, the city military administration said on Telegram. The attack, which included drones, cruise missiles and potentially ballistic missiles, was 'exceptional' in its intensity, Ukrainian officials said. The strikes came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Britain, France, Germany and Italy as part of a whirlwind European tour, and secured more military aid for Ukraine from European allies.... Forty-six European leaders in the Council of Europe will meet in Iceland on Tuesday for a summit to show their support for Ukraine through 'concrete measures to help achieve justice for the victims of the Russian aggression,' the group's website says.... Russia has used more than 400 Iranian-supplied drones to attack infrastructure in Ukraine since August, and Moscow wants Tehran to supply more advanced models, U.S. National Security Council communications coordinator John Kirby said Monday, adding that more U.S. sanctions will come soon.... A Ukrainian oligarch was delivered a 'notice of suspicion' over allegations that he embezzled close to $500 million through a gas-purchasing plan. Dmytro Firtash lives in Vienna and is wanted for extradition by the United States in a bribery case." MB: Firtash was an associate of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's. ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here. The Guardian's daily summary report is here.
Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "Robert Shonov, identified as a former employee of the U.S. Embassy in Russia, was arrested in the Russian city of Vladivostok and charged with conspiracy, according to the Russian state news agency Tass. The report did not identify his nationality. Vedant Patel, a [U.S.] State Department spokesman, told reporters at a briefing on Monday that he had seen the report but that 'I don't have anything additional to offer at this time.'"
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Reader Comments (16)
On confirmation bias:
Though there is no absolute certainty in our random universe, I went to sleep last night fully expecting the sun would rise this morning.
For the life of me, I can't figure why those FBI investigators might have thought there was something going on between Russia and the Pretender's campaign.
BTW, the sun did rise....and confirmation of my bias didn't cost a penny.
I will be inconsolable and apoplectic if Biden caves to the demands of traitor terrorists. These fuckers allowed the Fat Fascist to add trillions to the national debt and never questioned him about it, but for Biden they’re holding him hostage even though they have no real plan except for their standard one word response to anything Democrats propose:
No.
What happened to that 14th Amendment idea?
Fuck’s sake. We lose again to these asshole traitor creeps??
Why did it take four years and millions of dollars for a Trump toady to deliver a report whose conclusion was set the day before he started? I guess he needed that little trip to Italy he took with (dis) Barr. Also, it paid him a nice salary for that whole time. The grift is strong with these liars.
@Ken Winkes: I've initiated an investigation of that sun rising hypothesis of yours. It should take me about four years, a couple of trips to European tourist spots and a 300-plus page report with charts and graphs and such of the earth's rotation and so forth. I'll bill you for somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.5 million. What with inflation and all, consider it a bargain. But you should start making installment payments now to cover my travel and staffing expenses and hardship bonus. (The hardship part is going to Italy with Bill Barr. Imagine if we have to ride coach!)
P.S. It is my current belief that Copernicus was a heretic perpetrating a massive coverup of the "real reason" the sun might have risen in accordance with your biased theory.
AK: Perhaps what we need are more red bicycles bearing hefty males giving those White Supremacists a "what for" and more teenage girls filming their teacher's racist comments along with masses of protesters on the streets every day of the week. I don't know what to do about Biden if he gives in to these loonies re: that old Fiscal Cliff that's hanging by a shoe string––and yes, what HAS happened to that 14th amendment idea–--Tribe was for it after he wasn't, so what's the story?
By the way: A few days ago you listed a few poems you said were heart stoppers.Yesterday I read once again a poem that haunts me and I never knew why––-but I think I now know. I'd like you to read it if you have the time and give me your feelings about it.
"One More New Botched Beginning" by Stephen Spender
Maybe I was altogether wrong. Per RC (the always right site) the sun didn't rise this AM. I note it's still May 15...
Marie is trying to tell us that the Sun doesn't revolve around Earth.
Part of my grade school education was in Texas, so I know the facts
because it was right there in black and white.
Also just checked to see if my passport is up to date in case I decide
to vacation in Puerto Rico, or Guam or New Orleans.
$650,000.00 for a portrait on Donald and Melonie? Orange paint
must have gone up in price. Will she be fully clothed in this one?
I'm sounding really sarcastic lately. Better get back to the garden.
PD,
I can’t seem to locate that Spender poem online. There are references to it, and a number of other poems of his, but not that particular one. I’m curious now because I read that he refers in this one to a conversation he once had with Merleau-Ponty, French philosopher of phenomenology, whose works I delved into years ago.
Looking through some of my anthologies, I find a few Spender poems (The Pylons appears most frequently), but not “One More…”
If you know of a site with this poem, blast it off to me. Always hungry for heart stopping views of the world in verse.
Forrest,
Your comment about getting back to the garden switched the jukebox I’ve always got playing in my head from a Chopin etude to CSNY’s song “Woodstock”:
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion-year-old carbon
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
It also reminded me of what Crosby, Stills, and Nash gained with Neil Young and what they lost when he left: bona fide, kick-ass, metal piercing rock n’ roll guitar.
So now that song is playing on a loop in the background amidst all the twitching ganglia. Hey, you could go worse than be walking around with a Joni Mitchell song in your head. Thanks.
And how cool, on so many levels is the connection she makes between carbon and garden, the physical and the metaphysical captured in a sort-of rhyme.
@Akhilleus: Obviously, a copyrighted poem, and for once, it looks as if the copyright has been protected. If Pepe reproduces it here (as she is sometimes wont to do, despite my warnings!), I'll remove it.
This discussion of the poem repeats pieces of it, but the link to the poem is broken.
Anyhow, I was thinking of some new botched beginnings, and nobody is as good as botching things as Donald Trump. So I wrote a poem I'm sure is just as good & philosophical as anything old Spender wrote, For starters, my poem has more than one new botched beginning. So, that's like a bonus, Also too, my poem has the advantage of rhyming, which it seems never even occurred to Spender! I mean, did he really know what a poem was???
Donald Trump is slimy and feral,
He grossly attacked E. Jean Carroll.
Then Donald got in E. Jean's face
So she took him to court and won the case.
The next day he called her a hoax and a fake.
She'll sue him again, for pity's sake.
Anthologize that!
Marie,
Poet laureate status awaits. Good job.
I wasn’t suggesting that PD cut and paste but to point me to a link if one exists.
Speaking of poetasting, I’ve been remiss in my occasional Very Bad Limerick postings largely because I haven’t found much to be funny about lately.
You changed my mind. Sexual abuse isn’t funny, although New Hampshire MAGAts seem to think so, but a giant legal cream pie in the face of a certain fat rapist certainly scratches the funny bone.
AK: Here's the link from the New Yorker who published the poem years ago –-it was there that I first came across it.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1964/05/02/one-more-new-batched-beginning
Now, now, Marie–--I remember only a few instances where you had to remove something from my comments–--and that was years ago–-any poems I submitted from then on were my own and seeing you, too, can come up with a pretty good ditty, I give you A plus for your latest.
@P.D. Pepe: I agree. It has been quite a while since last I read you the Copyright Riot Act.
@Forrest Morris: Or New Mexico. I lived in New Mexico for several years. Later, when I was living in other parts of the country, it might come up in casual conversation with a stranger in a grocery line or wherever that I would say something like, "My daughter was born in New Mexico." And the stranger would respond, "Wow. You don't look Mexican!" I should have said -- but didn't think of it -- "Oh, lots of Irish live in Mexico. But NEW Mexico is a state in the Ewe Ess Ay."
RC Neologism: copyriot act?
Call the OED. They might be interested. Hey, recent OED neologistic ensconcements have included words like cakeage, cyberflashing, and nearlywed (which is too cutesy by half) so why not copyriot?
Of course an alternate def might refer to a crowd descending on the local CopyCop to xerox the latest Trump indictment. Who knows?
But leave us not abide a lack of appreciation for RC lexical legerdemain. Or should that be legerdemainia?
But they elected us to not do our job...say Republicans.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/us/oregon-legislators-boycott.html
Akhilleus,
Or any group of copycat rioters? "We were there because it just looked like fun.."