"Late Capitalism"

Bert Stern

I got the last box off the shelf but it was empty.

No mouse holes or telltale top torn open

just the sealed box with nothing in it.

At the meat counter, more of the same,

but this time, feathers for chickens

and for swine the slop that fed them.

I thought, depilatory, I thought

old men shrinking in their bones,

April past, then the summer gone.

Meteors stop for lunch. The wheel

grinds to a stop. Here and there,

like detritus, a man hammering,

the inviting space of a sky

with high clouds scudding

north, the bewildered jetstream

strayed from its path, sunshine

pale and lethal. In the street

you are watched by 78 eyes

that love you after their nature.

You are a blind and frightened mouth,

that believes what it is told and eats

what it is given. What else is man

that anyone should be mindful of him?

Give us back our sky

and constellations, our fiery courses,

our bloom in languages that open

and close like a rose.

stevphen writes

"In Support of David Graeber"
Andrej Grubacic

Recently David Graeber and I wrote an article together attempting to explain why anarchist ideas have received almost no attention in the academy. When you think of it, academia is full of Marxist radicals, but only a handful of professed anarchists. We came to a conclusion that it must have something to do with anarchism's concern with forms of
practice; with its insistence that one's means most be consonant with one's ends; with its stubborn rejection of the idea that we can create freedom through authoritarian means, embracing instead the position that we should embody the society we wish to create. All of this does not square very well with operating within a university. The university has survived in much the same form since the middle ages, waging intellectual battles at conferences, re-enforcing class distinctions, making cabalistic decisions in secret rooms. As we stated in our article: "At the very least, one would imagine being an openly anarchist professor would mean challenging the way universities are run and that, of course, is going to get one in far more trouble than anything one could ever write".

nolympics writes:

"New New Holland?"
Peter Lamborn Wilson, The Brooklyn Rail

Not for the first time in New York City’s history, a buzz about Secession has begun to be heard—or perhaps a serpentine hiss, depending on your point of view. Several local papers (including NY Press, The Nation, and the Brooklyn Rail,), have recently run articles boosting secession and independence for NYC. People seem to be thinking: “Secession… hmm…What a good idea!”

Anonymous Comrade writes

"For Christ's Sake"

We have this big 'push' going on lately from so-called "Christian Conservatives." These are the same kind of yahoos that washed up on this land 400 yaers ago.They were 'christian' and conservative of their own interests, and sure of their god-given right to slaughter helpless Elders, women, and children to stake out their chunk of paradise and have the first 'Thanksgiving'.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"The Creature Walks Among Us"

John Chuckman

"I beheld the wretch — the miserable monster whom I had created." — Mary Shelley

Doctor Frankenstein's frightful creature was assembled from the limbs of corpses collected in the dead of night.

The Pentagon, with a steady supply of perfectly good severed limbs and heads from all its bombing runs, has decided the good Doctor's approach to the ideal soldier has certain public-relations liabilities. Jerky, stitched-together bodies in uniform with putrid blue-green skin would not make good photo-ops. So the Pentagon has taken the high-tech approach, informing us recently that they are not many years away from putting the finishing touches to a robot soldier.

"The Rapture Index"

Jon Carroll

Let us consider the Rapture Index. This is a real thing prepared by serious people. If it makes you laugh, you have not gotten the memo. You probably have not read any of the 12 volumes of the "Left Behind" series, the best-selling books in America today.

 Those Left Behind are those who did not experience the Rapture, which is an instant in time when all the truly holy people are taken directly to heaven, leaving their clothes in small neat piles behind them. The rest of the ungodly losers are left to deal with natural disasters and wars and the armies of the Antichrist, after which they die in various colorful ways while the ranks of the saved watch with compassion tempered with an understandable sense of satisfaction.

 The Rapture Index, as of this writing, stands at 153. Anything over 145 is labeled by the Rapture Actuaries as "Fasten your seat belts." In other words: Repent for the End Is Near. You may see all this for yourself here, should you think I'm making it up.

"Fascism, Terror, Pavlov's Dog, Fear and Security:

Bush and a Brave New Gilead of 1984"

A. Cascadian

In an Orwellian reality come true where Oceania is at war with
Eastasia one moment and Eurasia the next moment now the fascist
controlled United States continues a dystopian policy of perpetual
war. The father of fascism, Benito Mussolini, once said, "War is to
man what maternity is to a woman. From a philosophical and doctrinal
viewpoint, I do not believe in perpetual peace."

In Orwell's 1984 war was not for conquest of another nation-state or
territory, but was a means to control the society by means of fear and
a forced ignorance.

"Make The Pie Higher!"

George W. Bush

This is a poem made up entirely of actual quotes from
George W. Bush. The
quotes have been arranged only for aesthetic purposes
by Washington Post
writer Richard Thompson.

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER

by George W. Bush

I think we all agree, the past is over.

This is still a dangerous world.

It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential
mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked

Is our children learning?

Will the highways of the internet become more few?

How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimated me.

I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.

I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.

Families is where our nation finds hope, where our
wings take dream.

Put food on your family!

Knock down the tollbooth!

Vulcanize Society!

Make the pie higher!

Make the pie higher!

ah-zf writes:

"A local alternative Rock band in Ithaca, NY was just recently approached by coca-cola to appear on a commercial spot, shot in Ithaca, while performing one of their original songs. The band is made up of 3 girls, all Ithaca highschool students. And, of course, they accepted.
In accordance to this 'big break' they'll be signed to one of the many record companies whom coca-cola supports, get to be on TV, perhaps gain a national fanbase, and live happily ever after...

*click*

Oh, wait a minute, this scenario seems vaguely familiar somehow. Maybe even some of that philosophical shit is involved. You think?

"Obituaries from the Future:

Former President George W. Bush Dead at 72"

Greil Marcus, CityPages

Policy Review, October 5, 2018 — George W. Bush, the
43rd president of the United States, died today at
Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas. He was 72. The
cause of death was announced as heart failure.

Mr. Bush's always controversial presidency left behind
a changed nation and a changed world. Taking office in
2001 after a disputed election settled only by a 5-4
decision by a bitterly divided Supreme Court, and
decisively reelected in 2004, President Bush led the
United States into four wars, oversaw the dismantling
of Social Security and Medicare, and enforced a drastic
shrinking of elementary, secondary, and collegiate
education.

He spearheaded the transformation of
President Bill Clinton's budget surpluses of 1999 and
2000 into permanent deficits of more than a trillion
dollars a year, thus profoundly reducing the amount of
capital available to address the needs of the vast
majority of citizens and inhibiting the creation of new
jobs with any promise of advancement or financial
security, while at the same time pursuing tax
reductions that increased the differences between the
income and assets of, in his own terminology, "owners"
and "pre-owners" of "the American ownership society" to
extremes almost beyond measure. When he left office,
taxation of personal and corporate incomes, while still
legally extant, had been effectively replaced by a new
payroll tax, so that almost all investment,
inheritance, and interest income was left tax-free.