Althouse: At the Springtime Café...

April 29, 2020

At the Springtime Café...

... you can talk all night.

277 comments:

«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 277 of 277

narciso said...: Why do you assume freud ans jung had greater insights into the human consition than the Lord.; 4/29/20, 11:05 PM
Charlie Currie said...: Looks like Gov Newsom got all pissy over people going to the beach last weekend and Newport Beach voting to keep their beach open. So now he has ordered all beaches and state parks closed effective May 1. What a prick.; 4/29/20, 11:07 PM
J. Farmer said...: But you stop at the more important question. Why would Paul create Christianity?

I don't have the slightest idea.; 4/29/20, 11:07 PM
narciso said...: You must have some notion, there was a leadding german historian who admitted her lifes work which was biblical historu was driving people away from god; 4/29/20, 11:08 PM
narciso said...: The craziest school of thought i read is there is no paul only josephus of course theres some issues with that.; 4/29/20, 11:12 PM
J. Farmer said...: Why do you assume freud ans jung had greater insights into the human consition than the Lord.

Not sure if this is directed at me, but I have no such assumption.

You must have some notion, there was a leadding german historian who admitted her lifes work which was biblical historu was driving people away from god

Only that I approach the question as an historical one and reject supernatural explanations. I think attempts to turn "people away from god" are a waste of time. People's faith is a personal matter for them and not something I concern myself with. People like Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens are not my model.; 4/29/20, 11:14 PM
J. Farmer said...: The craziest school of thought i read is there is no paul only josephus of course theres some issues with that.

Some of Richard Price's stuff is kind of interesting but not exactly convincing. Richard Carrier is beyond annoying.; 4/29/20, 11:15 PM
narciso said...: Why is a fundamental belief not important, what is then. Imho the pantheon of marx freud and darwin did much damage to this country and continues to this day.; 4/29/20, 11:23 PM
Sebastian said...: Original Mike: "I don't think railroading Flynn and "Trump colluded with Russia" were related"

Yes and no. The main hoax operated on a separate track, but as presented in public they were connected: Flynn was supposed to be working with the Russian ambassador to make American concessions in Putin's favor--not just his contact with the ambassador but the supposed shenanigans it involved were at issue. Supposedly. As in tales spun by the MSM.; 4/29/20, 11:24 PM
narciso said...: And who arranged the initial trip to khpndka gru headquarters none other than col vindman; 4/29/20, 11:28 PM
narciso said...: Khodinka, then halper slathered on the innuendo about lokhova to make it stick.; 4/29/20, 11:30 PM
Lewis said...: I know you hate it - but sorry, I'm quite drunk.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kf_zVzvYWuw&list=RDCICIOJqEb5c&index=2; 4/29/20, 11:33 PM
J. Farmer said...: Why is a fundamental belief not important, what is then. Imho the pantheon of marx freud and darwin did much damage to this country and continues to this day.

I have never said it was not important. But I think we are still trying to find our way in a world that has been fundamentally reordered by industrialization. I think the 200-year period from 1750 to 1950 was the most significant change to human society since the agricultural revolution. It was not until around 1800 that the human population reached a billion people. We have since increased that seven-fold since in the 200 years since.; 4/29/20, 11:33 PM
narciso said...: The industrial liberated the bulk of common men from the servitude they had redigned themselves; 4/29/20, 11:35 PM
Lewis said...: I didn't realise he was complete bs - sorry, Anne - nostalgia gets me!; 4/29/20, 11:38 PM
Lewis said...: I want an alternative to myself that I could contrast with and mock; 4/29/20, 11:41 PM
Big Mike said...: Are we supposed to just not have opinions about public people? Are presidential staffing decisions beyond reproach?

@Farmer, it’s the pedantic way you bring things, which goes way beyond mere self-certainty, coupled with a level of ignorance of the real world that sometimes borders on the awe-inspiring.; 4/29/20, 11:42 PM
Lewis said...: Think 'truth' , think this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpZvg_FjL3Q&list=RDCICIOJqEb5c&index=3; 4/29/20, 11:44 PM
Lewis said...: No gentilman; 4/29/20, 11:51 PM
Lewis said...: I haven't met a guy or gal who had my brains - I know that sounds silly - but, ner, not one! I was smarter than the world - like boby Dylan! A smile, with the distance coming; 4/30/20, 12:02 AM
Lewis said...: Ok, no youtube, but make an exception to a song I love?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GWsdqCYvgw&list=RDCICIOJqEb5c&index=5; 4/30/20, 12:05 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Talking about Sid Vicious - saw something a day or two ago about Steele meeting with Dem operatives and getting some of his “intelligence” from them. The obvious question was whether some of it came from Blumenthal and Sheerer. There was apparently some overlap in their Dossiers. But, of course, the two of them were much too well known as Clinton operatives (esp after her Libyan fiasco) for the FBI or the IC to directly utilize anything coming from them against Trump and the Republicans. That would have stunk even worse than it ultimately did. But there have been suggestions that Steele actually didn’t write his Dossiers, and probably didn’t get much of them from the Russians. A year or two ago, someone had an analysis done on writing styles in regard to Steele’s Dossiers, and it turns out that Nellie Ohr, PhD, was much more likely the author, according to this analysis. She writes like an academic, while he writes as a former spy. They mostly appeared more academic than spy-ish.

It has long been fairly clear that at least some of the information in the Steele Dossiers came from (illegal) contractor access, through the FBI 702 interface, to NSA databases - accesses discovered by NSA Dir Rogers in March, 2016, and shut down by him shortly thereafter. For example, that is the only plausible reason for Steele having the wrong Michael Cohen going to Prague. Given that most of the 9/11 hijackers were here illegally, having overstayed their visas, immigration and visa information is probably some of the first information that went into those databases. And the perfect way to screw up which Michael Cohen went to Prague was to do a FISA 702(15) “about” query utilizing that name as a primary search key. The Russians probably wouldn’t have had that information, and anyone accessing that information directly would have used a unique key such as SS# or passport#.

Back to the theory, which is that some of Steele’s information probably came from those illegal 702 searches, part from public records, and the rest third or fourth hand from Russian sources. Nellie Ohr, PhD (wife of AAG Bruce Ohr) and her assistant were the ones working for Fusion GPS, who were most skilled at searching public records. THE 702 information couldn’t be used directly by the FBI, because it was illegally obtained. The FBI likely had the information - they just didn’t have it legally. It lacked provenance, and they got that by laundering it through Steele and Fusion GPS. Which may be why Steele is now playing dumb, all of a sudden discovering that his source information was accidentally deleted. Very similar to all the tragic boating accidents that everyone seems to have whenever it appears that the government may be trying to seize legally acquired firearms.; 4/30/20, 12:10 AM
narciso said...: I believe that was apelbaum who datamined all the major players in that massive document ive linked in the past.; 4/30/20, 12:35 AM
Gahrie said...: But I think we are still trying to find our way in a world that has been fundamentally reordered by industrialization. I think the 200-year period from 1750 to 1950 was the most significant change to human society since the agricultural revolution.

I largely agree with you. I don't think we're going to get the chance to adjust to industrial world however. I believe we are on the cusp of the post industrial world. Energy and food will be more plentiful and cheaper than ever before in human history. The biggest problem will be how to deal with significant populations of people who will never be productively employed. Automation is going to replace human labor to a degree that few people now realize. The easiest jobs to automate are precisely the jobs best suited for low IQ/low skill workers.

The answer is probably going to be bread and circuses for the most part.

It was not until around 1800 that the human population reached a billion people. We have since increased that seven-fold since in the 200 years since.

Isn't it wonderful? Seriously. There are more humans alive right now, living a better quality of life, than at any other time in human history. As the world's population has risen, the standard of living for that population has also risen. There is less poverty and hunger in the world today than at any other time in history. We are about to start harvesting the resources of the solar system, and that combined with cheap energy and food is going to cause an amazing climb in the standard of living around the world. (Did you know that most people in South Africa own cell phones? 800 million cell phones are in use in India) The days of Sally Struthers are gone. Poverty and hunger around the world today are all directly tied to government decisions and actions.

We have about reached the peak of human population. One of the consistent features of human behavior is that as our standard of living increases, the number of children goes down.; 4/30/20, 12:42 AM
narciso said...: Of course this little hickup threw a spanner in the works woldwude.; 4/30/20, 12:47 AM
buwaya said...: People are less complicated than we like to imagine.

We have complex theories and practicum of behavioral adjustment.
But we have poor outcomes.

Pain works, even self-inflicted pain.; 4/30/20, 12:50 AM
Gahrie said...: I am friends with some very religious people. (Including Latter Day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses) I respect their beliefs, and even envy their faith a little. However I do make jokes sometimes about Jesus as a con man or a zombie.

My favorite joke is about a man who goes to Heaven and asks Jesus if a zebra is a black horse with white stripes or a white horse with black stripes. (Trust me you don't want to hear it); 4/30/20, 12:53 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/30/20, 12:58 AM
buwaya said...: Anyway, a verbal apology or declaration of repentance cannot be trusted, as a practical matter, not a religious one.

To establish trust one must do something more. Offering of hostages perhaps, giving ones sons over to be raised in the household of the clan you need to appease, but that is not practical in the modern world.

Now, a voluntary act of genuine, obvious public pain, that is something too. This costs, a lot, especially for a proud person.; 4/30/20, 12:58 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “Original Mike: "I don't think railroading Flynn and "Trump colluded with Russia" were related"”

“Yes and no. The main hoax operated on a separate track, but as presented in public they were connected: Flynn was supposed to be working with the Russian ambassador to make American concessions in Putin's favor--not just his contact with the ambassador but the supposed shenanigans it involved were at issue. Supposedly. As in tales spun by the MSM.”

The alleged Russian Collusion was likely pretextual from the first. Here is my theory. The FBI and their contractors, who pretty much had to have been Dem party operatives, maybe even Fusion GPS (we still don’t know who the contractors were who were accessing the NSA databases through the FBI’s FISA 702 interface - their identity remains redacted in the FISC opinion). They had to have been tied to the Dem party because they were using the access to track people, and that had to have been sanctioned at least at the AG level, but probably in the Obama WH. It probably began right after the FBI was caught (around 2012) trying to get millions of pages of raw tax information from the IRS. Which means that tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of queries had been made during those four or so years, and 85% or so of those queries had illegally been allowed by the FBI leadership (starting under Mueller, of course)to be made by those contractors.

Think about that for a minute - the FBI had allowed contractors to probably make hundreds of thousands of queries of the immense NSA databases set up to defend against another 9/11 attack, and instead of using the databases for defending the country, the searching was being done to track Obama Administration political enemies. That would likely have been the biggest intelligence scandal and abuse of power of the century, if it ever came out. The FBI in particular, but also the DOJ, the IC, and even the Obama Administration, had a huge problem - they had the results of those tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of illegal queries, and if they were caught with them, it would probably be gallows time.

So, some bright person figured out that since most of the database searching had been of Republicans, Trump was going to be their nominee, and the three hop rule for a Title I FISA warrant would allow any searches of anyone associated with Trump be made as far back in the past as required. They just had to get a FISA warrant on someone involved with the Trump campaign, and any searches made in the past could now be legally justified. They apparently started with four candidates: George Popadopolis, Carter Page, Gen Flynn, and one other. They got the ball rolling through the Steele Dossier (thanks, apparently to help from Brennan and his CIA). That provided the predicate for Crossfire Hurricane. But when it came to actually getting the first FISA warrant, Popadopolis didn’t work out, so they switched to Carter Page, without skipping a heartbeat, and studiously ignored that he was both a CIA and FBI asset. By that time, Flynn was probably out, since he had been named as Trump’s probable NSA. Moreover he was too well known. The FISC would likely have asked awkward questions if he had been the FBI’s choice for a FISA warrant. With the FISA warrant in hand, they could sanitize their illegal 2012-2016 702 searches of the NSA databases, and the third renewal gave Mueller and his team access to that information too (since by then Crossfire Hurricane had been folded into the Mueller SC investigation).

As I said above - just a theory. Probably only Dennis Nunes and Adam Schifty know the real story.; 4/30/20, 1:02 AM
William said...: It's been my experience that pain and suffering makes people brutish and nasty rather then ennobled. Of course, I hung out with with the wrong crowd, mainly myself when younger. Anyway, after I put a few bucks together, I became a much nicer person. Ease and comfort bring out the best in people.; 4/30/20, 1:02 AM
buwaya said...: The easy and pedantic answer is that a zebra is not a horse.
And that the question is purely rhetorical trickery taking advantage of failures of language. We do not possess a divine tongue that is ideally suited to describe reality and that is immune to misuse. All language is limited and defective.; 4/30/20, 1:04 AM
William said...: The plus side of Christianity: we all get to star in our own dramas of sin and redemption. We're important. We're not the chance byproduct or primeval slime or the victims of faulty potty training. We're not bit players in the quarrels of the gods or the shift of class risings. We're the star of the drama.; 4/30/20, 1:06 AM
buwaya said...: The practice of Christianity in my tradition is that we are individually NOT important. Our pride was not just sinful but absurd. Our school was run by Irish-American brothers, so we sang the "Non nobis domine". Glory was for God, not us.; 4/30/20, 1:13 AM
J. Farmer said...: @Farmer, it’s the pedantic way you bring things, which goes way beyond mere self-certainty, coupled with a level of ignorance of the real world that sometimes borders on the awe-inspiring.

Please point out my supposed “ignorance of the real world.” If anything, I think my perspective is exactly the opposite.; 4/30/20, 2:16 AM
J. Farmer said...: We do not possess a divine tongue that is ideally suited to describe reality and that is immune to misuse. All language is limited and defective.

I largely agree with this. I think there are certain questions that simply cannot be answered because there are limits to our cognitive ability to understand them. I doubt we will ever understand things like free will or the nature of consciousness. It would be a huge accomplishment if we could even figure out how the brain works. How that brain interacts and coexists with billions of other brains is even more complex than that.; 4/30/20, 2:21 AM
PresbyPoet said...: The thing to remember is that God died for us. We are very important to Him. The problem is that most of the important things are paradoxical. Jesus being 100% God, and 100% man. This paradox: God is fully in charge, yet everything I do is cosmic significance. Walking into a bank, weeding, trying to call the phone company to get the phone fixed. All these are an opportunity to offer myself as a gift to God. To become so intimate with God that I hear him without Him speaking.

You need paradox to understand quantum mechanics also. That electron going thru the slits is both particle and wave. !00% of both. Yet we only see it as one or the other. The more you study a paradox, the more mysterious it becomes.

People want to "blame" Paul for Christianity. The guy had an encounter on the road. He was trying to do the right thing. He is like someone today who buys into the lies of the left. If and when the scales fall from their eyes they can become the most effective witnesses because they know both sides. The scales fell from Saul's eyes. He became Paul.

For Paul the main thing is that he took the message of who Jesus is/was/will be not just to the Jews, but to everyone. His letter to the Romans is all about how this message is for ALL. The theology is simple. God came as a baby, fully man, fully God. That is why the virgin birth is so important. Jesus wasn't just a man, chosen by God to die as a sacrifice. Jesus was God sent as a sacrifice, the lamb. King and sacrifice.

God offers himself to us as a gift. Will you accept His gift?; 4/30/20, 2:30 AM
narayanan said...: Blogger Drago said...

BTW, has anybody else been surprised to see democrat elected officials across the nation ordering police in to break up Christian Easter services and Jewish funerals and lobbing threats against them while all the while dems in MN are alowing the muslims to meet without interference everywhere and even allowing the muslim call to prayer to ring out across the city in MN?

We are definitely reaching new milestones in the growing open alliance between the dems and islamic supremacists.
---------------=================
Christian battle plan >>>> which cheek would you prefer to strike?

Muslim battle plan >>>> you want a taste of my sharp sword?; 4/30/20, 3:48 AM
Big Mike said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/30/20, 5:58 AM
Big Mike said...: If anything, I think my perspective is exactly the opposite.

And that kind of proves my point, doesn’t it? So cocksure you have a unique insight into a world you cannot begin to understand.; 4/30/20, 5:59 AM
rehajm said...: April showing the best single month performance of the S&P 500 since 1974, as per CNBC this morning.; 4/30/20, 6:15 AM
Josephbleau said...: When you throw someone in a well, when he gets out he will set a record for distance climbed, just to get back to where he was.; 4/30/20, 6:31 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: When will the MSM and the Democrats admit that there was a severe overreaction to the virus?; 4/30/20, 6:39 AM
Breezy said...: I think the early reaction was ok after watching Hubei lock down so severely. I’m not ok with the duration of this now though, as we should be able to restart with modifications, nor am I ok with the lack of preventing the onslaught in nursing homes and like facilities.; 4/30/20, 7:06 AM
320Busdriver said...: Interesting that @Drudge there is not one mention of the Flynn case.; 4/30/20, 7:09 AM
rehajm said...: Josephbleau said...
When you throw someone in a well...

Remind me not to walk near wells when I'm around Josephblau...; 4/30/20, 7:16 AM
stevew said...: "When will the MSM and the Democrats admit that there was a severe overreaction to the virus?"

That would be never if history is predictive of the future. Unless they can do so to attack Trump in some way.; 4/30/20, 7:17 AM
wildswan said...: Late at night they argue God. Like moonshiners lying around the fire, waiting for the drip, throwing out comments under the stars.; 4/30/20, 7:21 AM
Fernandinande said...: ...Jesus knew very little Latin, but then being not only human with human limitations, is also divine and all-knowing, Jesus then tapped into that and was instantly fluent in Latin.

Funny, then, that he didn't know anything that wasn't common knowledge to the people of that time and in that small area.; 4/30/20, 7:47 AM
Nichevo said...: J. Farmer said...
Perhaps First Century Jews could recite passages from scripture in Hebrew, just as Roman Catholics of my generation could recite parts of the Mass in Latin, but I don't think that made either the Jews or Catholics of my childhood bi-lingual.

Rabbinic Judaism doesn't begin until after the destruction of the temple by the Romans in 70AD. Before that, the most important part of Judaism was probably animal sacrifices.

J. Farmer said...
But you stop at the more important question. Why would Paul create Christianity?

I don't have the slightest idea.

Why would anyone question the superiority of your religious insights? Now tell us everything you know about pussy.; 4/30/20, 8:40 AM
Lewis said...: Most peoples life has become like this - but I grew up with it - Whos' Afraid of Virginia Wolf - I am, I am.

http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/w/whos-afraid-of-virginia-woolf-script.html; 4/30/20, 8:56 AM
Lewis said...: I'm tossed between cover and cove - whether to like people or hate them ( my natural condition is love - gratitude) - to have a great contempt and pitty - the worst of feelings - or I'm grub with the scrub!; 4/30/20, 9:03 AM
Lewis said...: 'That guy is deeply, psychologically ill' - not true - yes, I despise myself and I despise everyone else - is that a sign of 'ill health' . What did R.D.Laing say - in a world completely mad, my 'local' madness is sanity!; 4/30/20, 9:13 AM
Lewis said...: You know why I write on your blog - mostly cross posting my stupid fb posts - because I've been reading your blog for sometime - you're really smart! This 'crises' sort of brought me out - but, wow, do I like smart women! You could say, I have a fatal attraction to 'them' - for they seem as rare as honey and bees!; 4/30/20, 9:22 AM
Lewis said...: You could probably say 'Contrawise! You'd be right.; 4/30/20, 9:24 AM
Iman said...: Lewis... your pain and your tortured, feeble excuses are making me think you may be the creator of the Hi and Lois comic strip because you are making me laugh...; 4/30/20, 10:24 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: “Yes and no. The main hoax operated on a separate track, but as presented in public they were connected: Flynn was supposed to be working with the Russian ambassador to make American concessions in Putin's favor--not just his contact with the ambassador but the supposed shenanigans it involved were at issue. Supposedly. As in tales spun by the MSM.”

I agree. I think that the ride between Flynn and the Russian Collusion hoax was more convenience than anything. The FBI no doubt had a recording of the conversation between Flynn and the Russian Ambassador because we have been, as a matter of course, constantly monitored calls with the Soviet Ambassador, then, when it disintegrated, the Russian Ambassador, since FISA was enacted in the 2970s, and likely unofficially before that, probably at least as early as 1945. The Chines ambassador was probably added when the ChiComs forced the previous Chinese govt to flee to Taiwan. Tapping their phones was one of the primary goals of FISA when initially enacted in the 1970s. Sure, Flynn also takes to our NATO allies, Japan, etc during the Transition, but FISA warrants covering those calls would likely have been harder to obtain. So it may have come down to Russian collusion or Chinese collusion.

The same thing may have affected Trump and his campaign, transition, and Administration. They needed plausible collusion with one of the two. They are both major powers, and usually have adverse interests. Two things may have steered them towards Russia over China. First, up until now, the Chinese have been smoother. They try to keep their opposition to our country under the public’s radar. They do this much better than the Russians do. In any case, Trump made the joke about asking the Russians for the missing emails from Crooked Hillary’s stint as Sec of State (because her attorneys had illegally ordered them deleted). Both countries probably have them. It is a near certainty that the Chinese do, and were getting them in real time, often probably reading them before the intended recipients did. So, Trump picked Russia for his joke, and the rest is history.

Another aspect though is that the DNC and the Crooked Hillary campaign had hired Fusion GPS to do opposition research. Both Nellie Ohr and Christopher Steele had close Russian ties. She is considered a Russian expert. She is fluent in Russian, and has spent significant time in Russia. The point is that when it came time to go after Trump, Fusion GPS had far more extensive Russian, versus Chinese, experts working for them. So, Trump’s joke fit well with the (Russian) expertise that the Dems had acquired (and, yes, if anyone was working for the Russians, it was the Clinton campaign.

Theoretically the Dems could have run a Chinese collusion hoax instead of a Russian collusion hoax. The Russian one was just easier.; 4/30/20, 10:26 AM
Bruce Hayden said...: Continued

I am fairly certain that McCabe, Strzok, etc all knew that they were the ones setting up the Russian Collusion hoax. But my guess is that others, like Bill Priestap, Strzok’s formal boss, were stampeded with the scare that the Russians Are Coming. I think that you can see this inner and outer conspiracy at work, from the Strzok/Page text messages, when Strzok was coming back from Europe, with the long awaited legal predicate for his upcoming Crossfire Hurricane investigation (helpfully manufactured by Brennan and his CIA), and he and Lisa Page were maneuvering to meet with her boss, DD McCabe first, before being debriefed by his CD supervisor, Priestap. Priestap and a couple others, seemed to have been participating half heartedly, and I think that might be attributed to not really being insider participants in the plot, but rather getting carried away in the general frenzy of Russian hunting that descended on his Counterintelligence Division, as well as his Deputy Director, and their counterparts in the NSD at the DOJ, all chanting “the Russians” almost in unison.

I agree with Yancey that the just discovered notes are someone’s personal insurance policy, and as such, were hidden away undiscoverable on paper somewhere safe, maybe at home, maybe in a filing cabinet, etc. And my original thoughts were, as were his, that they were Bill Priestap’s personal notes. What is significant to me is the timing. Why now? My guess is that the Flynn case is rapidly unraveling, likely because of the USA Barr assigned to double check everyone’s work on Crossfire Hurricane, who seems to have been turning over too many stones that everyone at the top of the FBI had been hoping would stay unturned. And someone was getting scared.

What just came out was that there had actually been a high level planning meeting for the Flynn perjury trap, implicating not just DD McCabe, but also Director Comey. Before this, we had been led to believe that it was essentially a rogue action by McCabe, Strzok, Page, and probably Pienta, with McCabe having been bought by the Clintons (through the >$700k campaign contribution to his wife’s campaign) and both Strzok and Page were just rabid partisan Never Trumpers. But it wasn’t apparently a rogue operation, but had approval from the very highest levels of the FBI. Looking back, it likely began before the formal Crossfire Hurricane predicate, since Joe Pienta was included in a delegation the previous month that listened to Gen Flynn in order to get a baseline reading on him, that he could use in the upcoming perjury trap. In other words, the plot to take out Flynn appears to have begun back in maybe July, well before the election.

As a note, I fell asleep last night part way through composing the first long paragraph. Then I had several short dreams about it, wondering how I had completed the paragraph. Turns out, I hadn’t, and had never posted what I had written. Weird. Can’t remember the last time something like that happened to me. Turns out I kinda switched direction mid post, resulting in one that violated Blogger’s character limits.; 4/30/20, 10:27 AM
Lewis said...: It's the beginning of the 'long march' - inflation is the sign of the breakdown of society - think 1930's and what that presaged - know history, expect the worst!; 4/30/20, 10:48 AM
Lewis said...: So, we only have a couple of weeks left - when 'society' goes it crashes, it bangs - of 'normalcy' - sieze the day, for it's your last

Picture It.

The farce of a young man playing the prodigal son –
It’s a tired act to follow: a self proclaimed wordsmith
Weaving a web to catch a fly: it took six years
“But she just walked right through.” “It was thin air to her.”
Now, the last act, he works to a proper sentiment
And dies. Tragedy. Move on to the next case.

A girl, tenuous grab of life, she tries hard not to slip,
Forces ignore her – it is to hard to find foot space.
What could she do without all those clothes?
Keep the characters strict and few and so pass through life
Singing the two songs. Edge between with lyrical politeness,
Last , ‘but a presence in the air’, stubbornly,
Till on her ninetieth birthday she falls into her soup.
And the words so well prepared. Tragedy two.

Let the final picture form: world where everywhere
There are mirrors, each face but a looking glass
And each endearingly peering in the others face.
Picture the ‘empathy’, the moments of ‘shared passion’,
The ‘care of the self’, see the ‘theatrical’ parents,
Feel the ‘ambition'. Each one circling
A dedicate task stuck in the centre
Of their ‘selves’ and called ‘soul’: picture it.; 4/30/20, 11:00 AM
Lewis said...: !986 - am I a prophet or what?; 4/30/20, 11:02 AM
Lewis said...: Horace - you know Horace? Of course you do

Sweet It Is To Die

Sweet it is to die without cause or reason,
Having no undone for a conspicuous tail:
No defeat in memory, no love in mourning –
Sweet and also just: For these heavy deaths
And unaccomplished frauds, the farcical offbeat
Of the drum, the untuned pipes, the illusory,
Marauding gang of hearse musicians, these are
Only the pompous accidents the Master Actor finds
Useful in his conjuration’s ‘for the unruly crowd.
Let Death come when he has talked with friends
Who wait to bewail us first: It is charity
To deprive us of those who will be deprived the most.
Or better one turns ones head, modest in silence,
Patient of the scythes decapitations.

I served Proserpina with a distant awe
Nor did I batter the tympanum of Dis
With deprecations: I expect the shade
Of fruit and wine, insubstantial but better taste,
On that table where I have reserved my place.; 4/30/20, 11:07 AM
Lewis said...: 'Place', 'Taste' is not the best rhyme but it was the best I could do at the time.; 4/30/20, 11:19 AM
Lewis said...: I always put most of my work at the beginning - I'm afraid of endings! - petrified of them - so I begin with a line which has to end somewhere - a laziness, maybe, or just pure cowardice!; 4/30/20, 11:23 AM
Lewis said...: So that last poem - it was just Horace ringing in my ears and, death, of course -I thought of the first line in a pub - when they existed! - between cig and pen - talking to every 'fool' that came in - it floated in front of me - like all my poetry - floated before me.; 4/30/20, 11:31 AM
Lewis said...: There was a bit of Auden and Larkin in there, to - very British!; 4/30/20, 11:33 AM
Lewis said...: And Shakespeare, always; 4/30/20, 11:37 AM
Lewis said...: Iman, you don't like 'truth', do you? It's 'tough', reality...; 4/30/20, 11:48 AM
Lewis said...: 'Poetry' is the bane on my life - without it I'd be 'normal' - O how normal -I could walk into the sun - and say what? - Well, at least I'm here.; 4/30/20, 12:00 PM
Lewis said...: When I was 16 - so forgive the rather un-pc sentiments

Poet.

.I.

That poet could not know
A time like this
And yet he cursed his day
Better than this.

Is time then a falling slide,
Poet and knave bruised
On a dumb rocky mountain side?
Then what we have we lose.

Still, what has been has been:
That from beauties flesh was born
Some marvellous, flesh tearing form
Still finds its somewhere reflective dream.

.II.

Or do we but count the corn,
Watch the rats’ numberless dawn,
Hear the room tying rain,
See ragged faces painless pain?

We always do that,
The prisoner and the rat
Eyeing their despair;
Or in the day
Where in we might say
“Here is the wrong, stupid lair.”

It’s hard to keep eye fixed ahead
When there’s but counting of the dead.

.III.

“Enough fools for us all!” Democrats say:
Thus they have built their day –
To confound the strong and the good
Idiots for a guard they’ve stood
Sweating, breaking out loud.

What poet can pierce that crowd?
.IV.

Over the hill more might be seen:
You watch the Tower beaten in dream
You who see the living die.

Over that crowd beaten eye
There’s but the canopy of lead:
Let the dead bury the dead.; 4/30/20, 12:03 PM
Lewis said...: About Yeats; 4/30/20, 12:03 PM
Lewis said...: Ivan Blatny - a mad Czech

To be alone must be criminal-
Get a wife and child -
If you can't have children, get a wife-
If you can't have a wife
Get a dog, a dog only.; 4/30/20, 1:47 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Original Mike:

And that kind of proves my point, doesn’t it? So cocksure you have a unique insight into a world you cannot begin to understand.

Except I have never claimed "unique insight into a world." I say what I think and why I think it. And recall that the comment that elicited a response from you was a criticism of Michael Flynn's book.; 4/30/20, 1:55 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Nichevo:

Why would anyone question the superiority of your religious insights? Now tell us everything you know about pussy.

What would you like to know?; 4/30/20, 1:56 PM
Lewis said...: Dialectic.

'California has the personality of a paper cup!' Raymond Chandler.

.I.

You deal only with the hard present,
Something I envy: your record’s written
By another, no one cares at the time
To stop you, drink doesn’t kill you or,
If it does, it’s at the end, a full stop
To who you are. We die, some of us,
Still incomplete and some whose life is nothing
But the presence of failure. I write this
Like a man who sits in the comfort
Of possibilities, the cobalt
Of a gun eyeing his talk of sophistries,
Entertained passion, solitude,
A neat cushion to back me up, stinking fear.
I don’t register what’s there.

Unlike you: you have the gun, I think.
As an aspect of that script I haven’t grasped
You turn this B movie into something more:
Like Marriott in ‘Farewell, My Lovely’
I’m the patsy, the limbo of certain guilts
Whose weaknesses ditch me in the end;
A clobbered beauty, corrupted by such
Expectation my body is forced beyond
What feeble reach I had into those other lives,
A sub plot that’s their harder climb.

.II.

Offended by the wrong words and never
Catching your welcome I retell mostly
A monologue of what could be done
Given conditions, appropriate sun,
Five mile wind, compliant interlocutors,
The usual list, verbatim anaesthesia
Of the irrepressible ego. Can’t be done.

Everyone expects, seconds before
The end, some kind of recognition:
Just the usual mechanics of the gun.
Except: I knew you before, before
The days of ‘hard drinking’ and searching out
Other people’s lives: a time when you were
Merely possible, not always there,
Treated as a friend of what was future.; 4/30/20, 1:58 PM
Jim at said...: Iowa hospitals are scrambling trying to get into high gear with the increasing cases coming in.

Bullshit. Hospitals everywhere - especially in rural areas - are shutting their doors. Permanently.; 4/30/20, 2:20 PM
Rusty said...: "Please point out my supposed “ignorance of the real world.” If anything, I think my perspective is exactly the opposite." Your childlike belief that the imams in Iraq would honor anagreement with the Great Satan I think showed a bit of naivety.; 4/30/20, 7:26 PM