This Time

[dukealien]

For students of recent US history and/or K. Marx:

Biden is obviously the second time as farce.

Was the first time as tragedy

• Nixon resigning from the presidency, or
  
• Johnson (L.B.) resigning his candidacy?
  

[rowens]

None of these things apply, unless we expect the progress of this society to keep up the good work.

[CRNDLSM]

Acab voting for a prosecutor
Blue lives matter voting for a felon

Politics are fake

[rowens]

Politics are real. But they are not relevant in a multicultural society. Not this brand of politics.
There is no Meaning Crisis, and there is no Existential Crisis.
The Separation of Church and State no longer applies. The Church is now Culture and Individuality and Groups. How I feel and my Customs are Church.
This is why State is not a Thing anymore in the U. S.
This is why it makes no sense to talk about the Gay or Black or Hispanic bloc while expecting everyone to be intermingled.
The classifications and talking points make no sense, and people are confused.

[dukealien]

Acab voting for a prosecutor
Blue lives matter voting for a felon

Politics are fake

Politics is nuanced but, like history, it rhymes.  The prosecutor was ACAB (still is) and of exactly the same stripe as the prosecutors who framed up a postage-stamp misdemeanor into a billboard felony.  

Fruits are problematic this time around:  coconut (brown outside, white inside) or watermelon (green outside, red inside)?  And for the other... durian, perhaps, spiky and smelly from the outside but a heart of gold if you can get past it?

I stand by my characterization:  the Farce is with us.

---

Politics are real. But they are not relevant in a multicultural society. Not this brand of politics.
There is no Meaning Crisis, and there is no Existential Crisis.
The Separation of Church and State no longer applies. The Church is now Culture and Individuality and Groups. How I feel and my Customs are Church.
This is why State is not a Thing anymore in the U. S.
This is why it makes no sense to talk about the Gay or Black or Hispanic bloc while expecting everyone to be intermingled.
The classifications and talking points make no sense, and people are confused.

The State, like politics, is real... but imaginary, a shared state of mind.  Its weakness is that it exists (its reality) in the present, but relies on the past for people's imaginations to project it into the future - hence all the effort expended to cancel and distort the past.  What we all once understood as history, though not entirely true, is now dispersed as "lived experience" and tribal memory.  Which are *of* history, not history itself.

[Mark A Becker]

Nixon and LBJ were resigned to the fact
that they had little support moving forward.

Me? I’m resigned to the fact that what matters most is my family.
Millions of dollars in ad buys attempt to draw me in. But I just tune out.
I’m glad I grew up before ‘social’ media, and know how to live without it.
I do like a good argument every now and then, though.

Many people vote with their wallets, and money rules politics.
That's all too unbalanced now that corporations are people, too.

Personally, I like boring politics.
I do not like the sycophant ‘horse holders’ of either party
I was exposed to a whole lot of em when I worked in DC.
I'm equally disturbed by people blindly shouting "hooray for our side".

While I vote in all my local, state, and federal elections,
I am rather politician averse-
most seem to think their most important job
is fighting to keep their job.
I find them about as sincere as car sales people.

Still, I am a BIG FAN of this idea we call America,
and the wonderful variety of our good people.

[Collapsed We Swear]

I haven't been able to make much sense of the comments here, but from what I understsnd it looks like Biden stepping out of the race has re-energized support for the democrats. According to a recent poll, Trump's lead has been flattened. According to this particular poll Harris is doing well at 49% to Trump's 45% (+4 points). Apparently she's doing pretty well in other polls, too. And when you average them all out it reduces Trump's lead, nationwide, by 30%. Meaning he's only 1 percentage point ahead of Harris. Not bad for, what, 2 weeks?
I suppose a lot of people think it'll be refreshing to have a president that can form complete coherent sentences that you don't have to interpret like they're some sort of avant-garde beat poet.

[dukealien]

 
I suppose a lot of people think it'll be refreshing to have a president that can form complete coherent sentences that you don't have to interpret like they're some sort of avant-garde beat poet.

Confused here:  some would say that (incomplete, incoherent sentences) of Trump, but it's incontestably true of Harris.  Perhaps they've both arisen in politics because their utterances' incoherent content can be interpreted to fit the hearer's predisposition about the speaker.

[Collapsed We Swear]

 
I suppose a lot of people think it'll be refreshing to have a president that can form complete coherent sentences that you don't have to interpret like they're some sort of avant-garde beat poet.

Confused here:  some would say that (incomplete, incoherent sentences) of Trump, but it's incontestably true of Harris.  Perhaps they've both arisen in politics because their utterances' incoherent content can be interpreted to fit the hearer's predisposition about the speaker.

I think it's incontestably true that Trump is a moron and speaks the language of moron to other morons (who may or may not understand what he is trying to say—because let's face it, Trump doesn't really know what he's trying to say, either. He reminds me of that bit from Bill And Ted, when the jock is giving this incoherent speech and everyone is sat in stoney silence until he shouts "San Dimas High School football rules!" and they all cheer.)

Here's one (of a few) articles talking about how difficult it is for translators to translate Trump.

https://deadline.com/2017/07/donald-trum.../#comments

Here's an extract: 

Professional translators told Lydic that Trump is the “worst” person to translate, because he’s sometimes incoherent, sometimes changes his mind in the middle of a sentence, is grammatically incorrect, and “seems a little bit uneducated.” One translator confessed he sometimes has to “fake it” and not translate Trump literally, “otherwise you’re going to look like an idiot yourself.”

And here's the Bill & Ted bit:

Everything is different, but the same... things are more moderner than before... bigger, and yet smaller... it's computers... San Dimas High School football rules!

And finally, some words of wisdom from Trump in one of his recent speeches:

“They’re coming from everywhere. They’re coming from all over the world, from prisons and jails, and mental institutions and insane asylums. You know, they go crazy when I say, ‘The late great Hannibal Lecter,’ OK? They say, ‘Why would he mention Hannibal Lecter? He must be cognitively in trouble.’ No no no, these are real stories. Hannibal Lecter from Silence of the Lamb [sic]. He’s a lovely man. He’d love to have you for dinner [confused silence]... They're destroying our country! [APPLAUSE]”

[dukealien]

 
I suppose a lot of people think it'll be refreshing to have a president that can form complete coherent sentences that you don't have to interpret like they're some sort of avant-garde beat poet.

Confused here:  some would say that (incomplete, incoherent sentences) of Trump, but it's incontestably true of Harris.  Perhaps they've both arisen in politics because their utterances' incoherent content can be interpreted to fit the hearer's predisposition about the speaker.

I think it's incontestably true that Trump is a moron and speaks the language of moron to other morons <snip>

Overuse of the term "moron" does not particularly elevate the discussion, but it does place the speaker on display.  Speaking generally, of course.

[busker]

Trump speaks off the cuff, and so lacks the polished coherence of those reading to a script. But in any case, most New Yorkers would lack the verbal virtuosity of a Tory politician.

Harris was AG of California for 6 years and Veep for 4. That is, by definition, achievement. Her detractors consist of phalanxes of lobotomised nitwits who think that Bill Gates conspired to put a microchip in Covid 19 vaccines, aided by Fauci.

Normally, the world wouldn’t care, but until the wise Chinese with their skiing champions and their tennis champions and their penis enhancement herbal teas take over the mantle of the world’s rightful ruler, it remains necessary to follow the four yearly charade in America.

[Mark A Becker]

DJT would become the useful tool for implementation of Project 2025- he'd produce enough distracting bluster to offer cover for those policies.

At my age, as well for my race (white), and gender (male), the effects of that policy will not be as drastic for me as they will be for younger 'others'.

Since we are much older, my wife and I will be fine. I remember 1968, when this country came close to fracturing, but in 2025, younger folks may be in for a big shock. (In school I remember being required to recite the Pledge of Allegiance before class; girls not being allowed to wear pants; guys were required to maintain short hair cuts; paddling was acceptable; etc, etc).

In the event of a Republican administration, my wife and I have already made a pact to mostly quit listening to the news (noise).

As I said previously, I am all for boring government. Until very recently poll workers were almost invisible, carrying out thankless, yet critically important tasks.

I continue to be surprised that so many of our voters, of either persuasion, seem to enjoy government as reality TV, and certain politicians seem to love 'performance politics' (an oxymoron if ever there was one).

[rowens]

Donald Trump is a politician the same way that The Rock was the Heavyweight Champion of the World, on several occasions.
He lost. He came back. Do you smell . . . what The Rock is cooking. He was a face that became a heel that became a face while still being a heel.
Cultural America, which has made a Stockholm of most of the planet, sees Donald Trump as an antihero, a position in a play or drama.
Some people see Trump as savior, in the sense of Christ in their Sunday Morning book club.

This is politics on the stage of Hollywood.
America broke away from the ego of history, asserted It's[for fans of my Canon] True Will or Higher Self. And like a Genius whose followers who follow a genius that is not their own, America has planted a DEFINITE sense of individual freedom, no matter how biased and diverse in its own nature, into a system that only operates properly if people, the Demos, submit to a Democracy.


The human body-mind is Demos: Legion: the Psyche is a fetish, as my attraction to the entire zeitgeist of secretaries and schoolgirls (see pornography) (she/I mean see said: Biblical/biblical, The Book/boOks in genEral) forms demons, incomplete sentences that complete the very notion of sentence(s). Hence America. The unFree lAnd of the B-b-b-b brave.



What I'm saying is that Ohrmazd=Conscience, Padmasambhava=Compassion, Nemesis=my Situational Watchfiends (=Interpretations of Realty/Experience-Awareness) and my Genius Bia (pronounced Via), and the Magical Daughters, Maya(Philosophy), Runa(Adventures and Risks), Lyra(Poetics, Autobiography) are a free that dismisses dom and accepts dom: free from and with.


Shem, your creative genius is reactionary to your own ego. That means that you need others to understand you.


The I that is me that needs that understanding is the Nepheshi and Covering Cherub of my Tree of Life.

The tree is cut down and gone. "taken somewhere else", as the poem goes.


Politics, pol means city, the same word polite, how to behave around people. 


Politics is how to consider things into a way of living that works.


The meanings of words, the etymologies and connotations, are magical spells.


Ethics are arbitrary, but I maintain ethics out of Love. Love=xenorational acceptance as somthing as GOOD



Inanna is the goddess of love and war, not because men made women into a symbol of conflict and mystery, a political strategy par excellence(whatever that means); 
Inanna is division for the sake of union: Love. Baphomet is Good and Bad and Everything and Nothing, and we experience Baphomet as sinister, because Because  demands a reason, which makes cause and effect two separate things (dividing man and god, creature and creation), which is why witch is y Goddess, or the Whore of Babylon, is a symbol of division. Division for the sake of Love.


War and Political Order are necessary to this rhyme and reason.


Free Verse (this is a poetry site perspective on these issues) is rhyme and reason without rhyme and reason and with them.

Free from and with.


That is my political position.


Call it nonsense, I call It nonsensical. And I Understand.

[Mark A Becker]

busker said (in part):
"until the wise Chinese ... take over the mantle of the world’s rightful ruler"

I don't know about 'rightful ruler', but the extremely potent combination of capitalism with communism, and their committment to AI. make China a fomidable player on the world stage. Their 'One Belt, One Road' iinitiative presents a very powerful competitor to the worlds' democracies.
Read about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belt_and_Road_Initiative

While we squabble over leadership in the USA, China is patiently playing the long game. Our in-fighting is the cliched 'music to their ears'.

Though it may be years, or decades off, the coming Great CyberWar will be every bit as de-stabilizing as previous world wars, and probably won't even require those messy nuclear weapons.

[Collapsed We Swear]

Trump speaks off the cuff, and so lacks the polished coherence of those reading to a script. But in any case, most New Yorkers would lack the verbal virtuosity of a Tory politician.

Harris was AG of California for 6 years and Veep for 4. That is, by definition, achievement. Her detractors consist of phalanxes of lobotomised nitwits who think that Bill Gates conspired to put a microchip in Covid 19 vaccines, aided by Fauci.

Normally, the world wouldn’t care, but until the wise Chinese with their skiing champions  and their tennis champions and their penis enhancement herbal teas take over the mantle of the world’s rightful ruler, it remains necessary to follow the four yearly charade in America.

Respectfully, "Trump speaking off the cuff" as a defence of Trump's inability to coherently speak off the cuff is somewhat begging the question. Politicians read pre-written speeches for a reason—a well written and well delivered speech can be a powerful (and sometimes beautiful) thing. But this doesn't mean they turn into gibbering idiots without one. We all manage to do it every day—even poets! Every time we have a conversation we are able to make spontaneous sense using sentences and whole paragraphs. We may occasionally fluff a line and have to back track, or stumble over a word, but for the most part, it's as natural as breathing. The fact that Trump struggles with this most basic element of human verbal communication betrays his own stupidity every time he opens his mouth. It is also a sad indictment of American republican's intelligence that they don't seem to care if he makes sense or not.

[dukealien]

Well, Rowens, me boy, it appears we're the only ones here trying to actually engage with what's going on politically rather than striking fashionable poses.

Or, quite possibly, you're the only one 

[rowens]

I'm a creative artist.


That is my role in the politics of my country,


This is a poetry site. Do you expect political strategist's here?


Now, I want to be Lord Byron and confront Lisa Booth with my Byronicness, but how can I?


Collapsed We Swear is quivering to talk with his Shemness.
TqB, the best of us is dead.

dukealien, all my neighbors are you. Yet you are so much more.


Tell us about yourself, dukealien, busker would like to know.


Most (so-called) rightwing Trump supporters, are not here writing poetry.


Me and, I'm sure, busker, wants to know about you.

I'm odd.

You're odd.


Why are you a rightwing Trump guy and a sensitive semilefty like most of us gays?

[Collapsed We Swear]

Well, Rowens, me boy, it appears we're the only ones here trying to actually engage with what's going on politically rather than striking fashionable poses.

Or, quite possibly, you're the only one 

I'll engage. Assume I'm wet behind the ears and don't understand all this technical political stuff about fruits and the intersubjectivity of social constructs, and tell me, like you were talking to a child, what do you think is going on politically? And I'll try to engage without repeating myself, as the repetition of words seems—ironically, as I assume you are a Trump supporter—distracting to you.

[rowens]

My name is Paul, and this is between you and dukealien. dukealien's real name is Y'all.

[Mark A Becker]

oh well- seems like an opportunity for any discussion is headed into battle. Sharpen your adjectives and go for it. I'm out, before the comments start getting too 'serious.'

good luck with it...