Fragment 2024/04/07

i’ve called you propagandized too much.

***

15 August 24

I.G.Y.

Standing tough under stars and stripes we can tell. This dream’s in sight–you’ve got to admit it–at this point in time that it’s clear. The future looks bright …

On that train all graphite and glitter, undersea by rail, 90 minutes from New York to Paris,
well by ’76 we’ll be A-OK.

In the real 1976 I worked all summer so I could afford a car.

It was not a jet car, and it still isn’t.

It was not a bullet train.

spandex jackets “One For Everyone” is communist utopia

***

They broke everything a long time before that, just as they will again. In the year my father was born, clear through to the year my mother was born, we all lived through the what they called The Depression.

gave us SS New Deal because they were facing down a real revolution if they didn’t.

FDR, banned.

Anti-communism, McCarthy.

For a bright shining moment near the end of Eisenhower, IGY.
But he warned us.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry.
…
We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes.

We should take nothing for granted.

Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

The murders, starting with JFK.

in the comments section of the various IGY videos they
sing of hope and feeling good
That’s not what this song is about.

Standing tough under stars and stripes
We can tell
This dream’s in sight
You’ve got to admit it
At this point in time that it’s clear
The future looks bright
On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
Well by seventy-six we’ll be A.O.K.

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

Get your ticket to that wheel in space
While there’s time
The fix is in
You’ll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky
You know we’ve got to win
Here at home we’ll play in the city
Powered by the sun
Perfect weather for a streamlined world
There’ll be spandex jackets one for everyone

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

On that train all graphite and glitter
Undersea by rail
Ninety minutes from New York to Paris
(More leisure for artists everywhere)
A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We’ll be clean when their work is done
We’ll be eternally free yes and eternally young

What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free

***

29 August 24

Imagine

(Old Black Joe
he’s still picking cotton for your ribbons and bows)

Imagine being a mafia guy who wants to take a leave of absence from The Family

and so turns in through the proper channels
all the required paperwork to initiate the process
correctly, like a mensch I think they call it.

Today, the Daily Spill

is that paperwork.

***

Picking up where we left off two weeks ago at Luke Eleven verse eight.

I tell you, even though he will not get up
and give you the bread because of friendship,
yet because of your shameless audacity
he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.

I don’t know what to make of this menudo, O Lord.

If the bread here is, what … real dialogue? … honest conversation?
Connection, relationship, storg-e with some actual meat on its bones?

Then this doesn’t seem to be true
not even a little bit; sure

We’ve got funnel cakes from the state fair
We’ve got a whole month set aside for celebrating one frozen dessert.
We’ve got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer, stories aplenty about how none of it was your fault, and a baby’s arm clutching a MacIntosh or maybe just its stock price.

And yes, we’ve even got lemon berry electrolyte cat picture, you bet we do.

But we got no soul bread wholesome and true enough to be worthy of the Name.

I’m losing faith in You Prince of Peace,
bleeding it out just a little faster than I ever did before.

Ahead my gaze twists further on out the high lonesome road to Hairésis
I expect it’ll take a while, so
I forward my regrets.

***

29 September 24

“You’re more of a man than your father ever was.”

Thanks for that. You’re right.

But …

… becoming more of a man than him was not hard. So it didn’t mean that much to me when I realized it was true, or later when (sorry) you said it was true, either.

When you can honestly feel and say that I am a better man, or more of a man, than, say, Colonel Sanders … well now, that would be, in theory will be, a whole new ball game.

Personally I won’t really be satisfied until … not only is that one true too, but …
until even that doesn’t mean much, or at least feels like …

it was not all that hard to get even to that point,
in the end.

You know?

Because then and finally, I can forget the past and start to learn about what being the man I can be
will be.

***

Okay. Let’s call it there. There are two left but they need to be made one, and made real. Thanks for putting up with the laundry.