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Dead Right

4/30/2020

From Dorothy Dawe:

I realize that Trump preys upon the poorly educated and ill-informed, but just how stupid are those people? Don’t they see that flip-flop Donnie doesn’t just talk in circles – he talks in scribbles. First “It’s a hoax,” and then ”I always knew it would be a pandemic” to "Who could have seen this coming?" to "We got bad information." First it’s "The cure can't be worse than the the problem" to “Reopen America with packed churches on Easter,” to now ”The United States made the correct decision (to lockdown)" -- plus he's said everything in between!

Flip-Flop Donnie did NOTHING to prepare our country for what was to come.

In December 2019, a teenager in Seattle in created this site (HERE) to track the virus. Did you catch that? A TEENAGER. IN DECEMBER.

For months, though, Flip-Flop Donnie went on golfing trips and Twitter rants about the "Democratic hoax." Now he and Liddle’ Lurch Kushner are out and about touting Trump’s leadership as "a great success"? Are you kidding me?!?

We've had more deaths from COVID19 than the entire span of the twenty-year Vietnam War. Twenty-seven percent of all COVID19 deaths world-wide are from the United States -- as a direct result of Trump's apathy and inaction. That's a great success?

To top all of that, Governor Ron “We’re God’s waiting room” DeSantis is blocking Florida’s Health Department from reporting any addition COVID19 deaths. Well, I suppose if we can block all reporting of deaths, then yeah – the Trump strategery will be seen as very successful – because the truth will be buried with all the dead bodies! How fortunate – the grave will contain all of the stats!

Hmm. That reminds me of a poem by Emmett Lee Dickinson, “How fortunate the grave” (below on the left). Dickinson’s poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem with the same opening line (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

How fortunate the Grave –
Our Crisis to contain –
Success is certain, if at last,
They cover our campaign.

By Emily Dickinson:

How fortunate the Grave –
All Prizes to obtain –
Successful certain, if at last,
First Suitor not in vain.

The Great Pretender

4/29/2020

From Emerson Nettles:

I heard two things yesterday that floored me:

1. We have had more COVID19 deaths than the total number of US fatalities in the Vietnam War. In two months time, we have had more deaths due to coronavirus than a twenty year war.

2. The US has 4 percent of the world's population (below left). However, we have 33% of the COVID19 cases as of this date (below middle), and we have 27% of all COVID19 deaths (below right).

AS OF 4/29/20

The US:
4% of the world's population:

The US:
33% of all COVID19 cases.

The US:
27% of all COVID19 deaths.

We are in this position, of course, due to Donald Trump's apathetic, neglectful and disastrous response to this global pandemic. His strategy -- and I use that word very, very loosely (I suppose I should say his "strategery") -- was to deny, deceive, delay and discredit (in the course of the pandemic, Trump has whistled a new tune over and over -- from claiming the coronavirus was a "hoax" to knowing that this would be a pandemic before anyone else knew this would be a pandemic to now blaming others for delivering incorrect and/or faulty information to him).

Then I saw something yesterday that infuriated me: our so-called Vice President visited the Mayo clinic AND REFUSED TO WEAR A FACE MASK.

First of all, the Mayo Clinic SHOULD HAVE REFUSED TO LET HIM IN!

What is it with these GROSS OLD PERVERTS (i.e., the GOP) that makes them think that they are above the law and don't have to follow rules?

GOP members refuse to honor subpoenas. They walk out on testimony during a house impeachment inquiry. They refuse to allow witnesses at a Senate trial. They refuse to cooperate with investigations, and they blatantly and regularly lie under oath. They change the rules of the Senate to approved confirmations. Trump even pardons war criminals yet fires real heroes (from Sally Yates to Captain Brett Crozier).

We are no longer a land of laws, but more and more a land of old white, rich privilege -- and nothing has epitomized that more than Mike Pence's visit to the Mayo Clinic.

Hubris, thy name is Pence.

I loved David Letterman's take on this on Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show:

“If you’re going to the Mayo Clinic because you have COVID-19, you really have it,” Letterman said. “You’re not going up there because you like the turn-down service. And [Pence] goes up there, and he takes time off from his gig as a mannequin, and he’s walking around without a mask taunting these poor people who are bedridden and wearing a mask.”
“To me that's just taunting people who are ill,” Letterman added later. “To see that guy in his $40 suit walking through the Mayo Clinic without a mask.” More on that HERE.

The Pence debacle called to mind Emmett Lee Dickinson's 1853 poem "We Cover Thee -- Sweet Face (below on the left). Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin's poem with the same opening line (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

We Cover Thee – Sweet Face –
Not that We tire of Thee –
But wear a Mask to safeguard Us –
Pretender – as he goes –
He ignores Thee until
We notice him – no mask –
And then – disgusted – turn away
They Con us o'er and o'er –

They blame their scanty deeds
On anyone they can –
Corruption – Vice – a Hundred fold –
I just can’t face that – man –

By Emily Dickinson:

We Cover Thee – Sweet Face –
Not that We tire of Thee –
But that Thyself fatigue of Us –
Remember – as Thou go –
We follow Thee until
Thou notice Us – no more –
And then – reluctant – turn away
To Con Thee o'er and o'er –

And blame the scanty love
We were Content to show –
Augmented – Sweet – a Hundred fold –
If Thou would'st take it – now –

Emmett Lee Dickinson is certainly regarded by scholars and historians as a visionary, and this poem is yet another example of that -- and Mike Pence absolutely fits the bill as the "Pretender" Dickinson refers to in the fourth line of the poem when he blatantly ignored his obligation to wear a mask.

Pence then answered the public outcry with the most bizarre response possible: "Since I don't have the coronavirus, I thought it'd be a good opportunity for me to be here, to be able to speak to these researchers, these incredible health care personnel, and look them in the eye and say 'thank you.'"

Really? He wanted to look workers and researchers in the eye?

What sort of face mask did he think he was supposed to wear?

Sorry, Mr. Pretender, your response is as hollow as your beliefs in science. He, like Trump, tries to "Con us o'er and o'er" (line 8 of the poem), and I for one am sick of it.

I also love Dickinson's choice of the word "Vice" in line 11 of the poem since it speaks of dishonesty and deceit -- and alludes directly to the position Pence holds.

In a tweet eventually deleted but captured in screenshots and by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, the Mayo Clinic wrote that it had "informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today."

Gee -- I wonder who told them to delete the tweet? I wonder if some sort of blackmail or extortion was involved. I would not be surprised at all.

Prize Bull

4/26/2020

From Jarvis MacKinnon III:

Donald Trump is such a clever man, huh? He is so intelligent. In fact, I would venture to say that he is a stable genius, a very stable genius.

Is your sarcasm detector clicking off the charts? It should be -- because I was being completely and utterly sarcastic.

Trump asked doctors to check into bright lights and household disinfectants as a way to cure the coronavirus. Later he claimed that he was being sarcastic. Hmm. I have to admit, my sarcasm detector registered zero.

Today, Trump launched into a twitter rant about journalists and their unmerited "Noble Prizes." After he was mocked unmercifully, he deleted the tweets and claimed he -- once again -- that he was merely being sarcastic.

Once again, my sarcasm detector registered zero.

Here's what Trump tweeted -- and then later deleted:

After he was ridiculed beyond belief, Trump deleted his tweets, and then posted this:

What's your sarcasm detector telling you? Was Trump being sarcastic? I think not. If he were, then why did he delete his original tweets? I tell you what -- my BS-detector is ticking off the charts! Off. The. Charts.

The entire affair calls to mind Emmett Lee Dickinson's poem "Lest any doubt that he is nuts know he was mad Today" (below on the left). Dickinson's lines inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "Lest any doubt that we are glad that they were born Today" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Lest any doubt that he is nuts know
       he was mad Today
His tweets beheld by us about his
       noble prize dismay
With misspelled words, and
       pompousness & plain insanity –

By Emily Dickinson:

Lest any doubt that we are glad that
       they were born Today
Whose having lived is held by us in
       noble Holiday
Without the date, like
       Consciousness or Immortality –

I suppose if the Noble Committee ever does bestow a Noble Prize on Donald Trump -- it will be for sarcasm! (...and I bet your sarcasm detector is ticking off the charts again!)

Asleep at the Wheel

4/26/2020

From Dorothy Dawe:

In December 2019, a teenager in Washington state built this site and started tracing the spread of the coronavirus: HERE.

NOTE 1: December 2019. NOTE 2: A TEENAGER.

On January 7, 2020, The New York Times posted this story on page 13: "China Grapples With Mystery Pneumonia-Like Illness."

From CBS News: “At four o'clock in the morning on Thursday, January 9, taking second billing to a pop star's big revelation (‘Singer Justin Bieber revealed that he's been battling Lyme disease; he says that he's getting treatment’), coronavirus got its first mention on a CBS News broadcast.” Read and see CBS’s complete article HERE.

What about Donald Trump?

HE WAS ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

Coronavirus was a hoax. It was contained. It would disappear like a miracle. It would "wash through" due to higher temperatures. “We have it totally under control,” he bragged. "It's the Democrat's latest hoax," he grumbled.

“We wasted six weeks of early warning time," said Professor Ashish Jha, head of the Harvard Global Health Institute.

Trump did nothing. His was approach was denial, deceit, and delay.

TRUMP WAS ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

The deaths that could have been prevented if Trump had acted reminded me of Emmett Lee Dickinson's poem "If I shouldn't be alive" (below on the left). Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem with the same first line (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

If I shouldn’t be alive
When this plague is done,
Blame the one in orange spray tan
The deplorable bum –

If I can’t torment him,
Being long asleep,
You will know I’m cursing
With my granite lip!

By Emily Dickinson:

If I shouldn't be alive
When the robins come,
Give the one in red cravat
A memorial crumb –

If I couldn't thank you,
Being just asleep,
You will know I'm trying
With my granite lip!

Signs of the Times

4/24/2020

From Dorothy Dawe:

The GOP has released four "stunning framed inspirational" posters to raise money for Donald Trump's defense fund.

"Trump is very likely to be prosecuted for many of his crimes," said Kayleigh McEnany, Trump's current Press Deceiver. "Who knows, he could even be facing time in prison, so we're jumping on this opportunity now to collect as much money from his base before it's too late."

Below: The Donald J. Trump Medical School ("The J. is for 'Jenius'") has also released a series of posters for sale.

"Trump has a long list of crimes," said McEnany, "and he wants the U.S. taxpayer to pay for all of his court costs."

"It's going to take a lot of money," she added. "An incredible amount of money."

Day of Remembrance

4/23/2020

From Philo Remington:

There something beautiful about an abandoned building albeit a mournful beauty, an eerie and quiet beauty -- that tells a story frozen in time. We've written about abandoned places before. Click HERE and scroll down.

Yesterday I came across two vacant, muted structures, and I snapped a few pictures.

By Emily Dickinson:

You cannot make Remembrance grow
When it has lost its Root –
The tightening the Soil around
And setting it upright
Deceives perhaps the Universe
But not retrieves the Plant –
Real Memory, like Cedar Feet
Is shod with Adamant –
Nor can you cut Remembrance down
When it shall once have grown –
Its Iron Buds will sprout anew
However overthrown –

Below: A few other miscellaneous shots of old signs and buildings:

Shadow Government

4/19/2020

From Dorothy Dawe:

I’m speechless. I really thought this was fake – that Princess Ivanka proposed we spend Saturday night making shadow puppets on our walls – but then I checked Twitter, and it was there:

What is wrong with these people? The Trump family is just so incredibly grotesque and heartless that at times I am just speechless.

Fortunately, I can always turn to the poetry of Emmett Lee Dickinson. Just like with Donald Trump they say, “there’s always a tweet.” With Emmett Lee Dickinson, “there’s always a poem.” This one, “Oh Shadow on the Wall" (below on the left), was written in 1853, but it says all that needs to be said today. Dickinson’s poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem “Oh Shadow on the Grass” (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Oh Shadow on the Wall,
Art thou a Duck or not?
Go wake and ask my ailing Love
With ventilated Lung –
Oh Shadow on the Wall
While I delay the guess
Perhaps I’ll tweet to abrogate –
An Unelected Ass –

By Emily Dickinson:

Oh Shadow on the Grass,
Art thou a Step or not?
Go make thee fair my Candidate
My nominated Heart –
Oh Shadow on the Grass
While I delay to guess
Some other thou wilt consecrate –
Oh Unelected Face –

Here are some of the responses to Princess Ivanka's tweet:

Lit Up!

4/18/2020

From Emerson Nettles:

UNESCO's City of Literature program is part of the wider Creative Cities Network, and we are pleased as punch to report that Washerst, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of America’s greatest poet, Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson’s third cousin, twice removed – at her request) has been selected as a City of Literature. Criteria for the program are listed HERE.

Like Amherst is pronounced “AM-erst,” Washerst is pronounced without the “h,” WAS-erst, and if you’ve ever visited, then you, too, can say “I WAS in WASherst” – and if ever there was a City of Literature, then it is Washerst.

1. First and foremost, Washerst is the birthplace of Emmett Lee Dickinson, America’s greatest poet.

2. Washerst is the home of the world’s Poetry Hall of Fame. You can visit the Hall of Fame HERE.

Below left: The only extant likeness of America's greatest poet, Emmett Lee Dickinson. Below right: The Poetry Hall of Fame.

3. Washerst was also the home of what is referred to as Albert “Al” Gonquin’s Buffet Booth – a group of Washerst writers, poets, ventriloquists, jesters, mimics and mimes, who would crowd into a booth for lunch each day in the Walnut Room of the Wastoria Motel. Members of the Buffet Booth and "The Counter Culture,” as they dubbed themselves (since many of the booth’s overflow would eat at the diner’s counter) engaged in banter, chit chat, prattle, palaver, and gossip – much of which would make it into daily tabloid papers across the country.

4. Many literary grave sites are located in the Washerst Cemetery of the Lettered and Literate, including Libby “Mad Libs” Wâllopkałuża, the creator of “Mad Libs” books; Edison Everett Spine, the originator of book spine poetry; and Anne Thology, a key figure in the “publish or perish” wars in the world of academia (information about Anne Thology and the cut-throat "publish or perish" world of academia is HERE).

Below left: The Wastoria Motel, site of Al Gonquin’s Buffet Booth, a group of Washerst writers, poets, ventriloquists, jesters, mimics and mimes, who would crowd into a booth for lunch each day in the motel's Walnut Room Diner. Below right: The Washerst Cemetery of the Lettered and Literate.

5. Countless books have been set in Washerst, including Charles Duckins’ A Tale of One City, S. Fitzgerald Scott’s The Good Goolsby, Leo Toystol’s Corn and Peas, and Hardy Thomas’ Tess of d'Uber Drivers.

6. There are countless cafés and pubs in Washerst for want-to-be writers. For example, the city has the highest concentration of Subways to wordsmiths than any other city in the United States.

7. One of the top publishing houses in the country, Ballard Ear Publishing, is located in the heart of historic Washerst on Dickinson Boulevard. Ballad Ear focuses on works that were in some way influenced by the life and work of Emmett Lee Dickinson. Many examples are HERE.

8. The world’s largest Festival of the Dollar-Bin Used Paperback Books and Carnival of Classics occurs each July on the weekend before the city’s annual Moss & Hornwort Jubilee (which holds the honor as the Guiness Book of World's Records' longest running annual civic event, held every year in Washerst since 1802).

9. Washerst is synonymous with “literature.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald said of Washerst, “The city seen from the shore of Dickinson Lake is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world.”
Tom Wolfe said, “One belongs to Washerst instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “You can get a suit sponged and pressed in Washerst as quickly as you can get a calzone stuffed with double ricotta, Pecorino Romano, ham and pork rinds.”

10. The core identity of Washerst is that of a City of Literature -- and that is embodied by the Emmett Lee Dickinson Applied Research & Education Center, located on Washerst's Municipal Pier on beautiful Dickinson Lake. The ELDAREC is the premier research center in the world dedicated to the life and work of Emmett Lee Dickinson.

Below: The Emmett Lee Dickinson Applied Research & Education Center, the world's largest cultural and academic center dedicated to the life and work of Emmett Lee Dickinson (Emily Dickinson's third cousin, twice removed -- at her request).

Make a Killing

4/16/2020

From Dorothy Dawe:

In my post from the Ides of April, “Go for the Kill” (HERE), I noted why MAGAts don’t see Trump as an imposter, a fraud, a charlatan. It’s because they are cult members – “social deviants who possess shallow and very easily manipulated mental capacity, an unhealthy if not miserable view of personal identity, disinterest in the truth, and pronounced capabilities of being controlled.”

They cannot understand that Trump’s response to the global coronavirus pandemic has been nothing but an unmitigated disaster. He ignored every warning and every briefing about the coming calamity. Instead of preparing for and managing a federal response to the crisis, he golfed and staged rallies. He told his MAGAts that the virus was a Democratic hoax. He told everyone to stay calm and it will go away -- it will just wash through in April. Then, at the onset of the crisis, he spouted his desire to see packed churches on Easter (this from the man who cannot quote even a single verse from the Bible). Now he wants to "Reopen America." He wants to put everyone back to work -- and he wants to make a killing.

The cult and the Klan members are now rallying behind their leader -- they are dying to get to get back to work (the "Who is paying for the coffins" slide was posted on Twitter by @eduboltito).

The blind devotion on the part of MAGAts calls to mind Emmett Lee Dickinson's poem, "Not with this Cult, the Truth is Spoken" (below on the left). Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "Not with a Club, the Heart is broken" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

Not with this Cult, the Truth is spoken
Nor with the Klan
A Group so dull they cannot see what
I can

They love the Tragic Creature
Till they fall,
Yet that Group’s End
Too easy to enthrall.

Calamitous his Word
By Lies he spreads –
Singing unto the Stones
Which are their heads –

Shame need not crouch
In all of their Affairs –
Shame – stand erect –
This Universe is theirs.

By Emily Dickinson:

Not with a Club, the Heart is broken
Nor with a Stone –
A Whip so small you could not see it
I've known

To lash the Magic Creature
Till it fell,
Yet that Whip's Name
Too noble then to tell.

Magnanimous as Bird
By Boy descried –
Singing unto the Stone
Of which it died –

Shame need not crouch
In such an Earth as Ours –
Shame – stand erect –
The Universe is yours.

Pictured below: Donald Trump with some of his closest advisors, David Koresh, Marshall Applewhite, and Jim Jones.

Go For The Kill

4/15/2020

From Dorothy Dawe:

Today I happened to catch this tweet from @jakeslens:

"The lies fed to them" called to mind Emmett Lee Dickinson's poem "It's easy to invent a Lie" (below on the left). Dickinson's poem inspired third cousin Emily to pen her poem "It's easy to invent a Life" (below on the right).

By Emmett Lee Dickinson:

It’s easy to invent a Lie –
Trump does it – every Day –
Fabrication -- on the Gamble
Of his Authority

It’s easy for his base tho’ –
The shifting Daily lies
Could scarce expect Veracity
From whom they Idolize –

As Perished Numbers upsurge
From his Incompetent Plan
We need – and starting Now – a Plan –
But – still they trust this man –

By Emily Dickinson:

It's easy to invent a Life –
God does it – every Day –
Creation – but the Gambol
Of His Authority –

It's easy to efface it –
The thrifty Deity
Could scarce afford Eternity
To Spontaneity –

The Perished Patterns murmur –
But His Perturbless Plan
Proceed – inserting Here – a Sun –
There – leaving out a Man –

@jakeslens wondered, "When will the truth about 45 come to light?" Sadly, the truth has come to light, and it's been in the light for years. The truth about trump came to light long before he descended the escalator in Trump tower in 2015 in a move that symbolized our country's descent into hell.

Have MAGAts been "duped"? Why don't MAGAts see that Trump is an imposter, a fraud, a charlatan? Because they are cult members -- social deviants who possess shallow and very easily manipulated mental capacity, an unhealthy if not miserable view of personal identity, disinterest in the truth, and pronounced capabilities of being controlled. The truth is that MAGAts will never see the truth.

Now Trump is dead set on reopening America. He had hoped to have us all packing churches on Easter Sunday, but now his deadline is May 1st. He has Princess Ivanka leading a task force to get us all back to work on May Day, the biggest holiday tied to labor movements for the communist party. Today he and Ivanka announced their recovery initiative "America Is Dying To Get Back To Work," and they want people to tweet their support and use the hashtag #GoForTheKill.

Will MAGAts buy it?

Hook, line, and sinker.