Delightful Poetry On Thursday

Just click the title to read more about the poet and the poem.

In a Grain of Sand by Jesús Papoleto Meléndez

To see a world in a grain of sand …
—from “Auguries of Innocence” by William Blake

We are Starseeds  
                   every one of us –  
                                                     you & me,  
                       & me and you  
                           & him & her,  
                                                    & them  
                                                    & they  
                                                    & those  
                    Who know of this  
                         are truly blessed  …
  

 True for all  
                    living beings,  
                                        beings living –  
                                                               not humans only,  
                                         but ants & trees  
                                              & the open breeze,  
                                                  things that breathe  
                                                      air or fire,  
                                                         water, earth  
                                       all  kinds of dust  
                                                                & dirt,  
                                                                   particles  
                                        a  part of all,  
                                                            all a part  
                                                                          of  

  Everything  
            that is  
        in everything;  
                                 Thus, it Sings!!!  
                                                      & its song  
                                                                    is Life,  
                                                                       & Life
                                                                                 is!!! …  

  a  seed of Stars,  
                      the dust of Suns  
                                                & Moons  
                                                        rocks & dust  
                                       &  outer smoke  
                                                    in outer space  
  Floating  
        in a bath of timelessness,  
                                           counted, measured  
                                                  numbered  
                                   by some species –  
                                                      others caring not;  
  Science & Mathematics  
                     trying to plot  
                                             Poetry in motion,  
                                                                                Motion  
                                                in a Helix’s curve,  

                                And Life  
                                       on Earth
                                           becomes visible
                                                                  to You
                                         through the naked I!

Copyright © 2024 by Jesús Papoleto Meléndez. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 11, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets.

Republicans doing what? Causing what?

Republicans are against the public having healthcare for some reason.  Paxton, Texas leadership, and a good segment of the republican part simply want non-white people / all immigrants to suffer as much as possible.  As if just by living they have committed the worst possible crime.  Plus dreamers?  Look republicans keep passing laws that kids are property so they had no choice being dragged to the US with their parents.  Plus they have been here, raised here, never caused problems, added to the economy.   Denying them healthcare is stupid and just trying to hurt them.  Plus it costs taxpayers more as dreamers need care they must have but can’t afford to pay for.   Hugs

PSA: migrants desperately seeking shelter may be in your area. Call ICE asap if seen.

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Government run by gang thugs.  That is what maga and the maga republicans want.  tRump has always been a mob boss wannabe but was never good enough to really do it.  He is a school yard bully who never grew up and has only regressed over the years.  He thinks might make right, and that who ever can bully or threaten the most gets all the toys and their way on everything.   Is this how we think things should be run?  Is this for the good of the country?  And if this is the way the republicans are going to act then how should democrats respond?  Corporate media both print and video are afraid to attack tRump so they ganged up on Biden and the democrats, but they never pointed out that tRump was everything they attacked Biden for being.  Now the brownshirts and thugs are making congress people offers they don’t dare refuse.  Hugs

In recent days, allies of Trump adopted an approach that is not novel for the president-elect and his followers: Make life extremely uncomfortable for anyone who dares to oppose him. The swarm of MAGA attacks that Sen. Joni Ernst has experienced is a warning of what’s in store for others who express skepticism of his personnel choices. 

Read the full article. As I noted yesterday, among the attacks on Ernst are threats to resurface allegations of an adulterous affair.

If you are a bigot who hates gay people then you believe this false idea.  If you are a racist you believe that black / brown people are inferior and erode standards.  In fact that was said about blacks when the military was first integrated.  However that notion got totally destroyed due to the bravery and proficiency of the black divisions in the 1930s and 1940s.   Same with gay people.  Most people in the military don’t care your sex partner as longs as they are not forced against their will to join you.  It is only the bigots, the fundamentalist religious people.  It is the Christians like Hegseth who has said that the goal is to make the military Christians who want all the gay people out.  Notice it was gays he objected to, not lesbians.  The upper military brass has studied this, the idea of LGBTQ+ in the military and all the studies show that the military benefits greatly for allowing the LGBTQ+ to serve openly.  Look let’s be honest the military was full of gay people in the 1980s when I was in, both the Navy and the Army.  We just stood the chance of getting blackmailed or discharged if a bigot like Hegseth found out.  Again all of maga want desperately to return to the fantasy time of the 1950s thinking that was the best of times, but only if you were a white straight cis male.   The rest of the population suffered from the unfair laws.   Hugs.  

New: Pete Hegseth Lamented Don't Ask Don't Tell Change, Women in the MilitaryThe Trump nominee's views on women and LGBTQ+ individuals raise questions about his fitness

PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes.bsky.social) 2024-12-10T13:10:06.098Z

From the linked article which I suggest reading.

Hegseth’s views risk alienating large segments of the armed forces and undermining morale by suggesting that certain groups are inherently less capable of serving. The Department of Defense has long moved toward embracing equality and diversity as pillars of strength. A leader who dismisses these values could jeopardize decades of progress and fail to inspire trust and cohesion among service members.

In a time when military challenges require unity and innovation, the Secretary of Defense must represent the best of modern leadership—respect for diversity, evidence-based policy, and a commitment to national security above outdated biases. Pete Hegseth’s comments reveal a personal belief system with negative views which raises doubts about his fitness to lead the military

This is more gang thuggery.  Notice this part:  … as he threatened local officials to open the city and its county jail to the will of federal immigration agents.     Hugs

The very same weaponizing the government and the DOJ to attack enemies that tRump and the maga right claims is happening under Biden was routine under tRump.   Notice the use of the deep state tools to gather information including personal information which should have been protected legally.  That is why all these people who claim tRump won’t be vengeful and won’t weaponize the government are just blowing smoke, he will and he has.  Hugs

Oh wow, think of all those poor people who voted for tRump because they believe everything he says and think he is a smart businessman.  Too bad no one tried to explain to them that tariffs are paid by the consumer, that means the person buying the item.  Oh wait yes there were people trying hard to tell them that.  In fact the black woman they just couldn’t vote for was saying that very clearly as was everyone but right wing media that is deep into the cult of tRump.  Hugs 

Fox Business: “Dollar Tree could drop some products if tariffs are enacted”

PatriotTakes 🇺🇸 (@patriottakes.bsky.social) 2024-12-10T17:58:54.369Z

This man has shown nothing but contempt for all normal behavior and respect for the those in congress.  He has done a lot to destroy the post office and to make it unreliable.  Remember that he was destroying sorting machines and shortening delivery routes during an election so many mail in ballots never got counted.  In deeply rural areas no other mail delivery service covers that area so they depend on the post office.  The post office is the only government service mandated in the constitution.  Remember DeJoy is a multimillionaire who owns a company that competes with and contracts with the post office that he is in charge of.  Sounds like a conflict of ethics that needs real instigating.  Hugs

As normal Musk is spouting off on stuff he knows nothing about.  Homelessness is caused by several factors, a major one being the cost of housing.  With hedge funds and wealthy investment companies buying up all the housing in an area and jacking up the rents while providing no maintenance support.   They don’t care, a large profit is demanded.  The fact that people can not afford to live these days because people like Musk demand ever more profit, a man who has so much money he could waste 44 billion on a whim and not suffer any lowering of his lifestyle.  That is what life is like for these clowns.  They have no conception of what life is like for the rest of us. By the way, the article he cites as his proof says the exact opposite of what Musk claims.  That is why you need to read more than the headlines and look at the pictures.  Providing housing does work, but as the article referenced states the programs need the correct amount of funding and supervision.  Hugs

 

The article does not support the contention that providing shelter to people who need it is fruitless or that all unhoused people are criminals. Rather, the article details how the converted hotels in San Francisco were “underfunded and understaffed,” leading to substandard living conditions.

Read the full article. As the linked piece notes, a large percentage of the homeless are children, veterans, queer kids rejected by their parents, and women escaping domestic violence. But they’re all violent, drug-addicted liars, according to Musk, whose tweet currently has 25 million views.

Delusion run strong in this one.  Need I say more.  A fox entertainment host is also claiming tRump will buy a large track of property for the US making more states.   Hugs

Donald Trump is once again “joking” about annexing Canada into the United States, this time calling Justin Trudeau the “Governor” of the “Great State of Canada.”Totally normal and not crazy at all

Republicans Against Trumpism (@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social) 2024-12-10T05:53:56.198Z

Montana Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Families & Doctors, Blocks Ban on Healthcare for Transgender Youth

AffiliateACLU of Montana
December 11, 2024 1:15 pm

So, I Did A Thing (again) The Other Day-

Cartoon Nine Four Seven by Josh Lieb

Injection Read on Substack

Santa’s bedroom. Santa, looking very scrawny, is trying on his red suit. The jacket is way too big and the pants are falling down. Mrs. Claus, annoyed, says: “I told you not to get those stupid shots.”

Some people just look better fat.

Ali Redford ends a long, long drought of reader art by submitting this wonderful nine four six:

Ali thought my cartoon was funny even though, she confesses, she’d never previously heard about the free U2 album that mysteriously appeared on peoples’ phones ten years ago. It occurred to me while I was writing it that I might mystify some of my younger readers. So yeah, while they were rolling out a new iPhone a decade ago, Apple and U2 rather presumptuously “gave” all iPhone users this new U2 album. Everyone woke up with it on their phone and just felt… invaded. Even U2 fans were a little put off. I think it bothered people to discover that they were not in charge of their own phone.

Most people deleted the album (or kept it and enjoyed it). Then there were people like me, who had the unwanted album follow them, from phone to phone, for a decade.

Ali, I love the cartoon you drew — it’s maybe your best yet. The women feel very real, and the speaker’s sense of liberation is palpable. Thank you!

The rest of you: get to work drawing my cartoons.

(snip)

Another Dose of “Cover Snark”

because it’s good for us!

Another reblogged reblog—

Update to the hate bombing of a book about inclusion. Thank you Randy for sharing this with us

“Is the Cold-Blooded UnitedHealthcare CEO KillerGetting This Much Love Because He’s a White Man?

There’s just no damn way a Black man would get the same treatment.

(This is a valid POV. Also, if you go ahead and click the links, you’ll get simply the embed you clicked on. If you click the link above, you can see the whole story with the embeds. The whole story is here, with the embed links.)

By Lawrence Ware

The response to UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson being shot and killed in Manhattan last week has been…interesting, to say the least. Dude, whose identity remains unknown and is probably somewhere cooling in Istanbul while the Feds and everyone else continue searching for him, has turned into a something of a pop culture icon.

The online reactions of Black folks to the killer and Thompson himself have run the gamut, from outright hostility, like this guy…

…to intellectually nuanced and dense articulations of why they are unmoved about the killing of this white man who theoretically became rich off the back of the misfortunes of the sick. (Let’s call this intellectual hostility.)

What’s most surprising is the amount of love this hoodie wearing, N95-masked gentleman who used a silencers to kill a man in broad daylight in the heart of New York City is receiving. There has not been this much adoration for a white man since Channing Tatum took his clothes off dancing off beat in Magic Mike. I mean, there’s already been a lookalike competition:

https://www.theroot.com/embed/inset/iframe?id=tiktok-7445767917418876190&autosize=1

There are even folks thirsting over this dude like they have been walking though the Mojave desert and homie is a glass of water with some liquid IV:

But let’s be clear. Even though the NYPD (shockingly) said here that the killer is “light skinned:”

…ain’t no damn way a Black man would get this kind of love if he pulled the trigger. I’m quite positive that there are white people in the sundown town of Cullman, Ala. who are fine with a white man doing this crime but would pull out their big ass trucks with a Confederate flag on the front to find the perpetrator if he was Black.

Denzel Washington could have pulled the trigger, and folks would have thanked him for the years of joy he brought to their lives and thrown his ass under the jail.

The response to this murder (I refuse to call it an “assassination” because Thompson could have caught some lead for something as simple as sleeping with the nanny and her boyfriend pulling out the .44 on him.) is at once expected in our society and, well, pretty nonsensical.

And like all things that make no sense anymore, I blame this on Donald Trump…and that dude hasn’t even moved into the White House yet. I’m just glad the killer wasn’t a Black man, because we’d all be face-down in handcuffs getting profiled throughout the damn country.

Meet Nick Dumont: the Oppenheimer Actor Comes Out as Trans, Updates Pronouns

The actor shared the new name and pronouns in a major gender update to TMZ.

By James Factora December 6, 2024

Nick Dumont, the actor who played Jackie Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer, has come out as transmasculine and nonbinary.

As first reported by TMZ on Thursday, the actor recently changed their pronouns and name on their Instagram bio. Though their handle is still @emmadumont, their name is now listed as Nick Dumont on their profile, and their pronouns are listed as “they/them.” Their bio includes a collection of heart emojis that appear to correspond to the lesbian and nonbinary flags, as well as the phrases “Carmy coded,” as in the main character from The Bear, and “McCutcheon apologist,” as in the polarizing anti-hero Shane from the original L Word. Now that’s a transmasculine nonbinary Instagram bio if ever we’ve seen one.

Though Dumont has changed their pronouns and name on their Instagram profile, they have not yet directly posted about their coming out to social media. A representative for the actor told TMZ that they identify “as a transmasculine nonbinary person.” “Their work name is still going to be Emma Dumont, but they will go by Nick with friends and family,” the rep said. (snip-MORE)

https://www.them.us/story/nick-dumont-oppenheimer-comes-out-trans-nonbinary-pronouns

Meep, Meep!