This is so true that it hurts. http://ping.fm/e3evl

Continue reading

Side note: Florence and the Machine tickets are going on sale at 10 AM on Friday. Who’s going???

Continue reading

SOPA and PIPA are dead for now. But ACTA is coming.

http://www.i-programmer.info/news/81-web-general/3649-sopa-and-pipa-shelved-but-is-acta-unstoppable.html

Worrisome. Though not surprising. This is yet another in a long string of pro-business international treaties drafted by big business to protect the interests of big business. When they can’t get a democratic government to pass a law, they circumvent the democratic process and send non-elected officials to draft a treaty.

The sad part is, that like ACTA and PIPA, it’ll do nothing to actually stop the spread of piracy. Until media and entertainment companies find ways to make digital delivery better and more convenient than piracy, they’re going to continue to get their shit pirated.

Orbit

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111004091704.htm

Newton told us
that anything with mass has gravity,
and everything pulls on everything else
all the time.

The moon is always falling towards us
and always missing us.
It writes Craigslist ads and telecommutes,
remembers our face from the crowd,
wonders what our number is,
searches for us on Facebook.
Always comes up empty.

It’s not a love story. It’s the missed connection
of atmosphere grazing stone,
of a surface without air, battered by billions of years
worth of meteorites. Frankly,
it’s fucking brutal.

I worry sometimes that this is us:
that the closest we come to touch
is the mathematics of downward flight,
foiled by an eternal pull
we can feel but never satisfy.

This is why the tides rise -
because the moon is iron
and the sea is anemic.
And if the closest it gets
to satisfaction is tasting the beach
it’ll swallow every last grain of sand,
thin-blooded water forever lapping at the shore.

In a universe that’s always expanding,
we will eventually lose one another.
I found the old big bang theories
comforting – that someday, we will all return
to a pinpoint, compressed together
forever. But astronomy disproves
all comforting lies. We are always pulling apart,
and the stars we gaze tonight
become the cold void of tomorrow.
Maybe this is how
the cycle breaks.

I write all this to say
that I miss you, mom.
I was a rambunctious child,
an earth too full of war and famine
to appreciate the night sky.

You were a distant moon,
wide pale face almost as cold
as the darkness you refused to show me.
You always kept your distance,
maybe because tongue clicking stars
whispered their disapproval
in comet crashes and meteor showers.

We did this silent dance every night,
and even during the day, I felt you
pulling on my waters
dragging swimmers out to drown.

You grew into this role, decided
that distance suited you.
Let your silence build strength,
until you launched yourself away
from me completely, riding
the solar winds of an expanding universe,
a ragged, broken orbit left in your wake.

You are the moon the earth loses,
an asteroid hurtling through deep space,
the failure of gravity and theory
mathematics and astronomy.
Maybe this is how
the cycle breaks.

The tides lay fallow now,
accepting anemia and frailty.
And a darker sky leans closer and
breathes, coldly.

Mobile Posting!

Posting via mobile phone! Technology is the shit.

Working People’s Manifesto Addressed to Occupy Wall Street

We are the vast majority of American citizens, working, unemployed, and underemployed, struggling to make ends meet. If we are working, we are struggling. If we are not working, we desperately WANT to work.

We are every color, every gender, every sexual orientation, every political alignment. We are everybody. We are all around you.

We don’t need anyone to tell us who our enemies are. We know who they are – exploitative corporate power and their pre-purchased political stooges.

We are tired of the failure of the left – too much slavish addiction to doctrine and meaningless posturing. For you, struggle is a lifestyle. For us, it’s our lives. Our lives do not revolve around going to the next protest, the next event, or sleeping in a park. We don’t have time for that – we are busy trying to survive. You have failed us, so we ignore you.

We are sick of the lies of the right. We know who you really work for, and we know that you are not working in our best interests. We are sick of your double talk, your hypocrisy, and your corporate servitude. You smile, dress in your Sunday best, and annihilate our future. We will not be your slaves.

We are tired of jargon. Don’t talk down to us like we don’t understand what our lives are. Don’t try to cloud the issue with terms like “reformist” or “revolutionary”. All we want is an improvement to our lives, and the condition of our communities. If you can’t provide that, then your movement is nothing but street theatre.

We know that politicians and corporations do not respond to anything but pressure – economic, political, and social. We are ready to apply that pressure – we just need an avenue to do so. If you cannot offer us that outlet, we will abandon you in droves. The media cycle will shift, and we will forget you. We do not have time to waste watching you intellectually masturbate yourselves.

We are a vast untapped reservoir of power, energy, creativity, and labor. Every American movement needs us. We will join you if you acknowledge we exist, and acknowledge that our concerns have merit and validity. You have a chance to do that, right here, right now. Do not waste it.

We need to win. It’s not enough to raise grievances. It’s not enough to offer solutions. We understand that real democracy takes time, but we need a movement that can agree on a set of goals and attain them, in a way that measurably improves our lives. If you can give us that, we will follow you to hell and back.

Anything less is mere fashion, and we don’t have time for it.

An actionable list of demands for Occupy Wall Street

While this is not endorsed by anyone associated with OWS, I think this is a great list. Given that the most comment criticism about OWS is its lack of focus and lack of actionable demands, I think adopting this, through directly democratic general assembly, would be a good idea. Check the list out here.

A few critiques:

Point 1: All Corporate Money Out of Politics, Heavy Restrictions on Lobbying

This requires a very active citizenry to maintain, and new laws to be imposed. We cannot go to sleep again, or we’ll be in the same place, yet again, in a few decades. I don’t want to go back to this, so beyond the actual laws we pass, we need to wake up and stay awake for this to work. We are staring into the corporate abyss. We can’t fucking blink.

However, propaganda-wise, it could work really well. Don’t support this measure, Mr. Senator? Why might that be? Let’s go digging in your contribution records! Oh look, big oil! Oh look, pharma companies! So you don’t support this measure because you’ve already been bought and sold by corporations. While this information is available already, using it in this way could be very effective. Granted, the political greedroids and suckfaces of Fox News will say something about class war and limiting freedom of speech, but fuck them.

Point 2: Closing of Tax Loopholes and Fair Taxation of the Richest Americans

As much as I agree with this, the tax code is ludicrously complicated, and this isn’t something that can be done overnight. Again, we must remain vigilant. Also, we need to acknowledge that “fair” taxation is NOT a flat tax of say, 15% for everyone. It SEEMS fair, and the asshats who advocate it think that the illusion of fairness will sell us on it. But if you take even the smallest look at the economic realities in America, you will realize that the illusion is just that.

If you take 15% from someone making $20K per year, he’s suddenly in a MUCH worse position, and life becomes a much greater struggle. If you take 15% from someone making $250,000 (the starting point for the highest current tax bracket), not only is he still sitting pretty, he can still probably afford a new swimming pool if he wants one. So much for shared sacrifice.

The fairest way to implement this is to impose a progressive tax (which basically boils down to higher tax rates for people who make more money) which includes taxes on capital gains, investments, etc. Some people will oppose this measure on the principle of “fairness.” I would like to feed these people into a wood chipper. Or make them work a minimum wage job for just one day. The result might be the same.

Point 3: Sincere Efforts Toward Anti-Trust Breakups of Every ‘Too Big To Fail’ Entity in the Nation

If you don’t think this is a good idea, I’d like to see your stock portfolio, though I probably don’t need to. If you oppose this, it’s because you benefited from this Depression – and thus the suffering of millions, worldwide. And you would like to keep benefiting from it. And there’s a woodchipper here somewhere, and I will TOTALLY use it on you.

Point 4: Expanded Criminalization and Punishment of White Collar Crimes

We are going to have to be vigilant as fuck, and we CANNOT accept any politician saying “Oh yeah, we’ll totally do it!” Court cases tend to drag out for YEARS, and if we are not vigilant, if we are not watching every step of the way, if we are not occupying the shit out of SOMETHING, these sons of bitches will get off the hook. They’re almost completely off now. This demand seems simple, but requires a huge commitment from an engaged citizenry. Really, that’s the story with all these demands.

Point 5: That Our State and Local Governments Restore Local Authority Over Our Food, Water, and Resources, and that the U.S. Withdraw From Any Trade Agreement that Pre-Empts Control of These Resources.

Snazzy, and I am definitely against neo-liberal globalization. This measure wants to oppose the impact that the WTO, IMF, and World Bank have had on our environment and the environments of our neighbors. But that being said, I do think some degree of federal control of environmental resources is important. If someone in Oregon thinks its a great idea to clearcut the temperate rainforests, someone should stop them. That someone should be the federal government. Also, if everyone in Alaska thinks that drilling in ANWR is a great idea, fuck them (they elected Sarah Palin after all), the government should stop them. And if politicians in the government of my home state, New Jersey, think that corporations should be allowed to further pollute the soil and get away with it, again, fuck them, and the federal government should stop them or hold them accountable for what they’ve already polluted. Some degree of national control is important.

Point 6. That New Laws Be Enacted to Challenge and Curtail Corporate Personhood and Access to the Bill of Rights

Out of all of these demands, if we just get this one, I’ll consider the whole damn thing a success. This is the linchpin.

Occupy Wall Street

Seriously, if you haven’t already, go here and check it out:

http://occupywallst.org/

http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

This might just be the most important protest of the last twenty years.

Zen

Here’s another new piece, in my continuing efforts to write about something other than motherfucking politics. Yay for growing as an artist. I was inspired by the sparse, spare words of Nick Flynn when I wrote this. Google him. Check out the way he reads his work. Now imagine me trying to ape that, while reading this, and you’ll get a good sense of what I was going for. :p

Your thoughts, as always, are welcome.

My girlfriend is Buddhist.
She tells me about zen and mindfulness,
fills me up with these concepts
when all else has rushed out of me
leaving a fleshy vacuum,
with my mouth as an airlock.

I don’t speak. I don’t
want to expose her
to this. There’s a reason
why astronauts wear
those thick suits. It’s not just
for the radiation. This emptiness
exceeds human endurance.
It boils water at body temperature,
seventy percent of your body
gone just like that.

I wonder if this
is what the nothingness
of Nirvana feels like.

Is philosophy trying to kill me,
flush me out into space
like a Geiger movie monster,
that pop culture phantasm of id?

The town where she grew up,
Patterson, New York
tore down the house
where the Dalai Lama
lived in exile. I wish
I could be like that empty field -
how it forgets its history.

I do my best to forget the way
the past steals my air.
Disregard the hull breach,
wear a void suit – padded,
thick. Breathe out of
a bottle. Eat nothing but regret.
Try not to expose you

to something that will kill you.

The debt ceiling and a pivotal moment

Okay. For the first time, in a long time, I’m rooting for Obama. Boehner pulled out of debt ceiling negotiations, citing Obama’s intractability (Yeah, right – he did everything but bake him a cake) and tried to force his own plan through, to force a Senate vote, and possibly a presidential veto. But Boehner failed to get the necessary votes, even from his own party. Boehner wanted to force a Senate vote on his plan, throwing the blame for default onto the Senate Democrats for voting it down, or Obama for vetoing it. But Boehner wasn’t able to pull this off, and it put Obama in a great position to negotiate a strong bill that preserves Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid as well as raises the debt ceiling.

This gives Obama the opportunity to play the role of the negotiator, the man in the middle, and finally WIN. It’s like an actor finally getting a shot at the Broadway role he always wanted. It’s a role that, in my opinion, he’s played too often throughout his presidency, but this time, it’s necessary, and might actually produce results.

Obama has pissed me off on so many things in the last two years, but this time, I’m rooting for him. I’ve got a grandmother who is on Medicare, and a mother with a terminal illness, and if something awful happened to my father, she’d be on Medicare as well. These are vital programs. Real living, breathing people need them to live and preserve a quality of life worth living. I cannot even begin to emphasize how personal of a fight this is to me.

We are gauged, as a society, by how we treat our oldest and our youngest. We can prioritize raw dogma or basic compassion. Do the right thing, America.