"Blow up the bags of sham" – Jean Arp
The poet Michael McClure died this week, due to complications from a stroke he suffered a couple years’ back. McClure was one of the early participants in San Francisco’s Beat scene. He not only wrote poetry, but organized some of the movement’s key events. His continued presence in the Bay Area’s literary scene was a…
Over the past month, some American conservatives have been pimping the Swedish model for fighting COVID-19. Unlike most of Europe, the Swedes have not instituted shelter-in-place orders or closed non-essential businesses. The government has issued a set of guidance on physical distancing and basic hygiene and, as far as directives are concerned, that is that….
First wave. We are in the first wave of the coronavirus, still climbing the crest. If things “go good” we might ride the crest in July, until then it is more bad. A new Center for Disease Control (CDC) document states that May will be crueler than April. From Talking Points Memo, The document says…
It has been 50 years since the Kent State Massacre. On May 4, 1970, twenty-eight National Guardsmen used up all of 13 seconds to file 67 rounds into a crowd of students, killing 4 and injuring 9, one of whom became paralyzed for life. Why did the students get mowed down? Well, some were protesting…
On the evening of April 29 in Landskrona, Sweden, Maj Sjöwall died. That she died when she died is no surprise – she had been ill for quite a while – but, to those who admired her writing, Sjöwall’s death is deeply felt. With her partner, Per Wahlöö, Sjöwall created a ten-volume series of mystery…
More than 70% of Americans support scientifically-based COVID mitigation/control measures such as stay-at-home/shelter-in-place orders, physical distancing, wearing masks, and routine hand-washing. This is not some regional thing: 76% of North Carolinians, 82% of Oregonians, 80% of Mainers, and 95% of Los Angelinos support COVID measures. Even in Michigan, besieged by far right protesters, support is…
May Day 2020: Worker Unity in the Age of Pandemic (Common Dreams): Happy May Day! Around the world May 1 is celebrated as International Workers Day in commemoration of workers who were killed at Chicago’s Haymarket Square, protesting in support of strikers…that is May Day is celebrated everywhere but the United States. But, maybe will…
Lauren Kaori Gurley has been doing some great reporting on labor, especially on how workers are reacting to working during the pandemic. Yesterday, she reported that Workers at Amazon, Whole Foods, Instacart, Walmart, FedEx, Target, and Shipt say they will walk off the job on May 1 to protest their employers’ failure to provide basic…
Over there at the Vanity Fair, Gabriel Sherman has a frightening article titled Inside Donald Trump and Jared Kushner’s Two Months of Magical Thinking. Going past the headline, the piece is a tale of Jared Kushner, an unelected family member with no real-life experience in any job other than slumlord, pretty much running the show…
Was gone for a couple days, sorry about that, business to attend to. But, my absence means that we get to play catch up and go through some stories that passed from the front pages but are still relevant. US was warned of threat from anti-vaxxers in event of pandemic (The Guardian): Good sleuthing by…