then a loopy face behind a glass enclosure

My two standard desperate last ditch attempts to end a reading slump are Ishiguro and Murnane for novels and C.D. Wright and Ashbery for poetry and I am now 0 for 4, and as I put down *A Million Windows,* my very favorite Murnane novel, yesterday afternoon it dawned on me than not only can't I read novels and poetry any longer, I no longer want to read novels and poetry any longer, at least for now

I can't blame my eyes (my left eye above): true, they ache after ten minutes of reading, and, true, my left eye literally cannot read anything and won't be able to until its cataract is yoinked out later this summer, but I spend hours online for work and pleasure every day and my eyes ache then too. Need to get right eye's (below) cataract yoinked out too but not until Fall, but they are not why I not only can't read but actively don't want to read, and to be honest it doesn't bother me that it's not bothering me and *that* doesn't bother me at all either

Bots - American, Chinese, Singaporian, Japanese, South Korean - still pinging me by the tens of thousands of hits a day. I don't think it's surveillance directed at me, I said to a digibud relieved but slightly jealous he/she/they not getting the relentless scrubbing, I think it's AI filling its silos, and he/she/they said, it's you for if/when for giggles you're swooped up and shipped to El S.......r because of your grids. I said, grids what I do when I can't and don't want to read but for the first time, and not from fear of a concentration camp, I've wondered if I could stop making these grids if I wanted to (save my peace of mind) and if maybe not wanting to read is an issue that it isn't more an issue that goes beyond documenting the clusterfuck and my motherfucking painting. Music still works

NO FOOD HAS ENTERED GAZA IN FORTY-FOUR DAYS
⬆	"The word is “starvation”. Starvation. You media weasels"						⬆
⬆	Arab Complicity and the Normalization of Evil in Gaza						⬆
"Again, if the idea is that when someone in custody leaves the nation’s airspace there’s no way for a court to compel the state to return them—or exert any jurisdiction at all—then you’re simply saying whoever’s in power can fly people 100 miles offshore and push them out of helicopters into the sea"
"This Is How Democracies Die: One Man, One Cell, No Charges"
⬇	The Rise of End Times Fascism						⬇
“exit” – the principle that those with means have the right to walk away from the obligations of citizenship, especially taxes and burdensome regulation. Retooling and rebranding the old ambitions and privileges of empires, they dream of splintering governments and carving up the world into hyper-capitalist, democracy-free havens under the sole control of the supremely wealthy, protected by private mercenaries, serviced by AI robots and financed by cryptocurrencies"
How Corporations Weaponize Hope to Sell Extinction
Seven Truths About Trump’s Tariffs
Trump’s in-the-know plan to demolish the US economy
"This. America, as I've said many times, has already lost. Once again for the back benches: China has the tech lead in 80% of areas, more industry than the US/Japan/SK combined, and as Alon notes, regularly completes mega-projects"
"The bedrock premise of American political culture is that the US can go anywhere on earth and kill as many people as we want and it's fundamentally illegitimate for anyone to fight back"
"America is exceptional in how it provides an endless supply of media amplification and status rewards for the people who ruined the entire world"
"We've seen this show twice before. It always ends the same way. He drops out, endorses an oligarch he claimed to oppose, and then supports their wars"
⬆	"some anti-genocide people unfurled a Free Palestine flag behind Bernie Sanders at his rally just now and police thugs arrested them as Bernie Sanders looked on and let it happen without saying a word. A minute earlier Sanders said "Israel has the right to defend itself" and repeated his lie about "not one more nickel to Netanyahu" when he opposes sanctions and an actual arms embargo and to this day refuses to recognize the genocide"						⬆
So, you want to be a dissident?
"Imagine the kind of sociopath that would help build an incendiary device, knowing full well it would be used to set fire to someone’s house"
Trump as the American Gorbachev
"hey remember when bush used the patriot act to expand executive power to dangerous fashy levels and then obama expanded those powers and then trump expanded those powers and then biden expanded those powers? probably nothing to worry about!"
The attack on international students
NIHILISITIC VIOLENT EXTREMISTS
"Kyle Langford, a 20-something Nick Fuentes acolyte, is running for governor of California on a platform of deporting all male undocumented immigrants and then giving all the females one year to marry a "Californian incel" to avoid deportation"
The Life and Death of the Modern University
"As someone who took a lot of hits (career hits, but also campaigns of death threats and SWATtings) over the years warning about rising fascism... It is both exhausting and infuriating to see all these pundits all of a sudden at the eleventh hour going "oopsie yeah he's a fascist lol my bad"
The case for letting the world burn
"A useful reaction for political elites who “didn’t see this coming” would be to reconsider how smart it was to be a condescending, dismissive prick to everyone who tried to tell you it was coming"
The time is ripe for member-driven organizations
Will the same Leonard Leo (who gave us 5 or 9 on SCOTUS) and his army of judges working diligently to dismantle every New Deal and Great Society achievement take down Trump over tariffs?
"Totally silent about every one of Tr*mp's depredations until the stock market and Harvard are affected. That's our Obama"
This mthrfckr signed American bombs given to Israel to drop on Gazan citizens
"I've said this a couple of times, but until news coverage of the trump administration makes clear "the doj and fbi will not prosecute republican crimes, or crimes by people they favor," journalists are lying to you"
Ethically Energised				Deterrence Theory
Becoming Ungovernable
"Nothing says “small government and free speech” like electrocuting dissent in a public forum"
Maggie		Ghosting		Motherfucking painting (with an alternative interpretation of the two above with a bonus third explaining)
Sandy Spring Friends School closing
⬆	I've friends who went to SSFS and my daughter's bestfriend went to SSFS				{ feuilleton }
The man who invented ultralight backpacking
I had no spasms of anger at this list until I saw Richard Powers at number five, the fuck, ahead of Pynchon and DeLillo?
Stray thoughts on the announcement of Thomas Pynchon’s novel Shadow Ticket
Pioneers of Computer Music

LIKE THE CIRCLES UNDER YOUR EYES

C.D. Wright

clouds jammed into the foreground     big toe in the suckhole

with all our know-how     all our equipment     you would think

we would be on guard     be smarter than water     less indifferent

than the critter at the corner     or the machine     that rolled over its head

so early in the season     so many dead things to build on

a broom goes before me     the dog refuses to budge

leaves winging down onto leaves     under such conditions

on american soil     longtime dealers in old things unemployed

shrink     teachers     pastry chefs     horn player with a monster sound

the stuff of legends     married cousins     then a loopy face

behind a glass enclosure     being driven away     sliding from sight

a man smokes listlessly on a bed     next to a mound

of swollen books     written in french     his shoes set out to dry

scent of last tenant     unwashed socks shut up in a box     crept out

onto the landing     of the photographer’s house     searched

9/11 by the authorities     sprayed that hateful date on the front

windows tall enough for a mast to pass under     my friend

didn’t lose much     by comparison     but still     the top floor

on top of which     mother murdered     husband deserted

who kept hens in the heart of town     where I used to hear birds

when I phoned     now bullhorn now chopper     someone

puts a plate in her hands     hours later     someone takes the plate

from her lap     and says damn if it isn’t overcast again     it’s time to get out

the candlesticks