Suppose it were Friday cliv: A fixer's payroll

Casual Friday brings out the paddle

player-hero in all of us, to the ex-

tent that all we have to wear on our

sleeve to distinguish ourselves are

the testimonials of prior conquests.

Yolanda, Liz, the redoubtable Erica.

And, one keeps looking for the name,

Hope Hicks, whitest of lissome liars

in that realm, but how soon we for-

get the roster of our vanquished as

they settle off the table with Cohen.

Sascha Schneider
1913

What do "they" care?

Untrammeled play in the fields
of the lord does not very ac-
curately describe the range of
possible gestures, even in the
most liberated state, available
to the practitioner of speech.
In surfing, we have long known
that the gods conduct a monitor-
ing of behavior, which we have
lately learned our corporations
and other manipulators maintain,
to anticipate and shape the arc
of our play. Every time we ven-
ture into a discernibly oblique
convergence with currents in the
New American Government, the lis-
tening posts of Russia leap into
the acutest concentration, al-
though whether for that nation's
policies or for this one's, one
couldn't possibly claim to know.

This is the consumption pattern
of the first 36 hours of the pre-
vious posting, on the NAG's em-
brace of a torture administratrix
to supervise a widely known unit
of our secret intelligence service.
Yet, all with no mention of Russia.
Given the NAG's affection for the
government of Russia, one could 
hardly attribute this interest to
any apprehension of mistreatment
of its citizens. Of whom, then;
for whom are "Russians" reading?

Upon coincidences of much less
persistence, the paranoia sustain-
ing the NAG continues to be fed.
Why not the curiosity of occasion-
al critics, condemned to be read?

iii  Willy Ronis

      1938

  

The Gina Haspel obscenity

Stalwart fellow, always willing 
to support his underlings, and 
lead them in the service of the 
Nation as defined by his superi-
ors. Extraordinarily experienced 
and demonstrably devoted servant 
of the American people. Show the
threat, and turn your gaze away.

This impeccably impregnable

claptrap for any abuse of the

Constitution of the United 

States is on offer once again,

this week, in the frantic ef-

forts of the New American Gov-

ernment to expose the humanity

of its dissidents. One has to

count oneself among them, simp-

ly to breathe a better air. As

our entertainment, the NAG now

offers, at phenomenal hazard of

discovery, a lady to navigate

the gates of its Trojan horses.

If told to, this servant of a

finer civilization will claw at

captive throats, submerge them

indefinitely in water, and make

sure no bruises are discovered.

Of course, Gina Haspel captures

the imagination of the infant

upstairs, as much as Clarence

Thomas struck George Bush the

Elder as the finest legal mind

of his time. They are loyal.

Such prohibitive affronts to the

dignity of self-government, itself,

illuminate the constant agenda of

ostensible Conservatism today: to

break the will of the People to up-

hold restraints upon self-dealing.

The NAG, in its zeal to debauch 

every value won in the nation’s
evolving aspirations, has select-

ed a frantic grifter to ruin the 

Environment, an ignoramus to shep-

herd Education, a constellation of
bigots to tear down the Lincoln 

Memorial, and Orwellian stooges to 

mop up the entrails of their fes-

tive savagery. Now, openly to pro-

tect viciousness, itself, from any 

risk of resistance, it has anointed 

a female to stand as torture’s own 

shield, against every humane notice.

Seldom has moral capitulation gath-

ered such surpassing negotiability.

Raffaelo Sanzio, eat your heart out.