JDPhillipsLCSW

ISHIKAWA TAKUBOKU                        1185-1912   

After an endless discussion

​

The way we read, the way we discuss,

And the way our eyes shine

Match the young in Russia fifty years ago.

We discuss what we should do.

But, there is no one who with a clenched fist bangs on the table

And declares: 'VNAROD'

​

We know what we are seeking after;

We know what the people are seeking after;

And we know what we should do.

We know more than the young in Russia fifty years ago.

But, there is no one who with a clenched fist bangs on the table

And declares: 'VNAROD'

​

They are the young who gather here;

They are the young who always give the worl

Greed

why don't rich people retire?

we trade time for money

once necessities are covered

the time we sell

is worth more to us

than money

​

greed is the fear of poverty

gone malignant

you can't turn it off

it grows like a tumor

​

once an adaptive strategy

against an irritant

hustle mode

gets stuck

​

unprepared for success

young people

program themselves

to hoard

​

when it comes

they miss it

fail to cash out

and live in fear until death

did you notice?

​

in a capitalist world

people don't cry

when people die

​

they shelter themselves

in a steel box

of stoicism

​

they harden themselves

to the luxury

of feeling

​

no drama

they have seen enough

drama

​

she is in a better place

no more need

for dollars

​

no more layoffs

recessions

debt

​

born too soon

before the death

of hustling

​

people wait

for death

in silence

When I research classic poets, they seem to be overrepresented by the upper class. Now I know the first impulse is to attribute that to the availability of leisure time, and even access to education and books, but could it be that poets with working-class backgrounds got excluded from history because of no access to print publishing or maybe just political censorship.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/w7t1at/comment/ihlr05j/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

[https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/w7ublk/comment/ihls9og/?utm_source=sh

Classical Guitar

​

the sound of math on rosewood rare

massive chamber ceiling high

Bach and Verdi solitaire

with overtones that never die

​

cascade drops of human tears

shining silver pings of sound

droning chords of churched up glory

marching cadence turnarounds

​

plucking strings in silent air

observe her hard ecstatic face

unaware that you are there

bathing nude in liquid grace

[https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/w71rvv/comment/ihjb1s2/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3](https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/w71rvv/comment/ihjb1s2/?utm_source=shar

If by Backyard Kipling

If you can shut your eyes when all about you see Fascism

If you can trust your party while it cuts your throat

If you are blind to the adversarial relationship between labor and capital

you are exactly what they want

​

If you can chase a wedge issue like a stick thrown far away

If you can fear immigration but watch your planet die

If you can be convinced to hate your own democracy

you please the kings who laugh

​

If you can see Jesus with a gun and put your trust in corporate greed

If you can believe that unregulated Capitalism will bring a living wage

If you can believe that your blind loyalty to the tyrant will prot

the seeds of Democracy 	

grow slowly

if we plant them

we die before they rise

tyrants tempt us

to eat the seeds

but we plant them

for the children

​

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/vsie6l/comment/if3l9uj/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/vwaegv/comment/ifqqp3p/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

The invisible hand.   
Oppressive forces use “natural cycle” excuses for the things they do to us. We no longer fall for “war just happens every once in a while.” We don't accept that anymore. We are discovering that classical economics is all about blaming natural cycles for recessions. There are business cycles but they don't happen by themselves. Capital stimulates a recession or a war when labor gets too strong. The invisible hand might be invisible to labor but it's connected to Wall Street's right arm.   firewalleconomics.com

Writing verse

about the dark

is easy

​

Writing verse

about the light

is hard

​

Tearing down is quick and final

Building and maintaining

never ends

​

Writing bleak is lazy and sensational

Writing serene

is risky and fragile

​

Writing no throws a tantrum like a child

Writing yes

soothes with love like a mother

​

Writing dark is the junk food of poetry

Writing bright

serves up hope and joy

​

Writing dim validates our anger

Writing bright

frames a reason to rise

​

Writing dark is for the writer

Writing light

is for the reader

[https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoe

What do we say to people around the water cooler? We can share experiences we have when recruiting. Let me start with this one. When I talk to people, they get hung up on private property. They are afraid that the government wants to own their toothbrush. I may or may not be correct when responding like this, but this is my spin. The means of production should not be in private hands, but personal property, your home, your savings, your car etc, would still be yours.

People think of the private property question as an all or none proposition. There is no private property or everything is private property. I ask them to think of private property the way they think about the distribution of

THE UNIVERSE FOR A CHICKEN IS A TINY CAGE, AND THAT'S WHAT CAPITALISM FEELS LIKE.   	Chickens never get out. They can't even turn around. Farmers connect individually adjustable water lines and grain dispensers to each cage. The manure is collected below and analyzed. Add a little protein to cage 654. Add antibiotics to cage 3321. Reality for a chicken is a delusion created and tweaked by a farmer to make the chicken manageable. Chickens need to accept the cage, but not so much that they become depressed and stop laying.   	Paranoid robber-barons stream propaganda to every home. The excrement is analyzed for revolutionary energy. Spin doctors fine-tune the Cool-Aid with an evil m

THE UNIVERSE FOR A CHICKEN IS A TINY CAGE, AND THAT'S WHAT CAPITALISM FEELS LIKE.   	Chickens never get out. They can't even turn around. Farmers connect individually adjustable water lines and grain dispensers to each cage. The manure is collected below and analyzed. Add a little protein to cage 654. Add antibiotics to cage 3321. Reality for a chicken is a delusion created and tweaked by a farmer to make the chicken manageable. Chickens need to accept the cage, but not so much that they become depressed and stop laying.   	Paranoid robber-barons stream propaganda to every home. The excrement is analyzed for revolutionary energy. Spin doctors fine-tune the Cool-Aid with an evil m

That case gives the court the power to overturn any law passed by congress. Republicans use a theory called strict constructionism which calls for adherence to the original intent of the writers. That is a massive contradiction.  

Nothing in the original constitution gives the court the power to dominate congress. The court just grabbed the power in 1803 and we have always just let it stand. Confront strict constructionists with this fact. We are in a constitutional crisis. We have to fix this or lose the partial democracy that we have. Putting more judges on the court is a good idea, and we have done that before, but the real fix is to repeal Marbury vs Madison. We will have to do it

The Law of Supply and Demand Breaks Down With Markets For Desperate Human Necessities.
The law of supply and demand has become an excuse for price gouging on necessities. People think the “law” is a natural force in unregulated economics like the “invisible hand.” When sellers raise prices, they claim that demand exceeds supply. But why don't prices ever fall when demand falls as a response to higher prices? Why do profits still rise? Because the market is not free for buyers, only sellers. Even if the “law” “worked” for buyers too, demand for necessities can never fall. Sellers have buyers over a barrel with necessities. Consumers need public sector protection from sellers of