Tom Garing cleans up racist graffiti painted on the side of a mosque in what officials are calling an apparent hate crime, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017, in Roseville, Calif. The Tarbiya Institute was spray-painted with a dozen obscene and racist slurs, including "Muslim out." Garing, a retiree who lives in the area and is not a member of the mosque, volunteered to help clean up.: photo by Rich Pedroncelli/AP, 1 February 2017

Jorge Luis Borges: Llaneza

A Haydée Lange

Se abre la verja del jardín
con la docilidad de la página
que una frecuente devoción interroga
y adentro las miradas
no precisan fijarse en los objetos
que ya están cabalmente en la memoria.
Conozco las costumbres y las almas
y ese dialecto de alusiones
que toda agrupación humana va urdiendo.
No necesito hablar
ni mentir privilegios;
bien me conocen quienes aquí me rodean,
bien saben mis congojas y mi flaqueza,
Eso es alcanzar lo más alto,
lo que tal vez nos dará el Cielo:
no admiraciones ni victorias
sino sencillamente ser admitidos
como parte de una Realidad innegable,
como las piedras y los árboles.

Philippines - A boy hides in a suitcase at the Divisoria market in Manila on February 1. #AFP Photo by @herime23: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 1 February 2017

Simplicity

It opens, the gate to the garden
with the docility of a page
that frequent devotion questions
and inside, my gaze
has no need to fix on objects
that already exist, exact, in memory.
I know the customs and souls
and that dialect of allusions
that every human gathering goes weaving.
I've no need to speak
nor claim false privilege;
they know me well who surround me here,
know well my afflictions and weakness.
This is to reach the highest thing,
that Heaven perhaps will grant us:
not admiration or victory
but simply to be accepted
as part of an undeniable Reality,
like stones and trees.

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986): Llaneza (Simplicity), from Fervor de Buenos Aires, 1923; English version by A.S. Kline

Syrian children play in Aleppo's previously rebel-held neighbourhood of Jibreen on February 1. #AFP by George Ourfalian: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 1 February 2017

Borges on Llaneza:

Los poemas de Fervor de Buenos Aires ¿eran acaso poemas ultraístas? Cuando volví de Europa en 1921, llegué con la bandera del ultraísmo. Los historiadores de la literatura todavía me conocen como “el padre del ultraísmo argentino”. Cuando en esa época hablé del tema con otros poetas, como Eduardo González Lanuza, Norah Lange, Francisco Piñero, mi primo Guillermo Juan (Borges) y Roberto Ortelli, llegamos a la conclusión de que el ultraísmo español, a la manera del futurismo, estaba sobrecargado de modernidad y de artilugios. No nos impresionaban los trenes ni las hélices ni los aviones ni los ventiladores eléctricos. Aunque en nuestros manifiestos seguíamos defendiendo la primacía de la metáfora y la eliminación de las transiciones y los adjetivos decorativos, lo que queríamos escribir era una poesía esencial: poemas más allá del aquí y ahora, libres del color local y de las circunstancias contemporáneas. Creo que el poema “Llaneza” ilustra de manera suficiente lo que yo buscaba.

Borges, Autobiografia, Cap. II

The border structure separating San Diego from Tijuana, Mexico, reflects as people walk along the beach Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017, in Tijuana. President Donald Trump threatened in a phone call with his Mexican counterpart to send U.S. troops to stop "bad hombres down there" unless the Mexican military does more to control them, according to an excerpt of a transcript of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press.: photo by Gregory Bull/AP, 1 February 2017

An Afghan refugee man sleeps on the ground while another looks out a window in an abandoned warehouse where they and other migrants took refuge in Belgrade, Serbia, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. Hundreds of migrants have been sleeping rough in freezing conditions in central Belgrade looking for ways to cross the heavily guarded EU borders.: photo by Muhammed Muheisen/AP, 1 February 2017

[Untitled, Borneo]: photo by lee Shung Chu, 24 December 2015

[Untitled, Borneo]: photo by Lee Shung Chu, 24 December 2015

[Untitled, Borneo]: photo by Lee Shung Chu, 24 December 2015

Portland, Oregon: photo by Jorge Guadalupe Lizárraga, August 2015

Playacting with the toy-soldier brass: Lord Tinyhands invokes the "nuclear option"

@realDonaldTrump endorses Senate Republicans' use of "nuclear option" if necessary to prevent Dems from blocking SCOTUS nominee. #gorsuch: image via Stephen Crowley @Stcrow, 1 February 2017

Michael Flynn, KT McFarland join us for today's WH briefing: image via Chris Johnson @chrisjohnson82, 1 February 2017

@PressSec Sean Spicer fielding questions during briefing which also included reporters outside Washington DC participating via Skype: image via Stephen Crowley @Stcrow, 1 February 2017

@realDonaldTrump arrives Dover Air Force Base to meet w the family of a US commando killed early Sunday in Yemen: image via Stephen Crowley @Stcrow, 1 February 2017

About those unique #MuslimBan protest signs at LAX. No, they're not limo drivers. Photo by @pfal @reuterspictures: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 1 February 2017

Just so you know: image via realDonaldContext @realDonaldCntxt, 1 February 2017

There's important context missing: image via realDonaldContext @realDonaldCntxt, 1 February 2017

Just so you know: image via realDonaldContext @realDonaldCntxt, 30 January 2017

This is incorrect or false: image via realDonaldContext @realDonaldCntxt, 30 January 2017

There's important context missing: image via realDonaldContext @realDonaldCntxt, 30 January 2017

Tom Bradley Terminal LAX | by matthew.decola

Tom Bradley Terminal LAX. Citizens of Los Angeles and its surroundings voice their opposition to Donald Trump's recent executive order outside the Tom Bradley Terminal at LAX: photo by Matthew DeCola, 29 January 2017

Ultra Alt

Right Wing: Say dangerous things. Left Wing: Are dangerous. #Milo: image via COKELOGIC @cokelogic, 1 February 2017

All the banks getting hit in anti-Milo protests in Berkeley: image via Shane Bauer @shane_bauer, 1 February 2017

Chase bank, downtown Berkeley, during protest against alt-right speaker Milo. Same to Wells Fargo and Band of America.: image via Shane Bauer @shane_bauer, 1 February 2017

Antifa stops at the Bank of America in Berkeley during protests against alt-right speaker Milo in Berkeley: image via Shane Bauer @shane_bauer, 1 February 2017

Starbucks looted during protests against alt-right speaker Milo in Berkeley: image via Shane Bauer @shane_bauer, 1 February 2017

Much of the crowd has moved out of Sproul and is preparing to march down telegraph Ave: image via Julia Carrie Wong @juliacarriew, 1 February 2017

#MiloYiannopoulos at #ucberkeley canceled quick. Fire now.: image via Bryan Scharz @BryanSchatz, 1 February 2017

Skirmishes breaking out at protests against alt-right speaker Milo protest at UC Berkeley: image via Shane Bauer @shane_bauer, 1 February 2017

Damage to the Amazon store in the MLK student union at UC Berkeley Milo protest: image via Julia Carrie Wong @juliacarriew, 1 February 2017

Pics from Milo protest at Berkeley: image via Julia Carrie Wong @juliacarriew, 1 February 2017

Protesters shooting fireworks at the side of MLK student union #milo #berkeley: image via Eli Powelson @elijahgreenpow, 1 February 2017

Seen some isolated altercations, but it's very unclear who is who. Police took someone inside.: image via Julia Carrie Wong @juliacarriew, 1 February 2017

Clashes as Israel clears wildcat settlement at the Amona outpost, northeast of Ramallah today. #AFP by #TomCOEX: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 1 February 2017

Israel evicts settlers from West Bank outpost. Settlers scuffle with security forces at the Amona outpost #Ramallah #AFP by Jack Guez: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 1 February 2017

Israel starts eviction of emblematic West Bank settlement outpost. The Amona outpost, northeast of Ramallah, today #AFP @TomCOEX: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 1 February 2017

Israel starts eviction of emblematic West Bank settlement outpost. The Amona outpost, northeast of Ramallah, today #AFP Jack Guez: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 1 February 2017

Israel starts eviction of emblematic West Bank settlement outpost. The Amona outpost, northeast of Ramallah, today #AFP @TomCOEX: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 1 February 2017

Israel starts eviction of emblematic West Bank settlement outpost. The Amona outpost, northeast of Ramallah, today #AFP Jack Guez: image via Aurelia BAILLY @AureliaBAILLY, 1 February 2017

A settler jumps into a trailer in Amona outpost in the West Bank, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. Israeli forces have begun evacuating a controversial settlement Amona, which is the largest of about 100 unauthorized outposts erected in the West Bank without permission but generally tolerated by the Israeli government. The writing reads: "Eretz Israel we did not betray".: photo by Ariel Schalit/AP, 1 February 2017

Israeli police evict settlers in the West Bank outpost Amona, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. Israeli forces have begun evacuating a controversial settlement Amona, which is the largest of about 100 unauthorized outposts erected in the West Bank without permission but generally tolerated by the Israeli government.: photo by Sebastian Scheiner/AP, 1 February 2017

Far-right leader and candidate for next spring presidential elections Marine le Pen, center, visits the Entrepreneur Fair, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017 in Paris, France: photo by Christophe Ena/AP, 1 February 2017

Jesus, Portland