A Lamp Beside the Golden Door Snuffed Out

.

@POTUS: We have evil that lurks around the corner w/out the uniforms. Ours is harder b/c ppl we're going against they don't wear uniforms. #Hannity: image via Fox News @FoxNews, 27 January 2017

@POTUS: “We are fighting sneaky rats right now that are sick and demented. And we're going to win.” #Hannity: image via Fox News @FoxNews, 27 January 2017

 

 @POTUS on ISIS: "They're sneaky, dirty rats and they blow people up in a shopping center and they blow people up in a church." #Hannity: image via Fox News @FoxNews, 27 January 2017

 SFO -- No Muslim Ban! SFO International Airport. Thousands chanting "Let Them In, Let Them In!" "No Ban No Wall" "Kick Trump Out! Let The Refugees In!" : photo by Peg Hunter, 29 January 2017

SFO Muslim Ban Protest: photo by quinn norton, 29 January 2017

Alternative Facts: KellyAnne CONway's communications strategy: image via Jon Riley, 26 January 2017

Breitbart Bulldog Steve Bannon: image via millymills mills, 25 January 2017

Breitbart Bulldog Steve Bannon. Bannon has hired a couple of his news cohorts to assist him in advising #Presidenttinyhands. Steve is registered to vote in two states.: photo by millymills mills, 25 January 2017

Steve Bannon pretty much declares war on the free press: photo by raven childs, 26 January 2017

 

 Your job, your livelihood, your healthcare, your rights mean nothing to this man. He's on a mission to destroy America. #Bannon: image via The Progressive Wave @TheProWave, 26 January 2017


Trump's chief strategist Steve Bannon: “Media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut”: image via Media Matters @mmfa, 27 January 2017
 

This deserves a retweet. #Bannon: image via Anna Telnaes Verified account @AnnTelnaes, 27 January 2017



U.S. President Donald Trump calls departing reporters back into the room as United Brotherhood of Carpenters General President Doug McCarron (R) begins to compliment him on his inaugural address, during a round table meeting with labor leaders at the White House in Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2017: photo by Jonathan Ernst/Reuters, 23 January 2017

36% of American voters approve, 44% disapprove of Trump's handling of his job so far, new poll shows: image via CNN @CNN, 27 January 2017

For lo, He said, thou shalt dwell within the Temple of the Great Lord Tinyhands; and thou shalt abide 

Trump's latest executive order: Banning people from 7 countries and more: image via CNN @CNN, 27 January 2017


They will teach this story in classrooms: image via Nick Confessore @nickconfessore, 27 January 2017


 Washington Muslims put human faces to Trump's immigration actions: image via CNN @CNN, 27 January 2017 

TIME LightBox @timepictures

The purpose of photography in a post-truth era #posttruthworld
Reading The Pictures Retweeted TIME LightBox
Reading The Pictures added,

Last word rings stronger than the ills: “The power of the still image remains undeniable, even if some choose to ignore inconvenient truth.“

image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThe PIx, 27 January 2017

SundayTimesPictures @STPictures 
Meet #POTUSTrump's new official #WhiteHouse photographer @shealahDCphoto #ShealahCraighead

Reading The Pictures Retweeted SundayTimesPictures
Reading The Pictures added,

Going to be interesting watching how @shealahDCphoto, “the new @PeteSouza," shoots a fabulist  #alternativeimages
image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThe PIx, 27 January 2017

Mucking about with Mr. Wonderful

Churchill bust takes center stage as Trump, May reaffirm special relationship: image via Fox News @FoxNews, 27 January 2017

Pretty wonderful, that arranging the coasters. Photo Pablo Martínez Monsiváis @AP_Images #potus #trump #ovalofice #theresamay #appearances: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePIx, 27 January 2017

 

For those that say, not normal. Photo @drewharrer @bloomberimages #honorguard UKUS #TheresaMay #Trump #Whitehouse: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePIx, 27 January 2017

Swan Song

Cygnus buccinator (Trumpeter Swan), Moore Road near Conway, Skagit County, Washington: photo by Nick Dean, 21 January 2017

Cygnus buccinator (Trumpeter Swan), Moore Road near Conway, Skagit County, Washington: photo by Nick Dean, 21 January 2017

Cygnus buccinator (Trumpeter Swan), Moore Road near Conway, Skagit County, Washington: photo by Nick Dean, 21 January 2017

Cygnus buccinator (Trumpeter Swan), Moore Road near Conway, Skagit County, Washington, nearing sunset, more Swans flying in to join the flock: photo by Nick Dean, 15 January 2017

Cygnus buccinator (Trumpeter Swan), Moore Road near Conway, Skagit County, Washington, nearing sunset, more Swans flying in to join the flock: photo by Nick Dean, 15 January 2017

Cygnus buccinator (Trumpeter Swan), Moore Road near Conway, Skagit County, Washington, nearing sunset, more Swans flying in to join the flock: photo by Nick Dean, 15 January 2017

Broken Wing Display / Ezra Pound: Learn of the green world

Black Tern (Chlidonias niger) near Burns, Oregon: photo by Jon Nelson, 13 May 2015

Killdeer 2. "Broken Wing Act".  Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus), near Burns, Oregon. These birds forage for food in fields, mudflats and shores, usually by sight. Their name comes from their frequently heard call. These birds will frequently use evasive action display ("broken wing act") to distract predators from  their nests. This involves the bird walking away from its nesting area  holding its wing in a position that simulates an injury. and then flapping around on the ground emitting a distress call. The predators then think they have easy prey and are attracted to the seemingly injured bird and away from the nest. If the parent sees that a potential predator is not following along, it will move closer and get louder until it gets the attention of the predator. : photo by Nick Perla, 29 June 2010

Ezra Pound: from Canto LXXXI

The ant’s a centaur in his dragon world.

Pull down thy vanity, it is not man

Made courage, or made order, or made grace,

         Pull down thy vanity, I say pull down.

Learn of the green world what can be thy place

In scaled invention or true artistry,

Pull down thy vanity,

                                        Paquin pull down!

The green casque has outdone your elegance.

 

“Master thyself, then others shall thee beare”

       Pull down thy vanity

Thou art a beaten dog beneath the hail,

A swollen magpie in a fitful sun,

Half black half white

Nor knowst’ou wing from tail

Pull down thy vanity

                        How mean thy hates

Fostered in falsity,

                        Pull down thy vanity,

Rathe to destroy, niggard in charity,

Pull down thy vanity,

                       I say pull down.

Ezra Pound (1885-1972): from Canto LXXXI (1945/1948)

Black Terns (Chlidonias niger) near Burns, Oregon: photo by Jon Nelson, 13 May 2015

Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus). A striking black-and-white bird with very long, in legs, the Black-necked Stilt is found along the edges of open water, in this case near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon: photo by Dan Dzurisin, 25 May 2008

Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus). A striking black-and-white bird with very long, thin legs, the Black-necked Stilt is found along the edges of open water, in this case near the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon: photo by Dan Dzurisin, 25 May 2008

Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus), feeding in flooded agricultural fields several miles north of Malheur National Willdlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon: photo by Dan Dzurisin, 1 June 2008

The Black-necked Stilt (or, The Remembering To Forget Song)

A wandering and frequent intermission of attention

In which ideas slip irretrievably away

Would perhaps have something merciful in it

Were a few choice wriggling grubs 

The lingering fugitive scraps of some possibly useful knowledge of the fleeting universe

Remaining alive squirming curiously about waiting

To be plucked from the mud flats of the dilapidated mind

By a Black-necked Stilt

So determines the confused old person

Recognizing in the same moment

It was never going to have a say in any of this

The evanescence of pleasing images and the persistent adhesion of painful ones

The worst of both worlds

The world of forgetting and the world of remembering

A wandering and frequent intermission of attention

In which ideas slip irretrievably away

OK it may not not sound all that great as a default state of mind

But surely there must be something merciful in it

Muses the old person to no one in particular

Recognizing in the same moment it was never going to have a say in any of this

Somewhere in the haunted house a light bulb flickers on then off again

Fitfully whispering in the mind a complicated arpeggio

Which may or may not resemble the complicated arpeggio

Which decorates the opening bars

Of the Remembering To Forget song

Himantopus mexicanus

Himantopus mexicanus

Himantopus mexicanus

The old person dimly remembers a long childhood illness

Months alone in a dark room

During which the meanings of words slipped away common words

Becoming more and more strange and unrecognizable until all meaning had evaporated

At this late date the old person has determined it is the business of life to go forward

Even if the drift of the mind moves toward the past inexorably

One who catches evil in retrospect must first turn back to find it    

That regrets are no more than afflictive encumbrances this much it knows

This is not useful knowledge 

This kind of arid harvest would be of no interest to Himantopus mexicanus

The struggle to recapture the past is a vain struggle

The small birds in the old dying and bare plum tree singing their own small versions

Of the Remembering To Forget song

As from a great distance

Penetrating the twisted leafless winter branches with the first weak rays of early morning sun  

The small birds and the tall thin birds each in their own way conducting the daily business

Of moving life forward

That movie about memory loss

Whose title the old person can no longer remember the labour of recollection not worth it

The small birds in the old plum tree singing So long So long

The Remember To Forget song 

Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus), feeding in flooded agricultural fields several miles north of Malheur National Willdlife Refuge, Harney County, Oregon: photo by Dan Dzurisin, 1 June 2008

American Avocet, near Burns, Oregon: photo by Big Dipper 2, 10 July 2011

It was not man

made beauty or made order or made grace...

Black Tern (Chlidonias niger) near Burns, Oregon: photo by Jon Nelson, 13 May 2015

Black Tern (Chlidonias niger) near Burns, Oregon: photo by Jon Nelson, 13 May 2015

fences just provide an opportunity to go over

 
Ranchers in southern Arizona have told me that fences just provide an opportunity to go over: image via Melissa Lyttle, 25 January 2017



With all this talk of Trump's wall, I had the chance to fly along the #usmx border this morning: image via Melissa Lyttle, 25 January 2017

Yes, please: image via Melissa Lyttle, 25 January 2017

'Merica: image via Melissa Lyttle, 28 January 2017
 

Camo jelly beans or 'Merica #2: image via Melissa Lyttle, 28 January 2017 


 I've spent 5 weeks as an @IWMF fellow reporting on many stories from the #usmx border: image via Melissa Lyttle, 26 January 2017


 I've spent 5 weeks as an @IWMF fellow reporting on many stories from the #usmx border: image via Melissa Lyttle, 26 January 2017

 
 I've spent 5 weeks as an @IWMF fellow reporting on many stories from the #usmx border: image via Melissa Lyttle, 26 January 2017 

I've spent 5 weeks as an @IWMF fellow reporting on many stories from the #usmx border: image via Melissa Lyttle, 26 January 2017 

The writing on the wall

SERBIA - Migrants stand in line for food outside of a derelict warehouse used as a makeshift shelter near Belgrade. By @iandrej #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 27 January 2017

US - A border patrol agent drives along the US- Mexico border crossing in San Ysidro. By @eye4light #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @FgeffardAFP, 27 January 2017

 
Dude love him a little of himself much? Becoming President has more than doubled Trump's reach on Twitter.: image via CNN @CNN, 27 January 2017 

Peanuts 

Mexico has taken advantage of the U.S. for long enough. Massive trade deficits and little help on the very weak border must change, NOW!: tweet via Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump, 7 January 2017

Roasted peanuts (closeup): photo by Geographer, 2007

The attention span of a human in the age of the internet: the size of a peanut, with room for a few billion tweets to spare. 

Inner space, it's the new totalizing lebensraum, as the shades of evening come down

Twitter Fail Whale error message: image by Yiying Lu, 2009



Blueprint sketch by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, envisioning an SMS-based social network: photo by Jack Dorsey, 24 March 2006

Emergency Tweet: photo by Paul Randall, 2009
 

 
Naked Pizza takeout and delivery store, Claiborne and Calhoun Streets, New Orleans: photo by Infrogmation, 2010

The Bird Is a Word

Activists stage protest across the street from Twitter's S an Francisco headquarters for continuing to allow Donald Trump to use the service: photo by Ken Yeung/VentureBeat, 26 January 2017

Activists protest Twitter demanding it ‘dump the real Donald Trump’: Ken Yeung, VentureBeat, 26 January 2017

At least a dozen activists staged a protest across the street from Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters on Thursday evening, demanding the company kick Donald Trump off the service. The group claimed that Twitter was promoting fascism and hate by continuing to allow the president to remain active.

Twitter declined to comment on the protest.

According to the Facebook page promoting tonight’s event, activists believe that Twitter has allowed itself to become the “mouthpiece of fascism,” enabling Trump to broadcast his thoughts, complaints, and ideas unchecked. They’ve also expressed outrage that the president continues to have a presence “despite his violation of [Twitter’s] anti-hate policies.”

Gathered across the street from Twitter tonight, the group chanted slogans heard at previous demonstrations, such as “No Trump. No KKK. No Fascist USA.” They also projected demands onto Twitter’s Market Street building, from “Would Twitter ban Hitler?” to “#NoDAPL” (a reference to the Dakota access pipeline), “Irresponsible,” and more. At one point, employees inside Twitter peered out the window, which prompted one of the activists on a bullhorn to try to entice them to join the action.

Activists protesting in front of Twitter headquarters project message saying that the company profits off of the hate expressed by Trump.: photo by Ken Yeung/VentureBeat, 26 January 2017

This was the second protest to impact a technology company in San Francisco within the past week. Last Friday, Uber was the recipient of such an event,  due to the support its chief executive, Travis Kalanick, provides Trump as part of his economic advisory team.

Twitter finds itself in a difficult position because while it believes itself a supporter of free speech, it also has been plagued by issues around harassment and user safety. And things become even more complicated when you factor in that one of the culprits happens to be the president. Trump has often taken to the service to spout his opinions, which many have found to be reprehensible.

Activists gather across the street from Twitter to protest the company for letting Trump continue to have an account: photo by Ken Yeung/VentureBeat, 26 January 2017

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has defined his company’s relationship with the president as positive. “I feel very proud of the role of the service and what it stands for,” he explained while at the Recode Code Commerce conference in December. “It’s had such a spotlight on it through his usage and through the election.”

Trump has likewise expressed his affection for the service, arguing that it gives him direct access to Americans and the world without having to go through the media (which is often correcting him on falsehoods).

As the president continues to access to his account, it’s likely that protestors such as the ones this evening will continue to gather and petition Twitter to shut it down.

 

The Twitter resistance: Fighting Trump one tweet at a time: image via CNN @CNN, 27 January 2017

Love Note from His Infinitely Merciful Magnificence the Great Lord Emperor Tinyhands

 

Thank You Jesus For Lord President Trump Photo Jae C. Hong/Associated Press: image via Reading The Pictures @Reading The Pix, 14 December 2014

Happy New Year to all, including to my many enemies and those who have fought me and lost so badly they just don't know what to do. Love!: tweet via Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
Trumpmerica Retweeted Donald J. Trump
Trumpmerica added,

The Enemies List is real, all STRONG LEADERS have one. On 1/20 baby MAGA will feast on the blood and bones of dissenters! #MAGA #EnemiesList

image via Trumpmerica @Trumpmerica, 31 December 2016

Trump as Orifice: Peterson, Gowdy Get to the Essence Photo Mark Peterson/Redux: image via Reading The Pictures @Reading The Pix, 14 December 2014

Recurrent Vindictatorship Nightmare... When your twittering finger starts feeling a little bit itchy... your tiny hands open and... out comes a message only tiny dead birds can hear!

@birdtwitchr: Good progress made installing #twitteringmachine for #OxLightFest14 tmrw and sat @OCMEVENTS: image via Kathy Hinde @birdtwtchr, 20 November 2014

#Twitteringmachine [Paul Klee, gouache and pen and ink oil transfer on paper, 1922] Originally displayed @Germany, the image was declared "degenerate art" by #AdolfHitler #NYC #art: image via Dulce Leyva @dugeth, 25 September 2014

In 1992 twitter worked with these #twitteringmachine: image via Sampsa Granström @Sampsa_G, 12 February 2013

#72... TROLLS. Un reportaje de @InakoDiazGuerra en el que participan @ALevySoler, @dlacalle, @AntonioMaestre y muchos más: image via PAPEL @Papel_EM, 26 January 2017

Find that twitter-bird! Ace cover design @Papel_EM from Spain illustrator Josetxu Piñeiro Art Director María González: image via coverjunkie @coverjunkie, 26 January 2017

But wait... Diamonds aren't exactly Peanuts, are they?

Melania Trump is pretending to eat a diamond necklace like it's spaghetti on the cover of Vanity Fair Mexico: image via Kyle Griifin @KyleGriifin1, 27 January 2017

@FLOTUS Wow. What an inspirational First Lady! Everyone should aspire to eat diamonds. Especially Mexicans. #VanityFairMexico: image via Cyanna #Resist @Cyan1137, 27 January 2017

You shld be ashamed of yourselves we wont buy ur ugly magazine anymore #VanityFairMexico #insensitive: tweet via MPalm @MarianaOgaz, 27 January 2017

#MelaniaTrump is on the cover of #VanityFairMexico. What are your thoughts esp. after #Trump has pushed the building of the wall more?: image via Blackaphillyated @b_aphillyated, 27 January 2017

 
Our classy and former nude model First Lady Melania Trump. A true role model to all young Christian women. @cnn #vanityfairmexico: image via Christian @ChrisChunga, 27 January 2017

Today's cover: Melania Trump like you've never seen her before: image via New York Post Verified account @nypost, 31 July 2016 

The Infinitely Merciful Vindictator promises a "tremendous, absolutely tremendous" bed of thorns for the 9999%

Aux USA après les propos de #Trump, ou en UE, les #réfugiés peuvent difficilement choisir leur terre d'accueil: image via AFP Athenes @afpathenes, 28 January 2017



Aux USA après les propos de #Trump, ou en UE, les #réfugiés peuvent difficilement choisir leur terre d'accueil: image via AFP Athenes @afpathenes, 28 January 2017
 

2 Iraqis who had visas to enter US sue Trump and US govt. after arriving in NY and being detained due to travel ban: image via CNN Breaking News @cnnbrk, 28 January 2017

Drumpf: photo by Brendan McKissick, 27 January 2017

Drumpf: image by appaloosa, 25 January 2017
 

 INDIA - A Hindu devotee lies on a bed of thorns during a ritual at 'Mauni Amavasya' at Sangam in Allahabad. By @sanjaykanojia07 #AFP: image via Frédérique Geffard @fgeffardAFP, 28 January 2017
 

Just saw this @coverjunkie. Seems to fit what @WhiteHouse served this week. With apologies to bananas, bologna. @szmagazin: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 28 January 2017

Time for some game theory on why you will never be able to escape the random joke mind fog of the Little Tin Soldier's Alternative Facts

While You Were #Offline: The Internet Can’t Look Away From #Kellyanne #Conway's Outift: image via newsAnglr_Tech @techanglr, 21 January 2017

 

1/ Time for some game theory on why the news networks keep talking to Kellyanne Conway and what they should do in reply to her performance.: tweet via Jay Rosen @jayrosen_nyu, 27 January 2017

2/ I already know what most of you think: Just stop having her on! Or: biased liberal media, you hate her 'cause she gets the better of you.

3/ Here's an alternative view: they're never going to stop with @KellyAnnePolls. Never! She'll be on TV for as long as she works for Trump.

4/ But as I have said the journalists who interview @KellyAnnePolls have lost the plot. They are confused.

5/ One reason to have her on is because she represents Donald Trump. But she doesn't. It is common for her to say, "you'll have to ask him."

6/ "If I have to ask him, then why am I talking to you?" The real problem is Trump feels free to contradict her. She doesn't speak for him.

7/ Point is: if @KellyAnnePolls cannot reliably represent the views of Donald Trump, that evaporates as justification for having her on TV.

8/ Another rationale would be: It's important for audiences to understand how Trumpworld thinks. @KellyAnnePollsgives us insight into that.

9/ But the most striking quality of her on-air performance is that when @KellyAnnePolls is done talking you know less than when you started.

10/ It's not that @KellyAnnePolls deflects, or lies. These are normal arts. It's that her gift is for subtracting from a viewer's knowledge.

11/ Keep in mind: @KellyAnnePolls is not in the cabinet. She doesn't run anything. She has no line responsibilities. She is not a newsmaker.

12/ If she cannot reliably represent Trump's thinking — and she is a fog machine — there is no journalistic rationale for having her on TV.

13/ Please realize: @KellyAnnePolls will continue to be interviewed on all networks, and most shows. But I think they should level with us.

14/ The main reason they continue to interview her is to ward off criticism that they are insufficiently Trumpish. They should tell us that!

15/ Another reason to have her on is that it's entertaining to stage these struggles between her and her interviewers. Conflict!

16/ A third reason is more speculative: She is friendly and charming in the green room. The bonhomie makes them feel good about themselves.

17/ As a close reader of @maddow, I know she's frustrated that Republicans won't come on her show. @KellyAnnePolls will. Means a lot to her.

18/ But none of that: protecting against criticism, good entertainment, green room bonhomie, "Republicans won't come on my show, she will"—

19/ —none of that is about SERVING VIEWERS, which is why it never gets explained to viewers. Look: you will continue to see @KellyAnnePolls.

20/ The main reason is that the news divisions of our major networks are only partly about news. Were they viewer-first, she wouldn't be on.

21/ I know you have brilliant ideas about how to trap her. The point I leave you with: the networks are trapped BY her. She rules them. END.

Mills captures truer tone. Photo @dougmillsnyt #teamtrump #carnage: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 28 January 2017
 

Perfect takedown of "Trump think" and that atrocity of a #MuslimBan. It's not the country OR the religion. It's who's painting. Photo @smahaskey: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 28 January 2017

Reading The Pictures Retweeted Bradd Jaffy 
Bradd Jaffy @BraddJaffy

#MuslimBan distraction
Reading The Pictures added,
Trump is on the phone with Putin right now — surrounded by Pence, Priebus, Bannon and Flynn (photo via Spicer)
 image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 28 January 2017
 2/ Poor man’s version of Cheney/Bush “shock and awe” #TrumpPutinCall
3/ Could we get a louder Jackson comparison? #typicaloverkill #TrumpPutinCall
4/ So much for new White House photographer. #SpicerUnsecuredCellphone #TrumpPutinCall
5/ In #Trump's parallel universe, actually keeps one book handy to flaunt fact he DOESN’T read #TrumpPutinCall
6/ So much for translators #TrumpPutinCall
7/ Just want you to know Steve’s behind it all #TrumpPutinCall
 

8/ That SNL news conference prop keeps looking better and better #TrumpPutinCall: image via Reading The Pictures @ReadingThePix, 28 January 2017

What fascism: photo by Terry-Jean Trevellion, 13 January 2017