Welcome to this week’s “zine.” (This post represents the half-way mark of my WiR term.)

by Mark M

Selections from Volumes 3 and 4 (of eight) of Mcyclopedia (1999):

GENIUS. Extremely gifted — yet just as fallible as the rest of us — human being. An often overused term.

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HARDING, WARREN G. (1865–1923), President of the UNITED STATES (1921–23) who was inducted into the KU KLUX KLAN in a White House ceremony. Harding’s administration was one of the most corrupt in American history (e.g., Teapot Dome).

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HERE. Not THERE.

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HOMELESS PERSON. Economically “disfigured,” outcast individual. If they had the means, perhaps banding together and descending upon Washington, DC (White House lawn, Capitol steps) would behoove them. See POVERTY.

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INTERNATIONAL KARMA‚ perhaps best exemplified by the UNITED STATES’, through war, stealing about 1/2 of Mexican territory away from Mexico in the 1800’s only to have them, after a fashion, reclaim it through voluminous legal and illegal immigration, some 100+ years later, much of it to that part of the U.S. that was once Mexico’s.

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JOYCE, JAMES (1882-1941), writer who wanted his final work, Finnegans Wake (1939), to be studied like the BIBLE. Indeed, in opacity, rather like the Bible’s Revelation….

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KELLER, HELEN (1880-1968), deaf and blind radical Socialist.

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LIBERTARIAN PARTY. Republicans without religious right “morals.”

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MAGRITTE, RENE (1898-1967), Brilliant surrealist painter whose titles for his works were often just as brilliantly enigmatic which had the effect of “squaring” the enigma. Many of his paintings have a peculiar quality of silence to them.

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MASS TRANSIT. In the UNITED STATES, where CARS rule (in 1968, there were 71 million cars on the road; in 1998, there were over 200 million — more pavement, more pollution, etc.), a highly neglected transit option. By 1955, 88% of the nation’s electric-streetcar network had been eliminated by corporate collaborators like GM (cars), Standard Oil (gasoline), Greyhound (buses), and Firestone (tires) who bought out such systems in order to neglect them and thereby promote cars and buses instead. In 1949, GM was found guilty of conspiracy in these activities and fined the astronomical fee of $5000. Think of where GM would be today if it was not so harshly fined.

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MCYCLOPEDIA. Everything MARK M knows including stuff he’s not sure of.

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MEAT AND DAIRY. It takes 700 gallons of water to make a cheeseburger. If you can’t forego it, be sure to at least savor it.

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MONEY. Means of “storing” and exchanging material value. People think that if they could only come into great WEALTH, their PROBLEMs would be over. They don’t realize they will only have other problems if they become rich such as how not to lose the fortune, are people liking them only for their money?, etc. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled (and the ACLU agrees!) that money is speech.

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MOUNT(AIN) RUSHMORE. Thousands of years from now, archaeologists will discover this American shrine [on stolen Native American land] and conclude the people depicted thereon were worshipped as gods which won’t be far off the mark especially if they also discover the temple-like LINCOLN Memorial.

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MUSIC. Noise of a variety of types of which usually only a portion of humanity takes pleasure in hearing leading to ageless disagreements as to what constitutes good music. For instance, “rock” music is usually scorned by “classical” enthusiasts as too loud and unsubtle while “rock” enthusiasts find “classical” music as far too measured & stuffy. Then there’s “country” music which is all twangy. And so on…

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NAGASAKI. When contemplating the horror of Hiroshima, 1945, always likewise remember Nagasaki. Also, at least eight Allied prisoners of war (POWs) died from the Nagasaki bombing.

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NAP. A brief bout of sleep. Largely frowned on in the UNITED STATES. When done properly (i.e., kept short), very refreshing and restorative.

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Based on the contents of Vol. 4 (see the cover reproduced above) and some other, similar irregularities, I put as the final entry in Vol. 8:

ALPHABETIZATION. Most other encyclopedists rigorously alphabetize their entries, (but) not MARK M.

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Daniel Everette Hale (born 1987/1988) is a former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence analyst who leaked classified information about drone warfare to the press. In 2021, he pled guilty to retaining and transmitting national defense information and was sentenced to 45 months in prison.

The military documents released by Daniel Hale revealed concrete evidence supporting the high rate of civilian casualties inflicted by the US drone program. At times 90% of U.S. drone strike casualties are unintended targets or innocent bystanders. His truth-telling also exposed the guidelines for the US terror watch list, although this information was unclassified, it was kept from the public. Some of the information released by Daniel Hale has allowed individuals wrongfully placed on the No Fly List to have their constitutional rights vindicated in a court of law.

Daniel Hale’s whistleblowing revelations debunk the false claim that drone strikes save lives. Daniel said, “People that defend drones and defend the way that they’re used, they always say that they protect American lives by not putting them in harm’s way, but what they really do is they embolden commanders and embolden decision makers, because there is no threat, there is no immediate consequence….”

When one exposes U.S. crimes like Daniel Hale, Jeffrey Sterling, Chelsea Manning (collateral murder video), John Kiriakou (torture), Julian Assange and others have done, one is then subjected to imprisonment with harsh sentences.

Assange is not even a U.S. citizen.

Edward Snowden is essentially banished to Russia.

Wikipedia sez: “In April 2020, an amendment to Russian nationality law allowing foreigners to obtain Russian citizenship without renouncing a foreign citizenship came into force.”

Reuters reports in a story of him now being granted Russian citizenship, “The new tweet made no reference to the Kremlin leader’s decree, but it was attached to a 2020 Twitter thread in which Snowden said he and his family were applying for dual U.S.-Russian citizenship.”

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Project Censored educates students and the public about the importance of a truly free press for democratic self-government. We expose and oppose news censorship and we promote independent investigative journalism, media literacy, and critical thinking. Through our website, weekly radio program, annual book, and other programs, we provide this service to the United States, Canada, UK, and the world.

Censorship undermines democracy. An informed public is crucial to democracy in at least two basic ways.  First, without access to relevant news and opinion, people cannot fully participate in government. Second, without media literacy, people cannot evaluate for themselves the quality or significance of the news they receive. Project Censored’s work highlights the important links among a free press, media literacy, and democratic self-government.

Project Censored is a longtime supporter and proud cosponsor of Banned Books Week.

Project Censored’s Top 25 Most Censored Stories of 2020-2021.

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Speaking of censorship, whenever you hear on the news of another North Korean missile launch, you probably are not being told of the U.S. joint military drills with South Korea which have the effect of provoking North Korea. I can imagine the U.S. reacting similarly if two nations, one with a gargantuan military, were to conduct similar exercises off the coast of California, for instance. But maybe that’s just me.

This is not in defense of a nation which in some respects acts like U.S. ally Saudi Arabia.

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Population Connection reports in their magazine of September 2022:

“The world population is projected to cross 8 billion on November 15, 2022.

“At the time, the 7 billion population milestone was marked on October 31, 2011, but the new estimates show that we reached 7 billion in 2010.”

Seems millions of people were hiding out!

“Previous milestones were revised to earlier dates as well.”

I’m sure this is good news to Elon Musk who should just stick to trying to count all his money.

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In contrast to the 1977 Sex Pistols song, “God Save the Queen,” where John Lydon sang, “She ain’t no human being,” in the June 17, 2022 The Week magazine, it is reported that nowadays he is “really really proud” of her for “doing so well” as she celebrated 70 years as queen. !

I haven’t seen any current thoughts from Morrissey (co-writer of “The Queen Is Dead” with anti-monarchist lyrics in 1986) on the late monarch.

A 2016 report on his sentiments:

‘In an emotionally-charged statement on fan site True-to-You, the indie pioneer wrote: “Prince, who made something of his life as opposed to having fortune handed to him, is far more ‘royal’ than Elizabeth 2, and he will be mourned far more than she, for she could never make herself loveable, no matter how many paid and promoted non-stories flood the newspapers of the world…

‘”Prince is the royal that people love, whereas Elizabeth 2 was thrust on the people who have never been asked whether or not they want her.”‘

I’m surprised Morrissey holds Prince in such high regard. (In his autobio, he couldn’t even be troubled to, for instance, cite the name of John Lydon, just referring to “the singer” when mentioning seeing the Sex Pistols perform.) I think Prince’s song “Purple Rain” (1984) for instance, is pretty damn dumb. The song about partying like it’s the turn of the millennium was pretty good, however. I just had no inclination to ever follow the guy.

Incidentally, “Purple Rain Drops” is the B-side to Stevie Wonder’s “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)” (1965).

The other day, I heard a piece on one of NPR’s shows about the great challenge of breaking into Prince’s state-of-the art, bank-size vault after his death since no one had the combo to get in.

They managed it, a delicate and very slow-drilling process (drilling too fast would generate heat which would be detected causing the vault to do some kind of thwarting reset) to get the tumblers into view (requiring to drill in precisely this one spot) and found it crammed full of unreleased recordings.

I thought that level of “lock and key” was rather paranoid of Prince, but then it hit me, there effectively could be no bootlegging of his unreleased stuff compared to if he just left recordings lying around in his studio for some employee to get his/her hands on.

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Thank God Lou Reed was later able to give these early demos a rock arrangement in the Velvet Underground because as acoustic demos they musically sound pretty effing corny. What a nice person John Cale was for agreeing to sing harmony on them.

NPR played some samples.

From NPR:

‘Words & Music offers 15 demos Lou Reed recorded as a fledgling artist: Reed died in 2013. This new collection, which was recorded in May 1965, captures the earliest-known versions of what would become some of the Velvet Underground’s best known songs, including “Heroin” and “Pale Blue Eyes.”‘

Plug in!

The End.

Next week (subject to change): Observations and Thinkings, Vol. pq, Foreign Policy Blindness, Watergate Alternative, Former Wingsman

Boilerplate: As part of my community project as Racine Writer in Residence, I hereby invite Racine-area people to send me prose or poems of 250 words or less for me to consider for inclusion in my posts as a “guest appearance.” So far, there have been no responses. So, former Racine Writers in Residence, I want to explicitly include you in this invitation. If you want, also send a photo and a very short “bio.” You will retain the copyright for the material you submit. Send to m.mk at att.net with “Racine WiR” in the subject line. Thank you.

Don’t hide your light under a bushel-sized basket; it is recommended that you let it shine most all the time.