A quote from Niccolò Machiavelli

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."

Remind you of anything?

A line from Niccolò Machiavelli

Boat shoe summer is here. I pay
attention to it even though I hate 
the style. I'm more into those hand-
crafted beige loafers, even though 

they tend to make me look mascu-
line, & that's not really a look I'm
after. Sure a neutral color palette 
can seem more expensive & that is

definitely a telling selling point; 
but men are so simple, & I don't 
want attitudes towards me to be 
tempered by that kind of thing.

wednesday newstrip

Forty-two US aircraft have been lost or damaged in the Iran war according to a congressional report · a bomb scare plunged a Melbourne Airport into lockdown for several hours & forced flight cancellations on Thursday morning after a suspicious package was flagged by security. The package was later confirmed to be a laser hair removal device & a cylindrical cardboard hot chocolate container · the United States has brought murder charges against former Cuban president Raúl Castro, in a major escalation of the T.®ump administration’s campaign against the country’s government · Israel's ambassador to Australia hauled in for a "please explain" after the country's national security minister posted a video of himself berating detained pro-Palestine activists · Elongated Muskrat's X Corp ordered to pay $750,000 after admitting it contravened Australian child protection request · 'Get-out-of-jail-free card': T.®ump lawsuit deal bars tax probes against him or his family — forever.

Tantric glasses

Want to balance your chakras? Steal 
a march on competitors for the love 
of your life? Look directly at the sun 
& become aroused at the same time? 

Sorry, can't help you there. But if you
want to know what Isadore Ducasse, 
Le Comte de Lautremon meant by his 
observation, Beau comme la rencontre 

fortuite sur une table de dissection d'une 
machine à coudre & d'un parapluie!, then
I may be able to help you if you slip me
enough dollars to be able to get a meal.

geographies: Hamelin Pool

 

Sunday, Bloody Sunday

I am looking for a dozen or
so depraved artichokes so 
I can spice up my dinner, but 
all I can find are a few celibate
onions in the bottom of the
pantry that are well passed
their best-before date.
                                       I ring
the local equivalent of Uber
Eats to order something else
for dinner, only to be told
that the Department of Trans-
port is having a crackdown
on the permissible speed of 
e-bikes & it will be an hour 
& a half before they can get 
something to me.
                               I head out
to the garden to see what's
there, but the fruit bats have
laid claim to the fruit trees, &
the snails & slugs & any other
ground-hugging being have
taken over the garden.
                                         I go
inside, take out the Larousse 
Gastronomique. Read it for a
while, then go to bed, hungry.

Another "Just So Story"

Left abandoned on the high
veldt, I notice how parts of
speech often do not hang to-
gether. Rather run their own
races — all the fullstops coal-
esced in a ball by a waterhole, 
the commas top to tail in a 
daisy chain that winds through
the grass & on up to the distant 
hills. As for the conditional 
clauses — well. . . Sometimes 
words might stop to talk to 
me, but because there is no co-
herence to their delivery they 
are left lying on the ground 
like scat, unheeded until some-
one like Rudyard Kipling sees
them & theorizes how leopards
might have come by their spots. 
  

wednesday newstrip

Residents in a sleepy North Carolina town are at war after a nature-loving couple encouraged hundreds of vultures to roost on their roof, causing chaos on the streets · $1.5b T.®ump Tower deal on Gold Coast scrapped, developer says. "Let's just say that with the Iran war & everything else, the T.®ump brand was increasingly toxic in Australia," he added · 'Authentic follower of Christ' pleads guilty to stealing $140M from MAGA donors · NotJustAnyahoo signals possible US-Israel ground mission in Iran · DOJ seeks death penalty over killing of Israeli embassy staffers · secret documents reveal preferred Australian nuclear submarine base – & warn it could be a military target · a bride says her dream wedding turned into 'a day from hell' after the Philadelphia coordinator she paid more than $6,000 to handle everything from catering to decorations allegedly failed to deliver & never refunded her money.

geographies: Warburton

 

wednesday newstrip

Verdict is in on T.®ump’s America: Voters say nation going 'all the way to hell' · Danish rightwing leader asked to form government after the Social Democrats fail to form coalition · an explosive report states Israel operated a clandestine military outpost on Iraqi soil without permission, bombed local troops who found it, resulting in the death of a soldier · the US President went on one of his infamous posting sprees to share images of sinking ships in Iran, explosions & a UFC fight on the White House front lawn. In one image, captioned ‘Bye Bye, Drones,’ an AI image showed an American warship blasting Iranian drones out of the sky with lasers. Another showed Iranian drones dropping like butterflies into the ocean, with images of actual blue butterflies next to it. It appears the President got the phrase ‘dropping like flies’ mixed up with butterflies · when MarkTwayne Mullet attempted to install his personal pick to lead Immigration & Customs Enforcement inside the Department of Homeland Security, the White House shot it down immediately · a trespasser died after he was sucked into a plane’s engine as it prepared to take off, Denver International Airport authorities said.

From the archives

Homeland Security

Certain words are flagged
for recognition. The surrounding
passages on the endless
monitoring tapes are
isolated & extracted, sent past
voice recognition software,
digitalised for immediate
interpretation of permutations
& association. Names, times,
places. More words to add. This
is no brief history of the world
but a paranoic infinite
dictionary. By themselves
the words are meaningless.
Meaning is added later. “I am
going to the shops” is sufficent
reason for assassination. 

Included on the video: Mark Young reads at the NZEPC 3rd Birthday Gala in 2004.

First published on Pelican Dreaming as "Caught on Tape," June 7, 2004.
Included in episodes, xPressed, Espoo, Finland, 2006. 
Also included in Pelican Dreaming: Selected Poems 1959-2008, selected & introduced  
                    by Thomas Fink,Meritage Press, California, U.S.A., 2008.

now out from Sandy Press

Mark Young
synecdoche
Sandy Press
url: Amazon
available in paperback ($US10.00) & Kindle ($US5.00)

Immersed in the speech acts of the "inescapable maelstrom" that characterizes "this rapidly evolving digital land-/ scape," Mark Young is equally focused on the "censorship-industrial complex" of burgeoning "law & ordure" fascisms. The riotous poetry of synecdoche displays Young wielding his "wizard’s mojo" to deepen our awareness of "risible inanity," "semantic non-sequiturs," "battle[s] of concepts," and "invented amulets." — Thomas Fink

Coincidentally, I read Mark Young’s synecdoche while in the midst of moving to a new house. And I noticed a relationship between the poems and contents that I unpacked. I chose boxes to unpack at random so that what surfaces from one box would not necessarily relate to what surfaces from the next box, and so on. Narratively, such, too, would seem to be the case with the poems; at one point I wondered whether the order of the poems mattered since the references are so diverse: a beggar, the pith of sugar cane, a wizard’s mojo, Margot Robbie, licorice, math...

But just as my boxes’ contents reflect me as their owner-packer, these wide-ranging poems share a common (and ambitious) interest: the entirety of existence. Poems are minimalistic snapshots of their concerns so that each poem is just a part of a larger something (perfectly exemplified by the poems whose titles are complete poems in the hay(na)ku form but whose text bodies flesh out the titular themes). Each poem reminds of a larger—immense!—truth: humanity is a shared condition. It’s a worthwhile reminder given these, our, troubled times. — Eileen R. Tabios

In synecdoche Mark Young displays the gamut of what shorter poems can do—including realistic sketches, clever realizations, and linguistic sleights-of-mind. It’s like an orchestra, and Mark is a master of every instrument. Like an amazing radio dial, whatever page/station you turn to, you’ll find something you can hum along with. — dan raphael

With his signature confident spark of higher-order humor in synecdoche, Mark Young presents an ironic reality as he slips off the cloak around the putative whole, greater than the sum of its parts and observes that the parts themselves, in their granularity and uniqueness, may in fact transcend the whole. He states, “Decompose the outline / of complex parts” before ushering in the question “But why can I see only the ingredients?” The book is replete with delicious linguistic wit, as in “Random / noises from / the vowel house” as Young wild-rides us through a series of near homophones, “ballet,” “bullet,” “belet,” “billet,” and “bull at a gate,” yielding an array of sharply different signals. These bright, clipped spurts of compressed language play their part in a leaping-off point toward an endless imaginative prowess reflecting Mark Young’s marvelous capability to re-envision the world. Apt social commentary abounds, notably in the poem “Trapezoid lunch pails,” where we hear “Now all I need is / a sports car with a big enough boot / to keep a mid-life crisis in.” Warning: The mind of Mark Young is sterling, fluid, smart, and thus addictive. As always, highly recommended. — Sheila E. Murphy

wednesday newstrip

Australian activist says crew of Gaza-bound aid flotilla was beaten by Israeli sailors · US Defense Secretary Putrid Hogsbreath has ordered the withdrawal of about 5,000 troops from Germany within the next year, the Pentagon said on Friday · T.®ump claims hostilities have ended in Iran in letter to congressional leaders. Tells Congress ceasefire means he does not need their approval for Iran war · Tasmanian capital records its hottest day in May, breaking 144-year-old record. The city hit 26.9 degrees just after 3pm, more than 12 degrees above its average May maximum of 14.6 degrees · Pope names Catholic priest who criticized T.®ump as new bishop of West Virginia · Republicans are facing a perfect storm heading into November's midterms, with new polling revealing that white voters — a demographic the party has relied upon for decades — are defecting in significant numbers & favoring Democratic control of Congress · Israeli military bulldoze Catholic convent buildings in Lebanon border village.

wednesday newstrip

Multiple scientists who serve on an independent board established to guide the nation’s nearly $9 billion basic science funding agency were terminated from their positions last Friday by President DoNuts T.®ump · right-wing activists ejected from Canberra Anzac ceremony for heckling during indigenous welcome to country. Similar scenes occurred in other Australian cities · when his ratings are down, suddenly there's a shooter nearby. DoNuts T.®ump evacuated from White House correspondents' dinner after suspected shooter apprehended · former Georgia Congressman & conspiracy kook Marjorie Taylor Greene is the latest high-profile political leader in the United States to raise questions about the official story regarding the 2024 assassination attempt against Donald Trump · NotJustAnyYahoo orders army to 'vigorously attack' Hezbollah in Lebanon · Royal aides rush to 'T.®ump-proof' King Charles' US state visit to prevent 'unpleasant surprises.'

wednesday newstrip

'Looksmaxxing' influencer Clavicular breaks silence after suspected overdose during livestream · Katy Perry being investigated by Victoria Police over Ruby Rose sex assault claim · Saudi PIF 'on the verge' of cutting LIV Golf funding · he exposed corruption & walked across Hungary. Now Péter Magyar has defeated a powerful state machine · YouTube has removed a channel belonging to a pro-Iran group producing AI videos that ridicule US President DoNuts T.®ump · Energy Minister Chris Bowen has warned an out-of-control blaze at an oil refinery in Geelong may impact domestic petrol production for some time. The Viva Energy facility is one of only two operational refineries in Australia · the White House has broken their silence on the disturbing string of deaths & disappearances involving scientists with knowledge of America's biggest nuclear secrets · FIFA World Cup fans set for $150 train tickets for 15 minute trip from New York to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Normal price is $12.90 · the Strait of Hormuz has reopened. & closed again.

recently, at Series Magritte

Le Cicérone (1948)
The temperance advocates come
knocking at my door but I haven't
had a drink for days. Nor do I
feel like one. Sorry to disappoint.

The pentecostal proselytizers pause
in the pathway. I instantly recog-
nize the pairing, can see more pairs 
over their shoulders, say no thanks 

politely to them before they have a
chance to open their mouths. & they, 
inured to rejection, offer their equally 
polite blessings & walk quietly away. 

Then the politicians, the outliers only — 
independents who seek to save the
planet; or those far to the right, want-
ing to stop immigration or gender e-


quality or renewable energy sources. 
The mainstream parties mainly leave 
us alone. Impersonal. Letterbox drops 
& billboards. Polling booth handouts.

In the early evening the cicerone comes
calling. Said: "Saw you had a lot of
visitors today, thought you might like
to know their antecedents. What drives

them, what is behind their focus on a
singular cause whether it be bigotry 
or hope or a need for an answer as to 
why the world turned out the way it

has, & how it might be rearranged to
match their vision of it." "Come in" I
said "& get comfortabable. Will make
you a coffee. Going to be a long night."

wednesday newstrip

'No Deal'— Bitcoin braces for crash after fruitless DeeJay Vance Iran talks · 'Communist cult' is pushing 'insane' climate change agenda · Iran war forces small Australian supermarkets to lower margins as suppliers, farmers pass on rising costs · what was Artemis II really about? · Cameron Diaz asks guests to "change [their] clothes" before they set foot into her luxurious New York City apartment · iPhone Fold’s crease-less display longevity claims will be scrutinized as OPPO Find N6’s real-world use exposes its exaggerated marketing · Melania adviser reveals why she gave Jeffrey Epstein statement · Chernobyl organism raises new questions in radiation biology · eligible US men will be automatically registered for military draft pool beginning in December.

wednesday newstrip

US Defense Secretary Putrid Hogsbreath asks US Army chief to step down as Iran war grinds on · 'payment expected within seven days:' New Zealand doctor invoices US embassy for rising petrol costs · Hogsbreath lifts ban on service members carrying personal firearms on base · fuel crisis driving some Australian farmers to consider abandoning harvests · Pam Bondi beached as Attorney General · Artemis II marks NASA’s new moon age, wrapped in patriotism & global promise · T.®ump slaps 100pc tariffs on Australian drugs — with exceptions · Jason Momoa, Taika Waititi, & Cliff Curtis buy Auckland's Studio West in major screen industry deal · 'a litany of lies:' T.®ump’s rambling primetime Iran address sparks backlash · judge dismisses most of Blake Lively's claims in harassment lawsuit against Justin Baldoni · Married At First Sight Australia 2026 recap - episode 31: wife snaps: 'Ya cousin wants to fuck me!'

freight

a.k.a. Wait until this starts happening more & more often, Donald.

"…and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on."

W.H.Auden: Musée des Beaux Arts

(photo from TIME's best pictures of 2005)

main text originally posted to Pelican Dreaming, 12/21/2005, in the time of George W. Bush.

wednesday newstrip

T.®ump breaks military recruitment vows as he arrests & deports veterans · moments before President T.®ump announced that talks with Iran were going well & that he would not make good on his threat to bomb one of their civilian power plants, someone dropped about $580 million in the oil futures market · T.®ump administration to pay French company $1B to walk away from US offshore wind leases · over 500 service stations in Australia have run out of petrol or diesel · Alexis Wilkins, the girlfriend of former podcaster & now FBI head Krash Pastel, accused the anti-war enclave of MAGA of being under the influence of foreign nations, notably Russia, on X · DoNuts T.®ump's wife & youngest son have been caught voting by mail in Florida despite the president's ongoing campaign to ban vote-by-mail · a 20-year-old woman has been convicted on a graffiti charge for sticking googly eyes on a famous sculpture in South Australia.

SuperT.®ump; aka wednesday newstrip

T.®ump threatens to put ICE agents in airport security unless Democrats end shutdown · TACO time again. T.®ump gave Iran 48-hour deadline to open Strait of Hormuz & then decided not to proceed · is anyone as ill-suited for great office as Donald T.®ump? Yes, Pete Hogsbreath – that's why Potus likes him · T.®ump & NotJustanYahoo have formed a convenient coalition, but clear divisions are emerging · 'Good, I'm glad he's dead': T.®ump responds to death of ex-FBI chief Robert Mueller, who led T.®ump-Russia investigation · T.®ump's Iran War drive exposes limits of "Yes, Sir" Cabinet · Underground Railroad museum sues T.®ump administration alleging it canceled grant on the basis of race · T.®ump’s shameless corruption is not a deviation from American history but its fulfilment · with casino empire gone, T.®ump family bets on prediction markets · DoNuts T.®ump set to feature on gold coin to celebrate 250 years of U.S. Independence, only the second time a living President has featured on a coin · T.®ump’s profiteering hits $4 Billion.

wednesday newstrip

Marco Rubicon mocked for wearing oversized shoes after DoNuts T.®ump reportedly gifts allies $145 footwear they're too afraid not to wear · Atlassian billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has slashed more than 1,600 jobs as artificial intelligence reshapes the workforce · South Australian Liberal Party candidate says 'same-sex marriage is not real' & 'feminism is demonic' · White House adviser James Blair privately urged House Republicans to stop promoting the 'mass deportations' of illegal migrants, according to a report from Axios · new report on Wednesday revealed that more American service members were left with serious injuries — including brain trauma, burns, shrapnel wounds, & at least one person requiring a limb amputation — than the T.®ump administration initially reported following a targeted Iranian drone attack in Kuwait that left six troops dead · T.®ump pulled mine-sweepers from Middle East before Iran war · Sydney designer Katie Perry wins court case against pop star Katy Perry.

wednesday newstrip

On T.®ump’s gilded stage, history has no worth – even if he understood it · India defends sheltering Iran ship 'caught on wrong side of events' · Multicultural Affairs Minister Dr. Anne Aly warns Australia must not 'abandon' people vulnerable to radicalisation · in a startling theory the Ark of the Covenant may lie thousands of miles away in one of the most remote places on Earth, buried deep in the jungles of the Solomon Islands · the U.S. military said Friday it carried out targeted operations alongside Ecuadorian forces against "Designated Terrorist Organizations" in Ecuador · a longtime conservation advocate warned on Saturday that President DoNuts T.®ump’s recent park policies will likely take a toll on an innocent party — Yosemite Park wildlife bears · DHS deports six-year-old deaf boy after preventing him receiving his hearing aid, lawyer says · the Australian government is considering offering military support to assist Gulf nations facing strikes from Iran, but will not participate in any ground troop deployment into Iran, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, has said · 'Thin skinned little boy': critics pounce as T.®ump declares 'we've already won' Iran war.

Iran girls’ school targeting likely 'deliberate'

Al Jazeera investigation raises questions over deadliest single attack of war on Iran that killed 165 schoolgirls & staff.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/3/questions-over-minab-girls-school-strike-as-israel-us-deny-involvement

wednesday newstrip

"The problem is that Israel is in love with assassinations … & we never learn that it is not the solution. We have killed all the leaders of Hamas. They are still there. It’s the same with Hezbollah. The leaders are always replaced:" Israeli analyst · supporting 'illegal aggression' against Iran 'the worst thing' Australia could do, international law experts say · death toll in Israeli strike on southern Iran girls’ elementary school rises to 165 · T.®ump says Iran operation could take "four weeks or less" · at least 22 people were killed & more than 120 wounded in clashes with police on Sunday in Pakistan after protesters supporting Iran tried to storm the U.S. Consulate · 'we voted for America First & ZERO wars': T.®ump's Iran strike sparks backlash from MAGA base · "Away I ran!" said T.®ump.

also from the archives

a found de Saussure hay(na)ku

from the archives

de Saussure

stands up in the 
audience to point out
that the fact that
Britney Spears was
cleared in the dog 
abuse scandal
negates its nomination
for the MTV award
of arbitrary linguistic
sign. Derrida, who's
presenting the award,
agrees, since it's
become apparent that
the limit of representation 
based on signified-
signifier dichotomy 
has been reached. But, he
continues, an arbitrary 
sign can make playing
with substitutes
possible. He tells Britney
to continue towards
the stage & calls
upon Fed-Ex to
join her, saying that the
second nomination, a 
complaint lodged with DCFS 
involving allegations of 
poor dental hygiene, as 
well as poor eating & 
sleeping habits for their 
kids, still qualifies, if only
to remind the viewing
audience of the lack 
of access of many of the 
world's poor to clean water.

11.24.2008

wednesday newstrip

T.®ump wants federal agencies to release files on UFOs & extraterrestrials. Other people remain content with ancestry.com · then Prince Andrew’s Met protection officers ‘told to guard party hosted by Epstein’ · Arab & Islamic countries jointly condemned remarks by the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, who suggested Israel had a biblical right to a vast swath of the Middle East · UK government considering removing former prince from the line of succession · Australians have vowed to boycott The Coffee Club after its director called for tougher immigration policies, despite being the son of Greek migrants · British nuclear-powered attack sub HMS Anson arrives in Perth for training exercises · urgent health warning after 1700 toxic alkaloid poppy plants stolen from secret farm in Australia. Unlike regular opioid poppies, which contain sedative opiates like morphine & codeine, the alkaloid variety contains life-threatening thebaine & oripavine at dangerously high concentrations · T.®ump said on Saturday that he wants a global tariff of 15 per cent, up from 10 per cent he had announced a day earlier after the US Supreme Court struck down many of the far-reaching taxes on imports that he had imposed over the last year.

wednesday newstrip

"Cartel drone" incursion sparks El Paso shutdown. Turned out to be four mylar party balloons · White House fires federal prosecutor just five hours after his swearing in because the President had not appointed him. "Judges don’t pick U.S. Attorneys, @POTUS does" · Australian Liberal Party ousts its first woman leader, replaces her with a man described as the "best-qualified idiot they’ve ever met" · Kristi NoeminKnucklehead had Coast Guard pilot fired for leaving her blanket on a plane · Olympic Village in crisis as condoms run out · the freshly minted Liberal leader has doubled down on plans for a hardline immigration policy, pledging to cut migrant numbers & focus on those who reject Australian values · new poll says Bad Bunny represents America better than DoNuts T.®ump · Palestinians say Israel's new plans for the West Bank kill statehood hopes.