This last post of 2024 could be an homage to John Dos Passos. The early Dos Passos. Before life soured him rightward into becoming a reactionary. Until then, let’s consider him a “lost generation” writer alongside Ernest Hemingway. As did Hemingway, Dos Passos also reported from Spain during its 1936-39 Civil War. There’s where the pair diverged. Before the war, Dos Passos had established solid progressive cred with his 1925 novel Manhattan Transfer. He followed that with his USA trilogy (titles published in 1930, 1932, 1936, respectively) comprised of The 42nd Parallel, 1919, and The Big Money. Throughout his USA fiction, he dropped in biographical elements and reportage. No need for fiction in 2024. Just real life that should sicken conscientious Americans. What follows has been plucked from a month of Slow Boat Media social media observations and commentary. It is who we’ve allowed ourselves to become. Continue reading Random December
Category Archives: Observed
Useless Clouds
August is the Mojave Desert’s most challenging month.
While unavoidably sweltering, it’s generally less torrid than July. August actually starts letting residents kind of imagine autumnal respite in ways July absolutely forbids.
Until the last several summers, July counted as the “monsoon month.” Indeed, rain in quantifiable measures wetted if not outright soaked this region. Away from Las Vegas in the desert proper one might’ve believed he or she heard the parched dirt greedily gulp whatever rain had fallen. Continue reading Useless Clouds
Recalling Heritage
When haven’t there been black conservatives?
The elders who raised me, who imprinted me, they were conservatives. Oh, conservative in that one got what he earned. What one deserved. It just wasn’t given. That way when it was withheld, every effort could be made to obtain what was yours. Continue reading Recalling Heritage
Decoration Day 2024
God did not free black American slaves from their southern bondage. Instigated by abolitionists, that task fell to the Grand Army of the Republic. Continue reading Decoration Day 2024
Killing Snakes
Have I been strident about what occurred in Israel on October 7th, 2023? Hell yeah! My stridency equals, no, surpasses those on the wrong side of the issue.
Have I been dismissive about what torments Gazans are enduring over the months since? Indeed, I have.
Have I lost social media correspondents with my backing of Israel’s justifiably ruthless extermination of Hamas terrorists? Yes. Continue reading Killing Snakes
Presentable People
On this everyone can agree – O.J. Simpson really messed up.
No. Not that he killed his ex-wife Nicole and her boyfriend Ron Goldman in 1994. The college and professional football legend had nothing to do with their demises. Rather, O.J. tempted fate and got severely scorched by it when he crossed the Mojave Desert into Nevada in order to retrieve memorabilia he believed still his. Continue reading Presentable People
Uprooted
This February, The New York Times published two of the more discouraging articles that’ll likely be printed in 2024.
Each dealt with working people. These days, there isn’t enough reportage regarding hourly workers. Those news holes must be crowding space breathlessly tracing the trajectories of celebrities, ideologues, and ephemeral topics. Continue reading Uprooted
Where the Skies Are Cloudy All Day
Leave it to Americans to give our Saturnalia a wholesome name. Thanksgiving. Continue reading Where the Skies Are Cloudy All Day
Unentitled
Who else finds all this “reparations” chatter amusing? Or dismaying? Continue reading Unentitled
Decoration Day 2023
Americans have done a great disservice to the valorous who fought and sacrificed for the Union cause during the Civil War. By renaming it Memorial Day then amalgamating all who’ve fallen in each of our nation’s armed conflicts, Decoration Day, consecrated and commemorated on May 30th, has been robbed of its purpose.
Like Armistice Day. November 11th signifies the emergence of the United States as the 20th century’s preeminent global power. The true start of the American Century.
A date upon which Henry Luce and Walter Lippmann might’ve seamlessly agreed. Continue reading Decoration Day 2023