Maybe it’s the question spoken in hushed tones. Or, just the obvious one which has some wondering out loud.
Why isn’t Mike Pence good enough to be the President of the United States of America?
Mike Pence can save America and put this country out of its’ misery right now, if he steps up to marry himself to a certain amendment and not a snotty brat with a constant pout.
After all, he’s a conservative’s conservative. Upright, uptight and potently pious is he. So, the question of him being the bridesmaid to a bride ever so shameless is an obvious one to take a peek under the tarnished, silken slip of this administration at hand.
An Evangelical base is more aligned with the life traveled by Mr. Pence. But, then again, it seems he is not the beloved one to stand in first place at the electoral altar.
Never the bride, but always the bridesmaid is Mike Pence.
Second-hand Mike!
Second-hand Mike!
Exactly what is it about you that people really don’t like?
Second-hand Mike is sanctimonious beyond anyone else on par
Yet, the one they love more is the boorish reality television star
Second-hand Mike wonders with stoic stare over why isn’t he worthy enough?
Amendment 25 is chiseled there in concrete
But, nobody’s calling in that bluff
Jobs may come
And, positions may transform
But, a certain bridesmaid sheds a tear when knowing that brass pinnacle is so near
Seems no matter how sincere you apply your gaze
Or, how earnest to the ideology you praise
Second banana is your finality of place
Choirboy or fornicator is the choice on the evangelical’s silver plate
Which will they cling to when the sins hit the fan?
The good boy who abides by all the perceived rules
Or, the problem child who kicks the golden can?
The answer is clear and Second-hand Mike weeps on his Missus’ shoulder
One spouse limit is his, as the bride’s been in triple-wedded bliss
At the head of the aisle one hand brushing another is a pliable second-hand job
Oh, Mother – clutch your pearls, if that be true
Let them pearls of fallacy scatter
When you couldn’t have that proclaimed Christian fortitude of humanity to say Black Lives Matter
Lacking a pair of spheres and absent a clue
You will never be the cream on top, because being the bride is just not you
Mike Pence is a bridesmaid, through and through
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About The Author: A.H. Scott is a poet based in New York City and frequent contributor to Tony Ward Studio. To read additional articles by Ms. Scott, go here: https://tonywardstudio.com/blog/bare/
I usually like to be proved right in my predictions, but this time is an exception. I wrote most of my book COSMIC DANCE in 2018 and published it in March of 2019. In it (page 90), I predicted a plague caused by GMO (Genetically Modified Organisms) that would disrupt worldwide civilization. Now it has happened.
Luc Montagnier, the virologist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering the HIV virus, has examined the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease, and stated that it was genetically modified by splicing genetic material from the HIV virus into a bat coronavirus using genetic manipulation tools found only in labs. He speculates that this may have been part of an effort to develop an HIV/AIDS vaccine.
The virology lab in Wuhan had already been criticized for poor containment procedures, and was known to be collecting and working with bat coronaviruses. Coincidence? I don’t really believe in coincidence most of the time, but especially this time.
THE LANCET, the world’s oldest and most respected medical journal, says that the evidence that the virus came from the Huanan Seafood Market just isn’t there, and points out that the first cases in Wuhan had no connection to that market whatsoever. One of their contributors speculates that it escaped the virology lab either through poor waste disposal techniques or in the body of a lab worker who became infected.
These are facts, contradicting the propaganda spewed out by the Chinese government, which has tried to divert the world’s attention from their lab. The whole world is suffering from incompetent lab workers in that virology lab. It will be a long time before we see the end of this plague from a virus specifically created to infect humans.
Many, for political reasons, have attacked President Trump for casting the blame for this nightmare on China. I am emphatically not a Trump supporter. I think both major political parties are fucked-up disasters just waiting to implode our country, and, in fact, I think Mr. Trump just isn’t up to the job of President of the United States, but this time he’s right. China was at fault for operating a virology lab that could not contain the viral material it was experimenting on, and should be held accountable for this global catastrophe..
I’ve been concerned that we’d face a plague like this since genetic engineering tools like CRISP-R and others have been developed and unleashed with little or no control. Genetic engineering tools able to tamper with the DNA/RNA of organisms are available to anyone able to master the basics of their use. This is a ticking time bomb, just as if tactical nuclear weapons were sold openly on eBay. In fact, it’s probably far more dangerous.
Nature is a highly complex set of interrelated systems, all kept in balance by natural checks developed over millions of years. Creating GMOs and taking even a small risk that they will escape the lab is foolhardy and exceedingly dangerous. It’s happening today, worldwide, and it was just a matter of time before a plague was unleashed.
As we’ve begun to learn, putting the genie back into the bottle once its escaped is damned near impossible.
Sloppy lab work in China has already killed far more Americans than the entire Vietnam war!
And, news reports tell us that people are terrified. In states with newly reopened businesses, there was sparse turnout. Bar Axe in Atlanta reopened but there were only two customers all weekend. Shopping malls in Georgia and Texas reopened, but were nearly empty. A clothing store clerk at a mall in Austin said, “There’s absolutely no one coming around here!” Polls show that four out of five people won’t go to restaurants, gyms, movie theaters, or other businesses, even when those reopen. (Source THE WEEK magazine, May 15, 2020)
On another topic, in COSMIC DANCE I also talked about the “Tic-Tac” UFO videos unofficially released by the US Air Force. On April 27, 2020, the Department of Defense issued a press release laying to rest claims of fakery. The videos, one taken in November 2004 and the other two taken in January 2015 are authentic, according to the DOD. The officially released videos can be found at the Naval Air Systems Command FOIA Reading Room at:
https://www.navair.navy.mil/foia/documents
The press release states: “After thorough review, the department has determined that the authorized release of these unclassified videos does not reveal any sensitive capabilities or systems and does not impinge on any subsequent investigations of military air space incursions by unidentified aerial phenomena. DOD is releasing the videos in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public as to whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there was more to the videos. The aerial phenomena observed in the videos remains classified as ‘unidentified.'”
I’m only sorry that my friend Stan Friedman didn’t live long enough to see the cause he devoted his life to acknowledged as real by the Department of Defense. And, as the press release reveals, that investigation of unidentified aerial phenomena continues, in spite of previous official denials. “The truth is out there,” as Fox Mulder told us.
Meanwhile, my personal legal battles are still all on hold, with the courts shut down except for emergency hearings. Until our law library reopens and I can get back in there, there’s very little I can do. It’s very frustrating to be so close to regaining my freedom and to be stymied by this damnable Chinese virus.
Stay well everyone!
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Portrait of Bob Shell, May of 2020. Pocahontas State Prison
About The Author: Bob Shell is a professional photographer, author and former editor in chief of Shutterbug Magazine. He is currently serving a 35 year sentence for involuntary manslaughter for the death of Marion Franklin, one of his former models. He is serving the 13th year of his sentence at Pocahontas State Correctional Facility, Virginia. To read more letters from prison by Bob Shell, click here:https://tonywardstudio.com/blog/meditations-pandemics/
Editor’s Note: If you like Bob Shell’s blog posts, you’re sure to like his new book, COSMIC DANCE by Bob Shell (ISBN: 9781799224747, $ 12.95 book, $ 5.99 eBook) available now on Amazon.com . The book, his 26th, is a collection of essays written over the last twelve years in prison, none published anywhere before. It is subtitled, “A biologist’s reflections on space, time, reality, evolution, and the nature of consciousness,” which describes it pretty well. You can read a sample section and reviews on Amazon.com.
. Photography and Text by Emily Williams, Copyright 2020
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HOME/SOLITUDE
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I dedicate this series to my grandfather, Leon Williams.
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Driven by my frustration with the passage of time without a singular place to call home, I started to think about the meaning of home—a feeling rather than a physical space. A feeling that I chased, both literally and figuratively, while running countless miles on roads both familiar and unfamiliar. Listening to the sound of my own feet, in part, lead me to this series.
As the series grew, it started to center around solitude, the feeling I always circle back to when meditating on home. I wanted to explore the range of emotions contained in solitude—from loneliness, to peace, to anger. I aim to create visual representations of quiet that convey and explore the nuances among feelings that come with large amounts of time spent alone.
My photography searches for the evidence of humanity—an unmade bed, an abandoned shoe, an open window, a dilapidated gate—to discover who was or will be in that space. I want to find places that mean something to whomever may have inhabited them but appear vacant at the moment they are photographed. I felt the mundane, uninhabited nature of these scenes best convey solitude.
In the first few months of working, I mostly photographed inside houses. I was drawn to the easily recognizable evidence of their inhabitants. Later, other spaces that were not as easily recognizable as inhabited, such as landscapes and abstract pieces, were incorporated into my work.
Throughout the year, I have been consistently concerned with the geometry of my compositions with the exploration of different patterns of light. How light shapes what we see, how it defines space, and how its presence and absence creates mood fascinates me.
I used analog and digital processes in making and printing my photographs. I have printed on 11 in. x 14 in. Ilford warm tone, silver gelatin paper, and made inkjet prints on Baryta Photo Rag paper of the same size. I started by printing on the Ilford warm tone paper in the darkroom, and found that it allowed for more detail to be visible in heavy shadows. I chose the Baryta Photo Rag because it was the closest digital equivalent. I have used both the analog and digital processes in order to print each photograph in the process that suits it best. The photographs are taken primarily with Kodak 400TX film, in both the 35mm and 120mm sizes; I have on several occasions used Ilford HP5 for my 35mm photographs. Both of these films have a wide exposure latitude, allowing me to push and pull them as needed and giving me the flexibility to shoot in a wide range of lighting situations.
My work is inspired by that of Abelardo Morell, mainly from his three series Childhood, Still Lives, and Light, Time, and Optics. He records light and shadow, patterns, and domesticity to create compelling photographs of the everyday. I draw aspects of my creative process from Haruki Murakami’s book What I Talk about When I Talk about Running, where Murakami seamlessly connects his work as a fiction writer with running.
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About The Author: Emily Williams is a recent graduate of Haverford College majoring in Fine Arts and History. Class of 2020.
Mary used her key that Teddy gave her to pop into his house when he wasn’t there to enjoy his pool in the back.
White dress with black buttons was quickly undone, as Mary peeled off blush colored bra and panty.
She knew he would be home soon and took a quick swim to cool off.
Coming to the shallow end of the pool, she pulled herself partially onto the deck.
Resting her head atop of her arms on the edge of the pool, Mary closed her eyes with her legs lightly brushing against the Italian marble so cool.
Teddy had arrived to his home about ten minutes earlier and changed out of his boring attire into something frisky for this sunny afternoon in August.
Teddy bare was a pleasant sight out of the corner of Mary’s eye, as he dove into the opposite end of the pool.
Little was a splash made as his sights were set upon her.
Mary closed her eyes again and called out to the swimmer approaching her, “Teddy, how was your day?”
Coming closer to where she was, Teddy was eager to reply, “Better now to have your luscious body beaming beneath the sun’s rays”.
Mary was no fool, as she perched herself slightly outside of the waterline of that pool. Her ass was like a peach on the horizon of a ripple of water.
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Photo: Tony Ward, Copyright 2020
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Teddy had hands quite sizable, which Mary enjoyed in any kind of variable on her body.
That first touch of fingers making contact with her hips made Mary murmur a bit.
Scooping upward around both breasts, Teddy’s hands massaged each nipple slowly and pressed his body inside of her from behind.
Inside of Mary’s flower, she welcomed every insertion of this man’s desire.
Yet, this woman had her own sense of power in being with him.
Natural slip and slide of mutual inches of expanding pride were setting off sparks in the shallow end of that pool.
Teddy’s hands caressed her moist ass with adoring care, as Mary’s palms playfully drummed out a beat against the edge of that pool.
So good it was, as she made her move on him with measured pace of motioning herself around in that water to face this lusty man of this house.
Their eyes met as did their flesh again and again. Water moved between them with every point of contact, as intensity and serenity filled their gazes.
Tongues teased one another; with his tip racing along right side of her neck and soft kisses she was giving to his left cheek and parallel pectoral.
Feeling him inside of her, Mary’s soul pulsated with that headiness of horniness that she rarely revealed to anyone.
As for Teddy, he was a man consumed with pleasure in being with a woman who knew what she needed and expressed herself as wanting in fulfillment.
Locomotion of push and pull was theirs in that water, as Mary’s arms and legs wrapped around Teddy’s body.
Trickle of culmination, confidence and care came in satisfaction’s exhalation and roaring enthrallment in that pool area.
On a sun-drenched afternoon in August that was delightfully beyond compare, Mary expressed her deepest gratitude to Teddy bare.
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Photo: Tony Ward, Copyright 2020
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About The Author: A.H. Scott is a poet based in New York City and frequent contributor to Tony Ward Studio. To read additional articles by Ms. Scott, go here:https://tonywarderotica.com/onehundredthousand/
