Patriot’s Inventory

Patriot’s Inventory

a prisoner is bound and gagged in free fall
the backdoor gift exposes an exchange rift
while a cognitive switch haunts its own turncoat

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a prisoner is bound and gagged in free fall
the backdoor gift exposes an exchange rift
while a cognitive switch haunts its own turncoat
and X. goes laughing from the chambers of ambition
the war room curdles its agenda in dead air
meta-discourses fade, hurricanes! floods!
people are repelled by the pearly marketplace
(its scissors, wire, wash-buckets, megabytes)
simple things plummet below her arsonist radar
people alive with cumbersome weapons up the ante
hard strategy of market desire collapses
consumption fails and you take a walk in the park
yet the iris scan exposes a cold glass eye
no claim for any songbird economy
as collateral damage is rarely over
don’t get me started
expose the cultural pillage! trillion dollar war
its cleavage its cloning deals
a poem stolen out of the patriot’s inventory
it’s in all the newspapers today…

We cannot back down

We now confront a second Trump presidency.

There’s not a moment to lose. We must harness our fears, our grief, and yes, our anger, to resist the dangerous policies Donald Trump will unleash on our country. We rededicate ourselves to our role as journalists and writers of principle and conscience.

Today, we also steel ourselves for the fight ahead. It will demand a fearless spirit, an informed mind, wise analysis, and humane resistance. We face the enactment of Project 2025, a far-right supreme court, political authoritarianism, increasing inequality and record homelessness, a looming climate crisis, and conflicts abroad. The Nation will expose and propose, nurture investigative reporting, and stand together as a community to keep hope and possibility alive. The Nation’s work will continue—as it has in good and not-so-good times—to develop alternative ideas and visions, to deepen our mission of truth-telling and deep reporting, and to further solidarity in a nation divided.

Armed with a remarkable 160 years of bold, independent journalism, our mandate today remains the same as when abolitionists first founded The Nation—to uphold the principles of democracy and freedom, serve as a beacon through the darkest days of resistance, and to envision and struggle for a brighter future.

The day is dark, the forces arrayed are tenacious, but as the late Nation editorial board member Toni Morrison wrote “No! This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.”

I urge you to stand with The Nation and donate today.

Onwards,

Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editorial Director and Publisher, The Nation

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