fulminating

The host with pitchforks marches to the beat;
Bob Dylan's lyrics soaring in our throats.
When Miller's brownshirts shoot us in the streets,
We won't be begging him to let us vote.
The mob with torches owns the avenues,
when Hegseth calls our soldiers to"crusade",
a billion Muslims join with Sikhs, and Jews,
and--maybe--this is more than a parade.
"Appeal to Heaven" as Alito said
belongs to We the People, not to him.
nor to his party's venal orange head,
to honor or dishonor at his whim.
That gallows Stephen Miller raised so tall,
will hoist him high, when he's cast down this Fall.

echoes of Tienanmen

On Tienanmen, one figure stood,  alone,
bagged groceries forgotten in his hands.
Stark image that still thrills us to the bone:
massed armor halted by one unarmed man.
The violence that Stephen Miller craves
to justify the Insurrection Act,
appeals to one so utterly depraved
he reasons from his passions, not from facts.
Each Cossack isn't welded to his horse;
Jack-booted thugs routinely "ride" in cars.
If we're not peons cowed by shows of force,
Americans won't meekly kneel to Czars.
He did what's right, without regard for fame
immortalized, 'though no one knows his name.

Persian prospects

The Mullahs cut the internet and phone
as if a world made deaf could not react
to evidence they're in this all alone;
like al-Assad, their patron's overtaxed.
Far-scattered proxies, doing Moscow's will
from Tartus to Caracas, and beyond
won't push on like they're underwritten still;
that stream of funds had been the only bond.
Transparency sustains democracy;
in darkness, counting votes would be a joke.
The underpinning of theocracy
is always violence, and fear, and smoke.
Two generations since Pahlavi fled
the price is on the Ayatollah's head.

It's been a long time coming

Kadyrov reads the omens, and steps back;
he sees his patron headed for defeat.
'Though Putin's apoplectic to "Attack!",
his Chechens stand at ease(if not retreat).
Prigozhin struck too soon, and got rebuffed,
inviting Ramzan to throw off their chains.
But--maybe--Russians now have had enough;
Who might succeed is not for us to say.
with Khodorkovsky living in exile,
they're not retrying Gorbachev's "new way."
They're like to live with warlords, for a while,
this cycle, but just might, another day...
The empire Vladimir had hope would stand
as monument is crumbling with the man.

A New Dawn

Assad thought Putin'd always have his back
presuming Kremlin coffers would stay filled
But sanctions bite; gas revenue's now Jack
He'd have to pay for future thousands killed.
Dug in, behind Damascus' ancient walls
What's next, a world of pundits couldn't tell 
He had emigrate, or take the fall
and join his fellow Baathist thugs in Hell.
The blitzkrieg Putin couldn't pull off in Ukraine
rolled like a Spring storm torrent heaven-sent
his mercenaries quit where there's no gain
to leave their boss alone in Yael's tent.
One chinless exile languishing alone;
six million refugees now turn for home.

Fourteenth Amendment

Who gets a seat, Chuck Schumer gets to choose;
our Senate bars sedition from its hall.
He's going nowhere while he bears Ted Cruz,
but it's not clear to all he's got the balls.
The Fourteenth purged Lee's clique from government
ineligible to their dying day.
All senators must know the precedent
once ratified, such bans don't fade away.
What Chuck will do's much less than what he'd like
he tends towards somnolence, more than to haste.
Ted's head should grace our Congress on a pike
an honest Texan ought to hold his place.
Unceasing vigilance is Freedom's cost;

if Schumer waffles here, the moment's lost.

undoing

A president unfit to do the job
empowers those too dumb to disagree.
Instead of experts, he recruits a mob
to overthrow our own society.
The bank reforms bequeathed by FDR
eroded under Reagan, Clinton, Bush...
until we're on the brink of Civil War

as circus freaks attempt a beergut putsch.
McConnell means to rule what may remain
among the wreckage Trump's sedition wrought.
While most--like Whigs--are circling the drain
a remnant can still hope they won't get caught.
The ancient curse may have foreseen Trump's crimes;
We're doomed to live in interesting times.

Timid

Bill Clinton ditched the GreatSociety;
pursuing banker donors on WallStreet.
Deregulation turned the pirates free
and Trump made their ascendancy complete.
Joe Biden wants this trend to hang on "hold"
This isn't how we played it in his youth!

But nothing in his nature tends towards bold;

he won't offend big donors with the truth.

Obama won't let CHANGE be pushed aside;

we can't be satisfied with ways of yore.
Proclivity to smile and let it ride

would melt the poles and lead to civil war.

An age that needs another FDR
finds Joe concerned that we would go too far.

Pinochist

Chad Wolf deploys a mercenary force
who won't ID themselves, but let drop hints
...armed to the teeth...emotionally coarse...
the latest Enterprise of Erik Prince.
The Pentagon enriched him in Iraq,
an ill-got fortune grafted on his own.
This year, he'd brought his buccaneer boys back
to break some citizens' skulls here at home.

Wolf's jackboot thugs are taking Oregon

they spurn insignia or names in sight

Like Deng Xiao Peng deployed in Tiananmen

without regard for basic civil rights.
If Trump wants citizens to just comply
he'd have sent agents of our FBI.

Kenosha

Kenosha terrorists don't hesitate;
they know Wisconsin cops have got their back.

And even if they drove from out-of-state,

the courts won't prosecute when victim's Black.

A racist cop see allies in their ranks
assuming color correlates with threat.

He safeguards capitalists, and their banks

aware his livelihood is in their debt.

The DoJ's equipped to prosecute
when States deprive their citizens of rights.
But Barr's on the wrong side of this dispute;

he doesn't see a crime, when the perp's white.

Trump's brownshirts think they're right because they're strong
and Biden's not been quick to prove them wrong.

incitement

A Wall of veterans, 

                                  a Wall of dads
A Wall of moms

                                 drawn up in serried ranks
defend us from a government gone bad,
beholden not to citizens, but Banks.
To rally votes behind the richest few,
Trump wages urban warfare on his own.
His Brownshirts do what mercenaries do;
Fallujah gets reprised, this time at home.
He slanders moderates like Thomas Ridge,
who warned this isn't what that force is for.
When agents get strung up beneath a bridge,
he'll smirk and escalate the civil war.
"He's no conservative!" Krauthammer said;
no one of us is safe, 'til Trump lies dead.

Reichstag fire

On Tiananmen Square, tankman stood alone
we never learned his name, nor knew his fate.
America now brings oppression home

as citizens get shanghaied by "our" state.

A generation later, that fight's here

as Trump's loosed armed battalions on the crowd.

Americans ain't used to disappear

for criticising Trumpty-Dump aloud.
The "insurrection" Trump hopes to provoke

so martial law'd be somehow justified

increasingly's attractive to the folk

who see police reports get falsified.

political dissent is jailed and gagged

when fascism comes home, wrapped in our flag.

rent-a-cop

Chad Wolf deploys a mercenary force

who won't ID themselves, but let fall hints
...armed to the teeth...emotionally coarse...
the latest enterprise of Erik Prince.
The Pentagon enriched him in Iraq
an ill-got fortune grafted on his own.
But now he's brought his buccaneer boys back

to break some citizens' skulls here at home.
Wolf's jackboot thugs are taking Oregon

without insignia or names in sight.

Like Deng Xiao Peng deployed in Tiananmen

without regard for sacred legal rights.
If Trump wants citizens to just comply

he'd have sent agents of our FBI.

Change is gonna come

Mitt Romney's joined the protests in the street
while Trumpty-Dumpty cowers in his hole.
He ego won't acknowledge the defeat,
but even Fox concedes, Trump's lost control.
Bill Barr has raised an army of his own;
(I'd call them "brownshirts", but they're salaried).
Praetorians to prop a stolen throne
to which he'll shortly learn, he's lost the deed.
The People cry for change, but get old Joe,
whose handlers blanch each time he gets a mic.
At best, he'll try reform, but much too slow;
at worst he'll bleat whatever donors like.
Americans for CHANGE still seethe, and wait
for what we called for in 2008.

infighting

Mike Bloomberg's staked a claim in Biden's lane
on old McCarthyites who live in fear
of "socialism" 'though they can't explain
just what that language seeks to mean this year.
The wafflers Buttigieg feels he should own
are still engaged as long as Joe's in play.
He's getting snappish guarding that fat bone
and Klobuchar just hasn't gone away.
The influence an Adelson can wield
among Republicans who want his funds
eludes Mike Bloomberg within this field;
they seem contemptuous of his late run.
A guy for whom the System works so well
is ill-equipped  to fix this Trumpty Hell.

Victor

The Right to Live in Peace rings in the night
though Pinochet had tried to quell his voice
this Victor hasn't give up the fight
and goes on singing, 'though he can't rejoice.
The Right to Live in Peace swells day by day
Half Santiago's thumping to the dance
the million Victor Jara taught to play
now give non-violence a second chance.
The Right to Live in Peace roars in the street
the banks can't hide behind self-serving laws.
No wealthy few are going to defeat
the People unified in a just cause.
the Victor Jara anthem feeds on rage
rejecting plutocrats in our new age.

slow fade

Eleven years, Mugabe stewed in jail
emerging, he cast off the White Man's Yoke,
but lived to see his revolution fail.
What started hopeful withered to a joke.
Eight years,  George Washington served, then retired
to work his farm, and watch his project bloom.
Mugabe mistrusts everyone he'd hired,
who'd hang him for his crimes, if they but knew.
T'was Tsangirai contrived the twilight deal,
to spare his country further ill-repute.
No precedent for those inclined to steal,
but this one case, he would not prosecute.
Mugabe's dead, Zimbabwe does not grieve
too busy rooting out his den  of thieves.

the next revolution

Now, Carrie Lam implies she's just the glove
concealing Moscow's fist that moves her mouth.
Authority's imposed by those above,
while on the street, the markets have gone South.
In '97, Hong Kong money fled
to Canada, where passports could be bought
by those who were unwilling to go Red,
regardless what Mao's Little Red Book taught.
The Communists now look to Chairman Xi
who long ago discarded Marx' books.
As long a some enjoy prosperity
mainlanders like the State to stay unshook.
The hopes that Tiananmen Square's legions heard
won't be forgotten, 'though they get deferred.

justice delayed

Pelosi's not slow-walking--she adjures--
investigations Congress says it needs.
The power of the gavel's firmly hers;
nobody commandeers tonight's new-feeds.
The House is duty-bound to counteract
Executives amok, despite the cost.
No DoJ will serve her up the facts;
left to Bill Barr, the Truth gets wholly lost.
But Nancy's ego's second to no man's.
No upstart's yet unhorsed her in the joust.
She'll guard her office, flog her donors' brands.
'Til she goes feet-first, she won't quit the House.
"Ambition must be made to counter-act...:
Jame's Madison's brave concept's not yet fact.

People's Republic

Hong Kongers vest no faith in chairman Xi
nor Lam, who seems complicit in his goal.
The lease ran out, but civil liberty
still ought--they deem--transcend Beijing's control.
Xi knows iconic martyrs help their cause;
no tankman's gonna thwart his armored might.
But they don't get to legislate their laws;
he means to crush them, but demurs to fight.
Their city took a hit, 2008;
Shanghai recovered quicker from that fall.
But tentacles of Xi's Surveillance State
provoke defiance up against the wall.
George Orwell knew some fates are worse than war;
Xi's new RedBook is 1984.