"Over There"

The Kremlin quakes; the war's come home at last;
another general will kill no more.
All Moscow must have heard the car -bomb's blast,
and Russians can't pretend they're not at war.
Three years of efforts to assassinate
Zelenskyy so far, all have been in vain.
At home, he's so hard to defenstrate;
the Kremlin wields few levers in Ukraine.
The empire Putin dreamt would make his name,
like Katherine reborn, astride his steed,
insists it has no wish to be reclaimed
to gratify his autocratic greed.
Civilians, far too late become aware
no war's conducted wholly "over there".

Gray Tribe

A new day dawned, Luigi took his shot
and fled the crime-scene on a city bike.
The media were quick to miss the plot
as if downtrodden proles would never strike.
A man falls dead; none can repair the loss
He leaves a world uprooted and bereft.
For life, like health, who can compute the cost?
A human value's not pure 'Right' or 'Left'.
Two parties, each indebted to the few,
instead of working for the public cause,
do only what insurers want them to,
pretending that they're just enforcing laws.
As we embark another gilded age,
a bandit-hero vents the people's rage.

Bashar

The ophthalmologist picked up and fled
with just his credit cards, and trophy wife.
He'd watched Qaddafi hunted, beaten, dead...
and leapt to barter honor for his life.
The heir apparent jousted with a truck;
mismatching masses, vast momentum won.
Succession settled on one day's bad luck
this chinless understudy for a son.
In Moscow, worn out puppets cool their heels
they polish Putin's boots, and sing his praise.
Re'ssuring him the people's love is real
as if they're wistful for tzar Ivan's days.
An empire in decline can't shield its friends;
nobody has a clue how all this ends.

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.

Charles III

The sunrise finds him cooling in his bed
who yesterday planned with his royal wife
a future in which neither one was dead;
denial features in king Charles' life.
His mother'd kept him comfortable in Wales
'til any juice of youth was safely spent.
the dernier cri in well-appointed jails
in which her first-born could be life-long pent.
He's done his duty, got a hale male heir
Like Henry couldn't, 'though--Lord knows-- he tried.
If now he's distant from the red haired Spare,
I tend to blame it on his second bride.
Would I be awfully forward to inquire:
"who gets to throw that woman on his pyre?"

Rhymes with Orange

The siblings he had never known in life
embrace their newest brother as their own.
The bargain--in addition to a wife--
now--at a stroke--gets family, and home.
From Orange, to Seattle, (and return?)
the trek you'd never charter in advance
by way of tending forests as they burn
shows human will triumphant over Chance.
Contracted freely by a human hand,
no clergy need intrude in this domain
No fictive Power hanging over Man
needs mediate when Ian met Jermaine.
When speeches, pomp, and pageantry are done,
two lives united joyously make one.

America First

A Nazi rally like we haven't seen
since father Coughlin damned the"Hebrew race"
now broadcast planet-wide by Trump's machine,
appalling even some within his base.
To Vance, Trump seemed a "Hitler" of our own
seductive to uneducated proles.
But Thiel commanded that he change that tone;
such followers are easily controlled.
In Florida, Republicans taste dread
Hispanic voters find his hatefest crass.
In districts that are less than beetroot red,
down-ballot brace to take it in the ass.
Trump's insecurities on bold display
increasingly, drive ethnic votes away.

nothing weird here

LaTrobe seemed safe, Trump thought he'd humanize
his bid where voters trended staunchly Red.
Rhapsodic about Arnold Palmer's size,
and how he dreamt of foursomes, while in b,ed.
No prosecutors charging him with graft,
no women seeking child support again
just drooling over Arnold's "strong...stiff shaft"
the way one does when bonding with men's men..
The millions daddy gave him now long gone,
whole fortunes dribbled through his stubby hands.
This textbook insecure spray-tanned DonJuan
seeks --vainly --validation he's a man.
Trump fawning worship of their golfer ace
is weirding out his homophobic base.

Lock Him Up

Trump now refers to rioters as"we"
like insurrection weren't an offense.
While Vance seeks refuge in his sophistry,
dementia's carried Trump past such pretense.
Disinhibition's gussied up as "BOLD!"
by handlers charged with selling the big con.
We're not supposed to notice he's too old
to finish thoughts, or glop his makeup on.
Superlatives are all he seems to know;
no nuance complicates his thoughts, or speech.
Reality, transcending TV shows
slips daily ever farther out of reach.
Malignant ego's left him largely blind
a legend in his own sclerotic mind.

The Greater Threat

Dick Cheney shot his lawyer in the face;
the victrm happened to apologize.
To drink with Vice spills honor on the base!
And surgeons think he won't lose both his eyes.
In lieu of politics, it's tribal war
where no dishonesty's accounted "sin".
Like autocrats have often done before,
Trump tears the heavens down, to claim a "win".
The deference Republicans bestow,
to Democrats, smells of idolatry.
However low their nominee might go,
they'll"stand" by him--is"standing's" on one's knees.
When even Cheney's playing the adult,
Americans link arms against Trump's cult.

Blood simple

Another class cut short, and still we balk
to curb this carnage in our very schools.
The lobbyists make sure we only talk
--at most--about the felons, not their tools.
The lecture halls have rows of empty chairs;
the college dorms have floors of empty beds.
Incoming freshman simply aren't there;
the entrance bar's too high, when they're long dead.
Since 'Heller', individuals claim rights
that theretofore inhered unto the States.
Scalia, ruling by his special lights,
abused our highest bench, to legislate.
With time, our whole republic comes undone;
a nation's future's picked off, one by one.

talk about Weird

 The wicked witch was eager to project
Trump's weirdness onto Tim's highschooler, Gus.
But she's the one Americans reject;
her lunchroom malice cuts no ice with us.
In minutes, Left and Right had rallied 'round.
Ann Coulter's snark went waaaay beyond the Pale.
We recognize a bully punching down; 
she stands alone, and numbers must prevail.
While Harris/Walz have trademarked 'Hope' and 'Joy'
Trump's vested in the politics of 'Fear'.
Rhetorical attacks on Walz' boy
clash crassly with high values we hold dear.
The MAGAts and associated cults
must be repudiated by adults.

pushbutton

Defensive, Trump reverts to what he knows:
unfounded slurs on Haitian immigrants.
A party in its last convulsive throes
prayed vainly that he'd step aside for Vance.
Police report: Ohio's pets are fine--
as long as Bobby Jr stays away.
Trump blindly parrots someone else's line;
what writers in the Kremlin wrote, he'll say.
Rhetorically, she dangled juice bait;
he scowls, and snarls, and rolls his eyes, and frowns.
And we the People must adjudicate
between the People's lawyer, and the clown.
The prosecutor smiles for all to see:
Muenchausen's poster-child, hooked on tv.

Springfield's cats

 Now, Vance concedes the story's all his own
vile fabrication to incite the Right.
Yet still expects reporters to condone
unfounded lies because he's rich, and white.
Trump's Cabinet and staff learned to attract
their boss' fleeting mental faculty:
it does not good presenting him with facts,
unless they're formatted by his TV.
Thiel raised his agent to manipulate
Trump through that ever-present tv set.
Weird acolyte, wrapped as a running-mate,
forever conscious he's in Peter's debt.
A candidate deserves to bigly lose
who can't distinguish crap like this, from news.

the slime oozing out of your TV set

FoxNews contends it's just to entertain,
and keep their loyal viewers coming back.
The crucial function's missing in Trump's brain
to tell their Punch & Judy show from fact.
"I heard it on TV!" we heard him bleat.
as if the medium imparts more weight.
Two courts have weighed the matter, and agreed:
these categories, no one should conflate.
"No reasonable viewer" could confuse
Fox infomercials for veracity.
The Murdoch  propaganda is not "news";
its expertise is in mendacity.
We join Ivanka's children's plaintive pleas:
it's time to take away their grandpa's keys.

bounded speech

The baseless libels JD Vance purveys
inciting violence in MAGA's cause,
retread a theadbare neofacist craze.
With passions so inflamed, there are no laws.
The People's lawyer calls a nation back
towards Founders' vision, 'though we're more diverse.
Reducing politics to wild attacks,
inevitaby, makes all tensions worse.
The immigrants who've built our nations strong,
are branded scapegoats time and time again.
'Though nativists think only they belong,
equality's inherent in "all Men".
Because Free Speech remains our guiding rule,
JD must be rebuffed with ridicule.

Trump's next divorce?

Remorse struck swiftly, once the thrill was gone;
Trump's weirdly slow to learn, one's gotta vet
the names the headlines gonna link with"Don".
Each morning-after's new cause for regret.
Eyeliner may be trending on a man,
but once the Adderall and Coke have cleared,
What titillated for a one night stand
by light of day, Americans find"weird".
Republican convention gave no "bump"
like Harris/Walz enjoyed, to cheering throngs.
JD's recruiting no new votes to Trump,
and can't stay relevant for very long.
For his own benefit, he'll have to learn;
Trump's gotta carry JD Vance to term.

irredeemable monster

No heartless scarecrow features in the book,
nor movie in which Judy Garland starred.
Ann Coulter had to pioneer the look;
for someone with a soul, it would come hard.
Gus Walz gave voice to healthy pride and joy,
to see his father recognized on stage.
What kind of monster'd lay into the boy
for feeling sentiments beyond blind rage?
The motley company that Donald keeps
on yachts, and in his tickytack hotel,
the Russian oligarchs, and Epstein creeps
announce this anti-hero's bound for Hell.
Real men may weep, when heroes' work gets done.
But only cowards ridicule for fun.



The ersatz wizardry of L. Frank Baum/

defamatory

The Wicked Witch was eager to project
Trump's weirdness onto Tim's highschooler, Gus.

But she's the one Americans reject;
her lunchroom malice cuts no ice with us.
In minutes, Left and Right had rallied 'round
Ann Coulter's snark went way beyond the Pale.
We recognize a bully punching down;
she stands alone, our numbers must prevail.
While Harris/Walz have trademarked Hope and Joy,
Trump's vested in the politics of Fear.
Rhetorical attacks on Walz' boy
clash crassly with high values we hold dear.
The MAGAts and associated cults
must be repudiated by adults.

fucking monster

Ann Coulter took a swipe at Tim's boy, Gus
and parents Right and Left took the affront.
"If you come after him, you'll come through us
we're Legion, and you're just one soul-less cunt."
Her tweet's deleted, easy to disown
Trump doesn't have to signal he agrees.
He'll hang Ann out to dry, like she's alone
last time he lay with her, just got him fleas.
Eight years ago, some dreamt the orange clown
could run without the need to beg for cash.
But they're disgusted with his punching down
and won't renew their pledge to such white trash.
It's time that all real patriots align;
democracy itself is on the line.

ridicule

Ann Coulter took a swipe at Walz' boy
so wrong in content, context, tone, and pitch
for giving voice to heartfelt pride and joy
But MAGAts love their pugilistic bitch.
She'd ruled the cafeteria in school
where other studied how the real world works,
her only aptitudes were ridicule,
and gratifying psychopathic jerks.
Trump's recognized in her, a kindred soul
with all the empathy God gave a stone.
Two lives spent clawing vainly for control
each dreading they're cut out to die alone.
The cultists worshipping their orange clown
feel powerful because they're punching down.

purpose-built

Pelosi had a solemn chat with Joe:
stuff no one else could tell him to his face.
His term'd been good, but now, it's time to go,
if Democrats are not to lose this race.
Obama spoke; a nation paused, entranced,
reminded how real leadership can sound.
A vision forward, not mere angry rants
to bring his voters' spirits up, not down.
Her future cabinet was there, in force
united as we've rarely been before;
infighting, that would be the normal course
can have no place confronting civil war.
Ad hoc, this Harris team, forged on the fly,
must do what Hilary's could only try.

Ridicule

Convention holds no terror this time 'round;
we won't reprise knifefights of '68.
Trump/Vance has peaked; their polls trend starkly down.
And Harris keeps sweet options on her plate.
Mark Kelly'd have to cede a Senate seat
and Arizona might not keep that Blue...
Shapiro brings a swing-state to the meet,
but would big donors leap to back a Jew...
Tim Walz brings lines from Warren's resume,
and so emerged the strongest of the pack.
He's coached a winning team, and run a State.
Schoolteachers aren't easy to distract.
Republicans, who'd banked on Biden's gaffes,
have no response when Walz and Harris laugh.

threats

Security in Paris has been tight;
Gendarmes patrol the land, and sea, and air.
(Try Brussels if you must rebook that flight)
But coliform bacteria don't care.
Pasteur had cured disease in sheep, and men
Confronting anthrax on a chemist's terms
But someone upstream's shitting in the Seine;
The strongest athlete's not immune to germs.
The sewers Victor Hugo sketched so well
can't interdict what dribbles  in upstream.
Macron endures this very public Hell
as strangers soil his grand Olympic dream.
The spectacle was memorable, but...
we can't forget invaders of the gut.

values

Joe Biden's ego doesn't run this show;

when Nancy phones, he jumps to take her calls.
Momentous choices: to fight on, or go,
seem easier involving fewer balls.
Abruptly, Trump's the old man left on stage
unable to complete a cogent thought,
beyond attacking someone else's age.
His donors wonder what it is they've bought.
Accelerationists, who'd love a crash
presuming Paradise awaits ahead
make common cause with those who worship cash,
and some convinced their gods would want us dead.
One party, in the hands of such adults
confronts a monster, knit from motley cults.

Roevember

Joe Biden served his term, and stepped away;
campaigning'd never been what he does best.
He'll raise the funds that underwrite the fray;
another's gonna have to do the rest.
Abruptly, Trump's the old man in this race;
he has no answer to the Harris youth.
While he can only titillate his base,
she gets to run on policy, and truth.
Time's running fast, to name a running-mate
who'll bring some delegates, but get along.
ideally, flipping a contested state
and welding back the party, doubly strong.
"a time for boldness" as Joe's writer's wrote
upending expectations for this vote.

Our Revolution

O'Brien brought it to the RNC,
like Daniel singing in the lions' den.
Indifferent to Trump's antipathy,
he won't treat corporations like real men.
The message Bernie labored to get heard
may travel further in another voice;
more crucial than the spokesman, are the words,
and how real voters understand their choice.
Two parties, each beholden to big banks
pay court to union leaders on the sly
to serve up voters in their files and ranks
as if democracy were theirs to buy.
While other speakers worship Trump's fat ass,
this Teamster champions the working class.

tzedekh, tzedekh tirdof

Contrition's not a tune Trump's learned to sing;
his cultists like their hero never wrong.
like some exalted ancient Persian king
commanding minstrels when he wants a song.
Probation officer's charged to assess
if monetary fines might bring him 'round.
But Trump's explicit, no one needs to guess:
he'd gladly tear the whole Republic down.
Judge Cannon's on the take; now it's the States
that wield the power to see Justice done.
With feds demuring to adjudicate
New York has shown such cases can be won.
Still, sentencing's an independent stage;
where fines are toothless, put him in a cage!

It's about time

His co-conspirators are serving time,
but he deludes himself he'll walk scot-free.
Our penal system's less about the crime,
than who's got top-tier lawyers, and their fee.
Since Dershowitz won OJ Simpson's case,
some took the lesson: "justice is for chumps".
Exhibits that would damns him, on their face,
might be dismissed for Simpsons, or for Trumps.
Were there an indication he's contrite,
the court might let him off with just a slap.
But MAGAts want a hero always right
who'd never grovel to reduce the rap.
Where cash for "justice" has become the norm
we're over-due for radical reform.

showtime!

"Come see the tyrant!" Echoing MacBeth
New York has staged a spectacle so big,
the hordes that won't break stride for plagues, or Death
appreciate that Trump's thrown in the brig.
Full half a century of unpaid debts,
and specious lawsuits to intimidate
are nothing Gothamites will soon forget.
He took the White House once, but lost his state.
July, we'll learn what all these verdicts meant;
the sentencing's an independent phase.
Abject example of a life misspent,
can't be atoned in dollars, but in days.
Manhattan's really not his kind of town;
it's Florida that loves retired old clowns

blind Justice

The jury's charged; the prosecution rests;
they've demonstrated Trump knew what he did.
Key co-conspirators have all confessed;
intention's manifest in what they hid.
"Mens rea" can be devilish to prove;
a stringent test of prosecutors' art.
But jurors saw the evidence get moved;
defendant in this case just ain't that smart.
The jury 's spoken: "guilty on each charge"!
While sentencing's an independent stage,
for now, the felon must remain at large,
'til New York State can gild a plus-sized cage.
For one who dreamt he'd made himself a king,
The chants of"Lock Him Up!" have got to sting.

the non-solution

Partition, as benGurion signed on
'though not his dream, is nonetheless the deal.
The OneState ship has sailed; that option's gone;
it's over-due successors must get real.
Mizrahi Jews resent what they've been told
is condescension from Ashkenazim.
The Founders' leftist vision leaves them cold;
they fail to see themselves in Herzl's dream.
Their grievance keeps his premiership afloat;
their discipline gives meager numbers heft.
A hundred parties jostling for the vote
attenuate the power of the Left.
The anthem sings about one Jewish soul,
but like most battles, this one's for control.

mouthpiece

Mike Johnson left his district to exhort
Trump's MAGAts to stand ready to reject
authority of jury, law, and court,
and anyone the people may elect.
Dominionist mistrust the voting booth;
they'd rather misread scripture when they search
and anything purportedly the Truth,
is only credible if it's in Church.
The cult of personality displayed
by MAGAts on their knees to kiss his ring
appalls the world! Democracy's betrayed
by those who'd steal a vote to crown a king.
The party Herbert Hoover damned near sank
must die at last, and Donald Trump's to thank.

comic relief

The maggots quickly died in Bobby's brain;
that toxic sewage would have gagged a shark.
Such language skills as--more or less--remain
now only serve to keep us in the Dark.
This haggard scion of a leading clan
had testified in court he's not all there.
The umpteenth Kennedy who"also ran"
once rated "promising", now seems less fair.
The Andrew Wakefield fraud has been withdrawn
but Bobby's set his teeth, and won't let go.
convinced the vaccine makers are a pawn
in service of the devil--and so's Joe.
His father as a candidate was cool;
between his ears, this namesake son has gruel.

spoiler

The parasitic worm in Bobby's brain,
played hob with deep convictions ere it died.
Old speculation that he's gone insane
find new corroboration from inside.
Conspiracies expand to fill the space
where  once he'd learned to weigh cause and effects,
Virology conflates with wealth, and race
and geopolitics, and--always--sex.
Trump'd hoped a Kennedy would sink Joe's boat;
an erstwhile Democrat who'd lost the plot.
but Trump had owned the kooks inclined to vote
for this estranged black sheep of Camelot.
A three-way race suits anarchists just fine,
but Rule of Law itself is on the line.

succession

McConnell took Mike Johnson by the nose,
and led him through the ways one can obstruct
our legislation like a knotted hose.
His party's over; our republic's fucked.
The rancor of Buchanan's feckless term
still festers in Kentucky's bluegrass heart.
Old lessons half a nation failed to learn
still rending our electorate apart.
Abe Lincoln's legacy has breathed its last
his party's now the one poised to secede.
Confederates enamored of the past
have cast their lot with corporations' greed.
When Cheneys won't break bread with MAGA pigs,
the GOP's past-due to join the Whigs.

gordian knot

The Kremlin caucus lost, Joe Biden won.
November must confirm what's been made plain;
This speaker crosses lines to get things done,
and top of his agenda is Ukraine.
His MAGA colleagues live to pump their base,
as if our needs were met by making noise.
But Johnson's looking past November's race;
he'd rather send our bullets than our boys.
The billions Putin didn't spend in arms,
and maintenance of relics of the past,
he lavished buying quislings near and far.
But allies bought, are not the friends who last.
The Arsenal that backs democracies
though dilatory, still coughs up the fees.

useful idiots

Mike Johnson has defied the Kremlin's tools
who'd stuck our lethal aid bill in a ditch
For now, it's Putin's shills who look the fools;
this Speaker isn't Greene's complacent bitch.
As mud solidifies, treads won't get stuck.
With modern armored rolling up the plain,
the antiquated Russian tanks are fucked;
they're wholly obsolete now in Ukraine.
While Greene and Boebert parrot Putin's lies,
all sane observers know what it's about.
To undercut our allies isn't wise;
professor Snyder's called these quislings out.
Zelenskyy's prospects volt-face on a dime;
this season Putin's blitzkrieg's out of time.

Kremlin tools

The Kremlin Caucus holds Zelenskyy's funds
against Americans' explicit will.
Bizarrely proud that nothing's getting done,
in Washington's two Houses on one Hill.
Joe Biden'd rather claim a half than all,
if winning'd mean he'd make an enemy
But Speaker Johnson isn't playing ball;
his masters spurn collegiality.
Ukrainians defy the empire's might;
a million Davids groping for a stone.
Defending home and hearth, and clearly right
They'll they kill the Roschisti--at needs--alone.
A president who aims to compromise
confronts obstruction, calumny, and lies.

what isn't universal isn't a right

Chuck Schumer said what Biden didn't dare;
the Netanyahu program will not do.
His OneState non-solution can't be fair
if human rights are only for the Jew.
benGurion kept faith when he endorsed
the plan to make us masters of our fate,
explicitly accepting, in due course,
the corresponding Arab ethno-state.
That TwoState plan lies dusty, on the shelf
and Bibi offers just more status quo.
Too rapt in machinations for himself
Chuck Schumer speaks for us; he's got to go.
The self-determination Kant prescribed
has got to be for more than just our tribe.

decline

Dementia steals the words Trump meant to speak;
one syllable's not following the last.
For those whose comprehension isn't weak,
it's manifest he's blowing empty gas.
His sycophants insist they understand
"his brilliant mind's just faster than his lips!"
Idolatrously focused on the man,
and piously insensate to the slips.
Without an engineer, this thund'rous train
seems poised to go careening off the track.
Most voters are inclined to help  Ukraine
defend herself from Putin's thugs' attacks.
A party doubling down on such a course
has wagered on the wrong end of its horse.

tool

Mike Johnson sold his soul long years ago;
Three Russian oligarchs saw fit he's paid
to vote however winds in Moscow blow,
and never send Zekenskyy urgent aid.
Republicans once served a noble cause:
an end to bondage! All men must be free!
More recently, they're not big fans of laws
that benefit somebody who's not"me".
While Putin's projects dominate the Hill,
our nation's business isn't getting done.
Agenda written by a Kremlin shill
set back what progress Biden has begun.
When politicians look abroad for bucks,
it's hard to feign surprise that we're so fucked.

hypocrites and traitors

The treason Putin purchased in Ukraine
impaired defense, but failed to throw the war.
Abroad, his rubles bought him greater gain;
and TrumptyDumpty proved his eager whore.
A world ablaze, the Speaker doesn't care;
Trump'd laid his stubby hands on Johnson's head.
While unctuous traces linger in his hair
he won't betray the manger where he's fed.
Where piety and lucre so collude,
compassion for the living's shoved aside.
A million who'd have lived, had they had food
don't prick his conscience as they've starved, and died.
The Kremlin Caucus help their master kill
and piously profess to serve God's will.