thuggery

Another court's found ICE exceeds it's writ
detaining citizens without due cause.
While pundits quibble "quis custodiet..."
these Trumpanzees feel unconstrained by laws. 
Their president can pardon all their crimes
from treason down to trafficking in hemp.
If any one of them is to serve time,
it's only for the days they're in contempt.
Until, of course a new regime prevails
that serves the People, not the banking firms.
Trump's thugs will serve the next four years in jail
if we're allowed legitimate midterms.
Tripartite government is ours to lose,
and lose we will, if these are whom we choose.

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.

testify, sister!

Fiona Hill's a villain to the tribe
who'll never get what makes this country great.
She caught her boss soliciting a bribe
and--by her oath--will not equivocate.
The immigrants who've made this land their own
(not Gorka, but the likes of Dr. Hill)
won't bow to Trumpty on his tin-plate throne
and rain contempt on sycophants who will.
A land where class won't limit where she'll go,
where accent won't define a woman's place;
should not be sullied with Trump's quid pro quo,
or Pence's thinly veiled appeals to race.
No man of woman born can bring him down,
But Hill's the fitting bane of Trumpty-clown.

Game on!

Her DNA bears out Liz Warren's claim:
her forebears got here many moons ago.
Millenia before Columbus came;
she's not the one we call "Pinocchio".
Trump's folk fled Europe's wars, and poverty.
His mother braved the seas when but a lass
intent on seeking opportunity
to serve a family of higher class.
The race of 2020 pits these twain
in earnest combat for a nation's soul.
She speaks for us, while he fails to explain
why plutocrats should exercise control.
KnowNothing Nativists are on the spot;
to stick with Trump's to vote for what he's not.

so much winning!

Trump slinks away from his third Muslim Ban
before the SCOTUS shoots it down in flames.
A bully to the core, and not a man,
afraid of immigrants whom he defames.
"America!" he shouts "in all things, first!"
New citizens, who make this country great
he'd now exclude, as if they were "the worst".
Today, his mother couldn't clear that gate.
Three courts have told him that's not who we are;
three times, he's wasted months in an appeal.
The New Colossus doesn't guard a bar,
we've benefited bigly through the deal.
While refugees are fleeing for their lives,
Trump coldly scores them as potential wives.

nativist nonsense

Charles Lindbergh figured Hitler was okay
the German government's not ours to choose
if he would cast their brightest minds away
let someone else accommodate the Jews
Americans adore celebrities
imputing wisdom that they never earned
false idols whom some worship on their knees
harsh lesson that we've somehow never learned
"America! comes First" Trump likes to  bleat
and few remember we've been here, before
but most who claim they're native have to cheat

their ancestors passed through that same bright door

t'would take a fool to slam that Golden Gate
it's immigrants that make our country great

the official story

Sean Spicer swears the ban is not a ban
and doesn't care his boss deploys that word
allegiance binds him  only to the man
he'll toe the line, no matter how absurd
a storm of tweets, without a strategy
keeps Trump's administration on the brink
his honor was the price of loyalty
he's paid to straight-faced bluster, not to think
if Trump succeeds, his reputation's made
as mouthpiece to the Caesar of the West
alternatives to facts are stock in trade
a new Candide, swears all is for the best
no Senate hearing's gonna normalize
portfolio of Minister of Lies

judicious

Ann Donnelly was quick to see the flaw
in Trump's outrageous anti-Muslim ban
if judges won't uphold the rule of law
it's doubtful that this Congress will, or can
three pillars should uphold a stable stool
and keep ambitions more or less in check
if only one were handed to a fool
the Ship of State might wallow, but not wreck
but Trump, with Mitch McConnell, hand in hand
could overturn what generations built
installing despotism in our land
'though less than half our voters share their guilt
resistance to Trump's ban jammed the airports
but laying it to rest rests with the courts

Isolationists

Charles Lindbergh figured Hitler was okay
the German government's not ours to choose
if he would cast their brightest minds away
let someone else accommodate the Jews
Americans adore celebrities
imputing wisdom that they never earned
false idols whom some worship on their knees
harsh lesson that we've somehow never learned
"America!" Trump bleats "in all things First!"
and few remember we've been here, before
Fifth Columnists are probably the worst
betraying ethics that would shame a whore
t'would take a fool to slam that Golden Gate
it's immigrants that make our country great

mishpat echat

Trump's registry of Muslims' as obscene
as any other red flag he might choose
to signal an illiberal regime
good Christians must reject as much as Jews
to welcome strangers is no civic flaw
the bible emphasizes they're like us
with no allowance for a sep'rate law
no sanction for Trump's rabid animus
the Nativists are hot to bar the gate
now we've found  haven, Others shant as well
as if it were mere prudence to preach hate
against a refugee escaping Hell
since Egypt, we have known a stranger's heart
we'd sin were we to set him thus apart

callous

Aleppo's children starve, but who's to care
defying Putin's not their war to fight
they're too concerned with Syrians' flight here
to challenge Russia's military might
no television crews are on those scenes
to document the way the dying feel
until a pundit tells us what it means
Americans pretend it isn't real
each death's a world unrealized, stillborn
you'd think the Right-to-Lifers would engage
but if they're Muslim, there's no one to mourn
they limp ashore to meet more fear and rage
the Torch of Freedom lights a bolted gate
where Donald's gospel's Greed, and Fear, and Hate

between

the Schengen Group tempts Erdogan to merge
the fate of Turkey with the Northern States
but at the same time, they'd want him to purge
all Turkish statutes that discriminate
he dreamed he'd bridge from Islam to the West
as spokesman for the wisdom of the East
but mostly he's seen as a source of guest-
arbeiten who perform the work of beasts
as host to refugees, he plays a role
that earns the Europeans' gratitude
two million Syrians must take a toll
as they compete for Lebensraum and food
his grudge against the Kurds must be re-weighed
as dreams or Euro-integration fade            

cold harbor II

the refugees in flight from al-Assad
find doors are closed to them in the U.S.
because some think they bow to the wrong God
we show scant sympathy for their distress
the Jews of  Europe met much the same fate
our nativists impugned them as a threat
recurrent episodes of baseless hate
we fail to learn but bleat "never forget!"
cold nation of religious refugees
who'd bar the gate when someone new wants in
who like our forebears, longing to breath free
too snug to recognize it's we that sin
the Germans lead, and we're coming in last
internalizing lessons from our past

cold harbor

a tide of migrants fleeing al-Assad
find doors are closed to them in the U.S.
because some think they bow to the wrong God
we show scant sympathy for their distress
the Jews of  Europe met much the same fate
our nativists impugned them as a threat
recurrent episodes of baseless hate
we fail to learn but bleat "never forget!"
cold nation of religious refugees
who'd bar the gate when someone new wants in
who like our forebears, longing to breath free
too snug to recognize it's we that sin
the Germans lead, and we're coming in last
internalizing lessons from our past

holiday spirit III

Holiday spirit

felonious elf violates our homes
by entering soot-covered from above
behavior sanctioned by no legal tomes
to waken more cupidity than love

the tale's obscured if it gets even told
of migrants denied so much as a bed
of townsfolk who don't care that the night's cold
but let them sleep like cattle in the shed

the Pashtun honor hospitality
even to guests who brought war death and woe
but here when innocents are forced to flee
they find locked gates and have no place to go

"there's no room at the inn" is false and cruel

for war-tossed wayfarers this time of  Yule

Holiday Spirit II

Holiday spirit

felonious elf violates our homes
by entering soot-covered from above
behavior sanctioned by no legal tomes
to waken more cupidity than love

the tale's obscured if it gets even told
of migrants denied so much as a bed
of townsfolk who don't care that the night's cold
but let them sleep like cattle in the shed

the Pashtun honor hospitality
even to guests who brought war death and woe
but here when innocents are forced to flee
they find locked gates and have no place to go

unChristian innkeepers sneer they've no rooms
for war-tossed Levantines as Christmas looms

Holiday spirit

felonious elf violates our homes
by entering soot-covered from above
behavior sanctioned by no legal tomes
to waken more cupidity than love

the tale's obscured if it gets even told
of migrants denied so much as a bed
of townsfolk who don't care that the night's cold
but let them sleep like cattle in the shed

the Pashtun honor hospitality
even to guests who brought war death and woe
but here when innocents are forced to flee
they find locked gates and have no place to go

unChristian Nation can find them no room
who come with babes in arms as Christmas looms