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.