Spitballing...

© January 22, 2022, the Griot Poet

Also, the related blog post, also titled “Spitballing.”

 

This piece,

[Was] inspired by a comment from Congressman Adam Schiff,

That, maybe,

Jeff Bezos’s wealth can be better spent,

Lifting young people out of poverty,

[Than], on vanity-joyride penis starships,

 

Just spitballing:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [rich, cisgender, propertied white] men are created equal,”

“Is probably how the ‘founding fathers’ understood, wrote, and read the text,”

As do their so-called libertarian descendants,

 

It clears the “scales from the eyes,”

On what conservatives meant by “original intent.”

 

Russell Kirk wrote a book in 1951 called “The Conservative Mind,”

Their political Bible in perspective,

That is consistent seven decades since,

 

His premise:

Without clearly-defined classes,

And a social hierarchy to manage the masses,

If college students,

Women,

People of color,

Ever got close to political power and wealth,

Of rich, cisgender, propertied white men,

Sodom and Gomorrah,

Ragnarok,

And Armageddon would commence!

Ignorance must be designed into the curriculum:

Civics morphed to “Social Studies,”

Evolutionary Biology to “Creation Pseudoscience,”

Teach “American exceptionalism” and “Manifest Destiny,” not our country’s actual history,

Geez! Are you crazy?

 

Russell Kirk’s direct students were,

William F. Buckley,

Who debated, and lost to James Baldwin,

At the University of Cambridge,

And Barry Goldwater,

Who was thought too crazy to have the nuclear codes,

The 2016 election said:

“Never fear!”

“Hold my beer!”

In 140 misspelled characters, or less,

 

Just spitballing:

Safety is the foundation,

Of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs,

Forty years ago,

Reagan began the task

Of shipping middle-class jobs overseas,

Destroying employee unions,

Giving tax cuts with stolen money from Social Security,

NAFTA was started by his Vice,

Then-president George Herbert Walker Bush,

Continued after the 94 midterms by Bill Clinton,

The Dems lost the House and got shook,

To show Democrats were as fiscally conservative as any Republican,

The aftermath was the safety net

Was ripped from beneath the feet of the middle class,

That covers all cultures and so-called colors,

 

When you’re fearful,

You’re open to manipulation,

By malevolent machinations,

A new and shocking feeling,

After 400 years of guarantees,

Your group will always have:

The front of the church pew, or the bus,

Good neighborhoods,

White picket fences,

White unions,

Restrictive covenants,

GI Bills that gave home loans and paid college bills for WWII white soldiers and sailors,

But not my dad, and his fellow veterans of color,

Coming “out of the closet” was a death warrant,

Every society,

With such a hierarchy,

Needs a pariah:

Blacks, Latinos, Gypsies, and Jews,

Immigrants,

LGBT,

Women,

To justify why things are

“So bad, compared to the way they used to be,”

In pie-in-the-sky fascist fantasies,

And “I alone can fix it!” Mentalities.

 

Just spitballing:

African Americans, women, LGBT, Hispanic/Latino, Millenials, Gen-Z, represents the “hell breaking loose,”

 

American oligarchs have been trying to “fix” since Russell Kirk,

 

Joe Manchin just lied about changing the filibuster to a talking filibuster,

 

“In total, 161 exceptions to the filibuster’s supermajority requirement have been created between 1969 and 2014, according to an analysis by the Brookings Institution’s Molly Reynolds.” The Filibuster, Explained, Tim Lau, The Brennan Center for Justice

 

Just spitballing:

But if I, a non-lawyer, can find this info,

What contempt do Manchin, Sinema,

And every Republican senator has for American citizens?

They frankly think the electorate is dumber than a box of rocks, and their actual constituents are their donors?

 

Just spitballing:

Maybe ignorance and fascism

Was always the “break glass” scheme in case of expanded democracy overwhelmingly demanded by marginalized groups?

 

Perspective:

Am I the only one who feels our historical poetry of this nation’s origins amounts to four centuries of self-gaslighting that we call “American exceptionalism?”

 

Did climate change,

Income inequality pointed out since Occupy Wall Street,

Science denialism,

Anti vaxxing,

Tribalism,

The pandemic,

And January 6, 2021, rip the scales off our eyes and REVEAL we’re NOT

E Pluribus Unum?

 

A suggestion:

After 400 years of bullshitting,

The myriad threats to the human species’ existence,

If you want E Pluribus Unum,

TRY teaching Civics instead of Social Studies,

If you want rational citizens,

TRY teaching Science instead of fantasies,

Give the tools of the citizenry to the citizens,

Maybe START trying democracy - rule of the people - for ONCE

Isn’t that better than waiting for Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk to save us?

 

I’m just spitballing!

The Defeated...

https://twitter.com/cool_physics/status/1481422156668055555?s=21

 

© January 12, 2022, the Griot Poet 

McConnell, Grassley, Shelby, Crapo, Collins, Burr, Inhofe, Graham, Thune, Cornyn, Blackburn, Blunt, Boozman, Capito, Moran, and Wicker,

 

Sixteen senators voted for the 2006 reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.

 

The vote in the senate was 98 to 0.

 

These sixteen STILL serve in the senate!

 

In 1982, Sen. Grassley both voted for and co-sponsored the VRA reauthorization.

 

Because “playing nice” with constitutional norms wasn’t painful then,

 

Go to Senate dot gov and count the number of “motions filed,” or filibusters recorded:

 

1957 - 1958: 0

1967 - 1968: 6

1977 - 1978: 23

1987 - 1988: 54

1997 - 1998: 69

2007 - 2008: 139

2017 - 2018: 201

2019 - 2020: 328

2021:- 2022: 181, and counting

 

They’ve lost eight of the nine last presidential elections in the popular vote contest,

Fifty Republican senators represent 43 million fewer Americans than Democrats!

It’s not a mystery WHY they favor the electoral college and the filibuster: it’s MATH!

 

Other than tax cuts for billionaires, what have they accomplished?

 

They are themselves typically multimillionaires from states with the lowest:

 

Life expectancies,

Educational outcomes,

Poorest infrastructures,

 

Their voter base is the white racist proletariat,

Whipped up on echo chambers of bullshit,

Promising the wealth of “trickledown.”

That is forty-two years they’ve been played and clowned,

(Psst: because it doesn’t exist)

Their REAL constituents are the descendants of plantation oligarchs,

 

The filibuster came in 1806,

It was meant as a check on the majority in power,

It’s not sacrosanct,

Or spelled out in our founding documents,

Moscow Mitch abused it beyond recognition,

Both relics of the Jim Crow era,

 

Moscow’s family got its wealth on the backs of my ancestors,

He’s KEENLY not enthusiastic about reparations,

It’s true: he did not personally own slaves,

But he’s determined to keep a Derik Chauvin

Knee on the neck of the poor and depraved,

 

Charity is “love in action,”

None of this exists in Republican factions,

From Hedge Fund Mitt to QANON shamans,

Instead of fishes and loaves,

They often give the poor a bag of stones,

 

Clarence Thomas,

Ben Carson,

Herschel Walker,

Tim Scott,

Are step-in-fetch window dressing,

 

“We can’t be racist,” they say,

Beaming proudly:

“Look at our pets!”

 

The “gang of Putin” are performance artists,

Less concerned with legislation,

[Than] lining their pockets,

 

More concerned with pumping racism,

That raises the endorphins of fascists,

Stochastic terrorists shouting fire in crowded theaters,

Blocking escape exits,

Then, denying they’re obstructionists,

 

SEVEN states sent slates of fake electors to the electoral college,

In violation of federal election laws,

Craven McCarthy’s not cooperating with the January 6th committee,

When he initially said he would,

Blaming the previous loser for the Capitol violence in the aftermath of January 6,

As did a shaken Moscow Mitch,

“Leningrad Lindsey,” said “it was a hell of a ride” in the well of the senate,

After recoiling from QANON domestic terrorists,

 

He and Craven “kissed the ring” of Dumbo Gambino

At Mar-a-Lago,

 

Because they know:

Their party has lied to its electorate,

In right-wing echo chambers

Birthed and incubated by

Nurse maids Rush Limbaugh and Rupert Murdoch,

Making their riches off propaganda, lies, and hate,

 

The country is younger,

Browner,

Less cisgender,

Women are delaying childbirth,

Putting careers first,

Opposition to abortion rights isn’t about the fetus,

It’s for oligarchs, reducing female competition,

 

When the visible world was

“Leave It to Beaver,”

“My Three Sons,”

“Ozzie and Harriet,”

 

The rest of us were on the back of the bus,

Single mothers working two jobs,

Picking tobacco, fruits, and vegetables,

Living in lead water pipe ghettos,

Or, in the closet,

 

They are defeated.

We can smell their fear.

They have no agenda

Except to pump the algorithms of angst, hate, and fear,

 

Moscow Mitch,

Hedge Fund Mitt,

Leningrad Lindsey said:

 

“The demographics race we’re losing badly. We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term.”

 

Every dirty trick,

Every closed voting precinct,

Every law making it illegal to hand food and water to voters waiting in long lines,

(That themselves should be illegal),

 

Are acts of desperation,

By afraid, cisgender white billionaires,

Who knows a “more perfect Union.”

A simple step that would lead to equality,

Employee unions,

Wealth redistribution,

And reparations,

Universal healthcare to handle a pandemic,

Reversing the flow

Of the Hoover Vacuum Cleaners

Their lawmakers and lobbyists attached

In each of our back pockets,

To siphon our assets,

 

To paraphrase a Ulysses S. Grant quote:

 

“There are but two parties now, fascists and patriots. And I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter, and I trust the stronger party.”

 

You’re tired, I know.

But democratic republics come and go,

And this one is on a slippery precipice,

Facing the maw of dystopian governance,

Think of a national amalgamation

Of the states led by Greg Abbott and Ron Death Santis,

At 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,

Nightmarish,

 

Or, an American Frontline Quack Doctor as Surgeon General,

Prescribing hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin,

On the Coronavirus Herpes Simplex Type 10 variant!

At that point, we’ll wear out the Greek alphabet.

 

Make calls to voters and representatives,

Knock on doors,

Run for local office,

The armed terrorists at school board meetings,

Are there because they’re scared shitless,

Of what real democracy looks like,

 

Everyone focuses on the presidency,

Because it sounds so sexy,

A quarterback nor a president,

Can score a touchdown, or push an agenda,

With a group of eleven different members,

Running in eleven different directions,

Be the ground troops; stay focused,

Stop looking for The Avatar,

In E Pluribus Unum,

We have to be the many who become one,

To quote President Barack Obama:

“We are the ones that we’ve been waiting for.”

 

Make the oligarchs fret and gasp,

The future is within our grasps!

J5...

© January 5, 2021, the Griot Poet

“The most illustrious Big Brother Elder Watson Diggs, affectionately known as The Dreamer,”

 

And nine of his fellow shippers: Dr. Ezra D. Alexander, Dr. Byron K. Armstrong, Attorney Henry T. Asher, Dr. Marcus P. Blakemore, Mr. Paul W. Caine, Mr. George W. Edmonds, Dr. Guy L. Grant, Mr. Edward G. Ervin, Mr. John Milton Lee,

 

Became brothers,

January 5, 1911,

Under circumstances that would wither others,

In a world filled with rage and violence against them,

The embodiment of William Ernst Henley’s “Invictus,”

Ten young, ambitious college men,

Who prayed for and supported one another,

When having challenges, sicknesses, and loss of loved ones,

 

Years after Thomas Dixon debuted “The Clansman:

“A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan,”

The basis of the racist film “Birth of a Nation.”

Which President Woodrow Wilson promoted in the executive residence,

Exclaiming it was “history written with lightning,”

 

Elder Diggs lost his wife, Clara Bell-Smith, his beloved Silhouette,

Who he married in secret,

Because she, like he, was a teacher, and married women in 1912 weren’t permitted to teach,

Silhouette Clara fell seriously ill and succumbed in 1913. *

 

Elder Diggs had his brother John Lee to shore him up,

To whom he poured his grieving heart,

This insight during grief gave enlightenment,

To the importance of brotherhood and fellowship,

 

The fundamental purpose of our existence is Achievement,

 

And that high ideal from Indiana spread like a virus,

Over the universities and colleges,

The U.S. continent,

And the PLANET,

To likeminded young men over generations since,

 

We encourage one another when times are rough,

We support each other when the fight gets tough,

We bear one another’s griefs and shore up each other’s sorrows,

 

Many of our brothers were affected by this pestilence,

Many sadly crossed over to that Golden Shore into Paradise,

 

From those ten young men, we expanded exponentially,

We have a worldwide network of brothers to shore us up,

 

During the dark winter of this pandemic,

We have all weathered circumstances that would wither others,

 

Just being men in the United States of America,

Because of a pledge we all swore to,

 

Forged by ten mighty men, our Founding Fathers,

That knitted us, forever as brothers,

In the BOND, we are stronger together.

Yours in the Bond. 👌🏾♦️👌🏾

 

Note: I crossed the Burning Sands: May 14, 1987, Austin Alumni Chapter.

My DP’s:

Robert I. Mayes, Jr., Guy L. Grant Award Recipient, Zeta Omega Chapter, Chapter Invisible.

Reverend Dwayne K. Jones, Masters of Theology/Religion, Masters of Counseling, Paraclete Ministries Pastor/Founder, Giddings Corrections Chaplain, Gamma Lambda Chapter.

*Sourced from “The Story of Kappa Alpha Psi: A History of the Beginning of a Greek Letter Organization, 1911 - 1983,” Third Edition, page 14, “Grim Interlude for Diggs.”

 

Third Edition Editor: William L. Crump, Ph.D. Dean, College of Business and Public Management, University of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Reginald L. Goodwin, Greensboro Alumni, Chapter Reporter

Analogy...

Source: Your Dictionary dot com

 

© December 24, 2021, the Griot Poet

Waldorf Nation Podcast: https://youtu.be/QONSDca0Cuc

 

Scenario:

You have a blown head gasket,

You have your car towed to a mechanic,

Who has studied everything about engines

Since they were “knee-high to a grasshopper.”

 

The mechanic

Has certifications

In the repair of various types of engines,

Analog, and digital,

Foreign, and domestic,

 

The mechanic performs a diagnostic,

They tell you what the problem is,

 

You have a blown head gasket,

And inform you of the cost of parts,

Labor, and what the estimated time of repairs is,

 

But you take umbrage with their expertise,

You’ve “done your research,”

On Google University,

YouTube, and Reddit communities,

“Q” gives drops of insight,

The mechanic is [obviously] working with a

Globalist cabal

Of blood-drinking child traffickers,

 

You counter with the alternative remedy,

Hydroxychloroquine,

Ivermectin,

Or, Lysol,

Poured right into the oil reservoir,

That will do the trick,

So, why doesn’t the mechanic prescribe that?

 

One of the many flaws in this analogy,

Your car’s exhaust cannot infect

Another car with a case of “head gasket.”

“Head gasket” does not have an R naught,

Or, the rate a virus spreads exponentially,

Exempli Gratia:

 

Smallpox: R0 of 3

Polio: R0 of 4 to 6

(You know: that disease we defeated with the Salk vaccine?)

Mumps and chickenpox: R0 of 10 to 12

Pertussis: R0  of 15 to 17

Measles: R0  of 16 to 18

Ebola: R0 of 1.51 to 2.53

SARS CoV-2: R0 of 1.5 to 3.5

Delta: R0 of 5

Omicron: R0 of 8 to 10 (estimated)

 

The people who possess a doctorate,

In medicine, STEM, or Juris Prudence,

Are at the levels our society has demanded and deemed as the expert,

They have spent lifetimes,

Reading, experimenting, mock trials and debating,

Studying for the SAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT,

Getting letters of recommendation,

Passing preliminary exams,

Revising research proposals to satisfy committees,

Publishing peer-reviewed articles,

Collecting in the process, many rejection letters,

They have navigated the many obstacles to the doctorate,

That before Y’all Qaeda,

Were the highest challenges,

Any of them have ever met!

 

A medical professional,

Of three decades of practice,

Has decided, they’ve had enough,

 

Of arguing with Google scholars about the efficacy,

Of hydroxychloroquine, Lysol, or ivermectin,

Patients screaming at them,

“Why didn’t you prescribe 10,000 milligrams of vitamin C?”

The fact that the human body can only absorb 100 milligrams,

Is lost on those screaming invectives,

Not to mention 9,900 milligrams eliminated from your system,

[Makes] it the most expensive urine in existence,

 

I take this from the Waldorf Nation podcast,

We have devolved from the ideal of E Pluribus Unum,

To Reductio ad absurdum,

 

Wear a mask,

WASH your hands!

Wait patiently six feet distant,

(Derived from the average distance a virus travels from sneeze or cough under humid conditions: it goes further in colder weather),

 

Get vaccinated,

After that, get a booster: as many times as necessary!

Just call me "pincushion" from the Hellraiser movie series,

Jonas Salk eschewed making profits for his Polio vaccine,

We achieved herd immunity when 80% of the US - with segregated hospitals - rolled up their sleeves,

My left shoulder has a permanent tattoo to prove it,

 

The “natural herd immunity” some are pushing,

Like radiologist Dr. Scott Atlas,

Clearly “jumping the shark” with his asinine suggestion,

It brings to mind the Bubonic plague:

25 million Europeans are estimated to have died in it,

That would be 7.6% of the US population

That would suddenly be nonexistent,

Scott “Atlas shrugged,” and left,

Weeks before the insurrection,

800,000+ dead cannot be conveniently resurrected,

Adding simultaneously to the labor shortage and brute force herd immunity,

That’s a sadistic way to achieve it,

When we have the tools to fix it,

No one wants to take your freedoms,

“Liberty and happiness”

Both have ONE prerequisite,

The freedom to life is sacrosanct,

It’s as essential to the five-year-old as the zygote,

Don’t encourage an expertise exodus,

 

Please respect the medical professionals trying to save ALL of our lives as you would the certified mechanic!

Pourquoi...

© December 7, 2021, the Griot Poet 

Dans ton lycee francais: pourquoi? (Or, in your high school French: why?)

On this 80th anniversary of the Pearl Harbor invasion,

I have to ask this:

 

Why does Black Lives Matter demonstrators have to answer for looters, but the NRA never answer for school shooters?

 

Does BLM need lobbyists?

Maybe a GoFundMe to grease the skids?

The US Constitution nor common decency seems to motivate elected officials not too long for the planet,

Chuck Grassley voted against a resolution,

To take up debate on gun control in the Senate,

 

For what?

So it won’t interfere with his quail hunts or skeet shooting?

 Here's a suggestion Chuck:

Do doubles with Dick Cheney,

As his daughter attempts to save democracy,

From members of hers and her father’s former party,

"Republicans in name only,"

It isn’t a joke anymore,

They’ve given up on winning votes,

And are hellbent on blocking them,

Because after 41 years of “trickledown,”

We’re hip to the shtick,

It’s consummate bullshit,

To believe it, you have to be on a severe acid trip,

 

The GOP used to be the party of:

American exceptionalism,

Strong patriotism,

Traditional “family values,”

We should have seen the signs when they mainlined the gateway drug, Sarah Palin!

Who could see Putin’s back porch from her house in Wasila, Alaska,

Where the Inuit are interlopers like Conus First Nations people,

 

From the gateway, they went full-crackhead fascist!

Electing a failed human with three failed marriages (the third one in progress),

Speaking of Russia:

He has five kids and the mating habits of Polar Bears

Who drops their wad, and like him, take off out of there!

 

Why do we have an electoral college here,

And coalition parliaments everywhere else?

Noun: "an alliance for combined action, especially a temporary alliance of political parties forming a government or of states."

Sounds like the ideal formula for grown-ass people to cooperate.

Nelson Mandela: "Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty exists, there is no true freedom." United Nations

News flash: Joe Manchin isn’t president any more than Vladimir Putin is.

West Virginia, like Kentucky, is one of the poorest states with the wealthiest senators!

Elaine Chao and Moscow Mitch are the Queen and King of shady business deals,

Maserati Man-chin owns a coal mine, flaunts a yacht in a state with the nation's lowest life expectancy,

Textbook examples that wealth is built on the foundation of boots on necks of misery!

Term limits would require E Pluribus Unum ("US"),

To STEP UP,

Instead of complaining,

About beyond 65 retirement age geriatric legislators

Obviously getting paid under-the-table

Mathematics:

174 thousand doesn't get you in less than one term to multimillionaire status,

Ask Arizona Senator Kirsten Sinema about that!

Lobbing witty bombs on social media only gives a temporary endorphin lift,

Study civics and start RUNNING the government,

Chuck Grassley was a young man when the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote,

He probably still doesn’t understand there was a problem before it,

And questions the necessity of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments,

So does “Aunt Lydia,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett!

 

Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have a problem with insider trading,

That’s how a lot of our lawmakers have gotten wealthy,

Acting for their self-interest on classified briefings,

Instead of protecting their electorate,

Republican Senator Richard Burr of NC, and Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein of CA,

KNEW about the alpha variant,

Investing in Zoom before anyone HEARD about it!

 

I repeat:

The problem with Congress and the so-called “Supreme Court” could be solved by term limits!

Justice Steven Breyer is making the same mistake Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg did that got us [her] “Handmaid’s Tale” polar opposite,

Another appointment like that, the end of Roe and precedent, would make the judiciary irrelevant.

 

On this 80th anniversary of Pearl Harbor,

I have to ask this:

 

Why did we fight fascism in World War II in the 20th century,

Only in the 21st century to embrace it?