Thoughts and Prayers...

© March 27, 2023, the Griot Poet

“There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.” Theologian Miroslav Volf.

Governor Bill Lee tweeted:

“I am closely monitoring the tragic situation at Covenant, & the Tennessee Department of Safety & Tennessee Highway Patrol are assisting local law enforcement & first responders at the scene.

“As we continue to respond, please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community.”

After three students and three adults,

A teacher, a substitute, and a custodian,

All in their sixties died in a Christian school,

“Thoughts and prayers” are oxymoronic,

But so is signing legislation against drag shows, which to date:

1. Drag shows are voluntary activities.
2. No one’s died, ever.

Your faux oblations never get past the ceiling,

And are a bitter tonic for parents reeling,

A few hours ago, before their [personal] midnights,

They didn’t realize,

They would be saying.

“Goodbye!”

“Have a good day!”

“I love you!”

 

For the last time,

Their children were the victims of another American mass shooting.

Done by a former student,

Reagan’s “morning in America” has become daily “mourning in America.”

 

I write this on the 87th day of 2023,

We have surpassed 100 mass shootings and casualties.

As an engineer, let me extrapolate sans accuracy:

We might have 419 by New Year’s Eve, and I fear we will surpass that!

We are exceptional because no other country puts its citizens through a constant barrage of PTSD violence!

 

Bill Lee is a waste of oxygen, banning drag queens when as a teenager, he was one!

One of the aspects of inept fascist governance is punching down on the weak.

It solves nothing in the short run but sets up eventual disasters like this.

“Owning the libs” and culture wars are [apparently] more fun than legislating.

 

In addition to “saving our youth” from drag queens,

 

Bill Lee:

In 2021, signed in law permit-less carry,

To terrorize his own citizens,

Hat tip to the NRA: “not responsible always.”

Every massacre is the responsibility of “evildoers” we extend 2nd Amendment rights [to],

More rights than the children at Covenant,

Which translates to “binding agreement, or promise,”

A promise Bill Lee flopped.

His piety is apostasy.

 

Andy Ogles,

Congressman from the Tennessee district who represents Covenant,

Tweeted:

 

“My family and I are devastated by the tragedy at The Covenant School in Nashville this morning. We are sending our **thoughts and prayers** to the families of those lost. As a father of three, I am utterly heartbroken by this senseless act of violence.”

 

Andy posed with his family in a 2021 Christmas photo armed to the teeth with assault rifles.

He’s “devastated” by the shooting, just not enough to legislate.

 

You and Bill Lee’s “thoughts and prayers?”

Save them!

Your Schlitz 45 malt liquor oblations are poured out for Mammon and Moloch!

You missed the red letters in the Bible that might be slightly important!

You “checked out” at the Sermon on the Mount.

The last time I checked,

The “meek” that will inherit the Earth won’t have bump stops, AR15s, or banana clips!

“Thoughts and prayers?”

Bullshit!

 

Here are the fruits of your labor:

White evangelicals became a numerical minority in 2017.

They decline with every action not taken after every gun massacre accelerating the institution’s demise.

So, your obvious “solution” is not “good news” but the gospel by gunpoint!

Evangelism by fascism,

 

Dog ear this:

We had news reporters concerned for their children during an active shooting and flashing back to their [own] childhood attacks.

“Run and tell that!”

 

Gun violence is the number one cause of death for children in America!

It’s overtaken cars and illicit drugs,

And drag queens are NOWHERE on this list!

We passed laws insisting that young children wear seatbelts.

It did not reduce fatalities to zero, but it did reduce their frequency.

We can legislate the womb, but we can’t legislate open carry.

We can’t do anything about gun massacres because of the gun lobby!

There are 538 Senate and House representatives, many of them on the gun lobby’s books.

This lack of action has been consistently sadistic since Sandy Hook!

 

Audrey/Aiden Elizabeth Hale,

28-year-old former transgender student,

Was the shooter,

The police executed them.

“Woke” didn’t cause this!

Their choice of pronouns didn’t cause this.

No drag queens have ever committed violence.

What violence was committed by Covenant when they were a student?

They probably have a backstory that propelled them to do this,

If mental health is the issue,

Okay,

Let’s fund it.

And reinforce the ban on the mentally ill owning guns.

Rescinded by the last administration,

But that takes an act of compromise and governance,

And requires something this Congress of sociopaths lacks: a demonstrable, functional soul,

It’s why you fear voters and polls,

Like Benjamin Netanyahu,

Fascism doesn’t want to be accountable.

Israel,

Is suddenly realizing that rights denied to any out-group like the Palestinians,

Eventually migrates to all its nation’s citizens,

Martin Niemöller wrote the “First They Came” poem about it.

As Bibi is trying to exert total control over the judiciary and government,

 

There are 400 million guns in the country to 330 million citizens!

If more guns equaled safety,

With that much firepower,

The United States should be the safest country on the planet!

I’ve got news for you, Sherlock: it ISN’T!

 

Stop lying!

Stop giving us your flaccid “thoughts and prayers” to hide your political impotence.

You hypocrites, don’t believe what you say when you reflexively utter it!

 

Vote these idiots out!

2024 IS the “final battle,” just not the one Orange Satan thinks!

 

Sources:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/03/andy-ogles-covenant-school-christmas-card

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2023/ar-15-damage-to-human-body/

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/trump-signs-bill-revoking-obama-era-gun-checks-people-mental-n727221

Babylon...

 

Image Source: IMDB

© March 24, 2023, the Griot Poet

And another angel, a second one, followed, saying, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality." Revelation 14:8

 

The Manhattan Grand Jury,

They have requested the presence of Evan Corcoran,

Who searched for classified documents.

Certified through a proxy,

Hiding behind the legal skirts of Alina Habba,

Getting her to certify the lie that they returned everything to the National Archives,

To use an old gangster film reference:

The "jig" is up!

Jack Smith now has evidence that Corcoran's client, the ex-president,

May have committed a crime,

"No shit?"

Mark Meadows,

And Evan Corcoran's,

Attorney-client and executive privileges have been,

Eviscerated,

Each man has two options:

They can either start dropping dimes on this crime spree,

Or prepare for their orange jumpsuits in Sing-Sing!

 

Orange Satan,

Unhinged by the possibility of being held accountable for the first time in his life,

Rage-posted on his Twitter knockoff, "Truth Social":

 

Predicting "potential death and destruction."

If he is charged.

By the Manhattan DA,

In connection with hush-money payments to

Adult film star Stormy Daniels,

And Playboy Centerfold Karen McDougall,

Two extramarital affairs he willingly entered,

Made by his "fixer," Michael Cohen,

During the 2016 presidential campaign,

Right after the "grab em by the pussy” event,

Michael went to jail for "individual one,"

Moving him to prison during the no-vaccine stage of the pandemic!

 

Orange Juliet,

Posting a photo of himself with a baseball bat,

Next to a photo of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg,

Acting like Robert De Niro playing Al Capone in "The Untouchables,"

The New York Post cover photo had the caption: Bat Hit Crazy.

They misspelled the second word leaving out the "S."

 

Alvin Bragg received a letter that said:

"Alvin: I am going to kill you!"

Whoever did it is from **Florida **.

And mailed him fake anthrax,

A throwback to the scary days after 9/11,

Or, more recently, the MAGA bomber,

Cesar Sayoc,

Also, a **Florida** resident,

Sayoc got 20 years for 65 counts of domestic terrorism,

This evil nitwit has endangered Bragg, his office, the Grand Jury, and, more importantly, his wife and kids.

 

E. Jean Carroll's jury,

For her charge that he raped her in the 1990s,

She has a blue dress ("Lordy") that he refuses to give her DNA evidence.

He sounds like a man who thinks he's "innocent."

Also, for the jurors' safety, they have to be anonymous.

 

The Manhattan DA has only the responsibility to present evidence to the Grand Jury,

The Grand Jury will decide whether to indict him.

A membership whose roster is secret,

Paying off a porn star in New York is a misdemeanor,

Instructing your fixer to make the hush money payments during a presidential campaign is a felony!

 

Our faux billionaire had a "peaceful" political rally,

On the 30th anniversary of the Waco, Texas standoff,

I apologize to all my friends in Austin: he jammed up your traffic!

Less "dog whistle" and more mega foghorn,

He's calling 2024's election cycle "the final battle!"

The proverbial question is, "what's the worst that can happen?"

 

This man is a stochastic terrorist!

He's a malignant narcissist and psychopath!

Hat tip to Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib:

"We impeached the motherfucker” twice. Now jail him!

My Frat, Hakeem Jeffries, said the sadly obvious: "someone is going to get killed" if we don't do something about it.

Marjorie Taylor Greene said something that wasn't a lie:

"There is a two-tiered injustice system" (but she left out) that favors rich, deranged white men.

 

Like Sarah Palin, "Don't retreat: reload!"

Summoned Jared Lee Loughner,

Almost killed Representative Gabby Giffords,

Killing Christina-Taylor Green, a fan of Gabby's, on her ninth birthday,

 

Like Bill O'Reilly,

Remember, "Tiller, the baby killer?"

Dr. George Tiller was killed,

Performing as an usher in his universalist church,

By Scott Roeder:

White, male, cisgender,

The model of today's Christo-fascist,

Which is starting to equate to Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

 

Question: Why does a "billionaire" need you to send him money for [his] legal expenses?

Answer: Because he isn't!

 

He had no idea what the Grand Jury decided,

Let alone the date of their decision,

Which they haven't made yet,

His cult followers fell for the grift.

 

He's going to keep doing it until he's held accountable.

Other than Stormy Daniels, Donald has never been spanked,

Baby Huey has never been in time-out!

He's a man with no respect for boundaries,

 

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there comes a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of  utter destruction; Who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself to be God." 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

 

Or a cult leader.

 

I'm not saying that this is the end,

But we're teetering towards failed-nation status,

Climate change is straining resources,

And empowering authoritarian fascists,

Collectively practicing "Disaster Capitalism,"*

 

We may all be Katrina "refugees" soon.

Fleeing rising seas from warming weather patterns,

Storm exclusive Cul de Sacs and McMansions instead of the US Capitol,

The people with hoarding disorders that call themselves "billionaires" live there.

Who legally bribe their servants on Capitol Hill for their benefit.

They get ninety percent of what they pay for,

And "We The People" get the rest!

Our gun massacres put us in third-world category status,

But keep us too collectively frightened to do anything about it.

 

Grace Linn, 100-year-old World War Two veteran widow:

"They fear knowledge. Fear is not freedom. Fear is not liberty. Fear is control."

Grace Linn, in a wheelchair, is facing down fascism in Florida.

 

If we fail, her husband, who fought the Nazis, died for nothing.

If we fail, all world democracies become the dominoes of oligarchs.

If we fail, it is democracy's apocalypse.

 

Would you rather have dystopia or the closest thing to Star Trek?

Would you rather have Disaster Capitalism or species-saving cooperation?

Would you rather have modernity or the harlot Babylon?

 

*****

 

*From "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism," by Naomi Klein – In the book, Klein argues that neoliberal free market policies (as advocated by the economist Milton Friedman) have risen to prominence in some developed countries because of a deliberate strategy of "shock therapy. "This centers on exploiting national crises (disasters or upheavals) to establish controversial and questionable policies. At the same time, citizens are too distracted (emotionally and physically) to engage and develop an adequate response and resist effectively. The book advances the idea that some manufactured events, such as the Iraq War, were undertaken to push through such unpopular policies in their wake. Wikipedia

Not News...

 

Image Source: https://br.ifunny.co/picture/OyR3UJ6m7

© March 1, 2023, the Griot Poet

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” George Orwell, 1984

 

Dominion voting’s lawsuit,

Has pulled back a Bizarro land of Oz curtain,

Led by an Aussie who I can’t Grok with,

Rupert doesn’t write poetry to start with,

Emperor Murdoch has no clothes,

And has utter disdain for his viewers/victims,

 

Rupert,

Consciously let his anchors,

Lie to their viewers about the election,

Telling them the truth about an accurate result in Arizona,

Drove them over the deep end into a conspiratorial abyss,

Letting Mike Lindell, Sydney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani spew their filth,

Confessing under oath: “It’s all about [the] Benjamin’s, baby!”

 

Roger Ailes created this hellish network,

After Richard Nixon flamed himself out with Watergate,

Rupert was all in on it,

Funded by him and a Saudi Sheikh,

To pump out gaslighting to its viewers,

On a nightly, daily, and weekly basis,

 

Rupert and Roger wanted,

Not just a conservative-friendly “news” outlet,

They wanted to bend the laws of physics, reality, science, and facts themselves,

 

The first razor-thin election was in the year 2000,

The public [was] prepped by fear of the Y2K virus,

To condition them for a faux apocalypse,

After stealing the election with Clarence Thomas,

Junior ignored the August 6 presidential daily briefing,

“Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US,”

“Well, you’ve covered your ass now,” he said in Crawford, Texas,

Caught flat-footed in a Florida classroom on September 11,

 

He turned a disaster into a political advantage,

His party turned it into Münchausen syndrome by proxy,

Continually ruining the patient - the federal republic - to reclaim 9/11’s “glory.”

 

Fox is not a news outlet,

It’s a propaganda arm for weirdos and fascists,

Their own lawyers’ defense of Tucker Carlson in court was:

“The ‘general tenor’ of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not ‘stating actual facts about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in ‘exaggeration’ and ‘non-literal commentary.’” [1]

In other words, he's lying.

 

Rush Limbaugh called his followers “Ditto Heads.”

Alex Jones should call his "Prepper Pigeons."

How about: “Tucker Suckers?”

The shoe fits.

 

Brian Welch,

In a 2010 HuffPost article,

Made the point succinct and district:

Fox is a cult. [2]

This observation was nine years after 9/11 and eleven years before January 6,

Their objective is to take over their viewers’ minds,

Making them susceptible to autosuggestion,

Facts for them are irrelevant,

 

Murdoch,

Shared election ads and debate notes,

From the Joe Biden campaign,

With Jared Kushner,

The son-in-law of Orange Satan,

This act is a violation of Federal Election Commission laws,

Defined as “an illegal in-kind donation,”

This act is a violation of the Security and Exchange Commission,

And the fiduciary Board of Directors in the corporation,

Emperor Murdoch only controls thirty-nine percent,

Which does not give him a controlling majority,

After the Dominion lawsuit concludes,

Likely with a massive settlement,

It opens people like Former House Speaker Paul Ryan,

On the Board of Directors, to personal liability and lawsuits!

He had a fiduciary responsibility,

On learning about the deception,

To resign his position and go PUBLIC,

News flash: he didn’t.

 

Fox was the first to align its reporting desk with its entertainment business.

Boycott 20th Century Fox movies.

Instead of ignoring this fascist propaganda ignorance,

We must eliminate it to save our republic.

 

Since they license under their entertainment division,

I offer a new name to label this distinction:

 

“Not” News.

A simple change,

From a noun to an adverb, it will tell anyone who dares to watch it,

Their best bet for accuracy is with “The Onion.”

 

The First Amendment protects freedom of speech and the press,

That freedom does not mean,

Colluding with political campaigns,

Or spouting Russian propaganda nonsense nightly in prime time,

 

They’re following the Russian propaganda technique: “Firehose of falsehoods,”

 

An avalanche from atop Jon Stewart’s “bullshit mountain.”

American citizens will stop caring about the truth!

Their audience has had twenty-seven years of this Pavlovian conditioning.

 

Rupert Murdoch, Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, Laura Ingrate, and Sean Insanity,

All were lying,

During the 2020 election,

Leading up to the January 6 insurrection,

They panicked when upstarts News Min and QAN copied,

Their propaganda model,

Taking a measly 10,000 viewers,

The latter: AT&T dropped them.

The former barely registers as a pixel blip.

“The stock price is down: not a joke!”

Spouted by the guy too weird for the CIA,

Spouted by the guy fired from CNN, MSNBC,

On his third try,

He was taken in by Sith Lord Murdoch because instead of journalism, all he had to do was lie.

 

Ailes, Limbaugh, and Murdoch,

The “vast, right-wing conspiracy” Axis of Evil,

They were the “original gangsters” who monetized crazy,

“Loofah” O’Reilly brought us the made-up “war on Christmas,”

While committing stochastic terrorism until Dr. George Tiller was murdered.

Alex Jones grifted [much] later on the parents of Sandy Hook,

They will continue this until monetary legal accountability hurts them.

It’s why conservatives attack public education.

Democracy requires an “informed citizenry,”

Ignorance is the foundation of tyranny.

A propaganda machine cannot defend the First Amendment,

While simultaneously hinting at “Second Amendment” remedies,

 

I hope this lawsuit finishes this sponsor of domestic terrorism.

 

Give Vulpes Canis, the Fox, its grace and dignity,

Disassociate it from your alternative reality,

And call American Pravda what it is [really]: “Not” News.

 

1. You Literally Can’t Believe The Facts Tucker Carlson Tells You. So Say Fox’s Lawyers, David Folkenflik, September 29, 20204:34, PM ET, NPR.
2. Fox News is Not Just Biased - It’s a Cult, Bryant Welch, Contributor, Mar 18, 2010, 05:12 AM EDT | Updated May 25, 2011, HuffPost

Intersectionality...

 

Image Source: World Economic Forum

© February 25, 2023, the Griot Poet

1681,

The category of “white” was created,

After the Bacon rebellion,

A coalition of African enslaved people and European indentured servants,

“For the ways we have chosen to make our vast fortunes; this is not good for the sugar cane and cotton business.”

 

The plantation was their sprawling realm.

Old Europe had lords, and they were masters.

Old Europe had serfs and they had enslaved servants.

Old Europe had castles and they had mansions.

The US Constitution was based on the UK Magna Carta,

Thus, the New World was an analog of the old world their ancestors left.

This upstart colony, soon to be a nation,

Was determined to better King George, his empire, and their elder English statesmen,

 

So, plantation oligarchs created out of whole cloth,

“White” people, and 

Enslavement patrols: they gave them positions and power,

They had weapons and five-pointed star badges,

The plantation oligarchs were particularly frightened by the success of the Haitian rebellion.

So much so,

Their descendants would make it their policy to keep Haiti as an example of persistent depravity and poverty.

 

1790:

The date of the first American census,

Three years after the ratification of the US Constitution,

They made their purpose obvious and explicit, 

The US census was to count only so-called “white” citizens. 

Due to their prejudices and lack of Melanin,

Descendent of a Nordic bent.

Eventually, it included Czechs, Italians, Jews, and Russians,

Just so long as they treat with the same disdain,

America’s pariahs are put in the “others” category.

When they counted the 3/5ths, humans,

To calibrate their political calculus,

The enslaved numbered 33%!

The immigration population for Africans remained at zero until the 1970s, when their total population declined to 9%.

 

2005, 

The year of a study by Pew research,

Between 2005 and 2050, 

So-called “white people” in the US,

Will shrink from 67% to 47%, 

A numerical minority for the first time in the category by 2050, 260 years of existence.

How would so-[called] “white people” address this?

 

They might,

Want to break every treaty they have ever written with Native Americans,

“From 1778 to 1871, the United States government entered into more than 50 treaties with the Native American tribes; all of these treaties have since been violated in some way or outright broken by the US  government with Native Americans and First Nations peoples.”

“We don’t need no stinking history.”

Just ask Ron DeSantis.

 

They might, 

Through the Federalist Society, 

Stack the US Supreme Court with religious zealots,

Who lied in their Confirmation appointments,

“Stare decisis” is Latin for precedent,

But the pressing issue is existential:

Roe vs. Wade was overturned,

Because they’re not pro-life, they are pro-birth,

The closet had its function:

Many of those in power used it,

They procreated within sham marriages,

Hooking up on the down low in bathhouses,

You’re “taking one for the team” for the so-called “white” male cisgender hierarchy.

 

They might,

Want to repeal Affirmative Action practices,

In education and hiring,

 

They might,

Inaugurate the former Enslaved Patrols,

Give them badges and blue uniforms,

And the Orwellian motto, “protect and serve,”

With the wink and nod of understanding: the oligarch’s property,

 

They might,

Want to gerrymander congressional districts,

Set up by the racial apportionment,

Mandated every ten years by the US Census,

SPLIT the largest HBCU,

North Carolina A&T State University,

In TWO,

To dilute the votes of students at the college,

Along with Bennett Women’s College and Dudley High School,

That made sit-ins popular,

 

For a while,

My ancestors weren’t a part of that,

That 3/5ths fraction,

It was a compromise between the northern states and southern plantation owners,

The nation fought a revolution over “taxation without representation,”

While Africans toiled at chattel labor,

Working for centuries without compensation,

This fact is why reparations,

Is so fiercely resisted:

Like a key stitch in crochet,

Such an action unravels the knitting,

 

So, it all makes a kind of,

Sadistic,

Twisted,

“Logic”:

 

Like Covid-19,

Racism is a virus,

So are its byproducts:

Homophobia, misogyny, and xenophobia.

We’re not going to solve the climate crisis,

Or manufacture starships,

Nous Sommes Humain: we are ALL humans,

To survive, we need to cooperate.

 

If we’re arguing about which culture is “great,”

If we’re arguing over temporary mask mandates,

Or, the efficacy of vaccines versus the quackery of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin,

If you’re not a mule or a horse, I [would] not try it.

If we refuse to cooperate,

Like Octavia Butler said,

We’re “smooth dinosaurs” and our [own] Chicxulub meteors.

 

“The concept of intersectionality describes how systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, class, and other forms of discrimination “intersect” to create unique dynamics and effects.”

 

“Unique dynamics and effects,”

This statistic means a coalition that numbers 53%,

And 53% is greater than 47%.

 

But,

“I don’t like those,”

African Americans,

Asian-Pacific islander Americans,

Hispanic/Latino Americans

Immigrants,

LGBTQ+ Americans,

Women, who outnumber men,

 

“If current trends continue, the demographic profile of the United States will change dramatically by the middle of this century, according to new population projections developed by the Pew Research Center. The nation’s population will rise to 438 million in 2050, from 296 million in 2005, and 82% of the growth during this period will be due to immigrants arriving from 2005 to 2050 and their descendants.” Pew research 

 

They might,

Elect two unqualified presidents,

From the same party,

In the same century,

Using the antebellum electoral college,

Going from a five-to-four Supreme Court fiat,

And “Brooks Brothers” Riots in Tallahassee, Florida,

To a three-to-six zealot’s Mullah oligarchy,

To an actual coup attempt on January 6,

(Both orchestrated by Roger Stone in his rodent weirdness),

 

And now that the CIA rejected “white” supremacist Tucker Carlson,

He has 40,000+ hours of Capitol video footage gifted to him,

By the spineless jellyfish, Kevin McCarthy,

January 6, 2021, was practice!

January 6, 2025, will be Margaret Atwood’s “Sons of Jacob,”

In fifty states and territories,

Just like they did in Wilmington, NC, in 1898,

They WILL establish a “Republic of Gilead,”

And, as long as the New York Stock Exchange is functional,

The world will barely blink!

 

Fascism doesn’t stop with your favorite “out” group.

Ignorance is not Thomas Ode’s bliss,

Ignorance is Orwell’s tool for the powerful,

It is relentless in its pursuit of power and dominance.

It is insidious in that it will recruit,

Turncoats from those same out groups,

Subsisting on the crumbs from the rich man’s table for their poor Lazarus,

They’re only solace: they’re not you, who has it worse.

 

It’s why they oppose it.

Education, comedy, history, music, poetry, science: reality!

 

Because they know the power of intersectionality,

And that their dominance is a chimera fantasy:

VOTE!