Month: September 2016

 

Holocaust
Hiroshima below us yesterday
As from Japan we airplaned to Hanoi
‘Twas Harry Truman made the fateful choice

Holocaust
And Shimon Perez left us yesterday
Politically he fathered Israel’s bomb
Most years of ninety three he worked for peace

Holocaust
The Nazi gassing chambers, Hitler’s deed
And from the ashes birthed the Israel state
Now Palestinians still wage his war

Holocaust
We’re in Hanoi. We see a land in peace
But thousands killed each day; we were at war
Decision makers: Johnson, Nixon too

Holocaust
Cambodia, so many thousands shot
In Killing Fields mowed down by K’mer Rouge
We didn’t intervene – not politic

Holocaust
In Libya we chose to intervene
Averting genocide, Khadafi’s plan
Obama, Clinton made the moral call

Holocaust
Now Syria, a raging civil war
Assad and Putin’s bloody power play
The children of Aleppo pay the price

Holocaust
There’s ISIS and the list goes on and on
Where innocents are murdered just like that
Where Presidents hard choices have to make

Holocaust
It’s time for us to make our choice again
Of whom we’ll trust the nation’s choosing to
Reducing risks of future holocausts

 

At thirty thousand feet, nine hours remain
Japan, we’ve still four thousand miles to make
That’s time enough to probe within my brain
And contemplate this race, what is at stake

A fraction of our people feel left out
Frustrated, seems they just can’t get ahead
Dissatisfied and vaguely filled with doubt
About their future. They want change instead

A fraction of our citizens recall
When times were terrible, not long ago
They lost their jobs, their homes, their savings all
They welcome the recovery, ‘though it’s slow

One camp wants change no matter who’s the source
They’re easy prey; they’re ripe for any ruse
Trump paints their world as bad, but then, of course
He is the one to fix it, should they choose

By Clinton, things are better than before
But still they have a long way yet to go
And she’s the agent they’ve been waiting for
She knows the ropes and she can make it so

And then there’re those behind the candidates
Who raise the dough; who strategize the race
It is their job to paint their person great
While labeling the other a disgrace

And then there are the candidates themselves
One deeply flawed but talented in ways
That do endear him to his following
He is their champ, Trump cons them with his play

And Clinton much maligned, unjustly so
For being female, strong, uniquely smart
She can’t be trusted everybody knows
Just stay at home and play the woman’s part

Change is not a goal in of itself
Change from what to what one needs to know
With Trump uncertainty, no inner self
With Clinton, steady, forward as she goes

We’re still at altitude; one third remains
And that’s a metaphor, where this race is
The stakes are chaos versus steady gains
The title, President, don’t let be his

For the next three weeks my wife and I will be touring in the Far East: Vietnam, Cambodia and Bangkok, Thailand to be exact. Part of that time we will be cruising on the Mekong River.  As such my postings will be a bit sporadic but I intend to keep up with the US political boiler pot and continue writing to the extent I can.  In writing this poelitic I couldn’t help but think about smart people like Kellyanne.  Please periodically go to the blog site, http://poelitics.net to view the latest comments as well as corrections I make to the poelitics.

There are things that make me happy
There are things that make me sad
This debate evoked a strange emotion
Sad and happy both at once I had

I was happy Clinton pulled a Clinton
She decisively trampled Trumple down
But the people that saddened me so strongly
Were his workers who’d put him on the throne

9/27/16

Hang down your head Don Trumple
Hang down your head and sigh
Midway you seemed to crumple
Better luck October ninth

Hang down your head Don Trumple
Soon you may realize
Poll numbers might now tumble
Since you told so many lies

You thought that you could wing it
Clinton prepared a lot
You really didn’t swing it
Presidential you were not

One hundred million viewers
Witnessed tonight’s debate
Millions of them were newbies
They will likely seal your fate

Hang down your head Don Trumple
You’ll spin that you did best
Clinton was on a rumble
Surly shut you out this test

9/26/16

Tips on scoring the debate
All based on what they say or do
The scale is plus to minus eight
Where zero’s ho-hum, nothing new

If Trump shows up, we’ll give him three
He might have chickened out, you see
If Clinton shows, it’s zero score
She’s done this many times before

For every time Trump doesn’t lie
That’s so unusual, score him five
Since Clinton’s answers will be true
That’s so ho-hum, we’ll give her two

When Trump upstaging faces makes
Let’s score him one for humor’s sake
Should Clinton crack a joke, oh my!
That’s so unusual; score her five

If by the end, Trump’s still aware
We’ll score him eight for standing there
And Hillary?  She’ll coast right through
For old time’s sake we’ll give her two

So be prepared on Monday night
To score each candidate just right
Results can change the nation’s fate
A lot’s at stake in this debate

9/25/16

Earlier this month Richard Engel and Aggelos Petroupolos wrote an NBC News article on cyber espionage, which  The Daily Kos recently republished.  Since I had come up with a cock-a-maime idea on the subject I thought it opportune to write it in a poelitic.

Somebody hacked us
Don’t wonder who
We know just who it must be

Vlad Putin hates us
We know it’s he
Unleashed his bad bears we see

Cozy Bear and Fancy Bear are his cyber teams
Our secure computers hacked with ease, so it seems

How to protect us
I figured out
It’s really simple, you see

They can’t attack us
If off the net
If off the net, mostly we

Code and store transmissions offline, protectively
Then the pack at random instants squirt rapidly

Then when they hack us
We’ll be offline
Offline and safe we will be

9/24/16

My stomach took a sour turn
And acid caused my chest to burn
On witnessing the video stream
And hearing Scott’s wife loudly scream
“DON’T SHOOT!”

Ignored by all the law men there
Her frantic cries; gut wrenching fear
That officers, because he’s black
Would feel so threatened he’d shoot back
They’d shoot

I can’t help wonder, were Keith white
And in his car in broad daylight
Would cops have stopped to question him
Or order him about on whim
Or shoot?

But shoot they did; now Keith is dead
Because he had a gun, they said
But evidence of that we lack
And when Keith from his car stepped back
They shot

9/23/16

Drew Magary of GQ Magazine yesterday wrote a blasphemous, scathing article aimed at Trump supporters, which is the subject of this “Tom Dooley” poelitic.

Hang down your head Trump Stoogy
Hang down your head in shame
Hang down your head Trump Stoogy
If Trump wins, you’ll be to blame

You’ve witnessed Trump the bigot
You’ve heard the Trumple lies
You’ve seen Trumple favor violence
Still you’re voting for him; why?

You know that Trump knows nothing
Nothing on foreign affairs
Nothing on how to govern
Of our rights he’s unaware

You’ve seen his business actions
How Trumple cheats his guys
Shady deals with foreign factions
Still you’re voting for him; why?

Pick up your head Trump Stoogy
Pick up your head; be proud
Change your allegiance, Stoogy
And leave Trump’s deplorable crowd

9/22/16

This was hard for me since I am not prejudiced against police, and I know that this applies to a small, but significant fraction of the nation’s law enforcement.  Its in response to the slaying of Terrence Crutcher in Oklahoma, but it could apply to the many other cases of unarmed black men (and children) being killed under circumstances where a white man most likely would not have been.

For this I have borrowed from an old sea shanty: Way, Haul Away, Haul Away Joe.

When I was a little lad
Or so my daddy told ta me
Way, shoot away, well, shoot away boys
That colored folks were scary bad
His hatred took a-holt-a me
Shoot away boys

Now that I’m a copper man
You see the badge I’m wearin
Way, shoot away, well, shoot away boys
If you cross me, shoot I can
It’s me you should be fearin
Shoot away boys

Now that I’m a copper man
No more will you be scarin
Way, shoot away, well, shoot away boys
I’d sure shoot you, if you ran
They’d free me in the hearin
Shoot away boys

9/21/16

Next Monday eve the first of three debates
Between the presidential candidates
Will be performed upon a global stage
With expectations soaring, they’ll engage
In verbalized gymnastics tate á tate

If past portends the future, what is next?
What of Clinton and of Trump do we expect?
Hillary will think before she speaks
And Donald will upstage glib verbal tweaks
When over, neither one may win the day

These duels are not about what’s being said
They’re not the “got-chas” that the speakers dread
They are about composure under stress
How self-assured each question is addressed
Impressions that will linger will hold sway

9/20/16