Month: February 2017

Dan Rather posted an article in Facebook yesterday that was the inspiration for this poelitic.

“Gut check time” for those in power
Time to rout Trump from his tower
Reps and Dems time not to cower
POTUS has no clothes

Barring Press men from a conference
Can’t be met with bland indifference
“It’s okay”might be the inference
Trump, the Press, now loathes

Walls of silence Trump’s been met with
Leadership malfeasance best fits
Congressmen who just don’t get it
Voters surly know

Press subversion is abrasive
Not the time to be evasive
Time to be our most persuasive
Time for Trump to go

1/27/17

 

In my poem, yesterday, I challenged you to choose
How you’d resolve Intel’s conundrum: what, to whom you’d tell
When there’s a cloud, a lack of trust of Trump. What are your views?
So far I’ve gotten one response. I’d like your thoughts as well

2/26/17

 

Conundrum is the Intel team deciding what to write
Of their top-secret, gathered facts to be Trump’s daily brief
Hand one, he is the President; all knowledge is his right
Without the facts decisions made could bring the nation grief

But if Trump is the subject of investigations hot
By FBI of Russian ties, which could him compromise
The question ’bout the President: to trust or trust him not
Becomes a real conundrum for the spy guys to decide

We nothing know of who, what, where of their investigations
We know that Trump’s election team had Soviet connections
Collusion, not yet proven, nor Trump’s own participation
But where there’s smoke there’s likely fire. We’ll learn from their inspections

I ask you, then, dear reader mine, what act would be your will
If you’re that Intel officer deciding what to brief
Of Intel, highly sensitive whose compromise would kill?
Please, on my blog do share your thoughts, what’s best in your belief?

2/25/17

 

Thou protesteth too much Mr. President Trump
In your CPAC address you continued complaining
That reporters are fake-news purveyors who jump
At the writing of op-eds, all falsehoods containing

White House staff had instructed Intelligence chiefs
Off the record to contact reporters and say
That involvement by Russia should not be believed
With elections no connection, no matter, no way

Too, the chairs of Congressional Intel committees
Now conducting their own probes of this selfsame mess
We’re approached by the White House, and they both agreed
They would lie to reporters, of this they’ve confessed

So then why all this pressure from Trump and his goons
Vilifying the Press, compromising Intel
Not to mention those chairmen who dance to Trump’s tune?
Trump is desperate to hide what more probing will tell

It’s that Trump was colluding with Russia throughout
The elections last year, helping him to succeed
In a bargain with Putin reminiscent of Faust
Making Trump Putin’s puppet, an agreement of greed

Investigation impartial, independent a must
Neither Congress nor White House nor Justice take part
A commission whose findings the public can trust
The dark cloud over Trump, short of this, won’t depart

2/24/17

 

Mirror, Mirror on the wall
Who has most power of us all?
Don Trump, you’re an erratic cannon
Power dwells with Stephen Bannon

He’s been calling all the shots
Since the stump, his alt-right rot
He drafts EOs for you to sign
Not knowing content or design

But hey, that’s good; at least he’s sane
That’s better than your state of brain
It’s not as though I know it all
I’m just your mirror on the wall

1/23/17

 

Our President, five heads has he
And when he speaks, which mouth will be?
This is a thing we can’t foresee
Oh woe are we

Sometimes he wears a jester’s crown
And entertains while tearing down
By pushing policies unsound
Contempt unbound

A master of the deal, he claims
By conning people in his name
They buy, get nothing; such a shame
That is his game

He loves to rally with his base
Where he reveals his truest face
Where his detractors he’ll debase
In such disgrace

He lives in his reality
With little commonality
With factual actuality
He does not see

Surrounding him a mystery
Concerning recent history
Of Russia, our democracy
His role, what might it be?

2/22/17

This poelitic is based on MSNBC Lawrence O’Donnel’s program, ‘The Last Word’.  Lawrence interviewed Dr. John Gartner, PhD from Harvard and Dr. Lance Dodes, MD.  The both specialize in psychiatry and mental health.  Apparently a psychiatric dossier  describing their collective assessment of President Trump’s mental state and the danger it poses was drafted and signed via internet by many mental-health specialists.  I thought I heard Lawrence say 26,000 signatures, which I put into the poem, but I find it hard to believe.

Thousands, twenty six in all of medical professionals
Have signed a dossier proclaiming Trump unfit to serve
Doctors and professors whose opinions are defensible
Who research, teach and practice mental cases they observe

They labeled Trump a psychopath, the kind that’s sociological
All based on his behavior and performance they’ve observed
His paranoiac attitude, his lies so pathological
Detachment from reality in actions and in words

The say this state’s most dangerous, that Trump enough is sane
To function nearly normally sans psychologic stress
But under stress his paranoia overtakes his brain
That coupled with his bubble views can cause him great distress

The President alone can cause the Earth to be destroyed
Provoked in false reality who knows what Trump might do
It’s time, Amendment twenty five, it’s time to be employed
Make Pence the Acting President, or we, these days will rue

2/21/17

Even though reporting of the plan, discussed in this poelitic, has been all over the news today, the MSNBC  Rachel Maddow show today ( Feb. 20) presents the context and details of the plan better than others I have heard.  It should be available  on the MSNBC, Rachel Maddow web site.  It is also available in today’s edition of the Daily Kos.

The Press are People’s enemies; that is Trump’s latest cry
Don’t listen to a single word since all they do is lie
Note, that’s not just opinionists, it’s correspondents too
Trump’s anxious that we not believe of him the latest news

The latest revelation of the Times and of the Post
Of past releases citing Trump, it’s damaging the most
A plan devised by Trump’s lieutenants plus a Kremlin mafian
And, too, an oligarch, pro Russia, who’s Ukrainian

The plan, (back channeled), was delivered then to Mike Flynn’s desk
For him to show the President, he tried his level best
But Flynn was fired to keep him quiet; the plan scooped by the Times
Contained three steps, all Putin-esque, that leave the law behind

The plan would set the oligarch to lead the Ukraine state
Allowing, then, the Soviets to set Crimea’s fate
And lift the sanctions that have hurt the Sov’s economy
To payback Putin’s help for Trump’s electability

Mike Pence is seen as presidential as opposed to Trump
In not too long the Reps will see it’s time for them to dump
Erratic Trump in favor of Mike Pence, which they can do:
Amendment twenty five invoked will set the stage anew

2/20/17

I wrote Trump’s Lament (I) in May of 2016 after Trump became the Republican nominee.

Trump’s Lament II

This is not what I expected
Presidents should be respected
All I hear makes me dejected
They keep treating me unfair
I’m just doing what I promised
Back campaigning, being honest
I recall those days the fondest
Rallying my base with flare

and My base loves me everywhere

Now that I am President
I’m supposed to represent
Even those whom I resent
Like the Press Corps sneaks out there
When fake news of me they post
Scoops from leaks, they like to boast
It’s the Times I hate the most
Getting in my yellow hair

but My base loves me everywhere

Now that Michael Flynn is gone
Stupid, being caught upon
Speaking with the Russians on
Sanctions – there’s no need to care
Now, I’m lost. Within my stable
No one’s there whom I deem able
Dealing with them ‘neath the table
Me, myself, I hadn’t dare

but My base loves me everywhere

I won’t admit that I’m afraid
The F.B.I. has groundwork laid
And access to all phone calls made
But I put Jeffrey Sessions there
To stop investigations short
So they’ll have nothing to report
To fire them is my last resort
So why do I feel such despair?

since My base loves me everywhere

Ken Cliffer is my guest poet, tonight.

Diss stress!

Stress test for democracy
Would-be Trump autocracy
Can people so diverse resist
Reverse insidious perverse twist
Of facts with labels “false” and “fake”
Fakely falsely trust to break?

We would, we will, but can the door
Be shut to us who would seek more
Compassion, heart, and genuine
Support of people here within
A country freedom-loving so?
Instead would inflated ego
Drain the swamp and fill the brooks
To billionaires’ own pocketbooks?

Pay no attention past the screen
Chaos I call fine-tuned machine
Believe ME, not your lyin’ eyes
It’s just a fake-news press disguise
Of all the good; just see my crowd
To whom I can declare so loud
That I will fix the mess we’re in
Inherited from that bad Kenyan
Who founded ISIS, made jobs split
What’s CBC? Oh I love it
Set up a meeting, ‘cause you’re black
I’ll stop the crime and bring jobs back

Seal the border, build the wall
And send those back who’ll hurt us all
No Russian tells me what to do
Nor I, him, I love him too
They’d love it if his ship I’d blast
To kingdom-come so far so fast

But I am not irrational
I’m calm, I’m smart, sensational
I hate the hate coming at me
I’m so good, cannot you see?
Stop the presses, they’re the bad
Enemies of your interests – SAD!

All’s adversarial, win we must
To keep this country great and just
Free to stay in my hotels
Dump where you will, in lakes and wells
For we’ll then give you jobs galore
To give us what we want and more

C’MON! We all must wake and see
This stress test for democracy
Fight – help not only one faction
We all must work for all to win
For principles and liberty
With rules intact that keep us free
From perverse autocracy
For them and us and you and me

This is a test that we must pass
If we do not it’s a morass
Later stakes will be much higher
If we can even quench the fire
Let’s get to work, let’s pass THIS test,
So we can REMAIN great and the best.

© 2017 Ken Cliffer

2/18/17