Category: Uncategorized

The Hastert rule, bipartisan’s demise
The rule Republicans have followed ever since
The Speaker hatched this rule that’s so unwise
Whenever they’re majority in the House

To bring a bill before the House for votes
A Rep majority is now required
It means joint-sponsored bills that are of note
Go nowhere, ‘though they’re massively desired

It also means that a minority
Of Reps. can dictate what will be allowed
And what will not. They set priorities
The Freedom Caucus wields that power now

Because the Caucus hates all immigrants
The Dreamers bill has never reached the floor
In all the months since DACA was rescinded
That’s why the Dems were adamant and more

John Kelly and Tom Cotton have Trump’s ear
The White House won’t negotiate they claim
Until the shut- down’s been resolved, it’s clear
And Democrats will shoulder all the blame

Both Parties spending for a media blitz
Each Party navigating on the brink
‘Twill be who hurts the most, who’s having fits
That will determine who’s the first to blink

The Hastert rule back then has led the way
For unintended consequence today

1/20/18

As I sit down to draft a poelitic
A shot of scotch on ice
Topopos made of maiz
A day of news prolific
It’s hard to be specific
News tidbits swirling, dizzying my brain:

Trump’s winners of his news-that’s-fake awards
On again, off again DACA for ransom
Government shutdown that Trump seems to welcome
It’s Cotton and Kelly who moved the Trump backwards

Bannon subpoenaed full twice in one day
The first was by Mueller,; House Intel as well
Just why this all happened it’s not hard to tell
If Bannon tells all,
The Donald will fall
From under the bus Bannon has lots to say

It seems Trump’s inviting a terror attack
It’s his great solution to twenty eighteen
The mid-term elections: the blue wave that’s roaring
He thinks it will send Repub. sentiment soaring
And halt the blue wave as through States it careens

Don Trump had his physical
No problems inimical
Needs to get exercise
Diet a bit more wise
And mental acuity?
He passed with alacrity
Not covered, psychology or personality

Enough my meandering
I have some misgivings
Trump’s childish behavior
We’ve come to accept
True normal behavior
We do not expect

We’ve normalized politically
That Trump has abnormalities

1/17/17

Why celebrate the birth of MLK?
A day of service, not a day of self
It’s hard to fathom prejudice’s sway
The denigration people Black have felt

When young I, too, felt prejudice’s sting
Not being Black, I felt it as a Jew
But I rejected gays; it was my thing
Insidious our hates each gen renews

It’s really MLK’s inspiring message
A letter from the Jail in Birmingham
Which led to legislation’s final passage
Acknowledging the rights of every man

Since immigrants, and most minorities
Vote Democratic overwhelmingly
Republicans have placed priority
On limiting their opportunities

And now we have a President whose views
Are racist toward those countries who’re not white
In keeping with King’s spirit we must choose
To fight for racial justice; fight the fight

1/15/18

THIS IS NOT A DRILL

At 8:07 came the message over TV, over cell phones
A BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT is INBOUND
TO HAWAII. Urgent was the message
Go immediately to shelter. THIS IS NOT A DRILL
People panicked, soon be dying. Get my family! Where’s a shelter?
All the islands from Oahu to Kahoolawe
People fearful everywhere dismayed and unprepared

Of course it was a human blunder; someone triggered the alarm
It took some eight and thirty minutes ‘till they messaged out
MISSILE ALERT is IN ERROR, so THERE IS NO missile THREAT
Relieved, it left the people angry: they were made to suffer so
Their senator, one Brian Shatz, vowed no more future false alarms
Politically, that’s smart to say, but actually it’s pretty dumb
Human error there will be. It’s deep within our human genes

No one’s mentioned the real lesson that this episode revealed
Hawaii, now a likely target for a nuclear attack,
Has not seen the threat as serious. Grossly unprepared are they
With Trump and Kim, both men unstable, likelihood’s of error soar
But after finding who’s the culprit heaping on him blame and more
This will all be long forgotten, back they’ll go like times before

1/13/18

 

Trump’s behavior reprehensible
Leaves a stain throughout indelible
Bigotry at scales incredible
Racist slurs quite undeniable
Deeply, deeply irresponsible

Haitians fought our Revolution
Afros man our institutions
Yellow, Brown and Black in fusion
With the Whites make strong our nation
We’re a land of immigration

Everyone knows Trump’s a bully
Congress Reps suppressed most fully
Not a peep against Trump’s folly
Cowed to silence, cowards truly
Reelection matters only

We are strong, I have no doubt

And we will vote the cowards out
The midterm votes will be a rout
A victory that Dems will tout
And Trump will scream and Trump will shout
“It’s rigged! It’s rigged!”; there’s little doubt

1/12/18

Michael Wolff’s Fire & Fury, among many revelations, pointed out that Donald Trump never intended to win the presidency. He fully expected to lose to Hillary and planned on that. I wrote Trumple’s Lament in May, 2016, having come to that conclusion. He could promise anything since he “knew” he would never have to deliver.

All this week President Trump has been demonstrating the primary message of the book is correct: that Trump is unfit in every way to hold any government office, let alone the presidency. I will write more on this later.

Trumple’s Lament

This fate wasn’t meant to happen Music blaring, banners flapping All those thousands shouting, clapping

Shouting, “Trumple, he’s our man!”

Really not what I intended Nor have I much cash expended This fiasco should have ended Ended where it all began

They keep shouting, “He’s our man!”

I’m now leader of this party G O P, all hale and hearty I’m so guru, I’m so smarty I’ll succeed because I can

I’m so awfully good at winning Should have known it when beginning On myself the blame I’m pinning ‘Twas me fooling, when I ran

They keep shouting. “He’s our man!”

Now I’m certain I’ll be prexy Life might be, well, kind of sexy
But I’ll suffer apoplexy Living where I’d lose my tan

Hotels have I, mansions have I Billion-Dollar life style, have I
From that dinky White House will I
Leave when e’er I can

They keep shouting, “he’s our man”

5/16/16

 

Sold out! That’s the phrase that most everyone’ heard
One million copies were sold over night
The more Trump refutes it and calls it absurd
The more people want it. Supplies are so tight

The book, as you’ve likely already discerned
Is Michael Wolff’s book, titled “Fire and Fury”
Camped out in the West Wing, it’s all that he’s learned
It’s scuttle but squared having Trump deeply worried

I bought it through Kindle; tomorrow it downloads
It has a few factual errors, I’m told
But captures the chaos, Trump insights and inroads
The Trump tragedy as his story unfolds

Buy the book. Read the book. Trump backers discount it
But Wolff taped his interviews and conversations
Nor have the White House staff denied that they’ve said it
So I’ll read the book but with some trepidation

1/8/2018

This is the five hundred and sixteenth posting on the Poelitics BLOG. My first postings of political poems was in May of 2016. Over 200 comment postings were made mostly by you all plus a large number of Email and phone responses to the poems. I want to thank you all; it has been quite a challenge and experience for me.

I have decided to slow down a bit. I will continue the BLOG and composing political poems but not at the frequency I have maintained up until now. Actually, I will be taking the next couple weeks off unless something comes up where I feel compelled to write. After that my frequency will be one or two postings per week.

To fill in some of the blank days I invite each of you to write your political insights and opinions in Emails to me at DACoheninc@aol.com, so that I can post them. They can be in the form of poetry or prose, whatever you are comfortable with.

With that, I wish you a very happy, healthy and productive New Year.

Sabba Rabba, 12/29/2017

The dots have transformed into dashes
Trump knows all that Michael Flynn knows
And how what Flynn told Mueller clashes
With Trump’s favored innocence prose

I doubt if Trump’s lawyers are privy
To Trumpean, Russian collusion
Throughout the campaign positively
They’re under Trump’s lying delusion

Trump knows that by now Flynn has spilled
The real beans about Trump and the Russians
It won’t help to have Michael stilled
Just label as lies his admissions

Trump backers in Congress and Fox News
Don’t know, but suspect something awful
That Trump must have done to abuse
What campaigns consider as lawful

They lash out with venom at FBI
As biased against Trump, the man
The same FBI that caused Clinton’s try
Momentum to lose, as sh§t hit the fan

Discredit the nation’s law agency
And smear Mueller’s by-books endeavor
Protect at all costs the Trump Presidency
So obvious; they’re not so clever

Dear Donald, just what are you hiding?
Was Steele’s dossier on the mark?
It helps you not, all your devising
At end your demise will be stark

12/27/17

This New Year will age prematurely
As candidates vie for attention
Dems hope for a blue-wave election
Or better still, more a tsunami

The Reps running scared are dismayed
They could lose both the Senate and House
Their brief taste of power be lost
But wait, Putin’s entered the fray

His trolls have been feeding fake news
Concerning the investigation
Supporting the Right’s denigration
Of Mueller and FBI too

They’ll target the key Democrats
To help GOP keep control
Rep leaders, denying Vlad’s role,
Will take all the help they can get

And so I’m expecting the worst
From those disrespecting of facts
Divisive and vicious attacks
With billionaires putting the purse

12/26/17