Category: Uncategorized

 

The week that is, though Monday still, could occupy the year
The Democratic senators are filibustering
Against DeVos for Education; more protests to hear
Convincing one more Senator to vote no, that’s their thing

Trump’s ties to Russia’s Putin get more murky day by day
That Trump equates war killings by the US in Iraq
To Putin’s murders of opponents; blasphemy I’d say
It might imply some hidden ties that govern how he acts

Judge Robart was denounced by Trump for ruling on the Ban
A personal affront it was to counter Trump’s EO
Judicial independence, something Trump can’t understand
And Trump’s gnathonic Congressmen keep quiet, ‘though they know

Apparently, Trump signs EOs not having read them through
Just like the one appointing Bannon to the NSC
Paul Ryan must be over joyed, no checks on what he’ll do
I hold my head just thinking what tomorrow’s news might be

2/6/17

 

Like most of you, I was transfixed throughout the football game
And even colors of their jerseys were to me symbolic
Atlanta Falcons, red, New England blue, and, too, the name –
The name of Patriots, rung true to this politiholic

However, I must say Mat Ryan’s team was quarterbacked
With skill and lots of will I can’t deny
Quite like the Speaker Ryan managing his motley pack
Except that Falcons teamed together, do or die

Tom Brady, QB Patriots, would not give up his dream
With scores: red twenty eight and blue just nine
He persevered, the quarter last and tied the Falcon team
It forced the game to go to overtime

The coin-toss, won by Patriots, the game, now, sudden death
Then Brady drove right down the field with passes and with runs
Third down, within ten yards of goal, we all just held our breath
Then Jimmy White dove ‘cross the goal, the Patriots had won

The game, a metaphor, to me: the red against the blue
Where, even though the reds were winning, blue kept fighting on
Against all odds, when things got tough, they persevered right through
Their iron fortitude prevailed when hope, to us, seemed gone

2/5/17

Jared commentes on ‘The golded door…’ and Mark commented on ‘Dilemma’

Did You Know?

In Bannon/Trump’s EO on sanctuary cities
At paragraph 9b: the Secretary
Shall make public all offenses by our aliens
Shades of Nazi rag Der Sturmer’s listing of such Jews

Congress just rescinded EPA’s protection rule
For water ways imperiled by coal mines
No longer do they have to have environments restored
When mining operations are complete

EOs weakening Dodd-Frank have just been signed
Soon banks can make far riskier investments
And those who give advice on buying/selling stocks
Don’t have to put their client’s interest first

Trump now opposes further new Israeli settlement
Of Territories Palestinian
We don’t know what caused Trump to change his mind
Nor do we know if it will change again

The reckless speed of Trump’s EO-ing often masks the news
Of edicts passed but lost within news queues
I think this is deliberate when Trump wants to hide from view
Important things he’s trying to undo

2/4/17

 

The Democrats in Congress find themselves in a dilemma
To be or not to be responsive to the street
Where thousands gather daily politicking with their feet
Demanding firm RESISTANCE to Republican agendas

Whomever Trump proposes, turn him down; just say no
The same goes for Paul Ryan and McConnel; just say no
And also to Neil Gorsuch tagged for SCOTUS just say no
Treat Reps. the way they treated Dems. say no; just say no

But Democrats don’t deal that way, they vote in moderation
Considering each article of pending legislation
It matters not who sponsored it for joint negotiation
It only matters whether it will benefit the nation

The country is divided; half is red and half is blue
And neither’s of the mind to find a way to compromise
By furthering divisiveness democracy will die
What’s needed is real leadership and no ones there in view

1/3/17

 

Bannon, Bannon everywhere
In Trumple’s mind
In Trumple’s hair
The Council for Security
Brown-nosing Trumple’s vanity
Steve overrules Department heads
And drafted EOs Trump has read
He’s Trumple’s voice
Each Trumple choice
It’s rarely Trump’s, Bannon’s instead
The dispossessed all voted TRUMP
Instead they got this Bannon chump
Where White’s supreme
That’s Bannon’s dream
By now it’s clearly evident
Steve Bannon’s Acting President

2/2/17

 

A dozen days of Trump, can you believe it?
It seems like months, the damage he’s decreed
His shock and awe agenda, he’s achieved it
Ignoring constitutionality

With Mexico, Australia and Iran
Trump managed to embarrass and to threaten
Their heads of state as only Donald can
Our allies ’round the world are left uncertain

The Muslim ban has set off protests country wide
‘Twas judged unconstitutional on many counts
Trump’s nominee for SCOTUS Dems will not abide
McConnell will go nuclear without a doubt

The people by the thousands to the streets have flocked
And to their Senators and Congressmen they’ve run
Opposing Trump’s agenda, nominees to block
RESIST, RESIST until Don Trump is gone

2/1/17

 

Neil Gorsuch nominated to our highest court
His background, his degrees impeccable
His history of rulings causes me much doubt
Republicans will find him quite acceptable

And normally, the Demos wouldn’t thwart their will
As long as he was qualified, which he does meet
But that seat was Obama’s choice, ’twas his to fill
And he chose Merit Garland for Scalia’s seat

Republicans in Congress made it clear
Six years ago, that they would all defeat
Proposals by Obama all those years
Including Garland’s chance to take that seat

It’s payback time. It’s time to take a stance
Just one and forty Senators are needed
To block the vote so Gorsuch can’t advance
And we’ll observe whose wishes were so heeded

1/31/17

 

The Muslim ban, that’s what it really is,
Is causing harm to our security,
Its rationale purported by the Pres.,
It raises doubts of constitutionality

Our soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan
Require good translators, local men
Who want to emigrate, to be American
Now that’s in doubt because of Trump’s new ban

Confusion reigned at airports ‘cross the land
Returning Muslims were detained on site
But people rallied lending helping hands
Judge Donnelly ruled against the ban that night

‘Twas just announced, Trump fired Sally Yates
Attorney General (Acting) from her post
The EO’s strength was open to debate
It went against what she believed in most

Historically policing’s apolitical
The Justice Dep. acts independently
All based on Constitution articles
Protecting rights of citizens judiciously

The Acting AG did what she was sworn to do
Defending Trump’s EO was too untenable
The ban discriminates on faith; it’s stupid, too
But Trump just blunders on and seems, unstoppable

1/30/17

 

Don Trump has promulgated many things
And promised others well beyond his reach
Directives he’s decreed, some out of synch
With laws sufficiently, him to impeach

But this is not about his stupid claims
That are achievable, like building walls
It’s things where there’s no way to gain his aims
His promises where he’ll most likely fail

One goal, a GDP of four percent
It’s been at two percent or less for years
Its largest factor’s what consumers spend
That spending is decreasing, it appears

Because the Boomers are retiring now
And spending less, conserving more their dough
Millennials can’t fill the gap no how
Until they reach peak spending, years to go

And cutting corporate taxes won’t grow jobs
Most growth of jobs is spurred by more demand
Demand requires more spending which has topped
Tax cuts just grow corp profits out of hand

Improving infrastructure, good the goal
But many years it takes from project start
To reach the day of digging the first hole
And will require those having special smarts

Some companies that make things may return
To relocate their plants back in the States
But then to be competitive, we’ll learn
With robots, will most workers be replaced

Entitlement repair, though doable
Politically for now is out of sight
Since demographics aren’t political
But that’s a poem for another night

1/29/17

Michael J Cohen, my grandson, is my guest poet for today’s poelitic.
***********************************************************************************************
Dear Reader
I know that we need action more than we need words right now, but I felt myself moved to write something on the latest executive order banning refugee entry into the US. It is the moral callousness and human cost of this that disturb me most. The Torah commands the Jewish people, “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus 22:20). Our world today is different in many ways, but refugees abound with dimming hopes of redemption. I understand the politics of this situation are not without subtlety nor are there easy answers. This poem is not a legal treatise, but I believe we can fulfill the moral imperative to help the stranger without seriously compromising our security – it is not a ruthless, zero-sum equation. Please feel free to share this poem:

Seated with the phosphorescent glow, I read the news
Absorbing every day another blow, and I must choose:
To linger idly hoping that “this won’t be all that bad”
While desperately groping for some news to make me glad

It’s true the new administration set off with a lurch
And with a swift defenestration, Welcome lost it’s perch
What happened to our decency? The openhearted way…
A hardened heart, a fist held clenched, have seemed to rule the day

The old ideals we cherish so demand we take a stand
In apathy they perish, so let’s rise with open hands
And dedicate ourselves unto that sacred, noblest cause:
The orphan’s plight, the widow’s grief
The stranger dwelling in our midst
The human gleanings tossed aside
Those whom Wealth and Power dismissed

The dross of this, our gilded age, whose currency is minted fear
Where someone’s loss, another’s gain, but through it all, one thing is clear:

The golden door, though shut right now, can never, ever rust
So lift the lamp and let her glow to those who tread in dust
Re-forge the ancient fortitude that struggled for the Just
And give your hand to those in need – in this we place our trust.

Michael J Cohen
1/28/17