by BAR's poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
This week the poet briefly contextualizes the candidates and campaigns of the capitalist parties running for the White House in 2016.
$campaigns & $elections
by BAR's poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
āPromises, promises, promisesā morphing into big liesā
January snowing āappointmentsā of Wall Street guys
Bloody war criminals wedded in one Plutocratic Party
Warring their way to banks, laughing loud and heartyā
Playing a most reliable con game of bait and switch;
Sorting out which warlord faithfully serves the richā¦
Their nonstop, smokescreen $elections and $campaigns
Red, white and blue Kool-Aidāfor bathing of brains
With blather, drowning out the resonant radical voices
With Thug-in-a-Rug-Golda-Plated Iron Lady āchoices:ā
Mike and Ike, good cop, bad cop foils from the jumpā
Bogeymen like Bush, McCain, Romney, and Trump!
Absent independent politicsāNovember sows danger:
Reaping crimson āhope and change,ā like Drone Rangerā¦
Pentagon pimps propagandizing through the Apollo
Proving again, where cash flows, āleadersā will followā
But the 99% need not wait every four years to mobilize:
Strikes, boycotts, rallies, marches that buildāorganize,
Raise consciousness, raise money, canvass, phone bank
For salt of the earth, the masses, grassrootsāthe rank!
Raymond Nat Turner Ā© 2016 All Rights Reserved
Raymond Nat Turner is Artistic Director of the JazzPoetry Ensemble UpSurge, and a regular contributor to Dissident Voice, aaduna, and Struggle Magazine. Turner has opened for such people as James Baldwin, Peopleās Advocate Cynthia McKinney, radical sportswriter Dave Zirin and CA Congresswoman Barbara Lee following her lone vote against attacking Afghanistan and a Steering Committee member of the New York Chapter of the National Writers Union
On July 5, 1852 Frederick Douglass was asked to speak on the topic of the nationās independence celebration. Now known as What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?, the speech was a stingingā¦
After seven years of asylum in Ecuadorās embassy in London and another five years imprisoned by the United Kingdom, Julian Assange is finally a free man. The prospect of justice, of Assangeā¦
The US Supreme Courtās decision to grant the President of the United States āabsolute immunityā merely codifies criminal behavior by all US presidents. Take, for example, Barack Obamaās assassinationā¦
Bidenās debate meltdown has Democrats scrambling, but they no longer have an excuse for holding a virtual convention.
"Debate: What are elephant excrement/donkey dung āDouble-Haterā Millions to do?" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
