Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Ol’ Schmo ‘negotiates’ Us a trillion dollar deal— We started with TEN…
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
31 May 2023
🖨️ Print Article
Ol’ Schmo ‘negotiates’ Us a trillion dollar deal—  We started with TEN…
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Ol’ Schmo ‘negotiates’ Us a trillion dollar deal—

We started with TEN…

“It’s morally wrong to allow

a sucker to keep his money.”

—W.C. Fields

 

Great grand bargainer—Drone Ranger-
Slick Willy-style ‘negotiator.’ ‘Debt ceiling’
debater—‘fiscal cliff’ navigator— Ol’ Schmo
plays Harry Houdini. His hands are always tied—
on The Peoples’ needs!

Call it cruel Kabuki Theater/Silly Sinema—
slapstick, or whatever, with a West Virginian
Munchkin.
Corporate tax butchering! Elite tax ‘breaks!’ Weapons
of Mass Destruction! Bankrolling/co-signing for Apartheid
State Slaughter of the Day! Ol’ Schmo’s ever clever ‘across
the aisle’ acrobat!

Remember how he had Anita Hill’s back—
Strom Thurmond’s stiletto?
Remember his paw prints all over Long Dong Silver,
AKA Thom-ass Clarence, and Spinnin’ Ginni madness?

Ol’ Schmo ‘negotiates’ pistols pointing at
Our foreheads.
And he’ll rush out War House screaming, “I was
Robbed—had ‘my' money in this pocket and
Your money in that pocket. They got your money!!!”

He’ll spout mush-mouthed platitudes. Snap selfies. Slide
into a luxury getaway car. Track elephant excrement/donkey
dung to Delaware,West Virginia, Arizona, General Dynamics,
Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Northrup-Grumman…

© 2023. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet; BAR's Poet-in-Residence; and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can Vote for his work at: GoFundMe and PayPal.

Joe Biden
Austerity
Race to the Bottom

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


More Stories


  • ​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
    An Electoral Victory Is Not the Defeat of Fascism: A Black Radical Perspective on the Democratic Party's Midterm Victories
    04 Nov 2026
    Democratic victories are a setback for Trump and the Republican Party, but not a defeat of the forces driving fascism.
  • Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    ESSAY: Black Organizations and White Money, Glen Ford, 1975
    04 Nov 2026
    “It is clear that the availability of white money caused Black organizations to restructure themselves into fund-raising agencies.”
  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor , Daniel Teklai
    Ethiopia–Eritrea Tensions: Is the Media Telling the Full Story?
    04 Nov 2026
    BAR Contributing Editor Ann Garrison joins Daniel Teklai to examine the reporting, competing narratives, and U.S. foreign policy interests surrounding the Ethiopia–Eritrea confrontation.
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    AIPAC Going Dark Sheds New Light on the Derelictions of the Democrat Party
    04 Nov 2026
    AIPAC's decision to stop directly endorsing and funding candidates is merely a shift to dark money. Democratic Party leaders are completely in sync with AIPAC's goals and will not cut them out of…
  • Netfa Freeman
    The Inescapability of the Struggle for the African United Front In the U.S.
    04 Nov 2026
    African people in the U.S. must consolidate their myriad organizations into a united front. A U.S. revolution is impossible without first building local alliances among Black radical organizations…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us