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

State of the Union—or state of Capitalist decay?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
12 Mar 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Donald Trump State of the Union
Photo: ABC News

“Every man for himself
and the devil take the hindmost.”

Something’s soothing, lobotomizing, about the snotty
Voice flooding from Fox-boxes. Something’s
Lobotomizing about an ignorant comedian coming to
Kill—but bombing—yet, still killing …

Something’s soothing about Jumping Jack Fascists—
Springing up at every absurd utterance and
Thunder of rattling rubbish. Their hand bones
Fracturing from clapping so damn loud—so long …

Something’s soothing about Jumping Jack Fascists
Springing up like they got the Holy Ghost! Fits of
Ecstasy applauding poor people used as props—
Mascots—human shields for class war’s unpopular policies

Something’s soothing about Jumping Jack Fascists
Springing up, sane-washing a lipsticked pig. And face-
Lifting lies about capitalism’s impossible promises to
The People …

Forked tongue tour de force— False from beginning to
End. 1hour, 40 minute Mussolini masterpiece. Il DOGE
Smashed Dr. Goebbels’ Guinness Book of Records for
Orwellian wizardry: misinformation/disinformation/1/2 truths/big lies.

Barren make believe desert. Echo chamber of hollow mockery—
Hypocrisy, humbuggery/thuggery, treachery, treason, truth-less-
Ness and alternative facts where up is down. Bad’s good. Worse
Is better. Woke's worrisome/and straw’s spun orange into fools gold …

Leaning in, listening to bosh-laden blizzards of fabrications—
Falsifications— bleached bone white lies—but not eating the
Dogma does cause trauma. Trauma of two car crashes;
Three boxing matches; And four NFL and hockey games …

Blitzkrieg! Warp speed war on the working-class—
Moving fast! Breaking things! Things shoe leather, steel spines,
Blood and grit won working people long, long ago.
Things we long to make more muscular, more robust. And for all …

© 2025. 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.

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


More Stories


  • Blacks Need to Rethink “Positive” Images in a Racist Country
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Blacks Need to Rethink “Positive” Images in a Racist Country
    29 Jun 2020
    A segment of African Americans has long been obsessed with promoting images that are positive representations of The Race, but recurring police atrocities show the necessity to “expose the regime o
  •  Inequality: The American Ethos
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Inequality: The American Ethos
    29 Jun 2020
    The US has historically been a place where “fairness is adjudicated unevenly, it’s based on inequality” in which “certain people deserve more than others,” said Ampson Hagan,
  • Yes, Defund the Cops – And Put Them Under Community Control
    Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
    Yes, Defund the Cops – And Put Them Under Community Control
    25 Jun 2020
    Community control of the police means empowering the people to shape and oversee the mechanisms of their own security and end forever the armed occupation of our communities by hostile forces.
  • Freedom Rider: Democrats Move Right and Towards Defeat
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
    Freedom Rider: Democrats Move Right and Towards Defeat
    24 Jun 2020
    Besides not being Trump, the Democrats offer nothing, but think they can win with a candidate who has no constituency, charisma or any platform positions that would attract more voters.
  • The Movement to Abolish the Police Must Place Politics in Command
    Danny Haiphong, BAR Contributing Editor
    The Movement to Abolish the Police Must Place Politics in Command
    24 Jun 2020
    Community control of the police offers a concrete vision for what the beginnings of police abolition might look like.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us