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


  • Top Haiti Cop Specializes in Counter-Insurgency Intelligence Gathering and Repression
    Kim Ives
    Top Haiti Cop Specializes in Counter-Insurgency Intelligence Gathering and Repression
    16 Dec 2020
    Léon Charles, Haiti’s new national police chief, is a mass killer dedicated to suppressing the nation’s poor majority.
  •  Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 14, 2020
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Black Agenda Radio for Week of December 14, 2020
    15 Dec 2020
    Boxing is a Window on US Race and Class Pathologies
  • Mumia: Fear of Socialism
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Mumia: Fear of Socialism
    15 Dec 2020
    “Politicians have pulled out the fear card – socialism – to ensure that voters stay in their place,” said Mumia Abu Jamal, the nation’s best known political prisoner.
  • Democrats Deploy “Diversity” to Mask Renewed War and Austerity
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Democrats Deploy “Diversity” to Mask Renewed War and Austerity
    15 Dec 2020
    The “new regime is just a return to the old regime of endless austerity and war,” said Duboisian scholar Dr Anthony Monteiro, an organizer with the Philadelphia Saturday Free Schoo
  • Biden and Trump Not That Different on the Issues
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
    Biden and Trump Not That Different on the Issues
    15 Dec 2020
    President-elect Joe Biden “is not even giving a nod and a wink” to Medicare for All, despite its huge popularity among both Democrats and Republicans, said Dr Margaret Flowers, dir
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us