Tag Archives: fascism

POST-ELECTION 2024

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My sorrow does not come

from the loss of an election.

Sorrow bubbles up and pulls down

faith and hope and trust in

legal and constitutional protection

for the progressive direction

we moved, pushing hate aside,

within the blue bubble 

where I reside, 

within a gerrymandered state

full of Christo-fascist pride.

Court protection is now

too often set aside.

Criminal leaders with immunity

can now act with impunity

to destroy an entire nation,

indeed a  free world.

Greed acts with such speed

to push grace and care aside.

And truth is destroyed

by incessantly repeated lies.

My sorrow does not come

from watching my nation die.

It comes from watching

fellow citizens kill my beloved nation

Right before my eyes.

And the worst part of it all is,

that it is not a surprise.

I have watched a predator party

stalk us creatures of democracy

my whole life.

The day I most feared 

is no longer just a nightmare.

It is the reality of imminent strife.

I cannot simply smile and reach out,

asked to shake hands with voters

with blood on their hands,

when I want to shout “traitors!”

I think of all who died to protect

and defend my country, my best friend,

I cannot stand to watch cruelty up-end

a nation now at-sea, afloat on lies

that all is at is has always been

after an election.

The desperation of a nation

tears at the soul within.

The soul of each and every American,

until America is dead and buried,

so that rich oligarchs can feed 

their need for power and control.

Citizens United has long been on a roll

to knock down all opposition,

and watch weak Americans fold

their cards and lose their last hand.

Such sorrow, I fully understand.

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NIGHTMARES

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I dream of Nazis…

men in blue jeans and camouflage

jackets with pockets

to hold weapons,

wearing red MAGA hats;

and bleached-hair women

in comfortable clothes

and comfortable shoes,

smiling at cameras

while they praise

a nobody who makes them feel

like somebody.

Like tools they line up

on his bleachers to be used

to disparage and demean

the others they call fiends.

These are not dreams.

These are nightmares come alive 

and rending the seams of a nation’s fabric

with fascist schemes.

I can no longer sleep

in the silence 

of so many who stay quiet.

Too ashamed to shout with that lout.

But willing to vote him in

to the place where our destruction begins.

I dream of Nazis,

the shouters

the doubters

the scoffers

the weak

the divided

the insiders

who refuse to give up

position and power,

while hour after hour

the fascist beast devours

airwaves and pews.

Let there not be too few

to block his way

on election day.

VOTE!

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AVOIDANCE

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All I want

is to avoid 

my own thoughts

lately clothed in fear

so pronounced 

they bring me to tears.

It finally must be said

anger fades to grief

when death brazenly nears.

Watching a beloved die,

clutching the hand,

wiping the brow,

for perhaps the last time

applies to nations.

I watch my beloved country

whose solemn vow

has always been protect and defend

all those living within

the boundaries of an idea in place

to open freedom’s gates

to all equally, within its small space.

I hold my nation’s heart and soul

with trembling hands 

and shortened breath.

In painful realization

that so many countrymen

in this amazing nation

fear not, nor mourn with me

the loss of our democracy.

Friends and family alike

smirk and snarl in true delight

the unleashed dogs of fear and fright

which rip apart all we have built

without a trace of grief nor guilt.

They break my heart

as they tear our world apart.

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GRIFTERS UNITE

A nation of grifters.

That now seems right.

And the right has taken

grifting to a new level,

right in our sight.

Trump bibles, watches and hats

to grift cash for legal defense.

Elon Musk funds the cache

with his own which once

was our own, using what our

tax dollars created as his own.

Grifters come in all moneyed sizes.

But, the fine print on their offers

is too small to easily read,

hiding their grifting and greed.

Starlink for free to victims

of hurricanes Milton and Helene.

Except it is not free.

And if Musk and Trump succeed.

None of us will be free.

After one month, we will owe

Musk three-hundred forty-nine plus

dollars and service fees. 

Backlash forced him to extend

the grift until the end 

of the year 2024.

when victims will be left

holding the bag and more.

And so grifters appear to be

enlightened and generous and we

their sycophantic beneficiaries,

until it is too late

to shut the fascist gate

being constructed right under our nose.

Grifting away democracy is not new.

It has happened to others before, 

but now, for us, it is way too close.

The grifters have united 

and now so must we.

Vote!

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CONNECTED

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Some losses are too great to be borne.

Some losses are so huge they force us to mourn.

Some losses sift sinew and bone,

ideals and beliefs, tattered and worn.

Some losses pull hearts apart

smiling tears of grief, we feel all alone.

We pretend such loss is not our own

when watched on screens, viewed from afar.

But, connection is more than geography.

Some losses cross borders we cannot see.

Drought, floods and storms floor us all equally.

Bombs rain down on other cities 

and beat us all bloody, in hidden anatomy.

Threads bind us together in an ethernet.

One stitch connecting us here and there, 

of which we are determinedly unaware.

Instead we pretend, through word and prayer,

when what we really must do is give a care.

Some losses are too great to be borne.

Some losses are too great to ignore.

For, when we do, they lead to war.

Like children we make up games

and pretend life is merely a game to play.

Business and politics play out games’ themes.

Media reports but no one referees.

The games of politics and war become a melee.

But, life is much more than a game to play.

Some losses are too great to be borne.

Some losses are too great to ignore.

Our votes are not tokens to be tossed in a loss.

Our votes are connections which must not be lost.

Some losses are too great to be borne.

Some losses are too great to ignore.

Please, stop playing long enough

to go vote on behalf of ALL of us.

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SWEET LITTLE OLD LADIES

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This is the face of white supremacy,

the sweet little old lady

who lives down the street from me.

She praises the Walz-Harris and 

Sherrod brown signs in my yard.

She gleefully says they make her happy.

I offer the extra signs I have to put in her yard.

She gracefully declines, “my family

would make it hard on me.

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“So, your family bullies you,” I reply.

Taken aback I watch her smile fade.

“Yes,” she says,” I suppose that’s true.”

“It is just that Black people are so…”

her hands in the air waving away thought…

“They want to take over the country, but ought not.”

“Do you hear what some white people shout,

about taking over government to have their way?

Do you fear them taking over the country?” I say.

A look of confusion crosses her face.

I ask if she thinks every white or Black person

is the same, and if blanket descriptions are really O.K.

This sweet little face now looks away.

Then turns with a frown and admits it’s unfair.

I have family who are MAGA, too, I explain.

If they do not like my signs I simply reply

that they should put out their own signs

and take responsibility for their incivility.

She tells me she is really afraid,

for once glad to be old with death on its way.

I remind her of all dangers she has faced.

I smile and encourage her to take her place

among our past heroes who gave voice to renew

the promise of America for me and for you.

I promise her she is stronger than even she knows,

that together we are strong enough to fight any foe.

I remind her everyone fears what the future portends

She nods and she smiles but her eyes tell a different story

She yearns for the time when being white

meant she could claim control and full glory.

I am an old white lady, but have never been sweet.

Being real is neither pretty nor neat.

I handle truth in its complexity,

dirtying my hands and feet

placing signs in my yard,

refusing to give in to hate and racism.

Ugly truth-teller is my only “ism”.

Silence is complicity.

Fear and hate do not deserve pity.

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HAIKU FUNDAMENTALLY TRUE

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No confessional

can hold the sins of men done

in God’s Holy Name.

Right-wing Pharisees

roam the halls of governments

exercising hate.

They lie to themselves

stealing freedom’s greatest truths

to lie to us, too.

Money flows and fills

pockets-to-let to control

greed’s supremacy.

Unregulated

democracy fails to be

free for you and me.

Fascism now reigns

in God’s name, on lips profane

from pulpits and schools.

Separation fails

to protect laws, or faiths,

when religion rules.

Time to drive out the

money-changers from temples

of government, now.

We cannot allow

such hate and such harm to be

offered in our name.

Such Offertory 

should be left at the altar,

not legislatures.

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LIES

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The universal lie is

that I never lie.

Always untrue.

We all lie.

We all do.

There are but two reasons why.

Knowing that is seeing true.

Knowing that may save you.

The first lie

may save your injury,

comfort your suffering,

grant you your freedom,

shelter and protect,

uplift and encourage,

open you to love.

The first lie is the oil over 

troubled waters,

is the hidden key 

to new discovery,

is the extra note to more harmony.

The first lie brings peace.

The first lie helps us see

we are part of loving community.

The second lie

causes injury,

increases suffering,

denies our freedom,

makes us feel unsafe.

Discourages our history 

Berates new ideas,

closes us to love with hate.

The second lie is not 

so noble as the first.

The first lie is for us.

The second lie is for the liar.

The first lie sets boundaries

to expand our sense

of love and creativity.

Its purpose is to protect.

The second lie has no “red lines”

it refuses to cross; but, only seeks

to sate the need of the second liar.

The second lie is for him, not us.

The second lie denies our right

to create connections and see the light

that fills all persons whose lives intersect.

It restricts any chance for us to connect.

The biggest liar of them all

is not the first, nor will be the last.

He is simply the liars’ poster boy.

And poster boys never last.

But the lies they tell persist

no matter how many resist

the pull of hate to the surface.

The greatest lie of all

is the one we tell ourselves

that we are somehow better,

somehow best.

We are liars, all.

If not we would have let him fall.

He would join other liars in jail.

Let up hope that soon

truth will finally prevail.

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AN ODE TO MIKE JOHNSON

A Speaker who speaks silently.

He hides in plain sight openly.

Bearing no color, chatting amiably,

amid many-hued others feverishly

there to cover stories that bleed wickedly.

He seems so normal; and, so confidently

preaches stories and fables smilingly.

Keeping all entertained endlessly

as their eyes fall from the prize of democracy,

Stolen and hidden in his wallet shamelessly

are votes cast, all hopes bashed easily.

He smiles calmly, benignly and evilly.

He leads as his party follows blindly.

Hiding in the spotlight openly.

His weight placed upon freedom crushingly.

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NATIONAL MORAL DEGRADATION

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Politics is not the key.

The question is morality.

Where moral degradation reigns

the reins of democracy are strained.

When power cedes

to an ever-increasing greed,

and truth becomes a mere toy.

Politics becomes the ploy

to undermine a constitution

and bind in chains of dissolution

the foundation of a nation’s greatness,

the threat of loss of the basis

for a nation where freedom praises

each individual’s human right

to find her truth in her own light,

and raises fear

that the end is near.

Retribution and retaliation

are not the signs of a strong nation.

Apology for wrongs committed

create a place where forgiveness is permitted.

When morality takes center stage

we more clearly see the hateful rage

that undermines persons and institutions,

and can better resist their dissolution.

No debate, nor speech, nor hearing can rectify

the hypocritical pack of Republican MAGA lies

made with hands on bibles and said with smiles

as the autocrats seek power all the while.

Vote your conscience, not your fear-based preference.

Vote as if your lives and freedoms depended,

against those who would see democracy upended.

Bring back the supporters of a constitution

that promises stability, and seeks solution

instead of a cult of personality

created to destroy morality;

to place in power the greediest among us

with promises of white supremacist

in control, as they have ever been before,

quite willing to leave democracy behind, evermore.

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