Tag Archives: politics

September 1, 2022 · 12:33 pm

THE TIME OF DAY

With disdain Dad would say,

“I wouldn’t give him the time of day.”

Want the time of day?

Some would never deign 

to give it to you.

I’ll give you the time of day.

It is time to explain 

that everyone lies.

They lie in bed and play

with lists of all they will do.

They start each day with lies

to themselves which eschew

their human frailties, and rise

to fail, but never admit

they are but lesser gods.

This is too much reality  for some

whose narcissism trods

the boards in life’s grand play.

We ignore lies with civil display

of nods and winks and handshakes.

Even liars have money to spend.
We dare not let them get away

with dodging truth and yet we do.

Why pass up the chance

bleed them dry and get some dough?

Or the votes of those who believe 

their lies, told so often truth all blends

into nonsense which makes us  

jump on their bandstand

and play their false tune.

Everyone lies we tell ourselves.

So what? Just do not pay attention

and we will be fine. 

Lies told often enough will

become the party line

and trap all who refuse

to admit the lie itself is the ruse.

The trick is not to believe the lie,

nor tune out from lies’ refrains

repeated on media outlets

until their bloodied stains

darken our ability to see

the truth which could

have set us free.

The trick is to stay tuned in

and search for facts

that disclose the sin.

Then ask for forgiveness

for the lies we told throughout the day.

So we can sleep the sleep of newborns,

awakened to a new world

where truth is explored

and lessons learned

that we may grow up in reality.

This is that time of day for me.

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August 5, 2022 · 6:48 pm

CIRCLES

Louise Annarino, 2022, acrylic on canvass

I circle each thought lost

inside out amidst 

newscasts and social media 

circling wagons to create stories

of fearful need to protect

the weakening interior of America

which knows not 

an independent thought.

Which instead seeks death

and destruction of a nation’s

Constitutional protections.

No circles required with facts and reason.

Running in circles means running amok.

I watch the circles expand and contract,

circle one another forward and back.

I get dizzy with disgust as stories go round

and roll down hills that are fake

without any brakes. But, who cares?

Circles of bouncing balls under our feet

keep us off-balance, distracted,

our fears discouragingly protracted.

Where can we rest amid such rolling displays

of ignorance and false flags?

How can we escape from the circles of lies?

How can we find solid surface and stand

safe and secure in this most-beloved land?

Who will tell stories that are straight and flat?

We need much more of that.

Instead, we let the bleed lead a sexier tale,

circling like water down the drain.

We are sucked into circles of muck and disdain

so deep there is no easy escape.

The circle we live on is now on fire,

circling our sun among other stars.

Circles of life persists despite

our circular thinking and culture war.

Toss the circular balls to our children.

Let them play with balls in the air

tossing around new ideas.

Walk slowly until the surface is clear.

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July 20, 2022 · 5:38 pm

STAY TUNED:OBSTRUCTIONISM IS STILL ON THE TABLE,By Louise Annarino,November 9,2012

STAY TUNED:OBSTRUCTIONISM IS STILL ON THE TABLE,By Louise Annarino,November 9,2012

STAY TUNED:OBSTRUCTIONISM IS STILL ON THE TABLE,By Louise Annarino,November 9,2012


— Read on annarinowrites.wordpress.com/2012/11/09/stay-tunedobstructionism-is-still-on-the-tableby-louise-annarinonovember-92012/

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July 12, 2022 · 2:32 pm

Restless Night and Day

Good morning yellow-beaked robin redbreast.

I see you quenching your thirst in the bird bath of cobalt blue,

Your brown feathers closed and at rest.

You look toward me wondering why

I am not digging earth to reveal

The worms and insects for your next meal.

Like you, I must first

Have breakfast and quench my thirst.

Some mornings start late after hard nights

Catching the painful dreams in my fists

Anchoring my body to the bed as I twist

The anger and fear as shells fall

On Ukrainian apartment buildings,

Killing the old and the very small.

As a young Black man with a traffic violation

is cut down in volleys of bullets on an Akron street,

Joining other Black men and women throughout the nation.

As nine year old rape victims must flee

to another state to be made well,

and women no longer are free where they dwell,.

As thought police with hateful derision of history

block teachers with facts from teaching truth.

In truth, I cannot rest,

dear robin redbreast.

And you, little bird, may already sense the threat

against you and all creatures of earth

from man’s annihilation.

How can anyone rest with such frustration?

Soon, soon, I will join in the garden,

Weeding and dead-heading, disturbing the earth

and drawing the earthworms nearer to you.

Be kind, dear robin, only take what you need

and never, never, be guided by greed.

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June 28, 2022 · 1:40 am

GEESE LESSONS

Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com

Feathers line the ponds’ paths.

The geese are in their molt.

They willingly pull feathers loose.

They do not fear their loss.

They know feathers are merely the surface 

of who they are, a cultural statement,

not an identity. 

They realize they remain geese

even if every feather is lost. 

They poke no fun at their flock members.

They do not call them “geese in name only”.

They welcome the molt. 

It comforts them to lose well-worn feathers.

Geese accept new feathers.

They know they can fly better

even if they look different.

They accept that different is better.

They are still members of the same flock.

They are still geese, just renewed and improved.

If only Americans could accept the molt

of culture and it well-worn surface.

If only Americans could rejoice in new feathers,

and realize they could fly better

and still be one flock.

We could learn lot from geese.

We could learn to fly in a vee formation

with everyone a leader sharing the point

and bringing the nation

into a new age with the strength and grace

to let go of the old feathers and old fears,

and fly free. If only we were like geese.

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June 26, 2022 · 10:51 am

WOMEN’S MARCH

I would not trade away today

despite the perilous fray

sure to come.

Interesting times they say

should be avoided.

Yet, history turns her gaze

on such days

making us preciously aware

of what truly matters.

Attentively, I hold my heart steady,

bracing, by body ready.

I have marched through the nation’s streets

with tired legs on weary feet

for too many years to count,

hoping to finally count for something.

Ever more alert,

our marching tread announcing

we are here, here to stay.

History has our ear

exactly as we feared.

Today we march side by side

hoping to turn history’s tide.

There is no place to hide

from white male supremacy,

and the greedy bully

too many ride.

I know not what today will bring.

I pray it brings victory and pride

that our Republic has not yet died.

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June 24, 2022 · 10:23 pm

State’s Rights and Fascist Court ?

I just ate an entire bag of Milano double dark chocolate cookies. Better that than crying in outrage that separation of church and state has overcome our constitutional rights as white politicians within the Republican Party exploit the personal faith of voters to retain their control of government. Why? Because of their racism and sexism, and gender fears. And, to allow corporate and private wealth to stay in power through them, personally rewarding them financially and supporting filling their campaign chests.

These protagonists blocked the Equal Rights Amendment for women in my youth. Women finally got the right to vote but it and other civil rights have never explicitly been assured. This is one reason the privacy rights under the constitution was used to explain why women have a legal civil right to decide their health care rights and family planning rights.

This same reasoning was used to protect a couple’s right to use birth control. That right is now also facing elimination according to Justice Thomas’ dissent.

The Supreme Court is our greatest and final protector of our freedoms and civil rights. Today, the court threw women to the wolves. They invaded the privacy right of a woman to her own body. They destroyed a woman’s right to safeguard her mental and physical health. Her rights no longer belong to her. They belong to state legislatures. women no longer have rights equal to men in this nation.

We have been here before. Despite the end of enslavement of African-Americans recognition of their civil rights took another 100 years to secure. And, those rights, including the right to vote are again, still, under siege. The Voting Rights Act has been eviscerated. Will the supreme Court’s States Rights Rule now be applied to any individual’s right to equality and freedoms? This case opens that door. The decision today directs us through that door.

The violence and intimidation against women is now supported by our Supreme Court, using its judicial powers. I fear it will soon be the same for people of color, LGBTQT community … indeed any group the white supremacist leaders supported by our churches think they have a right to control.

Today’s decision is far worse than overturning abortion rights. It overturns equal rights. I fear it is not only women who are under threat. Our very identity as a free society , as an American society, was destroyed today.

I am out of cookies. Out of words. Only tears remain. Fascist Court? Not usually 2 words that go together. They do now!

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April 28, 2022 · 12:48 pm

VOTING FOR THE CHILDREN

“Stop, dear. You are frightening the children.”

is a line written into the family script

of every sit-com ever writ.

Bullies have been ever near creating fear

over those who power they sense may be

greater than their single autocracy;

built into the democracy of the family.

Fear does not subside once children leave the nest.

It persists and blankets adult nakedness.

The brain is an amazing protector

storing fear in a separate chamber outside reason’s own.

Reaching the age of reason is not enough alone

to overcome the constancy of threats that cut to bone.

in family sit-coms Dad was chided, even derided

when his supremacy and autocracy was on display.

Mother and children were filled with dismay

which they treated with complacency

and placated with plots created in funny ways.

Mother tried to soothe the savage beast who though it great fun

to keep his wife and children under the gun.

Week after week, the same battle waged

to bring family under his  control.

Week after week, mother and children placated the fool

who tried to instill autocratic rule against the family

whose adhesion to democratic rule, guided by equity,

acknowledged “one for all and all for one” the glue

that held family together against mob rule.

The Republican Party learned a different lesson than I

sitting wide-eyed as a child watching sit-coms.

The Republican Party delights in bullies’ power 

to create fear hour-after-hour in the political sit-com

“now daily at a”  FOX  “news station near you.”

They found it great fun to run games on the wife,

the children, neighbors they despised;

even, neighborhoods and entire nations;

making citizens cry as they watch democracy die.

The vote is going by the way unless we stay the hand

threatening us with Republican absolute rule

Life is not a sit-com. The vote is our greatest tool

to fight the autocratic fool whose fear weighs so heavily

upon those watching freedom-lovers placate the man

who would deny the vote in any way he can.

Even when reason returns, the fear remains locked in place

in a brain which keeps it safe for future use.

The only safe response can be 

to stop those frightening the children.

Fear only ends when we stand and fight,

defeat it and subdue it; and thus, destroy what causes fright 

so it cannot linger in a safe place.

We must lock away the fear-mongerers instead.

We are losing our children; and, too many can find no safe space.

“Dear Republicans, you are frightening the children.”

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February 23, 2022 · 1:28 pm

ON THE FRONT LINES

How does one prepare 

for cyber warfare?

There are no longer fronts

where soldiers block the way

onto civilian grounds of safety.

We are all on the front; 

dependent upon technology

for gas and electricity,

for information and news

which could keep us safe

to stay in place.

How do we connect

with family, friends, police,

fire houses, doctors and EMTs,

and get help in an emergency ?

How do we get food on shelves

when distribution channels 

get entangled  with cyber bullets?

How do we bring water out of taps

when treatment plants are trapped

by foreign intervention

of service connection?

Cyber warfare is a world war.

It has already begun.

Prepare for it to get worse.

There is  nowhere to run.

Cyber bullets do not replace

bullets made of lead,

nor rockets, missiles and tanks.

Cyber bullets are simply new

ways to injure, maim and kill.

We are all on the front lines.

The cyber siege has begun.

There is nowhere to run.

We are all on the front.

Worse, the enemy is also within

our congress, state legislatures and courts,

the propaganda machine

of the right-wing Republican Party

funded by American oligarchs,

media-blitzed krieged by FOX 

and other talking point right-wingers,

with fingers in the pie

of democratic institutions.

Such patriots of greed hide

in plain sight

cheered with delight

by MAGA white male supremacists

who use Trump as their poster boy,

inciting and inviting

secession from democracy

in favor of autocracy.

We are all on the front.

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February 12, 2022 · 3:17 pm

No More

Bile rises.

DOJ does not.

No justice.

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