MAGA Nation

Banning books and fanning flames

toting guns like Jesse James

thoughts and prayers to stop the bleeding

 screaming at a drag show reading


Stripping healthcare, mining coal

pushing myths about the soul

damning those who don’t obey

denying women of their say


 Casting stones, suppressing votes

grab our country by the throat

trapped inside a MAGA maze

looking back for better days


Drinking Kool-Aid from a cup

yelling up is down and down is up

spinning lies and crafting fables

trying hard to turn the tables


Deny the facts and praise the liar

collectively they all conspire

to set our democracy on fire

Be woke and …..

According to a new poll, America is pulling back from the values that once defined it, such as patriotism, religion, and hard work. One might look at the poll results and think, “Damn, that’s not good,” — but maybe we should look at the results as an awakening.

So, why are Americans pulling back from patriotism, religion, and hard work?

With patriotism and religion specifically, there’s a growing disconnect between the ideals that many Americans traditionally associate with these values and what we see and experience in the actions of our fellow citizens.

We’re woke to that disconnect and pulling back from the values.

Religion and politics are so intertwined in America that separating them is almost impossible. And like amorous pigs in the slop, they sully one another. Christianity has taken a sharp U-turn away from values of love and charity and now travels a political highway of intolerance and bigotry. Religion in America is transparently divisive, judgmental, and hypocritical. Americans, especially the young and educated, see religion as a tool to control people and advance a political ideology. And outside the political spectrum, religion has lost its mojo for many Americans. We live in a society overbrimming with chaos, violence, and anxiety, where God is conspicuously absent.

Concerning patriotism, America is split between the loud crowd of MAGA-hat-wearing Republicans hell-bent on transforming the country into an America-First Christian Nationalist society and progressives who want to expand rights and freedoms to everyone. When a sizable chunk of American society can’t differentiate nationalism from patriotism, the unifying nature of patriotism begins to fracture. For example, millions of Americans think the assault on the capital was patriotic. And yet those people condemn the peaceful protests against systemic racism in our justice system. Until most of us can agree on what is and isn’t patriotic, we’ll continue to waver on patriotism as a value.

And finally, the belief that if you work hard in America, you can achieve anything is contradicted by an economy that sees the gap between the rich and the rest of us widen. So we no longer see generational progress in terms of the American dream; if anything, we’re moving in the opposite direction.

Many Americans are woke to the hypocrisy that is wrecking religion and polluting patriotism in our country. We’re pulling back from these values because they’ve been devalued, bastardized, and hijacked by individuals and entities who use them for political or personal gain.

Many Americans are “woke” to what’s happening to their country in the name of religion and patriotism, and they’re voicing their displeasure. And, of course, the powers-that-be are doing everything they can to cast wokeness in a negative light, because wokeness poses a threat to the status quo.

This is America

A child weeps while on the bus leaving The Covenant School following a mass shooting at the school in Nashville, Tenn., Monday, March 27, 2023. (Nicole Hester/The Tennessean via AP)

This is the America Republican politicians say we can’t do anything about.

This is the America where we raise our children.

This is the America that our children wake up to every day, sitting nervously at the kitchen table and wondering if today will be the day they die in a school shooting.

This is the America where parents send their kids to school and wonder, as their child enters the building, if they will come out alive.

This is the America where children practice active shooter drills and are coached on fighting off a deranged person with an AR-15 intent on slaughtering them and their classmates.

This is the America where that deranged person can easily obtain a weapon of war designed to afflict devastating injuries and mass casualties.

This is America, where even though most of the citizens support regulations that would make it more challenging to obtain these weapons, politicians refuse to enact legislation to make that so.

An Ugly Lust for Power

Floating in his own orbit

absent from the ethos of ethics

he was driven by an ugly lust for power

fueled by an insatiable desire for attention

bootlicked and buttressed by a sycophantic public

and buoyed by yes men


The man was wholly unhinged from truth

divorced from morality

and devoid of integrity


Gripped by insecurity

and the crippling fear of being labeled a loser

he cultivated lies and deceit


Like a Shakespearean witch

hunched over a cauldron

of poisonous misinformation

he hatched his plan

to cling to the reins of power

just long enough to topple the republic


For a few hours that day

our democracy flickered and dimmed

teetering on the dark edge of an authoritarian abyss


and if not for the courage of a few

and the rationality of the rest

We’d have lost our democracy

and the hope and freedom it brings to us


It would be a fatal mistake to think

the bullet we dodged cannot be reloaded

The confederacy of cowards

who defended the snake

and helped perpetuate the crime

still walk the halls of congress

and just beneath the ashes

of the failed attempt

are the smoldering embers

of the next

Democracy on the Ballot

Price hikes and inflation are cyclical and are tied to global events – things will return to normalcy regardless of which party wins the majority in Congress.

Your democracy (and the freedoms it provides) is tied to local events – specifically, election day voting.

If you fail to vote against the party that espouses nationalistic and fascist views, your democracy will disappear.

If you fail to hold politicians accountable for supporting a former president’s attempts to overturn a free and fair election, your democracy will disappear.

If you vote for a party that wants to restrict freedoms and rights rather than expand them, democracy and the freedoms it provides will disappear.

Don’t be short-sighted this coming election.

Fodder for Felons

Mar-a-Lago’s a henhouse

guarded by foxes

with top secret files

in taped cardboard boxes

Classified docs

spread all over the floor

fodder for felons

trying to even the score


Millions of lost souls

and Q-cultist bigots

they lap up the lies

from electronic spigots

Looking for purpose

while grasping at straws

praising their savior

despite all his flaws


Empty of knowledge

full of deep longing

Q fits the bill

and their need for belonging


Fingers raised up

they sing and they sway

“The storm is-a-coming”

and so’s judgement day


Engaged in a story

which casts them as heroes

too dumbstruck to know

that they’re dancing to Nero

drinking the Kool-Aid

they’re dope-sick on Q

freebasing lies

and shouting fuck you


There’s fear in not knowing

how this will end

how far Q is going

to strongly defend

the lies of a con man

unwilling to bend

Rise Up

Don’t you ever get so tired

of all the bullshit in the air


Politicians always wired

pretending that they care


Don’t you long to get inspired

get this train back on the track


Aren’t you sick of being mired

in never forward always back


We’re in need of revolution

a youth-led promise towards a day

when our leaders represent us

without their interests in the way


Aren’t you tired of being berated

your world twisting on a string

all the truths interrogated

while the lies go on to sing


Band together to form your power

march into the voting booth

Turn the day into your hour

cut down the lies and raise the truth

What Shining City?

When did it become Ok

In America

for snickering governors

to play politics

with the lives of tired

and desperate human beings?


When did the light

from that shining city

on the hill

become a trick candle?


When did America

erect its Darwinian dome

of indifference towards

the tired and the suffering?


When did we drift from the

Give me your tired and poor

to a cold and callous

Let me show you the door?


When did we

start to fear and hate

the huddled masses

detesting them

while casting a cold

and stony shoulder?


When the humane

treatment of others

takes a backseat to

cheap political stunts

it’s time to look at

the soul of our nation

Supremely Out of Touch

Many people are angry today because a constitutional right that’s been in place for more than 50 years and widely supported by the vast majority of Americans was overturned by five conservative justices, three of which were appointed by the most corrupt president in U.S history.

The court’s decision does not align with what most Americans believe and want regarding bodily autonomy and healthcare for women. 

So, what to do? 

Well, for the 2022 midterms, we need to become single-issue voters and do whatever we can to get like-minded individuals to become single-issue voters, and then VOTE!

Vote against any candidate who supports the Supreme court’s decision to do away with a woman’s right to choose. 

It’s important to remember the court’s decision does not make abortion illegal. Instead, the decision says the constitution no longer protects a woman’s right to an abortion. It’s now up to individual states to decide whether abortion is legal or illegal. A woman raped in Missouri might be criminally liable if she tries to terminate her pregnancy in that state. But if that same woman crosses the border into Illinois, her right to terminate her pregnancy is fully protected and legal.

The ruling to overturn Roe will disproportionally affect poor women. Keep your eyes peeled for organizations that will connect women who live in states where abortion is illegal to services in states where abortion is legal — and then support these organizations by donating money and volunteering. Help these organizations provide transportation and a safe place to stay for those who don’t have the means to secure resources on their own.

Tweaking Gun Regulations is the Wrong Approach

After the latest mass shooting of children, I cringe with disgust at my fellow citizens crowing incessantly and selfishly about their right to own and carry an AR-15.

As their toxic attitude elbows its way to the forefront of a national discussion on safety, we watch news coverage of funeral processions for the 19 elementary school children slaughtered by that weapon.

It’s fucking infuriating.

I’m tired of the threadbare and ill-fitting argument that tries to square a 233-year-old constitutional amendment with the right of an 18-year-old fast-food worker to purchase a weapon designed for inflicting mass casualties. The argument collides inhumanely with grief-stricken and shell-shocked parents with pierced hearts and tattered psyches.

With images of their dead children still fresh in their minds, grieving parents listened to a United States congressman argue his constituents need the AR-15 to shoot varments.

We should be enraged by what happened in Uvalde, Texas. But, we should be just as enraged by what’s not happening in the aftermath.

Small and incremental change in the face of a full-blown public safety crisis is like placing a band-aid on an AR-15 gunshot wound to the head of a 9-year-old. We need substantial changes to our gun laws if we’re genuinely interested in saving lives.

Tweaking existing regulations around the edges is mere window-dressing for politicians. It will do very little to prevent the next mass shooting.