Geoffrey Reilly – Page 2 – bendingtheneedle

The Penny-wise and Pound-foolish President

A fully funded international screwworm monitoring program very likely would have improved early detection and slowed the spread, reducing the scale and speed of the current outbreak, perhaps even preventing the disease from reaching the U.S.

Historically, the U.S. kept screwworm from reaching our border by applying a three‑layer defense:

Panama biological barrier (sterile‑fly zone)
Central American surveillance (USAID/FAO programs)
U.S.–Mexico border surveillance (USDA APHIS)

The 2025 Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts removed layer #2. When layer #2 fails, layer #3 becomes a last‑minute firewall — and by the time screwworm reaches the border, eradication is much more difficult.

So, how much money did the US save when DOGE cut programs that included screwworm monitoring? The savings from cuts, which eliminated thousands of USAID grants (including more than 100 FAO animal‑disease monitoring projects), were never quantified. The Trump administration said the cuts eliminated “waste,” but no budgetary analysis or savings estimate was released publicly. What we do know historically is that FAO/USAID animal‑health surveillance projects cost millions, not billions.

While the savings were tiny and unreported, the potential cost of failure is massive:

Texas cattle industry losses could reach $1.8 billion per year if screwworm spreads.
USDA has already invested over $1 billion in emergency response and sterile‑fly infrastructure after the outbreak.

And if the U.S. fails to contain the outbreak, projected costs balloon to an astounding $675 billion dollars.

So, the U.S. “saved” an unreported amount—likely in the low millions—while exposing itself to billions in economic risk.

Good job, Mr. President!

“My Porch in Timbuktu” is Live on Streaming Services

“My Porch in Timbuktu,” the latest single from Sapient Rain, is live on Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music.

Sapient Rain is a musical project that blends human creativity with artificial intelligence. It is a collaboration between writer/lyricist Geoffrey Reilly and the AI music engine, Suno.

You can listen to “My Porch in Timbuktu” for free on Suno.

I can barely hear you
your voice muffled by the dirt
Did you bring the children with you?
Is Suzy in her yellow skirt?

Its nothing like they told us
those Catholic teachers lied
It’s just a dark unbroken silence
and a solitude defied

What season are we in
I’ve lost all sense of time
the cohesion of chagrin
dissolving into the sublime
What color is the sky
Is it red or is it blue
I miss the spark inside your eyes
from my porch in Timbuktu

Would it all be different
if I chose to burn to ash
would I pass through gills of minnows
or die in the fire’s flash?

Breathless in the darkness
your heart, a dying dove
dress threads start to loosen
their hold on what was love

I miss the sound of summer thunder
and waves crashing on the beach
Wilson Picket’s midnight hour
and that first bite into a peach

I’m in the chaos of my silence
in the loud loneliness of peace
there is no self-reliance
when you live your life along the crease

Sapient Rain is best categorized as a human–AI hybrid musical project — specifically, a lyric‑driven, politically charged, genre‑fluid collaboration between writer/lyricist Geoffrey Reilly and the AI music engine Suno.

For a free listen, check out the library of publicly available Sapient Rain tracks on Suno.

“Usurpers in the Pulpit” is Live on Streaming Services

“Usurpers in the Pulpit,” the latest single from Sapient Rain, is live on Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music.

Sapient Rain is a musical project that blends human creativity with artificial intelligence. It is a collaboration between writer/lyricist Geoffrey Reilly and the AI music engine, Suno.

You can listen to “Usurpers in the Pulpit” for free on Suno.

Usurpers in the Pulpit

They pray in Megachurches
In the heartland on a hill
With Mic’d-up MAGA pastors
Pushing lies and poison pills

The preachers fret to scare you
but tell you God is on your side
The trap they set ensnares you
And takes your lost soul for a ride

After wine and half-truths whispered
And communion wafer snacks
The paid-for-MAGA pastor
Launches fascist-fueled attacks

In alliance with the devil
In accordance with their greed
Usurpers in the pulpit
Twisting sermons into screeds

Pals in persecution
The grievance-driven crowd
Bathed in absolution
And a bigotry allowed

The violence that awaits us
Is sectarian in its hate
Gun toting bible thumpers
To make the US Great

They’ll legislate their creed
And burn the rest in smoke and ash
Put their ten upon the wall
Tossing yours into the trash

In alliance with the devil
In accordance with their greed
Usurpers in the pulpit
Twisting sermons into screeds

They’d rather force you to your knees,
Than let you worship as you wish
Live your life by their decrees
And Donny T as your commish

It’s not about the Magi
Or the Christ child in the manger
But how Jesus loves America and
Beware the stranger danger

Look at who they’ve chosen
To be the leader of their flock
An impetuous empty vessel
who has never taken stock

In alliance with the devil
In accordance with their greed
Usurpers in the pulpit
Twisting sermons into screeds

If you haven’t had a chance yet, please check out my book, My Paper, My Words: Rantings from a Progressive Boomer and Peeved Parent, from Amazon. And if you feel moved to write a review of the book, on Amazon, or anywhere else, I’d be honored.

My Paper, My Words is a collection of essays, stories, and poems that reflect the challenges of a middle-class husband and father trying to navigate a rapidly changing political, religious, and technological landscape of post-911 America.

“Generation Blue” is Live on Music Streaming Services

“Generation Blue,” the latest single from Sapient Rain, is live on Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music.

Sapient Rain is a musical project that blends human creativity with artificial intelligence. It is a collaboration between writer/lyricist Geoffrey Reilly and the AI music engine, Suno.

You can listen to “Generation Blue” for free on Suno.

Generation Blue

When they handed us devices
we never stood a chance
neck deep in social crisis
we’re pawns like Rosencrantz

Connected to each other
in unintended ways
a mobile-based infection
that set our world ablaze

Unblinking eyes cemented
screen scrolling
through our days
our brains have been
augmented
in unexpected ways

Doom Scrolling
through the day
bed-rotting
is what we do
retool the state of play
for Generation Blue

Let’s play some doorbell ditch
let’s play some kick the can
let’s run through the scented air
stop being Zucker fans

Let’s play some hide and seek
let’s walk around the block
let’s wade into the creek
and paint faces on a rock

We’re socially divided
we’re trapped inside our brains
we’re purposely misguided
by controllers of the reins

Doom scrolling
through the day
bed-rotting
is what we do
retool the state of play
for Generation Blue

What is Sapient Rain?

Sapient Rain is a human–AI musical collaboration created by writer/lyricist Geoffrey Reilly working together with the AI music engine Suno.

Sapient Rain’s music blends political fire, surreal storytelling, and nostalgic autobiography, delivered through lyrics that read more like literary vignettes than conventional songcraft. Sapient Rain’s growing catalog is thematically dense, with each track functioning as a miniature narrative or social critique.

Reilly’s writing gives the project its identity; Suno gives it sonic form.

Sapient Rain is not “AI music” in the generic sense. It’s a human-authored worldview rendered through an AI engine that can produce consistent vocal and musical identity on demand.

Reilly writes in a style that fuses protest poetry, memoir, and cultural commentary, often using sharp imagery and rhythmic phrasing to create songs that feel like spoken‑word pieces set to music.

Check out Sapient Rain on Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music.

You can also listen to Sapient Rain songs for free on Suno.

A Danger Posed

Christian Nationalism poses structural, democratic, and cultural dangers to America’s secular, pluralistic society, primarily because it seeks to fuse a single religious worldview with civic identity and governmental authority.

Across multiple independent analyses, researchers consistently show that Christian Nationalism correlates with anti‑democratic attitudes, exclusion of religious minorities, authoritarian governance, and erosion of constitutional protections.

I wrote the lyrics for “Usurpers in the Pulpit” to highlight America’s dangerous drift towards Christian Nationalism.

I used Suno to set the lyrics to music under the artist profile Sapient Rain.

Sapient Rain is a musical project that blends human creativity with artificial intelligence. It is a collaboration between writer/lyricist Geoffrey Reilly (me) and the AI music engine, Suno.

“Usurpers in the Pulpit” will be available on music streaming platforms on June 1st, 2026, but you can listen to it today on Suno.