Each day we’d tell ourselves, it can’t get any worse.
But we’d wake up to the next bombshell from the Donald Trump curse.
His rhetoric and false promises stirred something in millions.
He was going to “drain the swamp” be the man of the people to his minions.
He brought out the worst of us, appealed to their deepest fears
Convinced them they could stop hiding, gave them a voice for four years.
He treated our country as the setting for his next reality show.
Each day a new episode, with fake news and Democrats the greatest foe.
He’d tweet unintelligible nonsense in the middle of the night,
Encouraging racists to come out from under their rocks and be ready for a fight.
Four years of bigotry, vitriol, and insulting nicknames,
crimes, pardons, and everyone else always to blame.
He bullied and intimidated, to keep his allies securely in his pocket.
And if you veered off his path, he’d add you to his docket.
These spineless Republicans who went along with this charade,
They were the most pathetic, doing his bidding as they were played.
The Trumper fanatics seem to have short term memory loss.
“Mexico will pay for the wall!” he said.
Now they’re paying for its cost.
Putting children in cages, separating them from their parents at the border.
300 children still missing, reuniting families, a useless order.
There were “good people on both sides” when white supremacists came to ****.
“Stand down and stand by”, he told the Proud Boys when asked to rebuke their will.
Each day we listened, watched, and read things we just couldn’t believe.
No one thanked him for McCain’s funeral, he told “the squad” to go back to where they came from and leave.
He insulted the city of Baltimore and labeled poorer countries as “**** holes”.
He alienated us from allies, and continuously used erroneous numbers in the polls.
The problem is, this is REALITY, not a show, and people’s lives were in his little hands.
He has no concept of consequence, having everything handed to him from his dad.
The list of his transgressions is long, but there’s one that will follow him to hell.
He knew how dangerous Covid 19 was, and decided not to tell.
He said it was not a big deal, not to worry, that they were prepared.
Looks like by April, when it gets a little warmer, it miraculously goes away,” he declared.
This is the flu, it’s just a flu. Don’t wear a mask, everything’s fine, was his call.
We’re doing a “tremendous job” he said, he’s not concerned at all.
Well now we see the result of his inaction and he said he takes no responsibility.
Thousands are dead and dying, NO LEADERSHIP was the key.
A sigh of relief when he wasn’t reelected, but he refuses to concede.
The election was rigged, the Democrats cheated, although there was no evidence to see.
His “alternative facts” were denied by the courts time and time again.
So what does he do, he turns to the underbelly, his faithful, deplorable friends.
As a result we saw something on Jan 5th that we’ve NEVER seen before.
These “protesters” stormed the capitol building, bashed in windows and broke down doors.
All the while, they were chanting their mantra to their king.
Replacing the American flag with a Trump flag, destroying everything.
These weren’t protesters, these were terrorists, leaving the chambers a wreck.
No respect for the ceremonies from the Constitution they say they vow to protect.
If that was a mob of black Americans, do you think they would have made it to the front door?
They would have been showered with tear gas, and shot dead, racial injustice to the core.
Trump loved every minute of it, held off the National Guard as pandemonium reeled.
Then he tweeted a loving video telling the thugs they were special and he knows just how they feel.
If there is a bright side to this attack on democracy,
it’s that it clearly exposed the ****** representatives for everyone to see.
It’s been interesting to see his greatest supporters jump like rats from the ship.
The biggest *** kissers in his club now want no association with him.
****** too, had dedicated followers who believed themselves to be good people.
And then they paid the price when the term **** became synonymous with evil.
To me, those who have sided with Trump will always be a mystery.
But one thing I do know is all of their names will go down on
the wrong side of history.

Breathing cold vibrancy,
the earth and sun remind us
that whatever prattles on the surface
will be layered over,
fossilised,
and judged as advances
or fat, white dead ends
by the clever folk ahead

pride "unreasonable self-esteem, e
specially as one of the deadly sins;
haughtiness,
overbearing treatment of others;
pomp, love of display," 

From <https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=PRIDE>

Love is blind as justice, if my proud prejudice
were preproperly tuned to presume
you know

pride proceeds a fall, and all the angels know,
that first
giant step,
feels just like falling, it's humbling.

But try landing on your toes, next time.

Nope, says the proud but,
I always land on a ****,  but this can't be real.
It does feel as if
I've been impaled on an obelisk.

You can twist the way a man sees the world.
Do you think that sounds ridiculous?
What if you did it over time with subtlety and diligence?

The audience is largely uneducated, so remind them of their impotence; tell them any other source of facts must be regarded with suspiciousness.

Whisper to them over breakfast and slowly introduce corrosive dissonance; outright lie to them at dinner,salting in some truth for spicy antithesis.

Those who run the country are up to something mischievous; their lives, their fine America, have been eroding with precipitance.

Remember empowered yesterdays with a sad and tearful wistfulness; twist the needs and rights of others with pernicious lies and maliciousness.

Invest their government with conspiracy and its policies with wickedness. Remind your audience that freedom was torn from kings by well-armed militias.

Introduce the savior as a shining instrument of religiousness; defend his faults as small and frivolous and his right to rule as unambiguous.

When shocking reality dares assert itself, denials must be vicious and officious.

A rescue mission must be launched and certainly they must be participants; banners from the gift shop will form a team identity and a certain moral equivalence.

The leader will whip the angry crowd, stoking resentment with fabricated incidents, swearing, “I will be with you on this great crusade and you will be my instruments”

As the mob storms off he will slink away; he was only there for stimulus.

Hear the old republic creak as the President flexes his insolence; he’s seen that no blame can touch him, so he’s filled with proud ambivalence.

What will it take to rein him in? What kind of obvious stimulant, with thousands already dying every day and our society marbled with brittleness?

I did errands today
and I was confused

Something was wrong, astray
I mused

I settled into the evening quiet
And my disquieted soul shouted

"The flags were not at half staff"
As the West Wing staff and Cabinet was trimmed by half

Yesterday, Congress was sieged by riff-raff
45 egged them on

Congress counted the Electoral votes
but our troubles are not all gone

Today, I needed to see that flag half-mast
My grief begged for a symbol against the bombast

And yet the flag waved, full staff, as if nothing and no one mattered
And no one has said a word

In with a bang out with a whimper
An American story reminiscent of old,
Brashness and vigor, street smart and temper,
Rising to greatness then collapsing stone-cold.

How could this happen in this day and age,
Have we not learned from lessons long taught,
But there lies the moral, we gave him the stage,
His victory gifted, neither stolen nor bought.

The reasons were many, the anger profound,
The swamp and it's dwellers entitled and deaf,
Their smugness alone caused Trump to be crowned,
With neither side listening, as each out of breath.

But what of the Media, greedy and loud,
They built up the story their coffers to fill,
This great institution at one time so proud
Debasing core standards their audience to thrill.

What next may we ask, back to the same?
Politicians grandstanding, jostling for power,
Caring little for action, just personal fame,
Riding the airways, seizing the hour.

Enough of this folly, time to unite,
Reason and truth need blossom anew,
Our democracy young, our future still bright,
Faith in our system we must now renew.

This time I blew it, I really blew it
First lost us the House, now the Senate’s gone too,
I'm caught in a spiral, that I'll admit,
Not sure where to turn, not sure what to do.

I'm convinced I was cheated,
The election was mine,
I was sorely mistreated
They'll see that in time.

China's to blame
They caused this great mess,
With Covid the flame
The spark our fake Press.

I'm sad and forlorn, forsaken and lost,
Left out to dry, few choices in hand,
Gave up so much at such personal cost,
And all I have left is a hand full of sand.

Pence and McConnell of no use at all,
Fair weather friends lost in the breeze,
Ducking for cover, can't stomach the squall,
By Biden outsmarted with consummate ease.

I'm now left to ponder, consider and scheme,
My mind in a haze, my heart in a spin,
To run once again along the same theme,
To prove them all wrong, to show I can win.

But just like the lion, head of the pride
I see suitors circling ready to pounce,
Willing and waiting to cast me aside
Watching to see if that run I'll announce.

So let them all wait, worry and fret,
For this Lion’s not done, not by a stretch,
I love with a passion making folks sweat,
To fight and remount my one solemn pledge.

In Trump the idiot sees himself
a winner, strong and smart
making the intelligent cry
and destroying difficulties
with just a word—or a lie—or his fists
now no longer rejects or losers
affirming his beliefs of himself—
the blessed poor for his saviour is come