Numb. 977 The Showman Empire (or 476 CE Redux)

Is what we are feeling what folks felt in Rome when the Empire fell?

Or is this the intermission where the Republic becomes holy hell?

Is this what Jefferson meant by “When in the Course of human events”?

Are we living a farcical sequel dismissing the notion of “created equal”?

A Hamiltonian (pre-musical) notion: governed by rich, well-born, and able —

a cabal of scoundrels led by a “genius” who, it appears, is somewhat unstable?

That separation of church and state has been reversed is beyond debate

when judicial appointments completely depend on Roe v Wade being upended.

One-“man”-one-vote, it must be noted, was not on the Founders' agenda,

still I believe it hard to conceive what they contemplated was Carthago delenda.

If we are both Carthage and Rome, where, oh where, can “ET, phone home”?

Given GOP muck and Dem incompetence, I would say we're totally [REDACTED]

unless adults (somehow) get elected and (also somehow) reforms are effected.

If GOP is not disarmed, I have no doubt they intend further harm.

Numb. 976 Bankrupt? (or TILT — Game Over?)

I say too late for Chapter Eleven:

reorganize, don't call it quits?

Our situate is Chapter 7:

turn off the lights, roll the obits.

This was our fate from the get-go,

an ironclad, gold plate guarantee.

Lie back, close your eyes, just let go.

Accept the fait accompli.

Some had some fun, but “in the long run,”

as Keynes said, “we are all dead.”

No point in groaning. Forego bemoaning.

Abandon all hope. Take to your bed.

If you are hoping we'll find ways of coping,

then I humbly suggest,

a book — maybe three? — about history.

SPOILER ALERT! This WILL cause distress.

Life, by design, is not intelligent.

Any creator is simply irrelevant

or, if he exists, entirely malevolent

and almost certainly out of his element.

Numb. 975 For Evil To Tr[i]ump[h]?

I do NOT deal in conspiracies.

But, say that I did …

I still would NOT say Jared is gay

or Donald's the father of Ivanka's kids.

The idea of Melania being a spy

I WOULD proclaim an outrageous lie.

(Though CIA et al., I hear, agree

her father's a colonel in KGB.)

And if you please, this Covid “disease” …

I'd NOT claim is part of a plot

to kill Social Security and Medicare

so GOP donors can all buy spare yachts.

I will NOT engage in scurrilous nonsense.

I will NOT stoop that low.

I would NEVER descend to the feces-filled gutter

where the GOP dwells. (As we well know.)

I could NEVER call Mitch a son of a bitch.

(I would NOT insult a dog.)

NOR would I suggest if Stormy kissed Donald,

he'd have turned in to Pepe the Frog.

An idea, to be clear, that I find shocking,

disgusting, revolting, obscene.

Because you can see, looking at Donald,

that he is orange, he is NOT green.

I will NOT state Donald is Vlad Putin's pawn,

NOR contemplate if he is Satan's spawn,

NOR will I highlight how he hates church bells.

I trust the facts will speak for themselves.

Numb. 974 What's Trump?

End of the line. Closing time.

Kill the lights. Close the door.

A total train wreck and I expect

worse if he gets four years more:

another country, another world

where progress is back to a past

that never existed but springs into being,

a century repealed, a story recast

where rights endowed are judged unjust —

you either live free or you fail,

where the out-of-touch rich get every day richer

and the poor get more time in jail,

where Ayn Rand and Jesus are one and the same —

an apex predator, on top of their game, 

where voting rolls are kept to a minimum

by declaring the country a condominium.

This is the best that can be expected,

unless by some fluke Biden's elected.

If that should occur, then Donald's armed hordes

will come after everyone brandishing swords,

taking no prisoners, clearing the field

until all opponents lay dead on their shields.

In any event, Donald will conquer.

Then we'll be blessed with the Empress Ivanka.

Numb. 973 A Thoughtful Republican's Inner Monologue (or Overturning Mark 8:36)

“We’re not going to control the pandemic.” — Mark Meadows, White House Chief Of Staff

We've no need to control this virus.

No reason to make a big fuss.

Donald survived it. Completely unscathed!

To hell with the rest of us.

Anyways, I hear this virus

only kills Democrats.

Never a godly Republican Christian.

We, after all, do not eat bats.

Some gaily say, we've bats in our belfry,

what with our peculiar beliefs

in QAnon and magical thinking,

and, dare I say, our Commander-and-Thief

who led us, sweet Jesus, to total control.

(Although you could say at the cost of our soul …)

On the whole we believe, to put it neatly,

all things are justified if you win completely.

Numb. 972 Truth Trumped

The truthiest facts is what Donald deals in.

Exacting fact is, in truth, his religion.

But sometimes a fact must be adjusted.

It could be busted. You cannot trust it.

And so to protect his Twitter minions,

Donald instead tweets his opinions,

what he thinks, what he feels … whatever he wishes,

praise for militias, his favorite dishes,

how FAKE NEWS treats him so vicious,

sneeringly claiming TrumpTruth is a lie

as if he were the kind of guy

who would cheat on a wife, welch on an agreement,

not pay a debt … as if he'd be vehement

defending racists, fascists, bigots, and traitors

while dragging us down some gold escalator.

Like he was some Queens Mafia Don

whose everyday shtick was The Art Of The Con.

Numb. 971 A Republican Covid Lament (a fireside musing from a country estate)

Will this election ever be over?

Will the campaign never end?

Bad enough we're stuck with Covid,

have nowhere to go, nowhere to spend.

Oh, I know, there are those sick and dying —

I expect poor Democrats.

If I said I cared I'd be lying.

Here by the fire, I've no time for that.

What I truly miss is the parties,

celebrating our wealth with champagne,

toasting our most cooperative Congress

and even Donald — though he is a pain.

NOT one of us, but the underclasses

fall for his trumpery, take his message to heart.

Thereby confirming they are thick as molasses

and, like their Donald, not over-smart.

I dearly yearn to return to normalcy,

to reset the century clocks

back to our great-grandparents' day

when wealthy White Protestants owned all the stocks

and simple workers, content with a pittance

for working twelve hours per day,

expired early (there being no pensions)

and never asked for a raise in their pay.

Their wives scrubbed our floors, their sons fought our wars,

their prettiest daughters we made into our whores 

in that best of all possible times.

A time of refinement when your enjoyment

meant doing whatever you wished all the time.

We cannot, I know, revive the past.

The best of times never do last.

Still, we hang on. We cope and we hope

that Donald prevails, though we know he's a dope.

Numb. 970 What If The Solution Is Not The Answer

Even IF — BIG IF — IF Donald loses,

BIGGER IF, IF he then leaves

that will not be the end of our problems,

it will not cure Covid disease.

It will not relieve the unease of supporters,

the majority become the minority:

good white Christian folk, 

thinking they get the joke

of his lampoonery, his clowning buffoonery:

celebrating Civil War traitors,

being pals with goon-like dictators,

flouting the law, his misbehavior,

packing the courts, playing at savior,

encouraging looney militia revolts

if he disagrees with election results.

Even IF on Election Day,

the people say, “Donald, just go away!”,

even IF Dems retake the Senate,

even IF Dems retain the House,

even IF Dems repack the Courts,

even IF Dems reverse DC rigor mortis,

even IF Donald peacefully leaves,

his millions of followers — armed to the teeth —

still will be here, giving us grief.

Things'll be better. Things'll be fine!

We may see a decreasing decline

in the world and in the nation …

what with the Covid depopulation.

We may see a dip in pollution.

We may forestall right wing revolution.

With Donald gone (shed crocodile tears)

the country could last several more years.

That's all we ask because as Keynes said,

“In the long run, we are all dead.”

Numb. 969 A Covided Possibility (both times as farce)

What if the president's “Covid” adventure 

is nothing more than an ruse,

a FALSE FLAG event staged to distract

from the fact of his failure to act?

What if “doctors” reporting his progress

are “crisis actors” pretending?

What if it's all just a charade

to provide his campaign a “happy ending”?

What if our thief of a farceur-in-chief

is flailing reaching for comic relief?

Strange how his “Covid” just now occurs

right when he needs it … as did his “bone spurs”.

Numb. 968 The GOP's Disparate Strategies (or The Grandiose Old Party's Plans)

If the WRONG peoples' votes get counted, then, in theory, we'd lose.

Forced to fall back on standby PLAN B, we'd need the Electoral College to chose

to keep Donald for four more years. (And him and us out of prison.)

It is a tragedy that in a democracy that citizens can make decisions.

If they vote their interests instead of ours,

then we, their betters, end up behind bars.

Our solution: lie and deceive. Make like the other side's worse.

Frighten the voters so they believe whatever you say, however perverse.

Strive to fulfill their inner need, say there be monsters under the bed.

(FOX NEWS will confound and confuse and, in general, mess with their head.)

If PLAN B should fail, if we can't make bail, (so sad a tale), will we go to jail?

PLAN C (our Catholic Conservative Court) will be our fail-safe final resort.

If our pet Catholics dare to say, “NOPE!”,

we'll hold a hearing and impeach the pope.

Numb. 967 In All Humility

We contain multitudes of single cells

who are not us, they are themselves.

This raises a question because by and large

it's hard to tell just who's in charge.

Can “free will” be undone by pill?

Is what we hold true garbage and swill?

A toxic concoction laid down over years

of confusion, frustration, and various fears?

How could that be? Are we not supreme?

Are we not the crown of creation?

Has the Universe some other purpose

than showering glory on our selves and nation?

Come, let us celebrate how we are better than all people alive.

Even our ancestors (who were better than theirs) from whom we derive

would not be our peers in the least degree

and, it is clear, you're less than me.

Numb. 966 Conscious Uncoupling (a parting shot)

If I were THE THING that created creation,

why, in my name, would I care

about you or your speck of dust planet

which (maybe) exists somewhere OUT THERE?

Do you really conceive I crave burnt offerings,

animal slaughterings, jihads, crusades?

That I require erecting of temples, masses who tremble?

That I give a shit which quarterback plays

for a team, at present, without a name

in an infamous city lacking all shame?

If you insist you deserve better,

I reply, “So do I.

You find yourself some other god

and I'll give some other monkey a try."

Numb. 965 Civilization (Humankind's exploit)

Because we are “civilized" we do not have to hunt and kill to eat meat.

Nor need we gather. Nor need we fish. Nor need we sew. Nor need we reap.

Farming and milling? Not on our agenda. For us no husbandry tasks.

We are ever so busy doing whatever, we cannot help you should you ever ask.

We can't build a shelter or even a bed. (Nor, for all that, bury our dead.)

We're unable to fashion clothing to wear. Nike attends of our feet.

If fact we're a lazy son-of-a- … bear, and — no offense — a trifle effete.

Somewhat akin to pampered house cats but more demanding considering that

we could not survive but for thousands of slobs doing the real — and dirtier — jobs.

Our music and poems, our art and our books — all of our “civilized" perks —

are possible only because we've devised ways of making lesser folk work

while we sit on our asses, draining our glasses, denigrating the lower classes

and keeping them down where they belong. It is our right, doing them wrong.

Far be it from me to harumph in disgust. If roles were reversed, they'd do it to us.

Numb. 964 Prof. Krugman's Solution (no bells or whistling past the graveyard )

What the economy needs is a shot in the arm,

maybe a dose of Viagra.

Unless something's done (for Washington) quick

we're over the falls at Niagara

where we'll be splintered to bits on the rocks,

drowning in worthless loans, bonds, and stocks,

undone by Trump's Bankrupt-onomics

unless we stashed cash in Marvel comics —

pristine first editions, hermetically sealed,

providing a viable surety shield

against the market's conniption fits.

(At least until the meteor hits.)

Numb. 963 We'll See (plus Columbus Day owed)

The classic example of total futility: rearranging Titanic deck chairs.

Will we replace this with “voting for Biden" against this buffoon with little upstairs

save delusions of grandeur and slander and pandering

prattle dog-whistle alarms calling his “forces" to battle and arms?

Are we living through a new revolution bent on reversing our last?

Senator Lee says we are not a democracy and never were in the past.

Trump triumphant, permanent president. The ultimate, consummate  — possessed? — White House resident?

Congress and Courts pose no impediment? The nation dissolves into the sediment?

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES DAY SPECIAL

The GOP favors wealth redistribution.
If it's distributed up.
A situation where others have money
is unacceptable. And likely corrupt.
God never intended that we be upended,
be held to account for the sins
our sainted ancestors may have committed
in enslaving Negroes and killing Injuns,
both of whose present descendants
should bow their heads and give thanks
for all those blankets infected with smallpox
and being redlined by all of our banks.

Are we naive to expect applause
after all we have done for this scum?
We gave them God and Santa Claus.
That's who we are, where we come from.
Okay, we may have stolen their country
and/or their freedom and lives,
driven the Reds to the brink of extinction
and with the Blacks toyed with their wives.
It is, however, clear that we meant well
in taking these primitive souls
into our hearts — and our economy —
to help us to reach our Godly goals.

Where would they be, truthfully,
if our ancestors had not “abused” theirs?
Can you imagine buck-naked savages
in control of the nation's affairs?

That's why, despite what you might think right, 

we sleep sound and tight every damned night.

Numb. 962 VP Reconsidered

Regardless of what my staff agrees to when I debate with a "chick",

she has to shut up so I can speak 25/8, three-sixty-six.

Whether it was my (un)worthy opponent (who clearly knew not her place)

or the fervently femme moderator refusing me enough time and space

for my ad infinitum praise of my masters, Donald (and also Jesus),

not to mention those plexiglass panels placed in my face in case someone sneezes,

in retrospect, I was not my best and it may not have been wise

to reprise the lies that Donald tells because his lies draw dung-loving flies.

Memo to self: for political health, avoid women and "debate" with yourself.

Numb. 961 Breathless For Thought (a meditation on a White House balcony)

Reality is really a virus.

To which, in fact, I'm immune.

I find reality and morals and truth,

not worth my time … inopportune.

Leaders, like gods, are creators.

We say what's real and what's not.

We're not concerned with figures and facts,

how the world works and whatnot.

That stuff is for jerks who insist on consistency

and think of things as connected,

who can not conceive that borax and Clorox

will disappear problems if they're injected.

Covid. Congress. Contracts. Laws. Wives. 

Anything that's in the way …

you have to downplay them. You have to lie.

You just have to wish them away.

You boast. You smirk. You deny. You distract.

You never look back. You attack and attack.

That, in totality, is my morality.

And, like I said, I'm immune to reality.

Numb. 960 The Picture Of Health

Donald must always be Donald.

Although we may all have to die,

we have to let Donald be Donald.

To say otherwise is to lie.

He is a law unto himself.

Taxes can never impact his wealth.

Despite what you see, he's the picture of health.

The thought of disease makes him so ill at ease

that in his vicinity you're forbidden to sneeze.

It is his will to never be ill,

so he finds doctors to act as his shill.

Except long ago, when one time it was

convenient for him to "contract" bone spurs.

Numb. 959 Sermonette

Go ahead. Name a CHRISTIAN with Covid. 

You can't. Want to know why?

God makes diseases for Liberals and foreigners.

God wants them all to die.

We know our Savior works in strange ways,

that, in his wisdom, he loves "mayonnaise"

that he hates -- equally -- Liberals and gays,

that Mantle was far better than Mays,

that, for Trump, Covid's a minor malaise,

that, though there may remain some delays,

that we'll be in heaven come THE holidays,

because we are living THE END OF DAYS.

So don't waste your time online on ebay.

Numb. 958 Perspective (or Have A Nice Day)

What good is a weather forecast when DOOM looms at the door?

Why would you bother with an umbrella if you're not coming home any more?

Why be concerned with what's going on in and about the Pentagon

when dead ahead you see coming on a without the bomb Alas, Babylon?

Celebrate Covid's inevitable spread. Think Monty Python's "Bring Out Your Dead".

With so much dread filling your head it just might be best to stay in bed

or, if so inclined, pursue absolution through religious circumlocution

unless you accept there is no solution and can embrace the world's dissolution.

Will this, too, pass? 

You bet your ass. 

What's next in store? 

Best not to ask.

Numb. 957 Numb And Number

The problem with people who have all the answers

is that they don't even know all the questions.

The answer's not YHWH or Quetzalcoatl

nor Mao's, nor Marx's, nor Freud's professions

of universal, complete comprehension

concerning how the world works.

They think they're be right, but they are not

because, like everyone else, they are jerks

who gaze in amazement at their own navel

and think IT is all about them. Well fed house cats

who can not catch dead rats and never will understand Zen,

which, despite what you thought, is not what the Buddha taught.

A bunch of dolts devoted to cults

who fancy themselves mature adults.

Just look about, observe the results.