No. 217.6: EXTRA! What's 2b Done?

"The Great Divide" is what David Goodhart calls it in his book The Road to Somewhere: The Populist Revolt and the Future of Politics....On one side are "Anywheres," often educated professionals in urban areas, at ease with different people and locations. On the other side are "Somewheres," less educated, often in smaller towns, whose sense of self is defined by where they're from, not what they've achieved.

The Somewheres spent years thinking, "What happened to my country?" With Brexit (and Donald Trump), they exacted revenge. Now, it's the Anywheres who are aghast, asking, "What happened to my country?"  

— Globe And Mail: Fool Britannia: The future of the U.K. has never looked so grim (Paywall)

Brexit and Trump. What's the solution?

“The Terror” after the French Revolution?
Dare anyone sleep soundly in bed
with crowds outside shouting, “Off with their head!”?
Really, now, how can we go on?
Should we hope for a missile from Kim Jong Un?

No. 217.5: EXTRA! Weakened Radio Slop 40

In just a bit

playin' their hit:

Donnie's Skag Women 'n Men

“#Make America Gag Again”!

No. 217.4: EXTRA! None Of The Above

Stephen Hawking does not tell us he's smart,
Bill Gates does not say he is rich.
Why then is it okay
for lumpen Trump to spend every day
pretending his losses glorious,
his multifarious failures victorious?
Doesn't know when to say when, when
#Making America Gag Again?

No. 217.3: EXTRA! A Trump Midnight Musing

Mueller’s becoming a regular gremlin.

I’d rather we sort this all out in the Kremlin.

Please, someone, slip Flynn a Mickey Finn

and rendition him to Vladimir Putin.

I'm not at a loss, I just don't give a toss

so I'm passing this buck up to the boss.

No. 217.2: EXTRA! The Way It Is

The post-pubescent H. Sapien male

save when engaged in some detail

like football or war

is trying to “score”.

For guys, being alive
means being aroused 

24/7/365.

No. 217.1: EXTRA! Deep Do-Do

On average, Americans throw away their own body weight in trash every month.

WaPo: Drowning in garbage (Paywall)

Time to add this

to the terrorist list?

In a new twist on

obesity crisis:

our garbagey habits

rank us with ISIS.

(You wanna bet

the bigger threat?)

Just contemplate:

one month's trash equals weight.

We can't deny it.

It's time to diet.

The world throws away

three point five Mil.

tons a day

What have we tossed?

Paradise Lost?

Drowning in waste

we carry on

and order more garbage

from Amazon.

This saves fuel

but fuels paradoxes.

We save on gas

but generate boxes

which bring to a standstill

available landfill.

If Marie Antoinette

were here today,

looking about

she'd likely say,

“People are hungry,

people are starving?

They have no porridge?

Let them eat garbage!”

And, as before,

she'd haven't a clue.

In the U.S. Of A.

we already do.

No. 217: Trump Over Time (cover charge)

Telly Sevallas's Kojak

was always shouting for “Crocker!”

Likewise, Barry Goldwater asked

if Nixon was off his rocker.

Trump's default attitude has

always been that of a mocker,

while his color has, with age, shifted:

true yellow to orangey ocher.

It is a SHOCKER not everyone's soured

of this insecure, bloated, bullying coward.

No. 216.2: EXTRA! Yankee Stay Home!

In the hours after President Trump retweeted a string of anti-Islamic hate videos, Britons reiterated their call for his state visit to be canceled.

In the House of Commons, several members of Parliament suggested that the president should be uninvited. 

WaPo: Trump’s visit to Britain probably won’t be canceled. At least, not officially. (Paywall)

Today in U.K., Trump's persona non grata

there they see him as shellfish* see otters.

A devouring beast,

to say the least,

but with defective medulla oblongata†.

'Tis a pity our deranged irrational

leader's taken his tweets international,

reviving The Ugly American

and Making America Grate Again.

His timing in this makes me wary.

Right after Meghan's engagement to Harry.

The Prince, invoking his Royal Right,

made a list of who not to invite

to his Royal wedding.

(You see where I'm heading?)

Trump may make us commoners wince,

but you don't take no shit, when you're a prince!

————————

*I herewith apologize to the smattering

of Brits who find this comparison unflattering.

I mean no “offence”, I'm merely nattering.

†Relax, do not panic.

Medulla is Latin.

It is not Islamic.

No. 216.1: EXTRA! What's Trump?

He tweets on sex scandals?

Really? Come on!

How'd he become

our new Teflon Don?

Can you imagine

the total FOX slaughter

had any Dem talked 

of “dating” his daughter?

(Male Evangelicals,

might find that fun.

Better, I'll bet,

than “dating” their son?)

No one else ever

in my memory

watched a replay 

claiming, “That isn't me!”

Yeah, he attended

an Ivy League School.

As has many an

uncool fool tool.

There's no disputin',

he ain't highfalutin.

How could he be,

working for Putin?

When you select

an asshole as POTUS,

you would expect

more folks would notice.

Yet so few have.

I find that bizarre.

Maybe he's not.

Maybe we are.

No. 216: The State Of The State Department Department

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson defended plans to slash his own department's budget Tuesday, arguing Washington will need to spend less on diplomacy as armed conflicts come to an end.

Newsmax — Tillerson: State Dept Budget Can Be Cut As Wars Ending

The State Department budget kerfuffle

is not a reorg or personnel shuffle.

It's a revision.

A redef of mission.

If a foreign state ignores his rebuke,

Donald Trump will not hesitate, he'll launch a nuke.

Should some potentate return the favor,

we will not tolerate their misbehavior.

After global nuclear war,

what would a State Department even be for?

Be too late to negotiate.

No one will need Departments of State.

This may be nuts, 

but it funds our tax cuts.

No. 215: Decline And Gall

There can no longer be any debate:

Trump is not making us second-rate.

Nor third, for that matter. Nor fourth. Nor fifth.

These gross calumnies must cease forthwith.

With Trump our decline is so rápidamente,

we'll be lucky to still be in the top twenty*.

Would it give rise to widespread angina

were we^† to trade places with China^‡?

Would it be a crusher

to swap rank with Russia^§?

Would we cease

if we were Greece**?

How would it feel

to switch with Israel^††?

Though we've still a way to go,

we could end up like Mexico^‡‡.

In another three years, I say we're ruined.

You see things otherwise? I say stay tuned.

———————————

*U.S.News 2017Best Countries

† number 7

‡ number 20

§ number 27

** number 29

†† number 30

‡‡ number 33

No. 214: Two Different Worlds

When bi-coastal elites disparage Trump tweets

with nose out of joint, are we missing the point?

Although your average reporter

knows Puerto Rico's surrounded by water,

mid-Americans haven't a notion

what a sea looks like. (Not to mention an ocean!)

Even those who have seen a Great Lake

may think anything larger must be a fake.

It isn't strange they deny climate change,

years barely vary home on the range.

They. Pray. Gay. Away.

We see Broadway musicals — even on Sunday!

We go to orgies, they to church suppers.

They read their Bibles. We pop our uppers.

The twain, so they say, never shall meet

'til YHWH sits on His judgment seat.

If Donnie exchanges missiles with Kim.

our fate may not depend on God's whim.

If Donnie and Kim set the whole world aflame,

when the dust settles we'll all be the same.

Survivors will be equally attractive.

(And more than a little radioactive.)  

No. 213: Firing Blanks — Letting Bygones Be Bygones

Mass extinctions periodically wipe out up to 95 percent of all species...these come every 50 million to 100 million years...we are now in the middle of the sixth such extinction, this one caused primarily by humans and our effects on animal habitats...

...we are a part of the biosphere just like every other creature...our actions are...just as natural.

— WaPo: We don’t need to save endangered species. Extinction is part of evolution. (Paywall)

Characteristically, are we making a fuss

insisting everything's all about us?

Seeing ourselves in the leading role,

we forget we are but part of a whole.

Individuals, tribes, nations, species,

with or without us, increase and decrease.

Surely it must be a comfort to know

we do not call the shots. We're just the ammo.