Thursday, September 26, 2013

Gerrymander Is A Pit Viper



image borrowed from bing

Gerrymander Is A Pit-Viper

“I’m very grateful to live in a country where I can really
believe in my elected officials, in their ethos & competencies.”
--Chelsea Clinton

Somehow we survived the 21 hour filibuster
delivered by GOP Senator Ted Cruz, covered 
completely by cable news, who succeeded 
in creating more confusion & skepticism 
about health care reform, on the tired heels
of the stone-aged Tamany-Hall Boss Tweed
Republican elected officials who still threaten
a complete government shutdown in order
to somehow defund Obama Care, & the
rabid Tea Party Patriots have eagerly slipped
into full fundraising mode, applauding as
Cruz went directly from the Senate chamber
to an interview with Rush Limbaugh. 

Bill Clinton appeared on CNN with Piers Morgan,
& he tried to convince us that he had no clue
as to Hilary’s intentions toward running for
President in 2016, but he lost no time in
extolling her virtues, “She shows up for work
every day, gets stuff done, & is very strong about it.”,
telling us that Hilary is still a good bet for the immediate
future, but down the road apiece we need to look
at his 33 year old daughter, Chelsea, who is
“So smart that she takes me to school each time
I talk with her about anything.”

Today the Iranian press hailed President Obama’s
UN speech as “hopeful”, even though we still live
in a “messed-up broken world.”

Barack Obama spoke eloquently to the UN Assembly
for over 20 minutes, proud that all of our troops
have been pulled out of Iraq, where we were
shown that “Democracy cannot be imposed by force.”,
that by next year some time all of the American troops
will have been pulled out of Afghanistan, but then added
“America is prepared to use all elements of our power,
including military force, to secure our core interests
in the region”--so how long before American brogans
will be on the ground in Syria, Egypt, or Iran?

We have been told incessantly that America cannot be,
nor should it be the World’s Police Force, that we are not,
nor have we ever been, empire builders, that we are no
longer dependent on Middle East oil reserves, that as
a nation we are not, & will never be controlled by the
wealthy 1% with their mammoth corporations, armies
of lobbyists, conclaves of banks, choke-holds on
Wall Street--that the government is not, & will not
listen in on American conversations with their cell phones, 
nor will it be monitoring all our chatter on social
networks & personal blogs--that the entity that is
Homeland Security is not a Black Ops, just another
version of SS troops or government secret police--
and that by God, “America should not, cannot disengage
in the Middle East, because this would create a terrible
vacuum of leadership that no other nation is ready to fill.”

So what can we believe?
Is the Truth always so devastating
that it needs to be splintered & camouflaged,
so amorphous, so convoluted that at all times
on any day, only tiny portions of it can be
carefully sprinkled on the public; we must

face the fact that whatever leader we have elected
will be praised & vilified in equal portions, & that
today we are so accustomed to getting our news
on full-spin that we no longer have any need for
those motion-sickness bracelets while watching
CNN or Fox News--and hey, what the hell
is the deal with this new American Al Jazeera
that promises to offer us “Unbiased, fact-based,
in-depth coverage of global events.”

At least now we can quit worrying about, can take our
focus off of global warming, since we are immersed
in a 24/7 shit-storm that continuously rages all around
the planet, and I know for a fact that special
BS Head Gear can be purchased on Amazon.com. 

Glenn Buttkus

Posted over on dVerse Poets

Would you like to hear the author read this poem to you?



14 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glenn this was certainly an interesting read. I feel as though really don't know whaty's going on. Great read. >KB

Mary said...

For sure, Glenn! One really doesn't know what to believe sometime. It changes from network to network, from week to week. And if you listen to another country's news, it's a whole new spin.

brudberg said...

Quit a trip through the news you took us.. I remember the confusion trying to understand what was going on in the world when I picked it up from TV.. Nowadays I only read newspaper and listen to radio.

Victoria said...

It's become so that I've developed a real passion for sports so that I can eschew news. (My husband's thrilled). I still believe in Kaepernick--not so sure about any of our elected officials. Though Cruz did read from Seuss! Some wisdom there, I'd say.

Nicely done, Glenn.

vivinfrance said...

You've put a spotlight on all that's wrong with politics and politicians. Give them enough airtime and they'll be condemned out of their own mouths!

Laurie Kolp said...

I still don't like to discuss politics... it unnerves me.

Beachanny said...

It's an accurate portrayal. I don't talk about politics much as I always thought of myself as a moderate and am now classified by nearly everyone I know as a "pinky liberal". I think the saboteur, Ted Cruz was simply verbally "twerking" - he wants as much publicity for his grandstanding as Miley Cyrus. This world was crazy.

Would appreciate your response to mine, even though it might be a tad off topic - it is about those sensational times:
http://beachanny.blogspot.com/2013/09/we-were-ones.html#comment-form

Anonymous said...

Let it be spoken! I will love to have it heard too!

Brian Miller said...

ha. global warming might be a relief, if we could control where it fried...the truth can be bought and placed in the spin machine though what it will come out looking like may be something unappealing...news def is not the truth...i guess it is someones....

Mystic_Mom said...

Wow. Once again you wax epic and through the news no less. Well done!

Marina Sofia said...

Ha, glad to see it's not just me who's been having a political moment lately...
If more politicians knew poetry, and more poets knew politics, I am convinced the world would be a little better place in which to live. (JFK)

kaykuala said...

One often wonders the same story can go through such drastic change the longer it goes on! Fantastic write Glenn!

Hank

seasideauthor said...

You get right to the crux of the matters. Really well done.

Chris Lawrence said...

politics there seems to be little difference between ours and yours sometimes when a politician opens his/her mouth i want to hibernate, brilliant piece