Sullied Cries of Desperation

[mtmynd]

negate the state of mind with rhymes
gurgling thru an oasis of depredation
the nation besieged by fools whose tools
are not jewels but newels cracked and broken
splintered at the knees they wheeze they heave
boulders of lies across night skies bombed,
sullied by cries of desperation, a nation crumbles...

__________
Cecil B. Lee

[theirishsea]

Got to get a new sump pump to get Trump out of the nation's basement. He is sabotaging the foundation of our democracy.

[mnaz]

Trump is a symptom of underlying issues/forces IMO. We voted him in, right? Why? We must've had a good reason, right?

[saw]

the rhyme works well
what a good dystopian novel this would be
meant to scare the bejesus out of us
we are living it, it seems unreal

[mtmynd]

Got to get a new sump pump to get Trump out of the nation's basement. He is sabotaging the foundation of our democracy.

Spot on!

[mnaz]

Yeah but we voted for him. Explain that. (I can't. Except maybe he had no credible alternative; that's the only thing I've been able to come up with so far.)

[mnaz]

This is a jewel; it shines a light on perception... But what is perception? What is truth or untruth when it's everywhere in all directions? and when we resort to "electing" corporate mendacity? So Trump is an asshole and water is wet et cet. But he's OUR asshole godammit, and he'll make us great again and save us from those liberals and foreigners (and make them pay for our walls!) .... In short, what I meant to say was that the patient (America) doesnt seem to be responding .... to any sort of rationality. One man's (or woman's) rationality is another's hyped-up doom. Why does it always seem to be all or nothing with us?

[sasha]

Yeah but we voted for him. Explain that. (I can't. Except maybe he had no credible alternative; that's the only thing I've been able to come up with so far.)

We the People didn't - he lost the popular vote, despite his denials. He was voted in by the Electoral College, which, thanks to Republican gerrymandering, gave their delegates a disproportionate voice. But I'm not comfortable with Democratic calls to do away with the College altogether - strikes me as a little like amputating a limb because of an infected sore. I'd first rather see something done to limit the kind of strategic redistricting that skewed the election in the first place. Given the extreme polarization of the Congress (and the country as a whole), I'm not too sanguine about anything at all getting done, though.

[saw]

growing up I can't ever remember worrying about a fair election
now we know those Diebold machines can be manipulated without anyone knowing....WE absolutely need verifiable paper ballots
I never thought that there would be a concerted effort to actually deny people from casting their ballots. Now we know, many folks have been tossed from the rolls with no justification for that or denied when they arrived at the polling place an opportunity to vote when they were in fact registered.
I never thought about gerrymandering.....in fact I grew up being confident that in the US, at least we adhered to this democratic process of fair elections....and every voice would be heard. I never could have imagined a foreign power could hack into the voting process with ease.

but this is a new world

[sasha]

The small New Hampshire town I call home can't afford voting machines - so we still use paper ballots. Voting is as much a social event here as it is a civic duty. We went heavily for Trump, unfortunately, but did so honestly - however misinformed & ill-advised.

I can remember paying an annual poll tax. It wasn't much - maybe $10 per year - but it was still an attempt to draw an economic line between those who could vote and those who couldn't. Discriminatory practices are so much more sophisticated now than they were in those days of yore.

[mtmynd]

growing up I can't ever remember worrying about a fair election... in fact I grew up being confident that in the US, at least we adhered to this democratic process of fair elections....and every voice would be heard. I never could have imagined a foreign power could hack into the voting process with ease.

but this is a new world

I well can imagine these memories applying to "our generation" in many British and European nations. Hell, news show us African countries and even the Mid East, South America... so many in either disrupted and in disarray. Stability seems to be "just a dream, just a dream" that once was a reality during the so long ago 20th C (or it seems).

Maybe the Mayan Calendar we heard so much about nearing it's end times (12.21.2012) ... and yes I don't deny something about "the most amazingly created calendar ever conceived" by those who have spent their lives using it *and/or* those who have studied it). I had read where some of the Mayan minds say the end of the Calendar time gives rise to a time "the Mayan Ancients could not see/understand... they were baffled by the future their very own calendar told them about. Radical climate change, confusion within religions, the delicate balance currently of economies world wide... WTF is going on? We speak silently or we whisper deftly in private conversations and yell about fiercely to hopefully negate the fear of a future unknown.... but.... indeed, Steve, this is a "new?" world... definitely a different world on the near horizon.

"I hear those sullied cries of desperation" loud and clear...

[mnaz]

Could be. No one knows what "the end" is. "End" of (?) Beginning of ... ? McKenna called it a point of maximum "novelty," which the universe is pulling toward increasing and accelerating interconnectedness, which eventually reaches an infinitely complex singularity. I think he called this the transcendental end of time, or something like that...

For America in particular-- where are these sullied cries? I read today that Wall Street expects Mr. T to be reelected. Business as usual. And apparently we like doing business this way. Or at least a so-called "majority" of us do (and Russian hacking be damned-- if WE, the GULLIBLE, are so intellectually flabby as to be so easily TROLLED like that, then that still is ON US).

Okay, so yes, it could be said that perhaps We, the Patient, suffered a temporary lapse of sanity in voting this guy into office-- you know, a WTF moment, throwing our hands up in disgust, anyone but Hillary, et cet. But in that scenario, the Patient comes to their senses at some point, and vows "never again," right? In reality, the Patient isn't responding-- not in that way. And THAT-- beyond the guy currently in the Oval Office-- I think is the deeper question. Why are WE sanctioning this behavior?