Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

hand ‘em another $350 billion to fight Communism?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
29 Jul 2026
🖨️ Print Article
Increased funding to The Pentagon

Two Harlem booksellers say, yellowed, dusty copies
of Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto and Engels’ 
Socialism: Utopian and Scientific are flying off shelves
like gloves, masks, and hand sanitizer
during darkest days of the pandemic. They say brisk sales
are inspiring them to search stuffed storage units for more!

“What’s Goin On?” we ask. They say it’s candles.
Flowers. Beloved faces of our martyrs plastering 
blood-red streets Minnesota to Maine. California
to Florida; Texas to Illinois, awakening a colossus.

They say POP-POP-POP counterpoint, gunshots
against shrill whistle warnings are awakening a colossus.
They say it’s the Big Beautiful Bank Job. The grifting Tariff Sheriff
and DOGE’s Undignified Transfer of wealth.
They say it’s billionaire Epstein class war waged at checkout stands, 
pharmacies, and gas pumps that’s awakening a colossus.

They say it’s testosterone-fueled tough talk of a pomade man burning 
through trillions — blowing up babies — that’s awakening a colossus.
They say it’s the Cruel Corrupt Reich Cult’s
Cold War screaming anti-communist curses, that’s awakening a colossus.

They say it’s the baffling bullshit of Boss Tweet … fractured fairytales …
… weaponized words … about our abducted / disappeared class brothers and
sisters, awakening a colossus. They say it’s the nightly gaslighting of belligerent
blonde lil Eva Braun, flooding the zone with dreck, that’s awakening a colossus.

They say it’s absurdity of demanding $350 billion more to fight communism 
“on our own shores.” It’s a cash-stuffed scarecrow; a Pentagon pimp PSYOP 
awakening a colossus. It’s a 37% “approval rating —” or more accurately — 
it’s 63% saying NO! or HELL NO! awakening a colossus.

© 2026. Raymond Nat Turner, The Town Crier. All Rights Reserved.

Raymond Nat Turner is a NYC poet, BAR's Poet-in-Residence, and founder/co-leader of the jazz-poetry ensemble UpSurge!NYC. You can vote for his work at GoFundMe and PayPal.

Donald Trump
Pentagon
US Military
Anti-Communism

Do you need and appreciate Black Agenda Report articles? Please click on the DONATE icon, and help us out, if you can.


Related Stories

Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The Democratic Party Still Hates the Left
21 October 2026
The Democratic Party is terrified of even small liberal reforms and will not abide left leaning democrats thwarting their plans for a
The Cradle News Desk
US military withdraws from Iraq after two decades: Report
30 September 2026
Iraqi Kurdish leaders say the US withdrawal will leave their region, long a CIA and Mossad hub, vulnerable to Iranian attacks.
Charisse Burden-Stelly, PhD
Twentieth Century Red Scares in the United States
23 September 2026
Red Scares are a recurring feature of the U.S.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Find me another 11,780 votes?
16 September 2026
Find me another 11,780 votes?Resurrection of old questions:How many jelly beans in a jar, How many bubbles in a bar of soap?
Brett Wilkins
‘Nothing Short of Torture’: Critics Decry Abuse Affirmed by DHS Alligator Alcatraz Probe
16 September 2026
“DHS needs to be dismantled and held accountable for this complete inhumanity,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal.
​​​​​​​ Ajamu Baraka, BAR editor and columnist
Neoliberalism to Trumpism: The Re-Normalization of White Supremacy as State Ideology
29 July 2026
The crisis of late-stage capitalism has stripped away the liberal disguise and revealed white supremacy as the official ideology of t
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Slimy green cesspool reflecting capitalist rule
22 July 2026
Capitalism says corporations are people …  It says,Money’s speech …    Buying, bossing, sock-puppet
Editors, The Black Agenda Review
DOCUMENT: “We Will Find You and We Will Kill You”: United States Counterterrorism Strategy, 2026
15 July 2026
“Americans should be safe to live their lives without the fear of terror attacks, the threat of Jihadists, the flooding of our commun
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
The Obama Center is a Monument to the More Effective Evil
10 June 2026
Barack Obama bailed out the banks, deported millions, and devastated nations and millions of people through wars of aggression.
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
Short word problems: do the math
03 June 2026
Work these word problems. Work them as if your lives depend onYOUR correct answers.YOUR solutions … Because they do:

More Stories


  • Hashtag Activism and US Imperialism
    Erica Caines
    Hashtag Activism and US Imperialism
    19 Oct 2022
    The social media hashtag is often where serious politics goes to die. It can be a tool of empire used to fool well-meaning but uninformed people.
  • The Lethal Threat of White Boss Syndrome
    Mark P. Fancher
    The Lethal Threat of White Boss Syndrome
    19 Oct 2022
    The idea that white people have an inherent right to control Black people permeates to this day. Mark Fancher provides another viewpoint on the killing of Porter Burks and the legacy of white…
  • Detroit City Council Expands “ShotSpotter” After Two More are Gunned Down by Police
    Abayomi Azikiwe
    Detroit City Council Expands “ShotSpotter” After Two More are Gunned Down by Police
    19 Oct 2022
    Detroit resident Porter Burks was killed by police while in the midst of a mental health crisis. To add insult to injury, the city of Detroit is spending millions of dollars on dubious technology…
  • The Other Russia-West War: Why Some African Countries are Abandoning Paris, Joining Moscow
    Ramzy Baroud
    The Other Russia-West War: Why Some African Countries are Abandoning Paris, Joining Moscow
    19 Oct 2022
    France's colonial and neo-colonial history is now challenged in Francophone Africa by Russia's position as a world power rival to the US and other NATO nations.  
  • Brazilian Muslims Demand Harvard Return Skull of Enslaved Man Who Fought in Uprising
    Eduardo Campos Lima
    Brazilian Muslims Demand Harvard Return Skull of Enslaved Man Who Fought in Uprising
    19 Oct 2022
    Universities and museums around the world still hold human remains in their collections. Harvard University follows this discredited practice and has the skull of an enslaved Brazilian who took…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us