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

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:
Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
Making America Whiter Again: White Supremacy in Action
27 May 2026
There is nothing mysterious about Trump’s effort to curb legal immigration. White supremacy is the explanation.

More Stories


  • A Quarter Century of a Western-backed War of Aggression Against the Congolese People
    Maurice Carney
    A Quarter Century of a Western-backed War of Aggression Against the Congolese People
    17 Jun 2022
    Rwanda and Uganda have carried out attacks against the Democratic Republic of Congo for the past 25 years. Their aggressions are carried out with the backing of the U.S. and European nations who aid…
  • Empire’s Fleeting Leadership in Its Yard
    Farooque Chowdhury
    Empire’s Fleeting Leadership in Its Yard
    16 Jun 2022
    The U.S. effort to control the narrative at the Summit of the Americas ended as a diplomatic and foreign policy disaster. The imperative to dominate blew up in the collective faces of the Biden…
  • The Problem with Juneteenth
    Margaret Kimberley, BAR Executive Editor and Senior Columnist
    The Problem with Juneteenth
    15 Jun 2022
    Juneteenth was a people's holiday with deep meaning for the descendants of enslaved people. But the declaration of an official federal holiday has turned it into an opportunity for corporate…
  • Hubert Harrison, Tribune of the People: Part Two, The Voice of Harlem Radicalism
    Sean I. Ahern
    Hubert Harrison, Tribune of the People: Part Two, The Voice of Harlem Radicalism
    15 Jun 2022
    Hubert Henry Harrison was one of the foremost Black socialist and nationalist thinkers of the early 20th century. He was known as "the father of Harlem radicalism." This is the second of of a…
  • EXCERPT: On the Pan-American Congress, José Martí, 1889
    Editors, The Black Agenda Review
    EXCERPT: On the Pan-American Congress, José Martí, 1889
    15 Jun 2022
    José Martí’s account of the 1889 Pan-American Congress offers lessons for last week’s failed Summit of the Americas.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us