by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
In the long presidential campaign, a racist clown can run a war criminal can win. With eighty-some days till election day our poet in residence surveys the electoral landscape.
Operation Kool-Aid: 2yr Long PSYOP
AKA $campaigns & $elections…
by BAR poet in residence Raymond Nat Turner
Would we let Jel-Low Puddin’ Man
Bartend our daughters’ Quinceañeras,
Bat Mitzvahs or Sweet Sixteen sets—
Why do we guzzle corporate Kool-Aid?
Why do we eat up e coli campaign promises?
Why smoke crack chants, U-S-A,U-S-A,U-S-A
Narcotizing death rattle of empire biting the dust?
Why are we hypnotized by Parkinson saber rattling?
Why buy the GROSS National Product of death?
Is it because head-fixers, morale mechanics, bullhorn
brigades, loudspeaker teams, echo chamber crews, lob
psychological smoke bombs jamming our brain waves
with fear, followed by loud instructions to surrender?
“Another right-wing rebel’s hat’s in the ring; a bogey-
man might run; but a war criminal can win; Iowa’s five
weeks away!” Are $campaigns & $elections trailers to
Sequels: Lethal Weapon .45 or 2-yIs it because head-fixers, morale mechanics, bullhorn
brigades, loudspeaker teams, echo chamber crews, lob
psychological smoke bombs jamming our brain waves
with fear, followed by loud instructions to surrender?
“Another right-wing rebel’s hat’s in the ring; a bogey-
man might run; but a war criminal can win; Iowa’s five
weeks away!” Are $campaigns & $elections trailers to
Sequels: Lethal Weapon .45 or 2-year-long lobotomies?
Is it because real votes were cast leaden long ago, polling
places below balconies of motels, in book depositories, on
grassy knolls, above stages in ballrooms, in kitchen pantries
of hotels, Mississippi driveways, Chicago bedrooms, ballots
called ‘wet work’ …retarding revolution decades, centuries...?
Imagine John Lennon coaching Cultural Workers; Imagine Malcolm
Mentoring movements in his 90s; King counseling anti-war activists;
Medgar mentoring Mississippi Rising, Imagine a sixty-something, real
Chicago Community organizer—not named Lucy Parsons…
Raymond nat Turner is an acclaimed bicoastal poet and performance artist. You can find more of his work at http://uspsurgejazz.com
Raymond Nat Turner © 2016 All Rights Reserved
Sonya Massey’s brutal murder at the hands of the police has resulted in anguish and anger but no difference in how state violence is protested. Instead, we see surrender to the crumbs of condolences…
For the late Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, Black music was a tool in the struggle for Black liberation, and not what it has mostly become today: a retrograde appendage to neoliberalism and white power.
Ajamu Baraka, Black Agenda Report editor and columnist, discusses observing the recent elections in Venezuela and why the U.S. still seeks to undermine that democracy.
Rwanda weaponizes the Rwandan Genocide to justify its violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), just as Israel weaponizes the Holocaust to justify its violence in Gaza and the West Bank.
The visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States highlights the role of imperialism in the genocide in Gaza.
