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

State of the Union—or state of Capitalist decay?
Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
12 Mar 2025
🖨️ Print Article
Donald Trump State of the Union
Photo: ABC News

“Every man for himself
and the devil take the hindmost.”

Something’s soothing, lobotomizing, about the snotty
Voice flooding from Fox-boxes. Something’s
Lobotomizing about an ignorant comedian coming to
Kill—but bombing—yet, still killing …

Something’s soothing about Jumping Jack Fascists—
Springing up at every absurd utterance and
Thunder of rattling rubbish. Their hand bones
Fracturing from clapping so damn loud—so long …

Something’s soothing about Jumping Jack Fascists
Springing up like they got the Holy Ghost! Fits of
Ecstasy applauding poor people used as props—
Mascots—human shields for class war’s unpopular policies

Something’s soothing about Jumping Jack Fascists
Springing up, sane-washing a lipsticked pig. And face-
Lifting lies about capitalism’s impossible promises to
The People …

Forked tongue tour de force— False from beginning to
End. 1hour, 40 minute Mussolini masterpiece. Il DOGE
Smashed Dr. Goebbels’ Guinness Book of Records for
Orwellian wizardry: misinformation/disinformation/1/2 truths/big lies.

Barren make believe desert. Echo chamber of hollow mockery—
Hypocrisy, humbuggery/thuggery, treachery, treason, truth-less-
Ness and alternative facts where up is down. Bad’s good. Worse
Is better. Woke's worrisome/and straw’s spun orange into fools gold …

Leaning in, listening to bosh-laden blizzards of fabrications—
Falsifications— bleached bone white lies—but not eating the
Dogma does cause trauma. Trauma of two car crashes;
Three boxing matches; And four NFL and hockey games …

Blitzkrieg! Warp speed war on the working-class—
Moving fast! Breaking things! Things shoe leather, steel spines,
Blood and grit won working people long, long ago.
Things we long to make more muscular, more robust. And for all …

© 2025. 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.

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


More Stories


  • Ujima People's Progress Party
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Maryland Extends the Carceral State to Children and Youth
    15 Mar 2024
    Gus Griffin joins us to discuss Maryland's new legislation which allegedly reforms juvenile justice, but is in fact an expansion of the carceral state to include young children.
  • Shaka Shakur
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Political Prisoner Shaka Shakur
    15 Mar 2024
    Shaka Shakur, a revolutionary New Afrikan political prisoner speaks to us from Virginia, where he is now being held.
  • FCNL Logo
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    U.S. Policy and the Human Rights Crisis in Gaza
    15 Mar 2024
    Hassan El-Tayyab, with the Friends Committee on National Legislation, joins to discuss this trip to Israel, the occupied Palestinian territory, Jordan, and Lebanon and U.S. policy and the human…
  • Black Agenda Radio
    Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley
    Black Agenda Radio March 15, 2024
    15 Mar 2024
    This week we discuss how U.S. policy creates suffering in Gaza. We also hear about the case of a New Afrikan political prisoner, and a plan to involve more children and youth in Maryland’s carceral…
  • Jemima Pierre on Democracy NOW
    Jemima Pierre, BAR Editor and Contributor
    Empire's Laboratory: How the 2004 U.S.- Backed Coup Destabilized Haiti & Led to the Current Crisis
    13 Mar 2024
    Watch Black Alliance for Peace member and scholar, Jemima Pierre, in this interview on 3/11/24 on Democracy NOW. Here, she discuss the current events in Haiti, where she asserts that the crisis in…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us