Hopeless Cause?

Mr. Trump, there’s no reason to mope.

We are sure you’ll be able to cope.

For, despite our worst fear,

Since early last year,

We have all learned to live without Hope.

Yeah, the Savant knows this one was way too easy but he still could not resist. After all, since Jan. 20, 2017, aren't we all a little resigned?

Yow! Are we having fun yet?

No question, ’twas destined he’d win it.

As Phineas Barnum might spin it:

In the coming world order,

A new Trump supporter

Is bound to be born ev’ry minute.

Yes, just like you, the Savant is still reeling from what occurred last November and he doesn't mean Thanksgiving with your crazy family. Having had several months to digest the news of what is likely the worst event of his life with the exception of the Lincoln assassination, (No, he wasn't there but his good friend Fred Douglass told him about it) he feels that true to his motto he has no option but to return from semi-retirement. 

During that hiatus from his doggerel and while seeing if his dog'll roll, sit, or beg with the proper incentive; he was lulled by the knowledge that after all, even though there were continuing tensions at home and abroad over race, religion, nativism, gender, and income inequality, we did elect the first black president, twice!

So how did we screw this one up so badly? Well, despite Mr. Trump's obsession with so-called "voter fraud," the only fraud perpetrated on the American people was one that they bought into willingly or through their own complacence. We have allowed ourselves to be hoodwinked by a carnival barker, a consummate showman, who has been peddling his circus act for years. While some of us have remained outside the tent, laughing at the absurd claims and preposterous boasts but mildly entertained, we have ignored the line of paying customers scrabbling to be included under the Trump Big Top. By making vague, even contradictory, statements about what he can do for us ("Make America Great Again") and at the same time playing to our worst fears ("rapists, murderers") he makes us feel understood, appreciated, and part of something bigger and life changing.

No, it wasn't Russian hackers, Putin, James Comey, or Hillary haters that turned this election. It was our own gullibility and credulity and until we take responsibility for the outcome we will be powerless to do anything about it.

Pinheads are everywhere

The Holy See (no evil)

The Church keeps denying the scope
Of the problem with clergy who grope;
But continued abuse
Only tends to confuse.
Should we call him the Perp or the Pope?

Should There Be an Inquisition for the Pope?
Maureen Dowd, The New York Times, 3/30/10

The trail not taken

Advice for Governor Mark Sanford

If you ever expect to avert
Being soiled by adulterous dirt
Then don’t' let 'em catcha,
Not in Appalachia,
But hiking up somebody's skirt.

S.C. Gov. Sanford Admits to an Affair
He Was Visiting Woman in Argentina
By Philip Rucker and Manuel Roig-Franzia
The Washington Post, 6/24/09

Body of lies

Thanks to Mattel (and Hugh Hefner) for
fifty years of unrealistic expectations.

What psychic could possibly gauge
How this freak would become all the rage?
With plenty of plastic
She's looking fantastic
So Barbie's not telling her age.

Barbie doll gets a splashy 50th birthday bash
By Booth Moore, The Los Angeles Times, 2/17/09

Bringing Nome the bacon?

Quite frankly we don't give a fig
About Palin's distress at "the dig,"
For it cannot compete
With her blatant deceit.
As she gussies up pork, save the pig!

And to all those who would call Obama sexist for using the lipstick/pig metaphor, keep in mind that McCain has used the same phrase before and it seems to be Dick Cheney's favorite analogy. Maybe the McCain camp should read the book by his former advisor, Torie Clarke, Lipstick on a Pig, in which she suggests that honesty, not spin, is the best policy in politics or business. How's that one for irony? Or maybe they've been reading Mein Kampf?
"Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it" --- Adolph Hitler

Record Contradicts Palin's 'Bridge' Claims
By Elizabeth Holmes and Laura Meckler
The Wall Street Journal, 9/9/08

As my old pappy use to say...

"A lie can travel halfway around the world
while the truth is still putting on it's shoes."
---(sometimes attributed to Mark Twain)

No limericks today; just a song to be sung to the tune of the
Maverick Theme music by David Buttolph and lyrics by Paul Francis Webster


Who is that gray-haired, stodgy guy?
Maverick is the name.
They call him that, we don't know why,
Palin's his compadre,
Politics his game.

Slick as a lobby in D.C.
Maverick, John McCain.
Out of touch with you and me;
Part of Bush's cadre.
How is that a change?

Riverboat, blow off steam,
Don't buy into their scheme!
Liberty's the lady they will test!

From Natchez to Duluth
It's time to tell the truth
This "maverick's" the same as all the rest.

His campaign's blowin' smoke,
The concept is a joke!
He's claiming change; oh, surely he must jest!

From Natchez to Duluth
It's time to tell the truth
A maverick is no maverick, self-professed,
And John McCain's no maverick, hope you guessed.

For those of us who remember the 60's TV series, the "original Maverick" was James Garner (no, not Tom Cruise!) and there's no contest when it comes to who we'd rather be swindled by. So, when you get ready to vote this year, remember what my old pappy used to say,
"Always drink upstream from the herd."

McCain relies on his image, avoids issues
By Cynthia Tucker
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9/7/08

4K? Not OK!

It’s exactly five years, 1st of May,
I recall hearing Dubbaya say
That our mission was done
With the war shortly won.
Now we’re mourning the loss of 4K.

So it isn’t the billions we pay,
Lack of victory, or the delay;
But the breach of our trust.
When a war is unjust
Even one death is never OK.

U.S. toll in Iraq reaches 4,000
By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times, 3/24/08

A swing...and a miss

The Mitchell Report has me stumped.
You’d think that the sport has been thumped
But it mainly avoids
Facing Baseball v. ‘Roids.
It appears that its import’s been pumped.

Mitchell Report: Some titillation but mostly a whiff
By Art Thiel, Seattle Post Intelligencer, 12/14/07

Faulty intelligence?

His plan in Iran has a crimp
And his war in Iraq, he can't pimp.
Has Science now shown
What we always have known?
Can Bush be replaced by a chimp?




Chimps Exhibit Superior Memory, Outshining Humans
By Henry Fountain, The New York Times, 12/4/07

Won't get fooled again!

Presidential address preview

As his surge simply slows to a crawl,
Mr. Bush has learned nothing at all.
With his words rearranged,
His solution's unchanged:
He just says "military," with drawl!

Limited Pullout Is Middle Way on Iraq, Bush Will Say
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Steven Lee Myers
The New York Times, 9/13/07

If I Ignored It...

would it go away?

Though the Goldmans deserve every credit
If they publish his book (with their edit,)
If I Did It 's a joke
Like no fire where there's smoke.
Would I learn something new, if I read it?

Victims’ families feud over O.J.’s ‘If I Did It’ book
Denise Brown accuses Goldmans of “commercializing blood money”
By Mike Celizic, NBC, The TODAY Show, 8/15/07

Record* catch!

Seems Barry is joining the ranks
Of the greats with achievements like Hank's.
If using the 'roids
Automatically voids
His record, this guy still says, "Thanks!"



Record baseball may be worth $1m
BBC News, 8/8/07

We don't need no steenkin' veto!

These are true Constitutional zingers
And their use means a nagging doubt lingers;
That, while signing a bill
Sent from Capitol Hill,
Mr. Bush has been crossing his fingers!


Recent use of presidential signing statments

Bush challenges hundreds of laws
President cites powers of his office
By Charlie Savage, Boston Globe, 4/30/06

Reporter Highlights Bush's Executive Decisions
Terry Gross interview with Charlie Savage
of the Boston Globe
Fresh Air, NPR, 5/9/06

Slim pickin's indeed

When it comes to leadership

Indifferent to any rebukes,
This president raises his dukes
And plans, even now, boy,
To leave (the mad cowboy!)
His brand on Iran using nukes.



With my sincerest apologies to the real Slim
who could ride the bull, not just sling it.



THE IRAN PLANS
Would President Bush go to war
to stop Tehran from getting the bomb?
by Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, 4/17/06 issue

Fodder of his country

Bush says that he's only applying
Rules Washington used as to spying;
But the rule we were taught
Was that, even when caught,
That "George" wouldn't be caught by his lying

Administration Continues Eavesdropping Defense
By John O'Neil, The New York Times, 1/24/06

Swiss miss

Dick Marty has advanced the suspicion
That the EU condoned inquisition.
It's the same tortured song
That we've heard far too long
And we still do not like the rendition.

Report accuses US of 'outsourcing' torture
By Philippe Naughton, Times Online, 1/24/06

History 102

Now dear students, it only is fair
That we seek to contrast and compare:
Was Bush-ordered spying
And pattern of lying
On a par with the Clinton affair?

Bigger brother
Editorial, Los Angeles Times, 12/18/05

Playing the Blame Game

Plenty to go around

Yes, Democrats cannot deny
That they looked on this war with an "aye;"
But the blame we assign
For their sheer lack of spine
Doesn't give Mr. Bush a free bye.

Mr. Bush, you were quick to decry
Those who said that you led us awry;
But, for all your derision,
A lie of omission
Is, nevertheless, still a lie.

Pre-Iraq War Intelligence: A Look at the Facts
By Don Gonyea and Jackie Northam,
NPR Morning Edition, 11/23/05

Think of it as a harmonic convergence of sorts
By Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate
Star Telegram, 11/23/05

Iraq: What Did Congress Know, And When?
Annenberg Political Fact Check, 11/19/05

Gulag Shock

Mr. Bush, we would like it explained
How Geneva can be so disdained.
A secret detention
Defies that convention
And the Truth is what's really detained.

Pressure on allies over CIA's 'al-Qaida camps'
· European commission and Red Cross seek answers
Nicholas Watt, The Guardian, 11/4/05