In the Name of Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

 

In the Name of Democracy

 

In the name of democracy

Join the streets of protest

 

In the name of democracy

Resist the oppressors of immigrants

 

In the name of democracy

Rise up to defend the ballot box

 

In the name of democracy

Maintain a constant vigilance

Support your local dissidents

 

In the name of democracy

Challenge all authority

Support independent media

 

In the name of democracy

Teach your children your ideals

Value freedom of speech

 

In the name of democracy

Know the history of our nation

Slavery and subjugation

A little matter of native genocide

The right to vote denied

 

In the name of democracy

Remember who we are

The ones who came from afar

To fight for freedom from a king

The right to worship and to sing

Let the bells of freedom ring

In the name of democracy

 

Any War Will Do

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

Any War

 

Because the president says it

Does not mean that it is true

The president wants a war

Almost any war will do

 

There is no trouble in Liberia

No Christian genocide in Nigeria

We have no business in Siberia

There is no reason for hysteria

 

He’s waging war on Venezuela

Cuba, Haiti and Brazil

He’s sending troops to Arcadia

He wants an enemy he can kill

 

If we are waging war on ISIS

Set the target within Sahel

There you will find a crisis

Turning villages into hell

 

But you don’t want a righteous war

When any third world war will do

You don’t care the reasons for

You don’t need a cause that’s true

 

You’ll keep on throwing bombs

To distract us from the truth

It’s an old familiar song

To be answered in the booth

 

 

Russian Mercenaries

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RUSSIA

 

Russian Mercenaries

 

They don’t have enough soldiers

To fight their war against Ukraine

But they’re sending mercenaries to Mali

To join a war of the insane

 

They don’t believe in their cause

Because the cause is not their own

They’re fundamentally flawed

Like a heart made of stone

 

They pay the North Korean poor

To boost their numbers in Ukraine

But every mercenary war

Is a war fought in vain

 

They ignore all human rights

They practice torture and abuse

When they have lost the will to fight

Their iron grip will shake loose

 

The Russians are a scourge

On the entire human race

Their forces should be purged

From each and every civilized place

 

 

The Great Voter Purge

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

The Voter Purge

 

It all started in Tallahassee

The Great American Voter Purge

Now it moves from sea to sea

To counter an expected voter surge

 

There’s more than one way to win

Without a majority of votes

Let the next great purge begin

All historians should take notes

 

They’ll take a list of minority names

Gathered from the crime rolls

They’ll paint them all with fiendish shame

They will sell their eternal souls

 

All those voters will be tossed

Without time to restore them

The Democrats will pay the cost

At our peril do we ignore them

 

There is no border they won’t cross

No lie, no fraud, no cheat

To please their crude and wicked boss

To avoid a huge defeat

 

Bondi Beach

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Bondi Beach

 

We mourn the dead of Bondi Beach

As we grieve the dead in Palestine

Mercy moves beyond our reach

There is no justice we can find

 

The Jewish people cannot be blamed

For the mindless vengeance of one man

For though they share a Jewish name

The stand apart on the Zion plan

 

Each man and woman on the earth

Has a right to their own beliefs

Each man and woman has their worth

And is entitled to share relief

 

When we seek vengeance as a cause

You can be sure it will strike back

If we’re a people of civilized laws

We can’t condone such vile attacks

 

So let us mourn all those who die

In the cause of vengeful pride

Let us condemn the reasons why

End the vengeance on both sides

 

 

Santiago Falls (The Ghost of Pinochet)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LATIN AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Santiago Falls

 

Jose Antonio Kast

Brings back shadows of the past

The ghost of Pinochet

Has come back to haunt Chile

 

A campaign of law and order

A promise to protect the border

Rising crime and deportation

Mounting fear and desperation

 

We cannot predict the future

But we can warn about the past

As the future travels nearer

Our dread grows deep and vast

 

Recall the disappeared

Remember the oppression

The iron fist of fear

Has Chile learned her lesson?

 

Or is she now condemned

To repeat her sordid past?

On this man you’ll depend

To break his fascist cast

 

 

The Great Northwest Flood

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

 

The Great Northwest Flood

 

A torrent from the heavens

Tears through the Great Northwest

From Mount Olympus down to Pullman

The dams and rivers crest

 

From the Skagit to the Skokomish

All the rivers overrun

The people have one Christmas wish

That this nightmare is done

 

For now they are in crisis mode

They’re scrambling for their lives

They’ve lived enough to know the code

They know how to survive

 

But this one hit them stronger

Than most every storm before

Each time it takes them longer

To recover and restore

 

We all know it is the warming

That brings this kind of rain

The hurricanes and storming

Our structures under strain

 

We can’t go on pretending

The warming is not here

Deflecting and defending

There is no cause for fear

 

So do whatever you can do

To get ready for the next one

For we know this much is true:

It gets worse before it’s done

 

 

The Ugly American

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

 

The Ugly American

 

The ugly American has come to pass

We know his name and number

We hope his reign will not last

The dream is in a slumber

 

It seems we don’t like anyone

Who isn’t white and wealthy

Until this wave is finally done

Our nation is not healthy

 

We’ve fallen to the right extreme

The ones who do not care

They never liked the fabled dream

To them it seems unfair

 

That whites are not the ruling class

All others get in line

Money is the only pass

To drink the finest wine

 

We are the world’s worst nightmare

Until that distant day

When the light of reason fills the air

And this one goes away

 

 

Budapest Rising

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Budapest Rising

 

An election is coming to Budapest

As we hear a rising sound

The people march in protest

As scandals shake the ground

 

Corruption and rank abuse

Has shaken Hungary to its core

Orban’s grip is coming loose

Change is knocking at the door

 

Pedophilia and prostitution

An abomination to the masses

When it invades your institutions

It rips apart your ruling classes

 

When you’re a strongman at the helm

You believe there are no rules

You have gone beyond the realm

Of the morbid and the cruel

 

How long as this gone on?

This unspeakable reign of horror

Was it happening all along?

Listen! Hear the people roar!

 

The great reckoning is coming down

Like a hammer to your head

They don’t want your kind around

Try democracy instead

 

 

The Imperial President

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

The Imperial President

 

If I say it’s the law it’s the law

If I say it’s a crime it’s a crime

The imperial president’s flaw

Puts the nation in a bind

 

We are complicit in our silence

As the president does his will

Acts of war and criminal violence

He has claimed the right to kill

 

In this country we don’t have a king

And we do not have a god

The blowback he will surely bring

The outrage and the fraud

 

He is itching for a fight

To distract us from the files

Whether wrong or whether right

Someone’s bound to get riled

 

As we take another step

Toward losing our republic

As the founding spirits wept

As the clock begins to tick

 

May we change the way we’re thinking

Before we lose it all

The ship of state is sinking

In the days before the fall

 

 

Buying our Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Buying Democracy

 

Our democracy is endangered

By a court that has no pride

It has gone from strange to stranger

As the court finds its stride

 

One man gave a quarter billion

To take hold of the White House

Next time could bring a trillion

The threat is beyond doubt

 

But the court has no concern

They are tarred by the same cash

It’s the people who get burned

There’s no need to even ask

 

Corruption is institutionalized

With the blessings of the court

It is not right, just or wise

The invaders guarding the fort

 

Will we surrender our republic

Without raising a rebel cry?

Has the fog grown so thick

That we won’t even try?

 

A republic, old Ben Franklin said

But only if you can keep it

When our democracy is dead

Will we even seek it?

 

 

Contingencies

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Contingencies

 

What will Zelensky do

When Trump betrays Ukraine?

What will the continent do

When Russia makes it plain

That they will not stop the war

As long as Putin reigns

As long as there is more

To load on Russia’s train?

 

What will America do

When Europe does not fold?

What will China do

When Putin’s act grows old?

When the whole world realigns?

When democracies grow bold?

When India reads the signs?

 

What will the world do

When all are forced to choose?

Old ties or something new?

Who wins and who will lose?

When the people finally rise?

To claim their sovereign prize

And affirm their best allies? 

 

The Darkest Hour

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

The Darkest Hour

 

When given immoral dictums

You have a right to refrain

When the righteous are the victims

As they are in fair Ukraine

 

It seems America has abandoned

The democratic cause

With the Kremlin in tandem

We are down to last straws

 

We ask little of the aggressor

We demand much of Ukraine

A territorial divestiture

The resistance was in vain

 

But Ukraine is not alone

Europe will not turn its back

They will stand up for their own

Until the cause is back on track

 

We are in the darkest hours

It seems the walls are closing in

An alliance of dark powers

Let us pray they do not win

 

If the allies would prevail

In the defense of fair Ukraine

Before the path grows stale

We must endure greater pain

 

 

India and Russia

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: INDIA

 

Russia and India

 

When you’re in bed with a beast

A rank purveyor of war

Do not pretend you love peace

Your reputation is less than poor

 

Modi wants what Putin has

A stranglehold on power

He’ll play the game as long as

It is not the China hour

 

The man from Moscow plays it cool

Both sides against the middle

The American is his fool

But Modi is his fiddle

 

China’s Xi remains a mystery

In this strange triangulation

It will go down in modern history

The day that Modi sold his nation

 

For just a moment in the sun

With the planet’s greatest threat

By the time this deal is done

They will be buried in Russian debt