He was going to say something to America about the war. 

He was on TV and the camera was pointed at him and noises came from his head but we learned nothing.

We will be finished with the war in two or three weeks.

April Fool.

People discuss the war.

The war is necessary, some say, because the government of Iran is a real threat and a sponsor of terror 

or the war is unnecessary and what they call a war of choice.

The war is going well and is meeting its objectives

or the war is not going well and we don’t know what the objectives are or if there are any.

At any rate, the war is ahead of schedule and under budget and so is the ballroom. 

It’s a beautiful thing. 

Orwellian, directed by Luis Bunuel. 

America is a surrealist farce about fascism.

Enter Pete Hegseth, the poet warrior:

He raps to the camera. 

“Violent effect, not politically correct”

goes one of his lyrics. 

Not a good beat, Pete, but it rhymes.

Rhyme without reason and not a good beat.

“Maximum lethality, not tepid legality.”

“Legality”, here, means taking care to not harm the people we claim to be liberating. 

“Lethality” means Kill Kill Kill —

bombing schools, bombing power plants, boats, people.

Trump went from illiterate to obliterate to obliterating what he already obliterated to threatening to commit war crimes to committing war crimes.

The killing of the grade school girls was probably unintentional, they say, the information was out of date, they say.

Pete the poet warrior eliminated the department in charge of keeping such information up to date, they say.

Instead of rules of engagement 

we have foolish enragement, I say. 

I can rhyme too.

Innocent people always suffer and die when death and destruction rains from the sky.

Not a good beat, Lars.

After complaints he had no objective he demands unconditional surrender.

Unconditional surrender.

What does he mean by that?

He will know it when he sees it.

He wants total submission.

He wants total submission from all of us.

The world is his representation and must submit to his will.

He’s a twisted solipsister 

He wants absolute loyalty from all branches of the government.

He wants his will to override the law, including the Constitution.

We know this because this is how he has been governing.

He isn’t really governing, he is dominating. He disobeys court orders when he can get away with it.

His paramilitary thugs grab whoever they can and put them in concentration camps.

He started a war without going to Congress, without bringing a case for war to the people. 

Congress has been submissive to his whim, even when his whim is to go to war.

He tries to intimidate the Supreme Court by showing up and farting in the gallery. 

He appoints his personal lawyer, 

who made a deal with Ghislaine Maxwell,

Attorney General.

This is the idiotic regime we live in now.

What are we to do?

What can we do and what needs to be done?

What am I to do?

I can rhyme too.

We filled some streets and marched and chanted No Kings

But what is our objective?

Where are we going ?

What will the Party offer besides more hearings and trials?

What have we learned from the disaster of 2016?

What have we learned from the disaster of 2024?

The debacle of the system and the parties and our submission to oligarchs, the billionaire Epstein class.´ 

No kings, yeah 

No kings, power to the people.

Whose streets?

Our streets !

I am marching in a circle in my studio.

I am whispering to the ceiling 

And no corporate lobbyists and no more neoliberal bullshit 

Party establishment!

Power to the people,

I shout at the ceiling and stub my toe.

How do you say this in pictures, in a comic strip?

You say you want a revolution 

But what are your objectives?

the ceiling whispers back.

Focus on an altruistic intention.

The revolution, unlike the war, 

Is necessary, says the ceiling.

The revolution is power to the people, I tell the ceiling, but

the revolution is behind schedule.

What do we do with the disaster of today?

You can’t let the crisis go to waste, the ceiling screams back.

The street is your ballroom and disco inferno. 

You say you want a revolution but are you ready to jump?

You say you want a revolution but are you ready to dance?

Are you ready to fly?

When the ceiling disappeared,

I fell into the sky.

Birthday speech

Everybody is whispering 

No

Everybody is screaming but my hearing is bad

and their screams reach me as whispers.

I don’t know what their problems are

I don’t understand what is going on over there 

Over there over there

Why don’t they speak up?

My creeping deafness annoys me.

Their muted cries anger me

Why don’t they speak up?

Why can’t they plainly articulate 

Step by step a reasonable explanation of the situation 

because 

I can’t see through the flames that engulf them

And their cries are buried in the roar of the collapsing structure 

And I leap out of the way of the fleeing refugees.

Hey everybody, Cool out!

Brothers and sisters, Cool out!

I want to go back to bed and put the pillows over my head

and turn on the old music

Turn it up real loud 

Country Joe

Well come on all you big strong men

Uncle Don needs your help again 

Got himself in a terrible jam 

Way down yonder in

Where the hell are we?

Uncle Don is confused and stupid 

but the explainers try to explain what is plain

idiocy.

It’s not a war, it’s an excursion, he said 

Did someone suggest he use the word “incursion”

but that was an unfamiliar word and he confused it with the familiar word?

Tourists on excursions came to his casino

and to him Iran is another big casino 

where Desperate Don can try his luck

and bet the nation’s wealth on a spin of the 

Wheel of Misfortune 

And the wheel’s still in spin 

and there’s no telling whose number is up 

when it comes to a stop.

“Incursion”

That word triggered my elderly memory machine.

Incursion was the word Nixon found to name the bombing of Cambodia 

I’m sorry to bore you with ancient history and old man memories, but once I get to gabbing I can’t help myself,

and Nixon’s Incursion — nobody knew what the word meant, 

and as Clean Gene McCarthy helpfully pointed out, it has no verb form that makes grammatical sense.

You can incur a debt, but not a military operation.

So incursion was the perfect word for his purpose,

which was to obscure his purpose which was to

Invade and Attack and Expand the war he was elected to end and beat Southeast Asia into submission until he achieved Peace With Honor.

Kids who were supposed to fight this shit weren’t buying it and maybe their parents were less eager to have their boys come home in a box. A dignified transfer, they call it now.

The expansion of the war wasn’t too many months after the story of the My Lai Massacre went public. The military tried to cover it up. I read about it in Reader’s Digest and began to realize all the Truth Justice American Way propaganda was bullshit. Our Manifest Destiny was powered by slavery and genocide. My Lai Wounded Knee Corlear’s Hook — ever hear of that? On and on —

Rape! Murder!

Come on all you big strong men.

Look what’s happening out in the streets,

Marching charging feet, boy, 

but not in Palm Beach Gardens, where I sat on the living room floor, sixteen years old, sick with mononucleosis, in front of the stereo,

listening to WMUM, the underground radio station, play songs of revolution and the Revolution was in our heads for a little while — can you feel the rumblings as your head comes crumbling down and you know what I mean? 

I’m sorry I’m sorry, inflicting the boomer soundtrack on you and I’m and I’m rambling and ranting, I know.

But it’s my birthday and you insisted I make a speech

and this is all I’ve got 

War

The wrathful deity is a projection of the soul.

The Republic is the soul writ large, says Plato.

“Death and destruction from the sky all day long,” says the Secretary of War.

The Party is concerned that the war could harm its chances in the midterm elections. The Other Party hopes the war’s unpopularity could work for them in the elections.

The President plans to attend the dignified transfer of the dead bodies.

The President does not make decisions in a vacuum, says his spokeswoman.

You only want to talk about the dead to make the President look bad.

We consult the scribes and priests and look at the New York Times and FOX and the Revelation of St John

Recall the stories you have heard all your life about Armageddon 

Stories about the sky falling down. Stories about the Great Pumpkin, or The Revolution, or The Last Days.

This is one of those critical times when certain archetypes return.

Such as Nero, memorably portrayed as 666 by John the Revelator, returning as Napoleon to Pierre in War and Peace. When Pierre thinks he has decoded a prophecy he feels called to assassinate Napoleon. He fell for the fallacy of taking apocalyptic literature literally.

Jesus predicted the destruction of the Temple and warned his followers to be prepared to become refugees.

I don’t remember the stories telling us exactly what to do when the sky is falling down. 

Watch out for falling debris.

Watch out for falling empire.

Know where the exits are when your castle is burning.

Don’t panic 

Pay attention 

Update your Go bag 

Help your neighbor 

Love your enemies 

Breathe 

See? I got nothing 

I’m an empty handed painter drawing crazy patterns on your sheets 

I steal words from old songs because I don’t know what to say 

A hard rain is gonna fall all day every day for five or six or seven weeks or years or whatever it takes to achieve the objectives we haven’t yet identified 

Gimme Shelter

War is just a drone strike away

Instant karma is gonna get us

People Get Ready

I’m planning to participate in the March 28 No Kings Day events whatever they are. 

Release all the Trump/Epstein files before he bombs another elementary school 

Thoughts and Prayers and Actions and Revolution 

We need to become a crisis intervention movement

Decapitate the regime, I think and pray. 

If my thoughtdreams could be seen.

Better free your mind as well.