A judge rules Trump may have incited violence … and Trump again has his own mouth to blame
The Washington Post
Did Trump and military get it wrong about San Diego warships rushing to North Korea?
The San Diego Union Tribune
Trump’s Mar-a-Lago kitchen slapped with 13 health violations
CNN
Graphic by Rafael Barker
Another judge rules he must pay,
His warships go badly astray,
And his gaudy resort
Gets a bad health report—
It’s a typical Trump kind of day.
© 2017 Colleen Anderson
“Trump’s success has demonstrated the potential for an illiberal democracy predicated on denial of unwelcome truths. Liberal democracy cannot endure if such denial goes unchallenged. But first we must reckon with our own denial. We refused to believe that this could happen. We too were blind; disaster has forced us to see. To cope with this catastrophe, we will need an amazing grace, which I am not at all sure we are capable of mustering. For all our misgivings, we believed that, in the end, truth would overcome. It did not.”
Can Truth Survive Trump?
Democracy Journal
The election of President Trump
is America’s latest speed bump.
Hit the pedal too hard
and we’re bound to be jarred
and perhaps even towed to the dump.
© 2017 Susan E. Eckenrode
“But it is Mr. Trump’s own taxes that have provided the crucial leverage for his opponents. More than 100,000 of his critics took to the streets over the weekend in marches around the country, demanding that the president release his returns. Tax legislation, they say, could be a plot by Mr. Trump to get even richer.”
Trump’s Unreleased Taxes Threaten Yet Another Campaign Promise
The New York Times
Graphic by Rafael Barker
Most presidents share their return,
Reporting the income they earn,
But Donny cops out,
Because, without doubt,
He’s hiding some crimes we would learn.
© 2017 Colleen Anderson
“Thousands of Americans turned out in cities across the country Saturday — April 15, the traditional deadline for filing federal tax returns, even though this year’s deadline is actually Tuesday, April 18 — calling on President Trump to do something every president has done going back to Gerald Ford: release his individual tax returns. As a candidate, Trump said he wouldn’t release his tax returns because he was being audited by the IRS. When pressed on the issue as president, he’s said he doesn’t think most Americans care.”
The Donald’s a-frayed by the fuss
from the voters, you know: most of us.
Alternative facts’s
no-see-um on taxes.
Let’s go for BLOTUS interruptus!
“Trump’s election is likely to feed the swamp monsters. For an industry premised on dealmaking, the return of one-party rule in Washington offers the welcome end—at least temporarily—to political gridlock. That means major policy changes are in the works, which promise to fundamentally alter billion-dollar industries. And precisely because so few people or companies had anticipated a Trump White House, there is all the more need for trusted guides to help navigate these murky waters.”
THE ‘SWAMP’ DONALD TRUMP PROMISED TO ‘DRAIN’ IS GROWING AGAIN
Newsweek
“President Trump is populating the White House and federal agencies with former lobbyists, lawyers and consultants who in many cases are helping to craft new policies for the same industries in which they recently earned a paycheck.”
With Trump Appointees, a Raft of Potential Conflicts and ‘No Transparency’
The New York Times
One promise on which he campaigned
insisted the swamp would be drained.
That was then, this is now
and he’s buried that vow
while he’s mucking about unrestrained.
© 2017 Susan E. Eckenrode
“Still, coal’s long-term outlook is poor, less because of environmental regulations than market forces, including competition from natural gas and increasingly cost-effective renewable sources. Loosening environmental laws won’t make coal cheaper than natural gas, and it certainly won’t make it cleaner.”
Wrong Message, Wrong Coal Mine
Editorial, The New York Times
Graphic by Rafael Barker
Remember how plainly he spoke
That he’d rescue the blue-collar folk?
Now the miners and truckers
And factory workers
Are the butt of a billionaire’s joke.
© 2017 Colleen Anderson
“White supremacists, emboldened by the 2016 elections and the current political climate, are currently engaged in an unprecedented outreach effort to attract and recruit students on American college campuses. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has cataloged 104 incidents of white supremacist fliering on college campuses since the school year began in September 2016, with surge of activity since January 2017, when 63 of the total incidents (61 percent) occurred.”
“Make America great, make her proud!
Join the openly bigoted crowd
in its sordid tradition.
Without inhibition,
step forward and hate right out loud.”
© 2017 Mary Boren
“The White House announced Friday that it would cut off public access to visitor logs revealing who is entering the White House complex and which officials they are meeting, breaking with the Obama administration’s practice and returning a cloak of secrecy over the basic day-to-day workings of the government.”
White House to Keep Its Visitor Logs Secret
The New York Times
Graphic by Rafael Barker
No visitor logs? Tell me, is it
To hide something dark and illicit?
Or is the big twit
Ashamed to admit
He can’t get his own wife to visit?
© 2017 Colleen Anderson
“Officials in North Korea today warned that President Donald Trump’s ‘troublemaking’ and ‘aggressive’ tweets have led to the ‘extremely tense’ situation on the Korean Peninsula.”
Fears of war as North Korea to test nuclear weapons despite Trump warning
Metro.co.uk
Though there’s always been plenty to fear,
Forty-five has it upped to high gear.
Will his war machinations
make him known as our nation’s
first commander and chief profiteer?
© 2017 Susan E. Eckenrode
“Only 10 weeks into his presidency, and at great risk to future generations, Donald Trump has ordered the demolition of most of President Barack Obama’s policies to combat climate change by reducing emissions from fossil fuels.”
President Trump Risks the Planet
Editorial Board, The New York Times
Graphic by Rafael Barker
When his name is engraved upon granite
In the rubble that’s left of our planet,
Some wandering spirit
May say (we won’t hear it),
“This can’t be America, can it?”
© 2017 Colleen Anderson
