day TWO HUNDRED and FIFTY FOUR

Trumpery: Week 35

“It’s depressing…” – Charles Bukowski

Threatening to “totally destroy” North Korea,

reality show Cheeto-in-Chief refers

to their leader as “Rocket Man.”

Floats a trial balloon of withdrawing

from the treaty with Iran, offers no evidence

of accord violations to justify action.

At the United Nations, he brags

about himself and his role in fattening

an already-bloated military budget.

Engages in a juvenile tweet-off

with the NFL, NBA, team owners,

individual players.

Gleefully posts an image of himself

hitting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball,

insists assault is a hilarious past time.

Touts “America First” as he sucks up

to home-grown terrorists,

hate-fueled extremists.

--Jennifer Lagier

WineDrunk SideWalk : ShipWrecked in TrumpLand week THIRTY SIX wrap up

First....RIP Hugh Hefner....without you who knows how many little sperm babies i would've saved from ending up smeared on napkins and cheap paper towels. Also sorry you were such a fucking misogynist

Being completely honest....i haven't "stood" for the National Anthem in about 20 years. Overall I stopped watching professional sports back in 2014 (sometimes you just get tired of watching millionaires play kids games while people starve on the street), but for a long time I was a regular attendee at Major League Baseball games. Look....I've always though that patriotism of any sort was a fool's game, and I never understood why patriotism was on display at a sporting event. So around the age of 25 or so I started to get up from my seat to take a piss during sporting events as soon as the national anthem was announced. Now this is in no way as courageous an act as what Colin Kaepernick did or what people saw on display this Sunday in defiance to DOUCHE MOTHERFUCKER's rants about the NFL....but it was always my own personal protest...meaning i'd rather be in a urine and feces scented bathroom holding my dick than standing with a bunch of pseudo-patriots singing some bullshit that I didn't mean with my hand over my heart.

But let's talk about what went on with DOUCHE in the NFL....this all started last Friday (see...trump and Fridays....he always pulls this. Like the poet Ally Malinenko said, Friday's are Trump's cliffhangers episodes....anyway this all started on Friday when DOUCHE spoke in Alabama to a pack of his inbred deplorables at one of his Nazi-style events. In the midst of a list of all his other pseudo-macho ramblings DOUCHE took on, primarily black, NFL players who chose to take a knee during the playing of the National Anthem, saying what they did disgraced the heritage of America.....what heritage? Is this the heritage of over 400 years of institutional racism? The heritage of slavery? Of Jim Crow? Or maybe it's the heritage of lynchings and murders, of blowing up black churches and gunning down black leaders? The heritage of cops shooting unarmed black people and leaving their bodies exposed on the street. I'm not exactly sure what heritage DOUCHE was referring to in his rant...Maybe he was speaking about the heritage of assaulting women both physically and sexually....i mean he could've been....we all know that Donald John Trump is well versed in that....of course he's also well versed in racism so.....guess we'll have to wait until the next Nazi rally to find out.

And just a reminder "president' DOUCHE....Colin Kaepernick didn't begin taking a knee to protest the flag....he did it to protest the senseless and unjust violent treatment of black people and people of color in this country since it's founding.

Overall it's hard for me to feel bad for the NFL....they've made it a point to court militaristic style bullshit and wannabe tough talkers like Donny John....Plus there's THIS

.....you lay down with dogs....expect them to bite you in the ass eventually....must be why I've always preferred cats.

Also...Francis Scott Key was a racist....so fuck him....and fuck you if you agree with Trump.

Anyway....week THIRTY SIX

So where are we? Aside from good ol' DOUCHE infecting every single part of society from the boy scouts all the way to the NFL.....there's a bran new Muslim travel ban. I say Muslim Travel Ban because, aside from North Korea every single country affected by the ban are Muslim countries....and who are they? Iran, Somalia, Chad, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. Now, this ban in convoluted and apparently the work of 90 days worth of research by the DOUCHE administration....yeah, right....other than playing asshole on Twitter I'm unwilling to believe that ANYONE from the DOUCHE administration has been able to do ANYTHING sustainable for 90 straight days.....I mean where's the evidence of competence on this one? And honestly I don't understand the band...some people can come, some people can't....only Venezuela politicians can't come...Why is North Korea even on there? I can't remember the last time I saw a HUGE contingent of North Koreans being lead down the streets of Manhattan.  My pals at the NY TIMES have a run down on this bullshit right HERE.

Can we talk about the heat...I don't know about you but as I write this in late September it is barely 6 o'clock in the morning and it is already 70 some degrees out, going to a record-breaking high of 87....in New York...in late September. I divide the world into two halves....people who like the summer and people who aren't assholes.....i look forward to the fall and the fact that we simply don't get one anymore is sad. Of course when I look at all of the hurricanes, droughts and heat waves out there as a result of climate change I can't really throw myself much of a pity party....but....still.....87 degrees....in late September....damn.....enjoy the planet while we still have it. Also if you're in need of some quick and easy FAQ/information in regards to Climate Change the Times published this handy article on SUNDAY....i know...i know...my sacred NY Times.

Turns out at least six of DOUCHE's closest advisers, including SecurityRisk-in-Law and Trophy Daughter #1 used their private email servers to conduct government business.

Yep...that's right....emails are back in the news. And we've got quite the rogue's gallery of offenders here. Aside from SecurityRisk-In-Law and Trophy Daughter, turns out Stephen K. Bannon, Reince Priebus (a Star Wars villain name if ever i heard one), Gary Cohn and Stephen Miller all dabbled in the dark arts of sending work-related emails via their own private accounts. To be fair this practice is not illegal (although you wouldn't know it in this country) and when Hillary Clinton was under investigation it was because she had her own private server and private account that she used almost exclusively to send/receive thousands of government related emails....the whole point of this is these sniveling public servants are supposed to use government emails because the information they share is about our country, the country they SERVE....and that information belongs to us.

that said....chant it with me folks....LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP! LOCK THEM UP!

It also came out this week that SecurityRisk-in-Law is registered to vote as a female in the state of New York....good thing Kris Kobach isn't allowed anywhere NEAR NY State's voting records...otherwise there'd be hell to pay.

Did you know that we were at war with North Korea?  I didn't either until I learned that all of DOUCHE's C-grade, action movie president baby-dick swinging that he did at the UN last week pissed of Fatboy and his regime so much that they took DOUCHE's threat to destroy them as an act of war. But they did. On Monday, N. Korean foreign minister (I didn't even know they had one of those) Ri Yong-ho declared that North Korea (Or NoKo as hipsters call it) had the right to shoot down U.S. warplanes even if they weren't flying over NoKo (starting to like this....might get me a craft beer and an avocado burger after I finish this) airspace. WH deal-with-the-devil-setting-feminism-back-one-hundred-years mouthpiece, Sara Huckabee Sanders called the accusations absurd while DOUCHE himself made one of these faces

And then Tweeted some bullshit about it being Puerto Rico's fault that the island was devastated by Hurricane Maria or some shit about hockey players not being macho enough to play on thin ice or whatever professional sport he's taken on to try and mask the ongoing Russian investigation and his complete ineptitude to be President because he only want to appeal to his inbred base....watch out Tiddlywinks...you just might be next.

In a sign that we might not be as close to the apocalypse as previously thought, on Tuesday Mitch "Kentucky Neck" McConnell declared the Graham-Cassidy-Lucifer bill all but dead and the chance to vote on a new health care bill by the end of the year all but dead as well.....yes, folks, all that tough talk about repealing the ACA for the last seven years has amounted to this: Three Republican Senators whose hearts grew three times were able to stop the bill...oh, and Rand Paul and I think Ted Cruz too....but that's because the bill wasn't sinister enough for them.

So long health care.....bring on the tax dodge!

BUT....in a sign that we are still heading toward doomsday, that highly "valued" state of Alabama chose Roy Moore over Luther Strange (seriously Reince Prebius and Luther Strange....is Marvel somehow in involved in this? I mean other than their CEO giving money to Trump) in their GOP run-off election.....well....i guess if Germany can have a Nazi in their parliament we can have one try to run for a seat in the Senate. Although Moore is that special breed of American type Nazi, meaning he invokes God a lot and prays a lot but deep down works really hard to keep his black soul at bay. More than that Moore is an anti-Muslim, anti-Gay fundamentalist fucker....and most offending to me (if possible) he's a shit POET. Chances are good he'll win....putting one's faith in the state of Alabama is like putting your valuable shit in a sinking ship and hoping that it stays afloat.

Let's just hope we don't get any Nazis trying to run for the White House...er....oh....er......USA! USA! USA!

I love the NY Times and I source them a lot on this blog....but on Wednesday they had a headline that read "Saudi Arabia Agrees to Allow Women to Drive." This title is misleading....they didn't "allow" shit. Women in Saudi Arabia have been fighting since at LEAST 1990 for the right....to drive a fucking car. Let's be honest....it was the pressure of women in Saudi Arabia FINALLY coupled with international pressure that caused this nutbag monarchy to "allow" anything.  Governments, including the fucked-up, racist, white privileged one we have here in JesusLand never ALLOW anything....people fight to get their rights....they die to get their rights. So congrats to the women of Saudi Arabia....but fuck your government....and you dropped the ball on this one NY Times.

So....I've been really putting my STEM skills together trying to figure out how DOUCHE'S tax plan benefits the middle class...actually that's not true....i've mostly been sitting on my couch drinking a mixture of red wine and vodka and complaining about why it's still 86 degrees out in late September. But let's look at this tax plan....if we must.

From what I've read....and because it's Trump and involves actual legislation....there's not much....this tax "plan" seems like the same GOP bullshit that they've been trucking out since Ronald Reagan back in 1981. First there's the good old business tax cuts (to stimulate the economy of course) that cut the rates down to 25-20% from the current already ridiculously low 35%. Then there's eliminating the estate tax....i know you're relieved to maybe see it go....so am i .....i kid....this is bullshit and a break for the wealthy as well. Maybe a few thousand of our top 1%ers pay this tax. Lastly DOUCHE is looking to eliminate something called the Alternative Minimum Tax....yeah....i had no clue what it was either...but apparently it once bit DOUCHE in the ass to the tun of 31 million space bucks....so....gonzo to that one.

I didn't see anything in the proposed plans that would help the ever-shrinking middle class at all, and i certainly didn't see shit that would help the poor.

But that' DOUCHE's M.O.....as more and more information on the devastation in Puerto Rico gets out we....wait...wait...I'm sorry we already KNOW about all the devastation...it's just that our government basically decided not to do anything until late this week.  Scrapping the Jones Act aside, DOUCHE has done absolutely nothing in regards to helping the citizens of Puerto Rico....other than doing what he always does, which is talking a good game....and most likely he just found out at some point this week that Puerto Rico is a U.S. Territory, they use our currency, and are considered U.S. citizens...or he knew this and because they can't vote in our elections (i.e. that orange piece of shit can't go and hold one of his Nazi rallies there) he simply didn't give a fuck....but none of that is surprising and/or shocking to me...and it shouldn't be to you or the news media who keep expecting this horrible human being to act half-way decent....Trump isn't a decent human being....so he won't act decent...stop thinking otherwise, hard as that is, hard as it is to watch people suffer....we're on our own.

One last....good ol' DOUCHE accepted Tom Price's resignation on friday for traveling for government work via luxury jets, after spending the week giving him a good dressing down for it.....so i guess we have our shitty conclusion to this week's reality tv show called America. Seems kind of funny to me that a man who has exhausted the secret service payroll and seems to spend every weekend vacationing at either his shitty Florida golf course or his shitty Jersey one, all on the taxpayer's dime, would even bother dressing down one of his cabinet members for trying to get a little lux off the people....but what do i know. I guess Trump wants two scoops of everything.

anyway....keep tuning in.  This weekend we have two wonderful and frequent contributors to this blog....at 10:30 this morning we have the poetry of Jennifer Lagier and tomorrow at the same time we have the poetry of Alison Stone....so stick around.

...and submit.....i need your poems/art/fiction/rants...even ESSAYS to keep this going...and remember...it doesn't have to just be about Trump.  You give me the slightest social bent and it's going up....i want daily art in resistance to this fucker.

SUBMIT2RESIT : winedrunksidewalk@gmail.com

day TWO HUNDRED and FIFTY THREE

TRUMP GLITCH ART by ROBERT JW

day TWO HUNDRED and FIFTY TWO

Saturn’s Moons

NASA sent Cassini
to Saturn to
take pictures

of the planet
rings and moons
the aliens living

on Titan have
been hiding
flitting from

one side to
the other
they heard

about us
from the
Martians

don’t want to
be found out
are waiting

for us to
blow Earth up
maybe then

they will
take over
in a thousand

years or five
when Earth
cools down

--Thomas R. Thomas

day TWO HUNDRED and FIFTY ONE

Tides

“When they go low, we go high.”
—Michelle Obama

Beginnings, almost imperceptible.
           Neap tide, right angled astronomy,
    barely a ripple
                      to expose the pulling away….

Gradually, a stronger undertow
           as solar and lunar gravities diverge.
    A more insistent tugging,
                      a more insistent return,

conchitic signatures inscribed
           and erased, a fresh epistle each time.
    Without the power
                      of geometry to slow

the surge, expansion of range,
           spring tide blurring practiced certainty
    into fuzzy aftermath.

                                              Now,
                      here, new ribbons form

and coalesce on shifting shores.
           Neap tides swell into a rising, becoming.
    Breakers of change:
                      struggle, renunciation;

acquiescence refused,
           heterogeneity embraced.  At the crest,
    one wave merged
                      from many, resolute.

Deimos, stripped of the power
           to scream, liturgy denied.  Gravities
    diverge.
                    Now, here,
                      a spring tide, going high.

--Dianne Borsenik 

day TWO HUNDRED and FIFTY

poem on george gershwin’s 119^th birthday

NFL players

take a knee for justice

as madman do their best to end the world

with dick-swinging

and bomb talk

as jack-off football fans burn their team jerseys

over their own ignorance and shame

but this morning d.j.

he’s so excited that it still

feels like summer so early in the fall

he’s playing gershwin and gushing

not worrying a thing about bombs and social protest

today is gershwin’s birthday

all i got to show for it is greasy hair

a cold cup of coffee and the shits

the d.j. tells me that good ol’ george

wrote the american song book

and i think of francis scott key and want to spit

gershwin is good enough though

his music is light and airy without a hint of threat

it’s like walking american streets

with a blindfold over your eyes

and an american flag stuck up your ass

maybe they should play gershwin before football games

or in the situation room at the white house

a little strike up the band

to comfort a world at a great divide

or maybe it could just be summer all of the time

with people walking around

with dumb smiles and ice cream cones

america’s a very good at doing that too

i’m no patriot and i’m not the world’s biggest gershwin fan

but i like a little self-delusion sometimes

it can’t be all suicide and sweat

i’m glad today is george gershwin’s 119^th birthday

and i’m glad the d.j. is happy too

maybe i’ll play a little rhapsody in blue

on my walk to work

stop for an ice cream cone in the morning

smile at the people who walk by

check the sky from time to time

pray that i don’t see any rain clouds

or bombs.

--John Grochalski

                                                

day TWO HUNDRED and FORTY NINE

Sorry Tree Guy

It’s not that we don’t appreciate you coming,
or the fact that you had to scale that whole tree
with a bullhorn tucked in your pants
it’s just that when you kept shouting
even with the bullhorn
you weren’t nearly as loud
as the girl on the pallet below you
asking us to show her what democracy looks like

and we were, Tree Guy
we were there,
bottlenecked and jammed together,
flooding into every cross street
we were standing up
and saying
No.
Here at our nation’s capital,
we were showing her what democracy looks like

but you kept bellowing into that bullhorn
and we all wanted to march
after being out here for hours
after waiting for hours for the metro
just to get here,

so thanks for showing up Tree Guy
but this isn’t your show

because girls do run the world
and the future is female

but I know that by tomorrow
there will be a dozen
think pieces talking about the men
who showed up for the march,

men like you Tree Guy
and you’re not a bad guy
don’t get me wrong

I’m glad you’re here and all
but this whole day will get re-centered around you
because you are a guy,
not just in a tree
but in the world
and the world always needs to make sure you’re okay

so what I’m saying Tree Guy
is that you’re still have your spotlight
this time tomorrow
you’ll still get your cookie
for being a decent human
and they’ll write about you in the paper
talk about how we need you

and maybe we do
but right now, Tree Guy
put away your bullhorn

because the girl next to me says she’s over you
And the girl on the pallet
motions forward and screams
march,
and we surge forward together
leaving you up there

in your tree.

--Ally Malinenko

TREE GUY by John Grochalski

Girl On The Pallet by John Grochalski

 

day TWO HUNDRED and FORTY EIGHT

DONALD IS A DOUCHE two photos by John Grochalski

day TWO HUNDRED and FORTY SEVEN

INTO THE ABYSS by Russell Struer

WineDrunk SideWalk : ShipWrecked in TrumpLand week THIRTY FIVE wrap up

*a brief note to the officers of the St. Louis police department.....you don't get to chant "Whose Streets? Our Streets?" That chant isn't yours, officer "friendly." It might not even be mine...but it sure as hell isn't yours.

week Thirty Five and we got Mr. DOUCHE visits the U.N. where he not only gets to continue to be a national embarrassment but once again gets to embarrass himself in front of the world and remind our allies that America has taken itself completely out of the role as one of the world's leaders. God help us all.

On Monday DOUCHE got to meet with Emmanuel Marcon on France. Marcon looks like he's got about two sit-downs with DOUCHE left before he gets up and says "I can't.. .I just can't..." and walks away. Among the other bits of Trumpian dimwitted gibberish was DOUCHE restating his desire to have a big, beautiful military parade on the streets of Washington, right down Pennsylvania Avenue to be exact, on the 4th of July.  You know who else does military parades?

This asshole:

....and....this asshole.....

if said parade does happen next July, maybe the military guys will let Donny John get behind the wheel of a tank because we all know how much Donny John loves being in the driver's seat:

But DOUCHE's visit to the U.N. wasn't all military parade talk and baby-dick waving. No....our fearless leader was there to spread his message of......violence? hate? an almost illiterate view of what's actually going on the Middle East? Regardless the DOUCHE-in-Chief did not disappoint in pseudo-macho, toxic masculine bombast. In a blistering address to the U.N., that only a 6th grade bully at recess could match in its threats, DOUCHE threatened to totally destroy, that's right, totally DESTROY North Korea if it threatened the United States. He called Kim Jong-un Rocket Man again (a brief aside....now I can add Rocket Man constantly in my head to that stomach ache I've had since November 9, 2016....hey, at least it's not She's Like the Wind), promised to crush "loser terrorists" babbled something about the Iran deal being bad and that Iran is developing weapons (they aren't), and basically said that parts of the world are going to hell.....I'm wondering, DOUCHE, are the part of the world you speak of the ones here and away from the United States that are being affected by Hurricanes and Earthquakes Droughts and record Heat quite possibly brought upon by climate change? or are you just as pissed about urban gentrification as I am? ASSHOLE.

There are pictures circulating of WH Chief-of-Staff John Kelly reacting to DOUCHE's tirade....they look at little something like this:

All I have say about that is...FUCK YOU Kelly....you took on the job of trying to reign in this sick fuck of a human piece of dog shit...you got no business looking like that. Wear it proud, dipshit. Melanoma looks enraptured though....or maybe she was just thinking about heading Uptown after the speech so she could pick up another pair of choice fuck-me heels should another Hurricane hit our shores and she be needed back in the GULF.

Of course while this global sideshow was happening, America's #1 domestic terrorist threat, The Republican Party, is gearing up once again to repeal the ACA and replace it with another draconian version of health care that will cause millions of American's to lose their health care and most likely die....this time we have the Graham-Cassidy Bill composed and constructed by Senators Lindsay Graham, Bill Cassidy and Lucifer the Devil himself. The basic gist is the usual idiot plan to repeal the Individual mandate, out-of-pocket subsides, premium subsides and Medicaid expansion....pretty much everything that makes the ACA work and give people insurance. You can read an entire FAQ about the bill HERE, but overall its more GOP bullshit because if we've learned nothing by now, we should at least know that the GOP hates you....they hate your family...they hate your kids....they hate their future kids....unless you're wealthy and white.

                                                                MISS ME YET?????

You know...I haven't talked about the whole Russian Investigation for a while, right? That's probably because just like all of you I'm an impatient american whose become too used to the internet and I simply don't have the time for this carefully investigated type of bullshit.....I WANT IT KNOW! I WANT TRUMP BEHIND BARS NOW.....but the poems aren't coming, so it seems as good a time as any so here goes...

Bobby Mueller seems to be ratcheting this whole thing up a notch. Word on the street is that he's asking the WH for documentation regarding some of DOUCHE's most controversial moments under his reign of idiocy and plastic terror....that's right, good ol' Bobby wants the WH to come clean on what exactly went down in regards to DOUCHE's firing of both his National Security Adviser and the FBI director, as well as just a touch more intel on that secret meeting the orange one had with the Russians where he now infamous declared that the firing of Comey had relieved "great pressure" on him.....about time, Mutha-fucka

Word on the street also has it that Paul Manafort (let's be honest here....most likely the ONLY person who will actually be charged with anything during this investigation) offered to give a Russian Billionaire (one sing songy sounding Oleg Deripaska) closely aligned to the Kremlin updates on the 2016 presidential election....according to my sources on the street there's no word on whether Mr. Oleg took Manafort up on his offer or provided him with rubber sheets to piss on as well....but stay tuned kiddos....this investigation is moving so FAST.

like the word on the street thing? Trying to make things edgier for week THIRTY FIVE....also...if anyone has any poem prompts....please send my way.

new buzz word for the week: DOTARD. Kim Jong-un is a dangerous, violent little piece of shit....but he's dead on about DOUCHE.

Word on the street is that John McCain cannot "in good conscience" support the Graham-Cassidy-Lucifer Health Bill......you know....i say a lot of bad things about the GOP here, and while ALL of it is true...i kind of like this new John McCain....and if you really aren't backing this bill....let me be the first one, sir, to welcome you back to the human race.

well...that's it....at least for me. I'm sure DOUCHE will do something dumb between now and when i get up next week to not write poems and starting making fun of him in my childish way once again...but i'm done for now. So join us today at 10:30 for the artwork of Russell Struer and tomorrow will be photographs by me........

once again...if you like what's going on here....if you don't want to see this blog turn into the John Grochalski show (trust me...i have a yellowing stack of shitty poetry that i'm willing to unleash upon this blog) PLEASE send poetry/fiction/artwork/rants (That's right I'm talking to you 50+ people who read last week's wrap-up but didn't bother to send me SHIT) to winedrunksidewalk@gmail.com

SUBMIT2RESIST, ya'll.

day TWO HUNDRED and FORTY SIX

this american life

this american life

is for people with money

it’s a loser sign

posted on your back

before the first cup of coffee

or the first day of school

it’s the self-delusion

of an exceptional day

waxing poetic about streaming tv shows

and super hero movies

updating your facebook posts

and scanning your twitter feeds for confirmation

building walls you can’t even see

this american life

is made for war profits

and water surges

breathing in smog

bathing in chemicals

a three-thousand mile fantasyland

for philistines with a heavy cash flow

to exploit workers

and become emperors with no clothes

it’s diarrhea-the-mouth

corporate media and fake news

a boot-strapping dildo

shoved up an ungreased asshole

this american life

is reefer madness and breakfast burritos

for white kids on college campuses

a mass incarceration salsa

twerking appropriation in the hood

it’s gimme

gimme

your tired your poor your huddled masses

yearning to breathe free

and i’ll scapegoat them whenever i get the chance

this american life

is a fallacy flag stuck in your pretty lawn

in a gentrified neighborhood

where uncle sam is a slum lord

and the statue of liberty

ain’t nothing

but a lazy whore

--John Grochalski

day TWO HUNDRED and FORTY FIVE

Gregarious

His highness has morphed us
into a jar of pickled pansies,
packed tightly in a juice
squeezed from the cursory
enlightenment bestowed
upon us by his "flawless"
leadership

The hawk is circling over the last
remnants of our independence,
so we must choose to run
or succumb, survival
of the haughtiest

I guess we all have to die,
sometime.

--Jenny Santellano

day TWO HUNDRED and FORTY FOUR

The Women’s March (an erasure)

I did try and fuck her.

                                I couldn’t.

         all of a sudden I see her, she’s now

                                 everything.

            beautiful

      a star

                       pussy                  can do anything.  

--Alison Stone

Poem was taken from the following quote:

“I did try and fuck her. She was married. I moved on her like a bitch, but I couldn’t get there. And she was married. Then all of a sudden I see her, she’s now got the big phony tits and everything. She’s totally changed her look. I’ve gotta use some Tic Tacs, just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful – I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it.  You can do anything…grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”

---Donald J. Trump (45th President of the United States)

day TWO HUNDRED and FORTY THREE

propaganda

most people
call it news

the few of us
with a brain
understand
propaganda

i really
wonder if
the american
people truly
understand
the concept
of tearing
everything
down to
the ground

absolute
destruction
includes
the soul

never
forget
that

--J.J. Campbell

day TWO HUNDRED and FORTY TWO

Super Volcano

I hold my hand out
and feel the heat
radiating from the Earth.
The water boils.
The pot gurgles.
The water looks mean.
The lid claps.
The people clap.
The people cheer.
It’s all very exciting.
Their faces contort —
What’s with their eyes?
Why do they look
hypnotized? Why
do they cheer death?
They’re mostly old.
Not all of them, though.
Why does name-calling
make them giddy?
Shouldn’t they know better?
Why does the promise
of violence move them
like a kiss? Have their
lives been this terrible?
Stop complaining,
snowflake, says
the guy at work.
He just bought
a gun and
5,000 bullets
“just in case.”
He’s made a list.
You are on it.
There’s room
for everyone. He
stomps his feet.
The ground rumbles
like a belly.

--Bob Pajich

day TWO HUNDRED and FORTY ONE

Secret Service

the Orange Menace
has used up his
8 year budget for
the Secret Service
although he will
only last two

the Secret Service
has had to cut back
on their services

they have cut back
90% on staff and
hired high school
interns

for every female
intern they have
two boys watching
to keep off the
predators, well
the one predator

they can’t give the
interns weapons
so they gave them
bullet proof vests
and told them to
surround the big Orange
and to jump if
they hear gunfire
which they won’t do
because they ain’t
getting paid

they've taken to
using hand signals
which gets a bit
confusing when bees
come buzzing around
their faces

the big Orange
(his Secret Service
code name)
thinks the teens
are just fans
and doesn’t notice
that there are less
agents around

he also hasn’t
noticed that he
is now travelling
in a ‘68 VW Thing
followed by the
teens on stingrays

the agents that are
left have all started
office pools on
when he will be
taken down, time of day,
weapon, and whether
it will be his
White House staff
or one of the many
that he has fired

they all can’t wait
for when they will
be protecting
President Pence...

oh my, well
maybe not

--Thomas R. Thomas

day TWO HUNDRED and FORTY

orange ash sky

we eat

german currywurst

under the orange ash sky in seattle

as the woman who served us

says her family home in utah

may burn to the ground

forty-five years her parents have been there

to maybe go up like a pack of matchsticks

we nod in sympathy

ingest currywurst and soot

as the pacific northwest burns

in fiery splendor

as the desert rages in brushfires and heat

as california suffocates

as hurricane flood waters drown

texas and florida

we look up into the orange ash haze

at the blood red sun almost hidden

at mountain ranges lost in the smog

at people taking pictures of this madness

we eat the food with storm surges

licking the tip of our tongues

twenty dead here

another thirty-five gone over there

while young asian girls in baby-doll dresses

walk by us wearing surgical masks

like a pack of tarted-up doctors

off to stand in line outside of starbucks

for rainbow sherbet frappuccinos

sucked down cold during these end times

we clean curry ketchup

off of our fingers

daydream berlin

eat a last salty and greasy fry

drink that precious bottled water

breathe in the smoke and grime into our tar-covered lungs

as the woman from utah tells someone else

to bear with her

bear with me, she says

looking up at the orange ash sky

because i just haven’t been right, honey

not right at all

today.

--John Grochalski

WineDrunk SideWalk: ShipWrecked in TrumpLand week THIRTY FOUR wrap up

First....thank you to Jason Baldinger for stepping in and doing the week THIRTY THREE duties...Jason and I had a chance to see each other in NYC over the last weekend, and both sort of admitted that doing these weekly wrap-ups leaves your mind and soul akin to someone battling harsh DT's by the end of the week....still...we march on.

As of this writing at least 26 people in the U.S. are dead as a result of Hurricane Irma and there are 27 reported deaths in the Caribbean; there's food violence in the Caribbean; the Keys are in shambles....hell...man Disney is even closed ...still....according to walking skeleton, Ann Coulter, the Hurricane amounted to nothing but boredom. Well, Ann, I'm sorry that 50+ deaths are not enough to satisfy you...maybe next time lay on the beach as the hurricane winds pick up and finger-fuck yourself while thinking about Trump's baby-dick...just a suggestion...or, you know, donate and help you fucking devil.

Speaking of Devil's.....Steve Bannon emerged from his D.C. hovel to sit down for an interview with 60 Minutes...boy, Bannon is so full of his own shit he probably can't tell the difference between the smell of his breath and that of his asshole. Still, some of the highlights: Bannon accused the GOP and its leadership of trying to nullify DOUCHE MOTHERFUCKER'S election win by not jumping aboard his so-called "populist train and embracing all of DOUCHE's ludicrous ideas. He called the Comey firing a big mistake; he's at war with the GOP; once DOUCHE builds his wall he'll win the 2020 election in a landslide....blah blah blah...that kind of bullshit.  If you really want to watch this moron talk his sorry ass game, you can do so HERE ...but be warned...i lost IQ points doing so.

Look...ordinarily i'd LOVE to see someone go to war against the GOP....shitheads like Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan have been ASKING for it.....but a neo-nazi, white supremacist? I'd rather read Charles Blow.  Still...i'd love for Bannon to be right about one thing....i'd love to see a Civil War in the GOP.. ..i'd love to see that whole, stinking, rotting, Domestic Terrorist party fall to its fucking knees and be done.....let's make America great again by having actual fucking adults run the country.

And maybe we'll get it.... DOUCHE, finding no way to stretch those world "famous" negotiating legs with his own crooked party, reached across the continental divide to cut a few deals with the Democrats this week. First DOUCHE agreed to a budget/debt ceiling extension in a deal done with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, which included hurricane relief money. Second, this brand new dream team of DOUCHE/Schumer/Pelosi have apparently agreed on a deal to turn DACA into law all the while strengthening our border by putting duct tape or whatever along that already existing fence so that DOUCHE and his supporters can keep yapping about a wall at his next Nazi rally.

WTFF?

FIRST.......if I'm Chuck Schumer and/or Nancy Pelosi....why am i making any FUCKING DEAL with this racist nazi shit-wad? Look, I'm not fan of stagnant government and i really wish the DACA executive order stayed but Trump has never been welcomed by the GOP, they've resisted him in that spineless GOP way the whole time, he's been essentially marginalized and made a lame duck before his first year is out....and then you democratic fucks go and legitimize him to an extent?  And i don't care about your motives....maybe it looks good to have the grand wizard brought to his knees making deals, maybe you honestly believe that working with this rapist is what's best for the country and for the so-called Dreamers....maybe you got drunk, Chuck and Nancy, and Trump looked good under a certain light....all the same...i'm not buying it. You lied down with a racist, rapist, xenophobic dog twice this week...this shit will come back and bite you both in your geriatric asses.

SECOND....WTFF??????

Anyone seen those pictures of DOUCHE down in Florida wearing his Wal-Mart USA hat and white gloves and pretending to be the common man.....pretty scary stuff. The poor orange bastard looked like he was confused and trying to figure out where the nearest golf course was.....like....me Trump...why me in Florida and no play golf??? I mean, seriously.....look at this asshole:

What a motley crew of D-bags we have. We got POTUS46 who can't stand near women because he's scared of them, but has obviously been practicing his super hero pose. Of course there's DOUCHE making DOUCHE faces because he can't control himself. We've got trophy wife #3 who looks more uncomfortable in casual wear each time we see her....i can only imagine the conversations....Melanoma probably wishes for hurricane season to end more than people living in the gulf....but i digress....then we've got random woman, whom I'm assuming is there to keep Pence nervous....and is that......is that Rick Scott?? The old climate changing Governor himself? Nothing says getting shit done like this picture....USA! USA! USA!

Of course DOUCHE did find the time in Florida to further entrench himself in his racist rhetoric by once again comparing Antifa folks with Neo-Nazis. I'm curious how far the coffee was spit out of Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi's mouths when they heard that one.

*I have no clue why Ted Cruz and Porn have been linked this week as I didn't bother to look into it. That said any mention of Ted Cruz and porn in the same sentence does nothing but give porn a bad name*

...actually want to give yourself shutters? Think back to last spring when we were honestly debating whether or not Ted Cruz would be a better choice over DOUCHE for the GOP nominee....seriously...like how would you like your poison sir? fucking america....you've had it wrong since 1776.

Speaking of getting it wrong...Hillary Clinton was back in the news this week. On Tuesday her memoir of the 2016 campaign, What Happened? was released to fanfare and controversy and was potent enough to get this ASSHOLE thrown into jail. I haven't been reading much about the book because I want to keep it a surprise and not ruin the ending for myself, but I've heard that DOUCHE is none too pleased, and that the other side of his snake oil salesman con artist coin, Bernie Sanders is none too pleased....sounds liked good reading to me.

but...you know...emails, baby.....emails......

You know...i voted for Bernie Sanders in the 2016 primary....actually that's untrue. I attempted to vote for Bernie Sanders but i wasn't fully registered yet as a Democrat so my vote didn't count....that said, i regret the decision. I can accuse Trump voters all i want about being taken in by bullshit and lies and empty promises...but for a while I was taken in the very same way. Bernie Sanders, and subsequently the sycophant-zealots who helped divide the democratic party  and get Donald Trump elected, are no better than those fat, lazy, inbred swine who attend DOUCHE rallies and chant shit like "lock her up!" They didn't want to do what was right for the country. Sanders supporters like the rest of us saw the dangers in a Trump White House and still acted like precious little snowflakes whose vote was a virginal gift at the altar....seeing these people online....they've since doubled-down. You Democrats think 2018 and 2020 is your year? Talk to Sanders supporter. Go get a moca-choca-latte with a Bernie bro and see how far we have yet to go.

To be honest....i think the thing that irks me most about Trump/Sanders zealots is their desire to be led. America has too many people willing to be led and too few honest leaders. Maybe I'm the defect. But I've never had a favorite boss, teacher etc......and I've never been a particular fan of voting for politicians. I've been around since Nixon. I came of age during Reagan. The only president that I can honestly say that I liked was Obama. I don't believe I'll see another descent U.S. president in my lifetime.  But I did get to see this.....

so......

When he wasn't dodging his duties of office by making a call of condolence to the president of MEXICO or tweeting away terrorism in LONDON by calling out Scotland Yard and calling terrorists losers, or even basking in the glow of disenfranchising the dreams of hundreds of thousands of hopeful would-be productive one-day citizens, DOUCHE MOTHERFUCKER, on Friday, proved to be loyal to that race of his own. That's right, little Johnny Appleseed out of Whitebread, Virginia, got to fulfill a lifelong dream of mowing the White House lawn as the Grand Wizard himself looked on.....how nice....it's so hard for white males to find work in America these days.

                                          (Well.....Hitler was allowed to have his youth)


It was reported this week that Jeffy "the racist" Sessions was humiliated by being berated and called names by an angry DOUCHE, and offered up his resignation as Attorney General. Yeah, I'm with you on this one Jeffy (a bit of a self plug for my novel Wine Clerk here as I've also been subject to this kind of crap by small men....if you want to review the book I'd happily send you a copy for free). You might be a racist piece of shit, Jeffy, but i'd be humiliated too if a small-pricked, nazi philistine like Donald Trump called me names. But consider yourself lucky, Jeffy...you're a man. And we all know what Mr. Wife-rapist, sexual assaulting, "grab 'em by the pussy" Donald Trump does to women when he gets them alone behind closed doors.

That's it for me.....lots of shit I missed....like that little bitch in North Korea shooting off his missiles or what a punch of fucking cowards the folks at Harvard are for bowing down to plastic patriots like Mike Pompeo. We LOVE you here at WineDrunk Chelsea.

Anyway....stick around. Since no one reads this shit on the weekend you got me at 10:30. Tomorrow is the always awesome Thomas R. Thomas at the same time tomorrow.

I need poems and art and fiction. We were flush for a while now but the river is running dry. If you like what we're doing here....send art. send poems. send writing. send rants. Tell your friends. Hell...tell your enemies and ex-lovers.

SUBMIT2RESIST : winedrunksidewalk@gmail.com

day TWO HUNDRED and THIRTY NINE

A Few Scots Insult Donald Trump

You tit.

You spoon.

You moron.

You numpty.

You utter fool.

Oi, buttplug face.

You ignorant fuckmuppet.

You polyester cockwomble.

Ya hamster heedit bampot.

you hoofwanking bunglecunt.

You mangled apricot hellbeast.

You witless fucking cocksplat!

You weaselheaded fucknugget.

You cock juggling thundercunt!

You incompressible jizztrumpet.

You leather faced, shit-tobogganist.

You tiny fingered, Cheeto-faced, ferret wearing shitgibbon.

 - Steven B. Smith

day TWO HUNDRED and THIRTY EIGHT

The Upset
—November 08, 2016

crunching,
October’s variegation
   pollsters’ predictions
*
overnight
all these leaves lost to the wind
   election results

the howl of the wind
as the rain begins
   her concession

a stiff wind shakes
leafless branches
   the chill sets in
*
storm front blows in,
flips the flag upside down
   how appropriate

-- Dianne Borsenik

day TWO HUNDRED and THIRTY SEVEN

"1-Carrot Diamond Ring"

So this Canadian woman's ring was lost
and 13 years later her daughter-in-law
was harvesting carrots

and there it was,
a cinch at the waist
of an orange root.

The article reporting this
linked to another instance
of it happening halfway
across the world in Sweden

and I can't help but think
that carrots know a secret,
down in the dirt,
a secret having to do
with time and kindness -

those fractal green tops
coiling knowledge about
preciousness
back around themselves,
half-hidden from the sun,

until they give themselves up
to impart it to our bodies,

if only we would heed
the message.

--Kerrilee Hunter

day TWO HUNDRED and THIRTY SIX

bleeding heart

a night of horror
for every bleeding
heart

apparently eight
years was enough
of this experiment

but it did solve
every racial divide
we've ever had

america can now
sleep once again
in its old white
peace

--J.J. Campbell

day TWO HUNDRED and THIRTY FIVE

American Revenge

It happens every year like clockwork

the comments about how it seems impossible

that yet another year has passed

and yet

here we are.

I wonder how long it will take some people to realize

that anniversaries keep coming.

It’s what they do.

And everywhere you go,

there they are,

two shining buildings

lit up against a skyline

I can barely remember at this point 

or worse

the explosion

the fire

the collapse

the seconds of death that stretched into decades of death.

I wonder about those people,

the ones that hate my city

hate the gay pride parade

hate the Puerto Rican pride parade

Or j’ouvert

hate the Black Lives Matter marches

or the Refuse Fascism gatherings

hate everything this city stands for

on all the days except today.

How today feels like it belongs to them

like it is not a day of reflection and mourning

like it is not a moment to think about the lives

that have been shattered

but instead

it feels clawing, hysterical,

their white fingers gripping

fiercely waving that flag

not with  pride

but with retaliation.

The way today feels like

just another opportunity for

American revenge.

--Ally Malinenko 

day TWO HUNDRED and THIRTY FOUR

TWO PHOTOS by ALLY MALINENKO

day TWO HUNDRED and THIRTY THREE

jerry

jerry says

why don’t you like trump

he says,

trump is a tough guy and good for america

it’s all that orange, i tell him

orange face

orange hands

jerry says,

hey, do you at least like giuliani?

boy…he really cleaned new york up back then

jerry wants

my twentysomething co-worker

to look up mail order brides for him

yesterday it was the view-master today it’s mail order brides

jerry says,

hey…do they even do mail order brides anymore?

he asks me

if i ever go to the junk stores in manhattan

to buy cheap garbage bags

and cheap lightbulbs

they have everything there,

jerry says

you can even get christmas ornaments

in the middle of july

my co-worker tells me that she doesn’t want

to look up mail order brides

for jerry anymore

she says the web sites have pictures

of scantily clad women on them

my co-workers says it’s not in her job description

to look up mail order brides for anyone

not even jerry

she’s probably right

but i’ve given up on trying to get him

to learn how to use a computer

that’s how they get you,

jerry says

the aliens

the ufos

the government

that’s why i like trump, jerry says

he’s not tangled up

in any of that business

he’s a tough guy

a throwback

he’s married to beautiful women

and would never need a mail order bride

hey, jerry says to me

you even bought a watch

off of one of those guys

in times square?

--John Grochalski

WineDrunk SideWalk: ShipWrecked in TrumpLand week THIRTY THREE wrap up

It’s Labor Day week in an America that is consistently on the wrong side of history. Sure, I could go on a rant about how capitalism should have died when the industrial Revolution ended but I won’t. I will remind you that America is still mired in some alternate reality when it comes to the status of its workers. Our minimum wage, and wages across the board are stagnant with no raise for minimum wage workers since the late nineties. And yes with exchange rates maybe our wages are middle of the pack but they’re still pitiful, they’re even more pitiful when you consider that we are one of few first world nations that doesn’t offer Universal Healthcare or for that fact free tuition for college. We also are still arguing over our own terrible health care system when progressive countries are looking at concepts such as Universal Basic Income. Finally, it should be obvious we are on the wrong side of history as we look to our Twitterbot blunder in chief, who like the last republican to win the presidency probably stole the election, although this one with the help of the Russians, but really I don’t want to go down that endless rabbit hole.

I hope you found the holiday relaxing because the rest of the week surely wasn’t. Before we talk about our blunderer in chief though, I’d like to take a minute to talk about the history of Labor Day. I do this because history should be used to teach us so we don’t make the same mistakes as previous generations. I promise to keep it short, and recommend you check out James Green’s book Death in Haymarket.

            There were rumblings for a national day of labor in the US as early as 1882 when May first became a day for mass strikes in support of a reduction in hours without a reduction in pay. This was the start of the fight for an eight hour day, a fight that wasn’t won until 1940. The first real catalyst started on May first 1886 when workers rallies coincided with a strike in Chicago at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. A Lockout, Pinkertons and strikebreakers add up over a few days into the murder, by police, of two striking workers.

            The next day in Haymarket Square as the Anarchist Samuel Felden was completing a speech, police arrived. Accounts vary in the confusion that follows, but a homemade bomb was thrown, police open fire and within five minutes twelve persons were dead (7 police killed, 4 civilians. 70 wounded officers, no tally of the civilian wounded).

            The inevitable red scare followed and seven Anarchists were tried as accessories to murder and all seven are found guilty of conspiracy (no bomber was ever convicted). Of those seven men, four were hung, one committed suicide under auspicious circumstances and three were later pardoned. When four people, who happen to be anarchists, are hung for conspiracy, it’s a fair bet that they were railroaded by this justice system. Yes, there were widespread protests surrounding these executions, but with that justice system being on the wrong side of history, the executions were carried out anyway.

            In the aftermath the AFL, then led by Samuel Gompers, proposed an international day of labor to fall on May Day in solidarity with the Strike at Haymarket. However it wouldn’t become a national holiday until 1894 when Grover Cleveland in the aftermath of the Pullman Strike. The Pullman strike would cost thirty civilians their lives after US Troops fired into a crowd of strikers. Even then Cleveland, didn’t want any association with the Haymarket Riot so the date of September first was chosen instead.

            There is a history of labor as succinctly as possible. Again, I hope you enjoyed the holiday but hopefully you took a minute somewhere in the to consider the legacy of labor unions and the injustice that has been perpetually inflicted on the working class by the owner class (we never talk about class in this country now do we?) in the name of capilatism and the almighty dollar.

            Speaking of being on the wrong side of history…

            On Tuesday Cracker Jeff Session announced that the Federal Government would allow DACA to expire. Cracker Jeff used some typical draconian law and order language about how you can’t allow people to break laws, even immigration laws, there are punishments for these things. In classic good cop/ bad cop our tangerine in chief tweeted how much he loves the “dreamers” and then told congress to get work on a bill to make DACA a law.

            DACA is by no means a perfect solution to our immigration “problem.” The republicans problem with it is that congress didn’t pass it, that it was put through as an executive order by former President Obama. It turns out the party that supported Muslim bans one through three, all signed by executive order, doesn’t like it when the other team has used the same executive order to get something done that congress is unwilling to do. It also doesn’t help that various republican Attorney Generals sued the federal government over DACA. The funny thing about those various attorney generals is that excepting Texas each of these states have well under 1% of their population affected by DACA.

            The DACA story continues with Nancy Pelosi getting Drumpf to tweet that they won’t enforce deportations for six months. In answer fifteen states are suing Drumpf over DACA, and Chicago has banned him from the city. My brain really can’t comprehend at this point how dysfunctional this “democracy” has become.

            Furthering dysfunctional democracy the Democrats made a deal with Drumpf to raise the debt ceiling, this also gives fifteen billion for relief for Hurricane Harvey. Republicans we’re thrown under the bus, and a golden age of bipartisanship was apparently born.

            I can’t see that really happening. If the Democrats strategy coming into midterm elections is to side with Drumpf then the midterms may get uglier and more juvenile than last year’s election cycle.  Isn’t that what we need right now?

            The Drumpf administration continued to ignore climate change this week. The biggest storm to ever form in the Atlantic has formed and is on course to hit Florida as your read this. The shit thing here is Drumpf is excited were having a big storm while failing to see that this is two superstorms in just a few weeks, there’s two more storms on the way (by the way there’s never been three recorded hurricanes formed near simultaneously). This may be the time to stop playing politics with the environment and acknowledge it’s time to start doing something about it. Perhaps instead of proposing tax cuts for the wealthy, we could say tax the rich and use that money to update infrastructure, or start figuring out if that infrastructure should be moved further inland.

            On Thursday Betsy Devos announced the administrations intent to review Title IX which make it harder for colleges to downplay sexual assaults on campus (among other things). In typical fashion with this administration the goal here is deregulation, but the after affects is less protection for victims of sexual assault. There is a moment where I feel like we should be at a point where we just believe victims instead of shaming them, but of course that’s not the case. In this case, perhaps in most cases with this administration, they open their mouths and a discussion starts, but that discussion doesn’t involve the government, it involves the people living under a government that has stopped serving the interests of its people. I’m hard pressed to figure if this is a good or a bad thing, and I can’t tell from where I’m sitting if it’s fracturing that country into even smaller groups and segments (it certainly looks as such). I can only say that hopefully with those discussions getting started can start to move this country into a more tolerant, vibrant inclusive society for everyone. I know it won’t happen under this administration, but the next if America survives that long.

            There’s more, so much more bullshit we could talk about like Rush Limbaugh claiming hurricanes are fake news, or Alex Jones or facebook and Russian troll farms, or North Korea or solar flares or earthquakes. We’re all mad as hatters waiting on our own mass extinction. Be safe, the future is sooner than you think.

jason baldinger

stick around because today at 10:20 we have John Grochalski and tomorrow at 10:30 we have the photographic work of Ally Malinenko 

SUBMIT2RESIST winedrunksidewalk@gmail.com