Wannabes Tanka

Game Show 2024, XXXIV

indicted

more times than Al Capone

this big-mouthed man

on the trail and on trial

thronged by his wannabes

NeverEnding Story, February 1 2024

FYI: Al Capone, also in/famously known as "Scarface," a crime boss who attained notoriety during the Prohibition era as the co-founder and boss of the Chicago Outfit from 1925 to 1931. Federal authorities became intent on jailing Capone and charged him with twenty-two counts of tax evasion. He was convicted of five counts in 1931. 

And Donald Trump faces a total of 91 charges across four criminal cases. They include 44 federal charges and 47 state charges, all of them felonies.

Added:

the layoff email

ends with best of luck ...

alone

I wander this snowy city

of cold faces and colder hearts

NeverEnding Story, February 2 2024

Added:

a woman chasing

after a barefoot boy

after his dog

in the snow-covered park ...

I envy him, a mess of joy 

Added:

overlapping shadows

of Billionaires' Row, New York ...

an old man mutters,

these helicopter people live

without their feet on the ground

White People First Haiku

written on the eve of Ontario's municipal elections

White People First

scrawled on a campaign sign

frost alert

NeverEnding Story, October 23 2022

FYI: CBC News, Oct., 22: Ontario municipal candidates face "organized hatred" as campaign nears close.

And POV, CBCDocs, White nationalism and right-wing extremism aren’t new to Canada. 

White supremacists, anti-immigrant organizers, and Holocaust deniers in Canada have been actively organizing here for decades. “Old wine, new labels.” When it comes to the alt-right, that’s the phrase that comes to mind for Dr. Barbara Perry. A hate crime researcher for almost 20 years... 

Added: written on the day of Ontario's municipal elections

White People First

staked into a neighbor's lawn ...

under the sign

my dog cocks his leg as I muse

on how smelly the day is

FYI: TVO, The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Oct. 21, 2022: Why are Acclamations on the Rise in Ontario?

More and more municipal elections in Ontario are going uncontested. According to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, 548 candidates were acclaimed in this year's municipal election. That means no door-to-door canvassing, no debates and more importantly no competition. And 32 mayors and entire councils have all been acclaimed this year.

Added:

online trolling ...

behind my back these whispers

of slanted eyes

FYI: Bloomberg, "MAY 7 2021": This Is the Anti-Asian Hate Crime Capital of North America: A surge of attacks in one of Canada’s most multicultural cities during the pandemic is surfacing long-simmering racial tensions.

Last year, more anti-Asian hate crimes were reported to police in Vancouver, a city of 700,000 people, than in the top 10 most populous U.S. cities combined. With almost 1 out of every 2 residents of Asian descent in British Columbia experiencing a hate incident in the past year, the region is confronting an undercurrent of racism that runs as long and deep as the historical links stretching across the Pacific. 

And Toronto Star, "MARCH 29, 2022": Anti-Asian racism is soaring in Canada. These numbers tell the story, representing a 47 per cent increase from the previous year.

Game Show, 2024

The First Entry

The ghost of bygone days is whispering into his right ear, "Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I'm possible. This is America."

Mar-a-Lago

in the gathering dark ...

boxes of files

secured by the FBI

as fans shout, Trump 2024

NeverEnding Story, August 9 2022

FYI: NBC News, August 8: "FBI search at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home tied to classified material, sources say"

Such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries. Sadly, America has now become one of those Countries, corrupt at a level not seen before. They even broke into my safe! 

-- Former "president" Donald Trump who was impeached twice and took classified documents o his Mar-a-Lago residence  

Added: Game Show, 2024, II

written in response to The Hill, August 9: Former Nixon White House counsel: Trump comparison of FBI search to Watergate "doesn’t work at all"

All the President's Men ...

the murmurs of "that's it"

rippling

through the recreation room

of the long-stay psych ward

FYI: All the President's Men, 1976 award-winning film about the Watergate scandal, was selected in 2010 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Added: Game Show, 2024, III

Any resemblance to actual events or locales or real persons, is NOT coincidental. 

the back-and-forth rush

of a patient's monologue

a third run ...

FYI: This haiku could be read as a prequel to the following one:

a third run ...

murmurs of assent ripple through

the psych ward lounge

NeverEnding Story, July 26 2022

Added: Game Show, 2024, IV

a squirrel darts

back and forth on the fence 

in twilight shadows

on one side, the flag hung upside down

on the other, Trump 2024

FYI: Business Insider, August 13: The far right is calling for civil war after the FBI raid on Trump's home. Experts say that fight wouldn't look like the last one.

The Republican party has long portrayed itself as the defender of "law and order," but the aftermath of the raid has seen GOP lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene call for defunding the FBI.

Greene has also made references to "civil war" on social media as her Republican colleagues compare the FBI to the Gestapo and depict the raid as the type of thing that only happens in "third world" countries.

Meanwhile, pro-Trump internet channels have seen a spike in talk of civil war since the raid.