Welcome to the doomtown

What do you get when you cross an economy that's creating more and more low wage jobs (less than $15 an hour) with income inequality that's growing exponentially state by state in a nation where everyone is taught from the moment they come out of the womb that feasts, fast cars, and flamboyant mansions can be theirs if only they work hard enough?

Answer:  the French Revolution on steroids.

And if you live in America, you're going to get a front row seat.

Peace,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. V--Big Country: In a Big Country

Every now and again I'll hear a song for the first time and realize instantly that I am listening to a song that I'm going to love for the forseeable future.  This week's tune is one of those songs, only it's thirty-two years later and it still sounds every bit as good as it did the first several hundred times I heard it.

Released in 1983, Big Country's "In a Big Country" was the only hit the band had here in the States (they did quite well in the U.K. for a number of years) but--recurring theme--what an only hit to have had.  The band's (unfortunately) late lead vocalist and guitarist Stuart Adamson said himself that if "In a Big Country" was the only song the band was remembered for he would be "quite happy with that."

The song is the opening cut on the band's album The Crossing and is a mix of impassioned wailing vocals,  heart pounding drums, and whirling guitars that often mimic bagpipes on speed (somewhat to my chagrin, I found out while researching the song that the guitar sound was studio enhanced--as if guitar players were wizards who could make unimaginable sounds merely by circling a finger).  The most amazing thing about the song is every time I hear it, I feel like I'm swirling, in of all things, a big wide open country (like their native Scotland).

Come up screaming, indeed.

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee

There is a huge difference

This is a headline from an op-ed in The Washington Post written by the American Enterprise Institute's Michael R. Strain:

"END OBAMACARE, AND PEOPLE COULD DIE.  THAT'S OKAY."

It's often said by many on the left who are frustrated with the center tilt of the Democratic Party that there's no difference between Democrats and republicans.  This is proof positive that there is a huge difference.  There is no Liberal think tank and no member of the Democratic Party that would ever make the argument that it's okay for Americans to die due to a lack of healthcare.  And we would never use such infantile reasoning for any argument, let alone one advocating for the death of innocent Americans.

Frankly, this is rich asshole talk, and it clearly shows the devolution of America's traditional media.  One seriously has to wonder what in the fuck The Washington Post was even thinking publishing such trite bullshit.

Peace,
emaycee

Please proceed

Seems the head of the Chamber of Commerce, Thomas Donohue, last week criticized Elizabeth Warren, saying her ideas did not strike a chord with mainstream America and that the best economic populism was the American free enterprise system.

Ha, ha...hee, hee, hee...guffaw, guffaw, guffaw.

Actually, I like this tack, because I really like our chances in a battle between Warren, who stands up for working class Americans (roughly 90% of us) and Donohue, who basically blows overpaid CEOs and Corporate America for a living.

We don't much care for Richie Rich telling us how great he is, and we like it even less when his butler does it.

Peace,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. IV--Rosanne Cash: Why Don't You Quit Leaving Me Alone

Though she never had the meteoric career her father, Johnny Cash, had, Rosanne Cash nonetheless carved out a niche for herself and has had quite a fine career.  Probably best known for her breakout hit "Seven Year Ache" (and--recurring theme--what a song to be known for), Cash has been recording for more than thirty years now and still has some of the most beautiful vocals you'll ever hear.

Once, again, though, I'll be spotlighting one of Cash's lesser known songs, "Why Don't You Quite Leaving Me Alone."  It's the coda to King's Record Shop (released in 1987), considered by many to be her finest album (too many finest albums to count for me).  Though Cash wrote a number of her songs, this one was written by Benmont Tench, looooonnnnngggg time keyboardist for Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, and basically features Tench on piano and Cash singing the lovestruck vocals with just the right amount of regret, pathos, and lost hope.  Bonus points for mentioning F. Scott Fitzergerald and his wife Zelda in the lyrics.

Ultra-embarrassing factoid:  I've had a crush on Rosanne Cash since the first time I heard her sing....

Oh, the humanity.

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee

POTUS on the 2015 State of the Union: Short Version

Dance, dance, dance.   Approval ratings are up.  Economy is improving.  Unemployment is falling. Stock market going up, up, up.  More people getting health insurance.  Immigration policy is good policy.  American people are happier with the direction of the nation than they have been in quite a while.  Let's dance some more....

Some nice Democratic proposals.  Tax the rich, tax breaks for the middle class.  Pay for community college. Raise the minimum wage.  Equal pay for women.  New policy with Cuba.  Open internet.  Affordable childcare.  And just keep on dancing....

In short, President Obama absolutely nailed it.

Oh--and republicans can go fuck themselves.  Obama has been right, right, right, and republicans have been wrong, wrong, wrong.

Still dancing!

Good night and God Bless America.

Peace,
emaycee

Happiness is the truth

Lo and behold:  a study from Baylor University and the University of Arkansas finds that union members are more satisfied with their lives than those who are not.

Shocking isn't it, that working with others to better people lives economically and socially is satisfying?  Or that job security makes you happier?

The greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people has been the thirty plus years war on labor unions that began with that idiot Ronald Reagan and has made people question why union members should get paid more and have great benefits instead of wondering why we all don't get paid more and have great benefits.

Organize, rhapsodize, and enfranchise--and we'll all be the better for it.

Peace,
emaycee

What a not so wonderful world

I've been trying to wrap my head around this for a few days now--a University of North Dakota researchers study showed that nearly one out of three college men would rape a woman if they were sure they could get away with it.

What's wrong with this picture--other than everything?

Now some have criticized the study because only 73 men were surveyed, but that's utter bullshit.  Any way you look at it, they still talked to 73 men and 23 of them said they would be okay with forcing a woman to have sex.

What I want to know is, don't any of these men have a mother or a sister (they're young so wives and daughters are less likely)?  How would they feel about some man sexually assaulting a loved one just because he thought he could get away with it?

There's something very sickening when someone thinks rape is acceptable at any time, and it's only exacerbated by a complete and utter lack of empathy.

Peace,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. III--Rod Stewart: "Handbags and Gladrags"

It may be hard for some to believe in light of Rod Stewart's eighties pop crap and his crooner persona since the early 2000s, that up until the late seventies Stewart was on a plane with the Rolling Stones, the Who, Bob Dylan, and any number of other rock icons from the sixities and seventies.  You would be hard pressed to find a top 100 rock albums of all time that didn't include (and rightfully so) his seminal work, Every Picture Tells a Story, or a top 500 singles of all time that doesn't include "Maggie May."

And yet, this week's single is one of Stewart's lesser known songs (though it found popularity later as the theme for the BBC's The Office and a semi-hit for The Stereophonics), "Handbags and Gladrags."

While the song strongly showcases Stewart's signature blue-eyed soul vocals (see also Van Morrison or Darryl Hall), the most amazing thing about the song is how it turns convention on its ear--rock 'n' roll is proudly rebellious, but this song is ostensibly about a father telling his school skipping daughter about the fleeting whims of youth--and it works.  Just a beautiful song....

Enjoy:

Peace,

emaycee

Meanwhile...

It's estimated that thanks to the welfare deform act of 1996 that one million people will lose food stamps this year--roughly $150 to $200 a month for those recipients, most of whom are caught in the "you have to work to collect but we don't have any jobs for you" conundrum.

That's a million more people going hungry in the richest nation in the world.

God bless America, eh?

Peace.
emaycee

Democrat good, republican bad

News that 252,000 jobs were created in December and that the unemployment rate fell to 5.6% was tempered somewhat by wages falling five cents for the month.

This is a good time to absolutely hammer republicans on the minimum wage.  While they fiddle-fart around with whatever their hokum issue of the day is and refuse to work for a bump in the woefully inadequate federal minimum wage, we should be reminding Americans every day that we're the ones who want to pump billions into the American economy, and republicans are the ones who are causing wages to stagnate.

Democrats create jobs; republicans kill wages--it's as simple as that.

Peace,
emaycee

Yeah! That's the ticket!

With a completely straight face, Mitch McConnell this week took credit for the improving American economy because..wait for it...republicans are now in charge of the government.

I've always thought that McConnell was like one of those people at work whom you have to tolerate, but you'd really like just once to pop in the fucking kisser.  This confirms it.

Fortunately, Democrats didn't just refute McConnell, they made him look like the fool he is.  The DNCC and the White House openly mocked his comments.  Harry Reid was quick to point out that republicans were the problem, not the solution.  President Obama used his weekly address today to take another well- deserved victory lap on America's resurgence.

 It's important that we fight back quickly on this kind of bullshit--not doing so is why Ronald Reagan is remembered as a good President, when in reality he was a belittler of America's poor and middle class crushing fucking bozo.

Peace,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. II--Cornershop: "Brimful of Asha"

I don't know anything else by Cornershop outside of their 1997 album When I Was Born for the 7th Time, and the only song I still listen to is this week's single, "Brimful of Asha."

And what a song it is--if you're going to have one hit, might as well make it a good one.  Helped along by one Norman Cook (aka, Fatboy Slim) the song is ostensibly a paean to Asha Bhonsle, a woman who provided the background music (via vocals) to many an Indian film. It's a love song for pop music--I'm not much on song meanings, but you can get a nice summary here.

For those wondering, a brimful of Asha is a full cartridge of 45s (you know, the old single records) by Asha on one's stereo.  You probably have to be of a certain age....

The song also contains a wonderful lyrical nugget with the line, "Everyone needs a bosom for a pillow..."

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee

Shudder

As of this week, republicans control pretty much everything in America.

Shudder.

Think Progress ran a piece last week highlighting four republican predictions about our economy for the year 2015 if Barack Obama was re-elected.  To wit:  five dollar a gallon gas, unemployment over 8%, a stock market collapse, and an overall collapse of the American economy.  The reality?  Two dollar a gallon gas, unemployment at 5.8%, the Dow last week hit a record over 18,000, and the American economy is probably at its strongest (though still needing some serious improvement for the working class) since before the Great Recession.

Shudder.

Vanity Fair recently ran a piece wondering if republicans were ever right over the last thirty years.  Want to take a guess at the answer?  From the debacle in Iraq, to tax cuts paying for themselves, to raising taxes causing a recession, to Obamacare, republicans have been wrong, wrong, wrong...and wrong again.

Shudder.

On a national level, their opening salvos this week have been to strike at Social Security disability payments, Keystone XL, a national ban on abortion, and to cut the number of people with health insurance through Obamacare.

Shudder.

Am I the only one who's wondering if the arctic freeze blasting through America this week (didn't get out of single digits here today on the outskirts of Detroit) as republicans take over the country is a coincidence or the fates warning us of what's to come?

Shudder.

Peace,
emaycee

Fucking Pluto

This is how far we have gone off the deep end--republicans in Oklahoma will put forth a bill shortly to ban the wearing of hoodies while committing a crime, or to intentionally conceal one's identity.  Ten other states have similar laws on the books.

Leaving aside the fact that when one commits a crime I'm pretty sure that no one is going to say, "You know what?  I don't want to risk another year in jail when I rob this convenience store so I'm gonna skip wearing the fucking hoodie," does anybody beside me feel just a wee bit uncomfortable with letting the police decide if I'm trying to conceal my identity or if my ears are just cold?

I realize such laws are really aimed at racially profiling young African-American men, but on a dark night walking down the street with your hood up and your hands in the pockets of your sweatshirt, there's not a single American that wouldn't have a big target on his back in the face of such laws.

Peace,
emaycee

Abandon all hope

Another year, another American city mistreating the homeless....

San Jose, home to 34 billionaires and often referred to as the capital of Silicon Valley, recently evicted thousands of homeless residents from an enclave called the "Jungle" where homeless folks had set up camp and some facsimile of a home, ostensibly because they were polluting a local creek.

Too bad those poor folks weren't the Donald C. Cook Nuclear Plant in soutwestern Michigan--seems the power plant leaked 2000 gallons of oil into Lake Michigan over the last couple of months in 2014, polluting water used for drinking, fishing, and swimming.

What do you suppose the odds are that the state of Michigan will evict the power plant and force it to leave the state?

Peace,
emaycee

The Democratic wing of the Democratic Party

If you're a Liberal Democrat and of a certain age, you will never forget the speech Mario Cuomo, then the Governor of New York, gave at the 1984 Democratic National Convention.  We were in the process of serving up Walter Mondale as our party's Presidential nominee to get eaten alive by Ronald Reagan, and the speech, which outlined in no uncertain terms what the Democratic Party stood for and was a stirring rebuke to all the evils that Reagan brought down on us, was the only highlight of another dismal campaign for Democrats in our quest for the White House.

Much like Barack Obama after his speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention, great things were predicted for Cuomo and many believed he would eventually be the President.  It never came to pass, and Cuomo faded from the political scene.  His one legacy now appears to be his son, Andrew, now Governor of New York and a piss poor Democrat from top to bottom whose political career will thankfully be over in four years.

Cuomo passed away this week and much is being made of what might  (and might not) have been, but all I know is that he was the light in our party's darkest hour, and despite the emergence and unfortunate strength of the Bill Clinton/Third Way wing of our party, the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party is still thriving and Cuomo's finest hour played at least a small part in its continued existence.

Peace,
emaycee

Here in the real world

Jim Cramer predicted this week that corporate profits would be so huge that companies would be embarrassed not to give raises this year--hell, you won't even have to ask for one, they're going to be giving raises to everybody.

Ha, ha, ha, hee, hee--that Cramer, what a hoot.

Here's how it really works anymore:  once a year, it's raise time.  If the company feels like giving you one, you get one.  If the company doesn't, you don't (this would be most years).  It has absolutely nothing to do with corporate profits, your unit's profits, your job performance, your evaluation scores, or what the company can afford.

And you do not ask for a raise--that would be far too gauche for most executives to have to deal with.

This is not new--I'd venture to guess it's been like this for the last thirty years, excepting that up until about a dozen or so years ago, yearly raises were more likely.

Not particularly surprising that Cramer is completely clueless, though--he does, after all, work for a TV network that specializes in business news but somehow managed to be caught completely unaware when the economy collapsed in September of 2008.

Peace,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. I--Crosby, Stills, and Nash: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"

Because I haven't wasted enough of my life on pop music....

For those wondering, it's a song a week, some hits and some not, in no particular order, because touting a great song a week seems somehow worthwhile, goddamnit.  CSN's "Suite:  Judy Blue Eyes" starts it off because last year on some night I couldn't sleep I came across Woodstock on VH1 and this was the first song I heard and I distinctly remember asking myself at two or three in the morning, "Holy shit, has this song always been this good?"  And I thought the whole world (or at least the two or three people who regularly read this blog) should know just how good it was....

Word of warning:  on the Pop Music Coolness Quotient, Nick Hornby I aint.

For those not familiar, "Suite:  Judy Blue Eyes" is as the name suggests--a suite of  four songs, dedicated to Stephen Stills love of the time, folk goddess Judy Collins, amid their imminent breakup.  There's also a play on words with "suite" and "sweet" for those who enjoy the English language....  If nothing else, it's worth listening to just for the harmonies of Crosby, Stills, and Nash, and some great acoustic guitar from Stephen Stills.

Enjoy:

Peace,
emaycee

All is quiet on New Year's Day...

I bought a copy of U2's War on CD earlier this year for a dollar (quite the bargain)--I had forgotten after so many years how good the album is (and I still have the LP).  The song featured below, "New Year's Day," was the reason I bought the LP and War turned me into a U2 fan for life.

Hope you enjoy the song as much as I have:

Here's to a bitchin' New Year for all of us....

Peace,
emaycee