Moscow Mitch

This is the republican Senate Majority Leader:

Gospel truth.

#DitchMitch

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Another boogeyman bites the dust

Pretty much sums it up for me

It seems the republican playbook for 2020 is going to be, at least the part that isn't about abject racism, to scream Socialism again and again concerning every Democratic plan and proposal.

Frankly, after nearly forty years of living in a capitalistic system, I've come to realize that the only things capitalism is good for are making rich people richer and keeping the rest of us working month to month while we fall deeper into debt just to survive.

If turning to Socialism would help us make a little more money--and the rich a lot less--I'm all for it.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

You've got to fight for your right...to get paid

Dana Nessel--championing your family's economic well-being

Another in a long line of reasons Democrats are better for Americans than republicans:

Wage theft costs American workers over $50 billion dollars every year ($200 million a year here in Michigan), and Michigan's Attorney General Dana Nessel has drawn a line in the sand...and it's not for corporations or greedy business owners to step over, but rather blocks them from not paying their workers their due wages.

The Payroll Fraud Enforcement Unit has thus far brought suit against 10 Michigan businesses for cheating their workers out of their pay, and it may prove to just be the tip of the iceberg.  Two hundred million dollars of earned pay in the pockets of average Michiganders will make a big difference in their family's health and happiness.

Want to guess how many republican Attorneys General we had in Michigan prior to Nessel (republicans have held the office since 2002) who tried to make sure our citizens were not getting cheated out of pay they earned by their sweat and toil?

That would be zero.

Here's hoping Nessel  not only gets Michiganders paid their due wages, but that businesses that are stealing from them are rightfully vilified and stigmatized.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Don't believe the hype

There's no you in advocating for the wealthy

As we head into the most important election this nation has ever had, you will undoubtedly hear again and again from lazy and ignorant commenters that there is no difference between the republican and the Democratic parties.

This handy little chart will show that nothing could be further from the truth:

From your civil rights to your economic well being, from the environment that surrounds you to your kids education, the Democratic Party again and again votes nearly lockstep in your best interests, while the republican party...does not.

Want a better nation?  Then vote Democratic.

It's that simple.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Steal a lot and they make you a king

The rich swamp badly needs drained

A couple of pieces this week caught my eye, and both deal with the effects of corruption not only on our political system, but on our everyday lives.

The first was an article contrasting two druglords--the infamous El Chapo, who was recently sentenced to life in prison (which at his advanced age means he'll likely die in jail), and John Hammergren, the CEO of McKesson Corporation, a pharmaceutical company that under his leadership distributed 14 billion opioid pills in America from 2006 to 2012, which helped to lead to the deaths of over 200,000 Americans.  For his troubles, Hammergren (who recently retired) has received close to a billion dollars in compensation since his tenure at McKesson began in 2001.

The second wonders how little we know about exactly how deep Donald Trump's corruption goes.  From where he got the $66 million to finance his first Presidential campaign, to the $25 million fraud settlement for Trump University, from who's paying the Maralago membership fees to how his family lives a life of luxury when Trump himself is a massive failure as a businessman and no reputable bank will loan him money.

Both pieces certainly make the case for America's wealthy having a lot more in common with the Mafia than they do with the average American citizen.

And if we don't check it soon--by electing leaders who have our interests and not the wealthy elite's at heart--it's not going to be too long before America is the planet's most populous third world nation.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXXVII--Forest Sun: Change My Tune

This week we have another tune I discovered thanks to the wonders of clicking on the Folk genre in Pandora (I posted songs by Chatham County Line and Kane, Welch, and Kaplin earlier this year).  If they'd had Pandora when I was still young and carefree I'd probably have ten thousand albums in my collection...

Though I am well over halfway through my fifth year of Friday Night Jukebox, I continue to be amazed at how many musicians can make a living playing music despite a complete lack of commercial success.  Forest Sun (his real name as he was christened Forest Sun Schumacher) is another such artist--born in New York, but our third straight Bay Area artist as he began his career in 1999 in my City by the Bay.  Over the last twenty years he's started his own label and released nine albums (the last in 2012), none of which have come anywhere near the charts.  He's released one children's album, played a fireman in the movie Who's There, and has added a song or two to three different movie soundtracks.  Forest is also a multi-instrumentalist, playing guitar, drums, piano, and an emaycee fave, the ukulele.  All in all he's spent the last twenty years making music and not slaving in retail, which is aces in my book.

Needless to say, "Change My Tune," which was released on Forest's 2005 LP Walk Through Walls, did not chart and we will not have a shout out for Billboard magazine this week (not that it needs one).

If ever there was a little ditty that was right up emaycee's alley, this one is it.  A Folk tune featuring some nice acoustic guitar, drums that sound like a washboard being played, a bit of accordion, and some fiddle, all filled with the effervescent vocals of Forest Sun.  "Change My Tune" is the promise of a man to his lady love that he's getting his shit together and everything will be different between them in the future...whether or not that's the case, only Forest Sun knows for sure.  It's short, it's sweet, it's catchy, and in a just musical world, it would have at the very least been a top forty hit.  As is, it's still a fine specimen of Americana:  a jug band recording a pop hit that will keep your toes tapping and your lips humming for days.

Lyric Sheet:  "The last song I sang you/I got the words wrong/Let me sing you another you can sing along/Gonna change my tune..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

The future is now

Acting for what is right makes electoral might

One of the unfortunate aspects of having been a Democrat for over forty years is watching the party continually act in the interests of what they think will help them win elections rather than doing what is right to do only to lose said elections because the American electorate is not particularly fond of rewarding cowardice.

I keep coming back to this as I watch Nancy Pelosi tiptoe around beginning impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump and Elizabeth Warren lead a full on charge to show the American people that the President is not above the law and should be held accountable for his administration's corruption, collusion, and its obstruction of justice.  Warren is fighting for our Democracy; Pelosi is normalizing Trump's behavior and our party will be the worse for it.

If Donald Trump wins in 2020 and the Democrats did not impeach, I can guarantee you that Elizabeth Warren will still be a well-respected Senator from Massachusetts, and Nancy Pelosi's legacy, reputation, and career will be in tatters.

Impeach now.  There is no other option.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Going nowhere and nowhere fast

Richer man and poorer man

One of the side effects of the shit show that is Donald Trump's Presidency is the fact that important stories fall by the wayside in the interim of whatever the Idiot-In-Chief is tweeting.  Just last week the Federal Reserve released a study that showed the top 1% of Americans have gained $21 trillion in wealth since 1989, while the bottom 50% of us lost $900 billion.

This is not sustainable.

This shows that the American Dream is out of the reach of a majority of Americans.

But the media will  keep on reporting Trump's tweets so they can sell more papers and more ad time.

They just shouldn't be surprised when their empires burn to the ground in the coming economic firestorm.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Brought to you by the letter "r"

rac·ist

/ˈrāsəst/

adjective

• 1.prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXXVI--Green Day: Pulling Teeth

A couple of years back I scored a CD of Green Day's Dookie for a buck at the thrift store where I worked.  My oldest son had enjoyed the band's music and I thought as my younger son got older he might as well, so I picked it up for him.  I decided to give it a listen...and spent the next three months listening to it on my drives to and from work.  It turned out to be a hell of an album.

For the second straight week we're going to the Bay Area, though Green Day hails from the east side.  Formed in 1986 in Berkeley, Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt would be joined by drummer Tre Cool in 1990 and have remained the same trio (rhythm guitarist Jason White was a fourth member for a time before returning to his role as a touring member) for the past almost thirty years.  Of all the bands that came out of the 1990's Alternative movement, I'm not sure Green Day would have been one I would have guessed to have such a profound impact, but through the years they have built a quite impressive career resume.  They've released twelve studio albums, three of which have hit #1 on the Billboard 200, and six more have hit the top ten.  They've also had two top ten singles, and overall have sold more than 85 million records.  They've won five Grammy Awards, had an album (the rock opera, American Idiot) made into a Broadway musical (which was nominated for three Tony Awards), and were voted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility.  All in all, Green Day can certainly stake a claim to being America's most successful punk band, and one of its most influential as well.

"Pulling Teeth" was released on Green Day's breakthrough album, the aforementioned Dookie in 1994, though it was never released as a single.  Dookie would go on to sell twenty million copies and was ranked #193 on Rolling Stone's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."

Fun (if somewhat gross) Fact:  "Dookie" was what the band called the diarrhea they frequently got as a young touring band from tainted food on the road....

Though it probably isn't the best song Green Day ever did, I chose "Pulling Teeth" because a) it was my favorite song on Dookie (come on...punk and pop--doesn't get much better than that), and b) I think it really shows the band's versatility (power pop, punk, instrumentation, sense of humor, lyrics, harmonic vocals, difficult subject matter) which is a good reason they've lasted as long, and been as successful, as they have.  The song is a solid three chord rocker, with overlapping vocals, some tremendous drumming from Tre Cool, and in a just world would have been a top ten single hummed by millions.  Of course, as a pop song about a man physically abused by his girlfriend it would have an odd song to be hummed by millions, but what the hell, it's pop music.  One thing's for sure, though--if there's a rock and roll heaven, I'll guarantee you that the Ramones are smiling every time they hear this one.

Lyric Sheet:  "Is she ultra-violent?/Is she disturbed?/I better tell her that I love her/Before she does it all over again/Oh god, she's killing me...."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Dogs returning to their vomit

Your average republican

With the chants of "Send her back!" still echoing from Donald Trump's Nazi campaign rally yesterday, it's finally time to be frank and call Trump's supporters exactly what they are:  pigs.

It's not about economic anxiety, it's not about Ilhan Omar's critiques of Trump, and it's not about making America great again:  it's racism, pure and simple.

Trump's supporters are not the salt of the earth, they aren't good people, and they certainly aren't Christians.  They're just a bunch of hateful assholes.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

The republikkkan party

They're much closer to the KKK than the American mainstream

After a week in which Donald Trump tweeted that four American congresswomen should go back to their home countries (which, for three of them, would be America) if they don't like it here, it should be noted that racism is not just endemic to Donald Trump, but to the republican party as a whole.  To wit:

• After a reporter questioned Trump's tweets, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway questioned the reporter's ethnicity.  Racism dog whistle #1.
• Republicans voted en masse against House Democrats resolution condemning Trump for said racist tweets--even after Nancy Pelosi read for the record verbatim Trump's racist tripe.  Racism dog whistle #2.
• Even more telling, after Trump's tweets his approval rating among republicans rose by 5%--this isn't a support your leader boost, it's a we agree with your racism boost.  Racism dog whistle #3.

It's going to be increasingly hard to convince anyone other than republicans that their party has become a party of white people, by white people, and for white people and all the ugly connotations that such a party philosophy holds.

They're not infused or infested with racists--they are racists, from top to bottom.

Fuck Donald Trump,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXXV--Beulah: Gene Autry

This week's tune comes from a band that hails from my city by the bay--another in a long line of San Francisco treats....

Beulah formed in 1996 when office co-workers Miles Kurosky and Bill Swan realized they had similar tastes in music and decided to give it a go as a band.  Championed by The Apples in Stereo frontman Robert Schneider, the band released its first single and album in 1997.  Over the course of their eight year career, the band toured extensively and released four albums, five singles, and one demo album.  Unfortunately, a lack of commercial success (Beulah was quite well received critically) eventually lead to their demise--the band vowed if its fourth album didn't go gold they'd call it quits, and when it didn't, Beulah kept its promise, disbanding in 2004.  Kurosky has released one solo album in the years since, and the band has joined him for the odd charitable cause, but for all intents and purposes, it is kaput.

"Gene Autry" was a track from their 2003 album The Coast Is Never Clear (bonus points for a clever, if somewhat disheartening, title).  The song was not released as a single, thus we have no shout outs for Billboard magazine this week.

Fun Fact:  For those wondering (both of you) Beulah is a synonym for Israel, often in its incarnation as the Promised Land.  Fascinating, my God....

Near as I can tell, "Gene Autry" tells the tale of a man listening to Gene Autry as he heads for California, where he hopes to find himself or happiness, all the while fearing he'll lose himself and his shot at happiness.  The song's peppy music underlies the lyric's sometimes depressing overtones, but if one listens carefully one will be rewarded with a plethora of highlights.  Kurosky has a soothing vocal style, and he makes great use of repetition ("I will ride, ride, ride" or "I'll sing along, long, long") to give the tune a sing along feel.  The lyrics are subtle without being obtuse, and Kurosky can turn a phrase as the saying goes.  The band for its part provides a multi-layered musical escape--the song opens with some pure power pop guitar chords, makes nice use of a piano, features bells in the chorus, and right before the coda makes use of some Latin flavored horns, and amazingly enough, it really works.  If you're a pop music fan and you don't like this one, you're probably no longer among the living--a wonderful slice of pop's Promised Land (so to speak).

Lyric Sheet:  "When I get to California/Gonna write my name in the sand/I'm gonna lay this body down/And watch the waves roll in..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCXXXV--The Kingsmen: Louie Louie

Outside of "Rock Around the Clock" and "Johnny B. Goode," I would be hard pressed to name a tune that had a greater influence on the history of rock and roll than this week's featured song.  Hell, the Wikipedia entry for the song is longer than their write-up for the band...and I'm relatively sure that's an FNJ first.

The Kingsmen formed in 1959 (the year I was born--coincidence?  I think not...) in Portland, Oregon and made their mark as a garage band in the Pacific Northwest.  In 1962 the band heard a version of a song by Richard Berry called "Louie Louie" by Rockin' Robin Roberts while in a club and noticed the crowd's reaction was to dance their asses off.  They learned the tune and later recorded it in the studio in April of 1963 (the band split the $50 fee--nice investment there, fellas!), and the rest, as they say, is history.  Lead singer Jack Ely left the band before they even released their first album (his only vocal and instrumentation with the group was "Louie Louie"), but the Kingsmen have been together now (in about a billion different incarnations) for sixty years now.  They have released twelve albums (the last in 1994), five of which hit the Billboard 200, 19 singles, 7 of which hit the Billboard Hot 100, and have released a whopping 20 compilations, which doesn't even include various artist collections.  Amazing what a seminal single can do for your career options....

"Louie Louie" was released as a single in 1963, and the band would capitalize on its success by adding it to their debut album, The Kingsmen in Person, that same year.  The single would go on to reach #2 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, and would go on to be inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame's Hall of Fame Singles, the Grammy Hall of Fame, and be a song of the century/all-time on numerous poll lists including NPR, Rolling Stone, and NME.

Fun Fact:  While the exact number is unknown, it is estimated that there are over 1500 cover versions of "Louie Louie."  Now that's influence.

Yeah, I'm going to write a paean to "Louie Louie"--much better writers than I have devoted entire books to it, let alone a paragraph.  So much of the song's early appeal was the rumors that the song was obscene (many radio stations refused to play the song, it was banned in Indiana by its governor, and the FBI spent 31 months investigating it for obscenity only to conclude its lyrics were unintelligible), and Jack Ely's vocals sound slurred (in truth, Ely was a) wearing braces, and b) while recording was placed in the middle of his band mates and had to stand on his tiptoes and scream into the mike to be heard above the instruments).  In reality, discovered many years later than it should have been, the song is quite tame--a sailor is telling a bartender that he's more than ready to get back to sea so he can get home to his lady love.  It's doubtful in the internet age that a song today could ever have the mystique that "Louie Louie" did (we could google it and have the lyrics in a matter of seconds), but a testament to its utter greatness is that even though we now know the truth, the song remains an anthem in a league of its very own.

Fun Fact #2:  The song does have an obscenity in it--if you listen carefully around the 0:55 mark, the drummer screams "Fuck!" because he dropped a drumstick as they were recording.

Lyric Sheet:  "A fine little girl, she waits for me/Me catch a ship across the sea/Me sail that ship all alone/Me never thinks how I'll make it home..."  (Come on, admit it:  you had absolutely no idea that was the lyrics to the first verse...)

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee