Europe wants no part of war crimes

#BREAKING | France has joined Spain and Italy in preventing the US from using its airspace and bases to carry out military operations in Iran.

— Resist 🕎🍉 (@antizionistjew.bsky.social) March 31, 2026 at 7:31 AM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

America: Land of the Pedophiles

The sudden arrest of the former Prince Andrew is the latest sign that the rest of the world is much more serious about Epstein-related crimes than the current US leader www.theguardian.com/uk-news/live...

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— David Beard (@dabeard.bsky.social) February 19, 2026 at 5:37 AM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

The GOP is covering up for pedophiles

Todd Blanche says the Epstein files provide no basis for criminal investigations. But as of this morning they have fueled the opening of criminal probes in the UK, France, Germany, Slovakia, Poland and Norway... and that's only the ones that have become public.

— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) February 5, 2026 at 12:51 PM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

Europe is done with American oligarchs

🚨 BREAKING : French police raided Elon Musk's X offices in Paris. Prosecutors investigating child exploitation content, sexual deepfakes, and algorithm manipulation on the platform Musk and former X CEO Linda Yaccarino summoned to appear in April hearings Europa is done with American oligarchs💙🇪🇺

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— 🍁🇨🇦Team Canada Forever🇨🇦🍁 (@teamcanadaforever.bsky.social) February 3, 2026 at 7:42 AM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

Stand tall, Europe--the American people are counting on you

BREAKING: Statement by Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom:

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— Peter Stefanovic (@peterstefanovic.bsky.social) January 18, 2026 at 9:05 AM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

Mocking a buffoon

Trump is a laughing stock, a liar and total embarrassment! PM of Albania having a good laugh with President of Azerbaijan and Macron about Trump repeatedly claiming that he ended the war between their two countries which were not at war with each other. #USDemocracy #Pinks

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— Marie 🇨🇦 (@pawbaby2.bsky.social) October 2, 2025 at 1:59 PM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

The things we learn from history

 Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

The values she stood for are no more

Wow! France gifted her to us, and now they’ve captured what so many Americans are feeling on Independence Day. The values the Statue of Liberty stood for are no more. 📌 A stunning mural of the Statue of Liberty covering her face was unveiled in Roubaix, France, on July 3, 2025.

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— Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) July 4, 2025 at 12:42 PM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

This is how you do it

BREAKING: France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain & UK sign a joint statement vowing to protect Ukraine’s sovereignty & demanding a role in the peace talks. This is leadership. It’s also unprecedented. A western alliance is having to form against a new, twin & united threat: Trump & Putin.

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— News Eye (@newseye.bsky.social) February 12, 2025 at 5:29 PM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

Mush head

BREAKING: In a senile moment, Donald Trump just claimed that while he was President, he stopped a war with France. This obviously never happened. Trump’s brain has gone to rot. pic.twitter.com/oMzg7JQvW7

— Kamala’s Wins (@harris_wins) October 24, 2024

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

Come November, it's our turn

UK said no to fascism
France said no to fascism
It's our turn 🇺🇸

— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) July 7, 2024

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

Hopefully France is a harbinger for America this November

FRENCH LEFT SET FOR SHOCK ELECTION VICTORY, PROJECTIONS SHOW

LE PEN'S FAR-RIGHT PROJECTED TO FINISH THIRD IN FRENCH VOTE

— NewsWire (@NewsWire_US) July 7, 2024

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CDXXIX--Edith Piaf: La Vie en rose

 A couple of years back I was fiddling around on the computer when a commercial for Stella Artois beer came on TV, and as a trumpet dreamily played a melody, I was certain I knew the song it was playing.  In a roundabout way I did--it's been featured in commercials, movies, and TV shows many times (I'm certain there are numerous classical pieces that have the same familiarity without knowledge of the particular piece).  However, I did not know that this week's tune was the most famous song of one of France's most famous performers.  It took about two listens to fall in love with, and it's been a favorite ever since....

The Little Sparrow (La Mome Piaf), Edith Piaf, was born in Paris in 1915, and had about as unfortunate of a life as any artist featured here on Friday Night Jukebox.  Abandoned at birth by her mother, she was originally raised by her maternal grandmother until being returned to her father before he went off to fight World War I at which point she was passed off to her paternal grandmother...who ran a brothel.  Piaf was blind from the age of three until the age of seven due to keratitis (it was supposedly miraculously healed when the prostitutes who helped raise her pooled their money and paid for a pilgrimage honoring St. Therese of Lisieux).  In her teens Piaf joined her father, a street performer, and began performing music and skits on the streets of Paris.  She was pregnant at seventeen, abandoned her daughter as her mother did her, and the daughter would pass away at two from meningitis.  Piaf's gifted vocals were eventually discovered, and she began performing in brothels and nightclubs before becoming possibly France's greatest performer.  Along the way Piaf fell in love with the love of her life, Marcel Cerdan (middleweight boxing champion of the world), who died in a plane crash in 1949 while en route to see her in New York City.  During her lifetime, Piaf would also be accused of being an accessory to murder (acquitted), a traitor during the Nazi occupation of France (acquitted), suffered from crippling rheumatoid arthritis, had a stomach ulcer, was in three car accidents, and also was addicted to painkillers and alcohol.  Unfortunately, such a tragic life led to an all too early death, as Piaf passed from what was believed to be a liver ailment at the age of forty-seven.  Piaf's funeral procession through Paris drew thousands of people, and her ceremony at the cemetery was attended by over 100,000 of her fans.

Fun Fact:  If you're a movie fan, I would highly recommend the 2007 biopic La Vie en rose.  Marion Cotillard, who won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance, is absolutely dazzling as Piaf (she's pretty much dazzling, period).

"La Vie en rose" (lyrics were written by Piaf) was released on a ten-inch single, Chansons Parisiennes, in 1947.  Her version peaked at #23 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard charts.  English lyrics were eventually written for the song and in 1950 six different versions reached the Billboard chart.

"La Vie en Rose" translates as "life through rose-colored glasses" (literal translation is "life in pink"), and the song describes how lovely life looks when we're in love.  Piaf's voice takes on a serenity as she sings it, and the song becomes a veritable love lullaby.  The melody is lush which is very convenient for me as I neither speak nor read French so at least I've been able to hum it all week.  It's a beautiful song from another era by a unique talent--and a very fine addition to the annals of Friday Night Jukebox.

Lyric Sheet:  As noted above I am not familiar with French except in the most trivial of ways (C'est la vie!), so there isn't much sense in featuring lyrics here.  For those interested, though, at the link to the French lyrics I provided if you scroll down there is another link to an English translation.  Have fun!

Enjoy:

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCCXCIX--Plastic Bertrand: Ca Plane Pour Moi

So this past Monday I'm making dinner (enchiladas, one of the specialties at Chez Emaycee), and as I was planning on writing this post that evening, I was thinking about what I wanted to say about this week's song when poof! the lights went out and it would be more than 48 hours before we saw the light (so to speak) again.  Which is why last week's Friday Night Jukebox is just a wee bit late....

A couple of years back I was browsing the internet when I came across a piece asking if anyone remembered a plethora of hits from the seventies, and I thought, "Moi?"  Like there's anything better than a trip down the musical memory lane.  Surprisingly, there were four or five that I did not recall (the seventies were the decade when my musical evolution began), with this week's tune being one of them.  All it took was one--count 'em, one--listen and I knew that I'd struck musical gold.

We have a first this week, as Plastic Bertrand (aka, Roger Francois Jouret) is the first Belgian artist to be featured here on FNJ.  Plastic Bertrand has had a hell of a career as a musician, composer, and television star. Unfortunately, in 2010 he admitted that he had sung zero of the songs on his first four albums (including this week's song), and that they were in fact sung by his producer, Lou Deprijck. Ah, well, if you look it up, he's still the credited artist so we're just going to say, "Fuck it!' and move on.  For his musical career, Plastic Bertrand has released ten studio albums, nine compilations (oh, the joys of having a hit record!), and 44 singles.  He remains an active artist, though the last time Wikipedia has him doing anything of note in the entertainment industry was in 2007.

Fun Fact:  Plastic Bertrand represented the country from which my family immigrated to America, Luxembourg, in the 1987 Eurovision Song Contest.  Alas, he got as much love as Luxembourgers are generally accustomed to, finishing 21st out of 22 contestants.

"Ca Plane Pour Moi" was released as a single the year I graduated from high school, 1977, on Plastic Bertrands, ahem, debut album, An 1.  It would reach the top ten in ten different countries, including #1 in France (so many cool kids in France!) and Switzerland (ditto!).  Here in America, the song hit #47 (with a bullet!).  The album reached #2 in France but didn't have much chart success anywhere else.

"Ca Plane Pour Moi" (roughly translates as "Things are going good for me") is either French punk or a parody of the punk movement in general, depending on who's describing it.  The one thing everyone seems to agree on (including Joe Strummer of the Clash, who called it "...a bloody good record that will get any comatose person top-tapping...") is that it's a hell of a song.  It exudes euphoria from its beginning to its end, though nowhere more pronounced than in the chorus which in addition to the melodically intoxicating repetition of the title phrase, features an echoic "moi, moi, moi, moi" and an "ooh-woo-ooh-ooh" to end all ooh-woo-ooh-ooh's.  And the fact that you understand exactly two lines in the song (it's all in French except for a line of English that's basically repeated twice) makes absolutely no difference!  It's one of those songs that every time I hear it, I know that all the time I've spent throughout my life searching for songs far and wide was worth every. single. minute.  A bloody good record, indeed.

Lyric Sheet:  "You are the king of the divan!/Qu'elle mi dit en passant ooh-woo-ooh-ooh/I am the king of the divan/Ca plane pour moi..."

Enjoy:

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

Racism, plain and simple

The @FreeBeacon is outraged a Black woman who makes $400k a year can decide how to spend her money. https://t.co/fwbV0Uk79N

— stuart stevens (@stuartpstevens) November 24, 2021

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

 

Believe him

Donald Trump's idea of losers

Maya Angelou once said that when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time. 

Remember when Trump was running for President and said that people who get captured in war (specifically John McCain) aren't heroes?  Then news today that Donald Trump referred to American Marines who gave their lives in the first World War now buried at Aisne-Marne as losers shouldn't surprise you.  Nor should news that he said soldiers buried in Arlington were suckers.  Or that he didn't want amputee war vets on a stage with him because he said no one wants to see that.

You know what's most amazing about what Trump said?  The fact that I am in no way shocked.    Disgusted and nauseated, you bet.  Angry and bewildered, yes sir.  But not shocked.  Because this is who Donald Trump is and always has been.

And why there is no way America survives another four years of this psychopath in the White House.

190,000+ Dead Americans
Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. CCLXXXV--King Harvest: Dancing in the Moonlight

Another 70's pop wonder for a child of the seventies....

King Harvest formed in 1970 in Ithaca, New York, migrated to Paris, France, broke up in 1972, and then reunited back here in the States when its band members realized they had a hit single on their hands.  Its four founding members met at Cornell University and would remain with the band (with many additional players joining over the years) until King Harvest called it quits in 1976.  The four members would reunite in 2012, and for the next three years (minus Doc Robinson who, sadly, passed away in December of 2012) released a new album each year.  For its relatively short career, King Harvest has released ten studio LPs, (exactly one of which charted) and had 11 singles (two of which charted).  King Harvest got a little love from The Beach Boys (Carl Wilson and Mike Love helped the band get signed to a record deal after their one hit song), played country and western in Scandinavia for a while, and have had their one hit single featured numerous times in films.

"Dancing in the Moonlight" was released in 1972, and after having achieved hit status was quickly put on an album of the same name.  It would reach #13 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, while the album peaked at #136 on the Billboard 200.  It would also reach #5 on the Canadian charts (so many cool kids in Canada...).

Fun Fact:  The song was written in 1969 by Sherman Kelly in response to his having been beaten up badly by a gang, as a peaceful celebration of the good he still perceived in the world.  He recorded it with his band Boffalongo (there's a name for you), but had no commercial success.  His brother Wells introduced it to his band mates in King Harvest who turned it into the only hit of their career.

I'd be the first to admit that the lyrics for "Dancing in the Moonlight" are a bit dated (no one uses "get it on" as a euphemism for sex anymore or says "out of sight" when something is really cool), and its sentiments may be even more so...but no matter.  It wondrously captures an era I lived through, when it still seemed possible to solve the world's ills by simply dancing in the moonlight.  The song is catchy from beginning to end, features a soulful vocal from Doc Robinson, and wonderful backing vocals from the rest of the band.  It's a beautiful piece of pop nirvana, and if it seems a bit too rosy, to steal a line from Elvis Costello, what's so funny about peace, love, and understanding?

Lyric Sheet:  "We like our fun and we never fight/You can't dance and stay uptight/It's a supernatural delight..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Who gives a Dame?

Waste not and many will want not

This one's going to go over like a fart...in, uh, church.

First let me say that in a perfect world, the Notre Dame Cathedral would never have burned,  but as most of us are well acquainted with, we don't live in a perfect world.

That being said, I can't think of a bigger waste of money than spending a billion dollars to rebuild an eight hundred year old building, especially one that's a symbol of one of the world's most hateful and perverted organizations, the Catholic Church, which has spent the better part of the last forty years a) covering up the rapes its leadership committed on children in order to preserve its real estate holdings, and b) snuggling up to right wing politicians who think the Golden Rule is for wimps so that the Church's hate for the LGBQT community and its desire to keep letting men control what happens to womens' bodies can remain on the political agenda.

It's an old building--most eight hundred year old structures are no longer standing and the world is none the worse for it.  Meanwhile, we still have poverty, children going hungry, diseases that kill, people who can't afford decent housing, and underfunded education systems throughout the world.

No, a billion dollars isn't going to solve the world's problems--but it's going to bring a lot more joy and better living to a lot more people than restoring an antiquated structure so that less than 1% of the world's population can ooh and aah over its architecture.

Frankly, they should take a couple hundred thousand dollars, plow it under, and make a public park of the space.  It would be of much better use and the rest of the money could be spent on more pressing problems than a centuries old church.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

(Raised arm with clenched fist)

Oui! Oui!

I've been thinking the past few days about a poster that hung on a wall in one of my high school classes (couldn't begin to remember the class or the teacher) which contained a quote from French Resistance Fighter and Nobel Prize winner for literature, Albert Camus.  The quote was thus:  "In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

What brought this quote back to me, after forty some odd years, is our current political predicament and the often hopeless feeling one has watching it unfold.  We literally have a party--republicans, obviously--who is rewriting the rules of our political discourse not in the service of the common good but for its own thirst for power and to placate the minority of Americans who are wealthy.  We've watched--all in the past few weeks--an Attorney General whitewash a report questioning whether the President colluded with a foreign power and/or broke the law.  We've had to watch as Mitch McConnell breaks all decorum in confirming judges for our courts to ram through candidates who are both unqualified and also out of step with the beliefs of a large majority of Americans.  We've watched as the government tries to take healthcare away from 20 million Americans--not to provide a better alternative or to even cut costs, but just as a spiteful move to wreck the legacy of one of the greatest--and first African-American--Presidents in our history.  We've watched as Facebook and Twitter have decided that it's fine to let foreign powers interfere in our political process--as long as it helps their profitability.  We've watched as a white nationalist in New Zealand killed 49 Muslims and the President of the United States barely offered a "tsk, tsk."  And just to show that he truly is a racist, the President also doesn't seem to care that the people of Puerto Rico are as much an American citizen as he is.

But despite the drumbeat of despair, we haven't quit.  We're still out there making donations, running for office, talking to folks who are on the fence, sending postcards, hanging our political signs, and writing heartfelt blogs.  We do not see the dream as breaking, and it's certainly not broken.

For us, it's an invincible summer.

And fuckin'-A to us for that.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

Donald dunce

Speaking in Texas on Saturday, Donald Trump took a shot at gun control and declared that if the victims in the Paris attacks had been armed it would have been "...a much, much different situation."

Yes it would have been--not only would there have been innocent people shot to death by cretinous terrorists, there also would have been innocent people shot to death by inexperienced and panicked goobers firing their guns in utter chaos.

Peace,
emaycee