The GOP is destroying lives for the fun of it

This is heartbreaking. Listen to Ming Li "Carol" Hui, from ICE detention, break down in tears as she contemplates having to leave her family behind. She has no criminal record and had permission from ICE to stay despite a removal order for over a decade — yet Trump's revoking it.

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— Aaron Reichlin-Melnick (@reichlinmelnick.bsky.social) June 2, 2025 at 9:47 AM

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

 

Friday Night Jukebox, Vol. DXXXI--Jonathan Edwards: Sunshine

 Who'd have ever thunk it--a Friday Night Jukebox on a Friday, and on time....

As I've noted a time or two, I managed a music store on the east side of St. Louis (also known as Illinois), and of all the places I've lived, it had some of the oddest fan favorites when it came to music.  Many big cities have local faves--Cleveland and the Michael Stanley Band immediately comes to mind--but most of the artists St. Louis folks liked were not locals.  Sammy Hagar, Head East, Humble Pie, and Mountain all sold a lot more records in St. Louis than across the country in our other stores.  It was probably the only place (except maybe Chicago) where music stores would get regular requests for Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah's "Lake Shore Drive."  And, though it's not our song of the week, this week's artist had quite a few requests for his song "Shanty," an ode to smoking weed released a loooonnnngggg time before it became legal.  In a nutshell, this week's artist will always be a reminder of a place I dearly loved to live--St. Louis....

His St. Louis favorite notwithstanding, Jonathan Edwards built quite a career out of one hit single.  Born in 1946 in the great state of Minnesota, Edwards began playing piano by ear when he was eight and also started singing in the church choir.  By the time he was a teen he had taught himself guitar and had begun performing on stage.  He would play in several bands for the next few years before moving to Boston and going solo in the early seventies.  Signed to Capricorn Records, he released his debut which brought him a top five hit single and paved the way for the rest of his career.  In addition to touring regularly, Edwards has done some acting, as well as writing scores for films.  Despite the fact that he never got another sniff of commercial success after his first LP, Edwards has managed to release fourteen studio albums (the latest in 2021), five live albums, and seven singles over the last fifty-four years.  He continues to tour to this day.

"Sunshine" was the first single from his debut album, the rather clerically named Jonathan Edwards.  The song would reach #4 (with a bullet) on the Billboard Hot 100 and sell over a million copies.  The album did not chart in America, but did manage to hit #40 in Australia (so many cool kids Down Under!).

Fun Fact:  "Sunshine" was not planned to be released as a single.  However, because an engineer accidentally erased the master of the single he was planning to release ("Please Find Me"), "Sunshine" was used in its stead.  Probably the most lucrative mistake a musical engineer has ever made....

Most likely because no matter how hard I try I'll never learn everything, before I did my half-assed research for this week I had no idea "Sunshine" was an anti-Vietnam War song.  Always thought it was a "My Boss Sucks" song, trying to stick it to the man.  Nevertheless, Edwards plays a bitchin' acoustic guitar (emaycee fave!), delivers an impassioned vocal, and makes the most musically of his one moment of greatness.  By the way, all of this in two minutes and nineteen seconds.  Finally, as I listened to it again and again this week, it dawned on me how fresh the song sounded--like it could have been recorded in 2025.  One supposes if you're going to have just the one hit, you might as well do it up right--and Jonathan Edwards most certainly did.

Lyric Sheet:  [Writer's Aside:  Thought these lyrics were apropos for the time we are living through right now.] "Sunshine, come on back another day/I promise you I'll be singing/This old world, she's gonna turn around/Brand new bells will be ringing..."

Enjoy:

Fuck Donald Trump

Peace,

emaycee

Abject racism in Missouri

A reminder that Black people are 7x more likely to be wrongly convicted of murder than white people and since the late 1980s, Black folks make up more than 50 percent of exonerations. https://t.co/01W3LfB4bX

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) September 24, 2024

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

The ten worst states to live in? SOLIDLY RED

 Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

This is straight up Nazism from the GOP

Missouri Republicans have voted to defund all public libraries. It is an apparent extortion attempt to try to force libraries to remove books that include LGBTQ characters or racial justice themes. (per @HeartlandSignal) https://t.co/JZjCQdPJjx

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) April 12, 2023

Republicans = Nazis

Peace,

emaycee

 

American Taliban

Despite widespread pushback, Missouri Republicans just passed a new rule banning women lawmakers from wearing attire that exposes their arms.

This after they already passed a rule requiring women to cover their dress with a “second layer.”

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) January 14, 2023

Republicans = Losers

Peace,

emaycee

 

Troll on down the highway

This is amazing: President Biden invited the gay nephew of the Republican Congresswoman who cried over marriage equality to the White House to watch him sign marriage equality into law. pic.twitter.com/6laCklg5K7

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) December 20, 2022

Republicans = Losers

Peace,

emaycee

 

The moron platform

This is a really solid midterm strategy for the GOP. They should definitely keep this up. https://t.co/2xwSTLkYqk

— Angry Staffer 🌻 (@Angry_Staffer) September 29, 2022

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

 

Can you say "Career Over!" boys and girls?

 

Republican = Traitor

Peace,

emaycee

As plain as the nose on Vladimir Putin's face

 

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

Maybe they're having an affair and Russia has pictures?

#Russia's favorites, Tucker Carlson and Josh Hawley, are again being featured on state TV. Their efforts to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine are much appreciated in Moscow.https://t.co/eAhKNUVrIM pic.twitter.com/GQf77PP3Db

— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) February 13, 2022

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

 

We need to know exactly what is up with republican support for sworn enemy Russia pronto

BREAKING: GOP Sen. Josh Hawley is calling on the Biden administration to DROP longstanding U.S. support for Ukraine’s eventual membership in NATO.

RT if you think the GOP is a party of Putin’s puppets!

— Jon Cooper (@joncoopertweets) February 2, 2022

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

 

The Show Me State is now the We're Liars State

The state of Missouri commissioned a study to see if mask mandates worked. When the results came in, showing they saved lives, the state blocked publication in order to maintain its attempt to force cities like St. Louis to end their mask mandates: https://t.co/nGon9yi7nC

— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) December 2, 2021

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

 

King of the incels

“Republican men can’t get laid” sounds like a you problem, buddy. pic.twitter.com/sA44cct7oa

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) November 2, 2021

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

 

Nah--he'd rather kiss Trump's ass

So does that mean @HawleyMO condemns Donald Trump for having an affair with a porn-star while his wife was pregnant with their son? https://t.co/eLTcwGkYhd

— Kurt Bardella (@kurtbardella) November 8, 2021

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

 

Real men don't whine about their masculinity

Ah yes. Let’s feed the toxic masculinity rage machine in a nation awash in 400M guns, where 50+ women are fatally shot by intimate partners each month, where most mass shootings are instigated by domestic violence, and where 4M women have been threatened with guns. 👍👍👍 https://t.co/T81P381J6g

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) November 8, 2021

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

 

Four horseman of the apocalypse?

 

Republican = Racist

Peace,

emaycee

Oh oh Domino

 

The Republican Party Is Now a Fascist Cult Just Like Nazi Germany

Peace,

emaycee

Oh, the (lack of) humanity!

According to republicans, oops!

Missouri Governor Mike Parson this week said he didn't feel any more responsible for all the coronavirus deaths in his state than he did about people who die in auto accidents, saying more or less that these things happen and it's just life.  Guilt is for pantywaists.

Leaving aside the obvious question of just who in the hell Parson believes should take the appropriate actions when a state's citizens are in the midst of a pandemic, the sheer and utter callousness of his response is exceedingly bothersome.  I mean shouldn't a public official, especially the leader of a state, show some kind of sympathy for the loss either of these entails?  People in Missouri have lost parents, grandparents, sons, daughters, aunts, uncles, cousins, and lifelong friends to COVID-19.  People in Missouri have lost children because some idiot chose to drive drunk.  Shouldn't at the very least Parson acknowledge the tragedy in such losses?  At least show some sadness for the pain encountered?

Apparently such shows of humanity aren't in the republican playbook...unless of course you're a Confederate traitor.

Then it's enough tragedy to merit a meaningless statue.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee

One way to do it

Good news from Ferguson!

Ferguson, Missouri has been back in the news the last few days because of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis resemblance to the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson in 2014 (at least insofar as they were two black men murdered by two white men because white men basically can).  But Ferguson is in the news for a much better reason today:  yesterday the city elected Ella Jones as its first ever black mayor.

The simplest and surest way to assure that black Americans have a seat at the table is to elect black Americans so they can be guaranteed to have a seat at the table.  There is most assuredly a long way to go to achieve as many seats as will be necessary, but the results in Ferguson yesterday are an excellent start.

Fuck Donald Trump,
emaycee