Today marks Social Security's 81st birthday--the Social Security Act (the brainchild of Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, the first woman to sit in the U.S. Cabinet--and how apropos that is in the year we'll elect our first woman President...) was signed into law on this day in 1935 by the Father of the modern Democratic Party, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, It has become the most successful program in the history of the United States and is the biggest anti-poverty measure in America.
In honor of its allowing working class folks like me to have a few years of comfort after our bodies, minds, and spirits have been exhausted by the cretins of Corporate America (as well as all the good it's done for the disabled and children), I've "come (to) pipe a tune to dance to, lad..."--the second greatest birthday song ever written ("Happy Birthday to You" might be dull and common, but it's served birthday parties quite well since 1893, thank you very much).
In a completely unsurprising turn of events, a Confederate flag was seen waving at a Donald Trump rally this past week, which a Trump supporter tried to defend as being a symbol of Southern pride.
Make no mistake, in much the same way that a swastika is a symbol of six million Jews being killed by Germany, the Confederate flag is a symbol of American citizens who fought for the right to buy and sell other human beings and use them in forced labor.
Though it was released thirty-four years ago, the central message (so to speak) of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five 's single "The Message" unfortunately remains as true today as it was in 1982--there are still far too many African-Americans in poverty whose lives are defined and destroyed by said poverty.
It's pretty rare for a band with such a small output (two albums, total, though there are a number of singles as well), to be as influential as Grandmaster Flash. From Public Enemy to Tupac, from NWA to Eminem, there's not a socially conscious hip hop star who doesn't owe a great deal to the first overtly political rap song ever. While they're time together was relatively short, Grandmaster Flash (who doesn't appear on any of their recordings--it's all the Furious Five) set a number of firsts: first emcee rap group, first rap group to refer to the vocalists as emcees, first band to put scratching and turntablism on a recording, first socially conscious rap song (and second rap hit single ever, after Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight") and the first hip hop act to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. By 1987 they were done, though, and while there have been various incarnations of the band's members through the years, those two albums remain their legacy.
Originally released as a 12" single (believe me, you have to be of a certain age), "The Message" would end up on an album (entitled, appropriately enough, The Message) in much the same way singles did in the early days of rock and roll, i.e., "We have a hit! Let's see if we can make more money selling it on an album full of otherwise mediocre tunes!" Written by Duke Bootee and performed by Melle Mel and Bootee, the song is a series of vignettes of life in the city (presumably New York City, Grandmaster Flash's home base)--a woman comes to the city and ends up selling herself to a pimp, a man at his wit's end steals his Mom's TV, a young man who can't resist the lure of gangbangers and their easy money who ends up in prison, all told through the eyes of a protagonist who admits, "Don't push me 'cause I'm close to the edge/I'm tryin' not to lose my head, ha-ha." It would rise to #62 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100, which isn't a bad showing for a lesson song in a music form in its infancy
The music (or what passes for it) is most assuredly machine made (and oddly enough, it has a real futuristic sound to it) and really only serves as the background for the forceful vocals. Equal parts anger, sorrow, and chastisement, Melle Mel and Duke Bootee offer a snapshot of people painted into a corner and in the end offer up no easy answers for their escape. The guy doesn't get the girl, the hero doesn't rise from the ashes--life in the ghetto is an unending vortex of hopelessness, until you realize that in the anger, in the sorrow, and in the chastisement lies the hope therein. And still all these years later, African-Americans are still screaming, crying, and teaching....
Rap sheet: "Broken glass everywhere/People pissin' on the stairs, you know they just don't care....
Having a candidate like Donald Trump at the top of the republican ticket is a boon for Democratic chances for the White House...but my biggest fear with Trump wallowing in his own shit has always been that the republican party and its (deep-pocketed) donors will cut their losses and instead of throwing half a billion dollars into a losing Presidential ticket, use that money instead for down ballot races, trying to convince swing voters not to give Hillary Clinton a blank check.
David Nir at Daily Kos thinks this strategy is a recipe for disaster (depress republican voters, running against President Obama didn't help Dems at all in 2014), but I'm not so sure. We generally have trouble keeping pace with republicans in the money wars (at least down ballot) and even more money being spent on republican candidates certainly isn't going to help. The big hitch I see, though, is the mainstream media--not only are they going to be much more interested in the dichotomy between a republican Congress and a President Hillary Clinton, the whole idea of a republican Congress being a check on Hillary Clinton has to be spot on for their misguided "let's be fair to each party regardless of the damage done to ordinary Americans" type of journalism. Or their willful ignorance of just how crazy the republican party's ideas and candidates have become.
Four more years of a Democrat in the White House would be a sweet, sweet victory (and a safety valve for keeping republican bills from being passed into law), but at the very least we need a majority in the Senate for the upcoming Supreme Court nominee battles or the victory of the first woman President will be for nought.
It was really quite striking today to read the accounts of Hillary Clinton's speech here in Michigan (here and here) and the pride that shone through those accounts--she's not perfect, but she's a real and very talented candidate, who has solutions and ideas and wants to empower us: "This is personal for me. I'm a product of the middle class."
Compare and contrast to the train wreck that is the Donald Trump campaign. I'd compare him to a circus clown, but circus clowns have some discernible talent and actually provide some much needed humor to a world that often needs it.
In eighty-nine days we have a chance to show America in resounding numbers that our best days are ahead of us and that our future is now.
Let's hope we have the courage to seize that chance with both hands.
Ever had a secret crush on someone and then seen his or her spouse/significant other and thought to yourself, "What the fuck?"
Well, Joe Jackson has written the song for you. And not only does it question why everyone isn't walking arm in arm with a beautiful woman/handsome hunk it's catchy as all hell, too.
Fascinating (or not) fact: Actually born David Jackson, Jackson acquired the name Joe because it was said when he played the piano he looked like Joe Piano, the Snoopy/Peanuts character in the guise of Joe Cool...
Joe Jackson was born in England and his introduction to music was the violin. Eventually he moved on to the piano and won a scholarship to London's Royal Academy of Music. At 16 he began playing in clubs, and in 1978 got his first record deal with A & M records which resulted in his debut album with the aptly named Joe Jackson Band,Look Sharp (and the source LP for this week's single). It would earn Jackson comparisons to Graham Parker and Elvis Costello (a bit overstated--he really wasn't in either of their leagues). Jackson would eventually foray into jazz in the early 80's, where he had his biggest hit album with Night and Day, which won him legions of new fans (alas, I was not among them and pretty much stopped following Jackson there). He's also composed classical pieces, and his career, as with so many other Jukebox artists, continues to this day.
Originally released to little fanfare in September of 1978, "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" was reissued in May of 1979 and became a surprise hit, reaching #21 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard Hot 100. As noted above, the song is basically a bemused man noting the myriad of "...pretty girls walking with gorillas down my street...." Jackson has noted that while many heard much anger in the song, he always thought the song was more humorous than angry (I personally always heard humorous bewilderment).
A couple of notes: 1) The song features a killer bass line as Jackson weaves his tale, and it goes hand in hand with the acid tongued protagonist, 2) Jackson does sarcastic humor very well ("they say that looks don't count for much, if so there goes your proof" "if looks could kill there's a man there who's more down as dead"), 3) It has one of those "magic moments" that just make a great song so much better when Jackson sings "Look over there" and on cue the band screams in the background "Where?" and 4) The tune's true genius comes because Jackson takes a topic that often becomes sappy (lack of love) and turns it into a wry commentary on the dysfunctional relationship between the head and the heart.
Rap sheet: "Tonight's the night I go to all the parties down my street/I wash my hair and kid myself I look real smooth...."
You want to know how fucked up America is these days?
After last week's nearly flawless Democratic National Convention (seriously, the worst part of the four days was Paul Simon's horribly off-key rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Waters"--embarrassingly bad), the best I have ever seen in following conventions of both parties since 1976, and the previous week's Republican National Convention which strongly resembled a freak show, as of today, Hillary Clinton has only a roughly 65% chance of defeating Donald Trump to win the Presidency (election snapshots here and here).
While I'd much rather be where we are than where republicans are, but for fuck's sake you'd think after the last two weeks (and Trump's insulting a fallen soldier's family, to boot) we'd be talking about who's going to be in Clinton's cabinet rather than whether she can win enough electoral votes.
The average American gets paid just enough so he doesn't quit his job, and works just hard enough so he doesn't get fired.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross." Source unknown
Uncle emaycee Wants You For the Coming Class War! Enlist today....
Capitalism: Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you can exploit his labor, become filthy rich, and keep the poor bastard living paycheck to paycheck for the rest of his life.
