Earlier this week during an orientation for representatives-elect, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted that the incoming congresspersons had been spoken to by four CEOs...and zero labor leaders. Later, Michigan's own Rashida Tlaib tweeted that Gary Cohn of Goldman-Sachs had told the freshmen that they didn't know how the game was played...and Tlaib promptly warned him to prepare his ass for a Congress that puts people over profits.
For all the despair that Donald Trump has created since his election, it fills me with great hope that in spite of it we are electing such congresswomen as Ocasio-Cortez and Tlaib, who are showing that the new boss is not the same as the old boss, and who are going to remind those in power every day that they serve the people and not Corporate America.
Over the course of the past twenty-five years or so, we Americans have borne witness again and again to once respected institutions covering up child molestation and protecting the perpetrators. The Catholic Church, Penn State, Michigan State University, and now our Secretary of Labor, when he was Miami's top federal prosecutor, have all erred on the side of money and not on the side of children.
For those not aware, in 2007 Alex Acosta (our current Labor Secretary) issued a more than lenient sentence (13 months) to billionaire Jeffrey Epstein who was facing life imprisonment for numerous instances of sex with underage girls (some still in middle school) as well as being suspected of sex trafficking girls from overseas. Nobody seems to know why Acosta cut such a pathetic deal (a good guess would be something to do with the billions of dollars Epstein is worth plus the many notable men--including Donald Trump and Bill Clinton--who may have been involved with Epstein's perversions but as of yet have remained anonymous), but two of his victims are now suing to have the plea overturned.
Can someone explain to me what I am missing here? We are talking the rape of children, and yet what does it say about America when the real estate holdings of the Church or the athletic programs of universities or the comfort of a billionaire all supersede the lifetime trauma of a child? The punishments issued in all of these cases are a mere piddling compared to what the children have suffered.
Have we become that desensitized to the power of money?
Because if we have, it's not a slippery slope we are descending. We have already struck rock bottom.
This is the week that was in the National Fucked (up) League:
The Washington Redskins, the organization with the racist team name, were the only team to pick up one Reuben Foster, who had been released last week by the 49ers (about a year too late, truthfully) who has now been accused of domestic violence twice (in fairness, the first charges were dropped, though there's something not quite kosher about the dropping of the accusation).
And then, after having a second quarterback lost for the season due to injury, the Redskins declined to sign noted national anthem protester Colin Kaepernick as a backup because he doesn't fit into their system (which seems to be the go to answer for not signing Kaepernick among all teams in the NFL--amazing he guided a team to the Super Bowl considering how ill suited he is to NFL offensive systems, isn't it?).
So this is the message the NFL is sending to our kids: Beat a woman and you can have a job, but if you exercise your constitutionally protected right to free speech by taking a knee during the national anthem to protest racial inequality, you cannot be employed in the NFL.
This is George H.W. Bush's legacy: racism, a continuation of the republican war on the working class and the poor and giveaways to the wealthy and corporations, war crimes, obstruction of justice, and sexual harassment. He also set the stage for his son's Presidency, which, amazingly, was much worse than his. Just because he wasn't as much of a repulsive cretin as Donald Trump does not mean he was not an asshole, too.
And while we Liberals had to suffer this week yet again as a former President's ugly and utterly mediocre legacy is whitewashed after his death (see also, Ford, Gerald, and especially Reagan, Ronald), I couldn't help but wonder who was more pissed off--us, or Donald Trump's base, having to watch a man they most assuredly consider a sniveling wimp (like the rest of the Bush family) be glorified while so many continue to call out their hero for being an unqualified, boorish, and grotesque twit.
There is much (rightful) consternation now about republican legislatures in my home state of Michigan and in Wisconsin taking away powers from the incoming Democratic leaders who so soundly trounced republican candidates on November 6th. What they are literally doing is undermining democracy and as such, the will of us, the voters.
Keep two points in mind: First, virtually all of these attempts to usurp power will be met with lawsuits, and courts thus far have not shown a propensity to overturning the will of the voters (at least when it comes to elections...our paychecks are another matter). However, this does highlight the importance of State Supreme Court elections--both states currently have a republican majority on their state Supreme Courts and as we've seen over the past few years, when republicans can't win on merit, they're more than happy to cheat. We cannot trust republican judges to do the right thing; therefore we need to make sure we elect Democratic state justices.
Second (and I've noted this before), you can only undermine the will of the people for so long before it gets ugly--there aren't enough republican congresspeople or members of the Chamber of Commerce to stop the barreling train that is the will of a state's (or a nation's) voters.
Republicans may win in the short term, but their victory will most assuredly be Pyrrhic.
In lieu of General Motors having record profits and yet still closing plants and laying off up to 14,000 people, a Fox Business News pundit this past week wondered just how long it would be before Americans woke up to capitalist bullshit and elected not just a Democratic Socialist to the Presidency, but a gee, by golly actual Socialist.
My guess is not too long--especially after all the folks who voted for Trump thinking he'd bring the good manufacturing jobs back realize he's not bringing the good manufacturing jobs back and is only there to further enrich himself and America's wealthy elite.
And considering that Fox has been has been championing the republican agenda of subsidizing the wealthy with our tax dollars since Jesus was a cub scout, I'm going to thoroughly enjoy that bit of schadenfreude.
Outside of themselves, their family members, a handful of Scots, and myself, I'm not sure too many folks remember this week's tune. I first heard it when MTV was still in its infancy (and still playing music full time) in 1983, and it's one of those gems that make me miss MTV as it once was, when one could find a small gem that otherwise would be lost amidst the thousands of songs released each year.
The Bluebells originated in Scotland in 1981 (and until I did my half-assed research this week I had no idea they were Scottish--always thought they were an American band) and stayed together until 1986. In that time they released an EP and one full length album, and had a modicum of commercial success in their native UK (though none here in the States). Their debut LP hit #22 on the UK charts, and they had five singles hit the top 100 in the UK. Their biggest hit was "Young at Heart" which hit #8 in 1984, and thanks to a Volkswagen commercial, became an even bigger hit in 1993, hitting #1 and staying there for four weeks. The band has reunited a time or two--1993 thanks to Volkswagen, and briefly in 2008-2009 and 2011. Most of its members have stayed in the music business in one form or another, though one does make a living now writing about golf. I've always thought they were like the Ramones, if the Ramones had been a pop band instead of a punk band, but this could also be because one of their members (watch the video below) bears a passing resemblance to Joey
Ramone....
"Cath" was originally released in 1983 on their debut EP entitled, appropriately enough, The Bluebells,and was also included on their debut LP, Sisters, in 1984. It was also released twice as a single, reaching #62 (with a bullet!) on the UK charts in 1983, and #38 (most assuredly with a bullet!) on the same charts in 1984.
Fun Fact: Though the Bluebells only released one EP and one LP (though they did have a Japan only release, as well), they still managed to release a greatest hits package in 1993. Oh, the wonders of a hit single....
If the gods of music got together and said to themselves, "What we really need to do is create a pop single that emaycee really loves..." (as if) they would have been hard pressed to make one that has more of my faves than "Cath." From the ever present harmonica, to the catchy chorus, to the "woa, woa"s, to the crescendo ending, to the guitar leading into the crescendo (shamelessly stolen from Rod Stewart's "Maggie May"), this one pretty much nails it. It's a pop fan's pop tune, a one off single that shows the glory of the pop single. It's the kind of song that I started Friday Night Jukebox for--I am music fan, hear me roar, this one you cannot ignore...and it's fine addition to the genre that is known as Scottish pop.
\ Lyric Sheet: "I'm shaking with fright/And nothing's going right/You've spoilt my day for the rest of the night..."
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.
