After years of failing to respond to complaints that newsrooms weren’t demographically reflective of America’s diversity, publishers and broadcasters are taking steps to bring in people of color, women and other people who have been historically underrepresented and whose stories weren’t being told as a result. But the issue of classism remains. Most Americans cannot afford to attend journalism graduate school, which many journalistic organizations require to work for them. And the ideological divide is even more extreme. There still isn’t a single socialist or communist opinion cartoonist or columnist working for any American newspaper, even though 40% of Americans are socialist or communist.
Newsrooms Are Taking Diversity Seriously: Man or Woman, White or Black, You Can Be Any Kind of Rich Capitalist You Want
39 Comments. Leave new
«Socialism» ! Ted, isn’t there a law against using profanity on the websites ? If there isn’t, there certainly should be. Were I a citizen of your great country, I’d be on the phone at once to my Representative and my Senator and demand immediate action….
Henri
Quality work should be the only standard for a hire, not advancing some Communist propaganda.
Ever watch a road crew contracted by the government?
Everyone SHOULD work but receive RECOGNITION AND PROMOTIONS for the quality of their work.
George R.R Martin works. Even though he puts out a massive amount of product in tv/film/literature, the ONLY thing people worry about is if he will finish Song of Fire and Ice before he dies.
Where is the fucking love?
Roseanne had some rant that cost her a show. At the same time there was fake news regarding pictures of asylum seeker children locked in cages. It was blamed on Trump but immediately deleted when discovered those were Obama kids. Will those outraged people like favrue be banned from working? Fuck they deleted those tweets, not really caring about the kids nor Obama’s actions.
Myself. I’m going to be a hunter gather homeless person. That makes more sense to me.
Maybe move to Europe and squat in some mansion.
«Lutefisk gulping wolly poggy» I suppose we can’t expect a person with an IQ of 50 like our garrulous friend «StupidWizardGlick» to learn to spell lutfisk, but for others who find that subject relevant to this discourse…. 😉
Pathetic….
Henri
«Only a French man would make the mistake you did.» Poor fatuous «StupidWizardGlick», knowing neither Sweidsh nor Norwegian (neither bokmål nor nynorsk) nor French, you’d be advised to refrain from commenting on these matters, But given that IQ of 50 and that OCD, you will, of course, find yourself unable to take that advice…. 😉
You’d best get back to hr Lindberg….
Henri
> Quality work should be the only standard for a hire,
Wait … WHAT??!
You’ve already wasted a whole lot of bandwidth *bragging* about how you do shoddy work. By your own criterion, you should be unemployed. But then you are no stranger to hypocrisy.
Rules are for other people. That’s how democracy works!
@Ch
You are mixing apples and oranges.
Clearly, I am quality. I was hired. That’s the apple.
I am a survivor of a broken system. That’s the orange.
Lutefisk gulping wolly poggy
I bet you are one of the first in the streets during a good protest in the French section of Sweden.
Or Swedish section of France.
Still picketing Goran Lindberg?
«Still picketing Goran Lindberg?» Poor dear «StupidWizardGlick», hr Lindberg, whose name you – not surprisingly, given that IQ of 50 – are unable to spell, seems to be unavailable for picketing, given his current use of both your oral and aboral orifices. We shall have to see how the matter develops…. 😉
Henri
Poor idiot frogster
“Lutefisk (Norwegian) or lutfisk (Swedish)”
Only a French man would make the mistake you did.
Must be overly occupied rubbing one out to Garnny Macron.
«Quality work should be the only standard for a hire, not advancing some Communist propaganda.» Indeed, «quality work» in representing a New Deal Democrat like Bernard Sanders as a raging Boslshevik, who eats babies alive….
As Abbott Joseph Liebling pointed out nearly six decades ago, «[f]reedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one» ; the same, of course, holds true in spades when it comes to TV stations, etc. No wonder there are no socialists in US newsrooms….
Henri
“Any philosophy, whether of a religious or political nature – and sometimes the dividing line is hard to determine – fights less for the negative destruction of the opposing ideology than for the positive promotion of its own. Hence its struggle is less defensive than offensive. It therefore has the advantage even in determining the goal, since this goal represents the victory of its own idea, while, conversely,it is hard to determine when the negative aim of the destruction of a hostile doctrine may be regarded as achieved and assured. For this reason alone, the philosophy’s offensive will be more systematic and also more powerful than the defensive against a philosophy, since here, too, as always, the attack and not the defence makes the decision. The fight against a spiritual power with methods of violence remains defensive, however, until the sword becomes the support,the herald and disseminator, of a new spiritual doctrine.”
― Adolf Hitler, Mein Kampf
Never read Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward I see.
“Bellamy’s novel tells the story of a hero figure named Julian West, a young American, who towards the end of the 19th century, falls into a deep, hypnosis-induced sleep and wakes up 113 years later. He finds himself in the same location (Boston, Massachusetts), but in a totally changed world: It is the year 2000, and while he was sleeping, the United States has been transformed into a socialist utopia. The remainder of the book outlines Bellamy’s thoughts about improving the future. The major themes include problems associated with capitalism, a proposed socialist solution of a nationalization of all industry, and the use of an “industrial army” to organize production and distribution, as well as how to ensure free cultural production under such conditions.
The young man readily finds a guide, Doctor Leete, who shows him around and explains all the advances of this new age, including drastically reduced working hours for people performing menial jobs and almost instantaneous, Internet-like delivery of goods. Everyone retires with full benefits at age 45, and may eat in any of the public kitchens. The productive capacity of the United States is nationally owned, and the goods of society are equally distributed to its citizens. A considerable portion of the book is dialogue between Leete and West wherein West expresses his confusion about how the future society works and Leete explains the answers using various methods, such as metaphors or direct comparisons with 19th-century society.
Although Bellamy’s novel did not discuss technology or the economy in detail, commentators frequently compare Looking Backward with actual economic and technological developments. For example, Julian West is taken to a store which (with its descriptions of cutting out the middleman to cut down on waste in a similar way to the consumers’ cooperatives of his own day based on the Rochdale Principles of 1844) somewhat resembles a modern warehouse club like BJ’s, Costco, or Sam’s Club. He additionally introduces a concept of “credit” cards in chapters 9, 10, 11, 13, 25, and 26, but these actually function like modern debit cards. All citizens receive an equal amount of “credit”. Those with more difficult, specialized, dangerous, or unpleasant jobs work fewer hours (in contrast to the real-world practice of paying them more for their efforts of, presumably, the same hours). Bellamy also predicts both sermons and music being available in the home through cable “telephone” (already demonstrated but commercialized only in 1890 as Théâtrophone in France). Bellamy labeled the philosophy behind the vision “nationalism”, and his work inspired the formation of more than 160 Nationalist Clubs to propagate his ideas.
Despite the “ethical” character of his socialism (though he was initially reluctant to use the term “socialism”), Bellamy’s ideas somewhat reflect classical Marxism. In chapter 19, for example, he has the new legal system explained. Most civil suits have ended in socialism, while crime has become a medical issue. The idea of atavism, then current, is employed to explain crimes not related to inequality (which Bellamy thinks will vanish with socialism). Remaining criminals are medically treated. One professional judge presides, appointing two colleagues to state the prosecution and defense cases. If all do not agree on the verdict, then it must be tried over. Chapters 15 and 16 have an explanation of how free, independent public art and news outlets could be provided in a more libertarian socialist system. In one case, Bellamy even writes, “the nation is the sole employer and capitalist”.”
Re punch line of title: “You Can Be Any Kind of Rich Capitalist You Want”
More accurately, the situation is: “you can be any kind of provider of woefully under-compensated labor to a rich capitalist.”
The US and global economy is capitalist but, by definition and design, the number of genuine capitalists is very small. The vast majority of the population is NOT capitalist but wage slaves of capitalists.
Said populace may well support capitalism*** but this is no more than a society-wide Stockholm Syndrome cynically created and meticulously promulgated by capitalist owned media and PR firms.
One wonders
1) if the corporate demand for less and less tax has to deal with its massive costs of self-aggrandizement (by far, the fakest “news” of all), 2) if capitalism would have survived even as long as communism without having had so hypnotized the society.
——————–
*** In another comment section I witnessed this quintessential demonstration of the effects of the decades-long propaganda blitz: “Capitalism is the best system of GOVERNMENT (sic) in history.”
As Obama noted when running for election, the link between productivity and wages has been broken.
That broken link demonstrates why all workers should follow the path set by American Teacher.
Wait until you all see my next piece!
“the link between productivity and wages has been broken”
Sorry but the genpop fucked themselves. NSFW, NOT SAFE FOR WORK, ring any bells?
Before technology it wasn’t like people sat and read or masturbated at their desks or spoke every trivial matter they could think of out loud so their coworkers could be enlightened.
Why pay these idiots eight hours wage for four hours work?
We have met the enemy and he is us.
> all workers should follow the path set by American Teacher.
Slack off, phone it in, rip off your fellow citizens while pretending to actually help?
Yeah, that’s a recipe for success.
@CH
Beat the system before it beats you
“but this is no more than a society-wide Stockholm Syndrome cynically created and meticulously promulgated by capitalist owned media and PR firms.”
Carlin
Nobody goes right to work. You might get there on time, but, screw the company, those first twenty minute belong to you, right? It’s not an attitude in line with the American Spirit, but there it is: we all screw around first. “I just got here, man, you kiddin’ me?” Really. You never see a memo that says 9:01. [3]
If you take five white guys and put ’em with five black guys, and let ’em hang around together for about a month, and at the end of the month, you’ll notice that the white guys are walking and talking and standing like the black guys do. You’ll never see the black guys going, “Oh, golly! We won the big game today, yes sir!” But you’ll see guys with red hair named Duffy going, “What’s happenin’?” [3]
Living in this country, you’re bound to know, every time you’re exposed to advertising, you realize once again that America’s leading industry, America’s most profitable business is still: the manufacture, packaging, distribution and marketing of bullshit. High-quality, grade-A, prime-cut, pure, American bullshit. And the sad part is, is that most people seem to have been indoctrinated to believe that bullshit only comes from certain places, certain sources: advertising, politics, salesmen – not true. Bullshit is everywhere. Bullshit is rampant. Parents are full of shit, teachers are full of shit, clergymen are full of shit, and law enforcement people are full…of…shit – this entire country. This entire country is completely full of shit, and always has been. From the Declaration of Independence to the Constitution to the Star-Spangled Banner, it’s still nothing more than one big steaming pile of red, white and blue, all-American bullshit. Because, think of how we started. Think of that. This country was founded by a group of slave-owners who told us all men are created equal. Oh yeah, all men, except for Indians and niggers and women, right? I always like to use that authentic American language. This was a small group of unelected, white, male, land-holding, slave-owners who also suggested their class be the only one allowed to vote. Now, that is what’s known as being stunningly and embarrassingly full of shit. And I think Americans really show their ignorance when they say they want their politicians to be honest. What are these fuckin’ cretins talking about? If honesty were suddenly introduced into American life, the whole system would collapse!
“American Bullshit”
Everybody knows by now, all businessmen are completely full of shit; just the worst kind of low-life, criminal, cocksuckers you could ever wanna’ run into – a fuckin’ piece of shit businessman. And the proof of it, the proof of it is, they don’t even trust each other. They don’t trust one another. When a business man sits down to negotiate a deal, the first thing he does is to automatically assume that the other guy is a complete lying prick who’s trying to fuck him outta his money. So he’s gotta do everything he can to fuck the other guy a little bit faster and a little bit harder. And he’s gotta do it with a big smile on his face. You know that big, bullshit businessman smile? And if you’re a customer – Whoah! – that’s when you get the really big smile. Customer always gets that really big smile, as the businessman carefully positions himself directly behind the customer, and unzips his pants, and proceeds to service…the…account. I am servicing this account. This customer needs service. Now you know what they mean. Now you know what they mean when they say, “We specialize in customer service.” Whoever coined the phrase “let the buyer beware” was probably bleeding from the asshole. That’s business.
“Businessmen”
And now, ladies and gentlemen, that we’ve enjoyed some good times this evening, and enjoyed some laughter together, I feel it is my obligation to remind you of some of the negative, depressing, dangerous, life-threatening things that life is really all about; things you have not been thinking about tonight, but which will be waiting for you as soon as you leave the theater or as soon as you turn off your television sets. Anal rape, quicksand, body lice, evil spirits, gridlock, acid rain, continental drift, labor violence, flash floods, rabies, torture, bad luck, calcium deficiency, falling rocks, cattle stampedes, bank failure, evil neighbors, killer bees, organ rejection, lynching, toxic waste, unstable dynamite, religious fanatics, prickly heat, price fixing, moral decay, hotel fires, loss of face, stink bombs, bubonic plague, neo-Nazis, friction, cereal weevils, failure of will, chain reaction, soil erosion, mail fraud, dry rot, voodoo curse, broken glass, snake bite, parasites, white slavery, public ridicule, faithless friends, random violence, breach of contract, family scandals, charlatans, transverse myelitis, structural defects, race riots, sunspots, rogue elephants, wax buildup, killer frost, jealous coworkers, root canals, metal fatigue, corporal punishment, sneak attacks, peer pressure, vigilantes, birth defects, false advertising, ungrateful children, financial ruin, mildew, loss of privileges, bad drugs, ill-fitting shoes, widespread chaos, Lou Gehrig’s disease, stray bullets, runaway trains, chemical spills, locusts, airline food, shipwrecks, prowlers, bathtub accidents, faulty merchandise, terrorism, discrimination, wrongful cremation, carbon deposits, beef tapeworm, taxation without representation, escaped maniacs, sunburn, abandonment, threatening letters, entropy, nine-mile fever, poor workmanship, absentee landlords, solitary confinement, depletion of the ozone layer, unworthiness, intestinal bleeding, defrocked priests, loss of equilibrium, disgruntled employees, global warming, card sharks, poisoned meat, nuclear accidents, broken promises, contamination of the water supply, obscene phone calls, nuclear winter, wayward girls, mutual assured destruction, rampaging moose, the greenhouse effect, cluster headaches, social isolation, Dutch elm disease, the contraction of the universe, paper cuts, eternal damnation, the wrath of God, and PARANOIAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
Marx believed all productive societies had to have some form of ownership to produce. It is impossible to have a productive society without ownership.
The control of an individuals’ labor by society instead of a capitalist can also be exploitative and alienating.
Collectivist anarchism (also known as anarcho-collectivism) is a revolutionary[1] anarchist doctrine that advocates the abolition of both the state and private ownership of the means of production as it instead envisions the means of production being owned collectively and controlled and managed by the producers themselves.
For the collectivization of the means of production, it was originally envisaged that workers will revolt and forcibly collectivize the means of production.[1] Once collectivization takes place, money would be abolished to be replaced with labour notes and workers’ salaries would be determined in democratic organizations of voluntary membership based on job difficulty and the amount of time they contributed to production. These salaries would be used to purchase goods in a communal market.[2] This contrasts with anarcho-communism where wages would be abolished and where individuals would take freely from a storehouse of goods “to each according to his need”. Thus notwithstanding the title, Mikhail Bakunin’s “collectivist anarchism” is seen as a blend of individualism and collectivism.[3]
Collectivist anarchism is most commonly associated with Bakunin, the anti-authoritarian sections of the First International and the early Spanish anarchist movement.
I have always found it interesting that men like Bakunin reject philosophically the position from which they come. Few suffer the consequences of their thoughts.
“Few suffer the consequences of their thoughts.”
We all suffer the consequences of our thoughts.
Someone once said that if a small part of ones thinking is wrong our entire world vision is wrong.
That’s why the Eightfold Path is brilliant.
It is simple Psychology applied to daily life so one may retain a healthy worldview.
“But what first motivated me wasn’t anything I read. I just got mad seeing the machines ripping up the woods.”
That was from the Unabomber.
“Those who are most sensitive about “politically incorrect” terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any “oppressed” group but come from privileged strata of society.
“Feelings of Inferiority”, item 12″
So was that.
Is Kaczynski world view skewed to socially positive or socially negative?
Is he “insane” or a prophet?
Yawn, how pedestrian.
Ralph Nader said something like every paper has a business section but no workers section.
Bit of fresh air from the Trump bashing.
I called geicko for a pricing on homeowners insurance.
We paid 57k ten years ago for the house.
The policy would have run 1500 a year. But see it was so expensive because they estimate the rebuilding replacement cost at 312k!
Six times the cost of the house.
Consider all those California and other homes that went up in smoke during the recent fires.
Most of those people will not rebuild. Codes change, materials become more expensive. So on.
They will take that insurance money.
This means that property taxes rise for those remaining and INSURANCE RATES RISE FOR EVERYONE. Because your company has everyone in one big pool.
Screw equality we the people are being nickel and dimed to death.
Same Psychology is illustrated below.
Couple of quotes form George C Scott’s 1980 film the Formula.
“Arthur Clements: [proposing that Titan Oil can raise their gasoline prices] The people will accept the 12 cents now because we can blame it on the Arabs!
Adam Steiffel, Chairman Titan Oil: Ah, Arthur, you’re missing the point: We *are* the Arabs.”
“Barney Caine: You see, professor, I’m a little tired of being lied to and shot at. And your phony nostalgia about the good old days doesn’t impress me.
Siebold: [Indignantly] Don’t play the sanctimonious American with me, mister. In all the years of the war, in all the great Allied raids, not one important hydrogenation plant was hit. And why? Because certain American oil companies shared chemical patents with the Third Reich. The Americans were in business with the Third Reich then. And the same partnership exists today. There is blood on your hands too, mister.
[Lt. Caine gives the professor a hard look, says nothing, turns and leaves the room]”
“Barney Caine: You trade lives and human dignity for profit.
Adam Steiffel, Chairman Titan Oil: “Money, not morality, is the principal commerce of civilized nations.” Thomas Jefferson, 200 years ago. That is the philosophy that built this nation.
Barney Caine: What do you know about this nation? When did you ever give a second thought to American citizens? You’re the reason their money’s worthless. You’re the reason old people are eating out of garbage cans, and kids get killed in bullshit wars. You’re not in the oil business, you’re in the oil shortage business. You’re an ivory tower hoodlum. A common street killer. I wish to Christ there was some way I could nail you…
Adam Steiffel, Chairman Titan Oil: Well… you’re gonna’ be nailing the American Dream, Barney. Because it all started in the corner gas station. Remember, you used to take your bike down there and get free air. And daddy said, “Fill them up, Fred.” And you go down to grandma’s for Christmas dinner. Yeah. Then, when you got your first car, what did you do? You took your girl for a ride. There was Fred smiling by the pump there. He never let you down, because a gallon of gas never broke down. Well, it was oil that nourished the American Dream. We’re the great American tit, Barney. And without it… ain’t no America'”
There is a problem with this. …
Due to the inequality involved in the last, let’s call it 525 years of American history, certain races (don’t get me started on how Hispanic isn’t, apparently, a race) have lower educational attainment levels than others as a total percentage of each group. If educational attainment is directly proportional to economic class (it is), and if minorities are disproportionately overrepresented in the lower economic classes (they are), there simply aren’t enough qualified candidates to go around.
“Hispanic isn’t, apparently, a race”
It is not. Hispanics are hybrids of Spanish/Indian/Negros.
Like Obama who CHOSE to be Black despite being half white.
Hispanics should be able to choose whether they are Spaniards, Indians or Blacks.
What fools people is the Brown skin shit.
@Wiz – Hispanics are Caucasians.
You’re confusing “Hispanic” (meaning “from Spain”) with “Latino” (meaning ‘from Latin America”)
And Hispanics get to have a heritage and be proud of it.
Whites are called evil supremacists when they do that.
“there simply aren’t enough qualified candidates to go around.”
BULLSHIT!
As with most high in the public jobs it is CRONYISM that gets one a job.
At a certain level everything is about who you know and who you went to school with NOT how skilled you are.
That’s why people rely on the internet for REAL UNFILTERED news.
If there is bias it is obvious.
Unlike every single mainstream media outlet.
Pat Cadigan’s “Synners”
“Look at that,” LeBlanc said, pointing at the dataline. “Damien Splader’s going to do a talk show from prison. They send him up for life, and he gets his own show. Just what we need, another porn show. Prison porn. You know something like sixty-eight percent of all new programming on the dataline is some kind of porn now?” “Where’d you get a figure like that?” said Shuet. “News porn?” LeBlanc looked at him evenly. “Hey, a tabloid should know.” “Oh, how could there be prison porn? Who would get hot looking at prison stuff?” “Who would get hot looking at food?” Silkwood said glumly.
“Diversifications porn! Right? We could tell our horror stories for a cam, let the home audience know what kind of hell we go through to give them those commercials they eat up with two spoons. Sorry,” she added to Silkwood. “No offense.”
“Stuff s junk,” Silkwood declared. “Worse than all the porn put together. I don’t know why we had to go into the music-video business. The company’s survived this long without it.”
Somehow he’d put disaster porn on the top-middle screen, and they were running the Twenty-Five Worst Air Crashes series.
Rivera had had the benefit of that for fucking weeks, while he’d been sitting with his thumb up his ass figuring he was dealing with some CPA whose idea of porn was a stolen spreadsheet.
Valjean had a screen for every porn channel, jammed together in the wall so that food porn overlapped med porn overlapped war porn overlapped sex porn overlapped news porn overlapped disaster porn overlapped tech-fantasy porn overlapped porn she had no idea how to identify. Maybe nobody did, maybe it had just bypassed the stage where it would have been anything other than porn. Meta-porn, porn porn?
Silent Running
Mike + The Mechanics
Take the children and yourself
And hide out in the cellar
By now the fighting will be close at hand
Don’t believe the church and state
And everything they tell you
Believe in me, I’m with the high command
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
There’s a gun and ammunition
Just inside the doorway
Use it only in emergency
Better you should pray to God
The Father and the Spirit
Will guide you and protect from up here
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Swear allegiance to the flag
Whatever flag they offer
Never hint at what you really feel
Teach the children quietly
For some day sons and daughters
Will rise up and fight while we stand still
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running?
Can you hear me running, can you hear me calling you?
Can you hear me, can you hear me running (can you hear me calling you?)
Can you hear me hear running, can you hear me calling you?
(Can you hear me running) Can hear me running (can you hear me calling you)?
Can you hear me
Hear me calling you
(Can you hear me running) hear me running, babe
Can you hear me running (hear me running)
Calling you
Ain’t That a Bitch
Johnny “Guitar” Watson
I’m working forty hours
Six long days
And I’m highly embarrassed
Every time I get my pay
And they working everybody
Lord, they working poor folks to death
And when you pay your rent and your car notes
You ain’t got a damn thing left
Ain’t that a bitch, yes it is
Somebody doing something slick, there they are
It’s got me wondering which is which
Mighty as well go out of town and dig a ditch
Ain’t that a bitch, yes it is
Now ain’t that a bitch
Lemme tell you about my qualifications
I program computers
I know accounting and psychology
I took a course in business
And I can speak a little Japanese, fox on
Gotta work two years
To get one week off with pay
And when I’m on my job
I better watch every word I say
Ain’t that a bitch, oh boy
Somebody doing something slick, downtown
It’s got me wondering which is which
Mighty well, go out of town and dig a ditch
Ain’t that a bitch, it’s way, way to cold
Ain’t that a bitch
Make me wanna holler, Lord, Lord
Lord, have mercy to see
Won’t somebody please help me to see land. Lord
I want to play the guitar, come here guitar
Somebody doing something silly
Now listen to this
Stop at the supermarket
To get myself something to eat
And when I look at the prices
They knock me off of my feet
I was in the baloney section
And I had to take myself a close look
Now [Abdule Jabar] couldn’t have made these prices
With a sky hook
Ain’t that a bitch, yes, it is
Somebody doing something slick, yeah they are
It’s got me wondering which is which
Might as well go out of town and dig a ditch
Ain’t that a bitch, ain’t that a bitch
Surely there’s something slick going on
Surely there’s something slick
Surely there’s something slick going on
Surely there’s something slick, ain’t that a
Surely there’s something slick going on
Surely there’s something slick
Surely there’s something slick going on
Somebody’s show slick, ain’t that a
Surely there’s something slick going on
Surely there’s something slick
Surely there’s something slick going on
Somebody’s showing slick
Surely there’s something slick going on
Surely there’s something slick
Surely there’s something slick going on
Surely there’s something slick
Poor Man’s Blues
Bessie Smith
Mister Rich Man, Rich Man
Open up your heart and mind
Mister Rich Man, Rich Man
Open up your heart and mind
Give the poor man a chance
Help stop these hard, hard time
While you livin’ in your mansion
You don’t know what hard time means
While you livin’ in your mansion
You don’t know what hard time means
Oh, workin’ man’s wife is starvin’
Your wife is livin’ like a queen
Please, listen to my pleadin’
‘Cause I can’t stand these hard time long
Oh, listen to my pleadin’
Can’t stand these hard time long
They’ll make an honest man do things
That you know is wrong
All man fought all the battles
All man would fight again today
All man fought all the battles
All man would fight again today
He would do anything you ask him
In the name of the U.S.A
Now the war is over
All man must live the same as you
Now the war is over
All man must live the same as you
If it wasn’t for the poor man
Mister Rich Man what would you do?
1913 Massacre
Woody Guthrie
Take a trip with me in 1913,
To Calumet, Michigan, in the copper country.
I will take you to a place called Italian Hall,
Where the miners are having their big Christmas ball.
I will take you in a door and up a high stairs,
Singing and dancing is heard everywhere,
I will let you shake hands with the people you see,
And watch the kids dance around the big Christmas tree.
You ask about work and you ask about pay,
They’ll tell you they make less than a dollar a day,
Working the copper claims, risking their lives,
So it’s fun to spend Christmas with children and wives.
There’s talking and laughing and songs in the air,
And the spirit of Christmas is there everywhere,
Before you know it you’re friends with us all,
And you’re dancing around and around in the hall.
Well a little girl sits down by the Christmas tree lights,
To play the piano so you gotta keep quiet,
To hear all this fun you would not realize,
That the copper boss’ thug men are milling outside.
The copper boss’ thugs stuck their heads in the door,
One of them yelled and he screamed, “there’s a fire, ”
A lady she hollered, “there’s no such a thing.
Keep on with your party, there’s no such thing.”
A few people rushed and it was only a few,
“It’s just the thugs and the scabs fooling you, ”
A man grabbed his daughter and carried her down,
But the thugs held the door and he could not get out.
And then others followed, a hundred or more,
But most everybody remained on the floor,
The gun thugs they laughed at their murderous joke,
While the children were smothered on the stairs by the door.
Such a terrible sight I never did see,
We carried our children back up to their tree,
The scabs outside still laughed at their spree,
And the children that died there were seventy-three.
The piano played a slow funeral tune,
And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon,
The parents they cried and the miners they moaned,
“See what your greed for money has done.”
After the below historical songs who cares about diversity if everything else gets worse?
Red Metal: The Copper Country Strike of 1913 is a new documentary that focuses on the 100th anniversary of an epic labor strike that devastated Michigan’s Upper Peninsula Copper Country – and haunts the American labor movement to this day. Among the notable elements of that strike was the death of 73 children at a union Christmas party in what is now Calumet, Michigan. Known as the Italian Hall Disaster, it remains the deadliest unsolved manslaughter in U.S. history.
http://www.pbs.org/program/red-metal/
> 40% of Americans are socialist or communist.
I’d like to see the source data on that. Don’t get me wrong – I like the statistic, but have trouble believing it would be that high.
Then again, I was raised at a time when TPTB were working really, really, hard to paint ‘commies’ as god-hating, baby-eating, destroyers of civilization. Maybe things are changing for the better.
Sorry, CH, for posting my response to your “god-hating” reference here:
Religious people do horrendous things because they believe in god.
But there is no god, there is only “nothing” in the space where god is purported to be.
Therefore, religious people believe in this “nothing”, and so are nihilists.
I don’t hate god.
I hate the posturing nihilists who run the world under the cover of their “nothing” god.
I don’t tend to hate anything I don’t believe in.