I'd just like to interrupt my regular broadcast to take a minute to remind y'all of where and when I come from, and of what I mean when I say things like "Old School."
Because, trust me, letting prisoners and prison staff basically bake to death in sweltering heat ain't it, not by a long shot.
You think the Republican response to COVID-19 was bad?? They're going to try to use Climate Change to kill people next.
The actual Outlaw Country people...you know, guys like Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson...they sang about stuff like the plight of prisoners...you don't think Folsom Prison Blues was just a good song, do you? And the Man In Black sang it at Folsom Prison in California his damn self. Somebody like Johnny Cash wouldn't want to hear this shit that passes for "Country" music lately.
The conditions America often finds ways to inflict on its own people would very often be treated as war crimes in the rest of the world...or in the civilized parts of America, for that matter.
And last night, I happened to hear this horseshit, because somebody had it playing on their phone or whatever. So I hunted it up on YouTube Music and listened to the whole thing.
I've been sellin' my soul, workin' all dayOvertime hours for bullshit pay
So I can sit out here and waste my life away
Drag back home and drown my troubles away
It's a damn shame what the world's gotten to
For people like me and people like you
Wish I could just wake up and it not be true
But it is, oh, it is
With an old soul
These rich men north of Richmond
Lord knows they all just wanna have total control
Wanna know what you think, wanna know what you do
And they don't think you know, but I know that you do
'Cause your dollar ain't shit and it's taxed to no end
'Cause of rich men north of Richmond
I wish politicians would look out for miners
And not just minors on an island somewhere
Lord, we got folks in the street, ain't got nothin' to eat
And the obese milkin' welfare
Well, God, if you're 5-foot-3 and you're 300 pounds
Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds
Young men are puttin' themselves six feet in the ground
'Cause all this damn country does is keep on kickin' them down.
I have to say, it's been a long damn time since I've heard a more scapegoating, self-pitying piece of redneck-saviorism garbage, and I've owned several Toby Keith CD's so, yeah.
Can't do a decent War Dance, nor (for all their prattling about "tradition") do they understand the purpose of one. These idiots neither understand what such a thing as a Traditional society is, nor want to (and from Africa to the Wild West their ideological ancestors enslaved, murdered and shit all over such people) So they sing songs about how shitty they are and how poorly they think of other people...and about how badly done to and put-upon they think they are because other people exist.
I'd have a hell of a lot more sympathy if these same motherfuckers didn't--every goddamn time--vote for Republicans who want them to work more, for less pay, and have to live in a worse environment (Ostensibly, rather than lose a single penny of their own profits-but the truth is it's about cruelty and power, not money. Republicans would rather pay out fines and lawsuit settlements and legal fees than spend a little money to do something easy like install workable air conditioning!) while offering them nothing but addictions, conspiracy theories and racism in return.
These fucking people are trying to valorize basic selfishness, and justify the people who create the shitty conditions they seem to want to live in...even as they demonize anybody trying to alleviate said conditions. Being a miserable son of a bitch is more important.
"Everything's Bad" somehow justifies them, in their minds.
And while I'm at it, let me tell you something about the 300 pound people theoretically buying bags of fudge rounds with Neckbeard's tax money: The majority of those people...especially (and maybe mostly just, I'll grant you) the White ones...vote Republican when they vote at all, and not for no John McCain or Mitt Romney. They want the people like Sarah Palin and Donald Trump...because they're bigots or conspiracy nuts or Prosperity Gospel Pentecostals. The shit never fucking stops. My ex-wife was like that.
And these same motherfuckers always take the bait, fall for the okey-doke, and let themselves get whipped up into a mob mentality every fucking time...by Republican politicians who have nothing but bottomless contempt for them.Yeah, I know, somebody in the back is gonna bring up fascism and the raging hatred of modern "Conservatives" for the "Left" whatever that even means anymore.
They just have to have somebody to fight with, and no matter what happens...even if they killed everybody else in a given area and made their own nation with only them in it...they would have to pretty much make up somebody else, whole-cloth, to satisfy their itch for conflict, and for having somebody else to blame for their own shitty beliefs and choices. They simply want to do what they want, and don't want to have to be responsible for anything...least of all themselves...or to have to live in a society.
And if that's you, you neither have an old soul nor live in a new world.
In fact, from a certain point of view, it's the same as it ever was.
America wasn't meant to be about that. America is about citizenship and about We The People being ostensibly able to govern ourselves.
Remember that, because if you want to keep America and all that it is, for good or ill...and have any chance of making it better...there's going to be a test, soon.
T-Dog: Guess the world changed.Guillermo: No. It's the same as it ever was: the weak get taken.
Слава Україна!
"The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride."
~Volodymyr Zelenskyy, allegedly 25 February 2022, Associated Press
It's rolling round the bend
And I ain't seen the sunshine since I don't know when
I'm stuck in Folsom prison, and time keeps draggin' on
But that train keeps a rollin' on down to San Antone
When I was just a baby my mama told me
"Son, always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns"
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die
When I hear that whistle blowing, I hang my head and cry
I bet there's rich folks eating in a fancy dining car
They're probably drinkin' coffee and smoking big cigars
Well I know I had it coming, I know I can't be free
But those people keep a movin'
And that's what tortures me
Well if they freed me from this prison
If that railroad train was mine
I bet I'd move it on a little farther down the line
Far from Folsom prison, that's where I want to stay
And I'd let that lonesome whistle blow my blues away.
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