the mellow tigger's musings

This morning was a great setup for today's theme song. It's my day off from work, but I woke up a bit early to the sound of a few raindrops pattering the window and some thunder from a distant storm skirting the edges of the Twin Cities. I saw the lightning and finally heard thunder a long time afterward. The cat jumped down from the bed to go hide.

I opened my phone and watched this comedy segment from The Daily Show. It lampoons the USA government's position on the Iran war. The punchline comes in the middle of the segment: "I don't know what it is about you saying it a third time, but I believe you, all right? We got to be winning this war. You wouldn't lie nonstop. You're the president."

Immediately afterward, I watched this funny song on YouTube. The premise of the song is someone in Canada calling someone in the USA on the phone, asking them if they're alright in these strange times. Hilarious cognitive dissonance ensues. :D

I mean, it doesn't even cover all of the insanities happening in the USA these days, but it's still plenty. Bonus points for mentioning Luigi.

Everything is great!

I normally sleep in on my "weekends" like today. Now that I have shifts for safety patrol at a local school, though, I find myself still waking up on "work schedule" even on my days off. So it wasn't unexpected that I should wake up at 5:30am today and find myself with little to do but roam Reddit on my smartphone while resting snugly in my electric blanket-warmed bed on a cold snowy morning.

This resistance song was posted to the Minneapolis subreddit by a child of the singer, a family member woken by a text message informing them of the song's posting to YouTube. Welcome to today's theme song:

...I'm an ordinary American. I grew up blue in the promised land.
Two tours in Vietnam. 40 years Republican.
But I drive my old Ram pickup truck. I sold my house because my pension sucks.
I buy scratch tickets when I'm out of luck. Then I watched the news and said, "What the fuck".

I'm an ordinary American, no longer Republican.
I can't sit down when I need to stand, when government men kill an innocent man
and a mother in a car trying to drive away from a masked man on a frozen day,
pumping bullets in her face just to make her pay for living her life the American way.

We are ordinary Americans on a Minnesota street in a messed up land,
Thousands marching hand in hand to bring us back to a promised land.
Wake up America, heed the call. High saints, you know musket balls.
Stand up strong and stand up tall. Stand together for one and all.

I'm an ordinary American. I grew up blue in the promised land.
Two tours in Vietnam. 40 years Republican.
Hey, now we're fighting in another war.
But now I know what we're fighting for.

Welcome to the Resistance, old man.

For the moment, the story of the "Concord Hymn" poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson (pictured on the statue in the video, about the Battle of Concord in 1775) is still available on this Park webpage. I'm sure that it will soon be removed, lest people get the wrong ideas about this Republican government's fascist authoritarianism. It's safely recorded at Archive.org too.

Now, excuse me. I need to get dressed for my shift at the nearby school, watching so I both 1) warn children and teachers about the federal government coming to abduct any of them and 2) record illegal conduct to assist the abducted and prosecute the abhorrent offenders.

I am anti-fascist, and you should be too.

There's so much more going on than any simple blog entry can cover. I'm happy, though, to present today's theme song.

What was the proverbial "cherry on top", though, was this Republican candidate for Florida congress (and Trump-pardoned police-beating traitor from January 6th) being chased away to the music of Elsa from the Frozen movie. He was previously doused with liquid water, so he must've been bitterly cold during this song, since the temperature in Minneapolis today is well below freezing. I expect stupid Disney will place a very unwarranted copyright ban eventually, so watch this segment while it's available. I've queued the video to the relevant timestamp.

Let it go! Let it go! Can't hold it back any more.
Let it go! Let it go! Turn away and slam the door.
I don't care what they're going to say.
Let the storm rage on. The cold never bothered me anyway.
It's funny how some distance makes everything seem small,
and the fears that once controlled me can't get to me at all.
It's time to see what I can do. ...
Let it go! Let it go! I am one with the wind and sky.
Let it go! Let it go! You'll never see me cry.
Here, I stand. And here, I'll stay.
Let the storm rage on...
My power flurries through the air into the ground.
My soul is spiraling in frozen fractals all around
And one thought crystallizes like an icy blast:
I'm never going back! The past is in the past!

Some of the lyrics aren't as appropriate, necessarily, for this event and counter-protest. But most of it is curiously appropriate. I'm willing to adopt "Let it go" as a new Minneapolis anthem.