We’ve grown complacent and blase Mainstream music, homogenized, bland Time to teach them the meaning Of Punk. Rock and Roll. Again. Time to hammer the hounds of repression Demand Freedom. Liberty for ALL. Demand Equality. Justice and peace. Nothing less is acceptable. Nothing more is necessary. Unalienable. Undeniable.
We did it in the 60s-70s. Well, I didnt. But I watched them do it. They did it without the Internet or anything. The elite fear us, so they censor our communication and divide us with propaganda.
Music will unite us again, and they won’t be able to stop it. They won’t be able to stop us, because the universal truths are on our side. All are created equal. We have Unalienable Rights, as HUMAN BEINGS.
Unalienable means the rights cannot be given or taken away, and these rich motherfuckers will NOT deny us.
I think it’s time that the human race figures out, that progress for a few should never mean regress for some. If your success comes at another’s expense, it is not really success. It’s abuse. Abuse of human rights. Abuse of our shared resources. Abuse of power, for profit…and more power. Call it Capitalism. Call it anything you want to, to justify it in your conscience. But I call them crimes against humanity, and only the wealthy and powerful are actually able to commit them. Uber Wealthy People. Big companies. Countries. Because after all, who can actually hold them accountable?
Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.
I’m just gonna say it. Any man that isn’t pro-choice, is an asshole. 100% of them.
Photo: Jack’s Eye by Jamie Gray
Message To Pro Life Men – Dude. It’s not about you, and your probably unimpressive equipment. It’s certainly not about God. It’s about something you probably know next to nothing about. So why not just STFU, and be honest about how threatened you feel around strong, confident women. Women are not yours to control. Let the doctors and families handle the tough decisions for ALL Americans. I am not uncertain.
Youth is Wasted on the Young Money is Wasted on the Rich
~unknown
Happy Groundhog Day 2023. Six More Weeks Of Winter…no matter what the rodent says.
You know, it isn’t something most people think about much. Until you start thinking about it. Maybe a traumatic event is the spark. Maybe it’s just the March of time catching up all at once. Suddenly you can’t stop thinking about.
Tick tock. Wondering. Worrying. Wishing. Waiting. Depends on who you are. Thinking about The End. Time running out. The final curtain.
It can become a toxic obsession, or maybe just motivation to live the life you really want to live. Regardless of how much time you spend thinking about it, it’s there, and I don’t think it’s such a bad thing. Well, it can be, if you get carried away.
I’d like to think it’s more about reflection and purification. If we are unconscious of our end, we don’t need to worry about doing any better. But if we consider how we’ll feel when we’ll have much less time left, maybe we can make more of the short time we have. Even the oldest humans live for a blink in the eye of the universe.
My mom used to say “youth is wasted on the young”. It took me until my 40s to start to understand. I’m still gaining insight every day, but as I gaze over the edge of sixty, I’m starting to have a pretty good idea where this is heading.
Holy Shit, right?!? So, I’ve been saying it for a few years now. Since around the time Trump won the 2016 election. Our democracy. Our freedoms. Our democratic way of life. They are all in jeopardy.
US Supreme Kangaroo Court
The rumored leak that the US Supreme Court is about to strike down 50 years worth of precedent-upon-precedent on abortion should strike fear in your heart. Not just fear. Terror.
Because this horror is just beginning, I’m afraid. The Republicans have accomplished nothing less than a political coup of our highest ‘impartial’ court, in order to further the extreme Right Wing’s agenda. 80% of Americans think women should have the right to choose, but here we are anyway. Experts say #LGBTQ rights and #Obamacare are next. The War on the Rest of Us has begun.
This ‘Us vs. Them’ phase that we’ve entered into is actually predictable, as the far right religious extreme that steers the Republican Party finds themselves in a battle against Satan to bring about some ‘New Jerusalem’. This is not just Red vs. Blue for them. It’s a battle for their very souls. This is about God’s Will, and what their leaders have taught them was right and true. It’s worth dying for. Or killing.
Approximately 25% of our country is trying to purge themselves of their sinful nature and guilty consciences, by forcing their religion on the rest of us for our ‘own good’. They say it’s what The Founders intended, when the First Amendment clearly says the polar opposite. They say it’s about #RightToLife, but threaten to kill women who have an abortion via the death penalty. This is a powerful cult, and they’ve found a validated soapbox, thanks to Donald Trump.
The Truth is, they fear their decline. They are staging this battle, this Holy War, because they see a growing threat from a majority that knows we need change. We can’t go on pretending that everyone is equal while clearly some of us are ‘more equal than others’. While so many of us are hungry or homeless. Billionaires cannot multiply their wealth while the masses die, in any society that will succeed without drastic change.
“No one is looking out for the little guy, except to carefully place a foot upon his head as a boost up the ladder.”
~Jamie Gray ’22
Social justice doesn’t just happen. It is a hard won prize, awarded through protest and politics. It can happen here. It IS happening here. But the same guys that brought you the #WarOnDrugs and #WarOnTerror are not kidding around this time, and they are out to stop it from happening at all costs.
The leaders of The Right are against equality under the law. No equality for women. No equality for black and brown people. No justice for all. They believe in the Almighty Dollar, and use God-the-Whisperer to control their zombie hordes. They believe in lies, and use guns to enforce their unpopular beliefs upon others, and they have mobilized for War.
It’s time the rest of us get serious too, because if we keep saying ‘This is Fine’, we’ll soon find out it’s much worse than we can take. Worse than it is already. ~jg #Vote. #Protest. #Resist.
Jamie Gray is a writer, musician, and critic of the inane and insane.
Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.
All insurance is a scam. Health Insurance is a fucking crime. You have insurance, you think, ‘Cool I’m covered’. But nope…you still have to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars. How is that fair?
Insurance should be fucking insurance. I get sick. I’m insured. Insurance fucking pays, not me. It’s not really insurance if they get you coming and going. You pay all that money up front…every month…hundreds of dollars, maybe thousands per year. Sometimes they take it right out of your paycheck, before you ever see it.
Then you get sick. You give em the card, cross your fingers and pray. Deductible here. CoPay there. Deny this. Pro-rated that. You get out of the hospital, and before your recovery is even complete, they start coming: A bill from this doctor you don’t remember. A charge for this test and that screening. You haven’t even gotten back to work, and you’re buried in red ink.
What the fuck people. How is THIS the ‘best’ healthcare? If they save your life and then take your house to cover the cost…and that’s if you HAVE insurance. If you don’t, good luck even getting the services you need. When they know they aren’t getting paid, they somehow manage to do the barest minimum. Imagine that. For-Profit Hospitals putting profits above the best healthcare for all. WhoDaThunk?
Fuck Capitalism. Services like healthcare, police, fire, EMS, ambulance, military, prisons, education. These should NEVER be privatized. Everyone has the right to the best services we can provide when it comes to health and safety. People shouldn’t have to worry about paying the bills for these services. It should be included in our taxes, even if they are a little higher.
Separate but equal doesn’t work any more in healthcare than it does in education. Haves and have-nots alike should be protected from harm as citizens of an advanced and equitable society. Exploitation and greed have no place competing with the Hippocratic Oath for healthcare dollars. Those dollars are best spent on research, not drug commercials, dividends and CEO salaries.
The only way you do that is to get rid of the insurance companies and big pharma. Our universities, properly funded by tax dollars, could be an amazing core of medical research and medicine development…for the good of ALL, not just the shareholders and board of directors. No more price gouging on critical medicines. No more rationing of new medical treatments to the well-to-do and connected.
That’s what socialized medicine could be. It doesn’t have to be a poorly designed and inequitable system. There are plenty of examples of socialized medicine around the world that are models for a better standard of care than ours.
Healthcare is a human right, in a society that has advanced to the point where we CAN CHOOSE between profit and doing the right thing.
Do we really want to be THAT country? The one that chooses profits? Because WE have a choice. ~jg
New York writer and musician, Jamie Gray
Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.
It’s a circus. A dog and pony show, of lies, half truths, and propaganda, moderated mostly by the honor system, as actual journalism has devolved into a mass-media marketing scheme. Competing corporate overlords selling the particular brand of fear they think you’re most likely to buy. When in truth, they should be afraid of YOU.
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Here’s the thing about modern American politics: They want us to argue, to the point of complete distraction if at all possible, about big picture shit that is really hard to change. Both parties want the same thing. They want us at each other’s throats over masks and vaccines, instead of just wearing them. They chide us on, to defend or attack the right to be an idiot vs. social responsibility and acting in the common good. Respecting the rights of all the other idiots. But what they DON’T want us to do is to learn to communicate with each other.
Uncle Sam is a Corporate Tool.
They ply us with contradictory information. Some of it’s true, but they make it all seem true. That way when we discuss it, nobody can easily agree on the facts. Close scrutiny will reveal the truth eventually, but who has time for that? By the time the truth comes out, the ‘facts’ don’t even matter, thanks to the hype.
It’s a circus. A dog and pony show, of lies, half truths, and propaganda, moderated mostly by the honor system, as actual journalism has devolved into a mass-media marketing scheme. Competing corporate overlords selling the particular brand of fear they think you’re most likely to buy. When in truth, they should be afraid of YOU.
Corporate News is Not Journalism. Take the time to find The Truth.
Someday, I hope Americans will wake up and realize they deserve better than lip service. We deserve great things.
‘We live in the greatest country in the world’. That’s what they say. I beg to differ.
The greatest country in the world would be at the top of every list. Education. Happiness. Poverty. Healthcare. Crime. Violence. Civil rights. Wellness. Climate change. Sustainability. Incarceration. Mental health. Innovation. Productivity. Renewable energy. Manufacturing. We don’t lead the world in ANY of these important issues.
Poverty in America rivals many ‘third world’ nations. Education sucks. Don’t get me started about healthcare. It’s fine if you can afford it.
The United States of America: It’s fine if you can afford it.
We may have the most powerful military in the world, but even that’s not going to last long. We’re diving deeper and deeper into a national debt we can never repay, to fund wars on terrorism, which are really just thinly veiled political power plays, economic plunder at the expense of the indigenous people who really just want to be left alone to live their lives.
If every American could just go to the doctor without worrying about money, that would be great. If every kid had the opportunity for a GREAT education, and no one had to worry about being homeless in their old age, people would say THAT is great. If we sent food to the hungry, instead of missiles and tanks to their government: greatness.
People in many countries live a better life than we do, here in the States. Free healthcare. A social security system that works. Clean power fueling sustainable industries. Great free education for all. We have plenty of opportunities to become a great country. Truthfully, we’ve been a greater country before. The MAGA folks are at least partly right. We were far from perfect, but we used to lead the world in something other than greed and exploitation, before we lost our way.
We’ve given the keys to our future to a few powerful people, people who control corporations, which control our government. Corporations are very good at doing one thing: maximizing profits. THAT’S how they’ve managed to get people to work sixty hours a week and STILL not earn a living wage. Life isn’t better than it was fifty years ago for most Americans. Even most rich people don’t feel like things are better. Many wealthy people are preoccupied with losing everything, all the time.
Protecting rich people is so much more important than protecting poor people.
Why? Because, the rich are better than everyone else, of course. Wealthy people are simply more entitled to human rights than other people, simply because they have money, and…they’re just fucking entitled. That’s just ‘how it is’.
We let this happen. We allow a system to exist that causes this to be true, despite our ability to make demands enforced by democratic action (OUR VOTES). The system doesn’t have to be like this. It doesn’t have to be like it used to be, in order to magically get better. Think about that. It just makes no fucking sense.
Vote. It counts. Otherwise the minority, GOP assholes wouldn’t keep trying to suppress it.
The system has to get BETTER to get better. Better for EVERYONE, not just the elite. Not just for some people. Better in the things that matter. Change must benefit the majority to have a positive effect. Better.
I say, how about we try making things ‘better’ first and THEN maybe we can talk about ‘great’.
Greatness isn’t just a claim you make to impress people over cocktails. Greatness is easily recognizable. Greatness lasts. Truly great things stand the test of time. Some even improve with age. ~jg
Jamie Gray – Musician & Writer
Authors Note: All opinions expressed here are just that: opinions. If you don’t like mine, I probably won’t like yours either. Let’s just nod, and walk away. Maybe come back with solutions instead of opinions. Because of the two, only solutions actually matter.
