WOW! Will share. Can I share your wife's Star Spangled Banner separately, too? That's how I feel. Need to replay the funky drums. Need to march in THAT parade today.
We must have been soul mates in the nation's early history, Greg, because I applaud everything you say here! Reading this helps me reclaim the flag for democracy.
Some on HCR's substack expressed preference for "This Land is Your Land" over the Star Spangled Banner. I cannot subscribe as it puts in sharp relief the land that is "ours" in that song is stolen land, very embarrassing! Plus, I, too love the original where "proof that our flag was still there" is everything. Love your wife's rendition...perfect!
So they can get their own flag and national song. While we're at it, let's claim Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elana Kagan and KBJ as our Supremes, and add a few more. The fascists can take those other six.
The Fourth for We, the People, All of Us This Time!
So now it's on to preserving democracy, Roland. As Beto O'Rourke said: "It's all of us in, all the time." Haven't taken a poll, but I'm reading that the Indigenous among us are on board. We European types have some catching up to do!
Did we have Stacey Abrams and Voto Latino, or the Obamas, during the 1960s when white and black voting rights advocates were getting lynched in Mississippi? Did we have Pride events and 🌈 and 🏳️⚧️ flags all over the country and all over the world back then, when gender-nonconforming people were lynched with impunity? Did women have the right to vote, to own property and businesses, with full contractual rights, and did they have legal abortion for 50 years? Was marital rape even a crime? Did sexual harassment in the workplace even exist before Anita Hill?
Today’s Republican Party, and today’s Supreme Court, are throwbacks to the past. These people are the obsolete relics hanging on for dear life to a tradition of white supremacy, male supremacy, hetero supremacy, and Christian supremacy that is dying out. The reason they have to lie cheat and steal to get their people in power, is because they can’t do it legitimately anymore. Today’s Supreme Court is probably a bunch of lightweights compared to the SCs of the 1800s. And unlike those vintage justices, today’s justices are subjected to harassment, picketing, protests. 🎉🎉
I love my country, and I will always be a Californian at heart. But I will never again be in denial about the people in this country. We live in a deeply racist, sexist and genderist society. Every family, every neighborhood, every work site has them. Even in my own family, there is a man who has always wanted to change society to bring it back to whites-first, men-first, straights only, rich-first, and Christian first. We live in a divided country, and the racist-sexist-genderist half is fighting like a cornered rat for control now that their population is shrinking below 50%. But diversity and equality are the wave of the future: we are the Borg, and they will be assimilated. 🇺🇸🌈🇺🇸🌈🗽🗽
Love it! ❤🤍💙These worn out old eyes read "...we are the Bong..." So... Hah! Let's EL KKKaBong (remember Quick Draw McGraw!) those lost cowboys and forward HO! 🌈🗽
Well said, my friend. I will never not confront someone when something is plain wrong! I will not stand back and wait. I want my country back, my freedom of choices!
You should definitely include your lovely wife's talent more. With so much talent between you, I'd bet you've got amazingly talented kids too! Brava to you, Steph! 💃🌈🗽
You wife's version, with accompanying dissonance and that kicky beat plus the great visuals, was a tonic on this day when I don't feel like celebrating anything at all. Thank you and thank her!
We are all immigrants. We are all part of the Great European Invasion of the New World. One of the great political accomplishments of our time, a credit to the Biden administration, is that Deb Haaland is Secretary of the Interior. So a woman of native American ancestry is in charge of our national parks and forests.
It’s easy to overlook the things we can be proud of, because the news favors the nasty and the shocking, so we must remember Deb Haaland and Ketanji Brown. 🇺🇸🗽🇺🇸 🦸♀️ 🦸♀️
We need more of this and on a much larger scale. I've been troubled lately about how it's almost impossible to reach most Americans because of how saturated the information ecosphere is with the right wing lies and noise. Then it hit me the other day: WE NEED TO ENLIST THE MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS TO CREATE A MASSIVE MOVEMENT. Democracy will be dead before most people even realize it was dying. Right wing propagandists figured this out along time ago; entertain people while you are filling their heads with lies. We need a massive campaign to entertain people while telling them the truth. ALSO, great rendition of The Star Spangled Banner!
You're right, Greg, as usual! I had some issues putting the flag out for Memorial Day, but I did, and didn't really know what I was thinking about for the 4th in that regard. I finally realized that WE are now the people who need to be "taking back our country" from these weasels in power, especially the SCOTUS, whom I no longer have ANY respect for. None. Not as long as there is those six are nothing but another political arm of the traitorous Republican Party.
So, the flag went out on Juneteenth and has been there ever since. I changed the dog's collar to a jaunty American flag motif (the Ukraine one needed a wash anyway!) and today I got up and put on red and blue for the day. I am incredibly patriotic, and we should be taking THAT word back too! I don't show it much in my everyday life because I don't feel like I have something to prove 24/7, but it's there. Let the Pharisees of the Republicans keep telling everybody how patriotic they are, while they strip away rights left and right, and let's hear some more about how HOLY they are, while they consign women to death because Jesus.
This day should start the renaissance of the ACTUAL patriots in this country, fighting, constantly fighting, to make SURE that this doesn't go on past November. I didn't need to be clairvoyant to say back in 2020 that the 2022 election would determine how our country was going to go for a very long time -- I'd venture to say for the rest of most of our lives. That's what it has shaped up to be. 2024 will be a bloodbath no matter what happens, but 2022 will determine the victors. Freedom or fascism? We get to decide, and since the illegitimate SCOTUS is taking up the case of North Carolina redistricting, this may literally be the last chance for that. Republican state legislatures are chomping at the bit to get that case decided in their favor, and I just CAN'T imagine how 6-3 SCOTUS will decide! 🤔 GET OUT AND VOTE!!
Excellent rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" by Stephanie! Who knew it was danceable? Ha! Happy 4th!!
Brave enough to Vote for Freedom
WOW! Will share. Can I share your wife's Star Spangled Banner separately, too? That's how I feel. Need to replay the funky drums. Need to march in THAT parade today.
Amazing job by Stephanie! I’ve always wondered Greg, why you don’t include her vocal talents more in your podcasts.
We must have been soul mates in the nation's early history, Greg, because I applaud everything you say here! Reading this helps me reclaim the flag for democracy.
Some on HCR's substack expressed preference for "This Land is Your Land" over the Star Spangled Banner. I cannot subscribe as it puts in sharp relief the land that is "ours" in that song is stolen land, very embarrassing! Plus, I, too love the original where "proof that our flag was still there" is everything. Love your wife's rendition...perfect!
So they can get their own flag and national song. While we're at it, let's claim Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elana Kagan and KBJ as our Supremes, and add a few more. The fascists can take those other six.
The Fourth for We, the People, All of Us This Time!
[“This Land is Your Land"] puts in sharp relief the land that is "ours" in that song is stolen land, very embarrassing!
Yes. The New World stolen from its rightful owners by the European Invasion.
So now it's on to preserving democracy, Roland. As Beto O'Rourke said: "It's all of us in, all the time." Haven't taken a poll, but I'm reading that the Indigenous among us are on board. We European types have some catching up to do!
Excellent piece! Thanks!
Did we have Stacey Abrams and Voto Latino, or the Obamas, during the 1960s when white and black voting rights advocates were getting lynched in Mississippi? Did we have Pride events and 🌈 and 🏳️⚧️ flags all over the country and all over the world back then, when gender-nonconforming people were lynched with impunity? Did women have the right to vote, to own property and businesses, with full contractual rights, and did they have legal abortion for 50 years? Was marital rape even a crime? Did sexual harassment in the workplace even exist before Anita Hill?
Today’s Republican Party, and today’s Supreme Court, are throwbacks to the past. These people are the obsolete relics hanging on for dear life to a tradition of white supremacy, male supremacy, hetero supremacy, and Christian supremacy that is dying out. The reason they have to lie cheat and steal to get their people in power, is because they can’t do it legitimately anymore. Today’s Supreme Court is probably a bunch of lightweights compared to the SCs of the 1800s. And unlike those vintage justices, today’s justices are subjected to harassment, picketing, protests. 🎉🎉
I love my country, and I will always be a Californian at heart. But I will never again be in denial about the people in this country. We live in a deeply racist, sexist and genderist society. Every family, every neighborhood, every work site has them. Even in my own family, there is a man who has always wanted to change society to bring it back to whites-first, men-first, straights only, rich-first, and Christian first. We live in a divided country, and the racist-sexist-genderist half is fighting like a cornered rat for control now that their population is shrinking below 50%. But diversity and equality are the wave of the future: we are the Borg, and they will be assimilated. 🇺🇸🌈🇺🇸🌈🗽🗽
Love it! ❤🤍💙These worn out old eyes read "...we are the Bong..." So... Hah! Let's EL KKKaBong (remember Quick Draw McGraw!) those lost cowboys and forward HO! 🌈🗽
Well said, my friend. I will never not confront someone when something is plain wrong! I will not stand back and wait. I want my country back, my freedom of choices!
You should definitely include your lovely wife's talent more. With so much talent between you, I'd bet you've got amazingly talented kids too! Brava to you, Steph! 💃🌈🗽
Uplifting rendition on this not feeling it July 4th
You wife's version, with accompanying dissonance and that kicky beat plus the great visuals, was a tonic on this day when I don't feel like celebrating anything at all. Thank you and thank her!
What To Celebrate On July 4:
(feel free to make your additions)
We are all immigrants. We are all part of the Great European Invasion of the New World. One of the great political accomplishments of our time, a credit to the Biden administration, is that Deb Haaland is Secretary of the Interior. So a woman of native American ancestry is in charge of our national parks and forests.
It’s easy to overlook the things we can be proud of, because the news favors the nasty and the shocking, so we must remember Deb Haaland and Ketanji Brown. 🇺🇸🗽🇺🇸 🦸♀️ 🦸♀️
We need more of this and on a much larger scale. I've been troubled lately about how it's almost impossible to reach most Americans because of how saturated the information ecosphere is with the right wing lies and noise. Then it hit me the other day: WE NEED TO ENLIST THE MUSIC AND ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS TO CREATE A MASSIVE MOVEMENT. Democracy will be dead before most people even realize it was dying. Right wing propagandists figured this out along time ago; entertain people while you are filling their heads with lies. We need a massive campaign to entertain people while telling them the truth. ALSO, great rendition of The Star Spangled Banner!
Thank you Greg and Stephanie! I love your performance of The Star Spangled Banner! You helped lift my spirits. I hope you have a wonderful 4th
You're right, Greg, as usual! I had some issues putting the flag out for Memorial Day, but I did, and didn't really know what I was thinking about for the 4th in that regard. I finally realized that WE are now the people who need to be "taking back our country" from these weasels in power, especially the SCOTUS, whom I no longer have ANY respect for. None. Not as long as there is those six are nothing but another political arm of the traitorous Republican Party.
So, the flag went out on Juneteenth and has been there ever since. I changed the dog's collar to a jaunty American flag motif (the Ukraine one needed a wash anyway!) and today I got up and put on red and blue for the day. I am incredibly patriotic, and we should be taking THAT word back too! I don't show it much in my everyday life because I don't feel like I have something to prove 24/7, but it's there. Let the Pharisees of the Republicans keep telling everybody how patriotic they are, while they strip away rights left and right, and let's hear some more about how HOLY they are, while they consign women to death because Jesus.
This day should start the renaissance of the ACTUAL patriots in this country, fighting, constantly fighting, to make SURE that this doesn't go on past November. I didn't need to be clairvoyant to say back in 2020 that the 2022 election would determine how our country was going to go for a very long time -- I'd venture to say for the rest of most of our lives. That's what it has shaped up to be. 2024 will be a bloodbath no matter what happens, but 2022 will determine the victors. Freedom or fascism? We get to decide, and since the illegitimate SCOTUS is taking up the case of North Carolina redistricting, this may literally be the last chance for that. Republican state legislatures are chomping at the bit to get that case decided in their favor, and I just CAN'T imagine how 6-3 SCOTUS will decide! 🤔 GET OUT AND VOTE!!
Excellent rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" by Stephanie! Who knew it was danceable? Ha! Happy 4th!!
Very nice Greg.
Your a sensitive caring family man.
My "patriotism" is limited to planet earth.
I fly a world flag 352 days a year.
Awesome rendition of a difficult song…. Thank you
Your wife’s voice is amazing and her rendition was fabulous. Thank you for giving her some airtime and credit!