About My Blog

My blog is about history, popular culture, politics and current events from a democratic socialist and Irish republican perspective. The two main topics are Northern Ireland on one hand and fighting anti-Semitism, racism and homophobia on the other. The third topic is supporting the Palestinians, and there are several minor topics. The three main topics overlap quite a bit. I have to admit that it’s not going to help me get a graduate degree, especially because it’s almost always written very casually. But there are some high-quality essays, some posts that come close to being high-quality essays, political reviews of Sci-Fi TV episodes (Star Trek and Babylon 5), and a unique kind of political, progressive poetry you won't find anywhere else. (there are also reviews of episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and reviews of Roseanne)

(my old blog was not showing up in Google search results AT ALL (99% of it wasn't being web-crawled or indexed or whatever) and there was another big problem with it, so this is a mirror of the old one although there will be some occassionnal editing of old posts and there will be new posts. I started this blog 12/16/20; 4/28/21 I am now done with re-doing the internal links on my blog) (the Google problem with my blog (only 1% of this new one is showing up in Google search results) is why I include a URL of my blog when commenting elsewhere, otherwise I would get almost no visitors at all)

(The "Table of Contents" offers brief descriptions of all but the most recent posts)

(I just recently realized that my definition of "disapora" was flawed- I thought it included, for example, Jews in Israel, the West Bank and the Golan Heights, and with the Irish diaspora, the Irish on that island. I'll do some work on that soon (11/21/20 I have edited the relevant paragraph in my post about Zionism))

(If you're really cool and link to my blog from your site/blog, let me know) (if you contact me, use the word "blog" in the subject line so I'll know it's not spam)

YOU NEED TO READ THE POST "Trump, Netanyahu, and COVID-19 (Coronavirus)" here. It is a contrast of the two on COVID-19 and might be helpful in attacking Trump. And see the middle third of this about Trump being a for-real fascist.

Saturday, September 16, 2017

Two New Poems: "Black and White, Unite and Fight," and "Surf the Volga"

These are two of my poems. For more on how I "write" them, see this. The rest of my poems can be found by clicking on the "lyrics" label at the bottom of this post. There's about seven pages so click on "older posts" at the bottom of the first lyrics page. The second poem below is not based on offensive lyrics, I just changed the subject of a progressive song.

“Black and White, Unite and Fight” based on “Unity is Power” by Kill, Baby Kill. Original lyrics can be found here.

1. The first half of the third verse is about the split in the AFL-CIO that produced Change to Win. Although I've practically never had any official connection to the labor movement and am not incredibly familiar with labor issues, I wrote those lines after reading "Solidarity Divided:
The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice" by Bill Fletcher Jr. and Fernado Gapasin. It is partly about why Change to Win was wrong to leave and after reading it I briefly discussed it with Fletcher Jr. to make sure he hadn't changed his mind.
2. I got the name from a fairly creative and inspirational t-shirt promoting a far-left socialist group, but I’m not saying which one because some people would get the wrong idea about my beliefs.
**3. 26% of this version is me, 74% is the original.
4. I give this poem four stars out of five.

So much wrong in our country today, the worker’s being oppressed.
What’s the point of fighting each other, when our country’s in a mess?
Killer cops on every corner, Chambers of Commerce in every town.
The Republicans are always wrong, they’re trying to bring our country down.

This is the voice of the socialists, a voice against white pride
calling out with a message now to stick together and not divide
So listen workers, listen well, unity’s a must.
If we can’t achieve to unite as one our efforts will go bust

Chorus
Unity is power to defend our class. Unity’s the weapon as we struggle en masse.
Unity’s the answer to the worker’s call.
Unity will set our brothers and sisters free. Unity will bring us final victory.
If we stand united, we will never fall.

That senseless split only makes the bosses thrilled.
union workers we must be reconciled and rebuild
Shoulder to shoulder, brothers and sisters, make sure we’ll never fail.
So stick together and act as one, united we’ll prevail.

Chorus

To all of those who share our beliefs: United we will win
Unity, brings victory, it's the power from within
So join our ranks on the battlefield, together side by side
To fight the people's enemies and crush ‘em nationwide


 **********

“Surf the Volga” based on “Surf Nicaragua” by Sacred Reich (despite their name, their politics are very progressive- I'm fairly familiar with all of their music and at least some of it is more or less socially liberal and it's also economically progressive and it's anti-war). Original Lyrics are here.

1. This is about the battle of Stalingrad  in WWII. It’s from the perspective of a dissident German.
2. The Volga is a large river going through Stalingrad.
3. The “May” reference is about May Day.
4. **65% of this version is me, 35% is the original.
5. I give this poem four stars out of five.

6. UPDATE 3/13/19 The "giants" part of the very last line is based on a comment a senior Japanese Admiral made about the effect (on America) of attacking Pearl Harbor.

7. UPDATE 3/11/20 I changed "in may" to "on the 1st of May."

I know a place Where you're all going to go
They'll pay you to kill If You're eighteen years old
First You'll need a haircut And then some new clothes
They'll stick you on the Eastern Front where the blood flows

CHORUS:
You fight for the fuhrer and the Fatherland
You ask “what am I doing here?” it’s not your homeland
But now it's too late, You're entering Stalingrad
You’re fighting Soviet workers at the gate, those you should call comrade

What is this we’re fighting for, What's the ultimate goal?
Empire and genocide, at the price of Germany’s soul
The mass graves are deeper Every single day
Full of Jews, communists, and those who are gay

CHORUS:

invading nation after nation, in the east and the west
We thought that we couldn’t lose, we thought we were the best
But we underrated the US and the Soviets that celebrate on the 1st of May
We have awoken two giants, and our defeat is on it’s way

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