Listen&Watch

(Tune: Four Dead in Ohio)
Jet fighters and troops are coming
Apartheid has really grown
While westerners’ hearts are numbing
More dead and Gaza moansGotta get down to it
Settlement’s taking our town
Should have been stopped long ago
What if you knew us
And saw them blow up our homes
How can you run when you know?Jet fighters and billions coming
Palestinians on their own
They’re losing their land and water
Israelis must now atoneGotta get down with it
Indigenous people must live
Uprooting their trees is a crime
What if you lived in an
open air prison like us
How could you run when you know?

Arise ye pris’ners of surveillance
Arise phone callers of the earth
For Google swipes your information
Of privacy there is a dearth
No more the NSA shall bind us
Arise ye slaves of the purloined call
Our metadata’s their foundation
We have been bought, now we’re in thrall
By the spies we have been tricked
Every call falls to these thieves
The international snooping class
A web through wi-fi weaves
‘Tis the time to encrypt
Close the book on their face
Their international cache of calls
Our hackers shall eraseOriginal lyrics: Eugène Pottier, 1871
Music: Pierre De Geyter, 1888

Come gather ’round readers
Whenever you’re stumped
And admit that George Orwell’s
Journalistically trumped
And accept it that context
And sense have been dumped
If the Times to you
Is worth bravin’
Then you better start skimmin’
Through the parts fit to print
For the Times they aren’t a-changin’Come writers and editors
Who supersize with your pen
You use misleading weasel words
Time and again
Like “the West” and “our interests,”
“Moderate” and “friend”
And there’s no end to all this renamin’
And the reader will vote
Based on the objectivity they pretend
For the Times they aren’t a-changin’Come publishers, headline writers
With your hidden point of view
That which “stirs up concerns”
May concern mainly you
Try putting your foot
In a poor person’s shoe
There’s a battle outside
And it’s ragin’
But you’d never know that
Inside the bubble that skews
For the Times they aren’t a-changin’Come all ye truth-seekers
Throughout the land
And do criticize
The sly bias at hand
These corporate insiders
Are deaf to our demand
Never calling for corporate jail terms
In a world upside down
Such clear vision is banned
For the Times they aren’t a-changin’The old gray lady
Will always stand fast
Do her best to stupefy
The news-reading class
As reliable reporters
They’re woefully miscast
Will alternative media save us?
Let the youth write their stories
Produce their own broadcasts
For the Times they aren’t a-changin’

I was standing at the Capitol
With my friends all gathered ‘round
Though they steal our health and welfare
We won’t let them get us down
CHORUS:
Will society be unbroken
By and by, oh, by and by
There’s a better time a-waiting
When these gangsters we defyThere’s a law says that our money
Must return to fill our needs
There’s a waiver
says never mind that
Priority is rich folks’ greed
ChorusWell I bought me an old Chevy
Paid a tax, 300 bucks
Same exact tax on a Lear Jet
Guess the poor are sitting ducks
ChorusThen the Fed says, take this billion
And expand your Medicaid
But the guv’nor that vaudevillian
Says our state you may not invade
Chorus

Tune: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Chorus:
Student debt is rising high & making us ferocious
You must admit the sound of it is really quite atrocious
If we don’t do something we’ll all end up on Skid Row-cious
Student debt is rising high & making us ferociousBecause we were afraid to speak about our rising debt
The bankers gave our loans a tweak that we won’t soon forget
But then one day they went too high and that’s when we awoke
They’re mortgaging our future, we’re not laughing it’s no joke
ChorusThey travel all around the world and everywhere they go
They make their super-profit out of reg’lar folks you know
When Dukes and Maharajas pass the time of day with them
We answer, This is over, your grand theft we do condemn
ChorusSo when the cat has got your tongue there’s no need for dismay
Just summon up a movement, then you’ve got a lot to say
This escalating ripoff we are going to prevent
They better listen to us, we’re the 99 percent!
Chorus

Politicians tell lies on the TV
While they cut all the programs for the needy
Slashing services for our poor families
While providing tax cuts for their cronies
Chorus:
Grill some shrimp, tap a keg
Grow Palmetto
We will fight till the state is all betto
Pick guitar, fill fruit jar
Straight or gay-o
Send the Tea Party back
This very day-oConstitution promotes the general welfare
But the government defies what is writ there
They could make our economy prosper
With a job and health care for every worker
ChorusWe need someone like Robert LaFollette
To oppose corporate crooks on the ballot
To restore government to work for us
We will fight but first repeat one more chorus
Chorus

(thanks to Jim Garland for the original from the ’30s)

I don’t want your millions, Mister
Though it’s your fault that I am broke
All I want is a home and pension
Lost it all to the brothers Koch

Now I propose we jail the banksters
Don’t think Jay Z or me or you
Ever rhymed them up with wanksters
Well now it’s done, can’t hit undo

I believe that the aggrieved
Should be relieved of their indebtitude
And why not? Those lousy lenders
Against America did collude

No, I don’t want your Lamborghini
I don’t want your private jet
All I want’s a Prius maybe
Oh yes and please my old job back

I don’t want your millions, Mister
Though that would help to pay my rent
All I want is health, jobs, and schooling
And long jail terms for the one percent

Six o’clock already
Tillis and Berger got a scheme
They’ve been cutting voting rights
Anything to kill the dream
We better not be late
They’ll get away with their health care raid
These are the days
When you give up bein’ afraid

It’s just another Moral Monday
We get ready on Sunday
Preparin’ for our get it done day
It’s our one for all and all for one day
That’s why we call it Moral Monday

Guv’nor McCrory, teachers at your feet
Abortions in the alley, guns in every street
Slash unemployment, how do we pay the rent?
Tax cuts for the rich but we ain’t got a cent

Gerrymandering without a true case
State religion creeps in like a nun
But Monday’s wild, your party is a disgrace
We are not done

Moral Monday, so good for me
Moral Monday it was all I hoped it would be

Though Moral Monday, Moral Monday couldn’t guarantee
That Monday evenin’ North Carolina would be free

Every other day, every other day
Legislature gets away with crime, yeah
But whenever Monday comes, but whenever Monday comes
You can find me handcuffed if not doin’ time

Moral Monday how I love Moral  Monday
Get to take back our state all day
Here come Tuesday, it’s a blues day
That’s when Art Pope comes out to play
On Wednesday, they tax the poor
Ban abortion & Sharia Law
Then on Thursday they raise what students pay
And Friday ALEC gets its way

Saturday mornin’, oh Saturday mornin’
All my health care has gone away
They got my money and my union, honey
And they’re buying’ elections every day

Sunday mornin’ I’m feelin’ bad
Took our souls from the polls, we’ve been had
But I’ve got to get my rest, cause
Moral Monday’s the best