Listen&Watch

Wait
Oh yes, wait a minute Mister Boast-Man
Wai-ai-ai-ait Mr Boastman

Mr Boastman called the post office a joke
I have to ask, what does he smoke?
He’d rather give our billions to Boeing
Sometimes we don’t know from which
Airhole he’s blowing

They made them pay retirement in advance
72 billion, they couldn’t finance
No other business could do that and survive
Then they hand us that privatizin’ jive

Post Office dates to 1775
Thanks to the blue your medicines will arrive
Will they destroy everything we do better
Or will democracy become a dead letter

They say use DHL and Fed Ex
The private sector is better than sex
But Fed Ex prices make poor folk nervous
And even Amazon uses the postal service

So many people have no bank account
They can’t afford the minimum amount
Insteada lettiin’ the post office tank
We really ought to have a postal bank

All these attacks are totally fake
It’s the unions that they want to break
They want to put democracy up for sale
And to be sure they hate vote by mail
The postal service is our crown jewel
Don’t let it be killed by this greedy fool
Please send the Congress,
The Congress a letter
Tell the reps that they could do better

Wait
Oh yes, wait a minute Mister Boast-Man
Wai-ai-ai-ait Mr Boastman
Before we are toast, man, look and see
Deliver de letter, no one does it better

Good evening friends and blessins
We’re continuing our lessons
Is our hist’ry such a myst’ry
No this won’t be on the quiz, see

If you give some folks a better shake
Than the other ones
The taller or the shorter
They will take the road to ruin
They may know not what they’re doin
It will be a circle jerk, it won’t work
a cul de sac no goin’ back

Power corrupts, it interrupts
Equal rights it disrupts
Then after a while you get your empires, gunnin’
For the profits that are runnin’
Grabbin’ land and killin’ humans
Only if you can’t enslave ‘em
Taking what they say god gave em
And these pirates who so violate
Cloak themselves in church and state

Flash forward to the days
When emerging from the haze
Of world war the newest nation
Became the leader of the pack
And attacked anyone who would
Dare to block their track

Come the 60s this great nation
Was taken to a war against its poor
Darker people both at home and cross the sea
But the youth exclaimed no more
Show old school right out the door
For minute we were winning
But we were only beginning

Powers that were girded their forces
Pledged and plotted to retain resources
Re-asserting their dominion
Over public opinion opinion opinion

America was conquered and destroyed
Grabbing treasure for their pleasure
It was looted, loot rerouted
And then the people must rebel
Raising up the decibel
Without which we’ll ne’er do well
Democracy with inequality can never last

Then began an anti-freedom ride
The Attorney General said
This country’s going so far to the right….
You won’t recognize it.”
But still they will disguise it
With dog whistles and epistles
To the sanctity of whiteness
There will be no white contriteness

Everything after was a slide
All our progress nullified
Putting people back in boxes
Chickens caged, guarded by foxes
Military thugs in blue
Yes they do know what they do
Orange menace riles up racists
Who fear browns will take their places
Orange man would like another Orangeburg—-

And then there was an interregnum
Freedom fighters pause and keep mum
Black man in a white house
In like lion, out like meek mouse
Even so infuriating
Those used to dominating
Some small status they’d enjoyed
Declaring others null and void

The only way to really quit
Is to openly admit
The hurt and rage of those
Who cannot turn the page and close the book
On this regime of greed and lying
Of theft and occupying
Which parades itself as greatness
If we’re willing we can break with our own past
Because democracy with inequality can never last

Imagine a world like white suburbanites
Already have
No daily terror from the wearer of the
Badge and gun
What fun!

America was conquered and destroyed
Grabbing treasure for their pleasure
It was looted, loot rerouted
And then the people must rebel
Raising up the decibel
Without which we’ll ne’er do well
Democracy with inequality can never last

So they kill and kill but yet and still
There will be a limit
When people rise agin’ it
And people say to profit
That’s enough, come on, come off it
And then perhaps we’ll see
Whether folks like you and me
Can learn to see through boys in blue
And know exactly what to do

We don’t want to burn it down
But if these clowns won’t come around
They better know it’s gonna blow
And it won’t be so pretty
In the city of murder and despair
Yes they’re restoring order
and the order of the day
Is of course not what they say

There’s talk of cop brutality
Of racialized mentality
Police recruited to defend a brutal order
We can see it’s futile there’s no border
Twixt the brute and the suit who decides
And derides the downtrodden
So broaden your view, see that

You may not be the one with the gun
But you may have freedom and a nest egg
While others sit on a powder keg
This ain’t new as I think you knew
It don’t date from yesteryear I fear
Look at the wide screen
It dates from 1619

America was conquered and destroyed
Grabbing treasure for their pleasure
It was looted, loot rerouted
And then the people must rebel
Raising up the decibel
Without which we’ll ne’er do well
Democracy with inequality can never last

The annexation
Of a whole nation
By a conqueror is not permitted
If gangs who pillage
Came to your village
It would be Johnny get your gun

US and Israel
Agree without fail
They share this square idea they’re superior
Grab land and water
Kill son and daughter
Don’t give a damn for human rights

Israel’s ambitious
A bit malicious
They’re not satisfied with West Jerusalem
They want the whole land
They’ve got a big plan
It’s a somewhat racist scam

They’re occupying and always lying
Apartheid is but a step
To their final goal
Ethnic cleansing and dispossession
The USA says A-OK

Let’s all unite now
And I mean right now
My mother said stand up for the underdog
We’re gonna build a better future
And we’re gonna start right now
We’re gonna build a better future
And we’re gonna start right now

It’s a world disaster, a world of fear,
Will it last two months or perhaps a year?
There’s so much we don’t know, 
except where we can’t go
It’s Corona after all!

Government has gone AWOL
Let’s meet at the web town hall,
Just keep calm and bring Lysol
It’s a hang in there together alone world

Shall we blame Obama or just the Chinese?
Will Boss Tweet keep lying
I hope he won’t sneeze
Where’s the test? We’re betrayed!
There’s big bucks to be made
It’s Big Pharma after all!

It’s a Trump plague after all,
Don’t go for a pub-crawl y’all
Grab your phone, plot their downfall
It’s a Trumped-up world!

There’ll be banging pans
And horn-honking drives
We will zoom together
And fight for our lives
Evictions aren’t fair
And we’ve got no health care
Can we help this system fall?

It’s a Trump plague after all,
Incompetence has cast a pall
A general strike would be a ball
It would help this system fall

Well come on everyone at home or work
Maga Man done gone berserk

He thinks you cure corona with bleach and sun screen
That’s why we’re all gettin’ COVID-19

Why he won’t wear a mask, do you gotta ask
Oh he’s totally up to the task



Now come on Wall Street don’t be slow;
Bet on the crash, then buy it up low.

There’s plenty good money to be made
In viral marketing to folks afraid.

Stable genius knew all along
Too bad everything he knew was wrong


And it’s 1,2,3 what are we dyin’ for?

Don’t ask me I don’t really know
Ask PT Trumpum, it’s his shit show
And its 5,6,7, open up the pearly gates
Well, there ain’t no need to test the poor
It’s just another common cold

Well, all you folks in our great GOP
Think government keeps you from being free
But I know you gonna scream holy heck
If you don’t get your stimulus check
1200 bucks for all the Joe Six-Packs
And for the rest of them stock buybacks

Now all of us don’t get equal hell
Like the black and brown who don’t live so well
A mob of the MAGA persuasion

Conducted a statehouse invasion.

Though heavily armed,
They parted unharmed,

And that’s how you know they‘re Caucasian

And it’s 1,2,3 what are we dyin’ for?

Don’t ask me I don’t really know
Ask President Nero, it’s his shit show
And its 5,6,7, c’mon and feel the hate
Old ladies are someone else’s mom
So let ‘em be real gone

We shelter in place, they deliver our food
While Amazon workers are totally screwed
We can order TP with a couple clicks
And if that gets old there’s always Netflix
Meanwhile prisoners and immigrants
Be the first to come home in a box

Now you know who started it, them Chinese
And some Mexican rapists oh please don’t sneeze
W.H.O. gets no more dough
They’re only the world, what do they know?
But I can’t wait for the courtroom drama
When we blame it all on Obama

And it’s 1,2,3 what are we dyin’ for?

Don’t ask me I don’t really know
Ask Jared, it’s his shit show
And its 5,6,7, open up the pearly gates
You want PPE don’t look at me
That’s totally up to the states

Anyway the fix is in
It’s Hydroxychloroquine

We’re isolating
But we’re not waiting
If we unite for what’s right
We will win this fight
Come Facebook likers
You could be strikers
Then you’ll really have some friends

We know we’re misled
And some are not fed
We know that food, health and housing 
Are human rights
Government’s viral
A downward spiral
This system’s clinically insane

Essential workers
Out on the front lines
Meanwhile the Congress is bailing out
Oil tycoons
Tax cuts for wealthy
This is not healthy
The table-turning day has come

All work we’re stopping
No going shopping
We know Amazon workers are suffering
Dismal conditions
Hey politicians
Tell us which side are you on?

We lack finances
Here’s what our stance is
If we have no work
We won’t pay our rent
You can’t evict us
You won’t afflict us
We’re clicking like on strike today

System is breaking
The crooks are quaking
We can survive, we can thrive
Tell the landlord
If there’s no paycheck
Then there’s no rent check
So just back off at least six feet

Prison’s for poor folk
Whose bail they revoke
We won’t die in your jails
While your system fails
We say the state must
Decarcerate us
The President can have my cell

For living wages
Health for all ages
We must create a much greater
democracy
We’re gonna build a better future
And we’re gonna start right now

Computer programmer was my occupation
I heard about civil rights down in the South
I could not keep my mind on my program
I had to use my heart and my mouth
I lived in Harlem, I was Black Panther
I looked for answers for my people
I am not famous, I’m not Mandela
But I am imprisoned in a jail
My name is Sundiata Acoli
And my soul is not for sale

They call me terrorist for conspiring
Against the government and companies
Who strip mine, pollute and destroy
In Puerto Rico they do as they please
They like to talk about freedom fighters
But not in their own back yard
They took my sister and me, we’re doin 83
And there will be no bail
My name is Ida Luz Rodriguez
And my country’s not for sale

Down at the market, no one talks about it     
On the TV you won’t see this tale, but     
If you can see me, then they must free me    
So won’t you please lift up the veil

Driving cab is a good way to pay the rent
For a journalist who tells the truth
They been after me since I been after them
No I did not waste my youth
In Philadelphia, police won’t help ya
Except to beat you to the punch
They beat my brother, there was another
Shot the policeman, but I’m doin the time
My name is Mumia Abu-Jamal
And the system is the crime

Once proud nations reduced to reservations
Government goons come to terrorize
We had a duty to defend our family
From corruption, guns and lies
The FBI came, they played that old game
Divide and conquer to maintain their power
I am not famous, I’m not Mandela
But I am imprisoned in a jail
My name is Leonard, Leonard Peltier
And this land is not for sale

Down at the market, no one talks about it     
On the TV you won’t see this tale, but     
If you can see me, then they must free me    
So won’t you please lift up the veil

In the first week of stimulus Mnuchin said to me
With $1200 you’ll be fine.

In the second week of stimulus Mnuchin said to me
It’ll last ten weeks
And anyway, it’s free money so shut up

In the third week of stimulus Mnuchin said to me
Why are you complaining?
What did you run out of?
Anyway, two meals a day are enough

In the fourth week of stimulus Mnuchin said to me
I know you’re worried, but we’re kinda busy
Bailing out Jeff Bezos
We’ll get back to you perhaps in July

In the fifth week of stimulus Mnuchin said to me
17 bucks a day!
That should keep you fine
How much could it cost to feed some kids?
We’ll get back to you on August 3rd.

In the sixth week of stimulus Mnuchin said to me
You chose to live on
That side of the tracks!
When you could have had a cush job
With me at Goldman Sachs
Drinking rum on our private jets

In the seventh week of stimulus Mnuchin said to me
Sorry I can’t hear you
I was focusing on
Tax cuts for the rich
See my secretary
She’ll help with your water bill
You should receive a coupon early in the fall

In the eighth week of stimulus Mnuchin said to me
Yes I heard your story
That your check was taken
By the bank for payment
Of your unpaid bills
What did you expect
If you don’t pay your mortgage, hey
Maybe you should try the great outdoors

In the ninth week of stimulus Mnuchin said to me
Bridge liquidity’s the order of the day
Though over in Australia folks are getting paid
Two grand a month
There’s no shame in changing your undies maybe twice week
And wearing the same outfit twice a month

In the tenth week of stimulus Mnuchin said to me
Sorry for confusion I misplaced a zero
I have been informed of what it really costs
For me to live my lifestyle
1200 an hour
Sorry for the mixup
Rest assured the fix is in
We’ll be back in touch
By Christmas Day