$1200 should last a family ten weeks, right? Would Last Mnuchin and hour. Or Bezos 12 minutes. Right?
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
Apartment Quarantine
We all live in apartment quarantine…so guess the tune.
We must stay six feet apart
So we live on zoom and skype
Touching only our sweetheart
Seeing friends, we can’t afford
Even though they live right next door
So we burrow in our caves
Zooming in to virtual raves
Cho:
We all live in apartment quarantine
We watch our giant screen
An isolated scene
We’ll be here til the last lima bean
Until next Halloween
Or til there’s a vaccine
And we go to see Times Square
It’s so pleasant that no one’s there
But we’re better off at home
Watching movies like Home Alone
All the while out in the street
There are people without a home
And in jail they’re crowded in
Call for their release
Pick up the phone
Cho
Isolation Makes Us Strong
We’ve had a lot of Battle Hymns since John Brown’s Body, but we’ll need Solidarity Forever, especially when we’re in isolation. Right?
We have always washed our hands
and now we wash them better still
Yes we wash and wash and wash
until the virus we can kill
We don’t kiss or hug or shake
or lean against the window sill
Isolation makes us strong
In our hands is placed detergent
Maybe even alcohol
Then we scrub and run hot water
Oh we’re having such a ball
We can keep our precious health
If we don’t venture down the hall
Isolation makes us strong
Cho:
Isolation is the ticket
Cocktail parties are not cricket
We will stay inside our homes
Reading philosophic tomes
Isolation makes us strong
They have squandered opportunities
To ready us for this
They have privatized the masks
In every way, they’ve been remiss
If we quarantined the politicians
We could be in bliss
Disinfect the White House now
Cho:
Isolation is our watchword
Webinars are where we’re all heard
We can share a common womb
If we all just download zoom
Isolation makes us strong
Bye Bye Bloomberg
Written back in ’14, when we thought we were well shed of him, after only three terms of battering black youth, unions, affordable housing, and accessible cabs. He had two good ideas: bike lanes and shrinking sodas. Presidential?
Of missing you, there’s no risk
Bye, Bye Bloomberg
Luxury housing you adore
Let’s build enough for all the poor
Bye, Bye Bloomberg
Eviction orders clutter your credenza,
we’re all suffering from your affluenza
You love the law, let’s count the ways
Tried to block our paid sick days
Bloomberg, bye bye
Co-locate the charter schools
Inside the public vestibules
Makes folks jealous
Vandalizing Occupy
Class awareness has to die
Overzealous
Of all your clubs, your favorite is the billy
And your affordable housing isn’t really
On legal matters you were firm
That’s why you bought an extra term
Bloomberg Bye, Bye
Labor’s muscle you abhorred
Those pensions we just can’t afford
Bye, bye unions
You’re quick, you’re irrepressible
Prefer cabs inaccessible
Bye, bye wheelchairs
As you reach your long-awaited coda
Rest assured we like bike lanes and small sodas
Poor folk, brown folk, youth despair
Of billionaires’ pied-a-tierres
Our rights you deny
So Bloomberg bye bye
Bernie Bus
With the kind permission of the excellent French jazz band Beltuner, I have added my discussion of the various corporate candidates and of my man Bernie to some very nice music.
I like Warren when she’s roarin
But I’m on the Bernie bus.
Mayor Pete’s sweet but he’s way gone
Up Wall Street
I’m not in the Cory lorry
I’m not in the Klobuchar car
It don’t go far
Deval follows protocol
He’s the man from Bain, I won’t take that train
And the Bloomberg boat won’t float
Marianne, yes she can
Elevate the moral tone in the land
Forget Tulsi, Islamophobia lull she back to
Modi, the road he on, wrong.
Yang Gang? Dang! I like Andrew, I do
For Secretary of Ting Tang Walla Walla Bing Bang
I mean,
Secretary of startups and champion of change, you go Yang
Right into the cabinet!
That other billionaire? Secretary of Calm the Climate Down.
Oh did I forget Uncle Joe?
I ain’t ridin the Biden, hidin on the railway sidin
Waiting, not creatin a bold plan like the old man
Who drives the Bernie bus
Have I mentioned the bus?
It’s not me, it’s us
Imagine Potus Sanders
Some folks say he’s too old, but do they really mean they’re scared of a movement that bucks the ruling powers of the centrist party that’s challenging Mussotrumpi? Let’s find out, in 1:47!
It’s easy if you try
Some say that he’s too old now
Like that Mandela guy
Imagine they don’t realize
He’s our boldest and best ally
Imagine corporate candidates
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing they really stand for
Least of all, me and you
Imagine all the people
Deciding to change the world
You—
You may say he’s a dreamer
But he can’t be bought or sold
Together we can stop the billionaires
Their rule is what is really old
Imagine revolution
Not me, it’s us you see
We give our 18 dollars
A grass-roots guarantee
Imagine all the people
In command of their destiny
You—
You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
If we all stand up for justice
Come November, we will have won
Hanukkah Executive Order
White House Resident issues order defining anti-Israeli apartheid activity as anti-Semitism, and encouraging campuses to ban discussion of Palestinian rights. The order asserts that “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor” denies Jews their self-determination. In other words, anyone has the right to self-determine by obliterating their neighbors. Whose land they have taken. And the beat-down goes on…
You’ve opened Pandora
Your out of tune harmonica
Don’t sound like the Torah
Telling every Jew they must love a state
Built on ethnic cleansing
You’re ordering hate
And when you ban free speech
Of those fighting for human rights
Here’s the real news
You’re not helping Jews
You’re in bed with Israel’s apartheid
Whites reign supreme
In your white house regime
It reminds us of days long ago
Calling Israel’s victims anti-Semitic
You would like to outlaw every last critic
Since your Muslim ban
The displaced you berate
You reject the refugees and silence debate
And while you so order
The voices of hatred you feed
White nationalism
Religious fascism
Remind us of days long ago
Oppression you’re aidin’
Your order is fadin’
We’re gonna rejoice when you go
When Rojava Can Live in Peace
Kurdish social pioneers, largely led by women, have forged a new chapter in the book of human possibilities. We will see if Trump and Erdogan can destroy their experiments; but we must continue to learn from them if we are to have hope for our species.
Can live in peace
When Rojava
Can live in peace
Well I want to be in that number
When Rojava
Can live in peace
Against all odds and enemies
Uniting all minorities
Well I want to be in that number
When we live in unity
Ethnicities
Different beliefs
Can create democracy
Well I want to be in that number
When we create democracy
When women build society
Only then can men be free
Well I want to be in that number
When women build society
We activate, cooperate
Don’t need a patriarchal state
Well I want to be in that number
When we all cooperate
We’ve got to learn
Some sanity
Save the earth from humanity
Well I want to be in that number
When we learn some sanity
When Rojava
Can live in peace
When Rojava
Can live in peace
Well I want to be in that number
When Rojava
Can live in peace