Dead Kennedys were the quintessential west coast punk rock band of the 1980's.

While I now think of punks as a bunch of misguided anarchists (of which I was one myself back in the day, and so was my wife), their message did include a lot of concepts that would resonate with the progressives of today: that the scourges of income inequality, racism, and big money in politics are the forces that people should be fighting against instead fighting of wars. As well, it promoted the ideas of legalization of marijuana, taxation of religion, and that people must be on guard against the erosion of civil rights.

I now realize that the punk rock movement would never be able to change the world's woes (and today my wife & I have the local jazz station playing more often than anything else), but from time to time I like to tap my foot & go back and listen one of the 'old favorites' as it were.

So without further ado, here is Stars and Stripes of Corruption by the Dead Kennedys.

With punk, the lyrics are a very important part of the experience, so here they are below the video, Source: https://www.lyricfind.com/



Finally got to Washington in the middle of the night
I couldn't wait
I headed straight for the Capitol Mall
My heart began to pound
Yahoo! It really exists
The American International Pictures logo

I looked up at that Capitol Building
Couldn't help but wonder why
I felt like saying "Hello, old friend"
Walked up the hill to touch it
Then I unzipped my pants
And pissed on it when nobody was looking

Like a great eternal Klansman
With his two flashing red eyes
Turn around he's always watching
The Washington monument pricks the sky
Flags for pubic hair ringed 'round the bottom

The symbols of our heritage
Lit up proudly in the night
Somehow fits to see the homeless people
Passed out on the lawn
So this is where it happens
The power games and bribes
All lobbying for a piece of ass
Of the stars and stripes of corruption

Makes me feel so ashamed
To be an American
When we're too stuck up to learn from our mistakes
Trying to start another Vietnam
While fiddling while Rome burns at home
The Boss says, "You're laid off. Blame the Japanese"

"America's back, " alright
At the game it plays the worst
Strip mining the world like a slave plantation
No wonder others hate us
And the Hitlers we handpick
To bleed their people dry
For our evil empire

The drug we're fed
To make us like it
Is God and country with a bang
People we know who should know better
Howl, "America rules. Let's go to war!"
Business scams are what's worth dying for

Are the Soviets our worst enemy?
We're destroying ourselves instead
Who cares about our civil rights
As long as I get paid?
The blind Me-Generation
Doesn't care if life's a lie
So easily used, so proud to enforce
The stars and stripes of corruption
Let's bring it all down!

Tell me who's the real patriots
The Archie Bunker slobs waving flags?
Or the people with the guts to work
For some real change

Rednecks and bombs don't make us strong
We loot the world, yet we can't even feed ourselves
Our real test of strength is caring
Not the toys of war we sell the world

Just carry on, thankful to be farmed like worms
Old glory for a blanket
As you suck on your thumbs
Real freedom scares you
'Cause it means responsibility
So you chicken out and threaten me
Saying, "Love it or leave it"
I'll get beat up if I criticize it
You say you'll fight to the death
To save your worthless flag
If you want a banana republic that bad
Why don't you go move to one

But what can just one of us do?
Against all that money and power
Trying to crush us into roaches?
We won't destroy society in a day
Until we change ourselves first
From the inside out

We can start by not lying so much
And treating other people like dirt
It's easy not to base our lives
On how much we can scam
And you know
It feels good to lift that monkey off our backs

I'm thankful I live in a place
Where I can say the things I do
Without being taken out and shot
So I'm on guard against the goons
Trying to take my rights away
We've got to rise above the need for cops and laws

Let kids learn communication
Instead of schools pushing competition
How about more art and theater instead of sports?
People will always do drugs
Let's legalize them
Crime drops when the mob can't price them
Budget's in the red?
Let's tax religion

No one will do it for us
We'll just have to fix ourselves
Honesty ain't all that hard
Just put Rambo back inside your pants
Causing trouble for the system is much more fun

Thank you for the toilet paper
But your flag is meaningless to me
Look around, we're all people
Who needs countries anyway?
Our land, I love it too
I think I love it more than you
I care enough to fight
The stars and stripes of corruption
Let's bring it all down!

If we don't try
If we just lie
If we can't find
A way to do it better than this
Who will?

Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Darren Henley / Eric Reed Boucher / Geoffrey Lyall / Raymond John Pepperelle
Stars and Stripes of Corruption lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Last night my wife & I watched the Netflix show on the disappearance of Elisa Lam at the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles and guess what, we stayed there the year before she did in 2012.

I had booked 4 nights without knowing what it was but after one night we decided to get out and checked into the Super 8 on Sunset Blvd instead. We're Canadian & had no idea about the history of the hotel when I made the booking, all I knew is it was very affordable and downtown.

We had arrived in LA by Amtrak late at night so didn't see the poor skid row denizens surrounding the area lining up on the sidewalk until the next morning.

When we checked in, there were all kinds of vivid characters loitering in the posh-looking marble and brass lobby but we didn't feel unsafe and besides, both myself and my wife are quite large in stature and people often take me for a biker anyway with my long hair & beard (had a Honda CM250 many years ago but that's another story)

When we got to our room, the rugs were sticky, the bathroom floor tiles worn away, the beds looked like they were from the 1940s, and we slept with our street clothes on. Never mind the noises from the room next door.

Here are a couple pics from our stay. If you're feeling adventurous in LA I recommend it, otherwise I'd stick with a brand-name hotel.

The Netflix documentary series on The Cecil turned out to be a very good commentary about the divide between rich & poor in general and the serious social problems in California in particular, as well as shining a light on conspiracy theorists and so called internet sleuths.

The view from our room at the Cecil:


The lobby:


The main entrance, sorry for the quality - it was taken from a taxi & is my only pic of the main entrance


Here is the Netflix preview, very interesting documentary.

Congratulations to President Biden who can now govern with impunity and run roughshod over the cultist republicans for the next 4 years.

The precedent has been set today by 43 Republican senators.

What the actual f--k? What is that? Looks like a hybrid between a mullet, a McInnes proudboy 'do and a piece of roadkill.

Sorry if I'm late to the game on this one but I have a legit excuse-Canadian...

But geez!

First, my reply - of course!:

https://twitter.com/HiawathaPete/status/1360681937594159117


Others, just a few of many:

https://twitter.com/AstasDelights/status/1360672042350166024

https://twitter.com/HODLThisBag/status/1360660733642608640

https://twitter.com/mikecrime/status/1360666832538120192

https://twitter.com/frankland_craig/status/1360665082779287554

https://twitter.com/barnhart_linda/status/1360661960937897987

https://twitter.com/Kalicranstonson/status/1360668535828193280

https://twitter.com/passenthrough/status/1360662867230531599

https://twitter.com/jellibeans123/status/1360661148874465283

Just watching the inauguration here on CBC...

The petitions to list the PB's as a terrorist organization are working, fellow Cdn DU'ers!

-snip-

“There’s definitely a sense of panic,” said Elizabeth Simons, deputy director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

“It’s splintering them further. It’s causing a lot of them to reconsider whether they want to be part of it,” Simons said. “I suspect that we’re going to see more of that this week.”

Described in a Canadian military report on hate groups as an “extremist conservative group” that is “openly Islamophobic and misogynistic,” the Proud Boys were founded by Canadian Gavin McGinnes.

Following the events in Washington, D.C., NDP leader Jagmeet Singh called on Ottawa to designate the Proud Boys a terrorist group

-snip-

Source:
https://globalnews.ca/news/7568383/canadian-proud-boys-panic/

Some Gen X'ers will probably get the punk reference ...

(lyrics below)



Lyrics from https://www.lyricfind.com/:

Wake up! Get down here quick!
The president's had too much to drink
His days of power are about gone
He's been talking to paintings in the hall

He says, "I'm finished, so what the hell?
My life is ruined, what matters now?
I've always itched for that last great thrill:
If I die all of you should too."

Gone with my wind
Out with a bang
I'm gonna end it all right now
Gone with my wind
Out with a bang
You're coming with me, oh wow

My bombs will rain down on D.C.
We'll nuke our enemies while they're asleep
We'll be safe in the ground below
And laugh and drink till the cows come home
So c'mon John, whadya say?
It's been dancing in my head for years
What'll happen if I push this button:
Let's start World War III for fun

Gone with my wind
Out with a bang
I'm gonna end it all right now
Gone with my wind
Out with a bang
You're coming with me, oh wow

Mr. President, just sit down
We should talk a little while, I'll pour another round
What about your memoirs' TV rights?
Sit tight-and watch the fire:
Let go of me. Do you think I'm mad?
To tell the truth, sir, I'd rather not say
Just keep your paws inside your pockets
And planet earth will be OK.
But you reached for the button anyhow
I had no choice but to knock you out
That's just last night's bump on your head
On to the next crisis, it's another day

Gone with my wind
Out with a bang
I'm gonna end it all right now
Gone with my wind
Out with a bang
You're coming with me, oh wow