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timThis morning I got inspired by ![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
mountain_goats yelling at scotte_allen and wrote a song. Scott E. Allen is the mendacious assclown who introduced a bill into the Wisconsin state legislature barring SNAP recipients from using food stamps to pay for dried beans, as well as any other foods he doesn't think are "healthy". (I don't know where he received his doctorate in nutrition.)
Sure, calling politicians "assclowns" doesn't solve any problems, but trying to control what poor people put in their bodies doesn't either. And the latter is pretty fucking personal to me, since I grew up on, and ate food by virtue of, public assistance from birth to age 16.
There are only so many synonyms for "assclown", though, so after joining in the Twitter yelling for a bit, I thought about the bigger picture and wrote this song.
Grazing yogurt pretzels
From the bins at Stop & Shop
I wonder if the creeping feeling's
ever gonna stop
Iran-Contra on TV
every single day
I don't know what's happening but
I know I'm gonna pay
Stuck between the war outside
and the war at home
With a pile of library books
I'd set my mind to roam
As to where my heart was
I really didn't know
Now I think it wandered off
sixty years ago
Reagan dealing death
hand-in-glove with HIV
I'm six and I don't even know
they're coming after me
The talking heads say someone's lying
about a covert war
Another one goes on in here
On the nineteenth floor
The war on the powerless
is outside and it's in
All I know and knew is
I'm never gonna win
Whenever I'd hear that absence in your voice
I'd know I wasn't living in
A world where I had choice
Our landlord wanted more in 1990
We had to leave the city
But I'll never put that place behind me
Today I am a man
but I still feel about nine
when politicians blame it all
on families like mine
It's morning in America in 1984
And we still die of shame and guilt
for being who we are
It's morning in America, May 16, 2015
They promise beans tomorrow
And stones are all they mean
Sure, calling politicians "assclowns" doesn't solve any problems, but trying to control what poor people put in their bodies doesn't either. And the latter is pretty fucking personal to me, since I grew up on, and ate food by virtue of, public assistance from birth to age 16.
There are only so many synonyms for "assclown", though, so after joining in the Twitter yelling for a bit, I thought about the bigger picture and wrote this song.
Grazing yogurt pretzels
From the bins at Stop & Shop
I wonder if the creeping feeling's
ever gonna stop
Iran-Contra on TV
every single day
I don't know what's happening but
I know I'm gonna pay
Stuck between the war outside
and the war at home
With a pile of library books
I'd set my mind to roam
As to where my heart was
I really didn't know
Now I think it wandered off
sixty years ago
Reagan dealing death
hand-in-glove with HIV
I'm six and I don't even know
they're coming after me
The talking heads say someone's lying
about a covert war
Another one goes on in here
On the nineteenth floor
The war on the powerless
is outside and it's in
All I know and knew is
I'm never gonna win
Whenever I'd hear that absence in your voice
I'd know I wasn't living in
A world where I had choice
Our landlord wanted more in 1990
We had to leave the city
But I'll never put that place behind me
Today I am a man
but I still feel about nine
when politicians blame it all
on families like mine
It's morning in America in 1984
And we still die of shame and guilt
for being who we are
It's morning in America, May 16, 2015
They promise beans tomorrow
And stones are all they mean
(no subject)
Date: 2015-05-16 08:43 pm (UTC)The Assembly actually passed a bill that limited SNAP (FoodShare in WI) purchases to the WIC list, which eliminates swiss cheese, fear Christ's sake. The Senate says they won't let that stand. Even so, it would require a Federal waiver which would take at least two years to process.
And you may already know this, but our acid Governor Walker lead the way in requiring drug testing for all SNAP recipients. Because of course the state needs to know what drugs we're taking —I can't imagine that one would survive any legal challenge, because 4th amendment and I have the right to take legal drugs all I want.
Theater! My whole state government is growing in theater!