This song is creating quite a Stir................

[aubiefifty 18,259]

i like this................

[aubiefifty 18,259]

 

yahoo.com

 

Blue-collar political anthem 'Rich Men North of Richmond' takes internet by storm

Houston Keene

4–5 minutes

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A new blue-collar political anthem is taking the Internet by storm just days after hitting the web.

Virginia native Oliver Anthony's song, "Rich Men North of Richmond," is a twangy, soulful bluegrass song detailing the frustration of a blue-collar man fed up with the leadership in Washington.

The song torches high taxes and lawmakers for turning their attention away from the working men and women of America to "minors on an island somewhere" — an apparent reference to the offshore retreat where the late convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein hosted some influential persons.

‘WE NEED TO GET BACK TO SMALL TOWN': JASON ALDEAN CONTROVERSY CAUSED BY ‘BIG VICTIMHOOD’ BUSINESS, EXPERTS SAY

 

Virginia native Oliver Anthony's song, "Rich Men North of Richmond," is a twangy, soulful bluegrass song detailing the frustration of a blue-collar man fed up with the leadership in Washington. (YouTube screenshot/RadioWV)

 

"Rich Men North of Richmond" also contrasts starving "people in the street" to "obese" Americans "milking welfare" and the epidemic of suicides in young men.

"Well God, if you're 5 foot 3 and you're 300 pounds, taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds," Anthony sings. "Young men are putting themselves six feet in the ground, 'cause all this damn country does is keep on kicking them down."

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Anthony's emotional song has resonated with millions of viewers, with the Tuesday video recording by RadioWV's Draven Riffe already sporting 1.2 million views on YouTube.

"I’m a 39 year old Iraq vet and Construction worker, struggling like a dog to take care of two kids and keep a farm going when I’m not working 11 hour days," one user wrote. "This hit so hard today I had to stop my old peterbilt and tear up."

"Preach brother," he added.

"[Thank you] for writing this song. So many of us feel the exact same," another user wrote. "God bless you."

"This man is saying what needs to be said in this horrific modern-day world!" a user commented. "Great voice and message to the normal working man and woman. KEEP AT IT BROTHER!"

 

The song torches high taxes and for lawmakers turning their attention away from the working men and women of America to "minors on an island somewhere."

 

Anthony posted a video on August 7 to his YouTube channel ahead of the video's drop, commenting that "Lord willing" the song would "get some traffic" and a few listeners would find their way to his page.

He noted that the song will be his first one recorded with a professional microphone and not on his cell phone and said that he started writing his own songs back in 2021.

"Things were obviously not good for a lot of people, and in some respects, I was one of those people," Anthony said. "And I had wasted a lot of nights getting high and getting drunk, and I had sort of gotten to a point in my life where even things I did care about didn't mean anything to me anymore."

"I mean, this is certainly no Dr. Phil episode," he joked. "But I've found an outlet in this music."

Anthony said the music made him feel like he had a "purpose" and like he wasn't "just wasting his time" after getting positive feedback from listeners.

"Kinda in the last rollercoaster of the last year, I have decided that this is going to be what I do. At all costs, no matter what, I'm going to write, create, and produce as much original, authentic music as I can in the hopes that it will at least help somebody out there that needs it."

The Virginia musician said he knows "this is really just the beginning of what's to come" and recounted how he meets "people from all across the country" on job sites who continue to struggle to get ahead in America.

"The universal thing I see is that, it's like no matter how hard they push and how much effort they put into whatever it is they're doing, they just quite can't get ahead," Anthony said.

"Because the dollar's not worth enough, it's being overtaxed," he continued. "People are just sick and tired of being sick and tired."

"So yeah, I want to be a voice for those people," Anthony added. "And not just them, just humans in general, and some of the struggles and battles that they go through."

The Old Dominion songster writes his music in his free time and lives on 90 acres in Farmville, Virginia, with his three dogs.

[icanthearyou 4,468]

Politics IS class warfare. 

For the past 50+ years we have been allowing a privileged few to prosper beyond imagination at the expense of the vast, vast majority.

Crushing labor is not what capitalism is about.  Raping the environment is not what capitalism is about.  Pure exploitation is not what capitalism is about.

Our devotion to the "capitalists" has made us some of the most inhumane people in history.

[Mikey 16,781]

10 hours ago, icanthearyou said:

Our devotion to the "capitalists" has made us some of the most inhumane people in history.

You missed a lot of history if that's what you think. In fact, if that's what you think you are entirely ignorant of world history all the way back to the Middle Ages and before.

Edited August 14, 2023 by Mikey

[icanthearyou 4,468]

14 hours ago, Mikey said:

You missed a lot of history if that's what you think. In fact, if that's what you think you are entirely ignorant of world history all the way back to the Middle Ages and before.

Please,,, tell me specifically what I missed.  IMHO, it is the common man/woman who are typically the force for real prosperity.  The typical capitalist is only concerned with him/her self, their own wealth and power.

By the way, there weren't capitalist in the Middle Ages.  The Middle ages was a feudalistic economy.  Capitalism was a liberal idea formed to create broader prosperity and, promote a more truly democratic existence.  As power and wealth concentrate, we return to a more feudalistic, less democratic, less capitalistic existence.

Capitalism claims to be shared prosperity.  We must hold it to that claim.

Edited August 14, 2023 by icanthearyou

[homersapien 12,245]

14 hours ago, Mikey said:

You missed a lot of history if that's what you think. In fact, if that's what you think you are entirely ignorant of world history all the way back to the Middle Ages and before.

Wow.  The "middle ages and before" were capitalistic?

Who knew?

[CoffeeTiger 5,883]

People will love songs like this and talk about how they are overworked and underpaid and how life is stacked against them. 

 

........

Then those same people will go to the voting booth and vote against Unions, vote against worker rights and protections, vote against wage increases, vote against corporate taxes, vote against taxes on the rich, vote against social safety nets, and tell other people they just need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and work harder to get ahead in life. 

 

But then later will complain that all of their hard work isn't getting them ahead. 

 

The paradox of being a poor, rural, conservative voter. 

[Mikey 16,781]

9 hours ago, icanthearyou said:

Please,,, tell me specifically what I missed.  IMHO, it is the common man/woman who are typically the force for real prosperity.  The typical capitalist is only concerned with him/her self, their own wealth and power.

By the way, there weren't capitalist in the Middle Ages.  The Middle ages was a feudalistic economy.  Capitalism was a liberal idea formed to create broader prosperity and, promote a more truly democratic existence.  As power and wealth concentrate, we return to a more feudalistic, less democratic, less capitalistic existence.

Capitalism claims to be shared prosperity.  We must hold it to that claim.

Here's what you wrote: "Our devotion to the "capitalists" has made us some of the most inhumane people in history."... That's nonsense. Feudalism was much more inhumane. Indentured servitude was more inhumane. Slavery was more inhumane. Whatever methods the Pharaohs used to force people to build the pyramids was more inhumane. Workers in any of the modern communist systems have fared worse than workers in a capitalist system. The list is of people who have lived in less humane circumstances than those in modern day capitalism is endless. Workers in a modern capitalist economy are far, far better off then workers throughout history have been.

9 hours ago, homersapien said:

Wow.  The "middle ages and before" were capitalistic?

Who knew?

Who said that? Nobody here. Better sharpen up your reading comprehension, or else get some new specs.

[1716AU 792]

On 8/13/2023 at 1:31 PM, icanthearyou said:

Politics IS class warfare. 

For the past 50+ years we have been allowing a privileged few to prosper beyond imagination at the expense of the vast, vast majority.

Crushing labor is not what capitalism is about.  Raping the environment is not what capitalism is about.  Pure exploitation is not what capitalism is about.

Our devotion to the "capitalists" has made us some of the most inhumane people in history.

Past 50? You need to read US History.  This has ALWAYS been the case, except for a period in the mid 20th Century.

The Haves have always been this way. 

One of the reason I will laugh in your face if you call the US a "Christian" Nation.

[icanthearyou 4,468]

2 hours ago, 1716AU said:

Past 50? You need to read US History.  This has ALWAYS been the case, except for a period in the mid 20th Century.

For the past 50 years, there has been a coordinated effort.  It is the attempt to dismantle everything that is a legacy of FDR.  It is an attempt to remove what the right perceives to be an "excess of democracy".

[1716AU 792]

56 minutes ago, icanthearyou said:

For the past 50 years, there has been a coordinated effort.  It is the attempt to dismantle everything that is a legacy of FDR.  It is an attempt to remove what the right perceives to be an "excess of democracy".

And I totally agree with you on that. Sorry for not being clearer.  My point is that FDR was a blip that the 1% and Corporate America want to end.

Honestly, the rest of the Industrialized world has steadily made progress as societies, while, for the past 50 years, Corporate America and the Haves have done everything to take the US backwards, except in the ability to project military power.  They have to draw the line somewhere...

[icanthearyou 4,468]

2 minutes ago, 1716AU said:

And I totally agree with you on that. Sorry for not being clearer.  My point is that FDR was a blip that the 1% and Corporate America want to end.

Honestly, the rest of the Industrialized world has steadily made progress as societies, while, for the past 50 years, Corporate America and the Haves have done everything to take the US backwards, except in the ability to project military power.  They have to draw the line somewhere...

I understood.  I agree with your point.  Our founders definitely put their thumb on the scales.  Still, their public, widely circulated writings are egalitarian, democratic.  Their more private, less widely circulated writings indicate their true intents, fears, weaknesses.  I love Jefferson and Madison for their idealism.  I deplore their reality.  I think you have to somewhat understand (but not excuse) their aspirations versus their limitations. 

Still, I somewhat disagree about FDR being a blip.  I think the Great Depression and, the FDR administration represent an inflection point.  The capitalist themselves, ARE the greatest threat to capitalism and democracy.  Extreme inequality IS unsustainable.  We should have already learned those lessons.

We need to understand that balancing the interests of society and capital is essential to peace and prosperity.  We need to understand that a financialized, credit based economy will suffer extreme swings as credit markets become more and more tenuous with increasing inequality.  Supply and demand are inherently interconnected.  You cannot have one without the other.  You cannot depend upon credit to prop up demand forever.

We have moved so far to the political right (real politics, little to do with partisan politics) we are weakening capitalism and democracy.  Technology is here that will only make the problem worse.  We have to start thinking about balance (the interests of capital AND humanity).  We have to start looking forward.  Otherwise, we will destroy the ideas of peace and prosperity.

Capitalism, IMHO, is still the preferable system.  However, when it becomes exploitive, limited, it is no better than other economic systems.

Humanity as to be just as important as wealth and power.  The economy can be, and should, be much broader and therefore, much more equal.  Debt should not be what is expanding.  Prosperity is what should be expanding.