Napalm Sticks

I paid almost no attention to the recent elections in the USA. Both 'major' candidates make me ill, and I will do my best to pay NO attention to Trump, just as I did in the past, ohh, 30 years. As for the Dems, and Kamala, they'll get no real support from me, just a shrug of 'eh' about whatever they do. Yes, they might do some 'good' things, I guess. It'll be by accident, or as a way to manipulate people or give their donors something they wanted that the populace likes too. With the Dem leadership as it stands now, they surely won't do anything good for the working class. Sounds kinda like they were before FDR took over and read the writing on the wall.

A couple of weeks or so ago I read this poem, called McGenocide, by Caitlin Johnstone (Snoppydawg also posted the poem here, on this site). It really hit me hard, maybe because of reading the book, Bringing Mulligan Home, about the man trying to find out why his father (who fought on Okinawa in WWII) was like he was.

Something good: A rose from our garden. Yes, it's flowering NOW, the pic was taken a few days ago. Admittedly, we haven't gotten below freezing this fall, yet. And usually we do that in mid September. A couple nights ago we hit 33 as the low, but... that ain't below freezing yet!

Anyway, here's the start of the poem:

CNN says an IDF soldier has suffered trauma
because he had to run over too many Palestinians
with his D9 armored bulldozer.
Says he can’t eat meat anymore
because he had to drive over so much human meat
(he actually called it “meat”)
and it reminds him of all the blood and guts
and bones and tissue that would come squirting out
when he ran over them.

The poem continues and is really good, visceral and true. So it made me think and suddenly this song sprang to mind:
Country Joe McDonald and the Fish - 'I Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die':

Now, I was only a kid when the first Woodstock happened, so maybe I can be forgiven for not knowing all the protest songs, but listening to Country Joe I suddenly found this other song, Napalm Sticks to Kids by the First of the Ninth Chorus, one I'd never heard before. I was too young to be listening to protest and anti-war songs when the song was written and sung in 1970 and it is definitely a song that would not have been on the radio, right? Or maybe it would have been on the radio, but not where a 5 to 10 year old kid would be listening?

Napalm Sticks to Kids is much like Caitlin's poem, in that it's very, very graphic about war and what it does to the innocent and the 'other side'. It's from the point of view of the soldiers/airmen/marines/sailors doing the killing in Vietnam, and supposedly each verse was written by a different soldier or airman. And it really hit me hard. The song eventually became a marching song for the military and that is so weird, and yet, understandable. Gotta make sure the soldiers know what they are going to be doing and are desensitized to it, right?And actually that is desensitizing might be a good thing in some ways, because military personnel should be able to eat McDonald's, i.e. live a normal life, when they come home.

Here's the first couple verses, and no it doesn't get easier to listen to or read (full lyrics are here or in the video below) :

We shoot the sick, the young, the lame
We do our best to kill and maim
Because the kills all count the same
Napalm sticks to kids

Flyin' low across the trees
Pilots doing what they please
Droppin’ frags on refugees
Napalm sticks to kids

It made us feel so good inside
When the strong men wept and the women cried
But what we really like is the children fried
Napalm sticks to kids

Here's a video with the song, the video just has still photos with the music so it's not super disturbing visually:

Thanks for reading. Keep on keeping on, we've survived the election after all. Here's the open thread - remember, everything is interesting if you dive deep enough, so tell us about where you're diving!