When I write a new song, especially if it's about current events, I usually make a primitive recording of it and put it up here in this playlist.  (Eventually the song will usually get recorded better, and put out on an album.)

Broadsides

A little background to the refugee crisis on the US/Mexico border.  These refugees were "made in the USA."  The least we could do is let them in to the country that destroyed theirs.  Also international law is on their side, but the Constitutional law professor in the White House and most members of both parties of Congress don't seem to care about that.

From the album, When I'm Elected President:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

Lyrics:

US Embassy

There was a coup in Guatemala, the CIA sent planes
To assist the Guatemalan generals in tightening the chains
Two hundred thousand Indians killed in thirty years
As butchers of their people, the generals have no peers
Where did they get their guns up to this very day
From the men of the CIA

There was a coup in Chile 'cause the US couldn't stand
A democratic government that might give a helping hand
So the generals took over after they had made a pact
With their friends in Washington, and that's a simple fact
This is what we look like when you scratch away the fuzz
This is what America does

But there's never been a coup in Washington, DC
Because they don't have a US embassy

There was a coup in Haiti that overthrew the priest
Who was representing those who had the very least
They were almost self-sufficient, standing on their feet
When the generals insisted on democracy's defeat
The CIA headed south and the lifeboats sallied forth
This is why the refugees go north

There was a coup in Tegucigalpa, I promise I'm not lying
As a consequence of this people are leaving and dying
Gunning down democracy is the USA's MO
It could be called Hypocrisy if it were a TV show
But this is not a fiction, these are bodies full of lead
And thousands and thousands of refugees on the border dead

US Embassy

A high-quality studio version of this song can be found on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

It's a pattern, ever present in the places that don't strictly regulate the abilities of the rich to make more money at the expense of everybody else.  Currently one of many cities that the wealthy developers are trying to destroy is my latest home town of Portland, Oregon.

Lyrics:

Gentrification Town

I've moved out of three cities 'cause I couldn't pay the rent
Folks like me weren't welcome so I packed it up and went
It's always the same story, I find a place I wanna be
And soon enough I'm joined by all the other refugees
Then watch the websites warble, this is the hippest place to hang
Hey check out Division, it's the sweetest thing since Tang
Then watch the millionaires come in and build a luxury hotel
Sipping coffee on the sidewalk, saying isn't this place swell

Rents are going up and the neighborhood's going down
Here in Gentrification Town

See the families leave the city, watch how they accept their fate
Except the ones who had the timing right and bought some real estate
The ones who had the timing and the ones who had the credit
The ones who paid attention to whoever it was who said it
This is a nation that won't suffer utopians or fools
He who has the gold rules
He who has the gold, he who bought the stock
He who is the landlord who owns your block

They say you can't blame the yuppies, they're just responding to the will
Of the market and the strength of the US dollar bill
But the dollar's only strong if you have some to your name
Otherwise you're on the business end of the game
The end that just stays home 'cause they can't afford the show
The end that has to pack their things and find a place to go
The new hip place to be, for a little while, then
The wrecking balls move in and chase us out again

Gentrification Town

A high-quality studio version of this song can be found on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

Turning away refugees is unfortunately a long tradition in the US.  But the propaganda represented by the Statue of Liberty is really lovely stuff.  If only it were much more real.

Lyrics:

Statue in the Harbor

Give us your huddled masses yearning to be free
That's what it says on the Statue of Liberty
And here they come, from the other side
Across the southern border, across the great divide

And now they're told that they should go away
But the statue in the harbor says "stay"

Give us your cold and hungry, let them come by land or sea
Let them all find solace in this land of refugees
Escaping persecution, just trying to survive
And they worked as hard as Guatemalans as soon as their ships arrived

Give us your persecuted, but only if they're white
It doesn't say that on the statue that holds aloft the light
What did you think would happen in the lands you overthrew
Where should all the children go after the coup

Statue in the Harbor

A high-quality studio version of this song can be found on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

Although I wrote it during the current (July 2014) Israeli invasion of Gaza, this is a song about how life in Gaza is under "peacetime."

Lyrics:

Gaza

One point eight million people surrounded on all sides
Refugees since '48, since '67, occupied
The only reason they're not starving is down to the UN
Most have never left there, stuck in the lion's den
The most crowded place on Earth, and there they'll stay
They can't visit friends or cousins a half hour's drive away
Drones overhead constantly
Who will die tomorrow, a daily mystery
In Gaza

The settlers moved out, fighter jets moved in
In Gaza there's just no way you can win
You can't take out a copter with an antiquated gun
You're just a target sitting in the sun
Waiting for your death to come raining from the sky
Where the end really is nigh
You can hear a sonic boom and see a flashing light
Every hour of the day, every hour of the night
In Gaza

There are no shelters, nowhere you can hide
Life is nothing like it is on the other side
There's nothing post about the traumatic stress
There's never more, usually less
And still some people wonder, they insist on asking why
Anyone would be so mad as to reply
So mad as to think that it might make sense
To lob some missiles over the fence
From Gaza

Gaza

A high-quality studio version of this song can be found on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

RIP Michael Brown.  Unarmed teen executed in broad daylight by racist cop.

Lyrics:

His Hands Were In The Air

The town is mostly black, almost all the cops are white
You can see it right away, something isn't right
There's no funding for the schools and they're being shut down
The powers that be don't give a shit about the town

They were walking in the street, it's the safest place to be
In case someone comes shooting, you got a better view to see
They were walking in the street, they weren't hurting anyone
Then came a white man with a badge and a gun

His hands were in the air (4x)

“Get the fuck off the sidewalk,” that's what the cop said
He cut them off in his car, fat face, blood red
The cop says he was attacked, and from a cursory check
It seems his fingers were assaulted by Michael Brown's neck

There were witnesses who saw it, it was recorded on a phone
But the police couldn't handle the light that would've shone
She was forced to hand it over so they could try to hide away
A racist execution in the middle of the day

He had just finished high school and was off to college next
Instead he was shot and killed with no pretext
The media joined in, called the community a mob
A cop called them animals while Michael's mother sobbed

His Hands Were in the Air

A song for the Nazi cop that Portlanders love to hate.

From the album, When I'm Elected President:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

Lyrics:

Captain Kruger is a Nazi

The far right has many members in the ranks of the police
This is undoubtedly true from the USA to Greece
Among the most notable cases is the PPB
Who kill more black men per capita than any department in the country
But the leader of the Vice Squad deserves a special mention
Even among his fellow cops he's caused a bit of tension
If he could choose his weapon it would surely be a Luger
I'm talking about a marksman by the name of Captain Kruger
No it's not just about the lawsuit back in 2003
That he attacked peaceful protesters with thug brutality
It's not just about his colleague who got tired of his shit
After years of him harassing her he got promoted and she quit
I mean that stuff doesn't help, but what really makes the case
Is how he commemorated members of the so-called Master Race
About his political proclivities there's been no need for us to guess
Since he put up a plaque in honor of the Waffen SS

You can say that it's just speech, you can say that speech is free
But Captain Kruger is a racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, Hitler-loving Nazi

He put up a plaque though he says that's not what he meant
But I'm not sure what other messages get sent
When you memorialize a man for whom mass murder was a game
Who had thousands of non-Aryans killed in his name
Kruger sued the city and the Nazi won
Lots of money, an apology, the right to keep his badge and gun
But it wasn't only that – he got promoted, too
Hey, no problem, if you want to gas blacks and gays and Jews

The mayor says he's sorry that he didn't read
The settlement he signed, but now he's done the deed
The mayor says he's sorry – here, have a lane for your bike
Now can we stop complaining about Mr. Third Reich
And please don't call the cop a fascist – he's sensitive about that
Just ignore the Swastika on his Nazi hat
Just ignore the Swastika, he's not doing too much harm
Just tell us if he starts tattooing any numbers on your arm

Captain Kruger is a Nazi

A high-quality studio version of this song can be found on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

Fight for 15!

Lyrics:

15

As I was being arrested
A reporter stuck a mike in my face
I said the first few words that came to mind
If there's hope for the human race (then we need)

15 dollars an hour (3x)
15!

They say this is a democracy
But there's none of that on the job
Just a company making billions
While the rest of us get robbed

There's so much crime in the city
It fills my heart with rage
Especially the crime of the billionaires
Who would pay such a criminal wage

I took a red-eye to California
Landed at LAX
Well-paid workers looked me in the eye
Said it's really not complex

The company says the union
Just wants to get your dues
They should try making that argument
With someone who has something to lose

Obama gave a speech, I wrote a song.

From the album, When I'm Elected President:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

Lyrics:

Terrorist In Chief

It's September 11th and Obama gave a speech
On the War on Terror and its mighty reach
The arm of the law is long and victory will be ours
As long as we cooperate with certain powers
Such as the ones who funded the Islamic State
The Saudis are our allies, of this there's no debate
The misogynist king will bring us some relief
From the Caliphate – so said the Terrorist-In-Chief

It's September 11th, listen to the man
Talk about successes in Afghanistan
Still the world's poorest country, still beneath the yoke
Of the very terrorists whose back he claimed we broke
Now we're at war with IS in Syria and Iraq
Though we can't support the main army that's fighting back
They're terrorists too, though with a secular belief
So down with Asad!  So said the Terrorist-In-Chief

It's September 11th and there's someone on the screen
I'm still trying to figure out what he means
The Peshmerga are ours now, we give them air support
While just across the border, lives cut short
By our Turkish allies, also in this fight
As they kill our infantry when they have them in their sights
There are some things not worth mentioning, he's got to keep it brief
So said the Terrorist-In-Chief

It's September 11th and I'm hearing every sound
3,200 boots, but they don't really touch the ground
And all the mercenaries, they don't really count
These details don't matter when there's a campaign to mount
Just listen closely, the White House has it sussed
We'll protect those refugees, these oil cans won't rust
No, not Honduran kids – Yazidi ones, good grief
So said the Terrorist-In-Chief

Terrorist In Chief

A high-quality studio version of this song can be found on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

9/14/2001 was the date that Barbara Lee became the one person in the Congress to vote against the act giving the president basically unlimited, oversight-free war powers.

Lyrics:

Barbara Lee

She grew up in Texas on a military base
As a teen in California she found her place
Standing up with those who had got the shorter straw
Speaking out for justice on both sides of the law

She came to my attention in 1998
When she was elected and she joined the ship of state
But it was in her second term when she really made the news
As the sole dissenter, the only one to refuse

Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee
Let me take this chance to thank you for your humanity
Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee

The month was September, 2001
It was time to show the world these colors don't run
Flags of war were waving from New York to LA
From Shanksville to the Pentagon they chanted “USA”

Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee
Surrounded by such darkness, but still able to see
Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee

The vote came to the Congress to give the president the right
To bomb and to invade any nation in his sights
To kill in any country where his generals want to go
500 voted yes, one woman voted no

Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee
A few hundred more like you, what a nation it could be
Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee

Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee
There among the madmen of Washington DC
Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee, Barbara Lee

Barbara Lee

A high-quality studio version of this song can be found on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/when-im-elected-president-wayfaring-stranger-double-album

Here's the theme song for my prospective 2016 independent write-in campaign for President of the United States of America.

Lyrics:

When I'm Elected President

When I'm elected President the first thing that I'll do
Nationalize all the banks and give all the money to you
Raise taxes on the rich until there are no rich any more
My government's first priority will be to win the class war

When I'm elected President I'll make housing a human right
With the Party in control of the Congress that won't be a difficult fight
Folks can move out from under the bridges into the vacation homes of the gentry
There will be no hungry children, not in my 21st century

When I'm elected President we will modernize the country
Solar panels on every rooftop, windmills in every county
Flat Earth Society members will have to see that the world is round
Coal, oil, uranium will all have to stay underground

When I'm elected President drug prohibition will end
The livelihood of towns no longer will depend
On jailing millions for the crime of getting high
On imprisoning the poor for trying to get by

When I'm elected President we'll use old tanks for flowerpots
Turn West Point into a garden, we'll call it an anarchist plot
We'll bring all the soldiers home, put them to work building railways
The pace of my government's transition plan will inspire and amaze

When I'm elected President we'll turn the country on its face
When my government gets going you won't recognize the place
Ecotopian equality, we start building in November
When Election Day comes around, you just remember

When I'm elected President

When I'm Elected President

You can find a high-quality studio recording of this song on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-side

Blowback sucks.  Trust me, I'm from New York, I know what I'm talking about.

Lyrics:

Before the War Came Home

Millions of people from the colonies
Were living in the far-away cities
Home of those who killed their country
Who tried for over a century
To bring Jesus back to Africa
From Mali to Algeria
And they fired into the protesters
Dumped them in the rivers
There were lots of folks getting along
Lots of folks feeling they'd been wronged
In the crowded Paris streets
In the patrol car's back seats
In the land of the catechism
In the land of secularism
Where the learned taught the learning
Where the cars were sometimes burning
Before the war came home

There was rising real estate
Fear of the Caliphate
No question what it meant
When Le Pen got 25%
Fighter jets in flight
Lighting up the night
More enemies were made
When the armies of the west invaded 
There were lots of talking heads
Quoting something someone said
There were blasphemous cartoons
Pouring salt upon the wounds
More countries to attack
Now Syria, now Iraq
Fighters returning
Who had seen the cities burning
Before the war came home 

There were people in the cafes
Having meetings, drinking au laits
There were tourists in the tower
There were girls picking flowers
There were Muslims praying
There were others saying
This is a secular nation
No room for religious demonstration
There were people talking about blowback
There were occasional attacks
There were many people asking
What kind of beer was brewing
There were ringing church bells
And Al-Qaeda sleeper cells
Passersby without a clue
What those masked men were about to do
Before the war came home

Before The War Came Home (Charlie Hebdo)

You can find a high-quality studio recording of this song on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-side

This year is the 100th anniversary of the execution of Joe Hill, the best-known and perhaps most prolific cartoonist, songwriter and organizer for the IWW, until his execution by firing squad in Utah.

Lyrics:

Joel Haglund came from Sweden
Which was very far from Eden
By the time he left most of his family died
His sisters and his mother 
His father and his brothers
So with one remaining sibling at his side
He got a notion 
To sail across the ocean
Where he heard the streets were paved with gold
Not long after his arrival 
As he toiled for survival
He realized the bill of goods that he'd been sold

He got a whole lot wiser 
Became an organizer
And he organized with artistry and skill
He spoke up, raised his fist 
Got right on the blacklist
That's why he changed his name to Joe Hill
He heard that it was best 
If he headed to the west
Where the Industrial Workers of the World
Were finding the solutions 
For making revolution
With red songbook and red flag unfurled

A hundred years ago the bard 
With the union card
Proved his music was too powerful, too strong
They couldn't stand the sound
They had to take him down
Lest he organize the working class in song

Soon as he paid his dues 
He tried hard to light the fuse
Speaking, singing, writing lyrics and cartoons
He sent off the whole mess 
To the Wobbly press
And they sang his songs as they fought the goons
He joined a singing movement 
That fought for improvement
By abolishing wage-slavery worldwide
He sang the Wobbly line 
Beseeching workers to combine
Learn from Mr Block -- the bosses lied

(Chorus)

His life would be cut short 
By a kangaroo court
Eager to determine one man's fate
Evidence was circumstantial 
But that's inconsequential
When you've become an enemy of the state
They put him up against the wall 
And that was all
They gunned him down in 1915
He took all the bullets he could take 
There by the Salt Lake
For being the best bard they'd ever seen

(Chorus)

Joe Hill

You can find a high-quality studio recording of this song on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-side

America, 2015.

Lyrics:

The economy is crashing for so many of us
Still riding in the back of the bus
More like being thrown under the wheels
If a light could be shown on how the other half feels
As they pillage and plunder, do the privileged few
Ever wonder what they're gonna do
When the people they're screwing can't take anymore
Will they be ruing the day they brought on the class war
Waiting for the hurricane

The planet's not dying, it's being killed
Cancer rates rising with every tanker they build
It's epidemic, no turning around
The problem's systemic, we're nowhere-bound
But the perpetrators at the top
Will question later before they drop
Why they spent all their time just making a buck
'Cause it isn't a crime, not giving a fuck

Planes are crashing in the Empire State
Bombs are falling, but we shouldn't conflate
The war abroad with the war so near
The House of Saud with your home right here
Arab cities turned to dust from the bombs that dropped
Our country turned to rust with abandoned shops
Refugees dying as they try to escape
Parents crying behind police tape

Waiting For The Hurricane

Charleston. Is everyone crazy who hears voices telling them black people are irredeemable criminals bent on taking over the country? Or are they just listening to Fox? Was this the act of a madman, or just a fan of Bill O'Reilly following hate speech to its logical conclusion?

Should a massacre of black church-goers really be so shocking in a state that still officially flies the Confederate flag in front of its State House? (To say nothing of the other US flag, the Stars and Stripes, also drenched in the blood of Africans near and far, along with so many more people.)

Download the entire album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-side

Lyrics:

He was listening to voices, talking in his head
If you grew up in America you know exactly what they said
And with every job we lose, however bad things get
There's a black man in the White House on the TV set
And we can blame it all on him and his entire race
Because they no longer know their place

You can hear the voices and by the early light of dawn
You can see the flag waving on the State House Lawn

He was listening to voices, you could say that he was crazy
For thinking certain people are just born to be lazy
He could see it on the cop shows, they don't know right from wrong
The race war is coming and now it won't be long
I promise it was not his original notion
If you want to start a war, first you have to set the war in motion

Chorus

He was listening to voices who said the conflict's coming soon
And he walked into the church on the 17th of June
The very date of the rebellion that never was to be
For which 35 were hanged in that very city
For which the church was burned, for which the church was banned
For which there's been no atonement in a sick and troubled land

Chorus

The State House Lawn

You can find a high-quality studio recording of this song on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-side

I wrote this over the course of the 48 hours or so following the bombing in the town of Suruc in Turkish Kurdistan, just over the border from Kobane, in Syrian Kurdistan.

This song appears on the Bandcamp album, The Other Side, which you can stream for free or donate to download here:

https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/the-other-side

Lyrics:

Since the risings started there are many tales you could tell
One person's liberation may be another's prison cell
When authority collapses, many things can take its place
Sectarian nightmares and liberated space
Some are hunting for the heathens, set to form a Caliphate
Some are fighting for their survival, and for a socialist state
Such as in the north of Syria, just south of PKK
A city's name that's whispered in the wind -- Kobane

The town grew up with the railway from Baghdad to Berlin
Soon became a refuge for those fleeing the Sultan
In Syria they called it Land of the Arab Spring
No one knew what movements history would bring
A city full of Kurdish people divided from the rest
Cut off to the east, forsaken by the West
The only sensible thing to do was run away
But instead thousands stood and fought -- Kobane

Students met in Suruc, wise beyond their years
And the leaders of the world all shed crocodile tears
When the bombs went off they said this cannot stand
The same ones who kept the aid out from those who'd try to lend a hand
The same men who kept the aid out, the very same ones
Who didn't want the PYG to have ammo for their guns
As to the future of the city, no one alive can say
But its name sails across the borders -- Kobane

Kobane

Stumbling stones.  A German artist named Gunter Demnig started putting little bronze squares in the sidewalks of German cities in 1992.  Now there are thousands of them in several different countries in Europe.  They are placed in front of the homes and workshops from which people were taken to be sent to concentration camps, primarily.  It's a powerful form of art, turning much of Germany into a permanent exhibit, a constant reminder of what has been, and what must never be.

From the album, 1939:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/1939

Lyrics:

Stolpersteine

When I first showed up in Deutschland, camping on the Rhine
The first town that I went to was also the first sign
Of the kind of self-reflection that had gone on around here
Indications everywhere, so shiny and so clear
Look down at the sidewalk where a little light is shown
When you stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone

What did this place once look like, who lived on this block
It can't be recreated but you can partially take stock
Look down at the sidewalk for a little bronze square
Read the words engraved upon it that says who was living there
Before they were taken away to the dark unknown
When you stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone

Little squares all over, you'll find them all around
Not much information on them, and they don't make a sound
But if your imagination is anything like mine
Then all you need to trigger it is one lone Stolpersteine
Take a moment to remember as you look down from your phone
When you stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone

There are six little squares here – one for each member
Of one family that was taken one morning in December
The youngest child was 2, the eldest one was 10
Within a year each one of them had died at Sachsenhausen
Their bodies burnt to ashes – flesh and blood and bone
When you stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone

And every time I see them I wish I would see more
Embedded in the sidewalks on so many other shores
Just one stone to remember each one who met their fate
At all the slave plantations, in all the torture states
But for some it's safer to just leave the dead alone
When you stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone
Stumble upon a stumbling stone

Stolperstein

You can find a high-quality studio recording of this song on this album:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/1939

I just keep thinking about that truck. Who was in there, and why?

Lyrics:

Aleppo

When the bomb went off that killed your mother
And you left at midnight with your sister and your father
When you spent your first night sleeping amid the mortars
As your family made its way to the Turkish border 
As you saw the dead and dying all around you
When there was nowhere you could hide, nothing you could do

And when you were living in a tent in Turkey
There along with a million other refugees
When your father said we must keep heading north to Sweden
That there we might live in a house again
As you slept out in the open beneath the darkness of the sky
Did you dream about your mama and her hazel eyes

Did you miss Aleppo and your nanny, Nenita
Did you wish you could be home in Syria

When you crammed into the raft that took you to dry land
Did your spirits lift a little when your father kissed the sand
Did you listen to him say now we must go to Macedonia
Did you hear somebody tell him it was better than Bulgaria
And as you ran across the border that took you out of Greece
And you saw your father being hit by the police

Chorus

When you packed into the truck, did you feel the trepidation
As it moved along the highway closer towards your destination
How soon did people realize, when did they begin to shout
How hard was your heart pounding before all the air ran out
What was your final dream from which you would not awaken
Did you wonder why your young life now was going to be taken

Or did you just miss Aleppo...

Aleppo

For Aylan Kurdi and all his thousands of brothers and sisters.

From album the album, 1939:
https://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/1939

Lyrics:

Did you get up in the morning, see your kids off to school 
As you headed to the office was it hard to keep your cool
When you saw the news and the picture of the boy
On the beach just down the coast from the ancient town of Troy
Did you think about the victims of these most uncivil wars
When you saw the children washing up upon our shores

Did you hear the pundits talking, did you hear them say
We must have law and order, all these migrants cannot stay
Did you see the people walking, trying not to look
At the headlines splashed around them and this photo someone took
Did you want to shout at each of them, knock on every door
And tell them there are children washing up upon our shores

Is the thought seared in your mind when you see your son or daughter
Of this child from Kobane face down beside the water
Did you keep on asking since then, what if it had been you
Do you just wish that you could find out what just one person could do
Is his image all around you as the sweat comes from your pores
There are children washing upon upon our shores

Do you just keep on asking yourself the question why
As you make dinner for your children, this one had to die
If you just hit the road from England a few days south and east
Do you think about how you could, and once you're there at least
You could leave a flower, and hear the wind implore
There are children washing up upon our shores

Upon Our Shores

When the Ottoman Empire rescued hundreds of thousands of Europeans and brought them south across the Mediterranean, to safety.  From Live in Rostrevor with Lorna McKinnon.

Lyrics:

1492 

In 1492 Colombo crossed the Ocean
Only one of many horrors that would then be set in motion
As his men cut limbs of Arawaks and burned children at the stake
Plundering a continent for God's sake

In 1492 when King Ferdinand won Granada
He passed a law known as the Edict of Alhambra
It was as the landlords wanted, as his gracious God had willed
That any Jew in Spain had three months to leave or else be killed

And 800,000 Europeans became refugees
And headed south across the Mediterranean Sea

In 1492 they were starving and bereft
The King said they'd be safe up until the time they left
But Christian Europeans cut them open with their swords
Searched their stomachs for gold and dumped them overboard

In 1492 the Sultan sent his fleet
To go rescue Sephardim after the Ottoman defeat
Hundreds of thousands of people who knew their deaths were near
Were rescued by Muslims and taken to Izmir

In 1492 the Sultan said that's fine
If they'd impoverish their kingdom just to enrich mine
The Sultan also passed an edict – he said “welcome home
“Now treat your new neighbors as if they were your own”

1492

Trump.

From the album, 1939:  http://davidrovics.bandcamp.com/album/1939

Lyrics:

He was born a rich man, then he got richer still
By bribing politicians on Capitol Hill
By declaring bankruptcy, by working with the mob
By causing lots of Americans to lose their union jobs
By exporting industries to sweatshops overseas
By acting like an idiot on national TV
But now add to his accomplishments one more impressive trait
He's God's gift to the Caliphate

In between his beauty pageants and gambling casinos
And pretending to be a self-made man in films and TV shows
Donald Trump decided he should run for president
For jihadi recruiters his campaign is heaven-sent
It's a war between religions, a civilizational fight
That's what Daesh says – and Donald Trump says “that's right 
All you Muslims stay out of here – just go join Islamic State”
He's God's gift to the Caliphate

He's not much for statistics, he doesn't have the time
Between harassing women and committing corporate crime
But he's a savvy gambler, he knows how to play the game
He's got a list of groups ready-made for him to blame
He doesn't just hate Muslims – he hates Mexicans as well 
And he's prepared to win the contract for the wall he wants to sell
But the terrorists around the world think he's really great
He's God's gift to the Caliphate

The future of the world may be technically unknown
But if the past is any indication then Trump has set the tone
Along with 27 governors and Congresspeople by the score
Who, if we turned the clock back to 1944
Would be turning back the refugees just like we did back then
Hey that worked out so well, why not just do it all again
Because what the world clearly needs is more bile, bombs and hate
He's God's gift to the Caliphate

God's Gift To The Caliphate

Singer/songwriter, writer, podcaster (on Spotify, Substack & Patreon), libertarian socialist, dad, lover of life.