First Aid Kit Plays You Are the Problem Here

(Content note: the song I’m highlighting is a song written in response to the way society allows rapists to get away with their crimes.)

I’ve been a pretty big fan of First Aid Kit ever since I first saw the music video for their song Hard Believer, a pretty openly atheist song.

First Aid Kit is a Swedish folk duo consisting of sisters Klara (vocals/guitar) and Johanna Söderberg (vocals/keyboards/AutoHarp). They’ve actually been around for a long while, now, and are immensely talented.

On March 8th, International Women’s Day, they released a new song called You Are The Problem Here. This is how they described it:

“You Are the Problem Here” isn’t a typical First Aid Kit-song. It’s angry and direct. It’s a song written out of despair. After reading about yet another rape case where the perpetrator was handed a sentence which did not at all reflect the severity of his crime we felt upset and vengeful. We were, and are, sick of living in a society where the victims of rape are often blamed for the horrible thing that has been done to them. Our message is clear and should not be controversial in the least: if you rape, you are the problem. Alcohol is not the problem. So called “youth culture” is not the problem. You are. And you always have a choice.

On March 11th, they released the lyric video for the song:

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Fined for… Not Getting Genetic Testing? … WHAT?!?

I don’t… how… what…

Why is this a thing?

From the Washington Post…

Employers could impose hefty penalties on employees who decline to participate in genetic testing as part of workplace wellness programs if a bill approved by a U.S. House committee this week becomes law.

In general, employers don’t have that power under existing federal laws, which protect genetic privacy and nondiscrimination. But a bill passed Wednesday by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce would allow employers to get around those obstacles if the information is collected as part of a workplace wellness program.

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Royal-Orlean’s Presence, Jason Peterson, is Losing His Battle with Cancer

This probably won’t mean much to many of you, as not everyone here is as obsessed with Led Zeppelin as I am…

My journey into Zepdom started with Planet Zeppelin, but it’s been Royal Orleans that’s really helped me dig deeper then I ever could have anywhere else.

The owner of the forum is Jason Peterson, known there as Presence.

He’s been battling Lymphona for a long time. He beat it once before, but now it’s back… and it’s winning. Unfortunately, the link to the update is set to members only, but the breakdown is that his lungs are badly injured and he can barely breathe. He’s in critical care on a bi-pap machine, but as his oxygen needs increase, this becomes less and less helpful.

There may be one option left, and that’s stem cell therapy. His family set up a Go Fund Me to ask for donations to help. It’s already past it’s goal, but it’s always good for them to get even more, because with more money they can do even more to fight back.

Royal Orleans is an amazing place for Led Zeppelin fans and collectors. Some would call the place elitist, but that reputation helps to maintain a site that is invaluable as a resource for Zeppelin’s unofficial music, stories from the road (roadies like to talk about their experiences with Led Zeppelin and the members solo tours on the road, there), and so on. For me, it’s like a little Led Zeppelin Garden of Eden.

I would really love if Jason survives, but if he doesn’t, it will be a sad day for Led Zeppelin fans around the world. Hopefully Royal Orleans will live on without him, but it certainly won’t be the same.

Jason, you’re in my thoughts. I only ever knew you as Presence, and you only ever knew me as that annoying jimmyRRpage, who was either all Gimme Gimme or threw threads about a live show wildly off topic. But you were there, at the forum, through the good times and the bad times, when Led Zeppelin reunited in 2007 and the levees broke…

Give that cancer shit no quarter, Jason. We’ll help where we can, and be here for you when you get back.

Jeff Sessions Calls Guantánamo Bay “a Very Fine Place”

Wow. I just…

From the New York Times…

Attorney General Jeff Sessions said on Thursday that he would advise President Trump to send newly captured terrorism suspects to the wartime prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, which he called “a very fine place,” rather than to bring them to civilian court for prosecution by the Justice Department he now runs.

“There’s plenty of space,” Mr. Sessions said of the prison. “We are well equipped for it. It’s a perfect place for it. Eventually, this will be decided by the military rather than the Justice Department. But I see no legal problem whatsoever with doing that.”

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Roger Stone Admits to Talking to One of the DNC Hackers…

From The Hill…

Roger Stone, President Trump’s former campaign adviser, on Friday admitted to having private conversations with a hacker who helped leak information from the Democratic National Committee (DNC) during last year’s campaign.

Stone insisted to The Washington Times that the conversations were “completely innocuous.”

“It was so perfunctory, brief and banal I had forgotten it,” Stone told The Times of a private Twitter conversation he had with a hacker known as Guccifer 2.0.

Guccifer 2.0 is believed by the U.S. intelligence community to be a cover identity for Russian intelligence operatives. The intelligence community concluded that Moscow sought to interfere in last year’s election to help Trump win.

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Patriarchy in Action: Abortion Under Attack

On a whim, I decided to have a look through Congress’s repository of legislation currently being considered, and found the following bills. All have only been introduced, but I find them to be rather disturbing. Almost all of the ones I’m highlighting here have to do with abortion, and, of course, banning it. Considering the fact that they all include “exceptions”, I have a feeling that they won’t pass a conservative congress that wants to ban abortion outright, with no exceptions at all.

But they are worth highlighting, regardless…

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Agent Orange Wants to Cut the TSA, Coast Guard, and FEMA to Boost Border Security

From the New York Times…

The Trump administration is considering deep cuts in the budgets of the Coast Guard, the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency as it looks for money to ratchet up security along the southern border, according to a person familiar with the administration’s draft budget request.

The goal is to shift about $5 billion toward hiring scores of additional agents for Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as toward infrastructure to support a crackdown on illegal immigration at the border. A significant portion of the money would go toward erecting a wall along the border with Mexico, one of President Trump’s signature campaign promises.

To fund those efforts, though, the plan would seek significant reductions in other areas, including a 14 percent cut to the Coast Guard’s $9.1 billion budget and 11 percent cuts to both the T.S.A. and FEMA. The three agencies have played high-profile roles in the Department of Homeland Security’s post-Sept. 11 security architecture.

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Self Care – Oscar Peterson and Keith Emerson Play Honky Tonk Train Blues

Sadly, some have used this video as “proof” that Keith Emerson couldn’t improvise as a piano player. But listening to or watching him play live in most cases would prove that very wrong. I think he chose to let Oscar Peterson (one of his piano idols) do the improvising here because he believed that Oscar was the better piano player.

And as much as I love Keith, I can’t disagree with him. Oscar Peterson was another titan of the keys who seems, at least to me, to be criminally underrated. He, like Hazel Scott, is another piano player I think everyone should know, especially if you’re a fan of Keith’s.

Here, Keith Emerson and Oscar Peterson are joined by a band featuring a heavily disguised Carl Palmer on drums to play the song “Honky Tonk Train Blues”.

Enjoy!