By David Futrelle
Donald Trump has tweeted many horrifying things since becoming our Fake President, but none perhaps as horrifying as the … thing … he tweeted out early this morning as a Fourth of July greeting to his subjects: video of a Trump-branded ersatz national anthem sung by an (almost) all-white mega-church choir.
My fellow Americans, witness the musical and political atrocity that is the song “Make America Great Again.” (And see if you can spot the Asian woman amidst the sea of white performers.)
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/882186896285282304
If Trump could figure out how to make this the new national anthem he almost certainly would. I guess this is what we get for electing an authoritarian meglomaniac to the highest office in the land.
While this song “feels like a dystopian anthem or a piece of explicit propaganda,” the Daily Dot notes,
[i]t’s actually an entirely real song performed by First Baptist Church in Dallas Saturday night.
The song was performed as part of an introduction to Trump’s speech during its Celebrate Freedom Rally and was written by the church’s former minister of music Gary Moore.
I can’t help but think of this clip from North Korean state television.
Enjoy your 4th of July, fellow Americans, as best you can given the circumstances.
Not necessarily an anthem suggestion, but it’s an earworm that’s been stuck in my head for the past few days:
‘Eccentric’ is a trait that many dictators seem to have for some odd reason.
Dammit, I’d forgotten about that.
At least I got blondies from a family friend.
Also, I have tinnitus in the left ear, so I can’t…enjoy this song to the fullest. (Though if anyone has any advice as to how to deal with this, please, do tell.)
Anybody seen the responses to NPR’s tweeting the Declaration of Independence?
http://s2.quickmeme.com/img/d6/d6e81e1d3be7923f4a4ea8cfc014642380696a5d129113bee2019b5995176798.jpg
Nequam, I cannot believe how dumb some people are. One woman suggested npr’s account was hacked. Eyeroll.
Re: Trump being the least Christian President. Trump claims to be Presbyterian. According to wikipedia, the church he claimed membership in (Marble Collegiate Church, which is not Presbyterian), says he is not an active member.
Re: Song of Make America Gate Again.
First, he didn’t even tweet a video of the whole song. It just starts in the middle of blaring trumpets.
This is an example of Baptist Mega-Church Christianity (12000+ claimed members). I strongly suspect they preach the Prosperity Gospel (which is essentially, give us plenty of money, and you will be saved!) They clearly love praise music as well, which is “praise the lord, for he is great”, repeat ad nauseaum. Ad Trumplican slogan in this case.
What makes massed choirs with orchestra so fun, is the very large dynamic range you can get with 100+ people. That and the close harmony you can get with more than the standard 4 SATB setup. This was just “sing as loud as you want” for about 2 minutes, SATB standard harmony. In only a few spots were they singing anything other than the same thing the whole choir was singing. (No counterpoint, descant in just 1 or 2 obvious places, this is “choral music for dummies”.)
@Troubelle: Moonbeam Malcontent + Bard of the New Movement
What worked for me was just tuning it out and not listening with headphones for long periods of time. There’s also having white noise in the background like a fan or air conditioning to drown it out so you can listen to music in comfort.
I got tinnitus in both ears as long as I can remember, and nonstop independence day fireworks combined with being within driving distance to Disneyland is kind of making the ringing really unpleasant. Especially when they’re so loud it makes all the cars go bleeping in panic.
@Nequam
Yep! Hey, deplorables, ya do realize that we’re the ones who’re meant to be equating Trump and George III, right? The owngoaling, it’s superb ?
@PeeVee
I mean, even if I didn’t know it was the Declaration, 18th century political prose seems to me exactly the sorta thing NPR would tweet chain on Independence Day…
@Troubelle
A computer search for “tinnitus remedy” yields many results.
I wish you luck.
Speaking as a security guard, the really heroic moments are when nothing happens. People take your picture and you go viral when you take down a felon, but just talking someone down without violence and resulting in nobody getting hurt gets you no fame. But you did right.
So . . . every woman in that choir had to go out and buy a string of pearls (real or simulated)? Okay.
Echoing the mega-church minister in the video, I”m grateful tonight that the video stopped at 2 minutes, 15 seconds.
Check out Neil Young’s patriotic “Children of Destiny,” which dropped today. Yeah, the guy’s Canadian. I’m gonna let that slide.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RKBUG9VLFU&w=560&h=315%5D
@Dan Kasteray
A reward in and of itself.
Not all Christians like Trump, the ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, there are about 3 million of us) and most Methodist groups are not friends of trump and opposed his refugee ban and his immigration nonsense.
To quote my grandmother (who’s still with us and one of her last acts before her health went to hell was to cast an absentee ballot for Hillary): “He’s no Christian” (when she said it, it was about GWB but the statement is more true now)
CW: Trump sex harrassment
Lesser-known second verse:
Make America Great Again
Make America Great Again
Lift the skirts of women all across the land
Grab them by the pussy, with my tiny hand
Make America Great Again, ad nauseam.
(Not my lyrics, but they seem appropriate to this man and his hands)
JS:
Just a few months ago, Trump was unsure whether Presbyterians are Christian. Which would be jaw-dropping from anyone else in his position, but it’s consistent with his cluelessness about, well, pretty much everything. Cognitive decline is a terrible thing.
Oh, Ashcroft. Remember that rumor that he’s afraid of calico cats because they’re satanic? Makes me proud to be the human servant of a calico!
I lasted 38 seconds into the song.
Reporter: What church are you member of?
Trump: Uh…United Presbylutheran. They have the best church. Lots of gold’n stuff. Tremendous.
In better music news, I just found there’s a Tahitian language version of Disney’s Moana. Here’s “How far I’ll go” with lyrics:
Happy birthday, America. Don’t despair: the bad times will end if you all pull together, which you are doing admirably. We in the rest of the world have got your back.
(Also, I am totally sniggering over that NPR twitter thread. Thanks for that, Nequam.)
Oh my.
Happy Fourth of July, everyone else!
Trump should listen to this instead:
I wonder what the NPR trolls would think of this editorial. The editorial in question comes from Canada’s right-wing newspaper.
They laid him as “the lord useth a flawed vessel…”
This fucker is NOT a “flawed vessel”… Judas Iscariot was a “flawed vessel”, trumplethinskin is the living embodiment of the Seven Deadly Sins