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Music Tag

On Friday night Donald Trump tweeted a really funny satirical video created by Twitter user @CarpeDonktum. The video (see below) used the REM song "Everybody Hurts" mixed with Trump's State of the Union speech audio to mock Democrats and Mitt Romney, with video clips of them in the audience at SOTU. The Trump tweet quickly gained almost 50,000 retweets and over 2,000,000 views.

I've long predicted that the point would come when Democrats, frustrated and forlorn at the mediocre qualities of their primary candidates, would search for a salvation candidate. Think about who have declared so far: Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Amy from Minnesota, Kirsten Gillibrand -- all second tier politicians who will pick up the anti-Trump vote just by being Democrats, but not much more. Tulsi Gabbard is a new face nationally, but has too much Assad baggage. Julian Castro is the guy who had less responsibility as Mayor of San Antonio than Sarah Palin had as the Mayor of Wasilla.

Seems like only yesterday that Kanye was taking a break from politics. But that was late October and 2019 brought with it a brave new world. In case there was any doubt about where Kanye West stands, his first tweets of the new year indicate the rapper is back on the Trump train.

Soon to be retired Sen. Orrin Hatch is one of the handful of Senators behind the Music Modernization Act, passed by the Senate last week. Co-sponsored by Sen. Lamar Alexander from Tennessee and Sen. Orrin Hatch from Utah, the bill (whose counterpart passed in the House a few months ago) would change the way musicians are paid for their work.

Happy St. Patrick's Day! If you have a chance to celebrate the holiday today, you may want to add some music to the experience. I am a longtime fan of Irish music and I'm happy to provide a few recommendations.

This made its way into my feed and I selfishly decided I would not suffer in solitude, thus this post. Wednesday morning, Utah's House of Representatives tweeted a music video explaining how a bill becomes law. The bastard child of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme song and School House Rock's, "I'm just a bill", "Fresh Prints of Bill Here" is painfully cringe-worthy, but cute and endearing in the way your Grandma misuses a completely random pop culture reference. If you're not triggered by memories of your 16-year-old self mortified or struck with giggle fits watching your parents try their hand at the whole "being cool" thing, then I'm not sure you can fully appreciate the awkwardness that lies ahead.

Sunday's Grammy Awards proved once again that the American entertainment industry is increasingly disconnected from the people they're meant to entertain. As part of the show, artists read excerpts from Michael Wolff's 'Fire and Fury', an anti-Trump book. 'Fire and Fury', a problematic work (the veracity of which Wolff himself is unsure) blew up the news cycle prior to its release several weeks ago.

I'm a Yuge fan of the Talking Heads. Back in the day, when I did triathlons, I used to train to the Talking Heads live Stop Making Sense concert on my iPod. I've also run the Talking Heads as Video of the Day, the last time in September 2014 (which reminds me to re-up them early next year). One of their (many) best songs is Once in a Lifetime:

Earlier today we blogged, based on a report by CBS News, that rocker Tom Petty had passed away. As we and the rest of country later learned, thanks to Hollywood gossip rag TMZ, CBS News was wrong and while he remains in critical condition, Petty is still alive.

90s rock legend Courtney Love Cobain took Linda Sarsour, co-chair of the Women's March to the woodshed Wednesday. We've documented Sarsour's history of anti-Zionism, her love of Sharia law, and her attack on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a victim of female genital mutilation. Love's disgust for Sarsour seems to stem from Sarsour's involvement with a Somali woman named Rahma Warsame. Sarsour, along with CAIR, allege Warsame was violently assaulted by a white man Saturday. They allege the man said, "you all will be shipped back to Africa" before beating Warsame, further claiming the man they believe responsible has a long history of making racially charged statements. Sarsour and CAIR have encouraged the investigation of the incident as a hate crime and are working to raise $100,000 for Warsame.