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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 12h

PROTEST SONGS #551: Anti-religion Even more "Thoughts and Prayers"? Whaaaat? The wildest one yet, metalcore from (@miwband.bsky.social), on 2019's Disguise. Thank goodness for published lyrics, because I can't make out a word of the song, but this "Thoughts and Prayers" takes on religion,

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

sos.ca.gov

Where and How to Vote :: California Secretary of State

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

PROTEST SONGS #550: Anti-gun More "Thoughts and Prayers", this time from Stacked Like Pancakes (@slpancakes.bsky.social). On their 2019 album Strange Creatures, the "ska-punk or whatever" band takes on US gun culture, and the pretense that we care about children, while allowing school shootings

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

PLEASE RECIRCULATE THIS TO GET THE WORD OUT Exercise your power by voting on Tuesday, November 3rd. Better yet, vote early. Here's an election guide for California voters. I will repost it every day until the election. HOW TO VOTE IN CALIFORNIA Midterm Election Tuesday, November 3rd

sos.ca.gov

Where and How to Vote :: California Secretary of State

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

PROTEST SONGS #549: Whadda you got? Wesley Stace (@wesleystace.bsky.social) has a new album on Bandcamp, One Last Heist, with the pointed song "Thoughts and Prayers". In part, it's an indictment of people who profit from human misery, but it's a broader call to everyone to stop talking,

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

PROTEST SONGS #548: Meta-protest Bob Dylan is a giant, but on his self-titles 1962 debut, he acknowledged the giants on whose shoulders he stood. "Song to Woody" uses Guthrie's melody for "1913 Massacre", and also mentions Cisco Houston, Sonny Terry and Leadbelly. (This being Dylan, he neglected

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

PROTEST SONGS #547: Miners, Labor Movement The 1987 film Matewan takes its story from a 1920 miners' strike in West Virginia, to dramatize the human cost of labor organizing in mining towns. Director John Sayles and Mason Daring wrote "Fire in the Hole" for the soundtrack, performed by bluegrass

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

PROTEST SONGS #546: Feminism I LOVE Bunny White's "Fuck Men", her 2017 single from when she still recorded as Ms. White. It's a jazzy ode to women going about their business, without having to put up with male harassment and sexist expectations. "Fuck Men" will get nods of ascent,

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #545: Civil Rights Movement, Kum Ba Yah Some songs, like #374 "My Boy Lollypop", get drafted as protest songs, no matter their original intent. Martha and the Vandellas' "Dancing in the Street", from 1964's Dance Party, became an anthem of the Civil Rights Movement,

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #544: 99%, Resist/Rebel/Revolt 1979 in the UK, when anyone different was automatically suspect, and the failures of capitalism were all too apparent in the grimness of Thatcherism. The Clash's reaction to the reactionary was "Clampdown", from the brilliant London Calling.

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

H/t to Mariana Hernandez (@mariana-hernandez.bsky.social) for introducing me to Urugruayan hero entertainer Rubén Rada, who died recently at 83. The title song of his 2000 album ¿Quién Va a Cantar? ("Who Is Going to Sing?") lauds music as a civilizing tool that speaks to peoples' dreams,

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #542: First Nations Like XIT's #504 "Reservation Education", many First Nations musicians have written about the pain and dislocation caused by being forced into residential schools, their language banned, their hair cut, their culture scorned as "primitive".

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #541: Feminism "Rachel" once commented that a Maroon 5 song was "about the only thing it can be about: how great Adam Levine is at sex." Thus, Beyoncé's "***Flawless" is about the only thing it can be about: how Beyoncé will always be better than you. Saving it from inanity is a

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Bikini Kill (@theebikinikill.bsky.social) were the OG Riot grrls, spitting out feminist punk rock throughout the '90s. 1996's Reject All American scorned popular culture, mourned Kurt Cobain, and gave us a title song that said no to the entire American dream. But you can still dance to it.

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #539: Civil Rights Movement The boundless genius of Curtis Mayfield was clear when he began with The Impressions, before his great solo run. "This Is My Country", the title song from the Impressions 1968 album, is a fiery blast of truth in a mellow package,

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #538: Anti-George W. Bush The late Todd Snider lived hard, but he was not a fratbro of George W. Bush. So when he wrote "You Got Away with It (A Tale of Two Fraternity Brothers)" for 2006's The Devil You Know, I don't know if it was all fantasy. It does, however, nail Shrub as the

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

SONGS #537: Anti-Trump The demo lyrics for Michael McDermott's (@michaelmcdermott23.bsky.social) 2025 protest single "The Future" are a blunt instrument, supporting the No Kings movement with more fury than finesse. But he's right:

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #536: Whadda you got? Today's successor to yesterday's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" is Michael McDermott's (@michaelmcdermott23.bsky.social) "What in the World . . ." the title song from his 2020 album.

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #535: Whadda you got? By far the most famous "Whadda you got?" catalogue of discontent is Bob Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues", from 1965's Bringing It All Back Home. It's part counterculture manifesto, part Lewis-Carrollesque wordplay, and largely famous because of

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #534: Police brutality, Anti-gang The mellow reggae of Junior Murvin's 1977 hit "Police and Thieves" masks hard-hitting lyrics about how gang violence and police brutality feed on each other, making life perilous for everyone else. It became an anthem in the UK as well,

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #533: Aboriginal Rights Uluru Statement from the Heart, the 2017 manifesto drafted by Australia's First Nations, looked to a future of equality, sovereignty and representation. The present is a different story. Indigenous activist Noel Pearson recently decried the lack of progress,

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Shorter headline: We're Toast. apnews.com/article/anth...

apnews.com

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #532: Anti-racist "Go Down Moses" dates to the Civil War, and is the first spiritual ever recorded on sheet music. It came from enslaved people, but was popularized by Freedmen who fought with the Union Army, ans was so widely recognized

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #531: Kum Ba Yah Janis Ian's protest song postings include one of her own, written in memory of John Prine. "Better Times Will Come" from 2022's The Light at the End of the Line (like #380 "Resist").

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #530: Suffrage/Voting Brandi Carlile and Alicia Keys co-wrote the powerful, moving "A Beautiful Noise" for CBS's 2020 get-out-the-vote special, Every Vote Counts: A Celebration of Democracy. Today is National Voter Registration Day, and every vote *does* count,

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #529: Anti-USA, Anti-imperialist Outspoken musician-activists Panamanian singer/actor/politician Rubén Blades and the late American salsa legend Willie Colón collaborated on 1981's Canciones del Solar de los Aburridos (Songs from the Tenements of the Bored).

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #528: Anti-ICE Another H/t to Janis Ian (@janisian.bsky.social) for introducing me to up-and-coming country-music anti-MAGA singer-songwriter Bryan Andrews (@bryanandrewsmusic.bsky.social). His new "Home of the Chained" calls out ICE's lawlessness in the name of the law.

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

I have been lucky enough to know Darrell Tucci for many years, and few people have written as eloquently about what it was like to be in New York City on 911, and what we need to do now. www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...

facebook.com

Facebook

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #527: Anti-Trump Another anti-Trump song, this time a 2017 Women's March chant written by Fiona Apple, "Tiny Hands". The title tells you what you need to know about Trump's ego, because he's been defending the size of his hands ever since Graydon Carter called him a

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Nerding out: I was so excited to see the attached article, which said that California has run out of license plates with the formula #AAA###. When I moved here, I became an avid plate-watcher. In part, you could judge the economy by how many people moved to California.

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #526: Anti-Trump Today is the memorial service for my sister-in-law Shawn O'Rourke Gilbert, a feisty anti-Trump activist and writer, so the day calls for a feisty anti-Trump song, and who's feistier than Randy Ranbow (@randyrainbow.bsky.social)?

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Alt National Park Service is looking out for us.

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #525: Queer Rights Jayne County is an icon, a godmother, an artist, a musician, an original. She took part in the Stonewall Riots. She became the first openly transgender rock musician in 1979. "Man Enough to Be a Woman" is both a song from 1986's Private Oyster,

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

Reposted by Kay Miranda Gilbert

• Mail to: Torie Osborn, 3201 Pearl St., Santa Monica, CA 90405 With gratitude and hope, Kay

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #524: First Nations The Gabrielino/Tongva people were the first residents of Los Angeles, and they're still an essential part of who we are and who we will become. On the tribe's new album, Tongva Songs We Are Here Ekwa Chem,

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Reposted by Kay Miranda Gilbert

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

we will be a giant step closer to reining in the criminal Trump administration. Here's what we can do together: Making Waves for Democracy has raised over $2 million since 2018, with $50 fundraiser tickets, and we're doing it again on Sunday September 13th. It's an online fundraiser,

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #523: Feminism We are losing the giants of 2nd-wave feminism, now Robin Morgan. Her powerful poetry stands out among her writings, especially her 1972 "Arraignment". It begins "I accuse/Ted Hughes", to indict Sylvia Plath's abusive, philandering husband for driving her to suicide.

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Reposted by Kay Miranda Gilbert

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

TOGETHER WE CAN SAVE DEMOCRACY! There is a plan, and every one of us can make it work. The first step is to flip the House of Representatives blue on November 3rd. The road to victory runs through California. If we can hold enough Democratic seats, and flip enough Republican ones,

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #522: Labor Movement Happy Labor Day! The Pajama Game is an unlikely 1954 romantic musical comedy, about a union wage fight in the garment industry. Based on Richard Bissell’s novel 7½ Cents, it a madcap affair with an important message.

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #519: Feminism I was a founding lifetime subscriber to Ms. Magazine, which led me to sitting with Gloria Steinem at a dinner party. I was initially intimidated to be talking with The Mother Of Us All, but I found her extremely unintimidating, friendly and funny,

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Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

PROTEST SONGS #521: Anti-racist, Environment “God Gave Noah the Rainbow Sign” is a spiritual with roots in slavery. Slaveholders taught enslaved Africans those parts of the Bible that justified slavery, but enslaved people used Bible knowledge to create coded spirituals.

Kay Miranda Gilbert @kaymirandagilbert.bsky.social · 06/09/2026