The rich men north of Richmond
Incredibly, the UFO question wasn’t even the dumbest of the night. That honor belongs to this question also asked by MacCallum:
As we sit here tonight, the number one song on the Billboard chart is called “Rich Men North of Richmond.” It is by a singer from Farmville, Virginia, named Oliver Anthony. His lyrics speak of alienation, of deep frustration with the state of government and of this country. Washington, D.C. is about 100 miles north of Richmond.
Governor DeSantis, why is this song striking such a nerve in this country right now?
It proves there are definitely dumb questions, and moreover, that Fox News hosts are committed to asking them.
Anthony has no record contract, and is not a reality show talent contestant. He imagined lyrics, wrote them down, put them to music and sang them on a video that went viral. His song is now number one on the Billboard Hot 100, the first song by an artist with no chart history to ever reach the top spot. Here is the song:
Incredibly, Bret Baier, the Fox News anchor, thinks the lyrics were about someone other than him. He makes $14 million per year, and lived in Washington, DC, up until last year, which as the crow flies, is around 100 miles north of Richmond. (He recently purchased a $37 million home in Palm Beach, Florida.)
Baier is a core figure in the greatest media scandal of the twenty-first century, which is the ongoing assault on the truth and American democracy, being waged aggressively from the Fox newsrooms and boardrooms. Baier is no different and no better than Tucker Carlson. He is supposed to be a journalist, and yet he cowered and trembled when it came to telling his brainwashed audience a truth that is elemental to the continuance of the republic and the sustainment of the American revolution. He didn’t want to tell them who won the election. Instead, he lit a fuse that burned down until it exploded in the Trump-incited catastrophe of January 6.
The basis of the question is beyond strange. Are Baier, MacCallum and Fox News so cloistered from the regular people they claim to speak for that it is news to them that music is a vehicle for social protest and change? Bob Dylan, anyone?
Music has been at the center of profound change in America.
The Civil Rights movement…
The Vietnam War protest movement…
John Kennedy talked about the role of the artist in American society during his last major speech as president at Amherst College, where he honored Robert Frost. He said:
If sometimes our great artists have been the most critical of our society, it is because their sensitivity and their concern for justice, which must motivate any true artist, makes him aware that our Nation falls short of its highest potential. I see little of more importance to the future of our country and our civilization than full recognition of the place of the artist.
The basis of the question wasn’t the novelty of a songwriter singing with emotional resonance about the current moment. Rather, it was the appetite of a predatory demagogue, looking for a cheap high from a cheap hit in the conflict game, that is like fentanyl for the division pushers, looking to poison our civics for their power. It is a sick game and Anthony should be applauded for calling it out.
Washington, DC, is a city where the pharmaceutical industry spent $300 million on lobbying last year. It is the place where the Saudis register their agents and PR flacks. It is the place where the media worldview is shaped, the narrative of our times written, where the powerful are richer than ever, and the rich are more powerful than ever. It is the most corrupt city in America, in one of the most corrupt eras in American history. It is an outrage that five of the ten wealthiest counties in America ring the Beltway, where the most profligate politicians in human civilization have run up the debt to $31 trillion. It is a place where being scoundrelly is virtuous and the virtuous are seemingly absent. Everywhere there is a sleight of hand that works against the public interest. Perhaps that is what he was singing about?
There is a long history of politicians hijacking songs and inverting their meaning. Here is an example of Ronald Reagan doing it about Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.,” a poignant remembrance of the cost of the Vietnam War:
The simple truth is that the MAGA movement is an authoritarian cult of personality that has overwhelmed the American media with its fusillade of authoritarian lies. It will turn over any rock, at any place, at any time, in search of anything that can be used to fuel their fire of rage and division. They have no fidelity to the truth, the country, the integrity of a song or an election. They are nihilists who care about nothing except the pleasure of a decrepit told man named Rupert Murdoch, who has assaulted this country for his life’s work. That is why they tried to hijack a song that has become a warning for those who choose to listen.
The rich men north of Richmond tried to steal a song written about them for their interests. They got called out. Good.
There is another song, “Keep the Wolves Away,” that came out a few years ago by an artist named Uncle Lucius. It is the same story rendered in a different tale. Enjoy it:
Lastly, something needs to be said about Bret Baier, tribune of the working people and searcher for meaning in their anguished lyrics. What did he do to his face? He’s had a lot of work on it, right? I only bring it up to make this point: there are no American men who work in a factory, or on a farm, or in a shop, who look like that. None. I don’t say this to be cruel, but rather to make this point: somewhere north of Richmond people are different. Bret Baier is way up on the list.
Cross-country tour update
Yesterday, we made the two-hour drive from Fernie, BC, over Crowsnest Pass, and turned south towards the US Border and Waterton Lakes National Park.
Waterton Lakes is the Canadian side of the International Peace Park, which looks south into Glacier National Park and the United States. It is a place of astounding beauty that celebrates the friendship and cooperation of Canada and the United States.
Here are some pictures from the day:
This morning, we’re headed out on an eight-hour horseback ride up into the Rocky Mountains towards a lake that I’m told is worth the trek. Giddy up!
Thank you for the pictures you post. They are a gift to almost all of your readers who will never witness this evidence of God's majesty. And that's high praise for a hot dog, coming from someone who grew up in the shadows of Texas Weiner on Route 22!
“It proves there are definitely dumb questions, and moreover, that Fox News hosts are committed to asking them.” ---Steve Schmidt
Sorry Steve, I will have to respectfully disagree. I was always taught there are “no such things as stupid questions; just stupid people asking questions.”
This epitomizes Fox’s lineup of faux journalists, pseudo-journalists, half-wits, no-wits and the witless, like Jesse Watters!
And everyone wonders how we got here!....:)