Weekend self-care open thread: Time to dust off anti-war songs from the 60s and 70s

The Vietnam War was, as the kids say, a clusterfuck of immense proportions. Under four American presidents, the US stumbled into this war in pursuit of preventing the fulfillment of the "Domino Theory," the belief that if the West allowed one nation to fall to Communism, then as sure as night follows day neighboring states would also succumb to the lure of Marxism-Leninism. 

But, what one has to remember is this: the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and, yes, even Nixon Administrations were staffed by competent, educated men—yes, all men—who got it completely wrong. But that core competence prevented a greater tragedy of the end of the United States.

We cannot say that now. Between Donald Trump and his national security cabal, led by Pete Hegseth and Marco Rubio, this nation is being subjected to something far worse than kakistocracy. These people are the destroyer of worlds. Their incompetence and cravenness is on a scale which few states have voluntarily chosen in the long recorded history of Homo sapiens. It is no exaggeration to compare this regime to the nation-destroying regimes of Pol Pot and the Taliban. No enemy could have contrived a more effective way to lay low the American Empire than what this regime is doing. As I've said often, Donald Trump wanted to win re-election mostly to exact revenge on the country which dared to reject him in 2020. And his revenge is not relegated to those of us on this side of the aisle. Much like Hitler who condemned Germans to destruction because they did not live up to his greatness, Trump likewise is bent on the destruction of this two hundred fifty year experiment. No, he won't say it; but the evidence is there, plain as day.

So what do we do? We fight. We struggle. We stand against the dark. And we sing. We write. We create art. 

Artists in the 1960s and 1970s had something to say about their times. This weekend we shall sit with them.

We stand against the darkness for all those who live now, and all those who will come after us, and ask us what we did.

As always, dear friends, be ever kind, joyful, and gentle, to yourselves and those around you.