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From: kcitron
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  • McMurtry is not a conservative. He wrote this song during the Bush administration. If anything, he's closest to a libertarian. Vote libertarian. Ron Paul's the closest choice.

  • Saw hin many a year ago, but have going back to what a wordsmith he has been and will be!

  • Right on, Bro'

    Thank You.

  • McMurtry tells it like it is. Anyone who doesn't agree is likely a politician or one the elitist 1%.

  • What we need to do:

    Revitalize and open NEW manufacturing ventures, since we cannot bring the jobs back.

    We could start small --- I can name many things we can make -- and make them using goods and raw materials obtained locally.

  • @stillayl What we need to do is stop playing this stupid politics game.

  • @stillayl just quit shopping at wal-mart and quit buying chinese junk

  • If you want to bring back good paying jobs to this country? Vote for Buddy Roemer for President!! Look him up on facebook, watch his youtube videos, check out his website. Ron Paul wants more free trade, he will only worsen our trade polices.

  • Amen, I'm a USMC Vet and love this! Right wing phonies act like they support the troops but could give a damn about us, Rush Limbauh and Sean Hannity are coward scum. Ron Paul 2012

  • hey aspestospillow, American soldiers have saved the lives, cultures of thousands of women , children all over the globe.We have a RIGHT to feel proud of our country, we've powdered the asses of self rightous faggots like YOU as well.Our country has addressed our issues for years before you were crapping yourself, we will continue to after Obama is gone, we'll clean up our messes without asking your country for any help.Canada isn't anywere on the "world stage" talk about heads in the sand....

  • chilling,freakin drop dead good stuff...talk about verbalizing for us....blue collar americans,TOO BAD we can't reach the moral souls of wall street scum...but this dudes got it down.....very impressed

  • check out ron paul if you want to vote for a man who actually wants to help us prosper again. The mainstream doesn't want us to see him in the debates or know how well he's doing in the polls.

    ron paul 2012 dot com.

  • great! like this acoustic live version better than the other acoustic version you have posted with the slideshow and no bleeps.

  • Yeah, clean air and water are highly overrated!

  • I saw James on Austin City Limits one Saturday night and I was hooked. Thise is what country music should be instead of pop music in a cowboy hat and a slide guitar.

  • THE BEST

  • @thestorm613 A Tea Partier just told me to educate myself.

  • One of the best songs ever written by the best living songrwriter today. Written in 2004 and still relates to today's economy and situation.

  • love this song!

  • Happiness is a warm gun... and a cold Koch

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  • @zoranest Im from Detroit and I relate to what you guys are fighting for.

  • That's what Regan's trickle down economy & amnesty for illegals did to did to us.I am in no way a democrat,I vote for whom ever I think will best serve our nation & he did not,nor has Obama both Bush's ,Clinton Carter. We have not had a President that served our nation well in a long time.It is time for real change people,do your research before you vote.Tea Party Patriots has a site devoted to posting good & bad info. on all candidates so we can make a good choices.Join us be informed.

  • @thestorm613 Why one earth would anyone interested in making this country a better place listen to anything the Tea Party says? They're part of the problem!

  • @thomadify go ahead & keep your head in the sand.When the 1% tax on every bank transaction you make hits you, You will be crying like a baby. bho,"no tax on anyone who makes under $250,000 a year." This is called ,"A TAX" by their own definition.Unemployment is 16% in the black community.How's that working for you?obama told the Congressional Black Caucus to stop crying & complaining & just follow .How's that working for you?Stop being a blind follower & educate yourself.

  • @thestorm613  We haven't had a real president since J.F.K. and if we don't get our heads out of our asses we won't have a country. Buy AMERICAN

  • @8strat3 @8strat3 I think people are scared to be as good a president as JFK.

    We support Ron Paul. He's the only guy running who still believes in supporting the Constitution and keeping American jobs here and keeping our soldiers out of "da** little wars".

  • Great protest song.

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  • Maybe this is the beginning of an uprising against an immoral system.

  • I normally hate politics in music, but this song is great

  • Sounds like he played for a bunch of assholes except the dude on the table

  • I was blown away by this. Wow. Just wow.

  • saw this live surounded by a bunh of hill billies....i was the only one cheering i thought i was gonna get my ass kicked

  • What a bunch of whiners you all are.

  • @R0773N Tell that to my husband's face you weak jerk!!!!! He was wounded in Viet Nam at the tender age of 19, his face is filled with cysts from Agent Orange, 1/3 of his left arm was blown off, he has bullet wounds in his legs, and has hepatitis C and B from the transfusions he received after being wounded. He has tried to get relief from the VA but they're a bunch of bureaucratic assholes. So forgive me if I send you out a big "Fuck You"!

  • @slister45 That's government health care for you.

  • Johnny cash couldn't of wrote abetter song.

  • the answer in three words: Revolution of Ideas.

    Start a farm, start a protest, occupy your city hall, whatever it takes.

  • dude shreds. awesome!!!!

  • REALITY 101

  • dadgad tuning?

  • Song more. Awesomer than ever. Hope we make it!!!

  • It's even getting worse and worse Mac.

  • Loved them on Austin City Limits

  • James is a great american folk artist, with so much to say to a country gone wrong.

  • Workers! It's time to organise One Big Union of our class to get what we want, what we deserve. Labor is entitled to all it produces. Join the Industrial Workers of the World today!

  • @ZOGGYDOGGY We are many, they are few! Right on man!!

  • FYI: James is not "anti-troops", he is anti-bullshit-war. You also should not try to lump him in with your political leanings, because he's not very fond of Republicans OR Democrats. Rarely does the message of a song move me to tears, but this one really hits close to home Thanks for putting the ugly truth to such beautiful music!

  • Please, never stop singing, bring the reality of what's happening to the door of the republicans and t-bags. This is why they won't fund the arts, because art exposes them too clearly for all to see.

  • Amazing!! Man tells the truth!!! Only in Amerika will the nose led people be blinded.

  • great singing he sounds alot like Johnny Cash

  • great song!

  • @AsbestosPillow11 haha how is canada a bad place to live? is it because we have free healthcare and we aren't blinded by patriotism? part of building a great nation is addressing the problems it has. you can't just go out waving flags while your head is buried in the sand. that's why the US has the reputation it does.

  • @ryanluciermusic 1941 1945 damn glad usa was around

  • @ryanluciermusic There are always people who hate number 1 and USA is number 1. Been to BC, what a mongrol region. shit healthcare, my customer had to wait 6 months for heart surgury...free, but a typical liberal union inefficient mess

  • @JOBESTER1 better than payin them for painkillers and dyin cause you cant afford it

  • @ryanluciermusic The reputation the United States has? You mean the same United States that saved the world from darkness in two World Wars, the one that single handedly defeated communism in the USSR without firing a single shot, or where our definition of poverty is seen as absolute wealth by the billions in real poverty in the old Eastern Bloc, India, and the Asian "countries" right? You sound like an elitist bastard. I for one am proud to be an American!

  • @zanesavin187 The US doesn't need to worry about everyone else. Keep our troops here, as well as our ideas and money. Let free trade spread wealth. Vote Ron Paul

  • @ryanluciermusic America is better BECAUSE we are so fucked up it make us more interesting then any Canadian will ever be...

  • @AsbestosPillow11 What a fuck-tard YOU are.

    Have you always been a blind asshat, or is it something you learned by ingestions ...?

    You can be a loyal American and still see the rich are screwing the rest of us over in their mad greed,

    anything for a buck - sell us all down the river urge to get another buck out before it all burns to hell.

  • Applies to BHO, just like it did to Bush, et al.

  • Politicians are bred and hatched by CEO's. But elected by the people. The CEO's give a wealthy life to people by buying the cheapest products possible so people can buy more shit, so then the US can't produce enough so the CEO's buy more from China and the jobs are gone there while greasing the politicians. Wealth sharing=misery sharing too. CEO's are not to blame. People buying 90% of their yearly spendings on foreign products are to blame. That goes to any cheap ass people from any country.

  • @ericbombardier Like we have any choice but to buy cheap crap. When wages are stagnant and falling, and masses of WalMarts are puked all over the nation, sometimes you don't have a choice. We are responsible for electing these fuck ups though. Americans are SO gullible.

  • @Antiks72 We have a choice. Problem is people want everything. You can own 3 shitty TV, 150 shitty clothes and a shitty printer for half the price of a good TV, 50 clothes and a good printer. Problem is people want the latest, not the most convenient (with some sacrifices). If we'd be happy with a good printer with 5 options lasting 10 years instead of a new one after it broke a year later with it's 554 options, we'd be able to afford better more expensive durable things.

  • I really like this guy and this song. He has heart and he feels it. I admire him a lot. Good Songwriter and love the guitar playing.

  • Betcha Glen Beck would really like this song.

    If anyone knows how to send GB an email, how about sending him a link

    to "We Can't Make It Here Anymore"

    I guessed @foxnewschannel, but it didn't work.

    I first heard this on WMNF in FL, then went to Tampa and heard McMurtry in

    person. Great show, great song. thanks JM.

  • Got to see James in Madison this week and believe I was witnessing history. No one is this good by accident. Keep'em coming James!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • I remember when I heard this song on the radio, I was going through some rough times. I got laid off from my job, it really hit home. Fortunitly I am doing okay now, but there are alot of people not so fortunate.

  • Working in E.M.S. and writing songs on life experiences for the past 16 years this songs speaks to my heart. Thank you!

  • and here I thought Bob Dylan was the man. Brother keep on singing. somebody said only music can change the world.

  • If you'd really like a better understanding of this problem and what needs to be done, switch off Fox and Rush - their goal in life tis to make all the money they can while keeping us divided. Keep in mind that the 'big government scare' was first put out there by a man trolling for political points. True enough we need honest, effective government and we need to hew to the ideals of democracy.

    Remember that WAR is wealth transfer - UPWARD.

  • @blurider

    Remember that when McCain and Palin screamed about redistributing the wealth' they were speaking in a code to the upper classes - who make their livings by redistributing wealth UPWARD. The last thing the oligarchs wanted was to face even weak little attempts to redistribute any, downward!

    Know that the Tea Party had it's beginnings w/ Rick Santelli on CNBC - the investor's and speculator's channel!

  • @blurider

    Santelli was speaking in that same 'code' to the investor, the ultra wealthy and the speculator - not to the working class but he quickly picked up on how his cause could use their support, just like Armey and the Kochs did.

    Read 'The Conservative Nanny State' to learn, then remember which side your bread is buttered on.

    When 'they' cry class warfare, they're objecting because they prefer that we aren't engaged - they prefer their own brand of 'quiet calass warfare' - ON US!

  • @blurider Now how and the hell did you come with that? You really think that??.

  • Living in the Midwest all of my life, I have begun to notice that no matter where you go it's impossible to escape the oppression and blight. Our cities are scarred with desolate and rusting warehouses and factories that once fed and clothed our loyal citizens. Even in the country , the rural factories are closed farms foreclosed on and main streets dead... the current state of America is scaring me Where will we go?

  • to harobike. You're wise beyond your years. Don't give up. The reward is the struggle. Live the life of truth and awareness and you'll find your true friends in your search for peace. Good luck to your parents and a special good luck to you. Dont give up the fight .

  • Now, I'm only 16 and some would say i haven't seen the real world, but as of 6 days ago both of my parents are now unemployeed, and nothing is on the horizon... These cooporate bastards and Conservative hate mongers have made it impossible to be and American... patriotism doesn't exist anymore and this song epitomizes the average american... I'm saddened to say that we are on the down escalator to a 3rd world nation all thanks to a handful of white collar grade a satan.

  • @harobikes730 see my comment above

  • Hillary says ,get your new job in China factory

  • depressing music - i think i m going to commit suicide listing to this .. so i am listening to rap

  • GOOD!. The end of materialism. No more money to buy more over priced junk.  bu bye.

  • People are going to have to learn to live without power, fuel, pharmaceuticals, grocery stores and hospitals.

    The world as we know it is coming to an end.

    I hope I'm wrong.

  • This expresses in music what I feel. I appreciate this tremendously.

  • James McMurtry is a STAR, and he powered me across the USA in 2009 in the RAAM

  • Genius and a weak-ass applause for that gospel.

  • The corporate greed has brought many to their knees, 'cept for the CEO's that need to be exposed for their dirty laundry and hung out to dry ;)

  • Saw him at Floore's Country Store a few years ago and when he finally played this to a dance hall full of Budweiser swilling, Bush voting, F-350 driving, shit kickers they booed, and I hopped up the table and cheered even louder.

  • @emzyking: Looks like he's playin' there Dec. 10th! I saw him last week...solo acoustic. Wow.

  • @emzyking Takes BALLS! :) Good for you & James!

  • @emzyking FYI We swill Coors light!...Bitch!

  • @emzyking I love my budweiser, f-350's, and my good ol shit kickers, but I hate war. Don't judge texans for being texan and proud. I promise a lot of us are smarter than we look. Asshole.

  • This song gives me goose-bumps!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This what music is all about.

  • I agree 100% with rogneid !!!!!!!!!!!

  • We need more musicians, more songs like this. McMurtry rocks!

  • high on jesus or hooked on dope

  • The lyric 'stocking shirts at the walmart store; just like the ones we made before; 'cept this one came from singapore' will tell you why we're fucked. we produce nothing to make a profit, pure service to service ourselves all on credit.

  • This is one of the greatest songs ever written. McMurtry tapped into something pure with this.

  • GREAT SONG!!!

  • The Republicans will fix things now. Except they can't tell business what to do cause that's communism. And they can't spend taxpayer money to employ cause that's socialism. But they can help business by cutting domestic programs and giving tax breaks and that's capitalism! Then business can invest more overseas and give them our jobs and that's imperialism! Funny thing is the other countries don't want our money. They say we are creating a bubble. Honestly. Here's an idea, keep the money here.

  • You know. At the moment we can all watch this happen and shake our heads and roll our eyes at the audacity with which these huge corporations, these clusterfucks of greed, are sucking our governments and our constitutions dry, nation by nation. We also have this firm belief that, for us, for the average American, it can only get so bad. And then it will somehow magically not get any worse for us.

    I think it will. I think it's going to get A LOT worse.

  • DEAD. NUTS. ON !

    James McMurtry you fuckin rock!

  • In this time of political bickering trying to squeeze the people for votes, how many politicians use this song in their campaign? Yet no other song sums up the way of life for millions of Americans better.

  • a Great American story teller, we kiwi's love yanks like him!

  • From Detroit... we haven't been making it here for 15 years.

  • The USA needs to stop shipping our jobs to China because their top executives and shareholders want to make more money. If the corporate excutives liek China sooo muchh - we should ship them all on a plane to China- the Chinese govt willl take away all their wealth, where the executives will be shot when their merchandise is faulty, their emails will be sensored- we should ship out all the billionaires to China- they created the monster. The Chinese people are not to blame -their govt is.

  • @bunnykat1 Our govt. is to blame, not China's.

  • @bunnykat1 There ya go. Outsource the fucking corporate cocksucking billionaires. Fuck Koch and Pete Peterson.

  • Yeah Happy Labor Day. Wish I could sleep. I'll be dead soon.

  • @arclight45 As St. Warren of Zevon said "I'll sleep when I'm dead". It'd be nice if we could have a life before then though.

  • Happy Labor Day! God Bless the USA!

  • @yahoo.com

    Love this! McMurty is on the bullseye. I'm a disabled USMC vet. My benefits go down while prices go up. I can't afford my medications. So I go without many and eat catfood to get by. Landlords talking about raising my rent.

  • @yahoo.com

    Love this! McMurty is on the bullseye. I'm a disabled USMC vet. My benefits go down while prices go up. I can't afford my medications. So I go without many and eat catfood to get by. Landlords talking about raising my rent.

  • @yahoo.com

    Love this! McMurty is on the bullseye. I'm a disabled USMC vet. My benefits go down while prices go up. How much money becomes enough when your fellow Americans are starving and homeless. Americans who fought and bled so that rich college boys can get richer. Americans are every color in the rainbow; we all bleed red.

  • Ouch! Wham! Bingo! 160,000+ views and I accidently locked the guy in on the patio beer garden of Liberty Bar....half a lifetime ago. The owner called me up and asked, "Did you forget anything at closing and are you sure?!?" For those of yo who don`t know him by name what a gentleman, a wit and an all round great human being...

  • I first heard this song, Childish Things" on Chicago's WXRT about two or three years ago, and I thought to myself, this is better than any Steve Earle song!!!! Sadly, not enough people people are singing about "reality" and the ones that are, like this gentleman, can't get exposed to a larger audience. No one wants to hear the TRUTH, until it knocks on THEIR door, and then, IT'S TOO LATE! Thanks for posting patriotic, american music!!! Peace & Happiness, always~Jason

  • If I had a dime for every time I've covered this song, I COULD make it here...

  • Tell ' em Like it is James .

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  • saying what needs to be said

  • Too amazing for words, a prophet...

  • * * * * *

    This man is dangerous. Someone should put him under surveillance.

  • Thanks for people like Jim. You sing the truth. Our government sold us out years ago. Obama and the 423 cowards up there are living the good life being paid off by lobbyists and special interest groups for big corporations and the next sock puppets will do the same. They have no scruples. Like Gerald Celente said" Washington DC is Hollywood for the ugly people." It's way past tea part time...

  • Man that is the truest statement I have ever heard MarinCipollina

  • Great song.

  • JM is so important, or IMHO anyway.....guys like him are...to what music and things that matter to The I for reasons beyond downloads, large concert venues and loot.

    I equate him to a cross b/w Warren Zevon/John Prine/Townes Van Zant

    namaste-

  • AWESOME!

    STOP being SO SUBSERVIENT AMERICA! Speak up ~ hold & participate in PEACEFUL demonstrations!

    Remember or learn now though, that OBAMA is on OUR side ~ he's a GREAT man, up against the worst, biggest EVIL imaginable .. so don't take YOUR oversight & or subservience out on Obama! HELP HIM to clean up the mess FASTEST ~ to ALL of our benefit GLOBALLY!

    ~South Africa~

  • @annie46664 wow, you're really naive.. Barack Obama is a corporate friendly social conservative that has betrayed nearly every promise he ran on.. 'Great Man' my ass.. There's not a single principle Obama appears willing to fight for.. He's an accommodationist and a facilitator..

  • Mcmurtry is the absolute real deal. He and Jay Farrar should do an album together, it would be sick!

  • ...and that's the shape of our country.

  • Outlaw Country James McMurtry rocks!!

  • I say we vote for this guy and Steve Earle for Pres/Veep in 2012. Pure Genius

  • amazing. thank you.

  • the cure is to give up jobs.....

    why do we work for anyone else than ourselves?

  • Sing it Bro!!

  • fuck you stoneman 75

  • Powerful message. Right on.

  • Wow, this man knows how to speak or sing in this case, the truth.

  • going to see james tonight in boulder colorad.heard his music for years.can't wait.

  • i wish more people wrote songs this good, let alone brought them to the stage with this kind of skill and guts...

    what a great musician!

  • Check out Tom Russell and Dave Alvin if you haven't already.

  • "the free enterprise system" thats ad-speak, capitalism.. will beggar you-. i

    no health care, no job, house foreclosed on. you're home baby

  • McMurtry is awesome. Just missed him -- small venue right around the corner from my place! Aruuuugh!

  • I am a recently disabled person living a lifestyle considerably below what I was accustomed to, educated for, and worked in. I receive disability payments. In the SF Bay Area, CA, where I was born, I barely get by. And I am *lucky.*

    I know one thing and that is that rich get richer and the poor get poorer. I feel contempt for ANY system that doesnt care for its people, including this one.

    Come over to my side of things and stay a while. Perhaps you won't spew your academic drivel then.

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  • what a great song....what a great message.

  • I find it ironic that he is performing this song in San Francisco, arguably the breeding ground for the mentality and the people he is blasting...since no one who lives there will have to deal with what he is singing about.

  • Beautiful. Thank you for this.

  • Perot was the only person that I know that came out public-ly and said if NAFTA goes through there will be this giant sucking sound going south to Mexico,said it on the Phil Donohue Show,NAFTA was signed and most of manufacturing went south and Wal-Mart found loophole and exploits the system and employees use public health care or subsidized programs to make ends meet,so this song and McMurtry have pulse on what's going on

  • I just looked up "POLETICIAN" on dikopedia...It said nothing about Republicans or Democrats...but words like"liars,cheats and thieves"filled the page.God I love this Country!!!!!!

    quick someone Print me some money plz...email it to me.

  • your an idiot

  • Fantastic! It's hard to find real song writing nowadays...

    The world would have so much more to say if this kinda stuff was blasted into our ears constantly...instead of crap.

  • i meant hate?

  • aint no time to hare

  • righteous

  • Just great lyrics!!

  • Down to Earth, honest Blues...reminds me a little of Lou Reed :-)

  • Nice!!

  • vote libertarian, increase plutocratic totalitarianism

  • I have just discovered that this guy is my 3rd or 4th cosin, aint' never met the guy and only herd of him just today. My grand pal grew up with his dad (larry) and come to find out nether of thems very socal

  • I reckon a real genuine artist creates the music that he himself was waiting to hear from somebody else. James Mcmurtry may never be famous but he never compromised his art for the sake of the masses. I saw James in Whelans in Ireland and I had a few words with the man. I was a bit drunk though. It was as good a show as I've ever seen. Sometimes I feel that it's a tragedy that the music never achieved the recognition that it absolutely deserves. I also feel priveleged to have found it.

  • @downdavyjoneslocker It matters not that the masses are unaware. We know, and that's all that matters..

  • @downdavyjoneslocker Too right mate, I have just found this guy, My propective father-in-law introduced me to his music and I can't get enough! This guy rocks and has a real way with words...it's like he sings what I think about the world. Awesome.

  • @downdavyjoneslocker would be awsome to see him in concert lucky you

  • @downdavyjoneslocker Had the same experience with Wayne "the train" Hancock. I hadn't header James McMurtry until today. Great to see real music lives, just have to look and listen for it.