“Somebody Give Me a Cheeseburger!”: Living in a Pretend Democracy, by Scipio

The Steve Miller Band’s “Living in the USA” was a great rock and roll song and its insightful lyrics in 1968 revealed the loss that was already taking place in American culture. The last iconic line of the song, “Somebody give me a cheeseburger!” was a call to hold onto to what America was truly about.

Nightly in the basement of HQ barracks at Ft Riley KS in 1968 our all-NCO band, The Underground Epithet, performed “Living in the USA” along with The Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimmie some Lovin”, and Jimi Hendrick’s “Hey Joe”, and James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s World.”  We weren’t really a band, that’s just what we called ourselves.  We lip synced the songs and used standard barracks devices for musical instruments. I played rhythm guitar (a Jose Gonzales tennis racket), a roommate played lead guitar (a dust pan with a inserted broom handle), another roommate played the organ (two footlockers stacked on each other to get the Stevie Winwood effect in “Gimmie Some Lovin”), and lead vocalist, (Baucham where ever you are Baucham, a big shout out to you) using a push broom as a stand up mike where he would do a full split to the floor in pure James Brown fashion when doing “It’s a Man’s World.”

For a special effects, we “recruited” two PFCs from the floor above us to be our “technicians”.  The floor in our basement room was concrete so we had one guy spray Zippo lighter fluid in a big circle on the floor so Baucham could do his thing. We generally went through a bottle of lighter fluid each night pushing production costs through the roof! Baucham was literally performing in a ring of fire, sorry Johnny Cash. (We had disabled the fire alarm system in the basement BTW).  We gave another guy a box of sandalwood incense he burned on top of another locker and continuously fanned the smoke into the burning circle creating an eerie look and pungent smell. We replaced the normal light bulbs in the overhead lights with ones we had spray painted blue and red.  We had another guy rapidly turn the lights off and on to create a strobe light effect.  He often complained his fingers were getting tired, but we either ignored him or threatened him with a crap detail the next day.  The poor guy probably has carpet tunnel syndrome now because of our abuse.

We did this nightly until the wee hours of the morning.  We were in the first platoon, furthest away from the CO during reveille and report and he couldn’t see how many of us were standing in formation those dark winter days in Kansas.  So, we took turns reporting everyone present and accounted for, more listed in the “accounted for” category however.  They were accounted for because we knew they were sleeping in their bunks! When springtime came the sun started to rise earlier.  Our “lifer” platoon sergeant was in on what we were doing, and one day pointed out to me (I had time in grade over all the other NCOs in the basement) that soon the Old Man would be able to see the end to the end of the company formation. He strongly suggested I start getting everyone to fall out in the AM. Damn! That ended the late night “concerts”.  We had abbreviated “concerts” after that.

Now what does that story have to do with the title of this article?  It has nothing to do with this article, it just made me remember when I used to listen to this song.

The crucial words in this song are:

“A white man, a red man,

looking for Uncle Sam,

to give you a helpin’ hand,

but everybody’s kicking sand,

even politicians,

we’re living in a plastic land,

somebody give me a hand”

The song ended with the iconic line, “Somebody give me a cheeseburger!”

For those with eyes to see at that time (1968 release), America was quickly becoming a plastic land.  I would he venture to say things have progressed to the point that we are living in a pretend democracy today.  The future of “plastic” in the movie, “The Graduate” has certainly come true.

Today’s legal system has its thumb firmly pressing on the rich and powerful side of the scales.  Murder charges, that were downgraded to manslaughter charges, have now been dropped completely for actor Alec Baldwin.  Progressives were vindicated in this travesty because the obvious killer was the gun, not the person. We send invading armies around the world while allowing invading armies across our southern borders. The American dream of home ownership has become a reality of borderline homelessness, homelessness or living with your parents.  Freedom of speech means not tolerating what others say and shouting them down.  You may have been born with a pole or a hole but you can change that. Election votes don’t count, it’s those who count the votes that count. There are domestic terrorist groups that have the blessings of one political party while simultaneously creating nonexistent terrorist groups on the other side.  There are those who belong to one political party but vote with the other political party on substantial issues. There are news stations that are not news at all but merely propaganda organs. Traditional American values are being trashed and trampled.  The “law” is what your local DA or city council says it is, not what is in the law books.  The Supreme Court has a justice who cannot define what a woman is even though she is one. You may exist but you can be cancelled.

It’s almost overwhelming.

I need some comfort food.

Somebody give me a cheeseburger!

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2023/04/taki-theodoracopulos/land-of-the-free-my-arse/

https://amgreatness.com/2023/04/22/the-garland-blinken-and-morell-morass/

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/why-colorado-topping-charts-violent-crime

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/republicans-help-democrats-advance-bidens-judicial-nominees-amid-feinsteins-absence

https://amgreatness.com/2023/04/23/do-we-even-know-we-are-all-socialists-now/

https://www.racket.news/p/news-blackout-in-effect