2017 In Review: A Hell Bound Train Of A Year (Part 1)

-by Noah

The image of a Hell bound train is a metaphor for going to Hell. It’s an idiom that crops up in a long history of African-American blues songs and the country-blues songs of rural whites. Its use in both song and poetry pre-dates the Civil War, essentially making it as old as the first American railroads.

Blues music is the music of the downtrodden and oppressed. It is the music that came from slaves. It is the music that people sing in an effort to make sense of a world gone wrong: their world. It is the music of wailing souls in Hell. America is singing the blues and it’s about to get louder and louder.

2017 will go down in history as the year that the Electoral College allowed an obviously complete madman and con artist to be inaugurated as President of the most powerful nation in the world. That one abdication of responsibility and duty is threatening to turn America into a pre-Magna Carta oligarchy and second rate power, if not the instrument of an economic infrastructure collapse for the world, or, even worse, a third world war. The sooner people get past the denial of this and do everything they can to rectify this abomination, the better the chances of continued survival. Meanwhile, we have some real low points, as listed.

2017 - The year Republicans openly said Nazis weren’t so bad. Oh, they certainly thought it before, but, now, they have a spokesman who just comes out and says it, on national TV, no less! “Some are very fine people”. Republicans have accepted Nazis as equal members of our society and given them voice as the generation who defeated them once before dies out. This has emboldened a wave of racist actions and anti-Semitic vandalism, the extent of which has not been seen in decades. We’ve been building towards this, well, here it is, entering full flower. The boys from Brazil are in charge.

2017 - The year Republicans brazenly and proudly revealed themselves to be a party of mass-murderers and sociopaths determined to destroy the health of millions of Americans with their votes and their so-called president’s pen. Who needs a gun? Who needs to fly planes into buildings? You can kill millions just by denying them medical care, polluting the environment, and banishing safety regulations, all with a smile on your face. If you have a lump, you can keep it. In fact, you can watch it grow. It might even grow as fast as the bank accounts of those that the Republican Party gave your money to. Oh, and those who moved to approve that reality will continue to get lifetime health care that you pay for. It’s the ultimate F.U. from Republicans.

2017 - The year the worst minds in America formed an administration under a saboteur who took on his psychotic mission to destroy his country; not that he ever thought of America as his country at all. “The best people”? We have a Secretary of Education who wants to restrict access to education. We have a Secretary of the E.P.A. who has dedicated his life to destroying the environment. We have a White House staffed openly with white supremacists. We have extremist judges being nominated and confirmed, some of which even raise doubts about whether they ever went to law school every time they open their mouths in public. It used to be that the biggest bozos and babbling idiots in Washington, people like Louis Gohmert, Michele Bachmann, or, Ted Cruz, were just people in Congress. That was bad enough. Now they are Cabinet heads.

2017 – The year the Republican Party fought the concepts of law enforcement and the rule of law itself by attempting to destroy the reputations of our law enforcement institutions, all in an effort to obstruct justice while their president’s relationships with Russia , mobsters of various sorts, and charges of collusion, and money laundering are being investigated.

Just a few days ago, Republicans in our House of Representatives were exposed as secretly aiming at the very top of our law enforcement community with their attack on no less than the FBI. This will inevitably engender an exponentially exploding complete lack of respect for the law and anarchy in the population. When that happens, those responsible will call for a brutal solution that will make today’s minority of bad cops look like saints by comparison.

Meanwhile, just who do Republicans think is supposed to hunt down terrorists before they strike? Or, when they strike. Apparently, Republicans would prefer the later.

2017 - The year a whole party, proudly and in your face, endorsed the idea that black lives don’t matter and never did.

2017 - The year the majority party of The United States Of America attempted to normalize pedophilia, and republican voters eagerly embraced the idea. Once you are OK with a cretin who brags on tape about his sex assaults, it’s all down hill from there. What’s next? A presidential candidate who made snuff films? “Hey, no biggie. That was years ago.”

2017 - The year that 51 traitorous $enators, led by a treasonous president, voted to crush the economic dreams of Americans in the biggest cash grab of all time, cynically calling it “Tax Reform.”

2017 – The year the Republican Party moved to formally erase democracy in our country more blatantly than ever before.

2017 – The year an American president invited the chief spymaster of our decades-long adversary into the oval office and gave him classified information.

2017 – The year we got a president who not only set his demented sights on tearing apart the very fabric of America, but he also insisted that his sycophants praise him for it.

Watch here as Vice President Pence becomes Trump’s personal Monica Lewinsky-



2017 – All this and more was just the first year of Trump. Be very, very wary of year two as Trump and the Republican Party look to keep installing their brand of virulent fascism and oligarchy as the governing power of America. It can’t happen here? It’s up to us to get off this Hell Bound Train. As the clip at the top of this post says, it's not going to stop until we wise up.

Hell Bound Train
-- Traditional, Adapted by Noah

Hell bound train, we’re on its track
Too late now to turn your back
Devil man comin’. Somethin’ in his hand
Come to shred your soul,
Takin’ us to his land, to his land.

Hell bound train, the hope is gone.
Way too late now. Best move on.
Trump man comin’. Somethin’ in his hand
Draggin’ us with him,
Ain’t no conductor lending a hand.

We’re goin’ down the road on a Hell bound train
Take a long look. You won’t see your country again
Take a long last look, yes gaze hard and long
‘Cause we’re goin’ down the road on a Hell bound train.

Heard in the distance arose a yell.
Ha, ha says the devil, “we’re nearing Hell!”
Then, how the passengers shriek in pain.
They beg the devil, “stop the train.”

“You bully the weak. You rob the poor.
Turning the starving from your door.
You pile up gold while others rust.
Freely giving vent to your beastly lust.”

“You’ve scorned justice and corruption sown,
Trampling the laws of the nation down.
You cheat. You plunder. You’ve always lied,
While mocking God in your hell-born pride.”

Hell bound train we’re on its track.
Better jump off now, if we wanna get back.
Ain’t no brakes. The smoke’s too black.
Better jump off now, if we gonna get back.

Hell bound train charging down the track
Hell bound train, almost there.
Hell bound train, almost there.
Hell bound train will destroy your kind.