For more on The Bad Penny’s On Tyranny series, go to this hub.
Archive for trump
On Tyranny: Meatwound’s Mantra Is ‘Fuck the Cops – and the Government Too’
Posted in Features, Interviews, On Tyranny with tags authoritarianism, Daniel Wallace, dictator, disappeared, Donald Trump, Meatwound, On Tyranny, police state, trump on 09/01/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Acerbic. Snotty. Sarcastic. Ruthless. Hard-hitting. There are a lot of adjectives that could be applied more gently to the ear than the name of the band in question, Meatwound. Spawned 10 years ago ago in one of the crappiest cities in the country, Tampa, Florida, The Bad Penny has wanted to catch up with this band since the release of their 2015 debut, Addio.
The skronky, snarky, snarly – have we exhausted our cache of descriptors yet? – crew immediately drew comparisons to a lot of our favorite bands. But we’re gonna show Meatwound some respect by saying they are a uniquely awesome slab of protein-rich noise-rock and encourage you to listen to the many songs of theirs embedded in this post. Most are housed on their latest record, Macho, which they coughed up in mid-July.
The Bad Penny talked with Meatwound vocalist Daniel Wallace in mid-May, just two months after the detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia and before shit got even crazier – you know, the deployment of the U.S. Marines to the streets of L.A., Trump bombing Iran, Mahmoud Khalil was finally freed, the U.S. blocked global agreements for a ceasefire between Israel and Palestine, all that good stuff.
And yet, Wallace’s remarks, stances and predictions all still, terrifyingly, hold up as true for the most part.
(Meatwound also features guitarist Ari Barros, bassist/programmer Mariano Iglesias and drummer Dimitri Stoyanov.)
Continue readingOn Tyranny: ‘You’re Telling My Kids They Can’t Read This Book?’ Author Andrew Laties Rails Against Book Bans
Posted in Features, On Tyranny, What You Readin' For? with tags Andrew Laties, authoritarianism, censorship, Donald Trump, fascism, First Amendment, On Tyranny, trump on 08/31/2025 by Kurt Orzeck“The majority of Americans are angry about this idiocy. There will come a tipping point.
The majority will fight back and win.”
-Andrew Laties
Andrew Laties isn’t your typical free-speech advocate. The decorated author co-founded the annual Easton Book Festival in Pennsylvania, The Children’s Bookstore in Chicago, the Chicago Children’s Museum Store and the Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art Bookstore in Massachusetts. In some respects, he is Donald Trump’s greatest nemesis: He is omnipresent thanks to the aforementioned institutions he established across the country, he won’t be bullied (as he was in the past), he doesn’t mince words or self-censor but rather speaks from the heart with unfiltered ferocity, he is an outspoken champion of free-speech who refuses to be silenced, and he is prepared to battle the Trump administration’s book bans to the bitter end.
In other words, Laties is one of us. Even if you don’t place censorship and book bans high on your list of priorities, whether you deem the issues to be political or not, he’s fighting for your rights too. His previously detailed his crusade in the book Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Businesses Represent Everything You Want to Fight For – From Free Speech to Buying Local to Building Communities. Last month, he unveiled his latest work, the very timely You’re Telling My Kids They Can’t Read This Book? Our Hundred-Year Children’s-Literature Revolution and How We’ll Keep Fighting to Support Our Families’ Right to Read.
When Laties reached out to The Bad Penny, it was a no-brainer to invite him to participate in our ongoing series On Tyranny, inspired by the Timothy Snyder handbook of the same name. Here is the exchange in which we thoroughly enjoyed partaking today with Laties, a hero in the sickening, unbelievable and yet very real battle to save democracy for us all, and not just the livelihoods of artists and dissenters, but their right to exist in American society.
Continue readingOn Tyranny: John Lennon and Yoko Ono Were Wrong; Karma Does Not Exist
Posted in Essays, Features, On Tyranny, Videos with tags Donald Trump, John Lennon, karma, Plastic Ono Band, Power to the People, trump, Yoko Ono on 08/30/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
Today marks the 53rd anniversary of “Power to the People,” a performance by John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Plastic Ono Band. As a nation, we are thirsting for our own contemporary music megastars (Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Drake, Billie Eilish, Bad Bunny, etc.) to re-create such an event at a time even more perilous than when the peace activists of yore performed at Madison Square Garden in New York.
Side note: The whole “karma” concept that Lennon and Ono preached? Yeah, that’s proven to be a fallacy. No amount of suffering that could befall Donald Trump from here on out would be commensurate with the amount of damage he’s done to our country, which will take many decades to repair.
Fortunately, Lennon isn’t around to bear witness to the atrocities that are occurring every day in the U.S.
Check out these previous installments of The Bad Penny’s On Tyranny series:
• Poll: Are You Afraid of Attending Concerts as the Military Patrols US Cities?
• Haggus Frontman Blasts Punk Bands’ Silence on Gaza, ICE
• As US Citizens Get Disappeared and Terrorized, Chile’s Mawiza Reflects
• Punk Legends UK Subs Denied Entry Into US Due to Alleged Trump Criticism
• Kuwaiti Metal Artist Abzy Calls Hate ‘A Black Hole’
• Hungarian Black-Metallers Sear Bliss Lost ‘Freedom’ In Orbán’s Autocracy
• Necrofier Frontman Wonders ‘Is It Going to Be Like ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’?’
• ‘People in America Have Blinders On,’ Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe Says
• Musicians Living Under Authoritarian Rule Speak Out
• Mark Mallman Says ‘Suffering Artists’ Are a Myth, Making Art Isn’t a ‘Job’
• Cellista: ‘Creating and Existing Under Trump’s America Is My Act of Radical Resistance’
On Tyranny: Punk Legends UK Subs Denied Entry Into US Due to Alleged Trump Criticism
Posted in Essays, Features, News, On Tyranny with tags On Tyranny, trump, UK Subs on 03/21/2025 by Kurt Orzeck
A new chapter in Trump’s war on free speech has apparently begun, with members of punk legends UK Subs denied entry into the U.S. and detained after traveling to play a concert Stateside, according to The Guardian. The U.K. news outlet cites accounts purportedly posted on the band’s Facebook page. (The Bad Penny does not utilize or endorse social media.)
Continue readingA ‘Bizarre’ Coincidence. No, Wait: A ‘Weird’ Coincidence …
Posted in Sound Off with tags 2024, bizarre, trump, weird on 08/03/2024 by Kurt Orzeck
Should’ve gone with “weird” instead of “bizarre” when I did a little 2024 prognosticating in this FLOOD article from seven months ago. Came this close.
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