Our Real Old Man and His Pal Musk, 2025
An Introduction to the Roughneck’s and George H.W. Bush’s Voice of This Updated Song. Aboard the Glomar One n Beaumont, Texas, January 1978.
“What happened to that old boy? How he’s goin’ backward up and down the ladders. Like he cain’t hardly walk. He hurt himself?”
“Aw, he went over to Houston and ran a foot-race.”
Conversation between two older Hands on the Glomar One Tender-Ship, birthed in the Bethlehem Steel docks of Beaumont, Texas, after watching me hobble up and down the Ship’s steel ladders backwards, over a few days’ time-span, my calves and hamstrings so sore after runing the Houston Marathon on the prior Saturday of January 1978.
Another utterance on the Ship that I remember from January 1978. The State of the Union Address was airing on the TV elevated in one corner of the our Hands’ sunken Galley during Supper-Hour. President Jimmy Carter addressed the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. Our Ship’s Captain, named Johann, a veteran of Unions for decades, said:
“One Bullshitter talking to 535 other Bullshitters.”
In the voice of a Southern worker, a roughneck from Louisiana or Mississippi or Texas, say, let me talk about those old boys Donald Trump and Elon Musk and then offer an update to the “My Old Man” song that George H.W. “New World Order” Bush inspired in 1990.
“Well, that old boy Donald Trump and his pal, I guess you could say, Elon, Elon Musk, that Boy, been up to some THINGS over what’s it been a little more than a Month. That Pair of them been issuing Orders and slashing Jobs and barging Offices. To save us money—millions and billions, they. Making News ev’ry Day and Night. You gotta give it to them for some Theater. That Elon with a Chain-Saw! Looked like a 54-inch Bar he was brandishging there. All Dark clothing. Black sunglasses. Like Elon was a Super-Hero. Whoo’ee. Like he way pretty high, too. Guess he’s not going to save us from certain drugs … If we’re good and get to eat …. We’ve never had a Chain-Saw in even a Circus, far as I can remember. Wonder if that Elon has ever cut real wood with a Chain-Saw.
I don’t know about these Wars, too. What Donald is proposing for Peace in the Gaza and in the Ukraine. Seems like—no, the FACT is—Israel is making the War over there BIGGER. Invading that West Bank to toss out, what is it, 40,000 more Palestinians from their Territory. And the Ukraine—I wonder what Ukrainians think about Peace made with no Ukrainians at the Table.
I guess it’s like that all over. No one of us who do the fighting and the dying get to decide about a War. Now that Elon and Donald—and I wonder who’s leading who there, and who’s leading both of them—want us to tell ‘em at least five things we’ve been doing on our Jobs. Just like they tell us what our Jobs are and what we can do for them in the first place! Kind of a worse Hell of a State they’re making!”
Now, the song “My Old Man” from Autumn 1990, inspired by George H.W. Bush and his talk of the “Big Idea, a New World Order,” to Congress then.
“Our Real Old Man and His Pal Musk, 2025”
“My Old Man Wears a White Crown My Old Man He gets around Says drill that hole Bring up that gold Cut down that tree You work for me My Old Man Calls the Earth his Town This Old Man With Year-Round Tan This Old Man Wants back Iran Plus Afghanistan Sucks from Timbuctu and me and you This—old—Mister Mouth pursed Pistol Piranha smile Looks like his Kin Points at Sin Then sneaks It in This Old Man Bites all Earth like bone This Old Man—This Old Boy—Our Old Man Now this Old Man 2025 And his New Pal Elon Say they have A.I. Say we need A.I. We need a Neuralink Chipped into our Brain To help it think Even though we know It's working-class Minds from Shakespeare To Einstein helped Us most to grow, Forevermore. This real Old Man And his Elon Musk Say no Jobs and more Tax Will be good for us Along with their chips for our brains. This real Old Man And his Elon Musk Say they love us so much They want to take away Medicare, Medicaid, and the Security Our life's work has earned. Because we should report Every little thing we do, Each day, we'll then be safe And happy too, free of worry, Free of our children, too Because our children will all be fine, Identities burned Into the Bank of Trump and Musk or Bust Just like we all had jobs in the New Palestine. Well, I don't know. This real Old Man And his Pal Musk Seems a lot like Plenty of Bosses before now Who wanted to take away The Security our work has earned, Who wanted our children Yoked to Endless Debt, Who wanted us defenseless To any Crazy Whim of Selfish Lunatics, Who believe their White and Might must be right. This real Old Man And his Pal Musk Act like they're King of Everything. They'll soon see whose work decides all we eat, All we need, and all our future. Don Paul, March 6, 2025
Musk tweets on the X that he thinks he owns, celebratiing a Roman ‘New World Order’ (Novus Ordo Seclorum) on November 6, 2024.
Below, how Musk treats workers at Tesla.
From the publication Reveal, April 18, 2018.
A flurry of other lawsuits against Tesla allege widespread racial and sex discrimination at a number of Tesla facilities.
Tesla has also violated labor law per the National Labor Relations Board. In 2022, NLRB ruled against Tesla after the company attempted to keep workers from wearing pro-union shirts. The board also voted against the carmaker the year prior, after the firing of a union supporter and CEO Elon Musk’s apparently threatening tweet that unionizing would result in workers losing stock options.A flurry of other lawsuits against Tesla allege widespread racial and sex discrimination at a number of Tesla facilities.
Tesla has also violated labor law per the National Labor Relations Board. In 2022, NLRB ruled against Tesla after the company attempted to keep workers from wearing pro-union shirts. The board also voted against the carmaker the year prior, after the firing of a union supporter and CEO Elon Musk’s apparently threatening tweet that unionizing would result in workers losing stock options.’
A simple question for simple answers. Is Musk and his President Trump and their threats to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security the new world you want?
What can we do about such a Base and Belittling and Bullying world? Suggestions welcome! Actions even more welcome!