[guest post by JVW]

Per tradition on May 1, the far left takes to the streets to celebrate the workers holiday of May Day, a tradition established in the late 19th century by socialist, communist, and anarchist groups — you know, the same people that made the 20th century so lucrative to the military industrial complex. Now largely organized and celebrated by labor unions and the open borders crowd, the holiday is usually marked by parades in large urban areas, some of which can very easily go awry.

Here in Los Angeles, the May Day demonstrations have unsurprisingly been taken over by advocates for higher wages and amnesty for illegal immigrant groups. While this militancy mixed with radicalism leaves a sour taste among many of those who otherwise might have sympathy for the plight of those who come here to escape their dysfunctional homelands, bold ethnocentric demonstrations have frankly become commonplace in the Age of Obama. Here’s a photo from today’s downtown Los Angeles rally, taken by Los Angeles Dog Trainer Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Rick Loomis:

The #MayDayLA march grows larger & chants against Trump as it makes its way through #dtla. See story @latimes pic.twitter.com/P98fvWyd3y

— Rick Loomis (@RickLoomis) May 1, 2016

Note the prominence of a foreign nation’s flag — a foreign nation, it should be noted, whose government has been actively working for years to undermine U.S. immigration policy. Use of the Mexican flag by Latino activists in California is a controversial topic, with debate raging whether it is a sign of hostility to assimilation or merely a relatively benign declaration of ethnic pride. However, the upside-down display of the flag of the United States can hardly be seen as anything other than a provocation by leftists seeking to harshly criticize the country of their residence.

I’m a self-described squish on immigration: I like to think that if I lived in some dysfunctional third world hell hole that I would be desperate to come to a nation that values (or at least used to value) hard work and the rule of law, but I also know that not everyone who comes over the border respects and honors the traditions and characteristics of this country. For the life of me I don’t see any possibility that the militant and assertive identity politics grievance mongering of the left will win over people like me to the cause of amnesty as a key part of immigration reform. Yet the leaders of the immigration far left are so confident in the righteousness of their cause and in its inevitability that they are apparently just fine with driving people like me away since I refuse to endorse the more radical aspects of their cause. So be it.

– JVW

It’s time for Song #5 in the Patterico Music Project.

For new readers, the idea here is that I wrote some songs 25 years ago and recorded them on a primitive TASCAM cassette recorder. Over the past 2-3 years, I got the idea of trying to enlist some artists I respect to re-record some of those songs. Today’s version is a short, fun song titled “Wrong Side of the Road,” recorded by Steve Bertrand. (More about him in a moment.) Here is the song. It’s incredibly well-produced (unlike my original):

The artist, Steve Bertrand, is formerly of a band called The Tories, a band that Mrs. P. and I used to go see regularly in Los Angeles at a place called Genghis Cohen. (Teen pop idol Shaun Cassidy was a fan of theirs too, and we met Shaun outside one of those shows.) These days Steve makes his living doing various (mostly) music-related jobs, primarily for television.

Here is a live performance of the first Tories song I ever heard, “Not What It Appears”:

Hey, if Magic Johnson likes it, it’s gotta be good!

Here is Steve performing one of his solo songs, “Seven Days Without You,” in a beautiful acoustic version:

Check out his web site at SteveBertrand.com. If you know anyone who needs any work done with music production, he’d be a good choice.

And check out some of my other songs recorded by other artists:

• “Creation” recorded by Jay Semko

• “Was It Really You?” recorded by Jay Semko

• “The Same Mistake” recorded by Jay Semko

• “Alien Song” recorded by Parthenon Huxley.

All can be accessed at my SoundCloud page at soundcloud.com/patterico.

Lyrics and the original version to come in subsequent posts.

[guest post by JVW]

Just wanted to wish a very Καλό Πάσχα, Paste Fericit عيد فصح سعيد, and Счастливой Пасхи to our Orthodox readers and friends. (And send sincere thanks to Google Translate.)

– JVW