Because the Countdown episodes were short and were 5 years ago, they likely aren't showing up in most podcast services. Here they all are at once...again.

A consolidation of the half-dozen Countdown episodes from 2020, starting in October and ending on Election Day, with an epilogue from Inauguration Day, 2021. There was a lot happening in those couple of weeks. The observations range from the implications of voting, to the elevation of Justice Barrett, the shockingly low number of school shootings that year, and whatever is next.

There's about a five second gap between most of the episodes, but because each episode ends with a few seconds of lead-out too, it can be a 10-20 second gap. Total time is not quite an hour.

Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut" was similar to "Forty Years" in that it was a look back at how the goals of World War II had worked out. Which means it's been on my mind in a similar way, so I felt like redoing it as well.

But the bit about

"...you can speak out loud about your doubts and fears

And what's more

No-one ever disappears

You never hear their standard issue

Kicking in your door"

That seemed to me, always, an exaggeration of what happened in the Soviet Union or Nazi Germany.....until Minneapolis, until Portland and, yes, until Los Angeles.

But now, it's too real. It's just what The Gunner, - "in a corner of some foreign field," one that is forever England - just what he would have been fighting against. What he was fighting against.

If you can't find it on your streaming service, then in addition to the conceptual video linked below, you can also hear a simple acoustic version by Roger Waters on Youtube. It's from about the same time as this episode.

https://youtu.be/aC9rY4HeN6A?si=nUo_mcl-bh2BcYTn

My Countdown series was pretty well done, I think, so if you like it you can listen to more of them...around...if you look for it.

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What is your dream for what the world looks like, after all this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Final_Cut_(album)

"A place to stay, enough to eat, somewhere old heroes shuffle safely down the street

Where you can speak out loud about your doubts and fears

And what's more

No-one ever disappears

You never hear their standard issue

Kicking in your door

You can relax

On both sides of the tracks

And maniacs

don't blow holes

In bandsman by remote control

And everyone has recourse to the law

And no-one kills the children anymore."

Turns out a video was made for it, but let me recommend listening to the song on its own, if not the album, at least the first time or two.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSE7qdjy3Q0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_school_shootings_in_the_United_States

Redoing this one because it's the forty year anniversary of the recording of the song Forty Years.

A quick note from Joe Jackson's website - where, incidentally, you can't listen to his music any more. (You could when I first published this podcast episode, and I wanted to include the notes that were here before, but that particular one isn't true any more. Or at least, not right now.)

http://joejackson.com/release?page=release&album_id=36852

"I want to clear up two myths about this record which still crop up all the time.
Myth 1: During the live recording of the album, the audience was forbidden to applaud.
Fact: There was plenty of applause. We were just playing a lot of unfamiliar material, and recording it for an album, so the audience were asked to hold it until they were sure a song was finished. They understood this and there was no problem.
Myth 2: It's a double album with a side missing.
Fact: This was my first album to be released on CD, where the running time was not an issue. I was having a hard time deciding what to leave out for the LP, though, and I suggested making a 3-sided one, and selling it for the price of a regular album. Much to my surprise, the record company said yes. So rather than a side missing, you got an extra side. Critics, of course, hadn't had to pay for it."

And as long as I'm mentioning John Brown below, I'll note my personal belief that he saw the Carrington Event (really, he couldn't have misssed it) but also that he may have seen the red sky as a good omen for the raid on Harper's Ferry.

In any case, Forty Years was recorded 40 years ago, in January 1986. That turned out to be a notable year, in particular with the Chernobyl nuclear incident which was one of the turning points that led to the end of the Soviet Union. The song mentions Berlin, D.C., and "where I come from" (England/United Kingdom), but not Moscow. The Soviet Union would be gone 7 years after the song was recorded.

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Starting from a 1986 song about how attitudes had changed in the time since World War II, a look at the passage of time, and how it affects the way people think about history.

You can listen to Big World on Joe Jackson's site - "Forty Years" is track 9: http://joejackson.com/music&album_id=36852

Information about the album, including recording date (January 1986) and release date (March 1986)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_World

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virginia_v._John_Brown

Charlestown, Va. 2nd December, 1859. I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1860

Evidently in the mid-19th century, it was not common for candidates to campaign. They sent out activists but mostly stayed home themselves, with Stephen Douglas being the one breaking tradition in 1860.

https://millercenter.org/president/lincoln/campaigns-and-elections

https://www.sethkaller.com/item/1583-23646-Lincoln-Tops-the-Field-in-1860-Presidential-Election-Currier-&-Ives

This essay from Locke is dated 1690…so nearly fifty years after Gallileo's death, 60 after his trial.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Essay_Concerning_Human_Understanding

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei

I had to look up how long Elizabeth and Victoria reigned.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabethan_era

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria