Song of the Day 8/5: Gil Scott-Heron, “Whitey on the Moon”

The distractions from Donald Trump’s presence on the Epstein List grow ever more desperate. Reality show contestant-cum-NASA administrator Sean Duffy announced that the U.S. will build a nuclear reactor on the moon. China, you see, has a more realistic plan to do the same, and it’s making us look bad. Considering the explosion-to-launch ratio at Nazi Boy’s Texas spaceport, I’d be looking for new digs if I lived downwind.

As always, the money for this will come at the expense of social programs. The late Tom Lehrer was pointing this out more than 60 years ago – introducing his ode to Nazi rocketman Wehrner von Braun he asked the rhetorical question, “What made it possible to spend billions of your dollars to put some clown on the moon?” This time around the GOP is cutting far more money from the safety net than they’re funneling into NASA.

Gil Scott-Heron eyed the disparity between the government’s willingness to spend vast sums for dubious achievements and unwillingness to do right by the impoverished and came up with this classic poem for his 1970 debut album, “Small Talk at 125th and Lenox.”