CBS:
Here’s my own bid for a Grammy (audio version):
“9mm of Peace”
Verse 1
He walks through Minneapolis before dawn’s release,
Breath calm as a prayer in the half-frozen streets.
Boots trace a path through the filthy snow,
Where the city feels tired but still tries to grow.
Pre-Chorus
They sell fear loud on every screen,
But he’s learned what quiet courage means.
Chorus
He carries 9mm of peace, Sig Sauer held low,
Not for the fire, just the things he can’t know.
No thirst for the fight, no hunger for war,
Just 52 rounds of love, nothing more.
Yeah, 9mm of peace, let the sharp edges cease,
And 52 rounds of love for a fragile release.
Verse 2
He passes the empty day cares, paint fresh on the wall,
Rooms built for laughter that never came at all.
No scuffed little sneakers, no drawings in crayon,
Just silence that hums where the funding was drawn.
Pre-Chorus
Paperwork perfect, the numbers all square,
But nobody ever was really there.
Chorus
He carries 9mm of peace, steady and sure,
Sig steel on his side, but his intent stays pure.
No anthem of violence, no glory to chase,
Just 52 rounds of love in a hard time and place.
Yeah, 9mm of peace, hope under his sleeve,
And 52 rounds of love he prays he won’t need.
Bridge
He’s seen the signs and the shouting at ICE,
He’s heard every argument, wrong and right.
Knows anger’s easy, knows blame is cheap,
But peace costs more than promises we keep.
Final Chorus
Yeah, 9mm of peace, through the cold and the grief,
Sig Sauer stays silent while fear finds relief.
From the filthy snow to accounts that decease,
From the empty day cares built on taxpayer peace.
Yeah, 9mm of peace, let the long night decrease,
May we all carry forward 9mm of peace.
(Credit to my co-lyricist N. Vidia.)
Loosely related, an audio-video work that could be in an art museum but probably won’t be selected by a curator:
“Alex carried patience, compassion, and a SIG P320 in his waistband.”
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
At this point, listening to you talk about your faucet flow would be more interesting.
Thanks, PGF: If you don’t like the song maybe my co-lyricist N. Vidia is to blame? Will you be purchasing Bruce Springsteen’s Minneapolis album instead?
I did giggle at the co-lyricist. Reminds me of some albums from the early 2000’s with creative artist monikers.
As for the album, no, because if I wanted to hear it, I could just go visit any website in the zeitgeist to listen. Maybe your progressive neighbor in Maskachusetts would appreciate a limited edition copy to soothe their relationship woes?
Phil, thanks ever so much to you for your special song and for your super nice call-out to the incomparable MAZE for the video montage (“The story of Alex Pretti”) of me along with Peaceful Alex Pretti. Tears flow from my eyes as I think about how much I have in common with Alex!
“He passes the empty day cares, paint fresh on the wall,
Rooms built for laughter that never came at all.
No scuffed little sneakers, no drawings in crayon,
Just silence that hums where the funding was drawn.”
So these were the fraudulent day cares, huh?
AT: fraud is an ugly word. How about “Minnesota-style day cares”?
The Mazemore video deserves an award. So good!
Hmm, “The Boss” has moved on from Hank Williams to Bob Dylan. (I couldn’t find any images of Springsteen leading the march in Minneapolis.) I like Phil’s better, he didn’t throw the message in your face like Bruce. I’m sure Bruce used AI too, so don’t feel bad about that Phil.
Remember Peace Train by Cat Stevens? Cat, er Yusuf, eventually moved on from Bob Dylan to the Qu’ran. From:
Now, I’ve been cryin’ lately
Thinkin’ about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating?
Why can’t we live in bliss?
Cause out on the edge of darkness
There rides a peace train
Oh, peace train, take this country
Come take me home again
to
> On 21 February 1989, Yusuf Islam addressed students at Kingston Polytechnic (now Kingston University) in London about his conversion to Islam and was asked about the controversy in the Muslim world and the fatwa calling for Salman Rushdie’s execution. He replied, “He must be killed. The Qur’an makes it clear – if someone defames the prophet, then he must die.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_Stevens'_comments_about_Salman_Rushdie
Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam could still claim to be a man of peace even if he killed thousands of infidels and heretics because people often speak of the dead as being “at peace”.
Only place on the web I’ve found the actual “Kick the tail lights” video. All the Networks seem to have lost their copies.
There are other video angles of the tail light attacking Alex Pretti
https://x.com/Breaking911/status/2016701627437121980
George, you nailed it…lol.
David, are out there? We are all in need of some more of your excellent gaslighting from a few days ago.
I am increasingly in a mood to compromise. Maybe instead of mass deportations ICE should just drop them off in Minneapolis and in the 90+% white areas of Maskachusetts.
The reviews are in, Streets of Minneapolis is unabashedly bad (but in a good way!):
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/jan/29/bruce-springsteen-anti-ice-protest-song
Springsteen said he wrote the song on Saturday. How did he even have time to know what he was protesting? (You don’t get to be “The Boss” by not understanding the media hype cycle. Someone who has so handsomely profited off of the American system is hardly a credible critic of it. Why doesn’t Bruce give up all his material wealth in protest?)
A recently published video showed Pretti (or his doppelganger) previously spitting at ICE, with a gun tucked into his waistband. Assuming the video is genuine, isn’t that considered assault?
Impressive what can be done with enough prompt development, if a bit bland & forgettable.
I had a dream.
(After reading in an online forum about LGBT-friendly gun shops, then the Pretti death.) In the dream, it was a cloudless day at the National Mall where a huge crowd had formed. Guys with pot bellies in MAGA hats held hands with non-binaries wearing pink pussy hats. Trump was playing frisbee with AOC. The smell of conciliation was in the air, as well as marijuana. Toddlers were at an ad-hoc practice range shooting rubber bullets. Protest signs with “ICE out!” and “Teh election was rigged!” had their slogan crossed off, and on the backs was written “2A Unity” and “Peace through superior firepower.” At the entrance to the now fenced-in mall was a sign that read, “You MUST be carrying to enter.”
One day people won’t be judged on the color of their skin, their political opinion, or the content of their character. They will be judged on the caliber and stopping power of their weapon. Their shot-spread on the target. Things that matter. This isn’t a time for civil war, people, it’s a time for reunification using that civil right Americans hold most sacred: the right to bear arms.
(I will accept the Nobel Peace Prize for my speech here, when Sweden gets rid of their king. Still “No Kings” here in the USA, King Carl XVI, since 1776.)
Could it be that “The Boss” is trying to outdo “Batman”? What I find interesting about this “Batman” and folks with a similar mindset is the claim that “people are dying on our streets every single day” — which is true in many cities in the USA. So the question becomes: are people being killed every day by ICE, or are criminals killing people every day while little is being done about it? Who is “Batman” really anger at? And where are our “heroes” willing to charge at the “bear” to stop those daily killings?