Electoral Politics: The Illusion of Choice

(political reality)

This past week on my way to & from work, I saw a number of folks standing on the side of the road with big signs which read "Vote Democratic: Help Obama Out", "Vote Early", "Vote for Continued Change", & so on. This was to be expected as my area is the third most Democratic state. What has always bothered me about electoral politics in the U.S is the fact that it is, for the most part, a sham. I don't need a civics lesson to know the importance of voting and the hard-earned right to participate in the democratic process, especially for people of color like myself. I also understand that socio-political change is a very slow process so one should not expect structural and institutional change to happen overnight. OK--I get that.

What has gone terribly wrong in electoral politics in the U.S is the fact that Big Money has a more powerful influence over electoral choices & outcomes, especially now after the Supreme Court this past January opened the floodgates to allow big corporations to, without any limits, fund any candidate or issue of their choice. Of course, corporations have been doing this for quite some time (soft money) in the shadows, but now direct corporate campaign finance is law which signals the closing of the door to any third party that had any notions of taking on the two-headed Hydra (Democrats & Republicans) running the block.Your vote, what so many died for to give you this right, has been rendered to nothing but toilet paper.Every politician, including the President,  can now be legally purchased lock, stock and barrel. And who benefits? Not you, not me, but the health care, banking, investment & oil and gas industries. The dirty water that is politics is now a fucking swamp (examine what the billionaire Koch brothers are doing to influence the current elections as ONE instance of how the deck is stacked against us).

So on November 2nd when you go out to vote, keep in mind what we're up against. As the late great George Carlin once observed, “The next time they give you all that civic bullshit about voting, keep in mind that Hitler was elected in a full, free democratic election”.Here are some more shards of sanity from Carlin:



If voting changed anything, they'd abolish it-Ken Livingstone

Peace

::::MME::::

MME's Jam Of The Day

 Listening to religious/spiritual music from various faith traditions is one of my many joys. From Youssou N'Dour's Sufi classic, "Medina" to Andreas Vollenweider's non-denominational, "Drown in Pale Light" to the Hasidic reggae chant of Matisyahu's, "I Will Be Light", the love & devotion shines through regardless. One of my favorite contemporary Christian pieces is "Ordinary Just Won't Do" by Commissioned. Their harmonies are celestial & deeply inspiring and have left a lasting impression on artists who came after them (BoyzIIMen, 112, Dru Hill....). These brothers can saaang.....







Music is love in search of a word.  ~Sidney Lanier


Peace & Guidance


:::MME:::

Heart of Darkness

I have read many news articles, books, magazines & seen many interviews of scholars & experts either for or against the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian lands. However persuasive both sides may appear to be, it is from the mouths of babes & sucklings that the unadorned truth is uttered to still the heart of Man and his pretensions.

Listen to this Palestinian child decry her peoples occupation, violation & dehumanization by the state of Israel. If only the leaders of the world would pay attention to the children & thereby reclaim their humanity & get to the real cause of the unending cycle of violence......




It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare. ~Mark Twain


OneLove

:::MME:::

An Easy Seduction: Digital Narcissism

 A lot of us hesitated to get on board the Facebook Express for a variety of valid reasons, chief among them, the inherent vanity of the platform itself. Some of us have succumbed to the need to simply communicate with friends & family with no additional frills like explaining what we're doing every minute or where we're going to dinner tonight. Sure enough, many people have been compromised by their words, images & whereabouts on Facebook, foolishly ignoring its various privacy settings. We have all read the stories of fired or prospective employees, husbands, wives, lovers, friends & foes who have all been scorched by what they chose to share with the world. Let's not even mention our children & their quickly-vanishing innocence through this vortex of vacuity. 

Unsurprisingly, the tentacles of the National Security State are wrapped tightly around Facebook and other social networks mining our personal lives for evidence of malfeasance of various sorts. According to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the Department of Homeland Security operates its "Social Networking Monitoring Center" to keep tabs on what we're saying/doin. Indeed, George Orwell's Big Brother nightmare now has a more interesting twist: our narcissistic complicity. (Read the details of EFF's lawsuit here.)

Stay conscious.

OneLove!

::::MME::::

Empire FAIL

“As human beings we have the most extraordinary capacity for evil. We can perpetrate some of the most horrendous atrocities. That would be awful if that was the end of the story. But, exhilaratingly, people also have an incredible capacity for good. People who should have been consumed by anger and bitterness and lust for revenge have shown in so many instances a remarkable magnanimity, a nobility of spirit. That's the chief lesson I have learned. That in spite of all the horror of injustice and oppression, and the sense that those who perpetrate evil tend to appear invincible, the texture of our universe is one where there is no question at all but that good and laughter and justice will prevail. In the end, the perpetrators of injustice or oppression, the ones who strut the stage of the world often seemingly unbeatable — there is no doubt at all that they will bite the dust. (Laughs) Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!”.~~~Archbishop Desmond Tutu 

~~Follow the money & you will discover the Puppet Masters~~

Peace & Guidance

::::MME::::

Obscure (& Not So Obscure) Rhythms

I am sure most folks have wondered from time to time why the best songs on any given CD are not the ones promoted or made into singles. I can recall classic Barry White, Bee Gees, Commodores & Prince albums that had a number of obscure "fillers" that sounded better to me than the promoted pieces. Sometimes the intended hits are overshadowed by B-side tracks--Prince's "Erotic City" (B-side)sounded better than "Let's Go Crazy", Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" (B-side) was better than the crappy "Substitute" & Bill Withers "Aint No Sunshine" (B-side) was better than the A-side "Harlem". For the most part, these "fillers" remain on the album/CD and not released at all like many of the songs on the following playlist. You have to dig deep sometimes to find quality.....




Find more music like this on Soul Commune


MME's SoulCommune Playlist


Peace & Guidance

:::MME:::