The United States of America: Election 2024!

I didn't write about the 2020 election...

I was busy or something. I'm sorry Election. Sometimes we got other things going on in our lives and I just simply don't have the time to think about democracy and elections and stuff. Even though I didn't write about the 2020 election... you were always on my mind.

You know, I've been thinking, Election...

"I've thought about us for a long long time
Maybe I think too much, but something's wrong
There's something here that doesn't last too long
Maybe I shouldn't think of you as mine

Seeing you....

....Or seeing anything as much as I do you...

I take for granted that you're always there
I take for granted that you just don't care
Sometimes I can't help seeing all the way through

It's important to me
That you know you are free
'Cause I never want to make you change for me"

-Todd Rundgren


He's right, Election. Todd Rundgren is right.... you're not MY election...you're EVERYONE'S election. That's what democracy is. You belong to every one... from sea to shining sea. My opinion is just another grain of sand in a desert of minds. A single grain of sand in a desert of millions of minds. Millions and millions of voices... all of which matter.

It's not like this everywhere either. We take it for granted that we are allowed to have opinions.

There's parts of the world where they don't even know what this word even means! Democracy. There's parts of our earth where some greasy stuck-up cleric or some cheeseball wannabe dictator just tells you what to believe in... and you believe it. The millions of voices and thoughts that swirl around at all times mean absolutely nothing to no one in places like that. The millions of voiceless voices just dissipate into nothing... for their opinions don't matter.

But in democratic nations... even the dumbest and silliest voices still MATTER.... and that's the way it should be.

Todd Rundgren is right, election, in his song he wrote about loving something... we do take for granted that you've always been there... you probably always will be there... sometimes we even forget what we went through to even have free and fair elections.

Some guys in the 1770s got sick of getting taxed by Europe... and threw a bunch of tea into the damned ocean! Europe was all like "You guys can't buy your own TEA! You gotta buy OUR TEA at extremely higher prices with unbelievably high taxes on every last bag!" but it didn't fly, daddy, it didn't fly... Those guys down in America said... "We'll show you where you can sell your tea! BUBBA! HERE'S YOUR TEA! BUBBA!" ... and they threw it into the ocean... and it all sank... it sank right to the bottom of the ocean... where it belonged.

Wow.

Europe was PISSED OFF and a war broke out! America summoned up all its Courage and its burning inner strength and WON!

When it was all over... someone woke up and knew it was time... he knew it was time to lead a new country into greatness... this man's name was George Washington and he became something that fateful day... he became the very first President of the United States of full fledged America... that day.

The spirit of the people was strong. That spirit never died. It still lives inside of the minds and souls of every man n' woman in this place. That spirit? It became America... it became the human embodiment of America... and it will always be that way... whether you like it or not.


"You can't kill me

I will not die

Not now not ever

No never

I'm gonna live a long, long time

My soul raves on forever"

-Mojo Nixon

YOU CAN FILL MY BODY FULLA HOLES... BUT... YOU CAN'T KILL THE SPIRIT OF ROCK N' ROLL!!!!!!

Election, I know you've changed since the days of 1770s... we all have. In fact, it would be crazy if you didn't change at all since the 1770s... because that's what democracy is... it's letting the voices be heard and letting changes be made... hearing the voices of the smallest and most insignificant of peoples... and making the world a place where many many people are happy and good instead of miserable and bad.

Election... we've been through how many Presidents now? Forty six? Wow.

This crazy experiment called The American Dream has lasted two hundred and thirty five years now, baby, and it 'aint going anywhere!

All you guys down in China n' Russia n' North Korea n' stuff... wondering all day long how you can control the minds of the masses and keep them down... you got it all backwards! You guys got it backwards! You're supposed to want to bring your peoples UP! You should be thinking about how to make even the poorest people happy. You should be trying to figure out how to make the most marginilzedest of marginalized people happy n' good instead of suffering n' bad.

It's not about harming the poor tired masses who are yearning to breathe free... it's not about taxing their heads off... it's about accepting them and making them as good as can be.

I think I shall follow this year's Election!

Now, I'm not really a pundit. This term, by the way, is derived from an Indian word meaning "a learned man"... I've never even been inside of a politics school let alone being considered the most beatifulest person or most learned of men in a political school.

But does that even matter?

I knew a guy once who was considered the most beautiful of men in his private politics school and was considered to be a very very learned man... and everyone thought he was going to age into an elder statesman of the finest degree... but he instead... grew up to be a drug addict who died in a house fire.

That point was neither here nor there... but it just goes to show you that... you don't have to be pretty to ride this train called Democracy. You don't have to be rich to ride it. You don't even need to be smart to ride it... this train called Democracy is for everyone!

For, I think Huey Lewis and his News said it the best,

You don't need money, don't take fame
Don't need no credit card to ride this train
It's strong and it's sudden and it's cruel sometimes
But it might just save your life....

That's the power of love.

-Huey Lewis (and the News)

Opinions on the Occupy Movement (part 1)

on War of Imagery

The McMedia always seems to refer to the occupiers as not knowing what they are doing or what they want. To me, this movement in a nutshell is an awareness campaign to highlight global economic corruption, and I think it's at least getting a dialogue going on the matter.

Observers of the movement, for the most part, don't involve themselves in that dialogue, they choose to let their conclusions fall into two simple categories. They conclude either that:

A: "look at all these bums camping in the street, don't they know the economy made them those cool Ipads? They should get off the street and go pay homage at Steve Jobs tomb and beg forgiveness"















B: "Why are the police arresting them and beating them up? Are we actually living in a police state? This sucks."
















These are the two most popular opinions and with good reason. These are the two groupings of images you see most concerning the Occupy Movement...and it has literally become a war of images.

Concerning conclusion "A", I do feel despite Apple's horrid sweat shop labor practices that they are indeed a ligitamate business that researches technology and creates employment. Personally, I have never owned an Apple product (except for a free download of Quicktime to watch .mov files) but I don't think it makes the Occupiers hypocrites for having these products.

I think conclusion "B" is a little more damning than "A", holding down men and women and beating them is a much more shocking image than some pictures of I-shit. The police make themselves look like the worst possible sort of thug when they act like that. They look like government ordained street gangs out there. (Edit: These images were mostly spread by foreign news networks to make America look bad it seems).

on Ronnie-boy Paul

Ronnie-boy

The most odd development in the Occupy Movement (in the US anyway) has been the cult following which has sprung around Bible Belt politician Ron Paul.

Ron Paul is very fringy, and a beloved member of the John Birch Society. On abortion for example, he believes the moment the sperm hits the egg it is considered a human (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanctity_of_Life_Act).

In 1964 he wrote congress to convince them not to pass the Civil Rights Act which gave equal rights and opurtunities to black Americans. Both Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X died trying to make these human right gains and help blacks to not be treated like second class citizens. It's very odd to be against equal rights. In fact, in 2004 on the anniversary of the Civil Right Act...Ron Paul addressed congress with this:

"...contrary to the claims of the supporters of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the sponsors of H.Res. 676, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not improve race relations or enhance freedom. Instead, the forced integration dictated by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased racial tensions while diminishing individual liberty."

(Source: http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul188.html)

Passing a bill which prohibited businesses from refusing to serve black customers apparently was bad according to Ron Paul because it limited those businesses' freedom. Give me a break.

Take another example of the John Birch Society's interpretation of "freedom." In the 1970's women caught the equal rights fever that was going around and various women's groups wanted a 1923 law proposed by Alice Paul (one of the chicks who spear headed the women suffrage movement in 1920 which won female Americans the right to vote) to be ratified. This law was the Equal Rights Amendment which simply stated that, "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex." (http://www.house.gov/house/Amendnotrat.shtml). The main opponent of the Equal Rights Amendment was the John Birch Society who felt that this amendment would "limit freedom."

pronounced: Shlaff-Lee

The John Birch Society assigned the loveable Phyllis Schlafly to be the leader of the anti-ERA squad, and the main rhetorical claim used was the same old "it will limit your freedom" which is basically the JBS mantra. Elizebeth Kolbert gives a good summary of Schlafly's opposition to the ERA in a 2005 New Yorker article,

"American women, she wrote in the Phyllis Schlafly Report, were blessed to live in a country where Christian traditions of chivalry still held—'a man’s first significant purchase (after a car) is a diamond for his bride'—and where free enterprise was continually improving life for the weaker sex. 'The great heroes of women’s liberation are not the straggly haired women on television talk shows and picket lines,' she asserted, but 'geniuses' like 'Clarence Birdseye, who invented the process for freezing foods.' Why, Schlafly demanded, should women 'lower' themselves to equal rights 'when we already have the status of special privilege?' Leaders of the pro-E.R.A. campaign found it hard to take such arguments seriously: according to one contemporary account, copies of the Report became collectors’ items among feminists, acquired for their comic value."

(Source: http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/07/051107crbo_books) 

The John Birch Society sees change of any sort as the collapse of its image of America. The U.S.A. of yore is a story book in their minds, a picturesque beautiful place with eagles and all kinds of nice shit. Their vision of U.S. history in their cute little brains doesn't include images of the slavery, or civil war, or public hangings, or the KKK....just eagles and frozen food. They have nostalgia for an age which never existed.

Ron Paul wants the gold standard back for that reason alone, because that's the way it used to be when America was "normal." He wants everything back to the old ways when negroes and women couldn't vote and everyone prayed to Jesus...to Ron that's "normal." Returning to the "old ways" isn't going to stop corruption, I'm sorry but returning to gold is not the answer.

Having Ron Paul as president of a country would be really fucked up.