WHEN THE BOOGIEMAN COMES IN THE DARK

Here is the issue with people complaining, advertising negative comments and memes on the Internet or just airing their frustrations about Trumps' Cabinet appointments ..... if you ask people the questions, WHAT IS A PRESIDENTIAL CABINET ... they can't tell you. If you ask, WHAT ARE THE AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY FOR EACH CABINET POSITION .... that they don't know. And if you ask, WHO ARE THE CURRENT CABINET MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES .... again you will get a blank stare. You can't call yourself a "concerned American citizen" if your existence is founded in ignorance. If anything, you are more dangerous to Progress if you are. This and many other examples is evidence of a National HANDS OFF approach to Politics in the United States practiced for decades. How this past campaign and election season did more in exposing a Nation's collective ignorance than any other time in history. The true winner of this past Presidential election wasn't Donald Trump, it was The Boogieman. We might think everything that Donald Trump represents is the end of life as we know it but the truth is, we are at the midnight hour and hearing every noise and seeing every shadow as the THING COMING TO GET US; scared to look in the closet, under the bed or look out of the window. A Nation is still covering its head and cowering in its complacency. 

Fear was what was rammed into the American consciousness on a Global Level regarding Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and even in the side sequel of Bernie Sanders for his misrepresentation of being a Communist. And in place of confidence and the courage to face our manufactured "Fear", collectively we are screaming for someone to come turn on the lights to chase away a darkness that has always existed (in America) and will always be that other half that is in our closet that will never go away" In a good Horror Show, only the smart one's survive. Everyone else is ripe for slaughter and consumption. Stop being sheep and become the wolf in your Political and Civil Awareness. Just as your parent told you as a child, "There is no such thing as The Boogieman.

This is Truth. 

I’m Gonna Kick Your @*&$ Hillary Lovin' Ass!!

True story.

Last night I’m standing on 124th street and Lenox Ave just across from the famous Lenox Lounge when I hear a group of people cursing and screaming at each other. At first glance I am like, Ghetto folk actin’ a fool, let me hurry up out of here. Then I see this lone Black Man somewhat stumbling down the street in his “Vote for Hillary” tee-shirt on. He’s walking and looking over his should as if the Angry Villagers were coming after him with pitched forks and fire.

Concerned about his welfare I asked about what happened? He went on to tell me that the ignorant “N_____ s” beat me up because I am supporting Hillary Clinton. Then he went on to tell me how brainwashed “N_____ s” are voting for someone they don’t know shyt about.

We stood there on Lenox Avenue while I allowed him to vent, I allowed him to talk while I looked around the Harlem streets. The nightlife of homeless men and women and drug dealers were making their way to their evening posts. The White folks that have moved to Harlem through gentrification policies were hurrying before dark to their Brownstones and newly built high-rises with 10% Black occupantcy in an area where 70% of the population is Black. The teenage girls were out to party on a school day with their "thug life" boyfriends with their pants hagging off their thighs walking like pengulins and the police cars ready themselves for the night shift keeping the animals inline. Just over the Lenox Lounge you can see the offices of the Harlem Empowerment Zone which for many who live in Harlem, is the gateway for outside interests to displace existing Harlem businesses and opportunities and beyond that, you can see the office lights of President Bill Clinton’s office which he established soon after he left office in 2000. Unemployed peoples withdrawn and directionless paced back and forth down 125th Street, the Street Vendors packing up their bootleg product made fresh from Africa, Korea and Thailand and then there is me, giving Free Urban Psychological Therapy to an American trying to exercise his vote the way he wants to by Right. “GOD how I love my Black peoples”.

As my attention fades back to my beat down Brotha I hear his preaching of truth as to how much the people of Harlem have no clue as to how politics work and how they don't ask the real questions that matter to their community, political contributions, where’s Obama’s money coming from, how bamboozled “We” as a people are and how "We" be Jim Crowed into voting for a Black man and then what about his Republican backings and ties and on and on and on he went.

After about 15 minutes of non-stop ranting he calmed down just enough to tell me his name. We exchanged names and before he hobbled along his way, he gave me his business card. He was a Real Estate Agent. I was too embarrassed for him to ask if he had anything to do with adding to the “sub-prime” lending debacle. I didn’t because it was too easy, the fact that he got BEAT UP for wearing a tee-shirt was comedy enough for a day.

I walked to my Book Club Meeting thinking to myself, “Man, this might be some serious shyt once the actual vote begin in New York on Super Tuesday, a regular BLACK PEOPLES GONE WILD experience. Barak worked it out up here in Harlem at the Apollo. He got on stage, rubbed that tree stump, and did his thing without Sandman snatching his BLACK ass off with his hook and tap shoes. The Obama Mojo had worked so well that if you even think about supporting Hillary, YO ASS IS BEAT THE F&@* UP.

This is why I talk shyt online, I ain’t stupid.

BLACK PEOPLE ARE MONOLITHIC

Take away the taint, the stank, the store and the whore in us, and Black people are pretty much Monolithic in their thoughts and actions. Pseudo- Black intellects and legitimate Intellectuals can argue the point and those that embrace their American Individualism over their Afrocentricity can pretend it doesn’t exist, but when the chips are down and the political, economic and social nooses are thrown over trees you’ll begin to see how homogeneous Black people can be. At times you will find that those who run the quickest from their God given tans, come marching home to their roots no matter how far the branches are from the ground.

What makes the visuals so hard for non-Blacks to comprehend is that the monolithic aspect of Black behavior hasn’t been seen, by American standards, in a long time. Not since the late 1950’s and 60’s with Civil Rights movements like the Montgomery Bus Boycott, SNCC, King’s March on Washington DC, or The Black Muslims Movement have Black people band together to show support and or challenge the status quo. Yes you can argue that not every Black person participated in the Civil Rights movement, but then you can also argue not all Whites participated in the Revolutionary War, the Civil War or World Wars I or II yet collectively as a nation were in support sharing like-mindedness for freedom and justice against their oppressors.

We know that it is not the numbers that make for a social change but the critical mass of participants that make a movement. It is the strategy in the use of that critical mass that is most important which keeps active groups from over saturating issues and becoming burdensome thus defeating the overall purpose for goal setting. Then there is the complacency factor as it relates to Blacks in America, that Black's contempt and frustration has not been collectively vocal in a long time and thus America feels that Blacks are either fully assimilated or given up and staying in line within their small pockets of society.

So why am I trumpeting the “We Are Monolithic” dialogue? We know with the media’s concentration on Barak Hussein Obama’s win of the Iowa Presidential Caucus; which by America’s standards is a historical event, there is the cloud of surprise that White’s are now comfortable with voting for a Black man for President. Over and over the pundits repeat this along with a constant reminder that Iowa is over 90% White and amazingly, the state gave the thumbs up for the “multiculturalists”.

While Whites (and I have no choice but to use the same type of references since this is the language the analyst and pundits are using) outside of Iowa are giving weak smiles and soft hand claps, young college voters who grew up on MTV and Rap lyrics, Christians seeing the possibility of a Black Political Messiah and another one of Oprah’s Favorite Things, Blacks are holding their breath seeing if this moment will be a possible social and political noose moment. All of a sudden they have a choice very much like the dilemma of choosing to support a Black produced, directed and financed film with Black actors knowing that its both a comedy and bad writing or boycotting it all together and going with another movie of better quality, reviews and not of the community? What I am referring to is “soul” support and the possibility that by doing that, we can evolve into something better or just out of spite because you have something that Black people in America rarely have as a collective; POWER to produce.

Chris Rock once said as part of his comedy routine that Black people cannot vote in a President. Black people make up less than 13% of the country and they are all concentrated on the coast. Black people aren’t the majority and won’t be any time soon. Black people are only important when it’s a political tie. As broken as Chris Rock’s political logic may sound, he does ring a substantive degree of truth through his comedy. I know I laughed when he said it and I nodded in agreement as did the audience and from my perspective, many other Blacks and in the corners and shadows, so did Whites, Asian and Latinos. In the situation of Obama, “the Black vote” is something of an enigma for the media because for so long Black people, in their minds, are monolithic in limited degrees. The images on television radio and in the tainted images of middle-class, see Blacks as being thinly spread and diverse. In the Black communities you don’t hear or even see masses of Obama’ites nor do you hear Black leaders speaking publicly for or against the political Rock Star. Personally he is more the King of Pop than a Rock Star …. I reserve that title for President Bill Clinton, since he plays the sax and was in a band.

Whites cannot gauge how Blacks will vote since we have real choices. We can vote Independent, Democratic, Republican or VOTE for the first time. Blacks can vote at the last minute and become that monolithic force and administer the “coup de gras” and break those voting ties for any one party or one person. Regardless of the thousands of incarcerated Black men and women, those ex-felons who cannot vote, the elderly who are stuck in pre-Civil Rights era thinking, apathetic or disconnect Black youth and those that procrastinate on registering on time, we are still talking about a 9 to 10% of a population that can collectively vote was as a block, when that happens, “coram populo”, the price with promises attached with strict accountability to Black issues, accountability that will benefit Black people; some. Why ”some”? Because America’s majority cannot reward the tiebreakers with all the benefits that come with a winning candidate, they'll get just enough of a gift as a thanks you gesture for doing “your job” as citizens by voting for the NEW POWER.

So if this is the case, how does the 2006 push by Tavis Smiley’s Black American Forum and his promotion of The Covenant with Black America fit into all this? Did this New York Times bestseller strike a chord with Black Americans or did it just move money from our hands into another pseudo-intellectual and added the book to our bookshelves as another dust collector? We need to know. I mean I did check out the contents and I did agree with much of the proposed goals but as all things, I did not sense a post-Covenant movement to follow up and consolidate what Blacks have achieved since then. I mean, we know that the current pro-Black groups, churches, mosques, synagogues, educational and social institutions and leaders would continue their (assumed) work in Black communities but I still ask this question after all mass Black gatherings, where is the post-accountability and would it show that we are moving forward.

We assumed that in 2006, Barak Obama would run for President and played the political cat and mouse for the possibilities until he confirmed it, and we knew that in 2006 and 2008 when the electorates would come courting, the Black vote was preordained via The Covenant for Black America and a litany of itemized demands would be presented before relinquishing the vote. But this only seemed to work when White politicians and complacent Black politicians came soliciting that thinly veiled monolithic vote. Obama is different because he has the tone and tenor of good intentions (and you all know how I feel about good intentions) but he is also a Liberal. A liberal that has pitched a wide net to captured a lot of other Liberals. In the mixture of fish caught in his political net are the wants, needs and spiritual desires of Independents and Republicans. In essence, Barak Obama has become the “Everyman” to everyone and that may define his victory as well as his defeat, thus the curse of Hope. Just ask Jesus about that burden, we all know how that story ended.

The Covenant for Black America was not written to include an Obama. Yes it can keep all the others, including a Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Ron Paul, Bill Richardson at bay but we go back to my original premise of do Blacks take this opportunity to vote as a monolith, hold Obama to a personal standard and make a statement to all others that with POWER come Race responsible? If so, do we then go back and make amendments to The Covenant? Which brings me to my next question, “What if Barak Obama isn’t the right choice?”

I can’t help but look at past Black politicians with “good intentions” like the mayors of Newark, NJ, Detroit, Michigan, Washington DC, the Southside Aldermans of Chicago, Il, Baltimore Md, Charles Rangel in Harlem, NY and many others. Black Americans have in the past been burned with their monolithic voting. Burned where they either don’t vote or are cautious to the point of paranoia and apophenia. This is the burden the Obama camp, in my opinion; they don’t see this as an issue as long as he is draped in a cloak of tasty goodness of Godliness and Black face. And that is the Black burden because deep down, I mean really deep down, Blacks know but will not speak loudly about it, Barak Obama is more of a “multiculturalists” than bi-racial or even Black in his politics and his bid for president shows this as clear as daylight. To get on board the Barak Obama train, you’ll have to leave your baggage of being Black, African-American and Afrocentric and claim your ticket as being an American and that too is a burden as well for many. It’s a shame that we can’t afford to hitchhike this one out.

It’s Gonna, It Shoulda, Woulda, Ahh How That Happen?

Initially I was going to do a break down on my opinions of the political candidates running for president, but I took a step back and decided that I didn’t want to get caught up in the same Voodoo prediction practiced by political pundits, CNN and MSNBC, Fox, the BBC, PBS, National Radio, and the Washingtonian Analysts. I love watching these guys try and debate the merits of their wisdom and out predicting the others as to who will do what, when, why and how? Often the pundits get it wrong and yet no one calls them on it. Not the public, the media or even the people dropping the paychecks for bad predictions. One of the reasons why Bloggers are getting the top-notch attention is that many (at least while the phenomena is new and fresh) are closer to the truth and reality of what is going on in the world than the “experts”. And they do it faster, better and in a language that the average person can understand. Its best to say that the Bloggers are better at the system that describes the apparent disorder, the confusion underlying all of the politics and bring order to it; The Chaos Theory.

As for the recent Presidential debates, I wanted to address the reality of what I was seeing and hearing. In previous blog entries I had addressed my take on the debates and would return to give my final breakdowns but the closer we all got to the first caucus, and the fever for predictions increased I held back my need to jump into that deleterious sport of errors. If I didn’t hear anything worthwhile before, I heard even less, just white noise or as I refer to as “static”. I decided to just stop searching for the same old jockeying news for the Best Mr. President Award ceremonies by those playing up to the public. I find that when you are at your most restful, you are able to hear more, see and feel the things you need and not want. The silence in the presence of your soul, you can hear more than what is heard. The old saying, “You only have two ears and one mouth so you can listen twice as much as you speak”. This is a way of seeing straight through to the truth without the interference of words. Only thoughts. For me, this is the way I can hear what is political/civil and what is religious/manipulative.

Now most would think (maybe attack and beat me down) the way I connect manipulation with religion offensive but I find it more offensive to mix religion with politics when we have a constitution definition to separate Church and State. This was done primarily to avoid what we currently have today; catering campaigns to not upset Evangelicals, tailoring one’s campaign message to court the religious, to promote one faith as a character builder or someone else’s flaw before you can even talk about holding a political office which is a PUBLIC office. Keyword: PUBLIC OFFICE.

So now the Iowa caucus is over and all the predictions leading up to it were wrong. The Polls were wrong. The Analyst are now introducing new methodologies and factors that “they” forgot to include stating that they didn’t think it merited mentioning. No one actually talked to Iowans or looked at the houses and storefront properties with campaign signs. No one looked into the college campuses or even sat in a barbershop or two. The thing is, but if you listened, you’d know this, you can’t predict the future. We knew for years of political bombardments of Polls that they are never correct, regardless of the assumed degree of marginal error. And yet the media still post them in our faces to plant doubt or inspiration in our minds prior to our actions.

So for months Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney were the people to beat. Over and over again we were beat over the head with this as if the National election was to be tomorrow. The press and media had disregarded the whole political process by looping their actions and words into our lives daily. No one likes to have someone give the ending of a story and those that like to blab the ending before you get there, we don’t like you either. Yet in their bid to get the story first, the media will all but create out comes just to say and if and when the results are in, that they got it right or partially right first. That isn’t news nor is it true analytical projections. Its voodoo news and we are all diminished if we fall for it.

Barak Hussein Obama winning the Iowa caucus isn’t a surprised. We had a dose of Oprah just last month in South Carolina. Not saying that Oprah alone made this victor happen BUT it helped. BIG TIME. It also showed how powerful the NOT HILLARY vote is in the Midwest. My experience with the Not Hillary vote is that this block of voters will vote for anyone non-Hillary affiliated just “because”. This group encompasses Republicans, Democrats, jaded women and the “very” religious. Those “very religious” groups for some reason see Hillary as the anti-Christ. I think it has something to do with her views on the premise of separating Church and State in government. Often the reasons are as trifling and trivial as not liking the color pink. There is no real practical reason but to be in the hating club of the Clintons or even in the hating of President Bill Clinton through Senator Hillary Clinton. Funny as it seems, the big picture is that these people reject those whom are successful and have a true commitment to SERVICE. It’s a real mania because you have people today who still hate President John F. Kennedy. Go Figure.

I like how one “political analyst” covering the Iowa caucus put it, “Obama’s victory in Iowa was much due in part to many of the undecided Independents that traditionally vote Republican and young women. His message of hope and that rock start appeal seems to still have momentum here in Iowa”. I won’t debate that but still I will ask , where is the American Third Party if Independences have this much influence and political clout to vote over 30% of the overall numbers both Democrat and Republican, why can’t that same party get off the ground and represent a significant presence all over America? New York Billionaire Mayor, Michael Bloomberg excluded.

I like the fact that American’s are starting to get certain truths now. Truths like, “what the Hell were Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, Mike Gravel, Rudy Giuliani, Duncan Hunter, and Tom Tancredo doing even stroking their egos running for President?" Especially Rudy Giuliani. I mean come on, these guys talked a good game but guess what, its all a game and people let them play in varsity politics when they should have been cut from the first day of try-outs. If one thing I can stay came out of this caucus is that they eliminated the drain and drag on the campaign early.

Now that the winners of Iowa are in New Hampshire, I think the numbers will significantly change. This is an area where you can’t Jesus people into voting. You need to have a hardcore legitimate platform. People in the New England states have a higher base of college educated voters, read more, research and ask more pertinent questions and they are more analytical towards ideas and facts, so celebrities and good looks play very little into peoples decisions. On the other hand, the numbers of young people, single voters, and working Women are higher which is a great appeal to Barak Obama and John Edwards. New Englanders know what and whom they want and once they do, that decision is locked. It will be interesting how much of that Southern drawl will play up North when preaching to the voting pool. Oh, it was good in Harlem before a Black crowds on stage at the World Famous Apollo (the same crowd that swayed and swooned when Bill Clinton moved into town). Sounding off like a Baptist minister plays well in Harlem but in Carnase, Brooklyn? I don’t think so.

It is well known (at least if you really followed the campaigns of the candidates) that a major part of the get out the vote strategy was to get those first time youth voters, the ones excited and not tainted by past elections or knowledge of politics, history and economics, those young people who are excited to be apart of something to tell their Grand-children (the family that most aren’t even trying to have or think about at the moment). I use to be one of them around the age of 16. I got smart real quick when I noticed how politics have a way of contaminating the intensions of the most worthy.

The other group politicked aggressively were the Evangelicals, that branch of Christians that assumes control of Washington DC. Courting Christians, the mixing of religion and politics guarantees voting points for the candidates in Iowa. If you don’t talk religion, you get ass’ed out. Romney, Clinton, Giuliani, McCain, Dood, Biden etc all got booted to the back of the line for the more spiritually acceptable Barak Obama and Mike Huckabee. I guess those Christmas commercials paid off.

Bottom line, Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton have the same political experience. They are the same face of a double-side coin. In a toss up, heads I win, heads you win. Her is why I say this. Hillary was not a politician while serving as First Lady. She made no decisions; she sat at no major committee meetings, she polarized no major votes in the Supreme Court. She did not have a voice in Congress nor when traveling around the world with the President; her husband President Clinton, she had no real involvement in international meetings and involvements. Her true experience is only as a second term Senator of New York State. So when people preach that ‘she’ has been in the White House with blah blah blah, I immediately correct them and say “As a First Lady?” Then I ask, “Do you even know what the responsibilities of a First Lady consist of? Often people have no clue. And that is the real issue with the whole Hillary has experience argument, or I hate Hillary because, or does she really have experience or is she working post-facto for President Bill Clinton as an opportunity to extend his Presidency through his wife, aka The First Lady, aka NY Senator, aka the potential President of the United States? There is just too much hoopla over nothing. She is a person running for the highest PUBLIC OFFICE in America.

Interestingly enough, people are cheering the winners in Iowa when the reality is; they have only won the most delegates in the first caucus, SO FAR. When you ask the average voter what that means, they are clueless. People ignorant of how the caucus’ works is scarier than 100 Bin Ladin’s.

In short, the caucus is primarily the process for testing and selecting the electability of a candidate by the people, not the actual National vote. The candidates with the highest percentage (13% - 15%) will be able to move forward as a process of elimination. And this is what happened when the dead weight political players walked away with their 2% and 0% points. In the end the candidate with the most delegates are collected and counted, the nomination is extended and he or she wins, in most cases.

Each caucus state has its own rules and demographics so it is important to know which state, the how and when they occur. Not many media sources are even explaining how the process works (typical of media) but I, from my past associations in politics and my formal education, understand the process. I suggest a direct source online for many who just want the Cliftnotes version check out how Iowa did their voting. Iowa with the large number of first time voters, young voters, Independents, and those voting with religion convictions than civil and or political reasoning; Iowa stands as that state of the Non-Traditional American. New Hampshire is the land most tied to the global economy. With the whole of the Northeastern from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania focused on this caucus, you hold the promise of the most densely populated region of the country witnessing how much the southern states will play into the final decisions. There is an old saying, “Where the South goes, so does the Presidency”. In my youth and arrogance I took offence to that statement yet in the past eight presidents, the statement has truth to it. If the millions of dollars given to the front runners, more so the Hedge Fund endorsements given to Barak Obama pays off, he will be the Democratic Candidate for President and all others will have to concede since the South will most likely do the same with his “strong” connection to Church and Christ.

So what won in Iowa? It basically was down to the one who spoke “Holier than thou” the loudest. Preachers who spoke high on the Pulpit of Godliness for President and not the politician spoke clearly or realistically about real issues that effected Americans. The manipulation of the heart and not the logic was the rule of politics and not the definition of a candidacy. In order to be president, you needed to sound like the wrath of God or the fear of Hopelessness; the sermon of the mega-angelic spiritual leader of a mega Church to move the ballot box towards anything that reminds you of political compromise and or confronting difference meant for of lack faith that “everything is gonna be alright”. Hope over Fear rather than Knowledge and Know How of a broken system, a Preacher’s Southern or Midwestern Twang rather than use a language worthy of an Ivy League Honors Graduate in speaking to people. Replacing Public Groups and Corporate Lobby Funding with Wall Street Brokers and Hedge Funds. In essence, you can’t sound too Intelligent in Iowa. Candidates in the past have paid dearly for being knowledgeable. When I am listening twice as much it all amounts to the same thing, “we are all still f*#@’ed.

Maybe I am asking for too much from the candidates but to be honest, none of them are worthy of my vote because I have not heard of any real direction. I have only heard how each will un-do damages. That is obvious because any candidate Democrat or Republic can not and will not function in a “business as usual” environment. We still need to move in a specific direction to heal People, to wake people from the American Dream into its reality and to acknowledge American wrongs with restitutions and reparations. If you watch the small nuances in all the candidates’ fixes for the economy, bottom line is that we will all pay an even higher cost to pay for the national debt with no break to come up for air for another 8 – 10 years at most. Although the first and foremost way to repair the economy is to end the occupation in Iraq, this will not solve our national standings and not with HOPING that an untested DREAMER or a REFERBISHED PRESIDENT or RETAIRED PREACHER candidate will expedite it.