This item popped up while I was negotiating between a trip to Newport, Ark. and my new “part-time blogging for actual money” J-O-B.

Apparently DMX doesn’t know who Barack is.

I know. I know. It totally sounds nutters. Almost as nutters as that guy the Post-Dispatch wrote about a while back who joined the Army not realizing there was a “War on Terrorism” going down on multiple fronts. Seriously. He had no clue we had two, plural, wars. And he straight up joined in 2006.

No words.

But here’s DMX, rapper impresario, who doesn’t know there is a black man running for president named Barack. The man most famous for releasing “It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot” is aghast at all this political chit-chatter because, it’s totally irrelevant as our whole system is run by a tiny cabal of self-interests, therefore that we should disengage from the process and let an evil hegemony rule us.

That’s not how he put it. But that’s how my ears heard it.

You read it (excerpt from XXL). Tell me how you hear it.

Are you following the presidential race?
Not at all.

You’re not? You know there’s a Black guy running, Barack Obama and then there’s Hillary Clinton.
His name is Barack?!

Barack Obama, yeah.
Barack?!

Barack.
What the fuck is a Barack?! Barack Obama. Where he from, Africa?

Yeah, his dad is from Kenya.
Barack Obama?

Yeah.
What the fuck?! That ain’t no fuckin’ name, yo. That ain’t that nigga’s name. You can’t be serious. Barack Obama. Get the fuck outta here.

You’re telling me you haven’t heard about him before.
I ain’t really paying much attention.

I mean, it’s pretty big if a Black…
Wow, Barack! The nigga’s name is Barack. Barack? Nigga named Barack Obama. What the fuck, man?! Is he serious? That ain’t his fuckin’ name. Ima tell this nigga when I see him, “Stop that bullshit. Stop that bullshit” [laughs] “That ain’t your fuckin’ name.” Your momma ain’t name you no damn Barack.

So you’re not following the race. You can’t vote right?
Nope.

Is that why you’re not following it?
No, because it’s just—it doesn’t matter. They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do. It doesn’t really make a difference. These are the last years.

But it would be pretty big if we had a first Black president. That would be huge.
I mean, I guess…. What, they gon’ give a dog a bone? There you go. Ooh, we have a Black president now. They should’ve done that shit a long time ago, we wouldn’t be in the fuckin’ position we in now. With world war coming up right now. They done fucked this shit up then give it to the Black people, “Here you take it. Take my mess.”

Right, exactly.
It’s all a fuckin’ setup. It’s all a setup. All fuckin’ bullshit. All bullshit. I don’t give a fuck about none of that.

We could have a female president also, Hillary Clinton.
I mean, either way it doesn’t matter. I don’t care. No one person is directly affected by which president, you know, so what does it matter.

Yeah, but the country is.
I guess. The president is a puppet anyway. The president don’t make no damn decisions.

The president…they don’t have that much authority basically?
Nah, never.

But Bush pretty much…
You think Bush is making fuckin’ decisions?

He did, yeah, he fucked up the country.
He act like he making decisions. He could barely speak! He could barely fuckin’ speak! Can’t be serious. He ain’t making no damn decisions.

Well Barack has a good chance of winning so that might be something. Good for him, good for him.

Yeah. Charming.

I’m not going to beat up on DMX for not know who the Great Black Hopemongerer is. He’s no great bastion of intelligence and can’t vote, as he attests to that fact in the interview. I’m more annoyed by these little bon mots of counter-production.

No, because it’s just—it doesn’t matter. They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do. It doesn’t really make a difference. These are the last years …

(E)ither way it doesn’t matter. I don’t care. No one person is directly affected by which president, you know, so what does it matter.

The president is a puppet anyway. The president don’t make no damn decisions.

Shadowy individuals (sure), running our government (OK), pullin’ strings (probably) so … you don’t fight the power? I’m just not buying into this sophistic logic that we’re in the “end times” because of a looming World War III apocalypse and that the political parties are essentially Coke vs Pepsi.

I’m happy no one told my slave ancestors to buy into this “can’t do nuttin, why try” logic. Someone obviously has been hanging out with the crows, drinking the haterade whilst torturing the Moonwalking Scarecrow of Truthful Newspaper Clippings.

But the neo-conservative’s ice water is just so tasty!

This is it. I’m tired of people with the “system is rigged so why try” argument. At least the fucking Ron Paul people back up their crazy talk with blimps and beaucoup cash . Imagine how much more they’d accomplish if they’d focus on something useful, like subverting the Theocrats in the Republican Party. I’m cool with DMX and other political slackers thinking our government is a front for corporations. Hell, I might be inclined to agree with you on that tip. But stop the whole, “I want cool points for not paying attention thing” after outing yourself as a know-nothing. Don’t wrap your ignorance in the “I am free because I believe in nothing” theory.

Um, you don’t win because you still have to live here with us and the corporate controlled government and the two corporate sponsored wars we’re engaging in right now. For reals. The Snob is a put the fuck up or shut the fuck up, gal and if you’re not pimping any other alternatives besides “can’t win, why try?” you need to go sit in the kiddie section of intelligent, political discourse. Come back up front when you’ve got something harder than conspiracy theories and thuggish posturing.