TONG PO by Tong Po

Tong Po is:
Jason//guitar/vox
Shawn//drums
Metro//bass/vox

(additional guitar on this recording by S. Nichols)

This album, though never intended as a concept album, has a running theme of the state of permanent warfare perpetrated by the United States, and the proxy wars endorsed and funded by the United States. As the veteran war correspondent Chris Hedges put it, “Militarists and war profiteers are our greatest enemy. They use fear, bolstered by racism, as a tool in their efforts to abolish civil liberties, crush dissent and ultimately extinguish democracy. To produce weapons and finance military expansion, they ruin the domestic economy by diverting resources, scientific and technical expertise and a disproportionate share of government funds.” We live in a decaying society, under a system (capitalism) that has long since discredited itself, and is allowing the rich and decadent to plunder our resources at the expense of our civil rights, our safety, our homes… our planet. We’re told to place our faith in demagogues, discredited ideologies, pseudo-science, religious fundamentalism and TV actors playing the role of journalists who merely act as stenographers for the state, ultimately deluding ourselves to the real problems that face us. We’re made to be petrified of THE TERRORISTS that pose less of a threat to American lives than bee stings, lightning, and children that get ahold of their parent’s guns, and ignore the real threats of climate change, staggering wages, house foreclosures, and any other numbers of corporate crimes. Corporate crime from corporate criminals that will never see a day in prison for their infractions, while in America we hold 5% of the world’s population yet hold 25% of the world’s prison population, disportionately black, and disproportionately non-violent drug offenses.

Touched on are also themes of abuse, self-abuse, coming to terms with personal demons, and ultimately coming to terms with things in our lives that negatively impact our thoughts, actions and destinies. In a society that is factioned, pitted against one another, told to distrust one another, to spy on one another, to see each other in such binary ways that we couldn’t possibly find any common ground despite our differences, it’s not hard to see why abuse is so rampant, why suicide is so rampant, why antidepressants are dispensed like candy. In a decaying, soulless society that enriches the smallest fraction of 1% while disempowering and financially decimating the rest, it’s not hard to understand why these things have run amok so. Turn your TV off more often, go to your library more often, don’t rely on a single politician to be your savior. Like Severed Head Of State said, you want to believe in something? Believe in yourself. Be a part of something. Take to the streets. Stand up to your corporate masters. Climate change is already at a point of no return. There is no time left, and we cannot rely on anyone but ourselves to improve, to SAVE our world. These are some books we recommend on the aforementioned subjects.

And Liberty And Justice For Some //by Glenn Greenwald
No Place To Hide //by Glenn Greenwald
Failed States //by Noam Chomsky
Pay Any Price //by James Risen
Empire Of Illusion //by Chris Hedges
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress //by Howard Zinn
Anarchism //by Emma Goldman
Chasing The Scream //by Johann Hari

Crustio Politico from the heartland. We write as an act of resistance to break free of the prisons imposed upon us, & that we impose upon ourselves.

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