INTERESTING TIMES

Listening to the media reports about Trump and Clinton, I understand the frustration of the majority of voters.  Most of us know that the "establishment" politicians, like Clinton, are part and parcel with the corporatocracy that has made our two party system a joke.  The two parties are simply different faces of the same government which is beholden to big business and rich investors.  While the Democrats make more of an effort to care for the most impoverished, neither side is actually effective at reducing poverty.  The Republicans assert that the poor are not helped by a free ride, and this may be true.  It is true that during the Great Depression here in the US, people got healthier.

Trump, on the other hand, is not part of the "establishment" except in so far as he is rich, and he is stupid enough to become their tool, just as Shrub did.  His daily empty statements, like what I just heard that he "will win" 95% of the black American vote, are lunacy.  There is no way that he is getting 95% of any vote, except perhaps of those white male voters who are angry and desperate enough to commit suicide but would rather have someone else do it for them.  I understand the line of thought that says "crash this train", that is to say, destroying our corporatocracy is the first step toward building something new.  This is more the approach of libertarians who understand that big business will not be dethroned by small measures.  Electing Trump would be a drastic measure that could crash this train, except for the fact that the corporate Republican powers will feed his ego and narcissism and keep him busy and distracted by giving him televised glory while they run things.  In other words, it won't work.  Electing Trump will not derail the corporate train.

The Libertarian and Green candidates are relatively attractive in this election.  Unfortunately the Libertarians appear to be almost as "estalishment" as Clinton, see Gary Johnson's positions here.  Jill Stein of the Green party is a physician and one smart cookie, and she actually makes the most sense to me of any of the candidates.  She knows that our two-party system is broken, and she addresses that question and others with a raft of information instead of party lines or defund-it-all ideology.

I do not know what it would take to persuade a majority of voters to choose third-party candidates, but I pray that I live to see it.  At this moment it appears to me that Clinton will win because so many people are terrified of the specter of a Trump presidency.  His racism, bogus claims and impetuous thin-skinned personality are enough to disqualify him for all but the most blindered of voters.  It is true that if he were elected the Republican party would attempt to control him, but we all know that he would be more likely to push the nuclear button than any other president in living memory.  While it bears discussing why we refrain from using nukes, just as it bears discussing why we can't as a society afford freeloaders, we might want to discuss it very well before we hand any control to a tool such as Trump.

I am sure I've mentioned it before, but it is my belief that in order to build a majority that can beat both established parties, we need to build a bridge between the far right Libertarians and the far left Greens.  When this happens we might actually wrest our democracy back from its service to business.  It would be heralded as a great crisis, just like the Brexit vote, but don't believe everything you hear in the news.  A reduction in our GDP might be good for us.  More unemployment is not an entirely bad thing.  We Americans need to get back to the project of taking good care of ourselves and our dear ones, building community, and being real people face to face with other real people.  This wealthy life of internet and automobiles has created a Great Satan that is making us sad.

** first use of tag: green party

The use of combat drones overseas divides Congress, but not in the usual partisan way.

Supporters of the “war on terror” in both parties tend to support the use of unmanned aircraft that often try to assassinate terrorism suspects. But libertarian Republicans have teamed up with civil liberties-backing Democrats to oppose the drones.

Now, the partisan trenches have been crossed by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D – Ohio, and Rep. Ron Paul, R – Texas, in order to force the administration to release its legal justification.

The two mavericks who are leaving Congress at year’s end have introduced a resolution of inquiry — legislation that is used to compel specific documents from the administration, and must be considered by the committee of jurisdiction, or on the House floor, within 14 legislative days.

Since the legislation was introduced on November 28, it could come before the House this year, which means that the administration will be forced to turn over the legal justification it uses for the strikes, including any memos from the Office of Legal Counsel.

SOURCE
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=159916

We are at the point now where this has become the classic legislative process of trying to get a fig leaf that everyone can hide behind. And I don't want to do that.
--Lieberman

This man is part of the solution. Freed of adherence to either party line, he can do what he thinks is right. We need more representatives who are willing to play the rascal.

to elect in NC:
--Chad Adams for chairman of North Carolina's GOP
--BJ Lawson for Congress
to defeat:
--hypocrite and former Raleigh mayor Tom Fetzer
( an email I got this morning from BJ Lawson )

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog/?p=582#more-582

While it is possible that Ron Paul wrote this letter, it does not sound like his book. Either someone else wrote this, or he had a really good editor for his book. Whatever the case, Chuck Baldwin is the Constitution Party candidate and he is a logical candidate for Ron Paul to choose, considering that Cynthia McKinney wants universal healthcare delivered by the state, and Bob Barr doesn't know what he wants. Anyway, interesting to consider this man, Chuck Baldwin. He may get a big bump from the Ron Paul supporters.
( a few links and first ruminations on this candidate )

Since Ron Paul is out of the running, Obama and McCain are part of the machine, I have been searching for someone that I can vote for and not betray my own values. This is the woman. I am going to vote for Cynthia McKinney. I hear you thinking, did you think I was a Libertarian? Well no, I'm not. I am simply in agreement with much of what Ron Paul says. I am also in agreement with McKinney. This speech is a little rough, but the principles are there. She was a democrat, before. So was I.

Thanks to trauma_hound for bringing this to my attention. Activists who have been educated about conservative government by the Ron Paul revolution have begun to agitate at GOP caucuses to bring the party back to its original values of fiscal conservatism and avoidance of foreign entanglements. The GOP faithful who have played along with the neoconservative radical corruption of the party are irritated by the fact that these activists aren't coming under a Ron Paul banner, and accuse them of being dishonest. The GOP lazies have decided to attempt to remove these Paulites from the voter rolls, claiming that they are in fact Democrats and Independents. This is so typical of neoconservative thinking that it is laughable. They still don't realize that this revolution is far larger than any one political candidate. The movement to get our government down to size, to stop corporate subsidies and wars for profit, will continue. Ron Paul simply awakened the political conscience of many citizens. We the people do have say in our politics, whether the establishment likes it or not. I believe that it will be easier for new thinkers and leaders to adopt and reinvigorate a weakened party than to get a third party established in our system of government. And the neoconservatives have done such damage to the Republican party that today it is vulnerable to takeover by those who would change things drastically. I am proud of the people who show up. Go Revolution!
( the link and article text )

Martha Newhouse has written a compelling story about discovering our country's founding document--and then Ron Paul. She shares her newfound hope for our country. Perhaps we should call our new party the Constitutional Party. "I'm a constitutionalist".
http://disinter.wordpress.com/2007/07/24/democrats-abandon-party-for-ron-paul/