Why should the U.S. wage war on Iran?

Why should the U.S. wage war on Iran?

There are so many answers to that question, it's difficult to know where to begin. But here are a few right off the top of my head, based on our current foreign policy and the thinking mapped out by the truly remarkable collection of political leaders currently at the helm.  One of these real geniuses offers insights into the kind of guy he is in the above video.

Anyway, please stand at attention with your hands over your hearts, as I offer twenty-four of the reasons why we should wage war on Iran.

1)  Because we can.

2)  We have all these bombs.

3)  What good is a military if you don't use it?

4)  We love spreading chaos!

5)  Destroy, divide, conquer.

6)  Have you ever seen Hassan Rouhani on Dancing With The Stars?  Obviously he hates our freedom and our television shows.

7)  God told us to.

8)  Israel told us to.

9)  Saudi Arabia told us to.

10)  Lindsey Graham told us to.

11)  We want to start a world war (see #2 above).

12)  We got over the Vietnam Syndrome but now we have to get over both the "Afghanistan Syndrome" and the "Syria Syndrome".

13)  It'll piss off Russia.

14)  It'll piss off China.

15)  It'll piss off Hillary Clinton because she wanted to be the one to start it.

16)  Donald Trump will get re-elected because when we're at war we have to rally behind the president (I think it's somewhere in the Bible: "Don't change horses' asses in the middle of a war." Leviticus? Corinthians?)

17)  Hollywood needs new settings for its upcoming war movies.

18)  War Is A Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges.

19)  Americans love war as long as it's NIMBY.

20)  Jared Kushner.

21)  War makes lots of money for investors, especially the already ultra-rich.

22)  It'll hasten the Rapture.

23)  Peace is for pussies.

24)  Iranians revealed their diabolical anti-Americanism by putting their country in the middle of all our military bases.

There's more.  But I think this is a damn good start!

You have a problem with this?  Too bad.




[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]



Why should the U.S. wage war on Iran?

Megaphonics

 

A lot of people want me to shut up.

They find me annoying, grating, shrill.

Some have even claimed I hate America.

I really have to wonder where these people are coming from.

I'm not claiming any heroics here, certainly not comparing myself to those courageous individuals who spoke out against Nazism or the persecutions in the Soviet Union under Stalin, in Cuba under Batista, in Iran under the Shah, on and on — sadly too many to enumerate here.

But I am saying I share with them a duty, as we all do.  I share with them as do all citizens of any country, to speak out against injustice, to criticize the country to which they belong.  We must all speak out and geography is not pertinent.  Whether one lives inside a country or has by circumstance or choice lives outside, oppression is still oppression.  Tyranny is still tyranny.  Villainy and genocide are still villainy and genocide.

Speaking out to praise or to criticize one's own country is not just an option, it is a duty.  And the volume of that voice is not to be arbitrarily turned down or turned off.

Each of us is identified with a nation.  We both have the rights and privileges that are conferred by citizenship, and likewise have a stake in what that nation does in our name, hence a responsibility not just to be aware of those activities but to be discerning and laudatory or critical when necessary.

So I won't shut up.

On the other hand, there is a difference between caustic damnation and constructive criticism.

I see a lot of the former, little of the latter.

Frankly, it’s getting tedious.

There are a lot of people — apparently some 64% according to the polls — who object to Trump as president and what he represents.

This makes entire sense.  He is objectionable at best, foul and pestilent at worst.

But we have to recognize, it’s not just the man we are at loggerheads with here.  “What he represents” has been in the making for a long time.  Over forty years at least, many would argue much longer.  Maybe it was set in motion from the very beginning of our country, as America was founded by slave-holding elitists who were to one degree or another fearful of mob rule.  'Mob rule' is of course just an ugly euphemism for government by the people — all of the people.

A nation run by an elite few is not a democracy by any stretch.  It is the exact opposite of a democracy.  That those elite few then guilefully brainwash the "mob" into thinking they actually have some say in the decisions which determine the direction of the nation and the future is an insult — a vile and patronizing form of manipulation.

Trump and his crew will attempt to rule by fiat.  As corporate businessmen this is all they know.  They will play the "enlightened patriarch" card the whole way.  Some will go along.  Most — at least 64% — will not and have every right to raise hell.

Recognize that raising hell is but one approach.

How about this?  What if we try raising heaven?

Ha ha ha!  Funny play on words, eh?

Not really. Here’s what it boils down to . . .

2017 and 2018 will present historical opportunities.  We will be presented dramatically and starkly contrasting visions for the future.  People who have never been interested in "politics" will start seriously paying attention, because everything that America allegedly stands for, its most noble and worthy values and dreams for all its citizens, will be under assault.

And it will then come down to this . . .

Certainly we know WHAT WE'RE AGAINST as enlightened progressives.

But more crucially we have to know WHAT WE'RE FOR as enlightened progressives.

It's time to be decisive, clear, engaging, positive, thorough, meticulous, captivating.

And truly visionary!

Because within the next two years, American citizens will be hungry as never before for a truly genuine, positive and sweeping renewal.

With no irony here's my take:  There is enormous opportunity which will spring out of the dark days ahead.  I hope we’re ready.  Alert, informed progressives know what's going on.  The vast majority of the American public does not. They are distracted and misinformed, numb and preoccupied with daily life.  They are not to be vilified for this.  They are victims of a highly organized, well-orchestrated assault on the public consciousness, maybe more accurately, an inducement of a hypnotic public unconsciousness.  Trump is just the most effective recent embodiment of that assault.
Certainly there are some big bumps in the road coming soon.  The crash of the economy is inevitable, accelerated by Trump's extremely inept and uninformed administration.  The neocons will get their war because some diseases are beyond any medical intervention.

When war and bankruptcy destroys any hope for improvement of living and working conditions under the orange autocrat, there will be at least 160 million new very angry Americans — many who voted for Trump — asking the questions we progressives have been asking ad nauseam for many years.

It will all come to a crescendo.  Progressives MUST BE READY with an agenda presented in the language of everyday Americans -- not politico-jargon-speak -- but BIG, CLEAR messaging which presents a POSITIVE PROGRESSIVE VISION for America. 

We can do it.  But we have to start now!

When it all starts to crumble, it'll be too late to be brainstorming and formulating plans.




[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http//jdrachel.com ]

Megaphonics

The Politics of Panic and Puerile Propaganda

 

Desperation creates a sickening stench.

At least that seems to be the case with dying empires.

As the front pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post become more and more indistinguishable from puerile and poisonous publications like the National Inquirer, Daily News, Globe, and Weekly World News, we see the symptoms of a nation whose auto-immune system has stopped working, and no barriers any longer stand in the way of fantastic lies and the opportunistic diseases of exceptionalist self-absorption and kleptocratic abuse. 

Much of what claims to be news puts spectacle and rumor ahead of fact and truth-telling.

Every day I scan the pages and websites of main stream media and nowhere can I find a discussion of truly critical issues, much less a serious attempt to address them with cogent, creative, promising solutions.

 

Yet, who am I to decide what is said and written.  Am I to tell a dying man that I find his death rattle annoying and counter-productive?

Having accepted the irrelevancy of my own opinion of the national conversation, we are still looking at a total retreat from journalistic integrity, an abandonment of responsibility vital to our survival as a nation, in fact, a complete surrender and servility to self-serving, corrupt leadership which acknowledges no allegiance or debt to those who put them into office, and driven by panic and desperation can only make excuses and offer distractions for its failure to serve the real interests of the country. 

There is no other verdict any sane, aware, concerned person can come to.

The rest of the world seems to have our number.  The U.S. pretends to be in charge but more and more we see one nation after another turning away.  And apparently citizens across our once-great country -- regardless of whether they voted for Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders or Gary Johnson or Jill Stein, or just stayed home out of disgust -- will be the last to know that the U.S. is no longer a functioning democracy and has been completely taken over by fierce, ruthless, elitist, self-serving, corporate autocrats, and more fatefully we are being simultaneously prepared for major economic collapse and a global war which carries the ominous risk of extinction for the human race.

Moreover, the planet itself each day stands in silent but immutable judgment.

The Arctic is in crisis, evidence of catastrophic global heating.  The oceans are on their way to becoming vast sea creature graveyards.  Scientists have now concluded we are in the middle of another mass species extinction.  The world we now inhabit will go away and eventually become uninhabitable, both for humans and much of the life on the planet which we now take for granted.

Pathological levels of hubris, demagoguery, and megalomania have the major nations on hair-trigger alert, with the nuclear destructive power to destroy the world 25 to 50 times over, just a launch button away.  Most of this animosity stems from America's inability to accept its place as one of a community of nations.  We will run things our way or destroy the entire world in a colossal temper tantrum.



With existential crises of an unprecedented and truly apocalyptic scale . . . let's talk about hacking by the Russians.  Let's talk about Trump's potty mouth and dicey business deals.  Let's form two massive groups -- die-hard Hillary Clinton supporters and President-elect Donald Trump supporters -- face off and scream at one another.  Let's talk about Trump's rumored man-love of Vladimir Putin and his pussy-grabbing -- apparently he's bisexual, since he can swing both ways.  Let's spread the word! After all . . .

Someone told someone else that when Putin and Trump aren't butt-fucking, they're scheming to take down the greatest country in the world.  Just as bad, when Hillary isn't spreading state secrets across the world wide web like viral mannequin challenges, she's running a child sex slave ring  out of a DC pizzeria, to try to make a buck, while of course supplying fresh nubile flesh for Bill's pedophilia parties.  We know this story is true, which is a big part of the reason many people didn't vote for her, because someone mentioned it to Alex Jones and he subsequently devoted a lot of time to it on his show.  I love Alex's voice, don't you?

Of course, our whole electoral system is in crisis.  THANKS TO THE DAMN RUSSIANS!  Seventeen intel agencies told someone anonymously -- of maybe someone told us that 17 intel agencies told them -- the idea of hacking our elections is consistent with the priorities of Russia.  We don't know which agencies suggested this.  It's hard to know because at my last count there were 1,271 government organizations responsible for national security.  Out of these, 500 could easily be considered "intel agencies".  Hmm . . . 17 out of 500.  That seems odd, eh?  Whatever.  Those Russians are always up to no good.  Especially the Bolshoi Ballet and Tchaikovsky.  And Tolstoy!

Then there's the whole Electoral College mess.  Hard to believe that we didn't notice.  But apparently the electoral college's potential to not represent the express will of the voting public -- sometimes referred to by the rich and powerful elite who occasionally take a break from plundering the Treasury and devising more effective means of maintaining full control over the machinery of government and even our pathetic personal lives to elbow each other in the ribs and snicker about the "slobbering masses" -- has been secreted in Article II of our venerated Constitution now for over 227 years.  Sure, they'll claim it was there the whole time.  But they put it in Article II, and let's face it, most of us never got past reading the Preamble, much less Article I.  Anyway, better late than never.  Now we know that whether you love him or hate him, Trump was right!  The system is rigged!  Therefore it's time for some real effective action.  Let's start a petition!  No way can let that pussy-grabbing scumbag be president over some technicality in the Constitution probably put in there by the slimy Russians.  We should have our first female president, who despite having ovaries and a pussy -- which Trump probably tried to grab! -- is tough as nails and will hit the ground running by starting World War III with either Iran, Russia, or China.  Maybe all three!  Talk about macho!



Granted, a lot of this seems to miss the big picture questions, which are . . .

Why did we have to choose only between Hillary and Donald?

Or . . .

Why is it no matter who we elect, everything just gets worse?

Or . . .

What's the point of representative government if the people we elect don't represent us?

Or . . .

How can it be called choice when both of the two major political parties just put people up for election who serve the interests of the wealthy, who promote war, who can't find it in their hearts or in our national budget to provide the basic services and necessities which many other nations in the world take for granted?

Then again . . .

Those kinds of questions are really really difficult.

Solving those problems requires radical reform and profound systemic changes.
It would be very embarrassing to admit to the world that our democracy is in big trouble.
Addressing those challenges takes a lot of hard work and time which most of us don't have.
Having a government which serves everyday citizens is sure to piss off the Koch brothers!



Isn't it more convenient to ask questions which are more likely to get answered?

Like . . . is or was Dick Cheney ever a robot?

You know, folks, I suspected something like this all along.  I even wrote a blog about it.

Deep-State Doppelgängers

See?  I'm on top of the news!



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



The Politics of Panic and Puerile Propaganda

Wrong But Right

 

In a previous blog, I said that the election was fixed and that Hillary Clinton would be installed as the choice of the oligarchs to lead our country to ruin.

I was half right.

The election indeed was rigged, but apparently the decision was to award the presidency to Trump.

Hillary Clinton had the support of Wall Street, the banks, the military-industrial complex, the media, major corporations, had received endorsements and huge contributions from conservatives across the spectrum.  Yet in the end she was dumped in favor of a man with no political experience, no identifiable qualifications for the presidency, a dicey reputation, and a checkered track record even as a businessman, allegedly his area of expertise.

I can't be sure exactly what motivated this change of heart, but I'm presuming that the oligarchs decided that as wild a card as Trump might be, they should stay the course in consolidating their power within the Republican Party.

And have they ever!

The Republicans own the White House, both chambers of Congress, most governorships, and the majority of state legislatures.

Now . . .

What evidence is there that the election was rigged?

It's not easy to establish and wouldn't hold up in a court of law.  There are no paper trails for many voting machines.  All I can pass along is the evidence of an excellent researcher who has been sounding the alarm about election fraud for many years, Jonathan Simon.  The evidence he offers is very convincing, if not conclusive.

Look at the discrepancies -- some huge and occurring decisively in all swing state contests -- between the exit polls and voter tallies Jonathan Simon has tabulated.

For the presidential race . . .

 
For the senate races . . .

 
I'm not going to play the guessing game about the Trump presidency.  Let everyone else waste their time with colorful or outrageous predictions about the unraveling of America.

What we don't have to guess about is who is truly running things in our country -- it's not the everyday citizens as democracy is now completely dead -- and where we'll be heading for the foreseeable future.

Why do the dice pictured at the head of this piece always come up twelve?

That's how many months out of the year we'll be getting screwed.




[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


Wrong But Right

Dat bitch is my favorite ‘ho!

 
I've been so far off the mark.

But I'm willing to admit when I'm wrong.

Until I watched the video shown below, I didn't appreciate the incredible contrast between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton when it came to women.

As we all know from all of the news reports, exposés, damning anecdotes, salacious videos, law suits, personal testimonies, affidavits, well-researched and documented media reports, Donald Trump is a misogynistic, chauvinistic, groping pig.  He's probably a rapist as well.  He and Vladimir probably go club-hopping hitting on women, use them as sex toys, then callously discard them when their libido has run its course.  This as a last resort, when they are unsuccessful at kidnapping middle school girls trying to make it home, following hours of hard work at a local Russian Orthodox church Bible study class.

By contrast, I now see, Hillary Clinton stands for the highest standards of decency, equal opportunity and esteem for women both in the work place and in public spaces.  Hillary has built her presidential campaign and much of her inspiring career around working for an America where women are treated with respect and civility, never wavering in her commitment to caring and sensitivity, selflessly holding herself up as a role model.

The crucial thing is that Hillary never compromises for convenience or advantage.

And the voters love her for it!

Just look at how the crowd goes wild at this campaign concert in Cleveland, featuring performances by Jay Z and Beyoncé.

As Hillary gratefully announces from the stage:  "This is what America is, my friends!"

I love the way the crowd sings along.  Some of my favorite truly inspiring lines . . .

Hey! You little stupid ass bitch, I ain’t fuckin’ with you
You little, you little dumb ass bitch

One time for my LA sisters,
One time for my LA hoes  Lame niggas can’t tell the difference
One time for a nigga who know

Anybody is a killer, all you gotta do is push ‘em to the limps
Fuck being timid in the Civic
Politicin’ with the pushers and the pimps
I’m trine write a story, can I get a glimpse?

I tell a bad bitch do whatever I say
My block behind me like I’m coming out the driveway

She tryna get me that poo tang
I might let my crew bang

Middle finger to the law
Nigga gripping by balls
All the ladies they love me
From the bleachers they screaming

How can you improve on that, eh?

 
Of course, this reflects the new political/social consciousness, where spectacle and politics are conflated, and even the world-shaping decisions and personal responsibility of voting are swirled together with entertainment and celebrity worship into a thick fog of posturing and over-the-top extravaganza, puerile pageantry, empty feel-good rhetoric, requiring no real principled commitments, vision, consistency, common decency or common sense. 

I can see now why they call them political "parties".  Yo, nigga!

Recall that I already voted for Jill Stein, via an absentee ballot.

Somehow I still feel real good about that.

To paraphrase some of Hillary's supporters . . .

Dat bitch is my favorite 'ho!
 



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


Dat bitch is my favorite ‘ho!

Why Donald Trump is not as horrible as Hillary Clinton . . . and why you should vote for Jill Stein.

I could have named this article "Damage Control" -- because it essentially is about that, related to the lobotomizing dilemma of "lesser evil voting".

But let me be clear at the outset.  I have already voted for Jill Stein.  I had no other choice.  I am firm in my conviction that to vote for sociopathic, narcissistic, self-serving, ruthless, guileful corporatists is an unconscionable act and a major crime against my country, irrespective of the convoluted rationalization which might attempt to justify it.

Now let me offer reasoning that goes beyond my "morally pure" posturing.

The accepted wisdom is that a vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Donald Trump.  This analysis purports that anyone voting for Stein would likely be a former Clinton supporter, and such a vote would subtract from Clinton's total.

Even though Hillary's elitist, warmongering, anti-democratic, demonstrably criminal world view is diametrically the opposite of Jill Stein's, and I can't imagine anyone who's moved by the Green Party's agenda for the briefest moment being fooled by Clinton's phony populism, for argument's sake I'll accept this proposition.

While I consider both Trump and Clinton to be equally unfit for office, I do not for a moment believe they would be equally ineffective.

Hillary has for good reason become the choice of the oligarchs, the MIC, the bankers, the media, the people who actually run the country.  She will serve them well.  She knows her way around the system -- she's been gaming it most of her adult life -- and has all the right connections.  Which is why even many prominent Republicans have joined the feeding frenzy and flocked to her like vultures over fresh kill.

Hillary will continue her faux-populist bloviating to keep the stinky masses in line, while her closest allies, the rich and powerful, continue to loot the Treasury, hollow out what's left of the U.S. economy, and bankrupt the middle and lower classes.

Much to the delight of the neocon-infested Department of State, Department of Defense, security agencies, MIC, and media, Hillary will "get tough" with Russia and China, press the war on Syria and the rest of the Middle East, promote and spread more chaos, death, and destruction across the globe in pursuit of military conquest, ultimately world empire.  It'll be good for business and pumping up the already inflated egos of the exceptionalists.

On the other hand, Trump will fall flat on his face.  His trademark bull-in-a-china-shop approach to making deals has no chance of success in Washington DC.  He has no support -- his own party has all but disowned him -- no connections, at least not the political ones necessary for promoting his agenda.  Yes, the politicos drank his champagne and ate the food at his extravagant bashes.  Who wouldn't?  But they don't owe him anything.  Nada! Trump's much heralded talents for making great deals would confront hostile Democrats, contemptuous Republicans -- a perhaps long-overdue bipartisanship -- closing ranks to isolate and defeat the outrageous and vulgar outsider who thought he could buy and muscle his way into political power.

 

He'll try to build his wall.  When Congress gets done with it, it'll be a 200-foot white picket fence in Calexico.  He'll attempt rapprochement with Russia.  That will be sabotaged with a false flag attack, maybe dressing some disgruntled maquiladora workers as Russian infantry men and mounting an invasion on the U.S. -- probably in Calexico -- or by John McCain threatening to fall on a grenade or blow his brains out in the Senate chambers if America doesn't immediately nuke Moscow.

Despite his self-proclaimed success in the business world, Trump simply does not know the rules of the game in Washington DC.  Unless he "fires" everyone -- declaring martial law and sending all members of the legislature to a FEMA labor camp in Montana -- he will either be the most ineffective president in history or be impeached.  Maybe both!

In a phrase, Donald Trump as president will do 'less damage'.

Anyone who has read my blogs knows that my greatest concern about a Hillary Clinton presidency is her truculent foreign policy.  A decade ago, I might have believed that she was misguided.  Now I realize -- as quite a number of others do -- that she is completely insane.  She's become drunk on power, poisoned by surrounding herself with neocons and warmongering humanitarians, possessed by visions of herself as the Warrior Queen. 

Or as many other writers have been saying . . .

A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for World War III.

So . . .

Vote for Jill Stein!

We'll have our first female president, a great president at that! 

One we can all be truly proud of.  The world will breathe a sigh of relief!
At the same time, if voting for Jill Stein ends up electing Donald Trump . . .

So be it.

At least we'll come out of it alive.  And . . .

We'll have four more years to figure out how America got so screwed up.

Hillary can go back to taking bribes and looting impoverished countries.

Hard choices . . . so many helpless victims, so little time.




[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


Why Donald Trump is not as horrible as Hillary Clinton . . . and why you should vote for Jill Stein.

I didn’t throw my vote away!

 

It's that time of year.  I got my absentee ballot.

I'm proud to say I didn't throw my vote away.

Here were the choices for president . . .

1. A lying psychopath who takes special delight in murdering heads of state and innocent civilians, will start World War III, if that's what it takes to get her name writ large in the history books.
2. A lying sociopath with ADD and a penchant for locker room talk, who takes special delight in making racist threats against anyone who's not white, and moreover who can't put together a coherent sentence containing more than six words.
3. A clueless empty suit who apparently has modeled himself after Alfred E. Neuman, who thinks Aleppo is a blood disease which causes diarrhea in house pets, and the name of the leader of North Korea is Kim Buk Too.
4. An articulate medical doctor, peace and environmental activist, who has an inspiring and detailed plan for reducing poverty and wealth inequality, ending the unnecessary and destructive wars, addressing the mounting crisis of climate change, and restoring representative democracy and integrity to government.

Seriously?  There's a choice?

It reminds me of the time I was asked to appear on a TV game show.

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Choose Well or Die, America's new giveaway fun fest, where some lucky guy gets a chance to go home with a new lease on life, or meet the Grim Reaper.  Tonight's first guest is John Rachel, itinerant blogger and novelist originally from Detroit, Michigan.  Welcome, John.  How are you feeling tonight?"

"Better than an Eskimo with a bikini wax."

"Sounds terrific, John.  So here are your choices.  Now take your time and think this over.  Would you rather . . ."

1. Have your eyes gouged out with red hot tire irons while the lower half of your body is immersed in a vat of pure hydrochloric acid?
2. Be anally raped by a buffalo while five rabid pit bulls rip your face apart?
3. Be skinned alive, then trampled to death by a stampeding herd of elephants?
4. Win $1 billion tax free, and be shuttled all over the world from your private tropical island in the South Pacific, in a luxurious 360-foot yacht with 24 of your closest friends and admirers?

"Hmm.  This is tougher than I thought.  Is that yacht eco-friendly?"

You get the idea.

 

Anyway, after thinking about it for less time than it takes Bruce Willis to comb his hair, here's how I marked my ballot. 

Did I throw my vote away?  I guess that depends on how you define "throw away".

I decided to vote on principle.  Somebody has to, because . . . eventually everyone must. 

It should never come down to what we are faced with this election, deciding between psychopathic Hillary or sociopathic Donald.  But it has.  I'm not sure which of them is worse.  It's too close to call.

I do know one thing.  If we play this game again this time . . . it'll be the same next time.  Maybe even worse, though that's hard to imagine.

What's the principle which defines my choice?

A vote is an endorsement.  Therefore . . .

I will not cast my vote for corruption; lying; wars; rampant corporatism; totalitarian rule by an oligarchy; wealth inequality; government by Wall Street, the too-big-to-fail banks, and transnationals; the destruction of democracy.  Both Clinton and Trump are all of that and more.  More of the slow, steady evisceration of what I once believed America stood for.

A vote is too precious to waste on criminals and narcissists.



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


I didn’t throw my vote away!

VIDEO BLOG: Open up the debates!

I want to throw out a challenge to the participants in the coming presidential debates.

Of course, the fair and democratic thing to do would be to open the debates to Jill Stein and Gary Johnson.

But certainly the Democratic and Republican parties, and the puppets administering the debates, couldn’t care less about fairness or democracy.  They’re in the game for power and it’s winner take all.  Screw the founding fathers, the intent of the Constitution, and all that fancy high-sounding theoretical fluff.  They want to win.  There’s lots of money to be made for their corporate and Wall Street friends.

So I’m not going to talk about values, and none of what I have to say is directed at either the Republican or Democratic leadership, and certainly not the Commission on Presidential Debates, which is just a shill organization, a smokescreen for that same leadership.
I
 am making my appeal first to the candidates, and second to the TV network in charge, CNN.
Donald Trump thinks Jill Stein is a beer mug you can buy at Jillian’s Curios in Topeka, Kansas.  Trump knows what a Johnson is but hasn’t a clue about this Gary guy, or why he should worry about this Gary guy’s peepee.  Besides, Trump shouldn’t care who’s onstage. What is he going to do?  Fine tune the septic swill that spews out of his pie hole?

So I say to you, Donald.  Let’s go for it.  The more the merrier!

Clinton is the problem.  I don’t think she relishes having someone like Jill Stein on that debate stage.  Jill is more intelligent, better informed, has integrity, knows what America really needs, speaks for the priorities and values of the vast majority, and is honest.  Whew!  That could be a real problem.
See, Hillary and the Donald are bullshitters of the highest order.  Hillary is in her comfort zone in a pile of shit.  She figures she can hold her own against even the tsunami of the stinky stuff Trump will barrage her with.

But Jill Stein?  Big problem there.

So my challenge is to you, Hillary.  You claim to be the Iron Lady of America, with all the right stuff to be the first female prez in our history.  Show us you’re not afraid of some real competition.  Do you have the brass cajones, the bulked up ovaries, to go head-to-head with someone who actually has something to say?  Who has a real program for rescuing America from the likes of hypocrites like you?  Are you up for it?

I think not.  But Hillary, this is your chance to prove me wrong.  Let’s see some courage.  Show some guts.  You can still laugh that hyena laugh, even faint, have convulsions, or cough your way through the performance.  Jill Stein won’t crimp your style.  She’ll just put some substance on the table.
Like I said, I doubt if Hillary is up to it.  I expect her to refuse to allow Stein and Johnson in the debates.  While Johnson poses no threat, Hillary is DEATHLY AFRAID OF JILL STEIN!

Alright!  NOW it’s time for you folks over at CNN to listen up.  Come on, guys.  Let’s put on your thinking caps.

I’m not talking public duty, responsible broadcasting, patriotism, or anything of the like here.

I’m talking money!

Big clue . . . Hillary turns down debating Jill Stein.  Why?  Because it’ll be a bloodbath.  Stein will chop up Clinton like those table chefs at Benihana.  Then she’ll turn to Trump and vaporize the moronic egomaniac.  Trump won’t know it because he’s oblivious to everything except his own self-aggrandizing blasts of noxious self-adulation.  But the audience will know!

Do you see what’s at stake here?  You guys want a cage fight and you’re counting on a real battle of the bloviators from Clinton and Trump.  But what about the midget who comes out of the audience and pile drives both of them into a mat soaked with the blood of their disgusting egos.  THIS IS WHAT YOU’RE REALLY LOOKING FOR!

You’ll make good money on that first debate.  But after Stein turns Hillary and Donald into hog sausage, the next debate will be the windfall of windfalls!  The second debate will get so many viewers, it’ll make the Superbowl look like a 4 am public service announcement.

So wake up, CNN!  When Hillary refuses, get all righteous on her.  Start talking about inclusiveness and the right of the voting public to have real choice.  Tell Hillary that public duty requires you to put both Jill Stein and Gary Johnson in the debates.

Then send me a fat check for putting you on to the greatest cash cow in the history of politics.  Call the second debate . . . 

“The Fiercest Bloodiest No-Holds-Barred Death Match Presidential Debate in History”

Blood and guts!  It’s what sells.



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]

VIDEO BLOG: Open up the debates!

A Look At Some Other Numbers

 

On July 20th, I created The “I’ll vote for Jill if you will” Pledge Campaign.  This included setting up petitions at four reputable petition campaign sites to keep track of the number of participants.  Off to an encouraging start, I got signatures on the very first day.

This whole effort addresses what I consider to be the primary obstacle to Jill Stein getting elected.  That is, it offers a mechanism to work around the predictable fears that most voters have that if they vote third-party, they will "throw their vote away" and even worse, end up electing one of the major party candidates who they abhor.  Those who voted for Ralph Nader -- I was one of them -- were wrongly accused of throwing the election to George W. Bush.  Though this is easily established as false, the idea of the "spoiler vote" continues to persist and serve the agenda of the two-party monopoly, preventing any real challenge from either the progressive left, the libertarian right, or any party for that matter functioning outside the narrow, tightly choreographed corporate mainstream.

The success of my campaign to unite potential Jill Stein voters into a bloc, essentially by "pre-polling" the voting public, was predicated on ascertaining in advance that there were sufficient voters to elect her.  Ascertaining that meant voters could comfortably vote for her without fear of wasting their votes, perhaps inadvertently electing Donald or Hillary, whichever might be judged worse -- though in my book it's a toss-up. 

The target was 50 million or more voter signatures, which I determined would be enough, if distributed appropriately in important swing states, to put her in the White House.

The key to getting that many signatures was the power of an exponential multiplier, or as I euphemistically dubbed it, the power of numbers.  If each person who signed the petition -- and in doing so agreed to participate in the program -- told only two others, instructing them to each likewise tell two others, in less than 30 days we could have over 67 million people signed up, more than enough to eradicate all anxiety about voting for Jill Stein.

So how did we do?

On September 9th, we finally hit 5,000 signatures across all four petition sites.

That is, we managed to get 5,000 well-meaning folks -- and judging from the comments very passionate supporters of Jill Stein -- to jump on board, and it only took 52 days.

Mind you, I didn't just sit back and twiddle my thumbs.  In fact from the day I started the campaign till now, I've sent out over a thousand tweets, posted it on over ninety Facebook pages, posted it as comments on some fifty plus political media sites, posted it on Google+, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Blogger, Delicious, and Live Journal.

Which suggests that assuming I don't suffer from dwindling returns for my effort -- highly doubtful since the "low fruit" gets used up quickly -- to get to 50 million signature, I would only need to keep doing what I've been doing for the next 1,424 years. 

What do you think?  Should I keep going?

Alright . . . what happened?

That is perhaps the easiest question in the world.

People didn't recruit anyone else.  Despite their personal enthusiasm for Jill Stein, despite many of them -- judging from the enthusiastic praise I got for the idea -- thinking it was a highly ingenious way to make her a viable candidate in the eyes of a fearful voting public, despite them making a firm pledge when they signed the petition which committed them to the action which was the critical core of the strategy . . .

"I will now contact two other people who I respect and trust, let them know there is a real alternative to the Clinton vs. Trump political spectacle, explain that if we frustrated voters join together, we don’t have to throw our votes away, we can elect a great president, America’s first female president no less."

. . . they just couldn't bring themselves to talk to and convince others that this was a necessary and worthwhile project.

Am I surprised?  Of course not.  Disappointed but not surprised.

As citizens we have become paralyzed by our own timidity and fear of failure, intimidated and rendered dysfunctional by the dysfunction all around us.  We've become disengaged and numb from the constant trumpeting of counter-productive memes, false narratives, the insultingly banal media coverage of politics, the disinformation and propaganda that bombards us 24/7/365.  We have been made cynical and immersed in despair by endless violations of the public trust by our leaders, by the condescending and cavalier lies we are constantly told by our politicians and other puppet-masters in the pulpits of power.  Most tragically, we have become afraid, afraid of the police, afraid of the government, afraid of one another, afraid to act.  We're just too afraid to turn to a couple other people and say:  "Hey, look at this.  I think it's a great idea!"

But here is the problem . . .

No matter how hopeless and difficult it seems, we must act.  We must get involved.  Time is running out on democracy.  There still remains some small hope that we as citizens can make a difference.  

But that hope is shrinking fast.

What probably the majority of citizens apparently fail to understand -- or if possible avoid thinking about -- is that in our current social and political environment, under the "rules of the game", we have no choice but to participate.  Just being a citizen means you are intrinsically a functional "activist" in a system which determines everything that is happening now and will happen in the future.

There is widespread reluctance to recognize and embrace a simple fact:  The future is still ours for the taking.

The numbers are with us across the board -- on many key issues, on outrage and contempt for Congress, on collective revulsion for the choice we are being waterboarded with via the two major party presidential candidates.

What is lacking?

Courage.  The courage to just reach out to others and say:

"I've had it!  I'm not playing this game anymore."

Yes, many are saying this but only to themselves.  Until the American public hears a loud roar and a thunderous chant, and each and all realize they are not alone, they individually will again buckle to their fear, and be afraid of a simple act like reaching out to just two others -- even two others of like mind and thinking -- and talking, just being open and honest about issues that confront all of us but from which we retreat like cowards.

Recognize this . . .

Being paralyzed by fear and hopelessness is a form of "citizen participation".

As is surrender or any other form of capitulation or acknowledging defeat.

It's self-sabotaging but participation no less.

To not act is counter-intuitively an act.

Because to not act is a choice.

And all choices have their consequences.

We will live or die by what those consequences look like.


[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



A Look At Some Other Numbers

Deep-State Doppelgängers

As an outsider -- I'm an American expat living in Japan -- I've had to seek out my own unique set of "insiders", individuals who have special access to the inner workings of the U.S.  My most fruitful source of insider information has turned out to be an Latvian taxi driver based in Youngstown, Ohio who has a network of informers deep within the bowels of our opaque government machinery.  His expert psychic talent plus the natural ability to see through both lead paint and building insulation, combine with his disarming knack for making light of any situation -- he has a sideline business as a stand-up comic at local area funerals -- to penetrate the most secure firewalls of secrecy put in place by the plutocrats and power brokers nestled in the Washington DC bubble.  I've never met him in person but we talk regularly on Citizens Band radio (channel 7).

What he told me yesterday was shocking and left me nearly speechless.  But speaking I am right now to share with you what I learned.

It doesn't matter who we vote for in the coming election for president!

This is not because as is commonly thought the electoral system is completely rigged.  Rather, it's because whoever is elected will immediately be disappeared by the Deep State security agencies and replaced with a robot which you and I will not be able to detect is a fake.  Then this deep-state controlled doppelgänger will do and say what it is programmed to say and do.  You and I will never be the wiser.

The NSA in conjunction with DARPA have been perfecting the science of anthro-robotics for this very purpose.  The results are astonishing.

The Donald Trump prototype is already being street tested.



On the other hand, the Hillary Clinton robo-doppelgänger has had some snags.  The finest researchers at the facility are having trouble capturing some of the tics, outlandish facial expressions and seizures which have recently become her trademarks.  After all, they've spent millions of dollars trying to emulate normal behavior, not that of a crazy person.  Look at this video and you'll see what they're up against.

They've still managed to come up with an "early version" of what they are confident will be a very convincing President Clinton II simulation.



No one gives Jill Stein a chance in hell of winning the election.  But the ever-cautious deep state robotics experts are taking no chances.  This early mock-up appears to need a little fine tuning but I'm confident they'll get it right by inauguration day.



DARPA and the NSA have decided they can replace Gary Johnson with a washing machine jacked up with some artificial intelligence and nobody will know the difference.  They are, however, having a little trouble keeping the feisty anthro-bot on message.



There you have it.  Voting is a complete waste of time!  Don't bother.

The good news is that the 23rd season of Dancing With The Stars will be showcasing such amazing talents as Amber Rose, Ryan Lochte, and Laurie Hernandez.  It would appear that November 8th will be a good day to just stay home and watch TV.



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



Deep-State Doppelgängers

Russian Roulette

 

Since everyone seems so easily distracted these days, I'm going to make this short and sweet, extremely straightforward.

People question my choice for president in the coming election.  Here's my reply.

There's a revolver on the table and six bullets.  You are going to play Russian roulette.  You have no choice in the matter.  You will play!

Voting for Hillary Clinton means they will load six bullets, filling the cylinder.

Voting for Donald Trump means they will insert five bullets, leaving one chamber open.

Voting for Jill Stein means there will be no bullets in the gun.

Why Russian roulette? 

Because Hillary is surrounding herself with warmongering neocon lunatics -- she is a warmongering neocon lunatic herself.  She'll start a major war with Russia.  Lacking any diplomatic sense or understanding of history, she has equated President Vladimir Putin with Adolph Hitler.  Since Obama already has pushed America and Russia to the brink of war, and Hillary just keeps escalating her facile anti-Russian rhetoric, we have no reason to expect otherwise.  World War III, here we come.

Trump talks of rapprochement and working with Russia.  But he's crazy and changes his mind daily.  Who knows?  He's almost as scary as Hillary.

Jill Stein wants peace and cooperation in the world.

If the U.S. ends up in a major war with Russia, it will go nuclear and that will be that.
All other issues -- immigration, Muslims, wealth inequality, jobs, equal rights, a living wage, etc. -- will be off the table because there will be no table, no room, and no building.  The city, the nation, and everyone in it will be turned into radioactive corpses and rubble.

Pick up the gun.  Choose your game.

I made my choice.



[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]


Russian Roulette

A Look At The Numbers

 

This references my previous article, The "I'll vote for Jill if you will" Pledge Campaign, which to my pleasant surprise has resulted in quite a bit of positive support.

Several commenters asked me how I came up with the numbers, and how realistic was it to think that we could get 50,000,000 folks to sign the pledge to vote for Jill Stein, the target for "activating" the promise to vote for her.  Meaning, if 50,000,000 voters took the pledge, they could all vote for her, secure in the knowledge that they would not be throwing their vote away -- a vote of conscience resulting in a victory by whichever major-party candidate they happened to despise.

I said that 50,000,000 would "guarantee" a plurality win?  How did I arrive at that figure?

Well, there are no "guarantees" in a system using unverifiable electronic voting machines, so we can just give this our best estimate:  There are 146,311,000 registered voters in the U.S.  In the 2012 election, 126,144,000 voted.  If we assume a very formidable turnout of 130,000,000 for 2016, 50,000,000 represents a 38% plurality. This would allow as much as a 12% spread between Trump and Clinton, e.g. 25% Trump and 37% Clinton.  Actually, some predict that it might go the other way, meaning as much as 37% for Trump and 25% for Clinton, on the expectation that Stein would be pulling the "progressive" vote away from Clinton.

I also said that 50,000,000 was realistic -- it was an achievable target -- and showed how the power of an exponential multiplier provides us plenty of time to get this organized and done.  At the same time, we should recognize that the arithmetic alone begs the question of whether there are people out there who are even receptive to a third-party option, who are sufficiently disgusted with the way this election is shaping up to jump off the major-party bandwagons.

Again, we can only speculate.  But a few factors are encouraging.

As cited in a Salon article, Gallup polls for the fifth year in a row indicate that over 40% of voters identify themselves as "independents", so disenchanted are they with the two-party system which has defined electoral politics for much of recent history.

More specifically, deep dissatisfaction with the major-party choice of Trump vs. Clinton is evidenced by historic levels of unfavorability ratings.  Clinton is at 55% and rising, Trump is at 70% and could go either way.  But just taking them at these current levels means that there is a minimum 25% of voters who strongly disapprove of both.  This 25% translates to more than 36,000,000 registered voters -- a huge number of voters who apparently prefer to vote for neither.  If they can be directed Jill Stein's way, this is a big head start toward our goal of 50,000,000!

Lastly, Jill Stein has taken a bold and powerful stand on an issue which garnered much favor and enthusiasm in the Bernie revolution, that of free college education.  Currently, some 42,000,000 college graduates are saddled with onerous debts, just trying to obtain skills and credentials which will give them a fighting chance for a decent job in our highly competitive and compromised job market.  Jill Stein has committed to a full forgiveness of student loan debt if she becomes president.  Talk about reaching out to young people and appealing to them to vote in their own interests!

I don't have to tell you that I think the "I'll vote for Jill if you will" pledge idea could be a real game-changer.  It risks nothing, demands little of voters other than a few minutes of their time and a commitment to attentive, fearless voting, should the campaign succeed, yet offers the possibility of a paradigm shift in electoral politics.  Finally, the stranglehold of the two major parties will be broken, and a new broad range of potential solutions will be brought center-stage to the national conversation.
But good ideas are not automatic.  Good ideas only get traction if people take the time to understand them, then actively share their understanding with others.  The language of the pledge makes this necessity clear:

"I will now contact two other people who I respect and trust, let them know there is a real alternative to the Clinton vs. Trump political spectacle, explain that if we frustrated voters join together, we will not be throwing our votes away, we can elect a great president, America’s first female president no less."

The corporate-controlled main stream media did everything it could to marginalize and destroy the Bernie Sanders campaign.  It has also been completely successful at keeping Jill Sanders an invisibility on the political stage.

Therefore, it's up to us:  Each person tells two others, who each tell two others, who . . . 

It's the power of numbers.

It's the power of people over plutocracy, the voice of individual citizens shouting down the mind-numbing mantras of the 1%, mouthed by their brain-dead talking heads and political puppets.
There are 61,450,000 "independents" out there somewhere.  There are 36,578,000 voters who think neither Clinton nor Trump should be president.  There are 42,000,000 students struggling to pay for their college education.

We have work to do!

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]



A Look At The Numbers