We need a massive lockdown . . . NOW!

How can any sensible person be against lockdowns?

What is a lockdown?

‘Lockdown’ is a prison term. When the inmates get unruly and there’s the threat of an insurrection, they “lock down” the facility, restricting movement and preventing collective violence against their benevolent jailers.

So, we are being told we have an “insurrection” being mounted against an orderly life and the greater good of the people of the world, by an invisible enemy — aka the coronavirus — which despite having a curious resemblance to the invisible terrorists which were lurking behind every tree after 9/11, now is the only matter worth being mentioned or discussed by our spectacle-friendly, melodrama-driven media and health-conscious government.

Well, I agree in part with that assessment. We are under violent attack by an invisible enemy — one which in fact is hiding in plain sight — and certainly does present an existential threat to the entire human race. In fact, this invisible threat is the one which spawned the coronavirus itself, the response to the coronavirus, the justifications for panic and fear of everything related to the coronavirus, is pushing a balls-to-the-wall vaccination campaign, and originally initiated and now enforces all of the lockdowns across the globe.

And I agree. Absolutely! The only way to deal with the dysfunction and chaos of our present circumstance is A THOROUGH, MASSIVE LOCKDOWN!

But here’s the problem. And it’s a VERY BIG PROBLEM!

Right now, the wrong people are being locked down. Innocent people who are not the problem, not even partially responsible for the problem, people who if anything would LOVE TO FIX THE PROBLEM, are being locked down. And the malicious, manipulative control freaks of the world who created the conditions for the outlandish, misdirected, cruel, oppressive lockdowns are not.

THAT’S what’s wrong with these current lockdowns.

We saw the evidence of this con from the start.

For the first time in history, instead of isolating the sick to protect the healthy, they LOCKED DOWN EVERYBODY. Statistically, nothing about this coronavirus business passes the smell test. As fudged and manipulated as the numbers are, we are not facing an epic world health crisis. Even so, typically when large numbers of individuals become sick, it’s the healthy people who keep things going, who keep society functioning, so that resources can be focused on keeping the sick alive and making them well again. This time, everything was shut down. Everyone was forced to stay home. Not only did this make normal functioning impossible, it compromised the health of the healthy, making them more vulnerable to possible illness, not just from the coronavirus but from other medical challenges. Moreover, heart patients, diabetics, people with high blood pressure, cancer, obesity, psychological issues, NO ONE COULD GET PROPER TREATMENT. Thousands have died. The horror and disgrace of this willful negligence gets little to no attention.

The whole approach to the “pandemic” has been so irrational, counterproductive, so opposite of established protocols and responses, there is only one conclusion. It was intentional, callous, arguably punitive and malicious. Those driving the response to the crisis — whatever it really is — had either lost their minds, or had and continue to have some extremely disruptive, oppressive plan. I personally think it’s entirely about money: short-range profits for pharmaceutical companies, long-range profits for those who now have everyone under their boot heels and can extract the last few drops of blood from us.

There’s no other conclusion that holds up to rational analysis. Those at the helm of this monstrous assault on the established structures of society and the just, orderly conduct of everyday life know exactly what toll this is taking. This is going as planned. The monopoly capitalists, the puppet masters of technological tyranny, the insatiable, arguably insane ruling elite are jumping for joy in their gated communities and virtual star chambers.

The inescapable conclusion is . . .

The people who should be locked down — and locked up — are the predatory capitalists, the greed-driven monomaniacal profit seekers who put their own enrichment and that of their elite class ahead of everyone else.

Those who would despoil the planet, pollute the air and water, drive species extinction, multiply wealth inequality, use racism as a weapon of social and political control, THEY should be locked down. They should be quarantined and not allowed to circulate among us, spreading the filth of their self-promoting, self-enriching, self-aggrandizing, amoral, predatory pathology.

Those who are restricting and eliminating what few freedoms we now have, who violate our privacy, who insinuate themselves into our homes and the sanctity of our marriages and family relationships, should be LOCKED DOWN. Those who would further isolate and marginalize good, decent people, should be isolated and immobilized before they entirely destroy the fabric of a functioning society.

Those who see everything as a commodity, who see human beings as only producers and consumers, who view every moment and opportunity in life as just another chance to extract more wealth and achieve more power, then use it to exploit and abuse the rest of us, THEY SHOULD BE LOCKED DOWN.

Make no mistake about it. We have a horrific disease spreading across the planet, a plague of unparalleled dimensions, a killer of unprecedented destructive power and lethality. It is a disease so dangerous to humans, so toxic to our families and communities, so in total opposition to the nurturing and growth of healthy individuals, so foul as to kill the human spirit and vanquish the spiritual and emotional lives of all sentient beings, we need to immediately take drastic and decisive action.

No energy should be spared. No action is too extreme. Hesitation when dealing with such a grisly threat is not an option. It may be too late already.

The lethal virus we are now facing is called GLOBAL NEOLIBERAL CAPITALISM!

We have no choice. There’s no longer a margin for error. Its viral super-spreaders MUST BE IDENTIFIED AND LOCKED DOWN. These psychopathic criminals are so aggressive, so relentless, so obsessed and possessed, so convinced of their right to inflict themselves on others, we have little choice in the matter. They must be rounded up and sequestered.

It will not do to “send them to their rooms”. They must be locked down in tomb-like, hermetically-sealed chambers, cut off from all communication with the world — their breath, their words, their world view, their fanatic sense of entitlement are all equally pathogenic — left alone with their mountains of accumulated wealth: stocks and bonds, spread sheets, jewelry, derivatives, diamonds, gold and other precious metals. They must be locked down in cocoons of lavish isolation to hoard and treasure all their worldly booty, to reflect and gloat on their affluence and importance, to relish how exhilarating it feels to deprive other less fortunate people — that would be “we the peons” — of even an hint of their splendid opulence. 

Yes, lock them down, put and keep them and all their glitter out of sight. We don’t need to be reminded of their avarice, gluttony, selfishness, pride, arrogance, contempt. Bye-bye to all of it! Lock these predators down — DISAPPEAR them — so we can get on with our lives. So we can hug each other again and enjoy sunsets and watch our children grow and delight in a simple meal at a restaurant and visit our friends and listen to music together and gather to worship and dance and play tennis or join a book club. Put the monsters out of sight and out of memory so we can live our lives without having to endure such loathsome miscreants, or fear they are watching us with their condescension and contempt, sneering at us through the mirrored windows of their skyscrapers or from behind the tinted glass of their stretch limos.

LOCK THEM DOWN! . . . NOW!

LOCK DOWN those who prey on others for profit.

LOCK DOWN those who promote endless wars for profit.

LOCK DOWN those who promote endless lies and false narratives for profit.

LOCK DOWN those who make us sick, keep us sick, then exploit our incapacitation for profit.

LOCK DOWN those who incarcerate people of color for profit.

LOCK DOWN those who promote debt slavery for profit.

LOCK DOWN those who promote privatization of the public commons for profit.

LOCK DOWN those now accelerating wealth inequality to destroy the lives of middle and working class people.

LOCK DOWN those who use everyday people as cannon fodder to protect their portfolios, property, and privilege.

LOCK DOWN those who have silenced the voice of the people and destroyed democracy in America.

LOCK THEM DOWN, because at least for now, the alternative is too distasteful. 

The alternative is termination.

There are sites in Nevada devoted to storing the toxic byproducts of nuclear fission. For example, Yucca Mountain was being prepared as a massive depository for life-threatening waste. It’s time to reinstate funding for this project and get it ready for a new form of toxic sludge. It’s huge, far from anything or anyone else, just waiting to be put to good use. 

Perfect, I say!

The perpetrators of our oppression deserve their own truly “private space”.

We deserve to be free from their pathological obsessions and devious manipulations.

It’s practically the definition of a win-win proposition!

We should spare no expense nor any speed. Lock them down now! Let them take it all with them. Ship their yachts and private jets, their stores of wealth in every transportable form, send it all packing, dump it all in those spacious Yucca Mountain caves. After all, if this wonderful stuff is so important to the wealthy, who are we to deprive them of the pleasure of wandering through their piles of caviar, vintage wines, mounted animal heads, fine art treasures, tuxedos, evening gowns, pheasant-under-glass, diamond belt buckles, polo horses, and gold-plated sex toys?

LOCKDOWNS . . . YES! 

But this time let’s get it right. 

Quarantine the truly diseased and dangerous, those who are the real plague upon us.

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

We need a massive lockdown . . . NOW! | John Rachel

Book Review: “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela” by Dan Kovalik

In one concise statement, Dan Kovalik sums up the criminal — if self-serving and for now effective — foreign policy of the U.S. across the planet:

“The US appears to be intentionally spreading chaos throughout strategic portions of the world, leaving virtually no independent state standing to protect their resources, especially oil, from Western exploitation.  And, this goal is being achieved with resounding success, while also achieving the subsidiary goal of enriching the behemoth military-industrial complex.”

A divided Korea, a decimated Vietnam, endless war in Afghanistan, a barely functional Iraq, a destroyed Libya, ongoing destruction of Syria and Venezuela, relentless attacks and incipient war on Iran, give us more than a glimpse into the awesome power of America’s military might, its malice and ruthlessness in projecting that power, its no-holds-barred no-moral-qualms no-body-count no-questions-asked ends-justify-the-means tactical use of genocide, its jaw-dropping hypocrisy in portraying itself as a force of good, its psychopathic exceptionalist world view which judges all other nations and their populations as dispensable, and its ultimate loyalty to a tiny autocratic ruling elite who use “democracy” as just another tool in their bag of tricks to promote absolute corporate tyranny — the framework of fascism Sheldon Wolin calls inverted totalitarianism — and global hegemony.  It’s for good reason that the U.S. is now often referred to as the Empire of Chaos.

The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela: How the US is Orchestrating a Coup for Oil, as the title suggests, more specifically focuses on the horrors inflicted by the U.S. government on Venezuela.  This thorough, extremely well-researched, and fully supported exposé covers the current crises in and about Venezuela, intentionally and purposefully instigated by the U.S. to overthrow its current government and plunder the country’s rich oil reserves.  Just as importantly it offers rich and revealing historical accounts of America’s past dealings with Venezuela and almost identical scenarios with other Latin American nations, detailing the darkness and corruption that lies at the heart of U.S. foreign policy, and how that has cast a pall of oppression over the entirety of South and Central America, the nations of which have the geographical misfortune of being in America’s self-declared hemisphere of influence — read that as hemisphere of total domination and ruthless exploitation.  From Chile to Haiti to Panama to Honduras to Nicaragua to El Salvador to Colombia, we see the brutal deployment of U.S. political and military assets leaving whole countries impoverished, the poor without hope — often deprived of even food and water — and piles of nameless corpses in escalating numbers, dismissed by the U.S. government and its lapdog media as collateral damage of the Great Imperial Project. 

By the end of Kovalik’s chilling indictment of U.S. malfeasance in its war on the people of Venezuela, what is astonishing and shocking is that the U.S. is again getting away with such overt and illegal aggression, by not only using the same play book, but by using the same players.  With Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State, John Bolton as National Security Advisor, and Elliot Abrams as Special Envoy to Venezuela, at the helm of the project to take Venezuela’s government apart and replace it with the puppet regime of the unelected Juan Guaido, we have three of the most notorious of the notorious — murderous, lying thugs — doing the dirty work.  All three have sordid histories of inciting war and orchestrating regime changes.  Abrams was indicted and convicted for lying to Congress about the Iran-Contra affair.

The thought-provoking Plot to Overthrow Venezuela is very well-written, with a clarity, accessibility, and erudition which puts it in a class with the best works of Noam Chomsky.  The Foreword by Oliver Stone is a worthy and deserving way to get things started.  I give it the highest possible recommendation, truly one of the most engaging and informative books I’ve read in ages.

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




Book Review: “The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela” by Dan Kovalik

No Contract No Vote

 
Asking our current political leadership to reform itself is like expecting a rabid dog to seek out medical treatment and find a path to full rehabilitation.

It's quite obvious our "professional politicians" are now infected and controlled by an anti-democratic brain-eating virus, are well-compensated, septic purveyors of raging, exponentially-spreading corporate tyranny and ruling class oppression -- a tenacious systemic disease which the brilliant, unfortunately late, political theorist Sheldon Wolin called inverted totalitarianism.

Which means if anything is to get done on behalf of the everyday citizens of this country, it will have to be initiated, engineered, and advanced by "outsiders" -- that would be you and I, working with future political office holders who have not so far been and will not ever be sucked into the slipstream of the neoliberal, rapacious capitalism-at-all-costs juggernaut.

We must particularly remain keenly aware of and rigorously vigilant against spoilers in our midst.  For example, we shouldn't for a single, inattentive moment think we can count on any of the pseudo-progressives who are now, with the Trumpenstein monster's ball in full swing, capitalizing on their resurgent popularity on dance cards of the desperate.  There's no question, we're in big trouble.  Our democracy is in the middle of an existential crisis.  That hardly suggests we should turn to those who have been participating in, have often been instrumental in engineering the mess, to see what their latest bright ideas are.

Time for some new blood!  Some fresh thinking!

We especially must not be fooled or sidetracked by what has been appropriately dubbed the McResistance, those who would lead a false challenge and short-lived charge against the current order, then in the end just cave to more crippling, insidious compromises on behalf of the ruling elite.  We might not want to admit it but we do know who they are.  They include such political rock stars as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders.

How, then, do we know who to trust?  How can we determine who is merely engaged in another round of the tomfoolery that has destroyed our democracy, buried the American Dream under mountains of jingoistic puffery and comic book exceptionalism, gutted the hopes of everyday Americans, keeping them from participating in the enormous potential and opportunities which our country is supposed to represent for all its citizens?

There are times when 'bold and simple' are better than 'nuanced and complicated'.

Yet, there is always a temptation to make something bold and simple more tentative and complicated than it needs to be.  However, there's no need here for wishy-washy thinking, waffling, Aristotelian cogitation, or utopian daydreaming.  So . . .

Let me be clear about the purpose of the candidate contract strategy.

This might sound insultingly simplistic to some but I'm going to say it anyway.

The purpose of the candidate contract strategy is to get the good guys elected and throw the bad guys out of office.

Period!

And since in my view most of the current legislators and certainly the president falls into the 'bad guys' category, most of them should and -- if the strategy is successful -- will be replaced by a whole new freshman class of 'good guys'.  Yes, I'm talking about . . .

Regime change in Washington DC!

REQUIRED DEFINITIONS:

While the candidate contract strategy is certainly applicable at all levels of government for any position chosen by electors, 'elected' and 'office' for my immediate purposes refers to federal openings -- membership in the House, membership in the Senate, the President.

A 'good guy' is an elected official who is honest, transparent, and wholly responsible for representing the needs and priorities of those constituents who by majority vote have chosen him/her as their congressman or president.

A 'bad guy' is an elected official who does not consistently and unwaveringly represent the needs and priorities of his/her constituents, probably is beholden to or strongly influenced by campaign donors, corporate lobbyists, well-funded special interest groups, in a phrase, 'the ruling class' of this country.

Having said that, let's get down to the nuts and bolts of how the candidate strategy works.

BASIC BUT CRITICAL Q & A:

Q.  Who would want to sign such a candidate contract?

A.  Any candidate running for office who wants to get elected.

 

Q.  How can signing a candidate contract guarantee getting elected?

A.  Of course, there are no absolute guarantees. At the same time, please refer to the title of this article.  If a candidate does not sign the contract, we don't vote for him or her.  If a candidate does sign the contract, he or she deserves, thus will get our votes. Of course, this means voters must unite and take a firm stand.  But why wouldn't they?  It's in all of our best interests and the best interests of our country as a whole to be strong and take back our democracy.

Q.  Why is the proposed contract in our best interests?

A.  The contract as offered, subject naturally to minor adjustments which reflect the specific needs and priorities of each voting jurisdiction, embraces those things which by huge majorities everyday citizens want done and aren't getting done.  Poll after poll shows support for all of the items which are addressed in the contact of 65% or more of everyday American citizens.  Most of the initiatives are supported by more than 3/4 of those polled.  The people have spoken.  The contract just takes their concerns and priorities and puts it in writing.

Q.  Why should the voting public demand candidate contracts?

A.  Because at least on key issues which are important to the voting public, they take the guesswork out of voting.  There is no ambiguity, room for negotiation, or even margin for error.  The contract stipulates in no uncertain terms what an elected official must and will do on those key issues from the day he or she arrives in Washington DC.  Voters are fed up with hot air campaign rhetoric and broken promises.  In one master stroke, the contract gets rid of the smoke and breaks the mirrors.
Before we go on, let's look at the contract I'm offering.  This is the comprehensive catch-all version, based on critical issue polling and Bernie Sanders' campaign platform.

Now . . . back to the nuts-and-bolts.

The candidate contract or contracts are initially introduced to the electoral process -- a campaign for public office -- from two directions, eventually to meet in the middle.

CANDIDATE CONTRACTS FROM THE PEOPLE:

A citizens group or citizens groups representing certain constituent causes can and should put up a candidate contract which reflects issues of concern, then present them to those candidates running for office in their district.

For example, minimum wage workers in a congressional district should challenge anyone running to sign a contract boosting the federal minimum wage.  There already are many "FightFor15" activist groups around the country.  The appropriate candidate contract turns their pleas into a concrete demand -- a forceful, decisive ultimatum.  If a candidate signs such a contract, he or she gets not only the endorsement of the group, but the members of the activist group take it upon themselves -- after all it's in their best interests -- to actively and enthusiastically campaign on behalf of that candidate, reinforcing his/her own official publicity and whatever media coverage can be generated.

Senior citizens groups may likewise prepare a candidate contract to protect Social Security and Medicare.  The candidate who signs such a contract again gets the full support and backing of such senior citizens groups.  They highlight the candidate's loyalty to them in all of their newsletters, at their shuffleboard club meets, bingo contests.  They wear t-shirts or put bumper stickers on their cars and golf carts:  Future congressman Godfrey Goodman signed on the dotted line to protect SS and Medicare!

CANDIDATE CONTRACTS BY NON-ESTABLISHMENT CANDIDATES:

At the other end of the equation, an independent or third-party candidate, or a candidate running as a dissident major party candidate, for example in a primary, would make the candidate contract central to his/her campaign.  Based on research and polling in the local district, a contract which reflects the priorities of voters in that district would be drawn up, which highlights those key issues which have broad public support.  Such a contract would look like the one above, making solid, unambiguous commitments on a range of popular, critical causes.

Now it's important to understand, the establishment candidates may give lip-service to what's in that contract or an appropriate variation of it.  But the reality is, they will not sign it.  They can't!  If they did, their major parties would abandon them, their campaign funding would dry up, they would be targeted -- as Bernie Sanders was by the Democratic Party -- for marginalization and defeat.

This makes the signed contract a huge public relations coup!  It effectively gives the 'good guy' anti-establishment candidate the high ground, the right to legitimately say and be able to prove, he or she is on the side of the people.  Putting the contract front and center in the campaign takes the guesswork out of the voting for the public.  They can see in the starkest terms exactly where the candidates stand and who's really on their side.

INTRODUCING HONESTY AND TRANSPARENCY INTO THE GAME:

I don't know how to say this gently or with Zen dispassion.  So . . .

The candidate is not a magic wand.  It's a sledgehammer!

Signing the contract will not create some harmonic convergence of metaphysical forces which will usher people into the voting booth and make them vote for a candidate.

Signing the contract does, however, provide a powerful tool to beat up an opponent and discredit a 'bad guy' candidate in the eyes of the voters, while portraying in stark relief the candidate who does sign the contract, as an individual who has volunteered a bulletproof guarantee, if elected, of service to his constituents.

This is no trivial matter.

Right now, campaigning is a house of mirrors in a bank of fog.  Words are chosen with a lawyer's eye and a Madison Avenue ear.  I'm not sure the candidates typically even know themselves where they stand on much of what's important to the public.  But if they do, they sure aren't telling us in clear, unambiguous terms.  Thus expectations and performance are secondary to image and appeal.  The same shallow devices, cynical psychology, and stealthy methodologies, are used to "sell" a candidate as are used to sell any other products out there, from eyeliner to soda pop and fast food to automobiles and fantasy vacation cruises.

The candidate contract puts back front and center what a political campaign should be -- but rarely is -- all about, which is what exactly can we expect the candidate to do once he or she arrives in Washington DC.

Having the candidate contract be the new standard for electoral integrity, particularly having it arrive simultaneously from the two critical participants in the voting mechanism -- the advocacy groups among the voting public and enlightened candidates themselves -- means it reflects the best traditions of the democratic process.

It represents a long-lost level of honesty and transparency, reintroduced into the requisite and most basic communication that is the foundation of a robust democratic system -- the vetting process for identifying and selecting elected representatives.

The voters can and must probe the candidate:  "Where do stand on this?"

And the 'good guy' candidate gets to reply:  "Glad you asked.  Just read my contract with you, the voters.  It's all spelled out in black-and-white.  And yes, that's my signature at the bottom."

If we as voters and those among us who aspire to be elected representatives turn our backs on this idea, during such divisive and perilous times, when we're starting to hear the initial portents of a death rattle from our sick and dying democracy, we will deserve the brutally totalitarian, crassly authoritarian, wantonly fascistic debacle our government-by-the-corporate-ruling-elite is fast becoming.

The time is right for candidate contracts.

Unless you have a better idea . . .


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



No Contract No Vote

Line of Succession: Just when you thought it was safe to . . .

 

I have been consistently and forcefully inveighing against wasting time and energy on impeaching Donald Trump.  The main thrust of my argument has been that while our Chief Executive -- i.e. the President of the United States -- is certainly very powerful and we can expect Trump to do a lot of damage, targeting him directly is the least effective way to halt his diabolical agenda.  Rather, a truly progressive Congress, one representative of both the needs of everyday citizens and the greater good of the country, could isolate him and counter one-by-one all of his fiercest dictatorial efforts to dismantle democracy and further the self-serving agenda of the ruling class.  As an example, if the orange autocrat signed an executive order permitting fracking on school playgrounds, Congress would pass a law prohibiting fracking on school playgrounds.  If he signed an executive order banning bicycle lanes, Congress would pass a law authorizing bike lanes.  You get the idea.

Recognize . . .

An enlightened Congress would be a bulwark against the broader agenda of the neoliberal juggernaut, the war mongering militarism of the neocons, and the rule by fiat of the rich and powerful.  An enlightened Congress could legislate what the country wants and needs, in spite of an antagonistic, uncooperative White House, and could even put an end to the anti-democratic meddling and chicanery of the Deep State.

Unfortunately, my appeal for "regime change" in Congress has fallen on deaf ears.  Maybe the piercing din of shrill cries for the Trumpster's ouster have drown out my call for cooler heads and what is obvious to me is a more sane and effective approach.  Or maybe a lot of folks just never bothered to pay attention in high school civics class, thus don't understand the way our government actually works.

But I haven't given up.  The only genuine, permanent fix to our ailing system is replacing at bare minimum 450 of the corrupt pay-for-play corporate lapdogs currently seated in the House and Senate.
That is a given and nothing anyone can say or do to distract us can change that fact.

However, a very sobering thought just occurred to me.  I hope it will wake folks up.

What is the line of succession for the presidency?

That is, if Trump is impeached, who will replace him?

That would be Mike Pence, the Vice-President.  Pretty scary thought!

If Mike Pence is impeached, who replaces him?

None other than Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives.  Ugh!  Even scarier!  Here's a man whose insensitivity and cruelty to the everyday citizen makes Ayn Rand look like Mother Theresa.

Then if Paul Ryan is impeached, who replaces him?

Orrin Hatch, President pro tempore of the Senate.  Wonderful!  Here's a guy vilified as much by his own party as he is by the Democrats.  Just what we need, more gridlock and cage fighting.

And if Orrin Hatch is impeached, who replaces him?

Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson.  Yep, the drill-baby-drill former CEO of Exxon-Mobil.  We probably will see fracking in school playgrounds if he becomes president.

If we are not suffering from impeachment burnout, and Rex Tillerson is then put on the chopping block, who replaces him?

Former Goldman Sachs CIO and hedge fund manager, now Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin!  Perfect.  Maybe he'll streamline the monetary system and just have the investment banks print money for themselves instead of the U.S. Treasury.

So . . . are you getting the picture?

Granted, Trump is an easy target.  But impeaching him accomplishes nothing.  It merely sets up month-after-month, year-after-year of more impeachment hearings.  What Trump represents will not go away just because he does.  As they say in sports, their bench is very deep.

What's the solution?  Where do we channel our rage?  What will truly turn things around and start to fix this unbelievable mess?

Regime change in Congress is the only option and the only viable place to focus our time, energy and creativity.  There are 33 Senate seats and 435 House seats up for grabs in the 2018 election.  That's where our power resides.  That's how we achieve genuine change.  That's how we turn our nation around.

I see little redeeming value in returning any of the incumbents to office.  That's just me.  Citizens need to decide for themselves.  But recognize, we need to start this right now.  Waiting until next year will be too late.

How do we decide?

I have proposed -- for over four years now -- a simple solution.

Candidate contracts.

Decide what we want done.  Present candidate contracts which specify what we want done.

There's a lot of critical issues to choose from:  Social Security, Medicare; minimum wage; taxing the rich, eliminating tax loopholes and corporate welfare; reducing the military, ending pointless wasteful wars; electoral reform (e.g. Citizens United and term limits); rebuilding roads, schools, communities; guaranteeing good K-12 education.  We can even probably add student debt relief, truly universal single-payer health care, home mortgage relief, and a few others to this list.

Most importantly, there is an enormous amount of agreement among the vast majority of citizens on these key issues.  Having said that, the candidate contract is entirely flexible and can be configured to reflect the unique priorities and will of the voters in each congressional district and in each state where there is a senatorial contest.

The underlying principle, however, is the same . . .

If a candidate signs the contract, he or she deserves our vote.  Simply because at least on the issues which are covered by the contracts, WE KNOW EXACTLY WHAT WILL GET DONE.  The candidate contracts are bulletproof, ironclad guarantees of representation!

No excuses.  No compromise.  No negotiation.

On the other hand . . .

If a candidate waffles, slithers, slides, and avoids discussing and signing the contracts, we then know they are "business as usual" types -- i.e. full of wonderful-sounding but empty rhetoric, peddling deceptive campaign promises, so when they arrive in Washington DC they will forget us, the very people who voted them into their cushy jobs in our nation's capitol.

If a candidate will not sign on the dotted line, he or she does not get our vote.

This concept is simple, straightforward, powerful.

No contract = no vote!

This is how we take all of the guesswork out of voting.

So . . .

Dumping Trump is a satisfying thought but it will not get the job done.  Impeachment will take enormous time and energy, monopolize all of the resources we need to achieve real reform, and just set the stage for the next autocrat to push the agenda of the ruling class.

There is only one realistic option . . .

A truly representative Congress is the key -- the only sensible, effective path -- to restoring some semblance of democracy in this country.

---

But let's make no mistake about it.  We have an enormous struggle ahead of us.  But every journey begins with a few single steps.  Every action and all activism begins with ideas. 

Described in detail in two recent books are my ideas for how we conduct a bottoms-up, community-based, grass roots campaign for restoring democracy in America.

 

"Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy" was published June of 2015 and is available worldwide from all the usual suspects:
Amazon (Kindle)  . . . amzn.to/1QJRiNZ
Amazon (Print) . . . amzn.to/1Cuq0du
Apple (iTunes) . . . apple.co/1BXnPcy
Barnes & Noble . . . bit.ly/1GpTTLq
Kobo (Indigo) . . . bit.ly/1OEI2xj
Smashwords . . . bit.ly/1B4DQCp
Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/1MGjDnN

" 

Fighting for the Democracy We Deserve" was published September 2015 and is available both in every popular ebook format and as a deluxe paperback:

Amazon (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1VMf2Ft
Amazon (Print) . . . amzn.to/1L9SdIC
Apple (iTunes) . . . apple.co/1JD1YAg
Barnes & Noble . . . bit.ly/1ZUJUpn
Kobo (Indigo) . . . bit.ly/1IX6rO4
Smashwords . . . bit.ly/22PXWLf
Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/1i7ISFM


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



Line of Succession: Just when you thought it was safe to . . .

What Red State vs. Blue State Looks Like To An Ant

Just watching the two major-party conventions and seeing people now excitedly lining up on one side or the other like opposing Ninja turtle teams is both amusing and frightening.  We can count on the talking heads and modern media to regurgitate a story line familiar to devotees of Saturday morning cartoon shows to give substance to our political aspirations.  Unfortunately, the narrative is insultingly simple-minded and mostly a distraction.

With the nation divided into red and blue states, the news robots now have the solemn and putatively critical duty to keep us up to date on any shifting of allegiances and rebalancing of the color scheme, milking any incremental addition of a splotch of blue or dash of red for whatever drama they can generate, before cutting to a commercial break.

What has this got to do with the mounting crises we find ourselves in?
Here is a short list of profound challenges confronting the world:

• Potential for nuclear war and the annihilation of the planet.
• Climate change.
• Resource depletion.
• Desertification of shrinking tracts of farm land.
• Diminishing fresh water supplies.
• Acidification of the oceans and overfishing.
• Antibiotic-resistant diseases.
• Accelerating species extinction.
• Human trafficking and enslavement.

Here is a short list of critical challenges just to our nation:

• Destruction of democracy and rule by an oligarchy.
• Historical levels of wealth inequality.
• Loss of privacy and basic constitutional rights to the surveillance state.
• Corporate tyranny and plutocratic control of the economy.
• Almost 50% of Americans living in or close to poverty.
• As many as 29,000,000 still without health insurance.
• Rampant social and systemic racism.
• Crumbling of infrastructure and crippling of our social institutions.
• Militarization of society and seizure of power by the military-industrial complex.
• Police brutality and murder of innocent citizens.

Pundits and politicos in service to their oligarchic masters can generate all the wonderful spin they can.  But America's economy has been hollowed out from the inside, and due to a fanatic allegiance to a defective and extremely destructive ideology, the needs of everyday citizens have been ignored.  Anger and frustration mount.  Signs of decline and decay are all around us, behind the glitter and the glitz.  Worst of all, the U.S. as a world power is losing the mantle of leadership.  Its policies have inflicted so much chaos, destruction and death on the rest of the planet, the U.S. is losing its legitimacy and predictably is being challenged by Russia, China, and the non-aligned countries of the South.  Of course, with the myopia and desperation that characterizes a dying empire, what's America's answer?  More chaos, destruction and death.  We are involved in seven wars right now and the specter of World War III looms frighteningly on the horizon.

Everything comes back to what we as a people do to reverse this disastrous course.

Isn't it time to put away the gang colors and actually begin to solve some problems?

Is it possible?  I don't know.

I do know it's absolutely necessary.

Our survival as a country and even as a species depends on it.


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


What Red State vs. Blue State Looks Like To An Ant

A Swan Dive Into The Abyss

 
The above chart explains how the wealth of our country has dramatically migrated to the wealthiest .1% -- literally only 152,000 people -- over the past three-and-a-half decades.

This next chart shows that indeed America is "exceptional". It is, as it likes to remind the rest of the world and its narcoleptic citizens, truly #1! Right there at the top of the list for wealth inequality among the major economies of the world. Gosh, it makes a guy proud!

 
Why is this suicidal?

Without getting into the economics -- which falls in the category of killing the organism which hosts the parasite -- the psychology is straightforward.

It's not such a great idea to feed a population armed with 300,000,000 plus firearms the illusion that we have a democracy, promise them the splendor of unlimited if irresponsible affluence, empty their wallets while destroying their prospects of making a decent living, then rub in their face how pathetic, irrelevant, and nauseatingly poor they are from the deck of an extravagant multi-million dollar yacht, the luxurious cabin of a private jet, or from behind the walls of a grotesquely lavish estate.

Just not very smart.

Giving credit where it is due, America will achieve its arc of failure and self-annihilation -- its swan dive into the abyss -- with the self-assured grace and style which is the mark of a great empire.

The only thing that might attenuate its balletic descent into the dustbin of history would be a major war -- almost certainly nuclear -- which would incinerate the bird mid-flight.

Much to the chagrin and horror of some of us who are paying attention, this may just be where our country is heading, as we demonize and intimidate the other two major nuclear powers in the world, Russia and China, with a recklessness which would make Genghis Khan blush.

What's for dinner?

Any good recipes for radioactive swan?



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