Useful Idiots Are Still Useful

There are a lot of smug, self-righteous folks out there — I hope not but maybe some right here reading this — who like to look down their noses at what they call “sheeple”.

Tellingly, if we are really honest with ourselves, at one time or another and to a greater or lesser degree, we’ve all been sheeple. We’ve gone with the flow. Gone along to get along. Yes, I’m embarrassed to say, I have too.

What am I supposed to take from that?

The hardest thing for me, as a very smart person, with a smart mouth, and a smart aleck attitude, to learn and fully internalize has been this:

Don’t judge.

Of course, there are situations and people all of the time which require a “judgment call”. Should I trust this person? Is that guy over there yelling at the top of his lungs about UFOs dangerous? Is this politician focused on getting my vote telling the truth or blowing smoke?

What I mean by ‘don’t judge’ is simple. Don’t make final declarations which cut you off from any further understanding or appreciation, whether it’s about a person or a circumstance.

Sheeple, for example.

The idiom implies that such people are incapable of thinking for themselves, that they purely are followers. The herd sleeps, they sleep. The herd chews on grass, they chew on grass. The herd runs into the chute to their slaughter, they run into the chute to their slaughter.

There’s some truth to that. But the fact is, we all do this. Anybody out there wearing their pants backwards or answering the phone by reciting Shakespearean couplets? Any of you celebrate your last birthday by playing the drum solo from In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida naked at the bottom of an empty swimming pool? 

We all do a lot of things in concert with others. We go to concerts and sing along with the chorus to our favorite songs. By the millions we watch the same TV shows, laugh at the same jokes, cry at the same tragedies, sit like hypnotized lumps taking in the daily news, then say the same things everyone else is saying about the same scandals.

And the undeniable truth is, sometimes it feels great being part of some “community” of people doing the same thing. Is anyone going to tell me that tens of thousands of people packing into a stadium or millions of people glued to the boob tube, watching grown men — very big grown men — battle to cart what looks like a leather melon to the end of a grassy rectangle, that’s asserting individuality and true independent thinking?

Rah rah rah. More beer! Yay!

Don’t judge.

Let me take this to another level.

‘Useful idiot’ is another phrase I’ve been giving serious thought to.

I watched a couple videos the other day, then shared them with a few trusted friends. They were appalled. They’re not speaking to me now.

Okay, what could be so offensive other than a porn movie featuring Trump, his daughter Ivanka, and a freshly disemboweled chimpanzee?

If you think you can handle it, here are two of a whole series of YouTube videos by a minor-genius video blogger by the name of Mark Dice.

The Common Sense Test

Talking With Californians

Yes, really it’s difficult. I keep telling myself: Don’t judge. Don’t judge.

Okay . . . if I don’t judge, what then? What exactly do I do?

First, some perspective. 

Our heralded democratic system is a great leveler. Every person in those videos, the ones who didn’t know why we celebrate the 4th of July and those who don’t know what country Mount Rushmore is in, has the right to vote. And here’s a truly sobering fact . . . EACH OF THEIR VOTES counts exactly the same as EACH OF OUR VOTES. 

Hey, it’s right there in the Constitution! One person, one vote. This is democracy in action, folks! Equality in the voting booth is the oxygen of our amazing political system! Ladies and gentlemen and everyone in between, this is SO INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL . . . I can’t stop crying! 

[ 42 minutes later: It’s taken a while, but I’ve finally gotten a grip and will now continue with my touching article. ]

Political activists are always asking: how can we get people involved, how can we get them engaged, how can we get them to vote, be a part of the solution instead of a part of the problem? That means everyone! Even the sheeple in the videos deserve to have a voice, right?

I’m simplifying but . . .

“Dude! I got some great reefer! If you vote for Bernie Sanders, man I’ll get you so high, you’ll meet Jim Morrison.”

“Hey, you are one fine-looking babe! How would you like $18,000? Tell you what, if you vote for this peace candidate, Theresa Treehugger, I’ll get you your money!”

Ridiculous? Actually, here’s the deal. Either we do it or someone else will. And then it will look like . . .

“Let’s make America great again! F*ck the Mexicans. F*ck the Muslims. Kill the Chinese. Kill the Russians.”

Make no mistake about it: USEFUL IDIOTS ARE STILL USEFUL!

To really make you understand and appreciate how important this is, here’s my final thought. Someone in some elevated seat of power, someone with the money and resources to completely shape the future of your world, is thinking that very thing . . .

AND LOOKING AT YOU!

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

Useful Idiots Are Still Useful | John Rachel

CFAR Candidates: The Real Deal

I've had several people ask me why I do these videos promoting the candidate contract electoral strategy.  I think it's self-evident:  I like standing outside and talking to a bunch of trees.  Here's my latest effort.  The text of the presentation follows.

Pathetic!  Yes . . . PATHETIC!

The state of our democracy.  The state of our politics.
 

There's no other word for it.

Our politicians?  I'm not an expert on American history but at first glance I think it's safe to say our current batch of ruling class toadies are among the most mediocre, uncreative, lackluster, uninspiring, duplicitous, hypocritical, ignorant, unprincipled, too often shamelessly malevolent bottom dwellers, ever to appear on our political stage.

The entire Republican Party is evidence enough on that side of the aisle.  Comparing any of them with the real public servants in their rich tradition makes guys like Pence, Ryan, and Trump look like a sick joke.  Ever heard of Abraham Lincoln?

Now look at the latest public relations fiasco by the Democratic Party, a desperate attempt to reverse their flagging fortunes; their catastrophic loss of voter confidence; their loss of the House and Senate, their loss of the majority of state legislatures, and their loss of the majority of governor seats; and to repair their self-inflicted but warranted reputation as the left wing of the Republican Party.

Plagiarizing the Democratic Party of old, thus making a mockery of FDR's historical and widely admired New Deal, they've just assembled a new platter of mildewy cliches, moldy slogans, stale platitudes and empty promises, a decomposing menu of already past-their-expiration-date overtures to their former base -- once-loyal working and middle class voters -- under the banner of A Better Deal.



Better than what?  The Art of the Deal of Trump?  Or the Raw Deal of the Republicans.

They're really setting their sights high, eh?  "We're the better bottom dwellers!"

That anyone pays attention to these master prevaricators is a miracle in its own right.  We must all be masochists or pathologically gullible.

But don't fret.

There's hope in the midst of this mass of toxic sludge clogging our electoral machinery!
Along comes the grass-roots voter-based initiative called CFAR.

CFAR stands for Contract For American Renewal.  But it's more than a contract, much much more than a legal device.  It's a paradigm-shifting, game-changing way to introduce honesty, integrity, transparency, and accountability, into our electoral process, putting people -- the vast majority of U.S. citizens -- back in the driver's seat.  It's government by the people.  It's real representative democracy.

The CFAR is the new standard by which we judge whether a candidate is worthy for office.

The CFAR includes only initiatives that are supported by a minimum of 62% of citizens. Most are in the 75-80% range. The CFAR is a citizens-based, populist strategy.

The CFAR requires in writing from any candidate who signs it that they will faithfully serve those who vote them into office.  No questions asked.  They either do the job or they find themselves back on the street.  Just read the contract.  It's clear and unambiguous.

The CFAR takes the guesswork out of voting.  Every initiative in the CFAR is supported by huge majorities.  If a candidate signs it, they are clearly on the side of the people.  They are guaranteeing in writing that they will be doing the bidding of their constituents from the day they arrive in Washington DC.  Thus they deserve our support and our votes.

The CFAR as a populist electoral strategy targets neoliberal, establishment candidates for defeat.  And more importantly, it decisively positions "people's candidates" -- progressive-populists -- to win, arming them with an ironclad strategic weapon to take on and crush their corrupt, pay-for-play opponents.

The CFAR exposes the phonies and frauds.  Voters are tired of shallow campaign rhetoric, vaporous sound bites, empty campaign promises.  If a candidate refuses to sign the CFAR, it means two things:  1) He or she is not on the side of the people.  2) This candidate does not deserve to get elected.  Voters will run from non-CFAR candidates like they're infected with the plague.

 

Therefore, Citizens Against Plutocracy and other activist groups are organizing nationally around the CFAR strategy, targeting the coming November 2018 election.  We want this election to mean something.  We want the voice of the people, now silenced by big money and autocratic control of the media and both major parties, to be heard and be instrumental in finally electing a Congress that works for the everyday citizen, not just the ruling elite, corporate kleptocrats, Wall Street, the big banks, and transnational corporations.

Forget about the Better Deal and the Raw Deal.

You want a Congress that works for the people?  You want public servants that serve the public?  You want a Congress which is not in the pockets of fat cat campaign donors, not lapdogs of the ruling class, not doormats of the military-industrial-security complex?

Then only vote for a candidate who has signed the CFAR.

CFAR candidates are the REAL DEAL!



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



CFAR Candidates: The Real Deal

My Elevator Pitch for the CFAR Strategy

The folks over at Revolt Against Plutocracy asked me to do a short "elevator pitch" for my CFAR candidate contract strategy, which they're aggressively promoting.  I thought it went pretty well except for a couple frightened looking people in the elevator.  Here is the video.  The text of the entire presentation follows.

 

Thirty-second floor, please.

(Barely audible)  ”ヘンなアメリカ人がいてはるわ〜”  [ Translation:  There is the strange American. ]

Are you as fed up with Washington DC as I am?  Nothing gets done for you and I.  Everything gets done for the rich and powerful.

There’s only one solution.  We need a people’s Congress.  That’s where the power is . . .

Congress!

Which means we need to get rid of the pay-for-play legislators on both sides of the aisle and put some good, honest, hard-working folks in office, ones who we know with certainty will go to Washington and represent us, the people who elect them — not their Wall Street donors, not their deep-pocketed corporate benefactors, not their country club friends.

That’s exactly what we at Revolt Against Plutocracy are doing.  We’re going for broke in this coming election.  We’re shooting for where the real power is . . . the U.S. Congress.

We have a candidate contract called a CFAR, which spells out in black-and-white what we expect a candidate to do.  If they sign it, great, we’ll get behind them come the November 2018 election.
If they don’t sign it, we will find a candidate who will.  We’ll only vote for candidates who have signed the CFAR, even if we have to write them in.

Forget about parties, ideologies, labels.  We’re just looking for the right candidate to do the right job — for us!  That’s it in a nutshell.  We’ll know it’s the right candidate because he or she will be signing a legally-binding contract to serve the voters of the district.

You can find out more about all of this at our website.  Just go to ... 

https://citizensagainstplutocracy.wordpress.com 

The link is also posted in the description below.  Look at the CFAR, the Contract For American Renewal.  See how our strategy is going to turn this whole mess on its head, and shake up Congress like it’s never been shook up before.  Sign up to be part of the solution.  See how easy it is for us to achieve real change in Washington DC next November.

A people’s Congress.  A Congress that works for everyone, not just the rich and powerful.

Check it out.  The future of our country depends on it.


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


My Elevator Pitch for the CFAR Strategy

Whack A Mole Activism

Why is it in terms of progressive reform the country is going backwards?

Last time I checked, citizens were by very sizable majorities for practically all of the things progressive activists actively promote.

I've cited these statistics repeatedly but they're worth looking at again:

75% of Americans want a federal minimum wage of $12.50 per hour.
63% of Americans want a federal minimum wage of $15.00 per hour.
75% of voters want fair trade agreements protecting jobs, workers, the environment.
76% of voters want a cut back on military spending.
76% of voters want the U.S. completely out of Afghanistan.
79% of voters want no reductions in Social Security, 70% support expanding it.
79% of voters want no reductions in Medicare.
80% of voters oppose the "Citizens United" U.S. Supreme Court decision.
68% of voters think taxes on the wealthy should be increased.
71% of voters support massive infrastructure renewal.
65% of voters want laws to combat climate change.
62% of voters want tuition free public colleges and universities.
74% of American voters are for ending oil industry subsidies.

We could probably add a few more to the list but this offers us the necessary perspective.
A great deal of energy and time by dedicated activists continues to be devoted to these and many other worthy causes: protecting a woman's right to choose; respecting human rights, especially those of immigrants and vilified minorities like Muslims; protecting the quality of air and water, stopping the wanton destruction of the environment; reining in abuses in the workplace; reducing police violence; on and on, all initiatives reflecting the best values and instincts of people who believe America is for all Americans, not just a privileged few.

Yet, all of these are constantly under assault.

This should come as no shock.  There has always been a tiny aristocratic elite in our nation which views itself -- not hard-working everyday citizens -- as the true engine of our wealth and greatness as a country.  Reacting to both the reforms of the 1930s under FDR, and the hard-won gains in civil and human rights in the 1960s and 1970s, these elitists set about reversing these populist measures with a comprehensive, long-range strategy of taking over the governing institutions at all levels and in every branch of government, then subsequently imposing their own selfish, self-serving agenda on the rest of us.

What we see now is their spectacular success.  The Republicans -- who most thoroughly and with ideological purity represent the interests of this ruling elite, though over the past two-and-a-half decades or more, the Democrats have been scrambling to align themselves with the ruling class, abandoning their traditional base of union workers and other citizens of the lower and middle classes -- now have the White House, both houses of Congress, a majority of the state legislatures.  Even the majority of state governors are Republicans.

They have kicked our progressive asses good!

The reaction by our end of the political spectrum to this highly organized assault on the system of government, which we progressives and the majority of everyday people believe is supposed to serve the interests of all citizens, has been short-sighted and fragmented. 

The end product of decades of what we failed to properly assess and address is what I call Whack A Mole activism.

Just like the amusement center Whack A Mole game -- though we hardly find it amusing -- we are constantly challenged to whack at one crisis, while others are poised to quickly follow.  There's always another crisis popping up somewhere else.

We haven't even finished fighting in Afghanistan or Iraq, but now we have to fight another war in Syria.  While we're fueling the crisis in Syria, we start another one in the Ukraine.  As if these weren't enough, we're getting ready to fight Russia, China, North Korea.

We stop the Keystone XL, but five more pipelines get backroom approval.  We get ready to challenge them, the Arctic gets opened up again for more drilling.  More offshore rigs start popping up everywhere.  Leases are being handed out like Halloween candy to explore for gas in our National Parks.  Our heads are spinning.

We see school lunch programs cut.  Funding for the arts.  Then women's health centers get put on the chopping block.  Before the paint on our protest signs dries for those, the police kill a bunch of unarmed black folks because . . . well, they're black.  What other reason do the police need these days?

Even a crisis that we think we whacked, gets new life and pops up again a short time later.  Think about Net Neutrality.  Think about the modest, completely inadequate and symbolic victories on behalf of fighting climate change with the timid and compromised gestures of the Obama administration, wiped out with the swipe of a pen by Trump.  Look at banking and Wall Street regulations.  Consumer protections. One step forward, four steps back.

The crises keep coming faster and faster and just keep piling up.

Let's get real here.  There's no way we can win.  Just like the slot machines in Las Vegas, this game is rigged.  The house will always win.  Who owns the house?  They do!

They keep us scrambling.  They keep us divided.  They keep us distracted, in a constant state of panic, disoriented and exhausted by the sheer number of crises being created, we're never able to mount a unified, comprehensive, coherent counterattack.

Whether you credit the ruling elite with the ingenuity to have intentionally crafted this constant state of frenzy and chaos, or whether it has just been a convenient and effective but purely chance by-product of their original program, the upshot is the same.  We are being systematically crippled in our attempt to stop the juggernaut of regressive change.

What's pathetic about all of this, beyond our continuing failure to make much difference and the clear prospects that we will only lose more of these battles as time goes on, is that there apparently is still this naive, completely clueless belief that by just appealing to those now in power, by just pointing out the virtues of our reasonable demands, by highlighting the goodness and justice and fairness and decency of our causes -- yes by golly -- they will actually listen to our heart-felt pleas, come around, and do the right thing!

Maybe we watched too many Disney movies growing up, eh?

Let's not kid ourselves any longer.  There is a class of ultra-wealthy people, a tiny elite minority who despise us, disdain democracy, believe themselves extraordinary, superior, and above the rules and considerations which apply to the rest of us slobbering inferiors.  You can look at this psychologically, anthropologically, historically, sociologically, however you choose to analyze this phenomenon.  The reality is that it has been a factor in recorded history as long as there has been recorded history.

A fundamental principle in an egalitarian democracy is that such inevitable aristocratic forces be kept in check.  Look around.  We have failed.  Those aristocratic, authoritarian, elitist instincts which are always part of the DNA of a certain class of such patricians, are completely out of control in contemporary America.  The commons is being plundered or acquired and hoarded, the "general welfare" is being ignored -- even mocked -- the notion of the American Dream has become a punch line for a comedy routine that's played out on the stage of a country in a suicidal tailspin, a nation unraveling and apparently determined to now promote everything it once stood against: grotesque wealth inequality, plutocratic pillage, grotesque and anti-democratic militarism, foreign entanglements and imperial conquest, perpetual war, destruction of citizen privacy and constitutional protection.

Of course, if we point any of this out, or especially if we gather the courage to fight "them" and their self-serving agenda, we'll be accused of being troublemakers, insurrectionists, anarchists, communists, traitors.

But never ever forget . . .

Regular folks like you and I did not and are not starting a class war.  The simple truth is, we're the victims of an ongoing class war started a long long time ago, a class war which just becomes more fierce and destructive with each passing day and each passed piece of legislation by our corrupt Congress.  Make no mistake about it.  We are in a war!  It's a battle for survival.  The ruling class do not care if we live or die.  Unpleasant as this may sound, these are the facts on the ground.
Sometimes I'm accused of being extreme.  Excuse me?  The rich and powerful have stolen our country, destroyed our democracy, are now putting the finishing touches on a new incarnation of feudalism, and I should be deferential and gracious, warm and amicable?

I should give a pass to the Koch brothers?  Sure, they have families and friends, probably go to church every Sunday and sing All Hail the Power of Jesus's Name, or another lovely hymn praising the God that so blessed them with gold bumpers on their new Rolls Royce.  So what?  Their psychopathic level of greed and diabolical destruction of the environment is incompatible with democracy, with common decency, with the values of our nation, and with the survival of the human race.  THEY ARE THE ENEMY!  Period!

As the enemy, they are not to be respected, trusted, certainly not hailed as exemplars of our way of life.  They're just like demented children beating an anthill with a baseball bat.  We are the ants.

If as I say it's true that we're being played by the ruling class . . .

How then do we stop playing the Whack A Mole activism game?

There's only one solution:  We unplug it, take it out back, then take a sledgehammer to it.
We destroy the machine!

How does this translate to the struggle of everyday citizens to take back control of their country from an abusive and ruthless ruling class?

There's a lot of room for interpretation here and history is replete with examples.

The obvious and most decisive way of "destroying the machine" is a bloody revolution.

Perhaps I am naive but I'm hoping we can avoid that.  Considering both the enormous fire power of the federal authorities and the mind-numbing number of privately-owned guns, a revolution in the U.S. would be an unprecedented bloodbath.

Destroying the machine in my view is destroying the mechanism by which the ruling class now exclusively impose their will on our republic.  That mechanism is "owning" those who we allegedly democratically elect as our legislators.  The Achilles heel of that ownership are those owned.  We stopped the ownership of our governing officials by replacing the owned with the unowned.

Almost everyone now sitting in Congress is directly responsible for or complicit with the control of our legislative bodies by the ruling class.  They benefit from it.  They go along with it.  They are not going to change it.

Therefore we must change them.  Either we change their behavior -- a dubious prospect at this stage from what we've seen -- or we "change" the them who hold those positions.  We "unelect" those now in office and elect honest, accountable, responsive representatives to replace them.

That is why I'm calling for regime change in Congress in 2018.  This to me is the positive, non-violent path to cutting deep into the system and excising the poison of corruption.

We must look at replacing at least 400 of the current sitting members in the House of Representatives, and the 33 senators up for election in 2018.  This is certainly a drastic proposal.  But sometimes you need to completely clean house and start from scratch.

Should we take them out back and take sledgehammers to them?

There are probably many in this country who are so frustrated and angry -- or will be when they finally realize the level of corruption of our current elected officials -- they might opt for such violent reprisals.

I myself say the most important thing is to get these criminals out of office before they do any more damage to the country.  If you press me for how we should handle long histories of such political criminality, of abuse of public trust and the mockery they've made of our system of government, I will say that I can see a special tribunal being set up -- along the lines of the Nuremberg war crimes trials -- and our current congressmen being indicted.  We could call it the American Crimes Against Democracy Court of Reconciliation.

Maybe there would be a new arcade game along those lines to help fund the proceedings.

The Whack A Politico activist game!

In my next two articles, I will get into the specifics of implementing my candidate contract strategy toward dramatic regime change in Congress via the 2018 election.

We can continue playing a pointless game toward a fruitless ending.

Or we can unite and change the game itself.

That's the choice in 2018.


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



Whack A Mole Activism

Public Shaming

 

Many folks actually believe our elected "representatives" -- quotation marks are warranted since they don't in fact represent us at all -- listen to us.  To put it mildly, this is a bit naive.  The simple truth is, it's completely refuted by the facts.

Granted, these professional politicos put on a good show.  They all have at their disposal the best handlers, who tell them how to gesture and when to smile. They have the best speech writers money can buy, who twist words into incomprehensible but delightful-sounding gobbly-gook, smearing just the right among of cake frosting on often the most insidious acts of blatant treachery.  We buy into this three-ring circus because we foolishly trust these clowns.

We think that if we call their offices enough times, routed into the digital black hole of automated message machines; that if we attend the rare town hall meeting when he/she has found time between lunches with lobbyists, and fundraisers blessed by deep-pocketed corporate benefactors; if we sign online petitions, that add to the growing pile of tens of thousands of similar petitions; if we organize rallies and protests which while unreported by the media we're sure will attract some attention; if we write letters to the editor of our hometown newspapers, which in all probability won't get published but whose message will, we believe, still somehow magically get communicated; surely all of this effort will make a difference and we'll see some good, positive changes take place.

Talk about a disconnect!  Talk about willful denial!  Talk about delusional thinking!

Look around, folks.  Could it get worse for those of us with some humanity and decency?  Look at all levels of government. We have a card-carrying member of the .1% in the White House, lapdog puppets of the rich and powerful in control of both chambers of Congress, Republican majorities in all of the state legislatures, and Republicans also as governors of the majority of the states.

What does this mean?  What can we expect? 

Aristocrats and their pay-for-play toadies in high places are elitist and anti-democratic to the core, they are relentlessly greedy and insatiable, and will use their power to further enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us.

How will this end?

The ultra-rich have been and will continue to plunder our nation until there's nothing left to plunder, then they'll move on to other countries -- it's quite evident that the process is already well underway throughout Europe and Asia, funneling vast amounts of wealth to the already ultra-wealthy via hyper-capitalism and the neoliberal juggernaut.

Here's the straight talk, though it's not what you want to hear.

None of what we're doing works because . . .

The people we vote into office are not listening.  Not to you and I, the everyday citizen.

It's that simple.  We don't need to analyze this any further.  Sometimes it's just exactly what it appears to be.  If someone is laying in the middle of the street with six bullet holes in their head, brains scattered across the pavement, and a note pinned to their back which says, "I told you to stop hitting on my wife", we don't need an autopsy to see if maybe what the poor slob had for lunch caused his death.  Or whether maybe he's allergic to his new wristwatch band.

Our legislators are serving the rich and powerful and ignoring the needs of everyday folks like you and I.  Period!  It's right smack in front of our eyes.  This is not a rumor or a piece of conjecture.  The Princeton study by Professor Martin Gilens and Professor Benjamin Page in 2014 was unequivocal in its findings.

"Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence."

This means we are now forced to take DRASTIC ACTION.

I happen to know something that works.  Because it works with all public figures -- movie stars, pundits, sports celebrities, priests, ministers, rabbis, military leaders, pillars of the community -- and always works especially well on politicians.

Public shaming!

Some folks might be squeamish about humiliating so-called respectable and responsible men and women devoted to public service.  Don't they deserve better?

No, they don't!

They've sold out themselves and our political parties to a ruling class elite which is selfish, heartless, ruthless.  They made their own bed of nails, now let them sleep in it.  They made a bargain with the Devil.  They chose to align themselves with evil over selfless and honest service to the people who elected them to their wonderfully cushy jobs in Washington DC.  IT IS OUR PUBLIC DUTY TO CALL THESE PEOPLE OUT ON THEIR TREACHERY!

So . . .
Here is how we shame them, how we make it clear that we are fed up with the games, the deceptions, the double talk, the con.  This contract reflects what polls tell us by impressive margins what the vast majority of Americans want done.  And we put it to our politicos straight:  Will you sign or will you refuse to sign this contract before the next election?Dare any elected representatives stonewall us?  Refuse to sign?  Him-and-haw and make all sorts of ridiculous excuses about why they don't want to raise the minimum wage?  Say they can't get behind fair tax policies and closing tax loopholes?  Balk at providing decent health care to every U.S. citizen, refuse to cover the 35 million people now who currently without coverage?  Opt for having the elderly slip into poverty and hardship because fixing social security and Medicare might upset Wall Street hedge fund managers?  Insist that more young men and women should come home in body bags so we can protect oil, gas, and mineral interests in Afghanistan, Syria, every other place we've bombed recently?  Take the position that our electoral system is just dandy the way it is, that the evisceration of the democratic process by Citizens United and the corrupting influence of big money is just the way things have to be?  Declare climate change a lost cause and suggest that our children's children will just have to adjust to mass starvation, resource wars, and all of our coastal cities joining the Lost Continent of Atlantis, because some of our politicians were too dumb to make it through high school science class?

Here's what I say . . .

If our current congressman can't step up to the plate and play their very best game for the home team, they should be shamed, booed, reviled, scorned, humiliated, vilified, mocked, ridiculed, condemned, excoriated, burned if effigy!  That's if we're in a good mood.

Let them stew in the cauldron of the bad publicity they heap on themselves, then rot in a big foul steaming pile of their own wickedness, when we haul the garbage to the dump!

Now not everybody will agree with everything in the contract I've offered here.  There will be individuals who don't buy into every single item.  This is a work in progress and not written in stone. But the simple fact is, reputable polls tell us . . .

Most people buy into most of it.

Thus we have here the perfect device for drawing a line in the sand and asking candidates who are looking for our votes . . .

Are you on our side or not?  Will you sign this before the election in 2018?

Of course, the ultimatum inherent in this approach doesn't stop here.

Actually . . . it starts here.

This is the starting point for us everyday citizens taking control of the narrative, making a bold decisive claim on power that rightfully and constitutionally is ours in the first place, and putting all the smooth-talking, double-dealing incumbents on notice -- we can call it 'electoral probation' . . .

We've had it with the games.  We're watching your every move.  Shape up or ship out!

In my next posting, I'll explore how the above candidate contract will either get our elected officials to clean up their act, or if it looks like that won't be happening, will be used in the coming election to flush them out of Congress.


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



Public Shaming

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!

Throwing My Vote Away?

The presidential election of 2016 -- if you only consider the presumptive nominees of the two major political parties -- is like choosing between being brutally beaten to death by a street gang and mercilessly Tasered to death by the police.

It's a masochists game.  But I've never viewed voting as a game, no matter how minor the stakes or ridiculous the choices.

Maybe in the past, having a lower tolerance for deception and corruption, I've mirrored Ralph Nader's decades-long warnings about and battle against the corporatization of our society and the tyranny of an oligarchic elite which would inevitably result.

Perhaps until now, this appeared to be driven by a heady, theoretical, ivory-tower world view, an approach distanced from day-to-day realities.

Perhaps such abstractions seemed frivolous or self-indulgent, even dangerous.  Need we revisit the spurious judgment that voting for Nader threw the election and set the stage for eight years of George W. Bush?

Perhaps all of my histrionics about the disappearance of democracy, the corruption of our Congress, the takeover of our government apparatus by self-appointed autocrats, the need for replacing at bare minimum 450 senators and congressmen, my railing at the duplicity of Obama, my warnings about the subversion of his allegedly "progressive" leadership, yes all of this may have been dismissed as hyperventilation and raving lunacy.

But with the treachery and abysmal hypocrisy of Bernie Sanders' endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president this past week, it couldn't be clearer where things stand.

Nor could it be more evident how broken our two-party political system is or what a trap lesser-evil voting has been all along.

Don't anyone dare tell me that by not voting for presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton or presumptive nominee Donald Trump, I am throwing my vote away!

Voting for either of these privileged-class monsters is the definition of throwing away my vote, of surrendering my right of choice, of rendering voting a meaningless exercise.



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


Throwing My Vote Away?

What part of “Listen to me!” didn’t you understand?

 

It astounds me how wimpy and servile voters are. Dude, we're Americans! We're supposed to be independent, tough, ruggedly individualistic, exceptional!

No one pushes us around! Unless they want their asses kicked!

Right.

So why is it when the election cycle rolls around and as voters we have to start listening to the professional windbags courting our approval, we let the candidates tell us what they're going to do when they get elected?
Excuse me! Shouldn't we be telling them what they'll be doing if they get elected?

Voters seem to have forgotten how much power they collectively hold in their hands. The simple fact is, if we don't like what we see, we don't have to vote for someone. And if we don't vote for them, they are out of a job.

Let me talk directly to you progressives out there — since the odds that a conservative or even centrist is visiting my web site are pretty nil — and discuss a perfect example of the kind of surrender that has perpetuated the powerlessness we all complain about, i.e. not getting our elected officials to listen to us and begin serving us instead of the 1%.

Understandably, we lefties are encouraged by the rise in popularity of Bernie Sanders.

His campaign is certainly a much-welcome breath of fresh air next to both the belligerent bombast of the certifiably insane Republican presidential candidates, and the slippery shape-shifting rhetoric of Hillary the Terminator, the Democrat's heavy puncher in the neocon-driven cage fight to decide who has the most expedient blue print for incinerating the planet and destroying all living things in the nuclear holocaust of WWIII.

Why is Sanders gaining traction?

Because unlike everyone else, he's addressing bread-and-butter issues, the challenges which affect the daily lives of most Americans. He's talking about better jobs, increasing income, reducing wealth inequality, rebuilding our industrial base, bringing factories and jobs back to America, improving health care, education, making college affordable, etc.

Unfortunately . . . Sanders is NOT TALKING ABOUT ending unnecessary wars, reducing the defense budget, reversing the self-destructive pursuit of American empire, ending the monopoly control of foreign policy and promotion of military adventurism by the military-industrial complex, halting the unconstitutional citizen surveillance by the NSA, CIA, FBI and other security agencies, or ending the fraudulent War on Terror.

The simple truth is, all of his noble aspirations about improving the day-to-day lives of the majority of Americans will come to naught unless the militarization of American society and the imperialist agenda of world domination is reversed. As long as the current military mindset of Washington DC prevails, there will never be any money to address the needs of American citizens, nor will it ever be a priority. There will always be another bogeyman, terrorist group, rogue nation, another war, another "humanitarian intervention" to pursue. You and I, the everyday Americans who fund all of these illegal, immoral misadventures and self-destructive policies, will always be last on the list. Not even in the kitchen, much less on the back burner.

Whether Mr. Sanders is willfully ignorant of this reality, or whether he's just confused, it's up to us to set him straight.
Here's what we say . . .

"Mr. Sanders, your intentions are good. You want to help the majority of American citizens enjoy a decent life. That's very nice. But you're delusional if you think that's going to happen with an out-of-control military and a foreign policy built around confrontation and conquest. You want to be president and we want you to be president. But here's the deal. Unless you change your positions on defense and foreign policy, you are not getting our vote. It's your choice. You come around and stop all of this insanity, we'll back you 100%. If you don't, you can say 'Hi' to Hillary when she walks by you at the Democratic convention on her way to the podium to make her acceptance speech."

Yes, this is playing hardball.

But you know what? If we don't use our right to vote to our advantage, then there's not much point in having it. We're just puppets pretending we live in a democracy.

Now you might ask . . .

Is there a way to get this message to Mr. Sanders?

Glad you asked.

I have a clear, completely bulletproof, step-by-step strategy for doing exactly that.

It's contained in my two books, Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy and the abridged version of the same set of plans, Fighting for the Democracy We Deserve.

Am I trying to sell you a book?

Yes . . . but no.

If you are too cheap to buy either, or you simply can't afford it, give me your email address and I'll send you a free PDF copy.

Does it get easier than that?

Take a few minutes here and save your country from the tyranny of the rich and powerful.

Your children will thank you.

---

 

"Candidate Contracts: Taking Back Our Democracy" is available from all the usual suspects . . .
Amazon (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1QJRiNZ
Apple (iBook) . . . apple.co/1BXnPcy
Amazon (Paperback) . . . amzn.to/1Cuq0du
Barnes & Noble . . . bit.ly/1GpTTLq
Smashwords . . . bit.ly/1B4DQCp
Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/1MGjDnN




"Fighting for the Democracy We Deserve" was published just a couple weeks ago. But it is available both as a Kindle ebook and in print from Amazon . . .

Amazon US (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1VMf2Ft
Amazon CA (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1in513n
Amazon UK (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1KfjtQO
Amazon JP (Kindle) . . . amzn.to/1OMslBG
Amazon (Paperback) . . . amzn.to/1L9SdIC



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

VIDEO BLOG: OMG . . . I woke up black!

Boy, was I surprised the other day when I woke up as a black man.

Then while I’m in the other room trying to sort this thing out, I get this message on my answering machine from some guy named Clive Bundy.

"Hey, negro man. You'd be better off a slave. Come to Nevada and you can live in the back of my barn. Think about it."

But the plot thickens.

Apparently my voter registration card has been revoked.

This letter says that to reinstate my voting privileges, I have to provide a birth certificate, proof of U.S. citizenship, blood and urine samples, DNA from my natural parents and at least four aunts and uncles, a copy of a recent utility bill, a notarized letter of commendation from my high school counselor, two color photos taken within the last twenty minutes, a clean bill of health from my doctor showing I’m not lactose intolerant, and a list ten references, five of which must be active members of my local Kiwanis Club.

Finally, it says I also have to pay two outstanding parking tickets for a car I never even owned.  Hmm.

Alright alright, I guess I understand. I mean . . . it’s important to maintain the integrity of the voting process, especially in a democracy, where the voice of the people weighs in so heavily in shaping public policy.

[ Laughter ]

Come on! A little sarcasm never hurt anyone.

But they always say, every vote counts.

And that's why tens of thousands of black people can't vote anymore.

That's why when those dyed-in-the-wool conservatives pine for the good old days, they mean really OLD DAYS __ as in before the Civil War.

I can see where this is going.
Brother, the true colors are showing.
Voting is a constitutionally protected right.
But truth is . . . that’s only if you're white.

Oh yeah!
______________________________________________________________

I am doing what I can to address the destruction of our democratic system.

Without taking back our government, nothing will change.

In my new book, An Unlikely Truth, I offer an electoral strategy which I believe can effectively remove the crooks and liars from office, and begin to restore representative democracy to America.
An Unlikely Truth (Literary Vagabond Books) is now available worldwide in every popular ebook format and as a deluxe edition paperback.

An Unlikely Truth is a critical read for anyone who shares the progressive vision of a more peaceful, more humane, more democratic America.

______________________________________________________________


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

 

Absentee Democracy

 

There are always a few numbskulls who harass me with poorly constructed,
grammatically insulting rants about the fact that I have chosen to live
overseas.

They always say something like . . .

"What kind of American are you? YOU LIVE IN JAPAN!"

The answer that comes immediately to mind is . . .

"I'm the kind of American who lives in Japan."

I spent six decades growing up, living and working in America.

I have an American passport, therefore I'm an American citizen.

I pay taxes to the American government. Still! And by the way, America is 
the only country that DOUBLE TAXES their citizens who live overseas. 
I pay taxes to Japan and I pay taxes to America. Unheard of in the rest of 
the civilized world.

And frankly I have no problem with the half of my taxes that go toward
schools, education, building roads and bridges (which I no longer use),
helping those who have fallen on hard times __ e. g. unemployment
benefits, school lunch programs, Head Start, SNAP, heating assistance
subsidies __ and promoting R&D addressing health and environmental
issues.

But I DO HAVE A PROBLEM with the other half of the money they 
collect from me, which I have no say in. You know, the half of the federal 
budget that goes for the war machine we are building to take over the world, 
the money wasted on military misadventures, toppling democratically elected
foreign governments, drone murdering of innocent civilians, spying on
everyone with a pulse, wreaking havoc across the planet and creating far
more enemies than we kill, sending our best young people into battle to
protect the interests of already rich corporations. Yes, I do have a problem 
with paying those taxes. We all should.

But getting back to the xenophobic super-patriots . . .

Maybe these yokels are questioning my red-white-and-blue pedigree. Maybe 
they think somehow my all-American blood has become polluted and diluted
because I live in Japan and have a Japanese wife.

One variation of the attack is particularly amusing.

"Well, Mr. Hotshot Expat, do you vote?"

This is probably coming from someone who doesn't. But here's the skinny on 
that one.

Though I think our electoral system is corrupt, that at least at this point our
politicians are owned lock-stock-and-barrel by a tiny vainglorious and
filthy rich elite, that our two-party system is a joke and both Democrats 
and Republicans unwillingly or maybe willingly arepuppets to Wall Street 
banks and transnational corporations, that without serious immediate 
changes, democracy is effectively dead in America . . .

Though self-appointed, arrogant and misguided stewards of our electoral 
processhave disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters of color who they
have deemed unworthy of the constitutional right to have a voice in our
political system, though these exact same anti-democratic partisan
bullies have hacked up any prospect of proper representation through
gerrymandering and consigned voting to the irrelevancy of a video game
via rigged voting machines . . .

For those rubes that have never left Cottonwad County and can't find China 
on a map, one of the marvels of these amazing modern times is that you can
visit the Great Wall of China in the morning and vote in an American election 
in the afternoon. You can have breakfast at a cafe in Paris or Amsterdam or 
even Tokyo on your way to dropping off an election form at a foreign post 
office. It's called an absentee ballot. So the answer is . . .

Yes! I vote!



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