I don’t usually put much energy into partisan politics but comes the time when opportunity knocks and we all must stand up and be counted. That time is now.
The US has been on the road to fascism for a long time. Both Democrats and Republicans have for decades been advancing the same agenda of ceding power to transnational mega-corporations and the global banking cartel. So called “free trade” agreements are simply ways of allowing capital to more freely exploit labor and the environment and forcing governments to guarantee their profits.
Changes in financial regulations, like the repeal of Glass-Steagall under Bill Clinton in 1999, have enabled banking companies to grow to monstrous size (“too big to fail”) and to more easily cheat the clients they are supposed to serve. In this article, James Rickards places the blame for the 2008 financial crisis squarely where it belongs and demolishes the arguments of the big bank apologists: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/08/27/repeal-of-glass-steagall-caused-the-financial-crisis.
Many countries are caught in the debt trap and are being forced to sell off government owned assets which further concentrates wealth and control of “the commons.” Those who control the creation and allocation of money are able to control politics, economics and virtually everything else.
When political and financial pressures prove inadequate, the US military is used to bludgeon countries into line with the global financial regime which is the most anti-democratic force in the world today. General Wesley Clark, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, testifies in this 2-minute video that the US planned to overthrow seven countries after 9/11: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran. A thorough account of General Clark’s story is told by Glenn Greenwald here: http://www.salon.com/2011/11/26/wes_clark_and_the_neocon_dream/.
Under Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, the Pentagon came up with a new organization–the “Proactive, Preemptive Operations Group (P2OG) to carry out secret missions designed to “stimulate reactions” among terrorist groups, provoking them into committing violent acts which would then expose them to “counterattack” by U.S. forces. Those “violent acts” would also be used to justify regime change in countries accused of harboring the terrorists. This article from 2002 clearly described the causes of the mayhem we have seen unfold in the years since then: http://www.counterpunch.org/2002/11/01/rummy-s-plan-to-provoke-terrorist-attacks/. A little research will make it clear that the US and NATO are responsible for the turmoil in Syria and the consequent refugee crisis.
Hillary is clearly in the pocket of the banking/corporate elite and will continue to promote their agenda, just as Obama has. We were sold on Obama with promises of change and the feel-good idea of electing the first black President. Hillary is being sold to us as the non-Trump candidate together with the feel-good idea of electing the first woman President. I’m all for making the oval office accessible to minorities and women but what we have gotten is a lot of broken promises, a continuation of the Clinton-Bush policies, and an escalation of US interventions in other countries and a rekindling of the cold war against Russia.
Trump appeals to people’s fears and outrage over being misled by both parties. He promises what he cannot possibly deliver, while pandering to the religious right with his selection of a running mate whose policy positions seem diametrically opposed to much of what Trump says he is for. That makes his promises as unbelievable as Hillary’s and leads me to wonder if he has even a glimmer of understanding of the geo-political facts of life. I can only conclude that he is a megalomaniac to whom winning is everything.
So, what can we do to stop this madness?
We can continue to bide our time, watch the chaos unfold and hope for the best while waiting for new opportunities to emerge, and working to make our communities better and more resilient in spite of it all.
But maybe we already have an opportunity to make a change at the level of national politics. There is a viable third choice, and it is on the ballot in every one of the 50 States. It is the Libertarian Party ticket of Gary Johnson and Bill Weld. Johnson is a former businessman and Republican governor of New Mexico, and Weld is a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, US Attorney, and head of the Department of Justice Criminal Division. In this short twitter video they make a strong pitch for their progressive social and anti-war agenda. https://mobile.twitter.com/GovGaryJohnson/status/748320273754165249/video/1. It sounds good to me.
This ticket should have broad appeal, especially among Sanders supporters who cannot bring themselves to vote for Hillary and Republicans who cannot bring themselves to vote for Trump. With the Republican Party in disarray and Hillary’s vast unpopularity among voters, this may be the year when a third party candidate can win the White House and upset the pattern of politics as usual.
With virtually no advertising, a recent CNN poll shows Johnson already with 13% support (and the Green Party candidate Jill Stein at 5%), and a CBS/New York Times poll had Johnson at 12 percent. According to the Libertarian Republic, “If Johnson, former governor of New Mexico, polls at least 15 percent in five national public opinion polls before the first presidential debate, he’ll be eligible to appear on the stage with the Democratic and Republican nominees.”
If Libertarians, Greens and all the rest of us who are dissatisfied with the state of politics in America can get behind the Johnson/Weld ticket, we can have the much needed Second American Revolution before this year is out.
Are we the people ready to govern ourselves? The power elite think not; let’s show them that we are.
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Beyond Money 
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Dr. Greco Jr.,
President Obama has been unpromising and unpopular because, our CONGRESS (or the most dysfunctional branch of our government) has NEVER been signing any of his bills he forwards to them into law. President Obama was trying to bring the Jobs Act (if I’m a little off with the term, forgive me) to the Congress in order to sign into law. Instead, the congress rejected it and gave it back to President Obama (with a rider or a ‘blackmail’ clause, I’ll call it) which the President would have to approve of cutting back some employment around the United States if he were to approve of the bill and send it back to Congress to sign into law.
Around the last month of 2013, we can remember the government shutdown where there was that days-long “quarrel” between the White House and the Congress. I also remember someone’s sign on an orange construction cone saying (pardon the uncensored expression) “Congress Sucks” which a photo was taken and shown on the news by my local TV channel.
According to the first sentence of Section 7, Number 2 of the Constitution of the United States from World Book, p.1006, 2008,
“Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objections to that house in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it.”
This passage to our Constitution probably explains why President Obama was a so-called “failure” to enact any of his laws or “live up to his promises. He had to have Congress approve of his proposals before they became law. Since, Congress never approves of anything the President tried to bring past them (except for the recent TPP or Transpacific Partnership and a overly simplified version of the ACA or Affordable Care Act which has given 10 million out of 30-40 million US citizens health insurance) he is simply a “lame duck.”
Regarding the seventh paragraph, first sentence in your above essay, “Hillary is clearly in the pocket of the banking/corporate elite and will continue to promote their agenda, just as Obama has,” respectively, President Obama might have done MUCH better with passing more serious “progressive, third party’ish'” laws helping renew the usefulness and productivity of standard currency here if the “hawks” of Congress were not so “one-dimensional” with their own agenda AND ONLY FOR THEIR OWN AGENDA.
I do not mean any disrespect to you, Dr. Greco Jr. or anyone who may hold certain political opinions or beliefs. I felt it to be necessary if I would state some evidence (as factual and truthful as I can recall) that may shed some light on the current problem of people’s deep-rooted frustrations, anger, and resentment toward our own “establishment” government. I would vote for Hillary Clinton rather than Bernie Sanders because he has some great ideas yet, they are a little ahead of time (considering we know people hate the word ‘socialism’ here in the US) or Donald Trump (which we would be joking ourselves if we are to say Hillary Clinton is as bad as Donald Trump as we would be comparing a whole ‘netherworld’ of ‘skeletons in the closet’ he has to ‘two skeletons in the closet’ she has.)
Thanks for recommending me the website of intentional communities when I commented on one of your essays a few months ago (still trying to find my niche!) i also have been reading your websites and plan to look further into your books. You have some very interesting concepts (although, I don’t necessarily agree with the one sentence you stated in your recent essay above concerning Hillary and President Obama even though, we can all agree Trump is seriously dangerous.)
Yet, as much as you (and everyone else does) I HATE being uncertain too. In my opinion, instead of waiting for congress to block the next president (maybe, I could be right about what I said regarding Congress being almost ‘absolute,’ just like standard currency seems like now if Hillary or even a third-party or green party president is blocked constantly from passing laws during 2016-2020) I could find a community where we can work on our own economy (with certainty in entirety) without interference from corporations, politics, stalemates and blockades in the government with a executive branch attempting to pass more humane sensible laws, and so on. Since, I was born here in the US (and have a few people and family I know well here also) it would be “the lesser of evils” if I would vote and vote for someone who fits in that category.
Good luck with your other work in the future! Take care!
Stephan.
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Thanks Thomas for the alternative option to vote. It’s been quite a bizarre election season at one of the most dangerous periods of the world’s history, with a US regime openly flirting with starting a nuclear war with Russia, while at the same time The US electoral options are so dismal.
The US dropping of the Glass-Steagal Act has put itself in a downward spiral with the financial system nearing the abyss, much worse than in 2008, making it more likely the US could ignite a confrontation with Russia affecting the whole planet.
These unprecedented times offer the opportunity for people to take a look at completely different options as a possibility to choose, given the “regular” business-as-usual is failing so blatantly. Trump’s sudden popularity is a symptom of desperation by an electorate convinced of having been defrauded with lies for too long.
It’s ironic the same is happening at a global level, by many countries political processes also being affected with electorates choosing the “outsider candidates” instead of the ones chosen by the established Matrix.
Ultimately CONSCIOUSNESS is the only true response to the chaos unfolding, so our efforts can achieve more when we concentrate in garnering knowledge and deal with developing totally new approaches to our living.
It is a dangerous time because it is in these circumstances of openness that we also can fall into going in the wrong direction, as it happened to Germans under stress following a Hitler.
I believe people are becoming more open to hear about the true causes of the crisis, as the Debt-Based money we’re using in most of the world, is the means a CABAL of rich financier families are grossing big income they use to invest in the Military-Industrial-Complex, which creates a dynamic to promote wars to sell more weapons, with the dire consequences of these cycles.
This Russian General is portraying the current global situation in a rather blunt manner https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9P2jrkJA9g and I think this is one of the ways to go, by making presentations that help people understand what IS happening truly. I wish other Pentagon Generals would explain it as clearly as this Russian does.
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A great essay, Tom. I just finished a 2 hour phone dialog with Michael Gentry in CA, where we discussed much of the same issue. Which is worse, Hillary or Donald? We had many variations. I won’t go into them here.
Your belief that the Libertarian Party might actually be able to win the election, reminded me of the proposal I presented to the New Politics Convention over Thanksgiving weekend in Chicago in 1967. ALL the left movements were convened to decide what to do for the 1968 elections. I was part of a Minnesota contingent that had researched by door to door survey in Minneapolis as to the response to a King/Spock ticket. Once we asked that they not be concerned whether the could win or not, we found considerable support.
I had been on the steering committee for Convention, invited because of my creation: The Minnesota Peace Cooperative that tried to coordinate arm chair action. The first day the Chicago Black Gangs, having gone political, siphoned off all the Blacks to their own convention. They sent their black mentally disturbed as their representatives to our steering committee. The Black rejoined our convention the last day.
One major issue was whether to run a full third party or just a third ticket. I tried to push for my own plan. We create a third party, but leave positions blank. We invite anti-war members of the Republican and Democratic parties to split and run on our party. We fill in other slots, with persons from the progressive left. I believed that done right, and attracting persons from the other parties, there was a chance to win. No one was interested.
The upshot was dirty backroom politics. New York and California teamed up to decide that they didn’t want a national effort. These two states each went on to run their own third party.
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As to a Libertarian win in November 2016. Their Twitter ad is impressive, but how many will actually view it. The media would make it difficult, and would lack resources for major ads. And, it is too late to mobilize ground crews to canvass. It would probably insure a Trump win, which I believe would have more immediate negative effects than a Clinton win. A Clinton win may be worse long term, if she has not changed.
I don’t believe POTUS has any real power today. Why hasn’t Obama been able to do any of the things Clinton/Sanders propose. If elected, what will they be able to do? They are trending towards my Team Potus proposal. I believe a loose cabal of rouge “conspiratorial gangs” in the different agencies and departments call the shots – but there is no consistent longer-term strategy. They function like Mafia gangs in their respective domains.
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Reblogged this on Truth Troubles: Why people hate the truths' of the real world.
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Pro immigration and pro growth. I can’t vote for any of the 4.
Steve >
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