Elections soon

admin's picture

Yes I know they're all rigged, but I plan to partake. Voting Green.

Any Americans reading this, please vote Green on Nov 2! Or tell me who's better?

GreenChange.org

These are the ten planks of the Green New Deal:

* Cut military spending at least 70%
* Create millions of green union jobs through massive public investment in renewable energy, mass transit and conservation
* Set ambitious, science-based greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, and enact a revenue-neutral carbon tax to meet them
* Establish single-payer "Medicare for all" health care
* Provide tuition-free public higher education
* Change trade agreements to improve labor, environmental, consumer, health and safety standards
* End counterproductive prohibition policies and legalize marijuana
* Enact tough limits on credit interest and lending rates, progressive tax reform and strict financial regulation
* Amend the U.S. Constitution to abolish corporate personhood
* Pass sweeping electoral, campaign finance and anti-corruption reforms

Comments

more planks

That's a good start ... but it's only a start.

I can think of several more important planks immediately:

11. investigate 9/11 and bring the guilty to justice
12. immediate end to wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan
13. immediate end to the bombing campaign against Pakistan
14. immediate end to all "covert" US (terrorist) operations in foreign countries
15. repeal the "patriot act" and all the other illegitimate legislation passed in the wake of 9/11
16. stop torture, shut down all the "black sites", and bring to justice all those responsible for this abomination
17. pay generous reparations to Iraq, Afghanistan, and all the other countries we have demolished for no reason
18. bring to justice the "architects" of those demolitions
19. televise to the world the trials and so on required under 11, 16 and 18 as a sign that America cares about justice

if you give me a while I can probably think of a few more

a couple more

There are a couple of fundamental changes that need to be made otherwise all other gains will be lost eventually. One has already been identified by the Greens and that is the removal of 'personhood' before the law for corporations.

Two not mentioned are the government take over of the "Fed" and the turning of all banking institutions into what they claim to be; intermediary lenders such as credit unions and building societies i.e. they can only lend out what they receive first as deposits.

And the last is the banning of political parties as they assume control over the elected representatives to the cost of the electors. Political parties shanghai democracy before it even gets to the first vote.

If anyone is going to vote, I think the most effective one is to vote for the candidate most likely to unseat the incumbent. If people got into the habit of unseating the incumbent then this would uncouple the representatives from the political parties and their bagmen and make them responsive to the electors. Given that it matters not which party is in power, focus should be put on changing the faces of the reps at every election, imnho

admin's picture

thanks for the planks

I agree with them all, Winter's 9 & James' 3

> I think the most effective one is to vote for the candidate most likely to unseat the incumbent.

I'm afraid I see it as basically a toggle switch between R and D thanks to the fact that the news media goes to great effort to pretend there are only 2 political parties throughout America. so I put my votes behind the candidates whose platforms match most closely with my own priorities in the hopes that these 3rd parties will be encouraged to keep pushing these planks. although it doesn't much matter i suppose, unless i can see the counting process i might as well assume it's rigged. but still, i vote.

the popes views on sex in marriage

haha, I read your comment, NJT, and I saw the absurdity of mine. Here's me, who hasn't participated in the voting ritual since Oz's very own coup d'etat in '75, advising those that do vote on how to do it.
Ok, its three Our Fathers and six (count 'em) Hail Marys and I won't do it again . . .. . till next time!

McJ's picture

planks and platforms

Well, actually I kinda liked your idea James but I think I'd most likely end up not voting if it meant voting for someone's whose views were drastically different than mine. I am seriously considering not voting in the next election because I'm finding it increasingly difficult to find common ground with any of the parties in Canada.

The problem with 3rd and 4th or even 5th parties like we have in Canada is that they can add as many planks as they want to their platform knowing they are never going to be the majority party that forms the government. As soon as they garner some power (ie. they can swing votes by siding with one of the other parties) then you see some of the planks getting removed and their platforms start to move in line with the two major parties.

I think banning political parties is a must if there is to be any hope of implementing any of the other planks.

McJ's picture

This is interesting.

This is interesting.

West Virginia Candidate Jeff Becker Questions WTC 7 Collapse in Senate Debate carried nationally on C-SPAN
http://snardfarker.ning.com/video/west-virginia-candidate-jeff?xg_source...

"Becker, who noted himself as an engineer, went on to give an extended explanation concerning the impossibility of WTC 7′s collapse, as well as the contradiction between the laws of physics and the government’s official account [links added to suppliment the references to fact in his statement; emphasis in bold also added]:

“Building 7 was two blocks away from the twin towers– and that’s important to consider because it was not rained on by any debris. It was just a 40-story building. And at 5 p.m. on 9/11, Jane Standley, reporter from the BBC was standing right in front, at Ground Zero, and reported that Building 7 had collapsed, when in fact you could see it over her shoulder. And then, 20 minutes later, it did collapse. This is foreknowledge, and it needs to be investigated.”

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