Listening to the media reports about Trump and Clinton, I understand the frustration of the majority of voters.  Most of us know that the "establishment" politicians, like Clinton, are part and parcel with the corporatocracy that has made our two party system a joke.  The two parties are simply different faces of the same government which is beholden to big business and rich investors.  While the Democrats make more of an effort to care for the most impoverished, neither side is actually effective at reducing poverty.  The Republicans assert that the poor are not helped by a free ride, and this may be true.  It is true that during the Great Depression here in the US, people got healthier.

Trump, on the other hand, is not part of the "establishment" except in so far as he is rich, and he is stupid enough to become their tool, just as Shrub did.  His daily empty statements, like what I just heard that he "will win" 95% of the black American vote, are lunacy.  There is no way that he is getting 95% of any vote, except perhaps of those white male voters who are angry and desperate enough to commit suicide but would rather have someone else do it for them.  I understand the line of thought that says "crash this train", that is to say, destroying our corporatocracy is the first step toward building something new.  This is more the approach of libertarians who understand that big business will not be dethroned by small measures.  Electing Trump would be a drastic measure that could crash this train, except for the fact that the corporate Republican powers will feed his ego and narcissism and keep him busy and distracted by giving him televised glory while they run things.  In other words, it won't work.  Electing Trump will not derail the corporate train.

The Libertarian and Green candidates are relatively attractive in this election.  Unfortunately the Libertarians appear to be almost as "estalishment" as Clinton, see Gary Johnson's positions here.  Jill Stein of the Green party is a physician and one smart cookie, and she actually makes the most sense to me of any of the candidates.  She knows that our two-party system is broken, and she addresses that question and others with a raft of information instead of party lines or defund-it-all ideology.

I do not know what it would take to persuade a majority of voters to choose third-party candidates, but I pray that I live to see it.  At this moment it appears to me that Clinton will win because so many people are terrified of the specter of a Trump presidency.  His racism, bogus claims and impetuous thin-skinned personality are enough to disqualify him for all but the most blindered of voters.  It is true that if he were elected the Republican party would attempt to control him, but we all know that he would be more likely to push the nuclear button than any other president in living memory.  While it bears discussing why we refrain from using nukes, just as it bears discussing why we can't as a society afford freeloaders, we might want to discuss it very well before we hand any control to a tool such as Trump.

I am sure I've mentioned it before, but it is my belief that in order to build a majority that can beat both established parties, we need to build a bridge between the far right Libertarians and the far left Greens.  When this happens we might actually wrest our democracy back from its service to business.  It would be heralded as a great crisis, just like the Brexit vote, but don't believe everything you hear in the news.  A reduction in our GDP might be good for us.  More unemployment is not an entirely bad thing.  We Americans need to get back to the project of taking good care of ourselves and our dear ones, building community, and being real people face to face with other real people.  This wealthy life of internet and automobiles has created a Great Satan that is making us sad.

** first use of tag: green party

This state is so delightfully progressive it curls my toes. Much as I liked Kitzhaber, I think I am going to like our new governor Kate Brown more! She was sworn in yesterday. On Monday this week (when she was still Secretary of State) she made the announcement that the Independent Party of Oregon qualifies to be a MAJOR PARTY claiming as members more than 5% of registered voters as of the 2014 gubernatorial election. The total membership of the Independent Party as of 2/2/15 was 108,742, which is three voters over the minimum to become a major party. I suspect that with the publicity incurred by this landmark change, more people will change their voter registration from Dem or Rep to INDY.

SOURCES
http://www.indparty.com/node/25
http://time.com/3709837/oregon-kate-brown-governor/

The use of combat drones overseas divides Congress, but not in the usual partisan way.

Supporters of the “war on terror” in both parties tend to support the use of unmanned aircraft that often try to assassinate terrorism suspects. But libertarian Republicans have teamed up with civil liberties-backing Democrats to oppose the drones.

Now, the partisan trenches have been crossed by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D – Ohio, and Rep. Ron Paul, R – Texas, in order to force the administration to release its legal justification.

The two mavericks who are leaving Congress at year’s end have introduced a resolution of inquiry — legislation that is used to compel specific documents from the administration, and must be considered by the committee of jurisdiction, or on the House floor, within 14 legislative days.

Since the legislation was introduced on November 28, it could come before the House this year, which means that the administration will be forced to turn over the legal justification it uses for the strikes, including any memos from the Office of Legal Counsel.

SOURCE
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=159916

"I think it has the potential to be quite explosive," Potholm says. "I don't think the Ron Paul people are particularly interested in whether Obama is defeated or not. I think that's long passed as their number one objective."
http://www.mpbn.net/News/MaineNewsArchive/tabid/181/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3475/ItemId/23206/Default.aspx

The way I see it, the Republican party has lost all credibility and is ripe for takeover. And the Ron Paul people are more interested in resurrecting a fiscally conservative party (from the fascist ashes) than they are in ousting Obama. And Obama is more ready for that revolution than Romney is.

We are at the point now where this has become the classic legislative process of trying to get a fig leaf that everyone can hide behind. And I don't want to do that.
--Lieberman

This man is part of the solution. Freed of adherence to either party line, he can do what he thinks is right. We need more representatives who are willing to play the rascal.

Here are the instructions on how to run for office as a libertarian. If I weren't so busy, I might do it. I just think we need more regular people to get involved in politics, to drive the debate back to what the people actually want and need from government, and away from what the party machinery and corporations favor.

Just discovered The Real News Network. WOW! It's a group of people doing intelligent reporting that is non-corporate and non-partisan. They're offering their reports on youtube for now, and begging for money so that they can get a television slot. I would LOVE to see this kind of news broadcast into homes across the US. I may actually send money. I watched three broadcasts this morning, all on foreign policy, and the best was this one. The main commentator has a thick accent, just get what you can. I was able to comprehend a lot of what he has to say, and it's a real education on the midle east. I will take in more of the Real News Network.

Aside: I just can't get over the fact that we now have a president who is enjoyable to listen to. Though in this clip when he starts talking about how we are going to help them "grow their economy" it gives me chills. In one of the other programs I watched they had a Pulizer prize winner saying that he thinks Obama has the rudiments of a real strategy for the middle east, and that it is a good one. That was reassuring. I still think Obama's pretty darn good, even though I disagree completely with the bailouts.

to elect in NC:
--Chad Adams for chairman of North Carolina's GOP
--BJ Lawson for Congress
to defeat:
--hypocrite and former Raleigh mayor Tom Fetzer
( an email I got this morning from BJ LawsonCollapse )

This is Chuck Baldwin's rationale for voting your principles, instead of for who you think has a chance to win. Worthwhile read for sure. I'm not planning to vote for Chuck, but I like his thinking.

A WASTED VOTE

By Chuck Baldwin
October 10, 2008
NewsWithViews.com

When asked why they will not vote for a third party candidate, many people will respond by saying something like, "He cannot win." Or, "I don't want to waste my vote." It is true: America has not elected a third party candidate since 1860. Does that automatically mean, however, that every vote cast for one of the two major party candidates is not a wasted vote? I don't think so.
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