Showing posts with label independent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label independent. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Using Your Vote In Our "Destroyed Democracy"

Using Your Vote In Our "Destroyed Democracy"

by C. A. Matthews  

Readers might have noticed that TRC has spent very little blog space on the US midterms this time around. There are a couple of reasons for this. First off, since we’re open to guest bloggers expressing whatever is on their mind at the moment, we let our readers/bloggers set the pace in regards to posts about elections. We haven’t had anyone really interested in writing about the 2022 midterms, so there’s that.

Secondly—and perhaps most importantly—is this reason: Why bother?

Really, what difference will it make to ordinary working class Americans which of the establishment factions has the majority in the US House or Senate? What difference will our votes make one way or the other when study after study (starting with the infamous Princeton Study) demonstrate that our elected officials completely ignore the bottom 90% of American voters and only listen to those with the most money?

Just get a load of these figures:

According to a report released Thursday by Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), just 465 American billionaires had donated an unprecedented $881 million by the end of September — even before last-minute campaign pushes in the last five weeks before Election Day. This is already more than the amount that billionaires spent in the entirety of the 2018 midterm election.
 
Further, the vast majority of this spending — $643 million, or 73 percent — comes from just 20 billionaire households, including prominent figures like the Koch family, Peter Thiel, George Soros, Michael and Susan Bloomberg and Jeffrey Yass.  --465 Billionaires Have Pumped An Eye-Popping $881 Million Into the Midterms
 

In past elections, reading an article like the one above showing how many millions—excuse me, billions—are being spent by the oligarchs/billionaires to influence US governmental policy, our planet’s health, and our general welfare would have made me extremely irate. I might have suggested that you make a plan to go to the polls and vote for an independent or third party candidate to send the duopolists a strong message that we’re on to them and their corporate puppet masters. I might have led everyone in a chant of, "We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore!"
 
Nowadays, I’m more resigned to our fate. Those with the money will get their agenda passed with no problems, and there’s nothing we the poor and struggling workers can do about it. It's not like we can come up with over one billion dollars every election to bribe the candidates and take the reins away from our true masters and rulers, the billionaires, can we?

Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges puts it very well:

The bipartisan project of dismantling our democracy, which took place over the last few decades on behalf of corporations and the rich, has left only the outward shell of democracy. The courts, legislative bodies, the executive branch and the media, including public broadcasting, are captive to corporate power. There is no institution left that can be considered authentically democratic. The corporate coup d’état is over. They won. We lost.

The wreckage of this neoliberal project is appalling: endless and futile wars to enrich a military-industrial-complex that bleeds the U.S. Treasury of half of all discretionary spending; deindustrialization that has turned U.S. cities into decayed ruins; the slashing and privatization of social programs, including education, utility services and health care – which saw over one million Americans account for one-fifth of global deaths from Covid, although we are 4 percent of the world’s population; draconian forms of social control embodied in militarized police, functioning as lethal armies of occupation in poor urban areas; the largest prison system in the world; a virtual tax boycott by the richest individuals and corporations; money-saturated elections that perpetuate our system of legalized bribery; and the most intrusive state surveillance of the citizenry in our history.

In “The United States of Amnesia,” to quote Gore Vidal, the corporate press and the ruling class create fictional feel-good personas for candidates, treat all political campaigns as if it is a day at the races and gloss over the fact that on every major issue, from trade deals to war, there is very little difference between Democrats and Republicans. The Democratic Party and Joe Biden are not the lesser evil, but rather, as Glen Ford pointed out, “the more effective evil.”  --The Politicians Who Destroyed Our Democracy Want Us to Vote for Them to Save it 

All this is not to say that I’m not voting this time out and that you shouldn’t vote, either. It's just that, with what I know now, I’m not wasting my time voting for either the Republican or Democratic Parties’ candidates. Both establishment factions accept plenty of money from the billionaires, so their loyalty will always be pledged to the top 1% and not to bottom 99% of Americans. 

I’m willing to vote for any and all independent and third party candidates who don't take corporate cash, and I will voice my opinion on all local and state issues. In my case, that’s about one page out of several of the printed ballot. I will make my opinion known on these ballot issues since they are important to my community and directly affect our lives together. 

If there’s no electronic diddling with the vote count, then at least some form of democracy will occur in regards to those ballot issues. I see that as a “win” for the ordinary people. We might still have to put up a while longer with a corrupt system that blithely calls itself a “representative democracy” (watch this video for more about how easily corrupted that is), but at least we’re not running away scared with our tails between our legs. We are buying ourselves time to figure out how to rebuild our destroyed democracy.

We ordinary American voters should stand proud. We’re interested in our local communities' well-being. We don’t have to explain ourselves to anyone about why we didn’t waste time rubber-stamping a vote for a bunch of corporate candidates to make their billionaire bosses happy. There's no need for us to feel shame about not supporting the status quo with our votes. We proudly can leave these corporate sell-outs twisting in the wind, desperate to come up with a good excuse to explain why no decent hardworking American wanted to vote for them. 

I think the biggest joke this midterm election is on the billionaires. They think they’ve successfully bought off American “democracy.” Ha! We all know it doesn’t exist, and we're not keeping silent. We've got the perseverance to keep working toward building a government that doesn't include the likes of them.

Of course, the billionaires will be laughing all the way to the bank in the short term as their politician-puppets gift them billions of our tax dollars to produce weapons, weapons to pass on to another corrupt government under the guise of a proxy war. These Daddy Warbucks will then sell their leftover weapon stockpiles directly to the US war machine. The US war machine will bomb even more countries in our collective good name until these decimated countries are overflowing with “freedom and democracy” and a whole lot less of their natural resources and citizens. 

It's why the billionaires bought out the US government in the first place. How else are they supposed to make so much money? Work for it with their own hands like we peons do?

I hope you can see now that voting alone isn’t going to get us out of this mess. Voting isn’t going to stop the endless wars for oil and liquefied natural gas at the expense of innocent human beings’ lives. Voting red and blue and red and blue will do nothing because of you-know-who! Billionaires and their bought off cronies have a lock on our corrupt system of government. The only way We the People can take back power is by refusing to play along with their abusive games.

It’s like that well-worn adage that the Dems seem to enjoy shouting every couple of years: “This is the most important election of our lives!” These midterms are the most important elections of our lives but only because now we understand that we no longer need waste our time putting check marks in front of the red or blue candidates on the ballot. We know now how much a real democracy is worth and that it can’t be bought by anyone. It's priceless, and it's worth fighting for until we get it. 

So, whatever you decide to do this midterm election or in elections to come, feel proud. You're mad as hell, and you're smart enough not to fall for the duopolists' propaganda. That makes you a "winner" in my book. Don't let a bunch of soulless billionaires' puppets tell you otherwise.

 


Related Articles:   

UPDATE: Total Cost of 2022 State and Federal Elections Projected to Exceed $16.7 Billion https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/11/total-cost-of-2022-state-and-federal-elections-projected-to-exceed-16-7-billion

Congress Literally Doesn't Care What You Think https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/

465 Billionaires Have Pumped An Eye-Popping $881 Million Into the Midterms https://truthout.org/articles/465-billionaires-have-pumped-an-eye-popping-881-million-into-the-midterms/

Chris Hedges: The Politicians Who Destroyed Our Democracy Want Us to Vote for Them to Save it  https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-politicians-who-destroyed-our

AIPAC Had a Banner Year in Election Meddling and We Should All Be Concerned  https://truthout.org/articles/aipac-had-a-banner-year-in-election-meddling-and-we-should-all-be-concerned/

US Again Isolated on UN Vote Against Its Cuba Blockade https://popularresistance.org/us-again-isolated-on-un-vote-against-its-cuba-blockade/

Why the US is Not a Democracy (video) https://youtu.be/srfeHpQNEAI 

Chris Hedges: Betrayed by Liberals (video) https://youtu.be/a-aVr6H0c3U 

The Racism of the Supreme Court Supermajority Was on Full Display This Week  https://scheerpost.com/2022/11/05/the-racism-of-the-supreme-courts-supermajority-was-on-full-display-this-week/

Seen on Twitter:

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Tuesday, October 11, 2022

We Are Smarter Than They Think


Apples don't fall far from the tree...
We Are Smarter Than They Think (Much Smarter) 

by C.A. Matthews 
 
Once upon a time there were two farmers. 
 
Farmer A owned a lovely apple tree that stood a couple of feet away from the edge of Farmer B’s land. Sometimes fruit would fall from the tree’s branches and land on Farmer B’s property. Farmer A was okay with Farmer B keeping the apples and told him so, but Farmer B didn’t want them. Farmer B secretly hated apples and despised how they rolled into his field, and he became jealous of how other farmers admired the quality of Farmer A’s apples.

One day when Farmer A was away Farmer B took an ax and crossed over to Farmer A’s field. He chopped down the apple tree and carted away all the fruit and wood. When Farmer A returned home, he was shocked and saddened to see his apple tree gone. When he asked Farmer B what had happened to the tree, Farmer B told him, “You must have chopped down your own apple tree so you could blame it on me. You’re trying to make me look bad.” Farmer A simply bowed his head sadly and said, “Yeah, right.” 
 
No other farmer in the area believed Farmer A would ever do such a terrible thing, especially because what appeared to be Farmer B’s footprints were found in the mud near the apple tree's stump. But Farmer B kept insisting and insisting that Farmer A was to blame for his tree's demise. Farmer B even talked to the local press about how crazy Farmer A was and how he chopped down his own apple tree to make Farmer B appear to be a liar. Eventually everyone believed Farmer B’s story because it was too hard to argue with him, and they were afraid he’d cross over into their fields and chop down their apple trees as well.

This silly parable is my way to illustrate how the US government believes how We the Little People, the workers, think. We’re pretty stupid in their opinion. We’re supposed to believe incredible statements as “Putin blew up his own Nord Stream pipelines!” and “Nuclear war is winnable!” The US government thinks we’re not smart enough to look at the evidence and come to our own logical conclusions. 

Working class Americans are not without intelligence. That's why the mainstream media is running propaganda puff pieces night and day. So, in order to exercise your brains, here are some facts for your consideration:

On February 7, two and a half weeks before Russia launched its intervention in Ukraine, President Biden told a news conference at the White House, “If Russia invades, then there will be no longer a Nord Stream II.” An ABC News reporter asked in response, “But how will you do that, exactly, since the project is in Germany’s control?” Biden stumbled briefly before replying, “I promise you, we will be able to do that.”

We cannot yet claim any certainty as to who is responsible for the four undersea explosions near Bornholm, a Danish island hard by Germany’s Baltic Sea coast. Let us not forget this. But we have a motive, a beneficiary, and a very considerable gathering of persuasive circumstantial evidence indicating that the operation, which required sophisticated undersea technology and involved devices with the explosive power of 1,100 pounds of dynamite, was the work of the US. in apparent collaboration with Denmark, if not also Germany.

Numerous reports detailing this evidence, all of them carried in independent media, indicate that the US. Navy was active in the area of the explosions shortly before they occurred. This fleet reportedly included the U.S.S. Kearsarge, which carries unmanned submarines capable of planting undersea explosives. Satellite tracking indicates the presence, shortly before the explosions, of US. military helicopters over the zones where the devices detonated.

--Patrick Lawrence: Sins of Silence or Silence by Design 

So the US has the means, the motive, and our president even gave the world a hint back in February that the US might shut down the Nord Stream pipelines at some point. Yet, the mainstream media is running stories about how “crazy Putin” blew up these very expensive LNG pipelines instead of simply switching them off and stopping all sales to the EU. Even more damning evidence is that a new pipeline from Norway to Denmark to Poland has just opened, and it’s ready to send LNG throughout Europe from American-friendly fossil fuel corporations (who’ll probably charge more than the Russians did).

These suspicious attacks came mere hours before NATO members Norway, Denmark, and Poland officially opened their own natural gas pipeline, called the Baltic Pipe, which was built with European Union funding in order to compete with Nord Stream. 
--Ben Norton, Who Sabotaged Nord Stream Pipelines? 

The timing of this new Baltic pipeline opening is so coincidental to be laughable. They must really think we’re missing a few brain cells not to put two and two together and come up with five. When you can’t compete on prices for natural gas, you simply blow up your competitor’s pipeline or so it seems. And the American military-industrial-Congressional complex has been itching to stick it to Putin from day one of this proxy war, haven’t they? What better way to make your point and make a lot of profits for fossil fuel stock holders?

“Gaslighting” is a term for this game of trying to put a falsehood over on another. When you are being gaslighted, you're told not to trust the evidence of your own eyes. Just like Farmer B insisting Farmer A chopped down his own tree, a person who has been gaslighted may come to believe an outright lie since no one will admit they’re lying and they'll keep insisting your beliefs and instincts are just plain wrong. Americans learned a few months ago that we have our very own “Ministry of Truth” propaganda bureau, but these latest bald-faced lies seem too crude to have been crafted by masters of the fine propaganda arts. Maybe they’re all on vacation? 

Still, the US government propagandists will keep trying to sell a proxy war to control a pipeline that no ordinary person asked for or wanted. $65 billion in arms deals and many deaths later, it ranks at the very bottom of a recent Gallup poll of what Americans are most concerned about. Caitlin Johnstone puts it all so eloquently:

If your proxy war demands nonstop perception management at maximum aggression to manufacture public consent for it, your proxy war is probably immoral and bad. If maintaining public support for a proxy war requires nonstop PR spin, aggressive propaganda from the mainstream news media, banning of Russian media, and giant troll information ops amplified by think tanks and government agencies, it probably shouldn't have public support. --A Good and Righteous Proxy War Wouldn't Need Such Cartoonish PR

The amateur Twitter bots name-call people when the weaknesses of their false narrative is made apparent, and they have no hard facts to back their story up. If you can think for yourself and say you're not falling for such nonsense, you might be called a "Putin puppet". More and more frequently if you state that you're not pro-war on a social platform, you'll be called a "Russia lover" instead of simply a pacifist or peace-lover. No, you must be for using nuclear weapons first, according to a recent statement made by Ukrainian President Zelensky. It's sad but predictable behavior from those who have been brainwashed into "learning to love the bomb" as the character of Dr. Strangelove admitted to in the classic Stanley Kubrick film of the same name.

I guess the Golden Rule and loving your neighbor as yourself aren't seen as shining virtues in the West anymore? Maybe our government is hoping nuclear winter will cancel out the climate emergency?

This week’s announcement by President Biden that he would pardon those charged with federal charges for simple marijuana possession is another weak gaslighting attempt to change the public's opinion before the midterms. Most marijuana possession charges are made at the state level, not the federal, so there’s practically no one to pardon. Federal agents charge people for drug trafficking large amounts, not a joint or two. If Biden really wanted to legalize marijuana, he could have it taken off the federal drug schedule, making it like tobacco and alcohol. But Biden is going to leave that decision up to the FDA he said, so nothing substantial will happen anytime soon. 

Did he really think we’d fall for that stunt? 

Americans need to trust their instincts and continue to use their gray-matter if they want to survive under this gaslighting government. Blowing up LNG pipelines that belong to a fellow nuclear power is an open invitation to start a nuclear war. Destroying trade and trust with Europe in order to rake in fossil fuel profits this winter isn't a kind or intelligent move. The distractions of the midterm elections and non-existent marijuana pardons shouldn't persuade us from considering this potentially end-of-the-world scenario our self-centered political leaders have put us all in. We are smarter than they think--much, much smarter. 

I think we're smart enough to let those in Washington DC know that we’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take their gaslighting anymore. We see through the spell cast by the military-industrial-Congressional complex, and we understand just how much money goes into politicians pockets to legislate the way that they do. (It's more than $1 billion in the 2022 midterm elections alone!) We'll let our votes do the talking in the midterms. We'll think independently of the propaganda. We'll vote outside the box of the status quo. 

We'll let those in the establishment parties know that we’re intelligent enough to know that nuclear war is not winnable and it's never worth risking for any amount of profits because we are smarter than they think. Much smarter.

Stephen F. Cohen Provides Clarity on NATO Expansion and Russia More than 10 Years Ago (video)

 

https://youtu.be/mciLyG9iexE


Related Articles:

In Nord Stream Attack, US Sees "a Tremendous Opportunity" https://mate.substack.com/p/in-nord-stream-attack-us-sees-a-tremendous

Patrick Lawrence: Sins of Silence or Silence by Design https://scheerpost.com/2022/10/08/patrick-lawrence-sins-of-silence-or-silence-by-design/

Who Sabotaged Nord Stream Pipelines? US Boasts "Tremendous Opportunity" to Weaken Russia. CIA Knew https://multipolarista.com/2022/10/06/sabotage-nord-stream-pipelines-us-russia-cia/ 

Scott Ritter: Pipelines v. USA  https://scheerpost.com/2022/10/13/scott-ritter-pipelines-v-usa/ 

Another Nord Stream Explosion Detail Nobody Is Talking About (video) https://youtu.be/YsBRM-hg7J4 

Report: US Special Operations Forces Are On the Ground in Ukraine  https://scheerpost.com/2022/10/07/report-us-special-operations-forces-are-on-the-ground-in-ukraine/ 

Now, All of You Are Azov https://popularresistance.org/now-all-of-you-are-azov/ 

US Ignores Growing Calls For Diplomacy and Sends More Weapons to Ukraine https://scheerpost.com/2022/10/05/us-ignores-growing-calls-for-diplomacy-and-sends-more-weapons-to-ukraine/ 

Stephen F. Cohen Provides Clarity on NATO Expansion and Russia More than 10 Years Ago https://scheerpost.com/2022/10/05/video-stephen-f-cohen-provides-clarity-on-nato-expansion-and-russia-more-than-10-years-ago/

Advocates Lament "Extremely Disappointing" Exclusion of Non-citizens from Biden Marijuana Pardons https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/10/07/advocates-lament-extremely-disappointing-exclusion-noncitizens-biden-marijuana  

Biden Frees All Marijuana Prisoners--Except Not At All (video) https://youtu.be/auN7ZH_Mf4s

Biden: We're Trying to Figure Out How Putin Can Exit This War https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/biden-were-trying-to-figure-out-how 

Outside Spending on Federal 2022 Midterm Elections tops $1 Billion https://truthout.org/articles/outside-spending-on-federal-2022-midterm-elections-tops-1-billion/

A Good and Righteous Proxy War Wouldn't Need Such Cartoonish PR https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/a-good-and-righteous-proxy-war-wouldnt

Jeffrey Sachs: End Ukraine Proxy War or Face Armageddon https://youtu.be/g57ViSqmRFM  (video)

Guest Freaks Out News Host With Truth About Pipeline Attack https://youtu.be/99s-1Trj69k (video)

Zelensky Calls for Nuclear First Strikes Against Russia https://youtu.be/KqouWrGu7tY (video)

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Tuesday, March 9, 2021

Poison Pill Politics

 

 https://youtu.be/xnNvzJ4G3dk (The story starts at 5:50 and goes to about 14:30)

Poison Pill Politics

by C.A. Matthews

HR1, also known as the For the People Act, creates a national system of automatic voter registration, which is expected to bring millions of new voters to the ballot box, and cracks down on voter suppression tactics. --Ryan Grim, The Intercept

The so-called "For The People Act" has been passed in the House and has been sent on to the Senate. It all sounds great on the surface, but as one peers deeper into its 790 pages some rather troubling features are revealed. While 62% of Americans have stated they want more choices in candidates/parties on the ballot, this bill actually introduces legislation that would make it virtually impossible for third or independent parties to run candidates for office. Added bonus--it enables "Dark Money" to flood campaign coffers of the two so-called "major parties."

A bill that has a coating of good on top to hide its inner rotten core is called a poison pill. And it's not something anyone should swallow.

 According to Harvey Wasserman of Reader Supported News:

Though much in HR1 is absolutely essential to the survival of American democracy, one section is a cynical assault on third parties, making barriers to their signature-gathering and fundraising virtually insurmountable. Those clauses come from Democratic operatives who hate the Green Party and other third parties.

HR1 would inflate the amount of money national party committees can give to their candidates from $5000 to $100 million, an astonishing increase of 1999900% that would give party bosses virtually unlimited power to flood elections with Big Money.

This bill is "for the people"? It takes "Big Money" out of politics? Really?

The bill that should have been passed is The Fair Representation Act. Introduced in 2018 and 2019, if enacted ranked-choice voting (RCV) and multi-member districts for Congressional elections would become the law of the land, giving voters more power and more choice.

The Fair Representation Act sounds like a good thing, doesn't it?

But you've probably never heard of The Fair Representation Act if you get your news from mainstream media outlets. All you've heard  is how great the "For The People Act" is from numerous neoliberal talking heads without mention of how it will take away your choice of candidates and add even more unrestricted SuperPACs and Dark Money into US politics. That's because the major networks are owned by a tiny handful of multi-millionaires. They want this poison pill legislation to pass so there will be less chance of independent candidates winning and less chance of third party candidates who can think for themselves representing us, the people, and not them, the oligarchy.

Less democracy means there's far less mess for the oligarchs to keep under control. Far fewer chances for voters to elect representatives who will pass laws to tax these millionaires and billionaires the way they should have been taxed all along. Far less chance of these media monopolies being broken up to increase fairness and competition and give more choices to us, the people.

Fairness and choice?  Fewer chances for the mega-wealthy to purchase politicians with unlimited private donations? Hmm, those sound like healthy things, don't they?

 I hope you won't swallow the poison pill called the "For The People Act." Please share this information with others, watch the videos and pass the links along to your friends and family. Because the only true antidote to poison in politics is education and vigilance.

 

In this video, 2020 Green Party presidential and vice presidential nominees Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker discuss HR1 and the dangers hiding within it.  https://youtu.be/TiUQsekabsk
 

More from Howie Hawkins' #GreenSocialist Organizing Project:

Like you, we believe in the protection of voting rights, including same-day and automatic voter registration, restoring the franchise to people with criminal records, and an expansion of early voting, voting by mail, and absentee drop boxes...as a first step. 

HR 1, also known as the "For the People Act," is a bill that has passed the House and is in the Senate and which contains these types of necessary reforms.  In these days, when Republicans and right-leaning Democrats are happy to make access to the voting booth all the more difficult, these are good reforms that are useful now.

However, there is a specific section of this omnibus bill that deals with matching funds and overall campaign finance that serves to entrench dark and corporate money in campaigns even further.  

The major problems with the Campaign Finance of H.R. 1 include:

Excludes Third Parties: The qualifying threshold to receive presidential primary matching funds is increased five times, from $100,000 ($5,000 raised in 20 states in contributions of $250 or less) to $500,000 ($25,000 raised in 20 states in contributions of $200 or less). This higher threshold puts public funding beyond the reach of third-party candidates.

Increases Funding Disparities: The 6:1 ratio in matching funds increases the public funding disparities between candidates by seven times. A 6:1 match for a candidate with $1 million in qualified contributions would yield $7 million. A 6:1 match for $5 million would yield $35 million. The funding disparity grows seven times, from $4 million to $28 million.

Eliminates Private Spending Caps for Publicly Funded Candidates: H.R. 1 eliminates the private spending caps under the existing program of presidential public funding, which limits how much private money candidates who accept public funding can spend.

Increases Big Donations through Party Committees: H.R. 1 increases the amount national party committees can contribute to presidential candidates from $5,000 to $100 million. Each party has three national committees that can make this contribution: the national committee and the party’s house and senate campaign committees. So the total amount increases from $15,000 to $300 million. This change increases the influence of big donors. The current individual contribution limits to a federal candidate’s campaign committee is $5,600 ($2,800 for the primary and $2,800 for the general). The current individual campaign contribution limit to party’s national committees is $109,500. So the super-rich can give up to $328,500 to a party’s national committees.

Increases Big Donations through Victory Funds: H.R. 1 does nothing to curb big donor funding through joint campaign committees of presidential candidates and national and state party committees. This loophole enables the super-rich to give six-figure donations to the presidential candidates’ so-called Victory Funds. In 2020, donors could give up to $620,600 to the Biden Victory Fund and $580,600 to the Trump Victory Fund.

Preserves Unlimited Private Donations for Independent Expenditures: HR 1 does nothing to curb the unlimited donations the super-rich give for independent expenditures by SuperPACs, including as undisclosed “dark money” laundered through 501c4 nonprofits.

In short, the Campaign Finance section in H.R. 1 does not curb the swelling ocean of private campaign funding by corporate special interests and super-rich oligarchs. It simply enables the major party recipients of unlimited private donations to also get some public money as well. It is a reform that doesn’t reform.

Click here to read Howie's entire policy paper on HR1.

Click here to read Howie's article about HR1 on Counterpunch.  And please share!

So what can you do? Please sign our petition to immediately send an email to your U.S. Senator to request that they work to eliminate the campaign finance section of HR 1, as well as work to enact real campaign finance reforms that matter.  Click here to go to the petition.

Related Articles:

https://howiehawkins.us/hr-1s-campaign-finance-program-a-reform-that-doesnt-reform/

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/mar/1/green-party-accuses-nancy-pelosi-house-democrats-t/

https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/68131-rsn-the-all-out-war-on-voting-rights-has-gone-nuclear 

***

The Revolution Continues is now in our sixth year taking on the propaganda of the fauxgressives and their friends in the corporate-owned duopoly. We need passionate revolutionaries like you to help us provide progressive insights that are being actively censored elsewhere. If you can donate a little to the cause, please do so at the Paypal.me link below.

http://paypal.me/camatthews

Thanks for all you do in making the world a better place. Power to the people!

 ***

Part of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act (HR 1280), newly reintroduced in the U.S. Congress, is called the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act. This is an issue that World BEYOND War has been working on, with some success, at the local level, and that work will continue no matter what. But this federal law would be a major boost, and it has a good chance of passing if we push for it.

Under this law, the U.S. military would be forbidden to transfer to federal, tribal, state, or local law enforcement agencies the following:

  • Firearms, ammunition, bayonets, grenade launchers, grenades (including stun and flash-bang), and explosives.
  • Vehicles, except for passenger automobiles and bucket trucks.
  • Drones.
  • Controlled aircraft that are combat configured or combat coded or have no established commercial flight application.
  • Silencers.
  • Long-range acoustic devices.
  • Items in the Federal Supply Class of banned items.

Click here to tell Congress to pass this bill right away!

Demonstrators across the United States declared in one voice that "Black Lives Matter," demanding criminal justice reform at the federal level. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was the House's response.

An overdue package of reforms, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, in addition to demilitarizing police, makes police more accountable, reforming qualified immunity, creating a national registry of police misconduct, prohibiting racial profiling, banning no-knock warrants in drug cases, banning excessive force, incentivizing the banning of chokeholds and carotid holds, and requiring the use of body cameras, but forbidding the use with those cameras of facial recognition technology.

Click here to add your name in support!

***


HR 1 is sold as a way to get money out of politics and to protect voters but it contains a poison pill for democracy and opposition parties like the Green Party. HR1 quintuples the amount of money Green presidential campaigns will be required to raise to qualify for federal matching funds: from $5,000 in each of 20 states to $25,000 per state.

The Green Party stands opposed to this bait-and-switch legislation that claims to improve access to voting while actually dismantling everyone's right to organize electorally against the parties of War and Wall Street. In a recent Gallup poll, a record 62% of US voters said we need a new major party.

HR1 is just the latest example of how the parties of War and Wall Street have no shame about strangling democracy to preserve their duopoly, even while pretending they're doing exactly the opposite. Please donate to the Green Party today so we can fight back.

No doubt you've heard from "progressive" groups about how HR1 contains much-needed voter protections. And it's true, HR1 contains some badly needed reforms. That makes it all the more shameful for the Democrats to use those reforms as cover to eliminate competition from alternative parties.

Go to our Action Page and Tell Congress: Stop HR1, the "Voting Rights Bill" That Restricts Voter Choice!

And make sure you tell your family and communities how HR1 will:

  • Eliminate the limits on donations and expenditures candidates can receive and make — what kind of campaign finance reform is that?

  • Inflate the amount of money national party committees can give to candidates from $5000 to $100 million, an astonishing increase of 1999900% that would give party bosses virtually unlimited power to flood elections with big money

  • Abolish the general election campaign block grants that parties can access by winning at least 5% of the vote in the previous presidential election. HR1 will eliminate this provision that was created to give a fair shot to alternative parties that demonstrate significant public support

  • Replace the general election block grants (where each qualified candidate receives a set, lump sum of public funding for campaign expenses) with matching funds through Election Day — a huge step backwards for public campaign finance reform — using the above-mentioned criteria designed to squeeze out alternative parties and independent candidates

Instead of trying to fool American voters and eliminating minor party voices, the Green Party calls for real reforms to democratize elections:

  • The Fair Representation Act, introduced in 2018 and 2019, would enact Ranked-Choice Voting (RCV) and multi-member districts for Congressional elections, giving voters more power and more choice

  • Individual state governments should enact RCV for their elections, including the presidential election

  • Fully-public campaign finance for every federal, state and local office through the Clean Money/Clean Elections model now used in Arizona and Maine

Make sure you sign the petition today!

With Gratitude,
The Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org/

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