A Program to End Your “Addiction” of Voting for Candidates in the Two Party Duopoly!

This program is designed to build  groups to critically discuss the advantages (and disadvantages) of an Election Boycott as a tactic to attack the two party Duopoly which totally controls our national elections.  It is primarily intended for federal elections including those for Congress and the Presidency. But it may also apply to many states as well.  We MUST break this incredibly destructive “habit” which many people feel they are “forced” to continue and, therefore, begin the process of destroying the Duopoly. (***Note:  Use of the term “addiction” is discussed briefly at the end.)

 

 

1. Admit to yourself and others that the political system today is totally corrupted by Corporate Control which dominates the two political parties.
2. Admit to yourself and others that those same corporations and the wealthy elite control the electoral process and the elected officials whom they elect. (Over 90% of incumbents are re-elected and the same percentage number win who have the most money.)
3. Admit to yourself and others that it is INSANE to continue doing the same thing and expecting different results.
4. Commit to disrupting the electoral process by refusing to continue to vote the way you have in the past.
5. If you agree not to vote for federal officials—Congress and the President—then ACTIVELY PROTEST THE CORRUPT PROCESS.
6. If you think you MUST vote, then abstain from voting for any candidates in the Duopoly.
7. Before you vote for an alternate “third party” candidate  make sure  you choose one not receiving support from corporations or “billionaires.”
8. Examine the record of third party candidates in the past; don’t vote for one who has little chance of  having a significant impact on the outcome.
9. Never give money to anyone in the Duopoly; instead invest in organizations and active “movements” working for significant change.
10. Resist the influence of corporate controlled media. Stay informed and get your news from alternate sources available on the internet.
11. Spend your time supporting  “progressive” organizations m focusing on issues and working hard to change the system.
12. Commit to investigating alternative political/economic systems with realistic platforms being used to correct the corrupt system we have—and learn about them

Note:  Many of these “steps” can be done simultaneously and need not be performed in any order.  Consider joining a support group to discuss this process in detail and how it might best work for you and others. 

—-Thomas Baldwin, Biloxi, MS

A creative adaptation of Einstein’s definition of insanity as applied to continuing to vote for the Duopoly candidates.

 

 

 

***Some brief comments about the use of the term “addiction”.  By that we mean a “compulsive habit” that can be destructive when the outcome is very negative to the individual.  For example:  “Although the precise symptoms vary from one addiction to another, in clarifying what is an addiction, there are two aspects that all addictions have in common.Firstly, the addictive behavior is maladaptiveor counter-productive to the individual. So instead of helping the person adapt to situations or overcome problems, it tends to undermine these abilities.  For example, a gambler might wish he had more money –- yet gambling is more likely to drain his financial resources….Secondly, the behavior is persistent. When someone is addicted, they will continue to engage in the addictive behavior, despite it causing them trouble.” (Excerpted from What is addiction.)

“

How America’s ‘News’ Media Killed America’s Democracy: TPP and TTIP by Eric Zuesse

The following articles were published at washingtonblog.com    They also appeared at The Greanville Post.

 

 

How America’s ‘News’ Media Killed America’s Democracy: TPP & TTIP

Posted on May 15, 2015

by  Eric Zuesse.

As I reported on Wednesday, a deal was worked out in the U.S. Senate on the early afternoon of May 13th to “Fast-Track” through to approval U.S. President Barack Obama’s proposed trade deals, TPP with Asia, and TTIP with Europe. (It should have been reported on the nightly TV news programs, but most of them ignored it then, and reported the news only the next day when the Senators made it official.)

TPP and TTIP have been represented in America’s press as ‘trade’ deals, but instead they’re actually about sovereignty. They’re about America and the other participating countries handing their democratic sovereignty — on regulation of the environment, consumer protection, worker protection, and finance — over to panels, all of whose members will be selected by the large international corporations that for years have been working with U.S. President Obama’s Trade Representative to draft these “trade” treaties.

If some corporation “C” under these ‘trade deals’ then brings a case to one of those panels and says that country “X” has any regulations regarding the environment, consumer protection, worker protection, or finance, that are stricter than the ones that are set forth in TPP and TTIP, then country X will be assessed to pay a fine to corporation C, for “unfair trade practices” against that corporation. 

In other words: these corporate panels will constitute a new international government, with the power to fine countries for exceeding the regulations that are set forth in these international ‘trade’ treaties.

President Obama’s Trade Representative, Michael Froman, has told the AFL-CIO and U.S. Senators that when countries such as Colombia systematically murder labor-union organizers, it’s no violation of workers’ rights — nothing that is of any concern to the U.S. regarding this country’s international trade policies or enforcement. On April 22nd, Huffington Post, one of the few U.S. news media to report honestly on these treaties, bannered “AFL-CIO’s Trumka: USTR Told Us Murder Isn’t A Violation,” and reported that, “Defenders of the White House push for sweeping trade deals argue they include tough enforcement of labor standards. But a top union leader scoffed at such claims Tuesday, revealing that administration officials have said privately that they don’t consider even the killings of labor organizers to be violations of those pacts.” 

In other words: this is and will be the low level of the playing-field that U.S. workers will be competing against in TPP and TTIP, just as it is already, in the far-smaller NAFTA. “Trumka said that even after the Obama administration crafted an agreement to tighten labor protections four years ago, some 105 labor organizers have been killed, and more than 1,300 have been threatened with death.” The Obama Administration is ignoring the tightened regulations that it itself managed to get implemented on paper. “Pressed for details about Trumka’s assertion that murder doesn’t count as a violation of labor rules, Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO deputy chief of staff, told HuffPost that USTR officials said in at least two meetings where she was present that killing and brutalizing organizers would not be considered interfering with labor rights under the terms of the trade measures.” Furthermore: “’We documented five or six murders of Guatemalan trade unionists that the government had failed to effectively investigate or prosecute,’ Lee said. ‘The USTR told us that the murders of trade unionists or violence against trade unionists was not a violation of the labor chapter.’” That U.S. Trade Representative, Michael Froman, is the same person Obama has negotiating with foreign governments, and with international corporations, both the TPP, and the TTIP.

Any country in TPP or TTIP that brings up worker-protection regulations which are beyond this abysmal level will be fined by corporate panels, and those fines will then become income to the companies whose ‘rights’ (such as to murder labor-organizers) have been violated, under the terms of the given treaty: TPP or TTIP.

And that’s just one example of the type of sovereignty (in this instance over workers’ rights) that is being ceded to international corporations, under these ‘trade’ deals.

As the UN’s top official on such matters has said, TTP & TTIP will produce “a dystopian future in which corporations and not democratically elected governments call the shots.”

It couldn’t have happened if not for the fact that such news reports as that just quoted from Huffington Post have constituted only a tiny minority of the ‘news’ reports about these proposed ‘trade’ deals, in the American press.

Every Senator, and every member of the U.S. House, who votes for “Fast Track” approval for these deals, is looking for big money from big corporations, and not for fulfilling his or her supposed and oathed job: to be an authentic representative of the public back home — and of their children, and future generations.

The idea that these are ‘free market’ treaties is the biggest of all Big Lies. They’re a transfer of sovereignty from national democracies to a fascistic world government. This is the biggest news-story of our times, and it’s been virtually ignored, until it’s too late to stop.

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Here’s How Your Senators Voted, in the Key Senate Vote to End American Democracy

Posted on May 15, 2015

by Eric Zuesse.

The key vote, in the U.S. Senate, to transfer to international corporate panels America’s democratic national sovereignty over the laws and regulations on the environment, workers’ rights, consumers’ rights, and finance, was officially titled with the misleadingly unrelated phrase “Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act,” and it passed the U.S. Senate as “H.R. 1314,” by 65 to 33 votes, at 1:55 in the afternoon of Thursday 14 May 2015. 

That’s five votes more than the 60 votes that the measure needed in order to pass. This is the key congressional action among the many that are required in order for U.S. President Barack Obama’s international-‘trade’ treaties — TPP, TTIP, and TISA — to become law in the United States. It’s the ultimate decision-moment, concerning America’s future.

A “Nay” vote meant that the Senator opposed this transfer of democratic national sovereignty, away from elected representatives of the public, to international corporate panels, whose members will be appointed solely by executives chosen by the controlling stockholders in large international corporations. A “Yea” vote meant that the Senator favored this transfer of democratic national sovereignty over to international corporate panels.

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=114&session=1&vote=00180

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity, and of  Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics.

———-

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity, and of  Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics.

Why I and My Colleagues Have Become Election Boycott Advocates by Thomas Baldwin

OUR POLITICAL AND ELECTORAL SYSTEMS ARE TOTALLY CORRUPT

BILOXI, MS, OCTOBER 24, 2014

Nearly two months ago a group of us began to put together an organization for the purpose of urging voters to boycott the upcoming elections. This was based upon several reasons but the primary one was that the influence of money in elections had become hideously corrupting to our government run by the two party duopoly, both Democratic and Republican Parties. And all but one member of the 535 members of Congress belong to one of these two parties. The primary source of all funding for elections has become the large corporations and the wealthy elite. This was made significantly worse by the Supreme Court’s Citizens’ United decision in 2010 and again by its McCutcheon’s decision in 2014 giving corporations and wealthy elite (e.g. billionaires) unlimited power to donate to campaigns. Thus, this group “owns” our entire system of government in Washington and they are the bodies that make our laws and enforce the laws. And our entire system of justice has become one of “injustice”.

These beginning statements will not be a surprise to many people who may have thought this for years. But the data which have been accumulated and distributed in recent years show vividly how bad the situation has become. For example, a good measure of “economic justice” is obtained by looking at income/wealth inequities and the data show that these now compare to those achieved in 1928 just before the Great Depression. With the Great “Recession” of 2007 these inequities were even worsened and yet, the wealthy elite and the Big Banks became even larger and more powerful. Congress repeatedly tells us they don’t have enough money to improve the situation and provide for jobs programs and the reason is they need money for National Defense and foreign wars to protect us from the growing threat of “terrorism.” Fear has replaced hope and promise as a primary means of “motivating” people to go along with their evil, corrupt practices.

This has been going on for many years, but it has become critical. Joel Hirshhorn in Dandelion Salad has recently written an excellent article describing this reality.  And two professors, Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page at Northwestern Univ. , have recently shown conclusively with an exhaustive study that the average person in the U.S. has NO influence on public policy. It is a total myth (or lie) that we live in a democracy. The people are totally brainwashed by a corrupt corporate media that spends billions propagating that lie on        behalf of their political cronies. Corporate “news” is nothing but corporate propaganda and that includes much of what passes for news about our foreign interventions. We seldom get the truth that our invasions are all about acquiring resources (particularly oil). In this excellent short review of the detailed paper by Gilens and Page, Eric Zuesse describes how “The U.S. is an Oligarchy and Not a Democracy.”

In an outstanding series of inteviews on Can Capitalism and Democracy Co-Exist  ? (presented on Dandelion Salad), Chris Hedges interviews Sheldon Wolin who coined the phrase “Inverted Totalitarianism” which is analogous to corporate fascism. These are highly recommended to everyone as it addresses a critical subject for the U.S. today.

Congressional approval ratings have recently been 15% and even as low as 9% at times over the last year or so. And the President’s approval rating is dropping like a lead balloon and is now under 40%, just like happened in the Bush years. Fewer than 35% approve of Obama’s foreign policy today and it sinks lower with each new foreign invasion and bombing campaign. Meanwhile we keep creating more terrorists than we are killing. It’s a vicious cycle of madness that we experience coming out of Washington every week. And the people are getting angrier and more frustrated every day with the miserable quality of leadership this country has witnessed.

Every Congressional election nearly 90% of incumbents are reelected to office and over 90% of those are the ones who spent the most money. Efforts have been made to create and support “third” political parties over the last 35 years or so but the results/records have been pitiful as the data in this report shows. With presidential campaigns, third parties have recently gathered about 2% of the vote or less in totality and they have not earned a single electoral vote! Why? Because the two party duopoly crushes any third party effort with money and mass media to discount it. It seems clear that change cannot be made in the electoral system unless a massive movement is backing a third party effort. There is no sign of that today even though there may be small successes at a local or maybe even a state level in special circumstances.

THE “WHAT” AND THE “WHY” OF THE ELECTION BOYCOTT ADVOCATES

You can visit with us at the EBA, participate and stay informed by visiting these two primary websites:

http://electionboycott.weebly.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/electionboycottadvocates/

This is the backdrop for the creation of a new organization, the Election Boycott Advocates (EBA), which is currently focusing on federal elections, those for Congress and for 2016 the presidency. Certain states may also be added later. But the two party duopoly has to be destroyed as I described in several previous blogs. We must stop endorsing this corrupt system by participating in their illegitimate elections!! Don’t give it your time and certainly don’t give it your money!! You have no chance to compete with the corporations and the wealthy elite! Spend it with your family instead! And consider joining us at the Election Boycott Advocates (EBA)! First, here is the Manifesto we created :

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THE ELECTION BOYCOTT ADVOCATES MANIFESTO:

“The entire notion of putting massive resources and effort into building electoral parties to compete in the elite-managed horse-race charades is fatally flawed.  In the final analysis it does not work. We have to do something radically different, and the election boycott is the start of this new, genuinely revolutionary—not reformist—movement.”
—Ted Aranda, Election Boycott advocate and lifelong activist

TEXT: The Election Boycott is the first step in a struggle for democracy, for alternative democratic government to replace the plutocratic imperialist police state, and for the liberation of working people so that ordinary Americans can manage their society and economy themselves and in their own interests.  It has famously been said that the people have the right to replace their government when it no longer serves them.  This, without question, is the situation in the U.S.A. today–and we are now claiming that right!

A plurality of Americans have been boycotting federal elections for more than half a century, but only as individuals, silently–letting their rulers know that they did not support them, but in a passive protest. Now, with the advent of the Election Boycott Advocates, the silent majority of nonvoters has found a voice that will make what was implicit, explicit, what was silent, loud, what was unconscious, thoughtful and public… Continued at link.

http://electionboycott.weebly.com/manifesto.html

Next I present a comprehensive piece published by the GREANVILLE POST which includes a composite of a blog I wrote at Progressive Activist Voice, along with several blog talk radio shows on CARSON’S CORNER with Bob Carson and one from the PINKY THE BEAR Show with Brad Holhut.

WHAT IS THE ELECTION BOYCOTT ADVOCATES (CONT.)

“The popular distrust in capitalist democracy and authoritarian elections if now so widespread the movement to boycott them is becoming nearly universal.” (See links below for completeness.)

http://www.greanvillepost.com/2014/10/12/what-is-the-election-boycott-advocates-group/

ALERT: The Progressive Activists Voice

https://proactvoice.wordpress.com/2014/09/27/election-boycott-advocates-on-carsons-corner/

“The popular distrust in capitalist democracy and authoritarian elections if now so widespread the movement to boycott them is becoming nearly universal.”

WHAT A FEW OF OUR MEMBERS SAY ABOUT JOINING AND/OR SUPPORTING THE EBA:

Two of our members have each written extensive comments on two blogs I just published. Those are referenced here: “Why I Boycott Elections by DeNeice Kenehan, and “Why I Became an Election Boycott Advocate” by Terri Lee.

Other brief comments are here:
“I boycott all phony elections because to participate in the farce is to endorse the farce. The billionaire class controls all governments in the United States of America and in many of its imperialist allies, clients and neo-colonies as well. In fact, in the 130 or so countries within the U.S. imperial-global hegemony, there are no democracies, and to pretend that such plutocracies are democratic, and even to vote in or run in these charades, is to endorse them and to give your consent to the billionaires to govern.

Turning the silent boycott into a loud and militant boycott makes the implicit explicit:
1) We do not agree to comply with your rule, billionaires! 2) We do not agree with your totalitarian dictatorship over most of the world. 3) We do not agree with your murderous wars of plunder. 4) We do not agree with your occupations and repressions of nations all over the world, nor do we agree with your worldwide repression of the working class and poor. 5) Our campaign of noncompliance with your rule starts with this boycott, but it does not end here. We will continue to whittle away at your illegitimate power until you have none at all.”—Christopher Driscoll

“I am a member and support the Election Boycott Advocates because it is the only rational alternative to our corrupt political two party system which we have today. If we continue on this path we either must destroy it or it will destroy us. It is controlled by corporations and the wealthy elite and the facts and experience of many years conclusively show that.”–Thomas Baldwin

“I am an Election Boycott Advocate because elections truly do not matter. The political and economic system is arranged for and by the ruling class. In order for the working class to have any sort of decent life, we must control the means of production.”—Bob Carson

“ I boycott voting for representatives because those we elect are NOT held accountable for their actions! When you vote YOU give your consent for them to do whatever the hell they want. I refuse to give them that POWER.”—Emmagee Mindy Oaktown

“It has finally become clear to me that even if the “perfect” candidate became available (and Empire would never allow that; as all candidates are hand-picked puppets), their presence would be irrelevant because it is the SYSTEM that is broken. I have stopped looking for heroes and have put my energy into a powerful movement that makes a statement. I don’t support the agenda of the oligarchy running the USA.”—Linda Calder

“Capitalism in any form and democracy are mutually exclusive. There is no democracy in America. Elections in America operate within the confines of the bourgeois narrative and not beyond. Elections merely provide the ruling classes with a cloak of legitimacy. Don’t give it to them. Boycott.

Sure, the ruling classes will still rule, but they will not be able to claim legitimacy. Voting is a coward’s way out. The voter pretends he has a voice. This pretense spares the voter humiliation which would otherwise force him to stand up for himself and fight the ruling class head on.”—John Mcgarry

“The working people are barred from participation in bourgeois parliaments (they never decide important questions under bourgeois democracy, which are decided by the stock exchange and the banks) by thousands of obstacles, and the workers know and feel, see and realize perfectly well that the bourgeois parliaments are institutions alien to them, instruments for the oppression of workers by the bourgeoisie, institutions of a hostile class, of the exploiting minority.” -V.I Lenin, 1918, “The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky”—Brad Holhut

“Three reasons I boycott elections
1. Republicans
2. Democrats
3. I forgot the third,”—DeNeice Kenehan

“Our federal elections are a farcical charade that no longer
matter. They’re held to give us the semblance of choice where there is none. Our elected officials are selected and installed by global corporate elites who have no loyalty to anyone or anything but profit. Pretend, if you must, but at your own peril.”— Jill Dalton (See Jill’s blog on this entitled:  “Does Voting Matter?”)

“I was a sucker for the old freedom and democracy spiel. After Obama reneged on his political promises of hope and change, I could no longer deny those we elected and who swore an oath to represent we the people were no longer doing it. I started to say out loud and to the consternation of many that our democracy is a lie. Freedom is a joke. We are all being played for the suckers we seemed so willing to be. So just like that I decided to stop voting. If and until I feel my vote counts, that those I vote for are interested in representing what is best for the common good instead of a wealthy elite, then I have no one to vote for. Very simple and practical, really.”—Willa Bea

Why We Must DESTROY the two party Fascist Duopoly NOW!

 Corporate Fascism Dominates Our Political System

by Thomas Baldwin

Biloxi, MS  October 19, 2014 (Update)

Since writing this original blog on July 4, 2014 I have become convinced this has become an urgent matter to address the outrageous corruption and incompetence in our political system–both parties! I have previously discussed in several blogs how I believe that a strong united progressive movement is needed to form a foundation for a new political system.  It’s not happening and in the current or impending election there is only one rational choice.  It is to BOYCOTT the elections at the federal level and to declare them illegitimate, corrupt and illegal.  Only the citizens can do that and I urge your attention to the ELECTION BOYCOTT ADVOCATES organization to become a committed member.

Whether one uses the term Corporatocracy, Corporatism= Corporate Fascism or the Corporate State, these terms all mean a complete merger of the corporations with the state. One can also argue that a Plutocracy or Oligarchy in a capitalistic system also strongly signify a strong relationship between corporations and the wealthiest elite. Sheldon Wolin introduced a term “Inverted Totalitarianism“.  What all of these suggest is that the wealthiest elite have gained complete control of our government (the state) and rule; it is antithetical to a democracy where the people rule. These systems are completely incompatible and cannot coexist.

Update: Why Americans Must Demolish the Political Duopoly and Create a New Progressive Alliance

A Call to Action Now!

By Thomas Baldwin, Biloxi, MS

March 23, 2014 (Updated from December 15, 2013)

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”– Albert  Einstein 

Duopoly:  “preponderant influence or control by two political powers.”

Demolish:  “to destroy by breaking apart; to put an end to.”

Corporate fascism (or Corporatism):  “the complete merger of  corporate and state entities to create a political entity.”

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Why Americans Must Demolish the Political Two Party Duopoly!

A Call to Action!

By Thomas Baldwin, Biloxi, MS

December 15, 2013

“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”– Albert  Einstein 

Duopoly:  “preponderant influence or control by two political powers.”

Demolish:  “to destroy by breaking apart; to put an end to.”

Corporate fascism (or Corporatism):  “the complete merger of  corporate and state entities to create a political entity.”

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**A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM THE TWO PARTY CORPORATIST POLITICAL SYSTEM

**A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE FROM THE TWO PARTY CORPORATIST POLITICAL SYSTEM

“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”** 

When it becomes obvious that we are ruled by two corrupt primary political parties, Democrat and Republican, and when it becomes obvious that they are both totally controlled by corporatist influences, then it becomes necessary to oppose this force of evil.  The only solutions become one of dissolution of the two party system, enabling “third” parties to enter the political arena and halt this total control of corporate power and greed, or to encourage an overthrow of our system. 

I, therefore, pledge myself to the following: 

1.    Cease and desist giving any support, monetary, voice and deed to support either the Democrat and Republican Party and to cease voting for a candidate because they run under these labels.

2.    Commit to supporting socioeconomic movements which promote the common good and the common welfare which are “non partisan” with respect to these two parties.

3.    Commit to building “third party” efforts which represent principles and values and offer solutions to serious societal problems based upon facts and accurate data combined with empathy and social conscience.

4.    Commit to my responsibility to inform myself and others of civic related activities in which all might participate.

5.     Commit to supporting the Constitution of the U.S. with its Amendments which will continue to guarantee us a (democratic)  Republic as designed by the Founders.

I am a willing signatory of this document and will display it proudly and share my decision with others in all ways possible, including the internet and social media. 

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 Signature                                                                                           Date

** From  the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776.