SUGGESTIONS FOR OUR ELECTION PROCESS ....

 

With all the Trump accusations of fraud and incompetence and missing ballots, mostly to his disadvantage, plus his election campaign team and all his lawyers raising cases and distributing right and false threats and intimidating allegations, charging Republican and Democrat officials and election supervisors of misconduct, mishandling and rush conclusions. Firing practically anyone who might utter a word against the official White-House frame and policy. 

Even the Attorney General William Barr, is into these allusions, whereby the Trump machine and lawyers haven't provided a scrap of evidence to support their claim, yet Mr. Barr is using full force of the Justice department to investigate allegations of voter fraud and election officials manipulation to delegitimize the election results. 

One could come to the conclusion that Americans are not good nor competent nor trustworthy of running a fair election at practically any level. It sure looks like the last few presidential and Congress elections suffered all from the same ailments and mismanagement. Fraud, incompetence, untrustworthiness, even our electronic machines are a major source of doubt in their accuracy, simply put we honestly cannot sort ballots, read names correctly, or count envelops and ballots. Our officials have been accused of many dysfunctions, and our elections were recounted at all levels several times, usually ending in high courts. 

This year elections are headed to a dangerous stagnating constitutional situations, putting our entire democracy in jeopardy and doubt. I strongly urge the public, our media and legislators to seriously consider an amendment to the constitution, for hiring an independent foreign body of many sympathetic and caring countries and leaders to our cause, who can run our elections for us safely, efficiently in a trustworthy manner, so we can continue safely on our Democratic path. 

Now for this year, if we still have legitimate fears, doubts and reservations about the results, we could call for a new election, run and supervised by some of our closest and loved foreign leaders. Let's call on Israel for help, I'm sure Netanyahu will oblige, North Korea might be a good candidate, as we never heard of a problem with their elections, and their leader writes wonderful and loving letters to our president. Turkey is a sure trusted Nato member and Mr. Erdogan is surely experienced enough in election matters. Possibly Russia, whereby Mr. Putin could add some needed discipline to the process, Belarus by now with its president are surely very knowledgeable and experienced as well. Maybe we should call one Latin American country for balance, Venezuela comes to mind, if we could convince either side of joining in and supervising a fair election for our country. 

Finally I could add one more suggestion for the future, whereby we shouldn't make it a permanent system, as it is not very glorifying for our ego and high esteem, we'd have to ask both major parties as well as some independents to sit in with the foreign organizers, observing and learning their techniques, integrity and diligence. So as to form a unified body of election officials and supervisors, who could and will be trusted to produce unchallenged results within our set time frames, thus eliminating the very costly recounting of every county results. 

America deserves an election system, that eliminates doubts in every looser mind, plus the time lost blocking smoother transitions and atten-ding our real serious major problems. We are after all well into the 21st century, whereby we deserve to not relive medieval tactics and ancient electoral procedures. Let's join the world of modernity. Just because we're a nation that is a leading voice for social justice, economic inequality, environmental fairness, liberty and basic human rights does not mean we should give ourselves a pass to our election procedures and tactics.             He he he .........

                          My, as always, many thanks to all, stay safe and well.                       

IS AMERICA BECOMING A FAILED STATE ???

 

I'm reproducing an article that appeared lately in the NY Times by Paul Krugman, A Nobel laureate and professor, one of the most celebrated economists of our generation. It depicts accurately what might happen, or is happening actually in the U.S. at least for the next 2 years of the Biden presidency. 

As I write this, he says, it seems extremely likely that Joe Biden has won the presidency, and he clearly received millions more votes than his opponent. He can and should claim he has been given a strong mandate to govern the nation. But there are real questions about whether he will, in fact, be able to govern. At the moment it seems likely that the Senate --which is wildly unrepresentative of the American people-- will remain in the hands of an extremist party that will sabotage Biden in every way it can.

Before I get into the problems this confrontation is likely to cause, let's talk about just how unrepresentative the Senate is; Every state, of course, has 2 senators, which mean that Wyoming's 579.000 residents have as much weight as California's 39 millions. The over weighted states tend to be much less urbanized than the nations as a whole. And given the growing political divide between metropolitan and rural areas, this gives the Senate a strong right ward tilt. 

An analysis by the website Five Thirty Eight.com found that the Senate in effect represents an electorate almost 7 percentage points more Republican than the average voter. Cases like Susan Collins who held on in a Democratic state, are exceptions. The underlying right-wing skew of the Senate is the main reason the G.O.P. will probably retain control despite a substantial Democratic victory in the presidential popular vote. 

But, one might ask, why is divided control of government such a problem? After all, Republicans controlled one or both chambers of Congress for three-quarters of Barak Obama's presidency, and we survived, didn't we ?? Yes but. In fact G.O.P's obstruction did a lot of damage even during the Obama years. Republicans used hardball tactics, including threats to cause a default on the national debt, to force a premature withdrawal of fiscal support that slowed the pace of economic recovery. I've estimated that without this defacto sabotage, the unemployment rate in 2014 might have been about 2 percentage points lower than it actually was. And the need for more spending is even more acute now than it was in 2011, when Republicans took control of the House. 

Most immediately, the Corona virus is running wild, with new cases exceeding 100,000 a day and rising rapidly. This is going to hit the economy hard, even if states and local governments don't impose lockdowns. We desperately need a new round of federal spending on healthcare, aid to the unemployed and businesses and support for strapped states and local governments. Reasonable estimates suggest that we should spend $200 billions or more each month until a vaccine brings the pandemic to an end. I'd be chocked if a Senate still controlled by Mitch McConnell would agree to anything like this. 

Even after the pandemic is over, we're likely to face both persistent economic weaknesses and a desperate need for more public investment. But McConnell effectively blocked infrastructure spending, even with Donald Trump in the White-House. Why would he become more amenable with Biden in office ?? Now spending isn't the only form of policy. Normally there are many things a president can achieve for good (Obama) or evil (Trump), through executive action. 

In fact, during the summer a Democratic task force identified hundreds of things a president Biden could do without having to go through Congress But there's where I worry about the role of a heavy partisan Supreme Court, a court shaped by McConnell norm breaking behavior, including the rushed confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett just days before the election. 6 of 9 justices were chosen by a party that won the popular vote only once in the past 8 elections. And I think there's a substantial chance that this court may behave like the Supreme Court in the 1930, which kept blocking New-Deal programs until Roosevelt threatened to add seats to the court, some-thing Biden wouldn't be able to do with a Republican controlled Senate. 

So we are in big trouble, Trump's defeat would mean that we have, for the moment, avoided a plunge into authoritarianism-- and yes the stakes are that high, not just because of who Trump is, but also because the modern G.O.P. is so extremist and anti-democratic. But our skewed electoral system means that Trump's party is still in a position to hobble, perhaps cripple the next president's ability to deal with the huge epidemiological, economic and environmental problems we face. 

Put it this way; If we were looking at a foreign country with America's level of political dysfunction, we would probably consider it on the edge of becoming a failed state, that is a state whose government is no longer able to exert effective control, ( Lebanon comes to mind) Italics mine. Runoff elections in the State of Georgia, may yet give Democrats Senate control, barring that, Biden might be able to find a few reasonable Republicans willing to pull us back from that brink, but despite his apparent victory, the Republic remains in great danger. 

            My usual many thanks to all, stay safe and well.            

        

    

ELECTION DAY IS FINALLY HERE ......

 

Today is the final election day for the presidency of the United States, plus many other positions for Congress's Senate and house, and local State positions. Basically but not exclusively, it is a battle between the Republican party and the Democratic one. It is becoming rapidly more of a battle between liberalism and tight conservatism, between a form of progressive social governing and a total laissez-faire capitalism, backed by a failed laissez-faire leadership, between old classical religiousness and their institutions and a more modern look and understanding of the entire religious dogma and institute. Between fair taxation and more equal wealth distribution, rather than a 1 or 2 % concentration.

An acceptance and reliability on sciences for life threatening matters like climate change, pandemics, and the use of fossil fuels, clean waters, eliminating hunger all over, peace on earth etc.. etc... all against a bunch of refuseniks hiding behind empty slogans of freedom, way of life and sacred rights and total liberty. Plus many other issues, strictly benefitting the very few, while harming and diminishing more than 90% of the American middle classes and the poorer ones. 

One person, his family and his entire oligarchy, hold responsibility for most of these situations. Inciting, lying, accusing and playing the role of a savior deceiver while clowning around. Mr. Trump for his 4 years in office hasn't done a thing to lower drug prices or come up with a Medicare substitute as promised, he's been constantly raiding Medicare funds and treating Medicare as his personal piggy bank. Let's take a closer look at his record for the past few years, as he might be reelected or rejected today. 

Now did we all notice how Donald Trump makes sure to project his own legal and financial problems plus his unethical behavior onto his political opponents. He did incorrectly claim that Hilary Clinton's campaign colluded with Russia, when it was Trump's campaign that was caught speaking and whispering ideas to Russian assets, and his many direct aids coordinating with Russian officials before and during the 2016 elections and taking office

He's incorrectly accused the Biden family of unethical actions related to Ukraine, but it was Trump himself who was impeached for holding international aid to Ukraine hostage in exchange for personal unethical political demands. In another conspiracy theory, Trump claims incorrectly that the Biden family are criminals and they accepted money from China, when we discovered it's Trump who has a secret Chinese bank account, while he was paying less than 750 $ in taxes for many years, and no Federal taxes for 11 out 18 years, while still refusing till today to release his taxes for public scrutiny. 

Mr. Trump is at least one billion $ in debt, according to Forbs, whereby 450 millions we don't know to whom this debt is owed, the NY Times reports that more than 300 millions of it is coming due over the next few years. Several U.S. agencies and intelligence and security experts declared that this huge personal debt is a security nightmare, for him and the country, and it's still a total secret. "That has always been the suspicion about Trump, that the Russians were bankrolling him, if he were a normal employee, that would certainly be a counterintelligence vulnerability, it's frightening all around". Said James Clapper, former Director of intelligence. 

"A second term for president would result in increased vulnerability, and thus potential huge risk." Robert Cardillo, former deputy director of the defense intelligence agency. "For a person with access to top U.S. classified information and the nuclear buttons, to be in such massive financial debt is a sure counter intelligence risk, because the debt holders tend to have leverage over the person. And the leverage may be used  to encourage actions, such as disclosure of information or influencing policy, that compromise U.S. national security." Said David Kris, former head of the justice department's national security division.    

It is unbelievable how hard Trump  was and still is working to trick American voters, and hoodwink them about his failure to accomplish anything. There are two Republican parties fighting this election, Donald Trump is leading only one of them, and surely the U.S. will be a very different country under a Trump second term.      

      My as always many thanks to all my readers, for my American friends, please vote responsibly today while staying safe.     

RESURGING WARS AND ARMED CONFLICTS ......

 

As in the early 21st century we're noticing a remarkable increase in armed conflicts and open wars, using new and very advanced technologies and electronics and cyber warfare technics, making the killing and annihilation of huge numbers of civilians more doable, and the destruction of entire towns and cities even countries more accessible.

World beyond war, should become the new slogan and motto of our politicians and leaders across the civilized nations of earth. We need global networks of volunteers, activists and allied organizations strongly advocating for the abolition of the very core institutions of war. We need it here in the U.S. and in many parts of the world, more so in colonial type aggressor entities and arms industries dependent countries.

We all knew that the U.S. troops were supposed to leave Germany, Japan and Afghanistan, even Iraq and  Syria, but never have. The taxes in the U.S. and elsewhere including European countries, all call for more weaponry, especially nuclear, missiles and drones, they were supposed to ease or cease in many cases, but they never have. The state of milita-rization and government secrecy about the war-machine propaganda and doings were supposed to ease up, but the contrary took place, it is clearly developing into a permawar. The war industrial complexes are back to being the number-one in international sales, and many new countries like Israel and others are striving at this new and very lucrative commerce.

Propaganda dominated countries, that tried to glorify WW2, the Korean wars, the Viet-Nam and the Israeli 1967 wars, even our adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and Yemen, were all turned into a firm conviction and belief in their goodness and nobility. We're still trying to justify new wars and aggressions and adventures, Israel constantly attacking its neighbors and its not too close ones, selling arms to inflame very dangerous conflicts in Azerbaijan and Armenia, Kashmir and South Sudan. 

Where we don't find an ideal adversary we go into a cold war or war on terror. Based on a firm belief that all old wars and conflicts were the good justified model, and the new ones are a natural extension of our goodness, high morality and our mission to liberate and democratize the world. 

LGBT people, pussy riots and the Alexei Navalny case, are all targets of high spying bodies that answer directly to Putin, using Israeli phone-hacking high tech in many thousands cases. so did India and the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi leadership. Drones are another aspect of this new warfare international commerce, raging in the world markets. 

Most, if not all of these wars and wild adventures, were not fought to rescue anyone from persecution, they were not necessary for defensive purposes, and surely most of them in the last century and our new one, could have been prevented, saving the huge damages and destruction, only if we chose not to elect selfish and crazy leaderships, backed by the war machine manipulators and their huge money power. 

The trial, imprisonment and continuous torture of Julian Assange, who disclosed atrocities committed by the U.S and other governments, only proves the double faced and corrupt systems and leaderships we have.  "Not everything that is faced can be changed" wrote the author James Baldwin, " But nothing can be changed until it is faced." 

          My many thanks to all, please be safe.                        

STUBBORN VIRUS AND OTHER KILLER AILMENTS ....

 

Covid19 failure of right wing populists like Mr. Trump, Netanyahu and others is hardly a coincidence or a bad luck affair. The world's worst-performing countries against the pandemic are all led by self-centered authoritarian leaders, who in the name of economy, ideology or self preservation are trying to play and maintain a game of non-productive half measures, resulting in the killing of huge unnecessary numbers of people and hurting many more just to save themselves and their political existence by pretending to save their economies. 

The country with the highest number of corona cases and deaths is the U.S. which is led by an authoritarian right wing nationalist and populist fascist, second place belongs to India, as well led by the authoritarian right-wing nationalist and populist Modi. Next in line comes Brazil led by another right-wing-nationalist and populist, Iran, Russia, Turkey and G.B. And the list goes on till we come to tiny Israel that is by proportion to its population beating the world with their numbers of positive cases and deaths. And guess who's ruling the country ??  While we keep criticizing China, Korea and even some European countries for managing not to kill their citizens, at least not intentionally and collectively. 

Amid the pandemic, and in the run-up to the presidential elections, much of the world is watching the United States with a mix of shock, chagrin and great bafflement, the same feelings and the same sarcastic smiles go regionally to other states like Israel, India and Brazil. 

Mr. Trump has refused to accept and act according to a primordial principle of democracy, dodging questions about his acceptance and commitment to a peaceful transition of power should he lose the Nov. elections. Putting America in a laughable position and shifting the U.S. politically from a first-world country to a third-world country, or even a failed banana republic, We will see which one we fit after the Nov. elections.  He's now dodging all inquiries about his virus infection and degree, I'm feeling fine is his best answer. 

 Many other fascist nationalist leaders across the world are acting and doing the same, there seems to be a unified syndicated group, all belonging and graduates of the same school. Are we deliberately turning the U.S. into a Belarus, an ottoman Turkey, a north Korea, or just satisfying ourselves with the Indian, Iranian, Israeli or Brazilian models ?? Maybe we could add the Saudi model for a bonus. 

Most of these countries had a pseudo half way democracy, they fought hard to attain it, and now thanks to their leaderships are losing it again, we in America had it from the right beginning in fair dozes and shapes, it was a solid democracy going on, are we with our leadership's reign and egoistic  manipulations trying to eliminate what we have and had for centuries ?? Just to emulate some stupid slogans and failed dreams and personal power grabbing and egoistical supremacy. 

The diminution of the U.S. global status and image began well before the pandemic, as the Trump administration snubbed international accords, and embraced a narrow America first policy, now its reputation and prestige seem to be in a free-fall, according to an article published lately in the N.Y Times, the U.S. is paying a high price for the president's attitude, tactics and mockery, plus a decease unchecked, mass protests over racial and social and wealth inequality, and war prospects, and a president who openly seems unwilling to accept election results... these are not signs of a first world  country, and definitely not good signs for anyone.         

           My usual many thanks to all my good readers and friends, stay safe.                 

WEIRD RE-ELECTION TACTICS .....

 

The entire country is still disappointed and in chock after watching the presidential debate couple nights ago, of course people defer in their criticism and accusations, but a general theme shared by most Americans is obvious. Republicans or Democrats, left or right, conservatives or liberals, religious or not, they all somehow condemn the president for losing it and making a mockery out of the institution. To address this issue, I decided to copy almost verbatim parts of an excellent report by the NY Times' D. Leonhardt . 

There is a theme that has run through president Trump's entire re-election campaign ; He is afraid that he cannot beat Joe Biden. It explains his extraordinary efforts last year to prevent Biden from becoming the nominee, and it explains his more recent efforts to discredit the elections. Rather than running against Biden, Trump now seems to be running against democracy itself. 

It's useful to think and analyse the 2020 Trump campaign in 3 distinct stages. The first was during the run up to the Democratic primaries, when Trump used the powers of the presidency to pressure at least one foreign country, Ukraine, to smear Biden, (An effort that led to impeachment) while Trump took no similar steps to damage Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or Kamala Harris.

Why ?? Trump often acts on instincts, and he probably have done so in this case, he believes in polls, and polls consistently showed him fairing worse in a hypothetically match up against Biden than against any other Democrat. The second stage began after Biden clinched the nomination, Trump doubled down on efforts to damage him. He portrayed Biden as a corrupt old sleepy politician. not so different from Hillary Clinton, or any closet socialist. It hasn't worked, Biden's lead over Trump has remained stable. 

That has led to the third stage; Try to prevent a normal election, Trump with help from other leading Republicans, and his loyal oligarchy and family, has increased his efforts to make it difficult to vote. His campaign has filed lawsuits in North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere to restrict voting by mail. (Mike Pence played a big role there). 

In recent weeks, Trump also began what seems like an obvious attempt at voter intimidation, encouraging his supporters to show up at polling places, purportedly to prevent voter fraud, which almost never occurs. Donald Trump junior has released a video calling for an "army for Trump's election security operation." 

At least for now, Trump refused to allow a normal debate, constantly interrupting Biden, and even refusing flatly during the debate to condemn white supremacy groups, like the proud boys, a violent far-right fascist group. Even major Republican Senators like Lindsey Graham or Mitch McConnell, came totally against him denouncing his refusal, and putting these groups on standby for further action. The whole episode proved to be a chaotic jumble and a laughable scene. But for Trump it was one more attempt to undermine the normal functions of Democracy. 

There is still roughly a month until election day, an eternity in politics, at this point the picture for the past couple years is remarkably consistent, Trump seems to believe he would lose a normal election to Biden, and most people close to him are blunt that the president knows he's losing and is scared and panicky about it. But in an abnormal election, with low turnout and protracted fights over ballot eligibility, who knows what could happen !!! 

And even if Trump does lose, he is surely laying the ground work to make the false claim that the election was rigged, and consequently cling to power. For him it's more than winning and glorifying his name, as some legal experts say ; No question about it , Trump and daughter Ivanka could face up to 5 years in jail time for tax fraud after leaving the White-House, the only thing saving them now is the Department of Justice's guide line that says "you cannot indict a sitting president." 

Finally, the funny side of this election or re-election is that all radical right-wing organisations and all Republican electoral machines in all States are strategising to win the election not by luring voters to their side or winning the undecided voters with their policies, but by suppressing their votes, and intimidating minority voters, and making it very difficult for the majority of Americans to cast their ballots. ONLY IN AMERICA ......  

                      As always my many thanks to all my readers, stay safe.                       

WE WOULD RATHER DESTROY OURSELVES THAN TAKE CARE OF OURSELVES.....

 

No matter the criteria, Donald Trump has proven himself unfit to be president, his four years of presidency tells it clearly, eliminating any doubt about whether or not he's up and fit for the job. America is a relatively young country and it still is among other things searching for its soul, searching to be compassionate and peaceful, searching to be a real world example, a role model, a leader. 

Any country trying sincerely to find itself, and heighten its goals in life cannot allow the type of cruelty targeting immigrants and refugees, it cannot ignore the injustices taking place every day on its streets and within its communities, it cannot turn a blind eye to the unacceptable wealth inequalities between its minority very rich and its majority middle and poorer classes, it cannot keep refusing social equitable programs under different excuses and empty forgotten slogans and sentiments. 

A country aspiring for world leadership cannot and should not tolerate the highest numbers of Covid19  cases and deaths in the globe. And keep lying about it to itself and the world. Any country looking honestly for its soul cannot try to escape and hide from applying some social justice toward its sick, toward its students, towards its senior citizens, toward its veterans, while ignoring its militarism and bullying, its wild adventures, its interference and exploiting in practically every country in every continent. 

Most Americans from all walks of life say all the time, this is not who we are, and probably it is so to a majority of Americans, but sadly enough no one in the world believe us any more, no one takes us seriously, we've totally stigmatized ourselves. The entire world think of us as totally double-faced and Hypocritical, selfish, brutal and greedy, careless. To my knowledge only Zionist Israel managed to beat us at the game, while we're both claiming to be still searching hard for our soul and compassionate goals.

As a matter of fact, both countries are facing the same type of leadership elections, while I'm only concerned  about us here, we have to seize the moment and choose new directions, we have to fight the dark visions governing our lives and future. And sincerely fight for our true character, that is if we really believe in our mission and the future of our country and the world. 

The country is being run exactly like a corporation, strictly to the benefit of its owners and share holders, America is at the mercy of the Trump business model, everything for him, his family and oligarchy, plus the few other businesses and banks around. The rest of the country doesn't really count, it just serves the small top wealthy elite, and every method and fascist nationalist tactic is legit to maintain power.

So if every citizen of this promising country don't give this election all they've got and their utmost seriousness, we all may wake up one day in early November wondering; how could we have left the fate of the country and the planet go down the drain, at the hands of haters, selfish deniers, liars, delayers and falsifier contortionists, we could truly lose our souls and start our new irreversible journey into darkness.       

The journalist A. Giridharadas says; The U.S. has become two countries, impermeable to each other, where each side thinks the other presents an existential threat to the idea of America, and where persuasion is all but impossible, it's a real cold civil war. 

              My gratitude to all my good readers, stay safe.