Unpublished post from May of 2023 with footnote addendum:

After some time of internet silence I feel that it may be helpful to note that I am still alive, and still fomenting nonviolent revolution in the most inconspicuous manner possible. This includes having no plans for candidacy in the 2024 elections and high hopes of finishing my current writing projects before autumn.

I believe we can expect a more severe recession than is predicted, in large part because of the poor performance of key referent society political, economic, and media elites and their increasingly obtuse inattentiveness to world realities; the chief of which would appear to be that the current world order is deteriorating and that climate change is both real and accelerating. That last fact has been stated emphatically by a number of the more alert leaders, and many world citizens, and by the Intergovernmental Panel ( IPCC). This should not come as news.

If the government of the United States continues to honor its debts and to mitigate the excesses of capitalism and continuous warfare, we may have added time in the 3rd and 4th quarters to play on into next year’s grande melee of the 2024 American elections. If not, well, I’d really then have no idea where this could be headed . . . 

For the record, the previous post which was a letter to Senator Elizabeth Warren received no reply so far in the year since it was sent to her. She is, of course, a busy and important person, but there has been no noticeable action on ERA lately even as women’s rights are being chiseled away by chauvinist politicians.  We should hope to see more strenuous efforts on our behalf from all elected officials.

(This statement from nearly one year ago was not posted, and here we are now, six months out from the historic November 5, 2024, elections and already up to the gunnels in bullshit and obfuscation, while the biggest world event continues to be the fallout from Hamas October 7 attack & the Israeli response, now in its 200th day and exhibiting all the criteria that they ordered up at the onset and for which they have received a provisional finding from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) of ‘crimes against humanity’ and will have to proceed to trial in due course. Major collateral impact is the United States persistent supply of weapons which puts them in the frame as well and has earned President Joe Biden the not-to-be-envied nickname, Genocide Joe . . .  Oh, and the first of former President Donald Trump’s trials has begun in New York, this one being the complications created from his payment of hush money to quash rumors that could have been costly in the final days of the 2016 campaign.)

PS . . . Never did hear from Senator Warren . . . I do not think that ERA is even a thing any more with bourgeoise feminism and no one seems to think it will make the Dodds decision moot and untie the Gordian Knot of chauvinism in ‘Merikan Law’. (Except me: 4/23/24)

Frequently when we are talking about conventional American political life we refer to ‘horse race’ politics, or ‘cart and pony’ politics, terms that describe how little edifying and uplifting the entire process is. We got a good demonstration of that in the misnamed “debate” between President Trump and former Vice President Biden, which featured a bewildering absence of style and meaning as it also exhibited none of the features that would be part of real debate or meaningful discourse. The only thing that might have induced me to watch would have been to have been invited to attend   . . .  on stage, as a candidate. Any reasonable person would have carried the day by simply showing a respectful understanding of the importance of the moment. Chalk it up as another illuminating example of the failure of our two party hegemonic and plutocratic political structure.

The term ‘low hanging fruit’ usually refers to things achievable with out a lot of stretch, juicy things within reach that could be done with modest amounts of focus and energy. I consider many of the issues at the heart of my campaign to be of that order if the United States were not the mess that it is today. Women’s rights, healthcare, help for people struggling with the pandemic, even ending our wars by repealing the authorizations of force are not moonshot level goals. They are familiar topics that have been in play for decades and enjoy the support of healthy majorities of the voting public. Instead we have a Congress that receives approval ratings in the teens and has a re-election rate of nearly 90% for the incumbents. What gives ? How will we ever get to higher, out-of-immediate-reach issues such as eliminating the Electoral College and having actual representative government embodying majority rule with full minority rights ?

It’s more than just money in politics, corporate ownership of media, and vain and ineffective leadership. There is fundamental failure of citizens from many different socio-economic and cultural groups to do the heavy lifting required to maintain a democratic and cohesive society. The Trump phenomenon is a Wizard of Oz level spectacular pointing to the inability of many to see behind the screen that there is just a short, bald guy with a bullhorn profusely barking out blather.

The wake-up call has been made: to quote Bob Marley, “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds.”