Here is the link to the YouTube video of the League of Women Voters Forum for the Congressional candidates in California District # 16:

https://www.lwvpaloalto.org/candidate-forums.html

All candidates are included but one, who chose not to participate, and the entire nearly two hour program is included as that is the prescribed format which includes rules for not confronting or rebutting claims from other candidates. As stated in all my literature, I am the only person not affiliated with the major political parties, and, as I contend in my closing statement, that makes me the trans-partisan candidate, a neologism if there ever was one.

I am the person wearing the gray vest with the peace button on it if you are skimming through in order to see my positions on the issues in question. Those positions are congruent with the ones in my candidate’s statement mailed to voters in their sample ballot. In my closing statements they include my opposition to our obscene levels of spending for the military and my opposition to nuclear weapons.

A quarter of a year into the Presidency of Joe Biden is perhaps a choice moment to take stock of where we are going as a country.

There is much to be hopeful about as well from the happy influence of not being subjected to daily rehash by the corporate press of the spew of one Donald J. Trump,  . . .  every day without mention of him is like a day of vacation in a sunny clime. I believe that January 6th allowed the country to stamp his account Paid & Full, regardless of any ruminations by his supporters and the Republican Party.

The Democratic Party and President Joseph Biden present more difficult subjects for assessment. Even as we caution patience in reviewing the state of play and evaluating the direction and purpose of action so far, questions as to intent, strategy and commitment come to mind.  By passing nearly $2 Trillion in additional relief the administration has allowed millions of American families to take a much-needed deep breath; and, it was done with a paper thin majority which showed skill, imagination, and pluck. The difficulty of getting a Senate to acquiesce in which former Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell still wields disproportionate power highlights the central quandary of being governed by a national legislature that is not representative of the general will. We will have to see if those that desire programs to save our nation and planet can put together an agenda that beats back the reactionary elements that still wish to pursue the line of the Ronald Reagan Republicans, namely low taxes for the corporations and the rich and few regulations to protect citizens and the environment. Tax reform and fiscal spending, especially the new infrastructure proposals and obtaining greater revenues from those that benefit the most from today’s freewheeling casino capitalism, appear to be the front lines in the fight against special interest and two party hegemony in our political system.

That does not mean that the fight for social and racial justice and the economic welfare of all isn’t primary, but that tactically we need another force to motivate the Democratic and Republican Parties and their deep-pocket sponsors away from their calcareous level of complacency and a support for the status quo that safe-district, safe-state representatives have managed to lock into a system of perpetual incumbency and the exacerbation of income inequality. That should be in the forefront of campaigns in the 2022 midterm elections.

20 Years in Afghanistan: Americas Longest War. CLICK HERE.

The Biden administration also deserves commendations for moving forward an end to the War in Afghanistan and a reassessment of big American commitments worldwide. Saying that 20 years and over Two Trillion Dollars spent is enough  should  convince most people that a declaration of “This needs to end” is courageous & necessary. Re-engagement with our friends and allies over climate issues and Iran is an important reset of critical international objectives. It remains to be seen if Mr. Biden will do anything about the most notorious failures of the Obama years, the inability to curb US arms sales and the complete failure to address the larger issues of nuclear weapons and the neglect of the United States to lead on the matter of the nuclear non-proliferation treaties. Even as the world presents more troublesome and intractable challenges, a renewed strong  willingness to participate positively has to be applauded as a worthy and useful goal. Anyone who has followed the massive increase in illicit drug importation from the war zones, amounting to thousands of tons, be it cocaine from Latin America or heroin from Southwest Asia, will have to wonder if the Biden administration has any will at all to square up on that deadly and lucrative issue that is so intimately intertwined  in the workings of late-stage capitalism and contemporary politics.

Finally, after the complete debacle of the Trump Administration over the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, we can thank Joe Biden and his people for being responsible adults and role models  . . .  Now, if ‘they’ could just get public health and national single-payer healthcare up on their screens  . . .  and, yes, homelessness, and madness & mayhem, and addiction & mental health afflictions which are also all part of our unfolding national public health disaster, and while not unrelated, so too are the pouring of millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, the spoiling of our water & topsoil resources, and the dumping of huge amounts of plastic into the ocean. We need more than a vaccination program for Covid; we need a prescription for greed and stupidity that includes a demand for dramatic action by the United States’ Congress, courageous leadership, and an energized and informed electorate.

Joe Biden will need a lot more help from all of us to pull this off.

The Transition has/has not begun . . . you select the appropriate choice.   It is crystal clear that I lost badly and that President Trump, while taking a drubbing, was not repudiated to the degree that he so justly deserved after such an in-adequate performance over the last 4 years. That he could garner nearly 50% of the vote after neglecting to do his job shows us the low level of competency that our society is operating under and the severe cognitive limitations of the voters. We have to hope that if the millions of people who did not participate had joined in, we could enjoy a higher degree of confidence that our political system shows a better degree of potential for transforming itself into an actual democracy than we have seen so far. Furthermore, the need for national management of elections and elimination of the Electoral College will be required for the Presidency and Congress to be transformed into effective instruments of majority rule. Currently, our system of elections cannot provide for “the equal protection of the laws” as guaranteed in Section I of the 14^th Amendment.

With Donald J. Trump over 5 million votes behind Joseph R. Biden in the popular count, and with Joe Biden in possession of over 300 Electoral votes, the nation and the world note that the election isn’t really over and we have in all probability another two months of sorting to do before we reach January 20, 2021; chiefly because Mr. Trump is as unprepared to relinquish power as he has been unable to wield it. Meanwhile as the ravages from the coronavirus pandemic expand here in the United States, and equity markets in New York party on, it’s increasingly likely that by the end of the first quarter of next year, the world economy will see its worst shocks since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. There are simply too many people who have been cut out of the cash flow for late-stage capitalism to meet the needs of a planet in extreme economic, political and environmental stress. With the amount of borrowing going on to keep governments solvent, and for speculators to play the markets, the situation is custom-designed for a liquidity crisis of shocking dimensions. If, in the face of these challenges, we as a people can come to terms with our paralyzing fears and rise to a new level of self-sacrifice, popular government may rise above the morass of corruption and in-effectiveness into which it has sunk. If we cannot, a terrible reckoning awaits us.

One of the fortunate side effects of this year’s Presidential election is the demonstration of the inability of the national government to manage the actual mechanics of an election in 50 diverse states and territories. I say, ‘fortunate’ intentionally because by now our denial of the facts is painfully obvious concerning hundreds of law suits over ballot counting, the reasonable number of precincts for voting, and even matters as apparently trivial as that the receptacles for deposit of completed ballots all appear to be running with no ordaining national standards. As I have quoted earlier and elsewhere Section 4 of Article I of the Constitution;

                  The Time, Places and Manner of holding Elections                                                   for Senators and Representatives, shall be                                                                   prescribed in each State by the Legislatures                                                               thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law                                                  make or alter such Regulations, except as to Places                                              and chusing of Senators.  (bold emphasis added )

This broad authority which is intentionally reserved for Congress needs to be asserted to begin to create a system that is less porous to fraud and abuse.  This, or course does not get at the scandal that is the Electoral College and the chicanery over Presidential elections and the role of political parties and money bundling that assures that only a candidate  approved by one of the two main political parties can rise to office of President, but it does allow the national government to insure the rights of the people to vote and have their votes counted and the tally verified. Paper ballots remain the gold standard still in that regard; and democracy itself is only a dream if these weaknesses are not corrected.

The little pocket Constitution from which I gathered the above quote is one that the government prints for free distribution (Twenty-Fifth Edition). On the back of the cover is a quote from John Marshall, who first put real power behind the idea of judicial review by the Supreme Court; “a constitution, intended to endure for ages to come, and consequently, to be adapted to the various crises of human affairs.” This would appear to be a very early summary of the argument against originalism and textualism. We shall soon see if the United States government is capable of saving itself from some of its worst habits, and if the as yet unmet promise of ‘consent of the governed’ and ‘majority rule with full minority rights’ will be honored in fact.

This poster originally from the Fredrich for Congress campaign of 1974 has been Sharpied-Up for reuse in the Fredrich for President race. The idea then was to focus the voters on my opposition to the Alaska Pipeline as I was an early advocate for leaving fossil fuel resources in the ground. Many people commented on how it was a nice picture except for the rusting Volkswagen. I had to reassure them that that was precisely the point.