Saturday, December 10, 2016

Electoral College and a Popular Vote Lead of Over 2.6 Million

Below is my response to an email which stated that the Electoral College system in the USA "makes sense" as evidenced by the fact that of the total number of Counties in our Land, the overwhelming majority voted for Trump.  That email was written when Clinton's popular vote lead was 1.1 million less than it is now.  [My piece below is edited very, very little.]
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The email below apparently was written when Clinton's lead in the popular vote was only 1.5 million.  [It's now over 2.6 million...and still counting.]  It follows, then, that it was a bit premature to say with certainty how many counties voted this way or that way... because the vote count wasn't over.  It still isn't.


But all that aside---

Yes, of course the Electoral College system makes sense... as long as---
1.  You don't believe in democracy, i.e., every vote is equal, every vote is counted, and whoever gets the most votes... wins.  The College always has been weighted in favor of less populous areas; thus, every vote is not equal.  If you're fine with that, then yes, it all makes sense.
2.  You believe a winner in Presidential races should be determined before all the votes are counted.  If you're fine with that, then yes, it makes sense.
3.  You don't believe in the concept that the winner must get the most votes.  If you're fine with that, then yes, it all makes sense.
4.  You accept the fact that when College Electors vote in the actual Presidential election (this time it's on December 19th), they don't have to vote according to the pledges determined when we voted.  They can, instead, vote according to their "consciences"... even if that's the opposite of the pledges.  If you're fine with that, then yes, the Electoral College makes sense.

"Luckily" (so to speak, but not really), except for social hot-button issues, it makes very little to no difference who gets elected President.  Nowadays, they're all Neoliberals... that is, all of them at the highest levels in the two major Parties.  [Any exceptions are fairly quickly marginalized.]  They all have similar beliefs when it comes to significant issues like war, economic policy, monetary policy, the corrupt Fed Reserve, Global business, too-big-to-fail-or-jail Mega Banks, the broken Fed Justice System, the war on the Fourth Amendment, the war on the First Amendment, the war on cash (part of the war on privacy), Corporatism/Crony Capitalism, & a few others.  Plus, Trump shortly will discover that it's high-level, lifelong bureaucrats who run the Gov't, not Presidents.  Especially in the case of Trump v. Clinton, we were shafted no matter who won.

To refer to those who opposed Trump as "whiners" really is hilarious.  Today, the biggest whiner in politics is the Don... he's still whining even after he was elected.
Finally, in case anyone doesn't know, 58% of the electorate opposed Trump AND CLINTON.  [That includes me.]

p.s.  The Don, like all politicians, already has started going back on his campaign promises... even before he takes office.  Example:  he railed against Wall Street insiders, but now is appointing Wall St. insiders to his Admin.  Example:  he said he'd deport the "illegals" (11 million of them); now it's down to about 3 million--- those who are "criminals".  Example:  he said he would launch an investigation into the criminality of Hillary; now that's off the table.  Example:  he said he would register all Muslims; now that's gone as well.  [It's a good thing; such a registry would be blatantly unconstitutional AND unAmerican.]
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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

The Plutocracy and Politics in the USA


Below is an edited version of my email response to a friend.  He had written that our economic and social ills overwhelmingly were caused by the Republicans.  [Parts of this piece didn't copy/paste properly, and I don't have time to correct them.  It's all readable.]
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You'll never convince me that somehow Repubs are bad and Dems are much, much better.  Neither will anyone convince me of the reverse of that.  At the highest levels, those old labels don't matter anymore... they all (at the very top) subscribe to the Neoliberal agenda.  In developed countries, that agenda is sweeping the world with its Corporatist, Globalist "vision".

Pard, you appear to be completely misunderstanding what I've been saying.  Apparently, I haven't made it clear.  [All that is no surprise to me because humans are the worst communicators of all species on the planet.  We jump to conclusions, assume things not in evidence, fail to fully describe things, etc., etc.  Even honeybees communicate better than we do:]

I agree with your "facts" about certain people in politics.  What I'm trying to tell you is that, at the highest levelsit doesn't matter anymore if they are Repubs, or Dems, or Druids.  The Powers-That-Be don't care if Schumer is a Democrat, or if Ryan is a Republican... all they care about is whether or not those Corporatists support/promote the Neoliberal/Neoconservative, Corporatist, Globalization, Oligarchical agenda.  Anyone who doesn't support that agenda either never makes it to the top of the Power Pyramid, or if they do, they are completely marginalized.  [Ron Paul & Dennis Kucinich are good examples.]  That means, at the highest levels, Parties don't matter anymore.  At the top, they're all on the same team.  At the level of Main Street, Parties simply are used to distract, divide, & conquer us... and make us think that at the top there are significant differences on issues other than hot-button topics such as gay marriage or abortion.  There aren't.

There are little to no differences (at the highest levels) regarding war, the economy/jobs, High Finance and Monetary Policy, privacy & the Surveillance State, free speech, the Fed Reserve, the Police State, socialism for Mega Banks & Mega Insurance Corporations but no one else, USA Hegemony, and Corporatist Globalization.

Those of you who keep working in the old political paradigm are playing right into the hands of the Plutocracy.  They want us to fight with each 
other.  They want us to think "it's the other side's fault".
And that's working great for the Powers (public & private) at the top.

Trump isn't a "Conservative" OR a Republican; he's an apolitical opportunist.  He's nothing but a Corporatist.  So is Obama, who became 
a multi-millionaire while in office.  They're both Crony Capitalists.
Neither one of them cares one whit about any political Party.

The Powers-That-Be, regardless of political affiliation, are in a whole 
different world than we are...and they don't care about political Parties.  
They only care about power, position, money, and their own security.  
That's why young, relatively poor men are sent off to war in order to protect the lives & property of the rich old men who started the war for 
economic/financial reasons.  Parties have nothing to do with it.  

While not all Plutocrats are bad apples, their group/Class is ruining this country... primarily via Crony Capitalism.  In the first full year after the 2008 Crash, 93% of all wealth in the USA went to the upper one one-hundredth of a percent of our population.  That's not Free Market Capitalism, or a Republic, or a Democracy... that's a Plutocracy enabled by Crony Capitalism.  Russia has the same system--- the merging of State and Private Power.  It's the result of what one author called The Conservative Nanny State.  That's welfare for the Super-Rich... at the expense of the rest of us.  So far, it has amounted to trillions & trillions of dollars.
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Not only my opinion.  Be Well 


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