RIGGED IN THE USA

 I posted this piece (below: "A Fraud...") almost seven years ago.  It remains highly relevant today.  This situation is exactly why Presidential Debates in election years are rigged to the hilt.  Blame the Republicrats, otherwise known as the Mega Corporation Party.  It has two branches:  the RINOs & the DINOs.  😀

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"A Fraud...Upon the American People"

I remember well the days when the League of Women Voters, a totally nonpartisan group, was in charge of moderating Presidential Debates in this country.  That was in the 1970's and 1980's.  At the end of the League's stint, the Repubs & Dems rejected about 80 proposed questioners for the debate...as well as numerous tough questions.  Later, the Republicrats came up with a nontransparent contract sanitizing the debate, saying who should be in the audience, and determining the exact questions that would be allowed.  The League resigned with this statement:  "A fraud is being perpetrated upon the American People.".

That's how we wound up with a private corporation run by the Dems & Repubs, the Commission on Presidential Debates, being in charge of the debates.  The word "Commission" makes it sound as though it's some sort of public, representative, all-encompassing entity.  It isn't...not by a long shot.  This private company (funded by corporations & foundations) determines who is allowed to debate, who will moderate the event, what questions will be allowed, and who is allowed in the audience.  This is rigging to the Nth degree.

At least the top three "Third Parties" should be allowed to participate in the upcoming debates...regardless of any percentage in polls.  Why not?  Isn't that democracy in action?  If the Republicrats claim that there isn't enough time for that amount of participation, that's pure hogwash.  Look at how many candidates were in the Primary Debates.  Four, five, or even six candidates wouldn't hinder anything in the major Presidential Debates.  Quite the opposite:  such a scenario would enhance the choices for the electorate.  The fact is:  without being in those debates, a candidate has little to no chance to garner votes.  That's how the Republicrat monopoly eliminates its competition.

[See the first featured segment on today's broadcast of Democracy Now, Thursday, August 18, 2016.  Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, and others have something important to say.]

A private corporation should not be allowed to have complete control over those debates.  That's not democracy...that's Soft Fascism.

Okay, you're all excited about politics.  In this Rigged System I can't imagine why, but good for you.  Now, why not insist that Oligarchical control be relinquished, and instead, genuine participatory democracy be instituted?  Why not?  Habit?  Break out of the box.

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Not only my opinion.  Be Well

Democratic & Republican Hierarchies FEAR Third Parties

Evidence of the truth of the title above can be found in the refusal to allow any Third Parties to participate in the upcoming Presidential Debates.  That refusal is the policy of the private corporation that manages the debates.  Republican & Democratic "aristocrats" run that corporation.  Evidence also can be found in harsh Ballot-Access Laws put in place by Dems & Repubs.

What are they afraid of...why do they fear Third Party participation?  It's simple:  Third Parties primarily talk about significant issues instead of personalities.  The very last things that elite Dems & Repubs want to talk about are the issues.  Look at the current campaign.  Except for a few Hot-Button social issues, the candidates of the Repub-Dem Party mostly talk about how horrible is each one's opponent.  Major issues either are not mentioned, or glossed over in a cursory way.  Neither candidate talks in depth about our controversial military adventures overseas, or our failing economy, or our support of dictators in various parts of the world, or our crumbling infrastructure at home, or the failed "War on Drugs", or the broken Fed Criminal Justice System, or the Israeli-Palestinian problem (& our part in it), or Climate Change, or the fact that for 2-3 decades wages have been stagnant while the incomes of the Super-Rich increased 700%, or the trashing of the Fourth Amendment, or Legislative Absolutism, or Executive Absolutism, or the Fed's failed Monetary Policy, or the WTO problem, or the TPP problem, or the Trans-Atlantic Trade Agreement problem (the acronym once was TATA, but they keep changing the name of that Agreement...I don't know what it is currently), or the Eminent Domain problem, or the Money/Debt Bubble problem, or the Wall Street Mega Bank Casino Capitalism problem, or Crony Capitalism in general, or the $1.5 quadrillion Derivatives Bubble problem...and on & on.

Noam Chomsky is right when he states that major political candidates are marketed just like toothpaste--- the objective is to get uninformed consumers/voters to make irrational choices about vaguely-described products/candidates.  [I refer you especially to Obama's 2008 Campaign...he won a top marketing award from the Ad Industry for that Hope-Change-Yes-We-Can effort.]  The last thing the Powers-That-Be want is for voters to be informed on the issues and thus make rational choices about candidates whose positions on issues are described in depth.  The second-to-the-last-thing they want is to have Third Party candidates who concentrate on the issues get on the ballot in all 50 States and speak in debates watched by millions of Americans.

There is no true, participatory democracy in the USA; there is, however, a Rigged System.  Boycott the national elections...or at the very least, vote for a worthy Third Party candidate.  Dump the Repub-Dem Party.  [As the Pulitzer-Prize-Winning journalist Glenn Greenwald pointed out on Democracy Now today, the Clinton Dem Party is to the Right of Dubya Bush regarding Israel's illegal occupation of the West Bank.  There really is only one major Party in this Land.]

Not only my opinion.  Be Well

"A Fraud...Upon the American People"

I remember well the days when the League of Women Voters, a totally nonpartisan group, was in charge of moderating Presidential Debates in this country.  That was in the 1970's and 1980's.  At the end of the League's stint, the Repubs & Dems rejected about 80 proposed questioners for the debate...as well as numerous tough questions.  Later, the Republicrats came up with a nontransparent contract sanitizing the debate, saying who should be in the audience, and determining the exact questions that would be allowed.  The League resigned with this statement:  "A fraud is being perpetrated upon the American People.".

That's how we wound up with a private corporation run by the Dems & Repubs, the Commission on Presidential Debates, being in charge of the debates.  The word "Commission" makes it sound as though it's some sort of public, representative, all-encompassing entity.  It isn't...not by a long shot.  This private company determines who is allowed to debate, who will moderate the event, what questions will be allowed, and who is allowed in the audience.  This is rigging to the Nth degree.

At least the top three "Third Parties" should be allowed to participate in the upcoming debates...regardless of any percentage in polls.  Why not?  Isn't that democracy in action?  If the Republicrats claim that there isn't enough time for that amount of participation, that's pure hogwash.  Look at how many candidates were in the Primary Debates.  Four, five, or even six candidates wouldn't hinder anything in the major Presidential Debates.  Quite the opposite:  such a scenario would enhance the choices for the electorate.  The fact is:  without being in those debates, a candidate has little to no chance to garner votes.  That's how the monopoly eliminates its competition.

[See the first featured segment on today's broadcast of Democracy Now, Thursday, August 18, 2016.  Jill Stein, Gary Johnson, and others have something important to say.]

A private corporation should not be allowed to have complete control over those debates.  That's not democracy...that's Soft Fascism.

Okay, you're all excited about politics.  In this Rigged System I can't imagine why, but good for you.  Now, why not insist that Oligarchical control be relinquished, and instead, genuine participatory democracy be instituted?  Why not?  Habit?  Break out of the box.

Not only my opinion.  Be Well