The real scam & the scammers - Rev. J.T. Smith

Recently, I've come across two opinion pieces included in the daily AlterNet Top Stories  newsletter in my email that I'm subscribed to. The author of the pieces, John Stoehr, is of the opinion that third party Presidential candidates are all scammers because all third parties are a scam.

He didn't drink the Kool-aid.  Clearly, he guzzled and gargled with it.  He also assumes the only people who are attracted to third party candidates are those who solely vote during Presidential elections and take no other particular part in politics.  He claims those third parties are full of false promises, are in a sense demagogic, and are anti-democratic as a result.

Strange.  Every year, I see a smattering of third party candidates for positions up and down the ballot.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but I seem to recall that Bernie Sanders is not only currently a United States Senator representing Vermont, but he is also an Independent.  Strange.  (Obviously Sanders switched to the Democratic party from 2015 - 2016 and 2019 - 2020 in his run to be President, but the fact remains that he is now, once again, an Independent.  See my previous entries about his running as a Democrat.)

As a matter of fact, there are currently four Independent Senators: Bernie Sanders (VT) (2007 - present); Angus S. King Jr (ME) (2013 - present); Kyrsten Sienna (AZ) (2013 - present); and Joe Manchin  III (WV) (2013 - present).  And they are not the only Senators in American history that belonged to "Third or Minor Parties."  While there are no members of the House Of Representatives belonging to third or minor parties as of the writing of entry, there have still been many examples throughout American history.  To be fair, not all of those third and minority party members were originally elected as a third or minor party member.  Some changed parties and were still reelected, and some like Bernie Sanders were elected as a member of a third or minor party member.  And those examples are strictly referring to the federal government.  There are still more throughout state and local governments as well.

So while third party candidates are rare enough masse in American politics, they can and do still win.  And in winning they adjust the course of politics.

As I have noted previously, the corporate duopoly of American politics is the problem.  Alright,  technically it is a problem.  The two bigger problems which combine with the corporate duopoly are the real overall problem.  What are the two bigger problems?

First is the Electoral College.  I've already spoken about that travesty in previous entries.  The other relates to Duverger's law in political science.  America is a political system with single member districts, which means each district is represented by a single officeholder.  In contrast, systems with proportional representation usually have more representatives of minor parties in government.

Considering that America started with zero political parties, which George Washington would refer to factions and in fact Washington was strongly against because he felt that unity rather than division was necessary for a democratic republic to survive.

Ultimately the only reason third parties have yet to break through that wall is because enough people buy the lie that the only viable parties are the corporate duopoly, and fools like John Stoehr who think that we must do everything to make changes while maintaining that duopoly.

My father was a member of the Libertarian party.  His father wanted to name him Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but didn't know how to spell Delano.  My father, for reasons I neither understood nor really discussed with him, hated Roosevelt.  That was my personal introduction to politics aside from what was loosely taught in school.  Frankly I had no interest as it all stank of bovine defacation and held less than no interest in it for me.  Especially considering the President is not elected by the majority of Americans due to the Electoral College.

In November 2000, I wasn't registered to vote.  My personal take was that my vote doesn't count, and I pointed to the Presidential election as the prime reason for concluding that.  For clarification, in 2000 I was residing in Pennsylvania, a state that Al Gore, whom I would have voted for had I been registered to vote, won handily even without my vote.  Not only did Gore win Pennsylvania, he also won the Popular Vote.  We all know how that played out.

My first actual real involvement of any political kind was to add my voice to the chorus who stood against AT&T's intended buyout of T-Mobile as I was and am a T-Mobile customer and I don't want to be ripped off any more than I have to be.  And AT&T wants to charge me more for the same services I currently pay less for with T-Mobile.  I made calls and wrote letters to my local/federal government and signed every petition I could find to end that "merger".  When I learned the part those calls, letters, and petitions ultimately played , I started signing petitions and writing letters to elected officials involving the environment, ending the death penalty, government issues, and far more.  Feel free to check out my Pinterest page for a better understanding of where I stand.

I didn't get properly involved in "local politics" (which is how I see all human politics regardless of nationality) until 2012 when I registered to vote for the first time and I voted for Barack Obama because I saw the Mitt Romney's vision regarding women as a direct threat to all of my female friends, and who make up the majority of my friends.

While I have no interest nor intention of running for political office myself, my political activities haven't slowed.  Frankly, I loathe politics in general.  Unfortunately, I have to get involved to try to make change. 

As of January this year, the number of registered independent voters surpassed the number of registered Democrats and Republican voters.  Frankly, take that as a good sign. 

On a personal note, while I am registered as an independent, and with the exception of the times I briefly changed to Democrat simply to vote for Bernie Sanders in both the 2016 and 2020 primaries, and while I lean Democrat, I more closely align with the Green Party and the Working Families Party.  And for over a year now the Green Party is an official party that you can register to vote as in the state that I currently live in.

The movement to eliminate the Electoral College is growing.  Fighting the corporate stranglehold on American politics is ongoing.  If history teaches us anything, it is it can be done. Hopefully without a relative replay of the French Revolution.  Eliminating those will definitely help to allow third parties to be able to end the duopoly.  As will getting people to wake up to the fact that people should vote their conscience even when it's a third party candidate that most aligns with your conscience.

Voting for third parties is not a scam.  The scam is believing the only viable options are sticking with the corporate duopoly.

 

- Rev. J.T. Smith

 

 

Here We Go Again With Not Voting For X Is A Vote For Y - Rev. J.T. Smith

 

Every four years America is treated to the Presidential election when Americans are directed to vote for one of two wealthy (anymore it's more like obscenely wealthy) candidates to run the country.  And for many decades now, American politics has been subsumed by a corporate duopoly divided between the Democrats and Republicans.  That duopoly has literally become its own industry that claims to cares about its customers (you guessed it: us) but in practice only serves to enrich itself.  And for free advertising, bring in major media outlets that drown out every other potential candidate.  Just look what happened to Bernie Sanders in 2016.

I've been hearing the trope about voting for a third party for decades now, about how it's a thrown away vote, or it's a vote for such-and-such candidate, etc.  I am NOT a fan of Trump by any means, so I will not vote for him.

The reality is that America desperately needs to break free of the corporate duopoly of the two-party system; but, as long as people continue to buy into the fallacy that it is the only viable system, which is a lie that you've been spoon-fed since you were in grade school and fed to you by the corporate "elites" who effectively control both parties with their extremely deep pockets, as long as Americans buy that lie, and as long as the Electoral College is allowed to remain in place, then America is screwed by it.

The only ways that I'm aware of to break that cycle is: 1) Permanently end the Electoral College; and 2) to finally vote for someone else, someone who is not so beholden to American corporatocracy, for enough people to both be registered to vote (finally starting to see some small movement on that, albeit infinitesimal) and for them to stop automatically simply voting for only either Democrats or Republicans.  That Senator Bernie Sanders held that office as an Independent for as long as he has is an indicator it can be done.

Eliminating the Electoral College is not impossible.  For things to do to achieve this, there are many avenues.  There are a plethora of petitions dedicated to this.  Sign all of them.  You can even start your own if you're so inclined.  You can also contact your government representatives, both state and federal.  You have the right, utilize it.  Write to and call your Representative and Senators.  And not just once and done, but repeatedly.  Don't let them ignore you.  To magnify your voice, also join or start a local group for this purpose.  For perspective, "gun rights" adherents and groups are calling in nearly daily.  It's one of the reasons Congress has failed so miserably to actually do anything particularly to curb gun violence  in America.  You can do the same.  As always, be polite or you'll be working against yourself.

Frankly I still think that if he had run as an independent in 2016 rather than falling into the trap of running as a Democrat against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, then we might finally have seen a solid crack in the system.  Especially considering Sanders was bringing in more small money donations and larger turnouts at his campaign rallies than Clinton and Trump combined.  But he was a clear and present danger to the established order which is why, since he was running as a Democrat, the Democratic Party was able to quash him and hand the nomination to Clinton.  Frankly, I could never vote for her as she never met a war she didn't like.

Until that break from the corporate duopoly happens, every cycle there will be people screaming that a vote for someone other than the corporate chosen candidate is a vote for the other corporate chosen candidate.

Want to keep Trump out of office?  Then do everything you can to make certain that the protections of the 14th Amendment are enforced, and throw his arse in prison where it likely belongs. 

Impossible is for the lazy.  Nothing is impossible if people start thinking rather than merely reacting.  It takes a lot of hard work and time invested.  As a hemorrhagic stroke survivor who's ambulatory again (after being completely paralyzed from the neck down on my dominant side, I'm not fully recovered YET), I am here to tell you impossible is for the lazy.   According to the laws of aerodynamics it's impossible for a bumblebee to fly.  Screw impossible and just DO it.

- Rev. J.T. Smith

 

"Earning" A Rebate? - Rev. J.T. Smith

 These days you'll see adverts like this from Rakuten 

 with taglines like: "Stores pay us. We pay you." (FYI, this is actually a rebate) or articles like this one titled "How I earned more than $2,500 using credit cards in 2020.  These cards helped me earn a 4.1% rate of return on spending last year" found on creditcards.com.  It has always bothered me when I see articles and adverts claiming people are getting paid and/or that they're "earning money" when in reality they're only getting a rebate.  

Please understand that I am not opposed to getting a rebate from a company or cash back from a credit card company per se, but claiming that I am being paid or have somehow earned that discount (especially in terms of a rebate) is very misleading.  Rebates are best recognized as large companies acknowledging that they are vastly over charging for their goods and/or services, and that cash back or points from credit card companies are simply another form of rebate that is simply processed from another source.

What's even worse is when companies tell you that the cost for something is $X without informing you that you get that price after a mail-in rebate.  Pep Boys pulled that one on me once when I was in need of an an oil change.  I was quoted $19.99 for the oil change when I called ahead to find out the price so that I could be certain I had enough money available to pay for it (I did not have any credit cards at all at the time and being a non-pizza food delivery driver my personal available cash on hand was typically tight).  It wasn't until my car was on the rack and the oil change was in progress that I spotted a sign informing me that the up front price for the oil change was $49.99, the $19.99 was after a $20 mail-in rebate.  I was lucky that I had just enough money to pay the bill but no ability to make change for my next delivery.  To add insult to injury, I never did receive the rebate.  Pep Boys will never again be allowed to work on any vehicle I own.

No one actually earns a rebate or the cash back that credit card customers can receive.  It is that belief that people are "being paid for shopping" that has allowed pyramid schemes like Amway to stay in business and that leads so many people to get into financial trouble with their credit cards!

Yes, you can get good discounts from credit cards and rebates, and you're better off if you can simultaneously stack those discounts for the same purchase.  I am not denying that fact.  But, let's call it what it really is: Cash back from credit cards are rebates, and any rebate is nothing more than a delayed discount that's saving you some money, but not a paycheque.

 - Rev. J.T. Smith

It's Neither A Spoiler Nor A Protest Vote! - Rev. J.T. Smith

For a long time now, the Democratic and Republican parties have effectively controlled American politics between them while blocking out any other parties from truly participating.  And thanks to the cozy nature of the relationships between those two parties and the media, the American public has been told ad nauseum that a vote for any other party's candidate would be waste of a vote.  As a result, people accept this blindly without realizing that the status quo can and will change if enough people say: ''No more!''

Let me be clear, the only way I could vote for Trump is following my lobotomy from the neck up.  And while Clinton is clearly and obviously a better choice, I still cannot in good conscience vote for her.  It's not because of her gender as I am a feminist, nor is it for any of the ridiculous reasons the GOP have been throwing out ever since she was the First Lady.

I have three major problems with Clinton.  First, environmental: She still supports fracking even though it's destroying our potable water and further exacerbating climate change.  Second, financial: Her past and present ties with Wall St., between all those speaking fees and that so much of her campaign contributions come from Wall St., she's not likely to truly bite the hand that's fed her so well and for so long; not to the extent that she needs to for real reforms to start happening.  Third, war: As with her vote to invade Iraq, so it is with her approach to Syria.  Her pushing for military intervention has helped to create the Syrian refugee crisis.  More war does not end nor prevent a war!

For those reasons, and since the Democratic Party conspired to block Bernie Sanders at every turn and make certain he wasn't on the ballot, I voted for Jill Stein.  Regardless, we all need to stop buying into the notion that there are only two parties and maybe we can finally get the change we called so loudly for during the Primaries.  The Founding Fathers were in fact against the concept of political parties. 

Let me clarify one more thing, my reference to the media is about far more than Hillary Clinton.  My reference to the media is in regards to how we've been hearing for decades that voting for a third-party candidate is a wasted vote.  Let's face it, the media is owned by the elites, and the elites are the ones who try to give us only two candidates between two parties every election cycle.  The media has been burying all the various third-parties, and the media has control of the vetted information.  Examples: "Mainstream media ignore third-party Senate challengers", "These 6 Corporations Control 90% Of The Media In America", "Media Deception: You Are Not Getting The Truth", and "10 Brilliant Quotes by Noam Chomsky on How Media Really Operates in America".  The dual party system as a whole has been sold to you.  Frankly, you do better to stay well clear of American corporate media for your important information.

- Rev. J.T. Smith