Update on My Writing and the 2016 Election

Written on March 2nd, 2016

Edited on October 5th, 2016

             So here’s the deal. Kind of spinning my wheels here.

            Since New Year’s Eve 2015, I have been archiving and formatting all of the writing which has appeared on this blog, for preliminary editing, so that I can compile it into twelve books of collected essays. I’m planning on printing all the entries, double-spaced, for editing by a friend whom has edited a newspaper professionally in Madison, Wisconsin. I hope to make the books available on the internet, for purchase and delivery, within a year.

            I am about 95% done with editing the blog entries. The next tasks I have to accomplish are taking information on several dozen of the victims in “The Obama Murders” which I compiled in 2011 and 2012, and turning them into one entry, or several entries, as a “The Obama Murders: The Research” type piece. I am half-way through doing that. After that, I am going to create a “The Obama Murders (Part 2)”, featuring between 70 and 125 more deaths, disappearances, and threats of people, which appeared to have had political motivations.

            Due to the relentless sitting at the computer, and the revealing of new body after new body, which is involved in compiling information on murder after disappearance which have occurred under the Obama Administration, I have been relieving my stress by drawing colored pencil pictures of pretty girls, working on my first stained glass piece, writing an "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" fan script, and playing my dad’s piano, wearing out the black keys like nobody’s business. Thank you, Kate Bush, for that. The thing could sure use some maintenance. I’m certain that, if George W. Bush saw the piano, he would say “…there’s somethin’ wrong with this typewriter.”

            After finishing the Obama Murders pieces, my next tasks are to write the following pieces: “General Abortion Policy”; “Jury Nullification, the Rights of the Accused, and the Self-Regulation of the Legal Profession”; and a piece on workers’ rights for Ryan O’Doud’s YouTube channel “Black Hand Communique”. After that, I have to draw a political cartoon that I designed several years ago, and then I’m going to finish two unfinished pieces, entitled “A Libertarian Critique of the Communist Manifesto” and “On Max Weber’s Definition of the State”.

            Next, I’m going to create a few pieces featuring lyrics to my political songs; a list of my websites and Facebook groups and pages; and a list of links to YouTube videos I have created, the transcripts of which are not otherwise available on this blog. After that, I have to do some light editing and formatting of my blog entries, for printing; and then I have to write some introductions and acknowledgements sections for the books of collected essays.

Then I’ll be able to print everything out, three-hole-punch it, place it into a giant binder, and send it off to my friend for editing. Once that is all done, I’m going to start writing pieces I have ideas for, while I’m waiting for the edited manuscripts to come back.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Alex Jones’s Infowars channel, and am currently listening to interviews about the militia situation in Oregon which “ended” last month. Although I listen to Alex Jones every day, I’m not thrilled with endorsement of Donald Trump.

Trump’s calls for mass deportation, a border wall that for all we know would do nothing to stop tunnels and may stop animal species from migrating, temporarily halting immigration based on the religious majority of one’s country of origin, and possibly mass internment, are not helping his cause in my mind. But God dammit, the guy is funny, knows how to hold an audience’s attention, and someone needed to blast a hole in politically correct culture. But luckily for people who aren’t insane racists, there is always Ben Shapiro for that. To borrow a phrase from Voltaire, I do not like what Trump says, but I will defend his right to say it. Probably not to the death though, because fuck that guy, he’s said quite enough by now, and plenty that contradicts the other stuff. As Trump himself said, “What else is there to add?”

Alex Jones’s referencing Ron Paul as part of the conservative legacy that led to Trump’s rise, while Paul has criticized Trump and refused to support him – as well as the fact that Trump calling for making torturous interrogation harsher, and Jones mentioning that that is an area on which he disagrees with Trump, yet Jones still claims he’s a libertarian, but also says he’s not a libertarian – have driven me to listen to Infowars very skeptically. I’m not sure if I’m believing these Marco Rubio gay rumors.

It’s hard to take this presidential race seriously. Trump clearly doesn’t understand the policies he’s promoting. He doesn’t seem to understand that you cannot have a single-payer system while “getting rid of the lines around the states” in regards to health insurance sales. Cruz explains this idea perfectly – as I noted in a debate video which I recently created and posted to YouTube – yet, even though Cruz did not prosecute Lawrence v. Texas, and although he claims to support the Bill of Rights – I cannot help but suspect him of wanting to put homosexuals in camps, and / or stone them to death. Will that include Marco Rubio? Only time, and reporter Wayne Madsen, will tell.

I liked John Kasich until I found out that he profited off the collapse of Lehman Brothers. In a similar vein, I recently found out that Donald Trump profited off of subprime mortgage sales. However, I still feel that they cannot totally be blamed for that, since the federal government kept interest rates low, while requiring that home loans be made to people who could not afford to pay them back.

I can’t say I know much about Ben Carson. I agree with his characterization that “it’s the evil government” that is causing all our problems. I have never liked Hillary Clinton; I criticized her in my last piece “Sanders’s Foreign Policy Silence Hides Abysmal Record”. I was considering voting for Bernie Sanders in the Illinois primary on March 15^th, but I have decided not to, since finding out that he supported Bill Clinton’s crime bill, and voted to support many military interventions since taking office; interventions which saw no formal congressional authorization.

At this point, I would rather vote for Vermin Supreme – a man who wears a giant boot on his head – than Bernie Sanders. Supreme, at least, seems to understand economics, as he recently illustrated with his “pony-based currency”, “pony-based debt”, and “pony bubble” comments, as well as his recent conversion to the Libertarian Party.

Today I watched a debate which took place several days ago in Mississippi; a debate between five candidates for the presidential nomination of the Libertarian Party. I could not help but notice that nobody on the stage was advocating bombing anyone or taking anyone’s freedoms away.

Lately, I have been referring to Bernie Sanders as “the lesser of seven evils”, referring to his status as possibly the least evil of the seven presidential candidates left in the race for nomination by the two major political parties. Since finding out about Sanders’s war record, it has become clear that this country desperately needs a third-party option. I hope the efforts to sue the private Commission on Presidential Debates on antitrust grounds will be successful, so that parties registered in enough states to win the presidential election will be included in debates.

All of the “choices” in the two major parties are inconsistent, waffling, distracting, complete bullshit. Trump wants Mexicans and Muslims (which I’ve been uniting as “Mexlims” to describe the next big fabricated threat to America in 2016) into camps, Hillary Clinton wants to put conservatives into camps, and Bernie Sanders wants to put upper class people in camps if they resist his proposed tax hikes. He may call them “jails and prisons for tax delinquents”, but let’s be honest, they’re internment camps. The only difference is that in an internment camp, you can work in a garden.

Nobody running for president in the Democratic or Republican parties is calling for the free movement of labor and capital; both Trump and Sanders want to keep low-wage jobs out of the country, Sanders decrying open borders as “a Koch brothers proposal”, while the Libertarians are embracing “open borders” in those exact words.

I cannot help but feel like our politicians would not be demanding that low-wage undocumented immigrant workers who live in the shadows should pay their taxes like everybody else, if we would simply stop taxing income. Income funds only half of the government; the individual income tax could be eliminated if all other taxes were doubled. I also cannot help but feel like we wouldn’t have politicians calling for an approximately 40% increase in the minimum wage, if we didn’t have local, state, and federal governments taxing us out of 40% of our earnings.

I just don’t know what to do about this shit anymore. Something about this election makes me want to just fuck off and draw Boy George. I just turned 29, but I feel like, any day now, I’m going to turn into an old man who’s obsessed with World War II, calls in to radio and TV shows, and writes letters to the editor about how they’re coming to take our guns away. I’m planning on calling Alex Jones about the 2^nd Amendment, and C-SPAN about how the election is complete bullshit, any day now. But for now, I have housework to do.

This has been a distraction from the shit I’m supposed to be doing right now to further my writing “career”, preserve my legacy, and work towards having published twelve books by the time I turn 30 years old. Anyway, long story short, enjoy your collapsing mess of a country and your collapsing political dialogue. I’m gonna go binge on coffee and smoke in the bathtub while listening to Culture Club.

Later.

Sanders's Foreign Policy Silence Hides Abysmal Record

Written on February 26^th, 2016

Edited on February 28^th, 2016

Thanks to Arthur Alves

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Iraq and Afghanistan

3. Elsewhere in the Middle East

4. Eastern Europe and Africa

5. National Defense and Other Issues

6. Monetary Policy

7. Conclusion

Content

1. Introduction

            Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from Vermont who describes himself as a democratic socialist, voted against invading Iraq in 1991 and 2003. Sanders calls the second war in Iraq a “disaster” which led to widespread “instability”, and says that he “strongly opposed” the 2003 invasion.

Sanders has criticized C.I.A.-backed coups of democratically elected governments, such as those in Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s. He has also called for shutting down the Guantánamo Bay prison facility on U.S. soil on the island of Cuba. Sanders also says that war and force should be the last resorts that the United States uses, rather than the first resorts.

However, the senator’s voting record on U.S. military interventions does not reflect that statement. But Sanders has been able to hide that fact thus far, as foreign policy is not as frequent a topic at his campaign events, as is his domestic policy.

2. Iraq and Afghanistan

Although Sanders voted against authorizing Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003, later that year he supported a resolution expressing appreciation for George W. Bush’s actions in that war. Sanders has recently called for withdrawing troops from Iraq as soon as possible; however, in 2003, he opposed an immediate withdrawal, supporting a gradual withdrawal instead. Additionally, Sanders voted to fund U.S. operations in Iraq, although he voted against bills funding that war more often than he voted for them.

Not only that; Sanders supported the use of sanctions against Iraq during George H. W. Bush’s presidency, which led to the death of about half a million Iraqis. Sanders also supported the bombing of Baghdad in 1998 under Bill Clinton, supporting the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998; and twice in 1998 he supported resolutions expressing the sentiments that the regime of Saddam Hussein ought to be removed, and replaced with a democratically elected government.

Sanders supported the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and voted to fund U.S. operations there. In October 2015, Sanders said he supported Barack Obama’s decision to keep troops there past Obama’s exit from office.

3. Elsewhere in the Middle East

            In 1996, Sanders supported a bill calling for sanctions against Iran and Libya. In 2011, he voted for, and co-sponsored, a resolution that called for the Qadhafi regime in Libya to be ended, and called for the United Nations to intervene. Sanders also favors re-imposing sanctions upon Iran if it violates the 2015 nuclear deal that he supported.

            Sanders supported cooperation between the U.S. and the State of Israel on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, which cost taxpayers about half a trillion dollars. In 2014, he told a Vermont audience to “shut up” when members interrupted him to argue that the Palestinians have a right to resist the Israeli occupation. In 2014, Sanders voted – along with Democratic senators Al Franken and Elizabeth Warren – to support the State of Israel after its attack on, and subsequent invasion of, the Gaza Strip.

            In the last several years, Sanders has opposed creating a no-fly zone in Syria, and voted against arming rebels in that country. However, he has also supported removing Bashar al-Assad, whom he calls a “dictator”, and supports Obama’s efforts to combat I.S.I.S. in Syria. Sanders has also called for the U.S. and the international community to support a coalition of Muslim nations to go after I.S.I.S., including Yemen, and Saudi Arabia, which he says needs to get more involved in the fight against I.S.I.S. and terrorists in Yemen.

4. Eastern Europe and Africa

            Between 1998 and 1999, Sanders called Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic a “war criminal”, and called for a humanitarian action to take place in Serbia. Although Sanders voted to oppose the invasion of Kosovo, he supported N.A.T.O. bombings of military targets there, which lasted 78 days. Sanders also supported interventions in Bosnia and Albania.

            Although Sanders has opposed sending weapons to the government which took control of the Ukraine in a coup, he says the U.S. must confront Vladimir Putin over Russia’s involvement there. Sanders supported sending $1 billion in aid to the Ukraine’s new government, and he supports using sanctions against Russia, and the freezing of Russian assets.

            In 1993, Sanders supported the U.S. intervention in Somalia. It has been reported that Sanders also supported interventions in Sudan, Liberia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaïre), although this information is difficult to find. Sanders also may have voted to support intervention in Haiti.

5. National Defense and Other Issues

            Sanders has stated that many of his votes supporting these military interventions were cast because the passage of the resolutions was unanimous and virtually inevitable, although that is not accurate in all cases.

            Also, Sanders said recently that he supports the use of drones in warfare, and would use them to fight terrorists. In 2006, he opposed impeaching George W. Bush, saying that to do such a thing would be “impractical”.

Although Sanders has opposed most of the National Defense Authorization Acts (N.D.A.A.s) since 1996, he supported the N.D.A.A.s for 2011 and 2013, which opponents criticized on Fourth Amendment grounds. Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky, expressed such concerns, but voted for the 2013 N.D.A.A. after amending some of the language in the bill which he felt threatened civil liberties and inappropriately extended executive power.

Additionally – although he has denounced mass incarceration, and denounced the War on Drugs, as well as other policies which have disproportionately affected minorities – Sanders voted to support the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, and the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1994. Sanders criticized the former, but voted for it.

6. Monetary Policy

Additionally, in 2015, Sanders introduced the Federal Reserve Transparency Act, which proposed an audit of the Federal Reserve System. Critics called it a watered-down version of the Audit the Fed bill which Texas Congressman Ron Paul had supported while serving in the House of Representatives.

Sanders’s bill would have reduced Paul’s plans for a full audit, to a one-time audit of the emergency actions taken by the Federal Reserve in 2008. The bill would have exempted the Fed’s agreements with other nations’ central banks from an audit by the General Accountability Office. The bill would have additionally exempted audits of decisions on monetary policy, and audits of discount window operations; operations which allow institutions to borrow money from central banks on short-term bases in order to meet temporary liquidity shortages caused by disruptions.

In 2016, Sanders voted to support Rand Paul’s Audit the Fed bill. Neither Sanders’s 2015 bill, nor the younger Paul’s 2016 bill, nor any of Ron Paul’s Audit the Fed bills, ultimately passed.

7. Conclusion

            Republican candidate Donald Trump’s bloviating xenophobia, belligerence, unpredictability, and braggadocious macho bravado, seem to provide American nationalists with everything they want in a candidate for commander-in-chief; namely, the ability to stare-down foreign world leaders. However, these traits – in addition to Trump’s calls for increasing the harshness of our military’s torturous interrogations – are not what is needed, if the U.S. is to engage in serious, level-headed diplomacy, giving the country a solid foundation of respect for human rights and civil liberties, from which to criticize and urge change of totalitarian regimes.

            Neither does the possibility of a Hillary Clinton presidency bode well for the level of respect and trust of the U.S. around the world. Clinton presided as Secretary of State over a scandal in which several of our strongest allies in Europe discovered that the U.S. was spying on their leaders. Nor does the prospect of peace under Clinton’s watch look good, given her flip-flop since supporting George W. Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, her support for invading Afghanistan and bombing Libya, her support for backing rebels in Syria, her close friendship with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, her animosity towards Iran, and her steadfast alliance with political and business leaders in the State of Israel.

            Bernie Sanders has inspired a generation of young voters, and has reinvigorated the anti-war and anti-corporate left, by calling for a “political revolution”, as well as serious reform of Wall Street. Additionally – although critics question whether Sanders can deliver on financing his domestic policy – he has promised the American people plenty. Thus, he seems like the most honest candidate still in the race for the White House.

However, given 1) his agreement with Hillary Clinton on some of these issues; 2) his support for multiple interventions under Bill Clinton; and 3) his poor – and, arguably, calculating, and perhaps even duplicitous – record, supporting bombing, after intervention, after funding, of war after war, since taking office (and increasingly so, as his tenure continues); it appears that not only might Sanders’s domestic policy be fiscally unsound; but also that his foreign policy is only a few shades more pacifist than Clinton’s.

And as difficult and disappointing as it is to say, it just might be that the senator’s record opposing American intervention, aggression, and imperialism, is more bark than bite.