Congress is Dysfunctional, Our Elections are Proof

 

        What Is Wrong With America’s Election System

Last weekend I took a trip to Kentucky and it reminded me of the following joke. After my GPS crashed and I had no map in my new car I felt like I was living the joke. I finally had to stop at a small country post office and ask directions, he printed them up for me which was nice, but they didn’t say how far the turns were apart and an hour and a half later I made it the fifteen miles and arrived at my destination. Best thing I can say about it was that it was a pretty drive through Kentucky horse country. There were many very beautiful homes along the way.

Years ago I heard this joke that I think applies to the problems facing America today. It goes something like this. “A traveling salesman was driving the back roads of Kentucky and found himself lost. After awhile he saw an old man sitting on his front porch swing and whittling. So he pulled over to get directions. He asked the old man if he knew how to get where he was going. The old man said “Yes”, with a smile and a twinkle in his eye. The salesman said, “Well can you tell me how to get there?” The old man started giving him directions and the salesman said “Thank You” got in his car and took off. After about an hour and a half he was starting to believe the old man had sent him on a wild goose chase. Suddenly he came back to the house where he started. Totally frustrated he got out of his car and told the old man,”I thought you said you could tell how to get where I was going.” The old man said “I can” The salesman said, “I am not so sure about that, if you did, why am I back here?” The old man smiled and said, “I can give you the directions, but first I had to make sure you could follow them.

That is kind of like America. We know where we came from, and where we want to go but aren’t sure how to get there. Our problem is we have too many slick old people in charge, of our country. They haven’t a clue how to get to where we want to go, but they have learned how to line their pockets with our dollars. Forty-one of our Senators have been in the Senate for over twelve years, one has been there thirty five years and one has been there forty-five years. They have not fixed our problems, they have just learned to milk the cow and enjoy the ride.

It is time to fix the problem, and the only way I think it can be done is to start a third party that is for America and its people. The present system has a lot of problems. I know that people are put in place by seniority and that it helps provide order. However it can frustrate new comers who are motivated. They get frustrated waiting their turn.

The present election is a perfect example of the problem. Voting and making sure your vote is counted is a challenge. Certain elements in the process are trying to suppress the votes of many. Congressman John Lewis fought his whole life to make sure everybody got to vote. In the Constitution Article 1, Section 4 it makes clear that it is Congress duty to make the rules concerning elections.

As the government sponsors the education system in the United States it would seem logical to use that system to provide equitable opportunity to all Americans to vote. There are 130,930 K-12 schools in the United States, and there are 260,000,000 eligible voters in the United States according to the census. That means if every school provided a polling place, there would be 1985 voters in each school system. Allowing for a twelve hour voting day, it would require voters to vote at the rate of 165 per hour. If they have at least three voting booths it would require 55 voters per booth per hour. Proof there is no reason for people standing in lines for hours on end. The problem is Congress would have to implement it. If each school had a polling manager they could be in charge of making sure all voters are properly registered and that no one is denied their right to vote. Each school should have a six person nonpartisan board with one person elected from among them to serve as the administrator for a term of two years. The six members should be equally divided between the parties.

The next thing that needs fixed is the rules concerning appointment of Supreme Court Justices, which has been an issue in the last two elections. The Congress can solve this simply by making sure there is one justice for each regional district and make one extra to ensure any special needs can be addressed. All judges should be required to retire from the court with a pension at the age of seventy five.

Another thing that needs to be addressed is the Electoral College. It needs to be eliminated. It does not allow the will of the people to be respected. The main purpose it serves is to allow the politicians to appoint the person they want to the presidency. At a minimum the system needs to be altered. The present system does not represent the will of the voters. Instead of one party takes all the votes, it should be proportional. to the vote in the state sending the delegates, and reflect the vote balance in that state. Only Maine and Nebraska use that system presently.

Finally there is the issue of term limits. Right now America is being held hostage to the will of one Senator from Kentucky who has been in the Congress for thirty five years. He is a Republican, but the longest serving is a Democrat from Maine who has been in the Congress for forty-five years. There are 41 Senators who have served in excess of 12 years or two terms in office. Sixteen are Republicans and the balance are Democrats.

At present the system allows eight Senators, from four states, NY, CA, TX and FL, to represent the will of 34 % of the population of the United States. It also allows one Senator, who represents a state that is only one and one third percent of the population to hold the whole nation hostage to his personal will. That is absolutely wrong and is certainly not what the Founding Fathers intended.

Under Mitch McConnell the Republicans have done nothing since 2008 when President Obama was elected, but try to prevent or undo anything that Obama or the Democrats have tried to do. That is not what the system was designed to do. The really sad part is the present President has not only encouraged this but done virtually nothing to correct the problem. His major accomplishment is having fired a lot of civil service workers who had dedicated their lives to serving our country. Of course firing people was his greatest skill on his reality TV show the Apprentice.

Trump was elected because he was not really a politician, Most Americans wanted change and one thing is for sure they definitely got change. It was not the change many of them wanted, but that will issue will be resolved one week from today. I have heard a lot of people say based on placards that Trump will get reelected. Based on that philosophy, Obama should never been elected. The picture below is from in front of my local polling place on election day 2008. Is there something missing in the picture. I am sure where I live is not the only place it happened.

                   

A while back I created my own political party called CARP. The Party Platform is on my other blog and can be reached by following the link enclosed. https://carpforamerica.blogspot.com/2020/07/carp.html It addresses how to fix many of the problems that Congress has failed to do. If you follow me, you will get updates as I address them. I have what I consider a solution to the gun problem on my post and a lot of other stuff that is from a different or third party point of view.

How To Fix America's Voting System

 

How To Fix America's Voting System

 

                                                                                           

This picture is from the 2008 Presidential Election, what is missing?

                             

     It Is Time to Fix the Voting Problem in America

It seems anymore we have a problem with counting votes at every election. We need to fix the system and really it is not that hard. The proof of how asinine the present system can be was shown in the State of Texas. One county the size of some of our smaller states was/is only having one polling place. Many states are limiting and down sizing the number of polling places to try and manipulate the vote.

America is a nation of the people, by the people and for the people and should therefore afford the opportunity to vote to every citizen, The question is how to do it. I think I have a plan that not only works, it may even improve the system. From MY point of view, every school district in America should have a minimum of one polling place. It is based on a simple assumption. Where there are students, there are parents, and parents need a voice in their community to make sure it is run fairly. Each school represents a certain segment of the local society.

Each polling station should have a bipartisan polling board. I would recommend a board of six people, with one board director, elected and chosen by the board for no more than a two year term. Whether the board members are elected or appointed is one thing I have not worked out. I would prefer an elected board. Their job would be to make sure any issue that may keep a person from voting is resolved at the local level. The board could handle the registering of voters in their district.

This system accomplishes two things. One it generates more community involvement in the election process. And secondly helps eliminate the opportunity to manipulate the election in favor of one party over the other.

Many politicians, especially the career ones, will not like this idea. This system makes them accountable to their constituents. If they are not doing their job it may be made clear to those who have say as to whether they stay or go.

A law needs to be passed that anyone who intentionally interferes with a persons right to vote is subject to a $5,000 fine and up to 5 years in prison. That includes persons who pass laws to deny any citizen their right to vote.

The present system allows politicians that are so inclined to pass laws and place restrictions on voting without fear of consequences. That needs to be corrected and every citizens right to vote needs to be protected.

Time to Amend the 2nd Amendment

 

Time to Amend the 2nd Amendment

       It is time to fix the shooting and gun problem in America. When the Constitution was written it was not perfect and there have been a number of Amendments to fix the problems in the Constitution. In fact there have been Amendments that created problems worse than the problem they were passed to protect Americans from. Prohibition is the perfect example. It took an Amendment to create it. When the chaos it created proved worse than the problem it was supposed to fix they passed another Amendment to repeal it. 

     America did not become a nation of drunks. Many will argue with me but I will argue that the 18th Amendment is part of what caused the Great Depression because of all the businesses that it put out of business. The loss of income finally reached its peak when the markets collapsed.

     Amendments have been used to end slavery, give the right to vote and then give the right to women to vote. It is not a perfect system. The 2nd Amendment is revered as one of the original guaranteed rights. It should never be abolished, but it should be modified to solve problems that the Founding Fathers could never have envisioned when they originally wrote the Constitution.

    The attack on the NRA tells me that we need to pass an amendment that lines out that our Constitutional rights to guns may not be taken away. You can have your AR-15 and fill the air with lead, but I will take my bolt action 50 caliber sniper rifle and make every round count. Read the link at the end of this post and see what the difference is between Constitutional guns and Recreational guns.

    The Amendment I am proposing does not fix all the problems, but it is a big step and I include a couple laws that need to become Federal Laws. They should make the crime of indiscriminate murder of Americans so high that it is a capital offense. 

    The following link will take you to a post on my blog that lays out how and why the Amendment should work. https://rictheturtleryan.blogspot.com/2018/02/solving-shooting-problem-in-america.html

Class Warfare, You Betcha. A Little Radical?

 

Class Warfare, You Betcha. A Little Radical?

     Sometimes people miss the best possible chances to put their enemies in their place.  A few elections ago in Missouri a Republican was swiped at with the remark,  "There will be riots if the Republicans win."  That Republican backed down and lost the election.  Had he thought about it he could have thrown that one right back into the Democrats face and scored big points with it.  If he had just said,  "Well as a member of the Republican Party of which Abraham Lincoln was a member.  Yes the one who freed the slaves. I have to agree.  However there will not be riots because the Republicans won, but because the Democrats are sore losers."

     Recent newscasts have stated that, "Raising taxes on the wealthy and big business is class warfare."  Instead of backing off President Obama should have said, " Your darn right it is,  the poor in American are tired of being pissed on by you rich assholes."  Of course a President can not use that language, but he can sure plant it in the system.  What is wrong with the rich and business paying their fair share of the taxes.  It is money they took from the poor by overcharging for goods and services anyhow.  The Republicans are the ones who ran up all the debt to pay for the wars they started buy telling lies to the American people.  Had the military been allowed to plan as long and methodically as Al Qaeda did on their attack.  The war would have been over in one good raid or at best a few and billions and billions of dollars would not have been wasted not to mention an additional seven thousand lives.  The cost in lives on 9/11 was enough.  How many thousands of lives have been needlessly wasted in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  It is the same stupidty as was done in Vietnam.  Those people are so poor and so uninformed that they have nothing better to do than fight.  They do not care who it is with.  What should have been done is telling the Afghanistan people how they had been used by a group of fanatical thugs who hijacked their religion and their country.  Once that was made clear to them and that America does not hate them.  That we are the ones who helped them defeat the Russians.  Make it clear Al Qaeda does not care about them, but is using them and they will take care of Al Qaeda.  They are the type of people who do not like being used by anybody.  Which is something they have in common with the American people.

     It might seem I am a long ways from where I started, but the point was that no one likes being lied to or used.  Whether they are Afghans or Americans.  We need a third party to take that message from the American people to the American government.   The exploitation of Americans by the wealthy upper class and big business needs to end.  Make the rich and big business foot the bill for their frigging war.  They have lied to the American people to justify their goals.  They have no conscience about it.  The American people need to take back their country and if it takes class warfare.  So be it.   It can be done within the system by creating a third party.   If that does not work then the American people need to return to a bartering society and quit paying taxes.  Quit supporting big business and big government and see how long it takes them to change their ways.  Maybe it is so messed up it is time to tear it down and start over.  That is a scary thought.  Sometimes the truth is.

Saving America from the Impending and Inevitable Collapse

America's Coming Economic Collapse, A Possible Solution

      Collapse is not probable, it is inevitable.  Many people are trying to make a big deal about the economy and trying to make out like it is going to magically recover.  The housing markets recent slide tells the true story. It is not rocket science to figure out what is pushing it down.  The almost fourteen million people who are on unemployment are quickly becoming 99er's.  They are running out of the only resource that helped them keep ends together.  Simultaneously gas prices have spiked again just as they did three to four years ago.  People living on the edge have to make decisions.  When it comes down to eating, keeping the car or paying the house payment it quickly becomes a no brainer.  People are going to eat and they are going to keep their mobility.  It will not turn around till the government comes up with a job program that puts millions of people to work.  It must also help the states to pay their bills.   As people go to work they pay taxes, when they get laid off they do not pay taxes.  Something has to give.

     Unless bold action is taken, and taken immediately America is going to slide into a major depression that makes the Great Depression look like a cakewalk.  National Debt, Jobs, Infrastructure, Health Care and Social Security all are related.  The recent tax break given to American tax payers was done by borrowing against the future.  The government cut Social Security deductions to put more in people's paychecks.  What they did not say is this will cause a shortage in Social Security funds down the road.  Peter and Paul no longer have anything to take from each other the government has taken it all.  With a national debt that equals more than $40,000 dollars for every man woman and child in America, we have a problem.  The median income in America is onlyu $34,000.  That means if half of everybody gave all they have to the government they would still be $6,000 dollars in debt.   Who is this going to fall on.  Not this generation, and not the baby boomers,  it is going to fall on our children and grandkids.

      Right now there is an opportunity for a solution.  A year or more down the road it will be to late to make a difference.  President Obama supposedly put in place a "Paygo" program that requires all new expenditures to be paid for by budget cuts or tax increases.  Yet his present budget package asks for an increase of the national debt limit by 16 % over what it is now.  It America is to maintain its credibility it has to be done, but it should be done conditionally.  It should reguire the 2013 budget to be no more than the 2012 budget and the 2014 budget should require a reduction of the same 16% that it is being raised this year.  That gives time and room to solve some of the budget problems.  One condition should be the bringing home of all American forces overseas.  All means all, and includes the ones in Germany, Japan and Korea where our troops spend billions of dollars that could be spent in the American economy.

      A permanent tax should be assessed on gas.  This tax should be strictly for rebuilding America.  While it is a tax, it is not going to the federal or state governments who have proved to be to incompetent to do the job.  Each state will have to appoint a commission to adminster and manage the funds.   My opinion would be around $1.00 per gallon.  That money would go to the states it is collected in for infrastructure repair and renewal.  Twenty percent of that money should be dedicated to upgrading our energy infrastructure and reducing our dependence on foreign supplies.  This system should be ongoing and permanent.  Infrastructure is the backbone of America.  Without roads, bridges, dams and waterways just to name a few things, America will cease to be able to compete on the world markets.  One restriction should be placed on the tax money from the gas tax.  The state and federal budgets should not be able to access the funds.  The states and feds will benefit as they will no longer be required to budget for infrastructure.  The funds will be restricted to taxes collected.  This will in the long run help restore soundness to the system.  It should be called the America First program and as it creates jobs the economy should turn around.  It will buy time to get the rest of the budget in order.  If it is not done and quickly the consequences will be dire.

1.      If America defaults on its debt it will lose the faith and trust of the whole world.  The saying will not be "Buy American,"  It will be "Buy Anything, But American." and that will hurt.  The first thing that needs to be addressed after the jobs situation which this tax takes care of is the Health Care System.  There are solutions but they require tough choices.  The problem is Americans do not like tough choices, but if they are not made now.  Tougher choices will come later and we will not be living in an America as we know it now.

Is The Government Trying to Kill Us Off?

Government Conspiracy To Kill Off Citizens and Cut Social Security Costs

     With the current Corona Virus epidemic, I thought it might be time to dust this old post off and update it. There have already been theories put forth that the whole thing is a man made biological warfare test. Consideing China's deaths have stopped growing it might make one wonder. China would benefit a lot, as a nation that kills off newborn baby girls and only allows one child per family, they certainly have the mindset to do such a thing.

     When you consider most of the technology available today is geared toward making people more sedentary you might wonder if it is all a conspiracy to kill us off.  It is a fact if people live a healthy life they can live much longer in this day and age.  So maybe the government knows the average citizen does only as much as they absolutely have to.  They also know if people sit around and get no exercise,  eat according to the government health guidelines they will increase their cholesterol, weight and coronary risks and probably check out much earlier in life.  So maybe there is an ulterior motive to their inventing all this technology.

    I mean the government is not above doing tests on its citizens.  In the 50's and 60's they did LSD tests on soldiers and did not even tell them they were doing it.  They put a mild virus spray in tunnels on the Pennsylvania Turnpike to see how the virus would be spread around the country.  They also sprayed stuff off the coast of San Francisco and let the wind carry it to shore to see how it would effect the population.

    The government did intentional exposure of citizens and soldiers to nuclear tests to measure the effects of radiation.  Most people have heard of the Tuskiegee Experiments where they did syphilis tests and did not treat the victims.  Who authorized all this crap is the good question and what kind of minds in the government would allow it to happen.  All of the stuff mentioned above is documented and can be proven.

     When they developed the atom bomb in World War II several of the scientist felt it would start a chain reaction and turn the earth into a miniature sun.  The really scary part is that knowing that, that might be a potential outcome they dropped the bomb anyhow.  You have to wonder if anyone is really in charge of the government.  Or is it one big nut farm that just keeps morphing into the next big piece of stupid.

     So a simple thing like developing programs to intentionally make Americans lazy and shorten their life expectancy might be intentional. If the government can keep the money and not pay out  Social Security payments it would be a way to cut the national budget. I left out the possibility of brain tumors from cell phones.  Microwaves and plastics are under suspicion of causing cancers also.  If you think it is not possible to get money from the government to do crazy stuff.  Read the book, Charlie Wilson's War, about how he single handed got the American government to fund the secret war in Afghanistan against the Russians.  It is a much better read than it was a movie.  They left out a lot and if you really want to know how the CIA and the government work you should read it.  It will scare the average person to question anything the government does.  Then you will see that the whole thing is not as far fetched as it sounds.

       Yes I loved Conspiracy Theory with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts.  Enemy of the State and The Pelican Brief are also very good thrillers that might make you wonder how the government operates. There is always a little nugget of fact behind the fiction.  Hope you enjoyed this.  Been wanting to do something crazy like this for awhile.  Like I said it is all based on documented facts anyone can find if they look on line.    Did you know the United States government conspired with Britain to overthrow the democratically elected government of Iran in 1953 because of worries about oil in the Middle East.  It it any wonder that Iran does not trust us or like us. Type "Iran" on the search bar and you will find several blog articles with more details if you are interested in such things. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog.  It is not always that far out, though it may seem like it.

Avoiding A Depression, It Can Be Done. Will It?

Corona Virus, Avoiding A Depression, It Can Be Done, Will It?

       Corona Virus versus The Founding Fathers

      As America completely alters its state of being under the impact of the Corona Virus, one has to wonder if will we survive. Will we ever get back to normal, or is this the new normal. America has survived having our capitol burnt, a civil war, two World Wars and numerous other disasters. Just over a hundred years ago we survived the Spanish Flu which killed millions of people world wide and over 600,000 Americans.

     In my opinion America will survive and it may come out of this as a better nation. The Virus has revealed many inequities and short comings in America. One question is will it push us into another Great Depression. That will depend totally on how our leadership reacts or fails to react to the crisis.

     In the Great Depression the market lost 89% of its value. It took three years from the crash to hit bottom. It lasted almost ten years. Only World War II ended it. When Obama took office the Dow was at 7949 due to large losses in the 2008 Crash. The market recovered and was up two and one half that amount by the time Trump took office. The market rose one and a half times its value under Trump. It was at 19,732 when he took office and rose steadily to just over 29,551 at one point. It has since lost 21 % of its value. To match the Great Depression it would have to fall to a bottom of 3251.

     Could that happen I hope and pray it doesn't. However it could if the present leadership continues to follow in the footsteps of Hoover. Hoover did not want to get involved and said it was a business thing. Recently Trump said the same thing. When Hoover did finally react, when things were much like they are right now, farmers destroying the products, it was too little, too late.

      Since that time the government has changed a lot and created a variety of programs to try and prevent the past from repeating itself. The Virus is a whole different ballgame and will require America to completely alter its way of thinking. The government will have to get involved and on a very large scale.

    It will take a completely new view of Abraham Lincoln's famous quote, "we are a nation of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." America as we understand it and many other nations could perish from the face of the earth. America could fall into Anarchy as people start to starve, not because there is a lack of food, but a lack of understanding that all the government does, is for the people. and it is done by the people, by actions of the people.

   When Lincoln made that comment he was facing one of the greatest challenges our country has ever faced. The last part of that quote is hardly ever quoted. Today as a nation we are facing a challenge, of equal or possibly greater threat to our being as a nation.

    The Constitution in Article 1, Section 8 gives the Congress three duties. The power to create and collect taxes for the management of our government, the duty to raise and provide for a military. The third article is to provide for the welfare of the nation. I do not believe that was meant in the way most Americans see it today, to pay it out in food stamps. It was meant to provide all the needs of our nation, all the infrastructure and the funds to administer to the needs of the people and the nation. We need to understand that welfare is fully equal with raising funds and armies, without the third part, the first two parts can not function.

    It also gave the government the power to borrow money on credit. Today they create it out of thin air. If Congress has done nothing else they have mastered the art of spending money they do not have.

   My next statement will rub many the wrong way, but in view of Lincoln's statement I think it is the right understanding. Even the people are part of the infrastructure. You can not build infrastructure without people, and that requires healthy people, regardless of race, religion, and even sex. This crisis is making clear America has come up short in providing for all Americans equally. Health care workers are deemed essential to our well being, but so are those who provide food, transportation, safety and services our communities depend on to function as a social body.

    The President saying all the people who work in the meat plants must go back to work is one thing, but it is his and our governments duty to meet the needs and provide the equipment necessary to safely perform that task. It is well known he has little respect for minorities who make up the bulk of the labor force in those industries. When the Virus hits the field workers who pick the crops America will have to make some major adjustments. I have already planned to double the size of my garden this year and to start raising chickens and rabbits as they quickly provide a meat supply. Those living in major cities do not have that option.

   It is not my intention to intimidate, but to share the possibility we may be facing. Revelation 9:15 makes clear there will be an event in the end time that will wipe out a third part of mankind. From what I have seen so far this Virus is fully capable of accomplishing that task.

    How and if we survive this crisis is in the hands, of the people, It will be managed by them and if it comes up short, it will be the failure of the people to come together. So far I have been impressed by my country, but the eventual outcome may be a ways down the road. Can the America of today rise to the challenges they faced during the Great Depression. I think so, but our government will take some major restructuring to make it happen.

    People will have to realize they are not black, white or any other color, they are not Democrats or Republicans, We are all Americans first and foremost, and that survival will depend on everyone pulling together. The link I shared is from my other blog. It has many ideas on how we need to change our government. Including creating a third party, that is for Americans, and in which you are American first and foremost.

     So how does the government save us in this situation. They need to step up to the plate and create the logistics to provide safe work environments and protective equipment for all Americans working in essential skills. Yes food production is an essential skill. Wars are won by logistics. Not having the proper equipment at the proper time  will cause you to lose the battle.

     There is more than enough supplies of the necessities in America. Getting them to the food banks and the places they need to be requires logistics.  I spent over thirty-five years of my life in logistics. Thirteen years in the Army dropping supplies by parachute to our troops. During Tet of 1968 in Vietnam that was the only way our troops were getting supplies. Another twenty plus years I spent in the trucking industry.

     What we need to win this battle we have. What we don't have is leadership that is willimg to step up to the plate. Leadership can still be pushed from behind in this country. If you care about this country you need to share this post and make sure those you know share it and that they encourage their leadership in Congress to act now. By November we  may be so far into a depression we can't get out of it. The only reason we will lose this battle is through indifference to what is before us.

     We have all seen pictures of the soup kitchens during the great depression. We are headed their again if the government create a logistal program to get the products that are being wasted to the food banks and programs that need them. 
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    It is one thing to lose a battle because you do not have what you need. It is entirely another to have the items to end the suffering and keep us going till victory and doing nothing.  When I see all the food bank workers and people making mask to help their fellow Americans, I know victory is within our grasp. Yet when our fearless leader tells people to go to work, but does not provide the equipment or testing they need to do it safely, he is criminally incompetent.

    T-Rump as I call him likes to look at himself as a leader. Well he needs to get off of that rump and provide the leadership we need. It could turn him from a loser to a winner over night. He has had a borderline business history, and it is easy to see that many of his business failures happened because of a lack of understanding of logistics and overstretching what he had to work with.  I think if he gets enough mail telling him to be in charge, and not just claim to  be. He might actually wake up to the opportunity to actually be the leader he claims to be.