Category: facebook

Two Easy Fixes to Revive Our Dying Democracy

The biggest issue facing the USA today is the ability of elected representatives to get kickbacks through lobbying and potentially hide the money trail via undisclosed foreign bank accounts. So is the real war folks! It’s an internal war. It’s “we the people” vs. “our sold-out representatives” in national government. We have the technology to fix this right now. 

Published March 2017 – updated December 2017

If you watch a town hall meeting you can literally see and hear that many of our representatives have no problem lying to our faces. For example, there are countless instances of representatives telling constituents, ” Yes, i agree with you. We should not repeal before we replace”, etc. But then, when you follow their vote, you find they actually voted for repeal. Knowingly saying one thing and doing another is a textbook definition for lying.

And yet, lying to the press or to constituents does not violate any US lawn and maybe it should. These people do swear oaths. Today, these oaths apparently mean nothing. Let’s face it. Our government was formed in the 1700’s.  Words had meanings that were more sacrosanct back then. So let’s get basic on words. I do so love words. 

REPRESENTATIVE. Why did the founders use that word and not a word like “Duke”?

An elected “representative” RE-PRESENTS an idea or bill. That means the original idea or bill is not necessarily theirs to create. That task could rightly belong to the constituency – which is all of us – which is what a real democracy should insist on. But to do that, citizens need to be engaged, not so much in government, but in the actual issues!represent

And what actually happens after candidates get elected to office and show up in Washington DC? They quickly discover there is a pre-existing and deeply entrenched system of big business paying big dollars to sitting representatives to get the goals of their big businesses done – and not the goals of their constituents!

Hence, we see the GOP advancing the idea of repealing healthcare, or lowering taxes on big businesses – so they can get their kickbacks – even though these bills are not popular with Americans. It’s clear they don’t care at all about the people they allegedly serve.  And yes, to be fair, there are Democrats that have their kickback issues as well. The human flaw of greed and sexual harassment is not limited to one party. 

The biggest issue facing the USA today is the ability of elected representatives to get kickbacks through lobbying and the potential to hide the money in undisclosed foreign bank accounts. Without these kickbacks or graft, as it’s called sometimes, a president like Trump could never have happened.

And unfortunately, the current US president is not only sold out to big business, but also to Russian interests. Why does he not show his taxes? Why does he fight to end the investigation for the FBI? A fish rots from the head. Selling out is rampant and it’s not just the president! It’s our congresspeople and many that work with or for them. 

And so, the real goals of the US citizens get totally overlooked. We couldn’t even get gun laws changed after Sandy Hook! What does that say about the people in charge? 

Senseless political bickering continues because this is what big business wants. A divided country allows big business to continue doing its thing, taking from the poor, giving to the rich. Big business wants bottom line profit only. They don’t want the common man to get ahead or even to get an education. Stupid consumers are good for big business. So un-christian. So greedy.  And yet, there they sit in Washington, doing their own business, not the people’s business.

And that’s where we are today – and have been here since the 1970’s. Our president embodies the swamp creature that selling out is. But at least, we can at least see the monster clearly now. It’s on TV every day. 

This cannot continue. It has to end and end soon. On this, even the Tea Party and I are in lockstep.  Business knows what will happen if consumers get organized. Incomes will get spread around more evenly, and people will be empowered financially and spiritually to strive for more. That’s not the ideal of Wall Street or K-street, so they pit us against each other. FOX vs. MSNBC , etc. It’s getting old. 

“Make America Great Again” will only happen when we share more – not less. It’s the spirit of sharing that always made America great. Where has that gone? The biggest lie Trump and the GOP are perpetuating is that by handing funds to the greedy we will all be better off. What a crock. Who believes that anyway?

So the real war we have in the USA is an internal war. It’s “we the people” vs. “our sold-out representatives” in government. So many have to go in 2018.  And yes, they are not all sold out. We can tell who they are by the way they vote. Don’t listen to what they say, watch how they vote. You can Google that on any representative.  

But there are the two easy fixes that can save the US democracy. First, we need place to find our common ground.  It exists. I am willing to listen to the opinions of other citizens much more that the opinions of representatives. But where can I have this discussion? Twitter? Facebook? Not the way they are today. We need a real place to have civil discussions and then decide what the majority wants via monthly mock voting on the issues, not on the representatives. In a functioning democracy, reps should just be bots for the majority opinion.  

#1 A Perpetual Town Hall. We need an online mock government site for citizens where the issues that need attention are posted. There are spaces for expert opinions, stats, chat rooms, legit advertising (no bot ads) and mock voting on the first Tuesday of every month. This can easily be done by the folks at Google or Facebook.   (That’s a link to my letter to Google. Please check it out too.) But they will need to create sites reserved just for civil political discussions and mock voting. 

Once we have our minds made up on the issues, we tell the representative, sworn under oath, to do exactly what we ask them to. If they don’t do what we have chosen, they are breaking their oath and can be fired. This is not hard to do. 

#2 We have to end the ability of an elected national representative to have undeclared foreign bank accounts! This is how so many, Trump, Maniford, Wilbur Ross – et. al. find a way to hide their illegal payoffs. How dumb is it that we allow this? Very stupid folks. It has allowed criminals and even spies to get inside our government. It has to end!

This is the only kind of representative governmental system that will actually work in these digital times. All else is doomed to fail owing to the essential greed of human nature. Politicians are human beings and a system must be put in place to curtail their natural human greed.

It will be our fault, not the politician’s fault – if we don’t fix this flaw in the machine we call the US government.

These two simple ideas, once implemented, cannot fail . And it can’t possibly make things worse than what we have now, which is  – “Say what you need to get elected, then do what you want for yourself and friends once elected”.

What are we waiting for? 2018 is coming soon. We have the technology to do this right now.  Will someone with programming skills please set this up ASAP? It feels like a one day job by one smart guy. This would change everything. MockDemocracy.US is available. DemocracyLivesHere.com even better.   TownHall247.com is fine too.

This is a link to another blog on this perpetual town hall idea. If you know someone up the chain at Facebook or Google, please pass the link on.

 https://englishcode.wordpress.com/2017/11/29/facebook-russia-2/

josepharonesty@gmail.com Get me here. I’ll support this idea with dollars too.

P.S. There is already a political faction called The Pirate Party that advocates for something like this. Google it. Bad name. But they also believe politicians should be bots for our collective desires. After all, the USA is supposed to be a democratic republic. This is exactly what “a government of the people, for the people, by the people” – means.  Think outside the box people! That’s what the founders did. We have to do it again. And we have the technology to do it right now. 

 

Why Would Putin Want To Instigate Americans Against Immigrants?

The Daily Beast has confirmed with Facebook that the Russian spies, who run every move by their president, Vladimir Putin, did place ads under the name “Secured Borders” inviting people to go to anti-immigrant rallies in middle America. The Daily Beast has confirmed with Facebook that the Russian spies, who run every move by their president, Vladimir Putin, did place ads under the name “Secured Borders” inviting people to go to anti-immigrant rallies in middle America.

The Daily Beast has confirmed with Facebook that the Russian spies, who run every move by their president, Vladimir Putin, did place ads under the name “Secured Borders” inviting people to go to anti-immigrant rallies in middle America.

I have been predicting and characterizing Trump’s “moves” for over a year now. Because I am from his generation, went to the same school and had a similar family education, I can sort of know whats going on in his mind. 

Use the search button in my blog for keywords like Russia, taxes, Putin, Korea, and HealthCare. – You will see I have pretty much been on top of Trump’s moves since he entered the race.

But what reasons would Putin have to pay for rallies against American immigrants? What’s in that for him? Only two things make sense.

#1 The Facebook rally ads were done at Trump’s request. It was Trump asking Putin to demonstrate Russia’s amazing new cyber-war machine. Trump wanted to see if and how it worked. So the Facebook propaganda effort was supported by a hope that there would be violence and press coverage at the events they were instigating. (That’s true criminal espionage folks. Worse that the Rosenberg’s who were both executed for being spies.) The Facebook events would help create support for Trump’s nationalist message.  And Putin realized that Trump could not deliver on promises to Putin ( to reduce sanctions ) unless he actually won office. 

And while that makes sense, it still does not quite feel like a really good business investment for Russia. There’s yet another reason Trump and possibly even Putin would want anti-immigrant feelings in the USA to foment: # The Wall. 

#2 Trump is a builder of large projects by trade. There are all sorts of ways to make a buck on large projects and Trump knows them all. I was a builder of homes in the 1980’s, so I know how the honest side of the building business works. One estimates a project and keeps one’s cost to about 85% of that estimate, making a 15% profit as a goal.

But Trump knows all the other ways to make a buck on a project. One can also stiff the builders, something Trump is actually famous for. One can feign bankruptcy, something Trump has also done many times before. And one can get kickbacks from contractors and have them deposited in one’s offshore accounts. One can hide profits with offshore accounts as well. That’s why it is so important that we see Trump’s taxes.

And that’s also why I think Trump wanted that wall. He knew damn well Mexico would not pay for it. He got caught on the phone with the Mexican president saying it was not that important that Mexico pay for it and that he just essentially wanted him to play along. He even invited him in on the deal with code words. Mexico has an honest president. Good and glad for Mexicans. We don’t. Bad for us Americans. 

The Wall was intended as yet another source of profit for Trump and his family. It was an 8 billion-dollar project. Even the honest 15% markup is a cool billion. And I’ll bet right now, once we follow the money trail of the wall, the way Mueller seems to be doing now,  we’ll find Russians were part of that intended profit stream. 

That desired back-channel to Russia makes more sense now, does it not? These are the kind of things that can be done best with a back channel. 

And then the Russians, paying for Facebook ads to instigate anti-immigrant sentiment, finally makes good business sense. Perhaps Putin was in on the wall. That would be a good business reason to foment anti-immigrant hatred here in the USA.

When is it going to dawn on enough US citizens that we have effectively a Russian operative serving as our president! We have an Espionage Act. It was enacted in 1919 to prevent exactly what we are witnessing. Google it. Then let’s do something about it.

What do I think? I think the president and his entire appointed staff should temporarily be placed under house arrest until the truth is discovered. We must stop the cover-ups and lies and open up their books. They should all be relieved of their posts and duties and on put standby until the truth is exposed.

We can operate just fine in the USA with just a senate, house, judiciary and generals. We don’t really need a president at the helm. And certainly not a president who has offshore accounts and Russian connections that go back 30 years. 

Trump swore the presidential oath. He has broken that oath. 

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

Faithfully is the key word. Faith is a form of fidelity. In this case, it means one is beholden or obliged to none other but the United States. Fellow Americans. We know this in our hearts and by the reports that are leaking out every day. Trump is not faithful to the USA, to Americans nor to you. And that should also disqualify him because it contradicts his sworn presidential oath.

faithThe Marines’ semper fi means always faithful, and two hands clasped in prayer is the symbol for faith. There is a reason for the two hands in the faith symbol: two clasped hands are self-bound, hence disarmed. This logic is also the source of the nearly universal custom of shaking hands to signify an agreement.

Trump can say he is working to the best of his ability. I believe that. He was never a very smart or thoughtful person. He was lazy in many ways ( He paid for his homework to get done at Penn.)  and he has a short attention span. So how good could he really be as president without those key personal qualities? He can say he is preserving the constitution, because that’s a long document that can be interpreted many ways.

But Donald J Trump cannot honestly say he has been faithful to the USA and its people! He knows this and, by now, so do we all.

So why is he still there?

We will continue suffer, emotionally and financially, every day – as a country, as citizens, as parents and as individuals –  for as long as we let this very expensive mistake we made, continue.