2 April 2022 Campaign Season Begins

Today in my commune of 661 souls the 12 pictures of the Presidential candidates for the Presidency of France sprouted on sign boards in the parking lot of the Community Hall. Similar pictures sprouted everywhere in every village, town and city.  Every candidate gets equal billing.  The first vote is on !0 April 2022 .  Two candidates will survive and the general election will be on 24 April 2022. 

The rules are strict in terms of limiting advertising. The candidate can spend $18.612 million dollar. The money has to be raised from individuals in  Euro 4600 contributions.  There are no corporate donations allowed. Recently a candidate from 5 years ago went to jail for overspending.  He had been president but they are serious about the rules.  They believe in giving everyone a more or less fair and equal chance.

Who can run? If you are 18 and have done your National service and have not been deprived of your voting rights on a legal basis all you need to do is get 500 local elected officials to sign your petition and file your financial status and business interests. Trump wouldn’t have made the first cut. 

When the race is over, if you got 5% of the vote you get 47.5% repayment from the French government. An ordinary person has as much chance as a rich one if he or she is organized.

The access to the media is tightly controlled. Equal time must be given at comparable times of day. The favorite does not get interviewed in Prime time and the lesser candidates at Midnight. On Friday night before voting, which is always on Sunday, there is a media blackout on all candidate appearances and polling data on the media. I went through this recital for those of you who would not want to understand how the French Democracy has evolved.

The two tiered system began with DeGaulle who detested parties and wanted the people to have a wide spectrum of candidate’s views.  The first vote is with your Heart and the second vote is with your head. This is uncommon in the west but popular in Asia and Africa.  Sometimes it creates surprises.  A popular French Socialist President was knocked by 8 other left candidates splitting the vote and allowing La Pen to get in on the far right. She faced off with a right center candidate who became president with 82% of the vote.

The election process is the backbone of the core of a Democracy. This fall we will choose to move to the far right or keep in the middle of the road with Joe Biden. I voted for him with my head, not my heart.  But I’m very glad I did. Our elections are hard because we are presented with only 2 choices really.  I remember an op-ed by Art Buchwald in which he explained how the election of 1976 came down to a peanut farmer from Georgia and a Michigan football player who played too many games without a helmet. It was funny at the time but recently  I read a book of 460 pages described the evolution of democracy or maybe the devolution.

Richard Evans wrote The Coming of the Third Reich in 2003. Hitler did not bring about a revolution in Germany. He did everything he could to appear to be acting legally with in the rule of the law of the Weimar Republic. At the same time, he turned his storm troopers loose on Social Democrats, Communists, Jews and labor union organizations. From January 30 ,1933 to July30, 1933 he hollowed out the democracy under a patina of liberal democracy. By midyear all the leadership had capitulated or been replaced. He never won an election and never had a majority of the members of the Reichstag. The Nazis won by appearing to have the votes of people who didn’t like one aspect or another of the Weimar democracy. The vote for Hitler was an expression of protest. There was no plan to run the country except to bring back the true German spirit. .

The national Republican Party’s decision to run without a platform is pure Goebbels.  Be against everything that Joe Biden has done. Offer nothing else as an alternative.

Senator Scott(FLA) is the richest man in the Senate.  He is the chair of the RSCC and just came out with an 11-point plan which terrified Mitch McConnell. Scott proposed to tax more than half of Americans who are presently exempt from income tax.  He also proposed to sunset all legislation in 5 years which includes Social Security and Medicare and why not throw in the Military pension legislation too.  Mitch told him to “Shut Up” in very senatorial terms because all the rats were running for beach. What he didn’t say is “go read Goebbels!”

 

Goebbels said, “The stupidity of democracy.  It will always remain one of democracy’s best jokes that it provided its deadly enemies with the means by which it was destroyed.  The persecuted leaders of the NSDAP became parliamentary deputies and so acquired the use of parliamentary immunity, allowances and free travel tickets.  They were thus protected from police interference, could allow themselves to say more than the ordinary citizen, and apart from that they also had the costs of their activity paid by their enemy.  One can make superb capital from democratic stupidity.  The members of the NSDAP grasped that right away and took enormous pleasure in it.”

If this quote doesn’t make your skin crawl as we approach the 2022 election one needs to accept that Trump wasn’t the beginning of the Jan 6 insurrection.  In Germany before and after WWI the government was having difficulty delivering a government that the people accepted. The protest came from the right and the left.  As things got worse the desire for a strong man emerges. 

Turning a few seats in the Senate and/or House will make it impossible for Biden to deliver anything because of Mitch and the filibuster.  2024 will be a protest vote.  Squabbling progressives and liberals with help from a minority of conservatives can elect a Cruz or Rubio or Scott or DeSantis.

 

 2 April 2022 Campaign Season Begins

Today in my commune of 661 souls the 12 pictures of the Presidential candidates for the Presidency of France sprouted on sign boards in the parking lot of the Community Hall. Similar pictures sprouted everywhere in every village, town and city.  Every candidate gets equal billing.  The first vote is on !0 April 2022 .  Two candidates will survive and the general election will be on 24 April 2022. 

The rules are strict in terms of limiting advertising. The candidate can spend $18.612 million dollar. The money has to be raised from individuals in  Euro 4600 contributions.  There are no corporate donations allowed. Recently a candidate from 5 years ago went to jail for overspending.  He had been president but they are serious about the rules.  They believe in giving everyone a more or less fair and equal chance.

Who can run? If you are 18 and have done your National service and have not been deprived of your voting rights on a legal basis all you need to do is get 500 local elected officials to sign your petition and file your financial status and business interests. Trump wouldn’t have made the first cut. 

When the race is over, if you got 5% of the vote you get 47.5% repayment from the French government. An ordinary person has as much chance as a rich one if he or she is organized.

The access to the media is tightly controlled. Equal time must be given at comparable times of day. The favorite does not get interviewed in Prime time and the lesser candidates at Midnight. On Friday night before voting, which is always on Sunday, there is a media blackout on all candidate appearances and polling data on the media. I went through this recital for those of you who would not want to understand how the French Democracy has evolved.

The two tiered system began with DeGaulle who detested parties and wanted the people to have a wide spectrum of candidate’s views.  The first vote is with your Heart and the second vote is with your head. This is uncommon in the west but popular in Asia and Africa.  Sometimes it creates surprises.  A popular French Socialist President was knocked by 8 other left candidates splitting the vote and allowing La Pen to get in on the far right. She faced off with a right center candidate who became president with 82% of the vote.

The election process is the backbone of the core of a Democracy. This fall we will choose to move to the far right or keep in the middle of the road with Joe Biden. I voted for him with my head, not my heart.  But I’m very glad I did. Our elections are hard because we are presented with only 2 choices really.  I remember an op-ed by Art Buchwald in which he explained how the election of 1976 came down to a peanut farmer from Georgia and a Michigan football player who played too many games without a helmet. It was funny at the time but recently  I read a book of 460 pages described the evolution of democracy or maybe the devolution.

Richard Evans wrote The Coming of the Third Reich in 2003. Hitler did not bring about a revolution in Germany. He did everything he could to appear to be acting legally with in the rule of the law of the Weimar Republic. At the same time, he turned his storm troopers loose on Social Democrats, Communists, Jews and labor union organizations. From January 30 ,1933 to July30, 1933 he hollowed out the democracy under a patina of liberal democracy. By midyear all the leadership had capitulated or been replaced. He never won an election and never had a majority of the members of the Reichstag. The Nazis won by appearing to have the votes of people who didn’t like one aspect or another of the Weimar democracy. The vote for Hitler was an expression of protest. There was no plan to run the country except to bring back the true German spirit. .

The national Republican Party’s decision to run without a platform is pure Goebbels.  Be against everything that Joe Biden has done. Offer nothing else as an alternative.

Senator Scott(FLA) is the richest man in the Senate.  He is the chair of the RSCC and just came out with an 11-point plan which terrified Mitch McConnell. Scott proposed to tax more than half of Americans who are presently exempt from income tax.  He also proposed to sunset all legislation in 5 years which includes Social Security and Medicare and why not throw in the Military pension legislation too.  Mitch told him to “Shut Up” in very senatorial terms because all the rats were running for beach. What he didn’t say is “go read Goebbels!”

 

Goebbels said, “The stupidity of democracy.  It will always remain one of democracy’s best jokes that it provided its deadly enemies with the means by which it was destroyed.  The persecuted leaders of the NSDAP became parliamentary deputies and so acquired the use of parliamentary immunity, allowances and free travel tickets.  They were thus protected from police interference, could allow themselves to say more than the ordinary citizen, and apart from that they also had the costs of their activity paid by their enemy.  One can make superb capital from democratic stupidity.  The members of the NSDAP grasped that right away and took enormous pleasure in it.”

If this quote doesn’t make your skin crawl as we approach the 2022 election one needs to accept that Trump wasn’t the beginning of the Jan 6 insurrection.  In Germany before and after WWI the government was having difficulty delivering a government that the people accepted. The protest came from the right and the left.  As things got worse the desire for a strong man emerges. 

Turning a few seats in the Senate and/or House will make it impossible for Biden to deliver anything because of Mitch and the filibuster.  2024 will be a protest vote.  Squabbling progressives and liberals with help from a minority of conservatives can elect a Cruz or Rubio or Scott or DeSantis.

 

 2 April 2022 Campaign Season Begins

Today in my commune of 661 souls the 12 pictures of the Presidential candidates for the Presidency of France sprouted on sign boards in the parking lot of the Community Hall. Similar pictures sprouted everywhere in every village, town and city.  Every candidate gets equal billing.  The first vote is on !0 April 2022 .  Two candidates will survive and the general election will be on 24 April 2022. 

The rules are strict in terms of limiting advertising. The candidate can spend $18.612 million dollar. The money has to be raised from individuals in  Euro 4600 contributions.  There are no corporate donations allowed. Recently a candidate from 5 years ago went to jail for overspending.  He had been president but they are serious about the rules.  They believe in giving everyone a more or less fair and equal chance.

Who can run? If you are 18 and have done your National service and have not been deprived of your voting rights on a legal basis all you need to do is get 500 local elected officials to sign your petition and file your financial status and business interests. Trump wouldn’t have made the first cut. 

When the race is over, if you got 5% of the vote you get 47.5% repayment from the French government. An ordinary person has as much chance as a rich one if he or she is organized.

The access to the media is tightly controlled. Equal time must be given at comparable times of day. The favorite does not get interviewed in Prime time and the lesser candidates at Midnight. On Friday night before voting, which is always on Sunday, there is a media blackout on all candidate appearances and polling data on the media. I went through this recital for those of you who would not want to understand how the French Democracy has evolved.

The two tiered system began with DeGaulle who detested parties and wanted the people to have a wide spectrum of candidate’s views.  The first vote is with your Heart and the second vote is with your head. This is uncommon in the west but popular in Asia and Africa.  Sometimes it creates surprises.  A popular French Socialist President was knocked by 8 other left candidates splitting the vote and allowing La Pen to get in on the far right. She faced off with a right center candidate who became president with 82% of the vote.

The election process is the backbone of the core of a Democracy. This fall we will choose to move to the far right or keep in the middle of the road with Joe Biden. I voted for him with my head, not my heart.  But I’m very glad I did. Our elections are hard because we are presented with only 2 choices really.  I remember an op-ed by Art Buchwald in which he explained how the election of 1976 came down to a peanut farmer from Georgia and a Michigan football player who played too many games without a helmet. It was funny at the time but recently  I read a book of 460 pages described the evolution of democracy or maybe the devolution.

Richard Evans wrote The Coming of the Third Reich in 2003. Hitler did not bring about a revolution in Germany. He did everything he could to appear to be acting legally with in the rule of the law of the Weimar Republic. At the same time, he turned his storm troopers loose on Social Democrats, Communists, Jews and labor union organizations. From January 30 ,1933 to July30, 1933 he hollowed out the democracy under a patina of liberal democracy. By midyear all the leadership had capitulated or been replaced. He never won an election and never had a majority of the members of the Reichstag. The Nazis won by appearing to have the votes of people who didn’t like one aspect or another of the Weimar democracy. The vote for Hitler was an expression of protest. There was no plan to run the country except to bring back the true German spirit. .

The national Republican Party’s decision to run without a platform is pure Goebbels.  Be against everything that Joe Biden has done. Offer nothing else as an alternative.

Senator Scott(FLA) is the richest man in the Senate.  He is the chair of the RSCC and just came out with an 11-point plan which terrified Mitch McConnell. Scott proposed to tax more than half of Americans who are presently exempt from income tax.  He also proposed to sunset all legislation in 5 years which includes Social Security and Medicare and why not throw in the Military pension legislation too.  Mitch told him to “Shut Up” in very senatorial terms because all the rats were running for beach. What he didn’t say is “go read Goebbels!”

 

Goebbels said, “The stupidity of democracy.  It will always remain one of democracy’s best jokes that it provided its deadly enemies with the means by which it was destroyed.  The persecuted leaders of the NSDAP became parliamentary deputies and so acquired the use of parliamentary immunity, allowances and free travel tickets.  They were thus protected from police interference, could allow themselves to say more than the ordinary citizen, and apart from that they also had the costs of their activity paid by their enemy.  One can make superb capital from democratic stupidity.  The members of the NSDAP grasped that right away and took enormous pleasure in it.”

If this quote doesn’t make your skin crawl as we approach the 2022 election one needs to accept that Trump wasn’t the beginning of the Jan 6 insurrection.  In Germany before and after WWI the government was having difficulty delivering a government that the people accepted. The protest came from the right and the left.  As things got worse the desire for a strong man emerges. 

Turning a few seats in the Senate and/or House will make it impossible for Biden to deliver anything because of Mitch and the filibuster.  2024 will be a protest vote.  Squabbling progressives and liberals with help from a minority of conservatives can elect a Cruz or Rubio or Scott or DeSantis.

 

 2 April 2022 Campaign Season Begins

Today in my commune of 661 souls the 12 pictures of the Presidential candidates for the Presidency of France sprouted on sign boards in the parking lot of the Community Hall. Similar pictures sprouted everywhere in every village, town and city.  Every candidate gets equal billing.  The first vote is on !0 April 2022 .  Two candidates will survive and the general election will be on 24 April 2022. 

The rules are strict in terms of limiting advertising. The candidate can spend $18.612 million dollar. The money has to be raised from individuals in  Euro 4600 contributions.  There are no corporate donations allowed. Recently a candidate from 5 years ago went to jail for overspending.  He had been president but they are serious about the rules.  They believe in giving everyone a more or less fair and equal chance.

Who can run? If you are 18 and have done your National service and have not been deprived of your voting rights on a legal basis all you need to do is get 500 local elected officials to sign your petition and file your financial status and business interests. Trump wouldn’t have made the first cut. 

When the race is over, if you got 5% of the vote you get 47.5% repayment from the French government. An ordinary person has as much chance as a rich one if he or she is organized.

The access to the media is tightly controlled. Equal time must be given at comparable times of day. The favorite does not get interviewed in Prime time and the lesser candidates at Midnight. On Friday night before voting, which is always on Sunday, there is a media blackout on all candidate appearances and polling data on the media. I went through this recital for those of you who would not want to understand how the French Democracy has evolved.

The two tiered system began with DeGaulle who detested parties and wanted the people to have a wide spectrum of candidate’s views.  The first vote is with your Heart and the second vote is with your head. This is uncommon in the west but popular in Asia and Africa.  Sometimes it creates surprises.  A popular French Socialist President was knocked by 8 other left candidates splitting the vote and allowing La Pen to get in on the far right. She faced off with a right center candidate who became president with 82% of the vote.

The election process is the backbone of the core of a Democracy. This fall we will choose to move to the far right or keep in the middle of the road with Joe Biden. I voted for him with my head, not my heart.  But I’m very glad I did. Our elections are hard because we are presented with only 2 choices really.  I remember an op-ed by Art Buchwald in which he explained how the election of 1976 came down to a peanut farmer from Georgia and a Michigan football player who played too many games without a helmet. It was funny at the time but recently  I read a book of 460 pages described the evolution of democracy or maybe the devolution.

Richard Evans wrote The Coming of the Third Reich in 2003. Hitler did not bring about a revolution in Germany. He did everything he could to appear to be acting legally with in the rule of the law of the Weimar Republic. At the same time, he turned his storm troopers loose on Social Democrats, Communists, Jews and labor union organizations. From January 30 ,1933 to July30, 1933 he hollowed out the democracy under a patina of liberal democracy. By midyear all the leadership had capitulated or been replaced. He never won an election and never had a majority of the members of the Reichstag. The Nazis won by appearing to have the votes of people who didn’t like one aspect or another of the Weimar democracy. The vote for Hitler was an expression of protest. There was no plan to run the country except to bring back the true German spirit. .

The national Republican Party’s decision to run without a platform is pure Goebbels.  Be against everything that Joe Biden has done. Offer nothing else as an alternative.

Senator Scott(FLA) is the richest man in the Senate.  He is the chair of the RSCC and just came out with an 11-point plan which terrified Mitch McConnell. Scott proposed to tax more than half of Americans who are presently exempt from income tax.  He also proposed to sunset all legislation in 5 years which includes Social Security and Medicare and why not throw in the Military pension legislation too.  Mitch told him to “Shut Up” in very senatorial terms because all the rats were running for beach. What he didn’t say is “go read Goebbels!”

 

Goebbels said, “The stupidity of democracy.  It will always remain one of democracy’s best jokes that it provided its deadly enemies with the means by which it was destroyed.  The persecuted leaders of the NSDAP became parliamentary deputies and so acquired the use of parliamentary immunity, allowances and free travel tickets.  They were thus protected from police interference, could allow themselves to say more than the ordinary citizen, and apart from that they also had the costs of their activity paid by their enemy.  One can make superb capital from democratic stupidity.  The members of the NSDAP grasped that right away and took enormous pleasure in it.”

If this quote doesn’t make your skin crawl as we approach the 2022 election one needs to accept that Trump wasn’t the beginning of the Jan 6 insurrection.  In Germany before and after WWI the government was having difficulty delivering a government that the people accepted. The protest came from the right and the left.  As things got worse the desire for a strong man emerges. 

Turning a few seats in the Senate and/or House will make it impossible for Biden to deliver anything because of Mitch and the filibuster.  2024 will be a protest vote.  Squabbling progressives and liberals with help from a minority of conservatives can elect a Cruz or Rubio or Scott or DeSantis.