Don't Vote

[Mark]

I'm an election boycott advocate. I'd been advocating that people stop voting, and finally decided that's what I do, so I had some cheap business cards printed up and that's what they say, "Election Boycott Advocate."

I don't get much of an opportunity to do much advocating, but I do try.

There are many reasons I believe that people shouldn't vote, but the most important one is that if you don't like what your government is doing, I don't think you should authorize them to keep doing it. If you oppose something, I don't think you should support it or legitimize it, and voting is what legitimizes a government--that's why they hold elections.

I know that most people who oppose racism wouldn't join or pay dues to the KKK or WAR or discriminate against ethnic groups or make racist jokes. I think that most people who oppose sexism wouldn't.....okay, I'm not supposed to go there. But most of the people I know who claim to be opposed to what our government is doing, keep right on voting to legitimize the government--voting to authorize it to keep right on doing the stuff they oppose.

Now the reason I don't get to do much advocacy is because most websites and activist groups have some sort of political party affiliation. Since they are or would like to be part of the system, they don't want anyone suggesting that people not support the system.

The most common question I get is, "What then?" People ask me what would happen if they didn't vote, what, if anything, not voting would accomplish, if I have a better system, etc. I don't have the answers. What would happen is probably nothing. Except that each individual who doesn't vote, has the personal satisfaction of knowing that whatever our government does, be it torture, wars of aggression, or rounding us all up and putting us in FEMA camps, we didn't vote to authorize them to do it, and we didn't recognize their legitimacy or help them claim legitimacy by voting in their elections.

Is there more that can be done? Sure. People can hand out leaflets, blog, protest, or whatever they think might help. But if you're going to oppose or protest something, it might be a good idea not to vote for it. So how can I understand the activists who oppose our government but continue to vote to delegate their authority and power to it? All I can think is that they don't REALLY oppose our government, they like it, like what it is doing, will continue to vote to legitimize it and to delegate their power and authority to it, but they like to gripe and show off how politically correct they are by parroting anti-government rhetoric they don't really mean.

[curt]

General Election coming up here soon. I believe the communals will be held around he same time, perhaps a few weeks earlier. I try not to pay attention as I am not allowed to participate in any of these reindeer games. As the boss (her name is Doris) and I were out shopping for motorbike apparel, a salesperson started off with politics and the election and how the best thing anybody could do is to go and draw Mickey Mouse on the ballot. I didn't reveal to the person how I'm not allowed to play on election day but the Boss readily agreed and said there's no party you can vote for any more, they're all the sam. BUT WAIT A SECOND........WHOA aaaa horsey. Stop.

Our, THE German Army is WHERE? Doing WHAT? For WHOM?

It's really easy. I know of one Party which does plan on making major changes. The problem with them is, they are derived from what was left over from the SED, the East German Cummunist Party and so you have half of the country unwilling to lend them their support because they've BEEN THERE / DONE THAT.

Take a breath, take a deep breath.

[waldopaper]

Shucks... aint nobody gonna vote for the Pirate Partei?

[curt]

Oh, right, the Piraten Partei. My son the student may know more.

[Mark]

Never doubt that a large group of unthinking fascists can sway an election.

Most people vote Fear-And-Greed, whatever the political party may be named.

When you have a hierarchical system and you try to change it by voting in a different hierarchy, the results are predictably disastrous.

If there was a vote in Germany today on whether or not the German Army should be in Afghanistan, what would the result be, Curt? In England? Canada? Australia? In the U.S. if it was up to a popular vote, we'd be outta there. That's why we're only allowed to vote for parties and candidates and don't have a direct vote on issues.

[curt]

Das Volk ist bloed.

[Mark]

Here's a guy who agrees with you. This was in my email today--a fragment from a post by Rob Solmer, who used to be on the local Green Party County Council and is no longer active with the Green Party, responding to a call for more Greens to run for office:

"In the U.S.....people are mostly trying to hold on to what they have in the midst of change - economically, socially, and environmentally. People may be frustrated with politicians, but their voting patterns, and behavior, show that rather than being 'fed up with the current system,' they are trying to maintain it, even though the current system is wholly untenable and unsustainable. There is no silent majority on the sidelines waiting for a charismatic Green to lead them to revolution. Waxing poetic about corporatist government and fundamental alternatives is more likely to turn people off than bring them to our cause."

Not really that simple. A lot of people fell for Obama's hope-and-change slogans, even though they opposed the wars and he was committed to the wars. I guess they hoped that he might change. But no country I know of that has troops in Iraq or Afghanistan, allows its citizens to vote directly on questions like, "Should we sent more troops?" or "Should we withdraw our troops?" As long as the only people with a direct vote are politicians with a vested interest in MIC profits (stocks, campaign donations, jobs in their districts, etc.), the wars will continue even if 98% of the citizens of those countries oppose them. It's like, people don't want foxes guarding their chicken coops, but the only thing they're allowed to vote on is which fox they'd prefer.

In a direct, participatory democracy, people get to vote directly on issues and the popular vote is the final say that cannot be set aside or overturned. Once people are denied the right to vote on issues, and can only vote for parties and candidates, elections are a sham.

Part of most paychecks goes for taxes, and the rest goes to the worker. Since workers are willing to vote for which party or candidates they would prefer to delegate the authority to, to decide how their taxes are spent, why don't they also vote to have parties and candidates decide how they can spend the rest of their paychecks? Maybe even the reptile brain has some remnants of survival instinct?

[Mark]

Here's a link to the letter that Bev Harris of Black Box Voting just sent to the US Department of Justice Office of Antitrust and to the Federal Trade Commission, regarding the merger of the two largest voting machine companies in the U.S.:

http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/show.cgi?8/80657

I thought I had an idea of how bad elections systems are in the U.S., and I didn't know about half this stuff. It is much worse than anyone can imagine.

Bev asks that people forward the link to the .pdf file to newspapers and legislators. Of course most newspapers and legislators in the U.S. are owned lock, stock, and barrel by the big corporations, just as our elections are. Just as our Justice Department and FTC are.

[curt]

It's general election and I'm not going to vote. I'll probably escort my partner to the polling booth but as usual, just smile at everyone and let them figure it out. You see, as a non-EU Citizen, I have how no right to vote in any elections here. None. I could change that but that would mean giving up my US Citizenship - for ever and ever more. I'm not that far yet, not sure I ever will be. I once met an old fart that did give it up. He warned me to not do the same thing no matter how deep I go with this country.

Die Linke will emerge as today's winners with gains in around ....well, between 13% and 20%. The two major Partys, the SPD and the CDU/CSU will both lose ground but especialy the SPD will lose ground having lost their base. No, sorry, having betrayed their base. The Green will gain a a few points and the Freie Liberalen, the FDP will gain around 10%. I'm not quite sure what the coalition plans look like.....too many Parties refusing to go in with certain other Parties, slamming the door shut before the election. Not a smart thing to do because you may have to go back on your word just to be able to retain what little power you have.

A few alleged al-queda videos had been popping up. I wrote a short opinion-ed on this on C.O.T.O. on thursday in which I mention Obiwan Bin Laden and the Oktoberfest. It's not a good piece....I wrote it straight from the gut. It took me less than ten minutes to write. The photo, I morphed together from two as nothing similar existed prior. Pretty sloppy work but only because I don't know my way around this linux graphical editor...yet.

But as friday came around, an Osama audio clip popped up and later the same day, a new video, allegedly from the Taliban. In all of the above, Germany is directly threatened. Well, read what I wrote and maybe a news item or two. Then a small comercial aircraft flew too low over the Oktoberfest and the authorities went viral and now everything in and around Munich is locked down, waiting for uncle Obiwan Bin Saftladen.

It's really all very funny except for one thing. The coppers here have been arresting alleged islamists who have simply reposted either video clip to youtube. Did you get that? Arrested for reposting a video clip. Now, you know, and I know and they know we know they are reading each and every word I now write. Oh, yes, I do believe this is happening. "Security" is this tight over here, these days. This has me slightly worried. Worried my intentions may be misunderstood. Bin Laden threat videos are nothing new for us USAens. Dude pops up just before each and every major election. It's a total farce, people. We USAens are of the opinion, these videos are manufactured in Langley, Va. or at least upon order of Langley, Va. I mean, it's obvious. We also believe Elvis stands a better chance of still being alive than Osama Bin Laden does. Not a joke. Read that again. Get your grammer straight......"stands a better chance of...." is not equal to "is".

I'll touch more on the subject of Obiwan Trashbin Saftladen after the elections. By the looks of things, I'll need to be very careful how I word things. A certain fascist front has shifted from the shores of montezuma all the way over to Heidelberg. Kinda late and very much anticipated but totally unwelcome.

http://news.google.com/news/more?um=1&cf=all&ned=us&cf=...

http://news.google.com/news/more?um=1&cf=all&ned=us&cf=...

In case you missed my point, I damned near predicted the Oktoberfest scare and the Osama threat one day prior to it happening. I say it was coincidence. But in the eyes of the law, you are not supposed to know things like this in advance, unless you are involved. My excuse is, it was obvious, anticipated on my part, I have a wild imagination and sometimes see things in advance of them happening. I didn't see this in advance though, it was a coincidence. Okay, guys? A coincidence. Ein Zufall.

[Mark]

You're not supposed to know things before they happen, even if they always happen the same way, every time, and you've seen it so many times it's as predictable as Tuesday coming right after Monday? Seems like that's asking rather a lot, but I suppose if the beer is good enough people can manage it.

I am so jealous of countries that have leftist parties and proportional representation. Not that it would help much here as long as we install the candidates before we count the votes, but it would be an improvement.

[curt]

Mark, you've seen how I've been watching and predicting the rise of Die Linke over here. Today will mark the day they make it to the point I said they would in my writings back when the PDS and the WASG merged to create Die Linke - two years ago. Two years and they're set to be the third most powerful Party as a result of today's elections. Two lousy years. Well, it's not a new party. The PDS was what was left over from the SED after the wall fell. The WASG came out of a mass exodus of SPD thinking people at the time Schroeder took office and sold us all out. The PDS had two. maybe three seats all along with most votes coming from the east (former DDR) while the WASG had zero seats. BUT! The merge was planned and worked out and the SPD moved further to the right despite my warnings.....nobody listens to me.....and voila!

Keep an eye on this. Mark my word. Die Linke will win big time today. Nobody likes them because they're "socialists" (I guess) but the Parties can no longer aford to simply ignore them. So now we're cooking with gas. From today on out, it's "listen up fuckers".... there IS a left in this country and we say ....... get out of Afghanistan for one thing, leave NATO for that matter, introduce a minimum wage and start taxing the fucking billionaires.

I know a lot of that aint gonna fly but at least the left now has a voice in parliament. Well, let's wait for the results.

[Mark]

Getting out of Afghanistan should be a no-brainer. McChrystal says we can't win unless he gets 45,000 more troops and we can't send him 45,000 more troops because Ahmadinejad just dumped the dollar for the Euro so we need the troops to invade Iran. The British don't seem to want to invade Iran, but the U.S. and Israel do, so I suppose it's a done deal.

Didn't Germany withdraw its troops from Iraq to send them to Afghanistan? So now they can withdraw from Afghanistan and go to Iran. And by the time they'll want to withdraw from Iran, there'll be another election, another bin Langley video, another country to invade, and another game of musical chairs in the Bundestag.

[curt]

Here's a screenshot from one of friday's video threats:

My assumption is that the Langley videos are aimed at culling the cry for troop withdrawl from the middle east period. Qui bono? The war parties, the MIC and the Banks.

As far as I know, no German military has ever set foot in Iraq since long ago. Long, long ago. The US wanted Germany to pledge soldiers for Iraq but the war parties couldn't go along without losing out big time because most people were against it. So they settled for Afghanistan which was generally accepted with a bit of moaning. Now that we have German soldiers coming back in caskets, voices for a withdrawl are getting louder each day. Perhaps this is why Die Linke will do so well today. ALL of the other parties are against troop withdrawl. They debated this two weeks ago and even the Green supports Merkel's troops. Even the Green! The otherwise anti-war Green! Well, after all, it was their own Joschka Fischer that sold us all out on the "we at least gotta send a few to help clean up the mess in Afghanistan" lie. Funny how people here forgot that.

These Langley videos were probably called for in the same manner the German Army Officer called for the recent air strike on two gasoline trucks near Kunduz. I can see it now, a German on the phone with his US American counterpart; "vee vould like to take you up on your offer.....ze time is right vit Oktoberfest and ze elexions you know.......zis vill help ze Sherman people sink in ze right direxion, jawohl. Vee vould like to have Agent Osama in ze video as vell. Our people vill all be terrafite vit his face. Ja. Let us zen talk about planz for ze next phase. First, vee vait for ze elexion results, ja."