Monday, July 21, 2014

third ways

text by cathy aragon

illustrations provided by penmarq studios






here are the vote totals, per wikipedia, of the 2012 presidential election in the united states.

obama - 65,915,796

romney - 60,933.500

Gary Johnson (Libertarian) – 1,115,886

Jill Stein (Green) – 404,901

Virgil Goode (Constitution) – 114,143

Roseanne Barr (Peace & Freedom) – 49,388


Rocky Anderson (Justice) – 35,699

Tom Hoefling (America’s Party) – 28,590

Randall Terry (Independent) – 12,895

Richard Duncan (Independent) – 12,108



Peta Lindsay (PSL) – 7,071

None of these Candidates – 5,753

Chuck Baldwin (Kansas Reform) – 4,704

Tom Stevens (Objectivist) – 4,013


Steven Alexander (Socialist) – 3,023

Will Christensen (Oregon Constitution) – 3,915

James Harris (Socialist Workers) – 3,432

Jim Carlson (Minnesota Grassroots) – 3,171


Merlin Miller (American Third Position) – 2,603

Sheila “Sam” Tittle (We The People) – 2,479



Jill Reed (Twelve Visions Party) – 2,373

Gloria La Riva (PSL) – 1,524


Jerry Litzel (Independent) – 1,196

Jerry White (Socialist Equality) – 1,133

Dean Morstad (Constitutional) – 1,108

Barbara Dale Washer (Mississippi Reform) – 955


Jeff Boss (Independent) – 888

Andre Barnett (Reform) – 795


Lowell “Jack” Fellure (Prohibition) – 503

as you see, the candidate of the prohibition party finished last. the prohibition party was a force in american politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and is credited with getting the ill-fated eighteenth amendment passed.

next to last was the candidate of the reform party, the party formed by ross perot in 1992. perot himself got 19% of the popular vote in 1992 and 8% in 1996.


third from the bottom was jeff boss, a conspiracy theorist who believes the 911 attacks were implemented by the national security agency.

what would it take to do even worse than these?

two parties which do not appear on the above list, probably because they did not field candidates and do not exist are:

a feminist or womens separatist party

and a world government party

if you google "womens separatist" or "world government" you will find entries but no sign of any existing political parties putting up candidates. there was apparently a world government party in the united kingdom in the middle of the twentieth century.


could either of these, if they existed, do better than the prohibition party?

neither could plausibly assert, if they ran candidates, that they could achieve their objectives overnight, even if they won.

but they could at least make womens separatism or world government stated long term goals, to be implemented as much as practically possible.

in the case of world government , the candidate could pledge to ask congress to pass an amendment ceding all federal power to the united nations and inviting all other countries to do the same.


for womens separatism, the candidate could propose that certain areas of the country - perhaps an area in each one of the fifty states - be set aside as self-governing states for women only, and men kept out, with the areas to be expanded as they filled up.

how enthusiastically would such proposals be welcomed by the american electorate?

estimate that between 140 million and 150 million votes will be cast in the 2016 election.

could either the projected world government or womens party get 1000 votes ?

could they get 500?

could they get 100?

***



Tuesday, July 8, 2014

juan gonzalez

anonymous

english version by dylan carnsworth

illustrations by konrad kraus and jacqueline le mot






they came for juan gonzalez in the night

they surrounded the village at dusk

they came with their guns

they came with their ropes

they came with their dogs

they waited for nightfall and they entered the village

juan gonzalez was not afraid

he had never been afraid

he had taught the people not to be afraid

not to be afraid for him

and not to be afraid for themselves

when they came

with their guns and their dogs

juan gonzalez was ready for them

he was ready for them with the truth

he knew they could take him away

because they could not take the truth away

they had come for juan gonzalez before

in the places where he had told the truth

he had escaped

but this time there was no escape

juan gonzalez had been betrayed

this time they knew

they knew where to find him

they came with all their force

all their guns

all their ropes and chains

all their dogs

and their tanks

they surrounded the village

when darkness fell they began to enter the village

juan gonzalez came out to meet them

and they took him away

but they left the truth behind

they came with their guns

they came with their dogs

they came with their ropes and chains

this is how they come

this is what they do

they came for juan gonzalez