Carl Pope, Former Head of Sierra Club, Asks if Anyone Who Runs Outside the Two Major Parties is an Enemy of Democracy

Ballot Access News

Carl Pope, former head of the Sierra Club, has this opinion piece at Salon. He says that anyone who runs outside the two major parties for president “is an enemy of democracy.” The chance that Howard Schultz might run for president motivated this story.  Pope does not even mention the idea of Ranked Choice Voting.  UPDATE:  the title of the piece has been changed, so that instead of proclaiming that Schultz is an enemy of democracy, it asks if he is, and the title ends with a question mark.

The only reason Maine became the first state to use Ranked Choice Voting for federal office is because Maine had two gubernatorial elections in a row in which an independent candidate for Governor was perceived as a “spoiler.” Democrats hold both houses of the legislature and the Governorship in 14 states. If Democrats really believe that a strong independent candidate for President will be a “spoiler”, then rationally they should pass bills for Ranked Choice Voting. And for prominent voices like Pope to write an entire essay without even mentioning this idea is incomprehensible.

Trouble in the Constitution Party: 'Peas in a pod'

Published on the Constitution Party of Idaho's website on 02/10/19

They’ll fit right in.

We cannot help but note on the international scene that Algeria’s ailing octogenarian President, the 82-year old Abdelaziz Bouteflika, after four consecutive five-year terms, will seek yet another. Why, and to what end, we do not hope to fathom. Some are just addicted to the raiment of power, perhaps.

Already in office, and theoretically in control for twenty years, Bouteflika just cannot seem to let go of what remains of his tight fist grasp. Bouteflika suffered a stroke way back in 2013 (over six years ago).  Apparently, Algeria doesn’t exercise anything like the U.S.’s 25th Amendment…but we also note that neither does the national Constitution Party…or for that matter any of the other political parties…from the late Michigan Democrat Representative Dingle to the late Arizona Republican Senator McCain…to Supreme Court Justice Ginsberg.

That Algerian stroke, incidentally, has effectively kept the ailing Bouteflika out of public view, throughout the whole of his preceding five year term. Thus, back room boys seem to be operating the show. Someone has been. After all, it hasn’t been Bouteflika.

Ah well.  Out of sight, out of mind.  Whether Bouteflika’s fit to remain in the presidency of the gas-rich North African nation apparently has no standing.  He’s “entitled” to what seems to be a permanent deferment of expectations that a  national executive be capable, or at least cognizant and more or less breathing.  In this, Bouteflika has some bosom buddies on this side of the pond…in the national Constitution Party.

CP-Idaho dares to suggests that the image projected by the national Constitution Party (with whom CP-Idaho is no longer affiliated) is epitomized by Algeria’s Bouteflika. You could not ask for a better.  Unable to release his grasp on power, unfit because of his latent incapacity and unwilling to step aside…Bouteflika is the perfect face for the national CP.  He more or less sums up the matter…namely “the same old”.

So how about it? Will the national CP replace their new stylized animal logo that they currently cheese around in their political advertisements with a handsome mugshot of Bouteflika instead? The national CP’s octogenarians would absoluteley fit right in that “cutting edge” social club of modernity, eh?

(And we do realize that this is all predicated upon whether New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo will permit Bouteflika’s mug in the Empire State.)

If not, then we’ll put this one forward for consideration:

2016 Libertarian veep nominee Bill Weld returns to Republican Party

Bill Weld

by Laurel J. Sweet, Boston Herald

The next presidential election isn’t until 2020, but speculation is already off to the races.

High-powered Hub attorney William F. Weld, the former governor of Massachusetts and the Libertarian Party’s 2016 nominee for vice president, has rejoined the Republican Party that made him a rising political star.

Gale McHugo, Canton’s assistant town clerk, said Weld, 73, came in Jan. 17 and changed his party affiliation from Libertarian to Republican with a form process that took “less than a minute". It was very matter of fact and the same thing we would do for any voter.

“He did not say a word about running for president,” McHugo responded when the Herald pressed. “We don’t ask.”

Weld, who owns a century-old $1.26 million manse in town with novelist wife Leslie Marshall, 65, “was very personable,” McHugo said.

Weld did not immediately respond to a request for comment...

To read article in full, click here.

American Free Soil Party Nominates Its 2020 Presidential Election Candidates

Adam Seaman (MA)

Yesterday, Feb. 16th, the American Free Soil Party nominated their 2020 presidential election candidates over a teleconference call.  Adam Seaman (Massachusetts), who ran for the Prohibition Party nomination but lost in a dubious vote to their 2020 nominee Bill Bayes, was unanimously elected to be the AFSP's 2020 nominee.  His running mate is Rev. Dr. Enrique Ramos (Puerto Rico), a Lutheran minister from San Juan who was also unanimously nominated and is believed to be the first vice presidential candidate from Puerto Rico who is also living there currently.

Rev. Dr. Enrique Ramos (PR)

The first Free Soil Party was an anti-slavery party which existed between 1848 and 1854.  Though they we're short lived they were a power to be reckoned with and their ideals and platform was largely adopted by the two major parties of its time.  Former President Martin Van Buren was their first presidential candidate.  The modern version was founded in 2014 by Dr. James Clifton its National Director who is also running for office this year for Town council in Millersburg, Indiana.

Rev. Dr. James Clifton, ASFP National Director, Running for Millersburg, IN Town Council

Rev. Dr. James Clifton, National Director of the revitalized American Free Soil Party, will officially be on the ballot in November as a candidate for Town Council, Ward 2, in Millersburg, Indiana.  He is also officially the first candidate to run for office under the American Free Soil Party banner.   The party has its historical roots in the Free Soil Party of the early 1850s who had among its candidates in its brief 6 year existence former President Martin Van Buren. 

Alaskan Independence Party Falters

-- News from the Alaska Division of Elections monthly voter registration report. --

Active since the 1970's, and made an official Political Party in 1984 by court decree, the Alaskan Independence Party  http://www.akip.org/ has for the first time, as of 2/7/19, fallen below 3% of registered voters, the minimum requirement to maintain Political Party status in Alaska.  

With only 17,056 registered AIP voters, or 2.5%, there is a .5% shortfall.  Curiously, a similar .5% deficit kept the Constitution Party from achieving Political Party status in the 2014 Alaska Gubernatorial election with only 2.5% of the vote.  

The AIP also failed to have a qualifying statewide candidate in the last general election.  If such a candidate had received 3% of the vote, that would also have counted towards retention of ballot qualification for the AIP.  

The AIP appears to join the Alaska Libertarian Party in the impending loss of Political Party status in Alaska.  That will only leave the Republican and Democratic Parties.  Rather a shame.  An historical moment to be sure.  A sad testament to the election barriers erected by the establishment parties.  
RIP AIP! 

Prohibition Party Condemns Senator Schumer’s Call for Federal Support of the Alcohol Industry

Recently, Senator Charles Schumer gave a speech calling for the federal government to take actions to help the alcohol industry. Schumer called for federal agencies to take actions to expedite their regulatory actions to help alcohol companies who were inconvenienced by the government shutdown.
We condemn Senator Schumer’s misguided call for the federal government to support the alcohol industry.

Mr. Schumer fails to recognize the vast damages that alcohol has on people and society. Alcohol is a toxic substance, that causes or contributes to over 200 forms of disease and injury. With some its more serious result including brain damage, organ failure, and several forms of cancer. Alcohol kills over 88,000 Americans a year. An estimated 1/7th of Americans suffer from alcohol addiction and alcohol use disorders. The alcohol crisis in this country kills more people and produces more addiction than the opioid crisis. In addition, alcohol contributes to a variety of social ills, including increased rates of poverty, domestic violence, child-abuse and neglect, sexual assault, and violent crime in general. The social, medical, and economic damages caused by alcohol cost our country over 258 billion dollars a year, and shrinks our nations GDP by 74 billion dollars a year. The money that the alcohol industry pays in taxes I only a fraction of the costs that the government has to pay to deal with the damages caused by the alcohol industry’s products, and as a result most of the damages end up being paid by the rest us.  The alcohol industry makes our country makes our country sicker, poorer, and more highly taxed. It damages, the health, safety, and the wellbeing of the people of this country, for the profit of a few.

Mr. Schumer touts the importance of the alcohol industry to his home state, New York. He touts that the alcohol industry is a 4 billion dollar a year business in New York State. While leaving out the fact the state loses over 16 billion dollars a year from the social, medical, and economic damages caused by alcohol.

He touts the increase in breweries, distilleries, and other alcohol businesses in the state, while ignoring the human costs. The people who were sickened or killed by the alcohol industry’s products. The people who suffer from alcohol problems and the pain of their loved ones. The people injured or killed by drunk driving, and their loved ones. The people who were victims of alcohol fueled violence and crime. The people who suffered deprivation due to the money that was wasted on alcohol. The businesses who suffered as a result of the reduced productivity and other economic damages caused by alcohol. The people who lost their jobs as a result of the negative impact that alcohol had on the economy. All the people in New York state and the United States as a whole whose lives have in some way been made wore due to the damaging effects of the alcohol industry’ products.

Mr. Schumer claims that the alcohol industry in New York is a success story. Maybe to the alcohol industry and its lobbyists, but it’s not for the people of New York State. For New York state, it is a story of misguidance, corruption, and the abandonment of the public welfare. The Cuomo administration and members of the state legislature misused their positions to weaken state restrictions on the alcohol industry, and used state agencies and tax-payer money to promote the growth of the alcohol industry. In doing so, they worked to make the problem of alcohol worse in New York state. They abandoned their responsibilities to protect and promote the lives and wellbeing of the people of the state, for the profit of a few. They promoted the growth of the alcohol industry in the name of economic growth, but instead worked to make the economy worse. They took taxpayer dollars that were supposed to be used for services to benefit the public, and instead gave them to companies whose products hurt the public. The growth of the alcohol industry in New York is not a success story, it’s a disgrace. 

Mr. Schumer thinks that the federal government should expedite its regulatory processes, so that the alcohol industry can more quickly recover from the inconvenience caused by the partial government shutdown, and thus further improve its production and sales.

The alcohol industry does not deserve any special help from the federal government and it’s not proper for the federal government to give the alcohol industry special help. We had hundreds of thousands of hard-working people who went weeks without pay during the government shutdown. But senator Schumer wants to take advantage of the situation to give special support to corporations who profit off a product that harms people and damages society. To us, that seems like a slap in the face to those workers and their families.

If the federal government were to give special support to the alcohol industry, with the aim of supporting its growth, then they would be contributing to the harm that alcohol does to our people and society. It would go against the constitutionally written principle that government is supposed to promote the general welfare.

For these reasons, the Prohibition Party condemns Senator Schumer’s proposal. We would ask that Senator Schumer reconsider and withdraw his proposal, and we invite all members of the federal legislature and administration to join in rejecting Senator Schumer’s misguided proposal. We would further encourage all members of the government (whether federal, state, or local) to recognize alcohol as a social and public health problem, to end any and all government support for the alcohol industry, and to use your legitimate legislative and administrative powers to take stronger actions to address the problem of alcohol.

Lauren Southern: FARMLANDS (2018) Official Documentary

Lauren Southern is a former member of and candidate for the Libertarian Party of Canada.