Tag: Election

In the Interest of Full Disclosure…

Running for President of the United States is an honor and a privilege that many people won’t get the opportunity to pursue. I hope offer a real alternative to issues that matter to me, and you reading this starts that ball rolling. But, pursuit of idealist views and a brighter tomorrow are not my only motivation.

Our household income is less than $150,000. When I left my last job in 2008, I became the “housewife”, my wife is the breadwinner. The yearly salary of the job of Commander in Chief (CinC) is THREE times as much. I would be lying if I said this did not have an effect on my decision. I am currently running a “charity”, so to speak, by running the house. I would not necessarily want to start another. My wife and I decided my next job will have to have a salary. I have looked at a couple options, but this one would pay a BIT more…

And when you look at it, the salary of the CinC is pennies to some. Especially when you consider hours worked vs. pay. Look at the last two two-term Presidents. Each, in the span of 8 years, went from middle-aged father to grey-haired granddaddy! The toll this job takes on the person seems to be enormous, and no pay would seem to be a good compensation.

This job demands so much because so much is in their care. It is a HUGE responsibility… it is, after all, the defense of the “last best chance for humanity”.

When we hear about a new candidate for President, it is usually announced via an “exploratory committee” to investigate the possibility, then the wealthy individual has to divest from their companies in order to not enrich themselves through this position.

The position of President has become a “joke” in this way. “Will you run for President?” “I can’t afford the PAY CUT!” “Ha, ha, ha….”

Hmmm…. Good joke. Excuse me while I pawn my guitar so I can put gas in the van until payday this week. Pardon me while I figure out what DECADE I will finally get my mortgage out from underwater and, maybe, break even after all the blood, sweat and tears I’ve put into modernization and renovation. I’ll laugh about that one as I wait in line to pay more for my insulin this year.

My family and I stand to do better financially just from the salaried position of CinC. As I see it, EVERY family will stand to do better, though.
I believe the Consumer Protection Agency is a GREAT thing.
I believe the new tax structure is insane and believe it should be changed in 5 years when the current structure is set to expire.
I believe in paid maternity leave for BOTH parents.
I believe in alternative energy independence for individual residences.
I believe we all have a responsibility to prepare for climate change.
I believe we should offer Statehood to our island nations, to ensure future natural disasters are treated with the same importance as ones that occur in Kansas.
I believe that mental health care, dental, and vision should be included in your insurance.
I believe our public education system is capable of SO MUCH MORE and should be FULLY FUNDED to reignite a desire to become an educator, and to give our future a strong foundation to build upon.

We all have the chance to gain more, just by uniting under the simple idea that we can GOVERN OURSELVES! Whether or not I get the chance to move any piece of legislation, the goal of Ending The Electoral College is sufficient enough for me. Once we remove money from our election system, the rotten smell will slowly disappear, along with the super-pacs and think-tanks.

Let me know what you think. I’m not doing this for my benefit… and that’s not lip service… If I didn’t feel I had a very good idea that can change SO MANY PEOPLE’s lives for the better, I would not be running for ANY office. My wife suggested I start with a House run or Senate bid. That’s how it works. I GET it. I see this as a unique time, and a solution to the our problem became crystal clear to me. One that has not been offered in an achievable way. I need to be finishing my house repairs, tending to my two boys’ needs, caring form my wife so she can be successful in her career as a cardiac nurse, and… AND take care of my newly diagnosed type 1 diabetes. I got a full plate as it is. A political career is NOT usually top of my list.

John McCain’s last public speech spoke to me. He spoke of being a rebellious young man, then growing up and finding he needed to give something back to that system that gave him the ABILITY to be that rebellious young man. As an Eagle Scout, I can understand that desire. That love of THIS country, is a beautiful anomaly. People are ready to fight and DIE for the belief that you should be allowed to SPEAK YOUR OPINION FREELY without fear, Right now! Some guy in a bar has had one too many three hours ago and is ready to go…. And EVERYONE has YOUR back. Every time someone wants to shut someone else up, everyone stops and PAYS ATTENTION. Usually, someone shouts “Let ’em speak!”

THAT’S the Country I know. That’s where I come from. And THAT’S the face I want standing at the helm, steering this ship…. not the guy at the bar… BUT, now that I think about it, “he would be BETTER than the LAST TWO CANDIDATES!” “Ha, ha, ha….”

Now, the real wisdom comes from knowing, if that was a joke or not.

Keep your head UP!!

JC

What is a Safe Conspiracy Theory?

What’s your favorite? Does it involve black ops or ‘beings’? Bet it might involve murder. Mine does. And it always makes my ears “perk up” at odd moments during news cycles or conversations. Plucked out of a tree of forbidden fruit… And to SHARE that fruit with some Joe on the street, it’s like sinking the three at the buzzer sayin’ “You know what I’m talkin’ about!”

And sometimes when you speak up a little, you find more people asking the same things, and you ask it a different way. “Seriously… DO you know what I am talking about?” And you realize, no… they did not know, they were thinking about lizard people… really, wa.. what… LIZARD… “Sir, let us have a conversation…” And THAT is the point. Knowledge cannot be attained without asking some STUPID questions. Explaining some basic things.

Open dialogue of information clarifies arguments. Shows bad actors in full view. Brings to attention points of view the public at-large SHOULD know, but otherwise might not know due to being portrayed in an ‘evil’ light.

Every Conspiracy Theory I have looked into deeper than a blog post or headline has born some truth I had not previously known. I have also found some… um, ideas? Not so much FACTS as they would be, not so truthful…. but entertaining as all hell! I never miss the opportunity to discuss lizard people taking over _____. Leaders, politicians, assassins, clergy… they ALL start or revolve around a simple, usually exaggerated or misconstrued, version of a truth.

People want the truth. They have been lead to believe they are getting the truth. When they are presented clear evidence they have not been given the full truth, they believe they can handle the truth… they are entitled to it, it’s my right! The Clandestine EVA of Apollo 12 is the best example. Full article explains it… in all the detail I never wanted, but have now read, fully…The Most Plausible Apollo Moon Landing Conspiracy Ever Devised.

Oversimplified conclusion: Apollo 12 was supposed to land at a pinpoint spot on the moon…on TV, LIVE, to MANY interested parties. Due to dust kicked up during landing, and limited window seating on the LEM, the astronauts could not confirm their landing coordinates without preforming an EVA. They had to preform, live, on television to a global audience, an unscheduled SEVA.

TRANSLATION: The Astronauts, flying under the flag of the United States of America, couldn’t see where they parked, and now, were gonna have to stick their head out the window to find out where they are… hold on one minute…

This Stand-up Extravehicular Activity (SEVA) happened in secrecy as the world watched. Under radio silence, one of the astronauts opened the hatch and looked out to find the lunar lander NASA sent previously, sitting a few hundred yards away. Being able to confirm where on the lunar surface they landed, the mission could proceed. The hatch was closed, the radio silence ended, and history was made.

NASA choose to not display publicly a misstep and knowledge of an event, insignificant as it may be, for a preconceived hidden agenda. Insignificant, if you believe that opening the hatch of a spacecraft on the surface of a foreign body hundreds of thousands of miles away from breathable air is SOP and cakewalk stuff…

ASK questions, DEMAND answers. KNOWLEDGE will keep us ALL FREE. More voices will lead to a better conclusion and help us dodge the missteps of our ancestors. The bad actor will shine brightest in the light of FULL KNOWLEDGE. And those without the light will gain more without even knowing it.

I think I lost my point here… hmmm. I’m going to bed.

Keep your head UP!!

JC

So, How Do We Do This?

It is the intentional design of our election process that limits who can mount a successful bid for the Presidency. Honest, hard working men and women who have a family, who have bills to pay, who must work 40+ hours a week to keep their heads above water cannot run for President. The amount of effort and money and time necessary to got through the process… primaries through spring, nomination by summer, campaigning all the while, debates in the fall, press, campaigning, gab handing, back slapping, Election. One must be independently wealthy to ATTEMPT a run, then you have to attract the corporate entities’ dollar bills to get your message out.

A minimum of one year with no job. All donated time and effort toward a message campaign, a commercial, a roadside billboard. With no promise of winning. As a middle class American, I can say that is impossible for me to do! My family would go bankrupt.

So, I have to change the rules. That’s why I want to be president, so why not start now? It is not unheard of for someone to run a ‘Front Porch” campaign. Due to illness or incumbent obligations, the candidates can have the media come to them. In this case, I can be virtually anywhere and available 24/7… AFTER I run kids to school, keep my blood sugar at acceptable levels, clean the house, do the dishes, fill prescriptions, make appointments, scrub the toilet…

Also a ‘whistle stop’ campaign can be added, where I will make time to go out an speak in different States, ALL 50 is the ONLY WAY. The 50 State Strategy, only not just a cute thing to say to attract voters… really. ONE CITIZEN=ONE VOTE. We ALL gotta have ‘skin in the game’ here. We all gotta own this.

So that means funding. We shall see? If anyone feels the urge to support this, GoFundMe and Patreon plz… BUT I must be on the ballot in ALL 50 States as an Independent Candidate. Each State has rules that allow for an Independent Candidate to be on the ballot by either a fee or petition. Here is a link-

https://ballotpedia.org/Ballot_access_for_presidential_candidates#Requirements_for_independents

 

“Generally speaking, an independent presidential candidate must petition for placement on the general election ballot in all 50 states as well as Washington, D.C. A handful of states may allow an independent candidate to pay a filing fee in lieu of submitting a petition. The methods for calculating how many signatures are required vary from state to state, as do the actual signature requirements. For instance, some states establish a flat signature requirement. Other states calculate signature requirements as percentages of voter registration or votes cast for a given office.”– ballotpedia.org

In Kansas, the petition requirements are VERY tight on time allowed for getting signatures. The amount of signatures is not that high, only 5,000, but the time between the first signature obtained and the last is 180 days. Every State has a unique set of hoops to jump thru, and I CANNOT do it alone! I need volunteers. (Right now, unpaid as funds are….hold on, let me check….. $0. Yep, zero.) I hope that changes, but financial gain is not what were doing this for. With enough volunteers, the metaphorical lift will be light.

If enough honest and good-faith people step up to help collect signatures in each state we can do this. If anyone is interested, email me, comment here or on my YouTube vids, Tweet @MrJLCharbonneau. If we co-ordinate enough little groups in LOTS of places, we might see a point where a day outside of a Walmart or on a street corner for just a couple hours will win this. As I run it over in my head, I bet I could lock in a hundred signatures in an afternoon.

Would YOU be willing to donate an afternoon asking, on my behalf, for an independent candidate to have a CHANCE… I’m not yet asking for votes! Just the ABILITY to COMPETE for votes. The question I want EVERYONE to be asked is simple,

“Would you sign a petition to allow an independent candidate ballot access in the 2020 Presidential Election?”

Just want the chance. Leave the rest to me. I’ll try not to mess it up!

ps- When and IF the time comes, I will file with the FEC and follow the rules. Any donation not spent will be donated to charity, needy children of some sort comes to mind immediately, but it will go toward the benefit of someone in need. It would be the least I could do with donations from caring people.