Tag: Kansas

Campaign Update: Gaining Momentum.

I wanted to thank the people who have subbed my wordpress site and the people who follow me on Twitter @MrJLCharbonneau. In a world where the power of words and their usage has been compressed into a couple sentences, it gives me hope that THIS method of communication has reached the most people directly so far. I hoped the YouTube videos on the Hastert Rule and the Electoral College would have seen more traffic, but it’s not going away.

As I have engaged with people, I have found quite a few conservative supporters. As shocked as I was at first, it really is not so suprising. After all, I am from Kansas. I am a former Southern Baptist Christian. I own guns. I live in a socially conservative community. Even though Wyandotte county is one of two blue dots in this sea of red, I pass more church steeples than family planning centers on my way home.

As the political spectrum has polarized, portrayed as a widening gap tearing at our social cohesion, a funny thing happened. I first noticed it during the TARP debates in 2008/2009. As the Senate was debating a bank bailout of trillions of dollars, Senator Sam Brownback argued in opposition. Why should we bailout these institutions who gambled away all that money? Let the free market decide winners and losers.

Suddenly, I was APPAULD to find myself thinking “Hey, that Sam Brownback has some good ideas.”

I am a liberal. I describe myself politically as so liberal I make Keith Olbermann look like Rush Limabugh. Jokingly, of course! But, I realized in ’08 that as our views polarize, we find ourselves uniting again. We all walk a different political direction, sometimes wandering in the dark with fools and magicians leading us, but we come back to the same problems. Seeking answers, to problems we all face. Wasting all that time looking, when our answers were all the same, as well as the problems.

Common decency needs to be displayed in real life more. An appreciation of others’ points of view and a genuine desire to show you care… just a bit. Not sayin’ go hug a stranger. I’m not gonna do that. (People are weird… have you met some of them? YIKES!) But a positive outlook can go far. Until you realize your being trolled, then it’s gloves off.

So, right now I have 11 followers on Twitter and 6 or 7 here on WordPress. Hey, not a bad first couple months. And have raised… let me see… $0.00 with no Patreon patrons. Cool. I am not worried yet about this. It’s early. I don’t think I should worry until 2020. At that point, if no funding rolls in I will re-evaluate and see what options exist. I would like to say I could do this with no funds, but that’s how you get the exposure. Get the word out. If I could recruit 1,000 volunteers, some from every State, territory, and DC, then maybe… still, I doubt it would fly.

For Now, I will be satisfied yelling political obscenities at senators and representatives. Hoping to start a conflagration in the collective mind of Our country. Maybe there is just enough oxygen in the ether to whip up a fire big enough to turn our country’s leadership back to gold.

keep your head UP!!

JC

Playing With Fire

I TRULY feel I have something that everybody’s looking for… they just don’t know it YET. It’s amazing. It’s hot as fire, it’s simple, it’s all-encompassing, it’s not new, but it IS THE ANSWER… as far as I can tell.

And I’m DYING to be told WHY I AM WRONG. Anyone? Please?!! I keep making the attempt and can’t find ONE reason I should not run for president in 2020 on the main-plank platform of Ending the Electoral College. I believe it. I found the answer BEFORE everyone else, it’s a great answer with amazing consequence, and I don’t want to mess this up! Not the ‘me-being-President’ part… that is a piece of the answer, not the motivation. I don’t want to paint myself and my motivations in such a way as to ruin a beautiful truth-

Mankind can GOVERN ITSELF. We no longer need a “failsafe“.

The Electoral College can be done away with.

The Electoral College MUST be done away with in order to bring out the best America has to offer to HUMANITY. By holding back the brightest and best people, we limit our evolutional trajectory. Our government used to be a stepping stone for innovative young minds. The benefit of our society came from people wanting to do good things for themselves and their Country/communities. THEN move with their talents and experiences gained into the privet sector. Both, our Country and the individual benefitting greatly.

Due to the MASSIVE amounts of money involved in campaign finance, and the deceptive nature in which corporations manipulate politicians. To bend a politician’s beliefs for campaign dollars. Presidents are picked by corporate dollars with little or NO direct input from the PEOPLE.

Yes… we are allowed to pick between two candidates. But, as I’ve seen it, in every election since 2000, it’s been a pick between Bad and Worse… BOTH in-bed with multi-national multi-million dollar ________. Banks, companies, you name it.

….and they have funded BOTH SIDES AT THE SAME TIME.

C’mon. I KNOW we can do BETTER! That’s what we NEED. The people were demanding it this past weekend, in Kansas City at the March For Our Lives. The inequality driven between us by a united set of ENTITIES worth more money than 99% of the PLANET COMBINED is killing us. It’s not a group of PEOPLE…. people have compassion. People want to see good things for others. The corporate ENTITY is an all-consuming critter. They are supposed to be, right? It’s how it survives. Like a wildfire.

In Kansas, every spring the Flint Hills are burned off to help stop wildfires from consuming cities. Controlled burns NOW will limit a fire sparked by lightning in the middle of August. ACTION taken NOW will prevent…

I don’t know. I’ll stop with the metaphor. I could turn it a thousand ways and make it pop, or possibly rhyme… maybe a catchy slogan or cute phrase. But…

neveragain_kc_2
Kansas City, MO, #neveragain

As I walked the crowd with my family at the neveragainKC march, I could not help but feel overwhelmed by sadness and anger, and at the same time joy and hope. All sorts of ideas and slogans were plastered on signage, people with crosses. And people with a hole in their heart. People with a longing for unity, after losing someone they miss greatly.

No one has this thought yet and may not for many months to come. I do not want to soil this or ruin it for that moment when it ‘clicks’. This is NOT MINE, this is EVERYONE’S idea. No one has yet challenged the premise that we were taught as kids. It’s time SOMEONE does it. We all say it, or hear it. No one DOES it. We must find out if we can-

“ANYONE can become President of the United States.” Is that true? Or does the corporate ENTITY need to approve? May I volunteer to be the President for all of us? I may not be the best, or the one you would prefer, but I am DOING IT. I decided to do it, and if you would allow me the CHANCE to be on that stage in the debates in 2020, I will try not to let you ALL down.

There’s too much at stake for me to get this wrong. That’s what I’m afraid of most- a misstep or an action I should have done that led to a misunderstanding. There seems to be very little precedent for this. So I guess I’ll have to pave the way. I built the first approved grid-tied solar panel array in Wyandotte County, KS. It was also the first DIY homemade grid-tied solar panel array in the United States. NO ONE else had done it, I had to teach the guy inspecting it how to inspect it. It took a while, but I did it.

Everyone else thought about it. I decided to do it.

Keep your head UP!!

JC

 

An Independent President

As I see it, there is only one solution- we MUST elect a President who has NO intrest in a political career, who has no political ‘history’ (THE reason Hillary lost, IMHO), and is a ‘working stiff’ like myself. The “Average Joe”. AKA someone who represents the MAJORITY of Americans.

 

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Mr. Jack Charbonneau

 

 

Under normal circumstances, I would NOT run for President. I would say there are MANY more qualified persons we need to be at the helm. But we have reached a ‘tipping point’ in our country. What we have created, this intercontinental economic powerhouse, born and bread here in the USA, is now attempting to, and successfully I might add, change the rules… change the legislative structure ITSELF… to its own benefit.

If the law makers are sympathetic to your company, even better have worked for or will be working for your company, then laws can be passed or undone in your interest. Our government is similar to refs in an NFL game. What would happen if the players were allowed to be the refs? At some point the game would come to a halt due to the inflated egos on the field! Instead of a competition of skill, it would become a “battle royale”.

Though the idea of a death match on the Senate floor MIGHT sound appealing…

I hope over the course of 3 years I will be able to lay out a full description of myself, articulating my positions on as much as I can think of, as well as any questions thrown this way, to show exactly why I can be President. Because we all KNOW the President is only as powerful as the Congress allows. If they are all in agreement, progress CAN be made. It has happened before. It MIGHT happen again!… maybe… I’m optimistic. Not 100%, but at least 65% confident…

A President with an UNDENIABLE MANDATE from the VOTERS, THE PEOPLE, from whom this government gets its marching orders. By sending a representative from the PEOPLE, NOT the special interests, NOT the legislative elites, NOT the wall street leaders.

A person who, when someone looks at that leader and asks “Is he looking out for my interests?” You can absolutely say “Yes”. Because, as I see it, the MAJORITY looks, acts, and THINKS exactly like I do. We bust our ass, follow the rules, try to get ahead, set a good example for our kids, then see the banking industry gamble all OUR money away on risky loans and NOT GET PUNISHED. Or see Donald Trump break LAWS and… nothing. Or watch an oil company kill 11 workers due to negligence and no one goes to jail!

NOTHING?? If I go to the casino tonight, put it all on red and come home broke, my family’s financial future is bleak. If I were to attempt to write off those losses, my ass would be in jail. Same for anyone else. Accountability used to be universal.

Let’s make America ACCOUNTABLE again. Your actions speak volumes. EVERYONE is accountable for their actions, GOOD and BAD. Let’s do good, for everyone, together.

Keep your head UP!!

 

…just another Tuesday in Kansas.

Kansas, the only place on Earth where one can experience ALL FOUR SEASONS before noon. Yesterday we had temps pushing 60 with rain, now we have 30+ mph sustained winds, snow, sunshine, dark clouds, sleet, and temps just above freezing… AND the tornado sirens sounded about 45 minuets ago. Of course, it was probably a test, as they only went through one cycle, still. It makes one look to make sure the path is clear to the basement!

It is a unique life here in Kansas. Everyone of us is a meteorologist. We have to be. It is LIFE OR DEATH when you live where the twisters live. 24/7/365. There is not a month in the year we can rest at ease. When there is snow on the ground, we tend to forget. Honestly, it shouldn’t happen when the temps are below 60. But no one doubts, at any point in there day, that the sky could open up and remove you from the map. It is bizarre, I know! But it is a fact of life.

People from the Great State of Kansas are hardened more so than a lot of people. Maybe not as tough as people from the Great State of Alaska. (I mean…Barrow. Those people are INSANE!) But, in a way, more so than people of Alaska. Kansas is one of the only place on Earth where temps commonly range between 120 degrees F and -30 degrees F. EVERY type of weather can happen and does happen here. Often, ALL in one day.

The stories of people who have lived a lifetime on the prairie can speak to the changes we see in the weather today. The winters used to be colder and snowier. The rain patterns were more reliably west-to-east. The only time west moving systems would pass through were remnants of a tropical system. It is still odd to see, but more common. Non tropical storm systems moving east-to-west happen yearly. It is heartbreaking to see farmers lose everything due to the wicked ways of the weather. Some years due to drought. Some years, the crops die in the fields due to constant rain, making fields impassable for multi-ton farm equipment. Then, add the pressure of feeding THE ENTIRE WORLD… and your family…

Just random weather thoughts. The Lion surely Roars this March morning here in The Free State.

Keep your head UP!!