QUESTION: I just read online about your presidential candidacy and would like to know your position on how to handle the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.
ANSWER: I doubt I will be a candidate but am leaving the possibility open in part because I would be vastly better in any debate than any of those I have heard to date including specifically Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders — but me being in the public eye is a very long shot. A lot depends on whether a particular billionarie or two decide to fund the Electoral Reform Summit. I am talking to a few authentic leaders (not party hacks) about what a bi-partisan ticket with a coalition cabinet would look like. My core ideas from 2012 remain intact and are on display at We the People Reform Coalition, but at this time I stress that I am in non-profit educational mode and my focus is on uniting all those who believe we can achieve electoral reform in 2015, in time to elect both an honest executive and a sufficiency of honest new Members to Congress, so as to reboot our government, our economy, and our society.
I will answer your question and then explain why my answer is irrelevant.
I favor closure of the Guantanamo facility and a phrased return of the entire facility to Cuba much as we did with Clark AFB and Subic Bay in the Philippines. I favor release of all of the prisoners with a few exceptions that might qualify for execution as part of closure. I favor an end to the fraudulent war on terrorism, an end to our support for all but two dictators on the planet (the only two we do not love and support with taxpayer funds are North Korea and Cuba), a closure of all our overseas bases returning our troops and their wallets home, a cut of 50% across the entire federal budget AND the creation of a 450 ship Navy, long haul Air Force, and air-mobile Army able to get anywhere within 24 hours, along with a de-militarization of the police along with a new national training program focused on intelligence-led community-oriented policing across the 18,000 jurisdictions that now have no common standards, and a public acknowledgement that much of what our government has done in our name and at our expense these past 16 years has been based on lies and very much against the public interest.
In my view, and I have thought a lot about this since 2012, we should not be picking a single president as a decider and asking that person to pass issue litmus tests — all this does is encourage lies and posturing with a changing story from group to group. We have a totally corrupt electoral process and a totally corrupt government at the political elite level (I am mindful of the good people trapped in a bad system, they desperately need ethical leadership). What we need in 2016 is a leadership TEAM that is focused on the ONE THING that we can all agree is needed as a ROOT fix: electoral reform. If I were to run for President (I actually favor Tom Steyer with Cynthia McKinney as his running mate and a coalition cabinet selected by public acclamation), my focus would be on redirecting the US Government toward evidence-based decisions across all policy domains, and on restoring Article 1 of the Constitution, ending the two-party tyranny's grip on the public treasury by electing 20-30 independent and small party Members in 2016 to the vacated seats, giving the existing incumbents one term to demonstrate they can represent their constituents and states and districts rather than be prat-boys and fall-girls for the two-party tyranny.
I believe that an issue like Guantanamo requires full disclosure to the public of all of the lies that have been told about the war on terrorism; our treasonous embrace of foreign masters (particularly Israel and Saudi Arabia), our willful and unwarranted subversion of other governments including Ecuador, Germany, France, Iran, Russia and Venezuela, and our public discussion of options. In 2002 my second book The New Craft of Intelligence: Personal, Public, & Political–Citizen's Action Handbook for Fighting Terrorism, Genocide, Disease, Toxic Bombs, & Corruption discussed how illegal immigration and terrorism were predictable outcomes from a foreign policy focused on waging war to profit the few — I am one with Ron Paul on the need to wage a foreign policy of peace, commerce, and honest friendship. I ghost wrote the article for Commandant of the Marine Corps Al Gray, in 1989, calling for us to invest heavily in “peaceful preventive measures.” I have since realized that the US is skewed for war because war is profitable for the few while peace — despite being vastly more profitable than war — sees those profits distributed across the many.
So for me, the bottom line is that we must restore integrity to how we elect our officials and to how we govern ourselves. I support an Article V Constitutional Convention, and have suggested to some with vast discretionary income that they fund Mark Levin so as to make such a Constitution Convention happen over the winter. This is a conversation America needs to have, and doing this virtually — as a dry run, will energize voter participation in 2016 and perhaps a real Constitutional Convention — 34 states have asked for it and the two-party tyranny continues to fight it — in 2018. I favor reversal of the 14th (birthright) and 17th (popular instead of state selection of senators) amendments, and a radical expansion of the 1st (religion and expression) and 2nd amendments (right to bear arms independent of any militia and restored, as with voting, to any who have completed prison terms while assuring voting rights for all incarcerated prisoners henceforth).
I am also seeking funding for a workshop on unemployment (the actual rate is 23% and counting retirees 40% of the adult public is not working in America today), an electoral reform summit, and a website that can raise a billion dollars ($10 from each of 100 million pissed-off patriots) while enabling America to discuss, nominate, and challenge a “fantasy cabinet” or a best of the best cabinet such as I conceptualized in 2011 for my brief 2012 run, and then take the next logical step, produce a balanced budget as an outcome of a national conversation. I would also be glad to see a people's parliament take place over the winter, with all of our ethnic groups and our youth and our elderly coming together for local to national conversations about where we are and where we need to go.
Finally, I believe a TEAM that needs to be formed should tour the country, engaging citizens without regard to party affiliation. In my experience with five of the eight parties that are accredited (I had to run for President to learn that the two-party tyranny blocks six other parties from legitimate access: Constitution, Green, Libertarian, Natural Law, Reform, and Socialist), party tickets come with winner take all mind-sets, party platforms that are a mix of idiocy and ideology, and promises to large donors that the party ticket is expected to honor if they are elected. I believe that 2016 is the year in which We the People have the power to dump the two-party tyranny on its ass, and elect both an honest executive and a sufficiency of honest new Members so as to restore integrity to our legislature such that we can begin doing evidence-based governance in the public interest — for the 99% instead of the 1%.
Semper Fidelis,
Robert
Personal Web Page (bios, testimonials, profiles, production)
Phi Beta Iota: There are ten elements to the proposed Electoral Reform Act of 2015, which could be built upon an expansion of the existing Open Our Democracy Act sponsored by Representative John Delaney from Maryland (6th District).
See Also:
BOOK: OPEN POWER: Electoral Reform Act of 2015 – Open Source Activist Tool-Kit
Democracy Lost: Essay and 100+ Amazon Reviews
Open Power Electoral Reform Home Page
2015-08-14 Counter-Coup: How Trump Can Win
2015-06-12 On the Seventh Day
2014-11-20 Where is Jesse Ventura When You Need Him?
2008-03-01 Intelligence for the President–and Everyone Else
