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Why I Am Running for Public Office

We have a government and mainstream media under the control of the military-industrial-prison complex and a few hundred powerful and rich people who comprise the Deep State. They are real and too be feared. They act to smear and frame those who might successfully oppose them. When that fails, they have orchestrated the deaths of outspoken leaders such as JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcolm X. They attack imprison, exterminate whistleblowers and activists like Karen Silkwood, Brian Willson, Judi Bari, Mumia Abu Jamal, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Daniel Ellsberg, Ralph Nader, among others. They conspire to keep or remove from political office those who would defy them publicly, such as Dennis Kucinich, Cynthia McKinney and Bernie Sanders since 2015.

With the Corporate Media long censoring opposing viewpoints of the government narrative on important issues, now we are seeing massive flagrant censorship in social media platforms at a level only seen in the most authoritative of governments.

I will be a bullhorn exposing the corruption in Congress and all our government agencies!

Personal and Family

Since I bought the Peace House in 1989, many people have shared my home. I currently have 8 roommates. One is my supportive partner.

I was first married to Un Chong Oh who was my Korean language teacher in Seoul Korea. Although separated for 1 1/2 years after my sudden removal from Korea, we were married in February 1977 in SF at a Mormon woman’s house by a United Methodist minister with best man and woman provided by good Quaker Friends. A professional burglar did amazing magic tricks. He was notorious as the SFGate (like Water Gate) burglar who broke into a number of peace activist groups during the Vietnam war at the request of the FBI and then exposed his activities to those same groups when he felt he might be on a FBI hitlist for knowing too much! Of course, that never happens in America!

As explained elsewhere, my wife died in 1985 after undergoing kidney dialysis for 5 years and after a year and half of severe sexual harassment by her director at her job with the SF Alemany ESL college District. While this trauma helped destroy her physical heath, along with supporters and myself we were, at least, able to help her recover most of her dignity and spirit.

In 1989, I met a young mother of 3 children while on a caravan trip to El Salvador. Long story, but because of death threats from the Death Squad government of El Salvador I helped smuggle her, a brother, a sister, and a cousin into the U.S. that December. Actually, 3 were captured by U.S. immigration when abandoned by “coyotes”. Back then immigration laws were more humane and profitable. I was able to bail them out of detention quickly for about $2000 which the government eventually kept. We were married in February 1990 and the 3 relatives all obtained legal refugee status. A year and half later we were able to legally bring her three young children to the U.S. The children are now all grown. I had a cordial divorce with my wife about 20 years ago. However, I am still close with everyone.

My parents are both deceased. My dad was a construction engineer and served as a bomber navigator during WWII in the Pacific. My mom was a “Rosie Riveter” during WWII and later was an accountant. My brother is a retired wildlife forest ranger in Montana and my sister is a retired judge in Minnesota. My older half-sister lives in Minnesota and the younger one is a veteran and nurse in Fairfield.

Professional Experience

I delivered local newspapers while in Junior High School.

I worked as a student Engineer at International Harvester while attending Northwestern University in the field of Science Engineering.

I was the last of the draftees and served 3 years in the U.S. Army Signal Corp while mostly stationed in South Korea from October 1972 to October 1975. I was honorably discharged along with a Good Conduct Metal. But one of my greatest honors was when I was secretly removed from Korea by the U.S. Military at the demand of the Korean dictatorship! While under guard for 24 hours before I was on a plane home, my removal orders stating that, “I was a discredit and embarrassment to the United States of America”. Writing letters to Congress and the President sometimes gets rewarded in strange ways! A progressive activist was born!

I worked at National Semiconductor in Sunnyvale for almost 7 years in the early days of computers in the Silicon Valley, mostly as the lead computer technician in the computer repair department. Back then we had to repair computers down to the basic simple IC gates, now of which are thousands in a single IC. We were told back then that someday all the information in the world would be available on our watches. So, it has come to pass, however now this wide unlimited access to information is threatened by governments and corporate interests that would censor, distort and literally ban individuals and viewpoints that contradict the official narratives!

Besides a number of jobs at various pizza restaurants, I was a self-trained organic gardener and home maintenance person for many years.

Civic Involvement

I have been a Peace and Social Justice Advocate most all of my adult life. This has been my vocation, my purpose in life. I have never been paid for my vocation. I have contributed my own money and time to my vocation. I have primarily acted independently, but often in coordination with other groups or organizations. I have been official members of some groups, but also so closely active with some that I would qualify as an active member.

Primarily, I am currently mostly active with 3 groups: Veterans for Peace, Code Pink, Oscar Grant Committee. I have been active less recently or in the in past with Diablo Greens, Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center, Crosses of Lafayette, Our Revolution Contra Costa, ACCE, Bay Point Residence Association, Bay Point Garden Club, Injured Workers United, San Jose NOW, Sunnyvale Renters Association, Korea Link – Human Rights Korea, Un Chong Sexual Harassment Support Team and Nuremberg Actions.

When a rent control initiative was put on the ballot in Sunnyvale, I joined in that effort which involved a joint effort between young liberal activists and conservative senior citizens from the many mobile home parks. More people voted for the initiative than had voted in the previous off year election, but the landlords and real estate backed by corporate media spent millions to get homeowners to believe rent control would destroy the city and we loss by a narrow margin.

A year and a half later, when I couldn’t get anyone else to, I ran in a short special election to fill a vacant City Council seat. I actually thought I could win as I was the only candidate in favor of rent control out of six candidates. Unfortunately, the city had earlier agreed to some rent control on mobile home parks, so the conservative seniors abandoned me, and apartment renters didn’t vote in mass. When the reporter called me to say I had finished only a few votes behind the landlord candidate, I exclaimed “you mean she won”. Actually, I had finished 4th behind the Democrat and Republican Party candidates.

In 2020 I ran for Congress as the Green Party candidate in the current District 11 which comprised most of Contra Costa County.

My campaign website http://www.CreatingBetterWorld.org is meant to be a public resource to access various alternative news, opinions and information that is ignored, censored or distorted by the Military industrial Prison Media complex! When an important and serious issue arises don’t just trust your corporate media for the whole story or even the truth. Please refer to my website resources! Personally, I would rather you use my website resource than just vote for me. My website will be there long after any election!

Political Experience

I ran for Sunnyvale city council in 1985 and finished a close 4th to a landlord candidate, a year after I was involved in a losing but highly successful rent control campaign. While apartment renters did not win any concessions from the existing city council, the mostly senior citizen and family mobile home parks did obtain some relief from increasing renter space rents.

I am again running for U.S. Congress as the Green Party candidate in the new CA 10th District. I thank the nearly 15,697 voters (7.4%) who supported me in 2020 in the current CA District 11. I intend to be a bullhorn on issues that corporate politicians and media don’t want you to either know & talk about. You may not always agree with me on every issue, but I do try to base my opinions on serious research while always keeping an open critical mind to additional facts and information.

My campaign website http://www.CreatingBetterWorld.org is dedicated to providing extensive alternative political resources and viewpoints on most every issue confronting society today. My website is an ongoing education resource that will continue and improve long after this election. To be honest your regular use of my website is more important than your vote.

Religious Beliefs

I am agnostic and I respect all religions. I, however, find that most people do not really practice the most sacred values of their religions as to peace and loving thy neighbor and doing no harm to others. This is particularly evident in the way people blindly believe corporate media and then vote for government officials that promote war and violence, destroy the environment, and ignore the needs of the people that could make everyone’s lives so much better.

Accomplishments and Awards

I take pride in the many things I have done to help make this a better world. For example:

In late 2007, I learned that Loaves and Fishes had closed down its food operation for the homeless and needy. Using my home equity funds, I personally fed a community of some 20-40 people at a local park Monday thru Friday. We affectionately became the Anuta Park Picknickers. We sent a petition to Loaves & Fishes pleading them to return to Bay Point and fortunately they did finally return later in 2008. We also sent a letter to the Bill Gates Foundation signed by about 35 of us asking that they consider the possibility of financing a high school in Bay Point whose teens had to travel many miles to another town’s High School. The Gates Foundation rudely rejected our plea!

In a fruitless effort due to liability concerns to grow some of our own homeless community food in one of the numerous vacant lots in Bay Point, I was informed that the Ambrose Park District might offer the vacant lot next to the community center for a garden.

After a lot of effort, I was able to secure permission to build a community garden by a 5-0 vote as long as the district was not financially responsible or otherwise involved. With my home equity money and a loan from the District, I and many of my homeless community friends built the garden in just over a month. For 5 years, I financed and managed the garden with help from friends and community volunteers. Without notice, the garden was taken away from me by the Park District in a 5-0 vote. This was clearly done in retaliation for my successful efforts in saving the community pool from destruction. The Pool has since been remodeled but sadly the community garden was neglected and ignored by the Park District for many years until recently.

I have been involved with the Crosses of Lafayette project since its founding in 2006. I built, painted and erected 75 of the first 300 crosses. That first New Year’s Eve, I helped lead a candlelight vigil display by each of the then 1000 crosses. The Crosses of Lafayette represents the now over 8000 American young men and women who have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan both clearly illegal according to our Constitution and International Law. When the hillside across from the Lafayette Bart Station reached 4000 crosses, it became too full for additional crosses, but a sign there reflects the number of service people killed to date. Unfortunately, the City Council of Lafayette refused other signs to address the much larger number of service people seriously injured or the many hundreds of thousands of civilians needlessly killed and the millions forced into refugee status or terrorized on the ground in at least 5 other countries.

Over the years, I have been arrested about 40 times and risked arrest many other times to help publicize immoral and illegal activities by our government and multinational corporations.

Educational Background

I somehow managed to be accepted into the elite Northwestern University after High School. I suspect this happen because of a convergence of two new situations. First, I had chosen a new field Science Engineering desperate for student majors. Secondly, this was the first year Blacks were accepted as students in the school’s 100 plus years of existence. Much later, I realized that I had also benefitted from Affirmative Action. I and a high school classmate were the first students, in anyone’s memory, from our poor working-class neighborhood who had been accepted into Northwestern.

I was in college during the height of the anti-Vietnam war movement with a low draft number staring me in the face. I was mostly clueless and never got really involved against the war. I was working off campus as a student engineer when Kent State happened. Students tore up all the iron wrought fencing and block the road in front of the campus for weeks with bond fires. The road was a major commuter route into Chicago. I missed all that, or maybe I might have become an anti-war activist sooner. Certainly, I had thought, my country wouldn’t attack Vietnam unless it was necessary and the right thing to do! I would learn better! Of course, I probably did do some small things in college that were signs of my activism to come. I actually completed my 5-year Science Engineering program, but never graduated or ever practiced Engineering. Never had any regrets about that.

After my military service using the GI Education program, I did obtain an AS in Computer Technology from Heald College in San Francisco.

After I bought my Peace House in 1989, I self-taught myself skills in home maintenance and gardening.

Of course, for some 50 years now, I have self-taught myself and become actively involved in many political issues confronting society and the world.

Military Service

My activist days actually began in earnest when I was the last of the draftees in October 1972. After training at Ft. Polk, LA and Ft. Gordon, GA, I was assigned to the U.S. Army Signal Corp in South Korea. It was Christmas Day 1973, when I traveled from Seoul to Pusan to meet the Korean orphan whom I had been sponsoring through a magazine ad. Later stationed in Wonju, I also became involved with a nearby World Vision orphanage. My two visits to Pusan orphanage led me to investigate corruption in the Korean orphan situation.

This would eventually lead me on a path of investigating the U.S. support of the South Korean dictatorship of Park Chung Hee. In 1974, I extended my time in the Army for another year time to stay in Korea. I then began exposing the U.S. support of the Park Chong Hee dictatorship in letters to Congress and President Gerald Ford. My letters were usually signed by 5-6 other soldiers. On my 4-page letter to the President, I collected over 100 signatures from my base.

I was also applying to stay in Korea to both marry my Korean Language teacher Un Chong and travel around Korea as a civilian. After a long delay in approval, I arranged to meet with the base Inspector General. The Major had me meet him alone after normal hours. Upon arrival he immediately stated that whatever it was that I was doing, the Korean Government was not going to let me stay in the country. I told him I had been writing letters to Congress and would he like to see my letters and responses. I then asked how the Korean government would know about my mail to Congress when I was never involved with Korean activists and had been using the military mail system. He immediately refused to review my letters and abruptly ended the meeting.

A week or two later under disguise of a fake military exercise with most of my base personnel scattered across distant Korean hillsides, I was abruptly and secretly removed from Korea by the U.S. Military command at the demands of the Korean Government. Under the Freedom of Information Act requests, I discovered that the Korean Foreign Minister was actually demanding the U.S. Military command do something about me. Article 15, Court Marshal and sending me back to the States were all considered. But it was determined that I was of a martyr disposition, so in order to please the Korean dictatorship and prevent any embarrassing incidents by me, the U.S. High Command finally decided to send me back to the U.S. illegally with no advanced notice. I was put under arrest and in less than 24 hours I was on a plane to Travis AFB in the U.S. My official removal orders stated that I was a discredit and embarrassment to the United States of America. My proudest award ever, this was like being given a Ph.D. in Korean Human Rights study all certified by U.S. Military and the Korean dictatorship.

It was October 1975 when I was released from the military at Ft. Lewis, WA. I went on a 4-month hitch hike and bus journey across the Northwest speaking at churches and colleges. I spent much of the next 3 years, working on Korean Human Rights.

General Philosophy My Bio

I am currently mostly active with 3 groups: Veterans For Peace, Code Pink , Oscar Grant Committee. I have also been involved with Our Revolution, Diablo Greens, Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center, Crosses of Lafayette and ACCE of Bay Point.

With VFP and Code Pink I have protested against my country’s illegal immoral Drone Assassination Program with vigils and arrests at both Beale AFB and Creech AFB, Nevada.

I was involved with Our Revolution Contra Costa as a founder and Board member from 2017 until I ran for Congress in 2020. I was among thousands active outside the 2016 Democratic Party Convention in Philadelphia in support of Bernie Sanders.

I am active with the Oscar Grant Committee especially these past 3-4 years. The OGC works with and on behalf of families who have had their loved ones senselessly murdered or attacked by police.

In late 2007, when Loaves and Fishes temporarily closed I personally fed 20-40 people for several months. Later I and the homeless community built a community garden which I managed for 5 years.

In 2006, I became involved with the Crosses of Lafayette which represents the now over 8000 American young men and women who have died in the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan according to our Constitution and International Law.

I have been involved in several environmental actions concerning the approaching Climate Catastrophe including an arrest at Monsanto Headquarters concerning Round-up’s Glyphosate poison and their GMO terminator seeds.

When the Veterans for Peace made a call for veterans to gather at Standing Rock, South Dakota in late November 2016 in support of the Sioux and other Native Americans fighting to halt the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), I made the journey with two other fellow activists.

(NA) on September 1, 1987, when Peace activist Brian Willson and two others were run over and assaulted by an ammunition train at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. I soon became a full-time member of Nuremberg Actions and Peace House manager of the two-year 24/7 vigil action in front of the Naval base. With over 500 hundred arrests, we blocked every military ammunition train for 2 years along with countless weapons trucks. Weapons were mostly destined for right wing dictatorships oppressing their own people in Central America. I currently own and live in that Peace House ever since the action wound down in late 1989.

I was accepted into elite Northwestern University after High School. I realized later that I had probably benefitted from Affirmative Action. I and another classmate were the first students from our poor working-class neighborhood who had been accepted into Northwestern.

I was in college during the height of the anti-Vietnam war movement with a low draft number staring me in the face and never got really involved against the war.

My activist days began in earnest when I was the last of the draftees in October 1972. After training, I was assigned to the U.S. Army Signal Corp in South Korea. There I became involved with Korean orphanages and investigated some corruption.

Eventually I was investigating the U.S. support of the South Korean dictatorship of Park Chung Hee. In 1974, I began exposing the dictatorship in letters to Congress and President Gerald Ford. In July 1975, I was secretly removed from Korea by the U.S. Military at request of Korean Government. My official orders stated that I was a discredit and embarrassment to the United States of America.

During my removal processing, I was to publicly disobey my First Sargent numerous times always forcing him to allow Un Chong to be with me. In the back of a jeep on that two-hour ride to Seoul that night we exchanged vows with rubber band rings. Separated for 1½ years, my Korean love, Un Chong was finally able to come to the U.S. and married in February 1977 in SF.

My wife was sexually harassed by her Director at the SF Community College ESL Division. During a long a 6-year lawsuit, SF Radical Woman and WOASH (Woman Organized Against Sexual Harassment) helped my wife. These were the early years of the sexual harassment movement. We were involved with the San Jose NOW.

During this time, I joined a rent control initiative on the ballot in Sunnyvale, and later unsuccessfully ran for City Council seat.

According to many lawyers who became aware of my wife’s case, it was considered one of the worst sexual harassment incidents they had ever heard. My wife’s health declined eventually requiring Kidney Dialysis. In September 1985, she died from the severe emotional stress that had aggravated and damaged her health.

I was slowly recovering from the loss of my wife when Brian Wilson was attacked by the train at the Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS).

In March of 1989, I joined a caravan to El Salvador. When I returned the Peace House was for sale and Nuremberg Actions had mostly ended. With money from Un Chong’s Lawsuit, I was able to purchase the Peace House.

I had lived with a large family in El Salvador and had developed a romantic relationship with the eldest daughter. With a friend who spoke Spanish and after two harrowing weeks I helped bring her and 3 relatives into the U.S in December 1989. I married Felicita and a year later she brought her 3 young children to the U.S. The children are now all grown. I had a cordial divorce with my wife 20 years ago. However, I am still close with everyone.

I am a 9/11 truther! Since the release of the 9/11 Commission report in 2005 I have offered a reward of $100,000 to the first person who can demonstrate to my satisfaction that my government did not plan, manage, execute and cover-up the events around the September 11, 2001 attacks. My website is http://www.911reward.org.

I joined millions across the globe protesting the impending invasion of Iraq in 2003.

My 2022 Voter’s Edge Questionnaire

Posted in 2022 elections, Green party, Michael E. Kerr, U.S. Congress, U.S. House of Representatives | Tagged 2022, 2022 election, CA D10 2022, Green party, issues, Michael E. Kerr, Michael Kerr | Leave a comment

My 2022 Voter’s Edge Questionnaire

Posted on June 2, 2022 by mekorganic

MICHAEL ERNEST KERR

GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE FOR 2022 CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 10

My Bio

With VFP and Code Pink I have protested against my country’s illegal immoral Drone Assassination Program with vigils and arrests at both Beale AFB and Creech AFB, Nevada.

I am active with the Oscar Grant Committee especially these past 3-4 years. The OGC works with and on behalf of families who have had their loved ones senselessly murdered or attacked by police.

In late 2007, when Loaves and Fishes temporarily closed I personally fed 20-40 people for several months. Later I and the homeless community built a community garden which I managed for 5 years.

I was accepted into elite Northwestern University after High School. I realized later that I had probably benefitted from Affirmative Action (my first year, was also the first year that blacks were allowed to attend NU). I and another classmate were the first students from our poor working-class neighborhood who had been accepted into Northwestern.

I was in college during the height of the anti-Vietnam war movement with a low draft number staring me in the face and never got really involved against the war.

During this time, I joined a rent control initiative on the ballot in Sunnyvale, and later unsuccessfully ran for City Council seat.

I was slowly recovering from the loss of my wife when Brian Wilson was attacked by the train at the Concord Naval Weapons Station (CNWS).

I had lived with a large family in El Salvador and had developed a romantic relationship with the eldest daughter. With a friend who spoke Spanish and after two harrowing weeks I helped bring her and 3 relatives into the U.S in December 1989. I married Felicita, a year later she brought her 3 young children to the U.S. The children are now all grown, and I had a cordial divorce with my wife 20 years ago. However, I am still close with everyone.

I joined millions across the globe protesting the impending invasion of Iraq in 2003.

My Political Philosophy

My activist days actually began in earnest when I was the last of the draftees in October 1972. After training, I was assigned to the U.S. Army Signal Corp in South Korea. My investigation of corruption in the Korean orphanages, lead me to U.S. support of the South Korean dictatorship of Park Chung Hee. In 1974, I began writing letters to Congress and President Gerald Ford. My letters were usually signed by 5-6 other soldiers. On my 4-page letter to the President, had over 100 signatures from my base. In July 1975, I was abruptly and secretly removed from Korea by the U.S. Military command at the demands of the Korean Government. My official removal orders stated that I was a discredit and embarrassment to the United States of America.

In 1979, when I learned of my wife’s sexual harassment by her Director at the SF Community College ESL Division, I joined her in a long a 6-year lawsuit. Radical Woman in SF and WOASH (Woman Organized Against Sexual Harassment) helped create a dynamic support team to help my wife in her struggle and in exposing the reality of sexual harassment to the general public. These were the early years of the sexual harassment movement. We were also both involved with the San Jose NOW.

According to many lawyers who became aware of my wife’s case, it was considered one of the worst sexual harassment incidents they had ever heard. In September 1985, my wife died from the severe emotional stress that had aggravated and damaged her health. But justice and the legal system often are at odds. Laws passed to protect corporations and government entities quickly stole most the potential money damages from my wife’s case, causing our latest attorney to quit. Eventually, forced to settle without the trial my wife and I had wanted.

I was introduced to Nuremberg Actions (NA) on September 1, 1987 when Peace activist Brian Willson and two others Rev. David Duncomb and WWII Veteran Duncan Murphy were run over and assaulted by an ammunition train at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. I soon became a full-time member of the two-year 24/7 vigil action in front of the Naval base. Brian’s words became our rallying cry “We are not worth more; They are not worth less!” With over 500 hundred arrests, we blocked every military ammunition train for 2 years along with countless weapons trucks. These weapons were mostly destined for right wing dictatorships oppressing their own people in Central America.

I am a 9/11 truther! Since the release of the 9/11 Commission report in 2005 which I consider a flat out confession by my government, I have offered an unclaimed reward of $100,000 to the first person who can prove or at least demonstrate to my satisfaction that my government did not plan, manage, execute and cover-up the events around the September 11, 2001 attacks. My website is http://www.911reward.org.

I was arrested along with a couple dozen others including Daniel Ellsberg and the President of the Pacific Stock Exchange. The invasions and occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria are all War Crimes in violation of our Constitution and International Law. Our overt involvement in the coups in Libya, Honduras, Ukraine, Bolivia, and failed attempt in Venezuela are also War Crimes. Every American should be ashamed. With NO respect for national sovereignty and Human rights, we have a terrorist government run by the Deep State.

I have been arrested about 40 times most recently protesting U.S. drone assassination program. I am also active with the Oscar Grant Committee to defend and support families of police violence and abuse.

In closing, I would prefer people use critical thinking in looking closer at the issues I am highlighting in my website and campaign. Rather than win any election, I would love to see people finally vote based on the issues rather than blindly supporting Democrat or Republican candidates. Both Parties are owned by the Deep State. If a candidate is financed by corporate big money interests, you need to be very concern about whose interests they will promote. It probably won’t be yours!

My Top Priorities

1. Military Industrial Complex control of media and the two main political parties and censorship of alternative information from their profit driven narratives.

2. Our government and media are not treating climate change like the serious crisis it has become

3. The Military Industrial Media Complex has split the country into extreme hatred between Republicans & Democrats despite both having similar basic needs and wants

Candidate Questions

1: What legislation, if any, would you support to reduce American greenhouse gas production? Please explain the reasons for your position. Source: League of Women Voters of California

New Green Deal – creates new jobs in alternative energy fields would promote use and creation of products away from need for fossil fuels,

Medicare for All – besides creating affordable comprehensive healthcare for everyone it would encourage government as the payer to promote more healthy diets (less corporate fossil fuel agriculture) and to promote the elimination of toxic sources of pollution

Tax the billionaires and those with more than $10 million out of existence through aggressive income tax and wealth taxes. These super wealthy people distort our government system by helping elect politicians that cater to their profit-making desires rather than the long term needs of the people and society.

Guaranteed livable income for all American adults that would (besides Medicare for All) end the economic grip of the “for short term profit” multinational corporations in favor of more local small and co-op business workers that would care more for long term health, safety, and sustainability of their society

Use of 100% renewable, reusable and repairable products that would drastically cut down of extraction and waste of the world’s valuable resources.

2: Should immigration laws be changed? What changes would you support? Please explain why. Source: League of Women Voters of California

Change our foreign policy into one that acts in the best interests of both the American people and the people in other lands. Provide foreign aid to other countries that will help the people live better lives instead of more military aid that promotes the worst in these countries. If we help to make other countries better for the people living there then there is less pressure for them to immigrate except in a more natural regulated way.

As to our near neighbor, Mexico, and other countries, I would propose creating a simple low cost 10-month work entry visa for anyone to enter the U.S. which is renewable as long as they leave the U.S. for at least two months between Visa entries. This would help eliminate most of the “coyote” business, the need for the dangerous illegal entry, and discourage the need to bring families. No control of immigrant workers by any specific business or corporation. Might require some proof of employment and special Social Security # via same documents other Americans have with the IRS. Not sure how to deal with pregnant women that might enter U.S. just to give birth to an American citizen. Maybe not a problem!

3: As Congress Member what, if any, policies or legislation would you support to preserve democracy for all US residents? Source: League of Women Voters of California

Keep the internet free and do not allow social media giants to censor and control speech for any political reasons. There has been massive censorship, banning and removal of videos and posts that do not support the government/ corporate media narratives. This is the major tools of authoritative and Fascist governments.

Bring back and expand the fairness doctrine that was eliminated in the early 80s. It has resulted in divisive talk shows, news outlets that have polarized the nation into hate filled Democratic and Republican constituencies.

Eliminate the open primary unless the top 4 candidates along with write-ins can go to the General election. Ballot statements for all candidates should be allowed without cost. These two items have effectively eliminated third parties from the full election system in CA.

If the above items and others to create a well-informed population about issues from many viewpoints is addressed, then every American citizen 16 and older should be allowed to vote with no exceptions. Even the incarcerated should be allowed to vote according to their last known address or voting registration.

No laws should be enacted that would prevent, discourage, or make difficult the ability for any American citizen to vote! There should be allowed local consideration for Green Card holders and eligible family to vote in some local elections such as school boards and park districts.

4: The Federal Government plays a part in California water allocation and use through a variety of projects and laws. What, if any, new programs or projects or reforms to existing programs and projects would you support in an effort to handle water shortages caused by the current and any future drought? Source: League of Women Voters of California

Water resources and distribution systems should never be allowed to be privatized for profit. Corporate agriculture farming that grows water intensive plants should be discouraged such as rice in the central valley desert. There should be a special water usage tax on the profits of large corporate farms for their water usage whether from canals, pipe systems, rivers, lakes or underground well sources. Water costs should be determined by food crops grown, usage in CA, rest of the U.S. and the world market.

The federal government needs to declare the existing climate crisis an emergency and tackle the problem as we did when we mobilized for WWII.

Reservoirs have proved important in the past, but such projects must be highly scrutinized for cause-and-effect problems on the environment, people and species protection. If it can be done energy and environmentally safe perhaps desalination projects might be possibility.

Recycled use of water and keeping water from being polluted are also areas that should be addressed. Single use bottled water and other drinks should have increased CRV costs and be evaluated as to their water sources and effects on various communities.

As with all issues this candidate would never create or support legislation once in office without serious research and education that considers all viewpoints on every aspect of the issue.

GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE FOR 2022 CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 10

Posted in 2022 elections, Michael E. Kerr, U.S. Congress, U.S. House of Representatives | Tagged 2022, 2022 election, CA D10 2022, Congress, Congressional District 10, issues, Michael E. Kerr, Michael Kerr, U.S. House | Leave a comment

My 2022 ivoter Guide Questionnaire

Posted on June 2, 2022 by mekorganic

My 2022 ivoter Guide Questionnaire

MICHAEL ERNEST KERR

Right to Life

Abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, should not receive funds from federal, state, or local governments (including Title X grants).

Strongly Disagree: Planned Parenthood provides many other vital health services. I believe that Roe vs Wade was among the most well thought out Supreme Court Decisions concerning a controversial subject ever. Why did the Democratic Party under President Obama not move to codify that court decision into law? The Hyde Amendment punishes poor women financially as to obtaining abortions! The Republican Party leadership is hypocritical when they denied social help to raise children & demanded control of their body during Covid.

I support ‘aid in dying’ laws which legalize assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Agree: The laws should be written as to protect and safeguard the patient and other’s interests including society concerning these medical procedures! I belief I need further research and analysis of this issue!

Under what circumstances should abortion be allowed?

I believe that Roe vs Wade was among the most well thought out Supreme Court Decisions concerning a controversial subject ever. This court decision is supported by a significant majority of the population and should have been put into law long ago! Certainly, to force a woman to carry a pregnancy to full term is totally obscene in the case of a rape, when her health would be in danger, or the child is seriously deformed and not likely to survive! During the first trimester is when most women first become aware that they are pregnant, and it is quite reasonable that they have the right to decide then about carry the pregnancy to full term. For the court to overturn any part of the Roe vs. Wade decision, just demonstrates how politicalized the court has become. Republican attempts to overturn Roe vs. Wade by passing a multitude of state laws restricting abortion further and further is as corrupt as it gets and is an unconstitutional attempt to make a few people’s religion beliefs part of the law of the land that would force all to follow.

Economy

Redistribution of income is needed to lessen the gap between the wealthy and working classes.

Strongly Agree: Without going into details, I want a guaranteed livable income for all American citizens and tax the rich whatever it takes to make it happen! We need to tax billionaires out of existence by a 99 % max progressive tax rate without loopholes and a 25% yearly wealth tax on the wealthiest. Social Security and SSI benefits should not be lower than the 40hr state minimum wage by taxing all income and capital gains! End the wealthy control over how our tax money is spent!

The government should cut spending in order to reduce the national debt.

Disagree: The government needs to seriously reduce the massive waste in our military budget and use those resources to better the lives of its people at home. We need a much smaller military with far fewer military bases in some 100 countries.

What changes, if any, should be made to the tax code?

Without going into details, I want a guaranteed livable income for all American citizens and tax the rich whatever it takes to make it happen! We need to tax billionaires out of existence by a 99 % max progressive tax rate without loopholes and a 25% yearly wealth tax on the wealthiest. Social Security and SSI benefits should not be lower than the 40hr state minimum wage by taxing all income and capital gains!

Religious Liberty

Religious liberty is at risk in the United States and deserves the highest level of protection in the law.

Disagree: I don’t think religious liberty is at risk, in fact a significant portion of the public think their religious beliefs should take prevalence in society.

Individuals and businesses should be required to provide services even if it would violate their moral and/or religious beliefs.

Agree: I strongly agree as to businesses, their employees and independent contract workers being required to provide advertised services to everyone equally. services. Individuals hiring themselves

What should be the relationship between the church and the state?

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” – The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The five freedoms it protects: speech, religion, press, assembly, and the right to petition the government. Together, these five guaranteed freedoms have made the people of the United States of America among the freest in the world. Over the course of many years and court rulings, when these rights overlap or are in conflict with each other, then society as a whole has accepted that certain restrictions have become necessary. In practice there has been an increasing infringement on the right of free speech and assembly that are not in the benefit of society. At the same time there has been an increase in the rights of religious freedom in conflict with the needs of a fair and equitable society for all. We need to keep an ever-observant watch on clashes between the rights of different individuals and the rights of society as a whole.

Healthcare

Under what circumstances (if any) should a government, school, or employer be allowed to require vaccinations?

There may be a circumstance, but it should never have happened during the current Covid-19 situation. Covid was a serious health risk only to those with multiple comorbidities.

95% or more people either never suffered any symptoms or only mild cold flu symptoms. The CDC director a few months ago stated that 75% of those who have died with Covid virus association had 4 or more comorbidities. How many died with 3; with 2; with 1.

People were mandated to take experimental unproven vaccines in violation of the Nuremberg Medical Code established after the trials of medical personnel at the Nuremberg trials of the Nazi after WWII. There were some unusually rapid approvals of several of the mRNA vaccines.

However, the approved vaccines have never been distributed. The vaccine manufacturers were allowed by CDC to first deplete their large stock of the experimental vaccines. The manufacturers are in no rush to provide the approved vaccine which they are liable for adverse effects, while their experimental vaccines are immune from liability.

Meanwhile the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) released recent reports of 1,217,333 reports of adverse events from all age groups following COVID vaccines, including 26,699 deaths and 217,301 serious injuries between Dec. 14, 2020, and April 1, 2022. This is about a 1000% increase in adverse reaction from all vaccines in each of the previous 10 years. Data experts also claim that less the 10% of adverse reactions to vaccines ever get officially reported. Yet CDC and media keeps claiming these vaccines are safe.

CDC’s own data states that death or serious injury of anyone under 19 is almost nonexistent even with no acknowledgement that those few who have suffered have also had serious comorbidities. Based on CDC data and experts, my firm opinion is that any mandated Covid vaccines for children has been a crime against humanity.

There is no proof that the vaccines really helped people concerning Covid. The number of deaths associated with Covid in the U.S. increased in 2021 (even after large numbers of people became vaccinated) from 2020 (when there was no vaccines). With many unvaccinated people prevented from working, using many public facilities, or attending public events and an increasing number of vaccinated people who were allowed to gather at same time, the vaccinated people were the prime spreader of Covid.

In fact, the vaccine manufacturers and the CDC have finally admitted that the vaccines were never able to prevent Covid or its spread despites claims otherwise. The mean age of those dying from Covid was over 80 about the same as normal life expectancy in the U.S. Again, most people died from Covid were elderly suffering from multiple comorbidities and among the first to be vaccinated.

Are the vaccines safe? I say NO! To date, the vaccine manufacturers have refused to release the complete data on their vaccine ingredients which the government and public have paid them to make while there have been reports of the toxic Graphene Oxide found in the vaccines. About 81% of COVID-19 deaths hit ages 65 and older in 2020 but fell to 69% in 2021. The deaths among people under 45 in 2021 have been more than double the deaths in that age group from 2020. This despite the latter part of the year when the dominate less virent Omicron variant was controlling. A major difference in the significant lowering of the age for deaths must be the vaccine themselves.

The vaccines have been so poor that not only were two required of Pfizer but at least two more boosters were highly recommended in one year despite dwindling time of efficacy for each one. Data seems to show that the more vaccines you get the worse your outcome in dealing with Covid.

Natural immunity from having had Covid has proven to be much better than repeated vaccines.

The vaccine manufacturers and others have made billions while many people have been financially devastated by lock downs, closed businesses, closed schools and losing their employment by refusing to be vaccinated.

The government and corporate media have relentlessly attacked the unvaccinated creating an atmosphere in society that the unvaccinated are subhuman. None of this was necessary or should have happened.

Censorship of anybody including experts with a different narrative on Covid has been overwhelming. Dr. Robert Malone, the inventor of the mRNA and DNA vaccine core platform technology states that scientific censorship is running rampant in medical journals. Data on repurposing existing drugs to treat COVID-19 is being blocked, rejected, and buried. Scientific journals depend on revenue from selling journal reprints to pharmaceutical companies — major financial motivation to print only research that’s favorable to the pharmaceutical industry. Rampant lawlessness, in which rules and regulations about bioethics are being completely disregarded, has taken over.

What most closely matches your view on healthcare: A) Healthcare for all should be guaranteed and funded by the government with no private healthcare option. (includes “universal healthcare,” “medicare for all,” etc.) B) Healthcare insurance funded by the government should be available for all who want it, along with private healthcare options. C) Medicaid and Medicare should remain available, but no other taxpayer-funded programs are necessary. D)Tax-payer funded health care should be abolished in all forms, and Medicaid and Medicare should be de-funded.

Healthcare should be a guaranteed right of all people. Healthcare for all should be guaranteed and funded by the government as in “universal healthcare,” or “medicare for all”. As we have seen with covid and other diseases it only makes sense to cover everybody in the U.S. regardless of their immigration or visitor status.

Medicare for All exists in a variety of forms across the industrial nations of the world. We thus should be able to create the best Medicare for All in the world! It is insane that the U.S. does not have Single Payer Medicare for All like most of the nations in the industrial developed world. Millions of Americans have died and tens of millions have suffered from the lack of affordable quality healthcare.

Although Democrats have had total control of California for years and their platform calls for Medicare for All, the corporate beholden Democratic Party always finds a reason not to pass Medicare for All during the past ten years despite supposedly progressive Democratic Governors. When Arnold Schwarzenegger was Governor, he twice vetoed in 2006 and 2008 the only Democratic legislative Medicare for All bill ever passed in California. Despite increasing Democratic control in California where Republicans effectively have no say, Democrats continue to refuse to pass Medicare for All despite overwhelming support among the public.

Because of how poor our current profit driven insurance driven healthcare has been, we should expect some initial increased costs caring for people that have long been neglected. As everyone first starts getting the complete affordable healthcare that have been denied in the past, overall healthcare costs will go down gradually in future years.

With the government covering all of Medicare for All costs, the government would have a tremendous incentive to make all our lives safer in the products we buy, the food we eat, in promoting lifelong healthcare, in creating safer work and living environments, in a less toxic environment in our air, water and ground and more.

I have heard many great ideas on how Medicare for All would pay for itself. I would like to offer an additional way that I have never heard mentioned. The top 25 products or services that are shown to cause adverse medical conditions in people, should be charged a surcharge to cover those medical costs. For example, if car accidents cause several $billion in health costs each year, then the that cost over the average life of the car should be added to the manufacturing cost of the car. This would help the government in covering healthcare costs from car accidents. This shouldn’t add significant costs to the car manufacturer but would save the taxpayers significant in paying for Medicare for All. There would be additional incentive for car manufacturers to make safer vehicles!

National Security

With regard to America’s foreign policy, which view most closely resembles yours: A) The United States should intervene whenever freedom is threatened. B) The United States should selectively help countries trying to grow democracy and fight tyranny. C) The United States has become too involved in others’ policies and should remain focused on issues regarding our own sovereignty unless in imminent danger. D) The United States should stay out of foreign conflicts completely.

We did not heed President Eisenhower’s parting words about the dangers of an increasing Military industrial complex in the U.S. We now have a Military-Industrial-Prison-Media complex that totally controls our government, both major political parties, corporate media and almost every aspect of our lives!

The U.S. Government has no history since WWII of helping any nation to promote democracy outside of some of WWII devastated European nations and Japan.

The U.S needs to drastically reduce its military budget and close most of the 800 some military bases across the globe.

The U.S. foreign policy and aid should only be for improving the lives of the citizens of foreign nations.

The U.S. needs to stop becoming the world’s largest weapons manufacturer and distributor! That’s our tax money being wasted to kill other people rather than make our lives better at home. We should act to discourage other nations that have joined us to distributing weapons all across the world.

Before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King boldly stated that the U.S. had become the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. I say it has only gotten much worse. If we want a better world, we need to make the U.S. the greatest purveyor of Peace & Justice in the World ASAP. We are all doomed if we don’t do this!

I support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement to pressure Israel to withdraw from occupied territories, remove the separation barrier in the West Bank, allow full equality for Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel, and promote the rights of Palestinian refugees.

Strongly Agree: The U.S. needs to take the lead on ending Israel’s block aid of goods into Gaza, if necessary, by military escort of ships trying to unload in Gaza. No further aid should be given Israel until they tear down all the wall barriers in the West Bank and the U.N. and various humanitarian groups can certify that Palestinians are being treated humanely and fairly. The U.S. & U.N. should help Israel to reintegrate Palestinians into Israel society and stop blocking U.N. actions concerning Israel.

The Chinese Communist Party poses serious military, cyber security, intellectual property, and global economic threats to the United States.

Strongly Disagree: The climate catastrophe rapidly approaching the world requires a WWII like 100% response that must involve all nations especially China & Russia. There is no sanity in creating any kind of conflict with two smaller but still military powerful nations if civilization and the world are to be saved!

What should the United States do to help eradicate the threat of Islamic terrorism?

Investigate the 9/11 attacks as it was clearly an inside job. Severely punish those in our government that have been responsible by ratifying the U.S. acceptance of the international Court and help the prosecution these traitors as many were pardoned by President Obama when he took office as President.

Apologize for all the wars, lives lost and damage we have caused the people of the greater Middle East nations and paid serious reparations to rebuild and compensate all that we have done wrong these past 21 years.

I have since 2005, after the release of the 9/11 Commission Report, offered $100K in reward to anyone who can prove or demonstrate that our government with corporate media assistance was not involved in planning, implementing, and covering up the 9/11 attacks. Absolutely, nothing is true about the government’s narrative on the 9/11 attacks. http://www.911Reward.org

Immigration

The U.S. should do more to physically secure the southern border.

Strongly Disagree: The increased security at the border has only increased the dangers and deaths of thousands of people desperate to leave their family, friends and homes!

Rather than all this massive security, along with its costs to taxpayers and to those trying to come to the U.S., we need to use our foreign aid to help create better democracy and lives for people through peaceful means rather than through military aid and installation of dictatorships. Our militaristic foreign aid is the problem right now!

State and federal funds shall be denied to any public or private entity, such as a sanctuary city, that is not in compliance with immigration laws.

Strongly Disagree: Sanctuary Cities are one of the only humane aspects of U.S. foreign policy!

Who should be allowed to immigrate to the U.S. and under what circumstances?

All of the DACA people certainly should be allowed to remain in the U.S. Until U.S. foreign policy improves, people fleeing oppression and economic disaster should all be considered fairly and justly as to their rights to immigrate. We need to follow international law concerning those asking for refugee status. The U.S. needs a comprehensive immigration policy that has long been delayed. A yearly work visa could be created where after 10 months an immigrant must leave the U.S. for at least 2 months after a 10 month stay. This visa could be renewed indefinitely for people not committing serious felonies. These work entry visas would officially allow immigrants to work in the U.S. at any job and would be independent of employers. All these workers would have to work under the IRS tax system with special SS equivalent numbers.

Values

Sexual orientation and gender identity should be protected classes in non-discrimination laws.

Strongly Agree

I agree with Critical Race Theory (CRT) which asserts that the institutions in the United States are fundamentally racist.

Agree

Briefly describe your spiritual beliefs and values.

I am agnostic and I respect all religions. I, however, find that most people do not really practice the most sacred values of their religions as to peace, loving thy neighbor and doing no harm to others. This is particularly evident in the way people blindly believe corporate media and then vote for government officials that promote war and violence, destroy the environment, and ignore the basic needs of the people for a fair and just life!

The Deep State relentlessly promotes racial, religious, and social issues to divide, control and conquer us. The Republican and Democratic Parties along with the Corporate Media have become the Deep State tools to subvert us. Only when we understand this will we have a chance to unite and slay this demon that would willingly destroy us and the world for power and wealth. With the Corporate Media long censoring opposing viewpoints of the government narrative on important issues, now we are seeing massive flagrant censorship in social media platforms at a level only seen in the most authoritative of governments.

I will be a bullhorn exposing the corruption in Congress and all our government agencies! My purpose in life is to help make the world a better place for everyone and every living creature.

Elections and Voting

People should be able to vote without photo identification.

Agree

What laws would you propose to change present voting practices?

First, we need to reinstate an even stronger and more comprehensive Fairness Doctrine that was eliminated in the early eighties! The public needs to hear and learn a variety of opinions in order to be a responsible voter on the issues and candidates. Only, then can we have an educated population where all adult citizens can be automatically registered to vote. Without the Fairness Doctrine we have become a polarized nation where people feel forced to vote for one or another of the two major political parties which represent the deep hate filled split in our population. There is no longer much voting on the merits of candidates and their viewpoints since the Fairness Doctrine was eliminated! Without an educated population charismatic popular name recognized authoritative demigods are more likely to win elections

No state or federal laws should be allowed that prevent, discourage, or hinder the right of adult citizens to vote. Laws should only be enacted to encourage more voter participation not less. I believe 16-year-olds should be allowed to vote. Youth studying and participating in elections while in high school would help create a more engaged and educated future electorate.

We need to get big money out of our elections. The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizen’s United was a disaster for honest elections. Barring changing the court decision, publicly financed candidates should be given enough funding to neutralize the advantage of big money sponsored candidates then might run against.

Likewise, we need an election system that encourages and promotes third party participation. The two major parties along with corporate media have made third parties almost irrelevant if not extinct in many places! The electoral college should be abolished or neutralized as is being attempted in getting enough states to pledge all their delegates to the popular vote winner in Presidential elections.

Race Relations

Reparations should be given to people on the basis of race.

Strongly Agree: Reparations should be given based on the level of oppression that is ongoing and in the past. Most oppression has been based on race! Reparations are best determined by those of the oppressed group and in consideration of society as a whole. I tend to lean more to a societal reparation where those in need receive special help whether it be in education, housing, health, business opportunity or general living conditions!

Is racism a threat to domestic security in the United States? Why or why not?

Certainly, there are racist elements in the discourse and laws enacted by Republican leadership. The country is currently severely polarized and deeply divided. Racism seems to be a significant if not the only reason splitting our nation in two.

Energy & Environment

I support the use of hydraulic fracking to extract oil and natural gas resources.

Strongly Disagree

Which comes closest to your view? A) Stricter environmental laws and regulations cost too many jobs and hurt the economy. B) Stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost.

Stricter environmental laws and regulations are worth the cost. I believe the rapidly pending climate catastrophe demands we deal with the issue with a global effort that is similar to the efforts that went into fighting WWII by nations!

Qualifications

When you consider your views on a wide range of issues from economic and social matters to foreign policy and religious liberty, which of the following best describes you overall?

Very Liberal

Please provide publicly available information, including interviews and media reports, validating your answer to the previous question (other than your website).

I believe my answers to the iVoterguide besides my website covers any validation required!

Have you ever been convicted of a felony or been penalized in either civil or criminal court for sexual misconduct? If so, please explain.

What else would you like voters to know about you, including your legislative priorities?

I intend to continue to be a bullhorn on progressive issues win or lose this any future elections. I will also research issues that the government and corporate media actively censor and hopefully I will discover what they are hiding! It is usually something very negative as to people and society!

Criminal Justice

Police officers should be personally immune from prosecution for conduct consistent with departmental policy (qualified immunity) while on duty.

Strongly Disagree: I am a member of the Oscar Grant Committee. We fully support the prosecution of police who have committed unnecessary violence against people they have interacted. The police should be highly trained in deescalating situations not turning them into an excuse to use violence often fatally in many cases.

I support redirecting funds from police departments to mental health and community programs.

Strongly Agree: The police have shown themselves to be total incapable of positive interaction with those they interact with who have mental problems or episodes. Highly trained unarmed social workers should be first responders to situations of mental crisis. If it is determined by these social workers that armed police might be necessary at the scene, the police should still be under the direction of the social worker as to helping deescalate the situation.

2nd Amendment

What restrictions on gun ownership are needed to protect public safety?

We have many restrictions concerning the training and use of motor vehicles. There is no excuse for not having safety restriction on the ownership and use of guns.

Expanded gun purchase background checks with no exceptions for private, gun shows or dealers to sell a weapon. A license and certified training should be required. No one with a violent felony should be allowed to own a gun. All guns should have an ID number that is recorded and submitted if sold. Would be purchasers of guns should be required to be certified as mentally competent and otherwise allowed to own a gun. Possession, creation or distribution of Ghost guns should be a felony. Parents are criminally and financially responsible for the possession and use of firearms by their children.

I would favor not allowing open carry of weapons unless approved for a specific place and time! Assault weapons ownership should be illegal except by certified collectors. All firearms should have safety mechanism that prevents young children from firing it accidentally.

Victims of gun violence should be able to sue firearms dealers and manufacturers.

Agree

Background

Education

Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, None, 1967-1972
Heald College, San Francisco, AS, 1977

Work & Military

U.S. Army Signal Corp, E-5, 3

Affiliations

Veterans for Peace, Member
Code Pink, Member
Oscar Grant Committee, Member
Diablo Greens, Member
Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center, Member
Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE) of Bay Point, Member
Our Revolution Contra Costa, Founder, Former Board Member
Ambrose Community Garden, Founder & Former Manager
Bay Point Residence Association, Former Board Member
Injured Workers United, Former Board Member

Offices

None
Sunnyvale City Council, Sought 1985
2020 CA Congressional District 11, Sought 2020

GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE FOR 2022 CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 10

Posted in 2022 elections, elections, Michael E. Kerr, U.S. Congress, U.S. House of Representatives | Tagged 2022, 2022 election, CA D10 2022, election, issues, iVoter Guide, Michael E. Kerr, Michael Kerr | Leave a comment

2022 My Good Party Questionnaire

Posted on June 1, 2022 by mekorganic

Good Party

MICHAEL ERNEST KERR

Campaign Summary

The Democratic and Republican Parties are both under the control of the Military-Industrial-Prison-Media complex that President Eisenhower warned the public about when he left office. The values of the Green Party more closely match my own!

Good Party Pledge

Good Party candidates take a pledge to be Independent, People Powered and Anti-Corruption.

😇HONEST

Good Certified candidates are committed to serving with utmost integrity, and using technology to be open, transparent and responsive representatives of the people.

I pledge to serve with the highest levels of integrity and honesty and to report and disclose to appropriate authorities (constituents, law enforcement, etc.) any attempts to unfairly influence me or members of my campaign staff within 48 hours.

I pledge to serve transparently and to be accountable and responsive to the people – including to the extent possible to:

Openly share my calendar, and to have my meetings on public time be live-streamed, closed-captioned, archived and searchable.
Allocate a reasonable portion of official and campaign resources to the technology (e.g. mobile apps, phone, body cam, Youtube, Facebook Live, etc.) necessary to do so.
Push for transparency and accountability in all government spending and accounting, including the use of technologies for such purposes.

I pledge that, if elected, I will always work to champion or support anti-corruption policies that enable more competition and choices in elections and transparency and accountability in government – including but not limited to examples such as:

Rank-choice voting, non-partisan primaries, ending gerrymandering, proportional representation, closing the revolving door from politics to lobbying and eliminating influence of dark money.

🗽INDEPENDENT

Good Certified candidates are not Republican or Democratic politicians. They are independent-minded people from across the political spectrum, dedicated to advancing the priorities of their constituents.

I pledge to disaffiliate from the Democratic or Republican Parties and declare myself an independent or alternative party candidate for office.

I pledge that, if elected, I will NOT pay membership dues or otherwise engage in fundraising for either of the two major political party committees while in office.

I pledge that, if elected, I will remain independent of partisan politics and be open to working with all sides to the benefit of my constituents.

🙌🏼PEOPLE-POWERED

Good Certified candidates run to serve people, not corporations, unions, political action committees or special interests. They run grass-roots campaigns that depend on being connected to and promoted by the people that they’ll be serving.

I pledge that the majority of my support will come from living people and individual donors, NOT from corporations, unions, political action committees, or other non-living entities.

I pledge to run a grass-roots campaign, centered on ideas, earned media and word-of-mouth promotion, so that I’m dependent on the people, not on big-money and special interests.

I pledge that after I’m elected I will stay connected to my constituency using technology and tools that ensure my decisions on important issues and legislation are informed by their best ideas and interests.

Good Party Issue Questionnaire

Military:

End Foreign Wars! The U.S continues to be the greatest purveyor of violence in the world as MLK said in the late 60’s

Energy & Climate:

Climate Emergency! The U.S. needs to lead the world in attacking the climate catastrophe with the same level of effort as was made during WWII

Electoral Reform:

Public Campaign Financing! Until there is a level field in elections as to financing and public access, we will continue to have corporate monied sponsored candidates win most elections.

Inequality:

Living Wages! We need a guaranteed living income for all U.S. adults regardless of work status that includes those on SSI and Social Security. Tax the rich whatever it takes!

Healthcare:

M4A! We need a Medicare for All similar but all the better than other industrialized nations. If government is the single payer of healthcare, it will be motivated to promote healthy people and environment.

Taxation:

Tax The Rich! It is insane to allow individuals to be so wealthy that they can control and compete with our government. Tax the billionaires and other super rich out of existence, income and wealth wise. Have no mercy!

Abortion:

Pro-choice (with limits)! The Democratic Party has failed us in not making the Supreme Court’s excellent compromise Roe v. Wade decision into law. That should be a priority in the future. The “pro-life” movement keeps electing politicians who act as if the “Sanctity of Life Ends at Birth”.

Deficits:

Abolish Debt Ceiling! Military budget needs to be sharply reduced. We spend more money on “Defense” than the next 10 nations combined. Foreign aid should only be for humanitarian and social needs. Domestic social spending and helping the poor actually increases the tax base as money exchanges hands more frequently!

Guns:

Universal Background Checks! We need universal background checking everywhere; stores, gun shows and individual sales. All guns should have ID numbers like cars. No Assault weapons except for legitimate gun collectors. Child Safety devices with guns. Parents responsible for minor’s access. Need liability Insurance!

Immigration:

Dignity for Asylum Seekers! Respect the humanitarian rights of refugees. Quick citizenship available for Dreamers. Green cards and reasonable path to citizenship for those undocumented. Stop negatively interfering with other nations and their people. Low-cost renewable yearly non-corporate controlled work visas!

Drugs:

End Drug War! Drug usage abuse is an addiction and mental illness. Local community should provide medications to help those addicted to recover and help end profit driven criminal drug empire! Legalize marijuana use & cultivation, but severely limit corporate control & promotion. End drug use incarceration!

Education costs:

Free Public Universities! Education is an important public resource that makes our country and the world a better place. The U.S. should provide free public education from pre-K through college. Forgive existing public student debt and negotiate private student debt payments. Reimburse paid school debts for those in need!

Unions:

Union Yes! Get rid of “Right to be Slave” laws. Promote right to form unions. Encourage a National Union of all workers regardless of corporate or industry status! Allow workers first right to purchase companies being closed or moved with public financing. Promote Cooperatives!

Transportation:

Public Transit Everywhere! Free Public transportation should be a priority. Car less Cities in future. Rapid transition from fossil fuel driven vehicles to hybrids to all electric. Make vehicles easy to repair, reuse or at least recycle. High speed trains part of infrastructure plans!

Housing:

Affordable Housing! Housing should be a right. Providing decent housing to all makes for a better safer community and it is cost effective. End housing speculation. End property tax on primary residence and tax like hell multi-home ownership! Aid public banks & credit unions to prioritize home ownership!

Business:

End Corporate Welfare, Breakup Monopolies, Worker Cooperatives, Small Businesses First

Death Penalty:

Abolish Death Penalty! Allowing the state, the right to kill anyone is obscene. Too many innocents have been on death row! It’s long process, further damages the families of the victims & the incarcerated. It is an emotional, moral and financial drain on society.

Economy:

Universal Basic Income! A universal guaranteed livable income for all U.S. adults would create a more equitable society. It would help to eliminate poverty and a major impetus causing most crime. Tax the rich whatever it takes! Will need a 100% repairable, reusable and recyclable society! Guaranteed public jobs!

Police Reform:

Prosecute Police Abuse! Stop Police Militarization. Need mandatory bodycams. Community Policing would create safer neighborhoods. There is no excuse to train police to shoot to kill just because they believe they feel threaten. Just like anyone in society, if you kill someone you need to be independently investigated and tried the same as anyone else. There shouldn’t be any qualified immunity, in fact these highly trained individuals, trusted with lethal weapons should be held to a higher standard

Education:

Fund Public Schools & Support Teachers! Public schools should be fully funded through our income tax system rather than with separate school bonds and local taxes. The quality of education and teacher salary should be the same in poor communities as well as rich. No tax money should go to private charter schools. Next to reading and math, critical thinking should be taught at every level of schooling. Critical thinking might be the nmost important subject of all, yet it is seldom taught if at all. The education system needs to recognize that students don’t always learn in the same way or rate. I find the grading system to be detrimental to wholesome learning. Test with pass/fail system with no negative reference if someone needs many opportunities to pass. Teaching should help encourage debate and discussion. Nothing in real life is black and white.

Race & Racism

Equality For All! All lives matter, but special consideration needs to be acknowledged for those communities that have suffered oppression and societal forms of racism. I believe any reparations should include programs to help those who most need extra assistance to become full and equal members of society. There needs to be acknowledgement of past wrongs by society and in our education system. Let’s all work for a better society and world for all.

Critical Race Theory (CRT), intellectual and social movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour.

Banking:

Public Banking! Post Office Banking, Cap Credit Card Interest, Ban Payday Loans, Breakup Big Banks, Support Credit Unions, improve Dodd-Frank. I support Post Office Banking and a public Banking system. Cap Credit Card Interest.

The Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (commonly referred to as Dodd–Frank) is a United States federal law that was enacted on July 21, 2010.[1] The law overhauled financial regulation in the aftermath of the Great Recession, and it made changes affecting all federal financial regulatory agencies and almost every part of the nation’s financial services industry.[2][3]

Covid:

Vaccine Mandate! No vaccine Mandates

Social Security:

Expand Social Security: The minimum SSI and Social Security payments should be the minimum wage in each state. Time in the U.S. legally, should be only limiting factor. All income earned and unearned should be taxed. The age to get Social Security should be lowered to 50-55.

GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE FOR 2022 CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 10

Posted in 2022 elections, California, Congress, Michael E. Kerr, U.S. Congress | Tagged 2022 election, CA D10 2022, Good Party, issues, Michael E. Kerr, Michael Kerr | Leave a comment

2022 My Ballotpedia Questionnaire

Posted on May 31, 2022 by mekorganic

2022 My Ballotpedia Questionnaire

MICHAEL ERNEST KERR

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign.

First Key Message* Military Industrial Complex control of media and the two main political parties and censorship of alternative information from their profit driven narratives.

Second Key Message* Our government and media are not treating climate change like the serious crisis it has become

Third Key Message* The Military Industrial Media Complex has split the country into extreme hatred between Republicans & Democrats despite both having similar basic needs and wants

What is your campaign slogan?

Censorship and Truth are not Compatible!

Endorsements

Video

What are your thoughts on term limits?

I think that we need to have a society that has equal access to all viewpoints! In other words, we need a truly informed public first. We also need an election system where money does not determine the views and opinions of candidate. At the moment money has a greater ability to elect candidates rather than one views and policy beliefs, so term limits would act to eventually eliminate progressive minded people.

What do you perceive to be the United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade?

I will be a bullhorn exposing the corruption in Congress, all our government agencies and in the corporate world!

Do you believe that two years is the right term length for representatives?

It would be especially great if the elections were 100% publicly financed, so that representatives didn’t have to always find it necessary to be fund raising! Representatives could then be devoted 100% to doing the people’s business and run for reelection on the issues instead of raising money for self-serving promotions.

I will never accept campaign donations from corporations. I will only accept donations from individuals! If elected, I don’t intend to spend much time fundraising as I will let my actions and bullhorn on the issues speak for me!

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

I believe someone elected must keep in touch with his/her constituents. I believe one must keep their constituents informed about the issues of the day and what is happening in congress. I believe one must be attentive to the problems of constituents and determine if future legislation might be necessary or just guidance dealing with government bureaucracy. I believe one should not be afraid to speak out on controversial issues in fear of losing votes. I believe that one should listen to all sides, work toward compromise, but in the end be as decisive as possible about solutions that will benefit one’s constituents, people in general, our society and the world as a whole!

As there are many lobbyists vying for one’s attention especially from monied special interests, I believe that one should engage with representatives of all sides of an issue. I believe that a Representative should actively seek out those individuals and organizations of possible different views on issues. One should always seek the advice of trusted experts concerning issues and events.

I believe one should use his bullhorn when addressing important and especially controversial issues.

What is your most recent career to date?

Social Justice Advocate

Is there any other professional experience you would like voters to know about?

Restaurant Management -1 ½ years

Computer Technician – National Semi-Conductor -7 years

Self-Employed in Organic Gardening and Home Maintenance – 30 years

Managed Home with 5-9 Roommates – 25 years

Designed, Constructed and Managed Community Garden – 5years

Served on Boards: Our Revolution Contra Costa, Injured Workers United, Nuremberg Actions, Sunnyvale Renters Association, Bay Point Residence Association

What organizations are you affiliated with?

Currently most active with Veterans for Peace, Code Pink, and the Oscar Grant Committee.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I am a problem solver and always try to engage in active research and study before taking a position especially concerning controversial issues. Yet my positions are always open to change based on new information and facts.

I will be a bullhorn in exposing corruption in congress, all our government agencies and in our corporate world! I aways do my best toward creating a better world for people and all living things!

Who are you? Tell us about yourself in 200 words or less

My activist days actually began in earnest when I was the last of the draftees in October 1972. After training, I was assigned to the U.S. Army Signal Corp in South Korea. After a year of research, I started sending letters to Congress and President Gerald Ford complaining of the U.S. support of the Park Chong Hee dictatorship. My letters were usually signed by 5-6 other soldiers. On my 4-page letter to the President, I collected over 100 signatures from my base. in July 1975, I was abruptly and secretly removed from Korea by the U.S. Military command at the demands of the Korean Government.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am a 9/11 truther! Since the release of the 9/11 Commission report in 2005 which I consider a flat-out confession by my government, I have offered an unclaimed reward of $100,000 to the first person who can prove or at least demonstrate to my satisfaction that my government did not plan, manage, execute and cover-up the events around the September 11, 2001, attacks. My website is http://www.911reward.org.

I have been arrested over a dozen times protesting against the U.S. Drone Assassination program at either Beale AFB or Creech AFB for close to 10 years. These drone attacks have killed thousands of civilians, terrorized millions more in countries we are not at war. These drone attacks are in violation of our U.S. Constitution and International Law.

It is insane that the U.S. does not have Single Payer Medicare for All like most of the nations in the industrial developed world. Millions of Americans have died and tens of millions have suffered from the lack of affordable quality healthcare. Although Democrats have had total control of California for years and their platform calls for Medicare for All, the corporate beholden Democratic Party always finds a reason not to pass Medicare for All during the past ten years despite supposedly progressive Governors. When Arnold Schwarzenegger was Governor, he twice vetoed in 2006 and 2008 the Democratic legislature passed Medicare for All bills.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

These are the types of people I look up to as examples on how I should live my life!

All of the people mentioned below, including others I have either momentarily forgotten or have still to learn about, are people I look up to as role models because in their lives they have pursued peace, justice, human rights, the environment and the truth!

We have a government and mainstream media under the control of the military-industrial-prison complex and a few hundred powerful and rich people who comprise the Deep State. They are real and too be feared. They act to smear and frame those who might successfully oppose them. When that fails, they have orchestrated the deaths of outspoken leaders such as JFK, RFK, MLK and Malcolm X. They attack, imprison, exterminate whistleblowers and activists like Paul Robeson, Karen Silkwood, S Brian Willson, Judi Bari, Mumia Abu Jamal, Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Daniel Ellsberg, Ralph Nader, among others. They conspire to keep or remove from political office those who would defy them publicly, such as Dennis Kucinich, Cynthia McKinney and Bernie Sanders.

I highly respect the many censored Journalist, Researchers and Activists for example: Chris Hedges, Abby Martin, Glenn Greenwald, Richard Wolff, Rosa Parks, Jesse Ventura, John Pilger, Ray McGovern, Robert F Kennedy Jr., Media Benjamin, Richard Falk, Noam Chomsky, Jim Hightower, Norman Solomon, Benjamin Linder, Rachel Corrie, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Kim Chi Ha, Harvey Milk, Che Guevara, Medgar Evers, Eugene Victor “Gene” Debs, Steve Biko, Leonard Peltier, Cesar Chavez, Jill Stein, Ajamu Baraka, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Ed Ashner, Martin Sheen, Jane Fonda, Richard Boyle, Óscar Romero and the many who have worked hard to expose the lies about 9/11 .

I also have had many personal activist friends over the years whom I greatly respect for their pursuits of peace, justice, human rights and the environment, whom I won’t mention because the list would be long but always incomplete. They know who they are and I thank them for being a part of my life’s journey!

GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE FOR 2022 CALIFORNIA CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 10

Posted in 2022 elections, California, Congress, Michael E. Kerr | Tagged 2022 election, CA D10 2022, CA Top Two Primary, Congress, Congressional District 10, issues, Michael E. Kerr, Michael Kerr | Leave a comment

Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action Candidates Gun Survey

Posted on May 31, 2022 by mekorganic

MICHAEL ERNEST KERR

2022 Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action Candidates Gun Survey

Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action are committed to creating a movement and culture that is diverse, inclusive, and equitable, and being intentional about the intersectional nature of our work. To that end, candidates who apply for the Gun Sense Candidate distinction should not only be ready to commit to governing with gun safety in mind but must also commit to ensuring that their words and actions promote equity across all communities.

My 2022 Campaign Survey Responses – Michael E. Kerr

I commit to governing with gun safety in mind and promoting equity across all communities. Yes

Addressing Gun Violence in America

Every day, more than 110 people in the United States are killed with guns and 200 more are shot and wounded. The gun homicide rate in the U.S. is 25 times higher than that of other high-income countries. Data and research show that common-sense public safety measures can reduce gun violence and save lives.

1) Do you believe that Congress has a role to play in addressing gun violence in the United States?

Yes

Background Checks

Federal law requires that a person pass a background check before buying a gun from a licensed firearm dealer. Since 1994, more than 4 million illegal gun sales have been blocked, including to convicted felons, domestic abusers, and people prohibited due to mental illness. But the federal background check law does not apply if a person buys a gun from an unlicensed seller. This unlicensed market has flourished online, where each year more than a million ads offer firearms for sale that would not legally require a background check. This loophole means that criminals can easily buy guns from strangers they meet online or at gun shows, with no background check and no questions asked.

2) Do you support expanding the federal background checks requirement, which currently enables prohibited people to buy a gun from an unlicensed seller with no questions asked?

Yes

Charleston Loophole

Federal law requires that licensed gun dealers run background checks on all potential gun buyers. But the Charleston loophole in the law allows sales to proceed after three business days—even if a background check is not yet complete (named after the loophole the Mother Emanuel AME Church shooter exploited to acquire his firearm). Each year, this loophole puts thousands of firearms in the hands of people who are legally prohibited from possessing them. The surge in background checks during the pandemic exacerbated this loophole, and the FBI flagged nearly 6,000 gun sales in 2020 where a purchaser who could not legally possess a firearm was allowed to buy one. The total number is likely even higher, as it is estimated that over 400,000 background checks were never finished and wiped from the system.

3) Do you support addressing the “Charleston loophole” and ensuring background check operators have more time to complete their work before a gun sale may proceed?

Yes

Background Checks Denial Notification

When a person tries to buy a gun illegally, it is a warning sign: prohibited people who fail a background check are at a 28 percent higher risk of arrest in the five years after the denial compared to the five years preceding it. Those purchase attempts are also illegal, and in many states law enforcement regularly investigates and charges law-breakers. However, state and local authorities need that critical information from the federal government to determine when people in their jurisdictions are looking to get armed outside the law.

4) Do you support requiring the Department of Justice to inform state authorities when a person tries to buy a gun illegally and fails the background check?

Yes

Red Flag Laws

When a person is in crisis, loved ones and law enforcement are often the first to see signs that they pose a threat. Red Flag laws, also called extreme risk laws, allow them to seek help from a court to temporarily remove guns from dangerous situations. If a court finds there is evidence that a person poses a significant risk of injuring themselves or others with a firearm, the court can issue an emergency order, temporarily prohibiting the person from purchasing and possessing guns. Nineteen states and DC have enacted these laws, including fourteen since the Parkland shooting in February 2018, and they have been shown to reduce the rate of firearm suicide.

5) Do you support empowering family members and law enforcement to petition a judge for a red flag order (often called an “Extreme Risk Protection Order”)?

Yes

Secure Storage

Secure firearm storage can reduce the risks of suicide, unintentional shootings, and school shootings. It is estimated that 5.4 million American children live in households with at least one firearm that is loaded and unlocked. Between March and December of 2020, there was a 31 percent increase in unintentional shooting deaths by children of themselves and others compared to the same time period in 2019. Youth firearm suicide has increased significantly, and in the vast majority of suicides by children, the gun used belonged to a family member. Similarly, up to 80% of school shooters obtain their gun from their home or the home of relatives or friends. Storing guns locked and unloaded is associated with a 78 percent lower risk of self-inflicted firearm injuries and an 85 percent lower risk of unintentional firearm injuries among children and teens.

6) Do you support policies requiring gun owners to store their firearms securely — locked and inaccessible to unauthorized users, including children and prohibited people?

Yes

Suicide by Gun

Six out of 10 of all gun deaths in the U.S. are suicides. Gun suicides claim the lives of nearly 24,000 people in America every year–that’s an average of 65 deaths a day. But many of these deaths could be prevented if guns were taken out of the equation: while 90% of gun suicide attempts prove fatal, 4% of attempts by other methods result in death. In addition to enacting legislative solutions like the Extreme Risk Protection Order and secure firearm storage requirements, building public awareness about the suicide risked posed by firearm access is crucial to saving lives.

7) Do you commit to educating the public about the unique role firearms play in America’s suicide epidemic?

Yes

Protecting Victims of Domestic Abuse

Women in the U.S. are 21 times more likely to be killed by gun homicide than women in other high-income countries. And when a gun is present in a domestic violence situation, the abused woman is five times more likely to be killed. Federal law prohibits many domestic abusers from possessing firearms, including abusive spouses. But it does not generally cover abusive boyfriends or other intimate partners, even though American women are as likely to be killed by abusive boyfriends or unmarried intimate partners as by abusive spouses.

8) Do you support legislation to close the “boyfriend loophole,” expanding the current federal law to bar gun possession by all intimate partners, regardless of marital status, who are convicted of domestic violence and/or subject to final protection orders?

Yes

PLCAA Repeal

In 2005, at the strong urging of the gun lobby, Congress passed PLCAA, one of the biggest giveaways to private industry in American history, giving bad actors in the gun industry more protection from litigation than makers and sellers of cars or tobacco products. The gun lobby celebrated the passage of PLCAA on the day it was signed, calling it the “most significant piece of pro-gun legislation in twenty years.” Repealing PLCAA would hold bad actors in the gun industry accountable to the same rules as every other consumer product industry.

9) Do you support legislation repealing PLCAA’s special protections for the bad actors in the gun industry?

Yes

Funding for Gun Violence Research

Funding for the Centers for Disease Control and other public health agencies to study gun violence has been severely depressed for several decades, in large part due to gun lobby efforts to suppress public knowledge in this critical area. Congress has clarified that it is appropriate for the federal government to conduct research into the causes and solutions of gun violence. Congress has appropriated $25 million a year for the past two fiscal years to study gun violence, but this amount pales in comparison to the scope of the problem.

10) Do you support robust federal funding—at least $100 million annually—for research on the causes of gun violence, its consequences for public health and common sense solutions to curb gun violence?

Funding Community Violence Intervention

Community-based violence intervention programs apply a localized approach to address gun violence in neighborhoods with particularly high rates of gun violence. Numerous studies demonstrate that evidence-informed intervention and prevention — for example, through street or hospital-based outreach — can reduce gunshot victimizations among people at the highest risk of being shot. Governments have begun providing critical funding for these life-saving programs, however, the high levels of city gun violence since 2020 requires sustained federal funding to support these proven interventions.

11) Do you support robust federal funding for localized violence intervention programs that support people at the highest risk of being shot and killed?

Yes

Gun Trafficking

The U.S. has a gun homicide rate 25 times higher than other high-income nations, and yet we lack strong federal laws to crack down on illegal gun trafficking networks. Prosecutors who want to stop traffickers must instead rely on a weak, outdated law that prohibits “selling guns without a federal license.” And when convicted criminals or gun traffickers use straw purchasers to buy guns on their behalf, prosecutors often have no crime to charge other than a paperwork crime. The laws that apply to gun sellers haven’t been updated in decades. Modernizing these laws—to ensure that high volume sellers using online marketplaces must obtain licenses—and creating strong federal trafficking and straw purchasing laws would enable law enforcement to keep illegal guns off our streets.

12) Do you support modernizing the laws on commercial gun selling and the establishment of new federal crimes for straw purchasing and gun trafficking?

Yes

Police Use of Force and Accountability

Police violence is gun violence – 95% of deaths of civilians caused by police are with a firearm, and Black people are victims at a disproportionate rate. Police shootings have a corrosive impact on our communities as they foster distrust which makes it harder for law enforcement to keep communities safe. Critical reforms should include: a strong legal standard barring the unnecessary use of force and a standard requiring officers to intervene to stop abuse, a commitment to de-escalation, deploying formal tools to identify misconduct, a thorough and independent review system for use of force incidents, and transparency about use of force and other policies and procedures.

13) Do you support police accountability measures that promote de-escalation, promote transparency, and that aim to eliminate unnecessary use of force?

Yes

Concealed Carry Reciprocity

The standards for who may carry a hidden, loaded gun in public have always been a matter of state law. The concealed carry standards vary widely across states: while some states require that a person receive live-fire safety training and have no violent criminal offenses on their record, a growing number of states allow carry by people with no permit—or background check—whatsoever. And yet even as some states are gutting their own permit systems, the gun lobby wants to enact federal “concealed carry reciprocity,” which would force each state to accept the carry standards of all other states, making the weakest link the law of the land.

14) Do you oppose “concealed carry reciprocity,” which would gut state gun laws, requiring each state to allow people from all other states to carry concealed handguns in public, regardless of whether they would otherwise qualify to carry and regardless of whether they have any permit whatsoever?

Yes

Guns In Schools

There is no evidence that arming teachers can help to stop active shooters—and on the contrary, an armed teacher is more likely to shoot a student bystander or be shot by responding law enforcement than to be an effective solution to an active shooter in a school. However, the gun lobby is promoting laws to arm teachers and school staff—and while law enforcement has on average 21 weeks of basic training, gun lobby bills often require no minimum training at all for teachers. This policy is broadly opposed by law enforcement, parents, and teachers.

15) Do you oppose allowing federal funding to be used to bring guns in K-12 schools, outside of law enforcement and trained security staff?

Yes

Have you ever volunteered with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America or Students Demand Action for Gun Sense in America?

Have you been personally affected by gun violence?

I am a member of the Oscar Grant Committee where we actively help families that have lost loved ones to unwarranted police violence.

Would you like to provide any additional background for any of your responses?

Much of my 50 years of activism has been focused on the U.S. military and foreign policy crimes against humanity! As bad as gun violence is in the United States, it is dwarfed by the violence our government has unleased on the people (mostly people of color) of the world through unilateral wars, coups, weapons sales, militarization of dozens of countries around the world. MLK said “America is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and it is even worse now!

Thank you for completing the 2022 Moms Demand Action Gun Sense Candidate questionnaire.

Everytown for Gun Safety

Moms Demand Action

Posted in domestic violence, gun control, police brutality, suicide | Tagged domestic violence, Everytown for Gun Safety, gun control, issues, Moms Demand Action, police brutality, suicide | Leave a comment

Marijuana

Posted on May 30, 2022 by mekorganic

Sources & Organizations

American Marijuana

Cannabist (The)

Marijuana Moment

Medical Marijuana Inc

NORML

Open Secrets

Specific Information

California News – C

Marijuana – OS

News – MMI

News Releases – NORML

Politics – MM

Science and Health – MM

EPA -Environmental Protection Agency

Posted in Marijuana, Medical | Tagged hemp, illegal, issues, legal, legal status, Marijuana, Medical | Leave a comment

Toxic Chemicals

Posted on May 30, 2022 by mekorganic

Sources & Organizations

Open Secrets

Toxin Free USA

Specific Information

FOOD TESTING – TFU

GMO SCIENCE – STUDIES & RESEARCH -TFU

The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act – EPA

Toxic Chemicals – OS

Hundreds of articles dismissing ‘conspiracy theories’ read like they follow a single script

Posted in chemical, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), toxic chemicals | Tagged EPA, Frank Lautenberg, issues, Open Secrets, toxic chemicals | Leave a comment

Conspiracy Theory

Posted on May 29, 2022 by mekorganic

Sources & Organizations

Specific Information

Click to access COUNTERING%20CRITICISM%20OF%20THE%20WARREN%20REPORT.pdf

Posted in Censorship, conspiracy theory, corporate accountability, global corporation, Government | Tagged Conspiracies, conspiracy theory, Government Conspiracy Theory, issues | Leave a comment

Hundreds of articles dismissing ‘conspiracy theories’ read like they follow a single script

Posted on May 29, 2022 by mekorganic

Hundreds of articles dismissing ‘conspiracy theories’ read like they follow a single script

Craig McKee May 26, 2022 PRINT

“Now it’s conspiracy — they’ve made that something that should not even be entertained for a minute, that powerful people might get together and have a plan. Doesn’t happen. You’re a kook! You’re a conspiracy buff!” — George Carlin

“I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, except the ones that are true or involve dentists.” — Michael Moore

It’s not so much shooting the messenger as it is making everyone think the messenger is crazy and his or her message is automatically false. And crazy. And dangerous.

That’s the apparent goal of hundreds of mainstream articles, produced year after year, that denounce “conspiracy theories” and go to extreme lengths to discredit anyone who dares challenge the official narrative of any event. Points of view that venture outside of permissible boundaries are dismissed as the products of unbalanced minds.

Challenges are written off as being “bizarre,” “outlandish,” “pernicious,” or any one of a host of other exaggerated descriptors that reveal extreme bias. We’re told that the theories in question are false and that they were debunked years ago, as if making the claim is enough — no evidence required. What is offered as evidence usually comes in the form of quotes from some academic or other who is said to be an “expert” in the “psychology of conspiracy theories.”

The bylines on these propaganda pieces may change but the message doesn’t, as variations on the same article are endlessly regurgitated in a large number of publications. The “journalists” who create them appear to be working from a common template. And by this I don’t just mean they share a point of view; I mean they use the same dishonest points and tone.

The articles are too numerous, too similar, and too cartoonishly one-sided not to be intentional propaganda.

The stakes appear to be getting higher with each passing year. Where “conspiracy theorists” were once simply dismissed with condescending mockery, they are now being called “dangerous.” The alleged threats posed by their thoughts and words must now be combatted and stamped out to protect our “security.”

In the first part of this two-part analysis, I’ll enumerate the tactics that are so routinely used in this kind of media propaganda. In part two, to be published later, I’ll look closely at several examples of these tactics, including media coverage of the 20th anniversary of 9/11 that targeted Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth. We will see how the rhetoric has remained remarkably consistent while becoming more hostile over time.

Censorship for security?

The establishment tells us that this supposed crisis of misinformation and disinformation must be dealt with by restricting what people say — and even ostracizing and shunning those who dare question official orthodoxy. The result in recent years has been a horrifying frenzy of censorship on the internet and anywhere that public discourse takes place.

After 9/11 it was the scourge of international terrorism that we were told we must fear. Now, in addition to pandemics and Russia (everything old is new again…), it is words that are dangerous and free speech that is a threat to us all.

“Suggesting that these cookie-cutter hit pieces are part of a coordinated propaganda campaign risks reinforcing the very message of that campaign. Make such a suggestion and you will be dismissed, ridiculed, and labeled a conspiracy theorist.”

Of course, suggesting that these cookie-cutter hit pieces are part of a coordinated propaganda campaign risks reinforcing the very message of that campaign. Make such a suggestion and you will be dismissed, ridiculed, and labeled a conspiracy theorist.

But there is a firm basis for suggesting that this is the product an intelligence operation, given that the CIA launched just such a campaign in 1967 when it distributed dispatch #1035-960 to its “assets” in the media (by this I mean journalists who were also on the payroll of the CIA). It urged these fake journalists to use certain tactics to discredit critics of the Warren Commission, which had concluded that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by a lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald.

Critiques of the official position were dismissed as “conspiracy theories,” and Warren Commission critics were accused of being biased, out for personal gain, and possibly disloyal to the country.

CIA Dispatch #1035-960

The CIA dispatch only became public in 1976 following a Freedom of Information Act request by the New York Times. On the dispatch were marked “PSYCH” (for psychological warfare) and “destroy when no longer needed.” The subject line read: “Concerning Criticism of the Warren Report.”

In his book Conspiracy Theory in America, Lance DeHaven-Smith posits that the JFK assassination is the “Rosetta Stone” for understanding the origins of the conspiracy theory meme. He writes:

“The conspiracy theory label took form and gained meaning over a period of several years (or longer) in the context of efforts by the CIA, one of the world’s leading experts in psychological warfare, to deflect accusations that officials at the highest levels of the American government were complicit in Kennedy’s murder. … The CIA’s campaign to popularize the term “conspiracy theory” and make conspiracy belief a target of ridicule and hostility must be credited, unfortunately, with being one of the most successful propaganda initiatives of all time.”

DeHaven-Smith notes that those who mock conspiracy theories out of hand “lump together a hodgepodge of speculations about government intrigue, declare them all ‘conspiracy theories,’ and then, on the basis of the most improbable claims among them, argue that any and all unsubstantiated suspicions of elite political crimes are far-fetched fantasies destructive of public trust.”

Many of the tactics outlined in the CIA dispatch show up in articles today blaming “crazy” conspiracy theories for threatening the very fabric of democracy. Of course, it is important to point out that just because a journalist writes one of these propaganda pieces does not mean he or she is knowingly part of an intelligence operation. The writer could be trying to conform to what an editor is demanding. Having said that, the pieces in question are propaganda either way.

“Many of the tactics outlined in the CIA dispatch show up in articles today about how ‘crazy’ conspiracy theories are threatening the very fabric of democracy.”

In his 2008 essay “See No Evil,” David Cogswell writes, “Conspiracy theories are not about conspiracies, they are about forbidden thought. The label “conspiracy theory” is a stop sign on the avenues of rational thought and inquiry. It says, ‘Stop here. Entrance forbidden.’”

Evidence is made to seem irrelevant. We have tons of evidence that the 9/11 official story is a monumental lie (made up of thousands of smaller lies), but that has not stopped the propagandists from writing off 9/11 Truth as just one more “bizarre” theory. The focus in these articles is not so much on whether a conspiracy happened but on why someone would think that.

Essentially, it’s about crushing dissent. And it works.

“Credible” conspiracies — like Watergate and Iran-Contra — are acknowledged because they have been reported on by the corporate media. Anything that hasn’t received this seal of approval, it is argued, must not have happened.

This is exactly what Canadian journalist Jonathan Kay asserted in an interview I did with him in 2011 for my blog, Truth and Shadows. Kay, the author of Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America’s Growing Conspiracist Underground, explained that if 9/11 were really an “inside job” there would have been hundreds of ambitious reporters tripping over each other to get the story first.

In the book, Kay profiles “conspiracists” who were once at the top of their fields, like David Ray Griffin (professor of the philosophy of religion and theology) and Barrie Zwicker (journalist). Kay argues that high-achieving people like Griffin and Zwicker need something after retirement to keep their brains busy.

Here’s how he put it:

“. . . I think these people are motivated by a desire to solve puzzles. The puzzle-solvers, as I describe it in the book, are hyper-intelligent people who often come to their conspiracy theories late in life when they’re retired from a very intellectually demanding job and they no longer have this very taxing intellectual job to occupy their mind, and then they use all this intellectual firepower for chasing ghosts on the Internet and stuff. . . And a lot of these guys become prisoners of these obsessions. In some cases they become Shakespeare conspiracy theorists or 9/11 or they become birthers.”

I guess it’s the curse of being too smart to be satisfied with lawn bowling, looking at pictures of the grand kids, and sitting on a swing on the front porch sipping lemonade. (“I’m simply too smart not to be discovering all sorts of nefarious stuff that might be going on!”)

Of course, there are dozens and dozens and dozens of examples of proven conspiracies and deceptions — some leading directly to wars — that have been entirely or at least largely ignored by the media. Even when one or another of these is mentioned, it is often dishonestly or without the context needed to understand its importance. Worse still, the occasional appearance of a conspiracy in mainstream journalism is treated as evidence that there has been no effort made to suppress it. (“If you’ve heard of Operation Northwoods, that’s proof the system works!”)

Thought control tactics

These articles often begin with some supposed horror story about how a “conspiracy theory” has led to terrible consequences of some kind. (“My father was such a nice man until he started unraveling over loony beliefs that powerful people get together and do things for their own benefit without telling everyone! It’s like he joined a cult!”)

These consequences can be bad for democracy, it is claimed. Or they can be downright dangerous, such as when people try to claim that they should decide what does and doesn’t go into their own bodies. (“Once you start letting everyone make THOSE decisions, it’s bedlam!”)

What is really revealing is how much these propaganda pieces have in common over the past two decades as well as how they have evolved into something more ominous.

The articles take as a given that “conspiracy theories” are so self-evidently wrong that it’s unnecessary to even say why. “Crazy” theories about 9/11 — such as the Twin Towers being demolished with explosives — are labeled “false” or “debunked years ago,” as if saying this is enough to settle the question. (“Oh, you want EVIDENCE? Sounds like you’re one of those conspiracy kooks, too! Also, we gave you the evidence years ago. If you missed it, that’s your problem.”)

Authors will inevitably go into a pseudo-psychological accounting of why conspiracy theorists think the crazy things they do. And why they continue to do so even after having been shown, supposedly, the error of their ways.

Areas of conspiracy research for which a large body of evidence does exist are lumped in with ones the reader will find easy to laugh at. (“These people believe the craziest things: Elvis is still alive, Obama is from Mars, 9/11 was an inside job…”)

Of all the tactics used, the most important, I would argue, is the notion that there is something aberrant in the psychological makeup of someone who suspects that those who wield significant power might actually be up to something. A crazy notion to be sure.

att Dorfman NYTimes Review of Books From “Why Rational People Buy Into Conspiracy Theories,” The New York Times Magazine, May 21, 2013.

Apparently, those who challenge any official narrative do so because they have psychological hang-ups that leave them searching for answers outside the realm of reality. They are terrified by the notion that bad things randomly happen and must imagine some elaborate plot to account for these disturbing events.

In reality, the notion that government officials might participate in a plot to kill their own citizens, and get away with it, is far more terrifying than the notion than bad things randomly happen. Truth be told, the group that should be studied is the one that dismisses such ideas without even looking at the merits of the case.

Below, I list what I see as the most common recurring tactics of psychological manipulation that these articles inevitably contain. (Not every article contains all of the points listed below, but they almost always contain several of them.) There are some tactics that are so obvious I feel they go without saying. These include the extreme bias of the articles in question, the labeling of anyone challenging any official narrative as a “conspiracy theorist” (which makes no sense when applied to 9/11 since we already know that was a conspiracy by someone), and a snarky, condescending tone. Beyond those givens, here is my list of the characteristics that come up over and over and over.

Assert that something in a person’s psychology makes them believe in conspiracy theories: This is the claim that people embrace conspiracy theories to help themselves make sense of a chaotic world by imagining that strings are being pulled to influence events.
Claim that conspiracy theorists are paranoid, irrational, and anti-science: They can never be convinced they are wrong, we’re told, and they accuse their critics of being part of the cover-up.
Maintain that conspiracy theorists don’t have evidence for their theories and they don’t care about what the facts say. They just “believe” they are right even after their claims have been “disproven”: This includes the claim that conspiracy theorists often believe contradictory things.
Make bald assertions about “conspiracy theories” that are completely unsupported or just attributed to some academic who studies the “psychology” of conspiracy theories: Two excerpts from an article on the Student Voice website illustrate this. “Brendan Nyhan, a professor at Dartmouth, explains that liberals have become more vulnerable to fake news and conspiracy theories that favor their own worldview. It’s a known pattern; losing political control is directly correlated with an increased vulnerability to misinformation.” And: “The trouble with refuting that conspiracy, like all theories, is a refusal to accept opposing arguments, leading to even more denial, frustration, and exasperated defeat. Using qualitative evidence, in fact, can lead to even firmer views.”
Use the term “conspiracist”: Conspiracist is a label that is intended to seem academic and authoritative but is really just dismissive. I found it used as far back as 2006, but I’m sure it was around well before that. In his 2011 book, Jonathan Kay made liberal use of the term.
Attack “theories” using extreme and cartoonish descriptors (bizarre, pernicious, hooey, bogeyman): Remember, it’s all about cutting off inquiry before it even starts. Words are chosen not for their accuracy or appropriateness but to discredit and to prevent evidence from being considered. It’s not enough to claim that a given theory is “wrong,” it must also be “bizarre.” We hear about “nefarious” and “sinister” plots, and “shadowy” conspirators.
Impugn the motives of conspiracy theorists: It’s often taken as a given that “conspiracy theorists” are pushing theories that they know are false. No evidence is ever produced to support this charge of lying. They are also accused of being in it only for the money. Conspiracy theories are not advocated for, they are “peddled.”
Paint conspiracy theorists as fringe and/or “far right” and/or Trump supporters: This is self-explanatory marginalizing that is nothing more than a guilt-by-association tactic.
Question why these “beliefs” persist after so many years: The assumption inherent in this question is that those who falsely believe in conspiracies should eventually come to their senses and see the error of their ways. The fact that theories (like “9/11 was an inside job”) continue to be advanced more than two decades after the event is offered as proof that those who hold the theories are influenced by something other than evidence and facts. The reality is that the evidence demonstrating that the 9/11 official story is false has only become more conclusive with the passage of time.
State as if it’s a fact that certain theories are false and were debunked years ago: This is what is known as a bald assertion. No evidence need be provided to substantiate this claim. The idea is to con the reader into thinking the proof of its validity has been provided many times.
Lump strong, or at least plausible, theories with weak or easily discredited ones (or at least with theories that are perceived as having been discredited): This is a form of guilt by association. The sudden and very suspicious resurgence of the flat Earth theory around 2016 offers a convenient way of dismissing evidence of crimes by the elite.
“Debunk” the weakest or least credible points in “conspiracy theories”: This could include something like the claim that beams fired from space destroyed the Twin Towers is used to discredit any challenge to the official position that the buildings were brought down by plane impacts and fires alone.
Make a theory sound false by giving a bogus, unfounded, or incomplete reason the conspirators would have engaged in the conspiracy.
Dismiss any notion of government conspiracy on the grounds that government is much too incompetent to have been responsible for planning and executing a complicated event like 9/11: When governments are a little too enthusiastic about admitting they screwed up, it probably means they want to hide what they really did. The Iraq War and 9/11 are obvious examples.
Begin articles by relating some supposed horror story where belief in one or more “conspiracy theories” by a person or group allegedly caused real harm.
State that conspiracy theories are “dangerous” to democracy and to human health: Conspiracy theories must not just be dismissed, they must be combatted. If they are not, it is argued, catastrophic harm will be caused.
Equate conspiracy theories with contagions: We regularly hear about the “spread” of conspiracy theories, a term that is bound to resonate with those who most fear the spread of actual viruses. One writer even likened these theories to sexually transmitted diseases.
Link an explosion of conspiracy theories to the internet: This connection points to the supposed dangers of a free internet. It feeds into the idea that “misinformation” must be eliminated from the internet using censorship. This item also reinforces the myth that conspiracy theories are getting much “worse.”

These tactics are so “unjournalistic,” so unprofessional, that it is hard to understand how they can pass for legitimate journalism in publications like the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal and so many others. It appears that the public has become so conditioned by this deluge of endlessly repetitive propaganda that we don’t even recognize it as such.

In part two, we’ll look at numerous examples of these tactics in action. We examine how consistent the articles in question have been and how they have become more hostile and aggressive over the years. Finally, we’ll show how these propaganda tactics were employed against Architects & Engineers prior to the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in 2021, leading to the removal of a 30-minute segment about the organization from Spike Lee’s HBO series NYC Epicenters.