I filled out the candidate questionnaire for the voter guide distributed by the League of Women Voters of Texas. Since the guide will be online as well, the League invited candidates for US Senate to drop a video, two minutes or less, on "the recent civil rights demonstrations." I was only too happy to put on my green button-down shirt and a tie to make the recording.

Texas PBS and Houston Public Media have also invited me to submit a two-minute recording for their "Elevator Pitch" series; that's next on the agenda.

This is taking me back to 2012, when I got to record my campaign pitch at KPRC-2 studios. I hadn't been inside that building since the 1960s, when I was a pre-schooler. My mother had some friends who worked there at the time; she had a temporary clerical job with KUHT-8. But that's a whole 'nother story.

Laura Palmer, GPTX co-chair, is an absolute badass, y'all. Charles Waterbury has his share of badassery too, and his star on the Green Party of Texas Walk of Fame just doubled in size.

From the State Supreme Court today, re the matter referred to in the previous dbcgreentx blog entry:

The decision means that 254 county clerks or equivalents thereof have some extra work. Can't wait to read that forthcoming opinion, even though my legalese is still pretty rusty.

This news makes me all tingly inside. At the same time, I feel a bit like the dog who's been chasing cars for years and finally caught one. OK, now what do I do with it?

From Alejandro Serrano in the Houston Chronicle (paywall) Saturday, with an update Sunday:

This particular article repeats the old canard that Libertarians steal votes from Republican candidates and Greens from Democratic candidates—or are "generally seen" as doing so. It is "generally seen" in the journalistic community that one cannot write an article involving either party without a paragraph about siphoning votes from the big parties. The article does not mention, as a previous piece in the Chronicle did, that the GOP did not try to knock Libertarians who face no Republican opposition off the ballot.

As GPTX Co-Chair Laura Palmer said in her plea to the SOS Office, enforce the statute equally or not at all; since we consider the filing fee provision unconstitutional, we would prefer not at all.

What the Court Said
Here is the Supreme Court's 12-page decision in its entirety. As the heading reveals, it wasn't even the Texas GOP as a whole that request the writ of mandamus; it was the Texas House Republican Caucus PAC. Below is the key paragraph from that decision (emphasis mine):

The decision was 7-0, with two justices not participating. As evidenced by the several appearances of "we agree with the relators that" and similar phrases, the Court's only rationale for denying the writ of mandamus was that it was filed too late to provide a remedy. 

Advice on Campaign Strategy
This blogger, who last year applied to run for US Senate without the accompanying $5,000 filing fee or 5,000 petition signatures, does not recommend the same practice for any Green, Libertarian, or People's Party member intending to run for public office in 2022. As of now, prospective candidates should be aware that, should they choose to run without the fee, the Secretary of State's Office will not deny their applications unless and until a declaration of ineligibility is submitted.

(BTW, what will the shorthand demonym for a People's Party member be? They can't really use "Populist" because that word has developed some negative connotations. "Peoplist" perhaps?)

The circumstances in the previous paragraph may change following the 2021 legislative session. I'm fully expecting a sequel to HB 2504 and additional ballot-access entertainment from the Lege.

Be advised also that the above circumstances pertain only to statewide offices and offices with districts in more than one county. If the office one seeks has a jurisdiction entirely within one county, then the County Clerk or equivalent authority determines whether an application is valid sans fee or petition signatures.

The formatting tools in Weebly are now working as they should, so I'm fixing the formatting for this entry. Hyperlinks, however, still don't work right.

Dikeman, Texas Libertarian nominee for US Senate in 2018, has published (and subsequently updated) an account on Texas Free Press concerning the recent successful effort by Democratic candidates to shove my Green comrades and me off the ballot. You can copy and paste the URL below to read the full article.

​https://www.texasfreepress.com/post/texas-democrats-weaponize-republican-law-against-greens-catch-republicans-flatfooted

​Dikeman is also a lead plaintiff in the federal lawsuit against the Texas Secretary of State's Office, challenging the filing fee provision of HB 2504 as unconstitutional. He provides a good, detailed explanation for why the whole business, including the filing fees, makes no logical sense except as a way to thwart so-called third parties.

Side-Comment
Party suppression is voter suppression. If you deprive people a chance to vote for the party and candidates who best represent their values, you essentially deprive them of a vote.

But you might say, "Hey, Dave, what about actual Nazis—not just Republicans with Nazistic tendencies, but loud, proud Hitlerites? Would you want to have them on the ballot?" Of course I wouldn't, but (1) fortunately their numbers are too small to compete in legitimate elections, and (2) although one can fantasize about outlawing organizations that advocate violence toward certain demographic groups, per the First Amendment the law can act only when that advocacy turns to action. In this Land of the Allegedly Free, Nazis don't need swastika flags to take power when they have major-party politicians willing to enact at least a portion of their agenda.

Despite their reputation, especially in left-wing circles, as Second Amendment absolutists, true Libertarians are not Nazis. The fact that several Texas Libertarians have gone to bat for the Greens this year illustrates that they believe we should have a place at the table. The policy positions that Greens and Libertarians have in common, particularly that of ending imperialist wars, exemplify coalition politics in the multi-party system we hope to create.

Now you can too! I'll see about getting some individual speeches up later.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Brana takes an opportunity to remind attendees to download the app and vote on whether to formally form the party before introducing Green-turned-Democratic candidate Marianne Williamson. "There has been more truth-telling, in my opinion" than at both major-party conventions combined. The People's Party Convention is bringing up issues that the corporate parties are content to ignore, "like growing up in an alcoholic family." She's riffing on MLK's "living up to its creed" observations about the Declaration of Independence: revolutionary stuff, but written and embodied by slave-owning hypocrites. We have forces in this nation that have been tamping down those revolutionary principles; society has moved forward only when people have been brave enough to push back against those forces. Now channeling Bill Hicks: ...and we kill those people like MLK and RFK who take stands against injustice. The challenge for fighting current injustice: "It's not one institution; it's an entire economic mindset" imposed by the trickle-down economics that took root in the 1980s. "It did not lift all boats; in face, it created...people left without even a life vest." Love her use of the term "corporate aristocracy"—same thing the US fought to free itself from in the 18th century. She's comparing this movement to the moments that created the abolitionist, the suffragist, and the Civil RIghts movements. This is our moment.​ "We need an entirely new America." Despite her embrace of radical solutions, she's voting for Biden because she's convinced that Trump with a second term will be even worse: He's been holding back in his first term. (My diagnosis is that it will take an even more horrendous Trump presidency to wake people up and get them in the streets to dismantle this system. It ain't gonna be pretty.)

Four and a quarter hours elapsed, including the halftime break. This was originally scheduled to run two hours. I wonder how many other people have stuck with it all the way through.

This is the moment I've been waiting for: ​Dr. Cornel West. He says he's been following this show the entire time. "Lift every voice" from the depths of your soul; the echo chambers of the big-party conventions are not that voice. He's connecting the death of W.E.B. duBois with MLK's speech at the Lincoln Memorial just a few days later. MPP, whether it knows it or not, is a "fight-back" that arises from duBois's four essential questions (look 'em up) and telling the truth about America, the good and the bad. We are living at the intersection of multiple catastrophes or potential catastrophes, including the continued existence of world-ending nuclear weapons. He's name-checking tons of mostly black activists, musicians, writers, thinkers who put their fingers on the systemic problems of this nations that politicians have not had the courage to take up and find solutions. He's talking fast and in multiple directions within a single sentence, so I'm not transcribing anything verbatim or even trying to. I worry that people who don't recognize those name-checks won't get nearly as much out of this ultra-profound speech as they should. (Hell, he just mentioned "Brother Bob Avakian.") Now, at the end of his allotted time, he's getting around to explaining his position on the 2020 presidential race, similar to Williamson's (and Chomsky's and Angela Davis's), although he'd love to be able to vote for Hawkins/Walker.

Former Ohio state Senator Nina Turner represents a one-two punch with Dr. West: both unapologetically Christian and applying the morality of their faith to politics, both adept at the cadences that emanate from the pulpits of Black Churches. She's also invoking the names of artists and activists—Marvin Gaye, Langston Hughes—even reciting one of Hughes's poems about young people who will lay their lives on the line for truth, justice, and true peace). There are subtle differences of style though, as much in their movements and gestures as in their tempos and tonal variations. (She doesn't have West's patented we-sharin'-a-secret stage whisper.) Peace is the presence of justice, not just the absence of war: "How can we have peace" when we have all these blatant injustices from huge economic inequality to cops murdering with impunity? She was progressive to radical before she linked up with Bernie Sanders in 2016, but she has used that experience as a springboard to solidify her progressive-radical vision and distill it into words. "We got some dragons to slay, baby!"—the twin dragons of neo-fascism and neo-liberalism, as she has said in her recent interview with Anderson Cooper and other times. "We won't stand for a 'lousy peace' [Hughes's phrase] because we know that neo-liberalism is what got us here." Her vision now includes getting the #DemEnter and #DemExit progressive factions to unite, which will create a popular force that is unstoppable. She's not going to tell anybody how or for whom to vote (yay) but respect West's and Williamson's conclusions even if she disagrees with them. This respect is what makes this convention a beautiful thing: MPP also isn't going to tell its members how or for whom to vote, as long as they are ready to make the People's Party happen beginning in 2021. Turner is now closing with a quote from Barbara Jordan that she invokes frequently. "What the American people want is simple: They want an America that's as good as its promise."

Amen.

Brana says now that 99% of those who voted on whether to form a new major party have said yes. We have just witnessed five hours of history. Now I challenge the Green Party leadership to see whether they will hitch the Green wagon to this star or stay in the political margins.

I gotta get some dinner now. Thank you, Nick Brana and the other 32 speakers.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 8

This is my first time seeing @ProudSocialist Ryan Knight anywhere other than on Twitter. Ryan is another wordslinger who had a epiphany in the last few years that neither corporate party is worth a damn, let alone worth his vote, and he sounds like a converted true believer complete with clear visions and dramatic inflections. He has thus far not been willing to say Vote Green instead, but he's all in for MPP. By this point in the convention it's hard to say anything that the other speakers haven't already said. "We won't change this nation just by changing our corrupt president...we have to change our whole corrupt system...we are all losing under the duopoly." If there's only one reason to point out, it's the upward redistribution of the nation's wealth that's been going on for 40 years. He's been going on for about ten minutes, but it seems like 40 years. (JK, LOL.)

Video time: Imagining what we could have if a true people's party took power—mostly summaries of the planks of the MPP platform (which is a lot like the Green Party's platform). Could be better, especially with the lack of grammatical parallelism in the several dozen policy points the voice-over narrator is ticking off.

Nick Brana is now detailing the hows and whys of forming this new party, starting with how COVID-19 has revealed just how the US government has failed us (like members of Congress investing in Zoom rather than passing legislation that actually helps people). The blood of 180,000-plus is on their hands. Brana has been a gracious host so far, but now he's bringing the passion. He's a good analyst, a dyed-in-the-wool wonk, but he's at his best when he combines his analysis with that passion. The US is, by the very definition, a failed state: can't provide even the basis of survival for its people. Congress has not officially responded to Black Lives Matter with legislation and has no plans to, because #BLM isn't a corporate contributor. The political revolution of the Movimiento Moreno in México can serve as an example for the People's Party revolution here (and similar movements in Spain, Chile, and Greece). The movements have grown by using social media, a tool that the Green Party has used but not as effectively as it might. With this convention #2 Trending on Twitter in the US, that's testament to MPP's social media acumen.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 7 | Part 8

The convention is taking a 10-minute break now, before some of the big-name speakers get their turns: Cornel, Nina, Jimmy, Marianne, Medea, Ryan (Knight), Chase (Iron Eyes), and Nick Brana himself. We're more than two and a half hours in, and Brana says this is halftime.

Chase Iron Eyes, Standing Rock activist, Bernie surrogate, found of Last Real Indians. It's not easy to type summaries of his speech on the fly. He's not about the applause lines, he's about the story. He's painting a very big and complicated picture about internal imperialism, which includes spiritual imperialism that European invaders have imposed upon indigenous peoples.

Everybody stand up and jag-off for Jimmy Dore! "Americans are going to decide whether to vote for a right-wing, racist pathological liar...or Donald Trump." "The current failed system has a noose around all of our necks...and it's up to us to save ourselves." There's been a lot of emotion in the speeches so far, but Jimmy is bringing the anger big-time. "Their (Democrats') candidate is the candidate of deregulation...mass incarceration...war...they are not the solution." "We are demanding policies that the majority of Americans want—how radical!" He's also bringing a lot of high-falutin' literary, philosophical rhetoric of that boils down to The people united will never be defeated. I am truly impressed."

Ah, our beloved Medea Benjamin, long ago a Green candidate for US Senate from California, who unfortunately is one of the lefty intellectuals pleading for us to vote for Biden to defeat Trump, though under no illusions that Biden is a good choice. "We need a party that's not in the clutches of the Military-Industrial Complex...." She's mostly sticking to her area of expertise, the morally bankrupt international policy of the US under both corporate parties. Cutting the Pentagon budget in half, she says, will actually make us safer (less likely to be targeted by the terrorists we've generated by bombing the shit out of their countries). We can learn something from Cuba, which sends not troops but doctors in response to natural disasters and epidemics.

Jerry Perez is a field director with Our Revolution Los Angeles, a group which made the quantum jump from disaffected Berniecrats supporting strictly progressive Democratic candidates to promoting MPP. He's illustrating the divisions within his community that result from the scarcity imposed by neoliberalism and lack of democratic empowerment. He came back from time in Iraq with the Marines to discover that the nation he fought for wasn't worth the PTSD that followed him, especially the way it treats veterans (like himself). He's showing the same anger that Jimmy Dore brought, but with less wit and more esprit de Corps, telling this fucked-up system ¡Ya basta! "We're going to do everything within our ability to insure that you have your future."

Eynelys Vinson is a candidate for Palmdale (CA) City Council—Palmdale being a rapidly growing city in the high desert near where Frank Zappa grew up. She's also a youngish Cuban immigrant who wants this country to live up to its small-d democratic promise for which she and her mother fled Castro's Cuba. She knows oppression and corruption when she sees it, and by gum she sees it here. She then breaks into Spanish, which she speaks beautifully and slowly enough for us gringos to understand.

Tim Black is another independent media personality who got his start doing stand-up. I prefer him in short form than long form. He tells us that the picture is simpler than we usually believe: "We need a new party because both parties suck, Johnson. They have been failing black people since we've been black people." More anger, plenty of f-bombs, but when he gets going he's so smooth in his presentation (even when he fumbles). Another one announcing that he's going to vote Green this year because his man Bernie has been screwed over yet again.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

Maebe A. Girl, first drag queen elected to public office in the US (neighborhood council in Silver Lake CA) and challenger of Rep. Adam Schiff (!). Fascinating, just gonna watch and learn. She's saying, if you vote Blue (no matter who) this year, make it your last time.

Now Niko House is talking as if Howie Hawkins and Angela Walker don't exist. He's raising issues wherein neither corporate party or their candidates is taking the positions he advocates, but not mentioning that the Green Party scores almost 100% on those positions. Understandable, as (I believe) he's one of the YouTube opinionators claiming that Howie rigged the convention process and stiffed Dario Hunter. Major party choice offers "civility fascism and neo-fascism...the racist and the segregationist." MLK and Malcolm would say, screw both Trump and Biden. "You can have only one master in politics: It's the people or the money." Great leaders, in politics and elsewhere will side with the people.

Eighteen down, about a dozen to go.

Massey Branscomb, a Yang Gang activist with the Humanity First Movement who worked with MPP on the Occupy Congress program, is next. He's indulging in a multi-dimensional exercise to illustrate how Universal Basic Income benefits everybody, even the wealthy. Everybody gets a chance to grow. "Can you be a billionaire and still be good?" As an Andrew Yang supporter, he obviously thinks so, especially a billionaire who advocates fixing the rules to benefit the masses (and possibly even make him an ex-billionaire). He's even saluting @Jack (Twitter) Dorsey for giving away a substantial slice of his fortune for COVID relief in several less affluent countries.

Speaking of Basic Income, next up is Scott Santens, editor of Basic Income Today. "What has become Normal is not OK...It's time to draw a line." Let's start the "systemic, structural reforms." He's talking now about the fundamental human rights that the US has long essentially ignored. UBI is not just Universal, it's Unconditional Basic Income, "a foundational floor for everything else we need to do." I've never seen anyone speak so eloquently about the moral underpinnings of UBI. If I wasn't completely sold before, I certainly am now. "Duopoly is not democracy," so he's supporting the move to introduce Ranked Choice Voting making its way through the states, as well as multi-member districts and proportional representation, among other reforms.

Jesse Ventura​. Cool. I'm taking a little break.