Emanuel's Platform for his campaign for president (2020)

Jul 24, 2022

EIGHTEEN-PLANK PLATFORM

1) We will not recognize any election that is not fair

The current election system is so corrupt as to be meaningless. The qualified candidate is not allowed on the ballot, and his or her ideas, and activities, are ignored by a media that purposely denies citizens access to critical information. The Votes are counted using computer systems designed to be hacked, leaving no evidence of the sacred choice of the people. Regions inhabited by the poor receive so few voting machines that tired mothers and fathers must wait for hours in line, shivering, as the dusk descends.

The last election was a travesty and the Democratic and Republican parties were but vultures with slightly different plumage that picked at the carcass of Liberty.

We will not recognize as legitimate any election for president, or for any other office, until the nation holds an internationally-supervised election in which every citizen is guaranteed the right to vote in a manner that is easily verified, and in which every qualified candidate can present his or her policies directly to the people. The entire election must transparent at every level and commercial advertising must be banned.

We did not have a legitimate election last time. We do have a moral obligation to reject this entire process.

2) Climate change is the overwhelming security threat;

The response must involve every aspect of domestic and foreign policy

A full commitment to a hundred-year plan for the mitigation of, and the adaptation to, climate change must be at the center of all security, economic and educational policy for the United States. We must devote all resources to this plan, committing ourselves to the equivalent of a war economy, in order to reduce the use of petroleum and coal to zero within two to three years and eliminate the use of plastics and petroleum-based fertilizers and other materials.

The government will set forth directives that demand the rapid reduction in the use of fossil fuels, the end of the use of private automobiles and the restriction of the use of airplanes. We will finance the installation of solar power and wind power generators in every neighborhood. All intellectual property rights for these technologies be placed in the public domain by government for this purpose. Upgrades for all buildings in insulation and in solar and wind power, so as to reach to near zero carbon emissions, will be undertaken immediately.

The government will do so, employing 50-year loans that will make renewable energy cheaper than fossil fuels immediately by calculating long-term costs. We will end all subsidies for petroleum, coal and uranium. Those fuels will be designated as controlled substances that cannot be sold for profit. The military will convert to 100% renewable energy more quickly than the rest of the country and it will become the most powerful defender of the ecosystem, not oil wars, or bogus geoengineering. Polluting fighter planes and outdated aircraft carriers will be scrapped immediately without concern for the profits that they might generate for corporations.

We guarantee those who lose their jobs in the transition employment in renewable energy projects. In fact, we guarantee everyone who wishes a job employment. Oil and gas corporations have made trillions of dollars by pushing dangerous substances like petroleum, coal and natural gas on citizens that they knew full well were destroying the environment. Such actions are criminal. The assets of these corporations, and of their owners, will be seized by the government and those funds used to finance the transformation of our economy.

Wasting energy, food and natural resources will be recognized for the abomination that it is and will never be promoted as a symbol of a better life. The government will supervise the creation of truly sustainable urban and suburban communities and undertake the restoration of wild areas to assure biodiversity. That will mean tearing up the malls, the parking lots, the factories and the freeways that have defiled our sacred forests and our precious wetlands.

3) Eliminate nuclear weapons by any means necessary

Humanity faces an unprecedented risk of nuclear war, one made even more dire by the promotion of “usable” mini nuclear devices. It is a sad travesty that we are now spending trillions of dollars to upgrade a nuclear force that we should eliminate.

We will commit ourselves to the elimination of these dangerous weapons from the Earth, as painful as that process will be. For the sake of our children, we will forcibly confiscate, and destroy, all nuclear weapons, starting in the United States, and then in all the other nations of the world. We will work with committed groups of citizens at home and abroad, inside government and outside, to make sure that the development of nuclear weapons is stopped.

4) Launch international scientific investigations into the past that so many refuse to confront

We cannot come to grips with the threat of climate change and of nuclear war until we shake off the culture of denial that has gripped us for the last twenty years. We must conduct a fearless investigation into the actions taken by a small group of powerful men after the 2000 election, including the so-called “9/11” incident.

We must use the power of the scientific method when we launch international “truth and reconciliation” teams to investigate and to reveal the honest story for our citizens, and for the world, to see. There should be no limits on how far this investigation goes. Granted the seriousness of the case, all related materials must be declassified. Nor should we be satisfied with simplistic tales that blame just one group or another. Murder on the Orient Express was a solvable crime.

5) Bring the US military home and upgrade the United Nations

The United States must bring back most of the troops it has deployed around the world since the Second World War, troops often exploited in mercenary enterprises to serve the interests of the wealthy. We must be ready to fight, and to die, for true international security, but to do so only in the strictest sense as defined by the charter of the United Nations.

It would be better to risk our lives in the battle against the forces of greed to protect the soil beneath our feet, to assure that the pure waters of our oceans are not poisoned, and to preserve forests in perpetuity than to fight these pointless wars over resources for multinational corporations.

The United Nations must be the primary space wherein we plan the future for our fragile planet, and then implement those plans. Otherwise we must engage at the local level while retaining a global vision. This process will only be successful if the United States and the United Nations undergo complete reforms that empowers them to represent the citizens of the Earth without the interference of corporations, or of wealthy individuals.

6) Corporations are not people; The rich get only one vote

Corporations are not people and they should not play a role in the formulation of policy. The same is true for the super-rich and for the investment banks through which they exert their will. The information required by policy makers must be supplied by life-long civil servants, professors and other experts who engage in an objective evaluation of the current state of our country without pressure to derive profit.

The rich are just people; They have no more rights than anyone else. They should not have a special role in the determination of policy. Those who use money, directly or indirectly, to influence policy are engaged in corruption and bribery. We must not hide such criminality by using the innocuous terms like “consulting” and “lobbying.”

We must empower the civil service so that the government regains independence from corporations and can produce strict regulatory systems to protect the people. We have done it before and we can do it again. In that process, many corporations, such as banks, or communications and energy companies, will be nationalized, and run by a competent staff of civil servants who have the common good as their sacred mission.

Other corporations will be run as collectives at the local level under the ownership and control of citizens. Such ethical governance has precedents dating back to ancient times and does not require ideological decoration.

7) An economy of the people, by the people, and for the people

Without economic equality and the strict regulation of finance, democracy is not possible. While we slept, a sly faction generated great wealth by illegal and immoral means for decades and then hoarded the money they created by magic overseas.

Most of our citizens cannot even conceive of the corruption that has spread everywhere behind the sparkling facades of industry and government. All this will stop. We empower thousands of professional auditors at the Internal Revenue Service, and other government bureaus, who, supported by the FBI, will go forward and fearlessly conduct complete audits of all branches of government, including the Department of Defense.

We will demand a full financial audit of the Congress and of all its members. So also will the entire Executive branch and all the major members of the Judiciary, be audited. We will not be afraid to fire, fine and imprison thousands of people, or more, if necessary.

Once the government is dedicated once again to the concerns of our honorable citizens, we will undertake this process for corporations and for the super-rich. Remember that those who roll in obscene wealth obtained it through unfair access to capital combined with illegal business practices.

Their assets will be cut down to size so that they can no longer use these funds to undermine journalism, politics or education. Finance, from now on, will be a highly regulated field, primarily overseen by government organizations accountable to the people.

Regional banks will take the form of cooperatives that are run by the citizens for the sake of the local economy. No digital currencies the expose citizens to risk from unaccountable multinational banks will be permitted.

8) Support true education and investigative journalism

Politics cannot be meaningful if our citizens are denied access to the quality education they need in order to think critically about our society and to make full use of the infinite potential of their imaginations.

Citizens need to learn history and literature, philosophy and science, from a young age in order to be able to comprehend the complex issues of our age. We will create a new education system in which all citizens are treated equally. Funding for schools will never be tied to local real estate taxes. Teachers will be as well rewarded as any member of society.

Everyone will be entitled to a quality education because we expect everyone to be an active citizen. Journalism is an extension of education and therefore it must inform our citizens about real issues, not sensationalist happenings, and it should teach them how to think critically about the economic and cultural realities behind the surface of things.

Sadly, journalism has degenerated into a disgraceful sludge that fills newspapers, TV broadcasts and internet postings with grotesque images and meretricious phrases, debased content that appeals to our worst angels. Whereas citizens should be learning to think objectively and to work together to create a better society, they are bombarded instead with refuse that stimulates sexual desire or promotes mindless consumption.

The government must support an independent media at the local and national level that is dedicated to the pursuit of truth and that encourages citizens to think for themselves. Investigative journalism about the serious issues of our time, brave journalism, must once again become a viable career.

Art, whether painting, sculpture, design, drama, music or literature, must be part of our citizens’ lives. The government will support such activities to give citizens the confidence to express themselves, and to articulate a vision for our future on their own.

Citizens must not be forced to rely on shiny images or glib phrases produced by the corporate media. Fostering artistic expression will free youth from the banal and manipulative culture they face today, one which directs them towards short-term pleasures and robs them of the ability to contribute to their society. Giving them the opportunity to make their own films, their own newspapers and their own paintings and photographs, while being paid a decent wage for that work, will give them confidence they can change society.

9) The 13th amendment demands the end of slavery

The 13th amendment of our Constitution explicitly prohibits slavery. Yet we have citizens, many forced into debt by the contemptible practices of banks, who work in factories and stores as effective slaves.

We have citizens in prisons, often on trumped-up charges, who are forced to work for no pay, or even required to see their loved ones. All these crimes are for the profit of corporations. These despicable practices will be ended, without exception, by the rigorous application of the 13th amendment.

American workers are treated with contempt by multinational corporations that pretend to be American. Even policemen, soldiers and the employees of local and federal agencies and of businesses, are treated with contempt, as slaves, by corporations that wish to reduce them to dependency on basic income in blatant violation of the 13th amendment.

10) Trade must be ecological and truly free

Trade can be a valuable opportunity for exchange between communities around the world. But, trade as it is practiced today is damaging to our precious ecosystem and to our people. Trade means only massive container ships, controlled by investment banks, that spew out horrid smoke as they carry goods across oceans for the profits of few, not the benefit of those who make the goods, nor of those who use them.

It is not a positive for the citizens of the Earth, and it is certainly is not “internationalization,” for local industries and farms to be destroyed by “trade” planning by investment banks and speculators, and for citizens to be rendered dependent on imported goods against their will.

We must, together, completely rethink what trade means and create a 100% fossil-fuel free trade system that is accessible to everyone and that respects the needs of local communities.

11) Moral decadence lies at the core of this political crisis

The current crisis is above all a spiritual crisis. While we slept, our nation fell deep into decadence and narcissism. This civilizational disease taints even those with the best of intentions.

Modesty, frugality and integrity have vanished from our vocabulary. The invisible inner world of values and character that should be the core of moral reasoning for citizens has been replaced by a spectacle that leaves the citizen as a passive consumer of filth.

Until we can control our own actions and, only then, form communities that can demand righteousness, until we can trust our neighbors, talk frankly with our children and uphold common values, we will be incapable of standing up to the powers that have seized control of our country.

12) Transform the military-intelligence complex

The out-of-control military allows corporations to take our tax dollars and transfer them directly to their bank accounts through the sales of overpriced weapons, which are not subject to outside review, or to scientific tests.

We need men and women willing to give their lives for their country. Tragically, those noble sentiments have been cynically misdirected. The military, and the intelligence “community” that surrounds it as a penumbra, must be transformed and dedicated, above all, to the mitigation of, and the adaptation to, climate change, and to other real security threats like bio-fascism.

The bravery of soldiers must be focused on the dangerous work of ending the rule of our country by fossil fuel giants, and their lackeys, and to the task of transforming our economy. Soldiers! If you cannot stand up to the energy czars, how can you call yourselves brave?

In violation of George Washington’s warning of the dangers of “entangling our peace and prosperity,” we have rushed headlong into numerous secret treaties, casually termed “intelligence sharing” and “security cooperation,” that are leading us to a catastrophe like 1914.

Back then, a horrific domino effect was set off by such secret treaties that dragged the world into a catastrophic war.

All of you who work at underpaid contract jobs for the NSA, all of you who must read through our endless emails, or wander dangerous mountain passes in Afghanistan, all of you who are required to harass simple folk over foolish things for wanton corporations, listen to me! Verily, I say unto thee, “Come with us! Thou hast nothing to lose but thy chains.”

13) Stop the dangerous influence of technology on our citizens

The media presents the exponential evolution of technology as an unmitigated positive. Yet, in most cases, exposure to such new technologies robs us of the ability to focus, deprives us of the wherewithal to think for ourselves, and strips us of the awareness necessary to function as citizens.

Technology is used as a means of inducing in us addiction to short-term stimulation. Such electronic tools generate profits for corporations, but they render citizens incapable of understanding the seriousness of the crisis we face.

We want to interact with others, and we need jobs that let us cooperate with others. But all we encounter is recorded messages, automated checkouts and long rows of supercomputers coldly calculating corporate profits. We are entirely alone in a digital desert.

This is no accident but rather a premeditated crime. We must critically review how technology impacts society before we employ it. Technology can be immensely helpful, but only if it is applied to solve the real challenges of our age, and not used to manipulate us.

Scientific understanding of the state of our Earth, and of our society, must be our goal always. We confuse science with technology at our peril. As Paul Goodman wrote, “Whether or not it draws on new scientific research, technology is a branch of moral philosophy, not of science.”

14) Halt the anti-intellectual campaign to dumb us down

Our citizens are subject to unending campaigns that encourage anti-intellectual sentiments and that discourage thinking deeply about the world.

The resulting shift in our culture is not natural, but is imposed by hidden forces seeking to render us docile. We must raise the level of intellectual engagement in every corner of our country, and encourage people to think for themselves, and to propose solutions on their own.

Reading, writing and debate are critical to that process and must be encouraged. Citizens should never rely on the facile and jejune opinions offered up by celebrities. We cannot allow the poisonous forest of advertising and public relations firms to dumb down the citizenry, to impose from above the insidious cult of the self. Terrible indeed is the damage they have already done.

A banal wasteland has taken over every TV channel, occupied every mall and conquered every office. The advertising and PR industry must be subject to the strictest regulations so that our citizens are exposed to images in the media that encourage intellectual engagement and that support a healthy community. Citizens have the right to read articles, and to watch broadcasts, that the describe the reality of our lives in a scientific manner, and the right not to be subject to programs that hold up, as a model, scenes from the indulgent lives of the rich.

15) Revive the Iroquois principle of seven generations

End the cult of growth and consumption

Although the constitution of the Iroquois Nation had a profound influence on the United States Constitution, its focus on sustainability was tragically overlooked by our founding fathers.

The traditions of the Iroquois, and of other native nations, must never be forgotten. The “seventh generation” principle of the Iroquois Nation demands we consider how our decisions today will influence the lives of our descendants seven generations in the future.

This principle is scientific and rational, and it stands in marked contrast to the irrational assumption that the oceans, forests and grasslands are commodities that belong to individuals or corporations, and that they can be destroyed for personal profit.

The “seventh generation” principle must be added to the Constitution as an amendment, serving as the basis for the complete revaluation of our economic and cultural assumptions. We must stop using deceptive terms like “growth” and “consumption” to assess the well-being of the nation. We must consider together the health of all our citizens, the weal of the environment and the prosperity of wild animals and plants.

Cooperation is essential to our survival. We cannot solve problems through budgets if budgets merely encourage dependency on money. We must create barter systems between citizens so that neighbors can assist each other and set up programs for mutual support that make families and communities self-sufficient.

Health care cannot be provided merely by sloshing government money from one account to another. We must also empower citizens to care for each other, to learn enough of medicine, of herbal remedies and of proper exercise, to cure many illnesses on their own without using money at all.

16) Farming for the people and a healthy and fair food economy

The rapid rise in temperature brought on by global warming will cause an exponential increase in the cost of food over the next decade and make farming the most critical activity for survival.

We have not even started to prepare for this catastrophe. We must leave behind this bankrupt system of industrial farming and return to farming by the people and for the people. The land must be distributed to large numbers of citizens to be used as family farms.

There is nothing to lament or decry herein. The soil and the water granted to us by our mother Earth has never been, and never will be, the property of corporations.

The entire distribution system for agriculture must be regulated and thereby made fair. It is far more important to produce food in a manner that does not damage our soil and water than it is for the few to make fortunes from agricultural exports. Americans must embrace sustainable organic farming, and do so now.

17) Neither the Republican Party nor the Democratic Party are described in the Constitution

The three-ring circus of impeachment revealed to us that the current political system has nothing to do with the Constitution. Governance is dead and politics has been reduced to a brawl between corporate lobbyists, investment bankers, media pundits and the rich whom they serve.

The media, having long abandoned any scrap of journalistic integrity, merely eggs on the wrestlers like a drunken mob. All debate surrounding the formulation and implementation of policy must be handled in a transparent manner within the government offices defined by the Constitution.

Yet today, policy is made by corporations, or debated within opaque and unaccountable political parties, in a blatantly unconstitutional manner.

Do not be deceived. The Democratic Party and the Republican Party are not described in the Constitution and they do not represent the vast majority of our citizens. Leaving decisions on policy to political parties that are not regulated by the Constitution is both criminal and unconstitutional, and the practice must be stopped.

Political parties are an appropriate venue for citizens at the local level to meet and to exchange ideas. The Constitution grants the Democratic and Republican parties no role in governance or in the formulation of policy. Governance must be carried out through accountable government agencies in a transparent manner without any corporate money, anywhere.

18) End the mask and vaccine regime

The super-rich, hiding behind corrupt government officials, bogus NGOs and various decadent celebrities, are pushing for a mask regime and lockdown policy designed to isolate us from each other and to destroy our constitutional right to freedom of assembly.

Science demonstrates clearly that the masks are damaging to health and a blatant form of tyranny. The same is true of lockdowns. The rich use their stock holdings in media giants to demand that the news beat the drums for lockdowns of the local economy and vaccines.

They have bribed experts to argue for the immediate implementation of vaccines which have not been tested on animals, are exempt from legal liability and were developed in secret. Those vaccines contain modified RNA which will cause serious illnesses like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and other afflictions.

They are not vaccines at all, but rather a declaration of war against the people cloaked in the saccharine syrup of health, safety and security. This illegal vaccine regime will force everyone to be injected with chemicals determined in secret by multinational corporations, and then approved by the global and national agencies that they have seized control of.

Scientists and citizens have been excluded from the policy debate in violation of the constitution. This crisis is exploited to push for constant surveillance, the replacement of money with digital currencies controlled by multinational banks, and the destruction of all small businesses.

The food we must eat is controlled by multinational corporations, the medicine we need for treatment is controlled by pharmaceutical companies, the education we need to understand the world and the journalism we need to keep ourselves informed is commandeered by global investment banks and multi-billionaires.

FEAR NO EVIL

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