See website http://www.derrickmreid.com/

I’m not running to legitimize this system or the election process or give any false hopes that being in office allows you to change anything. Change takes the power of the peoples movement independent of the influences of the ruling class. And, in order to stay in office you have to play to the tune of the ruling class because it’s their structure and their laws. They prohibit any revolutionary changes that make a real difference in the progress of society. However, just in case I do get elected I can, as any politicians who say they are progressive can, use the amplified voice I would have to expose, expose, expose - not only the influence of the financial and industrial monopolies who run the politicians, but the war crimes, crimes against humanity and against our class both here and abroad. For example, I’d expose the fact that 8 million people from Yemen are expected to starve to death directly because of the U.S. war in cooperation with Saudi Arabia, while every few hours Black and Brown people are murdered by racist genocidal police who should be jailed immediately along with the police chiefs who enable them. And, I'd expose the real reason jobs and livable wages are being kept from us and the simple solutions to these problems that are not allowed by the banks and corporations. In other words, I’d use that position to motivate the movement to take over the reins of power.

I’d probably be able to do that for a very limited amount of time – but it is the only thing I should be doing. Stopping global warming, endless wars by the police, ICE and pentagon, and stopping racist, sexist and homophobic violence all begins by exposing the forces that allow them to continue and empowering the people to act outside of the boundaries of what’s acceptable. It’s the only thing these so-called progressive politicians should be doing in office – but instead they are enabling and encouraging compliance with this system.

For instance, here’s an example of what could be done. Perhaps my first day in office could be to start the groundwork amongst grassroots and progressive organizations on the left to work on mobilizing an occupation of the White House that was sustainable and could last for months. After the groundwork was laid maybe I’d call a press conference to the 100’s of millions my voice could reach from that platform and make a public call for the occupation. That would probably be my last day in office but that short time in office and the grassroots organizing I would have done would make a greater contribution to our struggle than any of these enabling politicians in office today, whether they be in office for 10 or 1000 years. And, who knows – depending on the state of the movement in the streets maybe I’d be able to stay a little while longer. That’s just one for instance, there’s many more.

In thinking about any electoral struggle, it’s important to understand that the executive and legislative branches of government have been rigged to ensure the status quo since the late 1800’s. That’s when the money of the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Mellons and Morgans, to name a few, locked up the system with the enormous profits they gained from cotton production – in other words slavery. Over 90% of the time whomever the majority of the largest financial and industrial monopolists favored with their donations won. Even in this election of Trump where he was supposedly outspent (not if you count the free media he got), the ruling class could have used the electoral college any way they wanted to change results - but I think they liked those promised tax cuts. Likewise in history, the electoral collage was used for that purpose, and was also used to help end Reconstruction.

The electoral struggle has to be used as a means to a revolutionary end - not in a way which enables acceptance of this unacceptable system of capitalism. The electoral struggle should not be a struggle for a career, it should be seen as one of the many tools that can be used to expose and abolish capitalism, not enable it. The measure of my success is not winning the office of senator, if that could happen – and I guess in an infinite universe, anything that can happen, will - then so be it. But, I’m not running for that purpose, I’m running to win our future. I’m running to quicken the pace of the revolutionary process liberating humanity from exploitation, oppression, poverty and war. I need your vote to do that. Let’s show others that our numbers are large and the revolutionary waters are warm, so they will feel compelled to come on in and start swimming.

Whatever we do, we can’t continue to accept and enable the unacceptable.

    April 11, 2018

CALIFORNIA’S PRIMARY ELECTION SYSTEM IS FLAWED

Our system of selecting our representatives is broken in California.  In 2011, the State enacted the Top Two Open Primary System.  The Top Two impacts congressional and state elective offices.  It allows only the top two vote recipients to move onto the general election.  In 2016, 34 candidates competed for the U.S. Senate in California.  Because of the Top Two, only the top two vote recipients moved on and they were members of the same political party.  Thus, 5 political parties and 32 candidates were dropped after the primary election. 

Proponents of the Top Two claimed that it would provide for more ‘moderate’ or ‘centrist’ candidates from which to choose in the primary election.  In the 3 elections held since 2010, when the Top Two legislation was adopted, more ‘liberal’ incumbents retained their seats and more ‘liberal’ candidates won the plurality of their races.¹

In August of 2017, I filed an initiative measure (17-0020)² to repeal the State’s Top Two law with the Secretary of State.  The initiative is currently in the signature gathering phase.  It’s intent if to remove the language of Proposition 14 that created the Top Two from the State’s Constitution.   Because it is a Constitutional Amendment, a minimum of 585,407 signatures is necessary to place the initiative on the primary election ballot.  The last day to sign a petition to repeal the Top Two is April 23, 2018.

If approved by the voters in November of 2018, the primary election system would be changed to allow the top vote recipient of each Party to appear on the general election ballot.  This is representative government as opposed to ‘manufactured’ government under the Top Two Law.

by:  Tom Palzer

        U.S. Senate Candidate

        Committee to Elect Tom Palzer U.S. Senate

        P.O Box 2413

        Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91729

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¹Ballotpedia

² Secretary of State filing dated August 23, 2017.

Mario Nabliba for US Senate

OUR VETERANS

By working for several years with the VA I have come to a high understanding of how to help our Veterans which would include ending homelessness. My first priority is to end veteran homelessness. I would work closely with Housing and Development to create a program to give affordable housing to Veterans. It breaks my heart to see someone fight to protect our nation and to then see this person homeless. This is the true reason I am running for the US Senate. 

JOBS FOR CALIFORNIANS

One way to support everyone in California is to help this state look beyond the tired old school leadership of the past and embrace practical progressive and conservative policies that help everyone prosper and generate jobs for everyone who wants one. We together can move from being the 10th largest economy on the planet back to the 5th and better.  We also have the highest poverty rate in the nation.  How will we handle this?  Entrepreneurs, small businesses, and tax reform are the issues to address. 

IMMIGRATION

Focusing on our security is a priority. This means using the highest technology for the security of our airports and borders. Consider in this equation that our first responders have all resources in order to accomplish the safety of our nation. For example, increasing drone technology for surveillance of our borders and improvement of drone technology.

All immigrants that come to the United States are handled on a case by case basis. So what do we do with illegal immigrants? They also need to be handled on a case by case bipartisan basis. We can create a path to citizenship where only productive, non-criminal individuals are allowed to take this path. 

EDUCATION

I am running for Senate so I can implement those policies to support you and your children as you work to become more educated, more prosperous and better off as individuals, families and communities. We need top-quality Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. As the most developed nation in the world, our educational system must raise up to our development level, not be falling behind. 

GOALS

If I am elected and as a Scientist I will approach each issue with a viewpoint that what has worked in the past will work again and ineffective programs and individuals will be trained or eliminated. Improvement can be made in any area if the right actions are taken. When one sees success in areas like more jobs, one needs to continue those actions which caused the improvement. Governmental benefits to illegal immigrates/sanctuary cities needs to end and this money will be used to support education for all Americans including our Veterans. There are individuals in this world that can make a difference and I have chosen to do this in all areas I address as a Senator.

To come

In the last 45 years over 60 million innocent, defenseless human beings who have no ability to speak for themselves have been slaughtered in this country. This is a crime against humanity. This is an atrocity of the same magnitude as the American slave trade or the Nazi holocaust. Thousands more will be killed today, and tomorrow, and every day until we put a stop to it.

If there’s no Creator who has given us unalienable rights as human beings, and if there’s no Judge to Whom we’re ultimately accountable for our actions as individuals and as nations, then we have no real grounds for defending the right to life or any other human right. But if there is such a Creator and Judge, I believe we ought to be trembling right now because of the just punishment that awaits our nation if we don’t rise up and put an end to this atrocity that has already saturated our land with the blood of the innocents.

To bring an end to this slaughter a law must be passed defining that human life begins when human parents conceive human offspring. To permanently protect the innocent and defenseless from future threats of slaughter there must be an amendment to the U.S. Constitution making the same definition.

I recommend that every American who desires to protect these innocent and defenseless victims who cannot speak for themselves should write, e-mail, and call their Senators and Representatives in Washington respectfully but firmly demanding an end to the slaughter. Here's a suggested letter:
"Dear Senator or Congressman _______ :
Please end the destruction of innocent, defenseless human beings that is taking place in this country. Please sponsor legislation defining that human life begins at conception. Thank you."
You can find the contact information for your U.S. Senators and Representative at this link: https://www.usa.gov/elected-officials.

"Open your mouth for the mute, in the cause of all who are appointed to destruction." (Proverbs 31:8)
"Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter! (Proverbs 24:11)

Many women experiencing a crisis pregnancy have been pressured to have an abortion. If you are being pressured to have an abortion, please consider the following link for counseling and assistance: 
http://www.theunchoice.com/pregnancyhelp.htm.
If you have already had an abortion and are suffering post-abortion trauma, please consider the following link for help and healing:
http://afterabortion.org/help-healing/.

Thank you and God bless you.

One of the stated purposes of the United States Constitution is to “promote the general welfare.” A key aspect of promoting the general welfare of the American people must be to enact government economic policies that will enable us to prosper. From the beginning of our nation, we have had a free-market economy. According to one definition, a free market is an idealized system in which the prices for goods and services are determined by the open market and consumers, in which the laws and forces of supply and demand are free from any intervention by a government, price-setting monopoly, or other authority.

I believe the following discerning statements quoted from Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt [pages 191-211] are instructive for good government economic policy.

“Economics is the science of tracing the effects of some proposed or existing policy not only on some special interest in the short run, but on the general interest in the long run.”
“…when we study the effects of various proposals, not merely on special groups in the short run, but on all groups in the long run, the conclusions we arrive at usually correspond with those of unsophisticated common sense.”
“There is no more certain way to deter employment than to harass and penalize employers. There is no more certain way to keep wages low than to destroy every incentive to investment in new and more efficient machines and equipment.”
“…[increased] taxation has not brought revenues to keep pace with ever more reckless government spending and schemes for redistributing wealth. The result has been to bring chronic and growing government budget deficits, and therefore chronic and mounting inflation.”
“[Many] politicians continue to ignore the necessity of profits,…to denounce unusual profits anywhere, to tax them excessively, and sometimes even to deplore the very existence of profits.”
“More and more people are becoming aware that government has nothing to give them without first taking it away from somebody else—or from themselves.”
“There is a real promise that public policy may be reversed before the damage from existing measures and trends has become irreparable.”

I believe that our government has an essential responsibility of making provision for the poor. Such provision must be made, however, not by penalizing productivity and profits, but by encouraging and rewarding them. Government economic policies that enable individuals, businesses, and corporations to thrive and prosper will promote national wealth and increase the resources from which the poor may be provided, both through private charity programs and public welfare programs. The wealth from which the poor will be provided must be produced—it does not appear out of thin air. Government cannot produce wealth—it can only manage wealth with which it is entrusted through tax revenues.

If I am elected to the United States Senate, I will promote and vote for economic policies that give incentives for productivity and profits, because I believe this is the most effective way to fulfill the Constitutional mandate to “promote the general welfare.” There will no doubt always be some, both rich and poor, who abuse the system by taking as much as they can while giving as little as possible. But this can never be remedied by punishing the vast majority of honorable citizens through economic policies that hinder the general welfare rather than promoting it.

I believe it is a mistaken and dangerous notion that our American liberties can rest on any other than a moral foundation. This was the belief of the founders of our nation.
Two days after the opening of the First Continental Congress in 1774, they began the practice of beginning each day’s session with prayer, a practice that carried over to the United States Congress and has continued to this day. Here is the first prayer of the Continental Congress (offered by Reverend Jacob Duché, Rector of Christ Church of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania):
“O Lord, our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings and Lord of lords: who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers upon earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all kingdoms, empires and governments; look down in mercy, we beseech thee, upon these our American states, who have fled to thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves upon thy gracious protection, desiring henceforth to be dependent only on thee.
To thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to thee do they now look up, for that countenance and support which thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in council, valor in the field. Defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their cause; and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, O let the voice of thy unerring justice sounding in their hearts constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle!
Be thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the counsels of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that harmony and peace may effectually be restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety prevail and flourish amongst thy people. Preserve the health of their bodies and the vigor of their minds; shower down upon them and the millions they represent such temporal blessings as thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ thy son, our Savior. Amen.”
The Declaration of Independence, signed by delegates to the Second Continental Congress in 1776, begins with these words:
“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
and ends with these words:
“We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States… And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
The Constitution of the United States was signed by delegates to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. 
Article 6 prohibits religious discrimination in the qualification for any public office:
“… no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”
Article 7 acknowledges that our civil calendar is dated from the birth of Jesus Christ:
“Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven…”
The First Amendment to the Constitution places two specific restrictions on Congress in regard to religious liberty:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”
There was a compelling reason why the people demanded a Bill of Rights to be added to the Constitution. The liberties addressed in these first ten amendments had been denied to them or their ancestors over the course of the preceding centuries. And there was a very specific reason why the First Amendment begins with the issue of religious liberty. Many of the inhabitants of the colonies, or their ancestors, had fled to America to escape religious persecution. Many in England (and other countries) had been imprisoned and even put to death simply because they belonged to the “wrong” church or worshiped in a manner that was not approved by the state. 
The intent of the founding fathers in regard to religious liberty, as clearly seen in the First Amendment, was to prevent the state from dictating compulsory religious observance, and to protect the free exercise of religion. The founders of our nation were strongly against religious persecution and religious discrimination. But they were strongly for religion and morality.
Here are a few representative statements of the founders:
John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
George Washington: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens.”
Benjamin Franklin: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.”
Samuel Adams: “While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued, but when once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties.” 
Our founding fathers believed in a higher law to which men and nations are accountable. They appealed to the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God. They held certain truths to be self-evident; in particular, that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights. They appealed to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of their intentions. And they proceeded with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence to secure our cherished liberties. It befits us to acknowledge and appreciate the faith and courage of our fathers that have secured for us these liberties.
George Washington proclaimed: “…it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor…”
Our American liberties rest on the God who alone has the unchallenged authority to grant them. If there is a living God who is our Creator and Judge, and we choose not to acknowledge Him or give thanks, then we will proceed at our own peril to build on a false foundation that cannot sustain the liberties with which we have been entrusted.