Showing posts with label Cynthia Ann McKinney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cynthia Ann McKinney. Show all posts

Saturday, March 20, 2021

Lamont Gregory Lilly

 




Lamont Gregory Lilly, October 1, 1979 (Fayetteville, N.C.) -

VP candidate for Workers World Party (aka Unaffiliated) (2016)

Running mate with nominee: Monica Gail Moorehead (b. 1952)
Popular vote: 4,317 (0.00%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

Monica Moorehead was making her third run for President as the nominee of the Workers World Party. She had previously been the standard bearer of the Marxist-Leninist group in 1996 and 2000. Her 2016 running-mate was activist Lamont G. Lilly.

The WWP was starting to look like an on-again off-again party in terms of Electoral campaigns. In 2008 the WWP endorsed Green Party nominee Cynthia McKinney. In 2012 the WWP did not field a candidate at all. But then again, elections were not their primary focus.

The campaign website outlined their platform and tactics--

Workers World Party is participating in the 2016 presidential election. Not because we believe the election means any thing. We are running to expose the election.

Our candidates will be talking about the real issues facing workers and oppressed people – and organizing for the real solutions. Revolutionary solutions. We believe that the kind of socialism Bernie Sanders talks about only provides more cosmetic changes, a softer kinder of capitalism. But Sanders change means the capitalist system still stands. Reforming capitalism will not solve the greatest problems facing humanity.

Mass struggle, not elections, is the way forward.

The elections that take place every four years bring only cosmetic change: different faces administering the government on behalf of the same billionaire masters. Who really runs society? It is the capitalist class that exploits the working class and the oppressed. The great mass of people have no real representation because the government, whether headed by Democrats or Republicans, exists to serve the interests of the bosses and warmakers.


The Workers World Moorehead-Lilly campaign declares: Elections will matter when Black Lives matter.

Will the election of Hillary Rodham Clinton or Bernie Sanders mean that racist police terror against the Black community will finally stop? Of course not. Will it mean an end to the mass deportations of migrant workers? No not at all. Will it mean a cancellation of the student debt, more jobs or guaranteed decent healthcare?

The only time there is change in this country is when the people rise up and fight for it. That’s why we’re running: to help organize the fight.

Will the election of a Republican – whether it’s Cruz, Trump, Rubio, or Bush–usher in a period of reactionary setbacks? Possibly. But it could also usher in a revolutionary response.

Our campaign will be all about the struggle against the ruling class – the 1 % and the politicians who do their bidding. Our candidates, Monica Moorehead and Lamont Lilly, are in that struggle already.

We will travel the country building solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. Standing up to stop imperialist wars abroad and the war on immigrants at home. We will converge at the Republican Convention in July in Cleveland and demand Justice for Tamir Rice. And we will demand the same at the Democratic Party Convention in Philadelphia.

Elections will matter when all working class and oppressed people matter. Only by building the fight for socialist revolution can workers change the conditions of exploitation and terror they face today.

We do not fight for a softer, kinder capitalism, for just a little more of the wealth we have created. We want it all. We want to build a workers’ world. This is the message of our campaign.


Lilly described to a reporter what it was like campaigning on a shoestring budget: "It costs an absurd amount of money just to get on the ballot in most states ... We don't have the big-business engine behind us pushing out our message and our candidates. We don't own the TV and radio stations or the newspapers. This two-party system is designed to prevent third parties from gaining footing ... For Democrats, two hundred dollars is chump change. To us, we can really put that to work. That's two train tickets for the candidates. That allows us to eat while we're on the trail."

"The more places I go, the more I see that people out there are really ready for something new. And not some new cliché, like Obama. I mean a brand new system. We're up against these huge, elite corporations that don't care about us. They don't care about working people. They don't care about our ability to pay for decent housing, or our right to livable wages, or our right to be members of unions, or our right to drink clean water, whether here or in Detroit ..."

The Moorehead/Lilly ticket was found on the ballot in New Jersey (0.05%), Utah (0.05%), and Wisconsin (0.06%). They were also registered as write-ins in 11 additional states.

In 2018 the WWP experienced a split when some members gathered in Detroit and formed the Communist Workers League.

Election history: none

Other occupations: US Army Reserve, Director of the NCCU African American Male Leadership Academy, activist, journalist, poet, lecturer

Notes:
Joined the WWP in 2011 and left the Party in 2018.

Sunday, November 22, 2020

James George Janos

 






                                                Cordell and Santa Claus in a video debate




 


James George Janos, July 15, 1951 (Minneapolis, Minn.) -

VP candidate for Independent (2012, 2016)
 
Running-mate with nominee (2012): Donald Leslie Cordell (1927-2021)
Running-mate with nominee (2012): Piotr Blass (b. 1948)
Running-mate with nominee (2016): Daniel Salvatore Muffoletto
Popular vote (2012, 2016): ? (0.00%)
Electoral vote (2012, 2016): 0/538

The campaign (2012) (Cordell)

Don Cordell, who ran for President in 2008 declaring he wanted Ron Paul as his running-mate, ran again in 2012 but this time expressed a preference for Jesse Ventura as his VP--

I want ex Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura as my Vice President. Together, he and I could bring Justice back to our nation. Then I’d want Glenn Beck as a Whitehouse advisor, since he has Investigated, and knows the facts about the “Treason against our nation”. This must be done, or WE lose, “the United Nation wins”.

Cordell started the 2012 quite early. On one blog he commented--

PresidentDon said...

    Just wait until our nation is turned over to the United Nations. Right now Calif takes in over $3 billion in confiscation, and laughing all the way to the bank. You had a chance last year to elect Don Cordell for President to stop this, and you didn't
    It is time to stop the cops in our nation of Tyranny. I'll restore our Bill of Rights. Without me you will get Martial Law, confiscation of all belongings for the New World Order government. If you do not believe me, google my name and then do some research. I'm telling you how it is, and what is coming.
    30 million out of work, where are the jobs? How many more each month to break our nation? Are you Patriots or Cowards? It is time to Revolt/Revote
    November 23, 2009 at 3:02 AM


Which drew the reply--

Anonymous said...

    Don - You and about 10,000 other false prophets are always telling us how it is going to be and lecturing us on what cowards we all are. You want to know what I think - you're a nobody like the rest of us. So give up your Messianic complex.
    November 23, 2009 at 7:32 AM


In 2011 Cordell left this comment on a news article--

Don Cordell • 9 years ago

You have only one choice. You see what the DemocRats and RepubliCons are doing, yet you keep electing them, WHY? I am one citizen, that can Restore not Change America, if you give me a chance. We must return Middle Class jobs and manufacturing back to America. Stop all the imports. Our leaders tell us, China buys from us, yeah, we buy $10 worth China buys $1 from us. Our nation is broke, we only have this next year to ReVote, to ReStore America, or we will surrender to the New World Order, with United Nations troops in power to force us to submit. If you think your little guns will defend America, let me tell you what you can do with those guns when the turn off all of your utilities, turn of the Radio and TV stations, close the bank the grocery and gas stations, stop all mail delivery coming and going, ban newspapers, except publications telling you how to meet government plans for your behavior. YOU will surrender when the SWAT team comes to your door, because they will kill you and your family, so others in your neighborhood see what happens if you resist. Is this the future you want for America, or a pissed off 84 year old man like me to kick ass, and clean up Washington DC? Lets do this before we are all in FEMA Camps and screwed, blued and tattooed, that serial number on your arm, on your kids arms. Do you care? I care, Just google my name and learn What I will do, for YOU.


As in 2008, Cordell's website was a claustrophobic broadside filled with "inside job" conspiracy theories and if anything was even more ramped in 2012 than before. A tiny sample--

The American Citizens are too lazy to stand up and fight anymore. Because they’ve been taught in our schools, we must GLOBALIZE. Being FREE is a SIN, FREE is not FAIR to the rest of the world people.

I am at war with Socialist Obama: To keep America: FREE
How much is America’s Freedom worth to you? I won’t STOP. Islam laws will never be enacted in America on my watch. If I‘m not elected as your next President, all of America will look like Detroit, MI in the next 20 years. All of America “DESTROYED” is this happening to your city, now or next?

*Why is the United States Bankrupt? INSIDE JOB? *Why are millions of Americans out of work? INSIDE JOB? *Why have millions lost their homes to foreclosure? INSIDE JOB? *Why? Because the United States has been sold! INSIDE JOB? *Why won’t you get up, and campaign to me get elected? *Note: Unemployment benefits running out for Millions. *Note: The major Middle class jobs: “Will not return”. Does the Mayan calendar revel the end of America in Dec 2012

When will Romney ask you, to become members of the Mormon Church?

News Flash: Christianity outlawed in America, Christian MORAL’S outlawed. Gay Pride takes over the schools, and offices of our politicians, to hasten our failure. Will you surrender our Judeo/Christian values without a fight? Are you a wimp?


Cordell's involuntary running-mate, Jesse Ventura (legal name James George Janos) was a celebrity superstar in the world of third parties, having served as the Governor of Minnesota 1999-2003, elected as a member of the Reform Party. By 2012 the former wrestler was hosting the third season of a TruTV series entitled Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura. He had increasingly drifted into the world of conspiracy theories in Century 21, including 9/11 Trutherism. Cordell made a reference and provided links to some of Ventura's televised programs--

We are being destroyed from within; we “must stop this”. If you have Cable or Satellite check the listing for the “Jesse Ventura” broadcasts, be awakened to this TREASON, then get involved to save us. If you have a weak stomach, you won’t want to watch, it will make you sick. It’s all about “Building 7", the more you understand about “Building 7” the more you will realize,

Just discovered: Jesse Ventura Video’s online. There are many items like this to educate you; it’s time to learn what is happening to our nation, by our so-called (leaders) traitors

#1, Haarp, Alaska Controversy
#2, 9/11
#3, Global Warming
#4, Big Brother
#5, Secret Societies
#6, Manchurian Candidate
#7  Apocalypse

Ventura's popularity was such that he was frequently touted as a potential third party Presidential candidate. There is little doubt that if he had indeed gone all out on such an effort his impact on the outcome of the election would have been hard to ignore.

After losing a lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration concerning 4th Amendment violations, Ventura declared in a Nov. 2011 news conference he would never set foot in the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport again, called the USA the "Fascist States of America," and added, "I will never stand for a national anthem again ... I will turn my back and raise a fist the same way Tommy Smith and John Carlos did in the '68 Olympics, Jesse Ventura will do that today." He considered obtaining dual citizenship in Mexico.

During the 2012 Republican Presidential primaries, Ventura endorsed Ron Paul (on Alex Jones' program). He also was reported to have said, "if Ron Paul runs as an independent, I will give great consideration to being his running mate." He later endorsed Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party) for the general election. Most likely Ventura was unaware of being Cordell's selection for VP.

Ventura has the distinction of being the only member of the Reform Party ever elected Governor (1998). Remaining an independent after he left office, he liked Bernie Sanders in 2016 but his endorsement was declined [!!!], and he also let it be known he would be willing to be Trump's running-mate. There was some buzz that he might go for the Libertarian nomination. In the end he voted for Jill Stein and eventually joined the Green Party himself.

There was an effort to draft Ventura for President in 2020 and he appeared as a Green on the ballot in Alaska and was a write-in in California, under his actual legal name of Janos and with Cynthia McKinney as his VP.

Meanwhile, back to 2012-- the Cordell/Ventura ticket did not file with the FEC and failed to appear on any ballots or register as write-ins for any state, thus no election results can be reported.

The campaign (2012) (Blass)

Getting a handle on the political life of perennial candidate Piotr Blass of Boynton Beach, Fla. is not an easy task. He has been running for office in Florida since the mid-1990s. Some of his multiple campaigns have been overlapping and getting a bead on where he falls on the spectrum is problematic. Here are some descriptions from the media--

Palm Beach Post, May 25, 2013
Piotr Blass, 64, is a regular at city commission meetings, where he stands out with his stringy long hair, sandals and thick European accent. He ran for U.S. Senate in 2004, governor in 2006 and Congress in 2008, before coming in last of seven candidates in the 2010 Boynton Beach mayoral race, won by Jose Rodriguez. Blass got 24 of the 4,377 votes cast.

He regularly describes his dream of a university in Boynton Beach, as well as projects that include a turbine power-generating network just offshore.

“My idea is to run and inspire,” said Blass, who said he became a citizen in 1979 with a plan to run for office. “I’m not a very good manager, but I could be a reasonable senator.”

... In 2011 Blass was a suspect in a fraud case when a former roommate, William S. Hunter, accused him of stealing and cashing his checks in 2010 while Hunter was in the Palm Beach County Jail.


Palm Beach Post, June 23, 2015
It's not a Florida election until Boynton Beach resident Piotr Blass files as a write-in candidate. Blass has been a write-in candidate in every general election since 2004.

Miami Herald, July 12, 2015
Many candidates offer refreshingly original interpretations of the U.S. Constitution. Boynton Beach’s Piotr Blass, who has a doctorate in mathematics from the University of Michigan, was born to Polish parents in Poland, which seems to run afoul of all that stuff in Article II of the Constitution requiring a president to be a “natural born citizen” of the United States. But when the Herald reached Blass by phone last week (in, ahem, Poland), he airily insisted that the Supreme Court will be on his side when he wins. “I have been a model citizen of the United States for more than 35 years now,” he explained. “I believe the equal protection clause of the Constitution means I must be entitled to equal treatment as that accorded to a 35-year-old native-born citizen.”


Blass has maintained that he, along with Tim Berners-Lee, was a co-creator of the World Wide Web in 1988.

In 2011 Blass seemed to include a Presidential campaign among his other activities. On the topic of Vice-Presidents, he made these comments on Facebook--

Facebook
Feb. 8, 2011
Piotr Blass for President 2012--Arnold for running mate or jessee ventura

Dec. 29, 2011
Jesseee
Ventura
Running
Mate


Apparently abandoning his run for President in 2012, Blass made a write-in bid for the US Senate. By Election Day he was endorsing Green Party nominee Jill Stein for POTUS. Blass would be back in 2016, but with a new running-mate.

The campaign (2016):

Daniel Muffoletto registered as a write-in Presidential candidate in Minnesota with Jesse Ventura as his VP. Minnesota did not categorize the results of the write-in votes. According to his 2008 and 2012 campaign webpages, Muffoletto previously ran as an "Eco-Green Republican" write-in candidate. In 2006 he had lost the Republican primary for US Senate in Maryland. Muffoletto is a naturopath and also works as an agent for actors. At some point he moved from Baltimore to Hollywood. His 2016 Presidential campaign was something of an under the radar event.

Muffoletto's Facebook entries indicate he was willing to run again in 2020 with Ventura but it seems the idea remained in the concept stage and never took the form of action.

Election history:
1991-1995 - Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minn. (Nonpartisan)
1999-2003 - Governor of Minnesota (Reform Party of the United States of America/Independence Party of Minnesota)
2020 - US President (Independent Green Party of the United States) - defeated

Other occupations: US Navy (Vietnam War), member of the Mongols motorcycle club, wrestler, bodyguard for the Rolling Stones, sports commentator, actor, author, television host

Notes:
"I wish they would pass a law where all Democrats and Republicans had to wear NASCAR racing suits, because if you look at the NASCAR drivers, it tells who their sponsors are. And if they do that, we could then become informed voters, because we would know who owns them."--Jesse Ventura

Sunday, November 1, 2020

Rosa Alicia Clemente

 







Rosa Alicia Clemente, April 18, 1972 (New York, NY) -

VP candidate for Green Party of the United States (aka DC Statehood-Green Party aka Mountain Party aka Green-Rainbow Party aka Independent aka Pacific Green Party aka Unaffiliated) (2008)

Running mate with nominee: Cynthia Ann McKinney (b. 1955)
Popular vote: 161,870 (0.12%)
Electoral vote: 0/538

The campaign:

In 2008 the Green Party nominated former US Representative Cynthia McKinney for President. Serving from Georgia 1993-2003, 2005-2007, she found herself frequently operating on the Left side of the Democratic Party. Initially she ruled out running for President but changed her mind in the course of the election season. Her running-mate was Hip-Hop activist Rosa Clemente.

McKinney's political record was a mixed bag for progressives. She took strong positions regarding both domestic and international human rights and was firmly in the anti-war camp. In 2006 she had introduced articles of impeachment against President George W. Bush for abuse of office and unconstitutional actions but it failed to clear the House Judiciary Committee.

But on the other hand McKinney also had some serious baggage. She was inclined to promote various conspiracy theories and by 2008 had been associated with the 9/11 Truthers, a claim that the Dept. of Defense used the chaos of Hurricane Katrina to execute about 5,000 people by a bullet to the head, and was showing the early signs of a mindset that would later accept pizzagate, anti-vaccinations, portions of Holocaust denial, exposing "Zionist shill" operations, and many other alleged plots as fact. She would earn a place in the Encyclopedia of American Loons ("The Democrats' answer to Michele Bachmann, McKinney is really stunningly insane, and despite the good stuff she’s done, she is a real threat to sanity and society"), and Cracked's "The 6 Most Insane People to Ever Run for President." McKinney's supporters responded that painting her as a conspiracy nut was an effort to discredit her and hide the truth.

In 2006 McKinney made national news after she was accused of physically assaulting a Capitol police officer who stopped her entrance to an office building due to her lack of displaying the required credential identification.

Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviewed McKinney and Clemente and in her introduction stated, "The Green Party made history last week when it nominated the first all-women-of-color presidential ticket in US history." This is an often repeated claim about the McKinney/Clemente ticket but it is not really accurate. Earlier tickets included: Lenora Fulani with VPs Wynonia Brewington Burke, Mamie L. Moore, and Barbara R. Taylor (New Alliance Party, 1988), Lenora Fulani and Maria Elizabeth Muñoz (New Alliance Party, 1992), Isabell Masters and Shirley Jean Masters (Looking Back Party, 1996), Monica Gail Moorehead and Gloria Estela La Riva (Workers World Party, 1996, 2000), Isabell Masters and Alfreda Dean Masters (Looking Back Party, 2000).

During the Goodman interview, Clemente gave the listeners a little bit of autobiography and her mission--

I mean, thank you for having me, Amy. It’s a humbling experience, first and foremost. But, I mean, I’m a South Bronx Puerto Rican-born girl, 1972. I was in the South Bronx when hip hop, which is still now the voice of multi-racial young people all over the world, began. So I’m humbled, but I’m ready for the work. I’ve been in a great tradition of student activists coming from the State University of New York at Albany in the early ’90s to getting my Master’s at Cornell University under the mentorship of Dr. James Turner and being a community organizer with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, but again under mentorship of the great late Richie Perez.

So I’m humbled, but I’m also excited, because I feel that many African American, indigenous, Asian, Latino youth in this country, mostly working class, are completely disenfranchised and marginalized from a two-party system. There’s over 40 percent of young people that still have not registered to vote, which shows their dissatisfaction with both the Republicans and Democrats. And I really want to bring the face of what hip hop has always been for me, a voice of the voiceless, the mic that speaks truth to power but also uses these elements to act against the status quo or the powers that be.


The Workers World Party endorsed McKinney in this election rather than running their own candidate. She was also endorsed by Roseanne Barr, Noam Chomsky, and Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan.

McKinney/Clemente were on the ballot in 32 states and theoretically could have won enough votes to achieve the magic 270 Electoral number to take office. They were also write-ins in 17 other states. Their strongest percentages on Election Day were in Louisiana (0.47%), Maine (0.40%), West Virginia (0.33%), Arkansas (0.32%), California (0.29%), Oregon (0.25%), and South Carolina (0.23%). They had earned a little more than 40,000 votes over the previous election for the Greens.

Election history: none

Other occupations: journalist, media consultant, speakers bureau

Notes:
In Nov. 2019 McKinney endorsed Adam Kokesh for the 2020 Libertarian Party Presidential nomination.