WHY NOT GO GREEN / JILL STEIN FOR PRESIDENT

I'm fed up with the lies, the corporate funding and the dumbing down of the 2012 Presidential election and, like millions of Americans, I long for a common sense approach to what 99% of Americans really want in their president. Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein is singing that populist song and she gets my vote: Allen L Roland

A recent USA Today poll reports that an estimated 90 million people who could vote this year probably won't, as they're disappointed in both candidates and major political parties.

So as Carl Gibson correctly points out in ICH ~  " What if just two-thirds of those 90 million people turned out for a candidate with a truly bold vision, who isn't beholden to corporate donors or bought party elites? It would be a colossal upset for the establishment, and a big win for citizens."

Gibson goes on to write  ~ Jill Stein is a candidate that the other 90 million of us can get excited about. Picture the populist candidate Barack Obama once was in 2008, minus the financial support from Wall Street banks and oil companies, and the fawning coverage from mainstream media outlets. In her Green New Deal, she's vowing to end drone strikes, tightly regulate Wall Street, halt all government-funded construction of fossil fuel-dependent projects, and end all foreign wars and occupations. She unabashedly calls for higher top tax rates like we saw in the days of FDR and Eisenhower, and the immediate closure of corporate tax loopholes that bleed out billions to overseas, tax-free bank accounts where the elite have stashed anywhere between $21 trillion and $32 trillion. As president, she would appoint Supreme Court justices who believe corporations are corporations, not people, and fight to get corporate money and influence out of the political process."

See full article: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article32473.htm

Why not go Green with Jill Stein for president !

Dr Stein is expected to be on the ballot this fall in about 45 states, including Washington ~ and please note that corporate political spending now accounts for 78 percent of the $465 million spent thus far during the 2012 election ~ and Jill Stein accepts no corporate funding.

Think about it ~ both Obama and Romney are obviously shills for the Corporate, financial elite and status quo ~ their platforms are almost identical and they both answer to the same Wall Street masters. See video ~ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWDJEc92d38

And Stein, unlike Obama and Romney, is not a shill for Israel or AIPAC ~ " In particular, the United States has encouraged the worst tendencies of the Israeli government as it pursues policies of occupation, apartheid, assassination, illegal settlements, blockades, building of nuclear bombs, indefinite detention, collective punishment, and defiance of international law. Instead of allying with the courageous proponents of peace within Israel and Palestine, our government has rewarded consistent abusers of human rights….. On taking office, I will put all parties on notice ~ including the Israeli government, the Palestinian Authority, and the Hamas administration in Gaza ~ that future U.S. support will depend on respect for human rights and compliance with international law." See Stein statement ~

http://www.jillstein.org/palestine_israel_statement

The Green Party is no longer the voice of Ralph Nader but instead they are attempting to be the voice of the 99% ~ and making a good go at it. Here's the first Jill Stein for President TV ad appropriately entitled " ENOUGH " http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vaObRxkX8K4

Myself and millions of Americans have most certainly had enough of politics as usual, broken promises and the maintenance of the status quo ~ another choice and voice is most welcome in the 2012 presidential race and most certainly the debates.

Here's her four minute statement on why she's running ~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ_-h30Xu9A

As Susan Sauley recently wrote in the New York Times ~ "Ms. Stein is quick to align Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney, saying their policies are nearly indistinguishable. She cites the former governor’s policy on health care and the president’s health overhaul as an example." (She supports a single-payer system as do millions of Americans)

“We need to have people in Washington who refuse to be bought by lobbyist money and for whom change is not just a slogan,” Ms. Stein said. “It seems like there’s a rebellion going on, and people are really ready for something different.”

She's right so hop on board ~ Jill Stein for President

http://www.jillstein.org/

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/why-not-go-green-jill-stein-for.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations  allen@allenroland.com

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website www.allenroland.com

He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net

AMERICA'S CHARLIE CHAPLIN / WOODY ALLEN

Woody Allen keeps churning out movies every year ~ some good, some great and some awful ~ but all of them the creation of a comic genius and much in the tradition of the immortal and irrepressible Charlie Chaplin: Allen L Roland

I refused to get sucked into the kabuki theater of the Republican and Democrat conventions with all their comic absurdities ~ from phony populism to empty phrases to empty chairs to empty coronations, empty words and blatantly false and outrageous roll call votes ( please see http://rt.com/usa/news/jerusalem-israel-dnc-vote-528/ ). Just another example of whose in control of our political process ~ which includes both political parties.

As wsws.org correctly writes ~ "As the Democratic Party wound up its charade in Charlotte as the party of “progress” and the “little guy,” it could not conceal the ugly reality of a party immersed in torture, criminal war and the wholesale assault on democratic rights of working people ~ all in the interests of defending the financial oligarchy’s monopoly of economic and political power."

Both Presidential Candidates are committed to maintaining the status quo and the obvious PLAN ~ a new world order cemented in the oligarchy's exclusive possession of economic and political power. That's why Geoge W Bush didn't panic on the morning of 9/11 and Obama hasn't panicked as his broken campaign promises destroyed his progressive base and litter the political landscape.

“You know what I’ve noticed? Nobody panics when things go ‘according to plan.’  Even if the plan is horrifying!”  The Joker

As such, I turn away from the theater of the politically absurd to two true comic masters of the absurd and realize that our own Woody Allen has slowly evolved into America's Charlie Chaplin. Both had similar paths to greatness, both followed their own intuition and both were troubled geniuses in their own right ~ and I define genius as someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality in their craft or occupation.

"All my pictures are built around the idea of getting in trouble and so giving me the chance to be desperately serious in my attempt to appear as a normal little gentleman."

~ Charlie Chaplin

Chaplin Chaplin's rise was a true rags-to-riches story. His father, a notorious drinker, abandoned Chaplin, his mother, and his older half-brother, Sydney, not long after his Charlie's birth. That left Chaplin and his brother in the hands of their mother, a vaudevillian and music hall singer who went by the stage name of Lily Harley.

For a few years, anyway, Chaplin's mother, who would later suffer severe mental issues and have to be committed to an asylum, was able to support her family. But in a performance that would introduce her youngest boy to the world of performance, Hannah inexplicably lost her voice in the middle of a show, prompting the stage manager to push the five-year-old Chaplin, whom he'd heard sing, onto the stage to replace her.

Chaplin lit up the audience, wowing them with his natural presence and comedic angle (at one point he imitated his mother's cracking voice) and the rest is history. See article ~

http://www.biography.com/people/charlie-chaplin-9244327?page=1

As a film maker, later like Woody Allen ~ Chaplin came to be known as a grueling perfectionist. His love for experimentation often meant countless retakes and it was not uncommon for him to order the rebuilding of an entire set. It also wasn't rare for him to begin with one leading actor, realize he'd made a mistake in his casting, and start again with someone new.

Here's one of the funniest movies created by Sir Charlie Chaplin ~ 5 minute video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zskO9O3hF78

As for Woody Allen ~

" I made the statement years ago which is often quoted that 80 percent of life is showing up. People used to always say to me that they wanted to write a play, they wanted to write a movie, they wanted to write a novel, and the couple of people that did it were 80 percent of the way to having something happen. All the other people struck out without ever getting that wish. They couldn’t do it, that’s why they don’t accomplish a thing, they don’t do the thing, so once you do it, if you actually write your film script, or write your novel, you are more than half way towards something good happening. So I would say that is my biggest life lesson that has worked. All others have failed me " ~ Woody Allen

Initially, at a very young age,a gag writer and then a musician, humorist, philosopher, playwright, stand-up comic, film star, film writer and film director ~ Woody Allen continues, at the ripe age of 77, to follow that life lesson ~ grinding out a movie a year and continues to surprise us, as Chaplin almost always did, with his observations, artistic talent and always his own unique voice.

Here's one of my favorite Woody Allen scenes from Annie Hall ~ see 5 minute video  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpIYz8tfGjY

But Robert Weide's must see two-part documentary on Woody Allen features unprecedented access to people who not only truly know him but also supported his talent and worked with him ~ as both producers and actors. After delightfully watching both parts ~ I can easily say that Woody Allen is America's Charlie Chaplin and we are blessed to have experienced, in some of our lifetimes, two such driven, troubled and gifted talents.  http://video.pbs.org/video/2163103615/

And finally Woody's passive, unlike Chaplin's, take on politics ~ " I don’t find politics profound enough to deal with it as an artist. The story of human beings is composed of murder, only the cosmetics and the decorations change: 2001 some fanatics killed Americans, and now the Americans kill Iraqis. And when I was a kid, Nazis murdered Jews. Now, Jews and Palestinians are butchering each other. Politics has been volatile for thousands of years, and meaningless, because everything repeats itself. But, as a citizen I vote, or course."

As Walter Kerr wrote in “The Silent Clowns,” describing the 1921 film “The Kid,” Chaplin allowed his audiences “to see and to feel what is realistically distressing about life through the magnifying glass, and only through the magnifying glass, of humor" ~ which to me is precisely what Woody Allen has accomplished in his movies.

Humor and laughter are the most undervalued and underrated stress relievers in our convoluted times and in the tradition of Charlie Chaplin ~ Woody Allen has become a master practitioner of that art.

Allen L Roland

http://allenlrolandsweblog.blogspot.com/2012/09/americas-charlie-chaplin-woody-allen.html

Freelance Alternative Press Online columnist and psychotherapist Allen L Roland is available for comments, interviews, speaking engagements and private consultations  allen@allenroland.com

Allen L Roland is a practicing psychotherapist, author and lecturer who also shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website

www.allenroland.com He also guest hosts a monthly national radio show TRUTHTALK on www.conscioustalk.net