I am no longer running for Congress, maybe will look into it in 2026.
I still feel we need to do something about where our politicians are taking us.
I feel, that if we do not act now, our future generations will end up paying for our politicians' greed. We have a $34 trillion debt, but our military spending and financial aid to other countries have no limits.
Not sure how is lobbying even allowed in Congress. We are giving rise to the worst type of capitalism, where only the super-rich and our corporations will be heard, based on their financial contributions. These corporations are not looking out for our interests, it's all about profits for their shareholders and bigger paychecks for their CEOs. Was lobbying ever put to a vote? Why would anybody give our elected officials millions without expecting something in return? Do you think these donors are very charitable or belong to a group of philanthropists who are watching out for the underprivileged?
I feel our chest-thumping leadership with its support for its support for Israel is trying to push us into a world war, actively destroying our planet, and have managed to destabilize the entire Middle East and South America with their illegal wars. All this is done just to make the military establishment CEOs rich with our tax $, I used to think that there were responsible smart people in our government, but now I realize we have power-hungry politicians running our government, these people have little regard for what their constituents want, it's all about how to get elected and serve special interests. I know we all want peace for all races and countries across the globe, no more wars in the name of fighting fictitious "EVIL" terrorists, which we have created with our wars.
I am married, 4 kids, 2 boys and 2 girls, I graduated from the University of Houston Central Campus in 1995 with a bachelor's in MIS. Have been in Software Consulting my entire career.
1-With a 34 trillion dollar national debt, we cannot afford to spend 800 billion on our military to wage useless wars across the globe and give military aid to any rebel group to fight governments that do not align with our business interests, this will only create more enemies.
2- We need to focus on our teacher's salaries and provide more funds for our schools, plus better pay for our law enforcement officers.
3- Cut taxes for the middle class, people making $150k and less and not give breaks to the super-rich and corporations.
4- Focus our energy on actually supporting democratic reforms, stopping military interventions, lying to our people, and invading sovereign countries in the name of promoting democracy.
5-We have 750 US bases across the globe, terrorizing and invading other countries will not help us, just like invading Iraq and Afghanistan provided ZERO benefits or in any way improved our security and we the taxpayers ended up paying $8 trillion for these wars.
6-Make lobbying and donations given by corporations illegal.
We need to put an end to supporting dictatorships and regime-change operations, across South America, Asia, and the Middle East. We all know no country in the world is going to attack us, but they are all threatened by us.
Foster Dulles explained quite clearly the dilemma that the United States faced. They complained that the communists had an unfair advantage: they were able to “appeal directly to the masses” and “get control of mass movements” something we have no capacity to duplicate. The poor people are the ones they appeal to and they have always wanted to plunder the rich. That causes problems. The United States somehow finds it difficult to appeal to the poor with this doctrine that the rich should plunder the poor. (Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World 154)
We need to stop supporting this genocide by Israel against the Palestinians in Gaza (The Gaza Strip is 25 miles long, from 3.7 to 7.5 mi wide, and has a total area of 141 sq mi with around 2 million Palestinians), it is considered one of the largest open-air prison in the world.) As of Feb 2, 2024, since Oct 7, 2023, Israel has killed almost 27000+ people in Gaza, 11k of whom are women and children, 66000 have been wounded, 1.9 Million people have been displaced and 146 United Nations workers have been killed (more than any war in our history in this period), Israel was able to commit this genocide with the military and financial aid we provided. And just so we all know Israel has been committing war crimes and killing these native Palestinians for the last 75 years of its existence, this is not the 1st time they are doing this. The United States has given $3.8 billion in foreign assistance to Israel annually, 99.% of the aid goes to the Israeli military. Adjusting for inflation, US aid to Israel from 1951 to 2022 totaled $317.9 billion, making it the largest recipient of American foreign aid since World War II. How does giving this military aid to some country 7000 miles from us benefit us, the reality is, that it does not, we only end up making more enemies because we are supporting apartheid and ethnic cleansing as commonly referred to in Israel as "mowing the law" when murdering innocent Palestinians?
I do wonder sometimes, when orthodox Jews claim that this piece of land from the Jordan River to the sea was granted and promised to them by God, what will God have to say, about how the people of Israel murdered, and starved their fellow Semitics, safe to say its not going to be clear path to heaven for most Israelis. Thou shalt not kill" is one of the Ten Commandments in the Torah and Bible.
On the contrary according to "The distinguished human rights lawyer Raji Sourani, who has remained in Gaza through years of Israeli brutality and terror, reports that “the most common sentence I've heard when people began to talk about ceasefire: everybody says it's better off for us to die and not go back to the situation we used to have before this war. We don't want that again. We have no dignity, no pride, we are just soft targets, and we are very cheap either the situation really improves or it is better to just die. I am talking about intellectuals, academics, ordinary people: everybody is saying that”. (Noam Chomsky, Who Rules the World 168). In this paragraph, Chomsky is referring to the 2014 war been Israel and Palestinians.
Both Republicans and Democrats are complicit in this genocide and if we do not speak up, we are as guilty as our elected officials. How does providing billions in military aid of our tax $ to Israel improve our security, all it does is create more hate for us because we are aiding in their genocide against the native Palestinians fighting for their land and freedom.
Hear American Palestinians' accounts of what is going on in Gaza: (163) March On Washington For Gaza LIVE - YouTube
Please listen to how Senator Bernie Sanders describes what is going on in Gaza:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpmw4RSi4EA
https://youtu.be/hj5X3dEOOi4?si=_UdkRlbDROSm_8AH
A simple solution was suggested by Republican Paul Findley: Should the Executive Outmaneuver Congress to save Palestine and Israel? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF0Pg3gfndI but unfortunately the extremist right-wing government of Israel believes torturing, killing and terrorizing Palestinians is in their national interest, and since they have absolute control over the US government, who cares what the entire world or UN demands. Imagine, if we stopped sending 3.5 billion dollars to Israel, that could end all the wars and terrorism across the Middle East, but then how would we sell weapons if this region was stabilized?
In the book “They Dare to Speak Out” by Paul Findley, a republican representative from Illinois, this is how he has described AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee)
This close coordination sometimes inspires intra-governmental humor “At the State Department we used to predict that if Israel’s Prime Minister should announce that the world is flat within 24 hours Congress would pass a resolution congratulating him on the discovery” recalls Don Bergus former ambassador to Sudan and a retired career diplomat.
To the Jewish organizations however, lobbying Washington is serious business and they look increasingly to AIPAC for leadership Stephen S Rosenfeld editor of the Washington Post editorial page rates AIPAC as “clearly the leading Jewish political force in America today”.
AIPAC’s charter defines its mission as legislative action but it now also represents the interest of Israel whenever there is a perceived challenge to that country's interest in the news media the religious community on US college campuses and anywhere.
Because APAC staff members are paid from contributions by American citizens they do not need to register under the foreign agents registration act in effect however they serve the same function as foreign agents. Over the years the pro-Israeli lobby has thoroughly penetrated this nation's governmental system and the organization has made the deepest impact is AIPAC, to whom even the president of the United states turns when he has a vexing political problem related to the Arab Israeli dispute. (They Dare to Speak Out, Paul Findley, 27)
We have a government that is not watching for us, because they are afraid of the wrath of these lobby and are desperate to be elected. To these members of Congress, I say, you have betrayed us for a foreign government and do not deserve our vote.
Since there are no term limit to these member of congress and senate, these politicans are at the mercy of these PACs.
According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, there are between 500,000 and 600,000 homeless people in the US on a given night, with about one-third sleeping on the streets and two-thirds in homeless shelters and our Govt focus is handing out our hard-earned tax dollars to foreign countries, amazing priorities and shows concern for our people.
Historically our stance has always been, if any leader wants to protect the interest of his people, we will simply label that individual a communist, corrupt, or a dictator, invade that country, impose sanctions, or bribe the military to overthrow that democratically elected individual, so we can continue to plunder that country for its resources or and in several cases merely to destabilize it, its basically job security for our intelligence community to continuously create more enemies.
Our hand-picked dictators end up killing hundreds of thousands with the help of our CIA and our weapons. Destabilizing these countries also leads to people migrating to the US. Obviously, with our approach, we end up with a lot of enemies, and this cycle of violence will never end, there is still time to stop this barbarism. We have made the world an unsafe place and moved us closer to doomsday, thanks to our short-sighted, greedy politicians. We have destroyed our reputation across the globe, I think our politicians are well aware of this deep-seated hate across most of the world, so when our government or mainstream news media outlets mention that our allies agree with us, they are referring to the puppet regimes we have placed in those countries, not the people of that country. That is the same for almost every country in Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East.
To date, Dec 2023, we have killed 4.5 million people since 911 and spent $8 trillion to support the 2 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, nothing to do with the 911 terrorists, which were 15 Saudis, 2 from the United Arab Emirates, 1 was from Lebanon, and 1 from Egypt, all dictatorships that we support, besides Lebanon which borders Irsael and invaded by Israel at least 3 time over the last few decades.
In the 2 wars, in Iraq and Afganistan, we lost 7054 soldiers, and 34826 wounded in both conflicts and what exactly did we achieve, maybe next time we should ask our politicians to send their children to fight their wars. I will fight to put an end to any war waged in the name of defending our homeland, reality is neither country posed any threat to us, that was also very clear to the Bush administration, so they had to lie about Iraq having WMD to justify their war.
I do not think our government leaders have the intelligence to understand the physiological damage and the impact these wars have had on our soldiers. A close friend of mine became quite a vegetable after returning from Iraq, could not justify him killing 23 people, some of whom were children. As per him, the more "kills" he had, the more his unit respected him, that is the kind of brainwashing we are doing to our people.
Right now, it's our corrupt politicians and Israeli government against the entire world, we are desperately trying to push the world into another world war, while simultaneously bankrupting our economy. Putin is evil to invade Ukraine, but we can invade almost every country, I feel we need to wake up the country and call out this double standard.
If only we had promoted peace around the globe after World War 2, and not invaded or militarily intervened in almost every country in South America, Middle-East, or played our regime-change games, safe to say the world would be a much better place. We need to use diplomatic forms of communication to work with other countries, promote actual peace and stability, and work together on global challenges, it's not all about making a quick buck for yourself. All this lying and illegal invasions have done nothing for our people.
A country's progress is gauged by its GDP or Gross Domestic Product, China is currently at 17.52, while we are at 26.9 trillion, there is still time to get our priorities straight, stop wasting money on useless wars, invest in our people, and our infrastructure, focus on global warming. So while China is building space stations, bullet trains that can reach speeds up to 217 mph, AI and quantum computers, without firing a single bullet or invading any country, we are busy terrorizing other countries in the name of curbing communism and "EVIL" people. This is the same mindset that eventually brought the 2 previous empires, England and France to their knees.
Conquering and killing is in our human DNA, but its high time we evolved and aspired to reach for the stars, not continue to kill, plunder and destroy our planet, stop acting like Neanderthals and put that BRAIN to good use. What will be our legacy, how will the world remember us as Americans, a 1000 years from now, the country that dragged the world into another war or how we bought peace and stability across the globe for everybody. Common sense says, the more people we kill, the more enemies we make. I know I cannot make and change the way our Government works, but I can at least speak up and try and reason with these politicians, these is always hope.
Please keep in mind, that although individuals can file for bankruptcy, when government starts to run out of money, it can simply tax its people.
Did you know, that Nelson Mandela, President of South Africa, was on the US terrorist list until 2008, what does that tell you about how we define terrorism?
We need to stop govt officials from accepting donations from various entities, this is nothing more than bribes given to our corrupt elected officials for favors, nobody donates millions without any strings attached. We want a government to serve the interest of our people, not the corporations and the military establishment: Lockheed Martin, RTX, Northrop Grumman, Aviation Industry Corporation, Boeing, and various lobbying firms.
Education, we need to focus on our educators, why is it that our teachers’ salaries so low compared to other professionals? According to the Economic Policy Institute, teachers earn 19% less than similarly skilled and educated professionals. This gap has increased over time and is known as the "teaching penalty".
Greenhouse gas emissions, primarily carbon dioxide and methane, are major contributors to climate change, leading to global warming and a myriad of environmental issues. To address this pressing concern, a crucial step involves transitioning to more environmentally friendly energy alternatives. Renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric power, offer sustainable alternatives that produce minimal greenhouse gas emissions during operation. By investing in and promoting the use of these clean energy technologies, societies can significantly reduce their carbon footprint. We need to start thinking about our planet's future, it is shocking to see some of our politicians who are climate deniers and refuse to believe 99.9% of our scientists.
The United States has approximately 750 military bases in about 80 countries around the world. These bases are spread across every continent except Antarctica. This implies that the U.S has three times as many bases as all other countries combined. The cost of maintaining U.S. military bases worldwide is primarily covered by the U.S. government. Estimates suggest that the U.S. spends approximately $250 billion annually to maintain troops, equipment, fleets, and bases overseas.
The reason for mass migrations and people trying to immigrate to the US and Europe is because of US wars and interventions around the globe: Lebanon (1958): The United States first sent combat troops into the Middle East. 2003 invasion of Iraq. Iraq (2003): The U.S. invaded Iraq, leading to a prolonged conflict, why? Afghanistan (2001), Guatemala (1954): The U.S. sponsored covert military operations, Cuba (1961, 1960-1965): The U.S. sponsored covert military operations. Guyana (1961–64)2, Chile (1970–73): The U.S. employed coercive political, economic, and military measures to destabilize the popularly elected government. Nicaragua (1981–90)2, Dominican Republic (1965): U.S. troops landed. Grenada (1983): U.S. troops landed. Panama (1989)........
If only we had left these countries alone and let democracy take root, but that has never been our objective.
Foreign interventions by the United States - Wikipedia
Our government's focus seems to be to push people into becoming terrorists by killing more people, so this cycle of violence will never end, the solution to every problem is a military one.
The US Congress has voted for funding many wars all over the world when most American citizens want world peace and for our dollars and young men to stay on our soil. The fruits of our labor should not be the bank account of warmongers and their defense-contracting cronies. Freedom and liberty are what our country was founded upon, however, the US government has been doing everything in its power to limit our freedoms by looting us insatiably and being at the forefront of destroying liberty elsewhere.
Many congressional representatives on both sides of the aisle are heavily invested in weapons manufacturing companies and profit off of war at the expense of innocent civilians and American taxpayers. Wars from just the last 25 years:
Afghanistan: 20-year-long debacle that killed 243,000 and cost 2.313 trillion dollars. End result: The Taliban is victorious and even stronger than before.
Iraq: the 20-year war: 280,771-315,190 dead and 2.9 trillion dollars spent. End result: Iraq ended up an Iranian proxy state and the formation and strengthening of ISIL and ISIS.
Ukraine: 500,000 casualties and 113.4 billion spent with the war all but lost. The US suddenly broached peace talks despite promoting an endless war that could have ended with earlier negotiations.
Taiwan: 2 billion allocated yearly from 2023 to 2027, but our job is to stop it before it costs lives.
Our country has been funding war after useless war and spilling the blood of others as well as shedding our own soldier's blood. The more weapons Congress can convince the government to buy and sell, the more money goes in their own pockets due to violation of insider trading laws and having stocks in weapons manufacturing companies. What these government officials have been doing is high treason masquerading as “national security”, taking bribes from lobbyists and profiting from American taxpayers is oppression to the American citizen.
Our country is 34 Trillion dollars in debt and many Americans are suffering as a result yet our government thinks that it is prudent to give hundreds of billions of dollars to other countries instead of using it on what is considered the lowest priority today to the government: the American Citizen.
To put this functional bribery in context:
10 Congress Members on both sides of the aisle invested $50k in Raytheon each
The Boeing lobby contributed over 10.7 million in 2023 to both sides of the aisle
17 members on both sides of the aisle are invested in Boeing up to 1 million each
14 million dollars from Lockheed Martin lobbying per year
10 million per year from Northrop Grumman lobbying
7 members on both sides of the aisle are invested up to 250k each in Northrop Grumman
AIPAC has contributed up to $2 million each to individual congress members after stealing $3.8 billion of American taxpayer money yearly and an additional $14 billion this year.
The net effect of this disgusting conflict of interest is for representatives to pass ever-increasing defense spending budgets. These budgets, which are financed by our hard-earned tax dollars and debt the US government issues against us, are funneled back into the coffers of individual executives and officials at these defense contracting companies. Additionally, the executives and government officials profit from increased stock prices and the mass manufacture of weaponry that ends up being sold and used in wars that the US foreign policy establishment promotes.
Now is the time, as Americans who are silently robbed, to stand against corruption in our government and resist being brainwashed by pro-war propaganda. Now is the time to put our country's citizen's interests above others. Now is the time to take a stand against the theft of our money to enrich individual politicians and promote endless war.
Do not consent to this form of legalized bribery, money laundering, and treason by our own elected officials. It is time to root out these entrenched leeches from their offices and do away with the system that allows insider trading, conflicts of interest, and special interest lobby campaign financing that is destroying our country.
If you want to learn more about Israel, here are some suggestions:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvOSv2fGJ5w
https://www.youtube.com/@DemocracyNow
https://www.youtube.com/@GlennGreenwald
https://www.youtube.com/@chomskysphilosophy
https://www.youtube.com/@RedactedNews
Please watch this from 7 years ago, this may help explain why Hamas did what it did, Hamas is the democratically elected Govt in Gaza:
Or email me at saerkhan@hotmail.com