It is my hope that most Minnesotans will soon support my candidacy. More important, I am proposing two pieces of national legislation that I hope all Americans will support. This legislation will lead to the realization of the goal that is the foundation of my campaign--full employment.

All politicians, either sincerely or as a public relations ploy, claim to "Support our Troops." Sadly, concrete evidence of their support is often lacking. Supporting the Veterans Full Employment Act (the VFEA) will give politicians the opportunity to show support for veterans that is more than empty rhetoric.

One of the skills needed for political leadership is to anticipate objections to policy proposals. I anticipate objections to the VFEA on the grounds that legislation promoting full employment is inconsistent with a "free market" economy. That objection is invalid. Any economist, or layperson with at least average intelligence and a desire for objectivity, knows that America does not have a free market economy. Like every other modern nation we have a managed economy. The primary issue about our economy is who is managing it and who benefits from that management.

It is my belief that the economy must be managed to create full employment (and the reduction of the work week). Of course, we are a long way from full employment. But what better place to start than with our nation's veterans?

The other primary objection to the VFEA might be that our society, our government, does not have the funds to support the full employment of our veterans. That objection is also invalid. America is not a poor nation. we are a very wealthy nation. Our problem is not a shortage of wealth but a shortage of fairness, foresight, common sense and democracy in deciding how America's great wealth is circulated, accumulated, taxed and used.

Furthermore, it is morally objectionable for the politicians who extravagantly fund the profiteering of military contractors to claim that funds cannot be found for the VFEA. Nationalizing national defense and eliminating cost overruns and other aspects of war profiteering will provide more than enough money to initially fund the VFEA. Once operational the VFEA will more than pay for itself.

Family farms and small towns

Historically, one of the great strengths of America was our family farms and the small towns that grew up around and depended upon family farms. Over the past 30 to 40 years, largely due to the influence of campaign funds and the implied promise of lucrative employment after "public service," politicians have turned their backs on family farms and small towns and have instead lavishly supported the corporate agriculture cartel. Tax breaks, subsidies and a variety of other forms of corporate welfare have made it impossible for family farms to compete with the tax payer supported corporate agricultural cartel that now controls America's food supply. Control of our food supply by a corporate cartel has lead to a decline in the quality and safety of food, increased levels of cancer and obesity, environmental degradation and other problems. And of course it has caused the death of many family farms and the small towns that depended upon family farms.

I urge all Minnesotans (and Americans) to contact their national political representatives and ask them to support the Family Farm and Small Town Renewal Act (FFSTRA). The purpose of this legislation is to bring an end to the extravagant tax payer funded subsidies that are now lavished upon the corporate agriculture cartel. Doing so will reduce taxes on poor, working class and middle class Americans. Using a miniscule fraction of the subsidies now given to the agriculture cartel will provide enough money to help usher in the renewal of family farms and small town America.

There is no doubt, at least upon first glance, that the corporate agriculture cartel seems more productive than small family farms. However, this is true only because the agriculture cartel is able to transfer many of its costs to the general public, including generations yet to be born. Transportation costs (including pollution from the overuse of fossil fuels), the degradation of farm land and our bodies through the excessive use of poisonous, cancer causing chemicals, food born illness, the costs of overcrowded cities and suburbs absorbing those who once may have remained in farming communities and other costs are transferred to the general public. When these costs are fully accounted for it will be found that small family farms are far more cost effective and far more beneficial for society than the agricultural cartel.

Working the land with sustainable farming practices is labor intensive work that will help move our nation toward the goal of full employment. Furthermore, it will provide much safer and healthier food than what is provided by the agriculture cartel thereby reducing national health care costs.

I anticipate objections to the FFSTRA. But most if not all of those objections will come from the corporate and economic elite and their well paid minions in politics, the media and so called "think tanks." These individuals favor the domination of our society by corporate cartels and are not to be trusted. The past thirty years makes clear that cartel capitalism is an enemy of democracy, an enemy of America, and is not compatible with the goal of creating a nation "with liberty and justice for all."

An important aspect of FFSTRA is the legalization of industrial hemp. This plant borders on the miraculous. Hemp can provide the raw material for shoes, clothing, paper, building supplies and other products. A vibrant hemp industry would dramatically reduce our reliance on cotton, an industry that is heavily subsidized by tax payers and an industry that causes great damage to the environment. The production of hemp is far more cost effective and environmentally friendly than the production of cotton. Furthermore, hemp would also decrease our reliance on the timber industry, another heavily subsidized industry that is damaging to the environment.

As if the above didn't provide reason enough to renew America's hemp industry, hemp seed is one of the best forms of protein available. And its cost, environmentally and otherwise, is a small fraction of the cost of animal protein. Hemp seed is currently available in breads and cereals but because hemp production is illegal in the United States the seeds have to be imported. Only in Washington, where advocates of cartel capitalism rule, could such logic be defended.

Once the hemp industry is in full bloom (pun intended) every state could develop hemp co-operatives to manufacture shoes, clothing, paper products, building supplies, various food products and other consumer goods. This will allow wealth to continually circulate within our communities and states instead of being siphoned off by the multinational corporations that constantly take wealth from our communities and states. In sum, a vibrant hemp industry will decentralize our economic system, keep wealth in the states and country and create the jobs needed to help reach the goal of full employment.

Critics may object to the hemp industry saying that it conflicts with the "War on Drugs." The war on drugs is of course a war on people, particularly people of color and of modest financial means. I have elsewhere written of the necessity of ending the war on drugs, one of the most inhumane, racist and financially dysfunctional public policies ever created. Hopefully, very soon, an increased use of logic, reason, common sense and common decency by national politicians will end the unholy crusade of drug warriors. Then tax payers will no longer be held hostage by drug warrior’s vindictive, financially irresponsible policies, including their opposition to the hemp industry.

Aside from the previously mentioned objections critics of the VFEA and the FFSTRA may also object to the legislation by saying it is not practical. I would counter that maintaining the current unemployment (and underemployment) rate is not practical. It is not practical to continue to waste, as cartel capitalism does, the employment skills of the American workforce. I would say anything other than a full employment policy is not only impractical; it is inhumane and damaging to the social fabric of our nation.

I hope you agree and will contact your political representatives in Washington, inform them of this web site, and ask them to support our nation's veterans, family farms and small towns by supporting the VFEA and the FFSTRA.