Democratize the USA now!

As I posted on facebook to my fellow Americans! Just had a conversation with my best friend back there who is depressed about Trump's election. I pointed out that Hilary was pretty despicable as well. 
I'm sad that the Klu Klux Klan held a victory rally for Trump in the state I was born in, but I'm also really disappointed with the protests of Trump- now hear me out as to why: 
I wish everyone considering protesting the man would protest the specific conditions that brought him about instead. The most obvious of which is the electoral college. Seriously- the electoral college was established when only property holding white men could vote in order to make sure that EVEN THEY did not get an egalitarian democratic system- rather one controlled by the elite of property holding white men...just go read article two of the constitution in light of Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Papers. No one was hiding what the point of this was back then...Now people would be wise, in my humble opinion, to move past the 14th amendment and just fight to abolish this anachronistic mess altogether. And while they are fighting for democracy, they should get the FEC to fund a few more parties, and put them on the ticket in all states, to break the two party monopoly.
These struggles are infinitely winnable. At present it would take 5% of an election to get a third party on the ballot in the next election...or about 1 million signatures...what the heck are you people waiting for? Go round up the signatures and start filing the paperwork now...with the advent of the internet it could be done with a few dozen people in each state working together.
And people in the territories i.e. Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S.V.A, frankly, I'm not sure why you aren't in open revolt already... this whole PROMESA thing laid bare you are being made into subservient colonial subjects. The problem is the average mainlander doesn't know you exist. Really. I promise to wave your flag when you revolt. 

I tend to disdain politics, but things have gotten so bad, I'm going to put forth a modest proposal of what we might do to save the world. Because we should be building the future better than the past. 
Here are the five things Americans should do in order to democratize the country:

1. Get rid of the electoral college. 

Plenty of ideas in the original constitution had to go in the move towards democracy. Like that whole more representation based on color thing. Thats where the whole infamous blacks as three fifths of a person thing came from. From the original constitution  

Article 1, Section 2, Paragraph 3 :

Representatives... shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.

Keep the dream of democracy in the USA alive- ban the electoral college!

2. Start voting for all citizens of voting age regardless of geography!

Perhaps you weren't aware, but millions and millions of your fellow citizens can not vote because they are considered to be of "alien race" by virtue of living in a US territory.  Puerto Ricans, Guamanians, U.S.Virgin Islanders, American Samoans...any of these people living in the US territories but not residing in a state can not vote in the national election... what is interesting is that these people tend to serve in the US military in disproportionally high numbers. On the other hand thousands of US citizens living abroad can and do vote. Perhaps because I live in Israel I kept getting messages reminding me to vote - because I could vote from "anywhere". Apparently while anywhere includes the outer reaches of the Golan heights, it does not include Puerto Rico,  an hour plane ride away from Miami full of 3.5 millions of US citizens.

3. Let criminals vote!

Admit it, your government is run by criminals anyways...in many cases much worse than some of the people behind bars. I mean seriously, Hillary probably should be in jail. If I were getting millions from shady Saudis over arms deals, wouldn't I be in jail? Of course it sounds absurd...because poor black people like me tend to commit much less profitable crimes, then get slammed out of normal citizenship for them. Why should people lose their right to vote based on crimes like smoking weed, when Hillary walks free?

4. Overturn Citizens United!

Corporations are not people. Large stacks of money are not people. People are people....have you all gone mad?! You live in a country where the bottom half of people have approximately no money- or less than that because they are in debt- and a few families and wealthy individuals own nearly everything. Think I'm kidding? The Walton family has 149 billion. You- if your are like most Americans- have a credit card, and  maybe an old computer. If money buys political speech your voices will not be heard.

5. Fight for third parties!

Most functional democracies have more than two parties. With the advent of the Clintonocrats you have less. Do you find it curious how Obamacare was Romneycare...or how welfare reforms slashing benefits came in under Bill Clinton? It's because nearly every politician is really a variation of the same right winger in US politics. Both major parties are for endless war in the middle east, militarism, and money. Big money. Wall street money. Time for a party that is more than window dressing for militarized corporate rule. Any day now...


Good luck with that from your American dissident in exile Dr. Moore.

Essure America

Reading about Essure only reinforces my knowledge that the USA is a medical disaster zone and NOTHING only approved there should be trusted. This is no tin foil hat babble, check out the BMJ: Safety and efficacy of hysteroscopic sterilization compared with laparoscopic sterilization: an observational cohort study - November 19, 2015

What frightens me is that Essure has nickel in it. Anyone who even went to medical school knows that nickel is the world's most common allergy. Nickel sensitivity is veery well studied and in some populations the sensitivity to nickel is over 10%! (Menne T, Borgan O, Green A. Nickel allergy and hand dermatitis in a stratified sample of the Danish female population: an epidemio-logical study including a statistic appendix. Acta Derm Venereol 1982;62:35-41.)What were these people thinking? This device is about as well thought out as telling women to stuff their vaginas with anything on-hand to prevent pregnancy...and just like that would do, this has also killed people from toxic shock syndrome.

Dear Amira Hess, it's not so simple....

So Amira,
Surprisingly we have never met. Given how small the Israeli left is, you would think we would have at least seen each other. I am a card carrying member of the lunatic left. My one and only publication in the Hebrew press is in Zo Ha Derech - amcommunist leaflet which is probably read only by Israels remaining 200 or so extreme leftists, and 200 members of the state security apparatus.  I was at lots of protests against the wars, active in Physicians for Human Rights and so on...but, on the other hand, I have not lived in Israel for that long.
In fact, I only made Aliya last year. Like you I had questions about why people would exercise this right that wasn't universal, and more importantly seemed mixed up with the oppression of another people. But you would never guess what precisely changed my mind...
I had attended the Technion. There I met many wonderful and complicated intellectuals including one Muslim colleague who happened to be related to a staunchly anti-Zionist politician. This guy was brilliant and kind. Years ago like every other girl in my neighborhood, I had a crush on him. As it turned out he refused to date me because I am Jewish or Jewish by association with a part of my family at least. Once he even told me "I hate Jews" to my face. I didn't think much of it, because frankly, as a black American, I've had a few "I hate white people" moments in my head.
A couple years ago I was back in the holy land, and ran into him. We caught up. I shyly mentioned that I was trying to immigrate. "I know what you think...it's wrong" I began, and rattled off a list of issues from the philisophical to the practical about Aliya. He interrupted me somewhere right around a tangent about how the legal system was designed to favor certain people..."What are you crazy?" he asked. "Come home. Just ten minutes ago you admitted you have to work so hard over there as a doctor you literally nearly died in a car crash driving home after a long shift. Come home. This is your life we are talking about! Come home!" he said, and then in a few seconds he realized the political implications of telling me it was my home and added "I mean, get a work permit so you can work in my country." And there you have it-the ultimate realization of a dream of labor Zionism. People, politically Palestinian or not, respect people who work.
I did come home, and my life- especially as a leftist- got better. Let me point out two ways. 1. My paycheck includes overtime regardless of who I work on. In the USA many of my extra hours would simply not be counted due to extreme capitalism. Here I'm a proud union member, able to provide by work as a doctor to anyone regardless of their ability to pay. In the USA, I might lose my medical license for such liberal socialist action. 2. My opinions can actually be expressed through elections. Unlike the USA, there is an extreme left involved in the government instead of hidden by a two party system featuring two corrupt parties. Outsiders may not have realized it, but the US is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Here in Israel taking money as a government official to influence you is usually illegal and called for what it is- corruption. In the US we call such actions many names: campaign contributions, lobbying and so on, and it's all part of the system.
So in sum, I found myself a place where I can labor with respect, and be part of the democratic process. I'll be using my labor and democratic rights to support many of the same causes as you do Amira...so ultimately, am I decreasing or increasing the problems of other people? Who knows, and frankly, who cares. After all, no one is paying that much attention to one crazy person. On the other hand if enough crazy people like me start showing up, we may eventually start some new confederated state with freedom, labor rights and democracy for everyone. Is that so bad?