Why I really want to ask minor party 2024 presidential candidates to drop out, but am not doing so.

 I want to write a “letter” (really just this blog post), asking Jill Stein and Chase Oliver to drop out and endorse Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, … but that’s unAmerican and not democratic of me. 

Image credit. This is a screen shot from ballotpedia.org

The full list of 2024 Presidential candidates is crazy long, just look at this dear American registered voter, click this and scroll “FOREVER”!!! Actually 1,212 people!

The reason, I really want to ask the minor party candidates to drop out and endorse Kamala Harris has two parts. 

FEDERAL ELECTIONS 2016: Election Results for the U.S. President, the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives

1. The 2016 official final vote count. 

A screen shot of the final numbers from Page 6. Of the US Federal Elections Commission report from 2016. The link to the full .pdf to Read and weep.

The second reason, is not because of who won, but the real reason why I’m writing this blog post is because the US Electoral College is broken and working against the will of the majority of Americans. As evidenced by the 2016 election and 2000 US Presidential Elections where the majority of the American people voted for the candidate who did not win. 

Personally, I’ve never recovered my disillusionment with the failure of our presidential election system Al Gore versus W. Bush in 2000. My ears still sting with “that” News broadcaster calling the election for W. Bush BEFORE the votes were counted!!! I can still see him in my mind’s eye committing treason against the American people pointing at a chart while votes were still rolling in. Haunting my memories I can still hear the lame stream news, in the final days leading up to the that election saying over and over how the candidates were the same?! It was so surreal, it was so obvious (esp. In retrospect) one was for climate change (An Inconvenient Truth … https://algore.com/library/an-inconvenient-truth ) and the other was for drill baby drill. And here we are 24 years later. And for me, THAT election is IMHO is the one that may have destroyed us. The what-ifs are the red line drawn in blood in the sand. 

Could 9/11 been prevented with a different Administration in the White House? Would we be in a more competitive era via technology and renewable energy with a more tech savvy, globally conscious president fighting for us instead of sending us to war in the Middle East? (because 9/11 didn’t happen in this imaginary time-line). But, reality.. You know, deal with it. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_in_which_the_winner_lost_the_popular_vote

Soooooooooooo? “Sigh” instead of writing a blog post about why Jill and Chase should drop out and endorse Kamala, it would be better if ALL OF THE CANDIDATES instead endorsed the vote of the American people! 

How? The news media could ask all of the candidates running in the 2024 election if they support a congressional amendment to update the electoral college for free and fair elections. 

The US Electoral College needs to be an issue in this 2024 election. The fact that this process is working against the will of the majority of the American people needs to be addressed and amended. 

The candidates themselves need to make a promise to the American people, that if elected as POTUS they would have a national discussion to prepare an amendment before congress to repair the out of balance electoral college system to fairly represent the vote of the American people to support free and fair elections and the peaceful transition of power. 

And for obvious reasons, we the people can’t get this done during the last less than 50 days of this year’s US presidential election. All we can do as voters is vote for the candidate who promises to support free and fair elections. 

And sorry, Jill and Chase and all the other candidates “running” for POTUS in this joke of a broken system. You too have no option but to cast your vote and either throw it away as a protest, or vote for someone who has a chance in hell of winning in the system as it currently is. 

P.S. Just in case anyone wondered. It’s my personal policy to research all the candidates in the primary, and vote for whomever I like best IN THE PRIMARY. But, when it’s down to the wire, in the actual November or midterm elections. I vote for the candidate who has the greatest odds for winning (even if I only kinda sorta like them).

And in the 2020 primary, researching everybody on my ballot, watching the debates over four years ago now, I voted for someone else in the 2020 primary, but, Kamala Harris was in my top 5 list out of all those super candidates we had to choose from before their was only two old white men running. 

Putting Social Media into Perspective

Feb 2026 Update 

This post originated in 2024, with my 3rd personal social media test, but started to take shape in question form around 2018.

old desktop monitor set on books and boards

Not using AI doesn’t stop it from using your share of the world’s energy, it uses your phone, it uses your larger than phone computers. If it isn’t “it”/an AI, then it’s a webcrawling bitcoin “miner”. For example, web bots “hit” my writing blog at a rate of 20 to 1, when compared to the clicks inside the ‘blog-posts-read-analytics’. 

My point is, if we are going to fight back, we must get organized and do it together. 

I have a why, point a. and point b.

Here’s point a.:

Just FYI this is written by me, not AI. 

Four types of mob mentality? 
1. Deadly mob mentality.
2. Audience mentality.
3. The collective intelligence.
4. Social media memes.

The classic old as dirt, deadly mob mentality type 1, with pitch forks and fire, burning witches at the stake, the biblical stoning of adulters, people who were adored as part of their tribe before, the screaming and trampling of people fleeing from a burning theater, trampling people to death at a concert or a stampede at a sports event. 

The second type is active but not deadly, the audience mentality, sports and music fans screaming and yelling, they can turn into the deadly mob, but if not afraid (fleeing for their lives) or drunk, they will silence to a murmur at the raise of the umpire’s hand or when a person on the stages calls for the attention of the crowd. 

The third type is the collective intelligence. The collective intelligence works together, sorts the data and does the math to figure out how many emergency exits, and what type of signage can prevent a stampede to help allow people to exit the stadium or theater without fear, preventing deadly mob mentality. 

On a national scale the collective intelligence takes form in democracy, when people work together to maintain liberty and justice for everyone. 

The collective intelligence is whenever thousands (or even hundreds) of people work together as a united team, to win, make a movie, or to get to the moon. Or for a famous historical example, the multinational simultaneous development of the automobile. 

The hive mind works together. When you ask many people a complex question, and then combine the answers on a data point cloud chart, you can find the most accurate answer to even unanswerable questions. Like what are emotions, how to best mitigate climate change damage, or how to best plan farm land. The intelligent answers will line up, the not so smart answers will sort of spread and sink, or sometimes clump to the bottom (people who were making jokes etc… like “Boaty McBoatFace” for a collective naming example that went to the jokes, not to the intelligence area of the point cloud). 

This brings me to the fourth type of human mob mentality – the meme. It’s only possible because of the internet and social media. Before the internet, there were physical on the streets fads or trends. Some patterns of imitated behaviour, like cat calling by groups of men etc…Sort of similar to social media trolls.  

But, the on the street of a city this collective action isn’t to the extent of a mob (unless it is an actual mob, like a riot), because people physically on the side walks are scattering, going to where they intend to go, thinking about work, food, their loved ones, the dog they are walking etc… 

But, meme mentality is something else. Destructive when the meme is based on fear or hate, but usually it’s about recursive self examination. Memes are mobs because masses of people are focused on something all together as a shared experience. And like screaming in a crowd, it sort of takes over our collective sanity for a bit. 

Pause and think about each of the four types of mob mentality, when in your life have you experienced. 

1. Have you been a witness to or worse part of a dangerous mob? 

2. Think about how it felt to part of a large audience in the moment together. If you haven’t done this, pick a crowd event that you would enjoy, it’s really worth it and has to be experienced to understand. 

3. Have you experienced working with others to be part of the collective intelligence? For me it was working on a few indie movie crews, and some large college and high school projects that involved over a hundred people.

4. Have you participated in a viral meme conversation? How did that feel, everyone sharing how they saw some seemingly trivial details of media on a large scale, together. 
Of course reply in comments with interesting thoughts totally welcome. But, we shall see if the 7 social media apps I post on let anyone in my home feeds see this. 
Why? Because of this. 

Point b. Is best described by a question I asked Google search Ai a couple of days ago. 

Me: Is it possible or just coincidence that the social media apps only let one person see your posts in their home feed and shuffle all the rest with their profit algorithm?

AI: It is definitely possible and highly likely that this is happening, and it is almost certainly not a coincidence.

What you are describing is the core function of modern social media algorithms—a, “profit algorithm,” as you put it, which prioritizes engagement to keep users scrolling and, ultimately, to sell ads. 

Here is why you only see that one person:

The "Relationship Strength" Factor: The algorithm tracks who you talk to, whose posts you like, and who you visit. If you, or the other person, engage frequently, the platform deems that relationship “strong” and constantly prioritizes them at the top of your feed.
The "Relevance" Score: The algorithm predicts what you want to see based on past behavior. If you have clicked on similar posts before, the algorithm will show you more of that, even if it ignores 95% of your other friends.

The "Profit" Mechanism: Social media platforms want you to stay on the app. They show you content that makes you engage (like, comment, or share) because that keeps you on the platform longer. The “shuffle” of other posts is actually a curated, ranked feed designed to maximize your time-on-platform, not to show you everything in chronological order. 

Why does this happen?

Too Much Content: You are probably connected to more people than you can keep up with. The algorithm filters this for you, but it filters for engagement, not necessarily for importance.
Echo Chamber Effect: Once the algorithm decides you like that one person, it keeps showing them to you, creating a self-reinforcing loop.
Active Engagement Required: To see more diverse posts, you need to actively engage with other friends' posts. 

How to Bypass It

Check the "Feeds" or "Following" Tab: Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms often have a "Feeds" tab that shows you posts in chronological order (or at least, less heavily ranked).
Use "Favorites": Mark the friends you actually want to see as "Favorites."
"See First": On Facebook, you can select "See First" on specific friends. 
So, while it feels like a conspiracy to restrict your social circle, it is a deliberate, personalized,, and profit-driven curation strategy.

Me, to myself after I copy and paste this. Well, shit. And once again, what are you going to do about it?

Hey, one person who sees this post in my home feed. Any ideas? 

Here's to all the voices of the "little" people on the interwebs.