A Transwoman as US Vice-President?

[Lydia_R]

I'm currently on the ballot for an open US Representative seat in Portland Oregon.  Here are some of the news stories on me:

 

Rachel Lydia Rand on Ballotpedia:

https://ballotpedia.org/Rachel_Rand#Campaign_themes

KATU 2 (ABC) Know Your Candidates 2024: Rachel Lydia Rand

https://www.katu.com/news/know-your-candidates/rachel-lydia-rand-d-congress-district-3

League of Women Voters Candidate Forum for US Representative

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOoS39CTEOw

KOIN 6 Written Interview | top issues, what's going right

https://www.koin.com/news/politics/rachel-rand-on-running-for-district-3-top-issues-whats-going-right/

League of Women Voter's Interview with Rachel Lydia Rand

https://youtu.be/V5o9RKE3WVo

 

 

This is my third time running for US Rep.  Campaigning is very challenging for me because I only have two family members still alive and I've spent less than 2 weeks with them in my life and I have virtually no social network to start with and I don't belong to any social media sites.  I haven't even been able to post here and on sites like it because of rules about self-promotion.

 

I'm boldly saying in these videos that I want to be appointed to vice-president in the next 5 years.  My platform is about addressing climate change and everything that comes with it.  Population decline is the number one proposal I have and it is very, very scary and controversial for most people.  The way I see it is that oil is more than a fuel we burn in our cars, it's a substance we pave our roads with.  And it will run out, so at some point in the future, most of these roads are going to go away and we'll have a much harder time distributing food.  I play chromatic pennywhistle and I'm this iconic whistleblower politician saying that we will not be able to support 10 billion people at the end of the century on wind and solar power.  Even solar panels are made with oil and there isn't much difference between a wind turbine and a dam.  If we can build skyscrapers and nuclear power, then you'd think we'd be able to figure out how to make a wind turbine 100 years ago.  It's simply not as efficient.  The numbers I've crunched say that if we have one child for every two women for the next 40 years and then go back to normal replacement rate, we'll get our population down to 2 billion by 2099 which is where the world was at in 1950.  If we don't do that and stay on this current path for the projected 10 billion by 2100, then when oil runs out and climate change raises sea levels and floods coastal cities, humanity is going to be in a very uncivil situation.

 

I'm sorry that I'm not making a huge issue of transgender rights.  Of course I'm here to support our community.  I'd be highly visible on our national and international scene as a transwoman.  I tend to focus on engineering realities rather than these social issues.  It upsets me that people take engineering for granted.  People tend to just get in their cars and think that there will be some space age technical solution that will make it all OK.

 

OK, that's my rant for the day :-)  Coffee is on.  4:26am.  The ABC station is interviewing me again in a few hours and people can vote for me today.  Please consider spreading the word.  I'm only one person and it takes an incredible amount of effort to keep my political thinking and platform going.

 

Sincerely,

Rachel Lydia Rand

Jazz Musician | Software Engineer

 

[awkward-yet-sweet]

2 hours ago, Lydia_R said:

This is my third time running for US Rep.  Campaigning is very challenging for me because I only have two family members still alive and I've spent less than 2 weeks with them in my life and I have virtually no social network to start with and I don't belong to any social media sites.  I haven't even been able to post here and on sites like it because of rules about self-promotion.

 

I'm boldly saying in these videos that I want to be appointed to vice-president in the next 5 years.  My platform is about addressing climate change and everything that comes with it.  Population decline is the number one proposal I have and it is very, very scary and controversial for most people.  

The numbers I've crunched say that if we have one child for every two women for the next 40 years and then go back to normal replacement rate, we'll get our population down to 2 billion by 2099 which is where the world was at in 1950.  If we don't do that and stay on this current path for the projected 10 billion by 2100, then when oil runs out and climate change raises sea levels and floods coastal cities, humanity is going to be in a very uncivil situation.

 

I think your biggest issue in campaigning is going to be funding.  It simply takes great buckets of money to get into state office, let alone federal. 

 

As for population, I think you're barking up the wrong tree when it comes to America.  Our population is only increasing by immigration. It is 3rd-world nations who have kids like crazy, and then lots of their extra people come to the USA.  Lets look at Nigeria for an example.  Nigeria has a land area of 366k square miles (equivalent to 5 or 6 US midwest states).  They have 218 million people crammed in that space, and most of them want to leave and go elsewhere.  In 1950, Nigeria's population was 32 million - 7x less than today.  In 1950, the population of the USA was 158 million, around half of the 333 million we have today.  And that doesn't take immigration into account.

 

Our population would mostly be stable or even decline if it wasn't for immigration.  So if you want to decrease our domestic population, you'd be looking at a moratorium on immigration....and you wouldn't be running as a Democrat to get that one done.  As for "one kid for every two women," how to you propose to do that?  Chinese-style "one child policy" or government license to have a kid?  China ended up with a demographic collapse, and they have removed the policy.  Then there's 1st Amendment issues.  In Christianity, children are considered to be a good thing.  My area is predominantly Christian, and it is not uncommon to see a woman with 5 or 6 kids.  To accomplish a population reduction goal in the USA, you'd be looking to add a new Amendment to the Constitution, and also have years of litigation regarding infringement on religious freedom. 

 

My own faith community permits plural marriage, and we have "exponential reproduction" as a central principle.  The goal being to increase the size of our community, partly for security and political influence.  At our current reproductive rate (along with shorter generations), we hope to go from a population in the low hundreds to a population of hundreds of thousands by the 22nd century. 

 

Honestly, what I'd like to see (assuming the world stays intact and we don't see the End Times / Apocalypse) is space colonization.  Imagine if we had new planets for people to go to?  We wouldn't have to worry anymore.  Perhaps push for funding for space exploration?  Research to create usable long-distance space ships? 

[Vidanjali]

Have you considered the research that has been done substantiating overpopulation problem as a myth? For example, here is an article by a regional population economics researcher and agricultural economist.

https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/12/12/16766872/overpopulation-exaggerated-concern-climate-change-world-population

 

Moreover, legal limits on childbirth have had unfortunate consequences for China which go well beyond being scary or controversial, but affecting the economy, workforce, and intellectual and creative wealth of the nation.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/02/china-population-control-two-child-policy

 

And noting that such an idea is scary and controversial, I think, is an understatement. We are seeing many unfortunate (that word, also, an understatement) consequences of illegal abortion in the US. A websearch reveals article after article about people who have suffered tremendously from being denied fertility healthcare overtly and technically related to abortion. Below is an overview.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/04/18/human-rights-crisis-abortion-united-states-after-dobbs#:~:text=Abortion bans also harm women's,are exposed to abusive relationships.

 

Not to mention the fact that Black people are STILL disproportionately harmed and abused by the medical community. Legalized limits on childbirth would likewise be  disproportionately harmful to Black people and other disenfranchised populations. An overview: https://www.kff.org/racial-equity-and-health-policy/issue-brief/how-present-day-health-disparities-for-black-people-are-linked-to-past-policies-and-events/

 

And certainly the legal limit on childbirth was enforced discriminatorily in China as well.

https://apnews.com/article/ap-top-news-international-news-weekend-reads-china-health-269b3de1af34e17c1941a514f78d764c

 

One must consider that a dynamic issue such a global sustainability is not solved by addressing only one variable. Instead, a dynamic solution is required. Such a solution would entail, in my opinion, addressing inequities and manifesting progress rather than enforcing restrictions on people's bodies.

 

 

[Mmindy]

Very nice articles about you and your policy views.

I do think that we've missed out when it come to nuclear power generation to reduce our reliance on crude oil and coal. We should have transitioned away from crude oil and coal a long time ago. I'm with Dr. Patrick Moore, former Green Peace founder, on bringing more nuclear power plants online. As for reducing the petrochemical industries use of petroleum based products to manufacture the many consumer products? Many people who don't even think about the everyday used items, coming from refining oil or natural gasses.

 

On a different topic, have you though about hiring someone to handle your social media platforms ie X aka Twitter, Facebook, Instagram? I think it would help you reach more people quicker on the hot topics. I would follow you and re-post as much as I could.

 

Best wishes,

 

Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋

[Lydia_R]

China, India and Africa have the biggest population problems.  I'm a jazz musician who does Zen meditation and cooks curries every day.  Kamala Harris has Indian and African heritage and is strong on Planned Parenthood and abortion rights.  I've reached out several times to Kamala in the last few months to try to get her endorsement.

 

Susheela Jayapal is running against me and she was born in India and is endorsed by Bernie Sanders.  I'd like to see Kamala Harris as president, me as vice-president and Susheela Jayapal and Maxine Dexter in our Oregon Federal positions.  We can be highly visible and move the needle on population world-wide with this combination in my opinion.  If we can't pave our roads in 75 years, how are we going to get food to all those people.  I don't think there is a space age solution to our oil problem and our society must reverse course.

 

As dire as all this sounds, what I'm suggesting is that we give up the rat race and literally have a world sports and music party for the next 40 years while we decrease population.  A decreasing population will have no need for new housing, so that won't be a problem.  I think we can give up this rat race finally.

 

At least China recognizes there is a problem with population and has actually done something to address it.  Yes, our birthrate is falling, but we certainly are not at the 1:2 ratio that I think we need to be at.  Without making a big deal about this, we'll just be following the path of least resistance picking up our mochas on the way to work 40 hours/week in our SUV.

[Lydia_R]

7 minutes ago, Mmindy said:

On a different topic, have you though about hiring someone to handle your social media platforms ie X aka Twitter, Facebook, Instagram? I think it would help you reach more people quicker on the hot topics. I would follow you and re-post as much as I could.

 

I put out an ad on Indeed for a campaign manager in January.  I got 435 responses and had meetings with 2 of them every day for a month.  No one was willing to donate enough time to my campaign to jump start donations so that I could pay them a salary.  Reposting is an excellent idea.  I don't have the time for it.  I'd love it if people would just make creative clones of my website like in the old css zen garden days 20 years ago.  I have $26.50 in my bank account today and need to sell my fancy, almost mint condition, Specialized M2 bicycle for less than $200 to buy food.

 

Stepping into this executive level role like I have is very intense work and I've been sleeping 4 hours a night for the last two months to stay in character.  In other words, I could use some help.  I've had 3 Gen Z transwoman musicians living with me this year and all 5 of us that have lived in my house this year have significant time living in cars and the streets.  My first wife is a symphony conductor, arranger, bass trombonist and carpenter who used to do concrete work on the freeway.  I have a picture of her on a private plane with Yo-Yo Ma from almost a quarter century ago.  I'm not just some crazy street person with $26.50 in my bank account.  I've played music for Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton and I played a gig with Ray Charles in 1995.  And that is just the beginning of my story.  It's not easy to change the reproductive habits of 8 billion people.

[Mmindy]

28 minutes ago, Lydia_R said:

It's not easy to change the reproductive habits of 8 billion people.

@Lydia_R I know you're doing the best you can, and I wish you the best.

 

Hugs,

 

Mindy🌈🐛🏳️‍⚧️🦋

[Lydia_R]

55 minutes ago, Mmindy said:

As for reducing the petrochemical industries use of petroleum based products to manufacture the many consumer products? Many people who don't even think about the everyday used items, coming from refining oil or natural gasses.

 

I've realized that our laptops are using much less plastic than they used to.  They are smaller devices that use less raw materials and are easier to ship and hold up better in shipping than bigger computers with removable parts.  They seem to have gotten rid of the overheating/fan problem for the most part, but there is a performance hit for that.  I use a 10yo desktop computer with a moderate level gaming video card to run 3 monitors.  I'm a producer though and most consumers have no need for that.

 

I really haven't watched TV since the 80's.  I spend some time researching on the internet and then I spend a lot of time meditating on the objects in my environment and on the streets.  From living on the streets for a year, I've learned that people can say anything and can control you, but the laws of physics and mathematics are outside of that and really even transcend time itself.  After people would not support my music, I built my life as a software engineer based on mathematics and engineering.  I've had a moderately successful career with that and have written code for many different industries.

 

The problem with stopping oil usage is that if we still need the bitumen to pave our roads and shingle our houses, then what do we do with the gas when we refine it?  There are natural deposits of bitumen, but you know, with so many people out there, demand is huge and we are using this stuff up.  If you grow corn for corn syrup, then what do you do with the cobs?  We've shipped coffee and bananas all over the world.  We took material from those environments.  What do we do now?  How long can it last?

[awkward-yet-sweet]

To me, it sounds like a solution searching for a problem.  I believe in the Russian perspective, that oil is abiotic and likely under every part of the Earth's surface.  There's plenty.  "Peak oil" and "climate" are excuses for government control.

 

As for roads, we use asphalt because tar and bitumen are a byproduct of fuel production, not the other way around.  Asphalt is not a great material, really.  It can also be recycled somewhat and used again.  Notice how road crews grind down existing asphalt into powder?

Concrete is a better material for roads.  But in areas like where I live, very little of our roads are paved.  Gravel is a luxury, and a lot of roads are mud.  Same in many "developing" nations.  Pavement is better for transport, but its not like we would die without it.  Lack of pavement might actually be a good thing, as people might stay home more and food might be grown locally instead of relying on transportation.  It would stop this wacky idea of growing everything in California.  

 

I believe the big crisis we face is globalism and government control.  Proposing some scheme to control our families? That's just more of the same.  Even if folks managed to get enough votes (or rig enough elections) to get the power to do that, it won't be as VP or president of the USA in its current 50-state form.

 

[RaineOnYourParade]

While I agree with a lot of the campaign personally, I don't think a government-mandated reduction in childbirth is really necessary. As a young person, I hardly know anyone who wants to be a parent in the future. I think a lot of people will either be waiting a while or not having kids at all, meaning that the number of kids being born will probably decrease. Overcrowding's also mostly an urban issue -- plenty of places in rural America have plenty of space for both people and growing food. 

 

Of course, everyone sees things differently, so I won't necessarily say you're wrong. I just think my generation is a lot less inclined to the family mindset than some that came before us. 

[Lydia_R]

Thanks for your thoughtful reply @RaineOnYourParade.  I totally understand and agree with what you said.  I'm in no way proposing a law to decrease population.  It must be done on the demand side.  My role in this is simply to be highly visible and inspiring on many different levels and cultures from around the world.

 

We tend to focus on changing laws and that is addressing things on the supply side.  If we make a law to tax a type of business to try to steer the economy, we are changing the supply side.  People don't think of politics as a demand side thing, but our leaders should be inspiring us to change our behaviors.  Like the motto I was taught in the Navy "lead by example".  Although I could have tried to do this all with my music, I was not going to be successful with that.  It's reasonable to try to have a career as a highly visible politician to lead like this.

 

I never had any children that I know about.  I've had a pretty fabulous life.  Lots of ups and downs.  Lots of adventures.  Because I wasn't watching TV and I wasn't having children, I had to fill my time with something.  Although I am super ambitious with this political thing, all I really want to do is cook a nice curry dinner and have an intimate evening playing music for/with a partner and/or a friend or two.  And of course I enjoy cleaning the house and doing some writing, math and things.  I try to give back to society, but I'm not one of these people who just wants to serve.

 

It's very encouraging what the younger generation is doing in my opinion.  It's rough around the edges and I feel we could be more intentional about things.  Since population is declining, and I'm suggesting it to decline even more, we'll have this problem of there not being enough young people to take care of the old people.  I'm very strong on protecting our younger generation from having to babysit old people.  There simply aren't enough of them to do it like it is being done now.  I think this population reduction stuff is so important and this younger generation is just inheriting all these realities that I want to totally get them out of the business of taking care of older people.  The idea is to get medications mailed to them.  Make doctor visits very short and sweet.  Get old people staffing old folks homes.  I think we have a huge problem with mental health treatment in this country.  I think our economic realities from greater automation and income disparity have lead too many people to fall into despair.  We have to do something with our time and if we get rid of jobs with automation, and we stop making making housing (a decreasing population doesn't need more housing), then we still have to do something with our time.  I was successful at fighting addiction with relatively low carbon emitting work.  I make apps on the computer and record music in my living room.  I don't own a car.  I've been working part time from home for 12 years.  I actually work an excessive amount to do politics like this, but I have had periods of downtime.

 

3 hours ago, RaineOnYourParade said:

Overcrowding's also mostly an urban issue -- plenty of places in rural America have plenty of space for both people and growing food.

 

Totally!  I think that humanity is just going to go in reverse here and these rural areas are going to be popular with younger people.  Set them up with some wind turbines.  Adjust to not having power 24/7.  Plenty of space to grow food.  Keep up the roads well enough to truck in some grains and other supplies.  As long as climate change doesn't cause some kind of environmental or insect problem, I think these rural places are going to be great.  I think we'll have to pick and choose which ones to continue supporting and which ones to abandon.  There are always details to work out.

 

I think in a world that is aging with declining population, people who are more unhealthy are going to be moving towards the cities and people who are healthier and middle age will move to the suburbs.  The suburbs are OK places as long as you are strong enough to get around by bicycle.  As someone who is 53 and physically fit, I groove on the idea of those big houses in the suburbs becoming house parties.  Perhaps I'm just dreaming though! LOL!

4 hours ago, awkward-yet-sweet said:

Concrete is a better material for roads.

 

@awkward-yet-sweet is making some interesting points here.  My first wife did concrete work on the freeways in Chicago.  They do that up there because the extreme cold cracks the asphalt.  Those freeways are annoying with all the bumping between joints, but the roads last a long time.  But it takes a lot of industrial heat to make concrete.  Yes, humanity got along without the paved roads before and we can do it again.  We all inherited this world the way it is.  Sure, us older people contributed to it as well, but this whole industrialization/globalization thing has been going on a long time.  Perhaps we will avoid the horse and buggy thing and do a lot of mountain biking?

[Lydia_R]

Not to bump this up or anything, but I just want to put one more note on the end of this...

 

Thank you for allowing me to post this here and thank you for all who have responded.  This step has been a huge help to me on my political journey.  I've made several key decisions in the last few days that allow me to run a better campaign for the next 4 years.  I worked my way off of the streets 20 years ago by writing math and computer programming on paper.  10 years later I was able to buy a house with the software engineering work that I was doing.  Now 20 years after getting off of the streets and having two failed bids for US Representative and likely another failed bid in the next couple weeks, I've come to the point of selling my house to run a very frugal campaign for vice-president (it's a thing even though it is an appointed position) for the next 4 years, all on the money I have earned from that work I did on the streets.

 

My policy going forward is that I'm not going to ask for money and I'm not going to ask for people's votes.  The vice-presidency is an appointed position.  I'm also not going to run for legislative offices anymore.  I'm simply going to tour the country on my own dime looking for good people and a strong millennial female who sees my logic and would like to be president.

 

I have reached out to tens of thousands of people on my own dime in the last 7 years.  Famous people, ultra-famous people, business leaders, civil engineers, random people, news people, educators, unions, politicians.  I certainly got less than 5 emails from those efforts.  Actually, I only really remember one person.  He is an educator and we had a good Zoom meeting.

 

I'm not bitter.  I'm not complaining.  Those of you who have followed me on this site know I like to keep things positive and talk about cooking and living healthy.  I hope that this post doesn't get buried.  I think the title is strong and my message is clear.  I don't want to bog this site down with the details of the whole thing.  I simply want people to know that there is a transwoman working to be vice-president.  Notice that I didn't title this a-transwoman-as-us-respresentative.  My politics are executive level.  I'm a whistleblower, not a complainer.  I aim to educate and inspire.

[Lydia_R]

[awkward-yet-sweet]

If you're looking for a millennial female who might be interested, maybe contact Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez? Y'all might have some things in common, and I think she and her partner are doing the "childless" thing.   

 

Interesting that your wife did concrete work.  My GF spent some time laying concrete for her own projects....while 6 months pregnant.   She's a very stubborn girl.  Probably the exact opposite of the millennial female you're looking for, since she's a mother of 5 (and wished she could have more.)  Interesting how folks can have similar origins, but come to opposite conclusions.  My GF grew up in dire poverty, stealing to eat and take care of her little sister.  As a young adult, she spent several years living in a commune, and was a member of an armed communist political movement.  Now she's probably the most fervent anti-leftist, anti-government person you could ever find.  Experiences really shape who we are. 

 

The lesson I draw from this is that globalism is not the right solution, and even the USA is too large a nation for everybody to agree.  Time to downsize voluntarily, before a civil war does it for us.  Some folks suggest that the USA could become between 4 and 7 different nations.  The way the world is going, I suspect you'll get your "depopulation" wish....but it will come about through war, plagues, and famine.