Tom Ellis’ comments at the annual dinner November 2024

Introductory comments
With the Trump victory, we will have to devote considerable attention to preserving what remains of the federal separation of powers and the checks and balances.
Our national government is a mess and the US is rushing toward fascism. Today, the United States is much more of a billionaires club than a republic. We have allowed corporations to become far too powerful and individual people to accumulate wealth without limits: tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars. We would benefit from a constitutional amendment eliminating corporate constitutional rights, other than freedom of the press. We, as a nation, should confiscate the billionaires’ wealth and limit personal wealth to $100 million or less.
We should fully publicly finance election campaigns. We need to break out of the two-party straitjacket.
We need to change how we vote. Instant runoff elections and open primaries tend to hurt extremist candidates, as Sarah Palen experienced two years ago. Thus changing how we vote may help stabilize the nation.
We should recognize that we need a peace party in the United States, and the Democrats are not it.
We need to develop effective methods of persuading people that peace, diplomacy and disarmament are preferable to war, brinkmanship and war preparations. We will have to build larger coalitions with: (1) immigrant and refugee communities; (2) LGBTQ groups, especially trans, many of whom are extremely scared right now; (3) reproductive rights activists; (4) poor people; and (5) people of color. We will need to be extremely vigilant next year to lock any effort to transform the United States as Germany was in 1933.
The United States, Russia, and Ukraine
I do not support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I favor an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine with no forward soldier and weapons movements or armaments deliveries from abroad, negotiations to end the war, and the replacement of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization with a continent-wide security arrangement that includes Russia.
I doubt Russia will depart Crimea while NATO exists. The US should make certain that no US-supplied weapons are used in Russia because doing so might spark a nuclear war.
Establishing warm and friendly US-Russia relations lays the groundwork for agreements and treaties that reduce military spending, advance nuclear disarmament and peace, and stabilize the climate and biodiversity.
The United Nations
We should advocate for restructuring the Security Council by enlarging it to include every nation with fifty million or more people and to end the ability of any nation to veto resolutions. This would empower the Security Council to threaten and impose political sanctions on warring nations, and hopefully prevent and quickly end wars.
Wars and war preparations
The primary reason the United States and Israel do not want peace is because both nations wish to permanently maintain their enormous armaments manufacturing infrastructures. Both nations are vast laboratories of weapons research and development; both are eager for opportunities to battle-test their newest killing techniques and technologies.
Making a genuine, warm, loving peace with the world would eliminate the need for enormous military establishments in Israel and the United States. Without peace between nations, we have no hope of making peace with the environment.
We should also recognize that solving planetary environmental health problems requires serious, sustained international cooperation that can not occur simultaneously with multiple major wars and massive armaments manufacturing.
Related goals we should advocate for include ratifying the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, enlarge nuclear weapons free zones, and enact much stronger gun safety laws in the United States.
One issue we may be able to win is to advocate for decommissioning the 400 aged long-range, land-based Minuteman III ICBMs, and canceling its replacement, the Sentinel ICBM.
The United States, Israel, and Palestine
The US should end the special relationship and establish normal diplomatic relations with Israel, similar to what the US has with Costa Rica. No more unwavering support, no more financing, arming. and enabling ethnic cleansings, targeted assassinations, and genocide.
The United States should declare its independence from Israel and vicious Zionism, end weapons sales and gifts to Israel, and lead international efforts to impose political sanctions on Israel until it fully complies with the recent UNGA resolution ordering Israel to vacate all the territories conquered in the 1967 war.
I would strongly oppose imposing economic sanctions on Israel or any other nation such that Israelis would starve to death, as Israel, with US help, is now inflicting on Gaza Strip Palestinians.
Economic Sanctions
The United States should end its economic sanctions on Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and many other nations, and offer to establish diplomatic relations with every nation.
Thank you