Rep. John Delaney running for Pres. in 2020

Democratic Rep. John Delaney is running for Pres., making him the first "mainstream" Democrat to run in the 2020 cycle.  He doesn't have a really long congressional tenure and thus doesn't have a lot to go by in terms of foreign policy record, but he seems decent and certainly light-years better than a neofascist such as Trump.  Were he to get the Democratic nomination, I'd recommend voting for him in a close race.

Billings Montana local elections

My city, Billings Montana, is having some local elections.  These elections, of course, don't affect foreign policy, but since there is a mayoral candidate who is a far right Republican (who I think was a Trump supporter) and a city council candidate who was a Vietnam War era veteran who has nationalist symbolism on his facebook page, I decided it would be best to vote against these two candidates, despite whatever shortcomings their opponents may have.

Willie Carter webstore update

Democratic Presidential candidate Willie F Carter has updated his webstore with new 2020 merchandise.  All purchases go towards funding his 2020 Presidential campaign, and there is an option to donate as well.

http://merch01.siteprotect.com/williecarterforpresident.com/

Willie Carter, Jack Fellure, and Rocky De La Fuente declare 2020 candidacies.

It appears as though three perennial candidates have declared their intentions to once again run for President in 2020.  Willie Carter, who has ran in every US Presidential election since 1988, Jack Fellure, the 2012 Prohibition Party nominee and frequent Republican primary candidate, and Rocky De La Fuente, who was the Reform Party nominee of 2016, have all expressed intentions to run for President in the next cycle.  Carter is supportive of removing US troops from Afghanistan and cooperating with other countries.  He ran as a Democratic write-in candidate in several states last year, receiving a few recorded write-in votes which can be found on thegreenpapers.com.  Fellure is an ultra-conservative Christian fundamentalist whose foreign policy views are not entirely known, although he has criticized "flag burners and draft dodgers" before, which does not bode well for him holding any sort of anti-war type of views.  De La Fuente seems to hold non-interventionist views as far as the military is concerned, but his 2016 running mate was a rabid Zionist by the name of Michael Steinberg who took fierce pro-Israel positions which are inherently pro-war and  intervention.  I could potentially recommend voting for De La Fuente in 2020 if he chooses a better running mate the next cycle.  Despite Carter's shortcomings, he's still more anti-war than Republicans are and even perhaps most Democrats, including Sanders.  I would not recommend voting for Fellure under any circumstances unless I later acquire information to suggest he holds some kind of non-interventionist views.  None of the three appear to have started fundraising yet, although Carter's 2016 webstore is still active and possibly his 2016 donation venues as well, which he may possibly use for 2020 funding of his campaign.  I have not checked the donation link for De La Fuente to see if it's still active or not, but his website still reflects his 2016 run.  The only things on Carter's page that seem to have been updated to reflect 2020 are his volunteer page and a page that shows some campaigning he did in December.

Differences between Socialist and Green Party nominees on the Syrian issue

There appear to be some key differences on the outlook of the Socialist and Green Party nominees on the Syrian question this election.  While Green Party nominee Jill Stein supports the US working with Russia and Iran to help secure the Syrian government's claim on all of it's sovereign territory, the Socialist Party USA nominee Emidio Soltysik is in opposition to this plan, and referred to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad as a "monster".   The nominees of other socialist parties such as Party of Socialism and Liberation's Gloria La Riva and Workers World Party's Monica Moorehead are more in agreement with Stein on this issue, both in support of the Syrian government's claim to it's sovereign territory and of Russian and Iranian involvement.

Unaffiliated Write-in candidates running for President

There are several unaffiliated write-in candidates running for President in the 2016 general election as well.  Among them are Ameer Flippin, Cherunda Fox, and Laio Morris.  I wasn't able to find out much about Flippin's views, but he does have a wesbite that details a select few of his standpoints.  Fox seems to be conservative leaning on some issues and more critical of Hillary than of Trump, but she also supports slave reparations and ending overseas war involvement.  Morris has an overall good platform of a $5,000 a month basic guaranteed income for qualifying households as well as all-around anti-war and progressive views across the board.

2016 Update

The general election is close to a month away and all the party nominees have been decided.  The Democrats have nominated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had a very neoconservative pro-war voting record while in congress.  The Republicans have nominated Donald Trump, who wants to increase the military budget and bring back US use of torture on terror suspects.  The Libertarian Party has nominated Gary Johnson, who endorsed George W. Bush in 2000 and supported the initial invasion of Afghanistan.  The Green Party has nominated Dr. Jill Stein, who expresses a desire to close US bases overseas and exhibits overall anti-war sentiment.  The Socialist Party has nominated Emidio Soltysik, who also expresses strong anti-war views and opposition to US imperial ambitions overseas.  Other anti-war third party candidates include Party of Socialism and Liberation's Gloria La Riva, Workers World Party's Monica Moorehead, Socialist Equality Party's Jerry White, Independent Write-in candidate Cherunda Fox, and the Prohibition Party's James Hedges.