Welcome to The Pickle podcast. My ambitions are high. I want to interview political, reform, independent, business, creative, nonprofit, entrepreneurial, and cultural movers and shakers about the pickle we are in as a country and as a world.

This is a reflective piece more than a data-driven piece. I’m venturing, foolishly perhaps, into a topic that hasn’t traditionally been “one of my issues.”

Of course, it’s everybody’s issue to some degree, as we all see the news and experience a bit of the heart-wrench of the individuals, families, and communities who experience the unthinkable tragedy of a shooting, especially mass shootings.

Nick Brana is the founder of the Movement for a People’s Party.  Its goal is to build a strong coalition of voters, progressive groups and politicians to divert power away from the nation’s established political factions, Brana says don’t adequately represent the people.

Three lessons for independent and third-party candidates and activists will determine the future of our nation and our shared planet.

My position is simple: We are the answer. Our nation and our democracy are in trouble. We need more than enthusiasm from the independent movement. Candidates and activists must sit at the same physical or digital table, debate specific problems, agree on a framework for specific solution sets, then move on to the next problem.

Democracy Initiative is a coalition that has 64 member groups representing nearly 40 million workers.

Launched in 2013, the Democracy Initiative's website says its fundamental mission is to ensure that the voice of every citizen should be heard and counted, so all of us have an equal say in a democracy that's reflective of the constitution.

What is very strangely missing from nearly every discussion in the aftermath of a mass shooting in America is a fundamental belief about ourselves that I thought we had all settled and agreed to as a civilization and codified from the highest philosophical abstractions to the most specific legal applications: The belief that people bear individual, personal responsibility for their actions.

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Another major independent campaign officially announced its launch Thursday. Craig O'Dear, a prominent attorney in Missouri, has officially entered the race for US Senate.

"On this tough day for our nation, I am more resolved than ever to chart a new way forward," O'Dear said on his Facebook Page.

Alexander Matsegora, Moscow’s envoy to North Korea says that any more sanctions on the country’s oil supply would be perceived as a declaration of war.

He went on to tell President Trump, “If the supplies of oil and oil product are stopped, it would mean a complete blockade of the DPRK (North Korea).”

In a democracy, the people have the power, but only if they choose to wield it. With the mercurial state of America’s representative system in recent elections, it’s becoming clear that more involvement from the people is needed.

However, systems like the Electoral College mean that individuals have only so much leverage at the highest levels of government. To be heard, people must take advantage of their opportunities on the local level.

This is how the system is designed, but we need to make some changes in how we use it to realize its potential.

It’s that time of year again…The time of year where President Trump asks for a military parade and the partisans on both sides go nuts.

“It’s like they’re from communist Russia, wanting to show off our military strength in a parade!”

“It’s like they’re from communist Russia, not wanting to support our military with a parade!”

When the idea of a parade is floated, those on the left mainly cite money and seeming fascist as the biggest cons, while those on the right cite “supporting our military” as the biggest pro.

So, what’s the reality?