Congress – Fish or Cut Bait

Well I’m going to fish of course. For three hundred dollars? That’s what it costs to file for Congress in Minnesota. That’s nuthin for a thousanaire like me.

My most recent plan was to finish my book for Congressional campaigning in May. We are past the ides. So last night after binging on three PBS Finale’s I texted S. my French pen pal to say I will be hard to reach for the next two weeks. I decided my first task, after limiting myself to a single hour of NPR’s Morning Edition was to research getting an ISBN number for my book. Before I found this page I ran into all sorts of self publishing business websites. Sheesh.

This will be my second ISBN number. I got my first ISBN – 0-9632953-0-6 in 1992 for another book I used to campaign for Congress. I wrote that book to force myself to learn to write. After I managed that I decided that instead of begging for contributions to a campaign against both Republicans and Democrats for Minnesota’s Eighth Congressional seat I could sell the book to fund a campaign for Congress.

This year’s book is intended to do the same. Fund a campaign for Congress but not by pushing a kid’s adventure story. Rather, I want to give voters, readers and all Americans some hope that we can escape the black hole of paranoia overtaking Earth. Tall order? You bet it is. Unless you are a crazy optimist. It helps that I like the people that are wrecking everything. Oh, I’m impatient with them and horrified by what they are willing to do as their paranoia and self righteousness runs rampant. But I still like them. I suspect Jesus liked the moneylenders whose tables he overturned at the Temple. Yes, I like them even if they kill my grandchildren, as they are blindly attempting to do. I understand that that is not their goal.

My book is already substantially written. A few select and self-chosen people in Duluth have already read parts of it because I am a promiscuous author. My task now is to take twenty years of labor sift through it and organize some small part of it into a coherent explanation of everything. Tall order? You bet it is.

I can’t finish the book in two weeks but if I give the project ten hours a day for the next fourteen days I’ll come close. I am determined to fulfill the first 65 sales I made of the book last year. Wish me luck and stay tuned. My goal is nothing less than lifting the world back onto its feet.

The tentative Title for this book: Who the Hell is Harry Welty and why can a loser like him help knock some sense into us?

Actually, so far its only Who the Hell is Harry Welty and. Every ten minutes some new conclusion to that title occurs to me. My front page is already planned. If you read “One more paragraph” I’ll tell you how I plan to use this book to raise money to campaign. (followed by one more paragraph for you to make a book purchase in advance of publishing)

One more paragraph: First, this is a corona campaign. Social media is the campaign. Advertising on Facebook is a little different from buying billboards but this year voters sequestered at home won’t drive past billboards. Second, I have put up with the financial reporting rules of running for Congress three times before. I don’t have the patience for that. If I don’t get more than $5,000 in contributions I don’t have to report anything. That means I can spend my own money. So, I’ll sell my book and take the profits to buy online advertising. I’ll have to pay income taxes on the “profits” but I won’t be breaking any laws. Also, while the books will sell for around $20 I will be happy to accept higher payments to speed up the race for Internet advertising funds. The funds will be mine however. In effect purchases over the $20 will be gifts which I will have to report as income to the IRS. If I sell a lot of books I’ll have to pay a lot of taxes. Hooray! In our stand-still Corona economy I’ll be able to send a little something to Uncle Sam to help us get out of the economic funk. Third, My book will explain my unconventional approach to putting America back on its feet again. Its not by holding my tongue. My tongue is too slippery for even me to manage. I have strong opinions and will not sit on them. Instead, I will keep liking the people who are wrecking everything. Maybe they will even get to like me. That’s my aim. That’s our cure. Telling everyone who the Hell Harry Welty is, is the beginning of my campaign to fix everything.

Want a book? Want to buy it? Well, I haven’t yet fixed my pay pal account to list this as a book purchase. The pay pal button calls it a “Donation” for my old School Board campaign. I still have the same bank account but now its for Harry Welty not my school board campaign. And your “donation” is not a donation. It is a book purchase/gift to Harry Welty of Duluth, Minnesota. I will use this income to give my campaign for Congress a leg up. Below this paragraph is the misnamed “donation” button. As Donald Trump once asked before we had a chance to learn the answer to his question, “What have you got to lose?”





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