Jill Stein is a “citizen-politician” who refuses to behave herself.
Dr. Stein refuses to stay in the campaigning bull-shit bubble.
She doesn’t suffer fools or play the crony let’s-screw-the-99% game.
Someone on a website recently called Jill Stein “the best presidential candidate you’ll never hear about”.
Jill Stein is a Boston physician (Harvard educated) and veteran activist and candidate with the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party
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Her presidential platform includes “universal health care, tuition-free higher education, and forgiveness of student debt. At the center of it all is a Green New Deal that she says will put millions of people to work, tackle the climate crisis, and address our failing health as well.”
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Her presidential platform includes “universal health care, tuition-free higher education, and forgiveness of student debt. At the center of it all is a Green New Deal that she says will put millions of people to work, tackle the climate crisis, and address our failing health as well.”
Dr. Stein was up close and PERSONAL with the Wisconsin fight for justice for the American worker, unlike a certain Democratic President so many still think they know and profess to love or a least hold their nose and vote for.
Dr. Stein called out Obama’s ABOMINABLE lack of serious participation in the ENTIRE struggle:
"Where has Barack Obama been in the course of this struggle? He had time to visit Minnesota and Chicago, but not Wisconsin. He had time for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Wall Street financiers, but not for the working people who have already lost so much. If he has had any part at all in this great movement for economic justice and democracy that has arisen in America this past year, President Obama's role has been to oversee the most coordinated and brutal national crackdown on non-violent protesters this country has seen in half a century."
Stein declares a major lesson of Wisconsin is that the DEMOCRATIC PARTY CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO DEFEND THE INTERESTS OF REGULAR PEOPLE.
Stein: "We need our own party, organized by, led by, and funded by we the people, not the corporations..."
Earlier this year Obama reauthorized the FAA bill despite protests of over 19 labor unions.
Stein has called out the latest JP Morgan $2 billion loss “fiasco” and the enabling role of Obama to this and so much more white collar criminality. She zeros in on the crony relationship between Obama and CEO Jamie Dimon who oversees JP Morgan’s investment:
"The President kept emphasizing how smart Dimon is, as if that is a justification for letting him play fast and loose with people's money. Well, Mr. President, there is a time to blow the whistle on a pack of thieves, even if they're smart thieves. I want to be a different kind of president. The smarter the thieves are, the harder I will work to unravel their clever schemes."
Dimon oversaw the recent $2 billion investment loss yet Dimon himself had handily earned over $31 million in the past two years. Stein:
"That's the kind of cash that our economy is hemorrhaging into the pockets of the Wall Street elite while ordinary people can't get banks to refinance their mortgages."
Stein’s “Green New Deal” would “break up the big Wall Street banks and emphasize state development banks that would get credit directly to small businesses and homeowners."
Stein:
"When the foreclosure crisis hit, the President gave interest-free loans to the big banks. But instead of loaning that money to families facing eviction, the banks bought Treasury bonds to make a quick profit for themselves while families were tossed out on the streets..."
Stein points out, Obama was pro-corporate from the get-go:
“Obama’s first appointments were Larry Summers, who laid the foundation for Wall Street’s waste, fraud, and abuse. He then went on to appoint Timothy Geithner to be head of the Treasury, who had headed the New York Fed while all that was going on. And then he brought in Jeff Immelt, the king of layoffs and factory closures. The head of GE was brought in to head Obama’s jobs council — the guy who had off-shored more jobs than any single person in America was brought in to head the Obama jobs program.”
As for Mitt Romney, Stein points out his intention to repeal the already weak and ineffective Dodd-Frank legislation for his crony corporate friends.
Stein blasted Obama’s continuing populist rhetoric that masks his commitment to the big corporations. From her website:
“Stein criticized the bank settlement announced by the Obama administration in early February as “another bailout for the big banks. ... Of the $25 billion in relief for underwater homeowners, only $5 billion split among six giant banks, will be in the form of hard cash payments to foreclosed homeowners, Stein said. The $25b claimed by the Obama Admnistration is “deceptive” according to Stein since it misleadingly gives banks credit for making a sacrifice when they give up on uncollectable loans.
“Furthermore, the claimed $25 billion pales in comparison to the $144 billion in bonuses that top management paid itself in these six banks in 2011,” Stein said. Stein noted that $25 billion is insignificant compared to the scale of the problem. “We have a $700 billion problem - in which 14 million homeowners are underwater on their mortgages. Now with this deal, millions more homes will be fast-tracked for foreclosure this year, which will further depress the housing market as these homes flood the market,” Stein said.
“In essence, the Obama Administration is allowing the big banks to pay a small fee to buy protection from prosecution,” Stein said. ... “Families are on the streets and none of the robo-signing bank servicers are going to jail for forgery and fraud. The penalty is so trivial that the banks have every incentive to continue similar profitable criminal activities.”
Unlike both Romney and Obama and the vast majority of politicians ON BOTH SIDES OF THE AISLE, Stein is intrepid in making an honest assessment of the Israel/Palestine scenario and its profound contribution to massive violence and/or the massive loss of human rights.
Stein:
"Consistency in U.S. policy regarding human rights and international law will begin, but not end, with Palestine and Israel. I will apply this same approach to other nations, such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and Yemen, among others. I will also ensure that the United States begins to honor its obligations to protect human rights, and will expect that the world community will hold us to the same account we hold others.”"
Let’s see. Stein is putting a priority on REAL humanitarianism and not willing to enable craven and corporate misuse of our US military and our treasury for the murder and devastation of the lives of innocents. Stein is serious about facing down the industrial military security complex that has been a major contributor in creating this “ethical freakshow of a universe” (coinage from Maddow).
As to Obama’s political calculation of mumbling support of gay marriage, subject to the will of state governments which is included in the troubling fine print to this endorsement most people are obligingly minimizing, for this election season, way back in 2002 Jill Stein “became the first gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts history to endorse same-sex marriage. She pressed the six Democrats running for Governor to abandon their civil-unions-only stance."
Stein is willing to wade in fully to the travesty of the treatment of Bradley Manning by Obama and his administration. In a video broadcast she had this to say:
“Whistleblowers are indispensable for democracy. They enable the people to defend themselves against government malfeasance and tyranny. Those U.S. cables released to Wikileaks contained more information on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries than all the media organizations in the world combined have been able to unearth. And they are all too filled with malfeasance, tyranny and war crimes.
snip
“Regardless of these justifications, if Bradley Manning leaked the cables, he violated the law by committing what was essentially an act of civil disobedience.
For acts of civil disobedience, a measure of punishment is accepted as a matter of course. But the unconscionable violations of international law that have been exposed, and the war crimes that were revealed, all compel extreme leniency in this case.
snip
“If I am elected and have the opportunity to pardon Bradley Manning, I will do this as an affirmation that my country, the United States of America, strives to achieve the highest possible standards of justice, transparency, and honor.”
How is that for honesty, courage, sanity and justice -- quite the opposite from the Democrat and Republican legacy parties who are earnest in sending Manning to long time prison time, some even demanding execution, primarily for EMBARRASSING a GUILTY of war crimes US military.
On another rarely focused on issue, medical marijuana and marijuana regulation, Dr. Stein contends that hundreds of thousands of citizens suffer from chronic pain and cancers and can benefit from medical marijuana. In spite of state protection laws, under Obama and Bush appointee Michele Leonhart, whom Obama actually promoted to head of the DEA, there have been overzealous attacks on those legitimately distributing and using medical marijuana.
Stein points out that legalization of marijuana and medical marijuana would prevent billions of dollars in profits from pouring into the black market. It would also bring tax income into the treasury. A hemp industry would produce food, fiber and other products to enhance our economy
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Stein has also CONDEMNED Obama’s recent Colombian trade deal. She declared: "It's a deadly assault on the freedom of Colombian workers to organize, as well as on the freedom of American workers from unfair competition from workers who make poverty wages because they are violently repressed."
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Stein has also CONDEMNED Obama’s recent Colombian trade deal. She declared: "It's a deadly assault on the freedom of Colombian workers to organize, as well as on the freedom of American workers from unfair competition from workers who make poverty wages because they are violently repressed."
Stein observed that according to the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center 4,000 Colombian trade unionists have been murdered in the last 20 years. Only in a tiny number cases have the murderers been prosecuted. She added that in 2011, 51 union organizers were murdered. Four more have been killed so far in 2012. Obama does not seem terribly concerned with Colombia’s failed efforts in labor protection against death squads. Instead he rewards such a government with the lowering of trade barriers.
Stein has been very vocal about the escalation and consequences of racism in America.
“African American men have been demonized on multiple fronts, by the racist war on drugs, the violence wracking impoverished communities, and the prison-industrial complex. Fears have been intensified by the climate of economic insecurity that makes some people vulnerable to racist ideologies in the first place.”
Stein cites a new “Jim Crow mentality” that results in “discrimination in jobs, housing, education, health care, and voting rights that have together cemented a racial caste system in America.” Stein supports campaigns that demand the end of the racist war on drugs - “which sweeps up users and nonusers alike.”
She called for repeal of the racial profiling like “New York City’s ‘Stop and Frisk’ law that has been used to stop and search over 684,000 people last year, of whom nearly 90 percent were Black and Latino.”
She also called for the repeal of “stand your ground” laws that brought about the recent death of Trayvon Martin. She revealed that “justifiable homicides” have tripled among the 31 states in which “stand your ground” laws have been passed.”
Stein has been tremendously concerned about the oppressive debt on the shoulders of the nation’s young people. She asserted after this year’s pepper-spraying of Santa Monica students protesting draconian tuition spikes:
“For all these reasons, higher education needs to be accessible to all. That's why I have made student loan debt forgiveness a key priority of my campaign. If we found a way to bail out the bankers who crashed the economy with 16 trillion in giveaways and free loans, we can forgive the much smaller 1 trillion dollar debt of the students, who are suffering the economic consequences of that waste, fraud and abuse.
“I am committed also to making public higher education free and open to all students -- like our primary and secondary schools -- since a college education is as critical for economic security in the 21st century as a high school degree was in the 20th. This is not only the right thing to do, it is also the smart thing, as shown by the GI bill which returned $7 in increased revenues for every $1 invested by the federal government.”
From her website:
“Stein has promised a Green New Deal for America if elected, including an Economic Bill of Rights that ends 'indentured servitude' for college students.”
She also declared:
"Wealth that should be invested in our local economy to create jobs is being put in the hands of the super rich who build factories abroad instead. Families disintegrate while the income of the richest few surges upward. This is changing America in a way that we must not accept."
"With the loss of a generation’s worth of pension savings and home equity, middle class Americans who once thought they had achieved security are staring into the abyss. And for years we told our children that a college education was the key to economic security. Today, an education often is not enough. Students are coerced into accepting massive student loans they may never be able to repay given the poor job market they face upon graduation. And we're forcing young people to go to work for wages that are often half of those that their parents earned for the same job.”
Stein has been a long time advocate of single payer health care:
"Americans spend far more money on health care than other industrial democracies but have a poorly performing health care system, ranked only 37th in the world, due to the cancerous burden of private health insurance. Obama and the Democrats turned their backs on Medicare - a proven solution. Instead they enacted a health insurance mandate whose prime goal will be to increase insurance company profits.”
snip
“Stein characterized a single payer system by saying “that means that all medical bills get paid under a single streamlined system, similar to Medicare. Everyone would be covered, regardless of employment or medical care status, for all medically necessary services, including: doctor, hospital, preventive, long-term care, mental health, reproductive health care, dental, vision, prescription drug and medical supply costs. ...”
“The Green Party has long supported a single payer system, explaining that eliminating private insurers and recapturing their administrative waste would easily fund health care for the uninsured. Modest new taxes would replace premiums and out-of-pocket payments currently paid by individuals and business. ...”
Stein also declared that Obama seems to have learned nothing from the Fukushima meltdown, the resultant deaths and $250 billion cleanup costs, of over a year ago.
Stein:
"A Green president would invest in wind, solar and geothermal, emphasize efficiency and conservation, phase out nuclear power plants, and move to a carbon-free economy to deal with climate change. We would immediately end Obama’s expensive subsidies for nuclear power as well as fossil fuels, and use those funds instead to kick off a job-producing energy program based on clean, safe and renewable energy,..."
snip
"Germany, Switzerland and Italy have all committed themselves to phasing out nuclear energy, while support for new nuclear plants has dropped dramatically worldwide. From 2008 to 2010, construction work began on thirty-eight reactors around the world, but in 2011-12, there were only two construction starts. Kuwait pulled out last month of a contract to build four reactors, Venezuelan froze all nuclear development projects and Mexico dropped plans to build ten reactors.”
“In contrast, the Obama administration has continued to promote nuclear power plants. On February 9, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a the final license for two new reactors near Augusta, Georgia. Only the Chair of the NRC, a Bush appointee, voted no, objecting to the absence of guarantees to implement recommendations made following the Fukushima meltdown. The Obama Administration has pledged $8.3 billion in federal loan guarantees for the construction. The owners of the plant have not yet invested any of their own money for the units, while Georgia ratepayers are being asked to pre-fund construction payments in their current bills.”
“U.S. taxpayers continue to subsidize insurance coverage for the private firms that own and operate all U.S. nuclear plants through the Price-Anderson Nuclear Indemnity Act.”
This being an election year, you can bet Obama, unlike Stein, is going to get big, fat campaign contributions from nuclear industrialists.
Stein also goes after the Obama administration's "too loose war talk”, particularly regarding Iran. Stein:
"A hallmark of a Stein administration will be respect for international law and a rejection of the Bush doctrine of preemptive war that Obama and his party have come to embrace. The interests of the American people are not served by illegal attacks on other nations based on hypothetical future transgressions. Yet President Obama is threatening Iran with attack by saying that 'all options are on the table'. It’s a terrible replay of Bush's run-up to the invasion of Iraq over the mythical weapons of mass destruction."
snip
“The mindset that every problem requires a military response has gotten us into trouble again and again, and its disappointing to see the Obama Administration going down that road yet again. ” "A major cause of our federal budget deficit and our struggling economy has been the expense of a decade of senseless wars. I am calling for us to go in a different direction and use our tax dollars to rebuild the American economy and improve the quality of live for the average American. Rebuilding America is an urgent need, and our dollars need to go there instead of being wasted on another needless war.”
At the end of February of this past year, Stein denounced Obama’s endorsement of the Keystone pipeline:
"A few weeks ago, over 800,000 people mobilized overnight to say no to Keystone expansion. Yet Obama moves ahead anyway. Now is the moment for those 800,000, and millions more, to speak in the only language this president seems to understand by building the Green Party as a force at the voting booth this November.”
Stein also condemned Obama’s cavalier “drill baby drill” attitude that he revealed in his State of the Union speech:
"The President's spin ignores the fact that our most pressing problem isn't foreign oil, it's what fossil fuels, both foreign and domestic, are doing to our planet. ... Our nation and human society around the world are already experiencing serious climate disruption. The President has given up the fight against climate change just when we most need to expand our efforts."
"The extraction process known as hydrofracking that was praised by the President will bring environmental degradation to over 30 states. We don't have adequate regulations in place to protect our land and water from its effects, yet the President is moving full speed ahead. It's time to put an end to fossil fuel dependence, and we can begin immediately by ending hydrofracking."
"The Administration that presided over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster in the Gulf has responded by pushing for even more offshore drilling. We’ve all been through the school of hard knocks, but apparently this White House didn’t learn a thing from the experience."
"At the Durban climate conference last year, the President undermined international climate protection by refusing to accept any global treaty until after 2020. Now he has abandoned any comprehensive national legislation. His support for renewable energy is entirely inadequate. Any benefits from these modest programs will be totally overwhelmed by the surge of carbon pollution from his fossil fuel expansion. Taken in its totality, it's an unforgivably irresponsible denial of the threat to our climate."
Jill Stein had this to say about freedom of assembly and speech in America:
"I stand firmly with those brave Americans in the Occupy Wall Street Movement in hundreds of communities across our country who have been willing to put their bodies on the line for democracy. The demand to end the rule of the 1% is the civil rights movement of our time. People are rising up to demand a more just nation, and police brutality and state violence are being unleashed to suppress democracy for the 99%."
snip
"Our constitutional liberties have been under attack over the past decade, a victim of this unending war on terrorism. Congress wants to authorize the indefinite imprisonment of American citizens, without charge, and that is wrong - and the very definition of un-American. If elected, I will restore our political and civil liberty protections,..."
Stein recognizes the travesty of The National Defense Authorization Act which eliminates “protections against the use of the military against our own citizens on American soil, as articulated by the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.” Also how it empowers “the president and our armed forces to detain U.S. citizens and others without trial based on unsubstantiated suspicions that such persons have been involved in the attacks of September 11, 2001, or have supported Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or “associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners." Individuals could also be tried before a military court or transferred “to the custody or control of the person's country of origin, any other foreign country, or any other foreign entity.”
This is Jill Stein’s New Green Deal platform:
It’s an emergency solution that will put 25 million people back to work, end unemployment, jump-start the green economy for the 21st century, and substantively combat climate change. It would put communities in charge of defining what jobs they need. These jobs would be community-based, living-wage, full-time jobs, and would basically run the spectrum of jobs that make communities sustainable — clean manufacturing, local organic agriculture, public transportation, energy-efficient as well as active transportation, and of course clean renewable energy, conservation, weatherization, efficiency.
“We would also include teachers, nurses, day care, violence prevention, drug rehabilitation, affordable housing construction, etc., so there would be a spectrum of jobs that make our communities environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. The cost would be on the order of the first stimulus package, but it would create a whole lot more jobs, because the first stimulus package was largely tax breaks and subsidies for large corporations.”
As for the prospects of gaining social and economic recovery from either of the legacy parties, Dr. Stein has this to say:
You might look at one party as a rapidly sinking ship and say we’re going to vote for the other guy because the ship’s not going down so fast. We don’t like him but he’s not sinking the ship so fast. But the real question is, if both of those ships are heading for the bottom of the ocean, do you want to be on either of them? No. There’s no question about where those ships are heading if you are looking at the economy.
Dr. Jill Stein as POTUS would ensure governmental, social, economic and global recovery. She is for PEOPLE, PEACE and PLANET. She would establish change we can truly believe in and so deserve after the trauma we have been through as a mis-governed nation and the global trauma that our government has perpetrated with no end in sight at the hands of both legacy parties.
It would be a tragedy to ignore Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party as the best candidate for President of the United States.
Wouldn't it be nice to have a president with spine?
[cross-posted on correntewire and sacramento for democracy]
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Glad to see you writing about this and I will be back as soon as I finish what I'm doing which happens to be.... you guessed it and will see the details soon enough.
If Jill Stein could do all that, she wouldn't be president - she'd be God.
........ and, having been politically conscious for over 50 years, when it comes to politicians, I'm an atheist.
Her FIRST job, and the one that will tell us how good she really would be as POTUS, is to get people involved in wanting a real change..... get the fat slugs that are the average citizen up off their comfy lazy-boy chairs and out from in front of their 50" screen TVs.
Until she can do that, she's got the chance of a snowball in hell of initiating ANY change at all. I wish it were different - but it ain't.
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........ and, having been politically conscious for over 50 years, when it comes to politicians, I'm an atheist.
Her FIRST job, and the one that will tell us how good she really would be as POTUS, is to get people involved in wanting a real change..... get the fat slugs that are the average citizen up off their comfy lazy-boy chairs and out from in front of their 50" screen TVs.
Until she can do that, she's got the chance of a snowball in hell of initiating ANY change at all. I wish it were different - but it ain't.
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Libby, I am all in favour of change and of good, working, everyday citizens to be in lead. Wishes for good!!
Excellent post full of hope. You write so well and include all the problems of the world. Hope. Sending this to facebook.
She's got my vote, just wish someone in "lame stream" politics would speak to one-third of her propositions.
I'm amazed at the level of detail that Stein and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson have in their policy agenda. Especially Stein. She has public banking in her plan. OMG, no one talks about public banking. Well, except for a small number of fruitcakes like me. This is the key to democratizing capital.
Democracy moves very slowly. When Hitler's blitzkrieg took the world by storm, literally, democracy took a long time to respond. The Germans believed they were invincible because of this. But, once the engines of democracy started churning, the slow burn was ignited.
The same dynamic exists today. The looters have blitzkrieged us. They have worked in secrecy and that allowed them to gain the upper hand very quickly without our knowledge. Too much is in the open. Too much pain, suffering, corruption, looting, exploitation, predation, violence and on and on. The genie isn't ever going back in the bottle. The slow burn of democracy has started. Those who don't understand this will think the status quo is still in control. But, control is nothing more than an illusion. They were only able to maintain control through secrecy and through trust.
No one outside of the top 10% trusts this system. And, many in that class don't trust it either regardless of whether they would publicly demonize it.
It's over. We will win this. There simply is no doubt. That post I put up about Obama impeachment had two former Lt. Colonels, a former deputy attorney general and a Senator all expressing disgust for the system. Not for Obama but the system of corruption of law and decency and morality.
Democracy moves very slowly. When Hitler's blitzkrieg took the world by storm, literally, democracy took a long time to respond. The Germans believed they were invincible because of this. But, once the engines of democracy started churning, the slow burn was ignited.
The same dynamic exists today. The looters have blitzkrieged us. They have worked in secrecy and that allowed them to gain the upper hand very quickly without our knowledge. Too much is in the open. Too much pain, suffering, corruption, looting, exploitation, predation, violence and on and on. The genie isn't ever going back in the bottle. The slow burn of democracy has started. Those who don't understand this will think the status quo is still in control. But, control is nothing more than an illusion. They were only able to maintain control through secrecy and through trust.
No one outside of the top 10% trusts this system. And, many in that class don't trust it either regardless of whether they would publicly demonize it.
It's over. We will win this. There simply is no doubt. That post I put up about Obama impeachment had two former Lt. Colonels, a former deputy attorney general and a Senator all expressing disgust for the system. Not for Obama but the system of corruption of law and decency and morality.
Libby, thank you for posting this. I agree with many of her views, especially regarding the environment, finding renewable/sustainable energy sources, aligning our nation's policies so they are more in accordance with universal human rights, and especially that "the interests of the American people are not served by illegal attacks on other nations based on hypothetical future transgressions."
I think in other countries where Greens have been elected to the national legislatures or assemblies, they may have started out being more widespread and active at local levels first. If Jill Stein were by some miracle elected President in 2012, I think her hands would be tied to change things in Washington. Maybe Greens need to gain peoples' confidence and trust working locally and getting elected to state legislatures, then eventually they could be elected to Congress and slowly impact our national policies into a more equitable and sustainable direction.
Thanks again for posting...it is important that we hear the views that other candidates bring to the table. I think it would have been very informative if Jill Stein would have been able to join the debates.
I think in other countries where Greens have been elected to the national legislatures or assemblies, they may have started out being more widespread and active at local levels first. If Jill Stein were by some miracle elected President in 2012, I think her hands would be tied to change things in Washington. Maybe Greens need to gain peoples' confidence and trust working locally and getting elected to state legislatures, then eventually they could be elected to Congress and slowly impact our national policies into a more equitable and sustainable direction.
Thanks again for posting...it is important that we hear the views that other candidates bring to the table. I think it would have been very informative if Jill Stein would have been able to join the debates.
Thanks, Zachd! I recycled an even longer blog about Stein -- and when I reread Stein's quotes of real substance I shake my head in despair as to how a potentially powerful and effective person is iced out so completely from the attention of media and average Americans. Stein and we are not going away, it is just so telling how thorough the corporate enemies of Americans are in allowing NO ATTENTION AT ALL in this election season!!! So pathetic yet powerful. Winner takes all and it is all gamesmanship, winning by the dirtiest behaviors and money takes all -- no respect for the need for a national conversation on real issues and taking responsibility in American government for real issues and needs of all the people, not just the 1%.
best, libby
best, libby
sky!!! thanks for sharing that! sigh. the whiff of hope and reform from Obama in 2008 got people off their couches but when he proved betraying they sat right back down again. Don't blame Stein. She is ready, willing and so very able. I do agree with you. There is something profoundly wrong with Americans as not so human beings. Never too late to embrace empathy and humane-ness again. Meanwhile more and more is lost, more innocents suffer and die.
best, libby
best, libby
Stathi, thanks for visiting. So great to see you.
You know it is one thing if no one has a plan, but if there is a plan with substantial answers for this country and the media and the majority of the citizenry dis or ignore it, it is EXTRA pathetic and tragic.
It is getting harder for people to defend Obama because there is so little to defend. Hard for Obama to make the same promises to Americans he has spent 4 years breaking. Though the stubborn pride and denial continues to burn in the hearts of those hanging onto Team Dem.
Take care of your precious self, Stathi!
best, libby xxx
You know it is one thing if no one has a plan, but if there is a plan with substantial answers for this country and the media and the majority of the citizenry dis or ignore it, it is EXTRA pathetic and tragic.
It is getting harder for people to defend Obama because there is so little to defend. Hard for Obama to make the same promises to Americans he has spent 4 years breaking. Though the stubborn pride and denial continues to burn in the hearts of those hanging onto Team Dem.
Take care of your precious self, Stathi!
best, libby xxx
zanelle, thanks so much for that!
I will take your re-inforcement of my being positive to heart. Stein is so proactive. She is real reformer with passion and smarts and a capacity to look at the big picture. Not desperately trying to stay in the "feed the lobbies" game.
When I met her I was impressed by the grace and grounded-ness she seems to possess. When asked about her low chances for winning she smiled at the questioner and said something like, "This is my fifth election. I'm not going anywhere."
Eventually she will crack the media sound barrier or maybe trickle up communication will make her known and the platform she is representing, maybe not in the next five weeks. If anyone had told me she would not even be on the media radar AT ALL by this time I would have not believed it. The game is even more rigged than I anticipated.
Sky is right, it should not be about one "magic" person, though.
We as a citizenry have got to address reality and morality at long last. Take back the power we were given by the founders of this country and so many who have sacrificed so much for us all over the decades that we are losing fast to fascism.
best, libby
I will take your re-inforcement of my being positive to heart. Stein is so proactive. She is real reformer with passion and smarts and a capacity to look at the big picture. Not desperately trying to stay in the "feed the lobbies" game.
When I met her I was impressed by the grace and grounded-ness she seems to possess. When asked about her low chances for winning she smiled at the questioner and said something like, "This is my fifth election. I'm not going anywhere."
Eventually she will crack the media sound barrier or maybe trickle up communication will make her known and the platform she is representing, maybe not in the next five weeks. If anyone had told me she would not even be on the media radar AT ALL by this time I would have not believed it. The game is even more rigged than I anticipated.
Sky is right, it should not be about one "magic" person, though.
We as a citizenry have got to address reality and morality at long last. Take back the power we were given by the founders of this country and so many who have sacrificed so much for us all over the decades that we are losing fast to fascism.
best, libby
jmac, I literally couldn't "stomach" watching the debates. Today I am reading the transcripts and some analyses. I have been posting this on some of the debate blogs as a comment:
This from Patrick Martin on wsws:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/deba-o04.shtml
"Obama made only one timid reference to the role of Wall Street in wrecking the US and world economy. Even there, he equated the swindlers and the swindled, saying that the workers hoodwinked into taking out sub-prime mortgages and the bankers who pocketed huge bonuses by fleecing them were both guilty of “reckless behavior.”
"Obama also refrained from identifying Romney personally with Wall Street. In the course of the nationally televised event, he made no mention of Romney’s role as a corporate raider at Bain Capital, Romney’s refusal to release his tax returns, or his use of offshore investment accounts.
"Most significantly, he made no reference to Romney’s disparaging comments about the “47 percent” of Americans dependent on government programs and too poor to pay federal income taxes, and his assertion that no one in America should consider himself “entitled” to food, health care or a roof over his head.
"Based on conventional electoral considerations, this silence would appear inexplicable. Obama campaign television commercials have hammered Romney on his “47 percent” remarks for two weeks, and Romney’s poll numbers declined as a consequence.
"It is clear, however, that in preparing for the first debate, with an estimated television audience of 60 million, the largest of the campaign, Obama and his political handlers viewed any hint of economic populism as too dangerous. It might offend the Wall Street power brokers and encourage a militant response from below."
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Obama would not champion the 99% because he didn't want to make the 1% nervous. Hard to debate someone when you are covertly but not really all that covertly supporting the SAME stances.
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Stein manages to illuminate all that is not being addressed and desperately needs to be addressed.
Jmac, as I commented above, I was not prepared for Stein to be iced out so totally by big media. I shouldn't be surprised but the scope of the blackout of her frustrates me no end and enrages me at the propaganda for 1%ers tool media.
best, libby
This from Patrick Martin on wsws:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/deba-o04.shtml
"Obama made only one timid reference to the role of Wall Street in wrecking the US and world economy. Even there, he equated the swindlers and the swindled, saying that the workers hoodwinked into taking out sub-prime mortgages and the bankers who pocketed huge bonuses by fleecing them were both guilty of “reckless behavior.”
"Obama also refrained from identifying Romney personally with Wall Street. In the course of the nationally televised event, he made no mention of Romney’s role as a corporate raider at Bain Capital, Romney’s refusal to release his tax returns, or his use of offshore investment accounts.
"Most significantly, he made no reference to Romney’s disparaging comments about the “47 percent” of Americans dependent on government programs and too poor to pay federal income taxes, and his assertion that no one in America should consider himself “entitled” to food, health care or a roof over his head.
"Based on conventional electoral considerations, this silence would appear inexplicable. Obama campaign television commercials have hammered Romney on his “47 percent” remarks for two weeks, and Romney’s poll numbers declined as a consequence.
"It is clear, however, that in preparing for the first debate, with an estimated television audience of 60 million, the largest of the campaign, Obama and his political handlers viewed any hint of economic populism as too dangerous. It might offend the Wall Street power brokers and encourage a militant response from below."
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Obama would not champion the 99% because he didn't want to make the 1% nervous. Hard to debate someone when you are covertly but not really all that covertly supporting the SAME stances.
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Stein manages to illuminate all that is not being addressed and desperately needs to be addressed.
Jmac, as I commented above, I was not prepared for Stein to be iced out so totally by big media. I shouldn't be surprised but the scope of the blackout of her frustrates me no end and enrages me at the propaganda for 1%ers tool media.
best, libby
TL, so nice to see ya!
Stein has done her homework and has a PLAN. If only average Americans could begin to see how she has their backs while the corporate parties are continuing to FLEECE them!
I appreciate you writing this:
"She has public banking in her plan. OMG, no one talks about public banking. Well, except for a small number of fruitcakes like me. This is the key to democratizing capital."
In fact your whole comment is full of hope and wisdom and deserves quoting!
The fact that people are trying so hard to support and trust a president who in a MORALLY vital culture would be subject to impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors as the president before him is how surreally huge the disconnect is right now.
I look forward to reading to your blog!
best, libby
Stein has done her homework and has a PLAN. If only average Americans could begin to see how she has their backs while the corporate parties are continuing to FLEECE them!
I appreciate you writing this:
"She has public banking in her plan. OMG, no one talks about public banking. Well, except for a small number of fruitcakes like me. This is the key to democratizing capital."
In fact your whole comment is full of hope and wisdom and deserves quoting!
The fact that people are trying so hard to support and trust a president who in a MORALLY vital culture would be subject to impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors as the president before him is how surreally huge the disconnect is right now.
I look forward to reading to your blog!
best, libby
clay ball, thanks so much for sharing your wisdom and perspective. I see the Green party, because of the loose international coalition of Greens, offering the promise of an international paradigm shift from patriarchal competition, greed, power and control to humanism and partnership, cooperation and empathy, which has to happen for change to come since the one percenter overlords have gone international themselves, with their cartel destroying human lives for profit, mis-using the US and NATO militaries in their amoral gangsterism/piracy!!!
best, libby
best, libby
For eons, many countries, including most in Europe, had free health care and free higher education. Many Americans have been calling for this, also for eons, some of it is actually on OS. Now is a good a time as any to tell you why we don't aim/hope that high, and why many of us root for Obama...once and for all.
One. Many Americans have been advocating everything Jill Stein said, long before she did.
Two. Stein can say anything she wants, it will never, ever, ever, ever, ever happen. And more importantly, if it did, it won't be by Stein.
Three. The system is corrupt beyond repair. To begin to fix the system we have to win over the big money.
Four. The big money owns the country.
What people are fighting for now is to keep millions more from becoming homeless and hungry. That is why we root for Obama regardless of his faults.
May be one day the Stein Party will replace the Democratic or the Republican Party, and I will be the first to vote for the Steiners.
Your sense of civil service is always inspiring, Libby. I wish more feel the same way. Informing as always; thank you. R
One. Many Americans have been advocating everything Jill Stein said, long before she did.
Two. Stein can say anything she wants, it will never, ever, ever, ever, ever happen. And more importantly, if it did, it won't be by Stein.
Three. The system is corrupt beyond repair. To begin to fix the system we have to win over the big money.
Four. The big money owns the country.
What people are fighting for now is to keep millions more from becoming homeless and hungry. That is why we root for Obama regardless of his faults.
May be one day the Stein Party will replace the Democratic or the Republican Party, and I will be the first to vote for the Steiners.
Your sense of civil service is always inspiring, Libby. I wish more feel the same way. Informing as always; thank you. R
Thoth, I have appreciated your continued support of my blogs.
But, Thoth, it is faux-pragmatism like you are excusing in supporting Obama that is the real problem in America. Where the obstructionism to the Stein's of America really is. Not the Republicans or the Tea Partiers or even the rabid rat bastid Republican politicians.
It is what derailed the single payer expanded medicare for all universal health care movement that was substantially bipartisan until the "pragmatic progressives" decided this generation should go for incrementalism and supported the bullshit public option disappearing Trojan Horse and Obama's (the BIG Trojan Horse's) teeny steps to reform that weren't even toward reform.
Obama has bragged about playing "vacuum" in which, giving an amiable and enigmatic personality people will project what they want from him onto him. It has worked for him but God has it crippled everyone else in America except his BFF, well, for this one term anyway, one percenters. People try to shake off the cognitive dissonance and the disappointment of his colossal flip-flop betrayals over the past four years. WTF???????
Is it collective ego, Thoth, of the Team Dem? Why are those on the far left worthy of being dissed and patronized? Is it MSNBC brainwashing? What is it? RFK said that thing about some people ask WHY, but he chose to ask WHY NOT? Those of us committing to Jill Stein are asking, "Why the fuck not?"
WHY NOT, Thoth? Why aren't you behind Jill Stein? Because you think Romney will do so much worse to America? Obama hasn't left all that much for Romney to do, and he and Romney will gut and destroy social security and medicare in the next four years. And Obama will frown more about going to war with Iran but he is lost to the system of lobbies and gamesmanship and war addiction and Israel and bankster mollification.
I read so much substance and clarity from Stein. I personally couldn't even physically and emotionally stomach watching the debates. Those two men are totally allied to the corrupt and avaricious one percent.
I am so sick and tired of the pragmatic Dem message, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." NOTE TO THOTH! There is no "good" coming from the Dems and Obama. It is smoke and mirrors and abusing this addictive loyalty and learned helplessness and stuckness in the "bargaining" phase of the five stages of grief by the so-called pragmatic (dooming!) progressives!
my humble opinion!
best, libby
But, Thoth, it is faux-pragmatism like you are excusing in supporting Obama that is the real problem in America. Where the obstructionism to the Stein's of America really is. Not the Republicans or the Tea Partiers or even the rabid rat bastid Republican politicians.
It is what derailed the single payer expanded medicare for all universal health care movement that was substantially bipartisan until the "pragmatic progressives" decided this generation should go for incrementalism and supported the bullshit public option disappearing Trojan Horse and Obama's (the BIG Trojan Horse's) teeny steps to reform that weren't even toward reform.
Obama has bragged about playing "vacuum" in which, giving an amiable and enigmatic personality people will project what they want from him onto him. It has worked for him but God has it crippled everyone else in America except his BFF, well, for this one term anyway, one percenters. People try to shake off the cognitive dissonance and the disappointment of his colossal flip-flop betrayals over the past four years. WTF???????
Is it collective ego, Thoth, of the Team Dem? Why are those on the far left worthy of being dissed and patronized? Is it MSNBC brainwashing? What is it? RFK said that thing about some people ask WHY, but he chose to ask WHY NOT? Those of us committing to Jill Stein are asking, "Why the fuck not?"
WHY NOT, Thoth? Why aren't you behind Jill Stein? Because you think Romney will do so much worse to America? Obama hasn't left all that much for Romney to do, and he and Romney will gut and destroy social security and medicare in the next four years. And Obama will frown more about going to war with Iran but he is lost to the system of lobbies and gamesmanship and war addiction and Israel and bankster mollification.
I read so much substance and clarity from Stein. I personally couldn't even physically and emotionally stomach watching the debates. Those two men are totally allied to the corrupt and avaricious one percent.
I am so sick and tired of the pragmatic Dem message, "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." NOTE TO THOTH! There is no "good" coming from the Dems and Obama. It is smoke and mirrors and abusing this addictive loyalty and learned helplessness and stuckness in the "bargaining" phase of the five stages of grief by the so-called pragmatic (dooming!) progressives!
my humble opinion!
best, libby
Response to the debate from Stein:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/10/04/presidential-debate-jill-stein-green-party/1610563/
As our nation's first Green president, my mandate won't be just to "create new jobs." My mandate, if elected, will be to end mass unemployment once and for all. I will do this in my first term through a Green New Deal -- the centerpiece of my campaign -- which will create 25 million jobs through direct public works programs and support for cooperatives and community businesses. I urge voters to read about the Green New Deal on my website at JillStein.org.
I ran against, and debated, Mitt Romney in the 2002 Massachusetts election for governor. Romney was a jobs killer then, and he still is today. He makes money off of destroying jobs and driving down workers wages. He wants to do to America what he did at Bain Capital, "harvesting profits" in his words by sucking the value out of what we, the people, have built.
As for President Obama, for the past four years he has played it safe. Safe for himself, that is, but not safe for the rest of us. Instead of fighting for areal economic stimulus -- the kind of massive investment in our economy I am fighting for with the Green New Deal -- this president bailed out Wall Street.
Meanwhile, he has allowed youth unemployment to hit 25%, and student debt to skyrocket. I think it's time we bailed out the working students, not the rich bankers, don't you?
A vote for me is a vote for a Green New Deal, for ending unemployment, for 25 million jobs, for a transition to a new green economy that puts working people first, because working people are the ones who built this country.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2012/10/04/presidential-debate-jill-stein-green-party/1610563/
As our nation's first Green president, my mandate won't be just to "create new jobs." My mandate, if elected, will be to end mass unemployment once and for all. I will do this in my first term through a Green New Deal -- the centerpiece of my campaign -- which will create 25 million jobs through direct public works programs and support for cooperatives and community businesses. I urge voters to read about the Green New Deal on my website at JillStein.org.
I ran against, and debated, Mitt Romney in the 2002 Massachusetts election for governor. Romney was a jobs killer then, and he still is today. He makes money off of destroying jobs and driving down workers wages. He wants to do to America what he did at Bain Capital, "harvesting profits" in his words by sucking the value out of what we, the people, have built.
As for President Obama, for the past four years he has played it safe. Safe for himself, that is, but not safe for the rest of us. Instead of fighting for areal economic stimulus -- the kind of massive investment in our economy I am fighting for with the Green New Deal -- this president bailed out Wall Street.
Meanwhile, he has allowed youth unemployment to hit 25%, and student debt to skyrocket. I think it's time we bailed out the working students, not the rich bankers, don't you?
A vote for me is a vote for a Green New Deal, for ending unemployment, for 25 million jobs, for a transition to a new green economy that puts working people first, because working people are the ones who built this country.
it's not enough to have yer heart in the right place, lib.
fringe candidates will affect close elections, but they will never change the system. that must come from outside the system.
fringe candidates will affect close elections, but they will never change the system. that must come from outside the system.
al, I grew up in a tragically dysfunctional family. Now I find I am in a tragically dysfunctional country.
From outside the system! Really? What do you mean, outside the solar system? We have spread our faux-democracy a/k/a corrupt one percenter piracy -- violently via OUR terrorism since it is faster and more thorough -- across the planet .. only pausing from totally droning and bomb-bulldozing a country if it is nuclear armed.
We have colluded with other countries and negotiated with them gangster style through bribery and bullying who have sold out their own citizens for the one percent overlords as well. We have let ourselves be bullied (re Israel) as well.
We the average and falling below average fast citizens are getting oppressed internationally top down. The bottom better get smart, the bottom better organize and push up.
Most Americans better stop treating politics like one more surreality spectator sport show. Jingoism is far more warm and fuzzy and nondemanding than dealing with the real mess.
But please tell me from where the outside wake up call will come? The intervention to stop the insanity?
You know I thought we should ask the UN to help us average Americans with R2P help from the international forces. But that doesn't mean responsibility to protect any more, as Escobar says, all that means is "right to plunder" thanks to the US and NATO countries. UN is as corrupt as the rest of them now.
best, libby
From outside the system! Really? What do you mean, outside the solar system? We have spread our faux-democracy a/k/a corrupt one percenter piracy -- violently via OUR terrorism since it is faster and more thorough -- across the planet .. only pausing from totally droning and bomb-bulldozing a country if it is nuclear armed.
We have colluded with other countries and negotiated with them gangster style through bribery and bullying who have sold out their own citizens for the one percent overlords as well. We have let ourselves be bullied (re Israel) as well.
We the average and falling below average fast citizens are getting oppressed internationally top down. The bottom better get smart, the bottom better organize and push up.
Most Americans better stop treating politics like one more surreality spectator sport show. Jingoism is far more warm and fuzzy and nondemanding than dealing with the real mess.
But please tell me from where the outside wake up call will come? The intervention to stop the insanity?
You know I thought we should ask the UN to help us average Americans with R2P help from the international forces. But that doesn't mean responsibility to protect any more, as Escobar says, all that means is "right to plunder" thanks to the US and NATO countries. UN is as corrupt as the rest of them now.
best, libby
Thanks for the through run down on Stein... very informative!
sounds like a good person to "occupy" the White House.....
sounds like a good person to "occupy" the White House.....
Thanks for the through run down on Stein... very informative!
sounds like a good person to "occupy" the White House.....
sounds like a good person to "occupy" the White House.....
Libby, I said I will support Stein, when she has the slightest of chances to get anywhere. Right now the big money has the country on lock-down. I agree with everything she stands for, and so many stood for it before, but were defeated. I with you and with Stein, yet the reality is against all of us.
Thoth, sorry I got carried away and of course I do understand where you and so many are coming from.
But my point of view is that if so many don't go for Stein even though they respect her but they assume not enough are going for her then that guarantees that not enough will go for her. Catch 22 for sure.
Every time I have given out Green Party flyers I get dismissed with "You CAN'T win," as if I am wasting their time and my own. Considering what Obama has done and what corporate media is doing and what Jill Stein is taking a stand on and willing to take the risk of being honest about because of values and not polls I can't understand why more people aren't so disgusted with both they are supporting Jill Stein.
I also think if more people pushed for Jill Stein it would be a kick in the you know what for the Dem Party that has taken its voters for granted and drifted so to the right and servicing the corporate overlords but still plays the Obama lesser evil game, too.
All the striking teachers in Chicago were rushed to settle and they even struck AFTER the Dem election so as not to embarrass the Party and Obama. And we know where Obama and Rahm stand on privatized schools and thus teacher union busting.
But, yes, I get what you say. Yes, and I understand where you are coming from ... but I think this is a window of opportunity to make our voices HEARD and we need a lot of voices because the media and the pols are so not taking the majority seriously and respectfully and empathetically and soft fascism is hardening fast!
take care my friend!
best, libby
But my point of view is that if so many don't go for Stein even though they respect her but they assume not enough are going for her then that guarantees that not enough will go for her. Catch 22 for sure.
Every time I have given out Green Party flyers I get dismissed with "You CAN'T win," as if I am wasting their time and my own. Considering what Obama has done and what corporate media is doing and what Jill Stein is taking a stand on and willing to take the risk of being honest about because of values and not polls I can't understand why more people aren't so disgusted with both they are supporting Jill Stein.
I also think if more people pushed for Jill Stein it would be a kick in the you know what for the Dem Party that has taken its voters for granted and drifted so to the right and servicing the corporate overlords but still plays the Obama lesser evil game, too.
All the striking teachers in Chicago were rushed to settle and they even struck AFTER the Dem election so as not to embarrass the Party and Obama. And we know where Obama and Rahm stand on privatized schools and thus teacher union busting.
But, yes, I get what you say. Yes, and I understand where you are coming from ... but I think this is a window of opportunity to make our voices HEARD and we need a lot of voices because the media and the pols are so not taking the majority seriously and respectfully and empathetically and soft fascism is hardening fast!
take care my friend!
best, libby
My god, you do go on. But, best of luck. Every Obama apologist should definitely vote for Stein, whoever she is.
I encourage the "47%" to vote for Dr. Stein. This plan will surely produce the best results after November 6th.
There can be nothing better than full employment at taxpayer expense -- an activity far better than unemployment at taxpayer expense. Do I hear an "AMEN!"?
There can be nothing better than full employment at taxpayer expense -- an activity far better than unemployment at taxpayer expense. Do I hear an "AMEN!"?
Libby, you ought to be Bottled. Not Throttled folks - Bottled. But seriously, you have so much passion & smarts - and your heart's in the right place! I hope you have (or will have) a high position on Jill Stein's Team! Single handledly; you could get the job done! Best. Marilyn
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