[This is a long read and I thank anyone who wades through it. Jill Stein challenges so much of the propagandized, myopically comfortable and false "truthiness" about a citizen-betraying Obama administration.
I am taking a break from fresh writing and commenting at Open Salon but will re-post some of my more relevant (imho) blogs from time to time. Thank you so much for reading and engaging with me thus far! Vaya con Dios. Best, libby]
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, whether with uber-hypocritical and -betraying politicians and their scum-sucking bottom-feeding handlers and media “cronies” or uber-sociopathic corporate overlords.
For those many (someone on a website recently called Jill Stein “the best presidential candidate you’ll never hear about”) who aren’t familiar with Jill Stein, she is a Boston physician (Harvard educated) and veteran activist and candidate with the Massachusetts Green-Rainbow Party. Stein explained that she became involved in politics “after witnessing firsthand the epidemics of obesity, diabetes, learning disorders, autism — problems that she traces to toxic chemicals, an industrial food system, and a society built around the automobile.” 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.”
After the recent disappointing Wisconsin recall election defeat, Stein spoke out jarringly and HONESTLY on VOTING CORRUPTION unlike anyone one would ever hear on, say, corporate tv! Super-status-quo sycophant David Gregory of Meet the Press seriously would have gotten the “vapors” had he ever been inclined to listen and report on her. We can assuredly be safe in assuming he chose not to.
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.
"My national campaign headquarters is on the Capitol Square in Madison. I have visited Wisconsin repeatedly this past year, marched with Wisconsinites, sang with the Solidarity Singers, and circulated recall petitions. Next week, I will speak at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair near Amherst, Wisconsin. I am committed to Wisconsin's struggle for democracy and self-determination."
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..."
Stein comprehensively and bluntly nailed the bottom line reasons for the defeat at the same time empathizing with Wisconsites who have long been “under siege by the fossil fuel, mining and toxic chemical corporations.”
Stein decried the basic voting fraud. “Thousands of qualified voters were turned away from their polling places. Thousands more were told not to vote, or that election day was yet to come.”
She called out the corporate media for declaring the election results “while voters still stood in line to vote, and at a time when only the most conservative ward results were reported.”
She speculated on the unreliability of the electronic voting machines that are “easy to manipulate because they lack a paper trail.”
Finally, she highlighted that “nearly all of the money spent in the election came from out-of-state big corporate interests.”
“Will of the people, ultimately” corporate media reports with its usual schadenfreude titillating delight? Right! Will of some obtuse citizens, no doubt, but with plenty of help from the mendacious and amoral media cronies and political hucksters of every status all funded by corporate sociopathic puppeteers.
Earlier this year, with Obama’s reauthorization of the FAA bill despite protests of over 19 labor unions, Stein reacted passionately:
“The free trade agreements being promoted by the Obama Administration are already putting ever-increasing pressure on working America to make concessions regarding wages and benefits. For three decades, employers have pocketed the profits from increasing worker productivity, shortchanged workers on health benefits and pensions and are now bringing in two-tier wage systems in which younger workers are being paid a fraction of the wages paid to older employees. I’m running because working Americans deserve a President who will say ‘no!’ to legislative attacks on the right to organize.”
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:
“His role is to talk tough when Wall Street misbehavior hits the headlines, and to appropriate to himself the role of the one who will fix the problem. This essentially heads off all other attempts at true reform. After the story fades from the headlines, he cuts a deal that protects the status quo. President Obama is a facilitator, not a reformer. He will never change the Wall Street system."
Facilitator, not a reformer. Is that what he meant by "community organizer"? Purely corporate 1% community organizer guaranteeing no ethical and legal accountability. No average Americans welcome at that elitist table.
Stein also zeros in on the particular 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."
snip
"President Obama justifies his so-called reforms by saying they will protect Wall Street from collapse. There are two things wrong with his approach. First, he has no intention of making the real, substantive changes we so desperately need to reign in the wheeler-dealers. And secondly, he shouldn't be trying to perpetuate the status quo and let Wall Street grow even more powerful. Wall Street needs to become a much less influential player in determining the life and death of our economy. We need to break up the big Wall Street banks, take major capital investment decisions out of their hands, and create an economy in which small businesses and workers grow prosperous instead of being robbed."
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. I'm going to end the President's trickle-down approach. I'm going to bypass the Wall Street banks and help state development banks loan directly to the families that need help."
But as Stein earlier pointed 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:
“So now we're supposed to go through the 2012 presidential race with two candidates, a Republican pushing for repealing regulation and a Democrat arguing for preservation of ineffective regulation. The American voter is supposed to choose between dumb and dumber, and Wall Street escapes in either case. It is vitally important that the Green Party break through to let the American people hear a third opinion and know that they don't have to vote for increasing the financial clout of the Wall Street elite. Without a third voice, the election will end with a phony mandate for four more years of increasing Wall Street empowerment. Millions of voters are ready to vote against that, and that's why we are working so hard to be on the ballot."
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. It shows once again why Obamanomics is a phony populism, and how his rhetoric masks the same old trickle-down policies.” 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. She said that the maximum $2000 per loan compensation for illegally foreclosed homes is only about 1% of the average $180,000 mortgage. “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:
“United States policy regarding Israel and Palestine must be revised to make international law, peace and human rights for all people, no matter their religion or nationality, the central priorities. While the U.S. government sometimes voices support for this principle in name, in practice U.S policy towards Palestine and Israel has violated this principle more often than not.
“In particular, the United States has encouraged the worst tendencies of the Israeli government as it pursues policies of occupation, apartheid, assassination, illegal settlements, blockades, building of nuclear bombs, indefinite detention, collective punishment, and defiance of international law. Instead of allying with the courageous proponents of peace within Israel and Palestine, our government has rewarded consistent abusers of human rights. There is no peace or justice or democracy at the end of such a path. We must reset U.S. policy regarding Israel and Palestine, as part of a broader revision of U.S. policy towards the Middle East.”
snip
"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:
"The overall impact of the leaked information has been huge, leading indirectly to the recent withdrawal of the U.S. military from Iraq much sooner than our government intended. That’s because these revelations compelled the Maliki government in Iraq to refuse to extend criminal immunity to U.S. soldiers. It contributed to the turn of American public opinion to overwhelmingly oppose the war in Afghanistan. And it added momentum to the Arab Spring uprisings against dictatorial U.S.-backed regimes.
“The war criminals whom these Wikileaks cables exposed have suffered no consequences. The only one who is suffering consequences is Bradley Manning, the one who is accused of exposing the crimes.
“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.
“Bradley Manning will have spent more than two years in detention before his court martial begins. For the first 10 months, he was held in solitary confinement, restricted to his cell 23 hours a day, and subjected to degrading treatment, including being forbidden reading material or the right to exercise, and being stripped naked while under constant observation. The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, accused the U.S. Government of cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment in his report based on a 14-month investigation. It said that the U.S. might have violated laws against torture as well as Manning's basic right to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law.
snip
“In fact, the President should have brought Bradley Manning under the protections of the Whistleblower Protection Act. But the President, as well as the Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have publicly stated that Manning broke the law. Those statements from the top of the chain of command constitute unlawful command influence that prejudices the proceedings of the court martial. It is one of many reasons why Bradley Manning cannot now get a fair trial in the military justice system.
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: "The President promised us change, but in promoting Michele Leonhart he gave us more of the same. One of the first things I would do as President would be to fire Michele Leonhart."
Stein also asserts:
"President Obama promised to use a science-based approach to public policy. But when it comes to marijuana, he has continued the unscientific policies of George Bush, and has even gone far beyond Bush in his attacks upon medical marijuana clinics. He supports the irrational classification of marijuana in the most dangerous drug category, and she supports the ban on commercial hemp growing. This is mania-based policy, not science-based policy.”
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.
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:
"When you're dealing with the harsh reality of youth unemployment rates above 50% and major segments of the community trapped in a lifetime of crushing poverty, you don't want to hear your government officials brag about how well their economic policies are working. You want to hear about plans for decisive action. That's why I'm advocating for a Green New Deal that will provide all the jobs we need - full employment - in the hard-hit communities where we most need them." "We need major policy changes to bring economic security to the working people of America" Stein asserted.
"The fundamental flaws of an economic policy dictated by Wall Street are apparent, even if they have sometimes been masked by periods of apparent growth that were actually financed by unsustainable credit card and housing debt. 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.”
From her website:
Despite spending more than twice as much as the rest of the industrialized nations ($8,160 per capita), the United States performs poorly in comparison on major health indicators such as life expectancy, infant mortality and immunization rates. Moreover, the other advanced nations provide comprehensive coverage to their entire populations, while the U.S. leaves 51 million completely uninsured and millions more inadequately covered.
snip
“Despite its inadequacies, Stein sees some positive components in the Obama reforms, but she notes that these elements do not actually go into effect until 2014 and is concerned that, “This delay will cost lives.” It is estimated that 45,000 Americans die annually due to lack of health care coverage.”
snip
“Under Obama's health insurance mandate, a family of four with income of $80,000 a year will be forced to purchase health insurance policies that will eat up 9.8 percent of their income -- yet the policy would cover only 70 percent of medical expenses. “This will not only compete with other household necessities but would do virtually nothing to protect people from the financial ruin in the event of serious illness,” Stein explained.
“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. Patients would regain free choice of doctor and hospital, and doctors would regain autonomy over patient care. All those complicated forms that have to be filled out for the current multitude of private health insurers would no longer be necessary, and that would save billions in paperwork 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. Costs would be controlled through negotiated fees, global budgeting and bulk purchasing and all necessary care would be provided with no out of pocket costs to patients.”
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,..."
Stein promised that if she becomes president she would push for “the immediate shutdown of the 23 Fukushima-style GE Mark I reactors as the first step in moving to a nuclear-free America.” "An energy system based on renewables is inevitable. Between the dangers of nuclear mining, transport, meltdown, and storage on the one hand, and catastrophic climate change on the other, we must make the transition happen now rather than wait for a calamity to force our hand. I’m campaigning for a Green New Deal that will transition the U.S. economy to become the world leader in building a green economy that puts people back to work while we create a sustainable future.”
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:
"His decision is motivated by a calculated political self-interest. The voices of scientists and concerned citizens have fallen on deaf ears. Now the question is whether the environmental movement, in understanding the consequences for the planet, will make sure there are political consequences for the White House. If we do not have the backbone to stand up to the President on this, he will conclude that he made a smart political move and that the environmental movement can easily be brushed aside. That conclusion will lead to a tragic series of setbacks for all of us and for future generations."
"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.”
"We are building new political force in this nation: a force that can stand up to the oil lobbyists and the shortsighted politicians and the Transcanadas who would sacrifice our future for their own short-term profit. We can stop this pipeline and we can create 25 million jobs in its place. But it has to begin with unhitching ourselves from the compromised and spineless politics of Washington and giving our support to a politics of integrity and ecological wisdom."
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. The President's 'all of the above' approach to polluting energy is an alarming denial of the climate emergency we face and the urgent need to substantially reduce the amount of carbon we exhaust into the atmosphere. 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
"Occupying public spaces as protest is a constitutionally protected form of free speech. I call upon local, state and federal officials to stop attacking the Occupy Wall Street movement. I also call upon our courts to enforce the constitution and protect the first amendment rights of the occupiers,...”
"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.
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I have no argument with anything Stein indicates or proposes. But the people in power have so distorted the democratic system that the likelihood of Stein ever becoming a force to reckon with is only slightly better than the second coming of Christ. A working democracy demands a fully informed and comprehending public and all indications are, especially in the USA, that the kind of public necessary for proper government is existent in such a minuscule minority that it might just as well not be there. It is, of course, the good fight to try to establish and nurture this kind of public and your efforts in this give me great mental cheer that you exist but you cannot create a great nation out of the shoddy material now existing in the country.
I'll miss you too Ms. Libby...
especially your poetry and commentary.
Sincerely.
JMac
especially your poetry and commentary.
Sincerely.
JMac
What's so sad is that all it would take for Stein, or someone other than a D or R, to win is the votes of those who say they don't want to waste their vote on her.
I hope you're doing well and that you'll come back when you find more time. Will keep reading what you do post
Rated.
I hope you're doing well and that you'll come back when you find more time. Will keep reading what you do post
Rated.
ONOOOOOO Don't go. I am very familiar with Jill Stein having been born and bred in Wisconsin.
Insist Obama & Romney Debate 3rd Party Opponents
http://youtu.be/nCZuasjnXOA
Top 3 Dumb Excuses To Not Vote 3rd Party
http://youtu.be/lKxrNPmMkkk
6 Easy Steps To End The 2-Party System
http://youtu.be/AS8cdu9ge0w
http://youtu.be/nCZuasjnXOA
Top 3 Dumb Excuses To Not Vote 3rd Party
http://youtu.be/lKxrNPmMkkk
6 Easy Steps To End The 2-Party System
http://youtu.be/AS8cdu9ge0w
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