Why I Support Jill Stein & Why She Doesn't Think Hamas Does "Terrorism"

Dr. Butch Ware joined the team recently as Dr. Jill Stein's VP candidate

If you've never run for elected office I guarantee that you have no idea how insanely time-consuming it is. If you're a corporate-aligned candidate, a great deal of your time is spent schmoozing with wealthy donors. If you're a people-aligned candidate like Jill Stein, a great deal of time is spent getting ballot access -- as the wealthy Democrats try to sue you or cheat you off the ballot in state after state. Then a great deal of time is spent getting out the vote, giving interviews, making appearances, listening to voters, meeting with your team, signing off on communications...the list is almost endless. Oh, and raising some money, too. 

Because as I learned when I ran for the U.S. Senate against Susan Collins under ranked choice voting (RCV) in Maine, paid media is what gets you earned media i.e. interviews, features. Oh, and did I forget debate prep? Anyway, you get the idea.

I say all this as a preface to why I am 100% supporting Dr. Jill Stein in the upcoming presidential election.

Sure, I live in Maine where there is RCV for president and thus no spoiler effect. I will rank Stein first, probably Claudia De La Cruz second, and possibly Dr. Cornell West third. I doubt I'll rank the two corporate servants at all as the genocide in Palestine will continue on steroids if either one of them makes it to the White House.

A problem with one of Stein's early tweets is what I want to address today. Here's the tweet (someone else added the green snake face emojis):

I've reached out to Stein's communications director (full disclosure: was also previously my communications director). I've also heard from her campaign manager. Both agreed that the candidate's tweet intended to expose the hypocrisy of people cheering for Israel cutting food, electricity, and water in Gaza while bombing and invading. In other words, Stein does not think Hamas engaged in terrorism on October 7. However, the tweet's intent would have been much clearer if there had been air quotes around the word "terrorism" both times it was used.

Writing tweets that are clear, concise enough for the platform, and effective is an art. It's what communications professionals get paid to do. Stein is a medical doctor and a very smart, kind, compassionate person. But she does not tweet for a living. 

If we examine Stein's record of, not just subsequent words but also subsequent actions, we can see that she has consistently stood with Palestine. She's been arrested standing with pro-Palestine students at their encampment at Washington University in St. Louis. She's explained why, as a Jewish person, she does not support Israel's violent occupation of Palestine. 

If I were her comms team I might apologize for the missing quotation marks and clarify her intent. It's possible this might still happen.

In the meantime, I went to bat for her after faux progressive congresswoman AOC trashed her this week claiming she is "predatory" and "inauthentic." Most amazing to me, AOC claimed in a Tiktok video that Stein only emerges every four years to run for president and never helps down ballot Green Party candidates.

This led to me sharing some history between my campaign and Stein in a tweet that has generated great engagement in a day and half.

https://x.com/NaturalGuard/status/1830727100845973798

Of course haters are gonna hate -- most ridiculed me for thinking that earning 5% of votes cast was an accomplishment. One commenter pointed out that 5% would earn you parliamentary seats in many European countries, but most just trashed me and ignored the fact that the senate race in Maine in 2020 was more heavily funded -- by tens of millions of dollars -- than any congressional race in the state's history.

So actually the metric I was most proud of was our cost per vote. 

Analysis using data from OpenSecrets by volunteer Brennan Barrington who commented, "As extreme as the difference looks, it's actually an understatement of the cost for the major party candidates, given how much was spent by outside groups not affiliated with the campaigns themselves."

We ended up with 40k+ votes so this analysis was just a bit premature but it makes the point.

Under RCV, the incumbent met the 51% threshold in the first round and thus we'll never know how many voters ranked me second.

But that's not the point. The point is that Stein supported me, she also supported Matt Hoh when he ran for the Senate in North Carolina, and she also supported Dr. Margaret Flowers and Joshua Harris in their campaigns.. you get the idea.

AOC is just playing the mean girl card and spreading lies about a candidate who is now polling even with Harris among Muslim voters according to a recent survey.

In conclusion, here are the states where Stein and/or Greens have ballot access for November.

I'm excited that Maine is one of them, and excited that Stein tweeted on Monday in response to Newsweek still publishing false information about her campaign:

We’re expected to have 517 potential electoral votes, nearly double the 270 to win. 

Support our efforts in the next states: http://jillstein2024.com

I surely will. 

Occupying The Narrative Keeps Peace Candidates On Mute, Ensures War Spending Will Roll On

Jill Stein at a fundraiser in Portland, Maine October 30, 2015.
You will not see photos of Stein with a cute baby in corporate media, so I am sharing one here. 

The American Herald Tribune published David Swanson's interview with Green Party leader and presidential candidate Jill Stein this week. In it Swanson makes the audacious claim that, since Stein's platform most closely reflects the priorities of people rather than those of corporations, she has a better chance of winning than do candidates who kiss the ring of Pentagon contractors. Because a majority of people would actually vote for the platform Stein campaigns on.

But my inbox is clogged with letters and op-eds from people who should know better who are "feeling the Bern." Liberals are again hopelessly hoping for change from the Democratic Party. Why in the face of so much evidence to the contrary do they continue to be duped?

I think it's because they still get most of their information from corporate "news" -- a zone which blacks out any reference to non-corporate sponsored candidates.

In life under corporate government, it's all about hogging the narrative. Making sure people never hear from candidates who respond intelligently to what people really want.

Because people want the military budget to stop gobbling up over half the federal budget every year. They want to stop supporting 800+ military bases around the planet. The want the wars for oil and the resulting refugee crisis and the proliferation of nuclear weapons to cease.

"Refugee crisis: Pregnant woman and children among 40 victims after boat sinks off Turkish coast"
Mirror.co.uk  Jan. 30, 2016

People don't want the future inhabitants of the White House to have a blank check for waging war on "terror" with no geographic or temporal boundaries.

People want student debt canceled, and free university education like other rich countries have. Stein has an interesting strategy here. She told Swanson:

"I have yet to find a young person in debt who doesn't become a missionary for our campaign the minute they learn that we will cancel their debt...43 million young people – that is a plurality of the vote. In a three-way race, that's enough to win the vote."

People want universal health care like other rich countries have. Stein retired from practice as a medical doctor to promote the kind of environmental policies that human health needs dictate.

Also on board: Dr. Margaret Flowers, a Green Party candidate for the Senate in Maryland and a vigorous activist on behalf of a single payer health care system. (Actually, click here to read the article.)

People want the government to respond to climate crisis rather than continuing to pump out carbon and other pollutants at the taxpayers' expense.

People want to have a say in whether or not to live under corporate global government instead of having it shoved down their throats by fast tracking the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal through Congress.

From Black Agenda Report "Ethnic Cleansing: The Ultimate Environmental Racism" by Glen Ford

People want clean food and water, and real information in order to know if they are poisoning their own children unwittingly.

People want police accountability and an end to extrajudicial killing by guns at home and air strikes abroad.

People want the government to help poor families fleeing the murderous policies engendered in Central America by CAFTA and torturers trained at the taxpayer-supported School of the Americas. People don't want migrant children handed over to human traffickers after being housed in concentration camp-like conditions for weeks or months on end.

But even more than all these things, people want to believe in something. Anything that might pull us back from the precipice. Don't think corporate media doesn't recognize this. It's very important to manage this profound need of mobs in times of crisis.

That's why the demagogue with the bad hair appeals to so many frightened working class voters. They see enormous structural problems with our system as it stands, but they also have a compelling need to blame it on someone else. It couldn't be their fault, because they feel like victims themselves. They've lost faith in corporate government and most corporate media. Only "news" outlets that broadcast scapegoats appeal to them now.

Their news feed will make sure they never hear of Dr. Jill Stein or Dr. Margaret Flowers. How about yours?

Green Party Prez Hopeful Dr. Jill Stein On Voting For The Lesser Of Two Evils: "Are You Making Excuses For Your Abuser?"

Dr. Jill Stein speaking in Portland, Maine on October 30, 2016:
"Supporting people, planet and peace over profits is not a fringe belief."

Campaigning under the Green Party slogan Forget the lesser evil -- it's time to fight for the common good Dr. Jill Stein held a fundraising event in Portland, Maine on October 30. Dr. Stein is running for president because, as she explained in a detailed critique of the Obama administration, "voting for the lesser of two evils has a track record that's not good."

Dr. Stein was joined by local Green Party candidates Paul Okot (left) for school board and Dave Foster (right) for city council.

Dr. Stein described herself as a sort of "political therapist" who helps people break up abusive political relationships. She noted that many of us may need to gently ask our friends, "Are you making excuses for your abuser?"

Control of debates , public opinion polls, and the press were topics she touched on before describing her commitment to end endless wars in favor of spending on things people really want: sustainable energy, universal access to health care, free higher education, and the elimination of student debt. Thanks to Brian Leonard for this video of Dr. Stein's full remarks, well worth a listen:

  

Also on hand: Sherri Mitchell, a hard-hitting attorney for environmental
protection in our state, and Bob Klotz of 350 Maine.

Sherri Mitchell, a Penboscot attorney,  opened a space for Jill's remarks by offering a blessing for the land and ancestors of Wabanaki people. She also noted later in the evening that theft of the land from indigenous people is an original violation of law underpinning our current system of government. She urged the candidate to acknowledge this fundamental concern of indigenous people as a basis for examining the proper role of government.

Future generations deserve a government that protects the planet for all forms of life.

Principled Resistance To Holding Your Nose While Voting

Guest post today from Pat Taub, my friend and sister blogger and now a CODEPINK Local Coordinator in her own right. 

Here she answers a family member who chastised her for stating that she intended to vote for the Green Independent Party candidate for president.

My own political outlook has changed rather dramatically over the last ten years.  It has a lot to do with my engagement with progressive groups like the ACLU and Amnesty International, Codepink, Veterans for Peace, conversations with peace workers and friends who have lived and/or spent time in Afghanistan, Palestine and other hot spots and the internet.  Some ten years ago I would read the NYT regularly and listen to NPR regularly.  Most of my political views were informed from their reporting and editorials.  But as I spoke with civili liberties lawyers, international peace workers and read reports online that don't make it into the mainstream publications, my former views were contradicted. I was getting information about Palestine and Afghanistan and other international places along with stories of congressional corruption that were being ignored at home. Today I rely on Amy Goodman of Democracy Now, Al Jazeera (who had an excellent report today on volunteers coming to Palestine to help with their olive harvest--a report that would never make into the pro-Israeli US press), Chris Hedges of Truthdig, the Black Agenda, Glen Greenwald of the Guardian, Robert Fisk of the Independent. among others.  

I don't regard a vote for Jill Stein as a protest vote but as a clear difference.  While there are, to my way of thinking, minor differences between Obama and Romney, neither man represents the interests of the average American. They are both beholden to corporate America.  I don't think I will ever again vote for a major party candidate. Real change in America has always come from outside movements, like the Suffragettes, the Socialists, labor organizers, etc. It has not come from within either party.  For example, the Socialists pressured FDR to implement New Deal legislation. I want to be part of such a movement and will resist and work for change until I die.  Occupy held some of this promise.  It's not dead but reforming.  I take heart from the young occupiers I know and do all I can as an elder to support them.

I voted for Obama and even worked for him, but, for me, he has proven to be a tool of Wall Street and the Pentagon.  Not one Wall St. executive has been arrested while Bradley Manning has been in detention, including months of solitary confinement (tantamount to torture), for almost two years without due process.  All he did was exercise freedom of speech.  Obama's foreign policy is much more aggressive in many ways than Bush's.  Obama only left Iraq because the Iraqi govt. insisted on prosecuting soldiers and contractors if they continued to break the law--no immunity.  Obama has many Bush cronies working for him in the CIA and the State Dept.  John Brennan, the architect of the new "permanent war" (a playbook for targeted assignations and increased surveillance without habeus corpus) was one of Bush's right hand men and is reported to be Obama's main confidante.  The NDAA is both highly illegal and immoral.  I don't think any legislation Bush passed even compares on unconstitutional grounds to the NDAA.

The report issued two weeks ago and compiled by a joint research team from NYU and Stanford law schools found that the drone attacks in Pakistan (which have increased ten fold under Obama compared to Bush) leave the residents in a permanent state of terror.  Drones hover in the background 24 hours a day.  Residents never know when they will strike. Out of fear they keep children home from school and have stopped holding weddings and funerals.  What's worse, the Obama team practices "double tap," which means when villagers try to go to help injured drone victims they are targets.  Civilian casualties were found by this report to be in the 1000's while Obama claims under 15.  I can't support a man who kills women and children so casually.  I don't see how our foreign policy could be any more horrific under Romney. Additionally the consensus from the Stanford/NYU report was that the drone killings of innocents are fueling anti-America hatred world wide.  (Drones are being used extensively in Yemen and Somalia as well.)

Your concern about Social Security benefits is legitimate.  I still don't think Obama will offer you the protection you need.  Again, as I said before, I hope I'm wrong.

I could go on and on.  Quickly: I am troubled by the fact that Obama has deported more undocumented workers in his 4 years than Bush did in 8 years.  The argument that a Romney Supreme Court appointee would be devastating doesn't hold much ground with me.  I ask myself,  "How will a Supreme Court appointment make a difference with the financial implosion and climate change and economic inequality?"

So, there you are.  I will vote for Jill Stein because I see her as morally and ethically reflecting views I can support.

I didn't write any of the above to change your mind but rather to give you a fuller sense about what's behind my thinking.

I hope I can do my small part to make the world a better place for my two grandchildren.  They drive my activism.