In your textbox you say "I plan to cancel student debt"
Can you elaborate on how that would be achieved efficiently and without abuse?
Bailing out student debtors from $1.3 trillion in predatory student debt is a top priority for my campaign. If we could bail out the crooks on Wall Street back in 2008, we can bail out their victims - the students who are struggling with largely insecure, part-time, low-wage jobs. The US government has consistently bailed out big banks and financial industry elites, often when they’ve engaged in abusive and illegal activity with disastrous consequences for regular people.
There are many ways we can pay for this debt. We could for example cancel the obsolete F-35 fighter jet program, create a Wall Street transaction tax (where a 0.2% tax would produce over $350 billion per year), or canceling the planned trillion dollar investment in a new generation of nuclear weapons. Unlike weapons programs and tax cuts for the super rich, investing in higher education and freeing millions of Americans from debt will have tremendous benefits for the real economy. If the 43 million Americans locked in student debt come out to vote Green to end that debt - that's a winning plurality of the vote. We could actually make this happen!
How do you plan to publicize yourself for more voters, and also, how do you plan on nuclear disarmment?
I'll be debating Gary Johnson on Tavis Smiley pbs on Nov 1 and 2. Tune in and tell your friends!
There are several ways to move forward on nuclear disarmament. One, we can take up the long standing offer of the Russians to jointly convene a nuclear disarmament process. Second, we can work with the United Nations which has recently adopted an initiative (just getting under way) to make nuclear weapons illegal.
How do you think paying off all or a substantial portion of outstanding student debt would fix the roots of the student debt problem instead of putting a band-aid on it?
We must also make public higher education free, as it used to be in many states. We know from the GI bill following WWII that it pays for itself. For every dollar of tax payer money put in to higher education, we recoup $7 dollars in increased revenue and public benefits. We can't afford not to make public higher education free.
Cancelling the F-35 would lead to the US having to repay the other countries that have been part of footing the bill for the F-35. At this point in time, it will be cheaper to continue for all the reasons you point out.
Why are you opposed to nuclear energy?
Nuclear power is dirty, dangerous, expensive and obsolete. First of all, it is toxic from the beginning of the production chain to the very end. Uranium mining has sickened countless numbers of people, many of them Native Americans whose land is still contaminated with abandoned mines. No one has solved the problem of how to safely store nuclear waste, which remains deadly to all forms of life for much longer than all of recorded history. And the depleted uranium ammunition used by our military is now sickening people in the Middle East.
Nuclear power is dangerous. Accidents like Chernobyl and Fukushima create contaminated zones unfit for human settlement. They said Chernobyl was a fluke, until Fukushima happened just 5 years ago. What’s next - the aging Indian Point reactor 25 miles from New York City? After the terrorist attack in Brussels, we learned that terrorists had considered infiltrating Belgian nuclear plants for a future attack. And as sea levels rise, we could see more Fukushima-type situations with coastal nuke plants.
Finally, nuclear power is obsolete. It’s already more expensive per unit of energy than renewable technology, which is improving all the time. The only reason why the nuclear industry still exists is because the government subsidizes it with loan guarantees that the industry cannot survive without. Instead we need to invest in scaling up clean renewable energy as quickly as possible.
American abroad who voted for you!
American friends tell me your election is impossible due to how the system works, but then I see you are on the ballot in 48 states.?
How could your election be impossible if you could win 48 states?
Or are these people just misinformed?
Yes we could win! The corporate media has blacked us out for fear of the voter revolt. But that revolt is happening. Clinton and Trump are the most dislike, untrusted presidential candidates in our history. 76% of Americans were clamoring for open debates. But the Commission on Presidential debates - which is none other than the Democratic and Republican parties - set the rules to exclude political opposition. That's not democracy. That's two-party tyranny.
With the new revelations of Trump's abuse of women, and the Clinton Inc fundraising scandals and reopening of the FBI investigation, people are more desperate than ever for a politics of integrity. My campaign is the secret the political establishment is terrified of. Because that establishment is a house of cards waiting to fall down. I encourage people to find out more about a real politics of by and for the people at jill2016.com or on fb/twitter @drjillstein.
Which song is 10/10 for you?
Long Train Runnin - Dooby Brothers
“What steps will your energy policy take to meet our energy needs while at the same time remaining environmentally friendly and minimizing job layoffs?"
I am calling for an emergency jobs program that will also solve the emergency of climate change. So we will create jobs, not cut them, in the green energy transition. Specifically we call for a Green New Deal, like the New Deal that got us out of the great depression, but this is also a green program, to create clean renewable energy, sustainable food production, and public transportation - as well as essential social services. In fact we call for the creation of 20 million jobs, ensuring everyone has a good wage job, as part of a wartime scale mobilization to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2030. This is the date the science now tells us we must have ended fossil fuel use if we are to prevent runaway climate change. (See for example the recent report by Oil Change International - which says we have 17 years to end fossil fuel use.)
Fortunately, we get so much healthier when we end fossil fuels (which are linked to asthma, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, etc) that the savings in health care alone is enough to repay the costs of the green energy transition. Also, 100% clean energy makes wars for oil obsolete. So we can also save hundreds of billions of dollars cutting our dangerous bloated military budget, which is making us less secure, not more secure.
Do you have a backup plan to affect all of these changes if you don't win the presidency? I'd love to see all these things happen but, given the current political climate, it seems we get the choice of idiot right and corrupt left.
Here's the good news. We are very close (according to recent polls) to reaching 5% of the vote. So YOUR VOTE COUNTS! If we can reach 5% of the vote, the Green Party then qualifies for $10 million in federal matching funds for the 2020 presidential election. AND we get automatic ballot access in most states. That means we can be a full powered people's campaign in 2020. And that means we will come out of this election with the momentum we need to build a real opposition party. As the Republican party falls apart, and Democrats and Republicans merge in Hillary Clinton's campaign, we need a political alternative more than ever - that stands for people, planet and peace, and all those being thrown under the bus by the corporate sponsored political establishment. This election is just the beginning. The crises caused by Democrats and Republicans is not getting better by itself. We are the ones we've been waiting for. Go to jill2016.com and join the team - for an America and a world that works for all of us.
Hey Jill, I'm a potential voter that's caught between voting for you or writing Bernie Sanders in.
My question to you is, why should I vote for you instead? Out of all the candidates you're my top choice, but a lot of you and the green parties policies are a tad to extreme for me.
I was a very passionate Bernie supporter (still am) and still feel like he's the one who best represents me, thought I'd give you a chance to tell me why you're my vote.
Edit : So just can everyone see how prevelant CTR are (the organization being paid to make Hillary look good basically) This is setting at -76 (A question about a personal choice I'm making mind you). When I went to bed, it was at +15
Definitely not voting for Hillary, now more than ever. But thanks for correcting the record guys.
Write-in votes only count if the candidate has registered, which Bernie Sanders has not. So write-in votes for Sanders won’t count towards anything.
Every vote for the Green Party helps us get closer to 5%, which would qualify us for $10 million or more in public funds in the 2020 election and win ballot access for the Green Party in states across the country. So you should vote Green to invest your vote in building a truly democratic party for the people, a party that doesn’t take corporate money.
Bernie was sabotaged by the Democratic National Committee - as revealed in their leaked emails. Bernie proved that you can't have a revolutionary campaign in a counter revolutionary party. It's time to move on and build a party that supports the people - that doesn't take marching orders from the big banks, the fossil fuel giants and the war profiteers.
What would you say to the former Bernie supporters who have turned their support to Donald Trump?
I think many of them are angry about how the Democratic Party treated Bernie Sanders and his supporters. I would say to them that the best strategy for continuing the political revolution is to build a revolutionary political party. We won’t get political revolution by supporting a member of the billionaire class (trump) or a servant of the billionaire class (clinton). We need an independent party for the 99%, and the Green Party is fighting against all the same forces Bernie faced to build that party. Trump won’t save us, and neither will Clinton, so the best use of your vote is to invest it in building the Green Party. The two-party system is in a downward spiral, as we see with Clinton and Trump, and we have to break free from it - starting now. With each passing election, both parties become more corporatist, militarist and imperialist. It's not going to get better by itself. We have to stand up and start working for the world we want - and this is within our reach.
Would you get us out of all these stupid wars. Since it seems like the choices are a warmonger and someone with a temper of a toddler?
Yes! These wars have made us less safe, not more safe The avg household will have paid $50K for war on terror by the time we've paid for the health care for our wounded vets. (And we should be providing much better care for our vets - including housing, drug rehab and jobs!) Results: failed states, mass refugee migrations, worse terrorist threats We need a new offensive in the Middle East - a PEACE OFFENSIVE, staring with a weapons embargo to the Middle East and a freeze on the bank accounts of the countries - like Saudi Arabia - that are continuing to fund terrorist enterprises. In general, we need a foreign policy based on international law, human rights and diplomacy - not on military and economic domination!
Where and how will the Green Party of the United States make a breakthrough on a local level?
We have made lots of local break throughs - though the corporate media doesn't want you to know about them. Gail Mclaughlin presided as a Green Mayor over Richmond California, where she massively reduced police violence, supported local small businesses, reigned in the safety violations of the Chevron refinery, and used eminent domain to challenge foreclosures by the banks.
The Green mayor of New Paltz New York, Jason West, was the FIRST official to preside over gay marriages - and went to jail for it.
Green officials in Minneapolis also made important innovations as park commissioner and city councilor.
Hello. Will you audit the Pentagon?
Yes!! A DoD Inspector General’s report revealed the Pentagon can’t account for $6.5 trillion worth of military spending. Despite a 1996 law requiring all federal agencies to complete regular audits, the Pentagon has never complied with that law and never completed an audit. There are many indications of incredible waste going on with the huge amounts of taxpayer dollars we dump into the military, and auditing the Pentagon should be a first order of business.
Hey there, Dr. Stein! Thanks for the AMA, I just submitted by ballot today and I happily checked the Green Party's box as many times as I could.
The other day, Hillary Clinton responded -- for the first time so far -- to the ongoing protests at Standing Rock, where you have repeatedly joined water protectors in saving their sacred land from the construction of DAPL.
“From the beginning of this campaign, Secretary Clinton has been clear that she thinks all voices should be heard and all views considered in federal infrastructure projects. Now, all of the parties involved… need to find a path forward that serves the broadest public interest. As that happens, it’s important that on the ground in North Dakota, everyone respects demonstrators’ rights to protest peacefully, and workers’ rights to do their jobs safely.”
What are your thoughts on this response? I think it's pretty clear at this point that Hillary Clinton is going to win the election, a thought that terrifies me about as much as a Trump victory would. What can be done to ensure that Clinton establishes a more clear position on this issue rather than the sterile non-response she offered up above? What can be done to protect Indigenous peoples from continued imperialism, especially considering the Democratic Party's silence (with the exception of, like, Elizabeth Warren) on this issue? I know your plan for if elected, but what about after November 8, when all is known and all is said and done?
Hillary's response - which said nothing - is shameful. She supports pipelines, including this horrible, dangerous, bakken oil pipeline that puts the water supply for 14 million people at risk, and which violates the human rights of the Standing Rock Sioux. We must continue to fight, as the indigenous leaders are doing, on all the front lines of climate justice. And we must continue to organize - TOGETHER. That's what the Green Party is for.... so we can come together across the spectrum of justice - for climate justice, student justice, worker justice, lgbtq justice, immigrant justice, african american justice etc. If we only fight on our separate issues, we are divided and conquered. We must come together, on behalf of people, planet and peace over profit. And we must challenge power politically if we are to change things. Join us at jill2016.com or on fb/twitter @drjillstein . Together we are unstoppable. And the struggle has only begun!
You once said that "wi-fi" is a threat to the health of American children? Why do you hold that belief, if you still hold it?
A number of scientific studies have raised red flags about possible health effects of WiFi radiation on young children. I do not have a personal opinion that WiFi is or isn't a health issue for children. There is not enough information to know. I do however believe in science. Scientific research should go forward and find out. Countries including Switzerland, Italy, France, Austria, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Poland, Hungary, Israel, Russia and China, have banned or restricted these technologies in schools.
These concerns were ignited by a recent National Institutes of Health study that provided some of the strongest evidence to date that exposure to radiation from cell phones and wireless devices is associated with the formation of rare cancers. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/major-cell-phone-radiation-study-reignites-cancer-questions/
If we believe in science, which i think most Redditors do, let's follow the science where it takes us.
What can do we do to push ranked choice voting? Does it have to start at local levels, or can it be done at the highest levels to maximize effect?
We definitely need to break free from the 2-party trap - this election shows why that is so critical. Ranked choice voting is a key step to doing this. Ranked choice voting lets you to rank your choices so if your first choice doesn’t win, your vote is automatically reassigned to your second choice. The current voting system has people voting out of fear against the candidates they hate, rather than for candidates they really like and agree with. Ranked choice voting would end fear-based voting, and let voters express their true values. Democracy is not a question of who do we hate the most. Democracy needs a moral compass. We must be that moral compass. Ranked choice voting gives us the freedom to do that.
Ranked choice voting is used in cities across America and countries around the world. It is on the ballot as a referendum in the state of Maine for use in statewide elections.
The Democrats are afraid of ranked choice voting, because it takes away the fear they rely on to extort your vote. My campaign had filed a bill with the help of a progressive Democratic legislator to create ranked choice voting in 2002 in Massachusetts when i was running for governor against Mitt Romney. I wanted to be sure there was no "spoiling" of the election. The Democrats refused to let the bill out of committee - and they continued to do that every time the bill was refiled. Why is that? It's because they are taking marching orders from the big banks and fossil fuel giants and war profiteers. They know they cannot win your vote. They have to intimidate you into voting for them. And ranked choice voting would take away their fear mongering. It calls their bluff. They are not on your side. This is why Gov Jerry Brown just vetoed a bill to allow all municipalities to use ranked choice voting in California.
So, the bottom line is we can fix the screwed up voting system. But the political establishment won't do it for us. We need to organize to make it happen. I urge you to work with us after the election. Let's make this a priority, to pass ranked choice voting, including for presidential elections. This can be done at the level of state legislatures. It does not need a congressional bill. Go to jill2016.com to join the team and help make this happen!
I have heard one of your plans if elected is to disarm the police. How do you plan to accomplish that? (Serious)
I have not proposed disarming the police. Some countries have done this and found the police are actually safer when they're not carrying weapons. (England, Australia). This is a non starter in this country at this time. What i have proposed is de-militarizing police. We should stop recycling military equipment to our police, making them an occupying force. We must train police in de-escalation techniques, and end the confrontational "broken windows" policing that has been such a disaster. We must also be sure that mental health professionals are available to intervene in mental health emergencies, which have been a tragic part of so many police shootings. Gail McLaughlin, the Green mayor of Richmond, CA, made these kinds of changes in their police force and dramatically reduced crime and police violence. Specifically homicides are down 70% over the past decade. https://richmondconfidential.org/2014/10/29/richmond-police-stats-show-decline-in-homicides-interactive-map/
How can we get more than two parties to participate in debates?
I honestly did not even know there was a Green party in this country until this year. They bury and censor anyone that isn't Democrat or Republican. Even Bernie Sanders faced a lot of heat for being a slightly different sort of democrat.
If 3rd party candidates were invited to debates as they should be, then people would know they exist and that they are a real option.
The presidential debates have been controlled for 3 decades by the Commission on Presidential Debates, a private corporation controlled by the Democratic and Republican parties. The CPD is set up to exclude other voices from the debates because they want to keep the 2-party stranglehold and prevent other parties from being seen as viable by the public. Debate exclusion happens in down-ballot races as well. Why do we allow the establishment parties to control the debates? We need to fight this undemocratic system, but the corporate media has manufactured consensus that somehow it’s normal for the dominant parties to be able to lock out their competition from being heard.
We need to support independent, non-corporate media. The corporate media has been key to propping up the 2-party system by insisting that we only have two choices, while ignoring or marginalizing the other choices on the ballot. 76% of Americans wanted 4-party debates, yet the media allowed the Democrats and Republicans to lock me and Gary Johnson out. And Wikileaks has shown just how cozy the media establishment is with the political establishment. Thankfully there is a growing movement of independent media that isn’t beholden to corporations that has been much more interested in reporting the full story, rather than repeating talking points from the political establishment. We need to support those media organizations and help them grow. The most important way you can help our voice get heard is to join the Green Party and help us build the revolution from the grassroots up! This is a people-powered movement that is committed to creating real multi-party democracy in the United States. 57% of Americans say the 2-party system has failed and we need a new major party. Getting us to 5% on November 8th will help, but no matter what we will keep building to win. We need a party that puts people, planet and peace over profit - our lives and our future depend on it.
What would you say to people who are voting for Gary Johnson over you, strictly to make sure at least one third party candidate reaches that 5% threshold for federal funding?
My campaign is the only presidential campaign that doesn't take money from - and is not corrupted by - lobbyists, corporate interests and superpacs. I alone have the liberty to stand up for what the American people are clamoring for: an emergency jobs program to solve the emergency of climate change, a bailout for student debtors, free public higher education, health care as a human rights, and an end to the catastrophic wars that are costing over HALF of our discretionary budget, while creating failed states, mass refugee migrations and worse terrorist threats.
Gary Johnson supports Citizens United and the buy out it enables of our political system by the economic elite. He supports the TransPacific Partnership, "NAFTA on steroids" which will continue offshoring of our jobs and which allows multinational corporations to override our democratically created laws and regulations. He supports privatizing social security. He does not support bailing out students or free public higher education. He does not have a solution to the jobs crisis, and he believes there's no point solving the climate crisis because the sun will eventually explode and encompass the earth anyhow.
The Libertarian Party was founded, among others, by David Koch who was one of its first vice presidential candidates. It represents big business interests on steroids. It advocates getting rid of government in order to turn corporate predators loose without the minimal restraint they currently have.
I think it's important that we have a truly alternative political party, that is of by and for the people. The Libertarians unfortunately represent the abuses of the existing corporate parties but even worse.
Getting the Libertarians federal funding will provide more of the same. The Greens are the only national alternative party. Your vote can make all the difference in getting that alternative to 5%, and ensuring we have a strong voice in the next election. As the political house of cards continues to fall down, we must build the alternative for an America and a world that works for us all. And we must start now!