Jill Stein/Butch Ware on Gaza & Fighting Zombie Politics

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Part 1 of 2

Why Muslims Should Vote For The Green Party with Dr Jill Stein
The Thinking Muslim
Oct 27, 2024

The pro-genocide administration of Biden and Harris has been involved in a frenetic outreach to America’s small but vocal Muslim community. These critical constituents in crucial battleground states like Michigan are where November’s election will be won or lost. Both parties, the Democrats and Republicans, are Zionist to their core, but this genocide has happened with the seal of approval and the consent of the Biden-Harris administration.

Is Gaza a turning point? Can we move beyond this two-party nightmare? Are third-party options plausible in a system that approves only two possibilities? Or is voting for anyone but the two bad options a wasted vote? And what of the broader question of the US empire and its propensity to violence? How will this election address what the world observes as an imperium without moral or ethical standards?

Today I have a very special guest, Dr Jill Stein, leader of the Green Party and Presidential candidate. Jill is a Harvard educated doctor, an environmentalist, campaigner and organiser.



Transcript

Introduction

a vote for you is in vote for Donald Trump Israel is a proxy for the US here can I ask
you about about M Hassan interview while he opposes genocide he's all in favor of
those committing genocide he's a LAPD dog to uh to Empire does the green party have
a Syria problem I have never expressed support for Assad the American people want to end the genocide our children are not okay unless all children are okay
okay there is a new moral compass here and much of that is coming from the Muslim
Community the pro genocide administration of Biden and Harris has been involved in a
franatic Outreach to America's small but vocal Muslim Community these critical constituents
in crucial Battleground States like Michigan are where November's election will be one or lost both
parties for Democrats and Republicans are zionists to the call but this genocide has happened with
the seal of approval and the consent of the Biden Harris Administration is Gaza a turning point can
we move Beyond this two-party nightmare our third party options plausible in a system that approves
only two possibilities or is voting for anyone but the two bad options a wasted vote and what
of the broader questions of us Empire and its propen to violence how will this election address
what the world observes as an Imperium without moral or ethical standards now today I have a
very special guest Dr Jill Stein leader of the green party and presidential candidate Jill is
a Harvard educated doctor and environmentalist campaigner and organizer and she joins us today
from San Francisco Dr Jill Stein it's a pleasure to have you with us and thank you for joining
us on the think it Muslim it's such an honor to be here thank you so much for this conversation
Is a vote for the Green Party a vote for Trump?
well it's wonderful I think we've got a lot of ground to cover uh today so Jill let's start with what I've really observed uh amongst the Muslim communities in the United States and
Beyond actually and conscientious voters there is this anger a palpable anger over Gaza and many
are pledging their vote to you a third party the green party now you know that many of your D track
argue that a vote for you is a vote for Donald Trump how would you respond to that
you know I think that represents an incredible presumptuousness by the Democratic party and the
Harris campaign that they own your vote that they somehow own the Muslim vote and that you
owe your allegiance to the Democratic party and what for you know the party that could not even
give uh Palestinian voices two minutes on the stage at the Democratic National uh nominating
convention uh where the delegates held their ears so as not to hear the names of the um you know of
the murdered uh on outside of that convention um you know it's incredibly presumptuous of
the democratic party to imply that they own your vote they have to earn your votes they clearly
have not earned them and the notion that a vote for me is a vote for Trump well actually current
polls suggest just the opposite of that in fact the Muslim American and Arab American community
and many other people of conscience have already left the station they are not going to vote for
this Administration that is actively committing genocide so in fact those votes are already gone
and now the question is are these voters going to Donald Trump or are they going to our campaign so
current polls one-sided by Newsweek this week the other sided by breaking points the um uh
the podcast very popular podcast uh they both show these two polls show in fact that we appear to be
taking votes from Donald Trump not from kamla Harris and uh one of the commentators crystal
ball actually observed well maybe it's awfully presumptuous of us to pretend that politics is
so simple that it's one or the other and maybe we need a little more humility uh and maybe we should
back off and not try to manipulate elections you know and this has been really our point of view
from the green party all along as an independent third party that voters have a right to vote for
a candidate that represents their views their needs their aspirations we have a right to that vote and if some are concerned that votes might be taken from another candidate which by the way
is what democracy is about we're supposed to compete for votes candidates are supposed to compete for your vat so the whole notion is really a ridiculous framing to start with but
even if you subscribe to that then the answer is not to suppress alternative voices it's not
to suppress the voices against genocide the voices against endless war uh you know the voices against
climate catastrophe whatever you know these are the voices Americans want over 60% of Americans
regularly say in polls that they want other voices and other choices uh in the presidential race so
so uh The Simple Solution here is to Simply enact a voter reform called rank Choice voting which
prevents any so-called splitting of the vote any possibility that you could be casting a wasted
vote that would be essentially futile in rank Choice voting you rank your choices if your first
choice loses your vote is basically reassigned to your second choice so it prevents any possibility
of a so-called split Vote or a spoiled election this is the actual solution if you think that's
a problem here's how to solve it and it speaks volumes that the Democrats refuse to support
this system in fact they work very hard to block it why because they rely on fear and extortion
they want to extort your vote rather than win your vote why do they not want to win your vote
and right now kamla Harris could go a long way to win back Muslim votes if she simply took a stand
Voters vs Donors
right now and enacted a weapons embargo to the state of Israel which is what the people
of America want and what Muslim Americans want as well she could win your vote she has the power to
do that but she would rather lose the election than end uh the genocide and the massacre of
children that's going on so you know this is a refusal of the candidate to basically win your
vote because they have donors whether it's APAC or the weapons uh profiteers they have donors who
are who rank number one that's who the Democratic party and this and the Republican party and these
two candidates uh prioritize they prioritize their donors not their voters that's why they
have to eliminate the competition and silence the competition because these candidates who serve the
War Industry who are dedicated to genocide this is why they cannot actually stand up and fight
for your vote because to do so would be to betray they big money donors um are you giving too much
Why is Kamala Harris not opposing the Genocide?
agency to the vice president here Camala Harris and I was speaking to a black Muslim organizer a
couple of days ago and he said to me that um Kamal Harris is different to Joe Biden but because she's
vice president she's not able to voice her her disagreement with the genocide and um once she
is elected uh she will reverse position uh How likely do you think that is you know I'd say
famous last words you know um listen to what I say not to what I do she could respectfully voice
her disagreement uh it's true she cannot overrule the president but she has a lot of agency as the
candidate for president uh there ought to be a great deal of respect for not only for her
opinions but also for her status in the polls but unfortunately she cannot find a single difference
between herself and Joe Biden when actually asked asked you know the difference she points to is
that uh well she'll maybe have a republican in her candidate in her cabinet you know so she um it's
hard to give much agency to her at all because she will not assert herself and she tends to you
know drift with the wind and seek whatever seems to be popular and convenient at the moment so
you know this is the danger of such a candidate a candidate who's been raising money hand over fist
and who has more billionaire donors than ever on record so what are the odds that she's going to
stand up against the interests of uh Wall Street and the War Machine and the military industrial
complex and APAC what are the odds that she's going to take a principled stand in the future
when she has yet to find a principled stand really across the board uh in the past Dr SE can I ask
Does the Green Party have a Syria problem?
you about that Mei Hassan interview uh probably a couple of months back or a month and a half back
um now of course I I think that um medy probably has a very strong inclination
towards the Democrats and we've seen that the last few weeks but he did raise some uncomfortable
questions about Syria um I suppose my question is does the green party have a serria problem
has it in the past dabbled with pro-assad dis views I don't believe so not that I'm aware you
know the green party is uh Vigilant about uh us interference and us um you know uh manipulation
and uh support for uh uh so-called um uh what do they call them you know the uh more moderate
you know terrorists and funding uh Isis so the green party is very wary of interfering in other
governments but I don't believe I have heard the part party adopt positions uh in support of Assad
and our campaign has been accused of taking a stand for Assad back in 2015 I mean you have to
go back to 2015 where a statement was posted on our website without approval because the issue
was controversial within our campaign we were not going to take a prosad stance but a statement got
posted that contained one sentence of support for assign and when we became aware of that it
was taken down uh within approximately a month or so and we have never I have never expressed
support for Assad and you know uh the truth of the matter is we support human rights we support the
sovereignty of the Syrian people actually when I was at that notorious media conference in Moscow
and I had an opportunity to speak on it I actually took uh Putin to task for uh for
his bombing campaign in Syria um out of you know sympathy to the Syrian people and their right to
uh sovereignty and self-determination and to be free from uh you know human rights abuses
and bombing campaigns are horrific uh forms of you know intervention and Untold thousands of
people were killed in that bombing campaign and in fact the words that I used uh to my recollection
was that this was f f following in the footsteps of misguided US foreign policy where we had you
know basically assaulted Iraq and Afghanistan and had made a complete mess out of these countries
through violent intervention violent intervention is not a pathway to peace or to human rights
and sovereignty so we have never and I have never expressed uh support for Assad though we do indeed
caution against uh us Intervention which so often only makes things worse see if I impress you a
little bit more on about I mean the impression that often we get when we observe some on the
Oppressive leaders
left is uh that um uh if there are uh autocrats or dictators or strong men who are anti American
automatically they must be in in the right and of course uh many of these strong men do oppress and
suppress Muslim minorities I mean the Chinese and the wigos for example or as we said assard and and
uh uh but of course also President Putin and and thechans um can you categorically state that you
are not on the side of these people these leaders these strong men uh who by and large do repress
the minorities and many of them are Muslim minorities yes of course I think you know any
leadership has to be taken to task for its human rights violations you know I think at
the same time we're quick to acknowledge that our government is as Martin Luther King put it
the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today you know and we are certainly guilty of slaughtering millions of people from Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan so you know I think
our criticisms have to be taken with a grain of salt because we have our own government to account
for and hold accountable uh but within that framework you know recognizing as Martin Luther
King said my country is the G greatest purveyor of violence uh in the world today within that
framework yes there are so many other leaders who are abusing human rights and need to be uh called
out for that um how do you understand the position of Medi Hassen of course he's not here to to
Mehdi Hasan's position on Kamala Harris
for himself but medy has uh very strongly argued against for genocide but at the same time I know
you've had conversations with him on Twitter and elsewhere uh medy has come out in favor of Kamala
Harris um like how would you frame his position uh on on Camala Harris while he opposes genocide he's
all in favor of those committing genocide and to me that is just a a um you know that's that's just
a a a non seor you know that just doesn't follow that you oppose the genocide but you are all out
in support of the candidates committing genocide and you know Donald Trump is has also expressed
you know uh full support for that genocide you know wants Israel to hurry up and finish the job um but medy Hasan you know so they're both to my mind they're both greater evils and one
cannot parse that uh carel Harris is better she's actually doing it you know how do you get worse
than what we are seeing playing out on our you know on our cell phones and our computers every
day where children are being purposefully shot in the head you know this is a tactic and a campaign
where all possibilities for dialogue and diplomacy are eliminated when uh Israel is in the business
of assassinating the spokes people and the um negotiators you know I think they negotiated um
rather they assassinated most recently the um uh the Hamas I'm sorry the Hezbollah uh leader
um after he had agreed to AAS fire you know then they assassinated him this is just the height of
of treachery barbarism murderousness where wounded in the hospital on an IV are actually set a flame
and are burned alive uh you know where patients in hospitals are held hostage denied food water
medicine uh and their hospitals are under sied uh not to mention you know the whole population
of two and a quarter million people not only subject to murder but to torture on a daily basis
what the people of Gaza are subjected to and now increasingly uh into Lebanon as well you know is
bombardment uh assassination being targeted um by snipers told they have to flee while
being targeted being starved of food and water and medicine at the same time and shelter and
sanitation it's just almost Beyond Comprehension what is being done and it's not only that hundreds
of thousands of people have been murdered it's that the entire population is subject to torture
really on a daily basis it's just Unthinkable and you know how one can forgive and Overlook
the perpetrator the leading perpetrator here because Israel is a proxy for the US here the
US uh is funding this War uh is arming Israel is providing diplomatic cover uh is providing
intelligence so the US does not get a pass here and the US leadership who are committing these
war crimes uh should not get a pass and to me it's just Unthinkable that medy Hassan goes to the mat
here over and over again to try to give kamla Harris cover she needs to be held accountable
and you know he should be part of a movement here to end the genocide the votes are there you know
if people had the courage of their convictions and that ought to be the responsibility of any journalist to actually keep the American people informed of their options and not systematically
uh smear and fear camp campaign against candidates who actually would solve this crisis 68% of
Americans want an end to the genocide over 60% of Americans want a weapons embargo right now in
order to force the hand of Israel because Israel will not go willingly here uh certainly not under Netanyahu it won't so Medi Hassan is in denial of the political power of this movement and he
seeks to intimidate the movement in into being some obedient servant of the democratic party
and its genocidal interent to me that just it's it's horrific and it's completely incompatible
with Medi Hassan's principal position about the genocide but he's a complete you know uh he's a
lap dog to uh to Empire here he the Press is supposed to be a watchdog and he's not only
not a watchdog he is a lap dog to power here in his uh uh in his apology in his promotion
uh of the genocider and his effort to silence and intimidate those who would stand up and stop this
genocide so to me this is this is a very sad State of Affairs and the dialogue that took place that
was not an interview that was an ambush in which he systematically sought to shut down our point
of view and in particular my point of view that he was just very quick to cut me off to try to force
you know to force me into a corner and to manipulate my answers um this is not what
credible journalism does it's a real shame and it's been a real eyeopener for many of his Bas
he quietly posted that interview he had promoted certain segments but the whole interview itself
went up without any fan flare whatsoever but it was certainly discovered by his viewers many of
whom have now signed off from his uh from his you know subscribing to his station feeling like this
was just um a betrayal of his responsibilities as a journalist I suppose his argument or at
How does voting Green Party help Gaza?
least the argument of his supporters would be that voting for you will not actually stop the genocide I mean I think if I'm not mistaken the last poll I read you're you're polling around two
3% um you're not going to win this election so so so explain the Dynamics of this how would voting
for you uh help to put an end to the genocide so two things you know as Frederick Douglas said
power concedes nothing without a demand it never has and it never will every vote against genocide
is a shot across the bow of the Empire to say that we are here we are not going away we are
uh political opposition that opposition is strong and its voice is growing there's no question that
there is majority opposition to the genocide if it simply votes for the Lesser evil it has been
politically disappeared it has been neutralized it has been disarmed and in fact it has been Twisted
into supporting genocide into endorsing and um enabling genocide so every vote of resistance
against genocide helps bring closer the time when our elected leadership will cave to the reality
that the American people oppose this we need to oppose it with political force and let me say
if see they they can keep us to 2 to 3% because they s us they have you know tried to throw us
Green Party being contested
off the ballot they hired their army of lawyers to use devious and I must say to misuse the law
to try to dig up little technicalities in order to throw us off off the ballot and we have been
in court in seven or eight states fighting them we've ex we've succeeded in all but one and one
is still being contested uh but we have largely succeeded here they tied up our Public Funding
in order to prevent us from using money that we had earned Public Funding in order to meet our
various deadlines for the ballot access and they managed to keep us off the ballot in a couple of
states by doing that um in most of those States we've been able to be on the ballot as a wrin so
that con including the rins we are on the ballot for about 95% of Voters they haven't been able
to stop us but this is another way that they try to silence our opposition and basically um bury
us so that there is not awareness in the 2020 election one out of every three eligible voters
did not vote for president those voters tend to be younger of color uh and lower income so
exactly the people who are most being thrown under the bus who are most served by our agenda which
calls for cutting the military budget at least half it's a trillion dollars that uh is misspent
every year on this endless war machine we call for cutting that in half so that we can spend our
tax dollars on the emergencies right here at home instead of spreading chaos death and destruction
AIPAC is running America
around the world uh instead we can spend those dollars on our crises right here fixing the crisis
of Health Care the housing emergency the um uh the education crisis and the fact that some 43 million
Americans are stuck into unpayable uh student debt um we should have higher education for free
uh we used to do that in my day growing up we can certainly do that now there are solutions we can fix the climate crisis you know but we can't do that while we're spending all this money on the
military the American people are are distraught polls among young people now in this country show
that about 50% of young people say that they are hopeless about the future 25% of young
people uh have have um have considered harming themselves within two weeks of the last poll this
tells us you know you couldn't have a stronger indicator out there that this is not working for the American people 50% of all Americans are struggling not to be evicted they're within one to
two paychecks of losing their housing and uh rates of eviction and homelessness are skyrocketing
this country is in very bad shape it's being managed on behalf of APAC the war profiteers
Wall Street the fossil fuel industry you know big powerful special interests are profiting hand over
right now while poverty rates among children have actually tripled so this country is being thrown
under the bus there is enormous political will and because of those one out of every three voters who
would vote for an agenda like ours which is an agenda for everyday working people the Democrats
are terrified that word is getting out about this they're not just worried about that two or three
you know percent in swing States they're worried about votes all over that could flip could flip in a big way and you know while I'm not holding my breath we're going to win this election on the
other hand I don't rule out that there could be uh real unintended or unforeseen developments in this
The Responsibility of a Third Party
race you know Israel has announced you know many times over that it's about to attack Iran in at
least one of those statements they've said that this will happen before the election if Israel attacks Iran and we know that the uh nuclear sites are also in their Target hairs which is
you know a horrific violation of international law and an extremely dangerous thing uh Iran
is in a military alliance with Russia and Russia has also expressed grave concern about Israel's
intention to attack Iran and especially to attack the nuclear facilities is it not possible that we
will be in a war with Iran escalating towards a potential Global um conflict that could
potentially go nuclear as well and by the way the draft is back in this country the draft is back
and Men between the ages of 18 and 25 are already signed up for the draft they don't know about it
or many don't know about it those that I've talked about it are completely unaware that they are uh
in the Target hairs of The Selective Service and all it takes is for the president to declare we're
at War and we need boots on the ground in fact he's already pledged boots on the ground Israel
has already been given the Baton the Baton has been passed for being commanderin-chief of this
country the US has said Israel can do what it wants and that uh the US will be there to support
them including boots on the ground and in addition to 5,000 servicemen and women with each of the
aircraft carrier battle groups one stationed off of Iran the other now stationed off the west
coast of Gaza so those are 10,000 uh Americans right there there are another 40,000 American
uh servicemen and women who were stationed in the Middle East who are all very much uh in the Target hairs of this growing rapidly escalating conflict another 100 which were sent maybe two
weeks ago with the new uh missile defense system that's being given to Israel because Israel is
completely defenseless here Israel cannot defend itself and it certainly cannot conduct the war
not even the war that it has on Gaza but just expanding that war even to Lebanon you know
Israel is not accustomed to a long War Israel's accustomed to a Six-Day War or maybe a six week war and that's about it so Israel is in extremely precarious circumstances right now recent poll
I heard about says that one out of every three Israelis is intent on leaving and in the process
of leaving Israel their economy is in a shambles uh their tourist industry of course has completely Gau under so Israel is in very desperate States it needs the US the US is entirely um
shares full responsibility here with Israel which is basically its proxy and the American people are
in the Target hairs of this war so I just want to make the point that really dramatic things could
spin out of control very quickly and it's exactly in that kind of circumstance where you can see the
electorate flip on a dime and those one out of three voters who aren't voting are not voting uh
to some extent because they don't know that there is a campaign that is standing out for them if if
events were to happen if the news cycle were to go in a direction that basically lifts up our
campaign as the only anti-war anti-genocide pro-worker in climate emergency campaign we
could see the vote change there are three Pro genocide candidates on the ballot RFK is still
on the ballot in many states you could see the pro genocide proar vote split three ways you could see
an informed electorate coming out to support our anti-war anti-genocide pro-worker campaign
and in a four-way split an election can be one with as little as 26% that's not an impossible
movement of the electorate even overnight if the country were suddenly to be in a full-blown war
and if the draft were uh potentially about to be reactivated if there was talk of boots
on the grounds if there was a real um you know uh devastating conflict and it's hard to imagine how
this conflict will not be devastating um so you know I just want to make a point that elections
are unpredictable Affairs and you know part of what you do as an independent third party is you
wait for the moment you know and that's a moment that depends on forces much bigger than you but
you have to be ready as a political force to stand up and fight back and you have to begin that fight
at your soonest opportunity you know it's not just uh an opportunity it's a responsibility if
we want a world that can survive for our children considering the risks of nuclear war not only in
the Middle East but also in um uh in Taiwan and China and also uh with Russia and Ukraine you
know the US mindset is to basically blow it up you know and and to resort to violence as a first uh
uh as a first Resort rather than as a last resort we're going to war all over the place you know according to the um Congressional research service the US has sent its military into other countries
Uninvited 250 times in the last three decades we have conducted 80 regime change operations
since the uh second world war you know so this is a country that as Martin Luther King says you
know is a massive surveyor of violence and our instinct in the instincts of our leadership who
are warmongers and have been warmongers and war criminals uh their instincts are precisely um the
opposite of what they should be right now we're in the nuclear age and you cannot do that you need to negotiate first and you know you need to use you need to exhaust all other options and you should
not be conducting war in order to maintain uh military and economic domination over the world
which is basically you know the ration now for US foreign policy also known as full spectrum
dominance we can come back to that if we need to but the instincts are all wrong and they need to
be challenged uh publicly and especially now so where we would come out in this election would
be totally different if we were included in the dialogue if there was a real debate here uh if the
American people knew that there is a campaign across the country for 90% of Voters a choice
uh in this election there is such a campaign that actually is advocating for the solutions that the
American people are absolutely desperate for right now

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Part 2 of 2

Dr Stein, I mean that's you know very
very convincing um uh to build a third party that's going to have longevity you obviously
Building a Third Party for the American people
need to build a base and I've come across a good number of Muslims uh who almost describe the vote
they're going to give to you and it seems to me that a large majority maity a plurality of Muslims will give the green party the vote but they describe it as they're lending the
vote to the green party in in a sense you haven't quite convinced them that their long-term home is
within the green party now um I have come across for example the mayor of hamrak I mean he's made
a very naive decision I think to to support Donald Trump but one of his reasons for supporting Donald
Trump was to site uh social concerns and um um I suppose my question here is that how can you
re assure voters that uh your position your version of pluralism incorporates a a respect
for religious attitudes yes and and let me say I don't think anyone should be uh manipulated into
making premature commitments to any candidate or political party um I think it's much clearer about
what's going on in this race and in that sense I think it is uh absolutely you know it is uh kind
of a no-brainer strategy I think that those who oppose genocide need to be supporting our campaign
in order to you know build uh political momentum and give voice to a real political movement here
that has legs and Longevity and that is a movement against genocide and endless war because they're
kind of inseparable so so that much I think is a um that's a partnership right now that makes every
sense uh you know imaginable for us to partner in this election and I think this is a very
important get to know you moment and there are some who've been with us there are some Muslims
and arab-americans who have sought us out from the very beginning have become major um advisers
and uh uh operators really within the campaign uh have begun political uh parties themselves
Muslims in the Green Party
there is a new chapter of the green party in Dearborne Michigan for example and uh really
all over the country now we are seeing uh Muslim Americans and Arab Americans who have really
join the fabric of the green party and it is a wonderful uh thing to behold because uh we bring
different skills to the table and uh it's a very powerful and empowering partnership and I think
the uh future looks very bright uh for this partnership I think there's a very deep um
uh uh convergence of values and Views here and while there are many in the green party who regard
themselves as atheists there are I would say even more who regard themselves as humanists who have
some kind of spiritual beliefs or practices and you universally there is great regard for uh the
Muslim religion and the experience of uh Muslims around the world their political experience their
political wisdom for having been uh up close and personal uh in Empire knowing the abuses of Empire
overseas and then knowing the abuses of Empire here in this country abusing the civil liberties
uh with the islamophobia um you know and uh the targeting the surveillance Etc where Muslims are
you know the canary in the Min shaft but all of us and especially political uh opponents of Empire we
are on the receiving end of this as well and uh there's enormous Common Ground Among Us in our
campaign I am running as you know with a uh an African a black uh African-American Muslim uh
man and together with a white Jewish woman uh we have the bases covered I must say on many issues
including a lot of questions about religion and respect for religious diversity and so on
so this is a um I think it's a very empowering um uh combination and conversation and we will all be
changed by this there's no doubt about that there will be influence you know the green party is not
a um you we are not a top- down organization we are a bottomup organization and you know our four
pillars are you know Grassroots democracy social justice nonviolence and ecological wisdom and I
think that fits pretty well with Muslim values uh as I've been introduced to them so I think there
is within the uh you know within the key values of the green party there's a lot lot of room for
growth and understanding uh and dialogue so I am extremely encouraged by the kinds of uh Coalition
building that I'm witnessing and it is such a um I have to say it's so exciting um the green party
was founded you know generation Generations ago you know maybe one generation ago but there's um
there's been a real need for an infusion of young people with uh with a contemporary vision and I
think opposing genocide and Empire and standing up for uh a climate and social justice and fairness
to workers um we need the energy of the younger generation to lead the way that's always been true
you know throughout history in social movements it's always been young people who have been at
the front lines pushing the envelope and that's certainly what's going on right now uh in opposing
the genocide and watching greens grow with this now has been really kind of a you know a Wonder
to behold to see our communities coming together across lines of religion and history and ethnicity
and and race it's really exciting and I must say there are a lot of African-Americans now you know who are ve and Indigenous Americans as well who are very identified with this struggle against
genocide uh in Palestine and that Community as well has been really reinvented erated uh right
now politically and it is the objective of Empire to keep us divided and conquered and I think it is
such a strategic move so timely and essential for us to be coming together for our higher vision and
and the necessity of building political power at this very critical moment in history can I ask you
5% of The Popular vote
a question about the 5% Mark so I've heard from a number of people that if the Green Party receive
5% of the popular vote then they have access to all sorts of funding and they get greater
recognition within the system can you spell out what that recognition is and and why that 5% is
so important for you yes so if you are a newcomer to the political process like say Dr West when he
decided to go independent you have to collect about a million signatures and um at today's
rates you know unless you have a well-organized base that's across the country and even if you do
have volunteers around the country you need people to manage them so the cost per signature nowadays
is about $10 you know so if if you're going to get 10 million uh a million signatures at the cost of
$10 you know what's $10 million out the door right there and then you usually have staff to add on to
that as well so it's just uh uh it's it's daunting what you have to do if you're starting over if
you're in the race uh and already have ballot status um and you're already on the ballot then
you're ahead of the game to collect a million signatures it'll take you at least nine or 10 months unless you're RFK and you have big money donors from APAC from uh billionaire you know
running mates and so on then you have corporate money and maybe super Pacs and you can buy your
way into the race greens don't do that we do not use any of the loopholes for legalized corruption
you can't sit down and write a million dollar check to a green you can do that to basically all the other candidates I don't believe Dr West uh or the uh or or Claudia and Karina from PSL but
you know uh Biden or rather Harris Trump RFK and a Libertarian you can write a million dooll check
through their special arrangements and that comes with strings attached they may not be explicit
but they're implicit and if you are a recipient of the million dollars you know what the interests of your of your Doner are um the greens don't engage in that we follow the plain old-fashioned rules
um the limits for ordinary Mortals of $3,300 per election that's a lot of money for most people
but it's not much compared to a million dollars and through super Pacs you can contribute more than that there are no limits whatsoever through super Pacs and we totally disavow uh super Pacs
uh entirely so we don't play with that stuff we are basically what um everyday people um you know
want who funds you runs you and we uh reject all that you know legalized corruption so we are about
what uh the everyday people you know are really clamoring for so that's why we have an agenda
which is of by and for the people period that's why our values are you know really lead the way
our values are popular values they are people's values uh we adopted our position on on uh Israeli
apartheid occupation and ethnic cleansing back in the year 2006 we took a position in favor of
boycott divestment and sanctions at that time we are not new to this we are not uh fair weather
friends here uh we are not opportunists this is who we are and what we we say is what we do
because all we have are the people we don't have big money donors so there's no one else for us
to abandon say Muslims uh on behalf of we're not going to abandon this cause uh to stop genocide
to um uh to challenge APAC uh we are not going to abandon our opposition to uh Wall Street and
the war machine this is who we are and you know we very much forward to the continuing dialogue
uh with Muslim Americans and to moving forward together uh and seizing this moment um uh where
we actually do have a majority if you look at where the power is we have the majority who wants
healthc care as a human right who want uh an who want affordable housing who want a green New Deal
and jobs that will transition our economy to the um sustainable and Equitable uh economy and future
that we deserve so what we say is what we do we very much see eye to eye with Muslim Americans
on so many things and we very much look forward to continuing to grow the political movement together
Dr Stein's vision of American power?
uh can I ask you a question about American power in world now you've made it very clear about uh
American Empire American power is usually a cause for for for bad in the world it doesn't create a
world which is uh the type of world that you envisage um uh then tell me where do you see
the position of America in the world um would the world be better without the exercise of American
power like paint me a picture of the America you desire and the America you want yes so let me
say very simply about foreign policy we need to move from a monopolar world or a unipolar world
dominated by one imperial Force to a multi-polar world you know I think that's not rocket science
there are other economic forces and military forces in the world right now we need to work
collaboratively uh we need to be adults in the room together working according to international
law human rights and diplomacy the US you know uh mode of operating right now is through economic
and Military domination a policy that was formerly named full spectrum dominance we dominate every
sphere of potential competition or conflict and we we prevent even Regional powers from rising to
Regional dominance that has been the uh you know the the guidelines of American foreign policy
since the fall of the Soviet Union and this is not workable especially because we are no longer the
dominant power we're not the dominant economic power you know we see bricks which is in the
process of enlarging right now and you know having started with five it's now like 12 members I think
and then many uh Partners as well so there are rising um uh economic powers and collaborations
that we have not been friendly to whatsoever so we need to uh uh cease and desist from attempting
to dominate and become a player in a multi-polar world operating according to international law
you know we've been substituting for international law with uh what we call a rules-based order whose
rules our rules rules that change from situation to situation we need to subscribe to the body of
international law yes there are some things that do need Improvement like the security Council for the United Nations needs to be democratized there are improvements that need to be made that can
be made um you know so we can move to a foreign policy that's going to work for all of us and the
America that I see stops squandering half of its Congressional Budget on the endless war machine uh
and puts those dollars back into the needs of the American people and which also takes a uh the role
of of humanizer and of supporting human rights uh and the helping Nations meet especially the
poor nations of the global South meet the Urgent needs of the climate crisis which we have been
really the major contributor to historically we have contributed did the greatest burden of of
greenhouse gases so we need to be a responsible player here that assists uh the less fortunate
in the global Community because we are still the wealthiest Nation uh around the world throughout
the course of world history we have enormous wealth and resources and we need to use them
for the betterment of the American people and to support uh the world in which we live because
these two are interacting you know if you look at the migration crisis that this country is experiencing um our approach is that the most important thing we can do to stop the migration
crisis is to cease causing it in the first place through very misguided and harmful US policies
from endless war regime change operations uh economic neocolonialism like in Haiti we overthrew
the democratically elected uh um president of Haiti twice arised we overthrew him twice and
after he was overthrown the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came in and reversed the minimum
wage law which had raised minimum wages in Haiti from a mere 30 cents an hour to a mere 60 cents an
hour our government our secretary of state pushed that back in order to do a favor and let the um
the clothing manufacturers reap maximum profits by exploiting labor you know this unfortunately
is the rule not the exception we overthrew the um the the democratically elected government
of Iran you know way back in the 1950s because Iran was going to nationalize its oil and use
its national resources for the benefit of its people rather than for um British Petroleum
and the United States who came in and overthrew him and substituted you know this uh absolutely
murderous uh dictator the shaw of Iran and we kept him in power uh you know for uh for
decades same thing in Guatemala we overthrew their government uh on behalf of United Fruit so that
the peasants uh would not be um the recipients of redistributed land to enable them to support
themselves you know so the US has played this role uh throughout history and uh that is not the kind
of world we want that does not win us friends and influence people again we need to move from
a monopolar world that um you know is dominating uh in dominating economies and uh military such
that we are driving migration crisis you know so we're looking at migrants from Haiti we're
looking at migrants from uh from Guatemala from South America in particular also the drug wars uh
America's War on Drugs also empowers their drug cartels and it's the violence of those cartels
then that are driving you know many people to come to this country fleeing the violence you
paint a a picture of America which I think will sound like music to most of our ears outside of
Where do Ordinary Americans stand?
America but how much is your uh view your vision of America shared by American people because from
out from the outside we tend to get um a very skewed understanding of the American electorate
the American population and their proclivity I suppose to American militancy if that's the
right way to phrase it um how much is what you say shared by ordinary Americans for that I think
the most telling um statistic really is to look at Americans opposition to the genocide and American
support for actually a weapons embargo right now so what you hear from the political parties what
you hear from the political class the political Elites is not the American people the American
people want to end the genocide they want a weapons embargo on Israel to enforce that end they
want to cut the military budget poll after poll shows that Americans do not support catastrophic
war after catastrophic War that's why we have this you know this uh corporatized media which
is you know n chonky called it um manufacturing consent you know consent is manufactured through
uh propaganda this is why our campaign is shoved out of the way because we are a very Inconvenient
Truth uh and a very inconvenient um you know blockade to manufacturing consent truth is a
very powerful thing it's hard for people to mobilize to do the right thing unless there's someone out there and that's not necessarily a candidate you know it's it's the students who
are out there on the campuses and that's why their heads are being bashed in you know and this is not happening you know the the bashing of those heads is not happening incidentally that's not happening
because the American people want it that's because you know the American uh Power class is sold out
they are sold out to the military-industrial complex they are sold out to APAC you know so
the um the messages that are being broadcast in this country and from this country around the
world do not reflect where the American people are you really have to dig to find that you know you really have to be looking at Independent Media uh systematically you have to be really searching the
polls and they often don't ask these questions because they don't want the uh you know the responses to be um in the public domain but over and over again when the American people are given
a choice they don't want to be at War and the uh the genocidal war going on in Gaza right now is
an example if you pull the American people about expanding this war and potentially uh globalizing
it and potentially allowing it to go nuclear uh on behalf of protecting Israel's right to commit
genocide you know the American people would be absolutely up in arms about this especially if
they were reminded or even informed that the draft is here and they are in the Target hairs of that
draft and if this war explodes uh we are not only then paying in dollars we're paying in blood uh
for this genocide and that could happen and the American people is are opposed to this so you know
the American people want Health Care as a human right they want a solution they want rent control
they want uh you know they want affordable housing to be built again it was under Bill Clinton that that uh public housing was brought to an end under Democrat Bill Clinton the program of
public housing was stopped with a thing called the fair CLA amendment that prevents public dollars be from being spent on on public housing and Europe is building quality mixed income um affordable
housing the US doesn't do that we subsidize luxury housing and then take a little tiny fraction of it
uh to be affordable the American people are hungry for uh for what our campaign is offering and also
likewise for a solution to the climate crisis overwhelmingly the American people want that right
now so we offer solution after solu ution and that includes backing off of this Imperial foreign
policy that shoots first and asks questions later the American people don't want this they want to
bring our dollars back to take care of our urgent problems here this is why our voices are kept out
of this dialogue because when people hear this I mean take a look at the comments on The Breakfast
Club so The Breakfast Club which is a very popular um uh uh podcast a video podcast especially viewed
by African-Americans so um uh Butch where my running mate and myself were interviewed we were
really and set up for an ambush by a talking head with the usual you know ridiculous uh propaganda
which we shot down very quickly and if you read the comments there are over 20,000 comments right
now if you look at the full posting it's just mindboggling to see comment after comment is
I was not going to vote in election now I am registering green and I am voting for uh Stein
wear people have been so hungering for this you know this is why the Democrats are coming out
with their advertising campaign because they are very terrified that the cat should get out of the
bag that the American people have other options coming into this race over 60% of Americans in
the Gallop poll prior to this race over 60% were saying they want another choice in this election
because the two that we have are doing such a horrible job of serving the public interest
so we see this over and over again the American people are hungering for what we don't have it's very important not to be swayed by the propaganda that's out there this propaganda of powerlessness
in fact we the people are not powerless we are powerful and as Alice Walker said the biggest
way people give up power is by not knowing we have it to start with we have it it's time to use
it because we ourselves we're all in the Target hairs you know um James bald said that uh sorry
all children everywhere belong to all of us you know and the children in Gaza are the you know
fundamental um illustration of that they belong to all of us it's time for us to change uh business
as usual here it's time for us to change American politics so that we can step up and actually serve
the children of the world which are our children as well and our children are not okay unless all
children are okay the world is just too um interdependent a place right now and people
flow between countries and we share an atmosphere and water and oceans and food and an economy we
are too connected now to be at Eternal war with each other or to have leadership who cannot see
how we are interconnected and interdependent and who can step up to the plate and leave behind them
their war criminal uh instincts and background and training uh we need to really throw those
bums out they need to be in the he not in the white house uh we need to be stepping up to um
Embrace and demand an America and a world that works for all of us if it doesn't work for all
of us fundamentally it's not going to work for any of us and you would like to see Joe Biden in the H I would like to see him face Justice yeah good think all war criminals all the major enablers of
this genocide should face Justice I've just heard an informal report that Israel just hit Iran so
you know this could be unfolding as we speak I don't know you know there have been um a lot of
indicators that this is going to happen and it and it occurred and no one knows where this is going to go yeah um I think it's not too soon for us to stand up and demand that voices of reason
and Justice be heard and that we stand up for the politics we deserve uh God knows where this could
go in the blink of an eye you know we've been on an escalation ladder uh for decades really
um but you know certainly for the last year BB Netanyahu has been attempting to drag us into um
you know a devastating War potentially a nuclear war and um we need to stand up and be heard and
to fight for a world we can survive in and that our children can survive in Dr Jin it's really
been a pleasure speaking to you and I hope uh you can make a dent in this two-party nightmare thank
It's Not Too Late
you very much for your time today thank you and it's Jill stein2 24.com for those who'd like to
know more it's not too late the future's in our hands thank you so much you've got a publishing
schedule I was speaking to Sam and it's uh you're you're uh you're traveling from City to City at
the moment oh yeah and then we're either doing in we're either doing uh events or we're doing
interviews and I don't have a half hour hour to like do a laundry or you know do anything I'm I'm
eating on the Run constantly um it would be hard to maintain this for very much longer so you know
but on the other hand it would be impossible not to just give this my all right now you know it
feels like this is our chance to stand up and fight this horrific genocide and and the the
response that's happening right now feels nothing nothing short of miraculous um I've never been in
a situation before where uh people total strangers are coming up to me bursting out in tears and
greeting me with hugs like I'm a member of their immediate family the uh the passion that's going
into this campaign right now against enormous um uh demonization the effort to criminalize us you
know right and left uh the Democrats are pulling out every dirty trick in the book in the book you
know uh to try to silence me to intimidate me to get me to drop out um and to intimidate voters to
stop them from voting for justice and for a future we deserve there's so much fear campaigning going
on especially about Donald Trump he's terrible but um uh so is you know so is um uh KLA Harris
absolutely terrible and you know so I I couldn't I couldn't hold myself back you know I was uh
recruited to run this race when I had other plans my family had other plans um so you know I want to
make the most of every minute here it feels to me you know uh as I've been saying now in in some of
our our Gatherings uh as Martin Luther K King said the arc the moral Arc of the universe is long but
it bends towards Justice it feels right now like we are in one of those moments where the universe
is bending it's bending because it has to it's bending because we have a genocide on our hands
but as a consequence of that genocide the moral universe is changing and you know and there is a
new moral compass here and much of that is coming from the Muslim Community and the arab-american
community and we are forever changed um I think in a way that uh gives us a real fighting chance for
uh peace and Justice and a world that's going to work for all of us but it feels to me almost like physically that the universe is bending right now and we can feel it bending uh inside of us in a
way that is quite transformational really I think we're we're eternally gratitude grateful to you
for for what you've done and and for your stance on on Gaza and I think um you know I'm I'm not a
voter and I'm I'm an outsider of course but um uh people are talking about you here it's it is
you know it's a conversation here the green party so you know the Muslim Community of course speaks to um their relatives abroad and and it's very clear to me that the message is getting through
I do think so and I don't remember if I said it in this interview or the prior ones but you know
I grew up after the Holocaust uh you know in a genocide of Jews when our community was asking
is there life after genocide you know I wasn't because I was young I didn't feel the genocide but people around me were pretty horrified about it um and I was taught you know that when you see
something wrong you have to stand up and fight it you know and that that uh you know that we
have to hold everyone accountable just not just the perpetrators of genocide but the bystanders
to genocide you cannot be a bystander to genocide or anything else so that's why I became a social
activist and I grew up ated to the proposition that genocide will not happen again certainly
not on my watch and I never expected to actually see our country committing that genocide and that
blood on our hands and it made it impossible for me not to step up when it became clear that that
having an anti-genocide candidate in the race and an anti-genocide voice was going to depend on the
green party using his ballot lines so I had helped recruit a candidate a wonderful candidate Dr West
to be that you know to to be our representative and use our ballot lines but when he decided he
would rather run independent I knew there's no way first time out of the starting date that
you're going to get on a ballot unless you're selling your soul and you've got billionaire donors uh a principled uh anti-war anti-genocide candidate is not going to be buying their way
onto the ballot um so was going to depend on the green party uh if we were going to have a strong
voice to truly challenge Empire and to fight the genocide in this election so I felt like I had no
choice you know I had to stand up because I made this commitment above all to my mother who was
most disturbed about this in my family I made that commitment that I would stand up when I saw wrong
happening in the world I you know that would be my job you know and that's why I became a
medical doctor you know I was going to serve and help you know help write the wrongs and now the
greatest wrong imaginable fell into the lap of our party which was really going to be the only
way we could bring this front and center into the election so that's why I could not say no
although there were a lot of people telling me I should say no I should not stand up I could not
conscience doing that and you know this is just once you see this you can't not see it yeah so
we got to fix it thank you thank you so much I'm I'm we're just so appreciative of your efforts
and and what you've done so thank you so much um for your time today pleasure wonderful talk with
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