During the Women’s March on the Pentagon, Jill Stein, the Green Party’s 2016 candidate for president, told Consortium News Video that war is robbing us blind.
By Netra Halperin
Special to Consortium News
2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein spoke to Consortium News Video during the rally at the Pentagon following the Women’s March to the war headquarters on Sunday. Stein said she attended the march and spoke to the crowd because she wanted to be at “ground zero” for the “survival of humanity.”
She protested the “political, bi-partisan system” that is “in bed” with those who profit from war.
On the importance of women leading the way in protest, Stein said: “Feminism is incompatible with militarism.”
Watch the 6:29 video interview here:
Netra Halperin is a documentary filmmaker and videographer, whose latest film is Promise of Peace.
I’ll reiterate what someone else suggested to make sure it gets out. If you just want to see what the latest comments are, just type “test” as a comment and post it. You can then remove it by reloading the page. Suddenly the number of comments will jump up to the current amount.
“Why is it a women’s issue”
I thought we have gotten over the …
“Oh, darling you shouldn’t bother your little head about secret men’s business.”
Money issues are taboo ??
Made a comment a day or so ago that still hasn’t appeared. Unless it was an accident of moderation, it may have suffered the fate of the academic paper I quoted there: Quite anti-war, quite left (one of its authors, Harold Vatter, tried to join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade!)
Accurate estimation of the economic effect of the modern military industrial complex and war that dispels illusions often cherished on the left, is not support of war & the MIC.
Thanks for voting for Jill.
We love Trump and your votes will assure his 2020 success!!
#MAGA
Jill Stein and most of the commenters here are trapped in a dichotomy that has been quite false for decades. The greed-crazed war profiteers rob many of their lives and grossly distort our and the rest of the world’s societies. But one thing they do not do is directly rob Americans of their livelihood, directly lower living standards, lower welfare spending. The truth is the reverse. Military Keynesianism, boosting demand by giving in to the demands of the war profiteers is the worst and stupidest sort of demand management policy, but if it did not exist, the rest of society would be poorer, not richer.
Rich countries live in demand constrained economies and have for nearly a century. For 40 odd years, the economics profession and the MSM has spewed unremitting nonsense that we live in a 19th century supply constrained economy. But without a replacement for largesse toward war profiteers, without a stream of government spending to replace it, replacing the trickle down, the US would undergo a collapse comparable to 1929 or 2008. Similarly if we replaced our other waste and fraud systems like the Medical Industrial complex with a UK style NHS.
Excerpts from an incisive critique concerning and generalizing from Vietnam that few understood and understand. Especially the last sentence.
The [Vietnam] war was economically trivial as a macroeconomic event, even though it produced innumerable & enormous political & social horrors for the United States, & political, social, & economic horrors for all of Indo-China. … [Imagine how much more true now]: However the capacity to destroy mankind or several small countries will be bigger [than during the Vietnam era] because the GNP is bigger.
“The [economics] profession needs to tell the nation that the economic barrier to war, its appalling economic costs, has been destroyed by the enormous size of our economy. Consequently, we’d better erect stronger political & social barriers or we will have more war.”
John Walker, Harold Vatter- Demonstrating the Undemonstrable_ A Reply to Garrison & Mayhew- Journal of Economic Issues 17- 1 (1983)
I believe you are under the mistaken assumption that the trillions wasted on the war machine and our predatory health care system could not be redirected rather than eliminated, and provide the same number of good jobs, if not more. And as you correctly state, those institutions are morally corrupt as well, and that is not small potatoes to the victims. Also the trillions unjustly flowing to the 1% and then fleeing to tax havens could be spread to the middle class and government coffers if truly progressive tax rates similar to those of the 1950’s were reinstated. That would lessen the “demand constraint” you cite, not to mention personal debt. There is more than one way to build an economy, but first the People need to retake their government from the Oligarchy. Stopping the Forever War is just the first step to a better world.
Isaiah 56:9-12
9The Lord has told the foreign nations to come like wild animals and devour his people. 10He says, “All the leaders, who are supposed to warn my people, are blind! They know nothing. They are like watch dogs that don’t bark—they only lie around and dream. How they love to sleep! 11They are like greedy dogs that never get enough. These leaders have no understanding. They each do as they please and seek their own advantage. 12‘Let’s get some wine,’ these drunkards say, ‘and drink all we can hold! Tomorrow will be even better than today!’”
I’m with Jill. I too, voted for Jill, and would again.
Jill Stein is an American hero/heroine. She speaks to us like a prophet. When will we begin to listen?
Intriguing comment! I see a possible legal president that could stand up in court if managed by the right group of lawyers, right up to the Supreme Court level. If we pay taxes as citizens, then we must have true accountability, an absolutely transparent auditing sytem for defense spending that runs through all systems. The Pentagon has no consistent auditing system. That’s how money is hidden. Think Iran-Contra on an international level.
I VOTED FOR JILL BUT NUTTEN BUT ELECTION FRAUD AND ONLY GETTING WORSE BECAUSE MOST AMERICANS STILL ASLEEP AND TRULY BELIEVE IN OUR CORUPT 2 PARTY SYSTEM UNFORTUNITELY ANYONE WANT TO MOVE TO COSTA RICA WITH ME NO ARMY LIKE HEAVEN ON EARTH MUST LEAVE BEFORE THE WALL GET YOUR PASSPORT !!!!!!!!!!
Jill and most of us DO NOT REALIZE the truth about how the money flows. We know that too much goes to the military, but find out MORE – privatization was the scam devised around 1971, biggest scam EVER, and yes, our many DOZENS of war companies are ‘privatized’, with big Wall Street firms being the major INVESTORS! That is because profits are GUARANTEED via federal money!
First, federal money can be issued IN ANY AMOUNT for anything that is physically possible, and they have intentionally LIED to the public to dupe us for decades about this.
Second – privatization allows people running any privatized companies to bill the federal govt ANY AMOUNT, so they bill for massive exec salaries and millions/BILLIONS in profits!
So – the cabal of money addicts that ramped up in the late 60 (because they HATED the ‘people power’ of that time) gets MONEY FOR WARS even with no resources to steal, so we have constant and MULTIPLE wars providing more money streams to the crazed addicts in power. Any resources to take get MORE profits. Nice, never-ending money streams, courtesy of our federal govt. Meanwhile, they LIE to the public about the ‘debt’ (NOT a debit, it is our national SAVINGS account and we DO NOT ‘borrow’ from anywhere, since we issue the currency!) and the deficit, fearmongering to continue to dupe us into not DEMANDING what we should have had decades ago, and lying to maintain the smokescreen that has kept us from really knowing how the money works. smdh https://whatifitoldyouthis.blogspot.com/2018/07/privatization-biggest-scam-we-all-need.html
Also, compartmentalization and beyond that USAPS, Unacknowledged Special Access Projects within privatized contractors for the military, plus a purposeful ancient auditing system at the Pentagon with no real accounting make it virtually impossible for any true accounting and Congress just plays along as many there are invested in it.
I think Jill is very aware of how the money flows to the war machine. In my opinion, anyone who thinks otherwise needs to pay more attention to her speeches, her ads, her online memes.
This global nightmare of war profiteering and systematically disenfranchising voters across this once upon a time Democracy is becoming a warped and desperate fascism that has only one outcome the eradication of life on earth. At the behest of men who care not one jot about what might survive them alas. Presently they seem to be going all out to have their “opinions ” and predudices become their legacy of annihilation. This so deeply sad that I can only recall the service of all our fathers and forefathers have gifted in order to ensure and protect the freedoms of their children and heirs now being so demeaned as to insult every single precious life on earth. And for what – deluded young and delusional old malevelent men. For whom temporary power seems might An utter craziness. Turn around ancient delusional greed whatever that greed seems to you as power or revenge or what. We do not care. you are done so get out. That’s it. The record you leave will stand. Seriously.
Check out Jill Stein’s fiery speech at the Women’s March on the Pentagon:
https://youtu.be/52BNjZKQh_w
For more on Dr. Stein’s work to build the movement for people, planet and peace over profit, go to https://www.greenuprising.org/
It’s time to break up the D/R duopoly with a 3rd party, folks.
https://opensociet.org/2018/10/22/america-needs-a-third-party-now-from-the-bottom-up/
All well and good but there are an awful of people beyond the top tiered profiteers benefitting from military spending and there seems no way of stopping the bulldozer short of changing a political system now based on the equation money equals power. Politicians, intellectuals, government workers and government officials seems not to be inclined to change a pretty cozy system. In fact, who and what institutions are attempting to do so other than carping about a Supreme Court decision equating free speech with buying politicians. Was it really any different before that Supreme Court decision other than going from catastrophic to really catastrophic?
Too late. She fell in line with Hillary in 2016. If you really believe in peace, you have to support peace all the time, not just when the DNC tells you to.
No, she certainly DID NOT! Totally untrue statement about Jill Stein. SHAME on you!
She is so right on so many issues I can’t believe folks voted for “her turn” over this dedicated and decent person.
Indeed.
Being “right on so many issues” while surprisingly common these days, is probably more useful coming from a presidential candidate who bothers to do the hard work of making sure his or her party controls more than 0.02% of all elected offices in the united states (this is all offices, down to and including dog catcher)…
Please advise how the Green Party should bypass the blockade created by the MSM and the corrupt two party system. I’m sure they’d like to find a way, just as writers for CN would love to have the reach of CNN.
If progressives like yourself would wake up to the fact that you are being played the fool by the DNC, and switch alliances to the Green Party, they would have the 15% to make the presidential debates. Once their voice is heard, the ball will start rolling. Or would you rather sip on your latte, check your portfolio on your smart phone, and settle for the corporate sponsored warmonger from column B yet one more time. I wonder how people like you sleep at night.
Quote from the interview:
“We are being robbed blind by war profiteers and the political by-partisan system, that’s in bed with them.”
That’s not entirely true, let me correct that:
“We are being robbed blind by war profiteers, who have full control on both sides of the political by-partisan system.”
Another quote:
“Feminism is incompatible with militarism.”
Evidently Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright are not feminists, except when it fits their agenda.
Just a reminder, both the DNC and RNC are private corporations. As such, they are free to select the candidate, regardless of the members preference. The DNC lawyer said so and the judge agreed with him:
“However, DNC lawyers have argued and continue to argue that the Democratic Party doesn’t owe anyone a fair process. It has every right to disregard its own rules or interpret its rules how it wants because it is a private organization, and therefore the plaintiffs have no standing. And that is the conundrum millions of American voters find themselves in today.”
Source: https://ivn.us/2017/05/02/courts-cant-protect-right-vote-private-corporations-control-elections/
And once the primaries are fixed, does the US elections actually matter? Yes, it looks good in the MSM and that’s all what matters…
Until the two-party system abolished, good luck with that, there will be no true democratic elections in the US…
Feminism is most certainly compatible with militarism.
If you mean HRC’s brand of “feminism” you are correct. But feminism’s message is that women and men are equal beings with equal worth, that parity should prevail. Being a peace-loving person is very compatible with feminism because women are the life-givers of the human species.The horror, violence, and abject stupidity of war goes against the nurturing of others to their full potential. HRC’s brand of so-called feminism is corrupt, violent, perfidious, and lacking in compassion. She’s no feminist, except in her own distorted, hungry, sociopathic mind.
It is so refreshing to see Jill Stein articulate a clear and important Idea about our out of control Military. I’m proud to publicly admit that she was the candidate that I supported for President. For me, it was an easy choice because the alternatives were clearly so unacceptable. The current irony for me now is that my actual choice at the time was Elizabeth Warren. I realize now however that Jill Stein was the better choice. Mrs. Stein, unlike Elizabeth Warren “gets” the massive problem of an out of control MIC, she understands that it is unacceptable to have a different actual agenda for governing than the platform a candidate is Selling. She’s a joy to watch and hear because She’s clearly sincere and real… Thank you Netra Halperin and CD for this video interview.
Too, I must point out the huge, unspoken difference in the images of the previous article (1967) that so accurately shows the male dilemma of the time, ie the draft.
Refreshingly articulate and sincere to be sure, Bob. And as Skip noted, policy positions that make sense at home and abroad.
Massive student debt is anathema to a productive economy. It is certainly one of the most shortsighted and stupid things a society can do to itself–criminal in nature, and for what? Bankers? Don’t they get enough “help”?
Whether or not the human race will face extinction due to environmental hazards, ocean acidification, and ecosystem crashes–I prefer to live in a world that doesn’t allow corporations (with help from handmaiden governments) to pillage, pollute, and place nuclear reactors in places like Fukushima. Environmental protection is sanity. Ecological sustainability and renewable energy development is sanity. Anything less is insanity and criminal.
A recent Johns Hopkins study claims more than 250,000 people in the U.S. die every year from medical errors–the third-leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer. The pill-pushing profitized insurance-riddled system of “healthcare” works well, doesn’t it? Medicare for all is sanity. Our way is insanely criminal.
Uncle Sam is a terrorist. Enough said. Almost.
Jill Stein is a treasure and a pleasure. The most meaningful vote I ever cast was for the principles and policies she gives voice to.
Last I read stats on it, 300,000 African Americans died every year simply d/t lack of consistent access to quality health care. not sure what quantifies a death via medical error…certainly I’ve seen people killed by doctors right in front of me but I also realize that wealthy folk’s insistence on receiving a certain type of health care that was most recently been driven by the ACA’s requirement that patients be “satisfied” with their care in order to receive full reimbursement actually kills a lot of people though I wouldn’t exactly qualify that as “medical error.’ I suspect the study you’re quoting probably does…because as Voltaire once said “better is the enemy of good.”
Completely agree.
Only yesterday I posted to John Chuckman that there is an alternative to the two main parties for people to vote for, and here today is the candidate in question. As I pointed out to Chuckman, I doubt there would have been many Americans who did not know that Jill Stein was standing for president so they did have a choice. The choice between Stein and the other two degenerates should be no contest, yet the sheep followed the farmer making the most noise with his empty corn bucket. It’s said that if you continue to do the same thing over over to achieve an impossible result, you are mad. I suggest there is a collective insanity running through the American population, because even when there’s a viable option in front of them, (Jill Stein) they continue to give their precious vote to same people who have screwed them time and time again in the past.
It’s important to study why this is the case.
The msm´s incessant banter for state propaganda appears to be working to override people´s trust in their own critical thinking with the demand to follow manufactured consensus. That, the exclusion of 3rd party participation in the debates and reluctance to address electoral fraud assures the growing entrenchment of the corporate duopoly.
Thank you Jill Stein, for speaking up about your perception of war and the MIC. I agree with you and hope enough Americans
come together to make equality, justice, and peace happen for all.
I mentioned “feminism” and “incompatible” in the same sentence and my comment was blocked, so I must try to be more politically correct.
I meant firstly that “opposed” and “incompatible” are not the same, and secondly that neither opposite, opposed, nor incompatible with a bad thing or person, automatically makes you a good thing or person.
Sorry! It wasn’t blocked after all.
Where did my comment go?
Feminism and militarism are BOTH incompatible with rational natural evolution, but they are both here. Both supported by the same flawed perspective of imagining themselves to be exclusive.
If one does their homework they will find most of the MIC companies are linked financially with the MSM companies. These companies are publicly traded. The question you should ask yourselves is am I financially invested with these companies…..if so sell your shares…It’s always easier to push the blame on the evil government.
On another note, a friend ask, I been with my partner for years and now I want to share my future with another better partner, what should I do? My reply was, become what your partner can’t tolerate …..Hello USA and Saudi Arabia
Well that was better than I would’ve expected but then I wasn’t expecting much, still she sounded much more coherent then I remember from the election and she didn’t even mention that latest global warming bullshit i.e. the 12 years till doomsday, like these jackasses could even predict such a thing but anyway let’s face it Mrs. Stein looks crazy or just really nervous and now we’ve had a year and a half of Trump so we know what the hell crazy looks like. Overall miss Stein makes sense but she has no capacity to express this to the voting public the Green party should look elsewhere, there is an opportunity in the next general election for a truly Populist candidate which is getting to be a larger percentage of the American voting public, with all due respect to Mrs. Stein you don’t have a snowballs chance and you know it, make room and help the next candidate who does.
Doesn’t have a snowballs chance in hell…. That attitude is why we have degenerates like Trump and Clinton winning every time.
The STEM-challenged don’t get it, even with the parade of homes flying by in the air, mainly because they’re immune to numbers.
https://opensociet.org/2018/10/19/why-are-we-mostly-ignoring-the-climate-crisis-the-message-is-wrong/
You sound like a true believer but you are either peddling misinformation we’re just another sheepel if global warming were such a big deal why has no one ever embraced thorium fluoride technology and other associated technologies or carbon sequestration? Answer, because these technologies would threaten the people selling oil who are also funding this global warming bullshit. It should also be mentioned that the resource trap and control there of is the excuse for the colonialist disaster the US and much of the world finds itself in. All of that being said, pretending we have any power other than to be someone else’s pawn is only a choice if you decide to participate, no one could stop the fall of the Roman empire, the US Empire is going down and hopefully a bunch of the progressive era bullshit with it, go in peace
Dr. Stein, she’s a medical doctor, and while she could present herself more professionally at times, she delivers an honest and impassioned message that addressed the issues of the day.
She and the Greens are looking for new candidates, for any and all offices.
I’ve voted Green for the past 20+ years, btw.
Be well.
Dr. Jill Stein is one of the most articulate, intelligent and impassioned activists for YOUR children and theirs on into the future.. if we still have a future as a species.
The smearing that idiotic sexist people like you do regarding Dr. Stein just shows ignorance and a real bias against independent thinking and strong women.
Dr. Stein possesses not only all of these wonderful traits but she is FEARLESS in her activism.
So grow up Dunderhead. Real feminists are anti-war and pro equality for everyone including you.
Yes, and you can kiss your Social Security goodbye. The money is going to the military instead. Also federal debt is heading for $40 trillion and it’s going to be a problem.
I voted for Nader in 2000, Jill in 2012 and 2016 and if she runs again, I’ll vote for her again. She’s been the only rational choice as Ralph was the only rational choice. I mistakenly gave Obama the benefit of the doubt in 2008 albeit with reservations. I’ll never vote Democrat again. They may kill us a little more slowly than the Republicans, but they’ll still kill us without remorse.
Absolutely succinct response to the questioner!
The real question is, why is her commonsense definition of the essence of democracy such a rare occurance!! What is happening to the moral framework of our society. Why are we not in the streets every day demanding a government paid by US to be working for us. What we are sacrificing is insane.
Every thing Jill Stein stated in the above video has been true for a very long time; The problem is that most Americans either do not want to listen or don’t care at all. The end result is what Jill Stein is pointing out for any body who wants to pay any heed.
Russia spends far less and gets better production for its rubles than US because it’s state industry mostly, not privatized; same for China. All we have in the US is Uncle Scam, private weapons industry, which, as Jill says, is robbing us blind. What is there to protect when the citizens have been asset stripped except for a few greedy oligarchs?
To follow up on Skip and others who voted Green, we are going to have to get back to local organizing to get more support going, in order to expose the duopoly war parties. Ralph Nader, who is a national treasure, in my opinion, should never have been demonized. The Greens need to get local, in communities, people meeting people in venues wherever. The Internet isn’t enough. There is little time left, predatory capitalism is strip mining Earth. Regardless of difficulties from the “democratic” totalitarianism we face, we have to get a conversation about sustainable Earth without war to take hold, or Mother Earth will put an end to a failed experiment called humans.
I voted for Jill Stein but left politicians need to not fall into the tax and spend fallacy.The Fed understands modern monetary theory and we need to as well.https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/01/22/behind-the-money-curtain-a-left-take-on-taxes-spending-and-modern-monetary-theory/
Thank you Jill Stein for focusing on the war profiteers as a central problem of our society. They embody a disastrous combination of utter ruthlessness and the vast wealth to act out their ruthlessness. A sketch of their modern history is in “War Profiteer Story”
http://warprofiteerstory.blogspot.com
The above link has been recommended by several Consortium News commenters, including Ray McGovern.
The Air Force is wasting tens of billions on the F-35, with the continuing and increasing purchase of expensive developmental prototypes which are useless in combat, so most of the planes with their two hundred plus deficiencies are assigned to training squadrons. Hundreds of planes at about $150 million each. Lockheed’s profits and shock price continue to climb despite the problem-ridden seventeen years (and counting) in development. Similarly the Navy is wasting money on LCS littoral combat ships, which are often referred to as Little Crappy Ships because they are thin-skinned with no use. “Stealth” destroyers, aircraft carriers . . .the list goes on.
The US doesn’t need a standing army, especially one of gigantic half-million person size. But it does have such a useless, expensive force, which is being increased in size irregardless of the fact that there is no threat of a ground invasion from any country. Canada and Mexico are quite benign in that regard. The Founding Fathers recognized this simple fact in the Constitution which includes: “To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years” in contrast to: “To provide and maintain a Navy.” It made sense then and it makes sense now.
Isn’t this very similar to the American Healthcare system or Health Insurance racket You pay the most expensive costs in the World for the crappiest health cover? And then there’s the ultimate American racket with the USA’s MIlitary Industrial Complex with its brainless & never ending Military spending to the tune of, the eye watering amounts of $600 billion plus a year on weapons that are now completely obsolete & useless, yet they keep the con job going! As someone mentioned, everyone knows that the F35 is a Dodo, a high tech turkey that is the most expensive plane in History that makes Howard Hughes Spruce Goose plane look like a bargain basement item? Russia has proven that efficiency & being smart with less rather than throwing huge amounts is the way to go! Russia, under Putin has developed hypersonic weapons & advanced ICBM’s nuclear missiles that can’t be shot down by conventional American Military missile technology & they have done this on a fraction of the amount that the wasteful & incompetent US MIC has spent?? Russia has spent just $60 billion & gotten superior weapons & contrast that with the US which has spent or will spend $600 billion on junk weapons that Russia could take out in a couple of hours!! America’s shameful Sabre rattling & ridiculous Russiagate shaming seeking to embarrass & threaten Russia with annihilation is just hot air from a bloated Hegemonic gasbag? Putin must really be shaking in his boots or shaking with laughter at the “US Empire with no Clothes” Someone is really taking the American Taxpayer for a massive fleecing & a delusional ride here! Trump’s sour faced exit from the recent INF agreement is acknowledging the fact that his MIC can’t compete with Russia’s technology advances so he’s throwing is toys out of the cart in protest! Here’s a solution as a cost saving measure for the overpriced American MIC? Get Russia to build your weapons, they can do it cheaper & you will get far superior weapons!
Great video. Jill Stein and the Green Party have platforms that make real sense for both domestic and foreign policy. It’s time to end the two party system, institute ranked voting, and allow the Greens into the televised debates. The lesser of two evils is still evil. Change only comes from the bottom up. People need to demand it, and it will never be possible within the DNC or the RNC.
Much as I dislike bumper sticker pronouncnents, our reality comes down to this:
Peace and prosperity for the many
Or war and profit for the few.
And yes, I voted for Jill Stein.
Cut and print, DW! Good one and more than just an empty slogan. Cuts to the very core of what is needed for us all -not just to survive, but to thrive.
I also voted for Jill Stein and am happy about it.
The military should b e used to fight fires and rescue people from natural disasters. War is for morons.