These are my plans and I'm sticking to them.
In my view, the days generating electricity by by burning dirty coal, oil and gas and polluting our environment, or by risking the chance of a nuclear meltdown, are over. We have the technology available today to capture FREE, CLEAN energy that is quite literally falling from the sky, and then converting that energy into electricity through the use of solar and wind power technology. Germany is already meeting more than half of their energy requirements through the use of solar and wind power technology and Costa Rica is powered 100% by renewable energy TODAY. This is clearly the direction that America needs to go.
Once elected to Congress, I plan on introducing new Green legislation for the American people in the U.S. House, and also simultaneously with my Green Party colleague from Ohio, Joseph DeMare, in the U.S. Senate, that will eliminate the BILLIONS of dollars in American tax subsidies provided for multinational oil corporations each year and instead provide those same tax subsidies for individuals and small businesses that invest in AMERICAN MANUFACTURED solar and wind power technology. I believe that we should also encourage electric power companies to convert their existing oil, gas, coal and nuclear fired generating infrastructure over to clean, renewable energy by passing new Green legislation into law requiring all commercial power companies to temporarily suspend dividend payments to their stockholders and bonuses for their corporate executives and instead invest their corporate profits in the AMERICAN MANUFACTURED equipment necessary to replace their outdated electric generating capacity with renewable energy from the sun.
I have said it many times before and I will say it once again. When you REALLY think about it, it is just plain stupid to continue using fossil fuels and nuclear energy.
Q: Can a freight train really move a ton of freight 436 miles on a gallon of fuel?
A: Yes, and some do even better. The figure used in the rail industry's advertising is a national average.
Most of the modern, civilized world today enjoys the advantages that modern, high speed passenger rail transportation provides. Yet, we do not have this modern convenience available here in the United States today. Why? The primary reason for this is because the many multinational oil corporations that own the corrupt, corporate-capitalist Democratic-Republican Duopoly Party in Washington today do not want us to have this convenience because it will greatly reduce America's dependence on oil, which will have a severe negative impact on the corporate profits of these multinational oil corporations.
What we need in America today is a nationwide, high speed passenger rail system of transportation, whereby we can take our cars and light trucks with us as we travel across North America, very much similar to the Channel Tunnel between England and France. No longer will we have to spend many endless hours stuck in traffic trying to drive across our great land. We can simply drive our cars onto the train and then relax in the comfort of the dining car or go read a book or surf the web in a comfortable seat, or maybe just take a nap. This will cause a dramatic drop in America's consumption of oil and also a proportional drop in greenhouse gasses, like sulfur dioxide and many other toxic substances being emitted into our environment each and every day from cars and light trucks.
Once we begin enjoying all of the advantages that a modern, nationwide, high speed passenger rail transportation system will provide for the American people, we can also expect to see a dramatic decrease in the expenditures required to maintain our Interstate Highway System, due to a decrease in the traffic on our highways. Many highways will not need to be expanded or upgraded, and many new highways will not need to be built due to a reduction in traffic. Reduced usage of our automobiles will mean that they will last longer and will not need to be replaced as often. And if we can take our cars with us, as travelers between England and France do today, it means that we will not have to seek out public transportation once we reach our destination, whether it is across the state or across the country. We simply return to our cars on the train and drive away to our final destination. I believe that the cost to take our cars and light trucks with us as we travel long distances across North America will likely cost less than the cost for the gasoline and the costs for the wear and tear and maintenance required on these vehicles, also.
Mile for mile, airplanes are the most costly means of transportation per person, with respect to fuel consumption and in terms of the damage that they cause to our environment by burning the fossil fuels required to keep the air traffic in the air. With the availability of a nationwide, high speed passenger rail transportation network in place all across North America, we should expect to see a dramatic decrease in in the amount of air traffic, which will certainly help clear the air that we breathe.
Many people do not realize this, but almost all modern locomotives operate on electricity today. This is quite obvious with some commuter trains today that are pulled by locomotives connected to an overhead power line or a third rail power system. But most locomotives today use similar electric motors to drive the wheels of the locomotives that pull the trains along down the tracks, the only difference being that they are not connected to an overhead electrical power grid or a third electrified rail, but instead use an on-board diesel engine that is tied to an electrical generator that powers the motors that drive the wheels on the locomotive. Now imagine, if you will, just how great the reduction in hydrocarbon emissions will be if the electricity that powers our new high speed passenger rail system comes directly from the Sun.
Once built, I believe that this nationwide, high speed passenger rail transportation system should be able to operate efficiently and also generate a modest profit. I also have reason to believe that the infrastructure for this system of transportation should be able to be built at a modest cost by simply upgrading and expanding upon the existing rail infrastructure that is already in place all across North America today. Once this is completed, we should also be able to easily integrate America's freight traffic with this system by prioritizing the passenger traffic across the network in a fashion similar to the way that voice traffic is prioritized over data traffic as it passes across the Internet today. This new system of transportation will also provide many millions of good paying jobs for the Americans who will be working to construct and support our new means of high speed rail transportation all across America.
Sadly, the United States is involved in many ugly wars for oil throughout the world today. Why? It all comes down to this one factor: As long as there is profit in war, the world will never know peace.
Today, Americans spend more on wars than almost all of the other nations on this planet combined, and personally, I find this truly shameful, especially when you consider the FACT that these ugly wars are fought over oil and we do indeed have the technology available today to nearly eliminate most of our dependence on oil. So why do we continue to allow this to happen? The answer to this question is that We The People no longer have any control over what our government does with OUR tax dollars. The American government in Washington today is run by the corrupt, corporate-capitalist and corporate OWNED Democratic-Republican Duopoly Party cabal of evil and greed and oil and war. Once again, it is because the corrupt, corporate-capitalist Democratic-Republican Duopoly Party in power in Washington is OWNED by multinational military industrial contractors and multinational oil corporations that get BILLIONS of OUR tax dollars each and every year to finance and manufacture the weapons of war and BILLIONS of petrodollars by stealing the oil and the gas from the innocent victims of the nations that the United States occupies. Syria is America's latest invasion today and it will soon become another one of the many ugly wars that the American people will be forced to pay for again if we are unable to go in and take back control of OUR government from these multinational corporations by overthrowing the corporate owned Democratic-Republican Duopoly Party. This is the political revolution that I want to become a part of.
Retired U.S. General Wesley Clark told us back in 2007 all about America's plans for the ugly wars that America is involved in today, and here we are today witnessing everything that General Clark spoke of in 2007 coming into fruition today.
Just look at these numbers. This is truly SHAMEFUL!
Now just imagine what we would have in America today if we were not spending most of our money to fund the military and these ugly wars for oil that America is involved in today.
President Eisenhower warned us about all of this in 1961, but unfortunately the American people either forgot about President Eisenhower's warning or we just failed to heed his wise advice . . . .
What we are witnessing here today is our corrupt Democratic-Republican Duopoly Party in power in Washington driving our country into these ugly wars for oil, just like the governments of the United States and Great Brittan did in 1941, when they collaborated to forcefully overthrow the democratically elected government of the sovereign nation of Iran and they replaced the government with the American puppet Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in order to make it possible for the Arabian American Oil Company (ARAMCO) and British Petroleum (BP) to go into Iran and to steal the oil and gas from that country. Now our out of control American government wants to do it again in Syria and they are also planning on doing it again in Iran.
For everything that you ever wanted to know about this subject and what led up to these events, please watch this excellent video documentary on this subject entitled The Secret of the Seven Sisters, which was produced by Al Jazeera.
What we have in America today is the total failure of American capitalism, and all of this is explained in this excellent video documentary entitled Lifting the Veil.
SO WHAT CAN WE DO TO FIX THIS UGLY MESS THAT WE HAVE ON OUR HANDS?
As I have stated time and again, we need to overthrow the corrupt, corporate-capitalist and corporate owned Democratic-Republican Duopoly Party. But how can we do this? The only way to accomplish this is for the American people to completely abandon this corrupt duopoly cabal of evil and greed and oil and war by voting for independent and Green Party candidates at every opportunity, including the Green Party presidential candidate running for office this year.
This year, the Green Party of the United States has several candidates running for both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, as well as candidates running for president and vice president. Very much unlike the corrupt, corporate owned Democratic-Republican Duopoly Party, the Green Party of the United States does not take money from corporations. It only accepts contributions from individual donors who support Green Party candidates and vote for them and it is the only political party to do so. The only one. It only accepts small donations up to $250.00 from individual American voters, and NOT corporations. Since I am a Green Party candidate running for Congress in Ohio's 12th Congressional District, I have taken an oath to adhere to this part of the political platform of the Green Party of the United States by refusing to accept money from businesses and corporations. In this way, the Green Party of the United States and Green Party candidates running for office can not be bought by businesses and corporations the way the Democratic-Republican Duopoly Party and their elected representatives have been bought.
What we need in America are legislators in Washington who are willing to actually represent THE AMERICAN PEOPLE who elected them to the offices that they hold, and that is what I am willing to do. Sadly, there are no Democratic or Republican legislators who are doing this today. Sadly, they are only representing the puppet masters who have been pulling the strings of the corporate owned Democratic-Republican Duopoly Party for many decades. Corporations are NOT people, and I am willing to fight hard to take OUR country and OUR government back for THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and away from these multinational corporations that own the Democratic-Republican Duopoly Party by passing new Green legislation and by getting it signed into law FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, in order to bring about a Green new deal FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. I pledge to you that I will make it known to corporate lobbyists and the corporations they represent that they will not be welcomed into my office. This is exactly what I pledge to do FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE and what I refuse to do for the multinational corporations that own the Democratic-Republican Duopoly Party.
I am proud that my political platform is based upon the Ten Key Values of the Green Party of the United States, which I fully support.
Every human being deserves a say in the decisions that affect his or her life and should not be subject to the will of another. Therefore, I will work to increase public participation at every level of government and to ensure that our public representatives are fully accountable to the people who elect them. I will also work to create new types of political organizations which expand the process of participatory democracy by directly including citizens in the decision-making process. Part of this process will be the formation of a new Green Caucus in Congress unlike any other that will include individual American citizens and not corporate lobbyists.