While the Republicans contend with Donald Trump as their candidate, what is happening inaide and outside of the Democratic party, now that Bernie is out and Hillary is in? What is the status of Bernie’s so-called “Political Revolution?" What are the implications of voting for Jill Stein? An update and discussion featuring Norman Solomon, a Bernie delegate to the Democratic National Convention (DNC), Russell Greene, a DNC platform committee member and leading climate activist for the Progressive Democrats of America and People Demanding Action, Howard Ehrman, MD, a supporter of the Stein-Baraka platform/plan, and June Brashares, Sonoma County Green Party Council.
Norman Solomon is a journalist, media critic, antiwar activist, and former U.S. congressional candidate. Solomon is a longtime associate of the media watch group Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR). In 1997 he founded the Institute for Public Accuracy, which works to provide alternative sources for journalists, and served as its executive director until 2010. Solomon's weekly column, "Media Beat", was in national syndication from 1992 to 2009.
More recently Solomon focused on his 2012 congressional campaign in California's 2nd congressional district. He attended the 2016 Democratic National Convention as a Bernie Sanders delegate. Author of “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” He is the executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and co-founder of RootsAction.org.
Russell Greene is a climate activist from California who helps lead many organizations including Climate Decision 2016, Progressive Democrats of America, Justice Action Mobilzation Network and People Demanding Action. As a Bernie Sanders delegate, he was instrumental in helping to write the Democratic Party platform that recognizes that we are in a climate emergency, that explicitly acknowledges that anything short of a World War II-like mobilization will bring catastrophic consequences to civilization:
He spent 30+ years as a senior executive, focused most recently on corporate social responsibility and sustainable business practices. He left his position last January to bring his full focus to addressing the climate emergency.
Howard Erhman, MD was an Assistant Professor (Retired) 1985-2013) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), School of Public Health, Division of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, College of Medicine, Department of Family Medicine
He has been a longtime community and union organizer, a climate justice activist whom we met in Cochabama, Bolivia in 2010 at the World People's Conference on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth. He is motivated to work for a livable planet for his three grandchildren.
He supports the Stein-Baraka platform/plan because over the next 90+ days it is important to unite all who can be united to build a revolutionary mass movement that goes beyond the November Presidential election. He is for everything we can do to get millions to permanently leave the Democratic Party, which many, including Howard Zinn, have said is the most important political act to changing the economic-political system in this country.
June Brashares is an energy policy analyst, political strategist, and community organizer helping to lead the Green Party on local, state, and national issues and campaigns. In 2000 she served as Campaign Manager for Medea Benjamin's US Senate run on the Green Party ticket.
Perhaps June’s best known "15-minutes of fame" among progressive activists was for her protest interrupting George W Bush during his acceptance speech at the RNC in 2004 in Madison Square Garden for which she was jailed and then later prevailed in court.
In 2012 June helped get Jill Stein on several state ballots and earlier this month June attended the Green Party nominating convention in Houston, where Jill Stein formally became the Green Party's candidate for President. June was the top vote-getter in the recent election for the Green Party's County Council in Sonoma County.