Margaret Flowers in 2016 State of the Union address
On Energy & Oil:
World will reach the limits of its carbon budget in 2018
The climate crisis demands immediate steps. According to researchers, the world will reach the limits of its carbon budget in 2018. The US continues to be a major contributor to the crisis with the highest per capita carbon footprint in the world.
The federal government is more concerned with protecting the profits of the oil, gas and nuclear industries rather than the rapid energy and economic transitions that are needed.In 2009, the Obama administration derailed the
United Nations climate talks when negotiations between other nations were working towards binding carbon limits. The resultant 2015 Paris agreement is entirely voluntary with carbon commitments that are inadequate to mitigate climate change.
The Paris Treaty amounts to 'too little, too late.'
Obama's Clean Power Plan incentivizes more gas and more nuclear power. These are dirty energies that not only add to climate gases but cause widespread environmental and health problems.
Source: 2016 MD Senate campaign: response to State of the Union
Jan 12, 2016
On Foreign Policy:
End U.S. global hegemony and become cooperative partner
Rather than making the world a safer place, US foreign policy which is based on intervention into other nations, global hegemony and aggression, has created greater insecurity. It is time for the US to end its global hegemony and become a cooperative
partner in the world. The US spends up to $120 billion annually on foreign military bases, which cost as much as four times the amount spent on Social Security & Unemployment ($29 billion); and nearly twice as much as Housing and Community ($63 billion).
Rather than building more bases, especially bases that are widely opposed such as the ones on Jeju Island in Korea and on Okinawa in Japan, the US needs to close bases and outposts as part of remaking a
foreign policy that emphasizes diplomacy, cooperation and nonintervention into the affairs of other nations. We can bring the skills of military personnel and the military dollars home to address the urgent crises we face domestically."
Source: 2016 MD Senate campaign: response to State of the Union
Jan 12, 2016
On Homeland Security:
Empire Economy: projects the Pentagon rejects get funded
[In President Obama's State of the Union speech], U.S. Empire, the largest in human history, will not be discussed even though it is a driver of the climate and economic crises. The US military is the largest single user of oil in the world, most of it
for aviation fuel which produces triple the amount of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) as oil and diesel. The military also uses large amounts of electricity to power its 1,100 bases and outposts around the world.The Empire Economy, which consumes
55% of discretionary federal dollars, has expanded unreasonably under President Obama to the point where even projects that the Pentagon rejects are funded while domestic needs are left unmet. President Obama is even wasting a trillion dollars over ten
years to upgrade the US nuclear weapons program. Under President Obama, the US is surrounding China with the Asian Pivot and militarizing the European border with Russia while continuing to be entrenched in wars in the Middle East.
Source: 2016 MD Senate campaign: response to State of the Union
Jan 12, 2016
Page last updated: Dec 03, 2021