We know that from the studies, like the Gilens and Page study out of Northwestern and Princeton, if you didn't know it from real life. We're not moving forward, we're moving backwards, and the clock is ticking on this, whether you look at climate or the expanding wars.

This administration [of Barack Obama] has massively expanded fossil fuel extraction. So while they give lip service to it, they actually do not walk the walk that we need to walk if we are going to get out of here alive.

Why should the Democratic and Republican parties be in charge of the debates, especially at a time when the largest block of voters has repudiated the Democratic and Republican parties? Why are they still in charge?

Over three-quarters of the American people are saying it's time to open up the debates. We have rejected these two candidates [Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump] at the highest levels of disapproval in our history.

Remember we had two Democratic houses of Congress along with the [Barack] Obama administration that laid out those policies before they lost Congress because people were very disappointed in what the Obama administration did - bailing out Wall Street instead of bailing out Main Street. So as someone who follows the climate very closely, there's no question that "all of the above" has been an absolute disaster.

Growing up after the Second World War in a Jewish family, I really understand that, and have members of my family who are very committed to this concept. My grandfather's first name was Israel and he thought it was his country. In my own sense of this issue as an American Jew, I have been on both sides of this. At this point I think it is very important for there to be separation of religion and state. It's not good for Jews. It's not good for Muslims. It's not good for Christians. The marriage of state and religion is inherently problematic.

[The Democracy Party] did it to Dennis Kucinich.They certainly did it to Bernie, as we saw in the e-mails. They did it to Howard Dean, the "Dean Scream." Jesse Jackson, another kind of PR smear campaign.Meanwhile, the party keeps marching to the right and becomes more corporatist and elitist and imperialist.