A Progressive Editorial
Well, it has been a while since I last wrote to you. I was optimistically caught up in the prospect of an anti-establishment presidential election. Boy, was I naive.
The corruption in our government goes far deeper than even I had suspected. The activists involved in the Bernie Sanders campaign (myself included) watched scandal after scandal unfold. From voter rolls being breached, to #ExitPollGate, and the #PodestaEmails; it was relentless and hasn’t let up. Now we're faced with an unconscionable choice: A corporate business tycoon or a warmongering criminal. It seems that very few people I know are voting for a candidate because they want to. They are voting against the other. Even their commercials come across as saying, "Vote for me because the alternative is terrifying." They're both terrifying. Not long ago, a little-known Senator from Vermont was taking the country by storm with a message of universal love, accountability, and shared responsibility. He awakened millions and inspired a revolution. Issues once considered fringe are now part of the Democratic platform. Even if he was treated unfairly by the DNC and the media, Bernie Sanders showed us how far we can go without sacrificing our integrity. In fact he was so focused on issues that it seemed he perpetually took the high road. Where was the Bernie that held people accountable? His unwillingness to call out his opponent for her misdeeds was starting to come off as weak and that is what prompted me to create the @Bernie_or_bust_ Instagram and Twitter. If he wouldn't call Hillary out, I would. So, I guess you could say I’m a die-hard Bernie fan. In the beginning, I remember when I heard Bernie was running I thought how wonderful it would be if he won. With his lofty goals and all the years of anti-socialist propaganda I didn’t think he had a chance. But people identified with his simple message: Cut military spending, take care of our Veterans, invest in infrastructure and clean energy, free higher education, expand Medicare etc. 170 of the world’s top economists endorsed his plan. Suddenly his poll projections were through the roof and he seemed like the only candidate who could beat Trump by a large margin. He was against Monsanto and for the people. He walked with Martin Luther King Jr. He was a once in a lifetime candidate with a sterling record and a campaign that was electric. Perhaps it wasn’t him per say but the truth he spoke that drew in support. That’s why people loved him. Bernie Sanders is a man of his word and he rode that #BernieLoveWave all the way to the Golden Coast. With Bernie, activists and disenchanted voters felt the excitement of a real progressive movement bubbling up. Our eyes lit up with hope as we realized most of the country felt the same way. Even Trump’s candidacy and supporters brought to light a sort of anti-establishment solidarity on both sides of the aisle. We felt the power of collective will; and on Good Friday, a little birdie told us he was going to win... America had long been sick with politics as usual in Washington. Suddenly Bernie Sanders had what some would consider a religious following. Nearly every event had an overflow of supporters or curious voters wanting to hear his message. His message was: Truth, Integrity, and Accountability. My fondest memories of the campaign will always be getting to meet some of the best people around; our #BernieFam. We ran a winning campaign. See more about my #BernieJourney to California: (Coming Soon) Then on December 18th, 2015 Bernie’s campaign lost access to their DNC contact list. Their contact list and software operations are supplied to the campaign by the DNC Services Corporation. This vendor accidentally supplied Bernie’s campaign with one of Hillary Clinton’s contact lists. Once the breach in data was reported by one of Bernie's staff, the DNC shut Bernie’s campaign out of the system]. That cost them about $600,000 a day in donations according to this lawsuit. At this point the bias was already apparent. However the DNC is supposed to be a neutral organization. This well cited article from December 20th, 2015 covers 5 Times Former DNC Chair, Debbie Wasserman Schultz had already violated DNC Rules and Stacked the Deck in Favor of Clinton. Debbie Whatshername? Schultz Now that was before any vote was cast. Today we find out just how biased DWS really was. This infographic pretty much explains it: 
If that research wasn’t enough to clue you in on the collusion perhaps Debbie’s swift return to work on the Clinton campaign after her embarrassing resignation will do. She resigned due to revelations in #WikiLeaks emails that she indeed was suppressing the Sanders campaign. So that kind of refutes any of their claims that Wikileaks are fake or from Russia. The DNC lawyers even admitted in a Florida class action lawsuit that they did indeed tilt the odds in Hillary’s favor. She even said the super delegate system was designed to keep out grassroots activists. Despite all of this clear evidence and over 200,000 signatures on a White House petition, there was no Presidential address. Obama's silence was deafening. Rhode Island and Puerto Rico reduced their number of polling places despite a record voter turnout being expected. Then there was the voter purge in New York and the fiasco in Arizona. He finally dismissed the election fraud allegations as a 'conspiracy theory.' He dismissed it even though the Arizona Secretary of State confirmed there was election fraud. Yeah, well theories require evidence. #BernieBlackOut My point is, all or most of the, “revelations,” coming out in the WikiLeaks emails were already part of the public record. It was a failure on the part of the American media to report such malfeasance adequately. #BernieBlackOut became a hashtag as many Berners counted the skewed minutes Sanders was allotted on CNN and other major networks compared to his counterparts. Then we saw headlines completely fabricated when mainstream outlets reported Sanders supporters were, “throwing chairs.” Multiple videos of the event show an agitated crowd where just one man picked up a chair. He didn’t throw it. Instead a fellow supporter convinced him to put it down and gave him a hug. It was that kind of warmth that made Bernie’s campaign such a success. But that success was soon snuffed out. It was stolen from us. The announcement of Hillary’s nomination came the day before the biggest primary day of the race; California. Yes, the mainstream took a dark turn. They turned their noses away from the blatant disregard for the law being perpetrated by what is arguably America’s biggest crime family; the Clintons. They favored blatant fabrications. Even alternative media producers like myself were surprised at the audacity of it all. Then again Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act in 1996 allowing for the consolidation of media outlets. Now 90% of all US media is owned by just 6 corporations. Bill Clinton made a few men in media very rich. Perhaps they’re now returning the favor. Perhaps the right-wing is beginning to regret their sponsored, anti-science climate change denialism for discrediting them now that they have legitimate claims. Conflicts of Interest But the media wasn’t the only body to be blamed for the bleakness of this election. Loretta Lynch, the current U.S. Attorney General who accepted the FBI’s recommendation not to indict Hillary Clinton, was first appointed as a U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York in 1999 by then President Bill Clinton. That was eight years after she worked at the Hogan & Hartson LLP law firm where the Clinton’s were clients. Can someone say conflict of interest? Had the the Attorney General imparted justice in due haste America’s beloved Bernie Sanders would have been the rightful Democratic nominee. It is nepotism in the worst sense of the word; The Clinton crime family. Speaking of conflicts of interest: FBI Director James Comey has a lot of interesting ties. HSBC bank gave the Clinton Foundation $81 million when Mr. Comey served on their Board of Directors. He resigned shortly thereafter to become the Director of the FBI. Before that he worked for the weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Like Obama remaining silent on election fraud, collusion and racketeering, Comey and Lynch's failure to follow the law is likely due to the fact that they themselves would be implicated in the proceedings. SYRIA One of the more significant, “revelations,” contained in the WikiLeaks emails was Hillary’s involvement with backing the insurgency in Syria. But this was well known back in 2012 when it was reported by Reuters and other reputable news agencies that don’t fall under the Clinton umbrella of influence. Now some would argue that it’s the President and not the Secretary of State who makes foreign policy decisions. That is true. But it is the Secretary of State’s job to make foreign policy recommendations to the President. Essentially she calls the shots and Obama signs the pen. Now this group was a group called Al Nusra, another name for Al Qaeda in Syria. Then again in 2013 Obama continued to give these, “moderate rebels,” weapons, training, and funding to the tune of $26 million dollars. Soon after ISIS formed. Coincidence? Then again in 2014 Obama gave this “moderate opposition,” a staggering $500 million. But new Secretary of State John Kerry would claim that they weren’t the same groups. It’s very confusing and I’d be willing to bet that’s no accident. Mike Morell, former Director of the CIA, claimed that they didn’t know that the moderate opposition would become radicalized. He even admitted on Charlie Rose thatObama was directly funding ISIS because they shared the common goal in removing President Bashar Assad. You may be asking yourself, “then why haven’t they been arrested for high treason?” The answer: Because we no longer live in a Democracy. We live in an oligarchy. The rules don’t apply to them. Syria is the one issue that propels me to vehemently object to Hillary Clinton more than anything else. Before she began funding rebels in Syria the death toll hovered around just 5,000. Today, the UN estimates over 250,000 have died. Over 4 million have fled the country, over 6 million have been internally displaced and 13 million are currently in need of humanitarian aid. Think about that. The Trail of Tears was genocide. Did the officers escorting them kill them? No. They died from exposure during transport, malnutrition or from poor living conditions. The same applies to the Holocaust. They didn’t put most of the Jews in ovens or gas chambers. Many of them died on the trains or working in the fields. Syria is genocide. They are destroying our World Heritage Sites. Many sites have been damaged or destroyed by ISIS or coalition forces. When the US does it it’s an accident. But if it truly was accidental then Obama wouldn’t be funding ISIS, Mossad wouldn’t be training them, and the Saudis wouldn’t be arming them. If it was an accident they would work with Russia and Assad to take out ISIS. Like the #NoDAPL conflict in North Dakota, Syria is about a shale gas pipeline. Shale gas is the kind of gas that’s extracted through fracking. Are you making the connection yet? The difference is they only tear gas, pepper spray and shoot rubber bullets at protestors in North Dakota. In Syria, they send in automatic rifles, tanks and fighter jets. They’re destroying our heritage so they can rewrite our ideology. Power corrupts. Now they’re doing the same thing in Yemen: YEMEN AND SAUDI ARABIA Saudi Arabia was involved in 9/11. That was in the 28 recently declassified pages of the official 9/11 report. When all planes in the US were grounded in the following days, the only plane allowed to fly flew Saudi Arabians from Florida back to their homeland. 15 of the 19 hijackers on the planes were Saudi Arabian. So why then did Bush and Obama bow to the Saudi King? Why did we go to war with Iraq instead of the Saudis? I can't say for sure. However, Saudi Arabia gives a lot of money to the Clinton Foundation. Hillary’s State Department made many weapons deals with them. American bombs are currently raining down on the people of Yemen. She seems to have started a trend. Hillary claims to be a feminist that supports the LGBT community. But she has made Saudi Arabia a close ally even though they publicly execute homosexuals and stone women. Oh, and she 'evolved' away from supporting DOMA (the Defense of Marriage Act) and DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell). I won’t even get into the human trafficking. Now we are helping them pillage Yemen where American bombs were recently found at a funeral massacre. Do you feel like you’ve been duped yet? LIBYA Obama calls Libya the, “worst mistake," of his presidency. He’s right. Why though? Well because it, like in Iraq, left a huge vacuum of leadership. That vacuum made if the perfect place for ISIS to create a stronghold. He also more significantly came under fire for his bypassing Congress and leveraging NATO forces to step in. Who expanded NATO in 1999? Bill Clinton. Who oversaw foreign policy recommendations at the time? Hillary Clinton. There are also so many dealings with State Department approvals of weapons deals that I can’t even begin to list them all. But I know that nearly all the lines draw back to the corruption and influence the Clintons have had on American politics. EMAILS We’re all so sick of hearing about emails, aren’t we? An email seems like a harmless thing; an electronic arrangement of pixels. What’s in the emails? Who sent them? Who received them? Who hacked? Who leaked? Who cares? But I don’t know what’s more significant. Is it the fact that she perjured herself under oath by saying she didn’t send or receive any classified emails? Is it the fact that she deleted emails which were government property per the Freedom of Information Act? Was it the fact that her careless mishandling of such sensitive material out of convenience was dismissed as an ignorant mistake? Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Personally, I think it’s the later because military personnel and whistleblowers like General Petraeus, Manning, and Snowden face job loss, prison time, property forfeiture and exile for doing much less. Many Veterans will attest to this as they’ve been dishonorably discharged or faced charges just for accidentally leaving a piece of paper on a desk. Here is just one example. At the very least Hillary is guilty of Gross Negligence under the Espionage Act. That’s a felony that disqualifies her from ever holding public office again. That’s why the emails are significant. Their contents are mere details in a much bigger picture. I wrote the Mock Trial for Hillary Clinton along with a team of lawyers from BU, Suffolk, and Columbia Law to demonstrate how the trial would go if Hillary was not a well-connected veteran of political drudgery. Many people outside the legal field think that a, “mock trial,” is meant to mock or make fun of someone. But that’s not the case. It is legal term for a sort of practice court to prepare law students and attorneys for the courtroom. In the trial, we established motive and intent through publicly available information. The evidence included: 1. Exhibit A - Her email server: Hillary NEVER used a State Department email. All her email correspondence was conducted through her personal server. The State Department partially took the blame for this, having never assigned her an official state.gov email. Hillary said in a February debate that she didn’t send or receive any classified emails on her private server. But since she was briefed regularly and used her private email servers for ALL her Secretary of State email correspondence, there is no way she didn’t know at least some of that information was classified. 2. Exhibit B - Testimony Then she testified under oath on national television that none of the emails were classified before revising her statement to say none were marked classified. This flew contrary to the FBI’s release that, “an undisclosed number,” were in fact marked classified. Comey later testified that 110 were classified and he believes it was 3 emails that were marked as such. Either way she committed perjury on national television. But again, Ignorantia juris non excusat - Ignorance of the law is no excuse. 3. Exhibit C - Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement Upon taking to office of Secretary of State, Hillary signed a Classified Information Nondisclosure Agreement that specifically outlined classified information protocol. Classification is often determined by the sensitive nature of the correspondence subject. Therefore, if Secretary Clinton was aware of which information was sensitive then she should have known that 110 of the emails were classified at the time they were sent. Now government documents can be long and hard to understand. But we’re not talking about a 9,000-page health care reform bill. We’re talking about a two-page document. If I could ask Hillary one question it would be, “Did you not read the CINA or did you know exactly what you were doing?” The only two possible explanations are that she either knew exactly what she was doing or she’s totally incompetent. The fact that she lied under oath, being a Yale educated lawyer, is proof positive of intent. FRACKING Hydrafrac technology was patented to Stanolind Oil in 1949. That same year Dick Cheney’s company, Halliburton was granted the exclusive license to use it. Hillary’s State Department sold fracking to the world. She was basically a glorified saleswoman for Halliburton and progressives are going to vote for her. I’ve begun to refer to her as the female Dick Cheney. Dick Cheney famously conducted a military drill on 9/11/2001 where they were to carry out a scenario of planes hitting the World Trade Center. So, when the actual call came in they thought it was a drill. Coincidence? Cheney has praised Clinton calling her, “one of the more competent members,” of President Obama’s Administration; competent at making a mockery of our nation’s laws and ideals. But if you’re an environmentalist or a progressive it doesn’t matter because she doesn’t need your vote and she thinks you should, “get a life.” The level of corruption is so deep most people can’t even begin to fathom it. I don’t think I’ve even reached the full depth because I'm discovering more even as I write this. HILLARY CLINTON THE RACIST
One of my favorite memes from this election is the one above with Clinton and Trump together at a party. It says, “Welcome to America. Would you like your racism blatant or systematic?” Hillary is the systematic option. Personally, I prefer no racism but… that’s not divisive enough to placate the masses. I’d like to pose a question. Is Donald Trump even a real racist? He’s done business with every color and creed. He was a Democrat before this election. Is he just pandering to the racism and bigotry that still exists in rural conservative America? Probably. If you believe WikiLeaks (ID #1120) that’s exactly what he was doing and the DNC put him up to it. In fact, Trump and Bill probably thought it up over a game of golf since the two families are good friends. They go to the same parties. Chelsea and Ivanka basically grew up together.
So, what makes Hillary racist? Is it the way she kicked Black Lives Matter activists out of her rally and criticized Trump for doing the same thing? Is it her previous work for the Goldwater lawfirm; Goldwater who voted against the 1964 Civil Rights Act? Is it her, “bring them to heel,” comment or the hot sauce in her purse? No. It’s her dealings with the for-profit prison industry. Private prisons are creating dangerous incentives to create more crime laws as they guarantee 90% occupancy rates to gain contracts from local governments. Their cheap labor has brought slavery back to the United States. Trump's policy of deportation would be preferable to Hillary's plan: Forced prison labor for pennies on the dollar or time at immigration facilities where barbed wire keeps immigrant children inside playgrounds and cost taxpayers thousands per detainee. Our justice system disproportionately incarcerates African Americans and other minorities. Many blame Bill Clinton’s 1994 crime bill for today’s mass incarceration problem. Hillary wants to keep harsh punishments for marijuana use while white collar crime goes unchecked. Don’t worry, she’ll tell them to, “cut it out.” So knowing all this you can imagine how ironic it was for me to be told that my not voting for Hillary was because of my white privilege. But Hillary Clinton is the poster child for white privilege! She can recklessly break the law at will and not even face charges for exposing national security secrets and high treason. Meanwhile many African Americans fear for their lives and face decades in prison for a petty marijuana charge? That's white privilege. That's why I think we saw a rash of police shootings in the days following FBI Director James Comey's announcement that no charges would be filed. These men, including a military veteran, felt as though they would never get justice within a two tiered Justice system. After all, a two tiered Justice system is not Democracy. It's tyranny. Timeline: July 5th - Comey Announces No Charges July 7th - Philando Castile shot by police July 8th - 5 Police killed in Dallas July 11th - Hillary blames white people for, "not listening enough," July 16th - Another police shooting in Baton Rouge "Weaponized Hypocrisy"
These things should upset everyone because people fought and died so that we could vote. They fought for a land of equal opportunity, freedom, and fairness. But instead of fair elections we have pre-selected candidates that can’t run on issues so they just sling mud and lies. Each is knee deep in a fear mongering campaign against the other while issues like climate change don’t get so much as a mention at debates. Their proverbial mud muddies the waters of our subconscious as we struggle to grasp the gravity of it all. We become so disillusioned that we abandon politics altogether out of pure frustration. But our silence makes us complicit to their crimes. What we learned through the Bernie campaign is that most people across the political spectrum want justice and peace. They’re sick of the deceitful and now criminal politics as usual in Washington.
Those good intentioned people who unwittingly cast their vote for this corrupt system are what keeps me up at night. I see the establishment not only breaking laws but laughing about getting away with it. It is, “Weaponized hypocrisy,” as one Bernie supporter said. Then the media tries to say that anti-Hillary people are haters or full of hate; compounding the grief. But we're not anti-Hillary. We are anti-genocide. We're environmentalists and full of love. I can’t bear the thought of a good progressive waking up and realizing they voted for everything they’re against. Day in and day out I’ve been talking to progressives and letting the establishment know they don’t have the true progressive vote. That’s not hate. That’s desperately caring for people and the planet. That’s working for justice against all odds. That’s hoping that someday you’ll wake up with a clean conscience and say #NoMoreWar. Everything is politics and good people staying silent is what allowed the corrupt to take power in the first place. Conclusion So after reading this some may ask Trump or Clinton? My answer is neither. I think they will both yield the same result: WW3 with Russia. But I do think HRC will be quicker and more involved in the planning of the genocide than Trump. She's already been so instrumental. Putin has said, "If it's Hillary, it's war." The crisis in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and Iraq are the aftermath of Hillary Clinton's failed foreign policy. If Iraq was a mistake, then why does she keep opting for regime change? She thrives on chaos because her Clinton Foundation paycheck is dependent on weapons deals. She is quite literally the Hollerith 2.0 engineer. That's why, if I had to choose between the two of them I would choose Trump simply because he hasn't carried out genocide yet. Isn't that awful? That's literally the choice we're faced with. But we don't have to choose. It's not a choice. It's coercion. That's why I'm voting for Jill and phonebanking for a Bernie write-in in Vermont through VoteBernie.com. I do not consent to either corrupt #Duopoly candidates with a vote. The thing that motivates me is not hatred for Hillary. It is the hatred of genocide. It is the care that I have for innocent people dying in wars for profit. It is the fact that someday her supporters could wake up and say, "Oh my God, what have I done?" That's what I don't want. Many of her supporters are just good progressive people who have no idea the monster they're voting for. She is the female Dick Cheney. That's what keeps me up at night. I wish for YOU a clean conscience and sound sleep. In Solidarity, Andrea #PunishElectionFraud #BringBernieBack #BernieOrBust #NeverHillary #NoMoreWar "If a 3rd party vote is a protest vote then a duopoly vote is a surrender vote." #NeverSurrender #Justice |
Andrea RomigAndrea is a mom, producer, and blogger from Foxborough, MA. She is committed to promoting a fabulously sustainable lifestyle. Archives
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