Free Free Palestine!

UPDATE: Israel bombs Gaza hospital killing 500, ignites protests across Middle East: Israel accused of committing a 'crime of genocide' after hospital massacre

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-invasion-live

photo by Amjad Doumani

Free Free Palestine!

words and some photos by C.A. Matthews

“From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free! Free, free Palestine!”

I had thought about writing a piece this week about war propaganda after being inundated with the stuff (almost to the point of overdosing on it) via the mainstream media. I would have talked about how I once wrote a paper for a college sociology class on the effects of propaganda during World War I, and how these very same propaganda techniques carry on today with our government’s selling of the Ukraine proxy war and now this current ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

Then I attended a local peace demonstration—and then another a day later—to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people who are being bombed and starved out of existence by the Israeli government, and I changed my mind. The following photos and memes tell their story better than my words could break through the Western pro-war propaganda.

A picture paints a thousands words—and engenders empathetic feelings that only sociopaths can deny. Alas, the United States of America is a country run by sociopaths and their followers.

But propaganda alone cannot wipe away unforgettable images from the human brain. That’s why the mainstream media and many Western governments—France and Germany leading the way—are banning protests and any mentions of sympathy with the Palestinian cause on online platforms to keep the public away from seeing inconvenient photos and videos. Watching the Israeli Defense Force wipe out entire apartment blocks and destroy hospitals and schools doesn’t quite sell the Western viewpoint that Israelis are “innocent” occupiers of the Palestinian homeland.

Those little Palestinian boys and girls lying in morgues in Gaza just “accidentally” ran into an IDF bullet or bomb, right? They deserve what they got coming to them according to the Israeli defense minister with the laughable name of “Gallant.” He ungraciously labeled the Palestinian people “human animals.” Animals that needed to be put down, in his opinion.

The racism doesn't stop there. In the US, MSNBC suspended three Muslim anchors during Israel’s Gaza assault because it didn’t want Muslims reporting on the violence against the Palestinian people. Can you imagine why an American propaganda outlet wouldn’t want a Muslim face talking about how the IDF is committing genocide? Maybe MSNBC thought it would upset their Islamophobic American audience?

Being forced to live in a concentration camp like Gaza should bring back painful memories to Americans. Unfortunately, it doesn’t for the white majority. Unless your immediate relatives or ancestors have been forced to live on a reservation like Native Americans, or been locked up in an internment camp like Japanese-Americans were during the 1940s, or held in the bonds of slavery for over two centuries because you came from Africa, then you’ve probably no real idea what it means to be held prisoner with members of your ethnic group. You lucked out because of your skin color, religion, money, and/or connections with power. You should be eternally grateful that such great fortune has smiled upon you and yours.

I’ve noticed sometimes it’s those who have been blessed with the most “freedoms” who are the stingiest and meanest when it comes with sharing freedom with others. I wonder why is that?

The modern state of Israel isn’t yet one-hundred years old, and already it’s made a mess of the Middle East by attempting to exterminate indigenous peoples. The modern state of Israel was created by those who survived the Holocaust and then discovered that their governments didn’t particularly want them in Europe anymore. These survivors decided to guilt-trip the powers-that-be after the war to allow them to take over the British Mandate of Palestine, and it worked. Europe was free of Jews, and the Palestinians’ worst nightmare had just begun.

Excuse me for thinking this was a terrible idea from the start. The Europeans who harmed their Jewish citizens during WWII should have made reparations to them and given them their original homes, lands, and businesses back in their home countries—not just send them into another people’s country on another continent. The Holocaust survivors were Europeans after all, not Middle Easterners.

White European powers are always looking for some “empty land” (like North America in 1492 or Palestine in 1947) to give out to those they’ve hurt. It helps to kick out people you don't want to see anymore so you don’t have to keep looking directly into their hurt faces and feel guilty for what you did. Sending those you hurt off on a boat to a far distance shore is a convenient way out of dealing with your crimes against your fellow countrymen and women, isn’t it?

It’s not so convenient for the innocent people whose lands and resources are to be taken away by those you hurt though, is it? The survivors, the hurt ones have taken on the role of European colonizers now, and they don’t want to see the faces of the indigenous peoples they’re displacing because it’s only adds to their guilty feelings. It’s best just to wipe the indigenous peoples off the map completely so their faces will be no more. Once the Palestinians are gone, the Israelis can rest easy knowing that they’ll never come back to haunt the land.

But they will come back to haunt you… Those faces should haunt you if you possess an ounce of humanity. The sociopaths and psychopaths of the modern War Machine aren’t particularly haunted by those they’ve slaughtered unfortunately. There’s simply too much money to be made in armament sales. Once you mix European colonizers’ enthusiasm for stealing land from indigenous people with the psychopathology of the Endless War crowd, then you have the perfect recipe for ethnic cleansing or genocide.

Caitlin Johnstone states it succinctly:

Stop calling it the “Israel-Hamas war”. It’s the Israel-Gaza massacre. Calling it the Israel-Hamas war creates the false impression that this is a war that is directed exclusively at Hamas when it’s really an ethnic purge that’s directed at all Palestinians in Gaza.

The child body count alone makes it clear that this isn’t a war against Hamas; I saw an anonymous account point out on Twitter that the number of children killed in this onslaught after one week already exceeds the total number of children killed after a year and a half of fighting in Ukraine, per the United Nations.

Laying complete siege to a civilian population and bombing anything that stands would be an extraordinary abomination in any war. And this is not a war, it’s an enclosed shooting range with military explosives and human targets. --It’s Not the Israel-Hamas War, It’s the Israel-Gaza Massacre

Guess what’s not happening in the modern state of Israel? They’re not following the human rights laws of the United Nations. Worse yet, they’re not even following the commandment, “Thou shall not kill,” either. No one can convince me the modern state of Israel is based upon religion and morality. Recent surveys show how modern Israelis are extremely prejudiced against Palestinians and wouldn’t dare let their son or daughter date or marry one. Kill a Palestinian to take his homeland, yes, but marry one? No.

So, don’t kid a kidder who was born in the South and has witnessed racism up close. Israel is all about racism and white European settler colonialism, pure and simple. It's not about the Jewish religion. My American Jewish contacts support the Palestinians and their desire to have their homeland back, and they don’t disown their family members who marry outside the faith. That’s not was being an observant Jew is all about, I’m told.

I’m not falling for the cultish propaganda circulating on the internet about how Israel's massacre of the Palestinian people is all about “The End Times” or Armageddon and Jesus returning. As if! The Netanyahu government is taking their cues from the Ku Klux Klan or the Third Reich, not the Bible. After all, the book of Genesis states all human beings were made in God’s image. Why should we destroy God’s own handiwork--our fellow human beings-- if we truly believed in what the Bible says? Wouldn’t that make God sad and angry?

The saddest part of all is the US military helping Israel commit war crimes and not helping save the innocents. Not only are the US “Ministry of Truth” propagandists tasked with convincing the public that “Ukraine is winning the war against Russia,” they’ll have to convince us that simultaneously starting a war with Iran (that says it backs Hamas) is a good idea. Billions of dollars of armaments sent to two hot spots on the globe that is raising the risk of setting off a nuclear world war…

Settler colonialism seems to be at the root of many problems in the world. Diplomacy and peace talks could help solve these problems. Bombing innocent children, starving them, preventing them and their families from getting to safety, and then stealing their homeland won’t solve anyone’s problems.

When has genocide ever solved anyone’s problems?

Chris Hedges says it well:

This is not a war. It is the obliteration of civilians trapped for 16 years in the world’s largest concentration camp. Gaza is being leveled, flattened, destroyed, reduced to rubble. Hundreds of thousands of its impoverished residents will be killed, wounded or left homeless without food, fuel, water and medical help. Nearly 600 children are already dead. (As of today, it’s 1250 Palestinians killed.)

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has been forced to close 14 food distribution centers leaving half a million people without food relief. Gaza’s only power plant has run out of fuel. The United Nations says 12 of its staff have been killed by Israeli air strikes, 21 out of 22 UNRWA health facilities in Gaza have been damaged and hospitals lack basic medicines and supplies.

 Israel, as it has in the past, will block the dissemination of independent reporting and images once some 360,000 soldiers launch a ground assault. It cut internet service in Gaza on Saturday. The brief glimpses of Israeli atrocities that make it out will be dismissed by Israeli leaders as anomalies or blamed on Hamas.

The West refuses to intervene, as 2.3 million people, including 1 million children, are deprived of food, fuel, electricity and water, see their schools and hospitals bombed and are butchered and rendered homeless by one of the most advanced military machines on the planet.  – This Way for the Genocide, Ladies and Gentlemen

 Free, free Palestine! NOW. Tomorrow may be too late.

From Twitter/X:

RECAP #Israel #Palestine (as of 21:00 GMT, 15 October) 1. The death toll in Gaza has exceeded 2,450 people with over 60% of the victims being children and women 2. At least 1,000 are still missing under the rubble and over 9,600 have been wounded 3. In Israel, the death toll has reached 1,400 people while 3,400 are wounded, with scores of captives still being held in Gaza 4. At least 12 journalists have been killed since the start of the war, 10 of them Palestinian and one Israeli, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists 5. Israel dropped equivalent to “a quarter of a nuclear bomb” according to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor 6. 47 families have been “entirely wiped out from the civil registry” 7. Gaza’s healthcare system is “taking its last breath amid Israeli massacres” 8. Gaza’s hospitals are overwhelmed with wounded patients which they can no longer cater for, and people seek shelter in the hospital corridors. 6 hospitals in Gaza have shut down after being bombed 9. Fire exchanges between Israel and Lebanon have escalated, as Hezbollah vowed to react if Israel’s aggression on Gaza does not end 10. The Palestinian health ministry says one Palestinian is killed every five minutes in Gaza, while an emergency mass grave has been established to cater for the high number of dead 11. Israel is seeking to close down Al Jazeera’s bureau in the country, with their journalists facing harassment 12. Palestinians in Gaza are in danger of mass ethnic cleansing, Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, warned

 

Related Articles and Links

MSNBC Suspends Muslim Anchors Amid Israeli War in Gaza https://www.arabnews.com/node/2391271/media

This Way for the Genocide, Ladies and Gentlemen https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/this-way-for-the-genocide-ladies

I Wish Americans Could See the Humanity of Palestinians as They Do With Israelis https://truthout.org/articles/i-wish-americans-could-see-the-humanity-of-palestinians-as-they-do-with-israelis/

Israel’s Colonial Revenge Genocide in Gaza is only the latest in a Long History of such Massacres https://www.juancole.com/2023/10/colonial-genocide-massacres.html

Big Lies and Gaza https://julianmacfarlane.substack.com/p/big-lies-and-gaza

Source of Dubious ‘Beheaded Babies’ Claim is Israeli Settler Leader Who Incited Riots to ‘Wipe Out’ Palestinian Village
https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/12/source-of-dubious-beheaded-babies-claim-is-israeli-settler-leader-who-incited-riots-to-wipe-out-palestinian-village/

Palestine Today https://palestinetoday.quora.com/Baby-beheadings-and-Rape-are-All-Israeli-Lies-Repeated-by-West-to-Justify-Genocide-in-Gaza-and-Incite-Rage

 ‘A Massive War Crime’: Israel Begins Total Blockade Of Gaza Strip
https://popularresistance.org/a-massive-war-crime-israel-announces-total-blockade-of-gaza-strip/ 

re Obscuring Settler Colonialism in Their Gaza Coverage https://truthout.org/articles/corporate-media-outlets-are-obscuring-settler-colonialism-in-their-gaza-coverage

Palestinians Speak the Language of Violence Israel Taught Them
https://unac.notowar.net/2023/10/09/palestinians-speak-the-language-of-violence-israel-taught-them/

'Genuinely Shocked They Aired It': CNN Interview Cuts Through Pro-Israel Propaganda on Gaza https://www.commondreams.org/news/cnn-interview-palestinian

Who is responsible for the violence in Israel and Gaza? https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2023/10/10/ytol-o10.html

What Preceded the Killings in Israel and Gaza Was Not “Peace” — It Was Apartheid https://truthout.org/articles/what-preceded-this- bloodshed-in-gaza-was-not-peace-it-was-apartheid

The US Is Just As Culpable As Israel For The Atrocities Committed In Gaza https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/the-us-is-just-as-culpable-as-israel

People Have A Serious Case Of 9/11 Brain Right Now, And It's Scary https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/people-have-a-serious-case-of-911

Built on the Bodies of Native Californians https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/10/built-on-the-bodies-of-native-californians/

Boston Demands Indigenous Peoples Day! https://popularresistance.org/boston-demands-indigenous-peoples-day/

John Kiriakou: A Victimizers’ Memorial https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/12/john-kiriakou-a-victimizers-memorial/

“An Irreversible Torture”: The Global Call to End Capital Punishment on 21st World Day Against the Death Penalty
https://scheerpost.com/2023/10/10/an-irreversible-torture-the-global-call-to-end-capital-punishment-on-21st-world-day-against-the-death-penalty/
 

Seen on X/Twitter:

Israel is one of the most racist countries in the world.

While Israel works hard to play the victim, it’s actually a racist, Jewish supremacist state that aims to ethnically cleanse Palestine.

BT’s @KeiPritsker explains how racism is the core of Israel’s national identity pic.twitter.com/71JY6OggEv

— BreakThrough News (@BTnewsroom) October 12, 2023

https://twitter.com/BTnewsroom/status/1712606372813066586

 

Today was one of the worst days in Gaza

So far:

—2,800 Palestinians, incl 800 children and 900 women, killed by Israel. That's double the israeli death toll.

—1,200 Palestinians, incl 500 children are missing, suspected to be under the rubble.

—Over a million Gazans displaced

— Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) October 16, 2023

https://twitter.com/richimedhurst/status/1714036369058635897

 

The Future's Here (and the Political Revolution is Now)

Like the song says, the future's here today--and Bernie's big win in Indiana proves that he has the stamina and the momentum to keep the Political Revolution alive and well in the days to come. This week we're focusing on how to keep the grassroots excitement carrying on throughout the campaign season and beyond.  What things are broken in our political system and how do we go about reforming them? Never forget--we are the Revolution. "And when the people stand together, there is nothing, nothing we cannot do."

Democracy is Not a Spectator Sport, either. Join Place a Vote where you can discuss and vote on current issues affecting our country. Brand New Congress means what it says--it wants to help progressives get on the ballot throughout the USA. Sign up and become involved. The season of being a couch potato is over. Let's take it to the streets, Berners!

Election Reform to Support Grassroots Candidates

by Ryan Hamer

The existing two-party primary system has been a disaster for democracy, making it difficult for grassroots candidates like Bernie Sanders to have a fair chance. Some have suggested eliminating the primaries and going straight to a general election where multiple candidates can compete and the one with the most votes wins. Unfortunately, if two of the candidates have similar views, they can end up siphoning off votes from each other, giving an unfair advantage to the third candidate.

Approval voting provides a way around this. Instead of voting for just one candidate, each voter gets to indicate approval or disapproval for each
candidate, with the person receiving the highest approval rating declared the winner. Since voters can approve of more than one candidate, it enables them to vote for both the candidate they truly want to win and a backup choice.

 As a hypothetical example, let’s say three candidates are running for president: Trump, Clinton and Sanders. Let’s assume that 35% will only vote for Trump, 10% will only vote for Clinton, 20% will only vote for Sanders, and 35%  would be okay with either Clinton or Sanders. Suppose that in the primary those who are okay with either Clinton or Sanders end up voting for Clinton on the assumption that she has the best chance of beating Trump, so Clinton wins the nomination 45 to 20. We’ll assume that Trump wins his party’s nomination uncontested (this is, after all, hypothetical). Come the general election, Sanders supporters resign themselves to voting for Clinton to keep Trump from being elected, so Clinton wins 65 to 35.
 

Now suppose we switch to a system where all three candidates face off in a general election without a primary. Let's say Trump gets his 35%, Clinton gets her fully-committed 10% plus another 23% from those who are okay with either Clinton or Sanders, and Sanders gets the remaining votes. That makes 35 for Trump, 33 for Clinton and 32 for Sanders, so Trump wins.

Going straight to a general election with approval voting yields a very different result. Trump would have a 35% approval rating, Clinton 45%, and Sanders 55%, so Sanders wins.

 Approval voting provides underdog candidates with a real chance of winning, and voters a chance to vote for their real choice and not just a fallback position. This is a change that would benefit all voters, regardless of party affiliation.

Bio: Ryan says that he is "Busy conducting research on poverty and its elimination, universal health care, the protection of civil liberties and the environment, and making the political process more collaborative, fairer and more civil."

***

This Woman is Bernie Strong

a weekly commentary featuring one of Bernie's female supporters

Bernie's Meta-Campaign 

by Barb McMillen
 

Bernie's is a meta-campaign. I use the term meta as in metagaming. From wiki: "Metagaming is any strategy, action or method used in a game which transcends a prescribed rule set, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by the game. Another definition refers to the game universe outside of the game itself."

Bernie's campaign has from the very start been both his own as well as referential to the outside world of campaigning. As he moves from announcing his campaign to actually running for delegates through votes and caucus processes his own events become referential to those of the larger issues of campaigns in this country. What is the role a party plays in relationship to candidates running for the party? What is the relationship of the party the candidate and the media? What is consensus? What is gerrymandering, bribery, the people's choice? How do economics and democracy function together?

Every step of the way, Bernie's campaign has been a lantern shining its light through, and thereby exposing, the cracks in our democracy.

His campaign will be reviewed for years to come as an historical moment in the United States, the moment when the people became aware of the reality of their own politics. Bernie has had to carry not only his own weight but that of the system and that of the hopes and dreams of those of us who want to see him win despite everything that is mounted against him. Because we would like to see that yes, there still exists We The People, By The People, For The People. 

He is our warrior. Watch him, listen to him, and through the campaign know thyself. #ForeverChanged #FeelTheBern #Bernie2016

Bio: Barb is a co-founder of The Bernie Blog and a Bernie delegate from Ohio to the DNC convention this summer in Philadelphia.

***

Superdelegate Reform Needed!

I’m Dave Shanley, I’m age 62 and retired, I live in upstate New York, and I’m a Democrat who supports Bernie Sanders.

My comment/concern has to do with superdelegates and how news organizations are reporting delegate counts in the Democratic primary.

Specifically, in an interview with Chris Hayes of MSNBC on March 9, Representative Debbie Wasserman Shultz, Chair of the Democratic National Committee stated, "and at the end of the day we've not ever nominated a candidate for president as our party's nominee with anything but the pledged delegates that are selected by the voters."

That seems right and fair to me.  Can you imagine what would happened if a candidate got the most votes and won the most states and the superdelegates gave the nomination to another candidate?  An example of superdelegates following the lead of voters is when Hillary's lead in 2008 started to evaporate as superdelegates moved to Obama as he started to win races.

Most news organizations report Hillary ahead in delegate count 1645 pledged/520 super to Bernie's 1318 pledged/39 super (as of April 30).   By including the superdelegates in the overall delegate count without any explanation gives an inaccurate picture of the actual status of the campaign.  It gives the false impression that Hillary's nomination is all but inevitable.  It gives a big advantage to the Clinton campaign and is very unfair to the Sanders campaign.

As the chair of the Democratic National Committee made clear, ultimately, the "pledged delegates that are selected by the voters" will be the ones that will determine who will be the Democratic candidate for president.  The current pledged delegate count is Hillary 1645, Sanders  1318.  It's a significant delegate deficit, but given the number of delegates outstanding and given the states where those delegates reside, it can be overcome.

I’m sure there are many voters who are not aware of the significance of this and that concerns me.

We have the chair of the Democratic National Committee’s own words.  How do we get news organizations to report the delegate count in a more accurate and fair way? 

***
West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon: It's that time. Get to the polls and get ready to vote for Bernie! #FeeltheBern #LoveTrumpsHate





 

Why Bernie Will Win – Part 4: The Big Difference

Why Bernie Will Win – Part 4: The Big Difference

by Joe Brunoli

a.k.a. EuroYankee

This post is a very easy one to write, because it is, in effect, a simple question: Will Hillary Clinton represent the interests of the working people of America?

What do millionaires talk about?

Hillary is a woman who has “served” as first lady of Arkansas, then first lady of the U.S., then as a senator, and then as Secretary of State. Her professional life has, for all intents and purposes, been a purely political one. And yet, through her connections, her contacts and her skill in manipulating the system, she has managed to parlay this “political career” into a fortune worth up to $55,000,000 according to USA Today.

Bernie Sanders, on the other hand, has been a “real” political animal. During the same period that Hillary was amassing her fortune through an establishment political career, Bernie served as a city mayor, a congressman and a senator, all the while running on his famous Democratic Socialist platform. The result? According to the same USA Today article, Bernie has a net worth of just $330,000.

Bernie flies economy class when he travels.

So, here is the question: How is it that two candidates, who many claim have the same priorities and the same goals, could both dedicate their lives to politics, to “fighting for the working families” —and yet one ends up with a net worth of $55 million, and the other ends up with a net worth of just $330,000?

I think this is a big part of the reason that people do not like the Clintons. They are a political family. They have been making their living in political “service” to their state of Arkansas and then their country for virtually all of their adult lives, and yet they have managed to amass an incredible fortune while supposedly “serving” the public.

No one begrudged the Roosevelts their wealth, nor the Kennedys theirs.  Even Mitt Romney was generally considered to have “earned” his fortune. And Donald Trump has become famous almost solely for his success as a businessman. In other words, they “earned” their money the American way—in business.

But the Clintons? They are simply “America’s Political Family.” They have never done anything else. They travel in the same circles as the Trumps and the Bushes. Indeed, it is now widely known that the Clintons went to Trump’s last wedding, and Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, is best friends with Chelsea Clinton.

And this brings us to what I term the Big Difference. 

Bernie Sanders is a true believer. He is motivated by a genuine desire to help people, to speak truth to power, and as he says so often in his speeches, he wants to use his political position to “take on the billionaire class.”

Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, has used her political positions and connections to become  part of that billionaire class.

That is, I think, why people in the U.S. don’t like her. She literally embodies all that is wrong with the corrupt and money-driven political system that is running America today.

She is, in essence, the poster-girl for why Bernie’s political revolution is needed, and that fact will come out over the course of the campaign. It has to.

Bio: Joe Brunoli, , a.k.a. The EuroYankee, is a US ex-pat with dual US-EU citizenship. Originally from Connecticut, Joe currently splits his time between his ancestral residence on Lake Como, Italy and his apartment in Barcelona, Spain. He travels Europe extensively for his work and tries to find time to comment on trends, attitudes, politics and points of interest - especially as they may affect or regard the US. 

 Letting "Our Side" Down

by Cindy A. Matthews

You know what really irks me about the recent Democratic candidates' forum? Rachel Maddow showed each candidate a photo from their early (supposedly) political years and had them describe it and asked what they learned from that experience. It's how Maddow handled each candidate that gets to me.

Martin O'Malley: Maddow showed a photo of him as a young man working on Gary Hart's presidential campaign. He said he learned a lot about campaigning and politics from that early experience.

Bernie Sanders: Maddow showed a photo of Bernie at age 21 leading a sit-in to desegregate student housing at the University of Chicago. Bernie said he learned a lot about forming coalitions and how to lead others to take a stand on moral issues that affect us all as Americans.

Hillary Clinton: Maddow showed a photo of Bill and Hillary getting married. Yeah, nothing to do with Hillary's political growth or holding an office or leading others--but a photo of her on her wedding day. They talked about her then-fashionable spiral hair perm and how Bill's hair was now all white.

Maddow didn't press Clinton to say anything about her early years being politically active (as Hillary Clinton supported Republican Barry Goldwater for president in the 1960s). No, they talked about Hillary's hairstyle. Why didn't Maddow show a photo of Hillary Clinton campaigning for Goldwater? What would Hillary have said she learned from that experience? It's better to switch parties?

The overall message I took away from the Democratic candidates' forum was this: If you are a female politician, it's all about your hairstyle and nothing substantive like forming coalitions and leadership. So, MSNBC (Maddow's network) is saying that Clinton is "ahead" in the polls because she has a great hairstyle and can talk eloquently around in circles without answering questions fully, if at all. 

(Really, who all was in on this "secret conversation" in 1996 that made Hillary Clinton say she was against gay marriage then? Are there any "witnesses" to this "secret conversation" and if so, why was Hillary allowed in a conversation with her husband's advisors at the time? She wasn't a senator then, only the first lady, so how did she get the clearance? Does that mean as "first husband" he'll be telling her what to do? Isn't that essentially giving Bill Clinton a third term?)

Rachel Maddow and Hillary Clinton have made women in politics look shallow, who must rely on their looks and marriage connections to get ahead, and aren't to be pressed hard to fully answer questions in a straightforward manner. Talk about reverse discrimination! Thanks for letting "our side" down, ladies!

Bernie Sanders has many intelligent and capable women currently working on his campaign. I know we will see many strong women working in his administration, women who can answer questions without talking in circles. Women who will make good role models for our daughters and granddaughters.


                                                                          * * *

"Bernie" from Econia

Want to learn about democracy in a "hands-on-smartphone" way? Check out a free open-source mobile game in development called "Econia" at  
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1527063733/econia

What is Econia?
Our democracy is being sold to the highest bidder, and we’re too busy tapping on our phones to do anything about it. We want to help change that, but we can’t do it without you!

We’re making a game that will appeal to today’s casual audience, and help them explore the roots and causes of our democracy’s systemic corruption.

At first glance Econia is a simple tap-game, but there’s a lot more going on under the surface. Understanding supply and demand, the power of marketing, and using money to tip the system in your favor will be keys to success.

Players start as a farmer in a small frontier town, tapping on crops and struggling to survive. As the town grows into a metropolis, players will collect and sell food, hire other Econians to work their farm, help discover advances in agriculture and industry, and participate in the town’s democracy.

As the player grows he will discover how easy it is under the current system to use his wealth to bend the government in his favor.

And all with super-cute graphics!
  
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1527063733/econia