Bernie vs. Hillary

Hillary may show poise and grace and appear at times to be a good person which is comforting, but when you look at the bigger picture of her whole track record, she has been as much a flip flopper on the issues as Trump has.  Trump is a monster, but Hillary is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  None the less, no sane Bernie supporter would vote for Trump.  It is a complete mischaracterization of Bernie Sanders supporters to imply that they would ever vote for Trump.  I have heard most Sanders supporters say that they would support Hillary Clinton as the lesser evil to make sure Trump doesn’t get elected if it comes to that.  Many find it unconscionable to vote for Hillary though, due to her lack of integrity when it comes to her hawkish push for more senseless, unnecessary wars.  Thus Bernie Sanders supporters have said they would vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party who is a candidate who supports real peace among nations.  Some have said they would only vote for Jill Stein as long as they don’t live in a swing state.

There is a reason Hillary Clinton doesn’t have the level of enthusiasm that Bernie Sanders has from the majority of the American people.  It’s unprecedented that Bernie has been able to gain so much support without taking money from big corporations and banks that don’t have the best interest of the people.   Hillary has powerful people on her side.  Some she has paid off to support her and the bigger ones have bought her to serve the will of corporate greed.  She has bought those who influence and those whose votes weigh more in a rigged election.  She herself should speak out about the voter suppression that has been going on.  But Hillary looks the other way because it happens to be working in her favor this time around.  It’s not a “man thing” to speak out about the cheating and wrongdoing that has gone on.  It’s the right thing to stand up for a fair election.  

Super delegates defeat the purpose of a democracy and are insulting to the American people, as if we need more powerful people to sway the vote because we don’t know enough.  As citizens we should be a well informed educated public and be trusted to vote.  It also hasn’t been fair that in a lot of these primaries, independents have not been allowed to vote for a Democrat.  Many did not know of Bernie Sanders in time to switch to the Democratic party.  There are many elaborate tactics and rules built into our system that allow Republican states to discount the votes of minorities.  If we don’t have a fair election system where everyone’s vote gets counted, then we don’t have a democracy. 

In Nevada many of the votes weren’t counted for Bernie.  Hillary could have stood up against the super delegate system, but instead she chose to use it to her benefit this time around, and acquired many super delegates before Bernie was even in the race.  It’s still possible for Bernie Sanders to aquire a majority of pledged delegates, and in that case the super delegates owe it to the people to support who the people support. 

Hillary only stands up for what’s right when it makes her look good.  She has been publicly racist and homophobic when it was popular.  She spent 8 hours on trial to redeem her own reputation to cover up her scandals and wrong-doings in Benghazi that lead to our embassy to be unsafe due to her negligence to send back-up.  She had Gaddafi killed after he was cooperating.  It was unnecessary to assassinate him at that point, yet she did and it caused more chaos in the region that lead to our embassy to be attacked.  Contrast that with Bernie Sanders’ 8 ½ hour filibuster against the Bush tax cuts for the 1%.  I remember when I heard it on 90.7 FM a few years ago.  That’s when I discovered Bernie Sanders.  It was like music to my ears.  I couldn’t stop listening.  It was so wonderful to hear the way Bernie Sanders spoke about what that money that was going to make the rich richer could be doing to help the rest of us– to expand social security so we could all have a decent retirement to look forward to, to give us paid maternity leave so we don’t run out of time struggling with our unstable jobs while our biological clocks are ticking,  to provide us with single payer healthcare so we don’t have to pay for it like paying for rent, and to enable our youth with a debt free higher education.  Bernie spent 8 ½ hours defending the rights of the American people.    He has been passionate about our basic human rights for his entire career consistently.    

Hillary is a puppet controlled by big banks, corporate interests over human need, and AIPAC.

When Hillary Clinton ran against Obama, she stayed in the primary until the convention and refused to leave the race until she was promised to be appointed as Secretary of State.

How else could the position of highest ranking diplomat of the country be assigned to the worst diplomat ever?  While she was campaigning against Obama she had taken the opposite position to his, stating that if elected president she would refuse to speak diplomatically to the Iranian leader, and she would in her words “obliterate Iran”.  What kind of leader let alone diplomat says that about other nations.

Obama was only able to make progress in negotiating with Iran after appointing John Kerry as Secretary of State.  In the 2016 debate Hillary tried to take credit for the work Kerry did in Iran on which she had no involvement.

I’ve seen and heard Hillary Clinton losing her cool waving her finger in the face of an environmental activist who asked a simple question about her taking money from the fossil fuel industry.  I’ve rarely seen Bernie Sanders lose his cool.  We need a leader like Bernie Sanders with tenacity to stand up for what’s right and speak truth to power to clean up the mess the Republicans have left behind with tax cuts on the super wealthy and  corporate welfare.  Bernie Sanders is also the one to clean clean up the housing crisis that the Clintons left behind with the deregulation of banks and big business.  Even now Bernie Sanders is for Glass Steagall which the Bill Clinton eliminated, and Hillary in the 2016 debate is still against reinstating Glass Steagall.  The elimination of Glass Steagall is what lead to the housing crisis.  Here’s why it matters: https://berniesanders.com/yes-glass-steagall-matters-here-are-5-reasons-why/  

While Hillary was campaigning against Obama, she also is on record saying the Iraqi people are to blame for the Iraq war that she voted for.

As Secretary of State she has been commended by Henry Kissinger a fellow war criminal for all her criminal activity.

Hillary Clinton backed the illegal coup in Honduras that caused so much unrest and violence that the children of Honduras had to be sent out of the country to escape.  When they arrived, Hillary Clinton said they must be sent back, while Bernie Sanders supported helping them stay for protection.  Hillary Clinton chose to support the regime that was in favor of environmental destruction in Honduras to serve the demands of corporate profits at the expense of the Honduran people.  A leading environmentalist, Berta Caceres, of Honduras was assassinated shortly after she spoke out publicly against Hillary Clinton’s interference in the country which caused damage to the environment and the well being of the people.

Hillary Clinton completely turns a blind eye to the massacres Israel has committed in recent years on innocent civilians in Palestine.

 It was beautiful to hear Bernie Sanders standing up for the dignity and respect of the Palestinian people.   In 2014, 2,200 Palestinian lives (mostly civilian) were lost, while 73 Israeli lives were lost, all but 6 were soldiers.

 The BDS movement is for human rights.  It’s non violent resistance against the ongoing massacres and oppression committed against the Palestinian people who live in an apartheid state, open air prison enforced by Israel. 

Hillary Clinton’s opposition to BDS is like being opposed to the Bus Boycott during the Civil Rights movement. 

Bernie Sanders, on the other hand did not attend the conference with the Israeli lobby, AIPAC, that all the other candidates went to.  Bernie says that while it is important to be friends with Israel, it’s also important to be friends with the Palestinians.  He says we won’t solve any conflict if we continue to ignore the other side.

Emad Burnet, the maker of the documentary, 5 Broken Cameras that was nominated for an Oscar, sheds light on the daily terrorization the Israeli army subjects Palestinians to in their own homes at any hour of the day, usually in the middle of the night.  Every boy born to a Palestinian family is taken to be arrested and tortured in Israeli prisons.  This has become the Israeli policy along with regular massacres and bulldozing of Palestinian homes many times while the people are still in their homes, their bodies crushed to death as was the fate of our own American citizen, Rachel Corrie who would have been my age if she were still alive today.  She went abroad to live with a Palestinian family to experience first hand the life there.  At 23 years old she was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer while making eye contact with the driver pleading with him not to crush the home of the Palestinian family who she had been staying with.

This is the state terrorism Hillary Clinton wants to support with more of our US tax dollars.

 

Portrait of Malala Yousafzai by Nabawia El-Soudani Olivera

Words of Malala
Vector graphics portrait with typographic design created in Adobe Illustrator

Vector graphics portrait with typographic design created in Adobe Illustrator.  I will be showing a 24 x 30 inch print of this image as well as an animated video addressing the content of this image at the District Faculty Art Exhibit at the Coastline Art Gallery.  The opening reception is tomorrow, Friday, December 6, 2013 from 5-8 PM.  The show will be open from December 6 – December 21 , 2013 + Jan. 9 – 11, 2014.  My work will include a digital print portrait of Malala Yousafzai with her statement about drone strikes, as well as an animation video piece that informs and complements the print. If you get this in enough time, and don’t have plans yet, hope to see you there!

The Double Standard in Stand Your Ground

The Case of Marissa Alexander

“She’s the 31-year-old African-American mother of three who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing what she maintains was a warning shot at her abusive husband. She has insisted she was defending herself when she fired the gun into a wall near her husband. Alexander had turned down a plea bargain that would have seen her jailed for something like three years. She attempted to use Florida’s Stand Your Ground law in her defense, but in March 2012 the jury convicted her, after only 12 minutes of deliberation, and she was sentenced to 20 years behind bars under a Florida law known as “10-20-Life” that carries a mandatory minimum for certain gun crimes regardless of the circumstance. This was an Angela Corey prosecution, the special prosecutor in the Trayvon Martin case who ultimately brought the charge of second-degree murder against George Zimmerman.”

-Reported by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now.  Click to view the full report

Sign the petition to pardon Marissa Alexander

 

Finding Peace in the Trayvon Martin Case

Sign the NAACP Petition To Open a Civil Rights Case Against George Zimmerman

The Real Heavyweight in the Ring – George Zimmerman or Trayvon Martin?

At the time of Trayvon Martin’s murder, George Zimmerman was not overweight, but he was 80 pounds heavier than Trayvon. Zimmerman was muscular because of the three times a week that he was involved in mixed martial arts which was read off of his medical records in court. His injuries at the time of the murder were assessed to be insignificant. Zimmerman was an armed grown man while, Trayvon was an unarmed minor.

The Voice in the 911 calls on the night of Trayvon Martin’s Murder

The voice on the recording sounded like the voice of an adolescent. Two voice analysts have stated that the crying voice was not Zimmerman’s voice. We heard the cries for help, and we heard the cries cease as soon as we heard the gun shot that Zimmerman fired. This indicates that the one who was struggling to save his life was Trayvon.
Expert Voice Analysists Say 911 Screams are NOT From Zimmerman

Angry and Profiling

Zimmerman is recorded in phone calls to the police using vulgar language, saying “they always get away”. He was angry and had his mind made up that Trayvon was his enemy before he saw him do anything wrong at all. He never reported any wrong doing on the part of Trayvon Martin, yet he still felt the need to follow him with a gun even after the police told him he did not need to do that. Zimmerman was the one on the hunt with irrational thoughts about an innocent teenager. Zimmerman was armed and dangerous and trained in mixed martial arts. How can anyone believe that the one on the hunt is now the one who acted in self-defense? There is no doubt in my mind that this was a lynching much like the lynching of Emmett Till. This is a grave injustice and a threat to the civil rights and safety of all of the citizens of this country.

Some telling videos about this story:

First report on the murder of Trayvon Martin on DemocracyNow, an unbiased source of independent journalism and well researched fact-checked news

http://www.democracynow.org/2012/3/20/walking_while_black_florida_police_resist

Witness Speaks Out In Trayvon Martin Case

(Caught in Public) GEORGE ZIMMERMAN LIES UNDER OATH and SHOWS NO REMORSE! Fake Apology

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