The Invisible Man: George W. Bush and a Hole in History

The Invisible Man: George W. Bush and a Hole in History

http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/37208-the-invisible-man-george-w-bush-and-a-hole-in-history

By: Williams Rivers Pitt
Date: 2016-08-12

After Donald Trump blew into his dog saxophone and invited "Second Amendment people" to assassinate Hillary Clinton before she could appoint any judges, American politics went into China Syndrome meltdown mode in a way not seen since Preston Brooks beat Charles Sumner very nearly to death in the well of the Senate, 160 years ago almost to the day. Republicans who had endorsed Trump immediately fled en masse to Outer Mongolia to become anonymous yak herders, and witnesses reported seeing House Speaker Paul Ryan climb a large oak tree while muttering, "I hate this job, I hate this job, there's no place like home, I hate this job."

This flame-decked train wreck has been a long time coming, and the GOP has nothing to blame but itself. Begin with the serial defections from the Democratic Party after the Civil Rights Act of 1964, augment with Nixon's "Southern Strategy" to promote racism and xenophobia within the party base, and then inject that strategy with steroids under Reagan by embracing right-wing fire-and-brimstone evangelical Christianity. Lose a war and collapse the economy in the middle.

Despise the immigrant, demonize the Other. Spend eight years howling THERE'S A BLACK KENYAN MUSLIM TERRORIST COMMUNIST SOCIALIST FASCIST MAN IN THE WHITE HOUSE, YOU GUYS, EVERYONE FREAK OUT, season to taste with millions of guns and the paranoia they pack, put it all in a bag and shake it, and what you get when you crack the seal is Donald Trump: a racist, sexist, xenophobic fool who doesn't know that he doesn't know anything, surrounded by a growling herd of loyalists.

There's a missing page to this recipe, one that has been deliberately deleted like a classified email from The Book Of Days. Trump runs around blaming Secretary Clinton for the state of the economy while arguing in tandem that Clinton and President Obama created ISIS out of thin air. "He's the founder of ISIS," Trump said on Wednesday. "He's the founder of ISIS. He's the founder. He founded ISIS. I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton." The corporate "news" media lap it up because it's "good television," and even his most ardent opponents fail to say the one missing word.

Bush.

Former President George W. Bush speaks during a campaign rally for his brother Jeb Bush, a Republican presidential hopeful, at the Coliseum & Performing Arts Center in North Charleston, South Carolina, on February 15, 2016. (Jim Wilson / The New York Times)

Destroying the party to save the party: Donald Trump is the existential crisis the GOP needs

Clerk Note: Implosion of the RNC was an agenda item of the "Clinton Triagulation" and the business agreement with Trump. Just like Trump's many bankruptcies where his golden parachute saved him, after Trump implodes the RNC, his ROI will be name recognition and reality TV.

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Destroying the party to save the party: Donald Trump is the existential crisis the GOP needs

http://www.salon.com/2016/08/03/destroying_the_party_to_save_the_party_donald_trump_is_the_existential_crisis_the_gop_needs/

By: Sean Illing
Date: 2016-08-03

Trump's dredged up the racism lurking within the GOP for decades. The party can finally reboot after his defeat

Since Richard Nixon’s administration, the GOP has walked a thin line: They wanted to be the party of racists and ethno-nationalists without actually being racist or ethno-nationalist. It was called the “Southern Strategy,” and it was a smashing success. The party of Lincoln absorbed the segregationist white South and the GOP became the default option for nativists and cultural discontents. It was a risky long-term bet, but the string of electoral victories made it immediately rewarding.

And then Donald Trump happened.

Trump has violated the unwritten rule in Republican politics: You court the racists, but you do it discreetly. Trump has put his racism front and center, and it earned him the most primary votes in the history of the Republican Party. After 50 years of flirting with the “silent majority,” the GOP now has an intractable demand-side problem, and the election results prove it.

The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb

The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb

https://medium.com/@SeanBlanda/the-other-side-is-not-dumb-2670c1294063#.d1h9vuulc

By: Sean Blanda
Date: 2016-01-07

There’s a fun game I like to play in a group of trusted friends called “Controversial Opinion.” The rules are simple: Don’t talk about what was shared during Controversial Opinion afterward and you aren’t allowed to “argue”?—?only to ask questions about why that person feels that way. Opinions can range from “I think James Bond movies are overrated” to “I think Donald Trump would make a excellent president.”

Usually, someone responds to an opinion with, “Oh my god! I had no idea you were one of those people!” Which is really another way of saying “I thought you were on my team!”

In psychology, the idea that everyone is like us is called the “false-consensus bias.” This bias often manifests itself when we see TV ratings (“Who the hell are all these people that watch NCIS?”) or in politics (“Everyone I know is for stricter gun control! Who are these backwards rubes that disagree?!”) or polls (“Who are these people voting for Ben Carson?”).

Online it means we can be blindsided by the opinions of our friends or, more broadly, America. Over time, this morphs into a subconscious belief that we and our friends are the sane ones and that there’s a crazy “Other Side” that must be laughed at?—?an Other Side that just doesn’t “get it,” and is clearly not as intelligent as “us.” But this holier-than-thou social media behavior is counterproductive, it’s self-aggrandizement at the cost of actual nuanced discourse and if we want to consider online discourse productive, we need to move past this.

Political Dirty Tricks for the Digital Age

Clerk Note: Publicly funded elections and instant run-off elections are two things needed. Hand-counting of the votes and adhering to the warning flags from exit polls would be most beneficial.
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Political Dirty Tricks for the Digital Age
http://whowhatwhy.org/2016/07/08/political-dirty-tricks-digital-age/

By: Jeff Schechtman
Date: 2016-07-08

How Sophisticated Digital Gerrymandering Undermines Democracy
Like prestidigitation, while we’re all watching the media circus that is our presidential election, the House of Representatives is being usurped using the most sophisticated mapping and digital software. It’s a process the Republicans started back in 2010 with only 30 million dollars. The net result has been to lock up congressional control for at least a decade. The Democrats are now trying, perhaps too little too late, to compete. If they can’t, control may be locked up until at least 2031.  The goal set by the GOP was a landside-proof House and we may soon see if they succeeded.

Gary Johnson's Position on the Issues

Clerk Note: At least we know where Governor Johnson stands on the issues, and they seem like reasonable positions. Ought to attract the saner half of the dying Republican Party.

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Gary Johnson's Position on the Issues

http://www.ontheissues.org/Gary_Johnson.htm

By:
Date:

Gary Johnson Has A Response for Those Who Say They’re Wasting Their Vote Switching to the Libertarian Party

Clerk Note: More so than any other election cycle, a vote for a Democrat or a Republican is a wasted voted. Only votes for third parties will have any effect.

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Gary Johnson Has A Response for Those Who Say They’re Wasting Their Vote Switching to the Libertarian Party

http://www.redstate.com/brandon_morse/2016/07/29/gary-johnson-response-say-theyre-wasting-vote-switching-libertarian-party/

By: 2016-07-29
Date: Brandon Morse

If you've at any point said that you're voting outside the Republican or Democrat parties, then you've probably heard a very tired line.

"You're wasting your vote!" is something that I've received ad nauseum since I made up my mind to leave the Republican party, and vote for the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson. It's a phrase that many people believe they're logistically right for saying, since a vote that is not for their candidate is obviously a vote for the opposing candidate.

It's not a very well thought out accusation. By those rules, if I'm not voting for either candidate, then I guess I'm voting for both and it cancels each other out. Either way, that's not how it works in our Republic. My vote is who it's for, and no one else.

A Political Revolution is Happening — And It Starts with the Presidential Debates

A Political Revolution is Happening — And It Starts with the Presidential Debates

http://ivn.us/2016/04/08/political-revolution-starts-with-presidential-debates/

By: Craig Berlin
Date: 2016-04-08

Hillary Clinton recently touted her longstanding loyalty to the Democratic Party and the importance of being a “real” Democrat nominee. Bernie Sanders, previously the longest serving independent in Congress, declared as a Democrat because of our system’s unfavorable treatment of independents and third party candidates. He even went so far as to call out the media, telling MSNBC’s Chuck Todd that the network wouldn’t have covered him had he remained an independent.

Sanders’ accurate perception of a necessary move ironically coincides with a nationwide countercurrent that has seen party affiliation sink to an all-time low, with 42% of Americans now identifying as independents. Adding to the momentum, the current Democratic and Republican front-runners are largely unpalatable to a large percentage of the electorate; in fact, their unpopularity is unprecedented.

IVN has published dozens of articles describing how the two parties have concocted the process, from primaries to debates, in a manner that disenfranchises independent voters and stifles additional options. The silver lining in an election featuring two largely divisive and weak candidates is the impetus to look at how we got here and harness voter dissatisfaction to affect change.

Why are the presidential debates, which garner the largest audience and are the most likely to generate a more diverse range of ideas, limited to only two candidates?

The primary system is an elaborate setup that varies from state to state, as well as being somewhat different for each party. However, one thing that is more visible to most Americans is the series of debates between presidential candidates that has traditionally occurred after the nominees are selected.

Gary Johnson For Dummies

Clerk Note: Infinitely better than tRump if you are right leaning.

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Gary Johnson For Dummies

https://www.theodysseyonline.com/gary-johnson-for-dummies


Date: 2016-03-29

If the state of the presidential race brings tears to your eyes, people on the Internet give you high blood pressure and you’ve experienced the soul crushing realization that you don’t like any of the candidates, then this guide is for you. Today we’ll be discussing a third party candidate (what?!) and breaking down his stance on the issues in an article so cute and compressed that you can digest it on your lunch break. I’m no political expert, but I would like to put politics into terms that are a little less wordy, and catered to people like me.

With a short answer and long(er) answer, you can read into the issues as much or as little as you’d like—you could even save some for later. You may or may not agree with these stances, but at the end of the day you will have exercised your brain, learned something new, and maybe even realized you’ve found someone that you want as your president. Let’s press on.

Subject: Gary Johnson

Party: Libertarian (read: fiscally conservative, socially liberal)

Bio:

From 1995-2003 Gary Johnson was the Republican Governor of New Mexico, and often referred to as “the most fiscally conservative Governor” in the country. Before becoming governor in 1995, Johnson started a door-to-door handyman business to pay his way through college. After 20 years, this business had grown into one of the largest construction companies in New Mexico. Apart from being a successful businessman and politician, Johnson is quite the adventurer. He loves skiing and biking, and has scaled the highest peak on each of the seven continents—that includes Everest. In 2012 Johnson ran for president, and won more votes than any other Libertarian candidate in history.

Libertarian ticket could spoil Clinton party

Libertarian ticket could spoil Clinton party

http://www.cnn.com/2016/08/03/opinions/libertarians-opinion-zwolinski/index.html

By: Matt Zwolinski
Date: 2016-08-03

With national polling numbers hovering around 12%, the Libertarian ticket of Gary Johnson and William Weld has the potential to be a real spoiler in the presidential election. But whose candidacy are they most likely to spoil?

Most people think of libertarianism as a kind of right-wing ideology, with its intellectual origins in the free-market economics of Milton Friedman and the unabashed egoism and anti-communism of Ayn Rand. And it's certainly true that for most of its existence, the Libertarian Party has drawn more heavily from the political right than from the political left.

But Gary Johnson is actually drawing just as much support from self-identified Democrats as he does from Republicans. And polls that include Johnson actually show a slight decrease in Clinton's lead over Trump.

Newfound Media Attention Could Catapult Gary Johnson onto Debate Stage

Clerk Note: More so than any other election cycle, a vote for a Democrat or a Republican is a wasted voted. Only votes for third parties will have any effect.

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Gary Johnson Has A Response for Those Who Say They’re Wasting Their Vote Switching to the Libertarian Party

http://www.redstate.com/brandon_morse/2016/07/29/gary-johnson-response-say-theyre-wasting-vote-switching-libertarian-party/

By: 2016-07-29
Date: Brandon Morse

If you've at any point said that you're voting outside the Republican or Democrat parties, then you've probably heard a very tired line.

"You're wasting your vote!" is something that I've received ad nauseum since I made up my mind to leave the Republican party, and vote for the Libertarian candidate, Gary Johnson. It's a phrase that many people believe they're logistically right for saying, since a vote that is not for their candidate is obviously a vote for the opposing candidate.

It's not a very well thought out accusation. By those rules, if I'm not voting for either candidate, then I guess I'm voting for both and it cancels each other out. Either way, that's not how it works in our Republic. My vote is who it's for, and no one else.

Could Third Party Candidates Prove Clinton's Achilles Heel?

Could Third Party Candidates Prove Clinton's Achilles Heel?

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/08/05/could-third-party-candidates-prove-clintons-achilles-heel

By: Andrea Germanos
Date: 2016-08-05

Here's the good news for Hillary Clinton: Three new polls this week show the Democratic presidential nominee strengthening her lead over Republican rival Donald Trump.

The bad news: Two of those polls—and a chunk of others recently—show that when the Libertarian Party's Gary Johnson and the Green Party's Jill Stein are included in a theoretical match-up, Clinton's lead drops, making, according to a headline in Politico, a potential "third-party headache" for the former secretary of state.

Election Justice USA Study Finds that Without Election Fraud Sanders Would Have Won by Landslide

Clerk Note: Exposes the shame of the Republican/Democratic two-party system.

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Election Justice USA Study Finds that Without Election Fraud Sanders Would Have Won by Landslide

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/7/29/1554022/-Election-Justice-USA-Study-Finds-that-Without-Election-Fraud-Sanders-Would-Have-Won-by-Landslide

By: Joynter
Date: 2016-07-29

Election Justice USA finds that Bernie Sanders lost an estimated 184 delegates to Election Fraud:

Well, 184 is only the upper estimate considering election fraud. Not even counting in the immense MSM bias, lack of debates, DNC bias/shenenigans outside of fraud, Hillary’s huge funding thanks to corruption… It should have been a landslide for Bernie!

The following is from the last page of the entire report:

Chris Hedges vs. Robert Reich on Clinton, Third Parties, Capitalism & Next Steps for Sanders Backers

Clerk Note: Although I respect Robert Reich, Chris Hedge's words and interview deserve your attention.

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Chris Hedges vs. Robert Reich on Clinton, Third Parties, Capitalism & Next Steps for Sanders Backers

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/8/4/as_green_party_convention_opens_watch

By: Democracy Now
Date: 2016-08-04

The Green Party’s national convention opens today in Houston, Texas, and Dr. Jill Stein is expected to win the party’s nomination. But will she win the support of former Bernie Sanders supporters? Last week, Democracy Now! hosted a debate between the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich about the presidential race. Hedges has endorsed Jill Stein. Reich is backing Hillary Clinton after endorsing Bernie Sanders during the primaries. Reich served in Bill Clinton’s Cabinet as labor secretary from 1993 to 1997.

Video: https://publish.dvlabs.com/democracynow/360/dn2016-0804.mp4

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TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: A week ago today, Hillary Clinton made history by becoming the first woman to accept a major-party presidential nomination. But Clinton is not the only woman running for president this year. The Green Party’s national convention opens today in Houston, Texas, and Dr. Jill Stein is expected to win the party’s nomination.

Last week, Juan González and I hosted a debate between the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich about the presidential race. Hedges has endorsed Dr. Jill Stein. Reich is backing Hillary Clinton, after endorsing Bernie Sanders during the primaries. Reich served in Bill Clinton’s Cabinet as Labor Secretary from ’93 to 1997. He now teaches at University of California, Berkeley. We began the debate by asking Robert Reich about whether the Democratic Party would unite behind Hillary Clinton or whether a group of Sanders supporters would go on to back Dr. Jill Stein.

Betraying Progressives, DNC Platform Backs Fracking, TPP, and Israel Occupation

Clerk Note: Why stay a Democrat if they are betraying the progressive platform needed?

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Betraying Progressives, DNC Platform Backs Fracking, TPP, and Israel Occupation

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2016/06/25/betraying-progressives-dnc-platform-backs-fracking-tpp-and-israel-occupation

Appointees by Clinton and Wasserman Schulz resoundingly reject numerous proposals put forth by Sanders surrogates

By: Lauren McCauley
Date: 2016-06-25

Despite its claims to want to unify voters ahead of November's election, the Democratic party appears to be pushing for an agenda that critics say ignores basic progressive policies, "staying true" to their Corporate donors above all else.

During a 9-hour meeting in St. Louis, Missouri on Friday, members of the DNC's platform drafting committee voted down a number of measures proposed by Bernie Sanders surrogates that would have come out against the contentious Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), fracking, and the Israeli occupation of Palestine. At the same time, proposals to support a carbon tax, Single Payer healthcare, and a $15 minimum wage tied to inflation were also disregarded.

In a statement, Sanders said he was "disappointed and dismayed" that representatives of Hillary Clinton and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schulz rejected the proposal on trade put forth by Sanders appointee Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), despite the fact that the presumed nominee has herself come out against the 12-nation deal.

"Inexplicable" was how Sanders described the move, adding: "It is hard for me to understand why Secretary Clinton’s delegates won’t stand behind Secretary Clinton’s positions in the party’s platform."

Why Many Bernie Sanders Supporters Will Soon be Abandoning the Democratic Party

Clerk Note: This was placed into the publication queue before the DNC happened, because the reasoning in this article might still apply.

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Why Many Bernie Sanders Supporters Will Soon be Abandoning the Democratic Party

And Why Their Super-Delegates Will Some Day Regret Sabotaging His Candidacy

http://www.globalresearch.ca/why-many-bernie-sanders-supporters-will-soon-be-abandoning-the-democratic-party/5530902

By: Gary G. Kohls
Date: 2016-07-15

"I would warn Orlando that you’re right in the way of some serious hurricanes, and I don’t think I’d be waving those (rainbow) flags in God’s face if I were you. …this will bring about the destruction of your nation. It’ll bring about terrorist bombs; it’ll bring earthquakes, tornadoes and possibly a meteor. — Rev Pat Robertson, Christian Fundamentalist tele-evangelist, predicting – and perhaps inciting – violence against the LGBT community in Orlando, Florida. The homophobic Robertson was critical of LGBT organizers who were putting up rainbow flags around the city in celebration of the city’s stance on diversity issues. (Quote from The Washington Post, 06-10-98)

The 2016 Democratic primaries have been frustrating for many progressives who have had their political juices awakened and energized by the nonviolent political revolution of Bernie Sanders, his New Deal/Fair Deal politics, his democratic socialist candidacy and his support of oppressed and discriminated-against minorities (including Latinos, African-Americans, Native Americans, Palestinians, Muslims and the LGBT community, among others).

But the Democratic Party, once the mortal enemy of fascism, governmental rule by wealthy elites and fraudulent elections, has sabotaged, through any number of backroom deals (and with the willing help of the corporate-controlled media), Sanders’ highly respected, altruistic candidacy. The Democratic national leadership has unfairly denied him the well-deserved candidacy of the party. Because of the intransigency of their pro-Wall Street, pro-War Street, wealthy insiders in the party hierarchy, they will soon regret what they have done as much as the GOP will soon be regretting the choice of the xenophobic, paranoid, narcissistic megalomaniacal Donald Trump as their party’s leader.

Both political parties have had their agendas shaped by corporate and militaristic billionaire plutocrats and Wall Street tycoons who have purchased large numbers of mercenary lobbyists, lawyers and federal and Supreme Court judges and also the loyalties of the vast majorities of elected legislators (both at the state and national levels) via massive amounts of campaign cash.The classic truism of “whoever pays the piper, calls the tune” still holds in 2016.

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange: Attacks Against Jill Stein Are "Going to Go Through the Roof"

Clerk Note: "Any right that is not fought for through practice and defense is very, very quickly lost."

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WikiLeaks' Julian Assange: Attacks Against Jill Stein Are "Going to Go Through the Roof"

http://www.democracynow.org/2016/8/8/wikileaks_julian_assange_attacks_against_jill
http://www.democracynow.org/2016/8/8/julian_assange_on_the_green_partys

By: Julian Assange
Date: 2016-08-08

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke via video stream to the Green Party convention in Houston, Texas, about the corporate control of information during the 2016 election. He also predicted that attacks against Green Party nominee Dr. Jill Stein would surge ahead of November’s election.

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TRANSCRIPT

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

DAVID COBB: Julian, Greens, like most Americans, are civil libertarians at heart. We believe in personal privacy. We believe in internet freedom, even as we call for complete public transparency and accountability. My question to you is: What can we do as individuals to protect ourselves, and what can we do to help build the movement for keeping the internet free and open, so we, the people, can talk to ourselves?

New Leak Shows DNC Officials Tried to Destroy Bernie Sanders’ Campaign

Clerk Note: When we see how the game for party nomination is rigged from the get-go, we should just get up and go... to another party.

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New Leak Shows DNC Officials Tried to Destroy Bernie Sanders’ Campaign

http://usuncut.com/politics/dnc-email-leak-exposes-bias/

By: Zach Cartwright
Date: 2016-07-22

The worst fears of Bernie Sanders’ supporters have been officially confirmed in the latest batch of DNC emails released by WikiLeaks.

On Friday, the whistleblowing website leaked approximately 20,000 emails that were allegedly sent by top Democratic National Committee staffers like chairperson Debbie Wasserman Schultz (who referred to a top Bernie Sanders aide as a “damn liar“) national press secretary Mark Paustenbach, and communications director Luis Miranda. This data dump is “Part One” of a series from WikiLeaks they are calling the “Hillary Leaks,” and Guccifer 2.0 has taken credit for the hack behind this first set of emails from the DNC.

The emails show an unprecedented level of collusion between top party officials and political reporters at establishment newspapers, as well as DNC staffers obviously favoring Hillary Clinton while devising ways to attack Bernie Sanders.

Jill Stein Just BLASTED the DNC Over Leaked Emails

Clerk Note: This was put into the publishing queue before the DNC and is scheduled to come out after the DNC. What did the DNC bring?

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Jill Stein Just BLASTED the DNC Over Leaked Emails

http://usuncut.com/politics/jill-stein-blasts-dnc-email-leak/

By: Tom Cahill
Date: 2016-07-23

Jill Stein shreds Sanders' Clinton endorsement

Clerk Note: Ms. Stein is "the other woman" in the race and worthy of respect and consideration, without the baggage of neo-liberal Clinton. Stein is worthy of a vote from the heart.

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Jill Stein shreds Sanders' Clinton endorsement

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/jill-stein-no-bernie-sanders-endorsement-225417

By: Nick Glass
Date: 2016-07-12

On the same day Bernie Sanders officially endorsed Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination and declared she will make an "outstanding president," presumptive Green Party nominee Jill Stein was having none of it.

"If you don't want to vote for a warmonger or racist billionaire, there are more options. The political revolution will keep going," Stein tweeted in the hour preceding Sanders' announcement alongside Clinton in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Story Continued Below

Jill Stein Just BLASTED the DNC Over Leaked Emails

Clerk Note: This was put into the publishing queue before the DNC and is scheduled to come out after the DNC. What did the DNC bring?

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Jill Stein Just BLASTED the DNC Over Leaked Emails

http://usuncut.com/politics/jill-stein-blasts-dnc-email-leak/

By: Tom Cahill
Date: 2016-07-23