Tag: Hillary Clinton and Goldman Sachs

Why I Won’t Vote Hillary Clinton

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Hillary is not a stolen election. It’s a lost democracy.

The one percent and their Wal-Mart, Monsanto, Goldman Sachs, Exxon and GE and CNN and New York Times made sure we lose it.

The “wise and pragmatic” would say to me, “Look, it is what it is.”

But because I’m neither their kind of wise nor pragmatic, I’d say, “Enough is enough. Let’s build our people’s party.”

Today, at the “How Class Works” confernce here at Stony Brook University, I had an opportunity to talk to two African-American sisters. One came from Fredonia, New York, and the other came from far away Seattle, Washington State. We had breakfast together, and talked politics, among other things. The sister from Seattle told me that now that Bernie Sanders is probably not the presidential candidate, we should all support Hillary Clinton, to defeat Trump and consequences with social situations in the U.S. She particularly mentioned the situation with the Supreme Court.

So, I mentioned to them about Hillary’s support to and from four multinational corporations that I consider some of the evilest in the world. I told them about (1) Monsanto and how it is devastating farmers in India, and how literally millions of farmers committed suicide in the past ten or so years, because of Monsanto and its GMO. I told them about (2)  Goldman Sachs, financial giant that destroyed the economy in the U.S., followed by devastations across world — more recently, in Greece. I told them about (3) Wal-Mart, where Hillary has been an executive board member for many years; we all agreed how Wal-Mart has destroyed jobs, particularly union jobs in the U.S., and how it has helped destroy the American middle class. Finally, we briefly discussed about (4) Exxon, and its role in global climate change, pollution, and its presence in the American war industry.

We spoke about it before we heard a panel of three notable speakers, on the subject of class and climate change. One of the speakers, a leader at NAACP, in her remarks, mentioned Monsanto and India’s farmer suicide. She also mentioned Goldman Sachs. Naturally, the two sisters had a smiling glance at me, when they heard those remarks.

At the end of the panel, the woman from Seattle came to me said, she is now thinking differently about her support for Hillary in the general election. She said she agreed with me that even though none of wanted Trump — a racist, xenophobe and bigoted man — supporting Hillary is not truly a great idea. It’s definitely a better choice (now that Sanders is perhaps not the presidential candidate) when it comes to America’s future, but if we think about the future of the world, and how Hillary’s corporate sponsors are directly responsible for the global destruction of the poor and their lives and environment, we must think twice before coming out to support Hillary Clinton in November.

I was very happy that I was able to change at least one intelligent, educated mind.

Sincerely,

Partha Banerjee

Brooklyn, New York

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Trump Now Could Be U.S. President

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Trump shoot quote

Trump is now the Republican presidential candidate. He basically got the final nod from the Republican Party, after Cruz dropped out last night.

It means, Donald Trump could now be the president of America.

A quick analysis — in case anybody cares.

Question. — What is the ONE thing that made Trump a racist man Donald Trump a presidential candidate, and stopped Bernie Sanders to be known to America and the world?

Answer.– MEDIA. Big media. Corporate media. Media that does what Noam  Chomsky called Manufacturing Consent.

Manufacturing_Consent_movie_poster

Trump got the angry, anti-establishment Republican votes across the nation — votes of people who are against NAFTA, and for all the wrong reasons, against outsourcing jobs, and immigrants. They want to kill the government as we know it, create more violence globally in the name of fighting terror, and want to enhance the trickle-down economic system that is in place since Reagan. They want to bust labor unions. They want to do away with all the pro-people laws that the 99% won after centuries of struggle.

Trump does not believe climate change and global warming are real.

Trump climate change

On the other hand, Bernie Sanders is getting HUGE support from anti-establishment, anti-Wall Street Democrats (and millions of independents), and young people who are much more informed than the older generation about U.S.’s war policy, environmental policy, the incredible income equality, private prison, anti-union politics, and media’s lies — are supporting Bernie.

But Hillary Clinton is ahead of Sanders, MAINLY because while Republican media — such as Fox, New York Post, Rush Limbaugh, Hannity, and the countless radio talks shows — kept supporting Trump, Democratic media such as New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, NPR and such kept supporting Hillary — nakedly.

Even last night, when Bernie won Indiana against Hillary by a substantial margin, and that too, after the rigged voting in New York, that news is practically a footnote. Wolf Blitzer of CNN called it a “narrow” win.

Wolf Sanders

If you think I’m making it up, let’s have a debate.

If there was any way to take the media element out of the political equation, Bernie Sanders would have already become the presidential candidate. But from Day One, corporate media had decided that on the Democratic side, their chosen candidate was Hillary Clinton. CNN’s owner Ted Turner has been one of her biggest financial supporters.

If media were fair and balanced, the American people would have known that some of the most evil corporations on earth have been funding Hillary all along. They include Monsanto (GMO corporation that destroyed farmers globally), Wal-Mart (biggest union buster), Exxon (one of the largest polluters on earth), private prison industries (that profit on keeping a maximum number of people in jails), and especially Goldman Sachs, one of the biggest, global financial giants responsible for market crashes both in U.S. and around the world.

People, courtesy America’s media, got to know about Trump on the Republican side, and voted for him. People, courtesy America’s media, got to know about Hillary on the Democratic side, and voted for her.

This is Manufacturing Consent — live — as we speak.

Think, and act.

Sincerely,

Partha Banerjee

Brooklyn, New York

 

Why Hillary Won in New York

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Why did Hillary win last night?

By Partha Banerjee
Brooklyn, New York
Twitter @TeachActivist

Of course, it’s not so simple to describe, but based on my years of experience working in elections both in India and USA, and also years of studied observations on how media and politics work, here is my two cents.

If you want to to add anything, please feel free to do so. Thank you so very much for reading and sharing.

1. Name Recognition. — Thanks to media’s blackout (which I now call “Journalism of Exclusion”), most people didn’t even know who Bernie Sanders was, until recently. Whether it’s U.S. media such as New York Times, CNN, NPR or NY Daily News, or foreign media such as Times of India or powerful, local media across the world, nobody heard about Sanders, or his lifelong work for the 99%. People have always associated the Clintons with liberal politics, and famous personalities praised them as saviors of the powerless and disenfranchised. There was no analysis as to what they have done all these years, both in the U.S. and overseas. Nobody knows — outside of a small, informed circle — Hillary’s Kissinger or Monsanto connection, or Bill’s role to overturn Glass-Stegall Act. Few people could actually connect the dots.

2. The Jewish Vote. — Bernie Sanders’ strong criticism of Israeli government especially the tyrannical Netanyahu regime and its Gaza bloodshed was, in all likelihood, not received well among the conservative Jewish community that is a big percentage of NYC voters. Again, pro-Israeli-1% media such as NYTimes, CNN and Washington Post played a role to spin the news in Clinton’s favor.

3. Big Union’s Hillary Endorsement. — Unfortunately, many big unions endorsed Clinton. Hillary’s long and close association with Wal-Mart (anti-union) should have been enough reason for them not to endorse her. And her Goldman Sachs and Verizon speeches, $225,000 a speech, and the transcripts never disclosed. But they did. It was still great to see that CWA (on Verizon strike), TWU (union that understands how public transportation is breaking down), and a major nurses’ union endorsed Bernie. But much bigger unions such as 1199 or Randi Weingarten’s teacher’s union supported Hillary. They have money and power, and have strong NYC base.

4. African-American Vote (and Latino Vote). — People who are the most disenfranchised, and have been victims of racism, police brutality, poverty, Bill Clinton’s disastrous crime bill, welfare reform, or harsh immigration law, serious health crisis, and incredible illiteracy voted for Hillary in a big way especially in big cities. If you look at the NY state map I hand-drew last night, following NYTimes’ results map, primarily, NYC delivered Hillary the victory. The rest of entire NY state, except for small Hillary wins in Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo, voted big for Bernie. Again, I would not blame black voters for their decision. They simply didn’t know Bernie Sanders well. And they put their faith on Hillary, just the same way they put their faith on Bill for many years.

Sample ballot

5. Huge Voter Suppression. — Hundreds of thousands of voters could not vote in NY yesterday. It was so disastrous that even the pro-Hillary mayor asked the board of elections to investigate the large-scale exclusion. Now, would these excluded voters vote for Hillary or Bernie? Not sure. But the entire, archaic and primitive election system in America got exposed once again. Powers — the 1% — always validated democracy through no-show primaries where 5-7% people usually vote, and this time, when such a large number of people turned out, the voting machinery crashed.

6. The Trump Factor. — Contrary to many polls where they showed that Bernie has a better chance of defeating Trump in November, many New Yorkers believe Hillary can do it better. A friend called from Albany last week, and said he was going to vote for Hillary for that reason, so that Trump can be stopped. Yet, fact is, if Hillary becomes the Democratic nominee with help from superdelegates, Trump’s chances drastically increase, and we could see a racist-sexist-fascist man to be the next American president. A scary thought, but it is now more possible than ever before.

7. A First Woman President. — Again, some friends tell me this is the one single reason they want to vote for Hillary. They have now seen a black president, and they now want to see a woman president in America (and they lament that unlike the rest of the world, America has not been able to elect a woman head of state yet). They say it will be historic. To me, it is purely a sentimental reason, and just by being woman, one does not become pro-woman, or gender neutral. In fact, in India, we have seen Indira Gandhi who was a dictator, and her politics destroyed my youth. The real question should be, is this candidate pro-1%, or pro-99%? If she refuses to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, is that going to help the poor woman workers and their families and children? If she works with Wal-Mart, is that going to help the poor woman workers who work for Wal-Mart with slave wages and no union rights? Why at Clinton Foundation, women make much less than their male colleagues?

8. Media’s Scandalous Bias. — Journalism was a joke. New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, NBC, ABC, Wall Street Journal, etc. etc. got exposed. Naked. I have studied media at a famous journalism school here in New York. I know how it works.

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WHY BERNIE SANDERS?

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Bernie 1

My final, promised article before the New York primaries on April 19.

I have already written so much about this subject that I almost didn’t have to write anymore. But I am, because of a few, critically important developments.

One, last night’s debate here in Brooklyn, which I watched. Two, the rally in Washington Park the night before, which I attended. And three, the New York primaries on this Tuesday, where I will vote.

For years, I have written and taught about America’s income inequality, where the situation is that 0.1 percent of America’s rich now control 90% of the total wealth of the country. I now know, for sure, that Hillary and Bill Clinton promoted, perpetuated, and participated in that obnoxiously pro-1% system.

Hillary Clinton continuously took enormous amount of money from Goldman Sachs, Monsanto, and other such evil corporations, and she would not release the transcripts of her speeches where she made $225,000 for each speech.

(Think about it: $225,000 for one speech. Most Americans don’t even see that amount of cash in their entire life.)

**And she praises agent of hell, war criminal Henry Kissinger.**

Bernie 4

For years, I have written and worked, both at the grassroots and policy levels, on the oppression and violence on poor people — especially immigrants and blacks — and seen their conditions first hand. I have worked with immigrants in jail whose only crime was that they wanted to make a living in the U.S., without having valid papers. Their only crime was they were very poor, and had a family to feed. They were handcuffed, jailed, and deported.

(In many cases, their poverty and status-less living in America were caused by the U.S. war and foreign policies that supported dictators in their countries, and also because of trade policies such as NAFTA and TPP that the Clintons promoted.)

Bernie 2

This is the first time in my thirty years in America, where I have actively and enthusiastically involved myself with the political process, since the first election when Rev. Jesse Jackson as a candidate raised some major issues, a major presidential candidate named Bernie Sanders forcefully highlighted about the difference between a pro-99% political position and a pro-1% one. This is the first time a major presidential candidate told us the truth.

This is the first time I came to feel and be excited about the possibility that U.S. establishment political parties, their corporations, and their dishonest media such as New York Times, CNN, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Washington Post, ABC and NBC are losing ground on their 24/7 propaganda — because of the forceful, morally upright election campaign of Bernie Sanders.

This is the first time in my thirty years of America as an immigrant, I can feel deep inside in my heart that America’s young generation is ushering in a new era of honest and enlightened activism.

I marched on New York’s Street against the immoral and WMD-lie Iraq war. I marched across the U.S. for immigrants’ rights. I marched with hundreds of thousands of people to support the climate movement. I witnessed history.

By supporting and voting for Bernie Sanders, I shall continue being a part of that people’s history.

I am sure you are with me, because I am with you.

Love and solidarity,

Partha Banerjee

Brooklyn, New York.

Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partha_Banerjee

Bernie 3

Sanders or Clinton? My Two Cents.

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hillary_sanders

This is a three-part story. Here is Part One.

I hope you take a few minutes to go over it. If you have any questions, or doubts about what I said here, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO WRITE.

-PART ONE-

Many people here in New York are unsure whether they should vote for Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, slated for April 19. As of today, Hillary has a ten or twelve-point lead. New York Times and CNN have de facto declared her as the presidential candidate for the November elections, and tried their best to undermine the Sanders victories: six out of seven in the last caucuses and primaries.

That is how corporate media work. No surprise there.

Hillary Clinton is a big name people associate with Bill Clinton, who by having been the U.S. president for eight years has gained a lot of popularity. Hillary was the First Lady for eight years. Then, she was elected one of the two powerful New York senators, and also served the U.S. government as the Secretary of State. Media always put focus on the Clintons, and everybody both in the U.S. and overseas knows who Hillary Clinton is.

I just returned from India. Practically nobody — including some of my politically savvy friends — never heard about Bernie Sanders. Media hardly mention his name.

Hillary Clinton has a big recognition advantage. And many New Yorkers think they should vote for her, simply because they know her name, and do not know who Bernie Sanders is. Especially New York’s African-American and Latino communities do not know very well what Hillary Clinton really stands for, and what Bernie Sanders does.

I am a Bernie Sanders supporter, and I am not a supporter of either Hillary or Bill, for various reasons. Unlike New York Times or CNN, I do not pretend I am neutral.

I have my economic reasons, I have my social reasons, and I have my political reasons. I have developed my reasoning over the past twenty years, especially since Bill Clinton got re-elected in 1996, cajoling Republicans, passing an anti-people NAFTA that cost millions of American jobs (and destroyed Mexico), passing a very harsh crime bill that disproportionately punished African-Americans, a disastrous welfare reform act that hurt millions of poor and especially African-American women, and then passing a horrible anti-immigrant law (which Hillary now wants to distance herself with; back then, she supported it). Then in 1999, Bill Clinton overturned the FDR-New Deal-era Glass-Stegall Act that many say was the starting point for big banks and financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, J. P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to gamble with ordinary peoples’ money, and destroy the U.S. and global economy.

Bernie Hillary money

I have done extensive research on all of the above, and found them to be true. But you don’t have to take my word for it; you can do your own research.

The point is, many people who are now supporting Hillary Clinton simply do not know that (1) she always supported all of the above actions Bill Clinton took, and even today, many of these big banks, financial institutions, and also billionaire corporations with very dark, anti-people history such as Wal-Mart, Monsanto, Exxon and private prison industries such as Geo and CCA have been financing her election campaign; and (2) she has also made millions of dollars by serving on the board of some of these institutions, and making speeches at their gatherings.

One of the main reasons people do not know her connections with corporate America is because New York Times and CNN and such big media have always done their best to keep it a secret. Or, they have downplayed the importance of these sinister connections.

If you think in spite of her longtime ties with these banks and Wall Street corporations that have destroyed the ordinary people and their hopes and dreams both in America and across the world, she is a better candidate that Bernie Sanders who does not, and never had, any ties with these corporate giants, by all means, please vote for Hillary Clinton.

But if you think that well, maybe, I should think about it all, and maybe, find out for myself who is working for who — the one percent or the 99 percent — then, you should do it, before the New York primaries on April 19.

Do not vote for ANY candidate because either New York Times, CNN or a small person like myself tries to convince you on one candidate or the other.

Do your own research. And talk about it with your friends and family. Then, decide who works for YOU.

Humbly, Sincerely,

Partha Banerjee

My Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partha_Banerjee

(Will post Part Two in a couple of days. Hope you come back.)

Monsanto-GMO-seeds-Indian-farmers

 

A Few Observations on the Hillary-Sanders Debate

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dem debate 1How exactly important was the debate earlier this week, and who won and who lost? What exactly is the meaning of winning and losing? Who decides the definitions and parameters of winning or losing in this type of a political debate?

Why was the debate aired on CNN in the first place? Why is big media with highly exposed connections to corporate America and the one percent so important to influence the minds of the ordinary people — to make their decisions?

There should be another debate on just that.

A noted intellectual, film actor, and highly respected man from India — who has lived in USA for a long time too — made a remark that my Facebook observations on the first Democratic presidential debate on Tuesday were “not as earthshaking” as I was making them out to be. I take his comments seriously. So, without wasting too much of your time, I will try to explain what my observations were.

I watched the entire debate. And here is what I thought. (Other than the fact that nobody mentioned Hillary’s connections with Wal-Mart, Monsanto, and Goldman Sachs — the real, global axis of evil.)

The Hillary Clinton-Bernie Sanders debate was historic for two reasons.

(1) that Hillary with help from CNN was able to flip from her longstanding pro-1% position to flop into a new, populist position. She knew she was lying.

And (2) Because of Bernie Sanders, for the first time, the average American men and women heard (a) how the Glass-Stegall Act was abolished [by Bill Clinton] that caused the 2007-2008 meltdown, (b) how corporate America controls U.S. Congress, (c) how private prison industries keep countless in American jails, how Sandra Bland was murdered, and how ALL of us are being spied on, (d) how Citizens United undermines the basic principles of democracy, (e) the fact that only in the U.S., health care is not affordable to all.

Black Lives Matter and Sandra Bland's death in jail.
Black Lives Matter and Sandra Bland’s death in jail.

Why do they have private prison industries in the first place, and why do people trade stocks of the prison industries to make money? Isn’t that information shocking too?

Also for the first time, perhaps, many Americans understood why on the big-ticket immigration reform issue, he did not support previous bills in Congress, as they had a guest worker program, which many of us always thought was synonymous with a government-validated slavery.

That was Bernie Sanders vis-a-vis Hillary Clinton on Tuesday night’s debate.

New York Times, Washington Post and CNN would not admit it, but they know millions of ordinary people have heard these facts for the first time, and took them seriously. So, they are busy manufacturing consent that Hillary won the debate. We may be stupid, but listen, we are not as stupid as you think we are. Bernie Sanders also showed how to be civil, generous, and transparent.

To the highly informed and elite, like my respected Facebook friend, the above pieces of information are definitely not earthshaking. But to most of us here in America, they are revealing, if not shocking. America’s big media almost never talk about these issues, in this candid and forthright way, the way Bernie Sanders did on Tuesday.

Ask any of my thousands of union worker students.

Sincerely and Respectfully,

Partha Banerjee

Brooklyn, New York

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Super PACs and donors. You decide who works for you.
Super PACs and donors. You decide who works for you.