Where Have You Gone, Bernie Sanders?

By Tom Calarco

I’ve been banging my head against the wall trying to find out where Bernie Sanders has gone. Trying to find out what has happened to his once-in-a-lifetime campaign to bring America back to its mission to be humanity’s great experiment in democracy. After vowing to fight for the Presidential nomination all the way through to the Democratic National Convention, something happened that still remains a puzzle to all Berners — Bernie reneged on his promise two weeks before the convention and endorsed Hillary Clinton.

We Berners have not since recovered. We went to Philadelphia to support what we hoped would be a miracle that would somehow turn the tables on Hillary, that the FBI would do its job and prosecute her, that Julian Assange’s releases that showed her criminal behavior would bring her down, that Bernie would jump ship and run as a third party candidate. But none of that happened.

Massive election fraud has been revealed. Statistical analyses showed wide discrepancies between exit polls and final tallies indicative of voter machine rigging.1 The margin of error between the exit polls and final tallies (mainly the results shown by voting machines) is at best five percent, and that is being generous. Some experts suggest it is closer to two percent. In the Ohio Democratic primary for instance, it was 10 percent, which is a huge difference and incontrovertible proof of election fraud. Obviously, what the final tallies are showing is that the machines can be manipulated and change votes in favor of one candidate over the other. The 2016 Democratic primary showed wide discrepancies in many states and all but one favored Hillary Clinton.

So egregious was this that CNN refused to do exit polls in California and Associated Press announced Hillary’s victory there even before the polls opened. WikiLeaks’ later revelation that the media conspired with the DNC to fix the nomination only confirmed what we already knew.

Later information surfaced, however, that not only didn’t Clinton win California as the official results showed, but that Bernie actually won in a landslide. How could Bernie attract 60,000 people at a rally in Oakland, and Hillary only 800 and win? In fact, Bernie spoke to crowds in the tens of thousands in several places in California while Hillary could barely muster enough to fill a school classroom. Does that make sense? Just watch this video and you will learn how this happened. It is far from the only report of the massive election fraud in California in which some critics claim that two out of every three votes for Bernie were NOT counted.

It was just after that primary that one of my sister Berners said she saw a report that showed Bernie looking very shaken, that something terrible might’ve happened.

But what does it matter? The mainstream media isn’t reporting it, and if the network news you watch isn’t reporting it, then how can it be true? Nevertheless, in Chicago, one voting machine auditor reported a discrepancy of 70 votes between her hand counted numbers and a machine she counted — 70 votes less for Bernie Sanders according to the machine — and said similar discrepancies occurred in 500 other machines! In Arizona, which held an open primary — where people could vote in the primary of their choice regardless of party affiliation, something favorable to Bernie — one-third the usual polling places were open, preventing many from voting. In New York, a closed primary, people found their party affiliation changed and their names forged which prevented them from voting; even worse, in Brooklyn, Bernie’s hometown, 121,000 voters were purged. Election Justice USA (EJUSA), a non-partisan team of election integrity experts, estimated that Bernie lost 184 delegates due to the fraud.

All this doesn’t include the influence provided by 400 superdelegates — Congressmen, Senators, and Democratic Party leaders — who pledged their vote to Hillary even before the primaries began. Such sheep!

Then we had to suffer through the debacle that was the Democratic National Hillary Coronation, during which dissent was prevented, cheering for Hillary stage managed, and the WikiLeaks revelation of DNC rigging ignored. I can still see that image of CNN’s Wolf Blitzer dancing in the aisle holding a cup of beer as the cheers for Hillary resounded. What are you doing Wolf? You’re supposed to be protecting our democracy by upholding the First Amendment, but instead you’re a party to this charade, this deception of the American people. And what about our Democratic representatives, senators, and governors, all who have given their imprimatur to a dishonest process, also given the seal of approval by President Obama? The corruption goes all the way to the top, and it is paraded before our eyes but most of us can’t or refuse to see it. We only see the smiling faces; the patriotic, flag-waving celebration, and the praise and exclamations calling for God to bless America. If I were God I would’ve sent some thunderbolts down to knock some moral sense into these swindlers of our democracy.

It was as if everything was fine and nothing improper had happened. Yet, these dupes all observed the white noise that obscured the protests of the Bernie delegates; they saw the 700 empty seats left by Bernie delegates who walked out filled by individuals paid to cheer on cue. They all knew the nomination was rigged. They were all in on it from the start. What else would possess 400 superdelegates to pledge their vote to Hillary before the primaries had begun? Yet they acted as if they had just won the Super Bowl fair and square. They’re like a crowd of people who had witnessed a moral atrocity and no one came forward. Are there no representatives left in our government with moral rectitude, or are they simply too frightened to speak out?

More than six weeks have passed since the Democratic convention and everyone is still silent because few people know about the election fraud. Yet, election experts will tell you that there have been serious problems with our Presidential elections since 1988 when they introduced the voting machines. This is not to say there was never fraud before that either. Most of us have heard the story that the Daley machine in Chicago stole the election for JFK in 1960. But the voting machines have made it much easier, and if our votes are changed and made meaningless, then how can we have a democratic government?

Now I know that some of you probably think my allegations are preposterous. We have been told that such things only occur in countries where there are dictators who either coerce people to vote for them or falsify the outcomes — but never in the U.S. where voting is sacrosanct. The real problem, however, is with our media.

The mainstream media has become a propaganda mill for our federal government, which is run by corporate and financial interests, which in turn own the media. Six huge conglomerates own 1500 newspapers, 1100 magazines, 9000 radio stations, 1500 TV stations and 2400 publishers that include NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, CNN, and the Wall Street Journal. Then you have the New York Times Company with billions of dollars in media assets, and the influential Washington Post, though much smaller, which has become much more conservative since the days of Woodward and Bernstein. Such concentration in the communications industry has greatly reduced its integrity. Like our government, our media only tells us what serves the interests of those who own it and control us.

It’s not hard to see that they are all in on the fix and will ignore anything that will interfere with the preordained result of our Presidential contest, the election of Hillary Clinton, and “trump” up anything that will involves the Donald. They’ve been as merciless with regard to Trump since he locked up the Republican nomination as they had been with regard to first ignoring then disparaging the candidacy of Bernie. And WikiLeaks confirmed that the DNC had colluded with the media in devising strategies to defeat Bernie. In addition, the DNC scheduled the debates at times with lower viewer numbers (which put Bernie who didn’t have the viewer recognition of Clinton in the early going at a disadvantage) and mainstream media hired communications professionals with Clinton loyalties to give campaign coverage.

So far as media collusion for the Election fraud, it continues. Journalist Debbie Lusignan posted an insightful podcast about the recent attempt by the Washington Post to blame Russian hackers for interference with our election to cover up the corruption that the DNC engaged in. A writer named Anne Applebaum was the one who perpetrated this spin. I ask you Anne, is it Russian hackers who defrauded the Democratic primary or if they are the source of this information and not Seth Rich, then are they simply revealing it? Probably we should thank them rather than suggest that they are involved in some plot to interfere with our elections.

Even worse were the suspicious, unsolved murders of DNC voter analyst Seth Rich on July 10, and attorney Shawn Lucas, who served the DNC papers with a class action suit charging election fraud, on August 2. Julian Assange himself referenced Rich in a statement that many believe indicated he was the WikiLeaks informant for the revelations about the DNC rigging the nomination. To say that the Clintons might’ve been involved is not much of a stretch. Since their days in Arkansas numerous individuals who have been associated with the Clintons or had sensitive information related to them have met similarly suspicious, unexplainable deaths. I know what you’re saying: It’s all a smear campaign by their political opponents. But the sheer number belies coincidence.

Some of my Bernie cohorts believe that he or his family may have been threatened and forced to endorse Hillary contrary to his vow to fight all the way to the convention. Considering the history of the Clintons, it would not be surprising. Certainly, something caused Bernie to uncharacteristically go back on his word. Instead, he pushed the idea that his campaign had a positive effect and enabled the party to pass its most progressive platform in history, including provisions for education and healthcare that he championed. But take a look at the progressive provisions that were voted down. This is not so encouraging.

An even bigger problem is that we still don’t know if Hillary will oppose or support the TPP, which is the most important matter now affecting our economy, our environment, and our freedom. Currently, Hillary is equivocal.

To me the election fraud and the DNC conspiracy to ensure Hillary’s nomination amounts to a story bigger than Watergate. But it’s not just Election Fraud, there’s the email scandal, the Clinton Foundation improprieties, the Benghazi questions, the suspicious deaths, and now the questions about her health. Why is our mainstream media looking the other way?

I thought, unrealistically, that I would try to contact them and ask them why they haven’t covered the election fraud. I also thought of requesting other Berners to pepper the mainstream media and ask them why, to see if we can get them to address it. The point I wanted to make is that we should look forward to the November election to prevent it from happening. If the media finally started to cover it, who knows, maybe it could lead to Hillary being taken down. But who am I kidding. They won’t do any such thing; they are controlled from the outside. And besides even though I post the links to my articles on Facebook, I’m lucky if I get 100 people to read them.

In any case, I did try. Have you ever tried to talk to someone in the news departments at one of the major networks? The dumb thing I did was try to contact them by phone. You know the drill when it comes to contacting any large corporation, one menu leading to another menu, and uncertainty of which option to pick. After several attempts and finally getting to the right place, I was invariably led to a comment line which places your comment in a neglected place with thousands of others.

I did manage to get through five times to a live person: an AP reporter, who dissed my concerns with a comment that it has been debunked then hung up; an ABC News manager, who by luck I managed to get by randomly dialing a number that was one digit off from the listed number and who hung up on me as soon as I uttered the phrase “election fraud”; and three more lengthy conversations, one with a comment line staffer at CBS News who finally became impatient with what he apparently thought that the idea of election fraud in the U.S. was preposterous; a staffer for Dateline NBC, who was cordial and seemed to listen to what I had to say and told me to send my information to their email; and finally a producer at ABC News, who not only listened but gave me his email with a promise to take a look at the information I would send. Of course, those who provided emails never responded.

I was beyond exasperation. I felt powerless, disenfranchised, and was wondering when we were going to hear from Bernie. We had felt that he had abandoned us. In the meantime, various progressive organizations had popped up like the Brand New Congress and the People’s Co-op, formed by “former” Berners impatient with Bernie’s lack of engagement. None of them seemed to satisfy me. Others had moved to support Jill Stein who had gone to Philadelphia recruiting support and hoping that Bernie would accept her offer to head the Green Party ticket instead of acquiescing to the evil empire that the Democratic Party had so transparently revealed itself to be.

Finally, there was the sign from Bernie that we had been waiting for. He was holding a live remote on August 24 to talk to his supporters about what was next for the political revolution. I signed up to host, as I did for a similar event in January when 96 people signed up and most showed up in the community meeting room where it was held. It was an enthusiastic event that included four speakers, a video of Bernie clips over the years, and following Bernie’s message, a lively discussion. We left that night walking on air, excited about the campaign.

Things were a lot different this time. All of seven people signed up, and several of those didn’t show up. Others did, however, including some from a nearby party that was cancelled. In all, there were about 20 people. I originally had four speakers and myself. One bowed out and I prepared a video and commentary about the election fraud in her place. In contrast to the earlier event, people were unfocused and seemed disinterested in talking about the election fraud. One commented that it was too technical. The energy was just so maudlin in contrast to the January event. When Bernie finally spoke, it was a bit lackluster. He said the same things he had been saying but without his earlier gusto. To me, he just seemed tired and glad to be back at his job as a U.S. Senator. He said he had turned over the direction of the political revolution to an organization called, “Our Revolution,” which was to be headed by his former campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, and was going to focus on his job as U.S. Senator.

I can’t say that I’m excited about Our Revolution. Reports came out that several Bernie staffers resigned in the wake of Weaver’s appointment. It seems that Weaver had been finagling for PAC money to support the organization. More troubling to me was that Weaver had earlier been reported to have been working for Hillary to help recruit Bernie supporters to vote for her. As a result I haven’t been paying close attention.

Now I look on with disgust at the current Presidential campaign, a battle between two candidates no one is sure which they hate more. You call this democracy? You have Hillary Clinton who should’ve been indicted for criminal acts that would send her to prison for the rest of her life, while we have whistle blowers, trying to protect our rights and privacy like Edward Snowden in exile, and who might even face execution if he returned to the U.S. Then you have Donald Trump who has foot in the mouth disease and who in my opinion is just a patsy, set up to run against Hillary and ensure her election.

You ask the man or woman in the street who only pays cursory attention to these candidates and most will tell you it’s a joke that they aren’t taking seriously. Few people in America are taking the election of our President seriously, imagine that. This is exactly what the establishment wants, the powers that be who tell our media what to say, that pressure Obama to stay in the war in the Middle East and support the TPP, that want money in politics to rule everything, that tell us that Global Warming is a hoax, that try to persuade us that Unions are evil and that government shouldn’t help people because they need to help themselves, that our taxpayers’ money should go to more and better weapons to protect our nation, that our police need to be militarized, and that require us to elect Hillary as our next President so that she can ensure that their agenda, the New World Order and Global Autocracy, will continue to tighten its grip on us.

Actually, such coercion has been going on a long time, since Truman passed the legislation to create the CIA and we were overthrowing third world governments and rigging elections for the benefit of our financial interests and corporations. God help anyone who got in their way, for the CIA had no qualms about assassinating people. They even did it to one of our Presidents.

I remember in 1980 meeting one of the prominent JFK assassination conspiracy theorists, David Lifton at the University of New Hampshire. I had attended his lecture about his book, The Best Evidence, which posited what was then an original theory that JFK’s body had been abducted before the autopsy and the bullets removed and his wounds altered in an attempt to support the case for a lone gunman shooting from the rear. I spotted him after the lecture. It was raining and he was standing in a vestibule waiting for a cab. I asked what he was going to do next. He said, lay low, for he feared for his life.

Yes, that’s right. You mess with our government, you become a whistleblower and tell the truth, and you could be next. Is it any wonder that Bernie Sanders hasn’t quite seemed like the Bernie Sanders we knew on the campaign trail since he endorsed Hillary? And now we’re not just rigging elections and installing presidents in third world countries, we’re doing it in our own country today!

Oh, Bernie, we need you more than ever. You are our leader, the Man, the Bern, the fire. Without you we have become scattered, diffused, confused, directionless. We don’t trust “Our Revolution”; we don’t know Jeff Weaver well enough. We wonder if even Clinton might be behind it.

Where have you gone Bernie Sanders, our nation turns its lonely eyes to you. Boo-hoo-hoo. What’s that’s you say, Hillary Clinton, Bernie has left and gone away? Boo-hoo-hoo, Boo-hoo-hoo.

1. According to Robert Kennedy, Jr., “exit polling has evolved into an exact science. Indeed, among pollsters and statisticians, such surveys are thought to be the most reliable . . . . [and] are exquisitely accurate.” In his June 1, 2006 article published in Rolling Stone, “Was the 2004 Election Stolen,” Kennedy gave a number of examples with documentation illustrating the importance and accuracy of exit polls.