Presidential Candidate Harris did NOT say:
I am not a gambling person.
But I realize that life is always a chance we take, if we want to make a real difference.
Tomorrow morning is Election Day. And while I know many of you have already cast your ballots, the stakes are so high, and the danger so clear, that I am now upping the ante. But I'm confident, because I'm betting on the moral integrity of the American People. I'm betting on you.
Until today I thought I was already betting everything on this election, but it isn't about me at all. It's not even about America: it's about life itself.
As I said, I already made a bet when I accepted nomination for President of the United states. I knew, having been Vice President for the past four years, exactly what forces and interests every politician is up against, if they really mean to change our trajectory. I knew the hand I'd been dealt. I knew what strategy was necessary to navigate these powerful forces.
Since the Supreme Court changed the game, and erased the distinction between money and speech, political bribery is perfectly legal, even Constitutional. Now, instead of "one person, one vote," we have "one dollar, one vote." Now, billionaires decide the outcome of any election, just as investors decide what any business can or cannot do. Now, those investors must be satisfied before anyone can serve in an office of public trust. And the bottom line is that the American electoral process selects for the most effective liars.
Them's the Rules, now.
So I knew that to win, I would have to satisfy those powerful investors.
As a courtroom lawyer I've sworn-in thousands of people, "to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." I've taken the Oath of Office, to uphold the Constitution.
As Vice President, privy to everything the President knows, ready to assume the office at a moment's notice, I know that there is one issue that will decide the outcome of this campaign, period. That issue is Genocide.
This has not always been the case. We have seen genocide before, and taken no substantive action as it ran its terrible course. Rwanda. Armenia. The list is long. But today the world has changed.
It has been excruciating to campaign, month after month, knowing success depended, not on public opinion, but private ambitions; not on forthright transparency but, and let me be clear, "word salad"; not on character and integrity, but on skillful mendacity. That became the strategy on which the Democratic Party conducted this campaign.
You don't get to be a prosecutor in the State of California if you don't know how to read the room. As I stood in front of room after room, not addressing the rooms that I could read so clearly on the one issue that mattered to them, I found myself unwilling to lie anymore.
Because for this whole campaign, month after month, families, women, mothers, children, were being subjected to torture, rape, murder, indiscriminate bombing, targeted drone killings, starvation, disease, and horrendous medical procedures without anesthetics.
And for this whole campaign, month after month, every media outlet, every government agency, and this White House, have faced honest and truthful questions, and have stood in denial, refusing to answer, insulting the people's intelligence with outright, transparent lies. Lies that were convenient for some powerful interests; lies that have fooled nobody; lies that have dishonored our administration, our Nation, and our form of government.
And for this whole campaign I've watched as our questioning students have been answered with violence and sanctions, our educators have been fired, subjected to public shaming in Congressional hearings, and even violently assaulted. And in my own state of California, the police have even stood by watching as gangs of thugs attacked student protesters, violating their civil rights with fists, excrement, fireworks, and weapons.
And all the while, our government has been in flagrant violation of our own laws, providing unlimited financial, political, logistical and military support for relentless mass slaughter.
Now it's clear that my strategic attempt to navigate this terrible situation is in vain. But my commitment to leadership has not changed. So now, just a few hours before the polls open, I am dropping all pretense, come what may.
One office has the unique power to stop a genocide. This power brings with it the solemn responsibility to act decisively. Accordingly, if elected, my first official act will be to order a total embargo on Israel and any other country supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people. This embargo will remain in place until the following conditions are met:
All application of military force in Palestine shall cease. All militaries shall stand down, and shift their operations to humanitarian assistance.
All parties must demonstrate compliance with the rulings of the International Court of Justice.
The details, such as hostages and prisoners, are complex and will take time and effort on the part of the interested parties, who must negotiate a way forward without resorting to further violence.
If the United States, without which this genocide could not have been started, can bring about the end of violence, this opens extraordinary possibilities for a viable human future.
I urge everyone to vote, and let your conscience be your guide.
As noted, Harris has not made or approved this statement. If she does, it may turn the ship of state. If not, our trajectory is increasingly clear, regardless of who gets to sit at the resolute desk.
Of course, my vote will not change absent such a statement from Harris. Even so it is only a promise, from a politician, in a system where words have come to have no value at all. But so far, not even a gesture. If it is a strategy, it is not encouraging.
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