Good afternoon. As of today, I am officially a former "digital media specialist" (a nice way to say "paid Internet troll" previously employed by Hillary Clinton's campaign (through a PR firm). I'm posting here today as a confession of sorts because I can no longer continue to participate in something that has become morally-indigestible for me.

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The real problem for me started around the end of September and the beginning of October, when there was a change of direction from the team leader again. Apparently, the higher-ups in the firm caught wind of an impending spending splurge by the Clinton campaign that month and wanted to put up an impressive display. We received very specific instructions about how and what to post, and I was aghast at what I saw. It was a complete change in tone and approach, and it was extremely nasty in character. We changed from advocates to hatchet men, and it left a very bad taste in my mouth.

Just to give you an idea, here are some of the guidelines for our posting in October:

1) Sexism. This was the biggest one we were supposed to push. We had to smear Bernie as misogynistic and out-of-touch with modern sensibilities. He was to be characterized as "an old white male relic that believed women enjoyed being gang raped". Anyone who tried to object to this characterization would be repeatedly slammed as sexist until they went away or people lost interest.

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https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/3rncq9/confession_of_hillary_shill_from/

The rest of the list will sound eerily familiar.

No TV. Thanks!

California’s presidential primary isn’t until June 7, but Bernie Sanders can feel confident about his chances in San Diego County. The 74-year-old Vermont senator has a commanding lead in a week-old online poll run by the county Democratic Party.

“Out of the 627 total votes cast so far, Bernie Sanders is in the lead with 55 percent, followed by Hillary Clinton with 36 percent and potential candidate Joe Biden with 7 percent,” the Blue View party newsletter said Thursday.

“The remaining candidates garnered less than 1 percent each.”

http://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2015/10/16/bernie-sanders-holds-19-point-lead-among-san-diego-democrats/

This is SAN DIEGO -- a conservative part of California. Here's a hint on how conservative: Both Darrel Issa and Duke Cunningham are from the San Diego area. Since Clinton is WAAAAYYYYY far to the right of Sanders, you would think they'd be leaning Clinton, but nope.

They voted FOR Obama in 2008. Obama pissed on them and their efforts the second he took office and then he wonders why they stayed home in 2012 and 2014. Bernie's got them excited again and because of a 50-year history of walking the walk they know he won't make a sharp right turn as soon as he gets the White House.

These kids aren't beholden to a political party. Many have a great disdain for BOTH major parties. I register voters at every Bernie event and in California they can vote in the Democratic Primaries if they're a registered Democrat or a registered Decline to State. By a 3:1 margin they are choosing Decline to State.

So this is it. These kids don't swear blind allegiance to any political parties, but they will throw their considerable support (the Hillary camp is making a deadly mistake in dismissing them) behind a candidate if they believe in him/her. So the lesson to the Democratic Party is to start putting up BETTER CANDIDATES because the millennials are NOT going to come out to support someone who they see as representing the status quo.

Much has been written about who is polled, by whom, and how the numbers are presented (i.e., cherry picking to ensure the snapshot is advantageous to your candidate). But the inaccurate representation is when only Democrats are polled. Those numbers will always have Hillary in the lead because those are The Party Faithful, what we used to call Yellow Dog Democrats. They'll vote for whoever or whatever the Democratic Party shoves up there because they have the correct letter next to their name.

Conversely, Bernie's support is from all over the political spectrum. He's getting progressive Democrats, Greens, independents, disenfranchised, and yes, Republican and Libertarian (I've re-registered them personally) and those are the people who are not included in these polls. I believe Bernie is MUCH closer in state polls and nationally than we're being led to believe.

Seriously. Other than the occasional "he's a commie" and a few taking exception to our "Black Lives Matter" poster talking to people about Bernie, just sticking to the issues, taking cues from the campaign has been such an easy "sell." Most people have at least heard of him by now but there are still people who haven't. Talking about free college tuition, restructuring student debt, raising the minimum wage to $15.00, and doesn't take corporate money, you can see the surprise on their face and hear it in their responses. "Really?" It's so easy our new volunteers are engaging much sooner than has been my experience in the past. It really is amazing.

Hour one:

For the non-Hillary Rodham Clinton, non-Bernie Sanders Democrats participating in the first debate on Tuesday night, there was one goal: Get noticed. A look at the candidates being searched on Google during the debate shows that one candidate managed to do that.

Bernie Sanders.

<See graph at link>

Sanders repeatedly saw spikes in Google interest after he spoke. After his intro. After he talked about guns. After basically everything else he said. About an hour after the debate began, Jim Webb attracted some attention after he complained about not having an opportunity to speak. But it was Sanders that drew attention the whole time.

What's more, Sanders actually overpowered the long-term king of Google, Donald Trump. During the debate, Sanders continually attracted more Google interest than Trump.

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/13/the-candidate-breaking-through-in-the-demo

and urge them to endorse and use their super delegate vote for Bernie Sanders. It's time for the members of this austere body to put up or shut up. They need to overwhelmingly hear from US! Please spread the word for this action. Here's the membership list

http://cpc.grijalva.house.gov/caucus-members/

I've been in on 2 recent conference calls with the campaign and I wanted to share some of the information with Bernie supporters as we can ALL help in this endeavor.

First off, as you know, there are Debate Watch parties scheduled all over the country for October 13. Yes, the idea behind the Debate Watch parties is to hook up with your fellow local Bernie supporters, BUT, the REAL goal is to start upping the campaign's volunteer list. They're saying those numbers have been stalled for awhile and it needs a kickstart. SO, if you're holding a Debate Watch Party or if you're attending one, make sure that there is some way people can log on and sign up to volunteer WITH THE CAMPAIGN. Even if you have a separate sign-in sheet to volunteer for the local group, that is separate from signing up with the campaign.

Second, they want us to immediately follow up for the weekend of the 17th and 18th with a voter outreach event ensuring that we put all those new volunteers to work ASAP. It doesn't matter what it is, tabling, voter registration booths, we're doing an "All Signs Point to Bernie" Event (thank you to one of our DUers for that title -- I can't remember which one because I'm getting fucking old!) honk-and-wave event on Saturday. Remember, we want to engage people into the local and national campaign and keep them engaged.

The second part of the Oct 17/18 is to make sure and list those events on the www.berniesanders.com "Events" page and MAKE SURE people sign up on that page. They're trying to see what they have in the way of support and break it all down geographically.

They are anticipating an AVALANCHE of new people after the debate and they're asking us, the people on the ground, the organizers, to be ready to USE that new influx of people.

We're about to enter into Phase Two, boys and girls so hold on, it's about to get wild!

I'm trying to get people together at the same time and place to come out with whatever Bernie signs they have (I'll have some available at the Event as well) and do a "Honk for Bernie" sort of thing for about 2 hours on a busy intersection. I need to list it on the Events page and I can't for the life of me think of a clever/creative title for it. You guys are always so creative I wanted to invite suggestions from my fellow DU Bernistas.

Thanks in advance!

So, Joanie Baloney's suggestion won out for:

"All Signs Point to Bernie" Event

Thanks so much for all who contributed. The Event is now on the Events page.