A short email from the latest dump by WikiLeaks (who reminded us in a recent tweet that they’ve had a perfect record of accurately-vetted releases for a decade now) is getting some much-deserved attention today.

In an email dated July 15, 2015, a public affairs specialist named Erick Mullen wrote to John Podesta, Chairman of the Hillary Clinton campaign, complaining of the “unseemly” way a Mr. Bob Glennon was assuring Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown and Heidi Heitcamp that Hillary Clinton had personally told Senator Tim Kaine that he will be her Vice President.

In case you missed the date, this was July of 2015, not 2016, many months before the first Democratic primaries even began. Clinton didn’t publicly announce that Kaine was her running mate until more than a year after this email was sent.

Why was a candidate for the presidency of the United States promising somebody one of the most important offices a President can assign, more than a year before she was required to choose a running mate? It can’t be just because she thought Kaine was the best man for the job; there’d be no reason to tie down so far in advance the single most important decision a presidential candidate can make in a constantly-shifting political environment. If merit is all you’re after, you keep an eye on your choices and think carefully about the pros and cons of each one, making your decision when the time comes.

No, you only promise important things to people who give you something important in exchange.

Wasserman Schultz to lead DNC https://t.co/IqrR1Zrzos Tim Kaine stepped down for DWS! HRC offered him a better position than DNC head. — kelly whittaker (@munchey99508) July 28, 2016

Let’s rewind even further back, to 2011. According to this Washington Post article from that year, Tim Kaine decided, at the encouragement of his “friend and political ally” President Obama, to vacate his position as DNC Chairman to pursue a seat in the Senate. That seat was being vacated by Democratic Senator Jim Webb, whom you will remember as one of the dummy opponents the Democratic party fed Hillary Clinton in the 2016 primaries.

Kaine’s chair was then occupied by one Deborah Wasserman Schultz, who according to this Politico article was selected by President Obama “for her strength as a fundraiser and as a television messenger and for her clout in the crucial swing state of Florida.” Before she became DNC Chairwoman, Wasserman Schultz was perhaps best known for her work as the co-chair for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign.

So to recap, in 2011 President Obama (who has at no time made any public statements against any of the DNC personnel who conspired to thwart the campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries) asked his friend to step down as head of the body that regulates Democratic primaries, and replaced him with the woman who ran the campaign for his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. Four years later, we learn from a leaked email that in July 2015, President Obama’s friend and ally had already been promised a position as Clinton’s running mate in her bid for her former boss’s seat in the Oval Office.

And a year after that, we learn that Obama’s friend’s replacement, the Obama-appointed former co-chair of Hillary Clinton’s campaign, was caught conspiring with her subordinates to help Hillary Clinton defeat Bernie Sanders, in violation of the Impartiality Clause of the DNC Charter.

Sounds legit.

So, not only do we know that the Democratic primary was an illicit sham, but now we know that it was planned probably years in advance in a conspiracy by Democratic elites that “goes all the way to the top,” as they say. And all thanks to an incredibly pale computer geek from Australia.

God bless you, Julian Assange. Try to get some sun. Actually, don’t. There might be drones out there.

Millions of Americans and people globally have chosen this moment in time to rise up, join together and protest the 1% takeover. @wikileaks pic.twitter.com/Ki9WxYrvWC — Catherine Berry (@SeattleYaYa) October 1, 2016

This is serious, people. If we allow Hillary Clinton to become President of the United States after a process that was essentially nothing other than Obama hand-picking a successor to the throne, there’ll be no reason for them to ever stop doing this. It will spell the end of democracy in America, in every real sense. If we’re not allowed to determine who leads our nation in the most powerful political office on the planet, we may as well not be able to vote for anything; every real decision made by the will of the people can be thwarted by the forcefully-installed executive branch if its leader wants to badly enough.

They’ll be able to install whatever corporate crony neoliberal war hawk their plutocrat sponsors want, leading to even more extremist backlash against neoliberalism from the right (which is what’s created Trump supporters in the first place), allowing for an overall deeper and deeper movement into economic disparity, predatory trade deals, Wal-Mart economics, ecocidal environmental policy, and of course, war. They’ll keep handing the crown down to whatever neoliberal stooge is next in line, just like Obama’s preparing to do now.

And let’s not forget that this thing has been rigged on both sides of the ticket. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are friends, and another leaked Podesta email (click here and then click Attachments to view) reveals that Clinton’s campaign and the DNC colluded with each other and with the press months before Trump announced his candidacy to keep him clowning us all in the spotlight as loudly and as brightly as possible. He’s going to give her this election no matter what it takes.

So where does that leave us? Third party voting, if our votes even count in the general elections anymore? Forgive us for being cynical, but from what we’ve seen, you have to wonder.

But, my rebellious friends, there is every sign that they actually do count. If they didn’t, the Clinton media arm wouldn’t be so aggressive with their skewed polling and “a vote for a third party is a vote for Trump” narrative. And the Clinton online shills wouldn’t be almost solely targeting third-party voters instead of Trump supporters and the vast amount of people who don’t vote at all.

A vote for Hillary Clinton is a vote for Hillary Clinton. And that’s a vote for the death of democracy.

[Featured Image by Gil C/Shutterstock.com]