Update (8/13): it will likely come out to more than 90 reasons. Since I’m adding a new reason everyday, I’m sticking this post to the top of the page. For newer posts, scroll down. I’m also putting the date I added each, so it’s easier to spot the newer reasons.  😉

Hopefully this will answer the question, “Why should I vote for Hillary Clinton?”.

Today marks 90 days to the campaign, and that means we start with 90 reasons to vote… for Hillary. This post will remain at the top of my blog, and will be updated with a new reason regularly. I say ‘regularly’ because I may not be able to add daily, but I will eventually put 90 reasons out there. If I skip a couple days, I’ll add a couple reasons.

 

Reason 1: Opiate Epidemic

(Aug. 10, 2016) Let’s start with the opiate epidemic facing our nation. Timely, as Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan just released $3 million to tackle MD’s heroin epidemic yesterday. The money will be used to help police track down the heroin dealers, and for the state to hire recovery specialists to help addicts get the proper treatment.

Hillary wants to spend $1B per year for the next 10 years to help states with the opioid epidemic ($10Billion). And she has a 5-point plan. 

“Everywhere I go to campaign, I’m meeting families who are affected by the drug problem that mostly is opioids and heroin now, and lives are being lost and children are being orphaned. So I have tried to come out with a comprehensive approach that does tell the states that we will work with you from the federal government putting more money, about a billion dollars a year, to help states have a different approach to dealing with this epidemic. Police officers must be equipped with the antidote to a heroin overdose or an opioid overdose, known as Narcan. They should be able to administer it. So should firefighters and others. We have to move away from treating the use of drugs as a crime and instead, move it to where it belongs, as a health issue. And we need to divert more people from the criminal justice system into drug courts, into treatment, and recovery.

Heroin is a major epidemic. I’ve heard some great ideas about how law enforcement is changing its behavior, how the recovery community is reaching out. I’ve laid out a five-point plan. I would like the federal government to offer $10 billion over ten years to work with states. We need to do more on the prescribing end. There are too many opioids being prescribed, and that leads directly to heroin addiction. We need more programs, so when somebody is ready to get help, there’s a place to go.”

Day 2, reason 2: ‘Crippling sanctions against Iran’

(Aug. 11, 2016) Sec. Clinton accomplished the nearly impossible mission of getting China, Russia, the European Union and the civilized world on board with crippling sanctions against Iran. We’re not talking normal sanctions; it was the HARSHEST IRAN SANCTIONS IN HISTORY. This is what brought Iran to the negotiating table, and led to the Iran nuclear deal. Whether you are for our against the nuclear deal, it is an impressive feat that she was able to get all these (stubborn) heads of state on board for a US goal.

Read more about this: The Path to a Landmark Deal: How Hillary Led on Iran Sanctions

How Hillary Clinton helped enact the toughest sanctions in history on Iran 

Reason 3: Experience with Trade Agreements

(Aug. 12, 2016) I read a very comprehensive breakdown of possible ways that Trump could deliver on his magical, mythical wall today, like most people on vacation do! Lol. [Spoiler alert: none of them actually work]. But one option that he’s mentioned is playing around w/ trade agreements. Clinton has a proven track record of completing trade agreements that actually WORK for Americans. She oversaw trade agreements with Panama, Columbus, and South Korea.

“Our foreign policy must deliver results for the American people. These agreements will make it easier for American companies to sell their products in South Korea, Colombia, and Panama, and that will create jobs here at home.”   -Clinton

Reason 4: Strategic use of Resources

(Aug. 13, 2016) As we all know, the US gives money & aid to other nations. We help people with AIDS worldwide, most of them in Africa. Hillary Clinton TRIPLED the number of AIDS people being saved (from 1.7 million lives to 5.1 million lives) without costing you a pretty penny! All she did was switch to the available FDA-approved generic version of the drugs! Smart!
This is a case of the money already being allocated for a reason, and HRC making it so we got the very *most* for each dollar.

5: Hillary told the truth about the war on Iraq

(Aug. 14, 2016) One of the biggest arguments against HRC is her view on Iraq. Hillary voted for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq because she was led by Bush to believe something else after 9/11 (detail in link). By 2005, she began calling for gradual withdrawal from Iraq and opposed the increase of troop deployment of 2007. She voted in 2007 for a spending bill that would require a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

“In response, Clinton acknowledged, as she has on previous occasions, that she’d made a mistake. But she also offered an explanation for her vote, something she has rarely done in the past. President Bush, she told the audience, had made a “very explicit appeal” that “getting this vote would be a strong piece of leverage in order to finish the inspections.” In other words, a resolution to use force would prod Saddam Hussein into readmitting U.N. inspectors, so they could continue their mission of verifying whether or not he had destroyed his chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons sites. In other words, Clinton was now claiming she voted the way she did in the interests of diplomacy; the problem was that Bush went back on his word—he invaded before giving the inspectors enough time.”

6: My heart breaks for this vision of America

(Aug. 15, 2016) Every week, over 100 million Christians go to their place of worship to join in prayer. It is a peaceful, necessary act for those of faith. If you have any Muslim friend, ask them: “Have your children told you not to go to Mosque for your own safety?”.

During this 90 days, I try not to post anything neg about the other candidate. But a 55-yr old and a 64-yr old man were shot, in the back of the head, at close range this weekend. They were on their way home from prayer at the mosque, wearing religious garb. Tell me they weren’t targeted. 12-yr old girls are being attacked (verbally & physically) on public transportation home from school in major cities. When you have a leader that spews rhetoric against a whole group of people based on race/religion/orientation, it is poisonous to the entire nation because it validates the bigotry.

My heart will not stop aching since I read about these men. They just wanted to pray.

Effective Policing

(Aug. 23, 2016) I’ve missed 8 days, so I’m posting 9 reasons to make up for it. We’ll cover a category. The following is straight from her website; I’ve added some of my own comments in green: Strengthening bonds of trust between communities and police

Effective policing and constitutional policing go hand in hand. We can—and must—do both by:

7. Bringing law enforcement and communities together to develop national guidelines on the use of force by police officers, making it clear when deadly force is warranted and when it isn’t and emphasizing proven methods for de-escalating situations. See the DOJ excerpts at bottom of this list.
8. Acknowledging that implicit bias still exists across society—even in the best police departments—and tackle it together. Hillary will commit $1 billion in her first budget to find and fund the best training programs, support new research, and make this a national policing priority.
9. Making new investments to support state-of-the-art law enforcement training programs at every level on issues like use of force, de-escalation, community policing and problem solving, alternatives to incarceration, crisis intervention, and officer safety and wellness. See the DOJ excerpts at bottom of this list.
10. Supporting legislation to end racial profiling by federal, state, and local law enforcement officials. Racial profiling is not only wrong, but also ineffective. 
11. Strengthening the U.S. Department of Justice’s pattern or practice unit—the unit that monitors civil rights violations—by increasing the department’s resources, working to secure subpoena power, and improving data collection for pattern or practice investigations. There is a unit that exists today, but it is grossly understaffed, and simply cannot respond to most (like 90%) of injustices reported. I personally know of people who have written, and gotten a response that they just don’t have the resources to help.
12. Doubling funding for the U.S. Department of Justice “Collaborative Reform” program. Across the country, there are police departments deploying creative and effective strategies that we can learn from and build on. Hillary will provide assistance and training to agencies that apply these best practices. See below for the excerpt on “good policing” in the DOJ’s words. They have proof on what happens when the police use brute force regularly vs atypically.
13. Providing federal matching funds to make body cameras available to every police department in America. In December 2014, President Obama urged Congress to invest $75M in body cameras for the police. Spoiler alert: Congress denied him.
    
14. Promoting oversight and accountability in use of controlled equipment, 
    including by limiting the transfer of military equipment to local law enforcement from the federal government, eliminating the one-year use requirement, and requiring transparency from agencies that purchase equipment using federal funds. The images out of Ferguson were daunting. I do not want to live in that world. The Ferguson & St. Louis police got free military equipment from a federal program.
15. Collecting and reporting national data to inform policing strategies and provide greater transparency and accountability when it comes to crime, officer-involved shootings, and deaths in custody. The CDC collects data on police shootings, but the problem is that not all states submit their numbers. Only about 18 states comply. 

The following are excerpts from “Principles of Good Policing: Avoiding Violence Between Police and Citizens” by the Department of Justice. (web version)

The “culture” of a police department reflects what that department believes in as an organization. These beliefs are reflected in the department’s recruiting and selection practices, policies and procedures, training and development, and ultimately, in the actions of its officers in law enforcement situations. Clearly, all police departments have a culture. The key question is whether that culture has been carefully developed or simply allowed to develop without benefit of thought or guidance. There are police agencies, for example, where police use of force is viewed as abnormal. Thus, when it is used, the event receives a great deal of administrative attention. Such a response reflects the culture of that department: the use of force is viewed and responded to as an atypical occurrence. Contrast such a department with one which does not view the use of force as abnormal. In the latter case, there may be inadequate or poorly understood policies providing officers with guidelines regarding the use of force. There probably is no administrative procedure for investigating incidents where force is used. And, most importantly, the culture of the department is such that officers come to view the use of force as an acceptable way of resolving conflict.

Over the past few years, there has been significant progress in improving police-community relationships. Yet, the major problem creating friction between the police and the community today–especially in communities of color–is police use of deadly force. This is an age-old problem of which only in recent years has the public become aware. The fact that this problem existed for such a long time before receiving widespread attention can again be related to the culture of the police.

Until the Tennessee v. Garner decision in 1985, few if any police departments had developed their firearms policy around a value system that reflected reverence for human life. Rather, those agencies which did have written policies (and many did not) reflected the prevailing police culture in those policies. The prevailing culture centered on enforcement of the law. Thus, the official policies of most police agencies allowed officers to fire warning shots, to shoot fleeing felons, or to use deadly force in other circumstances reflected less than the highest value for human life.

It is clear that the culture of a police department, to a large degree, determines the organization’s effectiveness. That culture determines the way officers view not only their role, but also the people they serve. The key concern is the nature of that culture and whether it reflects a system of beliefs conducive to the nonviolent resolution of conflict.

How do you establish a positive departmental culture? In answering this question, it is important to emphasize again that all departments have a culture. It is also important to recognize that the culture of a police department, once established, is difficult to change. Organizational change within a police agency does not occur in a revolutionary fashion. Rather, it is evolutionary.

16 – Conservative Family Values

(Aug. 25, 2016) I know I’ve been serious lately, so here’s a light one for all the Conservatives out there: Hillary has ONE child with her HUSBAND. That she knows of anyway. LOL.
As opposed to 5 children from 3 different women (half of which were born out of wedlock). I don’t care, but you know…. family values.

Isn’t it funny* when a party goes on & on about how important something is, then is obliviously when their guy doesn’t practice what they preach.
*by ‘funny’, I mean ironic. Not funny, haha.

Hillary plans to strengthen and protect America’s workforce.

Since it’s Labor Day, I’ll cover Labor reasons. The following are straight from her website.

17. Invest in good-paying jobs. In her first 100 days as president, Hillary will work with both parties to make bold investments in infrastructure, manufacturing, research and technology,clean energy, and small businesses. This will create millions of good-paying jobs, including for labor and other hard-working Americans across the country.
18. Restore collective bargaining rights for unions and defend against partisan attacks on workers’ rights. Hillary was an original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. Hillary will fight to strengthen the labor movement and to protect worker bargaining power. She will continue to stand up against attacks on collective bargaining and work to strengthen workers’ voices.
19. Prevent countries like China from abusing global trade rules, and reject trade agreements, like the TPP, that don’t meet high standards. Hillary will strengthen American trade enforcement so we stand up to foreign countries that aren’t playing by the rules—like China is doing right now with steel, and fight for American workers. She will say no to trade deals, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, that do not meet her high standard of raising wages, creating good-paying jobs, and enhancing our national security.
20. Raise the minimum wage and strengthen overtime rules. Hillary will work to raise the federal minimum wage to $12, and support state and local efforts to go even higher—including the “Fight for $15.” She also supports the Obama administration’s expansion of overtime rules to millions more workers.
21. Invest in high-quality training, apprenticeships, and skill-building for workers. Read the fact sheet here.
22. Encourage companies to invest in workers. Hillary will reward companies that share profits and invest in their workers. She will crack down on companies that move profits overseas to avoid paying U.S. taxes and she will make companies that export jobs give back the tax breaks they’ve received in America.
23. Protect workers from exploitation, including employer misclassification, wage theft, and other forms of exploitation.
24. Ensure policies meet the challenges families face in the 21st century economy.Hillary will fight for equal pay for women and guarantee paid leave, two changes that are long overdue. And she will provide relief from the rising costs of necessities like child care and housing.
25. Protect retirement security. After working hard for decades, Americans deserve a secure and comfortable retirement. Hillary will fight to protect retirement security, enhance—not privatize—Social Security, and push back against any efforts to undermine retirement benefits.

Related articles:
– The Feed: The middle class needs a raise. Here’s how Hillary Clinton plans to do it.
– The Feed: A new study just proved what American families have felt for a long time
– Medium: We can’t let Donald Trump bankrupt America like one of his failed casinos

Since today is Brock Turner Sexual Offender Registration day, let’s talk about SEXUAL ASSAULT.

26. When she was first lady (FIRST LADY, People!), Hillary supported the creation of the Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women. DO YOU KNOW HOW UNHEARD OF THIS WAS FOR A FIRST LADY?!?!

27. As senator, Hillary co-sponsored the 2005 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. Additionally, Hillary introduced the CARE Act twice, to ensure that rape and incest victims had access to emergency contraception in hospital emergency rooms. In response to the spike in reports of sexual assault cases in the military, she introduced legislation to make emergency contraception available to servicewomen.