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On April 17th Donald Trump will be at The First Niagara Center in Buffalo NY… lovely.

All of the hair on my body stood up, I had heard rumors that he was coming, I was ready for it, but still a wave of fury coursed through my body when I read the date.

I suddenly feel like Macauley Culkin in Home Alone, I want to start setting boobie traps to catch this man in the act like the Wet Bandits. What do you do when you know evil is about to knock on your front door?

I have never been more angry about a politician in my entire life, and believe me I am not a fan of politicians, in the current system we have in the United States they are pretty much all bad news, with very few bright spots (#FeelTheBern). Donald Trump is a black hole of stupid comments and even stupid-er faces, his hate filled agenda and ignorant stance on every topic that means anything to me is enough to make me want to scream. I am disappointed in the American people for allowing this to go on as long as it has, even most Republicans dislike him.

Never Trump

I am a calm and loving person, not wishing harm on any creature but like most people I want to charge and tackle him, shave that stupid comb over off his head, and tar and feather the pompous sonofabitch. He degrades women, supports racism and xenophobia, loves violence, wants to build a wall around us, and has no intent of doing anything but glorifying himself and big business.

He is a media king, he knows how to get the headlines, and stupid people support him, the same people that watch Nascar and hope for a crash, the same people who passed around the baby dolphin to take selfles with it until it died, the same people who don’t lend a hand to someone who has fallen into a subway but would rather take a video of them getting hit by the train, the same people who spit on those who are not like them, the ones who bash gays and blacks, the ones who watch Fox News, the people who date their cousins and expose themselves to kids at playgrounds, the same ones who drown puppies and put their grandparents in terrible retirement homes. These assholes have power in numbers too.

I would love to set up fake polling stations in U-Hauls in all of the Wal Mart parking lots across the country that say Vote for Trump Here, this way all of the Trump supporters will just cast their votes there and think that they done good. Any person who says they like Trump because he “speaks his mind” is a true idiot, sure he speaks his mind, but every word sucks! There is nothing good in there.

We cannot fight hate with more hate, life is about loving one another and spreading positivity. In order to make the world a better place we cannot feed the snarling monster.

I want to be the first person to hug him when he gets off the airplane, because honestly I feel sorry for anyone who harbors that much hate. He must have been abused as a child, people just don’t come out evil like that, it takes some wrong doing.

Buffalo Feels The Bern
Buffalo Feels The Bern! #Bernlesque

The only way to protest this event is to be peaceful, anything but non-violence and positivity will be counterproductive. We are not like him, we don’t want to incite a riot.

Blocking roads and being disruptive will do nothing but fuel the fire, we cannot egg on or even engage the antagonists. We must make signs and artistic displays that show our dedication to community and freedom in general.

Like other Trump rallies I am sure there will be a designated area to protest, which I still think is ridiculous. I want to go inside, because I know I can as white person. Racial profiling at the gates and blatant abuse of anyone who “defies” Trump is rampant at these events. People are getting pepper sprayed and physically harmed due to the color of their skin or the clothes they are wearing.

This is the point where my white privilege can be allow me to be the wolf in sheep’s clothing. Sure, I would love to dress in full drag and burst in with a super soaker full of fake blood and shower ol’ Donny with a Gwar style Buffalo welcome, but again we have to be smart about things.

We have to have power in numbers and create a positive environment of peace, tell him NO, this is not going down in my city, my country, my planet! Together we can stop him. Stay safe and stand together! Love is the only answer.

NewsPolitics

The other day I saw people sharing an article with the headline: Southern Poverty Law Center Lists Donald Trump and his Campaign, Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. as a Hate Group. I didn’t open it right away and believed it was real for almost a day, eventually discovering the source was a parody site.

Honestly, I was disappointed to find that out. There is no reason why the Trump Campaign shouldn’t be classified as a hate group, because, well, they are.

Donald Trump himself, I still believe, is nothing more than an opportunist. A billionaire without a conscience who will say absolutely anything to become President. When he said that he would deny all Muslims entry into the US, he did so because he knew that everyone in the media would be talking about it.

Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks at his South Carolina campaign kickoff rally in Bluffton, S.C., Tuesday, July 21, 2015. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)
Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump speaks at his South Carolina campaign kickoff rally in Bluffton, S.C., Tuesday, July 21, 2015. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)

His plan worked. He was on all the morning shows the next day. Defending the indefensible and even using the fact that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was responsible for Japanese internment camps and is still celebrated as justification.

FDR is still celebrated in spite of the internment camps, not because of it. They are probably the second biggest domestic policy blight in the history of the United States, following, of course, treatment of natives.

While that may not be lost on Trump the person, who is, by all accounts intelligent, it is lost on Trump the candidate. Bringing up a dark chapter in American history and using it to justify an unthinkably racist and at the same time pointless position is just par for the course for this candidate.

Hate-Filled Followers

What was once a joke candidacy stopped being funny a while ago. While I feel that Trump personally does not believe more than half of what he says, the truly frightening thing is that quite a few people do.

Racists and other ignorant people had been restricted to trolling and operating in secret for decades. Now, thanks to Trump, they are able to take part in a national political debate. They’re not afraid to say the crazy shit out loud anymore, either.

Prohibiting all people who practice the world’s second largest religion from entering a country because a few adherents committed violent acts in said country is the sort of nonsensical idea you would expect to hear from some loner with no concept of how the world works and a serious axe to grind. Now we’re getting it from a front-runner in a major political party.

As a result, all the racists, Islamophobes and other assorted bigots feel free to express their prejudice openly and sometimes violently. It’s hard to forget that just a few weeks ago, Trump supporters physically attacked a Black Lives Matter protester during a rally.

Republicans Distancing Themselves

Amidst all the petitions to remove Trump branding from buildings and bar the billionaire from entering cities and countries (like the UK and Canada, we’re seeing something new. Several prominent Republicans are distancing themselves from Trump.

People like Paul Ryan and even Dick Cheney are publicly speaking out against The Donald. Yes, the same people who built careers partially on the support of bigots are now turning on bigotry.

It’s clear why they’re doing it, too. Using divisive issues to mobilize voters is one thing. Actually speaking the language of racists from the top to do it is very different.

The Trump Campaign doesn’t use coded language for the base while sounding moderate to moderates. Instead, the hood is off. They are a hate group and if Trump gets the nomination, the Republican Party will be one, too.

A Hate Group by Definition

The Trump Campaign isn’t a hate group because of satirical comparisons to The Emperor in Star Wars. Though accurate, they are pretty common with far-right politicians:

It isn’t because of comparisons to Hitler, either. While also pretty common and usually a reach, taking a look at their respective campaign tactics side by side, the comparison seems to ring true this time:

FB_IMG_1449857942831

But that’s still not why.

No, the Trump Campaign is a hate group by definition:

“A hate group is an organized group or movement that advocates and practices hatred, hostility, or violence towards members of a race, ethnicity, nation, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation or any other designated sector of society.”

Let’s see: Organized group? Check. Advocates hostility? Barring entry to a country based exclusively on religion is definitely hostile, so check. Advocating violence? Well, supporters physically attacked Black Lives Matter protesters and Trump defended the attackers, so check as well.

These are but a few reasons why the Trump Campaign is a hate group by definition. There are more.

This is frightening. We shouldn’t treat the Donald Trump Campaign as a joke, or a legit political force. We should treat it as a hate group because that’s exactly what it is.

NewsPolitics

President Bernie Sanders. Something that a few months ago only seemed possible to progressives sitting around in a bar after a few pints. Everyone else either thought his candidacy was a joke or something that could, at best, move the discourse more to the left.

Now, after rallies attended in the thousands, celebrity endorsements from, among others, Neil Young and Sarah Silverman and a social media love affair reminiscent of an Obama campaign, it’s looking more and more like a possibility. American politics may #feelthebern in 2016.

Donald Trump Makes it Possible

Sanders announced his campaign with a brief preceeding statement explaining that he wanted to keep it short because he had “things to do.” This afterthought approach along with the candidate’s unkempt hair blowing in the wind was comedic fodder for Jon Stewart and others at the time. It also made it clear that Sanders wasn’t a conventional presidential candidate.

With Jeb Bush looking to take the Republican nomination, a conventional Democrat seemed the likely choice to put forward as an opponent. But strange things tend to happen in American politics. Now Bush is running second to a man who is equally as unlikely a choice for President as Sanders but has much worse hair: Donald Trump.

You want to beat a Bush, run a Clinton. You want to beat a bragging uber-capitalist with white supremacist supporters, run a no-frills socialist who marched with Dr. King. It’s the logical choice.

Neither candidate can be bought, but Trump already sold out years ago, or rather became who politicians sell out to.

But it’s Hillary’s Turn!

Photograph by Keith Kissel
Photograph by Keith Kissel via Flickr Creative Commons

Hillary Clinton running as the Democratic candidate has seemed like a foregone conclusion since Obama’s re-election and still does in many ways. The mainstream media still thinks it will be her and you’d better believe party heavyweights and their financial backers still hope it’ll be her as well.

It’s her turn, after all. But then again, it was supposed to be her turn in 2008.

But that’s when a young upstart named Barack Obama came out of nowhere, won the nomination and routed the Republicans in the general election. So the Dems don’t mind backing another horse if that’s where the winds are blowing. But is popular support this time enough for them to deny Hillary a second time?

Winning is One Thing…

Barack Obama offered Hope and Change, which the Dems were fine with. That’s primarily because his change didn’t include changing where the money comes from.

While Obama’s donors included (and Clinton’s include) all the usual suspects from Wall Street, Sanders has unions and individuals supporting him financially. This is one of the reasons true progressives are drawn to him, but it’s also why Democratic Party power brokers will probably shy away.

Photograph by Marc Nozell vie Flickr Creative Commons
Photograph by Marc Nozell vie Flickr Creative Commons

Not only that, he is a democratic socialist and proud to be one. No matter how much Tea Party idiots want to believe it, Obama wasn’t. He’s from the Chicago School of Economics.

So the real question is, can the Democratic establishment put aside their vested financial interests and back a candidate who can win, but on his own terms? Or will they back Hillary at all costs?

Not #RonPaul2016

It may be easy to draw some parallels between Sanders and former upstart candidate Ron Paul. Both decided to run on major party tickets even though they didn’t really fit the party mould, both were hashtag-ready candidacies championed by the internet and both wanted to scale back the US military. Other than that, though, they couldn’t be farther apart.

Sanders isn’t an unconventional Democrat the way Paul was an unconventional Republican. He’s an independent, and has sat in the US House of Representatives and then the US Sentate as one since 1991. But instead of running for President as such like Ralph Nader did, he’s setting himself up to get major party backing and guarantee himself a spot in televised presidential debates.

Photograph by Gage Skidmore via Flickr Creative Commons
Photograph by Gage Skidmore via Flickr Creative Commons

It’s an upstart grassroots campaign amplified online, but with the intelligence of a seasoned pro and a way to win. If the powers-that-be in the Democratic Party don’t want him, just make sure enough independents register as democrats and vote in the primaries. Think of it as people using the Democratic Party as a means to an end instead of corporate donors doing exactly the same thing.

Mix popular appeal, intelligence, a bit of luck, and a horrid opponent together and we may have all the ingredients necessary for Bernie Sanders to become the next President of the United States.

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It looks like Donald Trump has gotten himself into some hot water, yet again! Since announcing his run for presidency, Trump has been flaunting his wealth and success non-stop on national television; but this isn’t the first time the multi-millionaire has hinted at a presidential run – the first one was back in 1987! This past Tuesday, the entrepreneur launched his campaign at his luxurious Trump Tower in New York City and all eyes were on him for a good 45 minutes. He described himself as the most successful person ever to run for office, and mentioned that even the Gucci store he owns is worth more than Mitt Romney (o….kay??). “I’m really rich,” he said as he looked at the crowd and added that his positive attitude is what America needs to make the country great again (o….kay?).

We all know the Donald is no stranger to controversy; from his feud with Rosie O’Donnell back in 2006, to his doubt over President Obama’s birthplace. (He actually asked him to release a copy of his birth certificate!) But the most recent one will have him running… period! During his speech, Trump referred to Mexican immigrants as criminals, drug-traffickers and rapists, which prompted Univision, an American Spanish television network, to pull the plug on the Miss USA pageant. How does this affect the Republican candidate you ask? Well, Donald Trump is the co-owner of the Miss Universe Organization and not only will the network not air the event, but they have decided to completely cut ties with Trump altogether.

After his comments went viral, a number of Latin celebrities took to the internet to express their anger, including actors Eugenio Derbez and Roslyn Sanchez who have both stepped down as hosts of the pageant. What was he thinking? Is he aware that half of the population living in the United States are Mexicans? What a great way to start your campaign!

Will Donald Trump ever be elected as president? I highly doubt it! After all of his foolish comments and bogus statements, he’s better off sticking to his day job. Just like his comb over, some things will never change.