I hope you enjoy the rest of your time there.

I read part of the email scandal with the DNC and no idea what to say. Besides people on twitter seem to be blaming Sanders even though the emails make it out like he had no idea what was going on at all. >.> Wished things were getting better. At this rate with this crap going on Trump seems to have a better chance of winning because of this massive problem the dems have on their hands.

(I'll write about the DNC when I get home--totally exhausted! But learning a lot)

Okay, so I'm not sure if this is legally treason, but it's definitely treasonous, even if it doesn't meet the legal threshold...

Trump just asked Russia to hack Hillary Clinton. On television.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/28/us/po ... v=top-news

Are you fucking kidding me??? Seriously and this piece of shit is still allowed to run for president? There is a serious problem in this fucking country if that piece of crap is allowed to get away with this shit. Seems like his running partner might make a better president than that piece of shit. My fucking god. No wonder I am voting for Clinton this is complete bull shit. Sorry for the language but I am beyond pissed at that bastard. He should and needs to burn in hell now for this. >.> This is beyond going too far. National security.... Ya smart one ass hole.

I like to compare the rallies between the running candidates. When Bernie was still in the campaign, I never seen a protester (That I am AWARE of...) violently being pushed around, etc. In Trump rallies, protesters are being pushed, yelled at, etc. Even one girl got pepper sprayed! I even saw Trump just yelling, "get outta here!" I even watched an Obama rally when he was running with a protester, he was calm about it, no violence necessary. I don't want a president who ..(promotes?? can't find a better word..) violence.

Even with a recent interview that Trump made, he wouldn't answer a question, repeatedly saying, "I'm gonna build a wall," like that's gonna solve America's problems... Though I'd say we are screwed in politics this year tbh..

Bassy, I agree with you. We truly are screwed right now, especially if we do get that thing in office, which I am thinking we might. With how bad he's getting recently, oddly enough it's worse than before.

His rallies are not even rallies. They are hordes. Evil hordes filling up our cities with more bad that this country does not need. We need so much fixed and I honestly can't seem him being the lesser of two evils like someone in my family told me. They actually said Trump would be better than Clinton just because it's rumored that people who worked for them before went gone. Completely disappeared with no trace to be found of them. Not something that I believe and can see. Trump is the worse of the evils. Not Clinton in my eyes.

I wish people would choose Bernie but because of peoples blind sided of socialist, it's a nono. Do people know that we had a president who was a socialist? His name was FDR. Though lots of people has different views on politics and about socialism. He would be a lot of a better choice. I heard people say free college shouldn't happen. Did people know that there is a guy in college who rides a bike to school every day for 6 hours, living on the streets? No. I hope he has a scholarship or something.. :( I mean, parts of Europe does it, why can't we? Of course it still won't be free because of other fees from colleges like housing, but it would be more affordable.

I would vote for Clinton instead of Trump because Clinton won't do as much that Trump states. I will hate to but I am going to. Sad that my first legal year for me to vote and it is the worst candidates.

Most people probably don't know how free college might affect everyone. It does sound like a good idea but our economy might not be able to handle something like that right now. Maybe if things are better and fixed but right now no.

At least you can vote for a semi decent person instead of a holy terror. I wished Bernie was still in the run but sadly he doesn't have a big name like Clinton does. This election I hope it the only worse one we can see and be part of. I truly hope the next elections are not anything like this anymore.

I hear Bernie wanted to do it over time. He can't just do it right away.

If Trump becomes president, I hope people will open their eyes.

Finally! I'm back home from the Democratic National Convention!

I think that might have been the most intense week of my life...it was unlike anything I've ever seen, and I've seen some intense dramatic protests before....

So I spent the week walking the streets of Philadelphia, documenting protests and talking to activists. What I found can be described as two groups...

The first group is the group I connect to. The people who were there because they felt strongly about an issue (climate change, reproductive rights, etc.) and they wanted to draw attention to that issue and hold the Democratic Party--the only political party interested in the issues we care about--accountable to the grassroots activists who work so hard to keep them in office. These are my kind of people. Strong willed and principled, but also aware that they share a planet with very different people and that they need to be able to compromise and accept defeat when they are beaten.

Then there was the second group--the Berners, who were more interested in destroying everything than getting anything done. I was actually surprised by how intense they were. I mean, in any movement you get the anarchist fringe that is louder than everyone else, but even at Occupy Wall Street those people weren't anywhere near as vicious. There were a few events I couldn't even bring myself to attend, because I knew that if I went I would start a fight and I didn't think we needed MORE aggression in the streets. For example, there was a "mock trial" event called The People vs. Hillary Clinton. I learned from talking to people afterwards that it was exactly what I thought it would be--a group of people on a stage riling the crowd into a vigilante mob. I knew that if I went to that I was going to end up marching onstage and screaming at the audience about witch hunts and moral standards, so I spent the whole day talking to feminists at the Quaker Meeting House instead. I think that was the healthy choice.

When Bernie Sanders gave a speech on Monday to try to calm his supporters down, I was with a group of protesters at a different park listening over a live stream hooked up to a sound system--because the main park wasn't large enough to hold everyone. In the speech he asked them to be respectful as a personal courtesy and to help elect Hillary Clinton.

Afterwards, a bunch of people told me they thought he was sending them subliminal messages to vote for Jill Stein. Now, I have no problem with anyone voting for Stein, but Bernie Sanders is not sending you secret messages. I mean, come on. There's this weird conspiracy theory fever that's taken hold amongst the die hard Bernie supporters. I find it incredibly disturbing.

The other disturbing thing I noticed was how many conservative agitators there were. I met several Trump voters who were pretending to be Bernie supporters trying to sow discord--and it worked. So many of the younger Bernie supporters have never been involved in politics or activism before--they don't know how to guard against conservative agitators or law enforcement plants. Experienced activists, on the other hand, can spot a talk show radio host or an FBI agent a mile away. But there was no awareness among the younger protesters that people were trying (and succeeding) to manipulate them. UGH.

Anyway...

I actually think "free" college isn't the best way to describe it. It's not free when we're all pitching in and paying for it through taxes. Everyone pays a little and everyone can afford to get the education they need/want. The long term economic impact of that would be immeasurable. It would also be better then the current system. There's currently an arms race between colleges to see who can have the highest tuition, because no one wants to be the "cheap" school. Can you believe that? It's insane. And I've worked at colleges for years, if they spent less money on fancy amenities to attract rich kids and instead focused on making school affordable, we'd make a ton of progress. Seriously. The president of one college I worked at would spend upwards of $500 a week on catered lunches no one ever touched. The amount of waste on campuses is out of control.

In case you're interested, I wrote this open letter about my experiences...








An open letter to people who are in a state of hysteria over Hillary Clinton’s nomination:
I sat in a darkened stairwell in City Hall, fanning myself with a socialist flyer as Philadelphia broiled. An older woman wearing a large sun hat and a bright, blue Bernie shirt came and sat next to me. We said hello and chatted for a moment.
A second woman approached. “Would you like a Bernie sticker?” She asked me. I hesitated and she quickly added, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.” I smiled and thanked her.
The first woman was giving me an odd look. “Do you support Bernie?” She asked me. She meant it to sound polite, but I could hear the armor in her voice. She was already preparing for battle.
“I voted for him. I support him. I’m just not big on emblazoning my body with someone else’s name.” I told her patiently. “I also try not to wear clothes with corporate advertising.”
“Oh.” She said, still frowning slightly. “Yeah, I get that, I guess. I didn’t let my kids wear those kinds of clothes for the same reason.”
But she clearly didn’t understand why that philosophy would extend to a political candidate.
In many ways, we’re already having the important conversations, but this letter is about one facet of those conversations that has been bothering me for months and is being completely ignored. So in this letter, I will seek to address it. As you read it, please remember that I am in no way suggesting that the argument made here is the whole of the arguments that need to be made.
I am sick of hearing people call Bernie Sanders a hero. He may be your hero, but he certainly isn’t mine. He didn’t open my eyes, expand my horizons or get me woke. If you know me, if you’ve spent time talking to me about the issues that I care about, and it took Bernie Sanders to get you onboard with the movement, then what have I been doing all these years? Have you even been listening to me?
Bernie Sanders has never led me anywhere. Everywhere I’ve gone, every conclusion I’ve come to, is a place I arrived at on my own terms. Because taking responsibility for your own mind is what the movement demands.
Bernie Sanders and I share a cultural heritage. While scarcely ever noticed outside the Jewish community, there is a distinct subculture of American Jews that are defined by a secular life style, socialist tendencies and a deep sometimes-spiritual dedication to social justice. Emma Goldman and Saul Alinsky can be counted amongst our members. We have been at the front lines of every major social justice movement in American history, and we have the songs honoring our dead to prove it. We have been fighting the Masters for thousands of years, and no matter who wins this election we’ll keep on fighting.
I wish Bernie Sanders had explained this to the rest of you. If he had, this world might be a little bit safer for me today. No one who expresses their Jewish heritage the way I do has ever made it so far in presidential politics, not in this or any other country, and it would have been nice to finally get a little bit of public recognition for the validity of my cultural heritage.
On the other hand, it might have placed me in even more danger.
To my Bernie or Bust friends, have you ever even read The Drudge Report? Have you gone on Stormfront? Have you been to the Deep South, seen the crosses lining the highway, ten stories tall? Do you have any idea what we’re up against? Do you have any idea how much we are feared, how deeply we are loathed? Do you have any concept of how many millennia we have spent battling this evil? Did you seriously think you could nominate a secular Jew for president when being anything other than Christian is still tantamount to treason in so many parts of this country?
If you did, then you have no idea how far we still have to climb before we reach the mountaintop.
Have you ever been shoved to the ground and told that you are personally responsible for the death of Jesus Christ? Has anyone, upon discovering your non-Christianity, ever started speaking in loud, deliberate tones as if the fact that you were a Jew meant you were incapable of understanding English? Have you ever been punished by a boss for not knowing all the words to a Christmas carol? Have you ever been scorned and called “anti-West” by a teacher for not having a meaningful association with a Catholic ritual? Has the appearance of yet another swastika at your school ever forced you to look around at your classmates and seriously ask yourself if any of them drew it, if any of them might want you dead, if you need to watch what you say or make certain that none of them try to follow you when you leave? Have you ever had to sit still and bite your tongue while some starry-eyed ahistorical person drones on about love and acceptance, while you struggle not to dwell on the scars of persecution coded into your DNA? Are you constantly reminded that no matter how easily you blend into the crowd, you will never be assimilated enough to satisfy some people? Have you ever had to explain that you don’t drink human blood nor do you support the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, because obviously as a Jew you are either a cannibal or a war monger?
Do you break into a cold sweat every time you hear the phrase ‘Christian nation’?
Has anyone ever asked you, in all seriousness, why your people are trying to take over the entire world?
Bernie Sanders is a part of a movement, and like me his dedication to that movement has been shaped in part by his experiences of being an independent-thinking religious minority in this country. Like me and my family, he has been in this fight for a long time. You are all welcome to join us, but you should know this is not Bernie Sanders’ movement. His campaign would not have happened without the Occupy Movement. The Occupy Movement would most likely not have happened the way it did without the Arab Spring and the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. The so-called Battle of Seattle would not have happened without the international organizational framework built by coalitions like environmental, labor and AIDS awareness activists in the 70s, 80s and 90s. Those would not have happened without the example set by the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s. That would not have happened without the influence of labor organizers in the Progressive Era and Gandhi’s movement for independence. Gandhi’s movement would not have been possible if he had not learned about nonviolence from South African grassroots activists. And on and on it goes.
So stop whining, you angry, bitter denizens of social media. That is not what this moment in history requires of you. What do you have to be angry about? Bernie Sanders’ campaign didn’t correspond to rising hate crimes against your community the way it did mine, and what you gained from being part of that campaign will carry us all into the future, the same way it has countless times before. You fight a battle, you learn from your success and from your mistakes, and then you carry on the fight. You didn’t get the nominee you wanted? Welcome to the movement. There’s a lot of that kind of disappointment. If Hillary Clinton is too much for you to handle, then you don’t have the strength or the courage to fight alongside me.
There is a dragon called Hate bearing down on our castle and right now this movement is trying to do what it has always done: help as many people as we can, in any way we can. I will do whatever is within my power to protect this castle, warts and all. If you would rather burn the whole thing down than help your community, then you can go ahead and get the fuck out of my way. I've got dragons to slay.
But if you’re ready to fight hatred, if you’re ready to work hard, to speak for those who cannot speak and stand for those who cannot stand, and if you are ready to keep fighting after November and keep fighting till the day you die, no matter what happens or who becomes president…then I will see you on the battlefield.
Sincerely,
The Girl From Your Elementary School Class Who Started Shouting Genocide Every Time The Teacher Mentioned Christopher Columbus