Vape Nation

Reality:

The Depression™:

-Hitler blamed all his country’s economic problems on a minority group, the Jews, as well as on a few other minorities, such as the Romani. Trump blames all our country’s economic problems on a minority group, Mexican illegal immigrants, as well as illegal immigrants from South America and Asia. 

- Hitler announced in advance that he would round up and deport all these minority groups so that Germany would be occupied only by true citizens. In the 1920’s, he wrote the book, “Mein Kampf,” which clearly spelled out his plans for deporting undesirables. By 1939, it had sold over 5,000,000 copies. In the summer of 2015, Donald Trump went on network television in front of millions of people and has repeatedly announced that he will round up and deport all the “undesirable” illegal immigrants in this country and keep America safe for true citizens. 

- Hitler never said that he would kill those people he could not deport or what would happen when they resisted being arrested and deported. Trump has not said what he will do if other countries will not accept the 11,000,000 people he plans to deport or what he will do if these people resist being arrested and deported. Will immigration officials be ordered to shoot people who hide, run away or resist arrest? Hitler built walls around the ghettos where Jews were originally detained. Trump wants to build an impregnable wall between Mexico and the United States. 

- Hitler attracted huge crowds of enthusiastic followers who showed up at his rallies to listen to him rage about the Jews and assure his followers that he would be able to improve the economy, if he was given free rein to deport them. Trump has attracted huge crowds of enthusiastic followers who show up at his rallies to listen to him rage about illegal immigrants and assure his followers that he will be able to improve the economy if he is given free rein to deport them. 

- Hitler wanted to make changes to the structure of the German constitution in order to solidify his power and carry out his wishes. Trump wants to change the 14th Amendment to the U.S. constitution so that he can deport American born U.S. citizens and revoke their citizenship if they are the children of illegal immigrants. Many citizens of Germany, including German Jews, did not believe that they would ever be harmed because they had been loyal, law-abiding citizens and, in many cases, had fought for Germany in World War I. Many Mexican-American families in the United States, including those who have some family members who may have come here illegally, do not believe that their entire family could be deported, especially if most members of the family were born here and the children are now U.S. citizens. 

- Hitler and his military regularly confiscated the personal property, artwork, jewelry and homes belonging to the Jews who were rounded up. Trump has not said what he will do with the personal property, automobiles, and other items that belong to the people he rounds up and deports. If they cannot carry it with them and cannot quickly sell it for a price, it is most likely they could lose a substantial portion of their property or sell it far below fair market value. 

- Hitler routinely broke treaties with other countries, if he did not believe that the treaties were in the best interest of Germany. Trump has threatened to go his own way in international affairs, regardless of treaties, trade agreements with our neighbors and additional international agreements we may have with other countries.  

- Hitler was very willing to attack other countries, including using bombs on them. Trump has repeatedly said that he would deal with ISIS and other groups in the Middle East by bombing “the hell” out of them.

Bernie Sanders will be the next President of the United States…

…due in part to three big factors that have nothing to do with him. Full disclosure: I love Bernie Sanders. He’s a statesman and seems like a good person, if not the best singer. As a fellow “loony liberal,” I’ve admired him for years, but I would never have expected him to be doing as well as he is now. And while I’m clearly in the tank for him, here’s what I think is going to make Bernie’s unlikely presidency a reality:

The unattended flame of progressive sentiment from Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign has sparked into a bonfire of liberal awareness, despite policy makers, including the president, failing to act on the temperature of public opinion on anything until it hurts them politically to be against it.

The DNC Establishment is backing Hillary Clinton because “it’s her turn,” despite an exhaustive record of too-late corrections on vital issues, negative public perception, and toxic policy-related baggage from her husband’s presidency.

Donald Trump is brutalizing the Republican field, Gladiator-style, while tarring both parties’ establishment candidates with the same billion-dollar brush, and earning the support of extremists and idiots the GOP can’t distance themselves from without undermining their basic legitimacy as a political party.

Sanders is practically untouchable in this perfect storm of a political environment. He’s not backed by billionaires, he’s bulletproof against the epithets conservatives throw at the Left, and he doesn’t need campaign advisors to steer him into the stances the vast majority of Americans already believe. He’s a sleeper agent for a progressive policy revolution that could save capitalism from itself. Neither the RNC or the DNC took him seriously, and maybe they still don’t, and that’s fine. Voters do.

Thanks in no small part to our pop culture icons in comedy, film, and entertainment, our country has slowly moved a good mile to the Left over the last decade, while Washington’s only taken a few steps after us. Over 70% of Americans support taking action on climate change, running background checks on ALL gun sales, enacting strict campaign finance reform, decriminalizing marijuana, raising the minimum wage, policing Wall Street, and allowing undocumented immigrants to stay. 

Other candidates will run against these issues and may gather the folks who disagree, but if Americans actually show up to vote we will win. Republicans only win when voter turnout is low (which is why they try to keep it that way). [EDIT: And keep in mind, when turnout is high, downticket races also go Democrat, too. So let’s get our Congress back, and upend some state legislatures who’ve spent the last four years fighting against the abortion rights 70% of Americans support.] So let’s nominate a candidate who’s on point for our issues and is rallying the most passionate crowds for our causes. On a graph of Democratic Thought, the line of sensible policy is finally converging with the line of popular opinion.

Now that’s a damn good Time cover right there