Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty ImagesThe different candidates in the 2016 presidential election
all have backing from different people, different groups, and different
supporters. When it comes time for the final vote tallies to be made,
the bigger the group of supporters, the more votes that can come in.
Well, Bernie Sanders
may have just gotten the biggest boost when the the backing collective
known as Anonymous backed the Democratic candidate and gave 10 reasons
for it.
Anonymous took to their website
to list the ten reasons that will convince voters that they should cast
their ballot for Bernie Sanders. Not only is Anonymous looking to get
people to vote for Sanders, but they feel he deserves much more
mainstream media coverage as well.
Each of their reasons are explicitly detailed get people to see what
Sanders and his campaign are all about. Some of the reasons that are
easier to put forth are that he wants to break up big banks and that he
opposes both the TPP and NAFTA.
Anonymous has been known for numerous things over the past years;
some have been considered good and some have been considered bad.
They’ve also been blamed for a lot of things that never ended up being
their fault whatsoever.
Still, they may have some incredibly detailed points about backing
and voting for Bernie Sanders. At the same time, they are making sure to
point out that the other two leading candidates to capture the
presidency are doing some things in the exactly opposite fashion.
Not always, though.
Anonymous gives the reasoning of “decriminalizing the use of
marijuana” as a reason for backing Sanders. They also let it be known
that Clinton is against decriminalizing it while Trump is more in favor
of legalizing marijuana for medical uses.
Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images
One thing that is really bothering Anonymous is the lack of
mainstream coverage that Bernie Sanders is getting while Donald Trump
gets much more even though they are polling similarly. Anonymous
believes the mainstream media hates Sanders and actually censors him so
it looks like he endorses Clinton.
According to the Hill, a recent poll
from Quinnipiac University shows that Bernie Sanders actually
demolishes Donald Trump in a general election, and it wasn’t even close.
Sanders actually had a 13 percentage point victory over Trump in that
poll by way of 51 percent to 38 percent.
When detailing their 10 reasons for backing Bernie Sanders, Anonymous focuses a lot on how much he doesn’t discriminate.
“Sanders doesn’t degrade racial and religious minorities,
nor does he inflame the majority- he comes right out and tells us that
the elite are to blame. He said this at a rally: ‘they’re always playing
one group against another. Rich got richer — everybody else was
fighting each other. Our job is to build a nation in which we all stand
together’. Hillary has an “abysmal” racial justice record and Trump…
well, he’s said enough about that topic to fill a phone book.”
As a bonus, Anonymous says that for every list that comes out telling
people not to vote for Sanders, it actually brings him more attention
and supporters.
Bernie Sanders has seen his support grow in the 2016 presidential
polls over the past few months, and Hillary Clinton has seen hers drop
some. Donald Trump has kept a consistently big lead in the GOP race, but
many say he would get destroyed by the Democratic candidate. The
backing of Anonymous for Sanders may have simply pushed his support even
higher.
A woman is being hailed as a layaway angel after she went into a Toys
‘R’ Us store in Bellingham, Mass., on Wednesday and paid off every open
layaway account -- giving about 150 customers with items on layaway an
early Christmas present.
The generous donor paid $20,000 to wipe the entire layaway balance at
that location, a spokeswoman for Toys ‘R’ Us confirmed to ABC News on
Thursday.
“This incredible act of kindness is a true illustration of holiday giving at its best,” the company said in a statement.
The donor made the payment anonymously, but the Milford Daily News reported that she was a local resident who said she would sleep better at night knowing the accounts had been paid.
The newspaper reported that the store’s layaway customers were in tears when they heard the good news.
The holidays have inspired many others to do similar good deeds for total strangers.
Tom Gubitosi went to his local Walmart in Farmingdale, N.Y., on
Wednesday, and gave $100 shopping sprees to about 200 children each.
Gubitosi donated the money in honor of his late mother, who loved
children, WABC TV reported.
Also on Wednesday, dozens of police officers in Cape Cod, Mass., treated
26 children to lunch and $200 gift cards for the annual "Shop with
Cops" program.
Earlier this month, Houston Texans
receiver Andre Johnson bought $16,266.26 worth of toys for 11 children
in the care of Child Protective Services, ESPN reported. At Toys "R" Us,
he gave them each 80 seconds to place what they could in shopping
carts. He's been hosting shopping sprees for kids since 2007.
Greg Parady, who runs a financial planning company, told ABC News that
his mother had struggled when he was growing up and he wanted to help
others who may have had a similar experience.
“I was a layaway kid so it's nice to be able to help," he said.
In their video above, they demand that elected representatives for
that area introduce legislation defining clear standards of conduct for
police in situations like the one that resulted in the shooting of Mike
Brown Saturday.
They further state that if this demand isn't met, they will hack into
police department databases and publish confidential data they obtain.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with Anonymous' operating tactics, what they're asking for is not outrageous. There is
a point where a line in the sand is needed, and where everyone should
stop pretending the police are always right and the people are always
wrong. That right/wrong view seems to be the one that prevails when
black or brown people are the ones protesting in the street.
That kid lay in the street for hours while they beefed up their
militarized presence in Ferguson, as if to invite violence. I'm not sure
I'm buying the "official account" of how Brown came to be shot eight
times, either. If he allegedly attacked the cop sitting in the car, how
did he come to fall 35 feet away while the cop never got out of the car?
As a writer, it's difficult to balance a desire not to slam police,
who have a difficult and demanding job against sympathy for an unarmed
kid dead in the street. In some cases, criticism just lives in the
situation. This is one of those times.
Ferguson's elected officials should take Anonymous' demands seriously.
(As a side note, Twitter killed the #OpFerguson hashtag and
suspended the @OpFerguson account. I'm sure glad they believe in free
speech. I guess for them that's only for conservatives.)
