Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search

Nasty Jack

Nasty Jack's Journal
Nasty Jack's Journal
December 24, 2015

Here's why Bernie Sanders should be Democratic nominee


If you have the people you have the votes and this is just what Bernie Sanders is doing. Bernie "has broken the record for the number of individual contributions received at this point during a presidential campaign," as reported Monday by the Huff Post. He hit 2.3 million contributions during last Saturday's debate, breaking Obama's record of 2.2 million donations in 2012. It is significant to me that he broke the record of the man who beat Clinton in 2008. People were pissed off by Sander's treatment by the DNC and its chair, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

So far I cannot find Hillary Clinton's number of individual donors, but that may be withheld due to the fact that she is funded by many corp. donors and PACs, unlike Sanders. Individual donors translate into voters, as compared to large PAC contributions; I would hope individuals who are committed by their money given would also tend to go to the polls. Obviously Bernie's $41.2 million doesn't match Clinton's $76 million, but there is something to be said for those who donate what they can to the man they are convinced represents their best interests.

It seems Wasserman-Schultz DNC has lit a fire under Bernie Sander's followers with $1 million raised just during the Friday before the debate when the rumpus was going on. You see, Bernie's supporters know when he needs them and they come to his aid with what they can give. I'm pretty sure the candidate can depend on those same followers to come to his aid in November of 2016.

Nasty Jack Blog
December 24, 2015

Bernie Sanders Sayings


To begin reversing the growing inequality in the distribution of wealth, we can rescind the tax breaks given to the rich over the last twenty years.
December 23, 2015

Will we get through Christmas without another mass gun massacre?


It has been three weeks since two terrorists broke in to a Christmas party in San Bernardino, Calif., killing 14 and wounding 21. The two assailants, married, were heavily armed using assault rifles and handguns bought legally for them by a friend. Although they don't appear to have been a part of a terrorists network, they both had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. Is this a prelude to what we can expect in 2015, with more guns going on the streets every day?

But going back to 1984, there have been no mass gun killings on Christmas day and hopefully we can finish 2015, without another one. The closest we came to this holiday was December 26, 2000, when Michael McDermott shot and killed seven co-workers at the Internet consulting firm where he worked. This, apparently because his wages were going to be garnished by the IRS. Three weapons were used in the attack.

The next closest is Sandy Hook School in Newtown, Conn., on December 14, 2012, where 20 six-year-olds were slaughtered by Adam Lanza using an assault weapon, before Lanza killed himself. He had earlier shot and killed his mother who had a regular arsenal in the home. After this one, and due primarily to the deaths of so many children, there was an uproar across America with promises of doing something about it but three years later...nothing.

Pres. Obama is preparing an Executive Order that will no doubt include particulars such as universal background checks, the gun show loophole and more. The gun nuts, backed by Wayne LaPierre's NRA are also preparing their onslaught to counter the President's actions of purely sensible gun restrictions that any sane person should welcome.

However, I still say that confiscation of all guns may very well be the only answer. I am convinced, though, that we are nearing the point where we can expect to solve at least some of the gun violence problems soon.

Nasty Jack Blog
December 23, 2015

Bernie Sanders Sayings


One-third of the nation's work force is now "contingent" labor, without any job security.
December 22, 2015

Donald Trump revives white supremacists movement


Donald Trump has made so many bizarre statements in his campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination that one should not be surprised that now he has sparked a revival in the white supremacists movement. Instead of walking up to a group of people in their robes, the Ku Klux Klan now dons their civvies and approaches the same individuals with a newspaper clearly displaying a Donald Trump article. It has become the perfect conversation starter, says Rachel Pendergraft, the national organizer for the Knights Party.

It is downright pathetic that the leading contender for the nomination to represent the GOP in November 2016, is, among numerous other derogatory names, a racist, and the man seems perfectly comfortable with all the monikers. Republicans are scared shitless that Trump will somehow receive the nomination, which of course would be a disaster against either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton. Where's the master of digging up dirt, Karl Rove, when they need him?

You know he's stepped way over the line when Trump draws praises from former Louisiana politician and KKK Grand Wizard David Duke.

Duke told The Post that while he has not officially endorsed Trump, he considers the candidate to be the “best of the lot” at the moment. “I think a lot of what he says resonates with me,” Duke said. Now, just think of the recent incidents where the Confederate Flag was brought down because it represents the worst kind of racism. Multiply that by 100 and you have the Ku Klux Klan. This is who supports Donald Trump, the kind of people we thought we had left behind years ago.

Nasty Jack Blog
December 22, 2015

Maybe confiscation of all guns is the answer

God forbid, I've been reading the National Review, but the idea hit home the minute I read it. Abolish the 2nd Amendment and confiscate all 300 million guns in the U.S. Obama vaguely covered that recently in reference to Australia's approach to gun control and of course this conservative publication picked it up and ran with it. We also heard the same old crap from the gun nuts; neither the gun show loophole nor background checks would have prevented the mass shootings or daily gun violence.

If none of the proposed changes that Pres. Obama plans in his Executive order on gun control will help, and the fact that apparently putting more guns on the street, the stupid idea of Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Assn., has only caused more gun violence, there is only one choice left. Abolish the 2nd Amendment and confiscate all 300 million guns in the U.S.

Yes, we've talked about improving mental health programs and corresponding databases but it hasn't happened and with all-states cooperation necessary to accomplish this, it isn't likely to happen. Just take Arizona, Florida and Texas as an example of those on the radical end of gun rights. We've no choice but to abolish the 2nd Amendment and confiscate all 300 million guns in the U.S. It will be expensive but isn't it worth 30,000 gun deaths a year, and the end to these mass killings? I think so.

Once we have everything under control, start a program of controlled distribution of firearms, with registration required of every gun that goes out. And, I'm not saying that everyone who had a weapon, especially handguns, will get one back. In the new scenario, assault weapons would be banned, concealed carry only for those with special needs, and there would be universal background checks, the gun show loophole would be closed, ban straw purchases and the CDC would reinstate CDC collection and analysis of U.S. gun violence.

Now, I've said it and I'm glad.

Nasty Jack Blog

December 21, 2015

Obama prepares Executive Orders to quell gun violence


President Obama met with one of the country's top gun control advocates, Michael Bloomberg, and promised more action on gun control. Bloomberg has taken to task Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Assn., and his minion gun nuts on several occasions and won, most notably in Bloomberg's support of gun control politicians. His major opposition organization is Everytown for Gun Safety, which is the anti NRA group. Time will tell if they can bring down the NRA.

White House communications director Jen Psaki says that Executive Orders are being prepared by the Dept. of Justice, but that because they expect litigation challenging any order given, extra care is being taken to insure the EOs will withstand any objections in court. The gun nuts are already salivating over all this and the NRA attorneys are behind closed doors planning their strategy. Obama's actions will be simple in nature, including things we have heard hundreds of times, all of which any sane person would agree are desperately needed:

Universal background checks
Close gun show loophole
Ban straw purchases
Ban assault weapons
Reinstate CDC collection and analysis of U.S. gun violence

There may be more and any one of the above may not be included in Obama's final Executive Order, but these seem to me to be the priorities that could help bring the current gun violence spree under control. Let's face it all you gun rights activists, we tried it LaPierre's way and it hasn't worked. Now it's time to try it our way.

Nasty Jack Blog
December 21, 2015

What the Founding Fathers really meant in the 2nd Amendment

It occurred to me recently that enough hasn't been said recently about the intentions of the Founding Fathers in the Constitution for the rights and restrictions of gun owners. With individual and mass killings by guns a regular daily occurrence, and the fact that even in light of the horrific number of deaths, including many children, the National Rifle Assn. (NRA) headed up by Wayne LaPierre, still maintain that the right to have a gun is more important than human life. LaPierre bases that right on the 2nd Amendment, given to us by the Founding Fathers. He claims it is inviolable.

Here's an incident of the typical thinking of a gun nut: In a tirade against CNN’s Piers Morgan, Alex Jones argued, “The Second Amendment isn’t there for duck hunting. It’s there to protect us from tyrannical government.” Like this government could ever come together long enough to start anything, much less tyranny. It's a laughable argument and there's much in history to disprove the gun nuts. Truth-Out.org also reports first-hand documents from 1789 detail the First Congress' debate on arms and militia detail a constant theme: "the 2nd Amendment was created to protect the American government."

It wasn't meant to give some doofus the right to carry around an assault rifle in public, or even have one in the home. This also applies to handguns when it comes to open or concealed carry permits for nothing more than playing cowboy.

Here'a another point from TO.org, "As a member of a National Guard militia, the 2nd Amendment is more of a civic duty than a personal right. Again, it was all about defense of the state – not defense against the state."

In fact, during that first gun debate, the state of New Hampshire introduced an amendment that gave the government permission to confiscate guns when citizens “are or have been in Actual Rebellion.” To those early legislators in New Hampshire, the right to bear arms stops as soon as those arms are taken up against our "we the people" government.

Gun nuts like Alex Jones are what have turned the United states into the most gun violent country in all the industrialized nations. His thinking, along with the gun nuts at the NRA, especially Wayne LaPierre, is what has caused the recent blood baths that are killing innocent people, especially children.

Nasty Jack Blog

December 20, 2015

Curious? First NGP VAN data breach and it was Bernie Sanders


I am still the cynic and I cannot fathom a company that professed a perfect record until this breach in a Politico article claiming this whole thing was just a glitch, an accident. As I reported yesterday, NGP VAN founder, Nathaniel Pearlman, also served as chief technology officer for Hillary Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign.

There are just too many factors involved, one of which is DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz who had complete control over the whole fiasco. Now there is no doubt that these doofuses in the Sanders campaign should not have looked at Clinton's data; they should have simply reported the incident and this whole episode wouldn't have happened.

Based on my knowledge of campaign political data from 35 years in the junk mail business, my gut tells me Sanders had very similar info and didn't really need Hillary's.

But let's examine the timeline here. The data breach occurred sometime late Thursday or early Friday morning, December 18. The Sanders people noticed the breach but what is not true in the reporting is that the data was accessed over a period of time, that it was exported or retrieved. And much of it was probably already known by the Bernie folks, as I mentioned earlier. But they did what they did, which was wrong, and the shit hit the fan.

Keep in mind that this happened conveniently the day before the December 19, Democratic debate, scheduled (again conveniently?) by Wasserman Schultz on a Saturday when even the most loyal of the voting public is doing just about anything other than watching politicians. Call me a cynic, but the whole debacle is full of intrigue that is long from over and far from being explained.
Posted by Jack Dunning at 2:03 PM

Nasty Jack Blog
December 19, 2015

Call me a cynic but the next question is did Clinton people view Bernie Sanders data?

The shit has hit the fan over Bernie Sanders' staffers viewing of Clinton information in the now infamous data breach at NGP VAN. First of all, former Sanders' National data Director Josh Uretsky said, “We didn’t use [the data] for anything valuable and we didn’t take custodianship of it.” Tempting as that might have been, my second point is, just how revealing was the data they looked at? In other words, did they see something that could have brought down the Clinton campaign, or was it just general info like who voted, for whom etc.?

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a close friend and staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton, has been screaming bad boy, bad boy to the high heavens, when, in fact, she has neither confirmed nor denied whether Clinton's team were also bad guys and looked at Bernie's data. And the whole data breach incident is about as suspicious as it can get occurring just before tonight's debate.

In keeping with that thought, it is very interesting that one of the NGP VAN founders, Nathaniel Pearlman, also served as chief technology officer for Hillary Clinton's 2008 Presidential campaign.
I don't want to scream conspiracy--I just did didn't I?--but the Democratic Party has tried to ostracize Bernie Sanders from this race since the beginning, just because he is an Independent. That, when he has always caucused with the Dems. Independents are here to stay but right now the Democratic Party, namely Debbie Wasserman Schultz and her DNC are on trial. We have not heard the last of this.

Nasty Jack Blog

Profile Information

Name: Jack E. Dunning
Gender: Male
Hometown: Cave Creek, AZ
Home country: USA
Member since: Wed Feb 20, 2013, 04:17 PM
Number of posts: 350

About Nasty Jack

It is true that I am a cynic, pessimistic over what's going on in the world. As a skeptic, my initial take on issues is on the downside. What makes me optimistic is writing about it.
Latest Discussions»Nasty Jack's Journal