Bernie Sanders Sayings

That {a flat tax}is precisely the wrong direction to take. We need to reaffirm the just principle that those who benefit the most economically from our society should pay the most to sustain it.

Gun Control could be Bernie Sanders weak link in long haul

Hillary Clinton hammered Bernie Sanders on gun control by pointing out his votes to grant immunity to gun makers from lawsuits when their products are used in crimes, and for voting against the Brady Bill five times. Clinton says Sanders shows no signs of changing his positions on these issues and that does not correspond with the wishes of the American public which is veering more in the favor of reasonable gun control.
I have been critical of Bernie's failure to come out strong for gun control from the beginning and believe it hurts him now more while the realization is finally hitting the U.S. that too many guns are responsible for the daily shootings and mass killings in this country. I really cannot see how someone can be a true Progressive and not realize how much negative impact guns have on the total population. The 2nd Amendment be damned, America needs to rein in the gun culture now.

In last Thursday's CNN Town Hall on gun control, Barack Obama came out moderately for more action on guns, with much less force than I had expected and hoped for. Again, I have felt that the President has also been much to soft on this issue, and this has been another let down for me. Sanders spokesman Michael Briggs told Politico,  Sanders was “willing to take another look at the gun manufacturer immunity legislation.” Not good enough for me and, I am sure, many gun-violence-fed-up Americans.

I am for Bernie Sanders to the end, which I envision to be the day that he and Jane walk into the White House after he is elected President. But in the meantime, too many innocent people, including children, are dying from gun violence and I believe that all that are involved in this fiasco know what has to be done. So why don't we do it.

Bernie Sanders Sayings

They {the wealthy} and many of their conservative mouthpieces are even trying to sell the nation on a flat tax, allowing a billionaire to pay the same rate as a mother of two earning $5.50 an hour in her service-sector job.

Obamacare survives with President's veto

Over 50 times now the dunce cap kids have tried to repeal The Affordable Care Act that has more people covered for their health care needs now than ever before. Okay, I hear the naysayers, and yes there are still problems that have to be fixed but what if they had given up on Social Security and Medicare during their trying times? In the MSNBC article, one reader posed this question:

"I know that republicans will do whatever the NRA wants because of the millions of dollars that they receive in bribes. What I'm not sure about is why they are so stuck on continually trying to abolish or not fund Obamacare? Who has bribed them on this one?"

 That's an interesting question and raises another equally absorbing query; just who has the GOP's gonads on this one. One would need only to look at the health care industry and health professionals. The GOP and conservative groups receive far more in donations than Democrats and Progressive organizations. Which would indicate to me that if you are a Republican politician, you're in it for the money. Sure, the Dems do it but the scales are weighed heavily toward the GOP when it comes to taking money for favors.

Of course there is still that factor of animosity toward Barack Obama and anything he has or is trying to accomplish in his presidency. This will perhaps go down in U.S. history as the most egregious act ever perpetrated by a Republican Congress.  

President Obama drops gun control fact bomb on CNN Town Hall

After the President determined that Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Assn. was too much of a coward to debate him at the CNN Town Hall on guns, he made the following compelling statement:

“…there’s no other consumer item that we purchase…There’s nothing else in our lives that we purchase that we don’t try to make a little safer if we can. Obama on guns."

But we don't do this with gun, despite the ease in doing so, because LaPierre and his NRA henchmen have Congress by the balls. Pathetic.

Bernie Sanders Sayings

There is no reason that those who earn over $200,000 a year should not pay a significantly larger percentage of their income in taxes than they currently do. Of course, the greed of the wealthy knows no bounds. 

Gun manufacturers depend on gun nuts with double-digit IQs

I should have made a parody out of this piece since it is so farcical. But just visualize this scenario. President Barack Obama opens his mouth about some reasonable gun control and thousands of gun nuts go rushing to their nearest weapons supply store and stock up on handguns and assault rifles. No matter that all these short supply brainiacs already have an arsenal of each, bought the last time President Barack Obama opened his mouth about reasonable gun control.

It's the NRA plan, led by Wayne LaPierre, and the gun manufacturers pay him well to pump up these stooges to do their bidding. And it has worked. There has been another rally in gun stocks because the stock market knows their coffers will swell significantly when LaPierre's puppets hit the streets and storm the gun stores.

It's like the little old lady who gives her last $2 to charity; some of these gun addicts probably have trouble putting food on the table but will still purchase an AR-15. This has gotten so pathetic that some of these people should probably be committed. But that won't happen and gun manufacturers will go on selling more guns, some of which will end up on the street and take part in future daily killings and mass shootings. 

Bernie Sander Sayings

We need to establish a more progressive income tax. The more you earn, the more you pay. Not only is that a fair principle, but greater progressivity would lessen the inequities in income that currently afflict us.

Obamacare beats sign-up expectations but GOP Congress wants to repeal

More than 8 million people signed up for coverage via the federal HealthCare.gov health insurance exchange marketplace as of Saturday, Dec. 19, 2015, according to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell on MSNBC. She added, "Today, we have more sign-ups, more new enrollees and a younger population than we did last year.” Didn't Pres. Obama caution that we must give the healthcare act time and the young people would begin to participate?

Our new esteemed House Speaker, Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), was quoted at the same time on "Meet the Press," "It’s a law {ACA} that is not working.” So much for improving the new Speaker's intelligence over Boehner and working across the aisle.

If that wasn't enough, yesterday "The House voted almost entirely along party-lines, 240 to 181, to repeal the Affordable Care Act and defund Planned Parenthood." Obama has already said he was going to veto any of this Republican bullshit, which makes it perfectly clear to me what a mockery the GOP is and has been making of the Congress in pursuing their stupid ideology. It's a proven fact that the more the public knows about the ACA, the more they approve of it. 

It is also obvious that much of the original and ongoing disapproval of ACA is due to Republican negative advertising and promotion since its inception in 2010, much of which was and continues to be totally untrue. It's all a matter of whether or not we want to provide coverage for every citizen of the U.S., some who can't afford it, like many of the industrialized countries in the world. Or do we continue to let the covetous, greedy Republican population keep America in the dark ages? 

It's pretty much your decision when you go to the polls in November. 

Bernie Sanders Sayings

At a time when this country is seeing a proliferation of millionaires and billionaires, the rich must start paying their fair share of taxes.

Another example media ignores Bernie Sanders

These are Bernie Sanders donors

On January 1, MSNBC reported that Hillary Clinton had raised $37 million in the 4th quarter of 2015, bringing her total for the year to $112 million. The piece even said that 60% of her 2015 donors were women. Bernie Sanders raised $33 million in the same period, but I had to go to the International Business Times to find that out. Bernie ended the year with a total of $73 million but there is one distinct difference between the two races.

Clinton raises much of her money from PACs and corporate donations whereas Sanders' money all comes from individual donors and that translates into votes, as compared to Hillary's block contributors. 

From the beginning, the media has ignored this candidate with an arrogance that says, 'We will decide who is going to be the next President.' 538"s Nate Silver said Donald Trump received 4 times the media coverage of what Bernie Sanders received. In Sanders first campaign rally he drew 5,000 and the Washington Post completely ignored the rally.

And as far as the national and primary polls are concerned, Clinton's popularity is partially the product of her coverage. In a September Media Matters article, MM reports that Clinton received 82 minutes of network news time, second only to Donald Trump, where Bernie Sanders received a measly 8 minutes. Think of that. When you compare this exposure with how TV ads are often the reason a candidate wins his or her race, it's easy to see why Hillary Clinton is ahead in the polls.

And that should make Bernie Sanders supporters mad as hell.

Bernie Sanders Sayings

What is needed today is a reversal of the policy direction of the last twenty years and the development of a truly progressive tax system in the United States.

Oregon militia standoff is unconstitutional

Bubba at the standoff

They're screaming their constitutional rights by taking over and holding a federal U.S. building which is against the law, as far as I know. But common sense doesn't work with these gun nuts; they only understand what they want and don't care how they go about getting it. Cliven Bundy is another example of this kind of dimwit approach, with his 2014 Nevada deadlock, and his son, Ammon Bundy is leading the latest skirmish. The senior Bundy still owes the federal government more than $1 million.

If I owed the Gov one dollar they would slap a lien on my home in minutes. Why aren't the Feds doing this to Bundy? MSNBC reports, "Ammon Bundy told the 'TODAY' show on Monday that his group has no intention of committing violence unless the government intervenes. But at the same time, he refuses to rule out violence if the building is raided."

“The only violence that, if it comes our way, will be because government is wanting their building back,” Ammon Bundy told Natalie Morales. “We’re putting nobody in harm’s way. We are not threatening anybody. We’re 30 miles out of the closest town.”

"Wanting their building back;" of course the government wants their building back. After all they need it to conduct business for the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. So these lamebrains are setting the Gov up to do their job by removing them, saying the resulting violence will be their fault. “We’re putting nobody in harm’s way. We are not threatening anybody. We’re 30 miles out of the closest town.” What kind of stupid reasoning is this? Oh, forgot, we're dealing with gun nuts.

President Obama should send in his best SWAT team and if these double-digit IQs with a "...morbid interest in firearms out of a belief that they provide protection, security and freedom while appearing scary to the uninitiated," (Urban Dictionary) resist, then well, shoot em.

Bernie Sanders Sayings

During the 1980s, some multibillion-dollar corporations did not pay one penny in taxes.

Nate silver's 538 thinks Bernie Sanders can win Iowa caucuses

Hillary Clinton led Barack Obama 30% to 24% at this same point in the 2008 Iowa caucuses. She leads Bernie Sanders an average of 53% to 37% in this past month. Nate Silver, 538's founder and editor, thinks Bernie could catch up and capture the state, making New Hampshire a tougher win for Clinton. Where we disagree, Silver believes Clinton will still get the nomination. I certainly don't have the data that 538 does--dating back to 1980--but Bernie Sanders has a campaign momentum that might be explained by the following numbers.

It's the young vote; this group is 97 million strong and likely to surprise the pollsters starting in February through November of 2016. It did wonders for Obama in 2008, due to his stand for change, and Bernie Sanders Revolution is exciting this same collection of youth in 2015/2016. 61% of that 97M is registered to vote or over 59 million. 49% of that 59 million voted in 2012 or more than 29 million.

As an example, according to the Washington Wire, Iowa figures show that 60% of this age group supports Bernie Sanders for the February Caucuses. And in New Hampshire, where he leads Clinton now, Bernie has 55%. Nationally, he is viewed positively by 45% of age 18-34, 37% 35-49, 33% 50-64 and 35% 65+. There is a hushed underground working fervently for Bernie Sanders that most of the pollsters are ignoring; it is obvious to me daily from the correspondence I receive on the Sander's campaign.

I have been supporting and covering Bernie Sanders from the first day he entered the race and plan to be around when he is nominated in July.

Happy New Year 2016 from Nasty Jack!