A conversation with Jeff Kurzon, congressional Berniecrat candidate (Democrat) running in NY-7, which includes parts of Booklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. It is one of the more diverse districts in the state. This is the second time Jeff is running for this position, against the same incumbent. Last time he tried to "play the game" with aggressive fundraising. He raised around $100,000, compared to his opponent's $750,000. That's 13% of the funds, and he won 20% of the vote: 1800 people. 96% of his district didn't vote.

This time, for the 2016 campaign, Jeff is not accepting fundraising at all. He's only using $5000 of his personal funds. He's not actively fundraising, he is out talking with and listening to his constituents. He didn't send out paid staff to collect signatures on his behalf (to get on the ballot), he and enthusiastic volunteers are personally collecting them. Real relationships.

The people of NY-7 need to open their eyes to Jeff Kurzon. He needs your vote and your time, and NY-7--and all of us--deserve to have a Congress filled with people like him. Jeff is serving and listening to the people, not the big donors.

http://jeffkurzon.com

http://twitter.com/JeffKurzon

I got a phone call yesterday by some people on the other side of the world. They told me that they detected problems on my computer and to show me those problems, and of course show me how I could solve them.

Very interesting how someone calls me on my cell phone, yet somehow knows which computer is mine, and is detecting problems that I myself, a computer professional, did not notice. Not to mention that my computer has been turned off for a week.

A friend got scammed by the same kind of thing last year. She was looking on the web, and reached a website where an infinite loop of red and scary pop-ups greeted her. There was and audio voice stating that only by calling this number could it be fixed. Luckily we saved her computer, even though she did indeed to grant them total control.

When I arrived, the person on the other side of the world was typing into a text document on her desktop. When they knew that I was there, they selected all and deleted the whole thing. Thinking about it now, perhaps if I hit undo and copied, I could've gotten their information. We turned off her computer, uninstalled that software (logmein), and all was fine.

This is my conversation with the scammers, asking them questions, trying to get them to explain to me exactly what problems they were talking about, and exactly how they detected these problems. They obviously couldn't explain them thoroughly enough, Because it's nonsense. But they kept answering my questions for 15 minutes before hanging up on me.

The original interview with Jeff that was lost by my phone-recording service, iOS TapeACall Pro, and just recovered today (so thankfully, it is back to being flawless, and kudos to them for the customer service). This was recorded May 23, a week before the second one. It is surprisingly complementary--not nearly as redundant as you might think. Thank you to Jeff and Julie for the patience through this process.

Description from the May 28th interview:

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A conversation with Jeff Kurzon, congressional Berniecrat candidate (Democrat) running in NY-7, which includes parts of Booklyn, Queens, and Manhattan. It is one of the more diverse districts in the state. This is the second time Jeff is running for this position, against the same incumbent. Last time he tried to "play the game" with aggressive fundraising. He raised around $100,000, compared to his opponent's $750,000. That's 13% of the funds, and he won 20% of the vote: 1800 people. 96% of his district didn't vote.

This time, for the 2016 campaign, Jeff is not accepting fundraising at all. He's only using $5000 of his personal funds. He's not actively fundraising, he is out talking with and listening to his constituents. He didn't send out paid staff to collect signatures on his behalf (to get on the ballot), he and enthusiastic volunteers are personally collecting them. Real relationships.

The people of NY-7 need to open their eyes to Jeff Kurzon. He needs your vote and your time, and NY-7--and all of us--deserve to have a Congress filled with people like him. Jeff is serving and listening to the people, not the big donors.

jeffkurzon.com

twitter.com/JeffKurzon

An in-depth interview with a founder of Election Justice USA, Ed Higgins, and three observers--not participants--of the first day of the New York Democratic State Convention. They raise serious concerns both about the convention itself, and in particular the self-described Bernie Sanders campaign lawyer, who was the only representative from the Sanders campaign that spoke. These three observers (not delegates) thought that Mr. Schwartz said explicitly that "Bernie Sanders himself has told us that he wants to unify around Hillary Clinton". However, this is not what he said in the below videos.

However, it is not what he said, rather that Mr. Schwartz is strongly implying that he is an official representative of the Bernie Sanders campaign (both in his speech, and through "official" emails to Bernie Sanders delegates before the convention), when there is no evidence to prove his position in the campaign. The fact that he was the only Bernie Sanders representative at the NY convention makes this potential misrepresentation concerning.

He was indeed on the campaign's legal team, but according to my sources close to the campaign, he was no longer a staff member during nor for the months before it. I have no sources to prove either way at the moment.

The discussion about Mr. Schwartz starts at around 1hr 10 min.

Videos:

- Video 1 of 2 (five minutes, full speech by Mr. Schwartz)

-- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1BV0j8_Xdk

- Video 2 of 2 (hour long, contains full speech)

-- Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CtquTUgjzo

-- Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEHzdUje_Gg

-- Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7bLQQy3ci0

Interview with a small business owner about how medical coverage for him and his employees is so difficult and expensive. He is intrigued by Bernie Sanders' Medicare for All plan

https://berniesanders.com/issues/medicare-for-all/

but does not know much enough about it, and hardly anything about Bernie Sanders in general.

I went to Chesterfield, NJ, to talk with a group of people that are fighting a natural gas pipeline. I thought I knew everything about at least the basics, but it turns out that what I know is about a completely different pipeline. The pipeline as I understood it was a 22 mile one going through the Pine Barrens in Southeast Burlington County, NJ, and a bunch of other surrounding counties. The pipeline that they're fighting here in is a completely different one, going through their streets and front yards.

This conversation opened my eyes. The pipeline is just as enormous a problem as the one going through the Pine Barrens, but for completely different reasons.

These people are guaranteed to get sick. Pipelines are being built as close as 80 feet away from their houses and directly under the streets on which they drive. The blast radius for a highly compressed, 30 inch diameter gas pipeline is between 1/4 and 1/2 mile. Gas pipelines slowly leak and gradually corrode, and leech methane into the environment, including the wells from which they drink, cook, and bathe.

These people want to either stop the pipeline, or sell their homes and get out. But the contradiction is that it is unethical to sell their homes, knowing that The new owners are going to get sick as well.

A conversation with Bruce Schwartz and Billy Taylor. Bruce is a former lawyer, local volunteer politician, and is knowledgeable in the history of conventions and protests. Billy is an organizer of the march on the Democratic National Convention, July 25 through the 27th, 2016.

We discuss the Bernie or Bust movement's deregistration protest and its list of demands on the Democratic National Committee (specific demands not yet public), and especially how to design, organize, and keep a mass protest peaceful.

An in-depth discussion with Gene at Sage Diner in Mount Laurel, NJ. Gene is a former campaign manager who has lent his expertise and insights to my am my partner, Mike Miller's campaign, although this conversation is before I knew I was going to be running. Gene discusses his experience managing campaigns, why he likes Bernie Sanders, and we both share our concerns on how the Bernie Sanders campaign manages its army of volunteers.

A down-on-his-luck man from Camden, NJ, discusses the injustice of not being able to vote because of being on parole.

Had the pleasure of meeting Bruce Carter and his crew from Black Men for Bernie, at the grand opening of their office in North Philadelphia (905 N. Broad Street). So much thanks to Alicia for inviting me, and to Darryl for training me on the ins-and-outs of what they do and how they do it. I got to watch Black Men for Bernie in action for five hours. Organizing, planning, hiring people, and the business and marketing concepts that surround it all.

Before I arrived, my own goal for helping Bernie Sanders win New Jersey, was to talk to groups of people, so I can educate them about Bernie Sanders. But after leaving them, that goal changed to "reaching as many people as possible", and Black Men for Bernie knows how to reach them in a way that I could never achieve on my own. The best way that I can help Bernie Sanders is to help *them* reach the people in my community (Burlington County and Camden). While I may not do as much of the talking and teaching as I originally wanted, that's okay, because what the real goal is, is to get this great man elected. And helping Bruce and Black Men for Bernie is exactly what's going to make that happen.