Letter to the President on gun control

Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President:

You have tried to stop gun violence on several occasions and I realize you have combated a GOP Congress that vowed from the beginning of your first term in office to stop any legislation you proposed. Any legislation. That in itself proves that you are dealing with a group of individuals that have put their ideologies, and I must sorrowfully say, Mr. President, their hate for you, before their country. You have always placed our country first and most of us appreciate that.

It seems to me that to deal with this kind of mentality you must prove to the American public, and those who would block this legislation, the nature of those who are against reasonable gun laws, those who put guns before the safety of innocent victims. I think the way to do this, and, it is my wife's idea by the way, is to lower all U.S. flags to half-mast at government facilities around the world and keep them there until Congress passes meaningful laws for gun control.

Then you, Mr. President, can be instrumental in convincing large and small business, plus individuals who fly the flag, to lower their flags to half-staff until Congress addresses and does something about gun violence. When American citizens realize the reason for doing this, and the fact that it is an on-going event, hopefully that will make them better comprehend the gun slaughter that takes place on American streets every day.

I thank you for your consideration, Mr. President, and my wife and I stand ready to help in any way we can in this matter.

Jack and Barbara Dunning
Cave Creek, AZ

How does your state stand in gun laws?

Legal in Iowa

If you live in Kansas, your gun laws are considered the worst by the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. If you are in Alaska, you are number one in gun deaths. The states with the best gun laws are California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland and Massachusetts, in that order. The five states with the worst gun laws are Alaska, Arizona, Wyoming, Mississippi and Kansas dead last.

How can Iowa rank 17 in gun laws allowing blind people to carry them in public? Arizona is justifiably 47th, partially because gun owners can bring their firearms into a bar. South Dakota was the first state to allow all teachers to carry heat in classrooms. In Colorado a Republican introduced legislation requiring all businesses to allow guns on the premises. Missouri wants to make it a felony to introduce gun legislation. There are more stupid gun laws you can see here.

As gun control advocates have said for years now, the gun culture is out of control with their goal to put as many firearms on the street as they can. And it is all carefully orchestrated by Wayne LaPierre, along with his National Rifle Assn. (NRA) minions, who have somehow convinced the American public, even non-gun owners, that the 2nd Amendment is sacred. Well, I say the 2nd Amendment is doo doo and it is time to flush most of it down the toilet.

LaPierre professes to be protecting his membership in the NRA by enacting all these stupid gun laws but his real intent is to support the sale of guns on behalf of gun manufacturers to increase their profits. If he was working for his membership he would not oppose background checks that are favored by 75% of these members. Only the gun nuts are against responsible gun laws but by far they are the most vocal in yelling persecution.

President Obama has tried but failed in passing stricter gun legislation, knowing full well at the time it would never get through a GOP House, and if by chance it did, the succubus of the senate, McConnell, would never let it pass. Gun control advocates are having some luck at the state and local level and with more Progressives winning these positions in the fall, hopefully we can prevail. This means all you Progressives be sure and get out the vote.

The Super Delegates will be there

Bernie Sanders said today his lack of super delegates to date didn't worry him because the states involved heavily favored Hillary Clinton. He was more concerned about those states to come in the West like California, Oregon and Washington. Through a little research I found that coming down the home stretch Hillary began to lose super delegates to Barack Obama in 2008, eventually losing the nomination to the current President.

It's a matter of choice, says Nate Silver in his FiveThirtyEight blog, commenting, "Superdelegates were created in part to give Democratic party elites the opportunity to put their finger on the scale..." Isn't this a part of Bernie Sander's promise to balance the inequality in the U.S.? As Silver also remarked, "If you’re a Sanders supporter, you might think this seems profoundly unfair. And you’d be right: It’s profoundly unfair."

Not being a Democrat, the Bern has no control over this process, but something tells me that somewhere in the future the Party will re-think this maneuver.

Mitch McConnell still convinced Obama not elected in 2008 or 2012

Get this from the dufus GOP head of the Senate: “The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new President,” as if they didn't have a voice, overwhelmingly, in the 2008 and 2012 elections when Barack Obama was elected in a landslide over John Mccain in 2008, and similarly over Mitt Romney in 2012. McConnell needs to go to the home now.

This blockhead has dogged the President from the first day he was elected when he exclaimed, "my number one priority is making sure President Obama’s a one-term president." Well it didn't happen and Barack Obama has gone on to do great things, the most important of which is to bring the economy from near disaster after Geo. W. Bush to where it is thriving today. Why is Mitch McConnell on the President's back all the time? Is Mitch McConnell a racist?

Top Democrats and pundits called for his resignation over comments he made in a speech: “For four years, Barack Obama has been running from the nation’s problems. He hasn’t been working to earn reelection. He’s been working to earn a stop on the PGA tour." MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell quipped about the way McConnell's speeches were constructed, "That — there’s — these people reach for every single possible racial double entendre they can find in every one of these speeches."

And there's more. It dates back to McConnell's candidacy for the Senate when he was accused of telling racist jokes in private meetings. As a former Capitol Hill worker said, “The candidate saw racist jokes as a way to make him seem like one of the boys in Kentucky.” When he opposed giving Washington, D.D. a seat in House of representatives, "Opponents said McConnell had expressed concern about granting such power to an area with more than 650,000 African Americans."

History will no doubt see this bush-league politician for what he really is, the one who stood in the way of many of the good programs of a great President, doing a great disservice to his country.

Obama talks 2008 and Bernie Sanders

Just today it was reported on MSNBC that "Obama doesn’t see Clinton vs. Sanders as a repeat of 2008." He goes on to confirm that Hillary Clinton is establishment and Bernie Sanders is, well, too focused on one thing. Admittedly, Bernie started his campaign and has continued to emphasize America's inequality, but under that heading falls all of issues also being promoted by Clinton:

Campaign finance reform
Climate change
Criminal justice reform
The economy
Gun violence reform
Health care
Immigration reform
Voting rights  

There are more but the above shows just how close the two campaigns really are. It doesn't point out, however, the differences which make Bernie Sanders the choice of voters who want real change. Like in 2008. Bernie wants a $15 minimum wage, Hillary only $12. Bernie wants honest, single-pay universal health care, Hillary satisfied with Obamacare. Bernie wants to control the wealthy and Wall Street, Hillary is a part of it. There's even more.

Hillary thinks that we must work within the framework of the current political system, Bernie wants a revolution to change that and do away with the current disruptive government. Hillary wants to modify the educational system, Bernie wants to change it to free education for all. Hillary not clear on how she'll pay for her proposals, Bernie will tax the wealthy, large corporations and Wall Street. The last is perhaps the most significant in the separation between the two candidates.

President Obama, along with the rest of the Democratic establishment, is protecting the party favorite over the Independent candidate. Bernie Sanders will finally put this kind of thinking to rest.

How will GOP Congress exploit Polish Jew Socialist as president?

A Republican Congress has done a commendable job of abusing an African-American President who was elected in a landslide in 2008 and re-elected in 2012 with another...landslide. Sen. Mitch McConnell said immediately in 2008, "My number one priority is making sure president Obama’s a one-term president." This dufus has been eating his words ever since. And he, along with dufus 2, former speaker John Boehner, have done everything in their power to thwart everything the President has undertaken.

But here is a list of Obama's accomplishments. Among the ninety by 3 Chics Politoco are Iraq troop withdrawal, passed The Affordable Care Act, Financial industry reform that prevented a second Great depression, killed Osama bin Laden, and obviously many more. You get the picture. But throughout this man's Presidency the beltway bunglers have dogged him on every issue, holding him in contempt for doing the things the American public wanted.

Enter a Polish Jew who is a Democratic Socialist and I wonder what Mitch McConnell will say about him, that is if he is still Senate Majority leader, or even in the Senate when Bernie Sanders takes over the White House? Apparently Obama being black was enough for Republicans, admit it or not. Bernie is Polish; will that bring back the Polish jokes of the 1960s? He is a Jew, but, wait, the GOP is desperate to wrest the Jewish vote from the Democrats.

So that leaves the fact that Sanders is a Democratic Socialist and I am sure the Republican hate machines will make the most of that. Sen. Claire McCaskill has already fired the first salvo saying,  “I think it would be absolutely impossible for a self-declared socialist to win states like Missouri." These shallow thinkers like McCaskill don't even realize that three of America's greatest institutions are Socialistic: The Post Office; Social Security; and Medicare.

A Gallup Poll in 2010 said that 36% of the American public viewed Socialism positively and that acceptance has grown over the last five years. So take your pick. He's Polish, he's a Jew and he's a Democratic Socialist. Who wants to bet on what the GOP will pick to try and bring him down after he is elected? Whatever that is it won't work with the Bern either.

Do you despise Wayne LaPierre? Watch this video and you will

Charles Topher calls the head of the National Rifle Assn. (NRA), Wayne LaPierre, despicable, disgusting. Topher says his moral code embraces only money, calling for more guns in schools immediately following the gun massacre of 20 six-year-olds and 6 teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. Well, I couldn't have said it better except my description would have included many expletives.

LaPierre cowardly refused to appear with Barack Obama at the "Guns in America" town hall on CNN January 4. Then it took him two weeks to come up with an answer in which he challenges the President to a one-on-one gun control debate. The terms: "...that the debate be one hour with a moderator, no pre-screened questions and no long answers." Apparently LaPierre isn't capable of putting together long sentences unless he has a script in front of him.

This challenge from the country's head gun nut consists of an eight-minute propaganda video designed to showcase his arrogance and ignorance of the issues, while completely ignoring the facts. LaPierre is the epitome of the village idiot who stumbles through life as an...idiot. Read the article and watch the video--if your stomach can handle it--here.

Close connections between President's SOTU speech and Bernie Sanders campaign

Barack Obama closed the last year of his Presidency with an excellent SOTU speech that reverberated through all the accomplishments of his seven years and the conflict that he has experienced with the GOP Congress in opposing almost everything he has proposed. No hostility, just hard facts that should put Republicans on notice that this will probably gain momentum with the new Democratic President in January 2017.

He did not identify who the next President will be but he indicated the United States is now on a course of Progressivism, one that is supported by the American public, and one that must be advanced in the future. Obama also touched on some topics he felt were priorities for this country that have been championed by Bernie Sanders for the last 30 years and are major thrusts of his campaign for President.

The income and wealth inequality, something Joe Biden praised him for saying this was new territory for Hillary Clinton. Getting big money out of politics. Establishing a living wage, increasing the minimum to $15.00 per hour. Creating decent paying jobs. Strengthening and expanding Social Security, to name only a few. Clinton has picked up on many of these issues, attempting to make them her ideas. But the voting public is beginning to get wise, as they become more familiar with the Senator from Vermont.

President Obama has said he won't endorse one of the Democratic candidates. After tonight's SOTU, it won't be necessary.

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.

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.

UK PM David Cameron Catches Scott Walker in Lie

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who is considering running for President in 2016, says the UK's Prime Minister, David Cameron told him directly "that he’s unsatisfied with American leadership." Apparently Walker has been scurrying around the world to learn something about foreign policy, a trek that obviously failed. In trying to degrade President Obama, he told a group of Republicans "that world leaders, including Cameron, are worried about the U.S. stepping back in the world." He said he heard it from David Cameron at 10 Downing.

Cameron quickly suggested that Scott Walker "has no idea what he’s talking about." One of the Prime Minister's spokespersons added, "The Prime Minister did not say that and does not think that." Well, isn't that a revolting development for a man who wants to be President and is known for his gaffs. Back in February when he was asked about how he would handle ISIS, his response was “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the globe.” The 100,000 he refers to are those labor protesters in Wisconsin. The National Review called his response "awful."

Mitch McConnell the Perpetual Asshole

Don't tell me U.S. Senators deserve respect when they are the low life of Congress. If there was a barrel, the downside would have to be bottomless to accommodate Mitch McConnell. He doesn't represent the state of Kentucky--actually they should be ashamed of him--he represents the legions of hate. This misanthropy started the day after Barack Obama was elected President as McConnell said, “When I first came into office my number one priority is making sure president Obama’s a one-term president." How can you hate someone like this so quick, and after he had just won a landslide election against Republican favorite John McCain?

I have heard similar responses from other conservatives across the country who have commented on my posts. I've said it before and I'll say it again...it sounds downright racist. Obama put forth an agenda that, although not as ambitious, was not too dissimilar to that of Bill Clinton but the latter wasn't vilified by the conservative right nor by Congress, at least in the manner McConnell has Obama.

"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last Thursday that he doesn’t expect to confirm any of Obama’s circuit court nominees for the remainder of his time in office." Why? Is it because the Dems did the same thing to Geo. W. Bush at the end of his second term? Hell no! Here is the contrast as reported by Steve Benen of MSNBC:

At this point in 2007, in the seventh year of the Bush/Cheney presidency, soon after Democrats took the Senate majority for the first time in several years, the Democratic majority had already confirmed 18 of Bush’s court nominees. Senate Democrats confirmed 68 of Bush’s judicial nominees in the final two years of the Republican administration.

I would be happy to revise this post if Mitch McConnell would go public and explain his hatred for Obama.

Here Are the Facts on Pot-You Decide

CNN asks whether marijuana is as safe or safer than alcohol. One of the headlines surrounding this headline is "High Profits" an indication of the exceptional revenue for states that have legalized it, particularly for recreational use. But this article is all about the medical benefits or disadvantages and there are a lot. As an opening, Pres. Obama said, "I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol." That might do it for the Progressives but not for the conservative right. Anyway, here are the facts:

• Alcohol is the most commonly used addictive substance in the United States.
• Pot use is limited due to its designation as a Schedule 1 substance, the same category as heroin, LSD and Ecstasy, and also due to its illegal nature in most states.
• The addiction of alcohol is proven with approximately 17.6 million people, or one in every 12 adults suffering from abuse.
• Marijuana's addictive qualities are not yet fully understood, but estimates say 9% of people who use marijuana will become addicted to it.
• Drunk drivers kill one person and injure 20 every hour.
• The pot smoker effects while driving results--a slight impact on the psychomotor skills--are still questionable since most of the studies are lab tests. 

There's more in this comprehensive article, such as how alcohol and marijuana affect your appetite and weight gain, how it can help or hinder the sexual drive and lower your inhibitions to the point you neglect safe sex, and what the long-term health risks are for each. The absolute downside is some 88,000 Americans die each year because of excessive alcohol use. Again the marijuana facts are limited on deaths but one study found pot users have a 4.8-fold increase in risk of a heart attack during the first hour after smoking because of the drug's effect on your heart rate.

But what do you want to bet it eventually comes down to the increased state income on the sale of pot. Legal marijuana state revenue (medicinal/recreational) in Colorado generated $63 million in 2014 tax revenue, with an additional $13 million collected in licenses and fees on $700 million in sales. Sales are expected to be $1 billion by 2016.

ANOTHER OBAMA HATER...THIS TIME FROM IOWA

U. S. Representative Steve King from Iowa has just blamed the Baltimore riots on President Obama. Another Bible thumper, his reasoning is that if we had had a different President, one that would have come out with fire and brimstone, telling the public that God would want them to be nice to each other and go home to their beds, they would have done just that. Iowa has enough problems with its other lunatic, Joni Ernst, now they have a new one. Here's what King said about Obama's middle name and a connection to Islam in 2008:

"I don't want to disparage anyone because of their race, their ethnicity, their name—whatever their religion their father might have been, I'll just say this: When you think about the optics of a Barack Obama potentially getting elected President of the United States – I mean, what does this look like to the rest of the world? What does it look like to the world of Islam? I will tell you that, if he is elected president, then the radical Islamists, the al-qaida, the radical Islamists and their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they did on September 11."

Well, none of what he predicted happened. But what kind of conservative religious right would condone comments like this? And I will say it again, President Barack Obama has lived through some of the most racist times of this country since the 1960s and has always stayed far above radicals like Steve King.

ECONOMY ON THE UPSWING-SO IS OBAMA

Working under almost insurmountable odds, Pres. Barack Obama has brought this country back from the brink with a significantly improved economy. A CNN/ORC poll found recently, "52% describe the U.S. economy as very or somewhat good, while 48% call it very or somewhat poor." These figures are a first for the Obama presidency but were a long time coming due to those odds. First, there has been a hateful Congress that opposed everything the President has done in the last almost seven years. A current example is the opposition of Loretta Lynch for Attorney General; it has taken 165 days and still counting. The other major odds he had to overcome is the massive damage done to the economy by Geo. W. Bush like the financial meltdown, two major wars, home market tanking, soaring oil prices, a shrinking dollar and more.

And what have Republicans accomplished during the Obama administration? Nothing, but confront and repel anything the President did. That's why the GOP Congress has an approval rating of 28%, disapproval of  67%.

MICHELE BACHMANN: WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT

This quote here says it all from one of the looniest people ever to crash the political scene. But she actually topped it exclaiming in a recent MSNBC article that the end is near--the Rapture to fundamentalists--and it is all Barack Obama's fault. Now the President has been blamed for just about everything from ruining the U.S. economy, which was clearly the fault of Geo. W. Bush, to playing footsie with Iran on the nuclear deal. But not causing the end of the world until batty Bachmann claimed the end is near, thanks to President Obama. Here's another of this screwball's quotes, "If we took away the minimum wage -- if conceivably it was gone -- we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely because we would be able to offer jobs at whatever level." But my favorite is, "Our movement at its core is an intellectual movement," talking about the Tea Party. Now that's the laugh of the century.

MITCH MCCONNELL THE WISHFUL OBAMA SLAYER

Time to resurrect this clown's comment. Mitch McConnell said in 2010: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." Flash-forward to April of 2015, Obama won a second term and the fruitcake Senator is still on attack. You would think McConnell would learn he's been outsmarted but, then, Republicans don't have this capacity. So what can I do now that I am Senate head again,he asks? Oh, there's Loretta Lynch who wants to be the first female black Attorney General. But President Obama also wants her for AG so no freaking way that is going to happen. And so the dysfunction of the Congress of the greatest country on earth continues under the control of conservatives.

HEAD OF NRA SAYS WE DON'T NEED ANOTHER TOKEN MINORITY FOR PRESIDENT

Are we now to assume that wacky Wayne LaPierre, head of the National Rifle Assn., is both racist and a chauvinist? His recent comments at the NRA convention in Nashville would infer both. Calling President Obama "demographically symbolic," saying we don't need another of these in the form of Hillary Clinton, places WW right out there with the current crop of conservative crackpots. Of course the gun nuts in the audience cheered him on as we would expect, but I wonder about those NRA members who were there that are more moderate in their beliefs, like favoring background checks for gun purchases? The New York News says he is the "Craziest Man on Earth," and every time he opens his mouth he proves it. It's time that 75% of the NRA membership realizes what a freak the man is and send him packing.

HILLARY CLINTON DECIDES AND TOP POLLSTER SAYS SHE'S IN

Nate Silver, founder of the website 538 Politics, has taken his place among the political analysts of today due to his methods in computer modeling and the aggregation of polling results. His results stem from the fact that with all the crunching of numbers including demographics, he has a feel for the political scene. So with Hillary Clinton's announcement today that she is running for President, Silver believes she is "likely to win the nomination." She has 27 Democratic Senators endorsing her campaign, far more than any party nominee back to Ronald Reagan. He seals it with the fact these endorsements are coming from the left, center and right of the Democratic caucus. Solid support. Factors for the general election: (1 Obama's popularity when he exits, it is average now: (2 The economy, it's good for now; (3 "The Electoral College And The 'Emerging Democratic Majority,'” and the demographic trends that favor the party. If you're passionate about 2016 I suggest you start following 538 Politics now.

LIBERALS NEED TO WAKE UP AND DO THE RIGHT THING-CONTINUED

In his book, The Liberal Imagination, Lionel Trilling carped that there were “no conservative or reactionary ideas in general circulation.” Then along came right-wing intellectuals like Milton Friedman, James Q. Wilson, Alan Bloom and Gertrude Himmelfarb that liberals had to contend with for a while. But not for long. Anything representing intellectualism by the GOP went down the tubes with the advent of Karl Rove and the George W. Bush administration. It was basically replaced with "HATE." Something that has served Republicans well with the inauguration of Barack Obama for President. In The Nation, Trilling points out that today no intellectual equals exist with George Will saying, "that rape victims enjoy their 'privileges,' that Ebola can be spread through the air, and that global warming is a hoax." Trilling adds that, "Conservative 'wise man' Bill Kristol has achieved this status by proving himself, time and again, to be the worst predictor in the history of the punditocracy."

With this ammunition, Progressives can be passionate over keeping the White House in 2016 as well as retaking Congress.

More later.