Hillary Clinton Comes Out Swinging for Immigration

For a Hillary Clinton that can be cautious on the campaign trail, she has come out swinging by backing full citizenship for potentially millions of undocumented immigrants. Earlier she had spoken out in favor of giving driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants, both issues a certainty to arouse the need for the Republican field to respond. It's all about the Hispanic vote; although it hasn't exerted its full muscle yet, there are still over 25 million registered Latino voters in the U.S. Historically Democrats, this voting block is slowly pulling away, in my opinion, caused by the lack of effort by the Obama administration. The question will be what gets Hispanics out to vote in 2016: in 2014 it was hands down the economy, followed by healthcare, surprisingly, the immigration issue coming in third.

Bernie Sanders Can Win Because He Is Authentic

Bernie Sanders is as real and genuine as it gets but will that land him the Democratic nomination for 2016? CNN is still saying don't count Bernie out, even though he faces enormous popularity and financial odds against Hillary Clinton. I did the numbers once, 30 million Progressives and another 40 million Democrats, not necessarily Progressives. Sanders can't count on all 30 million Progressives and he can count on taking some of "Hillary's" 40 million Democrats. And throw in a few thousand moderate Republicans making the pot pretty massive for someone. Bernie Sanders' biggest problem is that in a recent poll, only 1% of voters haven't heard of Hillary Clinton. And In a late Clear Politics national poll Clinton has 62 percent support from Democratic voters, Sanders only 5.6 percent. He also can't expect a lot of establishment endorsement since he is an outsider doing his own thing. But that is what the grass-roots folks love and why so many of them love Bernie.

There are reasons for the candidate's growing popularity, primarily his "frontal assault on the political system and a pledge to directly combat the billionaire class.” Also, with the level of distrust in Washington at its peak, things are ripe for Sanders' damn-the-system revolution. Bernie Sanders has Jimmy Carter's "Peanut Farmer" appeal but with more substantive issues in his playbook.

Fox News Has Become a Retirement Community

There are a lot of things liberals don't know about Fox News and I'll bet this is one of them. The median age of their viewer is 68, not that there's anything wrong with that, hell, I'm 82. But it just doesn't seem right that after that many years these people would want to be so uninformed as the Faux News Network will lead them to be. I did a post on this earlier, "It's Official-Fox News Viewers Are Really That Dumb," that I guess these folks didn't read. Politico talked to Bruce Bartlett who has done a paper indicating that Fox has changed American Media and Political Dynamics with the inference that it has become the leader of the pack. Not so says Politico quoting some figures to back that up. As an example, The O’Reilly Factor claims some 3.3 million viewers tops and that's a drop in the bucket compared to the voting age of over 234 million. But one of Bartlett's points makes good sense, that since the launching of Fox News in 1996, the network only picked up the gauntlet, but is continuing to lead the Republican Party toward radicalized candidates for president.

Frank Rich, a well-known liberal writer discounts Fox News power. In New York he said, "...aside from infuriating liberals, Fox flexes little political power." Tell that to Bill O’Reilly.

Will Bernie Sanders Change Election Politics?

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders talked to host Brian Stelter on CNN's Reliable Sources this past Sunday. The subject was Sander's criticism of the media for covering everything in the 2016 election but the issues and concentrating on negative campaigning. The comparison was drawn between how celebrity scandals came to the news desk cheap and produced great ratings resulting in the same mentality in presidential races. Sanders said:

"The majority of American news consumers are either misinformed or underinformed. There is a lack of basic current events knowledge in our society. Most people get their news from television, and television has decided not to cover serious issues."

Stelter noted that "Bernie Sanders is one of the few we've seen consistently speaking out on the topic..." Here's his actual comment on the air:  

"It's rare to hear a candidate or any politician really talk about the systemic issues in the press the way you did last week. I kind of lit up when I heard it, and I wondered, is it a winning strategy for you to be going at the press?"

Sanders replied that he didn't know if it was a winning strategy but it was what he did, followed by another listing of the issues. This is all in comparison with the other candidates, Republican and Democrat, constantly beating around the bush and never addressing the issue. But the American public buys this and it is pathetic!

New Memorial Day for Veterans Dying From Lack of Health Care

If the Veterans Administration continues its path of destruction for the veterans they are charged with helping we'll have to establish a new holiday: VETERANS DEATH DAY. At least 40 vets died waiting for healthcare in Phoenix, where the eventual disaster was originally discovered. In the latter part of 2014 there had been 293 deaths confirmed due to denied care by the U.S. Inspector General. There have been more since then.

An example is Richard Miles who went to the Des Moines VA for help in Feb. of 2015 with "worsened PTSD," anxiety and insomnia, was given some pills and told to go home and wait for an appointment. He died five days later when he froze to death in the woods after taking a toxic amount of sleeping pills. When he returned from his deployment in Iraq he suffered from anger, irritability and sleep disturbance with troublesome dreams. He was hospitalized at the Iowa VA hospital four times for PTSD for trying to hang himself twice and for bringing  a gun into a different hospital ward planning to kill himself. Is the VA really this stupid?

The only problem is that it will be hard to designate an actual date for VETERANS DEATH DAY since this "war" is still going on and there is no end in sight.

What is the History of Memorial Day?

We've been told enough recently the distinction between Memorial Day and Veterans Day, the former representing our war dead and the latter all veterans who have served. But where did this celebration come from and how did it mature through the years to what it is today? It was originally called Decoration Day, referring to the practice of decorating Civil War soldiers' tombs with bouquets of lilacs and other fresh flowers. And then in 1866, it had its first village-wide observance in Waterloo, N.Y. led by Gen. John Murray and Henry Wells, using flags at half-staff, evergreens and black fabric to signify mourning. But it was on May 26, 1966, that President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a Presidential Proclamation honoring Waterloo as the Birthplace of Memorial Day. Many Southern states still pay homage to the Civil War and the Confederate dead on their own specified days. And then following World War One, the day was expanded to honor those killed in all wars, not just the Civil War. Remember, the National Moment of Remembrance is 3 PM local time wherever you are.

Thanks to the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle.

What Republicans are Aligned with the Duggar Family

Josh Duggar is a former reality show star and he is also a former molester who fondled his four sisters. His dad, Jim Bob, contacted police and church elders but he was never arrested. This all becomes particularly interesting when you consider that 2016 Presidential candidate Mike Huckabee is solidly behind Josh Duggar and his family. The Duggars earlier switched their support from Rick Santorum to Huckabee. On May 19, Josh Duggar tweeted a picture of himself with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who's expected to launch his presidential bid next month. "He's been photographed smiling alongside Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee." His wife, Anna, knew of all this before they were married, saying now she is proud of his "openness and humility." The fact that the Republicans, above, are associated with Duggar does not mean they support the molestation of children but it sure reinforces that old adage, "Choose your friends wisely because their influence on you is much greater than you might imagine."