Undeniably, Gun Deaths Up Nationwide

Gun deaths are up across the country, significantly in some states. Nationwide they are up 12% but Maine had the highest increase of 93%. The analysis was done by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution researching through government statistics, insurance industry data and reports from state vital-records agencies over the past decade. Five states had fewer gun deaths: The District of Columbia, California, New York, Maryland and Illinois. All five states have pretty strict gun control laws. Here are some more interesting figures:

California, the most populous state, reported 3,026 deaths from firearms in 2013. Georgia, with the eighth-highest population, had the sixth-most gun deaths: 1,262. Others in the top 10: Texas (No. 2 in both population and gun deaths), Florida (No. 3 in both categories), Pennsylvania (No. 4 in gun deaths, No. 6 in population), Ohio (fifth in gun deaths, seventh in population), North Carolina (No. 7 in gun deaths, No. 9 in population), Michigan (No. 8 and No. 10, respectively), Illinois (No. 9 in gun deaths, No. 5 in population), and Tennessee (tenth in gun deaths, but only 17th in population).

It is fair to conclude from these figures that stronger gun control laws prevent gun violence. Not all of it, but one life saved is worth the passing of the legislation.

It's Official...Bernie Sanders' Revolution Goes National

This sign says it best: "People for Bernie." They're sitting on it, the grass roots of Bernie Sanders campaign, showing their admiration and support. It all happened in Burlington, VT, but he has every intention of taking the revolution national, and it is people like these who will help him do it, eventually winning the Democratic nomination. To start the revolution he said:

“Today, with your support and the support of millions of people throughout this country, we begin a political revolution to transform our country,” he said. “This campaign is not about Bernie Sanders. It is not about Hillary Clinton. It is not about Jeb Bush or anyone else. This campaign is about the needs of the American people, and the ideas and proposals that effectively address those needs.”

 The time has come for these American people to put their support where their mouth is and come out for the man who is fighting for their needs. Bernie Sanders has started cropping up repeatedly on my Facebook and Twitter pages recently, an indication that more folks are becoming aware of his presence in the race and just who he is. The latter has a direct effect on MSNBC's question of whether he can successfully take his revolution national and adds a national revolution is longer than a longshot for Sanders. But he did it once before and won the office of Mayor in Burlington, in another longshot.

One of his former staffers "...attributes Sanders’ later successes to reality catching up to Sanders’ rhetoric." The hope is now that reality will catch up with the American public and put this man of the people in the White House.

Bernie Sanders Burlington, VT Revolution Rally Pictures

Couldn't wait to get these online. They are early pictures from Bernie Sanders' Vermont rally launch yesterday. Awesome.

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!