ARIZONA-WHERE STUPID LAWS ARE BORN

First, Gov. Doug Ducey proposed cutting Arizona education budgets to fund private prisons. Then Dr. Gov. Ducey declares his medical credentials in the passage of  Senate Bill 1318, termed "voodoo"  medicine, "ordering that henceforth doctors must tell women that drug-induced abortions might be reversible." Not possible scientifically and the first state in the nation to do this reports Laurie Roberts in the AZ Republic. He's joined by Arizona radical, Cathi Herrod, of the Center for Arizona Policy, another home-grown bunch of fanatics. A couple of doctors here in the state who are experts in the field of abortions say it's not only bad but it could be dangerous.

If you hang around long enough I'll have more of these gems for you. Thought we had rid the state of crackpots like former governor Jan Brewer but apparently Ducey has picked up the mantle.

NOTHING HAS CHANGED SINCE THE THE LATE 1800s

It is amazing that someone with the intellect of Mark Twain could make a statement like this using one of my favorite words for many politicians, especially Republicans. In the late 1800s, when the writer would have likely said this, Republicans were in control of the U.S. Congress. I bring this up since President Obama will soon be asking Congress to cooperate in the outcome of the Iran nuclear talks. Will they forget their stupid ideology and at least negotiate or follow Mark Twain's supposition?

TEA PARTY ACHIEVES PERPETUAL FUNDRAISING

And give your money to the Tea Party

I have a theory about the Tea Party. The people who write the emails that deliver the regular editions of the TP newsletter are professional copywriters from the junk mail industry. Nothing wrong with that except their fundraising is in perpetual motion and mirrors a situation I used to abhor when I worked in junk mail as a data broker. The philanthropic organizations would thrive over their command of little old ladies out there who might be eating pet food but still gave their $2.00 to the organization of their choice. I had one guy tell me that some of these donors would give their last dollar to his cause and may go without any food at all. Someone commented to me recently that the TPers really didn't know they were being used. In TP email after email there is the term, "We desperately need you." Sounds to me like their greed already has you.

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.

SHOULD YOU ALLOW YOUR CHILD IN A HOME WITH GUNS?

A woman recently wrote a gossip columnist that the mother of one of her son's friends refused to let her child come to their house because there were guns there. The first mom quickly contacted the other mom to explain how perfectly secure the guns were in her house to alleviate the concern. It may have satisfied the distressed mom but it wouldn't satisfy me. Here's why. According to the Gun Violence Archive, 666 children age 17 and under have died or been injured by gun violence since the start of 2015. New Yorkers against Gun Violence reports that 2,694 children die from gun violence every year. Healthday News says gunshot wounds send around 20 kids to the hospital every day in the U.S. Our subject mom may very well be locking up her guns but someone isn't.  

KOCH BROTHERS ALLIES/BIG DONORS POUT OVER THEIR IMAGE

The Koch Brothers and their minions of moneybags are taking heat, so supporters, like USA Today, are trying to clean up their image by saying things like, "The American Dream is simply too far out of reach for far too many people." Now who the hell do they think made it unreachable? The administration of George W. Bush squandered this "Dream" started with Bill Clinton during his presidency, saying as late as June of 2014, the middle class is the key to ending poverty. Keep the middle class healthy and it will pull up the country. All the Koch Brothers and their followers are interested in is to build wealth in the upper 1% of incomes and to hell with the rest.

LIBERALS NEED TO WAKE UP AND DO THE RIGHT THING

In a recent article in The Nation, Eric Alterman is putting out a "Wake Up Call for Us Liberals." He starts by citing the dinner Barack Obama had with arch conservatives like George Will, William Kristol and others. It was a misplaced confidence the newly elected President had that the extreme right could temper its ideologies and work with the left. No such luck. Alterman explains why defining the differences in beliefs: "The primary difference between liberalism and conservatism, at least in theory, is that the latter is an ideology and the former isn’t." He continues with an observation from Lionel Trilling, ” Liberalism is a large tendency rather than a concise body of doctrine.” In other words, the Progressive is free to be...progressive. The conservative is narrowly limited by its ideologies. Our political dysfunction has several sources but one of the most important is allowing, "...conservatives to define the terms of debate at a time when conservatives have lost all sense of moral, intellectual and especially practical responsibility."

More on this later.