BELIEVE IT OR NOT-ARIZONA A PROGRESSIVE STATE?

George W.P. Hunt, the first governor of Arizona, tried to get the state off to a good start. He was an arch Progressive and David Berman is attempting to capture his avant-garde politics in his book, "George Hunt: Arizona's Crusading Seven-Term Governor." If Hunt were alive today, Berman thinks he would be impressed with development but would scream over the political situation. Yes, it's hard today to look at or listen to any Republican politician in Arizona without howling over their absurd ideas and antics. Hunt believed,  "...government can make life a little fairer for more people." "...believed in supporting public education." "Much of his views are grounded in his hatred of poverty. He saw class bias..."

In fact, he was for everything the current Gov. Doug Ducey is against.

LIBERALS NEED TO WAKE UP AND DO THE RIGHT THING-3

Alterman asks, "Why do such smart guys say such stupid things?" He traces the answer back to the source of power in this country. The Koch Bros. who plan to spend $900 million on the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson who gave $150 million to the GOP in 2012. Rupert Murdoch with his networks and newspapers spreads malicious rumors like Barack Obama is a secret Muslim and undocumented alien who hates white people. Eric Alterman says in his The Nation article that conservatives don't even bother to offer ideas rather, "...they’re making calculated attempts to undermine our democracy, exploiting and manipulating a public that has decreasing resources for the kind of reliable information that would lead to a pragmatic 'liberal' response."

If this doesn't piss you Progressives off, nothing will, and if not we will go through 2016 just like past elections skipping the vote. 

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.

IS HILLARY CLINTON PROGRESSIVE ENOUGH FOR 2016?

The Hill blog has uncovered several emails that find considerable unrest among Progressives over Hillary Clinton's 2016 bid. These are influential voices that represent left-leaning liberals that feel they are not being heard. Activists, strategists and journalists, The Hill says the group includes prominent Democrats, Sierra Club officials, journalists who work for The Huffington Post and The Nation magazine, senior union representatives, leaders at the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and the president of NARAL. The frustration says she is, "too much of a hawk, too cozy with Wall Street, hasn’t spoken out enough on climate change, and will be subject to personal questions and criticisms, members of the group stated in the emails." The piece says she has ducked issues like the Keystone Pipeline and I would add to that gun control. When you look at Elizabeth Warren on all these issues, the Progressives find agreement.

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE TED CRUZ'S POLITICAL PLATFORM

Cruz's platform: "Fanaticism consists in redoubling your effort when you have forgotten your aim," by George Santayana

TED CRUZ LIKE BARRY GOLDWATER...NOT

You can imagine my astonishment when an Arizona newspaper journalist compared Ted Cruz with Barry Goldwater. Now I am a strict left side Progressive but I have tons of respect for Goldwater's style of politics, as well as the man himself. I was even there for his book signing of "Conscience of a Conservative" in Phoenix. And then I read on, it has to do with Goldwater's "crash and burn" presidential bid in 1964. Don't think the writer was portending exactly the same for Cruz but the likeness fits for me. A huge exception with Ted Cruz is Goldwater's hostility toward the religious right. There's more but in the context of this article, the whole thing sounds farcical.

FANATICISM IS INHERENT IN REPUBLICAN GENES

In his blog Robert Reich said, "The Only Way Left to Beat Republican Fanatics: Call Their Bluff and Go Over the Cliff." That was in 2012 when John Boehner couldn't convince the very right House Republicans to raise taxes even on millionaires. He added, "...that fits the fanatic's strategy exactly." In 2013, when Sen. (now Presidential candidate) Ted Cruz was instrumental in literally shutting down the government, one of his fellow Republican Senators in a meeting among several more Senators, including Cruz, said, “It was very evident to everyone in the room that Cruz doesn’t have a strategy – he never had a strategy, and could never answer a question about what the end-game was.” Yet the man still wants to be president.

WHY ARE PROGRESSIVES NON-VOTERS?

A 2007 Study found that non-voters are more economically liberal, preferring Barack over Mitt Romney 59% to 24%. Marginal voters, those affected by weather or election timing, are liberal. Among the 34 million registered to vote in 2010 midterms, 63.1% were Democrats. Liberals do benefit from high voter turnout, which can also be volatile. So, from this should we assume that liberals are lazy couch potatoes afraid of the rain who vote only when they see a crowd collecting at the polls?

MURDER IS MURDER-ABORTION IS...?

a

In Exodus, the Bible does say that if you do harm to a woman's baby, “then you shall pay life for life." On the other hand, 70% of the U.S. favors abortions, with many feeling that women's rights today are threatened by ideological extremists in the U.S. Senate. Pro-choice reports that "42% of women who obtain an abortion live below the poverty line. Twenty-seven percent are more than 100% below the poverty line." What about cases of rape, incest or the mother's health? It's reported that the latter three account for just 5% of abortions. But if 95% are purely for birth control...???

NRA USES HIGHER LEARNING TO SELL DEATH

If the NRA and its wacky leader, Wayne LaPierre, have anything to do with it, your kids will be packing heat in the college of their choice. The NRA is currently shoving legislation through in 16 states for this purpose, allowing guns to be carried on campuses. All this while college presidents, students and police chiefs oppose such legislation.

GOV MIKE PENCE SIGNS LAW AGAINST LGBT

Actor George Takei, who is gay, warns Gov. Mike Pence after signing Indiana law that will allow merchants in that state to deny service to the LGBT community. At the same time the NCAA shows concern over the legislation it feels could affect the men's basketball Final Four being played next week. There is also worry it will have an effect on Indiana tourism. As did Arizona for its law on immigration, Indiana deserves whatever it gets.

CAN ELIZABETH WARREN WIN?

It seems there are a lot of people clamoring for Elizabeth Warren to run, including the Boston Globe. But is she as electable as Hillary Clinton? You decide:

Warren supports Israel and sanctions for Iran.

Says terrorism is U.S. #1 responsibility.

On abortion she is pro-choice.

Warren supports passage of DREAM ACT and comprehensive immigration reform.

She supports ban on assault rifles and long magazines, as well as universal background checks, including gun show purchases.

Warren supports Obamacare and same sex marriage.

That should get you started with more information here.

GLENN BECK AND KARL ROVE BUMP DUMBHEADS

Karl Rove told The O'Reilly Factor that Glenn beck was leaving the Republican Party. He went on to say that the GOP is united on its philosophy. Yeah, sure! That makes you wonder just what planet this fruitcake has been living on.

According to the Tea Party newsletter, Glenn Beck retorted, "“You guys [apparently KR conservatives] have the spine of a worm, the ethics of whores, and the integrity of pirates. My apologies,” he added, “to worms, whores and pirates.” I don't think any Progressive could have said it better.

A CASE FOR BANNING GUNS ALTOGETHER

Sorry, but the ghastly illustration is necessary to demonstrate that there are almost twice as many firearms suicides per year than homicides; 20,000 to 11,000. Here's my point, "The presence of a firearm in the home increases the likelihood of suicide by 300%, while the likelihood is even greater if the firearm is loaded and unlocked," according to Yale School of Medicine researcher, Kimberly Younkers.

If we persist in refusing to do anything about our mental health problem in this country, and we continue to lose 55 people per day to suicides because they can't get the help they need and turn to their gun as a last resort, maybe the only answer is to ban guns.

Think about it! 

WHERE ARE THE PROGRESSIVES?

Aljazeera America says, "The best way to create a progressive America is voting reform." We need "... to invest in unleashing the disgruntled progressive majority. A longer-term strategy for progressives should be to strengthen unions and boost turnout among politically marginalized populations."

Further, "If everybody in this country voted,” the economist John Kenneth Galbraith said, “the Democrats would be in for the next 100 years.” Pew Research found "Nonvoters preferred Barack Obama to Mitt Romney by 59 percent to 24 percent..."

Obviously you are there, you progressives I mean, so when election day comes you're just sitting there on your butt? Too damn lazy to go vote and bring this country back to a sane political state. Don't you see what you've done, just look at the Republican Congress. That should shame even the worst of couch potatoes.

Think about it!

EARTH NEEDS HELP FROM THIS LUNATIC!

California Gov. Jerry Brown said, “The man [Sen. Ted Cruz] betokens such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of the existing scientific data, It’s shocking and I think that this man has rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office.”

FACE UP - RACISM IS REAL

All Howard Schultz was trying to do was discuss the race problem. A divisive issue for anyone, especially a large corporation, but all he got was criticism. What should have happened was the other major businesses across the country should have joined Starbucks and started talking about a problem that is the cancer of America.

DEFINITION OF A GUN NUT

A gun nut is the kind of individual that loves his or her gun(s) over the life of an innocent gun violence victim. They have no room for negotiations, period, only a demand that their gun rights not be violated in any way. A gun nut has a ring in the nose, pulled regularly by the NRA asking for money to fund an organization that is completely self-absorbed.  This person believes the 2nd Amendment is sacrosanct and completely untouchable, that the Founding Fathers had Wayne LaPierre's and the NRA's interpretation of this law in mind when it was passed in 1791. A gun nut swaggers into a Target or Kroger store with arrogance just to show that it can be done, sometimes masking a limited masculinity or femininity. Any conversation on firearms immediately prompts the comment, "Sounds like you're trying to take away my gun." Most likely many gun nuts maintain an arsenal at home alleging for years now the government takeover that is "just around the corner." There is possibly a gun nut on every block and if we could just get rid of these radicals, the solution to gun violence would be so much easier.  

NEW YORK GUN SHOP VIDEO PROMOTES GUN CONTROL

People came in to buy a gun and left disgusted with gun violence.