NRA BEGINS BELCHING THEIR BULLSHIT TODAY

INDIANAPOLIS 2014: It was this anti-gun demonstration that marred the spewing of gun propaganda by the National Rifle Assn. head, Wacky Wayne LaPierre in its last convention in Indianapolis in 2014. WW and his flock embark on the 2015 version today in Nashville, TN, and are connecting with country music. First of all, I don't like country music but most of all I detest the NRA. In an obvious pro-gun piece in the Nashville Business Journal, the writer makes an interesting comment that the mostly male attendees were primarily target shooters. If this is the case the attendees won't include the gun nuts I regularly hear from in this blog with comments like, " WHO YOU GOING TO CALL WHEN THE SCUMS COME FOR YOU AND YOUR LIFE IS ON THE LINE..." No, I imagine the folks in Nashville this weekend are more like the 75% level headed members of the NRA that believe there should be universal background checks. My double-digit gun nuts probably couldn't afford the trip anyway.

Unfortunately Wacky Wayne LaPierre will pay no attention to this huge majority of membership and continue to espouse unreasonable gun rights for more guns everywhere for people who aren't trained to use them.

AN INFORMED VOTER DOES NOT VOTE REPUBLICAN

Political researchers have said, “When uninformed citizens receive political information, they systematically shift their political preferences away from the Republican Party and toward the Democrats," according to Aljazeera America. That says mountains about Republican voters who depend on the negativity of the GOP, accompanied by Fox (faux) News, and the Tea Party to make their decisions. If putting down their opponents isn't enough, Republicans resort to hate for their message. It is what I call trickle down abomination and seems to be a formula that has worked for the GOP.

Because there is no opposition from Progressives, like...voting. 

ARIZONA-WHERE STUPID LAWS ARE BORN

APRIL 2014-PHOENIX, ARIZONA: A demented state legislature has just passed a new bill that would ban the passing of any future legislation banning plastic bags. Slate says it is in the bidding for worst state of the week, a place Arizona has enjoyed repeatedly in the past, especially when Jan Brewer was governor. State Sen. Nancy Barto proposed the bill that now waits for Gov. Ducey to sign. Barto is the fruitcake that recently pushed through another piece of mind-boggling legislation making it a law for Arizona doctors to tell women getting an abortion that it is reversible. The medical community says this is not only impossible but could be dangerous.

The meeting of the Arizona legislature reminds me of that movie from 1948, The Snake Pit, covering a woman's life during her stay in a mental institution.

AN ANGRY GUN NUT COULD LIVE NEXT DOOR TO YOU

There are around 300 million guns in the U.S. That's 90 per 100 residents, which comes out to 2.4 per household. You'd think we were preparing for a war. What is even more shocking is that 4.8 million of those households, approximately 5%, have someone living in them who is pissed off at the world and they have a gun or guns. They aren't all gun nuts and you can read the definition of this bonehead here. When you boil it down to figures like this it makes the statement, 'There are too many guns in America' believable. Even wacky Wayne LaPierre should be able to understand hard facts like this. But he doesn't. This weekend, WW will be in Nashville at the NRA convention telling all his gun nut minions that no matter what, they have to run out now and buy more guns.

STARTLING FACTS THAT SHOULD SHAME PROGRESSIVES

The Pew Research Center has found that 39% of Americans consider themselves Independent voters, having left the two major parties in frustration. I am one of them. But the balance is aligned as follows: Democrats 32%; Republicans 23%. But around 90% of Independents do lean either left or right. Of these leaners 48% are Democrats, 39% are Republicans. Among the registered voters of this group, 48% are Democratic, 43% Republican. So how have we lost so many elections to the GOP recently? Because you Progressives are sitting on your butts and not voting.

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.