Latest Update from Bernie Sanders: Iowa

Bernie Sanders is in Iowa and, although he hasn't gotten the national coverage he should, his team passes on road successes with his followers. Here they are:

Kensett, IA: "A mere 240 people live in the rural northeast Iowa town of Kensett, so when more than 300 crowded into the community center on Saturday night to hear Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, many driving 50 miles, the cellphones of Democratic leaders statewide began to buzz."

Ames, IA: "Mr. Sanders's stop at a brewery in Ames on Saturday was so mobbed that more than 100 people who could not fit inside peered through the [brewery] windows."

Muscatine, IA: "The next day, in Muscatine, Iowa, after a rally at a community college drew twice the expected audience of 50…"

Standing before a huge crowd in an unidentified location, the candidate said, “Be amazed at what you saw here. I want to win this.”

NRA Says National Gun Violence Day "Pointless"

Today is National Gun Violence Awareness Day, sponsored by Everyone for Gun Safety Action Fund. Celebrities like Julianne Moore helped make this first event successful in spite of being panned by the National Rifle Assn. (NRA). The NRA "attacked the campaign as 'pointless' and said 'participating is an easy way of scoring points for being 'socially conscious.'" I have heard this organization lower itself in similar statements before so nothing is surprising anymore. What is surprising is that the NRA is still around to do this kind of damage after the thousands of gun deaths it is responsible for. The cry of "Wear Orange" is a symbol for the value of human life everywhere and honors the January 29, 2013 shooting death of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton who was killed by gangs on Chicago's south side. People are wearing orange all across the country today in an effort that is quickly burgeoning into a full blown movement to get guns off the streets.

Brainless Actor Vince Vaughn Wants to Arm America's Schools

I knew when Jennifer Aniston dumped this guy there was a good reason. He had an addled brain that needed a major tune up. He says he "supports guns in schools to prevent mass shootings..." He also believes in concealed and open carry as he put it "full stop." And then the kicker, "We have the right to bear arms to resist the supreme power of a corrupt and abusive government." Yeah, like he's been mishandled by the feds; God, that's getting old. He talks about "guys shooting up these f***ing schools because they know there are no guns there." These "guys" could care less if there are guns in the schools because most of them are on a suicide mission and end up dead anyway. I am all for actors coming out and voicing their opinions on current events but Vince Vaughn is beginning to sound like Charlton Heston in his famous speech about someone having to pry his gun from his cold dead hands. Heston's rhetoric sounded dumb then as Vince Vaughn's does today.

Hail-Hail...Conservatism is Declining

In a study by Gallup in the way Americans define themselves politically, conservatives no longer lead the pack. The rise of the Progressives/liberals makes them equal to social conservatives at 31% each for the first time in 15 years. Conservatives dropped from 39% to 31%. Progressives rose from 21% to 31%, a two point increase advantage. Can anyone wonder why? Let's see, Geo. W. Bush went into office on Jan. 20, 2001, and served for eight years. That, alone, would push the borderline/moderate conservatives to change their loyalty.

Barack Obama was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2009 and it was almost immediately that Mitch McConnell made it known that it was his number one priority to make sure President Obama was a one-term president. He didn't; in fact Obama beat Mitt Romney handily in 2012. But McConnell's hate campaign turned the U.S. Senate into a bunch of laughable hyenas and it has never recovered. Then the House was taken over by Republicans in 2011, and John Boehner, the new Speaker, has made it his personal cause to oppose every idea and piece of legislation President Obama has come up with.

But the House infiltration of the Tea Party has perhaps been the most damaging to this country in ages. When you add to that Ted Cruz--one of the laughable Senate Hyenas--almost shutting down the government in 2013, well, you can understand a shaky conservative block that said, 'enough is enough.' In another war of matching numbers Gallup finds Democrats jumping from a low 37% to 53% leaning toward liberal issues. Likewise Republicans dropped from 67% to 53% in their ideological identification on social issues.

What does this mean for 2016? You only have to look at who is the biggest Progressive out there. Bernie Sanders.

Tea Party Founder Busted for Kiddie Porn

Joseph Hayon, founder of the ultra-conservative Brooklyn Tea Party, was arrested last Thursday for possessing and sharing child pornography. The man has four children ages 9, 7, 4 and 15 months. He admitted that he had been trading photos of children between the ages of 2 and 12 as recently as December 2014 on the Internet. What this low-life has done is reprehensible but what I can't get out of my mind is that he founded an ultra-conservative Tea Party chapter. In my book the Tea Party represents the bottom of the barrel of humanity but Hayon has proved just how low the members can go. He once campaigned with the slogan "Our children are our future," according to EDGE MEDIA NETWORK. Hayon, 37, also has a long history of fighting the LGBT community.

When The New York Post asked him if his wife, Batya, tipped cops off to his disgusting behavior, he only said, “Definitely not my wife.” I don't think even the Tea Party would condone behavior like this but it is time that the public is aware of the bad apples like Joseph Hayon that reside in that organization and send its credibility crashing to the depths of reality.

Grieving Parent Richard Martinez Battles Gun Lobby

He lost his son, Christopher, in the Isla Vista, CA shooting near the UCSB campus, where he was a sophomore. Richard Martinez said soon after the shooting, "Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the (National Rifle Association). They talk about gun rights -- what about Chris' right to live?" How many times now have grieving parents had to come to grips with a loved one's death due to gun violence? It's vast but in each case it comes down to two things: a gutless Congress and the National Rifle Assn. (NRA). Unwilling to pass the gun control laws that will make this stop. However, Martinez has thrown down the gauntlet exclaiming:

"I have chosen to make this my life’s work. In choosing to do so, I was aware that the path to changing laws and minds would be challenging. I was still surprised to see how entrenched the gun lobby is with certain state legislators and the dangerous degree to which it pushes bills that endanger public safety."

Martinez charges members of Congress with backing anything the NRA introduces for an endorsement by the organization. Some of this legislation he calls "outrageous," such as a bill they are pushing this year to allow access to guns for domestic abusers. This should drive any sane individual up the wall, especially the abused. In Florida he joined legislators, students, moms, and members of law enforcement to fight six separate guns in schools bills. They all lost so it can be done. Add to this Gabby Giffords group, Americans for Responsible Solutions and the former NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg group, Everytown for Gun Safety, and I would say Richard Martinez is traveling in the right circles.

Pro-Choice Jumps Ahead in Abortion Fight

A recent Gallup Poll puts the Pro-Choice group ahead of Pro-Life by six percentage points, 50% to 44%.
Gender-wise, 54% of women favor compared to 46% of men. Gallup sees this as a reflection of a much broader study from their "Values and Beliefs" poll. "They show Americans finding greater ideological identification as social liberals and less as social conservatives..." Apparently the tired, out of date, out of reasonability ideologies of the conservative right are finally falling to the fresh, updated, naturally acceptable way of the Progressive left. And it is certainly about time.

It is my firm belief that women should have a choice for an abortion, most definitely in terms of rape or incest, but also for those normally responsible but, 'oh my gawd, I forgot my birth control pill' victims. You know the guy has some responsibility too. But if you don't want children, what kind of life would the kid lead? There is a question re. timing, as to what's too long. The GOP house recently passed a bill banning abortion after 20 weeks, heavily opposed by female Republicans. But that's five months and you have to wonder what the biological nature of the child is at that point. Doctors on Fetal Pain say fetuses cannot feel pain until at least the 28th week of gestation because they haven't formed the necessary nerve pathways. So that rules out the pain issue.

But the religious right believes there is life at conception, and as a scientific fact, that is hard to argue with. Unless you consider maturity as a part of the "life" process. That is, as the body grows and forms, is there a point where this little person becomes a human and is this really where life starts? Fetal lung maturity, considered the last major organ necessary to survive outside the womb is around 32 weeks. That's eight months, but, of course, almost no one would suggest an abortion at this point. The two factions, pro-choice and pro-life, will never adjust their beliefs to the other side's facts, thus the standoff we've had since Roe v. Wade.

But the conservative right confirmed its loss of touch with reality when former Missouri congressman and devout Tea Party member Todd Akin said, “It seems to me, from what I understand from doctors, that’s really rare,” Mr. Akin said of pregnancies from rape. “If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." Can you believe this? No? Neither could anyone else in the sane world.