NRA

If the Democratic primary is decided on issues and if those issues are traditional bread and butter issues, Bernie Sanders will be the next nominee. Obviously, the Clinton Machine is doing everything it can to make sure the primary is not decided along those lines. Hillary's opportunistically-modified Wall Street agenda can't effectively compete-- at least not among Democrats-- with the decades of genuine, authentic populism that have shaped Bernie's platform.

Teach your parents well,
Their children’s hell
Will slowly go by
And freed them on your dreams
— Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, “Teach Your Children,” from their 1970 album “Deja Vu”

by KenYesterday ThinkProgress's Judd Legum put together a smashing post called "5 Indefensible Tweets From The NRA Since The Oregon Gun Massacre." Basically here I'm passing on Judd's post with just a few notes of my own added.

Robbie Wilson, Arkansas progressive running for CongressAs we mentioned Tuesday, Arkansas isn't going to be an easy place for Democrats to rebuild. The Democratic Party has lost touch with what it means to be progressive, and they hold only 36 of the 100 seats in the state House and only 14 of 35 seats in the state Senate.

A few minutes into the class we heard these popping noises and we all went completely silent.
— Charlie King, Delta State University student, September 14, 2015

Sunday morning Bernie was on CNN's State of the Union with Jake Tapper. Right from the beginning of the interview Tapper tried getting Bernie to attack Hillary, which he has refused to do. His standard answer is usually that he knows her, likes her and respects her, even if they differ on several issues that are crucial to America's working families. Tapper did manage to get Bernie to lay out some key examples of policy positions where there is a clear contrast with Clinton's neo-liberal-- if not corporatist and Wall Street-inspired-- agenda. Bernie:

92% of voters-- that's 98% of Democratic voters and 86% of Republican voters-- agree that there should be universal background checks for gun purchases. Even 92% of gun owners are on board with that. 91% of gun owners also say that there should be laws to prevent people with mental illness from buying guns.

[Click to enlarge.]by KenI don't suppose there are champagne corks popping today at NRA HQ. They're too modest. But even though today's incident notched only two more casualties, the fact that it happened on live TV was a big win for gun nuttery.

Like most progressive groups that look for worthy congressional candidates, Blue America has added a new filter to guage where candidates are likely to wind up on a spectrum that creates a few worthy leaders. That new filter is about the Black Lives Matter movement.

When news of the latest white racist gun horror came up from Charleston, South Carolina last month, I was teaching Michael Moore’s 2002 film Bowling for Columbine.  Once again, it seemed, Moore’s apocalyptic vision of an America armed-to-the-teeth and pushed-to-the-edge had proven prophetic.  Once more, contrary to war-mongering media and ‘counter-terrorist’ propaganda, we were reminded: America’s terror is mostly home-grown.