The Headlong Rush Into The Past

You’ve heard of Shermon’s march to the sea in Georgia, which was a major disgrace for the South.  Now you have Mitt Romney’s march to the sea in South Carolina.  In one poll Romney is up to 39% with Paul in at 17% in second place 19 points behind.  There is another poll where Romney is at 28% and Gingrich is at 21%.  So I don’t know what the hell is going on there except telling the truth now will get you booed.  Newt Gingrich began attacking Romney before one crowd and got booed.  It’s a sick political climate where this sort of capitalist greed is hailed as quintessential Americanism.  Romney says “Corporations are people, my friend”.  Well the whole things Corporations are creations of the State.  The goal here was limited liability.  That is if you put up $500,000 to start a corporation, if you run up debts of several million or worse, your liability is limited to that first five hundred thousand.  Of course now Stephen Cobere (?) is running these jokester adds running for “The President of the United States of South Carolina”.  If corporations are people, then dismembering them and getting rid of their parts after pilfering what you need- - should be a crime.  If you take a chain saw to a corporation is it any different from taking a chain saw to a person?  They say corporations are “groups of people”.  But in a family all the people often get input to a decision.  One C E O just can’t decide to endorse one candidate irrespective of the opinion of its workers or even share holders.  The only time corporations had the status of people is that narrow window between 1886 and 1901 when Teddy Roosevelt became president.  Corporations, because they do have limited liability- - can get away with murder.  Thom Hartman’s father died of mezotheliomi from asbestos poisoning, and nobody went to jail.  Nobody got the corporate death penalty.  You virtually never see the government dissolving corporations.  Groups of people can’t conspire to conceal valuable and relevant information like the tobacco companies do.   Now John Huntsman has gotten out of the race and endorsed Romney.  Huntsman used to say that he was creating jobs while Romney destroyed jobs.  Now all of the anti Romney material has been removed from Huntsman’s web site.  As Dylan said long ago, “Money doesn’t talk; it swears”.  They say corporations have free speech, but vast amounts of campaign money can be waved around in S C to muzzle any candidate who dares attack Romney.  And just by the say, if you are going to go Tenth Amendment on me in defending corporations’ rights because they aren’t referred to in the Constitution, keep in mind that Montana high court ruling which overthrew the Citizens United decision because the judge said “In this state we still believe in the law”.  How does Mitt Romney feel about States Rights now?

Mitt Romney has five sons and apparently none of them went off to war.  And yet Mitt Romney and Rick Perry still believe we should be fighting in Iraq.  It seems that Mitt’s father, George Romney could not run for President because his father was born in Mexico.  Apparently George’s grandfather had twelve wives and went to Mexico to sacape the law back in Utah.  Then his son has six wives, and George was born of one of those wives, there in Mexico.  Yet not only conservatives but many liberals are also inherently leary of anything Mormon.  They think they are just too whacked out and downright Weird.  The best you can say is that Romney’s speeches are a little less “wooden” now.  They have turned into a pep rally for the most ultra right wing tea party anti Obama rhetoric.  In this Romney has truly outdone his opponents.  So if there is some sort of political demarcation line, it isn’t between Romney and the rest, but rather Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry - - and the rest of the pack that supports Romney’s actions with Bain capital.  This laze-fare capitalism is now all the rage in this campaign, and anyone who favors this A moral or downright immoral approach to conducting business is sure to pick up votes on Saturday.  They stated that 94% of the time the Candidate with the most money wins the race.  The one bright exception was here in California when Meg Whitman lost the race for governor despite her multi millions.  Of course President Obama will have to continue to compromise with the Republicans to stay ahead of the Republicans.  No doubt the payroll tax cut will be extended.  The price will be the construction of that Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.  Sure it’s dirty oil but all the regulations have been approved and Obama has virtually no choice but to go ahead with it even though technically he doesn’t have to make a decision till February 21^st.  So who cares if our drinking water catches fire and we have earthquakes in Ohio due to fracking?  It’s just another “leap into the past” that political realities are forcing us to make.  We could have started on alternative energy 33 years ago when Jimmy Carter mentioned it in his speech.  If we had 20% of homes powered by solar panels now, the figure could well be one third in 2012 and energy costs would not be either an issue or a factor slowing economic growth.  The evidence for Global Warming increases every day.  We are going to have to make a decision to get off our oil addition some time.  We didn’t make it in 1979 but put it off over three decades.  Now we have to choice not to do it and saddle our children with an even bigger energy crisis tomorrow.  So we want to do that?

I was thinking when I first woke about how this premature coronation of Mitt Romney is just “wrong”.  The whole campaign in South Carolina is wrong and sick, but that’s the way they are down there.  We had oatmeal again for breakfast and scrambled eggs with toast and butter and jelly.  I was musing whether church pastors would attack Romney for his time at Bain capital but then I realized that in the Church of Meet the Press, all the commentators were heavily biased tword Romney.  Newt Gingrich gets an A in this interview performing about as perfectly as it was possible to perform given the hostile questioning from David Gregory.  Then Gregory attacks Harry Reid saying that everybody wants to see the other party a one term president.  No they don’t.  Not if it means sabotaging and obstructing legislation they know is needed for the welfare of the country and the economy.  Mitch Mc Connell is a case where hatred overflows its banks and spills over into the proper function of government.  Then they had two other guys on, and I’m not sure whether both were for Romney or not.  The people of South Carolina are so reactionary and stupid, with moral tunnel vision they can’t even see what is happening and by going for Romney and pressuring Newt not to speak the truth, they are only digging the Republican Party’s grave in the fall.  This time should be a cause of great joy for President Obama.

In the late game New England clobbered Denver 45 to 10 and that game ended up just about eight thirty.  Apparently these two teams met in a play-off game in Denver and that time Denver won.  Tom Brady did well.  I guess “Jesus” didn’t do so well in his prime time outing.  I watched the Mc Laughlin group.  Buchannon was the only one who made economic sense pointing out a liability Romney’s involvement with Bain capital till turn out to be.  The others didn’t want to hear it but supported Romney on the show.  In the NBC show there is an attorney who remarked “You know, to defend one fourteen year boy who is guilty of murder and lying, I have to tear down the reputation of another fourteen year old boy who is telling the truth”.  The show was going on at five after nine but I went to bed, which was perhaps a mistake, even though I slept well.

This is at ten after six.  The NY Giants beat the Green Bay Packers on their home field today 37 to 20.  The game was late in getting started and the half didn’t end till twelve after three, or about fifty minutes later than a normal game.  It wasn’t until after 2:15 that coffee was called.  While waiting in the courtyard Arleen came behind me in line and said that Rose had died.  I heard it from a couple of other people but still didn’t entirely believe it.  You know how roomers are around this place.  I got two cups of coffee from Laura.  The cover was still on the bird cage.  At that time the score was 20 to 10 and prior to that it had been 3 to 3 and 10 to 10.  The results of course surprised both me and Bill.  The second half began about 3:30 and subsequent to this there were three commercial breaks within a space of fifteen minutes.  That was too much for me.  I turned to KLOS and listened to about twenty minutes of virtually commercial free music.  Then I went to dinner.  We had a rather small portion of roast beef and gravy with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables.  We had lemon pudding for desert.  I waited for Laura for seconds.  However the rout she takes mine is the first and about only table to be routinely skipped over and then come back to.  And by the time that occurred she had just run out of the beef.  It was good beef but how do they run out with such small portions?  I put on coffee but by now three different TV stations were acting up.  First eleven, then four, and then seven.  Four was the least problematic.

The Golden Globes were on at five and that Latino guy with the English accent was on with his famed off color remarks.  ABC network news had more on that cruise ship that capsized off the shores of Italy.  They plan to bring up the Captain on charges because any number of rules and procedures were violated.  They had underwater shots.  I went out for a smoke and talked to Larry.   Talking with him is tiresome.  He’s a Johnny one note of his finances.  He “And”s you to death.  He goes AND - - AND and after the tenth or twelfth “AND” you wish he’d come up for air, expecially when he keeps calling your name because your mind is wandering.  A woman just died for heaven’s sake.  The news of Rose’s death was true.  I heard Phyllis telling Mike and then it was all over the dining room.  She had gone to the hospital two days ago and you’d think she’d get the best medical care.  Apparently she began shaking and had a heart attack, and they took her off somewhere else,  (to surgery?)  Larry said about one line about Rose saying she was a nice woman then he returned to his monolog on finances.  The worst part is you know half of it is bullshit.  Then I went downstairs to check on medication but nobody was either in the medicine room nor in the halls.  I checked the living room and it was dark with nobody waiting.  It appears the Mormon couple really has stopped coming.  Just weeks ago they were talking of expanding their involvement here by showing films and stuff.  Something obviously happened.  With Rose’s death that makes the third person to die from that group in the short time I’ve been with them.  And of course Loretta and Fred have done a disappearing act.  The last time Seid was here on Christmas night he talked about Fred and the evils of spreading roomers about people.  I sure don’t think you can count on Seid to tell you the truth after his record with Richard Powers.  I was all set for ice cream.  So basically five people from that group are either dead or “missing in action”.  If I were that wife in “The Wrong Man” I might think there was some kind of conspiracy.  KABC is coming in fine now.  I haven’t switched it back to NBC.  Not to be paranoid but Manfred is another who’s had health issues in his life.  We pray for his continued good health.   I guess Sixty Minutes will be featuring another of those genius kids.  We need a smart innovator now; that’s for sure.