President Says He Will Veto XL Pipeline Approval

I heard something I’ve been waiting to hear for months if not years, from our esteemed President Obama.  President Obama announced today for the first time, that he would veto the Keystone XL Pipeline bill when it comes before his desk, which might very well be this week.  Thom Hartmann had a guest on who made the usual lame arguments in favor of the pipeline like how it will generate 46,000 jobs, when the correct answer is 35 permanent jobs.   But the guest labeled Hartmann a “nationalist” because he pointed out all the ways this pipeline is not in the best interests of our country.  There was a time when conservatives placed country first, ahead of economic windfall profit for the few.  Once upon a time terrifs were championed by Republicans- - and it was those pesky Democrats who took the “Internationalist” view, of how “there are no boundaries between countries”.   Hartmann claims that the XL Pipeline will actually RAISE gasoline prices in America’s heartland by logic not exactly clear.  How can we have working refinaries in Oklahoma, and yet Nebraska has locked up the issue in legal hassles- - and no pipeline goes through that state.  But the guest also said that because Hartman criticized these elite corporate interest he was anti corporate, and thus socialist, and then makes the leap that Hartman is a National Socialist.  And goes “You know what another word for National Socialism is, don’t you”.   If it were me I would have slammed the receiver down at this point, and it’s against my nature to do this.  But to imply for an instant that caring about the land and the water table or carbon consumption- - is to somehow be on a par with people who want to exterminate Jews and other minorities- - this is beyond sick!   And to clarify for the guest- - “trade unionists” were among the people that the Nazi party went after.  The other issue of the way was how John Boehner got reelected for another stint as Speaker of the House.  His vote has to be a majority of the entire house - - not just the Republicans.  So I’m not sure how he won again, if it’s true what they said on the Sean Hannity program how - - sixty percent of Republican house members want to replace John Boehner.  25 republicans voted to replace John Boehner and 29 was needed to get beyond a first ballot.  I am mystified how come they couldn’t garner four more votes.   Yesterday on Sean Hannity’s show.  He had Louie Gomert as a guest on his show, who made a lot of good points as per the House Speaker has too much power and his prerogatives need to be pruned back.  I would have voted for Louie Gomer myself had I been there.  Most democrats voted for Nancy Pelosi.  It seems to me a distinct possibility that Pelosi could have gotten a plurality if the Republicans were divided in their votes.  There is also the question about being afraid of “political reprisals by John Boehner”.   There is a logical problem for me since if sixty percent of the Republicans vote their conscience - - then John Boehner won’t be around to exact political reprisals against anybody.   Sean Hannity is not a happy camper today.

 Now Norman Goldman’s cat dialed 911 on his phone and the LAPD stormed the house and Norm thought it was a home invasion- - but it turned out to be the police, who were there ready to break the door down.  I’ve heard stories like this before where cops are told “there is no danger” and the cops aren’t having it but want to batter the door down.  “Declining to answer the door” is never an option when it’s the police.

Here is a disturbing "War Update" from more than two years ago  is flawed. 

The big news of Monday January 5^th is that football may be coming back to Los Angeles with a workable plan.  This owner of the Rams also owns land in Inglewood near the Forum, or knows how to get it, and has constructed elaborate plans for all of the area of old Hollywood Park, including an eighty thousand seat football stadium.  Everybody in the news was saying that Los Angeles is a gold mine just waiting to be plumbed.  I don’t how St Louis could possibly counter that offer.  Los Angeles has been without an NFL team for a full twenty years, and most of us are thinking “that is long enough”.   I think I would rather see a stadium in Inglewood than smack dab in “Downtown” Los Angeles.

This computer crashed and the following paragraph was lost even though I hit save just before the computer completely froze up.  Governor Christie is on a first name basis with the owner of the Dallas Cowboys and they did a “group hug” at the end of Sunday’s game.   Christie actually was allowed to go into the Cowboys locker room, and Rush reminds us that gaining admittance to a major league NFL locker room is no small accomplishment.   The game may have hinged in a bad call against Detroit.  Afterward Detroit had no choice but to punt.  I can see how Christie would be against Detroit because they are a poor and Democratic city, and of course pro Romulan.  ( - )  The Federation is for Green Bay to represent the NFC in the Superbowl.   They sure as hell don’t want Seattle.  Rush called them the Seattle Sea Hags, if I’m not mistaken.  

There is a strange story how President Obama rejected a list of bombing targets in Syria in August of 2013 as “insufficiently punitive” or something, and that they did not cause enough damage to civilian infrastructure.  They report “The list of proposed bombing targets in Syria was growing longer every day”.  Then two days before these bombings were to begin- - President Obama said that congress should approve these before any are carried out.  This has always seemed to me to be irratic behavior.  By the end of August 2013 President had secured the solid backing of both England and France.  It’s all the stranger when in a Rose Garden speech on August 31^st the President announced that these attacks were put in indefinite hold.  Russian agents had determined that it was not the same saran gas.  But there was a question raised that the article never answered and it’s this.  The Russians indeed got Syria to “give up their weapons of mass destruction”.  If they didn’t have them, how could they give them up?    Because now they are saying that the Seran gas they “suspect” can’t be matched to the seran gas that Syria actually possesses.  Nobody can question that Obama is not one of the most pro War presidents we’ve ever had.  He’s second in this capacity - - only to Bush 43.   But failure came when congress announced that “Unlike the build up to the Iraq War, there would be substantive hearings this time around”.    This article states that there was a lot of “back door” shipping of weapons to the rebel extremists.

There are a lot of traits about Christians and Christianity I have and continue to find bewildering.  This one about “the first shall be last” is a good one for starters, and the parable of the workers in the vineyard.  The ones who worked the least amount of time get paid first and the ones who worked a full twelve hour day have to stand and wait for these people to get paid what they aren’t worth.  If Jesus wanted to pay these late comers more, he didn’t need to be so “in your face” about it.  This was an action of personal spite.  The Jewish nation is penalized for being hard working and dedicated and serious about their religion.  They have to take a back seat to a new crop of people who point their finger and comdemn them to a large extent for the crime of just BEING Jewish.  When I first became a Christian I naturally wondered “where do I fit in”?  It’s now nearly forty years later and that question remains unanswered.  In the early Bible studies we would be regailed by all these accounts of “personal miracles” and a part of you wonders “When does that stuff ever happen to me” and another part of you says “Don’t say anything.  You don’t want these people to think you’re impatient”.  You hear things like hard work and seniority - - disparaged.   Sincerity appears to be held in low regard.  In fact if you believe you can “gain favor or brownie points by hard work- - you are in a state of theological error”.   Everything about them screams “Don’t get involved.  Get away.  We don’t need you around here”.   We now come to the Money Draw call, which began before one.  At about eight after one I heard my name called.  I decided to wait for another commercial segment of the soap opera- - perhaps ten minutes.  In that period of time, anybody whose name was called had ample opportunity to get in line ahead of me, and if you get in line now you can be confident you won’t be “pre empted”.    Well then Loretta wheels in with her lounge chair thing.  But then Brenda Hess comes in and SHE is the one who makes a bit issue out of “being first” even though I’ve been standing in line already fifteen minutes or so- - - and nearly a half hour after our names were called.  What Christians do is “set up” situations, only to watch you fall.  If I for instance let both Loretta and Brenda go ahead of me and suppose one or both of them takes a long time in the office, and someone else ambles in who’s last name starts with a C or something.  I’d have to let them ahead of me,  too.  As such I’d rather be thought of as “Having to have my way” for a brief moment, if it alleviates the greater problem.  [example edited out here]  I’ve even seen this in Paul (my brother) in feeling I’ve been “set up” because he will intervene in my life - - like he’s the big hero or something- - only for there to be some kind of a trap pitfall glitch in the whole thing- - - where I feel as though I’ve been “set up”.   But I'd close with this.  "Being good" won't get you points with these Calvary Christians, and they will expressly tell you that.   Since the "divine favor" is almost completely divorced from actual personal decisions - - there really IS no goal to shoot for.  It best it's a continuous game of moving the goal posts, because what they claimed was true and virtuous yesterday, they will deny today.  (Selah)  Now they may embrace these tea party values about "earning merit from hard work and gumption" but after literally decades of saying the opposite, who is going to trust anything they say?  As I said in the spring of 2006 (back to the really early days of my blogging) It's less a case of GRACE than it is PRIVILEGE.  And just between me, if Grace has anything to do with "gracious" you and I both can recount countless examples where the tea party people on the right are apallingly lacking in this kind of graciousness.

  

Does President Obama Want to Get Us Into a Nuclear War?

President Obama and our whole government seems to be trying to "Start Something" with North Korea. I'm repeating a blog just posted from someone else. But first just to add my little "personal touches". First of all President Obama loves his drone attacks. Even the Republicans have suggested this as a "contraversial" political issue. As you may or may not know, my friends at the Federation are now saying themselves that the whole Sony computer hacking caper was "an inside job" and did not involve North Korea at all. But the President is proceding with sanctions anyhow. As you know back in early May of 1982 there was the famous Mark Campbell prophecy outline of history. One of the things mentioned in it was that in the nineties, medical care would be denied to people of this country on completely absurd and previously unthinkable grounds. There seems to be heavy allusion to this particularly in the veterans administration. There is a War prophecy of a war "Around 2012" that was predicted to involve a China and Iranian alliance. It is said that this was a very avoidable war but was "provoked" by a very narrow minded vision of a few men". The prophecy did not say which side started the war. But the aftermath was something resembling some climatic catasrophy that would last ten to fifteen years. After this there would come a spiritual revival in the United States starting around 2014. This prophecy was made in early May of 1982. In terms of the stock market - - I'm saying to watch it very carefully. You might even want to get out now. But I'd wait for the next time there is some kind of rally, personally. Don't buy on a gap down in prices. This is the classic way to lose a LOT of money to the lucky person who picks up the bargain at your expence. Wait till nobody is looking and there is no widespread panic, and then sell. Clearly the "year ending in "five" rule won't be holding up this year. In terms of the Ukrainian situation - - I'm still not sure why our government is still saber rattling now. One "expert" from Washington Journal or whatever indicated Ukraine as a bright RED nation on his map, indicating that this is a location with a high probability of United States involvement.

Anyone who still believes Obama’s rhetoric and honesty would be wasting time to read the following analysis, which is only for people who have doubts about his honesty; and thus an open mind to the possibility of his lying about his intentions is a pre-requisite to receiving the following argument:

On Christmas Day, London’s Daily Mail bannered, “North Korea was NOT behind the Sony hack according to multiple security experts who discredit FBI findings and reveal that a studio insider named ‘Lena’ may be responsible.”     Two days earlier, on December 23rd, CBS News had headlined, “Was FBI Wrong on North Korea?” and they presented evidence that the FBI was, indeed, wrong.


On December 30th, the brilliant individual who blogs as “George Washington” assembled all of the news-reports up till that time on this matter, and headlined, “FBI Busted Falsely Blaming North Korea for Sony Hack: I Hate North Korea’s Leaders … But They Didn’t Do It.” The evidence that he presented is overwhelming. Nonetheless, on January 2nd, the BBC bannered, “Sony cyber-attack: North Korea faces new US sanctions,” and they reported: “The US has imposed new sanctions on North Korea in response to a cyber-attack against Sony Pictures Entertainment. President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Friday allowing sanctions on three North Korean organisations and 10 individuals.”

Then, on Sunday, January 4th, CNN headlined “North Korea pushes back against U.S. sanctions for Sony hack,” which push-back is, of course, reasonable for North Korea, given that the U.S. sanctions are based on lies, just as the invasion of Iraq by George W. Bush was based on lies, and just as Obama’s bombings in both Libya and Syria were based on lies. North Korea can recognize the threat: the American President’s lie against them, and his initiating sanctions against them on the basis of it, displays unmistakably his hostile intent.

A pattern of aggressive lying for secret objectives is by now clear under Barack Obama; and in both the North Korean and the Russian and Ukrainian cases, nuclear weapons are very much on the table. Previously, after he had failed to achieve from the European Union the stringent economic sanctions that he had wanted against Russia — a nation that’s, of course, a far larger nuclear power than is North Korea — Obama used the pretext of the downing of the MH17 Malaysian airliner in order to obtain from the EU a hiked set of sanctions that are now causing real damage to Russia’s economy. Subsequently, it wasvirtually proven that the Ukrainian Government had itself actually shot down this airliner; furthermore, the Ukrainian Government had, in fact, been installed in a violent U.S.-financed coup on 22 February 2014 which had been misrepresented as being a democratic revolution. As I headlined on December 22nd, “Head of Stratfor, ‘Private CIA’, Says Overthrow of Yanukovych Was ‘The Most Blatant Coup in History’,” and this fact that it was a coup, which is now known to the entire world’s knowledgeable community, has caused the Czech President publicly to break with the U.S. and EU and to make clear that his own country’s 1968 “Velvet Revolution,” unlike the overthrow of the Ukrainian Government in February 2014, was non-violent and expressed the public’s will, no coup at all.

President Obama seized control over Ukraine on 22 February 2014 in order for Ukraine to join NATO and become a staging-area for U.S. missiles aimed at Russia, next door. Of course, this wouldn’t be at all more acceptable to any Russian leader than was, to U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1962, the attempt by Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to do that sort of thing to the U.S., in our own neighbor Cuba. So: this is a real provocation to nuclear war, but Obama keeps describing Russia as the aggressor here. (It’s ordinary for an intelligent aggressor to use defensive rhetoric, to fool his suckers.)

The background of President Obama’s efforts to provoke a nuclear war has been presented in a succinct 14-minute video by the superb documentarian Aaron Hawkins, and also in an article that I wrote (which is to the same effect as that documentary, but cites different documentation). Basically, it has to do with something that is of intense concern to the U.S. aristocracy: continuation of their domination over all other nations’ aristocracies. It’s like the buildup to World War I was, which war likewise was aristocratically sponsored in order to achieve global aristocratic dominance.

Unfortunately, this time, that war would have to be nuclear. Obama is doing everything he can to win it, but he is hoping to be able to achieve this win by something called “Prompt Global Strike,” which would eliminate Russia’s ability even to respond to a nuclear attack. Scientists are virtually unanimous that, with the current generation of vastly more-powerful nuclear bombs, even if only a few nuclear weapons are involved in an exchange, this planet will experience nuclear winter and massive starvation, so that if the nuclear exchange goes beyond that, then life as it has existed on this planet will essentially be ended. However, a doctrine of “U.S. Nuclear Primacy” was introduced by the U.S. aristocracy in 2006, which concludes that, “If Washington continues to believe such preeminence is necessary for its security, then the benefits of nuclear primacy might exceed the risks.” The authors ignored nuclear winter, because their article was addressed to America’s aristocrats, not to the public (whose concerns and especially their priorities are very different).

A historical analogy to President Obama’s thinking might be found in the thinking that guided the Japanese Government during World War II. According to the 1999 book by Richard B. Frank, Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire (p. 230): during 17-21 July 1945, Japan’s leaders were considering U.S. terms of their surrender in which no atomic bombs would be dropped, and Japan would even be able to “retain the Emperor” (something that their aristocracy were extremely determined to do), but their response still was: “We are unable to consent to it under any circumstances whatever.” The U.S., which then was an authentic democracy, nonetheless reluctantly went the next step, and President Harry S. Truman ordered it.


The aristocracy have different concerns, and very different priorities, than does a democratic public. U.S. President Obama, like his predecessor George W. Bush, embodies those aristocratic concerns and priorities, though his public rhetoric frequently expresses the opposite (for political reasons, to fool voters). Perhaps the only way for the U.S. aristocracy to continue its global dominance will entail a nuclear war. It would be the final tragedy, the ultimate crime by the aristocracies, against the publics everywhere. Anyone who would say that it’s insane doesn’t get the point, which is that, for aristocrats, status is more important than everything else: dominance is everything, to them.

War Is So 2014 !

I read a lot of stuff on the topic of War last night in Washington’s blog, and in the rather lengthly article in the Atlantic Magazine.  First of all back when I was a kid, three quarters of the children had an immediate relative who had served in the military.  Both my Dad and an uncle had served in the military during WW II.  The military was not held in such lofty- - almost ethereal, esoteric terms back then.  Today we elevate them something into something not quite human- - - this never ending supply of young bodies to be fed into the meat grinder of war.  We have completely lost our sense of humor when it comes to the military.  We used to make fun of certain military type situations like on “Mc Hale’s Navy” or “Phil Silvers” or “Gomer Pyle”.  But there is nothing about today’s military that evokes the slightest sort of good natured humor.  It’s all as serious as a heart attack.  (so to speak)   We don’t even show the war.  If anything we show some flashing areal display and told “that’s the war”.   There are no real reporters in a war setting any more.  I regard this as unfortunate.  Washington’s blog reminds us we used to have a draft, which may account for some of the “good natured criticism” of the past.  But even if we had a draft, rather than have the effect we want of “making the average American citizen aware of the cost of War”, it would be more like an alcoholic or drug addict now told he had an unlimited expense account.  He would very soon drink himself to death.  We as a nation have absolutely no “control” any more when it comes to war spending.  It’s some kind of an edrenelin high for the leaders, and the rest of us learn to just find a way to put the whole international situation out of our minds.  Usually people who are good at something and win at it, like to do it.  But in this case it’s more of a compulsive gambeler.  The idea of NOT having that constant edreneline fix - - is just too much to contemplate.  We have superior weapon power and fighting morale and training, yet always managed to find ourselves on the losing end of any war we fight.  We’re good at breaking up and destroying - - things, but the trouble is we treat people like things and kill and destroy the native populations of the countries we perport to be “saving” and the population turns against us.  Bush says to hold an election in Iraq and we ended up not liking the government they elected, so we take steps to turn them out of power.  You could make arguments for not going to war, or being chronically in a state of war for the past thirteen going on fourteen years now.  You could make a new argument every day of the week and run out of days before you can out of arguments.  These weapons are horribly inefficient.  This latest fighter jet we have now that’s supposed to be “all purpose” but in the end does NOTHING well.  But we have to keep inventing new craft as part of this drive tword built in obselence to keep the military contractors happy.  There are any number of constructive things we could do with that money if we weren’t blowing it on new hardware that doesn’t work.  The cost in destroyed human lives is horrendous.  The cost in terms of lost credibility around the world is also horrific.  We’re supposed to be invincible yet let this upstart outfit called ISIS defeat us.  And of course it seems not to matter in the least who is president at the time because it’s all one seamless military policy.  In addition to the necessity of having a candidate who is serious about making sure systematic torture never occurs again, and who does not increase our spying on our own people, we need a President who honestly believes that war per se is an ABNORMAL state of affairs, and not the other way around.   Washington lives in this state of chronically distorted perception.

This has been the year of the failed New Year’s resolution, and it’s only the fourth.  I haven’t quit smoking.  I’ve already gone political and gotten negative about it.  I had hoped maybe I could delude and distract myself with pleasant thoughts and just maybe something positive might come along for me to latch on to.  All of the usual talk show hosts will be coming back to work tomorrow, and congress hasn’t been to work so long, I hope they can remember how to find the building.  I keep hearing endless talk about how everyone is hopeful that the Republicans in congress will pass needed legislation, and President Obama will sign them.  It seems to me increasingly inevitable that President Obama will sign the Keystone XL pipeline, a whole lot sooner than anyone of us on the left dares imagine.  Last night on the Mc Laughlin group there were repeated references to how all of this hydraulic fracturing and turned around our whole energy situation with plentiful natural gas and oil.   Even Mort Zuckerman, ever the pessimist, now grudgingly admits we’ll have a 2.5% economic growth.   It was generally the traditional four on one pile-on with Eleanor Clift as the lone liberal.  There was the selection for “Best spun issue” being the slogan “Hands up; don’t shoot”.   This isn’t “spin” but reality.  There was an extended amount of Putin bashing, which is the one thing I agree with the right on.

I"d like to call out "Bones" on one of her rare logical, or at least linguist errors.  Bones made the remark that "Characters in novels or articles cannot be one dimensional because one dimensional objects occur only in scientific theory.  She's completely missing the point.  Clearly the metaphor isn't geographic here but rather the idea of personal "dynamic", which even I have stated, is a word that often can be substituted for the word "dimension".  So I see nothing wrong with speaking of characters as either one or two dimensional - - or multi or even poly-dimensional, even though all physical matter is limited to three dimensions.  A character is an abstraction - - a concept in literature - - without materiality.  I would submit that in the real world- - if you read my writings- - you really need eleven dimensions- - or at least ten (we'll leave off the feng chue strings for a moment - which is the concept of whole "events" being released or triggered from a realm that exists in a zero dimension that scientists haven't discovered yet)  This is the difference between the real world and characters in either a novel or article.  Bones was criticized because "The cops in your book come off as one dimensional".  I knew exactly what that criticism was referring to, and so did everybody else whose name wasn't Temperance Brennon.   It's kind of oxy moronic, if you think about to have a one dimensional stereobype.  But actually I've had it explained to me that traditional Stereo sound IS "one dimensional" as opposed to Mono, which is zero dimensional, meaning that it originates from a single point.  But like I say in the "Real World" you pretty much NEED all the others one way or another.  You need something, for instance, to posess the thing we've been talking about - - Materiality - - mass and physicality.  Any object you can think of has FORM in one sense or another.  Everything serves a Function.  You may think it's a trivial function- - but everything that exists serves SOME function.   Everything in yours and my world- - - pretty much is the object of our Perception of it.  We all live in a world of Time.  Granted, it's usually Forward time rather than Lateral time.  But if you experianced Lateral time in your life- - you probably wouldn't even know it anyhow.  And as we've told you- - one of our dimensions or "Dynamics" is the concept of the Dynamic.  Most everything in life is modulated and modified.  It isn't either all this or all that.  You have to be able to contrast something to distinguish it from Something Else.  (Selah)

Breakfast with the Beatles featured “Famous Beatle firsts”.   Some of the identification of the “first” was lost because in the middle of “Another Day” (Paul’s first solo single) Judy called to talk about their trip to see Mom at the Regency yesterday.  I wish now I had gone.   With no afternoon game I had to devise ways to keep myself entertained.   The trouble is that Judy is not an entirely objective person as I know from personal experience.  All the friends Judy sought out for feedback as to what to do advised her not to intervene in a family matter.  Now she wishes she had.  Because of the fact that Pat obtained Mom’s password- - and took the money out himself of her account, seemingly without her permission.  Either Mom was lying when she said “I have no interest in either Pat, or in buying any more stocks” or else Pat was lying to her saying he’d respect Mom’s decision.  It would seem to me that Pat is guilty of criminal activity for which he could be prosecuted if Mom pressed charges.   As to the bit about Pat and Mom spending a lot of time in each other’s rooms- - this is not the Victorian era.  Men and women spend a lot of time together “unsupervised”.  They’re both pushing ninety, for crying out loud!   They’re both adults.  My only worry is that Judy planted in my mind the idea that Mom was being either deceptive or not entirely honest- - or worse yet, that she’s just plain having memory lapses and blanking out events.  But I agree that remark about Pat telling Mom “Oh just lie to the bank and tell them your computer isn’t working and they’ll do it for you” seems too shady for me.  It has the vague inference that Pat would not get on computer Himself- - and start playing with accounts.  And personally I don’t like lying- - even so called “innocent lying”, and Judy certainly doesn’t.   I missed the morning coffee break.  Some of the “firsts” I can’t figure out, such as the Ballad of John and Yoco, or Give Peace a Chance.  “My Sweet Lord” was the first number one hit of a solo Beatle.  “Day Tripper” and ‘We can Work it Out” is kind of a Beatle “last” because it’s the last big hit single where both Beatles (John and Paul) worked on both songs.  The true art of the “Lennon – Mc Cartney” was pretty much lost after this and the only exception that come to mind are “Getting Better” and “You Know My Name - - - “.    I thought perhaps that “Eleanor Rigbee” was the first song where NO Beatle played any instrument on that number.  “Norwegian Wood” was the first song, of course, using a sitar.

Former NY Governor Mario Cuomo Dies

Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo died last night at age 82.  He’s the guy who gave the big speech at the Democratic 1984 convention.   He was under pressure to run for President in 1988 and particularly in 1992 but Cuomo announced in December of 1991 that he would not run.  Now I hear that the democratic national committee asked Cuomo NOT to run “in the interest of the party”.  It strikes me as really strange that the party management is worried about a charismatic candidate delivering a speech at a convention, overshadowing the nominee.   Arguably this happened in 1980, 1984, and in 1988 with Jesse Jackson, at the democratic convention.  It seems to be why the party establishment was scared shitless that Hillary’s name would be put in nomination at the democratic convention in 2008.  This doctrine of “boring is safe” is getting a little old, because the electorate is getting quite bored with candidates “playing it safe”.   Cuomo was Governor of New York from 1982 through to 1994, which would be three terms.   His son Andrew Cuomo has been New York Governor and was inaugurated for another term and didn’t know his father had died till after the ceremonies were over with. 

The Mission Inn  in Riverside has all these big fireworks celebrations.  Several Presidents of the United States have stayed there including Kennedy, Nixon, and Ronald Reagan.  It’s not just a hotel but a major tourest attraction with a “spa” and also a chapel if you want to get married there, and the area has rich historic roots.  Of course the day of Aunt Bonnie’s funeral the family ate lunch there.  This was in April of 2001 when I couldn’t make it because I was too alcoholic.  But I’d have never made it because it’s not just a few steps to the grave.  It’s a major hike over lumpy ground that alternates either dead grass, or else it’s over-watered and muddy, all in your Sunday finest.  Of course I was able to say my good-byes to Bonnie because we visited her at the funeral home and Paul suggested I feel the body and the flesh was cold.  It’s the first time I had ever touched a dead body.  From what I heard it was a ceremony with a lot of religious trappings with a lot of readings from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.  Uncle Bob was never very religious and didn't attend church, but let a little thing like death come around and now he's the most religious person on the planet.

If you thought the economy of California was a little sluggish before, it’s going to get a lot worse next year because that Cap and Trade carbon tax goes into effect in California, and the news people are saying that these low gasoline prices may become just a pleasant memory in a short while.  One person said that the average price hike for this new cap and trade will be 76 cents.  There was an initial ten cent per gallon price hike yesterday, but that’s just the appetizer, they say.  There are a number of states in the east including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina, I think, that have hiked their gasoline taxes.  Of course 21 states are making some changes to their minimum wage laws, but in most of these states, the raise is far below what it would be required to be to offset inflation since 1968.   But it is possible that with slightly more money in circulation, stock prices will continue to rise higher for a while.  We’ll see whether that “bubble burst” in late 2015 prediction holds up.   But in California those on the right have been saying for a long time that our corporations were over-taxed, and so far all those corporations which moved to states like Texas, have not moved back.  Regardless of what I think of Texas in terms of climate- - political or otherwise- - - a lot of businessmen are in seventh heaven with Texas’s tax laws.

 The Rose Bowl will feature Oregon and Florida State playing.  The resuls of this game are now in at  5:50 and Oregon pummeled Florida State 59 to 20 and a key factor were three Florida turnovers in the second half.  The other half of this college Final Four are Ohio and Alabama, playing in the Sugar Bowl.  We learn Ohio State defeated Alabama in the Sugar bowl last night.  I thought Alabama was first and Ohio State was number four.  Of course there are fans of Texas Christian University (TCU) who feel they were robbed of a play-off berth here.  So there still seems to be a certain ammount of arbitrariness about this whole process.   But at least Ohio State vindicated their selection by winning.

It can be said that the hippy movement began in 1965 in terms of the dress and the really long hair and such.  I first heard about LSD in the summer of 1965 and that fall it was the big topic of discussion in High School.  LSD was still legal then, of course.  Much of what we call today "underground stuff" like Dr Timothy Leary's teachings and books like "I love you Alice B Tolkis" were already established pillars in the underground community, as of course were the works of Bob Dylan.  It was only in the spring of 1965 that Dylan kind of "came out" as a household item.  It was the turn of the year that the LBJ tax cuts went into effect and when were advertising how excise taxes on many things were now lifted.  Everybody (except Barry Mc Guire) were optimistic in 1965.   We had the first Gemini (EVA) extra vehicular activity space walks in 1965.   We had the Medicare passage, and without much contraversy as I recall, at least after the deed was done.  Nobody questioned it - not even George Wallace in his 1968 Presidential campaign.  It was a time of progress and Voting Rights and the War on Poverty and all of that.  The conservatives were once and for all time (so we assumed) completely vanquished as any kind of serious political force in American life.  It wasn't until the fall of 1965 that Color TV programming became the norm rather than just a minority of programs, and it was obvious there were decisions being made in a lot of Hollywood studios.   At the same time the - - Black and White movie - - became almost a thing of the past in theaters.  Few serious film makers considered the rather "Noir" quality of the black and white presentation worth considering.   However it was also the year we began taking the silver out of our coins- - - and it also became the year that inflation began to be a significant problem - -  though minor at first.  It was the year of the Go - Go and the mini skirt.  Starting with the Yardbirds and the Kinks, it was the year of really LOUD rock groups.  It was a time when church pastors in their sermons began to lament the declining numbers in church attendance.  It was the time "The record album" as an antistic entity in itself- - first saw its rise in teen buyers as opposed to just 45 rpm singles.  It was about the time when high schools were pressured to have a shot at revising their dress codes.   When these politicians say they would like to return to "the past" - - well, here is is- the way it was fifty years ago.