The Ten Republicans Are Chosen

They just announced the ten contestants for Thursday’s Republican debate, and as suspected last night – Rick Perry is the odd man out.  There were three ‘tied in ninth place” and the two of those final three who made the cut were Governor Christie and John Kasech.  I expect you know who the other eight are.  You'll find out tomorrow night.  Tomorrow's debate will be like the Superbowl of politics, a moment we've been waiting for for a long time.  Stephanie says Rick Perry should have been included because he was ahead in the NBC and Wall Street journal polls.  This would set up a conflict with Donald Trump because Rick Perry said "Trump is like a cancer on the fabric of conservativsm" and "Nobody with an attitude twords veterans he has should be running for President".  The republicans had a “mini debate” last night.  (OK cue up mini-Kiss)  It included but was not limited to Ted Cruz,  Rick Perry, Carley Fiurina, Rick Santorum, and John Kasech.  I comment on this debate held in New Hampshire, where the format was they’d have one questioner asking one candidate at a time on particular topics, such as the economy.  I wrote Judy about this and also talked about the chaos at Chase Bank yesterday, having rearranged all their stuff to total unrecognizability.  I also got around to writing Dr Levy about you-know-who offering to store my record collection at his house.  I haven’t checked back.  I didn’t even bother to ask Dr Levy the obvious questions like “What are you doing now” or will you ever be back?

Last night I read a thing in Washington’s blog that says the United States under President Obama is ending the MAD or mutually assured destruction policy on Nuclear Weapons.  We are now clearly going for “first strike” technology, which is deemed doable now because the United States has moved far out ahead of Russia in nuclear technology and numbers.  The piece more than hints at the possibility that the United States’ aim is to wipe Russia off the map, so that they won’t be a trade competitor.  And this is from a June 2014 posting link.  Perhaps this reality is why the Orion Federation has turned against the US and toward the pro Russian position in that conflict.

Netanyahu claims that this treaty with Iran not only doesn’t block progress to the bomb but actually “paves the pathway to the bomb”.  He also said “Iran wins whether they keep the treaty and they win if they break the treaty because they still got the sanctions lifted to use for all manner of research and the spread of terrorism throughout the Mideast”.   I guess this is a legitimate point of view if you take seriously this talk of “Wiping Israel off the map” but others say this phrase is a mistranslation of the Farsee that actually means “To disappear from the stage of history because of their illigitamacy”.   Let’s review the specific terms of the treaty which “blocks every conceivable path to a bomb”.   They even have to get rid of their spent Uranium.  They say that Uranium has to be enriched to 90% Uranium 235 in order to build an atom bomb, and they only have twenty percent enrichment.  Normal uranium is U 238 with about one percent U 235.  And for power plants for peace time use they say it’s five percent enrichment to U235.   Of course U 235 is lighter than normal Uranium 238 and so the centrifuge separates it out.  But then there is a plutonium path to the bomb also where U 235 can be bombarded with alpha particles and be “transmuted” to Plutonium 239, which is four atomic weight heavier.  This is because alpha particles have an atomic weight of four.  And apparently Plutonium gets you to building a bomb quicker.  Of course we are reminded that hiding radioactive material is not like flushing drugs down the toilet before the cops break in.  You know it’s there.  I think if people think about this treaty dispassionately and sanely they will defer to all the atomic experts that state that all “paths to a bomb” are cut off, and that we will live in a safer world.

In Idaho it’s criminal behavior to secretly record the abuse or slaughter of animals.  The Dairyman group of Idaho got this bill passed in February 2014.   Of course if you are on private property I guess it would be trespassing.  But now they are going to put the thing before Federal Court because they are pleading their first amendment rights are being violated.  The Judge said though “It’s not the private property issue that concerns us, but it’s the negative content”.  I couldn’t believe that a judge would be as blatant as that.  Today is Tuesday August 4, 2015 and I think it’s Obama’s birthdays, or at least one of the dates.

The Rev Chuck Smith had an intriguing saying.  He said "Once a person rejects Christianity they leave themselves open to anything".   This line is meant to scare the congregation into not questioning anything told them by their leader and also into not "exploring' or questioning other beliefs.  One of the key things that are "child like" (the way Jesus told believers to be) is that children question and explore.  They make judgements - accepting certain things as proven knowledge- while rejecting others.  In short it's known as Growth.  This is something the so called "Christian believer" is shielded from in this adoption of what he calls "The Faith".  It's a blank check to be just as big an asshole as you please- - to play the fool all the time, yet be shielded from any embarrassment.   One thing I've learned as you get older is one has an increasing intollerance for stupid or unproven ideas.  One of Bill Cosby's favorite lines with his TV children is "That's about the stupidest thing I've heard anybody say".  Old people love to call people and things as "Stupid" and the others are supposed to rely in their wisdom and accept it.  It strikes me that most of the "true believers" are younger people- - teenagers and young adults.  This Calvary Chapel style Christianity seems to be something that one "grows out of" in time.  But Republican dogma is much like this so called "Faith".  You hear this endless series of talking points spouted by FOX news and Shawn Hannity.  Most of these talking points are demonstrably false- - but never let facts get in the way of being a "True Believer".  Indeed a definition of Faith just might be "A system of thought that shields the thinker from reality".  A lot of the belief system of the right boils down to saying "The democrats are all basically like Bernie Sanders.  They are democratic socialists.  They are like the Bolshivicks of old except for one thing.  They don't believe in acquiring their goals by military force.  But the thing is if these democrats have their way- - with increasing loss of liberty (liberty: the freedom to take YOUR rights away) then they'll resort to military force.  These right wingers lead you down a primrose path of thought.  Maybe they start off with seven or eight "forms of government" but then they start "boiling it down" and become very bi-polar, and you're left with what they call "Liberty" and "Freedom" on one side- - - and this other democratic socialist thing that Chris Matthews talked about on Meet the Press last Sunday.  He accused Bernie Sanders of being some kind of a soft Bolshivick - - who wants to eliminate capitalism and the free markets entirely- - when Bernie Sanders has advocated NOTHING like this.  But those on the right NEED to believe this- - to break everything down to a bi-polar choice just as Chuck Smith would view the world in terms of "Once you reject the truth of Christianity you'll be open to anything" or restated more simply of "Once you fail to STAND UP for Christianity then you'll FALL for anything!"

We had Swedish meatballs tonight with the usual heavy gravy.  We had that curly colored pasta with that and cauliflour.  We had bread putting for dessert.  As I was standing to leave Dora showed up with seconds on the meat balls, as the room was really thinning out.  Bill shows no inclination to come in here.  It seems that so many people are offering the cat food now at different times, she is refusing it.  But she’s eating for several now. 

Ten Candidates Prepare for Thursday's Debate

Donald Trump and all the other nine candidates are preparing for Thursday’s debates.  One person said “It’s like preparing for a NASCAR race where one of the drivers has been drinking heavily.  Many have said that Donald Trump has no hard policies, but Trump is promising to lay out his positions on a whole lot of specific issues soon.   Donald says “I am not a debater” because he’s so oriented to actually sixing problems, so he doesn’t listen to the polsters.  On Meet the Press they were saying that perhaps Donald will reverse roles and be the sane one and wait for the others to attack him first.  Trump is playing both sides of the cops issue saying “Yes there is a racial problem” but on the other hand saying Police are important to stem the (newly rising?) crime rate. There was time to hang out before Meet the Press.  They had Donald Trump on.  Donald Trump would rather run against Hillary because he thinks her campaign is imploding “If you have an honorable prosecutor”, and besides Joe Byden is a friend of Trump’s. OK.  Donald Trump is up to 24 percent in the polls and Trump points out that “With sixteen other candidates in the race, as they drop out one by one I’ll look even better”.   On “Face the Nation” Trump came out and admitted that just like all of us, he seeks to pay as little Federal Income Taxes as possible.  Trump then said something like “I’m a better judge of how to spend the money than our current government is anyhow”.  Mike Huckibee is standing by his “Obama is leading the Jews to the gas chambers” remark.  Huckibee states that as one of ten men he hopes he gets personally attacked, because if you are referenced by name you get a thirty second rebuttal.  Makes sense to me!  We’ll know a lot more Friday morning.

 Breakfast with the Beatles featured Todd Ruundgrin singing “Hold Me Tight” and I guessed it but they said they’d had that song before.  It took a lot of tries for people to guess it.  They played a version of “Norweegen Wood” with false starts and a bass drum that came in.  Those four live songs on Anthology disc 3 were part of a six song line-up.  The other two unheard songs were “I’m Really Down” and ‘Act Naturally”.  This is relevant to the Federation because the part of John Lennon in this concert was played by “Muah” according to them.  They are re-releasing “Tug of War” and “Pipes for Peace”.  They played in honor of that “Say, Say, Say”, which you rarely hear, with Michael Jackson and also “Girl, I like what you’re Doing” with Stevie Wonder but looking back on it, it actually sounds more like Prince to my ears.  We had lentil soup with very few lentils.  We had a cold cut sandwich and a decent pasta salad and grapes for dessert.  I had Leo Le Port on till nearly one thirty.  Two things stuck out.  Windows 10 is getting rid of Media Player entirely, which sounds insane.  It’s one of the things Windows is noted for.  So gone not are the CD disk rip and burn operations, but the screen savers that go along with it, and a copy of your media library and also all the radio station categories.  Some of that stuff can be found in I Tunes or elsewhere.  Did they get rid of “sound recorder” too?  No wonder they are offering free “upgrades” for the following year.  They want you off that stuff.  Then we have AT&T and this man in a wheel chair who’s being cut off of Lifeline by the phone company, which Leo says is illegal under California law.  No wonder they have been trying so hard to move me off.  I’m glad the calls have stopped lately.  It’s illegal for the phone company to “cut the copper” and put us all on digital fiber-optics.  The weather has been averaging just below normal in temperature.

Last night it was medication with Donnie in the med room.  I watched the Mc Laughlin group but don’t have any pressing remarks except Mort and Pat both said “With Hillary faltering it’s time for Joe Byden to get his campaign revved up.  I didn’t do a blog yesterday and may not do one today is something interesting doesn’t come along.  I was out of the room a lot during Wheel and Jeopardy.   I got instant coffee from Glen in his room for four cigarettes.  “Burn Notice” had a really stupid episode.  I don’t often rout for the villain but this time if I were in the enemy camp I would have told Michael Weston to go fuck himself.  Nobody offering a true business proposition would lay out such absurd turns and talk down to the client.  You don’t persuade me by insulting me.  In the morning I had the “Today” show on.  I got medication from Tom at six thirty and began to feel nauseous about ten to seven.  I sat in the front room a while.  I went to the bakery for a large dollar fifty cup of coffee.  I wanted to be able to drink it at my leisure and not feel rushed before breakfast.  I had this preminission last evening and early this morning that Augustine had taken the cat to the pound, because I didn’t see the cat before dinner or anytime after dinner or early this morning and I was worried.   We had oatmeal again and scrambled eggs and toast and butter and jelly.  We got black coffee with creamer.  Since I’ve been on more medication this year, I wonder if it’s any coincidence that references to the Federation or Dead People have been sharply reduced – from what it was a couple of years ago – is just a coincidence or chemically induced.  What if they gave all the church theologians in the early centuries (the two and three hundreds) a drug like Resperidol- - whether a lot of them in mass would get suddenly bored and just walk away from their theological ponthicating?

John Stewart is going off the air.  There seems to be an epidemic of people going off the air in the past few years.  First it’s Oprah and then it’s Jay Leno and David Letterman and Randy Rhodes and Ed Schultz.  Most or all of these people are of the liberal persuasion, and I’m starting to wonder what’s going on.   I actually saw the cat four times this morning.  I saw her just after eight when I sat on the far east wood slat bench.  I saw her later when Phyllis was petting it and it came over and let me pet it.  I saw the cat down the sidewalk by Wally on the third outing, and I saw the cat again on a fourth outing.  I’m still worried some sneak may capture her and take her to the pound.   Will the cat too be part of “people that aren’t around anymore”?

This is Sunday August 2, 2015 the 48^th anniversary of the first time I threatened to comit suicide.  The mystery of the Orange County Fair is resolved.  Wally and Lisa went there the day before it officially opened on Thursday July 16^th.  The Fair officially opened Friday the 17^th and will remain open till Sunday August 16^th which is the anniversary of Elvis’ death.  Wally was talking about various amusement park ride and how a friend threw his back out on Montezuma’s revenge at Knott’s.   The OC fair had this giant ski lift thing which is a chair on cable that rocks, and Wally doesn’t like high riding things that rock.  Glenda gave me a beer and potato burrito which wasn’t too spicy.  Glenda couldn’t eat it and Joe had a few bites.  Soon after I went for snacks in the courtyard and had two cups of “Texas tea”.  That name is catching on.