Hillary, Healthcare, and Hypocracy

Well this weekend you have the democratic debate stealthfully hidden on a holiday weekend because Debby Wasserman Schultz has so little faith in the front runner, Hillary Clinton. We have "the big boys" in the NFL play-offs Saturday and Sunday. That's eight teams. And you had the Republican debate last night. It was about the worst most immature debate of any of them. I ought to know because Shawn Hannity loved it. He thinks these republican debates are getting better and better. But since there was no pressing news this day, I decided I'd give you a stale rerun from yesterday that's still relevant. Hope you enjoy it.

In a video from February 2008, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton passionately denounces candidate Barack Obama for criticizing her healthcare plan and daring to “discredit universal healthcare.”

“Since when do Democrats attack each other on universal healthcare?!” Clinton exclaims. Check out this video mashup of Clinton’08 and Clinton ’16.

She finds Obama’s comments to be “Republican talking points,” “the worst kind of politics,” and “very reminiscent of the health insurance industry’s attacks … the last time we went after universal healthcare.”

That “last time” was a reference to the effort Hillary led during Bill Clinton’s presidency. We learned later from the late Senator Paul Wellstone that her focus groups were presented with a single-payer plan and supported it above all others, but that Hillary Clinton rejected that approach.

A single-payer health plan is, of course, the solution long since arrived at by every other major country on earth. It eliminates private health insurance companies, their bureaucracy, their advertising, their CEO salaries, and other overhead. Under such a system, everyone is covered, and the cost is dramatically lowered. Under such a system, many might pay more in taxes, but not as much more as they would save by eliminating their insurance bills, deductibles, and co-pays.

Campaigning as a surrogate for her mom, Chelsea Clinton now claims in words very reminiscent of insurance industry talking points, that “Senator [Bernie] Sanders wants to dismantle Obamacare, … dismantle Medicare, and dismantle private insurance. … I worry if we give Republicans Democratic permission to do that, we’ll go back to an era — before we had the Affordable Care Act — that would strip millions and millions and millions of people off their health insurance.”

She also claimed, inaccurately, as has her mother, that Sanders’ single-payer plan would “empower” Republican governors to eliminate health insurance for low and middle-income Americans. While Sanders’ plan, unlike Congressman John Conyers’, does involve the states, it does not do what the Clintons are claiming.

Sanders responded, pointing out that the United States is “the only major country on Earth that doesn’t guarantee healthcare to all people as a right, and yet we end up spending far more per capita on healthcare as do the people of any other nation.”

ABC News asked Hillary Clinton on camera how she could justify her daughter’s claims that a truly universal system would strip people of health coverage. Clinton refused to concede the point, and changed topics to make a misleading claim that single-payer would cost more.
It would not.

Under Sanders’ proposal, unless you are among the top 5% of income earners, single-payer would reduceyour total healthcare costs.

Hillary Clinton has been a leading opponent of single-payer healthcare for decades now. That doesn’t give her the right to lie about it. A system of enhanced Medicare for all, which is what single-payer amounts to, does not strip people of Medicare. It expands Medicare so that everyone is covered.

In doing that, single-payer of course replaces Obamacare, an approach originated by Republicans and the right-wing Heritage Foundation in collaboration with health profiteers who would be put out of work and out of the game of election funding if single-payer were established.

In that light, it’s worth noting that since 2013, Hillary Clinton has pocketed $2.8 million in exchange for giving 13 speeches to health-profiteering industry groups.

For that kind of money, some people will tell you anything you want to hear.

I’ve signed this petition and you can to: Hillary, Stop lying about single-payer.

Is That State of the Union Speech "Out of Touch"?

 We all know Donald Trump is "out to lunch" but we'll deal with that issue another day

Shawn Hannity said he was going to give his take on Obama’s state of the union message.  Hannity failed to do this during the hour instead reverting to his pre-set laundry list of gripes against the President.  It’s the same thing as when I wanted to know how Pastor Bill Halliday felt about one of my letters and wanted feedback.  But Bill Halliday was working off a different sheet and had a pre-set agenda of attack mode and showed virtually no evidence of having read any of my letters.  In fairness- - the best grade I would give him if he were a student of mine- would be an F, because his comprehension was near zero, just as Hannity’s comprehension level of the President’s speech was near zero.  He too talked about how the President “Isn’t serious about ISIS”.  He talked about the two PT boat captures by Iran yesterday.  He said “If I were the President and this event happened on my watch, I’d just bomb the hell out of Iran”.   His response to almost every conflict is to bomb the hell out of somebody.  But it dawned on me that Washington’s blog is another, different source which claims the President is leading a phoney war on ISIS and that the whole war stance seems to be playing to the media with no actual substance behind it.  It does seem strange to me that Saudi Arabia would execute 46 people who were high ranking ISIS officials.  If that’s true that means we have 46 fewer high ranking ISIS officials to worry about.  I don’t see how Hannity can continue to regard the Saudis as our second must trusted allies in the region - - and at the same time condemn mass executions and mistreatment of woman and religious hyper orthodoxy.  Either Hannity is in love with Wahabiism or he isn’t.   Because basically there is no daylight between Al Qaeda, ISIS, and the Saudi government on this issue. 

Last night was the State of the Union address.  They had ABC network news on at five thirty.  I went to Glen’s room at five thirty and tried again at five to six and again when the speech was over at 7:15 and none of those times did Glen answer his door.  As promised it was a different sort of speech.  But rather than look to the future as I thought, it was basically looking back to a rather rose tinted glasses past of the past seven years.  A lot of the speech was basically a pep talk for America taking on at times the quality of a sermon.  It almost sounded like a major endorsement of Bernie Sanders for President because it alluded to programs like free college education and getting the money out of politics that Bernie Sanders endorsed.  But it turned into a major attack on Donald Trump right there from the lectern.   It was agreed seemingly by everyone in the chamber that assaults on one’s race or religion or creed have no place in national politics.  It was not a “shorter speech” as promised.  The speech began at ten after six and continued right on to ten after seven.  As for the speech of Nicky Haley- - this too continued the attack on Donald Trump theme.  There was lots of rosey talk about how the United States is a beacon of hope with opportunity for all.  There was talk of all the forgiveness exercised by Blacks in the South Carolina church shooting and agreement that the Confederate flag should have come down.  However she leaps from there into the old stand by’s.  Yes the Statue of Liberty extends the torch of freedom to all races and peoples, but hey, won’t that Trump wall look really good when it’s finished- - a grand and beautiful wall to keep the wrong kind of people out.  Yes we need more educational opportunities- - but lets bash those teachers unions every chance we get.  No we don’t want to be paranoid- - - but we can all agree that despite all the droning and bombing of ISIS people we’ve done that basically “The president has shown no inclination to want to take ISIS seriously at all”.   In short, her message was scitzophrenic.

 I listened to that man and woman on KFI till the first commercial break there and then I switched to Sean Hannity for the rest of the hour.  That was a better show.  He talked about the State of the Union speech from various aspects, playing old Obama clips.  Stephano is to be left under a building that is to be demolished, buried under a bunch of rubble.  Eva said the baby in the photographs was hers and Patches.  The other was teenage chatter in front of bright blue school lockers.  Jennifer began calling names for Money Draw at one thirty and at two there was almost no line and I got in quickly.  I asked for and got fifteen dollars from Jennifer.  The dog was lying around. 

Alabama defeated Clemson for the national championship 45 to 40.  I would only add that this is one time when betting favorites wouldn’t have worked, with that seven point spread.  In other news there was a suicide bombing by a Syrian in a tourist area in Istambul.  I watched video on that.  Two US ships were briefly detained in Iran till John Kerry intervened to set them free.  And according to Sean Hannity, Joe Biden is thinking of getting back in the Presidential race and is even saying nice things about Bernie just to stir up controversy against Hillary.  And I think we know from 2008 that Hillary doesn’t react that well to pressure.  She lashes out.  To make things worse Bernie Sanders has been endorsed by Moveon.org, a group that was founded after the Clinton impeachment trial.  Bernie Sanders is really close in Iowa and has moved back ahead in New Hampshire.  Whatever Sanders is doing now he needs to keep it up.

There are implied and perhaps overt threats against witnesses against the Chicago cups in the Mc Donald shooting.  They are taking to holding rooms and kept there for hours and brow beaten saying “you are- - going to tell the story the way we want you to, or else”.   A similar thing happened in the Ferguson jury.  This behavior violates the Rico act or something.  Isn't that what they call racketeering or strong-arming businesses or people?  But now the plot thickens because we learn Governor Bruce Rouner and Mayor Rom Emanuel are members of the same exclusive country club and are good friends.  But now Governor Rouner is turning on his old friend and wants to have Mayor Emanuel recalled.  But Governor Rouner is power mad anyhow because of how many things he wants to strip from the state budget.  

David Bowie Dies At Age 69

David Bowie died at age 69 of Cancer.  69 is an appropriate age for someone as sexually confused as Bowie.  I was just thinking of David Bowie yesterday when they had “Who’s singing that Beatles song” and my first guess was David Bowie, when it turned out to be Iggy Pop, so I was close.  I had been musing yesterday when the all time peak of rock and roll was and had concluded that he had to be in the early ‘seventies.  The death of David Bowie is not just celebrating one person but a whole category of music.  Back in the early ‘seventies if you said you were going to a rock concert- - it would be celebrating a whole genus of music.  So you had your Led Zeppelin fans, or Jethro Tull, or Electric Light Orchestra, or Emerson Lake and Palmer or Pink Floyd.  Each band would be a whole type of music.  This is how it was with Bowie.  It is generally said that his “classic period” was from Space Oddity through Diamond Dogs or his second through eighth studio album.  Other classic albums obviously are “Young Americans”, “Station to Station”, “The Lodger”, “Scarey Monsters” and ‘Let’s Dance”.   Cosmically there is no talk of some massive commemoration, and also the word is that there is no big reunion planned with Mick Ronson, but I better shut up now before I go off the rails.

This is Monday morning before breakfast January 11, 2016 and the Rude Pundit was just on Stephanie Miller.  Now Donald Trump is saying to throw a guy out and take his coat so he freezes to death in the ten degree weather.  A Moslem woman stood up and had a shirt or something that said “I Come in Peace” and Donald turned the mob against her.  Before the rally the people near her were interacting happily but not afterward.  The Rude Pundit says “Well at least now I know what it was actually like to attend a Nazi rally in the thirties”.

I had a dream where Paul was leading a Christian fellowship group that was part of a large organization that was like Disney Corp- - but they kept track of their customers and sometimes would herd people into a small area and not let them out until they had accepted the cult’s version of Jesus.  At one point I was along in the house and went out to do the laundry but somehow I was only wearing a sheet.  One guy asked what I was doing and I became aware I had next to nothing on.  I had been intending to buy wine at the local Stater Brothers but never got around to that- - and when I finally woke up I was craving something alcoholic. 

The Sea Hawks beat the Vikings in yesterday’s morning game ten to nine.  The score was nine to nothing Vikings but then the Sea Hawks scored a touchdown and a field goal and the Viking kicker had to make a 27 yard field goal to win the game and he missed way wide.  It was truly a case of “icing the kicker” at cold temperatures.  Green Bay played Washington in Washington and when GB got the wind in the 2^nd quarter the tide of the game turned and GB was not only winning at the half but the Packers pulled away and won the game 35 to 18.  This was the afternoon game on FOX.   The road team won all four games in the Wild Card round.  

Mike Huckibee is on C-Span with Paul Ryan and some Black guy talking about the poverty trap and how all the government services go away once you get a job.  I would agree with Huckibee’s remarks but only add that if they got paid a decent amount with a minimum wage you could actually live on- - you would see a lot of these transition problems go away.  In terms of being penalized for double pay checks or working sixteen hours a day- - I clearly see Huckibee’s point that withholding should not penalize you for hard work when all you are trying to do is keep your head above water.  Of course Huckibee also argues for a flat tax.   The IRS is the only organization where you are presumed guilty and all the fines and other penalties are levied up front and maybe by hard work at a trial you might get some of your money back.  But I would add the IRS is inherently out to cheat you by using your money without permission and they pay you nothing by way of interest rates for the use of your money.   I take issue with the notion that all a child needs to stay out of poverty is for his mother and father to have a piece of paper that says they’re married.  You see an awful lot of married people in economic trouble.  It could be argued the other way around - - that poverty breaks up marriage.

One thing funny about all this Royalty stuff is that marriages and everything else are done for political motives.  It’s not as though you could pick up the phone and get a hold of France or England or Spain, as implied on this show.  They never discuss the language barrier.  Was everyone multi-lingual in those days like Star Trek or something?  Even in those days they believed in honest investigation of evidence to see is charges would hold up.  I slept pretty well.  But I woke just before five and lay in bed till 5:15 and then got up.  After a cigarette I lay back down on the bed in the dark, removing my glasses.  I was unsure whether to go to the bakery or not for coffee.  I got my medication from Tom and headed up and listened to KNX radio.  I went to the store just before seven and it wasn’t open so I went to the bakery where I got a dollar fifty cup of coffee.  The others such as Bill were still waiting for the store to open.  I drank some of the cup in my room but brought the majority of it downstairs. 

Leo Le Port was on.  They played “Kodochrome’ but Chris Marquardt, the photography guy wasn’t on.  Now they are talking about a theater in Hollywood that devotes itself to showing just film media and none of this electronic stuff.  On “Eye on LA” they had a thing on where the stars hang out.  I would only say that since I haven’t kept up- - I wouldn’t recognize a lot of them as celebreties even if they walked up and talked to me.   For dinner we had “Lemon pepper chicken”, which was a dud, and rice and a vegetable.  Most people got butterscotch pudding but our table got vanilla.  EWN was on.  I watched America’s Funniest Home Videos, followed by the Simpson’s and then a little of the Golden Globe awards.  I didn’t stay up late at all however.   This morning I used my debit card for probably the last time this month.  I was concerned it wasn’t swiping properly and I had to do it twice.  I got a large $1.25 coffee and the dining room doors were just opening at ten after seven so I came on in.  We had oatmeal followed by generous scrambled eggs and toast and butter and jelly and black coffee.   For the benefit of people who may be reading this- - you have a choice of pre mixed milk and sugar that drowns the flavor of the coffee- - or black.  Black us usually hotter and a lot more robust.  

[Saturday]  Olivia gave me a bunch of those wafer things and used up the package.  I had Rhapsody in Black on and they at long last were doing January of 1967, a long overdue date to do.  They played “It Takes Two” by Marvyn Gaye and Kim Weston, and “Standing in the Shadow of Love” and “Tell It Like It Is” and “Let’s Fall in Love” by Peaches and Herb.  They also played “Try a Little Tenderness” by Otis Redding, “Set Me Free” by the Supremes,  and “Tramp!” (unknown artist).  They played that Blondie song “The Hunter Gets Captured by the Prey” and an instrumental version of “Mercy, Mercy” and “Mustang Sally” by Wilson Picket.  Olivia was here till after dinner and Bill Walked her to the bus stop and was gone a long time.  I finally saw Bill on the back benches when it was about dark.  We had roast beef (and not pork) for dinner with gravy and spinach and cut up potatoes.  We had generous vanilla pudding for dessert.

Clear Racial Bias in Government Dealings

Making the rounds on the liberal talk show circuits these days is the thought virus that if those Bundy type squatters on that government land were a branch of “Black Lives Matter” or perhaps “Occupy Wall Street” or even some American Indian group, that they would most likely be dead or something by now- - or at least all incarcerated.  They wouldn’t be ignored and allowed to hog the media with their little invectives against- - - “organized stateism” for lack of a better term.  These people put a spin on the second amendment that reveals them to be anarchists at heart.  But we needn’t keep this line of reasoning hypothetical.  There is a branch of the Shoshoni tribe up in Idaho (I think) that years ago lost their Indian land they had owned for centuries.  Back in business law I heard something about “encroachment law” where if there is a vacant plot of land and there is a diagonal path across that grassy field- - these pedestrians have over time the  common law right to use that path- - because of a doctrine of aquiecence or something where they can’t be stopped.  I don’t know if I was ever tested on this.  But it seems that this Sheshoni tribe “lost the right” to their own land because it became a major pollution dumping ground where the land became worthless anyhow.  And the government offered the tribe money for their land but the Shoshoni tribe refused and said “We want our land” so became as it were squatters on their own land doing ranching and things on the land.  But unlike the Bundy Boys- - the government swooped in and sued them for millions of dollars and conthiscated their cattle and all of that, so they are now in a heap of legal trouble.

A quote has surfaced about John Erlichman who in 1970 or so said that the thing that Nixon feared most were hippies and Black people.  And if he could tie the anti Viet Nam War protestors to pot and Blacks to Heroin then he’d discredit large segments of the left wing.  He said “We knew it was a lie – but it worked”.   In other words using drug hysteria as a political weapon against the progressive movement in this country.  There is this woman named Sarah in Utah who has a three year old daughter named Renni who has this host of illnesses and medical conditions since she was born.  And she went to Oregon to get legal medical marijuana.  But at the beginning of this year Oregon canceled their program to allow out of staters to buy these “illicit” drugs.  So now it’s up to the Utah legislature to legalize medical marijuana in such dire cases- - and Sarah, the mother, is advised to get in contact with the Rep legislative leader.

This massive methane leak in Porter Ranch in the SF Valley is the result of a safety shut-off valve that was removed in 1979 and never replaced.  There is a special kind of lenses where you can actually see the massive black smoke pollution.  It’s said that the excess methane gas should be burned off with a flair and this would be safer from an ecological perspective because the methane gas would be turned to C02, which is a less dangerous gas than methane.  This problem began in October and it will be till March before they say the problem will be fixed. 

Black people would be candidates for PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder.  Thom Hartman says if he’d had the experiences growing up that his Black friends have related to him, or that he’s read about- - then he, Tom would have PTSD.  Black people are not sympathetic to this bit about the President crying over white school kids because Black people routinely see so much horror and trauma in their lives they don’t allow themselves the luxury of showing emotions, or at least that’s my understand of it.  It’s something to think about, anyhow.

It’s said that FOX and MSNBC will eliminate their usual commercial breaks to cover a Donald Trump speech.  But they make up the revenue because now this TV time has become worth more because the supply of it has been cut and the ratings of the station are higher, so that in the end – giving Donald Trump free time actually is a money making prospect for these stations.  But because they are corporate owned, they won’t grant Bernie Sanders the same courtesy of covering his speeches for free even though Bernie could similarly be a money raising proposition.  The networks are still trying to shut Bernie out.  Therefore they won’t make a big thing out of an audience of twenty thousand, which goes on all the time with Bernie Sanders. 

The employment news is good this month even though the unemployment rate is frozen at five point zero percent.  295,000 jobs were added last month and the months of October and November were revised upward.  This is good news but it doesn’t make up for the six hundred or so points in the stock market we’ve lost this week.  Thom Hartman just read a bunch of economic statistics by Michael Snyder, who has written several books.  The problem is that anybody who says “get out of the stock market and into gold” is doing you no favor.  If you had followed their advice the past few years most of the time you would have lost money.  I also found out this author is a Christian, which unfortunately does not aid in his judgement.  

Dreams when you’re having them make perfect rational sense and seem very real but then when you try and break down the rationality of these dreams afterwards they make absolutely no sense.  As such it to me seems difficult that anyone could actually “learn something” from having a dream, no matter how detailed and involved.  Several weeks ago I had a dream I didn’t report that was nothing extrordenary.  It was the idea that emotions such as anger and love and ambition- - survive death as conscious entities.  But they are not connected with any particular body and as such could go on to occupy other bodies as temporary residences kind of like “thought virus”.  They lack the power of higher reasoning but seek only their own particular self propagation.  This is what psychics have been saying for decades.  That haunted houses for instance are merely “magnetic energy residuals” that aren’t associated with any particular living Ego as we modern people think of the soul and the ego.  We often speak of people being “smitten” by love or “overcome” with emotion as if that particular emotion were really not a part of their intrinsic psyche- - but only strongly “colored” what we observe about a particular person.  It’s just something to think about in your spare free moments today.

Why Democrats Must Vote for Bernie Sanders for President

I highly question Stephanie’s assertion that there is a 93% coralation between Hillary’s and Bernie Sanders’ senate votes.  You have the vote on the Iraq War, you have the bankruptsey law and you have overturning Glass Steigel.  Clearly first lady Hillary was for that one because she was such a loyal adjunct to her husband, and you could say the same thing on NAFTA and CAFTA and SHAFTA and all those other economic deals.  Bu the way I’ve heard that as far as SHAFTA goes- -there is one week left on discussion of this TPP bill and then they are going to sneak it through congress during the NFL championship or something.  You also have Hillary calling for a No Fly Zone in Iraq and Syria which Sanders opposes.  They said Ronald Reagan put over a hundred people in jail over the Savings and Loan scandals in the ‘eighties, because Reagan ordered FBI investigation.  Contrast this with Obama.  I’m certain that if you asked the Sanders campaign they could produce a lot more votes where they were opposed. 

Movie producer Michael Moore wrote Governor Snyder of Michigan a letter saying he deserves to go to jail because children all over Flint, Michigan now have irreversible lead poisoning because of some chemical that was put in the water that strips the lead out of water and corrodes the pipes, along with a hundred years of industrial pollution along the Flint River.  Now even a jihadi terrorist could poison so many people on such a massive scale.  Clearly Governor Snyder should be impeached and the sooner the better. 

Thom Hartman just said that it’s perfectly legal for Netanyahoo to bribe those 47 Republi9can senators who wrote an open letter to the leaders of Iran saying not to sign the Iranian Nuclear treaty because the next president would just negate the whole thing.  Apparently there is a provision of Citizens United which says even if you could prove Netanyahoo indeed bribed these forty-seven Republican senators, it’s now perfectly legal to do so.

Now the Trans-Canada corporation is suing the United States government under NAFTA laws for loss of potential profits because the Canadian XL pipeline was never built.  This isn’t like a case where a star athlete is injured in an auto accident and sues for loss of earning potential because of his injuries.  Here is a case where the legality of these potential profits was never an established fact to begin with.  The corporation has “suffered” nothing.  If people could sue for any case where they didn’t get a job, for instance, then the courts would be clogged all day long with people suing their future bosses because they weren’t hired.  This is completely absurd!  But you must remember that if the Trans Pacific Partnership goes through and gets passed as people are now saying it will, then Hillary Clinton is to blame because as Secretary of State she advocated tirelessly for the TPP.  These are campaign issues that can’t possibly be ignored.

This is January 7, 2016 and yesterday was Orthodox Church Christmas, who believe the three Wise Men showed up the night of Jesus’ birth.  And tomorrow is Elvis’ birthday and he would be 81, or the same age as Paul Evans is now.  And it’s funny that Paul Evans is in better physical shape now than Elvis was when he died.  All that “Is Elvis Alive” stuff from the summer of 1988 and the book and tape and all- - was nearly 28 years ago.  At that time Elvis would have been 53, which I thought “Even if Elvis is alive he’d be so far over the hill he’d never make it as an entertainer today”.   What’s strange is that it’s possible that I could have a son now who’d be older than Elvis was when he died.  Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are both older than Elvis was when he died.  Now Ted Cruz has the birther issue springing up again because he was born in Canada.  Last summer when Ted was nowhere in the polls, Donald Trump said that “The attorneys have checked it out and there is no problem with Ted Cruz”.  Now Trump is saying that “The democrats could take the whole issue to court and there would be a legal cloud hanging over Ted Cruz’s head during the campaign”.   Most of the El Whacko generation- - were of a young, impressionable age when Ronald Reagan was president, or else there were told to idolize him by their elders.  Actually they’d be about the same age as the college age kids who were on the Wally George show around 1984.  They never even heard of Nixon and back then Jimmy Carter was the name everybody learned to hate before President Obama supplanted him for that role.  Basically the “danger age” for these Oregon whacko wanna-bees is from about age forty to age fifty-five.  Once they approach retirement age and start to think about it rationally it dawns on them they won’t live forever and will someday need Medicare and social security.  

Another Right Wing Group Takes Over Federal Wildlife Reserve

All of the stock markets are sharply down today several percent.  The Dow Jones Industrials were down over 400 points and now are down 363 or something.  It’s the worst opening day for Wall Street since 1932.  Thom believes that an economic crash during an election year is somehow going to help democrats like Bernie Sanders.  I’m not at all certain of that.  Something else is going to have to happy in terms of clarity of thought- - before people can see through the bologna of Donald Trump.  A financial crash won’t cure anything.  So far "The Crash of 2016" is just a book title.

 Now there is another takeover of national wildlife federal lands up in eastern Oregon.  Clyven Bundy’s son is the ring-leader of this armed group.  These people are quoting from the Book of Mormon to support their rebel views.  They’re hoping to establish some freedom enclave.  The thing started off as a minimum mandatory protest of two people who had set fire to federal land.   This wildlife refuge was set up a hundred years ago by Teddy Roosevelt  to protect endangered bird species.  Thom says “We the people- - - have set up this wild life refuge”.   Right now this guy on the phone at ten to eleven is discussing the latest Saudi-Iran crisis.  The problem started with this father and son named Hammond, who had to go back to prison for setting fires on federal land on 2001 and again in 2006.  A judge reminded us that Federal minimum sentences are in play here and there is no way they could serve just two years of what should properly have been at least a five year sentence.

Washington's blog is going right wing fringe time.  They had an article saying that the Flouridation of water was some kind of a government conspiracy to cover up errors made in the Manhattan project or something.  Ingesting flouride does no good and has harmful side effects it's alleged contrary to what the American Dental Association has been assuring us of for sixty years.  I'll go with the word of the ADA over some right wing nut myself.  But yesterday they went further beyond the pale.  They said that the Sandy Hook shooting was completely staged and have some absurd logic and examples to support their assertion.  What is Washington's Blog going to allege next- - that the moon landings were all faked?

Saudi Arabia put to death 47 suspected Islamic terrorists including a Shiite cleric who apparently was involved in the “Arab Spring” even though he’s Shiite and not Sunni.  In later developments the Saudi embassy in Iran was attacked by supporters of the Shiite cleric, and who can blame them?  They are talking about divine vengeance on the Saudis.  Now Saudi Arabia has cut off diplomatic relations with Iran, I didn’t know that they still had at this late date.  I just think the Saudi government is out of control and really the biggest terrorists on the planet.  Meanwhile Donald Trump’s worst nightmare has come true.  Donald Trump’s speech are featured in a new Al Shabab vido, related to Al Qaeda.  The video featured a major appeal for African Americans in this country to join Al Shabab.  I think the Black population in this country has matured beyond such nonsense.  If they didn’t like Elijah Mohamed fifty years ago, they certainly won’t like these modern day terrorist or respect their views in any way now. 

Days of our Lives might as well be called the Wall of Death Hour.  You wouldn’t believe it.  Eric is drunk driving and hits Jennifer going the other way- - and I guess somehow Daniel and Brady are involved.  I always wondered why these two were two men driving together on Newyears Eve with their mates waiting.  But at any rate Daniel is as good as killed because he’s officially brain dead.  Brady has a crushed heart and is not expected to make it.  But to guild the lily even more Eric also has a heart condition and needs a heart transplant.  Daniel’s heart is compatable with both Eric and Brady’s blood and tissue.  So Maggie and Victor have to decide just who gets Daniel’s heart.  I’ve thought about it and I believe the heart should go to Brady.  Because Eric was the drunk driver that started this whole tragedy and I don’t see why he should profit from his own error.  My guess is that Victor agrees with me- - - but I bet Roman and Marlena have other ideas.  Jennifer is injured and Abigail’s son has a serious medical condition and could die.  So I think they’ve met their quota of horror scenarios for the New Year.  In fact it’s way more than enough.  

Politics at the Turn of the Year

They are showing old clips of Trump verses Hillary on “Hardball”.   Trump says that back in 2006 or whatever he “had” to be nice to the Clintons, in his role as a “successful businessman”.   So he can be a political camilian I guess just putting on one hat or another depending on the circumstance.  The issue for Hillary is not any specific charge Trump makes but rather that Hillary vilified these other women whom the President had sexual involvement with.  If I were a woman this stance back then of Hillary and all this nonsense about a “vast right wing conspiracy” would for me ruin Hillary’s credibility on any women’s issues.   But the bigger picture with Bill is his connection with Wall Street and his support of NAFTA and the communications “reform” act and abolishing news departments and the fairness doctrine and the consolidation of the mass media into a few hands.  Also it was getting rid of Glass Stiegell that unleashed the “dogs of financial chaos” ten years later in the Bush administration.   But Bill Clinton is a good speech maker and his speech at the 21012 convention for Obama was instrumental in turning the tide of campaign rhetoric where Bill brought out a lot of key points I would have made myself.  In this sense Bill is reduced to the status of an agent or employee of either Obama or Hillary- - and what he’s doing is supporting the person at the top.  Then we have “No Show Rubio” where Marco Rubio missed key votes including the omnibus bill where Christie and Bush have correctly jumped all over Rubio for missing this key vote.   The combined vote of Rubio, Bush and Christie is 18% whereas the combined triad of hard right non establishment types of Cruz, Trump and Carson is 67%.  So it’s really no contest.  Trump is attacking Goudy for not handling Hillary Clinton correctly in the Bengazi hearings.  Since Goudy has endorsed Rubio- - it’s logical for Trump to attack a prominent Rubio supporter. 

Saudi Arabia put to death 47 suspected Islamic terrorists including a Shiite cleric who apparently was involved in the “Arab Spring” even though he’s Shiite and not Sunni.  I just think the Saudi government is out of control and really the biggest terrorists on the planet.  Meanwhile Donald Trump’s worst nightmare has come true.  Donald Trump’s speech are featured in a new Al Shabab vido, related to Al Qaeda.  The video featured a major appeal for African Americans in this country to join Al Shabab.  I think the Black population in this country has matured beyond such nonsense.  If they didn’t like Elijah Mohamed fifty years ago, they certainly won’t like these modern day terrorist or respect their views in any way now.  

President Obama wants to issue new executive orders for gun possession and Donald Trump says that’s a bad idea because we already have enough laws to deal with firearms regulation, if we’ll use them.  In Texas the new open carry law went into effect for that state so you can wear holsters in bar or churches or even government buildings.  Apparently they will “allow” business owners to bar firearms in their establishment.  But if it were Governor Snyder they wouldn’t even allow that.  It turns out the majority of the states in the Union have gone open carry and California and Illinois are a few of the hold-outs.  We’re finally in 2016 and by the end of the year we’ll find out whether we have Hillary Clinton for President - - or Chaos.

They canceled Newyears fireworks festivities in Paris and in Brussles due to security threats.  And in Germany two train stations received bomb threats.  There was that fire of a sixty story building in Dubai, and I’m still not sure where that is except Justin had an affair with a woman there on “Days”.   It was midnight there when it was noon here on Thursday and it was a surreal thing to see fireworks going off with a sixty-three story building in flames.   There were two celebrity deaths in the news.  Trapper John from MASH died and Natalie Cole died of various complications.  She is most famous for the duet with Nat singing “Unforgettable”.

Ohio State and Notre Dame played in the Fiesta Bowl, but the championship game will also be played in the same city a week and a half from now.   Stanford had no trouble handling Iowa in the Rose Bowl.  I think it’s silly to bypass all that potential revenue that would be generated from having these games carried on over the air TV like they used to be.   There is flooding in the St Louis area and the Mississippi will be flooding Memphis in a few days.

 I watched a summary of the Iran nuclear treaty in congress, and also a bit of the Pope’s speech before congress.  Then I turned that off and had a bit of Dr Oz on.  Then I had Dr Phil on for the entire hour.  There is this one guy who was on drugs and alcohol and believes that he wrote all of Taylor Swift’s greatest hits.  Dr Phil says it’s OK if you “fake that you’re sane” by saying what people want to hear.  I profroundly disagree with this assertion but don’t have the space or inclination to go into it now.

The Rose Parade seemed messed up.  It was Bob Eubanks and Stephanie Edwards last year after several decades.  They both made the decision to leave KTLA.  But the picture was missing a lot of blues and purples as usual.  Also their vocal announcer track was drowned in a sea of cheering, which dominated even the bands.  Also there was more than the usual amount of trivia about individual people on floats or the production staff or talking about people’s relatives.  There was less detailed description of the floats and the flowers.  The Honda crew got some people better seats.