Famous Lasts

I was thinking about how if you were to give this past year a letter grade it would be an "I" for Incomplete.  A lot of things have been left dangeling.  But maybe we should be thinking in terms of famous lasts.  Could 2017 be the last year of a roaring economy for instance?  Could be the last year anybody is thinking in terms of how increasing the deficet 1.5 Trillion be a good thing.  Could 2017 be the last year when sexual harrassment was considered acceptable?   Chris Carter on Breakfast with the Beatles is doing famous Beatle lasts.  For instance "From Me to You" is the last single which is credited to Mc Cartney - Lennon instead of the other way around.  "It's going to be a great day" is the last song on "Flaming Pie" we're told.  Donald Trump may be having a lot of lasts in this regard.  He can't be spending 89 days on the golf course in the following year.  There will be too many crises cropping up in North Korea and Syria.   We are told that Trump has a conservative style of playing golf where he takes shorter strokes but he's accurate and hits the ball where he wants to.  They say Trump is perhaps the best golfer we've had as president.  This will be the last year where we will talk about the Trump bull market.  And yet to even get as low as a 1.5 Trillion dollar deficet it presupposes that the economy will continue to grow over the next ten years the way it has grown in the past three or four years.  Otherwise we'd have a 3.5 Trillion dollar deficet from the tax cuts.  You can't suspend the law of gravity in the economy.  We've already had eight and a half years of economic recovery.  Both Bush and and Trump inherited a good economy from Clinton and Obama respectively.  But Obama inhereted a crappy economy from Bush.  Obama had no choice but to have high deficets to stimulate the flailing economy so we didn't go into an even more massive recession.  People talk about a corporate tax cut.  It's pointed out that the effective tax rate now is about 21 percent.  But when they cut the tax rate this time they didn't get rid of a single loop hole.  (So basically all of those commercials we saw about loop holes being closed were lies)  The only loopholes that were closed were legitimate deductions the American people takes like property taxes and college debt and teacher supplies and of course state and local taxes.  Those "loopholes" are closed to us, but not the benefits rich people continue to get.

On a personal basis I think there is an incomplete feeling.  I have gotten little in terms of Christmas or birthday gifts.  I'm another year older today and have officially moved into my late sixties.  I was in my mid fifties when I started these blogs and I had just recently turned fifty when I moved into this board and care place.  I've aged a lot while I was here.  The past few days I've had gastro-intestinal problems.  This has kept me away of going shopping with my brother.  I'm afraid of how much weight I've lost in the past six weeks or so not just from this current illness but from the protracted nearly three week flu illness I had in late November and early December.  I"m not being very creative today so I"ll end this posting now.

A Day Late And a Dollar Short

On Washington Journal they discuss what I call the myth of the blue collar Democrat voting for Ronald Reagan.  They did so according to the argument because the living standard had fallen since the end of World War II to 1980 due to government deficit spending.  And overregulation was taking away their jobs.  Of course there is a hint that Blacks were stealing your job, too.   Needless to say the recession of 1982 hadn’t even begun till after Reagan was elected in 1980 and today 35 years later unions are destroyed and your pension funds have been stolen and the purchasing power of your wages has fallen.  We didn’t have the sort of inflation in 2016 that we had in 1980 so that was no excuse to vote for Trump.  Also the job figure is at 4.1% now and most people agree that Trump inherited a strong economy but when Obama was elected the economy was in shambles and he was left to clean up the mess created by the previous administration.  But there is this persistent romantic idea that Reagan understood the blue caller worker.  The other topic I watched was this lady reporter who was put in charge of covering the Trump campaign of 2016 despite all of the better options she had in her personal life, and nobody took Trump seriously in 2015.  I guess there were experts who said Trump wouldn’t last six week in the heat of a protracted campaign. 

 Sixty Minutes had a thing on ISIS destroying valuable ancient Christian and historic manuscripts that were priceless.  A whole library was burned by ISIS as well as personal treasures.  ISIS is pure evil.  Then it was that Japanese baseball player who is as good at hitting as he is at pitching and sometime after that piece was shown, he signed with the Angels.  Then there was a thing on a collection of Scotch Whiskey distilleries on this island in the Highlands.   Then there was a bombardment of Christmas specials and I watched the Simpson’s about Krusty getting baptized in an unorthodox manner.  Rev Lovejoy needs converts.

This is Christmas 2017.   For you album searchers, the re-vamped “Red Album” of ours came out in mid December of 2016 and can be found in “Skeletons from the Closet”.  I spent a lot of time looking for it.  I need to somehow index my stuff or something.  My only actual gift so far this Christmas will be at lunchtime today.  Saturday’s gathering was thus a little strange that there was no gift exchange, as well as no crackling fire; because apparently our air is too polluted they’re issuing alerts, if you believe the news.   Where is the Christmas spirit?  I noted that KLOS was playing “Subdivisions” by Rush.  Bill Handel wasn’t on.  Instead it was Jesus you-know-who talking about the overriding universality of Death, as if we didn’t already know.

I had on “Breakfast with the Beatles”.  It was Christmas songs.   I heard portions of the 1963 and 1965 Christmas messages and all of the 1964 and 1966 messages.  They played “Blue Christmas”, “Sleigh Ride Together with You” and “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” by the Fab Four, patterned after Beatle songs.  They played “All I want for Christmas is a Beatle” and also “I Want a Beatle for Christmas”.  They played “Jingle Bells” by Sinatra and “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer” and a rocky version of “Wonderful Christmas Time.  They played "Christmas With the Beatles".

(Saturday December 23rd) Tim called at a quarter to two and then again at two o clock.  I made preparations and left to wait and Tim picked me up in Dad’s old car that also used to be Mom’s car.  Marie expressed curiosity about my health.  She gave me a thousand milligram capsule of Vitamin C and gave me a thing of bottled water to take with me but I forgot.  We got to Mom’s and we used the stairs to get up there, which I think was the first time using the stairs in that place.  Marie had also mentioned giving me a calendar so I didn’t ask Mom for one.  Mom was ready to go.  We went down there via Orangewood.  We got there at a quarter to three.  Mom noted that the house had been painted.  She said she didn’t remember traveling along Brookhurst.  I said that I always traveled that way coming home from the dentist.  We got there at a quarter to three.  Wendy wasn’t there and she wouldn’t arrive till after three thirty.  Tim and Paul went out to pick up the order for our dinners from Marie Calendar.  That took 45 minutes or something.  I felt like kind of a fifth wheel.  I was in the living room by myself when I wasn’t wandering around.  There were pieces of celery and cucumber out but no official orderves.  Paul had said something about buying ice cream as well as nuts.  We didn’t use either.  We did have Martinelli’s and it was pomegranate cider, which was good.  Judy was in a wheel chair working at the computer.  It felt as though I had arrived early.  Basically there was no gift exchange, which shortened the evening considerably.  We didn’t play any of those games either.  Wendy wasn’t dressed as fancy as she usually is.  She brought more salad fixings we didn’t need.  We sat down at the table and had a generous bowl of the salad Elizabeth had made.  Elizabeth went off shift at four and Rita came on to assist Judy.  Judy’s shaking appeared minor but the Parkinsons has obviously affected her leg movement.  MC remembered the onion rings I had with my roast beef French dip sandwich.  It was really good and there was abundant dip.  The conversation was about Judy’s A1C rating or whatever that is the health of the hemoglobin as an indicator of pre-diabetes.  Judy said doctors don’t want blood sugar dipping below 120 because they don’t want to treat hypoglycemia.  When I was tested 115 was the upper allowable high.  Wendy talked about leaving home to walk three miles in the dark at five in the morning through an industrial zone like refinaries and such in Torrance and Gardenia.  I wouldn’t do it.  Mom complained that she had no appetite.  We were going to wait before dessert but very little time passed.  Tim was in charge of making the coffee but for both cups I got less than half a cup and it was instant and not even that hot.  Wendy brought bakery pies of French apple and reduced sugar cherry.  I had the cherry first with Ready Whip.  We had whipping cream also but we didn’t use it.  Then I asked for and got a slightly small piece of the French apple.  Paul kept having bowls of the salad.  Later Mom complained about being tired and wanting to go home.  Tim wanted to show photographs or movies on TV but Paul didn’t have the right plugs.  The current bird is named Benji and he is a screechy one.  He responded to his name with me and Marie but not with Wendy.  I went to the bathroom twice but it was mostly passing gas.  Mom complained that the bathroom appeared to be scaled down with a low toilet and too narrow for a walker.  Marie let me pick out two wall calendars which were of animals.  The fruit cake was huge.  Elizabeth helped Judy make those.  I got home a little after six thirty.  I was dropped off before Mom this time.  I didn’t even have to be late for medication.  Naturally the first thing I did was have the one remaining cigarette.  

At War with God, Trump, and Israel

BATTLEFIELD   released December 23^rd 2017

Come On – Feel the Noise (Quiet Riot)
The Immigrant Song (Led Zeppelin)
Life During Wartime (Talking Heads)

Call Me (Blondie)

Holier Than Thou (Metallica)

Girls, Girls, Girls (Motley Crue)

Please Mr. Gravedigger (David Bowie)

Love Is A Battlefield (Pat Benetar)

Vaseline (Stone Temple Pilots)

Calling Dr Love (Kiss)

Comfortably Numb (Pink Floyd)

The Ogre Battle (Queen)

Third Impressions (Emerson Lake & Palmer)

The front cover is the shot of Al Franken giving his farewell address before the senate.  The back photo is mostly a battlefield scene on a Martian type landscape, kind of orangish only a few more jagged points with one army in white (advancing from back) similar but different from the stormtroopers of Star Wars.  The other army (closest to viewer) is in black heavy battle gear.  This photo was inspired by the Dune movie of early 1985 and there were several shots taken during that period.  The sky is darker than the land kind of a dark blue.  Title listings and credits are at the top of the CD.   The front part of the CD is a booklet summarizing the year 2917 plus some added facts and stuff about Al Franken that wasn’t in his speech.  His speech wasn’t that well executed, which is one reason why we didn’t include it.  The Supreme Court ruling overturning the voting rights law is referenced.  Also the law about corporations carrying pension plans as assets rather than liabilities is mentioned as well as not enforcing the Sherman Anti Trust Act, as well of course of various events in the Trump administration this year.  This update is later Friday evening.  We added "The Immigrant Song" and "Life During Wartime" so this album wouldn't be so short.  

A newfound cache of notes left by H. R. Haldeman, [Nixon’s] closest aide, shows that Nixon directed his campaign’s efforts to scuttle the peace talks [President Johnson’s 1968 peace initiative to bring the war in Vietnam to an early conclusion], which he feared could give his opponent, Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey, an edge in the 1968 election. OnOct. 22, 1968, he ordered Haldeman to “monkey wrench” the initiative.  There is a tape where Johnson and Senator Everett Dirkson are having a conversation by phone where this very topic is discussed that can be heard at the Johnson library.

We must now weigh apparently criminal behavior that, given the human lives at stake and the decade of carnage that followed in Southeast Asia, may be more reprehensible than anything Nixon did in Watergate.

Nixon had entered the fall campaign with a lead over Humphrey, but the gap was closing that October. Henry A. Kissinger, then an outside Republican adviser, had called, alerting Nixon that a deal was in the works: If Johnson would halt all bombing of North Vietnam, the Soviets pledged to have Hanoi engage in constructive talks to end a war that had already claimed 30,000 American lives.

But Nixon had a pipeline to Saigon, where the South Vietnamese president, Nguyen Van Thieu, feared that Johnson would sell him out. If Thieu would stall the talks, Nixon could portray Johnson’s actions as a cheap political trick. The conduit was Anna Chennault, a Republican doyenne and Nixon fund-raiser, and a member of the pro-nationalist China lobby, with connections across Asia.

Terry Hill stopped by just as I had tuned in the Norman Goldman show.  He had a brand new box of bakery straddles with fruit in them.  They were good but they’ll disappear quickly.  I have given Bill two so far.  For about the first time I didn’t ask Terry anything about Pastor Mark and I also didn’t ask about his writing.  Terry lives in kind of an alternate universe anyhow.  He says there is either a Spanish gallion or a Viking ship stranded in the sands of the Mojave Dessert that used to be a giant fresh water sea and the ship or ships got stuck.  He says perhaps the Viking ship traveled the Northwest passage when it was ice free all around Alaska and down the Pacific to the Gulf of California.  He also made allusion to monster sightings in Lake Elsinore.  One of his siblings is holding a gathering there in Christmas day.  I told him about our own planned gathering tomorrow night at Paul’s.  It’s about the only topic I got to mention.  Terry has seen the new Star Wars movie and says it could have been improved.  He related one scene that was similar to Return of the Jedi.  And Terry wanted to use the internet to look up a movie about Madeleine Murry O Hare that came out last March where Madeline was kidnapped and eventually killed in the mid nineties and we never heard anything in the news about it.  Terry weaved a very intricate plot.  He noted the Hubble book but I didn’t invite him to look at it.  He left about a quarter to four which was just enough time for me to have a cigarette.

We had quesedas for dinner.  They were cheese and chicken and we had salsa and sour cream to put on them.  We had three bean salad with that and rice pudding for dessert.  This morning I watched close to an hour’s worth of Al Franken’s speech.  Like I say it wasn’t what I expected.  He seemed to fumble over his words and he left out a lot of stuff I thought he would mention.  I’m guess I’m interested in how he got interested in politics and the decision process that led him from doing comedy to the US Senate.  One thing I’d like to look for in Washington’s blog is that speech where a guy goes off for about an hour on an anti Israeli rant bringing up their long checkered history with the Palestinians.  Of course now to be at war with Israel is to be as war with God.  And to be at war with Trump is apparently to be at war with God.  Needless to say I am against moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv.  The UN vote was pretty decisive yesterday that the vast majority of the other nations of the world don’t want us to make the move.  We’re doing it just to start womething with the Palestinians and hopefully (!) lead us into war where Trump and Netanyahoo can bomb the hell out of them. t, as well of course of various events in the Trump administration this year. 

  Days of our Lives was not eventful.  Tim called.  He and Marie will be picking me up before they pick up Mom at ten after two.  He plans to spend a little while at Mom’s.  Tim asked about my health and I said occasionally I have bouts of tiredness.  I mentioned that just yesterday at lunch we finally had the heat turned on in here.  I mentioned how slow the computer was.  Gabby was in the courtyard.  We had lemonade and a graham cracker from Rico.  Bill is sleeping. 

A New President Trump Personality Profile

The Even More Dangerous Case of Donald Trump
Posted on December 18, 2017 by DavidSwanson

Twenty-Seven psychiatrists and mental health experts have produced a book called The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump, which I think, despite stating that the fate of the world is in the hands of an evil madman, understates the danger.

The case that these authors make is one that I believe would strike most readers not loyal to Trump as common sense. The evidence that they compile, and with which we’re mostly already familiar, strongly supports their diagnosis of Trump as hedonistic, narcissistic, bullying, dehumanizing, lying, misogynistic, paranoid, racist, self-aggrandizing, entitled, exploiting, empathy-impaired, unable to trust, free of guilt, manipulative, delusional, likely senile, and overtly sadistic. They also describe the tendency of some of these traits to grow ever worse through reinforcing cycles that seem to be underway. People, they suggest, who grow addicted to feeling special, and who indulge in paranoia can create circumstances for themselves that cause them to increase these tendencies.

As the Justice Department closes in on Trump, writes Gail Sheehy, “Trump’s survival instincts will propel him to a wag-the-dog war.” Of course, this builds in the assumptions that Trump stole the election and that we will all remain dogs, that we will start approving of Trump if he starts bombing more people. Certainly this has been the U.S. corporate media’s approach thus far. But need it be ours? The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists disapproves and has moved the doomsday clock closer to zero. The Council on Foreign Relations has begun listing the United States as a top threat to the United States. A Congressional committee has held a hearing on the danger of a Trumpian nuclear war (even while feigning impotence to do anything about it). It’s not beyond the realm of imagination that the U.S. public could refuse to cheer for more mass murder.

In this regard, certainly most past presidents have been more successful, not less, than Trump at what Robert J. Lifton calls the normalization of evil. He gives as an example the creation of the acceptance of torture. And certainly we’ve moved from Bush Jr. secretly torturing to Obama refusing to prosecute to Trump publicly supporting torture. But many still deem torture unacceptable. Hence this book’s assumption that the reader will agree that torture is evil. But murder by bomb or drone missile has been so normalized, including by Barack “I’m really good at killing people” Obama, that it’s passed over by this book as simply normal. Lifton does refer to the normalization of a nuclear threat during the (previous) Cold War, but seems to believe that phenomenon to be a problem of the past rather than one so successfully normalized that people don’t see it anymore.

Most of the symptoms found in Trump have existed in various degrees and combinations in past presidents and in past and current Congress members. But some of the symptoms seem to serve only as icing. That is, alone they are deemed unobjectionable, but in combination with others they point to severe sociopathy. Obama switched positions, lied, schemed, falsely marketed wars, reveled in the commission of murder, joked about using drone missiles on his daughter’s boyfriends, etc. But he spoke well, used a better vocabulary, avoided blatant racism, sexism, and personal bullying, didn’t seem to worship himself, didn’t brag about sexual assault, and so on.

My point, I very much wish it were needless to say, is not the equivalence of any president with another, but the normalization of illnesses in society as much as in individuals. This book goes after Trump for falsely claiming that Obama was spying on him. Yet the unconstitutional blanket surveillance of the NSA effectively means that Obama was indeed spying on everyone, including Trump. Sure, Trump was lying. Sure, Trump was paranoid. But if we avoid the larger reality, we’re lying too.

The symptoms from which Trump suffers may be taken as a guide to action by his followers, but they have long been understood to be an outline of the techniques of war propaganda. Dehumanization may be something Trump suffers from, but it’s also a necessary skill in persuading people to participate in war. Trump was given the presidential nomination by media outlets that asked primary candidates questions that included “Would you be willing to kill hundreds and thousands of innocent children?” Had a candidate said no, he or she would have been disqualified. The authors fault Trump for his joining the long list of presidents who have threatened to use nukes, but when Jeremy Corbyn said he wouldn’t use nukes, all hell broke loose in the UK, and his mental state was called into question there. Alzheimer’s may be a disease afflicting Trump, but when Bernie Sanders mentioned important bits of history like a coup in Iran in ’53, the television networks found something else to cover.

Is it possible that refusing to confront reality has been normalized so deeply that the authors join in it, or are required to by their agent or editor? Academic studies say the U.S. government is an oligarchy. These doctors say they want to defend the U.S. “democracy” from Trump. This book identifies Vladimir Putin as being essentially the same as Adolf Hitler, based on zero offered evidence, and treats Trump denials of colluding with Russia to steal an election as signs of dishonesty or delusion. But how do we explain most members of the Democratic Party believing in Russiagate without proof? How do we explain Iran being voted the biggest threat to peace in the world by Americans, while people in most countries, according to Gallup and Pew, give that honor to the United States? What are we to make of the vast majority of Americans claiming to “believe in” “God” and denying the existence of death? Isn’t climate denial child’s play beside that one, if we set aside the factor of normalization?

If a corporation or an empire or an athlete or a Hollywood action film were a person, it might be Donald Trump. But we all live in the world of corporations, empire, etc. We also apparently live in a world in which numerous men enjoy abusing women. That all these sexual harassers in the news, some of whom I am guessing are innocent but most of whom appear guilty, have convinced themselves that women don’t really mind the abuse can, I think, be only a small part of the explanation. The large part seems quite clearly to be that we live in a country of sadists. And shouldn’t they get a chance to elect someone who represents their point of view? Trump has been a public figure for decades, and most of his symptoms are nothing new, but he’s been protected and even rewarded throughout. Trump incites violence on Twitter, but Twitter will not disable Trump’s account. Congress is staring numerous documented impeachable offenses in the face, but chooses to look into only the one that lacks evidence but fuels war. The media, as noted, while remarkably improving on its enabling deference, still seems to give Trump the love he craves only when he brags about bombing people.

The U.S. Constitution is and has always been deeply flawed in many ways, but it did not intend to give any individual beyond-royal powers over the earth. I’ve always viewed the obsession with the emperor that this article I’m now writing feeds as part of the problem of transferring power to him. But the authors ofThe Dangerous Case are right that we have no choice but to focus on him now. All we’d need would be a Cuban Missile Crisis and our fate would be sealed. The Emperor Formerly Known As Executive should be given the powers of the British queen, not be replaced by an acceptable Democratic emperor. The first step should be using the Constitution.

Similar analyses of George W. Bush’s mental health, not to mention a laundry list of abuses and crimes, never resulted in any action against him. And despite this new book’s claim to defend “democracy” it does not use the word “impeachment.” Instead, it turns to the 25th Amendment which allows the president’s own subordinates to ask Congress to remove him from office. Perhaps because the likelihood of that happening is so extreme, and because further stalling and protecting of Trump is naturally a means of appearing “reasonable,” the authors propose a study be done (even though they’ve just written a book) and that it be done by Congress. But if Congress were to take up this matter, it could impeach Trump and remove him without asking permission of his cabinet or doing any investigations. In fact, it could impeach him for any of a number of the behaviors that are studied in this book.

The authors note that Trump has encouraged imitation of his outrages. We’ve seen that here in Charlottesville. They note that he’s also created the Trump Anxiety Disorder in those he frightens. I’m 100% on board with treating fear as a symptom to be cured.

2017 is a Desasterous Year In So Many Ways - -Thanks to Trump

2017 is a year which has pretty much sucked both politically and sociologically.  Society’s values have gone down.  I think all of this sexual harassment is just a media fad and will fade away after a while.  At some point it begins to resemble hysteria.   Maybe a light is being shone in dark places.  I don’t know.  But overall I come away just being more synical about society in general.  If it’s as bad as they say then it’s pretty bad.   About the only black woman who worked for the Trump administration has either quit or was “escorted out of the White House”.  She’d gotten fired multiple times on the apprentice.  Now she’s getting fired for real.  It’s just another purge of the administration making it lily white and in conformity to what the Koch Brothers and Shelden Addelson demand of the Republican Party.  Yesterday I heard that the Reagan administration changed corporate law so that pension funds were no longer counted as accounts payable but instead marked as assets.  This why the pension funds make a plum prize for people who want to take over the company and not pay these pensions.  Judy is always so obsessed about the poor coveting and stealing from the rich.  How about the rich coveting and staling from the poor?  Then there is the dreaded income tax reduction which will give the rich billions and the poor will get a few thousand- - if they are lucky.  It’s a Christmas theft on behalf of the rich.  Trump can’t believe every American within the sound of his voice lives in his income bracket.  Then we have internet neutrality, which is a landmark ruling yesterday that will ruin the internet as we have known it since 1989.  Of course then there is Vladimir Putin praising President Trump to the sky and sounding like a Republican in doing it.  His speech along almost proves there actually is collusion.  Then there the overitures to the Nazis and the KKK, which are groups Trump has never shunned the support of.  Still Shawn Hannity is steadfast in his loyalty to Trump.  Trump made certain promises to Hannity even while lying to the rest of us.  Now he’s kept the promises he made to Shawn but not for the rest of us.  

THURSDAY:  Today the FCC ruled by a vote of 3 to 2 along party lines, to repeal internet neutrality and all of the attendant regulations that go with it.  They say to trust the businesses, but they have proven they can’t be trusted.  We are told mergers offer better service and greater efficiency, when all they do is get people fired.  They are still talking about “improved service” even now.

 WEDNESDAY:  Doug Jones, the Democrat won the Alabama contest for US Senate b y a point and a half.  That’s three times the margin required for a vote recount.  But Moore is not conceding defeat.  The win was sure a surprise to me and I think it was a surprise to Doug Jones even.  But it reduces the margin of senators in the Republican Party to 51 to 49 for the democrats.  That’s a two point buffer.  It doesn’t matter anyhow because the path is cleared by a compromise being reached between the House and Senate versions of the tax slashing bill.  Trump is continuing to propagandize and lie about what this tax bill does to America.  This news should merit a blog entry but everybody already knows about it.  Today is the day when some committee votes to end internet neutrality, which we have had since 1989 or whenever Al Gore invented the internet.  Right now some ruling is in effect that the internet is like a utility like phone lines.  This will change today.

This is Friday December 15, 2017 and there were glitches in the new Star Wars movie last night.  Either there was no sound in the vocals or else the whole screen went dark a few minutes in.  Apparently there were problems in multiple theaters but the patrons got new tickets.  I turned off “The Price is Right” at ten to eleven just before the final prize package and went out to smoke.  We had fish and chips or otherwise nuggets and French fries with catsup.  We had grapes first thing in the meal and no soup.  I listened to the Gary and Shannon show.  Steve did a good job of unmasking Kate’s actions on “Days of our Lives”.  They are about to tell us whether J J is guilty of shooting an unarmed man.  Nora showed up about a quartet till two.  We’re not happy with the job she does.  She soaks the bathroom floor with her mopping so it takes ages to dry and Bill has complained of slipping.  She slammed the two glass glasses together such that I was afraid one of them might crack, but I saw no evidence of that.  Then she disconnected the right speaker when she was dusting the stereo.  But she did a lot of dusting.  I went out but missed snacks.  Silva gave me her lemonade and Mario gave me three vanilla wafers.

I decided I better call the bank to check my balance.  I was expecting twelve to fifteen dollars in spendable money.  As it turned I’m technically in the hole once both parts of the computer and phone bill are deducted.  I called twice and checked the math and it’s my error.  I’m not happy.  I went to the store and bought a two dollar pack of Clipper and a three dollar jar of instant Nestcafe.  I have one dollar left.  I decided not to turn on Norman Goldman.  I turned on Eye Witness news.  Ellen Degenerous had Hillary Clinton on her show and they were talking about how the Republican Party had deserted the average American.  We had a chicken salad sandwich for dinner with big chunks of chicken.  We hat tater tots and catsup with that.  We had red Jell-O for dessert.  It was an under-sized portion.  Jerry gave me her Jell-O.  My lighter also conked out but I didn’t buy a new one because I’d rather have that money for either fresh brewed coffee tomorrow morning or else four cinnamon rolls tonight.  I haven’t decided yet.  

Prospects for Favorable Outcome in Tuesday's Election Appear Poor

The prospects for a favorable outcome on the Tuesday election in Alabama are pretty poor at the moment.  President Trump and the Republican Party have thrown everything they have into defeating the “liberal democratic” candidate.  Just how liberal is he?   These Christians don’t care about what moral values are actually in the Bible.  I bet many of them haven’t even read the Bible.  They just believe as they are instructed by their superiors.  Mc Connell in the past has indicated that Judge Roy Moore would not be welcome in the US Senate.  It’s hard to believe that if they were going to bring Al Franken before the Senate ethics committee that they wouldn’t haul Roy Moore before the same committee and let one and all have at him.  If you look at the vast preponderance of evidence he’s guilty.  You all know that.  They have to tap dance around the real issues to state otherwise.  Yet the American people voted for Trump after his stated sexual escapades.  And now it appears as if they’ll the same thing with Roy Moore.  As I have said many times before, future generations will be ashamed of this period in our history.

Last Thursday Senator Al Franken made his resignation speech before the US Senate just as the Stephanie Miller show was ending.  He said he’s not responsible for everything he’s accused of.  Personally I don’t think he should have resigned.  We need a progressive force like him.  Of course the governor of Minisota is a democrat so Franken will be replaced by a democrat.  The Republicans seem to have a whole different game plan from us.  They don't believe in "coming clean" or honest confession being good for the soul or any of that stuff.  They are going for broke even if it's for a lie at its core.  

Donald Trump visited some memorial at Oxford, Mississippi and his presence so offended John Lewis and another congressman they decided to boycott the opening of this “Civil Rights Museum” that the president actually spoke a few words at.   I would not have boycotted but gone and then afterward, when it didn’t count. I’d complain about Trump’s presence.  I think it's a good thing to force President Trump to at least say the words praising civil rights leaders even if he doesn't seem to believe it.  Some Christians believe that if you say it often enough it will become a part of you.  

This is Saturday December 9, 2017 and it’s about 75 and windy outside.  It’s a little after three and Rhapsody in Black is flooded with ads.  They had “Your Cheating Heart” by Ray Charles and that earlier version of “Please Release Me”.   They played “Up On the Roof” and “Big Girls Don’t Cry” and “He’s a Rebel” and “Got My Mind Made Up to Love You”.  They played “Contract on Love”, a really early Stevie Wonder song.  There were a lot of songs I’d never heard before.  They had an Aritha Franklin special premium with the Philharmonic orchestra.  I turned it off at five to three.  The Army – Navy game was being played in the snow with most of the fourth quarter to go when I checked.  [later in same paragraph]  I decided to call Mom a little after one and I mentioned Christmas gifts Wendy has given us the past few years.  Mom didn’t seem to want to talk about presents but she did complain about the food both at her place and at Marie Calendar.  I said she could get food from some other take-out if she wanted.  Nora came by and she seemed to be in a half-way decent mood she didn’t complain about anything and she didn’t ask me to open the shades.  I had made the bed to look neater.  This file is being typed at a slow pace.  I haven’t done a blog post since Wednesday or something.  Just now I turned it on and they played “Get On My Pony and Ride” and just now another Ray Charles song, “You Are My Sunshine”. They just played “Let Me Go the Right Way” an obscure song I remember.  And they played a gospel organ style version of "I Got A Woman".  

Physically I have finally made the return to good health.  But it took me nearly three weeks to shake that virus I had and that is just too long. 

Republican Party Doubles Down on Support for Roy Moore

The gay wedding cake court case was heard before the Supreme Court today.  There is a site you can access to hear oral arguments and I’ve done that in the past.  Norman Goldman had a Christian caller who believes people have the right to expect services like this.  I am on the fence leaning in favor of the Christians.  Someone mentioned the apostle Paul and whether or not he constructed tents for Roman citizens.  My feeling is that he did and have no reason to believe that he didn’t.  I think Paul would say “If you’re going to have some pagen ceremony in your dwelling just don’t tell me about it.  That way I won’t stand to be condemned”.    Charles Grassley senator from Iowa made a really idiotic statement yesterday.  In his eagerness to defend the removal of the estate tax he said “These rich people are the producers who build America.  The other poor people are the ones who spend their money on movies, booze and women”.  That’s an insult to practically everybody.  Grassley shows himself to be completely out of touch with the common man.  And today we have Judge Roy Moore making another really stupid and reveling statement.  He said that “Women are not constitutionally equipped to vote”.  He’s thus reviving the argument that women are children or otherwise too incompetent to be citizens. 

The biggest national news of the day as I see it is the Republican Party reversing its position on Judge Roy Moore.  Now they have thrown all of their vast resources into the race.  I guess the Captain Piccard saying of “In for a penny; in for a pound” is the statement that fits here.  The Republican Party is doubling down on their error.  They are raising the stakes and if they lose or even if they win on December 12^th they will have lost whatever moral credibility and respectability they ever had.   But with our luck Judge Roy Moore will be elected that day.  And the Republicans will go ahead and seat him and he’ll vote just like any other member. 

In terms of all of these fires today in the LA area the Thomas fire is the biggest and first of them all and now covers 55 thousand acres in Santa Paula and ranging westward through Venture County to the ocean.  Earler 150 structures were destroyed but I’m sure that figure is much higher now.  These winds are relentless particularly in that area.  Then we have the Creek fire otherwise known as the Newhall fire.  Four thousand acres has grown to eleven thousand acres.  These fires grow with lightning speed.  A flying ember can travel for a mile in this wind.  Then we have the Rye fire in the Magic Mountain area around the 5 Freeway.  The 5 Freeway was closed for a while but now it’s reopened.  This was five hundred acres earlier but I’m sure that figure is way out of date.  All sorts of schools have been closed for tomorrow. 

The big news of the day is that Michael Flynn has been indicted on just one charge of lying to the FBI.  According to Goldman if Trump pardons Flynn it isn’t a gag order to stop him from giving testimony against Jered Kushner or the President himself.  Goldman said in making the agreement to be totally open and “disgorging” all evidence he had, that Flynn had waved his fifth amendment rights.    Goldman talked about the ton of bricks of evidence against Flynn and against Flynn’s son and maybe the man wants to protect his son.  Goldman believes that Flynn came to Trump asking for a pardon guarantee from the President and was denied it. 

This is an instant replay but its importance can't be overestimated.  Yesterday President Trump replaced the head of the consumer protection agency that was mandated by the Dodd-Frank bill.   This is the bill that started off as a strong idea but the bill got weaker and weaker and the Republicans have tried to eliminate it from the day it was passed.  This is just another case of trying to drive a stake through the heart of this kep piece of legislation.  Actually according to Dodd-Frank when a previous head of the department left that they would appoint their successor.  This is just what happened but Trump citing executive authority fired the new head and put in one of his famous right wing stooges, who wants to dismantle the entire agency.  Naturally there is a legal question so a district court judge stepped in and ruled in favor of the president.  But this judge was appointed by the president to begin with.  When you give all that money you are in essence buying a politician these days.   

President Trump re-tweet an anti Islamic video that the British leader took offense to.  It apparently is a fake video of Islamic activity.   Now they are accusing Matt Lawer of rape.  Some woman came into his office and he pressed a button from behind his desk and the office door locked so she couldn’t escape.  That’s a cloak and dagger device.  They are still predicting warmer weather for today.  I am waiting for it. 

Arab nations in unicin have condemned this plan of the Trump administration to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  It's a provocative move against the Palestinians and places the Israeli capital right at their door.  But what Trump wants Trump gets and there appears nobody to stop him from doing it- - not even world opinion. 

Matt Lawer is Fired for Sexual Misconduct

This is Wednesday November 29, 2017 and in the news early this morning before six it was announced that Matt Lawer a twenty year veteran of the Today show has been fired for sexual misconduct.  Savanna Guthrie has lost a valuable cohort on the show.  No other details have been revealed but the New York Times has been doing their invest-igation for weeks now   The incident stems from the Sochi winter Olympics of 2014, which is nearly four years ago.  I don’t think the entertainment community should be held to the same standards as moralizing politicians, but that’s just my opinion.  But there sure has been a wave of these sexual conduct firings over the past several months. 

Just before one on the Gary and Shannon show it was announced that President Trump would be delivering a speech on the new launching of a missile by North Korea.  This missile went up 2800 miles straight up into space and came down in the Sea of Japan.  It had the range to hit many cities in the United States if it had a normal trajectory.  Just to remind you many orbiting spacecraft only go up 150 miles or so to achieve orbits.  I did a graphic program on Excel on missile trajectories but it doesn’t tell you much, but it did make use of the classic gravitational acceleration principles.   The President also lit into the Democrats for canceling their meeting in the tax slashing bill early in the day.  Trump sent them a tweet saying that any meeting would not be fruitful and Chuck Schummer and Nancy Pelosi were so offended they canceled the meeting.  Actually the press conference came on at one on NBC during Soap time but fortunately it didn’t last long.  Actually NBC played a press conference on tape from just earlier.

We have a little more on Prince Harry and his fiancée Magen from Los Angeles.  She is of course part African American and is three years older than Prince Harry.  She is 36 and he is 33.  They plan to have a royal wedding in May.  They plan to start a family right away.  She graduated from Emaculate Heart Catholic High School and went to collect at Northwestern University.  They have in common all this desire for public service work.  These royals of today have been very charitably oriented. 

Yesterday President Trump replaced the head of the consumer protection agency tht was mandated by the Dodd-Frank bill.   Actually according to Dodd-Frank when a previous head of the department left that they would appoint their successor.  This is just what happened but Trump citing executive authority fired the new head and put in one of his famous right wing stooges, who wants to dismantle the entire agency.  Naturally there is a legal question so a district court judge stepped in and ruled in favor of the president.  But this judge was appointed by the president to begin with.  When you give all that money you are in essence buying a politician these days.   

On a personal note I've been plagued by this flu virus that has kept me down for over a week.  It's like a super flu but I haven't heard about it in the media but I"d like to be over it.  It doesn't look like I'm going to make the late family Thanksgiving gathering tomorrow.  I have a whole variety of symptons too long to go into.   Friday I get paid and I"ll be able to afford coffee again.  My appetite has been out the window.  There are a lot of activities the media tells us about that I am missing out on.  

To Speak Verses to Conceal

Tony Alamo the controversial cult pastor has died in prison today.  He was convicted of sexually abusing young girls whom he called his wives in 2009 in Arkansas.  Somehow when one of these cultic guys dies, I don't think of them going to heaven.  I just think "they are gone" and won't bother anybody else ever again.  Perhaps it's wishful thinking but there seem to be a lot fewer of these religious cults than there were several decades ago.  I think most of us are all too sane and mature to fall for that stuff now.  

William Comey had a decision when he testified before congress, he claims.  He could speak or he could conceal, as he puts it.  Personally if I'm not one hundred percent sure of my facts I keep quiet.  My view is that it's better to bide your time and watch for further developments.  Of course I pick up flack even when I am totally sure of my facts, so you can't win.  NOT saying something you don’t know to begin with is not my idea of concealing.  If you don’t have anything in the way of evidence to present, then you have nothing so just remain quiet.   Hillary Clinton feels the need to ruminate about the 2016 election.  Who can blame her.  If the election had been held two weeks earlier than it was, she would have won the election, perhaps with a lot more electoral votes getting all of those close states.

Donald Trump doesn't feel the least bit foolish about saying that if Andrew Jackson were President in the 1860's then he could have averted the Civil War.  He's a good negotiator or something.  Of course his natural bias was with the south.  I think it was Sam Houston that said he was against the confederate states splitting off even though he was from Texas.  Perhaps Trump got his historical figures mixed up.  The latest theory on North Korea is that Trump's remarks have furthered the cause of peace.  Because China sees Trump as a wild man and so China is afraid of all of them being nuked so says to Kim Jung Um that "You better make peace with this guy because you don't know what he'll do next".   Rush Limbaugh wanted Obama to fail in January of 2009.  I pray that President Trump succeeds both with the economy and with foreign affairs.  None of us profit from having a failure as a President for the next four years.  (Selah)  


The following report is pure bullshit but it came out. Liberals are far more objective than are conservatives. The adage of "both of them are alike" is the greatest falsehood being spread now. Liberals pride themselves on NOT being like the conservatives.

New research … shows that [liberals are] just as deluded as everybody else. One study, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, concluded that conservatives and liberals were equally averse to listening to opposing viewpoints on hot-button issues, such as same-sex marriage. In fact, they were willing to give up the chance to win money just to avoid the unpleasantness of of hearing an opinion they disliked. A meta-analysis of 41 studies recently published on the Social Science Research Networkreached a similar conclusion: there was no difference in partisanship between liberals and conservatives. As it turns out, “open-minded” liberals are plagued by confirmation bias to the same extent as “closed-minded” conservatives. That may explain the current US phenomenon of the “Regressive Left,” as University of Chicago evolutionary biologist Jerry Coyne called them, believing that – as he put it – “some positions aren’t just wrong, but [are] taboo to mention”.

The latest theory about my itching skin condition that's gone on for a month now is that it may have been caused by an intestinal virus.  I felt like I had a recurrance of Hepatitus B for about two and a half weeks in March.  No sooner did these symptons wane then the itching started, and in my mind I have wondered whether there was a coincident.  Now I'me being a prescribed a drug for paracites which has a lot of dangerous side effects.  You take pills along with the cream.  I haven't started it yet.  If so it means that I didn't get scabies from anybody around here.  Judy says you can't take a doctor's word just because he says what you have isn't scabies because Judy says doctors are famous for being wrong.  

Donald Trump Is A Wash-out

Congress has voted out an operating Federal budget today for a period of one week.  The vote was 384 to 33 or something like that in favor.  The Republicans decided they didn’t want to make a battle on this one after their agreement not to.  We already told you they weren't going to make the border wall with Mexico an issue.  By my calculations 98 days or 7 x 14 would be Friday up to noon and before noon on Saturday would be the 99th day.  The end of the 100th day would be Sunday morning at nine, our time.  Well, at least we won't have a government shut-down this time around.  

Trump is even too embarrassed to go to his own White House Press Corps roast this evening.  Instead he'll be out on the campaign trail after signing more executive orders earlier in the day.  Trump knows he's a failure and it's not a laughing matter.  Trump loves to dish it out to others but he can't take it.  His skin is paper thin.  He has to react to even slight criticism with bluster and outrage.   Trump's most important executive order this week was opening up the west and east coasts for more oil drilling.  The state of California says they have a three mile limit of state government control.  We'll see.  But Trump this week also retroactively canceled a number of National Monuments, even new ones here in California people had come to rely on.  He's really in thick with the polluting corporations. 

This is Saturday April 29, 2017 and the one hundredth day of the Trump administration.  They have been reviewing every time Trump used the phrase “one hundred days” and also the number of times Trump said a certain job would be “easy” simply by making a few phone calls and spending ten minutes resolving a major issue or whatever.  Now Trump is saying that his old job was easier.  He said just the opposite during the campaign.   They’ve been talking a lot about North Korea and how Trump almost pities the NK leader because he was only 27 when the death of his father forced him to assume leadership at such a young age.  If we do have WW III then Seoul South Korea will get the brunt of any nuclear bombs, unless we nuke North Korea first.  And of course the budget was passed yesterday.  I had Chris Matthews on during the morning at various times and of course Matthews played all these clips of Trump.  

There is of course another weekend and another protest on Washington.  This one directly involves climate change protest.  Now I’m getting Washington Post articles all month.  Last week I ran out my quote of Washington Post stories mid month and did without.  Anyhow it may not matter if the media covers it or not because the public has become numbed to these constant protests and just considers it part of the liberal background static they have to endure in the news now.   We need some triggering decisive event that convinces people that we have to think about global warming.  The best we can hope for is that little by little people’s minds are being changed.  

Last night Bill asked me to call Paul about getting three bottles of rubbing alcohol from the 99 cent store and Bill would repay him back here.  But Paul was in the shower and then he had to eat dinner and Wheel of Fortune was already on.  But I called this morning just before eight thirty and Judy and I did a little detective work to find out what the name of the medicine I was prescribed for my skin.  It turns out Bill and I do have the same medicine two word compound.  I went down to see Sarah because Judy wanted the name of the compound.  Sarah wrote it down for me.  Sarah also said that the tube had come in last night and that a caretaker would be coming in later to apply the lotion.  I’m still waiting for that and right now I’m itching.  The Vaseline works for a while but in the end only seems to clog up your pores so that you itch worse.  Judy looked up this particular compound on line and it seems doctors prescribe this cortazone base compound when they don’t know what skin condition you have, and recommended that I see a dermatologist.  Bill has seen a dermatologist regularly and he’s getting the same compound which Judy says is ineffective for killing off any real infective bacteria.  

Some of these compilations we've done so many of over the past six months- - you could leave it as buyer's choice which package they want to select.  For instance if you're a Bernie Sanders fan you may may want the compilation with Sanders and his 25:25 speech.  And for you Temptations fans for that 1969 - 1972 album,  I think maybe the version with that opens with the Temptations is probably a better compilation anyhow.  In the absence of knowledge of any other compilations, it may well be the one you want to pick.  

New Deal Very Possible with Trump Health Care

A couple days ago the air waves were abuzz about how a deal was worked out with Trump Health Care and that a bill would be voted out of the house before the week was out.  I haven’t heard anything about it today but I assume it’s still going to happen.  This deal gives the states the right to “opt out” of various provisions.  Two of them are thqat they don’t have to cover routine health matters or women’s issues if it’s a man getting the insurance.  The other is they can have life time caps on coverage and also if you have a pre existing condition they have the right to drop you or not cover you.  These provisions needless to say will be a gigantic step backward.  But now people on the far right or the “Freedom lobby” who were formerly entrenched against any bill are now all for the provisions of this bill.  It may be enough to get it passed.  Then Trump will truly have something to brag about as a landmark accomplishment for the first 100 days.  It will also spell the end of Obama Care as we have known it and a whole lot of people are going to be sorely disappointed.  Trump promised there were certain provisions he wouldn’t touch in his plan, but like so many promices this one is now out the window. 

The Pentagon’s top watchdog has launched an investigation into money that former national security adviser and retired Army Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn received from foreign groups and whether he failed to obtain proper approval to do so, lawmakers and defense officials said Thursday.  The Pentagon has in the past advised retiring officers that because they can be recalled to military service, they are subject to the Constitution’s rarely enforced emoluments clause, which prohibits top officials from receiving payments or favors from foreign governments.   On Thursday, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (Md.), the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, released an Oct. 8, 2014, letter in which a Defense Department lawyer warned Flynn upon his retirement from military service that he was forbidden from receiving payments from foreign sources without receiving permission from the U.S. government first.  Flynn received $45,000 to appear in 2015 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a gala dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization. He also worked as a foreign agent representing Turkish interests for a Netherlands-based company, Inovo BV, which paid his company $530,000 in the fall.  Flynn was fired as national security adviser in February after revelations that he misled Vice President Pence about the nature of his communications with the Russian ambassador to the United States. The pugnacious retired officer, who last year led “lock her up” chants about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, filed paperwork as a foreign agent for Turkish interests about three weeks later, on March 7.

I have personally written many of these things in my own words before but here’s a more professional rendering.  Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump is all about the bark -- bold, aggressive promises.  Whether it's unfair Chinese trade practices, the North American Free Trade Agreement he's dubbed a "disaster" or Iran's destabilizing actions, Trump has kept up much of his bold campaign rhetoric.  But when it comes to follow through, at least in his first 100 days in office Trump has come up short on the bite, sometimes abruptly flipping his position when confronted with an opportunity to make good on his pledges.  After months of railing against NAFTA, some of Trump's top aides signaled Wednesday he might withdraw from the deal altogether in the coming days.  By Wednesday night, Trump had talked to the fretful leaders of Canada and Mexico and stood down on the possibility, deciding against pulling the US from the trade deal altogether.   "I received calls from the President of Mexico and the Prime Minister of Canada asking to renegotiate NAFTA rather than terminate," Trump tweeted Thursday morning. "I agreed subject to the fact that if we do not reach a fair deal for all, we will then terminate    As Elvis said in “Conversation”, “A little less bark; a little more bite” 

ONE TACO SHORT OF A COMBO PLATE (third incarnation) rel April 27th 2017

The Red and the Black (Tyranies and Mutations)
Behind the Locked Door (All Things Must Pass)
Scared (Walls and Bridges) John Lennon
Poor Little Girl (The Best of Dark Horse 1976 – 1989)
Cooking In the Kitchen of Love (“Ringo” album out-take)
Michael Moore Movie Excerpt (edited) less than 5 min This interview was aired on a - - -  - - - - - recent issue of the -“Democracy Now” program.
Love You Till Tuesday (David Bowie)
Ain’t It So Like Candy (Elvis Costello and Paul Mc Cartney)
FX (Black Sabbath) demonic rappings

Wild Life Finale (Wings)  unannounced on orig album
She’s A Woman (six minute demo jam recording)  Nov 1964

Use Your Imagination (Guess Who) *
Evil Hearted You (Yardbirds)
Cut Me Hair Once A Year (TV live show Austrialian guy) **
I’ll Be Back (early June 1964 recording three-four time portion)
No Reply (early June 1964 recording with Jimmy Nichol on drums)
What You’re Doing (fall 1964 demo recording)
Sunshine Girl (The Parade)
Blue Christmas (The Fab Four) (done to “Revolution I”)

Same album cover as back in November (first incarnation)

All The News That's Fit to Print

Apparently there was a lower court decision today involving another one of Trump’s executive orders.  Trump has issues more executive orders than any president since FDR in WW II.  New York and California and other blue states were worried about declaring “sanctuary cities” or sanctuary states where law enforcement would not carry out Federal laws on immigration.  Today this Court ruling declared that states are not servants to the Federal Government bu rather are “co equal” and they as such have every right not to go along with a federal law.  To me this violates court precedent but apparently now it’s OK to flaut executive orders and say that “We have the right not to be conscripted by the federal government”.  But haven’t Presidents “federalized” the Nation Guard in various civil rights cases? 

It seems that “Taj” is a type of honey wine that will get you really drunk if you let it.  I’ve heard honey wine referenced in “The Ten Commandments” by one of the Egyptian women in the movie.  It seems that Taj is a drink you can get at an Ethopian restaurant.  And you can only get this exotic foreign food in highly urbanized settings.  Norman Goldman made a string plug for the advantages of urban living, and he himself has lived his whole life in an urban setting.  I know Thom Hartman speaks often of an Ethopian restaurant and I’m wondering whether there are a lot of Ethopian restaurants in Washington DC.   They apparently use lot of bread and eat with their hands.

There was a double execution in Arkansas last night.  It was one Black and one White, if you’re curious.  There was talk of executing seven prisoners in eleven days a while back but there were temporary court restraints because of the drugs used. 

President Trump apparently has backed down on insisting for Congressional funding to build the wall with Mexico.  It seems neither side wisely wants to close down government or get into a big argument over this issue.  So the Republicans agreed to get funding for drones and other RADAR equipment for enforcement measures and that Trump says he’ll seek funding for the wall itself this coming September.  

That “space” thing that I keep getting pop-ups of, has this thing on Einstein, which might be called “Another Side of Einstein”.  It shows Einstein as a younger man who was married but also a womanizer.  He made statements like everything in the Universe is connected to everything else, and now all he has to do is prove it.  I guess the movie is called “Genius” or something. 

The 25^th anniversary of the LA Riots is April 29^th, which is another harrowing event that occurs this Saturday along with the government shut-down.  Eye Witness news photographers were on the scene in a helicopter and they had guns stowed away for use in an emergency.  And they kept remarking how menacing the gathering crowds looked, and they knew there was trouble.  Of course there were no police around because they knew when they were outnumbered, and had more or less of a “let it burn” policy.   Even today in these protest situations the police slink into the background when anything approaching a fist fighting contest appears to be occurring.  

Trump's income tax reform knocks out a leading tax deduction people routinely take and that is to deduct their state and local taxes from what they pay Uncle Sam.  This is a major rip-off in Trump's plan of the little guy.  And Trump’s advisers are looking to ax some tax breaks that are very popular in certain states, including the deduction Americans take for the state and local taxes they pay separately each year. Eliminating this deduction could save more than $1 trillion over 10 years but inflame lawmakers and governors in states that have high income tax rates.  The central feature of the White House’s plan would be a big reduction in tax rates for virtually all Americans and businesses.  It would eliminate the seven existing income tax brackets and replace them with three brackets, containing new rates of 10 percent, 25 percent and 35 percent, based on someone’s income. White House officials haven’t specified which income levels would hit the higher tax brackets, as they see that as part of ongoing discussions with Capitol Hill.  It would also roughly double the standard deduction that Americans can use to reduce their taxable income. The deduction for married couples would move from $12,600 to $24,000. This would incentivize people not to itemize their tax returns and instead use the standard deduction, simplifying the process and potentially saving taxpayers thousands of dollars each year.  It would allow for "repatriating" tax dollars from foreign located US corporations moving back to ten percent.  Congress wants to lower the tax rate on corporations to twenty percent.  The world average is 23 percent.  

Trump's First One Hundred Days

April 29^th is the deadline for both the first one hundred days and also the time when government funding runs out and they’ll have to shut down the government.  Maybe congress wouldn’t be so pressed for time if they didn’t take so much time off.  Trump says he won’t fund a government funding bill unless it has a provision for the wall with Mexico.  The democrats have vowed to fight him on this, which to me is a mistake.  If you’re philosophically opposed to shutting down the government then you shouldn’t do it even if you’re the party in control of it.  I’m sure we’ll see other stories on all of this.   Trump promises us we'll have the border wall paid for by Mexico but we are only making "a temporary down payment" funded bu US tax payers.  Trump is still talking about the massive tax cut bill that's the biggest tax cut (for the rich) since Ronald Reagan.  Trump sounds optimistic about having his health care bill passed only the bill is pretty well dead in the water.  We still haven't heard anything about a massive infrastructure bill.  Normally the White House press corps roast is around the first weekend in May and it might even be this weekend.  I've heard there are lots of new protests scheduled by democrats.  Meanwhile I think Trump is meeting with the US Senate tomorrow about what to do about North Korea.  I will still be monitoring the news to see if there are any developments in any of these areas.  

Stocks rose around the world in response to the favorable French election.  Marie Le Penn came in a weak second place yesterday to Emanuel - - the centrist, so called.  The Republicans and the media had this one pegged all wrong talking about how Le Penn was practically the next French president.  The run-off election is May seventh. 

  Sixty Minutes had a conservative judge who was on the liberal Ninth Circuit court of appeals, which Trump wants to divide in half.  Wouldn’t that make two liberal circuits?  Or does Trump have designs on packing the court with all new appointees himself?  Actually that was the middle segment.  The first segment was all about Michael Bloomberg who is 75 years old and is the eighth richest man in the world or whatever.  He was mayor of New York for three terms.  Now he says he wants to engage in philanthropy because nobody could spend that much money.   I went down for medication from Ida a little after seven thirty when she announced it.  I got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

This is Monday April 24, 2017, Armenian genocide day.  “The Price is Right” is on.   I just tried to get in contact with Sarah about getting one of these jars of skin cream Bill has, that can last a whole month.  He let me use a little in the pre dawn hours.  Glen just lent me a cigarette, a grape which he got sold on because of the ones I gave him for coffee a few days ago.  I’ve been trying to scratch the very center of my back I can’t reach.  I was unable to get Sarah’s attention.  This is the same font I was working in earlier today when I changed “I Can’t Get Next to You” to “Games People Play” by Joe South on that Blast from the Past compilation.  The overlap police were on our tail.  Actually people in the Federation were reluctant to make the substitution.  The album had been out for a whole month as it was.  So we changed the lead-off track on "CODA" to "Games People Play" by Joe South.  The one disadvantage to this track is that it's a little too "mainstream pop" and not as rock and roll as the rest of the album.  

Protests In Favor of Science Tomorrow

Tomorrow, April 22^nd will be the big march for Science that we’ve heard so much about.  Science needs to be stuck up for.  There was this one bogus Black evangelist I heard on a tape who was saying that Martin Luther’s reformation paved the way for experimental science and brought about the renasance.  This isn’t true because the renasance as we know it began the previous century.  Gutenburg’s printing press was the previous century and some of those innovations such as gun powder were brought about by Marco Polo’s journey to China which had things like gun powder and printing font.  These Christians like to see themselves as open to nature and experimentation and point to evolution where experimental research at first glance would seem to indicate divine creation.  But let’s look at the empirical method.  This is trial and error and the whole synthisis – antithesis and all of that stuff Hagel talked about.  I said back around February 7^th in the blog “Karmic Suicide” that empiricism is a good method and it’s better than pure subjectivism, which believes hat the human mind invents reality.  It’s certain better than “taught knowledge” if we’re talking about such learning coming from religious revelation of our leaders and being “instructed” in the Truth.  However it’s my belief that true objectivism does not throw God out of the equation entirely.  I will restate that objective truth is truth or a fact about something stands independent of our awareness or knowledge of it.  Our learning about factual truth is only being made AWARE of something that already EXISTS.  This is what I believe “natural laws” are.  They weren’t invented but merely discovered by the great thinkers of centuries ago.  I said then that empiricism is valuable so long as it serves the Truth but when it doesn’t “give you all the facts” or leads to speculation, then empiricism falls into error.  But empiricism is still a far better method of knowledge than the other methods we have discussed.  But there are Truths out there we are purely unaware of.  It’s also a scientific axiom that man is ;imperfect and that he is learning all the time.  And more exploration and experimentation will further mankind’s more complete knowledge of the Truth.  It is my belief that “God” however you believe in him, is completely neutral on whether mankind acquires this missing knowledge or not, and shouldn’t enter into our consideration.  Science has brought us a long way.  We wouldn’t know the polar ice caps are melting were it not for research.  It’s good that we research our ecological balance and keep tabs on it to know how we are faring.  They sai that the earth’s core temperature has risen from 57 to 59 degrees.  This doesn’t sound particular earth shaking.  There are an awful lot of areas of the world in the tropics where the temperature may scarcely reach 57 degrees.  You know how water absorbs heat whereas ice reflects it and keeps the earth cooler, as is the natural order of events.  Explorers have dreamed of some “northwest passage” but we aren’t going to reach it at the price of a global catastrophy.  In summation then I think it’s a good thing that we are having these  major demonstrations tomorrow on Earth Day 2017 and let’s just hope President Trump is watching.  He could learn a lot because he is the most anti ecological president we may have ever had. 

Washington (CNN) US authorities have prepared charges to seek the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, US officials familiar with the matter tell CNN.  The Justice Department investigation of Assange and WikiLeaks dates to at least 2010, when the site first gained wide attention for posting thousands of files stolen by the former US Army intelligence analyst now known as Chelsea Manning.  Prosecutors have struggled with whether the First Amendment precluded the prosecution of Assange, but now believe they have found a way to move forward.  During President Barack Obama's administration, Attorney General Eric Holder and officials at the Justice Department determined it would be difficult to bring charges against Assange because WikiLeaks wasn't alone in publishing documents stolen by Manning. Several newspapers, including The New York Times, did as well. The investigation continued, but any possible charges were put on hold, according to US officials involved in the process then.  The US view of WikiLeaks and Assange began to change after investigators found what they believe was proof that WikiLeaks played an active role in helping Edward Snowden, a former NSA analyst, disclose a massive cache of classified documents.  Assange remains holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, seeking to avoid an arrest warrant on rape charges in Sweden. In recent months, US officials had focused on the possibility that a new government in Ecuador would expel Assange and he could be arrested. But the left-leaning presidential candidate who won the recent election in the South American nation has promised to continue to harbor Assange.  So basically, Assange may never be brought to justice in the US. 

There was a police shooting incident in Paris they preempted normally TV scheduling for though there was little information.  I guy shot three police officers and one of them died and two of them were wounded.  The assailant in term was shot dead.  People are saying this may be part of a grand terrorist attack of some kind.  There is an election between a liberal and a conservative in a few days and I wonder if this incident will sway the voting public to vote in favor of security.  They say French police normally don’t carry guns but in this case they were armed and French citizens were taking pictures of that.  Trump was in the middle of a White House press conference with the leader of Italy and there was a lot of translation stuff going on.  He was asked about Syria and Turkey and also this latest attack in Paris. 

This is Thursday April 20, 2017 and supposedly marijuana day.  Norman Goldman is just coming on.  Paul has lent me a total of five cigarettes today and Ron has lent me his first, and yet I was craving a cigarette just now.  They call pot 4-20.  It has something to do with meeting at 4:20 in the afternoon and Norm will talk Canibus any time.  Norman has used it as medicine when nothing else would help his back.  Norm recommends it for PTSD also.  OK.  It’s also “Protest in favor of Science” day but I haven’t heard of any pro science or pro ecology demonstrations.  Maybe they’re saving that for Saturday.

One of the things Marx got right was the alienation of the producer/ worker from the output of his/her labor. The alienation is not just a loss of ownership; it’s also a loss of agency and a psychological alienation from the entire mode of production.  The workers’ alienation from the output of their labor doesn’t vanish just because the state owns the means of production; rather, the “capitalist” elite is replaced by a political elite and a state-clerisy managerial class.  “Socialism” is simply another flavor of state-cartel capitalism; Orwell would be proud of all the simulacrum self-serving “socialists” who have managed to enrich themselves at the expense of those actually producing goods and services.  Calling state-cartel finance-capitalism “socialism” doesn’t make it socialist.Orwellian double-speak doesn’t change the neofeudal nature of debt-based state-cartel finance-capitalism.  Let’s boil it down to its essence: if the producers don’t directly own/control the output of their labor, it’s capitalism, not socialism. State ownership/ control is nothing but the state-cartel coin turned over.  The only truly socialist system would be comprised of worker-owned collectives and co-ops, and privately owned and operated small enterprises.  In a truly socialist system, global corporations would pay such high entry fees and taxes that they could not compete on price against local worker-owned collectives/ co-ops.  In a truly socialist system, state functionaries would be banned from accepting bribes, campaign contributions, seats on philantro-capitalist foundations, corporations, etc., and barred from taking jobs in corporations after leaving state employment.  In state-cartel economies, “socialist” or otherwise, the system optimizes corporate profits, influence and agency. In a truly socialist system, worker-owned collectives/ co-ops and small business are optimized and corporations are de-optimized.

SPECIAL MARIJUANA DAY EDITION of a two month old compilation without any spoken word in it.  The three songs that were added are "Alice's Restaurant", which is kind of assiciated with marijuana even though there's nothing about grass in the song.  Then "Dave".  And then we have "South of Heaven", which continues the apocraliptic theme of the cover and content.  Go back to "Record" in the address bar then hit "older posts" and enter the title in Google find and you should locate it.  This version was released yesterday in the Federation.  

KEYS TO THE KINGDOM - released April 20th. 2017

Prelude / Tyrant (Judas Priest)
Writing on the Wall (Ted Nugent) **
Victims of the Fury (Robin Trower)
When Friends Fall Out (Guess Who)
Electric Funeral Pyre (Black Sabbath)
The Four Horsemen (Metallica)
Night Rider (Electric Light Orchestra)
Sketches of China (Jefferson Airplane) *
All This and More (Procol Herum)
One of These Days (Ten Years After)
Revolution No 9 (The Beatles)

Dave (Chich and Chong)

South of Heaven (Slayer)

Alice's Restaurant (whole song) (Arlo Guthrie)