Monday, July 13, 2015

Are Iranian Nuke Negotiations Continuing Tomorrow?


VIENNA — Hopes for a final agreement in the Iran nuclear talks were put on ice Monday, as Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said no deal was imminent and the White House said the talks are expected to continue into Tuesday.  Secretary of State John F. Kerry met late Monday night with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Federica Mogherini, the foreign policy chief of the European Union, and there were no indications that a long night of negotiations would end soon. That raised the possibility that talks would continue well past a soft deadline of midnight, and that an agreement might be reached in the middle of the night.  Although diplomats had been optimistic Monday morning that a final agreement would be reached before the midnight expiration of an interim deal, those hopes were dashed shortly before nightfall.   There seems to be a major list of unresolved issues.  But this hasn’t stopped Shawn Hannity from claiming that “A deal with Iran has already been made”.

Perhaps law enforcement officers can practice their own discretion to a degree.  For instance an alarmed woman caller was worried about school busses going past crowds of anti abortion protestors holding up giant signs of aborted fetuses and even sticking pamphlets in through the bus windows for the children to read.  Were I in charge of this intersection I would not interfere with what these protestors are trying to do.  My reasoning is that “Life trumps disruption” and that in defense of human life – certain liberties should be allowed.


Shawn Hannity has announced that he’s going to have Scott Walker on his program and give him the royal treatment that he gives most of the Republican candidates, including a whole hour on his TV show.  They released a video of a campaign commercial.  I’d give it a C + even if it is filled with a lot of dubious accomplishments.   It’s like a Star Wars movie preview.  You scower the thing loomking for “clues”.   These Republicans speak of “the tax payers” as the focus of their attention rather than people associated with various interests like those who wish to be shielded from legal predators, union members, environmentalists, or government workers.  And so it’s “the taxpayer” which supposedly this vast silent majority of main stream American that seems not to care one bit about oppressive governmental leaders like Walker, much as the average German didn’t understand any of Adolph Hitler’s “targeted groups”, people to be “gone after” – to mean them personally.  Unfortunately they didn’t continue to feel that way.

That Pluto fly-by was today and Pluto is fifty miles bigger in diameter than we thought.  (The error is small)  But it’s icier and less rocky than we thought.  It passed by at 31,000 mph, which is somewhat faster than I thought inter-planetary ships traveled.  I thought once they passed the escape velocity of 26,000 they continually slowed down after that.  The only time they might get temporarily sped up is of they go past Jupiter and the slingshot effect.

Hillary Clinton is at least looking more robust than she did a couple of years ago when she left Secretary of State.  Hillary spoke on Wall Street and her desire to crack down on the rich Wall Street bankers.  But she seemed reluctant to field specific policy questions.  One guy was escorted out of the room after asking her “What are you going to do about Glass Stiegel?”

Greece has apparently agreed to stay with the Euro and with the EU.  I didn’t know it was that close.  The thing is that the nations of the EU say “It would make the Euro look bad if one of our nations exited the union”.  The question is why that is - - unless somehow Greece is going what several other nations secretly want to do and now they’ve got the courage.  They say the provisions are the harshest since those imposed on Germany or something after WW I.  But according to Norman Goldman Wall Street got rich off the thing- - and did accounting tricks without making the Greek government any stronger.  And you must remember that the Greek people expressed their opinion just eight days ago that THIS is the thing they DON’T want.

FOX news has told Donald Trump that they are going to keep him out of the first Debate coming up in three weeks, unless Trump officially files his paper work to make things right with the Federal Elections commission.  Norman Goldman said that “I always had the feeling that Trump was only in it for the publicity and isn’t really running but will pull out and offer some excuse”.  But now he’s in too deep and has nothing to lose because he’s lost a lot of business dealings in the past few weeks.  My only remark would be that there are such things as legally binding contracts that have to be fulfilled “whether they feel like it or not”.  Rush Limbaugh has defended Trump to the extent that he says the Republicans will split the party is they don’t knock it off against The Donald.   However Lindsey Graham has referred to Donald Trump as “a giant wrecking ball”.   Shawn Hannity is not on friendly terms with Lindsey Graham - - too liberal.

Scott Walker Enters Republican Race for President

Missing is the guy taking the picture, of course

Governor Walker has finally gotten good and ready and is now joining the pack as the fifteenth individual to announce for President on the Republican side.  The 47-year-old tweeted "I'm in", joining a field of 14 others in his party competing for the 2016 election.  "I'm running for president to fight and win for the American people," he said in a video released on Monday.  He will formally announce his run for US president later at an event in Milwaukee.  The governor defeated a recall election and clashed with labour unions in his home state, and cut taxes by nearly $2bn (£1.3bn).  Scott Walker enters the race for the Republican presidential nomination in an enviable position. For most of this year he's been the frontrunner in Iowa, which is the first state to vote in 2016. He's also among the leaders in New Hampshire, making him the only Republican candidate with a realistic chance of starting the primary season with back-to-back wins.  Mr Walker's appeal has been as a candidate who energises grass-roots conservative Tea Party activists while, as an incumbent governor of a moderate state, is still acceptable to the party's establishment.   If I may venture a slice of personal opinion- - Scott Walker has the right wing idiot vote sewn up tight.  Many people now for Trump - - if sheer idiocy is what attracts them- - will switch from Trump to Walker.  I think you will see this in the next few weeks before the first Republican debate in about three weeks.  Thom Hartman compares the Wisconsin governor unfavorably to the Democratic governor of neighboring Minnisota.  Both states are ethnically similar with a Scandenavian bent.  However Minnisota is economically much better off with the rich paying their fair share, and jobs and the infrastructure tended to.  Besides this,  Scott Walker’s obvious weakness is that he has absolutely no background in foreign policy and Hillary Will eat him alive in this area if any reporter asks any kind of detailed questions that require background knowledge.   Hopefully Hillary will be wise enough to answer these questions herself and not punt.

They have announced that the Iranian nuclear negotiations may be agreed upon tomorrow, to give congress something to vote on either up or down.  Senator Cotton believes any negations coming out of these sessions should be voted down because John Kerry has given away too much and gotten nothing in the way of real promises in return.  He may be right.  John Boehner echoes this saying that “No deal is better than a bad deal”.  We need to go back to imposing even stiffer sanctions so that Iran will be more amenable to a treaty the US can actually live with.  John Kerry has spent more time in Europe out of the country than any secretary of state in the past thirty years, and seems inclined, come Hell or high water to produce some sort of agreement.  Personally I am less keen on the whole idea of negotiating Iran’s giving up Nukes than I was a few months ago, and it’s been mentioned that bombing Iran back to the stone age is still on the table.   The biggest reason why I wanted this treaty in the first place is because the United States is war weary.  She is tired and her people are tired- - and a Nuke free Iran would go a long way toward peace.

I watched Face the Nation and it seemed to be longer than an hour, but they filled the thing with so many ads it’s hard to tell.  There was a question of Bernie Sanders where I believe he is to the left of me.  He was asked whether he agreed with the Pope’s condemnation of Capitalism per se.  My point is that it’s easy for a “Holier than thou” minister or whoever, who is well paid and has some mindless crowd cheering him on- - to condemn “Money” as the root of all evil.  I remember the sort of remarks Mark Bove has made about some sort of capitalist venture at our church like a car wash or something- - where money changes hands.  Some people believe Christianity is “too holy to talk about such a dirty subject as money”.    I can be an avid football fan, to continue the analogy- - and still be a firm believer in playing by the rules with referees and out of bounds lines and all.  After the rules are what make it football- - and not just some spontaneous brawl in the street.   It seems Adam Smith himself was aware of the pitfalls of capitalism being “ultra virus” or out of bounds and out of control- - himself.

Lamar Alexander gave the Saturday Republican response on the subject of getting rid of “No Child Left Behind” which there is a bi-partisan concencus for doing.  Let’s give more power back to the state and local school boards.  I turned on the computer and listened to KEIB on I Heart Radio that way.  They were talking about an all vegetarian, no soy, no gluten protein shake thing.   Then it was “Hardball”.   Donald Trump has taken to bashing Marco Rubio on his immigration flip flop, and Jeb Bush in general, and has even criticized Governor Perry for “failure to solve the immigration problem”.  Yet leave it to Chris Matthews and company to come after Trump on the liberal skeletons in his political closet.  He is pro choice, and pro gays in the military, and for strong Social Security and even favors some form of Health Care.  If these facts become generally known he would have real problems with fellow Republican beasties.   Then the program talked about the taking down of the Confederate flag.  Then they attacked Bernie Sanders on the idea that his “son” is not the child of his wife but of another woman.  But I take exception to the notion that Sanders is not open to fielding questions.  We know all sorts of things about Sanders’ political past dating from college and it’s all good.  Sanders has been amazingly consistent- - much more so than - - Me, for instance.   The evidence mounts that Chris Matthews is moving to the political right.  For instance Matthews has a seventeen minute interview with Ted Cruise, which is for all practical purposes a friendly interview.  We need to make clear that Raul Cruise fought FOR the Castro revolution- - so the beatings he received at age seventeen were not from the Castro forces.   However the snagging point is the idea of Supreme Court justices running for office.  Ted Cruz favored the judges when they elected Bush. 

 I watched the Mc Laughlin group but nothing is notable except Buchannon is still sticking up for Putin and Mort Zuckerman is still saying Russia is the most dangerous country to world security.  Actually there is a new guy in the President's cabinet who just said the same thing in a congressional hearing, that Russia is our greatest threat to world peace.   I think Pat is right.  We need Russia as an ally against China.  It's better to have Russia on our side rather than side against us and with China in a conflict.  In the old days we used to recognise truths like these.  We also need Russia to help us solve our problems in Syria and Iran.  Once again it's better to have Russia FOR us in these conflicts rather than AGAINST us.  Someone said "There is no inherent reason why the US and Russia have to be enemies".   We're certainly never going to defeat them in an all out War, which could go nuclear.  Pat also says “We need to go easy on Greece”.   Greece has already paid heavily for their political borrowing yet their debt, like a pay day lender in the Ghetto, only grows and grows.  Why are they "trying to get blood our of a turnup".  What if Russia makes an offer to pay Greece's debt as part of some political quid pro quo.  Then the US and Europe would have egg on our faces.  Do we really want to see Greece move into the Russian orbit?  Think about it.

Friday, July 10, 2015

Making a Carrier out of Negativity

Someone says that Richard Nixon "knew" Ed Musky would beat him so it was Nixon's plan to slip LSD in Ed Musky's coffee so he would hallucinate and start blubbering so George Mc Govern would win.  Now fast forward to today and Thom Hartman is convinced that the Koch Brothers have said to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker "You're our man".  They are apparently meeting right now with the Koch Brothers along with other candidates such as Bush and each one brags they are dirtier and more rotten than the last one.   Now the Koch Brothers want Scott Walker to win because he is the most 'Nixonesque' of any of them.  Scott Walker even cheated in elections in college.  He was on the verge of being indicted for campaign fraud last year.  I don't know what happened.  Among Scott Walker's accomplishments is not just gutting pension funds and sticking it to school teachers.  Walker just signed the "right to work for less" Union law.   Apparently there were protections against a seven day work week that were struck down.  He deleted references to a "living wage" in Wisconsin's constitution.   He also elimited the "pervailing wage" requirement in construction workers- - instituted by FDR.  Snyder of Michigan is worse.  He passed a law making it illegal for any City to institute higher minimum wage laws.  Walker should have thought of that.  He loosened "Pay Day" loan regulations causing more poor to go bankrupt.  Apparently he signed a thing saying that the Koch Brothers could put a dirty oil pipeline through Wisconsin from the tar sands.  And now all the Koch Brothers need is for some candidate to "Take out Walker's rivals".  So they sick Donald Trump on opponents Bush and Christie calling them bad leaders.  Scott Walker wants to sign everything now so he can say in the Republican debates next months all of his great "accomplishments" in Wisconsin.

They were bashing Bernie Sanders in the news saying he was doomed to failure.  The reason, of all things, is because he isn’t Black like Obama and so only gets nine percent of the Black vote.  This is the most absurd, defeatist form of racism.  Also Norman Goldman himself and a caller were tag team bashing Bernie Sanders.  It’s a whole year and a third out from the election and remember what the old adage is in politics.  “Six months is an eternity in politics”.  So to be writing Sanders’ epitaph is just completely premature and wrong.   People need to beware of the reality that people like Dr Levy who insist that people like Arleen rephrase their remarks to sound more polyannish - - are themselves highly lacking in optimism.   For instance Dr Levy was among those saying that this was a ten year long recession and jobs or real estate markets wouldn't improve for as long into the future as foreseable.  Dr Levy and others speak of how it's predestined that Israel and Iran hate each other because they are half brothers in the Bible and all of that.  Dr Levy wouldn't go to Israel because of a shelling problem they had one December which was very minor in nature and in a different part of the country.   Dr Levy hates Al Gore all because of one time Al Gore had a house that wasn't "made green' with energy saving retrofitting.  So that's his excuse to call Al Gore a hypocrite forever.   If there are any government cutbacks anywhere- - Dr Levy says "Oh it's all because of Obama Care".   And of course at Nancy Bell pointed out Dr Levy really isn't "tollerant" about religions seeing the best of all faiths.  No matter what evidence is presented even about Christianity- - - Dr Levy basically "shuts down" as the psychologists put it, and won't listen to anything he doesn't already believe.  Some pessimists are actually proud when - - things go bad because they see it as their one great vindication in life.  Some people seem to live for doom and gloom.  

The Confederate flag was officially taken down from the South Carolina state Capitol this morning, and a Black trooper led the honor guard that did it.  Someone said that the Confederate battle flag wasn't used that much but that the KKK brought the battle flag back in the fifties.  I sure never knew it wasn't the real confederate flag when I studied US history.  Of course the confederate flag has earned its status as a symbol of repression and racism which is why it was hoisted over the South Carolina state capitol in 1962 as a protest to integration and the upcoming Civil Rights legislation.   Here are other notes from earlier.  Today is a no overcast day so it will get hot.  We had Raison Bran for breakfast today.  That Columbian guy took the time to explain a little about his past and his children and visas involved.  He lived most of his life in Columbia.  We didn’t have hashed browns today but a heated up slice of bologna, a fried egg, and toast and butter and jelly.  

There is some ceremony involving saluting Southern soldiers, that President Obama routinely takes part in every year.  To me this seems highly perverse since after he is the commander and chief of the United States military that defeated the South.  And also Malaysia was upgraded as no longer guilty of “human trafficking” even though nothing is changed.  They did it so they could participate in the Trans Pacific Partnership.  This is a highly perverse action, and makes you wonder where the President’s head is at.


Donald Trump has not criticized Gov Scott Walker and there is a rumor that the experts ordered Trump to go easy on the race issue and also not criticize the eventual republican nominee Governor Scott Walker.  It would appear that Walker is the odds on favorite to win, even though he and Kazak are the only two candidates who still have not announced for President.    I read the Rude Pundit thing on Donald Trump, and the Confederate flag take-down bill is being signed today by the SC governor, which is a whole lot quicker than I ever guessed.  Meanwhile the House Republicans in Washington backed off a plan to allow the confederate flag to be flown in national cemeteries.   Are confederate flags sold in national parks?  They say you always want what you can’t have and Confederate flags are harder to get now.

Donald Trump is now dropped from the PGA from holding some golf tournament at one of his golf courses.  Trump thus has suffered a strong retribution for just some off hands about the nature of “some” Mexican illegals.  Last night it was Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune and Arrow.  My blogger numbers still suck.  I am in a major reader’s slump now.   I’ve had medication this morning already.   Right now we are about aqt the bottom of the page.

Wednesday, July 08, 2015

Chinese Stock Exchange Crashes


The Shanghai stock exchanges has crashed today losing one third of its value, so they say.  This is not the better known Hong Kong exchange, which is down five percent today.   Thom Hartman has fed the hysteria by suggesting it’s the Chinese that caused the computers at the New York Stock Exchange to do down for a while today.  The Dow Jones Industrials have dropped about 250 points, which isn’t good.  Basically stock exchanges are declining all around the world thanks in part to the situation in Greece.  Hartman says that Puerto Rico has lost 34% of it’s manufacturing base since 2006.  But here a Republican line of reasoning is the one that is served because apparently the United States began taxing industries in Puerto Rico in 2006 and the drop started then.  Also today United Air Lines’ computer went down.   Apparently the Wall Street’s Journal went down briefly today.  Hartman’s computers are acting up and some question whether there might be some kind of a generalized attack on all computers today.

Certain problems are so pandemic- - you almost aren't aware of them at all.  I watched the July 6th “Ring of Fire” program.  There were two twin perils of the right wing mentioned here.  One is that History Books coming out of Texas are omitting things that make conservatives look bad or liberals look good.  So they downplay the Joe Mc Carthy disgrace and slavery or the civil rights struggle, and I imagine if Johnson’s war on poverty is mentioned, it’s in a bad light.  They want to dumb down America’s youth and turn them in to loyal, robotic conservative voters.  This goes to the other peril the right poses today.  It’s this buying of state and local court judges.  California elects statewide judges too, but nobody pays much attention to the voting on that.  But name recognition is key here, and the voters of Texas or other place will vote for hand-backed candidates of the corporate right wing.  Once these Judges get into power they will overturn progressive laws and refuse to recuse (disqualify) themselves even with the most glaring conflict of interest to the cases they are hearing.

 I listened to Shawn Hannity and he talked about immigration and read off a bunch of relevant facts and figures.  OK maybe Shawn isn’t entirely the bad guy here.  His points were well taken.  The Obama administration made a bunch of bad decisions with regard to immigration.  I never agreed with filing a law suit against that Arizona sheriff, because it is he and not the President that is ‘following the law” and doing his job.  There should be no “sanctuary cities”.  The whole idea makes no sense.  Then it was Days of our Lives.  Page pulled a scam on her mother involving her mother departing with a ten thousand dollar bauble she was wearing that was a gift from her daddy.  I sure would have not departed with something that valuable so quickly.  Roman Brady and friend wanted Jack Junior to turn narc and infiltrate these college parties as a drug informant.  Normally I wouldn’t have done it either but with Roman Brady’s endorsement of it I would have.  Roman Brady has rock solid character.  You know he can be trusted.

You've heard about the Viet Nam War Memorial wall with all of the names on it.  Here, on this monument the names are "immortalized" so to speak.  This is just how it is with the "Engram wall" that occupies the realm of Eternity and "Death" if you will between the metaphysical sides of "The Void" as many refer to it to describe it.  It's not a "Void" actually but since Infinity can't really be gauged as we know Time- - then it might as well be.  I have said that Engrams are Events.  Engrams = Events.  For you readers of Ron Hubbard this might not quite sound like the right definition.  Engrams are also like Computer Viruses which can be accessed two different ways.  You can be "blindsided" by one, like that guy in the Shingles commercial.  Or else - like a Virus- - it can be "read" just like computer code.  As you can see it's much preferable to be approached the second way.  One area where I may have come to differ with Ron Hubbard is that he speaks of Engrams causing instant "Trauma" for life.  I said in a recent posting that "Events" don't affect people the same way.  In the first place- - I believe engrams can be accessed from the future if youre psyche is 'On the other side of the wall" at the time.  This is longitudinal Time.  You can beware of an event before it happens and make provisions for said event.  When I spoke of "opperative" events (or Engrams) several postings ago- - these are those Engrams that cause "Trauma".  Psychologists used to say (when I was in school) that there was an "Imprinting Period" that occurs about three & a half or four where EVERYTHING you do has some permanent effect on your kid.  It's like an impression in fresh cement that hardens into place.  Once one is older - - the same action would have little to no effect on an older person whose cement has hardened, so to speak.  If you possess the body of another - - only those Engrams common to you both are "opperative".  The ones unique to just your former Host- - - have no effect on you when you're occupying his body.  I would add this word of wisdom.  We all play the "What If - - " game now and then, but it's much better to play the "What If - - " game, BEFORE and not AFTER a key event happens.  I know.  It's easier said than done.  

 Shawn Hannity is up on the latest news about China and Greece.  His lady guest admitted that the Greek people voted for a progressive in the last election because they didn’t want to have these austerity measures.   They are still trying to make ATM withdraws limited to $67.00.  They claim the NYSE was suspended trading for “hours”.  I didn’t know that.  I didn’t know that here in Los Angeles county that two thirds of the births at LA General Hospital were from illegal aliens.  That puts a whole slant on the statement “There has been no net immigration since President Obama was in office”.  You still hear this statement made but evidence appears to be mounting that it is untrue.  Jobs are being lost.   People work for less when they are in constant fear of being deported. 

Monday, July 06, 2015

Everything Is Out of Whack!

You may have seen another  photograph of this lady, wearing a flaming red dress.  I't the same dress as here.  The wonders of hue rotation!
Now for the big news of the day.  The United States was NOT attacked by Al Qaeda over the Fourth of July Weekend!

Obamacare is the name given a law that says you must buy overpriced private health insurance from companies that fund election campaigns. Yes, it’s got some lipstick on it, but compared to a civilized healthcare system like other wealthy nations use it’s awful. But how awful? Surely not as awful as . . .
Obamatrade, which is the name not given to a potential treaty, a.k.a. the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) which says that . . .
You must let foreign corporations overturn national laws.

You must throw millions of people out of work.

You must pay more for medicine.

You must allow banks to gamble on and crash the economy.

You must not know what’s in your food.

You must be censored online.

You must destroy family farming.

You must wreck the environment.  "I wrecked your company because it was wreckable" - Gordon Gecko

You must get paid less.  "Right to work for less" laws - - Hello, Scott Walker!

ALL OF THIS doesn’t bother anybody?

The Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled in favor of Obamacare, and a considerable number of people apparently lost their minds and their bowels.
Again, I admit that Obamacare is an awful law, but it is actually a law passed by Congress. The President and the one before him have been writing laws with signing statements and secret memos, and nobody seems to have gone insane over it.
That same previous president was installed by the same Supreme Court, which stopped an election in Florida so that his opponent couldn’t be shown to have defeated him. Ho hum.
That same Supreme Court has given corporations human rights, made the spending of money an activity protected under the First Amendment as speech, and legalized political bribery. Yawn.
Is it me, or is everything related to Obamacare just a little bit out of whack?
If we were to rename the single largest and most destructive program that the U.S. government wastes money and lives on “Obamawar,” would it then start to bother people?

Can we call the subsidizing of fossil fuels “Obamasmoke”? Would the earth win a few more supporters if we did?

Phyllis Green is leaving and she acted as if it would be in a few days but it’s not till September.  Phyllis says that Tess says she’s been on her best behavior lately.  Glen asked me for a cigarette but then I went out and smoked my last one just now.  I had an attack of diaria today.  It would seem that Augustine is not carrying mouthwash any more.  I asked for some after over a over a month- - for me and not Bill and Augustine said they weren’t carrying it any more.  The Norman Goldman hour isn’t that exciting.  He talked about this one illegal Mexican immigrant with a criminal record and he’s been deported five times.  He killed an attractive woman in her thirties in San Francisco.  The news is buzzing about that.  I was limited to one glass of iced tea from Rico in the courtyard.  After that I went to the upper patio and sat out briefly.  Then I read Pat Buchannon’s book, mostly material involving the lead up to World War II.  Pat portrays FDR as being reluctant to go to war, and Pat claims that this portrayal as FDR as a cheerleader for war leading a reluctant nation- - is a falst impression.  In terms of the soap opera Clyde Weston is now actively recruiting young college kids into a life of narcotics.  But nobody wants to question anything Clyde does.  To speak ill of Clyde, even in hushed tones is almost a federal offense on this show.  Meanwhile Zander goes around threatening Nicole and Eric and Serena and doesn’t see anything strange about that, like why should the cops suspect a person who goes around threatening others to keep their mouths shut?  We had tomato soup for lunch followed by homemade pizza on kind of a bun like thing.  There wasn’t enough cheese for the amount of tomato sauce.  The radio had gone static on every AM radio station except for KFI.  There was this “doctor” lady who talked about marriage in its sociological aspects such as the risk of divorce at different ages, and also if a woman marries either a much younger or much older man, she has increased rick for heart attack.  Her thesis is that due to living longer- - it’s only natural that we’d get tired of our mates.  One 94 year old man his first two marriages each lasted over 25 years. 

Sunday, July 05, 2015

Israel's 51 Day Genocide Campaign

The following article sums up pretty much what was happening in Gaza this time last year. It's a telling piece of writing, and one you know Shawn Hannity wouldn't touch with a ten foot poll. Certain facts and phrases perhaps I should have highlighted for emphasis. In the terms of a Jury trial "No other reasonable conclusion is left to the reader". And by the way if you think Donald Trumps remarks against Mexicans are barbed with racial contempt, you should listen to Shawn Hannity talk about the Mexicans who are in this country illegally. Shawn makes Trump's remarks seem tame. I only mention this because racial prejudice and bigotry can be drummed up by almost any leader and Israel's prime minister is a master at it, a master at propaganda and lies. Here's the article.

Max Blumenthal’s latest book, The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza, tells a powerful story powerfully well. I can think of a few other terms that accurately characterize the 2014 Israeli assault on Gaza in addition to “war,” among them: occupation, murder-spree, and genocide. Each serves a different valuable purpose. Each is correct. The images people bring to mind with the term “war,” universally outdated, are grotesquely outdated in a case like this one. There is no pair of armies on a battlefield. There is no battlefield. There is no aim to conquer, dispossess, or rob. The people of Gaza are already pre-defeated, conquered, imprisoned, and under siege — permanently overseen by military drones and remote-control machine-guns atop prison-camp walls. In dropping bombs on houses, the Israeli government is not trying to defeat another army on a battlefield, is not trying to gain possession of territory, is not trying to steal resources from a foreign power, and is not trying to hold off a foreign army’s attempt to conquer Israel. Yes, of course, Israel ultimately wants Gaza’s land incorporated into Israel, but not with non-Jewish people living on it. (Eighty percent of Gaza’s residents are refugees from Israel, families ethnically cleansed in 1947-1948.) Yes, of course, Israel wants the fossil fuels off the Gazan coast. But it already has them. No, the immediate goal of the Israeli war on Gaza last year, like the one two years before, and like the one four years before that, would perfectly fit a name like “The 51 Day Genocide.” The purpose was to kill. The end was nothing other than the means. In 2014, as in 2012 and 2008, Israel again attacked the people of Gaza, using weapons provided for free by the U.S. government, which could be counted on, even standing completely alone, to defend Israel’s crimes at the United Nations. Practicing what’s been called the Dahiya Doctrine, Israel’s policy was one of collective punishment. The stories in the U.S. media focused on Israelis’ fears. The deaths of Gazans were explained as intentional sacrifices by a people with a “culture of martyrdom” who sometimes choose to die because it makes good video footage. After all, Israel was phoning people’s houses and giving them 5-minute warnings before blowing them up. The fact that it was also blowing up shelters and hospitals they might flee to was glossed over or explained as somehow involving military targets. But the Israeli media and internet were full of open advocacy by top Israeli officials of genocide. On August 1, 2014, the Deputy Speaker of Israel’s Parliament posted on his Facebook page a plan for the complete elimination of the Gazan people using concentration camps, to take one of dozens of examples. And the whole thing was kicked off when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lied that three murder victims might be still alive, falsely blamed their kidnapping on Hamas, and began raiding houses and mass-arresting Gazans. Once Israel and the United States had rejected out-of-hand quite reasonable ceasefire demands from Hamas, the war/genocide was on for 51 days — with great popular support in Israel. Some 2,200 Gazan people were killed, over 10,000 injured, and 100,000 made homeless by a very one-sided war.

In the news John Kerry hobbled out on his crutches to report on the Iran situation saying it was still a toss up whether or not we’d have a nuclear deal with Iran.  But it’s sure be nice if we could get a sound deal.  If the stock market isn’t troubled by that there is always the Greek situation.  The Greek people voted to give the middle finger to the European Union and the Euro and not even try for another bail out.  Personally I think the sooner they make a clean break from the EU the better off they will be, because the more they submit to the machinations of those German bankers, they only seem to dig themselves in deeper and deeper.  A one man plane pulling a banner had to crash land on the sands of a beach in Carlsbad because he ran out of fuel.  A twelve year old boy got clipped by a wing with a big gash in the head.  Others had near misses.  A balcony collapsed somewhere on the east coast as a family was getting ready to pose for a family photograph.  There are a number of serious injuries there.  The collapse was caused by nails completely rusting out.   In other news the American women’s soccer team defeated Japan 5 to 2 in Vancouver.   Princess Charlotte was Christened today in the same gown used by her other brother, who is two and has new clothes today.  And Hillary after 23 years still doesn’t know how to deal with the press.  She roped off the press so they couldn’t get too close to her to ask questions.  Hillary is the most people phobiac of any candidate I’ve seen.  She seems content to run an almost secret campaign where nobody knows anything.

 Breakfast with the Beatles started off with mellow songs.  They played the most sophisticated version of “In Spite of all the Heartache” and they played Paul doing “Twenty Flight Rock”.   They played stuff from “Rock and Roll” and I don’t know who sang “I’m All Shook Up”.  It sounded like a non Beatle.  From Ringo I heard “Honey Don’t” and “Go to Memphis in your Mind” (from “Ringo-rama”) and “Goodnight Vienna” the answer to the space craft question.  They concluded with that “End of the night” song co written with George Harrison and Mal Evans, and ended five minutes early.  I had two cups of punch at the break.   Ringo will be at the Capitol records building on his birthday on Tuesday.

Saturday, July 04, 2015

The Aspirations of Patriotism


The latest blog entry of Washington’s blog has to do with how ignorant many Americans are of the meaning of the Fourth of July.  The least of the errors was was “It’s when we WON our independence”.  Someone else said “When we won our independence from the South” and there were a lot of other crazier answers.  Not to be sexist of anything but the majority who gave really stupid answers were girls.  They were interviewing at perhaps a Southern California beach on a pier.   John Kennedy in speaking of the Communists said how secretive they were and how their whole goal was deprive us of our liberty.  There were ex Marines saying that they swore an oath to the constitution and not these secretive relations with corporations and “the system”.  I think I can recite the oath of office.  It goes something like this.  “Do you promise to well and faithfully discharge the office on which you are about to enter?  Do you promise to support and defend the constitution against all enemies – foreign and domestic, and bear true faith and allegence to the same?  And do you take this oath without reservation or purpose of evasion?  Jim Webb went on at length about how both the military and law enforcement were about “command structure” and adherence to “the mission” while maintaining fairness.  The speech soon proved too dry for me to listen to.   Many military schools see their mission as one to “weed out the weak”.  Perhaps.  But the overall thrust of this second blogger video was to resist and not to fight for “the system”.   But of course it was an RT production, so they’d be a little biased.
On C-Span just now there is this George Cobol guy who led a fortuitous life as a spy.  He started off in the University of Iowa and then went to Moscow and got educated some more and then was sent to the US as a spy.  The US picked him out from your usual draftee grunt sent to the front, and gave him more education and sent him to Oakridge and then to Dayton where he had access to the most guarded of atomic secrets.  But they say he only sped up the process of Russia getting the A Bomb by eighteen months.  He went to more college in Manhattan and then was called back to Moscow in 1948 and Russia had the Atomic Bomb in 1949.  By the way he was a Jew, and Stalin had a program to voluntarily send Jews to Siberia as kind of a Jewish homeland.  And there were other turncoat spies that fed Russia other atomic secrets.
Chris Matthews is turning right wing now.  They are “coaching” the Republican party on their best way to win.  They say they can win by taking down Donald Trump.  They don’t like people like Ted Cruise or Carley Feurina or Bill O Riley defending Trump for his remarks on immigration.  Bush attacked Trump in Spanish.  Matthews would say “Oh these aren’t the real Republicans; these are the extremist who don’t represent the view of the average conservative, which is of course calm, reasoned, and non threatening.  We democrats need to portray the Republicans as the opposite of all these things.  Trump is now in second place behind Jeb Bush at the lofty figure of 17 percent.  But they are all saying “It’s a foregone conclusion that Trump will flame out because three out of four republicans report to pollsters that they will never vote for him.   Also Chris Matthews is talking about the threats of Al Qaeda and ISIS for this Fourth of July saying that security is being beefed up everywhere, including here in Los Angeles where a lot of events are planned.  At the same time Matthews is leading the cheer that “Of course Bernie Sanders isn’t a real candidate.  Nobody can imagine Bernie Sanders as commander and chief answering that 3 AM phone call.   Of course “everybody” said the same thing about Ronald Reagan in 1980 and we know how that turned out.  There was also a segment saying that “Aren’t we glad Obama didn’t go for the sort of economic austerity they had in England”.   It would seem that Chris Matthews is pro “comfortable” candidates that don’t rock the boat.  I bet there is a higher percentage of Republicans that wouldn’t consider voting for a third Bush in the White House as opposed to not having Donald Trump in the White House.   David Corn has been down to Cuba and claims Cubans like Americans.  Chris Matthews is skeptical at this optimism. Now there is cultural shock- - when the people of Cuba learn about things like I phones. 
They opened the dining room doors at eight after eleven, which is rather early.  But there are no illusions about lunch starting either early or on time.  In fact it was ages before we got served so much at one thing.  I got a diet Pepsi- - which means it didn’t profit to drink it quickly because my sugar level wouldn’t go up anyhow.   There was all the usual patriotic stuff with veterans standing up and giving speeches.  Sarah places great value in “Out troops- defending our liberty”.   But the thing is in the past seventy years- - the meaningfulness of the wars the United States has gone almost on a progressive bee line downward.  From WW III, to Korea, to Viet Nam, to Gulf War I, to Afghanistan, to Iraq 2003 - - each time the cause for war was weaker than the one before, and also the amount of good the war did us also dropped.  At least with Vietnam we were able to rescue a lot of Vietnamese who were looking for and obtained freedom.  You sure can’t say that about Iraq.  All of the usual kirioke songs were sung.  Sarah didn’t have it plugged into the big speaker.  Augustine did that, and also stopped the humming.  Bruce sang Adelvise- - but his dedications are getting so long he’s missing a lot of the song.  Then after he was done he stood there silently breathing into the microphone.  Marcia sand two duets.  We had boneless grilled breast filet of chicken, with improved Spanish rice, and a good green salad with onions, grapes and tomatoes.  We skipped the soup.  We didn’t get served till after we’d been sitting there forty minutes- -or ten to twelve.   After we were done we had to wait another good fifteen minutes for dessert, which consisted of coconut ice cream and white cake with blue icing.  I left at the first opportunity right after twelve thirty.  I was surprised at heck that Winbelton was not on today.  They must have canceled their contract with NBC or something.  Sonny has this theory that it’s his fault because Will Horton wasn’t ready to get married and settle down.  Interesting point.

As far back as August of 2008 I refer to Obama’s campaign as a “plastic, sell-out campaign” and compare him to the losing Dukakis campaign.  Any time a posting lists questions about Christian credibility, it’s worth reading.  I posted a blog tonight.  I didn’t want to put “The right wing hate machine” on the title heading because I didn’t want to be inflamitory.    The difference is back in the sixties, political extremism was portrayed by the media as just that- - right wing Extremism.  Barry Goldwater wasn't as extreme as the "main stream" republicans of today, and yet the media portrayed him as a kook.  Liberals were routinely portrayed as the good guys by the media.  When I wrote that blurb about Obama doing a "plastic, sell-out campaign" there were people like Thom Hartman who were saying "Well, Clinton campaigned to the left and won with what he said as a liberal, but then he moved to the political center once he took office".  Somehow Hartman thought Obama would do just the opposite.  He was living in a fool's paradise.  I would only say that sometimes liberals, too, get caught up in their own rhetoric of optimism and somehow they never quite catch up to reality.  The quickest way to lose in any fight- - is not to fight to begin with.  Therefore Bernie Sanders comes out swinging, which is just what John Kennedy did during the 1960 campaign.

Thursday, July 02, 2015

Economic Statistics Very Lack-luster


The economic figures for June are lack-luster.  While unemployment fell to 5.3% keep in mind they used to regard four percent as full employment.  Over two hundred thousand jobs were added but more people left the work force than got hired.   So labor participation is setting new lows.  How interesting that republicans are so worried about this figure wanting housewives to get out of the house and get a job to show they’re liberated.  Employment gains for April and May were revised downward.   Wages have gone up very little in the past year.  I started to watch Obama’s Wisconsin speech but it dawned on me I wasn’t learning much about the economy from that.   I think the President lives in his own little world of what you might call “pre planned high points” meaning nothing but auto generated ego stimulation.

Seven Black churches have been burned since June 17th the date of the Bible study killing of those nine blacks in Charleston.  That high of a number can’t be “coincidence”.  One of them, they say, was spawned by lightning.  It would seem at first glance (and unless you have compelling evidence to convince me otherwise) there is still a lot of rampant racism in the South some fifty years after we thought the problem was solved.   One blog today elaborated on how some woman in Pakistan is to be executed because she used the wrong cup for her drink.  But it was pointed out that when Indians “offended” white people, we would not just execute the one who did the deed but burn their whole village and the farmland around it.  FOX is a major hate machine of our time, and everyone who watches it regularly gets morally poisoned by it.
generated ego stimulation.

The political and Christian right wing really does have a lot of anger issues.  Judy sent me two things of Rush Limbaugh transcripts.  One stated that the whole purpose of allowing gay marriage is part of an overall bigger agenda to go after Christians.  They point out that nobody is pushing for allowing gay marriages in a masque.  Leave it to paranoids like Rush Limbaugh to come up with something like that.  The other thing is “No matter how much you give the feminist libber left wing- - they only get angrier and more insistent with each new gain.  I don’t think either proposition is true.  You have to have a particular “mental bent” to think that way.  Judy once believed the Obama administration was in a conspiracy to “crash the economy” and some have said that the Affordable Care Act was “deliberately designed to fail” and the goal of both things would be to “start a revolution and get the people to demand a socialist government”.  People who think this way have a lot more belief in the left wing media (or whatever) than I have.  The truth is the right wing just operates on a diet of pure fear and paranoia.

Detroit’s bankruptcy was entirely political and not based on economic consideration.  It was a way for Governor Snyder to get control of the water system and slash pensions but keep those corporate subsedies coming.  It was my understanding that Thom Hartman would be off both today and tomorrow but Thom Hartman is live today.  He talked about this big rally in Madison, Wisconsin with Bernie Sanders that drew ten thousand people.  But this event won’t be covered in the network news outlets.  The Ghandi proverb was cited here.  “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they actively fight and persecute you - - and then you Win”.   What candidate has the balls to say “The corporate world hates me and guess what?  I welcome their hatred!”  That was FDR in 1936.   Thom Hartman has been playing Bernie Sanders clips all morning.  It’s nice that they already neatly edited the speech up into twenty clips or so to play at their leisure.  Teddy Roosevelt said “We stand for a living wage”.   And he said it must be enough for to live a normal life and keep members of the family from immoral acts, and a reasonable standard to provide for education, recreation, sickness, and old age.  That speech was over a hundred years ago recorded by Thomas Edison himself.

 Glenda went to the hospital yesterday and may not be back.  I had notice Glenda not being around and so asked.  Last night Lishia told me that Glenda drank whiskey from the bottle regularly mixing it with the strong medication.  I didn’t know that.  The last time I saw her she appeared very sleepy.  I saw her twice yesterday morning.  If she’s going in for de-tox she’ll be gone for ten days.  I got my medication from Donnie around seven when he came in from out front.  (?)  People were waiting around at seven.  It was Jeopardy and then Wheel of Fortune.  I watched “Arrow” for the entire hour.  At nine I was intending to watch “Supernatural” but the next thing I knew it was nine thirty and I had dozed off.  I got up at ten to six.  Stephanie had one of her usual guests today.  I sat in the front room a while.  Finally I went to the store and Phyllis Green was waiting there.  We were joined by Luan and then Janet.  As of now I have paid Luan nine of the twelve cigarettes I owe him.  At Phyllis’s suggestion I used the French vanilla creamer in my dollar coffee, which made the coffee sweet.  I went first up here and then took the cup into the dining room.  We had oatmeal followed by a fried egg and toast and butter and jelly.  Bill’s therapist showed up before eight.  This will be the last time he’s here till late July to reestablish his qualifications.  About eight thirty I played the June 30th episode of “Ring of Fire”.   Now Macy’s is refusing to sell Donald Trump products.   The 30 Rockefeller center building is re-titled the Comcast building- - with the NBC peacock logo.  Now they are suddenly facing technical problems with the Thom Hartman show on Free Speech TV.