The Republican Debate was "Fear Incorporated"

The entire debate last night was whipping up Fear in the American people.  This is the plan of despots through the ages.  They say that Trump has the support of 36% or 28% of the population.  There weren’t that many die hard members of the Nazi party in Germany.  And there were few true Bolshivicks when Vladimir Lenin took over.  They happened to catch the Russian government at a weak, dispirited point.  Only the most diehard of American Communists, and I don’t know any personally- - would say that the Russian revolution was a good thing.  They say even the mafia doesn’t go after families of targets of vendettas.  I guess it’s just the Columbian drug cartels that chop the ear or a little finger of a leader’s son and mail it back to the object of blackmail or whatever.  It’s a coward who says “Maybe I can’t defeat you on your own but I can sure make it hell on your teenage daughter and I can torture the daylights out of her to make you do what I want.  Muslim families live with death and they are psychologically prepared for it.  I question the judgement of anyone who says that we’re going to start World War III with a no fly zone in Syria all because fourteen people were gunned down in San Bernardino.  I guestion the judgement and perportionality of such a decision.  Bush made a bad decision in getting rid of Saddam Hussein in 2003.  Trump astutely recognizes this fact.  We don’t close down the internet in order to bag a few more terrorists.  I also draw a firm line on government encroachment when it comes to this required “back door incryption” for government that they want to require for all manufactures of software.   I would repeat that all of this sounds like Communist China.  What’s the use of fighting for American values if they are gone?  And I was happy to see Trump repeat my long held assertion that “We need to deal with one enemy at a time”.  First we need to rally all our forces and allies against ISIS.  This will involve Iran and the Iraq Shiite government and hopefully even Russia.  As Washington’s blog points out, “Putin is bad, and Assad is bad, but if we went after governments that abused their own citizens we’d be fighting a different war every day for as far as the eye can see.  We don’t install a No Fly Zone in Syria to start World War III.   Remember how the US got into World War I.  Germany had a no shipping zone in the Atlantic saying any ship in this roped off area will be sunk.  And the Lucitania was torpedoes and that got us into World War I in April of 1914.  That didn’t work out too well, especially for Germany.  So why should the United States repeat Germany’s mistake?

CNN had the coverage.  They were just finishing up with Huckibee, Santorum,  Pataki, and Lindsey Graham- - - mostly closing statements.  Lindsey’s was the most detailed and scarey of the speeches.  A lot of the candidates appeared self conscious tonight.  Huckibee gave the briefest speech.  But it was fear incorporated, just as predicted by the left.  It’s not an approach to pleasure and a better, brighter tomorrow, but getting out the verbal taser and torturing the audience with it.  There was a scare about a terrorist threat from Austria on the LA Unified School District.  The thing turned out to be a total hoax.  New York’s schools got a similar threatening E mail but they pegged it as a hoax right off and kept their schools open. 

The nine candidates in the big league are Rand Paul, Chris Christy, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carley Feurina, John Kasech, and Jeb Bush.  Each candidate was allowed to make an opening statement- - and most of these were fear oriented.   A lot of the debate was balanced between all of the candidates this time with a lot of skirmishes between unexpected candidates.  Rand Paul is against “closing down the internet”.  Paul and Cruz are against bulk data collection and Marco Rubio is for it.  There was a lot of stuff about immigration and whose policy makes the most sense.  Carly Feurina and Trump want private businesses to “be asked” to participate in this war.  It sounds to me like we’re heading toward Communist China when it comes to incryption and banning data incryption between private parties.  But Ben Carson hit a low note as did Trump when they talked about “going after the families” like slaughtering women and children in the Viet Nam war.  Ben Carson likened the slaughter of thousands of innocent children in a bombing raid like cutting out a brain tumor where the child who receives the operation doesn’t like you very much when informed of what it entails.  The whole thing is becoming a bit “much” and is just too difficult to watch.  Well now they are talking about Assad.  Ted Cruz is against getting in the middle of a civil war.  Trump has said, astutely, that we have spent trillions - -of dollars on war better spent at home.

Terry Hill knocked on the door seconds after I dialed his number and let it ring.  Terry was in good humor with a lot of jokes on the way over.  His car was warm.  We only had a three and not a four hour pass and ended up not using all of that.  We walked under the roller coaster, which was shut down till next summer for repair.  We tried to get into Ghost Town but the entrance was closed off and finally we went to the information center where she said I could get a discount “shopper’s admission” for $35.00.  That was ludicris.  So we decided to go to the chicken restaurant.  They informed us that the restrooms weren’t working there and we’d have to go elsewhere if- - - .  A lot of the time Terry was walking ahead of me in a really fast stride.  There weren’t that many people in there- - and lots of empty tables.  [material left out here at the request of Mal Evans]  Terry had trouble signaling for the check, and I looked at it, wondering if the math was honest.  Then we got moving on to other areas.  We went in Virginia’s gift shop where there used to be a lot of antique china, and where I thought Mom had tried to sell some of Grandma’s stuff.  But it was all changed now.  There were three compartments to the store.  One section had a lot of history of Knott’s Berry farm stuff, and it used to be called “Berry Place” and not “farm”.  Then the third segment had a lot of Star Wars stuff in it where there were these two guys that called each other “dude” all the time.  They were either on drugs, or gay.  Terry Hill shared with them his interesting theory about the movie.  We went on to the emporium or something.  There were Dickens Village and Santa’s Village and a lot of Santa Clauses from around the world, all created by one artist.  We went on across Grand Avenue to a store with Lakers jerseys but mostly there was Peanuts stuff in this other segment.  After a while Terry had seen enough and we figured it was time to leave.  We left at just past a quarter till two, and I got back here in time for refreshments break.  Dora offered us corn dogs I turned down because I was still full.  But we were limited to one cup of iced tea.  The weather seems to have warmed up a little. 

We have quite an impressive list of songs I remember first hand from Rhapsody in Black.  I don’t mean from an oldies station but first hand.  “Don’t Say Nothing Bad About My Baby” by the Cookies, whom I always thought were white.   “Pop Eye” is it one word or two- - the other version – not the Orlons.   “Please Release Me” is an earlier version I have a vague memory of.  We have “Loopty Loop” by Johnny Thunder, and “Don’t Hang Up” by the Orlons, and “Got My Mind Made Up To Love You” by Marvyn Gaye.  These songs played are within a month or two of the target date either way.  “I’m Checking Out of Hotel Loneliness”  “Strings of my Heart” I have a fleeting but definite memory of.  We have “Zippidy Doo Dah” featuring Darlene Love, and there were two Sam Cooke songs I didn’t recognize, and a version of “Bring It On Home” by another artist.  There was a mystery “Marvolettes” song.  “Don’t Make Me Over” is a Dion Warwick classic you never hear.  Then we have “Two Lovers” and “You Really Got a Hold on Me” and “Limbo Rock” and “Up On the Roof”.   “I’m Gona Get On My Pony and Ride” I think is Dee Dee Sharp, but I’m not absolutely positive.  “You’re The Boy I Love” is a Crystals song with Darlene Love still in the group I remember from KRTH days. 

Cold and Hail Greet Southern Californians

This is Saturday December 12, 2015 and in the news the Global Warming conference in Paris has been held this past week and apparently some far reaching regulations have been agreed upon to keep the global rise in temperatures below two degrees centigrade.  I doubt whether this republican congress will of their own pass anything like that.  One issue raised yesterday was whether the President could legalize hemp production on his own for things like paper and fabric and various oils that are more environmentally friendly than the petroleum alternatives.  The concencus was the President does not have the power with the stroke of a pen to legalize in such a sweeping way anything which Congress had outlawed.  And of course the same was true for immigration and the courts have agreed the President didn’t have the power to do that either.  It’s the hundredth anniversary of Frank Sinatra’s birth- - which makes him quite a few years older than Dad was - - .  Interestingly it means they both died at about the same age.  I caught both the President’s morning address on KNX and also the Republican response.  The president gave a good speech to touch all the bases of keeping Americans safe and stepping up the tombing of ISIS and taking out their oil delivery system and killing off their leaders.  There was also the obligatory talk on tolerance to people of the Muslim faith.  We have seen a number of Masque burnings lately.   But the President’s basic problem, shared by other liberals such as Stephanie Miller and Thom Hartman- - is that they are hopeless optimists.  They have these polls out that say that 36 percent of 28 percent of Americans want to bar all Muslims from admittance to this country.  That’s the John Fugelsang way of citing the statistics.  But I think those on the right are confident they could jack that figure up to over fifty percent, who want to bar Muslims and the way Shawn Hannity was talking yesterday- - “everybody” agrees we should bar Muslims.  The Republicans passed that law in congress a few days ago that removes most favored nation status to Visas or something.  Muslims can travel around the EU virtually uninfringed  crossing border after border- - and just because they come from England or something we assume they don’t need an official Visa to stay in this country for three months.  Even liberals agree that people like Milique weren’t properly “vetted”.  I don’t think there is as much difference between Republicans and Democrats on this issue as Shawn Hannity would like to portray it.  Anyhow- - this was the topic for the Republican response on KNX at 8:06.

In the morning I had Thom Hartman on.  They were having “rectal arguments” on racial discrimination.  Does anybody have tickets to get inside?  There is a controversy with the University of Texasistan involving the admitting of a Black student and they are invoking a statute of limitations on affirmative action after 25 years.  Norman Goldman keeps talking about a nuclear bomb about to be set off.  In Michigan there is more bad news.  They no longer allow block voting there now.  Apparently it is democrats who most make use of straight party voting.  Twenty years ago I would have sided with the legislature on this one but now I’m not so sure.  The truth is they wouldn’t be doing it if they didn’t believe it would cut down on the number of democrats elected to all levels of government, city, state, and county.  

This is Thursday December 10, 2015 and so far yesterday was a more productive day than today is.  Last night I re-posted that blog on how the United States is really the Empire that everybody hates.  Actually what I was thinking of doing is talk about how history is written by the victors or “He who controls History controls the World”.  I was thinking of this whole Judeo-Christian thing where modern day evangelists are trying to make Christianity as ‘Jewish’ as possible. So they talk about the “sacrifice” or “lamb of God” or Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem and all that stuff.  The watch-ward of these evangelists is “Without the shedding of blood there can be no atonement for sin”.  Maybe that’s why they love war so much.  In terms of yesterday’s blog post- - it’s written by a bit more of a peacenick than I myself am.  It says “There are never any right people to bomb” because it’s ninety percent collateral damage anyhow and so many innocents are killed.   I looked up the history of the Syrian Christian church this morning and they start off by talking about Acts and the Apostle Paul.  Since I believe both Acts and the Apostle Paul are fictional creations, I do not deem as trustworthy any history which relies significantly on these two sources to buttress it’s otherwise sketchy credibility.  I believe there is an “ancient Syrian church” but it dates to early in the 2^nd century and it isn’t Helenized Jews from Jerusalem or whatever the article says it is.   I would only add as a postscript that ISIS wants to destroy ALL previous historic relics of previous civilizations and announce, akin to Chuck Smith and the Calvary Chapels that they just hatched perfectly formed out of an egg or something and have "everything they need" in the way of knowledge in their designated leaders.

 Daniel and Shane have been in for Thom Hartman all week.  Scelia now says Black people are naturally inferior and will ended up doing better in a lower grade college.  His exact words are “There are those who contend that Blacks do better getting into a slower track college as opposed to the University of Texas.  This is his solution to affirmative action.  Scelia had previously said that Voting Rights were an example of Black privilege and therefore should be dropped.

I would like to address a topic raised in Ted Cruz's speech to the Heritage Foundation the other day on National Security.  Ted Cruz raised two points.  One was that we should not sacrifice certain constitutional protections in either the fourth or sixty or second amendments for the sake of "security".  I am somewhat relieved to hear him say that.  Ted Cruz is against this bulk data collection stuff.  Rather than find a needle in a haystack, the first thing we need to do is to reduce the size of the haystack, and to go after the guilty and not the innocent, law abiding citizen.  That makes sense.  Bulk date collection from internet or phone traffic is horribly inefficient and wastes a lot of time that could be more efficiently used in other pursuits.  I would only hope that the fifth and sixth amendment would be applied to those charged with terrorism but are instead left to languish in prisons like Guantanamo year after year- - - apparently waiting for sing sign from God what to do with them next.  Now we come to the second amendment.  There was even a Washington's blog post that said that "Liberals ought to protect people's gun rights".   So if you're on the No Fly list- -  maybe your name has no business being on that list.  Rand Paul joins the chorus of people saying that we need solid reasons to deprive an American citizen of his basic civil liberties.  I can't really mount an intellectual response to that.  It just sounds so easy to say "Why should people be able to buy military assault rifles when they aren't allowed to fly a commercial airliner?  But perhaps I'm neglecting to see the whole picture that people like Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are painting.  It would be an amazing thing if civil liberties once more became a hot political issue.

I have Chris Matthews on right now after a break.  Hillary Clinton doesn’t think Trump’s candidicy is a laughing matter anymore.   What if the contest came down to a battle between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump?  Now they're playing a secret Ted Cruz recording of Ted Cruz saying "Neither Trump or Carson is going to be the Nominee.  We need "experiance and judgement", which these two apparently lack.  Other times it's been alleged- - Cruz is deliberately being nice to Trump so he can get all his voters when Trump is forced out of the race.  Who would the Republican establishment be for?  Now we hear from Judy and others that Ben Carson will bolt the Republican party if he suspects that funny business is going on with a brokered convention.  This is a convention with multiple ballots we haven’t had in over sixty years.  Judy was worried about this splitting the party and insuring a Hillary Clinton victory.  I think we on the left need to be on the look-out for opportunities like this.

Black Rock is a mysterious holding company that isn’t a bank, brokerage, or insurance institution but they act like it controls the world.  There were one of these no exit videos without a time line indicator (to skip to the punch line, if they have one) and there is some mystery fuel out there that isn’t mined or harvested like grain, but will end the world’s energy crisis and people from Google to Amazon.com are investing in it.  Time will (or won’t) tell.  Another story that caught my eye was the brief one about how Turkey is acting less and less like a NATO country and more like an ally of ISIS.   Of course Turkey hates our most reliable allies against ISIS, the Kurds.  Apparently Turkey is taking oil from the Syrian government (Assad) and just giving it to ISIS for the hell of it.  So why is it again the USA feels it needs to trust Turkey?

I felt so horrible [sick] virtually all day yesterday.  I did get out to buy cigarettes at the liquor store at dusk.  But I spent most of the time inside.  I got medication from Donnie last night with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich around 6:15 and went outside to smoke.  The temperatures right now aren’t that different from what they are in Chicago.  Unfortunately we in California- - especially those of us with lingering flu symptons like a sore back and chills- - aren’t used to the cold.  The wind was blowing strongly and I had my back to it but was still cold, and I don’t think I was even half way done with the cigarette when the cold got to me.    Last night I dozed off during ABC network news and for Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune I drifted in and out of awareness.  Then it was “Last Man Standing”, a comedy I’ve kind of started watching.  Then it was the Hollywood Christmas parade.  I slept fairly well- - and got a lot of sleep of one form or another.  The weather didn’t seem quite as cold in the morning.  I got puzzling temperature readings from KNX.  It was 43 in Irvine and 42 in Yorba Linda, both places in Orange County- - but places in LA county had temperatures ten or more degrees higher, so what it is here in Stanton is a mystery.  Glenda complains of the cold here but what is she going to do when she spends nearly three weeks in the mountains?   I went to the store at seven and it wasn’t opened.  I came back to the room and departed again when the President’s speech had concluded at 7:11 (the time – not the store) .   I got a dollar and a quarter cup of coffee and brought it into the dining room.  We had oatmeal for breakfast followed by scrambled eggs, toast, butter and jelly, and hashed browns.  I declined Paul Evans’ hashed browns because my appetite is still not back to normal. 

Inside the Real "Evil Empire"

Americans may find Syria a bit confusing. David Petraeus, sainted hero, has proposed arming al Qaeda, organized devil. Vladimir Putin, reincarnated Hitler, is bombing either ISIS or al Qaeda or their friendly democratic allies, but he shouldn’t be because he’s against overthrowing the Syrian government, also run by Hitler living under the name Assad. Hillary Clinton, liberal socialist, wants to create a no-fly zone, but wouldn’t that make it hard to bomb all the scary Muslims? Wait, are we against Assad or the scary Muslims or both? Aaaaaarrrrgghh! How does this make any sense?

Let’s start over, shall we?

Some basic facts?

We’ll start with the most uncomfortable fact, but one that helps begin to make sense of everything, OK?

The United States military wants to dominate the earth, has “special” forces active in 135 countries, and has troops stationed in some 180 countries. On a map of the world showing nations with no U.S. troops in them, Syria and Iran stand out like sore thumbs, as once-upon-a-time did Iraq and Libya. Syria not only has no U.S. troops; it has Russian troops, and it’s friendly toward Iran, which has no U.S. troops. Overthrowing the Syrian government, like Iraq’s and Libya’s and Iran’s, has been on the Pentagon’s bucket list for the 21st century. As early as 2006, the U.S. government had people on the ground in Syria working to overthrow the government. With the 2011 Arab Spring, the U.S. thought it saw an opportunity, and helped turn the protests violent.

The Syrian government is awful and murderous. It used to torture people for the U.S. government. It, indeed, attacks “its own citizens” (which is always who governments attack that aren’t escapading around the globe attacking other people’s citizens, which in fact most governments never do). If every government that attacked its own citizens had to be overthrown, the list would be unending, and could begin with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, Israel, Egypt, Iraq, and various other governments just in that region that the U.S. — far from overthrowing — props up, funds, and arms with the weaponry used to commit the attacks. Overthrowing foreign governments and launching wars are in fact illegal acts, and rightly so, regardless of the nature of the governments.

The criminal acts of overthrowing the horrible governments of Iraq and Libya resulted in millions of people being killed, injured, traumatized, and turned into refugees, and the creation of not only worse governments but deadly chaos in those nations and spilling out into the rest of the region. This cannot be a model for what to do to Syria.

Russia should not be arming Syria or bombing Syria. We’re so well trained to think in terms of war, that when we hear that one side of a war is in the wrong, we imagine that must be an argument for backing the other side. “You don’t want the United States bombing Syria? Then you must want Russia bombing Syria! You must want Assad using his deadly ‘barrel bombs’!” In fact, nobody should be arming or bombing anyone in Syria. The United States and numerous allies that have been bombing Syria need to stop. Russia, which has just started, needs to stop. The U.S. media says Russia is bombing where there’s no ISIS, although it said ISIS was there a week ago and seems to have forgotten. Russia shouldn’t stop bombing because it’s bombing the wrong people. There are no right people to bomb. The majority of people who die from bombs are civilians. The majority of people involved with any of the many opposition groups in Syria are opportunists and misguided desperate souls. Every single person in Syria is a person deserving better than a crude “barrel bomb” from a helicopter they hear coming or a far more deadly missile from a foreign jet or drone.

A no fly zone is not a zone in which nobody can fly. It’s a zone in which the United States claims the exclusive right to fly and to shoot out of the sky anyone else who tries it, and to bomb out of existence any weaponry that could threaten U.S. planes, along with any people who happen to be anywhere near any suspected weaponry or near any locations accidentally hit in the process. The history of human catastrophes facilitated by humanitarian “no fly” zones includes Iraq and Libya. Hillary Clinton, motivated by interest in Libya’s oil, wanted a no fly zone in Libya, urged that it be used to overthrow the government, laughed gleefully about killing Gadaffi, and would prefer that you now not look at Libya too closely. A no fly zone for Syria is a declaration of war on Syria.

Hillary Clinton, just to be clear, is not an office holder. She is a private citizen who ought to be shunned from all public discourse. As Secretary of State, she waived restrictions on shipping weapons to brutal governments if they made large “donations” to her foundation. For that, she should be in prison. Nothing worse will be found, no matter how many of her emails are read in a mad pursuit of more minor but colorful offenses.

In 2013, the Obama Administration demanded the right to send missiles into Syria. The plan, kept private, was a massive bombing campaign that would have leveled Syria and set it on a more rapid course toward utter chaos. Obama made claims about chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government that have never yet been documented, and alleged proof for which fell apart.

The U.S. public helped prevent that attack in 2013 and was, according to polls, even more strongly against arming and training Syrians. So, the CIA and the Pentagon went right ahead with arming and training Syrians. They have had a very hard time recruiting, and have seen their trained and armed troops desert and join other groups, including al Qaeda and ISIS. The U.S. dismissed out of hand a Russian proposal for peace, including Assad stepping down, in 2012, under the delusion that Assad would be quickly overthrown by violence in a manner less advantageous to Russia. That hasn’t happened. U.S. allies like Saudi Arabia keep funding and arming ISIS and allied groups. The U.S. keeps arming supposedly “moderate” murderers who supposedly oppose both ISIS and Assad. The various opposition groups keep fighting Assad and each other. And Assad gets support from Russia, and has begun working with Russia, Iran, and Iraq against its opposition / ISIS.

The United States still dreams of overthrowing Assad on the cheap without a massive U.S. occupation, and without bombing quite the whole country. The U.S. keeps fueling the fires that sooner or later could escalate into the kind of war that could overthrow Assad, generate lots more hatred of the United States, empower ISIS, and kill millions.

Russia hopes to keep Assad or a Russia-friendly government in power without a massive Russian occupation, and without bombing quite the whole country. Russia keeps fueling the fires that sooner or later could escalate into the kind of war that could put an end to major opposition in the short term, generate hatred of Russia, empower ISIS, and kill millions.

The global threat is, of course, that this could escalate into a war between Russia and the United States.

Having a "War Time President"

Contrary to what Donald Trump and Shawn Hannity say, we are not a nation “At War” and we don’t need a “War time president”.   If we were “at war” then perhaps we could discuss the curtailment of various civil liberties.  But Congress has not declared War since December 8^th of 1941 and until Congress is willing to exercise their constitutional authority, and perhaps renew the Draft while they’re at it, then all parties concerned need to just SHUT UP, and if all caps is impolite, well that’s just Tough!  We all know there is no “tipping point” where Donald Trump has said one too many things that are offensive.  The NBC news came down hard on Trump for his anti Syrian remarks and so did Jeb Bush and Paul Ryan of all people saying things like “What Trump advocates is not conservatism” and “Trump has non American values”.   Only Ted Cruz continues to not attack Trump.  You know it’s funny how we rallied around President Bush after 9 – 11.  We didn’t say “Oh, this happened on the President’s watch” or “Bush ignored numerous warnings he received”.  And when Bush went to war in Iraq the media didn’t play old campaign clips of the President saying “We don’t want to engage in nation building or be the policeman of the world” even though Bush was already planning to go to war with Iraq during the campaign.  Someone pointed out that if it were as hard to get guns as it is for women in the south to get an abortion, there’s be a lot fewer killings in the land.  Personally I’d like both fewer guns sold and fewer abortions performed.  That’s a consistent pro life stance.  Not only won’t the Republicans rally around this President in times of crisis- - they continue to blame virtually everything bad that happens, either in the economy or on the war front against ISIS or else lone wolf terrorist acts on President Obama.  President Obama’s tally on gun conthiscation is still at Zero.  He’s the first socialist president to appoint all Wall Street cronies to cabinet posts.  President Obama will not be on the ballot next November, much to all these republican’s dismay.

Now Stephanie is interviewing a former scientologist.  I guess I’ll listen. Perhaps my writings could be criticized over the years for not being hard enough on Scientology.  I have no problem with the basic philosophy of Dianetics and all but the Church of Scientology is a cult and steeped in cultic structure and recruitment practices and the walling off of new converts.  The whole connection with Hollywood celebrities is a mystery- - and I have a few questions in this area.  I guess is Donald Trump were claiming to be Christ he’d be bragging about his virgin parents and how riches followed him in his youth because look at all the gold he got upon his birth.  Isolated from any pre existant mental notions or “memes” - - religion looks pretty silly because it can’t survive in the sterile vacuum of pure objectivity.  I’ve heard that Cults like to probe you psychologically and find out what your secret Needs and Fears are and exploit these.  Someone has said that most of Trumps supporters are the old style “Reagan Democrats” who actually support Medicare and Social Security.  They are white and married and between 35 and 60 and have secure jobs and hate both the rich and the poor.  They mistrust the Federal Reserve and in this I agree with them.  Of course they hate racial minorities.  Some of them might even be in labor unions yet they will join in the mindless repeating choruses of union busting and “capitalist free market values”.  They buy into the axiom of “government involvement is an a priori evil”.   It's been pointed out that the educational level is rather low like just a High School diploma or maybe less, and these people are profoundly simplistic and anti-intellectual.  They think in rather crude, "fundamental" terms and seem to be seeking an all powerful authority figure.  They hate governmental laws but rather prefer a person who is somehow "bigger than the laws" and can rise up and be a one man hero.

 There was one small but significant victory for pro gun regulation people.  In Highland Park in Illinois the Supreme Court let stand a ruling that said the local entity had the power to pass gun legislation.  This is only true in seven states including New York, California, and Illinois.  In the other 43 the gun lobby got to the state legislatures and they passed a preemption doctrine saying that local and county entities could not “correct” an oversight of the state.  This unhappy state of affairs is also true for pollution regulation.  It’s a power grab that makes state legislatures so dangerous now.

Now the latest fad is to leave bloody, severed heads of pigs outside the doors of local Mosques.  I guess that's not as bad as Pompey in Ancient Rome sacrificing a pig on the Jewish alter.   Now they say that we may be entering a "Crystal Nocht" period.  Now Daniel and Shane on Freespeech are going to donate a dollar every time they employ the Billionair Blowhard's name.  The callers can bring his name up but not the hosts.  There are other items in the news today like President Obama giving a speech on the 150th anniversary of the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution, outlawing slavery in the US or it's territories.  

We are in an era when mental illness has invaded and pervaided our national political dialog.   You have the “Department of Judeo Christian affairs”, which is the latest government department John Kasech wants to institute.  You have the internment of Syrians in camps for national security reason.  Trump wants to exclude ALL Moslems from entering this country no matter the circumstances.  You have Republicans saying we should do major reforms in our Visa program.  And you have the “preemption” doctrine in state legislators where local entities can’t protect themselves with anti gun legislation or anti pollution laws.  All the while Hillary is still beating all these republicans in the polls, except we have the “red shift” phenomenon where even if a Democrat is leading, the Republican comes out victor on election day like for Kentucky governor.  Voter participation is in the low thirties now in many places.  Of course there was the move to institute a national database (registration) of Muslims, and also a move to keep Moslem mosques under constant surveillance.  These are the “greatest hits”.  It was only a couple months ago when even Judy balked at Donald Trump’s more extreme statements.  But now that Trump is around thirty percent in the polls, you don’t know.  Trump is directly attacked by less extreme Republicans such as Governor Christie or Jeb Bush.  But the opinions of candidates that are less than five percent in the polls probably won’t be listened to.   Back in the sixteen hundreds in Europe it was against the law to be anything but Protestant or perhaps anything but Catholic.  Japan kicked out all the Christians because Catholic and Protestent missionaries were fighting amongst themselves and the Japanese leaders said “Screw the whole thing!”

Today is the 35^th anniversary of John Lennon’s death at the age of forty.  It’s kind of a key demarcation line between the era of hope, and the “Ronald Reagan” era we have been in the past 35 years.  Milenials (under 35)  know nothing of the existence of any other era.  Every now and then you think “the pendulum can’t swing any further to the right”.  We all thought that in 2006 the Bushies were toast- - when democrats election.  But alas we were wrong.

I'm in general agreement with Washington's Blog who believes that Saudi Arabia is the greatest national sponsor of terrorism.  Shawn Hannity is right in saying that Saudi Arabia has repressive laws and hates women.  Yet Shawn and President Obama and former President George Bush all climb into bed with the Saudis.  The latest rumor of Washington's blog is that the United States wants "Moderate Jihadists" government installed in Syria.  I'm heard hints of this before.  I don't see why if it's true that President Obama doesn't repudiate this philosophy of having yet another extension of Saudi Arabian rule in a nation.  

It Takes A Major Terrorist Attack To Really Make's Trump's Day!

Donald Trump brags because “Every time there is a major shooting disasters, my poll numbers go up”.  He exploits the fear with demogogary.  44% of the Republicans now believe President Obama is  Muslim.  You see Donald Trump’s political base right there.  We are less than two months from the Iowa caucus and the hard numbers begin rolling in.  Michael Steel is on now.  Right now in the polls Ted Cruz has moved to 17% in second place. Actually a poll they just flashed on the screen showed Cruz at 23% right behind Trump. Trump has fallen to 25% now.  Jeb Bush is a weak fifth at 6% or something near Christie.  Carson is 18% and Rubio is 13% right now in the latest data.  The Koch Brothers are against the export-import bank and FOX has made it a political issue to fire up their voters with an issue nobody even knew of or cared about six months ago.   The export-import bank is a system of loans for foreigners who want to buy American products.  The Koch’s don’t qualify for that and therefore don’t benefit and since “It’s all about them” they don’t want anybody to succeed.  British Petroleum is British so somehow they get help.  They don’t want to encourage buyers of American products or employ more Americans.  Barbra Boxer is a solid Hillary Clinton backer.  She isn’t worried about Goldman Sach’s backing of Hillary.  Rick Santorum wants guns in free clinics - - and is OK with guns in bars because he says “Not everybody who walks into a bar goes there to get drunk”.   Ted Cruz was asked about contraceptives and I remember Ted Cruz said “The last time I checked we don’t have a rubber shortage in America”.    Cruz is surging in the polls now.

 Thom Hartman has been talking about asset forfeitures to law enforcement.  It’s a growing phenomenon over the past twenty years.  I just watched most of the December 2^nd “Ring of Fire”.  Hillary Clinton is owned by Goldman Sachs, as is Obama and are most of the people that get appointed to the Federal Reserve.  Then there was more stuff on how Donald Trump is a creation of FOX news.  Before that I watched a thing on global warming, and another thing on police planting evidence - - either guns or drugs - - on Black people in New Orleans.  So it’s a gloomy world out there.  Now Hartman is talking about how Seid Baruch’s wife from Pakistan radicalized him.  “Don’t get a mail order bride or you might get an ISIS person”.   John Fugelsang was saying that the object of a person’s addiction will become his greatest affliction.  So people need to think of that before and not after they get addicted to anything.  We wouldn’t sell Iraq chlorine to disinfect their contaminated water from the Euphrates, so President Clinton is responsible for a dissentary outbreak in the ‘nineties.

I watched the Mc Laughlin group and the absurd line of the day was John Mc Laughlin’s asking the group “Why does President Obama put off his own failure by politicizing this terrorist event by making it a question about firearms regulation”.   I cannot conceive of a stupider question to ask.  The President wants people on the No Fly List to not be able to purchase firearms, but the Republicans in congress are just as insistent they should be able to.  Then there was a debate on Russia verses Turkey and Pat believes firmly that the jet downing incident is entirely Russia’s fault and I am inclined to agree.  The Russian bomber was only in Turkish air space for seventeen seconds!  

[newly added paragraph]  John Lennon did “My Life - - Take It” which is kind of an early adaptation of “Starting Over” and actually a better tune- - don’t on acoustic guitar.   They are doing the American version of Rubber Soul, which apparently came out today fifty years ago.   Doesn’t that make you feel old!  Brian Ferry did “You Won’t See Me” which was my 2^nd choice.  Someone guessed “David Berne” of the Talking Heads.  I thought maybe it was Ozzy Osborne.  They’re playing the Rubber Soul album the way God intended it, the American version and in mono.  You trivia buffs they played “It’s only love” at the very beginning of my Sophomore year at Savanna, but I never heard “I’ve Just Seen a Face” till the album came out.  I went out and Joe had KLOS on and then I went for two glasses of lemonade from Rico and then came back here.  OK this is a bit later and now they’re making up and playing the Yesterday and Today selections.  OK this is later and my vote for the second quiz was Crissy Hind, and of course I was wrong because it was Bette Middler.  We heard 1965 Christmas record out-takes and we learned that they interrupted “Think For Yourself” in order to record it.  We’re just a fountain of knowledge today.

 They claim that Graham Nash left the Hollies on this date in 1968.  I doubt it was that late because their last two hits were in the summer of 1967 and Maraquesh Express - - was out by March of 1969.  Neil Young had joined the group by the time of Woodstock that August.  And by October 1969 when “Suite Judy Blue Eyes” became a hit Paul got the record used from a friend, so the album had already been out for a while.  On this date Beggars Banquet, the Stones’ “White Album” came out.  Melinda Lee will not be on today at ten because they’re having a new car show from nine to eleven.  The show was always kind of a waste anyhow- drowning in commercials - and trying to cram “nothing” into half the time may be difficult.  I decided to skip the President’s address.  However the Republican lady’s 8:06 address I heard.  She wants to restrict Visas from friendly country.  But yesterday the Republicans in congress voted not to restrict gun sales to those on the “No Fly List”, which right there proves the Republicans aren’t a bit serious about trying to stop terrorist attacks here.  

 I didn’t go for the snack  break because I wanted to hear Rhapsody in Black from the beginning at two.  I was actually expecting they’d be in December of 1955 but maybe it was a lucky guess. They kicked it off with “They Call Me Speedo” by the Cadillac’s, and then there was Eddie, My Love, and “Tooty Fruity” of course, “When You Dance”, and “Jingle – jangle” by the Penguins, a Christmas song.  I also heard “The Great Pretender”, “Smokey Joe’s Café” and “Night Owl”.  All of these are on the KRTH hit parade of the ‘seventies.  Of the songs I hadn’t heard before there were some surprises.  There was an obscure Platters song.  One of the many versions of “I Hear You Knocking- but you can’t come in”,  “White Port & Lemon Juice” the old Mothers of Invention song, “Witchcraft” that Elvis did, “Seventh Son” that Johnny Rivers did,  and there were several Bo Didley style songs.  The first of these was the best in my opinion.   There was a bit of a fading (pink noise) problem, I usually don’t have with that station.

I went to the Christmas Party at four and sat down across from Luan but the crowd was still restless and they hadn’t brought the group to order so I slipped out and had another cigarette.  When I returned five minutes later Patty let me see the schedule of events for the evening.  Eating appeared to be early on the schedule.  But first they wanted us to see the annual video, which this year wasn’t quite as ponderous as last year- - it was just under thirty minutes starting at twenty to five.  They began serving dinner during the video.  We got big glasses of red punch and the main plate was scraps of turkey, a piece of ham, a dinner roll,  interesting mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and a fancy salad.  This salad had Romaine lettuce and raisons and grapes and walnuts and other things to make it interesting.  They moved me from across Luan because people were schedule to arrive so I sat between Wally and Lisa at the head of the table, and was lucky enough to get Lisa’s salad.  But before this Mike sang some songs on guitar- - and Wally remarked on how loud but tinny the sound was - - the guitar had its own system – and the vocal singing came from a different place in the room than the guitar.  The video was of poor quality for quite a number of reasons.  They didn’t dim the room that much, the pictures themselves were “dark” like you forgot to turn on the lights.  The image was fuzzy and I don’t think it was my eyes- - and though shots had people- - they weren’t close up enough to get a good look at the faces.  The only high quality aspect of the thing was the booming background music- - and there were the usual guimicky visual effects- - which were negated by poor overall picture quality.  We got a giant macademia cookie for dessert.  We didn’t get the usual pies but we did get a cup of coffee.  I left as the resident choir was being assembled to sing carols.  I had forgotten about the Polynesia dancers and singers to perform later and I largely missed that.  All the while I was laboring under the illusion that Stanford and USC would be on television. 

Mental Illness and Guns

Once again the gun lobby is saying "This isn't the time to have a debate on gun control".  The probblem is these gun shooting incidents are becoming more frequent and more violent so that NO time is EVER the time to discuss it.  So we should pick a date right now like say Valentine's Day next year, to have a debate on guns and that date can't be moved.  We have a mass shooting problem in this country such as doesn't exist in other civilized countries.  There are mentally ill people in other countries and arguments break out over "work place" grudges, but it doesn't escalate into gun violence because firearms for the common man just aren't that available.  Apparently yesterday's shooting in San Bernardino took place because of an argument that took place during a Christmas party and one person left and came back with a gun.  The three shooters made their escape in a black SUV and later this SUV was located and there was a shoot out and two of the three gun shooters were dead.  A man and a woman were dead and the other is in police custody.  We still don't know whether these are lone wolves or they are connected with ISIS or Al Qaeda.  The FBI or whatever says "We can't say at this time whether this is a terrorist act or not".  I think we can fairly confidently say "This is a terrorist act".  The next time someone begins spouting off about their second amendment rights we should ask them "Oh, what rank are you- - in your state's National Guard".  The 2nd amendment was placed in the constitution to protect "slave patrols" that states like Virginia had to track down runaway slaves".  It also says something about "the security of a free state".  So the second amendment was place there to insure ORDER in the "State" and not to over-throw it.  Here's a bunch of other stuff from yesterday, when things still weren't entirely clear.

This is Wednesday December 2, 2015 and I finally have a full fledged cold.  I have a runny nose and my cough is well entrenched.  I just hope it doesn’t keep me up at night.  There has been a new shooting right here in San Bernardino.  Unfortunately information about it has trickled out as slowly as a person with a prostate condition.  I heard about it on the Shawn Hannity show when he latched on to it as a news topic.  I went to the TV watching first KTLA and then turning to KNBC.  It’s no secret that they weren’t going to have Days of our Lives today.  First there is three shooters dressed in black for combat.  Then maybe there is just one shooter.  First the shooter is still in the building threatening people so the police have to get all the workers in this three story building out.  Apparently the shooting began in a conference room where they were preparing to have a Christmas party.  The building is shared by government workers and children with autism and other disabilities.  But then they say he or they left in a black SUV.  Did one shooter leave and two are still there?  Why aren’t they catching him or them.  How did he or they get away from the dragnet?   Now they’ve found the black SUV and the police unloaded all their weaponry on that SUV and at least one person is dead from that.  Fourteen victims are dead and another fourteen victims are injured.  At first they announced only three had died.  Will the death count rise higher?  I went out at two for two cups of iced tea from Dora.  My cough was driving me crazy at this point.  There were people waiting to leave for Wall Mart at twelve thirty and others waiting to leave at two thirty for Sarah to take them.  Normally the trips are closer together than that.  I have Norman Goldman on now and for the past hour and his show is highlighted by sarcasm.  Well, dinner is coming up real soon.

Lee Atwater and Certain Republican Buzz-words

American consumers have spent record amounts on buying Christmas gifts and stuff over this long weekend starting on Thanksgiving and ending on Cyber Monday.  This is the first year more sales was garnered from shopping on line as opposed to going to brick and mortar stores as opposed to on line shopping.  But there are blogs that state that “This is the last year of massive Christmas spending”.  Even though sales records were set, it may be the last time.  Because unlike in a healthy economy- - increased retail activity is not due to increased incomes and more spendable cash.  But instead this spree is being done on credit.  And this is because (according to the authors) “interest rates are so low now that people can go into debt and don’t fear the consequences”.  This could be true with some aspects of the economy having a “capital shortfall” but I doubt you could say this about retail sales with the public.  The last time I checked, credit cards weren’t that cheap.  But there is the “Crash of 2016 Lobby” out there that keeps up the saber rattling of “This is the last hurrah” and dark and murky economic times are ahead.  In that case we’d better elect Bernie Sanders so he can move in and straighten out the mess.  

At MSNBC you can’t, if you’re a commentator, talk about media mergers or net neutrality or the Trans Pacific Partnership, or union activity in general.  Before Ronald Reagan’s time there were hundreds and thousands of independent media outlets and now there are only five or six.  The “Free Press” isn’t free any more.  Congress hasn’t passed laws against Freedom of the Press, but the dictatorship of the bourshwah has laid down the law.  It isn’t the “Dictatorship of the proletariat” as Karl Marx talked about but the dictatorship of these last few media outlets that are in an almost constant process of merging into one.

You can pretty much tell if it’s a Republican or Democrat speaking because Republicans use phrases like “envoking racism against whites” or “being politically divisive” or “dividing America into factions” or that old chestnut “class warfare”, or “political correctness” or “rewarding or encouraging failure”.   Lee Atwater had his own list of catch phrases you used now to indicate what side of the political fence you were on.  Only Republicans use “Democrat” when the proper word is “Democratic”.  This started with Senator Joe Mc Carthy in the ‘fifties, and Goldwater mentioned it in his book.  To listen to Republicans talk, Democrats just can’t wait to bring about sheria law and democrats have a secret love of jihadist Muslims.  This of course is absurd, as though the democrats would actually elect someone with a “secret Islamic agenda” like these Republicans insist Obama has- - even at this late date.

Donald Trump is so insistent that there were people in Patterson and Jersey City who cheered when they saw the twin towers come down that I’m starting to believe it.  There was talk about “tail gate parties on the roof” but unless you’re Mitt Romney how do you get cars on the roof?   We don’t know if this cheering by some Moslems took place.  I bet it’s not thousands or even hundreds.  Maybe there were as many as thirty or forty - - somewhere.  Even if it happened it doesn’t represent the attitude of the vast majority of Moslems either here or around the world, who are generally horrified by the actions of 9 – 11.  There is no TV footage of any Moslems cheering that the media archivists are able to come up with.  Both sides in this dispute are just as insistant that it either did or didn’t happen.  I don’t know who’s right.  But we do have good documentation of cheering and praise on the Christian right when an abortion doctor gets murdered or an abortion clinic is bombed, but Trump won’t talk about that.  Yesterday we hear that 86 minutes of that Burger King video in Chicago got erased by police who “looked at the video” for over an hour and when they were done 86 minutes of footage were missing- - related to the Chicago police shooting of the guy on PCP.   Yet somehow there is a video of the cops looking at the video.  (?)   The Chicago police call it a “technical glitch”.  They’d been caught lying multiple times as it is in this case.  It’s also come out that the audio of the dash cam videos has been scrubbed and all you hear is a hum now.  So you don’t know what sort of conversations were occurring among the officers or to the victim.  No reason to believe this just isn’t another lie told by the police.  Does Trump believe ALL videos of those Moslems somehow got erased?

There is a controversy concerning the Green Climate fund.  There was a World Global Warming conference in 2009 (?) but the conference almost didn’t happen because poor nations didn’t have the funding to promote non carbon burning energy and those conservation measures.  But Sec of State Hillary Clinton stepped in to propose this fund for poor nations to help them conform to the terms of the treaty.  But now the senate Republicans are withholding this fund till the treaty is constitutionally ratified by the Senate.  The Republicans work first and foremost on a program of sabotage- - - just as they sabotage the Presidents “Red line in the sand” speech by not backing the President up in 2013 with appropriate resolutions and legislation.  These Republicans are still hell bent on denying the President any “legacy”.

There is a book coming out alleging that Senator Marco Rubio has had an unspecified number of affairs with women.  And it was mused whether affairs matter any more.  In France the current leader was photographed in a newspaper front page of standing there at the grave of his predecessor with his wife on one hand and his mistress at the other.  David Vitter was cheered by his fellow male republicans in the Senate for admitting he had affairs with prostitutes.  In Europe they don’t care and it used to be that in this country we pretend it doesn’t happen.  But during the Monica Luinsky controversy- - almost of the Republicans starting with Gingrich who were prosecuting the President on impeachment charges - - were all having affairs and most of these affairs when they were found out those politicians lost their jobs.  In 1988 the American people rejected Gary Harte for having an affair with Donna Rice aboard the Monkey Business.  But today’s Republicans are a strange lot because at much as they harrang about morality and “family values” too many of these people have less than stellar moral records.