Trump Has Two Issues to Worry About

I continue to be amazed that people like Thom Hartman think there is going to come a magic moment when the tide will turn against President Trump and “somehow we’ll know” that it’s time for Nancy Pelosi to start impeachment hearings.  But Hartman says we dare not begin an inquiry one minute before this magic moment happens.   And yet there is this one analyst with his “thirteen keys” to winning the presidency who says that UNLESS we get the impeachment ball rolling that Trump will be reelected.  It’s kind of a chicken and egg problem and nobody wants to budge.  According to this “thirteen keys” guy, the status quo can only help Trump.  I find this conclusion discouraging but perhaps true.  Two things in my book will dislodge that this guy hasn’t counted on.  One is the terriffs.   We have this new five percent terriff on products from Mexico and that’s everything from crops to parts for cars.  We consumers will pay five percent more for it all and that figure will gradually rise till it reaches 25%.  Trump is kind of adal headed when it comes to reasoning.  He believes that if you slap a terriff on Mexican goods, this will somehow get Mexico to stop the flow of immigrants from Guatemala.  The other issue is of course the abortion issue.  Now things have gotten really bad for the pro choice people.  In Missouri they are on the verge of closing down the last abortion clinic in the state.  But just today a court stay of execution kept this clinic open.  Now Louisiana has joined the ranks of states with a virtual ban on abortions.  These measures are passed in these mainly “heartland” states by large margins.  The districts are gerrymandered and Republicans have big majorities in these states even though the party affiliation of the people may be equally divided.  Of course the Supreme Court rules on these cases just as the supreme court with Kavanaugh and Gorsuch will end up passing qualifications on Roe vs Wade itself.  From the way the court ruled in Indiana where you have to have a funeral for the dead fetus or something- - - it looks from here as though the High Court stands an excellent chance on overturning Roe vs Wade.  If that happens the people, who don’t want an abortion ban, will turn against President Trump and vote him out of office.  Don’t underestimate the women’s vote.  Women could be the difference in this election.  Even if a particular woman wouldn’t get an abortion herself it’s a right she fiercely defends for others.

Trump referred to impeachment as a dirty, rotten, sticking thing.  He seemed genuinely inverse to undergoing it.  President Trump remarked, “Of course I won’t be impeached because the Supreme Court would never allow it”.  Others have remarked of Trump’s overall state of ignorance. The Democrats don’t seem that much closer to impeachment now despite the fact that Muller’s report probably informed a lot of FOX viewers that offences were committed by the President.  Stephanie was reading from some report that said there were at least 29 meetings between the Russians and people from the Trump campaign and they were closely coordinating which bombshells to drop to create what effect for the Trump campaign.  Yesterday said “I had nothing to do with the Russians helping me in the 2016 campaign”.  An hour and a half he deleted this tweet.   Then there is the incident with the battleship S S John Mc Cain in Japan the other day.  If Trump didn’t order the name covered up then someone at the White House staff did, and in many ways that’s even worse.  Trump said “I knew they were acting on my behalf”.   According to Thom Hartman the government agencies in charge of tracking climate change and global warming have been instructed not to forecast out beyond 2040 because that’s when the figures get really bad.  Hartman described it as a quilt on your bed that doesn’t get “too hot” the minute you put it on the bed but your body heat has to warm it up and the earth then says “I’m really hot now”.  I didn’t know that Monsanto was bought out by Bayer.  That kind of means Monsanto is out of business and the new people could discontinue all of their genetic engineering programs.   Their products get into our bodies and kill off beneficial stomach bacteria and interfere with digestion.  Some states like Colorado want to legalize magic mushrooms and Peyote.   Today is the first day of Galaxy’s Edge, the fourteen acre addition of Disneyland based on that Star Wars planet.  Not to be a downer or anything but do you think the Star Wars bubble could burst?   It won’t be today or tomorrow but what if the economy does south a year from now?  All of the stuff at Disney-land is so overpriced.   Right now it’s after ten.  I haven’t heard from Bill in weeks and he’s been gone almost a month.  He could well be back here unannounced at any time.  I hope he finds everything in order. 

Muller Speech Spurs Congress a Little More

Stephanie Miller indicated this morning that Muller would not be testifying before congress.  Special Prosecutor Muller came on the TV himself to tell us the same thing.  He said if he spoke before congress he would say nothing beyond the written report.  Who does he think he is- Neil Savedra?  The whole thing was a big nothing burger and lasted only eight minutes, minus the media commentary.  Muller said that he would have issued an indictment but he didn’t feel he had the authority to do so.  I disagree.  He said that if his intent was to clear Trump of all charges he would have stated that.  At nine Hartman had trouble with his phones connecting with Congressman Pocan.  At ten there was this Kennedy Assassination guy who co wrote two books with Hartman, “The Ultimate Sacrifice” and “A Legacy of Secrecy”.   Now he’s dragging Att Gen Barr into it.  Bar was there during the congressional hearings on the subject in 1975 and 1976.  As you know Johnny Roselli and others were “silenced permanently” during this time.  The rather strange scenario is something I won’t go into.  Of course Barr was Mister Cover-up when it came to the Iran-Contra case in the late ‘eighties and early ‘nineties.   No wonder Trump loves him.  Alex Travec has had a partial remission of his cancer and the tomers have shrunk to have their size.  Meanwhile Alexa now allows you to delete your commands to her.   I don’t understand how all of these devices can be bugged and transmit your words to whoever.  The Orion Federation has come down with a pro abortion stance on all these legal cases we’ve been hearing about.  The Federation has always been for legal abortions. 

Here is the political break-down.  Joe Biden they claim has a short shelf life because he’s “running a general election campaign” where he’s getting the easy votes by just going after Trump and “people will tire of that”.   Also he’s still in trouble with the “Me too” movement that will impact the female vote.  He leaned over, close to a ten year old girl and whispered to her that she was cute.  Meanwhile Kirston Gildebran has the opposite problem having trouble with men because she’s glad Al Franken is no longer in the Senate.  People like me are partial to Al Franken.  Bernie Sanders is running his 2016 platform over again and Elizabeth Warren is gaining on him because she had proposed a lot of new and specific ideas.  Camille Harris is holding her own. Personally I would still feel funny for voting for that gay mayor of Gary, Indiana.   In the European Union election they say that in France and Italy the right wing is a lot more active.  The center is shrinking and this will be adverse for building a concencus.  I guess the green party has made strides. 

Stephaie Miller and Thom Hartman were both reruns this morning.  Thom Hartman had that rerun of “what if the government completely broke down” episode and I watched that clear through eleven again to the phone call.  I was fighting drowsiness or I’d have typed this earlier.  Stephanie pointed out that Julian Assange’s arrest turned out to be not that good of a thing for the United States.  We still don’t have his extradition to face the numerous charges here.  So it kind of makes Trump look better because as you know Trump loves wikki-leaks.   This would have been an opportunity to associate Trump with a criminal enterprise.   Of course at the time of the broadcast the full Muller report had not been released even in redacted form.  Hence Trump thinks he got off Scott free noit having to face any charges as consequences for his many acts.  And from a political standpoint it would have been a lot better if Muller himself had lodged charges.  But another thought occurred to me that democrats need to be quaking in their boots about.  As you know the US Senate is still in Republican hands.  This means that if any democratic supreme court justices die in the next year and a half they can be replaced with all deliberate speed.  Senator Mc Connell will forgot what he said about Merit Garland and the lengthly delay we faced then.  Even if it’s only a few months till the election you know darned well that they are going to ramrod a justice through the Senate and be confirmed.   Hence even if a democrat is elected in 2020 he may well be facing an adverse 6 to 3 majority.

This morning I watched Friday’s episode of “Days of our Lives”.  Other than Stephan and Gabriel having sex the other bombshell of the episode was that Nicole is really Christine Di Mira come back from the dead.  She somehow met up with Zander and the two of them hatched an elaborate plan of deception that took a lot of planning out and everything had to go perfectly, and of course it did.  First you have Nicole alias Christine’s desire to hitch up with Brady for the millionth time and get all of his money.  The acting of Nicole was superb and no one suspected.  Next was Zander’s desire to be CEO of Titan and that plan was made possible because people thinking Nicole was alive, would mean that the crime of the murder of Damos was still hanging over her head.  Hence there was all of that stuff with the tape.  Then was thrown in the bit about the divorce, and here the two role played among themselves.  There seemed to be no reason for this except to fool the audience.  Finally you have the element of Holly being thrown in.  She had to be taken out of the picture or else she woud know it wasn’t Nicole but Christine.  And her death made it possible for Nicole to blame Eric for her death.  And playing into her hands was the fact that Eric’s record verses Brady fit in perfectly with her desires.   If that scan would be worked on us all you wonder what other scams could be worked on us. 

The El Dorado Nature Walk

.  Stephanie pointed out that Julian Assange’s arrest turned out to be not that good of a thing for the United States.  We still don’t have his extradition to face the numerous charges here.  So it kind of makes Trump look better because as you know Trump loves wikki-leaks.   This would have been an opportunity to associate Trump with a criminal enterprise.   Of course at the time of the broadcast the full Muller report had not been released even in redacted form.  Hence Trump thinks he got off Scott free noit having to face any charges as consequences for his many acts.  And from a political standpoint it would have been a lot better if Muller himself had lodged charges.  But another thought occurred to me that democrats need to be quaking in their boots about.  As you know the US Senate is still in Republican hands.  This means that if any democratic supreme court justices die in the next year and a half they can be replaced with all deliberate speed.  Senator Mc Connell will forgot what he said about Merit Garland and the lengthly delay we faced then.  Even if it’s only a few months till the election you know darned well that they are going to ramrod a justice through the Senate and be confirmed.   Hence even if a democrat is elected in 2020 he may well be facing an adverse 6 to 3 majority.

Tim and Paul showed up just about nine thirty.  They just missed my going out to smoke at a quarter after nine.  Paul didn’t have any of those supplies with him so we didn’t stay in the room long.  El Dorado Park wasn’t that far down Cerritos at all.  We paid our six dollar parking fee and then crossed the street and drove around in the main part of the park.  We saw people with their dogs and also squirrels and gophers and people flying giant model planes.  There is a street that goes under a bridge under Wardlow so we can see the northern part of the park.  It was probably after ten when we came to the visitor’s center.  We used the restroom and looked at all of the mouse bones they had.  Owls catch a lot of mice.  We had our maps ready.  There were a lot of people on the trail but most of them passed us up because Paul wanted to savor every moment capturing the essence of it all and pointing out shrubs and flowers.  It was a one mile trail that we went on at my suggestion.  There was a quarter mile trail and also a two mile trail if we wanted that.  They said to turn off cell phones and capture just the sounds of nature but that had to compete with all the traffic from the San Gabriel freeway and other noises.  There were a lot of switchbacks in the first two thirds of the trail.  They had markers and at marker six out of fourteen I suggested that maybe we go back not realizing how far we’d come.  But we kept on.  There were a lot of little pre school kids on the trail with their mothers and grandparents.  There was one little kid named Charlie.  Paul took movies but one of his clips didn’t turn out.  I was amazed at how old I looked.  “That old guy was talking to Paul”.   The trail itself was rather organic in that it had leaves on it and stuff, and unobtrusive, so you hardly knew you were on a trail because a couple places the trail faded out entirely and you didn’t know which way to go.  There were tortises and lizzards and other things, some I didn’t see.  The weather was perfect.  It was a sunny day but we were in the shade and it wasn’t too hot.  We finished up at a few minutes to twelve.  We were on the trail over an hour.  We went to the Sizzler Tim had looked up.  We had to go through some sort of maze to get to where you order.  They had benches to sit down on on the trail but toward the end I didn’t avail myself.  I had a tri-tip steak that actually looked pretty big.  It was the first actual steak I’d had in literally years.  I had French fries with it and tried their cheesy bread.  I also got a really big “dinner salad” I didn’t finish, with thousand island dressing.  Tim and Paul liked the salad bar.  We managed to talk about politics a little.  I brought up the topic with Tim starting with the terrifs issue and we talked about impeachment.  I had a small cheese cake cup and also had the last few spoons of an ice cream, chocolate sauce and peanut thing of Paul’s.  We got back here in no time at all and it was only about twenty after one but I told you Paul gave me the choice of getting those things today.  He also mis-heard me say that I wanted to get back here to smoke a cigarette.  We’ve already written the rest of this.  .  We pulled into the driveway here a little before one thirty and then Paul says “We can still get those things over at our house”.   So Tim and I and Paul went over to Paul’s house and we went inside and Judy was in the back someplace.  The bird was chirping loudly.  Paul gave me two pairs of dark blue socks and two pairs of light blue socks and I split the six pairs of white socks with Tim.  I gave him three pairs.  Paul gave me a belt I thought at first was way too small but it turned out it was just my hanging belly that made it appear so.  Paul also gave me four batters, two AA and two AAA and I haven’t put them in yet.   I never saw Judy face to face.  Tim took me home and we talked a little more about politics.  It was after two.  After this I talked to various people out back, either Phyllis, Millie or later Dorthey, about my trip. 

I had a dream I was (or became) trapped in this religious cult filled with nuts who send out crank letters and spread gossip.  This was before the internet.  Some of them were familiar with Chuck Smith.  They met in this building at Broadway and Magnolia but it was kind of “in the parking lot” and in front of where Staters used to be.  One time I thought a guy was chasing me.  I ran east on Broadway toward the frematic tract and crossed over to the other side and slowed down at the corner of Monument and Broadway.  Strangely the guy was right over my shoulder.  How did he get that close.  The frematic tract had been turned into a giant shopping center.  It was really all one giant interior store with street signs.  But they didn’t have “Level” because they had bulldozed that and turned it into a trailer park.  There was also a steep gradient downward to Lincoln and lots of stairs to walk down.  In another part of this dream I was back at the Bosc house and Clay and other housemates were getting ready to listen to Chuck Smith on the radio on a Sunday night.  It was dark outside.  This was near the end of the dream and I hoped this meant the dream was over but still it lingered and was hard to shake.  I began singing a song loudly about “Ships go down to the sea” in a tune I didn’t know.  I was glad to wake up.  

There is a new argument for taxing the rich above $130,000 for the 6.2% FICA tax on Social Security.  All these many years we as workers haven’t gotten our fair share as far as wages are concerned.  Wages have gone down and wealth for our employers has gone up.  The argument is now that we are retiring, shouldn’t these now unduly rich task masters pay something back and give us now what they denied us during our working years.  This is at least allow us to be paid based on a wage we should have been getting all along.