Can We Trust Facts and Figures?

There is a saying that figures don’t lie but liars figure.  The question is however is how much we can trust the prophecies of the Bible.  I mean the real prophecies; the ones that haven’t happened yet.  Yeah, that makes all the difference, doesn’t it- whether or not the event already happened when the prophecy was made.  Sir Isaac Newton got caught in one interperation of Bible prophecy.  Through reading the Bible he became convinced that the law of gravity would be repealed in the year 2061.  That date is a lot closer than it used to be.  There are a lot of people living now who will still be alive then.  But first let’s get into the prophecy of Daniel – and I mention Daniel because a lot of the Jesus prophecy centers on the timing of the coming of the Messiah.  Chuck Smith taught that you start timing the count-down clock from the year 445 BC and count using 360 day years (God told Chuck to use the Babylonian calendar) and you come to the exact date of April 5^th of 32 AD.  According to Chuck Smith and others there was an eclipse of the full moon the night after Jesus was crucified and this is one of the “signs and wonders” spoken of in the second chapter of Acts attributed to the OT prophet Joel about “The moon will turn to blood and I will pour out my spirit on all flesh”.   I guess I wonder whether the Holy Spirit was poured out on “all” flesh.  These days manifestations of the Holy Spirit have about been legislated out of existance by the pastoral community.  Of course I don’t believe the key portions of Daniel were written anywhere near that early.  Rather than 520 BC or whenever Chuck thinks it as written I believe a date of 170 B C is much more suitable.  This was the period of the Jewish Macabees where Jewish patriotism was in flour and people had messianic expectations.  Even so it was some two hundred years from then to 32 AD.  This is the point where “the sixty-nine weeks” expire and the “countdown clock” is put on hold.  In fact ALL prophecy has been put on hold.  This is another reason why Christians want “the final week” to start ticking off again and they’re raptured and the 70^th week can begin and the final seven years will be the Great Tribulation commences and Israel finally “discovers Jesus” as their savior.  The regathering of the nation of Israel is the one prophecy that HAS been fulfilled in the last two thousand years, and it's a big one. Of course the Three Wise Men from the "east" (Persia) were said to be astrologers, and there are a bunch of detailed calculations they made predicting the timing of the birth of Jesus.  A lot of them centered around the constelation of Leo.  Among other things these people like Chuck believe Jesus was born in one BC and not four or six BC.  They need that date to make their other dates work.  

We now come to the present day and mankind has a definite problem.  We’re greatly limited on how fast space ships can travel due to the constricting laws of physics as well as the bounds of human endurance of G forces.  The fuel costs along of accelerating to the speed of light alone would be prohibitive.  And it would be necessary to greatly exceed the speed of light if we were even going to travel to the neighboring stars (like the bright star Sirius for jinstance) in any kind of a reasonable time frame.  And keep in mind that at that speed radio transmissions from space would take every bit as long to reach earth.  It would be ten years before a radio transmission would get through and that would be one-way without a response, which would be another ten years.  Clearly mankind has a problem.  The only salvation would be that some Higher Power, it could be a space alien civilization or possibly what you’d call an “angelic being” or something needs to look down on us inhabitents of planet earth with pity and try and help us out by giving us the needed technology.   Unfortunately I believe repealing the law of gravity “just like that” is still an intrinsic impossability because of the way our space and our matter is “formatted” with the Higgs bozon and all the other bozons.  The only solution as I see it is to reformat space itself.  What this would do is limit the mass and gravity of an object to the objects within the reformatted space field.  The only “gravitational field” would the tiny one generated by the space ship itself.  In terms of light you would have your own light that would conform to the formatting of your little space segment.   If you had a fleet of ships they would all be within the space segment so you would see them.  They would not be cloaked except to the outside world.  You could do radio transmissions within your little space segment. But we still have another problem as readers of former postings of mine have already anticipated.   Like I say space would be “reformatted” so that it no longer related to either the space or the light or the gravity of this space we know.  But the problem is how do we transmit the needed power for rocket thrust from THAT “engineered space” to the space we are all familiar with.  Since the ship is traveling THROUGH our space and it basically isn’t the space it occupies- - - - there would be none of the acceleration problems that would arise were the craft traveling through it’s OWN space.  Hypothetically it could travel through it’s own space if you could generate a field that big.  This would genuinely be a craft “lost in its own space”.   By the way - - - like the problem with HDDVD  and Blue Ray disks, you have the battle of the formatting.  Each person who genetically engineers his own space (that’s a bad term) would have his own formula algorithm for generating his own space so that each “space” would be an island unto itself.  You would be cloaked from us on planet earth but they would also be cloaked to EACH OTHER so that you could play some gigantic game of hide and seek out there.  I don’t know how Sir Isaac Newton gleaned the date 2061 from reading the Bible but I believe there are web sites on the subject.  At that point since we were effectively reduced to weightlessness in THIS universe or “space” then space craft speeds could be greatly accelerated. 

Everywhere It's Christmas

Merry Christmas  This is after breakfast and I was going to spend a big portion of today’s blog post in describing yesterday’s Christmas gathering at Paul’s.  Unfortunately I got sick at lunch felt horrible and my appetite dropped dramatically, so I stayed here and rested up.  This morning I got up at 22 minutes to five and headed down to the dining room for coffee.  It was quiet in there with hardly any people in there.  I remarked to Millie and at some point I said sleeping in was a pretty good idea.  “Then how come we’re here?”  I had two cups of fresh brewed coffee.  Right now Trump is talking about the “Beautiful vase” he hopes to get from Kim Jung Um.  Everywhere it’s Christmas- - at the end of every year” Like the Beatles sing.  It’s one of the few holidays- - Newyear’s is the only other one- - which you can track the celebration all over the world, kind of like NORAD tracking the path of Santa and his  reindeer.  I had a cigarette and then returned in lay down briefly.  I turned on the “Yule Log” thing on KTLA playing Christmas songs imported from KOST 103.5.   I went down at a quarter to six for another cup of coffee.  Phyllis is right about something.  It didn’t rain today.  I was out again at twenty to seven as it was getting light.  Not too many places in America does it start to get light that early, and certainly not in Europe.  The sun was shining in at breakfast time.  They had the Yule Log thing on KTLA in there, too.  Last year we listed “CHRISTMAS 2018’.   This year I haven’t yet heard either “I want a Hyppopotamus for Christmas” or “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer”.   One of these songs is on the ‘CHRISTMAS 2918” compilation. 

I had the Rick Unger show on and they talked about ERIC or the election reorganization information commission trying to reform Wisconsin elections.  They kicked 56,000 off of the voter rolls in what was largely a mistake saying that people had moved and kept their registration in their old residence.  This is strictly legal by the way.   But now they say as many as 200,000 voters may be disqualified in the 2020 elections.  This is because some Heritage “Liberty” group sued to kick the2020 voters off the rolls.  You see ERIC had reinstated these voters saying they had till after 2020 to change their registration.  “Liberty” sued and found a friendly judge to decide in their favor, which I’m told isn’t a hard thing to do in Wisconsin.   As far as the polls are concerned, Yahoo conducted a poll confirming the rise in the number of people who disagree with the impeachment and who also view the president favorably.  But I would remind you of the old saying that “six months is an eternity in politics”.  Let’s hope so.  Because right now you see the same vote rigging in 2020 that was going on in 2016.  The president isn’t even hoping to win the popular vote any more.  He’s just looking for a repeat of the 2016 farce that got him elected three years ago.  Today after reading Tim’s letter I posted that Christianity Today magazine art nicle, hoping people will read it if they haven’t.   Christianity is not a “left wing” magazine. 

Trump and administration officials “worked on” that Democratic house member from New Jersey, who switched from democrat to republican.  Apparently they made him a lot of promises.  I’ll try to refrain from using the words “quid pro quo” but I just did.  I went out to the store and bought two packs of strawberry cigarettes using my debit card.  I have to watch my money now.  John Kip offered me a white cigarette.  Rick Unger is taking callers now.   Here is an interesting rumor.  Joe Biden knows that he is not up to the job for President and won’t last out the four years he is elected for.  Instead he will turn over the reins of power to Camile Harris, who will be snuck in as vice president on the ticket next year and Biden will resign perhaps a few months into his term.  Even if this rumor isn’t true, it makes a lot of sense.  This is said to be the real reason why Harris withdrew from the race, because her position was already set.  

Breakfast with the Beatles featured at least three renditions of “Rudolph” the red nosed reindeer”.   One was the B Side of “Wonderful Christmas Time” that was recorded in 1975 with the delivery man on violin, because Paul asked if he could play.  There were at least three Fab Four Christmas songs.  There was Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer done to the version of “I Saw her Standing There”.   There was Felis Navidad done to the version of “And I Love Her” and there was “Jingle Bells” done in the style of Tomorrow Never Knows.  They also played a version of Hark, the Herald Angels Sing, done to the tune of “Help”.  I listened to the first three Beatles Christmas records.  Joe returned surprisingly about nine thirty in the morning.  He took the train to Riverside and not San Diego, and he thought he had the wrong train.   We had a beef and rice and bell pepper casserole and I had seconds on that.  There were also peas and carrots.  Patty got seconds after I did.  We had red Jell-O for dessert and Patty let me have hers. 

 .  Rhapsody in Black featured Christmas songs.  They were for the most part pretty old ones and not as good as last year’s.  There were too many blues progressions and real “downer” songs.  I went out to the store after checking my bank balance.  I still had enough instant coffee.  I got crumb donuts and strawberry Clippers using my debit card.  I didn’t call anyone but have been besieged with ads the past two days.  We has bed a good patty melt with melted cheese and onions. 

In Case You Didn't Read It

In our founding documents, Billy Graham explains that Christianity Today will help evangelical Christians interpret the news in a manner that reflects their faith. The impeachment of Donald Trump is a significant event in the story of our republic. It requires comment.

The typical CT approach is to stay above the fray and allow Christians with different political convictions to make their arguments in the public square, to encourage all to pursue justice according to their convictions and treat their political opposition as charitably as possible. We want CT to be a place that welcomes Christians from across the political spectrum, and reminds everyone that politics is not the end and purpose of our being. We take pride in the fact, for instance, that politics does not dominate our homepage.

That said, we do feel it necessary from time to time to make our own opinions on political matters clear—always, as Graham encouraged us, doing so with both conviction and love. We love and pray for our president, as we love and pray for leaders (as well as ordinary citizens) on both sides of the political aisle.

Let’s grant this to the president: The Democrats have had it out for him from day one, and therefore nearly everything they do is under a cloud of partisan suspicion. This has led many to suspect not only motives but facts in these recent impeachment hearings. And, no, Mr. Trump did not have a serious opportunity to offer his side of the story in the House hearings on impeachment.

But the facts in this instance are unambiguous: The president of the United States attempted to use his political power to coerce a foreign leader to harass and discredit one of the president’s political opponents. That is not only a violation of the Constitution; more importantly, it is profoundly immoral.

The reason many are not shocked about this is that this president has dumbed down the idea of morality in his administration. He has hired and fired a number of people who are now convicted criminals. He himself has admitted to immoral actions in business and his relationship with women, about which he remains proud. His Twitter feed alone—with its habitual string of mischaracterizations, lies, and slanders—is a near perfect example of a human being who is morally lost and confused.

Trump’s evangelical supporters have pointed to his Supreme Court nominees, his defense of religious liberty, and his stewardship of the economy, among other things, as achievements that justify their support of the president. We believe the impeachment hearings have made it absolutely clear, in a way the Mueller investigation did not, that President Trump has abused his authority for personal gain and betrayed his constitutional oath. The impeachment hearings have illuminated the president’s moral deficiencies for all to see. This damages the institution of the presidency, damages the reputation of our country, and damages both the spirit and the future of our people. None of the president’s positives can balance the moral and political danger we face under a leader of such grossly immoral character.

This concern for the character of our national leader is not new in CT. In 1998, we wrote this:

The President's failure to tell the truth—even when cornered—rips at the fabric of the nation. This is not a private affair. For above all, social intercourse is built on a presumption of trust: trust that the milk your grocer sells you is wholesome and pure; trust that the money you put in your bank can be taken out of the bank; trust that your babysitter, firefighters, clergy, and ambulance drivers will all do their best. And while politicians are notorious for breaking campaign promises, while in office they have a fundamental obligation to uphold our trust in them and to live by the law.

And this:

Unsavory dealings and immoral acts by the President and those close to him have rendered this administration morally unable to lead.

Unfortunately, the words that we applied to Mr. Clinton 20 years ago apply almost perfectly to our current president. Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election—that is a matter of prudential judgment. That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments.

To the many evangelicals who continue to support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember who you are and whom you serve. Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump influences your witness to your Lord and Savior. Consider what an unbelieving world will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump’s immoral words and behavior in the cause of political expediency. If we don’t reverse course now, will anyone take anything we say about justice and righteousness with any seriousness for decades to come? Can we say with a straight face that abortion is a great evil that cannot be tolerated and, with the same straight face, say that the bent and broken character of our nation’s leader doesn’t really matter in the end?

We have reserved judgment on Mr. Trump for years now. Some have criticized us for our reserve. But when it comes to condemning the behavior of another, patient charity must come first. So we have done our best to give evangelical Trump supporters their due, to try to understand their point of view, to see the prudential nature of so many political decisions they have made regarding Mr. Trump. To use an old cliché, it’s time to call a spade a spade, to say that no matter how many hands we win in this political poker game, we are playing with a stacked deck of gross immorality and ethical incompetence. And just when we think it’s time to push all our chips to the center of the table, that’s when the whole game will come crashing down. It will crash down on the reputation of evangelical religion and on the world’s understanding of the gospel. And it will come crashing down on a nation of men and women whose welfare is also our concern.

"We Have No King But Caesar!"

.  In the news Christianity Today, the magazine, came out with an article agreeing that President Trump; should be impeached.  They cite moral failings just like they did with Clinton, and I agree with them on both counts.  However the article got blow-back from right wing groups including Franklin Graham, Billy Graham’s son.  He said “My father would never agree with this article”.  I would suggest that Franklin doesn’t know his father as well as he thinks.  Billy Graham’s services were never political either under Truman or Johnson or any other Democrat.  The trouble is we have this thread-bare theology now.  It’s the theology of which President Trump rather than Jesus Christ is the center of it.  The trouble is the degredation of Christian belief has been so slow and steady but pernicious that people haven’t realized just how far it’s deteriorated.  Certainly I would never have become a Christian in March of 1976 if they preached the sort of “theology” you hear today.  Today it’s all about “loyalty” as President Trump says.  It’s loyalty to the Republican Party which in turn is loyal to only Trump, just as all the republican congressmen are. It’s been said that us the US Senate had a secret vote that twenty republicans would vote impeachment. 

The thought occurred to me the saying “We have no king but Caesar”.   In truth the people have declared the president “Caesar” and are using him to supplant Christianity as we have known it.  The President even said “I am Christian evangelism’s best friend”.   All the president stands for now is hating democrats and hating the poor and extoling the rich and the big polluters and the gun toters and those who still nurture racial prejudice.  Christianity says we are all of one blood, which will not allow for racial prejudice.   I don’t see how you can “live for Jesus” and be pro Trump.   Of course there is all of the sexual morality stuff.  It’s not Christian to disrespect women.  It’s not Christian to be “intemperate”, which Trump definitely is.  I don’t see how being pro pollution is being a Christian.  Conservatives like to say Christianity means you’re pro “earning a profit” and pro big capitalism.   I don’t know where they get “pro gun”.

.When I was a kid in Sunday School one book we learned from was called "The King nobody Wanted" about Jesus Christ.  An important theme of the Church is that Jesus was "The redeemer of Israel" but somewhere "they" rejected him -but I'm not exactly who since everywhere Jesus went he met with a rush of popularity.   At what point might Jesus have claimed his kingship.  I sure haven't found it.   In the song, “The  First Noel” there is the line “Born is the king of Israel”.  People forget that Jesus was crucified for being a “King”.  King of the Jews.  That’s what it said in three languages on the cross.  And yet he didn’t spend much if any of his ministry telling people that he was a king.  This charge only seems to have come about when the Sanhedren needed a charge to pose at Jesus to bring to Pilate to get him crucified.  Pilate asked him if he were a king and Jesus said “If I were a king, my men would fight with swords.  My kingdom is not of this world”.  At this point Pilate wanted to let him go.  But the people kept chanting “We have no king but Caesar” just like in Jesus Christ Superstar” and it was said “If you don’t crucify him, you are not Caesar’s friend”. 

The City of Anaheim is selling Anaheim Stadium to the “Los Angeles” Angels for 335 million, which isn’t enough money.  The 150 or so acres is worth 475 million and it’s hard to say what political deals were made for the city to make such a poor deal.  That's a lot of land and if you haven't checked, land is expensive in California, particularly the prime real estate this is.  It always seems Republicans want to make bad deals and sell off valuable assets.  Trump even want to sell off our National Parks and turn them over to private business, if I'm not mistaken.   

Seven Democrats Debate Last Night

They held the sixth in a series of Democratic debates last evening starting at five on KCET.  I guess they ran for three hours to eight but I dialed away at five to seven.  There were seven candidates.  Among those missing were Camile Harris, who dropped out of the race, and Cory Booker of New Jersey, people of color.  Also missing were Mike Bloomberg and also that Weld guy from Massachusetts.  The others were there including that business guy who wants to be the Trump of the democratic party.  He wants to expose Trump as an economic fraud and like Bloomberg has been the one running all of the ads here.  There were two big conflicts.  One was in Bernie Sanders not getting off the global warming groove despite the topic being changed.  Unlike the others, Sanders stated that it’s worth paying an economic price if in the process we save the planet.  The problem is worse than most of us think.  This morning before six as I was sorting the laundry I was just thinking how few people probably saw the debate because most people in addition to loving Trum hate all things Democrat.  The tone of the debate like all of the others is most likely too liberal for a lot of Americans to even tune in.  I wondered “How do I pray to God for America ?”  St Paul says “We don’t know how to pray as we should”.   And I was thinking “How can I pray a prayer that will make God happy?”   The thought came to me to pray for something hopeful and positive.  You don’t get this with a Trump rally.  All you get is bottled hate of everyone who doesn’t regard gun ownership as sacrosanct and who hates minorities and foreighers and immigrants at the border and big cities in general.  The only solice they find is that their taxes are cut.  But there comes a point where you can’t continue to cut taxes because there’s nothing left to cut.  My guess is the next recession will be a bad one and it’s most likely going to come after the next president is sworn in in 2021,  I found reassurance that all of the candidates on stage favored the recent impeachment of President Trump.   Around my environs a definite majority in my world are avidly pro Trump and anti impeachment.   i liked Joe Biden the best and thought he had a newfound energy tonight that I haven't seen in previous debates.  I plan to vote for Joe Biden.  Sanders talked about a two state solution for the Palestinians in Israel.  I think that's a lost cause.  May I say that both Great Britain and Israel have lowered their standards to the level of President Trump and that is not a good  thing.  I don't think it's a good thing to have a leader who has been criminally charged.  The two state solution is a pipe dream.  How much better wouldn't it be just to afford Palestinians the right of citizens with voting and other land rights and not to exist in some giant apartheid prison camp, which they are now.  As to Guantanamo Bay, I see no reason to close it down personally.  I think it's a handy place to stash prisoners.  There were conflicts on the stage.  Pete Budajudge raised the issue to Warren that he’s the only one on the stage that isn’t a millionaire.  That gains credibility points with me.   Comentators say that Pete Budajudge was the most frequent target of the others.  Actually I saw an amazing amount of concord (agreement) on most issues.  Each one would just add in a specific detail.  If there were closing statements given,  I didn't hear them.  After this I watched Jeopardy and then Wheel of Fortune.  Mickey Mouse brings you - - - .   Wheel of Fortune and Walt Disney are hopelessly in bed together.  Then it was Law and Order Criminal Intent.  I’m afraid I dozed off and at ten to nine Joe suggested I turn the TV off and go to bed. 

You have a contrast of two congressmen on the Trans-Canada-Mexico trade bill.  I  don’t know if the bill is any good or not.  My instinct tells me it’s a bunch of garbage and we’d be better off without it.  These “agreements” always end up biting the United States in the ass.  Yet this bill has bi-partisan support.  Steny Hoyer gave a nice little one minute speech in support of the bill.  Kevin Mc Carthy in contrast took over a minute to rage against the democrats and remind us that we owe this great economy to Donald Trump.  He also said our hand with China was weakened because of democratic delay.  I’ve heard the China trade bill is a really bad one and only reveals what a poor negotiator President Trump is.  China always seems to get the better of us.  The democratic debate is tonight and in the phone call with Paul I mentioned the debate.  I also said that one topic that should be discussed is the income inequity between the rich and the poor and we need to bolster the incomes of the middle and lower income people.  Paul’s response was “Well they don’t contribute to the economy so they don’t desserve any of the money”.  I was taken abak by this remark but it goes along with his other remark a few years back about how worthless the 47% are who don’t pay federal income taxes.  Patty at the lunch table attacked Nancy Pelosi for not immediately turning over the impeachment material to the Senate and Mitch Mc Connell.  This is where 256 or something bi-partisan bills go to die an ignominius death there never to be taken up.  Patty says that Nancy is just being obstinate but adds “the democrats are never cooporative anyhow”.   Maybe Nancy should go ahead and submit the impeachment findings and let’s get the whole nasty thing over with and we can all forget about the whole thing like it never happened.  This seems to me the best the democrats could hope for.  But I would say this.  President Trump hasn’t committed his last offense because he can’t help himself.  He couldn’t help himself with that July 25^th phone call last year and worse things may be in the offing where President Trump embarrases himself.  And for a while longer his base will continue to rationalize that, too.   We can only hope that sooner or later light bulbs would go off in people’s minds. 

I looked up that “Starry Night” program Paul talked about.  I brought it up in our phone conversation earlier this afternoon.  He said it was too massive of a NASA program to fit on a hope computer.  This isn’t true.  All forms of  the program are available on either the MAC or PC.   There is one over two hundred dollars and one for one fifty, and then there is the $79.00 program I think I would get, and then there is a $49.00 program.  They all contain a bunch of stuff.  But I should have mentioned to Paul that math isn’t something that takes up a lot of disc space on computer, even complicated math.   Paul called to invite me for Christmas Eve dinner and we’re having baby back ribs from Lucille’s.   He wants to play two VCR’s that I’ve already seen but I admitted I’d profit from viewing them again.   Hopefully we can steer the conversation clear of politics. 

People say “You’re innocent until proven guilty” and yet if there were one or more witnesses that would clear me of a crime, wouldn’t I want to subpoena them to testify?  Not Trump.   Trump has stonewalled all the way up and down the line and there is no reason to believe Trump will change his mind now.  Senator Mitch Mc Connell once more this morning has bragged about how biased he is.  The shabbier the senate trial, the less credibility they will have in the court of history.  The democrats will also make it a political issue.  They will say the acquittal means nothing because nothing was “tried”.  (Selah)

Today's Is a Fruitless Endeavor

Right now the impeachment  hearings are still going on.  I have been watching it since about twelve thirty and it’s approaching three now.  Some say the whole thing is a waste of time and will rob the democrats of their credibility in next year’s elections.  It doesn’t matter what I  believe, it’s what “The powers that be” alias God, WANTS us to believe that counts.  He is the Lord of this world.   I believe it was Rick Unger that expressed surprise that the charge has been leveled that the democrats will suffer if they go forth with impeachment.   But clearly it’s all over the media.  Even on the Today show on NBC this morning.  It isn’t just on FOX news.   In fact the BBC news last night stateddthis as a fact that the democrats will suffer in the elections next year.  As such I’m wondering the wisdom of even have a final vote at all.  What if we short circuit the whole process by having all the speeches but then just not having the final vote.  To quote from Judas as the Last Supper in Jesus Christ Superstar, “What if I just stay here and ruin your ambition.  Christ, you deserve it”.  We alluded to this phenominum before of the Trump Crucified idium.  This is how Trump will exercise power by playing the martyr and victim.  I am troubled by statements that Patty says about the president of Ukraine never complaining that he was pressured into a quid pro quo.   But it’s kind of like a rape victim who denies outright that she was raped and yet a close friend noticed her examining her genitals and she missed work and people seem to think she’s undergone some form of trauma.  The speeches went back and forth pro and con and there was such a dizzying number of them after a while you almost nod off.  If we don’t turn the case over to the Senate they can’t have their little farse of a non trial and there will be no acquittal.  That’s what I seek to do.  I seek to deny President Trump an acquittal that he will forever brag about.   I don’t like the media saying the impeachment of overshadowing the primary races next year.  Hopefully the impeachment stuff will be over and done with by then.  But Trump has undeniably risen in the polls.  Now from being nine or ten points down to all his democratic rivals, the latest USA Today poll says that Trump is LEADING all of his democratic opponents by three points.  We also have heard impeachment approval has dropped and is now back down below fifty percent.  We also are reminded that now Trump is outright leading in those key states of Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan.  This didn’t use to be even a month ago.  I find it obserd the line that it’s the impeachment charges that are causing the division in this country.  Trump is the leader of all divisive people.  He thrives on division  like no other president.  It is his bread and butter.   He’s celebrating the house vote with a campaign rally tonight.  But then again, this president seems constantly in campaign mode.  

This morning I had on Gary and Shannon at ten.  I was waiting for housekeeping to come and clean the room.  There seemed to be a whole conclave of people outside in the hall speaking in Spanish including Augustine and Sarah.  She opened the door and I went in to look at my teeth because they felt dirty.  I looked at food particles on my teeth but I had no time to brush my teeth because the housekeeper came in.  I left and had a smoke and then went into the lobby.  Sarah greeted me and informed me that I had a dental appointment, a root canal in ten or fifteen minutes.  I expressed discomfort at this and Natale who was by the phone asked me if I wanted to reschedule and I said yes.  Brian had been informed of the appointment yesterday and he didn’t tell me.  I talked with the receptionist and was told the government had improved the root canal, but said nothing about the crown on the chipped tooth.  Soon it was lunch time.  I talked with Patty who informed me that there was a resident’s council meeting today at noon, but that never happened.  It turned out after lunch I went into the front room where the meeting was slated to take place and it was the eye doctor.  I told him that he had said I needed more elaborate equipment to properly examine my eyes.  I sat down but later he asked me if I was expecting to see him today and said “I think you better come back in February or March when I’m here.   I said Hi to Dr Messina, who was also here today.  I wouldn’t have minded seeing him today but I didn’t.   For lunch we had chicken parmazon and bow tie pasta and a spinach leaf salad with dressing.   We had chocolate chip ice cream for dessert that we all ate first because it was delivered so far in advance.   Days of our Lives wasn’t on.  Who else will we find mysteriously died in the past year? 

.   Rick Unger announced the government report that tht deficit is over two hundred billion dollars higher this year, and it’s because of the two hundred billion plus shortfall because of the cut in corporate taxes.  The technical rate was 35 percent but the effective rate the average corporation paid was 21%.   Rick Unger says it should be an honest 21%.  Now with the Trump tax cuts the effect rate corporations pay is 11%, which is the lowest since they’ve been keeping records on this.  The extra money goes not for new equipment and reinvestment but rather to buy back their own stock and jack up stock prices making common shares more expensive.  But with my trust fun partially based on stocks, I profit myself.  The democrats need to make this a campaign issue next year.  But people are lazy when it comes to economics and they don’t think things through. 

Thom Hartman continued to talk about global warming throughout the morning.  The problem is it’s so bad now with signs of getting much worse that nobody even wants to think about it, including me a lot of the time.   We’d like to continue to live our lives as if nothing was wrong, or else blame China for the whole thing.  It was a wait for lunch.  We had Swedish meatballs and gravy and mashed potatoes and gravy.   We had apple crisp for dessert, which was decidedly better than usual.   I was thinking of doing a post under my own name which goes “We need to hold a prayer meeting for the Lord to get rid of President Trump.  As the song goes, “God only knows; God makes his plans.  The information is unavailable to the mortal man”.   I had the Gary and Shannon show on including “Swamp Watch”.  I was fighting drowsiness some of the time.  I did have one coffee for lunch but you wouldn’t know it.  

Some Things To Keep In Mind

Rick Unger today and Thom Hartman this morning say the democratic party needs to get back to it’s roots, it’s past.  We all need to be reminded of what the Democratic Party has done for us all these many years such as union power and social security.  People are well off now and they think it happened by accident.  All they know is now they have money so they’re going to vote republican to lower their tax rates.  But Rick Unger says that it’s the democratic worker that has been forgotten, those people in the rust belt that voted for President Trump last time.  They set themselves up to be lied to and Trump was willing to accomidate.   Let’s blame the foreigners and the minorities for all our problems.  It’s feeding the hate.  We’ve spent too much time catering to the gays in transsexuals in my opinion.  We obsess over illegal aliens when supposedly they can’t even vote anyhow so won’t do us any good.  I think we need to talk about voter suppression and getting rid of gerrymandering in the next election.  And we need to safe-guard the Planet because climate change is going to do us all in otherwise.  I may hate to give up plastic straws but there are things we have to do for the cause, and that might even be switching to plant based Whoppers.   We need to be driven by a sense of urgency on things like gun control and also the tobacco lobby, which admittedly I don’t talk that much about.  We don’t want all our young people getting ill from vaping.   Mike Bloomberg is a good candidate in many ways but we can’t forget about police relations with the locals in primarily Black neighborhood.  Police and the residents have to stop viewing each other as “the enemy”.  (Selah)

I just had C-Span on and Chuck Schumer spoke for fifteen or so minutes on meeting with Senator Mc Connell bout making the trial fair.   We want it speedy and public, but we don’t want evidence shoved under the rug.  Chuck has stated that he’s talked to Republican Senators who contrary to what the media is telling us, are genuinely on the fence about whether or not to vote guilty.  They believe the president has done something wrong but they need more hard evidence to put them over the top and vote for removal.  Chuck Schumer proposes to do just that in calling four new witnesses that did not testify at the House hearings.  One of them is John Boulton.  He specifically has stated that he has new evidence to present.   Giuliani is not one of the four witnesses and in this I disagree with Chuck.  I believe give all the chickens a chance to cackle.  

Some might say that I need to “get out of myself” more.  Even a couple of paragraphs back in this file, I lapsed into a recitation of all my problems.  I’ve spent too much time on this “God “ stuff.  The problem is when I switched to space travel my ratings went down to nothing.  I thought the last two postings were good ones.   Some may say “Get out to more movies”.  Of course there are always recreational things like bowling and miniature golf or amusement parks or water slides, though this isn’t the weather for that.  I don’t have the physical stamina to roller skate any more.  I wouldn’t trust myself out on the rink.  What I need is a girlfriend.  Maybe I would meet a girl in line if I went to the movies.  That might be the best thing about going.  I think most movies are pretty wasted anyhow.  That’s the impression the media gives.  I think I could meet a woman at some democratic rally or one of these protests groups.  She could take care of the Planet while I pursued my scientific theories or else performed as keyboardist for a famous rock band to earn my money.  I need to get off of SSI.  I know that.  Also my physical health needs attention.  I wish I could get back on Formula IV and the Carrotenoids like I was in 1998.  Back then I was a lot healthier and more relatives were alive and I was more sexually active.  I managed to get control of my alcoholism for a while.  Usually when someone uses the phrase “The things that make for happiness” they’re talking about Jesus.  Not either the historical or the Biblical Jesus but the alltogether pithy Jesus of Neil Savedra and the Born Again crowd, as hopelessly infested as it is with Trump disciples. That didn’t work for me.  Of course my greatest happiness would be achieved with the defeat of President Trump. 

I think I had a three pack of lemon cookies.  Brother Bart was there for the Bible study.  I went out and had another cigarette and then returned.  Today Bart read us four shorter stories.  One was about an immigrant walking down the railroad track because he thought buying a train ticket only entitled him to walk the tracks.  Another was about a woodpecker who was struck by lightning and the tree he was pecking on was struck and it exposed all the juicy worms.  The other was about this kid who’s sliding off a roof and he prays to God to deliver him and then his pants catch on a nail and he says, “Never mind, Lord, a nail caught me”.   There was a story about a new meaning for  “upper crust”.  We sang four Christmas carols and I was trying to “lead” the group trying for a faster tempo, unsuccessfully.  But Brother Bart was going to tell one more story, a Christmas story, but I left.  Our “prayer warrior” wasn’t there.  It was past ten after three already and I turned on Eye Witness news and the ABC network news and then went out for a cigarette.   We had a BLT turkey sandwich on a Subway bun and potato salad, something we don’t have enough of.  We had amberosia for dessert.  Then I went out to the store and got a bear claw and strawberry cigarettes.  

If you want to read a good blog about approaching God, stay tuned for the next one down.  As you can see, a whole year has gone by.