"Boots on the Ground" Now Favored by American People

Contrary to what we have come to believe, the Pope doesn't have any more say over the Catholic Church than Obama has over our own government and congress.  Because Pope Francis was forced by right wingers in the church to "back down" from a statement Francis made yesterday saying that gays can be looked on in a constructive way as an important component to contribute their own unique gifts to the church" or some such thing.  But now we are informed that "Those words were from a trial document in progress not ready for prime time" or some such balderdash.  Of course the Church defines itself by the statements it makes on subjects.  It also defines itself by the statements it retracts.

DON'T BE FOOLED concerning the markets now.  The news media prompted by right wing finance manipulators (and I don't often use that word) are trying to STAMPEDE you into selling your stocks right now.  DON'T DO IT!  The next few weeks will be an excellent BUYING OPPERTUNITY in the financial markets.  People like the Koch Brothers are dumping stocks right now to drive the market down for POLITICAL PURPOSES to make the public think the democrats have screwed up the economy just BEFORE the election, thinking after the Republicans win next month- - that the turnaround in the market AFTER ELECTION DAY will vindicate their words and dire forecasts- - which they will say have been averted because the people "voted the right way" by electing Republicans on election day.  Don't be a dope and fall for their schemes.  Also vote YES on propositions 45, 46, and 47 and No on 48.   The lie index on props 45 and 46 particularly are setting new records for the pinochio awards!  Just remember this.  Voting yes on 45 will LOWER your health insurance rates, and this is what the No on 45 people are trying to PREVENT from happening.  Don't fall for it.  Be smart.  Get the dopes out of the medical profession, and hopefully get the dopes out of talk radio, too!

I will agree with Sean Hannity that President Obama should institute a ban on Americans traveling to Liberia, Sierra Leonne, and Guinea.   And also ban travel from those countries to the United States.   Aside from the now heightened seriousness of this Ebola outbreak, it’s the only politically expedient thing to do.  The CDC can merely state that “We have now reassessed the situation and concluded that it’s a substantially more serious situation than we had previously believed”.   Sixty percent of democrats want such a travel ban, including many democratic congressmen.   Sixty-eight of the general population favor a travel ban to and from these three African nations,  and 76% of Republicans favor a travel ban to and from these nations.  We now have the second health care worker infected.   This appeared on the news this morning – announced by the hospital just hours ago.  Apparently the nurses aren’t wearing their protective gear properly.  Meanwhile Texas wants to dump their hospital waste products in Louisiana and Louisiana doesn’t want it, obviously.   Of course the credibility of the center for desease control has been in question for weeks, and I am forced to conclude that it is political and sugar coating everything to an alarming and misleading extent- - and withholding the true serious nature of the problem from Americans.    For something a little lighter- - some large panels of the interior of an airliner just kind of popped and broke apart in an explosive manner, but passengers were never in any danger because air pressure was constant, and the outside hull was never breached.

In news which should surprise no one, the American people have shifted from being against "boots on the ground" against ISIS to now favoring "boots on the ground" as long as the ones making the sacrifice aren't people they actually know or care about, much less they themselves.   In short, the American people are very generous with other people's lives.  And it proves the adage of dictators everywhere from Stalin to Hitler, that all you need as justification for a whole new war is a lot of repeated media propaganda.  You know the adage "If you tell a lie often and persistently enough, the people will come to believe it".   So it is with their position reversal of "Boots on the Ground".  This is Tuesday October 14, 2014 and it’s “Beatle moon” day according to what we wrote last January.  I will not post today.  It’s after seven and Jeopardy is on.  On the ABC network news they talked about that nurse and her dog in separate quarantine.  There have been a lot of violent thunderstorms in the south and tornadoes.  There is the first hurricane in the Atlantic, a “G” one, slated to hit Bermuda on Friday in an arcing path.   US bombing raids me be changing the tide on whether Kabani near Turkey is slated to be taken by ISIS or not.  The ISIS black flag on the hill has been removed.  And apparently Jerry Brown doesn’t like Kashkari running ads reminding voters that Brown sued and lost in a teacher’s union case diverting tax payer money that could have been used to help the children.  

 I listened to the Norman Goldman show.  In a continued case of “burn out” Norman mused on whether, three weeks before the election he should abruptly drop politics and take up another topic like basket weaving or flower arranging.    I think it’s only a matter of time before he pulls himself off the air.  He is speaking of “radio talk show fatigue” by the viewers at large.  And since right wingers are the only ones on regular radio, the barb is aimed at the five main conservative hosts.  I looked them up.  They are Savage Nation, Mark LeVin, Sean Hannity. Rush Limbaugh, and Glen Beck.  Savagte, Levin and Beck each have seven million viewers per week.  Hannity has twelve million and Rush Limbaugh has over thirteen million, and not the advertised nine million by liberal hosts.  But I failed to find confirmation of any “fatigue” of listeners but the numbers seem to be “progressively” rising.  It’s just wishful thinking to believe that ditto heads all over America would begin switching off their radios in droves.   Of course you can be anybody with no talent and the right wingers will subsidize you by buying your books, no matter how crappy they are.  “This sort of support system simply does not exist with liberals”.   Liberal rich people in no way mirror the financial support of the Koch Brothers and Rupert Merdock.    But people still want to read any whacko right wing political rag- - and people pass this bogus material around to everybody they meet.

Bill Carol wins the idiot of the day aware for yesterday.  He claims that he bought some airline stock by a fly by night company (pardon the pun) just before 9 – 11 and naturally blames that because the stock crashed from $25.00 to two dollars.  At that point Bill sold the stock.  Years afterward the stock finally “came back” in price, but Bill didn’t own it then.  The minute he said "It's a hot stock tip from a friend" I knew this story would not have a happy ending because the number one law in finance is 'Never buy on the recomendation of a hot tip from a friend".   You could buy major airlines now, because they're raking in the money by being chincy with passengers in so many 'economizing" ways.  But if you like an industry- - to cash in on that "industry" you buy the best or at least most typical stocks IN that industry- - and not some risky start-up venture.  Only Mitt Romney does things like that and he knows how to jimmy the financial regulations in the way the rest of us can only dream about, if that.  Rick Edelman finally got his act together and he says "Don't be spooked by the past".  Of course they are still advertising that gold will be over two thousand dollars by the end of the years, and it’s been around twelve hundred the entire year.  They said that oil is now down to eighty-two dollars a barrel.  This is really bad news for the war and panic mongers, of which over the air talk radio abounds.  But then Bill, in yet another attempt to demonstrate his genious says “I plan to get rich by suing my doctor.  That’s how I’m going to do it”.  Of course proposition 46 hasn’t passed yet.   Maybe this is a dumb remark but why should WE the patients pay, because a rogue doctor screws up?   Why do professions of cops, attorneys or doctors- - rally around a bad apple?   This is the practice that needs to change.  But more to the point- - ANYBODY who has ever been involved in a legal suit- - will tell you it’s a horrible experience they wouldn’t wish on their worst enemy.  There are tons of depositions and court dates and legal wrangling and stipulations.   And economically it doesn’t pan out at all.  It’s usually not worth it, which is why so few people do it.   Bill Carol in even making this remark is saying “Hey everybody look at Me - - I’m a total Asshole!” – and believe me he is. 

I looked tword the liquor store and waited in the front room a little, and also got my medication.  But just like yesterday - - this time when I was back in my room I had some sort of a panic and nausea attack.   OK the chronology is that I got my meds from Federico.  Had it been Christian, I would have asked about how come the Resperidol apparently hasn’t been doubled as promised.  The evening dose still had a quarter tablet for a quarter milligram.  That time last week I asked if the medication had been increased in the past few days and Christian said no it hadn’t.   Apparently it STILL hasn’t been increased and I’d like to talk to Dr Messina about that today.  I went to the store which showed no signs still at a few minutes to seven of opening, so I went to the bakery and got a medium coffee (which is basically “large”) for $1.25.   I took the cup back to my room and after a few sips is when I had the nausea attack.  Yesterday I had the nausea attack - - actually I thought I’d try swallowing some mouthwash to see if that would calm my stomach but it got worse when I was out on the back benches.  I mused perhaps there was rubbing alcohol in the mouthwash or something, or at any rate ingesting it was a bad idea.  But the same thing happened this morning but only with sipping coffee.  I just watched the Today Show and finally came down to the dining room with the still nearly full cup of coffee.  We had corn flakes for breakfast followed by two pancakes, not particularly large ones either, and a sausage link.  Teresa gave me a third pancake so I feel I got enough to eat.  There was also the usual coffee and OJ.   I then paid Richard a quarter for the cigarette I was about to borrow, and a prior one that I had borrowed.   There was moisture in the air and it felt like rain, but now the sun is out.

More Unsettling Bedtime Reading

Here is a "blast" not from the past only, but about the present.  Wake up and smell the coffee!

FDR was viscerally and actively anti-fascist and anti-nazi,

 whereas Obama simply is not.

FDR was anti-aristocracy; Obama is pro-aristocracy.

FDR was pro equal-rights; Obama is actually anti equal-rights.

 That’s the reality, not the rhetoric.

America has changed fundamentally since — and away from — the values that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt represented both in his words, and in his actions (that’s to say, in his actual decisions, his choices, as the U.S. President). Though President Barack Obama isn’t radically different from FDR in his words, he’s almost the opposite of FDR in his real governing values and decisions, his real leadership of the United States.

Unfortunately, most people see politics only by words, and ignore realities. But, in some important respects (his actions, his decisions), Barack Obama is — and I hate to say this — actually closer to FDR’s enemies, Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler, than to FDR. This is true not only regarding the contrast between FDR’s moving America away from enormous wealth-inequality, versus Obama’s moving America toward even higher wealth-inequality than before; it’s yet more starkly exhibited in the international policies of these two post-economic-crash U.S. Presidents, as will be demonstrated here.

So, first, here’s FDR:

Roosevelt believed strongly in equality of rights for all people, even more so than did Winston Churchill, who was a supremacist as regards the alleged special ‘right’ of the British people to rule over the people in India and throughout the remaining colonies of the British Empire. (FDR opposed all empires.) The third member of World War II’s Allied troika of anti-fascists and of anti-nazis, Joseph Stalin, wasn’t merely an imperialist like Churchill was — he didn’t even believe in democracy at all, not even for his own people. In fact, before Hitler invaded Stalin’s USSR in “Operation Barbarossa” on 22 June 1941, Stalin was allied with Hitler. However, Stalin wasn’t a nazi, nor even a fascist at all: he was a communist. He rejected capitalism, he didn’t reject only democracy.

So, let’s first clarify the terms, in order to understand what it means to say that America has changed, from democracy to fascism, and now even to nazism:

Fascism is dictatorship by and for capitalists; i.e., for the owners of corporations, for the controlling stockholders in the biggest firms; that’s to say, for the aristocracy. Mussolini, the first person to establish a fascist government, once defined fascism that way, and approvingly called it also “corporationism.” He believed in privatizing state assets, which he did in 1922-25; see Germa Bel’s “The First Privatization: Selling SOEs,” in the 2011 Cambridge Journal of Economics. (Also here.) Then, Hitler took up privatization; see Bel’s “Against the Mainstream: Nazi Privatization in 1930s Germany,” in the 2010 Economic History Review. Chile’s Pinochet, England’s Thatcher, and America’s Reagan, weren’t the first privatizers: privatization went all the way back to fascism’s very founding. It merely became revived after ‘libertarianism’ (which was actually invented by fascist aristocrats — primarily the DuPonts — in the 1930s) blossomed after WWII, because (their beloved) fascism had developed a bad reputation after losing that global war.

Nazism (with a small n, “nazi”; not the German party, which was “Nazi”) is simply racist fascism (the racist form of fascism). Not all fascists are racists: for examples, Italy’s Mussolini wasn’t a racist, and Spain’s Franco also wasn’t. They weren’t opposed to racism; they simply weren’t concerned about it at all. Just as fascism that’s spelled with a small f is the ideology  instead of being the political party  that started it (in Italy); nazism with a small n is the ideology rather than the political party that started that ideology (in Germany).

There are fascists throughout the world, just as there are nazis throughout the world. And, the particular type of supremacism (or “racism”) that different nazis spout, can differ from country to country; so that, for example, nazis from one country can even go to war against nazis from another country, because they want global supremacy for different groups of people.

Similarly, different nazisms might have different hatreds, different types of bigotries: Germany’s nazis during the 1930s hated Jews the most, whereas Ukraine’s nazis hate Russians the most. And, if, in WWII, Germany’s Hitler and Japan’s Tojo had won control respectively of the West and the East, then a war between those two nazis, Hitler and Tojo, might have resulted, in order to subordinate the one of them to the other of them. Nazi countries can, and sometimes do, go to war against each other.

So: basically, nazism is racist fascism. It’s also — and more precisely — known as supremacist fascism. A good example of a fascist who was not a supremacist is Spain’s Franco.  Another way to think of nazism is as its being extremist fascism; and, in this sense, we today know of ISIS and Al Qaeda as Islamic nazi groups, or as Islamic supremacist-fascist groups. Everyone knows that they are also extremists.  Mussolini’s teacher, Vilfredo Pareto, was called “the Karl Marx of fascism,” and his core message was that the democratic belief that each person has the same rights is false; that there is a natural hierarchy; and that inferiors naturally exist for the benefit of their superiors. This attitude is at its most extreme in nazis, all the way from Hitler to ISIS; it extends to all supremacists.  Whereas peace can exist among democracies, nazisms are always at war; it’s their nature; it is their essence, because they are supremacists. They demand their own supremacy. (In America, some nazis are called “Dominionists.” It’s just a form of supremacism.) That’s why nazis tend to be especially attracted to war: war truly is their natural condition.  Regarding the other two types of dictatorships: Fascisms and communisms aren’t necessarily always at war: for examples, Spain’s Franco was peaceful after winning power, and Cuba’s Castro could have been peaceful if the U.S. hadn’t been constantly trying to overthrow him. There is nothing intrinsically supremacist about either fascism or communism, though both tend toward a certain amount of supremacism, because they both deny equality of rights; but nazism is intrinsically supremacist; nazism is supremacism; supremacism is nazism. By contrast, a mere fascist can be satisfied to be supreme only at home, without extending it abroad to dominate the entire world.

Nazism is the most dangerous ideology that exists. It is the most extreme denial of equality of rights. It is the most extreme denial of democracy. It doesn’t just say that aristocrats are superior; it says that everyone else should be their slaves, or else dead. It is the most extreme embodiment of Pareto’s view.

I would at this time like to introduce a new term to you.  You've heard of electrical induction, or magnetic induction, terms in physics.  President Obama is a racism inductor.  That is he actually INDUCES people twords racism and BRINGS BY HIS OWN ACTIONS negative (and racist) media press on the topic of race or "playing the race card" as the media has come to put it.  It's like "pin pricks" enough to rile up the Enemy but not NEARLY ENOUGH to demonstrate he has ANY notion of actually tackeling the problem.  I'll cite examples.  In the instance about police "behaving stupidly" this was a FACTUAL and if any thing MILD criticism of what those officers did to harrass a man trying to get into his own home.  He then complicates the matter by proposing a "Beer Summit" a term guaranteed to spawn riticule.  In the case of Trayvon Martin - - not ONCE did he attack the farcical procedings of the court trial itself, as an insult to jurisprudence, and attackable on so many legal grounds you'd go blind trying to read them all.  The trial was a racist SHOW CIRCUS and the media played it as such - - as a vehicle for- - herolding the new truth that yes, Whites DO have the right to gun down Blacks in cold blood.  That trial did to civil rights what Oliver North did to the idea of following the law congress laid down.  Then we have the Ferguson shooting of Brown, where Eric Holder SAID he was going to investigate but we've heard NOTHING and my guess NOTHING is about what we can expect.   Thom Hartman had this Black man on his program this morning talking about a disabled man who had a malfunctioning security alarm do to a mistake the installers of the system had made.  The police ruffed this guy up in his own house, or just outside, and would have done more except a White woman stepped in to his defense, and the cops backed off after this woman had vouched for his character.  But here's the kicker.  Had it been a BLACK woman who had intervened on his behalf, not only would the man have been arrested but the woman who stepped in to help would ALSO have been arrested for "interfering with law enforcement".  You know this.  The President is indeed pro aristocracy and pro priveleged.  And frankly, his economics are more fascist than anything else if you look at the President's record of promoting Fed welfare to the rich, or the President's utter reluctance to get involved in ANY worker or labor dispute, where his sway would have gone a long way twords influencing the outcome of many events in states ruled by Republican governors.

I had Bill Carol on and today he was calling proposition 47 the “Make life easy for criminals” proposition.  Bill Carol went on to list these reduced penalty crimes and I have just reviewed the list myself on-line.  Bill Carol claimed violent crimes were included and then adds “because these crimes have victims”.   Obviously Bill is conflating violent crimes with victimless crimes.  Nobody said the list was identical.  He says the money saving is bogus “because we all know that with even twenty percent of the inmate population removed- - that State prisons will still be filled to capacity”.   I’m just wondering in passing what it says sociologically that the crime rate is down and yet our state prisons have never been fuller, so much that the national courts feel the need to intervene.  Nobody is saying that is someone burgles your house and takes out your sound system that you shouldn’t be mad and want justice.  But I guess the question is whether it should be 25 years to live for a non violent domestic burglary.  Bill never made it clear how he feels about all these drug user convictions and whether being warehoused away is the best thing for them.   Conservatives love that term “accountability for one’s action” but it doesn’t apply to Bristol Paylen and her out of wedlock pregnancy or Newt Gringinch and his two controversial divorces, or the two time felon wanna be mayor of Providence.   It doesn’t apply to so much as one big time Wall Street crook or big time politicians such as Governor Christie.  It doesn’t apply to corporate polluters who lie to the public.   At some point- - at the end of Rush – and having had enough K-K-KFI I just went outside and began trolling for cigarettes.  I didn’t find any.  It is now approaching twenty to three and I’ve had three already, which is not as good as many days recently- - but would be considered damn good almost any other day outside the past three weeks or so.   One time I saw Bill this morning and headed the other way because I didn’t want to be tempted by even the offer of a cigarette.   Capish?

We the American people have never voted personally on Federal Court Justices.  These have always been appointed by the President directly and approved by the senate.  I didn’t know ALL Federal Justices were appointed from the top down.  Now this guy from Ashville, NC - - Antony Cogburn (?) has ruled that “equal rights for gay marriage is settled law”.   Now there are gay marriages going on in Nevada and Alaska.   So I guess Idaho by now must see the writing on the wall since they have been “stayed” for the moment but are also in that left leaning Ninth Circuit Court.   Predictably, the idea of that nurse contracting Ebola from that Duncan patient who died last week in Dallas, has gotten flack from the right wingers.  There “was a breech in medical protocol”, which sounds about as euphemistically generic as a “wardrobe malfunction”   [drum riff sound effect]

In terms of my own predictive ability, clearly my longstanding prediction - - well, from January of this year (which seems like an eternity) about a rapture or at least some sort of “game changer” of an event, seems to have failed.  Everybody in the past several thousand years who has ever predicted any supernatural intervention on Planet Earth, has come up empty so by no means am I the first.  I did get a blog off this morning.  I plan to look more at Proposition 47 which I heard Law Enforcement was all for.  And a lot of newspapers are for the measure.  But even Paul has voted down anti crime measures supported by Law Enforcement, if they cost any money.  Franklin Roosevelt used to mock at Republicans saying “They claim that they are for all the same things we are including a Social Security plan.  But they can do it better and more efficiently, and the best thing aqbout their plan is - that it won’t cost anybody anything!”   That’s a good knee slapper. 

Federal Deficet Sharply Down in Past Year- Again

The Federal Deficet has come down drastically in recent years and now stands at 485 Billion or something.  I bookmarked the site and now can't find it.  But the deficet to GNP ratio is also continuing to rise- - or elongate.  So the percent of the economy spent in dealing with the deficet has continued to shrink.  If you combine this with lower unemployment than we've had in six years, and also that most people consider the Affordable Care Act a success now, with more younger people enroling than expected- - things should be looking good for the President this November, assuming he was on the ballot, which of course he is not.  Oil prices are down and domestic energy production of all types is up - - and gasoline prices have come way down at the pump.  This will have the effect of money in people's pockets to spend on the economy to get it going.  How the Republicans are going to gin up Hysteria necessary for them to still win seems- - nebulus- - because their problem now is the social issues.  It used to be democrats were afraid of mentioning social issues- - but now the shoe is on the other foot and the Republicans decline discussion of social issues like kryptonite.  They know it's the devisive wedge in their party that will undo them.   People like Huckibee are threatening to split the party on this issues and this is only good news for democrats.  Under the best possible scenario for Republicans, they'd got another two years and then it's curtains for them.  They are through, not only for 2016 but probably for all time.  Think about that one to uplift yourself.

Today is Columbus Day where we celebrate the founding by this continent by the Rapist in Chief, Christopher Columbus,who like Bob Dylan has sex and thinks it's a religious experiance so he calls it Born Again Christianity, or something.  He brags about how cheap thirteen year old slave girls are the way Mitt Romney brags about those Chinese workers locked in a building with suicide nets and fences all around to prevent these mainly female laborers from escaping.  To hear anyone DARE to say Columbus in the same sentence as "spreading christianity" is enough to make me up-chuck!  What the white people spread was a lot of VD and maybe we preached Christ to them- right before completely wiping out their population.  In response to these glaring facts anybody can look up, cities like Seattle have as an alternative come up with indiginous people's day.  And need I remind you that the German term of "homeland" has a rather racist tinge, because WHITE people are NOT the "indiginous peoples of North America and hence have no right to call this land our "Homeland".  The term was coined by the Nazis, who got it from the Zionists- - - who, even though genetically (one issue the KKK is actually right about) today's Jews have NO genetic connection to the peoples of the Bible in ancient times- - hence the idea again of a "homeland" that isn't.  And like we in America their goal is to disposess the peoples to whom the land actually belongs.  In Germany they would say things like "If there is so much as one German living in a country, we have the right to take over that country so that those Germans "have a home".  We see the same thing going on in Ukraine where Putin says "so long as there are ANY Russians living in another country then WE have the right to take THAT country over.  Capish?  When I was in school we never celebrated Columbus Day as a holiday.  Let's go back to those times.

A bunch of us were outside and Joe was joking about space aliens taking over the government, and Nancy Bell said there was some program on at 11:30 tonight on this very topic.  And I chimed in (foolishly) saying "Sometimes I think President Obama is a space alien because nothing "gets to him".  He's impervious to criticism or racist remarks or discontent from his political base and enemies alike, and I was thinking you'd almost have to have ice water in your veins not to let all of the pressures of the office "get to you".   Then Nancy Bell says, "What are you talking about.  This President whines about everything and he's always blaming the Republicans in congress for not getting the things done he wants to do".   Needless to say I thought this comment was completely nutty.  So I ask her "Name me one program that the president wanted implemented that he somehow falsely blamed congress for not doing".  Of course she couldn't cite a single example to support her broad brush stroke remark.   Also I said to Nancy "Well- - President Obama is in limbo about this new war on ISIS because congress hasn't authorized anything, and the constitution expressly states that war authorizations are only allowed to extend for two years, and must originate in the House.  But I thought 'Just another victim of FOX news obviously" because people may know NOTHING about the FACTS of anything but state their FOX "talking points" with bold confidence.

I'm strongly for proposition 46 and hope you are too.  The people opposed to it are an odd collection of - - insurance companies, physicians who want to take drugs, women's abortion clinics - - and the ACLU, which is in part understandable, but keep in mind they're also against alcohol check points on the highway.  Perhaps the biggest benefit of Proposition 46 is that it will effectively put an end to "doctor shopping" to find a pushover physician to prescribe oxy-conton or some other illicit drug.  This is why you need a drug data base, and also, I imagine, to prevent other inadvertant drug interraction accidents. They debated and examined this proposition on News Conference on KNBC this morning.  It was pointed out - - a question the "No" people couldn't answer of "If $250,000 was fine for the Insurance Companies in the late seventies, why not just adjust for inflation and restore the value of that figure to today's dollars.  Because with a payment cap so low on damages- - poor people can't find an attorney who will take a case for that small of an ammount.

 I watched “News conference” on KNBC and their topic for the whole half hour was Proposition 46.   Proposition 46 is the most urgent proposition to come along in a long time.  In my posting I’ll splice in the E mail dissertation right here.  But let’s just say it was a man arguing for the proposition because he lost two kids from a stoned physician in a car wreck or something and couldn’t sue for losses.  (?)  They have capped the “pain and suffering” portion of your mal practice suit to $250,000.   The lady seemed completely apathetic to the notion that poor people are now effectively barred legally from being able to sue their doctor no matter how blatant the offense.  Libertarians say they stand for “personal rights” like the slogan on “Hatriot Radio”.   Yet they are very weak on eminent domain abuses- - of rich people “Jewing them out of their property” or else giving up their constitution-ally guaranteed right to access to the trial court system and a jury trial.  I fail to see how a libertarian could be for George Bush’s TARP giveaway to the big financial institutions, or the massive oil and energy subsedies.  Yet we hear that “All of the major newspapers have come out against Proposition 46”.  I guess this says a lot about the political interests that control them.

I heard very few Beatle songs today on “Breakfast with the Beatles”.  They were either bantering back and forth with their live audience or had one of two guests on, both ex members of Wings.  They had Lawerence Jubar on who played “Drive My Car” in one of his famous acoustic guitar renditions.  Then it was Denny Lane.  They played that demo version of “Rock Show”, which Denny was keen on listening to.  This is the stripped down version - - with the long three minute trailer at the end- - that concludes with the line “I’ve got tickets”.   But often I was just out of the room wandering around the building.  I got two cups of coffee in the courtyard at the break.  And of course I had football on some.   Interestingly I saw Joe a lot and at no time did he have his radio on playing KLOS and certainly not in the dining room.  We had spinach soup with an open faced roast beef sandwich, with more spinach and mashed potatoes and gravy.  We had grapes and other mixed fruit for dessert.  I had Leo Le Port on.  He’s becoming a broken record saying how most people don’t “need” an actual computer.  My mind works in strange ways.  It’s like FOX news telling Americans “You don’t NEED to read the US constitution.  We’ll send you a mailing containing a page of our top fifteen talking points”.

Dr Levy did not come yesterday, either in the morning or in the afternoon.  Last time You will remember he’d not only said “I’m looking forward to hearing your progress on quitting smoking next week” but I also remember hearing him saying “I’ll bring something for us to snack on next week when I come”.   So Lisha and Joe were debating “Does Dr Levy actually make PROMISES of things?”   Countless times he has offered up strong inferences of future intent - - which in retrospect come off as social miscues.   I am pretty sure my five and a half cigarette consumption of yesterday was a reflection of my disappointment in not getting some sort of encouraging “pep talk” from Dr Levy.  If I really wanted to get delusional I’d be hoping he had a pack of nicotine gum with him.  Now they are expanding Indian gambling casinos to non reservation lands with Proposition 48.  If so this is a clear case of Voting No by me.

Those Filthy Rich Politicians

Tonight’s Mc Laughlin group could be called “All those filthy rich politicians.  In the senate in the top ten richest senators you have your Senator Corker of Tennessee, and John Mc Cain, and Dianne Feinstein of California.  In the house Daryl Eisa is your richest house member, in the hundreds of millions of dollars.  I heard he was a convicted felon just like Rick Scott of Florida.  And there is this former Republican mayor of Providence, who has been to prison twice, once for assault, and once for racketeering- and the man is in his seventies and wants another chance from the voters.  He claims he’s “learned from his mistakes”.   But also on the House side you have Nancy Pelosi, who had some shady banking deal that she would squash all talk of with reporters, so average voters like me got to see a darker side to her we didn’t know existed.  Pat points out that these congressmen pull a salary of $200,000 which would be living high on the hog for most people, and is approaching four times the median household income.  We won’t even mention the expense account these people have.  Mort Zuckerman has bragged how rich he is, on the Mc Laughlin panel.  Mort is still saying that we need to revamp our tax structure because we aren’t giving away ENOUGH to the ultra rich, and in like manner are letting the poor off “too easy” so to speak.  He also stated that rich people are troubled by the “rising deficets and liberal monetary policies’ of our government.  Of course this economic genious knows that deficets have been falling- - DRASTICALLY recently.  And the whole bit with the so called “stimulus of the Fed” is a major crock, as Washington’s blog has gone into much detail on.  It’s welfare for the banks and a way to literally suck capital out of the rest of the economy into the hands of rich money horders.  My plan would be to pull the plug on all of this welfare for the banks instantly.  Some would say “It would collapse the bond market and cause total chaos”.  No it wouldn’t.  Stock gains are based on percentage gain OVER the inflation rate and this would not change.  And even if we had bonds that paid ten percent, this would only pose a MAXIMUM downside risk of a mere nine percent.  Contrast this with a possible 36% drop in stock prices- - four times the amount, in a major bear market, which won’t happen anyway.  But what it WOULD do is help people with retirement accounts- - - those with some “safe” investment instruments.  Wouldn’t you like to have a “Safe” bond that yielded ten percent year in and year out?  You’d have it with my plan.  But what it would do would be to bring an immediate end to this legalized larceny we’ve been seeing from the rich Wall Street financiers.

One feature of modern politics, if I may use that euphemism, is that voter surpression is a key factor in any republican platform.  And they are up front about it too.  They openly admit that is the GOAL of what they do.  Nobody ever passes a voter ID bill and then goes “Thank God our elections are safe now from the massive voter fraud we were experiencing”.  No, no.  It’s just another check-off mark on their main agenda.  So when a Texas judge calls them on it and specifically accuses the Texas legislators of doing just that- - taking steps to deprive minorities of their civil rights- - it had to have caught Texas republicans off guard.  Now Texas will bote a little more, shall we say “purple” then they were anticipating.  In North Carolina the situation is blatant and provable.  Because in 2008 North Carolina was well on the road to becoming a blue state with instituted electoral reforms.  But in 2011 they passed a bunch of repressive laws and in 2012 North Carolina was much more red and republican, and there has been a juggernaut of right wing measures passed in that state lately.  But apparently, according to Norman Goldman, there was another court ruling favorable to democrats and this one voided voter suppression laws Scott Walker got passed.  Meanwhile in Kentucky- - a democratic candidate is in hot water merely because she couldn’t bring herself to state that she voted for President Obama in 2012.  Certainly there are people in Kentucky who could excuse her for not liking Mormon, Mitt Romney.  Many democrats have said “If we could just get single women to come out in droves to vote next month- - we could not only keep the Senate democratic, but also flip the house democratic”.  That’s the most optimistic proclamation I’ve heard in weeks.

Rand Paul was the other topic on the Mc Laughlin group.  It used to be that the tea party set was more libertarian.  But that isn't the politics "the establishment" wants them to have.  We need to run on the "All Fear All the Time" platform.  So you've got these Latinos coming from the border smuggling pot with knees the size of cantalopes or something- - or else it's ISIS accidentally leaving their prayer rugs on the Texas side of the Rio Grand, or maybe it's children from Guatamala with Ebola or something.  And these people can still gin up a lot of fear talking about "The month long baroge of rockets the residents of Israel suffered- - ignoring the 19,000 Palestinians that lost their lives in a very confined geographical area with nowhere to run - - like shooting fish in a bowl.  A favorite slogan of mine about the Republicans is "We have nothing to Offer but Fear Itself".  And it gets truer every day.  I doubt these same conservative organizations would vote for Rand Paul so forthrightly if such a poll were conducted today.  And Rand Paul knows this and has adjusted his stance on interventionist policies in foreign wars accordingly.  The war lobby is a major plank is the republican platform.  But the overriding thing about the republicans - - above their hatred of women, gays, minorities, the elderly,  students, the disabled - - and that is their transcendent hatred of the Poor.  The Republican party and platform of 2016 will truly be The Platform of the One Percent.  (Selah)

  I had Leo Le Port on and he states that “sound bars” are good for disapproving spouces who hate a lot of wires strung around the house because there aren’t a lot of speaker connections.  I think sound bars are Wi Fi in many cases, anyhow.  Leo was talking about flash drives with “zero access time”.  Who do they think they are- - the Federation?   The advantage of these solid state drives was immediately apparent to me when I first heard about them four or five years ago.  Unfortunately- - I still don’t have the vaguest idea when I’ll be getting a new computer and here it is four or five years later.  Leo says that I phones were the undisputed leaders in phones till 2011 or just about the time that Steve Jobs died.  But since then- - Leo has had high praise for other systems, though he says that I Phones still have the best cameras “which is a key thing for what people buy phones for now”.

 I was looking up early references to Barock Obama because I was just curious how far back the references went.  Google found scads of them and there were plenty in the year 2007.  I picked late July 2007 to look at more closely.  I remarked that Sylvia Brown’s prediction of lots of weather action during hurricane season would prove false.  I also said that one of the major candidates for President would drop out in a strange manner, or possibly because they were assassinated.  I also predicted that there would be “some international incident” in October causing the stock market jitters.  But it was also the line in there I had looked for for years predicting that “A recession will start at the turn of the year 2008 (just after the Holidays) which “The housing crisis would kick it off”.  This was pretty dead on accurate, truthfully.  I also noted that many of my observations about the media and the lack of “hard news” were prevalent even then.  So I was smarter than I thought I was.

[Friday night] - - - and then “Bones” and some kid was talking about “sexing up” his girlfriend.  As to that Black girl going out with the Black guy- - Booth was playing the part of the possessive parent, and I don’t know where he gets off the way he was hasseling the boyfriend with all of these barbed remarks.  If it were me in his shoes I’d say something like ‘You know- forget it.  It’s just a movie.  Come back sometime after you get a new set of parents.”  It was one of those things where even if you do nothing wrong you’ll be accused of something anyhow so why bother?  The second episode of “Bones” was about this luau stile pig in a pit which was lifted out because of some strange popping sounds- - and there were body parts in the pit.  Apparently this was not any tropical island but just a very close nit cul-di-sac type “housing association” group.

Perils from Many Directions

Today is Friday October 10, 2014 and E J Di Mira is dead.  That scum bag from the country killed him.  Shot him dead.  I knew that Clyde was up to no good the first time I saw him.  But what is puzzling is how come E J didn’t travel with a bunch of body guards who would take immediate vengeance.   Obviously now the entire Di Mira family is going to come after Clyde.  And I’m not sure why he did it.  Is being spurned in a business deal worth killing somebody over?  But what is stranger is the suddenness with which he was pronounced dead.  If they spent five seconds on him I’d be surprised.  And of course now Samantha is the “bad guy” who “refuses to accept it” as this envelope of people descends around her vowing to keep the death hushed up, as if that were even possible- - to keep the press from finding out.  Killing off E J is a radical move for the plot writers because he was such a central character.  Although it does possibly pave the way for Samantha and Raphael to get back together.   Chad will be interviewed as a suspect, and you know that Samantha is going to suspect Kate also.  The whole thing is just too trippy.

 Sean Hannity was just brimming over with negative on the twin perils to the planet of ISIS and Ebola.  Sean had a guest on who stated that over 200,000 cases of Ebola were going to arrive here from Africa in the next few years.  And of course all those children flooding over across the border from Central America are bringing a bunch of new and horrible diseases with them.  The news of the day would give anybody a heart attack.   Now they say that ISIS had encircled half of Bhagdad in a 180 degree arc.  Of course the President is lambasted for not putting “boots on the ground” however unless the deployments to Iraq were instantaneous, they wouldn’t have arrived in time to prevent what has happened.    Meanwhile some kid wants Rush Limbaugh to write one of his “Rush Revere” books on the Alamo.   Rush says “However I tell the story it will be the real truth of what happened”.  Somehow I doubt Rush knows about the “real truth” of anything.

The Bill Handel show was literally drenched in hypocrisy this morning.  There was a question put forth about “Which is more of a threat to world peace – the United States – or ISIS?” which is a loaded question to begin with.  After some hemming and hawing- - Bill Handel came out and said that “We should be the world’s policeman and cram our values down nations of the rest of the world, and if they don’t go along with that then bomb them back to the stone age”.  That would be like Paul as secretary of defense.   I am convinced that when the antichrist comes he’ll like Allester Crane or somebody who is in a position of POWER because of prior manipulation of circumstances so that the people he demagogues to won’t DARE question his words, even if they were inclined to.  You have to know that someone like a Bill Handel or a Glen Beck would be ready for World War III at the drop of a hat.  There was talk about some new police shooting who apparently shot a man seventeen times for being ‘”armed with a Subway sandwich” wrapped in aluminum foil.  And the police saw a “glint of something metallic” and began blasting away.  But “Not all of the seventeen shots hit their mark”, which makes me wonder what happened to the other twelve or fifteen bullets that missed.  This cop obviously has bad vision if he can’t distinguish between a gun and aluminum foil.

The ISIS forces have been trying to take this “key city” of Kabani near the Turkish border and a lot of Kurdish refugees have been flooding across the border into Turkey.  In other news Adrian Peterson, the football player who beat his four year old son with a tree branch, remarked during a drug test “I’ve smoked a little weed lately” and the authorities are suspicious.  Meanwhile someone sneased on an airliner in flight and remarked “I have ebola” and now the whole plane has to undergo anti-viral cleaning.  Kim Jung Un has not been seen in North Korea for over a month and didn’t attend an important Communist holiday assembly- and people are thinking either the NC leader is gravely ill- - perhaps complications from a leg thing- - or else there has been a government coup they aren’t telling people about.  Meanwhile they handed out two awards this year for the Nobel Peace prize- - and one of the winners was that seventeen year old young woman who was instrumentsl in speaking out for educating women in Pakistan.  

 Jerry Brown is touting his idea on TV ads of propositions one and two.  “1” is for water conservation.  Brown would have us to believe that “We have wet years and we have dry years”.  Show me the last “wet” year.  The last period that was even vaguely “wet” was the last few weeks and first week or so of 2011.  Basically we’ve had three dusters since then.  Now with the prospect of more than a few snowflakes together in one place in Lake Toho then the weather people have a whoopy fit.  And as far as proposition two is concerned.  We don’t need to “save” any more money because people like me and all the people in here and poor people all over the state need that money NOW, and not some mythical time of “economic recession” as though we haven’t been in one of those for the past seven years.  Give me a break! 

 It’s the relation with Paul that “Crashed and Burned” last night- - not the anti smoking attempt.  Indeed a therapist studied in psychology would say “Paul, why are you so desperate to employ any method to try and derail Charlie from giving up smoking?”   It’s kind of the same thing as President Bush going into Iraq when there were no Al Qaeda there in 2002, “But don’t worry.  With our skilled mis-management we’ll remedy that problem in short order”.   Government people who know these things state that “ISIS is not a present threat to the United States”.  But with the right dexterous mismanagement by our government we should be able to remedy that situation if we work hard enough at it, and get ALL of the Moslems mad at us over there, and not just Al Qaeda or ISIS.   I think my family is an adherent to the slogan of “Never let a good crisis go to waste” even if you have to completely manufacture a crisis to get your foot in the door.”   It is now less than 45 minutes to the John Black countdown on DL.

The whole John Black expose was a bust.  John lied, and nobody knows why except out of some tit for tat against Christine, which is self defeating for everybody, but most of all John.  Christine has a point that whoever Teresa teams up with will get drugged or something and may well end up dead.  Why not just ship her back to LA?   Then it was coffee in the courtyard and I had two cups from the young housekeeper.  Larry gave me a Clipper, which is like smoking lettuce.  I don’t think I felt one bit different after smoking the thing than before, but to a lesser extent- any non white cigarette isn’t giving you your nicotine’s worth.  It’s almost time for Norman Goldman, and for Paul to get off work.  If he says he’s reconsidering and in-vites me to that movie, I’m not going.  I just lost my movie spirit, particular Christian movies.  I would prefer Paul wait himself - - and both of us try and put yesterday out of our minds.

Let's Not Live Out Limbaugh's and Hannity's Fantasys

I understand that neither Rush Limbaugh nor Sean Hannity has served a day in the military but both fancy themselves as not only patriots but self appointed experts on war, and both are as addicted to war as any crack-head.

Warmongers Are Anti-American

Adam Smith – the father of free market capitalism – wrote a scathing critique on warmongers in theWealth of Nations 235 years ago:

In great empires the people who live in the capital, and in the provinces remote from the scene of action, feel, many of them, scarce any inconveniency from the war; but enjoy, at their ease, the amusement of reading in the newspapers the exploits of their own fleets and armies. To them this amusement compensates the small difference between the taxes which they pay on account of the war, and those which they had been accustomed to pay in time of peace. They are commonly dissatisfied with the return of peace, which puts an end to their amusement, and to a thousand visionary hopes of conquest and national glory from a longer continuance of the war.   Numerous economists have documented that war is horrible for the economy.   The Father of the Constitution – James Madison – wrote:

Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities offraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.

Many other Founding Fathers warned against warmongering, as well:

Thomas Paine is generally credited with instilling the first non-interventionist ideas into the American body politic; his work Common Sense contains many arguments in favor of avoiding alliances. These ideas introduced by Paine took such a firm foothold that the Second Continental Congress struggled against forming an alliance with France and only agreed to do so when it was apparent that the American Revolutionary War could be won in no other manner.

George Washington’s farewell address is often cited as laying the foundation for a tradition of American non-interventionism:

The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations, is in extending our commercial relations, to have with them as little political connection as possible. Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics, or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.

John Adams followed George Washington’s ideas about non-interventionism by avoiding a very realistic possibility of war with France.

President Thomas Jefferson extended Washington’s ideas in his March 4, 1801 inaugural address: “peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.” …

In 1823, President James Monroe articulated what would come to be known as the Monroe Doctrine, which some have interpreted as non-interventionist in intent: “In the wars of the European powers, in matters relating to themselves, we have never taken part, nor does it comport with our policy, so to do. It is only when our rights are invaded, or seriously menaced that we resent injuries, or make preparations for our defense.”

Adam Smith and Thomas Jefferson also said that – if we do need to fight a war for defensive purposes – it should be paid for now, and not placed on the shoulders of future generations.  Postscript: While many civilians believe the myth that conservatives are pro-war, the truth is that many of the most highly-decorated military men in history – including conservatives – became opposed to war after seeing what really goes on. See this, this and this.   Indeed, I have spoken with some very high-level former military and intelligence officers. They are true patriots, who dedicated their life to protecting our country. They are also very passionate about not starting unnecessary wars, because they reduce America’s national security and cause many more problems than they could possibly solve.  Those who call themselves “conservative” – but advocate military adventurism – are not really conservative at all.

The Saga of Unearned Wealth of the Rich

The Following is pure financial skim.

Planned obsolescence provides many other examples of rentier skims. Microsoft’s operating systems and hardware makers both operate a form of rentier skim, in that each new OS and device offers marginal benefits (if any) in terms of productivity. The rare printer that doesn’t break down in a few years is obsoleted as software drivers are no longer available on the new OS.  Cartels and quasi-monopolies offer a wealth (ahem) of rentier skims. Monopolies can raise prices and degrade services at will. Cartels maintain price controls while denying they do any such thing.  Compare the monthly healthcare insurance fees offered by the handful of providers in your area–the differences are either cosmetic or result from differences in benefits.  Finance offers the richest opportunities for rentier skim. Load up college students with tens of thousands of dollars in high-interest student loans for marginal educations that could be provided at a fraction of the cost (see The Nearly Free University and The Emerging Economy: The Revolution in Higher Education) and what do you get? A nearly lifelong rentier skim off the student debt-serfs.   Higher Education’s Aristocrats: Over five years, administrators enjoyed pay increases of between 40 percent and 135 percent, and as a result each received $450,000 to $3.3 million from cumulative increases by the end of 2012-2013, the most recent year for which tax data is available.  Higher education is basically a multilayered rentier skim.  The net result of an economy of endless rentier skims is stagnation and rising wealth inequality. Money that could be saved and invested in productive enterprises and infrastructure is skimmed off by financial and political Elites.   Simply put, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is the teleology of every rentier economy: the built-in consequence of rentier skims is increasing wealth inequality and economic stagnation.  This reality is easily visible in the data. Note how the wealth of the bottom 90% declined since 2003, while the wealth of the top 5% rebounded smartly.

Not that we need any pesky reminders of this time in 1987 but there will be a blood moon at 3:25 tomorrow morning.  As you know Tuesday evening of October 6^th there was the ‘Nicholas conception’ moon in the sky.  This was a night when I was attempting some sort of witches’ protective circle incantation, that didn’t work.  I’ve been sleeping very well, thank you, with my medication adjusted, and I will miss it.

There was this guy on the back benches telling all of these complex but dirty jokes one after the other.  One involved this guy who got some commemorative dish served called “cajones conchieres” or something.  It was sliced bull’s testicles in commemoration of the day’s bull fight.  The next day this guy walks into a restaurant and says to the waiter “Don’t even show me the menu.  I already know what I want- - - cajones concheres” and the waiter goes “Well uh - - - OK”.   But when he looked at the filets on the plate they were really tiny compared to the time before and the guy complains.  “The other time I had this dish they were great big slices of delicious meat” and the waiter looks at him and puts his hand on his shoulder and says “Well son, it’s something like this.  Sometimes the bull loses”.    There was another joke about these two dogs in coitus and they got stuck and were trying everything to get them unstuck.  And the fire dept was called in and examining all of their options and this one little boy kept interrupting them saying “I know how to get those dogs apart”.  Well the men looked at their options and finally relented and said “OK, give it a try”.  And the boy puts his boner in the male dog’s anus.  Immediately the male dog breaks loose and starts barking frantically at the boy - - and then the dog runs off.  And one of the men says “Did you learn that from your father” and the little boy says “No, I’ve watched them.  The males can give it out but they can’t take it.”   There was some other joke that got lost in the translation about this troublesome blonde bimbo on a plane and they were trying to get her to leave the plane before it took off.  And finally the pilot gets on the PA and announces “We’re not going to New York” and the woman immediately gets off.  (?)   But there were just a whole lot of these story jokes, one after the other.

Sean Hannity  claims that tea party republicans are better informed Americans from listening to FOX news than are Democratic voters.  But very few questions were given as examples.   Rush is totally insane like his thirty five undeniable truths and number 24 that goes “The feminist movement was originated to give unattractive women access to public involvement”.    This is completely stupid on so many levels.  But then he goes on to say that the thing for pretty and conservative young women to do is to get married as quickly as possible.  And the reason of course is that single women “inherently are unable to support themselves” and they go on to talk about “Needing the government as Uncle Sugar out there.  And young single women are instructed by the government to play the victim and are even coached on who to blame for their state of victimization”.   Of course the term “Feminizi’ in my opinion is an appropriate term to employ - - if you’re talking about the writings of Margeret Sanger.  But if you’re talking about anyone else the term is completely stupid.   Rush can’t make up his mind whether the President is overplaying or underplaying the Ebola crisis.  Whichever one the President chooses- - Rush Limbaugh will say that he should have done the other option.  If the President under-plays it- - he’s trying to “equalize all Americans by giving them an African disease”.  But if the president over-plays it he’s following the liberal adage of “Never let a good crisis go to waste”, which I’d never heard of before- till Rush.

The Angels went down three straight games to the Kansas City Royals, no doubt much to the delight of Rush Limbaugh.  The Dodgers went down 3 to 1 at the hands of the St Louis Cardinals in St Louis and now trail their series one game to two.  It it's indeed truth the Dodgers have lost game four than the Dodger's season is over.  The SF Giants were up over the Washington Nationals in game two zip.   But apparently the Nationals rallied and beat San Francisco in game three of that series.   In other news it has come to my attention from a reliable source that Putin and the Russian troops did not “invade” Ukraine last month but the military operation was a relief effort to help Ukrainian cities in ruins from Ukraine government attacks upon Rebel strongholds.  And it seems that people earning under $50,000 will spend thirteen percent LESS in the holiday season and for those earning more than $50,000 they will plan to spend what they spent last year.  They claim that “This will be the “best year” since 2011”, which of course was a BAD year, which the Republicans made hay of in their debates that season.  In other terms- - the economy still sucks royally.  Bill Clinton promised us all at his speech in the 2012 convention that “You may not notice the recovery now but pretty soon you’ll all feel it”.  That hasn’t happened.  The economy is not a democratic asset.