Exploring the Train of Cause and Effect

This should be the long awaited lead article for this blog for a while.  The Dallas Cowboys just kicked a 62 yard field goal.  Meanwhile the Chargers are stalling out against the Bengals.

Christians are not entirely honest about the grounds for their belief.  And this is logical to them since Faith for them is the primal moving force to them rather than Fact.  There is a saying that "If you look at things differently, the things you look at - Change".  I being an Objectivist have never bought into this argument.  While you may debate this when it comes to human beings, carried to its logical conclusion it would apply to God Himself.  If you look at God differently, He will change.  This is contrary to the teaching of both scripture and Calvinism who declare "I am Jehovah God; I don't change".   The whole idea of Faith being the "first mover" in your "salvation" is unsound on another count.  It would mean that the blood of Christ takes a back seat to your Belief that it is true.   So what is the proper "train of cause and effect".  You see train diagrams in some of these religious books and pamflets.   The primal force, the engine of the train- - is Fact.  Did it happen?  To justify this fact you point to Circumstances, which is number two car on our train.  This is followed by your feelings ABOUT these circumstances.  Then after developing feelings on something, this evolves into Faith.  Adolph Hitler is said to have repeated the phrase "Unshakable belief" too much.  If Faith saved the day we would be doing our Sieg Heils even this day.  But we aren't.   Faith is certainly something we develop in a good friend or a life partner.  Then the final car on this train of causality is Action.  You can tell a person's faith by his Actions ON that faith.  You can tell a person's feelings by what kind of faith he has.  And most likely you can probe the circumstance of a man's life to glean how he GOT those feelings.  And finally as with a criminal court, you can look at the circumstances of the case and determine the FACT of either guilt or innocence.   People say they don't like "circumstantial evidence" and yet I deem ALL evidence to be "circumstantial" in one way or another.  You would not vote a person guilty if you were only sixty percent sure of their guilt.  There was a case on Dateline last Thursday involving a boating accident that the police and coast guard believed was murder.  While I believe that murder is the "best" explanation for what happened, I do not believe it is the ONLY explanation for what happened.  This is the point you have to arrive at if you are going to vote out the death penalty for an individual.   In like manner if you are going to have a rock solid "unshakable belief" that Jesus is the messiah and your own personal Redeemer, you better have certainty beyond a "reasonable doubt" shouldn't you?   But I have come up with a way of short circuiting the whole process.  I guess it goes back to an "experiance with God" I had a couple of Sundays ago listening to Joel Olsteen.  He spoke of "The God who pulls strings" and he God who "makes things happen".   You see, God can do what he wants.  He can call jobs "completed" even if you yourself have done little to now work on them.  (Selah)  You can't say that "God doesn't have a right to lay the Christianity trip on me unless the Gospels are solid historical fact.  Well, God doesn't take instructions from you.  As a Calvinist I believe God is in control of everything.  He determines what is true and false and what is right or wrong.  If God says it's going to happen then it's going to happen.  This is why both good and evil happen in the world.   What I thought was unfair about Calvinism is that he appears to give you no choice.  But what if he did give you a choice.  Suppose God said that "everyone who does three hand springs off the Huntington Beach pier and then plunges headlong into the ocean will be saved", you now have a choice.  You can choose to either do it or not do it knowing your choice affects your salvation.   So I would propose a theory that you have a choice to believe in the POWER of Christ.  As the church hymns say "There is power in the name of Jesus".  Never mind how he got there.  God PLACED him in that position of authority.  Therefore you now have a choice.  It's my theory that most times if you are given the choice, it's better to make friends with powerful people rather than be enemies.  Jesus even states this in one of his more contraversial parables.  It's called "Knowing which side of the bread its buttered on". 

I have stated that the name of this "God" I believe in is Alcyonne of the Pliades, one of the Seven Sisters up in the heavens.  But it hit me last week that previously that Alcyonne was pro Japanese in the World War II.  At least the Lanians, one of the Seven Sisters is pro Japanese.  So how can this be since the Japanese lost the war.  Well it's my contention that if God favors the preservation of life then the Atomic Bomb may have cut short the slaughter of all concerned and shortened the War by months and maybe more than a year.  It also struck me that Japan and Germany have prospered since World War II while the Jewish bretherin on the other hand, have continued to be discriminated against by all nations and even right here in the good old USA.  As to the identity of Jesus, I have had a theory as to "just what happened" that sent Jesus to the cross.  Some may (and have) questioned how a Jewish crowd could be shouting "Hosanah"s on Sunday and saying that Jesus should be put to death on the cross on Friday.  What could enrage a mob of people like this?  If you have read the Gospels there is no explanation for this sudden turn of behavior.  As a Jew I would imagine that these verses are a source of consternation.  But then I came up with an alternate explanation.  It's kind of like that murder case I was talking about.  Maybe a big wave sunk the boat.  Maybe it was some kind of flook accident where the lady tripped and hit her head and lost her balance and fell off the boat.  Maybe it was a flying shark that swallowed her whole.  Maybe she was abducted by space aliens.  Then never found the body, which brings up one person's theory that the woman faked her own death.  These are all reasons not to vote guilty.  Here in the gospels we too have an alternate explanation.  It was Judas who was crucified on the cross and Jesus went Scott free.  Somehow this little switcheroo was lost in scripture.  I like explanations that Answer more questions than they Raise.  Here I have the answer tothe three hours of "darkness".  It was a partial eclipse of the sun on November 24 of 29 AD in Jerusalem.  They were concerned as early at three PM about bodies being left out on the cross because the sun sets a lot earlier in the winter time.  This would explain the fire they built in the night. It was cold.  (In Jerusalem I'm sure it gets cold most of the time at night).  And it would explain the whithering of the fig tree.  It was simply losing its leaves because the weather was turning cold.  I don't have all of the details.  This is an "alternate explanation" in progress.  It could be that Jehovah God may have told Judas to betray Jesus Christ, but in doing so he would have the blood of an innocent man on his soul.  He would have to die instead.  The Bible says "If anyone sheds innocent blood, then his own blood needs to be shed to atone for it".  or something like that.

My point is that you can't stop people from thinking.  But God may not care how closely you have studied scripture or whether every fact is absolutely true.  I think there are "glosses" in scripture.   I think the line about the prohibition of marrying a divorced woman- - was added.  It doesn't sound like Jesus.  Also the line about  how you go about kicking members out of the Church.  And there is the line about "Go ye into all the world making disciples and baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit" is probably a textural embellishment.   But in the end it doesn't matter is Christ is already seated in heaven judging you and me.  This is just something to think about it.

My Holiday Reform Act of 2018

There is another posting in the pipeline from last Thursday and hopefully we'll get to that one either later today or early tomorrow.  But now let's talk about how this is John Lennon death weekend.  The 38th anniversary of his death was last night, December 8th.  They are playing all of the John Lennon favorites today on "Breakfast with the Beatles".  Don't push me or I'll declare John Lennon's death day as another Federal holiday.  Here is our proposal.  Christmas and Newyears will remain unchanged.  We're moving Martin Lither King Day from his birthday to the day he was shot in Memphis on April 4th or as near to the holiday and not have it fall on a weekend.  It's a more memorable date and it will be easier to do marches rather than in the dead of winter.  I will leave President's Day untouched.  They had that "US Presidents" song sung to the tune of "Ten Little Indians" and it was done while Obama was President.  Let's leave that song untouched.  We then come to Memorial Day, which is also unchanged.  I plan to move Daylight Savings Time back to the first Sunday in April like it was for twenty years from 1987 to 2006.  This will bring that needed lightness to the mornings because the mornings are too damn dark otherwise.  I'll leave the Fourth of July untouched as well as Labor Day untouched.  We move to Thanksgiving, which I am moving to Columbus day as the second Monday in October.  I'd like to rename this holiday indigenous people's day and it should be a day when we give thanks to the indigenous people for having slaughtered them all and stolen their land.  This same weekend we are going OFF daylight savings time and returning to standard time.  This once again will bring a little sunshine into those dark late October mornings around here and even worse in the rest of the country.  There will be no Thanksgiving holiday in Nocember but we don't need it anyhow because we're already celebrating Christmas and the spirit of the holiday is over-shadowed.  Then I want to make Election Day a holiday on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.  I would keep Veterans Day but rename it back to the original Armistice Day to reinforce the desire for peace in the world.  I think we've covered them all.  I thought of making Superbowl Sunday a holiday but reconsidered. 

On Friday Thom Hartman wanted to remind us of the deeds of the Bush Crime Family.  It's funny how the reporters fawned all over George Bush 41 with praise normally reserved for some religious figure such as Ghandi or the Deli Lama.   Nixon and Howard Hunt are connected with the Kennedy assasination but there aren't any established links of the Bush Crime Family to that one.  Trump was very awkward at the Funeral on Wednesday because he's so used to being the center of attention in all media matters.  Bush 41 did have some minor role in Watergate.  The whole klan is one of privilege and special treatment by the laws of our land.  The best thing you can say about the Bush family is that neither Bush 41 or 43 was near as bad as Donald Trump.  That's not saying much.  If you want to read more on my thoughts about George Bush 41 just read the posting right below this one. 

President Bush 41 Dies at age 94

George HW Bush died last night.  They interrupted a program to announce it when I was half asleep.  Bush was 94 when he died.  Barbra died eight months ago and they say that a husband often follows a wife or spouse within a year of their death.   He wanted to know (in the afternoon) whether he would see his dead daughter as a child or as a full grown adult.   President Bush was the last veteran to serve as president and the last representative of “the greatest generation” and the last war hero in WW II.   He was a young pilot.   President Bush is best known for Opporation Desert Storm and how he showed restraint during this war and called off the invasion after only four days of ground activity in late February of 1991.  However he was also known as the last “new world order” president.  He “opened up China” all right, but only to offer them “most favored nation” status at a time in the spring of 1989 when China was most cracking down on civil liberties.  He was an ambassador to China and had that “China connection” while running for CIA chief.  I remember writing Stewart Mc Bernie a letter around November of 1975 in which I opined that Nixon should have kept on Willian Colby as CIA chief because I didn’t really trust this new guy.  Of course there was a lot of UFO stuff floating around in the fall of 1975 and I have discussed this on blog postings.  Of course HW Bush failed to get re-elected primarily because he had mis-managed the economy so bad.  There was this extended period of economic malaise that began in the second half of 1990 and was still lingering in 1992.  And Bush 41 also drove up the deficit sky high.   Bush was kind of “deep sixed” as vice president under Reagan but he is celebrated now at the Reagan library.  

There was a bad earthquake in Anchorage, Alaska yesterday morning about nine thirty our time.  This should have been seven thirty their time but strangely they are now only an hour behind us.  The sun had not risen when the earthquake struck just seven miles away.  But the impact was worse than Northridge even though it was just 7.0 and only .2 higher than Northridge.  This is because of the liquefaction that plagued the soil around there and all sorts of roads buckled.  The airport was unusable and the incoming flights had to be aborted at the last minute.  There was one CBS studio that suffered extensive damage with tapes falling off the shelves and light fixtures and portions of the ceiling falling down on people who had to duck under their sturdy desks.  This building was built up to code.  Of course the days are a lot shorter in Alaska than they are here this time of year.   At 7.0 this was too small to set off a Tsunami, and the alert was canceled after a few minutes.  President Trump has offered a very affirmative tweet saying God bless everybody and stuff.  This may be because Alascans are Republicans.  Sarah Palin’s parents house suffered damage there in Wassilla.  (sp?)

. This morning Chris Matthews showed a map of the states from left to right and there have to be 25 Democrats who are thinking of running for president in the Democratic Party right now.  They'll have to have three tiers of debates.  People around President Trump continue to turn against him   Michael Koehn has pled guilty to certain charges such as collusion with Russia.  I think it's more than a matter of building a Trump Complex in Russia.  For that matter it's more than whether talk was termanated in January or June of 2016,  We don't know whether talks went on with Russia after this.  We assume it did.    Trump has hated Koehn for months now and considers him a traitor.  Meanwhile Paul Manifort has balked and refused to cooperate with the government. Of course dangeling that presidential pardon out there changes one's whole perception.  He doesn't want to desert Trump; if there's a get out of jail card free in his future. Two days ago the government accused Manifort of lying and have hard evidence that he is indeed lying.  Manifort says “I’m not going to lie just to shorten my sentence”.  But what has really happened is that Manifort instead of giving information had been getting information from the government about what information they’ve got against Trump, and Trump can readjust his strategy accordingly.  Meanwhile the China deal has been discussed and Trump thinks all these terrifs that are crippling the economy now- - - are a good thing.  Of course you can tell when Trump is lying when you see his lips move.  Meanwhile you have Melonia and the flaming red Christmas trees in the east wing of the White House.  If the First Lady loves then then all of Trump’s supporters love them even though images of “The Shining” are evoked. 

.  This is Friday November 30, 2018 and it’s St Andrew’s Day.  It’s semi-officially known as “rapture day” in the Federation.  The psychedelic vibes were at their maximum peak on November 30^th of 1967. Advent is the start of the Church year and both the Jews and Christians start off this period by lighting candles.   I wanted to mention how my view of the extra terriestrial world is one of pluralism.  But there is an god, an AXIS that turns the universe according to Federation theology.  We can call the Seven Sisters or the Pliades "God" and Alcyone is their chief.   However unlike what the astronomers say, it's actually the dimmest star of the seven sisters that is the Ruler.   So it's pluralism with a god who calls the ultimate shots as to what happens in this Universe.  It’s ten to nine and KNXT news is on.  I had on Frangela for a while from Stephanie at eight and then I switched to Nancy Pelosi and her press conference today.  This morning I got up at five minutes to five.  This is when I first woke up.  I didn’t wake up for any bathroom breaks during the night  I didn’t shower.   I wanted to mention the rock compelations the Federation has done.  They started them in September of 2004 so there was a fourteen year run of compelations.  There will be no changes to "The New Normal" out in July despite what we hinted at on a recent posting.  However there may be another compelation of songs out from the early sixties.  

Every Day With Trump Is A Disaster

We haven’t heard much about Michael Moore’s new movie 11 – 9 even though it’s been out for over a month.  On Wednesday there were a number of blatent things I heard President Trump say during the ABC news.  The biggest was siting with a lady in politics in Mississippi who kept joking about lynching and she thought it would get her votes with her base.  President Trump gave her his full support.  Then we have Trump attacking Justice Roberts over this ninth circuit court ruling invalidating the president’s edicts on not letting refugees in from other countries.  Trump says they have to come in legally or it doesn’t count.   Trump has made another recent statement reasserting that the troops the president sent down to the border have the right to shoot refugees from Central America.  Now he says that if Tijuana continues to be troubled by this caravan from Central America that the president will shut down the entire border from Texas to California.  It used to be that when you were drawing up articles of impeachment like against Bush you had to reach for some technicalities to flesh our your already long list of articles of impeachment.  Now all you have to do is review the evening news to come up with about five of them on the spot.    So far I haven’t heard Nancy Pelosi say that she’s going to push for articles of impeachment.  Back in 2007 she balked at filing charges of impeachment against President Bush and I belie that was a strategic mistake.   I’m not blogging very often now but when I do there is a whole bunch of fresh news, and usually I just scratch the surface. 

.  Last night Dorthey kept saying that the Trump bubble is bound to burst sometime and she gives him another year in office.  The trouble is that people have been saying that ever since November of 2016.  Some were even saying Trump would resign before he even took office.  This wishing Trump would be out of power is becoming an endless pipe dream, a mirage that never comes to pass.  Stephanie was saying the same thing on her show today.  Muller isn’t handing out any indictments to be thankful for this year.  We have things to be thankful for.  President Trump didn’t get us into any wars.  We didn’t experience the fires they’ve had in other places.  And I was delivered from my financial burden last August.  But I will say that Thanksgiving is a challenge this year.  This year there isn’t even a hope of a family gathering.  It seems like a long time since last year.  It’s been a long year and a lot has changed.  But at least I’ve been fairly healthy since a week ago Friday. 

.   I was lying down when I had the odd premonition there was a duplicate song on “The Psychedelic Album”.   I turned on the computer and there was one but it wasn’t the one I expected.  “Mystic Eyes” by Them is not only on the “Psychedelic Album” but of course also “A Lover’s Question”.  I am now told that this was a “translation”  (or transmission) error.  That song on “Question” should have been “Drive My Car” by the Beatles, which was included for technical reasons I won’t go into.   I thought that “someone must be pulling my strings for me to notice that”.  I turned on the TV knowing it was after six so I missed Joel Olsteen.  There was this stem cell program on KCOP which regenetates tissue that keeps people in pain.  People are delivered from decades of pain from this procedure that grows new cartelege or bone or whatever it is that you need.  At a quarter after six I turned the station and Joel Olsteen was on and of all things he was talking about “A god who pulls strings”.   Not only the good stuff but also the bad stuff has to pass God’s desk.  God is protecting you from all of the stuff Satan really wants to do to you but he can’t because God won’t let him.  I am also told that “The New Normal” album from July also suffers from a transmission error because two songs got left off of the album, which is why it’s so short. 

Fourth paragraph is scheduled later.  Well actually I was going to do Seven Prophecies in the OT of Jesus Christ.  But I'm going to shorten that up considerably.   I happened on hearing Dr Phil this morning saying "Never connect two sentences with the word BUT".  Either the first is true and the second is not, or it's the other way around.  Dr Phil has a definite aversion to the word BUT.  So we have the statement of "God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life BUT he wants to test our faith and therefore he keeps us in the dark as to what he is doing.  You see the Bible says "God works out all things [in our lives] for good".   In the book of Daniel it predicts that a messiah will come at the end of a specific period of years and that among other things "He will make an end to sin".  Therefore from that point on there should be no more sin.  But we know this is not the case.  There is still just as much sin in the world as ever.  But by faith we have to believe that something happened that we can find no evidence of.  The logical thing for Jesus to do after he rose was to announce his rising publicly and going "In Your Face" to his many detractors, who didn't believe such a thing was possible.  But if OUR belief- - is all that separates us from still being in the dark, then it looks as though many of us will still be in the dark.  Think about that one.  

The Reins of Power

It's about time we did another posting after a week.  President Trump has his own game plan for strengthening his grip on the reins of power.  He never campaigned for House members.  He had his eye on the senate because the senate is all he needs to get the judges he needs confirmed.  Mitch Mc Connell refused to confirm empty Judicial posts month after month in the Obama administration.  This way there was a whole slew of them to confirm with a new President Trump.  Now he has all those and he has Kavanaugh and Gorsich in the Supreme Court.  And he's hoping to have more confirmed if Justice Ginsburgh's health takes another turn for the worse.  He knows if he has judges on his side they won't oppose Trump in any of his many power plays to further rob American citizens of their civil liberties or other rights.  Now there is talk of new indictments coming down today from Meuler because it's a Friday and we know the really big news events occur on late Friday because people go out of town and don't read newspapers that much.  Everybody was expecting indictments to come down this week before Witicker or whoever shuts the whole investigation process down.  Of course nobody is talking about the illegal caravan from Mexico coming toward the US border because he only did that in the campaign to cater to his republican base.  It turns out the Republicans won senate seats in Nevada and Arizona so that maybe the gain in US Senators isn't as bad as we all feared.  Of course in two years the economy will probably be in a lot worse shape than it is right now so it will be virtually impossible to get reelected President in 2020.  Therefore it's important to Trump to establish his dictatorial powers right now.  People are now shouting "Heil Trump" at his campaign rallies openly comparing Trump to Hitler- - in a favorable way.

We've had all of these pre-emptions of TV shows the past eight days on TV stations with the Thousand Oaks shooting and the fires that have ravaged California largely due to climate change and of course that funeral for an officer yesterday that lasted in excess of two hours.

I have been in better health the past week.  I've felt almost normal.  My last really sick say was one week ago today when I had a raging fever I couldn't shake during the day.  I finally broke the fever drinking a big, cold bottle of Coke.  I also CUT the ammount of extra vitamins I was taking.  My body functioned better on junk food to re-establish resistance to disease viruses.  All of these lab reports may come to nothing if I'm better on my own after all these weeks. 

Now here is something from a few days ago.

Nora shewed up before two and shewed me out of the room.  I know she spent time cleaning the bathroom and she mopped the floor.  I smoked a cigarette and then smoked another one.  I needed to get back in to shave and I finally did that after two.  I got a number to see the doctor.  Someone was serving Oreos for a snack.  When I returned to the doctor line the second time Kathy at no 17 had already gone in.  I got in front of number twenty with two people (?) in front of me.  Dr Saran didn’t really ask how I was feeling.  The whole visit was a big disappointment.  He didn’t have either the blood test results or either of the chest X ray results, though I told him I had seen the image on the screen.   Dr Saran mentioned the colonscopy and seemed unaware that one had already been scheduled even though I told him the date.  I don’t remember either my temperature or my blood pressure.  He didn’t prescribe anything for me.  But like I say I never really got to discuss how I was feeling.  Then I went and got in the now tiny line to see Jennifer for Money Draw.  Only Mario was behind me.  Jennifer had a surprise for me.  She presented me with a bill for $23.58.   It was a strange statement.  The original bill was for $140.00 or something.  Apparently Jennifer had received other bills and these hadn’t been presented to me.  I got twenty dollars once I agreed to pay this bill on my own.  I wanted to see Mary Jane but Mary Jane wasn’t having people in after Michelle departed the office.  So I called the Pharmacy number on the bill and she said I could ignore the invoice if I wanted to and they’d just send me another one next month.  I haven’t called Paul about the problem.

"The Peoples' House" Goes Democratic

Let’s talk about the elections.  Stephanie Miller and John Fugelsang this morning were happy about the election results.  The democrats won two of the three major battles.  The democrats, Nancy Pelosi reminds us, won seven governorships.  These were Nevada, New Mexico, Kansas, Wisconsin. Illinois, Michigan and Maine.  In Kansas they were suffering badly from fiscal mismanagement such that even their own legislature was at odds with him.  In Wisconsin Scott Walker went down to defeat after eight years.  The democrats won thirty seats in the House of Representatives, “The peoples’ house”.  I think the tally now is 224 democrats to 199 Republicans, though I think the democrats have picked up more seats.   Nancy Pelosi has no real competition for Speaker of the House.  The democrats now will head all of the investigation comittees and Trump is afraid of that.  In that hour and a half press conference President Trump said that “You have a choice to investigate me or work with me but you can’t do both.” Trump placed all of his eggs in the US Senate basket where he campaigned heavily on the “Caravans from Mexico” scare tactic.  He was successful.   Ted Cruz was reelected to US Senate in Texas and it looks like Lex Luther alias Rick Scott will go to the Senate from Florida.  However the vote is so close they’re going to have a recount.  Abrams, the Black lady from Georgia isn’t conceding defeat but is relying on a runoff election next month.  In California Gavin Nusin was elected governor and Kunalocus defeated Ed Hernandez, whom I voted for.  Marshal Tuck was in a close race but I think he won for school superindendant.   The 48^th district is Dana Rorebacher and I think he has lost but it’s close.  In the propositions these ended up as expected with the exception of the Daylight Savings Time one I voted against.  It passed, which passes it back to the state legislature for action.  Propositions six, eight and ten failed and I voted against all three.  A whole lot of women and minorities got elected to congress. 

I’ve been thinking about gun control.  This 28 year old marine who shot up all of those people in the bar used a 45 calatre semi-automatic Glock, which is legal.  But the magazine he used for all of the extra bullets was illegal.  Even if something is illegal a determined gunman can choose to break whatever laws get passed and get a hold of what he needs. People aren’t even talking about gun control this time except for that grieving mother.  The other thing in the news is in the fires in Venture and also in Los Angeles county.  Apparently these fires have gotten much worse overnight fired by these Santa Ana winds and Bill has coverage of that right now on KNXT where we tuned in expecting to see “Let’s Make a Deal”.  I just don’t want to miss another day of “Days of our Lives”.  We’ve had too many crisis days. 

What About that Blue Wave?

Well, it's six o clock in the morning on election day and with the time change it's starting to get light now, so I guess I'd better do a little pep talk for the election.  The last entry in this particular blog was in late February.  Let's hope that the "Wheels" are turning our way come election night.  Joel Olsteen last Sunday was preaching about "This time next year" or upping the timetable even "this time tomorrow" all those enemies whom you see vexing you now, you will never see again".   It would be nice to have all your problems go away in a day or even in one week.   Last Sunday morning on 'Meet the Press", Chuck Todd was trying to "talk up" the democrats.  There are a lot of really close races this year particularly for governor.  TOO many close races for comfort and once you take off the three or four percent "red shift" from the democratic tally, you could have a God damned republican landslide on election day as all of these "tight races" break Republican.  You have the US Senate race in Texas with Ted Cruz fighting for his job in a "new and purple" Texas, according to Sixty Mionutes, which is more urban and intelllectual and minority dominated.  In the Florida races for Governor where you have a Black guy running for democrat - - and then you have US Senate where ol' Lex Luther is witching from governor to senate- - Rick Scott.   Scott Walker is fighting for his job up in Wisconsin and then you have Senator Claire Mc Hascle (?) going down for the third time in Missouri.  She's appealing to the moderates by saying "I'm not one of those whacko democrats".   That's fighting from behind.  It looks like Governor Snyder will be going down in Michigan and that's a good thing.  You have the Abrams Black lady in Georgia running for governor.  Some people are saying the average gain for the opposite party is 35 seats and the democrats only need 23 or 24 to take control.  My motto is "don't count your chickens before they're hatched".   In California my Republican brother is voting for Feinstein because "She'll die in office anyhow".   I was planning on voting for Feinstein because of her seniority, which means influence and privelege. 

I've had health problems the past two months.  I saw the doctor one week ago today and he scheduled a bunch of tests for me, most of which I've had in the past week.  It could be anything at this point.  This virus has affecrted my alertness and mental functioning, which is why I haven't written in these blogs very much, though I've had a lot of ideas I haven't put down.  Stephanie Miller is on right now.  She's talking about sane day voter registration.  Just remember that Trump is a want to be dictator and he admits to being a "Nationalist" like Hitler or somebody.  He has Hitler's speeches for bedtime reading they report.  And many of his campaign tools are right out of the Third Reich handbook.  Ask Thom Hartman about it.  This appeal to "state of crisis" and fanning racist tendencies is something Hitler was fond of using.  Maybe I'll do another entry later today.

Dear Diary - Today was another Crappy Day

I was just outside and Nancy had a modern version of “Can’t Hurry Love” playing on the radio.  Norman Goldman’s motto is “You Can’t Hurry Progress” it seems.  You know there is this tribe on a southeastern Asian island where they can sense tsunamis coming from way off.  And this tribe is very proficient at things like throwing spears to catch food.  And they are missing certain words from their vocabulary such as waiting and hoping and anticipation.  They live completely in the present tense.  The element of waiting or momentum “stalling out” just doesn’t exist here like it does with United States politicians.  I heard that little meeting today with Trump and the students and parents of that Parkland high school.  There was a lot of “thank you for listening to us” and everybody was trying to be very polite and deferential toward Trump.  But at times all of that politeness and patience can be like a nuce around your neck cutting off the flow of events as surely as a tourniquet.    There is something constricting and strangulating about knowing you don’t have any real power except for your words.  Words can go in one ear and out the other.  At least Sol Allinsky in his book “Rules for Radicals” believed in the leverage of force to back up their words.  There had to be the threat of something bad happening to you if you didn’t follow through.  There are times I think about the novel “The Strange Case of Benjamin Button” and how too much of life seems to be suffering the blows of one event only to have another event buffet you a few days or weeks later.  Wouldn’t it be nice if you could somehow make events un-happen.  (Selah)  This may sound like the ultimate reactionary position.  But I look over the past twenty years and I see the tide of events, which used to be in our favor in the sixties and seventies – now being continually against us.  And I’d like to know how to change that.  I don’t think “Possibility Thinking” will do the trick.   It has to be something beyond belief to have real teeth.  There has to somehow be “knowing” involved along with that warm, fuzzy belief.  People with the power can afford to live in the present.  The rest of us have to be content to live either in the “by and by” future, or else take refuge in the past, when things made a lot more sense.   Yes I know the line (from Harrison) of “with every mistake we must surely be learning”.  The trouble is the guy who’s supplying the “mistakes” and “mishaps” of the future has an endless supply and can throw them at us seemingly whenever he wishes.   It seems that the best we can do is make our schools and armed fortress the same way we’ve armed airports and government offices to the teeth.   It seems as if living with fear and even dread seems to be “the new normal”. 

Two busloads of those Florida High School students went to Tallahassee, Florida.  The legislature was pretty intransigent.  One of their favorite chants is “Drain the NRA”, but they have other chants.  Now we hear that President Trump is meeting with some students about gun control.  There is talk about raising the age to 21 when you are able to buy assault weapons.   Now there is a rumor from the conservative “trolls” that some of these students are paid actors.   If President Trump has finally decided to go against the NRA, I wish he’d let us know. 

This is Wednesday February 21, 2018 and like yesterday morning the picture jammed on “Days of our Lives” but what I saw was strange.  Marlena is now in on this plot to kill Steve and they are talking openly about Billy as an ISA member.  Kayla gave Steve the antidote.   Suddenly he’s better.  Paul and Will are now free.  In yesterday’s episode they were tied up.  But now there is a new wrinkle in the thing.  Because this ISA lady pulls a gun on Trip calling on him in his apartment to “explain the situation” to him.  She lied to him saying Steve had been moved from the hospital and wouldn’t let him confirm that with Kayla.  The reasoning behind Steve’s “betrayal” is that when Joey confessed to the crime of killing Trip’s mother it blew the ISA cover.

Thom Hartman has been talking a lot about gun regulation.  He wants to license guns and also ban the use of assault weapons such as AK 47’s and AR 15’s.   The latter is a good gun for the armature to shoot is because it has almost no recoil.  These assault weapons are about killing as many quickly as possible.  On the Norman Goldman show yesterday there was talking about having your gun card that has to be renewed now and then and you need to bring your weapon with you when you check in annually.  If they slapped a fifty dollar fee once a year for the privilege of owning guns, maybe they would think twice about owning one.  Even a fifteen dollar fee would send a message.   Thom Hartman is bent on saying that gun fanatics have small penises. 

Several weeks ago we said that something would “happen” in nineteen days, but we didn’t know what.  One thing that happened today is that the Rev Billy Graham died at age 99 in his native state of North Carolina.  He was the last of the evangelists that wasn’t associated with the far right.  You could add Schuller to this declining list also.  These two were main stream evangelists accepted by the American people.  The Rev Billy Graham did a lot of good and his crusades were responsible to saving a lot of souls and turning people’s lives around.  Unfortunately his son Franklin became more political.  I would hope that no Christian would endorse the sexual escapades of our President.   Pat Robertson is really sounding old, almost like he’s on medication now.    Joel Olsteen is very encouraging to watch but I really don’t know what his politics are. 

 I got in the line behind Mario to see Dr Messina.  There wasn’t much else I could do but to tell the good doctor exactly what is going on in my life.  I mentioned the dental diagnosis and how I don’t want to have the work done.  I mentioned Mom’s fall, and her alzheimers, and the fact she may have had a stroke.  Then I mentioned Judy’s Parkinson’s disease.  Dr Messina then asked me if I was getting depressed over these things and I said yes.  He boosted my Celexa from 20 to 30 miligrams and said “Try not to think about that stuff”.   I then said “I guess I’ll try and not think my lack of money either”, and Dr Messina said “If you had money it would solve a lot of problems” and on this I have to agree.

At times Trump seems flexible but always in the wrong way.  In 2000 Trump wanted to run as an Independent and have Oprah Winfrey as his running mate.  Trump was centerist in his past and was more open to gun regulations way back when before the Koch Brothers got to him.   Even Mitt Romney hated Trump two years ago calling him the worst kind of phoney and a fraud.  Even Judy suggested I watch that speech, which I did.  Now Judy is all for Trump and Trump and Romney have kissed and made up.  I guess the saying is true, "Money doesn't [just] talk; it swears".  [Monday]  I got two Oreos and juice from Rico in the courtyard after ten.  I continued to have Thom Hartman on but don’t remember it.  The temperature never got out of the fifties and it has continued windy at least through mid afternoon.  We had some kind of a breaded chicken chunks dish and boiled potatoes and carrots.  They announced there would be no seconds.  We had pineapple for dessert and I got Jerry’s pineapple.  I had the Gary and Shannon show on till ten to two.  I slept through “Draining the Swamp”.  I think they were going to say something about Joe Biden running for President again.  Biden they tell us would be 78 on the day he was inaugurated.   It's too bad the milenials can't run for President now.  They extend to age 36 now in this year of 2018.   The earliest I myself could have run for President was 1988.  That's how long my generation had to wait.  Only the Generation X'ers seems to have come into their political own right away.  Some lady sang the Star Spangled Banner too sexy and Gary mocked her.  Sometimes I think people major on the minors and minor on the majors.  This is inverted thinking.  They had the house whisperer on from 11:30 to noon. 

Will Trump Ever Be Removed from Office?

Clearly 2017 was a year of worsening circumstances as far as the Trump Presidency is concerned.  Added to the revelations about Trump in 2016 we continued to get other bad revelations as to his basic character.  Now we hear that congress wants to pass a background check for purchasing a gun.  President Trump is said to favor such a bill now.  I don’t know what to believe.  Hopefully Muller will come out with other indictments, this time of the Trump administration officials such as Jered Kushner.  The indictments of last Friday were a start but I think we need to connect more dots up.  By no means were last Friday’s indictments intended to be an exhaustion of all of the criminal possibilities.  Hopefully in six months, by late August, we will get a clearer picture of just how good the democratic chances are this year of taking over not just the House but the Senate, too.  I think all of us on the left dream of a new age dawning where we look over the past eighteen years or so as some kind of a bad dream.   I think we have real potential as a nation and we as a nation have grown even through our recent adversity both on the violence front and in the climate front.  It’s hard to tell just how sane the President really is.  Maybe he’s “faking it” like R P Mac Murphy was accused of doing in “Coo Coo’s Nest”.   But I think it’s more likely that Trump has a case of bad “arrested development” both on an emotional and ethical front.   Impeachment is not out of the realm of possibility for 2019 but that’s such a long way off, or at least it seems like it.  All of us are sitting here “Doing nothing but aging” as George Harrison says.   Even if all of the national problems get solved, I have a whole list of personal problems to worry about.   And anybody my age is likely to encounter various health problems.  Twenty years ago there was a lot more reason to be optimistic about the future of America than there is now. The following paragraph was from early this morning.  

President Trump is getting really tacky.  Of course as you know people like Trump keep talking about the need to address mental illness.  And yet one of the first acts as president that Donald Trump did was to overturn the executrive order by Obama saying that mentally ill patients couldn’t buy guns.  The Republicans in congress favored this one.  But even tackier was Trump’s conflating the FBI carelessness in nor doing something about Nicholas Cruise when they had the chance and Trump launches into a rant about the Russian probe as if the FBI couldn’t do more than one task at once.  The FBI is a huge organization perfectly able to walk and chew gum at the same time.  Trump also had the gall to say that “The democrats had a chance at gun control when they controlled congress ten years ago and they didn’t do it because they didn’t want to”.  The next question I’d ask would be, “Well are YOU saying now that you wish the democrats had instituted tougher gun control and will you recommend a gun control bill to congress at this time?”   The answer is no because Trump’s just blowing smoke out his ass.   In fact the Republicans haven’t even done anything about bump stocks they promised to do.  After the Las Vegas shootings the Republicans in congress said they’d do something about the ability to convert a semi-automatic weapon into an automatic weapons.  One notes that it’s primarily the girls at Parkland who are the most vocal.   Some have said that they are the voice of the Sandy Hook students, some of which would be teenagers by now and more able to vocalize their feelings on what happened to them.   I hope they are registering a lot of voters democratic this year.   They can have all the marches they want to on March 24^th but if they don’t vote in November it’s all in vain.  But let’s talk about the FBI and the Russians.  Another thing I would say is that a normal president upon hearing the Muller indictment report would say something like “I’m glad you brought the seriousness of this problem to my attention.   We certainly need to crack down on the Russians”.  But Trump still won’t execute the sanctions against Russia from a year ago that the Republican congress passed.  And of course when Trump gets to criticizing anybody and everybody in his tweets, one nation Trump still refuses to be critical of is Russia.  This is a prima facia case right here that Trump rather than be repulsed by the knowledge of Russian sabotage of the recent campaigns, actually welcomes it.   There is a fine line between “inadvertent” and actually welcoming the Russian interference.  Muller isn’t done with his indictments yet.  We can’t infer that people not indicted in THIS ruling are therefore innocent of guilt.  In fact maybe Muller was afraid of being fired and that’s why he didn’t issue inductments of Trump officials.  

Muller Hands Down Thirteen Indictments against Russians

Muller has finally come down with thirteen indictments today.  The defendants are accused of running the Russia-based Internet Research Agency, a propaganda operation based in St. Petersburg that leveraged social media platforms as part of an alleged attempt to spread divisive content to American audiences leading up to the election.  The material here is only a bare bones outline of the totality of their activities. 

Executives at Facebook have already revealed that the company unwittingly sold $100,000 in political advertisements to the Internet Research Agency before the election, many of the ads designed to exploit political and social divides in the United States. Twitter has also identified over 3,800 accounts and 50,000 bots linked to the Russian troll farm.  The indictment contains new details that show the sophistication of the alleged operation, which is said to have employed hundreds of people and was supported by an annual budget of millions of dollars.  According to the indictment, the influence operation against the presidential election dates back to 2014. The defendants allegedly created false U.S. personas to reach Americans online through social media pages and groups, and also in some cases used stolen U.S. identities to post content.  There efforts went beyond posting divisive content online from a remote location in Russia.  Some of the Russians are also accused of fraudulently obtaining visas in an effort to travel to the United States to gain intelligence for their operations.

Two of the defendants are said to have successfully obtained visas and traveled to a number of states, including Nevada, Illinois, Michigan, and New York, in summer 2014. The travel was used to produce an “intelligence report,” the indictment states.  Beginning in 2016, they also allegedly staged rallies from their location in Russia by masquerading as U.S. grassroots activists who could not attend the events in person. This included two rallies in New York, one dubbed “March for Trump” and another “Down With Hillary,” that were held in June and July.  The indictment contains the bombshell allegation that some of the defendants through false American identities communicated with “unwitting individuals associated with the Trump campaign” and other political activists in order to coordinate their political efforts.   But to sum it up it’s clear that Trump’s statement of “maybe the Russians were not involved” is false. 

 I had the Gary and Shannon show on and there was a second more major FBI tip on this Nicholas fellow that they ignored saying that he was going to shoot up a school.   They learned of his arsenal of guns and that police had been to his house over thirty times for violent behavior.   Under Florida law you can’t take his guns away from him.  “Lex Luther” the Florida governor wants the FBI director fired.  I don’t agree.  This would only give President Trump an even clearer opportunity to pick a hand-picked stooge to replace him.  Now they plan to tear down the whole “Freshman building” which is massive and is three floors.  I disagree.  I think the easiest way to forget something is to forget it.  Just patch the bullet holes or re-plaster whole walls or paint the rooms a different color or rearrange the desks or something.  You don’t have to tear down the whole building because this will only reinforce people’s memories beyond what it would ever be before.   At the same time they won’t replaces roads, bridges and water-works of our crumbling infrastructure.  They don’t have the funding to do that but they will come up with funding for this, which is money which could be much better spent paying teachers a decent salary or updating text books or what have you.  Shannon said that students should not even come back to collect their back packs filled with books and notebooks.  It was a shooting not an outbreak of leporacy or something.   They aren’t going to change the gun laws.  That’s the country’s way of saying “Well, too bad but these things happen”.  And if they don’t change the gun laws they can and will happen again and again.   Of course the one act of President Trump was to sign a bill making it easier for mental patients to get guns.

This morning I had Thom Hartman on.  Around nine thirty I checked the lunch and dinner menus and did not change either of them.  I don’t particularly remember what topics Thom covered.  I went out for snacks after ten and got juice and a graham cracker.   I had “Days of our Lives” on the NBC site.  But they aren’t covering what we want to know and that’s John Black’s murderous activities.   From what I have seen I still have no idea why the ISA wants Steve Johnson dead or the necessity of killing two other people to try and cover up the crime.  But around twenty to eleven I switched back to Thom Hartman till ten to eleven (and maybe it was longer than that).   I went to lunch then on impulse came back here to make sure I had two and not just one VHS box in the drawer.  We had beef and cheese sandwiches.  I had Jerry’s slice of roast beef but it still wasn’t enough meat.   We had a green salad with that and orange sherbet for dessert.  I had thought of doing a retrospective of the year 1998 (twenty years ago) but people don’t care what thoughts I have because they’re already bored with the stuff I’ve written already.  There are four “Mom” updates and I seriously doubt anybody cares. 

A Bunch of Different Stuff

Now it’s three thirty and ABC network news is doing a live feed to the west coast just like they did yesterday.  They are talking about the Park City shooting.  Seventeen are dead and Nicholas Cruise was charged with seventeen felony first degree murders.  He is of age and so is ellegible for the death penalty in Florida.  It’s said to be a very large campus.  They say you should shade the windows and turn out the lights to keep quiet.  The question is why a person so obviously mentally ill was able to buy an AR 15 a year ago.  They have a lot of live video, that’s for sure.  Cruise has lost both of his parents.  The FBI flagged a remark of Cruz last September made in twitter or something about wanting to go down in history as a mass school shooter.  But the FBI couldn’t pin it down.  The FBI was suspicious but couldn’t do anything about it.  Cruise had a real arsenal of guns in his room.  He lived in a “nice neighborhood”. 

[Yesterday] There has been another major school shooting.  This time it is at a Ft Lauderdale high school by a nineteen year old ex student with many psychological problems.  He was banned from showing up at the school with a back pack.  The shooting began about twenty to three and the students were about to be dismissed for the day.  Many terrified students actually ran into buildings and hid in closets.  The shooter’s name is Nicholas Cruise and his mother died last year.  It’s speculated he might have a beef with the teachers.  At first they said that fourteen were wounded and just one or two were dead.  Later they said that seventeen students were killed in today’s shooting.  I had on Eye Witness news after I hung up with Paul.  They also had a special airing of ABC World News Tonight at three thirty.  I imagine they’ll have a west coast update when the time rolls around.  Of course it raises the age old question about the access to guns by just about anybody no matter how mentally unstable.  Unlike other shooters he didn’t commit suicide but allowed himself to be captured an hour later.  We’ll be hearing more.  It’s been kind of overcast today and they say there’s been rain today but I haven’t seen it. 

Mon rallied today at my visit, which was encouraging to me.  Tim and Marie were there and they’d been there since just after lunch when Mom missed out on that meal.  Tim himself hadn’t eaten and needed to get lunch after he left.  The drapes were closed but we opened them.  That night stand was turned back the right way facing out into the room.  Mom definitely seemed more alert and made eye contact and smiled.  I talked to her some but it wasn’t much.  There was an aid that came in and took Mom’s oxygen and pulse level, which is in a thing on her wrist now.  I asked Paul why they had to puree her food and Paul said it was because she can hardly swallow.  The only food she ate today was a part of a muffin, a half a banana and a little applesauce with pills ground up in it.  There were no hugs from Marie today but I did kiss Mom good-bye on the lips.  They have these access codes at the gate for going both in and out.  Paul says “sometimes patients wander off”.   

I shaved and brushed my teeth twice.  I went down about twenty minutes to nine to be taken to the dentist by Alvin.  Naturally Alvin relied on the GPS thing.  We got there just before nine and parked.  I was trying to light a cigarette when the door opened.  There were two other men waiting outside and they got into a conversation about their medical problems.  I had to fill out one of these electronic gismos where you had to review your medical status and make sure it was correct.  You were supposed to touch a yellow square with your finger and turn it blue but I had to use the stylus thing and press hard.  You had to press hard for your signature too.  I didn’t get seated in the chair till about twenty after nine.  The cleaning took longer than usual.  First it was the ultra-sound thing and then it was the polishing and then a long session using the pick.  There was waiting and I was watching a thing on TV about the African savanna and the animal interaction.  Then they had a thing on cities in India invaided by some kind of monkey and also white leopards.  They said that twenty (?) men had been killed by leopards.  Dr Bui finally came in and said that I had a cavity in every front tooth and she showed me in the mirror.  She said that a year is too long for me to go without having a dental cleaning.  I also needed six root canals, which flabbergasted me.  She said they could get approval.  They took a whole lot of X rays in two different sessions.  It’s lucky I didn’t OD on X rays.  I got the fluoride treatment and I got the usual new toothbrush and stuff.  Alvin was there waiting for me at twenty to eleven.  He helped me with the electronic thing.  Besides this I was nervous.  Then we stopped off for gas on the way home.  I barely had time to smoke a cigarette before lunch. 

SONG SUBSTITUTION ALERT:  “Johnny Can’t Read” was replaced with “Star-Trekking” on “Spring Training” both on the posting and on this file.   “Rock this Joint” was replaced by “Moonage Daydream” on the album “Passionate Playthings” out in January.   In both cases the new songs had been on my mind but they ended up being dropped.  “Kid Charlemagne” replaced “Star-Trekking” as the lead-off song at the last minute.  In both cases I was just reviewing songs (in "Predators" and "Knocking Over the Bar" from October) and the fact that two duplicates showed up is a little unnerving.  Management just says “It was a translation error”.   

Russians Admit Meddling in US Elections

News we’ve heard vague rumors of recently seem to be turning out to be true.  The FBI and all of the US intelligence agencies say Russia has admitted meddling in the 2016 elections and they have just as cinnister plans to meddle in the 2018 congressional races.  They have plans to influence social media and otherwise campaign interference in 21 states.  A caller on the Norman Goldman show says he saw a map of affected states in last September’s Washington Post and that one of the states was California, though they wouldn’t have a chance here.  I am assuming the Russians want to help the Republicans because they have such a high regard for President Trump.  Trump never says anything against Putin.  They changed the Republican Convention platform two years ago on the matter of aggression in Ukraine so as to not offend the Soviets.  I can call them Soviets if I want to.  Trump of course no matter the overwhelming evidence keeps talking about “fake news”.   I would assume the CIA and our other intelligence agencies have a plan to thwart these sympathizers of Putin.  We can’t allow another election to be sabotaged.  We just need to watch the social media very closely for signs of involvement.

Today is Valentine’s Day and it’s also the first day of Lent.  This is the first time this has occurred they tell us since 1945.  However Easter fell on April Fool’s Day in 1956.  I remember because when I was a little kid at the Westchester house me and Nana were looking out the back window watching it just pouring down rain all day and Nana sings “It Ain’t Gona Rain No More, No More”.   We should pray for some of that rain this year.  Some would say the rock compilation issued today is kind of sleazy for Valentine’s Day and definitely too sleazy for Lent.  It is hoped that “giving up something for Lent” doesn’t interfere with Valentine’s Day festivities.  Some give up alcohol, others give up meat.  Just as long as you don’t give up sex.  It struck me that the economic cycle of 2007 and 2008 is starting to repeat itself.  We are falling into the mental trap of people telling us we can pull cash equity out of our houses.  We are also being told that interest rates are on their way up and if you’re going to buy a house you better buy one now before the rates get any higher.  This is the exact same thing that happened ten years ago.  Now we are told prices are so high that more people are just renting.  As to the matter of Joel Olsteen’s statement the other day about “If you don’t look for opportunities, opportunity will come looking for you” we have tomorrow’s appointment for a dental cleaning, which appeared out of the blue.  Most normal people have to wait two weeks for a dental appointment.  Not me.  The thing cleared with Federico and whoever else is driving me to the appointment.

SPRING TRAINING

Kid Charlemeign  (Steely Dan)

The Hunter Gets Captured by the Prey (Blondie)

Everybody Wants Some (Van Halen)

Dun Ringal (Live Jethro Tull)

Heroes (David Bowie)

Witchhunt (Rush)

Les Boys (Dire Straits)

Hey Bulldog (Beatles)

Freeform Guitar (Chicago Transit Authority)

Cagey Cretins (Blue Oyster Cult)

Living After Midnight (Judas Priest)

Police Truck (Dead Kennedy’s)

Ride the Lightning (Metallica)

The Severed Garden (Jim Morrison)

The front title photo is the start of a drag race at twilight.  There are six cars in a row with their headlights on.  The one closest to the camera is a Ford Galaxy.  These are cars from the late fifties and early sixties, many with fins.  There’s a guy on a platform who is lit up waving a green flag.   On the back are title listings and commentary about Russian hacking of US elections, which seems more widespread than any of us imagined.  The open out photo is of Rob Porter dragging his second wife dripping wet out of the shower grabbing her by the neck.  For you directional people she is being dragged from right to left.  Brian Jones is said to have substantially contributed input to this compilation.  It’s definitely a longer album than our last one.  Of course this represents soul-growth over the last 45 years of her life when she was a “walk-in” at age thirteen.  We end on kind of a downer-death note.  But isn’t that what ash Wednesday is all about.  According to Catholic tradition Jesus spent forty days in the desert in preparation for his death in Jerusalem.  Jim Morrison did not contribute to this album.

I prepared the room for Nora’s arrival around nine and I did have another cup of instant coffee then put the jar in the drawer.  Briefly I had Bill Handel on till Nora’s arrival.  I smoked a few cigarettes and then walked on down to the front to look at the lunch and dinner menus.  I didn’t change either of them.  They were just starting up the Catholic service around nine thirty.  There were people asking whether people wanted to get ashes for Ash Wednesday.  I didn’t feel holy enough to do that.  I went to the back again and then returned here.  Nora kept the thick red bedspread on, which I’m glad about.  Melody came in and of course Bill’s bed hasn’t been slept in in a week.  If you ask me why his bed is different, I really have no idea at this point.  It used to have something to do with scabies.  Melody asked how long I expect Bill to be gone and I said “It could be weeks at Harbor Villa”.   Bill needs a lot of medical tests in preparation for three different operations, the most important of which is his cateract surgery, which has been post-poned for months.  Of course Mom is faring even worse.  I didn’t mention the stage four metastatic breast cancer she has, which is responsible for a lot of her symptons.  

On the ABC and other news recently we’ve heard that the FBI has contradicted President Trump’s chronology of events leading to Rob Porter’s firing.  You suspect that Shawn Hannity likes to reverse the order of a lot of events when he’s not making up lies entirely.  Some chronologies are a little hard to swallow like stories about how people got rich starting an instant success business.  “Did it really happen that way?” you wonder.  On Days of our Lives you now can call it murder incorporated.  There’s an unsolved murder from a few months ago.  They are investigating a murder from a couple of weeks ago and still have half a dozen suspects in that one.  And you have John Black on a triple murder spree the past few days.  I guess if that’s the way they want to tell it, that’s the way it is.  Nobody but me seriously questions the chronology of the start-up of the Christian Church.  I guess I’m outvoted.  But I would remind you that even if every word in the New Testament is true, that doesn’t in any way affect left wing Churches who support democrats verses right wing Trumpsters who are willing to sacrifice morality in the interest of political expediency.  I don’t know for sure just how the Koch Brothers or whoever were able to convince the Republican Party to except Trump whole, flaws and all without contesting any of it.  I just hope that Special Prosecutor Muller hands down indictments soon.  

Trump Sticks It to the Poor Again

Over the past two days information about Trump’s new federal budget have been trickling out.  What we know is that he is boosting the military but cutting budgets for the State Department and foreign aid.  On the domestic front, now you have to wait 600 days to get approved if you are an applicant for Social Security disability.  Medicare and Medic-aid have been slashed.  This whole infrastructure talk is bogus.  Trump has talked about a 1.7 trillion allocation for infrastructure over the next several years but that means only 300 Billion are out of federal money and the other four fifths or more of the money has to be provided by the states, most of which appear to be broke despite a roaring economy.  I don’t know how that happens.  And also other services are being slashed such as energy assistance for heating and such in the cold weather back east, and also public housing and also food stamps.  Apparently they want to choke food stamps to death with countless new restrictions.  Norman Goldman and Bill Press were both talking about this on their programs.  Some say that when the general population is aware of these vast cuts in domestic spending they’ll vote democratic in the fall.  We can only hope but it hasn’t worked so far.  Basically all of these sacrifices of the poor go to the tax cuts we got in December for the millionaires and billionaires.  It doesn’t matter what promises Trump made to the voters in 2016, we all know the truth.  As I have said before, the only promises President Trump has actually kept are the ones he made personally to Shawn Hannity. 

Yesterday it dawned on me that we don't have "Johnny Can't Read" by Don Hendley on any of our rock compilations.  This situation may change soon.  It all depends on Management.  

My mom is fading fast as the following paragraph illustrates. 

Paul called at five to twelve saying he’d be over in ten minutes.  He arrived at twenty after.  The place is off Brookhurst just past the railroad track.  Once again Mom was sleeping and it took time to wake her.  But she seemed unable to say very much and it was disconcerting.  We learn that she has general weakness on her left side perhaps due to a stroke.  Perhaps this is why she fell in the first place.  Her left eye was droopy and a care giver remarked that the whole side of her face was droopy and she had little use in her left arm and hand.  The place was in the eighties when we arrived and the TV was on.  Paul opened the patio door.  We turned the TV off.  I asked Mom whether she watched much TV and she shook her head no.  She complained of pain in her stomach.  Paul did her nails remarking on how dirty they were.  There were two aids in the room and one of them had really big eyes.  Both were fairly young.  UTI stands for urinary tract infection, which they feared Mom might develop.  One of them explained that sometimes it makes more sense to put patients in diapers rather than risk their falling being taken to the bathroom.  The two aids stressed that they are the caring type and will not leave a dying patient to vegetate in isolation.  I hope it hasn’t come to that yet.  The first thing I noticed when I entered the room was that there was an oxygen tank in the room and it was on and making a noise.  The aids believed Mom should be on oxygen all the time and not just when her number dipped really low.  But prior to this day Mom never needed oxygen at all.  Her blood pressure was high at 148 over 110, which is definitely high. The bathroom had a shower but no step so it seems the water would just run all over the floor.  I sometimes sensed I wasn’t phrasing things quite tactfully enough.  We were there a little less than two hours and left at twenty after two.  They took Mom to breakfast but she wasn’t eating but only slumped over her chair.  Paul worries that there is a risk of giving her too much pain medication.  Tim and Wendy had lunch with Mom yesterday and she was doing a lot better then.  The only thing is that Tim said she wasn’t talking much.  Paul called Judy twice while we were there.  The second time was out on the patio just before we left.  Paul asked me about the Time magazines but I didn’t want them because they were a month old and I have my own magazines.  There was an empty bed in the room.  Sometimes you’d hear cries of “Help!” down the hall.  We arrived back here just before two thirty.  (The place isn’t far)  I borrowed a cigarette from Larry and five minutes later I borrowed another cigarette from Ron.  I guess I was having a nicotine shortage.