I R S Scandal - What I R S Scandal?

Let’s talk about this whole so called I R S scandal.  I wanted to wait until Randi Rhodes had weighed in on this issue before I commented on it at length.  Because clearly there IS no “scandal”.  And for the media and even the President to buy into the idea that there IS some sort of “scandal” shows what whooses they all are.  Because the law is clear according to Randy.  Groups filing under this file category have to be non political non profit “service organizations” who have to “primarily” be engaged in some sort of service to society.  Clearly these tea party groups are not primarily engaged in any such thing but in fact are Primarily- - Political Action Comittees.   Their whole role is to promote various political candidates and work for the outcome of legislation that is in their Interest.  As such the IRS not only has the right but is bound by law to scrutinize these groups carefully before lending them special status.  Nobody wants to have the Internal Revenue Service on their case.  Indeed this is “a fate worse than death” because once the IRS gets on your case about something they won’t let go but keep hounding you.  And the thing is you basically Have no rights because the IRS is an entity unto itself.  If you are a distributer of medical marijuana, for instance, or a dealer in a Las Vegas casino. The chances are virtually a hundred percent that you will be audited.  But groups like Americans for Prosperity, which is a Koch Brothers group, or groups dedicated to “taking back the government’ are overtly political.  I wish the media would have been objective about this story from the git go.  Randi points out that once the congressional hearing is convened people like the Koch Brothers should be called as witnesses and asked all of those hard questions Americans have been wanting to ask them for years.  The problem is that this President when push comes to shove- - will seldom stand up for just and right causes.  Other than Obamacare and gay marriage- - you’d be hard pressed to come up with an issue of concern to progressives that this President gives a diddly-doo about.  I find the presidents “coolness” about virtually everything kind of unnerving, to tell you the truth.  It’s like he’s got ice water in his veins.

Here is a breaking news story.  In California they want to reduce the legal blood alcohol level for driving to point .05%.   Point 08% is over-bearing, but point .05% is completely absurd.  It's pretty much like they are shooting for the outright banning of having had any alcohol and driving.  You know in China they have really strict laws about a lot of things - - but only chose to Enforce them on political Enemies.  I think the same thing could happen here.  When you consider that untill 1965 the level was .15% - - the idea of reducing it this much is completely self-defeating.  Clearly other things such as distractions in the car - texting - age - senility - - medication - - for instance 'sleep driving' on Ambien - - or just being physically sleepy for that matter- - have a far more profound effect on performance does ingestion of less than two glasses of wine, or whatever this figure ammounts to.  It's as nutty as all of these outdoor smoking bans, or getting rid of fire pits along Southern California beaches.  Are the incidence of violent Crimes in this State so low that cops and the courts have all that extra time to sit around ajudicating these cases. (?) 

As to the Kings and the Sharks, the Federation is supporting the Kings.  Unlike most of the Bay Area - - the Sharks have absolutely no cosmic pedigree at all.  In Bekersfield these eight Sherif's all gamged up beating of some lower income 34 year old in Bakersfield with four kids - - to death.  Tanya Hart played the 911 call an eye witness made.  They said the cops were going around conthiscating people's I Phones, because there were many witnesses to this event.  There was this one guy lying on the ground and these eight cops were just whaling on him beating in the head- - kind of a regular Raphael Hernandez treatment.  (My guess of the ethnicity of the victim is that he is Latino).  Someone said that these kinds events have occurred in Bakersfield before.  I always got positive vibes from Bakersfield myself.  - - FH says "This is not what Romulans do".  It isn't what "White Andromidans do either".   They and the Romulans share Kern County in sort of a checkerboard pattern.  

Then we have another Sunday story I haven’t gotten around to talking about till now and that is this guy who had a fence dispute with his neighbor takes a bulldozer and starts plowing into homes.  I can’t imagine what the bill for the property damage he’s caused will be.  I just hope the guy doesn’t declare bankruptcy or something and escape all repayment.    How much needless "energy" is wasted in long time personal feuds?  Here is another question for Neil Savedra.  Neil likes to tell us what a wonderful thing Evil is because "It brings out the selfless heroic deeds of certain people".  I have a question.  What if all that energy spent in combating Evil- - was Instead harnessed in working for some new Good, like find a cure for cancer or genetic defects?

Dr. Joyce Brothers died a day or so ago.  She’s one of those celebreties I thought I’d heard had passed away perhaps a year or so ago, but it just happened.  Maybe it’s my “mental radar’ or something.  I first heard of Joyce Brothers I guess when she was a guest speaker on ABC news or something.  She’s a psychologist who was always up-beat and positive, and never got into any of the weird stuff other people have ventured into.  There used to be a lot of daytime psychologists with shows on the radio.  Twenty or thirty years ago they were a talk-show staple, but they seem to be all gone now.  You had Tony Grant.  She was the most famous one.  But you also had people like David Viscott and Barbra DeAngeles and Laura Schleshenger, before she got religion and got politically weirded out and began using the N word with callers.

Tanya Hart is upset about the idea that the world’s oldest profession is still alive and well.  Apparently she was ticked off at this Mayor of Osaka. Japan saying that prostitution was par for the cource during World War II and in the war they were referred to as “comfort women”.  Tanya Hart isn’t against our men having a little “comfort” with their R & R, is she?  So many women, more in the media than in person, seem to intone that “Men don’t know what women’s true needs are”.  If you took these people seriously you’d get the idea that women in general have a major need NOT to engage in sex, at least with a man.   Some people are inconsistent as hell on the subject of sexual morays.  For instance Neil Savedra of KFI is insensed that a Christian church would not want an openly gay person going to their church.   And yet these people say “Hetrosexual people commit sins too”.   Here’s an eye opener for you.  Untill very recently there was NO legitimate outlet for gay sex.  At least with heterosexual sex a substantial portion of it was conducted within the bounds of marriage.  And as Dennis Prager points out (and Tanya Hart may agree) that women are “moralizers’ to “keep men on the right track”.  When gay sex – all of this is thrown out the window, because the majority of their sex is bar hopping one night stands having sex with several partners a week- - and that partner is just as morally licensious as they are so there is no restraint or brake put on the encounter.  This whole thing Days of our Lives is doing with the image of gays is like putting lipstick on a pig.

In terms of the Los Angeles mayoral race I wouldn’t vote for either of these jerk-offs at this point because both are guilty of political scandals that would disqualify them for dog catcher, as the saying goes, let along mayor.  But particularly Garsetti.  The idea that with the skeletons in his closet he’s even among the top two- - is indicative that someone’s moral compass is broken.  But Wendy Gruel is no prize either.  She’s got this deal with the Dept of Water and Power which is pretty blanket political bribery and special interest.

A drifting large sheet of ice in Minnesota flattened several houses near a lake side because the ice block was massive and wasn’t melting- - but it was just sliding over the frozen ground – and there was apparently no way to stop it.   This made the news two days in a row.    We should really bad freak things like this don't happen more often, such as the Chiahoga River catching fire due to industrial pollutants, or sink holes opening up in the ground and devowering houses, or the spungelitus virus (mad cow disease) that turns your brain tissue to sponge.  Of course Star Trek pushes the Freaky to heights not exceeded to this day.  Take that "disturbance" in the atmospheric continuoum or whatever that Captain Piccard was tricked into causing himself by "Q" that "spread into the past' and got bigger and bigger the farther back into the past you went.  The thing with Stories is that they always happen the way Writers want them to happen.  All else has to subordenate itself to the plot- - even reason and logic.  If people read the Bible with an eye tword asking simple questions such as 'If I were actually there would I have thought people were acting normally?"  Most stories "break down" upon logical scruteny.  For instance whoever Wrote - the New Testament - - was not at all fond of the notion of the Jewish people being rewarded in their lives and nation is they were but pious and dealt with sin severely and didn't worship foreign idols.  The trouble is when the Jewish people meet all these criteris and Still are acursed by God- - you have to ask yourself "Who's Telling This Story?"  (Selah)

Two more groups who are in the “Torino” group - - are the Outsiders with “Time Won’t Let Me”.  I mention this because they put a hex on the Smithereens for using this song in 1994 without their cosmic permission - - and the group – which had been high flying for eight years – was never heard from again, but gets virtually no plays on oldies stations.  The other artist is Bobby Hebb with “Sonny”.  And I guess it’s understandable why I would have forgotten that one.   Lee Dorsey - and Robert Parker (?) “Barefottin” are both Portland Reigelians, and along with a group that had seven hits in all (although the two 1965 hits were rather corn-ball), the Kingsmen, are the only submissions I know about by them.  I am reminded by Bones that Sam Cooke is residing on Sirius “O” right now.  In terms of en-grams some say they only come AFTER an event.   But I myself go for the “Helen Wheels” approach.  As you on my copy of the disk there are two “print through” previews of the opening guitar rift before the song actually begins.  I think they should do that all the time.  This is the way that engrams work in that they are not time sensitive.  Or stated another way- - they are not subject to the influence of the Higgs Bozon.   People don’t “cause” this or that event with positive or negative thoughts- - but the Event may CAUSE positive or negative thoughts in advance.

The Problem Is - There Is No Solution

Some may put forth the proposition that if you are able to state any given situation as a Problem per se, then there is by that very perameter, some sort of Solution somewhere.  But in the case of tea party hysteria we need to take a sober look at the prospects of a saner, more progressive minded America any time soon.   Randi Rhodes and others love to comfort themselves with the notion that they are winning on all the major issues in the public oppinion polls.  But the fact is I never in the world dreamed that the Tea Party would take over the government back in 2010 when our side controled both houses of Congress.  And even if the 2014 congressional races should bode encouraging for the democrats there are still all of the State Governments out there.  We have tea party governors of sizable states and state legislatures- - passing their extremist laws such as union and pension busting, and their nullification laws, and even prohobitions of what local governments may determine for themselves.  This situation isn't going away anytime in the forseable future.  And of course there are these "plant' callers on radio show where they claim to be a life long liberal - - with a big BUT - - or else they say they are just a truth seeking Independent, and yet- - you can tell from their rehearsed tea party talking point that everything about their call has been scripted.  They will not listen and they will ignore evidence.  One line they are apparently still using when reminded by Randi of the fact that there were 54 embassy attacks (?) or something during the Bush Administration and thirteen Americans died they will use the old "Well, that was then and this is now" chestnut.  This is the line made immortal in my life by Pete Richards' use of the phrase on Mothers Day 1994.  These people have such inherently short memories that virtually Yesterday could be "the past" to these people.  Randi reminded one caller of the three times President Obama used the term "Terrorist act" on speeches on three consecutive days.  This was in the Rose garden on Sept 12th and in Las Vegas on the 13th and in Denver on September 14th.  Usually when confronted with strong evidence the caller is wrong about something they will go silent- - or mutter some non relevent trite saying under their breath.  I myself am no longer going to press the topic of the deaths in Bengazi in an adversarial way.  Basically because I don't want to be associated with all the right leaning wing nuts out there.  These people keep saying "Just wait till after the election and this will be a big scandal".  Then it's "Just wait untill January" and then it's "Just wait till the spring".  But of course people's memories are so short they will care about none of this when 2016 rolls around whether Hillary runs or not.   These people who say that "This scandal is ten times worse than Iran-Contra and Watergate rolled together" are pretty much desperate for some sort of vindication of their sorry beliefs that this President is somehow an Islamic apologist or something.  But of course if you will remember back to 1998 (and I advise these Republicans to do just that) they will remember that the Democrats actually gained in congress that year, which definitely surprised year.  It was at that point the Impeachment Republicans knew they were toast.  Because the people just got sick of their talking about nothing but that.  Now hopefully the people will get sick of Bengazi every time they turn on their FOX news.  Of course initially I was pleased they were investigating at all because at least these lazy dolts were actually "at work" and "doing their job".  But the thing is that all other legislation is being ignored by benign neglect.   Their case on the facts against Obama gets weaker with each passing day as this economy gets stronger.  This economy has endured the tripple whammy of the payroll tax increase of two percent,  the hike in the ammount the rich pay, and now the Sequester, which impacts everyone.  And still this economy is making gains.  This can't be good news at all for people like Mort Zuckerman - - who lives the eternal dream that this economy of ours will crash and burn, and he can then get on the Mc Laughlin group and say "I told you so".

There is lodged the complaint that the media will be more inclined to herald the news of a crime against Whites as opposed to a crime against Blacks.  That Black abortion doctor in Pennsylvania was in the business of aborting babies of poor Blacks.  Apparently this doctor got convicted by a jury on enough charges to draw the death penalty, if they are so disposed.  I'm not sure how the tea party would handle this story because it's entrepenural free enterprise supplying a service "the market" will pay for.  Besides these people can't claim Christian scruples because Ayan Rand was required reading in Paul Ryan's office.  Still the idea of "any Black getting ahead" probably bothers them.  For people with any kind of a moral compass this call is easy.  The doctor is a depraved sicko who deserves never again to see the light of day.  Then of course we have the shooting at that New Orleans Mother's Day parade in "the primarily Black seventh ward".   Nineteen people were shot, but I guess this story didn't make the news because nobody was killed.  Finally we have the two Castro Brothers- who certain people (such as myself) have lingering doubts about.  How could you be a visitor to a house over a period of ten years and not think something was awfully funny because a whole big segment of the house was "forbidden territory" - ever.  Would not they hear female voices or smell perfume or see a few strands of long hair or some other tell tale giveaway.   Those women were in a trap.  They indeed "Had a problem for which there was No Solution - for ten long years".  This country is being "Held hostage' by the tea party.  Our government is broken and I know of no easy way of fixing it.  In the words of Maurice Evans "Some tradition is like a bad egg - - it's better to break it than to keep it" or as Vladimir Lenin said, "In order to make an omlet you have to break some eggs".  My point?  This government is like a bad egg and perhaps the kindest thing we could do for it is to "put it out of its misery".   As to the log jam in congress I'm reminded of General Patton in a small villa in Italy and there was a jackass on the bridge holding up the entire convoy and Patton ended that problem with a bullet to the head, of the jackass.  Sometimes there ARE solutions to problems - - but they might not be pretty ones.

The gays can celebrate once more.  Minnisota became the twelfth state to ratify gay marriage.  One state house voted on the bill a few days ago and the other house followed suit today.  The bill will be signed by the Governor tomorrow, and as of August first it will be legal for members of the same sex to marry.  It does strike me that tea party members seem more willing to accomidate the needs of gay people and weigh their vote- - but they are still letting the poor and the Blacks twist in the wind.  Maybe it's because there is more of a liklyhood of having a closet queer in your family rather than a "closet Black" in your family.  In terms of the Supreme Court ruling on proposition eight I would remind you that nearly half of the states had direct ballot propositions banning gay married and as the Conservatives point out Every One Of Them Has Passed at least as of a year ago. To straight marriage has the support of the people, which is what Democrats have historically stood for, which is submitting measures to the votes of the common people.  But we are told the Supreme Court has no spine and that they bend to the political breases.  So they are as legally impotent it seems as some would have you that gay men are sexually impotent when confronting sex with a woman.  You know if Justice Roberts was really against Obama Care, he should have voted that way.  "Playing politics" with legal decisions is risky business, and no one in my generation was raised to expect that that is how the Supreme Court reached its decisions.

In soap land it looks as if Nick Fallon is being framed for possibly murder (if Raphael doesn't live- and his chances seem precarious) because E J wants Nick dead (a) because it will make Samantha happy and (b) killing Raphael will remove that ever present romantic rival.  And right now Kate is convinced that Stephano had Raphael bumbed off.  But they'll all get their stories straight and unite against Nick Fallon in the end.  Because when in times of stress - - blame the Straight Guy.  You have Will and Sonny and their little half baked theory about why they think Nick did it.  But if Nick did do it he wouldn't walk right back into the lion's den.  Here he is driving his grieving bride to the hospital and verbally jousting with Nick and Sonny in the hospital.  If nothing else if I did do it I would disappear for a couple days and say it was a business trip where lots of money could be made or something.  And I might take that time to actually MAKE business deals so I wouldn't be lying.  (If I were)  I wouldn't walk right into the lion's den moments after the crime was comitted.  Not with a whole room of people who hate the worst of me - for that deadly sin of "being a homophobe".  And the thing is I'd borrow against future earnings with Kate while the bank would still lend it to me.  And if I played my cards right- - you know who might let me have some of the "investment' I was making on my own behalf.  Perhaps there is some brotherhood of ex cons out there.  But then I'd hire the best attorney I could find and get every delay from a Judge I could get and hopefully a change of venue.  The entire town of Salem hates me after all- - so that shouldn't be too difficult for any objective justice to figure out.  And I'll tell you the most important thing I'd do and quickly.  I'd divorce Gabriel and this I Would try to "fast-track" as much as I could.  Hopefully Gabriel would cooperate here.   Of course the point is that by the time a jury is being selection the other side will look silly trying to "sell" this "obsession" crap they're peddeling.  That somehow I was so obsessed with Gabriel I'd even kill to hang on to her.  This girl has been more trouble to Nick than she's worth.  I'd give her some advice.  "Clearly you feel much closser emotional ties to Will than you do to me.  I can tell you do, because I've seen how you've acted since I was charged".  Of course no trial in soap opera history has ever gone on for a year.  As a rule - - murder trials are routinely "fact tracked" on soap operas to take only a few weeks from first charges to conviction and sentensing.  (Selah)

"US Again'st Wars?" - We're Kidding Ourselves!

I watched Face the Nation on computer.  I watched the two short segments of Robert Gates and then the long “second half” segment.  The guy didn’t say much and made little sense.  He’s against going to war or intervening in Syria for the following reasons.  “Revolutions are bad and they almost never work out.”  And “wars we fight in seldom come out the way we expect them to” and also “Besides we’re just one country.  Why doesn’t some other nation like Turkey deal with the problem?  They have more of an interest”.   The thing is then he was asked about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.  He says of the latter “Karzai told us he wanted us out in five years back in2009 and we’re trying to comply with that.  But I think it would be a disaster if we got completely out by the end of 2014 because Al Qaeda would re-emerge”.  And Gates said of Iraq that “We really can’t say if it was right to go to war there.  The US made an honest mistake about their being weapons of mass destruction there”.   No.  It wasn’t an “honest mistake”.  We knew all along there was never any evidence to their being “weapons of mass destruction” or yellow cake or aluminum rods or what have you?  I gleaned from the tone of Gate’s remarks his stance on war is akin to Neil Savedra’s stance on prayer.  Let me explain what the two have in common.  We like the idea of being “at war” because it’s a good “pose’ for the President of the United States.  We like to use war as a tool of economic profiteering.  But basically we don’t want the wars we want to mean anything.  We only get into wars where there is essentially nothing to win and nothing to lose.  So why do it?  Most people agree that the Mideast is anything less safe with Saddam Hussein gone.  As Pat Buchannon said “We had Saddam in a box”.  He wasn’t going anywhere.  Then I read George Washington’s blog and that was an eye opener that our country was involved in some sixty foreign conflicts.

Since President Barack Obama has been willing to give the go ahead to operations that President George W. Bush would not have approved, operations have been much more aggressive and, presumably, JSOC has been able to fan out and work in way more countries than ever expected.
Global assassinations have been embraced by the current administration, opening the door to night raids, drone strikes, missile attacks where cluster bombs are used, etc. Each of these operations, as witnessed or experienced by the civilian populations of countries, potentially inflame and increase the number of areas in the world where there are conflict zones.

Pat Buchannon threw a spaz on the immigration bill and doesn’t like Rubio’s denunciation of the Heritage Foundation report, which is completely bogus.  But Pat believes every word of it and says that we have to put a moratorium on immigration for thirty or forty years or so like we did after 1920 to “assimilate the people who are already here”.   All he sees is “another ten or twelve million coming in” if we sign this bill.  Pat’s fears have absolutely no foundation in fact and the best he can do is point to the fiasco that occurred under President Reagan.  No need to tell you these times are very different from then.  However Pat has a point when he says "Americans would pick those crops if we paid them a decent wage".  I'm glad Pat buys into my assertion that a loose aliens policy drives down the wage base.  If the wage base were higher, people would earn more and spend more- - and Pay More Taxes.  Ahh - Soo - !  There was some Atlantic trade bill that only two congressmen are for and hasn’t been in the news at all, so the program seems D O A.  Pat Buchannon is really afraid our “record trade deficets with all nations” will only get worse.  My impression was that trade deficets have come sharply down.  I still don’t this bill is a good idea given European instability.  Then of course the Bengazi thing made it as a topic this week.  Pat has very definite ideas about this one too, and is a notable spokesmen for those who say the Obama administration is guilty of a little hanky-panky. The next day on Meet the Press I hate to say it but Daryl Eisa was the guy who appeared to be talking straight.  That other guy was doing "government speak".  They always talk about how disorganized things are in the military and how bad communacation is and the meme seems to generally be "We just can't do that".  Gates actually had the gall to say "Too many Americans get their ideas of what the military should be like from watching the Movies".   I hardly see how it makes the Obama administration or ANY administration look better to say "You know- - we don't do all that much planning ahead"  (Selah)

BLAST FROM THE PAST 2010: 
The senate finally passed the final version of the Wall Street and banking reform bill that has been hanging in the balance.  The vote was 60 to 39.  They call it the most sweeping bill since the great depression.  It regulates derivatives and apparently sets up some whole new committee.  It gives the consumer further financial protection.  But the liberal opponents call it LINO for legislation in name only.  If that’s the case maybe according to Walter Martin and Neil Savedra, Jesus was a WINO, or wimp in name only since they say he didn’t oppose violence or war but taught self defense and encouraged people to sell their goods and buy weapons.  This bill will not “fix” the basic economic problems we have.  Banks will continue to sit on cash and starve out the little guy and small businesses.

Leo talked about old photos and referred to two hundred as a “small amount”.  Of course they had I Phones in the news because people replace them ever two & a half years.  They delete them but of course that material can be recovered, at the TV news crew demonstrated.   To me I’m wondering how much actual time people save in all these new files and lists and indexes and stuff, because they have to spend so much time going through and maintaining them.  That’s when they aren’t replacing either their smart phones, or their tablets, or what have you?   I guess I’ll do a new posting when I come up with a topic that won’t bore me to death.  People don’t invest time to read any more but they look at everything on the fly.  They are going to their underground parking lots, or they are in a subway line waiting to get on, or perhaps they are reading at the dinner and they are trying to screen out whatever their wives are nagging them about.   People don’t look at reading as a “serious pastime”.  And they have no sense of things being durable over time.  So many of these “tweets” are going to appear downright silly in less than five years.   Sometimes when I look at old postings looking for some new “insight” about “How I viewed the Bush administration at the time” I’m disappointed.   I think it’s because so MUCH of what makes that era different from now was all the things that were just Unknown to Exist - - at that time.  And it’s kind of hard to find reflections on not having things that didn’t even exist yet.