We need a question in that “Pyramid” game show, “Things that mysteriously disappear”. Like Nicole Walker. She was on the “Days” soap opera for years and the last we heard she was competing with Samantha for Austin’s affections. She was trying to be his girlfriend and win his love and I think she was sent out on some assignment or something- - and was never heard from again. Then we have Richi Cunningham’s older brother, Chuck. He went out to play basketball and was never heard from again. He just “slipped away quietly in the night”. Then we had last night’s crab salad. It was on the menu, but we didn’t have it. This morning I ran into a real “trifecta” of disappointment on the radio stations on computer. WBFX and KCFX, two “fox” stations from Grand Rappids and Kansas City, respectably, don’t come in now, along with KUPD near Phoenix, Arizona. You get those annoying “file missing” indicators you never got before. The same thing happened with KHTS or whatever from St. Louis, Missouri. Then we have a couple of Bob Dylan albums, “A Fool Such as I” and I believe the Ronaldo and Clara soundtrack. These were not listed in an official list of Bob Dylan albums. Are you saying I imagined them? And then we have the Rev. O. L. Jaggers. His messages were flooding the air waves and he claimed he had “conquered the fources of aging and death”, along with his wife, the lovely Miss Velma. Then he vanished from the air waves. There was no news of his death, not that that would stop anybody. A lot of people remember the proposed Huntington Beach Freeway. They had four routs proposed. Although to be fair I did hear news that was officially canceled. There is that tape of my grandmother around Thanksgiving 1964 and there is a passage “Oh, I was going to tell you what happened today when I went to pick up my groceries”. She never got around to saying and I never heard the story. That’s one thing I’m going to ask her in heaven. Then there is the “Get Back” album that origionally was going to feature the cover of “The blue album” with the Beatles looking over that balcony. Then there is the Zodiac Killer. Was he myth or reality? Never caught. Then there is candidate for Vice President, Thomas Eagelton. What ever happened to him? Then there’s the inheritance my mother was going to receive from her older cousin, as the only surviving most immediate relative. News of that disappeared. Then we have Fred Thompson’s run for the Presidency. He seems to have disappeared off the radar screen after boldly saying he was going to announce in early July. I think the Guiliani people must have gotten to him saying “the fix was in” already.

Back in the mid seventies there were roomers that the next Catholic Pope to be chosen would be a liberal or at least a radical departure from the usual because the composition of the denomination was changing. Well, we’re still waiting for that moderate-to-liberal pope. Women haven’t fared too well in the disappearance routing. How many remember the Equal Rights Amendment? Then there’s the Susan B. Anthony dollar and the more recent Sacageui dollar. Now they’re saying they’re going to stop minting pennies because of the price of copper, but I remember the same story running in 1974 and it still hasn’t happened yet. There seems to be some sort of conspiracy against women in terms of coinage. What about episodes seven, eight, and nine of the Star Wars series? We’ve been waiting thirty years but for some reason they never got around to doing these. There are roomers that a key figure, perhaps Harry Potter himself, is going to die in the final Harry Potter story. There was talk about some new laser beam system for TV’s with way superior color. Some TVs get shown for years in these electronics shows but never get produced. Remember when they said that nuclear electric power would be so cheap they wouldn’t evem meter it because it was so plentiful?

The thing is, we can expect a lot of other traits of our government and rights to be a fading memory. Even if a Democrat gets elected next year I predict no aspects of the Patriot Act will be repealed. Even if a Democrat is elected none of the NAFTA treaties will be undone. Corporations have too much power and are in love with the status quo. Even if a democrat gets elected don't expect the global warming situation to improve much, if at all. This whole world wide concert business on seven continents is causing more polution and "carbon footprint" than it's solving. The only thing I think will happen is taxes on the rich will be increased because there is so gosh darn much money out there to be taxed that the rich have and we aren't getting. Expect civil rights to be increasingly trampled upon. This also includes Fascisum of the left in the case of Hillary becomming president. Except law suits over things like sexual harrassment to increase or suits against free expression of Religion. Someone said government jamming of cell phone frequencies was illegal. Here is an area where the government may bow to corporations and allow them to jam frequencies to enfource their rules. In terms of all the Bush securety paranoid, don't expect any of that to change under either Hillary or Giuliani. In fact securety could become more of an issue as Al Qaida seeks to test the new government like they did in Britain.

As you know here in California those nutrition laws for school kids took effect July first so there is no selling of soda pop or other junk food. The cell phone laws here take place next July first where it is illegal to drive holding a cell phone. Under any new President, the immigration problem will only be solved by making it worse. Expect either Hillary of Giuliani to allow MORE immigrants accross the border than are coming now. Except the slave working class to increase even under a democrat. Hillary is not a democrat on economic issues. You can pretty much expect the economy to fall apart under Hillary and she won't care; she'll just blame Bush and think she's solved something.

In terms of the War in Iraq this won't be near the issue people think it will be next year. In the first place talk of Impeachment will become a thing of the past. You won't hear about it any more either for Chaney or Bush. Expect to hear less and less of any of these investigative committes of congress. You'll about forget any of them exist because nothing will be said. It will be just another of those disappearing acts. Expect President Bush to be so stealthful in bringing the troops home that nobody makes it an issue in the campaign next year. If anybody tries to raise it as in issue they will be accused of "wallowing in the past" and "taking time away from the democratic agenda". Of course things are and will be a total disaster when we leave, but they won't get any worse. They're already as bad as they can get. Giuliani could still win next year by "playing the securety card". As to Fred Thompson, I don't think he's running or he would have gotten in the race by now. I think he knows he can't win against Hillary but Rudy can.

And that's the way it is on this July 7th. 2007