Nothing Gay about the Obama Administration

You know the Obama Administration isn’t so gay after all. The Administration is righting the overturning of “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” by the Court last week. It seems silly for the administration to work against themselves but legal experts tell me that’s the way it has to be. Otherwise any bill congress passes could be overturned by one friendly judge. You know the “lame duck” congress is just as potent in their abilities as any other congress and perhaps more so. That is because they don’t have to fear an election because they have already been voted out of office in some cases. They are in a unique position to do a maximum amount of damage before they leave, and might as well take advantage of that. I imagine they will renew all the Bush tax cuts before they leave. It was just arrogance that caused the President to get that Health Bill passed that mobody wants and everybody wants repealed. The President can hardly campaign on the truth when the truth is that the Republicans wanted to work with him. But the president said “I won, and that’s the end of the story”. If you are going to make a statement like that you better be prepared to face the consequences, and the President will. People will see the emptiness in his words. There is a good chance that the provisions of the health care bill that require people to purchase health coverage will be declared unconstitutional. People don’t like the idea of a gigantic nanny state. The sheer complexity of the health care bill invites charges of “socialized medicine” even if it isn’t true. Obama can’t be honest about his Wall Street connections. The people know that rather than useful jobs bills, the democrats were let loose and carried through with every pipe dream and pork barrel project they could come up with, no matter how silly or wasteful it was. The democrats acted as if they had a free pass but once again they were wrong, and in November they will pay the price. If by some miracle the democrats should survive November 2^nd it won’t be because of the President’s campaigning but in spite of it. But if the President loses big this month he’ll look all the worse because he campaigned for his ideas so hard.

We’ve heard so much on the radio about the Koch brothers, as if they run everything political in America. They fund all of the republican groups. They even fund callers who flood call in talk shows and message boards. Thom Hartman is endeavoring to seek out and ban these people who post several times a day on message boards. Clearly these people are filthy rich and could retire and not bother anybody and be fine. But they want more and more power till America is like some third world banana republic, run by a small military junta. Of course we learned yesterday that when these tea baggers do voter signing petitions to get things on the ballot it might be something like animal dissection they would get liberals to sign. But they will get them to register to vote and insist the petition won’t count unless the X for Republican is marked, “because of a technicality”. And after this these ex democrats are targeted with epecially designed Republican literature aimed at ex democrats. Also of course they won’t get the services that drive them to the polls as usual, for instance, if they’re old people. Not only this but now they are running commercials in Spanish that say that the best way that Democrats can “send Washington a message” is to not vote next month. Presumably this is in response to the lack of action on a comprehensive immigration bill where illegal aliens can earn their right to eventual citizenship. You know one thing you can say about the political scene now is at least “Christ” has been kept out of it. This is a Christ-less political movement. Religion, for the most part, hasn’t gotten involved. Of course there are some really BAD churches on the left, too and I’ll name two of them - Gene Scott and Jim Jones. But this season it’s the liberals that are self sacrificing and not Christians. They used to extol the virtues of giving in the Church, although as I have said, this is usually with an ulterior motive, at least historically. But liberals will give their own money to make it so they will be among the ones who pay higher tax rates. But liberals are not a “Me first, last and only” type the way that conservatives are. We know this is the first all out corporately funned election. Campaign coffers are setting new records. No matter what happens, the whole world is watching, as they say. The whole world sees what America’s polital system has degenerated into. I would suggest prayer but I’m keeping God out of all this. This is not his problem. This is an issue of the American voters exercising responsibility in November in stopping this whole nut job tea party crowd from taking over the halls of Congress in January. It’s going to be really trippy around here come January if they win. One wonders just how far their sheer gall and avarice will take them. What rights will be suspended next. What is the next thing to be privatized? The police department? The military? We’re already half way there with blackwater and all that. Obama is a tool of Wall Street. He is doing what they tell him to do and that is to reinflate the bubble and keep the party going. Nobody can see beyond the next six months these days anyhow. One might think there would come a time where they will conclude they have arrived at perfection and control everything they desire to be controlled. But you really have to wonder what new unseen horrors are around the corner. There is the law of unintended consequences, and the ramifications of their actions now will cast a long shadow into the future. A future beyond 2012. If Sarah Palin really can see 2012 from her window I’m sure even she must shudder at the sight.

Another Day in the Life

We are in lavender. I also just changed the wallpaper from “Autumn” to that thing that says “Fresh Flowers”, which is a clone of a single purple flower all over the screen. Milcago changed their icon from a gold letter to red and white “M”. This is an overcast October 18, 2010. There just isn’t a whole lot of news that I have any particular pearls of wisdom to comment on today. I’m going to let my blog readers “follow me around” today a little. They predicted rain today and the next two days but we haven’t gotten it except just a bit early this morning. Terry told me last night he would come late if he had to mow some lawns, but if it rained he would come early. He told me the grass was too wet to mow this morning. I kind of hinted that more rain was predicted and maybe he should try and get a few jobs in before the major rains come.

Last night I watched two reasonably long segments on ABC news. One was the Roundtable on the Tea Party and the other was the Roundtable on “Show us the money” or get people to reveal their sources. The Philly’s beat the Giants six to one and the game ran till about 8:25 as I recall. I would imagine their Sunday schedule was torpedoed. I watched Sixty Minutes. First there was the story of the homeless veterans who had served multiple tours in Afghanistan. These people have suffered a lot and they say that the homeless situation often occurs after a tour of duty but that in the case of Viet Nam it took a lot longer for the crisis to develop. We should keep these people in our prayers. And then there was the whole thing with Israel and Palistine. We are so intent on walking on their rights and digging under their homes and illegally selling their property and claiming it for Israel. Jimmy Carter is the only person who really has this whole Israel – Palistine crisis properly pegged. The third segment was that film journey down Market Street in San Francisco about two weeks before the great earthquake. They estimate the film was taken either the end of March or the beginning of April in 1906 after there had been a period of extended rain and the ground was wet. It’s a revealing slice of Americana. The filmers had no idea most of these buildings would soon be destroyed. Some said they actually wanted to create the impression that there were lots of motorized automobiles in San Francisco as opposed to the rest of the country.

Monday morning was dark and murky, of course. That’s par for the course this time of year. We had under filled bowls of corn flakes and a fried egg and toast with butter and jelly. I kind of ran a new guy off who wanted to sit down and then took Antwenette’s orange juice and had 3/5 myself and 2/5 or so to Andrew. Coffee was late in being served and there were no seconds for breakfast. I had Stephanie Miller on both before and after breakfast. Apparently there was talk that Blacks and the Young are two groups the Right Wing are afraid of. They are trying to keep Blacks from voting. And it seems the young have given up on religion preferring ‘None of the above”, because they see religion as too bigoted, narrow minded, and reactionary. There is hope for the young people yet. This new demographic is no surprise to me. I’m only wondering why we didn’t see the trend sooner. Otherwise it was the same old stuff in the news.

Terry called me up and informed me that he was parked right outside in the parking lot. I gathered my wallet and the check with the account number on it, and went down. He said they had problems with the old Youth Director at C of A and now they have a new, less experienced one. As usual I asked about Terry’s mother. “She needs to see the dentist”. She and me both. I went into the bank alone with my forty. I was in a short line and this woman comes along and says she could help me even sooner. So I go with her and give her my money and then she says she has to leave. I got a little nervous wondering if I trusted in the wrong person. But she came back with the receipt, and a business card, and brought up my receiving direct payment for Social Security. How did she know I was even on that? I didn’t tell her. But I told her I didn’t think the place would look kindly on my getting the money and deciding how much I want to pay them, rather than them deciding how much they’ll pay me. Then I went back to the truck and I went to the wrong white truck. Terry showed me a video he’d made of himself and others at the Silverado carnival. He also had a corny riddle. I was kind of thinking this might be a good morning to go to IHOP for pancakes or something, but that didn’t happen. And Terry had more information about gay people he wanted me to investigate. I don’t know where he comes up with this information but I wrote stuff down.

We had cold cuts for lunch and I had most of Laurie’s soup in addition to my own. It was genetic red soup, but again the white soup they serve usually comes off as flavorless slop. I got seconds on coffee from the kitchen counter. Pour your own. I did the long reach. I was now officially out of cigarettes except for a quarter that I could buy one with, which is what I did. You know something, I still need to shave.

Dr. Levy convened his class. Today he showed a film he had made at Founders. He says it's only a fifteen minute drive, but I'd guess that it's twenty, and that's on a good day. It wasn’t exactly professional, except it did have some added interesting music. Of course he couldn’t use copyrighted material. The lighting was something to be desired and there were occasional traffic noises. It was interviewing mental patients and they all looked like mental patients. One guy had bug eyes. Gail was in it and even she had bug eyes and it looked like she’d gained twenty pounds for this film. She talked about first hearing the voices ten years ago. I guess I am a little short on the compassion gene. I told Dr. Levy I was amazed these people felt so at ease talking about their own condition because I would sure never do that. . There was some Van Gogh style artwork there too all over the walls. Paul Bell, that gifted musician did the closing title credits on his guitar in what I imagine is an original song. They kept showing all of these bottles and bottles of medication. There was actually a D J booth like a radio station. One segment – actually two - with Dr. Levy looked like it was filmed here because of the pattern in the stucco and the trim. But it was a tight shot with a bush in the way.

There was a guy who talked about how he got married at age thirty and he had a bright carrier in graphics design or something. But a few years later he had to get a divorce and he slid down hill from there. Maybe the wife wasn’t supportive. Maybe it was his own fault. The way my mind works I wonder whether there weren’t people who basically had it in for him all along and didn’t even want him to get married and live a normal life. Then when he began having problems they urged him to get a divorce without even trying to solve the problems, and then they would say “Look at the ravages of mental illness. It destroys marriages”. There was a lot of talk in class today about how you better stay on your medication or encounter real problems. That’s true with all sorts of things such as diabetes or (in my case) blood pressure medication. Back in 1998 I was afraid to even think of having sex for fear I might blow a gasket. I would make those trips to Longs drug store after eating a big meal at Busy Bee thinking that would lower my blood pressure, and I would get these readings like 174 over 95.

100,000 Homes Foreclosed on in October

This is a period of malaise in the nation and in my personal life. Today’s news is that 100,000 homes were foreclosed on in the month of October. I guess the dire foreclosure predictions of two years ago are coming to pass. Now the banks are getting dirty. They are going into people’s homes and changing the locks while they are still living in them. Or people will be off on a two day trip and they will smash a window and break in and ransack the place. Often they are illegally foreclosing on homes while other options are still in play. Often the owner believes that a renegotiated loan is under consideration. Some say that banks may be working against their own best interest in foreclosing on so many homes. Obviously this situation will depress real estate prices in a neighborhood so that the innocent suffer with the guilty. Of course the Republicans seem to have the voting public well trained, like dogs. They are taught to react to certain stimuli. For instance proposition 24 is a “jobs tax” rather than a redress of a bill that gave away billions to the very richest among us. We are all conditioned to believe that any tax cut is good and any tax hike is bad. We are all conditioned to see ourselves as the richest two percent of Americans. Now the hot item is these pensions that State employees enjoy along with early retirement at 55. This may just be the issue that hangs Jerry Brown next month. You can’t call Meg Whitman a whore even if she is one for buying out the police union by exempting them from pension cuts in exchange for campaign donations. We are told proposition 25 is bad because it ends budget gridlock, when these people live for the chaos we have each year in the California legislature. As I said above the goal of the right is to privatize everything including police and fire protection, as well as to privatize social security like they have in Chile, which led to major chaos. Again, our CIA’s job seems to be to overturn democratically elected governments and institute some right wing “paradise” by Milton Friedman and his economic friends. The goal is to turn back the clock to one hundred years ago, or longer. They want to go back prior to anti trust legislation and prior to the income tax. They much prefer the more regressive value added tax. And of course they want to privatize the profits and socialize the losses, so that banks and big investment houses never have to suffer the consequences of their risky actions. This has been a good season for Senate debates on C-Span. There is the California governor's race and the Delaware Senate race and the Nevada senate race between Reid and Angle just last night that I haven't seen yet. Even democrats like to throw out a national security "bone" to the viewers. We all know that Islam is the most evolutionarily backward of the world’s major religions. That case of cutting off the wife’s nose and ears is only one of the more extreme manifestations of a generally sick culture over there. But we shouldn’t play into their hands by being in a state of constant war with them. History will not be kind as it looks back on this year of 2010. At no prior time in my lifetime have the American people proven themselves utterly incapable of logical thinking. It will view this election cycle as the last gasp effort of the ultra right before the movement was completely crushed by the inevitable forward progress of history.

The Era of Obama is Over

It was Jerry Brown, ironically, who first touted the virtues of smaller government saying "Less is more". Rush Limbaugh has said "Roosevelt is dead! His policies live on but we're in the process of doing something about that, too". Not only couldn't Roosevelt, Truman or Johnson get elected today because they are such overt liberals, you would never see the Republican party nominating candidates like Eisenhaur or Nixon ever again. Clearly President Obama's reign, over the nation and over the polls is over. We're going to elect a republican House, at least, and just maybe a republican Senate, too. On the Mc Laughlin report all the people like Pat were talking about how all the chairmanships of committees would fall to Republicans and how they would set the agenda of which bills come up. The Republicans like John Boehner have complained that the democrats didn't allow them input on anything but hauled out these thousand page bills for an up or down vote with no amendments. That era is gone. John Mc Laughlin also predicted that Hillary would be President in 2013. What we do know is that there is a perception that President Obama is just not connecting with the American people, and with the massive gridlock that will surely happen with a Republican congress, this will only get worse. We have seen a preview of this Republican reign in the arguments last week before the Supreme Court which they had the audio of on C-Span. It was the case of gay bashing and demeaning this whole country at a protest outside a funeral of a military hero. You could tell by the questions they were asking that they just didn't "get it". They were dense as stone as to the implications of the case and the dangerous precedents it would set. It wasn't just Scelia and Allito but liberals such as Ginsburg too, that were asking these self-refuting questions of denial. It is hardly even necessary to wait for a verdict with a court expressing the most open bias since the days of King Henry VIII. They argued for seconds over one hour. I imagine they had all of them made up their minds almost before arguments were even ended.

The Nobel Peace Price has been awarded to a dissident jailed protestor in China, who may not have even been informed that he won. He was a protestor at Tienimin square but unlike his fellow protesters didn't have the sense to get into some economic venture and forget that he ever held such beliefs. The Chinese government "warned" the committee not to make this choice. Of course the US government has no sway over China now because they own our soul because they hold all of our economic debt. You would think this would be a good topic for tea party candidates to latch on to, but I haven't heard a peep out of them on this issue.

In a small college town in Washington State a bunch of college co-eds were given roofies or exticy in their drinks and were passed out. The police are investigating. You know a simple way to avoid problems like these is tough alcohol prohibitions against people under 21 drinking alcohol. It seems almost a prerequisite that a college student can't drink any alcohol unless they intend to get roaring drink and hopefully to pass out and not remember a thing. That seems to be their goal. The idea of having one or two beers after work or a glass of wine with their dinner seems unthinkable to these people. If colleges cracked down, you'd cut down on these type of mishaps directed against women, and their grades would probably rise dramatically.

There was a roomered 10-10-10 computer virus that was to strike today. I had problems with a virus of my own yesterday. My Adobe Media Player.exe program had to be quarentined by Norton because it rated a High danger alert. So I have lost Adobe Media Player. I had heard that various Adobe files were targeted by certain viruses. Now on the Mc Laughlin report they were talking about a Sux-net virus or however it's spelled. Supposedly Iran's nuclear plant had to close down because of this Suxnet virus. There was disagreement as to whether this virus alreadh HAD struck, or that it WILL strike iminently. There is also disagreement as to whether it will be our government that unleashes this virus, or whether China will unleash it on Iran and somehow blame it on Israel. We only know that it's a very dangerous virus and if it were in general circulation it might be replicated and spread throughout the world.

Hate Speech Takes High Court Center Stage

Everybody is talking about this funeral where a gay guy was in the military and died honorably in battle. The question is whether he can get a decent respectful, reverant funeral free of epithets and harassments. These whacko preachers talk about how gay soldiers deserve to die because dying in the Afghan war is punishment for this country allowing gays to walk free. Their attacks are in truth an attack on America. This one church has pulling these same stunts since the 'eighties. You can't keep putting out negative karma into the Universe without it eventually coming back to bite you in the ass, catching you unawares. If not in this life, most likely it will be in the life to come. Now the Supreme Court is hearing this case. I thought the thing was a slam dunk. But now I am hearing other details such as the fact that the protest was one thousand feet away. That’s nearly a quarter of a mile. One might say that seems reasonable. Still if I were a loved one of the deceast I wouldn’t even want to see the reports on TV. But now some liberals are saying that the Roberts court might take the opportunity to swing the other complete opposite way and say that bloggers who express an opinion can be sued for no reason at all. Also liberals are worried about “free speech zones”. These are like containment cages that separate protestors from the ability to even be heard or be relivent. I have this vague feeling that whatever the High Court decides will be the wrong decision.

This whole "Let it Burn" psychology has come front and center again. They have talked about a "let burn" policy with our forests. Maybe they know more than I do. But in this case in Tennessee they let a guy's house burn down because he didn't pay his $75.00 dues. This is despite the fact that he offered to pay them five hundred or even five thousand, if they would just put the fire out. It isn't a question of money with these fire fighters; they are just being wilful. They are being pure assholes about the whole thing. Claiming that it's like insurance is an incorrect analogy. This is a flat fee and not an "insurance wager that the man lost". They say the Chicago fire in 1873 got going so swiftly because a bunch of homes in a row didn't have their little sticker on the window and by the time they came to the fourth house the fire was really raging out of control. I know that in the case of that SLA raid by the LAPD on May 17th 1974 where Donald De Freeze and a bunch of other agitators died, the powers that be decided to let that house burn to the ground. The county authorities of Tennessee were presented with five options and this was the worse of the five, but the five republican Supervisors all voted to go with this fee payment system. It raises the Biblical question, "Am I my brother's keeper". We are told in the Torah to welcome strangers as guests, for we were once sougerners and strangers. We are told that if thy neighbor's ox or his ass goes astray to lead it back to our neighbor and if he falls into the ditch to pull it out. There is such a thing as being a menace to public safety and some fire fighters swear an oath to assist wherever they are needed. In California they have the good sameritan law where if you are a doctor and see someone in an accident you are bound by law to render any assistance you can. But in Tennessee they don't know this and people like Glen Beck defend the actions of the tea party fringe far right.

I would like to contrast two people now on Days of our Lives. Adrian and Melanie. Both of them ratted someone out but they both have completely different moral standing in my book. In Adrian’s case she had a relation with her niece, Stephanie where she could come and tell her anything. It was a relationship of trust. But what does Adrian do but drag Stephanie’s mother, Kayla, home all the way from Africa I might add all to drag her in the middle of something really complicated where it’s better the fewer people know. I’ve been in a situation three times where professional people I confided in violated my confidence. As of how the number of people who know Clowie cheated on Daniel are Carley, Nathan, Stephanie, that computer geek, Melanie, Kayla and Adrian. That’s in addition to the two principals, Philip and Clowie. That’s half the population of Salem. Contrast this with Melanie’s goal in confronting Clowie. In the first place she confronted the first party; she didn’t go around sneaking behind someone’s back. And her motive was to protect her father, Daniel. She knew her father and surmised correctly that this is the sort of thing you shouldn’t keep from a prospective groom. She’s furious with Nathan for keeping it a secret so long but somehow I think she’ll get over it.

This second weekend in October I don’t imagine will be different from any other weekend. One is inclined to see a glimmer of hope that both Jerry Brown and Barbra Boxer are staying ahead of their republican counterparts in several of the recent polls. This is a good thing. It would seem that the hysteria of the tea party set may be fading and now the population is getting down to the sober business of picking the next governor or senator, or whatever. Nobody wants a senate candidate who ships off jobs to China instead of keeping them here. Certainly the issue of that bill that offered the carrot and the stick to keep industries from locating offshore- - this should be in issue in every congressional race. It’s one of the most important ones we’ll face. But people on the far right didn’t even include this in their “Pledge to America” and in fact believe any business should be absolutely free to locate off shore with not the slightest legal restrictions. They’ll complain “we don’t make anything here any more” but they are against taking constructive steps to prevent relocating to the Camen Islands or China or India or what have you. Then of course in China they complain the people there are paid too much so they hire out work to places like Bangle Desh. And on and on it goes. What these tea party people forget is that protectionism is as American as Alexander Hamilton, our first secretary of the treasury. But they don’t want terrifs either and they say, “a terrif is just another tax”. These people are so tight with their wallet they won’t even give ascent to needed law enforcement expenditures in California. These people need to be exposed and shown for what they are. If the President fought the way Roosevelt did in 1934 or the way Truman did in 1948 attacking the Republicans as a “Do nothing congress” you know, we could cut our losses to near nothing. A year ago I honestly even thought we democrats would gain this year. Like I say- - at least you better plan on winning, because if you plan on losing, that’s most likely just what you’ll get. (Selah) And now a few ancient Cecil B Di Mille proverbs.

Blood Makes Poor Mortar

Love Can't Drown Truth

The strong make many bricks; the weak make few; the Dead make none.

Death will bring Death

I Owe my choice for successor to my Fathers, not to my Sons

US Supreme Court Begins New Session

Since this is the first Monday in October the Supreme Court met for the first time. They decided not to hear a case on the idea of should the steel from the wreckage be buried in a venerable place because it contains the ashes of loved ones. I thought all of that “evidence” was shipped off to China nearly a decade ago so that it could never be investigated. Of course you know they only decide to hear about half the court cases per year that they used to hear 25 years ago. They’ve getting lazy. They don’t want to give people their constitutional rights. Of course justice Elena Kagen is really weak on granting people civil liberties. I have a feeling this is the coming trend in the US justice system. Victoria Jones was remarking that England has also seen the loss of civil liberties in matters of arrest just as we have here with the advent of the Patriot Act. Apparently England and those in Europe aren’t as upset by “security alerts” like we are here because they’ve gone through so much worse like the Blitz and everything. They take it as a matter of course. They also point out that you are more likely to be murdered on US streets with our higher murder rates than you are of becoming a casualty on a European tour. But it’s just the way things are now that even the Obama administration feels the urge to ramp up the fear. Maybe people will forget that they hate the president and see him at last as our national leader and perhaps a man to be listened to.

Randy Rhodes spoke of a ninety year old woman calling a show with a Black host and asking the colored host why the coloreds complain so much. She said “Rather than ask what we have done TO them they should be thanking us for what we have done FOR them, with welfare and all. There was one caller today who claimed to be a mix race Jewish progressive, but he asked how come there were so many socialist and communist signs at the Washington rally. I guess it was Nicole who fielded that call. I would have said “I would prefer there not be those kinds of signs there, but people have free speech”. Nicole turned it into an us verses them type situation. As you know I was not real pleased with the Washington rally. They said that attendance was down from what they had hoped. And they apparently used a photograph taken at seven in the morning before the people had arrived that had a lot of empty reserved seats. Of course they talked about education and they talked about jobs and getting out of prostitution and pimping and drugs and all. But for instance what about police violence. There was a hold up at a convienience store by two thugs working together and one of them had a gun. Meanwhile the brother of the store owner called the cops and they showed up very quickly. The brother went outside to point in the direction that the bad guys fled. But instead of saying “thanks” he was fired on eight different times by the officer”. I would not be in a forgiving mood after that experience. It would be one thing to be told to put my hands in the air, but to be shot at repeatedly- - -this shows the cops had their heads up their asses. I’m not sure of the store owners were a minority race or not. I find it difficult to believe cops would shoot repeatedly at an unarmed White guy like that.

In one call in show on KTLK this morning it was mentioned that Meg Whitman should have known her housekeeper wasn’t documented. I guess Jerry Brown really took her to task on this during a debate. Oddly the atmosphere in the media air waves are so contentious my first impulse was to disbelieve the accusations and Gloria Alred must be lying. But I should have known better than that. Gloria Alred is a smart woman and she doesn’t take a case where she knows she doesn’t have really solid grounds. Of course now there is that letter that Meg Whitman’s husband wrote a hand written notation on saying “Nicky, you should really look into getting documentation”. But many would believe that an other wise conscientious woman would somehow sluff off in a moment of carelessness and hire en employee in her personal service whose background she hadn’t investigated. This development won’t affect my vote but my feeling now is that anything that tilts the table in favor of Jerry Brown is fine with me.

They said that the temperature will have dropped 45 degrees in one week. Last Monday it was a record 113 °. This week it’s probably 68 or cooler out. I started off in a short sleeved shirt but then put on a Pendelton about ten as the weather seemed to be getting colder. This was just before snack break. I really want blog readers to know that I haven’t done a disappearing act. If I don’t do a blog today it might be till late Wednesday I get back to it. But as I told you know who, I have been in an uninspired blue funk lately. It seems that everything that can be possibly said about “stuff” had already been said.