You'll Just "Flip" Your Lid Reading This!

I would like to meditate on the word “flip”.  You’ve no doubt heard of flipping elections, usually by a rig voting machine from blue to red.   People on the right wing claim they don’t believe all of these “issues polls” that come out on opinions on such things as immigration and gun control legislation and the minimum wage.  They are fond of saying “the only votes that count are the ones case on election day.  Yes- by 36% of Americans.  But what about the other nearly two thirds of Americans?  Aren’t they entitled to be represented too?   But this whole concept of “flipping” goes back to computers and these cosmic rays with “neutrinos”.  Because once they strike a magnetic surface they “flip” a bit from zero to one.  So it’s like those old DOS books where you use the COMP DISC command of “This is a sample test” and then compare it with disk B of “This is a simple test” and the thing comes back with error in one bit.  So the OJ defense team was not entirely wrong.  Sometimes bits can be flipped to actually spell out other intelligent messages like changing an A to an I.   Dr Phil would use “flipping” to change a parent’s relation with their child.  I remember one girl that got pregnant and had a baby at age fifteen.  Suddenly she was a slut who couldn’t be trusted as far as you could throw a bowling ball.  Or a son who was on drugs- - even when he gets OFF drugs he’s still just as mistrusted by parents who have been “flipped”.   But we use that term with whole states- such as governors and their legislative houses, which can be “flipped” and start voting out amazing laws- - usually giving tax breaks to giant corporations such as Wall Mart- - and at the same time breaking their word to people in pension funds such as firemen, police officers, teachers, and government workers.  Somehow the Biblical idea of “When you give you word you should live up to it” has been thrown out the window.  This whole concept for example of divorcing gay marriage as an issue of the right wing is a sign of “flipping”.  Suddenly being gay is hunky dory- - because after all if you had to weed out all the gay republicans it just wouldn’t be worth the embarrassment.   But long held concepts can be “flipped”.  Such as the idea that a judge - - magistrate - - justice - - - should be above reproach and detached from the ordinary political life and kind of do this ivory tower thing where they enter into this conclave away from distractions and then render their verdicts.  This is always how I pictured it working.  But clearly I’m behind the times.  Now they sent these judges off to these right wing indoctrination seminars.  It would be illegal for the Koch Brothers to directly “lobby” a justice to render a decision in his favor.  But it’s just fine if you get an all expence trip to some secluded spot in the hills of West Virginia or something and told of the joys of strip mining- - and other ways to ravage the environment- - or ways to screw employees who aren’t in a union any more because of last year’s Union busting.  So the whole Biblical concept of “Let justice roll down from the hills like rivers” we talked about last time- - is pretty much out the window.  The Bible said to neither favor a rich person in his judgement- - nor favor a poor person in his.  The Bible says to not take a Bribe.   And the Bible also says something like “Don’t council together to do Evil”.   (Selah)

Bill Carrol said the other day something - - picture a guy who just spent three weeks on a mountain top in Tibet and he comes back with this Truth.  “People don’t become different as they get older; they become MORE of who they really ARE”.  And you might say, “How profound!” and when asked what that means you say “Simply this - - - People Don’t Change”.   This is certainly the Neil Savedra mantra from day one, which kind of makes the whole existence of the Jesus Christ show rather pointless, doesn’t it?  I mean, why tune in if I know ahead of time I’m never going to be changed (presumably for the better) by the show.   Pastors have used that marriage and divorce statistic as a baseball bat to hit members of their congregation over the heads for decades.  And yet the mantra of how one out of every two marriage ends in divorce- - isn’t true, and it hasn’t been true for a long time.  And we’re just now finding out about it.  The divorce rate actually peaked in the mid eighties- - thirty years ago.  Now the overall divorce rate per marriage is that 42% of all marriages end in divorce.   But the facts are more dramatic because this is the overall rate over thirty years.  Marriages that are happening right now have only a one in three chance of ending in a divorce court.  The reasons may be less spiritual but more to do with the culture doesn’t expect people, particularly young women to get married.  People are visiting more computer dating web sites being more systematic about how they pick their mates.  It could also be that since people are older they are more realistic and not expecting such fantastic things from their mates in terms of their “fulfilling every happiness” but learn to generate happiness for themselves.

The “Ring of Fire” series is always a cavalcade of horrors, and they usually put out a new episode on Thursday mornings.   In addition to the Koch Brothers buying judges- a lot of time was spent attacking the Clintons, Bill and Hillary.  Hillary is going around now claiming she’s a populist or “just one of you people”.   I’m still a little unsure how Hillary can say “We were flat broke when we left the White House’ and yet be multi millionaires today.   There was a lot of talk about the Clintons being friendly tword Wall Street and hiring people like Larry Summers and being cozy with Alan Greenspan, who once joked saying “Bill Clinton was the favorite republican President I worked with”.   Actually the show this week was a little long on rhetoric and short on specifics.   None of the major rollbacks of Wall Street regulations in the late nineties were ever talked about.  But a lot of the stuff we think originated with President Obama actually started under Clinton such as the CEO ratio to the grunt worker’s salary taking off into the stratosphere.  And contrary to what Thom Hartman says- - through a lot of the Clinton years the poor weren’t much better off.  Of course they ended AFDC as we know it.  (American Families with Dependent Children)  This is a program that had been around since the thirties, but it took on such a bad rap of welfare mothers hatching kids out of wedlock just to get more government payments- - that they had to end the thing, or at least Clinton did- to get reelected in 1996.  And now we hear that Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton were really two peas in a pod and when you came down to it, didn’t view things that differently.   But the most damning indictment against the Clintons on today’s show was the notion that were it not for the Monica Luinsky affair derailing the whole effort in congress - - that the Clintons were both all for privatizing Social Security.  This is something we usually associate as a failed effore around 2005 in congress with President Bush.  But if the Clintons were really secretly for this major “overhaul” than I am truly shocked!

But the other thing “Ring of Fire” talked about was the relation with the big drug companies to the Food and Drug administration.   The show says “The FDA is nearly useless now in terms of protecting the American people from bad drugs.  Often doctors are lobbied into performing skewed tests that make a drug look safe and effective when it is neither.  And they get kickbacks from the drug manufacturers.  And of course there is the equivalent of “The Peach Tree Street” legislation.  This is- - using a cheap guimic to screw someone over.  Here the cheap guimic is - - “Well you can get a generic drug if you want to, but you have no right to sue them if something awful befalls you or your loved ones”.   So- - they as much as tell you ‘Yeah I can proscribe a generic if you really insist but just remember every time you’re taking your life in your hands”.   But of course a lot of the time- - the big drug companies just buy out the generic drug companies- - after the fourteen year patten is expired.  If I were President I’d propose a Taft Hartley style “cooling off period” type of law.  But instead of ninety days- - I’d make the “cooling off” period as long as the original patten.  Let me explain.   If a patent ran for fourteen years, then I would make the “cooling off” period another fourteen years.  This is where- - the big drug companies would be BARRED BY LAW from making or accepting any offer for a buy out of a smaller drug company.  The theory in my imaginative brain is simple.  Because there is an “adjustment period” after the patent runs out.  Kind of like an “assimilation period” for immigration to the United States that Pat loves so to talk about.  In this case it would be “an opportunity to assimilate the new economic balance without making any rash decisions in the short term you may come to regret in the long run.

The news in Law Enforcement is that they let unsuitable cops apply to various police departments, such as in Cleveland, who are rejected by other departments either from an emotional melt down or some racial incident where they were deemed unsuitable for law enforcement.  They don’t state have any statewide equivalent of the California Medical Board for example where you lose your license.   This officer involved in the shooting of the twelve year old boy with the toy gun- - was fired from a police department in a smaller town.  But some cities like Tupulo, Miss do it right.  They have rigorous psychological profiling you have to pass if you’re going to work there.  Sometimes even someone like Scott Walker can do a good deed in signing this law recently which states that upon charges of officer misdeeds, an special prosecutor is called in and a whole fresh Grand Jury is convened expressly for the purpose of determining guilt or innocence in this case, which doesn’t have an ongoing, working relation with Law Enforcement.  This is something many say should be a general practice, to have an outside party handle legal disputes with the police all the time.

Some have suggested that the kitchen staff in restaurants need to get tips also from the patrons.  Others have suggested that the waitresses share their tips with those who prepare the food.  One chef deserved a tip.  He was concerned about GMO's in the food he serves to his customers, and says "I want to know what I'm serving my patrons", and put these sentaments in a letter to his congressman demanding that the FDA take action against genetically modified organisms, which they have refused to do.  It's almost a law that the FDA's strange decision here cannot be overrules or appealed to a higher authority.  Well, I'm appealing to a higher authority.  I'm doing the Hebrew National Hot dog thing, you know?  "God's gona get you for that" is my message to the FDA, to revive an old Bee Arthur expression.

The State of Justice in America

Well, here we go again.  It’s another grand jury indictment and Al Sharpton is saying the same things.  The new protests are starting and this time it’s that guy who suffered from a cop’s choke hold on Staten Island. Eric Gardner said “I can’t breathe” ten times before he died.  This choke hold is a clear violation of police procedure and for this reason alone, if for no other, the police officer Daniel Panteleo (?) should have been indicted.  They had a whole array of charges they could have lodge, but Pentelo was cleared of everything, and this is the worse part of the outrage.  So far they say “There is anger over this- but no violence - - yet”.   I suspect this will change.   NY Mayor De Blasio states that the Federal Justice Dept will now investigate the case.   I hope the AG doesn’t drop the ball.   But another disturbing similarity, and Hal Sparks pointed this out, it’s another Grand Jury acquittal with corrupt procedure, in that it is the head of the grand jury acting like defense council.  Hal Sparks says that no police officer would volunteer to testify before any grand jury “If the outcome weren’t pre determined”.  That makes sense when you think about.  But these days not only do these grand juries put the victim of the crime on trial - - that happened with Trayvon Martin - - but now they put the witnesses on trial.  And get this: Hal Sparks said “But they won’t allow mitigating factors against these accused witnesses.  In other words-  despite what they would so proudly claim-  there has BEEN no trial because there is not free and open questioning by all the interested parties.  Apparently there is an old southern cop trick where a white cop puts his gun in someone’s face and says “You spit on my gun – wipe it off” and the minute, of course, the suspect touches the gun, he gets shot.  In short the state of justice in America these days is pretty sick, and who can tell what the state of things will be a year or two from now.  We’ve come a long way from July of just 2012 when the Aurora shootings took place in Colorado.  It’s been one unending chain of violence and corruption of the legal system- - punishing the innocent- - and letting the guilty go Scott free.  If you want to quote scripture it says in one of the OT prophets that “Do do the will of the Lord is to do justice and to love mercy”.  We are a hell of a long way from that state of affairs.  I said months and months ago that “The rapture of the faithful has to come soon because this country can’t TAKE two more years of the sort of mass corruption we’ve been seeing at all levels of government.   What used to be shocking headlines are now common place to the extent that pretty soon such news will come to be ignored altogether- - at least that which can’t be politicized by the Hannity right wing.

Gloria Alred had a press conference late in getting started that Bill Carol carried on his show, reluctantly it seems- since Bill Carol hinted is little ways he regards the whole sex scandal thing with Bill Cosby as some kind of joke and that Gloria is not to be taken too seriously.  I would have carried the entire press conference myself and also the statements of the three victims she said she’d have, as well as any questions that Alred would field from the audience.  She wants bill to waive the right to claim the statute of limitation on his crimes.  Cosby has the power to do that.  If Cosby had nothing to hide, that’s just what he’d do.  He’d let the women sue him and fall flat on their face, if indeed he really believes they would.  Does Bill Cosby really want to be remembered as this one time star who turned bitter and circled the wagons at the end of his carrier under a giant cloud?   You may answer “Yes, if the alternative is worse than that”.   The second thing Cosby could do is put a “hundred million” in a pot, and then hold a mock trial with retired judges almost like a game show- - and the winners get some of that money.  That’s a sporting way to go and still remain clear of overt criminal charges. 

• Apparently Bobby Keys -famous saxophone player, died recently.  If so I haven't heard any confirmation at all from the "other side".   But here is a listing of all the other groups Bobby Keys has performed with, and apparently he and Jagger and Richards have gotten closer since the eighties after a period of slight estrangement starting in the mid seventies.  I was told a long time ago that Bobby Keys was Federation - - probably "Yellow Planet" federation, and not Dardanian, though.  The dots are for free, and if I should start a new paragraph it would produce a dot.
• The Rolling Stones: Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St., Goats Head Soup, Emotional Rescue, Stripped,Shine a Light Live Licks, Sweet Summer Sun
• Joe Cocker: Mad Dogs & Englishmen
• George Harrison: All Things Must Pass
• John Lennon: Some Time in New York City, Walls and Bridges, Rock 'n' Roll
• Keith Richards: Talk Is Cheap, Live at the Hollywood Palladium
• Ringo Starr: Ringo, Goodnight Vienna
• Ronnie Wood: 1234, Gimme Some Neck, Mahoney's Last Stand

An earlier entry:  There was a decision not to indict that guy who died from allegedly a choke hold by New York cops.  They claim that shooting rates for suspects by cops is 21 times higher for Black subjects than whites.  This seems odd because there are eight times as many white people as Blacks.  Eric Holder is still investigating Ferguson, which is a surprise to me because I’d previously heard that the Justice Dept endorsed the jury’s finding.  Now we have President Obama’s remarks on that subject of the Staten Island choking case where that guy died – not from a choke hold but a head-lock according to Sean Hannity.  Everybody knows the difference, but nobody has made it clear which it was.  At any rate the President has not been served well by his other remarks on police issues, and perhaps he should just step aside on this one. 

Their Lies Are Their Bread and Butter

The biggest news about the Rams beating the Raiders in last Sunday’s game was not the game’s lopsided score in favor of the Rams, but rather the Rams players coming out on the field in the ‘hands up don’t shoot’ position.  Now a PR group for the St Louis police department is making threatening noises saying that the Rams and the NFL better penalize these players- or else.   Sean Hannity laces his commentary on Ferguson with so many lies you don’t realize in one glance how many falsehoods are piled on top of one another.  We go back to the first lie saying “In the beginning I thought officer Wilson was guilty”.  I’ve watched the show from the git go and Hannidy was never in favor of charging the officer.  Stephanie Miller pointed out that when experts go over the grand jury transcripts- - the vast majority of witnesses state that Michael Brown indeed had his hands up.  But Hannity prefers to believe ONE witness who talks about not a single “football style charge” but rather a charge in three stages and at each stage Officer Wilson reassessed as to whether he should keep shooting.  The audio tape of the gun shots shows that this statement is a major whopper on Sean’s part.  Now he’s trying to introduce a new lie that Michael Brown had a juvenile record as long as your arm.  But Sean’s own guest on the show states that Brown had no juvenile record.  Officer Wilson lied about whether the car door was open or shut, and he changed his testimony later.  There is a bullet hole in the car door and this kind of answers the question on that.  Then there is the phrase “strongarmed robbery” or what I choose to refer to as “felonious shoving”.  Officer Wilson lied about knowing about the crime ahead of time.  He told his superior officer repeatedly that he did NOT know about the robbery of the convenience store.  Yet in Wilson’s own testimony he states that he knew about the robbery.   We know that Wilson was a lousy shot.  He was such a poor shot that others in the neighborhood were endangered needlessly.  Sean lied about “taking four hours to interview witnesses at the scene” when no witnesses were interviewed and no report was filed.  Sean also ignores the blinding fact that the general consensus of the crowd of bystanders was that Officer Wilson had killed an unarmed man with his hands up.  No amount of “deference and politeness to an officer” would have prevented this killing.  But the strangest part of this all is that Sean wants all parties - - witnesses, who gave a story of what happened other than officer Wilson’s own testimony - - to be put on trial for purgery!   From day one Sean has latched on to this case like a dog to a bone.  Now that Officer Wilson has so much free time now I guess he’s going to go the rout of Sarah Palin and others and make the FOX news circuit - - “do you think?”  Right now Norman Goldman is reminding us of the racial component, and the inequity of representation by Blacks in the government.  Officer Wilson said in some justification of the shooting of “You know, don’t you that I was in a hostile neighborhood with a lot of gang activity”.    Yesterday Norman probed the question is should a written on line threat to someone you know- - detailed and explicit- - should culpability for the crime be what was in the mind of the sender of the threat, or what was in the mind of the reader of the threat?  My response then as is now would be “What is in the content of the threat itself- as a reasonable person would assess it?”   I don’t think it’s “reasonable” for a police officer to be able to say “It was a hostile environment so I was in fear for my life and therefore justified in anything I did”.

This Norm Chowmers guy was doing a lecture on the abuses of Israel against the Palistinians going through a detailed history and was almost sleep producing.  He certainly wasn’t attempting to guild the lily.   I’ve about come to the solution that the United States “needs to play the Dr Phil card”.  What is that, you ask?  The United States should stop being an enabeler to Israel’s antics.  What do you suppose would happen without the United States operating as said enabeler?  Do you think that just maybe- - more peace deals might be signed and- worse than that- - actually lived up to?  The more detailed the report or history of events from one leading to the next- - the worse Israel looks.  The United States should stop Vetoing every single United Nations regulation where the United States all these decades has stood alone against the rest of the civilized world.  According to Dr Levy “Israel pulled completely out of Gaza in 2005” yet the must cursory of reading the history in this period shows the past ten years to be a period of unparrelled oppression of the Palistinians.   Among the “crimes” Gaza is guilty of is having the wrong side win in a free election.  The next crime is “stopping an overthrow of that elected government”.   Another “crime against Israel” is Palestine in the West Bank coming to unity with the people in the Gaza strip.  By treaty the Palestinians are guaranteed free commerce between the two areas, and also a usable port.  They don’t have this.  People overlook all these West Bank settlements- - but they not only encroach but cut the west bank up like a piece of Swiss Cheese- - and what you have is virtual island prisons and an overall state of military occupation.  This Chomlers guy related incident after incident where it was Israel who broke cease fires.  This whole genocide thing of last August in Gaza began with the deaths of three Israeli teenagers where the government’s own experts now admit that Hammas had nothing to do with these three deaths.  Israel was founded a lot more by terrorism rather than prayer.  Some would say “Israel would never tell a lie- - they’re God’s chosen and all of that”.  And yet the West Wall of the Temple is the West Wall of Herod’s temple and not Solomon’s.  Archiologists all admit that.  Herod was a mass murderer.  But my point is that if you repeat a “misconception” (lie) regularly enough, everybody excepts it as established fact.  We have this idea that Israel is sacrosanct because of their common “Judeo-Christian heritage”.  Most of the Israeli tourist guides know more about certain details of Christianity than your typical Baptist fundamentalist- - because of the lore that has surrounded places in Israel.   I have wondered about Dr Levy “You know so much about Christianity, why don’t you become one?”

  Darren Wilson resigned and won’t be getting any payment in retirement, which is a victory for our side.  I think it’s time now to end the protests because in a sense justice was served.  According to Rachael Maddau, the scope of these protests is impressive from Chicago to New York to Washington to Seattle, where the people are holding “die ins”.   Officer Wilson now has an “opportunity” to do pennence and to think over his crime, even if it isn’t in a jail cell.  Protests continue all over the nation.  But poll numbers indicate that White people still side with officer Wilson agreeing with the Grand Jury’s decision not to indict. So - - how could this be? Well, I would like to step back and say that when you're "looking for a story to be true" you try and reconsile what you hear - be it Bible quoters or UFO sightings or reports on police brutality- - you try and reconsile what you are told with some Real situation that Could Happen.  That means if there are a series of fantastic statements that make no sense in terms of psychological probabilities or physically figuring out dimensions or positions people are in - - or number of witnesses- or when the witnesses come forth or whether said witnesses have any incentive to "tell the particular story they told",  you bring intelligence to the discourse.  I would contrast this to hearing- - some hyped up rumor in an emotionally charged situation or a Fairy Tale like you'd tell your children that is not SUPPOSED to be "figured out" logically.  Sean Hannity was talking about how Michael Brown not only “charged the officer” not once, but three times, if you can believe that.  Hannity said ONE of the eye witnesses came up with this testimony.  So how does this report synchronize with the known physical evidence?  Well, if you listen to the sequence of shots there was only one brief pause in the volley of ten bullets (when Brown was turning around after running and put his hands up) and this notion that Brown traversed back most of the 153 feet that he fled in the ten seconds or so of running- - just is not correct.  He took eight steps according to Norman Goldman, or 25 feet – eight paces for a tall man.  At one point Officer Wilson indeed stated that “I was looking for some legal way I could shoot Brown”.   Now Sean is saying that the reason why Michael Brown’s body was in the street for four hours is “because they were interviewing all the witnesses” when of course people were made about NO witnesses being asked anything about what they saw- - and indeed no officer shooting incident was ever filed by Wilson.  This fact can’t be stressed too much.

Well we have heat in this building officially now,  I noticed a blast of hot air walking down the hall and it’s warming up in this room.  The thing is with a trend, when one gets going it’s unmistakable.  People knew we were in a bull market in the mid fall of 1982 when the market made new all time highs.  We know with this rain that this is the most rain we’ve gotten all year.  I can’t remember when we’ve had the last uninterrupted day of rain, and I mean substantial rain- not just drizzle.  Not the kind of rain you’d take a walk in for very long.  But some would see trends when there are none.  How many times have liberals such as Thom Hartman said “The tide is turning- the pendulum is swinging back to the liberals, and the Republican party is all but dead”.  We’ve been waiting for that but it hasn’t happened.  Not when the vast majority of those calling the Rams football team- - spoke to criticize the “hands up gesture”.  The Republicans are coming up with constant “proofs” and examples that President Obama is a hard core doctrinaire liberal.  Supposedly the President meets regularly with the Rev Al Sharpton, according to Sean Hannity.  I have the greatest difficulty believing that.  A President would leave his own church after one line taken probably out of context in one sermon- - I do not believe- would meet regularly with a flaming radical preacher constantly lobbing incendiary remarks.  Many would have the Book of Acts in the Bible to say that “Well with the Holy Spirit in the picture now it’s a whole new ball game and with forgiveness of sins and sanctification of lives and all that- - whatever took place before would be easily supplanted by this new Christian Era of Peace and Brotherhood and all that.  But somehow that never happened.   Chuck Smith spoke often of the line “Vengence is mine, said the Lord, I will repay”.  Well how many people have (according to Chuck” a “major faith problem” because they don’t trust God to sort out a situation Himself- but have to step in and take measures on their own.

A Two Year Political Nightmare Scenario

The worst of our political nightmares may be just starting.  As you know President Obama "got Mitch Mc Connell and John Boehner mad" last week with the immigration thing and I'm having second thoughts as to whether it was worth it.  What the President may gain with a few grateful Latinos, he may lose in not getting any bills he wants passed at all, with one notable exception - - the Trans Pacific Partnership.  The President may not get funding foir his so called "amnesty program" for immigrants.  He may not get any of his cabinet or other judicial appointments confirmed.  Even getting a new Secretary of Defense is problematical.  Nothing is assured at this point.  That is, except for one thing.  The Trans Pacific Partnership.  This is something the Republican party wants so desperately they are even willing to be tagged by some as "giving the President what he wants" to pass this one.  With the Trans Pacific Partnership, the President is playing on the other side's team because the provisions are so un-American and undemocratic.  Of course we've told you that the political right isn't against big government but they ARE against small D democracy.  They are for taking the power out of the hands of the American voter and the TPP accomplishes this marvelously.  This treaty can override anything even this congress might choose to do in the future.  If some smaller polluting nation wants to drill off our shore or Canada's shores, sovreign nations are powerless to stop them because it can be called "an action in restraint of trade" or "blocking the potentiality of profits".  Remember we told you the only actual MANDATE of corporations now days is to make as much profit as possible.  And often corporations can have a nice tax dodge if they pay their CEO's a lot of money - it shows up as an expense in the books and cuts way into the taxable income.  Of course it also cuts way into what this same company ordenary people invest in can pay in dividends to their stockholders.  But you can throw environmental laws out the window.  You can throw the OSHA safety regulations out the window.  There WILL be no more "occupational safety" any more.  Mitt Romney's fantasy has come true about buying that sweat shop of largely unmarried women in China working for nothing.  They are basically prisoners there and eat and sleep there in shabby conditions.  Mittens loved that!  Now we'll have a lot more of that, maybe even in this country.  Minimum wages?  You can forget those, too.  Minimum wages cut into profits.   Let's talk just about the trade aspects of the thing.  This will ship US jobs to China and Vietnam and Malaysia or whatever.  These small, backward countries will now be the ones to set the standards for the rest of us.  As a result of depressing the wage base further- - and reversing the employment gains we've had the past several years- - our living standard will go down as the economy finally achieves that long sought double dip recession that Mort Zuckerman has been longing for for so long.  Our balance of trade figures will be nightmarish- - and our private personal debt figures will skyrocket at least for a while.  If this Republican congress chooses to cut taxes to "spur the economy" the tax savings won't begin to compensate for the new loss of earning and spending power of the American people.  I'm puzzled why after fighting for suprenacy for so long against President Obama that they'll only have for two brief years anyhow, they now want to give that up and let some comittee out of somewhere assigned to enforce this treaty determine what laws this congress can and cannot pass.

But the President has been more on the Republican's side all along than people ever suspected as witness his appointing people like Larry Summers and Eric Holder, who are in business' back pocket.  Now apparently he has appointed a Mary Jo White as head of the securities and exchange comission.  This is the outfit in charge of enforcing Dodd Frank and implementing the many suggestions made in that legislation.  Now for all practices because of the appointment of Mary Jo White - - - Dodd Frank is dead.  All of the promises for economic reform in the great bye and bye off in the future- - are now dead.  That is - - here in the present- - Dead.  This is what executives do is gut bills they don't like.  The Republicans didn't like it when we favored it with immigration reform- - and now we don't like it when they do it with Wall Street "reform", which is no reform at all.  Basically they are throwing out the rule book and returning to the "Wild West" days of the 1920's, and we know that one ended badly.  I'm predicting another crash - - based on latest information- - maybe in 2016 but maybe 2017.  At any rate- - even if the Republicans should succeed in electing Ted Cruz or someone like that as President- - they will have a major economic crisis on their hands in the first year, which will be WORSE than the one President Obama faced when he came into office.  It would be ironic that this Stockmarket Crash would occurr just as the stratigic moment when "The Experts" people like the Mc Laughlin group and the other talking head comentators on the major networks say "Well it's clear that- - Obama didn't build this economy.  In fact this economy occurred in spite of President Obama's efforts".  This is what they will be saying, but of course it won't be true.  But the minute they're all convinced "We did it" then at that point, the bottom will fall out of the economy.  Right now I'd still recommend that if you are in either oil stocks or airlines- - just sit tight and watch your earnings go up for the next year or so.  I won't be springing a "Sell" notice on you without a warning.  So far those immediate warning signs are not there.

We did slip into politics, actually, talking about the morality of rich verses poor people.  In this blogger exclusive in red - - Bones came by to monitor the conversation and happened to just come upon this political wrangling- - which is the first major political brawl at a holiday gathering in four years.  But Bones didn't stay long, he tells me "Because I sensed other psychic entities around you- - and I got freaked out and thought that maybe they might be reading my mind".  Bones of course was Romulan cloaked at the time, so they probably didn't even know he was there. Still I was troubled by the remark.  The conversation was getting rather heeded till Mom change the topic to medical stuff, which was the dominant topic at Paul and Judy’s.  It was well past three before we ever thought about the pies- - - and I had some cranberry Martenelli cider in a red glass.  They had to scrounge for chairs for the table.  I had two pieces of pumpkin pie with whipped cream and one piece of Wendy’s “unsweetened” apple pie.  There was talk about computers and Paul and Judy had gotten a “Surface”, which they paid a lot of money for.  There was talk about the C-dificil bacteria that Judy had Mom checked out for- - - and all of the different hospitals Dad was in.  And also Grandpa and Grandma didn’t leave us with medical decisions about when to revive and what measures to be taken.  Apparently Judy and others would not like much done if they were to suddenly have a crisis.  I guess Jenny was mad because the hospital took measures to revive Uncle John like give him fluids.  But what Wendy has said in the past, his wife seemed a little too eager for John to kick the can and be done with it.

Winter time is upon us and it’s cold out.  Yesterday I got one cigarette from Paul in the early morning and one just before I left at ten thirty- - and did not get another cigarette till about eight last night.  I went over to Lisha’s room and fiddled around with her computer sitting on the bed with the bad light and I couldn’t see the keys.  The backspace didn’t work and I kept losing the curser for the address bar.  But after trying freespeec.com and also Google.com it was clear her machine was not hooked up to the internet.  I told her she better contact Time-Warner about that.  I thought she had “wireless broadband” but if a cord were unplugged I think she would have made that clear that she wasn’t wireless, but I had too much sugar from the pies and not enough cigarettes – to think clearly, myself.  When you’re playing in someone elses’ ball park you have to negotiate certain environmental things such as the sink holes in the outfield, the clumps of poison oak by the catcher, and the kid in the stands randomly aiming laser beams in the player’s faces.  I’m just not in my element- - and the top row of keys was shrunk down to nearly nothing.  She didn’t have a mouse pad so the covers served at my only traction.  Otherwise the news on the athletic field was good for Oregon fans, even if the Beavers had a lot better looking uniforms.  Every time you see Oregon they’re wearing something different and the only element of commonality is they’re in bad taste.

I watched Meet the Press at eight and it was Breakfast with the Beatles at nine.  The first song I remember as “Long, Long, Long Time” by the Beatles.  I went out and had two cups of coffee in the courtyard.  It had not yet started raining.  They had Gary Wright on.  Gary Wright is Federation but he got conflated a lot with Nielson - - who is Renwah, or however you’re supposed to spell it.  Wright played piano on Neilson’s “Without You”.  Mal Evans as you know has never been a fan of Renwah people- - including Badfinger.  But Gary Wright is suddenly George Harrison’s best friend, who was “there” at all the major moments.  You learn something every day.  And apparently George wrote a melody in 1971 and after George died on November 29^th of 2001, Gary Wright recorded a song played on piano- - which has chord progressions at times more remonicent of John Lennon than anything George ever wrote.  We had spaghetti for lunch with garlic bread and corn chowder for soup.  There were no seconds, but we got a banana for desert.  Joe Drisco had the show playing on his transistor radio out on the benches.  There had been a downpour just before lunch, but otherwise it didn’t start to rain in earnest till about two when we were lining up for coffee and I was near the front of a very long coffee line.

Bridging the Racial Divide

The racial divide is worse than ever now.  It’s less that the Ferguson incident “created” this, but that this shooting incident revealed this racism.  It allowed it to manifest, such as a shingles virus is looking for a point of weakness of resistance in a human organism to manifest itself with symptoms.  As I think I’ve already stated- - you can tell who is objective in this whole Officer Wilson and Michael Brown incident - - because OUR side can state almost our whole case without one time mentioning race, which was the case in my blog, which was also the same text (minus the first paragraph) pasted to my letter to Tim.  You can attack the whole process based on the procedure and its many irregularities.  For instance if one hostile to officer Wilson is speaking, they will be attacked by the inquisitors with remarks such as “I don’t want to say you’re lying, but you’re definitely lying”.  Normally in a trial there are legal safeguards such as “you’re badgering the witness”.  Another  common objection is “You’re leading the witness” such that if a witness states that Michael Brown was “reaching for his waste band” or perhaps a wound where he’d just been shot- - the inquisitor may interject a remark like ‘Do you think perhaps that he could have been going for his gun”.    There is a form of bias that’s introduced into society called “confirmation bias”.  So if you’re White- - you will be pressured by your kind to confirm in your conclusion- - from evidence “Which neither lies nor tells the truth because evidence isn’t verbal” - - and you will say “Of COURSE this example proves your theory”.  But personally I’ve never seen so much as one transcript where any witness supported the claims of Officer Wilson himself- - only Officer Wilson made the claims Officer Wilson has made.  And yet if a body of questioners says “We have the Truth already”, you’re pressured to conform.

Thom Hartman stated something disturbing yesterday morning when I was gone.  He said that the apperatus or infrastructure is already in place to launch a police state.  This was not true 25 years ago.  It couldn’t have happened then.  But now you have prosecutors so called who are rather open in their bias, conducting what amount to secret trials where the verdict was never in doubt, much as the Cardassians practiced on Star Trek.  Officer Wilson has been caught in two more lies.  He said “I felt like a five year old in the hands of the Incredible Hulk” with this man” and yet Officer Wilson was himself well over six feet tall and also had a high creatine count in his urine.  I point this out because in February of 1998 when I was taking GNLD vitamins, I too had a high creatine count- - which is expressed as a ratio in the urine.  And since the figure is a ratio- - it isn’t dependant on the strength of the urine.   This substance creatine- - gives you energy and I believe it’s related to Aztezanten- - which is a carrotenoid.  So you get this substance in part from eating things like carrots, tomatoes, various kinds of chili peppers- - Picante sauce- - ect.  No it isn’t “Roid Rage” but it may well be a dietary supplement.  But officer Wilson’s testimony is also inconsistent with his superior officer on the matter of whether Wilson knew about the liquor store robbery.  The superior officer stated many times on the stand that Darren Wilson assured him multiple times that he did NOT know about the robbery alert issued.  It’s contradictions like this that prompt the need for an actual trial to sort out who is telling the truth.  But as you know - - Judges in general are more open in their bias these days and it’s no longer considered improper for them nakedly to be in support of one political group over another or that the reason why they were picked to begin with was the people who picked them were ASSURED that these judges would render certain verdicts in certain cases.  Of course in the days we called these Kangaroo courts.  And in some kind of an Orwellian age that we are moving into- - propaganda and deception are the key elements of the “regeme’s” success.

George Harrison sings in a song “We were talking about the space between us all” and yet those in the cosmic “know” state that time and space are but illusions.  My cosmic friends have to the point of annoyance- - stated to me that earth people are so ignorant about the illusury nature of space – and they live in a world of illusion.  From there I deduced that since time and space are both generated by the Higgs Bozon - - that Time therefore must be an illusion also.  From the eighties I was told by Mal Evans and others that Synchronicity is a fact of an incident being the Same Incident separated by either Time or Space or Both, but it didn’t matter.  If the nature or soul of man is based on a psychic reality- - this isn’t dependant on the laws of measurable physics as we know them.  It's like you need to take these assertions on faith.  Not a "pie in the sky - - Peter Pan type of faith- - but a Faith of suspended immediate judgement awaiting further confirmational information, like "Trust, but varify".  But it would be wrong to say that we will NEVER be able to "quantify" what we refer to as consciousness of things involving a psychic state of awareness.  We just haven't done it yet.  But my cosmic sources tell me that we WILL be able to do that, perhaps sooner than we think.  Neither is it a case where Michael Benner says "We CAN'T ever the psychic realm because we are always "on the field of play".  While this is technically true, even golfers know enough to not be in the path of the ball.  At least there IS a "path" to "get in the way of".  All the words we use to denote space - - even the word infinity - - but certainly geometric shapes and colors - - are when you get down to it - - human abstractions based on a reality for us as "something other" than what a "scientist" might measure.  The ONLY reason why I say this is some would say, "Well, the REALITY of space and time are so overwhelming OBVIOUSLY they have to be fixed, unchangable things.  We SEE them as "fixed" and "obvious".  But my cosmic friends tell me that the "illusiary" nature of space and time are just as REAL from a scientific point of view - - - in other words The Big Truth - is that space as we know it is an illusion THIS truth is what's real.  Do you follow?  It is a Newtonian reality that there IS no “stationary point” of an absolute measure.  Since there can be no absolute STATIONARY point from which we measure - - and since moving vectors prevent a skewed view of “reality” - - we can’t say how “fast” that “fast” or “fastest” is.  Without a starting base, terms like “fast’ or even “fastest” are meaningless terms.  In the same way words like "far" and "farthest" can only be relevant given some sort of fixed reference point.  

Teresa likes to talk about her four peach trees and two pecan trees in her yard.   Southerners pronounce words different like “New-ALL-lins” for New Or-LEANS.  They should move Thanksgiving back to October since this country had obviously undergone climate change with “the dead of winter” starting in mid November.  I remember an old Drew Carrie episode where he was waist high in snow drifts by Thanksgiving, but we all dismissed it because it was Cleveland and their lake effects snow.  I guess there is a strong varience in the amount of snow just “across the pond” in Grand Rapids, as opposed to Chicago.   But we should have Thanksgiving where they first proposed Veterans Day on the fourth Monday in October, for example.  This makes sense.  It’s also United Nations day around then.  And it would be fitting and some would say pleasing to God, if we as Americans broadened out our perspective about ourselves- - rather than just one meal at Plymouth Rock, to being thankful to God as being blessed among the world’s nations, and celebrating around UN Day would remind us of this.  Also it makes more sense from a “Harvest Celebration” original perspective of the holiday.

Today is Thanksgiving November 27, 2014 and the only typing yesterday was before breakfast when I wrote that paragraph “Last Thoughts on Ferguson”, and I did a blog of that paragraph, adding to it at the end, and also sent that paragraph to Tim.  But there I had formatting problems because now they black out material pasted from blogpost.com - - so you have to run it through some sort of filter like Word- - in order to be able to read it.  I would add that they should have initially done the thing as an internal police investigation away from the press and the editorializing of FOX news.  Then when they said “We think an indictable crime has been committed” they would refer it to a grand jury, which would meet for three or four days and then render out a recommendation for the DA to charge the subject of the inquiry.  It would not have helped Officer Wilson’s cause to admit to George Stephanopolis that he might have been emotionally affected by the fact his father was a police officer who was killed by a Black man.  It’s certainly not a guy you’d want on a jury.   You could even get mean and pull all of this psychological crap about “The loss of a parent is a traumatic thing for a child- - how did you ever get through the emotional trauma of it all - - how did you choose to deal with it?”

I got my medication before breakfast from Christian.  We had corn flakes for breakfast followed by scrambled eggs, hashed browns, toast and butter and jelly.  We were served our main plates amazingly promptly.  I consumed one plate waiting around for coffee.  Then Paul offered me his entire plate in a gracious Thanksgiving Day gesture.  I have something to be thankful for.  Then Paul gave me his coffee, too, so it was almost a clean sweep.  I have Today or something on now talking about substituting Kayro corn syrup in pecan pies.  I am unsure whether I’ll do a blog post today.  There will be a special lunch here but no official “Party”.   Tuesday evening I paid Glen three cigarettes and promised him a total of six, which I haven’t paid yet since I didn’t try for coffee yesterday.  This is partially because Glen said that he lost his jar of Espresso and some chips in a bag left in the van.  It was the ABC network news with the Daren Wilson interview- - which was a bunch of deceptive bullshit in my opinion.  As I said at the time all George Stephanopolis could muster was words like “Wow!” – and “Really?”  It wasn’t exactly hard questions.  Just between you and me, I highly doubt Officer Wilson was on the stand for four hours being peppered with relevent questions like, for instance that fat girl, teenage witness was whom Trayvon was talking to on the cell phone.  SHE was indeed "being grilled" as attorneys endlessly but unsuccessfully tried to break down her testimony.  She held firm.  Just as the pro Michael Brown witnesses held firm.  That’s all for right now.

My Final Word on the Michael Brown Shooting

Martin Luther King is quoted by a blogger yesterday as having said "Race Riots are the language of the Unheard".   And indeed the government of Ferguson was bent from the beginning on covering up the truth of that happened in the street on August 9th.  And there is no other way for the people to vent their frustrations.  Not to compare or anything but compared to what we faced in Los Angeles with the Rodney King beating- - these people have a much Stronger Case for protesting.  The officers in the Rodney King beating were put on trial which was televised.  You could see what was going on.  Rodney King also provoked the officers that night.  In the case of Michael Brown he just isn't beaten up - - he's Dead.  And I am not convinced that Brown ever comitted any act that merited being shot multiple times.  Here are more of the specifics.

I wanted to wait to “render my own decision” about the Michael Brown shooting till I was personally satisfied I had all the evidence worth having – to consider.  I would first though refer you to the Chapiquittic incident with Ted Kennedy - - which Rush Limbaugh used in his comic example of “The only man (in Iraq) to cross a bridge bombed”.   Ted Kennedy changed his deposition perhaps more than once in the days following the Mary Jo Kopechney drowning incident, and we were all upset about that.  I didn’t know depositions could be changed like that to somehow “fit the facts” or make the person look better.  I would also ask you in your minds to contrast the George Stephenopolis interview last night with the way the Supreme Court justices hear arguments.  From the git go the advocates of an argument are pelted with confrontative questions all the time and required to clarify and defend their positions.  One would suppose that if you were being grilled by a grand jury this would only be heightened- - out there alone defending your position having to take on any and all questioners with no defense attorney up there calling ‘objection”.   But the best George Stephanopolis could muster is an occasional “Wow! - - or Really?”  There is an element that weighs heavily with me and that is timelyness of testimony - - and also consistency.   These people at least four or five of them - - who said that Darin Wilson was guilty - - got their message out there and on the internet within days, and just yesterday those two Black women for instance, reaffirmed every word they said in their testimony.  Mayor Giuliani stated “Well I believe the grand jury had probable cause to charge with a crime- - but witnesses changed their testimony”.   OK in the first place- - if you as defense attorney believe you can “break down’ someone’s testimony- - that’s why you have a trial.  So all the facts of a crime can be aired.  But here we didn’t even know the name of the officer for a while week, and it was long after that we still didn’t know his testimony.  No police report on the Ferguson shooting was made and NO witnesses were interviewed at the time.  This to me spoke volumes- - and the fact that there were protests shows to me that “the people of the community” themselves had come to the conclusion that the officer was guilty.  Sean Hannity has said that any friend of the shoplifter’s testimony should be thrown out “Because he’s associating with a felon and felon’s testamonies aren’t allowed”.  In the first place, Sean, Felon’s testamonies are used all the time.  The jury is just advised that such testimony could be suspect.  Sean Hannity and the Ferguson people spread the LIE that Wilson’s orbital eye socket was fractured.  Also Wilson testified that Brown was “The strongest man he’d ever encountered”.  And “he was so scarey - - like a demon” and of course there were the endless “I was in fear for my life”.  Again use common sense.  You’ve seen battered women - - swollen and black and blue all over.  You’ve seen what boxer’s faces look like after they’ve been pummeled a while.  Did Wilson’s face look like that?  No.  There was some redness- - it didn’t look swollen and it certainly wasn’t black and blue.  Sean Hannity LIED about another key point.  This tape of the shots being fired was - - dismissed by all the conservative broadcasters almost immediately.  They kept saying “It hasn’t been authenticated”.   But what they DIDN’T tell you was that the FBI got this tape on their own and the tape WAS authenticated.  I learned that from the Norman Goldman show yesterday.  This is a key piece of evidence in terms of the number of shots fired.  There was a whole stream of shots and them a few second pause and then another volley of shots.  This goes to another falsehood of that Ferguson official himself that Norman Goldman highlighted.  This is the fact that - - saying “someone was shot in the back” may be what you SAW happening at the time.  You see a guy fleeing and an officer firing round after round at him, as the tapes show.  Brown had eight bullet wounds and a LOT of shots missed.  Officer Wilson was a bad shot right from the git go in the car.  We also have officer Wilson’s testimony about the number of feet away that Brown was from him.  Norman Goldman said that Brown was 151 feet away from the squad car because that’s the farthest extent of the blood trail.  But then Brown came back - - apparently 25 feet out of 151 feet in total.  As such if Brown was “only ten feet away from me” when I shot him - -  - Brown was running away for 151 feet and only approaching Wilson for a maximum of 25 feet, perhaps less.  We are also told by one government source that “Michael moved tword the officer” just before he was shot.  This prosecuter guy on TV was fond of speaking in the passive voice saying “shots were fired - - more shots were fired at Brown” as if some phantom shooter.   But this whole failure to question Wilson by George Stephanopolis I’d like to address.  First of all we were originally told that Michael Brown opened up the police car door and came in.  This is untrue- - and officer Wilson changed his testimony to conform to the evidence.  It was all “through the window” just as the witnesses said all along about- - the officer reaching through the window at Brown and Brown was trying to get away from the officer.  But there is the whole physics of the whole thing if Brown did try to go for his gun.  It was the driver’s side of the car and Brown would have to reach over the door, and also over the officer himself to his right side where the holster would be- - while the officer was mainly in a sitting position, and then pull out the gun and get in a wrestling match with it.  And let’s use another example your familiar with.  Scrambling for a loose football after a fumble.  Do you generally use one hand or two hands to go for the ball?  Two hands.  To get more traction.  Yet Brown supposedly used one hand and put the other hand in front of the gun to block Wilson from firing the gun- - which would make sense- - if you were trying to protect your body from being hit too badly.  It makes NO sense to put a hand a foot or so from the barrel if you’re going for the gun with your other hand.  I am told some officers have a lock on their holster so that only the police officer can remove the firearm. This brings us to the final lie of officer Wilson.  There were none of Browns fingerprints in the officer’s firearm.  So they could NOT be “wrestling with the gun and it went off - - “ or whatever.  Michael Brown’s hands never TOUCHER the gun.  These jurors haven’t lived in the real world.  Of course Officer Wilson showed the initial hostility by saying “Get the fuck out of the street” so it could be argued that right then Officer Wilson was biased against these two guys.  Which leads me to my final point in that I got through this whole thing without once mentioning the race of the officer or the two “suspects”.  OK.  Let’s see the other side try and to that.  They can’t.  You even hear Officer Wilson justify his actions by saying “It was a hostile environment with all the gangs and stuff in that area”.   One more thing we might as well mention.  Witnesses state that Brown had his hands up when he turned around and says "OK - OK".  There are wounds on Brown's arms consistent with his having his hands raised.  Officer Wilson gave us a whole new story saying that Brown made a Black power fist with one hand and with the other reached for his waist band.  Come on -  is this isn't guilding the lilly I don't know what is.  Officer Wilson says "Perhaps he did have a gun after all that he was reaching for that I didn't see".  Officer Wilson, according to Norman Goldman was "whisked away bu the authorities" and pumped and primed as he honed his story so that he could tell it with a straight face without flinching".   It also bothers me that Sean Hannity has been such a cheerleader for the Ferguson authorities- - having all this 'inside information".  Hannity ought to have as his them song "I've been everywhere".  I mean - he's been to Israel - - talked to the elite there - - he's been to the El Paso border and talked to the authorities there- - and Sean apparently heard some story that the rest of us never did- - that convinced him early on of Officer Wilson's innocence.

Loving Whom They Love and Hating Whom They Hate

We’ll be waiting forever for the Ferguson grand jury to render their verdict.  They’ve already delayed it at least twice- - and the current bizarre time of nine PM will probably pass without incident.  I wanted to talk about for this opening paragraph of my greatest failing as a practicing Born Again Christian.   Is it for instance that I don’t read my Bible enough, or don’t attend Church regularly, or that my theology is incorrect, or that I balk at prayer sessions that always seemed to get longer and longer?  Perhaps it’s my social interaction with them.  No.  My biggest failing as a card carrying Evangelical Christian is that “I don’t love the people they love and hate the people whom they hate”.  In other words, in repuliation of the Sermon on the Mount, my “love” is not selective enough.  I’m too inclusive.  I’m too willing to give the other person the benefit of the doubt.  We speak of bombing ISIS and yet as Hartman points out- - if you see your country as fighting for independence, bombing will only HARDEN your resolve against them, and not weaken it.  When the Revolution in America first started- - one third of the people were for independence - - one third were royalists-  and one third didn’t care.  But the second or so year into the American Revolution - - ninety percent of people living in America favored the revolution.  Republicans themselves point out that “Obama’s pin prick bombing raids have had NO EFFECT on ISIS recruitment, but have only encouraged it.  Norman Goldman would suggest that conservatives would like to go back to some fabled point in the Past.  This is not true.  The only political organization that resembles the tea party today is NOT the Islamists or the Communists either Russian or Chinese.  No - - the NAZI party of Germany is the only political organization that resembles the tea party.  Both appeal to a “past” that Never Was, and you should remember this.  Some would say they’d take us back to the 1920’s.  There are certain points in common.  There we had a lot of Xenophobia and fear of immigrants and “the other” and racial bigotry was in its hay day.  There were few of the modern stock market safeguards.  And need I remind you when the economy crashed that time- - tax rates and the national debt were falling- - just as they are now.  (Selah)  However there are marked differences between now and the 1920’s.   First of all industrial terrifs were high then, and people were of a largely isolationist mentality and shunned foreign wars.  There was a lot of competition in business, notably the automobile manufacturers and also in radio station ownership.  Back then you didn’t have one propaganda apperatus that could reach the entire country to indoctrinate it.  Back then people welcomed your quoting of the Bible.  But the tea party is so bereft of similarities to scripture- - they will most likely cringe when you quote from the Bible.  And I mean anywhere in the Bible- - any book, old or new testament.  Because there are admonitions against greed from Genesis to Revelation.  There are scriptures about welcoming of strangers and ministering to the poor and the afflicted.  Lot’s greed in wanting all the best land is condemned.  Nabal had his downfall when metaphorically “he refused to pay his taxes”.  There are prophet’s assistance who lied to obtain personal riches- and were punished.  Solomon was admonished not to multiply either wives or houses or horses, because these were a sign of oppulant wealth.  And the lord told the people in Ezra’s day not to belittle the work they were doing even though their temple was in no way as grand as Solomon’s.  Jesus’ parables are replete with the poor being blessed and the rich being condemned.  We then come to Revelation where a poor church is counted as rich by the Lord, and a wealthy church is counted as being spiritually impoverished.  We are told from cover to cover not to trust in riches.  This is almost “the first and greatest commandment” among the tea party set.  “Thow shalt trust above all in greed and riches”.  What if God decides to punish these plutocrats with their oppulant life styles by bringing about an economic crash- - and one which all the machinations of the government can’t prevent?

When it comes to Bill Cosby there are still people in the media who applaud him and dismiss all sexual misconduct charges.  It just dawned on me that there is a cigar, phallic symbol thing with a lot of male shovenist pigs.  Rush Limbaugh hates women and disparages children, and Gene Scott hates women and disparages children.  President Clinton is famous for his cigars in inappropriate places - - and has a disrespectful attitude tword women.  Gene Scott defended Bill Clinton, and now we hear that Rush Limbaugh has ardently defended Bill Cosby on his show.  For me is an issue of “Bill Cosby disparages children and disrespects them – using them as the butt of his humor, even his own TV sitcom children.  For the longest time Bill Cosby’s humor is very un-funny.  So it seems as if Bill Cosby fits into the same general personality profile category.  Of course it’s worse because Cosby hires people to “guard the door” while he’s doing the dirty deeds there on the NBC studios.  Also Cosby’s character was “an open secret” with all who worked with Cosby but they all circled the wagons to protect him.  Now Bill Cosby refuses to respond to any of the many and growing alligations against him, in the spirit of Clarence Thomas - - a guy whom Rush admit “has stacks of pornography lying around”.  It’s all part of a personality profile.  So it only pleases me that venue after venue has turned its back on Bill Cosby.  The whole man’s “mystique” has all come crashing down around him.  And it couldn’t happen to a more deserving jerk.

The Art of War is the lead topic on “For the Record” right now, and we will be getting into war again.  They have been saying in the liberal media that President Obama’s getting rid of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagal is because Hagal was too dovish and his stance on “the winding down of our nation’s wars” is incompatable with the Adminestration’s current stand on wars abroad in general.  They said “There has been a marked change in the Administration’s position on Mideast war in general in the past three days” but I’m not sure how.  This build up to three thousand troops in Iraq was announced a week or two ago.  It isn’t new.  Watching the Presidential announcement of Hagal’s departure from the Cabinet - - - contained no real confirmation of this thesis.  There appeared to be no ill will between Hagal and the President but only high praises were heaped upon Hagal by the President.  Right now I have the sound of some global warming conference for 2015.  (?)  That’s on C-Span.

The final (to date) results of the latest Bengazi investigation were released Friday night and they state there is no evidence of any conspiracy.  There was no order to “stand down” or in any other way to cause delay in action rescuing people.  There was no compromise or “insufficiency” of the Security of the Embassy.  There was no intent to deceive - - and Susan Rice was just going with the CIA intelligence of the time.  But Lindsey Graham is having the vapors over the latest report.  Stephanie Miller persists on likening Lindsey Graham to some delicate Southern Belle.  There is supposed to be some sexual attraction between Lindsey and John Mc Cain.  Lindsey Graham says that this latest report ‘Is a bunch of crap” and he doesn’t believe a word of it.  And Graham made his feelings plainly known to a CNN reporter.  Lindsey Graham was asked “Does this report exonerate the Administration”.  And Graham said “No”.  What do you do with a guy like this?  All their plans are up in smoke.  There can be no conspiracy trial because there IS no evidence; there is no “There” there!

Another issue for Republicans to get the vapors over is Iran.  Iran is a continuing threat whether we try and lull ourselves to think otherwise or not.  Because the administration just agreed to continue these Nuclear Negotiations for another seven months.  I’m not saying I agree with this one.  I would put back economic sanctions and say to Iran “This is just to keep you honest.  Now you will have every incentive not to putz around with us or stall – and buy time to get your centrafuges going and enrich Uranium for Nukes we still suspect you of desiring to construct.  Iran’s behavior is so suspicious I wouldn’t trust them, and from where I sit we have nothing to gain from trusting Iran.  And besides we can always sick Israel on them!

The Art of Warfare by Sun Tsu

Above all remember this: “There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare." ” 

The Art of War Quotes 

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.” 

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” 

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.” 

“Supreme excellence consists of breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting.”

“Let your plans be dark and impenetrable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.” 

“Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win” 

“All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.” 

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“If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected .” 

“The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected.” 

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“Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory: 
1 He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight. 
2 He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
3 He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks. 
4 He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared. 
5 He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.” 

“Engage people with what they expect; it is what they are able to discern and confirms their projections. It settles them into predictable patterns of response, occupying their minds while you wait for the extraordinary moment — that which they cannot anticipate.” 
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“There is no instance of a nation benefitting from prolonged warfare.” 

“Move swift as the Wind and closely-formed as the Wood. Attack like the Fire and be still as the Mountain.” 

“When the enemy is relaxed, make them toil. When full, starve them. When settled, make them move.” 

“The greatest victory is that which requires no battle.” 

“In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity” 

“Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.” 

“When you surround an army, beware!  Do not press a desperate foe too hard. Never let your enemy get into a psychological state of thinking he has nothing to lose with outrageous risks” 

“There are not more than twelve musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. 

There are not more than three primary colours, yet in combination
they produce more hues than can ever been seen.

There are not more than four cardinal tastes, yet combinations of
them yield more flavours than can ever be tasted.” 

“So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong, and strike at what is weak.” 

“One may know how to conquer without being able to do it. ” 

“To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill” 

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“What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease.” 

“He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.” 
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, your victory will not stand in doubt; if you know Heaven and know Earth, you may make your victory complete.”
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“who wishes to fight must first count the cost”
tags: business, strategy, war

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“Thus the expert in battle moves the enemy, and is not moved by him.”
tags: chapter-6, roger-ames

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“Anger may in time change to gladness; vexation may be succeeded by content.
But a kingdom that has once been destroyed can never come again into being; nor can the dead ever be brought back to life.”
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“Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity. Force him to reveal himself, so as to find out his vulnerable spots.” 

And now for a few closing thoughts.  Thom Hartman does not believe Democrats should press the matter about Supreme Court nominations to our democratic base in terms of turning out that base to vote for democratic senate candidates.   Hartman is making a gross error in logic.  The Republicans will do this very thing with FOX news and the game- - to make the Supreme Court nominations an issue WHETHER WE DO ANYTHING OR NOT so it is pointless NOT to fight back on this issue.  When you have the moral high ground my philosophy is to charge forward with all guns blazing on this issue!  The last five Sun Tsu sayings appear to be from a different web site than the others.  (If I don't know, who does?)

In this late afternoon update, courtessy Norman Goldman, it almost sounds like a 'police riot" because it appears to be the police who escalated the situation.  I was told it wasn't tear gas that was used, and not chlorine gas either, but CS gas, which is a type of neuro toxin, like bug spray for humans, that makes your nervous system go nuts, and eventually results in death.  It would appear from the armored vehicles that it was like Beirut in the 'eighties or something.  As to the two reporters arrested- - I still don't know WHY these two reporters in a Mac Donalds were arrested.  Maybe someone can explain it to me.  Also there is a glairing inconsistency and I'll pay Sean Hannity a million dollars I haven't got if he can address what I'm about to say now- - when the government confronted Cliven Bundy- - it was Bundy who told the government 'You have no right to be here.  This is my land!"  Armed to the teeth and threatening government people with their weapons and it was the government who backed off because they want "want another Ruby Ridge".   Since the days of Ruby Ridge and Waco, it seems there has been some major "shift' in the way the government handles right wingers.  And when the Tea Part people show up at Obama rallies wielding weapons - and being mennacing, they aren't tear gassed or have concussion weapons used on them.  Why the difference?   It looks like race to me?  Can you find any other variable that has changed?

Hartman points out that rather than feeling beseiged with all the crime making the cops battle weary or something in a suburb of St Louis- - quite the opposite is true.  They are agressive twords Blacks and other protestors NOT because they are under so much of a work load, but because THEY ARE BORED.   Most of the time police drive around with nothing to do - nobody to bust because it's a peaceful community, and they need to DO SOMETHING ABOUT THAT.   Bush has his own stimulus plan after 9 - 11 where it was like a rummage sale on anti terrorism stuff and fancy mileristic equipment the police would never use- - but they take the stuff anyhow because it's free and the government is giving it to them.  And now they go looking for trouble.   And they have a fear of groups like "Occupy Wall Street", which regarded as a bad idea at the time because we couldn't win, not in today's police state where the authorities work hand in glove with the media to NOT cover it except in the most adverse of ways.  The authorities see us as the unwashed rabble and potentially dangerous.  Charles Manson was convicted of murder over twenty years ago yet his philosophy  on race is alive and well in police departments.  I've heard roomers from divorce sources that the government forsees some all out RACE WAR and a war they must win at all costs!

The XL Pipeline is more dangerous to the environment than anybody dared to believe.  Because now they say the whole purpose of the Republicans favoring it was not because it will help the United States out- - but t gin up World Wide Demand at a time when the rest of the world is giving up petroleum products due to environmental concerns.  They see this pipeline as a turning of the tide on world oppinion if they can once again flood the world with cheap oil and therefore increase C0 2 emissions and cause nations to delay or abandon alternative energy sources and give the oil companies once again Undisputed Leadership.

The truth you need to know about the god of Christian theology is this.  This God is unchanging and can't be swayed by anything a human being does, is not swayed from his plans in the least by emotion or anything else.  This God is never in a position to never have to react to anything new or ever learn anything new he didn't already know.  This god cares little in fact, for what we humans call "being alive".   After all Chuck Smith and others teach that the worst thing about being alive is that you eventually Die.  And Chuck would seemingly pay ANY price in order for possible risk of Death to NOT be a possibility.  Everything I've said in this paragraph of course- - could apply to anything that's Dead already and not alive.  Does any of this bother you?