Trump Explodes A Verbal Bombshell on Iran

Was the first salvo to WW III begun on this Friday the thirteenth?  We knew a bombshell was coming this morning but we didn't know just when except that ABC news was going to carry this executive announcement life.  We continued to have Good Morning America on.  It seems the other bombshell of this “announcement” of yesterday was this threatened yanking of the insurance company buffer fund, that backstops insurance companies in case they pay out too much money on claims.  This way the poor will have their rates jacked up.  This seems to be what the President wants- - war on the poor.  He lies like a rug talking about lower rates for all.  Lower rates for nobody.  For a while I had Thom Hartman on.  I turned ABC back on and Trump delivered his bombshell of a speech at maybe ten minutes to ten.  The speech literally made me sick.  I felt like I was coming down with a fever or something.  I’ve never seen such a display of either lack of diplomacy or dishonesty since the last time I talked to Rev Bill Halliday back in 1995.  He kept going on about how Iran has funded and supported Hez Ballah.  He talked about the death of US Marines in Lebanon in 1983, which was on Reagan’s watch.  Reagan did nothing about it and rewarded Iran by selling them offensive missiles two years later.  (That’s a whole other story)  He talked about an incident in 1996, which is still twenty years ago.  He said there was a “momentary delay” in Iran’s bomb building capacity.  He says “These people think in hundred year intervals”.  Very little of what the President said was at all lucid except he seemed almost desperate to start WW III if he could by his mere words.  As such I think the media under-reacted to the speech saying that it really wasn’t as bad as we think.  I disagree.  The speech itself is a clear and present threat to the peace of the world and it sets the tone, they say that “Mein Kamp” set the tone for the Nazi party.  This torpedoing of the Iranian nuclear agreement is part of the President’s overall blueprint for the future plus being a major campaign promise.  Remember that Shawn Hannity said that Trump made certain promises to him personally, which involve supporting and defending far right wing politics.  He’ll break promises made to the “rust belt” but not promises made to Shawn.

The misery index for poor people has never been higher.  People on Social Security have been losing money for a decade or more because their payments don't keep up with inflation.  They made a big thing out of the fact that they were getting a two percent raise in income and further stated "this is the biggest hike in payments in five years" as if that were something.  The numbers on inflation have never been higher and you can prove it.  In terms of dollar ammount actually spent every day or week or month, you spend a whole lot more on high inflation items such as medical expences.  mortgages or energy costs.  In terms of dollar ammount in the overall scheme of things you don't spend that much on telephones, computers or televisions or power tools, things of low inflation or declining price.  Most items on this list should last at least five years and maybe eight or ten if you take good care of them.  But people eat every day and pay mortgages every month.  They have 26,000 in debt for student loans.  You won't go 26,000 dollars into debt buying a big screen TV.  But "the misery index for poor people" is not who advertisers aim at.  You see these computer shows that say you have to replace your cell phone every year or two when a new model comes out.  Such pitches are aimed at people with a lot of money to throw around and not for the poor and "working class.

This is Friday October 13, 2017 after the break.  I went down for snacks forgetting to wait to click my name after I turned the computer on.  “Windows Professional” was playing as screensaver when I got back and I was momentarily puzzled.  One time I returned and a start menu was up on the screen I didn’t put there.  The last time I looked in the top drawer of my desk it looked as if things had been rearranged, like someone was rummaging through it.  I went down and got a lemonade and a graham cracker from Rico.  The big Steve is back, and Jeff (with Steve) says he didn’t have his surgery yet.  (?)  Bill has left for his eye exam where the doctor will run more tests, and I get the feeling they are involved, lengthly ones, before Bill gets his cateract surgery.  He asked Valerie to save two pieces of pizza for him. 

 In soap land now we have Brady acting treacherous and two-faced- - qualities he says he hated in Nicole.  Imotation is the best form of flattery.  First he makes this really big thing about how he can’t stand the sight of Nicole now and wants her out of the mansion and take her daughter with her.  But just as she’s ready to go out the door he drops the bomb shell on her.  He’s going to blackmail her for admitting she was the one who murdered Damos.  I think I just would have let that situation ride.  All you have is a phone call confession to Eric made illegally.  Once she gets up on the stand and tells her story no jury in Salem would convict her anyhow.  Hurricane Sammy is back in town.  Paul got John to agree to dig up Will’s coffin.  But as they were about to do so Samantha returns to the show after a two year absence or something.  She doesn’t want them touching the body.  She’d rather go around in the dark never knowing if her son is alive or not and letting Clyde and Doctor Rolf and whoever spin their tales.  Paul is the only rational one on the whole show.

Last night I made myself a cup of instant coffee about six thirty while ABC news was on.  The strange thing is that I dozed off while drinking that coffee and didn’t rouse till a ways into Jeopardy.  Then I went down and got my medication from Leah.  It gets chilly in the evenings still and Bill left the window open all night.  I thought I had closed it.  Then I returned to the football game on NBC which I had had on earlier.  It was the Philadelphia Eagles beating the Carolina Panthers apparently by a score of 21 to 16 or something.  It seemed as if most of the times I was watching Carolina was dominating play.  I turned on “Gotham”.   Later in the evening I noticed something sticky in my right, back pocket.  I had put some candy back there on Tuesday and forgotten about it.  I tried to wash it out as best I could.  After this it was that Star Trek show we referred to last week.  I went to bed soon after.  I had a dream that I visited some Junior College (?) campus in the morning.  I lived somewhere east on Ball Road but I don’t think it was the Palm Street house.  The school was east of Euclid.  In a previous dream and in this one I dreamed that Loera was between Orange and Ball and had ivy on the walls and there were steps going up and down everywhere as you crossed the campus.  Of course in real life I have never walked on Loera campus grounds.  In this dream I marveled how young all the students were and notably the girls.  I told Paul (later?) they seemed kind of immature to me.  And Paul said “But they have that big stock ticker right in the middle of campus” as if he’d been there himself. In the morning I got up at 5:07 and had a smoke and had instant coffee.  I’ve really been going through that stuff lately.  It was then at five thirty Bill first turned on the TV so I never had the computer on.  I got medication from April after six.  The line wasn’t excessively long today.

The city of Santa Rosa is in flames now.  We've said whole tracts of homes have been destroyed.  The diablo winds continue to blow.  (They don't call them Santa Ana's up north)  The death toll is rising and meanwhile there seem to be no signs of containment.  The west coast editions of ABC news have been giving generous coverage to this fire.  They say it's the worst wildfire they've ever had in California both in terms of deaths and the amount of property damage.  Global Warming takes on many forms.  It seems that in the Pacific Northwest that they're getting early snows, as they have in the Rockies.  So there seems to be a big division line in climate between north and south.  Did we ever find out what happened to Hurricane Nate?  I'm experiancing a mental fog right now.  Did it hit between New Orleans and Mobile just as predicted?   We know the baseball line-up now.  The Dodgers will be playing the Chicago Cubs for the national league pennant.  The Houston Astros will be playing the NY Yankees.  Chargers fans are waiting with baited breath to see if the Los Angeles Chargers can get a winning streak going.