Media Distractions To Feed Violence Fears

OK I guess we’re ready for our opus magnum.  This morning when I got up I was feeling a little resentful at how impoverished I am and we all are and “where did the money go?”, which is what countless households ask themselves these days.  Last week I got eleven dollars from here and spent most of three of that on a big thing of coffee creamer I thought would last me two or three weeks.  It lasted six days.  This is just another case where Nora and male trainee- - helped themselves a week ago.   What does she think- - these things like a half thing of creamer are her “tip” or something?  But I thought in broader terms of the scam “The System” is running on us all now.  Because they are distracting us with all this violence crap.  Moe Kelly (who seems to be morphing into Larry Elder and I thought I had the wrong station) was going on about how he won’t travel in Ghetto areas now.  He won’t stop at a gas station because he fears being caught up in some robbery scenario.  He obviously won’t use an ATM at night.  The media wants us all paranoid and distracted about “terrorism” and the “epidemic of violence in America”.  The last time I checked crime statistics were way down from their 21 year highs.  And they are going on and on about Chicago.  A month ago I heard crime violence had dipped sharply in Chicago this year, too.  But now they are saying there were ten shooting deaths in the LA area over the weekend.  And just to drive the point home- - ABC news is showing this simulation of a mall terrorist shooting scenario like they had in Kenya, with people running in terror and being shot and falling, ect.   But this next detail got me mad.  They are now claiming that though this is strictly a “civil war’ of sorts between Kenya and Samolia- - or that Kenyans are being shipped to Samolia - - from this terrorist organization.  Now they are saying that because of the recruiting commercials they are showing- - with this one white guy saying that being in a terrorist group is “more fun than Disneyland” that the FBI has to be sicked on this group and of course they will be gunned down by the CIA or taken out with drones or something.  Because all though these American recruits may have never killed anybody and for that matter may be “green as grass” the Obama doctrine says “Any American gives up his citizenship and rights the minute he joins a foreign terror group - - even though until our CIA got involved- - this group had no interest in attacking Americans and indeed this IS a situation we should stay out of.  But we aren’t.  We’re going to be in there with our drones.  But if young whites think “Allah” is cool- - - remember that story decades ago in George Putnum - - where this deaf guy reaches into his pocket to pull out his care identifying he is deaf- - and of course he gets shot dead by the police.  Because since “Justice is blind” the police can’t tell the difference between a deaf card and a gun.  And of course they are so “visually challenged” that they can’t aim other than “shoot to kill’ going for body mass all the time.  None of this ‘shooting in the leg’ stuff for them.   And this guy was white, as I recall.  But a Black in the ghetto has several times the chance of being shot dead by the cops - - for doing nothing wrong- - as he ever would face from an “Al Qaeda terrorist”.  Now the government is saying that this Kenyan group is “waiting on instructions from Al Qaeda- - on their plans for major attacks in America.   I just get tired of all this hyperbolic crap after a while- - and it’s all a distraction from the fact, the news, that government as we have known it in the United States, may come to an end soon if John Boehner and the Republicans are able to ramroad through this bill to defund Obama care through the US Senate.  And they won’t even vote on the bill till Saturday.  So people like Randy Rhodes who thinks “Ted Cruise has already lost” are living in a fool’s paradise.  It doesn’t matter that what the House Republicans are doing is unprecedented and probably unconstitutional- - nobody is there to stop them.  It’s like the start of the LA Riots where all the cops run for cover, because the last thing they want is to be involved in something where the other side actually has guns and is shooting back.  I hear Ted Cruise has a big framed oil painting of himself in his office.   Just for me- - I’m not so stuck on my own good looks that I would want a giant picture on the wall of “Me” looking down at me all the time.  Ted Cruise will probably be the front runner for President in 2016.  He is so stereotypical of a right wing demagogue, it’s as though he were from central casting- - right down to that rant, preacher tone in his voice.   And Teddy Boy does have a point because he says “If I’m weird- - just remember the whole Republican House agrees with me”.   What worried me most is how lobotomized the American electorate has become.

Mario was on at nine, and they way they have such a deep rotation of hosts- - getting the one you want is increasingly difficult.  You have Monique, and Johnny Wendell, and Ebony K and whoever else they deem to throw into the mix, and finally we’re back to Mario, who is probably the best one at that hour.  Like me, Mario believed it was one of the most boring Emmy programs ever- and it was on CBS this year – early.  I just found it confusing.  Mario, like me, doesn’t believe we should retreat into total isolationism in our foreign policy.  There are certain areas where only a main nation like the United States is in a position to offer help.  This whole thing with the terrorism and all is still not completely resolved.  So many are dead and sixty people are not accounted for.  It seems they ask them to recite certain Moslem prayers or ask who Mohamed’s mother was- to decide whether you should be shot.  In Disneyland and Disney World, there is this whole scandal with the wheel chairs and the disabeled people going to the front of the line immediately - - and the company thinks they should be demoted to the “fast pass” option, where you are given an expected ride time, and you’re free to come back then and ride.  Some people may bring neighbors or others who aren’t even related to get in on this good thing.  They now are talking about putting your personal photo on your pass, so that you can’t sell your pass to others.  In the whole I Phones thing- - they hired homeless people to stand in line for them - - and then didn’t pay them - - but a bunch of other things went wrong, too.  Mario believes that the Glee star, Corrie deserved that special tribute he got- - and was denied more worthy people who had passed on, such as Jack Klugman and Jean Stapleton.  Of course son Adam Klugman registered his protests- - saying that Corrie was young- - and lacked a “body of work” that his father had- - and if you die of self inflicted drug addiction- - I don’t see why that should be singularly honored – as Mario says should be the case.  Jack Klugman was a juror in Twelve Angry Men, and did extensive stage work on Broadway and starred in “The Odd Couple’ and “Quincy”.  If it was indeed the 65^th Emmy Awards- - that means they wasted no time in establishing these awards. I wonder what the hell the very first one was like in 1949.   

Mario said something that is a key point about the Affordable Care Act.  He says this excuse about how the provision is a thousand pages and therefore nobody has read it - - argument – is wearing a little thin.  These people who call themselves talk show hosts have had three and a half years to read these thousand pages, and since it’s double spaced it’s really only five hundred pages.  I remember in sixth grade in Mrs Louee’s class- - where she was telling us we had to read five hundred pages a week and I and others said “I don’t think that’s a realistic figure” and she lowered it to three hundred.   I heard Uncle Bob used to read two mysteries a week.  But returning to Health Care - - it could well be that the main reason why the tea party is working overtime right now to block the Affordable Care Act from taking effect in eight days - - is because once people have it and discover they like it- - then they know their voter base will evaporate and nobody will re elect them next year.  Since there are web sites you can go to to learn about how the Affordable Care act will affect you personally, it’s kind of irrelevant, as Mario points out- - to say how the act’s going into effect will affect congress or the president or what have you?  Nobody bothers to point out the post important question that what the average Joe out there wants to know is how the Affordable Care act affects them, personally.  If you will remember in April of 2006 – the political momentum in this state with Swartzenegger still governor- - was a more progressive agenda, because the economy was at least improving.  Bush and the Republicans had failed to get through some of their pet projects like overturn abortion or gut the Social Security system – and so people thought that the Republicans were spent.  The governor had tried to push through all these right wing ballot measures in November of 2005 – and they went down in flames.  The difference between then and now is that - - I didn’t go around pointing THEN all of the bizarre realities that are the case now that weren’t true then.  They didn’t EXIST them, and one usually doesn’t make reference to things that don’t yet exist.  Stephanie Miller was reading this article in jest about- - no matter what President Obama does or doesn’t accomplish- - the people on the right have an instant come-back for it.

And now other highlights from my Word files lately - 

 

This is at a quarter to three.  I ran out of my own cigarettes and at two thirty borrowed one of Bill’s, who smokes at a slower rate.  I don’t know what to make of today’s soap opera episode.  Randy Rhodes’ optimism is misplaced in my opinion since there has been no vote in the senate voting out a “Clean” spending bill leaving Obama Care intact.  Right now I’m listening to a Louisiana congressman being interviewed, with an elongated picture.  We had a tuna casserole for lunch with toast and mixed vegetables.  We had watermelon for desert.  There will be no blog posting today apart from some actual breaking news, and there isn’t any.

Mario contrasted how progressive and “International’ a city like Miami has become with everybody speaking Spanish – and something else.  He spoke of these new Jetson style high rise apartments rising up to sixty floors that are very expensive, and yet sell out.  Then there is the city of Lief, South Dakota, which is reserved for all whites.  They have 24 in this new settlement now and plan to have a population of fifty by Friday.   Of course one wonders how many cities in the nation’s “heartland” that are in fact avid minority race hating towns. 

  Both Burt and Stu Baby were talking about this new "De-BOSC-ification of the Howard Legond".   Ss if a Bosc loses his Bosquiness - - how again shall it be re BOSC-ed?   (huh)

In Dr Levy’s class he still didn’t have that thing for us.  He said I could get it at his web site, the Levy launch.  I looked and I didn’t see any of the Founders poetry or Arleen’s art or anything, that used to be on his site.  The Founders heading just had a thing on Founders.  And “Publications by others’ had Gail’s book, but nothing else “domestically” produced.  There were a lot of links to Word docs for his newsletters.  If I could remember I could pan through all of them.  There were logistical problems such as scale- - and things coming in sideways, and I was able to correct both.  But if people reading my Blog had as much trouble finding things, my blogs wouldn’t be ready.  I watched “Chris Matthews” in the morning breaking pattern- - and that was till nearly eleven.  The class this morning started off very small, but grew.  We did our check-in and I was mistaken in cutting Dr Levy’s conversation with Lisha off getting in an argument abut how many weeks he’s been back.  I said it was two and it was three.  Joe will be getting his Jewish New Testament.  Since he had nothing for us in terms of hand-outs, we really didn’t end up discussing much.  I complained about all of our SSI money not being restored, and then Dr Levy talks about the high tax rates in California driving the wealthy corporations away and bankrupting our state.  But the not so secret truth is that - - since taxes have been raised- - our government is a whole lot more solvent than it had been.  There’s no mystery there.  Class broke up about ten after nine and about half the class lingered longer than the other half.  Dr Levy will not be starting up another class till the middle of October.  We talked a little bit about resiliency.  

In the morning I got up in time for fifteen minutes of Bill Press.  Most of the actual news events from yesterday are covered in the previous file, and in the latest posting.  This morning we had Raison Bran with two white sugars- - and in time we got out omlette, which is a pleasant change.  I was thinking aimlessly that I’d like to go back and read my files from around June of 2005 because I know there are a couple of things where I appear to have “reversed positions” or saying something a bit different now from what I was saying them.  There was an interesting clue about that famous "baby Howard" incarnation of mid 2005 birth- - which Mal Evans points out "Another obvious identifier of Howard is Ernest Hemmingway".   The only question is would a "confirmation clue' of his identity drive me Batty?   Other areas such as the "Event Horizon" that's there, then not there, then there again- - we take care to note "The invalidation of the Black Hole event horizon is still intact.  Black Holes cannot exist in this Universe.  As to the notion of "Life after Death" - - my writings have never been to clear on just what "Identity" or form the majority of "dead people" take on after death.  So to say that "Awareness without an Avatar is impossible" really isn't that radical of a statement.  Back then nobody can argue that I was mentally happier- - and not weighted down with - - the tea party or Judy’s machinations or - - money problems.  Green Harbor – despite its problems, did have its upside.   It’s amazing all these words that “Word” is suggesting be combined now.   Stephanie Miller had a good program today - - and people should get the podcast if they didn’t watch it live.  But the problem with the “live and local” stuff after on KTLK is that it’s bor-ring!

 

The Political Scene Today

This is a fine first day of fall September 22^nd and where is our auto date?   Fall officially began at 1:44 in the afternoon, which was less than an hour ago.  The air is invigorating on this sunny day and even at 1:15 there was a cool breeze blowing on the patio.  I am over my malaise of yesterday, which was only incidentally responsible for my not posting anything on blogger, because I didn’t have anything to say anyhow, and am still not sure I do now.  I noticed a spike in readership about that article mentioning Insanity, so I guess I’ll have to be on my best behavior and try not to say anything insane today, or at least keep the insanity within bounds.  Of course this is Season Premier week on TV.  It’s one of those long awaited weeks when at last we get new night programming, that you never think will arrive.  I got up relatively late at 6:20 when it was already starting to get light.   I smoked up my last two cigarettes before breakfast.  We had oatmeal for breakfast and I had two white sugars.  Finally we got our piece and a half of French toast and a piece of bacon.  Then I borrowed a cigarette from Bill.  We had both been given our Pyramids at the same time but I’ve learned that Bill smokes at a slower rate than I do.

I watched Meet the Press and the usual nut job gallery were on including Wayne La Pierre of the NRA - - and all these right wing congressmen like Chris Matthews had that refuse to answer a direct question but can only verge into irrelevant material.  But when push comes to shove it appears as if President Obama has no way out, and this will be another loss to add to his long string of losses lately.  If we can get through the next few weeks and avoid both an government shutdown and not have problems with the debt ceiling, the President will chalk it up as a win.  These Republicans know of course that raising the debt ceiling of the United States will only insure that our bills get paid - - and won’t add a penny of new expenditure or raise the deficit.  As I suspected, no matter how horrific the gun violence is - - these people don’t have a shred of conscience.  Travis Smiley is the only one in the whole roundtable that has a moral compass and dares to suggest things such as- - we should act- - according to what is Right and not just what is the “easiest thing to do politically”.  If I were President Obama, which I am not, I would propose as a compromise to this impasse an indefinite delay in the individual insurance mandate- - so that the overall shell of the Affordable Care Act remains intact.  But the way these republicans are thinking these days, I’m not sure they’d go for even that.  This President is devoid of sharp political instance- - which is why Romney and company were able to take the whole Bengazi issue and wrap it around his throat and strangle him with it.  That’s something they aren’t letting go of - - and they intend to use it against Hillary.  They are now starting to train their guns on her, because there are “these telltale signs” that Hillary is coming according to Chris Matthews and Meet the Press- - but Hillary won’t come out and admit it.  Clearly the Republicans know she’s the best candidate for the job.  But the dirty little secret is that she was also the best candidate for the job Four Years Ago.  Hillary won all of the big state primaries- - and in the old days the Party bosses would look at these electoral results and conclude that they just better go with her- - despite what the deligate math says.  Unfortunately the politicians of 2008 weren’t that smart.  So the people got a candidate they didn’t have total confidence in.  All through his history- - Barock Obama has always been a man “who had to be sold to us” with endless hype with little substance to it, as his track record has subsequently borne out.

Naturally there are a few things of a Cosmic nature “on the other side of the void’ so to speak, that I could mention from the backlog files of my brain.  So I have to ask myself, “What is the least Insane topic I could bring up?”  Well, Mal Evans greeted me this morning and went on a political rant about those who distort the sort of organization Al Qaeda really is.  Of course the name means “The Base” in Arabec.  So it’s like “the foundation” or Vox Populi, so to speak, of the Sunni Islamic peoples.  Mal resents the notion that it is seen as sort of a “Death Incorporated” type of Organization, which has no other function than blowing up bombs in crowds of people in crowded square, preferably non Islamic.  Mal Evans says that neither all the Bengazi hysteria, nor this event in a shopping mall in Kenya or whatever - - was Al Qaeda.   It’s kind of like “Al Qaeda” is one of those universal buzz words kind of like “Obama” has become the generic word now for “liberal democrat”.  We know that the so called “liberal democrat” is a pretty much extinct species.  But their “market research” tells that them that attaching the word “Obama” to anything- - is kind of those universal catch-all hate words.  If I can help it I hate referring to the Affordable Care act as “Obama Care”.   It’s a pajoritive term coined by our enemies.  But the masters of psychology on the Right have told us we need something to Hate, because it seems that Hate is a stronger, more effective emotion to getting people to do what they want- - than motivating out of more traditional things such as love of country, or duty, or morality, or “seeking justice”.   Clearly the race issue is at play in both the anti Arab and anti Islamic hysteria, just it is with exploiting the President’s ethnicity as Rush Limbaugh does every chance he gets.  People on our side some way somehow, need to “Take back the political language”.  We need to re-frame the debate in terms of actual reality, with an eye to solving problems.

On Breakfast with the Beatles it was “no Paul until he calls” day.  And apparently Chris Carter never got a call from Paul, but played Mc Cartney songs in the last part of the program including “That Was Me”, which was a song I was going to add to some “Best Of” compilation I had done that I was planning to re-vamp, but never did.  “Back Seat of my Car” was written “While Paul was still a Beatle”.  So it was pretty much “Songs by dead Beatles- - or all George and John songs for the majority of the program.  They played “Mama, You’ve Been On My Mind”, which has an interesting guitar style kited from another Dylan song, “Don’t think twice, it’s all right”.   This was one of several Dylan influences songs played today.  “You Can Lead a Horse to Water” was the last song George Harrison recorded.  They said that this is the final year the ‘49ers are playing in Candlestick Park.  I heard the area was named after a certain “Candlestick” water fowl, and not on the shape of some land formation, as I had supposed.   There were rumors of some Beatle-fest being held at the Stadium just before they tear it down, in honor of the Beatles final US concert.  I’ve heard that each of the Beatles took a lot of personal photographs of each other- - often photographing other Beatles taking pictures of them.  Of course I guess they could have an actual Beatle reunion concert if they got Danny Harrison to fill in for George, and Julian to fill in for John.   Of course - - I’ve made it no secret that “Wah Wah” and “The Art of Dying” would both sound a hell of a lot better if they got rid of most of the mind numbing acoustic resonance.  These both are such good songs it’d be nice to actually hear the songs au natural.  Beatles at the BBC volume two will be out soon.   Jackie Lomax died.  Cosmically speaking, he was from the “59^th Street Gang” along with others such as Thunderclap Newman - - Yes - - and the Youngbloods.  I’ve always liked those lyrics of “Get back to the way you should be- - find out what’s going down”.   Apparently Ringo, and Paul and George all play on this Apple Record production.   In “Who’s Playing that Beatle song” I was going to play it safe and say that that developed version of “For You Blue” was by “Tom Petti”.

They say that eleven o clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week  One can only imagine the vast gulf of difference between the typical Sunday message preached in a White church as opposed to that preached in a Black church.  You know the Catholic alias “Universal” church (as Ireneus first coined the term) has always been obsessed with money - - not because generosity is an inherent human virtue we should all practice - - but rather they want to “Own it all”.  They want our minds, our bodies, and our minds.  It just struck me this morning that the whole story about “Christians sharing all things in common’ was only put in the Bible as a “set up” for the Ananaius and Saphirah story about the perils of lying- - even over matters that are not touched in the Torah.  And by the way if Jesus regarded the Torah as “perfect” and that not a job of a tiddle would pass till he fulfilled it all - - then Jesus is validating things like women with their periods not touching any one - - or mixing wool with cotton - - or selling your children into slavery.  And it makes me wonder.  (There’s no Escaping It)  But the thing is - - the Church was so money grubbing- - that in one of the rare times where God does really “strike somebody dead” it has to do with shortchanging “The Church” on your money by not giving them ALL of it, when it’s demanded.  Think about it.  Also - - Simon Magnus- - he was a 2^nd Century Gnostic that people came to hate.  In fact the church fathers hated him so much- - they introduced this “Simon” guy in Acts- - who was guilty of the crime of “Simony” or selling of the gifts of God.  And of course they are so eager on hunting down heriticks, that St Paul makes reference to ‘Visiting the Tyannus school”.  This was a school of desciples that worshiped this Apolonius guy who was a quazi messiah figure who died in 110 AD who was said to have risen from the dead and spent forty days on the earth before ascending into Heaven.  Of course nobody will admit that the book of Acts was written AFTER the year 110 AD.  We also told you in the bit about the coins that- - they gave Jesus a - - Roman coin - - with Ceasar’s image on it - - and Jesus said to use THIS coin - - and not one that Bar Kopalah guy had minted when he temporarily had governance of Israel around 132 AD - - - which again – is in the second century.