Disappointing August Employment Numbers

The unemployment rate notched down to 6.1% but of course the real figure is over eleven and everyone knows that.  Unemployment for Blacks was the highest, and then Latinos, with Asians coming in the lowest.  Numbers of long term unemployed has dropped and is now sitting right on the three million figure.  These are people who have been unemployed 27 weeks, or just over a half a year, or longer.  Mc Conell pledged in a secret tape that he would take no action on any of the urgently pending bills, which is hardly any secret.  Of course congress is still off anyhow for a few more days.  Maybe Apple can put a few new people to work building the new I phones that are slated to arrive next Tuesday, if they can tear themselves away from China.  Many including the President has been proclaming that the good jobs are returning to this country- but no right winger has admitted this is happening, if it is happening.  Larry Elder's refrain used to be when Bush was President that "Previously the democrats complained there were no jobs.  Now they've gotten greedier.  They now want good paying jobs!"   I remember when the unemployment rate was once 5.4% and Larry Elder was carrying on about how "this unemployment rate is lower than it was in the seventies, eighties, or nineties".  I wonder what he'll be saying if the economy again gets to 5.4%.  But as it stands now - just as many if not more jobs were created in most of Bush's second term as in the recovery portion of Obama's terms. You really can't say one is better or worse than the other. 120,000 jobs were added.  They claim that a lot of these jobs are good jobs such as technical and engineering, or else in "management".  But the bikini graph is now showing lagging figures and failure of follow through.  One thing I noticed is that employment was shooting straight up through May of 2010 and then something major happened that dropped net job growth to below zero and fron then on this jobs growth figure was never the same.  And we know all this economy has to do is hickup and people are out to give this economy Last Rites.

When one looks at the decade of the nineties it’s really a tale of two halves in more ways than I can count.  You could call it pre and post of Jerry Garcia of the Grateful dead in early August of 1995.   Before August 1995 people were still using Windows 3.1 and afterwards made the big leap to Windows 95 and I imagine that was a steep learning curve for a lot of people.  Of course through the end of 1994 Los Angeles had two football teams, and Anaheim Stadium was actually an enclosed football type stadium.  Why they expended great amounts of money to make the stadium smaller has always escaped me.   Of course Israel went conservative - and maybe Netenyahoo hasn't served twenty years, but it's felt like it. Up through September of 1996 I personally was writing snail mail letters to various media outlets.  After mid September of 1996 there were none.  I would never write another.  Rush Limbaugh's TV show went off the air just before the start of the main campaign season of 1996.  What I remember is at about the same time Rush Limbaugh completely lost his sense of humor and became bitter, and no longer played those humerous songs, some of which were predicated on Bill Clinton having only one term.  Fox News debuted in October of 1996 and Sean Hannity got his big break with the Hannity and Colms show that month.  Later of course it just became all Hannity.  People at FOX initially claimed to be “surprised” that people thought the 24 hour per day news outlet had a rightward bent.  Apparently Bill Clinton’s penis bent to the right because he was left handed.  But Sean Hannity was kind of a Wonder Kind to begin with receiving an elite Catholic education all his years - - and went to various colleges but dropped out.  But Sean hit the big time at age 35 with the Fox news gig in 1996.  Strangely I had kind of a Déjà vu or out of body experience (?) when I first heard of that show, as if I had been exposed to that show in another life.  There was also a stock market guy named Paul Kangis I had the same sort of Déjà vu experience with, like I’d known him from another life.  The Federation has told me that David Koch really isn’t the problem- - because he disagrees with the hard core right wing on too many key issues to be a threat- - and the Federation of course reminds us of a corporate competitor in the chemical research field- - that we much more need to be afraid of.  David Koch of course ran for Vice President in 1980 on the Libertarian party and today’s Republicans are trying to enact most of those platform planks into law.   David Koch is not nearly bigoted enough to receive enthusiastic support today, and he’s far too old to be a serious candidate for Antichrist, if you’re wondering about that, since he’s already in his seventies.  But there are other demarcation lines in the nineties.  As I have implied- - there is kind of a pre internet era and ongoing internet era after mid decade.  Also the DVD came out in America in 1997 though it had been out in Japan since 1995.  However I dispute the idea that you can put six hours of video on just under five gigabytes as one article claimed.  I have a camera after all with a four gigabyte flash drive, and maybe you could get somewhat ever an hour with that thing on video.  Certainly not six hours.  They have higher capacity double layered DVD’s.   The dimension of the DVD and CD are both 120 milimeter, as opposed to the 89 milimeter Romulan two-sided CD’s.  Analog CD's. And they said that about 2001 the DVD gained primacy in video sales over the VHS tape.  It was September 10^th of 2001 that Sean Hannity went national with his radio program.  It’s almost as though 9 – 11 was tailor made to kick off his telecast.  Of course there was also a “turning point” in government - - highlighted by the “shut down of the government” in late 1995 and early 1996, and they reemerged from this crisis- - by passing a raft of key conservative legislation, and went on later in the decade to lay the foundation for the economic chaos of 2008 with the many stock market deregulation bills.  As you'll remember the 1996 reelection slogan of the Clintons was "A Bridge to the 21st Century".  Instead they built a bridge to the seventeenth century.  That's about the philosophical mindset of these Republicans.  Someone like John Locke would be too progressive for them with all his talk about "inherent individual rights".  It was also about 1996 that I stopped keeping track of new music on the radio. It was just about the turn of the year of 1996 and 1997 that one could say my life was characterized by turning to alcohol because of various pressures.

You know that Senator Brownback is now Governor Brownback.  In Kansas, though, both the governor and Pat Roberts, the current Senator of Kansas- is in big political trouble.  We told you the democrat had ordered the head of the elections commission to take his name off the ballot to avoid voter confusion.  Unfortunately the highly partisan commissioner refused to remove his name as he’d requested.  You have another Governor Christie type here playing political games with elections to feather his own nest.  While such antics aren’t illegal, they are a partisan abuse of political power.  Unfortunately it isn’t the first time it’s happened.  You will remember Kathryn Harris as the election commissioner of Florida.  For years previous to the 2000 election- - Kathryn Harris had purged a disproportionate number of Blacks from the voter rolls.  There were complaints and hearings but nothing was resolved.  So when it came time to count the votes- - or not to count the votes- - Kathryn Harris just decided to halt the vote counting and declare George Bush the winner.  The Florida Supreme Court rules that Kathryn Harris had acted in error.  But she appealed to the US Supreme Court- - and naturally they rush this case through in the five to four case we all know well.  The US High court issued a special rider saying “This case cannot be used as precedent in any subsequent rulings”.  Jumping to the Present however a Federal district court ordered Ohio to stop taking steps to curtail early voting in that state.  Of course- -if you’re a real crook like Christie- - who’s to say you won’t find some sneaky around the ruling?   Someone said that if we followed the plan of most other Democracies post some nineteenth century philosopher’s writings- - we would apportion representation in government as a percentage of the popular vote.  This would mean of course that President Obama would have been guaranteed a majority in congress for both of his presidential terms.

In terms of Christian Di Mira- - In terms of this whole not testifying thing- - I don’t even think it’s possible to decline to testify if called by the District Attorney.  All he or she need do is read back your testimony in front of the grand jury- and should your “testimony” seriously vary from that you could well be brought up on purgery.  Also it’s a distinct possibility that even absent Eric’s testimony-  the DA could still get a conviction from the jury.  But there is another problem Eric pointed out, which is that sure Stephano has friends who know all about drugs, such as Dr Chaika.  How in the world do we know that whatever drug Stephano gave John would have horrible and not so accidental side-effects.  But the writers don’t have to be logical.  They just get an idea for a plot outcome in advance- - and don’t care how they screw up the actual process of getting from point A to B.  In terms of Samantha and E J, I guess I fail to understand why they almost seem on the same side now.  It’s almost as though all that seething hatred and revenge never happened.  Now there are a couple more reasons why nobody should make a deal with Christine for anything.  If you say “I’m not going to let her win” and then crumble like aging concrete- - of what use is your word?  Like I said you could be charged with purgery if you change your testimony in mid stream.  Would you go to jail yourself instead of sending Christine to jail?  But suppose the best happens and John Black revives and he’s not a vegetable like Terry Shivo- - and he’s not paralyzed or have total amnesia- - or some other bizzzare, unimagined new symptom, suppose he’s perfectly healed?  Then you have the problem of word leaking back to him that initially Marlena “didn’t want to hear anything Christine had to say” no matter what it was.  What is to stop John from now making a hero of Christine - - (he’s always favored her over Marlena) and saying to Marlena “In case it escaped your notice we did get a divorce.  You have no hold over me; I owe you nothing”.  Hey, I’m just saying - - - .

This is Saturday August 30, 2014.  I actually remembered all nine of the basic cast of “Voyager”, which of course went off the air about the same time I moved here.  That summer of 2001 was the last of the reruns.  The next Star Trek series really didn’t have the same sort of developed personalities you could remember.  First for Voyager it was Kathryn or Kate Janeway, the captain, Tom Perez – her closest associate, Ensign Kim – who is Oriental looking,  Tuboc – a Black Valcan,  Nelix – the cook, and that somewhat argumentative female half Klingon and I don’t know her name.  There was Jacunti – a “Mokee”, and the holographic doctor, and Seven of Nine – the female Borg.  Of course on “Deep Space Nine” this episode ran maybe up till about a year before I moved out of the apartment and began in the winter of early 1993.  There was Captain Sisco – and his brother would sometimes be on the show, and Dr Bashier,  Quark – and his brother and his nephew, and Oto – head of security and a shape shifter, and then Miles O Brian and his wife and little girl – lots of familial relations here, and then Jedzia Dax – and they would often make reference to her predecessor Kerzon Dax - - and then Warf was added – and sometimes Warf’s brother would put in an appearance.  Also there is an older Bajoran brunette that Warf dated- I don’t remember her name.  I’m not certain these are all of the characters, and they probably aren’t.   Notre Dame was playing Rice in South Bend.  I didn’t want to wait all the way through halftime, which is longer in college games.  I did not check KTLA for football last night.  The Raiders might well have been on.  Bill had turned it to CSI after Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.  It was an interesting episode about a sixteen year old psychokiller bent on Suicide by Cop, and he got his wish.  I did some dial twirling after this but didn’t stay up that long.  When we were talking about “Voyager” that series came on at the beginning of 1995 and lasted seven years, just as TNG lasted seven years.  The word “Talaxian” came to memory of the strange race that Nelix was a member of, and he was strange.  It’s a Romulan word for some occupation - - I think it’s air traffic controller.   Captain Janeway was the most macho and assertive of the four captains, whereas Cisco of the four was the most hesitant.  Speaking of cautious- - there was a Jimmy Carter and the Islamic community thing I had on hoping to hear a Jimmy Carter speech on Islamic relations, but I was disappointed. 

FOX News and "Hatriot Radio"

People on our side of the fence call AM 1150 as “Hatriot Radio” and it’s no wonder.  Last night I watched a thing where Glen Beck was telling Christians to immediately leave any Christian church where the priest of pastor preached social justice.  We know that’s what President Obama did in 2008 as a prerequisite to running for President.  You know what they say.  Imotation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Glen Beck should be flattered.  But in general there is a hatred of “the unwashed masses of humanity”.  One quote I heart on that station went “If you stay in the middle class all your life then you’re a loser”.   This Eric Erickson guy this morning said that anybody who works at minimum wage when they are forty is a loser in life, and he has absolutely no respect for them.  This host did a monolog for most of the half hour between ten thirty and eleven but did take one call- -from Riverside.  The caller said he respects anybody who works at a full time job.  But the host cut him off when he began his next sentence and talked the rest of the hour himself, and had the gall to accuse the caller of “filibustering”.  We are to believe these strikers are just lazy bums who can’t EARN a raise and so have to bum others for it.  But later he said “Well getting a raise isn’t so great anyhow because you’ll just be in a higher tax bracket”.  And went on to say the whole day of protest thing was just a conspiracy of labor unions- - and Obama health care was dragged into it one way or the other.  We are to believe that bosses give raises to reliable workers.  And yet Mc Donald’s has a policy of “rapid worker turnover” and to fire people before they develop seniority- - and get any fancy ideas about advancement.  New workers are more plyable and can be taken advantage of much more easily.  But far from being lazy - - today’s workers have the highest productivity of any workers.  And it used to be that wages kept up with productivity.  But the host doesn’t care about this.  And if we believe Mike Papentonio’s words recently - - any host- - pretty much has to be screened by the rich oligarks.  These people don’t get these jobs because they are talented, but because they are good at taking their marching orders.  You see this in the appointment of not only judges and attorney generals- - but getting congressmen to rubber stamp the bills that are already pre written by the lobbyists and the oligarks.  Wake up and smell the coffee!

Norman Goldman yesterday was talking about how the United States is the policeman of the world.  The Federation issued a rather similar statement earlier in the day, in case you are curious.  The United States even has troops in Estonia, Norm says.  Maybe it made sense for us to have troops in Germany 55 years ago when Elvis was there.  But this is another century now and the idea of having troops in Germany for nearly seventy years now seems pointless.  But we bombed Somolia because they attacked Kenya.  And we use drones to take out terrorists in Yemen, and I don’t mean – to dinner.  It’s been pointed out the saying of Stalin of “one death is a tragedy; a hundred thousand is a sististic”.   So we see ISIS behead two reporters in the most blatant of ways.  But if we bomb a hundred thousand in Iraq this is just fine with the right.  Spock of Star Trek fame would call the comparison “highly illogical”.  Because the implication is that the United States by its very nature is horrified by the death of ANY innocent person, and we know as we have conducted our foreign policy over the decades this has never been the case.  The United States, so I hear, wanted to reconstruct Russia after the 1991 fall of communism along the Chicago school of supply economics.  Before the people were oppressed by their government but got free education and health care, or so we’re told.  Now they are STILL oppressed by an even more corrupt government in Russia but economically they are far worse off, and I’d hate to think our government had something to do with making them worse off.  But is Mike Papentoniio is right in saying that Ronald Reagan was just a puppet president of the “right wing oligarks” or whatever.  In other words is the right wing is now and perhaps always has been like “the insurgent Telliban government in the United States”, which is how the tea party by their own words seems themselves in dealing with Obama.  So really “The regeme” as Rush uses that term - - could be applied to these rich oligarks who have always seen themselves not as “the loyal opposition” but a shadow government.  By this same logic- stop me if I’m wrong- -  then Israel could, by logical extension, be considered just a shell country.  We have two choices.  Either a religion of 17 million people in the world can defeat a religion of 1. 2 Billion with a B people and they really have got this god they can call on at any time to perform military miracle after military miracle, or else indeed it’s as the right wing says they out to be as a 51^st state of the United States, kind of a stalking horse to gain terrirory in the Mideast.  Sean Hannity states that the destinies of the United States and Israel are inexorably linked.  So to what extent is Israel’s foreign policy really OUR foreign policy?  Like other “strong men” such as Putin and Qadafi, Netenyahoo has been there a long time - - going on twenty years.  The prospect of his ever being voted out in an election is nill.  I’ve received conflicting evidence about the number of deaths in Ukraine.  One source said it was just two thousand for both sides since April.  Another source stated that 800,000 people have been displaced in eastern Ukraine.  Many of them have gone to Russia and some haven’t gone as far.  Now we hear once more that they are about to reach an agreement.  My gut tells me that Putin is the aggressor and controlling the agenda for all of this, and the problem won’t end one minute before Putin wants it to end.   Of course in Gaza you’d just have to call that a slaughter.  I don’t remember the number but I believe it was approaching two thousand deaths in a matter of weeks- - majoring on women and children.  Maybe it’s off the front pages of the newspapers now, “out of sight; out of mind” but not for the people in Gaza who lost family members or have their communities destroyed.  Is Sean’s message to the Islamics “convert or die” like the Duck Dynesty guy said on a reacent television show?  Today Sean took the opportunity to reaffirm this message.

 Evidence appears to mount that this Ukraine situation is not the way the media portrays it.  I was watching Free Speech TV last night- - and watched both pro and anti Russian videos.  Hartman is among the “non believers” so to speak, and there was a new installment of George Washington’s blog I read yesterday.  On Monday I watched a speech given by John Roberts on the Magna Carta.  They had a thing on Ambassador Joe Wilson and the yellow cake uranium from Nigeria, and some rather extensive details about that.  Last night I was looking for something and I’m not sure what.  It kind of turned into the Gallery of nut jobs.  There was a Sean Hannity show with Phil Robertson of Duck Dynesty fame, giving his expert analysis of why Islam is so evil, and he spent much of that time reading from the Bible often pausing to flip through pages for the right scripture.  There was a thing with Mike Papentonio doing his analysis of Glen Beck and he says “Glen Beck was invented” by the ultra rich as a spokesman stooge, kind of like Ronald Reagan.  Ronald Reagan is loved by the right wing not for what he accomplished, or the lack of it, as President, but because the rich got him to run for California governor in the first place, instituting coservatism as we know it today in 1966.  Perhaps Mike got a little wrapped up in his own rhetoric - - .  But then I watched a thing on Pat Robertson and saying that Robin Williams took his own life because he believed in a false god of wealth and fame.  I had to marvel at the sheer hypocracy of Robertson’s words since that’s ALL the right wing worships are money and power.  And he ads “You have your problems because you don’t have God.  Turn to God now and he won’t disappoint you”.   I went out and smoked a cigarette after this in the dark.  Then Bill had turned it to “Law and Order” at some point.  I wasn’t paying attention to the KABC game shows. I got coffee from Glen’s room during the ABC “World News Tonight”.

There are certain personality types that are prime candidates for “patsies” or “saps” or whatever you call them.  They are almost willing pawns usefully employed by the other side.  They’re people like President Obama who’s word means nothing, and the more insistent they are that they be believed, the more you need to just ignore them.  Take Daniel Jonas on Days of our lives.  He was so indignent and offended at Jennifer for intervening in the Nicole situation with Eric a month or so ago.  Rather than saying “Thank you” to Jennifer- - instead he obsesses over what she did- -and deep down knows she was absolutely right and neither Daniel nor Nicole could be trusted to “Do the right thing” and inform Eric about the new evidence in his favor.  If we had waited for Nicole to come clean we’d be waiting till Hell froze over.  Jennifer knew this.  But now we have Dr Daniel verses Christine Di Mira.  I knew that despite the fact that for all appearances Christine had been “captured” and was “surrounded by her enemies” and had “no way of escaping” and would soon be “brought to justice in the strongest possible terms” I knew that Christine was going to outsmart them all.  I didn’t yet no how, only THAT it was going to happen, because that’s the way soap operas work.   So now you have Marlena who says she hates Christine and will give her “No Quarter"  or whatever.  Now Christine has Marlena doing her dirty work for her.  It’s so funny when Marlena says “Eric, I hate myself for what I’m about to ask of you - - “ but she doesn’t hate herself Not to do it.  Christine’s whole thing is hurting Marlena and this scam with the mystery drug that’s supposed to help John Black, is just another way of hurting Marlena and Eric all over again.  And excuse me for not caring if someone lives or dies but let’s look at this John Black situation.  John has been pretty non compus mentus for a long time- -like the last three years ever since his return to the series.  He has betrayed Marlena over and over again and wanted to betray Eric by having an affair with Christine.  He came close to raping her in that hotel room and he was going to do it ‘Just to prove a point”.   Brady says he can’t stand to look at John because he is reminded of old wounds.  And now suddenly this guy is worth selling your soul for?   With today’s episode we have an added reason for Eric not to withhold his testimony.  Because we would believe that Eric is asked to keep his reasons for testifying against Christine secret from Brady and did not share with Eric that he was thinking of NOT testifying.  What other conclusion could Brady Black come to than that “Maybe Eric is not an innocent victim of Christine and he thought about it and really enjoyed having sex with her on candid camera, and therefore since he experienced so much pleasure- - has had a change of heart and now believes Christine should be off the hook.  We just said- - Dr Jonas pounded to the table to remind us of his great resolve and this time Christine Di Mira was going down.  She had no escape.  There was no way out.  And now she’s going to skate as all of the many charges- - at least eight or so really serious ones- - are all going to be dropped.  But- that’s just the way soap operas work.  The only question is not the end result but the specifics of getting there.

In the Bob Mc Donald case there were 67 witnesses.  Virginia Governor Mc Donald was on the stand for 24 solid hours and cross examined for eight of those, spread over several days, of course.  Former Virginia Governor Bob Mc Donald was found guilty, and the jury seemed petty eager to do it, convicting him on eleven charges.  Frankly I’m happy to see him get it because he’s one of those tea party republicans, and people will think of Perry.  Norman Goldman is the first jock to even bring it up.  It certainly wasn’t going to happen on EIB radio.

There is a game changer in one red state.  Kansas may be turning blue for November because there has been so much looting and corruption by the Republican senator that he was already in trouble, but now the democrat has decided to pull out of the previously three way race, which confused issues.  It’s as significant as Ross Perot pulling out of the Presidential rate in 1992 during the Clinton coronation.   It’s like that Jeffers guy in Vermont who won in 2000 but then chose to caucus with the Democrats thus giving the Demos control of the US Senate.  So maybe there is a God- - and we have a couple of good news stories for today.

Joan Rivers died today of her medically induced coma, which I was always dubious about.  In fact my Federation friends were telling me days ago that Rivers’ soul had already left her body.  I would just add though that people needn’t be dead to have an astral “out of body experience” or contact with space aliens.  Both she and Robin Williams "have much better cosmic credentials than most Hollywood celebreties.  But of course lest I be declared a complete dingbat I wasn’t going to report it before it was confirmed.  But I’ve always wondered about these “medically induced comas” particularly in patient’s who’s grip on life is tenuous to begin with.  There is some really botched medical procedure we need to look into at Mt Sinai.  But a month or two ago when Eve Donavin was talking about having surgery on her vocal cords the first thing to enter my mind was “I bet there is going to be some horrible complication from this surgery, otherwise, so I reasoned, they would never have brought the subject up.

Tonight the NFL football season begins, but you’d never know it from all the doom and gloom.  This for me has been the worst summer since 2009 and 2009 was questionably the worst summer since I’ve been here.  I plan to back off of all the doom and gloom commentary on the government and the Tea Party because mentally health wise it’s not good for me to dwell on it.  This is after eight and we had hashed browns as Louise predicted.  We had Cheerios with scrambled eggs and toast and butter and jelly and hashed browns I put salt on. 

Spotting the Bogus (Ones) Among Us

There is a strong case that can be made that Ukraine was NOT invaded by Russian forces last Thursday - - and the symptums that WOULD have occurred are enumerated in the latest posting of Washington's Blog. Almost he makes me a believer that it didn't happen. Of course if Jesus has conquered death and made permanent provision for the remission of all sins, then nobody would fear death. There would be an ever growing people on the earth with an instant comunion with God, and strife as we know it in the world would eventually fade away as there were fewer and fewer unsaved people.

If we put the libertarian platform into force, there would have been no bail out of Wall Street banks in the fall of 2008. There would be no major oil or farm subsedies, and above all there would be no such things as Corporations, since Corporations are an artifact, a creation of government. As such there would be no immunity from law suits and Corporations would not be "immortal" and be able to escape all inheritence tax passing on wealth unabaited from generation to generation. In other words, what Christianity sought to attain, Corporations have attained. Freedom from the sins of those who control and created them, and in other words "persons who can't be killed". There would be no massive shipments of military arms to police departments. There would not per see be a permanent stigna on anyone convicted of a felony- - impacting either their ability to get a job or to vote. Anyone would be free to legalize anything by mutual agreement, including "schedule one drugs" such as marijuana. The FDA would not have the power of the media to foist new and untried drugs on us, which by implication are "safe" but they never had to compete in the free marked without that special "blessing' government gives. These companies would have not have patents that last virtually forever. And government would not be inflating the prices of these drug to far above what they would otherwise fetch on the free market. Individual decisions people make would be relivent again. Actions once again would have consequences.

 
So here are a bunch of remarks (further down) that I don’t necessarily agree with every word of, but I’m putting it out there for your perusal.   But I’m the kind of guy who likes to come to my other conclusions.  The wisdom of the years has taught me if anything- - - this truth that - - The places where I go wrong in life and start to accept screwey thinking, is when I listen to the impassioned, insistent words of others.  I let the thoughts in their heads get inside me and start rotting out my higher thought processes, like sugar rots out a tooth.   I refer you to this whole doom and gloom scenario of “The Crash of 2016” and all of that.  When people as diverse as George Washington’s blog, and Glen Beck and Thom Hartman all are saying exactly the same thing- - - I come to the conclusion that they’re ALL nuts!  I’ve looked at this latest corporate data from a Washington’s Blog post- - and am still sticking to my conclusion that it’s all wishful thinking on their part that the Financial Wall Street Pigs would somehow “get what’s coming to them” and end up in financial ruin.  No matter how I feel about their business ethics, I don’t believe each and every corporate wonk out there is completely Insane!  And it would be nothing short of insanity to personally engineer a scenario, a chain of events that resulted in their own financial ruin within two years.  Whatever you feel about the Koch Brothers or all of these crooked governors of Texas, Wisconsin, New Jersey and Florida- - their system is working for them.   It’s like one individual who came against Pastor Mark saying “He’s not grounded in the facts” meanwhile he’s still pastor and they go from job to job moaning louder with each passing year how little money they’re making.  I believe in backing a winning horse, even if that horse won’t back me in return.  I’ve looked at their accusations of “insider selling” and making profits without either hiring on new employees or increased sales or increased research and development- - or expanding their plant operations in any way - - and yet the green stuff keeps rolling in to their coffers year in and year out.  Only a sheer fool would see something going on year after year and say “This isn’t happening, and if it is happening- - then surely it can’t last”.  They said the same thing about Elvis.   But more to the point- - I argue quite the opposite that there is actually insider BUYING.  And who do these people BUY this stock from.  From these ads of financial planners that keep saying to get out of stocks because the market is going to crash any day now.  In other words it’s money being moved from weak hands into strong hands.  And if you have watched KWHY channel 22 as long as I have you know the key to financial success is to find out where stock shares are moving into weak hands or strong hands.  Because there is one little thing.  That book is called “The Crash of 2016”.   This is 2014.  That means any investor now has got two solid years of straight up price movement.  And by the way it took very little persuasive powers to convince my right wing friends of this.  And tell me this.  Is the money you get from those profits- - worth any less at the supermarket or at a restaurant or movie or department store?  Is the store attendant suddenly going to sell you fresh produced laced with paraquat or something?  No?   Then sit down and chill out and make that call and issue a buy order right now.  Because I tell you this.  Much as Newt Gingrich suggested, I believe this year when the Republicans take over the Senate,. The right wing tea party types are going to have a whoopy fit.  It will be party time!  The champaign will be flowing and prices will be taking off.   And by the way- - people don’t like to hear it but when the news is filled with gloom and doom and despair- - that’s the ideal time to buy.  That’s like the stock market having a bargain basement rummage sale.   It’s too bad more investors don’t think like working class house wives! 

Back in early 1974, thirty years ago, there was this terrorist organization called the SLA, Symbianese Liberation Army.  But before too long- - everything about this group- -when I began thinking about - - seemed bogus, right down to their name, dreamed up out of the over-worked imagination of some Hollywood producer.  The SLA was supposed to be big and scarey and “dead serious” as the media echoed everything their leader named “Sinque” said.  We jump to 2001 and their was Bin Laden, who almost seemed like some kind of a double agent.  Was George W Bush seeking to capture him, or actually protecting him?  And there was that big video speech one week before the 2004 election where he said how afraid he was of President Bush and how he’d feel a whole lot better if John Kerry were elected president.  Now we have this group ISIS.  How come nobody ever heard of this group before the beginning of the summer.  Now we hear that President Obama has been receiving White House daily briefings about ISIS for the past two years.  Do you believe that?  Would John Mc Cain actually pose with said ISIS members and state that they were his friends?   There was one source a few months ago that I read on line that “Very soon by economic necessity (how it was phrased) that the United States would foment another war in the Mideast based on a “False Flag” operation.  George Washington’s blog seems hung up on false flag operations.  Maybe it’s just these times of people’s growing mistrust of the NSA but I’m beginning to wonder myself whether the United States government isn’t carry on False Flag operations some way somehow.   It was only last June that I was saying in a blog how “We’re all completely fed up with war” and yet here we are, with me in the procession, saying that we need to go to war in the Mideast again.  Though Sean Hannity says we can do it with drones and smart intelligent and trained hit squads this time.  I actually hope Sean is right now.  I listened to what Hannity said on today’s show, and I can’t imagine President Obama being as completely STUPID as certain facts make him appear to be.  And unlike people like Thom Hartman and Randy Rhodes, I don’t believe our esteemed President is the brightest light bulb in the box.  The president has done so many stupid things it’s hard to keep track of them all and we’ll all breathe a little easier in two years knowing he’s departed the scene.   Anyhow here is all of the other stuff I promised.

The Fourteen Points of Peace  “Make love, not war”

1. Wars Are Not Fought Against Evil 15
2. Wars Are Not Launched in Defense 47
3. Wars Are Not Waged Out of Generosity 86
4. Wars Are Not Unavoidable 106
5. Warriors Are Not Heroes 131
6. War Makers Do Not Have Noble Motives 168
7. Wars Are Not Prolonged for the Good of Soldiers 196
8. Wars Are Not Fought on Battlefields 212
9. Wars Are Not Won, and Are Not Ended By Enlarging Them 235
10. War News Does Not Come From Disinterested Observers 250
11. War Does Not Bring Security and Is Not Sustainable 267
12. Wars Are Not Legal 291
13. Wars Cannot Be Both Planned and Avoided 312
14. War Is Over If You Want It 323

This first one is added, not in the original posting.  NATO is primarily a US artifact.  When people say NATO they basically mean the United States since I've heard the United States funds 75% of the cost of NATO.  This would explain why NATO is so insistent in taking strong action against Russia, even though individual European countries such as Germany seem opposed to the idea.   It's like calling the Warsaw Pact nations - Poland and Hungary and other East European nations, when we knew darn well it was basically just the Soviet Union.  What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

There’s little dispute among social scientists that most of our major public programs are counter-productive on their own terms. There is also little analysis of this phenomenon as a pattern in need of an explanation and a solution.

Prisons are supposedly intended to reduce crime, but instead increase it. Young people who when they commit crimes are arrested and punished become much more likely to commit crimes as adults than are those young people who when they commit crimes are just left alone.

Fixing public schools by requiring endless test-preparation and testing is ruining public schools. Kids are emerging with less education than before the fix. Parents are sending their kids to private schools or charter schools or homeschooling them or even pulling them out of school for a few months during the worst of the test-preparation binging.

Free trade policies are supposed to enrich us. Trickle-down tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations are supposed to enrich us. We keep trying them and they keep impoverishing us.

War preparations are supposed to enrich us, but impoverish us instead. War is supposed to protect us, but generates enemies. Or war is supposed to benefit some far away place, but leaves it in ruins. Is more war the answer?

When a road gets crowded, we enlarge it or build another road. The traffic responds by enlarging to fill the new roads. So we cut funds for trains in order to build yet more roads.

We’re several times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist. So, we give police officers weapons of war to make us safe.

We’re making the earth’s climate unlivable by consuming fossil fuels. So we ramp up the consumption of fossil fuels.

Guns are supposed to protect us, but the more we spread the guns around the more we get killed intentionally and accidentally with guns.

What causes us to pursue counterproductive programs and policies? And why does it seem that the bigger the program is the more we pursue its counterproductive agenda?

 How do they imagine they’ll get away with it? Well, let’s see. Not a single individual responsible for the lies that launched the destruction of Iraq and the death of some million people and the predictable and predicted chaos now tormenting Iraq’s whole region has been held accountable in any way.

The lie that Gadaffi was about to slaughter innocents, the lie that facilitated the attack on Libya and the hell that has now been established there — No one has been held accountable for that lie in any way whatsoever.

The lie that the White House had proof that Assad had used chemical weapons — No one has been held accountable.  No one has even had to recant as they switch targets and propose bombing Assad’s enemies.

The lie that drone strikes don’t kill innocents and don’t kill those who could easily have been arrested instead — No one has been held accountable.

The lie that the United States had proof Russia had shot down an airplane over Ukraine — No one has been held accountable, and the United States is opposing an independent investigation.

The lie that torture makes us safe, a lie that led to the United States torturing some folks — No one at the level of air-conditioned office work has been held responsible at all.

Why do they think they can get away with it?

Because you let them. Because you don’t want to believe they commit such atrocities. Because you don’t want to believe they tell big lies.

 “All this was inspired by the principle — which is quite true within itself — that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods.”  

This Is Thom Hartman's World

Scitzophrenics are twice as likely as the general population to be sexually assaulted.  I wonder if that applies to men as well as women. Do scitzophrenics make minor math errors and not admit them?  We screwed up in a Math problem yesterday, and you know how I hate anything but being infallible.  See below.

It's a sarcastic title but fitting.  Because it's people like Thom Hartman and Randy Rhodes who make a never ending train of excuses for President Obama's letting down of the progressives who put him in power.  It's as if all of us progressives are walking around with blinders on.  We think 'President Obama is doing the best he can".  Thom Hartman says "You can't blame Obama for anything.  It's those darned Republicans' fault.  But his guest pointed out that had President Obama been the leader he claimed to be (and frankly that many on the right feared they were getting) it's very likely we wouldn't be in the political mess we're in today.  Chuck Smith once spoke of preaching Christianity not as "casting some sort of spell on a person to make them believe" but just prays "Lord take their blinders off and let them see things the way they really are".  I wish progressives would do this.  These past six years have been nothing short of awful and we have lost ground in almost every respect, and are slated to lose even more.  Our options now are much fewer than they were six years ago.  It's like coming and watching a bad chess player make a few early mistakes and the observer thinks "Well those are fixable if he gets right on it".  But then twenty minutes later the same guy comes back and looks at the board and sees the inferior chess player Screwed everywhere he looks.  We're screwed in the Courts, we're screwed in the Media, and we're screwed by Jerrymandering.  We're also screwed by our own attitude.  It's a case of "Whenever the going gets tough- - I'll just QUIT and withdraw from politics and That'll show them!"   Such a head in the sand approach is pathetic, but the case today.

So what do we see when we take those blinders off.  First a few facts.  We heard come the start of Debate season in September 2001, now three years ago that "The President Obama and the Federal reserve are going to crash the economy by flooding it with money causing massive inflation and instability.  Well, Bush was the one who put the current Federal Reserve chairman in place.  Yet you won't hear this fact slipping out from the Tea Party.  We were told "the deficet is balloning more every year".  Soon it will exceed the anual gross national product.  False and false.  The deficet is less than HALF back what it was then when all of them were so hysterical about it, and it's down to 550 Billion now- and dropping.  Also we need to make it clear that the Republicans have had pretty much their with tax policy these past six years.  If they doubt you, ask them to name which taxes have "gone up and up".   Ask them to name which business regulations 'have gone up and up".  They can't.  They just say it hoping you'll be awed by their words.  We see that Obama can't be "made to do something through social pressure" the way Thom Hartman says.  So to use the wayward child analogy - -President is NOT someone who can be prodded to do the right thing with sufficient pressure.  I doubt ANY ammount of "pressure" would ever suffice for this man to act otherwise. He would portray the way - - frankly the way a lot of people see God - - or that Mother we talked about perceives her wayward child who is basically a good kid- - but needs a little insistent prodding now and then to do the things that he knows he should.  President Obama is not like this.  Oh he can be "pushed' all right.  He can be pushed all over the field of play by the right wing- - and you can get THEY know that.  They can get him to do about anything THEY want him to do- - and no matter what the President chooses (which will be the wrong thing) they'll criticize him for whatever he does.  In fact the right wing would not be NEARLY so vibrant without President Obama to kick around.  Nixon used to say to the press "You won't have Nixon to kick around any more".  Obama is amazingly like Nixon in this respect in that he IS someone TO "kick around" and vent all of our frustrations about everything on- - and translate that into votes for whoever FOX news is endoursing this election.   So what are the things everybody gets wrong about our "Situation".  First of all we have a President who can be pushed around by the tea party, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for causes on the Left.  The President disses us at every turn.  Some things like Occupy Wall Street were just a BAD IDEA seeing as how the media played it.  And that just energised the Right Wing further- - way more than it "Got our message out there", which was the whole idea to begin with.  It didn't do that.  Occupy Wall Street failed miserably in that goal.  First of all as Hartman stated this morning or whenever- - Roosevelt let the banks fail because FDR was governor of New York before he ever became President and as governor of New York he did nothing but presde silently over the Wall Street crash and did nothing.  Nobody was expecting him to do much, according to Hartman's version of events.  But then FDR stepped into the Void once he took office.  Banks were now failing.  If President Obama had followed FDR's example he too would have said "So far as it is within my power- - these Rich People who brag so much about being Self Made men with no help from anybody - - they made their bed; they can just lie in it.  FDR used opportunity when it came to make a name for himself.  The President didn't.  We need to tell our Republican friends if they say that "The stimulus plan was a one hundred percent failure" well HALF of that same stimulus plan was Cutting Taxes- - JUST as the republicans had been wanting.  So they have to admit that cutting taxes was ALSO a :"one hundred percent failure".  Dodd Frank was an emasculated bill to begin with.  And the Courts have about eliminated it all together now.  The President promised "Next time- - there will BE no bail outs of the big banks" but unfortunately this just ANOTHER promise the President is destined NOT to keep.  The rich know the democrats will be there to help them out.  The average person on Main Street has no such assurance.  (Selah)

There is one tactical mistake the democratic party has been making for decades.  It will not allow anyone with a hint of social conservatism within the party.  That means nobody who believes in traditional marriage between a man and a woman, and also nobody who even wants to restrict the apalling number of abortions in this country each year, let alone outlaw them.  The republicans, and rightly I might add, have raised this fact to claim that it is they who are the "big tent' of social issues.  In the Republican party you can be either gay or straight.  In the republican party you can either be pro abortion- - or someone who wants to restrict or abolish it.  The democrats need to also reclaim the right as far as their stance on "Judicial Activism" is concerned.  If the democratic party came out firmly against judicial activism- - they could scoop up a lot of independants who believe likewise.  Tell them we are the party out to oppose crony justice - - or Justices with a political agenda.  They won't be able to counter these claims especially when you point out the backgrounds of men such as Allito and Roberts and worst of all - - Clarence Thomas.   Tell them when it comes to civil rights- - you'll go with Robert Byrd rather than Clarence Thomas - and if Larry Elder doesn't like that he can go fuck himself!

There was a guy on a show today who argued that "Right to work laws" now adopted in 24 states of the Union now- - including Michigan of all places - - are Just and Right- - and only Fair.  He portrays a world where it would be wrong for a "Union" to get in-between the relation between me and my Employer.  These are the same people who refused to abolish child labor because it "Interfered with the right to Contract" with an employer.  They see work as this gentlemanly place where everyone is saying "After you.  No - - after You".   These rights we have today like the forty hour week and getting paid time and a half for overtime (hopefully) didn't just drop out of the sky.  This guest seemed surprised when the first questioner stated that an employer can fire you for NO REASON at all, on zero notice.  There IS no negotiating with an employer aside from the Union.  And he and others would portray a Union as this outside Thing- - some kind of an Intruder- - into the business world, and somehow that it does not belong there.  And most damning of all these people imply that somehow- - Worker's real issues, YOUR real issues are not being represented by the Union at all.  This of course is nonesense.  In fact Unions ARE the ONLY WAY you WILL get any negotiating traction with your employer.  Of course these people use the same logic on the Affordable Care Act saying "Obama Care gets in between the relation with you and your doctor working out the best care for your particular needs".   Once again- - you don't just walk into your insurance office one day and say "I think it would be wonderful if you people paid for X, Y, and Z and since we're all friends here I'm sure you'll agree with me.  They would portray "Health Rationing" as some wholly New concept that Never Existed before.  But indeed that's all we've been getting particularly from an HMO like Keiser is- - "Health Rationing" and if you don't think Insurance policies that aren't what they claim to be are their own "Death Panels", well, think again.  Of course Michigan is a case where the people of that state and particularly in Detroit have been messed over nine ways to Sunday, and haven't had the right to represent Themselves.

Finally on the Ferguson issue- - we need to get straight a few things.  Officer Wilson did NOT know that Michael Brown was wanted for "strong armed robbery" - - meaning shop lifting.   Most people consider Robbery as something done under duress.  But today we learn that the call to the Station about the robbery of that liquor store- - occurred one minute AFTER- - the report of the shooting of Michael Brown.  In fact I'm not entirely sure that IS Brown in that video.  It's a little fuzzy.  So - - what happened to the cigars.  How come in any version of what happened - - the dialog - - you know, the supposed "Arrest for shop lifting" nobody is saying anything about cigars.  So did the cigars go wherever the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq disappear to?   And they say that a fleeing shoplifter is going to do things like walk in the street and attract attention to himself by being expecially bulligerant to the police.  Thieves don't think like that.  Their job is to get away and say as little as possible.  They aren't looking to start a fight.  They would have us to believe he pulled the police car away from Brown and Johnson still walking in the street after shouting at them - - and a split second later heard the APB or whatever and slams the car in reverse and goes back.  That would have to be an awfully fast split decision.  Don't cops think about traffic safety before slamming a car in reverse- if that's what happened.  Sean has also lied when he said "There were no shots fired from the back".   Brown was HIT once from behind- - there were MORE shots fired than that.  It's not police policy to shoot fleeing shoplifters.  It's so funny that every time this death is brought up Sean and company spit back "Chicago" just like the tea part house spits back "Bengazi".   And usually Gun control gets thrown into the mix, too with them saying "See- - Chicago has gun laws and there is Violence".  And they also love to trash Chicago as a city per see because the President was from there.

We had BBQ hot dogs wrapped in bacon with lots of catsup and onions.  There was potato salad and tomato soup, and a cantaloupe slice.  They played an album all classic sixties soup- split between Motown and the Memphis “Stax” record sound.  There was some singing – most of it bad- but no speech making.  Connie sang gospel style, which took bravery, since she was doing it without benefit of music.  My soap opera wasn’t on.  I listened to quite a bit of KLOS rock today.   In my “cosmic journal” remind me to make an entry that the Black Crows are from the “Doobie” group.  In terms of sheer percentages, more -a higher percentage of "Doobie" group output (Gemini) are played on KLOS than any other group - even Arkturian.  Also added to the ranks of Taccomans are “April Stevens and Nino Temple” and “Dick and Deedee”.   Nora was just in and out of here ever so briefly.  Since golf preempted the Soap Opera time has been hanging heavy on me today.

MATH SCREW UP  The answer we gave to that math problem was the answer to 2/3 of 2/5 and not 3/5 of 2/5 because - If you have three fifths and take three fifths of the remainder the answer will be 6 /25 ths of course, additional ammount.  That is-  you used up 15 / 25 and then you have 10/25 left and you take 3 / 5 of that or 6/ 25 leaving a 4 / 25 remainder so your grand total would be 21 / 25.  I just needed a sugar boost to get my brain working right.  I went out to the store for cigarettes and got a bear claw.  It's the third snack in four days, and that will bust my budget if I keep up at that pace.  And don't worry - in Excel I cross checked answers and the mistake I made in the last file would not be allowed to stand.