Thumbs Down on the Nuclear Deal with Iran

I have to give thumbs down on this upcoming nuclear treaty.  Sometimes it’s interesting to find out what you don’t know that you thought you did.  This “sunset clause” thing after ten years has always been troubling.  According to Rush Limbaugh we’re just saying “You can build your bomb.  All you have to do is wait for ten years when we’re not monitoring you”.   Of course Netenyahoo has gone further “This deal will not only fail to prevent Iran from building a Bomb, it will virtually facilitate (make easier) the building of the bomb”.   But we’re still snagged on the timing of the lifting of the economic sanctions on Iran.  I think we should make them sweat a while.  Couldn’t we keep them on another year or so till we’re a lot surer of them?  Iranians wish to be referred to as Persians.  Who would have guessed?  This guest on Washington Journal has a lot of in depth knowledge about the Mideast.  It’s the “devil in the detailes”.  He may be an admitted Republican but he’s not given to cheap political barbs - - - but he has a lot of background- - and seems to know a lot more than Secretary f State John Kerry, who’s supposed to be so smart.   It seems that the nuclear agency that inspects Iran won’t be allowed to “have a whole history of their attempts to go nuclear” like they got in South Africa when they gave up their Nukes 20 years ago.   Also it’s a mistake to infer that “Iran has never had an interest in Nukes” because ten years ago they WERE quite interested in building a bomb.  It’s just that in the past few years they haven’t continued with their plans, perhaps due to the sanctions.  But at the same time they won’t just destroy all their years of work in the past just because we want them to.  There is some neutral atomic agency that is troubled by Iran’s posture now.  It signals a potential danger.  Iran is trying to manipulate a minority race in Yemen, who weren’t particularly Shiite to begin with.  There could be a sudden regeime change in Iran and suddenly - - the whole deal could blog up – literally, if extremists take over.  Netenyahoo thinks the scope of the proposed deal is way too narrow and doesn’t even address the issues of either foreign aggression or terrorism.  So Iran doesn’t even have to validate Israel’s existence for the deal to pass.  Today Netenyahoo said “this deal is even worse than I imagined”.  I am highly troubled by these rallies where the crowd shouts “Death to America” at the identical moment we are on the verge of signing something.  The deal isn’t a done deal yet - - and there certainly has been nothing in the news about it.

Meet the Press announced that the prospects for this nuclear deal with Iran are far more pessimistic now, and it might not happen.  It’s funny that the cover of “The Week” magazine is captioned “Netenyahoo All Alone”.   But I would caution that it seems to be President Obama who wants this treaty as his “legacy” the same way he sees Health Care and the Immigration deal as “legacies”, when all three look like disasters.  There is such a thing as wanting something so much- - that you end up not getting it.  And politically the President would fare better- - and Hillary would look better- - of John Kerry just blew up this deal and we just forget it ever happened.  It wouldn’t be that Iran were suddenly our “enemy”; it’s just after the date we decided not to have any extracurricular activities afterward.   Marco Rubio and Rand Paul will definitely be declaring their candidicy for President in a couple of weeks.  And yet strangely they say that “This may be the year” that the most conservative candidate wins.  The logic is strange, and based on the timing of the primaries.  The Iowa primary is later this year and there are a lot of “fundamentalist” states that have primaries in rapid sucession, and even Texas is moving up the date of their primary to what they call a SEC super Tuesday.  Because it’s reasoned the reason why Huckibee or Santaurum never capitalized on their respective Iowa primary victories in 2008 and 2012 is because too much time elapsed and enthusiasum cooled.  But this year it’s reasoned that Ted Cruz has undisputed control of the most far right whacked out voters in the Republican Party of the sort that wins Primaries for them.  So Cruz may be like Obama not only in background but also in his ability to rack up a lot of states quickly where the political punsters are saying “Well now he’s unbeatable- might as well throw in the towel”.

THE BEST OF GREENIE (23 tracks)

Two Of Us (Fast Demo Version) Bonus Track

All I Gotta Do

You Really Got a Hold On Me

Money

Bad Boy

You Can’t Do That

I’ll Cry Instead  (US mono version)

I Call Your Name
Leave My Kitten Alone

When I Get Home
Slow Down  (US version)

Baby’s In Black

Dizzy Miss Lizzy

Ticket To Ride

You're Gona Lose That Girl

Rain (original mono)

She Said She Said (Greenie’s last vocal)

We Can Work It Out

Day Tripper

The Word (KLOS "end" version)

Wait

Run For Your Life
Tomorrow Never Knows (mono version)

Front Cover is the “Something New” cover in a circle shape surrounded by that greenish “lines patters” that a photo of a nearby street we’ve posted is done in.  Produced by Syd Barrett and due to be out Monday March 30^th.   You’re truly got the name “greenie” though Syd Barrett doesn’t like the name of “Pink”, which is a term I used for him.  As far as Syd is concerned, “Pink” is just a fictional character of Roger Waters’ mind which appears on a Pink Floyd album.  The tital is not on the front at all.  The back is a black backdrop with white text, except for the title letters which are in bright green.  Also in green (at my suggestion) is “If your favorite Beatle song isn’t on this album, then it’s likely Greenie isn’t taking credit for it.  That’s something to keep in mind.  As you know “Two of Us” was the “Out” song- (kind of like the cabinet member that stays away during a big Presidential speech) - never before included on a Sirius A Beatles recapitulation of albums.  Greenie of course had nothing to do at all with “Let It Be”.  "23" is the lowest possible prime number entirely made out of other prime numbers, we learn from Jeopardy.

The month of March may go on record is the hottest month we’ve ever had.  Already March has featured (“as with a neon sign?”) no less than five days where the temperature went over ninety degrees, which is an all time record.  The first three days of the month were below average and the rest of the month was above average.  One news dept had the days over ninety in purple, which was confusing.  In other Beatle news - - for the second week in a row I correctly named “Who’s singing that Beatle song”.  Last week it was the “Four Tops” and this week it was the “Bee Gees”.  Usually they make them so tricky it’s hard to guess them.  They played “If You’ve Got Troubles” on today’s “Breakfast with the Beatles” and on this date fifty years ago in Beatle history it was the mad Professor trying to get a ring off of Ring’s finger.  Ringo’s new album “Postcards from Paradise” is out on Tuesday March 31^st one day before I get to go to the ATM.  This is now my thirteenth day without money.  I figure now that I’ve “saved” close to forty dollars, which may be dreaming.  My allotment is so low these days.  Pink is a guy it’s hard to initiate a conversation with, but occasionally he himself initiates a lucid conversation.

I came to the conclusion yesterday afternoon that this Nuke thing with Iran deal - - should not happen.  I would have posted last night but Mal Evans urged me to hold off on my opinion and see what actually happens.  Mal Evans -  - because of his previous Federation post- - - likes to parse his words very carefully when he makes a public statement, because even at his old post he had riding shotgun over him making sure he didn’t slip up.  Bones has reaffirmed that he is still just as pro Ukrainian and anti Putin as he ever was.  We both agree that Washington’s blog appears to be in some parrellel universe of reality.  Bones also stated that Hillary Clinton should be absolutely the Democratic Party’s last choice for President and “Even the local dog catcher would be a better candidate, because with Ted Cruz doing so well - - if he wins no matter what democrat at the top is going to look good.”  Hillary Clinton now CAN’T turn over her server because her server has been “wiped clean of all information”.  Most people with E mail accounts don’t have their own server, so this afforded Hillary a unique type of independence.   She alone would decide what she wanted to get rid of and what she wanted to save.  And there is no way this lack of accountability can be counted as a good thing.  Hillary Clinton is cosmically a Lanian, in case you are wondering- - which is the same cosmic group as Yoco Ono.  In one more cosmic “reassignment”, Susie and the Banshees are Agegenian - - and not Berliner. 

  

Amanda Knox Acquitted of all Murder Charges

Amanda Knox’s “Long National Nightmare is Over” to quote Jerald Ford.  Amanda Knox has finally been unqualifiably acquitted of murder charges in Italy.  I guess it was in 2007 that Amanda Knox was accused of killing her British roommate conspiring with her then boyfriend to do it.  She was initially acquitted but then the appeals court overturned the decision and said she had to be retried.  That can’t happen in this country – as you’re probably already guessed.  It can’t happen in Brittain- as we know from “Witness for the Prosecution.   It can’t happen  because we have explicid protection in our Constitution about “No fact by this jury may ever be reexamined” or something.  Of course Amanda managed to get out of Italy and was planning to live her life under a not so veiled threat of being renditioned back to Italy (by secret police or something)  But yesterday the appeals court made it official that she is free for good.  And now Amanda is free to plan her wedding to her current boyfriend.  We all wish her God’s speed and a happy life.  She deserves it.    I’m typing on red, so I can’t see the red flagged words.

President Obama spoke on the topic of these pay day lones.  I’ve never gotten one myself but from everything I’ve heard- - they charge Mafia style interest rates of 25% a week or something.  My advice is just let your family starve a few days or be like that restaurant guy and cultivate a tast for dirt in your children.  And if it’s a really urgent bill like the rent that’s due, then go out and rob a bank and get the money that way.  It’s less risky then leaving your fate to these loan sharks, where you could easily end up owing double what you borrowed, and that’s probably getting off easy.   The President as in “Now you say something?” seems to have woken up and discovered that the credit companies are ripping off consumers.  Five years ago they passed Dodd Frank and related bills- - and I thought either the administration or congress had decided that any such bank or finance related bill would just be ignored like it didn’t exist.  But if the President is newly concerned about Finance- - there is a host of measures he can take.

Let’s talk about this “Freedom of Religion” act in Indiana.  Apparently people attending the Final Four next week are thinking of organizing a massive boycott instead.  If it were me running a wedding cake business- - and a gay couple wanted a wedding cake- - I’d just say to keep it on the QT that I did business with you.  I wouldn’t want it to get around to all of my “regular customers”.  To me it would be just business.  I wouldn’t care.  I understand the idea that people consider it a “right” to engage in commerce.  But as far as the Courts are concerned the adage is true “We refuse to refuse Service to Anybody”.  You can be fired because the boss doesn’t like the way you part your hair or that garish tie you are wearing.   When I learned this basic fact of life- - it was an eye opener for me.  But to then go on and call it a religious right and give it some sort of government “Institutional” status- -to me seems to be going a little far.  I am sure the tides and the times will be- - pointing to official establishing homoxesuality as a civil right on an equal status with race.  We aren’t there yet.   Like I say I think the Indiana law is a little “over the top”.  A lot will be determined by the official Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage this June, whether homoxesuality is no reason at all to discriminate in anything.

Harry Reid won’t run for reelection to the senate next year in Nevada.  Reid is endoursing Chuck Schummer for new minority leader, or just maybe- - majority leader.  Goldman states that it won’t be necessary for the democrats to win Nevada in order to take the senate.  I hope he’s right.  After his squeaker of last time, I can understand why Reid doesn’t want to risk it.  Some on the far left criticize him.  He’s soft spoken, but he usually got the job done.

Norman Goldman is talking about “the doc fix” where doctors did not have their reimbursements “docked” a small percentage each year, as they should have, year after year because of a law Clinton signed in the nineties.  But now John Boehner has stated that he’s going to submit to “the doc fix”, and we won’t have this problem anymore.  It’s a major concession to the moderates and the tea party is pissed off.   It would seemed that Rush and Shawn may be correct that the party has shown more "flexability" on various issues such as the immigration thing- - then I might have expected.  Norman Goldman claims that nobody takes EITHER the Republican OR Democratic budgets seriously.  This is news to me.  I don't think we so entire in 'Continuing Resolution Land" that it's literally impossible to pass ANY budget.  

I finally got up the nerve to ask Janet for a loan.  I don’t see her out on the benches that much to begin with these days anyhow.  She turned me down and suggested I go to Federico, which I’ve already done.  I borrowed cigarette number 23 from Paul before breakfast and that’s the only whole cigarette I’ve had today.  This is officially day twelve that I haven’t had any money or debit card to spend, and also the twelfth day of Bill being gone.  I talked to that guy last night who opened my door three or four times in the early evening.  Apparently he’s James new roommate across the hall, now that Donald is officially gone.  I check to see who’s name is still on the door and who’s has been removed.  I got my medication from Tom before breakfast.  This is the first time I’ve heard “rewind” on KNX for a number of weeks.  We had oatmeal for breakfast.  Donald complained he can’t see the money in his wallet when it’s dark, but at the time there was already a little twilight showing in the sky.  Orange juice is good, but I need to take a little V8 myself because my night vision isn’t what it used to be, either.   And then there was a long hiatus and it wasn’t till past a quarter to eight that we got our toast and butter and jelly, and a fried egg, and coffee.   I think I’ll stick with blue if I decide to blog stuff here.

We haven't talked about "Federation Politics" for a long time.  In fact 2015 has has a derth of references to doings on "the other side" compared to either of the past two years.   John Lennon had a long conversation with one of the Taccoman representatives a few days ago and one concern was that the Taccomans supported the first Iraq War in 1991 at a time when few people in the Federation, including Stu Sutcliffe - - did.  During those few weeks when Stu was actually around in September of 1990 he was quite anti war.  Although they seemed to be more "pro war" after the War was already over.  But this time around the Taccomans made it clear that they are NOT "pro born again Christian" and NOT pro war with Iran, and in fact they are NOT pro Netenyahoo.   John Lennon has also brought up religion.   John was reminded "You know- - you didn't mind us ruling back in 1991, so why now?"   Both Dennis and Kurt also had these sorts of religious doubts about the Taccomans - - in Dennis' case, for reasons too lengthly to go into here.  It was about that time or a few days before that Stu Sutcliffe- - - pointed out that your host (me) had been cut out of an album cover photo from November of 1991.  And the reason why the photo was "re-staged" using whatever advanced photo guimicry they have- was that "I just wasn't bringing anything TO the picture".    But there is both a Mal Evans and Romulan tradition that "Once an album is out- - you don't change the front cover in these sly ways" because often front covers are seen as omens of the future, and don't change that.   In terms of - - cosmic identities of groups "In Cars" by Gary Newman IS in fact a "Berliner" group - - - just as "Nobody Walks in LA" (Missing Persons) is a Berliner group.   "One Night In Bancock" is the Karn Evel group, if we didn't say.  People sometimes like to say "Oh that's our nationality that did that song" and at least for me- - tagging cosmic identity for a group is not always a slam dunk.

Rumors of an Iranian Nuclear Deal by Sunday

A few spokesmen have said there will be some kind of Nuclear deal with Iran by Sunday.  But the Iranians say it will be a “verbal understanding only”.  Conservatives don’t want ANYTHING agreed to unless it’s undergone the scrutiny of congress and the American people at large.  The last I heard was John Kerry was still expecting some additional concessions on Iran’s part about their nuclear reactors.  There is no indication that any breahthrough of this sort has occurred.  Complicating things a little is that the Egyptians and the Saudis are attacking Iranian proxy forces in Yemen right now, in a move some people like Shawn Hannity wishes the United States were participating in, although it seems little of the United State’s business which side wins in this scurmish.  Of course nothing- - not even being able to weigh in on a nuclear deal with Iran, will distract congress from their scheduled two week Easter recess.  Of course if they wanted to officially “go on recess” than Obama could confirm his Attorney General appointment without their permission, and we know that’s not going to be allowed to happen.

We have more information on that German “air bus” crash in the French Alps.  It was in fact the senior pilot who excused himself to go to the bathroom, and the 28 year old co pilot would not let him back in the cabin.  They have security protocols where members of the flight crew can gain access to the cockpit in emergency situations where the pilot is physically incapacitated.  But these codes were deliberately over ridden for at least a five minute period.  In the United States this contingency wouldn’t be a problem because they say that two trained men have to be in the cockpit at ALL times, as a safety provision.  They won’t release certain about this 28 year old German co pilot except to say that he “had to drop out of flight school for a while in 2009” and we are to take it on faith that those details aren’t important.  Also we aren’t allowed to know the man’s religious affiliation, if any.  Certainly if he was made mentally unbalanced by being in a “Death Cult” or something- - this would be highly relivant. 

You’re hearing more and more adds for this “bull market” and these people are only about six years late.  Where were they when there was good money to be made?  They were running scared, that’s what.  Now that we’re at the top of the market they come running out of the woodwork.   As you know I gave my own “Sell Signal” to my readers at the end of the trading session of January 14^th of this year.   Right now we are just about at those same levels.   They are reminding us that the stock averages have been down all four days so far this week, which admittedly isn’t that much on the average.  But I’m just saying that if you’re at all worried about the continuing state of your finances right now, just be good to yourself and take your profits now.  That way you’ll have your capital save and won’t have to worry about it anymore.

Two guidelines I would have as safeguards for whistle blowers are being thrown out by the courts.  When it comes to toxins in various food products we eat there is something called the “Ag-gag” rule where if you reveal a “trade secret” of a company or producer, you are the one in violation of the law.  And if you file a lawsuit, you may not use the information you obtained in your legal brief.  I find two basic problems wrong with this.  Remember when I spoke of “black sites” of CIA detention and torture known as “rendition”.  Larry Elder claims revealing the existence of these is “revealing government secrets”.  First of all the victims of renditions know what happened.  The nation cooperating with renditions as well as a lot of the neighbors know what is going on- - and our government and perhaps congress knows what goes on.  Through the underground press most of the world (like in Europe) know what’s going on.  The only people who do NOT know what is going on is the American people.  Now we come to these Ag-gag laws.  If you advertised “super energized carrots” and don’t tell people these carrots were grown on a pesticide site where there is a lot of arsnic in the ground, that can cause the heart to race, then “arsnic” is now a “trade secret”.  First of all I’d say there CAN be no “trade secrets” where the entire activity is illegal to begin with.  As to the notion of “revealing” a “trade secret” if you KNOW that the offending material is arsnic, then there IS no secret to begin with, because you and any other victim, who cares to investigate, has already found it out.  If there is some procedure a car manufacturer or contractor is doing illegally, then this is no “trade secret” because the activity is illegal to begin with, therefore can not be said to cut into “profits”.

  You may have heard that lake after lake used for recreation in the state- - is closing down.  Sometimes they allow fishing from the shore but not from a boat any more.  A caller is saying that Jerry Brown isn’t stepping in sufficiently where this drought is concerned.  Sometimes grows pump water out of the ground like there’s no tomorrow, whereas other growers are cracked down on.  Of course we were considering more stringent conservation measures even before last December’s rains.  Now it’s late March and there is less than an expected inch more of rain to be expected this rain season.  Scripture speaks of “sending the latter rain”.  Well, we’re all waiting for that.  Of course there is this “anti sodomite” law that’s floating around in California where offending gay people may be put to death “by a bullet to the head or any other convenient method”.   It’s not a closed issue whether this extensive draconian law will get on any statewide ballot or not.  Such a bill may be declared unconstitutional on its face, and be summarily thrown out.  Meanwhile back at the ranch - - in certain elite Hollywood restaurants they are serving dirt for dinner.  They are mixing in sanitized dirt in with exotic imported produce such as grapes and wine and other vegetables to give the dish “the flavor of the local land”, which is very important.  They are running someone against Ron Wyden in Oregon because he favors the trans-Pacific partnership.  Now Wyden is a democrat, and has been “working on this bill with the White House”.

Logic has a way of undoing even cleaver science fiction.  For instance - - you hear it when a ship explodes, when in reality a vacuum does not conduct sound.  Also there would be no occasion for an enemy ship to fly around lit up like a Christmas tree.   But beyond that- - there is no reason why a ship should necessarily even be right side up on the same "agreed upon plane" as though it were the ocean.  The ship could be coming in sideways from below you- - but from the other captain's point of view, your ship would be to his immediate left.   Also when they speak of "six or seven" light years being "Just too close a buffer zone with war too much of a danger" I hope they realize how utterly huge a light year is.  Keep in mind that from here to Jupiter is only a few light hours.  Just imagine how long a light year would be.  We think space aliens are dangerous because they "may well have a whole different value system- - and may be superior to us".  And usually this is said with a great deal of dread not knowing what act we may do to "set them off" and just wipe us out.  And yet when our own Jehovah God says "My ways are not your ways" we don't worry.  The last time I checked in math logic the opperative of NOT means COMPLETELY different- - or NOT (at all) like the other.  But the pastoral community isn't in the least unsettled by this - - - Reality.

Strange Days Indeed!

The pilot on that German "Air Bus" flight deliberately crashed the plane.  He locked the door and the co pilot was banging on the plane begging to be let in.  They have further established that the first pilot did NOT have any "medical condition" but all of his vital signs were normal up to the time of the crash.  So this is one case that was solved.  It wasn't a computer glitch.  It was a pilot terrorist act.

Did you know that about one-fourth of the entire global prison population is in the United States?  

Did you know that Apple has more money than the U.S. Treasury?  

Did you know that if you have no debt and also have 10 dollars in your wallet that you are wealthier than 25 percent of all Americans?  

Did you know that by the time an American child reaches the age of 18, that child will have seen approximately 40,000 murders on television?

 OK here are a bunch more FACTS ABOUT AMERICA.   A rather high percentage of these support the Conservative world view- - particularly the ones connected with raising children in two parent households and not having out of wedlock pregnancies.   You can glean that there is a LOT of sheer Waste in society today.   But I will say that the "Left side of my brain" would advise that you can't confuse coralation with cause and effect.  There are ways to test for cause and effect by isolating your variables.  This is something almost none of those "surveys" you see on TV each night - - Do.  Police look for cause and effect to solve a crime, not some dredged up "cute" statistical correlation.

#1 The amount of cement that China used from 2011 to 2013 was greater than the total amount of cement that the United States used during the entire 20th century.

#2 In more than half of all U.S. states, the highest paid public employee in the state is a football coach.

#3 It costs the U.S. government 1.8 cents to mint a penny and 9.4 cents to mint a nickel.

#4 Almost half of all Americans (47 percent) do not put a single penny out of their paychecks into savings.

#5 In 2014, police in the United States killed 1,100 people.  During that same year, police in Canada killed 14 people, police in China killed 12 people and police in Germany didn’t kill anyone at all.

#6 The state of Alaska is 429 times larger than the state of Rhode Island is.  But Rhode Island has asignificantly larger population than Alaska does.

#7 Alaska has a longer coastline than all of the other 49 U.S. states put together.

#8 The city of Juneau, Alaska is about 3,000 square miles in size.  It is actually larger than the entire state of Delaware.

#9 When LBJ’s “War on Poverty” began, less than 10 percent of all U.S. children were growing up in single parent households.  Today, that number has skyrocketed to 33 percent.

#10 In 1950, less than 5 percent of all babies in America were born to unmarried parents.  Today, that number is over 40 percent.

#11 The poverty rate for households that are led by a married couple is 6.8 percent.  For households that are led by a female single parent, the poverty rate is 37.1 percent.

#12 In 2013, women earned 60 percent of all bachelor’s degrees that were awarded that year in the United States.

#13 According to the CDC, 34.6 percent of all men in the U.S. are obese at this point.

#14 The reason why they call the "dominant" race on Reigel VI as "Northerners" is because on that half of the planet their sun travels around the sky clockwise, and the Sixers are "Down under" and the sun travels around counter-clockwise.  Romulans do Star Ship navigation readings - - with the numbers going around counter clockwise with (approximate) respect to the the Zodiac signs as we know them.  This is the same way earth astrologers do it.  This question has been hacked.

#15 Right now, more than 200 million people around the planet are officially considered to be unemployed.  Meanwhile, approximately 20 percent of the garbage that goes into our landfills is food.

#16 There is a city in Bangladesh called Dhaka where workers are paid just one dollar for every 1,000 bricks that they carry.  Meanwhile, the “inactivity rate” for men in their prime working years in the United States is hovering near record high levels.

#17 According to one recent survey, 81 percent of Russians now have a negative view of the United States.  That is much higher than at the end of the Cold War era.

#18 Montana has three times as many cows as it does people.

#19 The grizzly bear is the official state animal of California.  But no grizzly bears have been seen theresince 1922.

#20 One recent survey discovered that “a steady job” is the number one thing that American women are looking for in a husband, and another survey discovered that 75 percent of women would have a serious problem dating an unemployed man.

#21 According to a study conducted by economist Carl Benedikt Frey and engineer Michael Osborne, 47 percent of the jobs in the United States could soon be lost to computers, robots and other forms of technology.

#22 The only place in the United States where coffee is grown commercially is in Hawaii.

#23 The original name of the city of Atlanta was “Terminus“.

#24 The state with the most millionaires per capita is Maryland.

#25 There are more than 4 million adult websites on the Internet, and they get more traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined.

#26 86 percent of men include “having children” in their definition of success.  For women, that number is only 73 percent.

#27 One survey of 50-year-old men in the U.S. found that only 12 percent of them said that they were “very happy”.

#28 The United States has 845 motor vehicles for every 1,000 people.  Japan only has 593 for every 1,000 people, and Germany only has 540 for every 1,000 people.

#29 The average American spends more than 10 hours a day using an electronic device.

#30 48 percent of all Americans do not have any emergency supplies in their homes whatsoever.

#31 There are three towns in the United States that have the name “Santa Claus“.

#32 There is actually a town in Michigan called “Hell“.

#33 There are 60,000 miles of blood vessels in your body.  If they were stretched out in a single line, they could go around the planet more than twice.

#34 Someone asked John Lennon about Ted Cruz "Imagine" speech, and John Lennon said he hadn't heard anything about it, and when they mentioned his use of that word, he shrugged his shoulders.

Bo Bergdoll Charged With Desertion

Bo Bergdoll, the guy that deserted to the enemy in Afghanistan is being officially put on general court marshal for desertion, and they covered the interview today on the Shawn Hannity show.  Apparently after thinking about it since last May when he was exchanged for five dangerous Tallliban fighters- - the Army can’t “live and let live on this one.  After all six fellow members of his platoon died in a rescue effort to find Bo Bergdoll.  When you lose six good men on a bogus effort- - you’re going to haul his ass into Court.  Bergdoll could get a dishonorable discharge and five years for desertion itself.  But he could get a dishonorable discharge and life confinement for “Improper conduct while in the enemy’s control”.   If word ever got out that desertion was  “get out of jail free card” can you imagine the impossibility of maintaining any discipline or morale in the military?   Of course Bergdoll will have every legal break the system offers to offer evidence in his favor.  I thought the five for one deal pretty much sucked to begin with especially when I’ve hears these five were among the most dangerous terrorists we have in Guantanamo prison.  And it’s been said up to forty percent of all prisoners released from Guantanamo Bay- - go back to the trenches fighting for the Talliban.  It would be suggestive of- - - a sizable percentage of the interned men there really are dangerous!

I'd like to add in a paragraph now.  The US has killed between the Afghanistan and Iraq wars- - 1.3 Million people.  The originators of this survey admit that this is ten times the ammount that is generally shared with us in the Media which usually figures to be 120,000 Iraqis.  I guess it's always a question of whether all of these deaths- - or people - - human lives and families torn apart- - was really "necessary for the security of the United States".  Somehow I doubt that.  We accuse the Islamic community as regarding human lives so cheaply.  But one has to question how cheaply our own sides regards the taking of human life.  You know it does say in the Bible "Thou shall not murder".   So - - when does it become murder.  Shawn Hannity was taking exception to some movie where a sheep herder and a few others discovered their secret military outpost- - and Shawn was outraged that the troops didn't immediately kill these "intruders" in cold blood right on the spot, even though they were civilian.  Shawn is somehow offended at the current military "Rules of Engagement".  I know nothing of these rules so won't comment on them.  But if we're bombing or droning I don't see how after a while the whole thing isn't reduced to some glorified Video Game.  After all we are programmed to see slaughter on a regular basis.  We never put ourselves in the person of the other side's shoes for just a moment.  Common sense would dictate that the enemy does not connect the massive loss of lives with anything "moral" that "it somehow did wrong".  It would seem that getting the killing to stop is as futile as my negotiating ANY sort of deal with my family about quitting smoking.  I'm sure the only thing a lot of them know, seeing as how there is no instant news in those back hills of Afghanistan, that- - killing is a part of their lives, kind of like the common cold or dying in childbirth.  They feel threatened, but don't see a way out, or anything they themselves can do about it.

We have the issue of Ted Cruz signing up for Obama Care.  Now if you’re a liberal partisan and looking for a chance to “stick it to the political right” well here is your change.  Because Ted Cruz went into a long recitation from “Green Eggs and Ham” about how he would never like it.  But then he tried it and he liked it, just like Mikie, and of course now Ted Cruz tries Obama Care and “likes it”.  I must commend Rush Limbaugh for his careful, objective research into this area.  Senator Cruz never chafed or complained about being “cooersed” into signing up for Obama Care.  All he knows was he was getting coverage from his wife’s previous employment at Goldman Sachs- - and now she’s no longer working there.  But Rush has done a little probing of the matter.  As written by the Democrats, there was an exemption for Congress and their staffs not to require getting on the plan the way Millions of Americans are forced to every day under threat of fine or whatever.  And the average income of Americans is nowhere near congress.  But then Charles Grassley of Iowa slipped in a provision in the law which stated that Congress has to join the plan themselves.  OK.  But then President Obama in another of his “executive decisions” funded Obama Care for Congress with a 75% subsidy, just like they had with their old plan.  The bottom line is while I would personally love to mock at Ted Cruz for his  seeming inconsistency, I can’t do it.  Because he’s just a victim of circumstances.  But now the President is in more trouble because other provisions of the Affordable Care Act take effect next year in 2016 just in time for campaign season.  And the businesses involved may be “offended” and not give as much to the Democratic Presidential campaign than they otherwise would.

There has been a lot of talk about Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein making numerous trips to “Orgy Island”, which apparently is in the Virgin Islands.  Some contradiction, huh?  The two of them made ten trips to “Orgy Island” where they had sex with under-aged girls as young as twelve according to Shawn Hannity.  Prince Andres was in this group.   Unlike twenty years ago with the Monica Luinsky thing, I am less concerned about the effect on his marriage and family life now because (a) Chelsea is a grown woman now and (b) Hillary has pretty much shown that she doesn’t care about any of this.  Still this whole “incident” could be a blight on Hillary’s campaign.  There may be certain secrets that political operatives are holding hostage ready to spring them- - when a blackmail opportunity presents itself.  This issue hasn’t really hit the general media yet, but it would be misguided to assume it eventually won’t.   This Jeffery Epstein fellow is a Billionaire and a major donor to the Democratic party.  The idea of a man of his age having sex with under aged females is a little much.  I know it goes on all the time, but with Bill Clinton involved- - if could really set back Bill Clinton’s “reformed” image.

Let’s talk about this insane ritual of Spring Break.  Why do you have to use your week off from college to get drunk or wasted on drugs and throwing up or if you’re a girl, take off your top and flash total strangers.  Why would you buy “Molly” from some vendor that just shows up on the street when you’re already half wasted and your judgement is impaired?  And they don’t just go to Florida any more but Can Koon or Panama City.  So you’re in another country where the drug laws are questionable.  Last night on TV there was this thing about a murder committed in a New Orleans bar at three AM while the bar was still open.  These bars stay open till four AM.  You don’t know what you’re buying with these street venders whom you don’t know and aren’t accountable to anybody.  Molly is MDMA, which apparently is given to servicemen who’ve been discharged to help them get over post traumatic stress sindrone or something.  But you have no assurance of the quality of what you are buying.  They say that Molly is usually mixed with Heroin and Cocaine- - as a way of “diluting” it.  I don’t want to sound like a prude of anything but don’t you have more respect for your body than that?  I’m sure Roy Masters say the reason why women flash their boobs at total strangers is because the drug awakens the “Sex Goddess”  ID within them.  Much as men hate to admit it, we prefer all too often women with low self esteem because they’re easier to take advantage of.

Some people actually have the cajones to state “Well we aren’t racially biased in our congressional districts.  In fact we’re going to scoop up all the Black voters and put them in their own district!   So one lone gerrymandered district may be 92% Black.  Well ain’t that peachy kene!  Right now the Supreme Court is hearing one of these reapportionment cases for the state of Alabama.  If you use a simple geometric formula you can solve all this.  NO district under my system may be no more oblong or irregular than a 2 x 4 rectangle.  That is, the district tan NOT under any circumstances be more than twice as long as its width.  Another way of stating it is that assuming the area of a district is one UNIT- - then the perimeter can be NO MORE than four times the square root of that unit size.  Don’t even look at racial demographics.  Just follow that rule and you’ll be Good.  Many of our archaic laws need to be fixed.  Norman Goldman points out that in previous times the Republican states were in blue and the democratic states were in red.  But some democrat objected to this and didn’t like the notion that the Democrats were “The Reds” as in communist.  So they flipped it, and since 2004 the color coding has been pretty much entrenched.  There is talk about “The blue wall” and of course there is “a red wall” too, of states which aren’t likely to be contested.  Many states used to be in plan in previous time when states were more elastic in their voting patterns.  It’s become almost a dug in trench warfare WW I type situation now, of immovable fronts.  It’s kind of like bypassing the ninety nine and finding that one potential juror who hasn’t made up his mind.  So what it comes down to is a very small number of states that determine the outcome of Presidential Elections.  I think we need to throw out the whole system because of this because it short changes all the same states, the “safe states” each and every campaign cycle.  The bottom line is that no matter how intense support for one candidate or the other within a certain state, all those extra votes don’t count.  The trick is to get to 270 and win all of your states by as few votes as possible.

Israel isn't what I'd call "A Good Neighbor"

Of Course Israel Was Spying On U.S. Negotiations With Iran

Well - - here is another imported posting I just had to share here.  It speaks for itself.  Read it and shudder!

It is – rightfully – front-page news that Israel was caught spying on the closed-door negotiations between the U.S. and Iran.  And the Obama administration is particularly outraged that Israel allegedly shared that information with Republican congressmen who want to stop any peaceful deal with Iran.  This is certainly outrageous … but small, in the grand scheme of things.  Why?  Because Israeli spying on America is so rampant that U.S. officials have labeled it “alarming, even terrifying”.  And because the U.S. has only half-heartedly asked Israel to stop … Israel has told the U.S. to pound sand.   As if that isn’t bad enough, the NSA voluntarily shares the raw data it collects on American citizens with Israel.  This includes raw data on U.S. government officials.   This not only raises major privacy concerns for American citizens, but it might mean that Israel is spying on the American Congress and other high-level politicians.  Indeed, leaked NSA documents show that U.S. intelligence officials are concerned that the NSA may beputting Israel’s security needs ahead of America’s.  Moreover, top NSA officials have told Washington’s Blog that mass surveillance by the NSA is really aimed at blackmail. And see this.  Indeed, 5,000 years of history shows that spying on one’s own people is always aimed at crushing dissent.  (Incidentally, opposing unnecessary, costly wars – such as war against Iran – is treated asterrorism and unacceptable dissent.)  But it’s not just Americans … America’s spy apparatus also helps foreign governments – like Israel – crush dissent by citizens in their countries.  Indeed, spying is really a power grab.  As Snowden accurately said:

These programs were never about terrorism: they’re about economic spying, social control, and diplomatic manipulation. They’re about power.

There is a blog that says “Instead of Protect and Serve as the Law Enforcement motto, it should actually be Comply or Die”.   In 2014 eleven hundred citizens were killed by police in the United States.  That’s multiple times more than combat deaths in Afghanistan the same year.  Of course now President Obama is keeping the remaining 9800 troops in Afghanistan indefinitely after conferring with leaders expressing concerns about security.  This President brags so much about “getting and keeping us out of wars” but it’s all so much PR.   The police article states that often total compliance won’t guarantee that you are “safe”.  You could still get tased or shot based on something going on in the officer’s own mind about you- -perhaps obsessing on the look in your eye or “reaching for your driver’s license aggressively”, whatever that means.

No matter what path you follow, it will be fraught with peril. America is in the midst of a nervous breakdown, brought about by prolonged exposure to the American police state, and there are few places that are safe anymore.  A good test is this: if you live in a community that has welcomed the trappings of the police state with open arms (surveillance cameras, forced DNA extractions, Stingray devices, red light cameras, private prisons, etc.), all the while allowing its police forces to militarize, weaponize and operate beyond the reach of the Constitution, then you don’t live in a democratic republic—you live in a microcosm of the American police state.  If you have no real say in how your local law enforcement operates, if the only oversight of police actions is carried out by fellow officers, if any attempt to criticize the police is edited out or not covered by your local newspaper or TV station, drowned out by your fellow citizens, or intimidated into silence by your local police, then you have no recourse when it comes to police abuses.  Finally, if, despite having done nothing wrong, you feel nervous during a police encounter, you fear doing or saying the wrong thing in front of an officer will get you shot, and your local police dress and act like extensions of the military and treat you like a suspect, then it’s safe to say that you are not the one holding the upper hand in the master-servant relationship anymore.   And that’s something to think about in your more reflective moments.

 Computers have alltogether too much control over our lives.  One fine day some bright boy is going to figure out that maybe land lines for phones wasn't so bad, because at least you don't have to fear cell phone hacking.  We don't need these computerized "energy saving" controls for our heat and lights in our house as though we were so helpless we couldn't get up to turn something on or off.  Now of course they have these auto-piloted computerized cars.  I'm really not sure what to think of those.  I'm looking for the first major traffic accident that was caused by a computer malfunction.  Government data miners search gigantic data bases that it wouldn't be humanly possible to read the old fashioned way and look for stuff.  So they have to go for key words and phrases to "place someone under suspicion".  I've never used computerized dating because I just feel doing it the old fashioned way makes a lot more sense.  Believe it or not you really learn a lot more in a lot less time then filling out a long list of "pre-fab" plastic questions that may end up telling you little.  The potential for a computer malfunction in any of these areas is rising exponentially.  But now today with this new German "Air Bus" disaster we again see highlight the perils of handing control of our lives and the lives of others over to computers.  I listened to Sean Hannity over the noon hour.  There is a German “Air Bus” that crashed into the Alps.  The flight began in Barcelona and went to Disseldorf, Germany and spent eight minutes in a “steep descent”.  The computer would not relinquish control of the plane back to the pilot to pull out of the nose dive.  That’s supposed to be progress.  Sean Hannity was disturbed by that news and saying “We know it wasn’t terrorism”.  We don’t know much of anything- - and I couldn’t rule out some elaborate form of sabotage here. 

This is Tuesday March 24, 2015 after dinner, the 39^th anniversary of my officially becoming a born again Christian.  I watched Days of our Lives and I'm beginning to suspect that this whole Hillbilly act of Clyde Weston may be just a ruse to put people at ease and not suspect that he's a studied man and knows a lot more about a lot of things than anyone would suspect.  Now [name withheld] began calling names and I listened for mine but never heard it.  I never heard any name past M for that matter, which indicates I was in some remote area of the building where the PA wasn't in evidence.   The bottom line is I knew I didn't have money coming, though I wasn't too eager to let my cigarette creditors know this.  I went down for a cup and a half of coffee from Dora in the afternoon in the courtyard.  I walked past [name withheld] door a couple of times but never initiated conversation.  When you think about it, I’ve only had twelve additional dollars of expenditures this month as opposed to December, and yet I’ve “saved” $25.00 already in the past eight days if you figure thusly.  That would be if I bought the cheapest pack of cigarettes they sell once a day and alternated between large and small coffees.  But it would still be twenty if you say that I shorten that by two and a half packs.  That would be fifty cigarettes, not smoked, which sounds like a lot.  This is the eighth evening of Bill not being here but in the hospital.  So whatever Bill had, they have sure stretched it out into a major thing.  I got in the line to see Dr Saran, but first went to the room to get the letter.  I showed Dr Saran the letter involving that drug they’ve been warning will no longer be funded.  Dr Saran wasn’t all that forthright in saying that drug would not be off the medication list.  He’d say things like “Just don’t take it” or “You won’t be charged for it”.  My BP was 110 over 70 and that Daniel guy had the same numbers.  I felt unsettled as I left the doctor’s office.  No promised blood test was ordered.   I’ve only had one cigarette since then and that was from Paul Evans.  I had Norman Goldman on.  Ted Cruz just signed up for Obama Care because his wife just dropped out of employment with Goldman Sachs as a high paid official.   I guess he thought it looked too elite on his political resume.  We had turkey tetrazzini for dinner with spinach and a green salad with Italian dressing.  I had strawberry ice cream.  Teresa had raspberry and Connie had vanilla.