Police Relations In America Today

Wayne Resnic told this story about a family in October of 2011 that went to a garden supply shop to buy everything they’d need to grow tomatoes.  Six months later on April 20^th of 2012 a SWAT team raided their house knocking down the front door and ransacking the home for two hours looking for marijuana.  They found none.  As it turns out two things were in play here.  First some government agency took down every license plate that did business with this gardening shop.  Then there was the fact that green tea, which the lady of the house liked to drink, tested positive for THC because it’s apparently legal for the police to raid your trash without a warrant.  I’ve heard otherwise.  But then the kicker is that the family took the police to court and the case was summarily dismissed.  It turns out that the police aren’t responsible for maintaining proper equipment.  Everything from chocolate chip cookies to oregano- - can test positive for THC and this is common knowledge.  It’s also common knowledge that police like to use equipment that registers false positives.  You and I know that fact because it’s common knowledge.  Yet this court judge says the police are NOT responsible for knowing that they have defective equipment.   It’s another case of setting the bar really high for proof.  If a cop is charged with first degree murder for instance, how can you enter into the officers mind and deduce that he had formulated in his mind ahead of time that he was going to kill a certain individual.  There was a story on the mews yesterday that the father of that Chicago mentally ill nineteen year old guy- - who had been gunned down by the cops- - was still alive and moving around in the hall.  But the police were doing to provide medical assistance.  We saw the same thing in Ferguson.  This to me is a case of provable intent not just to “be safe rather than sorry” and discharge your weapon at somebody; it’s an overt attempt to cause death at the hands of another.

Goldman is at “27 Top Stories of the Year”.  He couldn’t narrow it down any further than that.   When Goldman runs down the list it's impressive for sure.  "Black Lives Matter" as an organization" formed this past year.  The Iran nuclear deal got passed.  We have the parrellel rises of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.  I feel it necessary to retract one thing I said when I stated that there weren't as many shootings of Blacks this year but when you run down the list it seems every bit as bad as previous years.  You have the Confederate flag coming down in South Carolina.   Bill Cosby can't escape all of the statutes of limitations.  Not in Pennsylvania anyhow.  Bill Cosby has been indicted in at least one sex crime case today, so it’s about time that Bill Cosby saw what the inside of a jail cell looked like.   Basically Cosby is so old now 78, he's just a "dirty old man" and probably the reason why there have been fewer incidents in the past ten years as there were, is that it probably takes Cosby a lot longer to get it up now than it used to.  

This doctor named Spitzer was the guy in the seventies who took homosexuality off the books as far as a mental illness is concerned.  Stuttering John claims he has a trans-sexual son.  So he really has a daughter.  Monique Marvez is co-hosting again.  She says that every other mental illness had a trauma or point of origen point but homosexuality is “freestanding” to to speak.   In the morning I was reading the lead blogs in “Skeletons from the Closet”.   This morning I got up at five after five and took a shower and went outside to smoke.  But I also spent some time lying down on the bed.  I woke hyper.  I got my medication from Tom.   We had Raison Bran for breakfast followed by a double portion of the main breakfast because I got Paul’s entire plate- except for the extra butter and jelly.  I got stuck with a regular coffee.  Augustine told Glenda she could have seconds or thirds of coffee for breakfast as long as she drank it there and didn’t take the cup out of the dining room.   So I’ll just say “Glenda says it’s OK to get another cup”.   Today is Tuesday December 29^{th 2015.}  

There is a lot in the news about the vanishing middle class.  Here are nine vital signs, so to speak, to test for to see whether we have a viable middle class in this country or not.

1. Meaningful healthcare insurance ($5,000 deductible healthcare plans don’t qualify; they are simulacrum/phantom coverage).

2. Significant equity (25%+) in a home or other real estate.

3. Income/expenses that enable the household to save at least 6% of its income.

4. Significant retirement funds: 401Ks, IRAs, etc.

5. The ability to service all expenses over the medium-term if one of the primary household wage-earners lose their job.

6. Reliable vehicles for each wage-earner.

7. The household does not depend on government assistance to maintain the family lifestyle.

8. A percentage of hard assets beyond the family home that can be transferred to the next generation.

9. Surplus income to invest in children (extracurricular activities, lessons, etc.).   

Most people would assume that if you were applying for a job at a police department that the employer would pick the most tallented applicant for the job.  However they reported that it’s common practice in police department applications to screen out any applicants with an IQ over 120 because they’re afraid they’ll just leave the force after being trained for a better job.  This shows an astounding low self image of their own police departments.  Just as it's argued we need the best and brightest when it comes to school teachers, certainly Law Enforcement could use our best and brightest in that field, too.  ON TV dramas you always see these masterminds and near genious ladies on computer digging out the most obscure data they wish to match with something they've conjectured.  It takes brains to solve a difficult crime.  You have these cases with an intelligent criminal taking pride that he has outsmarted the police in the comission of a particular crime, often serial murder.  I don't know how many criminals leave these Batman type clues, but it would seem to me that to be a good police detective you should have an IQ well over a hundred to get a real jump on the case.   The biggest news of this day is something which came later in the day   There is no indictment of the officers involved in the shooting of Tamir Rice, the case of the twelve year old boy with the toy gun.  There was a two second lag between getting getting out of the car and firing the fatal shot.   According to Norman Goldman the officers have “qualified immunity” in shootings, setting the bar so high it’s almost impossible to get a conviction, or may I add - - even an indictment.   

This is the story on the US War with Russia and Syria - - of an ordinary article by two well-known American ‘journalists’ who market the aristocracy’s lies as ‘news,’ so that the public believes dangerous myths, which might unfortunately get out of control and end in nuclear war.

Josh Rogin and Eli Lake, two “Columnists” functioning in the role of reporters for BloombergView, issued on the night of December 17th, their piece of U.S. government propaganda parading as if it were a ‘news’ report; and, in the process, they mistakenly included some real and interesting news that contradicts the very same fake storyline they’re pumping on behalf of the U.S. government, and of their billionaire employer: Wall Street’s Michael Bloomberg.

They started it with the false assumption — routine in the American ‘press’ — that the U.S. government is right and the Russian government is wrong in their respective war-involvements inside Syria. This false assumption is presented in their opening paragraph. 

Headlining “New Russian Air Defenses in Syria Keep U.S. Grounded,” they opened: “There is a new crisis for the international effort to destroy the Islamic State, created by the Kremlin. The U.S. has stopped flying manned air-support missions for rebels in a key part of northern Syria due to Russia’s expansion of air defense systems there, and the Barack Obama administration is scrambling to figure out what to do about it.”

Their phrase “the international effort” presumes that the U.S. is fighting on “the international” side, and that Russia’s forces (and those of the Syrian government that invited-in Russia’s forces) must therefore be the violators of international law. This falsehood is accentuated by the allegation that “the Kremlin” “created” this “crisis.” 

Key factual background in order to understand and evaluate the truthfulness, and even the honesty, of this opening paragraph is this: The U.S. invaded Syria; it was not invited in by the universally-recognized-as-legitimate government of that country. It’s instead trying to overthrow that very government. In fact: it’s an invader. The U.S. government has supplied weapons and some air-support to the ‘rebels’ of Al Qaeda and other jihadist groups (including even ISIS) that are pouring into Syria to overthrow that country’s leader, Bashar al-Assad, who has been shown even in Western-sponsored polls in Syria to be overwhelmingly preferred over anyone else to lead that country — and the U.S. has now also been bombing that legitimate government’s basic infrastructure in order to weaken it further. Syria had invited in Russian air power to bomb those ‘rebels,’ the vast majority of whom are foreign invaders, just like the U.S. itself is. So: the U.S. and its allies caused this “crisis,” whatever it is or might be. In fact, the U.S. started planning it from the moment Barack Obama first became U.S. President, if not before. And, even the sarin gas attack that Obama blamed on the Assad government and used as his reason for invading Syria was a put-up job from the Obama Administration with the cooperation of the Sauds, Qataris, and Turks.

ISIS Stronghold Ramadi Falls to Allied Forces

ISIS has lost Ramadi as Iraqi troops surrounded the provincial capital and then took it.  Now ISIS is desperate and are talking about attacking Israel, which of course would be suicidal for them.  ISIS is now getting a little desperate for new recruits and are losing touch with reality.  Hopefully we will be able to completely turn the tide against ISIS and make them a thing of the past.   Just imagine what life would be like around here without Shawn Hannity continually raving about how ISIS is at the door and how Prsident Obama is ignoring the problem.  Just think if ISIS were not even a campaign issue in 2016!  Shawn Hannity keeps repeating those four cities such as Mozul and Filugia and all of the others and is never failing in blaming the President in "pulling out all of our troops in 2011" as though it were a spur of the moment thing and not a pre planned agreement with President Bush in 2008.

Senator Bernie Sanders is dealing with Donald Trump with a direct frontal approach.  He points out that Trump’s supporters could use a boost in their wages because they aren’t being paid enough but their hero, Trump, says that his supporters are being paid too much in wages.  Now Trump has been forced to re-think his position on wages.  Sanders should keep up this approach because it’s working.  Clearly if Senator Sanders raids Trumps “Reagan Democratic base” then his own support will wane as Sanders’s supporters increase.  It’s a good thing.  Chicago police killed two more innocent people over the weekend.  I think it was a male teenager and a fifty or so year old woman.  Perhaps we’ll get my readers more information on this.

 Star Wars is not only making a billion dollars in two weeks or something, but now Disneyland is going to tear out Big Thunder and the petting zoo and some other stuff to make a “Star Wars” land.  I think if they do that they’ll fundamentally change the nature of the park if they go taking a lot of traditional Frontierland stuff out of the park.  They said the Mark Twain steamboat ride might even be closed down for a while.   The Federation has been very quiet about the premier of Star Wars, but the Federation has been very quiet about everything lately, at least as far as I'm concerned.  

(CNN)Two more shooting deaths by Chicago police are prompting swift action by the city's mayor, as well as by residents who want the mayor to go.  The latest upheaval came after Chicago police fatally shot Bettie Jones, 55, and Quintonio LeGrier, 19, while answering a call about a domestic disturbance.  But Jones, a mother of five, shouldn't have been shot at all, police say. She was "accidentally struck and tragically killed" by an officer.  And many question the shooting of LeGrier, who police say was combative. LeGrier's family said he suffered from a mental illness, CNN affiliate WLS reported.  On Sunday night, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel ordered changes in how city police officers are trained to handle calls involving people who may have mental health problems.   "There are serious questions about yesterday's shootings that must be answered in full by the Independent Police Review Authority's investigation," Emanuel said.   "While their investigation is underway, we must also make real changes within our police department today, and it is clear changes are needed to how officers respond to mental health crises."

I went out to wait and it was past twenty to eleven and still no car and Bill said the phone had rung and so I went right back down and Paul and Judy were waiting for me in the usual space.  We didn’t need to pick up Mom but went straight to Marie Calendar’s.  All three cars arrived at just about the same time.  Wendy brought Mom.  I asked [name] about my E mail.  We sat at a combination booth and table and I sat in the booth part.  People got just about the same things.  Someone got a cob salad and [name] and Wendy got the soup and salad bar.  I had a “the works” Frisco burger with French fries.  I cleaned my plate.  I had two and a half cups of coffee.  Judy had some elaborate dish.  Like last time we arrived a little after eleven.  Perhaps the whole meal was five minutes or so later each way than last time.  We went to Paul and Judy’s house.  Their bird, Benjamin was chatty and he was allowed to walk out on people’s arms and then didn’t want to go back into the cage.  Paul had to go to work at a quarter to two so we had to push the festivities a little.  We went to the gifts.   There seemed to be fewer of them this year.  Wendy gave a lot but I don’t recall her receiving any gifts.  Mom had a Christmas card for me and said “You’re the one person I have a little something for”, but she wasn’t referring to money but the magazine subscription.  I guess she usually gives [name] and Paul checks.  I got the brown belt and the boxers I had asked for- - and lots of white and black socks.  Wendy gave everybody the same two gifts.  There was that sound effects thing where you sleep with noises of whatever on of crickets or rain or ocean waves.  [name] was making sure that Mon knew how to use it.  Tim wanted to give Mom a radio that looked like the one I used to have except a little later model and was newer.  Mom got flustered and confused.  This was a common thing.  Mom got flustered when she was a the last served at the restaurant.  Then she had forgotten the order she didn’t like the last time.  But she changed the soup order but then forgot that she had tasted [name]’s soup before she ordered it and then didn’t like the soup.  When the served the pies- - - Mom expressed dislike for Wendy’s apple pie.  I didn’t like it either but I didn’t say anything.  The crust was positively like cardboard and there was as much crust as there was fruit.  There was absolutely no sugar in the recipe and there were some unusual spice combinations like using red chili to bring out the taste of the cinnamon.  After Paul left we played the only “game”.  It was asking questions of the group such as “What was your favorite class in school” and if I’d thought about it I might have said “Business Law” in my senior year, but instead I picked Miss Davis’s sophomore English class.  I picked as my favorite historical figure Franklin Roosevelt.  Perhaps Wendy was more on the right track picking Benjamin Franklin. I might have picked him otherwise.  We were asked our favorite animal and naturally a bunch of us said “cats”.  Judy and Wendy were then off in the other room looking at some Excel program on computer.  They seemed engrossed.  Mom wanted to leave not long after to get back for her dinner.  We left perhaps quarter after three.  We said good-bye to Wendy and Judy still in the computer room and left

Governments Instituted Among Men

Thom reminds us that Thomas Jefferson said that “to secure these Blessings (meaning Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness) then governments are instituted among men, deriving their just power from the consent of the governed”.   So it’s the government of the People and not of the Internationalist Corporation.  I would remind you that Andrew Jackson advocated on behalf of universal manhood sufferage, as long as you were white, of course.  Jackson doesn’t believe you have to own property to vote.  And as I quoted a while back, “The wealth of a society in terms of the triangle of income is best measured at its base, rather than at its apex”.  This means that you measure wealth from the masses at the bottom of the wealth triangle and not the few at the top.  Politicians need to keep this in mind.  Thom Hartman states that while competition in business is well and good among each other.  But for government it’s not a case of “winners and losers” but the government is to secure the blessings of Liberty for all Americans.   I would also quote the line that “any time when government is destructive of these ends, said government should and ought to be abolish and new government instituted”.   Conservatives claim to revere our early documents, but they don’t. 

We have the battle of the political cartoons.  Ted Cruz uses his little girls as props in one of his little bedtime story reading.  The thing I saw was just funny and didn’t make much sense if it was supposed to advance Cruz’s campaign.  But then a cartoon appears that depicts Cruz’s young daughters as monkeys.  Maybe that was over the line, but I think the whole idea of Cruz reading bedtime stories is funny because of the way Cruz botched the telling of the story “Green Eggs and Ham”.  But then a cartoon appears that shows Hillary Clinton walking her two “lap dogs” of the New York Times and the Washington Post.  I think we need a little comic relief because the issues themselves are so bad carried to grotesque proportions by Trump, cartoons like this are kind of tame. 

As the Beatles say, “Happy Christmas and a very new year”.  They were reading reviews of their Hard Day’s Night movie and it said “We had a quiet time making it”.   They said on the news it was 61 degrees in Anaheim.  41 is more like it.  It’s pretty nippy out there even now after breakfast.  Last night I got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich from Donnie.  I dozed off during the ABC network news and Bill asks me just after seven, “Are you out of cigarettes?”  I said I was.  So he gave me five dollars to go get two packs of John Black, one for me and one for him.  There was a guy I’d never seen before.  It was a Christmas present to me.  Then it was Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.  At eight it was a Wonderful Life on KNBC and Peanuts on seven so I watched a Mr. Magoo Scrooge Christmas on KTLA for the hour.  They throw in new musical songs as embellishments, which is to be expected.  I slept fairly well but woke up a little early and never really got back to sleep.  I turned on KNBC news.  I looked in Bill’s drawer where I had some of my papers stashed.  I was looking at calendars of years passed, and I should move them to the other location.  It was cold out.  I sat in the front room a while.  Bill went out for coffee and they were giving away complimentary donuts.  We had sugar frosted Cheerios and a fried egg, and toast, butter and jelly.  Rico had extras for the coffee so I got one black and one with cream and Hendrix.  That warmed me up a little.  The bird has been very chirpy lately.

Mark Hannah, great Republican campaign manager (from Ohio) was asked about 1900 what makes a successful political campaign.  He said “First is money, and second is money, and the third- - I forget”.  Some have said we are almost as bad as the guilded age, which was coming to an end just about the turn of the last century once Teddy got into office, and I don’t mean Kennedy.  But in some ways we are actually worse now.  Because back in the gay nineties (again the 1890’s not the 1990’s) there were a lot of sufferagettes and early Union strikes, and significant segments of the population were politically millitent.  Today there is still a yawning apathy that is spanning the length and breadth of society, that “hampers forward progress”.

Let’s do a blast from the last file right now.  In terms of content the most exciting thing I learned from Rachael Maddaw was that Governor Snyder of Michigan is personally appointed dictator of the state and can replace any elected officer he cares to if he declares an emergency.  I never heard of such a rule to override the rule of the people.  And Flint, Michigan is going to have lead polluted water now because of Snyder.  Can’t this guy be impeached or anything?  That is what I wrote last Saturday but it so far hasn’t made it into a blog.  The guy on right now was talking about Greece a little and how the will of the people of Greece is ignored by the EU in terms of how the economic problems of Greece are handled.   Do you know what I mean? 

Today is Christmas and it continues pretty cold out but Rico wanted us to have our iced tea on the chilly side of the courtyard out of the sun.   Tom Hartman would be the Wednesday before last, I guess.  I was reading in “The Ten Commandments” and there are no quotes or parodies of Dylan songs I was expecting to see in 2006.   “Don’t Take Me Alive”, the compilation, appears in May of 2006.   There are also the Larry Elder letters where I appear to contradict my later statements on God.  I said that “God is not in control of history”.  What I meant by this was “the sort of guidance and control and “protection from evil” if you will, that one comes to “expect” from an all powerful deity.  In other words the sort of things Larry Elder would want and expect from God.  Put another way, I had not yet evolved into the sort of total determinist person I am today.  Because back then I was thinking there were certain things you were “supposed to expect” from a deity. 

 

A 2015 Christmas Message

The best thing you could say about 2015 is that it wasn't as bad as 2013 or 2014 in terms of overt racial hate crimes.  These mass shootings took off in 2012 actually.  This year seems somehow a little saner if you don't count Donald Trump's incendiary remarks.  But it was still pretty bad.  There were no major elections this year so things couldn't get any worse than they already were.  We'll know a whole lot more about the state of affairs one year from now when we review 2016.  Thom Hartman still believes there is going to be a horrific economic crash during next year.  It's a little hard to see how because the Federal Reserve has it in its power to either keep us out of recession or to cause a major crash next year and it's difficult to see how or why they would put us all at risk, and particularly the rich among us, and cause a stock market crash.  I suppose some people would just like to see an economic crash because that's when Rich people "take a bath" financially, and they too know how it feels to be like the rest of us.  My guess is that the Federal Reserve will move heaven and earth to prevent that from happening.  They think they have all their bases covered, and maybe they do.  People like Thom Hartman aren't entirely convincing in their reasoning as to what possible "economic mistake" the governmental powers that Be could be at this point.

I'll divert from my usual skepticism and just accept the Christmas story at face value this year.  It's been pointed out that if Jesus were born today he might be accused of being a vagrant because the family was homeless.  He could be arrested.  Perhaps the child welfare people might even take the baby away because of the eccentric beliefs about religion his mother has.  Of course there was a movie a year or two ago that pointed out that after Mary conceived her son that she went away for three months to a distant town and when she came back she was pregnant and the town's people were highly skeptical of her.  We don't know if Jesus was home schooled or went to some rabinical school.  If Jesus were home schooled today the scool might have its accreditation pulled.  When Jesus was away from his parents for three days talking and reasoning with the priests and rabis, the cops would be called and Jesus could be taken away then and the parents arrested for child endangerment not knowing where their child was.  Today if a child plays in the park for a few hours unsupervised it is cause for suspicion in this hyper letigious age we live in.  Of course we all wonder what things formed Jesus' character between the ages of twelve and thirty.  I guess people have written books on the subject but I haven't seen any satisfactory ones.  Then when Jesus met John the Baptist he could be picked up by Homeland security for associating with known agitators.  Of course you'd want to make sure the fisherman had all the appropriate licences and that their boats came up to government safety regulations.  There is the scene where Jesus and his disciples wandered people's fields looking for food so you have to wonder whether Jesus would consider GMO products kosher or not.  Of course there is still the basic problem of Jesus' message saying he was God in the flesh.  Back then as now they consider you a little nutty if you say that and you could well be locked up for that.  The whole idea of someone like Jesus being born now is an intriguing one.  Maybe our society is beyond hope - - even for Jesus.

Killers of Sandra Bland Failed To Get Indicted

You remember Sandra Bland, who was arrested for failure to put out her cigarette, or was it making unsafe lane changes?  Didn’t they give her marijuana laced food and the she was found hanged in her cell and they ruled it a suicide, although she was a very active and purposeful woman.  They failed to indict any workers in the jail.  Clearly if there is any major indicting it would have been the treatement she got in the jail, rather than her so called “arrest”.  I would remind you as with Ferguson, the Grand Jury process is secret from start to finish.  Originally this whole secrecy thing by “members of the community” were a reform to protect the would be accused from the capricious power of the King.  But now capricious power is all you see.  There is a pending civil wrongful death lawsuit.  You can’t shut those things down that easily.   

In the news there was a shooting of a fifteen year old sophomore football star because a gunman threatened three female students and the football player threw himself in the path of the bullets and he was killed but all three of the girls escaped uninjured. 

This morning after I turned off Hartman I had Rush Limbaugh on and he was talking about these terms he coined such as “gorbasum” and “feminazi”.   Well this lady in for Shawn today could be called a feminazi in her own right.  I guess she was in the military.  She claims to have been in radio for twenty years.  She’s constantly talking about people who get out of the military out of disgust for the lack of leadership either with Clinton or Obama.  I think these people who have been a long time and finally get out should feel proud of themselves for having served their country and not ashamed.  They should also thank their lucky stars they are uninjured or not coming out in a body bag.  It’s all a matter of perspective.  She’s constantly saying, and her callers echo it, that the democrats have betrayed us, government has betrayed us and the republican party has betrayed us.  I haven’t heard so much talk about “betrayal” since the last time I read Mein Kamp. Of course there is a certain "Fasciest appeal" to Trump.  You have down and out poor southern white workers and it takes a demogog to come along and say "You are being screwed by the blacks, the Latinos, the gays, women, Moslems" or anybody else they can think of.  So the very power structure that screwed over these poor, underpaid workers, is the same Source they turn to for the "Final Solution".  (Selah)    Shawn Hannity has been talking about this party game called “Whits and Wagers”.  Is it anything like “Truth or Dare”?  I’m a little intrigued.  In terms of the soap opera I didn’t know they matched the bullet that killed the guy in the snow, to Hope’s gun.  Justin is saying she should make up a cover story about self defense or being under pressure, and his office would do everything it could to cover up the whole scandal.  But Hope doesn’t swing that way.  She doesn’t confess to a crime she didn’t do.

Then it was Breakfast with the Beatles and I listened to the first three years of Beatles Christmas records, ’63, ’64, and ’65.  I also heard the out-take portions of the 1965 Christmas record.  They played other Christmas novelty records including “All I Want For Christmas Is a Beatle”, and “I Want to be Santa Clause” and “Little Drummer Boy” by Ringo Starr.   They played “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire” arranged like Here, There, and Everywhere, and they did “Blue Christmas” played in the style of “Revolution No 1”.   And they played “Wonderful Christmas Time” in what I’d call the Hal Blane (drummer) style, more energetic.

The news often has the speed of molasis trickling down.  We didn't get the whole liberal talk radio response to the Democratic Debate till Monday.  Of course you already know what happened.  Bernie apoligized and Clinton accepted.  O Mally attacked both Clinton and Bernie's stance on gun regulation saying that the other two candidates were either soft on guns or in the case of Hillary she's a flip flopper.  Of course O Mally is correct in these assertions but the other two kind of gang tackled him on this issue saying stuff like "tell the truth".  Hillary lodged the charge that Bernie Sanders voted for the NATO Libya invasion.  She fillibustered and kept on talking and Bernie never was given a chance to respond to this allegation.  But the commentaters call it "good debating skills".  I call it "unfair".  There was a lot of talk by Hillary about trading off Civil Liberties for that etherial thing called Security.  Hillary wants to go after Assad and ISIS at the same time whereas Bernie says to go after ISIS first and then when that problem is dealt with, then we can set our sights on Assad of Syria.  But in general I learned very little from this debate Saturday night.

We've been having rain today.  In Chicago they are having sporadic rain with a high of 64, which is not too terribly different from the weather we are having today in Southern California.  It's still a whole lot warmer than it was a week ago Monday and a week ago Friday when it was cold and windy all day and I don't think the temperature made it out of the fifties.  Perhaps El Nino is finally taking hold around here and we are going to get the first sustained rain around here we've had in quite some time.  The last really heavy rain I remember around here was late December and early January of 2010 and 2011.  If we really do get sustained rain in Southern California then we will put a real dent in the drought.

This is the first blog entry I've done since Friday if you will notice.  That makes three whole days that I didn't do a blog entry at all.  I would like to get back into some ethics and metaphysical stuff sometime.  I like to keep things varied so it's not a continual Johnny one-not of just politics.  

The Bush and Saudi Alliance

There can be little doubt now: America’s decades-long catastrophic failures to make significant progress in eliminating even a single one of the numerous jihadist groups around the world is due to the American government’s secret under-the-table crucial ongoing assistance to those groups, and this American-government support has intentionally encouraged recent terrorist events especially in Syria, Libya, and other countries that had been allied with Russia — but which might be flipped ‘our’ way, by those jihadists. In such countries (America’s ‘enemies’), the U.S. government calls the jihadist groups ‘moderates’ and ‘pro-democracy.’ But in Christian, Jewish, and Shiite-Muslim dominant countries, they’re instead called “terrorists,” which is what they actually are. George Orwell called such linguistic tricks for fooling any nation’s mass of suckers, “Newspeak,” but America’s version is more sophisticated than his fictional one was. And so is America’s version of Orwell’s “Big Brother” more sophisticated than his — and now we know what it actually is, because of this:

The great investigative journalist Andrew Cockburn, in the January 2016 issue of Harpers Magazine, has come forth with what may be the best public-affairs article I’ve ever seen (it’s at that link), because he has interviewed key individuals in the U.S. government’s CIA and other intelligence agencies, some of whom he even identifies by name (i.e., they’re retired), and all of whom provide different details of the very same stunning huge story, a story that I have been reporting only in bits and pieces over the past year, but for which Cockburn offers an astounding amount of fuller and entirely new documentation — it blows everything else away.

To boil it all down (which he sadly doesn’t): The fundamentalist-Sunni royal family of the Sauds have bought the highest levels of the U.S. government in order to control U.S. foreign policies, especially the ongoing wars to take down the governments of Iraq, Libya, Syria, and ultimately (they hope) of Russiaitself, which latter nation has allied itself instead with Shiia countries. The controlling entities behind American foreign policies since at least the late 1970s have been the Saud family and the Sauds’ subordinate Arabic aristocracies, which are the ones in Qatar (the al-Thanis), Kuwait (the al-Sabahs), Turkey (the Tuktic Erdoğans, a new royalty), and UAE (its six royal families: the main one, the al-Nahyans in Abu Dhabi; the other five: the al-Maktoums in Dubai, al-Qasimis in Sharjah, al-Nuaimis in Ajman, al-Mualla Ums in Quwain, and al-Sharqis in Fujairah). Other Saudi-dominated nations — though they’re not oil-rich (more like Turkey in this regard) — are Pakistan and Afghanistan.

On December 15th, the Sauds formed their own Sunni-Islamic version of the American aristocracy’s NATO; and, though it shares one existing member with the 28-member NATO military alliance, which isTurkey, the other 34+ nations in it are, like the Sauds’ Kingdom itself, ruled by Wahhabist-Salafist leaders, and are likewise vigorously against both Russia and Shiite-led countries — just as NATO itself also is.  

There can be little doubt now: America’s decades-long catastrophic failures to make significant progress in eliminating even a single one of the numerous jihadist groups around the world is due to the American government’s secret under-the-table crucial ongoing assistance to those groups, and this American-government support has intentionally encouraged recent terrorist events especially in Syria, Libya, and other countries that had been allied with Russia — but which might be flipped ‘our’ way, by those jihadists. In such countries (America’s ‘enemies’), the U.S. government calls the jihadist groups ‘moderates’ and ‘pro-democracy.’ But in Christian, Jewish, and Shiite-Muslim dominant countries, they’re instead called “terrorists,” which is what they actually are. George Orwell called such linguistic tricks for fooling any nation’s mass of suckers, “Newspeak,” but America’s version is more sophisticated than his fictional one was. And so is America’s version of Orwell’s “Big Brother” more sophisticated than his — and now we know what it actually is, because of this: . . . and how many of you spotted this as a repeat paragraph just to test you?

Fourteen years in, and the Terror War is raging on, mass-producing exactly what it was supposed to eliminate: terrorism and chaos. Western intervention has racked up at least six jihadi-overrun failed states throughout the Greater Middle East: Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, and Yemen. The scope and scale of the imposed civilizational meltdown have become so great that the West itself has been increasingly inundated by its wreckage (in the form of refugees) and stung by its shrapnel (in the form of terrorist attacks).

To paraphrase Yeats, is the empire merely staggering toward Har Megiddo (Armageddon)? Or is there a Machiavellian method to the mass-murderous madness? If so, how could such a perpetually widening and intensifying catastrophe possibly serve anybody’s interest? What could possibly be the end game?

We know what the jihadis’ end game is. They plainly tell us in their official publication. ISIS, in the tradition of its forefathers Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, wants to use terrorist provocation to polarize the entire world into two irreconcilable enemy camps. By eliminating any “gray zone” between “the crusader camp” and “the camp of [Salafist] Islam,” the terrorists seek to precipitate an apocalyptic “clash of civilizations,” out of which they will arise victorious.

Debby Wasserman Shultz Must Go

Democratic Chairperson Debby Wasserman Schultz isn’t answering her phones or even taking messages.  This DNC impostor leader is really doing everything she can to sabotage the Bernie Sanders campaign.  Now the “firewall between the databases” is down and they are trying to get the Sanders campaign in trouble and then denying the data Sanders people developed themselves- - for their own usage.  I don’t like the idea of Thom Hartman disallowing any criticism of Clinton.  If the Republicans are right on an issue or not it doesn’t matter.  We have every right to bring up the Trust issues with Hillary, or the sort of under-handed stuff she pulled on Obama in the 2008 campaign.  We don’t like Hillary’s ties to Wall Street.  I consider this a major campaign issue.  I hate the idea that Hartman and people are like him are saying “Don’t support Sanders because you’ll only help the Republicans.”  It’s a LONG way till next November.  Not a single vote has been cast yet.  Now they’re trying to declare victory without a single vote being case in rigging the poll numbers by not allowing new voters under 26 a right to be represented in the polls as “likely voters”.  Why disallow data from students and others 18 to 26 years of age?   These very stunts by Debby Wasserman Schultz including the scheduling of the debates themselves on the very weekend Star Wars comes out and the biggest Christmas shopping day of the year.  We need to get rid of this head of the democratic national committee.  She is nothing but trouble.

The US Congress is about to pass one of their omnibus Christmas tree style legislation where the good gets mixed in with the bad.  See Thom Hartman for details.  They are lifting the ban on oil exports.  This will increase pollution world wide and drive up the price of gasoline at the pump for domestic users do to increased transportation costs.  It’s also something people like the Koch Brothers want.  Also the ban on labeling GMO foods is left intact.  There are many such odious measures. We desperately need to go back to voting out individual bills.  I’ve heard it’s a mutual back scratching festival now where there is a compromise that neither Republicans nor Democrats like and neither would vote for in a straight up or down vote- - but they make these slippery deals with imbedded poison pills in them.  They pulled the same stunt last year and I didn’t like it then.  

 In other news the White House promises a “non traditional State of the Union message”.  And Trump has praised Vladimir Putin ant Putin has praised Trump calling him a great leader.  What can I say?  Great despots think alike.  Maybe this is why Trump’s foreign policy in Syria was demonstrably soft on Russia and Putin.  If we can work at all with Vladimir Putin, this would be a plus.  Trump appears unstoppable anyhow.  Israel and Turkey are reconciling and reaching an understanding over a 2010 naval incident.   But it’s the Palestinian population on the West Bank and in Gaza who are getting the shaft by Israel.  This is a military occupation and not to put too fine of point on it, basically a giant internment camp. 

This is Friday December 18, 2015 and the 45^th anniversary of a couple of dubious events in 1970 maybe we’ll get to.  Apparentl Star Wars The Force Awakens premered last night.  I think the hype is over-bearing.  Now Rocky Mountain Mike is doing a review of the year’s hits.  This is Stephanie Miller’s last day before vacation and John Fugelsang won’t be here today.  I guess Glenda is being picked up for the mountains any time now.  They’re still playing all the year’s parody hits.  Yesterday will be known as “the lost day”.   The one normal thing that happened before Judy called after nine was that I watched a segment of “Ring of Fire” just before nine.  Then I had Thom Hartman on and Judy called about linking into the computer and we were off to the races.  It took seven and a half hours just to reinstall MacAfee, which was done after dinner. 

I'm puzzled by the margin here.  Why is this indented so far?  The photo thing doesn't seem to work now unless it fixes itself.  OK it fixed itself.  (Maybe the cat is camera shy)

The spending measure, more than $1.1 trillion, includes a provision to end the 40-year ban on exports of crude oil from the United States — a priority of Republicans — as well as a large increase in funds for medical research at the National Institutes of Health that received bipartisan support.

It also reauthorizes and expands federal aid for emergency workers suffering from health ailments related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York City.

Under the bill, Congress would permanently extend several tax breaks that have been renewed repeatedly on a temporary basis. These include a popular business tax credit for research expenses, a small but symbolic tax deduction for teachers who spend their own money on books, supplies and computer equipment used in the classroom, and a separate deduction for state and local sales taxes.

After weeks of tense negotiations, congressional Democrats and the Obama administration succeeded in beating back a blizzard of policy amendments, known as riders, that Republicans had sought to attach to the spending measure.

“We walked into these negotiations focused on making sure that Republicans would not succeed in advancing their ideological agenda through the budgetary process,” said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary.

The Republican proposals included efforts to scuttle an environmental rule expanding federal oversight over domestic waterways, new rules on conflicts of interest for financial advisers handling retirement funds and a labor provision that would have made it more difficult for employees of fast-food restaurants to join unions.

The spending bill also includes more vigorous security checks as part of the visa-waiver program, a fast-track process used by millions of visitors to enter the United States that was pursued because of concern after the recent terrorist attacks carried out by the Islamic State. In addition, the bill incorporates a measure that expands the sharing of information between private firms and federal security agencies to prevent cyberattacks.

The spending legislation notably does not include tighter restrictions on admitting Syrian and Iraqi refugees that had been approved overwhelmingly in a separate measure in the House.

The tax portion also delays some key provisions of the Affordable Care Act, including the so-called Cadillac tax on expensive private health insurance plans.

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Republican leaders in Congress characterized the year-end package as representing a hard-fought compromise that would keep the government open and provide large-scale tax breaks.

“We played the cards that we were dealt with as best as we possibly could,” said the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin. “I believe we’ve made the best of it.”