The Propaganda Machine of the Far Right

 People think all of the proposed Bill of Rights to the Constitution were passed.  Actually this is not so.  Jefferson and Madison exchanged letters saying that corporations would be another source of danger of concentration of power along with Church and State.  Madison said that it was a danger to have a perpetual state of war.  This is definitely a fear of mine over the past fifteen years.  It’s interesting that the founding fathers viewed corporations as a dangerous source of a concentration of ruling power.  They obviously saw into the future.  Thom Hartman constantly quotes from the founding fathers to remind us of our roots, or at least where our roots should be.  Today the media has grown to great power.  But it has done so as a mouth piece of corporations.  So even Public Broadcasting and NPR are now the tools of corporations despite the left-wing rhetoric they put in their commercials.  Bill Mar and Phil Donahew were fired because of their views on the Iraq and Afghan wars.  People need to remember that.  I remember the days when the mainstream media put out feature broadcasts against war and the military.  But today they have these “embedded” reporters where they get a bunch of people who will cover the war but only if they are brainwashed first.  So we see nothing on our TV but the glories of current and past wars.  People don’t remember President Eisenhower’s farewell address where he warn us all against the dangers of the Military and Industrial complex.

I would just say that these so called “tax protests” over the weekend, are a phenomenon that I didn’t foresee the magnitude of.  They were all over the country.  They weren’t paid protestors as Donald Trump tweeted that they were.  It was a spontaneous outpouring of two sentaments.  The first was that the rich should pay their fair share of taxes to save the government from an impending exploding deficit.  The second was that President Trump needs to show his Federal Income Taxes over the past dozen years or so like every other candidate for president.  Donald Trump promised us all multiple times he had no objection to showing his income taxes and would do so as soon as he was being done audited.  But now since his election he’s doing sort of a “Nya – nya”.  He says “The election is over and I won.  The issue is decided”.  First of all it wasn’t a referendum on whether Trump should pay his taxes.  Indeed 75% of Americans want Trump to show his taxes.  But the more important point is that people like Shawn say it’s important for Trump to keep his promises.  But now that he’s won Trump is saying that he doesn’t care about promises any more.  Basically he’s just saying “I just said I’d report them so I’d be elected.  Well, mission accomplished”.  I’m surprised (though I shouldn’t be) that Shawn doesn’t see the credibility gap here.  But now we come to the protests themselves.  We are told that there were fights and disturbances at these rallies.  So the implication (from people like Shawn) is that “These liberals bring disorder and cause violence wherever they go”.  But clearly we need to examine the sources of these conflicts.  Right wingers go to these rallies of the left and deliberately set about to cause violence.  Yesterday they punched a woman right in the gut or something and started a brawl, which was their intent.  But to them it’s just another way of sabotaging the left. I am not completely confident that law enforcement will properly be able to isolate the source of these conflict.  Sometimes in football the cry goes out “They always flag the second guy to throw the punch” or whatever.  There are still a lot of Obama holdovers in the Justice Department but this could change over the course of time.  The time may come when nobody will get a fair trial in America.  

Here’s more damage that the disasterous bills from 1996 have caused.  There was something called the Internet Morality Act, which ought to be called the immorality act.  It shields certain web sites such as dating services from any liability if your account gets hacked, for instance if someone pretended to be you and started setting up fake accounts.  This happened at a gay dating site called Grinder.  There is this one young man who’s gotten over a thousand propositions for sex over the past several months.  They show up at his work and at his home.  Simetimes sixteen men will show up at his home per night.  There was a line that goes “Don’t be put off if I tell you “No” because I have fantacies of rape”.   One can only imagine what would happen if this occurred at a heterosexual web site.  It’s clearly this bow toward commercial supremacy just like the communacations act was that allowed the establishment of FOX news. 

There seems to be a movement from within the Trump administration to go back to the past and “Get more adults in the room, in the decision making process”.  Trump just hired on two people who used to be in the Bush administration.  They say Trump wants to hire more people like these two, which will further the retrenchment of promises made in the campaign.  It seems Rex Tillerson has “grown up” and now as Secretary of State for a couple of months is doing more traveling and standing up to Russia and “clearly his star is rising”.  I guess so.  

Sometimes Computer search doesn’t hit everything in blogger.  Let's talk about our rock compilations, which we have posted so many of.  “Stray Cat Blues” is on that Dylan Doors and Stones compilation.  So is “Jigsaw Puzzle” and so is “Parachute Woman”.  Also “When You’re Strange” is on that album listed under ‘People are Strange”.  I guess we’ll leave it as an overlap because there is a dearth of Doors songs as it is.  Also this album was pitched as an individual album to buy apart from the eight disk boxed set.  But you should question the completeness of the results in "Search This Blog".  For instance I searched "Stray Cat" and came up dry as far as the eight CD boxed set is concerned.  

LATE EDITION:  At a North Korean press conference at the United Nations, can you hear a diplomat say he hoped journalists had a good holiday weekend and then warn of possible thermonuclear war.

North Korea has consistently issued threats of war toward the United States in recent decades, but the Trump administration's announced end of a "strategic patience" policy with Pyongyang has upped the ante in terms of warnings and bellicose rhetoric. North Korea's UN deputy representative, Kim In Ryong, on Monday unleashed at a hastily called UN press conference a torrent of threats, war scenarios and rhetoric aimed at the United States.

The press event was held hours after US Vice President Mike Pence visited the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Pence warned North Korea not to test the resolve of the United States "or the strength of our military forces."

In New York, North Korea returned verbal fire. North Korea's UN ambassador condemned the US naval buildup in the waters off the Korean Peninsula, plus the US missile attacks on Syria.

On North Korean border, Pence tells CNN US will drop 'failed policy'

Kim said, "It has created a dangerous situation in which thermonuclear war may break out at any moment on the peninsula and poses a serious threat to world peace and security."

"Mother of All Bombs" Dropped in Afghanistan

The “Mother of all bombs” was dropped in Afghanistan today at Trump’s specific approval.  It was the right bomb for the right situation.  The bomb wiped out a system of caves and tunnels allowing Al Qaeda troops to move about freely.  This particular bomb was perfected last decade.   It’s designed specifically as a bunker buster and not meant to shoot out projectiles and kill people.  I just don’t want Trump to go on a major droning binge killing civilians.  It’s the Massive Ordinance Air-blast Bomb or MOAB.  It’s 23,000 pounds of explosive power.   What's still undetermined is whether this big bomb will turn the tide of battle in favor of US backed forces, or whether the Al Qaeda people will just say it's "all in a day's work" and continue on as they were.  

Paul Manifort and Michael Flynn have both registered as foreign agents of Russia.  This is based on a 1938 law he’s chosen to comply with.  According to Norman Goldman the evidence is piling up that there is an extensive Russian-Trump connection.   I imagine the IRS is all over this guy’s case what with the extensive corporate connections he has. 

Norman Goldman compiled a list of Donald Trump’s failed campaign promises.  Repeal and Replace of Obama Care is the one that comes to mind first.  This was Trump’s number one campaign priority.  A lot of us were worried that massive tax cuts for the rich would balloon the deficit.  There isn’t even a tax reform bill right now.  They never even got to the bill stage before they abandoned it.  Chuck Schummer says not only will not he not assist in drafting the bill but Schummer will just bring up Trump’s income tax returns.  The Wall with Mexico.  Some senate hearing said they won’t support the wall.  The House won’t do funding.  Trump said he would stay out of Syria.  And then there is “Whatever happened to the Moslem travel ban.  Have we seen any headway on infrastructure.  Then there’s his big flip flop on China.  Trump says “I am very impressed with President Xi and he has a good feeling about him.  So suddenly there is no talk about currency manipulation.  There is not one peep about cheating on trade relations.  Has Trump brought any coal mining jobs back?  Shawn defends Trump at every turn or at least has done so until now.  I wonder when Shawn himself will become disillusioned with Trump. 

There is a story in a Wall Street publication that China has a whole slew of missiles now lined up at the North Korea border and aimed their way.  But I was told the mainstream media was specifically told to suppress this story.  There are continued rumors that maybe Trump will resign in a few months but before he goes out, he’s going to bomb North Korea and this new bomb that was launched today is definitely sending a message to Kim Jumg Um.

That doctor who was bumped from the United Airlines flight was 69 years old and lost too front teeth and suffered a broken nose and he has an attorney and will be suing.  United Airlines stock has gone down because of this incident.  Clearly excessive force was used in removing this man from his seat by security guards.   They have vowed not to repeat that.

Thom Hartman was just confirming what we all know that the poor are more generous and empathetic than the rich are.  Judy won’t believe that because she’s been brainwashed by right wing Christian radio.  Mark Twain didn’t like the Sheshone tribe because he thought they were too crude and lost on the Darwin charts.  Thom Hartman maintains the belief that these hunter-gatherer tribes spend only two hours per day looking for food and the rest of the time they spend playing games or else in deep religious contemplation.  The overriding question remains as to how these so called Born Again Christians like Trump now says he is- - be comfortable in their own skin knowing how they favor the filthy rich and oppress the poor.  Certainly Jesus spent a lot of time talking about how hard it is for the rich to get into heaven.  According to the rich you can just buy your way in because "everything has its price".  Money trumps moral decency with these people every time.  But the Catholic Church is still too much like the old Russian Communist Government.  They claim to hate money and love the poor meanwhile they hoard all the wealth in their society.  I'm sure there is some mental compartmentalization going on with them that justifies it.  Thom Hartman even claims that Calvinism and predestination were doctrines spawned to favor and justify the rich.  I'm beginning to see things more his way the more you just let these Christians talk and talk.  I guess it was Maya Angelo who said "When someone shows you who they really are- - believe them".  (Selah)

This is Thursday April 13, 2017.   I was just looking and there are differences between the British and American versions of “Kings of the Wild Frontier”.  “Making History” is unique to the British version and “Press Darlings’ and “You’re So Physical” are unique to the American version.  “Killer in the Home” appears on “Metal Militia” in my own compilation, and I didn’t know that. Last night I got coffee from Glen from his room and it was another chincy serving.  Glen had never seen my big mug before.  Then it was ABC news and Jeopardy.  The new light was not on at seven thirty.  I went for medication from Ida and then it was Wheel of Fortune and the start of “Law and Order”.  Finally I went down after eight and when I was out there a couple minutes the light came on for the first time in months.  The timer needs adjustment.  I had considered going to the store but I had just been there around seven to get cigarettes.  But I had about agreed to go for Nancy when Larry suddenly decided he would go for her.  Then I watched “Rape incorporated” with a corrupt grandfather and grandson.  Neither of them liked the father because he was kicked out of the family company leadership.  The grandfather used qualudes to rape women.

White House Meeting with Sec Gen of NATO

President Trump was having an official meeting with the Secretary General of NATO and both delivered speeches praising each other and fielded questions.  I’d say this conference went well.  It made Trump look like an influencial leader of the world.  I think that Trump is genuinely flexable on foreign policy.  Some say that his daughter got him to take pity on "The little babies".  Wherever Trump gets his humanitarian spirit from it's a good thing because children are casualties in all wars including President Obama's legendary drone campaign.  It's my hope that President Trump would rein in the droning.  Trump seemed confident that he could be on friendly terms with all the leaders of the world.  And that's a constructive attitude to have untill forced to conclude otherwise.  This conference at the White House was delaying Days of our Lives.  I don't mind a news interruption is it's something important going on in the world.  I just thought that school shooting was being dragged out with live coverage out of all sense of proportion.  Something happened with Edwardo and everyone is sad about it on Days of our Lives.  I don’t know if he was murdered of maybe he just submitted to an agreement to leave town or something.  Meanwhile Theo and Claire had sex today.  Gabriel is upset about still being in love with Chad. 

As to this whole Shawn Spicer news secretary gaff of the other day- - these things happen.  Dan Quayle will forever be remembered as the man who couldn't spell potato.  Trump isn't attending the whole newscaster roast of the President this year.  Maybe Trump hasn't evolved a sense of humor.  He can dish it out but he can't take it.  Of course the statement made by Spicer was that Adolph Hitler never used chemical weapons in war, and it's all how you define it.  There was doggy doo-doo right there and Shawn just stepped in it.  No ammount of apologising would work.  Then he added "Especially on a week like this".  Of course it's Jewish Passover as of Monday night, which I guess was the official full moon.  He then spoke of these Jewish death camps as being "Holocaust Centers", which sounds a little too nice, like visiting a museum or something.  Passover is the Jewish holiday Christians can most relate to because it's part of our common Biblical heritage and worth remembering and commemorating.  I don't know whether Spicer will get fired over this.  I don't think Spicer has served Trump very well as White House secretary anyhow and should have been fired before now.  

What Should Trump Do Now?

Trump’s bombing of that Syrian air base has come under increasing scrutiny.  On the one hand there are those who are calling it “pin prick” missile strikes even though there were 58 hits on the target.  The Syrians were able to get the air strip up and running in a few hours.  They apparently didn’t crater the runways, as one thought they would.  They lost twenty planes but now we are told the Russians will just supply them new planes, to replace the twenty obsolete ones that were destroyed.  Stephanie is saying that both Putin and Assad were warned ahead of the time of the bombing raid.  That would really be strange.  You don’t let the drug dealers know you’re about to make a surprise bust.  Some said we shouldn’t have done anything at all on the risk of starting World War III.  A lot of people including his son in law were saying Trump should have responded with more force.  That’s what Hillary and Israel wanted him to do.   Trump seemed to take the air strike seriously.  I suppose he prayed about it.  My position on prayer is that you should not pray FOR some specific thing to occur, but on the other hand each person has hos own conscience and a form of moral compass.  It’s what I call the Marcion wall.  There is the God of nature and forces in this world, and then there is the god of karma and morality.  A President Hillary would have done more to attack Syria.  Some have said Trump deliberately disguised the air strike as severe knowing all along it would be inconsequential and would blow over.  Putin has put out some morally hypocritical remarks.  Washington’s blog is similarly “out to lunch” in this area.  Now we have that ISIS bombing of an Egyptian church service during Palm’s Sunday.  Of course ISIS has no sense in the slightest of reverence for other religious practices or any common decency.  As such I agree with the people who say that we need to first turn our sights on ISIS forced and if possible working with the Russians, and after ISIS is eliminated on the world scene (a tall order) then we’ll deal with Assad.  I think also we need to investigate the actual source of the chemical weapons that were used.   President Obama may want to rethink the portion of his memuire where he says “We handled the crisis of 2013 better than if we’d taken action because Putin got the Syrians to destroy their weapons.”  Obama was thus made a fool out of.   We need to explore the allegation, however slight, that it was actually ISIS that had the chemical weapons.  The question remains why we haven’t ourselves located the cache of chemical weapons and use our planes to destroy that.  Now Syria is bombing the same city again only without chemical weapons and is that suddenly OK?

THE FINAL BRICKS IN THE WALL  rel April 9th 2017

I’m Busted (Ray Charles)
Got My Mind Made Up To Love You (Marvyn Gaye)
The Israelite (Desmond Decker & the Aces)
Gimme Gimme Good Lovin' (1969 artist)
Hot Buttered Popcorn (1969 artist)
Sock It To Me (Isley Brothers)
You Just Don't Care (Santana)
Skin Tight (Ohio Players) 7:54
Get It On In the Morning (Bill Chase)

I Like Marijuana (David Peale & the Lower East Side)

Queen Bitch (David Bowie)

Pictures of Home (Deep Purple)

All The Young Girls Love Alice (Elton John)
Thick as a Brick (Warner Brothers Sampler Edit)  JT

This album has undergone a renovation from its October of 2008 roots.  First of all we are X'ing out out opus magnum of Pink Floyd because the length police are on our case and 'Skin Tight' throws the playing time up into the stratusphere.  So we added a track 3 and a track 13.  Some say "The Ohio Players" should have been selected for our card deck thing instead of "Earth, Wind and Fire".  We may make a substitution if there are enough votes.  "Alice" was slated to be on the original October 2008 album but got bumped along with Deep Purple because of length considerations.  John Lennon referred to David Peale in his song "New York City" and I remembered him from the hippy mists of the past.  David Peale died last Thursday and I just heard about it today.  This Federation and Sirius A album was released today Sunday April 9^th.    A lot of stuff seems to happen on Sundays.  As for Jethro Tull this is not the original 1972 radio edit, and it isn’t the KLSX edit, which is brief.  It’s one of these “Loss Leaders” as they referred to them, and it gives you a pretty good sample of the song.  There was talk of renaming this album AM And FM, but David Peale himself preferred the original title.  In case you’re mystified “Pictures of Home” is track three on “Machine Head” from 1972.  David Peale is now living on Sirius A and in full contact with them.  

Rhapsody in Black had a female singer guest and an odd assortment of songs.  There were a few classic moldy oldies such as “I’m In Love Again” by Fats Domino”, “Why do Fools Fall in Love” and “Speedo” by the Cadillacs.   She came up with some off the wall songs such as “Tell Me Something Good” from 1974.  That song is such a misfit it’s a misfit even among the disco songs of the era.  “Got My Mind Made Up To Love You” is a Marvyn Gaye song that slipped through the cracks of my picks- - almost.  It’s on a one CD sampler disc from October of 2008 featuring “Thick as a Brick” taking up most of the album.  Other tracks from that album are “Hot Buttered Popcorn” and “Shining Star”.   I heard three selections from the singer’s own album (ie Bill Gardener's program) and the first two reminded me of “Heart” the group from late 1976, particularly the guitar playing.  There was a Ray Charles song from a 1963 album called “Twisting with Ray Charles” and there was also a man and woman duet they played from 1960.  "Gimme Gimme Good Lovin'" sounds a little like Paul Revere and the Raiders.  

This is Monday April 10, 2017.  Yesterday was Jess Ryder’s birthday in 1065, the fictional Stephen King character according to the Federation.  Seven year old Peter was his son who was supposedly the child’s voice on “Enter Sandman” by Metallica.  That’s the son of Jess Ryder and Frances Goldsmith.   Yesterday is the anniversary of “Ticket To Ride” being released, which is the first “A” side by “Greenie” the rocker John Lennon voice.  “You Can’t Do That” was the first “B” side to be released a year earlier.  Yesterday they finally got around to mopping the floors in the halls.  There were sticky places all down the hallway to the top of the stairs and you’d walk on these places and have to clean off your shoes because they were sticky.  Last night I got coffee from Glen’s room for three cigarettes.  Then I went out to the store for a pack of John Blacks.  I went to the bakery intending to buy a dollar four-pack of cinnamon rolls but they weren’t open.  So I returned to the liquor store to buy a 75 cent can of Coke.  “Eye on LA” featured odd architectural wonders of Los Angeles and I watched most of that.  Sixty Minutes had brainwashing by Google and Facebook and other internet entities to create an “anxiety” to keep checking your phone and give you a little gambler’s pay-off or dopamine influx to the brain.  The segment alledges that your brain is being programmed as well as your computer.  To me this seems to be playing the helpless victim and just put down the phone and forget it.  It goes so far that kids give other friends their passwords to check their phones during vacation with their parents to keep their “streaks” going.  The middle segment was on an immigrant who founded a Greek yogurt company in the last decade and now has become very rich in a big hurry.  After this there was a segment on a Japanese baseball player who both hits and pitches.  I went down for medication with Ida.  Then it was NCIS Los Angeles.  I went to bed shortly after nine but feared being waked up by itching.  This is just what happened.  I was itching all over my legs about 11:30.  I got dressed and went out and smoked two cigarettes and talked to Bill who was out there.  He said he had seventy nine cents to contribute to buying a bottle of rubbing alcohol.  He says to talk to Sarah this morning to make an appointment with Dr Nichols because they won’t let you have skin cream if you don’t personally see a doctor.  The promised skin cream from Mary Jane never materialized.  I managed to get back to sleep after drinking water.

President Trump Orders Syrian Missile Strike

The big news story came at 6:20 last night ten minutes before ABC network news came on.  President Trump retaliated against the Seran gas attack by Syria the other day.  He confined his attack to the one air base from where the Seran gas missiles were launched against the “rebels”, and as you know a lot of children and babies were included, which President Trump was sure to highlight.  59 Tommyhawk missiles were launched ant 58 hit their targets.  The Russians claim that only half of the missiles hit their targets.   This event was fresh when the West Coast edition of ABC network news was on.  President Trump gave a rather somber speech about the attack saying that he’s praying for the souls of the people who died.   President Obama was going to do a more massive missile attack in 2013 but Obama copped out and went to the intransigent republican congress, whose goal it was to deny him even one victory even when they agree with him.  Many people on the left have questioned this attack saying among other things that it could start WW III.  Either that or they point out all of the death and hahem that the United States has unleashed on the Moslem community over the past fifteen years.  I would have done the same thing President Trump did given the appetite of the American people for war.  He would have come under attack from his own party had he delayed to find out what actually happened.  Some say the weapons were ISIS weapons, which is an interesting thought.

The US Senate this morning confirmed Judge Neil Gorsuch on a vote of  54 to 45.  Clearly they had to eliminate the filibuster rule to get the thing to pass.  The vote of Neil Gorsuch of Colorado for Associate Justice is confirmed.  As you know yesterday they eliminated the filibuster and there was no democratic vote on that.  I am puzzled who the vote to eliminate the filibuster couldn’t itself be subject to a filibuster.  It was just two days ago that the Democrats voted to uphold the filibuster on a vote of 55 to 45.  It wasn’t some act of political vengeance but was merely a democratic vote on their opinion and they expressed it.  Most of the remarks made by Mc Connell and other Republicans yesterday suffered from severe projection and were other-wise nonsensical.  The looming fact is that if a democratic justice dies in office in the last term of Donald Trump’s presidency the President will not hesitate to appoint a successor right then.

Governor Jerry Brown got his gas tax measure passed last night by the California legislature.  The word was that the pro gas tax side didn’t have the votes for a two-thirds vote in both houses necessary to raise a tax.  But there was no doubt a lot of arm twisting and deal making.  The people of California are generally against these measures, though not entirely.  There is a twelve cent gasoline tax, and we already have the highest gas prices in the nation.  There is a bigger tax on diesel.   There is also a hundred dollar “green car” tax, and a lot of auto registration fees are hiked.  People are against these measures because we’d have the money if we didn’t allocate money already set for road repair to other politically based applications.  

President Trump removed Britebart publicist Steve Bannon from the National Security Council, leaving the post for Mc Masters, who took over Flynn’s position.  Flynn had absolutely no business on the National Security Council even for a day.  President Trump may one day stop floundering around and get about the serious business of governing with qualified people in the right positions.  

On a personal note I've had a mysterious skin condition for the past week and a half.  I have itching all over my body and when you look you see a few bug bites but no rashes.  It itches where there there are no bug bites and it feels as if there were ten times as many bug bites as there actually are.  Nobody has put a name to this conditions.  The only thing is others also have it.  It isn't Scabies.  Others have lent me their lotions but I'm supposed to get my own cream as of last night but I haven't gotten it yet.  

Major Seran Gas Attack in Syria

There has been another severe Seran gas attack in Syria and they showed photos of it on the ABC network news.  They were hosing down kids trying to get the poison off of them.  A week ago Assad first used chlorine gas on his own people but now he’s upped the ante.  Now the ball is squarely in Trump’s court and he’s where Obama was in 2013.  Will Trump now draw his own red line in the sand saying Syria has crossed it and will now pay the penalty?  Just a week or so ago officials of the Trump administration were trying to come up with a way to keep Assad in power in Syria.  Trump did issue a statement saying what a barbaric and cruel act the Seran gas attack was, but he stopped short of saying what the repercussions will be.  This is a test moment for Trump.  But all Trump could do was to somehow blame Obama for the attack saying that if Obama had properly dealt with the problem in 2013 we wouldn’t be facing the problem now.  Clearly we have to remove Assad from power- by war if necessary.  We need to probe where Syria got the gas and whether Russia had anything to do with it.  Meanwhile former UN ambassador Susan Rice of the Obama administration is in trouble again, as we said in our last posting.  She is naming names of people from the Trump administration caught in our surveillance of Russian phone calls.  They call it “unmasking”.   If Rice is guilty of anything then they should take proper measures against her but personally I don’t see any problem.  After all it takes two to tango and clearly those Russian officials were talking to somebody from our side.

Yesterday April 4^th was “equal pay day” for women.  It’s the amount of time a woman had to work into the year of 2017 to equal a man’s pay earned in 2016.  I didn’t know that.  There were protests.  Apparently John Kennedy signed the “equal pay” bill for women in 1963 and here it is fifty years later and they still don’t have equal pay.  So if the equal rights amendment to the constitution has been passed, would women have equal pay now?

There is fresh information on the American Healthcare Act.  Now they are trying harder to please the Freedom Caucus by taking out the pre condition portion of the AHA.  This will save insurance companies a lot of money and incidentally will lower premiums for health people and raise them for the truly sick.  Also they want to take away just maintenance care and a host of services Obama Care provided.  Obama Care as we know it will soon be officially dead.  With Trump’s luck the bill just might pass the house now.  It’s a case of trying a little to please the hard right and assuring the hard right that they call the shots.  We know how Trump said he wanted to reach out to the democrats but now we know that Trump was just flapping his lips.   After this of course there is “tax reform”, which will also please the hard right.

It doesn’t look as though evil has an expiration date.  You can’t think in terms of “waiting it out” or “running out the clock” or waiting for some pre set moment to arrive to bail us all out.  This seems to be a losing proposition as far as the tea party right is concerned.  Betting money on it would lose you money every time.  But does good have an expiration date?   As you know I listed Obama’s last press conference as having an edited running time of 43:21 like some kind of a count-down.  They were counting Obama down squeezing him out before his time is up.  Now we don’t know where President Obama is except I thought he was snorkeling in Hawaii or something like that.  He deserves a fine vacation.  He has his whole life in front of him and could do virtually anything.  He could be a lobbyist, which I heard was likely for him to do since that’s where “they all end up” anyhow.  He could go back into private legal practice.  Or he could be a community organizer.  We’ve never had a president who retired from office so young.  As you know the “final listing” of Obama’s speech is listed in Skeletons from the Closet on December 26^th under the post heading of “The makings of a despot”.   A good name for this brief collection of tracks should be “Count-down for Obama”.  Many people feel we are headed toward from great crisis point in the world.  From the way people have talked they view a nuclear war as somehow not only thinkable but winnable.  As I’ve said before I don’t relish spending the twilight years of my life under the thump of Donald Trump and the Koch Brothers.   We’ve spent the whole century so far under ultra right rule. 

In Washington’s blog they were talking about how the United States didn’t want an official peace treaty after the Korean War but it was in our interest to keep the hostilities going.  The United States is portrayed in this posting as somehow wanting to foment a nuclear war and how North and South Korea have signed a “no first use of nukes” pledge but the United States has not agreed to this.  Rush Limbaugh is putting forth the argument that before the Trump campaign the democrats were friendly to Russian interests.  This isn’t true because Obama has continually made statements against Putin’s aggression in Ukraine and in Syria.  I would call our recent stance antagonistic toward Putin and Russia.  Certainly Washington’s blog has portrayed Obama as very much anti Russian. 

Suggested (two tracks) changes to the RADIO READY Album of June 2007.   The new tracks are Stones and AC- DC and AC - DC is deliberately not in order just so you'll ask questions about it.  

Green Eyed Lady (Sugarloaf)

Going Out to the Country (Canned Heat)

Honey, What Do You Do For Money (AC - DC)

Heart Shaped Box (Nirvana)

High, High, High (Mc Cartney and Wings)

Hold Me (Fleetwood Mac)

Holy, Holy (David Bowie)

House on Puneil Corners (Jefferson Airplane)

disc three

I Can’t Wait for the Nights with You (Scorpions)

If I Was A Dancer (Rolling Stones)

I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight (Bob Dylan)

It’s Too Late (B L T)

Journey to the Center of the Mind (Amboy Dukes)

Democrats All Ready to Filibuster Gorsuch

 There are four reasons why the Democrats should go ahead and filibuster Judge Neil Gorsuch.  Right now they have enough votes to filibuster the nomination because they just did a head count and three more democrats are undecided.  First of all it’s a stolen nomination right out from under Obama’s nose.  Justice Scelia died in late February of 2016 and there was plenty of time to approve the new nominee.  But Mitch Mc Connell wanted someone who is at least as far right as Scelia and Gorsuch fills the bill.  Trump is under a multi pronged investigation and shouldn’t be nominating anybody till the issues are resolved.  Because this is a lifetime appointment.  Also Gorsuch lied to the Senate at his confirmation hearings.  I heard that.  He says he believed in “settled law” but was against Roe verses Wade.  Either he lies or he refuses to answer a question at all.  But he puts on this nice façade of “well you know what a nice guy I am, who follows the law”.  Then there is the matter of seventeen million dollars.  That’s how much the tea party is spending on him to put him in office.  They want a justice securely in the back pocket of corporations and Gorsuch is the quintessential corporatist.  The vote is going to take place April 7^th, which is this Friday, before the Easter recess.  The Democrats almost want Mc Connell to change the filibuster rule.  Because they can henceforth say “It was the democrats and not we who blew up the filibuster rule”.  It’s something Harry Reid and the democrats had the option of doing a couple of years ago for supreme court justices and they deliberately opted not to take that step, perhaps knowing that a situation very much like this one might arrive in the future. 

 Gary and Shannon had a guest on their show before noon mentioning Bill O Riley paying off his female employees not to bring legal action for sexual harassment against anybody at FOX studios.  Otherwise there’d be even more complaints.  Susan Rice in the Obama administration illegally released names of people around Donald Trump who talked with the Russian government.  According to Gary they were “innocent third parties”.  Wendy Walsh was on Bill O Riley's show herself and he made sexual harrasment against her but she doesn't want a legal settlement, only to get the word out.  Five other women were sexually harassed and they were paid thirteen million to keep quiet.  

On Sixty Minutes they had this one lady cop who shot a Black man in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  She’s been charged with murder but the all white jury they are sure to pick will let her off Scott free.  This large Black man was on PCP and “acting funny” and got the officer’s attention.  The officer saw an abandoned car with the engine running down the road and she looked in the car but says she didn’t look for firearms.  I find this very hard to believe.  This is the first thing cops look for.  But the man began walking toward the abandoned car and had his hands up but when he got too close to the car, she shot and killed him.  She said his actions were “suspicious” because he kept looking back to see if she was still following him.  This is what is known as “targeting behavior”.  The theory goes he’s headed to his car to go turn around quickly and shoot the officer and he was just calculating how fast he could make his move.  Many officers lace their testimony with clichés but this testimony on Sixty Minutes was ALL clichés and absolutely no substance at all.  That’s what we’re up against.  After this I got my medication from Ida and it was a tuna sandwich.  Sixty Minutes had this eccentric architect on who caters to the richest of clientele.  NCIS wasn’t on so I turned it to “Elementary” on KTLA.  I didn’t sleep real well because I woke to itching but then went back to sleep.

This is Sunday April 2, 2017.  Let’s start with the important news.  Disneyland is extending the run of the Main Street Electrical Parade from June 18^th and now it’s been extended to August 20^th.   I don’t know who won any three games of the Freeway Series.  Rosie, of “Rosie and the Originals” died today.  They played the John Lennon version of “Angel Baby” on “Breakfast with the Beatles”, which wasn’t on the original “Rock and Roll” album apparently.  Rosie recorded her big hit in San Diego in a converted airport hanger at age fifteen.  I had no idea she was that young.  Only five years older than I am.   Today is officially “Peanut butter and jelly” day, which is what we are scheduled to have for dinner tonight.  Back in the summer of 1980 when Terry was even weirder than he is now, he suggested we call Joshua “peanut butter” and Laura “jelly”.   It dawned on me that I don’t have featured any representatives from the album “Emotional Rescue” and I don’t know why because we have two from the following album, “Tatoo You”.   There are a lot of good songs notably “She’s So Cold”, which reminds me of Laura in the summer of 1980.  Also “If I Was A Dancer” isn’t used.  In terms of the phrase “On a fine Arab Charger”, in my Prophecy book I refer to Arab horses as being the horses that will be used in the Battle of Armageddon.   They aren’t the purest bred, but they are the original breed with supposedly one less rib or something than all other horses.