It’s refreshing to see that left wing protests are finally making the news. Liberals say there have been many large protestors over the past ten years but the media has ignored them. But if a tenth or fewer the number of tea baggers get together they will trumpet that in the media. Well, no longer. Now there are throngs of protestors camping out in New York City protesting Wall Street. They call themselves the ninety-nine percenters and they are out to protest against “corporate greed”. They have been camped out the past couple weeks or so and have been serving pizzas and stuff like that. What they need IS a “list of demands” in the Sol Allinsky tradition. And they should be demands that “the other side is physically capable of carrying out”. The demands should also “sound reasonable” but less than what they actually want, but at least they’ll have their “foot in the door” as in keeping with that adage “Give a nigger an inch and he’ll take a mile”. A group of these ninety-nine percenters were also protesting this weekend in Pershing Square here in Los Angeles. Of course there is a lot of corporate greed, but also a growing contempt for their patrons, who pay the bills. So you have things like banks hiking all these fees and instituting new ones. Flying is nothing like the experience it used to be. Now they over-book flights and cut back flights, and you have to pay for formerly free amenities such as pillows, blankets, or even a bag of peanuts. Now airline pilot resignation rates are ten times the normal rate for this fall because the stock market has dropped and pilots want to “lock in” pensions based on a figure as of a few months back. This drop in pilots will result in further flights being cut back. Judy has remarked many times recently that the US is turning into a Third World Country because no business offers decent service any more. And now to respond to all this government cut back caused by greedy legislators shrinking the tax base- - is now they are commercializing all sorts of things including these rigged voting machines, and they are putting up prisons right and left because “crime is a big business”. They say that the US has the highest per capita rate of imprisonment of any country in the world. Now we are pritizing the military with Blackwater and Haliburten. And these companies cost money because now they hire a cook they have to pay good money for to a private company. And in the old days as Hartman points out – if the base came under attack the cook would put down his skillet and pick up his gun and they’d be in business. But now they have to hire special guards to protect the private cooks. And of course these private outfits don’t have to abide by any military rules. So they commit atrocities on civilians that formerly a few hot headed officers might fantasize about but would not dare act on it, because they knew they’d be in for a court marshal. But these private companies have no restraints as to what they can get away with. Of course there is a gigantic tax shift from the money earners to the poor. Now the Union people are finally getting their act together and protesting- - hitting the pavement to make their demands. And we need more of this – a lot more. Sure people like Rush Limbaugh will complain, just like people on the right have complained that these Veterans who complain about a cut in medical services are “not real veterans”. Well I have news for people like Rush Limbaugh and Dick Chaney. Real veterans don’t get multiple draft deferments! The President was right in his speech this morning saying that this jobs bill is good for Americans. Period. It’s not a case of who “wins” and who “loses”. Harry Truman in 1948 ran against a “Do Nothing Congress” and Ronald Reagan did films campaigning for the Democratic Party, and quite eloquently, I might add. I guess I’m a little puzzled as to why America is so much further to the right than they were 64 years ago. You know, some will say “Well if liberals protest Rush Limbaugh will only complain about it on his radio show”. I say “let him”. The time he spends talking about Protestors will be less time he’ll have to spend making racial slurs against this President, or fawning all over Governor Rick Perry. They moved the fifty line way over to the right. We have to move it back where it belongs, and as Dylan said in a song, “Change our way of thinking”. If there are enough protests over a diverse enough number of things it will indeed “Change the American people’s frame of reference” when they make their political decisions in the voting booth next November.
It’s not enough that they are eliminating higher Science and History and Civics from our school cerricula so that the students have no cultural base. If you think about our generation was liberal in part because “out parents taught us to be” because they themselves had a full, well rounded “liberal education” they passed on to us and we ran with the ball. Today’s young people don’t have that, and haven’t had it in a generation because they have been “teaching to the test” to get more school funds they fight over because they are so scarce. Now cut backs have gotten so bad they are putting commercials right on school busses, and even on student lockers. What will be next? Will they be passing out free bottles of Gator Aid in gym class to try to create a habit of buying the product? Will they have the Dominoes Pizza History hour? Will they start off every school day after morning announcements with a ten minute promotional film from BIOLA College? Thomas Jefferson must surely be turning over in his grave. His vision was of an electorate who was educated. And he believed in education because that’s made the opinion of a voter informed and relivent, rather than just a puppet dangling from some corporate puppet master such as the Koch Brothers.
Nobody can claim that President Obama hasn’t macho’d up his presidency considerably these past few months. He’s even won over Pat Buchannon as evidenced by this weeks Mc Laughlin group program. Buchannon even declared that the Tea Party is a danger to this country. Now a high ranking member of the Hakani family operating on the Pakistani – Afghan border had been taken into captivity and we hope to learn more from him. Some say that the US has made such great progress recently because the computer treasure trove that Bin Laden left behind in Pakistan after we took him out. Hakani was instrumental in transporting troops from Pakistan into Afghanistan. They are speaking of renewed hostilities between Pakistan and Afghanistan, which can’t be a good thing for our fighting troops. Of course drone flights have been stepped up. The matter of killing innocent civilians seems now to be not so relivent, just as President Roosevelt didn’t want to be bothered with it during the final year of WW II in France. Even Eleanor Clift thinks the President is accomplishing a good thing. Others on the program said it won’t matter what the President accomplishes on foreign soil. The President could take out Lex Luther himself and it wouldn’t matter in next year’s election. Of course it was none other than President Ronald Reagan who in 1981 issued an absolute ban against assasenating foreign leaders. But it’s been argued that 9 – 11 nullified any edict that may have been in force before. Pat Buchannon says that congress should have formally declared War on Al Qaeda, and on this issue we are in agreement. That’s what we used to do when we went to war. The group argued among themselves whether Obama would take out more Al Qaeda leaders between now and election day. Of course other Islamic leaders were killed in that drone attack in Yemen yesterday besides Al Alaki. Every body counts, so to speak. The more we pile up the better we look. Perhaps like Rodney Dangerfield we can finally get back some of the respect we’ve lost in the world. Perhaps people will know that when the US says something it they aren’t just blowing smoke. Of course to macho up his image further, the Administration is warning Americans that reprisals may be taken for yesterday’s death. The psychology here, that the right uses is that fear is your best propaganda weapon and you never want to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs. I’m not a legal expert on this things - - whether it is OK to take out a US Citizen without benefit of due process on the grounds of “Self Defense”. I think there is a clear, if not present danger, where such a law enforcement attitude might lead.
I figured “I was talking about the stars? Fine. I’ll look at a star map”. Sometimes I get information from the Other Side and then check it out after I've already posted it. The funny thing is when I do this I rarely ever have to retract anything. To answer a question I think the Cremorian planet was 56 Ori and the mystery planet was 51 Ori. FH was looking just to the right and got confused because he thought the star had moved or something. I looked on my "Star Names" link but that didn't help. It's just those numbers 51 and 56 ring a bell from somewhere. I think this one is it. They are in near proximity. And the “Colors” star is that gamma Orion one in the upper right. As to that other really bright star to the right I’ve never heard it mentioned by the Federation. Maybe no planet is habitable. There are so many silly things you’ll never use like overlay, polygon, and marker. The least they could do is let you access the stuff you do use or used to like planets in motion. Sometimes I get news from the "Other Side" I don't want to hear. Like when Jerry Lieber died I thought "Well maybe he can rejoin some of those singers he made famous such as Elvis and the lead singer of the Coasters. However the one quote of Bones I was going to use but haven’t is talking about Jerry Lieber and why he is ignored by the Federation and Bones said “Because he is of the Jewish persuasion and despite appearances his loyalties lie elsewhere”. In other words in the after life he’s not in the picture as far as we are concerned. The stuff from June of 1997 I’ve reflected on before. And if I haven't, well, "the remarks will keep". I was going to mention the John Lennon Eileen therapy remarks too, which makes an interesting commentary in 2000. John Lennon was particularly interested in the "Arimid" period, or as some might say, the "Glass Onion" period. In terms of remarks that actually HELPED me, John Lennon was more helpful than Eileen was.
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