Different Seasons

It seems the ratings have become politicized from the debate.  Both CNN and MSNBC are trying to rig their polls so that Hillary wins even though straw polls consistently showed that Sanders won.  Chris Matthews thought Sanders won initially but was “out voted” on his own show, which seems really strange.  ON CNN pro Sanders postings are quickly removed from the site.  This is strange behavior and also completely pointless in the larger scheme of things.  But it's more obvious than that.  The Media as a whole does NOT want propigated any reporting about Citizen's United.  When the media reported the clip of Bernie saying "We're tired of Hillary's damn E mails" they leave out the other half of the statement about Bernie Sanders attacking the Media on Citizen's United.  The media seems downright desperate not to report the Truth.

President Obama will be keeping ten thousand troops in Afghanistan through the election year of 2016 and on into 2017 for the next President to deal with.  In fact I've heard it said the troops in Afghanistan won't be reduced from the current level of ten thousand till January of 2018.   So if we're talking about Putin's "weakness" in putting IN troops in Syria, then it only seems proper to refer to our keeping troops in Afghanistan another two whole years at least as some sort of desperation knowing we haven't won the war or achieved many if not any of our basic goals for fighting there in the first place.

It's been said by one radio evangelist, perhaps Chuck Swendoll, that "You reap in response to what you have sown, but you reap in a different Season from when the "seeds" of the sin or whatever were "planted" or comitted in the first place.  I've wondered when the "Season" around here in Southern California are going to change from summer to fall.  Here we are over three weeks into fall and the thermometer has been behaving as though it were still summer with temperatures in the eighties, if not nineties.  Now once again some are predicting cooler weather ahead, but we've heard that before and it hasn't happened.

Last night I watched almost all of the debate.  I heard all of the opening statements except for Chaffee, I believe, because I was out having a smoke.  They’d have a break and return to introduce the candidates and then after the break they had the coin toss.  No wait, that’s the Super Bowl.  Unity of message was the theme and candidates buttressed one another.  When Hillary or Bernie had a disagreement on gun control of capitalism gone out of control, rather than attack each other they would say “There isn’t that much difference between what we’re saying.  This pissed off the moderator no end.  Also the moderator would try and stir up trouble but people wouldn’t take the bait.  When Chaffee was goaded to attack Hillary on the E mails issue and Hillary was asked, “do you have anything to say by way of response?”  Hillary answered “No”.  You have to know your crowd, which was very progressive.  There was only one time when I thought that Hillary was in any trouble, and that was when O Mally and Sanders ganged up on her from both sides to attack her position on repealing Glass Steigel, the regulations on the stock market put in place by FDR as an insurance against big Banks speculating with investor's money.  Hillary refused to say she would repeal this late Clinton legislation.  Chaffey explained his vote to repeal Glass Steigel because "Well I was new to congress and my father just died and I just didn't know the facts about bills.  That's not even a D minus answer.  "The dog ate the legislation before I could read it".  I missed the talk of David Snowden and also legalizing marijuana.  I left when they began talking about free college education.  The other candidates talked about themselves ion the introductions but Senator Bernie Sanders went straight to the issues and didn’t talk about his background or family.   When the answers were too long winded to suit the moderator he would try and hush them up and move on to the next question.  I bagged a photo from the event.  Probably China cyber theft is the chief threat to our national security, but I think Saudi Arabia’s funding one terrorist group after another is high on my personal ranking, especially when it’s done with American money.

Today was the saga of the cats day.  Augustine gave them cat food and water- - and sought to clean out the cages.  But somewhere along the line- - the white kitten whom Phyllis calls “Checkers” escaped.  She didn’t go far.  She at worst was under the car but often was right next to the cage or jumping on the cage- - trying to get to the cat food.  Later on she was back in the cage and had eaten very little cat food.  Finally Glenda picked up the kitten and took it into the building to see Augustine.  Apparently it was in Jennifer’s office and there was talk Jennifer wanted to take it home as a pet.  But the cat bit and clawed Glenda apparently after Glenda kissed it on the nose.  The kitten hissed at her.  Toward the end of the day Augustine transferred this white kitten into the other cage with the mother and darker kitten.  (I’m unsure how the black and white got swapped out to begin with because previously it was the white kitten that was with the mother and the dark kitten was alone in her own cage.  After this Augustine picked up the cage and carried it off and we all said “Good-bye Patches”.  So the kittens are gone.

Sarah took me to the dentist and gave me a list of my medications to give to those people.  Glenda and Andrew were in the back seat, taking Andrew home or something.  I got there just before two but had to wait in the dentist’s chair before they got started.  I had the crown done but it was on tooth number 28 and not 29 as I had supposed.  But after spending a lot of time drilling with a bite thing in my mouth- - the dentist showed me where number 29 also needs to be a crown because of all the decay there.  Then there was a bunch of picking and then the dental impression.  Soon after that I asked to use the restroom.  It’s still easy to get lost in there.  Then it was a lot of fitting and taking the tooth in and out and drilling on the tooth and biting down.  As it turns out we finished up at ten to four but there was no waiting because that driver was already there.  But the receptionist called Judy to tell her about the additional crown.  The guy promised we’d be home by four and we just made it- - and I was in the dining room before any food had been passed out.  I didn’t like being numb.  We had BBQ chicken with corn and potatoes and lemon cake for dessert.  Paul gave me an additional lemon cake.  Now they are talking about death threats to LA police chief Charlie Beck, describing in detail how he’ll do it. 

The Sick Climate of Far Right Hate Today

The anti defamation league has criticized Dr Ben Carson’s assertion that if the Jews under Nazi Germany had had guns that the holocaust would not have happened.  I”ll defer to the ADL because they are in a better position to judge than I am.  To be frank I have wondered about that issue myself.  But in general it’s not realistic to suppose that if the American people were armed that they could stand off a whole Federal government with tanks and missiles and bombs.  I think we learned that from the Branch Davidians, who tried to do just that and found they were hopelessly out gunned and out numbered.  I find Ben Carson to be a completely insane person when he says “I’ve never seen gun injuries as bad as knowledge that the Obama Administration is coming to take our guns away if we don’t stand firm for our second amendment rights.  And I heard Carson speak saying to a CBS reporter “Well perhaps now these dark scenarios of mine have no immediate danger of happening, but the second amendment is designed to prevent scenarios from happening in the future”.   The whole climate on guns is so sick.  I can’t fathom that Obama would be booed as he visits Roseburg Oregon and there are protests out there telling him not to come and they don’t want him.  It’s so bad even the victim and father of one of the parties claims that Obama is politicizing this tragedy.  There are all of these myths about gun free zones.  That’s about as warped of thinking as a nudist saying “Well if there were more nude zones then there would be fewer rapes” to something.  Maybe that’s a bad analogy.  I listened to Stephanie Miller this morning.  I had her on a little after six (following - - ) and then it was the Rude Pundit and then Eric Bolder (or Bowler) on.  Stephanie is correct in her assertions about Hillary Clinton.  Now I learn on her program for the first time that one guy with a military background was kicked off the Bengazi hearings committee because he refused to go after Hillary hard enough.  This isn’t a game “changer” but a game ender.  Combined with the Mc Carthy remarks there can be no doubt the entire committee was and is entirely political and it’s credibility right now is “circling the drain” and needs to be flushed immediately.   Stephanie says that during his Sixty Minutes interview- - President Obama was grilled on Bengazi, and yet he wasn’t asked one question on gun violence.  The reporter pushed Obama hard on Syria and ending this training program we have for rebel fighting forces in Syria.  It might as well have been Sean Hannity asking the questions.  I think it’s true that “We learn stuff we didn’t know and we try things and they don’t work out, so we move on”.   Sean Hannity calls the cancelation of this program the “Backing down of President Obama before Putin’s advances”.  The President was put in the awkward position of saying that Putin’s advances in Syria were “an act of weakness”.   OK I have trouble following that logic myself and with the President had phrased that a little more tastefully and tactfully.   Stephanie also mentioned the Hillary coverage and how there is this never ending chorus (mostly on NBC) of how Hillary is not allowed to change her position on an issue when she gets more information.  It all goes back to this almost theistic philosophy of Republicans that “All knowledge that ever existed at all we are aware of right now and it’s blasphemy to think we would ever learn anything new”.   When Bernie Sanders was leading in Iowa it was front page news.  Now that Hillary is back on top in Iowa nobody covers it because it “doesn’t fit with the scenario” or story line they want advanced.  They want Joe Biden Running even though he doesn’t want to- - for the specific reason that it will cut into Hillary’s numbers badly, but even so- - - Hillary still wins easily in any head to head contest against either Biden or Sanders.  So tomorrow’s debate will be interesting.  It will be refreshing to just listen to a sane conversation on the issues and let the public know that there is another side- - a sane side- - to all the issues they’ve heard from the Republicans.  Bernie Sanders may be changing his positions on suing gun manufacturers for injuries incurred.  I agree with Sanders’ old position on suing manufacturers, when he was against suing them.  Unlike cars- - if you use a gun the way it was intended to do what it was designed to do, then you kill people.  That’s what guns do.  If the gun blows up in your hand or something- - then we have another issue- - just like you would with cars if you had an exploding gas tank or something.

I am still pondering with the fact that I might be clinically depressed, because “Things I once enjoyed and looked forward to doing, I don’t do any more”.  I have become lazy and lethargic and I can’t explain it except that my brain chemicals are on the fritz.  In terms of news on the cats- - they are all three still out there in the cages- - the mother cat and the two kittens and Joe says that he and Wally want to contact the Humane Society rather than the OC Pound, which is probably not open today because it’s Columbus Day.  On the other hand maybe they do extra business today BECAUSE it is a holiday and people have off.  We know the beaches will be packed when it’s like 92 degrees at certain beaches- - and the LA International Airport right by the ocean.  Beach temperatures have been strangely high.  But the mama cat has been in that cage since Thursday and that is just plain inhumane treatment, especially if they run out of water in this heat wave.  More often than not, you hear the most meowing at night.  I looked through the fence slats and the tone of the meowing god a little more hopeful for a moment.  

Turkey shot down a Russian bomber today.  This could trigger an international incident.  Washington’s blog continues in the vein of the US being hypocrites for saying they are against war crimes when they are one of the chief committers of it.   I take strong issue with Washington's blog when they attack Amnesty International however.  Washington's Blog is SO political that they will sacrifice humanity and ethics to advance their political position that Assad is a good guy and can't be touched.  Assad is a menace and we need to get him eventually.  I just think we need to concentrate on one issue at a time and I think ISIS has the higher priority.  I think we need negotiations with Vladimir Putin to prevent World War III.  I hope we can achieve that before something really bad happens.

Chris Matthews isn’t accepting the fact that Hillary has “flip flopped” on the trans Pacific deal.  Matthews is doing everything he can to trash Hillary’s motives and to remind her that Joe Biden is still all for the TPP deal.  She is “firming up her position for the debate” but Matthews claims “I highly doubt Hillary is against the agreement in principle”.   At least the Hillary news is forcing Matthews to even bring up the forbidden TPP issue on the PMSNBC network.  OK now Chris Matthews is admitting that Donald Trump is the “probable” winner of the Republican nomination.  Hillary of course had never had any problem in the polls at all.  All that has been well constructed myth making on the part of Sean Hannity and Dr Levy   “Meet the Press” is almost entirely political now with little talk on international or other national news, which used to dominate the thing.  It was another case of NBC trashing Hillary Clinton for her flip flop on the TPP.  Last night even the Mc Laughlin group was disparaging Hillary for her change in position.  I guess the complaint is that she was such a strident proponent of the trans Pacific Partnership for the administration on literally dozens of occasions.   

Democrats Need to Listen to their Base

We hold it to be Self Evident that Ben Carson is an Idiot

Sometimes Norman ticks me off.  Norm says “It doesn’t matter how many debates there are because nobody in the democratic party cares about debates”.  He then launched into a lot of flowery language trying to put down people who believe discussion of the issues is important.  Norm also says “No amount of compromise is too much”.  Obama is the compromise king and nothing has gotten done since 2010.  And a lot less got done before January 2011 than would have gotten done if we’d had a president who was a fighter.  My philosophy is this.  If your number one goal is “getting elected” and consider your goal met if you ride around in Air Force one and have an enteroge of photographers and aids around you all the time and “don’t care” about the actual issues- - then you don’t deserve to be President.  Furthermore the tea party has been SUCCESSFUL in sticking to their hard line issues.  That’s how they’ve won their elections.  They know that if you don’t get out their base, your chances of winning are much reduced.  Democrats do NOT want a repeat of the previous six and a half years.  Do you get it, Norm?

 Hillary has repeated today that she is against the Trans Pacific Partnership.   I guess it’s OK to come out with the “right” positions on issue even if it takes you time to “evolve” and come to those correct decisions.  Of course Hillary also came out against the Trans-Canada pipeline.  She’s out flanked Bernie Sanders on firearms regulation, though Bernie’s voting isn’t that bad, and the NRA doesn’t trust Sanders at all.  There are questions about that Hospital that US forces bombed in Afghanistan.  There is a secret memo circulating that this particular bombing did not meet with normal criteria for bombing raids.

House Majority Leader Kevin Mc Carthy has dropped out of the race for Speaker of the House leaving a host of other potential candidates available.  As I suspected the right is rather happy about this change in fortunes because now they can get one of their really whacko candidates to be speaker.  The official vote wasn’t even scheduled to happen until October 29^th.  Meanwhile through all this new chaos, John Boehner will not be stepping down till they have a sure replacement.  Boehner wanted Mc Carthy to succeed him.  Boehner makes a good case that at least he got some legislation accomplished over his tenure, whereas the next speaker of the house won’t get squat accomplished in the remaining fifteen months.

If you don’t need to be elected as a member of the House of Representatives to be Speaker of the house, then we could well have an unelected President should the unthinkable happen and both Biden and Obama were taken out, and I don’t mean – to dinner.  You need 218 votes to pass a bill in the House or to elect a speaker of the House.  It stands to reason that if this Freedom caucus only has forty or fifty members they don’t have a majority of even their own party so even following the Haster rule- - they couldn’t field a candidate who would win.  It would seem “through the math” that it would take 29 democratic victories for the Democrats to get a majority because now the democrats are 189 and the Republicans are 247.   You have this Jewish guy and “Daniel Webster” running for Speaker now- - but logically if it takes 218 votes of the full House to get elected Nancy Pelosi could get 189 votes right off the bat, and all you would need would be for 29 republicans to cross over and end the chaos. 

This is the sixth straight year the deficit declined as a percent of the gross domestic product.  The debt has still not yet doubled if you figure from fiscle 2010 on, the first full year Obama was in control of the budget.  People like to shift that final Bush year to Obama.  Needless to say the deficit has continuously dropped during the Obama administration.  Now Thom Hartman is talking about the methylation of DNA, which Judy was flooding me with information last year.  And then it’s that other word “epi-genetics”, which Hartman is trying to relate to either straight or gay.  I bet it turns out gayness is treatable.  Of course we know that GMO’s mess around with our gut bacteria, which Judy also talks about endlessly.

elected Nancy Pelosi could get 189 votes right off the bat, and all you would need would be for 29 republicans to cross over and end the chaos. 

This is Friday October 9, 2015 and John Lennon would be 75 today if he were still alive and I’m sure celebrations will be held somewhere.  Now for the news on Patches.  I was looking for the cat last evening and this morning and didn’t see her.  Marcia says Patches went inside the cage for food because she was hungry and got trapped.  Marcia also says someone else let her out of the cage last night, but later this was refuted and Patches is still in the cage, but the two kittens were out loose.  Last night I saw one and perhaps both kittens last night.  They were playing but not with each other.  One or both of them were inside Wally’s engine and I heard some thumping around.  Patches saw the cage the other day when Dr Levy was here and you’d think she’d know better than to enter the thing.  I guess she’s in a locked office somewhere.  Last night it was the usual ABC news and then Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune.  We had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, which we are having more often now.  I went to Glen’s room for instant coffee and creamer for four cigarettes.  “Vampire Diaries” was on but somehow I dozed off and roused after nine and went to bed.   I managed to avoid buying cigarettes last night and borrowed one from Richard this morning and then I paid him back.  I shaved this morning while Stephanie was on.  I first sat in the front room a while and then went to the store.  Bill was getting large cups of coffee for himself and Glenda and then I got a dollar cup.  I took it to my room and drank it there listening to Stephanie.  We had Raison Bran for breakfast followed by French toast and I got s second strip of bacon from Fernando.

Here’s a capture update.  I just saw both kittens playing by that bush by the flowers tree and so as of now they are free.  A minute later Augustine comes out with another cage so he’ll be getting them too, so I guess they’ll all be taken to the pound at once.  The weather has gotten warmer today and they are renewing their predictions of triple digit temperatures today. 

Trans Pacific Partnership Terms Agreed On

These people today aren’t really conservatives.  Conservatives don’t believe in judicial activism such as Citizen’s United demonstrates.  There are other laws liberals pass that get struck down by Judges appointed by conservatives.  Judges are appointed for this very reason of advancing a political agenda.  There are states that are over-bearing with counties and cities such as is the case with Detroit.  States pass laws that say counties and cities will NOT pass certain anti pollution laws.  Also the Federal government has passed a law, or is trying to, that mandates that no state shall pass GMO food labeling laws.  The Trans Pacific Partnership was officially agreed upon a couple of days ago.  The principles of the TPP are anathema to classic conservatives.  This agreement will overrule both legislatures and courts in this country in favor of some shadow government ruled by transnational corporations to do their bidding.  Thom Hartman and others have stressed that all of the provisions of the TPP are not for “free” trade at all but to advance the cause and financial interests of these trans nationals.  It is pointed out that the US still won’t be able to sell to many countries covered because most every other nation has a value added tax or VAT.  This is a tax that is levied at every stage along the production process every time “value” is added to any product or raw material.  If this figure if fifteen percent- this is a VAT or value added tax added for goods going, for instance, from the USA to Mexico.  But if Mexico sells a product here there is no VAT so American citizens end up paying fifteen percent less than they would in their home country in Mexico.  This is a double edged tariff and anti-tariff at the same time.    It’s said that Reinz Pervis will never allow Trump to be nominated by his Republican party because Trump doesn’t buy into this trans-national bit.  It has been my belief that we should all be economic nationalists, doing what’s in the interest of America.

  Wesley Clark in late 2007 said it was our secret policy after 9 – 11 to take out five regeme Mideast countries in seven years, or seven regemes in five years, or something.  And Wolfiwitz and Scudder Libby were around in 1991 during Gulf War I and Clark talked to them then too.   Michael Moore needs to start putting out movies again.  He was on such a roll for a while under the Bush administration with critiques on Bush and Health Care and Bowling for Colembine or what have you, but the past five years Michael More hasn’t done a thing.  It can’t be for any lack of new revelations because we have gotten plenty of those.

Here's your soap news.   Jack Junior is the one who has made a lot of mistakes when it comes to Clyde Weston and now he’s about to be killed barring a miracle.  Meanwhile Chad has some plan himself to “entrap” Clyde.  Ben is paranoid because Abigail turned down Clyde’s (repeated) requests to help pay for the wedding.  Meanwhile I don’t know if “Colic” is an actual disease of what but little Tate, Teresa and Brady’s son has it.

Yesterday Jerry Brown signed the latest right to die bill, or physician assisted suicide.  I think it’s a dark day for the dignity of man.  California joins four other states- - Vermont, Montana, Oregon, and Washington state.  Governor Brown didn’t like the “tricky procedure” the “special session” used to pass this death bill.  Despite the Governor's protests he signed the bill yesterday.   Life is suddenly cheaper than it was yesterday.  It's even easier now to get these DNR or "do not recessitate" notices on patients, where if you go in for a hang nail you're likely to end up dead if you're not careful.  The California plan was modeled after Oregon's law.

I had a strange dream last night involving going to the liquor store to the east intending to buy two Mickey’s beers.  It was just after ten and I knew Stater Brothers would no longer be open and I needed something.  Suddenly I was on Lincoln headed twords Rio Vista and crossed a bunch of railroad tracks instead of the 57 Freeway.  There was a store there but it was at the SE corner of this mini mall.  And there was a long check out line.  And I guess I finally got through it, but (here is where it gets really strange) there was a hall leading to the exit of the store and it said Lincoln toll tunnel (under the railroad tracks) $1.50 and I wasn’t sure I had that remaining with me.  “Why would they put in a west bound tunnel and not an east bound tunnel?  So I got in some complaint line but somehow glass windows descended around me so I was tapping on the pane wanting to be heard.  Finally a police officer got my attention and he raised the window (somehow) and he just said to me “You look like a guy who needs a cop” and I told him of my complaint about the toll and he just left and said “Good luck”.  And I was left muttering to myself as by now I had found a dollar and a half in change- - and the guy said “It’s after eleven.  The complaint window is closing”.

“I think the American people should be extremely concerned about their personal rights and privacy. As I was being searched at the airport, there was a Latino couple to my left, and an Asian couple to my right also being aggressively searched. I briefly had to remind myself that this was not North Korea or Nazi Germany. This is the land of the Free.

– Anthony Silva, Mayor of Stockton, California

Just in case you’re still under the infantile illusion that you reside in a free country.

From ArsTechnica:

Stockton, California Mayor Anthony R. Silva attended a recent mayor’s conference in China, but his return trip took a bit longer than usual. At the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) this week, agents with the Department of Homeland Security detained Silva and confiscated his personal cell phone among other electronics. According to comments from the mayor, that may not even be the most alarming part.

“Unfortunately, they were not willing or able to produce a search warrant or any court documents suggesting they had a legal right to take my property,” Silva told SFGate. “In addition, they were persistent about requiring my passwords for all devices.”

The mayor’s attorney, Mark Reichel, told SFGate that Silva was not allowed to leave the airport without forfeiting his passwords. Reichel was not present for Silva’s interaction with the DHS agents, either. The mayor was told he had “no right for a lawyer to be present” and that being a US citizen did not “entitle me to rights that I probably thought,” according to the paper.

Evidently, Silva was well aware of the situation and only had his concerns heightened by first-hand experience. Talking to SFGate, he briefly compared the government battle on privacy to notorious dictatorships worldwide.

“I think the American people should be extremely concerned about their personal rights and privacy,” Silva told the paper. “As I was being searched at the airport, there was a Latino couple to my left, and an Asian couple to my right also being aggressively searched. I briefly had to remind myself that this was not North Korea or Nazi Germany. This is the land of the Free.”

This is not what freedom looks like.

Stop The Next War Before It Starts

FIRST THESE BRIEF ITEMS:  This is Saturday October 3, 2015 and the twenty year anniversary of the OJ verdict, we are told.  Days of our Lives is broadcasting what they’re going to do.  Ben is the killer of Page and Serena with Chad’s neckties.  Will Horton investigates this issue and is suspicious of Ben and they say that Will gets killed.  It was harder to find Friday’s episode and once I found it I only watched two short segments and the commercials were so horrific I gave it up.  Page was graduating from College and her father and mother were congratulating her.  Right now I have Chris Matthews on and they played a lot of the presidential responses to these mass shootings dating back to 2009.  Before this I listened to a thing on new water regulations by the Obama administration where one land owner in Wyoming could not even put in a pond on his property to attract water birds.  The long reach of the government will finger you if you do.

Now for the important item.  It’s Janet’s birthday on Tuesday and she gave me two pieces of chocolate.  An hour ago Augustine climbed the ladder to pick a bunch of really big guavas (?) that were high up.  Bill has been out of the room today.  In cosmic news the group “Journey” is an Aries M group and not Arktures.  This little “notification” came this morning.  I haven’t talked much about cosmic stuff at all and am not really in the mood to do it now.  We’ve told you in the past about level one, two, and three “control”.   Cosmic groups exist on the planet we say- - but just because “the group” has that cosmic origen doesn’t mean, for instance, the lead singer is from there.

Let’s talk about today’s episode of “Rapsody in Black”.  Today they did October of 1953, which is the oldest date I’m aware of so far.  There were only three songs I was definitely familiar with, “Drunk!”, “Hole in the Wall” and “Money, Honey” by Clyde Mc Phatter.  And the first two songs were from Dr Demento and not KRTH.  There were a few surprises.  I heard what might be the original of “Crying in the Chapel” and there was another song with a religious theme called “Life is like a ball game- - but you’ve got to play it fair”.   Jesus is at home plate as catcher.  Temptation is at first, sin is at second, and tribulation is on third.  There was a song by Shirley and Lee and another one by the Spaniels.  There was a Joe Turner song I think I’ve heard before but am not sure called “Stop all that yakkedy yack”.   There was a Muddy Waters song and one about “Me and the clock on the wall” by Johnny Ace.

Donald Trump has suggested that we not get involved in Syria but rather let ISIS and Assad duke it out so that both sides are exhausted in the fighting the way that Russia was a useful vehicle in WW II to "tire the Germans out" and make our own progress on the western front easier than it would otherwise be.  Because if beating either Assad alone was a challenge the Republican congress didn't want to rise two in 2013, it will be all the harder now with taking on and defeating both ISIS and Assad.  Only the most hopped up optimist would dare suggest such a thing.   How interesting it is that "collateral damage" gets transformed into "innocent civilians" overnight, once it's Russia who is dropping the bombs and not us.  As you know the Orion Federation under current leadership endorses the Russian move to prop up Assad.  And it was a year or so ago when we "prophecied" that "If the US ventures into Syrian territory only bad things will happen".  This is one Oracle I'd heed. 

One has to wonder whether Moscow planners intend, as one of the effects of their current anti-terrorist (using US parlance) operations in Syria, to highlight US hypocrisy.  Intentional or not, this aspect of the Russian campaign has been stunning.

As soon as Russia began doing in Syria the same thing the US claims to be doing, Syrian victims magically switched from “collateral damage” to “civilians”, and suddenly bombing, as long as it is Russia doing it, “will only fuel more extremism and radicalization”, according to the White House, which has increasedterrorism in the Mid-East approximately “by a factor of seven”, according to experts, since illegally invading Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.  (Iraq, reeling from the US invasion, saw almost four thousand people killed in September.)

At the same time as the US accuses Russia of “attacks on Syrian…civilians”, US-backed death squads in Yemen (led by US-coordinated/supplied Saudi Arabia while the US also bombs directly) carried out a massacre at a wedding, executing over 130 people and making Kill Bill look like an episode of My Fair Wedding.   (The US itself also directly attacks weddings regularly.)

The US then blocked a UN bid for an independent investigation into the massacre, and said Saudi Arabia can investigate itself.

At the same time, the US, in classic racist/supremacist fashion, refuses to apologize to a Yemeni man whose entire family the US massacred, rejecting “Faisal bin Ali Jaber’s offer to drop his federal lawsuit in exchange for [the same] condolences Obama has given to western victims of [the same] 2012 strike”.  (Even this reporter has to say “wow…” to that one.)

Also simultaneously (or, to be precise, “one day after” pointing entrail-draped fingers as Russia), the US spent hours bombing the only hospital in Afghanistan, which is well-known to all sides and for which the US/NATO had exact coordinates.

Greenwald mentions that the US has long been hostile towards the Doctors Without Borders staff at this hospital for treating both patients who collaborate with and resist the US empire, so, while DWB frantically called Washington and NATO, telling them to stop detonating bombs in the building, the US continued its detonations for about an hour, murdering 9 DWB staffers and 7 other people in the hospital.

Gallup’s finding last month that distrust in US corporate media has hit a new high of 60%, particularly among ages 18 to 45, might suggest that people are catching on to the ridiculousness of getting “news” exclusively from giant, shady organizations run by oligarchs with massive conflicts of interest related to international markets and private capital and with intimate connections and a revolving door to US government positions controlling an unprecedented global military empire.

However, Gallup found last year that almost half of respondents (47%) believe corporate media is too “liberal”, reminding us that much of the grievance with corporate “news” is motivated by a belief that it is not nationalistic/US-supremacist enough.

But for the 53% who did not say their issue with corporate “news” is that it is too “liberal”, it is hard to imagine that current US actions, as particularly exposed by Russia’s new moves in Syria and Washington’s reaction to them, are not creating a little cognitive dissonance – mental discomfort/inconsistency – in at least a couple more of these US-Americans.

And as Frederick Douglass put it, for an enslaved (or in this case, obedient) person to be fully subservient and “contented”, he or she must “be able to detect no inconsistencies in slavery”, and must be convinced of “its absolute rightfulness”.  For even “one crevice through which a single drop can fall, …will certainly rust off the slave’s chain.”

While nationalism is, as Orwell would point out, certainly harder to crack than slavery, if Douglass’s statement is applicable in any way, and if more people, even a few at a time, are able to catch onto the US government/corporate ruse, the question then becomes, “When?”

But to end on a somber note, Andre Vltchek, on a recent trip to the US, found that the number of people wise to the game is “too tiny to stop the crimes that the Empire is committing”, a stark reminder for concerned parties to keep hammering away, trying new tactics, and forging new alliances.

Romulan Virtues for a World Thirsty for Virtue

First today's breaking story.  There was another mass shooting and this one is in Roseburg Oregon at a community college.  Ten students are dead and twenty people are injured.  FOX news reports that before he shot each person he asked them if they were Christians.  Now the shooter is dead.  But I haven’t heard any more details than that despite the fact Norman Goldman talked about it for an hour.  Sean Hannity made a brief reference to it.

Juaquin is a category four hurricane headed up the east coast.  Other than drenching people with rain they aren’t sure when or if it will make landfall along the Carolinas or wherever.  Meanwhile we have continued markedly above normal for weeks.  The other day it was 89 degrees and the normal high this time of year is 81.  The cool down will start this weekend if not Monday.

Alaskan oil production is only about a quarter of what it was in the late eighties, which I was very surprised by.  These lower oil prices have killed the economy there.  This would seem to refute claims of Sean Hannity that all you have to do is either go to a high oil producing area such as North Dakota or Alaska and get a good paying starter job for $75.000 a year and be "set for life in a good carrier.  These days many Alaskan oil fields are being referred to as "mature", which is a damning adjitive for both an oil field and for women. 

Russia started bombing jihadi bases in Syria today.  Clearly Vladimir Putin and President Obama view this situation radically differently.  Russia sees their mission as to "restore the status quo" and quelch ISIS.  The US has other ideas - - but I'm not entirely sure what they are.  Here's more.

Given that the the U.S. and its allies are largely responsible for creating ISIS, and that U.S., Turkey and Israel have all been acting as ISIS’ air force – they are not taking too kindly to Russia’s actions.

This Wall Street Journal headline sums up the absurdity of the situation:  “Russian Airstrike in Syria Targeted CIA-Backed Rebels, U.S. Officials Say.”

We noted years ago that a proxy war is raging in Syria … but things are getting even more over-heated.

Political risk expert Ian Bremmer sums up the situation:

Russian forces will be striking Assad enemies, some of whom are directly supported by the US and its allies. That’s not a proxy war. It’s one step closer.  Actually it could be the opening Chapter of the next World War.

What could possibly go wrong?

There is a tie in between "virtue" and "masculinity" or energy in the sense of when the Bible reports "Jesus felt that virtue had gone forth from him after the woman touched the hem of his garment.   In the Romulan the words green and truth and morality are from the same root word.  Please allow me to play the cosmic card here.  "Vertical" is something all men strive for but it gets tougher to achieve with age.  Like the Romulans - - serving your country and dying for an altruistic goal is a superior sought trait rather than just "body building" and individual achievement.  American Society today certainly lacks "Virtue".  We too retreat to "myths of the past" which no longer suit today's realities, but are too much the moral cowards to face this about ourselves.

I’ve previously covered two other key characteristics of an empire in terminal decline: complacency and intellectual sclerosis, what I have termed a failure of imagination.

Michael Grant described these causes of decline in his excellent account The Fall of the Roman Empire, a short book I have been recommending since 2009:

There was no room at all, in these ways of thinking, for the novel, apocalyptic situation which had now arisen, a situation which needed solutions as radical as itself. (The Status Quo) attitude is a complacent acceptance of things as they are, without a single new idea.

This acceptance was accompanied by greatly excessive optimism about the present and future. Even when the end was only sixty years away, and the Empire was already crumbling fast, Rutilius continued to address the spirit of Rome with the same supreme assurance.

This blind adherence to the ideas of the past ranks high among the principal causes of the downfall of Rome. If you were sufficiently lulled by these traditional fictions, there was no call to take any practical first-aid measures at all.

A lengthier book by Adrian Goldsworthy How Rome Fell: Death of a Superpower addresses the same issues from a slightly different perspective.

Glenn Stehle, commenting on 9/16/15 on a thread in the excellent website peakoilbarrel.com (operated by the estimable Ron Patterson) made a number of excellent points that I am taking the liberty of excerpting: (with thanks to correspondent Paul S.)

The set of values developed by the early Romans called mos maiorum, Peter Turchin explains in War and Peace and War: The Rise and Fall of Empires, was gradually replaced by one of personal greed and pursuit of self-interest.

“Probably the most important value was virtus (virtue), which derived from the word vir (man) and embodied all the qualities of a true man as a member of society,” explains Turchin.

“Virtus included the ability to distinguish between good and evil and to act in ways that promoted good, and especially the common good. Unlike Greeks, Romans did not stress individual prowess, as exhibited by Homeric heroes or Olympic champions. The ideal of hero was one whose courage, wisdom, and self-sacrifice saved his country in time of peril,” Turchin adds.

And as Turchin goes on to explain:

“Unlike the selfish elites of the later periods, the aristocracy of the early Republic did not spare its blood or treasure in the service of the common interest. When 50,000 Romans, a staggering one fifth of Rome’s total manpower, perished in the battle of Cannae, as mentioned previously, the senate lost almost one third of its membership. This suggests that the senatorial aristocracy was more likely to be killed in wars than the average citizen….

The wealthy classes were also the first to volunteer extra taxes when they were needed… A graduated scale was used in which the senators paid the most, followed by the knights, and then other citizens. In addition, officers and centurions (but not common soldiers!) served without pay, saving the state 20 percent of the legion’s payroll….

The richest 1 percent of the Romans during the early Republic was only 10 to 20 times as wealthy as an average Roman citizen.”

Now compare that to the situation in Late Antiquity when

“an average Roman noble of senatorial class had property valued in the neighborhood of 20,000 Roman pounds of gold. There was no “middle class” comparable to the small landholders of the third century B.C.; the huge majority of the population was made up of landless peasants working land that belonged to nobles. These peasants had hardly any property at all, but if we estimate it (very generously) at one tenth of a pound of gold, the wealth differential would be 200,000! Inequality grew both as a result of the rich getting richer (late imperial senators were 100 times wealthier than their Republican predecessors) and those of the middling wealth becoming poor.”

Majority Leader Mc Carthy Admits Bengazi Committee Is A Farse

Bill Clinton has personally come to his wife’s defense about the E mails.  There is a provision of congressional law which indicates that Bengazi can’t be a political stunt just to get to Hillary is pretty blatant and they bragged after they did it.  Now they are more blatant than I have ever seen about denying Black people the vote in Alabama.  They’re closing down all DMV places in the eight counties that are more than 75% Black so that Black people can’t register to vote.  Of course what they did in Pennsylvania to reduce Black voting in 2012 was pretty blatant and they bragged after they did it, “Well this will insure that Pennsylvania goes for Romney this year”.  I hope the liberals are right and congress entirely flips democratic this next year.  Because Kevin Mc Carthy is pretty bad in being so blatant that the Bengazi hearings were for the very purpose of driving Hillary’s poll numbers down.  You know they are obsessed with Hillary’s high poll numbers and they are desperately trying to deny reality.  Even Dr Levy was saying that Hillary was going to be indicted any day now and “They are finding new crimes all the time”.  The pure and simple truth here is that they know Hillary is the party nominee that no matter who the Republicans pick they will lose the election- with varying degrees of severity.  But not only are all eight Bengazi comittees a violation of congressional law, it's actually a prosecutable offense, involving the corrupting of governmental processes.

The Pope met with Kim Davis, and the driver had some radio program that sounded like a Catholic station.  The driver says he’s quitting in just over two weeks.  Bill said they  are going to do a biopsy on whatever skin problem Bill has.  Donnie unexpectedly didn’t come to work today so Sarah will be doing the medication, perhaps at seven according to Joe.  ABC network news is on right now.  That Christian woman who did a murder for hire - - was executed last night.  The Pope personally pleded for mercy for her and the state of Georgia said “No”.  Now we have “the deadly roar of deadly air power” in Syria.  The battle is on, and the Russians bombed non ISIS areas and the United States is rightly upset about that.   Russia gave the US a one hour warning- - and so many nations are in that area it just invites trouble. 

(from yesterday's personal notes)  I was freshly out of cigarettes and got butts from John.  I came in here and turned the soap opera on a little.  The guy came in and called for both Bill and me.  Bill and another guy had to go to a dermatologist.  This place was on Euclid north of La Palma.  I asked after they’d left whether it had anything to do with scabees and the guy said it did.  I certainly hope Bill doesn’t have scabees.  The driver didn’t want to drive back and forth since the locations were rather far apart.  So he stayed with me while I was at the dentist.  That is my gain.  Dr Bui wasn’t there today and I got another guy.  I said I wanted the four (?) cavities done first.  I had thought it was only two, but they were all in the upper front.  So it was important how all four looked.  The guy worked till about three on them, and for cavities that seems long since it was all chair time and not waiting.  But there is a new bump in my left central incisor.  Our return rout was an exact retracing of the rout we took there.  I really had to take a piss and I felt my bladder would burst before we got home.  Also my lip was really numb.  In fact it felt like I didn’t have a lip when I tried to smoke a cigarette.  The lip was actually number than the teeth themselves.  I then proceeded to put the clothes away.  Everything was there.  We had a macaroni and beef casserole and garlic bread.  We had a fairly rich soup with kidney beans included in it.  We had cantaloupe for dessert.  Bill gave me a pack with two cigarettes in it.  

  People associate "having a soul" with consciousness or "sensient" awareness.  But on Star Trek this human quality is imputed to inaminate machines.  There was this Sherlock Holmes program where Holmes began asking "broader questions" than he was programmed to ask just to solve the case at hand on the holideck, where the Star Trek crew goes for recreational entertainment.  They were questions like "Who am I  really" and 'Why was I put here?  Who made me?  What is my purpose".  And yet at the end of the episode the who guy's life was refused to this crystal polygon paper weight on Jordi's desk.  All of the experiances that Holmes would ever have were contained in this "paper weight".   There was another episode where Commander Data said "I fought for the liberation of non biological life forms who have no advocate of their own" and Piccard says something like "That's the most human thing I've ever seen you do".  Then there is the episode of the exocomps, which similarly they were debated as "are these creatures sensient?"  Of course this is where a belief in God comes in handy.  Because otherwise how are you going to tell whether or not you are the only person who's really sensient with conscious awareness.  All of these other people in your life might be just things- - like baubles hanging over the crib of a two month old infant to entertain him.  How do you know anybody else besides yourself even has a soul?  This is what you might call the Ayan Rand argument is "You can't prove that I exist".  Chuck Smith used to speak of "graduating from the animal plane to God awareness".  This is an analogy I've never liked because sometimes I think animals have more of an inherent awareness of God than humans do.   But by this a pastor is saying "When do humans start asking themselves the same sort of questions that Sherlock Holms asked that "he wasn't programmed to ask" such as "Who am I?" and "Where am I?" and "How did I get here?"   Thom Hartman says that Republicans are sociopaths because they never for a moment think of anyone but themselves.  They are utterly lacking in any sort of empathy either for their fellow man, or nature.  The Pope regards issues such as pollution and Global Warming as moral and not political issues, as Governor Christie claims they are.  Even Rick Perry in the 2012 debates made a statement I agree with.  He said "As a pastor I expect him to lay out the facts for me about certain realities and I"ll vote accordingly".   So maybe we're no closer to "proving there is an afterlife" than we were- - but you have to admit that a logical question to ask yourself if- - first you die- - And Then What?  Because to the extent it lies within your control, I think we are all looking for something better in the next life than we're having in this life.  (Selah)