Supreme Court Poised to Deny Minority Voting Rights

The Supreme Court has agreed to “review” the Voting Rights act that Lyndon Johnson signed in 1965 to see if it’s “constitutional”.  That’s kind of like re-inventing the wheel but given the retrogression of many High Court rulings you just don’t know how or when they’ll roll the clock back forty-eight years.    Justice Scelia has now biased himself by saying that the Voting Rights Law of 1965 is somehow ‘not legitimate”, and promotes “racial quotas” or some sort of racial “stirring of the pot”, which Scelia regards as not necessary.  It would seem that in Justice Scelia’s world, the 14^th amendment has an expiration date.  Alabama is the one bringing the challenge to the Voting Rights law.  The thing is that if this were an ordinary court trial case- - any juror who made a biased statement ahead of time like Scelia has done- - would be kicked off the case and a mistrial would be declaired.  But this Supreme Court works under different rules than any other example of Jurisprudence.  Mike Papentonio is “not optimistic” as to the outcome of this case.  Unfortunately the President himself isn’t that concerned and says “Well if the case fails, then congress will fix it”.  THIS congress???  Is he kidding?   Mike points out that Lyndon Johnson has more balls in his little finger than President Obama has in his whole body as far as going to the mat to press an issue of principle is concerned.  Some would say that Obama can’t twist arms “because he’s Black”.  That’s right up there with Maurie Head’s remark in J C Superstar who sang, “Listen Jesus do you care for your Race?  Don’t you see that we must keep in our place?  We are occupied - - have you forgotten how put down we are” Papentonio says that is this provision – section five or whatever – is striken from the Voting Rights act- - the act will be toothless and unenforceable- - which was of course the point in bringing the case to begin with.  Scelia own father was a Fasciest - - and I mean a real Fasciest- - as in Musselini.  “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. 

As you know Mississippi just ratified the thirteenth amendment of the Constitution.  The one abolishing Slavery.  So I guess they have “progressed” enough in that state where they can accept that proposition now.  That one even has school kids coming home and asking their parents “What’s up with that?”  But apparently the first significant for the mayor of a Mississippi city- - who was both gay and African-America, was found dead the other day.  So we really have to ask how far they have progressed.

People love to quote the phrase "Give me liberty or give me death" but clearly today's right wingers want "liberty" for themselves a whole lot more than they want it for others among us, such as the many minorities.  Liberal is not a bad word.  Liberal after all comes from "liberty" and also "Freedom" or "Freely".  If you give "liberally" you give Freely- - meaning without restraint or sense of some impending shortage.  George Washington said that he always wanted America to be in the forefront of Liberality.  And indeed the original founding fathers if you were to ask them about people being equal would that mean they get to Vote, they would say, "of course".  After all the whole idea about "no taxation without representation" means that you are entitled to The Vote.  And yet - - due to jerrymandering of districts people are denied the Vote.  Because there comes a time when if consistently the vote of the people is NOT represented in Congressional representation- - then I think the whole "one man one vote" case needs to be expanded upon - and made applicable for our times.  Liberal in no sense of the world means "socialist' or "communist" or that other gem 'Islamo-fasciest" or whatever else the tea party claims for it to mean.  Liberal means Free.  Roosevelt said a "necessitus man" or a man without the essentials of life- - is not Free.  I'm not saying I'll go that far personally, but I will say it's at least a concept worth thinking about.  If the Free Markets were really ther- - ie. Free- - you would not see all the economic crap that has gone on in this country the past thirty years like subsedizing the oil companies and rigging the patent laws to screw over the poor, both on energy and in the drug markets.  You would not have this corporate Walfare state.  Also in a "Free" market- - big banks would be Free - - to fail, and suffer the consequences just like any other venture capitalist.

David Cruise didn’t like the way that Plice Chief Charlie Beck answered the question about hiking the Los Angeles sales tax to nine & a quarter percent, making it just higher than New York.  Cruise maintains the City Council is corrupt and gives extra money to the Harbor and Airport Districts, who in turn stash it in slush funds.  Beck struck me as a guy genuinely open about improving the Police Department in any way he can.   LA County sheriff Lee Baca won the “best sheriff in the country” aware by the ‘National Sheriff’s association” which Cruise vaguely implied was a politically right leaning organization made up of “good old boys”.  Apparently there is a scandal going on right now about mistreatment of convicts in the Prison system, which now is being investigated.   The election will be here before you know it being just six days away.   Apparently six other officers want Police Chief Charlie Beck to reinvestigate their wrongful termination claims, too.  Six immediate ones.  Also Pope Benedict XVI gave his final address to the people at Vatican square.  Thursday night was the last night he spent in his Papal apartment with that light shining from the upstairs window.  He said that he prayed about his decision to step down.  I just hope he got an answer from God – and I mean a specific divine directive.

I think we're going talk about -   that relation I referred to in a recent posting I was afraid of "becoming jinxed".  Well it got jinxed.  The "door of opportunity slammed shut".  Christians are people that blow hot one minute and cold the next.  And the more ardently they insist they are a good guy- - and that what they say is true- - the more assured you can be that they are lying.   I would hope and pray that the Catholic Church has better morals and a "sense of human respectability" than your average Calvary Christian.  Like I say the fruit of Calvary Christianity - - is the sort of stuff the tea party has done.  Because there for all to see is an example of the shallowness - or non existance- of their human character.   I don't believe in "blowing smoke out my ass" saying something to look good in that instant.  I hate hypocrites.  I hate people who inwardly are the worse of cowards, morally and other wise.  I can't respect an individual who doesn't follow the rules or normal human civility.  There are so much in the words of Jesus alone- - to rebuke the attitudes and actions of these people- - but if course if you quote the Bible it doesn't count because "The devil quotes scripture".  What they mean is the Devil did it ONCE in recorded history.  It's not exactly his modas opperandi.   It's just anothe cheap tea party trait of character assasenation - - and muddying the waters.

Here Come the Black Friday Horrors

Today I got my little taste of Black Friday when a friend of mine took me first to the bank, so I could make a deposit to prevent a check from bouncing- - -and the bank was busier than I'd seen it in a long time, and then to Wall Mart for coffee and you had to hunt to even find a parking spot.  It was much more crowded inside and notable was the large number of small children in there.  I got my coffee, which had not gone up in price.  Those of you who are reading this blog on your I Pads while in traffic or whatever trying to get home, you have my condolences.  I have had a harrowing day I may go into later.  But of course you know stores used to garner sales advantage by opening up at Six AM, and then it was moved to Four AM, and from there to Midnight.  While Midnight is OK for many stores, there is a trend to start black Friday sales at Eight PM on Thanksgiving ruining family gatherings by having one of the members have to rush off for work.  Of course this is not at all volentary, and they say they will fire you if you miss this one day.  At least Ebonezer Scrooge felt compelled to grand Bob Crachet "the whole Day off" on Christmas.  Today we have gone beyond that.  I've had one brother who for years now has "had to work on Thanksgiving" and we have all had to alter our plans to accomodate him.  Of course now Wall Mart has these starvation wages of fifteen thousand dollars a year, which won't support one person for a year, let along a whole family.  These people are denied full time status but fall just short of it, because it keeps the corporation from having to conform to certain standards.  The Wall Mart employees are unhappy.  And then you have Hostess where the media blames the Union for sinking the company driving it into bankrupsey, when in reality it is greedy management along the lines of Bane Capital where the rich fat cats give themselves raises while abusing and short changing their workers.  It totally sucks, and if Mitt Romney had become President we would see a lot more of it.  It turns out that President Obama got 51 percent of the popular vote, and that 47 percent Romney dreaded, is what HE got in the way of the popular vote.  Hence the President's margin of victory has grown from two percent to four on final tallying.  Alan West finally conceded in his Florida House race yesterday, when a recount of St. Lucia county or whatever- show that West lost by even more votes than we thought.  Meanwhile Nicole Sandler (who was pushing for the recount they eventually did) states that the 29 year old victor, in fact is a "blue dog" democrat, and his vote won't be that reliable, anyhow.

In other news Elmo of Seseme Street got accused of two sexual molestation charges of a sixteen year old and a fifteen year old teenage boy.  How do you explain to our children that he is "just the voice of Elmo" and not really Elmo in "real life"?  I guess it goes to show people who work on kid's shows have certain natural "proclivities".  They say that people who adopt children sometimes do so for the purpose of molesting them.  I hope they have adequate psychological screening tests for that.  Meanwhile in Santa Monica the grinch who stole Christmas reigns supreme as a Judge ruled that a Nativity Scene would not be erected as it has been for the past sixty years.  People who have little "faith" may still have emotional attachments to such nativity scenes as a pleasent part of their childhoods.  I am one of theese.  My rule is that s symbol or inanimate object cannot "Indoctrinate" you.  I would argue that the "freedom FROM religion amendment- - guarentees freedom from government propaganda and indoctrination (hence oppression) but does not prohibit the "free exercise" of a cultural tradition.  To me the distinction is like night and day.  Money is an object with me now and Dr. Messina just asked me to participate in some "drug research program" because he thought I was a "good candidate to have my scitzophrenic symptums observed and scrutenized by others.  And they would try out various drugs on me that haven't been approved by the FDA.  When informed I'd be paid $75.00 a visit for my troubles I asked "What's in it for them".  And Dr. Messina just said "Oh these pharmasutical companies always do stuff like this.  It's how they get business".  I've watched enough Homer Simpson episodes to know that certain things just aren't worth it - no matter how much you get paid.

They have announced a peace in the mideast as a Cease Fire accord has been agreed upon by both sides brokered by Hillary Clinton in what may be one of her final acts in office.  It is pointed out that Arab getting along with Jew is not news and they co exist wonderfully all the time in the Holy Land, as even Lacude types like Dr. Levy point out when he travels there.  He said his wife might not go on vacation with him if the violence kept up.  So the Peace is good news for marital harmony.  But the thing is that Islam and Judaism and Christianity are all austensively religions of Peace and not war, and unless you're a Neil Savedra type out there - - Peace is by far the preferred, ideal state that is to be striven after.  Fine.  But of course there are extremes of all three religions on their own political right where five factors are held in common by all three.  One is religious exclusivity- - believing God has chosen Them and only Them and everybody else can - -and Does go to Hell.  Dr. Levy has come out against such exclusivity.  He much prefers the "Whatever works for you" notion.  But the next tennant of these three are Violence to solve their problems rather than discussion and negotiation.  People like Gingrich and Romney believe that since Islam is the devil incarnate and out to kill you at the slightest pretence, you can't trust them as far as you can throw a bowling ball.  The third tennant is Homophobia.  You know all about that.  The fourth tennant is their oppressive view of Women.  And the fifth is like unto it.  There is a general hang-up on Sexual Things- - and if these things involve a woman's sexual hygene or health- - the hang-up only intensifies.  I guess it was George Burnes as God who said 'Shame is a horrible thing.  I don't know why I created it".  (Selah)   So the lesson we can take away from this paragraph is Vox Populai - - or the common people know best- - and not those who would be their overlords.  (Selah)  I think there is an evolutionary push forward.  It may be slow but it is inexerable and will not be halted but in the end will eventually win out.  In this we should hope.

.  Before we get into our "final movement" - we have the following song and dance for you from yesterday.  The reading if worth your while or I wouldn't have it here.  I went for coffee in the courtyard and got two cups and again we had bread pudding from Dora.  I had a little “Live and local” on.  Earlier the radio had been off.  We had sloppy Joes for lunch and French fries and catsup, and the coffee at lunch was better.  We had fruit.  We had seconds on sloppy Joes.  I had Randy Rhodes on at noon and watched the soap opera at one.  Marlena may have been cleverly out-manuvered by Christine on the soap opera if she did indeed hire those muggers.  That is suspicious because it was am amazing stroke of coincidence that first a bright woman like Christine would put herself at risk by being mugged in a secluded place, and that Brady would just “happen” to see it, and this mugger would just “happen” to come with a back up with a baseball bat.  Also there was something about the first mugger’s verbalization that sounded suspicious that a real mugger wouldn’t bother with.  Real thieves prize the element of stealth and time, and making a fast escape.  This guy would have flunked mugging 101.  The big with John’s phone didn’t help Marlena’s case any- - - but if I were she I wouldn’t want to be crucified on the basis of a minor “strategic mis-step”, if you know what I mean.  Why can’t John accept that certain offenses are so grevious that to compel forgiveness is to only imperil the relationship with said person, and if that happens to be your wife, that isn’t a good thing, particularly if Christine had her way you wouldn’t have your marriage, in fact you would not even be alive.  Raphael was told about Gabriel’s being pregnant and Samantha made a good job of selling her case.  I agree with everything Samantha said, but I could have not laid it out as well as she did.  They took out the green picnic bench down stairs and I’m wondering why.

Christians are forever touting some "True Blue Faith" or "Original Church" or "Original Gospell" that was never there to begin with.  Yet in Acts they throw a sop to this form is naustalgic idealism in saying that in olden times they held "Love Feasts" and "The believers held all property in common" and loved each other and met each other's need without reservation.  In the book of Revelation is even says that God would remove any church "whose love has gone cold".  That's indicative of the seriousness by which God takes this idea of "Love one another, as I have loved you".  (Selah)  But in contrast to this "True Faith" the heriticks are generally regarded as "Gnostic Sects".  Interestingly one of the earliest herecies is that "Christ never physically existed.  It was all just a projection or a revelation to the faithful" or something- - and since Christ has no substance he could not truely bear our pain or ever hope to truely become as we are.  (Selah)  When this writer refers to Gnosticism - - the reference is most always to Marcionism- - which is an offshoot of Pythagarean Gnosticism.  We have told you in dept what they believe - in the past and how the central focus of their faith is "The One".  (Selah)   But there is another form of Gnosticism that most readers think of when they see the word, and that is Valentinian Gnosticism.  This is very different.  It's kind of an elaborate Greek or at times almost Hindu sounding patheon of creation stories and images and personifications of emotions such as Sophia or wisdom, spoken of in the feminine gender.  There are four male creative forces and four female creative forces all done in this diagram.  Next is the worship of the number "Thirty" which is the sum of all numbers- - - up to eight- - but excluding six, the Satanic number because there "Is" no "sixth letter" in the Greek alphabet, or else one that they don't use.  As you know in our own Federation writings we refer to the Aries "Mu" s as the thirteenth brightest star in Aries, even though Mu is only the twelth Greek letter.  Capish?  Also Valentinus had a desciple named Marcus, who I don't take my blogger name after- - and he had his own group like unto Valentinius.  He brought in the idea of mystic power of letters, and even the letters used in the word NAMES for the letters- - as also giving their own attributes to the rout letter.  Also in Valentinism there is a three part baptism, which may have helped spawned the trinitarian formula used in all "orthodox' Christian baptisms.  The third branch of Gnosticism is the Knights Templer, but also inter-connects a lot of disperate elements.  For instance the worship of the skull of John the Baptist (Skull and Bones) and the Masons of Midevil Europe, and also an early Coptic myth about Christ, or Crestus, being alive and in Rome as late as fifty AD.  And perhaps the upside down "Satanic" cross symbolizes the "distress' symbol or a wrongful death by crucifiction.  This is because one of the varient Gospell of Judas, where Jesus "becomes" Judas, when he is scourged and crucified.  As you know there are three variant versions of how Crestus escaped Roman Justice.  One version says that though his troops lost the battle that Crestus escaped their hands and fled to Egypt.  In another version Crestus pleaded insanity before Pilate, and he let him go as "just a harmless mad man" and in the other version- - - somewhere between the taunting by the Roman troops, and the searious business of what they call the "Roman half-death" scourging- - Jesus became Judas, and it was Judas who died on the cross.  This is the version Stewart Sutcliffe alias "Bones" is an exponent of.  We now move on to number four in our Gnostic patheon, which is Sol Invictus and Mithraism.  This is the one that takes all of the ancient birth and resurrection myths as well as worship of Apollo as the "Unconquered Sun" with a "U" and Roman Legions were attracted to this particular faith and hence it was one form of Gnosticism that was legally sanctioned by the State as kosher for its citizens to practice.  The fifth in this panthion is Nazorean or Nazarite Christianity.  In its original form- - - there was a prohibition against inbibing alcohol and also of eating meat- - or of cutting your hair- - and a belief that "If a woman could become like a Man - - then she could be saved".  So the kicker here is maybe Jesus admired Mary Magdolane  because she "had the potential within her to become like a man",  which raises other questions like in 'Marryanne" by Alice Cooper.  And a prohibition of marriage or at least its discouragement- - - was a feature of this group.  Now Tatian was a desciple of Justin, the Martyr.  Tatian has his own "Gospell" which he called "Through four" or someone points out more accurately "Out of Four".  This would mean that Dianetics translates as "Out of the Mind' rather than "Through the Mind" as I had been told it did.  This Gospell contains some telling- - Omissions.  For instance the story of Jesus forgiving the Adulterous woman- - story is omitted.  One source argues that the line "Father forgive them, for they know not what they do" is not in the most ancient texts of Luke.  I could not trace this one down myself because the text became garbled after chapter 29.  But more telling is the fact that there WAS no Roman Cencus by Agustus Ceaser which means Joseph and Mary were not "homeless" and were not turned away because there was no room in the Inn.  Neither were their Animals present at the birth of Jesus, and no less than the Pope agrees with this himself.  Interestingly this form of Christianity took rout in Syria, and Tatian is called "Tatian the Assyrian" rather than identifying him as a Roman.  Like Justin, whom he admired- - Tatian was impressed with their uplifting moral living, but also like Justin, saw himself in the tradition of the Greek Philosopher.  So here are the five branches of Gnosticism.  We at the Federation would call this Centaurian Christianity because the Branch abides in the tree- - and not cutting your hair symbolizes a connection of us - - to the Tree.

Road To Gaza Peace Complicated by Egypt and Turkey

The Israeli-Hamas conflict is putting the Obama administration at odds with two of its most important partners in the Middle East, threatening to undermine other U.S. objectives in the region at a time of political upheaval.   On Monday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, which has frequently served as a moderate voice in the region, described Israel as a “terrorist state” and condemned the airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, which is run by the Islamist group Hamas. Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has warned Israel against a ground invasion and thrown his support behind Hamas’s leadership, sending his prime minister to Gaza.  The growing outcry has exposed the United States to criticism that it has not done enough to press Israel to agree to a cease-fire. The conflict has also created a wedge in relations with officials in Egypt and Turkey and highlighted the limits of U.S. influence in the aftermath of the revolutions that swept the region last year.  Neither the new Islamist government in Egypt nor the established one in Turkey has succeeded in persuading Hamas to cease firing rockets from Gaza into Israel. Jordan — like Egypt, a traditional lever of U.S. influence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — has similarly been unable or unwilling to persuade Hamas militants to stand down.  An Egyptian official on Monday expressed frustration with the role played so far by the United States, which has made no attempt to publicly urge Israel to rein in its airstrikes.  The United States has the most sway with Israel of any “country on Earth,” said the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing negotiations. “The Israelis would not listen easily to any other voice.”  The Obama administration has pleaded for all sides to “de-­escalate” but has criticized only Hamas. All high-level U.S. diplomacy has been conducted from afar, including phone calls Monday from Obama to Morsi and to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.   International diplomatic efforts for a cease-fire intensified in Cairo, but the United States did not expressly back any plan.  “We don’t practice diplomacy from the podium,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Monday. “We have been very clear that Israel has a right of self-defense. We’ve been very clear that rockets continue to be fired and land on Israel. We’ve been very clear that we are working to try to get this conflict de­-escalated. We have been very clear about our concern for the civilians and innocents on both sides who are getting caught in this.”  The administration, meanwhile, has tried to tread carefully with Egypt and Turkey. It is seeking to recalibrate relations with the former in the wake of the election of an Islamist leader, while relying on the latter as its main diplomatic bulwark against further deterioration of the situation in Syria.  U.S. officials have supported both countries as possible peacemakers in Gaza but abstained from criticism of their embrace of Hamas.

There are two food inspection stories floating about.  One involves sea food substitutions such as imitation crab for real brand- and a strange fish for tuna, which some people are allergic to, and they aren’t informed it isn’t tuna.  And it was crayfish instead of lobstar.  The other story involved Donald Trump’s restaurant.  It seems there were fifty one major health violations upon the most routine of inspections.  The Trumpster has not responded yet.   Stock prices were sharply up today as the D J I rose over two hundred points in a belief “that a fiscal cliff agreement will be reached”.   Christmas shopping business is generally up and small gift shops in Los Angeles are prospering as today’s customers seek those “out of the usual” gifts.  Of course in Pasadena, commerce would be much improved around town if the city council would approve a football team renting the stadium for “a period of up to five years”.  Pasadena had previously said they did not want a permanent team at the Rose Bowl.  But of course there are those little old ladies with hat pins showing up at the meeting saying that all of the new traffic noise would disturb their cats, or something.  But they would sure be helping Los Angeles out.

Just who plays in the Pac Ten NCAA championship game depends on how the Ducks and the Beavers do, and they were talking about this on KPOJ this morning.  In fact this conversation was more interesting than what Ed Schultz had on today.  But Stanford and UCLA and USC all have a role to play in this complicated outcome.  Meanwhile the exclusive domain of men has been conquered by a woman named “Christmas”.  She is a young attractive member of an auto racing pit crew.  The experts agree that she performs her duty within milliseconds of the best of the men.  Meanwhile young teenage boys are buffing out more ad some ninety percent say that they regularly work out now.  And sixteen percent have experimented with steroids.  We already told you about that new testosterone deodorant that you can buy over the counter now, apparently.  Meanwhile women are holding ‘shirt sniffing parties” because sniffing a man’s shirt is using what they believe is the truest way to find true love – using the sense of smell.

I went down to the med line and Judy locked the room up just before she got to me because of some emergency down the hall.  She said she would only be three minutes, and for once she was right.  She came back just after three minutes had passed.  I got a tuna sandwich, which should keep me from starving.  Then I went out to the west bench and looked all around and Andy, who was lying on a bench - - offered me a cigarette and I accepted.  This whole ten percent of your brain myth has been exploded.  I’ve been hearing since the ‘sixties that you don’t use ninety percent of your brain, but scientists have shown that’s not true.  You use ALL of your brain.  In fact if there are brain cells you DON”T use, the die.  Just think- the saying “Use it or lose it’ is accurate.  Also the allusion to right wingers being “brain dead’ is also accurate.  Of course Rush Limbaugh had admitted going out the gate he only uses half of his brain, which means that the other fifty percent of his brain has long since died.  I think the reason why I still feel the same about my “interveners” during my alcoholism is that my brain cells did NOT die, and I still bear the bad memories of all those jerks around me who were doing more harm than good by their actions tword me.  Of course Thom Hartman had his “demylanizsation” theory, in which case a woman who has just given birth to a child- - “usually” forgets how awful it was once she sees the baby.  But if I were a woman, I’m probably remember it all, and just how awful it was to go through- and vow it was something I’d never go through again.

Now there is a group called YELP that is kind of a “watch dog” pardon the pun, of other computer outfits that for a fee will give a company a glowing business review.  Of course this shouldn’t bother people as ethically impared as Mitt Romney or anyone on Wall Street.  But now they say that criminal investigations may be in order, and the more riff-raff we can get out of commerce, the better, in my opinion.  The news featured their annual bit about “the total cost of a Thanksgiving dinner, with all the trimmings” at various food markets.  They say they are mistreating their “butter ball turkeys” because they shove and bash them around.  What would the turkeys prefer- - a butler in a tuxedo escorting them to their cages?  In Monte Carlo you need a foreign passport to gamble, because the native citizens aren’t allowed to gamble.  What kind of poetic justice is that???  Bay leaves used to be chewed in olden times.  I knew cumin was used in chili powder.  That’s what made mom’s chili better than so many others.

Behind That Locked Door

It is said many people are prisoners of our own minds.  There is that Peter and Gorden song "Please Lock me Away, and don't allow the Day inside, where I sit with my loneliness".    You know, I thought these tea party people would slink away like a whipped dog with their tails between their legs.  Instead they one and all are acting as though they had won the election on the sixth, rather than having lost.  And personally I am not one bit happy about the narrowness of our margins.  But you have people like Senator Lindsey Graham today of South Carolina coming on the Meet the Press show, and in just a few minutes - makes more fantastic statements than you can shake a stick at.  First of all the Senator stated that Susan Rice has to lie to the American people because to tell the truth she then knew would "Destroy the narritive that the Obama has been working on for months that Al Qaeda was destroyed by the death of Bin Laden and other events where we got ahead of the game- like nabbing the Christmas underwear bomber.  Lindsey says that Obama directly leaked all sorts of classified information to make his administration appear more macho and brag about how many of the enemy is destroyed.  Of course the President particularly wanted to keep "The Truth" under wraps before the election.  This raises the question of "If that is the case- - how come the Obama administration came forth in mid October and told us the actual truth"?  Lindsey raised this other point that people in Libya have been asking for increased security for months now and repeatedly denied it.  But those on liberal talk radio point out that the Republican congress themselves- - defunded a lot of security measures that the administration wanted.  And as to who Susan Rice would say what she did, there IS the matter of classified information.  Now in a bout of inconsistency,  Lindsey Graham WANTS this administration to divulge classified information, even, apparently if it hurts the efforts to find out which terrorist group really did it.  

In terms of this whole fiscal cliff thing let me make what my position as President of the United States perfectly clear on the matter.  I would be perfectly happy is NOTHING were done, and the provisions agreed on in a Bi-Partisan agreement (that word they love to use) a year ago August- - if all those fall-back provisions go into effect that will be fine with me.  But since I am the President I'll be a nice guy.  I would tell the Republicans that almost ANY position is negotiable except for ONE.  And the key provision hell would freeze over before I'd ever bend on- - is letting the Bush tax cuts expire for those earning over $250.000 or that rarified top five percent of the income earners.  I'd never give on this issue.  After all as President I campaigned Twice on this issue making it a key point in my campaign speeches.  The American people have spoken and I have a mandate on this issue.  Besides in polls in excess of sixty percent of the American people agree with me on this issue.  The rich have to do their part to help America in this time of need.  As to the idea of increasing the Defense budget as the Republicans want to do - - I would argue that the military themseleves do not want these hikes- - and it's all to make a few fat cat military contractors rich.  We don't need that.  I would remind the people that Harry Truman was appointed to a special comittee during world war II dedicated to the proposition that "Nobody shall profit from this present distress we are in".  Other people have pointed out that Republican did not always mean big business.  Because big business LIKES big government because of all the goodies THEY get from government.  This is why I made that little joke about Mitt Romney musing "Zero percent tax rate.  I don't know.  That seems a little high".  Big business is used to better.  Many Republicans have come out and condemned Romney's remarks both before and after the election as far as the government's relation to the "under-side of society" so to speak.   If Karl Rove and Sheldon Addelson continue to press this issue- - they will render the Republicans on the losing end of a lot of subsequent elections.  (Selah)  And now here are a bunch of other remarks made Saturday.

 

Most of the material in this paragraph is about politics.  Right now it’s the University of Oregon verses Stanford are playing in Eugene, under sporadic rainy skies.  It became clear I would go nuts looking for a cigarette and so decided to “end the drought” by taking my last two silver dollars and spending them on a pack of cigarettes.  If saving that money was for a “rainy day” today it is.  I went to the liquor store and bought a pack of John Black grape.  Then I watched the entire Friday show of Chris Matthews and then straddling after dinner was Willy Brown and that lady talking about the real reasons why Romney lost.  There are three different explanations.  Either the votes were stolen being voter fraud like Judy says.  Romney says the votes were bought.  Paul Ryan says we just didn’t try enough in the Urban areas that turned out heavily.  Governor Christy and also Haley Barber of Mississippi and Bobby Gendle, and Marco Rubio have all come out against Governor Romney.  But there is one transcendant sobering fact and that is that Romney got too damn close to winning the popular vote on a national basis, for any liberal to feel comfortable.  Matthews had one guest that stated that the average working class stiff is being systematically looted by corporations.  Because there was that memo of Supreme Court Justice Louis Powell, that said business was getting screwed in the ‘seventies by the Unionists, the women, and the racial minorities.  So they even the playing field beginning in the latter part of the Carter Administration.  They put their people into 401 K’s rather than have a regular pension system because it saved corporations enormous amounts of money.  If George Bush had gotten his way with privatizing social security a lot of older people would be in the poor house now.

Mike Deletore says he pan handled in front of the Bakery and got money for a cup of coffee and cigarettes, and offered me one, thinking I was still desperate.  Mike in Dr. Levy’s class had stated that today was his last day here and he was leaving for good in a few hours with friends.  We had that tomato based beef and pasta casserole, with carrots and a green salad.  We had tapioca pudding for desert and Laura made it around the room with seconds on the casserole that I was sure glad to see.  It meant I wouldn’t starve tonight.  However if Paul and Judy had picked tonight to invite me to dinner at their house I would have accepted in a heart beat.  Eye Witness News gets just that brief interlude before five.  I haven’t decided whether I’ll post tonight but as of now I’m leaning in favor of not doing it.  Perswading the masses out there depends on more influential people besides me, such as Chris Matthews, and that guest, who wrote that book he had on.  This is later and now we’ve got duck weather here, too, because it has begun sprinkling.  Donnie had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for us and I got mine down the hall.  KNBC would rather have “Extra” than NBC Nightly News, apparently.

The President spoke at 7:06 but the Republicans at 8:06 did not seem entirely adverse to a compromise.  However I wish both sides wouldn’t use the term “fiscal cliff”.  It’s inaccurate. Dr. Levy convened the class at ten after eight.  He did not have coffee for me as he had implied, and he left his wallet at home.  Neither did he have any breakfast bars.  He had promised both.  Neither did he have any sort of lesson plan.  We talked about the Gaza and Israel situation and that issue is clarified for me a little.  I never knew that the port of Heifa was to the north.  In my mind I mixed it up with Joppa in the Bible.  This class session was a bigger bunch of nothing than usual.  He joked about people having multiple Jewish birthdays and multiple Chinese birthdays.  He confirmed that when you’re born in China you’re already considered one year old.  This should give them a disadvantage in the Olympics or more specifically, age related athletic competition.  We found out that the Vince guy and Joe Drisco and Dr. Levy all lived in Chicago.  He asked about other teachers here “hired by the college district”.  Dr. Levy did not even have any change in his car, he says.  And he spent what he had on a cup of coffee.  It was the CO Q 10 and resveritrol thing on KTLK, trotted around the block once more.  I was looking forward to Melinda Lee and the Thanksgiving segment, but I fell asleep and missed most of it.  

Are Israel and the PLO Headed for War?

We know that Hammas and the PLO have been firing rockets into Israel in places like Tel Aviv sixty miles away for months, but that a huge number of the incidents have occurred within the past few days, and ABC news made it sound like we were headed for war any day now.  There are complaints about firing in civilians from both sides and thirty Palistinians in Gaza have been killed in the last two days.  People like Judy think it's all a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.  Actually the people in Gaza in particular and the West Bank in general have been slighted and given inferior status in kind of a foreigner Aparteit.  The Obama Administration appears to have taken little interest in the war but if we believe people on the Right, they want to intervene on behalf of the PLO to keep Israel from wiping them out.  Meanwhile Netenyahoo states that Israel's response has been "restrained" and directed only at "targets".  We'll all just have to stay tuned.  Mal and Stu say that astrological indicators are more sympathetic to the PLO than one might think just by looking at the evidence.

John Mc Cain and Linesey graham today advocated for a special select Senate comittee to investigate why the Obama administration "lied" about the four deaths in Bengazi two months ago.  If they want to organize such a committee naturally I'd be curious to watch.  It seems General Petrayas testified behind closed doors today and so the hearing was not carried on C-Span but only the interviews done on it afterwards.  Some are saying that Petrayas was "set up" and it's a plot by the Republicans to "make the military look bad" in case the US is needed in another war.  Personally I think the whole scandal will blow over- eventually.  I used Lindsey Graham's photo rather than the one of Mc Cain taken the same time, because that image looks a little sharper to me.

British Petroleum was fined a lot of money by the federal government in what ammounts to a slap on the wrist because whatever they are fined is pocket change to them since they are so rich.  Eleven workers were killed and that makes it at least second degree murder right there in my oppinion because these men had a virtual death sentense imposed on them from the glairing, known unsafe working conditions.  They should at least be barred from drilling for a year and be barred from any new federal government leases.  Some have suggested the "corporate death plenalty".  Of course Corporations have become more blatent in their contempt for their workers.  Papa John's pizza wants to fire a lot of workers and cut hours and salaries in some sort of misplaced protest against the Affordable Care act.  And now Denny's is getting into the act with cut backs in hours and salaries of their workers. The thing is - corporations are far from languishing considering that common stock prices have doubled since Obama took office.  But you don't hear the tea party talking about that. Meanwhile Hostess is going out of business, and I suppose many health freaks would call it good riddance to bad rubbish.  Personally I'll miss their fruit pies, and some times i even buy their chocolate cream filled cup cakes.  Of course Wonderbread has always been a nutritional disaster.  Who would have guess what a trend Chick Filet started last summer with their politicization of commerce?

I'll be routing for USC in tomorrow's crosstown rivelry against UCLA, played at the Rose Bowl.  If USC wins they say they go to the Pac Twelve Championship game, which makes little sense to me.  So all USC has to do is win a game they've won five times in a row already to get lucky and get to go.  Of course the usual Federation friends of mine are routing for USC.  Today I thought would be a lucky day for me, Friday November 16th because that item I thought was stolen was returned this afternoon, and even before that happened, a certain ammount of fence mending was going on.  I'm glad I don't have to even think about moving now because I would have to give up most of the friends here I've accrewed the past ten or more years.  And I've still got my vinyl record collection over at Dr. Levy's house.  On this date November 16th of 1973 I bought a certain album- - and you regular readers of mine know which one that is.

We are surprised by the adverse metamorphisus that occurs in real life people like John Mc Cain, so that now they bear little resenblance to the person they once were.  But also in soap land they can get even major predictable characters such as John Black.  He's willing to let a highly manipulative and dangerous women he was once in love with undermine his marriage, and trusts her words and her judgements over and above those of his own wife, who any other time he would trust inplicitly.  We know that the tea party wants you NOT to trust the traditional things, uplifting things, perhaps things you learned in school or from your main stream Protestent church of old, that you have trusted in - - - but now you have developed a sudden amnesia of "who you are" as if your entire higher reasoning centers had been made inopperative - - - to make your mind an "empty vessel" to be filled up with whatever propaganda they choose to fill it with.  To use computer lingo, it's as though your very Mind had been "hacked" by some virus writer - - - which many say enters through some "moment of unconcious trauma" through some personal "mental black hole" that you are not even consciously aware of. And you know that a lot of this is dog whistle and subcontious- - and subliminal reinforcements of prejudices you thought were long and burried but now have been fanned anew into a raging inferno.  The tea party can't tempt me in this way- - but it seems there are an awful lot of closet biggots out there.  I was disconcerted to find out that even though women at large are for Obama that married women 53% or just over half of them, voted for Romney.  So somehow they fill the stereotype of the mindless 'stepford wife" that believes whatever her husband TELLS her is true.  She is in Pastor Mark's termanology "her covering" that envelops and protects her from the Reality of the World that she might somehow find "upsetting".  Kind of like Charles Boyer did to Ingred Bergman in "Gaslight" in a more beneign form.  Many married women view themselves as either nor worth or able to think for themselves, and so like a trained parrot- - they repeat every sick prejudice and ignorant belief of their overseer husbands.  (Selah)