Hillary Clinton Decisively Beats Donald Trump in Debate

I wasn't even sure I put out a post yesterday or not.  I was intending to but apparently didn't.  Now Trump is thinking of skipping the next two debates just because he was beaten so badly.  Trump was as downcast yesterday as Hillary was upbeat and jubelant.  I don't care how many imaginary polls Trump pulls out of his ass, Hillary won the thing, pure and simple.  Trump complained his microphone was sabotaged so that when he interrupted twenty-two times it wasn't as impressive.  Those many interruptions didn't play well with the public.  Often Trump appeared stunned and at a temporary loss for words.  Trump had to just sit there and take it when Hillary enumerated about four reasons why Donald Trump might not to release his taxes.  Of course he as much as admits to not paying taxes for some years because they have a few really old returns now.  Trump considers this just plain "smart" just as he considers taking advantage of people being thrown out of their homes in a financial crisis is just "smart" and "good business".  In this sense he's just like Romney.  He's just not a likable fellow.  Trump is kind of like Scientology in that it's best observed and "appreciated" a safe distance away, but never allow yourself to get inside it.  Trump also defended his not paying certain workers now claiming that he must have been dissatisfied with their work, but gave no real example someone could rely on as justification.   It's bad business to screw over your customers and I hope Trump doesn't do that.  Here are more remarks from yesterday.  

Hillary Clinton decisively won the debate last night over Donald Trump.  The debate was held on NBC.  They had NBC nightly news with Lester Holt not there because he was moderating the debate.  They austensively divided the time into six segments but Lester Holt lost control of the schedule pretty quickly as if by mutual conspiracy Trump and Hillary would talk about whatever they wanted to argue about.  Hillary made a good opening speech.  She laid out the ideas of raising the minimum wage, equal pay for equal work and infrastructure.  Trump followed with a convincing rant about fair trade verses tree trade.  Later on while discussing NATO and trade Trump also slipped in the need for government to build infrastructure.  A lot of the “Bernie issues” could have been spelled out more clearly by Bernie himself.  Trump though was much more forceful on the notion of being taken to the cleaners by China and foreign powers than was Hillary, who appeared not to want to talk about this so much.  So I agreed with both of their opening remarks.  Both of them had good points.  However Trump often appeared more on the defensive interrupting Hillary with questions giving the impression he might be “impatient” or something.  Hillary pummeled Trump pretty good on the “trickle down economics” issue citing the folly of massive tax cuts for the rich, which were a centerpiece of Trump’s policies.  Trump also seemed to go with the Shawn Hannity view of abolishing all pollution regulations as a way to get the economy going.  Hillary was pretty flawless in her delivery and Trump tried to be sedate, where he wasn’t in his element.  He appeared “low energy” and also didn’t have the background on issues Hillary did and she beat him in head to head arguments.  One area where Hillary fell short is acknowledging Black on Black crime.  Hillary was so hung up on civil liberties that she seemed to forget the fact that Chicago even had a crime problem.  I agreed with Trump on the necessity of “stop and frisk” and how well it worked in New York.  But Trump fell down badly on the national security stuff and Hillary appeared much more in control of the ISIS issue.  Trump would often ramble toward the end talking about “stamina” in office and General Mac Arthur and those damn strawberries.  ( )  He’d make references to things people were expected to know about what he was thinking.  Hillary accused Trump of living in his own reality.  Lester Holt piled on when it came to whether Trump was against the Iraq War early on calling it a “fact” that Trump was for that war.  Trump referenced arguments he’s had with Shawn Hannity on this subject.  Trump raised some interesting points about NATO and financing but then took credit for “giving NATO the idea” to go after ISIS and national security.  But Hillary countered with the phrase “An attack upon one nation is an attack upon all” and invoked 9 – 11 and Afghanistan.   At 7:28 I decided to leave and go get medication from Tom because he’s been finishing up quickly.  Only Nancy Bell and Glenda were in line ahead of me.  Then I looked for cigarettes.  When I got back to the debate Trump was just finishing up his final remarks at twenty to eight.  The media tried to make it seem like nobody on either side was persuaded.  However they neglected to mention the over-riding fact that Hillary was much more in control than Trump throughout the debate.  

This is Wednesday September 28, 2016.  Lets take up the narrative before lunch.  I brushed my teeth in the morning and before lunch and again after lunch making sure they were as clean as they could be.  Having chili on my breath wouldn’t do.  We had a bowl of decent chili plus a big piece of rather dry corn bread.  I ate rather slowly being apprehensive about the appointment.  We had grapes for dessert and I had Paul’s bowl also.  I missed out on coffee because the guy said to get ready.  We got to the dentist’s office early and I filled out their usual form about health questions.  I was escorted in and they took X rays right off.  My last visit six months ago they didn’t take X rays so you never know what they might have missed.  She did one of these gum measurements.  There were the usual 3’s and 4’s with the occasional two, but one of the teeth was a six in one spot.  She said it was infected and needed anti-biotic ointment that had to be done at the time of the cleaning.  The problem was it was fifty dollars I’d have to pay myself.  I was unable to call Mom (or something) so they rescheduled it for next week.  The male dentist examined my teeth and I have that crown I need on tooth 29 from a year ago that was never done.  Now I have a new crown in the upper left somewhere he first announced as “a big cavity”.  I can’t find it.  I negotiated the next two appointments and then went out for a smoke waiting for my ride to return.  As it turns out the guy was late and the office here was on their lunch break and weren’t answering.  Finally the guy returned, not with a van load of people as he implied, but it was empty.  By now it was a quarter after one and we went to pick up Mickey at West Anaheim Medical Center.  But he wasn’t ready and we parked in the lot to wait.  I listened to JACK radio with the AC on.  About ten till two they finally returned.  I got back here about five to two.

I have very few cigarettes left.  I got two cups of iced tea and they served that dry corn bread.  It’s the first solid food they’ve served in a week and a half.  After a while I called Mom, who acted like she was thinking of not paying for it.  Then she said Paul and Judy control her money.  There was talk about not smoking.  Tim stopped by to see her after his (second) vacation.  I went to the office to let Josie copy the appointment dates but then was called back down by Federico to the office and he changed the times, but not the days, of both the appointments but let me keep the cards.  I had the Norman Goldman program on at the usual time.  We had a liberal amount of pork chunks, and a lot of spinach, which was kind of cold, and French cut potatoes the way French cut green beans were cut.  They were good.  We had peaches for dessert.  Paul gave me a whole second plate with even colder spinach.  Apparently they were supposed to have banana pudding for dessert.  That’s the second time they’ve said banana pudding and ended up having something else.

Officer Indicted for Manslaughter in Tulsa Shooting

That lady officer in the Tulsa shooting has been indicted already for first degree manslaughter or something.  Shawn Hannity most certainly isn't happy about that but then Hannity lies about everything these days and continuing to even listen to him, even if only out of curiosity, does one more harm than good.  Shawn lies about economic statistics and he lies about stuff like Lester Holt is a biased democrat, when Ijust heard he's a registered Republican.  He lies about these other Black shooting cases such as Ferguson, MO or the Trayvon Martain case.  Now Shawn Hannity is doing ads for Donald Trump.   But I will say this about Shawn and that is he is everything Trump would like to be in terms of an average working class American pulling himself up by his boot straps.  If Hannity had stayed in ANY of those other lines of work he's done over the years he'd be a well respected citizen providing no cause for anyone to be dissatisfied with him.  

Mrs. Keith Scott, wife of the guy who was shot by cops in Chaolette where all of the rioting has been taking place, released a video to the press which featured of police shouting “drop your gun” and the wife shouting “He doesn’t have a gun” and adds, “He has a TBI”.  When I heard this I thought he had some electronic device on him such as a PDA or something.  (Personal Data Assistant)  But it turns out that TBI is a traumatic brain injury, and I’m not sure how that fact figures in.  And then we hear the gun shots and the wife says “Did you shoot him?” and “He better not be dead”.   It is said that since multiple officers believed him to have a weapon that it can’t be the prejudicial idea of just one officer.  First they said they weren’t going to have a curfew and then they said there is a curfew.   The football game between the Vikings and the Panthers this Sunday will be played with increased security.   Three times the number of Americans have died from firearms this year than were killed on 9 – 11.  We accept that gun deaths are just part of the “background noise” and accept them pretty much as normal. 

Yesterday I watched a video that stated that the MAJOR portion of bank profits, in some cases most or all of the profits, comes from out and out fraud.  That’s an eye opener.  It’s true in Britain and in America and perhaps other places.  Today I watched and read a transcript of Neil Young addressing a “Farm Aid” concert.   Actually there was some row of tables and an audience and the microphone was in the audience.   He was attacking President Obama and Monsanto and the stand on GMO’s in general. 

Here is a news flash.  Raphael Edwardo Cruz today endorsed Donald Trump.  Apparently Cruz doesn’t want us to vote our consciences any more.   Cruz was suppose to shmooz with Sheldon Adelson after his speech at the convention but now he was turned away from Adelson’s office.  They are saying that Cruz was virtually forced to endorse Trump or else Sheldon Adelson would make it clear that Cruz's political carrier was through because all of his campaign donations would dry up.  If it shows nothing else it shows all that show of political courage and "principles" at the Republican convention was pure showmanship and that when push comes to shove, Trump will fold like a cheap suit.  I think this has to say something about how Ted Cruz would have acted as president.  

There is good news for Hillary in terms of polling this week, as opposed to last.  She is up seven points in two national polls and up five in a third.  But there is a ceiling of 48% for Trump where he never rises higher in any poll.  Hillary has scored higher than that in nine polls but for Trump the figure is zero.  So I think we can all rest easy after the previous week’s “medical scare” reflected in those polls taken then for Hillary.   Strangely this Chris Matthews fill-in says that 53% of Americans believe Hillary is qualified to be President but the same polls show the Trump figure at 30%, which is strange.  It means people who vote for Trump don’t think he’s qualified.  I dispute the claim that 92% of Bernie Sanders supporters support Hillary because if that were true it would mean Hillary would inherit Bernie’s ten or twelve lead over Trump in the polls.   If the poll numbers show nothing else they show large numbers of defecting Bernie Sanders  supporters.  In still another poll sixty percent of people say Donald Trump does not respect “ordinary Americans” but Hillary’s figure here is “only” 48%.   There is another poll that says 56% of people believe that Trump is a racist, a figure way higher than Hillary's.  People are forgetting in all of this tit for tat name calling that the important thing is whether Democrats take congress, and I mean both houses.  You need both houses to get anything done, the Senate and the House, and even when you have the House too, if you don't have sixty percent there is no guarantee that you'll get all the things passed that the House would pass on its own with a democratic majority. 

Jim Webb Prefers The Donald to Hillary

By nominating Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party is handing over the presidency to Donald Trump.

This is a sentiment I’ve been repeating consistently over the past several weeks, and one that has yet to be truly appreciated by most people. There continues to be extreme denial amongst those who want “anyone but Trump” in recognizing that Trump is exactly what you’ll get by nominating a corrupt, Wall Street puppet under FBI investigation with more baggage than American Airlines. It’s obvious to those of us who have a sense of the national mood why this is the case, but remains beyond the grasp of those who are either a part of the status quo or depend on it for their financial survival.

Up to this point, I’ve been going on personal interactions with friends as well as interviews with voters to conclude that a significant number of Sanders supporters will simply not “fall in line” and vote for Hillary in November. While this is interesting in its own right, what has really surprised me is the number of people who have maintained they might vote for Trump if Sanders doesn’t get the nomination. Conventional wisdom would say this is impossible, but what many voters seem to want more than anything else in 2016 is to burn the status quo to the ground.

It’s one thing for voters to publicly express such sentiments, it’s a whole other ballgame when a former 2016 Democratic Party candidate does so. Yet that’s exactly what happened earlier today on the “Morning Joe“ show. It appears Jim Webb isn’t “Ready for Hillary.”

The Washington Post reports:  In an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Reagan administration veteran-turned-Democratic senator from Virginia turned short-term presidential candidate Jim Webb said twice that he could not support Hillary Clinton if she won the Democratic nomination for president.  “No, I would not vote for Hillary Clinton,” Webb said.

Pressed on whether he would vote for Donald Trump, Webb said he was “not sure” but had not ruled it out.

“It’s nothing personal about Hillary Clinton, but the reason Donald Trump is getting so much support right now is not because of the, you know, ‘racists,’ etc. and etc.,” Webb said. “It’s because a certain group of people are seeing him as the only one who has the courage to say, ‘We’ve got to clean out the stables of the American governmental system right now.’If you’re voting for Donald Trump, you might be getting something very good or very bad. If you’re voting for Hillary Clinton, you’re going to get the same thing. Do you want the same thing?”

That last part of his statement is downright shocking, yet speaks a lot of truth. Jim Webb’s logic is sound and reflects the type of questioning that will be endlessly percolating through the minds of tens of millions of voters come November.

There’s no question about the type of president Hillary Clinton will be. She will coddle Wall Street (and bail them out again if necessary), while pushing a neocon foreign policy abroad. It’s not an exaggeration to say that a vote for Hillary means a vote for oligarchy at home and murder abroad. This is merely an inconvenient truth the Democratic establishment wishes to pretend doesn’t exist. Jim Webb understands this, which is why he says he won’t vote Hillary.

Democrat Hillary Clinton loses by 7.4% to John Kasich, by 4.7% to Marco Rubio, and by 0.8% to Ted Cruz, and she wins by 2.8% over Donald Trump.   Democrat Bernie Sanders wins by 6.0% over Trump, by 4.7% over Cruz, by 0.5% over Kasich, and ties with Rubio.   Because of this latest number, the Democrats are now hoping and praying for a Cruz nomination at the Republican convention.  This will be much more likely if Trump loses Florida which he is increasingly likely to do.  A week ago Trump led by 18% over Rubio in Florida.  Right now Trump is in “single digits” and it takes little imagination, given the rate of fall in Trump’s popularity now, that Trump will lose Florida and will also lose Ohio.  This is because the anti Trump establishment is carpet bombing Ohio and Florida with anti Trump ads fueled to a virtually unlimited supply of money.  In my opinion, Ted Cruz is the weakest candidate the Republicans could put up.  These statistics show Sanders beating Cruz by 4.7%. 

The Jekyll and Hyde of Donald Trump.  Of course, some of the things he thinks will “make America great” like punitive libel laws, censoring the internet, agreeing that the government can force Apple to create a backdoor, and more brutal torture would undoubtably do exactly the opposite. On the other hand, his opposition to phony trade deals, donor money in politics and ending the overall way things work in Washington D.C. are undoubtably positives.  A “very good” Trump presidency would mean that some of his more authoritarian and barbaric positions will be pushed to the wayside, while his tremendous will and force of personality can crush the rule of oligarchs for oligarchs and restore an economic future for the decimated middle class.  At the end of the day, there’s absolutely no way to tell which Trump you’re gonna get. So the real question may very easily come down to, should we take a gamble on someone who could be an ever worse fascist disaster, or do we maintain the current corrupt and destructive status quo? If Hillary Clinton is presented as the only alternative, I think a large number of Americans will be willing to gamble on Trump, for better or worse.  (note: “Gambling” is something desperate people are known to do)

Donald Trump’s son was just on the Shawn Hannity show and he was a spirited, fast talker who seemed to have all the answers.  Then at the end Hannity said the Democratic debate was pathetic because “They want to halt all energy production in this country and make us hostage to Saudi oil”.   Then he said “They want to eliminate all fracking in America”.  Then there was the line of “They want to give us all free stuff”.   Externalizing the costs of oil drilling and fracking is “free stuff” from the government.  It’s part of the cost of producing energy but the oil companies don’t have to pay for it.  Furthermore only Bernie said he would end all fracking.  Hillary seemed flexible.  But you also must consider that any anti fracking legislation will take time and while the fracking is still going on more energy is being produced.  Keep in mind that Saudi Arabia can pull the plug on our whole domestic production of energy program any time they want because they can produce oil for twelve or fifteen dollars a barrel if they want to, and can undercut our price any time it suits their fancy.  The only way we can beat them is to switch to a less polluting fuel such as wind or solar or geothermal.  People like Judy and Shawn have no conception of the notion that energy is not a fixed comidity.  If so we could say that the whale blubber business is in serious trouble today because until the 1850’s when you talked about “oil production” you meant whaling.  Shawn bends and twists people’s words and bends and twists logic in his own mind to arrive at his pre-determined outcome.  No candidate for President is going to go against Governor Snyder for instance because they are all so much in agreement with his policies.  Republicans believe that the dollar and profits are the supreme morality.  No matter how much corporate greed is out there or off shoring of production people like him and Judy are going to justify it every time.  When it comes to trashing labor unions or gutting the life of the inner city- - of course these people are going to do it.  The very idea of “a community of people” who have to get along is alien to these people.  Democrats on the other hand hold to John Lennon’s slogan of “Power to the people” but to people like Trump and the other Republicans “Power to the people” might as well be a Bolshivic communist slogan.

Staying Out Of Foreign Entanglements

Both President George Washington and Dwight Eisenhower were military men.  Both were elected by a landslide of popular acclaim.  In his final weeks, President Eisenhower warned us against the rise of the military industrial complex.  George Washington advised us to stay out of foreign entanglements.  For over a century the United States was known as a nation that stood for Peace and staying out of foreign wars, which were raging almost constantly in Europe.  How strange if citizens of the United States who lived in 1816 could see us now.  We have been in a virtual state of continuous war for the past fifteen years.  We are still, fighting in Afghanistan.  President Obama's instinct has been to resist withdrawals of troops anywhere.  Now we hear Mitt Romney lodge the accusation that Trump wants to use ISIS to get rid of President Assad of Syria before we get rid of ISIS.  Washington's blog charges something entirely different.  They say that Turkey is secretly supplying armlements to ISIS and the United States is secretly going along with that because the United States secretly desires the implementation of Solifist Islam everywhere in the Mideast because it's authoritarian and despots are easier to deal with than leaders of democracies.  I don't know what to think at this point.  It used to be that Hillary Clinton would say "I'm not running for a third term of Obama's administration but the first year of my own administration".  She's not saying that anymore.  Instead she is dropping President Obama's name as if it were seeds used in spring planting.  Some say that powerful military men really run the country and that when a new President such as Clinton or Obama gets elected, this military junta in this country sits them down and tells the new President how things will be.  I am more in sympathy with this point of view than over twenty years ago when Michael Benner first suggested it.  We know that the Obama administration tried desperately to maintain neutrality on the XL Canadian pipeline.  Obama could have taken a stand in the 2012 election but didn't. President Obama could have taken a stand against firearm polifferation in that same election of 2012 but he didn't.  President Obama could have done a lot of things but he didn't.  President Obama could not get reelected today.  Everyone agrees about that no matter what their political perswasion.  Perhaps Donald Trump is a wild card.  Maybe he really is mentally unstable.  But whether you are to the left or two the right, you agree that we need major change in the way Washington is run.  Bernie Sanders won two states on Saturday.  He's still in the running.  If you disqualify all of the Republican candidates as "just not Presidential" you're basically left with Bernie Sanders as the last man standing.

At ten after six I tuned in 640 KFI and the Democratic debate was on.  Apparently KFI is making a habit of carrying these debates.  It was a spirited debate but they stayed on respectable topics.   One can only contrast the difference in topics.  It's a case of "never the twane shall meet" because you'd think it was a different country with the issues the Republicans bring up, if they even ARE real issues.  Someone today said the Republican debate was more like an episode of planet of the apes.  At least the democrats argued on substance and "How BEST to solve the problems that face Americans".  There was no praising of Governor Snyder the way Marco Rubio did at his last debate.  There is absolutely nothing praiseworthy about ANYTHING Michigan Governor Snyder does.  I think Bernie Sanders' remarks were more "engaging" than Hillary's and seemed more likely to be the sort of remarks Black ghetto people could identify with.  It seemed to me that Bernie Sanders won that debate and he gave a better closing speech.  Others said that Sanders was kind of over-bearing in this debate.  I wouldn’t say that.  But the debate wrapped up just after seven with closing statements.  Then I watched “Once upon a Time” till a quarter to nine.  It was a special two hour segment of the problem, with all their usual stories.  

There were four contested states among the Republicans on Saturday.  Trump appears to have won in Kentucky and Louisiana was apparently a draw where they split the delegates down the middle.  Ted Cruz won outright in Kansas and Maine so basically it was kind of a Ted Cruz day since he won outright in two states and split another.  Bernie Sanders won in Kansas and in Nebraska.  But Hillary won in Louisiana and got more delegates than Sanders.  I don’t know how powerful Judy’s prayers are but maybe Cruz can pull it off if Trump loses on the Ides of March in Ohio and Florida.  March 15^th is the first “winner take all” Tuesday so that’s why this day is so important.  Washington’s blog stated that after the fifteenth Sanders will find it a whole lot easier to win states and his delegate count will draw even with Hillary eventually, if he’s lucky.  At any rate Sanders had pledged to stay in the race till June or convention time.  I just feel the progressive cause could be better served by having a candidate without skeletons in his or her closet the way Hillary does.  This whole Honduras coup thing is just one more strike against Hillary.  They had Lindsey Graham on “Meet the Press”.  Graham has gotten over his disgust for Ted Cruz long enough to endorse him for President, though he’d prefer either Kasech or Rubio if he had the choice.  They also had Mittens on.  Romney has come out of the obscurity of post candidacy and roared into the spotlight again and the voters are listening to his words. 

Nancy Reagan died today.  Don’t ask me to say anything nice about her because my heart’s just not in it.  The best thing I can say is they were truly in love and remained so for the rest of their lives.  I think Nancy led Ronnie around by the snout in the early days and also when he was President.  I’ve read Kitty Kelly’s book and I know about all of the skeletons and sketchy areas in Nancy’s closet.  I didn’t like her “taking over” and firing Don Reagan as Chief of Staff.  I thought the astrology stuff was questionable.  If she is destined to be with Ronald in the afterlife she’s had about a 25 year wait since Ronald was last lucid.  It was about the time of Iran Contra that Ronald Reagan first began having his memory lapses.

(Saturday) Rhapsody in Black was back today and they had a good crop of songs ranging from late spring to early fall of 1963.  There was an obscure Mary Wells song I thought was called “Nevermore”.   They played “El Watuci” by Ray Baretto, “If You Want to be Happy” by Jimmy Soul and “Walking the Dog” by Rufis Thomas.   I remember the Olympics song they played.  They played the original versions of “The Bird is the Word” and “Land of a Thousand Dances”.  They played “Fingertips” and a rather Carebean version of “Que Sarah Sarah”.   There was “Pride and Joy” and “Monkey Time” and “Just One Look” by Doris Troy.  There was a song I thought was called “Lonely Surfer”.  They played “I’m Busted” by Ray Charles and “Sally Go Round the Roses” and “Shake Your Tail Feathers” (Not sure I remember that)  I remember the tag line from “Ruby Baby” (not to be confused with Ruby Ruby)  The final track I had it on for was another Mary Wells song.  Then I went out to buy John Blacks at the liquor store.

The murder in Honduras on March 3rd of the global prize-winning environmental activist Berta Cáceres is one of the current achievements (though indirect) of Hillary Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s decision in 2009 to allow the newly-installed coup-regime in that country to solidify and remain in power.  As the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton resisted and ultimately overcame the virtually unanimous efforts of other Western Hemispheric and European leaders to oust the coup-regime. She was backed-up in this retrograde decision by U.S. President Barack Obama. Without her efforts, and President Obama’s passive acceptance of her decision, the coup-installed regime wouldn’t have remained in power, and the freely elected President would have been restored to power to complete his term.  The results of this for both the U.S. and Honduras have been disastrous: the world’s highest murder-rate, soaring drug-trafficking, and the exodus of hundreds of thousands of Honduran children who don’t want to spend their lives drug-trafficking, and who have left Honduras because the gangs kill children who refuse. Then, U.S. Republicans, whose representatives in Congress were passionate supporters of the coup-installed regime, complain about the influx of those children into the U.S. and demand they be sent back to die there.  The democratically elected progressive President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was overthrown by Honduras’s aristocracy, in a coup on 28 June 2009, organized by that country’s nearly dozen aristocratic families, whose suffocating control over Honduras was being threatened by the entirely lawful and progressive democratic policies and actions by Zelayas’s government, including land-reform and workers’ rights — two things that aristocracies everywhere oppose. 

Just A Few Random Thoughts

It occurs to me that some words can be taken out of context.  I stated that the Federal Reserve needs to "establish more honest interest rates" from the rediculously low ones we have now.  I hope no one thought I was advocating for lower rates, because T bills are only a half a percent now.  Mom is making all sorts of money right now even with the half percent rates.  But what if T Bills paid four or five percent?  Sure Mom would be paying a lot more taxes but she's also be making boucoups bucks.  Yes this would increase interest on our national debt, but only NEW debt as of post March 2016.  All the OLD debt rates would remain intact.  I am not as concerned as Judy is about being in debt or beholden to China.  If China were going to pull the plug on our loans they would have done it by now.  Judy was silent when I raised this point to here on the phone. One area that might be to your liking, Judy, is that if I were President I would push to abolish this "quarterly estamated income" tax payment you have to send in every three months.  This is a lot of money and a lot of unnecessary paperwork.  It's giving the government free use of your money for from three to nine months.  If you end up owing the government or are deliquent in payments, you pay a tax penalty.  But if the government owes YOU money, you don't get squat in terms of interest rates.  I don't agree with the idea that there should be Zero tax on stock dividends.  This is a Larry Elder pipe dream.  I agree with Thom Hartman's statement that "Those who do back breaking work for a living such as in construction or industrial production- - shouldn't pay a HIGHER tax rate than those rich people who sit around in their mansions by the swimming pool waiting for the dividend checks to arrive.  It it were me I'd also allow tax deductions on credit cards for the average American.  Judy would no doubt tell me "Well if these people didn't go into debt they wouldn't have to pay the interest".  But I believe in an economy that is Demand deficient- - anything we can do to spur demand is a good thing.  

 I watched Mitt Romney’s speech and it’s better and more substantive and balanced than I would have supposed.  The same can’t be said for Dennis Prager’s CPAC speech however.  He said “The American Revolution is in danger of being undone?”  Does he mean the India Tea company is going to be reinstated and we will once again become British subjects?   He spoke of Christianity being a trinity even though he claims to be a Jew.  As you know in the past Dennis has had questionable views on abortion, prostitution and is just wrong as to Church teaching on the policy of Forgiveness.  Anyhow he says we as Americans list under a Trinity of ideas.  One of them is a belief in God.  In God we trust.  He also talks about how you can’t have both Liberty and Equality.  One of them has got to go, and Prager seems to side with the Southern plantation owners here.  Finally there is the notion of E Plurabus Unim.  The problem here is it’s the Republicans who repeatedly mention all these minorities they want isolated from the American main stream of opportunity such as women, gays, Blacks, Moslems, and other minorities.  He managed to pack an awful lot into a five minute speech.  Then I watched the John Kasech speech on C-Span.  He is known as “The Story Teller”.  He won against sitting democrats in the Reagan recession of 1982 and all that.  He talked about budget battles with his colligues in congress.  He then repeated this oft spoken mantra by Newt Gingrich and other republicans that “We cut the capital gains tax rate and this is responsible for the booming economy from late 1994 to late 2000 in the Clinton era.  It’s the “Newt Gingrich affect” where just the mere news the Republicans had been elected caused the stock market to take off and the economy to explode.  The cut of the capital gains tax (I looked it up) took place in 1997 nearly three years into this economic boom.  And it was cut from 28% to twenty percent.  So if you want to “repeat that tax adjustment” then I presume you now want to raise the tax rate back up to twenty percent.  Keep in mind that the income tax rates on a whole host of fronts were RAISED just before this economic boom began.  Finally I played this tape of a guy with a guitar talking about how Jesus was born of a Virgin and heralded by angels and died on a cross for our sins.   Then there was the latter we could call “The little girl and the homeless guy outside the supermarket”.   Nobody disputes that we need to bring the jobs to where the people are who need jobs.

In terms of this drive to say ‘Anybody but Trump” Donald Trump has kind of out maneuvered them in a power play.  He got all three of his rivals to endorse him should he win.  This makes all three of them look stupid.  But it wards of something worse such as an all out Republican civil war where everybody loses.  They can’t stand Donald Trump.  I honestly believe that now, and Romney’s speech is ripe with examples.  But as much as they detest him now they’ll need Trump’s constituency (voters) for their own ranks if they’re going to win in the fall, so not even Cruz the purest and fight the Trump tide.  It should be noted that with open primaries so the rage now, that droves of democrats have abandoned their own party to vote for Trump.  This explains why for every five people voting democratic now, there are eight people voting Republican.  Some of these newfound democratic voters may genuinely LIKE Trump’s policies.  He promises a lot for everybody.  But there are those who just see it as an opportunity to torpedo the Republican Party system- - - and undermine the political process and gumming up the works.  Having said that they may (strangely) be doing the Party a favor because it will prevent a brokered convention.  If any of the other three candidates remaining have any prayer of getting their party’s nomination, it will be through making a deal in formerly smoke filled back rooms.  It’s hard for me to envision any scenario where a brokered Republican Party convention could be a good thing for any political party in this modern day and age.  

Let's talk about Event Horizons.  This isn't a neon sign advertising a rock concert that can be seen from way down the freeway.  Event Horizons are "Your universe" and these overlap like the Ven diagrams Lisa Simpson is so fond of.  They are like Free Calling Zones.  Yours may encompass more area to the southwest than mine does.  A third Area Code may overlap partially with yours and mine but may encompass areas where yours or mine doesn't go.  Each of us has a slightly different Universe.  By "us" I mean a group of us who live on different stars but keep in touch.  Capish?  This "Free Calling Zone" view of viewing Universes or Event Horizons may seem strange.  Because no one locality can be said to be either truely IN or OUT of this Universe.  There is no great sign that states "You are now leaving the Universe" any more than there is when you are leaving a certain Toll Free Zone.  It took me a long time to get over this 'Absolute speed limit" thing of Einstein.  First of all if we went with the physics of Isaac Newton- one might almost suppose that light travel is instantanious, meaning - - there is NO difference between the speed of light and that of gravity.  This is the "What you see is what you get" principle.  That is if you see a distant planet around another star- - the LIGHT and the GRAVITY from that planet- - are coming from the identical place.  There is no need to recalculate, which makes things a whole lot easier for Astronomers.  Since there is no "absolutely stationary place" in the Universe (it's all relative) than no such speed limit for inter-planetary travel can be established.  Some may question whether "Event Horizon" differs from "The Universe as we know it".   Technically the question is there IS no difference here because "The Universe as we know it" is contingent on what we can measure with our instruments, and THAT is contingent on the speed of light or time for those images to get to us.  So it can be argued that - - - MOST of the universe as it NOW EXISTS is something we are ignorant of because we have no way of "getting to it".  Therefore any travel- - - of something approaching "instantanous" would necessarly denote "leaving the Universe as we know it" at least temporarily.  Better people than me have said "psychic travel is instantanious".  But suppose you don't settle for "psychic" travel but you want to get there both Body and Soul.  Well - - - Supposedly this guy who talks about magnetic pulses caused by "Cryogenic supercondivity and super magnets" can speed travel.  I can't help thinking of that Cartoon that had super magnets where it was cranked up and fire hydrants, lamp posts, and then things like cars and suspension bridges and Naval Vessles and eventually the Eifel Tower got sucked into this magnet and final UFO crafts.  This only goes to illustrate the absurdity of power by "super magnets".  We are told there are only four FORCES in the universe.  There is gravity, electro-magnetism, the Strong Force, and the Weak Force.  Strangely the Atomic Bomb is a manifestation of the Weak Force.  Those who subscribe to this theory ignore a lot of energy sources- - such as the gasoline in their cars.  If if you take that car and crash it into a brick wall- - that Impact Force is yet another form of Energy!  I think it is unwise to use words like CAN"T and IMPOSSIBLE to limit what energy sources we may develop in the future.    

Knife Found At OJ Simpson Mansion

Either Hillary or Trump has the potential of being a very good president, or a very bad president.  There's really no way to tell".    -Jim Webb

In another twist in the long-running O.J. Simpson saga, Los Angeles police are investigating and testing a knife that was reportedly recovered on property once owned by the former football star. The elite Robbery-Homicide Division is investigating a buck knife now in the possession of the Los Angeles Police Department. The knife was apparently turned over to a police officer a number of years ago by a person doing construction work at the property, a law enforcement source said. At a press conference at LAPD headquarters Friday morning, Capt. Andrew Neiman said the officer was a traffic cop and was working on a movie set when he was given the knife. Detectives learned of the knife's existence more recently, and are now investigating where it came from, according to police, who cautioned that the investigation is still in its early stages.  My theory now is that OJ's son actually was the one who got into the knife fight with Ron Goldman and Nicole, but OJ intervened and tried to stop if, and got blood all over him. 

A Thom Hartman caller says there is some new "superconductor' type rocket that will enable inter-planetary travelers to go at extrordenary speeds.  It has something to do with super-magnetic pulses.  On the other hand maybe the guy has been watching too many Star Trek shows.  Thom Hartman speculated that perhaps the guy ought to be working for NASA if he's as smart as he claims to be.  My theory of course- - as far as I've been able to glean by my conversations with "dead people" is that fifth dimensional transfer of "energy" can be effected by "fungable quarks" that leave holes in an energy field that can easily be filled in with other identical appearing quarks, or perhaps hadrons.  Like a children's puzzle there is "Only one way you can get the hadrons to fit.  The energy is transferred over a "standing energy wave through the ether, so there is no actual traveling involved.  The transfer is instantanious.

Last night I got a phone call during the ABC network news that the Republican debate was being carried on KFI.  Bill wasn’t happy about that because he’s heard enough of Trump.  The debate ran from twenty to seven to just a little after eight.  The thing was laden with commercials.  So in all it was less than two hours counting commercials.  If I learned nothing else it’s that none of those four men up there are qualified to be President.  They were ordered by the FOX staff to drink the poison and pledge their undying loyalty to Donald Trump and all three obeyed like lemmings.  And they made Trump pledge too not to jump the party.  One disturbing thins was when Donald Trump responded to someone’s statement that “The military officers will refuse to obey an order to waterboard someone because they’d had it drummed into them that waterboarding is wrong” and Trump said “When I am President these officers will obey me.  And I’ll give these subjects even worse torture”.   Trump had the tendency to be very flip and call someone a liar just for the hell of it, or it excites this out of control crowd or something. Occasional Kasech would say something that sounded “compassionate”.  I was eager to get out of there and joined Bill outside and I happened to think of Ted Cruz’ closing statement.  He said that he “had the back of police officers and those in the military.  He promised to change the “rules of engagement” and make it easier to fire on the enemy.  In my frame of mind I took it to mean that he would “change the rules of engagement” for White officers firing on Black suspects.  And if anything bad happened that the officer would personally “have the President to back him up”.  An inner voice spoke to me (it was Bones) and said “Well, if ever there was a reason not to vote for Ted Cruse right here you have it”.  I was just burnt out on the whole thing and disgusted with all four of the candidates, Trump, Rubio, Cruz, and Kasech.  Judy and Paul called just after I began watching a science fiction thing on channel five.  I was looking to lose myself in some fictional plot and forget about the past hour and a half.  Paul asked me what I thought of the debate and I really didn’t feel like discussing it, or maybe it was the bedtime medication kicking in.  I told him I thought the tone of the entire thing was far too crude and combative.  On the Stephanie Miller show it was rumored that they even got into an argument over penis sizes.  None of the candidates was “Presidential”.  Marco Rubio had a quick wit and attacked Donald Trump on “Trump College” because students thought they learned nothing and wanted their money back but instead they were told “If you want the real “inner” secrets to success you’ll have to pay us more money and get the advanced course”.   Trump is refusing to settle but is dragging the case out five years.  I watched KTLA till nine and then went to bed.  

I like that song “Who is a democratic socialist?” “Just look in the mirror”.  “Your grand dad was a democratic socialist”.  “And you don’t have to wear those black Viet Cong pajamas or clinch your fist- - though you might look tough if you did”.  There’s the WPA and Social Security and Medicare and the good cop on the beet.   “Can I get an Amen?”  It seems that “Party Chairman” Debby Wasserman Schultz is trying to eliminate legislation that cracks down on these “Pay Day” loans that run something in excess of 25% compounded monthly.  We’re getting into Mafia territory.  Is Hillary Connected?  Of course there is this John Dean type subordinate working for Hillary who has turned “state’s evidence” and gotten immunity for himself.  I don’t want to be in the position of supporting a candidate for President charged with a felony.   I watched a seventeen minute Video from Democracy Now called “Hillary’s risky Libya adventure”.   It’s something every Democrat should watch because Hillary tipped the scales in Obama’s mind “51% to 49%” to invade Libya.  Hillary to this day won’t acknowledge it’s a mistake.  Hillary seems impervious to criticism on the subject of Libya and Bengazi.  After Qadafi was killed a few days after he was deposed, Hillary off camera quipped "I came, I conquered- - Qadafi died".  Qadafi was given an "early exit" oppertunity but those negotiations broke down.  The Orion Federation was a fan of Qadafi staying in power. I went to the store at seven and now the sun is up pretty high at that hour.  I spent $3.25 on cigarettes and a large coffee with Ben.  I drank the coffee in my room.  We had sugar frosted Cheerios for breakfast followed by scrambled eggs, toast, butter and jelly.  Robert Gates and Joe Biden advised Obama not to invade Libya.   Police don’t use batons much anymore but use tasers instead.  I didn’t know that.  They’ve gone high tech. 

Stu-baby reminds us that today is the one year anniversary of the take-over of the propaganda apperatus of the Orion Federation by the Taccomans.  Last night right after the debate when I was out on the benches in the dark (the lights weren't working) Mal Evans and Stewart Sutcliffe joined me to inform me that due to Mal Evans' acquiring of political power to to "proper manuvering the chess pieces" that he is now in a power position enough to exercise leverage to help Stu-baby out and get him back some of his former power on Sirius A.  Stewart has been muzzled and hasn't been able to express any pro Ukranian sentaments, because he lived a past life as a Ukranian in the Nazi party.  Now the next question is whether I can free myself sufficiently of Paul and Judy enough to feel free to express my own pro Bernie Sanders sentaments.  

Super Tuesday Results Leave Murky Picture

Well the buzz is now that you can’t trust Donald Trump because he has small hands.  For obvious reasons I don’t put much stock in the theory about “men with small hands” myself.  It seems that Donald did not do as well as he was perhaps expecting.  Judy’s prayers were answered because when you look at the total delegates, Ted Cruz has about two thirds of Trump’s delegates so he must have gotten them from somewhere  It was Trump at 291 or something and Ted Cruz at 180 something.  Texas was a big delegate prize and Cruz won that.  Cruz also won in Oklahoma and in Alaska of all places.  That’s kind of a burn on Trump considering Sarah Palin’s endorsement.  Marco Rubio has a few delegates because Rubio did well in Virginia even though Trump “won” Virginia.  Trump won the other Southern states as expected.  Actually Stephanie said that Marco took Minnisota, which is surprising.  But trying to get any of these results over Google news is impossible because they don’t have them.  On the democratic side, Bernie Sanders won in Vermont and in Oklahoma of all places.  Kasech was competitive in Vermont.  All the Blacks continued to vote for Hillary in droves.  Not to be racist or anything but what the hell is wrong with Black people voting almost robotically for Hillary.  It seems no matter how many people show up at Bernie’s rallies nothing shows up for it in hard votes.  But Black people must be brainwashed dupes or something thinking Hillary will solve all their problems.  There are five major states voting on the Ides of March.  These are Ohio and Florida but also Missouri, Illinois, and North Carolina.  But an argument can be made that if you want to stop Trump all the other candidates except Ted Cruz should withdraw and rally behind Ted Cruz because Cruz had perhaps 65% of the delegates Trump has.  He’s competitive and if he continues at this pace, he could well bring about a brokered Republican Convention.   Of course Hillary even when she’s in a good mood sounds kind of angry and whiney or something.

Robert Reich, former labor secretary of the Clinton administration, is one of the liberal good guys.  He has endorsed Bernie Sanders for President against his own boss's wife.  He reminds us that whether it's women getting the vote or ending the Viet Nam war- - it was outside protest pressure that did it.  This is just the kind of outside pressure Thom Hartman has been talking about since the Bush Administration.  The trouble is that for all of the enthusiasm in the Sanders campaign rallies- - not that much is showing up in terms of hard votes.  People need to go beyond just "making noise". Sanders does have the media's attention now and this should be a good thing.  Saul Allinsky was good at grab em by the balls protests where you put pressure on people where it hurts to effect change.  Part of the problem is that "incremental change" won't work any more.  Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich agrees with this saying that Hillary is imprisoned by the Small.  She resists radical forward progress or even progressive asperations such as single payer merical care, which the rest of the world has. This "resistance" can be even seen in liberal talk shows that are 95% pro Bernie Sanders for President in terms of people who watch the show, yet the hosts of these shows feel compelled to somehow "rein these supporters in" in terms of their enthusiasm for progressive causes.  But Jesus felt compelled to rein in the enthusiasm of his disciples who wanted to make him King or some sort of "deliverer of Israel".   Hillary, like Jesus doesn't so much want to "deliver" us but rather oversee or "superintend" the destruction of the American system and our courts and the constitution in the guise of the Trans Pacific Partnership.  I see myself at cross purposes with Hillary.  It used to be that if you demanded only a little you were more likely to get it.  This is what Saul Allinszky taught.  Hillary seems to have acquired the habit of using "Can't" a lot in her responses now.  But in reality today I'm more inclined to believe Sean Hannities analysis about "Having a nine point nine earthquake on the Washington bureaucratic establishment.  Yeah!

Last night the ABC network news was all about the primary races for the first fifteen minutes.  Then I went to Glen’s room and knocked on the door.  But then I went down for medication and the line was almost out the front door.  It’s probably the longest line I’ve chosen to remain in.  Mickey cut in front of me.  Fortunately the line moved fast.  I got my medication from Christian.  Then I knocked on Glen’s door again and Ron said he was at the back table and I went first to the east end then to the west end.  I lit up another cigarette and Glen was in a talkative mood.  I had my coffee cup with me and when I was done we went to Glen’s room and I got instant coffee for four cigarettes.  Then I returned to the room at 7:22 or so.  It turns out that political special show at seven lasted an hour.  I drank my coffee in leisure.  At eight I took inventory of the laundry and made out a list on a fresh piece of paper.  In terms of NCIS I disagree with their verdict.  They seemed content to push all the nasty stuff under the rug and give the officer a pass and say the girl did it in self defense.  If it were me I’d be filing all these charges for lying and cover up and things, and try to negotiate it down in front of a judge.

This is after dinner.  I had pains in my chest just before dinner.  We had barbecued meat balls and rice and lots of sauce.  We had corn with that.  There were no seconds.  We had orange sherbet for dessert.  I went to the liquor store and bought a pack of John Blacks and then talked to Glen on the back benches.  Andrew was still out there.  Sometimes you wonder if there is a plan, a rhyme and reason for God planning the day and moment of your death.  It's all part of that grand "soap opera story" where characters get shuffled around and some are ushered off the stage of Life.  Abigail on Days of our Lives used to have regular conversations with her deceast father for the first year or so after he died.  Therefore she didn’t think it strange that Stephano put in an appearance to Chad after death.  It was pretty realistic.  That Bob Theme fellow on those tapes of Bill T used to talk about “dying grace”.  For instance before you die- - you seem to have a sense of clarity and calm or something like Martin Luther King when he realized (?) that “We as a people will get to the promised land”.   Well, it’s a good thought to hold on to. 

Washington’s blog is having a lapse of objectivity.  They said that Hillary’s war against Syria is the thing responsible for the refugee problem in Europe.  That’s crazy.  These people are largely fleeing Assad and his barrel bombs.  They also say that Serbia wasn’t practicing genocide in the mid nineties when the Clinton administration waged war in Bosnia.  This white washing of Russian misdeeds gets a little much.  I question their judgement about Ukraine, too.   If Washington’s blog is going to turn against Bernie Sanders because he doesn’t toe the line of Moscow foreign policy, then Washington’s blog is useless as a campaign tool.   Clearly Bernie said that a good military mind knows how to use sound judgement and pick your battles.  But no way is Bernie Sanders going to function as an ongoing apologist for Vladimir Putin!

 Eye Witness news is on now and the polls in many states close in a matter of minutes.  OK it’s just after five and they have already declared a number of southern states for Trump and Clinton.  As Hannity predicted- - Marco Rubio is making a good showing in Virginia.  Bernie won Vermont with ninety percent of the vote.  Bernie Sanders won with close to a hundred percent sweep of the votes in Thom Hartman’s telephone poll today just after nine.  Actually in thie survey Trump got more votes than Clinton did.  Kasech is at least putting up decent numbers in Vermont. .  

Do Conspiracies Exist?

Do Conspiracies exist?  It seems like a silly question since they prove people of conspiracies every day in the court room.  Yet there is a crowd of propagandists who claim that not only DON'T conspiracies exist, it a virtual physical impossability for any conspiracy to be successful.   Let's talk about "Dark Legacy" about the Kennedy assasination.  This hour and 43 minute video can be found on Washington's Blog, if they haven't taken it down.  This movie makes a lot of bold charges. But there was a lot of informative documentary footage.  They showed the President lurching backward, and too the left just like the JFK movie and people running toward the grassy knoll, and other stuff I discuss in my letter this morning to Tim, where I do the font in royal blue.   The limozene driver slowed down when the shots began raining down, where one would suppose he'd speed up.  Someone signaled the secret service agents to get off the back of the limozine.  They complied.  The body was surgically altered so as to try and cover up the entrance wound.  People were running toward the grassy knoll and a few people were lying prone on the ground in this area to protect themselves.  Interestingly of course the rout was changed at the last minute and they hadn't done the usual scoping out of buildings.  Also the crowds of people were much thinner in this section of the road so there would be fewer witnesses to compare notes and movies taken.  Former President HW Bush got a silly grin on his face when he was speaking at Jerry Ford's funeral and speaking about a "lone, crazed gunman" and then grins.  Was it a muscle spasm?  Bush said "I trust the Warren Comission report because Jerry Ford's word is good enough for me".  The movie talks about Prescott Bush and his selling secret formulas for fuel and rubber to the Nazi war machine.  The movie then spins an incredible web of conspirators, all of it amazingly well documented with photographs and memos.    That assassination video concludes by saying that George HW Bush is the most evil of all the conspirators, more than Hunt, more than Stergis, more than Allan Dulles.   Vincent Bugliosi disbelieves in conspiracies, except of course for the Manson case.  The general view of those who say as a generality “conspiracies don’t exist” is to say things like “The only way three people can keep a secret is if two of them are dead”.   Vince offers another argument.  He says Oswald was the sole shooter because he had “guilty knowledge” in that when he found out FBI agents were after him he fled the lunch room for the theater.  It seems impossible that the mere finding out that “men with guns are after you” might just scare someone off.  Vince Bugliosi would make a good Christian.  Because here it’s said that it would be “Impossible” for the Twelve Apostles to keep the “dark secret” of their fraud and lies against humanity.  And since it’s impossible to keep a secret- - then obviously there WAS no conspiracy to put forth a lie on anybody because “All liars get exposed” is the mantra of this anti conspiracy crowd.  Do you follow?  I believe often people are forced to deny their own logic such as listening to a Bernie Sanders speech.  The reason "I'd LIKE to believe what he says but I know (from my right wing indoctrination) that I'm not SUPPOSED to believe that, and therefore when I believe, I feel guilty".  (Selah) It sounds cute but does it play out that way in the real world.  There is a “conspiracy” to have nonstop wars in the Mideast these days.  Nobody disbelieves the “Caucus room conspiracy” because the perpetrators have come out and admitted the things that were said about giving President Obama no quarter- - and not allow a single bill to be passed, even on ideals they agree with.  And yet hard core republicans will call such talk of a “caucus room conspiracy” as idle talk and offer an alternate view of history where “We tried to get along with this President.  We had great hopes for the country because of all the President’s rhetoric about unity and going forward.  But in the course of time we became disillusioned with the President”. 

In terms of the JFK assassination thing it became increasingly more far flung and hard to follow the plotline of.  They brought in Richard Nixon and Howard Hunt and Frank Stergus of Watergate fame, but also Prescott Bush and Allan Dulles, whom Kennedy fired as head of the CIA.  George HW Bush named his oil company the Zapeta oil company but they also called the Bay of Pigs operation “Operation Zapeta”, which is a strange coincidence, of which there are many strange coincidences in this video.  But I can still tie all that in together much more easily than the “Socialist plot of Obama”, which combines Bill Ayres, Sol Allinsky, the Rev Wright and Acorn into one grand anti Jewish pro Moslem pro socialist conspiracy.  But I am aware enough to know that somethins you can throw names around with only the barest threads of information. 

The last time I was out back during the power failure was just about six o clock.   Since the power came on before 6:30 I was able to watch the Mc Laughlin group in its entirety.  They had three topics.  The first one was on the Kurds and the Palestinians getting citizenship of a nation of their own.  The concencus was that for the Kurds this would be impossible- - because it would mean part of Iran, Iran, Syria, and worst of all, Turkey.  The second topic was the Church and the Death Penalty.  The third topic was the likelihood of Great Britain leaving the European Union.  That sounds like a good idea.  Then there was a Huwell Houser thing about William Randolph Hurst buying up more land around a small California town.  Then it was the evening basketball game and the Oklahoma Thunder and the GS Warriors played to a tie and then I turned the station a little after eight.  I’m not aware of what program I watched then.

A bunch of Klansmen showed up at a public event at Pearson Park and five people were stabbed.  The brawl took place right in front of police presence.   In terms of the Clinton and Sanders contest it was bad.  It was 47 thousand plus to 13 thousand plus or a 77% to something like 23%.  It couldn’t get much worse than that.   Later numbers make it 97 thousand to thirty thousand.  That looks just about as bad.    Later numbers make it 239 thousand to 82 thousand.  I’ll say this.  They’re consistent.    With 93% of the votes reporting it’s 247 thousand to 86 thousand or about 73% to 25% or three to one.  Any way you look at this Bernie got a major schlacking.  The final percentages were 74% for Hillary to 26% for Bernie.  

Divide, Conquer, Colonize

Norman will be joining Thom Hartman and Bill Press at the Blue State Ball in downtown Miniapolis.  General admission starts at seven.  In terms of these phrases of “Super predator” to describe hardened gang members or “bringing them to heel”, I personally don’t have a problem with this language, but I’m not above using it in ads because Blacks are touchy about this phraseology and may chip away at Hillary’s votes.  Hillary tells the “Black Lives Matter” people who raised this issue “We’ll talk about it”.  According to Norman Goldman both Bill and Hillary need to apologise to Black Lives Matter.  I don’t see it that way.  Crime was a light higher twenty years ago than it is now and it would seem that the anti crime legislation back then was successful.  It sure seems that “Three Strikes” was a success here in California.   My word to Black Lives Matter would be that my remarks were generic and didn’t bring race into consideration.   Trump won’t pick any of the people he’s run against for Vice President.  Norman thinks Trump will choose Rudolph Giuliani for Vice President.   That’s too much “New York”.  Eighty percent of the Latinos are negative on Trump, and seventy percent of the Latinos are “very opposed to a Trump presidency”.  That’s worse than Romney did.   I went down during the 3:30 break and on the way up Bill gave me three cigarettes.  Bernie is losing two to one with Latinos to Hillary and he’s losing to Hillary three to one with Blacks.

 Shawn Hannity turned me off when he began summarizing Bernie Sanders’ campaign as taking from the rich to give to the poor.  Hannity also wants to remind us that “Corporations are people, my friend”.  He went on and on about how great and helpful the drug companies are as they sell us drugs that may harm us and that we don’t need, all the while falsifying their research and development numbers.  There is a big teenage hang-out party at pier 78 on today’s show.  Now Joe is attempting to smother Eva with a pillow as she lies in her hospital bed.

People wonder what the ultimate goal of the nation of Israel is, other than the second coming of Jesus Christ, or something.  I don't like phrases used by Shawn Hannity such as "Shoulder to shoulder with Israel" or "joined at the hip".  I just don't think it's healthy for one country to be so dependent on another that the first could not exist without the generosity of the second.  Israel should not be regarded as a 51st state.  I"m just offering you this article to accept or reject as you please.  It gives you something to think about.

However they want to address the issue, most people are horrified at the refugee crisis now besetting Europe, with its scenes of chaos, conflict, and desperation. Yet in Israel, at least one high official sees in it not horror, but hope. As Rania Khalek has reported:

“Dore Gold, director general of the Israeli foreign ministry, expressed optimism that the refugee influx will shift Europe to the right, making it more sympathetic to Israel’s ‘security’ justification for its ongoing colonization of Palestine.

‘Israel always faced the problem in the past that its national security perspective was completely out of sync with how Europeans were viewing the emergence of the European community and the borderless world that was emerging,’ the American-born hardliner told The Jerusalem Post.

‘In the European models that existed 25 or 30 years ago, it is kind of difficult to hear an Israeli argument. But now things may be beginning to change a little,’ posited Gold.

‘The European perspective is beginning to sound a little bit more like Israel’s perspective on security issues, compared to what it was in the past.’”

This is hardly the first time a top Israeli politician reveled in the great misfortune of an “ally,” hoping it will engender tighter identification with Israel. Immediately after the 9/11 attacks, The New York Times reported the following:

“Asked tonight what the attack meant for relations between the United States and Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, the former prime minister, replied, ‘It’s very good.’ Then he edited himself: ‘Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.’ He predicted that the attack would ‘strengthen the bond between our two peoples, because we’ve experienced terror over so many decades, but the United States has now experienced a massive hemorrhaging of terror.’”

Sharing Israel’s perspective seems to have a self-reinforcing quality. The US response to the 9/11 attacks that Netanyahu welcomed — 14 years of widespread, non-stop war and intervention in the Muslim world — is what caused the European refugee crisis that Dore Gold welcomes today.

(Note that throughout this essay, by “Israel” I mean the government and not its Jewish subjects. Any anti-Semites reading this looking for support for their bigotry can go jump in a lake.)

Like Israel (and often through Israel), the US has long projected colonialism and militarism upon countless Muslims, whether through direct force, proxy wars, clandestine subversion, or puppet dictators.

Like Israel, the US suffered terroristic blowback as a consequence.

Like Israel, the US responded with massive, indiscriminate violence and conquest, compounding the original problem of colonialist militarism, and leading to further blowback.

European governments have participated in that violence, and now they are also partaking in the blowback as waves of war refugees wash up on their shores.

As a result, scenes are now playing out in Europe very similar to everyday life in “Greater Israel” (Israel proper plus the Occupied Territories in Palestine): crowds of unarmed Muslim men, women, and children being chased, beaten, rounded up, herded, penned, and cage-fed like animals.

It is a vicious cycle and a cycle of viciousness. The more we adopt Israel’s perspective, the more we adopt its policies. The more we adopt its policies, the more we adopt its problems. The more we adopt its problems, the more we adopt its perspective. And around we go.

Of course Israel has done far more than passively serve as a model for US policy. By leading the drive toward a war on Iraq, its neocons and Israel Lobby actively grafted Israel’s foreign policy onto America. The long propaganda campaign diverted the post-9/11 rage and hysteria into a catastrophic war on an Israeli strategic rival that had absolutely nothing to do with 9/11 and posed no threat to American security.

On top of those killed, the Iraq War displaced millions, many of whom fled to Syria. There they joined hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugeeswho themselves, their parents, or grandparents were driven from their homes long ago by Israel directly.

Unfortunately for them, Syria is also hated by Israel. So, Israel-firsters in Washington have since helped make Syrian regime-change official US policy. In pursuit of that policy, the government has fomented and armed a rebellion that has plummeted Syria into a devastating civil war.

Actually, it would be more apt to call it an invasion than a rebellion or civil war, as the leading “rebels” are predominantly international Sunni jihadists, like ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, which is a branch of Al Qaeda.

That is how completely Israel-firsterism has hijacked the post-9/11 American rampage. In the latest stage of that rampage, the US has taken the side of Al Qaeda, the perpetrators of the very attacks that triggered the rampage in the first place, in order to overthrow yet anotherregional rival of Israel. This goes beyond “sympathy” to enthrallment.

As a result, displaced millions are pouring out of Syria (including many originally from Iraq and Palestine). And these comprise a huge part of the refugees pouring into Europe.

Western powers have been subverting, bombing, invading, and occupying Muslim countries non-stop since 9/11 (Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, etc), just as Israel has long subverted, bombed, invaded, and occupied Palestine, Lebanon, and more.

And now in Europe, governments are caging displaced Muslims and contemplating tyrannical measures to maintain “security” and “demographic purity,” just as Israel has done to the Muslims it has displaced within its own jurisdiction since its inception.

Moreover, the ultra-nationalism and Islamophobia that hasafflicted Israel especially since 2009 is now on the rise throughout the West, stoked in Europe by the refugee influx and in America by the atrocity films of ISIS: that spawn of the Iraq War.

Western governments have always been imperialist, and the Israeli government has always been a colonial appendage of the West extending into the Middle East. This was true even before its founding, when its paramilitary precursor trained under the wing of the British Empire. But now the tail is wagging the dog, and the Western imperial core is being radicalized by the demands of its militant frontier outpost.

The Washington-led West is becoming ever more like an occupying Global Israel, forever paranoid, exclusivist, imperious, and warlike. And it is turning the Muslim world from Mali to Pakistan into a occuppied Global Palestine, its people forever bombed, corralled, and at times driven to desperate violence.

War is remaking the world in Greater Israel’s own ugly image. It is therefore no wonder that homicidal racist colonialists like Benjamin Netanyahu and Dore Gold feel more comfortable in the brutal new world they helped create.