The US Economy May Never Come Back

              
What we have been seeing in the US economy has been a growing trend for quite a long time.  People remarked how long it took for us to recover from the Bush 41 recession of 1990 - 1992.  It took nearly two years from "the bottom" in January of 1991 to recover so that people felt it.  The first Bush 43 recession was a minor blip aledgedly caused by the business slow-down of the Twin Towers attacks.  And yet it took till about July of 2004 for the thing to really get going.  We are now entering the sixth, and I repeat - - sixth year is this current recession.  It you look at indicators this recession actually began in the late summer of 2007.  As I previously said- - this recovery is about as bogus as my "weight gain" that I've supposedly had in the past couple months.  It seems the harder you try to search out a positive trend, the more convinced there is nothing there.  All forms of government are continuing to retract.  Both Dr. Levy and Judy agree that there just plain IS no recovery, and if anything it's getting worse and WILL proceed to get much worse.  There is that "debt bomb".  Even Real Estate prices we are told that they have only "rebounded" to levels of 2010, when things were really bad.  Judy is saying there is a massive increase in energy prices in California due to a change in our laws.  We have "tax-mageddon" out there, because the Republicans and Democrats alike declined to vote on extending the "Bush" tax cuts, which I don't think should be extended to begin with.  It's funny how 'high" everybody says these rates will return to, but we had absolutely no problem with them under Clinton.  We had absolutely no problem with a seventy percent top income top tax bracket during the Johnson administration.  Now it seems "everybody" is being strangled alive by high taxes.  Judy even takes exception to people being helped out with real estate refinancing because "If they pay a lower rate, it means that money is being TAKEN from SOMEBODY who no longer has that money".  Judy says "You can't finance a debt by cutting interest rates".  I told her that if people stayed in their homes that the neighborhood value as a whole would stay high and not collapse.  Judy was unmoved by that argument.  The one time when OC real estate prices rose, Judy only says "That only means more multi rent partiers and dope dealers will be moving into a neighborhood".  Judy can find negative in even good news.  The debt will be high and whoever is president in January will have to take steps that will CUT economic growth just to bring down the debt.  For President Romney not only will spending have to be slashed, but also Romney has to figure in the cost of military spending for World War III with Iran as well as dramatically cutting taxes for his rich friends.  Judy said liberals were unpatriotic because they only think of themselves and not their Country.  And yet Romney will sell anybody out to China at the drop of a hat.  People like Judy think all of this economic pain and ramping up the Real Estate crisis and slashing programs for the poor is "The cure that is needed for this economy".  I think it's a foregone conclusion that if Mitt Romney is President when this Recession escalates into a full blown Depression, which Mitt Romney plans to do at the drop of a hat, that President Romney will end up being the most Despised man in History ever to occupy the office of President of the United States. He is unquestionably the Worse nominee of any Party since Warren G Harding, who only got the job because he "looked Presidential" and as a man who "looks like he should be President".  Or as Anne Romney has often said "It's our turn now".

We are told that four times the number of people Left the work force in the last reporting period, as actually found jobs.  It was some network which claimed that "This unemployment rate will be manipulated down to 7.9% by the time of the election, by such means.  People like Gringrich say that millions upon millions have left the work force in the past four years and that "If as many people were in the job market now as five years ago, our unemployment rate would be more like eleven percent".  I guess we have to take him at his word even though that figure of a "reduced work force" makes absolutely no sense.  So where are all those people going?  Those on the right tell you "to government programs, as the safety net turns into a hammoc for them".  We are told that "fewer and fewer Americans are supporting more and more freeloaders and non producers", though I'm as a loss to come up ANYTHING that Mitt Romney has Produced in his life because a lot of heartache for newly laid off unemployed.  There is something fundamentally WRONG with this economy or it WOULD have recovered years ago.  Mom was optimistic in December of 2001 the economy would recover soon and back then in late 2011 and early 2012 I had high hopes that the ongoing "recovery" would continue right up through the election.  But it hasn't.  Nobody has any inclination to want to spend money on anything.  According to Judy it't just this 'tight with a buck" attitude that will be an essential ingrediant in reducing the debt and as a "consequence" of lower debt, the economy will recover.  This is what Mitt Romney believes that lower debt Per Se - - will itself be the instrument of this economy's recovery.  Personally - - I don't see how.  Mitt Romney is even more clueless than the President or Ben Vernanke as to how to spur an economic recovery.  If it's not occurring, it's not occuring.  It doesn't matter how long the Fed Chairman keeps the printing presses on - - .  Because according to Judy "The rich, the job creators, are afraid of all the new Obama taxes and regulations and it doesn't make a bit of sense for them to risk their money".  I can't follow that logic either.  People still think Mitt Romney is Thee Man with sufficient Experiance to cure this economy of its ails.  Now I learn Dr. Levy is doing a college level course on comparitive economics between the writings of Adam Smith and Karl Marx.  It takes little extrapelation ability to envision that class as turning into a highly political diatribe and how one's grade could be determined by how strongly you agree with Dr. Levy politically, in the multiple written treaties students will be required to write for that class.

Two ideas are long overdue.  One is the elimination of the electoral college, as a means of selecting US Presidents.  This is because the entire "Battleground" is confined to about ten states, which the candidates visit over and over again to the utter neglect of the other forty.  This isn't right.  It isn't right that their votes should determine the race and our votes for all practical purposes count for nothing.  By the way may I suggest it's Ben Vernanke's perogative to slant his Fed Stimulus in favor of Obama since Mitt Romney has openly stated that he intends to fire him.  I pointed out to the group last night that Health Care cannot be repealed unless the Republicans take sixty US Senate seats, and this they are highly unlikely to do.  The other thing that is long Overdue is - - that it's time to repeal the Death Penalty in California because it clearly isn't being enforced.  Now there are seven hundred people on Death Row and only a couple dozen people have been executed in thirty years.  It makes absolutely no sense to spend those millions with separate housing, and knowing that more men die in Death Row from Old Ages than going to the gas chamber.  Polly Klaus's father may say that "The murder wins" in such a case.  But he's still in jail and will rot there till he's pushing up daiseys.  It's no victory for him.  Of course now they have this DNA technology and Richard Perry has clearly executed innocent men in Texas and has absolutely no second thoughts about it.  Mitt Romney's perception of this last week in his campaign is "There IS no problem".  Romney intends to change NOTHING about the way he is campaigning because Romney insists he has not fallen at all in the polls this past month, and that he's still on track to win in 44 days.

MORE WORD OUT-TAKES:  David Gragory said that he’s invited President Obama to appear on Meet the Press but Obama hasn’t accepted yet.  I said that it could well be that even in the Presidential Debates themselves they will do much as Judy intoned.  They will be a “big club” with a common pool of questions and topics that they seldom vary from, so that the Debate itself could be more pablum than real substance.  I hope not.  I would like a wing nut like Judy making a fool of herself asking the President one of her lame-ass questions.  Judy keeps talking about government jobs “stealing from the economic pie” because Judy believes rigidly in a finite amount of wealth.  I tried to point out to her at Mom’s the good Franklin Roosevelt did with the TV A and all but she wouldn’t hear it.  It’s ironic however that also discussed was the fact that Paul and Judy had just paid off their mortgage because Mom refinanced the thing at a lower rate.  I would not care to venture how many thousands that saved them on a - - two hundred thousand dollar house, or whatever.   But I’m the freeloader.  Judy maintains that the only “way” out of a recession and to insure proper economic stimulation is to be tight with a buck and never spend anything on anybody.  It doesn’t matter to her that many of her ideas are contrary to Jesus’ teaching.  She’s way past that.  I told her about Paul Ryan speaking at an Ayan Rand meeting in 2005.  At first she thought I said “only read her books” but then I made myself clear.  She said, “It’s still nothing like President Obama being brainwashed with communism and anti colonialism by her mother.  And then she divorced her second husband because he loved America too much”.    I can think of other reasons why he might divorce her.  Would - - race - - and economic status perhaps figure into it.  How do we know the husband was not the instigator?  Judy says she knew that Mom was becoming “distressed” living in the Laguna Hills house in early 2009.  I was thinking like Paul that having a “Dad photo memorial room” was not a bad thing at all, since you already own the house anyhow.  Why would Mom be “distressed” at reminders of Dad’s presence?  We children take comfort from it.  

Dripping with Racial Hatred

This is Sunday September 23, 2012, the first full day of fall.  I’m going to discuss the visit to Mom’s last evening but I’m going to depart from tradition and not do it in strict chronological order.  Meet the Press is having their round table right now discussing whether Mitt Romney has any morally redeeming qualities.   I guess the question is if you've got 250 billion is it an unusual thing to learn that you contributed to Charities.  Judy in an attempt to twist my words I was remarking how Romney had done what he said he would NEVER do and that is to pay MORE taxes than he owed by not taking the full amount on his charitable deduction, other wise he'd have paid only nine percent in taxes and not fourteen.  Judy jumped on me saying "What is wrong with taking deductions for a charity"?  Paul immediately corrected her saying she's missed my whole point.  It would be highly unusual for someone that rich NOT to give to any charities, and we'll forget for the moment all those me made unemployed or caused to die from cancer from lack of health coverage.  We'll also give Romney's attack on "lazy people' even though Romney hasn't had a job since 2006, or that he "quit" the job he had because he was a. bored with it and b. wouldn't have gotten reelected anyhow.  Judy's onslaught commenced when she called me up and said there were even MORE links waiting for me including one on how the President closed a coal mine (throwing people out of work) and apparently the President is closing coal mines in favor of natural gas production, which is cleaner.  Judy went on to talk about cap & trade and how global warming is a gigantic hoax.  Judy says "a scientist told her".  Dr. Levy also believes Global warming is a gigantic hoax.  There was another site where Rush Limbaugh says that "since Obama eliminated the work requirement for welfare the number of people getting food stamps has doubled".  I guess the question is- - - not how Mitt Romney will reach the 47% but rather how can WE reach these people who live an some alternative political Universe where they make up their own facts?

As I got up this morning one thought that hit me that is a bad symptom of “disassociation” was “You know I ought to call Mon today because she wouldn’t believe the whole tone of last night’s gathering with Paul and Judy was just dripping with prejudice and drenched in racial hatred”.  Then it dawned on me – “Oh yeah – that WAS Mom last night”.  But you wouldn’t know it because she offered little to no blow-back to any of the torrent of pure tea party clap trap remarks delivered.  One would not even be able to know whether or not Mom intends to vote for Romney from what little she said last night.  Here is another mentally disassociative factoid.  It dawned on me this morning that asking her for money for the next week, which I desperately need because I’m virtually out of funds- - completely slipped my mind.  Some invisible friend by my side would quip, “She talked endlessly about her accounts of a hundred thousand here and two hundred thousand here and five hundred - - Thousand dollars of Chevron stock - - and you FORGOT to mention that maybe she could help you with money.  I’m like that sister of Morris in “The Heiress” where I was clearly in need of funds and my brother had just gotten a fat inheritance and not given me a penny.   David Gregory has gotten tougher on the Romney campaign this week than he was last week.  He’s talked about the 47%.  Paul did not try to disguise what Mitt Romney was saying.  He concedes that Mitt Romney had made it clear that this 47% were a bunch of bums and no-counts with their hands out to the government and not worth worrying about in the campaign.  But then Paul, voice somewhat rising in anger says, “Yeah- - and so how can the President say share the burden when these 47% refuse to participate in any of it.  What Obama wants to do is throw on their tax burden on the one percent” that Paul strangely seems to identify with as the “victim” in all this.  There was a lot of talk of Judy as victim of government beautracy and regulation, and of the tax system.  As such it’s pointless to even debate with Judy because she makes the whole thing not about the issues, but about herself and her whole life and everybody she knows, who of course agree with her on the issues.  Judy was talking about some meeting she was at just after the 9 – 11 attacks where there were mixtures of all treligios groups.  And Judy just happened to be sitting next to a Moslem and - - supposedly he told her “The reason why we are so full of hatred against the United States is that they support Israel and our primary goal is to destroy Israel”.  I find it hard to believe that was actually said - - then.   Paul was reading a Time magazine article while Mom and Judy were in the bedroom with the computer.  He was reading all the various articles about what reporters thought of the melt down in the Romney campaign.  Interestingly Time magazine used my term of “Melt down”.  The date of the magazine was October first.  But the problem is unlike fifty years ago nobody reads Time or Newsweek.  We traveled by the usual rout to the Freeway down Cerritos and detouring to the left at Disneyland to Ball to get on.  I talked abouit the avalanche of web links Judy had E mailed me over the past couple of days.  There was one with Glen Beck saying that China is going bankrupt itself and therefore can’t continue to support our economy and may pull their own loans to raise money.  The people want to Riot because of the economy so the government is proving “make work” jobs building stadiums that nobody will use.  Judy mentioned the High Speed railroad in California here that is a government boondoogle nobody will use.  I told Judy that four and a half million private sector jobs were atted to this economy under Obama and her response was “They don’t count because they’re all temporary government “make work” jobs”.  There was talk about China trying to foment a war with Japan over some islands.  There was the Fed Chairman’s turning on the printing presses and “never turning them off” because there is no exit date for this latest round of stimulation.  But none of this FED stimulation does the least bit of good and it’s all debt because as Judy says “There is only a finite of wealth this country is capable of producing and is one person gets it, it’s only as the price of stealing it from another”.  In that case the word “another’ is short hand for “rich person”.   When we got there Mom was really worried about her finances and these high pressure salesmen at the bank who had tried to foist a brokerage account on her, which my Mom doesn’t need because she doesn’t trade stocks.  They wanted to put her in a low yield mutual fund but “Reserve the right to withdraw any charges and other fees that, basically, suit our fancy, and we may do it automatically without your approval, or necessarily even notifying you”.  Judy gets an A on how she handled this particular situation.  We got there maybe ten after four, but talked for quite a long while before dinner, which I understood was really early- - but I had no watch and don’t know when.

We took the stairs down going past one elevator I forgot was even there.  As we entered the dining room I got a case of nerves, butterflies in my stomach.  They had a buffet dinner, which is unusual.  I got in line and had salmon, and I accidently took two large filets, and also this “turkey cold cut roll” which looked like some Mideastern style wrap, and some artificial brown rice- - - tastes like rice but it isn’t.  I went to the salad bar and got a lot of coleslaw, and what I thought was a raison & something salad, but it turned out to be “black bean” and also some potato salad.  With all this food in front of me I again began feeling just a little ill, like I was really coming down with something and Paul said ‘Just relax” and I did and the anxiety slowly went away.  I had chocolate ice cream the waiter had bought.  I went to the table and also picked up a piece of sweet zucchini bread, and a lavish chocolate cup cake.  I had two cups of coffee.  By now I had completely regained my appetite but never did eat the coleslaw.  We returned to her room for the second round of the hate fest.  Again there was extensive talk about her many accounts with different banks.  Later it was established that the women do the finances in most marriages.  I can assure you in MY marriage- - - I DO the accounting.  I wouldn’t trust it to my wife.  Mom mentioned how much weight I have lost and how I used to be a lot heavier than Paul but now I’m obviously lighter.  Even after this meal I only weighed not quite 155 points.  My “weight gain” is looking as bogus as the Obama recovery, it seems.  Everybody agrees the recovery is non existant.  Governments are continually cutting back new programs.  Judy again said California’s problem is that taxes here are too high and jobs are being driven out of the state.  So in Judy’s world our problem is that “Things need to get a lot worse at a lot faster rate- - - we have to feel the pain of our debt”.   But some of the worst racial remarks were saved to near the end.  There was talk while Paul was reading tha Time, that “Our problem is that protests have never been this bad in the Islamic world and it has absolutely nothing to do with this anti Islamic film anyhow.  After all what’s the deal with this Islamic film anyway?  But our problem is weak leadership in this country and these protestors think they can “get away with it’ because there is no strong hand from the United States keeping them in line”.  So in Paul and in Glen Beck’s world the entire Moslem world from Moracco to Indonesia, is that they are all a bunch of unruly children who need a firm hand to keep them in line”.  But then just a little later Judy says “I know the whole problem with the Islamic people” referring to - - again over a billion of the world’s population.  Shje says “The Bible says that they were born to be wild Ass Men and that their hands would be upon all their neighbors and every man’s hand would be on them.” And she goes on, “After all for this very purpose of Evil that God created them in the first place”.  So in her world her own race, the Armenians, were slaughtered at the specific will of God.  So why isn’t Judy as equally loathsome of God as she is “The Islamic world”?  These last few remarks Stewart Sutcliffe was there, cloaked of course, listening to it all and was so insensed he told Mal Evans right away.  But he didn’t stay all that long.  Anyhow at aroud seven Mom turned on her TV and I noticed that the color picture was cranked up to vivid.  But Mom says “I forgot to checkmark what I usually watch”.  After a while Judy expressed a desire to leave, which surprised me because lately when we’ve been coming for dinner, we usually stay till about nine.  But it was fine with me.  We took the elevator down.  I remarked how much larger their elevator is than the one at our place.

 Apparently Mom doesn’t pay $35,000 a year but more like sixty thousand in rent for that place a year.  Of course her place is top of the line.  And Mom quip that even with all that expense- - her assets continue to grow each year and she pays a major amount of taxes.  Paul wondered aloud how Mom could parley such a modest salary as a state worker grunt into a major money making machine.  And don't tell me it's "deferred compensation".  Mom has not worked in 25 years but supposedly she will continue to receive this "compensation" in EXCESS of her salary, untill she's ninety.  That's a pretty good parlor trick.  And I said “If she wrote a book and told the world how she did it- - she’d be a very popular person”, and Paul added, “Yeah, and she’d make even more money”.  So again the best talent of parents that outshines them all, is their sheer ability to make Money multiply.  Even Mitt Romney could take lessons from them.  In fact it could be argued that parent's selfishness exceeds that of Romney.  Traffic was pretty light going home, even along Katella where there are sometimes problems.  We got here about five to eight and Paul had suggested I hurry in and get my watch and take it down to him, and he would take it to a place to get the battery replaced.  But on the way up here Fredrico flagged me- - and I took my medication and got a peanut butter sandwich.  The weather was actually quite warm - - - hot - - yesterday.  I came out of this air conditioned room at twenty after three and was flabberghasted at how torrid it has gotten in just the past few hours- - and a little smoggy, too.   Of course I thanked them for the transportation and left.   Bill had FOX rather than ABC on, and they were reviewing the days football games.  Mal Evans called it "a much better weekend than last because USC won and UCLA lost" and that's the ideal situation according to Mal.  But I still maintain because of last week's loss to Stanford that USC's season is basically toast, anyhow.

Romney Campaign Undergoes Total Meltdown

Today is the last full day of summer and it's also the day the Mitt Romney Presidential campaign does a "Christine Di Mira" for you "Days" fans of 1996.  To use a John Kovelt term it's "circling the drain".  First of all we have his 2011 federal income taxes now and we learn that "ordenarily" he would have paid only nine percent on his income this year, but he decided to deviate from his usual procedure and not carry one profitable account over- - so the figure is thirteen percent down from 13.9%   MSNBC has beaten out FOX news in the overnight ratings, and Ed Schultz has beaten out Bill O Riley in the over-nights.  But also today one of Romney's sons, Tag, I guess, married to Jen - - had one of these in vetro surrogate type arrangements going for their grandsons.  The trouble is there is a lengthly abortion contingency clause in that contract.  The parents can decide in case of genetic damage or other health consideration for the baby, most likely if it has Downs Sidrone.  They don't want any Rosemary Kennedy cases on their hands.  The surrogate herself has absolutely no say over whether her fetus she is carrying is aborted under such instances.  Only is the surrogate feels her own health is in jeopardy may she decide alone whether or not she wants to have an abortion.  I'm just asking you how you think this will play in the deep south.  Also I'm told today that Romney thinks he should be president because of a Church prophecy called the "White horse" prophecy where one of their own is destined to be President and they needn't have a position on anything because "God will tell them what to do" once they get into office.  If course if you're in the classic - - oh I don't know - - Baptist school of Bible exogesis, you know that the antichrist will be a Jew and that the white horse is this antichrist, who will offer the Jews a false peace - - which in coming years will be taken from them. This of course raises the whole idea of why anybody in the Deep South, you know those poor 49% " "tax freeloader" states would want to do with a Mormon to begin with, and let's face it.  We didn't want a President who is named either 'Mitt" or "Willard" to begin with.

Paul Ryan spoke before the Ayan Rand group in 2005, which is not that long ago.  The thing is we have a tape of that.  When the Democrats make a charge against the Republicans- - we've got the goods.  We've got the video.  When the Republicans make a charge against the Democrats like that eight percent unemplloyment thing- - there is absolutely no evidence Senator Obama ever said that.  But here again the topic of his presentation is also of note.  This day Paul Ryan spoke on the virtues of Privatized Social Security.  Remember this is in 2005 when President Bush was pushing it.  I guess the question is where Paul Ryan stands today on Privatized Social Security, and would we believe him even if he told us?  Good question.  Paul Ryan was booed today when he spoke before AARP, or the American Association of Retired people.  And there weren't a few nay sayers, it was a loud clamor of boos.  Paul Ryan's topic of the day was getting rid of Obama Care.  They booed him when he began talking about that bogus 750 billion that Ryan says is being cut out of Medicare and that he and his plan somehow wants to save.  Once more I'm not sure how many people in the Deep South are aware of Paul Ryan's devotion to "The Atlas society", a society named after Rand's biggest novel.  Paul Ryan brags that he required all of his office interns to read Ayan Rand novels.  But Ryan also says "I have found Ayan Rand a marvelous source of knowledge about life" and such.

Apparently the Senate is in trouble with a lot of Veterans groups because the US Senate yesterday refused to vote on some Vetterans bill for jobs.  They defeated the bill on the grounds that it "wasn't paid for" when it was paid for because there are a lot of uncollected charges like for tax freeloaders, that President Obama intends to go after to pay for it.  The funny thing is that the Wars these vetterans fought in to even NEED attention from the VA, those were NOT paid for and were "off line", meaning they weren't counted in the budget.  This explains why Obama's deficet figures are so high in comparrison to President Bush's.  But then after they return as broken and spent men in need of a hand, then they say "Oh we can't pay for you to get a paying job and become a productive member of society and pay taxes and help to stimulate the economy".   But it seems that both the Senate and the House are both "Done" now before the election in November.  Randy Rhodes likens the US Senate to a private Club, but she likens the House to a Kindergarten.  "They are always in recess" she quips.  Clearly it's a case of a "Do nothing Congress" and if I were President Obama I would repeat that phrase till it was ringing in their ears.

The space shuttle landed for the final time at LA International Airport today and I saw the two craft there on the runway in live TV coverage.  This is a historic day for the space program.  In other news KPOJ is hyping the UCLA Bruins playing the Oregon State Beavers on Saturday.  Personally I can't get past the idea of a football team named the "Beavers".  USC will be playing the Golden Bears, and I'm not even going to venture a guess as to who will win that contest.  Last weekend did as much to shatter the illusion that was USC football, as this week's events did to shatter the Romney campaign.  UCLA may be the hope of Los Angeles for this year because their 3 and 0 season is still intact.  I think I told you about the massive fraud and waste that was discovered in California's State College program that's causing tax payers thousands of dollars for sheer waste.  I will probably be seeing my mother this weekend.  There are new health concerns voiced by someone who specializes in doom and gloom, so I want to find out for myself.  Of course that little skit Randy Rhodes did about her mother- - about paying for her mother's I Phone is a scene that no doubt will be played in many households this weekend.  Randy's point is well taken that paying eighty dollars a month for an I phone is a bargain compared to paying for her health insurance, or unexpected medical costs with no health care coverage at all.  Every person in the "sandwich generation" should think about this when they go to the polls in November.

Sometimes you rout for someone till flaws develope in their personality and you become disenchanted and want to work against them.  When Judy first said she liked Romney in early 2008 I was inclined to agree with her.  I didn't know much about about this son of George Romney but I was inclined to take him at face value as a nice moral Mormon and a guy with a lot of experiance and business sense, and a political moderate in temperment as well as philosophy.  Boy have I had a learning experiance!  But you've got this Chad Di Mira guy on Days of our Lives.  He's freaking out over this ex con named Nick and believes if he and his soon to be wife don't leave town in the next few weeks "It will all be over" or something.  He wants to get married two weeks from not and Melanie is a little beside herself.  She's just now getting to know her father and grandmother and step grandfather for the first time.  Victor Kiriacus, the step grandfather, is dead set against this marriage to a Di Mira, understandably.  It's almost as of those posessive, obsessive criminal genes are kicking in now.  It's one of those truths of life that in seeking to avoid the very thing you dread - - your own actions will actually hasten the very occurance of that thing.

Space Shuttle Endeavor Lands at Edwards

The Space Shuttle Endeavor Landed at Edwards AFB out in the Antelope Valley north of LA for the next to the last time - ever.  Tomorrow is it schedule to do a "tour of California" like flying to cities up north before returning to LA International.  There after a few weeks it will go by street to the Exposition Park Science Museum.  Of course in that time they'll have time to cut down those two hundred big trees in Inglewood that there is so much contraversy about.  People ask, "why can't they just take the wings off?"  They say they'll plant two new trees for every one they remove, which will be of some conselation - in another fifteen or twenty years.  It's a piece of "space history".

Tomorrow the I Phone V goes on sale at eight o clock in the morning.  I don't see how they can allow lawn chairs and even lamps and generators in these store lines.  Of course Loretta has her little chair thing that she sits in in Money Draw line, before taking forever once she gets inside.  The I Phone V of course will be your eight megabit screen.  But according to Leo Le Port this is no improvement over the latest release out now, which is news to me.  I thought the 8 meg screen was thee major breakthrough of the I Phone V.  Leo only says "The screen will be longer and it will contain one more row of icons".  The funny thing is, though you can walk into any store and buy one tomorrow, those with pre orders have been told they won't get delivery on their I Phones for several weeks.

In the Battle of the Videos, now there is a "contraversial new" Video heralded by FOX news, that is seemingly less than a minute in length- - the whole thing is just a little longer but FOX edited out all the parts where the President seems to modify or contradict the part FOX wants highlighted about a "re-allocation or redistribution of government resource funds".  This photo is just another desperate move on the part of FOX news to set up a "false equivelency" situation.  Meanwhile You tube won their right to keep that anti Islamic video up because the actress who brought a court suit and asked for an injunction to take the video down, was denied on several constitutional grounds.  Now of course there is that sickening new cartoon thing in France that shows the Prophet in various states of undress.  Of course this time the protests throughout the World will be aimed at France and not us.  In terms of the political race itself, Ed Schultz gave a great little pep talk this morning on his show about how poorly Mitt Romney is doing.  However I would feel a whole lot better if President Obama actually opened up a double digit lead on Romney.  As long as Romney is within striking range he is a threat.  There is talk that funds may be reallocated away from Mitt Romney if the Presidential race looks hopeless and instead put into various Senate and House races, which could bode even worse for the Democrats than if that hadn't happened.  Of course with each new week brings another bombshell of a news story.

I'd like to give my own blogs a plug in saying that you should really read old postings and previous months.  In fact most of 2011's blogs are very good, too.  You should read those, but at least try and read all the postings of the past twelve months at least.  Tonight we had meat balls with tomato sauce over tube pasta, and Dora made it around the room with seconds.  We had strawberry ice cream for desert.  Then I had a second meal from Olivia in this room.  She had a hamburger for me where about a third of it had been sliced off, and more than one bag's worth of French fries.  I had a little lemon lime to drink, and later I had one piece of chocolate and a mini cherry tart.  I need to gain all the weight I can, you know.  My muscles are looking- - - shriveled or something.  I don't see why every man shouldn't take a testosterone supplement once he gets over fifty, in this day and age.  It's a cure all for just about everything that ails a man.  I'd like to do it.  The down side is an increased rate of prostate cancer, which could be really bad of course, because your dick could never be any firmer than a wet noodle no matter the stimulation, which would be too horrifying to contemplate.

The Credibility Clock -Ticking on Charles Payne

Charles Payne is Bill Handel and KFI's personal economist.  I never really paid much attention to that fact and more or less assumed that he had credibility on the subject.  It turns out that Charles Payne is about as credible on economics as Dr. Levy.  What he said in that ten minute segment of KFI was about ten percent economics and ninety percent tea party politics.  He said that higher common stock prices didn't matter because "everybody got out of the stock market during the past five years, so the topic is irrelivent".  Payne who is 180 degrees out of phase with ANYBODY in the know in finance, says that stock prices are only relevent when you're getting stock tips from the local Cab driver.  He claimed that the Federal Reserve chairman is goosing up the money supply to "cause inflation" which emphatically not true.  That Vernanke wants "Higher stock prices, higher gold prices, and higher energy prices".  I have a news flash for you.  These prices are already up.  He goes on to say "Everyone sold real estate and put their money into safer T bills".  Who's dumb-ass idea was that?? The tea party?  T bills won't give you squat these days.  Judy convinced my Mom to sell her home at the bottom of the Real Estate market bu coming up with stuff about "She fall twice while alone in the past six months.  There is no telling how long she'll last".  Of course since moving my Mom has never "fallen" again despite using the stairs (which the other house didn't even have) all the time- alone.  Nobody with any sense would have sold stocks in the early months of the Obama Administration except a tea party member debotee.  Then there is the idea that China's economy is inherently a lot more stable than ours.  No.  The reason why Vernanke is raising the money supply is the same as always, which is to encourage banks to lend to poor people, which they haven't done.  And if poor working class people have the money they will invest and spend it, and put that money into circulation to help other people and stimulate their business and prompt THEM to hire, and so the positive cycle will carry forward.  Hopefully a few of you reading this will be a bit more Educated now.

Interestingly the 2000 election could have swung on one event.  If Illian Gonsolez mother had lived, history might have been different.  This was the six year old boy who made it from Cuba to the United States drifting on a life ramp accross the Gulf of Mexico in a ninety mile trek. We all saw all those pig-like Clinton FBI agents carting Illian Gonsolez out of his home and forcing him to go back to Cuban communism.  Just think how the Cubans in Florida might have voted differently had Ilian Gonsolez's mother lived.  Of course in my case the election of 2004 swong in my mind on a few major issues.  One was that the economy had "taken off" in the past few months.  Another was that fake memo that got Dan Rather fired that alledged President Bush dodged the draft.  Another was the Bin Laden video, which was like a George Bush campaign commercial in its effect.  The other was the swift boat people who had served with John Kerry and said that Kerry was a fraud and never fought in Cambodia even though Kerry said the events were "siered into my memory".  Also there was a woman here named Helen who died a few days after the 2004 election, who reminded us that "all those people were just pot smoking draft dodging cowards" and the like.  Also they kept raising the Alert level to Orange.  Again this is me and MY vote we are talking about.  Prior to this- - I was seriously considering the claims of the liberal democrats like Howard Dean, who made an interesting case that we should withdraw our troops from Iraq.  Prompting this whole line of thought was a guest Stephanie Miller had on her program this morning who said that all of the Romney gaffs - - as many as there have been- - has not significantly impacted the voter profile of America and that "The race has been and continues to be very Close, as it has been for many months".  You can't argue the veracity of his Logic.  As BIG as the events of recent weeks have been it still isn't the 'Ilian Gonsolez knock out punch" that will turn this election to our side.  As such Romney's donors have not pulled out.  He points out that if the race were becomming "one sided" it would be a case where "the media smells blood" and gangs up on whoever is behind and finishes him off.  Romney still has a lot of defenders in the guise of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O Riley, and our old friend Charles Payne- - who is to economics like that female star on FOX in "Mob Doctor" is to legatimate Doctors.

A single payer medical plan is inherently more efficient.  Many people are "put on Salary" when the people who hire you don't care about your immediate productivity.  I learned this distinction back in Criss Business college.  I remember thinking "Gosh, people on Salary have it pretty cushy- - don't they?"  So if you put a Doctor on Salary he gets paid no matter how many "procedures" he does or does not perform on the Patient.  If the patient doesn't die, the argument goes, then he's doing his job OK kind of like Dr. Saran, who is kind of one of those "laid back" kind of doctors I like.  It's really called common sense or "horse sense" - - a sense Doctors used to have about their patients.  Clearly this "Fee for Service" bit is kind of a racket.  Because it encourages these "procedures" whether they are needed or not, and cutting out or short circuiting the whole "fee for service" system- - would dramatically bend the Cost curve.  People in France and other places figured this out long ago.  And the sooner we do here, the better.  I believe "single payer" indeed is the wave of the future.

All you math people should know that 8 x 19 is one fifth of 40 x 19.  This is for those of you who have read relevent portions of the past two posts.  8 x 19 would bring you to 152 or the year 1860 if you subtract it out.  This would take you to the Civil War.  Back then James Buchannon did NOT have forty seven percent of the people lined up already to reelect him.  You had in fact four people running for President that year including John C Breckenridge- - - and also a representative of the "Know Nothing" party which I believe put up retired General Winfield Scott.  And of course this other guy from Illinois was running- - who had had little political experiance.  Ronald Reagan.  No.  It was Abraham Lincoln.  Then as now Race was at the forefront of the national dialog.  Those people had John Brown.  Today there is Travon Martin.  Back then a recent court decision said that People were Property.  Today we have a recent Court decision that says that Property has equal rights and "personhood".  Interesting, huh?  Now they say that Mitt Romney is so frazzled he has "bad hair days" and is not looking quite as neat and "buttoned down" as he used to in Public.  Back in 1960 you had a President in power who believed you could "kick the race issue can down the road".  Some would argue that like Buchannon on race- - President Obama doesn't want to really tackle the "hard decisions" that must be made about this Economy but would rather just "reinflate the wall street bubble' and kick that can a little more and hope the M 80 inside of it explodes on someone elses' watch.  President Clinton warned us that "We should tend to the debt now, while interest rates are still relatively low, because it will be a lot harder later on".  My point, exactly.  Paul Ryan's whole plan is based on kicking the can down the road and sticking it to the next generation.  But 1860 was also a time of consciousness raising.  And I believe today we are all too jaded and numbed out.  We have stopped thinking.  Fifty years ago we had a far more liberal climate in the intellectual and news media than we have today.  Just think about that.  How can we have retrogressed in fifty years.  The same thing happened on the race issue in those days.  Slave territorial issues that were "Settled' in 1820 were reopened again by the Courts - - like an old wound that never really healed.  I don't believe Either presidential candidate has adequately grappled with the really vexing issues of this era.

Quentom Leaps Forward

First let's start off with an article on ABC news tonight.  They found a small swath of manuscript saying that - - well, Jesus says of Mary Magdolane, "She is my wife.  She will be my disciple".  There is another passage of scripture I read long ago in this same Di Vinci spirit that goes "The disciples wondered why Mary was allowed to mingle freely among them.  And Jesus knowing their thoughts said unto them, "Ye should rather ask yourself, Why do I love her more than I love you?"   In another little "Ah Ha!" moment consider the following nugget of truth.  Jesus said 'Ye are the salt of the earth.  But if the salt loses its savor, how it shall again be made salty again?  It is good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under the foot of men".  What's "wrong" with this phrase seemingly is that rock salt "losing its saltiness" is a chemical impossibility.  Salt is not chewing gum.  Sucking on it does not make it lose its flavor.  This is a chemical impossability.  If we are indeed the salt of the earth as Jesus also says, then it follows that nobody can "lose their salvation" once they have obtained it.  (Selah)

A hundred and twenty nine Mexican prisoners broke out of a prison in Dallas by constructing a tunnel, and then bumping off a guard and scaling the fence to freedom.  Or perhaps the story was just being carried from Dallas and the prison is actually in Mexico.  Maybe this is another error.  The government is hunting them down now.  I believe the prisoners were part of a larger division in the prison for drug cartel offenders or something.  It's amazing how many "tunnels' of all kinds are discovered every day.  Hope springs eternal.

The situation in Afghanistan has gotten notibly worse with that car bombing bringing killing all aboard.  This development caused an American officer to order a pull back from the latest scheduled offensive which he insists is only a temporary state of affairs.  It does bring into question whether the Obama administration will be able to stick to that 2014 withdrawal date we set.  The Romney forces would just love it if things got worse.  But all the President would have to say to end it right there is, "It might be necessary to postpone our withdrawal date of 2014 a year or so".  This would help the President.

Jeopardy tells us that the first moon rover was driven on the moon on July 31st of 1971.  This would be on the Apollo XV voyage if I'm counting right, or one launch later than Allan Shepherd was hitting golf balls on the moon.  Driving a four wheeled vehicle on another heavenly body than earth is certainly a most momentus event.

Apparently there is a Disneyland right here in the US, in Florida, where they are now serving alcoholic beverages to the public.  This is in a Sleeping Beauty resturant where they will be serving French wines and German and Dutch beers.  It's just another case in which "the old barriers are falling" and the long standing "wholesome atnosphere of Disneyland" is being eroded away.

Apparently the in thing now for thieves is to steal I Phones.  I don't know why Smart Phones in general wouldn't do just as well, but the story said it was I Phones the criminals want to sell on Craig's list and E Bay.  They said that one third of all personal assaults where things are taken, is the stealing of I Phones from Old Ladies and young single mothers preeocupied with things like baby strollers.  But now the company is fighting back, with technology that will report the I Phone as stolen, and make the I Phone completely useless.

In terms of that recent post in the blog "For the Record" the last paragraph merely states a fact that there are times when the flookish event is the one that indeed does happen, but the important thing to remember is that it IS a flook and cannot be generalized into a principle.  Certainly not a principle you base Christian Salvation on.  Last night in "Mob Doctor" they had this fourteen year old virgin with her hymen intact who was in fact pregnent.  The presiding doctor said it was a case of "Outer-course conception" where penetration does not even need to occur but the ejaculate can be like that Luke Skywalker star ship that shot right through the most vulnerable spot- - and destroyed the death star.  I bet you never heard the Imaculate Conception expressed in Star War terms before.

I would like to talk a little more about the Mayan calendar.  I am correcting calculations with a later edit.  If you sync up the solar year with the Venetian cycle with the lunar-solar synchronization you come up with a grand figure of 19 times 40 which makes 760 years, which takes you to none other than the year 1252.  Now knock eight off of this.  "Eight" is a number you may use - only once, in a pinch with both Venus and the Moon.  (with Venus you can use it all the time)  That number is a "five" numerologically, or 752.  This calculation therefore takes you to the year 1260.  This year astrological calculations for the sun, moon, and Venus would be identical provided you used the abstraction of the Gregorian calendar and used today's system of constelation rendering.  Marco Polo was born in the year  1254 and as a young child (the article said six or seven) was taken on a visit to much of Asia including China where in his Book he claims to have met with Kubla Khan.  Or at least the adults traveling with Marco Polo did.   Later at age 17 Marco Polo embarked on a sourgern in China that lasted 22 years or something and brought back many riches.  I guess this is where he said "I have not yet told you half of what I saw". I would assume these riches included typically Chinese items such as fireworks, silk, tea, and their unique metaphysical and religious ideas.  But as it was pointed out he failed to mention for instance either chop sticks or foot binding of women.  Experts have tried to explain away this omission.  Our key here is December of 1260 which would indeed be 752 years ago from this December, and also the coincidence of the solar, the venetian and the lunar cycles in a manner that rarely occurs.  The Venus cycles are easy to figure out because they run in forty year cycles.  The moon always does its thing in nineteen year cycles.  So it would stand to reason that the first inter-steller traveler might be alive now, living as a young boy.

Fighting for our Political Lives

• April 12 – Galileo Galilei convicted of heresy by the Roman Catholic church ^[1]
• June 22 – The Roman Catholic church forces Galileo Galilei to recant hisheliocentric view of the solar system: Eppur si muove (Italian) (Which, in fact, he did not say).
• Cambridge opens up a division in Arabic studies sometime this year of 1633
• 19 X 20 would be a significant figure in the Mayan calendar.

Let's start with the major headline of the day and this is the very reveling video of Mitt Romney talking "candidly" with his fund raisers.  In the piece he says he can never hope to get the 47% of the voters who's come rain or shine vote for the President because they are "dependant on the government" and "freeloaders' and "victims" and the like.  Rush Limbaugh missed the whole point of the video in saying "I know Mitt Romney cares about those 47 percent and would love to reach them and liberate them from their dependancy" and all of that.  This is NOT what Romney said.  Mitt Romney was clearly writing off nearly half the American population if the most rosey scenario comes to pass.  This is what he was approsing his donors of.  This video comes to us via James Earl Carter IV, grandson of the President who likes to do investegating of this sort of stuff in his spare time.  He got a hold of that MMNBC guy,  David Corn, I guess, who works for Mother Jones.  The original person who shot this video's identity is still a secret.  Essentially Mitt Romney is buying into the idea that there is at most a six percent undecided vote, and polls indicated most of these, too, are already in the Obama camp.  Of course it's the Red States more so than the Blue States that are guilty of "sucking off the government teat" and who have the positive money flow to their states.  Will Mitt Romney close loopholes for the rich such as subsedizing the offshoring of businesses and making foreign accounts illegal?  Or more likely will he go after the Middle Class on areas such as mortgage deductions and earned tax credits and all of that?  We have a partial answer 30 years ago from President Reagan.  Reagan eliminated credit card interest deduction for the average consumer out there.  The rich don't need "credit cards".  They can pay cash.  Also there were things like taxing unemployment benefits for the first time President Reagan instituted for the poor.  But Mitt Romney said many other shocking things.  He said if he were Hez Bellah he would steal some fissionable material and blackmail this government by threatening to set off a bomb.  If you want to hear strange stuff don't listen to a five year old saying "If I were God" but rather listen to one of these Evangelists.  As bizzare as Jehovah God's interractions with man are in the OT as far as striking with leporacy and hemmeroids and cracks in the earth opening up and swallowing people and throwing giant boulders from Heaven at Jericho- - - the typical Evangelist thinks God is too soft and would add to this list of attrocities.  There is an old saying of "Get the other guy before he gets you" and if Romney is this suspicious of Iran- - what schemes of his OWN furtile imagination do you think he's dreaming up of his own?  And then we have of course the idea that a PLO state, Palestinian State on the transjordan would be impossible and if a secretary of state suggests the possability Mitt's Response if "I don't want to pursue that one".  And then he fawns all over this Chinese sweatshop factory that employs young single women saving up a dowery to get married.  And there are like twenty to a bathroom and they sleep in big dorms and work for almost nothing and are surrounded by barbed wire and guard towers.  He is told "Oh, this is because people are dying to get in there".  And Mitt listens and is astounded and his friend from Bail Capital says "It seems like a wonderful set-up to me".  And the thing is that Mitt Romney owns factories like this.  As you know during his trip, Mitt Romney said something like "The reason why Israel has ten times the GNP of the Palistinian Territory is that, "The Arabs just don't have any business sense, or something.  It's just not a part of their culture.  So he's ignorant on top of everything else.  Someone today said 'If there were to emerge a video of Mitt Romney playing a prominent role in a Black Mass, it couldn't possibly do him any more damage than the videos that are already known about him".  That's a real sobering notion.

We are fighting for our political lives now.  We cannot afford to lose one more election, just like the first war Israel loses will be their last.  President Obama, as impecable as he is in his private morality- - knows the slightest flaw of mistep could be the end of his political carrier.  Now there is this right wing Voter Monitering group in Texas and other areas that ride shot gun over the election booths to "insure" that no unauthorized voters get a chance to vote.  So you have to cast your vote in the booth, within eye shot of these self appoint Goones.  Of course like I say if Romney is only saying he'll have at most a three percent margin- - then obviously he's worried he could lose the popular vote and the more cheating that can be done, the better.  Of course Stephanie Miller had that democrat from Virginia who is running up against Eric Cantor.  He's a Colonel or something and a very accomplished, not to mention articulate fellow.  He knows Spanish and French and translates them, and is also a specialist in decripting secret code.  Again he is intelligent, articulate, and well spoken in the expressions of his issues on all the relevent political issues.  We have to field WAY superior people to the Republicans though in order to have a chance at winning this thing.  We need every vote.  I don't know if the average person even has enough sheer imagination to envision how bad things will be for the average lower class person living in America if Romney gets elected President.

Prince William is understandably pissed about this paperatsi taking candid photos of Katie lying out on the beach of a secluded island, topless.  Here is a case, unlike a Mac Donalds case involving spilled hot coffee, this is a case there the punitive fines SHOULD take this guy for everything he's god and put him out of business.  The imense ammount of damage this paperatsi has done to the British Royal family is immeasurable.  Actually if it happened in this country that someone got that close to our President to take a picture, he may well get shot as an violator of presidential security I wouldn't want to be in Prince Williams shoes facing some jerk-off who is hawking candid photographs of my wife.  We need to restore a sense of propriety and decency in this society or else we are in grave danger of descinging into Anarchy.  And just by the way- - these corporations that regarded paying off law suits as "just another cost of doing business' may I suggest they aren't being penalized Nearly enough?  It seems that Mitt Romney is so shaken up by bad press he has candled today's campaign appearences.

Proposition 32 here in California is really bogus.  It comes off as a campaign finance reform bill but it only targets labor unions and other associations liberals belong to.  The rhetroc of the yes on 32 is openly anti Union.  And yet it seems to exempt "the very groups who are sponsoring the proposition", which should come as no surprise.  Today I updated the template of this blog.  I am endeavoring to make all of them a little different.  But I'd like to keep Soap Opera of Life the way it is, with its "Monet Moment" because I updated that more recently.  Money draw came two hours early today, coming just after lunch.  But I'll still be up a creek without a paddle next week.  I still have a good coffee supply.  You know if parent's remarks to kids were scrutenized they would come off as silly.  For instance if a little kid doubts the story of Santa and his sleigh and reindeer he might well protest that "But Mommy it doesn't usually snow here".  Or if a kid is using too much salt what if the mother says to him "Why do you need salt.  Are you a sand dune?  Are you an ocean?  Why do you need salt?"  Or how about this one.  You're in a squadrin of fighter planes and all of you have been hit at least once.  And Joe says to George "George you better eject now.  Everyone else is doing it".  What if George came back with the retort of "If ll the other kids jumped off a cliff would you do it too?"  Silly, huh?

We may not have to worry about cracks in the earth opening up and swallowing people.  However one thing that was bit in the news last year but has been completely Ignored this year is that date on the Mayan Calendar of December 21st 2012.  I told you that this would be a good signal for progressives because I believe the opperative interval is 380 years.  I stand to be corrected if that's wrong, but my hunch is that's the correct interval, which takes us back to the year 1633, which doesn't mean anything in itself but it was during the thirty years war, which was basically a war on the Holy Roman Empire, which was neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire but was "founded' by Charlemeign, whom Joe Drisco says could neither read nor write.  I wouldn't know.  As you know it was around 1648 when the British Common Law rights were expanded to citizens of those we know today such as trial by jury and the right to cross examine witnesses and the right to compulsary witnesses on your behalf.  These were quantom rights forward.  Forward is a good word.  Kepler was revolutionizing astronomy.  The germ of "industrialization" even with water paddle wheels, commenced about this time.  Descartes was the first to introduce "psychic consciousness" of a sort with the expression "Cogito ergo sum".  Of course Newton would soon come along to revolution the fig industry.  Wrong dude.  No.  He would be indeed the first "motion relivist" who once and for all refuted Aristitle's notion of the "Unmoved first mover", which as you know was the philosophical foundation of the Cosmology theory of God's existance.  So in truth it was the very Foundation of Belief in God that was shaken by Newton.

I went to that new "senior topics" class meeting for its second week.  That lady was talking about new words in the dictionary.  She mentioned “brain freeze” which isn’t some memory block thing or writer’s block or “analysis peralysis” that Mark Bove talks about, but rather those spike headaches you get between the eyes from ice cream too fast.  There was also “ear worms”, which has nothing to do with Star Trek of the Wrath of Kham, but rather songs that get in your head and you can’t stop humming them all day long.  And “bucket list” isn’t things so dreadful they make you barf.  No.  A bucket list is a list of things you want to do or accomplish before you die.  She also spoke of Craig’s list and trading a big red paper clip for- - eventually a movie contract.  She did not bring up as many topics today.  I got there at a quarter to two and the class ran till about ten to three and Sarah served coffee in the room about two thirty.  I got the feeling she was going to talk about “work on the brain” and how troops allow people to experiment on their brains because they’re so desperate.  Of course they are constantly doing experiance on severing the bridges between hemispheres, surgery they perform for some epiliptics, and effects on Alzheimers in old people, as well as brain exercises that delay the onset of the disease, and there are effects of educational stimulus on the very young, and which hemispheres light up under which stimuli.  And she had this little exercise about words beginning with the letter “R”.   Apparently there are certain things that are easy for the average individual that are a major challenge if not impossibility, for someone with brain damage.  Arleen was very astute today in class.  All of that reading she does really pays off.  I envy her discipline to read all those novels.