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.
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.
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.
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