Our Neurotic and Illogical Ideas about "What is Safety"

If you’ve bought a new vehicle recently, you may have noticed some “safety features” that strike many as Nanny State over-reach. You can’t change radio stations, for example, if the vehicle is in reverse. Who knows who or what you’ll run over in reverse if you were allowed to change radio stations while in reverse gear?

How many injuries can be traced to people changing radio stations while in reverse?

A friend recently told us that the California Legislature is considering a law that makes it legal for parents to let their children walk to school unattended.

Perhaps this is “fake news,” but it’s certainly plausible, given that leaving any child unattended is now viewed as not just irresponsible but criminal.

How the Free-Range Kids Movement Is Helping Parents Embrace Their Libertarian Side

The mainstream “news” is chockful of worried-looking news anchors announcing another e coli outbreak or recall of a consumer product, many of which now sport absurd warnings, including scary-sounding ones such as “This product contains chemicals known to the state of California to cause cancer.”

This is scary until you realize it’s on practically every consumer product in the state of California, which mandates the warning.

The narrowness of this obsession with safety comes into focus if we ask: how can a society so obsessed with safety have spawned an opioid addiction crisis that kills tens of thousands of people and ruins the lives of millions of Americans?

How safe are we when products that addict millions and kill thousands are readily available via prescription within our healthcare system?

While addictive illegal drugs have long been targeted with extremely harsh criminal penalties, how is it that the legal drug industry and the officially sanctioned and regulated healthcare industry created the vast destruction of the opioid crisis without anyone tasked with “safety” noticing?

How do we explain our obsession with relatively low risk dangers and our collective blindness to manufactured/marketed scourges that kill tens of thousands of people annually? (Tobacco and alcohol come to mind.) Then there’s the well-documented impact of rising wealth and income inequality on public health–for example, The Health Effects of Income Inequality: Averages and Disparities.

Several dynamics come to mind: the immense profitability of products such as tobacco and synthetic opioids, and the profitability of fear-inspiring content in terms of attracting eyeballs to media and social media engagement. Fear gets our attention and is thus a powerful marketing tool.

In other words, there are built-in incentives in our system to profit from dangerous products, and influence government regulators to overlook the dangers.

I also wonder if our narrow obsession with low-risk safety (warnings on everything, etc.) reflects a subconscious awareness of rising systemic insecurity, which we counter by regulating what can be easily regulated in terms of manufactured consumer products. This gives us a sense of control in a world in which our ability to control systemic risks is decaying.

Adding regulations aimed at increasing safety/reducing risk also gives elected officials an opportunity to say “we’re doing something useful here to protect you.”

It’s well established that our innate ability to assess risk is limited; we tend to exaggerate some kinds of risk (being attacked by sharks while swimming, etc.) and under-estimating other kinds of risk (eating junk food, getting addicted to prescription painkillers, etc.)

Faster Than Speed of Light Travel is Here

Chris Matthews featured the speeches of Mike Pence.  As Vice President it’s a major factor of his job to butter up President Trump and he has done an excellent job of doing that.  He says that President Trump has passed more legislation and more legislation that repeals government regulations than we’ve ever had in one term.  That’s nothing to brag about.  Pence is what is known as a Psychophant, or you could say “ditto head” because whatever the President says, Pence agrees with.  Giuliani has also been making some strange statement.  George Will has come out with statements critical of both President Trump and Rudolph Giuliani.  Because Giuliani used to be an objective prosecutor and governor, or that’s what we all thought. 

Will Power won today's Indy car Grand Prix on KABC.  Wasn't that Gordon Liddy's nickname in the old days?  He thinks it was.  I thought they would have NBA basketball because it seems this year I've been missing more games than usual and often ABC surprises me by not having them.   And we are in round two now but for round three, ABC sports has been doing a complete black-out.

Apparently that “Space” magazine said something today that we at the Federation have been claiming for thirty years, that psychic communication took place faster than the speed of light, or put another way, that the speed of light doesn’t matter.  Now they are claiming that sub-atomic particles “communicate” with each other over vast distances faster than the speed of light.  Apparently Einstein knew this when he was alive (though research on it didn’t begin till decades after his death so don’t ask me how).  Also that subatomic particles have “Free Will” and actually “choose” what state they are going to be in depending on whether they are observed or not.  Don’t ask me how.  But it plays into Hawking’s interpretation of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, which I have claimed he overly extrapolates.   At any rate it confirms that faster than light speeds are possible and it isn’t a pipe dream any more but is a scientific demonstrated fact with presumable repeatable results.  I just hope Neil Savedra gets the message.  As you know Neil Savedra is famous for making the statement that it is an iron clad law that nothing will ever be able to exceed the speed of light.

Marcee had a Sudoko thing from the newspaper and I looked at it and the thing seemed doable.  She explained to me again the criteria behind the Sudoko puzzles because I had forgotten.  I still have the games from Wendy.   The secret of course is to find at least one of the possible 81 numbers that you can fill in and be sure about.  If you make a mistake, catching it later on can be a real bear.  But I looked at this game and made the mental conclusion that it was doable and the courage to try again.  I went for seconds on the chicken and rice.  They didn’t have seconds on the salad, which had a lot of cucumbers and tomatoes in it.  We had strawberries and cream for dessert. 

I have more religious "Faith" being a back-slider than President Trump does being a supposed right on Born Again Christian.  We know that President Trump knows very little about the Bible.  His practices are certainly not in accordance with either the old or new testiments of the Bible.   I think when you've emersed yourself in Christianity as long as I have a lot of it rubs off on you whether you want to admit it or not.  But Trump's attitude toward Christianity is purely one of convenience.  It's "something you have to say" to pay your dues to the right wing, whose agenda has nothing to do with Christianity or even Calvinism.  I've told you I don't think Thom Hartman truly understands Calvinism.  The fact that so many professing Christians give Trump their undying support only shows that these people's "faith" isn't what they claim it to be.  After all in the book of James it says "faith without works is dead".  (Selah)

I watched Days of our Lives.  Victor seems serious about letting Brady know the true circumstances behind Teresa’s abandoning him.  To me it wouldn’t make any difference knowing the truth.  She was still acting like a heartless jerk and should have been honest from the beginning.  There was no news on the Abigail and Gabriel front.  In the afternoon I had snacks from Rico in the courtyard and had a graham cracker and red punch.   If that window gets too cold I’ll close it. 

President Trump News and other Personal News

I’ve heard about China’s total surveillance state and how they are relentless in fingering people who commit even minor infractions or minor fo-pahs.  In Sinjan it’s particularly bad.  I had no idea this remote desert region next to Mongolia was so heavily urbanized.  But there are cameras and police and look-out towers everywhere and all manner of electronic equipment that scans your financial profile and personal information.   The video is eight minutes.   Today during lunch we heard about Trump’s announcement of his pulling out of the Iran nuclear arms treaty and reinstituting the strongest sanctions.  Russia is not happy about that and neither are our European allies.  But Israel and Saudi Arabia welcome the decision.   Giuliani has hinted that Trump has made more pay-outs to women besides Stormy Daniels.  There are hints now that Trump may even dump Giuliani.  Last week Trump replaced attorney Ty Cobb with Emmit Flood, who worked on the impeachment campaign defending Clinton.  He also defended Dick Chaney Scudder Libby in the Valerie Wilson case ten years ago.  Of course now Trump pardoned Scudder Libby.  

This Snyderman guy from New York was a “me too” feminist supporter who went after various male chovenists.  However he mistreated women in private and physically beat two women and threatened them repeatedly and tried to control every aspect of their lives like he owned them.  I don’t like men like that.  Unlike Judy I value deeds over political posturing.  Even if I agreed with Trump politically I wouldn’t give him a pass on the sex stuff.  Then we have the West Virginia primary where this guy who talks about “China people” and “The Negro race” and is “More pro Trump than Trump himself is” - - this guy came in third.  He’s responsible for a whole lot of mining deaths and went to jail for it.  I guess in some states you can’t vote if you’re a convicted felon, but you can run for office.  Finally in California there is a rumor that solar panels on new homes are mandated by the State after the year 2020.  I guess that's OK but even now you still have to stay in your home four to five years for the solar panels to began paying off economically. 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a trip to North Korea to pave the way for Trump's meeting with Kin Jung Un in a couple of weeks.  As a peace gesture North Korea returned three prisoners and they were in good physical condition, at least.  That's better than that other guy who ended up dying a few days after his release.  But I'm concerned about possible war with Iran.  Fortunately we have posted a blog on that subject you should go and read if you haven't yet.  

Alvin came to tell me about the dentist appointment at ten after eight.  We still don’t know what happened to the internet bill.  I got ready.  At a quarter to nine I went down and sat in a chair and waited for Alvin to be ready.  He told me the appointment was really for nine thirty but the people at the dentist’s office said it was nine but there would be a few minutes delay and that it was OK to go out and smoke.  Signing with my finger didn’t work too well so they said I could use a pressure pen.  Then I used the restroom.  I met the blond in the hall and she showed me to my chair.   They used a lot of Novocain on me this day- - - I’d say a record amount.  But first was the “deep cleaning” on the right side- and a lot of picking.  In fact when I felt later there seemed to be a hole in one of my teeth and a lady said “It’s just receding gums”.  It was nearly ten before the work on the two root canals began.  They had planned to do three I thought but mercifully it was only two close together in the upper front.  My upper lip was so numb.  They took a lot of X rays.  They were done about twelve after eleven and took more X rays.  Then I went out for another cigarettes, which is a strange experience with a numb lip.  It was about 25 minutes to noon when Alvin showed up.  Mark was in the front seat.  I hurried up to the room to look in the mirror.  Actually I had a strange preminission they were going to thoroughly clean the room again today and part of my checking was to confirm that they weren’t.  But Nora apparently lifted the covers to see if there were any bugs.  We had curried chicken for lunch and brownish rice and peas.  We had peaches for dessert.  I went back for black coffee.  Mark had tea.   Actually the Novocain didn’t completely wear off till two.  I had the Gary and Shannon show on including “Draining the swamp”. 

On “Days of our Lives” it seems that one of Abigail’s alters knows she isn’t long for this world so “Gabby” said good-bye to Stephan.  The real Gabriel is still in a state of high anxiety fearing she might get mugged in prison again.  Vivian pulled a gun on Kate.  I went out for the afternoon snack in the courtyard and had two Oreos and a lemonade from Rico.  

Nora was doing our side of the hall but she began by doing room 201 on the other side.  She opened the door and I left soon after nine.  But she never did the room.  Instead when I returned a little after nine thirty she had started to pull the covers off and that’s all.  I feared that she had found more bugs and went to report it.  I saw a dead black bug on the sheets.  But it turns out they were doing major room cleaning in rooms 202 and 204.   This took all morning and into the lunch hour.  I went for snacks in the courtyard from Rico and got a lemonade and two Oreos.  I didn’t even have a pillow.  I caught Gary and Shannon before and after lunch and caught “Draining the swamp”.   I was out of cigarettes and prior to money draw I’d only had two cigarettes all day- - one was from Ron and the other was from Andrew.  I said to remind me and he fingered me in the stairway for that cigarette.   I didn’t even look at the menus because I was distracted.  We had breaded cod for lunch and white rice.  I didn’t touch the cauliflour.  We had fruit cocktail for dessert.  I caught “Days of our Lives’ and now we know the details of what happened when Abigail confronted Andre.  She’d overheard that Andre had betrayed everybody and this made her mad and she confronted him on it and was outraged by his response.  But she was resigned to leaving and telling others when Andre wouldn’t let her leave.  He grabbed her arm hard and I think he had her in a stranglehold at one point.  She broke away and used the nearest available thing to defend herself.   Meanwhile there was still no action on the bed.

I went in the afternoon snack line and got a graham cracker and grape from Rico.  I then got in the money draw line which had been called at a quarter to two.  But the line didn’t seem to be moving at all.  John Powell let me go ahead of her and Linda.  I got out of line and took off this long sleeved shirt because it was hot.  I used the bathroom and I smoked whatever butts I could find and got back in line.  The line hadn’t moved much but John let me have my original place in line.  Finally the line began moving.  Gabby was around all day.  When the guy in front of Paul went in she plopped herself right in the doorway blocking Paul.  Jennifer came out and gave Paul his money in the wheelchair and had him sign.  When I got in I learned I only had fifteen dollars.  I took it all.  I asked about Alvin saying he had given my internet bill to Jennifer because she often pays those bills.  She admitted she often did.  Jennifer said she would page me if my internet bill showed up in her mail.  I spent a lot of time out back smoking after I had gone to the store for full flavor Clippers.  I paid Ron the six cigarettes I owed him.  When I finally returned to the room it was after three and the bed had been made up and the bathroom fan and light were on.  I had to “catch up” on smoking cigarettes.  Just now Glen came to the door and wants two packs of cigarettes and a can of fruit cocktail.  I’ll leave right now.   They didn’t have fruit cocktail but they had sliced pineapple and maybe I should have gotten that.  Ben was there.  This morning we had a 4.6 earthquake in the early morning centered at Cabazon.

Mom's Funeral

I called Judy just after eight about the gathering and she said Marie said to allow two hours to get to Tim’s.  Paul and I didn’t think it would be that long.  Paul said he would be here “as much before nine as possible” but added that “I’m not ready to go yet”.   Paul got here at nine as I was coming out of the bathroom.  I decided to just wear tennis shoes in jeans because we would be walking over a lot of rough ground.  We made mostly good time to Tim’s except for a two lane closure around Imperial highway.  I didn’t notice the county line sign either going or coming.  We made it to Tim’s by ten.  We had a lot of time.  Marie wasn’t ready to come out quite yet.  Tim gave me this wild fruit mixture with a strange name and there was a marked residu at the bottom of the glass.  It reminded me of cloves and I don’t know what else.  I also had some nuts.  Wendy arrived and she said whenever she thinks of the Johnston family she automatically thinks of nuts.  I guess so.  Paul left just after eleven while I was in the bathroom because he had all of that paperwork to attend to.   It turns out a doctor’s note wasn’t sufficient to get me out of gym class, or in this case, to convince the VA or whoever that I am “disabled and can’t ever work”.  They said Dr Saran’s note wasn’t very professional and they may want some additional back-up.  Then Tim’s lady financial agent came over with the food.  She was attractive and friendly.  I was looking at her car thinking it was Tim’s new car.   We left for the cemetery about twenty to twelve and I rode in Tim’s actual new silver car.  I didn’t like the small of it- - for being a new car.  I sat on the seat belt and had trouble unbuckeling. 

I wasn’t sure we had actually parked but Paul’s car was ahead of us.  Then I went and rode in Paul’s car who was otherwise alone without Judy.   There was a guy in a suit and some other guy and we got the official going.  But first we all held the box containing Mom’s ashes for one last time- - with a five pound weight in it.  Then the guy buried it and put dirt and grass over it.  Then Paul delivered the service- - - the Bible sermon or message for the day which seems like it took about twenty minutes.  Wendy said “Mom knew she would be at peace after she died” but neither me nor Paul were convinced Mom was even “saved”, as they say.  We met up with Dee and Gene about the time we parked.  Gene took a lot of pictures of us and the grave site.  Then we moved on to Bob and Bonnie’s grave.  It was a short car ride but then a long walk across rough and long grass and lumpy ground.  The guy said the name of the grass but I don’t remember.  Eventually we got to Bob and Bonnie’s grave and Gene took more pictures at the grave site.  We finished up about one and headed back to Tim’s.   The weather was merciful because there was a breeze blowing the whole time we were standing there.  It wasn’t close to the 98 I feared it would be.  We didn’t actually eat till about a quarter till two.  There were sandwiches and a salad with onions I put thick Italian dressing on.  I grabbed a sandwich at random and it was turkey and avocado.   To drink I had a cherry and lime mixture.  (?)  For the second sandwich I had an Italian cold cut sandwich.  There was also fresh bread segments.  Then Gene said he wanted coffee and I said to get me some too while he was up, which he did.  Gene looked different.  His hair was a lot grayer than I remembered.  Dee actually looked younger than the last time I saw her.  Gene said that his daughter Cheryl still lives in Bob’s old house in Dana Point but that she’s still suffering from Epstein Barr virus.  They made reference to Dee’s nine year old grandson, Samuel, who is half Black.  Devin is now a professor at William and Mary College back east.  By now it was approaching two thirty and Dee and Gene had to make that long trek back to Santa Barbra.  They thought it would take four hours with traffic. 

After this we talked some more and then Tim showed us around the yard.  He took out a lot of the lawn on the west side and it was just rocks.  We walked around this walkway.  Then we went down the street to the neighbor’s house where Tim says we had permission to go through his yard and walk down the path way steps to the river at the bottom of the canyon.  Yes this is a river that runs all year long.   I almost stumbled on some of the steps.  My balance isn’t what it was.  It was a nice, secluded spot at the bottom with some shade and there were crawdads and other critters in the water.   Tim pointed out some of the foliage around the place and then we headed back.   Wendy was talking about her poor luck with jobs.  The volunteer place works her to death and her paying day job finds any number of ways to cheat her out of what is rightfully hers.  It would seem that she has three big things going for her.  Wendy is from a really intelligent gene pool.  She had a good work ethic and she has forty years of experience.  But it seems employers don’t want to hire a new sixty year old woman when they can hire on a woman a third her age and probably pay her less than Wendy would be expecting.  Wendy said that Grandpa and Grandma got a color TV before her own parents did and she looked forward to seeing her favorite shows in color.  This statement puzzles me considering how rich they were.  Later on Tim and Wendy were talking politics and the Trump administration.  But we also discussed the fact that they don’t sell CD’s in stores any more or even have CD players in cars now and various ways to work around it.  Oh- - Paul had brought a lot of Dad’s black and white blow-up photographs and I don’t know if Dee and Gene took any.  There was a box of Mom’s jewelry and also Mom’s stamp collection which I’ve heard from multiple sources isn’t worth anything.  Wendy said something about a nature preserve in SW Los Angeles next to Gardena where she lives. 

It was about a quarter after four when we headed for our cars.  I took a sandwich and some nuts and a chocolate bar in a baggie.  The bar didn’t melt but it was getting soft by the time I got home.  Paul called Judy.  Me and Paul had another nice conversation on the way home.  We may go shopping for computers tomorrow.  Paul asked me if I had strong feelings about moving out of this place and I said that I didn't.  Would my new "fund" cover higher rent.  I kept remarking how urbanized that area around Van Buren has become.  Tim’s house is now like an island of ruralness, with the occasional rooster crowing.  I didn’t know Tim’s street ended at the next house down the hill.  Did it used to go further?   Thank heaven for air conditioning.  It seemed to get hotter as the afternoon progressed.  Once again we had congestion right around Imperial highway and almost nowhere else.  We got off at Brookhurst and went past our old Junior High School and then jogged over and went past Savanna High and then our old church and we turned at Ball, which was too soon.   When I got home I ate the ham and Swiss sandwich and the chocolate bar.  It was about a quarter to six.  Channel four had an ice hockey game and KABC had the Eastern Conference semi-final between the Toronto Rapters and the Cleveland Cavileers.  Cleveland just barely won that game by two points after eight.  They had just blown two free through and Toronto took advantage and scored.  The room was hot when I got home because I had left both the drapes and the window wide open because that’s the way Nora likes it when she arrives.  Consequently I spent a lot of time out back, smoking.

I opened up the new jar of instant coffee with the air pumped into it.  It was sure hot in the room.  Tonight the medication line was of no consequence.  Actually there was no line and it was earlier than the previous night.  About twenty after eight I switched to some CBS crime show and at nine it was an NCIS rerun, I guess.  I watched this till a quarter till ten.  Paul remarked on the way home that it might be the last time we see either Wendy or Dee and Gene. When he first said that I thought he meant “We won’t be seeing Mom after we die because she’s not going to make it to heaven”.   I was paranoid.  It does give one pause.  Judy called me up during this evening and wanted to know about the trip even though I guess she could have found out from Paul.    Her Parkinson’s is a source of a lot of pain and we must keep her in prayer.  She can’t sleep at night and won’t take opiates because she says they make her nauseous.

Fifty Reasons Not To Go To War With Iran

1. There are over 80 million men, women, and children in Iran. Bombing them would be mass-murder.
2. If the U.S. government and its allies bomb Libya and Iran when their governments choose not to have nuclear weapons, you can forget about North Korea and the rest of the world choosing not to have nuclear weapons.
3. The longer the world has nuclear weapons, and the more countries that have them, the greater the likelihood of nuclear war.
4. We now know that even a small nuclear war can block out the sun, kill crops, and starve everyone on earth who survives.
5. Bombing people makes those who survive and many who care about them very angry, which is why the “war on terrorism” has predictably increased terrorism.
6. Bombing people kills many, injures more, traumatizes even more, enrages even more, creates huge numbers of refugees, and destabilizes the region bombed.
7. Bombing Iran will produce anti-U.S. and anti-Western and anti-Israeli terrorism.
8. Bombing Iran risks direct war between the United States and nuclear governments including Russia.
9. If you think people want to be bombed because of shortcomings and evil deeds of their governments, you’re not actually thinking at all; you don’t want to be bombed because of the shortcomings and evil deeds of your government.
10. If bombing nations made people better off and created human rights, earth would be a paradise by now.
11. Bombing countries is illegal under the Kellogg-Briand Pact without exceptions, and regardless of whether Congress “authorizes” it. Another country bombing you would be a crime regardless of which parts of its government “authorized” it.
12. Bombing countries is illegal under the United Nations Charter with two narrow exceptions, and regardless of whether or not the U.S. Congress does or does not do anything.
13. One of those exceptions is when the U.N. Security Council “authorizes” a war. It has not done so in this case and certainly will not. And doing so wouldn’t get you around the Kellogg-Briand Pact.
14. The other exception is “defense,” but if anything is not defense it is the bombing of a far smaller country half-way around the world that has not attacked or even threatened to attack your country.
15. Attempts to provoke Iran into attacking U.S. military forces near Iran (or to disguise some U.S. forces as Iranian and have U.S. forces shoot at each other, as Vice President Dick Cheney once proposed) does not result in an Iranian attack on the actual United States or any legal ability to claim “defense.”
16. Israel is not a U.S. state.
17. The Israeli government has been threatening, provoking, and lying about Iran for decades, which are not defensive behaviors.
18. Saudi Arabia is not a U.S. state.
19. The Saudi government has been threatening, provoking, and lying about Iran for decades, which are not defensive behaviors.
20. Iraq is not a U.S. state. It is the smoldering ruin of a previous war launched on almost identical and wholly dishonest pretexts.
21. Not only waging war is a crime, but threatening war is a crime under the United Nations Charter. The United States has been threatening war on Iran for decades, and any attack would follow that string of criminal actions.
22. The idea that the government of Iraq or Israel or some other nation could invite the U.S. government to wage war against Iran in and from its territory does not exist in written law and would not legitimize yet another war in the eyes of the world.
23. Gallup polling finds that in most countries out of 65 surveyed, people’s top choice as the greatest threat to peace in the world is the United States government. This needs to be countered, not exacerbated.
24. It is hard to find anyone in the United States, and even in the U.S. government, who can even name every current U.S. war, much less every minor military action the U.S. military is engaged in. This is a sign that something has spiraled out of control.
25. Including recent U.S. wars on Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, and Iraq, the United States military has, just since World War II, killed or helped kill some 20 million people, overthrown at least 36 governments, interfered in at least 84 foreign elections, attempted to assassinate over 50 foreign leaders, and dropped bombs on people in over 30 countries. In many cases, these actions have undone democracy. In none have they created or “spread” it.
26. A nation possessing prohibited weapons is no legal, moral, or practical justification for war. If every lie about Iraq in 2002-2003 had been true, it would have been no justification for bombing Iraq. The United States did and still does possess nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, and that doesn’t justify anyone bombing the United States.
27. The very same people who told lies about Iraq are telling almost identical lies about Iran. They’re counting on you to have no memory, no sense of judgment, no ability to resist fear mongering and fluttering flags. They’re counting on you to fall in line and obey like a drooling idiot.
28. In 2003, Iran proposed negotiations with the United States with everything on the table, including its nuclear technology, and the United States refused. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. government started angling for a war.
29. War supporters said the United States urgently needed to attack Iran in 2004, 2007, 2015. It did not attack. The claims turned out to be lies. Even a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate in 2007 pushed back and admitted that Iran had no nuclear weapons program.
30. The United States gave Iran nuclear energy technology and encouraged its use.
31. Iran was attacked with chemical weapons by Iraq, in part provided by the United States, and refused to use similar weapons in response.
32. Iran’s Muslim leader has forbidden the use or possession of weapons of mass destruction.
33. The CIA gave Iran slightly and obviously flawed plans to build a nuclear bomb, as part of an effort to frame Iran, and the man who blew the whistle on that to Congress, Jeffrey Sterling, was sent to prison as a reward.
34. The United States has imposed sanctions on Iran that have denied it green energy technologies and caused significant human suffering.
35. It is one of the worst possible ways to blame victims when a government imposes sanctions that create deprivation, blames the suffering country for suffering, and justifies war as a result.
36. Sanctions were used as a step toward war in the case of Iraq, and many in the U.S. government have been pushing for war on Iran since 1979.
37. These include lots of nasty old war mongers who do things like sing the Beach Boys’ “Barbara Ann” changing the lyrics to “Bomb bomb bomb bomb bomb Iran.” If we let them bomb Iran they will nevershut up.
38. The United States has been lying about Iran having a nuclear weapons program for decades, as well documented by Gareth Porter and other journalists.
39. The 2015 Iran nuclear agreement was not necessitated by anything Iran did. Iran agreed to tougher inspections than any other country on earth has ever agreed to, and those inspections have established that the agreement was not necessitated by anything Iran did.
40. The agreement was an alternative to war, which many in the U.S. Congress and media were clamoring for and demanding urgently. The failure to launch the war then or on any of the previous occasions when it was supposedly urgently needed has resulted in nothing but further evidence that there is no need for a war.
41. The White House has made clear that it wants to manufacture any possible excuse to abandon the agreement.
42. Eventually, after numerous broken agreements, the nations native to North America stopped making or believing in agreements with the U.S. government. The nations of the world will do the same, if the United States refuses to abide by its commitments.
43. Iran’s government is deeply flawed, but not in comparison with governments the United States arms and funds and supports.
44. The U.S. government facilitates weapons sales from the United States to 73% of the world’s dictatorships, and gives military training to most of them.
45. There is no correlation between where wars happen and where human rights are abused or democracy lacking or threats to world peace emanating.
46. There is no correlation between where wars happen and population density or resource scarcity or religion or ideology.
47. There is a strong correlation between where wars happen and where fossil fuels are produced.
48. There is a strong correlation between which nations launch wars and which nations import fossil fuels.
49. There is a strong correlation between which nations launch wars and which nations’ people accept war as a legitimate tool of public policy.
50. There is a strong correlation between where the United States launches wars and where that small number of nations remains that have no U.S. military bases and accept no economic dictates from the United States.     

Bill Cosby Found Guilty For Drugging a Woman

Bill Cosby was found guilty on three counts of drugging anad raping a woman.  Each charge carries a ten year sentence.  Cosby will be pretty old in ten years but of course he’s going to appeal the case.  Apparently he was not judged a flight risk so got bail.   But he did have to surrender his passport.   Norman Goldman says that the defense attorney made a bad decision being so hostile to other women in Bill’s life and the strategy backfired.   Goldman says to be subtle and just create doubt in some jurors.

Mike Pompeo was approved by 57 senators today and now will be our next secretary of state.  In any other time the vote would have failed because it takes a two thirds majority.  But the use of the filibuster has been very restricted today.   That other guy Ronald Jackson who was going to head the Veterans Administration withdrew his candidacy this morning because of the many scandals swirling around his case.  He gets drunk at parties and crashed a government car.  Co workers hate him and many people say that he is foul mouthed and with a bad temper.  They say it’s their worst employment experience of all time.  I’m glad the guy is gone and am puzzled why the previous guy couldn’t have stayed on at the VA because I thought he was doing a good job at cleaning up the mess there.   Meanwhile Trump had thrown Koehn under the bus.  He says “Well maybe he is crooked but not with me.  But he runs a lot of other business and these are probably corrupt dealings”.   This would lessen the likelihood of a Presidential pardon.  Trump of course is at war with his own Justice Department and thinks that Former FBI director Comey is a corrupt individual with "fake news".  

They spoke of a curfew of seven o clock being established for teenagers under eighteen.   I guess they’ll have to be with their parents if they want to frequent the malls in the evening.  There has been a lot of teenage fighting in malls lately so the sins of the few are being paid for by the many.   Is this a statewide regulation?  I guess today is officially “take your daughter to work” day.  They had that back thirty years ago. 

That Golden State killer guy, Joseph Di Angelo, was captured yesterday.  He had terrorized the whole state with rapes and false imprisonments and murders and such.  He had been at large for forty years but he was captured in his home with his wife while fixing a pot roast.   He is 72 now and his last crime was in 1986 and now he’s a 72 year old man.  DNA evidence is what did him in.  Thank heaven for modern science.  

On a personal note I was in Vince's room from Tuesday evening of last week till Monday afternoon of this week because my room was being fumigated.  My mattress was less than four months old but it already had a severe case of beg bugs.  

I still disagree with Stephen Hawking's chapter in his "History of Time" book on subatomic particles.  There are far better sources to get an understand of subatomic particles.   Also I think Hawking is exaggerating what Heisenberg meant by the "uncertainty principle" that came out back in the thirties.   Heisenberg meant it to say that you can't believe everything you see in the microscope because photons (and ether) are imperfect mediums of light transmission.  However Hawking takes it to mean that "nothing is certain" and "Not even God knows what's going to happen next; it's all random chance".  

Media Speculation that Kohen Will Turn State's Evidence

It seems there were rumors last week that Kohen, Trump’s personal attorney was going to “flip” on the President and turn state’s evidence.   Kohen has denied it.  If Kohen is pardoned he’ll lose his fifth amendment rights against self incrimination and been subpoenaed to testify and say anything and everything about the President and he’ll have no choice in the matter.  This must be weighing on President Trump’s mind as he considers a possible pardon.  Of course it was said a couple weeks ago that pardoning Scudder Libby was a message to Kohen that if he plays ball, all will be well.  The media can sometimes get carried away with a rumor. 

Mike Pompeo was approved by the Senate Foreign Relations committee today.  There was talk that the vote was going to fail because the democrats are so furvant and perswasive and if it failed that Senator Mitch Mc Connell would break with precedent and bring it to a vote on the floor anyhow.  Jurors in the Bill Cosby trial will be voting on the verdict now.  In Toronto there was a guy who mowed down a bunch of pedestrians on a sidewalk with his car.  My guess that it could be because it’s spring and the weather is warmer and people are out and about now.

Kate Middelton gave birth to an eight pound three ounce boy this morning.  The royal birth was celebrated with a lot of pomp and ceremony.  I had heard the baby wouldn’t be born till June.  But then on Saturday I heard that it was hoped that the baby would be born in time for the Queen’s birthday.  The new Royal is the fifth in line for the throne behind his older brother George, and his sister, Charolette, who is three and likes to wave to the audience.  Now the girls don't have to go behind every male heir as is the tradition.   In other news Bill Cosby won’t be testifying on his own behalf.  I guess that’s a wise move in this day and age because of our legal system and it worked for OJ.   In other news I got my “The Week” magazine, which talked a lot about James Comey.  It seems like it’s the first “The Week” magazine I’ve gotten on two weeks and probably more.

This waffle house in Nashville is in the news because yesterday morning there was this nude guy wearing only a jacket pulled a gun and allegedly shot only black people at the eating establishment.  But one brave customer knocked the gun out of his hand and the guy was Black and on the news showing modesty.   I don’t know what “message” the gun man was trying to convey.  He made his escape and was on the run but then they arrested him earlier today.  Of course if it’s a white guy they call him a psychopath and not a “terrorist”.  If he had said “Allah Achvar” then they would have called him an Islamic terrorist and President Trump would put the whole country on military alert.  Harley Davidson has an intern program where all you have to do is to ride around on a Harley for three months and then you get to keep the motorcycle.

Earth Day made the news yesterday.  In Chicago it has finally warmed up a little.  The temperature had been averaging around forty but now it’s averaging fifty-five degrees.  They say that it is cooler by the lake rather than away from it.   Bill, my roommate has bee