Legal But Still Not Legal

Well those of us who thought we would have "arrived" with marijuana legal have another think coming.  Because you can't smoke marijuana out in public.  You can't just sell some weed to a friend, and they can't serve it at parties, at least legally.  I guess it's a question just where and how you can use it.  Of course you have to be over 21 to buy it so that lets high school and college kids out.  And I'm still not sure what happens now if you have marijuana in your car when a cop stops you.  And now there is this Church that uses marijuana as a sacrament.  Sounds like my kind of church.  I need some drug to "find peace and tranquility".   There is that song, "Don't worry; be happy"  I should be content and "happy" now that I have economically been "delivered" from ten years of having my back up against the wall financially.  It was almost exactly ten years minus a few weeks.  But I still have these symptoms of stress like restless bowels and a touchy stomach like I had a couple days ago.  I wake in the morning and have an anxiety attack.  I am beseiged with all of these random, anxious thoughts.  I can't relax.  Marijuana would solve a lot of these problems, perhaps.  I've thought about buying one of these little 99 cents plus tax airline bottles of vodka and saving it till the first thing when I wake up in the morning and downing the bottle and then I'd be prepared to face the day.  Really the country is prospering economically like it hasn't in a dozen years.  People are hiring more for the Christmas season with seasonal employees.  More people are quitting their jobs now because they are confident they can get a better one.  There are more openings for jobs than there are people to fill them.  And the best thing of all is that wages are headed up.  And yet with all of this- - I still feel anxious about my health and getting older and whatever. 

The Christian Church really isn't the friend of the common man.  Steve Harvey yesterday was saying "If you keep on doing what you've always been doing then you get what you've always been getting".  Just hen you are used to a prayer meeting that goes twenty minutes they raise it to a half hour.  And just when you're used to a half hour they raise it to 45 minutes.  It seems like you can "never get used to being a Christian.  You can't "out patience" God.  You can never wait him out.  You can never answer the question of "How humble do I have to be and for how long- - until God sees I'm really humble and considers me worthy to get my prayers answered".   There were other issues I was going to raise about the church but they'll keep.  I did want to say thing about heaven.  We're all supposed to have heaven as our goal.  Some would say heaven is like the ultimate "new frontier".  If the old west was exciting to explore and took a certain kind of rugged individual, and if space travel were the ultimate "New Frontier", what about death?  Shouldn't that be the ultimate frintier?  Oddly enough- - No.  Listen to what Christian themselves say about heaven. It's a place of "eternal rest" or sitting on a cloud with angel wings and playing a harp.  Or else it's endlessly praising God and thanking him for our salvation.  There is a hymn that goes "When we've teen there ten thousand years bright shining as the sun,  we have no fewer days to sing God's praise than when we've first begun.  Gratitude is fine but ten thousand years of it could get a little boring.  I heard something on one of these TV "Supernatural" shows that struck a chord with me.  They said "Oh heaven is no big thing.  There's nothing there, actually. It's all just living on people's memories.  And so when Chuck Smith or Mark Bove talks about heaven- - they speak of remembering family life and loved ones.  We are rejoycing in our children and grand children, which I don't have.   At least with my own "after death" visitations from people like Mal Evans, Stewart Sutcliffe, Richi Vallenz, Kurt Cobain and Dennis Wilson- - most of my "encounters" with these people aren't based on their past lives but on revelations I've gotten.   If we get the notion that heaven is all just "memories" once again these could get boring after- - oh, say ten thousand years or so.  We were still coming out of the ice age ten thousand years ago.  It just seems almost narcicistic- - - - that our smidgeon of time here in planet earth in the here and now could provide the central focus for an eternity of happiness, or that what we do at some evangelical rally could shape our destinies for an eternity. 

Paul Manifort was convicted on eight of eighteen charges last month with more charges to come.  Now Manifort has struck a deal where he pleads guilty to two more charges and that’s all.  These are “conspiracy against the United States” and “Obstruction of Justice” and with those two more charges he’s let off on the previous eight according to Dorthey.  But he has to testify before Muller’s commission and if they don’t like what they hear they may recind the deal.   All of these peole are testifying before Muller but there is never any pay off.  There should come a point of critical mass where it all explodes and the full charges under investigation hit the newspapers.  It was stated earlier that even if Manifort, or Trump for that matter, get a pardon, then they no longer have fifth amendment rights and can be questioned on anything and they will be charged with new charges of purgery if are caught in a “purgery trap”.   Now we hear that Judge Bret Cavana (sp) molested a girl when he was still in high school.  I heard another story that he transported a female accross a state line for sexual purposes.  Others are saying that Manifort STILL has to serve time on those eight charges he's already been convicted on.  That could alter his decision on whether he wants to cooperate with Muller.  He may decide it's not worth it.

Today is Friday September 14, 2018 and the LA CO Fair has two more weekends to go.  They won’t start the new TV season till the week after next.  But Halloween is in full force in Disneyland.  I think they are hopelessly rushing the season.  Summer isn't even over for another week.  We're still celebrating Jewish Neayear now  We have a mini heat wave in progress.   Summer reruns are still in evidence.  Mexican independence day is celebrated tomorrow.  And they're trying to get us in the mood for Halloween?   Maybe they could wait at least until the regular baseball season is ended before coming to us about Halloween.  

President Trump Has a Whole Different Definition of Treason From the Rest of Us

The latest news is that President Trump is not only reminding people of how “great the response was” for Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, but now he’s saying that it was the democrats that inflated the death numbers from sixteen to nearly three thousand all to make the president look bad.  In some ways Trump reminds me of Michelle.  They both have a highly immature, simplistic way of relating emotionally.  One must question the higher mental capacity of both.  He makes issues of things that only serve as distractions of what he wisely should be talking a bout and that is the prospering economy.  Trump doesn’t know a good thing when he sees it.  Also Trump appears not to know the proper definition of Treason.  He doesn’t see capitulating to the Russian Mafia and Putin’s machinations as treason, but he sees personal disloyalty to himself as treason.  He sees his own person as “the country”.  He has no concept of government of the consenting voters by a mandate to do this or that.  All he knows is that he’s in for four years and he does whatever his addled mind can congure up in that period.  Thom Hartman was saying that Trump may foment a war with Iran just to get his poll numbers us.  People speak of a “gathering storm” where Trump is concerned.  But I fear it’s not the gathering storm around Trump’s time in office, but rather a gathering storm signaling the death of democracy.   I wish Muller would get off the dime and come out with his final report and be quick about it.  Because time is ticking away.  And people are getting lethargic considering “this” we are expeeriancing now as “the new normal”.   This is the same way the people under Nazi Germany regarded the eroding of rights in that country as “the new normal”.  Each step leads to a slightly worse one.  I don’t know if the American people still have the will to rally and vote to impeach President Trump by voting democratic in the next election.  It doesn’t matter which democrat they vote for- - just as long as the democrats have a majority to vote out articles of impeachments.  Now we hear Stormy Daniels may be coming out with her own book.  She’ll probably have someone write it for her.  I haven’t seen sales numbers on Woodward’s book or read any post release reviews of it.

.  The problem with Days of our lives is that it’s a show now in continual crisis.  Ever since John and Marlena’s aborted wedding it’s been one unmitigated disaster following hard on the heels of the last.  It’s Samantha and Susan and Christine and Marlena’s shooting and Paul falling through the window.  Now they say Paul may never walk again.  Daughter Bell has a document notorized by Marlena that she doesn’t want any heroic life preserving measures to be done.  This document is as good as a death authorization and John and Eric think Belle should just forget it exists, which sounds to me like a pretty good idea. 

They’ve been talking about Hurricane Florence for the past few days and they’ve been saying it would arrive Friday morning at eight AM.  Now they are saying that the curse has turned southward a little into Charleston, South Carolina.  They have a mobile truck saying that the evacuation was mandentory.  Other officials have been calling it a monster storm and not to be messed with.  The storm was downgraded from a Cat 4 to a Cat 3. That was yesterday.  Now it's been downgraded again to a category two with only 115 mph mile winds, which is still pretty strong.  But it's the water inundation people have to fear with over thirty inches of rain scheduled in the next week or so.  This is the biggest storm to hit the area since Hurricane Hazel in 1954.  

Today it was Eye Witness news and then the live ABC network news.  We all know how bad the storm is and the “outer bands” of it are already affecting the outer islands of North Carolina.  They will be inundated with water.  We had a submarine style turkey sandwich.  Of course it was just a thin piece of turkey and some lettuce and cheese.  There was no mustard or vinegar or bell pepper, olives, tomatoes, onions or anything else.  A guy came around with some mustard.  It improved the flavor and it settled my stomach, actually.  We had amberosia for dessert.  There were also cooked carrots.  Dorthey said that it was too early to have dinner and she’s saving hers and has vinegar for it to punch up the flavor.  I still haven’t had those box donuts from last night.  I’ve been waiting for my stomach to settle down.  It’s time to post something.  I know I don’t have anybody reading my blog and maybe that’s affected my readership numbers but maybe if I came up with something interesting, people would. 

America Is Turning Into A Dictatorship

I'll be doing my own posting of my own ideas tomorrow but right now here are a few observations by someone else.  I hope I don't run into any pasting problems.  I did run into a problem but hopefully it's fixed now. 

Eric Zuesse

America is a country in which dollars count far more than voters do, and that’s what all of the data shows. And that’s a dictatorship by the richest.

This kind of country, this kind of country, and this kind of country, get this kind of President. And the rulers blame it on the public, instead of on the billionaires, the actual rulers themselves (the behind-the-scenes rulers). These rulers selected the politicians and offered those to the public to select from in ‘elections’ — and they then blame the public for the choices that the public make, from amongst these bad final options that the aristocracy has provided to them.

Billionaires despise the public, and have no intention of allowing the public to have better leaders than this — but they allow the public to have only leaders who serve their bosses, namely, those billionaires themselves.

Any teacher who says otherwise is simply contradicting the data. The data are clear on this: America is a dictatorship by the few richest under 1%, over the many more than 99%, who are commonly called “the public.” It’s an aristocracy, and it’s run like one. The public’s loyalty to this dictatorship — to this aristocracy or rule-by-the-richest — is retained by the deceit of calling the public “citizens,” instead of “subjects” (like in the bad ‘good old days’), but the reality now is that they’re subjects, not citizens.

Citizens exist only in an authentic democracy. Subjects are merely the people against whom the aristocracy’s laws are imposed. Subjects are not citizens. The aristocracy’s media spin them as being “citizens” in a “democracy.” Almost all of the public are fooled by that lie.

Like former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has said of today’s America (with such honesty so that none of the major ‘news’ media reported it):

“Now it’s just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or being elected president. And the same thing applies to governors, and U.S. Senators and congress members. So, now we’ve just seen a subversion of our political system as a payoff to major contributors, who want and expect, and sometimes get, favors for themselves after the election is over. … At the present time the incumbents, Democrats and Republicans, look upon this unlimited money as a great benefit to themselves. Somebody that is already in Congress has a great deal more to sell.”

When a foreign government is a dictatorship by the aristocracy, it’s called an “oligarchy,” but when one’s own nation is, the term that’s supposed to be used is instead an “aristocracy”; and so Carter was here referring to his own country in the way that only foreign aristocratic dictatorships are supposed to be referred-to. That terminological usage might have added to the shock-value, but none of the major (i.e., none of the aristocratically controlled) media reported his statement, in any case.

Can the Brett Cavana Juggernaut be Halted?

This is Thursday morning September 6, 2018 after breakfast.  I was just checking all my books on Watergate in my bookcase.  I guess it’s “The Final Days” that features the story of Nixon walking down the halls talking to pictures of the ex Presidents.   Stephanie Miller today was talking about Donald Trump being afraid to venture into the Oval Office without others because he was afraid the office was haunted with all of the ex Presidents like Johnson and Reagan.  If we believe all of the news stories lately President Trump is having a major mental breakdown and is unable to govern so they have a shadow government of Trump’s aids conspiring to “keep the country going” because Trump just is too detached from the real world.  There was a letter to the New York Times talked about on ABC news that was run as a major print even though the letter was unsigned.  This seems strange to me.  ABC and others have quoted from this letter extensively so the American people know well what is in it.  This is one day after Bob Woodward’s book quoting all of those administration sources such as Mad Dog Mattis and Chief of Staff Kelly, both of which deny the quotes attributed to them.  I don’t know what to think.  I feel like I’m in the twilight zone and we’re all re-living the summer of 1974.  If people wonder why I haven’t been blogging lately it’s because I’m flooded with so much information I don’t know what to make of it.  Part of me thinks “All of this too shall pass” and it will all blow over as so much sound and fury signifying nothing.  I doubt whether any of this has been reported on FOX news.  They have lived in an alternative reality a long time.  Since President Trump is such a cultic figure to people like Shawn Hannity and FOX news- - - no matter how glaring the faults reported they refuse to believe any of it.  They say it’s all Obama’s fault or Hillary’s fault or somebody else.  President Trump believes the New York Times letter or else he wouldn’t have said there is a treasonous conspiracy afoot in his administration.  He says the people involved in the Times letter should resign and I have to agree with that.  Whoever sent that letter should be a patriot and step forward and take the consequences.  Now Trump once again is saying that congress should rewrite the libel laws so people like Bob Wooodward can be thrown in jail or fined or something.  Really the person or persons who wrote the letter should have contacted someone from the Senate Judiciary committee because I think the information would be useful in challenging the President’s authority to even appoint the next Associate Justice.  Of course as you know all of these inside Trump sources report the same thing of general chaos, so it the same report coming from different sources.

The economy is still very strong with record low unemployment and the strongest quarterly growth we've seen in ten years.  This is all good news for President Trump as far as the mid terms are concerned.  This economic rosy outlook may be more instrumental than any book that comes out against the Trump Administration because the president's "base" is the ones that vote.  Seemingly liberals don't go to the polls but the FOX "heartland" news base does.  There is that vast mid-section of the country that is solid red and solid red-neck from Idaho to Nebraska to Wisconsin to Ohio to Tennessee to Florida to Texas.  They may be uneducated but they are the "cachee" and the votes and they are the ones with the influence.  The Koch Brothers see to that.  Trump is afraid that if there are delays in the Cavana hearings the red-state momentum will be halted and people will re-think their republican votes.  And Trump reminds us if the Democrats take over they will opperate swiftly to impeach him and set up their own counter-tide of oppinion.   So the Cavana momentum can't be stopped any more than Obama Care momentum could be stopped.  Because like then, the party in power knows their time is limited to get done what needs to get done even if the majority of Americans oppose what their congress is doing.  

Hurricane Gordon struck the central Gulf coast of Mississippi and Alabama and did damage as far east as Pensicola, Florida.  Now the storm is headed into Arkansas in a relatively straight line as these storms go.  Usually they curve to the right.  On the west coast they curve to the left.  (I guess that makes sense)  Last week one night they said there was severe flooding from Minisota to Maryland and every point in-between.  Meanwhile here on the left coast we have been suffering from a drought.  Last year we got less than five inches of rain here in the LA area.  That's a near record.  It's been dry all over the far west due to global warming and forrest fires have abounded.  

Nowdays you can't even sell tennis shoes without being accused of being political.  I like the way these big corporations now are fighting back against right wig political correctness.  Public oppinion sways big money.  Market forces rule. 

My roommate Bill is having his other eye done today for cateract surgery so he will be seeing perfectly.  I myself have been seeing rainbows around bright lights at night and some have said that signals an onset of glaucoma.  I'll have to have that looked into.  Google doesn't have addresses in green anymore but seems to have reverted back to smaller blue text.  

A Week of Funerals

The blog post was still showing "Skeletons from the Closet".

This was the week of funerals.  Aretha Franklin had an eight hour funeral on Saturday where President Clinton spoke and Stevie Wonder and others performed.  There was a whole lot of frensiac gospel singing.  Detroit was Aretha's home town.  And of course Mc Cain had three funerals.  One of them was back in Arizona where Joe Biden spoke.  Paul Ryan spoke at one.  In today's funeral President Obama spoke a bit self cousciously and trying to make with the humor.  George Bush gave the best speech of those who spoke today.  Henry Kissinger spoke and he has really aged.  But then again it's been a really long time since I've seen him on TV, like maybe forty years.  Lieberman spoke and they sang a few hymns.  It was an uplifting experiance in that cathedral.  Of course all of this eulogizing and celebrating of lives has kept president Trump out of the headlines.  There will be plenty of time to get back to that next week. 

In terms of my personal finances this is the first time in almost exactly ten years where I haven't had my back financially up against the wall.  I'd like to keep it that way for a while.  That billing arrangement I may have mentioned went through and my personal checking account is no longer tapped for internet expenses.  Otherwise I don't have that much to say today.