Four Reasons to be an Atheist

I told a couple of people last week the best theory as to why there is apparently no stated "quid pro quo" that we can find that Trump said  to Putin.  It's because the relation didn't start this year or last year or in 2016.  It began at least ten years ago. Trump and Putin have had a longstanding  relationship for all this time.  If you were a judge or a jury trying a case you wouldn't look to the end of a relationship to find out how it began; you would trace the relationship back to beginning and did around there till you found something.  There no doubt were quid pro quo type statements but they were made a long time ago back in 2009 or whenever, to establish the relationship.  It's kind of like tracing out a church doctrine.  If you were to trace when Jesus as the sacrifical "Lamb of God" doctrine got started you would have to go to the people who believed in sacrificing animals in worship.  You would look to the Jewish Temple, which is the last place they want you to look.  You would look to the Jewish priests, who are the one group of people Jesus actually respected.  Even when he was being tried by the Jewish priests in the Bible's own words, Jesus did not revile the priests or call it some kind of a kangaroo court.  What I think happened is that we assume that Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus did so on kind of a whim or talked into it at the last minute.  What if Judas had been a thorn in Jesus side for some months forever talking about "The Law" and being Jewish and sacrifices and all.  Perhaps Judas betrayed Judas because he wanted to bring Jesus' ministry back to the Jewish Law.  What if there were a whole fifth collum in the ranks of the Jewish priests who secretly wanted to destroy Jesus' ministry from within.  Later on they still believed in their doctrine of trying to come up with a "sacrifice for all time" that would preserve spiritual Zionism and somehow rescue scripture that was going unfilled as far as God's promises to Israel concerning the Messiah are concerned.  You could have a Messiah but it needn't be one who is alive, you know.  A dead Messiah is easier to handle.  He doesn't talk back.  He never disagrees with any of your half baked schemes about setting up some kind of a new Organization to worship this Messiah that would be world wide.  And eventually just maybe God would return and set up Zion. 

There are four good reasons to be an Atheist.  They can be divided into two basic reasons.  One is that you can "stop looking for God because he doesn't exist.  He can't be found if he doesn't exist.  Also you don't have to say "God damn it" every time something doesn't go your way or you somehow think God has it in for you and are "Lashing out at him" as psychologists love to say.  You can't "lash out" against something or someone who couldn't care less what you think because in human terms, he doesn't even qualify as being Alive.  And if he isn't Alive he can't feel anything.  And the last thing you want to do is to have a one way conversation with yourself.  People are driven crazy that way.  But the other big reason for being an Atheist is accountability.  There is no one to tithe too, or give one tenth of your worldly goods to.  And there is no Church to interject themselves and say "God can't be reached right now but he sent me here as his representative to receive your gifts.  Next of all if you are a scientist you don't have to worry that "God is looking over your shoulder" forever fearful that you might discover some secret that would unmask him and somehow reveal that he's a fraud to begin with.  And people who unmask people in Ancient times are guilty of a horrible offence of blasphamy or something and are put to death.  Finally we have the idea that we don't have a national religion that requires the same object of worship in all Americans and if you somehow don't believe there is something horribly wrong with you.   Maybe we'll have a gay president before we ever have a Moslem, an Atheist or even a Jew.  Jews can be dangerous you know because they don't believe Jesus died on the cross for their sins.  Imagine a Atheist world.  The chances are if nobody else believed in God around you then you wouldn't either.  NOT believing would be Normal and believers would be looked on as odd.  But as it is there is social pressure all around us to at least fake like you're a Christian.  Think about it. 

The Age of Anti Conspiracy

This is the season of the anti conspiracy people.  The word “conspiracy theory” is like poison to any call in person on a radio talk show.  Nobody wants to have even a taint of conspiracy theory.  This is unfortunate because there is a lot to get paranoid about these days.  We have the Kennedy assassination conspiracy of course.  That one is over fifty years old and some say “give me something more recent than that”.  There is the 9 – 11 conspiracy.  There are tons of entries on the internet with ample evidence there are more than irregularities in the events of 9 – 11 and I won’t even list them here.  But now there are people who don’t even believe that Russia sabotaged our presidential and other elections of 2016 and don’t seem particularly worried that it could happen again.  This is highly unfortunate.  We’re all a bunch of lemmings following our esteemed leader, Donald J. Trump over a cliff.  Any evidence you present to them is at most “a test of their faith” and they aren’t about to fail any “tests” of their undying loyalty.  Now the polls apparently show Trump with rising popularity numbers after all of the house hearings of the past two weeks.  The hearings are apparently backfiring, having the opposite effect of what perhaps some democrats were hoping for.  Now of course we’re getting ahead of ourselves because the House hasn’t yet even formulated Articles of Impeachment yet. I’d like to know how many articles they intend to have- - few or many.  That will take at least a month to do and this week is the Thanksgiving recess.  Hopefully they will get it done by Christmas.  But now Lindsay Graham and Mitch Mc Connell say that the trial itself will last only two weeks.  This is not even vaguely possible if they intend to present any evidence, on either the pro or the anti-Trump side.  Hopefully we will hear from some of these administration officials like John Boulton, who haven’t testified yet.  Hopefully we don’t have to wait till they put out their book several years from now when the damage is done.   Perhaps it’s a temptation to say “Well you knew this was going to happen; you knew there would be a backlash”.  I just didn’t think it would come this soon.   The smart thing seems to be to abort the senate trial before it can take place to minimize the damage.  Now we can get back to our orgy of Walt Disney movies. 

Arguments "from the lesser to the greater" are interesting.  We would not trust worship of an alien being from another galaxy or something even if he were vastly more intelligent and advanced than we are.  It would be BECAUSE he is so "advanced" (as he sees it) and "so far beyond us" in intelligence that we could not porribly hope to relate to him.  How much less could we relate to a being who supposedly lives OUTSIDE or our universe and created our universe perhaps with the carefree abandon that a seven year old does a painting he wants us to see?  We don't know HOW much thought he put into the Universe.  Perhaps it was quite a lot of thought.  But we would know that his reasoning would be entirely different from ours.  It could not possibly be called "human" reasoning.  To think humans are "at the top of the creation chain" is vanity on our part.  You would not lend someone you didn't know or trust a great deal of money and not care if you never saw it again.  But humans trust such an "Entity" with our very lives and all of our posessions.   Then there is the Neil Savedra argument.  He says he doesn't regard the "Second Coming" as very important because "Last Things" should be treated "Last" in our priorities.  Be this as it may- - - what about death.  Everybody dies.  But nobody has the vaguest idea about the after life.  Now tell me- - which is the greater leap in faith.  To believe that while we live there may be some sort of "space invasion" of the Messiah and his angels-- - - - or is it the existance of heaven which nobody has seen and there have been no reports of anybody coming back from the dead to tell us "it's allright".  once you die.  We then have theology, which is a train wreck of  confusion.  For instance- - - do we believe there is a connection between comitting "Sin" and bad things happening to us.  If we don't sin does that mean bad things don't happen to us.  You may say that is a silly question but if you think about it human oppinion is pretty divided on the subject.   We can argue also about whether we are expected to even have a relationship to God at all.  Some would say it's presumptious to think we can have a relationship with God.  If you took all of the theological differences even in the Bible, reconsiling them would be nearly impossible.  The old testament speaks of sin offering as being for the removal of curses.  People don't know that.  I can look at my life and say "I think I've been cursed" on a whole lot of matters.  Many say that we aren't even supposed to talk directly to Jesus but pray "To the father only in the NAME of the son".   Jesus doesn't do too much talking in the Book of Acts, for instance.  Then there is the whole question as to whether "the spiritual gifts" were just for that time to prove a "theological point" or does God still sanction "the spiritual gifts" for our time, too.  Then we have this new "Cyrus the Great" doctrine.   Donald Trump may not be a true Born Again Christian but he was "sent here by God- - -to liberate us from those socialist, atheist democrats".  Even if you had perfect theology up to now, how could you get past having to embrace the words and deeds of President Trump in order to be "one of them".  (Selah)  

Trump May Resign for Medical Reasons Very Soon

President Trump may resign for health reasons according to Stephanie.  They say there is evidence it could be today or tomorrow.  There is some limited allusion to this on Google.  But mostly they say that Trump will resign because of all of this impeachment stuff cascading in all around him.  But I darkly suspect this may be just a democratic pipe dream.  The rumor mill is working overtime perhaps because they secretly fear that no bad the mounting evidence against Trump there is, that he will survive all the charges and rise in the polls after his ordeal the way Clinton did after his impeachment.  But the evidence isn’t in yet either way as far as the polls are concerned.  There just might be something horribly medically wrong with Trump that could undo him.  Or maybe the medical grounds would just provide a fig leaf of an excuse to save face.  At lunch today Patty says the latest buzz among Republican web sites is that the democrats are only doing the impeachment thing to shake lose republican votes and undermine their confidence in the President.  This is what AOC said also.  It's a plausible theory but I'm not convinced myself.  Many fear the impeachment backlash.  More of the president's base will turn out to the polls to express their undying support of the President.  It's not an issue based on facts any more but the basest of emotional appeals of face saving.  Some people will go to any lengths not to admit they were wrong about a candidate.  He represents their racist, xenophobic and homophobic values and their deep seated fear of taking their guns away.  This thing just posted without my pushing the button.

.  I turned on Democracy Now.  Bolivia has just installed a fascist fundamentalist Christian dictatorship by unsavory means.  I don’t think it’s legal what they did in removing the entire cabinet and all.  Apparently this new regeims has the support of none of the population but some force is keeping them in power.  I would suppose this new regeime is friends with Trump, who never met a totalitarian he didn’t like.  They then had that Black guy in Texas who just had his Wednesday execution date lifted so friends of his can finger the guilty party and present evidence of his innocence.  Then it was Stephanie miller and the sound was staticky.  I have it on now.  We had corn flakes for  breakfast.  But as I was saying it's all a political divide.  It's God and Jesus and the white corporate fascists against us ordenary citizens of the world community, who just want to be decent human beings inhabiting the planet.

 .  I watched “God Friended Me”.  Today our hero was hooked up with a guy seven years ago who walked away from the “God account” because he would have had to give up love if he were to continue and “be a prophet”.  The God account wanted Miles to be a prophet and it seems asif Miles has the choice to now walk away from the God account.   I”ll have more to say about this later.  “Madam Secretary” is still on but I don’t know when   As a determinist deist I could see how "God" would at least "allow" or permit some flookish thing to happen like that.  It would be stretching coincidence to think such "God Friended Me" notices to come every week and help a different person out, but it's not out of the realm of possability.   So in this I disagree with Mile's father who says such a thing is "Definitely not God".  Everything is God; therefore this is God.  

As a prophet the question is what my own message would be.  The first message were I speaking for God is that the doctrine of Soul Sleep is reality.  None of us has gone to heaven when they did with the possibility of Elijah and St John the Divine.  But not the vast majority of us.  The majority of Biblical doctrine supports this "sleeping in the grave" style soul sleep.  Only a sliver of a minority supports "Going to heaven to live with Jesus for an eternity".   But my other points would involve the Passion of Christ and the formation of the Christian church to begin with.  There was a radio show called "remote viewing" where it was stated that you are more likely to be accurate in "viewing" future events- - events that haven't happened yet- - then viewing past ones where certain things are known and our brain uses these known facts to synthisize a mental image.  So the first thing I would say about the crucifixion of Christ is to erase from your mind all of the movies and sermons you've seen and start from a few knowable facts.  One of these facts may be that Jesus or Judas in my oppinion was crucified on November 24th AD 29 during a partial eclipse of the sun.  this explains the three hours of darkness.   Next we have the hint of the fig tree.  Fig trees lose their leaves in the fall and not in the spring.  We have the hint that it was cold in Jerusalem after midnight.  This is no earth shaker but it's another fact.  We also have the Barrabus thing.  Why would this participoant in a "riot" be mentioned in all four gospels?  At least one book says his name was Jesus.  So you have "Jesus so and so",which is what Barrabus means.  We have here a legal flook of a guy getting off.  One guy gets the cross and the other gets his freedom.  It's my assertion that the guy who got his freedom was the guy we know as Jesus Christ.  I believe he went first to Egypt and then to Rome.  Maybe he went to Egypt to visit with Philo of Alexandria.  I don't know.  There is even a story that "Barrabus" himself was crucified about thirty years later.  I can't help the fact that Jesus and Peter may be conflated at this point.  Anyhow this would be the subject of my Prophecy if I were allowed a platform for people to listen.  I've posted stuff in these blogs but I'm not sure how many readers I get. 

November Fifth's Elections

Yesterday November 5^th was a bad day for President.  Trump “personally lost the campaign in Kentucky” if you believe his words.  The democratic candidate for the governor of Kentucky won by four tenths of a percent, a real squeaker.  Trump campaigned as late as last night and if the Republican governor lost then what does it portend for Majority Leader Mc Connell?  Both Democracy Now and Stephanie made this a major news event they talked about.  So let’s all celebrate.  Trump is also in trouble because of that witness who reversed his testimony yesterday.  It was the ambassador to the European Economic Union who now says there was indeed quid pro quo.  He had his memory “refreshed” due to Taylor’s testimony.   Rick Unger had a poll out on Monday that stated that the President could pull off another victory in 2020 because the President is still holding his own in the battleground sates of Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.  Biden is only leading by three points in these states.  Given the propensity to sampling error this makes it a toss up right there and maybe Trump will win these states again.  This assume that not one voter will be swayed by all the public impeachment hearings coming next week.  It also assumes that the stock market will continue to make new highs till election day a year from now.  Otherwise the President is trailing badly to the major democratic candidates in viewed in ordenary terms.  I wish there were a point when the democrats could feel confident and relax a little but that isn't going to happen.  

Michael Bloomberg, ex major of New York, is running for President next year.  They say he's four times as rich as President Trump.  He's famous for cutting the crime rate to to implementation of the stop and frisk policy.  This could lose him votes with Blacks.  They say he's big on climate control and ecology stuff.  He's obviously tough on firearms control.  Joe Biden is not upset by his entering the race but perhaps he should be.  He could muddle the political waters a bit.  

The Last Two Months

This is the first blog post I have done in nearly two months.  The whole bug spraying saga we've alluded to before takes up to October 11th but after that I came down with one of these multi week virus.  However the virus started later and ended sooner than the five week virus I got last year.  But it still made me mentally disorganized.  Let me walk you through the chronology of events before and on October 11th.   It started September 3rd when the original bug announcement was made.  I said I "fell off the wagon".   I had five 24 ounce beer cans in the space of a week.  I don't call that falling off the wagon.  All five beers were Tacate, in case you are curious.   It was the following Tuesday, which would have been the tenth in the afternoon where we were expected to separate out our "trash" or things we're going to get rid of.  Cathy Larson's room was invaded and all sorts of her stuff ended up in the trash bin.  I was luckier than that.  I just had a big trash bag.  This was a Tuesday afternoon.  That Thursday two days later in the late afternoon I became aware that they were clearing out people's rooms of all posessions.  This occurred with me on Saturday morning.  I also put more stuff in a trash bag I wanted thrown out, and it was.   That was Saturday September 14th.   The actual spraying was Wednesday September 18th.  We had to take a shower in public.  That was a little strange.  We were given new clothes because they were that paranoid.   I did not get to go back into my room till nine twenty in the evening.  The antenna reception never seemed the same after that. On Wednesday October 2nd I went with my brother to Wall Mart to get a shaver that I needed because the other one was barely working.  Also I didn't have any shaver because everything was taken.  I didn't have any checks to pay the rent and we had to go to the bank to get these too.  This next sentence is out of sequence. The next event of import wasn't till a week and a half later on Saturday September 28th.  This is the day the TV and the computer were taken away in case bugs got in the electronics.  There is one more incident.  On Monday September 16th just about all of our clothes were taken.  We did not get the clothes back till Saturday October 5th.   On September 30th, which was a Monday, we had our usual resident's council meeting.  We had stuff "explained" to us.   On Tuesday October 8th we got our TV's and computers back.  On Friday October 11th. we got the rest of our stuff back.  All of this probably means nothing to you but I just thought I would include it as a token of what's been going on the previous two months.  I honestly thought it would take longer to go through.

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. 

Definitely a Bad Week for President Trump

. Up to now the National Enquirer has been Trump's chief ally shielding him from the spreading of negative stories with its "catch and kill" philosophy.  This guy named Pecker (of all things) from the National Enquiror has flipped on Trump.  He had turned against his old friend and associate.   Pecker has been given immunity by the Justice Dept so he won’t be charged with anything and is free to talk with Muller and others with no fear of legal ramifications or giving up his fifth amendment rights.   This is a bad week for Trump because also another guy named “Boot” has come out with anti Trump statements.  Of course Mc Dugal and Stormy Daniels were both women that Trump was sexually involved with.  Now Pecker has volunteered to open up a whole vault of articles that have been “Caught and killed” the way the National Enquiror deals with Trump’s enemies, because they are so close.  Trump’s response to all of this is “such flipping of witnesses ought to be against the law”.  He thinks like a mafia Don and also has said that Manifort wasn’t a “Rat” the way that John Dean was.   Of course “You dirty rat!” was a tag line of James Cagney.   If Trump has another week like this one he might be out of office sooner than anybody thinks.  However Laurance and I both agree that impeachment will occur before Trump ever resigns.  Trump is impervious to all construct criticism.  Whatever happens next week- - the President will find an even farther out rationalization for it.

John Mc Cain may have less than a week to live according to the latest news stories.  The family says that Mc Cain has requested that all treatment for his agressive brain cancer be stopped and due to his age of 81 they now say he may not make it to his 82nd birthday just next week. 

Molly Tibit was killed while jogging on July 18^th in Iowa by an illegal alien.  They tracked him down with surveillance and then they nabbed him and he confessed to killing the twenty year old.  The other big murder is the father who killed his wife and three and four year old daughters.  He strangled all three of them in Colorado.  The father later came up with the story that he saw his wife strangling one daughter and the other lay already dead so in a rage he strangled her.  He dumped all three bodies in an oil drum.  This is such a fiendish, cold-blooded murder kind of like the Andrea Yates case.  He should get the death penalty.

Trump’s attorney Koehn, called “the fixer” pled guilty to a bunch of crimes to make a deal with the prosecution to avoid worse sentences.  He turned against his undying and often professed loyalty to President Trump and now Trump is calling him names.  He plans to talk to special prosecutor, Muller.  Meanwhile Bob Manifort was found guilty by a jury mid day yesterday on eight out of eighteen charges.  There were five tax evasion charges and one bank fraud charge and two bank loan charges.  The prosecution counts it as a victory and he could easily get thirty years for his crimes and also likely spend the rest of his life in jail. They had a news flash during “Days of our Lives”.  This case was a major test run for Muller.   

On “Days of our Lives” you saw Will remember his entire life and how much he loved and was loved by all his friends and relatives.  Christine Di Mira came back from the dead disguised as Susan.  She had a gun trained on Marlena and Samantha had a gun trained on her.  All she has to do is pull the trigger, but then she won’t find out if E J is really alive as Christine claims.  It’s like not even after all these decades can John and Marlena be free of jinxes.

President Trump Is Almost a Dictator Now

President Trump wasn’t to be a dictator and yesterday took another giant step toward becoming one.  He took away ex CIA director John Brennon’s security clearance away so he can’t view classified information any more.  Brennon was CIA director during the capture of Bin Laden in May of 2011.   James Clapper and Jim Comey are part of a long list read off at the WH press conference including Susan Rice and others from the Obama administration.  None of these people had broken the law or in any way abused their trust.  The WH press secretary said that Clapper and Comey and Brennon have been making “eratic statements” that threaten national security”.  This is a classic case of projection.  It’s just a power play for Trump.  As John Brennon said in a recent TV talk show Trump’s goal is to styfle free speech and stir up divisiveness in America.  Trump thrives on things like racial conduct.   Omerosa or however you spell her name- - is still in the news but not even the main-stream media trusts her.  I haven’theard how well her book is selling.   The Manifort trial is going to the jury today, this morning.   They quoted liberally from the prosecution and defense summation statements this morning.  The defense put all of the blame on Gates.  Of course Manifort and the defense restedwithout putting on a single witness and Manifort himself didn’t testify.  The jury should be reminded (as in Travon Martin) that attorney’s arguments are not testimony.  Selah. 

.  This is Thursday August 16, 2018 and I didn’t type yesterday.  Aritha Franklin died this morning or maybe last night.  I think she was 76.  The family had previously stated that she was “gravely ill” and asked for our prayers, but they wanted their privacy.  She died of pancreatic cancer, and you know how serious that is. Aritha Franklin was from Detroit and a life long resident, apparently, and the daughter of a gospel preacher.  She was the Queen of Soul.  There are either five or maybe six songs included from her on my “all time hits of Rock”.  “Respect” in the spring of 1967 was the first time where “Sock it to me” was sung in repetitive fashion.  I learned the news while eating breakfast in the dining room.  She changed her appearance a lot over the years.

In a belated story there was an altercation at a store parking lot involving parking in a handicapped place.  The white guy complained to the Black guy about and the Black guy knocked him down and the white guy responded by shooting him dead.  Originally this was seen as Florida’s “stand your ground” law.  But then they looked into this white guy’s history and they decided to charge him with manslaughter and Black groups were happy about it.  This case isn’t as black and white as Trayvon Martin was, so maybe they’re evolving for the better.  I think the public has had enough of these white on black shootings.  

Alvin told me at a quarter after eight that we had to leave at eight thirty for the dentist.  I had to shuffle stuff around getting ready for the room cleaning.  Fortunately I had already brushed my teeth.  I got there at a quarter to nine and had a cigarette.  Then a guy from the inside opened the door for me even though they don’t open till nine.  I wasn’t called in till five after nine.  The assistant did a lot of the work adjusting the four crowns and drilling and stuff.  There was a lot of jabbing of the teeth and gums and my mouth was sore the rest of the day.  Then Dr Bui came in and she did more endless taking out and putting in of the four new crowns.  She did the final cementation and I counted the four crowns as she put them in.  I was done at eight after ten.  She showed me a mirror to look at them and they looked good.  Dr Bui said that they were “weakened” and the teeth could crack.  This alarmed me.  I also noticed that I now had an over-bite I never had before.  Dr Bui denied that this was the case but it’s my mouth.  I had the receptionist lady make the phone call to this place.  Three different attractive young women came in during the next hour.  One of them had a little baby.   After ten thirty I had her call again because Alvin hadn’t arrived.  They said it would be “ten or fifteen more minutes”.  I went out for a second cigarette.  I didn’t get picked up till twenty after eleven.  Alvin was taking Andrew to the doctor on Romnya street in north Amaheim.  Now Alvin would drop me off and go check on Andrew.  Fortunately they had saved my lunch.  It was now eleven thirty.  We had a good lunch.  We had roast beef on a long bun with beef dip, we had a baked potato with butter and sour cream, and we had corn with amberosia for dessert.  Patty was still there.  I got a cup of coffee from someone across the tablewho had left.   I checked on the room and the cleaning cart was next door.  They were doing double duty working both sides of the hall at once.  I had a minute or so to go to the bathroom and lay down for a moment.  Then Nora came and I had to leave.  I saw her inspecting the bed covers for bugs but I guess I passed the test.  Except when I returned at a quarter to one the place smelled of bug spray.  I don’t know if Rene was brought in to look at the bugs, if there were any.  Nora had put a heavier spread on the bed. Then I watched “Days of our Lives”.   The air conditioning has been working well. 

Government Could Shut Down in Just Over Four Hours

Here is the latest on this Friday afternoon January 19, 2018.   The Republicans don’t even have the votes to pass their proposed bill even if the Democrats in the senate don’t filibuster.  John Mc Cain is in the hospital with complications on his brain cancer and is unable to vote.  This makes the count fifty and fifty.  But Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul aren’t going to vote for this bill either.  This bill was one to extend the government one month and is nothing to hoot about to begin with.  It contains the CHIPS bill, or children’s health insurance policy or whatever, which affects either eight or sixteen million children.  I’ve heard both figures.  But there is no DACA provision to help out the dreamers, the children of illegal aliens.  And the President wants approval of “The Wall” before he’ll sign anything related to DACA, which is delayed action on children- - something.  Hence it looks as though the government will shot down at nine o clock tonight regardless of what Gary of KFI thinks.  I don’t think a government shut-down is a good idea even if it’s my party sponsoring it.  It means people can’t get passports approved and government monuments and national parks won’t be open.  Some government workers will stay on the job but they won’t get paid till later.

Median approval of U.S. leadership across the 134 countries surveyed in 2017 reached 30%, the lowest point since Gallup began tracking this measure annually in 2007. Disapproval of U.S. leadership increased almost as much as approval declined. The 43% median disapproval, up 15 points from the previous year, was a new record as well, not only for the U.S. but for any other major global power[there were three others — Germany, Russia, and China — that] Gallup asked [this question] about in the past decade.  The map showing country-by-country results indicates declining approval of U.S. leadership in all countries in the Western Hemisphere, except no change in Jamaica and Trinidad-&-Tobago. There were 9% decline of approval of America’s leadership in Venezuela, and declines ranging from 14% to 40% in all other countries throughout the Western Hemisphere. The biggest decline in the Hemisphere, 40%, occurred in Canada.  In Europe, there were declines in all countries except improvements (increased approval) in Macedonia 15%, Belarus 11%, Poland 8%, Slovakia and Montenegro 7%, Russia 6%, and Ukraine 4%. The biggest change was the 42% decline in approval of U.S. leadership in Norway, but close behind that was the 38% decline in Netherlands. Norway, Canada and Netherlands exhibited the biggest of all the declines in approval of U.S. leadership, among all the 134 nations surveyed.  We just thought you’d like to know. 

Last night Paul called me at twenty after five to go to the hospital.  He picked me up out front in ten minutes.  He asked me if I knew where we were going.  I knew it was Roundtree in another unit.  As it happens we had passed by this building many times going up the south walk to Mom’s place.  I think she was in room thirteen.  They had just eaten dinner.  Tim and Marie were there and Marie gave me a bear hug both at the beginning of the session and also when we were leaving.  I got a change to see Mom with her hair combed and dressed and in a more lucid frame of mind.  She said very few things that were off the wall.  We had a nice conversation.  She was watching TV from her wheel chair.  I sat on the bed and there were folding chairs Tim and Marie brought out.  We met the assistant Laurie.  But then Mom had to go to the bathroom and me and Tim and Marie went out to the hall and talked.  We were right by the nurses’ station and they had Shawn Hannity and Larry Elder and another guy on FOX TV and Tim remarked that everyone who watches FOX news is brainwashed.  Who is going to tell them?   Tim had been planning to get Mom some exercise.  Once before Tim had Mom standing up and pushing her wheel chair down the hall.  That’s more progress than I knew she’d made.  But the never got around to doing that this evening at least while I was there.  It was now a little past 6:35 and Paul was tired and hadn’t eaten dinner.  Paul told me about this one good place for Mom “just across Brookhurst” that would be perfect for Mom and her room would be a short walk from the dining area.  He mentioned other places they had visited.  Mom claimed she had never seen my aqua jacket before when I got it Christmas 2013.  Paul and I left and Paul wanted to show me this other house in a tract area that was a board and care place.  But then his memory failed him and he couldn’t remember where it was down Dale.  Paul mentioned that there is too much stuff about Trump personally in the news, and I would have to agree with that. 

 [Thursday] on Days of our Lives we understand how Andre could be murdered.  Anna has a motive because she is obsessed with vengeance for Tony’s death and carries around his ashes everywhere and has broken off her relation with Roman over it.  That’s sad.  Gabriel is a suspect because Andre just called her in and fired her and intends to steal all of her business profits.  I suspect that’s breaking several criminal laws.  Vivian has a self professed motive.  And Chad has the clearest motive because he just deduced from talking to John Black that Andre had to be the one to organize that phony warehouse break-in thing to take them off the trail.  Also Kate is a possible suspect, though a more distant one.   But he hasn’t been murdered yet.  Otherwise, I would say that Abigail has been both uppity and shrill in her objection to Stephen asking Gabriel for a date.  She seems to equate it in her mind to Bill Cosby drugging women or something.  She was almost threatening.  But I thought her “role” was to play the nice submissive, cooperative employee.  I thought that’s what she and Chad decided on to get Stephen to hire them both back. 

Democrats Pushing Us To Another Government Shutdown

The big news of this week is that there is going to be another government shut-down.  This one is sponsored by the democrats rather than by the republicans.  The democrats say they are going to force a government shut-down by not approving a budget unless it contains DACA provisions for the dreamers.  Chicanos used to call President Obama the “deporter and chief”.  President Obama did deport a lot of illeagels.  I guess you say the democrats are doing it just because they have the power and they intend to use it.  The Republicans need nine more votes in the Senate to pass a budget and the democrats aim to not let them get them.  Of course it’s partially President Trump’s fault by blowing up the DACA deal last Thursday with all of that African “shit hole” stuff the media was hopelessly sidetracked by.  The media and the American people missed the main picture that President Trump appears to make deals and then backs out of them turning around on a dime.  We’ve seen this behavior on his part a lot lately.

At nine thirty I turned on the Bill Handel show after Nora was through.  The “house whisperer” guy was on with the same basic presentation he’d given to Gary and Shannon.  He talked about the no touch toilets where the toilet senses your presence and warms the toilet seat and the floor beneath your feet.  I guess it’s a “bide” thing that automatically sprays and blows your butt dry.  Bill Handel has one of these modern toilets in his house.  There are a lot of household items at the Consumer Electronics show last week.  But they’re mixed in with everything else.  There are also no touch bathtubs and no touch showers.  All you need to do is tell the shower how hot to make the water.  I wouldn’t know because I don’t take a thermometer with me when I shower.  There are also these pop up floor projectors.  They are 8K projectors or something that are powerful enough to produce a 150 inch image.  The other time they said you didn’t even need a screen with these things but just project them on the wall.  I don’t know about that.  At ten o clock I went out for a snack in the courtyard.  I got two Oreos and a lemonade. 

Jeff Flake is a flake according to Norman Goldman.  He gives all of these moralizing speeches before the Senate.  And he wrote that book of his.  But in the end he votes the straight line republican agenda.  The media is trying to start a rumor that Jeff is going to “Primary” President Trump in 2020.  He’s not running for reelection as you know.  The other political news of the day is that Steve Bannon is not going to testify before congress because he’s only going to testify before the grand jury of former director Muller.  Some people have these rose colored visions that somehow Muller is a genious for manipulating the thing so that Bannon rats out all of the higher ups including Trump himself.  I don’t see that happening.  Then we have the second annual “Pink pussy cat” mass women’s protests on January 20^th or the first anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration.  With any luck this one might even get more media notice, though last year’s got plenty.  But I hold some vague hope that a blue tide is rising in America. 

The Trump administration released the President’s results from the physical he had last Friday.  His temperature was 98.4.  His height is 75 inches and his weight is 239.  His blood pressure was in the normal range and he's not taking any BP medication.  His cholesterol was 221 or just a little high and he’s taking Crestor for it and that amount will be increased.  All of his systems are normal except he’s just a little heavy.  His heart and lungs and brain and nervous system and genital-urilogical tract is all normal.  He’s recently had a colonoscopy and is not due for another one yet.  In short the President is as healthy as a horse.  He’s in great shape for someone 71.  His fasting blood sugar was 89.  My last one was 82.  Of course one topic not touch was the president’s psychological health.  That’s another story.

This is Wednesday January 17, 2018 and it’s the eighth day Bill has been gone.  They aren’t giving out information.  One song that slipped through the cracks in May of 2006 or our rock compilation is “The Cradle Will Rock” by Van Halen.  I don’t know how that song slipped through but we don’t have it.  Just before eleven I was drowsy and roused myself and went out for a cigarette.  I was in the dining room early with waiting.  Jerry thinks that Susan is actually a hypochondriac because every day she complains of some new ailment.  We were supposed to have beef stroganoff.  That’s what it said on the menu.  Actually they had macaroni and cheese.  I guess they didn’t have any beef- - - and didn’t have any stroganoff either.  We had mixed vegetables and also a dinner roll, but no butter.  We got seconds on the amberosia which today featured both the cream and the marshmellows.  I had to go back to the counter for coffee because the coffee cart passed us by.

The Minisota Vikings defeated the New Orleans Saints in one of the wildest finishes ever.  The Vikings scored the first seventeen points.  The Saints scored toward the end of the third quarter just before dinner making it 17 to 7.  After dinner the score was 20 to 14 with over eight minutes left to play.  The lead changed four times in the last three or so minutes of the game.  First the Saints scored making it 21 to 20.  Then the Vikings scored a field goal we were all on pins and needles about making it 23 to 21.  But there was still a minute left to play and the Saints marched down the field with seeming ease and scored a field goal making it 24 to 23.  But there were still about fifteen seconds left.  Things looked pretty hopeless as the clock wound down even further.  But then the Vikings scored a flookish touchdown.  There was a Saint there ready to tackle him as soon as he caught the ball but he didn’t but had a puzzled look on his face as the Viking scooted right by him.  And I’m sure he was thinking “I can’t believe it” as he scored.  The final score was thus 30 to 24 and the game went on till after five.  

Proposition - "You Can't Be What You Can't See"

But first here's the news.  President Trump in some public setting talked about how we need no more people from shit hole nations in Africa or Central America and more immigrants from Norway.  This is the clearest racial sentiment we’ve heard from Trump.  If he had used the term "hell hole" rather than shit hole I think we could understand.  Their is a veil of spiritual darkness that pervaids so much of the condinent of Africa from highly corrupt government leaders to savage religious practices.  You may be destined to live your short life with a half a dozen diseases with flies buzzing around your head.  Just getting a visa to the United States may be a lagistical impossibility.  But then when Trump says he wants people from Scandenavia where they are among the most well adjusted and happiest people in the world, at that point he is being racist.  Norman Goldman says it’s a Brooklyn term and Trump picked up the lingo of the working class ghetto so he could learn to relate to them and negotiate better, and also mount a successful campaign.  History books will say "This phenominon reflects poorly on the character of the American people.  The other key fact I'd like to discuss was that Donald Trump has no mind.  He's mentally a blank slate and does whatever the hard core republicans and the Koch brothers tell him to do and even think.  If he hasn't read the script for the day, he's lost and he says things that embarrass himself. It's a national embarrassment to have a president who's dumb as a post on so many issues.  Apparently President Trump was for the dream act before he was against it.  On last night’s news he spoke of working out a “clean bill” with just the dream act.  But then when someone told him what a “clean” bill was he reversed his position and said “Anything that reaches my desk needs to have provisions for a wall”.  But now they are saying that the “wall” could be as little as chain link fences or electronic surveillance.  So who knows?  Also the President reversed his position on the FISA court bill.  This is all the secret and pervasive spying done by the government in accordance with the Patriot Act.  But he thought it was some Obama conspiracy against him.  Then someone told him that the FISA provision or “Foreign Surveillance Information Act” was something Republicans wanted.  Of course another propensity of the president is to do whatever Putin wants and make Putin happy.  What if Putin personally told Trump to get ride of the FISA law?  He even changed the Republican platform because Putin wanted something different.  We can't have a puppet President.  This is dangerous not only to national security but also to the constitutional welfare of the country in general.  

Last night during some TV awards, one woman raised the proposition that “You can’t be what you can’t see”.  This is the idea that it’s hard to fantacise being Batman or somebody if you’ve never seen a Batman program or movie.  The idea has to be implanted in your mind somehow to give you some image to strive for.  However this is not the approach Christians take.  When push comes to shove they will quote you the scripture of “Eye hath not seen no ear heard what awaits the Saints in the afterlife”.   When you think about it this really gives little to hang on to.  But there is an even bigger problem.  Most teachers see it as their job to impart the knowledge that they have- - to you the student, so that they serve as a role model to you.  But often this is the last thing Preachers want.  When you think about it, your emotion toward these preachers is not one of admiration or even respect.  Indeed if you were adopt some of their traits they would be secretly disappointed in you.  What they do, their “act”, if you will,  is not that unlike a magician whose role is to mystify rather than instruct.  They want you to be in awe of them and they secretly want you to think “Gee, I could never be like that”.  And if somehow you did adopt all of the “stuff” they teach in terms of theology and legalization and all,  your mind would be so filled with theological junk that would only end up clogging and cluttering up your own thought processes.  Think about it.  You wouldn’t be turning into “them” but rather an image they are projecting of themselves, which may be no more real than a hologram.  One thing you find curiously missing are any “rungs of the ladder” that you can climb up after them.   And often (when push comes to shove) they will explain this in almost Hindu terms of “Well you know the Lord has a path for each of us and you are supposed to pursue your own path (or fate) even if that “fate” is something nobody in their right mind would want.  It’s almost as though certain people are meant to be blessed and certain people are meant to be jinxed.  I’ll return to this thought later.  There is also an element of “impossability” about the whole Christian salvation thing.  Just as a woman having the carrier of a man two hundred years ago seemed a near impossibility because it was such a long reach.  John Calvin was a champion of this “impossability” doctrine- - - (for lack of a better term)  Many people speak of hyper-Calvinism.   I would use the terms of strict Calvinism or hard Calvinism, but not hyper-Calvinism.  Because for something to be hyperbolic it has by necessity to somehow be NOT the thing that’s being called “hyper”.  I suspect Thom Hartman gets hyperbolic when he speaks of “Salvation by being rich”, which in essence is what Hartman believes about Calvinism.  He’s inserting this wealth thing in there that Calvin doesn’t make a big thing of per see.  But the key here is that there is no link, no “bridge” if you will to a brighter day for the average hearer at some evangelical meeting.  I will not comment on whether God answers prayers.  Under Calvinism - - - you’d just have to infer that our destinies are fixed, or preordained.  And if they are preordained then you can’t pray for “God to change his mind”.   I would like to think that we can “Change God’s mind” by our deeds known as “works”.   I believe we should live our lives as though this were True, even if we don’t know whether it is.  I think I can sum up my sentiments on this paragraph in that there is no “Sharing the wealth”.  There is a basic tenant of human nation that when one person comes on good fortune he “shares the blessing”, shares the wealth with those he calls his friends.  But in terms of what I’m saying, these Christian pastors really aren’t your friend.  They don’t stick with you when times are down.  Think about it.  If anything if hard times fall on you you may have a jinx which “They don’t want to catch themselves”.  That’s how they think.  Jinxes are like viruses, diseases, which you have to stay clear of.  (Selah)