Did We Dodge A Bullet With North Korea?

EIGHTS AND ACES rel August 11th.

Enter Sandman (Metallica)
Draw the Line (Aerosmith)
Alive (Pearl Jam)
You Got Another Thing Coming (Judas Priest)
Anytime That You Want Me (Journey)
Rock and Roll (Led Zeppelin)
Joan Crawford (Blue Oyster Cult)
Halo of Flies (Alice Cooper)
Back, Jack, Do It Again (Steely Dan)
Damned For All Time / Blood Money (Maurie Head and friends)
Hang On To Yourself (David Bowie)
Magic Man (Heart)
The Court of the Crimson King (King Crimson) *

Released just in time for tonight's meteor shower.  Front cover picture is a room in the Mideast where there are a bunch of poker players all in traditional beddowen garb with head dresses.  All except for the character playing the part of Judas who is wearing some priestly outfit and no head dress and also has shorter hair.  He is holding three Aces and two Eights, a full house but also a jinxy hand.  The others have their cards face down.  There is a slot machine by the wall and it's showing three hangman nuces.  Also in the corner there is a Wheel of Fortune wheel with the same stuff on it, assuming we aren't violating copyright laws.  On the back is a game show set called "The Game of War".  There is a host off a little to the left made up to look like Alex Trabec.   The three contestents are Vladimir Putin with no short, and President Trump in the middle wearing a black Oriental wig, and Kim Jung Um to the right in his Oriental garb.  On the scoreboard Putin and Kim are in the tens of thousands of dollars but Trump is in the red.  On the set there are drawings of ICBM's to put you in the mood.  Plans for this album weren't even laid till August 8th and at that time it was anticipated there might be some Declaration of War announcement in a couple of days, but that didn't happen.

Right now I'm going to put on my magic specticals and peer six weeks into the future and what do I see?  I see North Korea as a new and bigger problem now with World War III looming even closer than it was in early August.  Again the rhetoric is heating up and more lines are being drawn in the sand and we're adding one more relevant track to celebrate this nasty turn of affairs with the threat of detonation of hydrogen bombs over the Pacific or whatever else Kim Jung Un has planned for us in his addeled mind.  We are also giving "Judas" more air play by adding another song today, to bring this compilation up to normal length.

  *this is the full unedited version and not the You Tube version with the ending whacked off a little before five minutes.   Today's mystery word is "drawer" as in "The anagram is kept in an anagram".  It's about our shortest compilation. Again this is because a few days back it was anticipated there might be some world calamity crisis occuring soon that would eclipse all other news.  When Angie lived in the apartment right below mine I would go down stairs at night to buy booze and her little boy about two or three would see and one time I heard him ask "Mom, who is that" and she said "That's the sand man!"

On Tuesday President Trump talked about "unleashing Fire and Fury unlike the world has ever known".  People wonder where he got those words "fire' and "fury" since they aren't a part of every day conversation. Someone suggested they were from the Bible, from Isaiah 66, which is a chapter of vengeance.  But it doesn't look as if we are going to have any kind of armed conflict with North Korea, let alone a nuclear war.  Things seem to have settled down.  On Thursday President Trump in a news conference that preempted large segments of my soap opera he spoke of "Perhaps those words weren't strong enough".  Korea spoke of something taking place "By the middle of the month".  I assume he meant August and we're almost there.  Korea also threatened to invade Guam, "where America's day begins" according to all the convention speeches.  It has been suggested that destruction, even on a large scale, doesn't bother North Korea as much as it would us because North Korea suffered imensly during the Korean War and they dug themselves out from the rubble and built up a powerful military state.  But Kim Jung Um isn't like ISIS or Al Qaeda.  He isn't on a suicide mission.  He cares too much for the legasy of his father and his grandfather, and intends to be around for a long time as a respected world power.  That's what he wants.  Respect.  Norman Goldman has suggested that the reason China isn't more forthcoming with help for the United States is because they see North Korea as a buffer zone between South Korea, which China sees as a military enclave of the United States- - and themselves.  Kind of like Russia supposedly sees Ukraine.  It's also been stated that North Korea has large stockpiles of chemical as well as biological weapons he could unleash on South Korea or Japan or whoever.  We fan chide them for brainwashing their young.  Yet I imagine many world leaders see people here as brainwashed subjects of FOX news.  Thom Hartman has said he sees FOX news playing all over the place in areas where you wouldn't expect such as hospitals.  At any rate it looks like the crisis has passed.  Now you can thank all of your Born Again friends for praying to God who warted off the clear and present danger, at least for a few more years.  It would be nice is the world didn't have so much war in it.  I guess a slight fear of mine is that I'll be reincarnated as a young child in a Mideast or African country that is in constant war and see my family members going to war and perhaps dying and soon I'll be called on to make a decision who's side I'm going to fight on.

“Dictatorship” literally means a government from what is dictated/said whenever government “leadership” says so. The US has lost almost all Constitutional rights to the dictates of “leaders” in government. In contrast, a constitutional republic is limited government acting within its constitution; that is, fair and objective rules all agree upon.

This is basic high school-level education we all learned, and are demanded to either live or lose.

Rome’s empire expanded by always claiming “defensive” wars from such constant “enemies” eventually becoming tragic-comic oligarchy, and Washington’s Blog documents 71 admitted false flag attacks in history using this same lying narrative.

The United States is devolving into tragic-comedy, with no end in sight. The most accurate description of its government is not limited under our constitution, but a rogue state empire. For just a few examples:
When Americans are told an election is defined by touching a computer screen without a countable receipt that can be verified, they are being told a criminal lie to allow election fraud. This is self-evident, but Princeton, Stanford, and the President of the American Statistical Association are among the leaders pointing to the obvious (andhere, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here). Again, no professional would/can argue an election is legitimate when there is nothing for anyone to count. The facts show Bernie Sanders won the Democratic Primary election, and claims by Democratic “leadership” of Russian election “meddling” are without factual documentation.
US military now illegally occupy eight bases in Syria (and here), with escalating bombing of Syria and Iraq of over 4,000 bombs/month and over 84,000 since 2014. The US acknowledges ~500 civilian deaths from these bombs, with independent count of ~750 in just in June 2017.
Among dozens of independent writers, I’ve documented that all “reasons” for wars on Iran, Syria, and Russia are easily proved lies (recently, here, here, here, and going back to 2005), with US Department of illegal Wars of Aggression (so-called “Defense”) claiming to have “lost” $65,000 for every US household.
The US is a literal rogue state empire led by neocolonial looting liars. The history is uncontested and taught to anyone taking comprehensive courses. If anyone has any refutations of this professional academic factual claim for any of this easy-to-read and documented content, please provide it. Rogue state empire is the most accurate term to describe the US for the following reasons:
People around the world view the US as the greatest threat to peace; voted three times more dangerous than any other country. The data confirm this conclusion:
Since WW2, Earth has had 248 armed conflicts. The US started 201 of them.
These US-started armed attacks have killed ~30 million and counting; 90% of these deaths are innocent children, the elderly and ordinary working civilian women and men. The US has war-murdered more than Hitler’s Nazis.
The total deaths caused by rogue state empire for resource control (natural and human) in the last 20 years is ~400 million, more than all total wars and violence in all recorded Earth history.

Likelihood of War with North Korea is Dramatically Increased

The likelihood of full scale war with North Korea had dramatically increased in the past day or so.  North Korea has perfected the ability to miniaturize a nuclear warhead in order to put it aboard an ICBM.  This is an ability we were saying they wouldn’t be able to do for another several years and now they’ve done it.  They have the potential for distance on their missiles to at least be able to reach the west coast of the United States and perhaps further.  Now North Korea has made an overt threat against the isle of Guam.  It’s something they are seriously thinking of doing.  In response to all of this yesterday President Trump made a statement where he said that “North Korea is going to find that they will be met with fire and fury and great power such as the world has never seen”.  Was Trump implying that our first move against North Korea might be nuclear war?  North Korea itself has been making abundant threats against the United States in the past few days.  We’ll just have to wait in see if in the next few days things either get worse or hopefully the rhetoric will cool off and we can both draw a breath and take a more rational look at the problem.  But it would seem that it’s the closest the world has come to Nuclear War in the past fifty five years.  Perhaps this time we could do it right for once and actually get congress to declare war.  We went to war with Iraq because they had “Weapons of mass destruction”.  Well I’d consider a nuclear warhead in the hands of an insane leader a weapon of mass destruction.  Now people are saying “Well they have the distance but do they have the accuracy?”  Or they are saying, “Will their missiles withstand the heat of reentry to the earth’s atmosphere?”  But clearly we are running out of time and no longer have the time for a watch and wait view of the situation.  Clearly Kim Jan Um is an unstable personality and we can’t assume that he’ll always do what’s rational.  War with Korea is a clear and present reality. 

We had sloppy Joes for dinner and French fries and there were seconds on those according to Bill.  I should have gotten seconds but didn’t.  We had applesauce for dessert.  I was reading rock compilations from earlier this year.  I goofed and put “February 29^th” instead of March 29^th as a re-release date of “Relics from a Different Age”.  I am a relic from a different age.  I may do a blogger retrospective on the year 1998.  I do have “Holliday in Cambodia” listed in “For the Record” from May 2006.  I wasn’t sure I had included it.  “I’m Leaving You” is that Scorpions song on “Relics from a Different Age” and I had You Tub on for this.  “The Final Brick in the Wall” is not as good of an album as “Coda” but it occurs April 9^th.   “Coda” was out in late March of this year.  Bill gave me the pack of cigarettes he owed me.  Bill turned on the TV news.  Trump is threatening North Korea using the rhetoric of the other side.  Phrases such as "fire and fury" are phrases that world dictators use to fire up the enthusiastic crowds.  

We alll need a Vacation from President Trump

It's a good thing in my oppinion that President Trump is going on vacation for seventeen days because that way we don't have to hear any more cheer leading by these trained right wing fanatics who are almost like groupies.  George W Bush sure took a lot longer August vacations than seventeen days when he was in office.  There was that Donald Trump rally held in West Virginia a few days ago, which apparently is the reddest of the red states.  It was a very pumped up crowd, if not hopefully deluded and brainwashed.  This was the rally where Trump announced that coal mining exports have taken off in West Virginia as well as the whole economy being in virtual overdrive.  This is also the rally where the Democratic governor of West Virginia announced he was turning Republican.  It was obviously an all white audience.  This is what it's going to be like.  I'll tell you what will change it all overnight.  That's when the economy folds.   We may think this recovery will go on forever and that's what President Trump is hoping.  He's hoping this Obama recovery will go on for four more years uninterrupted but history tells us things like that just don't happen.  And the minute the economy turns south so will President Trump's fortunes and democrats will start to get elected to the House and Senate.  

There is a big question about that press conference of AG Jeff Sessions and Trump's CIA chief.  We know that they will prosecute White House leakers to the fullest extent of the law.  They've trippled their anti leaking staff (Known in the Nixon administration as White House plumbers)  The big question is whether they're really going to go hard after the news reporting profession.  We already have a pretty cowed press as it is since they are afraid of offending their many corporate sponsors.  Now they've got Jeff Sessions to worry about.  This will intimidate the news profession even further.  The thing is I'm wondering whether Trump WANTED these leaks to take place because that's the sort of guy he is.  He's kind of a verbal exhibitionist after all.   I think it was pretty tacky to tell the leader of Austrailia that "This is the worst conversation I've had all morning.  I liked to talking to Putin a lot better".  Even Trump can't be that tactless, can he?  Clearly these leaks are coming from people in the inner circles of government.  It's kind of hard to believe all the leaks are coming from just one or two people. 

It's the 55th anniversary of the death of Marilyn Monroe this date of August 5th.  I hadn't yet entered puberty when she died in 1962.   Some say that Robert Kennedy had the mafia kill her.  Conspiracy theories abound.  It's just the sort of thing that happens to so many celebreties when their fortunes head south and their whole world appears to be falling apart.  They had already begun production of her next movie "Something's Got to Give".  They already did the title credits.  But other things in Marilyn's life were pretty shakey.

 This paragraph was typed Thursday.  I had Days of our Lives on.  In today’s development Trip met with his father saying that the Vitalli family doesn’t let go of grudges.  Steve knows that Trip is the one who sabotaged Kayla’s employment carrier, but Trip isn’t going to let it go at that.  I went outside for juice and a graham cracker.  I agree with Bill.  It’s hot out there.  I had the Steve Hardy show on.  They had a thing on unwelcomed house guests meaning ghosts.  There was also this very gifted eleven year old foreign looking little girl who is an amazing singer.  Then it was Eye Witness news. 

Radio Ready - A to Z Compilation

Not to many of the compilation tracks I have made are getting played on the radio these days.  There is one change from the June of 2007 original.  We added a track because of the strong AC - DC lobby and we axed a George Harrison song.  I'd rather these were live links you could actually listen to but I guess most of them can be had on You Tube.  "I'm Looking Through You" is out of alphabetical order as "Honey, What Do You Do for Money?"  I thought of stripping the format but I didn't like the results so here is the result formatted like the previous file it was on.  

R A D I O - R E A D Y - A to Z

disc one

About a Girl (Live Nirvana)

African Night Flight (David Bowie)

After Forever (Black Sabbath)

Aladen Sane (David Bowie)

And She Was (Talking Heads)

Anthem (Rush)

Astronomy Donnie (Pink Floyd)

Blue Collar Man (Styx)

Baby Blue (Badfinger)

Born To Be Wild (Steppinwolf)

Can’t Find a Better Man (Pearl Jam)

Carmen (B L T)

City of New Orleans (Arlo Gutherie)

Cocaine Blues (George Thorogood)

Corporal Klinger (Pink Floyd)

Crawling King Snake (The Doors)

disc two

Crystal Ball (Styx)

Cylus Stingy (The Who)

Deep Blue (George Harrison)

Disguises (The Who)

Divine Wind (Blue Oyster Cult)

Double Vision (Foreigner)

Everybody Knows This is Nowhere (Neil Young)

Eyes Without a Face (Billy Idol)

For Your Eyes Only (Blondie)

Green Eyed Lady (Sugarloaf)

Going Out to the Country (Canned Heat)

Heart Shaped Box (Nirvana)

High, High, High (Mc Cartney and Wings)

Hold Me (Fleetwood Mac)

Honey, What Do You Do for Money?  (AC -DC)

Holy, Holy (David Bowie)

House on Puneil Corners (Jefferson Airplane)

disc three

I Can’t Wait for the Nights with You (Scorpions)

I’m Looking Through You (The Beatles) (Anthology version)

I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight (Bob Dylan)

It’s Too Late (B L T)

Journey to the Center of the Mind (Amboy Dukes)

Lady (Styx)

Lather (Jefferson Airplane)

Lazy Day (Moody Blues)

Leopardskin Pillbox Hat (Bob Dylan)

Let’s Go (The Cars)

Let’s Lynch the Landlord (Dead Kennedies)

Lost, Little Girl (The Doors)

Make Rock Not War (Blue Oyster Cult)

Man on the Moon (R E M)

Midnight Rendezvous (The Babies)

Night Prowler (AC CD)

disc four

No Quarter (Led Zeppelin)

One of Nature’s Children (John Lennon)

Parachute Woman (Rolling Stones)

Peter Rooter (Chich & Chong)

Pictures of Lilly (The Who)

Port of Amsterdam (David Bowie)

Problem Child (AC DC)

Pump It Up (Elvis Costello)

Radio Radio (Elvis Costello)

Ride the Tiger (Jefferson Starship)

Robert's Box (Procol Herem)

Second Time Around (Blue Cheer)

Ship of Fools (Robert Plant)

Southern Man (Neil Young)

St. Luis Blues (Instrumental) (Steely Dan)

disc five

Sundown on the Union (Bob Dylan)

Tainted Love (Soft Cell)

Tank (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)

Teddy Boy (The Beatles)

The Chain (Fleetwood Mac)

The Damage is Done (Foreigner)

The Music Must Change (The Who)

The Necromancer (Rush)

The Three Fates (Emerson, Lake & Palmer)

The Vidgil (Blue Oyster Cult)

The Wizzard (Black Sabbath)

disc six

This Year’s Girl (Elvis Costello)

Tombstone Blues (Bob Dylan)

Twelve Bar Origional (The Beatles)

Viscious (Lou Reed)

Waiting for the End of the World (Elvis Costello)

Walk on the Wild Side (Lou Reed)

We Could Be Together / Volunteers (Jefferson Airplane)

What’s the new Mary Jane (Beatles)

When You Get Drafted (Dead Kennedy’s)

Whiskey Train (Procol Herem)

Who Are You? (Black Sabbath)

With A Gun (Steely Dan)

Word on a Wing (David Bowie)

Wreck of the Hesperus (Procol Herem)

Would I Lie to You? (Eurithmics)

Young Boy Blues (Honeydrippers)

A Sea of a Cradibility Gap

I can remember a time when we used to be up to two weeks ahead of the learning curve on the news but nowadays we’re running a day behind.   It’s a general sea of insanity when you talk about the Donald Trump administration.  Now the President is referring to the White House itself as “a real dump” and that’s why he doesn’t want to spend time there.  Then we have the defeat yesterday of Trump being forced to sign a sanctions bill against Russia that he strongly disliked but he had to sign it because it was passed with a bi-partisan majority.  But he let his dislike for the bill be known.  The word is that he warned Putin that this bill would be passed and he’d have to sign it.  Then there is the strange story about FOX news and how a democrat was accused of leaking information about Hillary to the Russians.  But further investigation has revealed that Trump and the FOX network colluded to put out this story and people like Shawn Hannity still believe it and repeat it. It gets stranger every day and it’s anybody’s guess what the news from the Trump administration will be six months from now.  Hopefully impeachment proceedings will be brought against Trump by then.  Even this congress must realize that there is only so much nonsense that will be put up with from the Trump administration, even if over a third of the American public is brainwashed by FOX news.  Still his overall favorable rating is just 36% and it seems that at that rate a successful campaign should be achieved by democratic opponents running against incumbents in both the House and the Senate. 

Donald Trump attacked Obama's birth cirtificate for years till renouncing that he'd ever said it during the campaign.  Tomorrow is President Obama's 56th birthday.  Trump said he wasn't going to recommend the prosecuting of Hillary Clinton right after he won but now he's changed his mind and wants to pursue the prosecution.  Trump is indecisive.  Now Steve Miller or some aid of his is criticizing the poem at the base of the Statue of Liberty as not what America really stands for.  But if Thom Hartman is right the very rich, especially those born rich, are exceptionally lacking in compassion and empathy.  They're much more likely not to listen in an engaged manner in a conversation but are too preoccupied with their cell phones.  They don't give sacrifically to charities like poor people do.  They don't value other human beings the way poor people do.  Thom Hartman's show seems to think there are white people out there would like the slogan of the Trump campaign to be "Make America White Again".   They want to go back to an America most of them never experianced to begin with but believe that "perfect America is out there- - within reach, if we just work hard enough to bring it about".  I've heard others who claim that liberals don't give as much as those on the Christian right because "They expect government to do that".  I don't know who is correct.  People like Richard Nixon and Barock Obama may be rich in their later years, but they were born poor, and as such remember what it was like to be poor and still have that sense of connectedness and compassion.  

This is Wednesday August 2, 2017 and the fiftieth anniversary of the first time I threatened to commit suicide in 1967.  But the weather then wasn’t as hot as today.  It’s been pea soup head about 95 degrees and about 85 percent humidity, like Houston or New Orleans must be,  not that I’ve visited either place.  This morning Thom Hartman was on about five minutes and they switched to some music and I turned the computer off and turned KFI on.  They were having a Bill Handel substitute.  Nora came in about ten to ten and said to open the shades.  I did and I left.  Then I got snacks of juice and a graham cracker.  Jennifer brought Gabby to work today for the first time in over a week.  I checked the room and was surprised at just after ten that Nora was done.  She’d changed the linens and mopped the floor.  Usually she takes the time to do a lot of other stuff.  Bill and I watched “The Price is Right”.  The air conditioning worked a lot better after I closed the window.  Bill wanted to keep it open claiming the AC wasn’t blowing but it obviously was because the room was kept cool.  I don’t know the names of the guys I sat at the table with today.  I’ve lost track.  We had teriyaki pork and vegetables and fluffy rice and I mixed the rice and the pork together.  They had seconds on the pork and rice and I took advantage of that.  We had a banana for dessert.  I had the Gary and Shannon show on.  I had Days of our Lives on.  Abigail still isn’t out of her coma but she’s in surgery now.  Paul has the theory that Victor organized Damos’s murder but he’s keeping his part secret. 

I don’t know if they ever had refreshments.  There was a resident’s council meeting in the back room.  We learned that Sarah has a son diagnosed with some horrible disease.  I thought she just had two daughters.  Patty didn’t have her notes from last time.  It was the first time I was in the back TV room since they remodeled the room.  They painted it a lighter color and put in new flooring.  There are some “airline seats”.   They were arranged rather inefficiently in part of a semi-circle.   Linda made the official announcement that anybody now can get milk with any meal just by asking for it.  You don’t need a doctor’s slip any more.  Augustine came in and told us all to keep our windows closed for maximum air conditioning.  There weren’t that many chairs in the room and people went in and out but there was never a time when we were short any chairs.   It was the timing.  Food came under discussion and I said desserts weren’t as frequent now, but I’m glad they’re finally serving waffles and things.  Linda has that mouse in her room that’s still running around- somewhere.  The clock in the room was slow and we ended at ten to three by that clock because Dr Messina was here and people’s names had been called, such as Ron Flowers.  Back here it was Eye Witness news on.  They are still getting a lot of rain out in the desert.  There is a dream called dyspraxia, which has to do with “clumbsy child sidrone”.  Now that has a name.  Trump news appears to be quiet today. 

We had BLT sandwiches for dinner, short on bacon.  We had French fries with that and chocolate chip cookies for dessert.  I didn’t note the guys sitting at my table.  They had two ocelating fans in the dining room but they didn’t seem to be doing much good.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed over 22,000 for the first time.  So far this prosperous economy is making president Trump look good, probably better than he deserves.   Barbra wanted me to lend her money but if she can panhandle and make money that way I guess she doesn’t need mine.  

Chief of Staff Reinz Previs Fired from Post

White House chief of staff Reinz Previs was fired yesterday as he was threatened to be and General John Kelly from Homeland Security is slated to take his place.  Now they are talking about moving Jeff Sessions to Homeland Security.  Reinz Previs was formerly the head of the Republican party and as such spear-headed Trump's campaign for President.  But he fell out of favor with the newly appointed head of Communacations, Anthony Scarimuchi, who threatened that this would be only the first of a whole lot of firings in the White House.  Previs was less than steadfast when that sex video came out and Reinz thought maybe Trump should drop out of the campaign.  There is also a concern that Previs is the source of a lot of White House news-leaks.  Steve Bannon is another individual whose job may be on the chopping block.  Scarimuchi is another one of these financial wheeler-dealer types whom is naturally the sort of person Trump would surround himself with.  It seems a little power hungry and has caused alarm among segments of the traditional Republican party.  So we know there have been major shake-ups in the Trump Administration already in these first six months and there are going to be more.  Meanwhile there is still no serious talk of impeachment.  People seem to have forgotten all about that.  And the whole Russian connection scandal, so dominant in the news the past eight months, seems to be fading into the background.

Trump is running for dictator in chief.  He encourages crowds in his campaigns to beat up people.  Now he's encouraging Police to rough up prisoners on the way to taking them to the police station.  They say "Trump  says these inflamitory things because he's catering to his political base".  He threatens the state of Alaska with cutting off of funds because Senator Lisa Marcauski voted the wrong way on a key bill.  And of course Trump wants personal loyalty pledges.  He also resents employees if they won't be his personal rubber stamp for condoning illegal activities like the failure to recruse one's self.  He wanted people to raise their right arm in Hitler fashion as a pledge of support from the crowds.  This despotism he's displaying now most likely will only continue to get worse and more blatant if allowed to continue unabated.

North Korea yesterday launched its most powerful ICBM ever.  This is an even more powerful inter-contenental missile than the one they launched on July fourth and it has moved us one step towards World War III.  They say this missile can be armed with a nuclear warhead within a year, which moves up the time-table for that by a couple of years.  This missile launched yesterday flew higher in its almost vertical path up into the skies and it flew further than the one of July fourth.  That missile they said had the capability of reaching Alaska.  This missile has the ability, if aimed more horizontally has the ability to easily strike the west coast mainland of the United States and perhaps the ability to go further.  Christians better pray hard that God is guiding Trump's actions, because left to his own devices I don't know what he will do.

John Mc Cain returned last weekend to the Senate and made that now famous speech urging cooperation and bi-partisan cooporation with the democrats.  At that time he voted for starting up debate on the bill to end Obama Care.  Mc Cain said that it was "just a shell of a bill" and he would vote against the final bill all things being equal.  Mc Cain was true to his word.   They had a vote a few days later on repeal and replace and that one failed.  Then they had another vote on repealing Obama Care but waiting two years before putting the law into effect.  That vote also failed.  Another vote held Thursday night called the "skinny repeal" also failed.  This is the bill where only Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Marcauski of Alaska and John Mc Cain voted "No" among the Republicans and the bill failed to pass by one vote.  President Trump said "Well I told you they should just let Obama Care fail of its own weight".  Trump has also said "And when it does the democrats themselves will come begging us to work with them and develop a replacement bill".  Trump will never acknowledge a defeat like this directly.  But as of now all related bills are dead, at least for this session of congress.  Congress will be going on their August recess in a week or so.

That eleven month old baby named Charlie in England- - died yesterday.  He died of all of the generic things he has suffered with including major brain damage- - that he had suffered from in his whole, short life.  Pope Francis issued his condolences.  

On Days of our Lives, Abe Carver conthiscated Theo’s computer and won’t give it back even though it’s theft of Di Mira property.  Andre has an actionable lawsuit against him.  Meanwhile Abigail has to go away with Dario because she’s being blackmailed to protect Chad.  The outcome hasn’t been determined yet.  Gabriel was upset that Abigail would leave Thomas like that- - a second time.   Ron lent me cigarette number seven before snacks.  I got two cups of iced tea from Rene and also a graham cracker.  Then I went and sat in the front room a while.  That gospel lady was in there singing.  Bill is out of the room.  There are four & a half days to go till I get paid.  

Make Conservation of the Planet - Not War

Re-posted from Washington's blog

If war were moral, legal, defensive, beneficial to the spread of freedom, and inexpensive, we would be obliged to make abolishing it our top priority solely because of the destruction that war and preparations for war do as the leading polluters of our natural environment.

I happened to read a report this week from a U.S. environmental think tank that advocates for the U.S. military to blow up trucks full of oil and gas. The trucks belong to ISIS, and the argument is that bombing trucks does less damage than bombing oil wells, and that — if you add in vague social and economic factors rather ludicrously quantified with numerical pseudo-precision — bombing trucks does less damage than doing nothing. The option of working nonviolently for peace, disarmament, aid, and environmental protection is not considered.

If we don’t start considering new options, we’re going to run out of options entirely. The roughly $1 trillion that the United States puts into militarism each year is the number one way in which war kills and the source of an infinity of not-yet-considered options. Tiny fractions of U.S. military spending could end hunger, the lack of clean water, and various diseases globally. While converting to clean energy could pay for itself in healthcare savings, the funds with which to do it are there, many times over, in the U.S. military budget. One airplane program, the F-35, could be canceled and the funds used to convert every home in the United States to clean energy.

We’re not going to save our earth’s climate only as individuals. We need organized global efforts. The only place where the resources can be found is in the military. The wealth of the billionaires does not even begin to rival it. And taking it away from the military, even without doing anything else with it, is the single best thing that we could do for the earth. The U.S. military is the leading consumer of petroleum around, the third-greatest polluter of U.S. waterways, the top creator of superfund environmental disaster sites.

Pre-presidential campaign Donald Trump signed a letter published on December 6, 2009, on page 8 of theNew York Times, a letter to President Obama that called climate change an immediate challenge. “Please don’t postpone the earth,” it said. “If we fail to act now, it is scientifically irrefutable that there will be catastrophic and irreversible consequences for humanity and our planet.”

Among societies that accept or promote war making, those consequences of environmental destruction will likely include yet more war making. It is of course false and self-defeating to suggest that climate change simply causes war in the absence of any human agency. There is no correlation between resource scarcity and war or environmental destruction and war. There is, however, a correlation between cultural acceptance of war and war. But this world — and especially certain parts of it, including the United States — is very accepting of war, as reflected in the belief in war’s inevitability.

Wars generating environmental destruction and mass-migration, generating more wars, generating further destruction is a vicious cycle we have to break out of by protecting the environment and abolishing war.

Toward that end, many of us are planning an event in Washington, D.C., in late September that will bring together leading environmental and peace activists. You are encouraged to sign up and participate in#NoWar2017: War and the Environment.

We’re also taking a flotilla for peace and the environment to the edge of the Pentagon in the lagoon off the Potomac River. If you don’t have a kayak we’ll get you one. Sign up here.

Peace and planet! No more oil for wars!

Donald Trump to Deputy Att Gen: "You're Fired!"

Well the suspense is over.  President Trump just nominated Judge Neil Gorsuch for Supreme Court Justice.  Gorsuch prevailed over the other finalist, Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, also a federal appeals court judge, and Trump announced the nomination at a televised prime-time event at the White House.  Trump spoke of the dozen or more Supreme Court candidates he submitted to the voters and how he's keeping a promise to his supporters.  Gorsuch clerked for Justices Byron White from the Kennedy administration and a fellow Coloradan, and also Justice Antony Kennedy, who still is serving.  He got his undergraduate at Columbia and then moved on to Harvard.  He said all of the right things when Trump called him up to say a few words.  He’s just 49 years old and if confirmed would be the youngest man serving on the High Court and Trump expressed the hope he’d be serving for fifty years.  He made a good impression but since my TV screen was on the fritz I didn’t see what he looked like.  I know one of the two candidates was tagged “Scelia 2.0” and maybe that applies to Gorsuch.  Trump said that when on the appellate court he was confirmed without a dissenting vote.  My guess is that he’ll have an easy time in confirmation.

Yates was the deputy Attorney General under Obama and she was fired by Trump last night because she announced she wasn’t going to go along with this denial of visas coming in this country.  She was a 27 year veteran of the justice department.  So this amounts to kind of a mini Saturday Night massacre.  In Andrew Johnson’s day this was grounds for impeachment.  What’s to stop Trump from firing anybody in the Pentagon whom he disagrees with?  The many protests all around the country continue.   Trump’s Supreme Court nominee is narrowed down to two people in the media and Trump has says he’ll be strong on the second amendment and that fundamentalist Christians will love him.  That was never in doubt for a moment. 

Steve Muninchin has possible foreign conflicts in the Cayman islands and elsewhere and Democrats are now saying that he wasn’t sufficiently queeried on this when he was up for confirmation.  He’s up for Secretary of the Treasury and that’s a pretty important post.  I can’t think of a single person up for a cabinet post in the Trump administration that I would vote for at this point.  Certainly this guy is a prime candidate not to confirm.  Steve Mininchin is the guy known as the Forclosure King throwing veterans out of their homes.  The democrats have tried a new, dirty tactic involving denial of the Republicans as a quarum to even legally have a meeting under Robert’s Rules of order.  If it works I guess they are “making a statement”, but still I’d give a lot of thought to just how low they want to go in the way of “dirty tricks” if they don’t want them used on Democrats in the future.  I tried to download the article but ran into technical complications. 

President Trump scrapped plans on Tuesday to sign an executive action launching a government-wide cybersecurity overhaul. The White House did not immediately provide an explanation for the cancellation.  So far Trump hasn’t done anything to sabotage net neutrality but I think this is coming.  On the other hand maybe he’s just being smart for once and not issuing any half baked executive orders that aren’t well thought out. 

The term “extreme vetting” takes on a different meaning when you’re a Romulan on Sirius A and they would joke about “extreme vetting” but I was later told that the Romulans didn’t engage in “extreme vetting” but in fact this is an Orion Federation turn and it’s what they do there to inflict pain on various portions of the body to elicit information- - - basically though of applicants for some highly elite ‘special forces” operation and may even have the ‘heat box” they had on “Dune” where you’d be sure that your hand was fried off but it’s done by “nerve induction” or whatever.  The Federation are great at messing around with people’s brains. 

Just a reminder.  If you’re going to write your congressman use a hand written postcard.  Anything hand written gets more attention than a typed letter because they know it isn’t spam, and postcards get past security because after that Anthrax scare of the fall of 2001 they’re still diverting letters for examination lest something with anthrax get through.  

The Trump administration is caught lying again.  A far larger number of people were denied entry into the United States than President Trump initially said after defending his executive order on refugees, Department of Homeland Security officials acknowledged on Tuesday.  Mr. Trump posted on Twitter that only 109 people were denied boarding on planes to the United States after his order, but during a news briefing at theCustoms and Border Protection agency’s headquarters on Tuesday, officials said that 721 people had been denied boarding for the United States after it began enforcing the travel ban.  Homeland security officials said the White House was referring to the number of people denied boarding during the initial hours after the travel ban was signed when people were in transit to the United States, based on preliminary calculations.  The officials also disclosed that 872 refugees were granted waivers to enter the country, despite Mr. Trump’s executive order freezing resettlement. Customs officials said the waivers were granted because the refugees were “ready to travel.” They had already been vetted by the government, they said.  John F. Kelly, the secretary of homeland security, said that Mr. Trump’s order did not amount to a “travel ban,” adding, “This is a temporary pause that allows us to better review the existing refugee and visa vetting system.”  But Mr. Kelly also confirmed that, while he saw versions of the executive order, he did not see the final order before it was signed by the president.

The US Should Get Out Of Afghanistan Now

The U.S. war in Afghanistan is well into its 16th year. In 2014 President Obama declared it over, but it will remain a political, financial, security, legal, and moral problem unless you actually end it.

The U.S. military now has approximately 8,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan , plus 6,000 other NATO troops, 1,000 mercenaries, and another 26,000 contractors (of whom about 8,000 are from the United States). That’s 41,000 people engaged in a foreign occupation of a country 15 years after the accomplishment of their stated mission to overthrow the Taliban government.

During each of the past 15 years, our government in Washington has informed us that success was imminent. During each of the past 15 years, Afghanistan has continued its descent into poverty, violence, environmental degradation, and instability. The withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops would send a signal to the world, and to the people of Afghanistan, that the time has come to try a different approach, something other than more troops and weaponry.

The ambassador from the U.S.-brokered and funded Afghan Unity government has reportedly told youthat maintaining U.S. involvement in Afghanistan is “as urgent as it was on Sept. 11, 2001.” There’s no reason to believe he won’t tell you that for the next four years, even though John Kerry tells us “Afghanistan now has a well-trained armed force …meeting the challenge posed by the Taliban and other terrorists groups.” But involvement need not take its current form.

The United States is spending $4 million an hour on planes, drones, bombs, guns, and over-priced contractors in a country that needs food and agricultural equipment, much of which could be provided by U.S. businesses. Thus far, the United States has spent an outrageous $783 billion with virtually nothing to show for it except the death of thousands of U.S. soldiers , and the death, injury and displacement of millions of Afghans. The Afghanistan War has been and will continue to be, as long as it lasts, a steadysource of scandalous stories of fraud and waste. Even as an investment in the U.S. economy this war has been a bust.

But the war has had a substantial impact on our security: it has endangered us. Before Faisal Shahzad tried to blow up a car in Times Square, he had tried to join the war against the United States in Afghanistan. In numerous other incidents, terrorists targeting the United States have stated their motives as including revenge for the U.S. war in Afghanistan, along with other U.S. wars in the region. There is no reason to imagine this will change.

In addition, Afghanistan is the one nation where the United States is engaged in major warfare with a country that is a member of the International Criminal Court. That body has now announced that it isinvestigating possible prosecutions for U.S. crimes in Afghanistan. Over the past 15 years, we have been treated to an almost routine repetition of scandals: hunting children from helicopters, blowing up hospitals with drones, urinating on corpses — all fueling anti-U.S. propaganda, all brutalizing and shaming the United States.

Ordering young American men and women into a kill-or-die mission that was accomplished 15 years ago is a lot to ask. Expecting them to believe in that mission is too much. That fact may help explain this one: the top killer of U.S. troops in Afghanistan is suicide. The second highest killer of American military is green on blue, or the Afghan youth who the U.S. is training are turning their weapons on their trainers! You yourself recognized this, saying: “Let’s get out of Afghanistan. Our troops are being killed by the Afghans we train and we waste billions there. Nonsense! Rebuild the USA.”

The withdrawal of U.S. troops would also be good for the Afghan people, as the presence of foreign soldiers has been an obstacle to peace talks. The Afghans themselves have to determine their future, and will only be able to do so once there is an end to foreign intervention.

We urge you to turn the page on this catastrophic military intervention. Bring all U.S. troops home from Afghanistan. Cease U.S. airstrikes and instead, for a fraction of the cost, help the Afghans with food, shelter, and agricultural equipment.

Is Trump Trying to Manage the Media?

Donald Trump is about as popular now with the average American as bacon wrapped span at a vegan restaurant.   Stephanie refers to him as BLOTUS for bully of the United States, and of course he’s known as the Trumpster and also “twittler”.    There is a rumor that Trump was going to put up a big picture of the crowds of last weekend on his wall, but the joke is this photo was taken on Saturday rather than Friday and you can tell by all the pink hats.  Trump has his press conference scheduled today (Friday) at ten o clock Pacific Time.  When I typed the foregoing I assumed it would be a regular press conference that goes on 45 ot 50 minutes where reporters are not screened out and are free to ask what they want till they are satisfied with his answer.  Boy, how wrong I was!

 I turned on KFI.  It was another strange news conference.  The thing was short.  It ended at 10:25 depending on when it started it was shorter than most presidential press conferences.  It was also highlighted by long-winded speeches and an unusual amount of friendly “set up” questions.  He had the British Prime Minister with him as sort of a “prop”.   She tried to make it sound like they were like two peas in a pod or something, but clearly they disagreed about an awful lot including abortion.  Both were asked questions about these disagreements and neither would go into them.  Trump also said that he still plans to have a good relationship with the President of Mexico, which is really hard to believe.  I guess I had the usual Gary and Shannon on after this.  They weren’t buying the act- - of this press conference.  Now Shawn Spicer is apparently going to turn over a new leaf and not tell continual lies at his press briefings.  We don't have any room for "Alt-facts".  Facts are facts, and that's what we base reality on.  (Selah)

Friday's news continued to be dominated by two things.  One was the cutting off of all Syrian refugee visas because as Shawn says, "If there is even a few percentage chance of a terrorist slipping in, why take that gamble?"  I guess it's being told one in ten mushrooms you bought at the store are poisonous or something.  The other big story is the border wall.  Twelve billion is a low-ball estimate.  People talk about all of the schools and hospitals you could build for that or tax subsedies for ordinary Americans.  In 1986 Reagan stripped out a lot of tax subsedies for ordinary Americans. 

President Trump called Russian President Vladi­mir Putin on Saturday in hopes of cultivating “a great relationship,” one in a series of telephone conversations with world leaders as he develops a personal rapport with the heads of several traditional U.S. allies.  Trump’s call with Putin, which began about noon Eastern time, comes as the president faces pressure to maintain sanctions against Moscow. He is reaching out to repair the U.S.-Russian relationship, which has been badly strained by the Ukrainian crisis, the war in Syria and the conclusion by U.S. intelligence agencies that Putin ordered systematic hacking of Democratic emails to tip the presidential election in Trump’s favor.  Trump spoke with Putin from behind his desk in the Oval Office, which was stacked high with papers and a glass of soda. The president was flanked by Vice President Pence, national security adviser Michael Flynn, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and press secretary Sean Spicer.  Trump began the day with a call to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to discuss security and trade issues between the two countries and the mutual threat posed by North Korea. 

I just listened to on You Tube what I think were the first four songs on “The Ramones” first album, “Blitzkrig Bop”, “Beat on the Brat”, “Judy is a Punker” and “I Want to be your Boyfriend”.   In the news John Mc Cain thinks withdrawing from the Trans Pacific Partnership was and will be a great mistake.  Thom Hartman reported that six reporters were arrested for inciting to riot or something at the Inauguration last Friday.  They face felony charges of ten years in prison and a fine of $25,000 or something.  It's clear that Trump is attempting to take over the Media, like a totalitarian government manages the media and what people hear about their leaders.  How would you like to be living in North Korea?  Think about that one.

Last Sunday evening on "Eye on LA" they had foods original to Los Angeles,  First of all there is the corn dog - - on a stick.  I thought New York would have owned this one.  Then there is the tuna tar-tar, and the taquito, invented on Olvera Street, and then there was French dip roast beef sandwiches.  It comes from a guy named French.  Then there is the hot fudge sundae invented here in the early 1900's.  Then there are the drinks.  We have the Shirley Temple, the Moscow Mule, and the Zombie.  I always thought Zombies were just dump everything alcoholic in the bar you have in the drink, but this is a mis-impression.

I'd like to talk about Federation CD's for a minute.  In terms of the mechanics of the grooves they are compitable with earth CD's.  The only difference is that Federation CD's have a slightly smaller label so there is more room for the grooves.  These run 88 minutes.  However a few planets, mainly in the Old Reigelian Federation not under Orion control, they have standard earth sized labels so that a few Orion Federation CD's might not be fully compitable.  We are celebrating the year of the rooster, and roosters are energetic and industrious, and if you're a Rooster and in a relationship, this is a good year to get married.

YEAR OF THE ROOSTER (Revised and released January 28th 2017)

Would You Like to do a Number with Me?  (Cheap Trick)

Blitzkrig Bop  (The Ramones)

Children of the Grave (Black Sabbath) *

Knife Edge  (Emerson, Lake, & Palmer)

La Villa Strangiado (an exercise in self indulgence) (Rush) studio version
Dogs (Pink Floud) about 18 minutes
Two Heads (Jefferson Airplane)
Vira Gemini (Blue Oyster Cult)
Turtle Blues (Big Brother & the HC)
Rice Pudding (Jeff Beck)

Front cover is of a sunrise with a black cillauette of a carved wooden rooster on a post. Some suggest this could be a weather vain.  "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows".  The consencus here is to de-Trumpify this compilation.  People are already sick of hearing about Trump.  

*with the wierd guitar introduction

Trump's Blitzkrig on America Continues

The President of Mexico canceled his meeting with Trump next week.   He said it was because Trump yesterday said that he was building the border wall and he would charge Mexico for the cost.  Mexico understandably thought this was preposterous.  However the WH press secretary is talking about a new twenty percent terrif to help pay for the wall.  Trump counters that the United States must be treated with respect or he has no choice but to torpedo relations.   This “fence” was proposed by congress in 2006 and Paul Ryan says “Now we are just implementing it”.  It’s going to cost at least twelve billion dollars, but we should expect cost overruns.  But no one has explained what’s to stop Mexico from just blowing a big hole in the wall with explosives?   I've heard people were now moving out of Trump's hotels because of growing security concerns.  

There is a movement this week for California secession and it’s gaining traction after the events of this past week.  Personally I’m evolving on this issue but I’m coming around to being in favor of it because we in California haven’t gotten as much money back from the government as we put in, in a long time.  Culturally we have become a different place from the now majority of America.  It's hard to find a person who actually likes Donald Trump out here.  “Tronald Dump” is a nick name as is “Boss Tweet” referring to the old New York boss of the late 1800’s of “boss Tweed”.  And another nick name for Donald Trump is “King of the Swamp”.  

A lot of people in the State department are leaving but James Comey of the FBI has been invited to stay on with the Trump administration.  Don’t tell me that isn’t a political pay-off for a job well done.  They say it’s unusual for so many high ranking officials to quit all at once, even with a change of administration because “they are professionals” and have been there a long time.  Norman Goldman is referring to it as a “brain drain”, which sounds bad.   Norman is asking “Well I assume Trump has people lined up to replace them”, when the word is that he doesn’t.  Norman says “I’m going to keep track of how long these posts remain empty”.  The three people confirmed by the Senate so far are Mike Pompeo at the CIA and Kelly of the department of homeland security and of course Tillerson for Secretary of State.  

I have areas of disagreement with the following material but I’ll repeat it for what it’s worth.  The thing is that Donald Trump is qualitatively and quantitively worse than Obama in so many ways.  Thom Hartman points out that in the early months of Adolph Hitler there WERE protests but they were soon quelched due to a government led media blitz on the consciousness of the German people.  I suggest every American read the 14 points of Fascism and believe me I think we have gone beyond those points today into something worse.  "If they had known the end from the beginning they would have protested at the start but they kept silent and as the propaganda continued it became harder and harder to rationalize "stepping out of line" or rocking the boat.   I also disagree with the portion of this about Ukraine.  Here we go - - -The election of Donald Trump has sent millions of people pouring out onto the streets to protest a man they think is a racist, misogynist, xenophobic bully who will destroy US democracy in his quest to establish himself as supreme fascist ruler of the country.  Maybe they’re right. Maybe Trump is a fascist who will destroy America. But where were these people when Obama was bombing wedding parties in Kandahar, or training jihadist militants to fight in Syria, or abetting NATO’s destructive onslaught on Libya, or plunging Ukraine into fratricidal warfare, or collecting the phone records of innocent Americans, or deporting hundreds of thousands of undocumented workers, or force-feeding prisoners at Gitmo, or providing bombs and aircraft to the Saudis to continue their genocidal war against Yemen?  Where were they? They were asleep, weren’t they? Because liberals always sleep when their man is in office, particularly if their man is a smooth-talking cosmopolitan snake-charmer like Obama who croons about personal freedom and democracy while unleashing the most unspeakable violence on civilians across the Middle East and Central Asia.   The United States has been at war for eight straight years under Obama, and during that time, there hasn’t been one sizable antiwar march, demonstration or protest. Nothing. No one seems to care when an articulate bi-racial mandarin kills mostly people of color, but when a brash and outspoken real estate magnate takes over the reigns of power, then ‘watch out’ because here come the protestors, all three million of them!

BLITZKRIG NOW!  rel January 26th, 2017

Blitzkrig Bop  (The Ramones)

Trump's Inaugural Address  (about 20 minutes)  January 20, 2016

Dogs (Pink Floud)  about 18 minutes

Two Heads (Jefferson Airplane)

Vira Gemini (Blue Oyster Cult)

Turtle Blues (Big Brother & the HC)

Rice Pudding (Jeff Beck)