Long-time Aid Hope Hicks Leaves Trump Administration

Hope Hicks is the 29-year-old former model and ex-Trump Organization employee has been by Mr Trump's side for years.  She is reported to have told colleagues she felt she had accomplished all she could in the White House.  She is the fourth person to serve as White House communications chief.  White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said it remained unclear when Ms Hicks would leave the administration.  She's the same one that was having the ongoing affair with what's-his-face.   I don't know.  People sure have been dropping like flies in this administration.  It seems only a matter of time before Trump runs out of people who are nutty enough to support his agenda for the country.   

WASHINGTON — Hope Hicks, the White House communications director, told House investigators on Tuesday that her work for President Trump, who has a reputation for exaggerations and outright falsehoods, had occasionally required her to tell white lies.

But after extended consultation with her lawyers, she insisted that she had not lied about matters material to the investigations into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election and possible links to Trump associates, according to three people familiar with her testimony.  The exchange came during more than eight hours of private testimony before the House Intelligence Committee. Ms. Hicks declined to answer similar questions about other figures from the Trump campaign or the White House.

Norman Goldman mentioned that there is new evidence against Jered Kuishner that’s indictable but he didn’t say what it was.  But also the Republicans in congress are threatening (going after them legislatively) corporations that recently cut out the NRA’s discounts for customers.   That’s dirty pool.   It's like something the Mafia would do.  It might even be an impeachable offence, except it was done by congress.  But it shows the hammerlock people like the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Addelson have on Congress.   

Presidential son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner has had his security clearance downgraded — a move that will prevent him from viewing many of the sensitive documents to which he once had unfettered access.   Kushner is not alone. All White House aides working on the highest-level interim clearances — at the Top Secret/SCI-level — were informed in a memo sent Friday that their clearances would be downgraded to the Secret level, according to three people with knowledge of the situation.

Dick’s Sporting Goods is no longer selling assault rifles and you have to be 21 to buy any firearm at the store.  Also Dick’s Sporting Goods has never and will never sell bump stocks at their stores.  Wall Mart is also scaling back their guns.  This is just another indicator that the corporate world is ahead of congress on this one. 

We are doing another rock compilation called “Elementary Logic” showing equations from the theory of relativity on a blackboard.  But none of the songs measured up so I canceled the plans.  But then reconsidered, so here it is with a little tinkering around the edges.  Actually the album came out today in the Federation.  Two of the tracks are from the "Crossroads" boxed set.  This is the third compilation that covers the period from 1969 to 1973 approximately we've done in the past year.  The song listings are on the back, and the open out portion features written commentary about the possibility of Jered Kushner having committed an impeachable offense that could bring down the whole Trump administration.  Rumors are they’ve got new proof. 

ELEMENTARY LOGIC

Chick-a-boom!  (Daddy Dew Drops)

My Sheree Amor (Stevie Wonder)

Build Me Up, Buttercup  (Foundations)

Only a Northern Song (Beatles)

Can’t Find My Way Back Home (Blind Faith)

Mississippi Queen (Mountain)
Hey, Hey, What Can I Do? (Led Zeppelin)

Key to the Highway (Live Eric Claptin)

Story in your Eyes (Moody Blues)

Scorpio (Dennis Coffey)

Bringing Home the Bacon (Procol Herum)

They Smile in your Face (Back Stabbers)  (the O J’s)

Convoy (artist?) 

I Don’t Want To Be a Soldier Mama (John Lennon)

High Court Refused Reconsideration of DACA Case

The Supreme Court today refused to hear the DACA appeal that President Trump made.  The court didn’t want to “fast track” the issue but let it go through the regular channels, which means the Dreamers have several more months.  The case will go through the Ninth Circuit Court of San Francisco.  That will rule in the "dreamers" favor.  Some have even said that the "dreamers" could have another year not worrying about having to be deported.  The High Court didn't want to touch this case right now.   Another High Court ruling that was favorable to the liberals was the one that stated that California has the right to have a ten day waiting period for firearm sales in the state.  Personally I think ten days is a little long.  Even a one day period would be a "cooling off period" if you were going to blow someone's brains out.  Perhaps a three day waiting period would be more suitable than a ten day period.  Because if there were burglars in your neighborhood you may not have ten days before the burglar strikes your house.  That's my oppinion anyhow.   

On the two o clock news people are being urged to boycott Florida for spring break.  Apparently a successful boycott of the NRA is occurring by businesses.  People from Alamo to Hertz to Delta to United are no longer offering NRA discounts.  They had about twenty or more corporations listed.  This movement is getting traction.  Many say these are just pin prick responses.  Raising the age to buy an AR 15 won't eliminate very many deaths.  Someone from FOX said that only three percent of the homocides in this country are committed by military assault weapons.  I guess maybe we need to think through access to other hand guns.  

There was a wave of school shootings in late 1997 through Colembine in April of 1999 that people aren’t talking about.  Jonesborough Arkansas was in that wave in 1998 and then it was Springfield Oregon in May of 1998.   I mention all this because someone said that there were NO school shootings in the period from 1994 to 2004 when an assault weapons ban was in full force.  We know now this claim of liberals is not the case.   I have Face the Nation now and there are little breaks in the sound.  I’m going to run quick clean right now.   I just ran quick clean after closing all browser windows first.  We’ll see what happens now.   Four congressmen and women are being interviewed, who plan to retire this year. 

 Sixty Minutes had the Seran gas attack by the Syrians and bombing hospitals last April when Trump kept talking about “the little babies” when he had a mild response.  We discussed this back then and I guess the episode was a rerun.  Then they had a photographer who posted his photographs on exterior walls of faces of protestors.  Then I went for medication.    One lady (I forget who) took a long time but the rest of the line moved fast.   Then I caught the third segment on some female actress who gets into the emotions of her parts.  

“Dun Ringal” is back on a rock compilation because the song it replaced was on “The American Night”.   (It replaced "Star-Trekking)  We use the live version of “Dun Ringal” because it was the version that became a hit and is on “Twenty Years of Tull”.   If I had readers that actually left comments (I used to get comments) this would have been pointed out weeks ago.  In case you didn't know we offer "dyspensations" for doubling up song listings either if the song is on one of our "Demento" albums, or else if the track is on the "Soul Train" album from May of 2006.   

The Long Awaited Democratic Memo is Finally Released

The Democratic response to the Republican “memo” addressed to no one, was allowed to be released today.  Apparently they had redacted enough material to satisfy the Trump administration.  I just hope that people actually read both memos and not just rely on the media summaries.  People don’t take the trouble to read anymore.  Democrats, in a rebuttal to a controversial GOP memo released Saturday, argue that the Justice Department and the FBI did not abuse their powers when they spied on former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.  The GOP memo, assembled by the staff of House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, alleged the FBI and Justice Department officials relied on an unsubstantiated dossier compiled by former British spy Christopher Steele to get a warrant to conduct surveillance of Page.  The dossier was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign to look into Trump's ties to Russia; the GOP memo alleged that the FBI knew of the partisan agenda behind the dossier but did not alert the surveillance court.  But the Democrats, who have said the GOP document was released earlier this month to divert attention away from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, countered that in their own 10-page, partially redacted memo, saying Page had already been assessed to be an "agent of the Russian government" prior to the FBI receiving the dossier.  Additionally, the memo said the initial FISA application in October 2016 and its subsequent renewals provided the rationale behind surveilling Page, who no longer worked with the Trump campaign.  "The FBI had an independent basis for investigating Page's motivations and actions during the campaign, transition and following the inauguration," the memo said.  It said the Justice Department made "narrow use" of Steele's investigation into Page, specifically about Page's suspected meetings with Russian officials in July 2016.  Additionally, the memo contends that the Justice Department "repeatedly" informed the surveillance court about Steele's background, credibility and potential bias and was transparent about Steele's sourcing.   It also states that the department never paid Steele for the dossier. The Justice Department had used Steele as an informant before, which he had received compensation for, but that was for information "unrelated to the FBI's Russia investigation."  The release comes after weeks of back and forth over how much of the document would be redacted. The White House on Feb. 9 objected to its release, citing national security concerns. That sent the Democrats back to negotiations with the FBI over how much of the memo needed to be blacked out.

I had Leo Le Port on from before noon till two.  Some of that time I was watching curling at the Olympics.  Leo had Scot Wilkinson on who said that a good stereo system now will cost you $170.00 or so.  He talked about how good Google Chrome-books are and now now “the internet if your operating system”.  Time has passed people like me by.   For instance it seems absurd to me that a store would stop selling regular CD’s because they’re too old fashion.  Now of course they’ve stopped using earphone jacks in equipment.  You’re expected to use some form of wireless even though Leo admits Blue Tooth or some of these don’t work very well.  It struck me that the psychic profession has been pretty much supplanted because science fiction and all of this Power Ranger stuff is so advanced.  People have no need of psychic visions for their fantasies because the detail is so much more prolific in producer’s imaginations.  It’s a wonder that religion itself hasn’t been supplanted by “Black Panther” the greatest new movie to come along in ages with an all Black cast.  Of course with all of this stay at home stuff now with home theaters- - - -and people predicting for decades that people would choose to work at home rather than commute, it’s amazing how the traffic on our streets never lets up.  The corporations haven’t gotten the word.   That book I have called “Visions” came out in 1997 and every now and then I look at it.  When people predict the future they do so based on the present.  In some ways people are predicting that “Warfare” of the future will be all cyber-warfare and battles for information rather than the conquest of land.  ISIS hasn’t gotten the word.  There is a horrific war going on in Syria right now that everyone is ignoring.  Trump doesn’t want to get involved because he’s pro Russia even though they are the ones with the barrel bombs bombing women and children.  Or maybe he read the last blog and doesn’t want to start World War III.   When it comes to controlling people there’s no substitute for good old fashioned brute force.  But the Giz Whiz guy on Leo’s show says that there is a “toy device” that enables you to control the muscular actions of another.  This device will echo your own muscular actions such as clinching your fist.  If this were possible they would have discovered it a hundred years ago.  

Some Scarey Stuff About the Next World War

Trump has abandoned former U.S. President Barack Obama’s excuse for invading Syria, and replaced it by what is now clearly an American hot war against Iran, which indisputably has become the U.S. President’s target — no longer (even if only as an excuse) ISIS or “radical Islamic terrorism.”

Iran never attacked the U.S. However, Iran did overthrow the U.S.-installed Shah in 1979 and capture the U.S. Embassy, which had ruled Iran (and allowed or disallowed what the Shah did) ever since America’s 1953 coup there overthrew Iran’s democratically elected progressive secular Government and installed instead the Shah’s brutal dictatorship. But the aggression was by the U.S. Government, not by Iran’s Government.

And, after 1979, Iran never committed aggression against the United States; so, the U.S. is entirely in the wrong, now, to be planning (or instructing Israel) how to destroy Iran.

This U.S. President clearly wants an invasion of Iran, which Israel is now preparing to launch.

Iran is an ally of Russia. On February 19th, Russia’s Tass news agency headlined “Moscow calls on US not to play with fire in Syria” and reported the Russian Foreign Minister’s statement: “I once again call on our American colleagues not to play with fire and measure their steps proceeding not from immediate needs of today’s political environment, but rather from long-term interests of the Syrian people and of all peoples of this region.”

Here is a description of what will likely be entailed if Israel launches a military attack against Iran; it was published on February 22nd, by Russian geostrategic expert Peter Korzun, under the headline “Israel and Iran: Inching Toward Conflict”:

If Iran itself is attacked, its sites related to its nuclear program will top the list of the prime targets for Israel’s F-35, F-15, F-16, and Kfir fighters, drones, and intermediate-range Jericho missiles. There are different routes they could take, but all of them would require flying through the airspaces of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, or Turkey. None of these Muslim countries will openly allow Israel to use their airspace, but anti-Iran sentiments are strong in the Sunni-dominated Arab states. Some of them might be willing to look the other way. A clandestine agreement to tacitly allow Israeli aircraft to cross their air space is entirely possible. Anger could be vented publicly once the mission has been completed.

Iraq is not focused on monitoring its airspace – it has many other problems to deal with and Israel could take advantage of that. The route through Iraq looks like it might be the best option.

The distance that would need to be covered would be between 1,500 km (930 miles) and 1,800 km (1,120 miles). The aircraft will also have to make a return trip, so in-flight refueling will be a necessity. Israel is only believed to own between eight and ten large tanker aircraft (such as Boeing 707s). That will hardly be enough. The Israeli military is not particularly adept at aerial refuelling. If the aircraft have to fly undetected, the F-35s will have to forgo their externally mounted weapons in order to preserve their stealth capabilities. Then their payload will be reduced to only two JDAM-guided bombs in the internal bay. Pretty underwhelming.

Then Iran’s radars will have to be spoofed, and its air defenses, especially the Russian-made S-300, will have to be knocked out. It won’t be easy.

Israel has a few dozen laser-guided bunker buster bombs (the GBU-28). The Jericho III is an Israeli three-stage solid propellant missile with a payload of more than a ton and capable of carrying multiple low-yield independently targeted reentry warheads. All the targets in Iran fall within its range of up to 6,500 km (4,038 miles). These missile strikes are capable of destroying every command and control site, as well as all major nuclear facilities.

The Heron-2 and Eitan drones can hover in the air for more than 20 consecutive hours to provide guidance and intelligence and to jam Iranian communications and confuse its radar.

Israel would wage electronic warfare against Iran’s military and civilian infrastructure, such as its electric grids and Internet, creating interference with Iran’s emergency frequencies.

After the war has begun, Israel will come under rocket and missile attack from Iran’s proxies: Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah has up to 150,000 rockets that can reach anywhere in Israel. It is true however, that Israel possesses a sophisticated, multilayer, air-defense shield. A first-class intelligence and early-warning system will mitigate the fallout, but substantial damage will be unavoidable.

Israeli troops will have to deploy in the Strip and move across the Lebanese border. But the Shia group will have to fight on two fronts: in Syria to prop up the Assad government, and in Lebanon against Israel. Syria is likely to find itself involved in combat operations. Israel will go to any length to keep Iran and Hezbollah away from its border.

Iran may try to block the Strait of Hormuz. But even if it does not, global oil prices would go up. Iran or its proxies might attack US forces in the Middle East, primarily in Syria and Iraq. Should that happen, Iraq would likely become a battleground between US forces and Iranian proxies, with American reinforcements rushing in. Iran could punish the Americans for their support of Israel in Afghanistan.

An attack against Russia’s ally would be an attack that will significantly weaken Russia. Will Russia come to the defense of its ally, the victim of this uncalled-for invasion by America’s proxy, Israel? Will Russia retaliate by destroying Israel — and maybe destroying also its sponsor?

Most scenarios for a world-ending nuclear war entail “errors,” or else a traditional non-nuclear conflict (perhaps in Syria, or in Ukraine — or it could be in Iran, or in North Korea) producing victory for one side (it could be either the U.S. versus Russia, in Syria, Ukraine, or Iran; or else the U.S. versus China, in North Korea), unless the other side (it could be either Russia versus the U.S., or else China versus the U.S.) blitz-launches almost its entire nuclear arsenal against the other side and against the other side’s strategically key allies. (For example, if Israel invades Iran, then perhaps Russia will launch a blitz-nuclear invasion of both Israel and the United States.) The first-to-strike in an all-out war between the nuclear superpowers will have the best chance of winning (i.e., in military parlance “winning” means simply inflicting more damage on the other side than it inflicts upon the “winner” — regardless of how damaged both sides — and the rest of the world — are). If the U.S. or its allies invade more than they’ve already done (practically all allies of Russia), then a blitz from Russia and/or China would be reasonable, because then obviously the U.S. aims to become conqueror of the entire world — the only super-power. Once one side has lost the traditional conflict in Syria and/or Ukraine, or elsewhere, the other side will either unleash its nuclear stockpile against the other (except for whatever anti-missiles it holds in reserve against any of the enemy’s missiles that haven’t yet been destroyed in that blitz-attack), or else it will surrender to the other. There will be a ‘winner’, but the entire world will be the loser. This is what America’s ‘democracy’has brought us to.

Billionaires (including owners of controlling interests in weapons-manufacturers whose main or only customers are the U.S. Government and its allied governments — the ‘democratic’ decision-makers who had won political power because of donations from those billionaires) are planning to survive nuclear war. There seem to be two main ways:

Google this line: billionaires moving to “new zealand”

Others are buying bunkers deep underground in countries where they already reside — such as here, andhere, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here — to protect themselves from the nuclear blasts, though nothing can protect anyone (not even, ultimately in New Zealand) from the resulting nuclear winter, and global famine and die-off.

More about what’s behind this can be seen in an excellent article by Edward Curtin, which has been published at a number of terrific news-sites — especially Greanville Post, Counter Currents, Global Research, and Off-Guardian (all four of which sites are prime ones to visit regularly, if a person wants to understand today’s world) — and it is aptly titled “The Coming Wars to End All Wars”.

A Few Positive Events

Wayne La Pierre of the NRA got a draft deferment because his doctor said he had a “nervous condition”.  Where is General Patton when you need him?   My own 1Y designation was due to bad vision and not mental illness.  Meanwhile Governor Rick Scott of Florida has now come up with a whole list of requirements to own a gun in Florida.  You have to be 21 and you have to be free from mental illness or domestic violence or sexual assaults and other limitations.  President Trump has hinted he might go for an over 21 requirement.  People are all fired up now saying things people could vote for but I’ll believe it when I see it.  Maybe the republicans have figured out that a pro NRA position is a political loser in this year of 2018 and that maybe they’d better cede ground on a few issues to be able to hold congressional seats. 

I saw Linda by the elevator and she reminded me that their was a residents council meeting today (right now).   Getting people in there was a slow process but finally others trickled in such as Glen and Kathy Knowles and Mary Barnes.  Kathy Larsen was busy having a loud conversation with Jeff in the back and they were distracting.  The meeting was a little late in getting started.  But finally Linda read the old minutes.  Judy was secretary.  She looks like she’s age ten years in the past year since I sat at her table.  Linda said some of the changes in menu have already been implemented and more would be.  I again complained about the bathroom sink not draining.  I again suggested that we have coffee for snack time.  Maryanne Woods had a bunch of things stolen last month that are still missing.  Other repairs were mentioned.  Then Linda asked each of us about our medication and are we getting the proper meds.  She did the same thing with money drawing asking if people got their pay.  The most notable event occurred near the end of the meeting.  It was after talk about some future beach trip.  ( ) Linda said that as of February first that alcohol would be allowed at this place for the first time.  It was some higher up policy decision.  The other night I was outside on the west benches with James, Linda and Kate and they were all talking about their employment history.  Linda had a small bottle of vodka and I wondered about it.  She said she needed it to get rid of a cough, which it did.  Of course I wasn’t going to say anything.  But now they are saying you can buy alcohol as long as you don’t get drunk or share it with others.  The meeting was adjourned just after three.

After this I was outside with Michelle in the cold and she happened to mention that she had tea bags.  I asked if I could have one and she said yes I could if I wheeled her to her room at 226 in the room next to Glen.  We naturally took the elevator.  She gave me the tea bag and I used it.  Then I turned on Eye Witness News.  Bill called.  He sounded hoarse and he said he had a cough.  I asked him how long he’d be at Harbor Villa and he said he wouldn’t be returning till early April.  He has his stomach operation around March 20^th and he will have his shoulder operation in early March.  There is no progress when he’ll have his cateract surgery.  Olivia was there with him.  Bill wanted me to fish his wallet out of his drawer because Olivia would be coming by next week to get it. 

Thom Hartman says since we’ve been calling the cops on school kids rather than send them to the Vice Principal’s office, a lot of black kids have arrest records that otherwise would have gotten swats or detention of suspension.  But all of these police have been unable to stop so much as one school shooting.  Now they are saying that Donald Trump has to fake empathy with cue cards such as “I feel for you”.  Others are saying that Trump has virtually no idea what is doing on in the day to day operation of his businesses.  His feet are not on the ground.   It has also been said that Black teachers, male and female, might well get arrested or worse on their way driving to their jobs if an officer and they have to explain why they have a gun on them.

I would recommend that my blog readers catch the Rude Pundit’s last several posting because he has his own “eloquent” way of expressing himself, how he feels about Trump and the whole guns issue.  Since he’s on blogspot.com I’m not going to re-post his remarks myself.  

People have been saying that the security guard at Parkland school was scared and stood out front and didn’t even venture in to where the action is.  Trump wants a few armed teachers- not every teacher- - and he says “Maybe we could pay them a little bonus”.  Of course the question arises why a totally deranged shooter might not just “chance it” and shoot for the mere obsession of it.   And what’s to stop shooters from just stealing a teacher’s gun?   As far as I know AR 15’s and AK 47’s use fifty caliber bullets with maximum penetration power.   This Wayne La Pierre guy head of the NRA is a disgusting guy to listen to.  He tells so many lies he's like Shawn Hannity.  

John Fugelsang was on the Stephanie Miller show.  It seems that Gates will get twenty years unless he wises up and turns state’s evidence.  He has already pled guilty.  They say right now he’s looking at a twenty year sentence and if he wants to see his wife and kids again not separated by iron bars he better play ball with the special prosecutor.  Stephanie yesterday said that her psychic is predicting that Trump will be gone before June.  

It’s hard to get a prescription now of Xeanex and Vallium now from physicians.  They have become taboo because they’re so addictive as to trying to withdraw from them.  Thom Hartman is just as concerned about serotonin uptake inhibitors to relieve depression.  They all don’t turn into unfeeling zombies, or else homicidal or suicidal.   In looking at stuff about Gates in the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal, all my quota of articles has been used up for the month and the month goes on for another five and a half days.  I was out looking for cigarettes and found a smokeable but and managed to get a light.   I looked at the menus and won’t change either menu.  Maybe I should check “Days” now.  Abigail admitted to Stephen that she was in fact the one who murdered Andre.  She is having a “psycho’ episode where she really believes she is Gabriel Hernandez.   Stephen must be surprised.  When the others left Stephan confronted Abigale directly about “what happened last night” when they kissed and Abigail doesn’t remember it.   Then the picture froze up again on the ad.  I went out and waited briefly and then Rico showed up with the two Oreos and the punch.  It feels like it’s in the forties outside.   Now they are saying new incidents of the flu are finally going down.