A Minority of Oppinion

Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount that "Broad is the way to destruction" and many there are who go down that path, but narrow and rocky is the path of Rightiousness and few there are who find it. As a general rule do you believe that the majority are always in possesion of "The Truth"?  (the following material in blue is deep background) Many Bible makers take the "minority report" view of scripture.  I don't, simply because we all know what's in the official Bible.  "Good News for Modern Man" puts the questionable verses in brackets, which denotes "edit" in the Wikkipedia,  as something that can be messed with at will of the reader.  The King James version is based on what is known as the "Received Text" or textus receptus.  This is the version translated by Jerome in the fifth century.  

We now come to what I call the "utility" of the Christian Gospel.  Does it really transform lives?  Is the choice to weather we get "saved" in such a transforming manner up to us or God?   Let me leap to my point and say as I did a few weeks back that "Even if I accepted everything in the New Testament as true (Leaving out Revelation to John for the moment) the question is what use it would be to the average person.  Because Romans 8:28 says that "All things work out for good for those who are called by God and love God".  So the question is that whether its true or not if a person receives personal "signs from God" then it confirms the "Confession of Jesus" they have made with their mouths.  Some might prefer "Profession of Jesus".   Trump in his press conference yesterday wants us all to think that the things he said were the "Majority oppinion" of Americans in this country.  There is a "Majority view" that Shawn Hannity pots forth.  So should be now accept the "Saving message" by accepting the Gospel about Trump's brilliant plans to transform America?  Would believing Trump's message actually make it So?

There is also a "Majority view" about the Bible and the Christian Church and how it all came into being and basically even the non "devout Christians' basically believe the standard lines about how the Church got started in 30 AD and there it spread out first to Syria and then to Turkey and then to Rome itself.  They take this scenario on Faith.  But first let's start with the Resurrection.   Gene Scott spoke of the Eight Things you need to believe to believe in the resurrection and I personally have doubts about those eight.  It was things like Jesus was pronounced guilty by Pontious Pilate and was dead and was buried in a known, accessable tomb.  One of the big tag lines of Harry Green and other pastors was the notion that the People of Jerusalem on Palm's Sunday were shouting 'Hosannah" on Sunday and yet this same crowd was shouting "Crucify Him" on Friday.  If we accept this as True it is an amazing thing and would seem to imply that they learned something about Jesus' message in those five days that turned their idolization and admiration of him to sheer Rage against him.  This is a key area where I believe the simpler explanation is the best.  It wasn't the Same Person on Sunday as on Friday.  I believe that Judas indeed seek to betray Jesus with money from the authorities.  Somehow I believe that the real Jesus made his escape and somehow Judas ended up being caught.  One movie, perhaps "Day of Triumph" even mentions Judas being captured by the authorities and almost forced to betray Jesus with threat of imprisonment or death.  We need to ponder this possability.  It would certainly be "a minority oppinion".   Some sources say that the person looked like Jesus when he was being tried and scourged by the Romans, but then while hanging on the cross his face turned into the face of Judas Iscariot.  In other words in "becoming Sin for us" he turned into sin incarnate and turned into Judas.  We then have the character of Barrabus in the gospels who appears in all four of them but in nowhere else in scripture or History- - who was a "convenient" character who comes in and does his job, his 'role" in the soap opera text, and then departs, never to be heard from again.  The concencus seems to be that Barrabus never got saved or became a desciple.  One of our eleven blogs is called "Escape from Egypt" but maybe we could have called it "Escape to Egypt" because this is just what Barrabus slash the real Jesus did.  There is a place where he is referred to as "That Egyptian".   It is my belief that John the Baptist's ministry came AFTER the messiah that John told parables about, that were adopted by the Gospels as belonging to Jesus.  In these parables there is much talk about Kings and violence and of "going away on a long trip".  It is my belief that this "long trip" was spoken of even by Jesus when he talked with the authorities in John 7 or something when he said "I am going away.  You will look for me but you will not find me".   He escaped to Egypt and from there went to Rome where he arrived around fifty AD.   This pre dates when the Apostle Paul arrived there by his own letters.  I have written extensively on this in the past.  I believe the Apostle Paul's ministry occurred much later around the turn of the century if not later after the Syrian Church was established and Paul had a far more Marcionite 'Gospel" than what the Syrian "orthodox" church preached.   I also believe the crucifixion was done on November 24th 29 AD during a partial ecclipse of the Sun, which explains the three hours of darkness.  I'll keep repeating my story and others will go on NOT believing it.  We have the example of the cold weather and of the fig tree not being in season.  There are various Coptic writings with a few strange things in the texts.  There is of course a Gospel of Judas.  Here again Judas was another "convenient" character who comes in and performs his function in the text and then disappears and I means Completely disappears- - as in Death, so we don't have to think about him again.  So both me and the Bible agree that we have a live Jesus and a dead Judas.  The only question is how both got that way.

Now there is a whole other theory that "explains" these mysteries and that is an impostor faking the resurrection.  So now we go back to Gene Scott's eight facts you must accept about Easter sermon.  Because I don't see anything in those eight "facts", which would preclude an impostor faking Jesus resurrection, much as Stephano Di Mira's death was covered up by a replacing of bodies in the coffin and faked up DNA and finger prints and a "Stephano mask".   As I said a few days ago, there are always things about these "sightings of dead people".  They are always fleeting.  It's always at a distance and no conversation is held with the subject at length.  He always seems "a little different" than when he was alive.  There is no "contenuity of relationship".  If the resurrection accounts in the Bible have anything in common it's that on three occasions the desciples at first failed to recognize it was Jesus whom they were talking to.  But then there was some "sign" that the desciples got that they knew it was really him.  But here again nobody asks the question of "If you see a dead guy who is alive again why take your eyes off him for one minute but pursue him and nail down a few facts.  But with Elvis or whoever these "facts" never seem to be nailed down.  These resurrections,  just as in the case of Stephano, never have any staying power.  All the people on Days of our Lives- - -just figured Stephano was still alive and "at large" once more.  But I would return to my own thesis that an impostor is not even necessary for my theory.  I have quoted Tassitus or whoever that Historian was- - who spoke of a "Crestus" as being alive after fifty AD.  He wasn't spoken of as a belief, but a real live person.  I believe something "happened" in the intervening years of Church history, which I have gone into in the past.  I have spoken of a "Syrian Church", which was really out of work Jewish Priests, perpetuating their Jewish religion after 70 AD when blood sacrifices were no longer performed but they came up with the idea of an Ultimate Sacrifice for sin- -which seemed neater and cleaner and with a really marketing appeal to the masses, which we call Christianity today.

Saturday bulletin in red.  For a third day in a row there is a new song line-up in 'Lover's Question" because of various factors.  See the blog post entry for more details.  "Mystic Eyes" was slipped in because people said it's hard to find because the compilation that contains it has distribution problems.  We spoke a couple of weeks ago about "Out of Our Heads" our compilation.  We have six faces of people on the front cover and one of these is Ian Stewart, the stealth Rolling Stone.  He is lower center.  It's two rows of three people but the two in the center row are squeezed a little tighter so that the corners are more prominent.  Mick Ronson is another face, along with Mal Evans,  and then there is Yours Truly, and another contraversial guy who was fired and then rehired, and the final face is the guy who's had the most to do with the re-release of this July 2006 compilation.  This photo is unchanged from the original but we just wanted to hype the songs more.  These people were not all at the same place at the same time. You can see the listings in "Bastille Day" from July of 2006 in "For the Record".  Under the category of “Hard to find stuff” maybe people reading our posting are wondering if we listed “Viva, Las Vegas” anywhere.  It can be found on the Rocca Rolla posting from June of 2007 on the album LLEPS ETH ESREVER VOL 2.    Of course many may scan our listings wondering whether they might find it on You Tube to find out what some of these songs actually sound like.  For your information the other Ben E King solo hit “Rose in Spanish Harlem” can be found in Skeletons From the Closet in May of 2006 on the “Deep Cover” album.  Another perhaps even harder to locate compilation is “Love or Confusion” from March of 2007 which can be found in the Escape from Egypt posting.   “The Stripper” came out in bold and some of these irregularities can’t be helped just like today’s additions to yesterday’s “A Lover’s Question” can be easily spotted because the paragraph is not indented.   Speaking of hard to find things many would like a compilation of all of Donald Trump’s flaws and failings in his month as President.  Stephanie and all the other left wing outlets are giving you little pieces of Trump’s failings.  But it might be nice to have a whole list like the “35 Articles of Impeachment” thing they did with Bush.  In other more banal news I got up at twenty after five because I was restless.  I did work on computer before six and had Stephanie on a little.  April was at the med counter serving Linda’s many medication requests and then that other lady who barges in speaking Philipino was talking with April and they were exchanging items.  I got my medication with milk and went my way.  Actually April wanted me to be sure and wake up Bill to get his medication because that seemed important for her today.  I got a dollar cup of coffee at the liquor store at seven.  I was a little surprised to see that the rains hadn’t started except for a few stray drops now and then.  It was foggy last night.  I took the cup into breakfast as soon as one brave person had opened the dining room doors.  We had oatmeal followed after a long interlude with a full English muffin, butter and jelly and scrambled eggs.  Judy gave me her scrambled eggs, too. 

President Trump's Melt-down before the Press

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump launched an extraordinary denunciation Thursday of his critics, complaining he inherited a "mess" and slamming stories that his campaign was constantly in contact with Russia as "fake news."

Today is Thursday February 16th.  Remember that day because it's the day President Trump did a total meltdown before the news media and the American people.  It was the strangest performance since Captain Queeg testified at that court marshal in the Caine Mutiny.  He just rambled and vented and appeared to not care the slightest what impression he was making on his hearers.  It's stranger than anything Richard Nixon did before the press even at his most stressful moments.  With all the talk of impeachment and all Trump did a complete case of projection saying that Flynn's firing was actually the fault of the press and not his own bad judgement.  I can't imagine how Shawn Hannity reported the event on his show today but I imagine Shawn was equally detached from reality.

Most memorable lines from Trump's press conference

Trump held court during a news conference that lasted an hour and fifteen minutes, carving out a stunning moment in modern American political history. He displayed a sense of anger and grievance rarely vented by a President in public -- let alone one who has been in office for just four weeks.

"I have never seen more dishonest media, frankly than the political media," Trump said, later slamming leaks to the press from the intelligence community -- some of which led to the resignation of national security adviser Michael Flynn.

"The leaks are real. The leaks are absolutely real. The news is fake because so much of the news is fake," Trump said.

While it was a marked contrast with the normal dynamics of a presidential news conference, the East Room show was vintage Trump. He touted his own poll numbers, victory over Hillary Clinton and discussed cable TV ratings and panel discussions.

"I'm here again to take my message straight to the people. As you know, our administration inherited many problems across government and across the economy. To be honest, I inherited a mess. It's a mess. At home and abroad, a mess."

That was the kind of message -- directed at large numbers of voters disgruntled with the performance of Washington's political establishment and delivered in a plainspoken, unvarnished manner -- that helped Trump win the presidency against all odds.

But his manner is also likely to offend or alarm other voters and may do little to alleviate skepticism towards Trump among political elites in Washington. Trump in fact predicted how his animated and unorthodox news conference will be interpreted in the press.

"Tomorrow, they will say: 'Donald Trump rants and raves at the press,'" Trump said. "I'm not ranting and raving. I'm just telling you. You know, you're dishonest people. But -- but I'm not ranting and raving. I love this. I'm having a good time doing it."

The general impression was of a president who is deeply frustrated at the way his new White House is being portrayed and who had decided to take matters into his own hands with a dramatic intervention.

The news conference was not scheduled until Thursday morning, but aides said Trump was itching to get out and defend himself.

A senior administration official told CNN's Jeremy Diamond that Trump walked into the Oval Office this morning and told his top aides: "Let's do a press conference today."

The news conference was "the President's idea, 100%" the official said.

"I'm here today to update the American people on the incredible progress that has been made in the last four weeks since my inauguration," Trump said, after quickly announcing his new pick for labor secretary, Alexander Acosta.

"We have made incredible progress. I don't think there's ever been a president elected who in this short period of time has done what we've done," Trump said.

And saying he resented picking up newspapers and turning on the television to hear reports that his White House was in chaos, Trump said, "This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine."

Donald Trump's change of heart on leaked information

Trump's appearance betrayed apparent deep frustration not just with the media coverage of his White House and a desire to talk directly to the American people but also possibly dismay with aides charged with defending him.

"I don't mind a bad story if it's true," Trump said, but complained much of what was reported about his administration was unfair.  The President lashed out, for instance, at coverage of his temporary travel ban on nationals of seven mostly Muslim nations that caused a weekend of chaos at the nation's airports before being suspended by a federal court.

"We had a very smooth roll out of the travel ban. But we had a bad court," Trump said. "We had a bad decision, that is the only thing that is wrong with the travel ban."  But the President also said a new executive order would be tailored to the court's ruling to ensure that it could legally go into force.

Trump also accused holdovers from the Obama administration of leaking out information about his alleged contacts with Moscow to hammer his administration.

Trump was repeatedly pressed on whether his campaign staff had been in contact with Russia, as a widening drama over his alleged connections with Moscow dominates news coverage.

"Nobody that I know of. How many times do I have to answer this question? Russia is a ruse. I have nothing to do with Russia. Haven't made a phone call to Russia in years," Trump said.

"I own nothing in Russia, I have no loans in Russia, I don't have any deals in Russia," Trump said. "Russia is fake news."

Eve of Impeachment

TV commentators have been saying we are on the Eve of Impeachment.  It's a long shot with a limb in the way from here but we're getting closer every day.  Still you wonder whether it isn't just some liberal's pipe dream because they've been wrong so many times in the past saying that Trump would never even finish the campaign but drop out in favor of some Koch brothers pick, or maybe Sheldon Adelson.  Trump did a major take-down of Jeb Bush in the primaries attacking him on the lead up the Iraq War.  One would hope that Trump -mindful of his own words- - would not get us into another war, perhaps with Iran.  Iran would prove to be a whole lot tougher customer than Iraq war either time.  They should do a TV show- - an hour would be fine but two hours would be better- - just tying all of the loose ends together with a bow package where the public can easily understand the facts.  Hopefully his cabinet posts will continue to be picked off one by one.  We've gotten rid of Michael Flynn.  And now that he's gone Trump is still defending former National Security head Flynn and attacking the "fake media".  These terms get old quick, particularly when a president of the United States overuses them as much as he does.  We have the labor secretary quitting because he won't get Republican votes with a record of domestic violence and also hiring an illegal alien or saying that what the fast food industry needs is more robots because they always "sell up" and never lose their cool and never take days off and always look fresh at the counter.  Then we have the Treasury Secretary who was grilled by Senator Ron Wyden or Oregon about his many shady financial dealings and questionable lending practices.  One would have hoped he'd have been voted down.  But we return to the whole basic question about a private citizen influencing foreign policy, which is illegal.  After all we all know the chronology by now.  A guy goes to Russia and cuts a deal and the next thing you know Russia won't retaliate for Obama's pulling out all of the Russian diplomats.  He said "Don't retaliate against the US but just hang in there and things will be a whole lot better in a few weeks when our people take over".  

I should check the Rude Pundit now.   Trump is at the dinner table with a smug expression on his face.  Then I hit up C-Span and watched the Democratic “full event” of Chuck Schummer and Dianne Feinstein discussing the upcoming Trump scandal investigation.  Right now I’m listening to Janet Yellen discussing the Federal Reserve.  I’m not learning much here yet.

This morning I had Thom Hartman on and he was talking about the latest Trump scandal as of today.  Now they have witnesses that people in the future Trump administration were in telephone contact with Russia before Election Day during the campaign.  Bill’s physical therapist arrived here just after nine and was here till twenty till ten.  He stays longer than Michael did and puts Bill through his paces.

 I returned and watched Gary and Shannon and it wasn’t noon yet.  I had the show on till one.  They were talking about “Draining the swamp” at 12:30.   The Labor Secretary is now out.  The Republicans in the Senate won’t support him because of his record of domestic violence and that he spoke too often of robots taking over the employment force.  Then it was “Days of our Lives”.  Steve finally made it back for their wedding with about an hour to get ready.  Hope Brady had all charges dropped in her murder case.  Raphael made a deal under pressure with Andre not to bring up the evidence that Hope framed Andre for his father’s murder if Hope didn’t entirely spill the beans about Andre’s bank activities or the involvement of Hatty.  Stephanie put in an appearance.

A LOVER’S QUESTION revised and released February 18th. 2017

Shake Rattle and Roll (Bill Haley & the Comets)

Bullweevel  (Fats Domino)

So Glad You’re Mine (Elvis Presley)

See You Later, Alligator (Bill Haley & the Comets)

Sitting in the Balcony  (Eddy Cochrin) (?)

Short Shorts (Royal Teens) (?)

Let’s Go –Cha-cha-cha!  (Feb 1958 artist)

Lover’s Question (Clyde Mc Phatter)

Whole Lot Of Kissing To Do (Fats Domino)

Say Man (Bo Didley)
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (Cherells)

Stand By Me (Ben E King)

Let Me In (Sensations)

I Want To Know If You’ll - - (Bruce Shennel)

Bossanoba  (Elvis Presley)

Disk Two

When I Grow Up To Be A Man (Beach Boys)

Man, Ain't That News (Sam Cooke)

Eve of Destruction (Barry Mc Guire)

Mystic Eyes (Them)

Strangers In the Night (Frank Sinatra)

Good Thing (Paul Revere & the Raiders)

Mary Mary (Monkees)
Look What Loving You Has Done To Me (Supremes) *

Lonely Is A Man Without Love (Engelberg Humperdink)

Is It Him or Me?  (Paul Revers & the Raiders)

I Know She’d Rather Be With Me  (Turtles)

I Think We’re Alone Now (Tommy James & the Shandels)
Within You and Without You -TNK mash-up  (Circ de Solee)
Being For the Benefit of Mr Kite mash-up (Circ de Solee)
Sgt Pepper inner groove

The official release of this CD is February 17^th which is two days after Romulan Luprical and three days after Valentine’s Day.   The front cover is of demonic creatures attacking planet earth in an obviously surreal drawing, with no title.  The back of the CD is the title letters in Red on a white background with a few hearts and things around and the song listing.  The inside of the double CD contains a folded over flap of material is general talk about the destruction of Aldebran IX, which took place in the first few days of June of 1967.  This “destruction” theme is obviously resurrected because of what Donald Trump may be doing in unleashing WW III upon planet earth at least as far as massive pollution and global warming is concerned.   There is also a one CD “long version” that’s done either on Federation 88 minute CD’s.  We were hung up on that "29" thing in an explanation you see below in yesterday's material.

* February 18th Saturday change-up.  One Supremes song gets the axe because it's on "Soul Train" from May of 2006 in "Opera Of".   So we switched to another song we haven't used.   "Mystic eyes" was substituted by popular request because the people of the cosmic environs say this song is hard to find.  People said this album was too short.  It's this way so if we decided to put out a vinyl edition it will work out fine.  There is also a Sam Cook substitution of "Man, Ain't We got News" a bit out of sequence because the previous occupant of this slot is another "Soul Parade" one already used and our first choice for a substitution was also used. 

Here is more from yesterday.  We added in a vital song for today's release.  Stewart Sutcliffe produced a video version of more material based on yesterday's one CD line up containing 25 tracks on yesterday's main CD release.  It’s on a two volume (CD) package where the second CD starts off with two of the “Love” Circ de Sulee selections.  The first one is the mash-up of “Within You and Without You” (with “Tomorrow Never Knows”)  and the next track is “Being for the Benefit” where it segways into “I Want You(She’s so Heavy) and this is followed by a song that had to be deleted because we've already used it- on the audio CD but not the video version.   Then there is the Sgt Pepper inner groove blurb.  This would have made a total of 29 track referring back to the I Ching where if Line Six is a Six it turns into a Nine and produces the Abysmal Water with a wind blown wooden raft on it, where you ride the cosmic wind to a safe haven.  There is a Bajoran myth on a Star Trek series where Piccard rides some cosmic current on an early vessel like the Bajoran forefathers did.  Disk Two comes in an audio and visual format.  The two Romulan videos from “Circ De Sulee” were produced in 2015 and the video for “Third Stone from the Sun” comes from a Romulan video done in early 1969.   So again you have your choice of the video or audio version.  The Audio version features reporters from a sixty minute TV program on Sirius A that aired last night (Feb 15^th) on Luprical.  The rest of disk two is taken up with this TV program called Eve of Impeachment.  You have your choice of the double disk package or buying it separately as a “Free Bonus Disk” where the thing is titled “Eve of Impeachment” and has film clip style photos of reporters from the TV program.  Neadless to say this CD was all ready to roll- - and the photos were filmed in advance of the actual airing of the program by a few hours.   You can also in some places get the (updated) 29 tracks minus the TV program by an on-line transmission, which is the way Earth people would do it now.  Some say “Yeah, you should get with the times”.   After all these 29 tracks were considered “the original conception”.

(Earlier Notes) The following is a compilation that at first had no title.  We were thinking of calling it “Eve of Impeachment” but the concensus was that we didn’t want any Donald Trump clips on this compilation.  And then we noticed that almost all of the songs pertained to love and relationships and suddenly the title became obvious.  There was talk about putting a little something trippy or psychedelic on the end of the album like “Third Stone from the Sun” or perhaps that Circ De Sule version of “Within You and Without You” but there turned out not to be room.  We’re just a little late for Valentine’s Day.  Perhaps this album is already out in the cosmos.  I’ll check with my sources .  This is Thursday February 16, 2017 before breakfast and Stephanie Miller is playing in the background.  I haven’t had my medication yet.  The funniest thing is that all of these tracks slipped through the cracks.   I actually remember that February 1958 song and of course it was on Rhapsody in Black though I don’t think hue necessary sticks to the all Black rule.   The thought hit of calling this album “Desolation Angels” with a bunch of demonic beings attacking planet earth.  We’ll have to see about that one.  

Ntl Sec Chief Michael Flynn is the first Trump Casualty

Michael Flynn had to resign his post as head of National Security, an important position, because of the scandal we alluded to in the last file.  In December Michael Flynn talked with a Russian high official promising that if President Obama put on sanctions, then Trump would immediately lift them when he came into power in a few weeks.  The US was kicking out all of the Russian diplomatic officials and yet Russia did not kick our officials out, and commentators were asking themselves why this would be.  Vice President Mike Pence directly asked Flynn if he had talked to the Russians on government business and Flynn said no.  But Pence acting on this lie began telling everybody that there was not a hint of any quid pro quo.  Yesterday Trump said that he was “reevaluating the situation”.  Kelly Anne Conway ran her mouth on the subject.  Now the question liberals are asking is “Does this scandal go any further”.  Are the Russians still blackmailing President Trump.  Do they still have something on him?  New evidence came to light the other day that indeed there is substance to these charges.  I thought I posted information on this subject already but apparently I haven’t and now I forget the details.  Of course if it were the democrats guilty of all these we’d have about five or six new congressional investigations.  I’ve been reading a lot of commentary and gotten some new good photos.  But apparently there are “Ten Questions” that we democrats should be asking ourselves at this time.  Norman Goldman has lodged the accusation that we democrats, rather than making mountains out of mole hills- do the opposite.  He says “Our side will tend to soft peddle scandals because we “want something” further down the line, as if the Trump administration sees we’re willing to compromise, then he’ll compromise with us.

“Gentlemen! I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time, and am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the bank. You tell me that if I take the deposits from the bank and annul its charter I shall ruin ten thousand families. That may be true, gentlemen, but that is your sin! Should I let you go on, you will ruin fifty thousand families, and that would be my sin! You are a den of vipers and thieves. I have determined to rout you out, and by the Eternal, (bringing his fist down on the table) I will rout you out!” –  Andrew Jackson

The whole point of this quotation seems to be that Andrew Jackson and Donald Trump are alike in that they are political demagogues, who don’t know what they are doing.

“There is nothing the political establishment will not do, and no lie they will not tell, to hold on to their prestige and power at your expense. The Washington establishment, and the financial and media corporations that fund it, exists for only one reason: to protect and enrich itself. This is a crossroads in the history of our civilization that will determine whether or not We The People reclaim control over our government. The political establishment that is trying everything to stop us, is the same group responsible for our disastrous trade deals, massive illegal immigration, and economic and foreign policies that have bled this country dry.  The political establishment has brought about the destruction of our factories and our jobs, as they flee to Mexico, China and other countries throughout the world. It’s a global power structure that is responsible for the economic decisions that have robbed our working class, stripped our country of its wealth, and put that money into the pockets of a handful of large corporations and political entities.” – Donald Trump

(Monday) President Donald Trump is "evaluating the situation" around embattled national security adviser Michael Flynn, who is in hot water after possibly misleading Vice President Mike Pence, according to a White House statement.  The issue stems from whether Flynn discussed sanctions against Russia with the Russian ambassador before Trump took office and then misled Pence about it. It created a turbulent 72 hours for the White House, leading to questions about Flynn's future after only three weeks.  "The President is evaluating the situation," White House press secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement. "He's speaking to the vice president relative to the conversation the vice president had with Gen. Flynn, and also speaking to various other people about what he considers the single most important subject there is: our national security."

(housecleaning aftermath) I went into the dining room.  They were playing the loud music for the Valentine’s Day party.  It was some wait before we even got drinks.  We got some salty beef soup with not much solid stuff in it.  They didn’t go around asking about anyone’s love life this day.  They played the kerokee music and Rene sang a few songs to that.  It seemed to be mostly eighties songs with good harmony in chord progressions.  We had chicken teriyaki and rice for the main course with mixed vegetables.  We had a chocolate sundae in a clear plastic glass for dessert.  The coffee was the last thing to be served.  Now they’re back to serving it black and you can put in your own creamer.  I like that way better rather than risk an OD on skimmed milk.  Bill returned during lunch.  We returned to the room and they were finished now.  The three CD boxed sets were in that box of Bill’s.  The batteries were in the big glass tray.  I turned on the radio.  The coffee cups were in the bathroom.  But things seemed to go surprisingly smoothly.  Bill thought his clothes had gotten mixed in with mine, which wasn’t the case.  I had Gary and Shannon on.  The TV was plugged in but not lit.  That cord plug gets really touchy now as if the rubber is blocking a good contact.  Today on Days of our Lives, Jennifer was found out by Damos and is now in his sights.  Meanwhile Jennifer Adrian and Anne Millbower know the identity of "The Key", who is a person and not a computer program.  And Anne dressed up as a police officer and went over to join the police search of the Kiriacus Mansion ordered by J J Deveroux, and she pilfered a computer hard drive and told her superior in the Salem PD that she was on special orders from the police comissioner.  Gabriel and Chad are trapped in a meat locker across town and they just turned on the refrigeration for the first time.  Now they’re turning into popsicles.  I went out for snacks at two o clock and got a whole graham cracker and an iced tea from Rico.  Gabby was around.    The line to see Dr Saran wasn’t that long compared to sometimes so I got in it.  It wasn’t too bad of a wait.  This guy in front of me had injuries and bandages all over him and he took a while.  I don’t know what the deal was.  My blood pressure was 124 over 82 and my temperature was 98 even.  It was a short visit.  He reviewed my medications and remarked I wasn’t taking that much.  I said that was news to me.  Maybe it’s mostly vitamins.  Then I got in the money draw line.  I hadn’t ever heard Jennifer announce Money Draw.  Gonzales was ahead of me and Flowers was behind me and if he wanted to pull rank I’d be in trouble.  Elizabeth’s name starts with G and she pretty much invited herself to cut in front of me in line.  She didn’t take long.   Jennifer did some print-out of something and then began filling out a form.  I asked for fifteen and got it.  I went to the liquor store and bought a pack of John Black gold.  Then I smoked a cigarette.  I returned here and fortunately the computer works OK.  The radio and TV work OK.

Staking Out the High Moral Ground

Democrats have staked out the high moral ground in dealing with Trump.  They don't have any secret closet meetings vowing to make Trump a one term President.  This is an absurd statement for Mc Connell to make on its face, back in 2009 when he made it.  After all the president was Elected for Four Years.  The Republicans owed it to their country to five Obama those four years.  And when he got elected again in 2012 as hard as the Republicans tried to sabotage his first term, these same Republicans owed it to their country to work with him a second four years.  The same thing can be said of Donald Trump.  It looks as though Trump is going to be serving out his four years.  The one exception might be if they can definitely prove collusion with the Russian government to get Trump elected.  I don't we've ever had a case come before the Courts like that before.  There is now new evidence as of yesterday that the Russians are blackmailing Donald Trump with information they are holding over his head right now.  This aspect should certainly be looked into.  I don't know if it involved golden showers or prostitutes but whatever it involves we need to find out and quickly.  If it so happens Trump passes muster with all that then we cam move on to the numerous campaign promises Trump got elected on.  Obama fulfilled his two major campaign promises made to the American people in 2008.  He got us out of the Iraq War.  He took his sweet time about it but he finally did it two and a half years later.  Rather than applaud the President for a campaign promise fulfilled, the Republicans such as Shawn Hannity now imply Obama should NOT have fulfilled this campaign promise.  The other promise was of course getting Universal Health Care.  Obama got elected on his support of the now defunct "Public Option".  Obama should have held his ground on this one, but that's water under the bridge.  Clearly we have Obama Care now and it's clear there is nothing coming along to replace it so maybe we just better stick with what we have.  From what I've heard it could be "years" before any other program gets up and running, if it ever does.  It took Obamacare after all three and a half years to get up and running. 

 We now come to Donald Trump's promises.  He ran on a lot of things.  He said he would build the wall with Mexico.  I don't think Trump can get a bill passed.  He said he'd get Mexico to pay for it and backtracked on that.  Now he's saying the American people through a twenty percent terriff sales tax are going to pay for this wall paying twenty percent more for everything they purchase out of Mexico.  I guess this could be called the downside of economic terrifs we didn't consider.  Trump said he was going to pull out of the trans pacific partnership.  So far it looks like we have but I keep hearing rumors of "some other agreement" Trump plans to make with these same countries.  It'll be a horse by a different color.  We then were told that because Trump is so rich he's not swayed by moneyed interests.  Clearly this is not true because his Treasury Secretary is a crook as of 2012 with all sorts of shady financial dealings.  While everyone else was losing their shirts this guy tripples his money in just a few short years.  Of course we know the Department of Health and Human services is going to be a walking disaster these next four years.  Basically the democrats haven't put up enough of a fight on most of these cabinet posts.  The Republicans often took months and longer to fill departments that went vacant for the longest time under President Obama.  We also heard that Trump would not cut either Medicare or Social Security.  I think we know what this campaign promise was worth.  But still every Democrat I know of is saying they'd like to "Work with President Trump" to help fulfill his campaign promises.  We hear all of this talk about a massive build-up of Infrastructure.  And yet so far I'm aware of no proposed bills in this area.  President Trump hasn't even delivered a State of the Union address like most Presidents do in late January or the start of February.  So we still don't know what Trump's major blue print of this country is for the first one hundred days or any period of time.  But if he has a plan the Democrats would love to see it and approve it.  We also don't know the extent to which income and other taxes for the rich will be cut by Trump.  If you make nice with the democrats maybe they'll be willing to compromise with you, which is something the Republicans never did with Obama.  

Yesterday Donald Trump talked to the leader of Japan - - and perhaps the leader of China, too.  They have been dutiful to inform us of all the foreign leaders Trump has talked to just to reassure us that Trump has some sort of diplomatic skills.  In both cases Trump backed down on currency manipulation accusations.  Trump also backed down to China on the “One China Policy”.  I wouldn’t have.  I admired Trump for standing on principle and how he’s cowering just like all of our other Presidents. So clearly this is another major campaign promise that will go unfulfilled.  Trump made a major issue out of currency manipulation and cyber theft by China and I'd like to know what he intends to do about either one.  Trump also said that he would prosecute Hillary Clinton as a first priority and we know how long that threat lasted.  This was a major reason why people on the fence decided to vote for him in the last eleven days or so.  As campaign lies go, this is one of the more substantial ones.  The democrats on the other hand are going to fight the good fight even in the minority.  Elizabeth Warren has done a heroic job in standing up to Mitch Mc Connell.  We need more people with principle.  The Bible says "the furvent prayer of the Rightious gets a lot done" or something like that.  One person plus the truth equals a majority.  I believe Thomas Jefferson said that.  Whoever said it we need a lot more "one persons" out there to get the ball rolling our way on a whole host of issues.  I guess "Never Say Die" is the watch word of the day.  We need to keep the Faith.  

This is another revised and released compilation.  This incarnation of the album is released February 11th 2017.  The title and front cover photo is also changed.  It's that photograph we have used in a blog post of Elizabeth Warren standing in the capitol.  We also needed to substitute Blind Faith songs because the song we had had been previously included on "Deepest Rock" from May of 2006.   Also we got rid of the old title song and replaced it with the version of "Gloria" from "Alive She Cried".  That makes two overlap songs we got rid of on this album.  I think probably this album will be just a tad longer in playing time now.  The full expression is "One person plus the truth equals a majority".  We thought the old album title was just a little too defeatist and after all, life goes on.  "Gloria" by the Doors is a song that had been bumped back in December from an album.  I know this is all hard to keep up with.

ONE PERSON PLUS THE TRUTH

It's A Long Way to the Top (AC DC)
Teenage Lobotomy (The Ramones)
Wang, Dang, Sweet Poontang (Ted Nugent)
Flashing Lights (Jimmy Page)
Had To Cry Today (Blind Faith)

Gloria (The Doors sound check)
Bitter Creek (Eagles)
Misfire (Queen)
Xanado (Rush) 15 min approx
Rejoice (Jefferson Airplane) **
God Save the Queen (Sex Pistols)

Ninth Circuit Court Overturns Trump Travel Ban of Muslims

In a unanamus decision the Ninth Circuit Court agreed with the lower court in Washington that Trump was wrong in instituting the travel ban of Muslims and barring refugees from seven Islamic countries.  Both the Seattle Attorney General and the original Bush appointed justice that made the original decision last Friday commented on the decision both being derisive of President Trump.  For the President's part he said he would be an unfair decision and he was correct so far as it was adverse to him.  But he says it will be easy to get a reversal in the Supreme Court, particularly if there are nine justices, I suppose.  It doesn't take much imagination at all to see as these older progressive justices die off one by one that the court may be into far right rulings on almost everything, and it could stay that way for a generation.  Even justice Kennedy has been a supporter of gay and abortion rights, which should be of concern to women.  In other news Trump's daughter was selling this line of product in Nordstroms Dept Store and Kellyanne Conway made a pitch to buy her merchandise.  Technically she was breaking the law and she has been rebuked.  But it would seem we're going to continue to run into these types of conflict of interest.  Meanwhile Attorney General Jeff Sessions was sworn in last night.  He was confirmed by the US senate on a vote of 52 to 47, so I guess that one senator did not cast a vote.  I'm at least relieved that the democrats voted as a block on this one.  I wonder is his first legal act will be to legalize lynching.

Let's talk about sine waves verses hyperbolas.  A sine wave is based on the circle.  You see it in the seasons and how high or low the sun comes above or below the equator.  Basically a sine wave varies from a positive one to a negative one if you graft out the circular sweep of a radiant line traveling (counter-clockwise) through the circle.  I would like to discuss some graphic imigry I used a few years back I refer to as karmic allignment.  If you have a horizontal allignment it's like you are slicing through a 45 degree cone and when you look at the halves the faces have a circular shape.  Whereas if you have a vertical karmic allignment you slice through the cone and look at the faces of the surface you cut and it would be a ninety degree hyperbola.  We talked about hyperbolas as far as they pertain to graphs and how it's the material that's "outside the hyperbola" that counts.  We discussed how there appears to be no end to hyperbolas but somehow they manage to "keep going" way beyond what you might expect.  How is this important?  I believe that true momentus events are triggered by a hyperbola.  That is you have a small force that keeps snow-balling and turns into a giant movement.  It might be a movement twords personal success in a business venture for instance.  But most events are not like this.  They are like ocean waves or sine waves.  (Technically ocean waves are skewed forward because of gravity and such.)  How does this play out?  Well, if you see an event that appears to be growing.  Perhaps it's a new love interest.  The girl gives you some kind of sign she's interested in you.  But as you pursue the relation the thing fizzles out and it amounts to little if anything.  This is your typical sine wave pattern.  It comes and goes.  The forces defeating the new idea or movement eventually take hold and the thing wanes.  Liberals keep hoping that Trump is an expression of the swing of the pendulum to the far right and eventually it "has to" swing back.  We've been waiting for that big swing-back for thirty years and it hasn't happened yet.  It's as though the laws of gravity have been suspended.  One might then ask "Well how do you go about adjusting your karmic allignment from horizontal to vertical?"  If I knew the answer to that I'd have the key to ruling the world.  As know astrology may have something to do with it, but then again astrological events tend to come in these fung chue waves.  Some people at the right place and the right time just seem to have the uncany ability to "make things happen".

Democratic Senators are Too Compliant

Senate Democrats are acting like a bunch of spineless jellyfish.  The following article came out a week or so ago and it's even more evident now that the democrats are rolling over like trained dogs voting for cabinet choices of Trump.  Every piece of evidence shows that Democrats for the most part don't have any real fight in them.  The Republicans filibustered everything for eight years but they never called it a filibuster.  It became standard opperating procedure for eight long years.  Thanks to Harry Reid the democrats have denied themselves the filibuster for cabinet appointments.  But it seems they'll make a speech or two and then go on about their business content to let President Trump have his dream far right cabinet full of officers who for the most part utterly unqualified to serve the posts they are appointed to.  When Elizabeth Warren even tries to make a speech sticking up "for the rights of the rest of us" she's shut down by Mitch Mc Connell.

Several of President Trump's Cabinet nominees — James Mattis for defense, John Kelly for homeland security, Mike Pompeo for CIA director, and Nikki Haley for ambassador to the United Nations — have been confirmed. And after the most hawkish members of the Senate Republican caucus — John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Marco Rubio — overcame their initial skepticism to offer support for Rex Tillerson as secretary of state, it seems all but certain that basically all of Trump's controversial nominees are going to be confirmed sooner rather than later.
Incredibly, Democrats — despite having no obligation to do so — are actually voting for these people. The only Democratic holdout across the first three confirmations, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, voted for Haley; the South Carolina Republican sailed through 96-4. Previously, Gillibrand had been the only senator to vote against Mattis; she and 10 other Democrats voted against Kelly; and Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul joined dozens of Democrats to oppose Pompeo.
That might sound like solid opposition, at least in Pompeo's case, but 14 Democratic senators still backed him. Those who voted for Pompeo crossed ideological lines; conservative West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, up for re-election in 2018 in a state that went heavily for Trump, supported Pompeo; so did liberal California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who tried for two years to get the CIA to declassify the complete torture report, and was called "narcissistic" by Pompeo for her efforts. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and 2016 vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine also voted for Pompeo.
Some Democrats, like Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz, wrongly believe that some of Trump's picks are more "reasonable" than others. But in what world is Pompeo one of those picks? He's a notorious fan of torture and wants Edward Snowden to face the death penalty. As CIA director, he will be all of the worst things about the Bush administration — and more.
This isn't just typical Democratic deference to Republicans on defense, either. After all, Ben Carson's nomination passed the Senate Banking Committee in a voice vote on Tuesday.
Carson wants to reduce the federal government to rubble. He's also aggressively ignorant of what the agency he'll run even does. He's never had any experience in the field, argued against desegregation because he thinks government programs are "failed socialist experiments," and has accused the agency he now seeks to lead of "social engineering." At his confirmation hearing, he refused to give a firm answer to Sen. Elizabeth Warren's question of whether or not he'd approve grants favorable to Trump's businesses.

But Warren and Sherrod Brown of Ohio, another top progressive on the committee, are supporting Carson because, among other reasons, he said he'd "aggressively defend the fair housing rights of all Americans." Carson also assured Brown he'd "address" lead hazards. Okay then.

Millions of working-class people either directly or indirectly depend on HUD. Having someone at the helm who doesn't know the first thing about housing is unconscionable. It's a recipe for chaos and corruption. HUD is important; that one of Trump's very first actions after being sworn in was to eliminate a planned FHA cut in mortgage premiums underscores that fact.
It's difficult to understand why Democrats would go along with this. Perhaps they're trying to "save their ammo" for a bigger, more winnable fight — like foreclosure machine Steven Mnuchin for treasury and privatization nightmare Betsy DeVos for education. But this isn't a situation where Democrats have limited ammo they must ration; they have no ammo, and they might as well go down with some iota of resistance to a president who wants to destroy public services.
Democrats have got to give some kind of indication to the majority of the country that didn't vote for Trump that they're in complete opposition to our president, and that their hands are washed clean of whatever havoc this new government is about to wreak on America. Whether it's a known quantity of badness like Pompeo or Jeff Sessions, a wildcard like Carson, or an establishment Republican like Chao, the people Trump picked to implement his agenda were chosen for a reason: They're not going to put up much of a fight to his agenda. On that metric alone, none of these people should get a single Democratic vote.

Saturday's Women's March showed that the American left is ready to fight like hell. If Senate Democrats want to join them and start winning back some of the people they've lost over the past eight years, putting up a united front against Trump and his Cabinet would be a damn good start.