JUST WHAT IS IT THE REPUBLICANS

EXPECT TO HAPPEN IF THEY GET THEIR WAY?
(many typos now corrected)

I watched some of “This Week”. The tone of much of the commentary inspires the question on my part “Just what is it are conservatives and notably the tea baggers offering?” First of all they’re world class liars so you can’t really believe anything they say to begin with. That commercial of Meg Whitman about “Jerry Brown’s greatest hits” has been refuted in part by a new Jerry Brown add where he catalogs at least seven lies in that broadcast. For instance his record as attorney general in attacking crime, and that Jerry Brown was one of the first politicians to go with this “less is more”, cutting taxes theme. If you want experience, shouldn’t it be someone who’s had experience serving the public at large? Today they were talking about a “new” add Sarah Palin is putting out perhaps trying to remake her image, portraying her as the Mama Grizzly, protecting her cubs. But this is by no means a new image. Other than being a completely vapid add, one might suppose it’s flattering to a few grandmothers out there, as to how they see themselves. George Will made the positively Orwellian statement of “The biggest problem achieving peace in the Middle East is in fact, the Middle East peace process over the last nineteen years. You see all of these Republican adds and rebuttal statements saying “While Obama is obsessed with increasing government spending, we republicans are concerned about your job”. And they go on to say “If it weren’t for all the government debt- - and if it weren’t for all the rising taxes- -you’d be doing fine”. That’s what they’re implying. They have this notion of “I never met a tax cut I didn’t like”, and although Obama cut taxes for the average person and small business, for these tea party people- - it’s never enough. You get the feeling it won’t be enough till taxes are down to zero. Then they talk about how “The average person cuts back expenses any way they can, but your government isn’t”. Perhaps one should look at this pragmatically. Some things are counter intuitive. If a husband and wife are fighting all the time or don’t communicate at all- - the answer to poor communication is not less communication, or no communication. Because as one party gets colder and more aloof and distant, the other party does the same and it’s a never ending self perpetuating cycle. Ghandi said “In a world which practices an eye for an eye – the whole world will soon be blind”. You say “Well, have you taken your own advice”. Well sometimes in a bad situation, I try and pretend the previous conversation never took place, and I try and start fresh. But I’ll admit that didn’t work. And it could well be that Bush screwed up the economy so bad that no amount of “shock reduction” or government buffering of the downturn will work, but the economy will continue to careen out of control over a cliff. The national debt is now seventy or eighty percent of gross domestic product. And I imagine when it reaches one hundred percent we will have reached the point of no return. Contrary to the republican hype, President Obama is not "the magic Negro", who somehow promises to to the intrinsically impossible. You know Christians always teach you to have patience, when you could wait till Hell froze over and their words would never be justified by events. And yet the Republicans are saying “Don’t wait; don’t be patient- - you deserve a break right NOW - - so vote republican and all your dreams will come true, and suddenly it will be 2006 again”. That was the last year everyone genuinely felt good about this economy. I wish it were 2006 again, or maybe 2005. We have been watching the economic four year slide into the abyss, that’s for sure. But you need an experienced captain to navigate through the ice field. I hope Obama is that captain. I don’t entirely trust him myself. But he is not a Socialist, as I have heard right wingers repeatedly say. Newt Gincrich calls Obama a “Fabian Socialist”. I don’t even know what a Fabian Socialist is- but I imagine it’s not good. There is not one shred of socialism in any of Obama’s economic agenda, so I really don’t know what they mean.

When it comes to the blog I plan to do, some of it is going to be Memorex and some of it will be Live. I went for coffee break at three that was delayed so it would not conflict with the Salvation Army singers. I put on the whole hour of “Meet the Press” and figured I’d be able to get the whole thing in and maybe a smoke break, too. If there were no interruptions. [material deleted here] Then I went back to the program. It’s funny how the right wing philosophy has even pervaded the hallowed halls of NBC. David Gregory didn’t think there was any difference between the Bush foreign policy and all the other security paranoia that goes with it, than the Bush foreign policy, and in this I must agree. There was talk of the tax cuts expiring and congress will be under pressure from their corporate benefactors to extend the Bush tax cuts. There was talk of how “worried” about things like the Health Care plan, and payroll taxes and capital gains taxes will styfle investment and also new hiring. In terms of democrats wholesale running away from the Obama record, I hope not. The President and this congress has already passed a lot of legislation liberals have wanted. But the people don’t see Presidential victories as reasons to support this president like in presidents past, but rather as just more reasons to be mad at him. This “magical liberal moment” where someone from the past would say “The president should be getting everything he wants” - - it seems that the climate of conservative indoctrination has overridden that. So this president is left with playing a game of “Can You?” like Stephen King talks about in “Misery”. As I see it, it all depends on what the economy does between now and November, and from here the signs don’t look good. There is this viscous cycle of contraction that is never ending where governments cut back, and this impacts jobs, and that impacts buying power, which impacts taxes, and the cycle goes on. It’s a bit analogous to a husband and wife having the controls on the electric blanket mixed up and whereas one was only a little cold and the other a little warm, they start adjusting the controls making each side increasingly uncomfortable, either hot or cold. If you don’t have a job you won’t care if your taxes are cut. The banks refuse to loan out the money the Federal Government lets them have for free, but instead choose to make themselves rich knowing in this tax climate, they’ll be able to keep virtually all of it.

A friend suggested I watch the Michael Medved show, which is just what I did a few minutes after twelve and I knew Randy wasn’t back. My friend has no idea what specific topic would be up today. I had KIEV on for the hour. They were talking about religion. One brother is an Atheist and the other is an ex Atheist turned Christian. Both wrote books. Can anyone say "sibling rivalry?" Some stuff comes immediately to mind. First of all the show was a tape replay. So there was no hope of calling in and talking about what you "just heard". The tape could have been months old. Another thing is, WHO makes a decision on the future of the world in the Age to come, as well as the future of their soul- - based on the experiences of one person, who writes a book? The next thing is- - Atheists were portrayed as teenagers throwing a hysterical tantrum- - and the conotation was that anyone who decides to be an Atheist must be immature like the man himself WAS a teenager when he WAS an atheist. I remember being a teenager. In the later sixties I remember doing cartoon things where I portrayed God as a cloud. I wasn't an atheist and never liked Russian Bolshevism. As for Jesus I saw him if anything in those days as a fellow revolutionary, who would heartily approve of one. My view of Jesus was influenced by Martin Luther King. I tended to put quotes in God's mouth basically suggesting that he walked around with his head up his ass and didn't know what he was talking about most of the time. The Christian author, who is English, had the one weak argument that “If there is no God then how do we know what absolute Good is?” My answer is simple. Of all the people who have told you about absolute good, how many have been divine and how many have been human beings just like yourself, who learned from other beings? I have my own views of perfect right and wrong that might vary a bit from yours. Even Martin Luther taught, "follow your conscience". I rest my case. There was a colony on Star Trek, where the crew told them that, for the health of the species, one man should impregnate at least three different women. As for things being “good” some of the time and “bad” some of the time, this can be a reality. Planting wheat is good if people are starving. Planting wheat can be bad if there is a glut of it and it’s packed away in storage bins for long periods where rats can get to it. The author portrayed Christians as loving and tolerant and sensible, whereas Atheists were hysterical, intolerant and ruled by impulse and emotion. I seldom come across an individual who has it so ass backwards. Let's put aside my own experiences with Christians beginning in the 'seventies. How about the experience the natives of this continent had with Columbus when he arrived? You know, all of the rapes, and the enslavement and the genocide and the demand for nine year old girls. And I was just watching that thing on Custer's Last Stand. We sure made the Indians pay for that victory, didn't we. Apparently Sitting Bull was dragged out of his tent in late 1890 and sumarily shot. And of course there is that march of death the Cherokee People endured under Andrew Jackson. And we're still doing it today but today we're wiping out people with drones. I don't think any Atheist has anything that he needs to be ashamed about.

There is always the looming question of "What happened to the Beatles after their trip to India in March of 1968. If I didn't know better I'd say they underwent a mass exorcism - - of their psychedelic spirit. The last gasp of that spirit was before they left when they recorded four songs, Hey Bulldog, Lady Madana, The Inner Light, and Accross the Universe. They had formerly been trying to impress and out-do each other on who could come up with the farthest out lyrics and sound effects and musical inovations. Some have suggested (was it John?) that the Beatles broke up two years too late. John could easily have made a great album of his White Album material. He could call it "Happiness is a Warm Gun" if he wanted to. Paul could have named his album "Within, Without, and Nowhere" or something catchy like that. George Harrison wrote "It's All Too Much" in 1967 because of truths he'd discovered on an acid trip. But he later called LSD a "false prophet". George wrote "Northern Song" as a slam against John and Paul for hogging the writing credits. John claims to have gotten the opening lines of "I'm the Walrus" from an acid trip he was on three weeks before when he'd typed the lines down. As you know the lines are really from "The Prophet". As to the opening sound effects it isn't a police siren in my oppinion but sounds startelingly like the egg sorting machine at my grandfather's ranch when I was a kid. Hey, I'm entitled to my own interperations. It beats smashing raw eggs over nude women, or whatever John says it referred to that Eric Burden did. Of course the line about the pornographic priestess is prophetic about Gene Scott's third wife. As far as elementry penguin singing Hare Krishna, my only remark is "everybody has a starting point".