Is President Obama just too "Stupid" to be President?

Rush Limbaugh's latest take on the Global Warming crisis is this.  Rush previously intoned that if there were global warming and massive deaths of various species then "other species would just evolve- - that were able to stand the changes".  At the time this sounded absurd because there may be rare medicinal types of herbs that are yet undiscovered and undeveloped and these may go extinct.  I guess Rush is one of those kids who if he lost a five dollar bill his father just gave him, he's just go and ask his father for another one.  The idea of "Replaceability" is a word that is just not in Rush Limbaugh's vocabulary.   Today Rush is going further and turning it into an almost macho thing envoking Social Darwinism.  He's saying "Well just with human beings it is also true with animals- - we have no idea what "Normal" really is in nature because it's always changing and one lesson "Real Men" learn in life is that they've got to get as tough as nature herself so to speak, and when things get colder or hotter- - man has a brain and has the capacity to adapt to change.  And almost unspoken is this so called "Change is a good thing".  Of course if the oceans rise twenty or thirty feet and whole populations are wiped out resulting in the deaths of Millions- - maybe Rush won't care about that either.  Except that he lives in Florida and therefore would be one of the first victims of global warming.

 Stupid is as stupid does.  Starting with the next paragraph you can read the article lifted from George Washington's blog and you see the line that "President Obama had literally no idea the hatred and dedication Republicans had to destroying this health care program.  A lot of basic economic problems could be solved relatively quickly if the President was serious.  For instance- - let's scrap all talk of this trans pacific trade treaty.   Thom Hartman refers to the Trans Pacific Partnership as "SHAFTA" to go along with "NAFTA" which to me has always sounded like a sanitary napkin.  It's the Southern Half of Asia Free Trade Agreement.  But as Patriot Radio says "If it isn't Free if your neighbor is paying for it- - it isn't free if you or your neighbor loses your job over it either.  Of course one way to cut down moves overseas really Fast is to end tax subsedies for doing just that.  The US tax payer literally subsedizes moves that will kill their jobs.  For some reason Judy doesn't even consider this simple measure as a Possability.   And as to those high paid Chief Executive Officers- - one simple move for that is to end any salary of any business employee- - expense deductible allowance- - to four hundred thousand dollars per year.  Again it's a simple solution and like the over-seas one, it's revenue Positive, so would help reduce the Deficet, which is what Republicans CLAIM to want- - but once they got it- - President Bush said "We can't have all this surplus, we have to give it back to the people".  The moment we ran any surplus even for a year people like Larry Elder were talking about how "These taxes are stealing from the taxpayers if we don't need the money.   Now here is the material from the Blog.

Some people in some Republican-governed states are too poor to qualify for subsidies to buy insurance under the Affordable Care Act.  You get that right: too poor to qualify for subsidies.

Here is how I discovered this remarkable fact:  There was a Reuters article at Huffington Post on January 22nd, “Target Cuts Health Coverage For Part-Time Workers, Citing Obamacare,” and it reported that Target, “like Home Depot, said it was shifting medical coverage for part-time workers to new public marketplace exchanges,” in order to cut costs.  One of the reader-comments to that news-report came from “Kate,” who said, ”In Alaska, where we have to rely on the federal Affordable Care Act Health Insurance Marketplace, a single person has to make at least $14,350 per year and a family of 4 has to bring in a minimum of $29,440 to qualify for tax subsidies to help pay ACA premiums.”  I replied to her comment: “That’s obviously and clearly false, because all of the ACA subsidies kick in only for people whose income is below a given amount — not at all for people whose earnings are above that amount (as you there allege).”
She responded: “You have no idea what you’re talking about. I am a Certified Application Counselor for the ACA and there is an income range within which qualifies folks for the tax subsidies. A single person has to have an AGI between $14,350 and $57,400 to get a subsidy. Those who fall below the $14,350 are out of luck because our governor did not accept the Medicaid Expansion program under the ACA. Check your facts.”  I was shocked to find that my understanding of the Affordable Care Act was so grossly deficient in this crucial regard.  Subsequently, I looked to find verification of what this “Certified Application Counselor for the ACA” had asserted. And I found it, at the “Quick Check Chart for Alaska and Hawaii: Do I qualify to save on health insurance coverage?” This problem isn’t to be blamed only on Obama, but also on the Republican Governors (such as Sean Parnell in Alaska) who took advantage of U.S. Chief Justice John R. Roberts’ offering governors the opportunity to treat ACA’s Medicaid-expansion as being optional. The Affordable Care Act hadn’t been written with the possibility in mind that a state governor might choose to deny low-income citizens an expansion of Medicaid which would be almost 100% paid for by the Federal Government (rather than by the state). The possibility that Republicans would try to sabotage Obama’s Presidency in this way hadn’t even been contemplated by Obama.  Apparently, Obama must have ignored Rush Limbaugh’s saying, on 16 January 2009, “I hope he fails.” Then, at the “Take Back America Conference” on 27 February 2009, the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, endorsed Limbaugh’s statement. Subsequently, on 25 October 2010, the “Think Progress” website bannered “Mitch McConnell: I Want … To Make Obama A One-Term President,” and quoted McConnell, from an interview with the Republican National Journal (which soon removed from its website all record of its interview), in which McConnell said, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” On 4 November 2010, McConnell gave a speech to the Heritage Foundation saying the same thing: “Our top political priority over the next two years should be to deny President Obama a second term.” Virtually all of the largest corporations were pouring money into Republican political campaigns to help Mitch McConnell achieve his dream; but, far from Obama’s retaliating, he cooperated with their efforts.    So, this situation resulted from both a stupid President and a vicious Republican Party — not just John Roberts and the other Republican judges, and not just from Mitch McConnell and other congressional Republicans, but from the President himself, and from the former WellPont VP, Elizabeth Fowler, who actually wrote the law in the offices of the conservative Montana Senator Max Baucus, whom Obama chose to oversee its drafting, so as to keep the political contributions flowing from the health insurance companies and medical providers.  During the past few months, I have asked many people whether there are individuals and families who are too poor to qualify for subsidies under Obamacare, or the ACA, and no one yet has answered “Yes” to that.  Did you know that the answer is “Yes?”

After this it was “On The Red Carpet”.  That “Noah” movie that we first gave a good hype to in our blog post right when it was first advertized - - that movie came in number one over the weekend grossing forty million.  Then it was that Wall Street scam with the computers that have supplanted all these brokerage firms and big mutual funds.  It’s a case where the Wall Street rich themselves have been fleeced and jerked around by a still more powerful entity, the computer.  This one programmer came up with his own algorithm for rerouting circuits so that the computer trading- - fails to achieve its goal.  In fact he gave up a cushy job to do this programming and also to found his own “independent” stock exchange of- - “dispossessed” rich people.  (!)  After this it was America’s Funniest Home Videos.  Then it was that “Once Upon a Time’ show and drowsiness got the better of me, but they kept playing this tripped out orchestral music near the end.  I turned it off at nine and went right to bed.  I was so tired I didn’t check out “Cosmos” for a third week on FOX.  But if the show were in the pattern of the previous two weeks, it’s be a lucrative program to watch.

WCPT sound is clear today for Ed and Stephanie.  Ed was almost hinting that the republicans may be the ones all calling in to try and jam the Obama Health care site and get it to crash, which it did for four hours.  Ed Schultz called the number three times and on the third try he got through.  It would seem the Obama administration will reach their goal of seven million at least in the pipeline.   There was a cartoon in "The Week" magazine with an elephant and a donkey.  And the elephant says "Five million applicants for Obama care is two million short of your stated goal.  What do you think of that".  To which the donkey replied "And it's five million Higher than yours".   This little exchange about says it all.  Really if the Republicans LIKED the idea of not being termanated by Insurance Companies, or having pay out caps no matter the dire straits the patient is in- - or pre existing conditions - - How cone NOT ONE of those 45 Times the Republicans repealed the Affordable Care Act did they NOT exempt these conditions.  Because they're a bunch of fucking liars, that's why.  They have no intention to Replace any provision with ANYTHING!

Katie Kuric had a segment on gun violence and there was some personal testimony.  Then there was a young childhood cancer segment about a mother who had a kid with a rare brain cancer that caused tremors.  The sad thing is that a lot of precious months were wasted on chemical therapy and radiation, when they were told at the outset the case was hopeless.  Then Anita Hill was on reliving her story with Clarence Thomas.  Thomas told a flat out lie saying all accusations were completely groundless and this hearing amounted to a “high tech lynching”.   Given Larry Elder’s dislike of people who play the race card I don’t know why he’s not offended by this action of Thomas.  Of course all of the panelists were white and all men, so knew nothing about the true Black experience of families with lynchings in their past. 

News of the Day - Round-up

The big news of the couple of days, of course, is that we had a major 5.1 shallow earthquake centered in La Habra.  The shallowness increases the intensity of it.  And it was definitely the worst earth-quake I have felt while living here, and I think the worst earthquake I have felt since Northridge twenty years ago.  It felt like a subway was going over our heads, and that framed picture again fell over, and I think I got it back together but wisely left it laying down.  There was a major aftershock about a half hour later.  We had been watching this Dateline thing about a murder and trial, that was scheduled to go on for two hours but they broke for live earthquake coverage.  I continued to watch the coverage till ten after ten when I went to bed.  There were damages in various stores like wine bottles falling off the shelf, and shampoo bottles, and damage at a super-market in Buena Park even.  There was a major water main break, and several gas line breaks, centered in La Habra, Brea, and northern Fullerton.  But I actually slept well.  There was another aftershock about two thirty Saturday afternoon that was much shorter in duration.  I have been hearing so much in the media lately to "expect the big one to arrive soon, perhaps the next few days".  Of course new and full moons put more tension on the planet as anyone who has studied sea tides, knows.  This paragraph was added here at eight o clock.   Apparently there were versions of "Band on the Run" without "Helen Wheels" on it.  But strangely I bought that album within a few days of first having heard tracks from it on the radio, and my copy has 'Helen Wheels".  On the contrary Columbia said they would add "Groom Still Waiting At The Alter" on to "Shot of Love" by Dylan by popular demand.  Yet my copy LACKS this track though I bought my album years after the thing came out.

The buzz now is that the Affordable Care Act will NOT be extended beyond Monday the 31^st for new applications, which have been rising sharply the past few days.  But it will only apply to applications already in the pipeline that haven’t been processed yet.  On the Chris Matthews show they discussed Sheldon Addelson.  Sheldon was actually a long time friend ot Newt Gingrich and not Mitt Romney, and of course Sheldon initially supported Newt because of their friendship- - and “deep down he never liked Romney”.   Now Addelson is setting the bar higher and will personally “vet” every Republican candidate, before he blows millions more dollars on a loser.  They will be cutting down the number of Primary debates in the Republican from about twenty to about five.  The reason, strangely, is because the Democrats were able to snag material from these embarrassing debates to use in their own campaign ads.  That’s a good point.  Sheldon Adelson is firmly against “The two state solution” for Israel.  That’s probably my biggest beef with him.  His other idea is to warn Iran to get serious about Nukes, and then explode a major nuclear bomb out in the desert somewhere, and then tell Iran when they lodge a complaint “The next one will be aimed right for Teheran and we’ll level that city”.   Matthews thought it was curious that you turn a country against Nukes by using them!   Federico handed me that latest copy of “The Week” at the dinner table tonight.  There is an article in there about Putin being the empowering force behind Iran.  Also, they seem to think State and City employee pensions are really out of hand.  They claim that 72% of the pensions that retired workers draw are actually higher than the salaries people get while they ARE working.  Mom has said the same thing to me, and I thought maybe it was just an anomally with her.  But apparently everybody gets these magically increasing “entitlements” once they retire, which apparently isn’t due to a prosperous private investment program, but the tax payers foot the bill and it’s breaking them, forcing governments to cut back in much more vital areas.  There was also a piece about how Barnes and Nobel book stores are flooded with these ultra far right wing Books by Conservative authors.  These really flooded the market for that sort of stuff after the 2012 election.  I would be happy is all those authors were going bust now.  We can hope.  Of course Matthews points out that in 2016 that Liberals and democrats will profit from the very things that are dogging them this year, meaning that year will have a much more favorable alignment of senate seats.  But also the demographic time-bomb is exploding in slow motion and will do in any Republican.

I watched the Mc Laughlin group and segment one was about Putin of course and his speech earlier in the week.  Putin says that “The West” meaning NATO and the United States, is “lawless” and “contrary to world opinion”.   He cited examples of western Imperialism- - the invasion of Kosovo by Clinton in 1999, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by George W Bush and also Obama and NATO’s taking down of that despot Qadafi, whom apparently Putin was fond of.  Pat Buchannon carried naturally about NATO “encirclement” and how humiliated Russia is now that it’s no longer a “Bi-polar power” to counter-balance the West.  Putin himself made much of this ideal of “Bi-Polar” world dominance in his speech.   The second segment was on President Obama’s visit with the Pope this week and how the Pope and he are in such major agreement on economic issues which beset particularly this country.  One of the group said “Well, this only goes to show that the Pope is a democrat”, which is a completely meaningless and stupid remark.  Mort Zuckerman had the microphone relatively little and kept continually getting cut off by Pat Buchannon, who spews out the propaganda so much better.  The third segment was on privacy and NSA snooping.  Jimmy Carter was quoted again saying that he kind of identifies with David Snowden and that Privacy for American Citizens is a problem now.

For the first time since Daylight Savings time I caught some of that KFI program.  I got up and it said 5:36 on the digital clock and showered.  That KFI show was talking about the Beatles and how much they all loved each other and stayed in the same hotel suite together, when they didn’t have to do that.  It was a few years back they quoted some of the specifications for that 1964 American concert and they were laughingly modest demands.  As you know Frank Sinatra once put out a thing about a hotel “Just make sure I have clean towels” by way of “demands”.   Unlike this country now, the Beatles all rallied together when attacked by an outside force.  John Lennon was presumably in tears when he learned that his remarks about the Beatles and religion were all twisted and contorted out of shape by the media.  Of course really what John was saying would be like someone saying “The tea party is bigger than Governor Arnold Swartzenegger”.  It’s not a value judgement but just a statement of fact.  You may like the Governator ten years ago when he was really big, but the tea party would regard him as yesterday’s news, and John was, perhaps out of a sense of alarm, saying the same thing about Religion in 1966.  But anyone who’s listened to “The Word” from Rubber Soul knows that some was basically a plug for Christianity, at least as I read it.  John always called Yoco “Mother”, which I didn’t know.  I thought he called her “Ocean Child”.  Apparently after his death, there was a PA announcement in a studio during a Yoco recording session, perhaps for “Empty Glass” to the effect that “Mother, I miss you and I will always love you and am thinking of you” or something.  Some of these weather related “heads up” messages I’ve gotten from John are interesting.  But the other message anybody but careful blog readers might miss is that- -John was saying “If given a choice, I’d rather give you credit for some of my songs rather than Syd Barret “Pink”.    As you know perhaps the most comprehensive thing my blog ever put out in terms of compilations of Beatle album songs- - were the stream of their first seven CD’s each with three extra songs added playing off of “Seventeen”.   Then there were the Red, the White and the Blue albums.  The “Blue” and the “White’ you already know.  We rearranged the White one a little but the Blue is completely intact.  In our new version of the “Red Album”, it’s mainly stuff from the “Let It Be” sound track, plus the best tracks off of the really early solo albums of all four Beatles.  These compilations are buried way back in the archives somewhere.

Last night on “Dateline” at nine, it was this Michael Peterson case in North Carolina about allegedly blugening his wife with a fireplace poker while both were on the stairs.  But it was pointed out that in the narrow confines of that stairwell, there is not one nick on any of the walls, nor is there any blood or the least sign of damage or that the poker had even been used lately.  Peterson was convicted mainly because “the case just smells”.   That’s the impression one would tend to get from hearing the primary evidence.  However Mike Lee of OJ fame testified for the defense and talked about “irregularities in the crime lab” and also police carelessness in handling blood evidence and lettint outsiders walk all over the crime scene.  Again it was shades of the OJ Simpson trial.  Peterson was convicted after the jury deliberated for four days.  And every single appeal of the case was turned down.  But then there was the theory that Kathryn (?) was attacked by a swooping Owl, and owl feathers were found in the scalp wounds that weren’t mentioned.  But then this head hauncho Dwane Dever - - I have here- - planted blood in someone elses’s murder case- a guy who had been locked up for seventeen years.  Peterson was granted a new trial and is now out in $300,000 bail, and gets once more to see his family, who have always stuck by him.  Technically the prosecution could have declined to retry this case, in which case he’d be completely free.  His attorney feels vindicated since after the defeat he was asking himself all of the usual questions such as “Could I have tried this case any different, or better”.  I went to bed at ten.  They were predicting rain but as I look out I see a clear sky dawning.

After showing what had to be the two most obscure teams and not the Elite Eight in NCAA,  channel two "rolled up the sidewalks" as it were, by three in the afternoon, and didn't have any more basketball the rest of the day.  Of the games we missed Florida beat Dayton, and I would have been routing for Dayton because I don't like Florida.  And Wisconsin beat Arizona in the evening game, I think.  I don't get it, and hope this isn't a trend that now they won't even show the NCAA play-offs.   OK I know ABC has ESPN you can go to because they own it, but CBS has always been a bekin of showing everything, and I know they used to have free games not televised on line.   I haven't checked my blogger numbers but after not posting for two days I don't expect them to be very good.  I honestly didn't know that Denny Lane sang "Deliver Your Children".  I have never heard the B side "I Lie Around" in my life.  This computer comes in really slow when loading "personal preferences" but not all the time.  In terms of that photo if you recognize the face, it's that devil in the red dress- - only as you can now see it's actually a green dress.  This is an untampered photo taken the same day I came accross while I was compiling photos for a Power Point program.  It was taken around Halloween of 2011, when I was still at the other table.