The Next Economic Downturn Is Just Over the Hill

FIRST, A FEW OPENING THOUGHTS OF MY OWN

OK it’s after three and it’s officially raining outside.  I’m watching Washington Journal on C-Span now on President Obama’s executive authority.  The President has had fewer executive actions than most of his recent predecessors.   First the President says “I can’t do anything about this immigration situation.  Congress has clearly defined the terms of the law”, but of course then he had a change of heart.  I replayed both the Presidential and the Republican morning address, given by Paul Ryan.  If you know a person by his enemies, then Paul Ryan is solidly behind the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement, every bit as gung ho as the President.  This is not a good sign at all.   This is a bit later and I went out in the rain, which lessened as I was out there.  I got cigarette number twenty from Paul.  Marco Rubio gave a pretty good speech (for a Republican) at the Faith and Freedom conference- in Iowa, naturally.  He sounded almost like Obama when he spoke of controlling the costs of student loans, and students getting assurances “exactly what they were getting into” and the sort of income, as it were, that they were buying into with this loan.  He spoke of the need for training in this new technological age.  A message not too different than from what I myself heard fifty years ago.   I’m not sure who he was referring to when he spoke of “Our Allies”.

"DEAR DIARY, - - - "

If being against the Trans Pacific Trade Agreement is “crazy” in terms of its inflamed rhetoric, then put me down as one hundred percent certifiable.  Chuck Schummer has switched from Pro Wall Street to now being against this agreement because it won’t help industrial espionage from China or their currency manipulation or any of the problems that a lot of American CEO’s are secretly worried about.  But Chris Matthews and his cronies on the program are mounting a pro TPP campaign on that show.  I got coffee in the courtyard and had two cups from Rico, and borrowed another cigarette from Paul.  If I didn’t say, Glenda is having surgery on her bones and joints and it sounds both painful and one with a slow recuperation time.   She made it sound like some kind of a massive bone and joint disease.  It will be in a few days.  We’ll all be praying for her.  Right now I’m missing Melinda Lee.  I took two acedophelis capsules for my guts- - in hopes that will help reestablish bacterial balance in my gut. 

THE UNITED STATES IS PROMOTING THE NEXT WORLD WAR

“We have come to Yemen, with men hungry for your blood to avenge the Sunnis…”

Meanwhile, the Obama regime has again “insisted that the US will continue to endorse the Saudi war”.  The US is providing material, political, and physical assistance to the Wahhabis, including re-arming and re-fueling them and providing ~20 US advisers to Saudi Arabia to select targets in Yemen to be attacked.  (See articles.)

As an example of one such attack, the UN reports that on Wednesday, in a move with US fingerprints all over it as it was reminiscent of the US “double tap” terror-technique made notorious by Obama, Saudi militants “killed 40 civilians, including seven children,” when they “bombed a bridge then returned and bombed the bridge a second time as “civilians gather[ed] to help those injured by the first airstrikes”.

Blowing up bridges is itself a technique infamously employed in US aggressions.

Washington this week affirmed that it continues to refuel Saudi bombers, with an official stating, “We are still flying a tanker a day to be available if needed,” adding, apparently for clarification, “It’s like having a gas station in the sky.”

Noted commentator Sheldon Richmond reminds that “Iran has not been found shipping arms, but you won’t learn that from mainstream news accounts”.  US intelligence states that the Houthis of Yemen are actually disregarding Iran’s advice in making a bid for control, and are not an Iranian proxy.

However, even if Iran were shipping arms to and/or directing the Houthis, the US is the world’s biggestarms dealer and empire.  Adoption of a “we can do anything we want, but you can’t do anything” argument is spurious and naturally merits dismissal, except in one situation: when the group making the loony argument will, as George Carlin put it, “fucking bomb you”.    Alice Cooper once said "We're all going to Rock by the Rules that I Make".  Now we are all Rocking to that hit tune "Bomb, Bomb Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran!"

KATIE, BAR THE DOOR!  ECONOMIC STORM ALERT

Well, the Nasdaq finally did it.  It has climbed all the way back to where it was at the peak of the dotcom bubble.  Back in March 2000, the Nasdaq set an all-time record high of 5,048.62.  On Thursday, after all these years, that all-time record was finally eclipsed.  The Nasdaq closed at 5056.06, and Wall Street greatly rejoiced.  So if you invested in the Nasdaq at the peak of the dotcom bubble, you are just finally breaking even 15 years later.  Unfortunately, the truth is that stocks have not been soaring because the U.S. economy is fundamentally strong.  Just like the last two times, what we are witnessing is anirrational financial bubble.  Sometimes these irrational bubbles can last for a surprisingly long time, but in the end they always burst.  And even now there are signs of economic trouble bubbling to the surface all around us.  The following are 11 signs that we are entering the next phase of the global economic crisis…

#1 It is being projected that half of all fracking companies in the United States will be “dead or sold” by the end of this year.

#2 The rig count just continues to fall as the U.S. oil industry implodes.  Incredibly, the number of rigs in operation in the United States has fallen for 19 weeks in a row.

#3 McDonald’s has announced that it will be closing 700 “poor performing” restaurants in 2015.  Why would McDonald’s be doing this if the economy was actually getting better?

#4 As I wrote about the other day, we could be right on the verge of a Greek debt default.  In fact, we learned on Thursday that the Greek government has been “running on empty” for months…

#5 Coal accounts for approximately 40 percent of all electrical generation on the entire planet.  When the price of coal starts to drop, that is a sign that economic activity is slowing down.  Just prior to the last financial crisis in 2008, the price of coal shot up dramatically and then crashed really hard.  Well, guess what?  The price of coal has been crashing again, and it is already lower than it was at any point during the last recession.

#6 The price of iron ore has been crashing as well.  It is down 35 percent in the last nine months, andDavid Stockman believes that this is because of a major deflationary crisis that is brewing in China…

There is no better measure of the true contraction underway in China than the price of iron ore. The Wall Street stock peddlers will tell you not to be troubled by the 70% plunge from the 2012 highs and the 35% drop just in the last nine months. According to them, its all the fault of the big global miners who went overboard opening up massive new iron ore pits and mining infrastructure.

#7 At this point, China accounts for more total global trade than anyone else in the world.  That is why it is so alarming that Chinese imports and exports are both absolutely collapsing…

China’s monthly trade data shows exports fell in March from a year ago by 14.6% in yuan terms, compared to expectations for a rise of more than 8%.

Imports meanwhile fell 12.3% in yuan terms compared to forecasts for a fall of more than 11%.

#8 The number of publicly traded companies in the United States that filed for bankruptcy during the first quarter of 2015 was more than double the number that filed for bankruptcy during the first quarter of 2014.

#9 New home sales in the United States just declined at their fastest pace in almost two years.

#10 U.S. manufacturing data has been shockingly weak lately…

On the heels of weak PMIs from Europe and Asia, Markit’s US Manufacturing PMI plunged to 54.2 in April (from 55.7). Against expectations of a rise to 55.6, this is the biggest miss on record. Of course, this is ‘post-weather’ so talking-heads will need to find another excuse as New Orders declined for the first time since Nov 2014.

#11 When priced according to “the average blue-collar hourly wage“, U.S. stocks are the most expensive that they have ever been in history right now.  To say that this financial bubble is overdue to burst is a massive understatement.

For a long time, I have been pointing to 2015 as a major “turning point” for the global financial system, and I still feel that way.

But for the first four months of this year, things have been surprisingly quiet – at least on the surface.

So what is going on?

Well, I believe that what we are experiencing right now is the proverbial “calm before the storm”.  There is all sorts of turmoil brewing just beneath the surface, but for the moment things seem like they are running along just fine to most people.  Unfortunately, this period of quiet is not going to last much longer.

And those that are “in the know” are already moving their money in anticipation of what is coming.  For example, consider the words of  Snapchat founder and CEO Evan Spiegel…

Fed has created abnormal market conditions by printing money and keeping interest rates low. Investors are looking for growth anywhere they can find it and tech companies are good targets – at these values, however, all tech stocks are expensive – even looking at 5+ years of revenue growth down the road. This means that most value-driven investors have left the market and the remaining 5-10%+ increase in market value will be driven by momentum investors. At some point there won’t be any momentum investors left buying at higher prices, and the market begins to tumble. May be 10-20% correction or something more significant, especially in tech stocks.

It may not happen next week, or even next month, but big financial trouble is coming.

And when it finally arrives, it is going to shock the world, even though anyone with any sense can see the coming crisis approaching from a mile away.

IF YOU HAVEN'T SOLD ALL YOUR STOCK HOLDINGS ALREADY - - WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

A Deadly Societal Impediment - Setting the Bar Too Low

We need more than dash cameras and body cameras.  It seems that dark deeds go unseen and unacknowledged in the dark corridors we never see.  This black teenager was accused of having stolen a back pack two weeks previously, and was locked up for three years in Rutkers Island or something.  In one scene he was beaten up by other teenagers for defying a gang leader.  In another video later on he was in solitary confinement for nine months (?) and guards were shoving him around violently first one way then the other.   In that Baltimore case that guy who died from a broken neck was placed in a paddy wagon handcuffed and driven around- - jerking the steering wheel to intentionally throw the guy from side to side, not being able to use his hands to brace himself, and he may have been physically already injured before entering the van.  This is the guy you’ve heard about, who died.   Yesterday there was of course this Drone raid in Afghanistan where a US hostage and an Italian innocent hostage were killed.  Also an Al Qaeda leader who was also an American citizen was killed.  Last night I was reading about the history of drone strikes, which seemed to be very rare things prior to 9 – 11 – 2001 and kind of rare after that.  We criticized Israel for the same kind of drone strikes, but later when ours became much more frequent we stopped criticizing Israel.  Then in 2006 there was a major ruling change where the President did not have to approve each drone strike.  And the strikes didn’t have to be a part of any ongoing war or conflict.   The problem is today the bar is set so low as to what’s legal and what is not- - that the Government can say that any word or terminology means anything, and we have to believe what they say.  Last evening I downloaded a file enumerating the vast amount of violations that are routine now of our Constitutional rights in the first ten amendments, which runs over seven pages, and that is with some editing.   “There Ain’t No Justice Nowhere!”

DEAL TO SUPPRESS COMPETITION IS AVERTED 

In the aftermath of Comcast's decision to walk away from buying Time Warner Cable, some winners and losers are emerging.  The combined company would have created an Internet and TV behemoth with unprecedented power over what Americans download and watch. It would have served nearly 30 percent of video subscribers and 55 percent of the country's broadband homes. It also would have controlled NBCUniversal, home to NBC, cable networks including Bravo and film studio Universal Pictures.  But consumer advocates and Internet activists had railed against the deal from the start, saying it would limit consumer choices and lead to higher prices. And ultimately the planned merger fell apart after regulators decided it would be bad for consumers.  The breakdown of the deal is being seen as a blow to Comcast and the cable industry in general. Conversely, it's being hailed as a victory for consumer advocates and the competitors of the two companies.  And that covers a lot of ground.

QUEERS, QUERIES AND BEYOND

 In terms of the soap opera there were two highly unreal conversations.  The first was with Victor, who held a gay wedding in his own home, such was his booming confidence about the gay relation between Sonny and Will.  Now Victor wants to torpedo the marriage on the most flimsy of grounds.  He says that marital counseling would just be a waste of time.  He’s trying to fan the flames of desire of Sonny for Paul, which aren’t there.  However because of that conversation Sonny has decided NOT to go into therapy with Will but instead go off for an extended trip to Hong Kong to see his father, Justin, as if the conversation couldn’t take place over the phone.  Justin speaks of this great bye and bye when he and Adrian will be united but it’s always just over the horizon like some kind of mirage that keeps receding before you.  Then we have Kristin’s assertion that Daniel is the father of her baby.  Daniel and Kristin can’t stand each other.  (Practically no one whom Kristin spends any time with can stand her)  From Brady’s point of view it makes absolutely no sense for someone as obsessed for Brady to give her a child, that she would suddenly decide “like that” to sleep with someone who can’t stand to be around her.

ESCAPING THE KARMIC WHEEL

One simple way to describe “Karmic down-shifting” is "Setting the bar too low".  But we could also do so not in metaphysical terms of exchanging speed for torque - - but how about strictly horizontal personal conduct terms.  We all know people who seem well liked- - or maybe they just brag about how popular they are all the time- - and have a knack for avoiding any and all situations where they are not “in their element” or not in “control”.   Sometimes people think “I’d love to be around that high achiever and just bask in the glow of his fame”.   But on the other hand maybe you’ve had that opportunity and the more you hung around him you found there was “less than met the eye”.  I don’t want to go Will Horton on you and start naming names so we’ll leave it at that.   David Petrayas apparently got probation or something for passing government secrets to his girlfriend.  And yet we know of these whistle blowers- - who share needed vital information to us- - and they get the book thrown at them.  Then we have Rand Paul’s son who apparently was stopped on drunk driving charges but not taken to jail.  We know of those Secret Service people who weren’t arrested for suspicious conduct- - because of who they were.  What karmic down-shifting of course can best be summarized as “being a big fish in a little pond” as contrasted to karmic overdrive which could be called “being a little fish in a big pond”.   The former could be called “living beyond your means” karmically.  The latter could be called “living consistently below your means”.   If you persist in the former, eventually you’ll be forced to do the latter.  But perhaps a more fundamental question is on your mind right now.  “Well, how then do you legitimately advance on the karmic wheel?”   Basically you endeavor to get off of it- - or rather “getting out of the influence of the karmic funnel”.  This would be a flared, horn funnel.  You have on one hand the “pull of sin” sucking you in- - and if you persist the end result is a psychic death.  You have the other force which is self determination and “space”.   We have at times defined “karmic space” as the increased opportunity to self determination.  The third karmic force of course is your own will.  I prefer the word “will” to the term of “Choice”.  A choice is something you make in a department store where you choose to purchase one suit over another.  Will is something a little more fundamental.  It’s what you ARE; it’s the depths of your very Soul.   So basically it comes down to the question, “Am I a good person”.   Yes you do make choices.  But most of our so called choices have been to a large degree been pre-determined.  For instances when it comes to how I spend my meager income each month, clearly there things I am NOT going to spend my money on.  Besides what I call “necessity of circumstance” (do I pay the rent or do I just let that one slide this month) there are not only my OWN values- - which may have been distorted or aberated by events of the past- - and then there is pressures from Others and THEIR VALUES that impact my “Choices”.   If I overcome all these pitfalls and “make a decision for the better” than my karmic kenetic energy (otherwise known as speed) will increase.  Now if I want I can take that Speed- - and turn it into torque by- - - doing what Bart did once and being flunked back a year- - till he found the material utterly boring.  People who psychically downshift don’t mind “Boring”.  They live for what we’d call “Boring”.   My feeling for instance is that the President of the United States is a chronic under-achiever because “Once he got elected president” all of his goals had been reached.  It didn’t matter to him what people thought of him, or whether his actions damaged the country with Obama Care or the Trans Pacific Partnership- - all he cared about it was playing at the best golf courses, going to the right Washington DC cocktail parties, and flying around on Air Force I - - in some kind of never ending Travel-log.   I would now return to the metaphysical note and talk about “Down tuning guitar strings” and for some reason people like a minor third.  The strings are under less stress- - and they can vibrate more not being so highly strung and as such the “sound waves” (people’s impression of you) makes you seem bigger than you are- - and because they believe this of you- - this gives you more immediate Power.   But just remember that I regard squandering as one of the seven cardinal sins.  (Selah)

A Triad of Loser Republican Governors

Let’s talk about a triad of governors who haven’t thrown their hat in the ring for President yet, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Chris Christie of NY, and Bobby Jindell of LA.  Jindell is that over-achieving genious who seemed invincible in his youth.  His rise to fame was so meteoric that there would seem to be no goal he could not reach.  And I like I say any individual with the sheer native intelligence of Jindell to get the academic accolades he has received- - knows all too well about the mechanics of Global Warming, that is- exactly how it works.  But these three governors may be popular nationwide, but are not popular in their home States.  Chris Christie has sunk badly in the polls.  Christie has a 38% approval rating and a 56% disapproval rating with the people of New Jersey.  Christie’s New Jersey has lagged far behind its neighboring states in the area on job creation.  New Jersey has only gotten back 67% of the jobs lost in the recession, whereas her neighbors have gotten back 137% of the original figure of 2007.  But it gets worse.  New Jersey’s credit rating has been downgraded nine times and is now the second worst of any of the fifty states with only Illinois being worse for things like pension funds.  Of course we know how Christie loves to rob pension funds.  We all remember that Governor Scott Walker got prank called by a David Koch impostor- - and Walker fawned all over him- - like two peas in a pod talking about all the “things they were going to do” when they got in power.  Now the Real Koch Brothers in a move that surprises no one- - are getting ready to officially endorse Scott Walker.  All things considered- Scott Walker is the odds-on favorite to be the Presidential nominee of the Republican Party.   In terms of the Republican Party’s return to social issues such as gay marriage- - I am pleased that is happening.  Because these are loser issues in this day and age for anybody to run on.   And remember that I said if I were running for President myself if I wanted any chance of winning I’d stay far away from either the gay or abortion issues.  It seems that next Tuesday is the official date that the gay marriage thing will be argued.  Terry wants us all to hold a prayer long prayer vigil over it.  But my view of the Supreme Court is somewhat darker than his.  I believe the Justices make up their minds on any case before-hand.

Senator Bernie Sanders right now is affirming his stalwart opposition to the Trans Pacific Trade agreement.  I find it very hard to believe that President Obama would actually agree to hold a public debate on the Trans Pacific Partnership.  Senator Widen is drawing a lot of heat from fellow Oregonians.  Pharmacy companies would have never-ending patents making it harder for people of poor countries (such as “Doctors Without Borders”) to switch over to generic drugs to help the masses.  I would not support any Presidential candidate who would not come out solidly against the TPP.  People in Malaysia have slave labor type working conditions.  I believe it was Abraham Lincoln who said that “slaves are economic wealth”.   Labor is wealth.  The government buildings in Washington DC were built with slave labor.  We all would do well to remember that.  It’s my personal belief that people like in Mexico, rather than try and sneak into this country, would do better to fight for economic rights in their own country.  That way we’d kill two birds with one stone.  However Sanders won’t make a clean break from the Moneyed past in opposing Loretta Lynch with her shady Wall Street crony past, because he will be casting his vote FOR her.  The Koch Brothers by their own past statements would privatize things which for centuries have been the domain of government, such as the Post Office, the fire and police departments, and most notably the prison system for profit.  Wall Street is not God and people who want to “take the system down” may leave us perhaps with economic chaos, but from the ashes so to speak, would be the roots of equity and democracy.  This is an area where I would happily go on record before my Republican opponents in sayings “I agreed with you in opposing Loretta Lynch for AG”.  I am not such a slave to race and sex “equality” that I would just “go along to get along” with the liberals.  Most of the Founding Fathers made statements saying that land ownership would NOT be the exclusive domain of the rich and that Democracy is better served in striving for economic equality.  This is an issue where the Republicans are tone deaf.   The Republican senate budget would throw 27 million people off of health insurance.  There are statistics that progressives cite that Obama Care is actually a good thing.  However- - what if corporations were off shored or “inverted” as they say?   Could it be that we with our taxes may be paying funds to a foreign held corporation?   People in the Gulf region are still suffering economically in the wake of the British Petroleum oil blow out of five years ago this week.  We would do well to keep these people in our prayers.  The problem hasn’t gone away.

This is Thursday April 23, 2015, and the 45^th anniversary of when I took my pre induction physical in 1970.  In those days we weren’t yet on DLST so I got an extra hour before I had to show up in Santa Ana for the bus ride to LA.  Stephanie Miller has maximum mookage Thursdays now with Jim Ward, doing his John Boehner imitation.  This morning my innards have been in better shape than the past few mornings.  I had Stephanie on before and after breakfast.  My blogger numbers dipped sharply yesterday.  I was thinking of extending yesterday’s treaties on Cause verses Effect.  Perhaps I should re-think that.  I went to the liquor store for a dollar cup of coffee at seven and then went back to my room before taking the cup down to the dining room table.  We had oatmeal for breakfast followed by a fried egg and toast and butter and jelly.   Last night it was “Arrow” and I wasn’t concentrating that much.  I went out for cigarettes at the store when Glen came to my room asking for cigarettes and I only had one left.  I went out and got him three more but in return- - he had no coffee for me.  OK I owed him a few cigarettes anyhow.  He then gave me iced tea from a pitcher- - which was actually warm, and very weak tea but I settled for it.  It was the NBC network news followed by Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune- - where I remember being out of the room a lot anyhow.

THREE WORLDS AT HIS FEET  This is an quote from "Jay Shri Krishna" on George Harrison's "Dark Horse" album.  By the way George Harrison is very much alive - - it's just that he chooses not to participate in these "Federation" things we do.  But I've always wondered "What are the Three Worlds".  Well, you've come to the right place.  We have the Latitudinal - - and the Longitudinal as we discussed in the fourth paragraph of the previous posting.  (Go back and read it as your leisure)  The other aspect would obviously be the vertical or up and down or Karmic dimensions.  I believe insight is communacated through Geometric shapes.  For instance the Karmic funnel is a merging of the karmic and the longitudenal aspects.  Picture this.  The Hour Glass with the sands going through it- - the upper one is the Future or what we call "Your Super Self" (who knows the future) and the lower part of the glass is the Past.  Clearly "sands" or events are always moving from the Future- - - - to the Past after they occur.  We have discussed this Hour Glass metaphor in a posting of early October of 2012 and elsewhere.  In our last posting we spoke of a Globe metaphor.  Actually one could invision instead a cylinder.  That is- - there is no FINITE distance between the equator and the north or south poles.  Actually in terms of Latitudenal variance- - traveling in the Fifth dimension- - there ARE an actual "finite number" of parrellel universes- - based strictly on probability Math, but the number is so vast it might as well be infinite.  We then can say that just because something is at ninety degrees perpendicularity to something else- - in a three dimensional world this does not preclude another instance of - - wait for it- - "Separate but Equal" perpendicularity.   For instance in Pauline and Marcion theology there is a perpendicular relationship between the Karmic world and the Longitudenal world of the "time space contimuoum" we all live in every day.  But there is also a perpendicular relationship between the Latitudenal and longitudenal aspects.   Remember that Latitudenal means "traveling in the fifth dimension" accross time but not a Part of time.  It's what Mal Evans calls "The four thousand holes of Lankishire" where each hole is a potential universe you could fall into.  One can speak of feng chue energy strings as a "Portal" of sorts.  And remember since OUTSIDE stimulus is being ADDED into our Universe- - said stimulus would logical change or alter the course of events in This Longitudenal World or "bend the time line" to use one of those TV movie expressions.  But now let's dust off our old Time Life books and look at the cosmic cone.  I guess for you flat earthers that would be a cosmic Pyramid with four corners- but I jest.  Actually a perfect pyramid sits into a circle touching at six cardinal points.  But a cosmic cone (that looks triangular from the side and circular from above) is what we are discussing now, and how we slice it up.  If we go for the Horizontal here- - you get a circular slice.  If you decide to go vertical (up and down) you get a hyperbola.   Keep in mind that - - in circular trig- - the sine and cosine waves are longitudenal - - or circular by inference- - whereas the tangents are spiked.  But in the hyperbolic realm (based on changing a plus sign to a minus in a formula) it's reversed and what was regular is now hyperbolic.  What was spiked now becomes regular.  There is also a hyperbolic aspect to The Event Horizon once you exceed light- - but I'm not going there now.  Metaphors are tricky.  One person said "I have a glob of the earth as we know it" and also said "I have a globe of the stars".  The second "globe" is metaphoric in that space is three dimensional and not a curved plane.  You knew that.  You have to watch your metaphors.  Picture a cross with six points rather than four.  In other words a jack like thingy.  Metal spikes all over.  This is the thirty point cross if you envision a wooden 3 D model of the cross.  This would represent the three worlds, the karmic, the longitudinal and the latitudinal.  Since Karma is based on the passage of time- - it's questional whether Karma can even BE latidunal.   In a Determinist world- - the concept of "The Coice" the thing Neil Savedra worships over and above Biblical teachings- - this idea of "The Choice" itself can logically be predestined.  You hear "It's all how our brains are wired", but in this case it's all how the feng chue strings are wired and - - like a phone switchboard of old- - it's which ringy-dingy - - jack to you plug into which hole or Time Portal.  Just muse on that one for a million or so years.

Tear Down This Myth!

Just as with Iran, I agree.  A bad deal is worse than no deal at all.  The President is a deceiving Liar on this trans pacific partnership agreement.  He thinks we "lack imagination" if we cant envision things quickly becoming much WORSE than the so called "status quo", which President Obama thinks the American people will pay ANY price to - - change.  Elizabeth Warren says it's silly for the President to speak of "The American People being ignorant of the Facts" when these self same "Facts" are NOT out there in the public domain to discuss or debate.  WE can't READ it, and YOU won't tell us what's IN it!  Let Norman Goldman read the thing.  He's explain it to us.

I want to talk about the “Commercial Club of Chicago”.  It’s a pretty old organization dedicated austensively to bringing commerce to Chicago.  However it has evolved into just another ultra right wing organization.  This group supports the Milton Freedman supply side school of economics.  When you think about it Barock Obama is a supply sider on steroids, given his Federal Reserve police.  Remember that 95% of all economic gains over the past six years have been to the top one percent.  If the President were not accord with the effects of the Fed’s policies, he would have let us know it before now.  Some say that people at this Commercial Club of Chicago have dominated the President’s choice of cabinet appointments.  Rom Emanuel, the President’s former chief of staff- - is a high ranking member of the CCC and so by the way is current Illinois governor Bruce Rouner.  And it’s these people who have formed the President’s opinions and “have his ear”.   This is why the President has been pushing so hard for the trans pacific partnership agreement.  You know the President wants to be secretive about it or else you’d see adds and publications telling us how wonder the Trans Pacific Partnership is, and there would be bullet points highlighting the positive aspects of this treaty.  This is in fact a treaty meaning its provisions supersede national laws.  That’s the rule whether you or I like it or not one bit.   President Obama was interviewed by Chris Matthews and lied like a rug.  And then I’m told they had a panel there to discuss the issue.  And there was not one panelist who came down against the Trans Pacific partnership.  Now they want to fast track the thing.  Apparently senator Mitch Mc Connell has been very secretive about adjourning the senate today.  I couldn’t find anything on the Trans Pacific Partnership on C-Span, but only about the sex trafficking bill, which is all well and good but the Trans Pacific Partnership is the thing which every democrat must do everything in his power to block at every turn!  We need to throw ourselves on the railroad track of this oncoming train!  It will be the death of America as we know it!

It seems that Shawn Hannity is right when it comes to this blockade or whatever in the Gulf of Arabia.  This Iranian vessel supplying weapons to the Yemeni rebels, has not yet crossed into Yemeni waters, and it appears they won’t.  Iran is playing just a giant game of cat and mouse with this nation.  The President will not act against Iran, but in the same vein, Iran herself has no intention of violating this de facto blockade.  Shawn Hannity reminds us that President Obama “asked the Saudis to stop the bombing of Yemeni rebel strongholds”.  I thought the Saudis had stopped the bombing.  But Shawn Hannity says “The Saudis are not listening to President Obama but are continuing to bomb”.   Hannity keeps talking about his this alliance of Jordan and Egypt and the Saudis is “filling the vacuum created by the United States’ failure to exercise leadership”.  Shawn Hannity falsely said that the seran gas issue with Syria was not dealt with in 2012, when in fact – news flash, Syria gave up their chemical weapons.  Hannity is behind the times.  Now there is talk that the United Nations wants to broker a deal between the Yemeni rebels and the Saudis.  I would look at this development in a much more positive light.  If we’ve got all these other nations to fight our wars for us, we can kick back and relax a little.  And if Iran wants to fight ISIS for us, this is another area where we are saved spending money and manpower.  Just think of all the people who won’t be killed or maimed or go to the VA.  Just think of the medical bills Not Incurred!

President Obama is visiting the Everglades in Florida today.  It is poetic justice that he’d visit the area on Earth Day.  Because the entire state of Florida is sinking and salt water will be invading the ground water tab le of the Everglades.  Governor Rick Scott will not be greeting the President.  It’s a very different case from Governor Christie fawning all over President Obama in late October of 2012.  This behavior of Christie- - was part of a shady and not yet exposed political deal with the Democratic Party.  Marco Rubio can say he doesn’t believe in global warming but his entire city of Miami is slowly sinking into the ocean right now.  Shawn Hannity is not even trying to understand the logical cause and effect processes that cause the various symptoms of climate change we see.  We get longer, hotter and dryer summers in the areas already dry, and the polar vortex is upset in the winter time.  Shawn continues to say that Planet Earth’s hottest year was 1998.  But there have been so many records set since then it isn’t funny, and I understand that last year was a record warm year for Planet Earth.  My guess is that Bobby Jindell is such an intelligent, highly educated man- - he knows the processes set in motion by global warming.  Perhaps he could inform his friend Sean Hannity of what he learned in all of that very extensive education he’s had.  I must say I was really impressed with Jindell’s academic performance.  The man is one of those rare gifted “high achievers”.   This is earth day and I’m assuming there are protests all over the place today to make us all more aware that the whole ecology of the planet is vulernerable to man’s tinkering around with nature.

I would like to talk more on the physics and metaphysics of Cause and Effect.  I'm going to try and keep this as simple as I can, which isn't saying much knowing me.  I have to be careful of the Metaphors I employ here to boost understanding because if I use the wrong one to try and prove the wrong thing, my credibility will go down a giant sink hole.  I'd like to introduce to you Latitudinal verses Longitudinal analysis of Cause and Effect.  The Longitudinal is slightly less complicated- - and it's the one that doesn't involve "changing the time line".  If you believe that "changing the time line" is a physical and logical impossability, then you'll confine yourself to the Longitudinal.  Do you remember what we said about your "Super Self" knowing the future already?  This is longitudinal.  This is living in a realm of pure Cause- - and your Cause is shaped by the events that have already occurred- - in the Future- - and what you do casts a shadow of Events in the Past.  Capish?   Longitudinal also involved the Cause and Effects "Balance Sheet" where retribution is not only NOT a bad thing, but Essential to cosmic balance.   Now we move to the Latitudinal.   We covered this a few months ago with the proposition that Feng Chue "event strings" can and do affect "The time line" as we know it now.  An EVENT comes from Out Of Time when an feng chue string is transversed.   The "thing" at the other end of the string might be called the Electrode and YOU yourself are the Anode.  If you care to look at it that way.  But said "vibrating" of string takes place "out of time and out of space" and as such there can be said to be no "traveling" done.  Capish?   Now I'd like to get a little trigemetric on you.  You know what Sine and Cosine waves are.  Think of the earth traveling along the equator either east or west- - and after you have traversed 360 degrees you start over.  This is the 'circular universe" realm.  Latitudes have an end point - either the N or S pole.  So in latitude you are goint TO a place.  But with longitude you just keep on going and never seemingly even Need to have a Destination.  Sine Waves are IN time and relate to a circular universe.  Now said sine waves can be Modulated.  But they are still modulated sine waves, at least in theory.  I"ll add just one thing here as I review this - - the vibrating string- - like a guitar string is NOT the greatest impact - - but rather it's the body of the guitar or cello or what have you that serves as a "sounding board" for the vibrations.  So the Time Line is not the string, but the whole instrument that resonates.  But now let's look at the latitudinal.  Do you remember our "Tulip" theory?  We said a year ago on one of our cryptic lines "Time needs to establish superiority over Events so that those very Events may Establish themselves".  I'll make it simple.  Do something once it's a flook.  Do the same thing several times and it's a trend.  If you persist in doing the same thing it becomes a Habit.  And when you persist in a Habit - - habitual behavior- - it becomes a Character trait.  Picture a line that starts out horizontally from a radius - - (a tulip "petal") and gradually it bends upward - - untill eventually it's going straight up.  Up is TIME and outward is the Event.  This is what it's like for events to Establish themselves.  Events minus Time are just aimlessly floating things without any rhyme or reason or pattern.  This is a hyperbolic universe of sorts where - - - Sine and Cosine are hyperbolic.   But events can be Dis-established.  Take another graph like the National Debt with the line horizontal for most of the chart and bending up till it's virtually "straight up" at the end.  You can ask "what happens after the END".  Interesting question.  Well the "bubble" bursts.  In this case the Universe the event lives in.  What you see here is something becoming disestablished.  Remember the Hyperbolic- - deals with events that are not yet established or whose establishment is in question.  Circular trig involves regular, repeatable, patterned events in a time and space we all know.  You know something- - this little treaties didn't take as long as I thought it would.

We All Make Mistakes- - Even Me

Loretta Lynch still hasn’t gotten a vote on her confirmation to be Attorney General, seemingly because the Republicans still have a man crush on Eric Holder, and want him to remain around as long as possible.  The “memorial tree” for Michael Brown was chopped down days after it was planted- - and they claim they are investigating.  In Parma, MO - - they picked a woman mayor and “five of the six police officers resigned for safety concerns”.   Parma only has a six officer police force?  Sean Hannity speaks of “retaking the blood soaked ground of Felugia and these other Iraqi towns we took in 2007.   The more obvious way to look at this is that going to war in Iraq was a horrible mistake based on lies.  Now that we realize what a horrible mistake it was and how our actions bordered on war crimes- - and untold death and suffering- - why in the name of hades would we ever do such a thing again.  This would be “A very bad mistake”.

Marco Rubio mispronounce "chipotle" as "chipolte".   Here is a Latino who doesn't even know a common word in his own culture.  Some say "chipotle peppers aren't that popular in Cuba".  Hillary is making a major PR mistake by not being more open and 'un scripted' with the crowds she comes accross.  She's like North Korea because "she doesn't answer questions."  I never thought of it that way.  Hillary is displaying an arrogant attitude in that she thinks it's "Her turn" and doesn't have to defend anything about her actions as Secretary of State or anything.  However - -  Simplistic thinking is rampant all over now.  Some would say “We are becoming more like North Korea all the time.  You look at the earth at night and South Korea is all lit up and in the north it’s almost entirely dark.  Clearly Free Enterprise works better than communism and we in America are in an ailing economy because of Obama’s socialist policies”.   I just want to document what people are saying.  People with this kind of adeled thinking are in power now.

I think I have to side with the gay bashers on at least one point.  It says in Daniel or someplace that we’ll know the Antichrist because ‘He doesn’t regard the desire of women”.  I take it to mean that the Beast will either be gay or completely A-sexual.  However some come up with another interpretation.   They say that “The desire of women” is a code phrase used to allude to the Messiah.  This is because in Israel- in those times- - the desire of every woman was that she would be picked to give birth to the Messiah.  You see an immediate problem here with this meaning.  And that is- - that it would mean that the Messiah has not yet come to Israel, whereas we Christians believe in Jesus.  On the subject of race, St Paul teaches that “We are all of one blood”, or as Edith Bunker says “Archie, his blood is the same color as yours is - - it’s red”.  Good point.  We are all of one blood and that is the saving blood of Jesus Christ.

We all make mistakes including me.  If I don’t want to lose any more blog readers I better not make any more mistakes with them.  Those Beatle album revised compilations I alluded to at one point -  -are from a post dated February 2^nd 2013, and not 2014.   The posting is headed “The Seventeen Club” and the final compilation is number eight (to fit into an eight CD boxed set two deep, and the final one is “Not Ready for Prime Time” or something.  I goofed in referring to a single CD compilation of sixties songs in alphabetical order highlighted by the long version of “Bluebird”, which appears on an expanded 2 LP Buffalo Springfield “Best of” album.  This CD was one of those that came into being in the September 2004 period when I was prolific.  I thought it was made an adjunct to KAOS Radio (2 CD album) making three, but it’s actually conjoined with “The Psychedelic Album” newly renovated for May of 2006.  I hope you can follow that.  I had Stephanie Miller on this morning and would have liked to include “Marco Rubio Leading the Clown Car” but they don’t do the Stephanie Rocky Mountain Mike songs.  They’ve led me to believe there is a guardian angel problem.   That “Sail Away” song with Dennis De Young- - was a favorite of Ev’s and I’m using his real name you note.  We’ve declassified Paul and Terry’s names, so the time may come when we declassify Ev and just maybe Clay.  We’ll see.  If I were like a normal blogger I’d give you a nice link to speed up the whole process.  There is no need to re-invent the wheel each time.  John Lennon got one of the original CD’s yesterday with ‘Please Come to Chicago” on it as track two.  Sirius 0 had a big backlog of versions with that track on it.  This morning I woke with restless bowels again.  I had one lone cigarette remaining from the ones Lishia gave me mid day yesterday.  I have Stephanie on right now after breakfast.  I got my medication from Tom before breakfast.  We had oatmeal followed by the main course of hashed browns, scrambled eggs, and toast and butter and jelly.  When Connie made it to the table she was in a foul mood using the F--- bombs.  But later she gave me one of the two hashed browns on her plate.   I got two long shorts from Luan and Rocky to smoke after breakfast.

Future Shock is More than a Book Title

Disruptive technology is a tiresome cliche, as every Twitter/ AirBnB/ Uber/ Skype/etc. wannabe start-up declares itself disruptive. That the vast majority of self-congratulatory start-ups are over-hyped and derivative should not distract us from the larger reality that some technologies do in fact disrupt how things are done.

Fossil-fueled mechanization, for example, turned an overwhelmingly rural farming society into a highly urbanized services-dominated economy.

In the more recent past, CraigsList single-handedly turned the newspaper industry from an immensely profitable license to print money (via costly classified ads) to a struggling sector with an unclear future.

Digital file-sharing turned the $14 billion music industry into a $7 billion industry.

And now driverless vehicles are poised to disrupt the taxi and trucking sectors in ways few predicted.

The core idea of Disrupt or be Disrupted is that every sector and industry that avoids being disrupted just becomes a fatter target for disruption.  Higher education is a prime example. The industry has successfully staved off disruption by maintaining a lock on credentialing/accreditation–the famous signaling value of a college diploma, which verifies nothing about what the student learned or knows. Now that student loan debt is $1.3 trillion and the administrative bloat of higher education can no longer be obscured, the industry is becoming a fatter, juicier target for massive technological disruption by the day.

Healthcare is another sector with bloated costs and protected fiefdoms that is ripe for fundamental disruption. Reductions of 50% or more that lead to better overall health do not require whizbang science fiction advances; simply eliminating the paperwork and cartels and making patients responsible for their care and the costs of their treatments would be enough to unleash a disruptive revolution. What few in these protected industries dare admit is the state/cartel cost structures are now so burdensome, the nation can no longer afford these services. Healthcare has risen from 5% of GDP to 19%. The more burdensome and intractable the systemic costs, the greater the gains to be reaped from disrupting the status quo.

The Military-Industrial/National Defense Complex is another sector ripe for massive disruption and reduction of costs. Compare the troubled $1 trillion F-35 aircraft program (which is increasingly looking like the most expensive weapons system failure in human history) with increasingly effective and cheaper drones: A Drone Has Never Linked Up With a Refueling Tanker Until Now. In other words, protecting unaffordable, ineffective fiefdoms and cartels will be a losing strategy in the next 20 years. These costs will come down, one way or another, either by the erosion and collapse of the funding sources or by tech-enabled socio-economic disruptions.

They were just saying that "We could well have a World War I scenario with a major world war between the two blocs of super powers that are now alligning themselves.  We are sending naval vessels to supply the Saudis and / or to intercept Iran's supply of the Yemeni rebels.  This situation could lead to war "just like that".  Strangely it was over a year ago that someone on line predicted "we could well start the next War by staging some incident in the Pursian Gulf.  Someone pointed out that the Lucitania, which was hit by a German sub and kicked off World War I - - the Lucitania was carrying explosives, which no doubt contributed to the severity of the damage to the vessel.  In other words it would appear that such an attack was not entirely unexpected.  Shawn Hannity claims to have sources deep within the Hillary Clinton campaign, just as Rush Limbaugh in 1993 had sources in the Clinton team back then.  Right now Shawn Hannity is re-enumerating the same list of "particulars" he's listed so many times before. I suggest that since the right wing fights in this manner- - that maybe "Be Prepared" might not be such a bad watchword for the left.

The defense of “entrapment” is all but dead in this country.  First the Courts carved out an “exception” for people with a history of committing the same crime.  In this case they were already half way to guilty anyhow in invocation of the John Kovelt doctrine.  But then, seeing how not enough people were being nabbed, the Courts expanded this to “Well if they go along with the crime at all this shows an “eagerness of response” and the only way they can have any defense now is if they forcefully try to extricate themselves from the conspiracy.  If you’ve seen “Burn Notice” you know that “trying to pull out of an agreement’ can be tricky business.  People may be trapped into having agreed to something- - on pain of death or maybe worse.  I'm wondering how long it is before they have the "thought police" going after "thought crimes".  I guess if Scientologists ran the world we might have to worry about that.

April 20^th is officially “Smoke marijuana day” Thom Hartman reminds us.  Of course TH says the number of incarcerations since the days of Reagan and ‘Just Say No’ have skyrocketed.  This reminds me of that guest Wally George used to have as a regular on his show.  His real name is Norm Le Boe, but he changed his name to Bud Green.  I thought if calling myself “Bud Green” as a blogger, but out of deference to Norm I didn’t want to treat on his territory.   Thom Hartman says we should have stayed hunter gatherers.  The story about Cain and Abel is that- - Abel was a herder, a natural occupation, but Cain was a farmer.  And Hartman points out how in northern latitudes that Kings and Earls and such discovered a way to "lock up the food supply" during the cold months when you couldn't grow food, that is not so apparent in the lower latitudes where food grows more all year around.  Hartman says that as a society we are re-segregating but on a (slightly more) volentary basis. Three quarters of the White cops- - do not live in the towns they police, Thom Hartman points out.  It would not be out of place to put in a rule they HAVE to live in the towns they police.  During the entire first hour of his show today, Hartman talked about the endemic racism of today's society particularly in law enforcement.  For instance in one town if a Black police chief gets elected, then most of the police department resigns in protest.  There are endemic racial slurs used on cop radio chatter like the "gorillas in the mist" remark connected with Rodney King.  If it's a white mental patient who wants to "commit suicide by cop" the police will go to elaborate lengths to avoid shooting him, but if it's a Black person his life is worth much less.  Whites are concerned about Israel, but abuses in Nigeria or the Congo or Sudan- -evoke little response by Whites, because it'a happening to Blacks.

TRAIL MIX (rel. April 20, 2015)

Shining Star (Earth Wind and Fire)

Going Out to the Country (Canned Heat) **

Rain Clouds Hide the Sun (Paul Mc Cartney)

I Live For You (George Harrison ATMP bonus track)

Attica State (John Lennon)

Valentine’s Day (Paul Mc Cartney)

Tribute to Elmore (History of Eric Claptin)

Victoria (The Kinks)

Postcards From Paradise (Ringo Starr)

Out In The Country (Three Dog Night)

One of Nature’s Children (John Lennon)

If Not For You (Bob Dylan with George Harrison) *

Tell The Truth – Slow Jam (History of Eric Claptin)

Somebody Get Me Out of Here (Paul Mc Cartney)

Little Queenie  (Rolling Stones LIVE)
What's Going On?  (Marvyn Gaye)
The Tortoise and the Hare  (Moody Blues)

The title letters are made up (shots of) granola mix.  The front photo is just your standard photo of the earth - - to commemorate Earth Day.  There is a definite accent to songs popular in 1970 that may not have made any of our compilations.  The other 3 Dog Night track from this album is on “Missing Links” and your favorite Neil Young song is on “Don’t Take Me Alive” if you’re curious.  “Nature’s Children” got passed over when we were doing Beatle stuff in early 2014.  “Shining Star” was on one of our “Six Packs” and we thought it deserved a more prominent airing.  Actually there was recorded a comedic track - - of – Stu Sutcliffe and that unidentified associate of his - - and Mal Evans and Neil Asphanol - - and a John Mc Laughlin sound alike doing a mock Mc Laughlin group thing debating how Jeff Lynne is a cosmic jinx and is responsible for the deaths of Roy Orbeson and George Harrison.  But the new Federation management disallowed that track.  Jeff gets his Hollywood Star on April the 23^rd.  The last two tracks are late additions at straight up twelve noon, or three PM official Sirius A time.  We had the option of making this a Sirius A only CD but "wanted to make nice with the new Federation management".

*  This track is on “Bootleg” by Bob Dylan which is a slower version of this track with GH on guitar.   It is notable that “Tell the Truth – Slow Jam” is NOT on “Crossroads” ; I think it should have been.

**  Late song substitute because the previous occupant of this track can be found on "Fundamentals of Rock" Vol 1.  Highly recommended.

In Shawn's new math - - the bracket his "hired help" is in - - is a minority of wealthy people that pay 98% of all Federal Income taxes according to him, and apparently spend sixty percent of their income in Federal, state, and local taxes.  I think there is a parable that goes "I cried because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet".   As near as I can figure it, Shawn and his hired staff resent the fact that they're blessed with above average incomes.  What do you suppose Jesus would do with someone like that in one of his parables?

Last night I was out a lot but watched “America’s Funniest Home Videos” followed by “Once Upon a Time” and again they are over-playing the theme of evil women.  Phyllis Green was bad mouthing all things Disney last night.  I was in agreement with just about every topic that Phyllis was ranting about last night, but basically I kept silent and let her run with the ball. The whole evil and pettiness thing is really run into the ground on that show.  All I can say is that someone (Disney?) has major “mother issues”.  “AD” is a program that is highly revealing in its own way.  They’re turning Christianity into one of these suspense movies.  They killed all of the guards that witnessed the earthquake and the stone rolling away.  Apparently the disciples did NOT see Jesus- - unless it was in a scene I didn’t catch.  And last night I only watched the thing for two commercial segments and retired about twenty after nine.  I did not attempt to get coffee from Glen, and should have watched the entire thing anyhow- - it was an absurd “oversight” on my part.  But it would seem that if they are talking about priests being murdered does that explain why Joseph of Arithmethia - - was not an early new testament apostle?   Normally they do “quatranes” of guards.  If Jesus had been a living prisoner subject to impending death, then Roman Law would dictate that you DID put all four guards to death.  But since the prisoner was already dead, that wouldn’t apply.  Pilate turns into a real hard-ass and locks down the city of Jerusalem with double the Roman contingent, and the governor himself is going to attend Pentacost festivities though it is “a severe breech of protocol”.