Trans-sexuals To Be Allowed in the Military

The secretary of defense had decreed that trans-sexuals will be openly admitted into all branches of the military aned are to be accepted.  The standards for them will be just what they are for anybody else.   Norman Goldman reminds us that Alvin Toffler died today, author of Future Shock in 1970.  It was just 1993 when Clinton first pushed through “Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell” on the military, where they would not ask for sexual identification on applications, but if you were caught being gay you’d get kicked out.  Of course now women are accepted in all aspects of combat, which is pretty new.   My feeling about it is that if you're going to let recruits in who are queer as a three dollar bill, then you might as well let the trans-sexuals in.   To me if they are post op and adjusted to their new gender than there should be no problem.  But if they are only just "thinking about" may I suggest some strong intervention of psychological counciling is in order.   This whole technology revolution like the abolition of cassettes,  VHS tapes, and using phones as cameras and to connect to the internet, is still domething rather futuristic to me. 

According to Shawn,  Bill Clinton may have been blackmailing Loretta Lynch in the private room on that plane where they had a suspicious half hour conference where we are supposed to believe his wife’s legal proglems never came up.  Apparently it’s come to pass that at times a batter will blackmail an umpire into giving the hitter a wider strike zone or else.  If the FBI director, who Shawn says is a good guy, gives a “referral” to Lynch that chargers should be brought against Hillary, and Lynch doesn’t follow through, this is at the least a major campaign issue for the Republicans.  Think about it.  

Apparently neither democrats nor republicans have anything in their respective platforms that condemn any of these transnational trade agreements.  So the question occurs just how much will Trump’s candidacy help down ticket republicans if his economic policies are at fundamental odds with theirs.  If Hillary doesn’t bend on this issue, and it’s unlikely she wil, then Bernie Sanders may not be too eager to fully endorse her.  According to Shawn, friends of Bernie Sanders are suing Debby Wasserman and the DNC alleging that the whole political race was rigged from the beginning and that the goal was always to do anything to make Hillary look good and air brush her faults, rather than find the best candidate to run against a Republican judging by poll numbers.

According to Washington’s blog, Brexit is up for a do-over.  You might say it was too good to be true that a major player in the European Union would just up and leave.  More than a million people have signed a petition for a do-over with the Brexit election and if as few as a hundred thousand signatures is valid, then according to the rules, Parliament must take up the debate as though what is approved in an election isn’t really binging.  Washington’s blog refers to it as “winging it”.   They are kicking around the idea that somehow such a momentus move requires a super-majority, without stating that that figure is.  Meanwhile the stock markets aren’t that concerned any more.  They consider it old news and the averages have been sharply up the past three days.  

On Tuesday Trump gave his long awaited speech on the economy.  The summary of it is that Trump gives seven steps he would take to turn the economy around quickly.  A lot of them relate to the things we progressives had wanted.  Trump said he would renegotiate NAFTA and not just a little but a lot.  And if they refused that then Trump would withdraw from NAFTA.  Often Trump would cite this or that government code.  He’s going to scuttle the Trans Pacific Partnership.   Trump plans to get tough in China as far as manipulating their currency and also stealing our roduction secrets.  He cited Washington and Alexander Hamilton and also Abraham Lincoln for the justification of high terrifs and lower income taxes and regulations.   I’m gratified to see a candidate in touch with our historic founders.   OK I just listened to the entire speech and aside from the remarks about energy and coal mining, which I take exception to, it was a really great, inspiring speech. 

The significance of the first Brexit vote is: it was the first instance in modern times when UK citizens formally expressed their opposition to what the UK’s aristocracy desire. However, the outcome of that vote is likely to be the same (though by different means) as was the outcome of the Greek referendumregarding the international aristocracy’s 2015 ‘bailout’ (their euphemism for purchase) of the Greek government. In that case, the 5 July 2015 Greek vote was, by a 61% majority, to reject the sale of the nation’s government. The wikipedia article on that matter closes by noting: “On Monday, 13 July, the Syriza-led government of Greece accepted a bailout package that contains larger pension cuts and tax increases than the one rejected by Greek voters in the referendum.” And that was the end of that. The Greek leader, Syriza Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, even stayed in power. By contrast, Britain’s Tory Prime Minister, David Cameron, promptly resigned when the first Brexit vote turned out to reject his position that the UK should stay in the EU. The process of defeating the people’s rebellion is more drawn-out in Britain than it was in Greece; that’s all. Otherwise, it’ll probably be basically the same end-result in UK as it was in Greece. People must accept their fate, as subjects. Western history is going full-circle back to feudalism, but in its modern form.

Supreme Court Throws Out Texas Abortion Law

The Supreme Court on its final day handed down three rulings.  The first was involving that Texas abortion law where hospitals have to meet state medical standards.  This would cut down on the number of abortions.  It appears that the Courts even with Scelia still on the court would have ruled in favor of the abortion lobby.  Not because the law passed was unconstitutional but rather because the effect of this Texas law would be to drastically reduce the number of abortion clinics and make those women seeking abortions have to drive further, inconvienancing them.  The Court dismissed all corruption charges that Governor Mc Donald of Virginia was convicted on by a Federal court in 2014.  Once again there appears to be no legal basis for this decision except somehow Republicans think they should be able to get away with anything.  The third case was favorable.  They said that domestic abusers can be barred from owning firearms.  This ruling will save lives and it is a good thing.

Apparently Bernie Sanders was on some Sunday talk show saying that he had reconciled with Hillary.  Their corresponding delegates have come to an accord and are working together.  Apparently a fifteen percent hike in the minimum wage was approved as a plank.  Also there was talk about breaking up the big Wall Street banks and coming down hard on these Wall Street financiers.  On the negative side- - they are still allowing fracking.  Though according to Shawn Hannity- - they plan to come down hard on those corporations that are global warming deniers and who reject proven science.  It’s good they are working together.  Today Elizabeth Warren and Hillary Clinton were campaigning together as if a sign of things to come, Vice President wise.  They were both wearing similar shades of blue with Warren just a bit more teal than Hillary.  They both had identical hair styles, and made the same gestures.  They looked like a natural team.  Perhaps this is to quelch the rumors that the two don’t get along together.   There was talk about coming down hard on Wall Street.  Hillary must have approved of the text.

David Swanson believes the US being a democracy is a joke because the people seldom get to vote on anything - certainly not any major issue such as going to war.  There have been studies that the rich people get their will enacted in congress fifty or sixty percent of the time, but for the lower class rest of us- - the percentage our will is enacted is about equal to random noise.  Such is the state of our politics.  Many if not the majority of European countries regard the United States as the biggest threat to world peace and security.  Many people are saying that the British Exit vote was really something so many European countries want to do.  But they do it because they feel the United States is the real power behind both NATO and the common market.  So Brussles is really a puppet government with the real power in Washington DC.  It's something to think about.

Donald Trump was down five points in one poll and twelve points in another poll and thirteen points in still another.  The Washington Post poll was the biggest news.  My feeling is that as relations continue to improve between Hillary Clinton and the progressive wing of the democratic party, the more Hillary’s numbers will rise.  However if you insert Gary Johnson and Jill Stein into the picture then Hillary leads by only a point.  The indication seems to be that Johnson must have a lot of support from progressives on the libertarian issues despite Johnson being right wing on other issues.  Jill Stein will understandably cut mostly into Hillary’s lead.  Trump won’t have much time for any Republican convention “bounce” in the polls because the two conventions are only a week apart.  Apparently both conventions plan to put a lot of big time rock stars up on stage making a superbowl production out of the thing more than it usually is.

It’s just after nine thirty on Monday June 27, 2016, Lottery Day.  I just reviewed my E mails and I last wrote Tim in April before today, which surprised me.  I didn’t know it had been over two months.  Tim called me up right after he received it.  He’s going on vacation in late July to Lake Tahoe and Reno to see a car show and visit Dana.  Then he’s going to North Carolina to see Bob [last name withheld] and take a train out of Williams, AZ to see the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  Tim gave me his views on the political situation and believes there won’t be a problem with disaffected Sanders voters.  Tim mentioned some Black lady on Mondays on KPFK and how the station is also doing its fund drive right now, so there is a regular epidemic of fund raising.  Tim mentioned that I don’t have a coffee maker any more when I brought up coffee.  Thom Hartman is on right now.  The British people are having buyer’s remorse right now with their vote to leave the European Union and want a voter do-over.  I don’t think they have do-overs in political campaigns.  Let me just add that everyone is saying that this vote of Britain on Thursday will help Trump because we too want to let lose our political rage at being ruled by a distant and unelected elite establish.  I'm not buying into this theory myself.  If we the American people get "buyers remorse" ourselves, only ahead of time the American public may get cold feet at wanting to take the political plunge with Trump.  Now they are referring to the exidus of many Republicans from supporting Trump as a "Trexit".  George Will and former Bush treasury secretary Poulson have come out against Trump and even tried and true Mike Lee on the Shawn Hannity program today had reservations about Trump and appeared to be rationalizing other Republicans' tepid feelings tword Trump.  I wasn’t in a verbal mood and might have had more to say if he’d caught me on another day.  Cigarettes have been generally hard to come by.  I haven’t seen the Rude Pundit on Stephanie in a while.  They are into their fourth week of fund raising.  But they’re only going to do it today and tomorrow.  It just seems to me that they shouldn't have such a piss poor financial base and if these Hollywood actors had any integrety they'd come through by kicking in a few million to eliminate this constant need to go for their financially impoverished viewers for money every few months.  

Britain Exits the European Union

This is Friday June 24, 2016, which is St John’s wort day or something.  The election results are in from England and England has voted to leave the European Economic Union, which surprised the hell out of me given the numerous media rumblings over the subject.  The xenophobes won the day and it’s the immigration issue that turned the tide on this issue.  They used paper ballots in England and counted deliberatively.   It’s a historic day because it’s the reversal of a long term trend toward internationalization.   People like me and Thom Hartman and Pat Buchannon are happy.  Now they are still saying that the TPP is going to be voted on with the lame duck congress no matter who wins in November- - Trump or Clinton.  So the will of the American people will be thwarted.   We’ll see if things stabilize overseas.  But nothing will happen till the House of Commons takes a vote, and that won’t happen for a while and after it does extrication from the European Union will take two years.

What we’ve seen in the past 24 hours or so is a “Portmanteau” Norman Goldman reminds us.  (Believe it or not that word wasn’t red-lined)   This is a combination of two words into one.  I remember not so long hearing about “The two most popular computer items are cats and brexits”.  I thought “I know what a cat is but what kind of an animal is a brexit?”  The Dow Jones Industrials went down over six hundred points.  If you’ve been following my blogs I never told anybody to get back into the market.  I was actually starting to worry about maybe I should give a buy signal.  Now I won’t.  Basically the markets just had a hissy fit.  The British pound is the lowest since 1985.  I’m not impressed by that.  Norman says “A lot of lawyers will be kept busy in the next year or so”.   England was never in The Euro Zone.  Greece voted to leave the European Union a year ago but somehow that vote didn’t count.  They cut some fast deal for Greece to stay in.  Both Shawn Hannity and the top of the hour WCPT news remarked that today is a good day for Donald Trump.  He seems very pleased and vindicated by yesterday’s election results.  Those in the know including Thom Hartman believe that this development of Britain leaving the EU will greatly help Donald Trump’s chances in November.  Personally I’m not buying it.  There are too many other reasons to hate Trump.  Shawn even quoted Bernie Sanders as “Someone who’s on our side”.

We had better soup today.  We had what I’d call a lousey, ineptly made chicken Alfredo.  Patty liked it.  My idea of chicken Alfredo is fettaccini Alfredo with chicken pieces in it.  This wasn’t it, but it did have parmazon cheese on it.  We had a dinner roll with canned pears for dessert.  I listened to Shawn Hannity over the noon hour.  I smoked my last cigarette before one.  I have no remarks about today’s “Days of our Lives” episode except Kate saying she’s heartless “because I’m a survivor”.  I was looking for cigarettes.  We had our resident’s council meeting today in the dining and Rico came by and I had iced tea.  The place was all women except for me, someone pointed out.  Jose (or “Josie”) said we are entitled by seconds on coffee any time we want it plus seconds on orange juice at breakfast, which I’d never heard of before.  There was talk about the medication line and people sitting, waiting in the front room and losing their place in line.  I mentioned the clothing bag that’s been sitting in our room for weeks.  Patty mentioned a bunch of stuff.  We should get butter on potatoes and dinner rolls and pancakes.  Cathy at my table was saying a bunch of stuff but I don’t think she was ever officially recognized.  The other Patty wrote it down.  There were complaints about the water cooler having “warm” water.  The button you push is hard to work and sometimes there is a gritty feel to it.  Someone said the upstairs TV wasn’t working but it’s usually on when I pass by on my way to Glen’s.  There is also no AC in the upper room.  The meeting ended about a quarter to three.   Just now Phyllis Green gave me a brown cigarette.   It is now six and a half days till I get paid at the beginning of the month.  

Advocates of international unions and super-states claim that centralization promotes trade and peace: that customs unions break down trade barriers and international government prevents war. In reality, super-states encourage both protectionism and warfare. The bigger the trade bloc, the more it can cope with the economic isolation that comes with trade warfare. And the bigger the military bloc, the easier it is for bellicose countries to externalize the costs of their belligerence by dragging the rest of the bloc into its fights.
A small political unit cannot afford economic isolationism; it simply doesn’t have the domestic resources necessary. So for all of UKIP’s isolationist rhetoric, the practical result of UK independence from the European economic policy bloc would likely be freer trade and cross-border labor mobility (immigration). Political independence fosters economic interdependence. And economic interdependence increases the opportunity costs of war and the benefits of peace.  The Power of Exit  Super-states also facilitate international policy “harmonization.” What this means is that, within the super-state, the citizen has no escape from onerous laws, like the regulations that unceasingly pour out of the EU bureaucracy. But with political decentralization, subjects can “vote with their feet” for less burdensome regimes. Under this threat of “exit,” governments are incentivized to liberalize in order to compete for taxpayer feet. Today we have a victory for Brexit and for the power of exit. That’s good news for European liberty.  During its Industrial Revolution, Britain was a beacon of domestic liberty and economic progress that stimulated liberal reform on the European continent. An independent Britain in the 21st century can play that role again. In doing so, Britain would help Europe outside the EU far more than it ever could on the inside. Brexit may be a death knell for the European Union, yet ultimately the saving grace for the European people.

Van Driver Officer in the Freddy Gray Case Acquitted

That officer, the driver who drove the van in the Freddy Gray case in Baltimore - was acquitted, which shows you can’t get justice.   The officer was smart.  He waved his right to a jury trial and got a sympathetic judge and then did not testify in his own behalf.   People only do that when they are guilty as sin.  Your odds of being struck by lightning are higher than getting the conviction of a police officer.   People like Shawn Hannity love to keep score on such things as if human justice were reduced to some sporting event and the conservatives keep clobbering the liberals.  In terms of "waving your rights" I wonder if you should be allowed to do that.  Defendants have a right to trial by jury.  Don't "The People" in this case, Black people,  have that Same right to a "trial by jury" to litigate this case drawn from the people of the neighborhood wherein the crime was comitted?

 Meanwhile it appears that England will stay in the European Union despite how everybody really feels about it.  Somehow these kinds of votes are rigged to preserve the status quo.  People like Judy just love the European Union because their banks screw people over like with Greece.  Nobody likes the EU any more but these internationalists or Neo Cons think that one day they are going to take over the world.  So I'm just lamenting the bad news in advance that it looks like the referendum failed and Britain is staying with the EU.

I caught Paul Ryan’s little press conference.  The only thing he said that surprised me was that the vote Democrats have been seeking was already held.  The bill failed in committee and I know enough to know that that’s the end of the process, short of that petition thing where you need 218 signitures Ryan claims the democrats didn’t even try to get.  After this I watched congressional democrats occupying the House chamber on a bad cell phone picture.  Paul Ryan failed to mention that Paul Ryan adjourned Congress two days early for a Fourth of July week and a half long vacation.  It’s absurd to say the democrats are “shutting down congress’ when it’s Paul Ryan who turned off the cameras.   Ryan realizes that ANY vote would prove before on-looking eyes of the American public that the NRA owns congress, lock, stock and barrel.  

The Supreme Court deadlocked four to four on the “Dreamer” act where Obama lets immigrants in.  If Scelia were still on the court “Texas” would have won a five to three ruling in this case.  But the question is how would the new Justice that Obama nominated vote.  The American people are entitled to have a functioning Supreme Court.  This is Supreme Court season in late June when normally a whole raft of controversial cases are decided.  If Donald Trump becomes President every appointment Trumps makes to the Court would be instantly approved by this current congress as constituted and there would be hell to pay.   We really do have to hold our collective noses and vote for Hillary because we have to assume that despite her many flaws, which I’d rather not see in a Presidential candidate, that she would at least appoint liberal Justices. 

Thom has a new book, “Bernie Sanders in his own words” which is a collection of 250 quotes from the senator.  This is a book I'd like to buy if it's up for sale.  It would be the modern version of "Little Red Book' you'd carry with you everywhere anytime you needed a quick, whitty response.  Of course in Mao's book the most famous like in it is 'Power flows out of the barrel of a gun".  There was a time in my life in the mid 'seventies where I found such a philosophy appealing.  But of course today we talk about "Zeitguist" or spirit of the times.  It's kind of like Thom Hartman's "water buffalo" analogy.  The minute 51% of the water buffalo are facing a certain direction, that's the direction they head off tword.   Some people say that when people die their "life energy" spreads out and lodges in the minds of the Living.  We at the Federation speak rather of sometimes, if the dead person is changing his ownership at the time of death, he surrenders his guardian angels and these spread out and protect and inspire others and facilitate certain lines of thought.   In the past I have described the afterlife as a giant cosmic football game where you are always fighting for yardage and "controle of the board".  I'm finding it hard now to actually picture a situation like this. 

Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were found not guilty by a jury in the “Stairway to Heaven” plagurism case with Spirit.  As you know the charge was that when Led Zeppelin and Spirit toured together in 1970 that Page and Plant got the idea to rip them off.  Stairway to Heaven was written sitting by a fire in a cabin in 1971. 

This is after dinner.  It’s still nice and cool in here.  For dinner we had Salisbury steak with tomato based sauce, and a half baked potato with butter and sour cream.  We hit the mother lode tonight.  Some of that complaining at the last council meeting must have worked.  There was no vegetable but Judy gave me her bowl of beets I ended up not even touching.  Paul gave me a second potato and a second butter and sour cream.  Later he gave me his chocolate cake.  Then after a few moments seconds were making the rounds and the cart made it around the room and I had seconds on the meat.  That was what you call a satisfying meal.  I sat on the west side of the bench being wilted by the sun.  Chewy at noon said that tomorrow is his last day here and he’s glad to be leaving.  He knew from the first day that coming here was a mistake because he’s always talking about marijuana.  He says he’s going to get a bag of marijuana and smoke pipe fulls of the stuff.   He invited Patty to come with him but Patty said “I’m not ready to leave here yet”.  Given her situation of bi-polar diagnosis, that could take time.  

Is There An Upside to Donald Trump?

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) would be horrible for Americans and the people of the world.

But most politicians are thoroughly corrupt.  Neither the Democratic or Republican parties represent the interests of the American people. Elections have become nothing but scripted beauty contests, with both parties ignoring the desires of their own bases.

So today, 12 countries – Brunei, Chile, New Zealand, Singapore, Australia      Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, United States and Vietnam – signed the TPP.

They never followed through on their promise of an open and lively debate.

TPP still can be stopped … if the legislative bodies of the signatory nations refuse to ratify it.

Only by raising hell can we stop this monster.  

  Jimmy Carter endorsed Donald Trump apparently a few years back.  If I were Trump I’d have mixed emotions over this but you know Ted Cruz is going to make something of it.   I think the fact that Donald Trump is “flexible” in his beliefs might be a selling point if you are afraid that someone like Hillary Clinton might shed this masquerade as Shawn puts it of her liberalism- -and relate to at best a centrist or tool of Wall Street and be like the third term of a do nothing Obama administration that gets nothing done.  Today it was Joe Scarborough or someone who asked Rick Santorum just what he expects to prove by endorsing Marco Rubio for President.  “Name one thing that Marco has accomplished in his time in congress”.  Santorum was unable to come up with anything.  Somehow that answer didn’t bother anybody.  I think it’s fiction (if Obama wants to talk about fiction) that Hillary Clinton will somehow be swayed by all this popular sentiment to a more progressive vein.  If you read the links in the posting referenced above you will realize that the positions of both political parties are pretty much set in concrete and both are hopelessly unresponsive to the wishes of the American people.  There’s a part of me that believes Donald Trump might be just the person to shake up this hopeless status quo.

Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Venus are all lined up in a grand conjunction tomorrow morning in the southeast skies.  As you know there was a “cosmic convergence” in mid August of 1987.  It could be one of those “moments” of mental clarity where the indecision and endless debates you’ve been having with yourself are all banished and you know exactly what you need to do.  This was true with Joey on DL who had one of these “moments of mental clarity” seeing his father with a woman he had been in love with for weeks about to make love.  OK he’s an impressionable teenager but you have to learn these things sometime, so it might as well be sooner.  Perhas there will be a break-out debate which everybody sees either on the Republican or Democratic side where the voters en mass have their moments of mental clarity and know who they have to vote for.  Right now I am speaking in the abstract.  It’s my hope of course that this “clarity” comes on the democratic side in the coming weeks, in favor of voting for Bernie Sanders.  

Let’s talk about Raphael – Edwardo – Cruz, with the R’s properly rolled, and I don’t mean in a joint.  Raphael Cruz cheated in the Iowa caucus.  Monday he sent mailings out to all of his prospective caucus goers saying that Dr Ben Carson had dropped out of the race, or would “in a few days” come out with a key announcement that he was dropping out.  This is why there is a drop-off between 23% points and just nine points for Carson in fourth place.  Conceivably there may have been another seven or eight points for Carson and they would have come out of Ted Cruz’s 28 percent that he won with.  Cruz has no remorse as to what he did.  But Raphael Cruz didn’t stop there.  He also sent notices that if his followers didn’t come out to caucus they would get a voter delinquency notice in the mail in the next few days, scaring people.

Norman Goldman is spinning and twisting things like Shaen Hannity has been known to do.  Goldman was going off on a caller who was pro Sanders, and wondering why Goldman was so critical of Sanders.  Sanders responded that the caller didn’t know how to get outside his own brain and think analytically and Goldman then says “It’s a fact that Sanders has no future now and the polling democraphics probe it and the numbers Monday night prove it so, “Don’t get mad at me, get mad at the pollers and the results on election night.  I get tired of this sort of slip-shod reasoning.

Mike Huckibee, Rand Paul, and Rick Santorum Quit the Race

Whoever wins on our side faces Marco Rubio

Yesterday Mick Huckibee suspended (meaning “ended”) his campaign for President.  Today Rand Paul quit the Presidential race, and tonight Rick Santorum has announced that he’s going to withdraw from the race.  It’s the liberal talk show hosts that are much more- - perniciously against Senator Bernie Sanders rather than people like  Shawn Hannity.  As I’ve said elsewhere Hannidy’s view of the Iowa caucuses are in general more objective than the views we get from people like Norman Goldman.  These liberal hosts will hang up on any caller who offers a negative view of Hillary Clinton.  They offer little explanation for this permanent barring of such callers other than it’s just “wrong” for a democrat to attack another democrat.  But by their collective actions even people like Thom Hartman are systematically informing their listeners not to vote for Bernie Sanders under any circumstances.  It doesn’t matter whether Bernie has better ideas.  And it doesn’t even matter that polls show that Bernie would do better against the top three republican opponents than Hillary.  Any discussion of Hillary’s liabilities or weaknesses is simply “not allower”.  Contrast this with the Republicans.  They attacked Ted Cruz right and left attacking the New York bank loans and his position on immigration in the past and also the whole ethanol contraversy in Iowa.  Trump brought Sarah Palin into the campaign and even got the endorsement of Iowa’s governor.  It didn’t do any good.  My point is that hard work and a good “ground game’ win the day.  Bernie Sanders could have had a victor if the would be supporters would have had “permission” to vote for him by their esteemed leaders such as Thom Hartman and Norman Goldman.  Now Norman Goldman is as much as calling for Bernie Sanders to drop out of the race after losing one state.  What are Goldman and Hartman afraid of anyhow?  I remember how Hartman used to be having Sanders on his show every week.  I long for the days when Hartman referred to Bernie Sanders as “America’s senator”.

President Obama visited a mosque today and it’s apparently the first time Obama has visited a mosque since he’s been President.  Shawn Hannity threw a caniption fit over it and has two women with two competing opinions.  One was in favor of the visit and the other was and is rabidly against it.  Hannidy is talking about harshness toward religious minorities.  And of course he’s talking about terrorism and this mosque’s ties to Islamic terrorism.  Any time this President says anything favorable about Islam it sets off alarm bells on the part of the far right.  According to this lady early in his carrier- - Mohamed spoke peace to the Jews but when the Jews would not accept Islam then later verses were written and under Islamic law the later verses of the Koran always supplant the earlier verses.  If this is so it’s not the way Christians view the Bible.   If you asked me Obama made his first mistake severing ties with Jeremiah Wright.  Obama has been on the defensive with regard to religion ever since he did that.

Sean Hannity did a better analysis of the Iowa caucuses than did Norman Goldman.  Donald Trump was the big loser of the day coming in at 24% to Ted Cruz’s 28% and Marco Rubio at a strong third at 23%.   Norman thinks that Bernie is a lower because of the liberal grange movement that’s white and just the sort of voters that go for Bernie.  Sean Hannity pointed out that there were six coin flips and Hillary won them all and won six deligates.  The basic percentage was 49.8% for Hillary to 49.6% for Bernie, or a two tenths of a percent margin of victory.  Don’t call her Landslide Hillary.  But there was other funny business because Hillary voters were counted even after they had switched their allegence to Bernie at the caucus meetings.   But Bernie will get his comfortable victory in New Hampshire next week.   It was 62 degrees today.  I got vanilla flavored instant coffee from Glen in his room for four cigarettes. 

Norman Goldman is battling another pro Bernie caller defending his own hostility toward the Senator from Vermont.  If we were believe Norman's breakdown of the demographics, you'd think nobody voted for Bernie since Hillary leads in all the categories except the youths.  And the tilt toward Sanders there is impressive like 84% for Bernie ant 14% for Hillary.  But Goldman says "This year there was nowhere near the number of youths that came out for Obama eight years ago.  Actually the figure was down four percent.  Goldman considers four percent "nowhere near".  All it shows is that Sanders didn't lie and make wild promises the way that Obama did of things he never delivered on.  Yet Hillary is running for a third year of Obama mention Obama's name any time she has a chance.  I don't remember.  Did Humphrey bill himself as "another term of the Johnson administration?"  I don't think so.  Hillary leads among minorities in a major way and by moderates in a major way.  And yet there are key issues where Hillary fails.  She fought for the Trans Pacific Partnership relentlessly over the past four years.  Today they took some official ratification vote in New Zealand.  Hillary took money from Goldman Sachs.  Hillary is against bringing back Glass Steigle.  Hillary is too extreme on the guns issue.  There is a gender gap where women prefer Hillary.  So in a sense she is the "women's candidate" being for things like abortion, and paid medical leave for new mothers.  But the Trans Pacific Partnership is such an important thing I'd vote for Donald Trump over Hillary at this point because defeating the Trans Pacific Partnership is that important.   

Hillary Clinton Perhaps Not So Bad

Norman Goldman talked about the Iowa caucus.  Of course primaries for choosing party candidates began about the turn of the last century.  They flourished for a time but never really caught on long term, as “party regulars” chose the deligates.  This changed in 1968 on the Democratic side when clearly nobody had voted for Hubert Humphrey yet he still won.  So there were radical changes in the rules for the 1972 convention.  This is how George Mc Govern was able to win because he was the people’s candidate.  In Iowa Ed Musky won a third and George Mc Govern won a third and “undecided” won a third.  The way democratic caucuses work is that “undecided” can be your candidate of choice but any choice you make has to have at least fifteen percent of the vote or else you have to consolidate with partisans of other candidates.  When you arrive at a democratic caucus you divide up into groups and argue for your candidate for a half hour or more and then vote.  As long as there are fragments of less than fifteen percent remaining you keep on discussing and voting till those under fifteen percent votes get consolidated.  If you’re a Republican you just write your vote for your candidate on a piece of paper and drop it into the ballot box and leave and they count the votes.  It’s said that the Republicans have a more accurate representation of their party in Iowa than the democrats do.  This is because there are a lot of blacks and minorities in other parts of the country.  It’s this untapped minority wild card that could sway the election for either Bernie or Hillary as the weeks progress.  The Iowa caucuses start in just a couple of minutes from right now- - so it’s happening. 

Robert Ford was US Ambassador to Syria when the revolt against Syrian president Assad was launched. He not only was a chief architect of regime change in Syria, but actively worked with rebels to aid their overthrow of the Syrian government.Ford assured us that those taking up arms to overthrow the Syrian government were simply moderates and democrats seeking to change Syria’s autocratic system. Anyone pointing out the obviously Islamist extremist nature of the rebellion and the foreign funding and backing for the jihadists was written off as an Assad apologist or worse. Ambassador Ford talked himself blue in the face reassuring us that he was only supporting moderates in Syria. As evidence mounted that the recipients of the largesse doled out by Washington was going to jihadist groups, Ford finally admitted early last year that most of the moderates he backed were fighting alongside ISIS and al-Qaeda.

I watched Face the Nation and heard Donald Trump and Marco Rubio.  But soon they put in a ton of commercials with the promise of a lot more and I dialed away.  The problem with Marco Rubio is that he's shifty and mealy mouthed and won't own up to his own mistakes no matter the mound of evidence.  I went and smoked a long butt that was dry outside.  James said the coroner who was here today took someone away upstairs and said it was Janet, and I looked and there was a warning seal on her door by the coroner or something.  I can believe that no how.  Janet is as healthy as a horse.  Upon further reflection she wasn't that healthy.  She suffered from chronic diaria and was constantly taking medication for it.  Both she and Richard were heavy smokers.  Janet had three or four Cokes a day and an arsenal of snack items in her ice chest including cinnamon rolls and lots of chocolate bars, and Janet loved her coffee and was usually the one ahead of me in the coffee line at the liquor store in the morning.  There is also a rumor going around she jumped out the window in the middle of the night.  (Did she land head first and break her neck?)  Janet was not religious.

Hillary Clinton gave a pretty good speech at an Iowa campaign rally I played on C-Span.  Bill didn’t like it.  He was introduced first by Chelsea and then by Bill.  Chelsea looked like she needed make-up.  Hillary has this tendancy to say what she has done in the past but often (in previous speeches) has been inclined to not be specific about what she was GOING to do right NOW.  I thought this speech remedied that problem where she did challenge Bernie Sanders taking on his pet issues of Wall Street and the job market and inequity of incomes.  Even Hillary said she was going to take on the "shadow bankers" such as Lehman Brothers and Country-wide.  (I thought Lehman Brothers went out of business)  She didn't mention Goldman Sachs.  Let me just say if her latest speech on C-Span is any guide I will feel better about voting for Hillary in November, that she will carry on the cause of progressivism.  But maybe I better consult with Mike Papentonio first.  

Just to explain about Victor Kiriacus’s family, Victor has three brothers and he’s disowned two of them.  Alexix is the father of Justin and Justin is the father of Sonny and Alexander.  Titus is the father of Xander, who flirted with Nicole and caused other problems and has now left town.  Demas is the other brother who is blackmailing Philip, Victor’s son.  It seems a girl Philip was dating passed out in his hotel room and died due to a drug overdose.  Worse yet her father was the chief of police or something.  Philip and a friend moved the body to a different room and somehow Demas found out about it.  Now Philip is forced to do Demas’ bidding to sabotage his father, Victor’s, carrier and standing.  Demas has it in for Victor because he spent thirty years in prison based on the crime of killing Victor’s fiancée of the time.  I guess they could have done a whole Greek Godfather type documentary if they’d thought of it.  

Staring Down the Forces of the Neo-Cons

Some points detailed in the discussion:

-Neo-liberalism / neo-conservatism relate to neither ‘liberalism’ or ‘conservatism’.  They are an ideology and form of religion and god-worship, based on self-interest and the whitewashing of memory.  ‘At the end of the day, it’s about power and money.’

Commentary:  Neo Conservatism is not an honest philosophy.  Have you ever heard of a Neoplasm?  For those of you in Rio Linda, that is a polite dressed up word for - Cancer.  Neo-cons are a cancer on the faboric of society at large.  Liberalism is an honest philosophy.  Conservatism is an honest philosophy.  However neo-conservatism is just a big power grab, devoid of any of the usual philosophical mooring that gives it any sort of moral credibility.   This is why it must be defeated and can only damage the country the longer it is allowed to continue.

-Declarations of ‘truth’ and ‘inevitability’ are two aspects of ideology highly prevalent in neo-liberalism/conservatism.

Commentary:  Neither inevitability nor truth is a bad thing.  In fact the persistance and eventual success of both could be indeed taken as a sign that "God was on their side", if you know my definition of God.  Even an atheist would be compelled to admit that "God" is a handy metaphor to explain the success here, even if you don't believe in one.  There was a nine year old kid who called the Shawn Hannity program today.  He was into the marshal arts, and also a straight A student and his goal is to become a brain surgeon.  He said something key.  He said "Yes, things come easily to me but that doesn't stop me from studying my subjects hard (dilligently) anyhow.  

-Neos claiming Edmund Burke as their ‘godfather’ indicates lunacy and denial of history; like other lunatics claiming Christ or Muhammad to justify other unacceptable things.

Commentary:  Stu Baby has long maintained that the basic History of Christianity and its near deification of the Apostle Paul as somehow the "Johnny Appleseed" of the church, and the basic "story" of Jesus- - are both essentially frauds.  They are not "history written in advance" like prophecy, but rather a bogus long after the fact "history" written as though it were the ongoing and continuing revelation of "God" when it is not, and denies the basic fact that the "seed of faith" in Christianity is essentially pythagarian and Marcionite Gnosticsm.  

-Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’ is a low-level image of the hand of god.  But when one talks to the neos about Adam Smith, one discovers they haven’t read him.  He isn’t taught.  People only know quotes.  They don’t know Smith was actually ‘incredibly distrustful’ of powerful businessmen and said things like ‘never allow them to be alone in a room together; they’ll combine and falsify the market’, etc.

Commentary:  Adam Smith employed the image of "The hand of God" or what have you as a "God metaphor" to explain a basic physical fact of math and accounting and how markets work.  Like all scoundrals, naturally these neo-cons misquote Adam Smith.

-At this point, [for example, as illustrated by latest Oxfam report], all of the promises made by neo-liberal globalization [summarized in discussion, 13:30] have collapsed.  None of them happened; it’s the exact opposite.  We are now in the most nationalist period we’ve seen since the 1930s, with all the dangers that go along with it.

Commentary:  The translation of this passage goes like this.  You never see old Sylvia Brown clips or reruns of old psychic "black hilocopter" ratio shows years after the fact because the stream of broken promises would pile higher than an urban land fill.  

Wind on the Water

James Connee or whoever head of the FBI says that Hillary Clinton and one other person will be indicted within the next few days.  The government released a lot of Hillary’s E mails today.  They were going to release them all but they all have not been cleared yet for classified information.   22 E mails are so highly classified that a lot of government officials can’t view them without elaborate protocols.   Shawn Hannity claimed on his show that this debate came in 3^rd out of seven held so far for Republican candidates.  It could be argued that anything better than last place is a victory for FOX news.  Clearly the attendance number was “competitive”.    KEIB has a strange saying these days.  They say “Our conscious is as clear as Hillary’s server”.  That would imply if you think about it, that the management of KEIB has had a memory wipe and are now a bunch of zombies walking around incapable of moral judgement.   I guess I told you that the media cherry picked one poll out of four that came out that showed Bernie ahead in Iowa and the other three showed Hillary Clinton leading by nine points.   Not to ruffle Stephanie’s feathers any but I think it’s time to bring back the C word.   And that word is “crusade”.  We need to see the Bernie Sanders as a mighty moral crusade.  And we need to think more like the North Vietnamese communists- - who see it as a long term struggle and are not deturred in the least by an occasional set-back here and there.  We need to look at the overall forward momentum of the campaign.  And I think we are winning.  

Paul Kantner died yesterday of multiple organ failure at age 74.   This makes him years younger than Grace Slick.  There’s someone else who died in a lot of pain.  Kantner had a heart aback last March.   He was a co founder of the Jefferson Airplane but one thing I forget is although he and Grace Slick were married and had a child (named God) together that Kantner preceded Slick’s entry into the group.  Marty Balin was the founding member and Kantner was the first one he picked to join in August of 1965, kind of like John asking Paul to join the group.  Apparently the Jefferson Airplane were friends with the Doors and “The Doors” issued a statement on Kantner’s death.  Kantner is an Andromidan, or at least started out that way.   Marty Balin regards them as both Cosmic Pioneers.   Hexigram 29 in the I Ching “The abysmal water” with a six in sixth place could be translated either “raft on the water” or “wind on the water” or maybe raft with a sail on it.  It’s finding a vehical to gain safe passage through the perils of the Afterlife when your future is unknown.  I have applied this I Ching chapter and one moving line to either Kurt Cobain or Dennis Wilson. 

Daniel and Shane were in for Thom Hartman today.  Now a caller is speaking of a four way race between Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump verses Bernie Sanders and Jeb Bush.  Some of the clips of this debate showed an exercise in humorous remarks.    This is Friday January 29, 2016 with less than three days to go before I get paid.   It can be said that I’ve “saved” about twenty dollars from not going to the store this week.  

“From the mean streets of New York to the hills of LA, a voice is rising to serve justice”.  Note the bumper music.  That’s “Spirit of Radio”.  After all this time of speculation it will all become much clearer in just three days on Monday when actual votes start coming in.  Then with or without an additional Democratic debate next Thursday, will be the New Hampshire primary on the 8^th and then South Carolina and then one month from next Monday on March first will be super Tuesday.   Last night’s debate came in sixth out of seven debates in terms of viewership.  Shawn Hannity had this debate pegged at third.  Who’s right?  Donald Trump is bragging that the numbers make him look good.  He says “I took a chance and didn’t know the end result but we went up in the polls”.   So will Donald Trump quit if he doesn’t win on Monday?   Stephanie was talking about parallel universes.   I’ve always speculated that the dreams we have are conscious memories from someone in a parrellel universe.  This conforms to the adage of me and Stu Baby that “Anything that CAN happen HAS happened in a parrellel Universe.  So we will all have our own “Malibu retreat” memories- - just like Brady in today’s soap opera.  Andre is sneaking around Hope’s house seeking vengeance and there is a dark part of me that hopes he succeeds.  Stu has a theory that he would not want to be brought back from death is he was a complete mental vegetable- - and had no mental capacity to do either a good or a bad deed.  But Stu says he doesn’t mind a little pain and says to me “Where there is a hard enough Will, there is Hope”.   Just as long as it isn’t Hope Brady.   Dr Ben Carson goofed up just once on the preamble to the constitution saying securing the benefits (rather than blessings) of liberty to ourselves and posterity.    Doesn’t the word “Blessings” imply some God, who gives it?  (Selah)

Richard Moore died today.  I found out from Paul and Nancy just this afternoon when the residents council meeting adjourned early.    People like Joe and I have known Richard for fourteen years.  He always had the same room number but had a host of roommates.   He was really skinny to the point of looking unhealthy, yet they say he had a good appetite.  He fell a couple weeks ago and then returned and had aged considerably and then went back to the hospital and we never heard another thing.  Everybody thought Richard was a nice guy.  People said he was still in his sixties though he looked older than that.  He didn’t age well.  He could always be counted on to make a good cigarette deal, and would walk a lot to buy things for other people.  He sure got a lot more exercise than I did.  But he had this eccentric side.  He would talk about multiple takes of movies using different actors and actresses-  and the studios would release only one of the movies - and would have all of these other stories and anicdotes and alluded to knowing people in the government, and in his own way I guess was a little reminiscent of Grandpa Simpson.   Glenda gave me a pack of cigarettes containing butts and she said “All of the butts in here were only smoked by me- - nobody else”. 

Wally says, "To get a good job you need the proper education and training, but in order to get that needed on the job training - you have to first have a job"  (Selah) 

Trump Is Afraid Of Little Girls!

Sanders isn't afraid to take on any and all comers

I turned on the computer and watched about ten minutes of Rand Paul giving a half hour speech to a younger audience.  He wants us to know he’s really big on liberty.  I like the idea of “liberty” if it’s truly Christian, moral liberty- - and not this bullshit most Republicans refer to it as like the right to be bigoted and blow your neighbor’s brains out at the drop of a hat.  Rand Paul wants to safeguard the first ten amendments of the Constitution and so do I.  In a perfect world the second amendment wouldn’t bother me.  People would be morally restrained and civilized and know what to do with a gun.  This is not the country we live in where people develop whole arsenals with some fantasy of taking on the entire federal government and winning.  Rand Paul is doing it the right way.  He wants to be elected into power.   Rand Paul wants especially to safeguard the fourth amendment, and let’s not forget the first amendment.  Freedom of speech and of the press and assembly and religion is important, too.    Rand Paul mentioned the fifth and sixth amendments.  President Obama issued a preventative detention ruling where any American citizen could be rounded up and thrown into Guantanamo or something without charges and without a trial.   A few minutes to four I had Rand Paul on a little more.  I had forgotten that Marco Rubio endorsed bulk data collection and wants all our phone records.  This is an excellent reason not to vote for Rubio.  Nobody is talking about Rand Paul in Iowa but I would like to see him do well.  

Both Shawn Hannity and Norman Goldman talked about the upcoming Republican debate tonight on FOX in just a few minutes.  I hope I can get it.  Shawn and Rush lately have been trying hard to stay objective and not offend either side.  Norman had a few helpful insights on the matter.  Both Rush Limbaugh and Norman say “Donald Trump wants to punish FOX network for not showing him the respect he thinks is owed him.  It seems he’s hoping nobody will tune into the Debate tonight without him there.  I rather think the exact opposite will happen and more people than ever will tune into the debate, some even being attracted to the notion that Trump will NOT be there.  Trump sees himself as “controlling the media- - if he takes action or doesn’t take action or even in his sleep he can control it”.   I think Trump has lost touch with reality.  One caller asked if the Clintons and Trump have ever done business with one another.  If so I’d trust Donald over Goldman Sachs.  But they go to the same social events and the Clintons were invited to Trump’s third wedding, and they live in this same neighborhood- Chapiquah New York.  Norman is sticking to this idea that Trump only got in this race to destroy the Republican Party and that when (not if) Trump loses (to Hillary) Trump will write a book saying “I did it.  It was all a plot to take down the Republican party.  Donald Trump will be attending a Veterans benefit tonight and Mike Huckibee will also be at that function, which is well and good- - and I’m really not complaining.   

 Mike Huckibee was talking when I came in.  There was a political rally held in a pizza place in Aames, Iowa.  First it was the former liutennant governor of South Carolina, who was a young guy.  I had the Norman Goldman program on.  That Bundy crowd in the Oregon bird sanctuary got arrested, or at least half or so of them did.  One guy named LeVoy Finnigan or whoever – the loud mouth- - was shot and killed by FBI agents.  There are six witnesses who say he had his hands up at the time.  They decided to arrest them because they’re always going into down for supplies.  They’ve had free entry and exit all this time and nobody has tried to stop them.   If they want to wave a banner now that says “White Lives Matter”, I wouldn’t flame them a bit.  It’s a free country.

Paul called at 3:25 and I went down there ten minutes later and it was about a five minute wait.  I didn’t need a jacket beyond this heavy shirt because it was a warm day.  We signed in and went to Mom’s place.  [material deleted here]  There is this incident we’ve heard endlessly about Mom falling off her seat thing in the shower that wasn’t fastened down correctly.  It was determined that it was better for Mom to have an assistant shower her for a ten dollar fee each time.  That could get expensive.  What struck me about Mom’s shower is that it was not only small but - - dark.  We went down to dinner about four thirty because it had been open since 4:15.  I decided to have the catfish because I didn’t think I’d ever had it before.  But the flavor of it was familiar so they must have had it here.   Judy had the spareribs because she says she needs all that protein to ward off hypoglycemia.  I went to the salad bar but the only extras I put on it were beets and carrots.  There selection seemed smaller than last time and if I had seen crutons I’d have used them.  They didn’t have Russian dressing so I had blue cheese.  I also had a baked potato with sour cream and later, butter pats.  There was cauliflour and whipped squash.  We had a cream puff for dessert.  Apparently Dianne put in an appearance around here at Mom’s place.  She has put on a lot of weight and looks “matronly” and her breasts are saggy.  Tim has officially endorsed Sanders for President.  I need to write him.  Judy said that Sanders favors a tax rate of ninety percent.  Shawn claims to pay over sixty percent to Uncle Sam.  The conversation got bogged down in financial details after that.  Paul took out Mom’s copy of the Science and Technology book apparently Wendy gave us all copies of.  I was reading that.  There was also a financial report Paul handed to me to read.  Eventually we left and it wasn’t even yet seven.  Mom’s TV screen is only slightly larger than mine, yet it psychologically seems a lot bigger.  On the way home Judy went into a lecture about how she doesn’t want to be recessitated when she has a heart attack of something.  Paul and I said that we did.  The memory of how Dad died prematurely in that hospital is a little too fresh for us.  But Judy said if you’re a doctor you see all of the pain and discomfort a patient goes through.  I was dropped off here before seven and went about looking for cigarettes.  

We have some cosmic news.   I sent out an APB looking for information about what happened with Bones.  Even though he appeared Tuesday night and had remarks,  when I started asking him questions about stuff I was curious about he got a little defensive and he seemed more "serious" than normal.  From what I've been able to piece together is that Bones is rumored to be in the process of reincarnating into another body and therefore is not himself- - his "katra" is misplaced, to borrow from Star Trek.  There is a lot the Tacomans have it in for Bones and took away his media outlet and his power as a propagandist.  For that matter the old Sirius federation has had its autonomy reduced, though they are now telling me "Only so far as it pertains to Bones".   Bones to me denied he was in the process of reincarnating.  The buzz is that it's something that's out of control that he didn't choose.  That whole complex on Sirius A with the recording studio and everything else there- - Bones has been locked out of.   Bones wanted his own favorite group to be honored with a ZAC Tarrot card and it wasn't.   This rock group (which I first heard of in 1980) I am not allowed to mention but the rap by Mal Evans is that "They are a little dangerous being the Delphi group".   This would be the northern cross alias Signus the Swan alias the star Daneb or whatever.  If you think you see a hint, you may be right. 

Siegelman verses Mc Donald - A Contrast

Hillary Clinton could still be indicted according to Governor Christie on the Shawn Hannity program.  I watched Hannity in the two o clock hour after snack break.  We were limited to one cup of iced tea from Rico due to Lynne’s class.  Hillary is reported to have changed the headings on E mails to hide the fact they were the highest level of top secret.  In fact there is a special category for these E mails where even government officials have to go through special clearance just to read them, and not take the documents out of the room, just like with the TPP agreement.  I’m inclined to believe Christie’s judgement on this issue because he does have the experiancial background.  It’s just smarter in my opinion to vote for Sanders.  But in addition to Michael Bloomberg, who is a social liberal on issues like guns and abortions- - others may join the race on the democratic side to fill the potential void left by Hillary’s expected untimely departure. 

In terms of the Flint water case- - these emergency heads that rule in the place of elected officials have MORE power than the officials they replaced.  They are virtual dictators and city council votes mean nothing.  First they had a problem with souminilla in the water.  So they dumped a lot of chlorine in the water but they said that created carsogens in the water.  Then they had the lead problem because of the snow run off from cities containing a lot more salt from the streets.  The salt eats out the lead in the pipes.  And to save yet more money they left out the anti-corrosive chemical that is usual put in the water.  So there is no question Governor Snyder is behind it all.  These appointed dictators sell off city property to raise money but without anyone’s approval who was elected.  Governor Snyder should unquestionably be impeached, if not do jail time for what he has done.  But that isn’t happening.   Instead Governor Snyder gets on the TV and plays the nice guy all concerned and stuff- - .

There is big news in soap land.  Stephano Di Mira is dead.  He’s been blown to smitherines along with his son, Andre.  Andre went wandering off into a condemned building minutes before the entire building was taken down with explosives.  Andre found Stephano’s body- - but that’s about the last thought he was allowed to have on this earth before both were blown to Kingdom Come.  Meanwhile Chad, a younger brother of Andre- - found out that Stephano being cash strapped has failed to make mortgage payments on the mansion, which is strange in itself.  But now Chad wants to put the mansion into receivership or whatever and then buy the Mansion on auction when the assets are liquidated.  The Mansion is so unpopular in Salam no one else in town would want to touch it.  So Chad could be the lord of his own manor, profiting from the crime of Hope Brady, Stephano’s nemisis- - and Raphael Hernandez, who helped cover up the crime and move the body to a place where it would never be found.  

A recent bribery conviction may lead to the U.S. Supreme Court further corrupting the U.S. political system.

How does one even get convicted of bribery in a system that has legalized it to the extent that ours has? Look at Congress members’ and other federal office holders’ actions and their sources of funding. There is debate only over whether they are bribed to act or rewarded for having acted, but the correlation between action and funding is undisputed, and the sources of funding unrestricted. A headline like “Clinton Foundation Donors Got Weapons Deals From Hillary Clinton’s State Department” raises a few eyebrows but no indictments.

The correlation is even more strongly documented between funding and gaining access to Congress members, and the general trend so clear that an academic study has identified the U.S. form of government as an oligarchy. Many political observers now think of elections as a corrupting influence, which no doubt fuels a taste for pseudo-solutions like term limits and billionaire politicians who don’t have to sell out.

And yet, two U.S. state governors have recently been convicted of taking bribes: Alabama’s Don Siegelman and Virginia’s Bob McDonnell. Siegelman has been in prison for over four years though he was targeted by politically motivated prosecutors and was never accused of any personal gain. McDonnell wasbribed with a Rolex watch, plane tickets, dinners, trips, loans, catering, golf bags, and i-phones, and, according to his successful prosecutors took official actions in his capacity as governor to benefit the person bribing him within minutes of receiving various loot. The U.S. Supreme Court has kept McDonnell and his wife (also convicted) out of prison as it considers his case. A bipartisan collection of 113 current and former state Attorneys General urged the Supreme Court to correct the injustice to Siegelman, and it declined to consider it.

The U.S. Supreme Court was uninterested in a bribery case like Siegelman’s that involved no bribery. What’s frightening is its interest in a case like McDonnell’s. His lawyers will argue that while he and his wife clearly benefitted, he didn’t know everything his wife had promised in return for the bribes, nor did he agree to it, nor did he deliver on it. There is clearly the potential that the new standard in U.S. politics going forward will be that you can give luxury toys and personal bribes directly to an office holder, as long as he or she fails to deliver the public policy you asked for, or as long as he or she doesn’t try very hard to deliver it.

Such a standard would open the door to direct bribery of politicians in a new way not achieved by Citizens United and related rulings that facilitate bribery through campaigns and PACs and foundations. As long as the two parties are discreet, who will be able to prove that the favor your politician did your corporation was actually in response to the Mercedes you gave him?

If you imagine the Supreme Court’s interest is in correcting injustice, as opposed to expanding the legalization of bribery, have another look at the Don Siegelman case. Siegelman was by far the most successful Democratic politician in an overwhelmingly Republican government in Alabama. When he won reelection as governor in 2002, the election result was reversed after Republican officials in a single county waited until the Democratic officials had gone home, then recounted the votes and determined that there had been an error. Despite Democrats’ objections of impropriety and pointing out that the voters whose votes were switched away from Siegelman didn’t — as one would have expected — have their votes similarly “corrected” in other races, the Republican Attorney General of Alabama upheld the result and forbid any manual recount to verify it.

Republican lawyer Jill Simpson describes “a five-year secret campaign to ruin the governor,” during which Karl Rove, President George W. Bush’s senior political advisor, asked her to “try to catch Siegelman cheating on his wife.” Rove associate Bill Canary, she says, told her that his wife Leura and friend Alice Martin, both federal prosecutors, would “take care of” Siegelman. When Siegelman began running to win his office back two years after losing it, the U.S. Justice Department took him to trial alleging a Medicaid scam, but the judge listened to the opening argument and then threw out the case as worthless.

The “Justice” Department kept trying, and finally got Siegelman on bribery. His offense? He was not alleged to have pocketed a dime or to have received any support through any foundation or committee. Rather, he re-appointed a man to a board who had been appointed to the same position by the previous three governors, a man who made contributions to a state lottery to pay for college scholarships for poor kids. Yes, Siegelman’s idea to help poor people with a lottery seems to have missed the fact that lotteriesare taxes on poor people. But does that make him guilty of bribery or justify prosecutors targeting him?

The star witness in the Siegelman case claimed that Siegelman met with this man and emerged from the meeting with a check in hand talking openly about the quid pro quo. In reality, the check was written days after that meeting, and the star witness was facing 10 years in prison and had cut a deal with the prosecutors to reduce his sentence.

A U.S. House Committee investigated the Siegelman case and asked Karl Rove to testify. He declined. And the committee declined to hold him in contempt or to use inherent contempt. He was simply allowed to refuse. Now Siegelman’s son, attorney Joseph Siegelman, has filed suit seeking documents from the U.S. government. I asked him what he hopes to find.

“Every stone that gets overturned ends up showing something negative,” he said. As an example he pointed to the Justice Department’s description of an email from a prosecutor of Siegelman to the campaign manager of his main Republican opponent, a description of an email that didn’t become public until years after Siegelman’s trial. “We don’t know what else they have to hide,” said Joseph Siegelman.

I asked Joseph Siegelman about the Supreme Court’s decision to hear McDonnell’s case and not his father’s, and he exclaimed, “How can our system of justice be so skewed?”

The worst of it may be that a ruling in favor of McDonnell and the inherent right to accept Rolexes from lobbyists could leave Siegelman sitting in prison. He never accepted any Rolex. And he did re-appoint that healthcare professional to that healthcare board.

Should the Supreme Court further legalize bribery, the people of the United States should send Benjamin Franklin a note informing him that we were not able to keep a republic after all. Or they should rise up and compel the Congress, or compel the states to go around the Congress in amending the Constitution, to end all forms of bribery, ban all private election spending, create free and equal media air time on our air waves for all qualified candidates, provide public financing for campaigns, and for godsake free Don Siegelman.