Do Corporate Interests regret funding the Tea Party's Rise?

Republican Party

Corporate Interests Back the Debt Deal. Do They Regret Funding the Tea Party’s Rise?

By Steven Gray Monday, August 1, 2011 | 10 Comments

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Of the few clear truths in Washington’s nearly resolved debt debate, there is this: House Republican freshmen made good on their promise to vigorously push President Obama, and Democrats, toward fiscal austerity. They were elected to Congress last November with the help of some $34 million in campaign advertising from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the big business lobby that wields more wealth and influence than just about any other group in Washington. But no one could have predicted how much the freshmen – “hobbits,” as the Wall Street Journal called them last week – would challenge the Republican Establishment, notably House Speaker John Boehner, a longtime business ally whose proposal to raise the debt ceiling spectacularly failed last Thursday at the Tea Party’s hand.

Let’s call it a case of buyer’s remorse. For months, the business community has consistently argued that the nation’s $14 trillion debt limit must be raised to protect the federal government’s credit rating and avoid rattling the global financial system, which some analysts feared would upend a fragile economic recovery. House Republican freshmen, particularly members of the Tea Party caucus, unapologetically rebuffed such ideas. At an Atlanta Rotary Club event in June, Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue ominously said of the freshmen resistance, “We’ve got a lot of new people pounding their chest.” And, he added, “We’ll get rid of you.”

Last week, the Chamber praised Boehner’s proposal as “responsible.” On Sunday, of course, the President and Senate leaders from both political parties crafted a proposal that would raise the debt ceiling by $2.1 trillion, and over the next decade make at least $2.4 trillion in spending cuts. The Chamber joined other business groups, such as the Business Roundtable, which represents CEOs, in supporting the agreement. “This agreement,” Donohue said in a Monday statement, will “provide a workable, enforceable mechanism to ensure that the cuts actually take place.” The Chamber has sent sent an electronic alert to its extensive grassroots network urging them to contact some of the same Republican freshmen it helped elect in order to tell them to support the “key vote,” a designation used to assess an elected official’s commitment to business interests.

Speaker Boehner must now sell this new agreement to his fractured caucus. If he falters and the Tea Party freshmen endanger the deal, the Chamber of Commerce will be faced with something every business hates: bearing the cost of a bad investment.

Steven Gray is a Washington Correspondent at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @stevengray or at Facebook/gray.steven. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/01/corporate-interests-back-the-debt-deal-do-they-regret-funding-the-tea-partys-rise/#ixzz1TnvkzdJX



And So the corporate nightmare begins as all those who created this mess by Creating and funding the Tea Party that affected governments worldwide will be brought under the investigative arms of those countries survival mechanisms. Revenge will be taken directly by companies and governments worldwide in various ways that the designers within corporate structures of the Tea Party never expected. There will now be possibly secret blood lettings for years to come. Hopefully, when it is over this battle won't bring down the whole U.S. economy.

Five Things for Liberals to Like in the Debt Ceiling Deal

Five Things for Liberals to Like in the Debt Ceiling Deal

By Jay Newton-Small Monday, August 1, 2011 | 76 Comments

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As the broad strokes of the debt ceiling deal began to leak out over the weekend, progressive groups filled reporters’ inboxes with outraged e-mails. “Seeing a Democratic President take taxing the rich off the table and instead push a deal that will lead to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefit cuts is like entering a bizarre parallel universe — one with horrific consequences for middle-class families,” Progressive Change Campaign Committee Co-Founder Stephanie Taylor wrote. “This deal is the exact opposite of what the majority of Americans support, and all Democrats in Congress should oppose it.”
“MoveOn’s 5 million members, along with the vast majority of Americans, will not stand for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid benefit cuts–not now, and not six months from now,” wrote Justin Ruben, Executive Director of MoveOn.org, “Congress should reject both ‘triggers’, and a ‘Super Congress’, and pass a clean debt ceiling bill that doesn’t force the middle class and the poor to bear the brunt of this crisis.”
But as the details of the compromise emerged, it seemed there was actually a lot for liberals to like about this bill. If and when the House passes the bill on Monday, it will likely be with the help of a lot of Democrats. Here’s why some liberals are actually happy with this deal:
The 2012 budget: At one point in the negotiations, the 2012 budget was to be slashed by $36 billion. The final number of cuts: just $7 billion. And just to ensure we don’t have another bruising government shutdown fight over cuts in September, the deal deems and passes the 2012 budget. Yes, that’s right, the old Gephardt Rule or Slaughter Solution, is back. What’s deem and pass? It’s a legislative trick that essentially means that Congress will consider the budget passed without ever actually having to vote on it.
The trigger: This is counterintuitive, but the trigger is actually pretty good for Democrats. For all that MoveOn thinks that it would force benefit cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, it actually wouldn’t trigger benefit cuts to any entitlements. The only cuts it would force would be a 2% or more haircut for Medicare providers. And House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, along with most Democrats, has never opposed provider cuts. Not only that, most progressives actually want the Pentagon cuts. So if the committee deadlocks and the trigger is pulled, Democrats won’t be miserable.
The commission: Again, for all the liberal carping about a “Super Congress,” the commission of 12 members — three from each party in each chamber — set up to find the second phase of $1.5 trillion in cuts by Thanksgiving is actually rigged to force some revenue increases. Yes, the Bush tax cuts are off the table. But there are plenty of loopholes, subsidies and other corporate welfare programs that are on the table. And with such a strong trigger, it’s hard to imagine at least one Republican not voting to kill corporate jet subsidies over slashing $500 billion from the defense budget – even if the revenues aren’t offset. The question is: who are Republicans more afraid of, Grover Norquist or the joint chiefs? Democrats’ money is on the joint chiefs.
The immediate cuts: It may seem like a lot, but the $917 billion in the first phase of cuts were carefully negotiated by Vice President Joe Biden and his group. They include $350 billion in Pentagon cuts – a win for liberals. They don’t touch entitlement benefits, another win. And they set top line numbers for the next decade of budgets that aren’t draconian. It still cuts where liberals might prefer to spend, but most of the savings are backloaded to avoid extreme austerity in next few years of fragile economic recovery.  Just $7 billion would be cut in 2012, and only $3 billion in 2013. And of that combined $10 billion, half would come from the Pentagon. On top of that, the discretionary spending caps on budgets in future Congresses are subject to revision by those bodies.
The debt ceiling: Raising the debt ceiling through 2013 will not be contingent on the second round of cuts. There will merely be a vote of disapproval. This avoids another messy fight in January and another round of painful forced cuts.
In a world where the Tea Party didn’t exist, would this be a good bill for Democrats? Absolutely not. But considering that the trigger, commission, two-step process and discretionary budget cuts could’ve been a LOT worse – and actually were in Boehner’s version of the bill – this deal will be easier to swallow. The commission will likely mean a long-term win for Democrats: they’ll get either their revenue increases or achieve significant Pentagon cuts. It could mark a political victory as well: If Pelosi passes this bill on primarily Democratic support, they’ll look like the adults in the room who can compromise and govern, a stark contrast to the Tea Party freshmen.

Related Topics: debt ceiling, liberals, Nancy Pelosi, Congress

Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2011/08/01/five-things-for-liberals-to-like-in-the-debt-ceiling-deal/#ixzz1Tnum5kde

Bulldoze: The New Way To Foreclose

http://news.yahoo.com/bulldoze-way-foreclose-102000063.html

Bulldoze: The New Way To Foreclose

By STEPHEN GANDEL | Time.com – 8 hrs ago

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Banks have a new remedy to America's ailing housing market: Bulldozers.

There are nearly 1.7 million homes in the U.S. in some state of foreclosure. Banks already own some of these homes and will soon have repossessed many more. Many housing economists worry that near constant stream of home sales from banks could keep housing prices down for years to come. But what if some of those homes never hit the market.

Increasingly, it appears banks are turning to demolition teams instead of realtors to rid them of their least valuable repossessed homes. Last month, Bank of America announced plans to demolish 100 foreclosed homes in the Cleveland area. The land is then going to be donated back to the local government authorities. BofA says the recent donations in Cleveland are part of a larger plan to rid itself of its least saleable properties, many of which, according to a company spokesperson, are worth less than $10,000. BofA has already donated 100 homes in Detroit and 150 in Chicago, and may add as many as nine more cities by the end of the year.

(LIST: Top 10 Most Affordable Cities for Renters)

And BofA is not alone. A number of banks are ramping up their efforts not just to rid themselves of their unwanted homes, but to fully dispose of them. Fannie Mae has a program to sell houses to local municipalities for around a few hundred dollars. Wells Fargo has donated 800 homes to be demolished since 2009. JPMorgan Chase says it was one of the first banks to begin donating houses it couldn't sell, or didn't think were repairable. Since 2008, the JPMorgan has donated or sold at a discount 1,900 houses to city or county officials.

The banks do the deals because once the properties are donated they no longer have to pay taxes or for upkeep. Tax experts say the banks may also be able to get a write off for the donation. That appears to be a better deal than trying to repair some of these homes, which according to a BofA spokesperson are more economical to demolish than fix up. The local governments like these deals because they get free land to develop or use for open space. Cleveland-based Cuyahoga County Land Reuntilization Corp., which inked the deal with BofA, has been one of the most aggressive local government organizations in striking these deals. Housing economists like these deals because they remove homes from the market that would otherwise sell for a low price or not at all, dragging down home prices in general. An oversupply of homes on the market has been once of the big problems plaguing real estate. At the end of June, it would take nine and a half months for the current number of homes on the market to sell. The housing market is considered healthy when supply equals six months of sales. So taking some of these homes off the market for good could remove some of the inventory drag.

(MORE: How To Fix the Housing Market)

The question is whether the banks will ever put up enough housing for demolition to make a difference. The Obama administration says it is working on its own plan to revamp its loan modification program in order to help keep more people in foreclosure in their homes, reducing the number of foreclosed properties on the market. Some areas of the country are looking at how to speed up foreclosures in an effort to return some normality to the market. It's not clear that any of this will work. Certainly, the idea that we are at the point where banks would be better off knocking down houses that reselling them shows there is still something very wrong with the housing market. But what is clear is that banks and others are at the point where they are ready to try something new to boost the housing market. And that is a good sign for the future.

Which Party Deserve more Blame in Debt Standoff? Poll

http://news.yahoo.com/bulldoze-way-foreclose-102000063.html

POLL

Which party deserves more blame for the U.S. debt-ceiling standoff?

Democrats (2478)

  22%

Republicans (4905)

  44%

Both parties share blame (3748)

  34% 

end quote. This is  a Yahoo.com poll result I got on August 1st 2011 

The Paradox of Marriage

My wife and I just paid for most of my God Daughters Wedding. It cost about as much as my new 4 wheel drive Truck. The groom (magna Cum Laud) from his university was wondering why all the guys there weren't giving him a hug to wish him well. I think it started when his mother walked up and toasted him but was so scared she forgot to hug her son and only hugged the bride in front of everyone. So I think he sort of felt neglected. So he said, "Mom. How about me?" and the whole wedding party laughed as she was embarrassed into going back and hugging her son. Luckily, she won't have to worry about his beautiful new wife always being there for him. He really married a one in a million kind of girl in our God Daughter. That's why we didn't have any problem helping her pay for her wedding.

So, after my wife told me about how he didn't feel like he was being emotionally supported in this new marriage like he should be I decided to talk to him "Iron Man John" style on his cell as they were driving home to southern California from the northern California Coast where they were married.

I called and said, "I wanted to talk to you about how marriage is different for men than for women. And men kind of understand this who have been married for more than 5 or 10 years.

Marriage for men who understand this sort of thing and live it every day for years and years see being married a lot like 'Being a Captain of a ship'.  Sometimes the Captain has to go down with the ship. It's an honor to be married to someone worthwhile. And it can be the most wonderful thing in your life. Or it can be like being tied to a rack for your life in a prison. So men kind of are in awe of each new young man brave enough to become a "Captain of his ship" because this might result in the end in his death or his insanity. So, I think the best way to describe how a man entering marriage is most thought of by other men is "Respect" and "Awe" that someone is willing to do this for someone they care about that much.  At the same time men kind of wince at that level of commitment as marriage is always a "near death" experience for all men involved.

Marriage for a man is the opposite of Freedom. Marriage is commitment to someone you believe in that makes your life worthwhile. When you marry you don't always know the future and literally almost anything can happen and often does. What the future will bring you might not know. But what you do know is that you are making a commitment to live it together. And sometimes you win an sometimes you lose and sometimes both in the same marriage at different times.

I have been married three times in my life, I told him. I have been married every day of my life since I was 26 years old except for two years and I'm now 63 years old. I told him the last time I married I was coming out of a completely hell divorce that I wasn't sure I could even survive emotionally. So I was struggling to create my new life before my old one completely destroyed me. I remember being so scared getting married after going through that divorce that I almost fainted at the alter getting married. I told the new groom and now husband. It says something about how I feel about marriage that I have been married every day since I was 26 except for 2 years of my life. Once you get used to being married (about 2 to 3 years or more) to a good person you really don't want something else full time. You might have a wandering eye and want a one night stand but you know in your heart that you would then lose all you really have in any relationship. Trust. Trust is all you really have in any relationship with your wife, friends or relatives. Once that is lost you have nothing and no reason to be together anymore unless you have children together. And even then that is touch and go then. Nope. Trust is all any of us have. Without real trust that can always be counted upon we have nothing. And in my last marrriage my wife and I have trust and faithfulness. This wasn't always true in the past. But it is now since 1995 for me. I'm a very lucky man. Grattitude is the motor of life. If you are really grateful for what you have, God gives you more and more and more of every good thing. Remember that!

Merry Christmas Debt Ceiling

The present Debt Ceiling Deal looks like Christmas is going to be interrupted by another Debt Ceiling ridiculousness right around Christmastime. No one wants this but the Republican extreme right. But this, it looks like what we are going to get. If you don't want your Christmas destroyed by another Debt Ceiling Crisis around Christmas make sure your Congressperson or Senator knows it!

The other problem with this latest agreement is that only the poor and middle Class will lose their livelihoods through this agreement. The rich will sacrifice nothing. However, this is just how crazy the world is right now. In order to save our country and the world's finances, the middle class and poor of the U.S. are going to be guillotined by this bill. (Look Ma no head, no livelihood, no food, no shelter!)

However, this is the agreement that either will be voted in and signed or the whole world and the U.S. economy will suffer. I guess it shows black mailing the U.S. Congress by the non-compromising Tea Partiers pays off for the very rich. If this says anything it says, "The rich just won and everyone else just lost!"

Knights Templar

The Knights Templar are a very interesting historical group founded by the surviving knights and soldiers from Europe in the Crusades in Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Off shoots from this group eventually became things like Masons, Rosicrucians etc. Also, the Concept of Christian Rosencrutz and Saint Germain are often associated with these groups historically down to the present day. I think the whole Concept of WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) also is both directly or indirectly tied to the whole Knights Templar, Masonic and Rosicrucian tradition. So, on one level one could say these points of view began in the Middle East and spread back into Europe. Also through the Knights Templar and  Masonic tradition Banks were started in Europe originally from booty stolen from middle east nations during the Crusades. This was basically how the banking system of Europe and then the U.S.  first started. Then the King of France had all the Knights Templar murdered on Friday the 13th which is why it became a superstitious number. He had them killed all at the same time because he owed them too much money to be able to pay them back. (sort of like nations in debt like the U.S. ) today. (I'm not saying anything like this will happen again. I'm just saying debt in Europe and the U.S is similar to the crushing debts then).  So, the King of France ended his debts by killing all or most of his creditors which wasn't very nice even though as a battle technique it was very effective.

So, at that point the Illuminati, Knights Templar, and indirectly the Masons all kind of went more or less underground except for the Masons which were needed to build things as the secret of making cement was usually kept from the unenlightened masses in order for the masons to keep all their heads and as leverage. And also, since Masons extended their building profession into a semi secret society that eventually composed much of the leadership of most western nations its tie to the Knights Templar and to the original European banking system is an interesting one that carries historically through in some ways to today with the banking systems, the IMF etc.

It may or may not be a coincidence that the Norway Christian Terrorist, the head of the IMF falling to a scandal, and the debt Ceiling Crisis all happened within months of each other. But whether it is a coincidence or not I think it deserves us all who are intelligent enough to more fully look into what is really going on here.

For example, if you look at what the economic problems are doing to the rest of the world, you can see minorities around the world suffering the most and then rich White folks in Europe and North America and Australia and rich Chinese folks in China  suffering the least. So, who will die worldwide the most because of all the financial troubles in the world? I would say the people who will die or suffer  the most are not rich and white or rich and Chinese. Everyone else will tend to suffer the most during the next 20 to 50 years the way things look right now.

So, unless a new economic paradigm happens this appears to be our future worldwide.

Another interesting fact was that while I was listening to Fareed Zacharia on CNN Sunday morning he mentioned that either in 2009 or 2010 that somewhere between .4% and 1% of the terrorist actions in Europe were caused by Muslim extremists like Osama Bin Laden. and the other 99+% were committed by other groups like anarchists and people like the Norway terrorist who killed at least 77 people recently. So, the Norway Terrorist and people like Timothy McVeigh and anarchists actually are doing the most damage in the western world, 99% more than any Muslim extremists in reality.

I think many people get the wrong idea when the lump together people who are interested in things like the Knights Templar, Masons, and Rosicrucians and the like. Because if you look at the millions of people interested in all these things, mystery schools and the like they are all just as different a spectrum as being everything from Liberal Democrats to Tea Party Republicans so they don't just fit one pattern and just like Muslims most of them are very peaceful in their religious points of view.

In fact I would say that   people who become terrorists and actually start killing people whether they be anarchists, Muslims, Christians, or atheists all have one kind of psychological problem or another to consider killing innocent people in the first place. They tend to be either victims of child abuse, genetic mental illness or other kinds of problems, including the need to commit suicide and self destruct. So trying to isolate by belief system I don't think is necessarily useful at all. In fact, as someone who has actually studied psychology and who has counseled juvenile offenders and emotionally disturbed teenagers, I think you cannot actually figure out any of these loners from any one profile at all. So the actual direction that police groups and investigators are going now after Christian extremists likely will be counterproductive in both the short and the long run as well as an incredible waste of money worldwide.

Growing up in Glendale 1956 until 1969

I was born in Seattle, Washington and lived there until I was 4 and then moved to Vista and El Cajon in the San Diego Area and then at age 6 I moved to Tujunga and then finally we moved to Glendale because they had the best public schools in Los Angeles County. So from age 8 in 1956 until 1960 I went to Horace Mann grade School and graduated from Grade School into Junior High School in 1960. One of the strange rituals that were tolerated at that time was being scrubbed by lipstick by kids in 7th and 8th grade. It was a spontaneous hazing ritual that scared the girls and some boys. But if you resisted you would be knocked to the ground by several older larger and stronger boys (both girls and boys the last day of school) and lipstick was put all over your face arms and if you were a girl up your legs and under your dress or skirt. I remember being knocked down and a very pretty girl from my class laying on the ground next to my crying as they put lipstick all over her bare legs with great glee. I just thought it was all pretty insane and not useful and probably would make that girl need a psychologist like being raped might. But when many people do something you often times would have to either wait until things change or you would have to kill someone to make it all stop because the tradition had already gone on like this for 20 or more years.

However, my parents didn't want me to go to Roosevelt Junior High because there was a gang there called the Khaki boys. Their gang outfit was khaki pants and a t-shirt with black boots with a switchblade hidden inside the boot to cut anyone they thought they needed to. (Guns weren't considered manly then) except by the mafia. So my parents moved so I wouldn't have to go to a junior high with a gang that ran the school and students(so to speak).

So, since the border between junior High School districts was Colorado Blvd. where Bob's Big Boy Restaurant was where all the hot babes and cars went to their drive in every Friday and Saturday nights.  So we moved up to Harvard Blvd about 1/2 block from Glendale High School and from which I could ride my bike up Verdugo Blvd. To Wilson Junior High School and then I could eventually walk to High School (1/2 block) to Glendale High School where John Wayne (the actor) had once gone to. In fact I got to go to Glendale High School before it was burnt down by a boy in my class that I knew of. What was really sad was that he was a straight A student but he had gotten a bad grade and he burned down the high school because his parents beat him if he didn't get all As. So likely he ruined his life by burning down the school. So the Glendale High School now is all new from the one John Wayne and I went to.

Yesterday my wife and I paid for most of our God Daughter's wedding and I met someone else who had gone to Glendale High School who was about 53 years old who was coming to the wedding from southern California and was a girlfriend of one of the brothers of the father of the bride.

She was telling me about the old lamp posts throughout Glendale back in the 1960s that had little Swastikas on them on the bases of them. She asked if I knew about them. I told her I had never seen them but that I knew that during the 1950s and 1960s people in Glendale wouldn't rent or sell to black people and that there was a collusion between all Realtors in this. But by the 1970s most all of this had changed. I told her that my father and my Aunt before him had moved to Glendale because Glendale had the very best public Schools in Los Angeles County. My aunt had a college degree and so had researched all this. So, as a result my cousin Glendale High Graduate of 1960 got a very good education and went on a scholarship to USC and got his college Bachelor's degree there and then on another full Scholarship to NYU Law School from USC. So, Glendale schools took both my cousin and I quite far in life and made us both critical thinkers so we could always make excellent decisions given enough information. I also told her that even though there was a NAZI party office in Glendale that many people I knew participated in a riot and threw rocks and bricks through their windows one Weekend night. The paradox of Glendale back then was that there were a lot of very far to the right segregationists who wouldn't rent or sell  to black people then. However, since the 1970s Glendale has become like all the other places in California and integration is everywhere all over now on the west coast now since the 1970s. However, it is true that the schools wouldn't have been so strict and leading to a good college education without the strictness that came from the people then. So as always life is a paradox in all these situations. Though Integration as well as the acceptance of Gay people and Gay marriage is a part of progress, there is also a tendency for the scholastic ability of public schools in those areas to decrease in usefulness as this happens. I personally think the reason for this is as areas are integrated more parents tend to put their kids in private schools which takes money from local school systems because of student money allocation from local government and federal policies and therefore public schools suffer and become deficient during this process of degradation of public institutions through the loss of money per student. It is unfortunate for everyone but it is still a fact to be pragmatically dealt with by everyone in whatever ways they are free to choose.

So, life goes on for us on. Obviously, many blacks and gays have benefited in various ways through all the positive changes since the 1970s. For example, when I was in High School during the 1960s there were people (football player types or worse) who went out with baseball bats to maim or kill blacks or gays from Glendale on weekends. I knew of people like this but more than anything else they just made me sick that there were people like this. Even in California during the 1950s and 1960s blacks and gays found by people like this were found killed or maimed beside roads throughout Los Angeles. Though this kind of thing was more common in the SouthEast of the U.S. there were also people who had moved from the Southeast to California that brought these maiming and killing habits with them. Thank God those days are gone now.

When I was 16 years old I got a driving job for Ernie's Camera Shop I drove a small but powerful Oldsmobile all over Los Angeles County after School and was paid $3 an hour then (twice the minimum wage or more. 'I think the minimum wage then was about $1.16 and hour) because it required the skill of being able to drive well and navigate all over a large county dealing with rush hour traffic often and people skills of meeting people and delivering and picking up specific things. It was sort of like being a mini-UPS kind of driver for a Camera Shop in Glendale.

I greatly enjoyed this job because I loved to drive and I got to travel all over the county. Also, this meant I might drive up to 50 miles or more towards a camera or film location for pickup or delivery. I really liked this job because I didn't have to pay for the gas out of my money and I was payed really well. I was happy! and I only worked about 20 hours after school and was usually home by 7 or 8pm at night.

I was driving this job during the Watts Riots which was a really bad time in Los Angeles for race relations. The rioting burned down much of Watts in Los Angeles and for me the scariest part of this was all the white folks in Glendale practicing shooting with all their rifles (illegally) on all the hills around Glendale. It seemed like every place there wasn't a house built people were target practicing with rifles on the hills around there. I found this really scary as the black smoke of Watts burning came up in the distance deep in Los Angeles. Very Scary times!

I was 16 then but when I was 12 years old my father and I (DAd was an Electrical Contractor) were helping remodel a Catholic Nunnery near USC downtown Los Angeles when I was out by the Utility truck getting parts for the electrical part of the remodel when I noticed rocks hitting my Dad's truck and rear window. So I dodged the rocks thrown by black kids across the street and walked in and asked my Dad what to do. He said to just dodge the rocks and not say anything to anyone. He said it wasn't like being in a white or mixed area it was dangerous to say anything or to even call the cops because a riot could start and people could die. So he told me to dodge the rocks and as long as the kids didn't come across the street and approach me that I should just dodge the rocks hitting the truck near me and go about my business as if nothing was wrong.

Obviously, things around the country have changed a lot since those crazy times. So, I think we are all plenty grateful for that!

Though I liked growing up in Glendale I probably would have preferred growing up in the country away from smog and the big city. But I did get an excellent education and as soon as I was 16 I started driving my own car wherever I could on weekends or when I was free during the week and had money to buy gas to drive it. I used to drive about 400 miles a weekend going to the beach, mountains or deserts within 2 to 4 hours by car from  Glendale. My freedom to surf, ski, hike, date and live and go wherever I wanted had begun. The sky was the limit. Thanks Glendale!

Though my father was a very conservative Republican I was exposed to all different sorts of ideas, politics, religions etc. in College in California. It was a time of Black Power and I even wound up meeting Eldridge Cleaver at one point in Berkeley. So, what college did for me was to turn me from a Goldwater Republican to a Moderate Republican and when Nixon let the country down I became an Independent in my thinking. Hillary Clinton had a sort of similar experience in her life as well. So I have stayed in this more moderate way of thinking by picking and choosing things I have found practical for human life (and all other life on earth) from all politics and different philosophies and Religions. This exposure to multiple points of view taught me to pick and choose all pragmatically useful concepts from all political points of view and from all religions. I'm grateful for all the wisdom of all cultures and points of view down through the centuries that have contributed to the completely Free Thinker that I have become. Thanks Glendale and thanks to the Colleges and Universities  in California that I have attended as a student over the years.

Rudi Giuliani's predicted Solution to the Debt Crisis

I was listening to Rudi Giuliani's prediction for the end of the debt crisis last night. He said that what would have to emerge would be a compromise where the Republicans would have to allow the Democrats the Debt Ceiling raised until 2013 past the Presidential Elections and the Democrats would have to allow there to be no new taxes. Only with this compromise would both Democrats and Republicans have any hope at all to agree to a new Debt Ceiling Compromise that could actually pass both the House of Representatives and the Senate and to have any hope at all to be signed into law by the President by Tuesday. But until then likely both House and Senate will be in session until it gets done.

Another point to understand is that right now the U.S. Government has less cash on hand than Apple Computer. The U.S. government right now has 74 Billion dollars and Apple has 76 Billion dollars and no money can be borrowed by the U.S. Government until this thing gets passed. The most likely not to get checks for at least one month or more if this gets put off any more is Social Security and Medicare recipients and the least likely to not get their checks are military and disabled Veterans. However, all debt to banks and foreign banks and countries has to be paid before citizens in order that our whole world banking system doesn't collapse. The same is true in regard to treasuries etc.

The likelihood that some solution will be found like a bandaide by Tuesday I think at this point might be approaching now 100%. However, a more permanent (as in until 2013) solution might be one or more months away. However, in the meantime the whole world might suffer like never before since the Great Depression and World War II if this goes on much longer.

Shasta Springs 1954

The head of my parents religion's name in 1954 was Mrs. Ballard. I was at Shasta Springs having just eaten dinner there. Mrs. Ballard had just gone into the main kitchen where meals were cooked for a thousands or more people attending the Conclave that year to compliment the cooks on the meal. On her way out of the kitchen I was playing cars with a little boy just outside the kitchen there nearby the dining tables at the 1700 to 2000 acre religious retreat. Before my parents religion bought it Teddy Roosevelt had come and stayed here in the early 1900s and had rode up the mountain on a tram from the Railroad tracks after coming there by train. It was a very famous resort around the turn of the century (late 1800s and early 1900s). I think the tram was still functional then in 1954 when I was 6 and people still rode down on it but I can't remember myself doing that. But I do remember seeing it in operation at least when I was 5 years old in 1953 during the 6 weeks my father and I stayed there while he did voluntary electrical work on Shasta springs and the Amphitheater where the pageant of the life of Christ is done every year in the Mt. Shasta on McCloud Ave. usually sometime in August of every year and is open to the public there usually on Sunday and sometimes on Friday and Saturday.

When I left my parents religion my concept of the universe was thousands and thousands of times smaller than it is now. Now both the universe and I have no limits. Neither of us has any potential limit whatsoever and neither do you.
Anyway, back when I was 6 and Mrs. Ballard walked by me she walked by and then walked back and said to me, "You will be the Boy Jesus in the pageants when you turn 12. I said, "Okay!" and went and told my parents. And sure enough in 1960 I was the boy Jesus in the pageant which was a pretty amazing and then when I was 15 I was an Angel of the Transfiguration and then in 1968 I was Archangel Gabriel who zapped the tomb of Jesus when he exploded out of there resurrected. The next year I was an Angel of Promise and the next year I had parted company with my parents church during the year I was 21. Though this break with the church almost took my life at the time it was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me long term. Without this break and all the pain it caused I wouldn't have become the compassionate seeker that I am now. I went from a somewhat close minded person who only thought (to some degree) that people in my own religion only would go to heaven to someone who accepts the fact that everyone creates their own heaven and hell all the time in all their thoughts and action. And now I experience first hand how there are probably thousands to millions of heavens surrounding the planet Earth. And likely there are thousands and millions of other heavens around other planets with intelligent life throughout the universe.

A New Normal

Since the 1930s when technology and the population exploded here on earth because it could we were all sort of moving down the same paradigm of "infinite Natural Resources" and opportunism and technical achievement.

Now, Globalization has changed this basic premise in multiple ways and will likely bring us to a new normal and away from the incorrect position of "Infinite Natural Resources" towards "Whatever any of us do affects everyone here on Earth both now and into the future". We aren't there in group consciousness yet, but if humans want to survive here on earth we will have to get there one way or another. What Globalization has done more than any other thing is to make everyone on Earth equal in economic potential. However, this equality has been seriously harmed by "State Sponsored Capitalism" which basically makes all resources capable of being manipulated by any state (Country) in the world. So, even though financial equality could have been possible for everyone worldwide through globalization it has been bastardised through the advent of State sponsored Capitalism. So the new enemy of the financial equality of all humans on earth now has a name "State Sponsored Capitalism".

The sooner it is recognized as the enemy of the common man here on earth the more humans will survive this "New Normal". By the way until people recognize this as their enemy it is possible that the human race will diminish by up to half here on earth by 2100. And some of the things that could or likely will  create this are Global Climate Change, depletion of our magnetosphere, and State sponsored Capitalism.

Note: Capitalism in itself isn't necessarily a bad thing. It only becomes a bad thing when Governments manipulate capitalism for their own personal interests which usually is not based upon the needs or interests of their common people or the needs of the whole world. So in this way anything good about Capitalism becomes perverted and not helpful to the whole world.

Remember, Socialism is based upon the premise of "From each according to their ability and to each according to their needs" In theory this sounds good but in practice it was found not to work for various reasons. Capitalism is based primarily upon greed. However, if this greed allows those capable to prosper and lift worldwide economies and to hire all those capable of working then it puts food into almost every one's mouths. Then Social Democracies of the world added disbursements of money to those incapable of ever working at a normal job for any reason. In this way those who couldn't work or who could no longer work didn't have to just starve to death and die on the streets anymore as they have down through history. As the world tries to create a "New Normal" where most people can survive and have food to eat, clothes on their backs and some kind of shelter you will see many different kinds of experiments tried around the world to reduce violence and tension during these turbulent times.

The Infinite Compassionate Brotherhood and sisterhood

When I was very little (2 to7) years of age my father and my mother in passing would talk about at times about an infinite compassionate brotherhood and sisterhood that spanned the galaxies. At the time I was little and it all kind (passed me by) just like with all kids when their parents talk about something. As I grew older and became interested in books like "Dweller on Two Planets" written by an 18 year old named Frederick Spenser Oliver on the side of Mt. Shasta in the 1880s and also, "Autobiography of a Yogi" written by Paramahansa Yogananda, I believe in the early part of the 20th Century I began to ask many of these same questions myself like, "Is there actually something real and tangible like a Universal Brotherhood and Sisterhood that spans the known Universe?" So I began to research through more and more books and people to look to see if this really existed or not. And little by little through my researches during my teens and twenties I began to find more and more about what I was looking for. By my late 20s I was firmly convinced that such a thing existed and that I could join this group by proceeding with my own enlightenment and helping and healing all beings I could in any way that I could. By my early 30s because I was able to be disciplined in my positive motivations towards all beings and had taken Ahimsa Vows (the vow not to unnecessarily kill anything 'human, animal, fish, bird, insect etc). So after that point even flies and spiders I tried not to kill but instead often caught them with a plastic glass or jar or cup and just took them outside instead so they could go on living. Taking Ahimsa vows was part of what actually began my induction into the Infinite Compassionate Brotherhood and Sisterhood that spans the Universe through all Galaxies and also spans all time and space. Recently I became aware how this is done. And a form of Universal Communication I wrote about as Infinite Distance Communication Theory explains how inventors on earth could use the same method for technical communication.

However, when one is inducted into the Infinite Compassionate Brotherhood and Sisterhood (and there are thousands to millions of the humans of Earth who are a part of this) it is done differently. First someone has to be grown up enough in their feelings and thinking and then they have to be reliable to be harmless which is another fully adult quality. The reason someone has to meet these criteria is that without proper motivation and balance if they were inducted it would kill them and while they were dying they would use the gift of the union of all compassionate beings throughout all time and space for unproductive or outright harmful things.

Also, when one is inducted the initial experience can be terrifying for about 24 hours while the atoms in your body change and exchange throughout all time and space in making you "ONE" with all the other compassionate adult beings in all time and space. But then after this experience there is really no need to be truly afraid ever again. The best way I can explain it is to be a part of an Army of Compassion composed of Trillions and Trillions of like minded Compassionate beings throughout all time and space throughout the universe. One is greatly changed by this and their every action afterwards benefits all beings throughout all time and space ever after. So, this might be the most desirable state for any being in the universe to attain.

Transistor Radio

If you grew up in the 1950s like me likely you owned a transistor radio. The one I had had a speaker so you could listen to music or radio or the always onerous earphones that always were breaking back then. So mostly you walked to school or down the street anywhere you went with your transistor radio up to your ear listening to the local rock and roll stations which then in Glendale California were KFWB and KRLA. If you were in these were the rock n roll stations you listened to. And if you were me any time advertisements came on either station you immediately switched to the other one to see if the top 40 hits were playing there so you could always smile as you walked down the street.

My daughter has always been a fan of Itunes but I don't like the idea of how they make your songs disappear after about 1 year. So if you haven't stored your digital recordings on either your ipod, iphone or better yet a digital CD for safekeeping, they tend to disappear never to be heard again by you or anyone around you. So, because of this I prefer to take CD albums and buy them because then at least you don't have to make any CD's of your itunes. Then you can download them to any media you want at will and they don't just suddenly disappear a year later off of your computer like Itunes tend to.

So, I finally learned today how to download my CD albums off of my Itunes library on my Macbook pro laptop onto my Ipod built into my Iphone4. Up until now I wanted to keep my storage memory for photos which burn up a lot of memory. But now with my new "transistor radio" I find myself walking around my large 2500 square feet plus house carrying my Iphone4 listening to it like a transistor Radio. In fact, as I write this I'm listening to an old Fleetwood Mac compilation album of their very best hit songs. What fun! and no earphone to bother with because my family is out this afternoon shopping. Again. What Fun to feel like it is the 70s or 80s when I was in my 20s and 30s once again! And on top of that to feel like I'm in the 1950s with my transistor radio blaring from the speaker once again. Good Times! A transistor radio with no commercials!

U.S. likely to lose top rating: economists

• A demonstrator holds placards to protest U.S. debt in front of the Capitol in Wa …

WASHINGTON/LONDON (Reuters) - The United States will lose its top-notch AAA credit rating from at least one major rating agency, according to a Reuters poll that also found wrangling over the debt ceiling has already damaged the economy.

A small majority of economists -- 30 out of 53 -- surveyed over the past two days said the United States will lose its AAA credit rating from one of the three big ratings agencies -- Standard & Poor's, Moody's or Fitch.

Respondents saw a 20 percent chance of a new recession over the next year, a prospect that some economists say has been compounded by the acrimonious political fight over what is normally a procedural legislative vote on the debt.

Lawmakers have one week left to hash out a deficit-cutting plan without which Republicans in Congress have said they will not raise the legal $14.3 trillion debt limit, risking a potentially devastating government debt default in August.

"We believe that Congress will act with an 11th hour deal to raise the debt ceiling. However, the risk of that deal failing increases with each passing day," said Guy LeBas, director at Janney Capital Markets.

"I would say that the chance of a U.S. ratings downgrade is now more likely than not." end quote from 

 http://news.yahoo.com/u-likely-lose-top-rating-economists-000214380.html

I recently thought that our chance of losing our credit rating by major agencies was about 70% to 80%. However, since 30 out of 53 economists surveyed over the last two days said we would lose our national credit rating sometime after next week I think I would downgrade the probabilities by dividing 30 by 53 which is about a 56 or 57% probability. I like these odds better than what I originally thought. Because even that 56 or 57% probability is for only one of the three credit ratings agencies and not for all of them. Better odds for the U.S.

Infinite Distance Communication Theory

This is a theory that occurred to me recently. I was thinking it might be useful to communicate all over the galaxy and into any time line instantaneously here in the present. And this type of communication could be done into any time line and into any galaxy. If I start on Particle Physics premise that, "Any particle or atoms location any moment in time is only a probability" then I can also assume possibly that "The location of any given particle or atom might be in literally any time or space in or beyond any galaxy." If this second premise is proved or is correct then the possible way to communicate into ANY time line or ANY space in the Universe is by establishing communication through particles and atoms traveling into our timespace here on earth. At the very least these particles,(if the incoming particles and atoms could be identified as to where they were coming from) could carry useful information that would allow us to better understand all other times and spaces. Likewise, if other advanced cultures on other worlds or galaxies could recognize particles and atoms from Earth from all the others visiting their own times and spaces could likewise learn things about our own time and space here on earth. So, in this sense it would be two one-way communications. However, I'm sure over time people here on earth (if my theory is proved correct) will find a way to establish two way communication through this method if it is desired by either side.(or trillions of different cultures throughout the known universe in all times and spaces).

I first read about this concept in "Time for the Stars" by Robert Heinlein who was, like Isaac Asimov both a scientist in his approach in writing science fiction rather than writing is more in the direction of fantasy. These two authors along with Arthur C. Clark and a few other early Sci-Fi writers brought respect to the craft of writing science fiction by actually using real or theoretical science to expound from. I spent a lot of my childhood from about age 9 to 14 reading all of Heilein and Isaac Asimov and much of all the other sci-fi and fantasy authors of that time like Anne and Todd McCaffrey who wrote

Dragonriders of Pern  he Dragonriders of Pern is a series of science fiction stories written primarily by Anne McCaffrey. Beginning 2003 her son Todd McCaffrey has written Pern novels, both solo and jointly with Anne. As of July 2011, the series comprises 22 novels and several short stories, most of which have been collected in two volumes. Some of the novels incorporate previously published shorter works.

There is disagreement whether to classify some of the series as fantasy rather than science fiction and what to classify for children, youth, or adults.

[edit] Fantasy or Science Fiction?

While the earlier novels in the series have elements also present in fantasy (low levels of technology, fire-breathing dragons, feudal societies), the prologue explains the events take place on a colony world. The first novel was originally serialized in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact (1967), and that magazine did not publish fantasy. The publisher (Del Rey) lists them as science fiction titles, and McCaffrey herself describes them as science fiction and stresses the scientific rationales behind the world she has created. In more recent novels, the series moves toward more overt science fiction as the colonists rediscover their links to the past and develop much higher levels of technology. end quote from  wikipedia under the heading "Dragon Riders of Pern"


Whereas Time for the Stars was written:

Time for the Stars

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Time for the Stars
First Edition cover
Author(s)	Robert A. Heinlein
Cover artist	Clifford Geary
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Heinlein juveniles
Genre(s)	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Scribner's
Publication date	1956
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
ISBN	NA
Preceded by	Tunnel in the Sky
Followed by	Citizen of the Galaxy

Time for the Stars is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein published by Scribner's in 1956 as one of the Heinlein juveniles. The basic plot line is derived from a 1911 thought experiment in special relativity, commonly called the twin paradox, proposed by French physicist Paul Langevin. The story bears many similarities in plot and concepts to Variable Star written by Spider Robinson from an incomplete outline created by Heinlein around the time this book was written, and published in 2006.

Contents [hide] 1 Plot summary 2 Reception 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Plot summary

The Long Range Foundation ("LRF") is a non-profit organization that funds expensive, long-term projects for the benefit of mankind that nobody else will touch. It has built a dozen exploratory starships (torchships) to search for habitable planets to colonize. The vessels can only gradually accelerate, and then merely to sub-light speeds, so the voyages will last many years. Therefore, each starship has a much larger than necessary crew to maintain a more stable, long-term shipboard society, as well as provide replacements for the inevitable deaths.
It is found that some twins and triplets can communicate with each other telepathically. The process seems to be instantaneous and unweakened by distance, making it the only practical means of communication for ships traveling many light years away from Earth. Before announcing the discovery, the foundation first recruits as many of these people as it can.
Testing shows that teenagers Tom and Pat Bartlett have this talent. Both are eager to sign up. Pat, the dominant twin, manipulates things so that he gets selected as the crewmember, leaving a fuming Tom to stay behind. However, Pat does not really want to leave and his subconscious engineers a convenient accident so that Tom has to take his place at the last minute.
On board, Tom is pleased to find his uncle Steve, a military man, has arranged to get assigned to the same ship. The trip is fraught with problems as trivial as an annoying roommate and as serious as mutiny.
The ship visits several star systems. Due to the nature of relativistic travel (see Twin paradox), the twin who remained behind ages faster and eventually the affinity between them is weakened to the point that they are no longer able to communicate easily. However, some of the spacefaring twins, including the protagonist, are able to connect with the descendants of the Earthbound twins. Tom works with his niece, then his grandniece and finally his great-grandniece.
The last planet scouted proves to be particularly deadly. Unexpectedly intelligent and hostile natives capture and kill a large portion of the remaining crew, including the captain and Tom's uncle. The reserve captain takes charge, but is unable to restore the morale of the devastated survivors. When he insists on continuing the mission rather than returning to Earth, the crew begins to consider mutiny.
Shortly after he notifies Earth of the dire situation, they are surprised to hear a spaceship will rendezvous with them in less than a month and surmise it must be a more advanced LRF spaceship. Scientists on Earth have discovered faster-than-light travel, in part due to research into the nature of telepathy, and are collecting the remaining crews of the LRF torchships. The explorers return to an Earth they no longer recognize, and in most cases, no longer fit in. Tom, however, returns to marry his last telepathic partner, his own great-grandniece, who has been reading his mind since childhood.

[edit] Reception

Galaxy reviewer Floyd C. Gale praised the novel as "an engrossing yarn," saying "The plot twists will take you by surprise and the characterizations delight you."<sup>[1]
 end quote from wikipedia under the heading "Time for the Stars"

So likely this type of real world experiment using telepathic family members hasn't been attempted yet with one relative on earth and another in space.  But it will. (Hasn't be attempted from earth in this time line at least most likely)

My personal experience with most forms of ESP is that they only work really well when you absolutely need it to survive a difficult situation or to save lives. This kind of thing cannot be usefully proven in a laboratory without people dying so I don't think it has been done or should be. And even then under those circumstances it might not work for other reasons. ESP I find is a lot like when a 100 pound mother lifts a car off her son who will die if she doesn't. It's sort of beyond most senses of normal but it happens sometimes. Amazing things happen once in a while. But can you prove them in a laboratory? Probably not. And maybe that's a good thing.</sup>