The Daily Grand and Sundry

WE ARE MAKING CHINA RICH

“The U.S. trade deficit with China expanded to $22.3 billion in May, the widest level since October and 15% larger than the previous month. This is the widest level since October and 15% higher than the previous month. Imports expanded by $3.1 billion, far outpacing a $162 million gain in exports.(Wall Street Journal)…”

CHINA IS TAKING AMERICAN MONEY AND MAKING GERMANY RICHER

ERGO WE ARE MAKING GERMANY RICHER

Sales of luxury Mercedes cars to China rose by 120% in the first six months of the year, compared with the same period in 2009. …China is now the main market for the Mercedes S-class, a car with a price tag that is prohibitive for most rich-world consumers. Other German carmakers, such as VW and BMW, are also living well off Chinese demand. Many car plants have returned to full capacity far sooner than had seemed likely just a year ago.(The Economist)

We have always been the most generous nation in the world, now we are the most stupid.

Billie Sol Estes was a great Texas crook, an embezzler of banks. The banks kept lending to him far beyond the limits of prudence, beyond the limits of rationality.

Reporters once asked Billie Sol, “After the banks knew you were in trouble, why did they stlll lend you money”

Billie Sol’s appropriate answer, “If you borrow enough from people, they become your partner. They could not afford to see me fail.”

We owe China so much money, they are our partner….maybe it is is time to tell the Chinese  that they should use all our money to buy American cars, from their partner.

“Billie Sol Estes (born 1924) is an American former financier best known for his association with U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. Mr. Estes currently lives in Granbury, Texas.”

Our current Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner ” he completed high school at the International School Bangkok. He attended Dartmouth College, graduating  with an A.B. in government and Asian studies , In the process he studied Mandarin at Peking University in 1981 and at Beijing Normal University in 1982. He earned an M.A. in international economics and East Asian studies from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies in 1985. He has studied Chinese”

My problem is that, as a debtor nation, I would rather have Billie Sol Estes as Secretary of the Treasury than Chinese educated Tim Geithner; Texas crooks are very wise.

Reader, please understand this Blog’s positon on Ronald Reagan, he is and probably will be The Last Great American.

We have had no great Americans since him, and none are on the horizon. What Simon Bolivar is to South America, Ronald Reagan is to Eastern Europe, the Liberator. All the following countries are freer now than before he became President, Armenia, Azerbaijan,Croatia,Poland,  Belarus, the Czech Republic,  Estonia,  Georgia ,East Germany, Kazakhstan,Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Bulgaria,Albania, Lithuania, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan,Romania,Macedonia,Serbia,Slovenia, Turkmenistan,Montenegro, Ukraine, Kosovo,Uzbekistan.  Without a shot being fired, he made all those countries freer than they were; naturally the Europeans did not give him a Nobel Peace Prize. Europeans are foolish.

The following is a brief bio of the early years of the Last Great American,Ronald Reagan.

 ”Reagan’s  first job was as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park. Reagan saved 77 lives, noting that he notched a mark on a wooden log for every life he saved. Reagan attended Eureka College in  Eureka, Illinois. and majored in economics and sociology. He developed a reputation as a jack of all trades, excelling in campus politics, sports and theater. He was a member of the football team, captain of the swim team and was elected student body president. As student president, Reagan notably led a student revolt against the college president after he tried to cut back the faculty.”

Eureka College is a proud ” liberal arts college in Eureka, Illinois related by covenant to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and founded in 1855. It has a strong focus on history, political science, and the fine and performing arts. Enrollment is about 765 students.

The college was founded by a group of abolitionists who had left Kentucky because of their opposition to slavery. When the school opened its doors it became the first school in Illinois (and only the third in the United States) to educate women on an equal basis with men.”

Remember it was Ronald Reagan who nominated to the US Supreme Court, the first female Justice in history, Sandra Day O’Connor. Eureka College in Illinois, educated the Last Great American on the equality of women.

His college was  very important to the last Great American.

“In a May 9, 1982 speech at Eureka College, President Reagan challenged the Soviet Union to a new era of negotiations to reduce nuclear arms — called START. The speech has been labeled “The Beginning of the End of the Cold War.”

President Reagan picked his alma mater in Illinois as the spot to begin the end of the Cold War. Where he gave the speech now stands the Ronald Reagan Peace Garden, on the campus of Eureka College in Illinois. This Blog has been there.

This Blog does think Ms Palin, as a former Republican Vice Presidential Candidate, a former Republican Governor, and a Grand Dame of  Republican Politics should know some truths about Ronald Reagan.

The following is from the Chris Mathews’ HARDBALL show on Tuesday, June 29, 2010. It pertains to Ms. Palin’s speech at Cal State, Stanislaus.

“First: an inconvenient truth.  At Cal State,Stanislaus, this weekend, Sarah Palin gave a speech where she paid tribute to conservative hero Ronald Reagan.  At least, that‘s what she thought she was doing. 
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN ®, FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR:  Special place in my heart is California, because this is Reagan country. 
And…
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) 
PALIN:  Yes. 
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) 
PALIN:  And perhaps it was destiny that the man who went to California‘s Eureka College would become so woven within and interlinked to the Golden State. 
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS:  Wow.
Well, the hitch here, Ronald Reagan went to Eureka College out in Illinois.  There‘s no Eureka College in California.  ……  Reagan was a Midwesterner who went to California for his film career.  ”

Ms. Palin giving misinformation to her audience about Ronald Reagan would be a small thing, if it wasn’t such a big thing.

Ronald Reagan was the Pericles of America’s Last Golden Age; he had a Really Big Idea(the End of Communism in Europe), and he carried that idea to fruition. He left office leaving America at the pinnacle of its power and prestige.

A would be American Vice President,especially a Republican would be Vice President should take the time to know Ronald  Reagan’s biography. This Blog is not asking Gov. Palin to know the biographies of Calvin Coolidge, or William Howard Taft or Wendell Willkie, but this Blog sure as hell wants Ms. Palin to know the facts about Ronald Reagan, how he became a great man.

It is basic homework.

If Ms. Palin does indeed intend to run for President as the Republican candidate, this Blog requests only one thing, that she measure up. She must understand Destiny did not send President Reagan to a college in California that never existed, only her ignorance did that.

The Statue of Ronald Reagan at the Ronald Reagan Peace Garden, Eureka College, ILLINOIS

” I can`t think of a living politician that I admire. I mean, I`m trying to think of one, and I can`t. They`re all dead.”

Kinky Friedman, Texas Singer, Politician, Public Icon

“Antineoplaston (ANP) is a name coined by Stanislaw Burzynski for a group of peptides, derivatives, and mixtures that he uses as an alternative cancer treatment These compounds are not licensed as drugs but are instead sold and administered by Burzynski as part of clinical trials that he runs at his own establishments, the Burzynski Clinic and the Burzynski Research Institute, Inc in Houston, Texas.”

 ”Onologists are opposed to this cancer treatment,  one doctor stating that they are “scientific nonsense”.

Nonsense, that should close the issue, right? The Establishment has spoken, however, there is a film out, Eric Merola’s “BURZYNSKI”, a documentary about how this Polish Immigrant, “medical doctor and biochemist developed Antineoplastons, genetic-targeted medicines, and with them began to treat a wide range of cancers, including difficult-to-treat brain malignancies, with remarkable and continuing success only to bring down the full force of the medical establishment, which has laid assault to him in the most stupefying, devious and costly manner.”

As I watched the film, the sad story of  Stanislaw Burzynski reminded me of that other scorned genius,Nikola Tesla. Burzynski is the Tesla of Cancer Research, broken on the rack, but smart enough to have the Government try and seize all his work.

Burzynski, ” eventually won a 14-year struggle — during which he found himself threatened with life imprisonment and astronomical fines for fraud and other violations — to obtain FDA-approved clinical trials of his Antineoplastons, an ordeal that cost Burzynski $2.2 million in legal expenses and the FDA $60 million in taxpayers’ money. If anything, his dealings with the National Cancer Institute were to prove even more outrageous.

…. the film makes the case that big pharmacy holds the FDA in its thrall, that the National Cancer Institute perversely refused to follow Burzynski’s protocols in its clinical trials and seemingly has violated Burzynski’s long-held patents.

Julian Whitaker of the Whitaker Wellness Institute of Newport Beach and one of Burzynski’s most eloquent defenders makes an all-crucial point: Burzynski’s Antineoplastons, with their high success rate and lack of side effects, pose a significant threat to the trillion-dollar industry of treating cancer with the traditional methods of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.”

This blog is not saying that Antineoplastons are the Magic Bullet what this blog is saying is that with all the money this Government and this society spends on combatting cancer( “The state of California, for instance, has reportedly invested $10-12 million in direct cancer research annually, while the National Cancer Institute (NCI) within the United States has reportedly spend $4.8 to $5.2 billion per annum on cancer research and treatment development. “) we can afford to drop some dimes on a breakthrough promising technology as Antineoplastons. Can’t we?

In my youth, I read a book, MICROBE HUNTERS  by Paul Henry De Kruif. It tells the sagas of lone wolf Doctors, who had to fight institutional ignorance, corruption and stupidity to bring cures to Mankind. It has always been the lone wolf medical genius, men like Jenner, Ehrlich, Pasteur, and  Salk, that have uplifted Man from the ravages of ill health.

If Man counted on the Government to find cures, we would still be leeching each other, or submitting to blood letting to be cured.

 Stanislaw Burzynski may be a charlatan, or maybe not? But either way, the proof will be in the pudding, in the results. Either way, he should not be hindered nor hampered until we have proof it does not work.

In the war against Cancer, let us explore every “IT MIGHT WORK” path until we find the right path. Antineoplastons as a way to success against Cancer is worth the price of failure.

Diablo Cody is a former stripper who became a writer and wrote the screenplay for the film, JUNO.

Latina Diabla Cody is the nom de guerre of a Texas stripper who is an aspiring writer. She is responding to this Blog about Moctesuma Esparza

http://gerrymaxeyworkshop.com/blogging/?p=4876

“Not many people can say they’ve disrupted an entire society’s ‘way of life’ bringing forth a change in national awareness and straight through its muscle, no less…. that’s impressive even before the realization of the ‘big’ picture. Metaphorically speaking, Mr. Esparza pistol-whipped a racist society into submission, making it his bitch, for lack of a better term. Great blog!”

Michael Moore(ROGER and ME, Fahrenheit 9/11)  was  a guest on the LARRY KING Show; King asked him about the new immigration law in Arizona.

Moore replied.:

“MOORE: And we dishonor them — we dishonor them by treating the new immigrants so poorly. We’re a big country, Larry. There’s lots of room for people. If you don’t believe that, drive across Kansas some day.”

I retold that Moore comment to a Native American, he commenced laughing and could not stop.

When he finally finished laughing, he said, “It is not about land, Algeria is a big country and no one can live there because it is desert….those people back east, will never understand; it is not about land, it is about WATER. Even Kansas won’t have enough water when the Ogallala Aquifer runs dry ”

“”– all of us are mad at politicians. I can`t think of a living politician that I admire. I mean, I`m trying to think of one, and I can`t. They`re all dead.”

Kinky Friedman, Texas Singer, Politician, Public Icon

April 21, 2010

“LOS ANGELES – The funeral for “Stand and Deliver” math teacher Jaime Escalante has drawn some 600 family and friends, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and actor Edward James Olmos..

Olmos led the Saturday service at East Los Angeles College. He helped make Escalante famous when he played him in the 1988 film “Stand and Deliver.”

Olmos said Escalante was “a genius in teaching, but he was a saint when it came to empowering students.”

The funeral began with a procession from East LA’s Garfield High School, where Escalante inspired struggling students to excel at advanced math and science.

Escalante’s wife, two sons and family members from his native Bolivia were also at the service.

Escalante died March 30 of cancer at age 79″

Name five American educators or teachers off the top of your head, who are they? Horace Mann, William James, Booker T. Washington, William McGuffey and Jaime Escalante. Mr. Escalante was a great American hero, borrowed from Bolivia. When everyone despaired, in a high school no one cared about, teaching students our school system seemed bound and determined to make a permanent under class, this Bolivian immigrant stood and delivered,  figuring out how to teach calculus to Hispanic kids.

And in the end he was trashed by his own.

There is only one other American hero who has suffered the fate of Jaime Escalante, to be scorned and trashed,  by the people you had helped to uplift, and that other one is Sam Houston of Texas.

Sam Houston was a soldier, Indian fighter,  statesman, drunk, Indian lover. Andrew Jackson’s protoge, they radically disagreed on treatment  of Native Americans; Houston did not want to wipe them out.

 He was a Tennessee Congressman and Governor; he resigned the Governorship   after marrying 18-year-old Eliza Allen.After his Eliza  left him,” he lived among the Cherokee, who formally adopted him as a member of their nation. He married a Cherokee widow named Tiana Rogers Gentry, During this time he was interviewed by Alexis de Tocqueville. ”

 Houston left the Cherokees(his Cherokee wife died shortly thereafter) and went to Texas. He took command of the rebel Texas army, who were fighting for their independence against Mexico and Generalissimo Santa Ana. Houston retreated, letting the Alamo fall, until he lured the Mexican Army into a death trap at San Jacinto. The Texans lost nine men, while killing 630 Mexican soldiers, capturing  700 more. Houston was a pretty good general.

He achieved Texas independence, became President of Texas, got Texas annexed into the Union. He became Governor of Texas and Senator from Texas. In 1860 he was Governor again.  When the Civil War started, Texas slave owners wanted to take Texas out of the Union and into the Confederacy. Houston said No; the man who gave them their independence  and American citizenship said No.

So the slave owners and racists  trashed him, and deposed him, sending him to his home, in exile. He died before he could see the ruin of Texas.

So why are Sm Houston and Jaime Escaanate alike? 

“The Los Angeles Times reports that he (Escalante)was an opponent of bilingual education. He campaigned for passage of Proposition 227, which curtailed bilingual education in California in 1998.

The obit says that Escalante had said the hate mail he received for taking the position he did on bilingual education led in part to his resigning from Hiram Johnson High School in Sacramento, the teaching post he had taken after leaving Garfield High School”

Jaime Escalante, the greatest Hispanic teacher who ever lived, was driven from his profession by professional Latinos, who don’t want their children, in the United States , educated in English.

The man who uplifted their children is driven from his vocation because of entrenched political correctness.

Escalante, the man who opened the doors for Hispanic kids to enter the world of higher math, is driven to ground, because he sees the key to education is English.

The man who did so much for Latinos  is broken by the people he helped.

The Profesional Latinos and the Texas slave holders have a lot in common, foremost, ingratitude to the men who uplifted them.

The California school system is collapsing under the weight of entrenched interests, and I fear that Mr. Escalante’s death has been timed so he could not see the ruin of his beloved students. Like Houston, he has been spared seeing the desertification of everything he had built.

“I really enjoy your blog; I read your bio….what is a futurist?”

That is simple, a futurist predicts the future, how do you predict the future? You enmesh yourself in the past.

Just as in Creative Writing there are seven basic plots; so too there are fundamental currents that flow repeatedly and constantly through history.

So you take the present, find an analogous past period in history, and then predict the future based on the comparison. The key is making sure your past benchmark for comparison is correct and attuned to the present.

Take our present period in history.

I make a habit of watching the current  town hall meetings of our Congressmen. There are a lot of angry people out there. Yelling and screaming, the “Birthers” woman attacking Congressman Castle from Delaware; “Democratic U.S. Rep. Collin Peterson says that he doesn’t hold general town-hall type meetings because of disruptions of the extremists”:” HHS Sec. Kathleen Sebelius booed at Townhall, told “It’ll be a cold day in hell before he socializes my country!”;”Tim Bishop, a Democrat Congressman from New York, ran from his constituents and hid”; “Within an hour of the disruption, police were called in to escort the 59-year-old Democrat — who has held more than 100 town hall meetings since he was elected in 2002 — to his car safely;”

As we speak, America is a very volatile county, arming itself. ”Purchases of guns and ammunition are surging across the country. Nearly four million background checks — a key measure of sales because they are required at the purchase of a gun from a federally licensed seller — were performed in the first three months of 2009. That is a 27% increase over the same period a year earlier, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”

We even have talk of secession,”Governor  Perry suggested Texans might at some point get so fed up they would want to secede from the union, though he said he sees no reason why Texas should do that.”

Death Threats,”CHILMARK - Black scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. has received numerous death threats since he accused a white officer of racially profiling him in a controversial arrest last month, prompting Harvard University officials to suggest he consider moving, the professor told a crowd yesterday.”

Does this accumulation of trivia remind you of any other period in American history? Let me submit that the peiord NOT in question is the Era of Good Feelings.

Senator Al Franken is a graduate of Harvard, cum laude with a degree in Political Science. His most famous literary work is Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot ; not that Rush is an idiot, but that Rush is a big fat idiot. As we know Rush is husky, so the BIG FAT adjective was personal.

So why do I brng up Al Franken? Because he uses more than policy to debase his political opponents, he uses ridicule. Now, as a futurist, why do I mention Al Franken? because he reminds me of Charles Sumner.

“Sumner graduated in 1830 from Harvard College (where he lived in Hollis Hall), and in 1834 from Harvard Law School; Not content to leave his assault on a political level, Sumner’s three-hour oration took a cruel, personal turn as he mocked the 59-year-old Butler’s manner of speech and physical mannerisms, both of which were impaired by a stroke that Butler had suffered earlier.

Two days later, on the afternoon of May 22, Preston Brooks, a congressman from South Carolina and Butler’s nephew, confronted Sumner as he sat writing at his desk in the almost empty Senate chamber. Brooks was accompanied by Laurence M. Keitt also of South Carolina and Henry A. Edmundson of Virginia, who took no part in the assault. Brooks said, “Mr. Sumner, I have read your speech twice over carefully. It is a libel on South Carolina, and Mr. Butler, who is a relative of mine.” As Sumner, who was six feet four inches tall, began to stand up, Brooks began beating Sumner severely on the head with a thick gutta-perchacane with a gold head. Sumner was trapped under the heavy desk (which was bolted to the floor), but Brooks continued to bash Sumner until he ripped the desk from the floor. By this time, Sumner was blinded by his own blood, and he staggered up the aisle and collapsed, lapsing into unconsciousness. Brooks continued to beat Sumner until he broke his cane, then quietly left the chamber. Several other senators attempted to help Sumner, but were blocked by Keitt who was holding a pistol and shouting, “Let them be!”

The left wing in this nation has mastered ridicule, from David Letterman to Keith Olberman to Saturday Night Live to FAMILY GUY.  What the left wing has NEVER understood, from the Weimar Republic to now, is that ridicule creates a new generation of Preston Brooks’ clones. The body politic is not a Harvard dorm; it is a Brooklyn playground, where you may have the fastest mind, but that does little good against the fastest fists.

It could be reasonably argued that this current society is an ante bellum state of mind. Civil Wars are fought over values, not land, not colonies, not treasures but values.

As a futurist, I can categorically predict that this civic society we live in, is in for dangerous times.