I'm Waiting For the Healing to Begin

America is like a wounded animal trying to tell a human where it hurts without sucess.

Our society is suffering the torture of a thousand cuts dividing us into hostile tribes. Hate, anger and fear roam unabated as the lines of communication continue to breakdown.

It has to stop.

There are some resources for people who have anger issues. We just need more. 

Groups like Haven House are doing their best, but their often limited by finances. The group provides a sounding board to work and grow with. I'm in no way endorsing the group by sharing their mission. It's just one of many options out there.

There are online anger management courses that provide free help for those who want to avoid group therapy. The drawback is the lack of fellowship and sense of belonging.

What's the problem with these options?

Have you ever tried to lead a donkey to water when it doesn't want to go?

Unfortunately, people with anger issues generally have other mental issues and getting them help is a major challenge. Friends and family have to be part of the equation.

Awareness is the key to solving problems regardless of what they are. 

There is a national campaign founded by Tipper Gore called Mental Health Awareness, but frankly who's ever heard of it? It was launched in 1999 by the White House.

President Joe Biden has advanced an agenda of prioritizing and supporting bills that offer help for the mental health crisis we're currently suffering in this country. 

He signed the "Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Act," in March of 2021. The new law provides $135 million in federal funding for mental health education and awareness campaigns.

As it stands, I'm waiting for the mental healing to begin as lines of communications between political parties and individuals go through a positive transformation that will hopefully save the sanity of our country.

Check Out Today's Episode of 'Politicians Say the Darnest Things'

Welcome!

Step right in. Take a seat. When you're comfortable continue.

This first quote is my favorite.

According to Trump"...if you're the President of the United States, you can declassify by just saying it's declassified, even by thinking about it."

I believe psychiatrists call that "magic thinking." 

Who can forget Ted Cruz yelling in the airport "Do you know who I am?" The funny part, according to Matt Blair, is the very idea that the average person would treat him better after learning that he is Ted Cruz.

Here's a real dinger from Marjorie Taylor Greene for you, "President Trump taught us how to defend our values." 

I was really surprised she wasn't struck down by lightning despite being indoors.

Vying with Greene for the dumbest woman in Congress, Lauren Boebert was speaking about the importance of guns in America during a Newsmax interview with Sebastian Gorka.

"Americans will be eating dogs, like in Venezuela, if they take our guns away!" she warned the extremist viewers.

Frankly, I don't even know what to say about that...

Here's some classic political jokes

** Bill Clinton on Being President, "Being president is like running a cemetery: you've got a lot of people under you and nobody's listening."

** Lyndon Johnson on Being President, "Being president is like being a jackass in a hailstorm. There's nothing to do but to stand there and take it."

** Barack Obama on Dick Cheney, "I don't want to be invited to the family hunting party."

** Ronald Reagan on Age, "I want you to know that I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience." 

** Jim Hightower on George Bush, "If ignorance goes to forty dollars a barrel, I want drilling rights to George Bush's head."

(Editor's note: Jim is a syndicated columnist, progressive political activist, and author. He qualifies as a politician after serving as the elected commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture from 1983 to 1991.)

** Franklin Roosevelt on Conservatives, "A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned how to walk forward."

As it stands, look for future episodes when I share the darnest things that MAGA Morons say, and quotes from other segments of society that will provide amusement for all of you loyal readers.

The Inscrutable Worlds of the Federal Reserve, Cryptocurrency, and NFTs

Be honest.

Do you fully understand how we're going to beat inflation by raising interest rates? 

The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by 0.75 percentage points Wednesday.

Financial experts were divided how much the increase would help. All lot of common Americans, like myself, are wondering how raising the cost of buying homes and cars is going to deliver us from inflation?

The whole idea seems counterintuitive, but I'm no bean counter with years of arcane knowledge about how to manipulate our monetary system.

Don't even get me started about the whole cryptocurrency thing! It's insane claiming digital crypto is a secure way to make monetary transactions. It also doesn't rely on banks to verify transactions.

The thing to remember is if you buy cryptocurrency, you don't own anything tangible. To top that off grifters from celebrities to sports figures, are involved in scams to entice you to throw good money away.

Here's something you should know:

If you see a tweet (or text, email, or other message on social media) that tells you to pay with cryptocurrency... it's a scam.

NFTs are Shaking up the Art World

If you aren't familiar with what NFTs are, wonder no more. They are an emerging digital technology called tokens that are tied to assets that can be bought, sold and traded.

The art world has gone gaga over these tokens that are making artists rich. Collectors and speculators have spent millions on an array of NFT-based artwork, memes and GIFs since the fad started.

NFTs are best understood as computer files with proof of ownership and authenticity, like a deed.

Which brings me to the inevitable conclusion that unlike baseball cards, you can't hold them and frankly who's going to see your precious NFTs? 

I'm aware that there's a digital marketplace for these tokens/files, but the average person will never see your collection.

One more thing to keep in mind, like most online activities' that involve money scammers lurk behind keyboards waiting to rip you off. 

As it stands, remember, these NFTs are a passing fad for people with money to burn.

On Internation Peace Day: President Biden Spoke to UN Assembly About Threats to World Peace

Yesterday was International Peace Day and the president of the United States talked about preserving peace around the world. 

President Biden came through loud and clear during the UN General Assembly warning, "Russia has shamelessly violated the core tenets of the UN charter." 

"Russia," he contended, "has ignored the clear prohibition against countries taking the territory of their neighbors by force."

In 30 minutes, Biden explained that the war in Ukraine was about "extinguishing Ukraine's right to exist as a state... and Ukraine's right to exist as a people."

Over two hundred world leaders heard Biden's response to Russia who threatened to start a nuclear war now that their invasion of Ukraine has stalled.

Pointing out the obvious Biden said, "A nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought."

At the same time Biden promised to continue sending arms and food supplies to the Ukraine, while making it clear to Putin his threats aren't going to accomplish anything other than to tighten the alliance against him.

A brief background on the International Day of Peace.

In 1981, the UN General Assembly declared the third Tuesday of September as an International Day of Peace. Two decades later the assembly moved the day to September 21st. 

The observance was supposed to be a time to discuss how to promote and maintain peace among all peoples and calls for a 24-hour period of global ceasefire and non-violence for groups in active combat.

As it stands, Russia has become a rogue state violating all international laws and agreements. Dealing with Putin is something the assembly prioritized today.

When They Come for the Books, You Know We're in Trouble

Hold on to your book, here comes Moms for Liberty! a group of extremists spawned in the Florida swamps.

They are among similar groups across America with a burning mission; ban all books they disagree with.

These groups have made it their mission to undermine educators, sabotage students' freedom to read and stoke divisive battles that distract from teaching and learning.

Some of those groups espouse Christian nationalist political views. 

Their goal is to infiltrate public schools with religious education despite the fact it's a violation of the Constitution - regarding separation of church and government.

An alarming report was released by PEN America on Monday that updated how many books were banned in the last year. There were 2,532 book bans directed at 1,648 different titles.

Johnan Friedman, the director of PEN America's free expression and education programs and author of the report, said that in the past decade "there was never organization at this scale with this much momentum." 

Particularly pernicious is the fact that the groups are not led by concerned parents. Instead, extreme conservatives who only learned about the books online without reading them are demanding officials remove them from the shelves.

The majority of the groups can be found online from local Facebook pages or groups of established conservative organizations.

The groups all have one thing in common, they're angry and frustrated over school closures, mask mandates, and vaccines. 

Throw in an extra dose of racism and anti LGBTQ beliefs, and you have one toxic brew spreading through the nation's school systems.

We must not forget history when Nazis infiltrated Germany's schools and taught little children to hate Jews. It's the same thing here.

As it stands, when they come for the books, you know we're in trouble.

Growing Old Does Have Its Benefits I Tell Myself

After 70-plus years I've grudgingly accepted the fact that I'm old. That doesn't mean I'm going to go quietly into the night and stop living.

Sometimes I cringe when I recall my youth when the thought of getting older meant opening the doors to the kingdom. A ten-year old me grousing "When I grow up, I'll do whatever I want."

Add six decades and now my views on growing older have changed. In private moments I fondly remember the stupidity of youth. What George Bernard Shaw once said is so true, "Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children."

Advantages to being a (sigh) Senior

1. You quit worrying about how you look because you just don't care what people think after all of those years. I can walk around in the supermarket wearing slippers and stripped shorts with my t-shirt inside out and not feel uncomfortable.

2. Around 65 years old you become an official senior and the corporate world offers you extra discounts on products, services, and entertainment. 

3. People expect you to be grouchy and I try not to disappoint them.

4. Sometimes people give up their seats so that seniors can sit. However, we can't always count on it like in past decades.

5. Age brings experience and wisdom. Up to a point. I've seen plenty of dumb seniors - think MAGA cult core - that live in a bubble of ignorance and lies.

6. Retired seniors don't have bosses telling them what to do and when they can take a vacation.

On Growing Old

Abraham Lincoln - "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

Henry Ford - "Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young."

Henry David Thoreau - "None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm."

Walt Disney - Growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional." 

----------------------------------------------------

As it stands, I should point out that being 71 years-old has changed my social classification from just a plain old senior to a Septuagenarian... which (truth be told) sounds like some kind of dinosaur!

Sometimes There's a Glitch in the Matrix and Doppelganger's Meet

Just to be clear a doppelganger is a biologically unrelated look-alike, or a double, of a living person.

We seldom ever meet our own doppelganger but when it does happen it's because of a glitch in the matrix as far as I can tell.

The German word doppelganger is often portrayed in fiction and mythology as a ghostly or paranormal phenomenon and usually seen as a sign of bad luck.

In modern times, the term twin stranger is occasionally used. Thye word doppelganger is often used in a more general and neutral sense, and in slang.

There's quite the history behind examples of people meeting their doppelgangers. One of the earliest accounts appears in the edition of Life of Dr. Rizvan Rizing published in 1675 in Paris.

I just read about a man in Las Vegas who met his doppelganger in the pool at The Flamingo.

Sean Douglas McArdle (pictured here) was stunned to see someone who looked exactly like he did, right down to the same horn-rimmed spectacles and cap they both had on. 

With the advent of social media more people are finding their doppelgangers every day. There are several websites where users can upload a photo of themselves and facial recognition software attempts to match them up with another user of the same appearance.

I cannot imagine what it would be like running into someone that looks just like me. My first reaction would probably be regret for all those years I did LSD!

Seriously though. It would have to be an unnerving experience. Even more unnerving is the thought that Trump and the crazy caucus all have doubles slinking around somewhere! I don't even want to go there.

As it stands, doppelgangers and twins have a lot in common with the exception of not having the same parents.

Never Ending Story: Yeet! American Dictionary Grows Every Year

Linguistic scholars generally agree Mandarin and English are two of the toughest languages in the world to learn.

Rather than go into the multiple reasons why let's focus in on the English language and why I think it's tougher than Mandarin... for one big reason.

We annually add words and phrases to our dictionaries making it nearly impossible to keep up with Mirriam-Webster's continual additions. I'm still waiting for Trumpism to slink into our lexicon.

The good news is that many of those new words and phrases can be amusing, inspirational and even provoke debate.

This year 370 words and phrases were added. Here's three of my favorite words:

** Yeet - it either means "used to express surprise, approval, and excited enthusiasm," or as a verb it means "to throw especially with force and without regard for the thing being thrown."

** Shrinkflation - is now a household word thanks to a newspaper publisher from Massachusetts who defined the word as "the practice of reducing a product's amount of volume per unit while continuing to offer it at the same price."

**Adorkable - combine dorky and adorable and you have "socially awkward or quirky in a way that is endearing."

ICYMI which is short for "in case you missed it" also made the cut this year. Finding out that Pumpkin Spice was just added surprised me somewhat. I would have thought it made the cut a long time ago.

According to Merriam Webster's editor at large, "Words offer a window into our ever-changing language and culture and are only added to the dictionary when there is clear and sustained evidence of use."

As it stands, if that's true, why hasn't Trumpism been added yet? It's been around for years? I'm suspicious of their methodology.

Pet Bills in Congress Not Likely to Pass Anytime Soon Unless Animals Given the Right to Vote

Democrats and Republicans love animals.

 

Bipartisan support for their welfare is commonplace. 

Just don't expect any legislation to slide through Congress soon.

Meanwhile...

California Rep. Tony Cardenas is going to host a meet-and-greet with some of the beagles rescued from Virginia to highlight his proposed bill, the Companion Animal Release from Experiments (CARE) Act.

The bill requires NIH-funded research facilities to implement post-adoption policies for dogs, cats and rabbits.

I suspect it will pass through Congress without any notable friction if they ever bring the bill up. But that's the problem. There are five other well-meaning animal bills that are sitting on the bottom of future bills yet to be considered.

* The Planning for Animal Wellness Act

* Right Whale Coexistence Act

* The Shark Fin Sales Elimination Act

* The Big Cat Safety Act

and

* The Beat Poaching Elimination Act

It's obvious (to me) that animals don't vote in the midterms, or those bills might have garnered some consideration. 

Which leads to my proposal of allowing animals to vote using a system where their owners are their proxies and will be allowed to fill out all forms and cast a ballot.

Imagine what a pet friendly nation we'll become after introducing such progressive legislation?

My dogs Molly and Butters think it's a great idea.

As it stands, the idea of electing pets puts a real interesting spin on future elections - Elect Fido and Get Free Bones with Meat still on them! 

Political Plants Put the Garden of Democracy in Peril

According to Biblical accounts a snake (representing the devil) slithered into the Garden of Eden and tempted Eve to take a bite out of a forbidden apple. She did. After that everything went to hell in a handbasket.

More than one snake has slithered into America's Garden of Democracy threatening the republic.

Right-wing extremists like Trump and his supporters, seeded Congress, federal judge ships, and state political positions for years with upcoming wackos loyal to a totalitarian rule. Now in full bloom the deadly plants are invading the American political landscape.

Like unwanted weeds MAGA morons are running for more political offices than ever before. The general feeling being there's enough MAGA gardeners right now to nurture the spread of Trumpism and to overthrow democracy.

For the sake of our nation's future the spread of misinformation from these political plants has to be exposed and dealt with by the Department of Justice.

That fight is in progress.

How far the investigations go will have a lot to do with the midterms. If the Democrats hold Congress, the chance of cleaning our Democratic Garden greatly improves.

If the Democrats only keep the Senate but loose the House, MAGA gardeners will be able to spread their seeds of sedition even further.

Some of the current full-grown MAGA plants in Congress are facing investigations into their roles in the Jan. 6 coup attempt. Others will have to fight off being pulled from Congress in the Fall midterms by motivated Democratic voters.

As it stands, historically Americans have had to defend our Garden of Democracy against multiple enemies. The good news is we're still here tending to the Garden.

Can We Just Get Past Mourning for a British Monarch?

Why are all the major US news organizations covering the death of Queen Elizabeth in such fawning detail?

With everything happening in America today we're being dish fed massive TV coverage highlighting the hauling of the old gal's body around for endless ceremonies. The actual funeral isn't even until next week.

Pause.

Didn't we fight a war of independence and break away from the overbearing monarchy across the sea? The last thing Americans wanted to see was a monarchy. Democracy overcame the British monarchy, and we were freed of all that royal bullshit.

Yet here we are in 2022 mourning the loss of a monarch like it's the most important thing for Americans to pay attention to despite upcoming midterms and countless lawsuits against a former president intent on destroying democracy.

This fascination for English royals is especially stupid today because the whole family are cretins born with silver spoons in their tight lips. 

Think about it. You have an accused pedophile prince and his brother, a cranky and eccentric King who accepted suitcases and bags stuffed with $3.2 million in cash from the former prime minister of Qatar, and who has millions stashed in offshore accounts.

We can't forget the queen's late husband Prince Philip, who died in 2021, was notorious for making racists and sexist remarks. He described Beijing, for example, as "ghastly" during a 1986 visit and told British students "If you stay here much longer, you'll all be slitty eyed."

Lest we forget monarchy obscures the crimes of empire and wraps them in nostalgia.

Those Americans glued to their TVs waiting to see who gets the late queen's Corgis are a mystery to me. I'll admit it.

One passing thought I had was that after the Revolutionary War there were a lot of British loyalists who stayed in the colonies. Perhaps today's royal followers in the US are descendants of theirs.

I also believe that when we allied with England during World War I and II a lot of cross continent marriages occurred possibly adding to the goodwill we see today between the two countries.

None of the above fully explains the mind-numbing coverage devoted to the queen's death and ascension of their new king, who by the way, I suspect isn't going to be a popular monarch.

As it stands, all of that pomp and pageantry is a mere puffery trying to preserve another time in history.