Author: cheriebell69@hotmail.com

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The Texas Ten

Who in the world hasn’t already heard about the Ten Commandments? The code of conduct from the Bible? The ancient rules dictated to Moses by The Almighty and chiseled into two tablets, a story from thousands of years ago occurring on a high mountain in what today would be the Middle East? The purpose of Christian missionaries for spreading the gospel to other nations as their gold and jewels came up missing soon afterwards?

And what in the world were Texas lawmakers a-thinkin’ this time: mandating the Ten Commandments be posted on the walls of every classroom in the public schools? How many posters that gonna be?

Were our legislators thinking the Ten Commandments will miraculously intervene with our students’ comparatively low test scores in reading and math? Texas students rank 44th in the U.S.

That a list of the Ten Commandments will somehow instill into our young Texans a good heart? That they’ll no longer ‘covet thy neighbor’s ass?’

Have you been in a school classroom lately? These commandments might be laughed off the wall. Or more realistically ignored.

What language will the Texas Ten be printed in (English and Spanish and?) and what script and font size? Will the English version be modern or the King’s Own as in reading from the King James’ version of the Bible with words like ‘covet’ and ‘ass’ and phrases like ‘bear false witness?’

Do Texas lawmakers think there will be less school shootings now that the holy Ten Commandments are posted in every classroom?

As for the teachers, on top of every other societal and cultural change the state warrants addressing in the classroom, teachers are expected to act as ‘ministers’—because they’ll sure have to interpret each commandment. [Pssst. Some Christian denominations interpret each commandment more sternly than the progressive sects. That’s gonna be a problem.]

The Texas Lege is missing a few national realities in this age and time. One is: MOST FAMILIES DO NOT ATTEND CHURCH. Which could be why the Lege is posting the commandments.

Another is: A GROWING NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENTS ARE NOT CHRISTIAN. And Texas isn’t about to post Buddha’s Eight-Fold Path or a list of Islam’s fundamental teachings.

From Enlightened to Awakened

Buddhism’s Eight-Fold Path is simple and straight forward and without potential cuss words or nasty thoughts:

Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration.

Who can argue with any of that—besides Texans? Who determines what’s Right? Why, the individual, of course. You know if your work is making you miserable or happy. You know if your speech is appropriate. You know if you’re treating people right or wrong.

But, the thing is … these commandments and Eight-Fold Path discussions are more suitable for adults or older young people, say high school age–and none of it should be required in school:

“Thou shalt not have no other gods before me.”

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.”

“Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”

“Remember the sabbath day to keep it holy.”

“Honor thy Father and thy Mother.”

“Thou shalt not kill.”

“Thou shalt not commit adultery.”

“Thou shalt not steal.”

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”

“Thou shalt not covet.”

Sounds familiar. We’ve all heard them, some all our lives. I’d say most people try to live this way as well.

What kind of backwoods state would post the Ten Commandments in every classroom? Didn’t work in Louisiana. Won’t work here neither.

The only explanation I can figure, for why every Texas classroom has to post the Ten Commandments, is it’s a last-ditch effort by our old legislators to stop school shootings. Texas had 31 mass shootings last year, a few in the schools, a couple in Dallas. Actually, the number of school shootings nationwide may be dwindling due to everybody being on guard all the time nowadays.

Posting the Ten Commandments isn’t going to stop school shootings. Learning the Ten Commandments won’t stop people, especially kids, from: stealing, lying, cheating, being jealous, killing, honoring their parents; or return families to church and by all means make everybody love God … again. Like every American Texan did in the 1950s: the years of the KKK, polio, and racially segregated schools and neighborhoods and businesses.

Humans have free will. Kids already know this. Have you spent any time with a bunch of kids? They live freely and are very willful.

Preaching the Ten Commandments isn’t going to change our enormously complex global high-tech super-duper fast-changing modern times.

Gun control will stop a lot of mass shootings. Locked-up guns will stop most kids from accessing them.

Not that the Texas Legislature was even wanting to address gun control. Such a messy topic in this state. A buzzkill and a dealbreaker ’round these parts. Still and even though.

But I’m for discussing the teachings of world religions. Can you imagine: Lil Texans learning about Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism with all those gods and goddesses and signs and symbols and chakras and whatnot?

It does sound absurd. But only in Texas.

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AI and I

Get outta my Word doc, AI. No, I do not want you to help me create a shopping list or friendly note. I’m old school, see. Perfectly capable of and confident in writing on my own. I know you’re trying to be helpful for the many people who do not like writing. ‘It takes sooo long to do and is soooo boring.’ Not to me. I love writing, even typing. I’m secure with the grammar rules but have noticed time and again glaring errors in AI-assisted writing, comma splices for one. So, no thanks. I’ll keep writing on my own, write, er, right or wrong. I can fix my errors. But thanks for pointing them out, the ones you catch along with the ones that are not incorrect.

A. I. It stands for Artificial Intelligence. Has everyone forgotten? It’s ironic. AI means ‘unreal smarts.’ Fake. Phony. Baloney. We’ve been warned. AI can assist with online research in seconds flat. But then again, I would double check anything AI presented to me upon request. Just makes more work for me.

Everyone is using AI, enjoying just talking and letting AI do all the writing/typing for them. I don’t mind using AI for quick online research but not telling me how to write. I resent AI encroaching into all aspects of our lives ready or not. And especially when I want to write something … of my choosing … my style … original, creative. And I simply will not stand for your interference, AI! You hear me?!

Future shock

Who am I kidding? The future is now with AI and its robotics companion. In coming years almost every job in the world will be replaced by AI one way or another, from the meticulous and menial blue-collar jobs and mind-numbing tasks (for which we earn a salary) to white-collar professions including teaching and doctoring. Lawyers and judges are next as well as police and firefighters.

Computer geeks say AI is the greatest achievement in the history of mankind. But the rest of us are worried sick beyond belief about our jobs and livelihoods and our very usefulness. I see the growing numbers of homeless every day. How will tens of millions of people kicked off the payrolls … survive? The geeks project a universal income for all whereby we’ll be able to chillax in our current homes and apartments, pay our bills with some sort of meaningful currency, be provided healthcare, and maybe self educate (and no doubt self medicate, if I understand my fellow human, and I do).

The geeks foresee the most wonderful era of humanity. Finally, we humans will have ‘time enough at last’ [to borrow from “The Twilight Zone”] to pursue our hobbies and interests now that we don’t have to work anymore. Or we could meld our skills into operating or feeding AI. At last, we could live our lives ‘to full measure’ [again, borrowing from “Twilight Zone”]. Why, we could pursue our individual passions and interests like playing an instrument, painting, sculpting, listening to music, learning crafts and other languages and anything, traveling the world. More importantly, this free time allows us to seriously delve into the mysteries of life: Why are we here? Is there life beyond our planet? Where do we go when we die? Can we enter other dimensions? How can we cure cancer? Can we time travel?

Heady stuff.

All that thinkin’ would put most folks I know to sleep.

See, AI … the vast majority of people aren’t interested in research and studying and analyzing stuff, thinking all the time. People like just getting along as we have for tens of thousands of years. We don’t mind really. We like finding our own food, having a job (work with some rationale of importance and benefit to mankind plus salary and insurance), having weekends off and vacation time, watching movies and shows, gaming, outdoor fun, traveling, exploring hobbies, raising kids and being with friends and family.

Ah, there’s where AI just doesn’t compare: socializing. Sure, individually AI can talk to us like a best friend, a really smart objective rational unemotional Voice in a Box. It can get us to laugh with jokes, given a category from bawdy to kid appropriate. It can act as a counselor (another job going away) and offer comforting words and inspirational thoughts till our tears dry. AI will make us all feel better.

The younger generation habitually uses AI and even looks forward to the day of driverless cars. Driving is another activity I really enjoy (all right, not so much now that my right knee aches after 20 minutes behind the wheel). Shoot, guess whatever our age, AI’s got us covered. Maybe it’s all a big cosmic blessing. Thank you, Lord, for AI! Does that sound right to you? But by now maybe most people think it.

So AI will continue to take over our lives and certainly change what we’ve known life to be at least during the past century—catapulting us wildly into the real 21st century. I’ve been wondering for 25 years now when this century would kick in. Didn’t we all know this would be the highest tech century? Didn’t futuristic movies present how human life would be: people who do not work but are well cared for and healthy, everyone wearing similar form-fitting polyester suits, keeping busy with research or something vague, eating, attending parties, commanding their domestic robots to clean house or cook.

Earthlings are easy. And I suppose in our new era, I’ll play Old Lady who knows old-timey stuff like how to drive a car or cook on a stove … or write. My concern is we will live to see the day AI does all our thinking for us. If it already does all our research—pulling from the mostly unregulated regions of the internet—then it’s already controlling what we think. That cannot be.

Yet, there it is, floating on my doc, an AI icon … to the left of every line I type/write. It’s always there, right here … watching … studying … me. ! [Pssst. Is there a way to disconnect AI? Dave did it to HAL in that space odyssey movie.]

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Things I’m Concerned About

It’s been a long time since I last blogged. I’ve been laying low. With all the changes going on, and all the chickening out due to Trumpian lawsuits, I wasn’t sure about our rights regarding free speech anymore. But I’ve escaped my self-induced paranoid mental or emotional bunker.

The initial reason for keeping quiet began a few months ago when my identity was stolen … for the eighth time or so. I first noticed when I could not get into my bank account on my phone. WTH? Then I could not call the bank or make any phone calls! I was freaking out! There was no way I could fix this major 21st century problem, couldn’t even call anyone in these businesses to report what was going on.

I couldn’t do a thing for hours, first finishing the workday, then rushed home best I could in traffic, and then while choking back tears tell a neighbor what had happened and if I could please use their phone to fix my problems. My phone got hacked by someone in the Dominican Republic, the fraud investigator with my phone company relayed after spending about ten minutes tracing my number. The criminal kicked me off my own phone number and plan and took it for himself.

Fortunately, it was fixable, and the fraud division went to work with my number restored to me. Then I had to call my bank, for the umpteenth time since continuing life in the Digital Age, to let them know I did not have online access to my account. Someone, perhaps the same perpetrator, hacked into my account and changed my password, leaving me no access. I was livid … but knew the FDIC (which we still have, right?) guaranteed funds up to a certain amount digitally stolen from my account would be restored after investigating. Like I said, I’ve been through this several times, too many, and I have online protection, too. With the bank’s fraud division on the line, I had to change my password, and then my account was in my control again … for now.

The first time this sort of thing happened to me, someone in Eastern Europe (that’s what we were told back then) got my number(s) online. That’s how they rob banks now: getting real account numbers stored in cyberspace and going to work figuring out log-ins and clever passwords. The bank actually has been on top of these crimes for years and contacts me, often on a Saturday, asking if I recently purchased a big TV from Walmart in some town I’ve never been or donated to the Republican Party of Wisconsin. Good bank. They know me well somehow. OK, it’s a little creepy. But I guess this is how modern bank robbery crime is fought this century. [I thought the high-tech chip cards were supposed to stop easy online theft.]

This time the bank hacker wasn’t able to get into my account (that’s happened to me, and I had to start a new bank account) but did kick me out somehow, taking over the account. Just scary times we’re living in. It actually makes me extremely depressed … every time it happens. So now I guess we understandably go through life with high anxiety.

Media roll over

The other big thing going on since President Trump took office has disturbed me just as much as online bank and cell phone hacking and that is the American media, like many of our nation’s largest corporations of all types, avoiding any dust ups with the Man. Because he is a sewer, er, suer. Everybody knows this about him. He sues and hangs on like a bulldog for years and years. Meanwhile, the defendants cannot afford to stay in business and deal with a Trumpian lawsuit. That’s what’s going on with our nation’s corporate media.

I never thought I’d see the day. Yet here it is: American news organizations playing nice with a sitting U.S. President. That’s not how it’s supposed to be at all. Give me the days of Bernstein and Woodward along with Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and publisher Katherine Graham. They knew how to play hardball. AND HARDBALL IS THE NAME OF THE GAME BETWEEN THE MEDIA  AND GOVERNMENT.

Journalism, as a government reporter, was my first career. But now the general public is convinced nothing reported in the news is real; it’s all fake. The public actually believes our current President will be the One to let us know what is real and what is fake. This is so … stupid … and lazy. I expect better of my fellow Americans. Each one of us must know how to tell the difference between real and fake news. It takes time and effort, like voting every year for leaders to run our form of government. And don’t believe everything a U.S. president tells us. We never did before Trump. We always doubted politicians.

Also, a free press is written into the U.S. Constitution. It took a few centuries to figure out how to produce thoroughly substantiated news (I’m gonna use the phrase honest journalism), but the American media did it better than any other country. From our nation’s founding, there’s always been the tabloid media. I grew up in an age when EVERYBODY KNEW THE DIFFERENCE. Now with the internet’s lingering Wild West anything-goes news and playing fast and loose with the facts, dressed up to appear legit but with the real intention of keeping us alarmed, Americans have lost their way. This is an American problem. Quit blaming the internet and social media, as Fred Sanford would punctuate to us, “dummy.”

Right now, our U.S. Congress is looking to cut federal funding to PBS and NPR. They stand for the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, the latter title’s implication that it belongs to and is for the People, something to trust, something we could be proud of. It’s a nonprofit—the profit motive doesn’t exist as it does in corporate media. This is about as good as it gets to ensure what you’re reading or seeing or hearing is fact-based journalism. And now gone? Except dubious fast-and-loose-with-the-facts social media and ‘citizen journalists’ and the likes of Trump’s ‘Truth’ Social which will continue to exist for our … let’s call it what it is, entertainment.

Off with their talking heads

And there’s another development with big league journalists that started with the unnecessary 24-hour news cycle. Reporters have been sitting with TV and internet news ‘shows’ to provide insightful commentary into their beats, especially the national government beat. This is not allowed among serious news organizations. Reporters are not opinion writers and columnists. Nowadays journalists who cover the national beat are mixing with show biz. And it’s part of the problem with public trust of the media.

The latest story was a long-time respected national network news reporter getting canned for his social media comment criticizing our current president’s administration. Say the same about any other president, and there’d be no problem. But not so with Trump. The major broadcast company canned the reporter rather than deal with a costly and lengthy lawsuit that would have put the network out of business.

Reporters should remain aloof. They have a job to do not unlike a homicide detective. The public doesn’t need to know everything. (I can’t believe I just wrote that.) But with two terms of President Trump, I see how important journalism is. Truly it’s as if we’re in a war of sorts, a search for truth. Make that Truth. And reporters are investigators. The public sees their faces, hears their voices, knows their names. But we shouldn’t know much more about reporters including their political views. [I can’t believe I wrote that either.] For the sake of our country’s unique and honored relationship with the press, reporters should get off the celebrity circuit and just do their job—which is: Find out what’s really going on including how, why, who, where and when.

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Dear Greenland, Canada, Panama and Mexico:

Please allow me to explain the mindset of my people, U.S. citizens. I know Americans, albeit my certain knowledge comes from a specific race and nationality hailing from the nations of Western Europe. Long ago, my people came to the New World, as this ‘discovered’ continent was called, for whatever reason. [We were taught it was something very noble like religious freedom, to practice Christianity as they believed best, and more truthfully to not be persecuted for their Christian practices whether Catholic or Protestant—in the Old Country, imprisonment and death were quite likely.]

I can tell you, citizens of the world, why Americans (well a tad more than 50%) voted for Trump twice. America has had a mostly middle-class citizenry for a good century or so—especially after World War II. But then all that blowing and going and economic gains for most American families in the mid-20th century came to a sudden halt in the 1970s. That’s when a number of very important U.S. industries, such as auto manufacturers, closed up shop in this here Land of the Free and Home of the Brave and moved way across the sea or just south of the border to continue business at a greatly reduced cost. Business is, after all, the most important thing in the heart, mind and soul of an American. We understand it. We accept it. We’re also very angry about it (because it puts us all in jeopardy).

To be an American is to understand the almighty dollar. Most of us just want to work, have a good job, raise kids, have some time off, enjoy our lifetime. Most of us don’t really want to be millionaires. That is an incredibly tiny segment of the U.S. population, rare—and rarer still the very few who have the je ne sais quoi [meaning “I know not what”] to break through to the other side and join the teeny tiny ranks of wealthy Americans.

But all of us understand what it takes to make it in this country: We pull ourselves up from our bootstraps and get up every day to work and earn our keep. That last part is very critical in understanding our collective American mindset. It goes back to when families first started coming over here and through the decades spanned out to settle across the prairie and along the coasts, mountains and hills.

We are taught to take care of our own, meaning literally our own family and if we don’t have a family then just our own selves.

So with this uniquely American philosophy, permeating throughout our modern era, comes a great hatred for taking care of millions of people we don’t know and honestly do not care about. Cruel as it sounds, it’s not, not to Americans and the way we figure. And my people think they have a point; a good half of our population thinks this a-way.

I suppose the attitude of “I got mine; you get yours” sounds selfish. [And, well hell, it is.] But when Ronald Reagan said it, it just made sense. You have to FIRST take care of yourself and family. And all will turn out right if you strive toward that goal (and that goal only). Never mind if that goal at times meant some families and communities were harassed with burning crosses in their front yards or if this goal created segregation and job discrimination against races who were not WASP (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) or prejudices and bigotry against all immigrants in this country (this nation founded by and for immigrants). That is U.S. history.

With every election, Americans who vote are choosing how to spend our tax dollars. Whether they think about it or not, each voter is at a gut level voting to sit on the money (not one dime to anyone who isn’t one of us) or to use American tax revenue for the common good (whatever that is).

The greater good

This is the difference between our two political parties, groups of opposing viewpoints who sometimes merged together toward progress but nowadays have intentionally and harshly divorced from one another.

That’s where we are today in the U.S.

Notice no protests, or very few, against all the mass federal worker firings and the dubious reviews by an unelected billionaire/trillionaire and his troupe of unknown young acolytes. Americans are mostly silent. None of us is shocked or awed. We’re not all that enraged by legitimate media banned from covering our federal government. For decades many Americans have wanted to ‘drain the swamp’ that is believed to be our federal government. It used to be the working man’s motto ‘Throw the bums out’ referred to all the elected leaders who go to D.C. and then do nothing (other than vote themselves raises and the very best health insurance courtesy of U.S. taxpayers).

The great majority of us live nowhere near our capitol of Washington, D.C., and really know nothing about how government gets done. But our 300 million citizens across the country have come to believe, for generations now, that our federal government—with a budget of $6.75 trillion and a massive $30 trillion debt—is bloated and ineffectual and … exactly how are we not bankrupt by now?

So the ‘fat’ of presumed government waste is being chopped off. [Again, the waste used to refer to elected officials in Congress not necessarily to all the federal employees.]

And as the world knows about America and Americans, we tend to shoot first and ask questions later.

That’s what’s going on now. We finally have a U.S. President who will fire almost everyone who is a federal employee—so despised are they, these loafers who are paid by us, the American taxpayers.

Unlike our European cousins and other relatives across the world, the U.S. has always prided itself in looking out for Number One. That concept is not only unknown to the rest of the world’s people but indeed flat-out cruel not to mention impolite and, as everyone except an American knows, hardly Christian. [JC did teach us to “love our neighbors like ourselves,” the neighbors being everyone on the planet.]

One final thing to never forget about Americans is our nation produces the highest number of sociopaths compared to every nation on earth—our rate believed by psychologists to be 20 to 25 percent of our population. Other nations, which have been around for thousands of years, may have two to five percent of their population who turn out to be sociopaths.

What is a sociopath? A sociopath is someone who has no regard toward other people, is antagonistic and selfish, loves only himself and never anyone else even spouses and family, who has usually average intelligence although a few are brilliant, and whose only ambition throughout life—and the longer they live, the more clearer the picture becomes—is to destroy people, leave a trail of ruined lives and businesses, and get off by watching people he’s pitted against each other. They are cheaters. They are lazy. They don’t really work for a living. A few manage to have money from dubious circumstances including inherited wealth.

Prisons are full of sociopaths, people who thought they would get away with their crimes because they understand human beings are generally nice, polite, kind, don’t get too nosy or ask a lot of questions. Sociopaths will easily anger if they are pressed about their motivations. They don’t want to be found out. On the other hand, they don’t give a damn either.

So people of Earth, for now Americans have elected someone that leans toward ruining tens of thousands of lives in D.C. which will inevitably ruin many others across the U.S. as well as immediately impact the entire world—because in the past, the U.S. used to be proud of our leadership in the world. We liked thinking of ourselves as the Good Guys, helping mankind and fighting injustice across the entire planet. But for now, and hopefully not for long or forever, America can finally proclaim it’s no Friend of the World. We are practicing the political isolationism that I assure you many Americans have always wanted … throughout our entire history.

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sixtysomething: our last great decade of life, maybe

Live long enough, and we reach yet another awkward age: our 60tweens—old but not old enough … ineligible for some senior discounts; not old enough to retire, get on Medicare or collect Social Security. As an observer of human lifespans, watching my parents and relatives and celebrities age, I’m thinking this decade of life may be the last hurrah. If other health battles haven’t interrupted our relatively long lives, such as cancer or debilitating injury, then 60something is likely our last decade of still getting around, confidently walking on our own, still somewhat flexible, able to exercise though moderately, traveling, driving, dancing, thinking, creating, working. Besides, a recent AARP magazine article made clear the 60s are when we really start dying out as a generation. Thanks for giving us the straight dope, AARP.

Perhaps having old U.S. Presidents is making us think 80 is the new 60, that we will all be just as active as Biden and Trump. How long we live and age truly is in the genes for the most part. Some families have long life spans. Look at Jimmy Carter. Other than sheer luck, health is the most important factor. Just keeping ourselves healthy by eating right, modest indulgences like drinks and sweets, managing stress, and maintaining an active as opposed to sedentary lifestyle. In short, KEEP MOVING. Keep on keeping on.

So, I keep working—despite awakening almost every day with new aches and pains, some that will become chronic. But each day I realize my mind is not as sharp as it used to be. Often the single precise word I need has left the building of my mind. On the other hand, I’ve always been that a-way even as a kid. I remember it well, talking 90 words a minute then drawing a complete blank over the right word or name of someone, always just on the tip of my tongue, ahhhh nuts. Sometimes even when writing, this can occur. But in writing, I have time to remember the perfect word(s) I wanted to use. And in our wonderful century, I can easily edit something already published digitally. Gotta love our times sometimes.

Both my dad and mom had heart attacks at the end of their 60s. Afterwards, physically they were brought down a few notches, not as agile as they had been most of their lives, never again to consider traveling anywhere, more inclined to stay put at home, enjoying simply sitting and watching TV and napping. My parents still exercised, their living room adorned with a treadmill and stationary bike. In good weather, they used to take country walks, enjoying their golden years of well-deserved retirement. But their respective heart attacks changed them from active and energetic seniors to … more cautious with every step and breath.

Twenty years later, mom fell and broke her hip. That was it. A year later, she was dead, so traumatic to the body is a broken hip perhaps at any age. But at 85, her bones were brittle, too.

Many of my high school classmates have retired, having lucked out with a solid job for 30 or so years. Not me. The truth is I enjoy working. Makes me feel useful, like I’m part of life on the planet. Don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have a job to go to, a big purpose. Besides, unemployment makes me extremely depressed. And I wouldn’t have health insurance without a job. Not yet. So I keep on truckin’.

The future is now

If this is indeed my last great decade, I hope to travel the world again. Number one on my bucket list is Latin America. Never been, not even to Mexico. Traveling to Germany, of which I have some ancestry around the Rhineland, would be another adventure to look forward to. Scotland, too. And I’ve never been to Hawaii or taken an ocean cruise.

While I still have my health, vision, hearing and mental faculties (as good as they’ve ever been, I suppose), I realize the time to do whatever makes up my final chapter is now.

When I was in my 40s, I wrote my obituary and memorial desires and instructions. Have it all figured out. Over the years, I’ve gone back into the doc to update, changing specific songs, to me the most interesting aspect of a person’s memorial. Still keeping Carry On by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. And the more I think about it, that Laura Nyro song And When I Die seems a fond farewell sentiment I’d like to leave everyone. Both songs are optimistic; they are songs encouraging the rest of humanity who will see and experience things I won’t after crossing into that great Classroom in the sky.

Life is for learning. That is my philosophy. Religion is not the study of God but the study of people, cultures. Yes, it is. In pondering the Great Unknown—where we all ‘go’ when, you know, we skip outta this human existence on Earth—I’ve been fascinated by stories of people who’ve actually died at least for a few minutes. Their stories are remarkably similar, and their experiences are real. The most amazing claim is they no longer fear death. And neither should the rest of us. It is a blessing that we don’t live forever, that we finally retire permanently, thank God. The older I get, the more I find myself looking forward to the Glad Reunion in the Sky … just not quite yet. Please, please, please?

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Only an idiot would shut down the Department of Education

The opening page to the U.S. Department of Education’s website reads: Fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.

Aha! Now we see why the Trump Administration is condemning a federal department that ensures the education of a hundred million children, teens, young people … and adults of all ages—regardless of race, sex, creed, color, ability, and religion.

The website’s sub sections include: higher education (financial assistance to go to college), adult programs (to complete GEDs), K-12 education, teaching and administration (assistance for educators and principals), grants and programs, and laws & policy.

There’s even an overview for laypeople to understand the purpose of this federal department: “Education is primarily a State and local responsibility in the United States. It is States and communities, as well as public and private organizations of all kinds, that establish schools and colleges, develop curricula, and determine requirements for enrollment and graduation.”

Aha! Even the U.S. Department of Education acknowledges the states’ and communities’ roles in educating our country’s youth.

Makes perfect sense now: why only idiots would have an axe to grind with our nation’s great aspirational goal, envisioned by Constitutional framers in the 18th century at our country’s formation, to provide free education for every single child living in this country.

See, democracy can only work with educated voters. Democracy, therefore, cannot be maintained in a nation of idiots. Idiots include people who refuse to routinely check out opposing views, who want immigrants kicked out (because their beef is not just with illegal immigrants), whose bigotry and prejudices run generations deep just like the Jew-hating Germans a hundred years ago, who do not believe in American journalism as a legitimate investigative watchdog of every aspect of government—written into the U.S. Constitution.

These are the same idiots, no doubt, who somehow managed to graduate high school without taking a mandatory government or civics course. That course has been cut from U.S. high schools for a good 20 years now.

So the Idiocracy has begun.

Idiots don’t got no brains

There’s a difference between people who learn slowly and an alarming number of individuals who insist on maintaining an idiot’s view of the world. The U.S Department of Education, originally dating back to the days after the Civil War as an act to bring Americans back together as one nation, clearly is a partner in education instead of a ramrod forcing ideals such as ‘wokism’ (which was never a thing, by the way).

By this time in the 21st century, don’t you think kids in rural areas have a right to learn everything that their peers living in major cities learn? Don’t they have the right to the same science labs, libraries, field trips, scholastic achievements and honors, scholarships, along with technology (laptops/computers in every classroom for every single enrolled student) as well as all sports and all fine and performing arts?

These are the basics to a 21st century kid.

Still, because the U.S. does allow communities and states to call the shots on a child’s education, we have a state than banned Journalism as an elective course in all public schools and another state requiring Biblical ‘teachings’ in science textbooks. We have a state that banned yoga from being taught in public schools even as a weekly after-school extracurricular program while another state fully implements yoga in its public school curriculum, teaching kids to meditate and calm themselves (which is necessary to learn, by the way).

What kind of idiot has a problem with yoga?

I’ll tell you the type: an uptight ignorant religious bigot, someone with a closed instead of an open mind.

Two courses that should be included in every public school in the U.S. are Psychology and World Religion.

You think the past decades-long wars don’t warrant our youth’s complete understanding of religious beliefs? Americans should be studying up on it and not just through internet ‘research.’

Today’s youth also are not reading books anymore. They’re not reading articles online either. Their attention span is about one minute due to smart phones, social media and TikTok. This is absolutely the wrong direction for humanity, well those who want a democratic government. But we have states with a list a mile long of banned books. Poor American kids, stuck in the middle of the 21st century, confused with teachers encouraging them to read and learn everything they can while their communities warn of dire consequences—for learning. Today’s kids are caught between states and communities pretending to have their best interests at heart (and they don’t) and a liberal ideology that pulled many voters toward the ‘blow it all up’ approach to government management.

American idiots know a few things. One: If you don’t like something, blow it up. Two: They can believe anything they want whether it’s right or wrong, true or lie. Three: Schools are a political punching bag (so maybe education isn’t all that important).

If we’re going to get back to educational basics, then start with allowing teachers to teach. Despite what idiots think, teachers are not the enemy. Teachers want to share their passion for their subjects. Youth respond to human passion like they respond to a favorite entertainer whose musical message resonates with their own lives. It matters to them. Splitting hairs over yoga, journalism, Bible stories and banned books just creates more societal distrust in education … creating soon-to-be more adults angry at themselves for having missed educational opportunities while in school due to a bunch of powerful strangers’ petty politics. After all, free education is just a few years in the span of a long fulfilling life.

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21st century: blowing & going

From the year 2000, we are now completing the first quarter of the 21st century. But, hey, it’s a lot like we’re living in the 1920s: the roaring fun years, the money years, the kick-up-your-legs dancing years, the wicki wicki wacki woo music, the cars, the annoying horns, the rumble seats, the phones, the movies, the bigger-than-life sex symbols on the silver screen, the celebrity double entendre, lotsa photos of smiling high times, hypocritical prohibition, sweet marijuana, ruthless gangs, the Tommy guns, the jazz lingo, the loose morals, the short dresses, the eye makeup, the bobbed hair, the raccoon coats, and the ukes.

A hundred years later, it’s like Fast Times at 21st Century High.

We can’t even recall exactly when we started burying our faces in our smart phones. Or when parents’ kids started calling them dumb phones.

But we very quickly changed as a society for the better and for worse. As a human race, we agreed to go along for the ride that is the 21st century.

Tech replaced the Space Age known to the Baby Boomers. Briefly around the 1990s, the Space Age was replaced by the Information Age—thought to be the most significant achievement in the history of mankind and sure to open the world to democracy and the benefit of FREE SPEECH. But that Age has morphed into a horrible, dangerous and anti-democracy Disinformation Age and purposefully ruinous Misinformation Age. That is our Age now.

Nevertheless, I offer the following retrospective of our times so far:

The good things about living in the first quarter of the 21st century

Y2K averted—the much-feared and over-publicized worrisome turn-of-the-century transfer of vast computerized data controlling everything from banks to bombs to municipal water and sewer systems, each computer system created ages ago and presumed to expire December 31, 1999; no one knows how it all worked out without a hitch (but we thought the world could come to an explosive end)

The Human Genome Project—international scientists broke the code of life to uncover future medical breakthroughs benefiting mankind

World Wide Web/AKA the internet—allows everyone access to vast information and history, even encyclopedias, books, sound recordings, film and video

Federal budget balanced—by the Clinton Administration; no one ever thought such a thing possible, but it happened and left an enormous surplus

Facebook—an internet novelty that ushered in social media and mainly allowed people to seek long lost friends, loved ones, and even re-unite broken families

Barack Obama elected U.S. President in 2008 AND 2012—our first Black president, no assassination to this date

Robotics—commonly used in more industries, even something called ‘soft botics’ small patches placed on human bodies for healing while digitally providing data to doctors

Smart Boards—replaced the classroom’s old blackboard and whiteboard by connecting the internet with touch-screen effects, making learning fun and relevant to students already more tech-savvy than many of their teachers and parents

iPhone—the internet in the palm of your hand

Computerized cars—operating with tens of thousands of chips, features include self-driving and self-parking

Amazon—buy anything your heart desires, delivered from the company’s gigantic storage facilities

Neo burials—fewer graves, more cremation plus the latest trend toward bio graves that replenish the earth

Drones—uses of which are just starting to be seen

Store-to-home/office—delivery services

Marijuana—more states legalizing the wacky weed; for generations, possession and distribution were considered crimes punishable by prison; President Biden recently released everyone serving federal marijuana sentences and pardoned thousands at the state level

Work from home (thanks Covid-19) many former office workers sent home to work during the pandemic ain’t returning to their cubicles or offices but still will work … online

Bi-racial families—Live and let live for the growing number of citizens marking the U.S. Census as being ‘more than one race’

Hybrid and at long last electronic cars—can go a few hundred miles on a single charge

Wind power—thousands of acres of windmills seen countryside produce clean energy

Fast cash—send money online bank to bank to friends and family whenever wherever

Women almost elected U.S. President—two highly qualified women win the Democratic Party nomination in 2016 and 2024

Streaming services: watch movies, TV shows, news, music and games at home any time

Financial upswing—uncanny and incredulously lingering robust financial times

The bad things about living in the first quarter of the 21st century

9/11—September 11, 2001, NYC, USA, two commercial airplanes highjacked by terrorists flown directly into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, killing close to 3,000 people and devastating life, commerce and air travel around the world for weeks and months

Two “forever” wars—instigated by the U.S. in retaliation for the 9/11 attacks and fought in Afghanistan and Iraq; costing trillions of dollars, a billion a day in the early years; ending in 2009 and 2021; the REASON Americans are angry about government and their personal finances and present and future quality of life

The Great Recession of 2007-2009—millions lost their jobs and endured salary cuts

Tech bust—tens of millions unemployed

Opioid crisis—pain killer prescription authorized by doctors leading to perpetual addiction of 10 million and unintended deaths of hundreds of thousands

Housing crisis—ongoing and growing homeless people on the streets of cities, suburbs and small towns

2016 Democratic and Republican Convention fights—both parties hotly disputed controversial nominees, finally agreeing on Donald Trump (R) and Hillary Clinton (D)

Social media interference with U.S. presidential election 2016—U.S. proved Russia intentionally posted numerous false reports against Democratic presidential candidates including Obama and Clinton

Fake news—proudly coined by President Trump, refers to longstanding traditional newspapers and TV news such as CNN and The New York Times; the term used to refer to notorious tabloid news filled with unsubstantiated and always scandalous stories about celebrities or dubious science

Abortion illegal again—following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, half the states banned the procedure even for rape and incest

Q-Anon—What? Was? That?

Increased school shootings—the number was 40 in just 2024

Daily mass shootings—at every single place where lots of people gather: churches, grocery stores, malls, parks, concerts, movie theaters, nightclubs, restaurants; 488 mass shootings in just 2024

The internet—unregulated like America’s Wild West has become overrun with made-up stories and images

Parents charged with child’s mass school shooting—about time

Illegal immigration—worldwide and due to intolerable and deadly living and economic conditions in many countries; number touted in the U.S. is at 11 million

Closing rural hospitals—not enough business to pay the bills, according to healthcare experts

Increasing cost of healthcare and health insurance—deductibles unaffordable to most families

Decline of the daily newspaper—even online editions, a twist to the old adage “All politics is local”

Pandemic or its mishandling—included worldwide panic, forced business/industry and school closures, forced quarantines, required masks everywhere, social distancing, culminating in school closures for a year and a half not to mention long Covid sufferers and increased anxiety among kids

Youth suicide—numbers are heartbreaking; blame on social media and online peer bullying

24-hour news cycle—enough already; most of the time spent analyzing and predicting news instead of reporting it

Cost of higher education—graduates revolting, Biden administration forgiveness for some hotly debated

Fracking—causing earthquakes in diverse places like Texas and Oklahoma

Women presidential candidates—in 2016 and 2024 but do not win

Americans elect convicted felon as U.S. President in 2024—lowering a standard

Profanity—accepted in popular songs and culture

Teacher shortages—caused by massive layoffs connected to the Great Recession and massive retirements and resignations during the pandemic

Gun sales unprecedented—upon Obama’s election and Congress allowing the expiration of the federal ban on assault rifles, the preferred gun in successful mass shootings

Ghost guns—built with special 3-D printers and totally untraceable by law enforcement

Climate Change—yeah, we all agree now that it’s really real.

Which leaves us to what we have to look forward to or regret: Artificial Intelligence, facial recognition, designer babies, skies darkened by drone traffic, and free countries voting in authoritarian leaders to quash democratic ideals and illegal immigration—the worse-case scenario being World War III.

On an optimistic note … why aren’t we flying in our own sky cars by now?

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Insurance CEO shooting backlash: inappropriate, honest, sad commentary on America’s healthcare system

Murder is immoral and a crime punishable by prison and execution. But … wow wee, Americans have taken to making public their stories of being screwed (excuse me), er, treated very badly by their health insurance companies. And all us Americans understand exactly the extreme anger expressed in millions of social posts responding to the intentional shooting death of a major healthcare provider CEO. If we haven’t experienced a screwing (excuse me), er, a very bad experience whereby we who are insured still end up paying thousands and tens of thousands of dollars for required medical treatment and hospitalizations, we all know someone who has.

So in this country, being angry about our medical healthcare insurance is well known going back to the days of TV’s Donahue. The story goes there was a golden moment shortly after World War II when our nation considered going the way of Western Europe and other modern nations like war-torn and totally defeated Japan by creating universal healthcare. Since then, all their citizens never have to choose between life-saving prescriptions and surgery or like many of us living in the U.S.: pass on medication and treatments because we can’t afford it. That is our common story, our peculiar unique frustrating lives whenever we get sick: What to do and how to pay for it?

Instead the good old boys of the 1940s representing us in the U.S. Congress decided to keep health insurance tied to employment. The rich and powerful have always believed NOT in the decent, hard-working American. No, they must come from families who no doubt had at least one lazy good-for-nothing uncle who would rather not work for a living. The bottom line was keeping health insurance as a benefit for only the employed. Make that the gainfully employed. Part-timers don’t count along with the unfortunate unemployed. Yeah, life’s tough. Get a job.

Earlier this century, President Obama’s priority for universal healthcare was due to the national finding that catastrophic illness is the number one reason why Americans lose their homes. But we know how extremely, and unnecessarily, controversial that whole universal healthcare debate was. The President had to go to the Supreme Court time and again to pass what amounted to the Republicans’ counter healthcare revisions now known as Obamacare. And still Americans are unhappy with their healthcare coverage (still tied to our jobs), the increasing deductibles over a career of working, the fear of losing their life savings due to chronic medical illness or injuries from, say, a car crash.

Work and pray

There are tales about the 1960s when congressional Republicans fought tooth and nail against Medicare (universal healthcare for old people) and Medicaid (universal healthcare for poor people). But the measures passed anyway thanks to LBJ. In the 1990s, universal healthcare was a top priority of President Clinton but couldn’t be passed—not with feuding among every sector of the healthcare industry (doctors, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and insurance providers) blaming each other and refusing to … compromise. Yeah, that’s how things get done in government. And why would healthcare providers want to compromise? Follow the money.

A big compromise discussed was salaries and in this country money paid by healthcare providers in lawsuits and lawsuit insurance coverage. In the early 1990s, a national study on earnings of professionals in the healthcare industry (doctors, hospital administrators, pharmaceutical CEOs, research scientists, and insurers) was made public as well as suggested reduced salaries that would make healthcare more affordable. The figure for physician earnings was $400,000, compared to the study’s suggested annual salary of $200,000. That was a long time ago, the 1990s. In this country, people that go into healthcare, the number one industry this century, don’t choose it because they love people. Money, big money, salaries that 99 percent of us would never dream of, is a factor. We get it. Perfectly understandable. We’re all Americans here. Money’s our thing. The rest of the world sees us as people who care more about money than anything else. Are they wrong?

Then we hear about how healthcare works in other modern nations like Canada, Great Britain and Japan. First, doctors there do not earn anywhere near what their counterparts earn in the U.S. Nowadays we can investigate online instead of asking someone who lived or lives in nations with universal healthcare. The Michael Moore movie Sicko, about our convoluted and broken healthcare system compared to the better managed systems in France and England, was enlightening … and infuriating … and by now forgotten by Americans today. In those countries, people didn’t pay for the birth of a baby, life-saving brain surgery, cancer treatments, even home healthcare for elderly and temporarily disabled people.

At the heart of the nations across our world that long ago opted for universal healthcare is their value of human life. Those countries think a human should be saved if at all possible, that every person has worth in their societies, that everybody has the right to be healthy physically and emotionally and therefore productive, that the human masses do not exist for the benefit of the nation or corporations but just the opposite: corporations and nations exist for the benefit of citizens.  

These are big lofty ideals, called idealistic by fiscal conservatives, called freeloading by the crass who don’t want to take the time and energy to fix our healthcare system—that nobody likes no how.

But universal healthcare, which I’ve always believed in because it exists all around us in nations an ocean away and even within our shared hemisphere, is as important as life itself. Is it not? How to make it work in the U.S.? It’s possible. It’s always been.

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WWPS do?

So I was buying a sheet of Pete Seeger stamps at the U.S. Post Office the other day … What? I seem just like the type of lib who uses stamps honoring an American treasure like folk singer Pete Seeger? Actually, I was searching for Billie Holiday stamps or any musical stamps (since music is my passion). But the only music stamp was an illustration of Seeger singing while playing his trademark banjo.

And I started thinking about what would Pete Seeger do if he lived in these times, given our latest presidential election of a convicted felon awaiting sentencing for almost three dozen crimes plus the civil sexual assault conviction culminating in millions of dollars still owed his victim? Seems Americans are willing to go with any man who’s had a TV show and been on the screen so many decades now that everyone feels like he’s family.

Long ago I determined as an old person when it came to world affairs, I wanted to carry on like Kurt Vonnegut, Arthur Miller, Larry King, and the old-school reporters on classic “60 Minutes”: crusty but wise, fine detectors of bull$&^*, able to call a spade a spade. Wow, the freedom they had, the bravery, the willingness to risk all for what they knew to be truth, justice and right. They all lived through World War II—the worst modern event to have happened to humanity and the planet—and to their dying breath they always believed (no, they knew): The world keeps spinning. We the people carry on. I would put Seeger in this high echelon of famous Americans worth admiring and emulating.

In the past few weeks, along with half the country’s population, I indeed shed tears over the loss of yet another first woman U.S. president. And more tears over having to live through another Trump reign. He never acted like a U.S. president (one who knows he’s one of the people) but prefers to be treated like a king.

That right there just chaps my hide.

And so it also would anger Americans who know the U.S. presidency to be part of a governing trio that everyone understands will ‘check and balance’ each other. In this country, no governing entity is a higher authority than the others: judicial, executive and legislative branches. That’s how we learned it in school. But the incoming president doesn’t go for that historical and unique concept. He only proves that some businesspeople with no background in government operations (or basic law), especially American democracy that absolutely permits and puts up with the watchful eye of the press, should be president ever.

Waist Deep in the Big Muddy

That anti-war song by Pete Seeger was banned on radio and TV in the 1960s and even had something to do with a major network canceling “The Smothers Brothers” show which would feature Seeger’s performance of the song. It was based on Seeger’s knowledge of WWII when he served Uncle Sam as an entertainer. He knew war and therefore was against the Vietnam War. He was anti-war period.

Seeger, whose father was an educated musicologist who preserved folk music, was raised in a comfortable Eastern U.S. family. Traveling with his father while exploring folk music, young Pete asked for a banjo, and that started his own musical exploration and enthusiasm with folk music. Along the way, he would befriend not only Woody Guthrie but Bob Dylan and maintain lifelong friendships with both innovators and poetic observers of 20th century American life. Being a political radical from the Great Depression—and rather a famously unabashed one—he was called in to name names before HUAC, the House Un-American Activities Committee, that went after American commies or Democrats or liberal thinkers. As did playwright Arthur Miller, Seeger eloquently told the committee he didn’t recognize their authority and stood by his constitutional right to free speech which included free thinking. His guilty verdict was overturned years later, and he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President Bill Clinton.

There were those who did not support Seeger, a known commie, being awarded an American medal for anything. But Clinton was a Seeger fan and admirer. Didn’t matter what Seeger’s political affiliation was. Free thinkers, people, Americans who allow others to think what they want and believe what they want are always outsiders. They can form groups and organizations and now meet online and vent like I do here. But … they’ll always be outnumbered for it is so much easier to just go along with the crowd whether political or religious. It’s just easier for people to get along if their opposing beliefs and thoughts are … kept to themselves.

My heroes above would say “Horse$#!+!”

So for now as 2024 turns into the first quarter of the 21st century, it seems we Americans still find ourselves living in a time remarkably known and experienced by my heroes mentioned above like Seeger, Vonnegut and Miller. We who are still here must accept it’s always been … and always will be.

Pete Seeger sings Waist Deep in the Big Muddy.

Bing Videos

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What the *&^%$ happened!?!!

Lily white is not where I work. Lily white is not where I live. I’m not sure where all the white people are at this point, presuming that was a major voting bloc for returning President Donald Trump to power. But I can say in my chats with first-generation Americans—who come from other lands like Central and South America, Africa and the Middle East—that they tend to be Republican. Just something I noticed. And this election, Arab Americans in particular were choosing Trump over VP Kamala Harris due to the U.S. pro-Israel policy regarding war-torn Gaza.

People say the economy is why Trump won handedly or why Harris lost. I understand completely. Everything costs so damn much now with no sign of prices restored to pre-pandemic levels. We haven’t experienced a pandemic like the Covid-19 worldwide health crisis, so who knows how long it takes for prices to come down? We’ll find out. Still, President Joe Biden’s economy is proven resilient, even stronger than when Trump was President. But obviously, the majority of American voters remain unconvinced and are hurting economically in the home … where it counts most.

I started this political humor and social commentary blog a month after Trump was elected as U.S. President in 2016—so shocked was I he won. And the way he won. All brass and no class. Lots of repeated lies and histrionics. Calling straight-up news organizations ‘fake news’ and the tabloids ‘real news.’ And just plain meanness, like making fun of a disabled reporter. Gosh. Not to mention cozying up to Russian leader Vladimir Putin. But the majority of Americans voted Trump in. Actually, his opponent Hillary Clinton received 3 million more votes. But Trump won the Electoral College. This time around, he won quickly and with the popular vote. It was a stunning victory all around. Republicans didn’t think he’d win. Neither did Democrats. Neither did the mass media.

By now the people don’t trust the American news media at all with their puffed-up predictions and polls. The news media had an approval of maybe 30 percent, and now forget about it. The media blew it again with all their assured projections which the public actually believed. None of them thought Trump would win again. All of them insisting the economy is robust. (And ironically it is.) But Americans aren’t fooled by the high cost of living, their struggles to make ends meet, their living too close to financial ruin month after month.

I know. I blame corporate greed for the high cost of products. I realize prices have gone up, even doubled and tripled, and never have come down for everything including rent and mortgage, hospitalization, prescription drugs, insurance, bills for power and gas, and fuel for our cars. And why aren’t prices going down … by now? [I’ll be suspicious if prices miraculously come down after Trump takes office.]

Democrats have changed. So have Republicans.

Another theory on why Trump won has to do with something called elitism, that Democrats are thought of as educated and overly educated, smug and pretentious, earning the big bucks, living cushy lives in McMansions, and definitely ignoring the ‘little people.’ I cannot believe I’ve lived to see the day that Democrats are considered the party of the elite and Republicans are thought of as the ones who aren’t too proud to roll up their sleeves and help the common man. It’s what the American people think based on last week’s election. It’s as extreme a political reversal as when both parties switched when Blacks were given civil rights in the 1960s. OK, so Americans now see Republicans as the political party that cares for the working man. I remain unconvinced—as unconvinced as the majority voters are with Democrats supporting measures to assist their struggle with high prices.

But given how Trump won in 2016 and now again in 2024, I theorize (sorry for using a pretentious word)—all right, to rephrase: I’m thinking there’s something going on with the human brain and circular logic. It is the stuff of cults.

I’m just mouth agape over what’s happened to the majority of people I know, from beloved family to friends, neighbors and colleagues. In my nonwhite neighborhood and work world, the overwhelming majority of people are Republican. I understood the growing switch from Democrat to Republican back in the 1990s as the issues of concern were wasteful government spending, taxes, social conservatism, Christianity, abortion, and if you can believe it Presidential character. In those days, communities across the U.S. that used to be Democratic strongholds converted one by one to Republican. It was a movement that started with the mass appeal of President Ronald Reagan in 1980.

And this Republican majority, whether true believers or just voting for Trump again for what it’s worth, watch Right-leaning Fox, America’s number one choice with 25 percent of all news watchers. It didn’t matter that Fox lost a defamation lawsuit and had to spend close to a billion dollars for repeatedly lying about the 2020 presidential outcome to support Trump’s claim against voting machines and rampant fraud.

The 2020 election was judged to be our most secure in history with the same said about 2024. So the machines are not malfunctioning (and they did at the turn of the century as I experienced).

And illegals could never vote to begin with along with lots of dead people. So those were other lies from 2020 and cleared by the 2024 election.

There was always a fear in politics that more people were drawn to “extreme” Right and Left. That’s worth pondering. Republicans who are wholeheartedly in with Trump denounce the party actually and proclaim themselves MAGA. Who knows what that means, but apparently immigration, all right illegal immigration—because it’s still legal for humans to come to this country to live—was the burning factor, the one big topic of interest that bonded tens of millions of Americans together.

Back to Democratic elitism, it’s not as insulting as it is just … stupid. Talking heads may articulate policy flaws and desires whether Republican or Democrat. But to base an entire historical American political party as the New Elites is not true. And yet we who call ourselves Democrats must come across as thinking we’re better than everybody else. I’ve been told that a few times. Me, one who practices self-deprecating humor, the first one to insult myself before anybody else gets a chance. The point is people who did have the opportunity to go to college (on work-study programs and government loans and grants as I did) don’t think they are better than people who did not and could not attend or finish college.

Elitism describes a minority of Americans across both Republican and Democrat parties. What they have in common is wealth and the ability to live ‘above’ the masses in a way that keeps them from seeing and experiencing what’s really going on down here where 99 percent of us live and work. Elites do not know or care about the majority of Americans’ fear of financial ruin and the squeezing of the middle class. President Joe Biden and VP Harris were not born with silver spoons in their mouths. They came from typical middle-class and working-class families. They earned the opportunity for college and made their way in life. The same cannot be said about Trump.

The fact remains the majority of American voters agreed to look the other way when it comes to Trump and all that we already know about how he rules and how he wants to rule our country. They overlooked the fact that he’s awaiting sentencing for his serious felony conviction involving dozens of flat-out crimes associated with his first run for the presidency. His long speeches and tiredness that came across as mini strokes or dementia were lauded by his fans and of no concern to the majority of voters this time around. His enemies’ list and remarks about killing journalists and others who practiced their Constitutional right of free speech were perceived by the majority of voters as nothing more than tough talk, nothing to take seriously.

Not to sound pretentious or too edumacated, but in time when the future generation studies us, they will wonder many things: about our hypnotic need for phones and instant information, a people who adhere to only their own beliefs whether political or religious and never study opposing views, who overeat mindlessly and do not care for their bodies, who have many guns for protection just in case, who could not vote into the Presidency two qualified women and instead one time chose a convicted criminal, who swing like a pendulum between electing one party then the other every four to eight years. But the future generation will know more about brain health that can be detrimental when only consuming media that repeatedly tells us what we already think. Future citizens will know this creates circular logic and brain disease. And they’ll understand us better than we are willing to understand what we’ve done to ourselves at this point in time in American history.