Author: mystoryorhistory

Mars Attacks! Alien Invasion at the Border

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The 2024 Presidential election has opened up a new topic for squawking heads, political pundits, and anybody with a social media account as how the Democrats lost to Donald Trump for the second time.

Since I fall in the “anybody” category I, too, have a reason why the Democrats lost. Many believe it was “the crisis” at the border that shifted just enough voters across the spectrum into believing we were being invaded. Trump said that Harris had “unleashed an army of migrant gangs who are waging a campaign of violence and terror against our citizens.” And, if enough people believe that our country was a “dumping ground” or “garbage can for the world,” then maybe we are. So it is settled, immigration and not the economy stupid that tipped the election to Trump.

The GOP campaign made good use of the collective consciousness. They utilized the natural fears of invasion and immigration that lingers in the depths of every human. It is the visage of Mongol Hordes streaming across the steppes of Eurasia. But for us, it was much more subtle. The GOP was able to frame it not as an invasion, but a “Crisis at the Border.” This, despite the fact that “this crisis” has been going on in some form or another since the Reagan Administration. Additionally, they were able to give Joe Biden and Kamala Harris each a violin to play Cotton-Eyed Joe at the border, much the same way Nero fiddled away as Rome burned.

The GOP kept it in the realm of reality without creating mass hysteria like Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds. Immigrants at the border were not carrying ray guns. They were just plain old common everyday thugs, murderers, rapists and the criminally insane. According to Reuters, Trump in a campaign speech in Wisconsin said, immigrants “who had committed violent crime (were) “monsters,” “stone-cold killers” and “vile animals”. Anybody who watches the myriad of Law and Order or CSI shows can relate to the vile scum that walks our streets. Despite some of the harsh rhetoric and images, the GOP did kept it comical with hungry dog-eating immigrants chowing down in “Oh me-o, oh my-o, oh” Springfield, Ohio on all sorts of stray pets. These comments create graphic images.

The Democrats, on the other hand, put to much emphasis on Democracy and Fascism. Fascism is real life crisis but a nebulus one at best. I ask, how many fascist are crossing the Rio Grande? My only real understanding of fascism is a graphic picture of Benito Mussolini hanging upside down with his mistress and two other unfourtants in Milan in 1945. Without a doubt fascism played a huge part in World War II. And in the wrong hands, it is a form of government without checks and balances. Collectively speaking, about 80 million Italians and Spaniards were under fascist rule. Americans: zero. Hitler and National Socialism is a whole other political animal. That’s a topic I will leave to the Tiki Torch Brigade.

The Democrats, with their Hollywood connection should have dipped into the movie vault to combat the Trump campaign’s attacks. They should have taken their cue from hundreds of alien invasion movies. They should have embraced holding the borders as if it were the last line of civilization. Harris and Walz should have been channeling President Thomas Whitmore and General William Grey in the movie Independence Day. With the world in flames they were marshalling every available resource to avoid the eradication of the human race.

To many voters Harris did very little to halt the “crisis” at the border. It never reached her to do list. If I was in the inner sanctums of Harris campaign I would have strongly suggested that they watch Mars Attacks! They should have seen the disastrous effects on how not to handle an alien invasion. Although Earthlings were able to beat back the Martians, it took a toll on our government. As President James Dale said after the Martians blew up Congress: “I want the people to know that they still have two out of three branches of the government working for them, and that ain’t bad.” Something that we can attest to now. The real question is which branch is falling to the ground at any given time.

It is interesting that the movie is based on Topps Trading Cards, the same company that gave us Baseball Cards. In 1962, the year after Maris and Mantle were swinging for the fences, Topps released a 55-card set Mars Attacks! Today it would be a graphic novel. The Democrats could have taken a cue from Donald Trump. Trump has his own brand of trading cards and other marketable collectables like Bibles, watches and top secret documents. Dems could have gotten into the collectables business. They could have marketed immigration. They could have gone to Topps Trading Cards to get them to reissue the 55 card collection and handed the cards out at every Harris/Walz rally. They could have enhanced the cards by saying collect them trade them; collect all 55 and you can set yourself in a sub level Cabinet position, or become an ambassador to one of the many “shithole” African countries.

Every generation dating back to the Irish Potato Famine to Cubans fleeing Castro has dealt with some sort of alien invasion. But nothing brings a chill to the spine then movies like the 1951 hit The Day the Earth Stood Still, the 1996 film Independence Day to the 2024 Alien: Ramulus, a continuation of the 1979 movie Alien. People get the idea of Arnold Schwarzenegger battling an outer space predator with his bare hands. The Democrats failed to depict Harris as battling to save our country. Instead, Harris let Trump paint her as being “mentally impaired.” Democrats should have headed General Decker’s advice to President Dale in Mars Attacks! when Dale’s aides were advocating negotiating with the Martians, “They don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.” Decker ranted. “Liberals, intellectuals… peacemongers, idiots!!” Decker encapsulated the John Birch society’s mantra that has resonated through the conservative soul for decades.

Whatever your views are on immigration, Trump played Harris like a set of bongos. Harris, much like President Dale, who did nothing to stop the invasion, ended up supine on the floor.

Ironically, the movie ends with a Mariachi Band playing The Star Spangled Banner on the steps of the destroyed Capitol. There is some interesting symbolism there.

Mars Attacks Cards: The Ultimate Collector’s Guide

The MAGA Drama Continues with The Return of Trump

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In August of 2018 I made a political prediction that Trump would win the 2020 election. It was 20/20 that Trump would win in 2020. I was wrong. However, I am double downing on Trump. I predict Trump will return for the final MAGA Saga act. In 2018.

I felt that all the drama that Trump created would propel him to another four years. in 2020. Instead viewers, and make no mistake we are no longer voters, canceled Mr. Trump goes to Washington after six seasons. Season one premiered with the Golden Escalator ride in June of 2016: Gold Digger of Manhattan. It ended dramatically with lost tourists storming the Capitol in quest of public restrooms in “Who left the Dump Cake?” So much of the saga was left untold. And here we are eight years later anxiously awaiting Trump’s Washington return.

The shocked Trump, and the GOP, was surprised that a show with such a large following was canceled. So many questions. How did a bunch of pointy-headed liberals turned woke warriors manage to pull off an Ocean’s Eleven stealing millions of votes in so many swing states? How could a vast empire be brought down by just several million viewers scattered in key swing slots? How did they turn off the MAGA channel? It had to be election legerdemain. It is impossible to dupe so many Americans.

However, there was still a well-funded PAC production companies a (Fox) studio and plenty of advertisers to keep a Trump show on the air. Undaunted, the GOP tried several Trump spinoffs that flamed out: Dr. Oz Medicine Man bombed in Pennsylvania. And in Georgia the remake of the movie Running Man starring Hershel Walker had a good opening in Georgia but could not get enough market share in Atlanta to get a coveted Senate seat. Other spin offs never got beyond the pilot production.

Despite losing Washington DC production rights, the GOP decided that what MAGA needed was slight face lift, a new location, like so many CSI spinoffs. It needed some glitz beyond the Trump Tower. And despite Trump’s cancellation for a second running, the GOP looked at is a stolen victory. They decided that Mr. Trump goes to Washington would be the first show in the trilogy of The MAGA Saga. Production moved to South Florida and within weeks the second series, It’s Always Sunny in Mar-a-Lago became a hit. But despite the cheery title the show is film noir. The writer cast Trump as the the cynical hero seeking out retribution, a hero standing up for the common man who can take the law into his own hands.

The plot is loosely based on the 1956 film The Searchers starring John Wayne. In this classic John Ford Western, Wayne is searching across Texas for his niece kidnapped by Comanches. In this remake Donald Trump portrays a modern day Ethan Edwards seeking revenge on raping, pillaging and dog eating immigrants. Writers of the show do not deviate from the main themes of Mr Trump Goes to Washington. By now that Trump is unbogged from the Washington swamp, he can now show how truly the demented liberal agenda is in turning the United States into North Mexico.

The final series in the trilogy is The Return of Trump, MAGA Strikes Back. It is set to premiere in late November. The GOP has combined two Star Wars film titles for dramatic cinematography effect. It begins with the triumphant Trump returning to Washington with galactic powers. Backed by a Supreme Court that, in its judicial wisdom, has bestowed total immunity for Trump. He is finally allowed to rule as a modern day Caesar. Who needs executive orders when laws become mere suggestions. Most of the scripts are still works in progress but episode one: Mass Deportations will be followed by the creptic: “Tales from the Swamp: How Federal Bureaucrats Resisted President Trump.” Cut loose of the bothersome bureaucracy America will finally be able to embrace its true conservative, Christian values.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Running_Man_(1987_film)

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-the-searchers-1956

Protecting Your Home: You’re in Good Hands with Jesus; But Colt if you are of Little Faith.

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A family moved into the neighborhood not too long ago. Shortly after they moved in a sign appeared in their front window proclaiming that Jesus Christ and the Second Amendment was protecting their new home. I thought this is an absurd statement. I also thought is there a crime wave in the neighborhood that I don’t know about. A year or so ago we did have bears in a neighbor’s backyard.

There is a mutual compatibility in believing in both Jesus and the right to own a gun, and protect your property. When Jesus sent out 70 or so of his disciples to spread the word he sent them out as lambs among wolves, and unarmed. He also told them when they enter somebody’s home they should first say, “‘Peace to this house.’ If someone who promotes peace is there, your peace will rest on them…”

I just can’t help thinking there appears to be some sort of fallacious reasoning going on behind the window. First off, I am not questioning or condemning anyone’s Christian beliefs or the Constitutional right to bear arms. It is the mutual exclusivity that confuses me. It is the lumping Jesus Christ with the Second Amendment as protectors of a house.

I thought maybe it was the Fourth Amendment, the one guaranteeing us the right “to be secure in their (our) persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches…” But for some reason this does not include internet searches and hacking–something Madison and Friends were unaware of at the time of ratification. After all, this was a time of Mercantilism. The Industrial Revolution was just on the horizon and the information age a space age away.

But the Fourth Amendment really deals with government warrants and the “deep state.” Those who wrote the Constitution, in their infinite wisdom, foresaw a billowing government turning into a hidden futuristic monster. The Fourth, however, lacks the punch that the Second provides. I do not think the Fourth protects you from someone busting through your sliding glass door at 4 a.m. It would be at this time the Second Amendment might kick in.

What I find fallacious in the above sign is we are comparing a man, notably the Son of God, to 27 words in a Constitution. This fallacious equivalence makes it almost impossible to make a sane comparison. It goes way beyond “apples and oranges.” It is more like apples and orangutans. It is this sort of reasoning that is running rampant today, particularly among politicians who operate in the thin, upper stratosphere of reasoning. In this case, there is not a single shared characteristic or attribute that I can see between Jesus Christ and the Second Amendment. It is as if Jesus Christ sat on the First Congress’s Joint House Senate Conference Committee of the United States and voted to send the 12 proposed Bill of Rights Amendments to the States for ratification.

Believe me, if you are a devout Christian and you believe that you can never be out of God’s or Jesus’ watchful eye, I get it. I will not argue that point. As the song goes: “He’s got the whole world in his hands…” Using that logic it would seem to indicate if he has the whole world in his hands, and if the house is part of the world then I can see how Jesus would protect the house and those inside it, even at 4 a.m. As the psalmist says: “if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.”

It reminds me of when his disciples were huddled on a boat in a “great tempest.” Nothing like water coming in over the gunnels and no life preservers on board to get your heart racing, to put the fear of God in a man’s soul. Those swimming lessons at the YMCA would have come in handy right about now. For those disciples they did not have to search far for God. At some point in the storm they decided it was time to wake Jesus up yelling, “Lord, save us: we perish.” Jesus sat up, looked around and said, “‘Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?’ Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.” If you have faith that Jesus can calm a storm I think you can go ahead and cancel your homeowner’s insurance. Unfortunately, mortgage companies do not have that kind of faith.

There is so much going on in that sign. I just don’t get the juxtaposition of a cross with a gun, and not just any cross, the symbol of Christianity. As if one is dependent on the other. If this were a Venn Diagram where would the Jesus circle intersect with the Second Amendment circle? It would seem to me that if Jesus was protecting the house, Jesus, a man who could cast multiple devils out of one man, head those demons into a herd of swine and then off a cliff; a man who could feed thousands would have little need of a gun. If guns were around in 33 AD. So, protecting a house would be nothing to him.

Then there is the Second Amendment. It is only 27 words:

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

It could easily be said that they are the most picked over 27 words written in the Constitution. Some argue that the Amendment is anachronistic and incongruous with the present times. The Second Amendment was written when powerful European countries were perched on our borders like alligators hanging under an Egret’s nest waiting for a falling fledgling. It was a time when a well armed “regulated “(and I use regulated losely) citizenry was the first line of defense. Taxing for a standing Army and a 300 ship navy, national defense, wouldn’t come until post WWII.

The British have come and gone and we have been at peace with Canada for the better part of 200 years. The National Guard is our well regulated militia today. If the Russians are coming they are not coming by land or by sea. Red Dawn was a great movie but I do not think Cubans and Russians–Iranians or North Koreans–are going to be falling out of the sky any time soon. It will more likely be through cyberspace.

Yes, it could be argued that things are not so swell south of the Rio Grande. We are dealing with what some would call a “crisis,” an invasion at our Southern border. However, it is not an armed-hostile attack. It is not even like 1916 when General John Pershing and the 13th Cavalry were chasing Pancho Villa all over Mexico after Villa raided Columbus, New Mexico. The Second Amendment may have kicked in with armed citizens rallying in a moments notice to defend hearth and home. Villa wasn’t escorting new settlers. It was probably the last time individual Americans had to face down a foreign attack. My question is why did Villa pick a town where an US Army base was.

But it really is not so much about foreign invasions today that our personal weapons would supposedly be used for. Some will argue the Second Amendment is the only thing keeping the “deep state” from enslaving us all into some sort of socialistic, DEI, wokism state. Take away our guns and you take away the right to protect our freedoms. This sort circular reasoning is pointless. The Second Amendment will never be repealed so we will never know if owning guns or not goes beyond fending off Big Brother or Pancho Villa. If anything, it enhances the belief without any real proof that God, guns and guts made America free–let’s fight to keep all three–and Jesus will lead the charge. A nifty statement but is it really provable.

Now here is where it really gets dicey. Some Second Amendment advocates try to use the Bible to back up their beliefs that Jesus would be an advocate of gun ownership. Depending on what Bible you want to use there are nearly 800,000 words, give or take a couple thousand in both Books. The Old Testament ,”eye-for-an eye, has more than 600,000 words compared to the New Testament’s “love thy neighbor’s” 180,000.

Now it is obvious there were no handguns, long rifles, assault rifles in First Century AD. In the Holy Land during this era it’s more than likely that the Roman short sword was the personal weapon of choice. Easily concealed under a tunic or a cloak, and possibly easily acquired on the black market. In fact when the Jews came to arrest Jesus it was Peter who pulled out a sword “and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear”. It would not be until the 1850s that the pistol would be the real choice for in close killing. But a cross? You don’t hear about too many people being clubbed to death with a cross. And crucifictions went out with the Romans.

Of the 180,000 words in the New Testament it is 30 that basically form the intersection of Jesus and the Second Amendment. Luke 22:36: He (Jesus) said to them, ‘But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.’” Biblical scholars can pick that verse apart much like Constitutional scholars pick apart the Second Amendment. And since I am neither I am going to let it go at that.

And now it is my turn to make a ridiculous comparison. One might channel Han Solo just after eluding Imperial forces. He tells Luke Skywalker that: “Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a blaster at your side.” In our time and galaxy that might be a Glock 19. Or you can channel the father who was seeking out Jesus for relief of his son, who was afflicted with “a dumb spirit.” Granted, it was not Darth Vader. The father said:  “And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do anything, have compassion on us, and help us.”

Jesus said unto him, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” If you believe Jesus protects your house why do you need a gun. Or if you have a gun do you really need Jesus. I am just asking.

Trump was Turned Inside Out

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Like 50 to 60 million other Americans, I watched the Presidential Debate between former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. I also watched the first Presidential Debate where Joe Biden’s political career dissolved much the way the Wicked Witch of the West fizzled away in The Wizard of Oz.

To many MAGA people, and many on the right, there was reason to cheer the demise of the leftist leader. “Socialism is Dead,” “Hail to Trump!” Trump was all set to grab the burning broom and fly into history. The polls were tight but Trump seemed to have a solid edge in the presidential grudge match. Biden’s quick exit from the ring was like some sort of pro wrestling cage match where the loser leaves. And this could literally be true. With Trump in control of the broom, and the Ruby Slippers, most of the criminal charges against him go away, along with his political antagonists. Trump has made it clear retribution will be swift, unlike his court cases. And sticking with the movie theme, Trump may start to channel mob boss Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather: “Revenge is a dish best served cold.”

But not so fast, as different as the two debates were, there are some stark comparisons. The two debates could have similar endings. After Biden’s debate, I would say crash and burn but that would mean he actually left the runway and got airborne. The Democratic Party pulled Biden out of the pilot’s seat and managed to park that plane quickly showing Biden the door. Biden was Chauncey Gardiner, Peter Sellers, in the movie Being There, leaving the garden he worked in most of his life. Whatever your political bent is, it was sort of sad to see Biden’s slow, mental meltdown, like a bowl of ice cream in a sauna. I believe it surprised Trump that after 90 minutes he was debating a man who could have been described before the debate as Rocky Road but was now just warm, sticky, mushy Cookies and Cream.

The Trump/Harris debate was different. As the debate went on I thought Harris was channeling Bugs Bunny, leading Trump down a series of rabbit holes as if he were Elmer Fudd wondering if he should have taken a left turn at Albuquerque. To some, Trump is a Looney Tune, but no Elmer Fudd. The longer the debate went on the more he reminded me of Anger, the Lewis Black character in the movie Inside Out. I could visualize a blue blaze of jet flame shooting out of the top of Trump’s head. The only time he opened his eyes was when he was mad.

As for Harris, when she added to the Bugs Bunny rif, she expanded her persona. If we stick with the Inside Out motif, I would say she added equal parts of Fear, Disgust and Joy. During the debate she may have been short on specific policies, but she played upon the Democratic Party’s anti-Trump emotions: Fear, if he gets reelected and the disgust of actually having to live through another Trump administration. But most of all the joy if he loses.

In the first debate we saw President Biden fall off the stage and carried away. In the second debate we may have just witnessed another president exiting the stage. It is hard to judge the impact of the debate on November’s election today. The question is: Will the debate be a reason American voters shove Trump off the stage for good.

Capitalism is Catching up to College Football’s Players

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College Football kicks off in early September and it is the first season with the emergence of two supper conferences and a corporate 12 game playoff system in place. The game was once dominated by Ivy League elites, it is now in the hands of TV and two giant cartel, conglomerated-conferences. Let’s just call the Southeastern Conference and The Big Ten Conference the Goliaths of football, the Goliaths of the gridiron. All the other conferences are Davids, or slain Davids who got in their way, like the PAC 12. For those who do not follow College Football, and for many that do, we are unlikely to realize the economic morphing that has been taking place since the game’s inception.

According to the NCAA the first collegiate football game took place in 1869 between Rutgers and Princeton. It was probably a game that looked more like a combination of Rugby and Soccer. I liken the economics of the game at that time to a feudal game played between various colleges. The manor being the university and football players being the gallant knights of the field. A 19th and early 20th Century jousting match without horses and lances. More of a rugged, and some time fatal, version of the elementary and middle school game of capture the flag.

“These tournaments (took place) where knights fought in mock cavalry battles (mêlée), with the object of capturing as many of the opposing team as possible.”– World History Encyclopedia

College Football at the time could be just as vicious as bunch of armored men with lances and swords riding around on horseback. According to History.com, President Teddy Roosevelt said in 1903, “I believe in rough games and in rough, manly sports. I do not feel any particular sympathy for the person who gets battered about a good deal so long as it is not fatal.”

However it was more than just getting battered about. “The Chicago Tribune reported that in 1904 alone, there were 18 football deaths and 159 serious injuries, mostly among prep school players. Obituaries of young pigskin players ran on a nearly weekly basis during the football season.” And in 1905 another 19 recorded deaths along with 137 serious injuries.

One newspaper editorial extolled that “The once athletic sport has degenerated into a contest that for brutality is little better than the gladiatorial combats in the arena in ancient Rome,” Thank god today we have mixed martial arts fighting where we can watch both men and woman beating each other into submission.

Roosevelt used the “bully pulpit” to get College Football to enact rules that would make the game less fatal to the players. In 1906 an intercollegiate conference, the precursor to the NCAA, revolutionized football by legalizing the forward pass and outlawing massed, arm-in-arm formations. The game was blemished, to say the least, with fatalities, but moving towards safer play.

As the game became more popular the economics of the game moved from the feudal system into a more socialist economic barter system where universities set prices, a non-monetary barter system for a players labor. Because players were amateurs there was no wage consideration. It was forbidden for colleges to pay them for their athletic skills. The best universities could do is offer athletes a scholarship for their athletic prowess.

In 1934, according to Time.com, the “the U.S. Office of Education surveyed the nation’s colleges about the cost of attendance and found that the average cost for one academic year was $630 ($11,300 today).” Those figures do not include room and board and other fees. But still, not a bad deal if you consider that the median yearly income of a White male was a tad more than $1,400. Almost $700 dollars-a-year if you were a Black male. And we will not even discuss what women made.

Today the average shelled out for a year at a four-year in-state public university is around $9,500–give or take the interest on the student loan. For a private school it is closer to $32,500. Neither of those figures include room and board.” And the tuition jumps about $20,000 a year if you head off to an elite Ivy League type school. As a side note, I wonder if that extra $20,000 is worth the money considering that some of our more prominent politicians hail from such schools. It makes you wonder if you put 100 monkeys in the Senate could they compete with a group of Ivy League lawyers. I am sure the extra $20,000 has not given us better football players because it sure hasn’t given us better legislators.

So the value of the scholarship may vary from university-to-university based on tuition, fees, required books and room and board. Any additional perks for playing at a particular school would more than likely be an under-the-table-agreement with a Booster picking up the tab. Thus, enhancing the predetermined socialist benefits provided by the university.

Winston Churchill once said, “The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries.” I am not sure if College Football players were sharing any sort of misery but they were beholding to the university for the fruits of their labor.

But things were about to change. Two dates that sent seismic tremors through the economic structure of College Football are October 8, 1929 when radio station KDKA-AM aired the first college football game between Pittsburgh and West Virginia University. The other date: September 30, 1939 when NBC televised the Fordham University and Waynesburg University game on W2XBS. The economic volcano of money was starting spout some capitalist steam.

Technology is the accelerant to the Time, Space, Continuum. It may have taken all day for someone on a plodding-horse to make the round trip trek into town. Today, we can make the same trip in a car in less than an hour. If technology is the accelerant then money is the black hole that sucks everything into its gravitational vortex. In 12 short years College Football changed more since the 1906 season when the forward pass was legalized. The money hounds would soon be sniffing and scratching at the door.

The money ball began rolling in 1951 when universities and the meek conferences of the day turned their television rights over to the NCAA. In 1952 NBC had the exclusive rights for weekly games for the tune of $1.4 million. Texas Christian University and the University of Kansas kicked off the capitalist era on September 20 of that year. Corporate America got its nose in the College Football tent.

New technology and money expanded the playing field, so to speak. Universities and Conferences were showered with TV money and free sneakers. In 2020 Disney’s ESPN finalized a $300 million deal with the Southeastern Conference for per season broadcast rights. Yahoo!Sports says that this deal is at least five times the $55 million per year fee that CBS was paying the SEC. According to The New York Times that rounds out to about $20 million-a-game. Not a bad pay day for one day’s work. The SEC said that it doled out $741 million to its 14 schools in the 2022-23 fiscal year, meaning an average payout of $51.2 million, about a $2 million bump from the last season.

The other Goliath, The Big Ten consummated a $7 billion deal that will allow games to be broadcast across “three major networks each week.” According to the Associated Press this deal “will allow the 16 member universities to share in $1 billion per year.” As for the players, its like what Forrest Gump said about being shot in the buttocks, “They say it was a million dollar wound, but the Army must keep that money ’cause I still haven’t seen a nickel of that million dollars.”

With all of this money falling on the field, the X-factor in all of this capitalist expansion is the player. With all this TV money floating around, everybody is trying to grab as many dollars from heaven as possible. American capitalism leaves no money on the table. The problem for the players, is that It has always been the NCAA’s belief that it is their money. The NCAA believes in the amateur model: no pay for play; why start to compensate workers who have worked the last 100 years basically for room and board. According to sporstkeeda.com, there are close to 20,000 Division I scholarship players. And this does not include walk-ons. That’s a lot of compensation. It carries over to the old Southern plantation owner’s attitude: Why complicate matters with a payroll.

The Sherman Antitrust Act refers to a landmark U.S. law that banned businesses from colluding or merging to form a monopoly. Passed in 1890, the law prevented these groups from dictating, controlling, and manipulating prices in a particular market…The act aimed to promote economic fairness and competitiveness while regulating interstate commerce. –Investopedia

Enter the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt. Any high school students who could stay awake long enough in their American History class has heard about, I will not say remembers, Teddy as a Trust Buster. Using the Sherman Antitrust Act Teddy took on some of the most powerful captains of industry of the time. He took on John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil and J.P. Morgan’ s railroad conglomerate: National Securities Company. So how does Teddy trust bust into College Football?

In 2008, Ed O’Bannon took a page from Teddy’s playbook. O’Bannon was a former UCLA basketball player from 1991-95. When he saw his image and likeness on an Electronic Arts (EA) video game, a company that developed video games based on college football and basketball, O’Bannon realized he never gave his consent and was never compensated for the use of his image and likeness in the video game. O’Bannon sued the NCAA and the Collegiate Licensing Company.

Here comes Teddy riding Little Texas up the virtual San Juan Hill of College Football. According to the American University Business Law Review, O’Bannon claimed that “the NCAA’s amateur rules prevented student-athletes from being compensated for the use of their NILs (name, image and likeness) and was an illegal restraint of trade under Section 1 of the Sherman Act.”

A class action suit was filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The court found in 2015 for O’Bannon. It turns out that the NCAA’s amature model of no pay for play in some cases is a flawed system. But there is nothing flawed when it comes to the NCAA profit-driven system. According to ESPN, “The NCAA generated nearly $1.3 billion in revenue for the 2022-23 fiscal year, more than half of which was distributed back to Division I members, according to (NCAA) financial statements.”

Any college (football player) student who has taken an Economics 101 course is aware of the Four Factors of Production: Labor, Land, Capital and Entrepreneurship. I did not graduate from the London School of Economics but if you remove labor costs from your business model profits have to go up considerably for the owners of land and capital. Capitalism has never been about sharing profits, particularly with labor. And it does not take an entrepreneur genius to see that this decision to compensate players has changed College Football’s business field of play, much like in 1906 with the forward pass. For the entrepreneur, it is how much of this largess is up for grabs.

Property is the fruit of labor; property is desirable; it is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise’” Abraham Lincoln–1864 in a letter to the Workingmen’s Association of New York

Since the Supreme Court upheld the Ninth Court of Appeals decision there have been other legal ramifications put in play. For instance, In 2019 California passed The Fair Pay to Play Act. Athletes can be compensated for promotional opportunities. So far 29 states have passed similar laws giving new meaning to states’ rights. It also raises the question are athletes now state employees and not student athletes?

And to reinforce player non-academic compensation, the Supreme Court upheld another Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the Alston case saying that the NCAA was restricting the compensation colleges and universities may offer student athletes who toil away on their fields. It is now more than room and board–and free sneakers.

What will be interesting is to see how technology accelerates the economic process. What happens in the next few years when tech entrepreneurs jump into the money vortex. Take Oklahoma State’s efforts put a QR code on their football helmets to promote NIL. The NCAA said there will be no scanning today. Is this tomorrow’s court challenge?

“As we enter this new age of college athletics, the Big 12 Conference welcomes the opportunity to be at the forefront of innovation and creativity,” (Brett)Yormark (Big 12 Commissioner) said. “I look forward to partnering with the NCAA and my fellow conference commissioners in an effort to modernize legislation that enables our schools to drive value for our student-athletes.”–ESPN

And then there is unaccounted blitzer, the 12th man so to speak, Congress. The only play Congressi calls from is its playbook of late is the Punt. If there were penalties in Congress they would be continuously flagged for delay of game. They cannot sort out a federal budget. College Football could really get more mucked-up in the next few years if those knuckleheads get involved. Just look at what they have done at the border and with abortion. Dose College Football want Congress calling plays from DC.

And then what happens in the next 10 or so years when TV contracts come up for negotiations. The way technology is moving who knows what is next. Maybe AI will generate all future games. We won’t need to pay players or coaches because we want need them. Maybe then universities can get back to what they were intended to do: Educate.



https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/capitalism.asp

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/41070382/ncaa-bars-oklahoma-state-placing-nil-linked-qr-codes-helmets

https://www.bakertilly.com/insights/ncaas-restrictions-on-compensation-ruled-a-violation

https://www.history.com/news/how-teddy-roosevelt-saved-football

https://www.sapling.com/8144923/history-sports-scholarships

https://www.on3.com/college/wisconsin-badgers/news/alston-awards-ncaa-v-alston-supreme-court-of-the-united-states-brett-kavanaugh/

https://harvardlawreview.org/print/vol-135/ncaa-v-alston/

A Christian Covenant of not having to vote anymore? Is the Fix in?

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Recently Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, spoke to a group of Christians in West Palm Beach telling them that if they voted for him that they will not have again. “We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.” I am not sure where he was going with all of that and I will not speculate what he meant by fixing “it.” “It” most often can be ambiguous and vague, as in this case.

There is nothing new about a politician seeking votes from various groups, or making promises to groups of voters. In Colonial times getting voters plastered on election day was a common practice. According to Smithsonian Magazine, “When twenty-four-year-old George Washington first ran for a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses, he attributed his defeat to his failure to provide enough alcohol for the voters. When he tried again two years later, Washington floated into office partly on the 144 gallons of rum, punch, hard cider and beer his election agent handed out—roughly half a gallon for every vote he received.” In 1777 James Madison lost his first election because he ran a dry campaign.

Christian groups are the choir in Trump’s congregation. So, there is no surprise when he asks them to turn out in November and sing his praises. But the promise of “Christians, get out and vote, just this time…You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what, it will be fixed, it will be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” There is something ominous about “you won’t have to vote anymore.” Is this like a Monopoly “Go Directly to Jail Do not Pass Go, Do not Collect $200 Card; or is it the Get out of Jail Free Card.

There is no more important guarantee in a constitutional democracy than free, fair, and functional elections. The current Constitution is at once too vague and too specific about the electoral process. It does not explicitly guarantee the right to vote and under specifies the conditions under which elections should be conducted, but also provides for presidential election through a misguided Electoral College. National Constitution Center

When we consider voting is a fundamental right in America, how does one not vote–and still influence an election. It is interesting, however, that the Constitution does not mention the right to vote until the Fifteenth Amendment in 1870 while religion pops up from the beginning in the First Amendment. It took almost a one-hundred years after the Constitution was approved for the federal government to address voting rights. Voting was always left up to the individual colony. Later, voting, like so many other nebulus government functions, or “powers not delegated to the United States…nor prohibited” by the Constitution were “reserved to the States respectively or to the people” in the Tenth Amendment. I would assume since the Constitution does not address it, not voting is a right left up to the states, too.

Meaningful freedom requires the ability to make a decisive choice. A person does not have real religious liberty, for instance, if he has a one-in-60-million chance of being able to determine which religion to practice. Similarly, a one-in-60-million chance of deciding which views one is allowed to express in public is not meaningful freedom of speech. Even a one-in-100,000 chance (the odds of casting a decisive vote in some smaller elections) is not enough to provide anything like genuine choice. Ilya Somin Voting with Our Feet

According to Ilya Somin, writing Voting with Our Feet in nationalaffairs.com: “Most people believe ballot-box voting is the ultimate expression of political freedom. It is how we exercise the power to decide what government policies we will live under.” So why would Trump tell Christians they would not have to vote anymore. Will the rapture occur on January 20, 2025. Or, have Christians already ascended to higher plane of voting rights. And does this higher plane of voting rights require some sort of Christian ID card or special Ap not to vote? Thus, leaving non-Christians to be condemned with some sort of heretic mark, banished to a refurbished Devil’s Island as some sort of card-carrying infidel. I am just asking because this could be ripe for some sort of voting fraud and serious misunderstandings on many fronts.

But just maybe we are moving backwards in time. A time in American history when Christian governments did rule. The notion that the United States was founded as a Christian nation has some basis. Not trying to sound sacrilegious, but the big reason we believe this is because a bunch of malcontent European religious dissenters from various sects decided to establish religious colonies in the New World. In some cases, they were colonies of exclusion when religious freedom seeking, like-minded believers congregated together while excluding and forcing other nonconforming believers out. It gave new meaning to Matthew 18:20: “For where two or three gather in my name…”

Without a doubt the first Europeans who came to this shore came to get away from religious persecution, and prosecution, in Europe. Europeans knew how to torture god out of or into somebody. European history is rife with some poor unfortunate soul losing his (or her) head, being hung and then disemboweled (we hate you so much we will kill you twice) or burnt at the stake for their “misplaced” religious conviction. Voting back then was not even an issue.

Maybe what Trump is doing is sort of reverse Toleration Act of 1689 passed by the English Parliament. According to Oxford University Press the Toleration Act granted “freedom of worship to dissenters (excluding Roman Catholics and Unitarians–and no doubt Jews) on certain conditions. Its real purpose was to unite all Protestants under William III against the deposed Roman Catholic James II.” I wonder if Parliament actually defined “certain conditions.” That sounds as foggy as Trump’s “it will be fixed, it will be fine.”

It was in this atmosphere of dissent that various religious groups started voting with their feet to the New World. According to the Library of Congress: Religions and the Founding of the American Republic, “The religious persecution that drove settlers from Europe to the British North American colonies sprang from the conviction, held by Protestants and Catholics alike, that uniformity of religion must exist in any given society.” This belief resulted in some colonies establishing governments to save and protect their souls from the myriad of outside beliefs they were escaping from in Europe.

Early colonial laws had no problem defining what religion ruled the pulpit. It goes beyond a partisan divide. In many cases you either were or you weren’t. Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson were banished from Massachusetts for who they were (or weren’t) when they started voicing their dissenting religious opinions. Hanging, pillorying and banishing nonconforming heretics from their colonies was not unheard of. Especially when the civil government, composed of “spiritually” like-minded, elected officials who were empowered to enforce religious laws. We will have no Golden Calves in our colony.

“In newly independent America, there was a crazy quilt of state laws regarding religion. In Massachusetts, only Christians were allowed to hold public office, and Catholics were allowed to do so only after renouncing papal authority. In 1777, New York State’s constitution banned Catholics from public office (and would do so until 1806). In Maryland, Catholics had full civil rights, but Jews did not. Delaware required an oath affirming belief in the Trinity. Several states, including Massachusetts and South Carolina, had official, state-supported churches.”–America’s True History of Religious Tolerance, Smithsonian Magazine

Additionally, blasphemers and heroticts “were also considered traitors to their country because they did not belong to the official state religion.” These religious freedom seekers may have been fleeing persecution but they still brought Old World ideas with them. According to thehistoricpresent.com, “This was true throughout Europe in the century following the Protestant Reformation: whatever religion the king chose became the official state religion of his country, and all other religions or sects were made illegal.” In the New World it may have been more democratic but the results could be the same.

It seems the Constitution is following the same sort of downward glide path of 15th and 16th Century religion when a king or queen not only controlled the crown but the state religion, too. Trump’s claim of fixing “it” will involve fixing the Constitution. This is not hard to fathom with the recent Supreme Court ruling making the president immune and above the law. Thus, giving us a monarch much like King George III, whom colonist called a tyrant. It makes Ben Franklin’s response when asked when leaving the Constitutional Convention what they came up with: “A Republic if you can keep.” Today that seems very prophetic.

What does Project 2025 say about religious liberty and the separation of church and state?

Listen to the Writing on the Wall.

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A lot is being said about the recent assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. The political oricales are out in force trying to interpret what effect this will have on the presidential campaign.

Security analysts are deep in review of what the Secret Service, state and local law enforcement should have done that they didn’t do. Investigators are now swarming all over Thomas Crooks like locusts on a wheat field. He is the slain, lone gunman on the roof who police believe was the shooter. They are picking apart his electronics devices –even possible purchases at Home Depot–looking for a motive.

Eventually these experts will come up with some sort of narrative. If it is one thing we are good at, it is creating an explanatory narrative.–a timeline with a story. In the past NASA come up with a narrative on how the Apollo 1 fire occurred killing three astronauts. The message of that investigation: We might be in a race but we have to slow down if we want to win. Later, they created a commision to determine the destruction and the death of seven crewmen of the Space Shuttle Challenger. One thing that came out of its investigation was the need for better communication between managers and engineers. (Something Boeing is experiencing.) The Shuttle was a complex machine. The whole program ground to a halt from the failure of a simple O-ring; and the lack of communication, particularly the part of communication that involves listening.

Explanatory narrative “is the mechanism used by historical studies to create reasonably justified truths about the past. It describes the idea that a narrative has an inherent ability to carry an explanation of why things happened or why historical agents acted in a particular way.–IGI Global

President Lyndon Johnson authorized the Warren Commision “to investigate the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy… “to evaluate matters relating to the assassination and the subsequent killing of the alleged assassin, and to report its findings and conclusions to him,” according to the National Archives. (I italicized matters because in the minds of many conspiracy theorists, the Commission created an 880 page report that created more questions than it answered. Everybody has a theory on who killed Kennedy.)

But maybe we should take another tack at looking at the attempted Trump assassination. Sure, there is plenty of human activity to evaluate, the what ifs, why was this done or not done, what can be done to prevent this in the future. All needed, relevant and purposeful investigations in trying to keep presidents from a person with a gun who’s on mission. Particularly if this person is an armed-young man looking for the basement of a Washington DC pizza parlor; or crossing state lines with a long gun looking to join in on a riot.

Without a doubt there are enough crazies out and about to go around for any event at any time or any where. But what about the more rational people who join the crazies. What were they listening to when they began storming the Capitol looking for somebody to hang. Is this our new normal: hanging vice presidents and shooting former presidents.

It has to go deeper. There has to be a cosmic reason that will never be found in a six-month, 1,500 page government investigation. It goes deeper than an Incel with a weapon. Maybe the universe keeps trying to tell us something and we are just not listening or seeing it.

It reminds me of Daniel in the court of King Belshazzar, son of Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king who sacked Jerusalem. Ole Belsh and his nobles, his wives and his concubines where having a grand old party. The band played on, and to add some more glitter to festivities, it was decided that they should be drinking from something better than the Big Red Cups they picked up at Costco. Belsh calls the Royal Cup-bearer to get the good cups from the royal vaults. Bring up the gold goblets: The one father looted from “the temple of God in Jerusalem.”

I want to a pause here for a moment and explain something. There are many things in life where commons sense comes in. Some are just little sayings like don’t count your chickens until they hatch. Jim Croce sang a song about tugging on Superman’s cape and spitting into the wind. There is always a line we should not cross. No matter how invisible that line is, we know it is there. And we have all known when we have crossed it, felt that warm saliva dripping down our face.

The Royal Cup-bearer returns with the silver and gold goblets from the Jews. The Party was crossing that cosmic line when they started drinking from those looted-gold goblets. To add insult to cosmic injury, as Ole Belsh, along with “his wives and his concubines drank, they praised the gods of gold and silver, of bronze, iron, wood and stone.” It is one thing to drink from your defeated advisories’ cups, but do you have to mock them as you do it.

Here is where the mysticism, the supernatural part of the Bible kicks in. Belsh’s sacreligious good time was suddenly ruined when “fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall…The king watched the hand as it wrote.” Needles to say he freaked out.

Like any good government official, King Belshazzar set up a commission to determine what this bodiless hand just scrawled on the wall. He called for his enchanters, astrologer and diviners–today’s pundits, podcasters and cable news squawking heads. But, much like Humpty Dumpty, whose king’s men had no idea how to put an egg back together, Belshazzar’s wise men hadn’t a clue what was scrawled on the wall. Despite seeing the writing, it went beyond the scope of their visual interpretation.

There was one person in the kingdom that had some experience in dealing with dreams and interpreting the supernatural. Daniel, a kidnapped Jew from Jerusalem who was sent to learn Babylonian ways. And here again I want to take a moment for people who have doubts about the authenticity and the verity of Biblical narratives. I am not trying to preach. However, there is a deeper secular meaning and message that can be applied without getting into the whole “God Thing.”

Sometimes trying to interpret human activities and events goes into another dimension. We have all zoned out once or twice and snapped to with some authority figure, usually a parent, asking forcefully: What were you thinking? Lines are easily crossed in moments of mild cognitive impairment. It is when our mind wanders off to who knows where. It is a place where our senses abandon us to the gray areas of different mental realities–off in the ozones racing around with our heads in a cloud.

The first thing Daniel tells Ole Belsh is you “have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this.  Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven.” Here again, let’s not get bogged down with the Lord of heaven but let’s look at the reality of that invisible line of reality that the universe puts before us. It is line that we should not cross any more than sticking a nail in an electric socket. Nothing good really comes from that whether you believe in God or not.

Daniel interpreted the writing on the wall telling King Belshazzar that “God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end. You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

That, however was not all. Unlike some fairy tales with happy endings where the king lives happily ever after, according to Daniel, “That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.”

Let me make one thing perfectly clear. In no way am I suggesting, equating, comparing, associating or lumping together anybody of today with King Belshazzar and his merry band of nobles, wives and concubines. All I am implying is that maybe there is a greater message for us. There is a deeper metaphysical, cosmic meaning to Trump’s assassination attempt that goes beyond the observations and understanding of the physical and political senses. I find it interesting that Trump was shot in the ear. Is the universe sending us a message. Telling us to listen. (Maybe Biden got the message.)

For instance, people are talking about dialing down the violent rhetoric that has been building for more than a decade. I hate to say it but that bull is already in the ring. Donald Trump did not create the foundations for our dysfunctional political and judicial environment we have today. He is, however, the poster person for it with his irreverent comments, particularly those aimed at immigrants, opponents and black cats that cross his path. His comments are often laced with hostility and are aimed to either agitate and antagonize most everybody. It is just not good karma. He plays upon this negative narrative like Keith Moon drumming during a Who concert.

Maybe we should forgo the explanatory narrative. Instead, listen to the universe’s writing on the wall. Its giving us wake up call. A call for all of us to just shut the f**k up and listen for change. It is calling us to listen to that small voice of sanity within each of us.

A “Baby’s Brain and an Old Man’s Heart”

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Political pundits are trying to make sense of what was supposed to be a Presidential Debate. I am not sure what we witnessed. The one thing we did see was two old men suffering from some sort of cognitive brain dysfunctions. I don’t think you have to be a brain surgeon, or a rocket scientist, to see there was a serious lack of gray matter being utilized in both debaters.

From the first Egyptians who used crude tools to bore through the skull to cure brain disorders, to MRis, scientists have been trying to map out the functions of the brain and its various parts. I am not neuroscientist, and far be it for me to analyze two old man banding about their golf handicap; but from where I sat, it was sad sight to see the cognitive dysfunctions of both debaters, one of whom will be the leader of the free world.

According to the Cleveland Clinic the gray matter in the brain “is where information processing happens. The grey matter is the seat of a human’s unique ability to think and reason. The grey matter is the place where the processing of sensation, perception, voluntary movement, learning, speech and cognition takes place.”

It was obvious there was some sort of cognitive disconnect sparking back and forth in the debat. Biden’s debate performance was much like an aging quarterback struggling to avoid being gang tackled. Our brain controls different signals that control different processes, It is how our brains interpret what we want to call the real world.

Biden appeared to be two steps too slow throughout the debate. Most of the time he looked like a duck who just got hit on the head. It was a Looney Toon moment: “Dah, which way did he go…” It was obvious that he lost his train of thought. It appeared he was confused on his own talking points, which for a politician is like a life preserver for a drowning man. Sure, he got a few good quacks in, like when he told Trump that he had the morality of an alley cat.

On the other side of the debate stage Trump was the surfer masterfully riding the wave of lies he has been surfing for eight years. His strategy was “go with what got you there.” It was the “Home of the Whopper”–super size the lies. And during the debate those lies were flying off the debate stage like Blow Flies heading for a shit house. It is really too bad that this debate leads the way to the White House.

Today, researchers have more tools than the sharply honed rocks the Egyptians used to look into the skull. Researchers believe that the various regions of the brain serve different functions from processing information and transmitting information to other parts of the brain and various parts of the nervous system. It would appear, to me, that each debater was using different parts of their brain to make their points. And to be honest, I don’t think they were making any good connections within their own brains because whatever was coming out of their mouths made no sense at all.

For instance, according to mindful.com, the amygdala is “the brain hub for emotional and arousal processing, often associated with the fight-or-flight response.”This is the area of the brain that shows the highest level of activity when the very first self-serving lie (is) told.” The level of activity in this area of the brain can possibly predict how big the next lie will be.

According to a recent Nature Neuroscience study by Tali Sharot and her team at University College London, “the more we lie for our own benefit, the more desensitized we become to the negative emotions associated with lying, and the easier it becomes to tell even bigger lies. She says, “part of the emotional arousal we see when people lie is because of the conflict between how people see themselves and their actions.”

The psychology of dishonesty, be it a child stealing marshmallows or politicians covering up large economic scams, stems from a deep primitive mechanism for self preservation, both physically and mentally. The protection of the ego, the need for others’ approval, the strong urge to escape negative and uncomfortable feelings, are all motivations for self-deception–mindful.com

It seems obvious that the GOP has no problem with this strategy. After all, it was Trump’s administration that introduced us to “alternative facts.” We have bee desentized to their alternative facts. Alternative facts are like Fashion Fidget Dolls : “they can go wherever you go! Fashion Fidgets combine the stress release & focusing benefits of a traditional fidget toy, with the imaginative pretend play: you can collect them, and trade for them, you can even mix and match them.”

If this election were a football game, Trump is GOP signal caller. The Supreme Court seems to be his offensive line with various federal judges throwing downfield blocks to keep their man on the field. There are plenty of Congressmen and Senators coming into the game, too. They all want to run that trick play that can possibly give them a shot at owning the libs.

On the other sideline, the question Democrats are asking is do you send the veteran Joe Biden back in? Do you send him out for the second half? Does he have one more inning left in him? They are mulling does one bad outing signal its time to bench the starter, bring up somebody from the bench or just retire a player that as literally been a major player for the Dems for 50 years. Eventually Babe Ruth and Henry Aaron called it quits. But if this was the second half of the Super Bowl or Game Seven who do you want with the ball? The aging crafty veteran or younger, stronger more agile signal caller lacking game time.

The question I ask is how as a nation did we get in this position of having to decide between a convicted liar and Grandpa. It was “a long time ago” maybe “in a galaxy far, far way” that we thought Richard Nixon was a crook and Reagan was to old be president. Boy, we were not even close.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/anatomy-of-the-brain

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/24831-grey-matter

https://www.mindful.org/this-is-your-brain-on-lies/#:~:text=Our%20Lying%20Brain&text=The%20amygdala—the%20brain%20hub,in%20the%20amygdala%20would%20drop.

Liars’ Brains Wired Differently

War, What is it Good For…Absolutely Something?

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In June of 1970, several months after President Richard Nixon decided that the best way to get out of the Vietnam War was to invade Cambodia, the hit song War was released. Originally a Temptation song, Edwin Stars’s version become a Billboard Number 1 hit. It held that spot for three weeks in August and September; and was later rated the Number 5 song of 1970.

Most of us are familiar with the bold drum opening and guttural question shouted out in the song: “War, huh yeah! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing uhuh…”

It must be good for something or someone because it seems as if we humans are constantly at war or continually marching towards it. If one pursues the files of history we come across several significant political and military events that occured in the month of June that sit right up with what is going on in the Ukraine and Gaza.

The first event that comes to mind is D-Day, the “Longest Day,” June, 6, 1944. It was the largest amphibious, airborne assault in history. Its aim was to liberate Europe from Nazi domination. Once the Allies established a foothold in Nazi occupied Europe, it was the beginning of the end for Hitler and his Nazi cronies quest for a thousand year Third Reich. A Germanic fascist pipe dream built from a belief that Charlemagne’s Holy Roman Empire was the First Reich.

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, according to historians, the complicated moniker reveals more about the image the party wanted to project and the constituency it aimed to build than it did about the Nazis’ true political goals, which were building a state based on racial superiority and brute-force governance.–snopes.com

Three years earlier, on June 22, 1941, Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of Russia. This invasion was the largest military operation in history. The invasion had more soldiers, armored vehicles, artillery and aircraft than any offensive in WWII. It resulted in four years of brutal war. The Eastern Front racked up more death than the all the other theaters of war including the North Africa, Italy, Pacific, India and China Fronts. Russia alone lost 8.6 million soldiers and another 26 million Russians citizens were killed in WWII. It is estimated that 1,700 towns and another 70,000 villages were destroyed. This does not include a death toll from the countries that the two armies fought through to get each others homeland. I really don’t want to sound flip, but I will. It makes what is going on in the Ukraine and Gaza look more like urban renewal compared to the carnage of WWII bombing campaigns, concentration camps and nuclear attacks on Japan. But it is still War, and to those who are experiencing it–“it ain’t nothing but a heartbreaker…’cause it means destruction of innocent lives…“

On June 28, 1914 “The Great War, The War to end all Wars,” was instigated with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand. For the next four years European troops gassed each other, dug trenches throughout France and Belgium and started aerial bombardment of cities: all giant steps forward for mankind. France, Britain and Germany had a whole generation gutted from their populations creating social and economic upheaval. “The point of war blows my mind, War has caused unrest within the younger generation…”

As for the Russians, the 500 year rule of the Tsars came to an end from the weight of the war. Eventually, the Bolsheviks under Lenin took control bringing about the world’s the first communist socialist government. The end of WWI just reset the pins back up to be knocked back down again in WWII.

One might have thought the Europeans would come to their senses, but not so. As the Soviet Union slowly rusted away from Cold War pressures, the grip it held behind the Iron Curtain started to disintegrate. It could be argued that the Balkan Wars of the 1990s started with the breaking apart of the six republics that made up the federated Yugoslavia. According to United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, “experienced a period of intense political and economic crisis. Central government weakened while militant nationalism grew apace. There was a proliferation of political parties who, on one side, advocated the outright independence of republics and, on the other, urged greater powers for certain republics within the federation.” The melting pot that was Yugoslavia was beginning to boil over.

Political leaders from used nationalist rhetoric to erode a common Yugoslav identity and fuel fear and mistrust among different ethnic groups. By 1991, the break-up of the country loomed with Slovenia and Croatia blaming Serbia of unjustly dominating Yugoslavia’s government, military and finances. Serbia in turn accused the two republics of separatism and the displacement of both Croats and Serbs. –United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia

This nationalist rhetoric began “to erode a common Yugoslav identity and fuel fear and mistrust among different ethnic groups. On June 25, 1991, Slovenia became the first of six Yugoslav republics to declare its independence.” From there it became a domino effect with Croatia declaring its independence. Its claim for independence became a back-and-forth conflict with Serbia, which resulted in more than 20,000 deaths.

But the disintegration of Yugoslavia was just getting warmed up. As Gill Scott Heron sings in B-Movie “…first one wants freedom, then the whole damn world wants freedom…” To intensify hostilities, throw in a spark of religious difference to the already centuries of smoldering ethnic divisions. Without the central control of the communist government a flash of ethnic cleansing ignited In Bosnia and Herzegovina. “It is estimated that more than 100,000 people were killed and two million people, more than half the population, were forced to flee their homes as a result of the war that raged from April 1992 through to November 1995.”

And then there was Kosovo. “Serb forces heavily targeted (Albanians) civilians, shelling villages and forcing Kosovo Albanians to flee. NATO entered the fray with a 78-day-long campaign of air strikes against Serbian targets in Kosovo and Serbia. In response, Serb forces further intensified the persecution of the Kosovo Albanian civilians.”

This year long war, according left more than 10,000 civilians killed or missing and displacing thousands. When the shooting finally ended the UN estimated that, “Some 750,000 Albanian refugees came home and about 100,000 Serbs – roughly half the province’s Serb population – fled in fear of reprisals.

In the 19th century, the U.S. Government’s drive for expansion clashed violently with Native Americans’ resolve to preserve their lands, sovereignty, and ways of life. This struggle over land has defined the relationship between the U.S. Government and Native tribes.–National Archives

The United States had its June moment, too. This moment actually starts on April 29, 1868 with a treaty signed between the U.S. Government and the Sioux Nation at Fort Laramie. Native Americans have been scammed out of their lands signing treaties since Colonials first crossed the Appalachian Mountains. But yet here they were signing another treaty. According to the National Archives The Treaty of 1868 “recognized the Black Hills as part the Great Sioux Reservation.” The treaty “set aside for the exclusive use by the Sioux people.” That is until Gold was discovered in 1874.

It is obvious that the Plains tribes did not hear about what happened to the Cherokee and The Trail of Tears when gold was discovered on their land in Georgia in 1830. Or maybe they had and saw history repeating itself. Because when interloping miners in the Black Hills discovered gold in 1874 the land was about to change hands. By the end of 1875 and early 1876 the gold rush was on trampling The Treaty of 1868 in a cloud of gold dust.

But unlike the 1830 Indian Removal Act, the Great Plains Native Americans had no intention of walking off to reservations under U.S. Army escort. Granted, a large portion of the Native American population were on the reservation, but those that were not raised concerns among miners and the government. There were skirmishes and battles between the Army and Native Americans. But none as the the battle that would take place at the Little Bighorn River. As one Indian Inspector wrote: “The true policy in my judgement is to send troops against them in the winter, the sooner the better, and whip them into subjection.”

The U.S. Army was tasked with whipping the Sioux, Cheyenne, Crow and other tribes that refused to relocate to their reservations into submission. A military operation of three columns of infantry and cavalry were sent out from various forts and directions. Any coordination between distant columns quickly fell apart and was exacerbated when Lt. Colonel George Custer galloped off on his own. What Custer found was was a Native American encampment of about 7,000 people that included 1,500 to 2,000 warriors.

The Battle of Little Bighorn was really a minor affair compared to already mentioned battles and wars. However, it was the worst defeat the U.S. Army suffered in all of the battles fought with Native Americans; and possibly one of the most complete defeats the Army has ever suffered. Although, the casualty figures were low, it was a massacre. All 210 soldiers with Custer were killed. It is estimated that Native Americans killed was around 100. As for the duration of the battle, according to some sources, Custer’s last stand lasted less then a half-hour. One Native American survivor later said the fighting lasted only “as long as it takes a hungry man to eat a meal.”

Custer’s Last Stand shocked the nation that was celebrating its Centennial. How could such a defeat happen? If anything, Custer’s defeat, as decisive as it was, only increased the demand to relocate the Plains tribes to reservations. It may have been Custer’s last stand, but it was also the Native Americans last stand.

The Americans Indian Wars started with the massacre of the first settlers at Jamestown in 1622 when the Powhatan tribe killed nearly 350 colonists. Of course no massacre goes unpunished. Colonist began attacking Native American villages and hence the dogs of war are unleashed. For more than 260 years a crude and brutal frontier justice was practiced between Native Americans and the U.S. Army, farmers, miners and settlers moving west. The war was officially ended with another massacre at Wounded Knee in December of 1890.

Trying to answer “what war is good for” could come down to why people go to war in the first place and what they are willing to die for. Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata said, “It is better to die on your feet then to live on your knees.”

Others might see war as Prussian General Karl von Clausewitz saw it, as “the continuation of politics by other means.” The definitions and the rationalization for wars are varied. Today we could ask what was Hamas thinking when it invaded Israel? What makes the Ukraine land so special that Putin would launch a “special operation” to have it become part of Russia? We could then question what good can come out of supporting combatants. What good will Iran get supporting Hamas or the U.S. supporting Ukraine?

However logical (or illogical) a war starts, it soons starts to slide down the slippery slope of faulty reasoning into some sort of elongated circular reasoning making it impossible to determine if the death and destruction, the outcome have any worth.

It’s a mixed, up muddled up Bizarro World we live in

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As a kid I never indulged in comic book reading. I never knew the difference between Marvel and DC comic heros or villians. I could not tell which capped character was is in the Justice League, Guardians of the Galaxy, or which one is an X-Man. I will admit I did watch the TV series Superman and later Batman as kid. But my comic book viewing never introduced me to the concept of the Bizarro World–or how it would be relevant today.

Today’s political world reads like a comic book. Instead of the Justice League we have the Freedom Caucus. Although its members, like Jim Jordan and Marjorie Taylor Green, do not run around in fancy tights and cape, they do act bizarre form time-to-time. It is hard to tell who are the good guys or bad guys without a comic book. It all depends on how you perceive government and which comic book you get your news from. It would be interesting to see what Marvel or DC could come up with thrilling MTG battling Jewish space lasers and California wildfires and seeking out Hunter Biden’s private parts. And then there is Jim Jordan slinking out of a Congressional cave rooting out the so-called liberal agenda spearheaded by the Bizarro Captain America, Joe Biden.

Oh, but wait. We have Fox News, CNN and MSNBC already writing the never ending saga of the Trump crusade to make America great again. Or is it Bizarro Captain Joe trying to save America from fascism and tyranny. You pick. Marvel or DC.

According to one Google search there have been 37 Marvel movies and 27 DC movies. If you go to IMDB website there have been around 200 movies and televised Superhero flicks of some sort or other. As I mentioned, as a kid I did watch some episodes of Superman on TV with George Reeves as “the man of steel.” And in 1966 I watched Batman. Britannica described Adam West and Batman as a “kitschy” TV series. Despite being laughably tacky, it was popular show for ABC.

But then I grew up and that ended my fascination with comic book heroes. I spent more time reading Time and Newsweek, until 1989. I remember watching Batman with Michael Keaton. But, to this day I could not tell you a single event from the movie. In 2002 I watched Spider-Man with Tobey Maguire. I recall his un-heroic looking costume. But mostly I recall the upside down kiss with Kirsten Dunst.

Later, a colleague bullied me to watch the 2008 Iron Man film with Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark. He gave me the CD to watch. I do remember a little more about this movie simply because my colleague made it mandatory that we have a post viewing discussion. Fortunately for me, it was more of him expounded on the movie and me nodding in agreement.

With my lack of interest in comics I naturally missed out on the concept of the Bizarro World. Strangely enough, It was through the TV show Seinfeld that I was awakened to the concept of the Bizarro World. How have I gone most of my life not knowing about the Bizarro World.

According to comicvine.gamespot, the Bizarro World is “where everything is different, and opposite of the way things are on Earth.” It is a planet populated with dopplegangers of Earth’s superheros. A planet that is a cube. The Bizarro concept seems simple, and it is one that I really do not want to delve too deeply in because I think many of the people today are already trapped in a real earthly Bizarro World.–starting with Qanon followers.

However, after a little research on the Bizarro World I am convinced it was created buy several guys stoned to the gourd sitting around a kitchen table coming up with stories as they passed a bong around. With the right amount of weed it is a storyline that can write itself, much like today’s political situation. The big difference is that the political pundits, squawking heads and consultants are not sitting around the same table getting stoned and agreeing on a storyline. It really is an easy writing technique taught in any middle school writing class: compare and contrast. If one side supports Ukraine the other has to be against it. If one side thinks the January 6 assault on the Capitol was a coup attempt, the other side believes it was freedom fighters taking the government back from leftists extremists who stole the election.

I would bet if we went to either political party’s House or Senate cloakroom late at night, and if we knew the secret knock, when the door opened, wafts of marijuana smoke mixed in with the aromatic smell of smoldering cigar smoke would greet us. We would see spaced-out senators like Ted Cruze as Baron Mordo, a man seeking to become the most powerful magician ever. On the other side of the Capitol we would find blitzed-out congressmen, like James Comer, sitting before half-scripted (Congressional investigations) comic panels as the Condiment King. Collider.com says, “Laugh all you want but he has a reputation…Condiment King may be goofy, campy, and pathetic, but that’s precisely the point. He’s meant to be a parody of the silly criminals that Batman used to fight back in the day.” And now that day is here in the Bizarro World. Stay away from the hot dog stand because you just might get splattered with mustard and onions.

And the looney left is not exempt from bizarre beliefs. We have been bombarded with its gender bending ideas. The English rock group, The Kinks, may have been way ahead of their time with their 1970 hit song Lola: “Girls will be boys and boys will be girls it’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up (Bizarro) world…”

But stay tuned. These bizarro characters are coming up with the next issue. It is sure to be action packed as the Culture Wars heat up. What set of books will be banned next? And who will be awake on the Woke battlefield to defend or attack the belief of systemic injustices in our society? And then there is the January 6 rematch when the Progressive Caucus will battle the Freedom Caucus in the Halls of Congress to see who can validate fake electors.

With the help of the news media, Congress has turned the functioning of the government into a world of opposites. It is a place where the House Democrats support a GOP Speaker. The GOP was a party that was a firm believer in what President George W. Bush called the Axis of Evil–Russia China and Iran. It was a party that was opposed to socialism. It opposed communist Russia from its inception. But now it is the party that snuggles up to the breast of Vladimir Putin for bedtime stories on the new kinder gentler Russian bear.

This is a bizarre world is where there are alternative facts, as if a fact is like rolling dice and picking which of the 216 possibilities you wish to believe is true. It is the believing science is really fiction, elections are faked and losers are winners. It is a place where college students think Hamas is fraternity and that October 7th was fraternity prank, a form hazing for the University of Gaza’s Rush Week.

We are living in a world where the concept that no one person is above the law. That equal justice under the law is just a suggestion. Some believe one certain elected official is above the law. This bizarro belief is being marched through the court system with legal impunity. Many legal minds are championing this idea of immunity. This concept is currently sitting before the Supreme Court. A Court whose wisdom and association with the Bizarro World is being questioned. The real bizarro question is: If one man is above the law, then is anybody below the law?