MyStory

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

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?

Trump: the Nation’s Sweet Tooth

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Way back in August of 2018 I wrote, “Its 20/20: Trump in 2020.” I was wrong. Or maybe I was just off by six years.

And here we are in 2024 watching an election rerun like it was an old TV show canceled by one network now being picked up by a another–or so it seems. The 2024 election is like the animated Fox comedy Futurama, a TV show that aired on Fox from 1999 to 2003; but found new life on Comedy Central, where it lived on until 2013.

I am not sure anyone thought former President Donald Trump would just fade away and settle for reruns of his show. Without a doubt the Trump brand has unique selling and staying power. Unlike Enron it is a brand that defies all economic and social laws. In fact, it is beginning to have a shelf life like a package of Hostess Twinkies.

Like everybody, Trump knows that Twinkies hit the sweet spots. We also know, intrinsically, that something that tastes that good has to have some serious downsides. A package of Twinkies has 32 grams of sugar. And according to Eat This, Not That!, of those “32 grams of the sweet stuff, 31 grams are added sugar.” The American Heart Association recommends that men consume about 36 grams of added sugar while women should keep it to around 25 grams. Just do the math. Scarfing down that much added processed sugar adds no nutritional value to the diet.

I have seen cooking shows where a stick of butter was melted with a cup of sugar and then added to the mixing bowl. I could make the A Section of The New York Times taste palatable with a stick of butter, a cup of sugar and several teaspoons of vanilla extract–even the for most hardcore MAGA-man. (It is probably the only way MAGA would consume the NYT) We may be to the point where we are over indulging in Trump. There is no nutritional information coming from his campaign; and that is saying something when talking heads do not stray far from their talking points.

The former president, in reality, is peddling Hostess Twinkies to the American public in double doses. He knows he has hooked the American people, and in particular the media into delivering Twinkies on demand. We are, as a viewing nation, consuming a package or more of Twinkies a day. We are addicted. We have gotten fat for his crazy, zany antics. In fact, we crave them, hunger for them. We have become obese from Trump sugar nuggets. He has created the ultimate media show and it is presented across multiple media platforms. A show that is impossible to cancel, despite its lack of informational fiber.

Netflix originally introduced streaming in 2007 and debuted its first inhouse-produced programming in 2013; that show, House of Cards, exploded in popularity. While not true crime, its success — and the spotlight it shone on the appeal of binge-watching a series — helped open the coffers for Netflix-produced true crime content to come.

Sheila Flynn Independent

Because Twinkies lack fiber, which helps in digestion, gives us a fuller feeling and can help keep sugar levels stable, we remain in this fiberless hungry state craving more. Cable news networks, social media, late night talk shows, ego bloated bloviators and advertisers adding their own sugar to the mixing bowl of so-called news. They are the sugar delivery device–they package the Twinkies. It makes no difference if you are MAGA, A Never Trumper, a RINO or a far left socialist; there is a good chance you are addicted to cable news or scrolling about on social media for Trump Twinkies. We are like sugar-starved humming birds flapping around a feeder.

The Trump saga has way too much drama to walk away from. And this is not by accident. Particularly now with so many court cases. Cable news and social media have their very own Law & Order Trump spin offs. According to NBC “Law & Order dramas have a decades-long legacy. There are seven U.S. shows total in the franchise, which translates to well over 1,000 episodes — with more on the horizon.” America loves crime stories. The more morbid the better, especially if some celebrity is involved. The OJ Simpson case is an example. Accused of a double murder, Simpson’s trial lasted the better part of eight months. People were riveted to evening news shows for the latest up date. Today, Trump has multiple trials in various stages starting with state cases and federal cases with appeals reaching the Supreme Court. You want drama? Tune into Fox and Friends or Morning Joe.

It’s been 20 years since more than 150 million viewers —57% of the country — tuned in to watch the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial at 10 a.m. on Oct. 3, 1995. The massive viewership of the verdict’s live broadcast was a fitting end to the saga that had captivated the entire nation since the infamous white Bronco chase of the previous June, and its legacy in the media still lasts today.

Time Magazine

We have been led to believe that the Trump drama will end with a conviction in at least one of his trials. But don’t bet on it. So far, Trump’s lawyers have managed to push every trial into the future. And with each court appeal or Supreme Court ruling Trump is creating more processed Twinkies for the American public to feed on. Whether it is additional drama by talking smack about the judges or looking into the sexual escapades of prosecutors it creates more melodrama for all to feast on. Trump may shoot your blood pressure up several notches or flood your brain with dopamine, we are all hooked in to see the next Trump sugar nugget drop–and he knows it.

And if you think the election is going to settle anything, you are wrong. The Trump Saga could run 10 more years with multiple spin offs and thousands of episodes playing across multiple media platforms. There is no cancelation in sight.

 

Politically Speaking: It is time to move on

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The NFL season is over. And the Super Bowl is upon us. The two best teams from both conferences will be picked after a grueling season and playoffs loaded with wildcards. As the football season comes to an end the race to pick presidential candidates is just starting. Both Democrats and Republicans have kicked off the race to the White House with primaries in Iowa and New Hampshire.

With the season over, NFL teams have a chance to reflect back on how they fared. Some teams have been abysmal. Eight teams have fired their head coaches. The Washington Commanders shucked off their old name several seasons ago, and now it appears if they are shucking their whole front office and coaching staff. It is a team in desperate need of a compass.

The Seattle Seahawks decided it was time to part ways with the guy who was holding their compass, Pete Carroll. After 14 years and a Super Bowl win, Jody Allen, Chair of the Seattle Seahawks, twitted, “After thoughtful meetings and careful consideration for the best interest of the franchise, we have amicably agreed with Pete Carroll that his role will evolve from Head Coach to remain with the organization as an advisor.”

Jumping over to the other coast. The majordomo of New England football was shown the door. After 24 years the New England Patriots have set aside Bill Belichick. Belichick, the second winningest coach of all time, and as head coach of the Patriots he has won six Super Bowls. But he has struggled of late. And well, like all good things it was time “to move on.”

According to ESPN, team owner, Robert Kraft, he and Belichick had numerous conversations on how to break nearly a quarter century relationship amicably, which resulted in “no conflict, no disagreement and in the end, productive talks resulted in a mutual decision that left both sides comfortable and at ease.”

“Sources familiar with those conversations, there was said to be no conflict, no disagreement, and in the end, productive talks resulted in a mutual decision that left both sides comfortable and at ease.”

It is hard to say if both Carroll and Belichick could have turned next season around. “Wait till next year” was not in the interest of management. Both coaches had good runs but “it was time to move on.”

But unlike NFL coaches moving on, wait till next year is not a phrase catching on in this presidential election cycle of politics. Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden have had good runs, both have been president and both should be planning their presidential libraries, writing their memoirs. Biden should amicably be shown the door and Trump should be barred from the door.

I am not a pollster but I would bet that if most voters were asked if they want different people running for president, except for the hard-core extremest on team Trump, most people would say yes, Please! The country needs to go in a different direction. Hopefully one that advances the principles of democracy and not mired down in the ridiculous religion of political zealots. But here we are, stuck streaming reruns of the NFL’s greatest games.

Here is the problem. The Republicans lack a game plan. It is whatever Trump is bloviating at any given minute. The Democrats have a game plan. But neither party has a bench capable of taking the place of their aging candidates to either make a game plan or move it towards the goal line.

Most veteran GOPers are too afraid to suit up against Trump. Just look how quick the GOP B Team left the field. There wasn’t a wildcard amongst them. They could not even get to the line of scrimmage let alone get a first down, which would be the South Carolina primary. Only one, Nikki Haley, is still on the GOP sideline with Trump. I think there has to be more candidates out there without misguided fears of Trump. There has to be someone who can straps on a helmet and say “put me in.”

On the Democrat side no one wants to challenge the reigning leader. It is always considered a negative political move to take a run at unseating your party’s already sitting president. And it is the incumbent’s prerogative to step down–unless there is a term limit.

The Democrats, like the GOP, are looking at a thin bench, too. I get it. What political party or coach wants to go into the big game with players with limited playing experience at the pro level. Look how Florida Governor Ron DeSantis fumbled the political play calling and is now back on the Suwannee River fishing with the old folks at home and rekindling his feud with Mickey Mouse. DeSantis never faced an A Team of political operatives. He was playing against second stringers.

What is lacking in today’s politics is the old cigar chomping, backroom politicos, the head coach who filled out the party’s slate. The party hack who could make or break a politician’s career. Somebody who could tell Biden and Trump, amicably: It is time to move on.

Congress and Aliens

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The Extraterrestrial Highway conspiracy now runs from Area 51 in Nevada to the steps of Congress in Washington DC. It is the intersection of Unidentified Flying Objects, now given the more appropriate scientific/military name: Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon (UAP), and Congress.

Flying saucers have managed to initiate something the American voter has failed to do: create bipartisan relationships in the conspiracy minded halls of Congress. This, in just a short two years after a mob of partisan terrestrials tried to overturn a presidential election. Some say our government never saw that unidentified anomalous mob making its way down I-95. Now Congress is looking into the cosmos to unite their conspiracy minded beliefs.

But there is nothing like a good conspiracy theory to bring people together. And the UFO conspiracy is still going strong. Fox Mulder was right. The truth is out there and Congress will get to the bottom of it no matter where the deep state is hiding ETs. (Congress will pursue it In the same vigorous manner it searched for missing government documents being used as paper placemats at seaside beach club restaurant.).

It makes sense. There is a strong possibility that intelligent life is out there. We have sent two Voyager probes out into deep space to see what they can see. And undoubtedly, if aliens see them, they will be UAPs. NASA is also using telescopes in space and on the ground to look back into the cosmos, searching for possible life. According to NASA they have “confirmed more than 4,000 exoplanets.” It’s possible maybe some entity on one of those planets was able to develop warp drive and boldly go where no entity has gone before.

What doesn’t make sense is that our government has been covering up some sort of “Independence Day” Bat Cave full of alien body parts and scraps of crashed space crafts. It makes as much sense as Jewish space lasers starting forest fires. But maybe instead of starting fires, Jewish space laser downed a UAP that caused those fires. So maybe, just maybe there are dead incinerated ET fertilizing a rejuvenated California forest. If that is the case, the Defense Department has done a much better job keeping a secret than our former president. He could not keep his cache of pilfered top secret documents hidden in a Florida bathroom.

Meanwhile, we have been told continually, by different administrations and Congresses, there is an alien crisis. This crisis, however, is not in the skies but at our borders. Hordes of unwanted (and somewhat identifiable) aliens are swarming over our walls, swimming across rivers and over coming whatever obstacles the state of Texas can erect.

In fact there is a deep concern that the House Homeland Security Committee is on path to recommend impeachment hearings against the head of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. Republican Congressmen say that he is engaging in “egregious misconduct,” and has refused to enforce the law when it comes to keeping aliens from crossing the southern border. Nothing about alien ETs. At some time Congress may just turn the whole immigration crisis over to Texas.

I am not sure our Congress can get out from under its own parochial interests when it comes to UAP. According to NASA, which would play a huge part in investigating UAP, “The scientific method challenges us to solve problems by impartially evaluating our own ideas, by being willing to be wrong, and by following the data.” Does that sound anything like our Congress? We could not agree on a scientific method during the pandemic or how to implement a climate change policy. What makes us think there will be some sort of consensus in Congress concerning the ongoing mysteries of flying saucers?

Determining what UAP are is tough because most of our scientific satellites are looking out into deep space for life. Others are on hard ground, probes rolling around on Mars digging up Martian dirt. Our spaceborn satellites are not censored and calibrated to spot a UAP in our atmosphere. There is no traffic cop looking down for ancient aliens running red lights in our own ozones. For all we know ETs are using the Earth as a cosmic intersection while flying off to Alpha Centauri. We are the podunk planet without a flashing yellow light waiting for some galactic hitchhiker to put a thumb out.

The mission of the AARO (The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office ) will be to synchronize efforts across the Department of Defense, and with other U.S. federal departments and agencies, to detect, identify and attribute objects of interest in, on, or near military installations, operating areas, training areas, special use airspace and other areas of interest, and, as necessary, to mitigate any associated threats to safety of operations and national security. This includes anomalous, unidentified space, airborne, submerged and transmedium objects.

US Department of Defense

Now, all of a sudden there is a dire concern about aerial phenomena racing across the sky, or in some case just floating aimlessly across the continent. This is a stunner considering Congress can barely agree on closer earthly encounters, like paying our country’s debt. If there is a conspiracy it is the diploid dance being done in Congress. It has the makings of a legislative sleight of hand. “Look up look down your pants are on the ground!”

But relax, America. If Mars were to attack, your Congress is on the case. But should we really expect much from the same group of lug nuts that took three weeks to elect a new Speaker of the House? All this gives new meaning to: Take me to your Leader.

The thing is, it is not like UAP are falling out of the sky like acorns off an oak tree in September. According to NPR, “The Pentagon’s new office for investigating potential UFO sightings received hundreds of new reports in 2022, and while it can explain more than half of those events, a sizable chunk remains a mystery.

“The All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence say, they’re focusing on some 171 cases — including some in which objects “appear to have demonstrated unusual flight characteristics or performance capabilities, and require further analysis.”

“Current FAA guidelines suggest that citizens wanting to report UAP contact their local law enforcement or one or more non-governmental organizations, which is inadequate for drawing scientific inferences. Although such eyewitness reports are often interesting and compelling, they are insufficient on their own for making definitive conclusions about UAP.”

NASA Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena  Independent Study Team Report

It is the analysis where we fly into the unknown. What is needed is a systematic method for figuring out what is darting across our skies. For instance, if Joe Six Pack driving home one night after consuming a six pack at the local watering hole sees what he is sure is a flying saucer or some sort of aerial phenomenon his only reporting agency is the local sheriff’s office, which I am sure has more important things to do than chase after flying pink elephants. Chances are DUI charges will outweigh the UAP sighting.

Therein lies the true concern about UAP. Nobody flying at 35,000 feet wants to run into a weather balloon set loose in China. Worst yet no pilot wants to be sharing the skies with an alien using visual flight rules and who has not filed a flight plan with the FAA. There is a safety aspect to getting a grip on UAP flying at different altitudes no matter how fast they are flying. It is all about flying safe.

But really, do we want the United States Congress anywhere near trying to solve UAP mystery? All they want to know is where ET is.

Caution, Federal Cases at Work–Let the Dunking begin

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Former President Donald Trump is often going on about his legal troubles as if it was a witch hunt. At first glance when somebody says witch hunt they probably think of America’s most famous witch hunt: The Salem Witch Trials. These trials took place in 1692 and according to the The National Endowment for the Humanities, “19 (people) were hanged, one pressed to death and five others died in jail.”

According to NPR the last known witchcraft trial was in Virginia in 1706. Grace Sherwood was subjected to the only known way, at the time, to determine if she was a witch. The locals tied her up, and tossed her into the Lynnhaven River. Unfortunately for Sherwood, she floated, “which meant that the devil must be supporting her and therefore she was guilty as charged.” As far as I could tell that is still the only method around to determine if someone is a witch.

Since Trump has repeatedly called his legal woes a witch hunt, it might be reasonable to assume he is trying to avoid some sort of skulduggery that is akin to witchcraft. I have never witnessed a witch hunt but I am willing to bet that most witch hunts have been unsuccessful in actually bagging a real witch. It is like someone saying they rode a unicorn. This may be a good legal tactic on the part of the former president. If he can keep his legal woess in the realm of witchcraft, it is highly unlikely he will be convicted. Unless prosecutors are able to tie him up and chuck him into the Potomac to see if he floats.

But to think that Trump’s attorneys would play the witch card is ridiculous. It is more likely he is going to pursue a different definition of a witch hunt. The one we are more familiar with in modern times. Cambridge Dictionary states that a witch hunt is “an attempt to find and punish people whose opinions are unpopular and who are said to be a danger to society.” This definition is more akin to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s shaking the apple tree in the 1950s trying to see how many delicious pinko reds would fall to the ground.

That definition definitely works for some people. However, I think Trump is using the  Merriam-Webster definition that states a witch hunt is “the searching out and deliberate harassment of those (such as political opponents) with unpopular views.” This definition fits Trump better as he campaigns around the country. He can cast himself off as a victim of socialist regime hell bent on purging the country of people hell bent on making America great again. I think this definition is the paranoid Orwellian looking over his shoulder. What are you hiding in your basement?

The former president is facing some serious federal criminal indictments. Mixing federal cases and witchcraft makes little sense at first glance. But it really is ingenious. The last convicted witch was at the turn of the beginning of the 18th century. Federal cases, however, are a different matter.

Many years ago I heard a lawyer say if the Feds want you the feds will get. Trump has to realise this. He has mentioned Al Capone several times in speeches. Capone, one of the notorious and vicious mob bosses of the 1930s, gets convicted on income tax charges. Really. At least Hunter Biden has some gun charges thrown in with his tax fraud case. FBI.gov says, “Capone was convicted after trial and on November 24, (1931) was sentenced to eleven years in federal prison, fined $50,000 and charged $7,692 for court costs, in addition to $215,000 plus interest due on back taxes.” And to add a cherry on top, the feds threw in an extra six months for contempt of court.

In the past decade sports analytics have been used to improve teams performance on and off the field. I am sure high-priced law firms have an analytics department. “Legal analytics,” according to LexisNexis.com are “tools (to) help lawyers make data-driven decisions on which to build their legal strategies. That could mean things like knowing the probability of a specific motion outcome, how seemingly unrelated cases connect, or how much a settlement award could be.” A little bit more sophisticated than seeing if a person accused of witchcraft floats or not.

What is interesting is that Trump’s lawyers have to be aware of the success rate the Feds have when they go to trial. First off it appears that the Feds are always the home team. It is their ball, their court and their rules. According to pewresearch.com they have a huge winning percentage, too. “In fiscal year 2022, only 290 of 71,954 defendants in federal criminal cases – about 0.4% – went to trial and were acquitted, Another 1,379 went to trial and were found guilty (1.9%).”

But here is the kicker, almost 90% of defendants in 2020 didn’t even go to trial. They pleaded guilty “while another 8.2% had their case dismissed at some point in the judicial process.” Just looking at the percentages less than 9% of those defendants in a federal criminal case came out on top.

Witch hunts hardly, if ever, turn up a real witch let alone convict someone of some sort of sorcery. However, a witchcraft trial is an iffy outcome. If you float you are guilty. And, well, if you don’t, you drown. Despite the 50-50 odds of winning neither verdict generates a positive outcome. Analytics can’t be telling Trump’s lawyers to take those long shot odds in Federal court. Whichever course he takes it looks like he is going to get dunked in the Potomac River; or spending time in Secret Service protection, just not in the Oval Office

Religion and the Bible in an Era of Ill Feelings

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I can only imagine how much fun historians will have in 50 or so years from now will have in trying to come to terms for the era we are living in now. Will they try to give it some sort of official historical name like the Era of Ill Feelings. The Rouge Era, where political institutions went off the rails. The Second Great Awakening when religion finally brought government and God together. Or will they simply name it after a person like the Victorian Age and call it the Trumpian Age.

Historians in many ways are like astronomers without space mounted telescopes to look back in time. Instead of telescopes, historians use data, observations, primary sources from the time in question. And today, with so much technology, social media anybody with a smartphone can be a chronicler of history. There is a no dearth of information available. Our technology is so acute that we can even pick up somebody farting during an interview. Not that there is a whole lot of historical significance in that.  

But, just imagine if John Kennedy’s assassination took place in the age of the smart phone. Abraham Zapruder filmed one of the most defining moments of the 20th Century using a an 8mm Bell & Howell home movie camera. He filmed in Kodachrome but without sound. His 27 seconds of film has created never ending controversy and conspiracy theories to enthrall generations of conspiracy buffs. (With the emergence of the cell-phone cameras Kodak stopped making Kodachrome in 2009. The following year it went bankrupt.)

Today, football instant replays have more cameras and angles to determine if the nose of the football “broke the plane” of the end zone than we had in 1963 to determine which way Kennedy’ head was moving at impact. I know, too soon; but it is a point of conspiratorial contention. 

Just think how many smartphones would have filmed Kennedy’s assassination. And from all sorts of angles revealing information that investigators can only dream of—and not to mention Closed Circuit Camera filming traffic. We probably would have had well over 500 videos of the assassination. Heck, somebody was able to film Wagner Group’s mercenary leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s, plane “crashing between the villages of Kuzhenkino and Kuzhenkinskoe in Russia’s Tver region. All 10 aboard were killed” according to CNN. I am sure the twin “K” villages are no comparison to Dallas/Fort Worth—even in the1960s. But somehow somebody manage to get a video—Putin vision. Was there a lone missile man on the ground behind the goat pins; or was it a bomb in the luggage? Only the Main Directorate of the GRU knows and they ain’t sayin’.

Historians also can be prognosticators of the future. Look at ESPN’s College Gameday. Every Saturday during football season pundits try to predict this week’s games and how they relate to each other. Searching for which team will be upset ruining their quest for the coveted Number One ranking. Those commentators look at the past trying to piece together a future. 

For instance, we can look back 200 years ago and see some historical similarities of today. In 1817 President James Monroe went into the heart of Federalist territory: Boston Massachusetts. His visit was spun as a goodwill tour but to some Federalist Party members at that time it could have been seen more as an “in your face” moment. 

With the death of Alexander Hamilton the headless Federalist Party got thumped in the 1816 elections and again in 1820. They had lost every election to a clan of Virginian Democratic Republicans since 1800. (Those Republicans are no relation to today’s GOP.) Some, Federalist however, could see the writing on the wall. Our country was in the midst of what Boston journalist, Benjamin Russell, writing in the Columbian Centinel, termed as the “Era of Good Feelings.” The Federalist Party was still around but for all practical purposes it had already started to fade on into the history books.

What made it an Era of Good Feelings was basically the fact that Monroe and the Democratic Republicans had no opposition barking at them. Monroe basically ran unopposed in his second presidential bid, technically the last president to run unopposed since George Washington. So yes maybe it was a time of good feelings. Monroe and company were like the Yankees of the 1920s and ‘30s; the 40’s and 50’s.

Today it is different. It is time where civility has turned to an age of toxicity. The social atmosphere of this planet could be compared with that of Venus, where sulfuric acid rains down creating a hellish place to be caught without your stainless steel umbrella.

And then there is Mike Johnson the new Speaker of the House.  He said, “Someone asked me today in the media, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.”

 That might be good spiritual advice in a swampy Louisiana bayou.  But today, I am not sure if most people are gonna find comfort in a leader looking back five or six thousand years for advice from Moses. I am not sure which part of the Bible Johnson prefers. For instance, if it is the Old Testament where it took two or three witness are needed to have a person stoned to death for certain crimes, Donald Trump might be in big trouble in Georgia. Three of his lawyers could put him center stage at a rock concert. 

However, Trump might want to thank James Madison. It could possibly be argued that Madison looked to Moses’ example of separating the Red Sea for inspiration in separating church and state when he wrote: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” Hence, comes the belief in church and state working different street corners in peace. This could then dovetail into the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment clause, which could keep Trump out of the rock pit in the belief that stoning someone to death sounds a bit cruel. So which is it, Old Testament fire and brimstone or New Testament forgive and love your neighbor–but no coventing?

But we have had Biblical difference before the New World even got settled and on its feet, Catholics and Protestants were going at it in Florida. In 1565 Spanish Catholics massacred French Huguenots (Protestants) who  tried to set up a colony, Fort Caroline, north of St. Augustine on the St. Johns River. Spanish General Pedro Menendez de Aviles made sure that the Protestant colony never got settled when he killed more than 300 settlers and soldiers. Menendez, however, being the good Catholic, and probably adhering to the current worldview at the time, gave the Frenchmen a chance to convert to Catholicism. Most refused and were put to the sword. I am not sure where Menendez found that worldview in scripture.

I do not mean to question the Bible. I will, however, question man’s interpretation of it. So whose world view is Mike Johnson talking about? Is the Bible being pulled off the shelf a Vulgate Bible, which according to vulgate.org “is a Latin version of the Holy Bible, and largely the result of the labors of St Jerome (Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus), who was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382 A.D. to make a revision of the old Latin translations.  

Or is Johnson cracking open The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition Bible. According to the episcopaliannewservice.org “The New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition Bible is the result of a commission of the Society of Biblical Literature by the National Council of Churches, which includes dozens of denominations representing 30 million church members.”

But here is the real kicker about this Bible. This “ecumenical and interfaith” Bible can be the one Bible “suitable in Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Jewish context.” Furthermore, “It attempts to reverse the historic trend in translation history from the 19th and 20th centuries in which some Christian communities and scholars of the Bible were historically excluded from the translation endeavors of our English Bibles.”

Sounds sort of woke to me. I just wonder what “Christian communities” could have been excluded. 

What is amazing about all of this is that it comes at a time when a portion of our country cannot agree on the results of the last presidential election. What makes us think we can decide on which Bible to pull off the shelf to get a unified worldview.  Or election results.

Help me! Help Me! I am losing my mind!

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It looks as if the paleomammalian (old mammal) brain has collectively taken over House Republicans. Led by the ever de-evolving King Lizard from Florida, Matt Gaetz, the GOP caucus just sacked the Speaker of the House with less thought than where they put their car keys.

Before the House Republicans search for a new leader they might want to begin looking for where they lost their mind. It was neuroscientist Paul McLean who came up with the theory that our brains are divided into three parts, much like our government. And like our government, each section of the brain has a specific function. For instance the primitive or reptilian part of the brain is responsible for keeping the lights on. That is to say things that we take for granted like breathing and blinking.

The paleomammalian brain, the limbic system, is thought to be the emotional part of the brain. It is the warning system of the brain that tells us “hey look out the sky is falling.” It is where subconscious responses come from to keep us safe. Which is really a good thing because it is times like those that we have to make that snap judgment to get out of the way of that falling piano. Something Wile E. Coyote always had a hard time doing.

This brings us to the third part of the brain, the part of the Republican Party brain that seems to have gone out to lunch for the last eight or so years: The neomammalian or new cortex–the prefrontal cortex. It is what thescienceofpsychotherapy.com calls the “‘smart brain’, the executive part of our system that is responsible for all higher order conscious activity.” Oh, but I forgot the House Republicans oppose the current executive decision maker.

There are two key difference (keeping it simple) between the primal and the neo-prefrontal cortex part of the brain. The neo side is a bit “slower in responding to incoming information” than the paleo-limbic system. It is, however, much more sophisticated in processing information. This “‘slow’thinking’ is the hallmark of human intelligence.” Something I am not sure is fully developed and functioning to capacity in the GOPers that roam the Halls of Congress. It is one thing to say, fire the Speaker of the House; but then like a bunch of middle schoolers they have no answer for their actions when hauled into the principal’s office. The “I don’t know” response may have seemed like a good idea at the time. But it is not a sufficient answer, as many of us who have had that little chat know.

cogsci.stackexchange.com

We could take all of this neuroscience to psychoanalysis and really muddy up the waters with Sigmund Freud’s theories on human behavior. Again, according to Freud, we have three elements to deal with: the id, ego and superego.

It would be impossible to put House Congressional Republican Party into some sort of psychoanalysis. But collectively it seems that they have lost a portion of their mind and and are operating at less than full-capacity. According to simplypsychology.org, “The id is the impulsive (and is the unconscious) part of our psyche that responds directly and immediately to basic urges, needs, and desires. The personality of the newborn child is all id.”

Furthermore, “The id is also stubborn, for it responds only to what Freud called the pleasure principle (if it feels good, do it), and nothing else.” The id also has a strong “death instinct.” And “when this energy is directed outward to others, it is expressed as aggression and violence.” The id, like the House Republicans, do not operate in the realm logic or reality of the everyday world. This might help explain January 6th.

Before I get to the ego, I think what is lacking in Congress today is the superego. “The superego operates on the morality principle and motivates us to behave in a socially responsible and acceptable manner.” And its “function is to control the id’s impulses, especially those which society forbids, such as sex and aggression.”

It would be unfair to the current group of Congressmen to say they lack certain moral principles. That claim could be made of a lot of past Congresses. But this group, the 117th Congress, appears to have broken the sound barrier on fundamental conventions of governance. So basically we have a House of Representatives being operated by an extremely large addled-minded kid with no morals and unchecked aggressive behaviors.

So we now we come to the third component of Freud’s trinitarian mind and the one most of us are familiar with: ego. Simply psychology says, “The ego operates according to the reality principle, working out realistic ways of satisfying the id’s demands, often compromising or postponing satisfaction to avoid negative consequences of society.” It is hard to imagine that all the stuffed shirts and blouses on Capitol Hill lacking an ego. But here we are.

But here is the kicker: It is called “reality testing.” If a plan of action (like firing the Speaker) does not work, then “it is thought through again until a solution is found. This is known as reality testing and enables the person to control their impulses and demonstrate self-control, via mastery of the ego.” At this point I am not sure if the House can master itself let alone function according to the Constitution. The main function of the House of Representatives is to come up with a budget. It fails miserably at this Constitutionally mandated duty.

I am not a psychoanalyst but then I do not think you need a PhD in psychology or one from the Harvard school of government to realize that we have a really dysfunctional Congress. It is a loony bin where the inmates hand out the meds and Matt Gaetz determines when to turn off the lights.

What is really frightening is that this group of inmates wants to hand out meds to the other two branches of the government, which most of us agree are barely cognisant without the House of Representatives help. Basically we have a House of Representatives that is semi-brain dead, an emotional cripple and unable to relate to others. Or as six grade teacher questioning an unruly student behavior: Have you lost your mind?