Football brain damage … dementia

 At least one out of four football players suffer from CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy dementia.  Make no mistake this is a terrible disease. I loved Gayle Sayers, the second greatest running back I ever saw.  He had a terrible debilitating CTE disease. It was a bad death, as is the case with CTE.  Teammate Mike Ditka supported Gayle in his disease and said he would discourage any son or grandson of his not to play football

“Mike Ditka, the head coach of the Super Bowl–winning 1985 Chicago Bears team, says that if he had a young son or grandson he would discourage him from playing football”

So, for me, I get no enjoyment watching people inflict life crushing brain damage on each other. What parent would do otherwise? Are macho manly manly manly fathers going to let their children risk torturous deaths? Mothers?

Here is the data from this extensive study:

“ Researchers considered every former N.F.L. player who died from 2016 to 2021. There were 878. Some died in their 20s, some in their 80s, most in between.

The study’s main finding was simple math: At least 215 of those 878 former players — 24.5 percent — had C.T.E.

The actual prevalence could be far higher. The roughly 25 percent rate does not consider the 643 brains that were not examined. Some of those, maybe many of them, likely had C.T.E. too.”

Baseball used to be the “National Pastime” when I was young.  Then America fell in love with violence and turned to football. Maybe it’s time to let go. 

Why do Republicans always create massive deficits?

Republicans pretend to be “fiscal hawks” wanting to cut the deficit. And now the debt is in the spotlight as it reaches 40 trillion dollars. Funny thing though, Republicans create the biggest deficits and raise the debt more than Democrats.  Golly, I wonder why?

First, of course, Republicans are owned by the super rich so they must CUT TAXES for the super rich.  Oh, they say, by cutting taxes on the billionaires it will put more money into the “creation of jobs”… you know, create new businesses and grow existing businesses. Mostly nonsense. Just a bunch of greed grabbing predators. And, hey, the billionaires make many millions from the tax cuts, but you middle class folks will save money too, why a few hundred dollars, maybe even a few thousand dollars. Aren’t you all so very grateful to the billionaires for these BIG BEAUTIFUL TAX CUTS?

But I think there is a much darker reason than lower taxes, which massively increase the deficit and GROW THE DEBT.  It lets the cruel, heartless, greedy, “empathy and compassion are human weaknesses” billionaires do what they have been dreaming of for nearly a century - overturn all the safety net programs of Obama, LBJ and even most importantly FDR.  Bye bye Obamacare, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, Head Start, college scholarships, SOCIAL SECURITY … anything that empowers normal people. 

But why?  Because they want a workforce that has no power, that will beg for jobs with paltry wages, that can easily be crushed if they try to rise up against the billionaire powers. 

Because today’s Oligarchs are the same as the Oligarchs of the dominant industry in the U.S. prior to the Civil War… plantation slavers.  Their ideal workforce are slaves who can make money money money for them and provide such wonderful and ego pumping entertainments as raping, whipping, hanging… you know keeping everybody IN THEIR PLACE, so that the billionaires, and their lickspittle subservients can feel that their place is ON TOP.  

And, after all, isn’t being ON TOP the most important thing in life?  Why else are the billionaires desperate to be richer than all the other billionaires?  And the faithful Republican voters? Oh, they get to feel like they are on top too because they HAVE MORE than those who have less. Just like those that they admire and hope to become - the greedy, heartless, racist, misogynist BILLIONAIRES.

It's actually not that hard to figure out.

Extinction burst

 Extinction Burst is a psychological state of mind that describes the behavior of someone who has been getting their way with a certain behavior forever and are no longer getting their way with that behavior.  The effects of the behavior are going Extinct.  So what they do is have a Burst of more and more of that behavior in order to get their way, just like they always did before.  But it doesn't work.  And eventually the behavior goes Extinct.

Case in point - a child throws tantrums and gets their way.  Then the tantrums aren't working anymore. So they have a Burst of excess tantrums demanding to get their way.  And when the behavior keeps not getting what they insist on, the behavior Bursts, it stops and has to be replaced by other behavior.

This is a pretty good explanation of MAGA.  Hard core, hypermasculine bullying and intimidation has been the hallmark of men for centuries.  And the world is changing and the old hypermasculine intimidating bullying is starting to not work.  Women are calling out and prosecuting sexual abusers for example.  Bombing the hell out of Iran is not working. Russia's invasion of Ukraine is failing. Etc.  

The burst?  Trump wants to do more bombing, and Putin wants to send more men into slaughter. Hypermasculine men "influencers" like the Tate brothers and Secretary of Defense, Hegseth, and Secretary of Health, RFK Jr, pose in the gym flexing their muscles.  See, see, see?  See how manly, manly, manly we are?  Aren't you intimidated?  Aren't you afraid? Aren't I just the most manly man you ever saw?

No.

The world, she is a changin'.  And power is not that simple.  Real power is not intimidation and force and cruelty.  And those, MAGA Trump KKK Nazis Putin Netanyahu Hamas, who are exhibiting a Burst of this Extinct form of power are failing dramatically.  Iran is not submitting to Trump's bombing and threats. Russia is failing. Hamas is being crushed. Women are not cowering and shutting up and submitting to sexual abuse.  Simple force and bullying are having less and less results.

We are discovering, and creating, what is actual, real power.  And real power is not the simplistic power of fear, bullying, intimidation, cruelty.  Maybe that worked for Hitler and Stalin.  Exhibit A is for us to see in how it is failing for Putin and Trump.  And their minions.

Hypermasculine bullying is not only in MAGA and the extreme Right Wing, of course. It is in the extremes of the Left Wing as well.  And it is a behavior of men and out of balance women in all walks of life.  But my point is that it is in the process of not working and is in the process of being replaced by a balanced understanding of real power. And real power includes Soft Powers of empathy, compassion, caring, concern, imagination, creativity, understanding, etc.  Things that the hypermasculine "men" like Elon Musk decry as "weakness".  

This is a process.  And it is taking time.  But there will come a time in the future when people will look at our bullying world with as much bafflement as we look at the America of slavery and be amazed that such nonsense was accepted as normal.

Has the U.S.A. become one of the world's most toxic countries?

I am an old man who has always been proud to be an American for decades.  After ten years of Trump that is no longer true.  America, more accurately the U.S.A., has become a pariah in the world.  Why? Because its president is a mentally ill avaricious predator.  But there is more.

First, Trump.  Trump has abandoned NATO, and is destroying decades old alliances. Trump is attacking green energy.  Trump is destroying the State Department, and American compassionate help in the world, and the health care system, and the military, and the judiciary, and the rule of law, and the Congress, and green energy, and the environment... the list is endless.  

But, there is more.  MAGA is doing all the same things.  MAGA is just the KKK in modern red hats.  MAGA is dedicated to turning the U.S.A. into Jim Crow U.S.A.  And they are succeeding way more than I want to admit.  MAGA wears masks dressed up as ICE and slams law abiding brown people to the ground, locks them in torture gulags, and deports them to countries that they know nothing about.  Just racist cruelty sanctioned by Trump and his racist minions.

And more yet.  The Fossil Fuel Oligarchy completely owns Trump and MAGA.  I understand that those who work in the fossil fuel industry want to protect it.  But the oligarchy is doing more than protecting their industry, they are sabotaging green energy.  I worked in the fossil fuel industry for decades and am grateful for my career.  But when it comes to energy in the country, and in the world, it is not a question of either-or, it is rather a question of both-and.  Fossil fuels will always have a future in the country and the world, and because Global Warming and Climate Change are so obviously tearing us up here and all over the world we need to actively develop energy that does not belch CO2 and Methane filth into the atmosphere.  And the U.S.A. dumps about 12% of the CO2 into the atmosphere and has only about 4% of the world's population.  We should be leaders in the invention and deployment of green energy.  But the fossil fuel oligarchy is actively seeking to destroy green energy in our country.  Too bad for the world, and too bad for the U.S.A. because the future will be more and more green and we will be late to the green technological party.

And even more.  Democracy. The U.S.A. has become a leader in destroying democracy in our country and thus has stopped being the model and leader of democracy around the world.  Trump's and MAGA's world is the world of authoritarian avaricious corruption and tyranny.  And they aren't trying to hide what they are.  Say it out loud, they are racist avaricious authoritarians, and they are proud.  They totally abandon the idea of being good and fully and proudly embrace the idea of being "smart", meaning being greedy and cruel. 

But the story is not over.  Trump and MAGA are disgusting to me, and to more and more American voters.  The midterms are coming, as well as the next presidential election.  And even though the KKK MAGAs will do all they can to overturn the elections, they are going to lose.  And over time I expect them to fade away, although it won't be a graceful exit.

The Soul and Spirit of America is not going to be crushed by the attempt of the worst parts of America, the KKK and NAZIs and polluters and cruel greedshits.  It will take time, but the greatest political idea ever written - "all men are created equal" - meaning all people are created equal - will long endure.  

Trump will die, MAGA will die away, the KKK will crawl back under their rocks of shame, and America will be part of and hopefully leader of a newly invented world of freedom and responsibility.  The damage is and will be terrible, but the story is not over.

Who's going to stop me?

Trump seems to have only two functioning questions that he ever asks himself - A. how does this benefit me? and B. Who's going to stop me?  Meaning, nobody will stop him and he knows it.

Who could stop him? Republican House and Senate members.  But they don't.  Are they just afraid of losing their jobs that they have spent their entire lives wanting? or are they thinking that at least they are better for the country than whoever would replace them because they think that someday, somehow, they are going to keep the insane president from doing something or another? or are they under a threat of murder from the Criminal in Chief or MAGA Cult fanatics?  

I guess it doesn't matter what the various reasons of the various Republican politicians who won't stop him are, he just keeps doing whatever the hell he wants, and nobody stops him, and he makes billions of dollars from his open, blatant, don't you wish you were me corruption.  And he keeps crapping on everything he touches, from the Washington DC to Canada to Europe to Ukraine to U.S. elite universities, to every government department that helps U.S. citizens in any way, to... to... to... It's endless.

So who is going to stop him?  Only us.  Voters.  The midterms need to be an overwhelming humiliating defeat of the Pedo in Chief, and he needs to be prosecuted and convicted of at least his corruption.  You would think that this 250 year old democratically elected Republic would be able to remove a corrupt madman from the helm of the Ship of State, but it turns out that we have been unable to overthrow both the Trump Cult leader and the Trump Cult.

But his time, and their time, is coming.  

It is such a depressingly sad thing to know that so many fellow Americans are so deeply corrupt or cruel or cowardly.  But, here we are.  

For now.