Politics Plus

Yesterday, being Monday, naturally I overslept. It was literally dark when I got up. And of course my inbox was horrendous. However, being this close to the end of the month, the end of the quarter, and the end of the year, I was able to delete 3/4 of them without reading, which helped tremendously.

As we approach the end of what has been a godawful year in almost every way (which should at least remind us that there is no such thing as being “apolitical.” What your government does will affect you personally), media large and small are summarizing the year from their own viewpoints. Harry Litman is here to remind us that despite everything, it could still have been worse – a lot worse. While I don’t advocate changing this, I’d like to remind us all that the Courts have no police of their own. The only enforcement mechanism they can use is local, state, and federal police (depending upon the level of the Court.) So if anyone ever had a right to say “I can’t do anything to change this,” it would be judges. But, thank the universe, they don’t. Harry reviews the actions and statements of some of the best.

If this story reminds you of Fred Rogers and his mother’s advice, you are not alone. That was my first thought. Here’s a quote from the transcript of the bottom video in which he tells the story:
“But I want this holiday season to underline something I always say in all my videos all the time. And if you have the ability to step in and help the situation where you can, please do. Find it within yourself to always be in a place whereby if you see something. Don’t just say something that they say over here, but try and do something. No matter how small it is, even if it means picking up the phone and making a call.”

I’m going to share a link to a specific YouTube channel with you, because I think it will be useful. The channel belongs to Max Kuhn, and many (not all) of his videos are conversations with Dr. David Benjamin. The value of these videos is that, when there is a photo of, or an incident with the Orange Ogre which goes viral because “he’s dying,” which does not happen every day but which sometimes seems like it does, Dr. Benjamin analyzes the evidence and explains what it really indicates , and more importantly, what it doesn’t mean. The most recent video with Dr. Benjamin shows a photo which is going viral after being seen on Aaron Rupar’s account and in the Daily Beast. It is photoshopped (and IMO not very well.) If it were real, it would indicate a brain stem stroke, but since it isn’t, it doesn’t. The first video I found there was regarding him not knowing what part of he body he had an MRI on. Dr. Benjamin is pretty sure that the Mango Monster didn’t know where his MRI was because he didn’t have one. He was struggling to say what kind of imaging he had when a reporter asked him whether he had an MRI and he jumped on it. That doesn’t mean he had one. I have had a couple of MRIs, including a full body one, and trust me, you would know if you had had one, and where it was focused. Nameless may not need this kind of information, but most of the rest of us can really benefit from it. So I’m passing on the link to the video channel so that when this kind of thing happens again (and I say “when,” not “if” because it will – it gets clicks galore because we are all so eager for him to die) y’all won’t have to wait for me to find out what is most likely real.