A Request???
Somebody actually requested that I give them a link to my blog?  Dammit.  That's just like my friends....ask me to actually deliver something, rather than just whinge.
So as I lay in bed the other AM, listening to NPR (what? I know, it's not nearly far enough to the left, but Al Franken is no longer broadcasting)  I was trying to understand (again) how Trump got elected.  I mean, I KNOW  the how, but I just can't wrap my head around the fact that one third of the voters in the US are still in love with him.  So I tried the "back up" method of determining the 'why' of anything.  So, 3 (or 4 - determined by which poll I read) out of every 10 voters still like their choice, eh?  My friend used to continually remark while changing the television channels at lightning speed, "Another example of the 'dumbing down' of the American population." So maybe now, with the election of this diseased lecher, the dumbing down is complete?  This may be a dystopian future to rival the progression of climate change.  Backing up one step from that, (and after agreeing with that premise) would it be genetics?  Like the copy machines, have we just printed out too many humans and the double helix is fading?  Or, is it our educational system?  Have the corporations in charge of developing and printing textbooks finally succeeded in turning out young humans mentally equipped to just read and believe commercials?  I'm hoping it's that last one, and not the first.  That would be ironic.  Just as we succeed at cloning, we have no educated intellectuals to clone.  So if it's the educational system, backing up one step from that, what would we do, and what would've caused that?  I know that Oregon schools are failing...all you have to do is go here:   https://www.kgw.com/article/news/investigations/oregon-has-one-of-shortest-school-years-lowest-graduation-rates-in-us/283-560012138  and read this eyeball blistering report.  So taking a step back from failing the students in schools, where does that put us? I think that if we could just understand the importance of educating as many students as we could, to a least a Bachelor Degree level, it would begin to put the brakes on the "dumbing down" of America.  We need to stamp out the "I don't have any kids in school - why do I have to pay this tax?" attitude, and realize that critical thinking (and so, critical planning) in the future adult population of the country will be more valuable than even Bit Coin.  So then I actually had to get out of bed, and watch "Let's Make a Deal".  Wayne Brady solves a lot of worries.  "It's Door 3!  Door 3, you maroon!"