​Watching Dopesick starring Michael Keaton on Hulu got me to thinking. I’ve felt the pangs of addiction at one time or another during my life. Haven’t you? No, not nearly as compelling as addiction to drugs or alcohol. Honestly, I've avoided those for fear of becoming addicted. Sadly, Dopesick tells the story of addiction promoted by a pharmaceutical manufacturers aided and abetted by doctors and the federal government.

Once upon a time, TV executives lived by the Nielsen TV Ratings. Nothing else mattered. If a show won its time slot, it survived. If it didn't, some hyper-popular show from the past like I Love Lucy or Gilligan's Island, was resurrected from the vault and substituted before viewers were tempted to spin the dial and find something to watch on a competitor's network.

These days it seems that shows will be aired regardless of audience approval until we knuckle-draggers learn to love what the networks are offering. Aren't they aware that We the People now have options?

Have you ever listened to Monday-morning quarterbacks discussing the big game from the day before. Passionate, aren't they? It's almost as though they are team owners lamenting or celebrating the results, speculating on countless whatifs. Politics is a lot like that, isn't it? Well, with one difference. We the People are the owners and everybody is losing.

Seriously folks, if you want to argue in support of President Biden, knock yourself out. I will allow any comment so long as it is an affirmative argument in support. I won't waste my time nor my readers posting complaints about President Trump. That train has left the station and we are living with the consequences of being governed by this man. We need to keep our eye on the ball.

In Flanders Field, by LTC John McCrae

McCrae had reason to despair. He had just lost a friend when he penned his famous poem and was sitting in a quagmire of a battlefield. The future, if there was to be one, appeared bleak. And yet the sun did shine again, and those who suffered and died in Flanders Field now rest in peace.
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Casting eyes over the quagmire that suffuses America today, especially in Washington, state capitols, college campuses, and inner cities, some despair. The media amplifies the antics of a vocal minorities and it becomes tempting to believe that the end times are upon the nation. However, turning away from the bad news, rays of hope can be found. One such ray shined on a tiny community in California this past Veterans Day.

Do you have hope for the future of America? Or have all the stories of doom and gloom gotten you down? Well, one week  gave me a boost of confidence in our nation and our children, its future. You may have already seen two of them but missed the real story behind the scenes. The third is a very personal experience, one in which I escorted three WWII Veterans to a high school to meet the students who wanted to pay their respects and learn their history. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did

War is the realm of uncertainty; three quarters of the factors on which action in war is based are wrapped in a fog of greater or lesser uncertainty. A sensitive and discriminating judgment is called for; a skilled intelligence to scent out the truth.
— Carl von Clausewitz

My father was a Nazi. I don’t know if he actually belonged to the American branch of the Nazi party. I have grounds to suspect he did. In any case, he was a fervent admirer of Adolf Hitler and all that he did. I grew up listening to my father extol Hitler’s dreams. Fortunately, I learned at an early age that my father was bat guano crazy and to ignore him.​

Now, before you judge him harshly (that’s my prerogative) remember that many greatly admired Americans shared his beliefs. Charles Lindbergh for one. Joe Kennedy, the father of the famous brothers including President John F. Kennedy, for another. Why not? Der Fuhrer pulled Germany out of the Great Depression and who really cared what he did with the Jews? Everybody hated them.

Thus, I look with more than passing interest on the shenanigans of today’s Nazis. I wonder. How do they compare to Hitler’s minions?

“A tantrum or temper tantrum is an emotional outbreak, usually associated with children or those in emotional distress, typically characterized by stubbornness, crying, screaming, defiance, angry ranting, a resistance to attempts at pacification and, in some cases, hitting.” – Wikipedia

Recognize this behavior? A large segment of the American population seems to be having a tantrum ever since Donald Trump was elected President. Of course they feel justified. But what is their justification? Well, at first blush it was the unfairness of the Electoral College. That excuse didn't last long because few people actually understand the Electoral College. Then came the Russians.

Now it's the Nazis. What will be next?

Meanwhile, the nation survives. Flourishes, actually. Unemployment down, way down. Stock market up, way up. Consumer confidence high. Federal deficit spending low.
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What, then, is the best way to deal with a tantrum? Just ask any competent parent. Don't reward it. Don't even acknowledge it. God help you if you do. You will teach your child (or emotionally distressed adult) that it's a successful tactic and they'll use it again and again.

The challenge is to understand what they are. Inasmuch as they haven't yet appeared in any dictionary, it's a great challenge. The simple fact that they are being used as pejoratives, used to express contempt for the opposition, I suspect that both are describing strawmen.
What then is a strawman? Fortunately that term has arrived in the dictionary: An intentionally misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent's real argument.
Thus, when you hear these terms, beware. You have stumbled upon propaganda. The Strawman Argument is a classic technique of propaganda. The propagandist is attempting to convince you of the correctness of their position or opinion by contrasting it with the obvious weakness or falseness of that of their opponent's (that they have crafted for them).