Violence Out of Control, and the Media Is Absent

If you spend enough time on Twitter, videos like this one abound. While some of it may be anecdotal and not necessarily indicative of an epidemic of violence happening across America, the fact remains that there are simply too many videos to account for, and the frequency of this happening is something that we should all be deeply concerned about.

Where does it end? And more importantly, why isn't this violence being called out? Where are the advocates against bullying? Why are we not looking for a link between this and other violent crimes and other things that happen in our society? And where is the media to report on these things when they happen? Where are the police to call for a stop to this sort of thing? Where are our other elected officials and the leaders in our communities?

The question is, what is the culture of this, and why does it seem so important for many people to simply want to brush it under the carpet and remain silent about it?

It's not the way it is supposed to be in America. 

Granted, one can easily make the argument it's always been the way things are since our very early beginnings. From the raucous nature of the Wild, Wild West to the days of Jim Crowe and racially motivated lynchings and other crimes of violence.

But shouldn't we have moved towards more civility by now? 

And it's not just videos like this of kids running rampant stomping on each other and smashing heads against asphalt. It's adults lashing out in violent and criminal ways toward fast food workers and customer service personnel, and even strangers on the streets.

The violence is everywhere and there seems to be no end in sight.

Beyond that, there's another element here that I think is important. There aren't guns being used in much of these violent videos. It's fists flying and hair pulling and head slamming and gut kicking happening in them.

Which begs one other question. Where is the media? Because more often than not these displays of violence receive no coverage at all. But with all of the shootings we get to hear about, it seems clear that these acts of violence pose a much greater threat to all of society than even the high number of shootings does.

It seems like it is a bigger problem. But the problem is, there are no politics to be entered into the equation here. Politics on gun control. Politics on race and oppression. Politics on police violence. And because there is no agenda here to push, the media chooses to remain silent. And so do the community leaders.

The question becomes, what do we do about it? How do we stop it? How do we figure out what's causing it? And do we actually want to stop it? 

It's maddening to see these videos day in and day out, and what makes it more maddening to watch is that we also know nothing is being done about what we see happening in them. It's maddening that people are turning a blind eye to a very real problem while only focusing on things that aren't the big problems we are led to believe are.

On top of that, it's frankly disheartening. Our kids are supposed to be our future. They are supposed to be the epitome of innocence. If this is what the future of what will become our new adults look like, I can't even imagine how much worse it will get.

Because these are also our future leaders.

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Weirder and Weirder

Whenever you start raising bars and "breaking barriers," things never really ever go back. Long gone are the days when you would see married couples on TV sleeping in separate beds. Actual sex and some pretty raunchy sex scenes, including gay sex have hit prime time.

Not to say it is all bad, mind you. There are things that are just real, and we all know what those things are and what goes on.

I am just saying that at the pace that bars are being raised nowadays, I think it's going to be a fairly rapid pace to things becoming more and more bizarre. Not that things aren't already quite bizarre if you ask me, beyond just sex scenes on TV.

The world is becoming weirder and weirder. What happens is a sort of "scrubbing" of sorts. You just get used to it, and when you get used to it, you sort of become a bit immune to it.

Sort of like when a homicide detective can walk around rotting corpses and enjoy a sandwich for lunch while they investigate a scene. A situation that, for most of us, would find us looking for the nearest toilet to unload what we ate for breakfast, let alone mow down on anything new.

I get that people want to "express themselves." Take the story of the AirAsia CEO, Tony Fernandez who openly and unabashedly held a team meeting while shirtless and receiving a massage. "I want to be transparent," he says.

Is it entirely bad? No. But it's weird. Not that I am some morals zealot or anything, but I do believe that in most things there should be at least some modicum of decorum. What do we do next, have a bath while figuring out what profits should be at the next quarterly report? 

But then, at the same time, social media has become something wherein everyone wants to be a star. And let's face it. Many people become stars for all sort of things they do on social media. Not all of it good. And a lot it quite weird.

Everyone has a schtick, and when you get famous for going out there, eventually in order to become more famous you have to go farther out there than the last guy did.

Elon Musk became famous for being outspoken and sometimes saying some outlandish things. So, why not get out there too by having a shirtless massage during a team meeting? Musk raised the bar and Fernandez perhaps wants to raise it some more.

I don't know, I just think the phrase, "Truth is stranger than fiction," is becoming more and more true with each passing day, and I am not even sure I can predict what's coming next. I just know it's going to be stranger and stranger the more time that passes.

I wonder where that's going to leave us eventually.

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The Not So State of the Union

Was it the State of the World? The State of Ukraine? Where was America in President Joe Biden's final address to the Union? If you were paying close attention, America wasn't part of it. In fact, it wasn't a State of the Union address at all. It was a campaign speech.

Where was mention of massive fentanyl deaths that are claiming the lives of 100,000 Americans every year? Drug cartels controlling our border states and the border crisis itself and the impact it has had across the nation? The cost of goods and services and eroding personal economies affecting every American household navigating through the pain of inflation? Where was talk about the massive rise in crime and chaos happening across our cities and towns?

Instead, Biden shouted at us in what was nothing less than a dark, pessimistic, and foreboding rant that put politics before American interests, and instead of addressing the core issues that are of concern to every single American.

On the issue of the economy, he tried to prop it up by saying, "Our economy is the envy of the world," even though the average American needs $11,400 more today to maintain the same lifestyle they enjoyed in 2021. Since Biden took office, grocery prices have risen 17%, cash strapping hard working Americans and straddling the poor. Instead of focusing on the core issues causing the inflation, such as the supply chain crisis and the high cost of energy, he railed against "greedy" corporations for price gouging and shrinkflation.

He once again took aim at Republicans for being the cause of trhe border crisis when everyone knows it was his decisions on day one to end Trump's border policies which was followed by a flood of illegal immigrants into our country. He blasted Republicans for not passing a border security bill that would do nothing to actually secure the border.

All in all, Biden simply missed the mark. Sure, he was amped up. He was more voracious than usual. But it was all for show. What was missing from his riled-up speech was substance. It was missing the core issues and what he plans to do about them. What was missing was where we are now, how we got here, and what he will do to fix it. According to Joe Biden, everything is fine in America, and we just can't see it.

He offered no solutions. He passed the buck. He assigned blame. He shrugged off bearng any responsibility for many of the issues we are faced with, and in typical Joe Biden fashion, he entirely dismissed the real State of the Union Americans are actually living in.

He chided and scolded and blasted, fist pounded and yelled. He looked and sounded more like an angry old man hyped up on too much coffee than a president ready and willing to lead all Americans united together into a better and brighter future.

I won't call his speech out as a total disaster. But it wasn't good, and I don't think it wins Biden any points except among his die-hard supporters which, quite frankly, are leaving in droves every single day as his policies and actions separate themselves from the reality we are all dealing with that cannot be escaped from.

What Americans want from our leaders is a sense of urgency that we can see they feel when times are not so good, and for them to accept and acknowledge the reality rather than sell us a bill of goods. We want to be understood and uplifted and have a sense that our leadership will forge better paths ahead for us.

How can we be assured that the challenges we face can be addressed and made into achievements if our leaders don't even convey a sense that the challenges exist?

When President Biden denies the truth and turns a blind eye, it leaves Americans with no hope. No sense of resolution. When his focus is on the safety and protection of other countries and other people while leaving Americans behind, it makes Americans wonder which country it is he is leading?

I would find it hard to believe that any honest, thinking person who watched that speech walked away feeling better about the current state of, or future of America. And that was the job of the State of the Union. It was the job of President Joe Biden.

Like so many other jobs since his administration took control of the White House, he didn't get this job done. Even if his speech really was essentially a campaign speech, you can't win over the American people and earn their vote relying on denial and lies to get it. All the assurances that we are on the right path and have strong future prospects have to be conjoined with the reality Americans actually live.

His State of the Union did not accomplish that.

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Thinking In Terms of a Paycheck Is Part of the Problem

Especially when it comes to living at a time many of us have not experienced in our lifetimes, a period of high inflation where every dollar we earn has less buying power and must be carefully thought out before we spend any of it, there is still something I think that holds us back when it comes to financially getting ahead.

A paycheck.

That may seem like a silly thing to say considering a paycheck is of course, a means to an end. We can't really get anywhere without one. But it is how we think about our paychecks which happens to be the very thing that holds us back.

When it comes to income, it's the one thing most people consider as the source to having more money. If they could just earn a little more, ask the boss for a pay raise or find a better paying job, or find secondary or tertiary incomes like second jobs or side gigs, they'd fare better financially.

But the art of having money is not in simply earning it. The art is building wealth from what we earn. In other words, the more you keep and save the better off you are. 

Building wealth is not really so much about earning more as it is about making every dollar we have go farther, and letting our dollars endure the labors rather than us to produce more income. That means taking on some level of risk such as investing.

There is a difference between earning money and creating money. And once the mindset changes to understand that it makes a world of difference. It changes one's entire perspective about money and wealth building and creation.

When you work for a paycheck what you are really doing is simply chasing your tail. You earn some money, you spend it, and then you have to go out and earn some more. But you never really get anywhere. The cycle just repeats over and over again.

Richard Kiyosaki from Rich Dad, Poor Dad called it akin to being on a treadmill, being constantly in motion, but ending up exactly where you started.

The key is to find ways to make what you earn more valuable over time. What's a dollar worth if you spend it? Zero. But if you invest it a dollar could be worth $1.08. And with compounding, over a longer period of time that dollar could be worth $5.

This doesn't mean don't seek a higher paying job and earn more if you can. It doesn't mean don't ask for that pay raise. It doesn't even mean stop working. It simply means, don't think of that extra earned income as something to spend more with. Think of it in terms of something to build wealth from.

If you can get a pay raise through a better job or from your current one, pretend like you never got it and put the money to work for you.

A paycheck can be both a crutch and an opportunity. It just depends on how you think about it. It can either provide a level of comfort knowing if you just keep working, the paychecks will continue to come. Or it can offer you an incentive to put more of your money to work so that your paychecks become less and less necessary over time as an absolute means to pay for things.

As I have always said, paychecks are essentially worthless if all they do is maintain the status quo.

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More Questions than Answers with No Cognitive Test for Biden

"The President passes a cognitive test every single day," said Karine Jean-Pierre in response to questions relating to why Biden did not have a cognitive test included in his annual physical.

The problem with her answer is, of course, that the question of his mental state is the very reason the question is a question. The People want to know, and it has been a question for a very long time. Not only for Republicans who have already largely decided the answer. But Democrats have been asking it as well.

So, what are we to believe is the real answer here, because any thinking person has to question the choice that was made here by the doctor and why the Biden administration decided to not push the issue? You would think that with a president so heavily questioned about his memory and fitness mentally to lead the country—someone would have decided to insist on the test to be done simply to hopefully put the question to rest.

All the decision does, to not do the test, is to raise more questions.

Did the doctor truly determine no test was needed? Or did the Biden administration persuade the doctor to conclude that because they all knew he wouldn't be able to pass it?

In fact, the question was a rather hot one right after the Hur report was released which made comments about Biden's memory, with Karine Jean-Pierre fiercely claiming, "You do not see the president as we do, and he is very sharp in all of our encounters." Biden angrily lashed out at reporters that his memory is fine while only mere moments later introducing the President of Egypt as the President of Mexico.

Even Biden himself should have insisted the test be done to prove to the prying public that they are wrong about their questions.

Perhaps they feel it was a smarter move to avoid the test and potentially avoid their Pocahontas moment such as was the fate for Senator Elizabeth Warren and her Cherokee claims. At the same time, I think what they were up against was a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. Because people aren't dumb. If Biden couldn't pass the test, which many people believe he can't, the answer in the minds of voters remains the same despite the doctor claiming that no test was necessary.

President Joe Biden is in mental decline, and that is precisely why no test was done.

Because we are smack dab in the middle of an election here, and all the Democrats want to do is win it. I have a strong suspicion that they already have plans in place to remove Joe Biden from office as soon as he does win it, if he should happen to win.

The 25th amendment could be applied, and Kamala Harris has already stated to the American people, "I am ready to lead," which seems to suggest she may become the president in the event of a Biden/Harris victory.

Does this hurt Joe Biden's chances of winning? I think it does. A large portion of Democrats are not convinced. And not all Democrats hate the country. Most Democrats, according to all the polls, can't stand Kamala Harris and find her to be a disaster in waiting if she ever becomes president. 

Either way, the fact remains that not including a cognitive test in his annual physical was a major misstep. Simply telling the American people he passes a cognitive test every single day is not enough. Because in the eyes of the American people, he is not passing that test. If we can't see it, your answer and the doctor's opinion mean nothing.

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