I didn’t know how it was decided before the internet was used as a dictionary but Merriam Webster Company has declared Gaslighting to be the word of the year. It isn’t one of those fancy made-up words that will be forgotten in a few years.  Gaslighting has been around for decades, maybe even a century.

            Merriam Webster Dictionary defines Gaslighting as “The act or practice of grossly misleading someone especially for one’s own advantage.” The meaning I grew up with is somebody who can con a person for a long period of time like P. T. Barnum. Bernie Madoff or Charles Ponzi would be financial gaslighters. There have been many political gaslighters going all the way back to our founding fathers.

            A con artist, grifter, or gas lighter usually needs some kind of distraction to keep the victims from catching on to the scam.

            One definition of a con artist is “a person who cheats or tricks others by persuading them to believe something that is not true.” Gaslighting is the way a con artist deceives people. Today we have a person with other persons of influence conning millions of people into thinking things that are obviously false but still believe it. Historically the con artist’s goal has been money but today it is power and ego which are often the same.

            Do we know anyone or group that employs Gaslighting and conning people into believing things that is not true just to satisfy their egos need for power?

        After John McCain lost his bid to be President he said he went to Washington to change it and it changed him. I signed the petition for his first run but not in his second. The second made him the Republican nominee. The difference for me was he was himself in his first try but he changed his values and stances to get right wing support in the primary. After the loss McCain went back to his former self. He stayed that way until his death. The question is would he have reverted if he had won?

            Seldom does the voter know how the sausage was made. My Brother-In-Law was a Republican who had not been involved in politics when he answered a knock at the door. It was the leaders of both parties. They both offered their parties’ support if he would run to defeat the incumbent. He served three terms as an Illinois State Representative and one term as Senator. He learned how the sausage was made and despised it.

            We were visiting him at his desk one day when the party runner handed him a sheet on how he should vote for four bills that day. He hadn’t had any time to read the bills much less to decide how to vote on them. When I asked why he should vote that way he said in order to get road builders support at his golf tournaments he had to do as he was told by the party leader., Without that money he wouldn’t get re-elected and help his district. He enjoyed helping people but he often had to go against his beliefs.

            Illinois had a Senator who won handily but didn’t run again because he didn’t like how Washington made sausage. Thousands of newly elected people are about to find out how sausage is made at school board meetings to the Senate meetings.

        A black hole is an astronomical body where gravity is so great not even light can escape. It draws in planets, suns, and solar systems within its gravitational reach. There is a point in the spinning around the hole where a body can escape and can’t escape. It is called the event horizon. Once a body is past that point the gravity becomes too strong and the body is pulled into the compacted mass in the center.

            We may have a black hole here in the United States. We have a person here who is at the center of several investigations from his own activities and the activities of cohorts who have acted for him. Many others have given public support for him and therefore tied themselves to his orbit.

            Those who have gotten themselves deeply involved have passed through the event horizon and face legal challenges. Their only way to break free of the gravity is to plea bargain for a lesser sentence. The supporters are at or near the event. Some will figure out a way to get away from the gravity while others will fall into the black hole. The event horizon is near for a lot of elected people and many in the broadcast media and internet. Many have seen the danger and are backing away while others hope for the black hole to become a supernova spreading greatness to them.

        Kevin McCarthy wants to be Speaker of the House when the new congress starts in January. He is currently the Minority Leader and the mouthpiece for the House Republicans. He had been saying his party would have the biggest “Red Wave” in history. As of nine days after election the projections are that he will have a two to four seat majority

            Why a ripple instead of a tsunami? The abortion issue had some effect with women on their decision to vote for a democrat. The increasing revolt against former President Donald Trump’s incompetence and ego turned many Republicans and right-leaning independents to vote for a Democrat.

            As strong as those reasons are Devin McCarthy’s Trump-like rants were the deciding factor for millions of voters. McCarthy put Social Security and Medicare on the block. He said when he takes control he will investigate Hunter Biden’s activities in Ukraine and impeach President Biden and Vice-President Harris. The Justice Department is already investigating Hunter Biden and McCarthy admits he has no proof of Biden or Harris doing anything wrong. His far right wing discourses turned off millions of votes.

            Many Republican Representatives have decided they don’t want someone like him to be their leader amid the increasing fallout from Donald Trump. For months he has had his staff call him Mr. Speaker and is planning how to redecorate the Speaker’s office. What will Kevin McCarthy do when he isn’t the pick of the people he thought would back him and owed him. The world will be better off if he stomps off and goes back to California. Getting to hold the gavel requires the majority of both parties. Currently the projections are that less than ten Republicans will be siding with all the Democrats to sink his hopes.

        As a news junkie I can see through the screens politicians put out for their advantage to staying in office. They don’t want you to know how enormous the mess is worldwide. Just as in the 1930s Authoritarian governments are slowly eradicating the liberties their people though were inviolable. The “Big Lie” fills the news media and internet to the point people believe lies instead of their eyes and commonsense.

            In the United States one Political party did all they could to help companies move jobs offshore along with the technology? At the same time they blamed the other party which supported the unions and non-union jobs being offshored. Today we have the need for tens and even hundreds of thousands of people to do jobs from landscaping to nursing to technology that Americans are unwilling or can’t do. At the same time one party does all it can to reduce or stop the needed labor from entering the labor market. The immigrants come to work so why not let them.

            Some people in both parties refuse to do what is needed to reduce emissions in hopes of keeping climate change to a manageable amount. They voted against the bill which will put charging units out for electric vehicles to use. The bill includes lots of things we must do to survive but people who voted against it are thinking only of the people who dump millions into their campaigns or their pockets.

            For decades I have heard both parties say we need to pass a big infrastructure bill, yet one party vote against it but took credit for how they got it for their voters.

            Add in the wars in Ukraine, the future war in Taiwan, potential wars in Iran and multiple terrorist ones, and the volatility of fossil fuels, the world is in a huge mess. Perhaps a bigger mess than in the last 50 years.           

            The general definition for human trafficking is when people are taken from one place to another for the benefit of the person or persons who organized the movement. It is usually applied when women from an Eastern European country are lured to the United States to be models or actresses and are sold into prostitution. The same term applies when Asians or Latinos are brought in to work in jobs as slaves. They are kept in bondage conditions without the ability to go out by themselves. This is a despicable crime and is punished by years in prisons.

            Today we are experiencing another form of human trafficking. The Governors of Florida, Arizona, and Texas are telling migrants to board buses to get to the cities they want to go to, or to cities where they will get housing, food and work. Florida’s Governor is doing this with people in Texas. He says he has a 20 million dollar budget from state funds to do this. This is a classic definition of Human Trafficking. His benefit is not in money but for political gain. The trafficked people supposedly gave permission to do so but little kids without parents can’t give legal permission. They were told family members were at the end of the bus ride to get them on the bus.

            Since this qualifies as human trafficking shouldn’t the bus drivers and pilots be arrested and their buses and planes be confiscated? I bet that would put a stop to this political chicanery since no company would risk losing their assets. If Florida’s Ron DeSantis was actually directing or involved then he should be visited by the FBI with handcuffs.

            In 1808, Sir Walter Scott said “What a tangled web we weave when at first we practice to deceive.”. I have known many liars in my life and almost all ends up either telling another lie to cover the first lie to cover the first. Most just keep expanding the lie.

            Today we have a Former President who has created such a huge lie that it is called “The Big Lie” to try to stay in power and to promote a Constitutional crisis on January 6. Before becoming President he lied under oath many times to win law suits and the lawyers and courts didn’t bring charges. People who lie repeatedly begin to believe they can’t be caught and prosecuted for their lies.

            Someone who lies often becomes good at convincing others they should not only believe but should follow their lies. If the liar has social power to convince millions to try to overthrow the government then the American Dream may be over. The only way to stop a liar is to expose the lies over and over until the believers become convinced they have been deceived. The January 6 Committee, many books by Trump insiders, and commonsense may yet prevail.

            Millions of Texans say President Biden somehow corrupted the voting process and machines because it was a close election. They never said how all the other Democrats won where they were gerrymandered to win and Republicans won everywhere else including all the state officials. Polls for President were fairly accurate with Trump winning by the projected percentage.

            People talk about several states voting irregularities with Texas usually pointing the finger at blue states like Illinois and California. Texans should remember when they point a finger three more are pointing back at themselves.

            The Chicago Tribune printed an interesting example of Texan politics. The article was about Loving County, Texas which borders the Southeast corner of New Mexico. It is on the edge of the Permian Oil Fields. According to the 2020 Census it has 64 residents with more than that often voting in an election. Loving must let children and the dead vote to exceed its population. Loving County is 90.9% Republican, 6.1% Democrat, and 3.0% Independent. During the last four years the Republicans were able to raise almost 65 thousand dollars with the Democrats getting along with 335 dollars.

            This type of election fraud isn’t unusual in Texas and is even expected. Texas Governors and Attorney Generals must do all they can to slow down or stop its change from Republican back to Democrat. It changed after President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the voting rights bill. Texas Republicans are trying to make sure Supreme Court’s oversight never comes back. President Trump’s appointments voted to cease that oversight.

            If you missed the July 13 comic strip “Monty” you missed one of the best thought provoking strips I have ever read. The first block showed a man sitting in the front of a canoe paddling as hard as he can while other canoes are going past. In the second block he yells at the other guy in the back of the canoe to paddle faster because they seem to be going backward. In the third block we see the whole canoe with the bigger guy in the back paddling as fast as he can facing in the opposite direction.

            Is the strip portraying Congress doing nothing or Biden trying to right the ship and Congress fighting his efforts? Is it the conflict between Green Energy and Fossil Fuel? Is it the need for American’s to support Ukraine while complaining about commodity prices increasing? Is it one major party fighting the other? Is it that we are fighting each other about whether to preserve the right to own a gun, or vote, or many other issues?