from behind the plow

Is there a need for mental treatment centers?

Would it be a good idea for America to support mental hospitals?

I think it might solve a number of problems that are dragging America down.

These things include homelessness of the mentally disturbed and maybe even school shootings like the one in Madison, Wisconsin.

The Madison sadness, which gave the Left another opportunity to scream “take all guns out of peoples’ hands” is about a troubled young person, who probably should have been under treatment – so sad in so many ways.

Biden Still Intent on Taking Guns

Taking all guns out of citizen hands appears to be the attitude of soon to leave office Pres. Joe Biden.

Biden’s monstrous lie about not pardoning his son of an illegal gun charge hardly made a blip on Politico’s Top Liar list of 2024.That designation went to President-elect Trump just as it did in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2021. It should be noted that no Democrat has received this dishonor since President Trump arrived on the political scene. Do we see a pattern?

Trump had to share the honor this year with Vice President-elect JD Vance for referring to a report that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, were eating pet dogs and cats.

It was the pick you’d expect by a leftist outfit. Columnist Tim Graham observed it is exactly the type of results you’d expect if you polled only liberals.

The disgraced major media is sharpening its knives for the mid-term elections. They still don’t realize people don’t trust them.

Reagan Blamed For Mental Hospital Closures in 80s Former President Ronald Reagan is accused of closing mental institutions in the 1980s.

Yes, he signed the documents closing them, but it was a gotcha kind of scheme.

Former EMT, Navy Corpsman and Army medic as well as a clinical laboratory scientist Michael J. Jirka explained it this way in a comment on Google: “He did it in concert with lawsuits brought against the mental institutions for ‘warehousing’ patients that could have been discharged with modern medicines.

“It was more expensive to have Nurse Ratched line you up and watch you swallow your pills … so we retired Nurse Ratched and closed the state mental hospitals … and the law of unintended consequences caught up to us. We had nutjobs stop taking their meds, without the watchful eye of Nurse Ratched, and go shoot up a school or the Von Maur Department store,” Jirka commented.

Another former combat medic, also ambulance crewman, recalls the event this way: “I was in college in California when Reagan closed a nearby mental institution. There were no plans for the displaced patients. Over the course of a few days, they drifted into town (San Jose, now a major city but then still a somewhat sleepy and agricultural community) and changed the character of downtown. They slept in doorways and alleys. Female students were afraid to walk from class to their dorms or cars (I think the school began an escort service for them). Crime rates increased. I’d been Republican since my first election, but this was the first step toward my reregistering as a Democrat.”

A Google source relates: “Ronald Reagan’s administration, particularly through the 1981 Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, significantly influenced the closure of many psychiatric hospitals in the 1980s. The main reasons for these closures were: “Deinstitutionalization Movement: This movement aimed to shift mental health care from large institutions to community-based settings. Advocates argued that patients would receive better care in smaller, community facilities, promoting their integration into society.

Economic Factors: The Reagan administration focused on reducing government spending, which included cutting funding…” The Decision Affected Oklahoma

I was at Pauls Valley when the Pauls Valley State School, established in 1907 as a home for mentally and psychologically challenged youth, was operating.

I visited the school occasionally on news assignments and always found the patients there well-treated, well-behaved and welcoming.

I thought it was a tremendous loss to the state when it closed. I’ve often wondered what happened to the students when the school closed.

There were reports of bad conditions in earlier times but it seemed spic and span when I visited there.

Google also says that the residents were transitioned into the community or families after the facility closed.

Apparently, there are still buildings available that could be transitioned into treatment facilities today.

Billions of federal government dollars have been wasted overseas.

If President Trump’s DOGE plan works, perhaps money can be found to provide facilities for the homeless, which includes many military veterans, who have been adversely affected by wartime experiences, and their problems treated.

That is one of my hopes for the new administration beginning Jan. 20.

The U.S. Senate passed the $895 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which headed to President Joe Biden, as the House had also passed it. The NDAA contained plenty of wins for Republicans, especially as Democrats whined about certain provisions, like banning Taxpayer money to fund “gender-affirming care,” which often involves genital mutilation and/or sterilization, for the children of service members. There was also some bipartisan wins as well, though, as it included provisions sponsored by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that Democrats also supported.

What was so different about the 2024 election?

Columnist Victor Davis Hanson writing on Townhall. com explained: “Biden had inherited from Trump a secure border, an economy rebounding after the COVID quarantines, 1.23% inflation, no wars abroad, and cheap energy.

Four years later, the outgoing Biden administration is widely unpopular. Almost every one of its policies polls below 50%.

“In reaction, Trump promises not just to restore his first-term success, but to expand it.

“Two, Trump personally remains transparent and energetic – eager to talk and meet anyone, anytime, and just about anywhere.

“His energy offers a sharp contrast with the non-compos-mentis Biden. The change is welcomed by an electorate exhausted by the past four years of presidential stumbling, wandering, incoherence, mind-freezes, and angry, ‘get-off-my-grass’ aged fragility.”

That just about covers it.