The Left Denies Mental Problems

 

This is not another article claiming that people on the left or far left are mentally challenged or lacking in sanity, as tempting as such might be. That does not mean that the left will be free from all blame. We may of done that back on December 19, 2012, with our article Gun Ban Whiplash Coming from Anti-Gun Progressives. There was a movement starting in the mid to late 1950’s which gained speed through the 1960’s finally taking full sweeping change throughout the 1970’s with the closing of many state and private institutes which treated the mentally challenged and mentally ill patients. The watershed moment came under President John F. Kennedy with the passage in 1963 of the Community Mental Health Act which posited that providing federal funding for community mental health centers and research facilities in the United States would then replace the State Hospitals and place the institutionalized patients out into the general public to be treated by clinics. This was then to facilitate the transition of the less mentally ill to treatment by these community mental health centers allowing them to reside in the real world where they would have examples of proper behavior which could become role models. It was posited by Dr. Henry N. Pratt, director of New York Hospital in Manhattan whose testimony is reported in the New York Times article How Release of Mental Patients Began. He told the subcommittee “striking proof of the advantages of local short-term intensive care of the mentally ill was brought out’” in a Missouri study. This Missouri study, which compared a group of 412 patients in two intensive treatment centers with patients admitted to five mental hospitals, showed that the average stays for patients in the large hospitals were two-hundred-thirty-seven days longer than for similarly diagnosed patients at the treatment centers. Dr. George A. Ulett of St. Louis, the psychiatrist who directed the study as head of Missouri’s Division of Mental Diseases, now says the numbers cited, though correct, were misinterpreted. This would become one of the quotes demanding more Federal dollars to fund the community mental health centers to pay for more psychiatrists and support staff. This would become the perpetual mantra from the left and even some centrists on the right despite further statements from Dr. Ulett and other psychiatrists that the system was misguided and overestimated the numbers which could be readily and properly treated by local mental health centers and did not require institutionalization. Dr. Frank R. Lipton and Dr. Albert Sabatini of Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital in Manhattan were also quoted as decrying that research on the problems of the homeless, saying one of the major flaws in the concept of deinstitutionalization was the notion that serious, chronic mental disorders could be minimized, if not totally prevented, through care provided within the local community. Their exact words were, “This philosophical and ideological shift in thinking was not adequately validated, yet it became one of the major conceptual bases for moving the locus of care.”

 

The Sounds in My Head Will Not Stop

 

The other problem is that initially the psychiatric specialists came to believe that the new drugs, especially psychotropic drugs, would be the panacea of cures for numerous mental disorders including some of the most serious disorders. This reliance on the new drugs and promise of even bigger and better drugs on the horizon actual success rates were grossly overestimated. There eventually became two obvious shortcomings of drug therapy. The first was that these drugs would work with little or no side-effects which proved to be dead wrong as prolonged use of many of these drugs proved to be disadvantageous and some even dangerous. The other is that you could expect that the patient would take care and religiously take their prescriptions in the correct doses and at the right time. Too many patients simply were not sufficiently and mentally capable of remembering to take their medications, operating within society, interacting with people or following the simple protocols of society such as laws, prevailing morals, personal interactions and, for some, any knowledge required to fit in or act as required in almost any situation, even the most ordinary and common daily interaction. Many of the problems associated with the homeless have come as a direct result of the deinstitutionalized mentally ill. The problem which has been created is one which will be a greater challenge to repair than it would have been to simply finance the existing system which deinstitutionalizing of the mentally challenged was presumed to be a repair and an improvement. The great idea has most definitely come home to roost, and it roosts largely in our city streets, under bridges, in emergency rooms and living wherever they can find a piece of dry where they can place their cardboard homes if they are fortunate to live where they can do so without running afoul of the legal systems.

 

This was recently covered in an article by Walter Williams titled Another Liberal-Created Failure. Professor Williams pointed out research that, “according to professor William Gronfein at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, by 1955 there were nearly 560,000 patients housed in state mental institutions across the nation. By 1977, the population of mental institutions had dropped to about 160,000 patients.” But how did we get to the point where there were so many institutionalized mentally challenged patients. What was the initial reasoning behind the state institutions? These mental health state institutions were established to address an actual and real problem, the mentally ill were a sizeable percentage of the lawbreakers and when placed in prisons, they were mistreated, thus the state homes became the remedy to prevent further mistreatment of the mentally ill incarcerated in the prison system. The mental institutions were designed to provide the necessary treatment as well as separation from the normative society thus decreasing the problematic interactions between the mentally challenged and normative populations. State institutions, as noted by Dr. Williams, were initially founded in 1773 in Williamsburg, Virginia, as Eastern State Hospital became the first public hospital in America for the care and treatment of the mentally ill. They were followed by more state treatment hospitals throughout the United States as this was recognized as a much necessary and required solution to the obvious problem of the mistreatment of the mentally ill within the prison system. These systems continued as the best solution in a system where every solution is whatever is the least disadvantaging and least damaging to the people placed in these hospitals. What probably became lost with time is that the institutions for the mentally ill were not simply a prison for the mentally ill but hospitals where treatment and therapies could proceed under the supervision of licensed psychologists, psychiatrists and other mental health professional. Were there problems at some of these hospitals with certain staff members mistreating the patients? Yes, there were, but still the treatment generally was professional and caring and a far cry from what these unfortunates would have received if incarcerated in the prison systems.

 

This was lost sight when new drugs became available for the treatment of the mentally ill and many became somewhat overly optimistic over the results that these medications would in theory provide. The new and progressive idea for the treatment of the mentally challenged was that they could not really get better within the mental institutions as they had few examples of normative adult behavior. Should the mentally challenged be placed into an outpatient treatment center and placed into normal society, then they would recover more readily and adjust to regular life and improve. Also stated in Walter Williams article was, “Several studies summarized by the Treatment Advocacy Center show that untreated mentally ill are responsible for 10 percent of homicides (and a higher percentage of the mass killings). They are 20 percent of jail and prison inmates and more than 30 percent of the homeless.” One has to look at these numbers and one should stick out as an extremely counter productive result of treating them outside institutions, the system being pursued since the 1963 Community Mental Health Act. The twenty percent of jail and prison inmates should be shocking as the initial reason for programs for the treatment of the mentally ill was to take them from the prison systems as they suffered from mistreatment and lack of proper medication, therapy, treatment and other required needs of the mentally challenged. Apparently, the treatment of the mentally challenged is becoming full circle, to where the problem was first addressed when their mistreatment in the prisons was the driving force. From mistreatment in prisons we went to institutions dedicated to the proper, sensible and compassionate treatment of the mentally challenged providing them with a combination of drug treatment, individual or group therapy, counselling and separation from the general public for mutual protection we went to out patient clinics with a high reliance on drug treatments with minimal counselling and supervision which has now led society back to incarcerating far too many people with mental illness. There is also the problem of the increased criminal behavior caused by placing these mentally challenged patients into the general public. Additionally, too many of the mentally challenged patients placed into a self-care environment where they are responsible for assuring they take their medications as prescribed results in medications not being taken or being used improperly. Further, patients can often forget or skip their sessions for treatment and therapy and if they skip too many in succession, these outpatient treatment clinics being strapped for funds will often simply drop the patient from their schedules as their funding is dependent on patients treated and every missed session results in lost revenues. This allows for too many patients falling through the cracks and this eventually results in tragedy either for the individual mentally challenged individual or to society when they commit a violent act.

 

Dr. Williams also linked to another article from the Wall Street Journal titled Fifty Years of Failing America’s Mentally Ill. This article takes in more statistics and failings of the system of outpatient treatment using community mental-health centers, or CMHC’s. The results of this new treatment system has been simply a tragedy which is thusfar continuing with little if anything being done. What would be preferable would be for the Federal Government to take the funds currently being spent on mental health directly for specific treatment systems and programs or specified in any way for treatment, housing, therapy, drugs or counselling and other treatments be repurposed as a block grant to the individual states to use as they feel is the most productive and best treatments for their mentally challenged individuals. The government might even consider partially paying for the construction, revitalization or refurbishing of institutions for the mentally ill who should be required to be kept in a whole treatment center where they are assured that their medications will be taken and they appear for their treatment sessions. Mentally ill patients who miss a set number of treatment sessions or are found to be skipping taking their medications should be reinstitutionalized for their own good and for the safety of the citizens as well. The state institutions were given a bad rap with their failings blown out of proportion in order to carry out the great experiment for the treatment of the mentally ill where placing them in the general public was to be the cure-all and end-all of mental illness. Well, the results of the grand experiment are in and have been fully examined and have been determined to be largely a failure. The experiment has cost us the health of many mental patients while also costing the public lives from homicides including over ten percent of the mass killings committed. These include the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, Century 16 movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and the Safeway food store shooting of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords constituent meeting in Tucson, Arizona mass killings which took twenty-eight innocent lives including the shooter’s mother, twelve innocent lives and six respectively. These three shootings resulted in nearly fifty deaths and approaching one-hundred injuries which might have been avoided were there proper facilities in existence where people observed with mental challenges could be sent for observation and treatment and be kept for more treatment if so determined necessary. This would include families placing a troubled relative into treatment, police being able to bring before a court the need to place a troubled individual into such a facility for treatment, for a physician to advise for a patient be observed and treated if so determined, for courts to place somebody into an institution for determinations and treatment or for self-placement into such an institution for observation and treatment if necessary. The one item we can all be assured about is that the current system has some large holes through which treatments and societal safety are leaking forth and both the mentally challenged and the normative society are hurting from these problems. Perhaps it is time to turn everything back to the fifty states and allow each state to find their own particular solutions. Over time, some states will perform far better and others will fail catastrophically leading to the states desiring to perform better, they will have numerous proven solutions from which to choose. Eventually, the various fifty states will find a solution set from which a best system may soon emerge and over time, as new ideas and treatments present themselves, they will be tried in their many varied forms and ideas with the predictable range of results allowing each state to adopt that they find advantageous. Allowing the individual states to take their own paths in treating the mentally different, the potential for a near perfect set of policies and use of funds is far more likely to be found through fifty separate programs than in one directed from Washington D.C. Now all that need be achieved is getting Washington D.C. to agree to allow the states to be what they should be, the test laboratories of the numerous and varied approaches to a problem eventually seeking to optimize for the best results for the lowest cost.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Radioactive Russia Scandal

 

What if a person with political power and connections arranged the sale of twenty percent of America’s uranium supply to a foreign interest? What if they did this for monetary remuneration of millions of dollars? Would this person and their accomplices be guilty of some criminal prosecution? What if this person committed and arranged this deal while serving in a position of the Cabinet of a President who approved of the deal as he preferred that the Russians have the nuclear fuel than the United States. What if this deal was payback for favors being delivered to the person and their interests in the United States? How far and deep does such a connection need to be before it becomes treasonous? And what if this person gained financially from these dealings and would be able to use these dealings to further their efforts to become President of the United States? Exactly how far does one’s ambition and greed need go before their perfidy becomes criminal? These are the real questions which need be asked about dealing with Russia and directly with Vladimir Putin. But fear not, the mainstream American media and European media will not dare touch these acts, which done by anyone else, would get them tried for treason and potentially have them facing twelve men with bolt action rifles and only two with real bullets and the remainder with blanks so that none would know which one fired the fatal shots. Every man in the firing squad could claim that they fired the blank as the report of the rifle was less than normal and that would be every man’s actual feelings as none desire being the executioner. But worry not as no firing squad will ever be called for, even for such blatantly criminal acts as these, as some people of power are above such laws as committing treason; they simply could murder somebody during a press conference covered live in the East Garden of the White House and they would never face any charges.

 

We decided to start by inundating our readers with articles covering the Russia Uranium transfer, supposed possibly criminal activity. We were nice and gracious and did the search for you and here is a sampling of what we found, not necessarily read, but found. There is The Hill, Washington Times, Investor’s Business Daily , New York Post, U.K. Daily Mail, National Review, Fox News, POLITICO, Newsweek, and lastly Boston Herald. If you read all or even most of these articles, then you probably know more than virtually every Television news personality and most others who are chiming in on this controversy.

 

Now, perhaps we can get to our commentary on the entire fiasco. Were Bill and Hillary complicit, probably, but who cares and what does it matter? Vladimir Putin used one Clinton Foundation bribe in order to get approval for the UraniumOne purchase of twenty percent of American mined uranium as well as having all involved with the kickbacks remaining silent, clearing the way for Congressional ratification of the New START Treaty. Oh, if they are guilty of illegal behavior then they should be prosecuted. Right. Really? Why would this time be any different than all the misdealing and illegal quid-pro-quo dealings of hundreds upon hundreds of previous political scams and insider trading which they made perfectly legal for them but not for the rest of us? By now we should all be aware that politicians rarely indict or otherwise prosecute one another which is why the swamp never gets cleared no matter who makes the promise. This will be great fun for the media with many enjoying making great noise and making claims that they have the morsel of incriminating evidence which will seal the deal. Others will go to any extreme to prove that nothing untoward has occurred and if it did, then how about President Trump and Putin, you have not forgotten the stealing the election scandal now, have you? Every news source will cover the Clintons and Obamas dealings with the Russians and the uranium deal as well as the Trump-Putin election stealing exactly as you would expect, with their own slant politically. Where can one turn for accurate and unbiased reporting on this? When you find out, please let us know as they might also give such coverage to things about which we actually care.

 

The Clintons, Bushes, Obamas and virtually every other political family are safely beyond reach of legal officials as long as their deals are made under clouded conditions with paybacks made through third parties and in untraceable routes. They will find cover with the other politicians including even those of the other party as their mutual protection is part and parcel of their comradery. Their motto could be “In Each Other We Trust.” The Congressional leadership has been as crooked as one can imagine. Has anyone ever wondered how members of Congress, and senior staff who are covered by similar rules and lack of restrictions, hold positions which have salaries starting at $174,000 and going as high as possibly $250,000 manage to leave Congress after ten to twelve years as multi-millionaires? They manage such things through currency manipulation such as putting thousands of dollars into the currency of some little known nation where they are about to build a new military base or send hundreds of millions in an aid package and then transferring the currency back to the United States after it has gained in health compared to the U.S. dollars.

 

They invest buying the stocks of companies they are about to give a huge contract thus benefitting from the investment made by themselves and the government in which they are employed. If we tried to do this, we would face charges of insider trading and face criminal behavior, but these people are completely immune to such charges thus are permitted to trade with such foreknowledge of where the government largess will be placed. Perhaps this is why so many college graduates are so interested in gaining a position in the staff of a member of Congress as though the initial payments in the form of salaries is poor, once they make it to a certain level, then they can also invest using their knowledge as their guiding tool knowing all the coming investments which Congress may be about to approve. Sure seems to be a quick and easy route to the millionaires club and even higher for those who can mange to make a career on Capital Hill. No financially rewarding deal will ever be a prosecutorial under the rules which the government higher employers play by though accusations will be thrown hither and nigh between the two major parties one at the other in the name of throwing dirt to see what might stick. By stick they mean what the media will blow all out of proportion making into one giant scandal of the moment before the news cycle moves on to the next disaster. That is the reality of life in the swamp and almost nobody ever spends even just a short five years there without becoming infected by the scandalous behavior of the government and all the money and sleaze that inundates the city.

 

The Clintons had the advantage of having committed acts for which a normal person would have faced long prison terms and walked away free as they were politicians who could get away with murder (not that we would claim they ever actually murdered anyone though others have). They had their fair share of scandalous behavior and concerns while in Arkansas and coming to Washington D.C. simply provided them with a far larger swimming pool from which to commit their pandering. Willian Jefferson Clinton chose women in which to invest his pandering and criminal escapades while for Hillary there were only two things which mattered, power and wealth. She married Bill for the knowledge that he would rise politically and was driven and she could tag along for the ride and possibly take off on her own at some point. That point came once Bill had served two terms with her covering for his escapades and running interference. She then expected that he would give her the support required for her to rise and be President, exactly as he had been, she desired to become. His assistance was rather tepid and her efforts have thusfar failed but she has reaped in the monetary half of her desires. The problem is that Senator from New York and even Secretary of State has not satisfied her lusts for the ultimate power, President of the United States. The Russia uranium deal was just another monetary arrangement, in which she gave Vladimir Putin and his power structure and financial friends what they desired, was repaid handsomely and likely promised that Putin will support her next bid for the White House just as he had presumably supported Donald Trump. President Obama desired this deal for the reason that it served his ideals of leveling the world and bringing the United States down from the position as the most powerful nation in the world and transferred some of that power to the Russians, and this served to weaken the United States and empower the Russians, what could have been better?

 

Clinton vs Trump

 

This was the big event which was never supposed to become an issue as Hillary was all but guaranteed to become the first woman President of the United States starting January 20, 2017, Inauguration Day. As something went wrong and now perhaps the Russian uranium deal would be exposed while still potentially relevant, there had to be some competing Russian scandal. Now enters that Russia and President Vladimir Putin stole the election through dirty tricks for Donald Trump as there can be no other explanation for why Hillary Clinton lost a sure fire election. The Russians were helping Republicans and were against Hillary, thus how could anybody expect us to believe that the Russians and Hillary Clinton had worked together in a cash for uranium deal if they worked to elect Trump. There you have the competing Russian evil manipulation of the United States elections and nothing, not even twenty percent of the mined uranium in America could compete with stealing the Presidency. And the media, in their collusion, ate it up and ran and are still running with it but some stories refuse to be outdone and just scream to be investigated. That is the problem Hillary Clinton and potentially others are facing as this was a deal beyond the pale if it proves true.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Israel’s Illegal Immigrant Disaster

The illegal immigration problems in Israel have the identical overt ramifications as any other issue in Israel, namely that the United Nations, Left and far Left NGOs, the European Union and a whole list of foreign nations are all condemning Israel and demanding that Israel give full rights and comforts to these illegal entrants into their country even as much of the rest of the world is deporting the very same peoples who illegally enter their borders. Even putting the double standards aside, there are numerous other problems these unwelcomed invaders are posing purely within Israeli borders. Many of these illegal immigrants originally come from South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Nigeria, Mali, Kenya and other nations throughout Africa with almost all these peoples transverse from three to as many as seven nations, risking death in many such as Egypt where illegal migrants are often shot instead of arrested, in order to reach Israel, their intentionally chosen goal for obvious reasons. There are the obvious problems caused as many of the illegal immigrants have no employment and are even often virtually unemployable as they have little education and do not speak any of the languages commonly found within Israel. This leads to either their living in overcrowded apartments when they are able to arrange to rent living space. Many live on the streets and in bus stations and other public buildings turning them into dangerous and unusable locations. There are also the personal hygiene problems of every conceivable nature which simply add to the difficulties posed to the neighborhoods where the illegal immigrants tend to congregate. There have come to be entire areas such as some parts of Eilat and much of South Tel Aviv, both areas are where the most affordable housing exists and is where many workers from the lower end of the financial ladder reside as well as elderly on fixed incomes and others who cannot afford to live elsewhere. These people now face a situation where by sundown they must already have retreated to their homes and locked themselves inside for their own safety. Women residing in these neighborhoods are not safe going out alone even during the daylight hours and many elderly are too frightened to leave their houses to visit the doctor, purchase their prescriptions or even shop for food as they fear physical assaults from some of the illegal immigrants who own the streets in some areas.

 

Another side to the problem is the police have not provided sufficient coverage to make the streets safe for people to use and go about their day-to-day lives. The reason this is a problem has a number of facets which include but are not limited to lack of sufficient manpower to patrol all of the areas, fear that unless the police go in force that individual or paired officers do not pose sufficient threat of force and would often be outnumbered facing both superior numbers and able bodied adversaries who would show the officers little or no respect and would fight and resist any actions against them, and then even when the police do arrest or detain groups of these illegal entrants there are liberal leftist NGOs which provide bail and legal representation to them claiming that society owes these illegals a fair break and we need to understand their plight. Needless to point out, these liberal leftists come from neighborhoods where there are no illegal immigrants plaguing their streets threatening the citizens in their neighborhood so placing those from among the illegal community who do get arrested for acts of violence back on the streets poses no threat to the leftist do-gooders.

 

And that ties into the most troublesome item in the efforts to address the illegal entrants problem. Where the government has finally taken steps to secure the Israel-Sinai border and stem the influx of illegal entrants, the efforts to find solutions for those already in country have not been very effective. The Knesset for its part has passed legislation allowing for the restraining and keeping the illegal entrants in custody while their cases are deliberated and it is decided if they are actual refugees who would face threats to their lives or freedom if returned to their native lands or if they are simply illegal immigrants seeking a better life living in a society which provides them with supposed employment opportunities or where they can live on government support via the societal safety net which was intended for citizens of the nation, not for freeloaders coming from the outside world. Thus far the Israeli Supreme Court has struck down each attempt thus far to address the problems. The current Knesset passed legislation is currently under, or soon will be; challenge by Leftist lawyers whose main aim in life is to make sure that not a single illegal entrant is sent back to their home nation or is inconvenienced in any manner. The reasoning given is that Israel needs to be a nation of refuge for all people who are in need and should forget about the idea and ideals that Israel is and should act as the home of the Jewish People. These far leftists condemn Zionists as narrow minded bigots and agree with Justice Minister Tzipi Livni who recently was quoted claiming, “I want to see a liberal, Zionist Israel, not a conservative, nationalistic one.”

 

One has to know that when the leftist claim they desire a liberal Zionist Israel they define such as a nation where Jews are welcome as is everybody else and where there is no thoughts of actually defining the State as a Jewish State and where religion, especially Orthodox Judaism, holds no special place and should receive no special treatment. They believe that Israel would be best served if it became a multi-ethnic, multi-religious, socialist state where everybody and every outcome are guaranteed equal by the government and in order to prove that this liberal Israel does not regard Israel as the Jewish state it must denigrate and work against any religious Jewish agendas. This is what is behind a number of other contentious issues such as the demand by the secularists and leftists that the religious Bible studying adults must serve in the military even if that requires them to give up their dedicated Bible studies. It is behind the Women of the Wall fight to demolish the Orthodox hold of the Kotel, the plaza and Western Wall complex, and who demand that the main area be realigned to fit their demands despite the fact that the vast majority of Israelis desire the rules to remain the same. These ladies were even offered an area recently developed close to the main Kotel where they could hold their style of services and practice their form of Judaism but they demand that they be allowed at the main area and the rest of those wishing to follow Orthodoxy should use the somewhat smaller new area despite the fact that these women are a small minority. Even if they should prevail, then the newly renovated and prepared area would become the new central place for Jewish prayer. Would that then cause them to demand that area in the future? My guess is it would be exactly what would happen.

 

Israel is at a crossroads where her future is on the line; the Leftists recognize this and are in full-fledged panic. They look at the landscape of Judaism in Israel and note that they are rapidly becoming a smaller and smaller minority. They currently hold many of the government positions and have representation beyond their numbers in the courts and are using these cudgels to bludgeon Israeli society to bend to their beliefs and practices. The leftist also realize that despite the billions of dollars being poured into extreme leftist NGOs by the European Union, European governments, and numerous international leftist NGOs that they are facing a desperate situation and within twenty years Israel will more resemble Judea under King David but with a high tech economy and modern conveniences, than a modern, multi-ethnic socialist dream come true. They believe that if they can just push hard enough and get their agendas established that they will be able to make the socialist societal dream which began with the progressives of the early twentieth century into a wondrous and splendid reality. At the root driving their dream forward is the idea that Judaism and socialist humanism are basically identical and that because of this, they are the real Jews and by solving all the world’s ills through government interventions and programs they can implement a messianic perfection which has been unattainable until now. The fact that their schemes and dreams can never work in practice does not matter because true ideologues do not concern themselves with little matters such as reality. And a final point, many of these leftists believe that if Israel will just get rid of those religious fanatics, anybody who does not worship at the alter to the idol of political correctness and socialist humanism all of which has many of the same qualities as did the Hellenist Greeks, as well as those nationalist Zionists, then they can establish their perfect society free from want or blemish of any kind, where all are equal with a select few, mostly their fellow travelers, are just a little more equal than the rest, and crime and want can be vanquished and a peace can be had with the Palestinians if only those obstinate people in the government would realize the errors of their ways and accept the new world order offered by these international secular-humanist NGOs. Please, save us from those who claim they know all the answers as in reality we do not even know the extent of the questions yet.

 

Beyond the Cusp