Jess Lahitou

On Oct.

That headline is a bit of false advertising, as I am in not quite qualified to proclaim myself a “Thanksgiving Pro.”

I am hesitant to write anything that might tangentially help Donald Trump, because I think the man entirely unfit to be president.

During last Wednesday night’s CNN Republican Presidential Debate, moderator Jake Tapper gave the ultimate softball question: What woman would you put on the ten-dollar bill? Instead, answers ranged from decent to head-scratching to laughable to flat-out embarrassing.

The five 2016 Democratic candidates for President met in Las Vegas for their first debate last night, and this writer’s prediction is that the field will be down to three for the next matchup. (Barring Joe Biden’s entry into the race, which remains a distant possibility).

So I’m writing today from Elevation 8,080 ft., here in Avon, Colorado.

Last night was the first chance American voters had to hand tangible results to 2016 presidential candidates.

Will every story that Trump doesn’t approve of get the “fake news” label, its authors permanently blacklisted forever?

The 2016 election has, for a while now, felt eerily akin to 1984 (lots ‘o doublespeak coming out of Trump and his supporters). Or The Hunger Games, to take a more recent example of dystopian genre fiction. Wherein, government becomes solely about politics and the media spectacle, rather than actual policies and ideas.

As the headline article (“Anxiety, Depression and the American Adolescent”) points out, depression has been replaced with anxiety as the leading mental health struggle of today’s adolescent. The one possible cause that stood out to me most was the impact of social media. With smartphone in hand, teens can be reading harmless texts, or – as was the case for one young female interviewed – they could be viewing disturbing Instagram posts, or reading about distant tragedies, or scrolling through hateful Facebook comments. Maybe even comments about them.