A Brief Comment by Doug Draper, From Outside the Tent
Posted February 27th, 2016 on Niagara At Large
In a U.S. presidential race where candidates are more interested in talking about each others’ over-active sweat glands or whether one candidate or the other has peed his pants, why focus on issues like jobs, economy and climage change when a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan is joining the circus.
If you need any more evidence that the ‘American Dream’ has morphed into a national nightmare and that any remnants of what were the golden years of the American Century are dead, the freak show that is the Republican race to replace the Black man in the White House is it.
Indeed, what is happening to politics in the United States makes something the late satirist George Carlin said more than a decade ago ring even more true today; “When you are born, you get a ticket to the freak show,” he said. When you are born in America, you get a front-row seat.”
And what could be freakier than David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan and white nationalist from Louisiana, expressing his support for Trump to an audience of what the Donald is want to call “the under-educated,” only a week after Trump called the Pope a “pawn” of Mexico for suggesting that building walls between nations of people is not a very Christian thing to do.
Former KKK Chief, once a Republican presidential candidate himself, throws his support behind Donald Trump
“Voting against Donald Trump at this point, is really treason to your heritage,” Duke told an audience this past February 25th. “And I am telling you that it is your job now to get active. “Get off your rear end that’s getting fatter and fatter for many of you everyday on your chairs. … Call Donald Trump’s headquarters, volunteer. They’re screaming for volunteers. Go in there, you’re gonna meet people who are going to have the same kind of mind-set that you have.”
The same kind of mind-set? How could anyone have any whatsoever about that.
And where are America’s cable TV news channels on covering all of this? Well, it is great entertainment and even greater for ratings, which is why Fox, CNN and even the more ‘liberal’ channel, MSNBC, is more likely to cover a whole rally of Trump blowing gas to a mob of gun-tottin’, Bible-thumpin’ rednecks than cover more than a few minutes of Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders or Republican Jeb Bush, who left the circus this February because he was too “boring” and “low-energy” (as Trump branded him) to keep up with the jugglers, acrobats and dancing bears.
So throw the mob another basket or two of stale bread and send in the clowns.
Youser, Youser, Youser! And lest we forget, God Bless America.
Read more on this scary mess by clicking on the following: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/david-duke-trump-219777#ixzz41NOiA0rd.
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Niagara At Large 
Doug An article I wrote many years ago
The American Empire
Great Empires have existed over the centuries, grandiose empires structured by the elite in their never ending greed, the need to conquer and the need to control, as all Empires they fell to the wayside steeped in corruption and decay.
The American Empire was born out of man’s will to forge a better life as immigrants flooded in from oppressed lands far and wide bringing with them their initiative and skill.
The entrepreneurial spirit flourish as small business sprung up, grew and became the driving force behind the American Industrial Revolution. Colleges and Universities, aided by the steady flow of Immigrants combined technology and ingenuity with the American Dream and America became the Industrial Giant of the modern world.
Factories geared to mass-produce automobiles, trains, planes, ships and appliances sprung up all over the country and prosperity reigned supreme. This ability to mass-produce was the instrument that in reality tilted the scales in favor of the allies during the great world wars of the twentieth century. What has happened since?
Those same Universities became the breading ground for the economics of this century. Economics that spread the doctrine of “opportunity costs”, “economy of scale” and a host of other catchy phrases that is transforming the Industrial structure of America away from Manufacturing to a Service orientated society. Now when you look at labels invariably it is manufactured in China, Taiwan or any of a group of Southeastern countries where the standard of living is appalling due to cheap labor and political corruption. This is the reality of the Global Economy and mankind’s unrelenting greed, fostered by the bottom line economics of our enlightened society, the right wing “Think Tanks”.
America became an Empire due to innovation, hard work and it’s Industrial capability but each day we see this chipped away as more and more of that capability is shipped overseas to bolster the bottom line of American companies with no regard for the American Dream. Empty factories and for sale signs is evidence of the corrosion, of the decay that is eating away at the foundation of this proud country. Will it turn around? No I don’t think so for the fastest growing economy in the world is China and “the sleeping giant has been awakened”. I think the “Catch word” here Economists is “America beware you have shot yourself in the foot”.
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Ain’t that America? Certainly more than little pink houses, and always The Big Show, where the entertainment value increases with inflation, and budgetary and cranial constraints occur simultaneously.
Here, we see Washington’s players take the stage, Hollywood style, where the gunslingers use their mouths and bluster and bravado are the rave. The crowds of minions bat rag-doll issues to and fro in the heat of welcomed controversy and unbridled belligerence.
Everyone has a program, but the emerging favourite will be the one who exhibits the most believable illusion of authentic representation.
Right now, that’s Trump.
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