"Cowardice asks the question...is it safe? Expediency asks the question...is it politic? Vanity asks the question...is it popular? But conscience asks the question...is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because it is right." ~Dr. Martin Luther King

Monday 9 November 2015

A VIEW FROM NOT THAT FAR ACTUALLY

Saturday Night Live is not a program of my choice. It's  a generational thing. Schlock for the sake of shock, wit conspicuous by absence and Yuk Yuk to the fore. 

Saturday's show was not improved with Donald Trump on hand. 

 Roosevelt is the earliest President I recall. I have a strong impression of him and every one since. 

There's never been anything remotely similar to Donald Trump and Ben Carson. 

After the last debate ,the candidates mounted an offence , complaining bitterly about  "gotcha" questions . They certainly were inappropriate for a debate....tailored as they were for individual
answers.  

No less than the tone set by Lead Trumpeter Trump. 

It was hard to excuse either side for degrading the process. 

Ben Carson went one better at the week-end.

 A few weeks ago, we saw a similar attack by a Canadian Conservative  against journalists at a Harper gathering. 

Carson has apparently written a lurid account of his youth....Born-again Christian from bad ass. 

Among numbers of reprehensible acts, it seems he claimed to have attacked his mother with a hammer.

Who does stuff like that ?

At the same time, he claimed to have been so outstanding as to have been offered a scholarship for West Point Military Academy. Which he refused, having already decided to be a neuro-surgeon. 

Seems the media sought to expand on the story and failed to discover further details.

Hence the candidate's fury at being challenged and accompanying gloat that the controversy would grow his poll numbers with evangelicals.  And apparently they did. 

Both himself and Trump are neck and neck in the polls and well ahead of the pack.

It's easy to speculate something  at work besides an intelligent electorate choosing between credible candidates. 

It's like Theatre of the Absurd. 

It's the party that produced Richard Nixon,Spiro Agnew,Dan Quayle,Sarah Palin and George Bush Junior.

Remember the latter ,clad in a flight suit on the deck of a ship with a banner above his head declaring the war in Iraq to be victorious within hours after it started. 

It's hard to shake the impression the U.S. isn't degraded by antics of the masters personae of the multiple -ring circus .

Which is not a good thing for World Order.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

They debate tonight, i think.
Trump wants a boycott of Starbucks because their coffee cups do not say Merry Christmas.
Very presidential.
I have never been to Starbucks but who wants to read Merry Christmas in early November ? On a cup ?
I guess the company was just trying to find cups that would serve a longer period of time.

Anonymous said...

Interesting is that the Starbucks cups NEVER said Merry Christmas. They had snowflakes and reindeers, etc. on them. Now, they are just red.

This is a thing from a right winged religious nut in the US trying to get a change. I think it is a Starbucks thing to be honest, free publicity.

Anonymous said...

Near the end of Mr harper's tenure, he was not allowing questions from reporters. They received lists of approved questions
And had to try to sneak real ones in during their time limit. So we have seen this all before.

Anonymous said...

Evelyn...We hear and see the Theatre of the Absurd right here with our own elected officials in all levels of government. There's no difference. There's just a lot more of them down there.

Anonymous said...



One has to be really preposterous to stand out from the crowd in the United States. Mere clowns are a dime a dozen.

12:19

I do not agree with you at all. Ours tend to mean well, generally, but they do not have the intelligence to accomplish what they mean. They tend to be typical Canadians - like our new Cabinet. Let's hope the members of this body have above average intelligence. It's badly needed.

Christopher Watts said...

In Mike Lofgren's October 29th piece "The GOP and the Rise of Anti-Knowledge" on Bill Moyers.com: http://billmoyers.com/2015/10/29/the-gop-and-the-rise-of-anti-knowledge/ Ben Carson is summed up as anti-knowledge incarnated, a walking compendium of every imbecility ever uttered during the last three decades.

My personal favorite so far is his theory on how pyramids were used for grain, proving that yes the inimitable stream of consciousness hallucinating of Glenn Beck is indeed strong with this one.

Unless of course he was speaking of a different pyramid altogether: http://imgur.com/djGuiqW

Anonymous said...

ah, Joseph's grain elevators. I fear Mr Carson has an incomplete set of marbles.

Anonymous said...

The GOP ticket of Romney/Ryan looks so much better in retrospect.

Anonymous said...

Where would we be without Christopher and his links?

Anonymous said...

15:21 - We would use Google, just like he does.

Anonymous said...

13:06- I used to think that they mean well, not anymore. Everything now is all very well calculated and orchestrated. We just have to look into our own backyard with the SCC for that example.

Anonymous said...

@15:39
But he shares the gems.

Anonymous said...

About the only thing I can find to agree with that group of candidates is that one cannot trust the polling numbers.

Edifying Editor said...

"I ... think that they mean well. We just have to look into our own backyard with the (Aurora Cultural Centre) for that example."

Anonymous said...

19:54 They do not mean well.
The SCC
aka The Cultural Centre
Care only about double dipping.
Get it from the town and rent it out.
Hang a few picture.
A joke.

Anonymous said...



What a perfectly good opportunity - wasted.

Anonymous said...

Managing one of the Republican candidates must be a challenge. So many of them should have their mouths super-glued shut.

Anonymous said...

5:11
Let's see how their fund raiser goes. If they can get businesses to pony up money just to ring a bell and be left alone
for the rest of the year, they won't need as much money from the town. Their own organizer says they are too dependant.

Anonymous said...

Democratic debate today

Anonymous said...

Dunno where to put this but Christopher has MORE