"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

Sunday 14 February 2016

AS BAD AS IT SEEMS

Anonymous  has left a new comment on your post "THE MOVIE SCRIPT IS ALREADY WRITTEN": 

They touch on the Canadian health care idea but never really pursue it.

Posted by Anonymous to  Our Town and Its Business at 14 February 2016 at 09:31

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The late Tommy Douglas had a story to tell about the  bitter battle and millions of U.S. dollars that flooded north to  Saskatchewan to prevent establishment of  health care for the masses anywhere 
on this continent. 

Tommy :outlaws had to stand on a box to reach the microphone.

The provincial initiative compelled the Federal  government to introduce the service nation wide. 

Mr. Douglas told the story in a church on Yonge Street ,Richmond Hill at the inaugural of the New Democratic Party in this riding more than half a century since. 

I  caught the second half  of the movie "WagThe Dog " on television . I  waited for a repeat to  
see the whole thing. 

Chick movies seem to be repeated  every other week. They are a welcome light relief of  comedy-romance. 

The Bourne Supremacy seems to be on just about every evening. 

"Wag The Dog" is a movie about a war contrived to make a President look like Captain Courage captivating the greatest number of followers. Hollywood  Director ,Dustin Hoffman masterminds the villainy.  I have yet to see the whole movie. 

Surfing the web today, I caught the tail-end of "Man of the Hour" ,a  film with a similar plot mentioned by Christopher Watts . It's about a successful presidential campaign starring comedian Robin Williams
as a comedian. 

It used to be, I read all the popular books about American politics. John Drury  wrote a series with the same characters.

I watched the movies, back to stars John Barrymore and Spencer Tracy. I was always glad to have read the books first. The movies were never as good. 

Then the Watergate Hearings happened with Tip O'Neill in the chair and I enjoyed the real thing better. 

Snatches  of last night's Republican debate were circulating  throughout news channels today, laced with news of the demise and replacement of a Supreme Court judge. 

I swear, every day it gets harder to separate fact from fiction, 

In all these years, I've never seen anything so irresponsible  pthat remotely resembles the  rabid battle between the rightest of the right taking place before our eyes over and over again on television. 

In a weirdly perverse context, in the  competition for power, the bizarre and bellicose billionaire keeps coming out ahead of the rest in the polls and  already in one of  two states decided.

Now the death and  required replacement of a Supreme Court Justice is being used to add fuel to the fire. 

The final year of four, they argue, a President is a lame duck. 

Last night, CNN introduced an academic  with an opinion.  He  claimed the second half, two years, of a presidential term can be deemed to be without authority . 

CNN  announced his credentials as head of a teaching institution and allowed his view to stand alone. 
No alternate view was offered. 

I was a very young child when fascism took over in Europe. I did not of course speak any of the languages.

We  had no television  or radio. Only British Pathe or Movietone News at the Saturday matinee. I have a sketchy understanding of how Hitler came to power in Germany and held on to it.

I remember the insane ranting...the roar of Zeig Heil ,the forest of  raised strong-armed salute
signifying regimentation of an entire nation. Although I did not understand it. 

I remember  the misery that came of it....the  Holocaust.....the cost in lives of an entire generation of the young world-over ,including Germany ....the years of recovery.

Most of all, I remember the words ....NEVER AGAIN. 

I think we are watching the world skating to the edge of unravelling again. 

6 comments:

Anonymous said...



It is the fault of television - the first debate between Nixon and Kennedy in 1960. Nixon's sweaty five o'clock shadowy jowls vs. a Harvard youth with a hypocritical smirk

From, there the madness and the hysteria have exploded and now, thanks to unlimited financial contributions, Trump's vulgarity and attack ads that are totally nasty and negative, to "social media" that provide every moron with an equal opportunity to rouse the rabble hordes, electioneering has descended into the world of Hieronymus Bosch.

A vile place where promises are made but never kept.

Anonymous said...

I think Reagan nominated Kennedy to the the Supremes when he was considered to be a lame duck president.
The problem for the republicans is that if they reject a moderate nomination by Obama, they could just face a
more offensive one if Sanders or Clinton get elected. It is going to get even uglier.

Anonymous said...


In the first year in office, the (let us assume new) president spends his time learning the ropes from his trusted inner circle of advisors, who themselves have little or no experience governing. He has made promises, commitments while running for office, but turning these into legislation seems to be impossible.

In the second year the opposition party starts in on shredding him, as with mid-term elections in the offing it does not want him to accomplish anything substantial.

In the third year his own party starts in on shredding him for being weak and ineffective. Alternatives start popping up out of the woodwork.

In the fourth year he is facing a dog-fight with a handful of his own party members, all seeking his party's nomination for president for the next four years.

WHY?

Anonymous said...



Trump shreds Cruz, threatening lawsuit to ban his eligibility to serve as president, citing Cruz was born in Canada. And that was the mildest comment he spat out at a press conference.

Meanwhile George W. is campaigning for Jeb and says, "I understand Americans are angry and frustrated. But we do NOT need somebody in the Oval Office who mirrors and inflames our anger and frustration." Way to go W.

Things are starting to heat up.

Trump is a psychodwarf, a mindless creature that should never have been let out of the cave. Maybe a Gollum describes him better.

Anonymous said...

The only Republican candidate who seems to the thinking about the country in Kalisch. He doesn't stand a chance.

Anonymous said...

I hope you are not missing the sideshow in that poor little town in Oregon, Evelyn. Those turkeys invaded the refuge
claiming to remain until their demands were met. And forgot to bring essentials such as warms socks, coffee creamer,
porto-potties and a just cause.