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Make America Great Again

(1)

This election cycle really was a doozie this year. I had a bluff going on where I said that I bet $50,000 with 3/7 odd in Vegas on Trump. I walked with $175,000. I had my dad and some friends believing me for a couple days until I confessed I did no such thing. I generally try to steer clear of politics because I find it so divisive, but I try to be a bit civic minded on occasion and I vote. Needless to say, I’m not particularly fond of Donald Trump, but I’ll give him some time in office. My guess is that the markets will take a joy ride on ideals of deregulation, but social and global issues will be agitated by him.

The one thing that I was a bit taken aback with the slogan he grabbed from Ronald Reagan. “The line of ‘Make America great again,’ the phrase, that was mine, I came up with it about a year ago, and I kept using it, and everybody’s now using it, they are all loving it,” Trump said in a 2015 interview. ”I don’t know, I guess I should copyright it, maybe I have copyrighted it.” As I see it, the events and things that have made this country great have nothing to do with Donald Trump. If anything he’s making a mockery out of our democracy even though we do that to ourselves because half of the US citizens didn’t even vote and the other half were perfectly split along party lines.

I spent some time abroad and I certainly do believe in the ideals embodied by the United States of America. It truly is a great country and I believe that the ideals we need to focus on moving forward are those to accommodate our population growth, health, and economic sustainability. Even if I assume that the non voting half was split in equal portions, I’m still hopeful because the only power in our political system is human capital and each of us own that with our own behavior and our vote.

I could go on, but here’s a video that I think appropriately expresses my feelings on the subject. It’s entitled “B Movie” and, in my opinion, perfectly reflects the sort of reality star populism we’re seeing. It’s from the Robert Mugge film Black Wax and features Gil Scott-Heron performing his song “B Movie”.

Gil Scott-Heron performs “B Movie” from the Robert Mugge film BLACK WAX (2,3)

2022.06.10 – I just wanted to update this post just because I watched Front Line Police on Trial4 followed by the January 6th commission5. last night. What a mess. Aside from making me sleep at little less easy, it reminded me of a couple of my previous posts6.

  1. Demagogue ( Trump ), 2016 – Shepard Fairey – https://www.artsy.net/artwork/shepard-fairey-demagogue-trump
  2. Gil Scott-Heron performs “B Movie” from the Robert Mugge film BLACK WAX – https://vimeo.com/67538277
  3. Robert Mugge – Black WAX – https://robertmugge.com/black-wax/index.html
  4. Front Line – Police on Trial – https://www.pbs.org/video/police-on-trial-bhhadi/
  5. U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Select_Committee_on_the_January_6_Attack
  6. David Windham – People of Trump – https://davidawindham.com/people-of-trump/