looking ahead to the next enlightenment

I'm not certain if I'm angry or frustrated by the insulting,
patronizing attitude of the Empire's Goons.  On the other list I'm on,
I've been charged with dwelling in the past and being negative.  While
these charges are untrue, there is value from studying the past
history of ours, and other civilizations.  That is, of course, if our
intention is to identify the weaknesses and the strengths, and use
this information to build a better "mousetrap".
Although I was a young child during the build up and the war years in
the 1940's, I later studied the use of the "Big Lie" approach to
propaganda, as it was practiced so successfully in Nazi Germany.  Of
course at the same time I was kept in the dark concerning the growing
sophistication of the American Empire's Propaganda.  After all, we
were taught that we did not color the truth.  We did not censor the
news.  That was what the Communists did.
Today, our American Empire has developed the world's most
sophisticated propaganda machine in history...if anyone cares to look
back past yesterday.  All of the mass media is under the control of
the American Corporate Empire.  The American People have been given
fluff and nonsense in place of thought provoking information.
Rescuing a kitten from a tree is nice to see, but in place of viewing
the death from our drones?  Are the latest Tweets from Donald Trump
honestly more important than the destruction being dumped on the
Middle East, in the name of keeping America safe from Terror?  Donald
Trump, like the Pied Piper of Hamlin, has tweeted and tootled us down
his own yellow brick road, to a Land of Never Was.  "I will return
America to her former Glory"!  "I will make America truly the most
powerful nation on Earth"!  And while we shiver and thrill to these
platitudes, Donald Trump's silliness distracts us from the plundering
that is, at this very moment, taking place.  And he is setting in
place the judges and officials who will continue to promote this
plundering for many years to come.
Barack Obama set the tone early on when he refused to look back into
the illegal actions, the treason committed by the former
administration.  His posture was to Protect the Establishment, not to
allow it to be weakened by exposing its corruption.  So Barack Obama
quietly lied to us and sold the American People out.  With "Leaders"
such as Obama, Bush II, Clinton, Bush I, Reagan, Carter, Ford, Nixon,
Johnson, Kennedy, and Truman, all protecting the growing American
Corporate Empire, the Old-Line Oligarchy, the Ruling Class.  At the
expense of the Working Class.
An old friend of mine, long dead now, but in his day one of the
wealthiest men in Washington State, told me, "Never use your own money
when you can use someone elses."  And that is exactly how Donald Trump
built whatever sham personal empire he claims.  And that is exactly
the approach used by his Cabinet of Robber Barons.
Still, history does demonstrate that for every Dark Periods, there
comes the Enlightenment.  And I still have confidence in the Working
Class, the folks next door, all of us, to build a far superior form of
government.

Carl Jarvis