Cult of personailty, historical rhyme, or both?

So in 1988 a band called in Living Colour created, what in my mind, has become the political anthem for this era dominated by the most ignorant person ever to reside at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. in United States history, deceitful Donny Trump. What ensues is a breakdown of the lyrics of this intense song, and how they eerily mirror the current situation.

Here are the lyrics of this song that reached No. 13 on Billboards Hot 100 at the time of release:

Look in my eyes
What do you see?
The Cult of personality

I know your anger, I know your dreams
I've been everything you want to be
Oh, I'm the cult of personality

MY NOTES: Donald Trump is a master at one thing and one thing only, tapping in to people's anger and fears and exploiting that for his own gain. Like any good conman, he scares you, makes you angry and tells you who is to blame for it, but offers no  real solutions. And of course, enriches himself in the process. This is not about, and never has been about, you. IT IS ONLY ABOUT HIM.

Like Mussolini and Kennedy
I'm the cult of personality
The cult of personality
The cult of Personality

Neon lights, a Nobel Prize
When a mirror speaks, the reflection lies
You don't have to follow me
Only you can set me free

MY NOTES: People often question Mussolini and Kennedy being referenced in the same line. You shouldn't be surprised. Mussolini started out a hero in Italy and ended up being beaten to death by the same supporters who loved him years before. He, like Kennedy, captured the imagination and the love of the public. The cult of personality is not about good vs. bad, it's about how a leader can become a cult-like figure who can do no wrong. It's more than 50 years since Kennedy was President and people still reference Camelot. 

The second stanza here might be the more interesting of the two. "You don't have to follow me, only you can set me free." Donald Trump is a con man, but it is the blind faith of the public, like Germans had in Hitler, that allowed a monster to be unleashed on the world. I am not comparing Trump to Hitler. I am saying that the rise is similar. Disaffected people, who are angry and scared, needed someone to turn, and enter a charismatic liar to fill the void. But if you ever convinced yourself that it could not happen in this country, you are deluding yourself. 

I sell the things you need to be
I'm the smiling face on your TV
Oh, I'm the cult of personality

I exploit you, still you love me
I tell you, one and one make three
Oh, I'm the cult of personality

MY NOTES: "I sell the things you need to be". Deceitful Donny told you whatever you needed to hear during the election to rise to power, and he did it with a smile and with jokes - in the process disarming people - which allowed him to make any claim he wants and yet intelligent people don't question it.

In the second stanza this proves true. Don the Con has exploited the country and is currently enriching himself at Trump hotels and properties on the tax-payer dime and his supporters, who claim to hate corrupt politicians, celebrate him for it. "I tell you, one and one makes three" is a softball. By the Washington Post's latest count, Trump has lied more times in three years, over 15,000 times, than some people lie in a lifetime, and he does it without batting an eye. The DSM-5 has a diagnosis for this, he's a sociopath.

Like Joseph Stalin and Gandhi
I'm the cult of personality
The cult of personality
The cult of personality

Neon lights, a Nobel prize
When a leader speaks, that leader dies
You won't have to follow me
Only you can set you free

MY NOTES: I could go on and on here as well about Stalin and Gandhi, but I will not. I will simply state about these two stanzas that only you can set you free. Like Jim Jones or David Koresh, Donald Trump is nothing but a two-bit hack confidence man who just hasn't set out the poison for us to drink yet. It's scary when you hear Trump supporters refer to him as the savior, which I have heard people in my own orbit tell me to my face. Only you, by no longer believing in his lies, can set you and the rest of us free of this "American nightmare."

You gave me fortune, you gave me fame
You gave me power in your God's name
I'm every person you need to be
Oh, I'm the cult of personality

MY NOTES: Everything Donald Trump has in terms of riches, power and fame is because we have allowed him to have it. By all accounts, he has broken the law his entire life to get to where he is, and no one has ever held him accountable. He has defrauded banks, skirted tax laws, and dealt with the shadiest of characters to get to where he is, and we have not only allowed it, but in the case of his supporters, celebrate it.

And unbelievably, it is the Christian Right in this country that has enabled this moral delinquent to rise the highest office in the WORLD on the back of a God he doesn't even believe in. That's correct. The same Pat Robertson crowd that said Bill Clinton was immoral for having an improper relationship with an intern in the White House, supports a man who has cheated on wives with Playmates and Pornstars and has been accused of multiple sexual assaults. HYPOCRITES!

I'm the cult of, I'm the cult of
I'm the cult of, I'm the cult of
I'm the cult of, I'm the cult of
I'm the cult of, I'm the cult of personality

Taxes on the poor

We have been looking at this all wrong!

My entire life people have been blaming the poor for the failures of society. "Why should my taxes go to help the 'lazy', why doesn't the government do something to get rid of the panhandlers and homeless in front of my store, why do we keep letting in immigrants who are stealing my jobs and getting 'free stuff'.

These are just a few examples of things I hear people say all the time, but the reality is our society is in trouble because the people who have the most money, pay nothing to help society, and our leader's response is to continuously tax those who work until the day they die in dead-end jobs and those who can barely afford health insurance, a home or apartment, or even food for their kids.

As many of you know, state governments across the country (thanks to a Supreme Court decision last year) are now taxing all online sales and purchases. I, as a seller and buyer online, am feeling the impact of these states taxes. I am not rich! I am barely working class. I would love to add employees to my slowly emerging business, but at every turn the government is taking money from me, so I can't. SORRY POTENTIAL FUTURE EMPLOYEES.

This taxation to death of the working and middle class, which also includes the rise in property tax, and water taxes, etc., etc., etc., are my problem and I will deal with them, but the frustrating part is that the super wealthy in this country, pay nothing. WHAT A JOKE.

I own one bank note on a home, and at every turn the government wants money from me. I am trying to create a small business, and at every turn the government wants a cut. The system is designed for average people to fail. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos pays NOTHING.

Time to blame the right people. Stop blaming someone who grew up with nothing, will work and not make enough to buy anything or have proper health care, and will die before they can retire with a measly social security check, because they have been worked to death.

Tax the tech companies that are responsible for our extinction. Tax the polluters that are destroying our increasingly precarious planet, tax those billion dollar corporations that are destroying our unions - the only thing we've ever had in this country to insure decent jobs. And FINALLY, vote out the politicians in mass who support these awful policies of blaming the poor and rewarding the irresponsible financiers of the 21st century.      

Guard Against Pretend Patriotism

General George Washington, our first President, and a man who voluntarily gave up the power of President after two terms, once said, "Guard against the impostures of pretend patriotism."

This time, right now, was what the father of our country was talking about. Some in the GOP (Republicans) have taken to the airwaves and our saying that anyone in Congress who is trying to re-assert Congress' Constitutional authority to make war (Article 1, Section 8) is not patriotic, or worse, are suggesting that they are mourning the loss of Qassim Soleimani - the terrorist that the Donald killed recently.

This is absurd and again likens back to the George W. Bush era when anyone who opposed going into Iraq was also unpatriotic, against our troops and terrorist sympathizers. This argument is asinine.

After September 11, 2001, I was in favor of going into Afghanistan to go after terrorists, but was very much opposed to chasing the rabbit in Iraq. But I was told I was not a patriot for not blindly following the administration down said rabbit hole - you the one with weapons of mass destruction.

I was referencing my knowledge of history and the Vietnam War when I made the decision to oppose our involvement in Iraq in 2002. You had two opposing sides, in Iraq, Sunni and Shia Muslims, and you could see the writing on the wall that the removal of Saddam Hussein would cause a power vacuum and lead to a civil war. We can not keep getting involved in other countries civil wars. That's what happen in Korea, Vietnam, it's arguably what caused the collapse of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. And as I though, it's been a quagmire in Iraq for the last 17 years.

People in general, but especially our so-called leaders in Congress, need to stop using patriotism as a weapon. Who the hell are you crooks to question my, or anyone else's patriotism?

Here are some disgusting examples of this and it is no surprise that most of these cowards went on Fox News, which is just state-sponsored propaganda television:

Here is Doug Collins also with Lou Dobbs leveling disgusting claims, like Democrats love terrorists. Dobbs is bad enough, but Collins is a total sycophant for an unhinged  and unscrupulous President.

Hold these collaborators accountable in November.

A GOP crack in the damn over Iran?

If you blinked today you might have missed it, but we finally saw something in Washington D.C. that might be harder to spot than a unicorn. 

Two Republican senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, so disgusted with today's briefing regarding the killing of Iranian General Qassim Soleimani, decided to break ranks with their party and join with Virginia Democratic Senator Tim Kaine to support his War Powers Resolution, which would force any President to go to Congress before unilaterally starting a war. 

Members of the President's cabinet provided a 75-minute, bi-partisan briefing to Senators that was suppose to provide clarity as to the justification for Soleimani's killing. According to both Lee and Paul, the briefing did little to address concerns. Lee called it the worst briefing he had ever been a part of. Both men also intimated that they were told not to debate these issues in public.

Why would the briefers say that? The briefers, and I called them that because no one said who all was in the room, suggest that it is to show a united front to the enemy (Iran). The old Bush doctrine: anyone who disagrees with the President is not patriotic. However, the more likely reason the briefers told the senators not to debate these issues in public is that the briefers wanted Congress to fall in line behind this President - the most narcissistic chief executive we have ever had.

If you here him tell it, he has yet to be wrong in 73 years of life - kind of like Christ. Perfect! Asinine. 

Given the fact that we have an impulsive maniac as our commander-in-chief, Kaine, Durbin, Paul and Lee are correct. It is time for Congress to take back their Constitutional obligation (Article 1, Section 8) of taking a vote when it comes to sending Americans off to war. It is even more important at this particular moment because the briefers even suggested that if further military action was needed against Iran, they would come up with a reason to justify it. WHAT? 

It is long overdue for Congress to assert itself as the co-equal branch of government that it is. Up to this point the only thing standing between democracy and dictatorship is the fact that the judicial branch has not abdicated its authority over to Mr. Trump and his conspirators.  

Tim Kaine's War Powers Resolution