<div dir="ltr"><div>Professor Gier knows more about the world than I ever will... However, I could not help but consider that waiting till "the Trump nightmare is over," as Gier phrased it, could be a wait long past the 2016 general election, even if Trump loses. If Trump wins, stronger wording than "nightmare" will be mandated to describe the outcome.</div><div><br></div><div>Trump is sometimes lauded by his supporters for being direct speaking, non-politically correct, off-the-cuff, not a calculated insincere politician. However, this is itself a media generated fabrication from a reality TV show promoting businessman who makes money off branding the glitzy Trump rich powerful fantasy. Trump is duping the public with a managed image of not being a cynical dishonest professional politician, as he manipulates media more than willing to be in on the scam as they rake in the advertising dollars from the ratings bonanza Trumps outrageous behavior generates.</div><div><br></div><div>My point is simple: Trump will continue a major role in the media, in some capacity. "The Trump nightmare" will not be over past the 2016 election, win or lose, because he is highly profitable for a profit driven media, with tens of millions of followers. We will be subjected to more nonsense post Nov. 8 2016 similar to the Obama birther garbage the irresponsible US media wasted bandwidth on... It is easy to predict Trump continuing attacks against H. Clinton post election that will receive massive media exposure, with Clinton in the White House.</div><div><br></div><div>Fundamentally, Trump is not the problem. The profit driven sound bite infotainment media that masquerades as professional journalism is the problem, or a large part of the problem, that has allowed a man like Trump to be on the verge of leading the most powerful nation on Earth, coupled with a money driven political system (publically funded elections, anyone?) </div><div><br></div><div>And of course, Trump is granted power by a public who eagerly follows his antics,</div><div>If people simply tuned Trump out, on TVs, cell phones, computers etc. these profit driven forms of media would cease granting him huge media exposure.</div><div>---------------------------------------</div><div>Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett<br></div><div><br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Oct 27, 2016 at 10:04 AM, Nicholas Gier <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:ngier006@gmail.com" target="_blank">ngier006@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:</div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;padding-left:1ex;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-width:1px;border-left-style:solid"><div dir="ltr"><font face="georgia, serif">Good Morning Wild-Eyed Visionaries:</font><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">I will continue to boycott the national election until the Trump nightmare is over. I'm following Michelle Obama's advise of going high when they are going low.</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif">nfg</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br clear="all"></font><div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><b><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">In Praise of Asian Monarchs: Past and
Present<span></span></font></span></b></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:center;line-height:150%"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">Nick
Gier, The Palouse Pundit<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%">In late
May, 1992, against the advice of the State Department, I travelled to Thailand
for a two-week visit. On May 17, an estimated 200,000 Thais gathered in Bangkok
to protest the rule of Gen. </span><a title="Suchinda Kraprayoon" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suchinda_Kraprayoon" target="_blank"><span style="color:black;line-height:150%">Suchinda Kraprayoon</span></a><span style="line-height:150%">. He
called out his troops, and thanks to </span><span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);line-height:150%">U. S.-supplied M-16 rifles,
52 protesters were killed and hundreds more wounded.</span><span style="line-height:150%"> <span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">Just after
I landed at the Bangkok airport, I learned that King Bhumibol Adulyadej had met
with Suchinda<span style="color:rgb(37,37,37)"> and opposition leader Chamlong
Srimuang</span>, and the general agreed to give up power. <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">For 70
years the Thai people had adored King Bhumibol as a Bodhisattva, a “Being of
Enlightenment.” He died on October 1,
and millions of Thais openly grieved the loss of their great monarch. <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">Sitting
above the tumult of Thai politics (12 successful military coups since 1932),
King Bhumibol had always been able to bring the various factions together. Over
the decades he gained the respect of his people by traveling among them and
seeing to their needs.<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">Sadly,
the military has once again taken over, but this time the king made the mistake
of siding with one side in the power struggle.
The Thais loved him so much that they were willing to forgive him. Now
their main concern is that Crown Prince Maha Vajralongkorn, a playboy thrice
married, is seen by many unfit to rule.<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif"> The Shah dynasty of Nepal had ruled since
1768 and was highly respected. When I visited there in 1992, I saw thousands of
Nepalis standing in line to receive a personal blessing from King Birendra. <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%">On June
1, 2001, King Birendra and nine members of the royal family were gunned down by
Crown</span><span style="color:rgb(37,37,37);line-height:150%"> Prince Dipendra</span>.<span style="line-height:150%">
Gyanendra, the surviving younger brother, ascended to the throne, and his first
act was to suspend the Parliament and shut down the press. A massive Gandhi-style movement forced Gyanendra
to back down, and in 2008 the monarchy was abolished.<span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">The
small Himalayan state of Bhutan used to be ruled by a violent and corrupt
Buddhist ruler, a position equivalent to Tibet’s Dalai Lama. In 1907, at the
urging of the British, Bhutan welcomed its first king, Ugyen Wangchuck, and he
founded one of history’s most enlightened monarchies. <span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%">When I
traveled to Bhutan in 1999, Harvard educated </span><span style="color:black;line-height:150%">Jigme </span><span style="line-height:150%">Wangchuck
was celebrating his Silver Jubilee, confirming the tradition of righteous
Dharma Kings.<span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">The
Bhutan is a poor country but its people have universal education and health
care. They like to say that their goal is not Gross National Product, but Gross
National Happiness, which I experienced first-hand as I toured the country.<span></span></font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%">Acting
as a beneficent philosopher king,</span><span style="color:black;line-height:150%"> Jigme </span><span style="line-height:150%">Wangchuck
banned plastic bags and the import of highly polluting motorcycle taxis from
India. He has decreed that timber exports would cease, and the result is that, in
contrast to neighboring Nepal, the Bhutanese landscape is verdant and unblemished. Taking seriously the Buddhist belief that the
Himalayas are mountain goddesses, the king banned mountaineering while allowing
trekking in the foothills.<span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif"><span style="line-height:150%"> </span><span style="color:black;line-height:150%">For a thousand years Burmese kings successfully
ruled the most ethnically diverse country in Asia</span><span class="m_5634255980045994761gmail-apple-converted-space"><span style="line-height:150%">. In the late 19<sup>th</sup>
Century the British took over the country, and they brought in missionaries,
Indian civil servants, and Muslim immigrant workers. Centuries of religious
harmony between Buddhist and Muslims was undermined, and now militant Buddhist
monks are leading attacks on Muslims.<span></span></span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><span class="m_5634255980045994761gmail-apple-converted-space"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">In 1706 the Sixth Dalai Lama resigned
and died under mysterious circumstances. One of the current Dalai Lama’s most
amazing confessions is that Tibet, from that time forward, would have been
better governed by kings rather than high lamas such as himself. <span></span></font></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><span class="m_5634255980045994761gmail-apple-converted-space"><span style="line-height:150%"><font face="georgia, serif">I’m left wondering if the Dalai
Lama really means, even given the less than stellar performance of his
predecessors, that it was best not to have had his enlightened leadership in
the world.<span></span></font></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:150%;text-indent:0.5in"><font face="georgia, serif"><span class="m_5634255980045994761gmail-apple-converted-space"><span style="line-height:150%">Nick Gier taught religion and
philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.</span></span><span style="line-height:150%"><span></span></span></font></p></div><div class="m_5634255980045994761gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div> <div style="width:auto;height:auto"> <div> <div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br></font></div></div></div></div></div><div><div><div><div><div><div><div><font size="2"><div><font face="georgia, serif">A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in. <br><br>-Greek proverb</font></div><div><font face="georgia, serif"><br>
“Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-imposed immaturity.
Immaturity is the inability to use one’s understanding without guidance
from another. This immaturity is self- imposed when its cause lies not
in lack of understanding, but in lack of resolve and courage to use it
without guidance from another. Sapere Aude! ‘Have courage to use your
own understand-ing!—that is the motto of enlightenment.<br>
<br>
--Immanuel Kant<br>
<br></font><br></div></font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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