Unforgotten and White Lotus

It's definitely time for me to get back to radio and TV, for myself as well as those readers who have requested it.  I have just finished four seasons of Unforgotten and the first season of White Lotus.  I have stated my preference elsewhere for TV shows that are mostly the result of one or two creative people, to avoid the David Thomson question of who directed Ozark (there have been nine directors; Jason Bateman directed the most, 10):  Mike White wrote and directed all six episodes of this year's White Lotus, Chris Lang wrote and Andy Wilson directed all 24 episodes of Unforgotten (2015-2021).

Unforgotten is a rigorous British police procedural, beautifully written, directed and cast.  Cassie Stuart (played by Nicola Walker) and Sunny Khan (Sajeer Baskar) handle cases of recently discovered corpses that may have been murdered, most of them thirty years ago or more, one corpse per season of six episodes: a body buried in a concrete floor; a body dismembered, put in a suite case and thrown in a river; a school girl buried near a highway;  a headless and handless body found in a discarded refrigerator.  Each season is devoted to a meticulous inquiry into the dead person's life and death.  Cassie and Sunny work closely together, with the help of a team that knows how to research the lives and histories of the suspects, about half a dozen per season.  They quickly learn that everyone has their reasons, as Jean Renoir intelligently said, and some of the victims may indeed have deserved killing.  Though the basic formula of each season is the same and focuses on London there are many different characters and many parts of the British Isles explored.

White Lotus takes place at an expensive resort on an isolated island, accessible only by boat, in Hawaii (it was filmed on Maui).  The wealthy guests take their importance for granted, while the staff resents them and their condescension. The guests, well cast, include a family with a son and daughter and the daughter's friend, an older self-pitying woman who carries around her mother's ashes, a honeymooning couple where the mother of the groom shows up for a time.  The staff includes the manager, the woman who runs the spa and various locals, including Kai, a native islander who Olivia's friend Paula helps to rob a family as payback for the resort theft of native land.  The show works on many different levels, everyone being objects of satire and sympathy, as the tourists take their own privlege seriously while creator Mike White explores elements of age and race, colonialism and exploitation, all to an effective musical score by Cristobal Tapia de Veer, influenced by indigenous songs and instruments.

NYC Mayoral Debate May 13, 2021

 There was not a great of difference among the candidates in the NYC mayoral debate.  All the candidates are in favor of desegregation, limiting policing and using more mental-health professionals, more affordable housing, better public schools (including more teachers), supporting small businesses and encouraging the return of tourism to New York.  There were few precise suggestions about how to accomplish all these goals.  Everyone except Kathryn Garcia and Andrew Yang would do away with the single-test criterion for the specialized high schools, most would require teachers to be vaccinated but not teachers.  All agreed that safety, jobs and poverty were key concerns.  The candidates:

Andrew Yang:  attacked for his lack of government experience, says that a new vision is needed.

Eric Adams: former policeman, still in favor of limited stop-and-frisk.

Raymond McQuire: wall street executive, advocating free child care.

Scott Stringer:  NYC Comptroller, advocated two teachers in each classroom.

Maya Wiley:  Maya Wiley, lawyer and civil rights activist, wants a "new deal" for New York City.

Kathryn Garcia: was commissioner of Sanitation and head of NYC Housing Authority.  Knows how to get things done.

Shaun Donovan:  secretary of HUD under Obama, financed by his father.

Dianne Morales: experience with educational non-profits, wants to reduce police budget.

Trump/Biden Debate Oct. 22, 2020

 More of the same, though less bluster from Trump.  Some important points.

Trump doesn't realize that Americans are no longer afraid of "socialist medicine," as they have become aware of how effective it is in every other civilized country.  Trump also claims that 180 million Americans are happy with their health insurance.  This number has probably gone down, as many people have lost their jobs and therefore their insurance, but in any case I don't believe most people are "happy" with their insurance, with constant refusals to pay doctors -- in the hope that most people won't contest it and even if they do it might be sent to collection and harm one's credit -- along with high deductibles and co-pays.  In any case Biden wants to expand on Obamacare with a public option, not to switch to single-payer healthcare, though I hope personally that will eventually lead to single-payer.

No matter how many times Trump is debunked he still claims that Biden, via his son Hunter, is corrupt.  Trump has "forgotten" his own attempt to extort Ukraine by withholding aid until they prove wrongdoing on the part of the Bidens.  Meanwhile Trump continues to make money with the help of his presidency.

Trump continues to claim that "we are turning the corner on Covid-19," even though spikes continue everywhere, and not just in cities and states with Democratic mayors and governors.  And Trump continues to insist that schools open, even though many of those that have opened have had to close again because of the virus. 

Trump claims he has done more for Blacks than any other president, with the possible exception of Lincoln, as he continues his dog whistles to suburban women and others.  

Trump claims that a successful economy will "bring people together" while Biden says he will be president for everyone from every state, not just red or blue.

Harris/Pence "debate" Oct. 7, 2020

Pence showed skill at avoiding questions and making bland comments that everything is okay because of the current administration "unleashing" (his favorite word of the night) of everyone and everything, especially regulations.  He was essentially saying that leadership in the current pandemic was not required because of the administration's faith in the American people. Pence said, among other things, that Trump "reveres" our military, though he did not deny that Trump had called members of the military "suckers and losers."  He said that the president believes in insurance for those with pre-existing conditions, even thought the administration is trying to get the Affordable Care Act declared unconstitutional, and said that the administration had a better and cheaper version of healthcare, even though the president has been saying this for five years and no plan has ever been actually prepared.  And Pence said there was no way Trump could support white supremacy and anti-Semitism because he has Jewish grandchildren!  And, of course, Pence dodged the question of climate change, saying that there was bad forest management in California and that there are no more hurricanes than there were one hundred years ago.

Harris effectively emphasized foreign policy, saying that the current administration has "betrayed our friends and embraced our enemies" and healthcare, pointing out that the current administration wants to gut the Affordable Care act in the midst of a pandemic.  Harris also said that the Biden administration would not increase taxes on anyone earning under $400,000, though she could have explained more carefully how they were going to repeal the president's "tax cut" without affecting anyone other than the wealthy and corporations.  And as far as jobs go the current administration will end up with fewer jobs than they started with.  Harris also said that changes need to be made in our justice system while Pence said he "had trust" in it.

Harris kept her cool, getting somewhat amused by Pence's lies and evasions, though I might have preferred her to call him out more.

Biden/Trump Debate Sept. 29, 2020

 This so-called debate was a depressing performance: Trump could not stop interrupting with irrelevancies and moderator Chris Wallace couldn't do much to moderate things.  A couple of points:

1. Trump asserted he paid "millions of dollars" in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017 but still will not release his tax forms, even though his own IRS commissioner says that he can do so.

2. Trump suggested Biden is not "smart" because of his relationship with Delaware State, an historical Black college where Biden has received support.  It is unclear what Trump actually meant here -- Biden went to the University of Delaware -- but Trump has threatened to sue the University of Pennsylvania if they release transcripts of his own time there to anyone.

3. Trump went back again and again to asking about money given to Biden's son Hunter by the wife of the mayor of Moscow, as though that had anything to do with Joe Biden.  When Biden mentioned his late son Beau, who served in Iraq, Trump said he didn't know Beau but did know Hunter and asked about him once again, falsely claiming Hunter had received a dishonorable discharge from the army.

4.  Trump claimed Biden has received no endorsement from any law enforcement organizations  This is not surprising, since these organizations have a history of covering up for and supporting the worst behavior of police officers.

5. Biden accurately said the nation is "weaker, sicker, poorer, more violent and more divided" than it was before Trump became President.

Democratic Debate Feb. 19, 2020

The highlight of the Feb 19 debate was the stand-off between Sanders and Bloomberg, Bloomberg getting so frustrated by Sanders that he practically called Sanders a communist: "They had socialism in Russia only they called it communism."  As Sanders pointed out, we have socialism now but it is socialism for the rich.  And, of course, we have public schools and public libraries, socialism of a sort.  I think one of the reasons Sanders is doing so well is that he sticks by his positions both practically and theoretically, saying that health care is a right, while everyone else waffles on the issue, saying that millions are happy with their health insurance and we shouldn't take it away, though even if they are happy (which I doubt) they can't change jobs because they and their family need the health insurance.  Sanders continues to point out that there are thousands of bankruptcies every year due to health care costs even though those who go bankrupt have health insurance.  It is an unacceptable conflict of interest that the more insurance companies turn down routine claims the more they make in profits.

I would support any of the candidates on the stage except for Bloomberg, especially considering his contributions to the increasingly higher cost of living in New York City and his attitudes toward women and minorities.  All the candidates have positive and negative reasons why they can or can't beat Trump:  Biden stumbles, Klobuchar and Warren have to overcome misogyny (see Caroline Fraser's article in the March 12 issue of The New York Review of Books), Pete Buttigieg is relatively young and inexperienced, Sanders is a socialist, and so on.  I do think much has changed since McGovern ran against Nixon in 1972, but has it changed enough to replace a con man with a person of integrity.

State of the Union 2020

The President's state of the union address was, predictably, a dispiriting and depressing affair, full of dissembling and dubious assertions.  He also used incendiary language, referring not only to so-called "illegal aliens" but also to the horrors of public schools, which he referred to as "government" schools, presumably to demonize them compared to the private and religious schools he prefers to subsidize.  When the president lied he lied big, referring to an "ironclad" promise that he would never allow those with preexisting conditions to be denied insurance while his administration fights for exactly that in Congress and the courts, as well as fighting against providing any medical care for the uninsured.  He accuses the Democrats of planning to take away the health insurance of 180 million Americans who are "very happy" with their insurance (not true; I have never met anyone happy with their health insurance and its high deductibles, co-payments, and constant denial of benefits) while failing, of course, to mention that the replacement, a single-payer system, would be inclusive and effective.
And so it went, as a grinning Trump paused after almost every sentence to wait for applause, led by whack-a-mole popping up by vice-president Pence and the Republicans.  Ever the con man and showman the president filled the gallery with heroes, including the military and families who had members killed by immigrants, while the president bragged that he would never interfere with anyone's second amendment right to carry a gun, though some thought he went a little too far giving a medal to the homophobic and misogynistic Rush Limbaugh.

Incidentally, some have criticized me for not reporting on the last two Democratic debates, which I felt added nothing of substance that had not already been rehashed in the earlier debates.  I am hopeful that this week's debate will break some new ground, including discussion of how to encourage unions and what to do about foreign policy.  Meanwhile, on the latter subject, I recommend Jessica Mathews's article "Do the Democrats Have a Foreign Policy" in the Feb. 13th issue of The New York Review of Books and Adam Shatz's "The Death of Qasem Soleimani" and Patrick Cockburn's "Blundering into War" in the Jan. 23 London Review of Books.