The revelation of more Trump lewdness was no surprise, even if one had not seen Michael Kirk's Frontline Choice 2016, which revealed that in military school Trump's heroes were Hugh Hefner, James Bond and Clint Eastwood; this has apparently not changed since he "grew up." And Trump's major mentor was Roy Cohn, the ultra-sleazy investigator for Joe McCarthy, who taught Trump to never settle and to always declare victory, regardless of the outcome. Trump's supposed "locker room banter" was unlike anything I had ever heard in a locker room, aside from the fact that it did not take place in a locker room, a place Trump has probably seldom seen.
The "debate" was unfortunately rather devoid of policy discussions, though Trump did say that he would abolish Obamacare and replace it with competitive insurance across state lines, though how this would help those who can't afford health insurance is not clear. Trump did say that single-payer healthcare would be a disaster because Canadians, who have single-payer, sometimes come to America for operations, if they can afford it! Give him credit for at least not using the term "socialized medicine" in order to scare people, though Clinton pointed out that Medicare is single-payer and quite successful.
Trump continued to dissemble throughout the debate, telling a Muslim woman that many people had seen bombs in the house of the San Bernadino terrorists and did not report it (there is no evidence for this) and that the U.S. has the highest taxes in the world (far from it!). Trump also showed aspirations to becoming a dictator, like he is in business, by putting Clinton in jail while he also said she had never done anything , apparently not realizing she was just a Senator with little individual power. Meanwhile, he attacks Obama for his executive orders. And when confronted with his own words Trumps simply denies he ever said it, whether it was about a beauty queen' s non-existent sex tape or his original support for the war in Iraq.
Clinton tried to talk about policy and inclusion but was repeatedly interrupted by Trump, who accused her of being "a liar with hate in her heart," though it was unclear as to what he was referring (perhaps her ill-timed but correct description of Trump's supporters as "deplorable"). Trump even said he did not communicate with his running mate, who claimed that Trump had changed his mind about banning Muslims from coming to the U.S., though Trump's position on this is unclear.
And education was barely mentioned at all, except for Trump's claim that African-Americans do not have good schools in their neighborhoods, though he didn't offer to do anything about it, suggesting that people should vote for him because "what have you got to lose?" I'm sure for many of us that is not just a rhetorical question.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
Tim Kaine and Mike Pence: VP Debate Oct. 4, 2016
I liked the visual format of the VP debate: Kaine and Pence in a continuous shot and moderator Elaine Quijano was only heard, though she seemed to have little control of the debate. Kaine's approach was to quote Trump often and when he did Pence either denied he said what he did or ignored it, particularly when Kaine mentioned rounding up immigrants and deporting them, which caused Pence to say a lot of them were criminals. And Pence had no responses to Kaine's Trump quotes about Muslims, African-American neighborhoods, Mexicans, disbanding NATO and women being incarcerated for having abortions. One general response Pence had was that "Trump is not a polished politician" and therefore one should not take seriously anything political he says?!
Pence's unremitting refrain was for America to beef up the military (would he reinstitute the draft?)and demonstrate "broad shoulders." He wants to abolish Obamacare -- though neither he nor Trump have any suggested alternative for the uninsured -- and Pence has also advocated privatizing social security, a disaster we managed to avoid under Bush. Pence also mentioned several times "the war on coal" as shorthand for recent attempts to enforce environmental regulations. When Kaine mentioned Senator Scott's speech (Scott is an African-American Senator from South Carolina) saying that he had been stopped forty-seven times by the police it was just ignored by Pence, who pointedly did not endorse Trump's advocating stop-and-frisk and irrelevantly cited Trump's endorsement by The Fraternal Order of Police.
Kaine continued to mention Trump's broken promise of providing his tax returns, while Pence praised Trump for taking all his legal deductions, though he did not suggest that showing a loss of 900 million dollars one year might suggest he is not quite the businessman he claims to be. Pence also agrees with Trump that wages are too high already, so we should not increase the minimum wage, which Clinton and Kaine support.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
Presidential Debates: 9/26/16
I have strong memories of the 1960 Presidential debates, when the telegenic Kennedy outshone Richard Nixon and his five o'clock shadow. I don't think these debates have much value in helping to decide for whom to vote, nor do I do I think the Libertarian and Green Party candidates should have been left out simply because they failed to poll some arbitrary number. And though I don't think we need any more proof that Trump is a sleazy con man and serial dissembler, we got it anyway last night.
1. Yes, he was sued for discrimination against African-Americans in the housing market, but then, as he said, so were a lot of other people (as though that makes it okay).
2. Yes, he has called women "pigs" but some of them, especially Rosie O'Donnell, deserved it. When he was asked why he thought Clinton did not "look like a President" he sidestepped the question and said he thought she did not have the stamina.
3. Trump claimed he convinced Obama to produce his birth certificate but offered no reason why he continued for another five years after it was produced it to claim that Obama was not American-born.
4. He continues to state that if you walk down the street in an African-American neighborhood you will be shot and says we need "law and order" without any description of what that means. He did not respond to Clinton's suggestion that we improve our justice system and limit incarceration.
5. He says "hundreds, thousands" of manufacturers are relocating to other countries and we should bring them back, though he has no idea how to accomplish that other than keeping them from leaving in the first place, though he doesn't know how to do that either.
And so on. I did like the TV format of almost always showing both candidates, no matter who was speaking, so we got to see Trump constantly muttering about everything Clinton said and were spared shots of the moderator and the audience. The debate was unfortunately very short on specifics, though Clinton did mention college debt and free tuition, as well as equal pay for equal work, a higher minimum wage and family leave, while Trump blustered about Mexico and China, offering only to cut regulations so that businesses could pollute as much as they wanted to .
1. Yes, he was sued for discrimination against African-Americans in the housing market, but then, as he said, so were a lot of other people (as though that makes it okay).
2. Yes, he has called women "pigs" but some of them, especially Rosie O'Donnell, deserved it. When he was asked why he thought Clinton did not "look like a President" he sidestepped the question and said he thought she did not have the stamina.
3. Trump claimed he convinced Obama to produce his birth certificate but offered no reason why he continued for another five years after it was produced it to claim that Obama was not American-born.
4. He continues to state that if you walk down the street in an African-American neighborhood you will be shot and says we need "law and order" without any description of what that means. He did not respond to Clinton's suggestion that we improve our justice system and limit incarceration.
5. He says "hundreds, thousands" of manufacturers are relocating to other countries and we should bring them back, though he has no idea how to accomplish that other than keeping them from leaving in the first place, though he doesn't know how to do that either.
And so on. I did like the TV format of almost always showing both candidates, no matter who was speaking, so we got to see Trump constantly muttering about everything Clinton said and were spared shots of the moderator and the audience. The debate was unfortunately very short on specifics, though Clinton did mention college debt and free tuition, as well as equal pay for equal work, a higher minimum wage and family leave, while Trump blustered about Mexico and China, offering only to cut regulations so that businesses could pollute as much as they wanted to .
Wednesday, September 14, 2016
Gary Johnson: Inside City Hall with Errol Louis
Libertarian candidate for President Gary Johnson appeared Friday on Errol Louis's excellent political show "Inside City Hall", on NY1. I'm finding Johnson refreshing, as Trump and Clinton, one demagogic and the other aloof, are less and less appealing. Johnson differs from both major candidates in his support for free trade and his skepticism about the effectiveness and cost of foreign adventures, as we demonstrate over and over how little we have learned from Vietnam. Unfortunately we have a Committee on Presidential Debates that is staffed by Republicans and Democrats and that insists, quite arbitrarily, that a candidate has to have 15% support in polls to be included in the debates, essentially ensuring that few dissident voices will be heard. (If you are wondering whatever happened to the "equal time" FCC rule: it was abandoned in 1960 and abolished in 1983).
When Louis asked about Johnson's position on regime change -- Johnson said regime changes supported by us have never been effective -- Louis suggested maybe this was not true in Latin America. They did not have time for an in-depth discussion of this subject, unfortunately, but the dynamics in Latin America have been different, as our support for right-wing dictators such as Batista in Cuba have led to revolutions such as Castro's. Our support for Somoza in Nicaragua, Pinochet in Chile and many others has been good, perhaps, for United Fruit but seldom, if ever, for the indigenous populations (you can look it up).
Johnson supports legalization of marijuana and when Morris pointed out that people do indeed have problems with the drug Johnson correctly pointed out that making those people criminals and throwing them in jail does not help matters, especially when people of color receive a disproportionate amount of jail time. Some of us have problems with alcohol, too, but Prohibition did not work either.
There were other things that Louis and Johnson did not have time to discuss, especially healthcare., but, in any case, Johnson has a point of view intelligently different from the two major parties and, with his emphasis on choice and inclusion, certainly deserves a hearing.
When Louis asked about Johnson's position on regime change -- Johnson said regime changes supported by us have never been effective -- Louis suggested maybe this was not true in Latin America. They did not have time for an in-depth discussion of this subject, unfortunately, but the dynamics in Latin America have been different, as our support for right-wing dictators such as Batista in Cuba have led to revolutions such as Castro's. Our support for Somoza in Nicaragua, Pinochet in Chile and many others has been good, perhaps, for United Fruit but seldom, if ever, for the indigenous populations (you can look it up).
Johnson supports legalization of marijuana and when Morris pointed out that people do indeed have problems with the drug Johnson correctly pointed out that making those people criminals and throwing them in jail does not help matters, especially when people of color receive a disproportionate amount of jail time. Some of us have problems with alcohol, too, but Prohibition did not work either.
There were other things that Louis and Johnson did not have time to discuss, especially healthcare., but, in any case, Johnson has a point of view intelligently different from the two major parties and, with his emphasis on choice and inclusion, certainly deserves a hearing.
Thursday, September 1, 2016
TV Log
John Stossel last week had on his show on the Fox business network Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson and vice-presidential candidate William Weld. These two candidates made sense in a way that the two major candidates do not, the Republican and the Democrat each being demagogic in their own way. Two important issues that cause one to lean toward the libertarians: they still believe in free trade, abandoned by the two major candidates, and they are extremely skeptical of foreign wars which, going back to Vietnam, have been one moral, physical and financial debacle after another. Both candidates are former governors and neither is a rigid ideologue but both are progressive, inclusive and compassionate. My own instincts have always been libertarian --though I still believe strongly in a single-payer health system, which I believe would be liberating -- and it looks to me as if the Libertarians are the most Burkean, least demagogic candidates.
Howard Gordon, producer of 24 and Homeland, has made Tyrant (on FX), now in its third season, one of the most interesting and involving shows on the air. An American takes over an Arab country --the fictional Abuddin -- and tries to make it democratic. The contradiction is that he has to use authoritarian methods to instill democracy and the country is soon riven by factions and the daughter of the American leader is murdered by terrorists. A new cast member this season is Christopher Noth as an American general, who extracts a high price for American military support.
Richard Price (writer) and Steven Zaillian (director) made The Night Of (HBO) into a gritty story about incarceration, lawyering, police investigation, trial, ethnic and generation divides. Everyone is suffering from moral conflicts and personal difficulties, most of which are subject to compromises which make no one happy. The eerie music of Jeff Russo adds to the downbeat mood.
Steven Bocho continues with the serialized police procedural he pioneered with Hill Street Blues(1981-1987) and NYPD Blue (1993-2005) and the single case per season of Murder One (1995-1997) in Murder in the First (TNT). He uses San Francisco locations effectively and has the two leading detectives in an interracial relationship that is broken up by the boss. Bochco, as in his other cop shows and L.A. Law (1986-1994), emphasizes the personal difficulties of the job.
Howard Gordon, producer of 24 and Homeland, has made Tyrant (on FX), now in its third season, one of the most interesting and involving shows on the air. An American takes over an Arab country --the fictional Abuddin -- and tries to make it democratic. The contradiction is that he has to use authoritarian methods to instill democracy and the country is soon riven by factions and the daughter of the American leader is murdered by terrorists. A new cast member this season is Christopher Noth as an American general, who extracts a high price for American military support.
Richard Price (writer) and Steven Zaillian (director) made The Night Of (HBO) into a gritty story about incarceration, lawyering, police investigation, trial, ethnic and generation divides. Everyone is suffering from moral conflicts and personal difficulties, most of which are subject to compromises which make no one happy. The eerie music of Jeff Russo adds to the downbeat mood.
Steven Bocho continues with the serialized police procedural he pioneered with Hill Street Blues(1981-1987) and NYPD Blue (1993-2005) and the single case per season of Murder One (1995-1997) in Murder in the First (TNT). He uses San Francisco locations effectively and has the two leading detectives in an interracial relationship that is broken up by the boss. Bochco, as in his other cop shows and L.A. Law (1986-1994), emphasizes the personal difficulties of the job.
Sunday, August 7, 2016
Politics 2016
For those who were disappointed that I did not write about the party conventions I just want to say I'm sorry, the debates exhausted me. I offer the following political updates:
Alexandra Pelosi's film Meet the Donors, on HBO, includes interviews with a number of political donors. One is not surprised to hear that they all donate for the good of the country and not because they hope for anything for themselves, except perhaps a chance to give their opinions. One donor had hoped to be offered the job as head of the CIA by George W. Bush and instead was asked if he could take care of the Bush's cat while they were away. Since Citizens United and the spurning of federal financing by Obama and Romney in 2012 donations to presidential campaigns have increased considerably. The person who spends the most money doesn't always win, of course, and I have often wondered why more people don't do what I do, which is to research the candidate's records and speeches and vote for the person you think will do the best job. I agree with Edmund Burke that we should elect the person with the most integrity and intelligence, as well as the ability to think for themselves. The biggest problem is that not too many people of that caliber can make it through the primaries, designed as they are to promote demagoguery.
Jill Lepore has an excellent piece on the conventions in the Aug. 8 New Yorker, "The War and the Roses." About the Republican convention she says, "the rule inside the Convention was: Incite fear and division in order to call for safety and union." At the Democratic convention President Obama's speech was "as boundless in its optimism as Trump's was in its pessimism." As Lepore points our, some have faith in the People, some have faith in progress; both faiths can be misplaced.
Eliot Weinberger has a detailed piece in the July 28, 2016 London Review of Books, "They could have picked..." answers the question: why the world wonders, did the Republicans pick Donald Trump as the nominee when they had so many (in the words of Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus) "well-qualified candidates", including:
Rick Santorum: He says that a child conceived by rape is "a gift from God" and compared homosexuality to "man-on-dog" sex.
Rick Perry, who planned to eliminate three cabinet agencies but couldn't remember what they were.
Bobby Jindal, the former governor of Louisiana who bankrupted his state in an unsuccessful attempt to eliminate all personal and corporate taxes.
Carly Fiorina, who said concern about climate change was like worrying about the weather and repeatedly criticized a Planned Parenthood tape that nobody could produce a copy of.
Dr. Rand Paul, an isolationist who is opposed to the mandatory vaccination of children.
George Pataki, who came out of nowhere and disappeared as quickly.
Scott Walker, who said he could defeat ISIS because he had cut the education budget and stood up to teachers.
Jim Gilmore, who came and went before anyone knew who he was.
Chis Christie, the Tony Soprano of American politics, though not as effective as Tony.
Jeb Bush, "whose demeanour at the debates was described as that of an exasperated substitute teacher in front of a class of unruly high-schoolers."
Mike Huckabee, who says "gun control means you hit the target."
John Kasich, with "a long anti-union, anti-tax, pro-gun, pro-capital punishment, anti-mass transit, pro-impeachment of Bill Clinton, anti-voters' rights, anti-abortion, anti-environmental regulations. pro-privatization of prisons, pro-Creationism in science classes record."
Dr. Ben Carson, who "often seemed like he spent too much time in the hospital pharmacy."
Marco Rubio: "he seemed more like the popular mayor of a small Sunbelt city than a potential president."
Ted Cruz, "Even more than most politicians he suffers from messianic delusions."
Edmund Burke, where are you when we need you?
Alexandra Pelosi's film Meet the Donors, on HBO, includes interviews with a number of political donors. One is not surprised to hear that they all donate for the good of the country and not because they hope for anything for themselves, except perhaps a chance to give their opinions. One donor had hoped to be offered the job as head of the CIA by George W. Bush and instead was asked if he could take care of the Bush's cat while they were away. Since Citizens United and the spurning of federal financing by Obama and Romney in 2012 donations to presidential campaigns have increased considerably. The person who spends the most money doesn't always win, of course, and I have often wondered why more people don't do what I do, which is to research the candidate's records and speeches and vote for the person you think will do the best job. I agree with Edmund Burke that we should elect the person with the most integrity and intelligence, as well as the ability to think for themselves. The biggest problem is that not too many people of that caliber can make it through the primaries, designed as they are to promote demagoguery.
Jill Lepore has an excellent piece on the conventions in the Aug. 8 New Yorker, "The War and the Roses." About the Republican convention she says, "the rule inside the Convention was: Incite fear and division in order to call for safety and union." At the Democratic convention President Obama's speech was "as boundless in its optimism as Trump's was in its pessimism." As Lepore points our, some have faith in the People, some have faith in progress; both faiths can be misplaced.
Eliot Weinberger has a detailed piece in the July 28, 2016 London Review of Books, "They could have picked..." answers the question: why the world wonders, did the Republicans pick Donald Trump as the nominee when they had so many (in the words of Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus) "well-qualified candidates", including:
Rick Santorum: He says that a child conceived by rape is "a gift from God" and compared homosexuality to "man-on-dog" sex.
Rick Perry, who planned to eliminate three cabinet agencies but couldn't remember what they were.
Bobby Jindal, the former governor of Louisiana who bankrupted his state in an unsuccessful attempt to eliminate all personal and corporate taxes.
Carly Fiorina, who said concern about climate change was like worrying about the weather and repeatedly criticized a Planned Parenthood tape that nobody could produce a copy of.
Dr. Rand Paul, an isolationist who is opposed to the mandatory vaccination of children.
George Pataki, who came out of nowhere and disappeared as quickly.
Scott Walker, who said he could defeat ISIS because he had cut the education budget and stood up to teachers.
Jim Gilmore, who came and went before anyone knew who he was.
Chis Christie, the Tony Soprano of American politics, though not as effective as Tony.
Jeb Bush, "whose demeanour at the debates was described as that of an exasperated substitute teacher in front of a class of unruly high-schoolers."
Mike Huckabee, who says "gun control means you hit the target."
John Kasich, with "a long anti-union, anti-tax, pro-gun, pro-capital punishment, anti-mass transit, pro-impeachment of Bill Clinton, anti-voters' rights, anti-abortion, anti-environmental regulations. pro-privatization of prisons, pro-Creationism in science classes record."
Dr. Ben Carson, who "often seemed like he spent too much time in the hospital pharmacy."
Marco Rubio: "he seemed more like the popular mayor of a small Sunbelt city than a potential president."
Ted Cruz, "Even more than most politicians he suffers from messianic delusions."
Edmund Burke, where are you when we need you?
Wednesday, July 13, 2016
A Fond Farewell to A Prairie Home Companion
I can't say enough about how much I will miss Garrison Keillor's show; his last show was July 2 (my birthday) and he went out in style, with a superb monologue from Lake Wobegone -- "where the women are strong, the men are good-looking and the children are above average," an episode of Lives of the Cowboys, words from the Ketchup Advisory Board and lots of singing, mostly duets with women who have regularly appeared on his show and mostly somewhat melancholy songs. The only important thing missing was an episode of Guy Noir, which transfers a fatalistic private eye from the film noir of the forties to the current Midwest, albeit with a fair amount of deadpan humor.
I get the strong impression that many people find Keillor's show too sentimental and folksy, the same reaction they have to Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. To the contrary, A Prairie Home Companion is as full of darkness and irony as Capra's film. Perhaps it takes someone who grew up in a small town, as I did, to truly understand this. Keillor did a wonderful rendition of Greg Brown's (with Sarah Jarosz) "It Gets Lonely in a Small Town" and in his monologue he talked about being a child forced to go outside when he would rather stay at home and read (he constantly refers to writers --mostly American, including Fitzgerald and Hemingway) and then being dragooned into playing right field in a softball game, where every fly ball filled him with fear. The patrons of the Chatterbox Café can be nice, as can the parishioners of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibilty, but they can also be bigoted, nasty and vindictive.
Keillor was very much influenced by some of the radio personalities who flourished in the forties, when radio was at its artistic peak. I'm thinking particularly of Fred Allen, who hosted a radio show that featured live musical performances, brilliant comic sketches and effectively low-key political satire. Keillor has brought on terrific musical guests, everyone from classical pianists to opera singers to every variety of folk, folk-rock and country music. And for his comedy sketches he has had, since 1992, the talents of Tim Russell (who can imitate almost any voice; on July 2 he did an uncanny imitation of Jimmy Stewart) and Sue Scott. And Keillor has had excellent sound effects men in Tom Keith (who died in 2011) and Fred Newman and a ready-for-anything music director in Rich Dworsky.
Jean Shepherd, who was also a big influence on Keillor, especially his monologues, is gone and Car Talk is no longer. Chris Thile has been picked as Keillor's successor but it is hard to imagine A Prairie Home Companion without Garrison Keillor. I admit that once I had stopped commuting I was not as regular a listener to Keillor's show, but before his shows became available on the internet I tried to find a radio equivalent of a VCR so I could record the show. Maybe some of the guests were on too often and maybe some of the jokes were not as funny as they once were, but at least he had many good jokes and wonderful guests.
I get the strong impression that many people find Keillor's show too sentimental and folksy, the same reaction they have to Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. To the contrary, A Prairie Home Companion is as full of darkness and irony as Capra's film. Perhaps it takes someone who grew up in a small town, as I did, to truly understand this. Keillor did a wonderful rendition of Greg Brown's (with Sarah Jarosz) "It Gets Lonely in a Small Town" and in his monologue he talked about being a child forced to go outside when he would rather stay at home and read (he constantly refers to writers --mostly American, including Fitzgerald and Hemingway) and then being dragooned into playing right field in a softball game, where every fly ball filled him with fear. The patrons of the Chatterbox Café can be nice, as can the parishioners of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibilty, but they can also be bigoted, nasty and vindictive.
Keillor was very much influenced by some of the radio personalities who flourished in the forties, when radio was at its artistic peak. I'm thinking particularly of Fred Allen, who hosted a radio show that featured live musical performances, brilliant comic sketches and effectively low-key political satire. Keillor has brought on terrific musical guests, everyone from classical pianists to opera singers to every variety of folk, folk-rock and country music. And for his comedy sketches he has had, since 1992, the talents of Tim Russell (who can imitate almost any voice; on July 2 he did an uncanny imitation of Jimmy Stewart) and Sue Scott. And Keillor has had excellent sound effects men in Tom Keith (who died in 2011) and Fred Newman and a ready-for-anything music director in Rich Dworsky.
Jean Shepherd, who was also a big influence on Keillor, especially his monologues, is gone and Car Talk is no longer. Chris Thile has been picked as Keillor's successor but it is hard to imagine A Prairie Home Companion without Garrison Keillor. I admit that once I had stopped commuting I was not as regular a listener to Keillor's show, but before his shows became available on the internet I tried to find a radio equivalent of a VCR so I could record the show. Maybe some of the guests were on too often and maybe some of the jokes were not as funny as they once were, but at least he had many good jokes and wonderful guests.
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