Donald Trump on 60 Minutes.

Mike Wallace, where are you when we need you?
Leslie Stahl mostly lobbed softball questions to Trump and his family and even then Trump mostly avoided answering, even if it meant contradictions:  he said gay marriage was "settled" so it didn't matter what he thought, while on the other hand Roe vs. Wade might be overturned.  He also claims to have a plan to defeat ISIS but won't tell us what it is, shades of Nixon's "secret" plan to end the war in Vietnam.  Speaking of Nixon, there were some dismayed by the election of Nixon who moved to Canada, just as some are doing now that Trump has been elected. This also happened with the elections of Reagan and the Bushes but even Nixon did some good things, including abolishing the draft and improving our relationship with China.  And, of course, there was Lyndon Johnson, who won by portraying Barry Goldwater as a warmonger and then led us into Vietnam.

Trump seems to be using the slogan "America First" without apparently any knowledge of the Committee of that name that tried to keep us out of WWII; the pro-German Charles Lindbergh was the spokesperson for that group, which disbanded after Pearl Harbor.  When Stahl told Trump that his supporters were starting to attack Hispanics, African-Americans and Muslims he said he was sorry to hear that and they should "stop it," though he did not apologize for his statements that had caused and encouraged this.  Meanwhile Trump is backpedaling on his campaign promises to build a wall on the Mexican border, deport illegal immigrants and abolish Obamacare.  What surprises me most about those who voted for Trump is that many believed his demagogic promises even though Trump is well known for his dissembling. 

Presidential Debate Oct 19,2016

The Punkwat twins!  Brentwood is the world’s smallest giant, while his brother, Elwood, is the largest midget in the world.  They baffle science.                                                                              
--W.C. Fields as circus-master Larson E. Whipsnade, introducing two men of average size, in You Can’t  Cheat an Honest Man (1939)

Fellows who, whether in stocks, politics, bread-stuffs, morals, metaphysics, religion – be it what it may – trump up their black panics in the naturally-quiet brightness, solely with a view to some sort of covert advantage.                                                                                                                                                                          -- Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man:  His Masquerade, 1857

He [Donald Trump] does not have a circle of friends but an entourage.  Where are the historians, philosophers, or poets he admires or who admire him?  Whose are the minds that expand, challenge or refresh his own?  He reads nothing…. He knows and talks about little but his own excellence.  He cannot learn from peers, since he thinks that he has none.  Why consult others when they are, compared with him, losers?                                                                   
 -- Garry Wills, New York Review of Books, Nov. 10, 2016

A man of extraordinary energy, warmth and vitality, Ronnie [Cornwell] exuded optimism.  From an early age he lived far beyond his means, confident that something would turn up to avert disaster.  He smoked large cigars, drank brandy and whisky by the quart, ate at the best restaurants, stayed at the finest hotels, entertained generously and dispensed extravagant presents.  He seldom settled an account unless pressed to do so, and often not even then.  All debts, he considered, were negotiable.  To women he radiated an unstinting and inexhaustible virility, with unfailing results.  Yet menace lurked beneath the charm.  There was a glint of violence in his eye.  His hugs were a demonstration of ownership as much as of affection…. He aspired to be a tycoon, with interests spanning the globe, though in reality his business empire consisted of little more than short-term fixes and one-off deals, many of them shady in character.                                                                                                                       
–Adam Sisman, John le Carre: The Biography, writing about le Carre’s father.

The latest Presidential debate followed something of a familiar pattern, with Trump dissembling about some things and claiming that others, such as his groping of women, have been “debunked,” for which he cited no evidence, nor did he have any evidence for his claims that the election was rigged because, he claimed, there were millions of people registered to vote who were not legitimate voters.  Everything Trump likes is wonderful and what he doesn’t like is “a disaster,” such as Obamacare, which he says he will replace with “something much, much better,” though he doesn’t say what that is, except it won’t be a single-payer system because that would be “much, much worse.”  Clinton plans to improve Obamacare and offer tuition-free college, college costs and debts something that Trump has not even bothered to mention.  Trump continues to act like a tinpot dictator, threatening to throw Clinton in jail and blaming her, a single Senator, for not changing the laws that allow Trump not to pay any income tax. And not only is Trump opposed to a woman’s right to choose, he actually has said that women who have abortions should be punished in some (unspecified) way.  Whatever one may think about career politician Clinton, at least she wants to bring people together and not pit them against each other.

Presidential Debate Oct. 9, 2016

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.

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.

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 .

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.

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.