2017: The Year We Wished Was Fake News

And so 2017 nears its end.  A year of fear, loathing and partisanship that caused protests, investigations, resignations and the truth depends on which side you're on.  A year of pullouts from climate change and trade agreements, plus travel bans on immigrants from certain countries, making America great only to those who could afford it.  Hurricanes in the southeast and wildfires in the west just added to the misery.  The specter of nuclear war, something we thought we'd never see again, reared its ugly head.  But hey, the economy's booming!

The catalyst for all this, of course, is President Donald Trump.  His inability to leave well enough alone shows in his tweets and public statements, whether it's about Hillary Clinton, the media, the legacy of his predecessor Barack Obama, the NFL, or whatever Fox News considers important.

Recently, Trump shook up the Middle East with his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital and to move the American embassy there, which makes a major terrorist attack on this country all the more possible.  And the one victory in Congress the President can claim this year is the new tax law, which would not only give rich Americans a bigger cut, but also send the federal deficit over a trillion dollars.

Trump might also think Obamacare is dead with the repeal of the individual mandate (included in the tax bill), which says that you either get health insurance or you face paying a penalty.  For younger people who thought nothing bad would ever happen to them, it was an easy choice--unless they got sick or had an accident.  So this was one part of the Affordable Care Act that was worth losing.  But dead?  Look at the number of folks who signed up for insurance during the enrollment period, which got no promotion whatsoever.

If there's one thing that will continue to dog Trump in the new year, it's the ongoing investigation into Russia's alleged hacking of the 2016 presidential election and whether the Current Occupant had anything to do with it.  As this enters a critical phase, the President is tweeting his displeasure over its handling by special prosecutor Robert Mueller and the FBI.  There is the feeling that, as we get closer to the truth, Mueller might fly too close to the sun and Trump finds an excuse to either fire him, or pardon those who are either already under indictment or are about to spill the beans.

Trump also stands accused of sexual harassment in words and deeds, but he's likely to fare better than the other guys who lost their careers since Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein got their comeuppance from women who suffered in silence for years and couldn't take it any more.  Some examples:  Christopher Plummer is getting rave reviews in the film "All The Money In the World" as the emergency replacement for Kevin Spacey, who also lost his role on TV's "House of Cards".  Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" was replaced on radio by "Live From Here" with Chris Thile.  Minnesota's Lieutenant Governor Tina Smith will replace Al Franken as the state's U.S. Senator.  And still no word on who's replacing Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose on morning TV.

The biggest trend in TV is the rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu, caused by people who didn't want to pay extra for channels they don't watch.  Now that net neutrality is history (pending court decisions), it will be interesting to see if those same people come crawling back to cable once streaming becomes less convenient and more expensive.

Because of streaming, whether you watch or listen to it, a number of media companies had the urge to merge in 2017.  There's the AT&T-Time Warner combo, of course, though the Trump administration is doing all it can to derail the deal because the news channel they hate--CNN--is involved.  Disney is buying up most of the assets in Fox, except for its broadcast network, TV stations, and news and sports channels.  Sinclair Broadcasting, which already owns more TV stations than anybody else, wants to add Tribune's to its portfolio, meaning that iconic stations like WGN in Chicago, WPIX in New York and KTLA in Los Angeles will soon be spouting the Trump/GOP line on its newscasts.  And CBS is getting out of the radio business after 90 years, selling its local stations to Entercom.

Those who did not make it past 2017 include . . . Dorothy Mengering, Lola Albright, Chuck Barris, Barbara Hale, Heather Menzies, Dick Enberg, Jim Nabors, Rance Howard, David Cassidy, Della Reese, Mel Tillis, Liz Smith, Fats Domino, Robert Guillaume, Y.A.Tittle, Tom Petty, Monty Hall, Hugh Hefner, Harry Dean Stanton, Jay Thomas, Jerry Lewis, Dick Gregory, Glen Campbell, Sam Shepard, June Foray, Martin Landau, Stephen Furst, Adam West, Frank Deford, Gregg Allman, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Roger Moore, Roger Ailes, Chris Cornell, Powers Boothe, Jonathan Demme, Erin Moran, John Geils, Don Rickles, Jimmy Breslin, Chuck Berry, Joni Sledge, Robert Osbourne, Joseph Wapner, Bill Paxton, Norma McCorvey, Al Jaurreau, Richard Hatch, John Hurt, Mary Tyler Moore, Eugene Cernan, William Peter Blatty, Chester Bennington, Malcolm Young, Ann Wedgeworth, Bernie Casey, Don Williams, Walter Becker, Glenne Headly, Cuba Gooding Sr., Mike Conners, Miguel Ferrer, Roger Erickson, Bill Diehl, Johnny Canton, Chuck Lilligren, Ray Christensen, Johnny Bower, Dick Orkin and Rose Marie.

Who or what will survive 2018?  Stay tuned.

After Al Franken, What?

Al Franken announced his resignation as Minnesota's U.S. Senator on December 7, having noted he was leaving because of charges of sexual harassment while a man from Alabama accused of molesting girls might be elected senator, and that President Donald Trump is still in office despite claims of sexual misconduct.  Franken did not say when his resignation would take effect, nor did he apologize to any of the women he had supposedly wronged.  He now follows congressmen John Conyers of Michigan and Trent Franks of Arizona out of the Capitol doors, all busted for their behavior towards the women they worked with.

The climate is changing in Washington, and it isn't just the weather.  A number of Democratic women in Congress banded together to demand Franken's resignation.  Time magazine made its Person of the Year "The Silence Breakers", women who chose to call out their male bosses' sexual power plays.  And some women who claimed to have been taken advantage of by Trump have been calling for (A) his resignation and/or (B) a Congressional investigation.  The President and the White House have called them all liars.

In Minnesota, Franken's departure has made the 2018 midterm elections more interesting than it already was.  Democratic (known as the Democratic Farmer-Labor party in Minnesota) Governor Mark Dayton is not running again, so his seat is up for grabs.  DFL Senator Amy Klobuchar is up for re-election, but at this point is favored to win no matter who Republicans put up against her.  And now there's going to be a special election to fill out the remainder of Franken's term, with plenty of big names from both parties who are mulling runs.

What matters right now is who Dayton will name as Franken's fill-in until the election, someone who not only would carry on the Senator's policies, but also may or may not want to run in November.  Most pundits say it should be Tina Smith, who is currently the state's Lieutenant Governor.  A logical choice, until you consider how committed to the job she might be.  Not only is Smith as low profile a politician as you can get, but she has already ruled out a run for Dayton's job.  What makes you think she'd want a high-profile position in Washington, much less for the long haul?

There have been some calls for Franken to reconsider his resignation, given his previously stellar reputation in the Senate and as a Trump critic, and let the Senate Ethics Committee decide whether or not he should be punished.  They have even alleged that original accuser Leeann Tweeden was being influenced by right-wing elements, who wanted to neutralize Democrats' portrayals of the GOP as the party of overgrown frat boys and pedophiles.

But the picture of Franken fondling Tweeden's breasts while she was sleeping, taken long before he entered politics, is kind of hard to ignore.  So are the number of women who say they were either groped or deep-kissed by Franken, even after he became Senator.  All of this evidence has rendered his efforts as an advocate for women's rights moot, hasn't it?

It's time to turn the page on Al Franken, and all the others who found themselves cold-shouldered by changing times and the political reawakening of women.  Will the next chapter bring a new beginning, or just the same old story?

UPDATE (12/13/17):  Governor Dayton has indeed chosen Tina Smith to be interim U.S. Senator, and will be sworn in as soon as outgoing Senator Al Franken decides to leave the stage.  Smith says she's running in November for the rest of Franken's term.  Minnesota now joins California and a few other states to have two women as senators.

UPDATE (12/24/17):  Franken's official resignation is set for January 2.  Smith will be sworn in the following day.

Trump: Skating on Thin Ice

Now that waking up with Matt Lauer or hearing Garrison Keillor talk about Lake Wobegon on the radio are no longer options, due to their respective managements determining that they were taking too many liberties with the female help, we should never again question the legitimacy of women who complain about being harassed by powerful men.  Even if your name is President Donald Trump.

As the President was doubting the legitimacy of the "Access Hollywood" audio that nearly sank his campaign (Billy Bush, whose TV career had already sunk because of it, tells us it's all true), he went ahead and endorsed Roy Moore, an accused pedophile who's running for Alabama's U.S. Senate seat in a special election next week.  The Republicans, in spite of their initial skittishness over associating with such a man, seem to be willing to ignore Moore's baggage just so they could keep their margin of control in the Senate.

That margin of control could make the difference for the major tax reform the GOP so desperately wants, which is essentially a "reverse Robin Hood" package that gives tax breaks to corporations and other rich folks and steals from the poor in tax hikes.  The Senate passed its version in the middle of the night, leaving little time for letting anyone read the lengthy bill, let alone understand it.  The President will be more than happy to sign the final version of the bill as soon as the House and Senate agree on what's going in it.  This would be the most significant (and only) legislative victory since Trump took office, and one the GOP hopes will convince voters to give them another chance in 2018.

But there are storm clouds ahead.  Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump's ties with the Russian government over any alleged tinkering with the 2016 election has just nabbed Michael Flynn.  The former national security adviser pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the FBI and Vice President Mike Pence about conversations with Russian officials, and is cooperating with the investigation.

The deliberateness of Mueller's investigation thus far has led to questions about whether Trump will actually get caught.  He could try to derail the matter by firing Mueller, or he could pardon many of those in his family or inner circle, including himself.  And, like Moore, the GOP is willing to look the other way.  If all else fails, then blame Hillary Clinton.

The President also has to worry about the long term job statuses of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, with whom he's had disagreements with in the past.

Then there's North Korea.  They just launched a test missile that they say could reach anywhere in the United States.  It doesn't have a nuclear device, but that's coming.  If Trump wants to avoid war with Kim Jong-un, he's going to have to tamp down the saber rattling and hope diplomacy works.

One more thing:  If Russia doesn't prove to be Trump's eventual downfall, is it possible that there's a woman out there who's brave enough to pin "very bad things" (as he might term it) on the President?  If that woman exists, she might very well send Trump to the same scrap heap as Lauer, Keillor and countless others.

Oh wait . . .