2018: Shut. It. Down.

Another crazy year under President Donald Trump is concluding with the government being shut down for the third time, this one over his refusal to sign any bill Congress sends to his desk that doesn't include funding for the border wall he's always wanted along the U.S.-Mexico border.  The same one that not only is supposed to protect this country from ruffians, but also ordinary folks fleeing the poverty and violence of wherever it is they came from.  Trump's more stringent border security has also succeeded in separating families and putting kids in cages, making them wait until they cross the border the "right" way.  It's likely this won't be settled until a new Congress is sworn in, one in which the House is Democratic and the Senate is still Republican.

Elsewhere in Trumpland as the year ends, it's all crumbling down.  The President has no permanent Attorney General, Defense secretary or Chief of Staff because the previous ones either quit or were fired.  Michael Cohen and Michael Flynn are both headed for prison as Robert Mueller's investigation into alleged Russian collusion in the 2016 election reaches its climax, provided Trump doesn't undermine it first.  He pulls troops out of Syria, believing (perhaps prematurely) that the Islamic State has been defeated.   He marks his first Christmas Presidential visit to the war zone of Iraq by unwittingly compromising the identities of some Navy SEALS on his Twitter feed.  The stock market tanks, and Trump talks of replacing the Federal Reserve Board chairman.  There's a trade war with China.  Treaties are dishonored for reasons real or imaginary.  BUT . . . people in the rural areas and right-wing talk radio still love him, even if everyone else doesn't.

Gun violence is a daily occurrence, whether you attend high school in Parkland, Florida, work in an office park in California, or live in Chicago.  Bill Cosby is going to prison and Les Moonves lost his job at CBS because women waited years to be able to tell the world what happened when they were alone with these and other men.  It didn't work with Brett Kavanaugh, though.  He was still confirmed as Supreme Court justice.

Time magazine saluted journalists with its Person of the Year award.  They have been insulted and mocked as "fake news" by President Trump, kidnapped and tortured by extremists, and killed by governments whose money matters more to the United States than in getting at the truth.  Never has the truth been more at peril than the last few years.

As net neutrality is now in the hands of internet providers, Facebook reminds us that whatever you post can also be seen by advertisers and hackers working on behalf of the Russian government.  Is there a better alternative out there?

The Sinclair Broadcasting-Tribune Company merger of local TV stations never went through, once the FCC took another look at it and found it lacking.  Nexstar, which owns a lot of stations themselves, is Tribune's new suitor.  Unlike Sinclair, Nexstar's politics are unknown.

Oh, and a couple named Harry and Meghan got married in the spring.  He's a prince, and she used to be a TV actress.  Should be interesting.

Unlike the government, 2018 is going to be shut down permanently.  And not a moment too soon.

Passing On:  Penny Marshall, Nancy Wilson, Ken Berry, George H.W. and Barbara Bush, Roy Clark, Stan Lee, Paul Allen, Charles Aznavour, Marty Balin, Bill Daily, Burt Reynolds, Neil Simon, John McCain, Robin Leach, Kofi Annan, Aretha Franklin, Paul Laxalt, Margaret Heckler, Charlotte Rae, Ron Dellums, Bill Loud, Tab Hunter, Ed Schultz, Harlan Ellison, Joe Jackson, Dan Ingram, Charles Krauthammer, XXXTentacion, Anne Donovan, D.J. Fontana, Murray Fromson, Nick Meglin, Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, Alan Bean, Philip Roth, Clint Walker, Tom Wolfe, Margot Kidder, Verne Troyer, Avicii, Carl Kasell, Harry Anderson, Milos Forman, Susan Anspach, Winnie Mandela, Steven Bochco, Stephen Hawking, Nannette Fabray, Billy Graham, Marty Allen, Vic Damone, John Gavin, John Mahoney, Nicholas von Hoffman, Hugh Masekela, Dorothy Malone, Stansfield Turner, Dolores O'Riordan, Jerry Van Dyke, Barbara Flanagan.

Baby, It's Rough Out There

'Tis the season for holiday music played 24/7 on local radio stations, holiday specials on TV, and holiday movies on the Hallmark channel.  This has been going on since at least November 1, leaving Thanksgiving as collateral damage.

However, as the Christmas season has expanded, so has scrutiny over certain aspects of holiday culture we once took for granted.  Some of those haven't fared so well in light of changing times.

Take the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside", a novelty ditty which is seen today as an invitation to date rape that nobody could have foreseen when it was written back in 1944.  Today's #MeToo movement prompted some radio stations to pull the song.  Others have since returned "Baby" to the airwaves because of (A) conservative listeners wanting it back on, and (B) corporate ownership not giving its stations a choice in the matter.

Or how about "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", which was popularized by singing cowboy Gene Autry back in 1949?  When an animated TV special based on the song was introduced in 1964, what was once considered harmless family entertainment has turned into something parents don't want their kids to see.  Rudolph's red nose, the subject of much verbal and physical abuse before Santa Claus discovered a use for it, has become a parable for all the bullying and mass shootings we see today.

The holiday songs and TV shows haven't changed.  We have.  We are much more aware of domestic violence and sexual abuse against women, and children killing themselves and others because they were, as Lady Gaga would say, "born this way".

As the holiday season goes on, try to remember that most of what you hear and see were written and produced before 1970, a golden age for family entertainment and values.  We don't live in that world any more, no matter how much conservatives would like to see it.  Just enjoy these for what they are as reflections of a past society, and happy holidays.

George Herbert Walker Bush (1924-2018)

Navy fighter pilot in World War II.  Congressman.  United Nations ambassador.  Republican National Committee chair.  CIA director.  Ronald Reagan's vice-president.  President for one term.  Sons who became state governors, one of whom became a two-term president.  Impressive resume, no?

For George Herbert Walker Bush, service was his life and legacy.  His story ended with his death on Friday at age 94, months after wife Barbara passed.

As President from 1989-93, Bush not only benefited from the continued popularity of Reagan and an ugly campaign that was the template for others to come (Willie Horton, anyone?), but for also being present as history turned a corner.  The Berlin Wall came down.  Germany reunited.  The Soviet Union collapsed.

Bush also waged war on Iraq when Saddam Hussein's army invaded Kuwait.  U.S. and coalition forces drove them out, then stopped just short of Baghdad before the first gulf war ended.  Soldiers returned to ticker tape parades, though as it turned out they were premature, as ten years and another Bush presidency were needed to finish the job.

Now, with a sky-high approval rating for winning the war, George Herbert Walker Bush could have waltzed into a second term with a landslide victory.  But that was 1991.  In 1992, as the economy went south and "read my lips, no new taxes" was just a campaign promise, Bush was defeated for a second term by Democrat Bill Clinton, with an assist from independent H. Ross Perot.

George Herbert Walker Bush is being remembered as the last of the nice guys in government, going up through the ranks to earn his just reward.  These days, with a President whose main accomplishments were being insanely rich enough to fund his own campaign, hosting his own reality TV show and pissing people off wherever he goes, that's not good enough.  Nice guys finish last, and for that he'll be missed.