The Oscars: Diversity Rules, to a Point

The 91st Academy Awards had no host, ran over three hours, and had another controversial finish.  But you can't say it was boring.

This was the year the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences went out of its way to honor contributions from persons of color (if there's a better term, we'd like to hear it), in stark contrast to the criticism they got a couple of years ago for the mostly white list of nominees.  Among those who took home Oscars: 

• Alfonso Cuaron for directing "Roma", which also won for Foreign Language film.
• Rami Malek for his Best Actor performance, channeling Queen's lead singer Freddie Mercury in "Bohemian Rhapsody".
• Regina King for her Supporting Actress performance in "If Beale Street Could Talk".
• Mahershala Ali for his Supporting Actor performance in "Green Book".

They and other winners of color were undercut when the Academy chose "Green Book" as Best Picture.  It was the tale of a white man navigating the Jim Crow South of the early 1960s with a black musician, which must have reminded the voters of "Driving Miss Daisy", which won for Best Picture in 1989.  Some things never change.

Spike Lee, who with three other guys won his first Oscar for Adaptive Screenplay with "BlacKKKlansman", was among those who weren't thrilled with "Green Book"'s win.  Lee used his podium time earlier as a call to arms for the 2020 presidential election to reject hate.  President Donald Trump, who's becoming pretty good at figuring out thinly veiled insults aimed at him indirectly, tweeted one of his own at Lee.

Another highlight of the evening was Lady Gaga's duet with Bradley Cooper on "Shallow", a song from the fourth version of "A Star Is Born".  It was so intimate that you'd think there's something going on between them.  Or was it just a convincing performance?  Anyhoo, Gaga got her Oscar for Best Original Song, and would have added a Best Actress trophy if it hadn't been for Olivia Colman playing Queen Anne in "The Favourite".

The telecast ran for three hours and twenty minutes, which is the typical length of an NFL football game, and was shorter than either a New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox baseball game or some of the Best Picture winners over the last half century.   In spite of the Academy's and ABC's best efforts to get folks to bed at a reasonable hour, there was no host (Kevin Hart quit after past homophobic posts on social media came back to bite him), no Most Popular Movie category, and every award was shown live instead of moving some of them to commercial breaks (behold the power of unions in Hollywood).

Whether it was the lack of a host or the possibility of the Oscars turning into a gawker slowdown, CNN reports that the ratings for the ABC telecast were up from last year by 12 percent.  Maybe less is more after all.

When There's a Wall, There's a Way

The National Emergencies Act (per Wikipedia) was first enacted by Congress in 1976, and signed by then-President Gerald Ford.  It is intended for use in crises that require the President to use special powers, in cases such as trade sanctions and terrorist attacks.  To date, there have been almost 60 national emergencies declared by every President since Ford, and some of them are still in effect.

President Donald Trump, having tried and failed to convince Congress to fund his pet project of a wall along the border of the United States and Mexico, became the first chief executive to use national emergency powers to commandeer billions from other programs to pay for that barrier.  This bit of creative financing is robbing Uncle Sam to pay The Donald.

Trump admitted in a news conference to announce the declaration that he didn't think it was necessary.  But he did do it believing that--evidence to the contrary--hordes of people and assorted riffraff were coming north from all over Latin America illegally, taking away jobs, selling drugs and even murdering American citizens.  And a promise was a promise to the rabid base that got Trump elected in 2016, and are poised to do the same in 2020.

Having proved how irrelevant Congress really is when it comes to matters like this, the President is hoping the courts will see things his way in advance of all the inevitable lawsuits.  He seems to be counting on the U.S. Supreme Court, which now has a conservative majority, to decide the matter once and for all in his favor sometime before the election.

Lost in all of this, of course, are the headlines involving topics that normal people would consider national emergencies:

• The government shutdown, which Trump originally used as a battle of wills with Congress over his wall, is officially over thanks to a new budget deal.
• This is the one-year anniversary of the massacre at a high school in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and staff members were killed by a lone gunman.
• Hours after Trump's national emergency announcement, five people were murdered inside a warehouse in Aurora, Illinois by a man who was just fired from his job.

But President Trump, as most of us know, is not a normal person.  He can rant on Twitter all he wants about the Russian investigation that's closing in around him, or threaten "Saturday Night Live" over the way they lampoon him.  He got his way this time.  Who knows what he'll consider a national emergency next.

The Grammys: Step Ups, Tributes and No-Show-Ups

The 61st Grammy Awards in Los Angeles Sunday night, a nearly four hour telecast on CBS, was notable for who was and wasn't slighted by the Recording Academy, resulting in some of the biggest names in music taking a pass on the ceremonies.

Ariana Grande won a couple of Grammys, but didn't show because of a dispute with producers over what songs they wanted her to sing.  Some hip hop stars also declined to appear because they thought the Academy wasn't giving the genre the respect they thought they deserved.  Which led to awkward moments such as Drake's acceptance speech for his Grammy for "God's Plan" getting cut off, and for having to award Song and Record of the Year to Childish Gambino's "This Is America" in absentia.

In response to outgoing Academy president Neil Portnow's admonition to women artists to "step up" if they want to win more Grammys, that's exactly what they did this year.  The show was hosted by Grammy darling Alicia Keys who, when she wasn't channeling her inner Oprah, did a great job of moving things along (outside of a glitch or two) and playing a dueling pianos routine that was the highlight.  Lady Gaga, Janelle Monae, Brandi Carlile and Cardi B all made their star turns.  Even former First Lady Michelle Obama showed up. Dua Lipa won for Best New Artist.  And Kacey Musgraves, previously best known for quirky country songs like "Follow Your Arrow" and "Biscuits", surprisingly won Album of the Year for "Golden Hour".

Isn't this what hip hop artists have been complaining about?  Grammy-nominated rap albums have been losing to the likes of Adele, Macklemore & Lewis, and now Musgraves. Seems the Academy is having the same problem with rap like they once did with rock and roll.

There was no shortage of boomer tributes at this year's Grammys:  Dolly Parton (who won an industry award), Diana Ross (who turns 75 next month, as she likes to remind everyone, Aretha Franklin (who died last year) and Donny Hathaway (who's been dead since 1979).  There was a salute to the 60th anniversary of Motown Records, but for some reason Jennifer Lopez got star billing.  Nothing against J.Lo, but it was just bizarre to watch her here.  Meanwhile, the telecast was promoting upcoming tribute shows for Parton, Franklin and Motown to be aired later on CBS, so presumably we should be getting better performances.

Whether the stars came out or not, four hours is a long time to sit through a mixed bag of performances with the major awards not being handed out until the final hour, outside of East Coast prime time  You might as well skip the trophies and just put the winners on TV.  Would it be too much to ask if the Recording Academy not just settle its differences, but also to streamline its telecast?

SOTU: The Divider-In-Chief Speaks

After a one-week delay, President Donald Trump took almost an hour and a half to deliver his State of the Union address before a decidedly different Congress Tuesday night.  That left barely enough time before your late local news for the Democratic response.

Trump was at times conciliatory, condescending, threatening, pandering and full of himself during the speech.  But that's the way he always is, so not much difference there.  Fact checkers were at the ready to call BS every time he told a whopper.  And anything he says will likely be refuted on Twitter.

The President initially called for compromise with the new Democratic majority in the House (and a few rogue Republicans) to get the country back on track, which is interesting coming from the Divider-In-Chief.  But then he mentioned that the economy is booming, and that it would be too bad if anything were to happen to it if Congress insisted on investigating him and his cronies, so don't go there.  Which brings up the question of what happened to the American economy when Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton were under scrutiny.

Trump did not announce plans to use a national emergency as an excuse to raid the piggy bank to pay for his border wall.  But he did paint a bleak picture of what might be going on south of the U.S. border to make his case.  Just a reminder that Congress has until February 15 to set a budget for border security before the government shuts down again.

Trump made news when he announced that the next summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has been scheduled for Vietnam at the end of this month.  He then boasted that if it hadn't been for him, we'd be at war with Pyongyang by now.  He also wants to make peace with the Taliban in Afghanistan, bringing American troops home after 17 years of war.  Oh, ISIS has been defeated in Syria, so it's safe for the soldiers to come back now.

Unlike in previous years, Trump has a tougher crowd to impress.  Instead of having Paul Ryan right behind him on the podium alongside Vice President Mike Pence, it's now Nancy Pelosi wielding the gavel as House Speaker next to Pence.  Some of the women in the House chamber audience wore white to commemorate their getting the vote a century ago.  So what does the President do?  He claimed credit for getting more women elected to Congress than at any time in history.  The newly-minted congresswomen (and their guests) gave themselves high fives  and shouted "USA! USA!", because they knew that Trump's mis-leadership was the reason why they ran for office in the first place.

Then Trump seemed to take aim at the likes of Vermont Senator (and possible presidential candidate) Bernie Sanders and New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez when he said that America will never be a socialist country.  He didn't say anything about America becoming an authoritarian and fascistic country.  Or maybe he didn't have to.

With an election looming and Robert Mueller almost ready to wrap up his investigation into Russia's alleged influence on the 2016 presidential campaign, the day of reckoning is almost at hand for President Trump.  Whether this is his last State of the Union address or not, he's painted himself into a corner and has to find a way to get out of it.