Unsportsmanlike Conduct

speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the past few days, President Donald Trump has alienated professional athletes, two countries with nuclear weapons programs and the United Nations.  If this were a football game, the President would be penalized 15 yards and tossed from the field for taunting.

In reality, no one tells the President to shut up and to take down his Twitter account.  So he can say anything he wants, even to the point of encouraging racial hatred and starting a war.  And all we can do is to watch him lead his country to implosion.

At the United Nations last week, Trump used undiplomatic language as he spoke to the body dedicated to keeping world peace.  He threatened North Korea with death and destruction if they didn't stop testing their nuclear weapons, then referred to that nation's leader Kim Jong-un as "Rocket Man" (which he obviously cribbed from the Elton John-Bernie Taupin songbook).  He wants to rescind the nuclear deal between the United States and Iran because of alleged violations.  And he wanted the UN itself to pay its own way and get rid of the deadwood, much like what he tried to do with NATO.

With the U.S. on the brink of nuclear war, Republicans threatening to repeal and replace Obamacare (and failing) for what seems like the umpteenth time, and Puerto Rico being added to the list of areas devastated by hurricanes and earthquakes, Trump decides to take on . . . the National Football League.

Giving new meaning to the term "political football", the President told a rabid crowd in Alabama that NFL owners should fire or suspend players who disrespected the American flag or did anything but stand during "The Star Spangled Banner".  The NFL and its players responded not only by taking knees during the anthem, but also by linking arms or staying in the locker room.

Ignoring the fact that this "taking a knee" business began when quarterback Colin Kaepernick did it before a game to protest racist white cops who get acquitted for killing African American men, it has somehow become an attack on America's manhood.  The anthem and the Stars and Stripes, which has become the symbol of fealty to the military, police and the GOP instead of being the symbol of freedom and equality for all, was brought to its knees by a pro football player who just took one?  No, we can't have that.  Not by someone the NFL has refused to hire since.

This same attitude also resulted in Trump disinviting the NBA champion Golden State Warriors from the White House.  But hey, the NHL champion Pittsburgh Penguins are available.  Darn few Americans on the team, but there's plenty of hardworking Canadians and Europeans to make the President look good.

Trump, who used to own a pro football team (the USFL New Jersey Generals in the 1980s), hasn't gotten it through his head that freedom to disagree with your leaders is a cherished right.  That he continues to stand with white supremacist groups while making his travel ban stronger only makes dissenters out of all but his most fervent supporters, which are dwindling in number as they learn more about the man they helped elect.

Meanwhile, how's the Russian investigation going?  Not a day goes by without some kind of revelation Trump and his minions would prefer you didn't know about.

This all makes you wonder what's going to come first--nuclear war or Trump's resignation.  Either way, it's game over.  Everybody loses.

The 2017 Emmys' Tale

Stephen Colbert in New York City at Border's signing copies for his book I Am America (And So Can You!) The photographer dedicates this portrait of Stephen Colbert to Wikipedia editor Pete Forsyth of Portland, Oregon, who has improved Wikipedia in immeasurable ways. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was expected that the 69th Emmy Awards, held Sunday evening in Los Angeles and televised on CBS, would be an ongoing roast of President Donald Trump, what with the presence of host Stephen Colbert and the prevailing mood of defiance in Hollywood.  It was also expected that the proceedings turned out to be, well, expected if you know anything about the history of the Emmys.

The political tone was set early when Sean Spicer, the former White House press secretary, turned up to make fun of himself.  Unfortunately for Spicer, Melissa McCarthy won an Emmy for a guest supporting role on "Saturday Night Live" by doing a better job of lampooning him than he ever could.

It continued when Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon won for supporting roles on "SNL", mainly for their sendups of Trump and Hillary Clinton, respectively.  The night ended with "The Handmaid's Tale", another one of those dystopian shows that depress the hell out of people, taking home the Emmy for best drama.  In between were comedy sketches and acceptance speeches driving home the point that--yes, we get it--Hollywood hates Trump.  So does most of America. 

Moving right along . . .

"Handmaid's Tale", a Hulu show which won the most Emmys overall this year (six), benefited from not having to compete with "Game of Thrones", which was not eligible this year.  For its star Elisabeth Moss, who won for actress in a drama series, this must have been payback for all those times she was denied an Emmy for her role in "Mad Men".

Julia Louis-Dreyfus continues to own the comedy category, winning for the sixth time as best actress.  Her HBO show "Veep", in which she plays a fictional vice president, won for best comedy for the third time.  What, no term limits?

The other big winner was the HBO miniseries "Big Little Lies", which won for best limited series.  Movie actors Nicole Kidman and Laura Dern won Emmys for best actress and supporting actress, respectively, giving credence to the notion that TV has always had an inferiority complex when being compared to films.  Once your name is in lights on the marquee, anything you did on the small screen pales considerably.

Trying to prove how much more diverse the Emmy are than, let's say, the Oscars, here's a partial list of winners:  Lena Waithe got a writing award for Netflix' "Master of None".  Donald Glover got two for acting and directing the FX comedy "Atlanta".  Riz Ahmed won for actor in a limited series for HBO's "The Night Of".  And Sterling K. Brown was rewarded as best actor in a drama for his role in the NBC weeper "This Is Us".

Brown did not get to finish his acceptance speech on stage because (A) some of the night's winners got more time to say their thank-you's than others, and (B) CBS didn't want to extend a show that was already three hours long.  Would this have happened if the Emmys were on NBC?

And a couple more things:

• Why does it take more than two people to present an award or to introduce an act?  Is is really that important to have reaction shots from the celebrities in the front row?
• Why do awards shows try to entertain us with pop stars crooning while the otherwise somber In Memoriam segment is in progress?  And isn't it inevitable that the producers would leave somebody out?
• You'll notice that many of the shows that won Emmys come to you from streaming services and HBO, which charge a fee for their exclusive content.  If you're considering cutting the cord, how much do you think you'll be paying for all that compared to cable?
• The Emmy telecast finished a distant second to NBC's "Sunday Night Football".  Why watch an awards show that nominates TV shows and actors you've never heard of, or could afford to watch?

Random Thoughts--Hurricane Edition

1978 Atlantic hurricane season (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To date, Hurricane Irma has damaged much of South Florida, the Keys and the Caribbean islands, causing millions to go without power for days and possibly weeks, and is on track to make this the most expensive hurricane season in American history.  Though the numbers could change by the time you see this, a total of at least 60 people have died because of Irma.

Before that, Hurricane Harvey struck southeastern Texas and Louisiana, leaving 71 dead and at least $70 billion in damages.  And Jose is currently spinning around in the Atlantic, unsure if it wants to wreak havoc on the east coast or just fizzle out.

So, after the storms go away, they leave behind a few things that need to be mentioned:

• After a major storm, who gets priority in getting the electricity back?  You would think nursing homes would be near the top of the list, especially in a place where even in September it is still hot and humid.  But on Wednesday, eight people died in a Broward County facility that had no power, thus no air conditioning.  Police there are investigating.
• They say politics makes strange bedfellows.  Perhaps that was why President Donald Trump made a deal with Democratic leaders in Congress to not only increase aid for Harvey (and maybe soon Irma), but also to take care of the debt ceiling so that the government can remain open until the end of the year.  Obviously, the Republicans aren't thrilled that a President of their own party would make such a deal with the other guys..  But Trump and the GOP aren't seeing eye to eye these days.  And any attempt at bipartisanship in a divided country is an unusual sight.
• Events like Harvey, Irma and wildfires in the west will do nothing but clarify that climate change is more than just a theory.  No, it's a reality.  But those who don't worship Al Gore will say "it's just weather", then move on with their lives.  They won't change unless they're forced to.
• In watching the destruction and misery following natural disasters like Hurricane Irma on TV, we usually say to ourselves "oh those poor people".  Well, those "poor people" chose to live in hurricane-prone areas on a peninsula of sand, with million-dollar mansions and condos with a great view of the ocean.  Once the wind and rain takes care of them, they can always be rebuilt.  Save your tears for those who don't have that kind of money, and whose lives will never be the same.
• Have you noticed that every TV network and advertisers like Walmart has been beseeching its viewers to part with their hard earned money to support disaster relief?  So-called non-profits like the American Red Cross (the go-to charity for Corporate America) have been accused of promising more than they could deliver when it came to blood donations or disaster relief.  If you must spend money on charities, choose one where ALL the money goes to the victims.  
• Can we have a moratorium on the use of the term 'first responders' when describing emergency personnel?  'First responders', which dates back to the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, is such a politically-loaded term that belongs in the dustbin of history with the George W. Bush administration.  Just call them 'emergency workers'.
• Finally, if you're a TV reporter sent to cover a hurricane or other natural disaster. shouldn't you (A) wear enough protection that makes you look like a United Nations peacekeeper, and (B) stop lecturing your viewers on how dangerous it is outside while you're trying to stand in gale-force winds, butt-deep in flood waters?

Homeland Insecurity

English: World Trade Center, New York, aerial view March 2001. Français : Le World Trade Center à New York. Vue aérienne datant de mars 2001. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

On the 16th anniversary of the day when planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington and a field somewhere in western Pennsylvania, which collectively killed around three thousand people, America has become more insecure than ever.

We don't hear much these days about the Islamic State or Al Qaeda planning attacks in this country like the ones in Europe that were attributed to them.  But we don't just need those guys to instill fear in the hearts of Americans.  Plenty of other 'threats' to the so-called "homeland" are coming up to join them:

Homegrown Terrorism  With President Donald Trump's tacit approval, hate groups like neo-Nazis, the KKK and other white nationalists are allowed to flourish because he considers them "very fine people".  Does this mean it is now open season on minorities, women, gays, lesbians, transgenders and anyone else who's not in lockstep with the new fascism?

North Korea, whose attention-seeking dictator Kim Jong-un has allegedly exploded a hydrogen device, shortly after tossing a test missile over Japan.  It would be nice if Kim responded positively to such things as economic sanctions and global isolation, but that's not happening.  It also doesn't help that Trump is making threats of his own, putting the rest of the world in nuclear peril.

Children of Undocumented Workers, who are currently going to college, serving in the military and otherwise involved in gainful employment as de facto citizens of the United States.  That is, until the President announced his intention to phase out DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), a Barack Obama-era executive order that legitimized all those now-grown-up offspring of undocumented parents, who apparently had the foresight to cross the border from Mexico long enough to make sure their newborn kids became U.S. citizens.  This is really the fault of our laws, which stipulate that anyone who was born here is automatically an American.  Which comes at the expense of all those who have waited years to enter this country legitimately only to see this going on.

In a sign that the President is having second thoughts about what he just did, he's turned the matter over to Congress, where he gave them six months to turn DACA into law.  Given Congress' track record on legislation in the past few years, good luck with this one, Dreamers.

President Trump, as much as he wants to make America great again, is proving to be just as much a real-or-perceived security risk as anything else we've mentioned here.  He and his cronies are under investigation for his alleged pre-election dealings with Russia.  He speaks (and tweets) before he thinks.  He doesn't get along with the leaders of his own party, let alone the media.  And, well, you know the rest.

The people who died on a September day in 2001 were just going about their business, not knowing they would help usher in an era of war, racism, violence and fear.  They also didn't know there'd be years of extreme political partisanship, resulting in a President who's a threat to national stability and world peace.  It's up to us to prove their deaths were not in vain.

Houston (and America), We Have a Problem

Larger Houston Landsat From http://landsat.usgs.gov/gallery/detail/370/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The city of Houston and much of southeast Texas have just been through a watery hell, thanks to Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey.  The toll so far:  51 inches of rain (that's over four feet), 28 dead (according to CNN), tens of thousands displaced and possibly billions of dollars in damages from the storm.

Meanwhile President Donald Trump, having just come off another ego-stroking rah-rah event in Phoenix, tried to upstage the hurricane's landfall (as only he can) by making the following announcements:

• Pardoning Joe Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona.  He was about to face jail time for alleged racial profiling and other human rights violations in how he treated his prisoners. before Trump  came to the rescue.

• Reinforcing his ban on transgenders from serving in the military, though that has since been frozen by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis so they could study the ban before implementing it.

After days of tweets giving 'attaboys' to FEMA officials in Houston and plugging somebody's book, the President finally made it to Texas (but not Houston) to meet with local officials on how to deal with the situation.  Otherwise he treated this like a campaign stop (he did win the state in the election, you know), though he couldn't be bothered to mention those who have died or are still suffering because of Harvey.  Trump did rectify that omission the next day--in Springfield, Missouri, where he'd rather talk about reforming taxes.

Houston is the fourth-largest city in America.  It is also an environmental and man-made disaster waiting to happen, having paved over a swamp and put up a parking lot (to paraphrase Joni Mitchell), allowing no place for the water to go.  As a result, Houston from the air resembles either the Lost City of Atlantis or an American Venice every time a hurricane or a major rainstorm hits.

Because oil refineries and offshore rigs have been closed and/or damaged due to Harvey, expect to see prices spike at the pump.  It will not only cost you more to drive, but you will also be paying more for everything else.  So there goes Trump's robust economy.

It's too early to compare Harvey with Katrina, the other infamous storm that hit a major U.S. city.  As this storm moves north (it has already hit Beaumont and Lake Charles hard), the floodwaters will eventually recede and many unpleasant reminders of what the water left behind await.  Is this going to be the future of violent storms and cities underwater many scientists have warned about?  And what do we do about a president who just sentenced us to that kind of future?

Jerry Lewis (1926-2017): Comedian, Auteur, Lightning Rod

English: Comedian Jerry Lewis - Photograph by Patty Mooney, Crystal Pyramid Productions, San Diego, California (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Jerry Lewis, who died Sunday at age 91, was a man of many talents.  He was a comedian, a singer, an actor, a film director and a humanitarian.  He also did some things that rubbed people the wrong way.

Lewis first came to our attention as one-half of a successful professional partnership with Dean Martin during the 1940s and 50s.  The act worked like this:  Lewis used a high-pitched voice and ran around like a little kid, while Martin played straight man and sang love songs.  Martin and Lewis mugged their way through nightclubs, radio, TV and several Hollywood movies.  Audiences ate it up.

When the partnership famously ended in 1956, Lewis started acting and directing movies that were essentially comedies with a dramatic edge--something you couldn't replicate in a nightclub act.  The best-known of these films was "The Nutty Professor", which was Lewis' take on "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, playing a dual role as the aforementioned professor and his lounge-singing alter ego with a mean streak.

Lewis' later films were met with mixed results for critics and audiences alike, though he did win rave reviews for his dramatic roles in the movie "The King of Comedy" (with Robert DeNiro) and in the TV series "Wiseguy".  He was much better received in France, however, having been awarded their Legion of Honor.

Lewis was also known for his annual Labor Day telethons, which benefited the Muscular Dystrophy Association.  He raised over two billion dollars in the 44-year history of the telethon for his "kids", though the manner in which he did it--portraying those living with the disease as objects of pity and condescension--bothered disabled rights advocates and other critics. He also got in hot water when it came to his antiquated views on women in comedy and gays.

Jerry Lewis was a man who spent most of his career making us laugh, cry, think and get angry.  He did it his way, just like old showbiz pal Frank Sinatra did.  And he was never boring.  All that mugging really paid off.

The Trump Eclipse

English: Total Solar eclipse 1999 in France. * Additional noise reduction performed by Diliff. Original image by Luc Viatour. Français : L'éclipse totale de soleil en 1999 faite en France. * Réduction du bruit réalisée par Diliff. Image d'origine Luc Viatour. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Monday was the day when the moon merged with the sun over the continental United States, creating a minute or two of midday darkness for the first time since 1979.

Big deal.  President Donald Trump has been blotting out the political and media sunlight with his words, actions and tweets for the past eight months.  He even took off his protective eyewear during the solar eclipse, just to prove he could.  No, the sun, moon and stars doesn't revolve around the President.  It just seems that way.

In the past week alone, Trump used his news conference to make himself the best friend neo-Nazis, the KKK and other hate groups ever had in insisting that "both sides" were responsible for the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia that left one dead and nineteen injured.  He used Twitter to bemoan the removal of statues of Confederate generals (which is what started the disturbance in the first place), as if the War Between The States was a noble cause reflecting the values of all the rednecks who voted for him.

The day after his Trump Tower meltdown, the President disbanded his economic councils after several CEOs who were horrified by his comments quit in disgust.  Later, the arts commission made a similar decision.  In response, Trump decides not to participate in the Kennedy Center Honors.

On Friday, chief strategist Steve Bannon was let go.  A role model for the alt-right, Bannon was believed to be the mastermind behind many of Trump's most controversial actions.  But then the President must have decided he could do racism all by himself, thank you.  So Bannon returned to the Breitbart website from whence he came, where he will presumably rip into his former boss whenever possible.

On the day of the solar eclipse, Trump went on what he likes to call the "fake news" TV channels to talk about Afghanistan--a 17-year old conflict most Americans had forgotten about.  He said something about doubling down on the commitment to America's longest war, but mentioned nothing about increasing troop levels to take on those hated Taliban or when they were coming home.  He also managed to alienate Pakistan by trying to get India involved, even though both U.S. allies could annihilate each other with nuclear weapons within minutes.  (Speaking of nukes, whatever happened to North Korea?)  This reverses years of Trump's complaining about how the Afghan war was a losing proposition that should have ended a long time ago.  Your perspective does change once you step into that Oval Office.

Congressional Republicans seem to be blinded by the light when it comes to figuring out what to do about Trump.  Several GOP luminaries have denounced him by name over Charlottesville, which is something they wouldn't have done before for fear of a Trump tweet-lashing.  But others look at the popularity of Trump among voters in their home states and say nothing.  Despite all the options available to remove a President (impeachment, resignation, censure, implementation of the 25th Amendment, etc.), the most likely course of action for the GOP is a familiar one--which is sitting on their hands and doing nothing, then hope the voters won't notice in 2018.

The next solar eclipse to pass through the United States won't be until 2024.  By then, the Trump Eclipse will either be nearing the end of its second term, or will have fizzled out long before.  Until then, the future's so cloudy that you're gonna need those protective sunglasses.