29 October 2018

TWO PRESIDENTS


One could write volumes about Donald Trump. But long tracts are sometimes not as effective as powerful snapshots, so I offer one here.

A recent TV program had a 60-second segment that made me cry. When I described it Pinks this morning, I got teary again.

The reporter offered up a comparison of how two Presidents responded to terror attacks in the United States.

First was Donald Trump, who made three statements about the Pittsburgh synagogue massacre of eleven congregants at a shabat service.

 The first statement was an unscripted one, on the tarmac at Andrews, en route to one of his rallies. In those remarks, Trump channelled an NRA theme: he said that "if the Pittsburgh synagogue had had protection, the result might have been different." 

Second, he refused to cancel his rally for later that day, joking "I could always say I had a bad hair day." He also defended his decision by saying professional baseball was played the night of the 9/11 attack. That was an outright false statement.  At the start of the rally, he read from a teleprompter and called upon the country to "unify," and "reject anti-semitism" -- a script that the media reported was written by his daughter and son-in-law.

Third, he progressed into the political part of his rally. He condemned Hillary Clinton and Maxine Waters (both of whom had received pipe bombs in the mail earlier in the week.) His audience enthusiastically responded with "Lock Her Up" while the President of the United States stood there smiling and silently encouraged the crowd go on and on with the divisive chant.

The comparison was a talk given by President Barack Obama three years earlier at a black church in Charleston, South Carolina, where Dylan Roof had shot and killed ten congregants and their Pastor, Clementa Pinkney. The victims had been attending a bible study session.  Obama took to the podium at the service for Rev. Pinkney. Here is a segment of his eulogy:

Warning, before you click on this, get out your handkerchief.


A bientot.



28 October 2018

SAUSAGE MAKING, TV STYLE


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We are not regular viewers of Rachel Maddow. She is smart but long winded. More importantly, I fall asleep somewhere during the second half of her program.  But last week we were house guests of MSNBC addicts, and so we watched Rachel on non-baseball nights and pieces of Rachel between innings when the game was on.

At the end of one of her programs, she announced she had done a podcast and was very proud of it. It was her first, she was excited but apprehensive of its success, and she urged her viewers to subscribe to it.  There are seven daily segments, the first two will be available on Tuesday, August 30. She said it was about an important event in our history and the title of the podcast is Bag Man.

And then she played a 30 second teaser, containing voices of several participants, the first of which sounded a lot like me.  Turns out it was me!

Explanation:  Some months back, a nice guy, Mike Yarvitz, called me, said he worked for NBC, and was going to produce a podcast about the 45th anniversary of the resignation of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew. He said he had read my book, and asked if he could interview me for his podcast.  Hey, anything to sell another two books. He came to my office, set up a microphone and a small recorder on my desk, and we chatted for about three hours. Easy.

But now it appears that my voice, and apparently the voices of one or more of the prosecutors he interviewed, will be the substance of Rachel Maddow's podcast. I assume her production, of which she was so proud, will consist of her narrating the events and patching in the voices of the people Mike interviewed.

I would like to meet and talk with Rachel, but never have. I am eager to see how she carries this off on Tuesday. 

(The podcast website says something about listening at 9:55 p.m. that night, so I assume she will play a 5-minute teaser segment at that time.)

Now I confess I am such a Luddite that I have never listened to, no less subscribed to, a podcast.  For those of you who are in my league, (and you know who you are!), here is some info:

A podcast is basically a recorded audio program that you listen to on your computer, whether it is a desktop or a smart phone.  When you "subscribe" to a serial podcast, as each new chapter is released it will show up in the podcast library on your device.

I can offer two means of doing this: The hard way is to go Google and ask how to subscribe to a podcast. 

I took the easier route as Maddow suggested; to download "Maddow's" Bag Man,  click on this: http://msnbc.com/BAGMAN 
and download the podcast to the place of your choice. Since I never did this before, I downloaded it to "Apple podcasts" where it appears in my iTunes podcast library. Then, I assume, as each new chapter is released, it will appear in that library.

No, I do not accept complaints about these instructions. If they do not work, or are too complicated to follow, take the short route and ask a grandchild to do it for you.

A bientot.

17 October 2018

NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH ... .




At 9 a.m. Monday morning this week, Pinks and I were having breakfast while scanning the NYTImes. "Wow," Pinks offered, "this Saudi thing is a mess. Looks like for sure the Crown Prince killed this guy."

This seer responded, "Not to worry. For sure they killed this guy, but the Prince will come up with some bullshit claim that a lower level Saudi asshole developed the brilliant idea of secretly killing Khashoggi, cutting him up, and departing the country with the body parts in their luggage. The Prince will claim he knew nothing, and after a few days will "discover" the culprit and order the beheading of the hapless security official who was following orders but now needed to sacrifice his life for the Crown, and the thing will blow over."

One hour later, the NYTimes "Breaking News" flash appeared on my inbox. Surprise, surprise: Trump says he spoke to the Crown Prince who emphatically and vigorously denied he knew anything about it. Trump added that it may have been "rogue killers" who offed Khashoggi. He added, "I don't want to put words in their mouths. It's just my opinion."

A familiar pattern.  Once upon a time, Trump recounted that he asked Putin about the allegation that the Russians hacked the Democrats' email server, and Putin "emphatically and vigorously denied it.  He was very strong in his denial." Trump then added, "Who knows, the hacker may have been "some 300-pound teenager from New Jersey."

Well, the Saudis are coming around to a variation of the rogue 300-pound teenager. First, they said, "Well, we did want to bring Khashoggi back here to ask him some questions." Unsaid, but understood, is the fact that the United States all but invented the process of kidnapping people for the purpose of interrogating them. We called it "rendition."

But sending fifteen security guys to the consulate in Turkey, one of them an accomplished forensic pathologist who specialized in autopsies and who brought along his favorite bone saw, sort of makes the "we-just-wanted-to-ask-him-a-few-questions" claim a bit thin, n'est ce pas?

The Crown Prince has run out of options. Some poor schmuck who was proud of the fact that he was a loyal servant to His Royal Highness will have to be killed. My guess: he will confess while his head is still attached, and his wife later will get a winning ticket to the Saudi version of Power Ball and a driver's license so she can get around in her new Mercedes Benz.

Question: Will Trump, the week before November 6, discover the identity of that 300-pound teenager from New Jersey?

I gotta get this posted before the NYTimes scoops me again!

A bientot.