Category Archives: Americana

Michelle Wolf and the loss of irony (and humor)

Americana, Psychological Musings

Dang, I thought I posted this when it was current, but, anyhow…

Last night’s program was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting, scholarship winners, not to divide people. Unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of the mission. The complaint by The White House Correspondents’ Association’s president, Margaret Talev who, apparently, has no idea what a “vigorous and free press” means. A press that is afraid of dividing people by telling the truth seems to me to be too close to a press that self-censors the truth because it might offend somebody in power

Margaret Talev was reacting to Michelle Wolf’s comedy act at the White House Correspondents’ Association’s Dinner, where the press and the people they are supposed to be covering, get together. I thought her act was just OK, but, to be fair to her, I read that this is a very hard crowd to play; it’s in a big space, everybody is formally dressed to impress not laugh, and, with round tables, half the people in the room are facing the wrong way to start with. The big damper, however, is that the room is full of very important people who are sucking-up to each other and they don’t like being made fun of. Trump stayed away which just shows that he is not as stupid as some people think. 

A case against Bernie for president

Americana, Politics

We are the lens through which we understand the universe. Resa Aslan as quoted in a New Yorker Briefly Noted review of God read while standing at the kitchen counter drinking my cherry juice for gout.

Several times now, I’ve been berated for being ageist, mostly by old people who love Bernie, when I say he should not be our candidate in 2020 (if he were the only progressive running, I would vote for him, but I hope he will back somebody much younger).  Recently Vern Smith said I didn’t know that common sense and decency had a shelf life, and I thought but that’s not the problem, the problem is…and that’s where I ran into my problem. How to explain that Bernie is too old to be president? I want to quickly add that, of course, Hillary is too old too, so is Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden, and, extra of course, so is Donald Trump. Not physically or, even mentally too old, but culturally too old. In a way, it is very simple, Bernie is out of it, just like I am, just like anybody is who complains about kids being on their cell phones too much, just like our grandparents were. I loved my grandparents and they were very influential in my life but they were from a different era, they came here before the last century and called a car “the machine”.  In all four cases above, I do not think the problem is that they are not vigorous, they just are products of a different time. They do not see the same solutions that are visible to people who were born into and grew up in a world closer to the world as it is today. It is not a coincidence or an anomaly that the titans of Silicon Valley are all young. I think the Indians are right – I don’t know if it is the real First Americans or just the Indians in the movies but, either way, the point holds – the Chief should be young and the Elders should be trusted advisors. 

Tsar Validimer

Americana

There is an interesting article in the Economist that paints Putin as being more in the tradition of the Tsars rather than the Communist leaders (well, it came out in November of last year but I just got around to reading it). On the cover of the magazine is a photoshopped picture of Putin in a tsarist uniform made up of, mostly, military hardware with a heading saying A tsar is born. Inside is an article with the picture above above a heading saying: Enter Tzar Vladimir. It got me thinking Russia has never been democratic, the Russian tradition is of being ruled by the Tsar. Russia’s reverting back to the good old days is a reversion back to autocratic rule. 

When, as I read almost every day, about Turkey’s slide from Democracy as Recep Erdoğan consolidates his power or Poland and Hungary sliding into fascism, it seems to me that all they have in common is that they were countries that were born and prospered under autocratic rule.  Their institutional memory is not of being Democratic. The United States, on the other hand, has always been a Democracy; maybe not a Democracy as we understand it today with only white, male, landowners having voting rights but, still, a country with a history of Democratic ideals. I find that heartening.  

These kids are awesome

Americana, Local events

Michele and I went to Redwood City to see and listen to the speeches at our local Fight for our Lives. The speakers were children, committed, energized, articulate, children; doing a job that their elders should have done a long time ago. They were inspiring and they gave me more hope than I have had in a very long time. 

Shocking, just shocking I tell ya

Americana, Politics

path·o·log·i·cal, paTHəˈläjək(ə)l: compulsive; obsessive. Google dictionary.
 
By now, most people realize that President Donald Trump is a liar. What I didn’t know until last week is that he brags about it, as in: “Trudeau came to see me, he’s a good man, he said we have no trade deficit with you, we have none…I said, well Justin, you do. I didn’t even know. Josh, I had no idea. I just said you’re wrong. You’re wrong. It was so stupid.”
 
This shocks me. He was meeting with a foreign leader to talk about a trade deficit and he didn’t even bother to look at the numbers beforehand. The point of the meeting was to talk about trade numbers and Trump didn’t even know if we have a trade deficit or a surplus with Canada. That is a level of not giving a shit that would be shocking in a high school drop out.
 
Then he lied to a guy who did know the numbers. When I was in the merchant building biz – the development biz a little like Trump, really – I saw lots of people lie but I don’t remember ever seeing somebody lie to a guy that knew the truth. A purchasing agent might tell a sub his bid was high when it wasn’t but the sub had no idea. A salesperson might lie about the schedule of a house but the buyer didn’t know the real schedule. Here, however, Trudeau knew the real numbers and Trump lied to him. Maybe Trudeau gave him the benefit of the doubt and just thought, He must have been given the wrong numbers, maybe Trudeau just thought This guy is an idiot but, either way, he knew Trump was wrong. 
 
Lastly, in a public forum, sure to be reported, Trump bragged about being ignorant and lying. To me, this is the most shocking of all. Lying to a foreign leader about something that is checkable is stupid, bragging about it in public is shockingly idiotic.