Tuesday, November 26, 2019
‘You poor, tired huddled masses’/ Kill the Messenger, and the Bad News, Too / Mr. Gripes smells a rat…
‘You poor, tired huddled masses’…. Next time you take a domestic commercial flight, and suffer the usual rash of indignities – a seat with dimensions more suited for a 9-year-old, corrosive coffee, scraps of food bits fit for chickens, nickel-and-dime fees for everything, delays and cancellations galore, screaming kids, implacable airport attendants who never have any information, an hour-and-a-half on the tarmac – just keep in mind that this collection of humiliations has been in the works for years.
Mr. Gripes naturally asks, ‘How the Hell did this happen?’
Simple answer: years ago, the federal government essentially surrendered its statutory obligations to regulate the aviation industry and protect the flying public. Ever since the Ronald Reagan administration, there’s been an outcry for ‘less regulation’ – get rid of the ‘red tape’, and unshackle business by eliminating unnecessary statutes that stifle capitalism. Regulations are onerous, the politicians claimed. From that moment on, passengers have been royally screwed.
When the government eased up on the gas pedal, and created a more laissez-faire atmosphere for the largest industries, that translated into a surrender of any supervision of the cartels and an abandonment of safeguards for paying customers. In fact, the Federal Aviation Administration, responsible for overseeing the aviation industry, is now packed with members plucked from the very airlines it is supposed to regulate. So, naturally, whatever is good for the industry’s bottom line has become the mandate of the FAA. Profits rule, and the passenger be damned. And it’s been my experience that things are only getting worse.
American Airlines earned $2.8 billion last year. Yet, all the airlines do is whine how threadbare their revenue streams are. What a load of horse manure. They can’t give us another couple of inches in seat room, which, God forbid, might reduce their stock price by a penny or two? Forget it – the greedy corporations will continue to squeeze us, and the FAA will still not lift a finger for the passenger. The agency takes their marching orders from their ex-employers, the airlines. The poor slobs in the back of the plane who must fly? ‘Shut up, you know we only answer to our stockholders – and, oh, by the way, that’ll be $4.00 for that crummy pillow.’
Kill the Messenger, and the Bad News, Too – At this moment in the history of our once-great Republic, Mr. Gripes has come to this dispiriting conclusion: The President of the United States is a crybaby. I’m talking about Mr. Trump: Twenty-four hours a day, Donald Trump is complaining that the diabolical New York Times and Washington Post are trying to destroy him. Not only do these newspapers publish lies [he calls it ‘fake news’], he says, but he’s the victim of a ‘deep state’ treachery, which is out to get him.
Yet the real facts, which the President assiduously avoids as he slanders and humiliates anyone who might criticize him, are actually the converse: Mr. Trump, for years, has delivered nothing but lies. He’s the king of fake news.
After all, the act of lying is at the heart of ‘fake news,’ and that’s the cesspool Mr. Trump swims in gleefully; it’s been his modus operandi long before he was elected President. Remember when he, some time ago, created a fictitious Trump public relations employee, masking his own voice on the phone, [using the pseudonym, ‘John Barron’] as he spoke to media types, while extolling the great virtues of one Donald Trump?; or how about his made-up falsehood claiming Barack Obama was born overseas, and was not an American citizen? A total lie, it turned out, but Mr. Trump sure got a lot of mileage out of that tale. What about the multiple charges regarding his molestation and mistreatment of women? Not me, Mr. Trump insisted, as women en masse came forward with accusations [and continue to]. In virtually every case, Mr. Trump retorted, ‘I never met that woman.’
The denials look foolish when a few days later photographs appear of Mr. Trump, appearing quite happy standing next to the same beautiful women whom he ‘never met’.
And now the President has banned the New York Times and Washington Post from federal agencies. No longer will paid subscriptions of either be permitted in the White House as well.
I repeat: Mr. Trump is a big, big baby. He just can’t take the heat: any story – and I mean any story, no matter how insignificant – that portrays him poorly is immediately attacked by our President. He has no concept that a vigorous, independent press is the bulwark against tyranny in any democracy. Without a ‘free’ press, we’re doomed. If he could get away with it [and who knows one day he may], he’d have the DC police march into the offices of the Washington Post and destroy their presses with axes. The American Constitution is anathema to Donald Trump.
Mr. Gripes loves newspapers, and all he asks is that they provide a fair, factual account of a news event. I insist on that credo. As long as I’m presented with facts, even if an accurate article disagrees with my political beliefs, I’m fine with it. I’m a big boy, and can make up my own mind. The opinion pages in the back of the paper? The newspaper can publish anything it wishes to in that section – I don’t care. In fact, I prefer variety and differences of opinion. As long as the news stories in the front of the paper are factual and accurate.
The Wall Street Journal is a perfect example: Mr. Gripes has read one nut-job, right-wing op-ed article after another in the back of the ‘Journal’. Not a problem. Since its subscribers are often highly educated, highly functioning, and important business types, the Wall Street Journal editors act judiciously where it counts: they know the news content in the front of the paper has to be independent, objective and truthful. Its readers depend on useful and relevant information. Otherwise, its subscribers will bail out quickly from the paper. So, if some idiot writer wants to rant about, say, the ‘dangerous’ Nancy Pelosi in the op-ed section, so be it. That’s what free expression means. Donald Trump doesn’t understand what a free press is all about – he’s clueless.
Mr. Gripes smells a rat… And the offending rodent may be Donald Trump. Right off the bat, I have no proof of what I’m now going to postulate, but my antennae are quivering, and when that happens, down the road, I’m usually right.
The huge swings in the stock market, up 200 one day, down 350 the next, have been occurring repeatedly over the past year or so. And, on most of those turbulent days, they’re set off by a comment or tweet from President Trump – he’s issued an opinion about the state of trade talks with China over tariffs. Will the tariffs be called off, or is it full speed imposing them going forward?
One day, it’s Mr. Trump or one of his subordinates asserting it ‘looks good’ for an agreement. The markets zoom up, ending 200 or 300 points to the positive. Everyone’s feeling fine. The next day or so, Mr. Trump throws cold water on any ‘imminent’ deal possibility, and the markets tank. For God’s sake, what’s going on? The roller coaster ride has been repeated many times.
Let’s look at this scenario a little more closely, starting with some givens:
An American President can affect markets all over the world with virtually any words he utters. That’s the way it’s been, since the end of World War II when the United States became, by far, the most powerful economy on earth.
In particular, President Trump absolutely knows this, and is not shy about wielding his clout to affect markets. After all, a thriving stock market is a lynchpin that Mr. Trump will rely on for a victory next year, and he’s capable of manipulating the stock market very easily.
For us small investors with a little bit of money tied up in the markets, it’s palpitation time amid all the fluctuations. It’s scary at times. For the big boys, though, the huge swings are opportunities to make a lot of money. Ask any trader – they’ll tell you volatility is good for their business.
Another given: the Securities Exchange Commission, the federal agency charged with overseeing the markets and enforcing securities laws as needed, is now loaded with Trump appointees, with a Trump supporter in place as chairman. There’s zero chance the SEC would ever initiate an investigation of anyone close to Trump. As for Trump himself, he’s completely insulated from any criminal probe that might come under the auspices of the SEC.
Third given: President Trump is one greedy human being, who will stop at nothing to make more money, legally or illegally. That’s just how he’s operated all his life. [He learned at the feet of his father] The financial markets, with all the gyrations going on now, become a golden opportunity to grab a great deal of cash, especially if an individual knows beforehand about its direction. And, remember, Trump can create any scenario, true or false, he’d like, regarding the ups and downs of the market.
Ergo, for the reasons I just noted, and with the caveat that I do not have a shred of proof, I think President Trump has secret surrogates [perhaps a lot of them] buying on dips initiated by pessimistic comments the President makes about the tariff negotiations, and selling on the ‘highs’ when another statement is forthcoming, asserting talks are going smoothly, with a truce about to be consummated.
Do any of us really know what’s going on with the ‘talks?’ Of course not. That’s why the situation is perfect for a flim-flam man like the President to take full advantage of. And I suspect he’s doing just that.
Mr. Gripes
By Jim Israel
November 24, 2019
Friday, October 25, 2019
Is It Dementia?/ Impeachment and Removal? Not So Fast / Quid pro quo!
Is It Dementia?…Joe Biden, for sure, has some pressing issues that he is going to have to deal with: in his latest imbroglio, he seemed to have ‘fudged’ the truth regarding an Obama-era ceremony at which he ‘pinned’ a Congressional Medal of Honor on a soldier. I won’t go into specific details, but Mr. Biden either unintentionally exaggerated his part in that event, indicative of a faulty memory, or he deliberately lied to enhance his role in the proceedings.
One thing is clear: the facts of the event as described by Mr. Biden didn’t square up with what actually occurred. What’s particularly troubling for the former vice president is the fumbling over the truth: The former vice president has grappled with exaggeration and misrepresentation before – so naturally one is compelled to ask: is he just another phony politician puffing out his chest, or is it something much more serious, say, his mental acumen?
The media, of course, has jumped all over Mr. Biden, bringing up his earlier missteps; the criticism and analysis have been quite harsh. The subtext hinted at by the media is that perhaps Joe Biden is damaged goods, not fit at his age [74], to fulfill the immense responsibilities as a President, if elected.
If Mr. Biden has a couple more of these incidents in which his truthfulness and his corpus mentis are called into question, he’s a goner, I believe. Biden support will collapse very quickly among Democrat primary voters – they’ve endured for two-and-a-half years of a thoroughly incapacitated President, thank you, and absolutely will not stand for another one. Biden loyalties will quickly shift to another more ‘stable’ candidate.
There’s a much bigger issue on the table than Mr. Biden’s proclivity, on occasion, of altering reality, and the attendant suggestion that he’s no longer working with a full deck, as the saying goes.
Almost lost in the Biden saga is the far larger question of President Trump’s mental capacities. By a factor of 1,000, the Trump issues overwhelm the Biden troubles; his dementia symptoms are absolutely too numerous to ignore. Yet, in that odd, time-honored fashion that the national press must protect the hallowed office of the Presidency at all times, there’s been minimal attention drawn to the strong possibility that Mr. Trump is suffering from some form of dementia.
In my family, in the case of both parents, I’ve observed dementia, and the destructive path of the disease, very closely: regarding my father, one day he was practicing medicine at a very skilled level, and six months later, was unable to even dress himself. An amateur boxing career as a young man very likely caused the dementia 50 years later [mercifully he suffered for only a couple of years, before his death]. Mr. Trump exhibits a lot of the same behaviors that my dad had displayed: incoherence, pervasive memory loss, some sort of focus disorder, confusion, rage, excessive obstinacy, a refusal to take counsel, megalomania, a distorted self-regard, and restlessness.
And Mr. Trump’s particular symptoms -- his rage and incoherence, for instance – appear much more evident now than just a couple of years ago. To this observer, it’s no longer whether he has Alzheimer’s – it sure looks like he in the throes of the disease.
Whether the President indeed suffers from increasing dementia, or not, as some Gripes readers may certainly believe, it could be a very grave problem going forward [especially if he wins a second term]. The country as a whole is going to have to come to grips with the existential issue of a President’s continuing mental decline, and ultimately even a decision on a forced removal from office.
Cognizant of the country’s present political paralysis, I’m not optimistic that we’ll be up to the challenge. Regardless, our democracy may hang in the balance.
Impeachment and Removal? Not So Fast…How about we cool our jets just for a little bit, OK? Donald Trump’s going nowhere. Yes, he may indeed be impeached eventually, but so what? All an impeachment means is that the show moves over to the Senate, which ultimately holds all the cards as far as his removal goes. Besides, with a significant Republican majority in place in the Senate, and the fact that it takes a formidable 67 votes to convict, President Trump will be staying put for a long while.
The Republicans are going to stonewall, that’s a certainty. Their game plan is the same as they implemented in the Mueller investigation: deflect, attack, make a lot of noise, sling mud on everyone, create chaos, and delay, delay, delay. And they’re very good at this. Look at the forthcoming issue of subpoenas: they’ll be issued by the House Democrats, and the Republicans will simply ignore them, asserting the committees are illegitimate and therefore the subpoenas are null and void. And, if a Judge asserts a subpoena is valid, and its target is in contempt of court, who’s going to enforce any penalty? Guess who? None other than the Department of Justice, whose boss, William Barr, is a stone-cold patsy for Mr. Trump. Consequently, there’ll be no enforcement at all, making the threat of a subpoena essentially toothless. No one will be going to jail for contempt.
It looks like only a ‘smoking gun’ will depose Mr. Trump. And that means an ‘implicit’ quid pro quo will not be enough – just like Watergate, evidence to convict the President will have to be quite tangible and substantial – a taped conversation or something in writing would appear to be the most viable and feasible means to actually convict President Trump and throw him out of office. Could that happen? Sure, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. The Republicans are masters at this game.
Quid pro quo! – Mr. Gripes took years of Latin in school, a waste of time I realized later on. Better to have learned to speak, say, French than agonize over the interminable, insufferable orations of Cicero.
There was one aspect, though, of that dead-as-a-doornail language that I did appreciate: those expressions ‘copied’ straight out of Latin and interjected into the English lexicon.
And, lo and behold, currently there’s one recognized by any semi-literate American: ‘Quid pro quo’ , the ‘go-to’ phrase for anyone cognizant of the ongoing impeachment process. I love how it rolls off the lips, and its realpolitik essence. To translate, in American vernacular, it means ‘I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine.’ Whether in good faith or bad, it’s a deal between two parties.
Donald Trump, I surmise, has spent his whole life doing nothing but quid pro quo’s and not necessarily fairly. [Example: vendors work erecting and furnishing his properties [the quid]; he screws them by stiffing them on payments [no quo.] Mr. Trump has lived a transactional life – I would wager he’s done nothing in his life that wasn’t part of a deal.
[I digress for a moment: Here’s one ‘deal’ that I have often pondered: how did he ever graduate from a rigorous academic institution like the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania? I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he hardly ever opened a book there; his time at school was probably nothing but a series of transactions: term papers were purchased; surrogates attended and were noted as ‘present’ during classes; exam questions were somehow furnished to him beforehand; or, perhaps the largest transaction: a large ‘donation’ to the university from Dad around the time of graduation.]
Politics, as practiced forever, is all about quid pro quo. Any politician who’s successful utilizes the principle….every one of them, even the saintly Barack Obama, who must have been very good at it indeed, winning two Presidential elections. Politics on any level doesn’t work without quid pro quo.
So, as I read that President Trump asserted, when he broached the subject of investigating Joe Biden with the Ukrainian President, dangling the piñata prize of military assistance to that country, he was only making a suggestion, not a quid pro quo demand, I knew he was lying through his teeth. Yes, he didn’t explicitly threaten to withhold that aid, but just look at the outcome: there was no investigation of the Bidens, and ergo the military aid was not forthcoming [until Mr. Trump was forced to relent later.] No Quid, no Quo.
One last point: the nasty quid pro quo’s are non-partisan – both parties roll around in muck like this all the time. Hunter Biden, son of Joe, is paid $50,000 salary ‘working’ for a natural gas conglomerate in Ukraine, and is on the company’s board as well. Could access to Vice President Joe Biden have anything to do with these jobs? Of course. I doubt Hunter knows one damn thing about the gas business, except, maybe, how to use a pump to fill up. Hunter’s largesse was simply an attempt to get close to Daddy Joe’s ear.
Mr. Gripes
By Jim Israel
October 21, 2019
One thing is clear: the facts of the event as described by Mr. Biden didn’t square up with what actually occurred. What’s particularly troubling for the former vice president is the fumbling over the truth: The former vice president has grappled with exaggeration and misrepresentation before – so naturally one is compelled to ask: is he just another phony politician puffing out his chest, or is it something much more serious, say, his mental acumen?
The media, of course, has jumped all over Mr. Biden, bringing up his earlier missteps; the criticism and analysis have been quite harsh. The subtext hinted at by the media is that perhaps Joe Biden is damaged goods, not fit at his age [74], to fulfill the immense responsibilities as a President, if elected.
If Mr. Biden has a couple more of these incidents in which his truthfulness and his corpus mentis are called into question, he’s a goner, I believe. Biden support will collapse very quickly among Democrat primary voters – they’ve endured for two-and-a-half years of a thoroughly incapacitated President, thank you, and absolutely will not stand for another one. Biden loyalties will quickly shift to another more ‘stable’ candidate.
There’s a much bigger issue on the table than Mr. Biden’s proclivity, on occasion, of altering reality, and the attendant suggestion that he’s no longer working with a full deck, as the saying goes.
Almost lost in the Biden saga is the far larger question of President Trump’s mental capacities. By a factor of 1,000, the Trump issues overwhelm the Biden troubles; his dementia symptoms are absolutely too numerous to ignore. Yet, in that odd, time-honored fashion that the national press must protect the hallowed office of the Presidency at all times, there’s been minimal attention drawn to the strong possibility that Mr. Trump is suffering from some form of dementia.
In my family, in the case of both parents, I’ve observed dementia, and the destructive path of the disease, very closely: regarding my father, one day he was practicing medicine at a very skilled level, and six months later, was unable to even dress himself. An amateur boxing career as a young man very likely caused the dementia 50 years later [mercifully he suffered for only a couple of years, before his death]. Mr. Trump exhibits a lot of the same behaviors that my dad had displayed: incoherence, pervasive memory loss, some sort of focus disorder, confusion, rage, excessive obstinacy, a refusal to take counsel, megalomania, a distorted self-regard, and restlessness.
And Mr. Trump’s particular symptoms -- his rage and incoherence, for instance – appear much more evident now than just a couple of years ago. To this observer, it’s no longer whether he has Alzheimer’s – it sure looks like he in the throes of the disease.
Whether the President indeed suffers from increasing dementia, or not, as some Gripes readers may certainly believe, it could be a very grave problem going forward [especially if he wins a second term]. The country as a whole is going to have to come to grips with the existential issue of a President’s continuing mental decline, and ultimately even a decision on a forced removal from office.
Cognizant of the country’s present political paralysis, I’m not optimistic that we’ll be up to the challenge. Regardless, our democracy may hang in the balance.
Impeachment and Removal? Not So Fast…How about we cool our jets just for a little bit, OK? Donald Trump’s going nowhere. Yes, he may indeed be impeached eventually, but so what? All an impeachment means is that the show moves over to the Senate, which ultimately holds all the cards as far as his removal goes. Besides, with a significant Republican majority in place in the Senate, and the fact that it takes a formidable 67 votes to convict, President Trump will be staying put for a long while.
The Republicans are going to stonewall, that’s a certainty. Their game plan is the same as they implemented in the Mueller investigation: deflect, attack, make a lot of noise, sling mud on everyone, create chaos, and delay, delay, delay. And they’re very good at this. Look at the forthcoming issue of subpoenas: they’ll be issued by the House Democrats, and the Republicans will simply ignore them, asserting the committees are illegitimate and therefore the subpoenas are null and void. And, if a Judge asserts a subpoena is valid, and its target is in contempt of court, who’s going to enforce any penalty? Guess who? None other than the Department of Justice, whose boss, William Barr, is a stone-cold patsy for Mr. Trump. Consequently, there’ll be no enforcement at all, making the threat of a subpoena essentially toothless. No one will be going to jail for contempt.
It looks like only a ‘smoking gun’ will depose Mr. Trump. And that means an ‘implicit’ quid pro quo will not be enough – just like Watergate, evidence to convict the President will have to be quite tangible and substantial – a taped conversation or something in writing would appear to be the most viable and feasible means to actually convict President Trump and throw him out of office. Could that happen? Sure, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. The Republicans are masters at this game.
Quid pro quo! – Mr. Gripes took years of Latin in school, a waste of time I realized later on. Better to have learned to speak, say, French than agonize over the interminable, insufferable orations of Cicero.
There was one aspect, though, of that dead-as-a-doornail language that I did appreciate: those expressions ‘copied’ straight out of Latin and interjected into the English lexicon.
And, lo and behold, currently there’s one recognized by any semi-literate American: ‘Quid pro quo’ , the ‘go-to’ phrase for anyone cognizant of the ongoing impeachment process. I love how it rolls off the lips, and its realpolitik essence. To translate, in American vernacular, it means ‘I’ll scratch your back, if you scratch mine.’ Whether in good faith or bad, it’s a deal between two parties.
Donald Trump, I surmise, has spent his whole life doing nothing but quid pro quo’s and not necessarily fairly. [Example: vendors work erecting and furnishing his properties [the quid]; he screws them by stiffing them on payments [no quo.] Mr. Trump has lived a transactional life – I would wager he’s done nothing in his life that wasn’t part of a deal.
[I digress for a moment: Here’s one ‘deal’ that I have often pondered: how did he ever graduate from a rigorous academic institution like the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania? I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he hardly ever opened a book there; his time at school was probably nothing but a series of transactions: term papers were purchased; surrogates attended and were noted as ‘present’ during classes; exam questions were somehow furnished to him beforehand; or, perhaps the largest transaction: a large ‘donation’ to the university from Dad around the time of graduation.]
Politics, as practiced forever, is all about quid pro quo. Any politician who’s successful utilizes the principle….every one of them, even the saintly Barack Obama, who must have been very good at it indeed, winning two Presidential elections. Politics on any level doesn’t work without quid pro quo.
So, as I read that President Trump asserted, when he broached the subject of investigating Joe Biden with the Ukrainian President, dangling the piñata prize of military assistance to that country, he was only making a suggestion, not a quid pro quo demand, I knew he was lying through his teeth. Yes, he didn’t explicitly threaten to withhold that aid, but just look at the outcome: there was no investigation of the Bidens, and ergo the military aid was not forthcoming [until Mr. Trump was forced to relent later.] No Quid, no Quo.
One last point: the nasty quid pro quo’s are non-partisan – both parties roll around in muck like this all the time. Hunter Biden, son of Joe, is paid $50,000 salary ‘working’ for a natural gas conglomerate in Ukraine, and is on the company’s board as well. Could access to Vice President Joe Biden have anything to do with these jobs? Of course. I doubt Hunter knows one damn thing about the gas business, except, maybe, how to use a pump to fill up. Hunter’s largesse was simply an attempt to get close to Daddy Joe’s ear.
Mr. Gripes
By Jim Israel
October 21, 2019
Sunday, August 18, 2019
The Trump Playbook (Red-baiting as traditional and effective political tactic)/ I Told You So/ The Farmers/ America's Women World Cup
Observing very closely over the past couple of years the turbulent persona of Donald Trump, Mr. Gripes has come to one overriding conclusion – along with a word of caution to his enemies: Never underestimate him, or you do at your own peril. Yeah, he’s a jerk most of the time; he acts in ways that absolutely depress and scare the hell out of Mr. Gripes, and his ignorance is breathtaking. However, in the end, incredibly, he accomplishes a lot.
Just look at the storm he initiated when he urged the four first-term Congresswomen to ‘go back to where you came from’: The Democrats, all of them, fell over themselves condemning Trump for his outlandish statements, then groveled to get glorious TV airtime, bashing the President 24 hours a day. Their ‘crocodile tears’ of outrage were, of course, echoed by their enablers on television– Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski immediately come to mind. Haven’t we been to this rodeo a thousand times before?
[One digression before I go on: the Democrats may have expressed disgust at the President’s exhortations, but they secretly, I think, loved the hullabaloo: it’s sure to give a huge boost to fund-raising for the 2020 campaign, which is what all these politicians salivate over in reality.]
But, Mr. Trump accomplished exactly what he hoped for: the Democrats have painted themselves into a corner. Mr. Trump gleefully will label the four women as anti-American, as Socialists and Communists [of course, just like Mr. Trump, 80% of Americans don’t know the difference] even going as far as calling them Al Queda backers and, hey, why not, Hezbollah zealots. He’ll throw the kitchen sink at them. And, predictably, the entire Democratic Party will be labeled as fierce enemies of America. Like lemmings going over the cliff, they could all go down with the ship, come next November.
Red-baiting is as old as Senator Joe McCarthy holding up fake lists of Communists in the State Department during the early 1950’s, but it remains a very powerful stain and formidable force in American politics. The tactic is the entirety of the Donald Trump play book: throw everything at his opponents, create chaos, dissension and confusion, flummox everybody, and walk away with the prize.
I told you so…. In the previous ‘Mr. Gripes’, I offered the opinion that the minute Attorney General William Barr announced that the Mueller investigation did not warrant bringing any collusion charges up against President Trump, Mueller as news was over. The country had had enough, and was suffering from Mueller-fatigue. Turn the page, Americans said in unison, let’s move on. And that is exactly what happened. For two years, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all of us were caught up in the investigation. Cable news loved it – ratings were way up, profits were way up, so there was no motivation to move off Mueller and give us some respite. And, in those two years, television news lost its ‘impartial’ standard, a terrible precedent for a free press. Ratings since Mueller ended the probe have plummeted, i.e., Rachel Maddow on MSNBC lost 500,000 viewers within a week of Barr’s action! Let’s face it, Democrats: Mueller is now a corpse. Mouth to mouth resuscitation won’t work. Move on, for God’s sake.
The Farmers – Trump lies. He says his tariffs on American agricultural product are bringing ‘billons’ of dollars into that sector, and he’s saving the farmers from foreign predations. ‘We’re making billions of dollars.’ Then why has he spent $30 billion out of the national budget on essentially bribes to wheat farmers to shield them from the huge damage tariffs are doing to these same farmers? Cotton farmers, because of lost business with China, have not planted 30% of their fields for next year – they’re losing billions. I can go on and on about many other industries. You can’t say money’s pouring in the front door, and the same money’s pouring out the back window, and then brag we’re ‘making billions.’ It makes no sense.
Mr. Gripes takes a look each morning at the proposed daily Presidential schedule. And, every day, the President has nothing planned until 11:30; and then it’s usually an insignificant meeting with a business or lobbying group. After that, nothing is on his schedule until late afternoon; again it’s some insignificant photo opt or meeting, if there’s anything at all. And that’s the end of another day. Let’s assume he’s not exactly perusing some position paper on New Zealand 2020 sheep-wool earnings projections during his ‘free’ hours, right? This President’s rapt attention is probably focused on watching FOX News most of the day. And what about the country’s business, you ask? Not his job, Jose.
America’s Women World Cup: Juxtapose the jingoistic, nationalistic, vacuous, and hyperbolic coverage by American media of the country’s women’s World Cup team with the real story: an embarrassing display of American bad sportsmanship, insufferable manners, and the bullying of vastly inferior opponents. In the world’s eyes, we showed once again we’re nothing but self-centered, spoiled, entitled brats.
In the first game against an overmatched Thailand opponent, the Americans won 13-1! In the press here, the slaughter was seen as simply a dominant and impressive victory. I saw it differently: it was ‘Ugly American’ all over again. Why, in the last minute of play, did the Americans have to score that thirteenth goal? And then celebrate as if they won the World Series? The dignified course of action would have been to simply pass the ball back and forth to each other for a few minutes, without any attempt to score again, until game’s end. The players would have been lauded for their sportsmanship. But, no way was that going to happen: Their motivation was to humiliate the Thai team.
Besides the bad conduct on the field, for the full two weeks of competition, we had to listen to nothing but complaints from the American women. It never ceased. Mostly it was about money they thought they were owed since the men’s team was paid more. Did they have a point? It may be an apples versus oranges comparison, but I do know this: there’s no way a women’s World Cup makes as much or more money than the men’s tournament: the men’s games, which traditionally are an enormous sporting extravaganza all over the globe for a month, bring in billions in revenues and TV rights, far outstripping the women’s games. [Besides, the American women didn’t do so badly anyway: each team member on the women’s team in the end will receive about $350,000, certainly a handsome sum, whatever their grievance is.]
Then, on the last day, American team members actually had the temerity to protest what time the final was going to be televised in the United States; they assumed there’d be lower viewership with a late-morning showing. And, predictably, they shouted ‘conspiracy.’ Ridiculous. The women’s final started Sunday morning at 11 am on television. Is that such a crime? A point of comparison: two weeks later, the telecast of each of the first two days of golf’s British Open began at 1:30 am [!] on the East Coast. I didn’t hear or read one complaint about that.
One last point: As certain as the sun rises in the East, dreary politicians had to jump in to piggyback on the team’s success. Mayor De Blasio in New York City – who apparently doesn’t have the money to fix the dreadful subways or get the homeless off the streets -- hosts a victory parade down in the financial district, replete with the obligatory ticker tape, at a considerable cost. How craven this mayor is: the team’s success, he figures, will polish his me-too credentials with women across the country, as he pursues his absolutely moronic and arrogant Presidential run. New York didn’t need the parade. Let Minneapolis or Wichita hold the event. It cost $1.5 million to host. Bill De Blasio might as well have tossed that $1.5 million into the East River.
Mr. Gripes
August 8, 2019
Jim Israel
Just look at the storm he initiated when he urged the four first-term Congresswomen to ‘go back to where you came from’: The Democrats, all of them, fell over themselves condemning Trump for his outlandish statements, then groveled to get glorious TV airtime, bashing the President 24 hours a day. Their ‘crocodile tears’ of outrage were, of course, echoed by their enablers on television– Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski immediately come to mind. Haven’t we been to this rodeo a thousand times before?
[One digression before I go on: the Democrats may have expressed disgust at the President’s exhortations, but they secretly, I think, loved the hullabaloo: it’s sure to give a huge boost to fund-raising for the 2020 campaign, which is what all these politicians salivate over in reality.]
But, Mr. Trump accomplished exactly what he hoped for: the Democrats have painted themselves into a corner. Mr. Trump gleefully will label the four women as anti-American, as Socialists and Communists [of course, just like Mr. Trump, 80% of Americans don’t know the difference] even going as far as calling them Al Queda backers and, hey, why not, Hezbollah zealots. He’ll throw the kitchen sink at them. And, predictably, the entire Democratic Party will be labeled as fierce enemies of America. Like lemmings going over the cliff, they could all go down with the ship, come next November.
Red-baiting is as old as Senator Joe McCarthy holding up fake lists of Communists in the State Department during the early 1950’s, but it remains a very powerful stain and formidable force in American politics. The tactic is the entirety of the Donald Trump play book: throw everything at his opponents, create chaos, dissension and confusion, flummox everybody, and walk away with the prize.
I told you so…. In the previous ‘Mr. Gripes’, I offered the opinion that the minute Attorney General William Barr announced that the Mueller investigation did not warrant bringing any collusion charges up against President Trump, Mueller as news was over. The country had had enough, and was suffering from Mueller-fatigue. Turn the page, Americans said in unison, let’s move on. And that is exactly what happened. For two years, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all of us were caught up in the investigation. Cable news loved it – ratings were way up, profits were way up, so there was no motivation to move off Mueller and give us some respite. And, in those two years, television news lost its ‘impartial’ standard, a terrible precedent for a free press. Ratings since Mueller ended the probe have plummeted, i.e., Rachel Maddow on MSNBC lost 500,000 viewers within a week of Barr’s action! Let’s face it, Democrats: Mueller is now a corpse. Mouth to mouth resuscitation won’t work. Move on, for God’s sake.
The Farmers – Trump lies. He says his tariffs on American agricultural product are bringing ‘billons’ of dollars into that sector, and he’s saving the farmers from foreign predations. ‘We’re making billions of dollars.’ Then why has he spent $30 billion out of the national budget on essentially bribes to wheat farmers to shield them from the huge damage tariffs are doing to these same farmers? Cotton farmers, because of lost business with China, have not planted 30% of their fields for next year – they’re losing billions. I can go on and on about many other industries. You can’t say money’s pouring in the front door, and the same money’s pouring out the back window, and then brag we’re ‘making billions.’ It makes no sense.
Mr. Gripes takes a look each morning at the proposed daily Presidential schedule. And, every day, the President has nothing planned until 11:30; and then it’s usually an insignificant meeting with a business or lobbying group. After that, nothing is on his schedule until late afternoon; again it’s some insignificant photo opt or meeting, if there’s anything at all. And that’s the end of another day. Let’s assume he’s not exactly perusing some position paper on New Zealand 2020 sheep-wool earnings projections during his ‘free’ hours, right? This President’s rapt attention is probably focused on watching FOX News most of the day. And what about the country’s business, you ask? Not his job, Jose.
America’s Women World Cup: Juxtapose the jingoistic, nationalistic, vacuous, and hyperbolic coverage by American media of the country’s women’s World Cup team with the real story: an embarrassing display of American bad sportsmanship, insufferable manners, and the bullying of vastly inferior opponents. In the world’s eyes, we showed once again we’re nothing but self-centered, spoiled, entitled brats.
In the first game against an overmatched Thailand opponent, the Americans won 13-1! In the press here, the slaughter was seen as simply a dominant and impressive victory. I saw it differently: it was ‘Ugly American’ all over again. Why, in the last minute of play, did the Americans have to score that thirteenth goal? And then celebrate as if they won the World Series? The dignified course of action would have been to simply pass the ball back and forth to each other for a few minutes, without any attempt to score again, until game’s end. The players would have been lauded for their sportsmanship. But, no way was that going to happen: Their motivation was to humiliate the Thai team.
Besides the bad conduct on the field, for the full two weeks of competition, we had to listen to nothing but complaints from the American women. It never ceased. Mostly it was about money they thought they were owed since the men’s team was paid more. Did they have a point? It may be an apples versus oranges comparison, but I do know this: there’s no way a women’s World Cup makes as much or more money than the men’s tournament: the men’s games, which traditionally are an enormous sporting extravaganza all over the globe for a month, bring in billions in revenues and TV rights, far outstripping the women’s games. [Besides, the American women didn’t do so badly anyway: each team member on the women’s team in the end will receive about $350,000, certainly a handsome sum, whatever their grievance is.]
Then, on the last day, American team members actually had the temerity to protest what time the final was going to be televised in the United States; they assumed there’d be lower viewership with a late-morning showing. And, predictably, they shouted ‘conspiracy.’ Ridiculous. The women’s final started Sunday morning at 11 am on television. Is that such a crime? A point of comparison: two weeks later, the telecast of each of the first two days of golf’s British Open began at 1:30 am [!] on the East Coast. I didn’t hear or read one complaint about that.
One last point: As certain as the sun rises in the East, dreary politicians had to jump in to piggyback on the team’s success. Mayor De Blasio in New York City – who apparently doesn’t have the money to fix the dreadful subways or get the homeless off the streets -- hosts a victory parade down in the financial district, replete with the obligatory ticker tape, at a considerable cost. How craven this mayor is: the team’s success, he figures, will polish his me-too credentials with women across the country, as he pursues his absolutely moronic and arrogant Presidential run. New York didn’t need the parade. Let Minneapolis or Wichita hold the event. It cost $1.5 million to host. Bill De Blasio might as well have tossed that $1.5 million into the East River.
Mr. Gripes
August 8, 2019
Jim Israel
Friday, July 26, 2019
Dumb and Still Dumber/ Nov 4, 2020....Hold on to Your Hats...
Dumb and Still Dumber --
Mr. Gripes tends to take the long view on things. Yes, I do read the newspapers every day, muttering and cursing along the way. But one day’s hysterical headlines don’t by themselves mean much to me – I’d rather look back over a month or six months, and then react accordingly.
But that’s not how Americans perceive events any more – it’s a much shorter span of attention and much less reflection these days. In this era of Twitter and instantaneous news coverage, the convergence of Mr. Trump’s monumental ignorance, his exceptional instincts in creating news, fake or real, and his congenital inability to concentrate on policy matters of any import, dovetails very closely with the collective mindset of many Americans.
On a macro scale, Americans categorically seem dumber than years ago. A couple of factors have contributed to this depressing trend: for one, public school educational standards have slipped precipitously in the last 30 or 40 years – let’s look, for instance, at American History as taught in school: do you honestly think your children have as firm a grasp of our country’s history as you do? Probably not, by a considerable margin. As a nation, we’re simply less informed and ergo less capable of making rational, not emotional, decisions. And this national collective ignorance, certainly, serves Mr. Trump very well; after all, he may have a knowledge deficit exceeding your 13-year-old’s.
Television has made us stupider, too. Sixty years ago, John Kennedy’s FCC chairman, Newton Minnow, caused quite a stir when he declared television a ‘vast wasteland.’ If only Mr. Minnow were alive today: he’d have a massive stroke.
Mr. Gripes, occasionally, like all of us, will take the remote and ‘surf’ the seemingly 10,000 channels to get a sense of program offerings. That experience is mind-blowing. Last week, I happened to watch for 10 minutes of a reality show called ‘Naked and Afraid’. The premise? A man and woman, both naked, are deposited into a very hostile outdoor environment – sometimes a jungle, it’s equatorially hot; the couple must fend for food and shelter alone, usually as bare as newborns. When I, mouth agape, viewed this, as the contestants’ derrieres were chewed upon by a thousand mosquitoes, I realized the Grand American Experiment was over – we’ve reached a nadir. The Trump Presidency and television shows like this one run on parallel paths – we’ve become a nation of yahoos.
Nov 4, 2020…Hold on to Your Hats...
Talk about a ‘test’ of our democracy. Americans may be facing the ultimate existential threat the day after the Presidential election next November.
Because Donald Trump, if he has lost the Presidency the day before, may not concede at all – and fight to a bitter end to hold on to his job. The Constitution be damned.
Mr. Gripes isn’t just throwing this theory out there and hope it sticks. In fact, I’d say it’s probable that Mr. Trump will not relent – he’s not going to leave gently. He’ll fight like a cornered cat.
Evidence? Let’s glance at some of Mr. Trump’s statements over the past six months:
The President has maintained in recent comments that since the Mueller investigation took two years from start to conclusion, and did finally exonerate him, he ‘was robbed of two years’ of his Presidency, and he ‘should get those two years back.’ Yes, his comments about the missing years were delivered in a jocular fashion, but to Mr. Gripes his words are very ominous.
It’s obvious to even his supporters that Mr. Trump is no zealous advocate of our system of checks and balances, or a fan of democratic principles as a basis for government. Mr. Trump’s instincts, in fact, are totalitarian, i.e., a belief in one-man, strong-man rule. His achievements actually prove he is a transactional President, fundamentally only interested in his own aggrandizement, i.e., the accumulation of money and power. The concept of cooperative decision- making within a democratic framework is totally foreign to him.
Moving on from Mueller for a moment, I believe Mr. Trump is absolutely convinced his voters will not stand for a losing election. With his supporters as a cacophonous and angry backdrop, consisting of a loyal 45% of the electorate, he knows – he’s right about this, I think – they’ll never abandon him. He’ll cry bloody murder that he was ‘robbed’ by ‘deep-state’ election officials; or, the election was ‘fixed’ by corrupt Democrats, so he’s staying put. Perhaps with words along these lines: ‘To protect the legitimacy of American elections, I will not surrender, and will not concede.’
And, guess what? The ‘coup d’etat’ may work.
I’ll end with a couple of other points: first, Mr. Trump is President regardless until Jan 20, 2021. In the meantime, he’ll still function as President, living at the White House and negotiating treaties, for example. Let’s not forget this, too: he will remain Commander- in -Chief, the top boss of US military forces. Can he order the Army, say, to protect him from being removed from office? Will the military follow his orders? Whatever the answers to those questions are, the country is going to thrown into chaos for months regardless.
Congress? This I’m sure of: the Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives will back Mr. Trump to the hilt, whatever he decides to do. Without a President Trump, their power is eviscerated. Will they adhere to the Constitution? Not a snowball’s chance in Hell, if their supremacy in the executive branch is threatened. They’ll sink or swim with Trump.
So, where does the country turn to if the President holds on at all costs? The Supreme Court? The Court has become over the past couple of decades much more of a political branch of government, not really an impartial I panel any longer, so it’s anyone’s guess as to how the nine Justices will rule.
It’s all very scary. We’re in for one hell of a ride in 18 months.
By Jim Israel ‘Mr. Gripes’ July 1, 2019
Mr. Gripes tends to take the long view on things. Yes, I do read the newspapers every day, muttering and cursing along the way. But one day’s hysterical headlines don’t by themselves mean much to me – I’d rather look back over a month or six months, and then react accordingly.
But that’s not how Americans perceive events any more – it’s a much shorter span of attention and much less reflection these days. In this era of Twitter and instantaneous news coverage, the convergence of Mr. Trump’s monumental ignorance, his exceptional instincts in creating news, fake or real, and his congenital inability to concentrate on policy matters of any import, dovetails very closely with the collective mindset of many Americans.
On a macro scale, Americans categorically seem dumber than years ago. A couple of factors have contributed to this depressing trend: for one, public school educational standards have slipped precipitously in the last 30 or 40 years – let’s look, for instance, at American History as taught in school: do you honestly think your children have as firm a grasp of our country’s history as you do? Probably not, by a considerable margin. As a nation, we’re simply less informed and ergo less capable of making rational, not emotional, decisions. And this national collective ignorance, certainly, serves Mr. Trump very well; after all, he may have a knowledge deficit exceeding your 13-year-old’s.
Television has made us stupider, too. Sixty years ago, John Kennedy’s FCC chairman, Newton Minnow, caused quite a stir when he declared television a ‘vast wasteland.’ If only Mr. Minnow were alive today: he’d have a massive stroke.
Mr. Gripes, occasionally, like all of us, will take the remote and ‘surf’ the seemingly 10,000 channels to get a sense of program offerings. That experience is mind-blowing. Last week, I happened to watch for 10 minutes of a reality show called ‘Naked and Afraid’. The premise? A man and woman, both naked, are deposited into a very hostile outdoor environment – sometimes a jungle, it’s equatorially hot; the couple must fend for food and shelter alone, usually as bare as newborns. When I, mouth agape, viewed this, as the contestants’ derrieres were chewed upon by a thousand mosquitoes, I realized the Grand American Experiment was over – we’ve reached a nadir. The Trump Presidency and television shows like this one run on parallel paths – we’ve become a nation of yahoos.
Nov 4, 2020…Hold on to Your Hats...
Talk about a ‘test’ of our democracy. Americans may be facing the ultimate existential threat the day after the Presidential election next November.
Because Donald Trump, if he has lost the Presidency the day before, may not concede at all – and fight to a bitter end to hold on to his job. The Constitution be damned.
Mr. Gripes isn’t just throwing this theory out there and hope it sticks. In fact, I’d say it’s probable that Mr. Trump will not relent – he’s not going to leave gently. He’ll fight like a cornered cat.
Evidence? Let’s glance at some of Mr. Trump’s statements over the past six months:
The President has maintained in recent comments that since the Mueller investigation took two years from start to conclusion, and did finally exonerate him, he ‘was robbed of two years’ of his Presidency, and he ‘should get those two years back.’ Yes, his comments about the missing years were delivered in a jocular fashion, but to Mr. Gripes his words are very ominous.
It’s obvious to even his supporters that Mr. Trump is no zealous advocate of our system of checks and balances, or a fan of democratic principles as a basis for government. Mr. Trump’s instincts, in fact, are totalitarian, i.e., a belief in one-man, strong-man rule. His achievements actually prove he is a transactional President, fundamentally only interested in his own aggrandizement, i.e., the accumulation of money and power. The concept of cooperative decision- making within a democratic framework is totally foreign to him.
Moving on from Mueller for a moment, I believe Mr. Trump is absolutely convinced his voters will not stand for a losing election. With his supporters as a cacophonous and angry backdrop, consisting of a loyal 45% of the electorate, he knows – he’s right about this, I think – they’ll never abandon him. He’ll cry bloody murder that he was ‘robbed’ by ‘deep-state’ election officials; or, the election was ‘fixed’ by corrupt Democrats, so he’s staying put. Perhaps with words along these lines: ‘To protect the legitimacy of American elections, I will not surrender, and will not concede.’
And, guess what? The ‘coup d’etat’ may work.
I’ll end with a couple of other points: first, Mr. Trump is President regardless until Jan 20, 2021. In the meantime, he’ll still function as President, living at the White House and negotiating treaties, for example. Let’s not forget this, too: he will remain Commander- in -Chief, the top boss of US military forces. Can he order the Army, say, to protect him from being removed from office? Will the military follow his orders? Whatever the answers to those questions are, the country is going to thrown into chaos for months regardless.
Congress? This I’m sure of: the Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives will back Mr. Trump to the hilt, whatever he decides to do. Without a President Trump, their power is eviscerated. Will they adhere to the Constitution? Not a snowball’s chance in Hell, if their supremacy in the executive branch is threatened. They’ll sink or swim with Trump.
So, where does the country turn to if the President holds on at all costs? The Supreme Court? The Court has become over the past couple of decades much more of a political branch of government, not really an impartial I panel any longer, so it’s anyone’s guess as to how the nine Justices will rule.
It’s all very scary. We’re in for one hell of a ride in 18 months.
By Jim Israel ‘Mr. Gripes’ July 1, 2019
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