What the Hell Is Going On? / 2024 / Election Observations Other than Trump...

What the Hell Is Going On? To all the Trump true believers out there, waving your red-white-and-blues, proudly displaying your MAGA hats, screaming ‘Live Free or Die,’ what kind of uber-patriots are you fans really? America at this juncture is, as one columnist put it, ‘is going through its worst public health crisis since 1918[!]’ and needs desperately someone to lead us out of this mess. Instead, we have a President who basically is doing nothing at all right now, just sulking like a child as he occasionally moves from the White House residence upstairs to the Oval Office downstairs, brooding, incensed and vengeful, his legal gambits going nowhere. 

Despite the sound and fury, observing the President’s behavior in the last couple of weeks lays bare some absolute truths about Mr. Trump: for one thing, he has no interest in governance, and probably never did; he presently is not lifting a pencil to perform his Presidential duties [he’s done virtually no official business of any sort since Election Day.]

His whole agenda for years has been focused on re-election, the affairs of the country be damned; he’s a lazy SOB, too – his only activity since November 3rd has been golfing at his country club in Virginia; Mr. Trump is vindictive and cruel; he’s been unscrupulous, cut-throat and dishonest seemingly his whole adult life; and, finally, he’s an incurious ignoramus about American history, its traditions and precedents [example: he pushed for a quick resolution as to the selection of the latest Supreme Court opening: why the rush? He thought erroneously that a stacked Court ultimately would back him in all of the contested states’ election legal disputes – nope, Mr. Trump, the business of elections is solely the responsibility of individual states.]

Some well-intentioned, earnest columnists talk of the grievous injury Mr. Trump has inflicted on his own ‘legacy.’ This legacy talk is a bunch of nonsense. Mr. Trump couldn’t give a flying you-know-what about his legacy. He doesn’t work that way, and never did: as many have pointed out, he operates like a day trader: whatever is in front of him at the moment is what he is concerned about. Legacy implies pondering one’s reputation years down the road. Donald Trump takes it one hour at a time; he doesn’t operate long-term. ‘Legacy’, and in fact any historical context, in that squirrel brain of Mr. Trump, are, as Bill Parcells, noted football coach, once asserted, ‘bunk.’

So, after all the unsuccessful moves in the state courts, and vote certifications confirmed in the next few weeks, at which point the election of Joe Biden becomes certain, what does the future hold for Donald Trump, in the upcoming weeks and years? What’s on his mind?

As far as concrete next steps, I don’t know. And President Trump may not know either. We know he’s seething that the election was ‘stolen’, and he’ll go to any steps to hold on to the Presidency. But I suspect he’s stumped at this point. Oh, sure, he and his consigliore Bill Barr are burning up the midnight oil conjuring up all kinds of nefarious stratagems to retain his office, including possibly utilizing the military, but his options are dwindling. One thing is certain: Donald Trump is sure to surprise us again going forward, and the surprise may indeed be shocking, another body blow to our democracy.

2024? To the Trump fanatics out there, down the road, his obstructive, infantile behavior will not be forgotten by most Americans. We’ve looked upon this ugly spectacle post-election, and are chagrined to say the least. Most Americans are astute enough to comprehend exactly what Mr. Trump is doing: making the task for Mr. Biden much harder, in the midst of a national emergency, and that memory will not be going away. Indeed, 2020, I think, is the high watermark for Mr. Trump.

We’re been reading in newspaper articles and observing on TV ‘wise’ – I use that word advisedly – pundits who beat us over the head with the certitude that the Trump voters are incensed that the election of Joe Biden is not legitimate, and that rage will fuel Donald Trump’s election bid in 2024, and his eventual re-election. But, these grandees of opinion never mention how angry the Biden Democratic and independent voters are right now, too. Citizens who voted for Joe Biden look at the post-election attempts to steal the Presidency from its rightful heir, and are absolutely furious. It’s insulting, to all Democratic 2020 voters,  that American democracy is being basically hung out to dry by a bozo like our clueless President. 

Memories of the tragedy and farce going on currently as to the election will not be forgotten, that’s for sure. Yeah, President Trump received 73 million votes on November 3rd, and those millions may be there for Trump in 2024. But 79 million in the same election voted for Joe Biden, and virtually every one of those voters will be motivated to vote against Mr. Trump in 2024, if he were to run. There’s a strong distaste for Trump in America that will linger for a long time.

Besides, by 2024, the electorate may well have dismissed Mr. Trump for the buffoonery antics he’s displayed during his term. With distance and time, I think, Trump’s going to be seriously diminished in the eyes of most Americans: for those reasons, I think he’s got no shot by 2024. Plus, the world and America may be in totally different places in four years, and the Trump ‘magic’ marginalized.

Let’s be clear what the Trump behavior constitutes: he’s putting the very well-being of the country at risk. He’s assaulted our country’s precious democracy. That’s heavy baggage even for Mr. Trump to carry.

Election Observations, Other than Trump…

Giuliani Thrives– Mr. Gripes is of the opinion that Rudy Giuliani is having one hell of a good time right now, despite the piercing criticisms coming his way. He was basically washed up as a public figure a year ago, and today he’s everywhere on television and in the press. He may very well reason, ‘Yeah, I was finished, no one cared a whit about what I thought about anything. Now look: Donald brought me back from the dead, so I’m going to enjoy every minute of it. I travelled to Bosnia, then to Slovakia, looking under every rock for evidence that would slam Hunter Biden, and kill his father’s chances; that didn’t happen, but, hey, I’m now lead attorney for Donald, and everyone all over the world is listening. They make fun of me – so what? I’m back throwing punches, and I’m as happy as a clam.’

Mr. Gripes has a little story to relate about Mr. Giuliani: a month or so after 9/11, I was walking through the Saks Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan: maybe there were 25 shoppers there on the first floor. Suddenly I’m hearing a soft murmur arising from the patrons there; the sound begins to get louder. What’s going on?  It turns out Mr. Giuliani, alone, had just entered the store, looking for a gift. Slowly, every one of those shoppers stares at the mayor and starts to clap. This politely goes on for perhaps three minutes, at which point Mr. Giuliani slowly raises his right hand, the applause ceases, and he graciously thanks all of the patrons.  It was a riveting moment, to say the least.

Indeed, Mr. Giuliani’s reputation has taken one hell of a hit since those times, and Rudy himself is a squalid mess as well, but I don’t think he really cares. He’s in the game again.

TV Bandits – One facet of our quadrennial election process that never has any losers, only extraordinary winners, is political advertising on television networks. It’s an abomination the amount of money that is spent on advertising during campaigns like the one we just endured. And, in the end, mostly pointless, too. The networks? They smile like Cheshire cats, and tote the millions to the bank.

In the Biden-Trump race just concluded, as of October 31, $1.5 billion [!] had been spent on national political ads. [And that figure doesn’t include digital advertising, another extraordinarily lucrative component of advertising revenues.]

Just a look at this example: In the Jaime Harrison-Lindsay Graham Senatorial race in South Carolina just concluded, Mr. Harrison raised and spent $107 million on advertising, including a monthly record in August of $57 million; Mr. Graham was at $72 million raised and spent, for a total of nearly $180 million gone up in smoke for a Senate seat in – not in Florida or California, but, of all places --South Carolina. What did Mr. Harrison gain from all those donations? He lost by 10%, a landslide for sure.

It’s my sense that most of these television ads are a huge waste of money. I live in a non-competitive state – and am not deluged with any of this advertising during election years. But, I can’t help feeling sorry for the inundation and onslaught, day after day, which other Americans have to endure. Do viewers, after perhaps initial interest, pay any attention to the advertising? It doesn’t seem possible.

The whole process of raising and spending hundreds of millions of dollars is sick, and undermines on some level the legitimacy of our electoral system. There’s just too much money sluicing around.

And the money chase among elected officials never ceases: just yesterday, I received an e-mail from Nancy Pelosi, pleading for donations to the campaigns of the two Democratic Senate candidates running in the upcoming Georgia run-offs.

The e-mail from the Speaker began this way [I paraphrase a bit]: ‘My heart just sank. An hour ago, I received news that Mitch McConnell has recently raised $55 million that will be going to assist the Republicans in the Georgia contests. This news comes just after we [Democrats] raised $22 million for Georgia. We urgently need your donation.’

No wonder our system is broken.

Mr. Gripes                                                                                    
November 25, 2020
By Jim Israel

November 3rd: A Day of Infamy? / A Repeat Corona Crisis in NY?.

November 3rd: A Day of Infamy?... Just a few years ago, American Presidents behaved publicly, for the most part, in a dignified manner: in a word, ‘Presidential.’  In their well-tailored Brooks Brothers suits, Presidents spoke in intelligent [to a degree] and complete sentences, and dealt with their peers around the world in a respectful, civil and judicious manner, as their positions warranted. Oh sure, we’ve had Presidents who were not particularly suitable for the job, i.e., Ford, Carter, but they did fulfill their Presidential duties as guardians of the nation as best they could.

Our fragile democracy was not threatened by demagogic and deranged individuals. 

Not anymore.  The current President is dismissive of the principles of our democracy, including a cruel disrespect for our basic humanity, no belief in oppositional fair play, and absolutely no regard for our constitutional-mandated freedoms. He’s only interested in amassing as much money as he can, regardless of legality, along with promises to obliteraate his enemies: he comports himself like one of those  marauding Russian soldiers entering Berlin at the end of World War II: he’s essentially out of control.

Mr. Gripes’ long-held belief that this the stable political culture of this country, at the very least, would keep us safe from all the turmoil  and kleptocracy of the rest of the world no longer is viable.

The reason? Trump may take us all down.

It’s obvious, I think, to anyone paying attention for the past year that there’s a Republican plan to keep Mr. Trump in office, whatever the result of the November election may be.  Let’s start about a year ago when President Trump ‘kidded’ that if he loses the 2020 election, he’s not leaving office. At first, I think, Americans thought the idea was just another of Trump’s ‘throw-away’ lines, meant to be chatted among the media for a few days, but nothing for us to be worried about.

Donald Trump repeatedly has asserted it’s going to be a ‘rigged’ election, if he loses. ‘Rigged’ is Trumpian code for what exactly? That no matter if Mr. Trump gets trounced and beaten badly in the election, popular-vote-wise or electorally, he’s going to mount a no-holds-barred, exhausting campaign through the courts and God-knows-where-else to overthrow the verdict. ‘Rigged’, to Trump, means the election results coming up will change nothing – Mr. Trump is staying. And, even if he ‘loses’ in the courts, he’ll still resist: He’ll have to be carried out of the White House.

There’s a recent precedent for a disruptive election process. Mr. Gripes, who sadly possesses an elephantine memory when it comes to political chicanery, recalls an incident during the 2000 Florida ‘hanging chad’ recount imbroglio: in a county-government office in Broward County, a few days after the voting, ballot-counting inspectors, maybe a dozen seated around a large table, were beginning to take on the task of assessing the validity of some of those questionable ‘chad’ ballots. 

Suddenly, there was a pounding on the glass doors and windows surrounding the room. Screaming Republican operatives, just outside the room, and certainly under a directive of the Bush campaign, made such a racket and created such consternation and fear that the task at hand was suspended, never to be resumed. That insurrectional action was the initial phase of Republican state officials’ push to award Florida’s electoral votes to George Bush weeks later. Intimidation worked to perfection. Dare I say it? ‘Anarchy’ won the day.

Is it possible the election coming up will be ‘fair ‘, according to the President? No way. Donald Trump has a foolproof strategy that’s worked so many times for him in the past: undermine the legitimate processes, throw a million charges at his opponents, denigrate them, confuse the public, and, above all, create a lot of chaos. And if that doesn’t work, create even more chaos. 

Just imagine what the Republicans have in store for us the day after the election: a demand for recounts in every state that’s close; a demand to validate every ballot one-by-one; a rush to the courts for rulings, whether justified or not; a million accusations of a rigged election, further gumming up and delaying the process, even replacing state electors of the Electoral College with new ones who will then back Trump;  and at the end of this insanity, as Trump gets legal backing from his sycophantic, boot-licking Attorney General Bill Barr, calling in the military to deny a Biden victory, citing ‘a national emergency.’

The overall strategy is real simple:  Legally, illegally, justified or unjustified, just keep the plates spinning until the other side gives in, and gives up.

Batten down the hatches, Americans: we’re in for one hell of a ride.

A Repeat Corona Crisis in NY?.....New York, regrettably, appears to be descending into another perilous corona-virus crisis akin to the grim days of March and April in which, you remember, shortages of hospital beds, personal protection equipment, and ventilators were the most urgent issues, and the threat of hospitals being overwhelmed very real.

Somehow, through a confluence of missteps by politicians’ timidity and religious leadership, blind ignorance, pig-headed stupidity, or authoritarian willfulness, we’re heading down that road again. And, this time, the winter and flu seasons will be here soon.

Dissecting this developing calamity, the largest fault, despite their vehement denials, lies with a particular segment of the population: the ultra-Orthodox who are concentrated in some areas of New York, and comprise a very significant percentage of citizens who live there. In those zones, during the last month or so, the positivity rates for contracting the virus have jumped [from a little over 1% to as high as 16% in some areas]. 

The conclusion as to the direct cause of the startling rise has to be the ultra-Orthodox citizenry and the disregard for basic virus safeguards and rules.  As they say, ‘Just look at the data.’ It’s impossible, looking at that data, that it could be anything else.

But the inhabitants of the areas with rising infection rates are not solely to blame. In fact, I think it’s the political and religious leadership, who know better, that are especially at fault.  But in the affected communities that’s not the prevalent sentiment. In fact, the rabbinate in areas like Williamsburg, Borough Park and in mid-Hudson Valley asserts that the ultra-Orthodox groups, among all the putative culprits, are being ‘singled-out’. Come on, man.  Don’t BS me. You know what that statement represents? Denial. 

The most vexing problem in these communities is the leadership: it has been pitiful. Instead of acknowledging that face-covering mandates are being ignored, despite warnings from doctors and medical authorities, and that large congregants of adults attending religious services or weddings are probably ‘superspreaders’ of the virus, these elderly religious leaders, whose numbers incidentally have been decimated in this corona period, encouraged the dissemination of the misinformation, which accelerated the virus spread.

But blame for this impending disaster is not only limited to religious leadership.  Timid politicians here in New York State and the city are at fault, too.

After all, it’s a fact that the rabbinical hierarchy can deliver virtually a 100% bloc of votes for a candidate they favor in an election; their congregations look to them to make that decision for them. 

Breaking that down, that means if we posit a rabbi supports a particular candidate, and there are, let’s suppose, 2,000 members in his synagogue, that’s 2,000-to-zero votes in the bag for that candidate. You can imagine what a mother lode that represents for avaricious politicians like Cuomo and de Blasio [any politician, probably.] That’s got to be the reason why during the past few weeks, there’s been no police enforcement of a mask policy or a crowd-limitations mandate. We can’t offend anyone, is the calculus of de Blasio and Cuomo; those unanimous voting blocs are too precious. 

Oh, yes, the cops tell people to put on masks, maybe, but no arrests or fines. Warnings and slaps on the wrist, that’s it. There’s only one policy that would work: fat fines of $500 per individual, $25,000 for institutions. Only a few days ago, Mr. Big Shot, Andrew Cuomo, very late in the game, made the point that enforcement with fines and even imprisonment will now occur. That’s like shutting the barn door after the horses have run out. The move is much too late. Corona virus now runs amok in neighborhoods. It’s the same story once again, isn’t it? The politicians always disappoint, don’t they?

Mr. Gripes
October 14, 2020 
By Jim Israel

For Democrats, and all the People who detest Trump / The Babe

For Democrats, and all the People who detest Trump, one word of advice: ease up on your giddiness that President Trump is heading for a colossal beat-down in November. Don’t bet the house on it. In fact, Mr. Gripes still thinks Mr. Trump has at least a 50-50 chance to be re-elected.

I understand that possibility will engender a huge depression among those Americans who look at the polls everyday – as I do religiously – and find Mr. Trump consistently four, five, six, occasionally even double-digit points behind Joe Biden in the states that will decide the election – Arizona, North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, et al – and that has been the consistent theme for a couple of months. 

Yes, the pundits [‘pundit’ is an ugly-sounding word, isn’t it?] assert almost to a man that Donald Trump doesn’t have much time to overcome his numerous electoral-state deficits, and November is fast approaching. Haven’t these ‘experts’ [I use that word cautiously] learned anything at all about Donald Trump? He rises from the scrap heap over and over again, and wins in the end.
 
Mika Brzezinski every morning cites a couple of polls in which the President continues to lose, and insinuates to the TV audience that these polls really are significant; they aren’t actually, they’re simply a ‘snapshot’ at a particular moment, without a shred of any sustaining wisdom. They’re put on the screen simply to pump up viewers’ fervent wishes that President Trump will be finished on November 3. Five minutes after being posted on MSNBC, they’re forgotten by all.

I think the Trump haters have to understand that as President of the United States, Mr. Trump has inexhaustible resources to overcome Mr. Biden. He can manufacture news showing him in a glorious light, he can absolutely lie with impunity, with no consequences, he can even create an international crisis, allowing him to paint his opponents as anti-American, pro-violence adherents.

[An aside: It’s the pathological lying every day, about everything, that is so dispiriting. No one ever dissuades him from this behavior – no one. It just goes on and on. And, for Mr. Gripes, it’s the little lies that drive me nuts: for example, Trump’s out on a golf course a couple of weekends ago, right after Nancy Pelosi accuses him of too much golf amidst the virus, and not enough work. So, what does Mr. Trump proclaim the following Monday?: one, that he plays less golf than Barack Obama did [a blatant lie]; two, he ‘plays fast’, which allows for work time on the course; no, he doesn’t play quickly; it took him 4 hours and 10 minutes to play 18 holes on that Sunday, a very long time considering he’s the only golfer on the course; or, three, ‘I  worked, too, during the round’: pure horse manure: I’ll bet the only ‘work’ he did was order a couple of diet Cokes to be brought to him mid-round; keep in mind he’s a lazy SOB, too. It’s always, always outrageous lies, piled high to the sky .]

Donald Trump, and his much more adept political advisors, may indeed figure out a way to outfox Joe Biden and his Democratic Party. That’s my fear. Trump, with his irrational outbursts, and inability to concentrate on urgent matters at hand, may not be capable of pulling the rabbit out of the hat by himself. But guys like Attorney General Bill Barr are not only smart, shrewd and incredibly ambitious, but also have no moral compass; they, among various stratagems, will certainly try to foment riots all over the country, engendering a lot of white fear among voters. That’s the game plan, and it may work. Law and order and Spiro Agnew, here we go again.



The Babe….During this interminable, exasperating endemic, Mr. Gripes, as has been a habit of his since his teens, read books. A lot of them. Some history, some fiction, and, mostly, biographies. And, strangely, his focus was on old-time baseball – 1920’s, ‘30’s, ‘40’s, ‘50’s  – especially on the stars of those eras, i.e., Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, et al.

And, of course, the absolutely peerless Babe Ruth. Mr. Ruth was GIGANTIC, in every way.

I was drawn to Babe Ruth’s story – a grand American rags-to-riches tale – like a moth to a night light. In terms of star power, Ruth was an exploding nova star, compared to everyone else’s dim headlight, then or now.

Ruth was a ‘natural’ in the truest sense of the word.  One of his biographers, Tom Meany, a 1940’s-50’s sportswriter for the New York Daily News, explained his innate gifts this way:

‘Ruth was an instinctive ball player. He required no more tutoring in the game than a seal pup would in swimming. Babe didn’t need any powers of concentration and study to work on improvements. Babe came full-blown. When he was pitching [and he was one of the best pitchers in the majors when he first came up] he neither knew nor cared whether the batter who faced him stood at the right or left side of home plate, and when he was hitting he never took the time to distinguish between southpaws [lefties] and right handers. They all looked the same to the Babe….Tom Meany, from ‘Babe Ruth’, published in 1947.

It’s been almost completely forgotten these days that Babe Ruth arrived in the major leagues as a 19-year-old left-handed pitcher, and immediately became one of the best. Statistically that era produced the finest pitching in baseball history, and Babe Ruth dominated: in 1916, at 21, he won 23 games, struck out 170, had a 2.28 ERA, and threw 9 complete-game shutouts to boot. But Babe loved hitting, so he soon became an every-day outfielder, and never pitched seriously again. No one now remembers that Babe Ruth pitched, and was an All-Star. Amazing, isn’t it?

Because he was fully formed as a superb and powerful hitter early on, he never developed bad habits foisted on him by incompetent batting coaches. No ‘tweaking’ with that swing. Hitting from the left side, he’d hold the bat – a very heavy 38-ounce model – with the right pinkie finger off the end of the bat, and swing for the fences every time. No ‘Punch-and-Judy’ dribbler down the third base for the Babe. His swing was ferocious, uncoiling from his heels. [No wonder the kids and fans absolutely adored him. I once asked my father about Babe Ruth, and he simply said, ‘Every home run I saw him hit was a thing of beauty.’]

Before I get into some of his career statistics, one historical note should be mentioned: Mr. Babe Ruth, among his achievements, was the savior of baseball as the national game. In 1918, the ‘Black Sox’ scandal occurred, with a half-dozen or so of players on the Chicago White Sox taking money from professional gamblers to ‘throw’ games in that year’s World Series. The plot was discovered afterwards, and several players were banned for life from playing again in the major leagues. Those crimes obviously put professional baseball in a horrible position, and the end of professional baseball became a very definitive possibility.

Baseball got lucky, though: on the heels of the 1918 scandal, 1919 turned out to be Babe Ruth’s ‘coming-out’ year for his incredible talents as a hitter, and specifically, a home run slugger. He hit 37 in 1919, by far the most in the majors, and he was off and running: 54 HRs, 135 runs batted in, and a .376 batting average in 1920: his 54 HR total exceeded every other team’s total in the big leagues that year; then, in 1921, even better: 59 home runs, 168 RBIs, and a .378 batting average. Fans came out to games in the millions to see the Babe smash those majestic home runs, and the game was saved.

The grand exploits of Ruth were not limited to his feats on the baseball field. Supercharged alongside those feats was an incredible ‘extracurricular’ lifestyle off the diamond.  Seemingly a man of inexhaustible energy and drive, the Babe never slowed down for an instance.

Here’s a typical ‘slice of life’ episode from the life of the great Babe Ruth gleaned from an account I read recently:

All of the games when Ruth played were, of course, day games.  Before road games, as he left the hotel to go the ballpark, he’d fill up his room’s bathtub with bottles of beer and ice. After the game, a party would naturally commence in his suite into the early AM hours.

On one such occasion, we find Babe Ruth, buck-naked, sitting in a big chair, swigging from a beer bottle, showgirls all over him, a huge cigar extruding from his mouth. He looks up at Lou Gehrig, his roommate at the time, [as abstemious in behavior as Babe was hedonistic] and, wearing a huge grin, Babe declares, ‘Baseball’s not such a bad life, is it, Lou?’

Babe Ruth roared through life, at full tilt, relishing every moment of an extraordinary life.

‘Mr. Gripes’
By Jim Israel
July 31, 2020

A Day in the Life / We're in the midst of a horrific calamity / ‘Black Lives Matter’ is a perfect cri de Coeur

A Day in the Life – President Trump, to this observer, seems very much unhinged lately. In fact, one date 10 days ago – June 25 – appears to be the single worst day of the President’s term in office. A Biden-Trump presidential poll showed that Mr. Trump is absolutely getting wacked in key ‘bubble’ states – Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, he’s even behind in Republican bastion Ohio – losing by significant margins to Mr. Biden. [In Minnesota, which he carried against Hillary Clinton in 2016, Donald Trump is losing by fourteen points.]

And yet, despite all the evidence that his re-election strategies so far have been futile, Mr. Trump doesn’t seem capable of altering his language or performance in front of prospective voters. In fact, his behavior, instead of fostering some momentum and positivity for his campaign, indicates he’s doing the very opposite – as Joe Biden, seemingly gaining more and more support, barely lifting a finger, reclines in an easy chair in his basement, sipping on a couple of Mai-Tais, watching reruns of ‘Hogan’s Heroes’– and still beating the hell out of the President.

For a man running for re-election, Mr. Trump’s actions seem particularly askew and very odd. It’s as if he’s psychologically incapable of behavior modification. [My family history points me in one diagnostic direction: progressive rigidity in thought processes brought on by initial stages of dementia; but that’s a tale for another day.]

Digging into his modus operandi a bit more broadly, let’s examine the day trip to Arizona recently at which he visits a section of the ‘Wall’ and then spoke at a mega-church in Phoenix: at the wall, he observed its ongoing construction along a portion of the border between the United States and Mexico. OK…great. The completion of the two-hundredth mile was celebrated by Mr. Trump. Two hundred miles!? Big friggin’ deal. This wall, for which ultimately $15 BILLION will be spent, had to get most of its funding by stripping away money from other government entities, like the National Guard and Army, and even illegally in at least one case.

[Do you recall the incident in Washington a few weeks ago when a small park was cleared out by police and National Guard in front of a church so Mr. Trump could display a bible? Among the armaments utilized to ‘sweep out’ the young people were helicopters, which created very high wind turbulence to discombobulate the protesters. Well, the ‘regular’ force helicopters had all previously been shipped to the Mexican border, so only medical-evacuation copters were available.  So that type was used during the skirmish. Imagine the scene: swooping down on the confused protesters are med-vac helicopters, replete with medical signage and crosses on their fuselages. Unbelievable. It’s straight out of ‘Catch-22.’]

Mark my words: in five or ten years, this wall, whatever its final version looks like, will be just another hulking, useless, rusting, expensive lesson on how this country for decades has wasted trillions and trillions of dollars for essentially nothing but politicians’ vanity projects. 

Following his sojourn to the wall, Mr. Trump then speaks at a Phoenix mega-church with a jammed 3,000 in attendance, packed together shoulder to shoulder, no face masks in view. The photo is jarring:  after all the uproar that people in large crowds who do not wear face coverings imperil themselves and become potential ‘super-spreaders’, and at the very moment Arizona is overwhelmed by a ‘skyrocketing’ number of COVID cases with hospital beds quickly filling to capacity, Donald Trump talks and talks as if there is no crisis, no COVID distressing news at all. It’s as if he’s living in Never-Never Land. And, despite Mr. Trump’s reticence on this massive problem, the country as a whole is undergoing a very frightening and burgeoning disaster in many states, with Arizona perhaps in the worst shape of all.

It’s as if the President saw a land mine bomb on the road in front of him, and muses, ‘Ah, what the hell, I’ll step on it.’

Were his advisors so intimidated by the President and his rages that not one of them could have warned him off the visit? 

People out there all over the country are now rightfully scared to death. The juxtaposition of President Trump’s hands-off, ‘what-me-worry’ approach next to the emerging horror in so many states has compelled Americans to at last examine truthfully the essential nature of our President: blasphemous, incompetent, venomous, disorganized, narcissistic, incurious, dishonest, uninformed, and a peril to all of us. If Mr. Trump sinks further, we ought to be very afraid.



We’re in the midst of a horrific calamity, that looks like it’s only going to get worse: The very idea that politicians, a species universally depicted as ranking below rabid rodents in the animal kingdom, are pronouncing to citizens that health officials – doctors, epidemiologists, the CDC and the like – should not be the final arbiters of proper and effective COVID  patient treatment, and instead we should rely on the medically fraudulent, dangerous assertion that everything is going to be OK, so let’s forget about the science, boggles the mind. 

Are we crazy? Have Americans completely abandoned the notion that we’re all in this together, and we better work under some semblance of unity to get through this? At least the wear-it-or-not mask debate is very visible :  it’s an argument plainly displayed in public between individuals who  understand science and do don face coverings for their health and the health of others, and those who cannot acknowledge that science is a discipline driven by objectivity, not by emotion, and that the truth – in this case, wearing a mask and proper social distancing --  may be a harsh burden to accept, even if in your heart of hearts, you know it is the appropriate behavior.

Instead of promulgating outright lies [Mike Pence : ‘We’ve won [the battle against COVID], Mr. President. Thank you.’] – Mr. Trump could take a huge, healing step by venturing out to the Rose Garden with a mask in place. That would be such a unifying move for the country, and we could – maybe – initiate a realistic battle plan to defeat this scourge. And, prick up your ears, Mr. Trump, you’ll like this, your sagging approval ratings would jump up if you wore a mask. This is no time for fairy tales.

But you’re not likely to do that, right? Oh, no, the very act of wearing a face covering is a sign of weakness, not strength, in your eyes. Instead, the President and his operatives will continue to employ methods to conceal the real infection numbers, i.e., tamp down testing, and try to once again hoodwink the population with obfuscations and fabrications.

Mr. Trump, forever dissembling, doesn’t comprehend that ‘looking weak’ has nothing to do with wearing a mask. He doesn’t realize that he’s the weakling, the patsy, the wimp in the manner in which he carries on. For one thing, he never accepts blame – it’s always a thousand other villains. But putting on a mask is simply admitting the truth, nothing more, and accepting what is in front of you, no matter how uncomfortable or impotent or scared that may make you feel. That’s a definition of courage and intelligence and strength.  I don’t know if Mr. Trump will ever deal with the veracity of this virus; and that ‘strength’ of his, foregoing a mask, will cause incalculable damage and many lives in this country during the upcoming months. God help us.


 
‘Black Lives Matter’ is a perfect cri de Coeur for these times: the words are forthright, meaningful and powerful. The tacit message is that throughout America’s history, black lives haven’t mattered much, and maybe now they will.

Good thoughts and certainly aspirational, but I’m not optimistic about real change. If American history is any indicator, there’ll be plenty of cosmetic change, but as for a massive alteration of race conflicts in civil society, I doubt it.

The protesters want structural changes to the ‘institutional racism’ they perceive exists throughout the fabric of our lives. They’re right about the pervasive racism being alive and well  – take a look, for example, at how our large urban residential areas have developed over a couple of hundred years: here in New York City, there are neighborhoods of 98% affluent, white people, literally right next to communities of 95% black and poor minorities. That’s the very definition of ‘segregation.’

Or, the public school systems in New York and other cities: the preponderance of the funding for these schools goes to the schools in the better neighborhoods, which end up with more and deeper teaching resources, and better teachers; even the physical plant of the school buildings are in much better shape in the richer neighborhoods.

That’s just a couple of instances of the racial schisms that are so embedded in society. Changing that mind-set will entail a huge amount of not only good will among the rich and powerful, but a hell of a lot of money, too. And, right now, the country is essentially broke.

This pandemic has at least stripped the hypocrisy and complacency off the festering and bloody boil sores of racism. That comprehension is surely for the ultimate good of society.

Amidst the gloom of present-day racism, there are actual situations present that can be dealt with immediately, with solutions that would improve immeasurably the lives of blacks and minorities.

For one, I’m talking about the hospital system in any large city: the situation is appalling, and yet in this current atmosphere of the past couple of months not a word is spoken about it.

Here in New York, the system consists of public and private hospitals. The private hospitals, always going on about their ‘non-profit’ status, cater to the affluent [white] classes, who can pay their medical bills with their generous company insurance policies, so of course the hospitals do very well, thank you. [‘Non-profit’, my petunia: the executives of these non-profits make out like bandits.]

The public hospitals? Perpetually underfunded by municipalities, burdened with indigent patients who often carry no insurance, overcrowded emergency rooms, often lacking up-to-date medical facilities and supplies, these institutions are overwhelmed in normal times, much less during crises. Elmhurst Hospital in Queens is a perfect example.

So, here’s my solution: the richest private hospitals, drowning in enormous billion-dollar endowments , larded with generous donations from wealthy patrons and philanthropies, open their tightwad purses and agree to furnish sufficient funding [a billion?] to the public hospitals so they can upgrade their facilities to modern, efficient instruments of health care that better serve the needs of their constituents.

No one dares say it, but the way the hospital medical system is set up now in this country, it’s naked racism.  So, do something, damn it. All you private hospitals, put some teeth into your ‘non-profit’ assertions and donate a billion dollars of funding for the beleaguered public hospitals in your city, and make them whole. Help out your medical brethren. Would that be so hard to do?

By Jim Israel       
July 3, 2020
Mr. Gripes

China in the Driver’s Seat / A False Note: Empathy / Beware of Slogans / Shavers vs. Stallone

China Holds All the Cards…Here’s a bizarre, troubling, yet very conceivable scenario that might occur in the next eight months to a year: [This is based on a premise that Donald Trump could win the Presidential election in November]:

The Chinese laboratories manage to develop an effective vaccine against the corona virus within a year, as the gang-that-couldn’t-shoot-straight United States and the West fail to come up with their own vaccination.

Donald Trump, for the past couple of years, has beaten up on China like a drum, and there’s an excellent chance there’ll no let-up even after China announces its vaccination breakthrough. The President then continues to insist that China, at the very least, did not do enough to stop the virus’ spread, and may even have intentionally created it, releasing the new, deadly virus to the world in order to cause death and havoc in the West, and accelerate the West’s decline vis-à-vis China.

Taking this barrage of abuse for years, with Donald Trump upping the ante by asserting China is ‘cheating’ on trade issues and augmenting its military capabilities to rival the United  States all over the globe, will China now turn the other cheek and graciously donate to America its vaccine? Will China, ignoring Donald Trump’s criminal charges, magnanimously give to us the vaccine to inoculate our 330,000,000 citizens? I wouldn’t count on it.

Back to the present: do any of my astute readers really believe that our President has spent more than five minutes since he took office considering this more-than-theoretical possibility – a situation in which the United States is going to need a huge favor from China? Not Mr. ‘Day-Trader’ Trump.   I’ll wager he’s so emotionally wrought and angry all the time [unless he’s on a golf course] that he can only deal with short-term matters laid out on one 8x11 sheet of paper.  Advice from his staff? No way. His infallible ‘gut’ always tells him how to proceed. Contemplating long-term issues is unimaginable to Mr. Trump. His reptilian brain doesn’t operate that way.

And, one more thought: even if China agrees to donate their vaccine to America, who’s to say the President will even accept it? In Trump’s conspiratorial mind, the possibility of China intentionally adulterating the ‘batch’ of serum given to the United States will preclude Trump from accepting the vaccine at all.

It’s an altogether frightening scenario.


‘Empathy‘ – It’s Not Happening….. There’s nothing more overrated, Mr. Gripes thinks, than the search for ‘empathy’ from the President. Lately, the media has figuratively lay down and prostrated themselves on the White House Rose Garden lawn looking for empathy that could be directed toward anxious, worn-out Americans and the country’s 110,000 corona virus deaths. Every one of the White House correspondents was insisting that President Trump say a few words of sympathy to the families of the deceased. Talk about pack journalism.

Mr. Gripes’ views about the issue come from another place:  real Presidential empathy across many Administrations has been basically a lie. Donald Trump obviously does not empathize with anyone. That’s his nature; he’s not going to change. So, even successfully eliciting an empathetic comment about all the deaths would be false. His heart, indeed, is not in that place, and Mr. Trump will not bow to a phony plea from journalists. Why should he?  After all, that could actually be defined as ‘fake news’, right? Leave him alone, please. It’s not worth the effort.

In fact, I don’t believe any President is empathetic in an authentic sense. Some ‘play’ the role much better than others and sure look good on television doing the obligatory rituals – Obama, Clinton come to mind – but I think it’s still mainly performance art. Presidents are generally so focused, so ambitious, so competitive that there’s very little room in those hardened souls for compassionate sentiments like empathy.

In that vein, I’ll relate to you a true event that did indeed take place around the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion – June 6 1944 – in which American and British soldiers came ashore on Omaha Beach in France, precipitating the final stages of the Second World War and the victorious end of the struggle a year later:

President Clinton journeyed to Paris to take part in the momentous 50th anniversary in June 1994, and later traveled up to Normandy on the coast for a ceremony to commemorate those soldiers who were killed that June 6 morning on that landing beachhead.

Alone, slowly and solemnly, Mr. Clinton walks down to the water’s edge, and kneels down and picks up some small stones; dramatically he places them in a circle in the sand, all the time looking very grave indeed. He then rises; stands very still, a sad countenance on his face, head down, in a praying stance. To this cynic, a theatrical performance of the first order.

He jets back to Washington at the conclusion of the event a day or two later. Upon entering the Oval Office, he hastily summons an aide to bring him the latest approval/disapproval polls. He looks down at the figures, and immediately throws down his glasses on the desk, furious.

‘God damn it, only two f---kin’ points [increase in his approval polling] even with all that work!’

Every President, on some level, behaves precisely in this disingenuous manner. Empathy?  No.



Right now, the Democrats seem to be in a favorable position to win the Presidency in November. But American political sentiment changes in a nano-second, and it is five whole months before all of us actually vote. And, lest we forget, this is the Democratic Party I’m alluding to: Hillary Clinton in 2016 is verifiable proof that the Democratic Party can easily snatch a loss from a probable victory. Winning is certainly conceivable, but Mr. Gripes is convinced if the Party endorses a ‘flavor-of-the-month,’ ballyhooed slogan, such as ‘Defund the Police’, they will most likely lose the election in November.

‘Defund the police’ as a rallying cry? You must be kidding. I understand perfectly well the rage and fury of black communities which have endured state-sanctioned murder and terror for three hundred years. But, endorsing the concept of outright elimination or even just the diminishment of police forces across the country is exactly the issue that a bottom-feeder like Donald Trump and his Republican operatives are looking for. Campaigning in comfortable, affluent suburbs in states like Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, they will scare the  sh_t out of white voters by asserting  the Democrats are not only ‘weak’ on crime, but in ‘your’ very nice neighborhoods, crime will skyrocket and threaten your comfortable and cozy circumstances, if police are constrained in any fashion.

The Republicans are extremely skilled and experienced at campaigning on a ‘law-and-order’, fear-mongering platform. That’s’ for sure. Combine that kind of campaign with an undeniable presumption that the November election is going to be extremely tight – a razor-thin margin of 10,000 votes may decide the electoral-college selection in several states– and ill-considered language such as  ‘Defund the Police’ could very well ‘swing’ enough frightened voters over to a Donald Trump re-election. God help us. So, Democrats, please focus on the election, and not on some fanciful, of-the-moment slogan.


Stallone – The mention of the movie Raging Bull in a prior item [from a ‘Gripes’ in 2009] reminds me of an incident that supposedly happened on the set of the first ‘Rocky’ movie, way back when. This may be an apocryphal tale, but, if indeed a deity does exist, please, please, God, declare this occurrence to be true. It’s so good:

An extremely capable prizefighter, Ernie Shavers, who fought in championship heavyweight bouts against big boys like Mohammed Ali and Ken Norton, was hired by Sylvester Stallone for a role as an opponent of Rocky Balboa, whom Stallone portrayed. After a few days of rehearsal and getting his moves down, working collaboratively with Mr. Shavers, the two entered the boxing ring for the day’s shoot one morning.  In the ring, Mr. Stallone struck a fighter’s pose, and asked Mr. Shavers to ‘give me [Stallone] your best shot.’ Mr. Shavers, demonstrating sound forbearance, gently demurred. Stallone continued to pester the fighter, ‘Come on, give me your best shot.’ Mr. Shavers, who must have dealt with challenges like this in taverns all the time, demurred once more.

Finally, after louder, more insistent entreaties, Ernie relented and said, ‘OK.’ The two combatants proceeded to the middle of the ring, at which point Mr. Shavers unloaded a short right hand to Mr. Stallone’s sturdy mid-section. Mr. Stallone fell over backwards, flat on his back, gasping for air.

After about 10 minutes, ‘Rocky’ wobbled to his feet, and retired to the restroom for an hour-and-a-half. Film shooting was subsequently postponed for a week.

Sylvester, do you not recall those Greek tragedies from acting classes? Hubris, big fella, hubris. And you’ve forgotten something else. Your ‘Rocky’ movies are nothing more than elaborate choreography – dancing, if you will – not pugilism.  Mr. Stallone, I hate to break the bad news to you:  you’re related more to the twinkle-toed, ballet-shoed, prancing Gene Kelly of ‘Singing in the Rain’ than the brawny Marciano. Rocky Balboa, despite all his sinew and muscle, is nothing but pure baloney.**

** This Stallone piece appeared originally in a ‘Mr. Gripes’ column of March 2009.

Jim Israel
June 9, 2020
Mr. Gripes

Always an Enemy / Blue States, Stick a Fork in Them / My Childhood Pandemic

Always an Enemy – The shortages were breathtaking: surgical masks, medical gowns, ventilators, tests, reagents needed for making the tests, swabs, and, yes, even epidemiologists who might have been able to foresee this calamity – The United States got caught, again, with its pants down. And, guess where we have to purchase all these products we now need to confront this pandemic? Somehow, through negligence, a collective attention span of about 10 minutes, no foresight or planning, complacency, and only meager stockpiles available, America found itself in the extraordinary position of pleading with our archenemy China for emergency support and aid.

And, how does our overmatched, overwhelmed and frankly idiotic President handle this national emergency at its height? He insults China, and accuses them of starting the pandemic in a Wuhan laboratory; he begins to refer to the virus as the ‘Chinese virus.’ Instead of attempting to tone down the rhetoric a little, and curry a little bit of good will, Mr. Trump chooses to go full bore with his accusations. 

Whatever the truth is about the origins of the COVID, and we certainly cannot prove right now if China intentionally started this horror, America needs desperately the products that China possesses or can manufacture to fight this virus. So, Donald Trump, for once just hold your tongue and shut up. Pick up the fight much later, please, if you must.

But he won’t. Mr. Trump needs enemies. That’s the life force that propels him, I think, every waking moment. His very troubled psyche cannot tolerate equanimity; he’s always been a disrupter, a destroyer. And, to our peril, he’s the current President of the United States, as his own internal wars have metastasized. I think it’s becoming so apparent lately: he no longer is in control of his destructive impulses, and he’s leading America down a very frightening and ominous path.  God help us.



Blue States, Stick a Fork in Them…Mr. Gripes is going to disappoint his lockstep, Democratic  friends with this item, but I think Mitch McConnell’s right regarding his stance on, as he puts it, the ‘blue’ states’ calamitous waste of federal money. 
 
One has to acknowledge he’s spot-on that these states and cities, with their hugely populous urban centers, have squandered for many years billions and billions – trillions of dollars, actually – not, as they profess, to actually ameliorate the economic and residential conditions of the urban poor, but to perpetuate the incredibly corrupt, profligate, and unaccountable Democratic power bases that have ruled, with essentially no opposition, for decades – since the end of World War II, in fact. The proof is in the pudding: the urban under classes, even as they vote in overwhelming numbers for Democratic candidates in every election, have less earning power now than 30 years ago. Nothing’s changed. Except for those trillions of dollars down the drain.

Let’s look at New York as an example: Mr. Gripes has lived in and around New York for a good part of his life, and the out-of-control spending with the sole purpose of maintaining political control and power has been and continues to be appalling. 

A perfect example: our present mayor, Bill de Blasio, ignoring valid charges of nepotism, placed his hapless wife in charge of some spurious ‘mental health’ initiative four years ago. It’s been a colossal failure from its onset. For one thing, its mission was never fully explained. And, proving that it’s been nothing but a shell organization, there has been no progress report as to its aim or its ensuing effectiveness, and whether any goals were reached. As one critic asserted, the initiative – named ThriveNYC – mainly is an exercise in ‘pamphlets’, i.e. a raft of flyers distributed at public libraries to be picked up and read by library patrons [no one reads them, of course].
 
And with the multitude of pressing mental health issues – domestic violence, suicide, depression, feelings of isolation, loss of jobs, et alia-- emerging now with so many people in need of urgent attention, we hear not a thing from Thrive. Not one word as to its contributions, which probably do not exist.  In a just world, it’d be an egregious scandal. And, what a waste of money: the program has burned through $1 BILLION[!] over its four years’ existence. 

[In reality, Mr. Gripes, who can sniff out political chicanery and venality from ten miles down the road, knows the sole reason for Thrive’s creation: it’s to raise the profile of Mr. de Blasio’s wife, to be followed up by her running for some worthless office in 2021, keeping Bill’s name in the news; then the plan is for him to run for President again in 2024.]

Tales of criminality like this make Mr. Gripes’ blood boil. And there are so many examples of the squandering of billions of dollars over the years, on the part of our urban mayors.

Well, finally it all has caught up with blue state cities. Having wasted so much of their federal largesse and at the moment left with nothing but humongous debts, these states have no political currency any more: they’re broke and are going to have to beg. An angry Mr. McConnell is correct: why should more federal aid be forthcoming for these bankrupt cities, when we all know that they’ll misuse that money again? I understand his resistance to throwing more billions at these money pits.

What’s going to happen? The states will eventually receive federal financial aid they desperately need to pay for teachers, cops, firemen, public hospital workers, and the like. That’s a given. But, Mr. McConnell and his Republican allies are no longer, I think, going to simply sign off on additional funding for the urban politicians to spend as they see fit, to feather their own political nests. Strict conditions will be imposed on any federally funded program for a city: no more gazillions to spend on propping up corrupt, unaccountable Democratic urban administrations and their phony, slush-fund non-profits and fraudulent ‘programs.’  Finally, a politician says, ‘Enough is enough.’



My Childhood Pandemic – From the early days of this viral pandemic we’re all experiencing right now,  I felt in my bones I had been through this before.

What that earlier experience was, I just couldn’t pin it down. Mysterious, yet the emotions seemed very familiar. Indeed, a sense of déjà vu: absolute dread and fear about what lay ahead of us, and a firm, paralyzing belief that I was going to be powerless to fight the coming storm. This was a repetition of a suppressed memory.

Well, ten days ago, I finally recalled the earlier pandemic that so affected me: almost 70 years ago, in 1954, a polio ‘scourge’ grabbed the United States by the throat. 

The back story: as a child, I was obsessed over current events – I followed world developments closely as a young kid.  I didn’t really understand or absorb much of what I was reading, but just enough to sometimes scare the hell of me [Russians dropping the atom bomb on us, for instance]. During that 1954 summer, as I recall it, the heat never let up day after day. And, of course, I linked up the intense heat wave to a rising incidence of polio. In this child’s mind, that meant that polio, and its attendant horrors, would inevitably get me.
 
I perused the newspaper every morning, and noticed that the number of polio infections was increasing daily and, even more worrisome, coursing its way up the East Coast. One day, there were, say, 14 new cases in Georgia, then a couple of days later, 20 cases in North Carolina, then 30 more polio victims in Virginia, etc. And it was overwhelmingly kids who were afflicted. This pattern went on for weeks; I was certain polio would soon get to Long Island, and kill or paralyze me, my brothers and sister, and my friends. I just couldn’t shake that nightmare scenario.
 
[Let’s remember that the medical term for polio is, in part, infantile paralysis—it disproportionally struck children.] That fear of losing the use of my arms or legs, or being shackled to an iron lung for the rest of my life was horrifying to me. Death, in fact, would have been preferable.

Then, everything changed.

Sometime early in July, out of the blue, I and my siblings were abruptly sent to a summer camp for six weeks. It was located in Massachusetts, in some remote corner of Cape Cod. I loved it there, and in the face of a glittering Atlantic Ocean nearby and a summer of playing baseball with new friends, the polio fears abated a bit. I didn’t read newspapers either. I just felt much safer in the Camp Chappa Chala alternate universe, arguing incessantly and annoyingly I’m sure, with New England kids about who was better, Ted Williams or Mickey Mantle.

A miracle then followed: camp ended in late August, and, not long afterwards, Dr. Jonas Salk invented a vaccination for polio. I don’t remember when we got our initial vaccines for polio, but I do recall climbing up stairs at an elementary-school auditorium stage, lined up with all my classmates in a long procession, and receiving a shot. Everyone in my school was given an injection, hundreds of kids. Then a month or so later, getting another one, ‘the booster shot.’ Polio had been eradicated in America, just like that.

From the certitude that I was going to either die or end up immobile in a hospital bed for the rest of my life, I had survived unscathed. A question remains to this day, however: did my parents by design send myself and my siblings up to that camp on Cape Cod to insulate us from that scourge ‘pandemic’ racing up the coast? I’ve often wondered about that lately. I’ll never get an answer.

By Jim Israel                                                                                                
May 7, 2020
‘Mr. Gripes’

 

 .

The Ogre Weinstein / Ms Pelosi, What Were You Thinking? / It's Always Deep State's Fault

The ogre Weinstein is guilty as charged – on two charges, but got off on some others, which apparently were much more serious. Considering how weak the cases looked at trial’s conclusion, let’s be grateful that at least Mr. Weinstein, walker and all, is going to spend at least a few weeks on Rikers Island before sentencing. The image of him creeping around his dingy, smelly cell, while eating bad bologna sandwiches, is a comforting thought. 

On a much bigger scale, though, to conclude that his conviction is a turning point for the ‘Me, Too’ movement is, I think, a bit overstated.

I actually believe nothing’s really changed in the dynamic of rich, powerful men taking advantage of their positions to manipulate and plunder women.
 
Yes, certainly there’s been a great deal of attention as to the manner in which women are exploited in Hollywood and corporate America. But, forgetting Hollywood and business for a moment, the broad culture in this country continues to not only tolerate the boorish, often criminal behavior of men, but even encourage it.

Powerful men in their relationships with women subordinate to them have had it easy, with virtually no disapprobation from anyone for decades, and will not be altering their behavior any time soon. The prospect of taking advantage of beautiful, young women without the chance of dire consequences is just too alluring to ever be eliminated.

Women, too, should know better these days, but I see signs that things in the broader society remain the same: in the Weinstein trial’s initial stages, with the press exuding confidence that the ‘Me-Too’ movement and women’s increasing empowerment were unstoppable forces, a couple of television shows demonstrated that nothing is changing out there in American culture.

I happened to come upon the Golden Globes awards ceremony on television: and, as I looked  with jaw agape, women presenters came out on stage in some extremely scanty outfits: a couple of them were wearing an unbuttoned, half-open vest look, without any upper undergarments, so that half their breasts were exposed.

Talk about the ‘male gaze’: guilty as charged, I and millions of other males gazed intently. This scene, right after the opening days of Weinstein’s trial, was so hypocritical. Don’t these women have any awareness that their scandalous attire might create the absolute wrong message to adolescent girls -- and young boys, for that matter? Do these performers think about nothing else but their insipid celebrity and meaningless careers? 

Or, on a much bigger scale, what about the half time show of the Super Bowl? 100 million viewers, including millions of young men and women, saw on the halftime show Jennifer Lopez and someone named Shakira dance and sing as if they were performing in a strip club. The act was replete with flashing thighs and crotches. Amazing to see. It was very nearly pornographic. And have we heard a peep of protest from Me-Too advocates such as Rose McGowan or Gloria Allred? Not a whimper. Worse, Ms. Lopez even had the gall to permit her 11-year-old daughter to participate in this prurient and sleazy exhibition! 
 
Evidence, indeed, that nothing’s going to change any time soon. Women will continue to be exploited and mistreated. That criminal behavior is baked into American culture.



Ms Pelosi, What Were You Thinking?..... Nancy Pelosi, until a couple of months ago, seemed to be a very shrewd politician who could navigate her way around quite skillfully any minefields she might encounter. But, my God, she sure failed miserably with the impeachment initiative against President Trump. His popularity now is highest than it’s ever been, and he’s relishing every moment of his triumph. And, worse for Democrats, it’s giving Mr. Trump an opportunity to rub more salt and vinegar into the wounds of his --- once again -- outgunned and flummoxed opponents.

Here’s another factor: the extraordinarily long siege of the Mueller investigation – two years – with finally an anticlimactic verdict of ‘Not Guilty’ exhausted the American public. They were not in a mood to go through that circus again. So, the impeachment hearings and trial on the heels of Mueller didn’t catch the full attention of jaundiced TV viewers, who simply had enough of politicians fighting and acting like nine-year-olds; it just never caught on. The back-to-back juxtaposition of the Mueller and impeachment hearings really hurt the Democrats as they attempted to galvanize an uninterested public.

But, what exactly did the Democrats think they were going to accomplish? The Republican majority in the Senate, frightened by the thought of Trump true-believers who are furious that anyone would disapprove of Trump, and possibly pushing for Trump-backed candidates to run in primaries, was never a threat to vote for his removal from office. My lovely cat Seamus could have told you that six months ago. The Republicans in the Senate are scared sh_tless. [To be honest, I understand their fears.]

And yet there were the Democrats, all earnestly yakking about all the sins of the President and his destruction of American democracy, marching in lockstep to convict the President. The optics just did not work: Pelosi and Schiff lecturing us on American ideals, as if it were a decorous high school debate, while the other side, with its cast of money grubbers, blackmailers, swindlers, conspiracy junkies, holocaust deniers, charlatans, bunko artists, snake oil salesmen, and bag men, outmaneuvered and bludgeoned the Democrats at every juncture.

The Democrats knew they were beat, and beat badly, when, near the end of their dispiriting and humbling defeat, they began beating the drums for the notion that President Trump will not be able to run away from history’s verdict: his ‘legacy’ will be forever tarnished. Bull. Donald Trump does not care one whit about his legacy. To Mr. Trump, it’s all about his net worth. In that reptilian brain of his, if he can’t go to the bank and exchange that legacy for tons of dough, he couldn’t care less. Cashing in on his Presidency is and always has been Mr. Trump’s overriding concern. ‘My legacy? Write me a $1,000 check, and I’ll give you mine.’



It’s Always Deep State’s fault….It was inevitable: as soon as the Justice Department decided to close down an investigation of FBI agent Andrew McCabe, opting not to bring charges up against him, President Trump goes off on the ‘corrupt’ FBI,  and decries, in paraphrase, ‘It’s the deep state again.’

Virtually on any matter that the President views as oppositional, the ‘Deep State’ stands accused. Right now, of course, it’s the media’s coverage of the corona virus: it’s the transparency of the Trump lies that is so hard to take; he simply, on cue, trots out the ultimate no-proof, go-to conspiracy, the Deep State.

Let’s examine Mr. Trump’s Deep State a bit more closely: advocates should at least have some evidence of the existence of the group, so bent as they are on world domination and control: for one thing, who exactly are the architects of the Deep State, and where is verifiable proof of their activities? Oh, the Deep Staters assert, we don’t know the answers to that: after all, ‘It’s all done in secret.’ 

What absolute nonsense: you’re telling me that, say, George Soros, the billionaire industrialist who’s often linked to fanciful machinations of a Deep State, is the mastermind controlling the plot to take over the world?  Come on: get real. Hasn’t he got enough on his plate? He’s too busy making oodles of money.
 
And besides, just imagine Mr. Soros holding a convention of all the leaders of various Deep State cartels intent on running the world. How could there be any consensus among those huge egos how to divide the world up? It’d be worse than herding feral cats.
 
‘Deep State’ accusations fit Mr. Trump to a T: throw some cockeyed theory out there, without one scintilla of proof.  Mr. Trump, who apparently didn’t understand the significance of Pearl Harbor [!] when he visited the site a couple of years ago, doesn’t burden himself with any historical facts, just pure BS. Outlandish conspiracy plots are right up his alley.

In actuality, the Deep State emanates either from really vivid imaginations of some very paranoid individuals, or, more likely, a fable concocted to appeal to extreme right wing zealots, and create momentum for Mr. Trump’s re-election.

Mr. Gripes
March 1, 2020
By Jim Israel

Robbery/Murder of Barnard Freshman / Iraq Tells Us to Leave / Donald Trump Never Ceases to Amaze

The robbery/murder of a Barnard College freshman student a few weeks ago in Morningside Park near Columbia University hit Mr. Gripes hard. I’m a graduate of Columbia College, who lives a subway ride away; for decades, I’ve participated in all kinds of Columbia functions, i.e., attending football and basketball games; sitting in on university lectures, Class Day and Graduation Day events. Just like many of my classmates, I am a member of the extended Columbia family, and proud of it. The senseless killing of a ‘family’ member was horrific. I’m incensed that it could have occurred.

I blame partially the city politicians for the crime; New York City, as anyone who lives here knows, is not a ‘safe’ place, yet over and over we hear from our leaders that New York ‘is the safest city in the country.’ That assertion, often proclaimed by Mayor de Blasio, was and is irresponsible; any reasonably intelligent New Yorker knows the city is often a dangerous place, especially now with all the homeless and mentally disturbed hassling us on the streets and in the subways. Mr. de Blasio was contending for President -- running his mouth with the manifest lie that the city is the ‘safest’ might have impressed voters in Iowa [although I doubt it] but no New Yorker believes that the city is virtually crime-free for a moment. The Barnard student, new to New York, may have been lulled into a false sense of safety, and that could have contributed to her death.
 
And here’s something else I’d like my readers to ponder: a few months ago, a law went into effect banning ‘stop and frisk’ actions by the NYC police; the argument was that stop and frisk searches in the hands of some cops were abused, with minorities disproportionally targeted. Of course, there may have been abuses; some cops unaccountable for their activities will certainly take advantage. But, let’s remember that there’s no free lunch in police law enforcement. The police banning of stop and frisk means there are going to be some future crimes committed by young men that could have been thwarted by police action. This is a fact: the Barnard student was stabbed by a 14-year-old, looking to rob someone, and carrying a six-inch knife, at night in a city park, an activity that police on the ground could have prevented. An unspeakable loss.



Iraq Tells Us to Leave….In the immediate aftermath of the Suleiman killing, the Iraq leadership has demanded that the United States, in theory its ally, evacuate American military bases throughout Iraq, and leave immediately. Huh?

That’s what they want us to do? The American response should be obvious: ‘Hasta La Vista, Baby. We’re out of this hellhole. Give us six months and we’ll be completely gone. And we are never coming back EVER.’
 
What a strange situation: here we have the Iraqis, who certainly can use our assistance to combat terrorist forces in the county, and who are supposed to be our allies, telling us to leave. What the hell’s going on? For one thing, we got rid of your homicidal monster Hussein, didn’t we?

So, let’s take them at their word, and get the hell out as fast as we can. Enough already with the ceaseless bloodbath that is the Middle East: we’ve given up enough American blood, and things aren’t getting any better over there, so let’s end it once and for all. If the nut-job, would-be martyrs who run these countries want to continue with all the killing, and after all the billions of dollars in assistance we’ve poured into Iraq [and the rest of the Middle East], our soldiers should pile on planes and ships and come home quickly. 

Oh, by the way, let’s make sure to retrieve and ship home every piece of military hardware, including guns, tanks, computers, hammers, and every nail, everything, that’s over there. Otherwise, as certain as the sun will rise tomorrow in the East, down the road, all that material and armaments left will be blown back to kill us by future enemies, the same countries that claim they are our ‘friends’ at the moment.



Donald Trump never ceases to amaze me: just when I’m convinced he’s reached the absolute bottom in terms of his crudeness and cruelty towards human beings, he always surprises me as to the depth of his meanness and venality. The other day, he posts a doctored photograph of Nancy Pelosi clad in Muslim garb, including an hajji covering on her head. This happened after Ms. Pelosi had the temerity to ask questions regarding the decision to kill Iran’s General Suleiman. Mr. Trump, in his inimitable meathead fashion, was insinuating Ms. Pelosi was backing Iran. What a jerk our President is.

The gesture by Mr. Trump reminded me of a historic event in 1953 featuring Republican Senator Joseph R. McCarthy and a subcommittee hearing he was heading.** Mr. McCarthy’s committee was searching for Communists amidst the federal government in televised proceedings. A couple of months into the hearings, Joe McCarthy accused the opposing Army attorney of harboring a young Communist in his legal firm. The opposing attorney, Joseph Welsh, listened to Mr. McCarthy for a minute or two, as the senator railed against the young man. Then, in beautifully understated, quiet language, Mr. Welsh replied, ‘Let us not assassinate this lad any further, Senator. Have you no sense of decency?’

At that moment, the career of Joseph McCarthy was finished. Public approval vanished, as President Dwight Eisenhower decided after the hearings to abandon Mr. McCarthy. His heavy drinking increased, and he was dead three years later.

Thankfully, Mr. Welsh’s words still reverberate today, almost 70 years later. Readers, I leave you with this: ‘Mr. Trump, have you no sense of decency?’

** ‘Point of Order’, a documentary on the McCarthy-Army hearings, by Emilio de Antonio, 1964, is available on DVD. It’s very good.

Mr. Gripes                                                                      
By Jim Israel
January 15, 2020