Because my last name is Carrier I've long-noticed the air conditioning company by the same name, secretly hoping there's a pile of money there waiting to find me as its inheritor. Shy of that, I can gripe about the hype The Donald tried to foist on us. He brought it up at least four times during the campaign, saying the 2100 Carrier jobs would not go - or there would be a 35% tariff on the returning products. Turns out about 1250 Carrier jobs will…
President elect Donald Trump has a chance to actually make America great and secure a lasting heroic role in history. Or he could could be remembered as just another fascistic glory-glut who does lasting damage before being deposed. I have a lingering glimmer of hope he isn't as bad as he's been portrayed. He seems more pragmatic than ideological. He's no King Ashoka ("he who is without sorrow and regards everyone with affection") but he could be remembered as the surprise president who healed a…
Dear Donald Trump, I have to admit, despite all your faults, I don't dislike you. You have pizzazz, boldness. You've brawled your way from the outside through the Republican primary and our national election to win the presidency, something few believed could be done. Your utter negativity and gravely voice worked. I don't mind your fancy hair-do. Your wife is pretty. Maybe you're not as bad as I and others fear. Lest readers think I am only and always negative on you, here are some…
"Oops," said Texas governor Rick Perry during the Republican primary. He couldn't remember which vital branch of our government he would flippantly trash. Now, such silly, sad, slogan-laden stupidity of the Tea Party and Alt Right might attack us and our government with all the finesse of a sledge-hammer. "Oops," says America. What frivolous, furious, folly have we voted into rule? Trump and his supporters will be making America groan again! And again. We will wince for generations. He'll be making America grope again too,…
In keeping with his so-far-successful strategy of appealing to the repugnant values of his base, making America groan again, Donald Trump has reached for a new low - groping the groins of those he finds attractive. Most people are aghast at his pushing his star status on pretty women. I am not. It is an evolutionary trait that some women make allowances for men of position, money, and power and for some men to take advantage when they can. Henry Kissinger famously said, "Power is…
The debate's out-looking split-screen view divides us all. Both vice-presidential candidates did OK in the debate, despite the occasional jumble of voices, intrusive comments and evasive replies. Each spoke their party's perspective vigorously. Moderator Elaine Quifano prepared concise and probing questions, but Kaine and Pence mostly evaded them. She could have both woven them into the flow and controlled the men better, but all in all, she and they did OK. What wasn't OK was the insidious direction of camera angles, used so as to…
It was an earlier September 11th, back in 1970, when Nixon's vice-president Spiro Agnew let loose his alliterative "nattering nabobs of negativity." It helped launch the so-called Moral Majority, which morphed into the belligerent Tea Party, which shouted Donald Trump into our lives. Thing is, Republicans have long-been their own nattering nabobs of negativity. It's the only thing they do! They deliberately didn't cooperate with anything President Obama politely posed. They stopped our government from working at all, then blamed the malaise on Obama. They're…
When repugnant tactics work, it's time for Repuglicans to celebrate and use them. Republicans are in upheaval. How to bring in rude and annoying Tea Party Conservatives and the similar millions who like Donald Trump? I have an re-branding idea that could capitalize on this underlying attitude, claiming the traits that used to go unspoken. All republicans need to do is change one letter in their name, dropping the "b" in inserting a "g." The naive might think cleaving to the root word "repugnant" would…
Donald Trump excuses and sympathizes with his supporter who attacked a protester from behind, beating him up. Trump said the attacker was "fed up" with such disruption, as if the protester caused the attack. Don't dare protest or we'll beat you up, goes his implied threat. Further, he went on to say there are millions who are similarly fed up. Fed up with what? Perhaps constant irate anger without sensible content is wearing in them. A national brain imbalance of raging mid-brains has millions gone…
Griping at that 88th Academy Awards obscured the magnificent spectacle it was. The need to include more minorities, while important to admit and improve, shouldn't distract us from the reason to celebrate marvelous movies. That there is no proportional representation of blacks and other minorities is a problem in the midst of being admitted and addressed. It is an industry, like America, too slow to include and praise all of us. It lags and needs to be goaded, yes. But fixing entrenched racism isn't its…