It should come as no surprise to “tweeters,” internet readers, and television devotees that the American taste for light comedy and objective journalism has been replaced by a rapacious, “take-no-prisoners,” mentality. In the age of Trump, this development has evolved in accord with the rise and fall and rise again of the Trump phenomenon. First […]
Here you are — like 76% of your fellow Americans you’re living paycheck to paycheck and sometimes your pay doesn’t stretch that far. You also happen to be one of 44 million Americans who have unpaid student loans. Thanks to those loans, you managed to get a college degree, but it’s costing you $400 a […]
Two Nobel Prize acceptance speeches. Two splendid orators. Two African American Men. Forty-five years apart. One was 48 years old and President; the other 35, a preacher and leader of the civil rights movement. For both, war was the backdrop. Dr. King grappling with the war in Vietnam, President Obama with seven wars, notably […]
Dog Ate My Homework “I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that were known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department.” (Sen. Joseph McCarthy, 1950 speech to the Ohio […]
Crass Commercialism and Corporate Greed in the Age of Infomercials Welcome to the wacky world of infomercials. Part product and message tester, part venue for new product introduction and jumping off point for retail hook-ups, this lengthy commercial (normally 30 minutes) usually airs between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. (In media circles the graveyard shift […]
“The Gray Lady” has her pantyhose in a knot. The “lady” in question? The New York Times, “regarded by many in the world…as the world’s greatest newspaper…generally hail[ed] as …gray by way of acknowledging its traditional special marks: starch conservatism and circumspection.” This encomium appeared in Life magazine in 1951, celebrating the Times’ 100th birthday. The […]
Introduction to “Legacy and All That Jazz” In “Legacy and All that Jazz,” we look at why “the Russians did it” meme is becoming the stuff of story and song all over Washington DC. After all mutual hacking between Russia and the US and among the US and every other country on earth (even our […]
Legacy and All that Jazz The Obama administration has finally hit the mother lode. Searching for a high note to end his presidency on, Obama’s quest for long-lasting greatness not subject to reality was fulfilled in a time-tested (by most previous occupants of the White house) maneuver — blame it on the Russians. You might […]
Two Party Dilemma As 2016 beats a merciful retreat and 2017 hoves into view, we look back on the 2016 election as a study in opposites — more “same old, same old,” than radical departure. One of the two wings of the war/business party won (expected) but it was the wrong party (unexpected). Faced with […]
We Must March My Darlings (Right Into the White House) November 8th was the beginning —a shorter lived facsimile erupted six weeks later when the electoral college made Trump’s inauguration inevitable — spilling out from left and right coasts and soon the howls of dismay could be heard in the heartland where the media, mainstream […]
RSS FEED Suspicious Angels