North Korea’s dictator was recently described in glowing terms: “very talented man … wants to do the right thing … very worthy, very smart negotiator … excellent relationship … funny guy … loves his people … great personality … a great honor … very special bond … I do trust him.”
“…extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.”
Remember way back in 2008, when the U.S. economy – in fact the whole world’s economy – was on the verge of irreparable meltdown as a result of ludicrously complicated investment schemes concocted by an unregulated banking industry? With taxpayer bailouts totaling $182 billion, insurance behemoth American International Group (AIG) became the poster child of financial shenanigans. They eventually were shamed into canceling expensive conferences at luxury resorts, the St Regis in Dana Point CA and the Ritz-Carlton at Half Moon Bay CA. The canceled events were had been incentives for top sales producers.
Headline stories fueling outrage for AIG’s lavish spending didn’t inquire into how the independent agents selling AIG’s boring insurance products felt about having their rewards pulled. Compensation for the high-flying perpetrators of the investment schemes was not affected. No note was taken of the housekeepers or banquet servers or other staff of the resorts and the effect on them of lost income from the canceled events.
Much news lately about the sudden cancellation of the “Roseanne” TV show after the star’s racist Twitter remark. The show’s namesake will be fine financially, as will the on-air cast. Most of them, presumably, have guaranteed contracts. Not so fortunate, however are the behind-the-scenes workers who lost their wages with no advance warning. Prop makers, set decorators and special effects workers and others expected at least nine more months of regular paychecks from the hit show which the ABC network had recently renewed for another season.
Roseanne Barr posted on Twitter, “I just want to* apologize to the hundreds of people and wonderful writers (all liberal) and talented actors who lost their jobs on my show due to my stupid tweet.” The next day she took the comment down from her Twitter account and blamed ABC for the lost jobs.
* Why do people “want to apologize” or “want to thank” or “want to” whatever else? If they want to, why not just do it without telling us they “want to?”
Memorial Day began in 1868 as Decoration Day, promoted by General John Logan on behalf of Northern Civil War veterans, designated May 30 as a day for “the purpose of strewing with flowers, or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion.”
The day of remembrance became Memorial Day during the Great War – later to become known as World War I – to honor veterans of all the nation’s wars. The commemoration was changed to the last Monday of May in 1971 to conform to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, passed by Congress in 1968.
Memorial Day is also the unofficial beginning of summer in the U.S.
Twenty-two-year-old Elvis Presley paid $102,500 for a home in Memphis for his parents and himself. That was in 1957. The purchase price was equivalent to about $915,000 in 2018. Today, Graceland is the second-most-visited house in the country. (First is the White House.) At 10,000 square feet and less than a million dollars, though, Elvis’s estate is almost laughable in the hierarchy of grandiose residences. In Los Angeles’s Bel Air neighborhood, anything less than 30,000 square feet cannot be taken seriously. And a million dollars? Hard Rock Café co-founder Peter Morton recently sold his Malibu home for $110 million.
We as a nation, have decided that tens of thousands of violent deaths and countless injuries every year is a reasonable price to pay to keep guns easily accessible to all. Each mass shooting brings out politicians to send thoughts and prayers to the bereaved and vow to work on preventing future slaughters. That maybe there’s too many guns that are too easy to get is not even considered.
The National Rifle Association’s newly installed president, Oliver North – the person who arranged arms sales to Iran and the subsequent money laundering – says it’s too many kids on Ritalin. Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Lieutenant-Governor Dan Patrick say it’s too many doors on school buildings.
(Fun fact about wheelchair-bound Abbott: In 1984, while jogging – and with no health insurance – a large tree limb fell on him, resulting in waist-down paralysis and a $10 million-plus insurance settlement. In his later political career, he advocated and helped pass legislation to make sure no one else will ever receive a seven-figure judgment.)
It’s failure to deal with mental-health issues.
It’s not enough religion in schools.
It’s violent video games.
Way back when “The Tonight Show” was more commonly known as “The Johnny Carson Show,” best-selling author and former policeman Joseph Wambaugh made one of his occasional guest appearances. The subject of violence on television came into the conversation. Violence – in movies and TV – was having one of its periodic appearances in the headlines, stirring up outrage and controversy. Wambaugh said that if violence was to be shown, then it should be depicted as it really is, not sanitized as the media portrayed. “Wouldn’t people be offended?” Johnny asked. “They’d be offended as hell,” Wambaugh responded. “That’s the point.”
Since massacres by firearms are and will be integral to our national life, it’s time for the various media to show the public in explicit detail. The network news cameras should be allowed to graphically record the carnage and blood and damaged bodies and broadcast it to the world. We should see the bloodshed and decide if we’re really okay with it.
(If you want to stay up-to-date on gun violence in the U.S., www.gunviolencearchive.org/ gives you a daily update.)
President Donald Trump sent out a Twitter message celebrating the milestone: “Congratulations America, we are now into the second year of the greatest Witch Hunt in American History…”
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told Fox News (sic) viewers, “It’s about time to get the darn thing over with. It’s about time to say, ‘Enough. We’ve tortured this president enough.’”
Vice-President Mike Pence said, “And in the interest of the country, I think it’s time to wrap it up. I would very respectfully encourage the special counsel and his team to bring their work to completion.”
