Leave a comment Posted on Indiana Jones, Jaws, John Williams, Star Wars, Steven Spielberg, Superman

Memories by John Williams

As a teenager, the section of any record store where I spent the majority of time browsing was the film soundtracks.  Most of my albums were scores by my favorite composers:  Bernard Herrman, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman, and John Williams.

At that time, one could not see a film again unless it was shown on television or re-released in movie theaters.  So, I’d play an album on my record player and allow the music to wash over me as I reclined on my bed staring up at the blank ceiling, letting the musical leitmotivs conjure up specific scenes from the film.

This month, a new documentary premiered, “Music by John Williams,” chronicling the maestro’s life story.  Its subtitle could be “With Collaboration by Steven Spielberg” because in nearly all of his 34 films, the film director has worked with Williams.

It is an unprecedented nearly half a century of work that began in 1975 with “Jaws” and was last renewed in 2022 with “The Fabelmans.”  When they first worked together, Spielberg was 29 and Williams 43.

During this second half of his life, Williams found a second career as a conductor, first as the principal conductor with the Boston Pops Orchestra for 14 years, then as a guest conductor with orchestras around the world (he’ll head the Berlin Philharmonic in June 2025).

Try to imagine any of these movies without hearing in your head their musical themes:  “Jaws,” “Star Wars,” “Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Superman,” “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” “E.T.,” “Jurassic Park,” “Schindler’s List,” or “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.”

Every time a person sees a film released by Universal, one also hears the fanfare music by Williams.  That goes for the Olympics and NBC News.  And to think he began this body of work in his mid-40’s.  Little did he know his life was only at its mid-point.

His most stirring pieces can rouse one’s spirits:  Superman flying through the sky, the Jedi fighters diving deep into the Death Star, Indiana Jones dashing away from danger onto a plane, the boys’ bicycling across the moon.  His most quiet passages can bring tears:  Elliot saying goodbye to E.T., Schindler at a loss upon receiving a gold watch from the Jewish people whose lives he saved.

Despite technological advances in devices that could write the notes for him on a scoresheet, he adheres to his laborious habit of writing down each note by hand.  And, with few exceptions, chooses not to employ electronic instruments because, as he says, you can’t hear a musician’s soul through a synthesizer.

Of course, there are scores of films Williams worked on that aren’t memorable.  There are critics who view his work as derivative and schmaltzy.  But there’s no denying that some of his compositions will never be forgotten.

John Williams and Steven Spielberg.

Leave a comment Posted on Donald Trump, election, Kamala Harris, president

America’s Split Personality

An avalanche of political discourse has spilled over the media pipeline the past couple of weeks in a futile effort to explain the results of this year’s presidential election.  For those who voted for Harris, it is a fruitless search for answers.

I’ve read op-eds, watched YouTube videos and heard podcasts where political pundits offer their version of why Trump won and Harris lost.

In my common-sense view, I’ve concluded I don’t know and neither does anyone else no matter how much data they pour over.

For me, I view the election results through a bare bones lens.  America had a choice for president:  one was a convicted felon and one was not.

And America chose the felon.

No matter why or how Donald Trump appeals to the public, whether they like his policies or his non-political correctness in his language, his actions on Jan. 6, 2021 of inciting a riot on the U.S. Capitol after two months of denying the election results and not working towards a smooth transition of power to his successor is more than enough evidence to be disqualified for running for president.   Yet for nearly half of all Americans, Jan. 6 meant nothing.

That fact is hard to wrap my mind around.  It’s like living in a society where half of the people feel it’s okay to drive recklessly (oh, wait a minute, we are already living in that society).

For Harris voters, the frustration of her loss is based on perception.  For months, pollsters concluded that the race was too close to call.  Most people ignored the fine print attached to every poll:  a margin of error of a few points.  Therefore, the polls for the most part were accurate.  In the popular vote as of this writing, Trump has 49.9% and Harris has 48.2%, with 2,600,000 votes separating them.  That’s close.  What is not close is the electoral vote which gives the wrong impression that the race was a mandate:  Trump collected 312 electoral votes to Harris’s 226 (270 is needed).  You can’t compare those two numbers mathematically.

The presidential contest has historically been close.  Five of the past nine presidential contests have resulted in the winner not reaching 50%; in other words, a plurality not a majority of Americans voted for the actual president.

“We live in divisive times” is a proclamation that permeates airwaves, as if the times we live in are unique, yet when it comes to raw votes, about half the country chooses a Democrat and the other half chooses a Republican for most of the United States’ history.  The electoral votes exaggerate the 50-50 splits.

Rarely does any president receive more than 60 percent of the popular vote.  John Quincy Adams was elected in 1824 with only 30.9% of the votes.  Imagine him trying to declare a mandate.  Can you guess which president had the second lowest popular vote?  Abraham Lincoln at 39.9% in 1860, often cited as the greatest American president.  More recently, Bill Clinton won with only 42% of the popular vote in 1992.

Only four presidents have ever received 60% or more of the popular vote:  Lyndon Johnson  61.1% (1964), Richard Nixon 60.7% (1972), Warren G. Harding 60.3% (1920), and Franklin D. Roosevelt 60.2% (1936).

American voters since the beginning have divergent views of who should lead our nation.  And when who we want loses, we wonder, “What the hell is wrong with the half the country?”  Instead of getting overly anxious, realize that such angst is part of our tradition.   America takes pride in its diversity in religion and ethnicity so it makes sense that we all don’t vote for the same winner.  That is what makes America great.  And the fact that every four years we get to reset all over again.

Leave a comment Posted on Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Uncategorized, World Series

Blue Heaven

Sports is a diversion and this year with the exhausting presidential political season, boy, do we all need a diversion.

I was born in the same year when the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles in 1958.  Maybe that connection is why they have always been my favorite sports team.

This week, the Dodgers won their 8th World Series championship against the New York Yankees in five games.

I was too young to appreciate the marvels of the 1959, 1963 and 1965 teams, but I vividly recall the 1981, 1988 and 2020 teams.

This year’s edition may be the most inspiring.   After suffering the most pitching injuries of any other team and losing all-stars Mookie Betts and Max Muncy for months, the Dodgers still managed to have the best record in baseball.  Yet when the playoffs began, they were not expected to win the World Series; they were perceived as the underdogs.

The fact that unlike recent years they had to play meaningful baseball up until the final days of the season to secure a division title kept them on their toes.  There was no time to let up on the gas pedal with the San Diego Padres breathing down their necks (end of the cliches).

At the start of the season, the Dodgers were this year’s overdogs.  With over $1 billion of new contracts last winter, the bulk of that owed to Shohei Ohtani, perhaps the greatest baseball player of all time due to his high achievement as both a batter and a pitcher, the Dodgers were expected to win the World Series before the very first “play ball.”

However, their five-man starting pitching rotation in March was decimated come September.  Only Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the second huge acquisition after Ohtani’s, survived the 162-game season though he missed half of it due to injury; the remaining four starters were lost to season-ending injuries. 

At the mid-summer trade deadline, they signed right-hander Jack Flaherty.  Former ace Walker Buehler took two years to recover from his second Tommy John surgery and pitched poorly throughout this season.  No one gave him a chance of making it onto the postseason roster, but the Dodgers had no one else.

This gave them only three starting pitchers going into the playoffs whereas all the other teams had at least four.  What got them through the injuries was their bullpen, the highest performing of any other team.  

The role of relief pitchers has increased significantly.  In 2024, pitchers threw 26 complete games, an all-time low.  Back in 1975, Oakland A’s pitcher Catfish Hunter threw 30 complete games on his own.  Nowadays, if a pitcher completes six out of the nine innings and allows three or less runs, it is labeled a “quality start.” 

For the Dodgers, their starters barely reached five innings over the course of the season meaning the relief pitchers pitched nearly half of the total innings played.  And that trend increased during the playoffs.  In fact, due to the lack of a fourth starter, they scheduled bullpen games where up to eight pitchers were used to complete one game.   That should not be sustainable, but somehow the Dodgers rode that strategy all the way to a championship.  The Most Valuable Player award should have gone to the entire bullpen.

As the Dodgers ascended each step on their climb up to the title—winning the division, beating the Padres in the division series and the New York Mets in the championship series—their clubhouse celebrations were revelatory.  Their raw comments to reporters unmasked a gutsiness and a love for one another, an intense bonding not seen in recent memory.  Chemistry alone can’t count for success, but matched with each athlete playing for each other, lifting their teammates to another level, it made them unbeatable.

One refreshing aspect to the Dodgers’ championship is that for a change the team with the best regular season in baseball won it all.  In the past 29 seasons, the team with the best record won the World Series only eight times.

Up until 1968, baseball had two leagues:  American and National.  The first-place team in each league faced off in the World Series.

From 1969-1993, a second playoff round was added by dividing each league into two divisions, west and east, which doubled the number of teams eligible for the postseason.

From 1994-2011, a third round (division series) was added by rearranging some teams into a third central division and adding a wild card team from each league resulting in eight teams making it to the postseason.  No longer did a team have to win four postseason games; now it’s 11.

Today, more wild cards teams have been added with 12 out of the 30 teams go into the postseason.  That is why in one respect this year’s Dodgers may very well be the best team they have ever had.  And that’s why if you are a Dodger fan, you should still be grinning.  And if you a sports fan, you should feel validated that once in a while, a sports team that is the best during the regular season does win the trophy.

Seeing these high paid athletes get choked up over a game with a small ball and a long bat, their emotions catching in their throats, underscores that money isn’t everything.  Sports reminds us that joy can be found in myriad ways.  It’s up to each person to go find it.

The Dodgers’ championship is my antidote to whoever wins the election.

Leave a comment Posted on getting old

Odd Age vs. Old Age

I’m looking forward to this Halloween for it is the one day a year I can hide my head behind a disguise without appearing to be a criminal.

I never considered myself a vain person, but now I’m facing a crisis of confidence being in public.

I’ve reached a time in my life when I shudder seeing my face in a mirror.  One of the off-putting side effects of going on a vacation and staying in hotels is viewing yourself in brightly lighted mirrors (unlike the dimly lit ones at home) that showcase your age.  It is a startling revelation to see:

  • the wrinkles that suddenly appear around one’s eyes and mouth.
  • the graying tone of one’s skin.
  • the lack of hair on one’s head.

For me, I have had a receding hairline for a while now.  But in more recent years, my hair is not just disappearing—it’s practically gone. 

It brings to mind Sylvia Plath’s poem “Mirror” that personifies a mirror commenting factually on what it sees peering into it—an old woman.

“I am silver and exact. I have no preconceptions.
Whatever I see I swallow immediately
Just as it is, unmisted by love or dislike.
I am not cruel, only truthful‚
The eye of a little god, four-cornered.
Most of the time I meditate on the opposite wall.
It is pink, with speckles. I have looked at it so long
I think it is part of my heart. But it flickers.
Faces and darkness separate us over and over.

Now I am a lake. A woman bends over me,
Searching my reaches for what she really is.
Then she turns to those liars, the candles or the moon.
I see her back, and reflect it faithfully.
She rewards me with tears and an agitation of hands.
I am important to her. She comes and goes.
Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness.
In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman
Rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.”

And that is how I feel.  I no longer recognize the old man who stares back at me.  I see a drooping face of sallow flesh, resulting in a perpetual frown.

Not even my hazel eyes can light up this reflection.  It is a “cold water splashed on one’s face” moment that I cannot escape.

I look older, much older than I feel.  And it troubles me for no matter how energetic I may feel, my face betrays my passions for those who come across me.

For the first time I’m contemplating options that I have resisted.

  • Dying one’s hair.  The number one problem with this route is that I simply have wisps left on top of my much too much visible scalp.  I’d in essence be coloring my skin reddish brown, not my gray straws.
  • Growing facial hair.  It’s a way of re-directing others’ eyesight from the top of one’s head to the bottom though some may question the quality of one’s handlebar mustache, soul patch or Santa beard.
  • Rogaine.  My hair is so thin now that even if new follicles grew, it wouldn’t be enough.
  • Wearing a toupee.  How do I put a wig on my head and act like nothing’s different about me to those who know me?

The quickest solution I’ve come up with is wearing hats.  It’s relatively inexpensive, has nothing to do with chemicals and is instantaneously a complete cover-up on the grotesquerie on my head.  And I could wear a hat all year long without calling attention to myself.  Except it makes me look dorky.  But at this point, I’d rather appear odd than old.

Leave a comment Posted on Dodgers, Shohei Ohtani

Ohtani–Oh My!

For fans of Dodger baseball, the past 12 years have been schizophrenic.  As monumental as the regular season records have been, the playoff runs have been short-lived and sometimes awful.

2013 – 92-70; lost in championship series

2014 – 94-68; lost in divisional series

2015 – 92-70; lost in divisional series

2016 – 91-71; lost in championship series

2017 – 104-58; lost in World Series

2018 – 92-71; lost in World Series

2019 – 106-56; lost in divisional series

2020 – 43-17; won World Series

2021 – 106-56; lost in championship series

2022 – 111-51; lost in divisional series

2023 – 100-62; lost in divisional series

During this incredible 12-year stretch, the L.A. club holds the best winning percentage of any team in baseball.  Normally, that track record would amount to the Dodgers anointed as a dynasty.  Unfortunately, titles are what ultimately determines such a distinction.  And the Dodgers have but one World Series championship (that shortened season one in 2020) to show for their regular season greatness.  It can be argued that 2017 should have been another when the Houston Astros were guilty of cheating their way to a title.

Talk to Dodger fans and they will conclude that the regular season means nothing as long as they don’t win a championship.

I used to feel that way, but this season I no longer do.

That’s due to one player:  Shohei Ohtani.

Every time he comes up to the plate it’s a thrill.  You have to stop what you’re doing and watch what he does.  Look at how many people in the stands are videotaping his at-bats.

For those who may not know, what makes Ohtani unique is his ability to hit and pitch at elite levels.  The only other player who did that was Babe Ruth.  It is why when he left Japan to come to America in 2018, several teams wanted him.  He signed with the Angels and won two Most Valuable Player awards. 

As a free agent over the winter, Ohtani signed with the Dodgers for $700 million, the most expensive contract for an athlete.  But it’s like signing two players at the same time:  a pitcher and a hitter.  Since he’s recovering from arm surgery this year, he is the Designated Hitter.

By focusing solely on hitting, he is doing things never done or rarely done before in the nearly 200 years of baseball.

Earlier this season he became the 6th player in MLB history to have at least 40 home runs and 40 steals in the same season. Of those players, he achieved that mark in the fewest games.

And on Sept. 19, the one-year anniversary of his arm surgery, Ohtani may have had the best single game every for any baseball player in history, when he surpassed 50 homers and 50 steals.

He went 6 for 6, with a single, 2 doubles and 3 homeruns; those homers were list last three at-bats.

Look at Ohtani’s stats for that single game:

  • He had 10 RBIs, the most for any Dodger player.
  • He’s the 16th player to have 10 RBIs.
  • He’s the 7th player to have 17 total bases.
  • He’s the 1st player to have 3 HRs and 2 SBs.
  • He’s the 1st player to have 10 RBIs and 5 extra-base hits.
  • His batting average increased from .287 to .294.

Ohtani challenged himself to steal more bases this year.  Previously, he only had 26 stolen bases out of 36 attempts.  As of this writing, he has 55 stolen bases out of 59 attempts. He also has 53 home runs.

That day, the Dodgers clinched a playoff spot for the 12th straight year.  It also was the first time Ohtani in 7 years will be in the playoffs ending the longest streak of games for a current player who never played in a playoff game before.

What makes his productivity even more impressive is this.

  • This is his first year adjusting to a new team and environment.
  • In March, his closest American friend pled guilty to stealing $17 million in a gambling scandal; Ohtani had no idea of this betrayal.
  • Signing such a huge contract did not harm his output; in fact, he is having his best year in the majors.

Think of the global media pressure Ohtani has managed in all of the visiting cities.  One thing is clear:  no moment overwhelms him.  In last year’s World Baseball Classic, he clinched the championship for Japan.  One can only imagine how he will perform in the playoffs.

And the most amazing part of this story is how humble of a person Ohtani is.  The first thing he said after the game:  “[I am] very respectful to the peers and everybody who came before who played the sport of baseball.”

Sports can provide a respite from negative news.  To marvel at how one human can perform at a level never before seen in a particular sport is glorious.

As much as I would love for the Dodgers to win their first full season championship since 1988, Ohtani is a champion, and next year when he pitches and hits, who know what records he will break?  I’m going to enjoy watching him play in Dodger Blue for the next 9 years.  How lucky we Dodger fans are!

Leave a comment Posted on Disneyland, General Hospital, Pete Renaday, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle

Pete Renaday will be Missed

Actor Pete Renaday, born Pierre Renoudet, died last week after just turning 89 years old.  When word spread about his passing, most people know him through his voice work for cartoons, video games and Disney theme park rides.  However, he acted all of his life on stage, in television and films including a recurring role on “General Hospital.”

I got to know Pete through my brother Greg.  The two of them worked together at Disney Studios in the 1970’s.

One of the benefits of being the younger brother is getting introduced to your big brother’s buddies.  Of all the interesting artistic people Greg introduced me to when I was a teenager, from cartoonists to comic book collectors, Pete was the one known by his first name; the others—Foster, Spicer—only by their last.  And for me, he was the most special of my brothers’ friends.

While over the course of five decades I only spent a short amount of time with Pete, every visit meant time spent with a quick-witted man with a wink in his eye, and an Orson Welles’ worthy voice weighted with authority.  My brother used to have game nights with his pals, and he’d invite me as well.  I felt special that Greg invited me to these gatherings.  Though I was the youngest, I appreciated the jokes and conversation that made those nights so much fun.

The last time I saw Pete was with my brother for a lunch in a coffee shop a few years back.  Though his body aged, his mind remained sharp.

Last year when I digitized all my reel-to-reel audio tapes, I heard for the first time in decades a recording Pete made for me.  When I was a teen, I wrote dozens of short stories in the vein of Rod Serling.  I shared one with Pete who thought it would make for a good radio play.

Using high-end equipment in his apartment, he produced a 16-minute version of one of my stories with music and sound effects—professionally done.  It demonstrated the level of professionalism Pete employed no matter if it was narrating a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle character, the Mark Twain ride at Disneyland, playing Henry Higgins in a local theatrical production of “My Fair Lady,” or recording an unpublished work by his friend’s younger brother.

He also graciously appeared in a few of my short films I made.  His appearances elevated those Super 8 productions.

I thought about inviting Pete over to my house so I could play for him again those films and the radio show, but unfortunately it never happened.  He was really my brother’s friend, and I felt awkward initiating something on my own.

I’m lucky I knew Pete.  He brightened my life, and he will be missed.

Leave a comment Posted on Deli Man, Langer's Delicatessen, Mayor Karen Bass, Norm Langer, Steve Lopez

Go to Langer’s–NOW

Anytime I’m alerted that a favorite restaurant may close, I panic.  Such is the case with Langer’s Delicatessen in Los Angeles at Seventh and Alvarado. 

Langer’s has the best tasting pastrami of all the remaining Jewish delicatessens in the Los Angeles area (and there aren’t many left).  Too bad it has the worst location.

It has been around for 77 years.  Norm Langer, the son of Al who built the business, has been around for 79 years.  For decades the area around MacArthur Park has been unsafe, but in more recent years even more so with open drug use on the surrounding streets.

Norm has been after City Hall to do something to clean up the neighborhood; otherwise, he may have to close the restaurant.  But it was L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez who wrote a story about it, which then went viral on local TV newscasts, to attract sufficient attention.

I had to go to Langer’s immediately before anything happened to the restaurant . . . or to Norm.

When I entered Langer’s yesterday, there standing near the counter was Norm himself.  I walked up to him, shook his hand and asked him if the City had responded to the swell of media coverage the past few days. 

“Yesterday, I met with the Mayor for an hour,” he said, somewhat confident that action may finally be taken.  I also inquired if there were any Langer offspring who could continue . . ., but before I could finish my question, he interrupted demonstratively, “No, I’m it,” clearly a question he is tired of answering.

Lopez wrote a follow-up about Mayor Karen Bass’s meeting with Norm at Langer’s.  One thing each discovered about the other:  they both attended the same junior and senior high schools.  Bass promised to turn things around (hopefully before the 2028 Olympics).

The possibility of losing Langer’s would put another nail into the Jewish Deli coffin.  The documentary “Deli Man” (2014) deftly explains why delicatessens are on the restaurant endangered list:  people’s diets have changed, and deli meats are more expensive than a fast food lunch.

Besides Langers, Brent’s in Northridge and Westlake Village, Art’s in Studio City and Nate ’n’ Al’s in Beverly Hills are the remaining deli’s in the L.A. area that are still good.

After eating my pastrami on rye with cole slaw and pickles followed by a chocolate egg cream, I was pleasantly surprised at the long line of customers on Seventh Street at 12:45 waiting for a table.

Now, if we could only clone Norm so that a Langer can continue the deli for another 77 years.

1 Comment Posted on Beauty and the Beast, digitizing home videos, Home movies, home videos

Reliving Life in Home Videos

Recently I had 40 mini-dv home video tapes digitally transferred onto a thumb drive.  Ever since my Sony camera stopped working, my wife and I were unable to view this large collection of our family’s lives from 2003 to 2011, the prime time of our boys’ childhoods.

Now we are re-living birthdays, Christmases, summer vacations and graduations.  For us empty nesters, watching these scenes is like finding the Fountain of Youth.  Look how young we were!  Look how fat I was!  How adorable the boys were!

One of the best benefits of having videos digitized is the ease of navigation.  No longer do I have to stop the video camera, press “forward” or “rewind” with the sound of the physical tape whirring while searching for a particular scene.  Now, all it takes is a quick “sliding” of the status bar to navigate through a video in lightning speed.

All the years when I chronicled my family’s history, I didn’t take the time to write down on each video every segment shot.  Sure, I copied down the year and maybe one or two main notes like “trip to Canada,” but in the midst of the hustle and bustle of daily life of rearing two young boys, I didn’t have the energy to go through each minute of a 60-minute video and document the dozens of scenes captured on each tape.

While the physical act of digitizing went smoothly via my local camera store, scrutinizing all the material, all 2,400 minutes of it, pausing frequently to type a description and time stamp of each segment, took hours resulting in a 12-page single-page document.

Decades ago when home movies were captured on 2 and ½ minute rolls of film, projecting them on a screen to show people was simple and short.  In all the years of shooting videotape, however, I have never gathered loved ones around the TV to watch a full hour of a day at Disneyland, something even I wouldn’t have the patience for.  Without the physical limits of film which required a proficient cameraman who could edit while filming, the limitless aspects of video fosters laziness as people shoot hours of an event from start to finish.  Have you ever watched a feature film shot in real time?  With few exceptions, it’s excruciating.

And so, my game plan with the help of my youngest son who’s adept at video editing is to produce 15-minute highlight reels so I can finally share in small chunks slices of our past.

In scouring through this material, it is surprising to discover in-between the major videos of events candid scenes I captured every so often just by walking around the house.  There’s Ben in the den rehearsing an oral for a school project where he’s pretending to be a vacuum cleaner commenting on what he’s “eating.”  There’s Max lying on the carpet in his room reading aloud to himself a Diary of a Wimpy Kid book unaware I was in the doorway taping him.  There’s my wife reading her own book (silently) at the dining room table not conscious of my presence.  

There are even times when I appear in the videos usually when Ben took the camera.  I recall those times when he did, how I instructed him how to properly hold the camera and not film silly things, but now I look back and, boy, do I wish he would have shot more videos.   Those are the most beautiful scenes because they are so natural and reveals normal everyday moments.

There are bittersweet scenes as well of watching our sons play together when they were younger, how close they used to be.  Seeing them appear again as children, Ben twirling Max in the living room to the “Beauty and the Beast” song.   

And then the teary moments of viewing my mother’s last Mother’s Day or Christmas when her health had declined, though at the time we didn’t know it would be her last celebrations.  And that’s the most profound takeaway from looking at old videos:  how fast life disappears and how essential to absorb each day we have.

1 Comment Posted on Corey Comperatore, Donald Trump, J. D. Vance, Joe Biden

Two Assassination Attempts

Last week, a 20-year-old troubled man thought it was his life’s goal to kill President Biden or former president Trump.  He chose Trump because of his close proximity (40 miles) to where the rally took place.

No matter one’s political leanings, it is a terrible day in America when a citizen targets a former president.  At a time when few events unite all Americans, Saturday was a time for calm reactions.  However, in today’s America, a majority of the people no longer agree on facts.

Look at the immediate reaction from Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, now the Republican Party’s Vice President nominee who said this.

“The central premise of the Biden campaign is that President Donald Trump is an authoritarian fascist who must be stopped at all costs. That rhetoric led directly to President Trump’s attempted assassination.”

In other words, President Biden was behind it.  That’s not true.  The shooter was tracking both politicians.  He was mentally disturbed and the investigation into his troubled life has revealed that he wasn’t political, just insane.

President Biden spoke to reporters after the event about how the rhetoric on both sides needs to be toned down.  But that unifying message has to be accepted by both sides; like a game, everyone must abide by the rules.

As an American who doesn’t belong to any political party, I was heartened to hear that Biden placed a call to the former president to check in on him.   Even Trump acknowledged that kind gesture, not publicly, but in a private conversation with another presidential candidate, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. 

Trump released a statement that “it was God alone who prevented the unthinkable from happening.”  But was it also “God alone” who took away the life of Corey Comperatore, the volunteer firefighter who attended the rally with his wife and daughter?

If hate speech were on the ballot, Trump would win in a landslide.  Since he ran for president in 2015, he has not followed normal protocols as a national political figure.   He says things that no other president has ever said, yet that is part of his appeal for a good portion of Americans.   His focus is divisiveness, not unity.

Unfortunately for the Democrats, Biden’s health has declined, most notably on display in the debate a few weeks ago.  Ever since then, there has been another type of assassination brewing, non-violent but still lethal.  Joe must go.  Each day there is another headline of an even more powerful Democrat who jumps on the bandwagon.  If this were Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar, the senators would call a meeting with the president concealing daggers, distracting Biden until each senator took turns stabbing their leader, with Vice President Harris, the loyal Brutus figure, providing the final blow as Biden cries out, “Et tu, Kamala?”

For Trump supporters, the past few weeks have been a combination of Mardi Gras and the Fourth of July rolled into one big MAGA celebration.  The Republicans are so confident in the election that when Trump spoke at the convention, they didn’t wait for his inauguration in January.  He stood in front of an IMAX-sized image of the White House, as if to show he’s already returned.

Unlike, the attempt on Trump’s life (a bullet grazed the top of his ear), the “killing” of Biden will be successful.

What it comes down to is this.  Even though Trump is the only president in history who has been impeached twice and found guilty of a felonious crime, the things that should disqualify him are, one, not accepting the results of the 2020 election, two, inciting people to storm the Capitol on Jan. 6 and not putting a stop to it for over three hours, and three, the only president not to attend the inauguration of his successor, a sacred symbol of democracy’s smooth transition.

For those of us who believe in the law, thank goodness Mike Pence also shared that belief by validating the results of the presidential election.   Would possible future vice president Vance do the same thing if he ran for president in 2028 and had to certify the results of an election he lost?

A few days after the shooting, President Biden put in a call to Comperatore’s widow to offer his condolences; however, she refused the call “because of her husband’s political views.”  Imagine refusing to accept a call from the President of the United States?  That’s how bad it’s gotten in this country.

Leave a comment Posted on Donald Trump, Joe Biden, presidential debate

Trump Looked Healthier Than Biden: So What?

I recall Muhammad Ali’s last boxing match against Trevor Berbick in 1981.  At almost 40 years old and out of shape, it was a shame to see the greatest boxer of all time stand motionless, covering his head with his gloves, moving his body back against the ropes, avoiding contact to his aged body.

That’s what I thought of as I watched President Joe Biden debate Former President Donald Trump.

If you plan on voting for him, it was painful to watch.  No one wants to see a decent person look feeble.  But he is 81.

If you plan on voting for Trump, the fourth of July came early.  Shoot off the fireworks.

Presidential debates are a form of entertainment where viewers tune in to see if their guy can make the other guy look bad.  And Biden looked bad, but Trump sounded worse, his lies and hyperboles swimming in superlatives:  “He’s the worst,” “I’m the greatest.”

Close your eyes, don’t be fooled by the “Apprentice” reality star, and listen to what he says about the country you love.  He sounds anti-American.  Remember his Inaugural speech which painted a dark and damaged picture of America? 

The first televised debate of presidential candidates happened in 1960 between Vice President Richard Nixon and Senator John Kennedy.  People who watched the first debate thought that Kennedy won it.  Those who heard the debate on radio thought that Nixon won it.  And ever since then, Americans have chosen presidents based more on their appearance than on their substance.

If that history is any indication, God help America with a second Trump term.

For me, I don’t care what policies Biden or Trump which to implement, how they feel about Ukraine or Israel, about immigration or inflation.  This election is about democracy.

I will vote for Biden because of what he represents—stability, the Constitution, honesty, decency.  A vote for Trump represents chaos, anarchy, lying, meanness.

It stuns me that just 12 years ago, Americans voted for Barack Obama’s second term.  I’m not sure if he were running today if he would get re-elected.

For those Americans who still believe in voting for the candidate who will best lead the most vital country in the world in the future, I’d rather have a frail old man than a hateful one.

Trump thrives on attention and he has already made his mark in history.

He is the first president to be impeached twice.

He is the only former president to be a convicted felon.

He is the only president to break with the traditional smooth transition of power began by George Washington when he refused to attend Biden’s Inauguration.  That act is what separates us from other countries.

People have short memories of when Trump was in office.  Not a week went by without a hysterical false statement from him or a cabinet member resigning from the chaotic West Wing.

After the debate, it is surprising how many Democrats dumped on Biden or wish to drop him off the ticket.

There is one thing Biden has going for him more than any other Democrat:  he beat Trump by seven million votes.

When your guy is down, it is not the time to step on him, but to offer support, to get him up from the mat.

This election is not about Americans’ personal financial situations, it is about America’s democratic situation.

The question foremost on Americans’ minds should not be, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”  The question must be, “Is democracy better off today than it was four years ago?”

The clear answer is January 6, 2021.  Trump almost didn’t leave office.  He refused to accept facts that he lost the election.  If he’s elected again, what will he do come January 6, 2029?  He may never leave the White House.  His followers will be more violent.  How can voters hand over the keys to American democracy into his hands again?  This country will never be the same again.