Year: 2017

My house, when I was a ten year old, was a “Stop laughing, Daddy, this is serious!” house. The program in question was “Batman,” and I took it VERY seriously. Every Thursday morning at school we would debate how in the world the dynamic duo was going to get out of the situation they were trapped in the previous night. I remember getting it right exactly one time: when the Joker had Batman and Robin strapped into electric chairs, and I properly guessed that they’d be saved by a blackout, just like the one in New York.

Many, many years later I stumbled over Batman repeats on Nickelodeon. Batman and Robin had just walked into Gotham Library, searching for the Riddler. The startled librarian said, “Batman and Robin! What are you doing here?” Batman said, “We’re wondering if you’ve seen any strange looking people here today.” Rather than provide the obvious response–“You mean besides you?”–the librarian said, “Whatever do you mean?” Robin said, “We’re looking for a man wearing a green leotard with big black question marks.” The librarian thought about this a moment and said, “I don’t recall seeing anyone like that. But you know, so many people come and go here during the day.” And I burst out laughing and realized that, Oh my God, it was a comedy. I immediately felt terrible for all the times I’d shushed my dad.

And the great comedian who led it all was Adam West. Developing a pitch-perfect deadpan years before Leslie Neilsen perfected it in Airplane!, West was my generation’s Batman. He didn’t speak in a gravelly, threatening voice, and every cop loved him. He wasn’t “The Batman.” He was just Batman. More serious comics fans may have despised him since he effectively kiddified the character, but I was a kiddie, so I loved it. West effectively disappeared from the scene and fans did their best to forget him, but in more recent years nostalgia (and a handful of bad Batman films) spurred retrospective adoration for the original series, which finally spawned DVD releases, memorial books and TV movies, and even a recent animated special.

I had the honor to speak with West at various conventions and always found him to be quite patient and charming. I’d loved to have been able to spend more time with him, to tell him how much his TV series meant to me. But I doubt I needed to because he probably heard it a million times.

Rest well, Caped Crusader.

PAD

It just never stops. Then again, I have no idea why the Trump family would care what we say. After all, according to son Eric, anyone who is in opposition to his father is not considered to be a person. Well, let’s see what concerns the non-people this week.

1). Blaming Democrats taken to a new level.. So Trump used his favorite means of communication, Twitter, to accuse Democrats of making it impossible to post people to offices. “Dems are taking forever to approve my people, including Ambassadors. They are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS! Want approvals.”

Except here’s the problem: Trump has presented only a handful of nominations to the Senate after ordering that all politically appointed Ambassadors resign as of January 20. He did nominate ambassadors for China, Israel and the United Nations: all approved. The New Zealand ambassador is expected to be approved shortly by the full Senate. Nominees for the Bahamas, Japan and the Vatican are in various stages of the approvals process, and that’s it. In point of fact, including Ambassadors, there are 442 appointments waiting for names to be announced. That is somewhat insane, and the fact that Trump is blaming the Democrats (who are in the minority) for his inability and unwillingness to do his dámņëd job is just…

Well, actually, it’s typical.

2). Hope Springs Eternal.. Yesterday was James Comey Day, which became something of a national drinking game as bars put out challenges where free drinks would be served every time Trump posted: which, in a fit of sanity or self-restraint or good governing by his staff, he didn’t do. Comey, the guy who helped sink Hillary, sat in front of the Senate and–depending on who you were–either vindicated Trump (so said Trump, his attorney, and a handful of senators) or instead lay the groundwork for impeachment (everyone else, except for John McCain, who wound up spouting such an array of word salad that we just wanted to check him into Bellvue for 72 hours of observation.).

Not since Bill Clinton wanted to define the word “is” has a president’s language been so thoroughly parsed. It all comes down to Trump’s assertion that he “hoped” the Michael Flynn investigation would be halted. Was that an order or was it not? Obviously, it all comes down to context. If he says it as an offhand remark to four other guys while having drinks, yes, it’s a wish. When he says it one on one to the guy conducting the investigation, yes, it’s an order. Of course it is. When your father says to you, “I hope you understand what I’m telling you,” this isn’t a vague wish that you grasp the general principles. It’s an order. And if you don’t understand it, you’ll get punished. Which is exactly what happened to Comey. He did’t obey Trump’s wishes and he was fired. End of story. I’m sorry, but if you can impeach Clinton for lying about getting a bløw jøb, you MUST impeach Trump for trying to stop an investigation and firing the guy who was conducting it. It’s no more complicated than that.

Did he do anything right?. He didn’t tweet. Best thing he could have done.

PAD

So out of nowhere, I received the following email from an email I was unfamiliar with:

I can write better than you. Show me how I am wrong. I am here to HELP YOU but it’s between you and me and that’s it.

I thought that was odd and wrote back, asking who he was since he hadn’t identified himself. He told me. His name rang no bells. Apparently he’s a convention organizer. I wrote back and said:

Okay, well, I’m unaware of your writing credits, and I’m pretty satisfied with the quality of my skills, but thanks anyway.

Seemed reasonably polite. Except I guess not because he wrote back again and said:

OK.

I feel bad for your situation and all and was trying to help, but I guess “listening to me” is too far out there a concept for you to reach me…

I mean, I was sitting around, minding my own business, a non-writer writes to me and tells me he’s a better writer than I am, and when I pass on his offer to help me, he gets snarky.

There are days sometimes I think publicizing my email was a mistake.

PAD

Many people have suggested that I open up a Patreon account to avoid any future tangles with the IRS. It is a notion that I have readily embraced, and Kathleen has set it up.

Those who sign up will receive a host of neat stuff, including original artwork, chapters of my future autobiography, chapters of forthcoming books, Cowboy Pete, my observations on writing, Q&As, and all other kinds of neat stuff.

Just click here for my Patreon Account. . Spread the word. And enjoy the ride.

PAD

I am going to be switching Cowboy Pete to be a regular feature on my Patreon account. No, not everything will be: Freaky Friday is going to be remaining right here. But I figure so many people have been asking about it, why not reinstitute it? The TV aspects of it will be minimal during the summer as everything is in repeats, but God knows I see enough movies, so that will get us through the summer.

So what will be discussed in this last public outing? Two recent films.

Continue Reading “Cowboy Pete’s Movie Round Up” →

Kathy Griffin is being pilloried for a photograph she put up where she is holding up a bloodied head of Trump.

And rightly so. It is legitimate to criticize a president as much as you want, but images of violence having been inflicted on him are too much. Both the left and most especially the right understand that.

Which is why so much condemnation was thrown at this:

Or this:

Yes, thank God the right cried out against such things.

I admire their consistency.

PAD

Once again I was going to take the week off because of, y’know, emotional stuff. But I can’t, because as much as we have been saying that Trump’s election means the end of the world, this week he genuinely took a major step toward, well, ending the world.

1). We’ll always not have Paris. So far, Trump has been batting zero in his array of loopy campaign promises. The Muslim ban has failed at every judicial level, the Mexican wall construction is blocked, Hillary Clinton will not be going to jail in our lifetimes. But he has now managed to carry through on the single most dangerous promise he made: to pull out of the Paris climate agreement, the keystone to Obama’s progress toward endeavoring to save the planet. Now technically the pullout can’t occur for several years yet. In point of fact, we won’t actually withdraw until the day after Election Day in 2020, which means that if the right person (i.e., a sane person) manages to take back the office, this insane decision can be minimized. Trump, meanwhile, in his classic stupidity, declared that he was elected to represent Pittsburgh, not Paris. Naturally he chose Pittsburgh because he liked the alliteration. But the facts of the world once again didn’t support him, because Pittsburgh actually voted 60-40 for Hillary. So since Hillary voters, being presumably sane, don’t believe for a second that global warming is a Chinese fabrication, then by his own words, Trump should immediately reverse his position to honor the voters’ wishes. Which naturally he won’t do, because for Trump, it’s not about doing what the voters want, or what the law requires, or what’s good for the planet. It’s all about satisfying his demented supporters and his ego, and not in that order.

So where the hëll is Senate oversight and their endeavors to keep an eye on his twisted priorities? Funny you should ask.

2). You can’t touch this. The White House is completely stonewalling any Democratic attempts at oversight. Democratic requests for material required for oversight are being turned down flat as the Trumpies institute a brand spanking new rule: all oversight requests must come from committee chairmen, all of whom are naturally GOP and aren’t asking. This is making the Dems completely nuts. Granted, the Obama White House could be slow when it was the GOP endlessly asking for oversight materials, but there was never an issuance of a flat stonewalling policy aimed at the opposition party. So apparently Trump cannot build his Mexican wall, but that is not deterring him from throwing up walls internally in yet another attempt to bring the government to a crashing halt, all to his benefit.

Did he do anything right?. Well, his poll numbers went up five percent because naturally his base approved of his foreign trip, despite the array of goofs, blunders and obnoxious behavior that has served to crumble America’s dominance as a world leader. So that’s good…I guess.

PAD

Updated at 11:48–The mayors of 61 cities and governors of three states–New York, California and Washington–have stated they will ignore Trump and continue to enforce the agreements in the Paris Climate accords. And one of the Mayors? The Mayor of Pittsburgh.