Category: 1

The GOP has traditionally stood for Grand Old Party.  

I think in the age of Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell, the initials should be changed.  The alteration should be made to reflect what the party has become.  Because the modern state of the Republicans would not be recognized by Ronald Reagan, although Richard Nixon would doubtless be envious of it.

GOP should henceforth be changed to Guardians of Power.

Thanks to everything from gerrymandering to voter suppression, the majority of representation in the government belongs to the minority of voters.  Hillary Clinton’s three million vote triumph, which to this day Trump absolutely refuses to acknowledge as legitimate, is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are states such as Wisconsin where Democrats vote in the majority but the Republicans rule thanks to disproportionate representation.

Indeed, let us focus briefly on Wisconsin.  The state where voters were forced to make a choice between fulfilling their civic responsibility and risking their lives.  Voting places in heavily Democratic areas disappeared, resulting in lines that were reportedly three miles long.  While the Democratic governor attempted to push back election day, the GOP united in overturning that ruling and pushing the matter all the way to the SCOTUS, where Trump’s majority insanely supported the notion that voters who had not yet received their absentee ballots had to have them postmarked by election day.  How nice that they were able to rush through that ruling in time to screw over tens of thousands of mostly Democratic voters while delaying the cases about Trump’s tax returns.

Meanwhile the GOP as a whole and Trump in particular continue to exploit the Coronavirus for all it’s worth.  While Republican governors outlaw abortion, dismissing an extremely time sensitive procedure as not being a medical necessity, Trump is busy declaring that mail in voting should not be allowed because—and for once he admitted the truth—you’ll never see a Republican win an election.  Yet again he said aloud the part that you’re only supposed to think.  For once, he was truthful, although not for the reason he supposed.  My assumption is that he believes that voting by mail will ensure cheating, even though there is no proof on record of mail-in voting being used fraudulently. It’s right up there with his ludicrous assertions that people would vote, then go out to their car, change clothing and walk back in to vote again.

Yes, the GOP aggressively does everything it can to block voting, particularly for the poor, students, Hispanics and people of color, since those groups all tend to vote Democratic.  Because they are no longer interested in governing; they’re interested in retaining power and will do everything they can to hold onto it.

Donald Trump is both a product of this mindset and also its leader.  In the past several weeks, he fired Michael Atkinson, the inspector general who did his job by bringing the whistle blower complaint to congress, and Glenn Fine, the inspector general who was tasked with overseeing the $2 trillion slush fund that Trump is undoubtedly going to steer toward people he likes and quite probably himself.  

So let’s see where we are in our democracy.

The GOP continues to rule the Senate with an iron fist, ignoring their oaths and letting Trump off in the impeachment trial while doing everything they can to stymie voters from removing either Trump or them from office.  Meanwhile the Supreme Court does whatever Trump wants, the four member minority helpless to convince their associates to attend to, or even remember, the rule of law.  The founders created our government to be three co-equal branches.  That is no longer the case.  The legislative and judicial branches are now completely subservient to the desires and whims of Donald Trump, a man who openly and aggressively courts and admires and envies dictators.

Let’s check the definition of a dictator, shall we

Dictator:  1) A ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has taken control by force.  2). A person who behaves in an autocratic way.

Autocrat:  Someone who insists on complete obedience from others; an imperious or domineering person.

That pretty much settles it, folks.  With his systematic dismissing of people from office whose job was to provide oversite and control, and with his party doing everything they can to steal the next election just as they stole the one in Wisconsin, Trump is no longer on his way to becoming a dictator.  By every demonstrable measure, he IS a dictator.

Welcome to North Korea.  Welcome to Russia. Welcome to Nazi Germany.

PAD

You know, it occurs to me that I need to spell out something to the right wing blowhards who are still howling about Obama and Hillary rather than face the facts of the President’s incessant failures when it comes to managing the Coronavirus.

When Trump was—well, not elected, but rather chosen by the Electoral college over the actual winner—I was rooting for him to succeed.  As opposed to, say, Mitch McConnell, who swore that his job was to make sure Obama would be a one-term president and spent eight years stonewalling dámņëd near everything that Obama wanted to accomplish.

Make no mistake:  I was certain Trump wouldn’t succeed.  I opened up betting on my website asking people to guess how long he’d last in office; few opined that he’d make it through all four years.  Meanwhile his supporters swore, without evidence, that he would grow into the office.  That his racist effrontery, his relentless insults, would dissipate.  That the responsibility of the position would elevate him, rather than that he would lower it.  They were sure of it.  I was not.

But I was hoping they were right.

Because I still remember 9/11.  Not in the current abstract, “let’s list all the people who died” manner, but from when it was actually happening.  Back when my panicked next door neighbor asked me, as the towers were smoking, whether we should send our kids to school or would the terrorists attack that building next?  Absurd, I know, but that’s what fear does to you.  It makes the ridiculous seem plausible.

At that time, we looked to our leaders to calm us down.  To provide guidance.  To tell us that everything was going to be okay.  To tell us what to do next.

Initially, George W. rose to that challenge.  His approvals skyrocketed because in times of crisis, there is an impulse to rally around the flag and support whoever is in charge.  And Bush did okay…until he then used that approval to guide us into decades of warfare in order to maintain that approval and not be a one-term president, repeating the “mistakes” of his father.  But at least he started off strong. 

I wanted Trump to rise to the occasion.  I wanted him to become the man his supporters swore he could be, because ultimately we are all in this together.  Despite the howls to the contrary from the right who claim that anyone with opposing opinions is a traitor who despises America, I love this country and what it stands for.  I want it to succeed, and a lot of how well it does rests on the shoulders of the man in the Oval Office.  I was certain he would fail, but very much wanted to be proven wrong.  

Unfortunately, the coronavirus has proven beyond all question that I was absolutely right.  

Bereft of his beloved mob gatherings, Trump has instead been holding press…I dunno, “briefings” doesn’t seem the right word.  “Praisings” seems more accurate.  Contradicting or ignoring the words of medical experts who have spent their lives studying and fighting pandemics, Trump has used these praisings as platforms to talk about the most important subject of all:  himself.  New York needs respirators?  Screw that:  do you know how much money the poor fellow is not making as president?  “It cost me billions of dollars to become president” says the man who has charged taxpayers millions upon millions to support him during his countless golf trips.  While medical expert Anthony Fauci vanishes into the woodwork, Trump stands there and asserts that the country will be up and running by Easter.  This despite the fact that the experts assert such a thing would be calamitous.  Trump still insists on likening the pandemic to the flu.  People die from the flu and we don’t shut down the country, he points out.

That’s correct.  That’s for two reasons.  First, the flu has a fatal rate of .1 percent while the coronavirus is anywhere from three to four percent.  Second, the flu doesn’t overload hospitals.  When you have to convert the massive Javits Center to a hospital, just to handle sick patients for whom there’s no room in the existing facilities, something is seriously out of whack.

And yet we are now seeing, on a daily basis, indisputable proof that Trump is completely and utterly bereft of empathy.  This is one of the classic definitions of narcissism that put it far beyond the simple fault of being an egomaniac.  Hëll, to some degree, I’m an egomaniac:  most writers are.  We believe that what we have to say is so important that it should be distributed to as many people as possible with our names attached, ideally in large letters at the top.  If you’re a writer and not an egomaniac, you’re in the wrong profession.

But I care about my wife, my children and grandchildren, my siblings, my friends and family.  I care about what happens to them, and typically will put their concerns above my own.  

A narcissist doesn’t do that.  He is incapable of it.  He cares only about himself, how others can serve him, and how he can use them until they are no longer of any use, at which point he can discard them and move on. 

That’s Trump.  At a time when we need someone who desperately cares about others, who values life above all other considerations, who wants only the best for everyone, we have a strutting narcissist who takes the time to point out the sacrifices he’s made in order to stand up there and promote himself and his brand.  He doesn’t care about the wife that he cheated on with a pørņ star.  He doesn’t care about the national health.  He cares only about the stock market and the economy, and that’s because he figures he needs it to be strong in order to be reelected.  So by all means, have everything be back to normal by Easter so that he can boast he managed to beat the coronavirus, restore the economy, and be the hero.

Do not let yourself be fooled as his supporters have been.

PAD

WHAT’S IN A NICKNAME?

By Peter David

What’s in a nickname?

Presidential eras are oftentimes defined by their nicknames.

Probably the most memorable one, off the top of my head, is that of John F. Kennedy.  After JFK was assassinated, his widow, Jackie Kennedy, commented in a Life magazine interview that he was particularly enamored of the then-current Broadway musical, “Camelot.”  Considering it was about a failed kingship that sank under the weight of a sex scandal, it was a rather odd comparison to make.  But it was the early sixties, the country was in mourning, and what the hëll, it was Richard Burton and Julie Andrews, so one kind of has to let it slide.

Richard Nixon was routinely referred to as Tricky Ðìçk, which was not exactly flattering.  Ronald Reagan’s reign was the years of the Gipper, a character that we were encouraged to win one for in “Knute Rockne, All American.”  Harry S. Truman was widely regarded as “Give ‘em Hëll Harry.”  Nicknames, as stated, define a presidency.  They tell you what it was about, how the president was regarded, what was expected of him.

But we don’t really have a consistent nickname for Donald Trump yet.  Yes, some refer to him as Teflon Don, but that was really the nickname for John Gotti.  It would certainly seem to apply considering the vast number of charges that just slide off him, but it just doesn’t seem right to tag him with someone else’s nickname.  Many call him Cadet Bonespurs to celebrate his specious excuse for avoiding the Vietnam draft.  You remember the Vietnam war:  the conflict that military men who risked their lives to serve in and were subsequently dismissed by Trump as being infants and cry babies.  Yet the bonespurs business occurred decades before the Electoral College placed him in the Oval Office (I find it easier to say that then “he was elected.”)

No, I think we need something that is more appropriate to his tenure, something that relates directly to his opinions and his methodology.  And his current conduct regarding the Coronavirus pretty much, I think, seals the deal.

I believe we should refer to Trump’s years in the White House as the Hoax Presidency.

It makes eminent sense.  Trump, during his patchy speech from the Oval Office on Wednesday, the reaction to which was best summarized by the man himself—“Ooookay”—claimed that partisan interests need to be put aside.  Yet barely a week ago he was claiming that the Democratic reaction to it, and their concerns that he was botching the handling of it which most experts agree he definitely was, was a hoax.  (This was a theory popularized  has currently seized by Rush Limbaugh, the man who singlehandedly devalued the Presidential Medal of Honor through the act of receiving it).  Up until now, all the serious work in trying to contain the coronavirus has been handled at the state level, while Joe Biden makes the kind of speech that we’d want to see a president making.  Meanwhile Trump was resisting declaring a national emergency because it ran counter to his dismissive attitude that the virus was merely a temporary thing, being amplified by the evil media and distorted by the Democrats.  Today, finally, he did indeed declare a national emergency, opening up funds to be used by the states in their efforts to combat it (although I assume that states which included sanctuary cities will be lowest on the list of priorities.  At least Trump has given up on the nonsense that  when the temperatures increase in the spring, because viruses die in warm temperatures.  Which is true:  temperatures in excess of 250 degrees Fahrenheit.  So when April rolls around, if  temperatures increase by two hundred degrees, yes, the virus will die.  Of course, so will humanity, but everything has a price.  Meanwhile Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, can attest to the fact that it’s nonsense since they are currently down with the disease in Australia where they’re already enjoying spring weather.  And it’s lucky Hanks and Wilson were there, because if they were in the US there’s every chance they wouldn’t have had access to a test and could be infecting Hollywood right now.

Then again, according to Trump, climate change is also a hoax.  A Chinese hoax.  So that would be two Chinese hoaxes in three years.  Perhaps hoaxes are their new biggest export.

And the impeachment was also a hoax.  That’s one of his favorites:  the impeachment, which proved indisputably that Trump did exactly what he was accused of, was a hoax.  And the Robert Mueller report, which resulted in the indictment of thirty-four individuals and guilty verdicts or pleas from eight people, including five Trump associates, was a hoax.  And all the negative coverage by fake media outlets such as The Washington Post, The New York Times and CNN, all hoaxes.

Let’s face it, if P.T. Barnum were still alive, he would be standing there and applauding in admiration at the vast array of hoaxes that Trump has been able to spot from his Fox & Friends bubble in the White House.  Of course, when Fox was trashing Barack Obama over the spread of Ebola, Trump had no dispute about that.  But when the press reports that the Democrats want to spend more money on combating the Coronavirus than Trump was asking for, and comment about how his budget desires to slash funding for the CDC, why, that’s all a hoax.  The press can’t be trusted.  The Democrats can’t be trusted.  Only Trump, who has lied by one count over sixteen thousand times in the past three years, can be trusted.

It’s really kind of a shame, because the Coronavirus is actually Trump’s chance to prove that he cares about something other than his reelection.  He could have reached across the aisle, said that people’s lives matter more than anything, taken the lead, stepped up, and tried to get the job done.

Instead he dismisses it and yells hoax.  

I’ve heard people say that if they ever get the Coronavirus, they won’t go to a hospital.  Instead they will attend as many Trump rallies as they can.  To spread the hoax virus Trumpies and perhaps even ideally to the man himself.  That’s where Trump’s incessant cries of “hoax” have gotten us.

So I think we should permanently associate the word “hoax” with Trump’s presidency so that when future generations look back on what the hëll has been going on in this country and say, “What was that Trump presidency all about?” we can smile and just say, “It was all a hoax.”

PAD

FREAK OUT FRIDAY – March 5, 2020

So now it’s Obama’s fault.

That is the latest claim from Trump and his team of sycophants, toadies and bootlickers.  The reason that the United States has fallen behind in the race to be able to test for the Coronavirus (or, as Trump refers to it, the Caronavirus) is because of a rule implemented during the Obama administration.  This reputed rule declares that any tests developed had to be approved by the FDA, and that process slowed the entire thing to a crawl.

What rule would that be?

No clue.

Subsequent authorities on the subject have said they have no idea what Trump was talking about or where he had gotten his information.  The obvious response is that he pulled it out of the same place whence he derived his information that windmills cause cancer or that the Coronavirus will vanish in spring, even though it’s doing just fine in Australia where the weather is already much warmer.  He would claim that it was from his gut.  That he has a hunch, just as he has a hunch that the death statistics of 3.2 percent from the World Health Organization are wrong and that it’s more around one percent.  But I’m reasonably sure that he in fact pulled it from his ášš.

It makes sense, because one of his lead ášš-kìššërš, Pence, indeed claimed several days later that he has rescinded the non-existent order.  How do you makes something that never existed in the first place go away?  

Meanwhile he continues to lampoon Elizabeth Warren, a woman who as a politician is worth a hundred Trumps.  He keeps referring to her as “Pocahantas,” accusing her of lying about having native American blood in her history.  You know what?  Someone who has lied over sixteen thousand times in three years doesn’t get to accuse someone else of being untruthful.

Indeed, his talent for falsehoods were on full display Thursday when he did a townhall meeting on Fox.  He claimed Hunter Biden had no job before winding up on the Ukraine board (he was a working lawyer), that Obama repeatedly tried to call Kim Jong un and was rebuffed (he never called him), that incoming presidents were typically not left any court vacancies upon taking office (Obama came in to 53, Bush had 80, Clinton had 103), and asserted that he was protecting coverage of pre-existing conditions (he has backed a number of bills that would weaken it and supports a government lawsuit determined to obliterate the entirety of Obamacare without offering any means of replacing it.). He also asserted that funding for social security, Medicare and other entitlement programs were not remotely protected, but were instead up for review and potential slicing. 

Because that’s what he does.  If you’re poor or elderly or sick or helpless, do not look for any support from Trump, because he backs winners and rich people.  His whole family is like that, which is why it’s amusing that the father of corrupt, greedy and pernicious offspring has the nerve to keep assailing Hunter Biden as if Biden is anywhere in the range of his own childrens’ activities.  

Meanwhile, in other parts of the world, the U.S. signed an ostensible peace accord with the Taliban that guarantees we will withdrew our troops within a year and a half.  The result is exactly what any reasoning person could have expected:  the Taliban has resumed attacks on the Afghani army.  The Taliban is doubtlessly anticipating that Trump will throw our Afghan allies under the bus, just as we did with the Kurds.  Indeed, just as Trump does with anyone when they have worn out their immediate use.

Indeed, just the other day he was asked if he would consider throwing Mike Pence off the ticket and replace him with Nikki Haley.  His response was that doing such a thing would be an act of great “disloyalty.”  Okay, yeah.  And?  I mean, Trump’s entire definition goes exactly one way:  he expect loyalty from others.  That is his first and oftentimes only requirement when filling positions.  If you’re loyal to him, you’re in; if you’re not, you’re disposable.  Many suspect that that was the main reason he put Pence in charge of the Coronavirus.  It’s a win/win for him.  Either the virus will be abated and Trump can then claim credit for having put Pence in the position to do it.  Or if it continues unconstrained and the body count piles up, Trump can state that obviously Pence didn’t get the job done and he should never have trusted him, and it would probably be wise to bring in someone else.  

God, let’s hope Biden or Bernie can get rid of him in September.

PAD

We’ve been through pandemic viruses before.  Most recently it was in 2014 when Fox News relentlessly beat the drums declaring that we were all going to die of the much more lethal Ebola virus.  And Fox & Friends regular guest Donald Trump was one of the loudest leaders of the opposition.  He declared without evidence that Barack Obama was “a psycho,” and one of his reasons for making this proclamation was because Obama designated Ronald Klain to be his Ebola czar to oversee the US endeavors to combat it.

Why Klain?  He wasn’t a doctor, so why make him czar?  Trump loudly proclaimed his lack of medical knowledge as being one of the main proofs of Obama’s psychotic break.  The reason was that Klain was an experienced political operative who Obama felt would have to skill to negotiate strategies with intransigent Republicans who saw the Ebola outbreak as something they could gain for political advantage.  The very same Republicans who are currently falling over each other to voice support for Trump’s incompetence and stupidity (the Coronavirus is going to go away in the spring when the weather warms up?  Seriously?) didn’t hesitate to trash Obama for every decision he made, despite the fact that under Obama’s watch the disease never made it to the United States to any major degree.  Furthermore Obama had Doctor Thomas Frieden heading up the CDC, a top doctor with indisputable credentials.  So Klain used his skills to coordinate everyone working together, and it all turned out fine.

And Trump, who apparently completely forgot about his remonstrating Obama in 2014 for putting a non-scientist in charge, didn’t hesitate to go Obama one better and put not only a non-scientist, but an anti-scientist in charge:  Mike Pence.

Pence certainly has experience with communicable diseases.  His sluggish response to the urge to institute a needle exchange program resulted in an HIV outbreak in Indiana in 2015.  He eventually signed off on it but if he’d acted earlier, far fewer people would have contracted it. It gets better.  Several years earlier when he was in Congress, he stripped funding from Planned Parenthood and consequently the last Planned Parenthood in Scott County, Indiana went out of business…and by interesting coincidence, they also provided free testing for HIV.  So when that went away, it spread the way for HIV.

He also joins Trump in believing that climate change isn’t real.  Furthermore he asserts that cigarette smoking doesn’t lead to cancer, that evolution isn’t real (God created everything, full stop), and that one’s tendency toward gayness can be pounded out of them by—I dunno—beating them repeatedly on a rock by the river.  So when it comes to matters of science, Pence actively flies in the face of people who have dedicated their entire lives to studying these things, not to mention things we know because common sense tells us so.  

Yet this yahoo was put in charge of the endeavors to try and curb a disease that experts say is only a matter of when, not if, it will come to the United States.  Why?  Because according to Trump, Pence has nothing better to do.

Apparently neither does Trump.  He doesn’t care about what the coronavirus is doing to average Americans.  He cares about one thing and one thing only:  what it’s doing to the stock market.  He firmly believes that if the economy tanks, it will jeopardize his chances for reelection.  And considering the only thing keeping him out of jail is the fact that he’s in the Oval Office, that’s certainly a matter of concern for him.  Figuring his only chance is to have the stock market problems reflect on his enemies, he was insane enough to state that the Democratic debate, which happened on Tuesday, was responsible for the first 1000 point drop in the Dow Jones that occurred on Monday.   

The Democrats really have to stop beating up on each other.  If things continue as they are, they could put a pet rock up for the office and it would beat Trump.  

PAD

One has to admit, things are going great for Trump right now.  Granted, he seems unable to do anything right, and yet in his presidency he literally can do no wrong.

The supine GOP, having subsumed their ostensible devotion to the constitution entirely over to supporting Trump instead, actually had the nerve to claim that Trump would have learned something from the impeachment.

The short response to that is that Trump has demonstrably proven that he is incapable of learning anything at all.  He is incapable of admitting when he did anything wrong because, as far as he concerned, he never does.  Consequently he also can’t admit fault because he didn’t do anything wrong, so what is there to admit fault about?  Everyone who stands in opposition to him is sick, twisted, a liar, a never-Trumper, and an enemy to be disposed of and summarily crushed as soon as possible.

The longer answer is that he did indeed learn something from it.  He learned that he can do whatever he wants and the GOP will have him covered.  He has proven conclusively what he said years ago:  that if he gunned down someone on Fifth Avenue, he would not suffer any consequences for it.  Because we live in a world where cheaters, contrary to the old saying, are prospering with no harm resulting from it.  That’s why the Houston Astros effectively got a slap on the wrist for cheating their way to a World Series championship and George Zimmerman is suing Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg because they dared to mention that Trayvon Martin would have been twenty-five if he hadn’t been gunned down.  I would say that if there was any justice, Zimmerman’s suit will be quickly tossed, but honestly I’m wondering if there is any justice anymore.

That was why Trump ejected Alexander Vindman, because Cadet Bonespurs took issue with the decorated service man’s career, and threw out Vindman’s twin brother for no reason other than that he had the same last name.  He’s even getting people who didn’t work for him fired:  E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her years ago, was fired from ELLE Magazine where she had worked for decades.  She says she doesn’t blame ELLE for that; she blames Trump.  Me, I blame ELLE.  But that’s me.

Meanwhile, as does any good dictator in a banana republic, Trump is now busy twisting the right of presidential pardons in manners for which it was never intended.  Rather than reserving it for the poor and helpless who were abused by an unfair judicial process, he is pardoning the rich and powerful who were jailed for everything from tax evasion to lying to the FBI to trying to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat.  Basically he is pardoning wealthy individuals who very likely will be more than happy to reciprocate with sizable donations to his reelection campaign.  

Because really, what else would you expect from a rich, lying tax evader?  Trump knows what he is, sympathizes with people who have committed the same crimes that he has, and so pardons them because he is effectively pardoning himself.  He reasons that if he can do this stuff and get away with it, then his friends should be able to do the same thing.  Keep in mind that he has repeatedly said that he has the right to pardon himself, and if the question goes to the conservative Supreme Court, who’s to say that they won’t agree with him?

Meanwhile Bill Barr is claiming that it’s hard to do his job with Trump tweeting about the justice department.  I’m sorry, but I’m not buying that for a microsecond.  Barr has proven that he is perfectly happy to be Trump’s lapdog; hëll, he auditioned for the role with an essay that basically talked about how the president should have unlimited power that can’t be challenged in court.  So I do not remotely accept that he really believes his complaints about how so darned hard his job is thanks to Trump’s tweets.  Until such times as he actually resigns in protest, I am going to firmly believe that this is all something he arranged in advance with Trump in order to try and have a response to the vitriol rightly being heaped on him over the Roger Stone sentencing.  A sentence that we all know Trump is going to toss out at some point in the near future.  The Justice Department, which is supposed to operate separately from Trump, is now being thoroughly controlled by him.  They’re even being shunted aside for the entire pardoning procedure as Trump ignores all the routes that other presidents have taken and consults Fox News rather than the Justice Department over whom he should pardon.  

And I’m sure that Putin approves of all of this.  The intelligence agencies recently reported that the Russians are endeavoring to rig the 2020 election, just as they did the 2016 one, on behalf of Trump.  How did Trump react to that?  Outrage.  Not at the Russians; at the people reporting what the Russians were up to.  He’s not angry at Putin; he’s angry at Adam Schiff who was in the briefing and whom he was convinced was going to “weaponize” the report.  In what way?  I dunno; maybe be concerned about it?  He certainly can’t get the Senate to do anything because Moscow Mitch is naturally preventing any attempts to protect the election from foreign interference.  

I have to observe that the founding fathers could never have conceived of THIS MANY worst case scenarios to be happening at the exact same time that would turn the government into an utter perversion of what they originally envisioned.

PAD

8:00: Misterrogers? Oookay. I like that they cut first to Tom Hanks for a reaction.

8:04: They’re going to celebrate all the women directors in a year where no women were nominated for directing? Seriously? I can guarantee you I’m not going to be the only person pointing out THAT discrepancy.

8:06: Not a bad opening, although I agree with Caroline: nothing is going to top the Neil Patrick Harris Tony opening from several years ago.

8:12: See, that was the problem with “Beautiful Day.” Misterrogers was a supporting character.

8:15: And we hit the ground running with political commentary. You know what? Screw it. If you have a pulpit, you might as well use it. I’m sick of sticking to the GOP rulers about when and how we can smack talk the government.

8:23: As a Disney employee, I have to be happy for TS4 winning. As a fan, I have to admit I was rooting for Dragon. Ah well.

8:25: I haven’t seen “Hair Love” but Kath and Caroline both saw it and loved it, so they’re happy.

8:31: Holy crap, this rendition of “Into the Unknown” may be the best song performance I’ve ever seen in the Oscars.

8:37: Why is Diane Keaton dressed like she’s waiting for a bus? what am I missing?

8:42: When Shana went to a drama camp called Usdan decades ago, there was this one girl attending that she couldn’t stand. She said, “She acts like she’s going to be a movie star!” That girl is currently standing on the stage at the Oscars.

8:46: I was rooting for Joker, but Jojo really was a terrific film.

8:50: Boy, I’m striking out. I was rooting for 1917. Nothing I’m pulling for is winning. Since I’m actively rooting against The Irishman for best film, it’s probably a lock.

8:52: Kath called it. Period pieces usually have an advantage in this category.

9:02: A song with no intro at all? What the hëll film is this from?

9:12: I’m assuming that poor woman has cancer because her eyebrow are drawn on.

9:16: Come on, Scarlet Johansson.

9:18: Son of a bìŧçh.

9:30: Right. Sure. This song is right up there with “Eye of the Tiger” and “Don’t You Forget About me.” Suuuure it is.

9:32: oooo, Scorsese does NOT look impressed.

9:43: I’m still here. I just didn’t care about any of the categories.

9:43: I honestly don’t remember this song from TS4. Not up there with “Friend Like Me,” certainly.

9:49: This guy is kind of entertaining, I guess, but I’ve no clue why he’s there or what purpose he serves.

9:51: Come on Joker.

9:52: Son of a BÍTÇH.

9:55: Well, it wasn’t the Irishman, so I’m satisfied with that.

10:00: I am Spartacus. Very nice.

10:06: So since I don’t care about this song, I just took the time to watch “Hair Love.” What a charming short animated film. It’s on Youtube. Go see it.

10;07: Hard to believe the very first Academy awards ceremony took fifteen minutes. True story.

10:12: Okay that took nerve. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

10:13: Come on Endgame1

10!:14: Son OF A BÍTÇH.

10:27: Boy it’s a hëll of a night for South Korea.

10:40: I’m wracking my brains and I can’t recall ever seeing a female conductor. Ever.

10:42: FINALLY Joker won something. Huzzah.

10:47: Well, I was rooting for “Into the Unknown” but John’s been trying to get this film made for two decades, so I can’t really begrudge him.

10:52: Jesus, maybe I should go see this film.

11:04: Dare I say it…come on Joker.

11:05: Son of a–oh. Never mind.

11:10: That was a terrific speech.

11:11: You know, I wonder if they should have best male and female director. I mean, they have actor and actress. That would solve the problem, I guess.

11:13: Well, I was rooting for Scarlett, but Rene was really terrific in Judy.

11:25: Okay, that’s it, I’m going to see Parasite.