Peter David's Blog, page 28

What a Great Vacation

We tend to travel all over the map, but typically it’s in connection with conventions. So last month we decided to keep driving south after Farpoint Convention in Maryland and wound up in Florida. We spent a week in Orlando, staying in a cabin at Fort Wilderness and then moving on to Disney’s Caribbean Beach where our room was done up like a pirate ship. We also spent a day at Universal so that I was able to see the new Harry Potter section, and I also visited the Hulk ride at Islands of Adventure where my name was posted up on a list of officers who were connected with the gamma ride: a list that included J. Buscema, J. Romita and S. Lee. I was a lowly Corporal, but hey, it’s an honor just to be remembered. I traveled the lengths of the Magic Kingdom and Disney Hollywood, and Kath and Caroline later ran around Epcot while I just hung out and collapsed at our room. We also had dinner at my favorite pizza place, Giordanos, with several of our Disney friends (including one guy who was there the evening I proposed to Kath at the late, lamented Adventurers Club.) It was overall a great time and if I ever retire, I’ll probably move down to Orlando and get a job at the park.

.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – February 24th

A slow but nevertheless interesting week in Trump land:

1) Swedish Fish–Did you hear about the horrible things that happened in Sweden? Yeah, neither did we. But according to Trump. something catastrophic had happened in the fairly benign country that had everyone in a tizzy. Which nobody was until Trump claimed they were, and they then indeed were immensely confused, wondering what in God’s name he was talking about. Apparently he had heard, or more correctly misheard, some comment on Fox and that caused him to fabricate yet another non-existent terrorist attack. And speaking of Fox…

2) How far off the reservation has he gone?–Fox mainstays Shephard Smith and Chris Wallace apparently have had enough. Both of them went off on Trump, deploring both his incessant lies and his constant dumping on the press. Seriously? FOX is attacking Trump? That’s like Breitbart launching a five part positive story on the wonders of the UJA. Considering how Fox consistently supported him in the past, one has to be simply stunned at this turnaround.

3) Depends what you mean by “Very Few”–In his incessant endeavors to gut Obamacare, Trump declared at the Conservative Political Action Conference that the health plans covers “very few people.” So to a billionaire, twenty million people is “very few.” I suppose that makes sense. It would have to cover a billion people to penetrate his bubble.

Did he do anything right? His appointment of General Herbert McMaster as the new National Security Adviser was well received. Of course, it’s entirely damage control since Flynn was dumped in record setting time, and Trump’s next choice passed on the assignment. What’s interesting is that McMaster has a tendency to question authority, which likely won’t go over well in a White House where such behavior is not tolerated or instead rewarded with firings. So this could be interesting.

PAD

Freak Out Friday – February 17th

Let’s start off on an amusing note:

1) I play him on TV: As much as Trump might be complaining how poorly he is being portrayed on TV sketches, apparently it was enough to fool the newspaper El Nacional in the Dominican Republic. In running an article about Israeli settlements, they illustrated it with a picture labeled “Donald Trump,” except it was in fact Alec Baldwin in his SNL makeup. The newspaper subsequently apologized, but really, I’d take Baldwin over Trump as president any day. I’m looking forward to seeing an article on Putin with a shirtless Beck Bennett accompanying it.

2) Putting the “dick” in dictator: Brand new senior policy advisor Stephen Miller made the following pronouncement on a Sunday morning news show: “The end result of this, though, is that our opponents, the media, and the whole world will soon see, as we begin to take further actions, that the powers of the president to protect our country are very substantial, and will not be questioned.” So apparently the Trumpany is moving beyond the notion that challenging the president is unpatriotic or dangerous. Instead now it is simply to not happen. Judges, the media, American citizens, are all to keep their mouths shut because if the president says or does something, that’s the end of the story. His authority is beyond scrutiny, which of course is the case for any tyrant.

3) State of Denial: Governor Jerry Brown requested $162 million in federal funds to help California with a series of disasters, including an evacuation of a potentially flooding dam. The government’s response? No, of course. According to a government source, ““The President has no incentive in helping the state of California.” Naturally, because Sacramento is a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, and there was talk about seceding from the union, and, oh right, they supported Hillary. Now one would think that being president and vowing to uphold the constitution would be incentive enough, but not in the world of Donald Trump, apparently. What matters is who voted for him and who slavishly swears to uphold every aspect of his declarations. You’re sympathetic to illegal aliens? Congratulations, you’re on your own. There’s talk about leaving the country? Fine; we’ll provide you all the incentive you need by showing you the government isn’t the least bit interested in helping you at your time of need. Good move.

4) Out Like Flynn: Before Sally Yates correctly decided not to try and defend Trump’s Muslim ban, no doubt intuiting that every court would strike it down, she also warned the President about Michael Flynn and his involvement with the Russians. Trump ignored that as well and now of course Flynn had to resign because he was busy committing…oh, what’s the word?…treason some months back. Of course, the hilarious thing is that if this had been Hillary and it had been her National Security Advisor who had been illegally speaking with foreign nationals, the Senate would be hastening to launch a full blown investigation to determine what Hillary knew and when, and would never accept “I didn’t know about it” for an answer. But Trump? No investigation. No nothing. The hypocrisy of the right is truly reaching new heights. The fact of the matter is that if Richard Nixon were in office now and had done all the things he did, the right would make sure there was no impeachment. Meanwhile, as another commentator pointed out, remember when the House wanted to impeach Bill Clinton for lying about one thing? One thing?

5) Press ganged: In a surprising decision that I’m sure Trump’s people actively tried to dissuade him from making, Trump scheduled a press conference. It was pretty much exactly what one would have expected: Trump spending long minutes snapping at the reporters, telling them that they were liars and insulting, which he conveyed to them with lies and insults. I swear, Nixon didn’t have this adversarial relationship with the press, and they drove him out of office. Trump’s pattern is clear: berate and question the legitimacy of anyone who poses a threat to his notions of absolute power. That’s why judges are termed “so-called” and the press is dismissed as “fake news.” And the truth is that if anyone knows about fake news, it is Donald Trump, the single largest dispenser of fake news in modern history. His lies are incessant and his calumnies come so rapidly that there have been occasions where he has contradicted himself, not only in the same press conference, but in the same answer.

Did he do anything right? Well, he met with several world leaders and didn’t get us into any wars, so that was a plus. But even the meetings were marred with weirdness. His dinner meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan was interrupted by news that North Korea had fired a missile. Did they immediately retire to a secure location so they could discuss proper responses in the privacy one would expect in such a situation? Of course not: they discussed it in the middle of a crowded restaurant at Trump’s resort while people recorded it with their cell phones. This is the guy who condemned Hillary Clinton for alleged security breaches? His meeting with Bibi Netanyahu didn’t go much better, where he spent time boasting about his electoral win that was allegedly the biggest since Reagan (it wasn’t) and taking no position on a one vs. two-state solution to the Israeli/Palestinian crisis beyond saying that it was up to the individuals. Which I suppose it is, but it might have been nice to pick a side on behalf of, well, everyone.

Bottom line, any week where he hasn’t launched the nukes is a good one. Because that’s how low we’ve placed the bar.

PAD

Buy My Daughter’s Girl Scout Cookies

Yup, it’s that time of year again. Caroline is selling Girl Scout cookies for her troop, and this is your chance to buy some for yourself, your friends, your kids, and your enemies so you can make them your friends.

So go to her website and buy them now, right here!

PAD

Freak Out Friday – February 10th edition

So let’s see what Trump and the Trumpany (Trump’s Company) were up to this week.

1) Trump continues his war with the press: Trump informed the military that the press is refusing to cover terrorist attacks. He did not provide any examples of any unreported attacks, nor did he offer any reasons why in the world the news would elect not to report them. But he asserted that this has been going on for two years. Then again, he didn’t have to offer any explanation because it is implicit in the assertion: The press is deliberately not reporting on terrorist attacks because they want to downplay the terrorist threat, specifically to make the public despise Trump’s Muslim ban. In Trump’s head, if people KNEW about the terrorist attacks that the press are downplaying or ignoring, they would fully embrace the entire concept. Instead the press is determined to make Trump look bad because he said months ago he wanted to ban Muslims and the press wanted to prevent it. Because for the press, making Trump look bad is far more important than protecting the American people. Unfortunately the downside is that recent polls show that the majority of Americans approve of Trump’s Muslim ban and the majority of respondents trust Trump more than they do the press. Unsurprisingly the polls split down party lines as the vast majority of Democrats feel the exact opposite. Once again we are forced to wonder: What in the world would Trump have to do to have his supporters believe en masse that he is unfit for office?

2) Trump ups his war on the judiciary: It’s bad enough that Trump claimed that a Mexican judge was not qualified to rule on a law suit in which he was involved. Instead Trump is now waging war on the judiciary, one of the key checks in the checks-and-balances system that he swore to uphold January 20 before he then endeavored to throw it all under the bus. Radical left wing judges, who were appointed by George W. Bush and were 100% supported by the Senate, are being mean to Trump because they are paying attention to the Constitution that he is ignoring and fired Sally Yates for remembering was in effect. The fact that he is whining about the courts rightfully putting his ban on hold is not the problem, however. The problem is when he tweeted that if there is an attack on U.S. soil, it is the fault of the judges. Did everyone hear that? Trump has taken the next step from blaming Hillary Clinton for terrorist attacks and is now stating that the judges are responsible. “If something happens, blame him and the court system.” It is bad enough that he is desperately trying to dismiss the paper of record and CNN as “fake news.” Now he is instructing his idiot followers to blame judges for terrorism. Does he not understand that he may well have put a death sentence on their heads. God forbid that some terrorist attack does occur. It’s entirely possible, especially since the countries that have attacked American citizens are unaffected by the ban. If it does, it could be that some Trump morons will come gunning for the judges. Why not? They try to shoot abortion doctors for doing their jobs on an operation that is, for the moment, still legal. There is nothing to stop them from doing what Trump instructed, blaming the judges for a terrorist attack, and seeking vengeance. That didn’t occur to Trump, I’m sure, but even if it did, it wouldn’t deter him from posting his insane tweets. The one benefit to come out of this is that Trump’s nomination for SCOTUS didn’t hesitate to decry Trump’s actions; Trump must’ve loved that.

3) We’re now considering private schools: Because the Democrats could not convince three Republicans to stand up and do the right thing, Mike Pence broke the tie and placed Betsy DeGross in as secretary of education. A woman who knows nothing about and despises public schools is now in charge of public schools. So Trump’s Bizarro opposite nominations for the cabinet, in which he appoints people who are repeatedly on record as despising the department that they are supposed to head, continues. Now I have no idea how much impact DeGross could have on our local schools, but if we see a downward spiral, we will be seriously considering putting Caroline in a private school. Which DeGross would no doubt approve of, but our child’s education comes first. I wonder at what point the Trump heads will realize how insanely dangerous Trump and his decisions are and realize they’ve made the wrong choice and screwed us all.

4) Trump declares war on Nordstrom: Understand that it is not unprecedented for a president to get defensive about their children. Harry Truman once wrote a scathing letter to a reviewer who gave a bad write-up over his daughter’s singing. But Trump’s attacking Nordstrom over their decision to stop carrying Ivanka’s line of crap, as it so happens, has plenty of precedent. Argentina, South Africa, Thailand, South Korea, have all had instances where leaders have used their power to line their pockets. Fortunately we have ethics committees in this country that are determined to prevent it happening here. Thus far they’re losing the battle, as Kellyanne Conway declares everyone should buy Ivanka’s stuff, which is in clear violation of, you know, the law. If this keeps up, Conway will be the first of Trump’s administration to get the shaft, and very likely not the last. The one positive aspect to come out of all this is that Nordstrom’s stock jumped seven percent. Apparently this country rewards people who wind up standing up to Trump, even if it’s simply for business purposes.

5) Did he do anything right?: Well, he got on the phone to China and swore that he would uphold the “One China” policy as the country has done for the last four decades. Unfortunately the reason he had to do that was to undo the damage he accomplished back in November when he originally said he was going to do the exact opposite. So basically the one positive thing he did in the past week was to correct his previous screw up.

So basically he has declared war on the judiciary, the press, and Nordstrom’s, but has temporarily averted it with China, despite Steve Bannon’s claim that we will likely be at war with them within a few years.

All this in a week.

PAD

Super Bowl blog

6:00–Apparently it starts at 6:30. See you then.

6:30–Welcome to the Long Island Super Bowl. At least that’s what Kath keeps calling it, because it says Super Bowl LI.

6:32–I wonder if H.W. feels good knowing his son is no longer the worst president in American history.

6:34–Kath is happy because as a former Atlanta resident, she is rooting for the Falcons.

6:36–Great Ford commercial, especially for someone like me who just hates getting stuck pretty much anywhere. I hate traffic lights, for God’s sake.

6:45–Yeah, sure, Google seems fine now, but when the machines rise up, does anyone doubt that Google will be leading the charge?

6:46–I find it interesting how many commercials seem to be slanted around families.

6:47–For some reason, I suddenly want Avocados. And to watch a movie with Jon Lovitz.

6:48–My favorite Jon Lovitz moment. He’s not in it, but you’ll understand when you watch it.

6:53–Well, Trump must be hating THIS commercial. He’s probably demanding that a video game starring him be fast tracked.

6:54–And Watson will be aiding Google. No doubt about that.

6:55–I’ve known Katie for thirty seconds and I hate her already. Frickin’ Skittles.

7:00–Eh. Beer. Don’t care.

7:01–You know, there weren’t an infinite number of dinosaurs in the world. Am I the only person who worries about fossil fuel running out?

7:01–Another Godaddy commercial. I’ve been watching their commercials for years and I’m still unclear who they are or what they do.

7:04–Dudes, water is water. It’s not art.

7:05–Well, SOME of us believe that whoever you are, we accept you. Others want to keep you out of the country.

7:06–Not interested in the tank video game, but I would totally watch “Real Bad Moms.”

7:09–FINALLY a pirates ad with Jack in it. Hoping this film will be better than the previous.

7:10–Well, I’m going to have to watch that Buick commercial again, because Kathleen was laughing so loudly I couldn’t hear the dialogue after Cam Newton showed up.

7:13–Okay, this song goes way better with the movie than the Pirates one did. But Logan is rated R? I guess Deadpool opened that door.

7:14–Say goodbye to limits? Can’t we just say goodbye to Justin Bieber?

717–I hate that that’s a commercial for Honda, but I loved the way it was put together.

7:18–Anthony Hopkins is in Transformers? What the hell?!

7:20–Oh. Atlanta scored. I’m reading a book during the show and didn’t notice. Well, yay for Kathleen.

7:24–OK, that’s the best Tide commercial I’ve ever seen. Because I don’t recall any others.

7:30–I don’t really drink Coke anymore, but I like their commercials.

7:31–Handmaid’s Tale. I’m there.

7:32–Yeah, my bathroom’s ready. Got a toilet and a roll of toilet paper and that’s all I need, Febreze. And I never noticed before how weirdly you spell your name.

7:45–Jesus, the Falcons are killing them. Kath is happy.

7:46–We were taught all this? Really? I honestly don’t remember being taught any of that.

7:47–I dunno. I go to the gym all the time and nobody there knows my name.

7:50–Historical note. Humpty Dumpty wasn’t an egg. It was a cannon.

7:51–I’ve reached the age of 60 and I still haven’t seen a single Fast and Furious movie. Not sure whether to be proud of that or just indifferent.

7:53–That’s how I felt when somebody else had PeterDavid.com.

7:54–Eh. Wendys hasn’t had a memorable commercial since “Where’s the beef?!”

8:04–Music’s biggest moment of the year? Dude, it’s FEBRUARY.

8:06–So remember, if you have as much money as Lady Gaga, you can be a Tiffany’s customer.

8:10–That was a commercial for LUMBER? I thought it was a dramatization of a mother and daughter trying to sneak into the country. What the hell was that about?

8:15–Well, now we know what Lady Gaga would be like if she was in Cirque du Soleil.

8:27–Okay, does anyone know if Einstein could really play the violin?

8:29–Scientology? REALLY?

8:32–Where the hell are commercials with horses?

8:39–Well, yeah, you could tell her something different, but in the world we’re currently living in, the other stuff would be more accurate.

8:40–They sexed up Mr. Clean? Really?

8:41–Okay, that was a great Snickers commercial.

8:46–He probably wouldn’t have been allowed into the country within a few months.

8:47–Well, I’ve never heard of Persil, but if it’s good enough for Bill Nye, I may buy a bottle.

8:55–Between this commercial and her turn as Sean Spicer yesterday on SNL, Melissa McCarthy wins the weekend.

8:56–HALLOWEEN?! Aw, C’MON!

9:06–“A Cure for Wellness.” Yeah, I’m definitely not the target audience for this.

9:07–Oh, “Walking Dead.” For a moment I thought it was a commercial for baseball.

9:11–You know, I never watched the Baywatch TV series, but I might check out the movie.

9:12–So that was Fifty Shades of T-Mobile, I guess.

9:12–Wait, is Geoffrey Rush playing Einstein? Okay, now I’m interested.

9:19–We’re three quarters of the way through the game. Where the hell are the Clydesdales?!

9:20–I’m sorry, but Tim Horton’s has pretty much ruined Dunkin’ Donuts for me.

9:29–Okay, Morgan Freeman, bringing the class to the Super Bowl. And I’ve flown Turkish Airlines. They were VERY customer conscious.

9:31–All right, fine, I’ll watch Legion! Happy?

9:32–Spuds McKenzie. Jesus Christ.

9:36–My problem is that every time she opens her mouth I picture Mabel from “Gravity Falls.”

9:36–I can’t buy any new video games. All my video game players are out of date.

9:43–Was that Peter Fonda?

9:43–I don’t care about the Simpsons or even the commercials for it: I don’t give a damn about the Daytona 500.

10:00–Some cars take your breath away. And some car commercials just bore the crap out of you.

10:02–Finger licking gold? Seriously? Guys, KFC is insanely unhealthy. Just deal with that.

10:12–Christ, this game is going overtime.

10:16–So we’re into repeats on the commercials and the Clydesdales never showed up. I’m done. Good night.

Yes, I will be live blogging the Super Bowl

Not the game. The commercials. So swing by at 6 PM tomorrow.

PAD

For Those Who Want to Help Bowling Green

Here is a website when you can go to contribute.

Please help and support the survivors of the horrific Bowling Green tragedy.

PAD

Freak Out Friday–the Introduction

It seems to me that Donald Trump could potentially wind up taking over this whole blog. Because every day he or his aides are saying or doing something stupid. Indeed, if they had a “# of Days Without Screwing Up” counter in the Oval Office, it would have to be reset every day. So I am going to confine Trump comments to Freak Out Friday. That way we can simply freak out over everything they’ve done in the past week and get it out of our systems, and thus have clear heads for the weekend.

It remains amazing to me how conservatives have rewritten history, having forgotten their own determination to block everything Obama did and make him a one term president, and their incessant lies about Obama’s birthplace and picketing with racist signs and epithets, and instead now claim that we should give Trump a chance. Especially considering that in the past week:

1) Trump forgot to mention Jews on Holocaust Remembrance Day. I suspect he also forgot to mention the Romani, but considering how he positioned himself as a friend of the Jews, it’s a notable omission.

2) Threatened to send in American troops to Mexico, a sovereign nation, to “help” with drug enforcement.

3) Picked a fight with the Prime Minister of Australia. How in the HELL does ANYONE pick a fight with a country where everyone says “G’day” and “No worries?”

4) Steve Bannon declared that we will be at war with China within the next decade. Yeah, that’s what we want to hear. Let’s pick fights with Mexico, Australia and China in the course of one week.

5) Kellyanne Conway declared on television that Trump’s Muslim ban was to prevent another massacre at Bowling Green, an incident which she claimed was covered by no newspapers. Possibly because it never happened. Some terrorists who resided in Bowling Green were arrested, but they had no plans to launch any assaults on the U.S., and their arrest was indeed thoroughly covered by the media.

6) I have no personal comments on Judge Gorsuch, his nominee for SCOTUS, but I’m getting emails from alarmed Gay and Lesbian organizations who seem to be freaking out about him, so I figure that’s not good.

I have to admit, I’m wondering what in the world he would have to do that would prompt current supporters of his to admit they screwed up. The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that his claim that he could kill someone on Fifth Avenue and his backers would not be bothered by it is the single most truthful thing he’s ever said.

PAD

Repeating History and the Muslim Ban

It is fascinating to see how the famous George Santayana quotation, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” is being tossed on its ear since the Trump presidency began. Trump’s actions and choices of advisors has prompted many comparisons to Nazis and Hitler. The coining of “Alternative Facts” drew immediate parallels to “1984” and “Newspeak.” The firing of Sally Yates, who committed the unspeakable crime of saying “No” to a president who was acting in what she believed was an unconstitutional manner–just as she assured Senator Jeff Sessions she would do when she was first being approved for being the assistant AG–caused many to invoke the Saturday Night Massacre of Richard Nixon. So not only is history being attended to, but it is being invoked all over the place.

It is impressive to me how in just ten days Trump has turned this country on its ear. Those who opined that the Trump we saw during the campaign was not an accurate reflection of how he would govern have been proven as wrong as those of us who thought he had no chance of winning the presidency in the first place. His anti-Mexican tirades were supported by his being the first president in thirty years to have no Hispanic or Latino members on his cabinet. His anti-Muslim rants and declaring that he would ban them from entering have been borne out by his actions, although he was considerate enough to ban only Muslims coming from countries where the citizens have killed exactly zero Americans. As opposed to those who brought down the Twin Towers; they’d still have been clear to enter. And by startling coincidence, Trump has business connections to every Muslim country permitted to come to the U.S.

“But it’s necessary!” I’ve been told. “All terrorists are Muslims,” I’m informed, “so we have to ban all of them.” Which I suppose makes sense if you’re willing to admit that since all members of the KKK are white Christian males, we need to ban all White Christian males.

Perhaps the final word on the Muslim ban is reflected in another quotation, this one from Ben Franklin: “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” The original quote was actually in a very different context, having less to do with Liberty than it did taxes during war time, but subsequent generations found that it spoke in a broader sense than Franklin originally intended, and I’m pretty much fine with that. Sure makes more sense than listening to a Trump tweet.

PAD