Robert Pacilio's Blog, page 10

Gang: Update on two more films—one nominated for Best Picture and one that should have been:

Three Billboards in Ebbing, Missouri: 
(Major spoiler alert!! Do not read if you have not seen and plan to unless you want to be spoiled.) It is powerful, dark and intriguing; however, there is far too much that is utterly implausible and some events that are downright ridiculous. So as to not give you a laundry list, I’ll mention some of the obvious stuff.

For starters, a young man beaten up and  tossed him out of a window of a two story building…and then kicked him in the face for good measure. All while in from of a new police chief, no less. And that doesn’t get him jailed! But that’s not the crazy part, No. The guy who beat him practically to death is brought into the same hospital room as the man who beat him up! Why is that guy in the hospital all bandaged up (so the beaten man doesn’t know that he is the attacker)? Because the attacker ( now an the ex-sheriff—at least he lost his job!) who wants to be a detective someday is so unobservant that he is unable to hear or see four huge fire bombs going off and flames everywhere while he is trying to read a letter! (This is difficult for him because he cannot read much more than a comic book. Not a good look for a policeman…and it turns out he’s not even the worst of the cops.)

Then there is the mother who tells her daughter she hopes she does get raped on her walk on the night! Naturally, she is raped that very night, figures, huh. In Hollywood, be careful what you wish for. I asked myself after the movie ended—really? Didn’t the mother she feel tortured enough?

I could go on and on, but let’s touch on the important thematic elements. “Hate begets hate”; Oscar Wilde reminds us via a extremely dumb stereotyped 19 year old blonde. Hate is a clear and present danger in this town. It appears to be a cesspool of racism and violence.  This small town American “Show Me State” ubiquitous with racism {think Ferguson}, not to mention homophobia, and backwoods cops that makes me think either the police there are really that terrible or that the police would really be insulted by this film—I am not sure which is true—likely both.)

There is the generational hatred; good-old boy racism and bias and we are hammered with domestic violence. On a positive note, there is one good cop—a black commander who just can’t seem to figure out who threw the bombs at his own police office—or he does know, but is too ‘wise’ to pursue charges. And remember, these are just three really head scratching events. This will likely win Best Picture due to way over-the-top performances by a fine acting ensemble—but isn’t that often the way it goes? High drama gets the nod. {Think Leo De Capra and the Bear film.}The movie has the subtlety of a sawed off shotgun…and that’s also a hint of what’s to come.

 So, what does it all mean for me? It is a film that keeps you on the edge of your seat, and it has all the right messages in a time in this country when domestic violence is a daily headline, when  ignoring women’s voices as truthtellers, and maybe more importantly, when people refuse to speak up when things are evil. People so afraid to call out injustice that it takes a burned and  raped victim’s mother to splatter it on three billboards. Yes, the letters that the dying sheriff played by Woody Harrelson (my favorite performer in the movie) writes are powerful, but he never has the courage to say those things to the people who matter while he is alive.

So upon reflecting, there are just too many coincidences, unrealistic events including the mysterious ‘reveal’—or not reveal, that makes the characters {and yours truly}drive off into the sunset and say what I felt about this film…”I just don’t know.”
 The Big Sick: 
I loved this film last summer, and when I wrote the first blog about the films of the year2017,  I overlooked this autobiographic gem. Based on events in the life of star Kumail Nanjiani  and his wife Emily V. Gordon are up for an Oscar for Original Screenplay. Holly Hunter and Ray Romano add so much to the film, but so do the characters that play Kumail family—funny and heartfelt. This is a movie that means even more today as the Muslim ban and prejudice directed at ‘foreigners’ seems to be the target of Trump’s fear filled America.

 
This was a feel good, feel bad, feel worse, feel good… at last movie.



Get Out:---still to come....here at the Metaphor Cafe

Bob Pacilio's Metaphor Cafe.blogspot.com: HANNITYGATE: I hear hypocrisy at its loudest volum...

Bob Pacilio's Metaphor Cafe.blogspot.com: HANNITYGATE: I hear hypocrisy at its loudest volum...: CLIMATEGATE! MUELLERGATE ! HANNITY’S SANITY ! I want take a minute to tell you a little about Mr. Sean Hannity, simply be...

HANNITYGATE: I hear hypocrisy at its loudest volume.

CLIMATEGATE!
MUELLERGATE !HANNITY’S SANITY !
I want take a minute to tell you a little about Mr. Sean Hannity, simply because the man causes such a ruckus that I think he deserves more than a bit of scrutiny. This is not a person attack; no, he has a wife, two children, and has amassed a fortune without having a any criminal charges. However, this is about how he got where he got and why he got there.
Let’s begin with this premise: He is not a journalist.  Not my opinion, those are his own words. "I'm not a journalist, I'm a talk show host." (Sean Hannity interview 4/16/16) You will note that I cite my sources—something I learned in college. That is my second point: a journalist needs to have a degree, hopefully in the aforementioned area, at least. Mr. Hannity got through Catholic High School, like yours truly, but dropped out of NYU … ASAP.  According to various sources including Matthew Shaer (November 28, 2017). "How Far Will Sean Hannity Go?". The New York Times.) (BY the way, this is true of his mentor Mr. Limbaugh.) So how did he make it to the top of a heap of money on a network called Fox NEWS?
According to  Cal Thomas in his book Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America. (2007) pp. 3–6, “Hannity as a leader of the pack among broadcasting political polarizers, which following James Q. Wilson they define as those who have ‘an intense commitment to a candidate, a culture, or an ideology that sets people in one group definitively apart from people in another, rival group.’”
Mr. Hannity worked in radio from the early beginning as a ‘lightening rod.’ He shouted from the highest radio tower all sorts of things that were never proven, never sourced, or eventually disproven. Here are just some of the examples: He claimed the President Obama was not an American citizen without producing a birth certificate saying he was born in the USA, and Mr. Hannity was the chief mouthpiece for the early Trump campaign’s birther argument. (Mind you, no one argued that his mother was not a U.S. citizen, thus making him one, too. But that fact escaped Mr. Hannity’s grasp.) Mr. Hannity’s words were on the record in Albert R. Hunt’s New York Times essay dated May 1, 2011 "A Lie Is Born, and We All Know Where."  “After Obama in 2008 produced what the state of Hawaii certified as a legitimate birth certificate, Hannity kept calling on Obama to release his birth certificate, asking, if there was a birth certificate, why did he not ‘just produce it and we move on?’”

Then there is the Ms. Clinton illness conspiracy. According to Media Matters on August 25th2017, “Hannity devoted entire segments of his show to pushing the conspiracy theory that Clinton ‘could be experiencing a serious undiagnosed medical condition.’ He also claimed Clinton had suffered a stroke and said she had Parkinson’s disease. At one point, Hannity even invited medical doctors on his prime-time show in hopes they'd agree with his diagnosis that Clinton suffered from seizures. Those medical professionals, however, were unconvinced of his claims.”
Newsweek reported on February 7th, 2018 that “Hannity’s most audacious and costly foray into conspiracy theory came last month, when he insisted that Seth Rich, an employee of the Democratic National Committee, killed last summer while walking home from a bar at night in Washington, D.C., had been the victim of dark leftist forces. Hannity only dropped the story after intense pressure from Fox News, with some speculating that he was on the verge of losing his job.”
Even super Trump supporter and right wing champion Ann Coulter questioned Hannity’s sanity when she penned these words in June about him that he “would endorse communism if Trump decided to implement the policies of 'The Communist Manifesto.”
I don’t want to go on and on with examples like defending Roger Ailes’ sexual conduct, ditto that of Hypocracy.
Judge Roy Moore, fabricating climate denial conspiracies—all of which are on the record—his own voice, but there is one issue that just takes the cake.
Mr. Hannity once said, “Election is a referendum on decency." I find that interesting since these words were followed by this diatribe on ‘The Sean Hannity Show’ of 7/22/16 on radio: “I see they brought that idiot Jon Stewart back from the dead. Great attack me all you want. I was right about Obama and you're a fool who head his head -- had your head so far up Obama's ass, Jon Stewart. I've never seen anybody kiss an ass like you kiss his. And now you're sucking up to him putting your head up Hillary's ass and sucking up to her too.” (Pardon the language—these are not my words, but they are certainly his.)
Oh, and here are a few more: Hannity claimed homosexuality was a "lower form of behaviour", compared homosexual sex lives to “playing in a sewer" and gay people of being “filled with hatred and bigotry.” This according to The Independent of October 11, 2017. So when he speaks of decency, I hear hypocrisy at is loudest volume.


So all I ask is that people understand that the Joe McCarthy’s of the world still rise up and find an audience. They are attack dogs, and the money they make is as dirty as it gets. There are great conservative writers: David Brooks, Jennifer Rubin ---the Wall Street Journal’s staff—and I have read them. Just take the time to read real journalists before you believe ‘talk show hosts’ who claim everything I just wrote is fake news.

HANNITYGATE: I hear hypocrisy loudest volume.

CLIMATEGATE!
MUELLERGATE !HANNITY’S SANITY !
I want take a minute to tell you a little about Mr. Sean Hannity, simply because the man causes such a ruckus that I think he deserves more than a bit of scrutiny. This is not a person attack; no, he has a wife, two children, and has amassed a fortune without having a any criminal charges. However, this is about how he got where he got and why he got there.
Let’s begin with this premise: He is not a journalist.  Not my opinion, those are his own words. "I'm not a journalist, I'm a talk show host." (Sean Hannity interview 4/16/16) You will note that I cite my sources—something I learned in college. That is my second point: a journalist needs to have a degree, hopefully in the aforementioned area, at least. Mr. Hannity got through Catholic High School, like yours truly, but dropped out of NYU … ASAP.  According to various sources including Matthew Shaer (November 28, 2017). "How Far Will Sean Hannity Go?". The New York Times.) (BY the way, this is true of his mentor Mr. Limbaugh.) So how did he make it to the top of a heap of money on a network called Fox NEWS?
According to  Cal Thomas in his book Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America. (2007) pp. 3–6, “Hannity as a leader of the pack among broadcasting political polarizers, which following James Q. Wilson they define as those who have ‘an intense commitment to a candidate, a culture, or an ideology that sets people in one group definitively apart from people in another, rival group.’”
Mr. Hannity worked in radio from the early beginning as a ‘lightening rod.’ He shouted from the highest radio tower all sorts of things that were never proven, never sourced, or eventually disproven. Here are just some of the examples: He claimed the President Obama was not an American citizen without producing a birth certificate saying he was born in the USA, and Mr. Hannity was the chief mouthpiece for the early Trump campaign’s birther argument. (Mind you, no one argued that his mother was not a U.S. citizen, thus making him one, too. But that fact escaped Mr. Hannity’s grasp.) Mr. Hannity’s words were on the record in Albert R. Hunt’s New York Times essay dated May 1, 2011 "A Lie Is Born, and We All Know Where."  “After Obama in 2008 produced what the state of Hawaii certified as a legitimate birth certificate, Hannity kept calling on Obama to release his birth certificate, asking, if there was a birth certificate, why did he not ‘just produce it and we move on?’”

Then there is the Ms. Clinton illness conspiracy. According to Media Matters on August 25th 2017, “Hannity devoted entire segments of his show to pushing the conspiracy theory that Clinton ‘could be experiencing a serious undiagnosed medical condition.’ He also claimed Clinton had suffered a stroke and said she had Parkinson’s disease. At one point, Hannity even invitedmedical doctors on his prime-time show in hopes they'd agree with his diagnosis that Clinton suffered from seizures. Those medical professionals, however, were unconvinced of his claims.”
Newsweek reported on February 7th, 2018 that “Hannity’s most audacious and costly foray into conspiracy theory came last month, when he insisted that Seth Rich, an employee of the Democratic National Committee, killed last summer while walking home from a bar at night in Washington, D.C., had been the victim of dark leftist forces. Hannity only dropped the story after intense pressure from Fox News, with some speculating that he was on the verge of losing his job.”
Even super Trump supporter and right wing champion Ann Coulter questioned Hannity’s sanity when she penned these words in June about him that he “would endorse communism if Trump decided to implement the policies of 'The Communist Manifesto.”
I don’t want to go on and on with examples like defending Roger Ailes’ sexual conduct, ditto that of Hypocracy.
Judge Roy Moore, fabricating climate denial conspiracies—all of which are on the record—his own voice, but there is one issue that just takes the cake.
Mr. Hannity once said, “Election is a referendum on decency." I find that interesting since these words were followed by this diatribe on ‘The Sean Hannity Show’ of 7/22/16 on radio: “I see they brought that idiot Jon Stewart back from the dead. Great attack me all you want. I was right about Obama and you're a fool who head his head -- had your head so far up Obama's ass, Jon Stewart. I've never seen anybody kiss an ass like you kiss his. And now you're sucking up to him putting your head up Hillary's ass and sucking up to her too.” (Pardon the language—these are not my words, but they are certainly his.)
Oh, and here are a few more: Hannity claimed homosexuality was a "lower form of behaviour", compared homosexual sex lives to “playing in a sewer" and gay people of being “filled with hatred and bigotry.” This according to The Independent of October 11, 2017. So when he speaks of decency, I hear hypocrisy at is loudest volume.


So all I ask is that people understand that the Joe McCarthy’s of the world still rise up and find an audience. They are attack dogs, and the money they make is as dirty as it gets. There are great conservative writers: David Brooks, Jennifer Rubin ---the Wall Street Journal’s staff—and I have read them. Just take the time to read real journalists before you believe ‘talk show hosts’ who claim everything I just wrote is fake news.

Gang: Here’s my take on the 2017 films !

Let’s keep it short and semi-sweet: my favorite films from top to bottom (Blade Runner 2040-whatever is the bottom)
Top of the Line:
The Post: Could not be a more important film about the need for a free press and the courage to blow the whistle on the liars {regardless of political party}. I realize that if Nixon had his own network (which he wanted when he talked to Roger Ailes) things may have worked out differently for Nixon and the nation. Quick note: I heard someone famous on NPR speak to the need for real news and that young folks need to decipher the difference. That person said that the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal are the two great levelers. Why? Because they are upholding journalistic standards, the rule of law and are not insulated from libel or prison {for not revealing sources}. The Washington Post is no slacker either.
The Shape of Water:  So if you are not into magical realism—this is not for you—but it was for me. It is a parable of what we fear and how we treat those things/ ideas we fear; verses, those who are open to seeing things that are both different in even perhaps threatening (because they are so different). The most creative picture I saw all year.
Lady Bird: And now for the opposite—stark realism. This is a mother, daughter, andculture ( I use that word loosely) that is high school. Lady Bird is a rebel with a cause, she just doesn’t quite know what it is, but she knows it is not community college in Sacramento. It is about the adult realists who don’t want to see dreams quashed vs. a dreamer who sometimes needs to be quashed to learn what is what and what really is ‘the best’ she can be.father slice of life for a senior in high school who feels trapped by the expectations presented to her by a mother who never knows when to stop pushing and chiding, and an adolescent world populated by the cool

The Darkest Hour and Dunkirk: This is a twofer in the best way. I am not sure which to see first, but I know they are both necessary. I, for one, really didn’t know that much about all this drama ( I know, I should have.)  The two films show the psychology of facing defeat and what kind of enormous courage it takes when all seems lost (Atticus Finch speaks of this in Mockingbird). Sometimes that bravery comes from the common folk, and cowards are the ones who have much to lose. Dunkirk shows its audience the spectacle of what those same ordinary people can do in extraordinary circumstances. A side note: Our wars today are not at all like this. There are no clear battle lines, no uniforms, no white flags of surrender, no real nations at war—today, wart is far more dangerous. It is about a religious fanaticism that claims death is a ticket to nirvana and leaders who will gas their own people to stay in power. {Oh, wait! I guess there are similarities to WWI and II.}
Call Me by Your Name: Again, this takes the audience into a world that until the last 20 years, (okayBrokeback Mountain. However, this film follows a very different path. It explores sexual identity—especially when that identity is just blossoming. For many people there is a clear answer to that question of sexual orientation—in this film, that answer is not so clear. The only way to know is to live both lives…for a while.maybe 10) many folks would not feel comfortable seeing (think

The Phantom Thread: You know, sometimes everything about a film is wonderful: the actors, the setting, the intrigue of the plot…it all seems to be quite beautiful. But the sum of its parts equals a unbalanced equation. If you have ever read Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily” the gothic tale will seem familiar. As a teacher, I wanted my students to ‘experience’ the wicked, tortured nature of Emily, but as a filmgoer—well—I just think it is all so terribly sad. Not ‘sad’ in a Trump way, just pathetic. I guess, there are people like those portrayed in this film—lots of them, I suppose. And it is worth discussing—just not over dinner.
I want to add two other films that I liked besides Star Wars, which I like because it is ‘the force’ in me.
Marshall: This gem came in the summer, and I just felt that it was overlooked. Too few understand what Thurgood Marshall overcame to become one of the most revered lawyers and eventually Supreme Court judges in recent American history. It is not about Brown v. Board of Education; it is what happened right before…Oh—and a last entry:
Roman J. Israel, Esq.: Not the best film Denzel Washington has been in, but a very interesting one. He plays a man who is obsessed with the details. Stuck in his ways—it just so happens his ‘ways’ are the moral high ground too many people avoid because it is just too steep a journey.

The State of the This Union Address—from the Metaphor Café

My fellow Americans: what you will hear today is one of two things—outright exaggerations or a blind ignorance of the world we live in. So let’s take heed in the words of Winston Churchill, “With great power comes great responsibility” and ask ourselves if this administration has been responsible.

First, let take on their biggest claim—the Tax reduction. 21% corporate rates will drive the Stock Market up, no doubt, although it has been climbing for 7 years under President Obama. Mr. Trump has inherited a hot market. President Obama offered a 28% corporate rate and a closing of certain loopholes to counter the loss of government income. The Republican in Congress never gave it a chance…well, it was Obama’s plan. The $1.5 trillion price tag will have implications on infrastructure; how does this administration hope to pay for a 1.8 trillion dollar infrastructure bill?. Doubling the personal deduction is temporary, while corporate rates are not.
Second, the Stock Market rise is as much of Mr. Trump’s ‘wins’ is an inherited one: however, it’s trickle down to the bottom of the pay scale is a misnomer. It will and has lined the pockets of the top executives.  Don’t be suckered into believing that these onetime bonuses being given recently will continue. Remember, many of those companies underpaid their employees terribly in the first place. It is guilt money. And has the market brought back jobs from overseas? What Americans forget is that these companies move to the poorest nations where labor is dirt cheap. So which is it is Mr. Trump asking us to believe:  companies will increase wages here in America or companies and their shareholders will continue to opt for profit motive? Don’t bet on companies ‘doing the right thing.’
Perhaps most importantly, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA begun under Mr. Nixon) has been stripped to the bone and is run by an administrator, Scott Pruitt, who sued the EPA fourteen times and thinks the EPA is the problem; his mantra is deregulate, deregulate, etc. For example, the administration knows that 80 percent of Arizona voters and 80 percent of Americans support permanent protection from new uranium mining for lands in the Grand Canyon region, but it allowed uranium to mined from our National Parks. Why? Someone is going to big profit, and the watersheds and Colorado River will be threatened.
Oil rigs are proposed to pop up on our coastlines (except Florida, naturally). Why? We already have a surplus of oil and we are shipping it overseas via oil pipelines that are leaking. How soon we forget the BP Oil disaster. Fossil fuels are not the future. Remember the promise of clean coal and more coal jobs returning. Not happening. What is happening is solar, and guess what? The administration just put a 33% tariff on imported panels. One of the top Trump donors, who switched from years of  investing in coal-fired power to solar power named Jim Lamon, CEO of DEPCOM Power, just got the wind knocked out of him as Time reported on February 5th, 2018.  He cannot compete without the cheaper panels from China. Thus, solar energy will cost more for the consumer and he may be out of business, unless he starts making the panels in the USA—which will still cost more for labor. Meanwhile, the vast majority of Trump’s supporters and Republicans in Congress simply ignore the science behind global warming: Mr. Trump pulls out of the Paris Accords and argues the whole thing is a hoax perpetrated by China.

Speaking of China, consider that the pulling out of TPP trade means that China now has all the leverage with all those nations. Mr. Trump claims he wants to negotiate better terms, but that train has left the station. He wants the same with NAFTA, which he says is sucking jobs out of the USA. Really? Which are we to believe: that unemployment is an all time low? That Mexicans are crossing our borders and taking the jobs? Which is it? The truth is that every hour a million dollars of trade crosses both borders each day according to NPR. Besides, if you ask the administration what they want to change…they do not know.
On foreign policy, Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was an unnecessary move and one that will only contradict the administration’s other Middle East priorities, namely stopping Saudi financed terrorism, ISIS, and Iran’s funding of attacks on Israel. Besides, how does it bring any semblance of peace or compromise in the region? Remember, the State Department is gutted of diplomatic advisors, so don’t count on Rex Tillerson to accomplish much…because as Mr. Trump claims, “He’s wasting his time.”

Meanwhile at home, the administrations tells America to ignore whatever ‘bad press it receives’ as “fake news”; claims the FBI and CIA cannot be trusted (unless it is favorable to their policies); ignores the separation among the various agencies like the Justice Department and the White House; and fans the flames of racial division with their eco-nationalism (which is a fancy word for having only certain people and nations as our allies [see Norway}).
That brings me to Russia and the elections which this administration has turned a blind eye to all the work the CIA and FBI have done to alert the nation to the attacks on our outdated voting machines that are easily hacked and a a campaign that had (so far) five major players involved in lying to the FBI and are under incitement or FISA surveillance. Here is the point—if an American voter needs to be told who these men are, then we are not paying attention. And it is that ignorance of factual information that this President’s staff are counting to dismiss any investigation of the financial obligations this President has to foreign nations like Russia. Never, in the history of the republic, has any President been so compromised by foreign powers. That is why, as I speak, they are trying to roll back sanctions on Russia placed by the Congress after the election. (And you did not know that….)
As for immigration, DECA will be leveraged by a $25 billion dollar wall which will come from US taxpayers pockets. If you think the so called ‘bad hombres’ are going to be stopped by a wall, then look no further than your local airport, sea port, or package delivery service…not to mention tunnel builder. The fact is Americans buy the drugs. We are our own worst enemy. As for the poor people trying to cross through the desert, perhaps revising our immigration laws so a 10 year wait is not the norm and that money for bribes are not the ‘golden ticket’ to come here.
So my fellow Americans, there is much to pay attention to. We are the greatest nation on Earth, but to stay that way we must have leaders who are representing the needs of the many and not the few; who are willing to cross party lines and vote their conscience; who know their position should not be a permanent one but merely a torchbearer for the next generation; and that we as Americans must realize that each of us has the responsibility to understand the issues and hold those accountable to the truth…only then can we claim to have the great power the founders proclaimed when they uttered “We the People in order to form a more perfect union….”

We're NOT all in the Money...

Gang: It is a good thing that the stock market is upwardly trending; however, here are the FACTS (not fake news) about whom that benefits and why. Normally I write original pieces, but the facts speak for themselves. Just copy this link and read the article--with charts and graphs for those inclined...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/op...
Oh,and BTW, President Obama tried to cut the corporate tax rate into the 28%, but then the Republican leaders would not bring it to a vote. Here's the proof: The Washington Post
Obama proposes lowering corporate tax rate to 28 percent By Zachary A. Goldfarb February 22, 2012 
President Obama proposed a major overhaul of the nation’s corporate tax code on Wednesday, an election-year gambit that aims to draw a contrast over a key policy issue with the Republicans vying to replace him.
The plan would lower the nation’s corporate tax rate to 28 percent. At the same time, Obama wants to boost overall revenue from corporate taxation by banning numerous deductions and loopholes that save companies tens of billions of dollars a year on their tax bills.
The current U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent is one of the highest in the world, but the abundance of loopholes and deductions enable many businesses to pay far less than that — or nothing at all. Companies in the United States pay almost half the taxes that companies in other rich countries pay, compared with the size of the economy, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
And in a slap at U.S. multinational corporations that shelter profits overseas, Obama wants those firms to pay a minimum tax on their foreign earnings. He also wants to end tax breaks for companies that outsource and give new tax incentives to firms that move jobs back home.
Ironic, huh...:One more fact--remember these are facts not opinions--(from 2013): "One analysis concluded that 115 of the 500 companies in the Standard and Poor’s stock index paid a total corporate tax rate — federal and otherwise — of less than 20 percent over a five-year period. A study by the Government Accountability Office in 2008 found that 55 percent of American companies paid no federal income taxes during at least one year in a seven-year period it studied." NYTimes, same day

Gang: It is a good thing that the stock market is upwardl...

Gang: It is a good thing that the stock market is upwardly trending; however, here are the FACTS (not fake news) about whom that benefits and why. Normally I write original pieces, but the facts speak for themselves. Just copy this link and read the article--with charts and graphs for those inclined...
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/op...
Oh,and BTW, President Obama tried to cut the corporate tax rate into the 28%, but then the Republican leaders would not bring it to a vote. Here's the proof: The Washington Post
Obama proposes lowering corporate tax rate to 28 percent By Zachary A. Goldfarb February 22, 2012 
President Obama proposed a major overhaul of the nation’s corporate tax code on Wednesday, an election-year gambit that aims to draw a contrast over a key policy issue with the Republicans vying to replace him.
The plan would lower the nation’s corporate tax rate to 28 percent. At the same time, Obama wants to boost overall revenue from corporate taxation by banning numerous deductions and loopholes that save companies tens of billions of dollars a year on their tax bills.
The current U.S. corporate tax rate of 35 percent is one of the highest in the world, but the abundance of loopholes and deductions enable many businesses to pay far less than that — or nothing at all. Companies in the United States pay almost half the taxes that companies in other rich countries pay, compared with the size of the economy, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
And in a slap at U.S. multinational corporations that shelter profits overseas, Obama wants those firms to pay a minimum tax on their foreign earnings. He also wants to end tax breaks for companies that outsource and give new tax incentives to firms that move jobs back home.
Ironic, huh...:One more fact--remember these are facts not opinions--(from 2013): "One analysis concluded that 115 of the 500 companies in the Standard and Poor’s stock index paid a total corporate tax rate — federal and otherwise — of less than 20 percent over a five-year period. A study by the Government Accountability Office in 2008 found that 55 percent of American companies paid no federal income taxes during at least one year in a seven-year period it studied." NYTimes, same day

The Wisdom of Solomon: a parable for our Congress

One day King Solomon, revered for his wisdom, was listening to the oldies station and tapping hisfeet to song “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” and he asked his scribe, “Who sings this song?” The Scribe replied, “My Lord, The Who.”

“That’s what I’m asking you,” replied the King.
“That’s the name of the band, My Lord.” The scribe went on ascribing. The King thought Strange name, but the song certainly makes a good point. I need to remember not to be fooled…again. Of course, this was not a problem for the King, since, after all, he was endowed with that aforementioned wisdom; that is until the day when two men, both claiming to be the father of the same child, approached in a fierce argument. One of his soldiers was holding a baby between them.
“What is the problem?” the King asked—though he was aware this scene had played out numerous times in his time as king.
The soldier replied, “Both of these fathers claim the baby is his, My Lord.”
“Hmm. What say you two?" The Solomon demanded.\Naturally, both accused each the other of stealing their precious child. Since neither seemed to give an inch and blamed the other (apparently they accused each other of listening to reports they claimed were 'fake news', the King used his tried and true method to settle this dispute. 
Taking out his sword, he said, “Fine, I’ll just cut the baby in half and you both have a dead baby to bring home.” He raised the sword but stopped a fraction of an inch from the child’s head….
Stunned, King Solomon looked at the two fathers and said, “Gentleman, you do realize this works every time, right? One of you is supposed to be the real father and let the other have the baby because you’d rather see the baby live than die…and then I say, in my wisest voice, "Ah, the one who gives the baby up is the real father! You do know that, right!”
The men just shrugged and claimed the other is the lair.
Puzzled, the King stopped and wondered what was wrong with this scene. He then turned to the men and asked, “Wait! Where are your wives?”
Both fathers said their wives were home doing wifely duties: scrubbing, laundry, cooking, etc. And the both said in unison: “They know that their place is in the home, not here in the court of law.!"
Solomon ordered them to get their wives pronto. The intimidated fathers ran away to fetch their wives. Upon their return with wives in hand, Solomon told the soldier to gag the fathers and blindfold them. And for good measure, put headsets on each man with blaring guitar solos by Metallica. Then he told the women what he had told the men: “I will cut the child in half and you can each have part of the child.”
He raised the sword and, this time the wife for whom the child truly belonged offered the child up to the other woman. And, as legend goes, Solomon realized that this was the true mother, for no mother could allow her child to die. No woman could be THAT stubborn (and sadistic). Solomon ordered false father and mother to shut up and accept his decision, and if there was any further acrimony he would have ICE deport them to some God forsaken place he heard of called Siberia.


Then, to his scribe he said: “Make a note—we need more women in power around here or else nothing gets done.”
As morals go this one is pretty evident. Elect more qualified women to office--(and while we are at it, make sure term limits are created.)
Note from the author: This is my first blog of 2018 and I was flummoxed about what to write considering all the turmoil in the nation; thus a whimsical parable seemed a good start. 
Thanks for your support of my blog. 21,000 page views and 33 followers have made me feel that despite leaving the classroom, I still have a voice. (Ah, one more thing, if you are on a larger screen
than your phone, you can see the FOLLOW button--click it if you like.

Seven Rows from Springsteen !

Gifts are gifts, but experiences are something far more eternal.
For Christmas, five people made it possible for me to hear and see the artist that I infused into the literature I taught for 32 years. 
 On a rainy December night.I saw “Bruce Springsteen on Broadway”
Just getting into the show seemed a long shot. It was sold out—all the shows are, but when my lifelong friend Jim Reifeiss snagged a ticket, he insisted I could, too. Jim’s advice was motivation, but so was the support of Pam and Anna (both miles away), but particularly my son Nicholas, now working in NYC. He was on the computer trying to figure out a way to nab a ticket and not have me be stabbed with a $1,000+ price from scalpers (and I have no scalp left). They were all pulling for me since I flew out there with only a faint hope of getting to see Bruce.
That’s when former student, Dr. Frank Lopez (and his son Lex) step into the plotline. At 5:15 pm, I turn the corner and see them in the front of the ‘cancelation line’ waiting for me. This is two hours before any cancelled tickets are even sold! I ask Frank what is he doin’ here, and he explains, “I’m making sure you get in! Look, I was just in the box office and someone just gave back tickets and you can buy one, there’s only one—right now!” I ran in and bought it at face value. And that is how this story began. It is the best $850 I have ever spent. Then Frank and I headed to dinner, walking through the misty rain. I am forever in his debt. I called my family and Jim and all were excited.

Then came two riveting hours that was mystical and spiritual. Bruce Springsteen didn't rock the house as much as he rocked my soul.



I was born in Brooklyn. My family, Italian and pretty ‘low income,’ wasn’t college educated. Louie, my dad, was a jack of many trades. My dad had so many jobs that it took two legal pad pages taped to the kitchen cabinet to know his various phone numbers of the places he worked.  Tessie, my mom, was the stay at home mom who kept the house a loving home. They were determined that I would go to college—‘cause “Ya gotta make good money.” So, we moved to Lodi, New Jersey. It was far less ‘the Garden State,’ but more a “death trap,” to my dad. So, we drove our Rambler in ‘64 seven straight days to East LA. Then, I walked home from school lots of days because my mom, was afraid to drive (she got over it, years later). So, like Bruce, I had made the trek to California, long before we had AC. Then I met Jim Reifeiss when I journeyed to San Diego to become a teacher.


Fast forward twenty years, I made the best decision of my life. I proposed to Pam, the girl next door, in 1985—the year “Born in the USA” …and thankfully she accepted. And largely because of her wisdom and support, my adult children have ‘evolved’ way past me.  I’m the luckiest guy in the Encinitas.
As I watched Bruce tell the story of his life through song and story, I could not help but feel this mystical bond between two guys who came from hardscrabble soil and who tried to make the best of what we had. I felt a spiritual connection because the pressure to be something,’ to do something,’ to matter to someone and inspire them—to be a good father and loving husband; well, all that was a part of Bruce’s journey as well as mine. The cross we both still bear, along the anxiety and worry that comes with that weight, is part of why I felt bonded to Springsteen; and the responsibility to be “tougher than the rest” is the fulfillment and beauty of life’s commitments.
Nowadays, I don’t attend St. Martha Catholic Church, which shadowed my younger days, nor does Springsteen, who spent his youth livin’ next to St. Rose of Lima. So when Bruce told the audience—and I was just seven rows away—what he says most nights—I knew exactly what he was about to tell us because I say it, too: The Lord’s Prayer. I know that my little world isn’t gonna get connected to a spiritual high speed modem to the heavens. But it makes me feel grateful, more grounded, able to in some spiritual way make a difference to those I care about.
The fifteen songs he played meant so much more as he explained how each one was a part of his journey. I thought about the songs I played in my classroom to the 10,000 kids I taught over 32 years. (If you want to know which songs he played, you will have to message me on FB ‘cause I think Bruce wants to keep that a secret. The list was something I wrote down the following morning from memory.)
I’ve been lucky, really lucky to have had family and dear friends like Jim Reifeiss who helped me find True North in my life, but I never, ever thought I would get a chance to be seven rows from a man and Patty, his wife, whose work spoke to so many people who had hungry hearts and a desire to find the “Promised Land.” Springsteen is vulnerable,  giving, humble, passionate, and he reminds me that in this “Land of Hope and Dreams” that you gotta get out there on those two lanes and make your mark—even when you’re “Dancin in the Dark.”