Mr. Trump, We Are Sorry

("Trump Wants His Own Apology After 'Roseanne' Uproar")

Mr. Trump, we apologize. We are sorry you didn't grow up black, poor, a Muslim, living in a shithole country. We are sorry you learned from Roy Cohn how to treat other people. We are sorry for your life of privilege, for your golf courses, for the buildings with your name on them, for your helicopters and planes. We are sorry that your bankruptcies, your lawsuits, your lying did not serve as teachable moments for you. We are sorry for your tweets, sorry for your constantly feeling you are the one aggrieved, sorry for what you have done to the standing of this nation, sorry for the permission you have given us to exercise our worst tendencies in broad daylight, sorry for your sexual improprieties, sorry for your demeaning ways, sorry for your cruelty, sorry for your hatreds. We are sorry you believe you are entitled to a free pass for all of your intolerable indiscretions.

Yes, Mr. President, we are as sorry as we can possibly be for giving the ultimate compliment we can bestow upon a citizen of the United States to one so lacking in morality and basic human decency.

For all of that, and for so very much more, we are deeply, deeply sorry. For all of that, we take a knee and humbly pray for forgiveness.

Roseanne

 AN EDITED VERSION OF THIS POST APPEARS IN THE RECORD, A BERGEN COUNTY NEWSPAPER

Please don't treat ABC as if they deserve sainthood for dumping Roseanne. They took on a keg of dynamite and it exploded.

They swiftly decided to walk away from the resulting destruction, in a time when the Matt Lauer's, Bill O'Reilly's and Charley Rose's have turned from princes to pariahs in a heartbeat. It is a moment in this arena when it is not prudent for networks to seem indecisive in the face of reprehensible behavior.

So goodbye and good riddance to a show that soft pedaled ugliness of the type that emanates from the very seat of power in this nation. One that allowed those who think much as our President to take comfort in the notion that they were somehow harmless, that their biases and prejudices were not really so bad after all, that in reality they were nothing worse than cranky. ABC bought into this narrative, they owned it and now they are forced by circumstance, not conscience, to bid it farewell. 

I neither shed tears for their loss nor applaud their swift sword. When you lie down with dogs....

Who Is Hogan Gidley and Why Do We Care?

("The Risky Business of Speaking for President Trump")

"All for one... and, well, that's pretty much the whole statement."

It is like "Fifty First Dates" or "Groundhog Day" working P.R. for this President:

1. Wake up

2. Put out fire

3. Throw yourself under bus

4. Get up, dust off and

5. Repeat 1 to 4.

The job description:

a) absolute loyalty, not that phony "honest loyalty" of James Comey

b) a complete repudiation of your moral compass - thank you Ms. Conway for demonstrating the proper technique

c) a past that is littered with failure, or at least no notable success in this line of work (this lineup of "never wases" is too numerous to mention, and to name names would be to risk offending anyone who was inadvertantly omitted)

d) a gymnast's body, for you will surely have to twist yourself into a pretzel almost daily.

Hogan Gidley is an interchangeable part, a mere instrument here today and gone to Spicer land tomorrow. Young or old, man or woman, they are all but as one. Swearing an oath of fealty to the devil, selling their soul for nothing more than a momentary illusion of power.

Seeking their 15 minutes of fame at the king's pleasure until one day they forget to lie and then "poof" they vanish. Turned back into a frog. Or maybe a snake. Yeah, a snake would definitely be more apt.

Why Katy Tur Stayed Home on Election Day

In the name of journalistic integrity. 

I attended a talk given by Katy Tur last evening, the woman who followed the Donald around from the first escalator ride when he descended upon us as a one man locust invasion, to his maddening final ride when he elevated to the top of the political universe. And the reason above was what she cited for failing to cast a ballot, to hang a chad, in the 2016 Presidential election. 

This woman who, when asked what we could do to insure 2020 was not mere reprise of what happened that terrible Tuesday night in November, said we should volunteer our time to make absolutely certain people got out and voted.

I don't for a moment buy that a journalist, or an FBI agent, can't divorce personal distaste from professional duty. Mr. Trump has repeatedly suggested that the Mueller probe is driven not by evidence but animus. That a negative comment between workers means that the entire investigation into Mr. Trump is inevitably, irreparably damaged. It is this damning lie that is perpetuated when Ms.Tur, and others in her profession, fail to exercise their most critical constitutional right in professed fear of losing their capacity to deal with impartiality, with objectivity, on their subject.

Don't get me wrong, I love the woman the Donald referred to as little Katy. A political neophyte when she began her Trumpian journey, she showed strength of character and an inexhaustible supply of words as she reported on the bizarre rise and the even more bizarre failure to fall of the equally political neophyte who became king.

If she didn't have the strongest of reasons, the most encyclopedic basis to pull the lever for Hillary who did? And did she really believe that this most basic act would color her opinion, change her reporting, even a smidge? 

Come on Katy, you and I both know exactly how you feel about Donald sitting on the throne and yet you won journalistic plaudits and landed your own MSNBC show based on your "fair and balanced" comments about the tragedy that is Mr. Trump.

So, to all those reporters, all those FBI agents, all of you whom we rely upon for your honest effort and your truthful recitation, tell us that you have done your sworn task with honor even though you hate everything about this man and even though you would never vote for him for dog catcher, no less President. 

You are entitled to act upon your preferences as an American citizen in deciding who will lead this country forward. And in fact it strikes me as more than a little repugnant if you fail to do so.

So don't cop out and tell us to get to our polling booths while you stay at home on election day. It sends the absolutely wrong message and the fundamental obligation of a journalist or a member of the FBI is to never send the wrong message.

Play Ball! (Or Why We Should Stop Playing the National Anthem)

("The N.F.L. Kneels to Trump")

I have a solution to the vexing problem of the national anthem and the kneeling, hand holding or other response of athletes. Stop playing the song at these events.

Blasphemy? Not really. This is a tradition, not a mandate, more of a habit than anything else, like brushing your teeth before bed. And if we are aggrieved at the insertion of issues unrelated to sport into our arenas and stadiums, then just leave the patriotic fervor firmly planted at home.

Come to watch a game? Watch a game. No "all rise and take off your caps." Keep your cap on, it is protecting you from a sunburn anyway, and instead get the first pitch, the kickoff, the tip off, the face off underway without having to first remind ourselves how much we love this nation.

We can't hide our problems by wrapping ourselves in red, white and blue. Whether we are on our feet, on our knees or lying down, the ills of this country will follow long after we leave the cocoon of wherever we find ourselves rooting on our team. So don't pretend this is all about whether or not we "honor America." Let us not go down that road.

When you go to the movies or a concert are you offended if you aren't first asked to stand and give grateful thanks to this star spangled land? 

Cut off the dilemma at its source and instead focus on what you came for. The food. And you have a lousy voice anyway. Need I remind you that you started clapping well before the end of the song?  

Grow up America.

Play ball.

Thank God for Donald Trump

("Trump Backs Away from Demand for Immediate North Korean Denuclearization")

What, you mean dealing with a country on the issue of nuclear weapons is not as simple as suggested, that an all or nothing attitude will surely lead to nothing, that time and patience are required to try to achieve one's aims? 

Thank God we have a leader with such perspective, with an understanding of the great and terrible difficulties, the compromises and concessions that one must anticipate when trying to negotiate the kind of agreement that is good for everyone and no one in confronting such an enormous and volatile subject. Thank God he knows better than to throw away an opportunity for a better, safer tomorrow in pursuit of a perfection that does not exist in the real world.

Think if we had a leader without such a supple mind. Think of the possible damage he could do, the progress that would never happen. Think of what a destructive force he could be.

Think of Donald Trump. On second thought, don't.

And we have guns, guns, guns

Well he got his daddy's gun

Took it to the high school now

Maybe thought about the library

But chose the art class now

And with those bullets blasting

Shooting as fast as he can now

And we'll have guns, guns, guns,

'Til the Congress takes the damn things away

(Guns, guns, guns, 'til the Congress takes the damn things away)

Well the kids can't slow him down

As he shoots up the place now

Aiming right for the heart or maybe the face now

Gotta lock down the school

As we all give him chase now

And we'll have guns, guns, guns

'Til the Congress takes the damn things away

(Guns, guns, guns, 'til the Congress takes the damn things away).

Well they knew all along

We were wise to this game now

And their votes were all bought

What a  damn crying shame now

Just another in a river of tears

As he shoots for his fame now

And we have guns, guns, guns,

Cause the Congress won't take them away,

And we have guns, guns, guns

Cause the Congress won't take them away

And we have guns, guns, guns

Far too many have seen their last day

Guns, guns, guns

Far too many have seen their last day

Guns, guns, guns,

And with our blood we all pay

Guns, guns, guns,

And with our blood we all pay

Guns, guns, guns

What else can we say

Guns, guns, guns

What else.............

Say It Ain't So

("Robinson Cano's Suspension Wounds the Mariners, and His Hall of Fame Chances")

Say it ain't so, Robby Cano. At the risk of sounding like a combination of a bad John Sterling home run call and a possibly apocryphal tale of a young boy and Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Mo., I can't help but be saddened by the thought that now both of the C and C boys have been caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

I remember the forever smile on the face of the young Robby, as he and Melky Cabrera emerged as future stars of a team in the midst of a seemingly dynastic run. Enthusiasm, exuberance and innocence permeating their very beings. Now in retrospect, your photo of Robby and Melky high fiving with A-Rod close at hand, stands not so much as testament but question mark.

He was and will forever be a great player, possessed of such an easy grace around second base that it made it appear, at times, he wasn't even trying. His bat whipping through the zone as the reincarnation of Rod Carew. The game played with the skill and joy with which it was intended.

But now there is a stain upon his legacy that neither time nor distance can ever erase. As we look back on a career that led this man to unfathomable riches, we wonder how much of the loot was pilfered and how much earned. And worse, how much of our love for everything Robby, was based on a lie.

The Hall light, and the one in our hearts, may just have been turned off. Say it ain't so, Robby Cano. 

The Swamp

("Only the Best People")

This is not death by a thousand cuts, but by thousands. The positions left vacant, the reassignments. This is Mr. Trump's real version of draining the swamp,  ridding or at least neutering those in the system whom James Comey might suggest have a "higher loyalty" to the truth rather than merely to protecting and promulgating the President's intended goals no matter their legal or ethical shortcomings.

And the hiring patterns follow the lead of a leader who has a disdain for study and in depth analysis, who certainly has spent more time concentrating on his golf swing than contemplating the effect of withdrawing from the seven nation agreement with Iran. 

So too, the financial abuses of those like Mr. Pruitt and Dr. Carson cannot be considered aberrations but consistent with the dictate and demeanor of a President who believes rules of protocol and practice were not intended to apply to him.

Everything that is ill and ill intended flows from the head of the state, the head of the snake. Firings, hirings, misfirings all fit a pattern, all a product of a distorted vision of what government is intended to be.

Not of the people, by the people and for the people. But of, for and by one person only.

Signed in Disappearing Ink

("An Indecent Disrespect")

We elected the ugly American to lead us into battle. That talk loudly and carry a big schtick, half crazed, take what is mine and what you thought was yours caricature of everything that people across the globe despise.

This is Mr. Trump tearing down Atlantic City and building it back up in his image, only this time it is not merely a small slice of our own universe that suffers from his moral bankruptcy and total lack of vision and understanding.

Trump treating other nations like he has those bankers he left holding the bag, make a better deal with me or fall into the abyss. 

His word is your bond. His promise is he makes no promises. His contracts have only your signature. He commands not with his presence but with his commands. All for one and that one is me. 

It is a recipe for disaster, maybe not today but there will be a reckoning tomorrow. If not now, certainly not never.

He is playing Russian roulette seemingly with everyone but the Russians, a second Amendment gun pointed only at your head.

This is not policy, it is unmitigated chest pounding of the worst kind. Dangerous, reckless. Not making America great, merely making it grate.