Glancing Blows & Potpourri

                                                                   Glancing Blows / Potpourri
 
            I’m hoping this will be the first of a weekly BoomeRant! feature --- a take on a variety of items that have occurred in the past week or so, as well as observations or questions that have been raised.  There isn’t necessarily a theme or focus.  It’s a random kind of grab-bag of thoughts, ideas, provocations that have caught my attention.  This week we’ve seen Bruce Springsteen turn 75, we’ve heard a lot about “undecideds,” and there has been usual amount of bluster and bullshit from Donald Trump that the media, somehow, treats as “campaign talk” rather than bluster and bullshit.  So, these glancing blows are focused on that potpourri of items, events, observations, and questions.

            The “Boss” is 75!  Yes, September 23rd was Bruce Springsteen’s 75th birthday, which, of course, elicited a reaction from me (and many members of the college class of 1971, I’m sure), as this year marked the 75th   anniversary of my birth, as well.  It brought back a flood of memories and, what I marveled at most (in retrospect), was how rapt I was with Springsteen’s music while being oblivious (as I recall) that we were the same age!  I first learned about The Boss in the summer of 1974 in Hamilton, New York while working at Colgate University for the summer.  One of the graduate students I was “advising” was my now long-time friend, Del Shortliffe, and he had recently seen Springsteen and the E-Street Band and gave them a rave review.  Even though I was just becoming friends with Delbert, I knew he had impeccable taste in music, so I duly noted his endorsement of Springsteen and, in short order, purchased a copy of The Wild, the Innocent, and the E-Street Shuffle.  I immediately understood why Del was so impressed and, a year later, when Born to Run was released I agreed with Jon Landau that this was, indeed, “the future of rock’n’roll.”  That Springsteen has remained an icon over the years is all the more impressive and, reviewing his discography, I took note of where he was in his musical evolution and where I was in my life at the same time.  I read his autobiography when it came it out (aptly titled Born to Run 2016), underlining passages along all 509 pages!  I was struck by how intensely focused he was on becoming a professional musician and equally struck by how, in describing his life in the late Sixties and early Seventies, there is no mention of the political turmoil the country was embroiled in.  No Civil Rights, anti-War, Women’s Rights, Gay Rights discussion at all.  Given how Springsteen has become so politically active in his “older” age, it leaves me wondering when his political awakening occurred.  Noting that Bruce turned 75 this week led me to take a look at what other “notable people”  turned 75 this year.  I knew Archie Manning, the father of two Super Bowl MVP quarterbacks and a notable NFL quarterback himself, turned 75 because his birthday is my birthday.  And I had learned, along the way, the Piano Man, Billy Joel (also a Long Island boy) was now 75, too.  Other notables who have reached the three-quarter century mark include Samuel L. Jackson, Meryl Streep, Richard Gere, Pam Grier, Bill O’Reilly, Ted Nugent, Ozzy Osbourne, Lionel Richie, Elizabeth Warren, Greg Popovich, and Dusty Baker.  There are more, of course, but that’s enough of a list to adequately represent the Boomer 75 Class.

            Who are the “Undecideds?”  And some videos you need to see!
            It’s hard for me to believe there are actually “undecideds” in this Presidential election race.  I certainly don’t know any and, to be honest, don’t really know many Trump supporters --- which makes sense, given the “siloes” most of us live in, literally and digitally.  The Trump supporters I’m aware of are mostly former students whom I occasionally see online --- and they fit the profile we hear non-college educated white men, marginalized, antagonistic to the “educated elite.”  Indeed, the former students were on the margins in high school --- not particularly academic (I taught in NYC suburban high schools for a number of years), resentful of “achievers” and those they perceived as the “haves,” and not particularly invested in school (non-academic, non-sports, non-extracurricular).  But those people are certainly not “undecideds.”  If you haven’t seen the clip of MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle with the New York Times Bret Stephens on Bill Maher’s “Real Time,” it’s worth a look because it’s a great take on the “undecided” issue.
Here's the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMPykdxOYZA
 
            Given the preponderance of CONTENT that’s out there, no one can possibly catch all information (and disinformation) on cable news, various internet outlets, and various newsfeeds.  As a result, you may not be aware that Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has taken to appearing on FOX News to counter their propaganda.  Here’s a clip that’s representative of how Buttigieg dissembles the pathological liars on FOX.
 
https://youtu.be/OQnVwOq8WF0
 
            And, finally, late night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel (and, much less so, Jimmy Fallon), relish skewering Donald Trump in their opening monologues --- to the point where Trump has felt it necessary to single them out with childish retorts.  I thought this Kimmel clip was particularly fun and worth a look.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XoqttCWIMY
 
            If you are aware of other fun and/or interesting video clips that are out there, please feel free to note them and share!
 
Finally:  Could we stop the False Equivalency Bullshit, please?

         After nine years of Trump’s incessant lying and bullshit you’d think someone in the American press corps (looking at you, New York Times and Washington Post) would stand up and ask the former President to actually provide facts or demonstrate he actually knows anything he’s talking about.  David Muir, of course, fact-checked Trump on his outrageous claims that dogs and cats were being eaten in Springfield, Ohio (and, quickly referencing my last BoomeRant!, his “explanation” was “It’s on tv.  They showed it on tv!”) to no avail, of course.  But consider when Trump says something like this, trying to explain that his bizarre word salads (which he calls “the weave”) are a thoughtfully executed strategy on his part:

When I do the weave...I’ll talk about nine different things and they all come back brilliantly together,” he said. “Friends of mine that are English professors, they say: ‘It’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever seen.’”

         As he so often does, Trump claims he has “friends” who are “English professors” (like all those people who approach him and say,  “Sir, how  . . . ).  Will someone in the Press Corps stand up and ask this guy, “Could you please give us the names of those English Professors, so we could actually interview them about this?”  But the “objective” press corps simply “reports” Trump’s bullshit statement as if there’s any connection to reality!

            In the same way, when Trump goes off on an attack of Kamala Harris and refers to her as a “radical left, Marxist, communist, fascist”  could someone please ask Trump to explain what, if anything, he knows about the political spectrum?  Of course, when appealing to a non-college-educated audience, any totalitarian (aka dictator) is the same as any other:  therefore, a “communist” and a “fascist” are the same.  Not only does this illustrate Trump’s (and his followers’) gross ignorance it reflects poorly on news outlets that don’t: #1 – inform their readers/viewers about this ignorance and #2 – actually attempt to educate the public as to the differences between Communists and Fascists and explain what totalitarianism is, so they can see why they are ignorant, confused, and believe an ignoramus like Trump.  Is that asking too much?  Is it asking the media too much to actually serve a public function and correctly inform viewers/readers as well as, god forbid, educate them?
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            If this race is as close as the polls indicate (and I don’t particularly believe them, either) it’s because the Media reporting it have abrogated their responsibility of accurately informing the public about facts.  That Trump’s egregious lies are simply “reported” without fact-checking is a disservice to the public and it (borders) on criminal negligence reporting it as the “news.”