On Vacation in Canada, Impossible to Escape Trumpdom

Gilda and I are back from two weeks in the Pacific Northwest (mostly British Columbia and Alberta). I will post more about our trip but for now let me share with you the restful experience of an almost two week relief from daily exposure to Trumpdom. Oh sure, Canada is not an untamed wilderness with no television or radio. 

Rather, we made a conscious effort to refrain from tuning to the news. We checked web sites like The New York Times, AP and the U.S. Daily Mail, but found it quite mellowing to not have to listen to the drivel pouring forth from our mean-spirited ignoramus-in-chief. 

Having noted our departure from almost round-the-waking-clock exposure to tempest-in-the-Trump, let me point out some of the disruptive stories that pierced my shield of Donald-defense:

Pretty Woman: Was I the only one who saw a similarity between the looks of Trump’s chief financial officer at the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg—short, stocky, balding and be-speckled—and that of corporate mogul Richard Gere’s sleezy chief financial officer/henchman in Pretty Woman, played by Jason Alexander? Check out this photo: https://nyti.ms/2mIEQIC

Laugh Lines: Trump has several catch phrases: “Fake news.” “Sad.” “No collusion.” Add to the list, “We’re the laughingstock of the world.”

He uses it to promote his agenda, as he did the other day in saying he would not mind if the government shuts down if Congress doesn’t allocate the funds he wants for his southern border wall. 

Trump is correct. We have become the laughingstock of the world, but not for the reasons he believes. It is because of his wacky behavior both in the political and personal arenas. 

Greed: How much greed can average Americans accept before they rebel? 

The top one percenters want to get another $100 billion windfall by having Trump bypass Congress to unilaterally (and possibly illegally) change the way capital gains are computed. 

Even Trump’s alma mater thinks the idea is loony. 

“According to the budget model used by the  University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, indexing capital gains to inflation would reduce government revenues by $102 billion over a decade, with 86 percent of the benefits going to the top 1 percent. A July report from the Congressional Research Service said that the additional debt incurred by indexing capital gains to inflation would most likely offset any stimulus that the smaller tax burden provided to the economy.

“It is unlikely, however, that a significant, or any, effect on economic growth would occur from a stand-alone indexing proposal,” the report said.” https://nyti.ms/2K8Jjxw

Apparently, our “genius” president thinks he knows more than the professors. After all, his business acumen enabled him to file for bankruptcy protection six times. 

A Critical Eye on CBS: Under his leadership CBS has enjoyed unending salad days. But now that Leslie Moonves has the cloud of sexual harassment swirling around his past and continued reign at the so-called platinum network, it might be instructive to recall his response to the dehumanization of politics, as practiced by Trump:  

“It may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” 

“Man, who would have expected the ride we’re all having right now? ... The money’s rolling in and this is fun,” he told a February 2016 gathering at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Perhaps if we knew then of Moonves’ sketchy past we might have placed his remarks in their proper context, one alleged sexual abuser reflecting on another.

CBS has a long, cherished and respected history of journalism. But like too many other electronic media CBS concentrated more on the hype of the Trump campaign than on the substance. As the aforementioned section asked, how much greed must we accept before our political and business leaders place values and principles, and sense, above dollars and cents?

Follow the Time Line: Trump met with the publisher and editorial page editor of The Times on July 20 to discuss press relations (https://nyti.ms/2mOToGq). 

Apparently, it had no effect, as just four days later, when speaking in Kansas City, MO, to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, he said of the press, “Stick with us. Don’t believe the crap you see from these people, the fake news. 

“What you’re seeing and what you’re reading is not what’s happening.”

Undermining the validity, not to mention the patriotism and safety, of the press is standard operating procedure for demagogues who seek ultimate power. Regrettably, veterans booed and hissed at the press corps (https://nyti.ms/2n9hEn7).

Trump as Schnorrer: It’s been widely reported that Trump has welched on full payments to contractors. Now, it seems, Trump has elevated himself to schnorrer, the Yiddish term for “beggar” or “sponger.” He is reported to have wanted a renowned portrait artist, who had already painted all of Trump’s family, to paint Melania for free! The artist refused. How refreshing to find someone who stood up to Trump.

For an interesting read, click on this link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5986555/amp/Donald-Trump-wanted-FREE-portrait-Melania-says-renowned-painter-Ralph-Wolfe-Cowan.html

Danger of Trump Fatigue: In May 2017 I wrote about the Trump fatigue factor (“The fatigue factor is setting in. Donald Trump and his gang that couldn’t shoot straight is overwhelming me. There’s too much to write. If I miss a day the accumulated copy weighs me down.”)

Steve Schmidt, the ex-Republican strategist who recently left the ranks of the GOP because its leadership abandoned its principles and capitulated to Trump, capsulized the danger to America on Real Time with Bill Maher last Friday night. Listen, this is important: https://youtu.be/KNgkpb-rrMc

A Schnorrer's Cry: Baseball's Been Good to Me

I’m a baseball schnorrer.

Theres no getting around it. As I reviewed in my mind my visits to Yankee Stadium, I see a definite pattern of schnorring.

Now, for the uninitiated let me first decipher the meaning of the Yiddish word schnorrer. It may be best defined in my case as a moocher, someone who gets something for nothing or otherwise would not partake in the experience.

Eight years into the new Yankee Stadium I finally made it, with Gilda, to the big ballpark in the Bronx Thursday night, courtesy of our friends Jane and Ken G., who themselves were recipients of four complimentary $150 field level tickets about 12 rows in and a third of the way up the right field line. Great seats.

During my years at Lebhar-Friedman (1977-2009), I was fortunate to be among the privileged to receive the company’s four box seat tickets once or twice a season. They, too, were great seats perhaps a dozen rows behind the Yankee dugout near first base. They were so good they spoiled me for sitting anywhere else.

Unfortunately, along with the building of the new Yankee Stadium came a dramatic increase in season ticket prices which dovetailed with the recession that struck publishing especially hard. L-F made the tough but economically prudent decision to not renew its ticket subscription. 

I, as well, did the financially prudent thing. I forsook going to games. I even turned down a suggestion by Ellie and Donny that we go one Father’s Day several years ago. Instead, I convinced them that rather than spend a minimum $400 on tickets alone, plus food, parking and other incidentals, we should go to a Brooklyn Cyclones minor league game in Coney Island, have dinner at a nearby Russian restaurant and stroll the boardwalk, all for less than the cost of one Yankee ticket. It was a most enjoyable Father’s Day.

I didn’t always use the L-F tickets for my own enjoyment. I would give them to Dan and Ellie. I even gave Dan tickets to the seventh game of the 1999 World Series because it was to be played on his 21st birthday. Baseball aficionados no doubt realized the gift turned out to be a beau geste as the Yankees wrapped up the series against the San Diego Padres in four games. 

I was fortunate enough to go to a World Series seventh game in 1975. I scored a free ticket from the sports editor of The New Haven Register where I worked as a bureau chief. Happy to report the Cincinnati Reds came from behind to win the title against the Boston Red Sox. Aside from the Reds’ wives and front office personnel, I was probably one of the few people in Fenway Park pleased with the outcome. I was intelligent enough to keep my delirious contentment to myself that evening, even from my fellow Register reporter John Membrino, a die-hard Sox fan.

After moving back to New York in 1977, the only time I went to a Yankee game other than with L-F tickets was with John and Gilda to watch the home team play the Red Sox. We sat high in the upper deck along the left field foul line. I have no idea why people pay good money to sit in those far-away seats. 

My baseball ticket schnorring began as a child. My brother Bernie and I would go to Yankee games using tickets provided by one of our father’s sales representatives, a Mr. Schaeman. Half the fun was going on the ear-popping elevator to pick up the tickets at his office in the Empire State Building. Back then, in the late 1950s early 1960s, when the last out was recorded, on their way to the subway fans could walk on the ball field toward the exit gate in center field. Police would keep you from running on the infield diamond, but to tread where Mickey Mantle patrolled was a thrill to be savored.

We didn’t always go to Yankee games. Bernie rooted for the Dodgers. We went to Ebbetts Field virtually for free after eating 10 Elsie the Cow ice cream treats and sending the wrappers along with 25 cents to the Bordens Company. Mr. Shaeman also provided tickets to Mets games at the Polo Grounds and Shea Stadium.

For the record, I’m not just a baseball ticket schnorrer. For many years now Gilda’s brother Carl sends us two tickets to four regular season and one pre-season game of the New York Giants football team. They, too, are really good seats, though in recent years I’ve mostly chosen to avoid the two hour drag-of-a-ride home from the Meadowlands in heavy traffic. It’s a lot more comfortable watching the game on televised tape delay skipping through commercials. If Dan and Allison or Donny and Ellie can’t use the tickets, we give them to friends, Gilda’s co-workers or donate them to charity auctions.

By the way, at Thursday night’s Yankee game, the Bronx Bombers won in true bomber fashion. Brett Gardner hit a tie-breaking walk-off home run leading off the bottom of the 11th inning. Too bad we headed to the parking lot at the conclusion of the 10th inning. Ah well, at least we heard John Sterling’s call on the radio, “It is high, it is far, it is gone. The Yankees win!”