The biggest news that broke late last week was the announcement that President Donald Trump has agreed to face-to-face talks with North Korea’s Kim Jung Un.
Most speculation after the announcement was; How would the mainstream liberal media handle the situation? True to form, many of the headlines and TV reports the next day claimed that it was, “Trump’s big gamble”. One publication went as far as to headline, “Trump snookered by North and South Korea”. Several of the mainstream TV cable programs delighted in showing clips of Trump’s and Kim’s verbal insults to one another. Other long-time experts were dredged up to comment on the talks and they universally agreed that direct talks between principals should only come after previous lower echelon diatribes.
No matter what President Trump does, the mainstream media will always criticize his position. Now that he has gone from war-monger to peacemaker, his actions are still regarded as misguided.
Actually, it was the naïve Bill Clinton along with his old war horse Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright that put us in the position we are today regarding North Korea.
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This year’s ninetieth edition of Hollywood’s Oscar Awards turned out to be the lowest ranked ever in terms of viewership. Host Jimmy Kimmel, who performed the same duty last year, was at his smug best. As a comedian, he could not carry Bob Hope’s athletic supporter. He is best known for his liberal rants on late night TV. Along with the inept Kimmel, the writers of most of the so-called “skits” laid a collective egg. Worst offering was the comedy duo of the two ladies complaining about having to wear high heels at the event. The awarding of a Sea-Doo for the shortest acceptance speech reeked of “The Price is Right” and Kimmel’s excursion into an adjoining theater, where he passed out hot dogs was possibly the lowest point of the low-rated show.
The “Me Too” movement bit attracted a trio of female stars. The more they pled their cause, the more strange it seemed, since they and many femme stars have appeared in films in various stages of sex scenes. If the Me Too movement swings too far, it may result in a lack of work for actresses and result in more all-male castings. Since sex, drugs and booze have always been three of Hollywood’s staples, it remains to be seen if the current effort to sanitize Tinseltown can ever come to fruition.
When it came to the award for the best picture, there was a great deal of tension in the room because of last year’s enormous disaster. To the tune of “The Second Time Around”, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway once again stepped to the mic and performed flawlessly.
As to the best picture, Hollywood must have forgotten the words uttered by long-ago master movie-maker Samuel Goldwyn. When interviewed about his highly entertaining and escape movies, Goldwyn was criticized for not having more of a “message” in his films. Goldwyn responded by saying, “If I want to send a message, I’ll call Western Union.” Present-day film makers seem more concerned about a “message” than an entertaining story line. Case in point is this year’s winner, “The Shape of Water”, which could not hold a candle to the also nominated, well-structured, overwhelming account of “Dunkirk”. Since viewership was down this year, it might be attributed to the fact that the preceding Golden Globe Awards usually predict the Oscar winners.
On a final musical note, not many of the lyrics of the nominated songs were audible.
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At this writing, the outcome of the Mountain West basketball tournament in Las Vegas was yet to be determined. Both Nevada’s Men’s and Women’s teams had a good shot at the championship. Regardless of the outcome, the Men’s team seems to be a shoo-in for the NCAA Tournament. Despite a short bench and a slew of injuries, Coach Musselman has done a magnificent job in his third season at Nevada.
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As noted in a previous column, the Reno Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority has now finalized the proposed agreement for an outside company to manage their convention business. In the news report of the signing, it was revealed that the RSCVA has lost a total of over ten million dollars for the past three years. How they make up this shortfall was not explained. This sort of fiscal mismanagement is also apparent in the Washoe County School District, since it was noted in a letter to the daily newspaper that 85% of the WCSD budget goes for salary and benefits. This might be the reason for the almost twenty million dollar shortfall at the school district.
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