Watching the three network news outlets and their cable subsidiaries, one has to imagine that there must be a central clearinghouse for the news they report. Doing some rapid channel surfing between the five outlets, it is amazing how often the exact topic is being universally discussed.
On CNN (the Clinton News Network) almost all their breaking news concerns the Stormy Daniels saga. In fact, Stormy’s attorney has gotten more television time than William DeVane. There was a time, long ago, when attorneys did not deign to advertise. That has gone away completely as has the prohibition on trying cases in the Press, both printed and electronic.
CNN could make a boatload of money by charging Avenatti the going rate for political advertising.
Since the liberal Press, Hollywood, academia and even Facebook are guided by Trump-hating progressives, there is little wonder that Trump has to resort to tweeting in order to get his message out to the populace. His once-strong ally happens to be Fox News, which unlike other television outlets, at least makes an attempt to give both sides of the political story.
Trump is often most criticized for attempting to destroy the Obama legacy. But what is that legacy? First, it is the onerous Obama Care; second, the unconstitutional DACA program; third, the one-sided Iran nuclear deal; fourth, the realignment with Cuba plus eight years of general malaise.
In addition, the pusillanimous former president, who arrived in Washington with the thinnest of resumes, is best known for his rapt attention to the former Venezuelan dictator, doing the wave with one of the Castro brothers and promising thousands of shovel-ready jobs that were as amorphous as his red line on Syria. From his famous apology tour early on, Obama sought to bring the US down to the common level of many failed nations. While his empty rhetoric did little to improve the national scene, Obama devoted most of his physical energy to the golf course and pick-up basketball games.
Unlike his predecessor, Donald Trump has been a powerhouse of energy and his most notable achievement has been to turn the economy around. No one can argue the fact that the tax cuts, higher employment, removal of smothering regulations and greater respect for the US on the world stage are not remarkable achievements. Trump’s most shining hour may be yet to come as he is set to make the most significant breakthrough in decades in June when he meets with the North Korean leader.
The most interesting attacks against Trump for his pull-out on the Iranian deal came as expected from the former president and his Secretary of State, the inept John Kerry.
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LAST WEEK word came that the highly successful TV sitcom “The Love Boat” and Princess Cruises were to receive stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The report was interesting to me because of two things. One was that I became well-acquainted with one of the characters of the TV show who was named Bernie Kopell and played “Doc”. I first met Bernie when he participated in the second Clint Eastwood Celebrity Tennis Tournament at Lake Tahoe. Despite his rather slight physique, Bernie was one of the better celebrity players. That same year, he was also one of the players in the Celebrity Tennis Tournament at the Tropicana Hotel in Las Vegas.
While I had Merv Griffin as the master of ceremonies at the previous year’s tennis tournament at Lake Tahoe, I did not have anyone to MC at the Tropicana event. I was surprised to learn that Bernie was a stand-up comic who was able to handle the event in great fashion. This was prior to the filming of Love Boat and one night Bernie came to me and said he would be absent from the tournament because he had to fly to LA to film a Tidy Bowl commercial. The second reason the Princess Cruise story was interesting was that somehow, following his failed Yugoslavian casino, Harold Smith, Jr. made contact with some Princess Cruise executive who wanted him to install a full-blown casino on one of the ships. The reason they approached Harold was that passenger numbers were decreasing and the company wanted to do something spectacular. The proposal was that in addition to the casino, Harold would book live entertainment such as the Harry James Orchestra to play for the passengers. Because Harold was in poor health at the time, the plan never came to fruition.
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