Chachi Jumps the Shark: Opening Night At the RNC

Trump & wife before overt plagiarizing of FLOTUS speech

The opening night of the 2016 Republican National Convention had all the elements of the kind of crass reality TV show culture for which Donald Trump has become so famous.

There were an odd assortment of real-life characters on stage who at various times wept, accused, screamed, yelled and lied.

The GOP Clown Car finally came to a screeching halt at the circus.

But let's be fair.

Give the Republicans credit for adding some racial diversity to their opening night lineup.

To bolster the RNC's opening night "Make America Safe Again" theme, they trotted out the frequently unhinged African-American Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke, Jr.

This peculiar Democrat-turned rabid Trump supporter has vowed to "do everything I can" to get Trump into the White House and has a clear message for the numerous members of the Republican party who fear that a Trump presidential bid will destroy what party unity that's left, and threaten the GOP majorities in the House and Senate:

"Anyone who thinks Trump will wreck the GOP is delusional." We'll see soon enough Sheriff!

The outspoken law enforcement officer, a frequent critic of President Obama, also called the charges filed against the Baltimore PD officers responsible for breaking Freddie Gray's neck and killing him the product of a "malicious" prosecutor - which is exactly what many Americans would call cops who intentionally use a "rough ride" in a police van to purposefully abuse someone in custody then end up killing him.

Sheriff Clarke also described the Black Lives Matter protest movement as "anarchy" (so much for 1st Amendment rights!) and defended Donald Trump for saying a federal judge born in Indiana would be unable to rule fairly in a court case against Trump's sham university because his Mexican heritage would bias him against Trump.

Rudy Giuliani inflames the hysteria Monday night

Speaking of law and out of order, former New York City Mayor and resident paranoid fear-meister Rudy Giuliani also took the stage and proceeded to tear into one of the most bizarre public speeches he's ever given.

This morning long-time New York political observer and WNYC radio host Brian Lehrer observed that he'd never seen Giuliani talk publicly like that before.

It was like Giuliani was possessed by some kind of bizarre determination to convince the audience that the Apocalypse was upon us as he yelled hysterically into the microphone like he thought the thing wasn't working, insisting to the cheering throngs that:

"The vast majority of Americans today do not feel safe. They fear for their children and they fear for themselves."

Which of course completely contradicts F.B.I data on crime statistics as well as extensive research by the Brennan Center for Justice that shows crime rates in America (including killings of police officers) are at a 30 year low.

Clint babbles to an empty chair at the 2012 RNC

Now obviously we're all entitled to our own personal political views, and the right to express them, but there's always something slightly unsettling about famous actors who bring their unvarnished political beliefs into the public arena.

I've enjoyed films that Clint Eastwood has acted in and directed for years, but I'm not sure I'll ever look at him in quite the same way after his bizarre onstage tirade against an empty chair on the stage of the 2012 Republican National Convention.

For me it's somewhat jarring to listen to an actor I've always known through the lens of popular entertainment profess political views that veer to the fringes of the far right.

In the history of American politics, there has never been a presidential candidate of a major party who is viewed as unfavorably as Donald Trump; according to the results of a recent poll of 1,000 people conducted by the Washington Post and ABC News, Trump has a 70% unfavorable rating among Americans, which climbs to a remarkable 89% unfavorable rating with Hispanics.

So it's hardly surprising that the people Trump described as "winners" who would be speaking at the RNC on his behalf, including former Indiana coach Bobby Knight, former Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka and NFL quarterbacks Tom Brady and Ben Roethlisberger, have all backed out.

From Chachi to right wing nut bag?

Enter actor and former teen heart throb Scott Baio, who might not even have been on Trump's bucket list of potential speakers save for a recent random encounter.

Apparently Baio was at a Trump fundraiser when The Donald asked him to speak at the convention in Cleveland.

According to an article on Philly.com, Baio, who endorsed Trump back in March, has said he backs Trump because he wants someone "to go into Washington and blow it up." 

Growing up in the 1970's as I did, actor Scott Baio went from playing the cute wisecracking sidekick to Fonzi on 'Happy Days', known as Chachi Arcola, to a guy who has become intoxicated by Trump's delusional xenophobic hate speech.

Et tu Chachi?

Last night I listened to a number of the opening speeches at the RNC, including Scott Baio's brief remarks to an enthusiastic audience.

Baio earned a public rebuke from MSNBC's Tamron Hall for his toxic Twitter comments about Hillary Clinton; now say anything you want about her policies, fine, but using the c-word to refer to a former Senator, Secretary of State and First Lady, or any woman for that matter is wrong - especially in the public arena.

Baio panders to Republicans in Cleveland 

Last night the once-dreamy television veteran was less inflammatory in front of a national prime time audience, but just as partisan - and looking decidedly less cool than he used to look standing next to Fonzi with a mouthful of perfectly shaped teeth.

He assured the conservative crowd that he trusts Trump with his family's lives, I have no idea what that means but I wouldn't want Trump babysitting either of my two nieces.

True to his newfound identity as an enlightened conservative firebrand, Baio shared his definition of what it means to be an American, saying it "doesn't mean getting free stuff." 

Which I assume includes the millions of American GI's who returned home after WWII and were given free college education under the GI Bill?

Or the billions in taxpayer-funded corporate subsidies regularly dolled out to the defense, agricultural or petrochemical industries?

 Was Baio's uninformed opinionating as toxic as Giuliani's fear-mongering?

No, but it's a sad state of affairs when Chachi resorts to simplistic toxic Republican code-speak to demean and slander millions of Americans.

We all know how that worked out for Mitt "47%" Romney. 

Garbled Fiction & Defending the Shire: Conservative Frenzy Heats Up

Utah Congresswoman Mia Love

With an amusing list of excuses that range from  "I can watch it on TV", to the more blunt "I don't even want to be involved", (yes those are real excuses) the list of prominent Republicans who plan on skipping the RNC convention in Cleveland next week reads like a who's who of the party elite.

The Republican Governor of Ohio John Kasich and Mitt Romney won't be anywhere near the Cleveland Convention Center when Donald Trump is presumably anointed the de facto head of the Republican party.

Nor will a host of Republican Congressman and Senators who either openly despise him, or are facing tough elections this fall and are terrified of being associated with Trump when voters head to the polls.

Yesterday I watched a CNN interview with Republican Utah Congresswoman Mia Love.

Ms. Love, who was trotted out like a unicorn at the last Republican convention, is something of an anomaly in this country; a black female Republican Mormon.

She's a GOP stalwart who normally toes the party line, but she made it quite clear during the CNN interview with Jake Tapper that she has no intention of appearing at this year's convention and in polite "poltic-speak" left no question that she has no love for Trump.

The Republican National Convention is next week, and while many prominent party leaders won't be there, a slew of protesters are sure to be.

As Kira Lerner reported in an article for ThinkProgress.org, as the news of the initial proposed amendments for the 2016 Republican party platform planks and policy positions leaked out, it's clear the GOP is trying to take a hard right and steer the party straight into La-La land.

Even as leaders, politicians, cops and families gathered in Dallas to mourn the latest victims of another mass shooting, the Republican party has proposed declaring pornography a "public health crisis that is destroying the life of millions."

Yes, Porn.Worse than guns, wealth inequality or poverty. Porn.

So much for the thousands of Americans wounded and killed by gun violence I guess; I'm sure the NRA had absolutely NOTHING to do with the idea of framing pornography as Public Enemy Number One for the Republican convention.

To the casual observer, it almost seems like prominent conservative figures are determined to use the nationwide backlash of protests against the killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile at the hands of police last week (and the subsequent mass shooting of five police officers in Dallas by a disturbed lone African-American gunman) as an excuse to try and whip Republicans into some kind of cultural frenzy.

Danger Will Robinson, Danger ! Pat Buchanan

For example, last week conservative windbag Ann Coulter compared Donald Trump's efforts to demonize millions of immigrants to Abraham Lincoln's efforts to end slavery.

The always grim, perpetual right wing fear-monger Pat Buchanan penned an op-ed in which he warned that "White America has begun to die" due to inevitable demographic shifts in the U.S. population in the next 30 years.

After peppering the text of his op-ed with pedestrian warnings of a "rising tide of Muslim immigrants and refugees", the dependably backwards-looking Buchanan concluded by imploring "Western Man" to "defend the shire, pull up the drawbridge and man the parapets."

(Guessing he'd just watched the director's cut of LOTR: Return of the King before he wrote that?)

But by no means does Mr. Buchanan have a monopoly on high-minded conservative lunacy.    

Count Giuliani

In a scorching Op-Ed on Tuesday, the Editorial Board of the New York Times ripped into former Mayor Rudy Giuliani for the divisive, reactionary, overtly racist schpeel he launched into during an appearance on CBS' 'Face The Nation' on Sunday.

Rather than backing off after public backlash, he took his act to Fox on Monday and doubled down.

Taking a cue from the worn pages of the Republican playbook, Giuliani followed an all-too-common tactic employed by conservatives in the wake of unjustified killings of people of color by police; he changed the subject and tried to blame black people for it.

This pandering peddler of loony Birther theories, who once stated that President Obama "doesn't love America the way we do", even tried to pivot the topic from out of control cops to black-on-black crime by offering up some helpful advice for a young black son:

"Be very careful of those kids in the neighborhood and don't get involved with them, son, because there's a 99% chance they're going to kill you, not the police."

The Editorial Board of the NY Times called that hokum "Mr. Giuliani's garbled, fictional statistic".

Garbled fiction pretty much sums of the Republican message as they head into what is sure to be one of the most interesting conventions in years.

Seriously I wouldn't miss this one for the world.

The Verizon Factor, May Job Numbers & Toxic Donald

My local ACME in Hamilton, NJ

I'm feeling relieved this Friday night after a close call earlier this afternoon when I dropped my work cell phone while food shopping at my local ACME.

I was zipping through the aisles at a pretty quick pace as my plan was to grab a few essentials for the weekend since I have to work Saturday, and it looks like this Sunday is going to be a stormy washout weather-wise, so I probably won't want to go anywhere.

So I get back in the car with my groceries ready to run to the gym when a moment of panic overtook me.

I realized I didn't have my work cell phone; out of habit I always keep both of my cell phones in the exact same place at home, work or in the car so I know where to find them - so I knew I'd lost it.

I ran back into the store and carefully retraced my steps; no dice. I always use the self-checkout line and there's a pretty sharp kid who mans the self-checkout stations, so I gave him my business card and asked him to ring me if he found the phone.

Now it's less about the actual cell phone itself than all the data I have stored in it. I've carefully saved numbers and emails of the apartment tenants, township inspectors and vendors I deal with on a daily basis as an apartment leasing agent.

Plus I've got dozens of "Do Not Answer" numbers in my "DNA" file from the dozens of unsolicited sales and data-collection calls I get at work each day that I habitually screen - they keep calling, I keep screening, it's a thing we do like Road Runner and Wile Coyote in a never-ending cycle of chase-but-never-catch.

This time of year my work cell phone is indispensable during the busy rental season; when it's really busy and  I'm doing five things at once and two people are waiting in the office, it's critical to know who's calling at all times in order to prioritize.

Verizon workers during the recent 44-day strike

So I drove home, put the groceries away, got my personal cell phone and called Verizon customer service and after spending three minutes negotiating a touch-tone automatic menu, I finally got a nice woman on the line and I explained my problem and asked if they could possibly help me track the phone.

She puts me on hold for about three minutes then gets back on and suggests I access the Android Phone Manager through Google.

My work cell is a Galaxy S-4 that uses an Android operating system, so I could have done that myself, but, call me crazy, I figured a technology behemoth like Verizon would be able to walk me through a standard procedure for a lost cell phone, right?

No such luck. Seriously, I think she actually Googled my question while I was on hold. Now as some of you know I am a pro-labor guy, so I supported the striking Verizon workers during their six-week strike over job security and compensation; and it paid off as they did get significant concessions from Verizon.

The customer rep I spoke with was very nice as I said, but she seemed a bit befuddled by a relatively simple issue - so I'm guessing she was possibly a replacement worker handling a different job as a result of the strike; or she just wasn't part of the Verizon customer service "A-team" as a result of said-strike.

Over the past few weeks I've spoken with other tenants who've dealt with similar delays when dealing with Verizon; loosing the phone was my responsibility obviously, but today was my first experience dealing with Verizon customer service and I wasn't impressed.

The President discusses the April job report on May 6th

As you likely heard today, the Verizon strike also impacted the broader U.S. economy too as the sluggish May job numbers report released by the Department of Labor was a mixed bag that contributed to a lackluster end to the week for Wall Street.

As a CNN Money article reported, while the "official" unemployment rate dipped to 4.7%, the lowest it's been in nine years, the economy only created 38,000 new jobs.


And as multiple experts reported, those numbers reflect large numbers of people dropping out of active job searching.

Wages did grow 2.5% in May and that's good news for American workers, but relatively speaking that increase is a drop in the overall bucket as wages for most working and middle class folks have been stagnant for decades.

Speculators were quick to caution that the Fed may balk at raising interest rates, but the May job numbers should probably be taken with a grain of salt as those lackluster numbers were also a reflection of the fact that those 36,000 striking Verizon workers were out of work for six weeks.

The creation of 38,000 new jobs was treated like something of a bummer today by mainstream media, but remember the last few months of George W. Bush's presidency when the economy was bleeding over 200,000 jobs a month?

I do, a gain of 38,000 jobs would have been a Godsend back then, so take Friday's news in stride.

I've seen a lot of 'Help Wanted' signs around, and yesterday at my local bar I was talking with my friend Jeff who works for Bristol Myers-Squibb here in New Jersey, he'd just come a farewell party for a co-worker who took an offer from another pharmaceutical company.

He told me his department has lost a few people in the past couple months to other bio-tech, computer or other pharmaceutical companies that actively recruited them.

Those are signs of a healthy economy.

According to a recent article in the Burlington Free Press, the state of Vermont has gained 4,000 new jobs this year and the unemployment rate statewide is at 3.2 % - the lowest since May 2001.

Now I'm no economist, but June job numbers should pick up with the expected increases in hiring in construction that come with warmer weather and longer days, and various jobs related to retail summer hiring around the nation should pick up too.

And of course those 36,000 Verizon workers should be back on the job too - so maybe the next time I call Verizon customer service, I'll get someone a little more knowledgeable on the phone.

The good thing is I called ACME an hour later and they found my work cell phone, which I'm looking at now with a mixture of fond affection and profound relief as I type these words.

Working on a busy summer Saturday is tough enough, but having my work cell phone will make it go a lot smoother - so kudos to the employees of the ACME on route 33 in Hamilton, New Jersey.

The GOP convention might not be so rockin'

Speaking of kudos to large corporations, technology giants HP, Inc. and Microsoft are just two of the companies to announce that they will not be giving any sponsorship dollars to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland this year due in large part to concerns over associating their brands with the overt racism, misogyny and divisive xenophobia of GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.


Trump may have sealed the Republican nomination for 2016, but a growing list of companies and organizations with national reputations have made moves to disassociate their brands with The Donald's hate-mongering; Coca-Cola also announced they would be cutting their sponsorship of the RNC event to a relatively low $75,000.

The activist group Color of Change is credited with an ongoing petition campaign to pressure companies like HP, Google, Xerox, CISCO, AT&T and Adobe to pull their financial sponsorship from the RNC event where Trump will most likely be crowned as the Republican presidential candidate.

It's not just companies scared of the toxic affect Trump might have on the perception of their products and services who are distancing themselves from him (as Joe Pesci's character remarked in Martin Scorcese's film 'Casino', "Always the dollars, always the dollars...").

As David Graham reported in an article in The Atlantic, Republican establishment figures like the Bush family and Mitt Romney have made clear they won't be supporting Trump's candidacy in the fall.

But a politically-odd mixture of both mainstream conservatives (Bob Dole, Trent Lott, Paul Ryan) and more right-wing extremist has-beens (Newt Gingrich, Bobby Jindal) will be reluctantly backing The Donald this fall - even if they hold their noses while they do it.

As the New York Times reported Thursday, there a number of Republican Senators facing re-election campaigns who are finding an array of excuses to not attend the coronation of Donald Trump in Cleveland so as to avoid being seen supporting him - Hell, Ohio's Republican Governor John Kasich has indicated he may not even go - and the convention is in his own state.

Matt Taibbi

Anyway if you happen to find yourself stuck indoors this weekend with some time to read, do yourself a favor and check out Matt Taibbi's latest piece in Rolling Stone, entitled 'R.I.P. GOP', in which he lays out how Trump is killing the Republican party.

He eloquently eviscerates Republicans themselves for setting the stage for Trump's ascendency to the GOP candidacy for 2016 by turning the party into a political organization designed to serve the needs of billionaire corporatistas who fanned the flames of fictional issues ('American Exceptionalism'??) to rile up conservative voters into electing politicians who, in Taibbi's words:

"...went off to Washington and year after year did absolutely squat for their constituents. They were excellent at securing corporate tax holidays and tax cuts for the rich, but they almost never returned to voter country with jobs in hand. Instead, they brought an ever-increasing list of villains responsible for the lack of work: communists, bra-burning feminists, black "race hustlers", climate-change activists, Muslims, Hollywood, horned owls..."

The toxic Trump chicken has indeed come home to roost for the Republican party, and they've only got themselves to blame.

Anyway, click the link above and read the Taibbi piece when you can, it's late and I've got to be up early Saturday for work, but I will go to bed thankful for having found my work cell phone, and for not having a degree from Trump University on my wall.