1174 Pulling the Plug on Current TV

1174 Pulling the Plug on Current TV

This unsigned notice has been living for awhile on the website of Al Gore’s ill-fated Current TV:

As many of you are aware, Al Jazeera acquired Current TV earlier this year and will be launching Al Jazeera America, a new American news channel. From all of us here at Current, thank you for your support and loyalty over the years. We're proud to have been a part of a community that values truth and integrity in media. We are very excited about our transition to Al Jazeera America and its commitment to hard-hitting, investigative journalism that puts a human face on the stories that matter.

We hope that you will sign up below to stay informed about the upcoming launch of Al Jazeera America.

Hard hitting probably isn’t the best way to describe an outfit like this.  But no one ever accused Gore or his henchmen of being great at PR.

What happens when a foreign outfit able and willing to endure enormous bad publicity and huge losses buys or starts a new company in this country?

RIght about now, you may be asking “when has that happened?”  Well, before it acquired Fox, NewsCorp’s Murdoch bought a bunch of US newspapers and magazines.  The New York Post loses more money every month than you will see in a lifetime.  But kindly old Uncle Rupert keeps it going because he loves newspapers, doesn’t understand TV, does understand that unlike the federal reserve, TV prints money, hence, he has a toy with political and commercial power.

Then there’s the Washington Times, owned by the Korean based Unification Church.  The WT and its sister ship, the current incarnation of United Press International lose buckets of money, to the point where the Times has stopped printing and instead relies on the internet.

Rev. Moon doesn’t have any American TV stations or networks.  You have to be a citizen here to own an over-the-air broadcast facility.  But the money from his flower peddling, love-bombing converts and tithers funds his right wing political porn factory.

Jazeera is funded by Arab oil state of Qatar, which no doubt can rely on its regional support if for some reason its oil runs out.  Qatar is about 4500 square miles, which means if you shipped it in a box the size of Connecticut, you’d still have to put in tons of packing peanuts.

Fox keeps telling us it’s fair and balanced, which we know is a lie.  Jazeera keeps telling us it’s objective.  They have a website.  Go read it.  See what you think.

Shrapnel:

--Got time for a riddle?  What’s all natural, organic, comes out of the ground and is scorned almost everywhere, despite its organatude?  Answer: Coal.

--If these strawberries are organic, what do you call the other kind of strawberries, inorganic?  Why that would be like eating polyethylene.  And maybe it is.

--Except it doesn’t matter whether you buy organic or inorganic strawberries.  Take ‘em home, put them in the refrigerator. Two days later half of them are rotten.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2013

1173 The Enemies List

1173  The Enemies List

The term was popularized when Nixon kept track of his major foes, probably on one of those goofy legal pads he was always shuffling.  Now we have a new version from the Internal Revenue Service.  The IRS  was (apparently and allegedly) targeting people and organizations on a list of likely tax pirates.  Scary, even if they picked the right enlistees.  Plus, when they send you those letters (the civilian equivalent of “Greetings from your Uncle Sam,”) you get palpitations and probably should.

The IRS admits it targeted and scrutinized the tea party and “patriot” groups in what’s seen -- probably properly -- as an Obama administration targeting of its own “enemies list.”

The fact is that many “nonprofits” and religious and other do-gooder and do-badder organizations, hospitals, clinics, unions, clam chowder and marching societies, country clubs and charities tend to bend the already anti-person, pro-business, pro-nonprofit provisions of the encyclopedic and mysterious tax code.  The agency should give all of them a good going over.

Here’s one good example:  Churches may but don’t have to contribute to unemployment insurance.  So when a church worker gets fired, he or she is plum out of luck.  Separation of church and state cuts both ways.

How about a good hard look at the campaign committees, the political parties, the PACs.  You want revenue increases without adding a ground level tax?  Start an SEC for nonprofits.  Lefties, righties, hospitals, summer theaters, service clubs.  Not that they should all pay like they were GE without the loopholes.  But something.  

Nonprofit doesn’t mean non profit anymore.  Not when they can claim “surplus revenues.”  If it quacks like a duck... etc.

Back to Nixon and Obama:  Nixon denied there was a formal “enemies list.”  But there was one.  Now, the AP reports the IRS knew two years ago that it was looking closely at the right wingnuts.

That’s not exactly consistent with the public apology which included the usual nonsense about low level and/or rogue employees and that the honcho in charge of that stuff issued a cease and desist order that evidently never got down to those rogues and low level employees.

While we’re at it and on the subject of low level employees, we’re happy to learn that Bloomberg News has restricted the computer rights of low level big mouths who used their access to subscribers’ personal data to develop “scoops.”  At twenty grand a year each, the subscribers have a right to minimized snooping.

No one has gotten fired at the IRS and no one has gotten fired at Bloomberg.  Are you feeling more confident about either organization at the moment?

(Disclaimer: Your correspondent worked for Bloomberg News for seven years and never saw a molecule of customer data or even thought that it might have been possible.  Who had time for those games in those days? We were too busy doing the news.)

Shrapnel:

--OJ Simpson goes back to court today to claim he had inadequate representation when he was convicted in that push-in non-robbery in Las Vegas.  They gave him 9-to-33 years and deny it was to even the score after that imbecilic not guilty verdict in the Los Angeles murders.  If it had been you in Vegas, you’d have drawn 90 days and restitution for the busted hotel room door.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2013

1172 The Arias Verdict

1172 The Arias Verdict

Let’s be clear about one thing.  There are no good guys in this case; it’s just that some bad guys are worse than others.

That Jodi Arias was a crazy blow up doll of the kind you once could buy in Times Square is not in doubt.  And that she killed Travis Alexander years ago also isn't in doubt.  She confessed after first telling the cops she wasn’t at his house when he was killed, then that she WAS in the house and that a man and a woman in ninja costumes invaded, murdered him and threatened her.

Of the victim: in this country, we don’t give the death penalty to someone just because he’s a horn-dog and a cheap huckster working a pyramid scheme.  And his death was particularly gruesome: stabbed 29 times, his throat cut ear-to ear and from adams apple to spine and shot in the face.  But that’s what Arias did and the jury convicted her of first degree premeditated murder.

It took long enough.  The trial started in January and ended in May.  And it’s not really over -- because there’s a penalty phase yet to come.  They call it something else in Arizona, the “aggravation phase.” The question to the jury: was the killing cruel?  As opposed to what, merciful?

She lied.  On and off the stand. A lot.  They probably could make a perjury case, but they won’t.

Arias’ defense team did the best it could, but not the best that could be done.  Lead lawyer Kurt Nurmi could go belly to belly in a sumo match with Chris Christie and win.  No slower moving and talking lawyer have you ever seen.  Second chair Jennifer Willmott, Yorkshire Terrier-like, yappie as Nurmi was phlegmatic, never could seem to get a question out in one try.

The expert defense witnesses, two shrinks, are the poster children for everything you dislike about shrinks.  One is a “sensitive male of the 21st Century” who based his testimony on tests and Arias’ stream of lies.  The other is the kind who assumes the woman is always the victim.

Judge Sherry Stephens seemed to have adopted a scale starting at  petrified -- the tree kind, not the scared kind -- and ranging all the way up to apathetic.  She did not have control of the courtroom.

Prosecutor Juan “Overkill” Martinez, as close as they come to a good guy in this mess, forced a national TV audience to assume he was the kind of man who broils babies and kittens for dinner.

The prosecution’s expert witnesses seemed like Einsteins compared with their defense counterparts.

But the real villains in this story -- beside Arias -- are the TV shills who turned the justice system into a circus.  Mock trials with mock juries every night.  Mike Galanos endlessly and meaninglessly vamping for the camera when he had nothing to say, Vinnie Politan and Ryan Smith and a whole panel of experts speculating, demonstrating, theorizing and self promoting... re-creating the murder by going after each other with fake knives and guns night after night on a set that replicates Alexander's apartment and death chamber.

Jane Velez-Mitchell shouting “guilty guilty guilty” at top volume and getting “audience” reaction outside the courthouse.

The queen of this hive is Nancy Grace, possibly the most obnoxious human being ever contracted to appear on television.  You wake her out of a sound sleep and she’ll drawl  “Guilty... he’s guilty.  He should go to jail for the rest of his life.  I used to be a prosecutor.  I have kids.  I was abused.  I know!!!”  “But Nancy, we’re talking about a parking ticket.”  “It doesn’t matter.  I want JUSTICE!!! Lock him up and throw away the key.” Because she was half asleep, she wasn’t quick enough to interrupt her debate partner before he was finished with a sentence. No worries, she’ll step on the lines of others as soon as the little red light goes on.

Almost as evil were the crowds outside the courthouse in Phoenix, all smiles and back slapping and cheers, salivating for Arias’ death, ready to dance on her grave.  Maybe they should put a needle in her arm.  But that’s no reason to celebrate.  That’s no reason for joy.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments, death threats and fan mail for Juan Martinez to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2013

1171 The Fat Man Sings

1171 The Fat Man Sings

It’s hard to be sneaky and surreptitious when you weigh north of 300 pounds and everyone knows who you are.  But somehow, Chris Christie managed.

He went under the knife, gastric band surgery, they call it.  Took him almost three months to tell the New York Post about it.  This operation is like putting a hollow rubber band around part of your stomach to make you feel full with little food.  It’s less invasive than some of the bariatric procedures out there.  The rubber band is actually silicone and the reason it’s hollow is so they can stick a needle in the patient and tighten the band by pumping in saline solution when necessary.

Obesity is a national problem, and Christie who says he doesn’t want to be a role model for the morbidly obese, underwent the operation because when he turned 50 last year, his wife and four kids put the squeeze on him.  All else had failed.

Cynics say it’s because he wants to run for president in 2016.  Probably they’re right.

Christie is a Republican you can like.  A personality with girth to match his midsection.  And by today’s standards, he’s about as sane as the party gets, which ain’t much, but ain’t nothin’ either:

Embracing Obama... FEMA money for Sandy victims... Legislation that may reduce human trafficking...

Has he lost weight in the past three months?  Not so’s you’d notice.  But we’re not his scale, so maybe yes.  He’s not talking about that, but the Post says he’s dropped 40 pounds.

That belly band thing is considered the safest of the various kinds of stomach shrinking surgery.  And it’s done with about a half dozen little incisions... better than opening you all the way up.  The Bariatric chorus also says it’s the safest kind of surgery and the least effective.

Will it matter if he eventually loses 100 lbs?  Probably.  Can he keep the weight off?  It’s possible.  Will he live longer because of it?  Maybe.

The question for his family is will he be healthier?  The question for the rest of us is will he be president?

Shrapnel:

--You can’t declare self-sent, self-received  email as spam from your own inbox.  Email services have different ways of telling you that. The best so far is “We don’t like you any more than you do, but we can’t let you injure yourself that way.”

--Who named Stradivari's violins, violas and cellos?  He made about 250 instruments not counting guitars and harps and almost all of them are identified by name.  Is it possible that’s because he couldn’t count?

--A religious rebellion you probably haven’t heard of, this among psychiatrists who think their bible, called the DSM is letting them down.  A new edition is about ready for publication and apostates in shrinkland are saying it’s too little, too late and wrong.  And they may be right in seeking to shift the direction of research from talk-talk-talk to research techniques successfully developed to diagnose and treat the screwups of other body organs.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them.  ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2013

1170 The Graduate

1170 The Graduate

This posting is adapted from a commencement address delivered to the graduates of the College of Arts and Sciences of Moote Point University in Moote Pointe,  New York, Saturday Saturday, May 4, 2013:

To those of you who have today earned your degree -- or stolen it -- I offer my hearty congratulations and best wishes for your collective and individual futures.

You have managed to remain uncounted in the unemployment report for four years, five for the psychology majors and six for members of the football team.

Now, some of you will go to graduate school, thus postponing loan repayments while others will be looking for work.

I stand here today to tell you that if you learned anything at all during the four, five or six years you spent here, it wasn’t in the classroom.

You learned from your fraternity or sorority how to gain, use and abuse power.  You have learned from your professors how to play hardball politics.  You have learned from your administrators how to be haughty and unforgiving.

With any luck, you’ve learned the basic skills that you should have learned between your first day of kindergarten and your last day of high school, but likely as not didn’t. You may even have learned that “high school” is two words, despite what spellcheck tells you.

What you will learn next, those few of you who find jobs in your major field of study, is that what you’ve been taught is essentially unrelated to what you will do.

A college degree used to be one’s entre into the real world, the world of work.  Unless you are in a highly specialized field, you’re likely to find out sooner rather than later that a college degree is not the union card it used to be.

It will not open doors.  It will not be seen as an accomplishment, it will not brand you as knowledgeable or smart.  It will serve only to separate you from those still in need of remedial reading and math.

It no longer is the badge of the educated elite and certainly not the working elite.

If you were smart -- or lucky -- you worked your way through school.  Not because that might reduce the outrageous bowls of money you had to borrow to get to this day, but because experience counts.

Did you work in retailing or the hospitality trades?  You have a leg up. You know how to deal with cranky hungry customers, meet deadlines and multitask.  You have learned to deal with managers who are envious or just plain stupid.

Maybe you volunteered as an EMT.  Good.  You know what a person is.  Not everyone does.  Did you intern for a public official?  Good.  You’ve been exposed to the world of fakery, corruption and one hand washing the other.

Your time here has not been a waste.  But neither is it an end point. It’s only when you get out there and do something that you begin to learn about what really happens in your field.

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them.  ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2013

1169 Tony Baloney

1169 Tony Baloney

Bet you’ve been worried for years now about disgraced and disgraceful former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.  Well, we can report authoritatively that he’s alive and well despite undermining the standing and principles of the Labour Party and sitting in the lap of disgraced and disgraceful George W. Putch.

To refresh your memory, since British politics probably isn’t one of the Facebook pages on which you have checked “like,” Tony got into a bit of a spot when he and Boy George cahooted to scam Parliament and Congress about things like weapons of mass destruction and the “need” to “democratize” Iraq, at least until a popular election resulted in a leader neither man liked.

The Brits, although reserved on the outside are rowdy on the inside and showed Blair the door, something we could have done here, too and should have.

In any event, Blair’s name cropped up on the radar the other day on spotting a help wanted ad for “Tony Blair Associates.”  They’re looking for “consultants.”  Aside from a guy who steals your watch and then charges for telling the time, the word “consultant” in the same breath as government is the euphemism for lobbyist in training.

The ad directed applicants to go to Tonyblairassociats.com.  Don’t try it.  The website doesn’t exist.  If you want to keep up with Tony, it’s http://www.tonyblairoffice.org/  and there he is, Bugs Bunny teeth and Jimmy Carter stare.

So Tony is keeping up appearances (apologies to the TV program of the same name.) And those appearances are lucrative.  So much so that he’s run out of time for working with his sports teams, working MPs and working his propaganda ministry in exile.  

Tony needs your help.  So help him.  Apply for a job.  If you land it, you probably will be doing better than you are now.

And you’ll be working for a friend of labor (although maybe not a friend of Labour,) and a friend of W’s.  How cool is that!

Interview tip:  you’ll make a good impression if you wear one of Tony’s “bioelectric shields.”  You’ll form a brotherhood of goofy talismans.

Oh... and if you do land, get better looking suits.  Brooks Brothers just won’t do.  Armani at minimum, but better bespoke British.

Shrapnel:

--Here in the colonies, we read that productivity is up.  Easy enough to boost.  Just tell your worker than instead of doing the jobs of two, he’ll now have to do the jobs of three, quotas are up, salary is stable, security is compliance dependent.

--At CBS News, they used to tell you “remember, it’s a privilege to work here,” and in some ways it was.  Now they say it to everyone everywhere and it is -- but not for the same reasons.

--Warren Buffett finally knuckled under and signed up for a twitter account.  Reviews are generally positive.  But do you think the old fella’s going spill any important beans that way... even though he’s used to talking in 140 word clips?

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2013

1168 The Paper Boys

1168 The Paper Boys

There was no golden age of reporting, only sporadic bursts of random greatness.

Here’s a quote from Mark Twain: “If you don’t read the newspaper, you’re uninformed.  If you read the newspaper you’re mis-informed.”  (Source lost)

You could add “If you are the newspaper (or radio station or television channel or network) you’re screwed.

Since Twain died around this time of year in 1910, we’ve had 103 years to consider what he had to say and act on it.  And every once in awhile, we do.  But only every once in awhile.

The Great Depression, World War II, JFK, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, 9/11 all landmarks -- or they should be -- to all of us.

The rest of the time... well, it’s the sex lives of politicians and their ineptitude, scandalous trials after scandalous crimes, movie stars, their larger than life lives and larger than death deaths.

So what do you care that the Koch Brothers want to buy the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Hartford Courant and the Baltimore Sun?

They are important papers, all -- at least in the context and small world in which a news outlet can be important.  And if this sale happens, the inmates who run those asylums will gradually be replaced by inmates more suitable to the views of their mega-bucks keepers.

News outlets have generally failed in informing the public, thus putting walls in its ability to make rational decisions. They have become mouthpieces for politicians and corporations and lobbyists, sometimes unwittingly, but mouthpieces nevertheless.

The business of printing or otherwise reporting the news, always a mine field, has become a minefield in a slum.  The only way you can figure out what’s said is by reading between the lines.  And most of us aren’t sure that we’re reading correctly.

Of the papers the Kochs are thinking about taking in, the only really important one is the LA Times.  And it has been rolling steadily downhill for a long time.  What started as a right wing rag became a great paper and is set to return to its roots, right-wing raggedness.  The difference now is that the readership generally won’t stand for it.

Let the News Brothers take their losses.  They can afford it.

Shrapnel:

--Buyouts and downsizing are all the rage in newsland these days.  Wessays upper management is considering following suit.  But they haven’t yet figured out how to offer a buyout to their only employee and still have a blog.

--The Dutch get it when it comes to monarchies.  When Queen Beatrix abdicated this week and handed the crown to her son, people cheered because they love her and like him.  The royal family has no real function in the Netherlands, but it’s one of the ties that bind -- as it should be.

--In this country, we no longer seem to have ties.  Maybe we need a monarchy.  Any nominations?

I’m Wes Richards.  My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com

© WJR 2013