Biograph Studios photo 1957
It was a movie starring Andy Griffith about an adulation-hungry,
sex-mad drifter who lucked into a broadcast job and held the nation in the palm
of his hand until someone left a mic open during the closing credits and we
learned what the character, Lonesome Rhodes, really thought of his listeners
and viewers.
Toward the end of the movie, we see Rhodes making a speech to an
audience of two. One is one of his lackies, who is operating (2) a
machine that plays recorded cheers and applause and laughter.
When the film was made in 1957, such a machine did not exist.
But it does now. So someone please find one and give it to the
president. As Rhodes spun out of control, the applause got louder and
louder.
There are plenty of clips from the movie online. But not this one.
If we could get one of those machines to Washington, we’d probably be better
off because trump would get all the adulation he needs and leave the rest of us
alone.
The machine is only one aspect of the way this 1950s Paddy
Chayefsky film based on a 1940s short story by Budd Schulberg is prophetic.
That populist rhetoric doesn’t travel well once the populist is
shown to be a scam artist. And a scam artist is who we have in the White
House.
It doesn’t really matter whether he has ties to Russian and other
mobsters. What matters is what he is and what he does or doesn’t
do.
At this writing, there’s only one congressman who has seen the
documents underlying that iffy Nunes memo questioning the FBI Russia
investigation. That congressman is Trey Gowdy (R-SC.) Gowdy Doody, as Joe
Galloway calls him announced he won’t seek re-election so he can become active
in “law enforcement.” For a while everyone thought he’d be nominated for a
federal judgeship.
But Doody says he doesn’t want that… he wants to be a prosecutor.
This may be a case of obstruction of bribery.
So the real crime with the trumpettes is nothing that’s on the
books.
And please don’t come back with “well, Hillary did this…” or
“Obama did that.” These are false equivalents. It’s not “all those bums,”
Republicans and Democrats alike. The democrats certainly have their flaws, but
well organized and well financed are not two of them.
And it isn’t even real Republicans, such as there are left of
them. It’s the Crazy Caucus. Maybe we’ll all get sane. Or better yet, maybe
we’ll stop allowing ourselves to be led by the crazies.
TODAY’S QUOTE:
“I had the gun in my backpack… it fell and the gun went off.” --
unidentified 12 year old girl in a Los Angeles classroom whose gun shot a 15
year old in the head, another in the wrist. Police have ruled it an accident
but cuffed the girl who will be charged with unlawful discharge of a firearm on
school grounds.
I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to
them. ®
Please address comments to wesrichards@gmail.com
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© WJR 2018
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