A Certain Point of View: Writing, Film and Stuff

“The Continental Army suffered a bitter winter of Valley Forge, found glory across the waters of the Delaware and seized victory from Cornwallis of Yorktown. Our Army manned the air, it rammed the ramparts, it took over the airports, it did everything it had to do.” - Donald J. Trump, July 4, 2019 From the newly revised edition of "The British Are Coming," by Rick Atkinson and Donald J. Trump: General William Howe, commander of the British armies in North America, was flummoxed. One day after Congress approved the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia, his spies noticed a buildup of Continental Army forces near La Guardia Airport, a vital gateway to the British transatlantic air bridge from the Mother Country. Writing anxiously to Lord North, Howe fretted that t he Rebels' latest endeavors threatened his troops' logistics, especially the all-important ability to resupply by air, and implored the Prime Minister to "send with the utmost of expediency

On Quora, Trump supporter Larry Walden asks: Why did the major TV networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN) not broadcast Trump's “Salute to America”? My reply: Because it was a ridiculous, poorly planned and expensive exercise that few people were interested in watching. First of all, the Fourth of July has never, ever been an occasion to showcase military hardware. It’s a national holiday, sure, but it’s traditionally a family-oriented one in which most Americans celebrate America’s birthday with picnics, concerts (some of which, such as  The Capitol Fourth  and  Pops Goes the Fourth , are broadcast live from Washington, D.C., and Boston), and fireworks displays. The Fourth of July is a festive occasion and  not  a martial one; the armed forces of the U.S. already get their due on Memorial Day (when we commemorate the fallen) and Veterans’ Day (when we commemorate not only the anniversary of the end of World War I, but remember our living veterans from our modern wars). Sec

Do any liberals see ways to work with Trump to make improvements for us all, or are they only about getting him out of office? Short version: No. Detailed version: In all honesty, this question is based on a flawed premise, which seems to be this: Donald Trump is working hard to make things better for all Americans, so why don’t the Democrats in Congress and the voting public work with him instead of trying to kick him out of the White House? This is the narrative that Trump supporters, even ones who claim to be middle-of-the-road voters who are “socially liberal but fiscally conservative,” try to push, especially on social media. The Devil, as they say, is in the details. And the details show, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that this narrative simply is not true. Or, as George and Ira Gershwin so wittily put it in a song from  Porgy and Bess: It ain’t necessarily so. First, it is my firm belief, based on careful observation of Trump’s actions and utterances since J

Photo Credit: Evan Vucci/Associated Press (AP) Photo Are people being too harsh on Ivanka Trump for attending world leader meetings with her father? It depends on who you ask. If you ask the more fanatical Republicans (aka the Party That Lost Its Collective Mind), the “evil Demonrats” are so mean to the lovely Ivanka Trump simply because she’s gorgeous, blonde, and nothing like the previous First Daughters, Sasha and Malia. Her father is “the Best President Ever,” so he’s entitled to give Ivanka and her hubby Jared Kushner plum jobs in his Administration, even though there’s no evidence that either one is qualified to have a government position higher than Assistant to the Chief Dogcatcher in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. If you ask the rest of us, including serious-minded conservatives who disapprove of what the Twitterer-in-Chief is doing to the U.S. and the wider world in general, then no. People have every right to be “harsh” on Ivanka because she has no business attending importa

On Quora, Adrian J. Zarazua asks: If it’s true that Russia meddled with the 2016 US election then why did they want Donald Trump to win and not Hillary Clinton? My reply:  First of all, there is no “if.” Russian state-run hackers working for Russian Military Intelligence (or GRU in its Russian acronym) worked at the Internet Research Agency (IRA) to intervene in the ’16 elections in favor of now-President Trump. Second, Vladimir Putin had several motives for wanting Trump to win and Hillary Clinton to lose. And none of these motives were because he favors Republicans over Democratic Party pols or because he believed all the innuendoes and myths that the conservative movement has been crafting about Hillary Clinton since the 1992 Presidential election. In any criminal investigation, you have to apply the principle of  cui bono,  or, “who does it benefit?” Or more germane to the matter at hand, what does Putin’s Russia get out of a Trump Presidency? Well, it’s not

Image Credit:Wikipedia Recently, the right-wing leaning Epoch Times ran an open letter criticizing NBC News for daring to ask its staff questions about the newspaper's guiding principles (staunch anti-Communism, especially when it comes to the People's Republic of China, strong support for Donald Trump, and its connections with the banned-in-China Falun Gong movement). In it, publisher Stephen Gregory figuratively wrings his hands when an established media outlet dares to suggest it is biased in favor of Trump and other conservatives because Epoch Times founder John Tang and his partners hate China and its current government and are consistent supporters of right-wing movements throughout the world. Here are some of Gregory's "woe-is-us, we are an honest newspaper" comments: Last week, we were contacted by two NBC reporters who posed a series of highly inappropriate questions. The NBC reporters questioned the religious beliefs of some of our staff mem

On Quora, Tyler Hoffman asked recently: What do you think about Trump’s promise to eradicate AIDS if he is re-elected? My reply: What do I think about President Donald Trump’s hyperbolic promises to eradicate AIDS and cancer  if  he is re-elected? I think it’s a typical Trump hokum. Malarkey. Bullshit. Nonsense. It’s on par with “We will build a great, beautiful wall on the southern border, and Mexico will pay for it.” It’s on par with Trump’s long-lived insistence that Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen. It’s on par with  “If and when the Vatican is attacked, the pope would only wish and have prayed that Donald Trump would have been elected president.” It’s on par with his claim that on September 11, 2001, Trump  personally  witnessed “thousands of Muslims” in New Jersey celebrate as the Twin Towers burned and fell across the river in Manhattan. In other words, I think he’s no better than a snake oil salesman trying to peddle his wares as the cures to eve

On Quora, our old friend "Anonymous" asks: What does Queen Elizabeth think of President Trump? This is my reply to "Anonymous," complete with links to actual sources and the conservative meme in question.  Queen Elizabeth II is a dignified woman, a head of state (strictly ceremonial) not only of the United Kingdom but also of several other nations that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations, including Australia, Canada, the Bahamas, and New Zealand. She has been on the throne, metaphorically speaking, for slightly over 67 years, the longest reign of a British monarch in history. And although she’s 93, she’s in excellent health and will probably be around for a few years more, setting a record for regal longevity that will be hard to break. Because the Queen is not an absolute monarch who issues commands to her ministers (save strictly ceremonial ones on certain occasions) or is directly involved in government operations, Elizabeth is not someone who giv

Photo Credit: Michael Stewart/Getty Pictures On Quora, Trump supporter extraordinaire Paulie Duguay asks: Why can't people support President Trump the way U.S. Presidents in the 1940's, 50's, and 60's were supported? My reply: I wasn’t going to answer this; I have a comedy screenplay to finish and turn in, but since right now I’m stuck trying to add an extra scene the director/producer wants me to add for “dramatic tension,” I will use this rather bizarre and patently insincere question to loosen up my writing muscles and do some mental gymnastics. I’m sorry to tell you this, dear staunch Trump supporter, but this question is based on a flawed premise: that before the Sixties, Americans of all social strata and political stances supported American Presidents almost universally. This, my sweet summer child, has never been true in any era of American history. Since 1789, perhaps the only U.S. Chief Executive who enjoyed this kind of support  may have been