CWAA: Can We All Agree – 11/26/16 edition
November 26, 2016
I trust you all had a fulfilling Thanksgiving, and the leftovers are gone by now.
Can we all agree, regardless of your party affiliation, Fidel Castro was a pivotal political figure of the 20th Century?
Fidel Castro in 1984 (NYT photo)
Can we all agree, the President-elect’s response – gleeful celebration – is colored by his past attempts to open a casino in Cuba, rather than any understanding of the historical significance of the event?
Can we all agree the reaction to the start of the election recount process would have been much different if Hillary Clinton had won ?
Can we all agree it’s probably not realistic to think the results will be altered? But that hasn’t prevented Jill Stein from raising millions to move ahead in three states.
Can we all agree, the recount will do little to dampen the criticism of the Electoral College as Hillary Clinton’s lead in the overall vote continues to mount?
Can we all agree the proliferation of fake news for profit, may be the life preserver traditional edited news content needed to prevent its demise?
Can we all agree the outlandish sums the government will be paying for security of the Trump family, is just one way the new President will profit from his own election?
Can we all agree Melania’s decision to remain in New York, at least until the end of the school year, so her son , who some believe has shown signs of autism, can finish the school year, may become permanent?
Can we all agree the meetings this week between broadcast journalists and later the NY Times, illustrate why Mr. Trump was able to win election by controlling the message through TV coverage? We may be seeing the first Youtube presidency.
Can we all agree Mr. Trump’s supporters don’t seem to care that he is continuing to turn away from his own campaign rhetoric? In fact, they expected it.
Can we all agree, Donald Trump’s business interests, make the Clinton Foundation issues look insignificant? His interests are so widespread they will color almost every decision he makes.
Can we all agree, nothing was more chilling this week than the continuing celebrations in the racist alt-right community?
Can we all agree Mr. Trump’s business interests, and his continued focus on them, could be the undoing of his presidency?
Can we all agree, Mr. Trump’s financial interest in the Dakota Access pipeline is just one example?
Can we all agree Mr. Trump’s economic appointments, prove once again that he has duped the great majority of the blue-collar supports who put him in office?
Can we all agree the choice of Betsy Devos as education secretary will continue to make it more difficult for traditional public school districts to educate our children?
Can we all agree the new UN ambassador may have a tough job trying to explain Mr. Trump’s actions to the rest of the world?
Can we all agree Mr. Trump’s decision to forgo security briefings as he focuses on his cabinet choices, illustrates the attitude of most American’s toward the rest of the world?
Can we all agree the United States should be paying more attention to the showdown between the EU and Turkey?
Can we all agree the election of Donald Trump and the Brexit vote may have actually strengthened the European Union?
Can we all agree, the news that the FBI now has access to everything posted on Twitter, is very disconcerting?
Can we all agree it was reassuring to see a new peace agreement signed in Colombia, even after voters rejected the first deal?
Can we all agree the widespread fires in Israel will be used by all parties to the Mideast unrest, to further their own causes?
Can we all agree, if you were wondering why the battle over court appointments has become so significant, you need look no further than this week’s decisions on new overtime rules or Wisconsin gerrymandering, for an answer?
Can we all agree most American Catholics seem to be OK with Pope Francis’ latest pronouncement on abortion?
Can we all agree, speaking of going unnoticed, no-one seems to care about the ever-changing Olympic medal count, caused by the latest round of doping results?
Can we all agree it will be interesting to see how Mr. Trump counters the inevitable criticism he gets from Mr. Obama once their roles have changed?
Can we all agree the strangest story of the week may be the Exxon-Mobil decision to sue the offspring of its founding father?
President Obama and his final pardon.
Can we all agree, Mr. Obama is in a race against the clock to make sure many non-violent drug offenders get their lives back?
Can we all agree he’s facing the same time constraints as he works to honor the many notable Americans who have supported his presidency?
And finally:
You have to wonder if the turkey pardoned by Mr. Obama really wanted to live in a Trumpian world marked by one drama after another?
and
The good news story of the week of the repo man who saved an elderly couple from losing their car.
RIP, everyone’s TV mom, Florence Henderson.
CWAA: Can We All Agree – 11/19/16 edition
November 19, 2016
Happy anniversary to my lovely wife.
Can we all agree the actors at ‘Hamilton’ who lectured VP-Elect Mike Pence at last night’s performance, spoke for many of us?
Can we all agree Donald Trump will be asking for a lot of apologies over the next 4 years, if he can’t take the criticism?
Can we all agree, the only reason Mr. Trump settled his fraud case was because, even he realized that a president-elect testifying would be an embarrassment?
Can we all agree that the least Paul Ryan can do, as he campaigns to eliminate medicare, would be to tell the truth?
President Obama says his last good-byes.
Can we all agree that the GOP will have no excuses if the economy tanks over the next four years?
Can we all agree that the cabinet appointments Mr. Trump has announced do nothing to quell the fears of most Democrats?
Can we all agree Mr. Trump’s meeting with Mitt Romney, is just for show?
Can we all agree that Mr. Trump’s election has already made the racist segment of the population more aggressive?
Can we all agree that using the WWII Japanese internment as a rationale for ‘registering’ Muslims is just offensive?
Can we all agree, no one is shocked that Mr. Trump sees no problem in putting relatives is key positions or allowing his family to profit from his position?
Can we all agree, it won’t be long before Mr. Trump gets in serious trouble with his twitter account?
Can we all agree, the press and GOP are working overtime to avoid labeling Steve Bannon what he is – a racist? Using the term alt-right or noting that he didn’t write the pieces on Brietbart – he just published them – just masks his real intention.
Can we all agree this pretty much sums up what Hillary is thinking?
Can we all agree Mr. Trump loves to see headlines noting that no-one knows what he is going to do?
Can we all agree Mr. Obama is trying to put on a brave face as he attempts to make sure his entire legacy will not be undone?
Can we all agree it’s not the first Supreme Court appointment that will be important, but the next three? – which Mr. Trump may make.
Can we all agree, the Democrats might be on to something, by trying to work with Trump, since it’s a good bet the divided GOP probably will not agree on much?
Can we all agree the Democrats need new leadership in the House?
Can we all agree Mr. Trump does not have a clue about how to conduct a cohesive foreign policy? – or a cohesive national policy, for that matter.
Can we all agree that Mr. Putin probably can’t contain his enthusiasm now that Mr. Trump has been elected? Over the next four years he will retake Ukraine and the Baltic states.
Can we all agree the number of lobbyists in the Trump administration may break all records?
Can we all agree Mr. Trump’s appearance on 60 Minutes did little to clarify anything?
But enough about Trump.
Can we all agree United Airlines has reached new depths with their latest proposal for budget airfares?
Can we all agree that fakes news will always be a problem on the internet – that’s why they invented editors?
Can we all agree the Chinese bird that looks like Mr. Trump is pretty funny?
Can we all agree that cell phone apps are playing a major role in the increase in traffic fatalities?
Can we all agree it’s about time we had a museum of women’s history?
Can we all agree we’d be surprised if Mr. Zimmerman did accept his Nobel prize in person?
Can we all agree $850,000 is a small price to pay for the Ten Commandments?
Can we all agree the more research is done, the clearer the connection becomes between fracking and earthquakes?
and finally:
Can we all agree Steven Hawking is being optimistic when he says we have 1,000 years to find a new planet to colonize?
CWAA: Can We All Agree – 11/12/16 edition
November 12, 2016
Can we all agree even Donald Trump did not really expect this week’s result?
Can we all agree it’s time to board the Kamala Harris 2020 bandwagon? Maybe she can create the Democratic unity party leaders want.
Can we all agree, no-one is surprised it only took Mr. Trump a few hours to mess up his first job as President-elect?
Can we all agree there is no way to predict what Mr. Trump might do once in office, now that he’s already altering many of the policy proposals he offered while on the campaign trail?
Can we all agree, Mr. Trump’s supporters are going to be disappointed if they think the manufacturing jobs lost over the last 20 years, will be coming back any time soon?
Can we all agree that the exit polls may explain what happened but they don’t explain the why?
Can we all agree that, among other things, the Trump presidency will mean the end of financial reform and any efforts to curb global warming? It’s probably the reason the stock market has hit record highs and lobbyists have been celebrating on K Street, while coral reefs continue to die.
Can we all agree Mr. Trump’s first test on immigration may come with the surge in migrants from Central and South America?
Can we all agree it would appear that the plants are smarter than a good portion of the US voting public? They seem to understand the need to scrub pollutants from the atmosphere.
Can we all agree we’re disappointed to see that the parties in the Trump University lawsuit are negotiating a settlement?
Can we all agree, putting Mike Pence is charge of the transition is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic?
Can we all agree that the split in the voting public means that there are probably parts of the United States that President Trump will never be able to visit without continuing protests?
Can we all agree, many people were offended that President Obama used Veterans Day to urge us to come together to support Mr. Trump?
Can we all agree we would expect nothing less than the calls for an open mind from Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton? But one wonders if that’s the kind of concession speech Mr. Trump would have delivered if the roles had been reversed?
Can we all agree that GOP leaders, who say we should accept Mrs. Clinton’s defeat, like they accepted Mitt Romney’s loss 4 years ago, don’t understand the difference between a qualified candidate and a racist, misogynistic liar or the hate that he has spawned?
Can we all agree, the world is in shock, journalists are embarrassed and no-one knows what will happen during a Trump administration?
Can we all agree the best news story this week was the prediction that Mr. Trump will probably be impeached?
Can we all agree the Trump victory has almost buried one of the other major news stories from the election: Marijuana is well on it’s way to becoming legal in the United Stated? If the NFL wants to start using it a tipping point has been reached.
Can we all agree that ISIS has taken advantage of our preoccupation with the election to begin a campaign which includes massacring civilians as they abandon territory in Iraq?
Can we all agree that Leonard Cohen, who died this week, deserved more coverage than he got?
Can we all agree that immigration raids, which have already reached record levels, will be increasing in the coming years – until business lobbyists make their case and Mr. Trump quietly ends the deportation program?
Can we all agree, China’s recent crackdown on dissent in Hong Kong, makes you wonder if the city is really governable as a democracy?
Can we all agree there is a certain symmetry to Mr. Trump’s victory and news that the state of New Jersey will take over Atlantic City’s government?
Can we all agree the owners and reporters at Rolling Stone Magazine do not deserve sympathy as they lost the first of several court battles over their poor performance in reporting an alleged rape at the University of Virginia?
Can we all agree we thought the smog in Bejing was bad until we read about the problems in Delhi?
Can we all agree Prince Harry is right to complain about the way the British press has been treating his girlfriend, but we doubt anything will change?
and finally:
Only in San Francisco could one stuck shoe ruin the morning rush hour for thousands of BART commuters.
And my train wreck of the week award goes to football player Colin Kapernick, who created a storm of protest by declining to stand for the National Anthem, to highlight the condition of ‘oppressed people’ and then didn’t even bother to vote.
and:
In honor of Veterans Day I’m reposting my story on my Dad, who would not believe his sacrifice has led to a Donald Trump White House. Dad’s story
CWAA: Can We All Agree – 11/5/16 edition
November 5, 2016
Can we all agree the World Series was a great diversion from the campaign? Maybe that’s why it had the highest TV ratings in 20 years.
Can we all agree both the Cubs and Indians deserved to win?
Fans outside Wrigley Field where the names of generations of Cubs faithful are listed. (AP photo)
Can we all agree, like Red Sox fans in 2004, the most touching stories involved Cubs fans who were not alive to witness the historic win?
Can we all agree Bill Murray’s interview with Theo Epstein was a highlight of the post-win coverage: not to mention the Budweiser ad featuring Harry Caray?
Can we all agree Chicago needed some good news given the record number of murders that have occurred in the city this year?
Can we all agree the contrast in campaign style during the last week, mirrors the differences between the two presidential candidates?
Can we all agree it’s no surprise Mr. Trump’s income may not be all he says it is?
Can we all agree, even Mr. Trump probably thinks his latest newspaper endorsement is probably ill timed?
Can we all agree, reports about Mr. Tump’s ties to Russians who wanted to launder money through his projects, would doom most candidates, but not him?
Can we all agree that both sides are pulling out all the stops in the final week? Donald Trump brought out his wife and Hillary Clinton brought out the President: it was not a fair fight.
Can we all agree that, in one sense, this election will be like many others, since it all depends on voter turnout?
Can we all agree the strangest story of the week might be the link between the Trump campaign and a group of teenage hackers in Macedonia?
Can we all agree we owe the Washington Post a big thank you for compiling a list of the biggest lies of the campaign?
Can we all agree the one thing we are all happy about, is that there are only 3 days left to the campaign?
Can we all agree that based on his agency’s activity of the last 10 days, FBI director James Comey, has some real issues to deal with? I guess the question is, will he be around to deal with them?
Can we all agree the latest jobs report is good news for the Clinton campaign?
Can we all agree it would be hard to believe that two of Chris Christie’s top aides, who were were found guilty of conspiracy, could have planned anything without his knowledge?
Can we all agree that Harvard did the right thing in canceling the men’s soccer team’s season, after their sexually explicit scouting report on the women’s team, came to light?
Can we all agree that Vladimir Putin has good reason to derail Mrs. Clinton’s campaign since, if she wins, he will have to deal with female leaders in Germany, England and the US ?
Can we all agree we’re a bit confused about the ‘controversy” between Beyonce and the CMAS?
Can we all agree, speaking of strange, that the leader of South Korea dependence on a mystic, conjures up memories of Nancy Reagan?
Can we all agree that conducting an opinion poll in North Korea can hardly be considered scientific?
Can we all agree Brexit just got a lot more complicated this week, when the English courts said Parliament had to vote on the exit agreement?
Can we all agree the development of GMO’s was never about saving the world, but was more about making money?
Can we all agree when the Venezuelan president told city dwellers to grow their own food, it sounded a lot like “let them eat cake.”
Can we all agree that Syrian President Assad is dealing with his own version of altered reality?
And finally, this week’s train wreck award goes to:
A Wisconsin high school that made up a story about students killed in a crash, to warn young people about the dangers of drunk driving,
or
The Bay Area Rapid Transit system which paid a janitor over $270,000 in pay and benefits for work in the last year.
Don’t forget to turn your clocks back.