It's a wonderful movie

The other day Kim came up to me and said, "Let's go see 'It's a Wonderful Life.' It's going to play Thursday night at the Lexington theater. It's an old movie and it was meant to be seen on the big screen. I think it'll be a lot of fun and it'll be free.

"Besides, I've never seen the whole movie. I've only seen bits and pieces of it here and there. C'mon, let's go. Pleeeeez."

Say whut?

I tried to process this request on several different levels. I mean, gee whiz, I've seen this move about a thousand times. I can quote dialogue from it before Jimmy Stewart does. The denouement, where the grateful population of Bedford Falls comes out to lift George Baily, is one of the best cinema endings in moviedom. I start to tear up about an hour before Clarence gets his wings, even though I know what's coming. I actually look forward to my tears.

So there's that.

Plus, the theater is old, drafty and could use some serious upgrades. I still wasn't sure, but then, what the heck. It was free. Anyway, even in spite of the theater's shortcomings, this was a thoughtful holiday treat by the staff. They were showing a different classic Christmas movie each night ("Polar Express", "Miracle on 34th Street", "Home Alone", "A Christmas Story", for example). So we went.

And guess what? Kim was right. This movie (like all movies) was meant to be seen on the big screen. I found myself chuckling at little bits of humor and nuance that I miss when I watch it on television. There were about 20 other people in the theater (a bigger audience than I expected), so when somebody laughed or giggled, we all did. Psychologically, I guess it's like some kind of mass contagious dissociative behavior. Or maybe it was just funny, I don't know. But it added to our big screen experience.

I also looked for the little stuff that is now movie trivia. The phone kiss between Stewart and Donna Reed was Stewart's first movie kiss since returning from World War II, where he flew 20 harrowing missions as a B-24 pilot. The passionate one-take kiss he gives Reed barely passed the censors of the time. Understandable, I guess. Reed was a 25-year-old beauty and Stewart was suffering from PTSD for the hell he'd just been through.

I also look for Carl Switzer, who played Alfalfa in the Our Gang comedies. Switzer is the wiseguy who opens the swimming pool floor during the dance scene. Stuff like that.

So we stayed to the very end. When Clarence got his wings, the audience clapped, like they sometimes do in movie houses. And I brushed away a tear.

Merry Christmas.

•  •  •

There's one other Christmas moment I want to mention.

Kim and I have been to several Christmas parties this year, and the one treat I'm yearning for – and have been for years – is toll house cookies.

Nobody, it seems, makes toll house cookies anymore. I think I know why. It's a pretty labor intensive project to make these things. 

"If you want them so badly, you can make 'em yourself," said Kim. "You're home all day."

Well, the last time I made them, about 30 years ago, it nearly killed me. And I was a young man then. The recipe I used made three dozen cookies, I think. Mmmm. Gooey oatmeal dough drenched in butter and brown sugar. Chocolate Nestle morsels. Walnuts. Mmmm. Try mixing those together by hand. It's like mixing quick-dry concrete. Like I said, labor intensive.

Anyway, Kim's already tied up making Moravian sugar cakes, so I'm not asking her to make cookies, too, if I want to stay married. It's either one or the other. If given an ultimatum, it'll always be the sugar cakes. Soooo good.

I am contemplating making some toll house cookies next Christmas, though. We'll see. 

But if I do make some, don't expect me to bring them to your party. They're that good. They might get gone before I get there.

I guess that's why I don't see any at the parties I do go to.

Mmmm. Toll house cookies.

Merry Christmas.

Thank you, Joe

Gas prices are dropping. Inflation, while still high, is hovering around 7.1% in this country while most other nations are experiencing double-digit inflation. Democrats avoided a red tsunami in the midterm elections and by doing so quite possibly saved democracy for a few more years.

And President Joe Biden's favorability numbers are rising. It's now 42.9 percent, the same as Ronald Reagan in the second year of his presidency.

With the year coming to a close, I thought I'd look at some of the more important legislative progress we made under the Biden administration despite some irrational blowback from many Republicans who, ironically, also stand to benefit from Biden's accomplishments:

• Passed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package to improve highways, bridges, airports, etc.

• The American Rescue plan that helped put 500 million life-saving Covid vaccinations in the arms of Americans. It also cut child poverty in half and reduced healthcare premiums by $800 a year under the Affordable Care Act.

• Signed the bipartisan Safer Communities Act  to help mitigate gun violence as well as provide funding for youth mental health.

• The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 which provides for a $369 billion investment in climate change. It also caps prescription drug prices at $2000 per year for seniors on Medicare. Medicare, in fact, can now negotiate prescription drug prices, period. I can live with that one. It also imposed a 15% minimum corporate tax on some the the country's largest corporations, forcing them to pay their fair share.

• Pulled out of Afghanistan to end the longest war in American history.

•  Passed the Covid-19 relief deal that provided $1,400 checks for most Americans. Raise your hand if you returned your check because you don't like Biden. Yeah, that's what I thought.

• Created 6.6 million jobs in one year, more than any other president in history.

• Signed the PACT Act to deal with military service members exposure to burn pits.

• Signed the CHIPS and Science Act that strengthens American innovation and manufacturing.

• Signed the bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act.

There have been other significant accomplishments, like the return of American Brittany Griner from wrongful Russian imprisonment, college debt relief, rejoining the Paris Accords to fight climate change and the authorization of the assassination of Al Qaeda terrorist Ayman al-Zawahiri.

All of these achievements have been remarkable given that Biden is dealing with a 50-50 Congress. And yet, here we are. 

There's still a ton of work to do. The Electoral Count Reform Act is still on the floor and the John Lewis voting rights act to guarantee free and fair elections needs resuscitation. Immigration issues at the border have plagued presidents for decades and needed to be addressed. But with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives coming in in January, expect the Party of Retribution to conduct useless, money-burning investigations intended solely to obstruct Democratic efforts to move the nation forward.

Still, it's been a year of significant accomplishments.

Oh, what a week

As a former newsman, I guess I shouldn't be surprised when a single eventful week can be so chocked full of news.

Like what happened this past week.

On Tuesday, Georgia rejoined the World of Common Sense by re-electing incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock to a full six-year term in the US Senate, knocking out Republican opponent Herschel Walker, a former collegiate and professional football star who was, no doubt, one of the most unqualified candidates for United States high political office in perhaps forever. It was astounding to hear him give serious speeches about werewolves and vampires and all that good American air going to China. Sheesh.

Warnock's victory also gave the Democrats a 51-49 edge in the Senate. That's critical. It means President Joe Biden can get a number of things accomplished without GOP obstruction, like appointing ambassadors, cabinet heads and federal judges. It also gives Democrats full – and not shared – control of Senate committees and sub-committees. 

It also means that when the Republican controlled House of Representatives begins its threatened investigations of the Biden administration amidst calls for Biden's impeachment (as well as some cabinet heads), it's likely to be an exercise in futility because the Senate simply will vote against impeachment. There will be no sense of real governance in the GOP House, only retribution.

More of Senate control in a moment.

On Thursday night, we learned that WNBA basketball star Brittany Griner was finally released from a Russian prison after 10 months of wrongful imprisonment for what most of the world considers a minor offense: medicinal cannabis oil for her vape pen.

What should have been cause for celebration that an American citizen was released from Russian detention quickly turned into a political football (or basketball, if you will). Griner was released under the terms of a prisoner swap with the Russians welcoming back notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is sometimes known as "The Merchant of Death."

The extreme right went nuts. How dare Biden give up an arms dealer for a basketball player? What kind of unequal deal was that?

Bout was scheduled for release in 2029, while Griner would serve her sentence until 2031. So if Bout was going to be released anyway, why not take advantage of his current capital to release a wrongly imprisoned American? It's not like Bout isn't the only Merchant of Death walking around the globe.

Meanwhile, another American, Paul Whelan, has been in a Russian prison for four years, accused of being a spy. And he's a former Marine, dammit. When did we leave Marines behind?

First off, even after months of negotiations for both Americans, the Russians made the offer either Griner, or neither of them. Not much of a choice, really.

But some people were appalled. In comparing Griner to Whelan (why are people comparing the two? They're both Americans), Griner appeared to be the ungrateful un-American pariah. She was critical of the United States. She often would kneel for the National Anthem at her games. Meanwhile, Whelan was a Marine, dammit. Impeach Biden.

What Griner is is Black, female and gay. Her stance on the National Anthem is similar to Colin Kaepernick's, a Black man who also suffered from the wrath of the extremists for his stance, which was in reality intended to spotlight the racial social injustices that still linger under the surface in this country, despite the 13th and 14th amendments and other civil rights legislation.

Meanwhile – and this hasn't been played up much – Whelan was court martialed and received a "bad conduct discharge" from the Marines in 2008 for bouncing checks and the attempted theft of $10,000 while serving in Iraq. He was also demoted from sergeant to corporal. All of this while wearing the uniform of a Marine. Sounds pretty disgraceful to me. (See here).

But, you know. He's not gay. He's not female. And he's white. And he probably stands for the National Anthem.

And I hope like hell he's released from Russia as soon as possible, as we would hope for any wrongfully imprisoned American.

Anyway, on Friday, the Democratic 51-49 edge in the Senate appeared to be in danger when Arizona Democrat Kyrsten Sinema announced she was leaving the Democratic Party to register as an Independent.

But it's likely Sinema will caucus with the Democrats just like Independents Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Angus King of Maine, which will maintain the Democrats' control over the Senate and keep American government moving forward. Sinema will caucus with the Democrats because she doesn't want to jeopardize losing her committee seats, so nothing really changes.

Unless she's lying.

So, man, what a week it was.

Now all we have to look forward to is criminal referrals, subpoenas, pointless investigations, hypocrisy and obstruction.

What a country.

It never ends

Just when I think we're finally free and clear of disgraced and twice-impeached former President Donald Trump, we're not.

Silly me.

On Saturday, in yet another un-American moment, Trump called for the termination of the United States Constitution. (See here)

You know, the document that gives us the Fourth of July. The document that begins with "We the People..." The document that gives us free elections, free speech, freedom of religion. That document.

You all in for that?

He wants to shred the Constitution because, despite the lack of any evidence whatsoever, he claims the 2020 elections that put Joe Biden in office were false and fraudulent. But if we terminate the Constitution, he says, we have the choice to either install him as the rightful president, or hold new elections.

Trump wrote, "A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great Founders did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!"

This, of course, is American blasphemy. And he's an American absurdity.

I keep replaying an old black-and-white newsreel footage in the back of my mind where I see soldiers landing on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. One or two of them fall to the ground. It's almost shocking to see. Those honored fallen took an oath and gave their lives for the document Trump wants to trash. Those honored fallen have done so for nearly 250 years.

How dare he. It makes me ill to think about it. And yet, there are many who still stand in silent approval of Trump. Most are Republicans. I don't understand. Isn't there a bad taste in their mouths, too?

All of this comes just days after he hosted a Mar-a-Lago dinner with anti-Semite Kanye West (who has now abbreviated his name to Ye. Well, hey, just call me Bru. Or Ce.) and ultra-disgusting white nationalist Nick Fuentes.

And this coming just weeks after Trump announced his candidacy for a second term as president. I guess he's running on the un-American platform. I guess we know the target of his appeal.

All this follows a lengthy pattern of un-Americanism, including applauding the insurrectionists of Jan. 6 and separating infant children from their parents as his administration's declared immigration policy, along with plans for a friggin' wall at the border.

I love how some Trumpists claim that Biden has done nothing but lead us through a poop show that last two years, but the truth is, nothing Biden has done comes anywhere near the national embarrassment of Trump's Republican Party.

I'm hoping the recent midterm elections were a barometer of the nation's state of sensibility. The projected red tsunami turned out to be a red trickle, giving us a split Congress instead of a red sweep.

I'm hoping Tuesday's Senatorial runoff in Georgia between unqualified Republican Herschel Walker and incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock is a resounding Warnock victory.

I'm hoping the Constitution is stronger than any tinpot despot, in just the way the Founders intended.

Here we go again

And by the headline of this blog, I don't mean the holidays.

Slowly and surely, we are being warned about a triumvirate of viruses about to assault us this winter: RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), influenza and Covid.

We're already pretty familiar with the flu and Covid. The flu has been with us for centuries, it seems. Covid (often confused with the flu by those who want to ignore the science) has been with us since late 2019, even though it seems like centuries.

And RSV appears to be the newcomer in this group of three even though it's been around for ages. It's actually a relatively common virus that causes infections in the respiratory tract, and while it can affect adults, it seems to be targeting high-risk infants in its current form, which is probably why it's in the news these days. That and the fact that hospitals are becoming overloaded with patients again.

 RSV can be treated with oxygen therapy.

As far as the flu is concerned, it's my understanding that those medical professionals responsible for preparing the correct flu vaccine with the correct corresponding strain of the flu virus have hit the target this year. There is optimism that the flu shot should be very effective this go around.

And the predicted/anticipated rise in Covid this winter already has us talking about masking, mandates, social distancing and vaccinations, and we barely finished with our turkey.

It'll be interesting to see who's listening. A couple weeks ago, a report came out that Covid was killing twice as many Republicans (who mostly abstained from the science of vaccinations because of their political persuasion to defy logic) as Democrats (who mostly begged for vaccinations). There's some empirical evidence for you. See here.

Kim and I are up to date on all of our vaccinations. In fact, we've also been vaccinated for shingles. Plus, I've gotten the pneumonia shot and recently had an update on my tetanus shot. Just call me Pincushion Bruce. I don't care. I'll take any shot they tell me to if it gets me to my 72nd birthday.

There's one epidemic for which there seems to be no cure. Mass shootings seem to be on the rise again, occurring at a godawful rate of nearly two per day – more than 608 mass shooting this year alone. According to the Gun Violence Archive, which keeps track of these things, there have been 40,133 deaths to gun violence this year, including 614 to mass shootings.

That's a lot of empty seats at the Christmas table.

Why do we insist on killing ourselves this way? What other country eats its own like this?

If only there was a vaccination for gun violence.

Democracy lives

For a while there, I was wondering what was wrong with the American electorate during Tuesday's mid-term elections.

After all, nearly two million people in Georgia cast their ballots for a grossly unqualified former football player who could barely articulate an intelligent sentence to represent their interests in the United States Senate. 

And it wasn't just Georgia. Election deniers and erstwhile extreme right-wing snake oil salesmen were running for offices all across the country: Californian J.D. Vance ran for the Senate seat in Ohio; television doctor Mehmet Oz from New Jersey was running as another carpetbagger for the Senate seat in Pennsylvania; and election denier Ron Johnson was seeking a third term in Wisconsin.

Every election I hear how smart the American people are when they go to the polls, and yet I was holding my breath this time as incompetent candidates were seeking powerful offices and coming unbelievably close to winning their races.

All of this reminded me of something I read years ago about the creation of the Constitution, where some of the Founding Fathers wondered if they could indeed trust the voting public. One delegate, Gouverneur Morris of New York, feared poor people without property (property was being considered as a qualification to vote) would sell their votes to the rich.

Morris was afraid the the country would "abound with mechanics and manufacturers who will receive their bread from their employers" and suggested that "the ignorant and dependent can be as little trusted with the public interest" as small children.

Imagine if there had been fear-mongering FOX News back then. Holy cow.

Anyway, Tuesday's elections came and went. Despite predictions of a red tsunami that would flood the House and Senate with election denying, Social Security stripping Republicans, nearly the opposite happened. John Fetterman, the current lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania who has a Master's degree in business from Harvard University as well as a hoodie from Carrhart, knocked off Oz to win the seat and essentially give the Democrats control of the Senate.

That is fortuitous for the country that has had to wade through currents of lies and misinformation from both sides of the aisle. But President Joe Biden can continue to offer judges and cabinet heads for Senate approval. Those who are still denying that Biden won the election in 2020 – without evidence, mind you – can just shut the hell up.

Indeed, as of today, the House of Representatives is still up for grabs, with the votes of about 20 seats still to be totaled. The Republicans have a paper-thin edge for control at this moment, but it could change. Wouldn't that be something in what was supposed to be a red tsunami year?

All of this gives me a moment to consider that the American electorate might be just smart enough. Yep, too many whackos got too close to gaining office (Vance and Johnson come to mind).

We're not out of the woods yet. We might never be. Democracy – and the will of the people – managed to survive this time. Nevertheless, in order for it to continue to survive, diligence must also be sharpened. We have to decide if democracy is worth fighting for. That means expanding voting rights, not constricting them. That means ending gerrymandering and redlining.

It means not voting for former football players who think part of their family comes from Mars (See here).

It means democracy lives.

 

What a run

There's a symmetry in baseball that is so subtle that not everybody sees it. Or senses it. Or grasps it.

But it's there.

It's not just the 90 feet between bases, where an inch or two longer would see nearly everybody getting thrown out on ground balls at first base, or an inch or two shorter where nearly everybody would beat out infield grounders for base hits.

It's not just the 60 feet, six inches which gives the pitcher just enough time and space to throw a curveball. Or a slider. Or a knuckleball. Or a fast ball.

Or a letters-to-knees strike zone that allows this to happen.

It's not even that the game is played on a perfect diamond. All of these are merely the physical symmetries of the game.

But the game is played on an intangible level, too.

How about the New York Yankees Aaron Judge, who wears uniform number 99? The night he hit his 62nd home run, the Yankees had a record of – wait for it – 99-62. Why would you think the Yankees are not Judge's team?

The intangible symmetry of a No. 6 seed – the Philadelphia Phillies – going against a No. 1 seed – the Houston Astros – for the world championship.

The Astros, not only one of the best teams in the game, but also one of the best organizations, defeated the Phillies 4-1 last night in Game 6 of the best-of-seven series to win their second world championship since 2017, and thereby giving the venerable Dusty Baker his first World Series ring as a manager, something he's been trying for 25 years. He's on a fast train to the Hall of Fame as we speak.

To me, a diehard Phillies fan, the most obvious moment of symmetry came in Game 3, when the Phillies defeated the Astros 7-0 on the strength of five home runs. The very next game, four Houston pitchers combined to throw a no-hitter against the Phils – only the second no-hit game in 119 years of World Series history. Symmetry.

This is baseball. This is what it does. Over the course of a long season, baseball is the symmetry of conflicting emotions, of beautiful diving catches in the outfield and agonizing bobbled double play balls at second base. It's the symmetry of a mediocre team (the Phillies were just six games over .500 – 87-75 – at the end of the regular season) taking on the best there is.

It's the symmetry of a cheesesteak against a nacho plate.

The Phillies got hot at just the right time, winning playoff series against St. Louis, Atlanta and San Diego. They did so with timely hits, incredible late-inning rallies, and a suspect bullpen that somehow seemed to find itself in October.

They were fun to watch.

It was the symmetry of a long season that ended up giving not only a city, but an entire region something to cheer for. The team has youth. It has experience. It has a couple of needs, particulaly in pitching depth, if it wants to reach the next level.

And it all leads to this: as my wife pointed out (she is a non-sports fan, by the way, illustrating yet another example of curious Yin-Yang symmetry in our house), there's also the glorious symmetry of there's always next year.

God help me, I love baseball.