I’m reminded a bit of that saying “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” in light of recent events. Also, the buzzword “multiculturalism” seems to have fallen out of favor, but it’s worth reviewing its ideological meaning and its literal meaning.

Jump back to 2009. The story went something like the following. The Obama administration was coming into office and he was supposed to be the master orator and the transformative quasi-messianic figure. With simply a silver-tongued speech he could stop the seas from rising, the global temperature from warming, and heal the international relationships of the USA. After the disastrous W. Bush administration, the US’s standing in the world was ruined – including that with Russia. W. Bush and company were too much of a rowdy, rude, bumpkin group who had wasted good will for the USA. The right-wingers had tended to demonize Russia and were still hung up on that Cold War thing, which was so full of jingoistic nationalism that it claimed the American people and the USSR were “enemies.” But the much more sophisticated view of things shows how people everywhere are really no different, and we and all our global leaders really just want the same things. If we have an enemy, it’s simply because we haven’t dialoged correctly. Or if hostility remains, it’s because of some national sin of the USA or is a just reaction to some wrong the USA committed upon them. Everything revolves around us. We have moved into a new progressive paradigm in which we are post-nationalistic, and our obvious universal values must now be meshed together with our diverse global-thinking leaders. Away with those narrow-minded nitwits like Mitt Romney who would later foolishly claim in a presidential debate that Russia was “the main foreign policy adversary of the USA.” Ha, what a dummy. Let’s gather around him. Place a dunce cap atop Romney’s head and point and laugh at such a ridiculous suggestion. Hey, the 1980s called, and they want their foreign policy back.

However, there’s good news. The strained Russian-American relationship can easily be fixed. With the bumbling W. out and Obama in, things can be “Reset.” Simple as that. Fortunately, we have the eminently qualified Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. She would later go on to be the most qualified candidate ever, and would ever be, to run for US president. Her formidable skills with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proved to be a stellar success. A clever idea of doing a press conference with a conspicuous red Reset Button did just the trick. Words and a clever gimmick overcame realpolitik. Or did it? Was this really what was going on in 2009, or something else?

With the MAGA movement in full swing, maybe now is a good time to Make Air Travel Great Again.  I have fond memories of flying in the 70s; easy, simple, inexpensive, relaxing, meal on board. And nowadays it’s unbelievably awful.

Here’s an American Airlines 747 piano bar commercial, including Chet Huntley, the Fonz, Frasier’s dad (possibly), and a Wurlitzer electric piano.

The Democrat Party is losing support among lots of demographic groups:  blue-collar workers, blacks, Hispanics, men, rural residents, and so on.  Powerline linked to a New York Times article that pointed out that the Republican Party’s share of the vote has increased in each of the past three presidential elections in close to half the counties in America — 1,433 in all.  Democrats have increased their vote share in those three elections in only 57 of the nation’s 3,100-plus counties.  The Democrats are steadily losing support among lots of different groups of people.

One group that has become increasingly supportive of Democrats, however, is young women.  Young women appear to be undergoing lots of transformational changes over the past 10-15 years.  A 2022 Gallup poll found that 38% of young liberal women identify as LGBT.   The #metoo movement made many young women distrustful of men in general, even if they’d had no bad experiences with men themselves, as this young woman explained:

“I think I’m at an interesting age where the #MeToo movement was going on during some very formative years. Like I said, I’m only 21, so #MeToo was very high school for me, so I think luckily I had that all over social media to kind of shape the way I look at dating and men. And allow me to use other people’s experiences to form a sense of like putting a guard up almost.”

We honor the ones who didn’t come home. One who did was my dad. Three days after Normandy took a bullet in the leg, but ran his platoon for three more days until he could be evacuated. He was awarded a Silver Star. A lot of people are glad he made it home, but none more so than my younger brother and me. If he hadn’t, there would be only two Pratt boys instead of four.

The title card that opens 1931’s The Front Page reads: “It all happened in the Dark Ages of the Newspaper Game – when to a reporter ‘getting that story’ justified anything short of murder. Incidentally, you will see in this picture no resemblance to the men and women of the press of today… Ready? Well, once upon a time…”

Isn’t it a wonderful thing to think of? Reporters caring more about a scoop than promoting a political agenda? Maybe it really was like this once, and in the film, the reporters value selling papers more than being in a politician’s good graces. 

The film is based on a Broadway play written by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (which happened to have entered the public domain last year). It was directed by Lewis Milestone, who had just won the Best Director Oscar for All Quiet on the Western Front the year before, and it doesn’t feel like a filmed stage play. The show opens up with the gallows and car chases that couldn’t have been portrayed on the stage, and the camera moves with sweeps and close-ups. Even the opening credits are creative, with the cast presented by flipping through a newspaper.

How many of you know of Casey Means, Trump’s pick to be the next American surgeon general? I’m guessing not many. Let me introduce you to her.

Casey Means is not a doctor, though she did go to medical school. Let me share with you her expertise as stated in her own words. She “worked with a spiritual medium who helped try to connect with spirit guides for support and guidance.” She also “did full moon ceremonies with grounded, powerful women where [they] called in abundance and let go of what wasn’t serving [them].”  “Perhaps the body is simply the material ‘radio receiver’ through which we can ‘tune in’ to the divine. We will get instructions (through human inspiration and reason) for what we need to do to raise the vibration of humanity and create a sustainable future… The future of medicine will be about light. I don’t exactly know how yet.” “Humans are out of alignment with the Earth and depleting its life force…and human bodies are now exhibiting signs of blocking the flow of energy through them. This is insulin resistance. We are the Earth.”

For disclosure, I have been in support of Alberta/Western Canada separation since the 80s. I even bought the T-shirt “Republic of Western Canada” back in the day… So the concept of Western alienation and independence is not new to me.

“To what extent would you support or oppose the province of Alberta becoming a country independent of Canada?” 47% were in favour compared to 48% opposed, with those in support higher than in many previous polls. 

A German politician arguing the question of whether to admit yet more Afghan nationals cited official government statistics regarding the crime rates, especially rape, committed by these migrants. Under German censorship laws, she has now twice been found guilty of illegal hate speech, fined thousands of euros, and been given a criminal record, simply for stating government-produced facts.

The United Kingdom, once a bastion of free speech, is now moving toward ever stricter speech restrictions. Meanwhile, prosecutors reluctant to anger Islamists ignore grooming gangs preying on young women.

“It starts when you begin to overlook good manners.  Anytime you quit hearing Sir and Mam the end is pretty much in sight.”

-Cormac McCarthy, No Country For Old Men