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Everyone has opinions, here’s ours.

Trump Goes Where No President Has Gone Before, Legitimizing a Grisly Dictator

Keith Girard
Donald Trump and his Fox News acolytes are describing the president’s summit with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un as an historic event achieved by no other recent president. But his biggest accomplishment was legitimizing a grisly dictator with a duplicitous history and long string of human rights violations. No other president sought to dignify Kim, or any of his previous family-member leaders, because they realized it would represent a de-facto acceptance of his brutal regime....
COMMENTARYCULTURE0 Comments

NFL Kneeling Rule Disrespects Players; Subverts Democracy to Placate Autocrat

Keith Girard
The National Football League (NFL), hoped to put to rest the controversy over kneeling players, by ginning up a new rule that would fine teams and those who kneel during the pre-game National Anthem. The NFL did just the opposite. The league showed total ignorance about what really makes this country great, subverting Democracy in the process. The move is clearly meant to placate Donald Trump, who blew up the issue into a national brouhaha with his misguided criticism of the players....
COMMENTARYCULTURE0 Comments

Cynthia Nixon for New York Governor: Thanks, But No Thanks (Video)

Keith Girard
Cynthia Nixon, the former “Sex and the City” star, has officially declared she’s running for New York Governor in the Democratic primary against two-term incumbent Andrew Cuomo, even though she has no administrative or elective experience. Thanks, but no thanks. Nixon’s biggest qualification for office is her name recognition. Like most celebrities, it’s high, and mostly favorable. But the problem with celebrity is that it’s often inextricably linked to self-entitlement, self-absorption and not a little self-delusion....
COMMENTARYPOLITICS0 Comments

Wayne LaPierre Must Go; NRA Must Return to Roots as Boycott Grows

Keith Girard
Wayne LaPierre, the controversial chief executive of the National Rifle Association (NRA), has driven the gun group off the rails deep into alt-right politics and must resign for the good of the organization, so it can return to its roots as an advocate for gun owners. LaPierre has increasingly politicized the NRA during his 17-year tenure as chief executive and executive vice president. In the process he’s distorted its message, bullied Congress and turned the nation into a free fire zone, where almost anybody can buy a deadly assault rifle....
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Donald Trump Has Driven the Country to a Dark Precipice of Hysteria and Fear

Keith Girard
Donald Trump has pushed the country to a dark precipice of hysteria and fear. The national mood is unparalleled since the 17th century Salem witch trials and the Red Scare of the 1950s, two of the darkest periods in U.S. history. Motivated by greed and political gain of the monied few, his administration and Republicans in Congress are engaged in an unprecedented assault on institutions that safeguard the civil rights and liberties of all citizens....
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Is Al Franken Being Railroaded by Hard-Core, Trump-Supporting Zealots?

David Fagin
Isn’t it amazing, suddenly, out of nowhere, Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, is being accused of sexual assault–by two Trump supporters, no less–just as Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation is bearing fruit and the GOP’s Alabama Senate candidate is turning out to be a serial child molester? Added to that, Vice President Pence and Don Jr. are twisting slowly in the wind; Attorney General Jeff Sessions is proving to be a flat-out liar; Trump can’t seem to keep track of the mass shootings and the Dems have taken Virginia and Oklahoma....
COMMENTARYCULTUREPOLITICS13 Comments

Prince’s Humble Style, Grace & Genius Set an Unmatched Standard in Music

David Fagin
Prince Rogers Nelson, better known simply as Prince, captured the hearts and minds of a generation that grew up in the ’80s on a steady diet of MTV. His death, April 21, will forever be remembered as the biggest loss for music and music lovers since the death of Michael Jackson. His unique blend of pop, funk, rock and R&B, cut across genres, appealed to a far-reaching audience and still influences the style and direction of music today. ...
CELEBRITIESCOMMENTARYCULTUREMUSIC0 Comments

Sylvester Stallone Fights for Title Again in Rocky Spin ‘Creed’ (video)

Winchester
Sylvester Stallone’s “Creed,” the latest end-run on his Rocky mythology, ebbs and flows, but mostly delivers the “Rocky” ethos thanks to direction by “Fruitvale Station’s” Ryan Coogler and a sensational performance by Michael B. Jordan. Jordan, who also starred in “Fruitvale,” essays Adonis Johnson, the son of famous boxer Apollo Creed, who battled Rocky in earlier films. The picture also stars Tessa Thompson as Bianca, a local singer who becomes involved with Adonis and Phylicia Rashad as Apollo’s widow. ...
COMMENTARYREVIEW0 Comments

Tina Brown Out at Daily Beast; May Signal Internet Shake-Out

Keith Girard
Tina Brown who tried to carve an empire for herself at Barry Diller’s company as Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Beast and, for a time, Newsweek, is first big-name print star to fall on the Internet. Diller’s IAC/InterActiveCorp will not renew Brown’s likely million-dollar-plus contract when it expires in January. Her departure could signal the beginning of a major shakeout among high-cost Internet publications that have yet to see ad revenues come close to matching expenses....
COMMENTARYMEDIA0 Comments

Horrific New York City Cab Crash Raises Safety Questions (video)

Keith Girard
A horrific crash involving a New York City cab that injured a bicyclist and severed a pedestrian’s foot raises fresh questions about the competence and training of drivers behind one of the most ubiquitous vehicles on Manhattan streets. I know. I was involved in more than one incident involving a taxi cab as an avid bicyclist and as a motorist, including a hit-and-run accident. A taxi-cab driver ran a stop sign and sideswiped my car, then brazenly drove off when he saw me getting out of my car. Most New Yorkers have their own horror stories, tell them below in the comment section. ...
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Anthony Weiner’s Megalomania Is So Uncool; Enough Already

Keith Girard
Anthony Weiner’s sex scandal has provided some dicey diversion during an uneventful New York City summer, keeping gossip mills churning from Hamptons’ beaches to Katz’s deli. But really, enough is enough. Megalomania is so uncool. The pol doesn’t know the meaning of the word “quit.” Under different circumstances that might be a good thing. But not when it stems from a psychopathological disorder....
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