Monthly Archives: September 2018

Not that anyone's going to listen to a guy like me but I would like to suggest that the battle over Brett Kavanaugh points out a fundamental problem with the way we now select our Supreme Court Justices. It's that only a simple majority vote is required to confirm or reject a nominee. You can do it with 51 votes. You can do it with 50 and a Vice-President breaking the tie.

Before filibusters got eliminated a year or two ago, it took 60. If it still took 60, Brett Kavanaugh would never make it. And before you say, "Who would?", well lots of people have. Barack Obama's two nominees were confirmed 63-37 and 68-31. John Roberts, nominated by George W. Bush, was confirmed 78-22. (That Bush's other nomination, Alito, got in with 58-42 because Democrats declined to use the filibuster that was then possible.) Bill Clinton's two nominees were confirmed 87-9 and 96-3.

George H.W. Bush nominated two men to the High Court. David Souter was confirmed 90-9 while Clarence Thomas got in with 52-48. Guess which of those hearings involved screaming and charges of character assassination.

I submit they should not only reinstate the filibuster but even consider raising the number of necessary votes to 67. Even 60 though would mean that any President who sits down to select a nominee would have to come up with someone who could pass muster with more than a few members of the opposition party. They could still be a little left-leaning or right-leaning but it would get rid of the overt desire to put someone in place who would reliably, always and without exception on any important matter, vote according to the "proper" party line.

That kind of partisan justice is the problem. Even before questions of Kavanaugh's drinking and temperament and alleged molesting were raised, Democrats were opposing him for the same reason Trump and the Heritage Society picked him: Because he'd be that kind of always-vote-one-way judge. Merrick Garland had past support from quite a few Republicans but that didn't matter. They wanted an always-vote-Republican justice and since no Obama nominee was going to be one, they decided to block any Obama nominee.

It's a game that can't help but backfire on both parties eventually, hurting Democrats now and Republicans some time down the road whenever Democrats retake control. That's when they'll get an always-vote-Democratic justice onto the bench and it'll go back and forth until there's no such thing as "settled law" in this country.

We oughta reinstate the filibuster or even go to 67 before that occurs but I expect the chances of that happening are about the same as the chances of me getting nominated to the Highest Court in the Land. Hey, but at least there wouldn't be a big battle then. All the opposition would have to do to defeat me overwhelmingly is give everyone the URL to this blog or tell them I was involved with the birthing of Scrappy Doo. I could be the fastest unanimous vote ever.

I hereby retract my prediction that Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court.  I am not predicting the opposite, either.  I am predicting every weekday in the next week or two will be like Wednesdays on the original Mickey Mouse Club.  On Wednesdays, it was "Anything Can Happen" Day.  And sometimes, it wasn't…because anything can happen on "Anything Can Happen" Day, including it not being "Anything Can Happen" Day…

Actually, I'm afraid it's going to be "Anything Can Happen" Day for as long as Donald Trump is in the White House. We don't know what this one-week F.B.I. investigation will uncover…and am I the only one who blinked a few times when Trump ordered it without denouncing the organization as an evil, treacherous band of Democrats who are out to destroy Donald J. Trump?  When has this man ever accepted the legitimacy of any investigation or report that didn't tell him precisely what he wanted to hear?

But the F.B.I. folks may turn up some game-changer and we may also have a week in which the polls can settle down and reflect the impact of the hearings. I'm amazed how many people who had every political reason to brand Dr. Christine Blasey Ford as a lying opportunist had to concede she was "compelling and credible."  I think some of them did not find Brett Kavanaugh's hysterical rebuttal speech particularly judicial but there still seem to be enough of those who don't care; they just want him seated because, damn it, they're running this country. One of my favorite political writers, Ezra Klein, had this to say…

The feminist philosopher Kate Manne coined the term "himpathy" to describe the "tendency to dismiss the female perspective altogether, to empathize with the powerful man over his less powerful alleged female victim." What Kavanaugh did today was activate the Republican Party's powerful sense of himpathy: His suffering was the question, and Ford's suffering, to say nothing of any further search for the truth, slipped soundlessly beneath the water.

We ended the day in much the same place we started: his word against hers. But even as everyone agreed Ford's word was credible, it didn't matter. There was still Kavanaugh's word. And it appeared, for Republicans on the Judiciary Committee, that that was enough. She was 100 percent sure and he was 100 percent sure, but it was his 100 percent sure that mattered.

I think Klein wrote that before the one-week investigation entered the picture but he still may be right. Read the whole article if you have time.

What will happen will happen, as things that will happen have a tendency to do. I do think though that both witnesses accomplished something. Kavanaugh pretty well buried the notion that Supreme Court Justices have to be at least a little apolitical. With other Liberal or Conservative justices, there was always the slight chance that they'd find the evidence in some matter of consequence so compelling and inarguable that they would break with "their side" and if only this once, be a swing voter. Kavanaugh made it pretty clear that he's not above partisanship. If he's seated, he will ignore the merits of any case and just vote for the Republican side and against whatever Democrats want. That probably delights some voters who, of course, will howl with outrage whenever there's a Liberal nominee who'll be that blatant about it.

And getting back to Dr. Ford, didn't she do a remarkable job? Testifying in something like that has to be terrifying and there's the danger that one errant word…one misphrased line will explode your whole position. A lawyer who advised me before I gave a deposition once told me I had to consider every syllable before I said it. This is a rough approximation…

I once had a client who said on the stand under oath, "Sam and I met for coffee…" and he didn't literally mean they had coffee. He meant they met somewhere to talk and there might have been refreshments of any kind. But the moment he said "coffee," the opposing lawyer pounced. Before my client could have corrected himself, the lawyer was announcing that Sam did not drink coffee and would swear to that under oath. In fact, Sam's entire family would testify under oath that Sam never drank coffee so my client had been caught in a lie. That it was immaterial to the case didn't matter. The lawyer was saying, "How can we trust a witness who would lie about something as basic as whether a man drank coffee?" It didn't completely destroy my client's credibility but it got him so flustered that the rest of his testimony was halting, unnatural and way too cautious. He no longer appeared to be speaking from the heart and that harmed his credibility.

Dr. Ford didn't make any of that kind of boo-boo. She appeared before a panel of powerful men who were eager to find some way to brand her a liar…and even folks on Fox News wound up saying she was believable. I'm not sure I could do that if you grilled me on whether it's true I hate cole slaw. Just about everyone believed her.

So if Bret Kavanaugh gets benched the way he wants to be, he will be the Justice who probably was drunk for much of his young adulthood and who thought rape was kind of male privilege and who lies repeatedly about it and probably everything. Once upon a time, I'd have though someone like that could never rise to a position of power in this country but now I think they can. In fact, someone has quite recently. Apart from the drunk part, that describes the guy in the White House.

So I'm in my friendly neighborhood you-know-where and I'm waiting in line to pick up a prescription. Ahead of me is a Very Confused Lady (who shall henceforth be known as the V.C.L.) and she is being served by a Very Patient Pharmacy Associate (henceforth, the V.P.P.A.). The V.C.L. picked up a prescription the day before, took it home and found herself unable to get the friggin' cap off the friggin' container of the friggin' pills. In desperation, she has brought it back to the C.V.S.

The V.P.P.A. takes the container and with darn near no effort, pops the lid off. A small child could have done it and so could a small gerbil or marmoset. "These are our new caps," the V.P.P.A. explains. "They're Easy Open." In an instructional way, she takes the lid off again, puts it back on again, takes the lid off again, puts it back on again, takes the lid off again, puts it back on again, takes the lid off again, puts it back on again, takes the lid off again, puts it back on again, and hands it to the V.C.L.

The V.C.L. holds the vial and attempts to do what the V.P.P.A. just did.  This time, the cap not only comes off easily, it comes off so easily that the V.C.L. is startled and she accidentally dumps all the pills on the floor.

The V.C.L. attempts to scoop the pills up off the dirty floor and into the container but the V.P.P.A. (acting very responsibly) will not allow that.  She insists the V.C.L. wait and she gives the vial to the Head Pharmacist so she can dole out a fresh serving of the pills at — apparently — no cost. Then the V.P.P.A. cleans up the soiled pills and discards them. Then she presents a new container of the pills to the V.C.L. but not before demonstrating three more times how to open it.

The V.C.L. takes the new supply, flips the top off easily and once again accidentally spills them out onto the ground. Wonderful.

By now, the Very Patient Pharmacy Associate has become just the P.A. but she goes to the Head Pharmacist, they have a brief discussion and the following is decided: The Very Clumsy Lady (as she shall henceforth be called) may have one more free refill but that's it. The pharmacy cannot spare any more of whatever medication this is or they may not have enough to fill others' orders before they can get more. If these hit the linoleum, she'll need to take the matter up with her doctor or her insurance company or a Walgreens or anyone else.

It is at this point that a Clever, Handsome Bystander (who henceforth will be known as M.E.) steps up.  He asks and receives permission to make some suggestions and then makes three…

The first is that when the V.C.L. takes the new vial home, she should put a clean towel on her bed and then attempt to open the vial over the towel. Thus, if the pills fall again, they will remain takeable.

The second is that the C.V.S. should also provide her with an empty container with the new style cap so she can practice opening it until she masters the art.

And the third is that if she has one of the old caps around, she puts it on the new container until such time as she does master that art.

Everyone — including the nineteen other customers who have been waiting in line behind M.E. — praises his suggestions and the V.C.L. leaves with a new supply of the pills and an empty practice vial.

M.E. then steps up to the counter to claim his own prescription and as the P.A. rings it up, the Head Pharmacist saunters over and thanks him for his wise input. M.E. says to her, "I guess the new easy open caps aren't as easy as they're supposed to be."

The Head Pharmacist sighs and says, "They would be if only someone could invent some way that people with her problem could take one of those pills before attempting to open the container."

The other day here, I quoted one of the folks involved with the Reprise Theater Company that they were shutting down. I am now delighted to hear that that announcement has been retracted; that Reprise may well finish out its current season and go on. Frankly, I'd like to see it go on forever.

Let's assume the best. And if they do indeed do their next show — Grand Hotel, which is scheduled to open October 24 — let's pack the place and support them. I'll post more about it if and when I hear more.

• You know what this is all about? It's about the GOP's insistence that they run this country and if they want to put a lying, dry-drunk political hack on the Supreme Court, thereby controlling all 3 branches, no one can stop them.

Spend a few minutes watching one of my favorite magicians, the late Don Alan…

I'm not watching all of the hearings and I wonder how anyone could stand to. My guess at this moment — subject to change with the next revelation or maybe the one after or the one after — is that Judge Kavanaugh will squeak by to attain SCOTUS stature but that many of the Republicans who vote to put him there will quietly regret that. They'll look at what the whole mess has done to their standing with women voters and wish their leaders had withdrawn the name. There are probably lots of potential nominees who would deliver the same reliably conservative votes but who don't have tales of drunken misbehavior in their past. Who knows? Some of them might even have vaginas and therefore vote against women's rights with a bit more credibility.

The one thing that I'm fairly certain of is that a lot of old white males out there either don't understand about how rape or even attempted rape…or choose not to understand because then it would be more difficult to not give a damn about the well-being of women. The ones saying things like "Well, if the rape wasn't completed, no crime was committed" are clueless. Even less clued-in are the ones who are suspicious that a woman who later claims that she was attacked didn't immediately rush to the police and swear out a full report. Most rapes are not reported and many of the women who do report them are then put through such hell and character assassination and other pains that it's amazing any of them come forward.

It's getting a little better these days but it's got a long way to go. And trying to shove it back to the Middle Ages are all those who want Brett Kavanaugh on the High Court and are seizing on the non-reporting to try and raise suspicion about the whole claim. I'm trying to decide if I can or should post some stories from past lady friends — most of them, actresses — who were attacked and who felt that reporting what happened would put then through a worse hell than the assault. But I assume that anyone who doesn't understand that is trying real, real hard not to believe that and won't be persuaded by any anecdotes.

• Trump described attorney @MichaelAvenatti as a "lowlife" and a "third rate lawyer." That's quite a statement when you consider that the lawyers Trump has trusted are all flipping on him, going to prison and/or Rudy Giuliani.

King Kong: The Musical is coming to Broadway — to the Broadway Theater, to be precise. Previews start October 5 and they have Opening Night set for November 8. The show, which stars a silverback gorilla puppet whose weight in press releases seems to vary between one ton and two. There was a time when mine did, too. The show debuted in Melbourne in 2013 but I gather what will open in New York will be quite different. Here's a little look at its leading man…

We've raved here about Reprise!, the Los Angeles-based group that revives classic musicals and stages them for brief runs at the Freud Theater up at U.C.L.A. I've seen some great shows there, many of which I recommended on this blog.

Reprise started in 1997 with a production of Promises, Promises that starred Jason Alexander, Alan Thicke, Barney Martin, and Jean Smart. It was great and Reprise was promising, promising. They kept going with three shows per year (plus occasional specials) and while not everything they did was a gem, the batting average was quite high. As I got to know some of the folks involved and even hosted some of their educational events, I was even more impressed. That they did so much so well with such low budgets and extremely limited rehearsal periods was astounding. Alas, money was a constant problem and the operation had to shut down. The last production of that run was Kiss Me, Kate in 2011.

Last year, they announced Reprise 2.0 with a season that was to have included Sweet Charity, Victor/Victoria and Grand Hotel. Sweet Charity, which I reviewed here, was pretty darned good on the stage, maybe not good enough at the box office. Suddenly, Victor/Victoria was replaced by And the World Goes Round, which is a much cheaper show to do. I wrote about that here but gallantly avoided mentioning that even on opening night, the theater was far from full. That's never a good sign.

Today on Facebook, Gerard Sternbach — Reprise's musical director — posted "I'm sure the news has started to come around the pike, but I am just now officially posting on Facebook that Reprise is shutting down after the second show. We are not even going to be able to finish the first season." That means that Grand Hotel, which was announced to star Hal Linden and Sharon Lawrence, won't be happening. My tickets are for the opening, October 24, so I guess I'm free that night. Anyone want to go bowling with Amber and me?

I'm really sorry to hear this. I'm not surprised but I'm sorry. I had some wonderful evenings at Reprise shows probably because the folks behind it were truly passionate about bringing good theater to that stage at U.C.L.A. Way more often than not, they did. I hope there's some way they can rebuild and we'll have a Reprise 3.0 but it feels to me like anything short of total pessimism would be unwarranted optimism.

UPDATE 9/29/18: And now we have word that the above-described announcement has been retracted and that Reprise may be alive and well. More on this over here.

So what's it going to be like for Bill Cosby in prison? That and other salient questions are answered in this article. What it doesn't tell us is who's going to play him in the inevitable movie about his downfall and disgrace.

Hey, if you live in the L.A. area, now's the time to scramble for seats at the next presentation of Puppet Up! Every now and then on no visible schedule, the folks at the Henson Alternative Company will pick a weekend and do three performances of their raunchy, X-rated, mostly-improvised puppet extravaganza. That's the Henson operation as in "Jim Henson," and it's now run by his most-able son Brian who keeps the level of creativity and performing up to the family standard.

This is a show for adults and it's often pretty naughty and they serve alcohol and the audiences love it. Part of that is because it takes place on the Henson Lot, which was once the Chaplin Lot and a place where many of your favorite shows were filmed or taped. So the venue is a bonus part of the show. Emcee Patrick Bristow is very, very good and keeping the proceedings fun and funny and the puppet performers are all quite fast and hilarious.

There are two performances on Saturday evening, November 3 and one more late in the afternoon on Sunday, November 4. I already have tickets for something else Saturday night so I'm going on Sunday because this is the kind of thing you can see every time and it's always different. If you wanna see how different a puppet show can be, order tickets A.S.A.P. over on this page.

I saw something amazing on my TV this afternoon. I saw Bill Cosby being led off to prison in handcuffs. Amazing. Absolutely amazing.

My reaction was not joy or relief or sorrow or anger or any of those. It was pure, unfiltered amazement. We've all known for some time that it might happen. This morning when I awoke, it was a near certainty. But seeing it happen…I just stared at my TV and reran it a few times on my TiVo, reacting like I'd seen the Loch Ness Monster with Elvis riding on his back. I thought of the running gag in the Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons: "Now, there's something you don't see every day, Chauncey…"

Bill Cosby being led off to prison in handcuffs. He looked pretty amazed by it, too.

You have to wonder what was going through his mind…

• "But…but…I paid the best lawyers a fortune and they seemed so certain they would prevent this from ever happening…"
• "Don't these people know how much good I did, funding education and raising money for worthy causes?"
• "I'm Bill Cosby, damn it. They're not supposed to do this to Bill Cosby."
• "I got away with it for so long. Why did that one time lead to this?"
• "And I know so many people who did worse and nobody ever put them in handcuffs."
• "I had everything — money, fame, respect, power — but I threw it all away by being stupid and not controlling my worst impulses."

He could have been thinking anything, though I wouldn't bet money on that last one. There are a thousand other possibilities, too.  I'd lean towards the ones that are the least in touch with reality…but who knows?

Logic tells me I should be pleased that The System worked and all his money and celebrity couldn't stop that.  I should also be pleased that the women he violated received some justice.  It may be too little and/or too late but some now is better than none ever.  Other women may feel good that this may be indicative of a trend, reversing the shabby, insensitive way in which the victims of sexual abuse are ignored or treated like criminals.

I'm sure in a few days, I'll feel all that and more.  Right now, I just feel amazed.

3-10 years. I was thinking 2-4 but this feels right. Now, as I understand it, we're still waiting to see if he gets bail while his lawyers appeal or if he goes directly to jail without passing "Go," without collecting $200. If the former, the lawyers could probably keep the appeals process going until Cosby dies of natural causes. We should hear any moment.

I posted an awful lot of stuff yesterday so forgive me for not so much today. I might have something to say when the Cosby sentence is handed down. Then again, I might not. Hey, maybe someone can slip something in his drink that will put him to sleep while the sentence is being read.