The Comey Rule Review

Politics is a strange push pull of personal needs vs. the needs of those who voted for you. It would be easy to say that you became a politician to serve the nation and your constituents. The harder aspect of the job is ignoring your gut instincts for prestige and press.

The Comey Rule premiered last year. Based on former FBI Director James Comey‘s 2019 book, A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership, Jeff Daniels steps in the role of the man whose held the fate of the 2016 Presidential election in his hands. The 4 part miniseries follows two different and important narratives in recent political history: the Hillary Clinton email scandal and the four year tenure of you know who in the Oval Office.

The discovery that Clinton used personal servers for government business sends Comey and his staff on a year long search to discover if anything untoward was located within her emails. When they come to the conclusion that it was just a mistake by the former Senator/Secretary of State/First Lady and her staff, Comey is torn as to how to proceed. He could keep it within bureau, or make a public statement. His wife, Patrice (Jennifer Ehle) and those who work under him advise Comey to not say anything to the press or or public. But, as we all know, he chose to bring this information into the light.

When a certain reality show star and businessman is elected President (played by a fantastic Brendan Gleeson), Comey does his best to do his job. But when it becomes clear that the new leader of the free world is underqualified, he knows that this man is different than any other who has held the role.

I loved this series. Combining news clips with scenes based from the real James Comey’s book, it is tense, dramatic, and reveals an aspect of the 2016 election that only a few at the time were privy to. If nothing else, it is a reminder of how important the separation of powers is and how democracy if not tended to as it ought to, can quickly disintergrate.

Do I recommend it? Absolutely.

The Comey Rule is available for streaming on Netflix.

Putin Comes To America

No one goes through life without making at least one mistake. The hope is that most people learn from their mistake and try to prevent it from happening in the future.

But you know who is not most people. After the reaction of the American public to the speech in Helsinki earlier this week, a smart person would have thought twice about how to deal with Putin and the Russian government.

But you know who isn’t exactly the stable genius he publicly proclaims himself to be. After trying to save his skin by walking back on his speech, he decided that the smart thing would be to invite Putin to visit America in the fall.

If there was anyone else sitting in the Oval Office, this would be just another meeting between two world leaders.

But with you know who, this is not just a meeting between two world leaders.

Why don’t we just give Putin the American Presidency? Tear up the Bill Of Rights and throw the Constitution in a bonfire?

What Putin wants is to destroy the American democracy as we know it to be and you know who is stupidly playing into his hands.

Good job America, we really did vote for the best person for the job.

 

 

The Great Gasbag: An A-to-Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World Book Review

The View co-host and comedian Joy Behar is not known for being the quiet, retiring type.

Her new book, The Great Gasbag: An A-to-Z Study Guide to Surviving Trump World, lays out in very simple and direct terms why Donald Trump is ill-equipped and unfit to claim the title of President Of The United States.

This book is extremely funny and in no uncertain terms lays out that the fact that Americans have elected a man to the office of President Of The United States who is likely to destroy everything we have worked so hard over over the past 241 years. Using a voice that The View fans will immediately recognize, Behar speaks to all of us who feel disheartened, depressed and angry that a man of this nature is sitting in the Oval Office.

I absolutely recommend it.

Climate Change What?????

Climate change, whether we like it or not, is a reality. The ice caps are melting, the weather is becoming more extreme and in case anyone is living under a rock, Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas not even two weeks ago, Hurricane Irma has left a path of destruction through the Caribbean on her way to the American southeast and Hurricane Jose is on the tail of Hurricane Irma.

The man sitting in the Oval Office not only took the US out of the Paris Climate Accord earlier this year, but he also signed an executive order not too long ago (i.e. just before Harvey made landfall in Texas) that undid the Federal Flood Risk Management Standard signed into law by the Obama Administration.

Did anyone else see The Day After Tomorrow from 2004? While the film makers did not exactly adhere to the facts that scientists agree on regarding climate change, the message of the film is as real today as it was 13 years ago.

When we bite Mother Nature, she bites back, twice as hard.

The Military Transgender Ban-It’s So Beyond Wrong

In the nearly 8 months that Donald Trump has been President, his presidency has been one scandal after another.

The latest is the ban on transgender troops in the military.

I don’t know how low this man can sink (though turning on Jeff Sessions is pretty low), but he may be reaching the bottom.

The military is not for everyone. But those who choose to serve, regardless of whether they are gay, straight, sexually fluid, transgender, etc, we should be thanking them for their service, not banning them from serving. They are potentially giving up their lives to safeguard not only our country, but democracy.

President Trump has no respect for anyone or anything, unless they serve his needs. He flies off the handle, acts more like a ten-year old boy than a 70ish year old man who happens to the President and thinks that Congress will automatically do his bidding. That is not the way a democracy works.

It’s time to get this man out of the oval office before he runs this country, like many of his businesses into the ground.

Is Donald Trump This Generation’s Richard Nixon?

I was a few years away from entering the world when Richard Nixon was in the The White House.

My guess is that some those who watched as Watergate unfolded and Richard Nixon was booted from The Oval Office, did not think they would ever see honorable seat of the President Of The United States disgraced again.

Enter Donald Trump and Randy Rainbow’s latest video.

Thank you, Randy. You have made this man’s awful tenure in The White House just a little easier to deal with.