Donald Trump Town Hall

This event was a disaster for CNN and Donald Trump!

Trump’s defiance at the CNN town hall may scare off many voters — but not the GOP base. They love him!

Donald Trump agrees to a town hall meeting hosted by CNN. That is the network that Trump called the fake news channel. The switch to friendship between Trump and CNN shook many CNN viewers who have now say they won’t be watching any more. Initially I too said that I would not watch CNN as they have abandoned truth for viewership. I changed my mind before the town hall broadcast.

Before the town hall began, CNN faced heavy criticism for lending Trump its platform, with many critics suggesting that the network was prioritizing ratings above its commitment to the truth. The reason for viewing Trump was to learn if he had decided to start accepting reality. I was wrong. From the very beginning he repeated his claims that the 2020 election was rigged. Then went on to call the Carroll lawsuit a “witch hunt.”

While the audience at the town hall was all Trump fans the broadcast showed the world that Trump has not changed. His willingness to pardon and free those convicted of seditious conspiracy related to the January 6 attack on the Capitol tells all Americans what an elected Trump would be doing in a second term in office.

I’m glad I watched.

This report from POLITICO Playbook is worth the read.

CNN’s New Hampshire town hall with DONALD TRUMP last night may have done more to boost his chances of winning the GOP presidential nomination than anything that’s happened since the 2020 election.

Over and over again, a self-assured Trump lied and rewrote history. He claimed to have finished the border wall. (He didn’t.) He asserted that he’d been “exonerated” from accusations that he attempted to strong-arm Ukraine into digging up dirt on Biden. (He wasn’t.) He refused to apologize to MIKE PENCE for putting him in harm’s way on Jan. 6 and insisted that his ex-VP had the power to overturn the election. (He didn’t.) He called MICHAEL BYRD — the Black Capitol Police lieutenant who fatally shot ASHLI BABBITT while protecting lawmakers during the storming of the Capitol — a “thug.” (He isn’t.) He called Jan. 6 “a beautiful day.” (It wasn’t.) He defended his infamous “grab ’em by the pussy” comments. (Really?)

And the live studio audience — which seemed vocally pro-Trump, as if imported from Mar-a-Lago — ate it up. They cheered when he denied moderator KAITLAN COLLINS’ factual assertion that he took three hours to tell the Jan. 6 rioters to go home. They applauded when he called E. JEAN CARROLL — who one day earlier was awarded $5 million in damages from Trump for his sexual abuse and defamation of her — a “whack job.” They laughed when he called Collins “nasty” and questioned whether she understood what she was talking about.

To her credit, Collins tried to fact-check Trump in real time. She noted over and over again that the 2020 election was not “rigged,” and that judges — some of them appointed by Trump — had in fact tossed about 60 court cases alleging fraud. She balked when Trump claimed that under the Presidential Records Act, he had the right to take classified documents to his Florida resort. (He doesn’t.) She pushed back when he claimed that he never asked Georgia election officials to “find” him the exact number of votes needed to defeat Biden in Georgia. (He did, and it’s on tape.) She rejected his attempts to blame NANCY PELOSI for his supporters rioting at the U.S. Capitol. (She doesn’t control the National Guard.)

But the furious pace of his falsehoods made them impossible to counter in real time. Trump just filibustered. And many of Collins’ fans came away feeling like CNN had put her — a rising star and widely respected journalist — in a no-win situation.

The night underscored how CNN has changed under the management of CHRIS LICHT. Not that long ago, CNN star anchor JAKE TAPPER refused to have GOP lawmakers who declined to certify the 2020 election on his show. Now, the network appears to have done a 180.

INSTANT REGRETS: Before the town hall began, CNN faced heavy criticism for lending Trump its platform, with many critics suggesting that the network was prioritizing ratings above its commitment to the truth. Not everyone saw it that way, of course: JON RALSTON, the CEO of the Nevada Independent, posed a Twitter thread earlier in the day defending CNN’s decision, noting that Trump is the GOP frontrunner and needs to be questioned.

Minutes into the event, Ralston reversed course. “It’s a farce,” he wrote. “I am so sad.”

By the end of the night, the reviews were abysmal. The words “disaster” and “disgrace” were plastered all over Twitter. On MSNBC, host ALEX WAGNER called the spectacle an “hour of misinformation, lies and disinformation.” MATT FULLER, Washington bureau chief of the Daily Beast, railed against the forum as “journalism malpractice,” evidence that the media has “absolutely learned nothing.”

“Does CNN count that as an in-kind campaign donation?” asked DAN RATHER.

Even network talent and talking heads participating on CNN panels following the event seemed shell-shocked. And sources inside the network confided their deep regrets.

“It was a complete disaster,” one CNN employee told Playbook, arguing that the format — specifically, stacking the audience with Trump supporters who cheered his lies — was a “strategic error.”

“It made it seem like CNN was endorsing that behavior,” the employee said. “Incredibly disappointing.”

CNN did not respond to requests for comment about whether they regretted giving Trump a platform — nor did they answer questions about whether Trump or his team had a say in selecting audience participants.

In a statement, network spokesperson MATT DORNIC defended Collins as a “world-class journalist” who was able “to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican frontrunner. That is CNN’s role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account.”

Deadliest mass killings in the U.S. in 2023

When will we say “Enough is Enough?”

Police: “8 killed in Texas mall shooting, gunman also dead.” There will be the usual vigils and prayers. Everyone will say isn’t that sad. Then we will prepare for the next mass shooting. And the second amendment will be bowed down to as if it was handed down by God.

This is a truly sad country!

Debt Ceiling Shenanigans

This is called Playing Chicken with the debt ceiling. If the ceiling isn’t raised, according to Treasury Secretary and person-who-has-had-just-about-enough-of-these-stupid-shenanigans Janet Yellen, America will default on its debts somewhere around June 1. If that happens, all economic hell will break loose, likely plunging the United States into a recession and potentially bringing the global economy down with it.

Republicans in Congress raised the debt ceiling three times under President Donald Trump without issue, even as Trump was adding nearly $7.8 trillion to the national debt. The U.S. debt increased $9 trillion during the eight years Obama was in office.

The ceiling cap is all about trying to alert that the Congress has voted to spend money it does not have. The Committee on Ways and Means has the responsibility for raising the revenue required to finance the Federal Government. This includes individual and corporate income taxes, excise taxes, estate taxes, gift taxes, and other miscellaneous taxes. Clearly the Committee has not done its job.

Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is trying to win points with the extremists in the G.O.P. by threatening to not raise the limit. Everyone agrees the government should not spend money it does not have. The savings the G.O.P. want to make are all on the backs of the poorest Americans.

At the end of the day Biden and McCarthy will reach a compromise. The consequence of no compromise will be devastating for the United States and the rest of the world.

President Joe Biden and Ex-President Donald Trump are the likely candidates in the 2024 election

Trump and Biden participate in the final presidential debate at Belmont University, in Nashville, Tennessee, in October 2020. (Jim Bourg / Pool /AFP via Getty)

Polls for the past six months or so have consistently shown that a majority of Americans do not want to see a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. And yet, unless health issues sideline one or the other (or unless a newly unemployed Tucker Carlson decides to take his angry-racist-preppie shtick into politics), the Trump-Biden showdown feels inevitable.

Trump and Biden are likely to be renominated for very different reasons. Obviously, Biden is the incumbent—and has been a remarkably successful president under difficult circumstances. Whatever the grousing from Democratic faithful, parties do not torpedo their own president: The only sitting chief executive who was elected in his own right and then denied renomination for another term was Franklin Pierce, in 1856. (Four others were denied nomination after becoming president upon the death of the incumbent.).

Is this the best we can do?

Warner Bros. – Part I: The Beginning

The four Warner brothers, who created the studio celebrating its centennial this month. The Jazz Singer, the first popular talking film, single-handedly changed motion pictures forever. My Four Years in Germany was a post World War I film that foreshadowed World War II Germany.

This article was written by Martin Cooper, President of Cooper Communications, supervised public relations for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for 10 years. It was published in the Warner Center News in Woodland Hills, California.

It started like most fairy tales…

Once upon a time, there were four Wonsal brothers, Hirsz Mojżesz, Aron, Shmul and Izaak. The first three were born in Krasnosielc, a largely Jewish village north of Warsaw; the youngest was born in Canada.

Their father, Benjamin, fleeing anti-Semitism and economic privation, left Poland in 1888 for Baltimore, changing his name to Warner. The four brothers changed their first names to Harry, Albert, Sam and Jack.

That is just the beginning of the fairy tale of the four Warner Bros.

Sam found a job as a projection operator at an amusement park in Ohio; he soon saw the possibilities of motion pictures. Purchasing a projector and a portable screen, the brothers traveled around Ohio and Pennsylvania, presenting screenings of The Great Train Robbery and other films.

In 1903, they opened their own moving picture theatre, the Bijou (some histories said the theater name was the Cascade), in New Castle, Pennsylvania, and, a few years later, began producing their own films. Like so many others, the lure of Southern California’s weather and its distance from Thomas Edison’s license fee demands that his company be paid a royalty on every film screened, was irresistible.

In 1918, from their new Culver City production facility, they released their first full-length motion picture, My Four Years in Germany; it was the precursor to anti-German and socially conscious films for which Warner Bros. became known during World War II.

The semi-documentary is based on the experiences of the American a m b a s s a d o r to Germany from 1913 to 1917, James W. Gerard. The opening shot sets the tone: A Prussian officer in full regalia sits in his office and looks up at a framed slogan on his wall that reads “Nothing can confer honors and fame upon a Prince except the Sword.”

In a prescient c o m m e n t foretelling the Blitzkrieg of World War II, the German Foreign Minister explains why his country cannot negotiate: “We cannot surrender our greatest asset, sudden and overwhelming assault.”

While the nearly two[1]hour silent film is dated by today’s standards, the Los Angeles Daily Times review of May 21, 1918, included: “My Four Years in Germany is the motion picture of the hour, of the century. It is momentous history, with almost the power and grip of life itself. It will be treasured in our archives. It will mold millions of Americans into heroic stature…”

Made for $50,000, this film grossed a surprising $1.5 million; it was the first hit for the brothers Warner. Its success encouraged them to concentrate on film production rather than distribution and provided the funds for them to purchase a studio in Hollywood.

And so, on April 4, 1923, Warner Brothers Pictures, Inc., was formally established, 100 years ago this month. (Happy centennial birthday, Warner Bros.!)

In 1927, Warner Bros.’ enjoyed a financial windfall from the first talkies: The Jazz Singer, followed by The Singing Fool. If one film can be said to have changed motion pictures more than any other, it would be The Jazz Singer. It cost $422,000 to make and grossed $2.6 million… and put Warner Bros. on the map.

Both films starred Encino resident Al Jolson and provided the studio the funds to buy a majority of First National Pictures.

The year before The Jazz Singer premiered, in 1926, First National purchased 62 acres of farmland in Burbank and built its own studio. As part of its acquisition of First National, Warner Bros. decamped from Hollywood to the First National studio lot, and the San Fernando Valley has been its home ever since.

Under the agreement, Warner Bros. gained access to First National’s chain of affiliated theaters, while First National acquired the rights to use Warner Bros.’ Vitaphone sound system. A number of Warner Bros. films were branded First National Pictures until July 1936, when First National Pictures, Inc., was dissolved. In the decade 1930-1939, Warner Bros. produced more than 575 pictures…a staggering record: many classic hits, many so-so features, and more than a few duds. The studio didn’t shy away from near-salacious titles during this decade: Playing Around, Loose Ankles, She Couldn’t Say No, and The Flirting Widow (1930); The Naughty Flirt, Other Men’s Women, Misbehaving Ladies, The Hot Heiress, and Compromised, (1931); and, in 1932, Street of Women, Ladies They Talk About, and Beauty and the Boss, to name but a few.

Perhaps it’s better to focus on the truly wonderful cinematic offerings the Burbank studio brought forth during the decade, one film per year: The Dawn Patrol (1930); Little Caesar (1931); I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932); Lady Killer (1933); Here Comes the Navy (1934); Captain Blood (1935); The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936); The Life of Emile Zola (1937); Jezebel (1938); and Dark Victory (1939).

The fairy tale of the four Warner brothers continued into the following decade.

…And they lived happily ever after (except they didn’t, as we’ll see next month).

Abortions in Canada

Nationally, abortion is legal through all nine months (40 weeks) of pregnancy, nevertheless no providers in Canada offer care beyond 23 weeks and 6 days.

May 5, 2022 — — The Trudeau government wants it known that Canada is open to any Americans who may need to travel north to access an abortion.

Abortions are a common medical procedure in Canada, yet those living outside of large urban areas have trouble receiving the care they need.

Ontario has this posted on their immigration web site. “Abortion is legal throughout Canada and can be accessed by anyone over the age of 12. Abortion ends a pregnancy by taking medicine or having a surgical procedure. Abortions are available in every province and territory; however not every city has equal access.“

Accessibility by province and territory

Region	Gestational limits^[7]	# of providers^[7]	Notes
Alberta	20 weeks	5	The province has abortion services accessible in Edmonton and Calgary.^[75] All abortion services are offered.^[76]
British Columbia	23 weeks and 6 days	24	The province is governed by the Access to Abortion Services Act, which limits political demonstrations outside abortion-providing facilities, doctor’s offices, and doctor’s homes to set distances. BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre can provide late-term abortions in Vancouver up until the 25th week of pregnancy (its CARE Program).^[77] There are six abortion clinics throughout the province that can be accessed without a doctor referral and upwards of 30 hospitals that are required to perform abortions with a doctor’s referral.^[78]^[79]
Manitoba	19 weeks and 6 days	4	The province has limited access for the those in rural communities. Aspiration or surgical procedures are available up to 19 weeks, 6 days. Medical abortions up to 9 weeks.^[80]
New Brunswick	16 weeks	5	New Brunswick does not use public funding to pay for abortion services outside of hospital settings. This means that abortions provided in clinics are not funded by the government.^[81]
Newfoundland and Labrador	15 weeks	4	Planned Parenthood Newfoundland and Labrador is the only sexual health clinic in the province.^[82]^[69] Full spectrum doula services.^[68]
Northwest Territories	19 weeks and 6 days	1	Northern Options for Women (abbreviated as NOW) provides both medical and surgical abortion services in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut.^[83]
Nova Scotia	16 weeks	11	In Nova Scotia, there is an abortion clinic in Halifax or someone needing an abortion can call the abortion helpline for other options throughout the province that may be closer to them.^[84]
Nunavut	12 weeks	2	All abortions must be performed in a hospital.^[85]
Ontario	23 weeks and 6 days	38	Intimidation of and interference with patients or providers are illegal in “safe access zones” around abortion-providing clinics and other requesting health care facilities; the offices (on request) of providing doctors, nurses, pharmacists and some other providers; and providers’ homes under the Safe Access to Abortion Services Act, 2017.^[86] There are nine regions in Ontario where abortion is available with full spectrum doula services.^[68]^[69]
Prince Edward Island	12 weeks and 6 days	1	Prince Edward Island offers in province abortions up until 12 weeks and 6 days pregnant. After that limit, an out of province surgical abortion would have to be performed. A referral must be obtained through a PEI physician prior to any surgical procedure.^[87]
Quebec	23 weeks and 6 days	49	The province has a multitude of options for abortion access.^[88] Historically, late term abortions (beyond 30 weeks) had to be performed in the US with all expenses paid by the Quebec government. This changed in 2020 because of Covid travel restrictions.^[89]
Saskatchewan	18 weeks and 6 days	3	Few resources available to those in rural areas.^[90]
Yukon	12 weeks and 6 days	1	Whitehorse General Hospital is the only location in the Yukon available for both medical and early aspiration abortions.^[68]^[69]

The U.S. Constitution is Not the Bible

Jackie Calmes nailed it in the Los Angeles Times. The unwritten GOP planks of their campaign for the presidency and control of congress are:

Anti-abortion extremism
Pro-gun absolutism
Anti-LGBTQ activism
Book banning
Vote suppression
Election denialism

These are the issues that are dividing this country. There is apparently no compromise among the extreme loyalists. Perhaps Marjorie Taylor Greene’s suggestion that it’s time for a divorce should be seriously considered.

At the very least many of those people who register as an independent will be pushed into the Democratic Party.

Sadly many Americans treat the Constitution as if it is a bible. Their view is that whatever was written in 1787 and 1788 was a mandate that must be obeyed as if it was handed down by God. That is the reason the pro-gun groups treat their right to own guns as a right handed down by God. So even though there is Article V that defines the procedure those that believe they just cannot bring themselves to make changes. It has been amended 27 times.