A Picture worth thousands of words... can end a career pronto

Ralph Northam, governor of Virginia, has insurmountable odds to overcome. An embarrassing photo can kill a career, electrocute the victim in a matter of hours. Just ask Al Franken.

Franken's career ending on a silly photo seems extreme-- and may be a case of new Puritanism causing harm unnecessarily. He acted like he was going to grasp the breasts of a sleeping colleague, a fellow performer, on a USO tour flight.

Northam has a weaker case. He complains that the photos of medical students in black face and Ku Klux Klan outfit is not him. Funny how he didn't think that when first accused. You cannot undo a picture once it has entered the psyche of the citizens. Voters rise from their couches when encountering a horrible visual image.

Somehow Donald Trump has escaped the impact of the new awareness. Call him Teflon Don just like we called John Gotti, the Mafia Don. John Gotti escaped the courtroom conviction every time until he didn't. Sammy the Bull's testimony proved too much. Hard to say if Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen of Roger Stone will ever bring such a result to the President....?

3 Photos That Changed the World

Three other photos since the late Sixties jump to mind. These consciousness-altering photos, non-sexual in nature, have influenced human awareness and political developments and hopefully do so.
Two are from the Vietnam War era and may have influenced our withdrawal from the war. The third is an image none of us can escape...;

1)The photo of a crying Vietnamese child,  Phan Thị Kim Phúc, now called the Napalm girl, as she runs stripped of clothes amid other fleeing villagers, to escape from an air attack. This is one of the most haunting images of the Vietnam War. 

2) The summary execution of a handcuffed Vietnamese prisoner by General Ngoc Loan during Tet Offensive in 1968. Another frightening photo

3) The Blue Marble, the first photo of earth taken from space. The photo has changed consciousness, made us aware that national boundaries are of miniscule importance compared to our mutual dependence.

If the earth is to survive we must go back to this third photo--- as our point of reference. We only survive if we share. Share with other people, share with polar bears, share with trees, birds, bees and flowers.

Pollution may happen over here goes over there. Global climate change is exactly that-- global!

A picture of photograph-- may be worth a thousand word, or multi-thousands-- and these words change the world.

Trump meets a Two Headed Monster (Mueller and Avenatti)

Donald Trump, the ultimate shape shifter and media maestro, may have met his match in the form of a two-headed monster-- Robert Mueller, the last Boy Scout, and Michael Avenatti, the steely-eyed junkyard dog litigator.

Mueller must be the exact opposite of Donald Trump. Mueller seems squeaky clean and entirely scrupulous. In an era of leakage, no secrets escape from the Mueller camp and he methodically probes the last presidential election. Mueller is organized. Trump likes chaos. Mueller walks past the TV cameras with a sense of purpose. He's intent on protecting us.

Trump is a different story. He may be the first president to not age in the job. Trump love himself so much he worries less for the nation. He didn't divest from his business interests. He cares more about the Trump brand than being leader of the free world.

Michael Avenatti, the attorney for porn star Stormy Daniels, has a Mueller-like focus but with a different agenda. Avenatti has Trump-like instincts for finding the weakness in an opponent and staying on message. Avenatti has the unflinching gaze of a race car driver. That's because he is one.

Steve Bannon reportedly said the #metoo movement posed a major threat to Trump presidency. Stormy Daniels does not spring to mind as the poster child for the #metoo movement. But Stormy and lawyer Avenatti have the personality requirements for facing Trump down-- in the courtroom and/or in the court of the media circus. Avenatti has an impressive resume-- an all-star student at George Washington University Law School, in Hollywood, including the O.J. Simpson civil case, and behind the wheel of a race car. And Stormy's resume speaks for itself.

Avenatti told us to "buckle up" for the 60 Minutes interview of Stormy Daniels next Sunday. I can think of at least one person who will be watching...