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.

Electronic World: electrocutes instantly

The social network is lately full of scandal. Scandal production rises to meet the speed of communication. Is there more scandal-- or just more reporting? Trump's adultery, Michael Cohen's payoffs, Stormy Daniels making a media splash-- has been happening since Adam and Eve or, at least, since Luci and Dezi took over the television airwaves.

So, what has changed?

Transparency. The incredible transparency that allows us to get the dirty details on everybody. Think of the big names that disappeared from the scene almost instantly-- Charlie Rose, Louis CK, Russell Simmons, Matt Lauer, Harvey Weinstein, Al Franken, Elliot Spitzer, Bill O'Reilly.  Those bights ignited, burned quickly and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The speed of collapse has changed. Decades of stardom gone in a few days.

We learn too much sometimes--  the sexual behaviors of Dustin Hoffman, bothered me. I liked his movies... including Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate most of all. Now I have to push Dustin Hoffman's rumored sexual behaviors out of my mind when I watch those films.

Ronan Farrow turns out to be the Sherlock Holmes of our era. Ronan did what The New York Times, Washington Post, etc could not do without him-- got the #metoo movement going.

Ronan got published in The New Yorker to get those Harvey Weinstein stories out. Ronan entered the annals of American history with his reporting on Harvey Weinstein. Ronan began his public career on shaky ground He failed as a MSNBC TV personality starting at too young. But he came back as a muckraking journalist and has changed society. Maybe Ronan has a political future?

Woody Allen is Ronan Farrow's father. Ronan stuck tightly to his sister's accounts of Woody having abused her sexually as a child. We have no proof of what actually happened but does that matter? Once the rumor takes hold, publish the rumor. Suddenly Woody seems guilty in the court of public opinion. Nobody cares to hear Woody's side of the story.

Woody has a wonderful sense of humor. Now I gotta consider Ronan's sister when watching a Woody Allen film. This places Ronan's sister on equal footing with Woody Allen-- one of the great comic geniuses.

Donald Trump has eluded the rapid fire dangers of the social network. Trump has brilliantly exploited the technology to great advantage.

Interesting the Donald Trump figured out Twitter at 70 years of age. Donald showed a preternatural ability to recognize Twitter as such an effective tool. He revolutionized American politics with the Twitter method for communicating with the electorate, at least his portion of it. This has nothing to do with morality. Twitter is available to us all.

Just remember... the electronic world electrocutes instantly.

The Jester vs the King (Al Franken vs Donald Trump)

Al Franken is the Jester. He had a political career but it came to a crashing halt. “Off with his head,” says the angry King when the Jester’s jokes fall flat. Franken’s head came off due to a photo. A picture is worth 1,000 words, after all.

Leeann Tweeden held a photo of Franken making believe he was grabbing her breasts while she slept in a Kevlar vest and wearing a helmet. Not really a sexy photo. Franken looks directly at the camera lens, hamming it up like a true jester. The two participated together in a skit as part of a 2006 USO gig—a worthy effort for which Franken has paid dearly.

Tweeden held on to the photo for 11 years. It serves as supporting material for her claims against Franken. She maintains Al Franken attempted to kiss her in skit rehearsals and that she soundly rejected those advances. Franken remembers it a different way.

A few weeks elapsed, more Franken stories emerged revealing his penchant for grabbing women’s asses during photo shoots. What is it with Franken and photos? The camera seems to bring out the worst in the guy. This is truly nerdy behavior. And Franken himself provided a map to recognizing his nerdiness.

Remember Stuart Smalley, the fey character invented by Franken in 1991 for Saturday Night Live (SNL)? Smalley’s most famous affirmation… “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough and doggone it, people like me”… reveals deep feelings of inadequacy. Comedy is all about truth. Franken revealed his own deep personal insecurities.

Maybe Al Franken really is Stuart Smalley. Smalley… the name itself implies a lack of potency. Smallness is exactly the wrong personality to survive a tidal wave of criticism. His own Democratic party created a tipping point. Must have hurt Franken deeply when fellow Democratic senators—particularly Kirsten Gillibrand of New York—called for his resignation. Al Franken, the duly elected Senator from Minnesota, resigned soon after.

Meanwhile, King Donald Trump handled a Gillibrand attack a very different way. Gillibrand suggested Trump should resign the presidency for sexual harassment stories surrounding him for years. King Donald followed his ethos, when you get hit, hit back harder at your opponent and show no mercy.

Trump tweeted:

“Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Charles E. Schumer and someone who would come to my office 'begging' for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now in the ring fighting against Trump,” the president wrote. “Very disloyal to Bill & Crooked-USED!”

Trump’s tweet questions Gillibrand’s fitness for office-- calling her a lightweight. Trump depicts Gillibrand soliciting money from Trump for her political campaigns. He demeans her further suggesting she “would do anything” for the money.

Trump implies Gillibrand would have considered offering sexual favors in exchange for money. He goes right to sexuality but turns the tables with Gillibrand as a possible exploiter and trafficker in sexual favors. Ah, the genius of the Tweeter in Chief. His great skills are:

1)  branding the Trump name

2)   branding others with insulting nicknames

3)   seeking out conflict

Whereas most of us seek peace in our relationships, Trump relishes conflict. Trump, the contrarian and TV producer, knows that every story needs conflict. The classic Hollywood story pits two adversaries against each other. The arrow of rising conflict between adversaries always points upward.

Trump gets his enemies back on their heels. He keeps himself prominent in the story—never backs off and never acknowledges defeat.

Compare Trump’s aggression to Al Franken’s passivity in response to the accusations level against him. Franken seems guilty of being a nerd. Not just a nerd… but a nerd extraordinaire. He lacked game when it came to women. Franken’s victims did not offer horror stories about him. His sins seemed more like the antics of a middle schooler kid ill-equipped to handle a conversation with a girl or woman.

The Jester was just not suited to do battle. Jester’s prefer peace, striving to tell the truth about a situation as a way to defuse the discomfort.

As Marshall McLuhan said many times, humor is about societal grievance. The comedian finds the areas where society is most vulnerable, like race relations, and scratches that itch. Comedians are essentially peace-makers. Al Franken’s peaceful path, the Stuart Smalley jokes and ironic humor, did not work for keeping his job.

The Jester left with his head cut-off. The angry King still stands waving his sword at any rival. Kirsten Gillibrand had the temerity to challenge the king. He came back hard and viciously. Trump brings everything back to Trump—and keeps the cosmos in order with himself as the Sun, the center of gravitational force.

Distracted living: Breaking News always breaking….

In December 2017 we finally crossed the barrier, the barrier regarding how much stimulation the human brain can tolerate. Another word for over-stimulation is distracted living and I fear this is the life we are all leading.

The constant sexual harassment stories has brought the volume and intensity of news to the awareness of the American population. I cannot speak for the entire country but now I notice even the newscasters have been nudged beyond their comfort zone.

Breaking news… maybe this phrase was magnified by CNN and around the time of the first Gulf War in 1990? A grim, serious face newscaster like Bernard Shaw would intone news about the war in Kuwait and/or Iraq. A sudden audio cue would emanate from the screen and the phrase “Breaking News” would cross the screen in a large font. We were being cued like Pavlov’s dogs to respond to the aural cue and the catchy phrase that some event had just occurred and was even more noteworthy than whatever was being discussed previously. Switch to new topic. With bated breath we get the new, bigger story and we sponge it up like one of Sponge Bob’s underwater buddies.

So now we get the list of Sexual Harrassers and it grows rapidly, seemingly every day. As for the present count, I list a few—and not in any particular order:

Matt Lauer—host of the “Today” show for nearly 20 years, an icon of early morning TV when the stories are cheerful. The accusations of locking women into his office for sexual activity cost him his job—ending his career in the blink of an eye.

John Conyers—88 year olds, U.S. representative from Michigan since 1965, allegedly use public monies to buy the silence from his female victim/employee. If true, that’s a wicked case of political manipulation.

Louis CK—a brilliant comic performer who liked performing after the show, taking off his clothes in his hotel room to show female guests his latest schtick.

Charlie Rose—“Jurassic” -- a term which would seem to apply here and to several others. These patriarchs rise early for work but still have a fire-in-the-oven for hiring and pursuing interns in the after-hours. 

Glenn Thrush—NY Times reporter, apparently not always a mild-mannered reporter. Drinking helps with social inhibition but got Glenn is some trouble.

Al Franken—another U.S representative, this one from Minnesota. Another Midwestern reps from the north country, up where Bob Dylan and the Coen brothers, famed filmmakers known for their noir perspective--  people finding themselves in dark situations. That’s where Al Franken, allegedly a serial butt-grabber, finds himself now.

Roy Moore—candidate for U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, showed that Southern proclivity for finding the least appropriate sexual partner (often a cousin or other family member). Roy is accused of soliciting teenagers when he was a 32 year old man prowling the malls for high school girls. Alabama voters prefer an accused child molester to a Democrat, a sign of the times if there ever was one.

That’s enough on the Sexual Harrassment front… there are other names—Harvey Weinstein, Donald Trump, Kevin Spacey, and Jeffrey Tambor—but let’s quite while we’re ahead… or is it behind? Weak pun, I know. Oh, and Garrison Keeler, retired host from "Prairie Home Companion", 75 years old and the only man in the bunch to make an effort at self-defense. 

That’s enough distracted living for the moment. More “Breaking News” will happen before long. Stand ready with your phone, or by your television set. The host has changed—Stephanie Ruhle (she’s no Bernard Shaw)? But the news has only learned to break faster and faster. The pace has quickened in the 27 years since 1990.

We, the audience, demanded it, but now we may truly be sick of it. Distracted living takes a toll.