Spoilers

1) Two of the three little pigs remain homeless to this day.


2) Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy are the first two cons that prepare American children for a lifetime of being lied to.


3) Erudite though he may be, Hannibal Lecter remains a poor choice when selecting dining companions.


4) Jesus of Nazareth ends up on the cross.


5) Iraq did not have WMDs.


6) Barack Obama did not end the Iraq War.


7) A performance of OUR AMERICAN COUSIN did not end well for Abraham Lincoln.


8) The FBI killed Fred Hampton.


9) Tina Turner proves there is a life after being subjected to abuse and terrorism.


10) The Democratic and Republican Parties will take your money and still not listen to you.

Moonves needs to step down or take a forced vacation

Should someone keep a post while they are under investigation for assault and/or harassment? We don’t think so. Even if you don’t believe Leslie Moonves is guilty, the smartest thing would be for him to step down or take a forced vacation while the investigation is being conducted.


There are serious allegations against the chair and CEO of CBS.


Do we really take these allegations seriously in this day of #METOO?

If so, why is Moonves allowed to continue in his position?


By all means, do not fire someone on allegations. But if someone is in a position of power – and chair and CEO is pretty powerful – should they really retain that role during an ongoing investigation? 

That doesn’t seem fair or impartial. Nor does it seem to take the charge of assault seriously. If someone’s accused of assault and harassment and they remain in the position of power during the investigation, that really undermines the investigation, the faith in the process and any idea that CBS wants to protect potential victims from harm.


Leslie Moonves needs to either step down immediately or take a forced vacation. Allowing him to remain in his current position while the allegations are being investigated is harmful.

TV: The Chat and chews are high in fat and low in information

Donald Trump said this! Rudy G said that! And a thousand ‘reports’ and ‘analysis’ spring to . . . well, let’s call it life. You’ll see them chewing on this topic on WASHINGTON WEEK and all the chat & chew programs. Chewing it. Mouths open. Chewing and re-chewing. Crumbs around their mouths. Spittle dripping down their chin.

That’s all they’ll offer. Mainly because that’s all they know. All they know is what someone else wrote. They’re not breaking any stories. They’re just shooting the breeze.



But, you say, Ava and C.I., that's how it's always been.

First off, "how it's always been" is no excuse and no solution.  There's "always been" racism and that doesn't mean we accept it.  There's "always been" rape -- and not just at the CBS network -- but that doesn't mean we accept it.

Second, no that's not how it's always been.  The longest running chat & chew is MEET THE PRESS (radio 1945, television 1947) and it had no roundtable.  The press didn't consider itself personalities or celebrities.  The press appeared -- multiple panelists -- for the guest to "meet" -- hence the title.  Instead of a roundtable, the members of the press asked questions of the guest.

Multiple people asking questions can be a big improvement.

Currently, George, Margaret,Chuck, et al interview a guest and it's rarely hard hitting or newsworthy.  Just a basic question and a couple of softballs.  With a group of three or four journalists asking questions, there's a better chance of a Helen Thomas-esque question arising -- a common sense question that everyone avoids but one that obviously needs to be asked.

That was the format.

That format is gone because that's not what they want.  It's not just that they want a cheap (and tacky) product   It's also that they don't want to make waves or really deliver any news.  They want to be a closed playground and the "stay out" signs are all over the place.

For example, when WASHINGTON WEEK fired moderator Ken Bode, spokesperson Elise Adde declared it "a private personal matter" and would not discuss it.  Bode had no problem discussing it, to be clear.

Grasp that.  Public broadcasting fires an established host of their popular program and they will not defend the firing, they will not explain the firing, they just dub it "a private personal matter."

It's public broadcasting.  There is nothing private about it.

When you beg the public for money and when you take the people's money via Congress, you give up the idea that you are not answerable to the public.

More to the point, you are journalism and you're refusing to be open.

You would attack anyone else who pulled that but you carve out a special cone of silence for yourself.  Not unlike Leslie Moonves making CBS female employees sign non-disclosure statements.


The chat and chews have become private playgrounds where like-minded meet and offer nothing of importance or first-hand.  In other words, inviting your neighbors over for coffee will produce a higher level of conversation and interaction than you will find on your TV screen or whatever streaming device.

The chat and chews serve up gossip from people pretending they are informed but who, in fact, don't know anything you haven't already seen just from scanning the headlines.  Diane Rehm did chat and chews for two hours every Friday on her long running program (she now does a shorter program once a week, FYI).  The thing that saved her roundtables from being tired gossip was her listeners.  She took calls.  They pushed the journalists to think a different way, to examine some facet they'd overlooked, to bring up a topic that actually mattered.

Without that ingredient, the press is left to its own circle jerk.  Surely, everyone can find a better form of porn to pass the time with.

Read a book?

Readers have e-mailed us asking for more book coverage at community sites.  We've passed this request on.

So far, the book coverage includes:

"No one Peter Bogdanovich knows is ever gay" -- Marcia.

"Seymour Hersh meanders throughout REPORTER: A MEMOIR" -- C.I. 

"Dusty (by Karen Bartlett)" -- Marcia.

"Media critiques -- Nora Ephron's SCRIBBLE SCRABBLE" -- Mike.

"Judy Garland (the biographies)" -- Kat.

"JEAN HARLOW: TARNISHED ANGEL" -- Betty.  

"UNCOMMON TYPES: Let's kill whomever taught Tom Hanks to type" -- Elaine.

"THE YELLOW WALLPAPER" -- Marcia.

"Anne Sexton: THE COMPLETE POEMS" -- C.I.

"Charlotte Chandler's MARLENE" -- Elaine.

"A sexist woman writes She's a Rebel and distorts music history" -- Ann.

"barbara ehrenreich's 'natural causes'" -- Rebecca. 

"Weight Watchers New Complete Cookbook" -- Trina.

"IN SEARCH OF OUR MOTHERS' GARDENS" -- Elaine.

"Blackfish City" -- Marcia.

"THE CHICKEN CHRONICLES by Alice Walker" -- Ruth.

"Harry Belafonte" -- Mike.

"THE SAME RIVER TWICE (Alice Walker)" -- Isaiah.

"Elaine Weiss' THE WOMAN'S HOUR: THE GREATEST FIGHT TO WIN THE VOTE" -- Ruth.

"Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II" -- Ann.

"Dancing with Demons: The Authorized Biography of Dusty Springfield" -- Marcia.


"Good for Jimmy Stewart, bad for readers" -- Stan.

"Conversations with Toni Morrison" -- Marcia.

"Forced Into Glory: Abraham Lincoln's White Dream" -- Ann.

"He Ran All The Way" -- Trina.



And we'll also note Ann's "How a book store could stay alive in today's economy" about the book business.

10 Things You Should Have In Your Fridge (for non-vegens)

1)      At least a half gallon of milk

2)      A carton of eggs

3)      A container of water

4)      Some cheese

5)      Butter or butter substitute

6)      Some produce you love (spinach, tomatoes, something like that)

7)      Iced tea and/or soda

8)      Salsa

9)      Tortillas

10)   Bread

Water is the most important.  A lot of times we open that fridge thinking we’re hungry but if we get a glass of water we may find we weren’t hungry after all.

With the above, you can easily make a boiled egg.  You can easily make scrambled eggs.  You can easily make a fried egg.  You can make an omlette with the cheese alone or add the cheese and spinach or whatever vegetable together.  And you can dress any of the eggs up with salsa.  You can put the scrambled eggs in a tortilla. 

You don’t have to keep the bread in the fridge (or the tortillas – we’re split on that) but having some bread means you can make a fried egg sandwich or a scrambled egg sandwich.  Or you can put a hole in the middle of the toast and cook an egg in the middle.  Or you can have toast.

Trina and Ann brought this feature over because they both got e-mails in the last two weeks asking what their fridge staples were.

  

This edition's playlist

1) Alicia Keys' HERE.


2) Sting and Shaggy's 44/876.



3) Janet Jackson's UNBREAKABLE.


4) Tori Amos' UNREPENTANT GERALDINES.





5)  Sam Smith's IN THE LONELY HOUR DROWNING SHADOW EDITION.


6) Sam Smith's THE THRILL OF IT ALL.



7)  Aretha Franklin's ARETHA SINGS THE GREAT DIVA CLASSICS.


8) Aretha Franklin's SPARKLE.

9) Aretha Franklin's TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED AND BLACK.

10) Aretha Franklin's A ROSE IS STILL A ROSE.

 

 Senator Patty Murray's office issued the following:

Senator Murray and More Than 145 Members of the House and Senate Speak Out Against Charging Migrant Parents Up To $8/min. to Speak With Their Kids

Jul 23 2018

(Washington, D.C.) Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Luis Gutierrez, D-Ill., rallied 143 other members of Congress to demand immigration detention facilities immediately end their practice of charging migrant parents as much as $8 per minute to speak with their children by telephone. More than 2,400 migrant parents have been separated from their children under the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy.

In a letter to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE), the members wrote:
“We write to urge you to implement immediate, nationwide changes that will permit individuals who have been separated from their children to make phone calls regularly and at no expense to them. […] No one–not private detention facilities, nor the federal government–should be in any way enriched by detained parents trying to speak with their children.”

Read the entire letter here.

ICE detention standards state that immigration detention facilities shall permit detainees to make direct or free calls to “immediate family or others for detainees in personal or family emergencies [....]”

“Nobody should profit off of the suffering of separated migrant children and parents. The callousness of President Trump’s family separation policy knows no bounds. These mothers, fathers, babies, and young children came here with nothing to their names, seeking refugee. We shouldn’t allow them to be exploited by private corporations in order to simply locate and speak with their children by phone. ICE should follow its own stated policy, and allow migrant parents to call their children freely,” said Polis.

“As if the Trump administration’s decision to separate families wasn’t cruel enough, the idea there would be any barriers to basic communication is outrageous, and must be corrected immediately. And in the meantime, I am going to be doing everything in my power to hold President Trump’s feet to the fire until every family is back together and he drops this heartless effort to harm children and their parents,” said Sen. Murray.

“Parents fleeing violence to save their children’s lives should be treated like refugees and protected, but instead we treat them like profit centers to be nickled and dimed. As a country we can do better and we must,” said Rep. Gutierrez. 

The letter was backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, National Immigrant Justice Center, National Council of Jewish Women, Human Rights First, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Anti-Defamation League, Friends Committee on National Legislation, MomsRising, Franciscan Action Network, Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, and Center for Law and Social Policy.

Joining Rep. Polis, Sen. Murray, and Rep. Gutierrez were 35 Senators and 108 Representatives, including Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Michael F. Bennet (D-CO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory A. Booker (D-NJ), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Thomas R. Carper (D-DE), Robert P. Casey, Jr. (D-PA), Christopher A. Coons (D-DE), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Richard J. Durbin (D-IL), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Kamala D. Harris (D-CA), Margaret Wood Hassan (D-NH), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Edward J. Markey (D-MA), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Jeffrey A. Merkley (D-OR), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Gary C. Peters (D-MI), Jack Reed (D-RI), Bernard Sanders (D-VT), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Tina Smith (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Tom Udall (D-NM), Elizabeth Warren D-MA), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Reps. Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), John Yarmuth (D-KY), Donald M. Payne (D-NJ), Salud O. Carbajal (D-CA), Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-NM), Elizabeth H. Esty (D-CT), Dan Kildee (D-MI), Jimmy Panetta  (D-CA), Ted W. Lieu (D-CA), Mike Doyle (D-PA), Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA), A. Donald McEachin  (D-VA), Pramila Jayapal (D-TX), John Lewis (D-GA), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Colleen Hanabusa (D-HI), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), Joseph P. Kennedy, III (D-MA), James P. McGovern (D-MA), Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Ro Khanna (D-CA), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), J. Luis Correa (D-CA), Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Donald S. Beyer Jr. (D-VA), Scott Peters (D-CA), Pete Aguilar (D-CA), Tim Ryan (D-OH), Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-VA), Brenda Lawrence (D-MI), Ruben Gallego (D-AZ), Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Bill Foster (D-IL), Jimmy Gomez (D-CA), Sander Levin (D-MI), Grace Meng (D-NY), Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA), Beto O'Rourke (D-TX), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Michael E. Capuano (D-MA), Katherine Clark (D-NY), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Darren Soto (D-FL), Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Anthony G. Brown (D-MD), Kathleen M. Rice (D-NY), Tony Cárdenas (D-CA), Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ), Marc Veasey (D-TX), Derek Kilmer (D-WA), Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Juan Vargas (D-CA), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Grace F. Napolitano (D-CA), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), John Delaney (D-MD), Norma J. Torres (D-CA), Niki Tsongas (D-MA), Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY), James R. Langevin (D-RI), G. K. Butterfield (D-NC), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), Diana DeGette (D-CO), Rick Larsen (D-WA), Peter A. DeFazio (D-OR), André Carson (D-IN), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Danny K. Davis (D-IL), Elijah E. Cummings (D-MD), Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr. (D-GA), Karen Bass (D-CA), David N. Cicilline (D-RI), Gwen Moore (D-WI), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Adam Smith (D-WA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Nydia M. Velázquez (D-NY), Peter Welch (D-VT), Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY), Linda T. Sánchez (D-CA), Albio Sires (D-NJ), Alcee L. Hastings (D-FL), José E. Serrano (D-NY), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Adam B. Schiff (D-CA), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (D-GA), Rosa L. DeLauro (D-CT), Judy Chu (D-CA), William Lacy Clay (D-MO), Suzan K. DelBene (D-WA), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Mike Quigley (D-IL), Brian Higgins (D-NY), Dina Titus (D-NV), Jackie Speier (D-CA), Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Kurt Schrader (D-OR), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX).

Permalink: https://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2018/7/senator-murray-and-more-than-145-members-of-the-house-and-senate-speak-out-against-charging-migrant-parents-up-to-8-min-to-speak-with-their-kids

Isakson Welcomes American Heroes Home

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Contact: Amanda Maddox, 202-224-7777
Friday, July 27, 2018	Camlin Moore, 202-224-9126

Isakson Welcomes American Heroes Home

‘It is my hope that, after all these years, bringing the remains of our brave soldiers home will offer some solace and closure to their families’

ATLANTA – U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, today released the following statement regarding the return of the remains of 55 fallen American service members of the Korean War as part of the commitment made to President Trump during recent talks between the United States and North Korea:

“A promise is made when our service members raise their right hands and enter military service that no one will be left behind. It is our duty to honor their commitment and sacrifices by ensuring they are returned home. I am grateful to President Trump for his efforts to ensure the remains of our fallen Korean War service members are brought home in a dignified manner. It is my hope that, after all these years, bringing the remains of our brave soldiers home will offer some solace and closure to their families. Now, they can finally be laid to rest in peace.”

A U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft containing remains of fallen service members departed Wonsan, North Korea, on July 26. It was accompanied by service members from United Nations Command Korea and technical experts from the Defense Prisoner of War and Missing in Action (POW/MIA) Accounting Agency. The C-17 transferred the remains to Osan Air Base in South Korea, where a formal repatriation ceremony will be held on Aug. 1. Immediately following the ceremony, the remains will be flown to Hawaii for further forensic testing under the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. 

The remains of 7,700 service members who died in the Korean War are still unaccounted for, and of those, 5,300 service members are believed to have died in North Korea.

Today, July 27, is National Korean War Armistice Day, marking the 65th anniversary of the signing of the Korean War Armistice.

###

The Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is chaired by U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., in the 114th Congress.

Isakson is a veteran himself – having served in the Georgia Air National Guard from 1966-1972 – and has been a member of the Senate VA Committee since he joined the Senate in 2005. Isakson’s home state of Georgia is home to more than a dozen military installations representing each branch of the military as well as more than 750,000 veterans.

	AMANDA MADDOX
	Communications Director
	OFFICE OF UNITED STATES SENATOR JOHNNY ISAKSON
	131 Russell Senate Office Building | Washington, DC 20510
	phone: 202.224.3643 | fax: 202.228.0724
Visit Johnny’s website to learn more about his work in the Senate and to sign up for his newsletter.