The Long Road Out

There are so many despicable companies and brands in the world.   So it's hard to chose the absolute numero uno  when this much-coveted prize is awarded annually.  But the judges (me) have decided.  My choice is Monsanto--protected by the government, actively poisoning the food chain, guilty of predatory customer behavior, and literally violent to non-customers. Monsanto is still first in the "Worst Corporation of the Decade" ranking, which, surely, this year's victory will help.   They're kind of like the Chicago Bulls in their heyday. It's nice to feel so certain that Monsanto is the absolutely worst company on the planet.   Knowing this makes the judges (me) feel clearheaded and thoughtful, since it would be easy to be confused by the many categories and brands in the runner-up spots: All the defense contractors--whether General Electric or General Dynamics, these guys make money exporting death to bad people, and go out of their way to make sure...

We happened to be eating on Rue Oberkampf, on the same block as the Bataclan in Paris, the night of  those events.   And we happen to live on the West Side in Manhattan where not a day goes by without at least one trip on the West Side Bike path.   My work is based in Portland, Oregon where it's been OK to walk in and assault dark-skinned individuals for quite some time, including yesterday. Does proximity make any difference? Lack of proximity clearly makes it harder to understand how other "tribes" feel.   Just look at Trump's response to the bike path murders in New York yesterday--60% of the victims came from Argentina and it never occurs to him to even mention the sadness in Rosario.   Of course, he's a moron, but the point here stands.   We mourn our own.   It's in our genetics, often disguised as biased "empathy" rather than the true standard of "compassion." But if this psychopathic guy had just stayed in Passaic where he wa...

I offer, with appreciation, these few paragraphs from an editorial in the NYTimes today by Jill Filipovic.   One more coherent effort to make sense of how we ended up with Trump in office...a man of such repulsive mediocrity that his one accomplishment is being the perfect icon for all that is truly awful about the United States.  In Filipovic's words, "The president is a perfect figurehead for this bizarre moment: a man who carries all of the negative characteristics of stereotypical masculinity while adopting almost none of the virtues, occupying the most powerful and exclusively male seat of power in the nation (and perhaps in the world), who ascended in large part because a yawning fear of female power kept one of the best-qualified candidates in history out of office. He is ego unchecked, narcissism in place of dignity. 152 COMMENTS In a 1961  essay for Vogue , Joan Didion wrote that people with “self-respect have the courage of their mistakes. They know the p...

When your business policies are unethical, there's normally an additional cost of business; public relations, false advertising (often with a green tint), and philanthropy in the sorts of activities that give the appearance that you care about humans. That's what happens with bad companies.   For instance, the major airlines.   I like picking on United because their employees seem the most miserable and the experience of dealing with them is the most institutionalized.   With the other airlines, every once in a while some rogue employee acts up and does the right thing. Today's wonderful policy:  trying to change the return flight on a ticket I paid for 45 days ago--for a flight in three weeks. The original ticket on business was $1103 and returned to Newark.   I needed to switch to Logan in Boston.   The new ticket, including the $200 change fee, was $2471.   Yup, that's right...the increase was more than the original ticket.   And they've ...

Most U.S. citizens don't know that France occupied Mexico in the 1860's.   In fact, they probably assumed that Spain was somehow in control, if they've thought about it at all.   True, Spain was the main colonial bully, from the 1500's until, a fter eleven years of war (1810–21), New Spain became the sovereign nation of Mexico, with the signing of the  Treaty of Córdoba . A brief period of monarchy (1821–23)  was followed by the founding of the Republic of Mexico, established under a federal constitution in 1824. That left free reign to the US to attack Mexico in 1846.   We didn't really want to occupy the country like the Spanish--we just wanted to take half of the land, which we did in 1848 via the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.  So much for the Mexican-American War, and the glory of San Antonio and Davey Crocker and Sam Houston.  Now we have Beverly Hills and Phoenix! So, 1848 passes.   A half-sized Mexico continues, initiating a series of li...

We always hear about Napoleon Bonaparte--otherwise know as Napoleon I or Napoleon the Great… And then, in the 1850's, Napoleon III appears as the last French monarch. It made me wonder, who on earth was Napoleon II?   Hardly any one talks about him! So, here is the timetable: Napoleon Bonaparte (“I”) declared himself emperor in 1804 and lasted until 1814 when the Bourbons reinstalled a King (Louis XVII). Louis didn’t last long—half a year, before Bonaparte reinstalled himself—for an even shorter period before he was exiled to Elba.   In an attempt to hang on before exile, he annointed his son—Napoleon II (!) Emperor.   Napoleon Junior was only 4 years old the day he became Emperor--but he only lasted about two weeks before the Bourbons managed to kick him out, putting Louis XVIII back as king.   This 100 day period of I and II in charge is known as “The First Empire.”   Ha…for a few months.  By the way, Napoleon II was also sent into exile...

So I read that Jennifer Lawrence believes that she's in a film, Mother !, about human destruction of the Earth.  She plays a young housewife with large breasts who needs to protect her home from the riff raft in a way that has not been equalled in cinema since Sam Peckinpaugh did Straw Dogs . And Javier Bardem thinks he's in a film about the rise of cults.   He plays a narcissistic poet with writers block who thinks reader adulation is heroin. OK for Jennifer and Javier--they've both done some fantastic films and some great acting. However, the film barely pays homage to climate change or cults. What it services is yet another artistic exploration of how cool it is that older men, particularly if they have artistic pretentious, can fuck younger women.   The guy in this movie, played by Bardem, is a prime example for the older guy who gets exactly what he wants, sulks when believes there's the slightest chance that he won't, lies at other times, and then just...