In the Diner
George: See this morning’s headlines in the New York Post?
Bob: June 10, is it? No, I like to have this coffee before I see the news, not as I see the news. Too much acidic content in the paper, more so than in this coffee. Okay, so let me have it. What’s got your attention?
George: Look at these headlines. Do you realize how different the world is from our childhood days?
Bob: George, the headlines. Read me the headlines. You’re off track.
George: Oh, yeah. Okay, here’s one: “The Trump Files.” So, the DOJ wants to put the guy in prison. From what I understand, it’s for carrying some papers from the White House to his residence.
Bob: Well, that could be serious. I mean, what if those papers had government secrets? What if Trump for no good reason took papers with top secrets about nuclear war or some plan of attack on an enemy? I can't see any reason that he might have to remove them from a government facility to a private residence. No, I don't care who the government official is if he or she jeopardizes national security.
George: Okay, I agree with you there. I don't know what motivated him to keep those papers in his house. It seems stupid to me when I think about it. But weren't they kept in a house that was guarded by not only security systems but also by Secret Service agents? Now, that would be an easy break in, wouldn’t it? I'm just frustrated by the headline because I think things have gotten out of hand with double standards and government agencies that appear—more than appear—to be party operatives, and the news reveals it. What if the DOJ like the IRS and DOJ under Obama is really corrupt and weaponized to an even greater extent than it has been, say, under Nixon’s administration. I think things are out of hand. I don’t know whom to trust. And it makes me angry. I will agree, however, that taking those papers to Florida was most likely unjustified, so when I say "out of hand," I guess I could include Trump, and Biden, and Clinton, and...
Bob: Well, it could be that things are out of hand as you say. But maybe corruption has always been the norm, and double standards we ascribed to Third World countries prior to this latest go-round now apply in our own country. It’s not as though the government papers Trump had in Florida were the first papers taken from the National Archives. Sandy Berger—remember him?—actually sneaked out archived documents in his pants, if you remember. He probably did that to protect Clinton. And what about the files lying around in Biden’s garage? Where’s the DOJ on that? In fact, where’s it on the Biden family’s many highly lucrative “windfalls”? And remember Hillary’s illegal server and the smashed Blackberries? The reality is that corruption seems to reign in every political reign. And coverups have been politicians’ salvation since the country’s founding, not just back to Nixon’s missing 18 and a half minutes of Oval Office recordings. Go back to Grover Cleveland in the nineteenth century and his sexual assault on Maria Halpin plus his subsequent getting her put in an asylum and the offspring of his rape put in an orphanage. He got government operatives and newspapers to paint her as a harlot or “white trash” à la Paula Jones and ruined her life. Think of those attorneys general like John Mitchell who went to prison over Watergate. What makes someone become corrupt in any country? Being in the government? Having access to taxpayer money and the adulation of the Press? Having the power to forward special agendas like proving American made guns were coming back into the country from Mexico? Really? Think of Operation Fast and Furious under AG Eric Holder who was eventually held in contempt of Congress and who was probably the one who oversaw that operation. Those guns were known to have been used in a massacre of teens gathered for a party in Mexico. Consequences? None. Well, maybe bad consequences, such as the death of border agent Brian Terry and those teens who were shot with those guns, but none really for Obama’s people. Or what about Loretta Lynch who suffered no consequences for not investigating Hillary Clinton or for meeting Bill on the airplane allegedly to “discuss children and grandchildren” during the time of the private server scandal. So, I guess I’m trying to say that things might seem to be out of hand right now with the Trump stuff, but that things have always gotten out of hand. Many administrations have been marred by corruption but protected by the Press and government lackeys to some extent. Maybe the difference now is that there are so many private and unaffiliated reporters with access to information and a mechanism to spread rumors, innuendos, and actual truths at the speed of electricity.
George: But I think that the so-called weaponization of the government is worse now, and it’s crept up on us since our youth, kind of like the way long skirts became mini skirts that became thongs on the beach.
Bob: Whaaaa? Your mind certainly wanders.
George: Remember back toward the end of elementary school and the beginning of junior high when we first recognized that girls were different from us? Really different?
Bob: So?
George: The girls back then wore skirts that covered all to the top of their bobby socks and black-and-white shoes. If as they sat at their desks, their skirts revealed a shin or calf, it was a big deal to us hormonal kids. And God forbid we saw a thigh! And then at the swimming pool each summer we saw girls in one-piece suits, then eventually in two piece suits, but always with their butts covered. Heck, have you been paying attention to swimsuits nowadays? There’s no more creeping change that can occur. The next phase is total nudity in public. Swimsuits of our youth have radically changed, and they have almost disappeared. They can be an analog of the evolution of scandals. Look here, farther down the New York Post page of headlines. Here’s a headline with photos: “Sea of love Doja Cat shows off hourglass figure in tiny bikini, packs on the PDA with comedian J. Cyrus.” What does that mean? What’s “PDA”?
Bob: I think it means “public display of affection.”
George: There, there you go. Just what I mean. Whoever Doja Cat is, just about all of her shows in the photos. When the editor wrote “tiny bikini,” he wasn’t exaggerating. Any smaller and it would be a bandaid on her bottom, the front side, I mean, because there’s nothing on her backside. *
Bob: Way of the world. Creeping acceptance fostered by paparazzi and a population of competing journalists that exceeds the population of many towns. I think the estimates I recently read count some 6,000 professional journalists all vying for attention in America. Add to that the private journalists and photojournalists and you probably double the number. They’re eager to capture our attention. Their only restriction seems to be to hide the corruption of whatever party they favor. But sometimes the corruption overflows the boundaries of protective party agents because there are so many others thirsting for the headlines that scandals produce.
George: So, back to the headlines. Just about every day I read or see something in the paper that I would never have been aware of in the 1950s, even if I had been older. We’re well beyond just seeing a shin or a calf on a girl; we’re well beyond seeing a president like Ike out on the fairway laughing with Bob Hope. And we’re well beyond seeing a Press that hides the affairs of Jack and Bobby Kennedy. We now have the contradictory reporting that is “in your face” when it comes to celebrities and politicians non grata and mute and withdrawn when it comes to members of the favored party. Behavior, unsavory behavior by the general populace, is more up front than it was when only strip clubs had tassle-covered dancers. Heck, now women wear them to galas. And we seem to be living in a time of targeted muck raking with the primary purposes of destroying the political opposition by showing us images that in the 1950s would have had the folks in Peoria running to the censor. Things just aren’t the same. And the irony is that we both want to know and don’t want to know. We don’t want to see what we don’t want to see, but we want to see what’s going on behind closed doors, especially government closed doors.
Bob: We just didn’t know much about the inner dealings of the government back then just as we didn’t know much about what those long skirts hid. What did what’s-his-name say, Rumsfeld? “We didn’t know what we didn’t know.” I do remember from college history class that there were scandals reported in past administrations. Didn’t the country find Jackson’s marriage a Press-worthy scandal?
George: I hadn’t thought about… But now we know too much about Doja Cat and too little about the DOJ, FBI, IRS, and just about every other agency. And we’re kept in the dark by whatever political party controls those agencies.
Bob: Let me see those headlines. Geez. Look at this. We know even more about Hunter Biden than we know about Doja Cat. Did you see this headline? “Hunter Biden surrounded by nude women, drugs—and family—in recently released trove of laptop photos.” Biden’s not even wearing a thong. The editors mercifully pixelated his privates.** The President’s son with pixelated privates in a photo spread on the page of an urban newspaper!
George: That’s what I mean. We were embarrassed or shocked easily back then. Who takes such photos of himself? Hunter couldn’t just look in the mirror after a shower to see if he had a growing spare tire before running to find a loose fitting shirt in his closet that would cover it in public? Gotta take a selfie and store it on a laptop? And that’s also another hint of how the Press hides the ugly truths of the party they favor. They wouldn’t even acknowledge that the laptop was his. Think CNN and MSNBC will see the pixelated stuff? Wonder what they think about these new photos. We don’t need to see Biden’s genitals or Cat’s butt crack. We do need to see whether or not there is truth to the accusations of corruption. The world has changed. It’s not what it was.
Bob: And yet, it’s the same.
George: I think you’re right about having coffee well before reading the acidic news. What’s alkaline on this diner’s menu?
*https://pagesix.com/2023/06/08/doja-cat-shows-off-hourglass-figure-in-tiny-bikini-packs-on-the-pda-with-j-cyrus/?_gl=1*1bfctfh*_ga*ODczMjMzMTQuMTY4NjMwNjM2Mw..*_ga_0DZ7LHF5PZ*MTY4NjMwNjM2My4xLjEuMTY4NjMwNjU4My4wLjAuMA..&_ga=2.66105390.1691638283.1686306364-87323314.1686306363
**https://nypost.com/2023/06/08/hunter-biden-surrounded-by-nude-women-drugs-and-family-new-laptop-photos/
George: See this morning’s headlines in the New York Post?
Bob: June 10, is it? No, I like to have this coffee before I see the news, not as I see the news. Too much acidic content in the paper, more so than in this coffee. Okay, so let me have it. What’s got your attention?
George: Look at these headlines. Do you realize how different the world is from our childhood days?
Bob: George, the headlines. Read me the headlines. You’re off track.
George: Oh, yeah. Okay, here’s one: “The Trump Files.” So, the DOJ wants to put the guy in prison. From what I understand, it’s for carrying some papers from the White House to his residence.
Bob: Well, that could be serious. I mean, what if those papers had government secrets? What if Trump for no good reason took papers with top secrets about nuclear war or some plan of attack on an enemy? I can't see any reason that he might have to remove them from a government facility to a private residence. No, I don't care who the government official is if he or she jeopardizes national security.
George: Okay, I agree with you there. I don't know what motivated him to keep those papers in his house. It seems stupid to me when I think about it. But weren't they kept in a house that was guarded by not only security systems but also by Secret Service agents? Now, that would be an easy break in, wouldn’t it? I'm just frustrated by the headline because I think things have gotten out of hand with double standards and government agencies that appear—more than appear—to be party operatives, and the news reveals it. What if the DOJ like the IRS and DOJ under Obama is really corrupt and weaponized to an even greater extent than it has been, say, under Nixon’s administration. I think things are out of hand. I don’t know whom to trust. And it makes me angry. I will agree, however, that taking those papers to Florida was most likely unjustified, so when I say "out of hand," I guess I could include Trump, and Biden, and Clinton, and...
Bob: Well, it could be that things are out of hand as you say. But maybe corruption has always been the norm, and double standards we ascribed to Third World countries prior to this latest go-round now apply in our own country. It’s not as though the government papers Trump had in Florida were the first papers taken from the National Archives. Sandy Berger—remember him?—actually sneaked out archived documents in his pants, if you remember. He probably did that to protect Clinton. And what about the files lying around in Biden’s garage? Where’s the DOJ on that? In fact, where’s it on the Biden family’s many highly lucrative “windfalls”? And remember Hillary’s illegal server and the smashed Blackberries? The reality is that corruption seems to reign in every political reign. And coverups have been politicians’ salvation since the country’s founding, not just back to Nixon’s missing 18 and a half minutes of Oval Office recordings. Go back to Grover Cleveland in the nineteenth century and his sexual assault on Maria Halpin plus his subsequent getting her put in an asylum and the offspring of his rape put in an orphanage. He got government operatives and newspapers to paint her as a harlot or “white trash” à la Paula Jones and ruined her life. Think of those attorneys general like John Mitchell who went to prison over Watergate. What makes someone become corrupt in any country? Being in the government? Having access to taxpayer money and the adulation of the Press? Having the power to forward special agendas like proving American made guns were coming back into the country from Mexico? Really? Think of Operation Fast and Furious under AG Eric Holder who was eventually held in contempt of Congress and who was probably the one who oversaw that operation. Those guns were known to have been used in a massacre of teens gathered for a party in Mexico. Consequences? None. Well, maybe bad consequences, such as the death of border agent Brian Terry and those teens who were shot with those guns, but none really for Obama’s people. Or what about Loretta Lynch who suffered no consequences for not investigating Hillary Clinton or for meeting Bill on the airplane allegedly to “discuss children and grandchildren” during the time of the private server scandal. So, I guess I’m trying to say that things might seem to be out of hand right now with the Trump stuff, but that things have always gotten out of hand. Many administrations have been marred by corruption but protected by the Press and government lackeys to some extent. Maybe the difference now is that there are so many private and unaffiliated reporters with access to information and a mechanism to spread rumors, innuendos, and actual truths at the speed of electricity.
George: But I think that the so-called weaponization of the government is worse now, and it’s crept up on us since our youth, kind of like the way long skirts became mini skirts that became thongs on the beach.
Bob: Whaaaa? Your mind certainly wanders.
George: Remember back toward the end of elementary school and the beginning of junior high when we first recognized that girls were different from us? Really different?
Bob: So?
George: The girls back then wore skirts that covered all to the top of their bobby socks and black-and-white shoes. If as they sat at their desks, their skirts revealed a shin or calf, it was a big deal to us hormonal kids. And God forbid we saw a thigh! And then at the swimming pool each summer we saw girls in one-piece suits, then eventually in two piece suits, but always with their butts covered. Heck, have you been paying attention to swimsuits nowadays? There’s no more creeping change that can occur. The next phase is total nudity in public. Swimsuits of our youth have radically changed, and they have almost disappeared. They can be an analog of the evolution of scandals. Look here, farther down the New York Post page of headlines. Here’s a headline with photos: “Sea of love Doja Cat shows off hourglass figure in tiny bikini, packs on the PDA with comedian J. Cyrus.” What does that mean? What’s “PDA”?
Bob: I think it means “public display of affection.”
George: There, there you go. Just what I mean. Whoever Doja Cat is, just about all of her shows in the photos. When the editor wrote “tiny bikini,” he wasn’t exaggerating. Any smaller and it would be a bandaid on her bottom, the front side, I mean, because there’s nothing on her backside. *
Bob: Way of the world. Creeping acceptance fostered by paparazzi and a population of competing journalists that exceeds the population of many towns. I think the estimates I recently read count some 6,000 professional journalists all vying for attention in America. Add to that the private journalists and photojournalists and you probably double the number. They’re eager to capture our attention. Their only restriction seems to be to hide the corruption of whatever party they favor. But sometimes the corruption overflows the boundaries of protective party agents because there are so many others thirsting for the headlines that scandals produce.
George: So, back to the headlines. Just about every day I read or see something in the paper that I would never have been aware of in the 1950s, even if I had been older. We’re well beyond just seeing a shin or a calf on a girl; we’re well beyond seeing a president like Ike out on the fairway laughing with Bob Hope. And we’re well beyond seeing a Press that hides the affairs of Jack and Bobby Kennedy. We now have the contradictory reporting that is “in your face” when it comes to celebrities and politicians non grata and mute and withdrawn when it comes to members of the favored party. Behavior, unsavory behavior by the general populace, is more up front than it was when only strip clubs had tassle-covered dancers. Heck, now women wear them to galas. And we seem to be living in a time of targeted muck raking with the primary purposes of destroying the political opposition by showing us images that in the 1950s would have had the folks in Peoria running to the censor. Things just aren’t the same. And the irony is that we both want to know and don’t want to know. We don’t want to see what we don’t want to see, but we want to see what’s going on behind closed doors, especially government closed doors.
Bob: We just didn’t know much about the inner dealings of the government back then just as we didn’t know much about what those long skirts hid. What did what’s-his-name say, Rumsfeld? “We didn’t know what we didn’t know.” I do remember from college history class that there were scandals reported in past administrations. Didn’t the country find Jackson’s marriage a Press-worthy scandal?
George: I hadn’t thought about… But now we know too much about Doja Cat and too little about the DOJ, FBI, IRS, and just about every other agency. And we’re kept in the dark by whatever political party controls those agencies.
Bob: Let me see those headlines. Geez. Look at this. We know even more about Hunter Biden than we know about Doja Cat. Did you see this headline? “Hunter Biden surrounded by nude women, drugs—and family—in recently released trove of laptop photos.” Biden’s not even wearing a thong. The editors mercifully pixelated his privates.** The President’s son with pixelated privates in a photo spread on the page of an urban newspaper!
George: That’s what I mean. We were embarrassed or shocked easily back then. Who takes such photos of himself? Hunter couldn’t just look in the mirror after a shower to see if he had a growing spare tire before running to find a loose fitting shirt in his closet that would cover it in public? Gotta take a selfie and store it on a laptop? And that’s also another hint of how the Press hides the ugly truths of the party they favor. They wouldn’t even acknowledge that the laptop was his. Think CNN and MSNBC will see the pixelated stuff? Wonder what they think about these new photos. We don’t need to see Biden’s genitals or Cat’s butt crack. We do need to see whether or not there is truth to the accusations of corruption. The world has changed. It’s not what it was.
Bob: And yet, it’s the same.
George: I think you’re right about having coffee well before reading the acidic news. What’s alkaline on this diner’s menu?
*https://pagesix.com/2023/06/08/doja-cat-shows-off-hourglass-figure-in-tiny-bikini-packs-on-the-pda-with-j-cyrus/?_gl=1*1bfctfh*_ga*ODczMjMzMTQuMTY4NjMwNjM2Mw..*_ga_0DZ7LHF5PZ*MTY4NjMwNjM2My4xLjEuMTY4NjMwNjU4My4wLjAuMA..&_ga=2.66105390.1691638283.1686306364-87323314.1686306363
**https://nypost.com/2023/06/08/hunter-biden-surrounded-by-nude-women-drugs-and-family-new-laptop-photos/
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