boycott

Winning Through Intimidation

Fandango18 Comments

Intimidation: the action of frightening or threatening someone, usually in order to persuade them to do something that you want them to do.

I have to give credit where credit is due. Somehow, Donald Trump has intimidated an entire political party — one of the two major American political parties — to stand by and support him, despite all of his unethical, illegal, misogynistic, racist, amoral, and criminal actions.

In the latest issue of The Week magazine, there is an excerpt from an article that Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times wrote. It’s just the latest example of Trump’s winning through intimidation.

Goldberg’s article is about a new movie titled The Apprentice. The movie covers Donald Trump’s rise to fame under the tutelage of his Machiavellian mentor, lawyer Roy Cohn. Cohn was the young lawyer and prosecutor who came to prominence for his role as the chief counsel to the now disgraced Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army–McCarthy hearings in 1954. Cohn assisted McCarthy’s investigations (witch hunts) of suspected communists that destroyed the careers and the lives of so many talented and creative people.

Back to the present time, American audiences may never see The Apprentice, an unflattering film that features “extraordinary” performances by Succession star Jeremy Strong as Cohn and Sebastian Stan as the young Trump.

Film distributors in many countries have bought rights to show it. But U.S. movie studios reportedly became afraid to touch The Apprentice after Trump’s lawyers attacked the film as “foreign interference in America’s elections” and have threatened to sue those who promote or distribute the film.

Corporations have seen the boycotts the MAGA right launched against Bud Light and Disney, and fear that if Trump is re-elected, he will actively use federal regulators to punish them. In his first term, Trump’s Department of Justice tried to block AT&T’s purchase of CNN’s parent company, Time Warner, to punish the news network for its coverage of him.

Trump ally Kash Patel has warned journalists and the media that if Trump gets a second term, “we’re going to come after you, whether it’s criminally or civilly.” The fear of releasing this movie in the U.S. is a “sign of democratic decay,” writes Goldberg, and it portends “greater self-censorship to come.”

The mantra of the man who might be the next President of the United States might very well be “Winning Through Intimidation.” It has served him well.

Who Won The Week? 08/30/2020

Fandango37 Comments

10CC3057-4EEA-4C80-B8C1-700C0FC6C906It’s time for another Who Won the Week prompt. The idea behind Who Won the Week is for you to select who (or what) you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.

I will be posting this prompt on Sunday mornings (my time). If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.

I was planning to designate the players of the Milwaukee Bucks and the National Basketball Association (NBA) for their actions this week when they essentially staged a boycott of their games on Wednesday night to support the protests in various American cities against racism and deadly racial injustice that is plaguing the United States. But Jen Goldie beat me to it in this post.

So I’ve been racking my brain to come up with a person, place, or thing worthy of being designated as my Who Won the Week winner. I’m sorry to say that, given the sad state of affairs in American cities like Kenosha, Wisconsin, Portland, Oregon, and others, I’ve come up empty. From my perspective, other than the aforementioned NBA players, no one and nothing won this past week.

Therefore, I’m leaving it up to you folks. Please, please lift my spirits by telling me who (or what) you think won the week?

FOWC with Fandango — Boycott

Fandango15 Comments

FOWCWelcome to April 13, 2020 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “boycott.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.

U is for Unbelievable

Fandango10 Comments

FC5E22B5-CDE1-48D8-BF05-36AA79011F28Donald Trump is once again not going to the White House Correspondents Association annual dinner this coming Saturday, calling it “too negative.” This will be the third year in a row that the President has refused to attend the dinner.

But this year he is expanding his boycott of the annual press gathering. White House aides told administration officials and staff, some of whom attended last year’s event, that Trump did not want them to attend this year’s.

“The President and members of his administration will not attend the White House Correspondents Dinner this year,” the White House said in a written statement. And it appears that officials will heed the president’s order.

Unbelievable. Trump is the first president ever to order administration officials to boycott the dinner. He is also the first president since Ronald Reagan to not to attend the dinner. Reagan missed the event in 1981, when he was recovering from an assassination attempt.

So why the boycott by Trump, members of his administration, and White House aides?

First, Trump hates the free press, calling reporters and journalists “the enemy of the American people” and purveyors of “fake news” (i.e., anything not flattering to Trump).

Second, Trump is extremely thin-skinned and hates it when anyone pokes fun at him or makes jokes about him.

I saw a quote the other day from Arthur Koestler, a Hungarian-British author and journalist. He wrote, “Dictators fear laughter more than bombs.”

There’s little more you need to know in order to understand why Donald Trump, as President, has never attended the White House Correspondents Association dinner. He fears being laughed at.

I’d say that this is unbelievable, but in the Trump era, it is all too believable.

Previous A to Z Challenge 2019 posts:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Fandango’s Provocative Question #18

Fandango26 Comments

FPQEach week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration. By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

This week’s provocative question was spurred by the recent headlines about R. Kelly and Michael Jackson. A Lifetime docuseries, “Surviving R. Kelly,” along with Kelly’s bizarre interview with Gayle King of CBS News, has sparked renewed interest in allegations of sexual abuse, manipulation, and inappropriate encounters with girls and young women. And HBO’s documentary about Michael Jackson, “Leaving Neverland,” which focuses on his alleged sexual abuses of young boys, has also put his inappropriate sexual proclivities under the spotlight.

As a result of the highly inappropriate behavior of these two artists, many radio stations have ceased playing their recordings and people are removing their songs from their personal playlists.

So, my question this week is about whether or not you think it’s possible to separate the art from the artist.

“When you learn about highly regarded artists being accused of inappropriate sexual behavior, especially with minors, can you separate the artists from their art, or would you refuse to listen to, watch, or read the artists’ works?”

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

And most important, have fun.