Mike O'Connell

A common theme used in the many precursors to this blog (Politics After Dark, Politics on the Air, The Binghamton Vanguard, etc.) was having a “Vanguard eye for the news.” This was the method by which one could find subtle commentary and opinion laced throughout supposedly-objective “news” stories on TV and in print.

Nowadays we find such journalists are hardly so subtle.

Take, for example, my local newspaper (that would be The Washington Post) last Sunday, under the banner “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” a supposed “news” story about “Ivanka Inc.,” clever code name for the Ivanka Trump line of fashion and accessories. The four-page story (yes, four giant newspaper-sized pages) details the Ivanka brand, mostly in terms of see how terrible this is? The clothes and other merch are made and/or assembled in foreign countries, where, yes, workers make less than they do here. Shocking news in 2017, I know. I think by now we’ve learned that most of our stuff is made abroad, by people whose only other unfortunate choice is to toil in the local fields for half what they make in American-owned factories. I digress, but once again… damn glad I live here. (Thanks, potato famine!)

I know very little about fashion, but do know a thing or two about money and prices. One thing that does jump out at me is the relative affordability of Ivanka-brand merch. Yes, her dad puts a lot of fake gold and glitz and bumps up prices on many of the things he sells, but Ivanka’s brands seem relatively affordable among “high-end” merch. Consider women’s dresses, highlighted in the “news” article. Say the world output of dresses falls into three categories” 1.) $12 Walmart “dresses”; 2.) $42 Ivanka pleasant-looking attire; and 3.) $500 and up ridiculousness. All three are made in so-called sweatshops. Which ones should we ridicule? Personally I like options.

As a final note I bring attention to the companion piece to the above “news” article, profiling women who dare to wear the Ivanka brand. According to the Post it’s semi-employed “assistants” of one kind or another who do horrendous things like go to church and probably home school their children. And in case you didn’t have time to actually read the article (or maybe you who are interested in this just can’t read), the four-column-wide picture features a (distant) woman modeling an Ivanka dress. Really the picture is of her pickup truck, mobile home, and giant American flag, the three yuckiest things your average Washington Post photographer could ever find.

Well, after Trump voters of course.

Allow me to take advantage of several things that rarely occur:

1.) Me sleeping in (to 7:15) and not being organized enough to get this post together in the morning.

2.) Me going to the doctor (regular checkup… nothing serious) instead of going to work.

3.) The Nationals playing a day game on a Monday.

4.) Me not being able to think of anything to write about.

5.) The Nationals score five runs in the first inning… blogpost idea fulfilled!

Good things come to those who procrastinate.

If there was any question that this is the era of the pitcher, last night’s MLB All-Star game gave us no fewer than 28 indications why. (That would be 14 strikeouts a piece among those hitting “stars.”) The smart guys tell us that a strikeout is just another out, and culturalists note that the K is no longer taboo. Well, it was in great display last night. It’s amusing to see titans go down, I suppose, especially after the offensive show put on the previous night by Judge, Sanchez, Stanton, and company in the Home Run Derby. Baseball really brought it these past two nights, as it often does every time it seems the NFL and NBA are about to put the thing to rest forever.

Baseball made only one mistake last night, the same one they made last year. Let me offer a solution right now:

For the love of hockey and bacon let me do the Canadian National Anthem next year.

If you’re looking for something good to watch on TV this weekend you have, I believe, two excellent choices. Unfortunately they are on at the same time, for the same amount of time, on the same night, with no guarantee they’ll be available on demand. Yeah, so much for living in the future. I do have high hopes, however, for CNN’s The Nineties, made by the same folks who brought you The Sixties, The Seventies, and… you guessed it… The Eighties. I did enjoy those previous three series and anxiously await this newest installment (the first I actually lived through in its entirety).

Then there is the History Channel’s Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence. I’ve heard it called everything from brilliant to bogus. Well, it’s going to get two hours of my time. Once I stop time and can watch both of these shows from 9-11 on Sunday evening. I have two days to figure out time travel. Hope I don’t have to concentrate too hard at work this weekend.

Super-secret formula to Nationals bullpen success: Begin game with arguably the greatest pitcher in baseball today, one Maxwell M. Scherzer, preferably on a night with his best stuff. Step two, have arguably the best hitter in the game today hit two home runs and lead the offense in scoring seven runs to establish 7-0 lead before surrendering to ‘pen.

Step three, hang on… tell Marlins Man to put down the cellphone and watch with us the curly W drawn up just as we planned it.

Nothin’ to it.