S3e13- Night Five ("Everything bothers me.")

Ah, those three words uttered by Toby- "Everything bothers me."  What a wonderful encapsulation of everything... Toby.   Toby, who can't help but pace when people read his writing, and who is bothered when people refer to his ex-wife as his wife.

Honestly, I'm a bit unsteady on this plotline- are we really led to believe by this point in this show that Toby would be advocating for this type of language and harsh tone when addressing the UN?  I'm not sure I buy it, but I was more willing to comment on the Middle East than I was any of the Sam/Ainsley/Celia plot.

Toby isn't the only one who's a bit all over the place in this episode.  Sam can't keep his attention on his work, Josh can't just be nice to Donna for like a minute, and the president can't sleep.  

All of this is happening while CJ tries to help locate a reporter who has been abducted while reporting in the Congo- a parallel plot line to that of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter who was kidnapped in Pakistan and ultimately executed.   I wrote and rewrote three different versions of sections about the importance of a free and safe press in a free society, until I realized that, as is often the case, other smart people had already done so.  If this issue interests you, I heartily encourage you to go look at the Committee to Protect Journalists, which offers some eye opening data about the amount of violence and intimidation perpetrated against journalists, often with little or no punitive response.  

So, the president can't sleep.  How do I know?  Aaron Sorkin told me.

           BARTLET- I can't sleep.

           STANLEY- What happens when you try to sleep?

           BARTLET- I stay awake.

Ah.  

So, aside from being the worlds WORST patient ever to enroll in the therapeutic process since Bill Murray...

There are some interesting lines of discussion that arise from this little meeting, and it's easy to see why the thought of the President seeking psychiatric help is appealing from a dramatic standpoint. 

Only one question:

Dr. Stanley, you're really going to leave at that point?  You don't want to give him some thoughts to consider, unpack a little bit of what he said about his dad?  In Nöel, Stanley knew that Josh had PTSD from the moment he walked in, and ended the session once Josh admitted how he had cut his hand when he punched his window.  Here, it seems clear that he recognizes that the President knows why he can't sleep, and goes along with the two hours of dancing around it.  Once the president admits what's going on, he brings up electoral votes in Michigan (ouch- it's definitely still too soon to be hearing those words again...), Stan's on his way out after establishing that he isn't going to treat him any differently than he would anyone else.  

There's no way Aaron Sorkin's therapist (presumably named Stanley) doesn't feel really self-conscious, seeing these episodes.  

Finally- Josh- say something nice to Donna soon.  The "will they or won't they" is quickly becoming a "why in the hell should she?"

What's Next?  S3e14-Hartsfield's Landing

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S3e12- The Two Bartlets ("This is like Dungeons and Dragons Camp all over again.")

In a very honest moment with all of you, dear readers- I have to say that I'm reticent to move into the topic of Affirmative Action, except to say that it was necessary, made an incredible and measurable impact for those who needed and deserved it, and at a certain point, I would hope it is no longer needed.  I'm not sure if that point has been reached yet, and I'd like to think we are closer than we were when JFK signed it into law- but it's safe to say that we've got a long way to go, and smarter people than me need to be sitting in a room somewhere continuing that conversation.

Instead, I'd like to focus on what really matters:

Are there really Dungeons and Dragons Camps?

Yes.  But be careful if you google them, because now my facebook feed is showing me some very interesting ads... I had no idea one could purchase mail-order chain-mail.  I would imagine their customer base is mainly male.  Sorry- I actually couldn't stop from typing that.

Seriously, though- for me, this episode is all about the last 5 minutes- Toby's confrontation with the President.  Not only because it's going to drive the next few episodes, but because it is an incredible confluence of events.  This has been brewing from the beginning- before "Let Bartlet be Bartlet," the President would have given this type of middle-of-the-road, don't-try-to-offend-anyone answer.  In "Two Cathedrals," we actually see young Jed Bartlet be hit by his father, a response to his clever turn of phrase regarding the Professor of Literature banning books from the library- "He banned Fahrenheit 451, which is about banning books."  In "In the Shadow of Two Gunmen, Part I," the story of how Toby is hired by the campaign centers around him encouraging Bartlet to give the unpopular answer about raising the price of dairy products to dairy farmers.

Needless to say, the President is not amused, and his lack of amusement is not diminished by taking a drink:

In truth, Toby has served as the embodiment of President Bartlet's conscience since the very beginning of the show, but in these final five minutes, he moves from being an antagonist in the service of Bartlet's better angels to analyzing and challenging the demons.

Yes, that's right, Aaron Sorkin planted the seed for this scene in "The Crackpots and These Women":

Two quick points to relate this to our world today:

1- I think it's safe to assume that every President should have someone who can keep them grounded and honest with themselves.  Have any of us been led to believe that Trump has a person like that?

2- CJ describing her father's condition struck a definite chord with me, and in these dire times, when many of us are rightfully sending our donations to some incredibly important organizations, it's important to remember that there are some departments that will have their funding cut, but do need strong support for their funding to increase.  Alzheimer's has a huge impact on the economy; it costs the country an estimated $630 billion (yes, billion) dollars in lost productivity for family caregivers, professional caregiver, Medicare, and Medicaid costs.  This number could triple in the next 30 years, and the current level of funding is only $950 million.  The Hill had an terrific article dealing with this issue.  And in case you were thinking that everything isn't as connected in the real world as it is in an Aaron Sorkin story arc spanning three seasons, here's an example of who the current Immigration Ban is really affecting.  So, as is said so often these days- contact your legislative representatives!

What's Next- S3e13- Night Five

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S3e11- 100,000 Airplanes ("We're nowhere.")

Oy.  I'm running short of hope and feeling doubtful that anything from the era of "Yes We Can" will survive even the first 3 months of this presidency, this cabinet, this press secretary, this special advisor.... oy.

I started this blog as a means of staying distracted during the 8-month-long Presidential election cycle.  I didn't want to watch the GOP debates, with all 20 of their candidates.  I wanted to watch Bernie v. Hillary, until it became clear that the Democratic party grew through progressiveness and shrunk into rancor after someone had to win.  I certainly didn't want to watch any debate between the eventual candidates.  I was nearly moved to return to blogging during the presidential debates, but all along, I harbored a terrible fear; that what seemed impossible could actually happen, so instead, I obsessively watched the percentages on Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight- until I could no longer handle the way the percentages were moving in favor of the eventual victor.  

I walked to my polling station with such hope in my heart- buoyed by resounding support of facebook friends and a news media that gave no impression that I should worry.   I wore my "I Voted" sticker with pride.   I got my son a "Future Voter" sticker and took a picture of us, because I wanted to let him know that I had taken him to vote for the first female President of the United States.

It's taken me until now to return to the West Wing.  At first, it hurt too much, and I didn't want to miss the last months of President Obama's second term; I wanted to savor every last moment, speech and appearance.

I remember needing the West Wing during the first Bush term, and even more in the second, but that's nothing compared to why and how much I need it in my life now.

Is it escapism now?
Yes.
Undoubtedly.

There is nothing like realizing that a decent portion of your fellow citizens think that this country isn't already great to make you hide under the covers and just allow the episodes to run.

But now, it's time to get back to blogging.  Life continues on, and I think we all probably need a little bit of the West Wing right now- a reminder that... well, I'll let Sam tell you:

"I think ambition is good. I think overreaching is good. I think giving people a vision of government that's more than Social Security checks and debt reduction is good. I think government should be optimistic."

So, just one quick note on this odd little episode, that follows Sam around as he works on the State of the Union, and waits for the polling results (what cute little computer screens you have there, Joey!).

"Mr. Rogers wants to write a memo, we'll read it."

Well, here you go; a memo from Mr. Rogers for all of us in these times... I suggest starting at 5:08.

Plans were released by the transition team after Inauguration, detailing the privatization of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and elimination of both the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.  Feel free to mention your support for these organizations when you're contacting elected officials about everything else you're calling them about.

To put it simply:

Come after Mr. Rogers' legacy, and we're coming after you.

Game On.


What's Next?  S3e12- The Two Bartlets

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S3e10- H.Con-172 ("Everyone's to blame so no one's guilty.")

"I was wrong. I was. I was just...I was wrong. Come on, you know that. Lots of times we don't know what right or wrong is but lots of times we do and come on, this is one.  I may not have had sinister intent at the outset but there were plenty of opportunities for me to make it right. No one in government takes responsibility for anything anymore. We foster, we obfuscate, we rationalize. "Everybody does it." That's what we say. So we come to occupy a moral safe house where everyone's to blame so no one's guilty. I'm to blame. I was wrong."

Fairly bold words to come from a President, even a fictitious one.  Few real apologies exist- David Frost almost got Nixon to apologize in his famous interviews-

Bill Clinton apologized at a breakfast with Christian leaders after his admission didn't seem contrite enough in his admission of an affair with Monica Lewinsky-

Reagan also admitted regret regarding his administration's involvement in the Iran-Contra Affair-

And while President Obama has been called on to apologize for nearly everything by someone at Fox News, he did have to apologize when it became clear that some Health Insurance plans would be cancelled, despite his promises surrounding "Obamacare" legislation.

Let's turn to today's political landscape, shall we?   John Oliver (as he often does) gave a fantastic summary about the more flexible relationship with the truth, or more importantly; the truth of their feelings.

As an educator, I took particular interest in accusations of plagiarism in Melania Trump's speech, and how the campaign handled itself in the aftermath.  Here is Mrs. Trump's speech next to the suspected source- Mrs. Obama's speech:

The next morning, Paul Manafort (chairman of the Trump campaign) said the following in an interview with CNNTrump campaign chairman Paul Manafort also addressed the controversy on CNN Tuesday morning:

"There's no cribbing of Michelle Obama's speech. These were common words and values. She cares about her family.  To think that she'd be cribbing Michelle Obama's words is crazy."

Paul Spicer then became my favorite person in the world, when he decided to share that these were common themes and words, to be found anywhere, so it couldn't be plagiarism:

"Melania Trump said, 'the strength of your dreams and willingness to work for them.' Twilight Sparkle from 'My Little Pony' said, 'This is your dream. Anything you can do in your dreams, you can do now.' "

That's right- My Little Pony was just invoked by the Director of Communications of the Republican National Convention.  Here's his face when he drops Twilight Sparkle:

When asked about the RNC Chair, Reince Priebus, stating that he would fire a speechwriter for plagiarizing portions of such a public address, Twilight Sparkle's the RNC's Director of Communications responded that it was a hypothetical, and, oh yeah- that it wasn't plagiarism.

Fast forward to two days later, and the speechwriter in question, Meredith McIver came forward and admitted that after Melania Trump had shared excerpts from some of Mrs. Obama's speeches over the phone, some phrases were written down and eventually became a part of the final draft.

Now, this entire Speech debacle is the definition of a process story, where the focus isn't on Melania Trump's speech-giving skills or the issues she was discussing, but rather the Trump campaign's inability to manage itself.

Consider this- either the RNC Director of Communications and the head of Trump's own campaign had no idea that it was plagiarism either from looking at the speeches side by side and are incompetent, or they knew the passages were plagiarized and they were sent out (along with lots of other Trump surrogates) to lie.   Along the way, of course, they also pointed out several democrats who had been caught plagiarizing (who all apologized for it, though that is clearly beside the point), and managed to find a way to accuse Hillary Clinton of manufacturing the entire thing.

The true problem?  There is no, and I mean NO accountability regarding these lies.   The public has already moved on to the DNC emails, or whatever else, and these two and countless others continue to be taken seriously by a news industry that can't accuse anyone of lying, because the truth their telling comes from their feelings and experiences.

"We foster, we obfuscate, we rationalize. "Everybody does it." That's what we say. So we come to occupy a moral safe house where everyone's to blame so no one's guilty."

What's Next?  S3e11-100,000 Airplanes

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S3e9- Bartlet for America ("This is why good people hate us")

My wife called me out last night- I was threatening to watch the Republican National Convention- in part because I have a wildly morbid curiosity about what the end of civilization might look like, and in part because I've always wanted to know how Trump agreed to let Scott Baio speak, since he has a history of being In Charge, and I know Trump doesn't like a lot of competition.

Her point was that I started this blog to avoid this ridiculous cluster of an election cycle.

She's correct, and I'm sorry- I didn't mean to get sucked in, but it's just getting terribly difficult to avoid everything that's been happening.  So, in this blog post, I'm going to go on a bit of a bender.

This episode is centered around Leo's testimony, how the campaign got started and a relapse that occurred during the Convention.  President Bartlet, surveying the hall, talks about how the number of people in the space will raise the temperature.  Not a problem for SenatorJoni Ernst (R-Iowa), whose convention speech was slightly underattended:

This was also not an issue at the Convention's "Women Vote Trump" event.

The story of Leo approaching Jed is charming, but as an unexpected surprise, this episode features the return of Dolores Landingham, who shows up working for the then-Governor.  She's on camera for 30 seconds and manages to deliver some wonderful zingers- and I miss her all over again.

Most importantly, John Spencer delivers an Emmy-winning performance in this episode.  As an actor who was himself a recovering alcoholic, Spencer brings a humanity and reality to Leo, and the portrayal is stunning.

Since the current news cycle is focused on the hilarious process story of Melania Trump's speech (co-authored by Michele Obama without credit) while Trump surrogates are trying to say that copying 7% of a speech isn't really plagerism if the content is common words like "the" and "is" (actually heard someone say that on CNN), I feel the need to join in on the theater of the absurd that is playing out in our political process.

So, in a special RNC blog edition, is my impression of Trump live-tweeting Season 3 Episode 9- Bartlet for America:

What's Next?  S3e10- H. Con-172

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S3e8- The Women of Qumar ("That's a permeating syllogism, to be sure.")

Warning: a largely qualitative and purely speculative examination, masquerading as hard analysis of the West Wing as of Season 3, Episode 8- "The Women of Qumar."

I love this episode, because to me, it represents a wonderful and welcome shift for a few characters in "The West Wing"- most especially, C.J..  She is admirable, strong, professional and unapologetically fierce- and I absolutely love it.  Watching C.J. in "The Women of Qumar," I feel just like Toby:

So, in the spirit of my recognition of C.J.'s ascension, here's my ranking of how each character's stocks are trending since S1e1 (Up, Down or Holding Steady):

C.J. Cregg- This episode, "The Women of Qumar," is a wonderful example of the extent to which C.J.'s stock has risen since the start of the show.  Consider her rage at the decision to sell arms to the fictitious country of Qumar behind the scenes- reminding everyone that this is business with a country guilty of mistreating (a kinder word than it deserves) women.  Still, she is able to persuade Toby, Leo and the President to alter their course on communicating the early information on potential Mad Cow disease, and maintains her professionalism in front of the Press Corps, touchingly and deservedly recognized by Toby at the end of the episode (see picture above).

Josh Lyman- Who will he date?  Mandy Hampton- Joey Lucas- Donna Moss- newcomer Amy Gardner?  Amazing that there are more romantic story lines for Bradley Whitford than there have been for Rob Lowe.  A triumph for receding hairlines everywhere, Josh has had his ups (victory was his, bring him the finest muffins and bagels in the lands) and downs (being shot comes to mind, as does the Tobacco lawsuit and breaking the window in his apartment), but manages to come through it a writer's and audience's favorite.

Toby Ziegler- Defender of idealism, the left wing champion of a left-leaning administration and show.  Bringing Yiddish back to the masses in the biggest way since "Fiddler on the Roof," and single-handedly responsible for increases in Pie sales around the country.  Minimal long-arc storylines, but maximum impact as Sorkin's go-to opponent for anyone thinking about cutting the NEA, taking Julia Child off the air or doing anything vaguely reminiscent of Joe McCarthy.

President Bartlet- Considering he was only supposed to show up once or twice a season, he's not doing to badly.  Now demonstrating disarming combo of Everyman (Butterball Hotline caller, willingness to speak poor french) and savant (economics, obscure latin phrases).  Seems to be emerging from M.S. revelation relatively unscathed.

Donna Moss- Moved from "also starring" status to main character, and engaged in a "will they or won't they" with Josh that seems all but inevitable; still, she seems to have stalled somewhat into a role more secretarial.  Dating Cliff Calley was a disaster from start to finish, but remained a sympathetic character.  Season 3 hasn't been terrifically kind to her so far, but hope springs eternal that there are better days ahead.

Leo McGary- Occasional moments of glory ("Let Bartlet be Bartlet" and treatment of any staffer who wants to date his daughter) that are tempered of idealism-squashing reality-delivering.  Master of one sentence witticisms with President Bartlet, but not occupying any major plotlines.

Charlie Young- As with Sam, enjoyed the sunshine in Season 1, but hasn't seen the light of day for quite some time.   Busy with his studies (Modern American History does suck), but little focus on life outside of the office; gone are the days of clubbing with Josh, and doesn't seem to be dating Zoey any more.

Abigail Bartlet- A disastrous combination of plot and prominence.  Perhaps hindered by the real-life broken leg, the First Lady has become more and more an opponent of series favorites, instead of her 1st Season role as ally.  Add to this her weak-link position in the M.S. scandal, and it's hard to argue that her stock hasn't fallen.

Sam Seaborn- Moved from main story-arc prominence in Season 1 to Toby's crime-fighting partner and occasional quaint story-line favorite (eliminate the penny, date the boss' daughter, make everyone wear seatbelts).  Needs more opportunities to say "Galileo" and rewrite speeches on the spot.

Gail the Fish- Is anyone feeding her?  Without Danny around to check in on her, I worry.

What's Next?  S3e9- Bartlet for America

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S3e7- The Indians in the Lobby (J'accuse, mon petite fromage!)

I say this to my wife as often as I can.  It's my favorite little scene in this whole episode, which has interesting tidbits about the calculation of the poverty line, international relations as it pertains to extradition and the death penalty, and the mistreatment of Native Americans.  But to be honest with you, I enjoy this episode for this moment and the entirety of the Butterball Hotline because sometimes you just need to laugh, and this week- I've just needed a laugh.  A break from the seriousness of the world and the problems we face.  My heart has been heavy with thought, despair and concern- and it was nice to have a bit of respite.

For some reason, Aaron Sorkin has very holiday-centric themes: Christmas is inspirational and family oriented, and Thanksgiving is funny.  Let's not forget this gem from "Shibboleth":

And then.... we have the Butterball Hotline.

Highlights?
- "I'm Joe Betherson...sen. That's one 't', and with an 'h' in there."
- "If I cook [the stuffing] inside the turkey, is there a chance I could kill my guests? I'm not saying
that's necessarily a deal-breaker."

And yes, he needs to get better at the names.

Now, on to the Stockbridge-Munsee Indians.  If only the treatment these two characters (both portrayed by fairly prominent members of the Canadian Native American film/television acting world) was fictional.   Even a cursory glance at the impact of the Dawes Act on Native American tribes is distressing.  However, in the midst of the darkness of this week's events, this episode ends with a very simple reminder of how we all should be thinking:

C.J.: How do you keep fighting these smaller injustices when they're all from the Mother of Injustices?

MAGGIE- What's the alternative?


Absolutely.


What's Next?  S3e8- The Women of Qumar

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