The Writer's Life 7/6 - Fallout

The comments of FBI Director James Comey dominate today's news. Despite the fact that there will be no indictment, he seemed to suggest Hillary is guilty. Pundits and talk show hosts are using the term "Banana Republic" to describe the current state of the USA. One interesting side bar, noted in at least two articles in the NY Post, concerns a former CIA Director, John Deutch, who served '95-'96. He was accused of the same recklessness as Mrs. Clinton, pleaded to a misdemeanor -- and was given an eleventh hour pardon by Slick Willie just as his term was expiring. Many have noted that "the rule of law" does not apply to Billary. They have now besmirched the reputations of Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch. Who's next? Conservative pundit Jonathan Podhoretz quoted from F. Scott Fitzgerald's words on the Buchanans in The Great Gatsby to describe the Clintons: “They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.” I recall another columnist making the same allusion years ago. It may have been Podhoretz then too.

Here's more to make citizens cynical about politics. Governor Andrew Cuomo's Start-Up New York program has been in effect two years, burned through $53 million, and created 408 jobs, $130,000 per. The news was released at 4:30 PM Friday, just before the start of the Fourth of July weekend. Obviously, the powers that be were hoping it would go largely unnoticed. Government is much more efficient at job-killing than job-creation.

Fortunately, the news was not all negative. Actress Mila Kunis, 32, is featured in a spread in Glamour magazine's August edition. Her family emigrated from the Ukraine when she was seven. She is quoted as saying: "(My parents) came to America with suitcases and a family of seven and $250, and that's it. But growing up poor I never missed out on anything." Kudos, madam. Here's a pic of America's gain:

Boston cabbie "Buzzy" MacCausland showed the world there are still good people around -- outside of politics, of course. A fare left a bag behind. It contained $187,000. MacCausland turned it in to the police. The owner showed his appreciation by tipping the cabbie $100, which seems a tad low. Why the heck was the guy carrying so much cash?

It was the first hot day of the summer of 2016 in NYC. I shifted the floating book shop over about 20 feet so that it would be in the shade the entire session. A lot of people complained of the heat and were walking heavily, so it was no surprise business was slow. Fortunately, luck was again on my side. I was sure I'd already sold Janet a copy of Stephanie Meyer's Eclipse, the third of the four installments of the Twilight series. It turns out it was the one she was missing. And her fiance, Stu, called his mom on the cell phone and asked if she'd read The Wedding, Personal Gifts, and Blue, all by Danielle Steel. He bought her all three. My thanks, kids, and to Herbie, who donated a hardcover of Nicholas Sparks' See Me.

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