Classic Film and TV Cafe: Rick 29- 'Murder One: The Sensational First Season'

Source:Classic Film & TV Cafe- Actor Daniel Benzali: as attorney Ted Hoffman.

Source:The New Democrat

"When wealthy philanthropist Richard Cross is arrested for the murder of his mistress's 15-year-old sister, he secures the services of defense attorney Ted Hoffman. Within days, though, a mysterious woman comes forward to provide Cross (Stanley Tucci) with an alibi. He is released and the police quickly charge actor Neil Avedon with the homicide. When Cross pleads with Ted (Daniel Benzali) to defend Neil, the attorney accepts the case."

Read the rest of this piece at Classic Film & TV Cafe

Source:Apathy Monger- J.C. MacKenize: was part of the cast from season one of ABC's Murder One

"Murder One Season One Opening Credits"

Source:Classic Film & TV Cafe- Actor Stanley Tucci: as businessman Richard Cross 

Just to give you little background about Murder One and the genre in Hollywood that it represented: in the late 1970s with superstar shows like Dallas, soap operas went prime time. Dallas with CBS, that ABC got into the prime time soap opera game with Dynasty. CBS, launched another prime time soap with Falcon Crest. NBC, with St. Elsewhere. ABC, in the mid and late 1980s with Thirty Something. Because of Generation X, shows like Beverly Hills 90210 and Melrose Place in the early 90s. And then prime time soaps just even bigger in the mid 90s with shows like NYPD Blue ( from ABC ) and then ER. ( From NBC )

Murder One, ( from ABC ) was different at least in the sense that it was a prime time soap opera dealing with the criminal justice system and that the show was almost exclusively from the point of the view of the defense team. When you saw the prosecutors, they were either in court, giving a press conference, or in communication with the defense team. And the first season of Murder One did have several other legal and criminal cases that Hoffman & Associates dealt with, but their biggest cases was the Neal Avdeon who was a Hollywood actor who was accused of killing his girlfriend.

By the midpoint of season one, Murder One was practically all about the Avedon case where the general partner of Hoffman & Associates Ted Hoffman, is completely tied up and basically has his life taken over by this one murder case and getting his client acquitted of the murder charge.

There are shows and series that seem to go on forever that I wish I had never heard of, but because they're so popular, even though they're so stupid where the main characters on the show are really only famous for getting into tense, heated, public arguments and fights. Where these people are basically just losers who can't stay out of trouble. And of course I'm thinking of what's called reality TV.

And then there are what I at least call cookie-cutter sitcoms where it's hard to tell one of these shows from another, because they're all basically about the same things: young to early middle age people, who aren't married, no kids, live in lofts that are probably in New York and spend most of their time hanging out at coffee houses and places like that. And those shows go on forever, even though there's really not much if any difference from one cookie-cutter sitcom to another other than the cast members are different, because that's what young people are into.

Murder One, falls into a different category as a show that had a great cast, had great writers, that wasn't like the other shows that it was competing with, but instead almost completely different; maybe only LA Law could you compare with Murder One and yet Murder One despite everything that it had going for it with the great background and depth to that show, it doesn't make and is gone after season 2.

ABC and Steven Bochco made some fatal mistakes with Murder One: going up against ER on the same night and time slot during season one, which just killed the ratings of Murder One right off the bat. And then replacing Daniel Benzali who was perfect for the role of Ted Hoffman, with Anthony LaPaglia, who is a fine actor, but not someone you want as your lead actor in a big show like this. But Murder One, didn't fail because it had cheesy writing, or a weak cast, weak directing, or anything like that, but of how it was managed with the tools that they had. It should've had its own time slot from episode one and let the show ride on its own.

The Economist: 'What if Women Ruled The World?'

Source:The Economist- U.S. Representative Alexandria O. Cortez (Democratic Socialist, New York City)

Source:The New Democrat

"Only 6.3% of all international leaders are women. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, former Liberian president and Africa's first elected female head of state, suggests ways to redress the balance."

From The Economist

To sort of have fun with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf's comment about the world would be a better place if women ruled the world: if you're a regular of the so-called reality TV series Housewives, you might not think the world would be a safer place if women ruled the world. Most of the time they're either arguing, swearing at each other, even physically fighting and throwing things at each other. Which might be the only reason why those shows are so popular with all the catfighting. A good so-called reality TV show makes the WWE look like a golf match: way too quiet and peaceful.

As far as women ruling the world and to take a more serious look at this: ( for a change ) the only way to achieve power in America or anywhere else in the world, is to achieve power. Which I know sort of sounds like Captain Obvious on his best day, but anything that's worth doing is worth working for. You don't achieve power in America or anywhere else by sitting at home or at some coffee house staring at your phone and hoping someone else does it for you. But instead you have to enter the free market of ideas ( also known as liberal democracy ) and put yourself out there and make to case to anyone who will hear you why you're the most qualified candidate out there and should hold that office, instead of the man you are running against or perhaps another woman that you might be running against.

Some might argue ( like radical feminists ) that it's hard for women to run office because of sexism and all the negative stereotypes women especially female candidates get about being tough and not seeming feminine enough and all of that: try making that case to Dr. Martin L. King and his civil rights movement of the 1960s: what if Dr. King believed that his civil rights movement wasn't worth it because of all the violence and racism that he and his movement would face from those racist, Neo-Confederate state government's in the South and decided: "the hell with it, this is not worth it." You think America and the world would be different if women were in charge: imagine how different America would be if the African-American community was satisfied with living as second-class citizens and in some cases not even treated like citizens at all.

I realize the women's movement ( whatever that is supposed to be today ) is not an exact parallel to the civil rights movement of the 1960s, but there are similarities in as far as what both movements were up against from the outset. And in the civil rights case and to a large extent with a lot of female candidates and female politicians today, a lot of these people knew that from the outset as well and decided that it was worth it and that just because they're female that doesn't make them any less qualified to hold public office than their male counterparts. Which is how 70 or more women get elected to Congress last year with most of those women getting elected to the House. ( You want more female Senators, they have to run for office first )

And I just get back to my first serious point to close this: anything in life regardless of which country it is that's worth achieving in life is worth working for. Even if there are a lot of obstacles that are thrown at you and even unfair obstacles: like people being judged simply by their race, ethnicity, gender, etc. And a lot of times you need those thoroughbreds from the outset who don't completely throw caution to the wind, but knows exactly what's in front of them and takes it on anyway with a game plan to accomplish their goals. You don't win games by sitting on the sidelines. And you don't win elections and get elected by sitting at home.

The Thinking Atheist: Andrew Torrez- 'Donald Trump, The Courts, and The Evangelical Right'

Source:The Thinking Atheist- Andrew Torrez: on The Thinking Atheist.

Source:The New Democrat

"Andrew Torrez is an attorney and co-host of the Opening Arguments podcast. In this short profile, Andrew talks Trump, the law, impeachment(?), and the Supreme Court."

From The Thinking Atheist

Source:United Church of God- 

"Ten Commandments List: Where in the Bible does it talk about the Ten ..."

I guess that I have a different take from Andrew Torrez on this, even though I agree with most of what he's saying here. My point here is about Donald Trump and what's called the Christian-Right and when we talk about these two movements ( which is exactly what they are ) we need to be careful when doing this and not put every Christian-Conservative in the same camp or say that everyone on the Christian-Right is a Christian-Conservative. And instead separate the people who truly are Christian-Fundamentalists and live by those values and if anything think Donald Trump and a lot of what he stands for in many ways is anti-Christian and an insult to Christianity, separate those people from the Christian-Nationalists and the hyper-partisan people on the Christian-Right in America.

I think it's also dangerous to try to get into someone's mind and try to label say this is exactly what they think and believe in. We shouldn't do that when it comes to politics or religion, but what we can do is go by people's actions and talk about how they act and their politics and believes based on what they say and what they do. And then see if their actions match up with what they claim to believe in. So I'm not going to try to argue that Donald Trump is not a Christian. He might truly believe he is ( even if his personal lifestyle and character makes it clear that he isn't ) but what I am going to do is make the case that Trump doesn't act like a Christian and a lot of what he believes in and how he presents himself, his lack of morality and character is very anti-Christian and I'm going to use The Ten Commandments and his personal behavior as my reference for that.

Let's start with the third commandment thou shalt not take God's name in vain: do you know of another President or American politician at any level that swears more in public more than Donald Trump? Within his first days as President he gives a speech at a church in Washington and of course he was joking here, but he was talking about Senate Chaplin and he said that he knows he can't appoint the Chaplin for life and then he says: "the hell with it, I'm appointing the Chaplin for life." And it got a big laugh, but the President of the United States literally not just swearing in public, but doing it at a church. And I realize the hell with anything is very mild when it comes to swearing in America today, but we're talking about a President who can't even keep his dirty mouth shut at a church.

How about though shalt not speak ill of the dead: I realize this might not be an official member of The Ten Commandments, but what's Christian and moral about speaking ill of people who can't defend themself and in Senator John McCain's case who was a POW and war hero in Vietnam, because he wouldn't rat on his fellow Naval officers: where'e the morality and Christianity about speaking ill of man like Senator John McCain who is dead?

Though shalt not commit adultery: Donald Trump, has been married three times and is a three-time adulterer. His personal life is exactly that and I'm not ready to says he's a bad man because he's a three-time adulterer, ( God knows there's so much more and better evidence to lay out that he's bad man without his adultery ) but it's not just that he's a serial adulterer, but take up to the points where he's cheating on his wife while she's carrying his third son with two porn actresses. And then pays off both women so his family never knows about that and it doesn't hurt him during the 2016 presidential election.

Here's a good one: though shalt not bear false witness: again, do you know of an American politician at nay level that lies more than Donald Trump? I wrote a piece a few weeks ago talking about liars and bullshitters ( and no, I'm not Christian myself ) and differentiating between the two: Donald Trump, qualifies both as a liar and a bullshitter. Which is a remarkable accomplishment in itself and its not that he just lies or lies so much is really bad by itself, because you're talking about a President where maybe 3-5 Americans simply don't believe the man every time he speaks. Whoever said that credibility and character is everything, knows what they're talking about.

But it's not just the lying and bullshit that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth or that he's President when he does that. The real problem here is that he simply doesn't give a damn ( to put it mildly ) and doesn't seem to care if others knows when he's lying and bullshitting and does it anyway. And that he's so bad as a liar that a 10 year old kid could think to themself and say: "wait, that's not true and does he even believe what he's saying here." I mean the man even lies about his own height: his official New York drivers license has him at 6'2 while he tells everyone else that he's 6'3 and everyone already knows that he's a big tall man and yet he has to give himself and extra inch. He even lies about his own father and ancestry saying that his father Fred Trump was from Germany, when the fact was his father was born in America to German-American parents who were from Germany.

Why the so-called Christian-Right thinks it's Christian to loyally back a man who isn't even aware of The Ten Commandments, let alone follows them or believes in them you'll have to bring that up with them if you want to know the answer to that. And while you're at it you might want to ask them if it is worth sacrificing their own character, morality, and credibility to get fewer abortions performed in America. But again its important not to put every member of the Christian-Right in the same box and instead separate the political partisans from the true Christians who actually live up to the values that they say they believe in.