The Media Hates Hillary

The media's hate boner for Hillary Clinton has reached call-your-doctor-if-your-erection-lasts-longer-than-four-hours levels in the wake of an otherwise innocuous comment Mrs. Clinton made with regard to her family's finances when her husband's second term as President ended in January 2001. Somehow, mentioning that the family was millions of dollars in debt because of legal costs associated with defending President Clinton has morphed into a sleazy hit and run job by the Beltway media that thinks it has split the atom by discovering the Clintons are now very wealthy.

The headlines scream about the $100 million Bill Clinton has earned in speeches, the hundreds of thousands Hillary is paid to speak to evil corporate elites and the sweetheart deal young Chelsea was given by NBC for a very modest amount of work. Wrap it all up in the Brazilian rain forest number of trees that have been felled since 1991 sliming the Clintons as first, Arkansas rubes who would turn the White House into a Waffle House, then into striving Gatsbys who summered on Martha's Vineyard to hobnob with the rich and famous, then as shameless carpetbaggers relocated to the tony New York countryside to launch Hillary's Senate career while shaming Bill into locating his post-Presidential headquarters in Harlem, and then, in 2008, as race baiters who were trying to kneecap Barack Obama, and you begin to understand that no amount of good either Clinton has done in their 40 years in public service will ever satisfy reporters, many of whom could only wish to make a scintilla of positive change in the world the Clintons have. 

Even more galling (and laughable) is the venom directed by cub reporters who were likely still in elementary school when Hillary was giving a groundbreaking speech about women's rights in Beijing in 1995 or declaring her support for "Palestine" (something for which she was ripped mercilessly) in 2000, not to mention all the work she did to improve access to health care as first lady of Arkansas when some of those now mocking her as a Wall Street sell-out were not even born. To pretend that the Clintons are the first two politicians to take money for speeches is also a joke, the irony being the person who made that action famous was none other than Ronald Reagan, who accepted millions in the months after his Presidency ended to speak to people overseas. George W. Bush made an offhand comment about the need to "refill the coffers" toward the end of his Presidency and no one batted an eyelash. Of course, unlike those Presidents, Bill Clinton formed the Clinton Global Initiative and has, over the last decade, funneled tens of millions of dollars, primarily into third world countries, to help eradicate diseases like AIDS, provide access to education, and support disaster relief, but that's of no matter, because he's rich. Seriously?

That Bill and Hillary Clinton, whose romance blossomed while they trekked around the country as staffers for George McGovern, are now being portrayed as insufficiently liberal would be idiotic on its face, but then I remember these same media types are putting every architect of the Iraq War on TV and, with a straight face, allowing them to rip Obama as having "lost" that war. In the end, Hillary only had it half-right. The "vast right wing conspiracy" was (and is) actively seeking to destroy her and her husband, but in some ways the more nefarious cabal is made up of so-called "mainstream" media types like Maureen Dowd whose nearly 200 columns about Hillary have been almost universally negative. Of course, this is all pseudo-intellectual masturbation for the Inside the Beltway crowd. Like so much of what they "report" on these days, the conversation is staged and directed at a fractional audience totally disconnected from the rest of the country. The opinion of ordinary Americans about the Clintons is much more positive. The President's approval hovers 70% as people appreciate more and more the litany of success that attended his years in the White House and Mrs. Clinton has been on the "most admired" list of women for the better part of 20 years. But then again, when have facts gotten in the way of a good media food fight? 

Follow me on Twitter - @scarylawyerguy 

Princeton - June 22

Now that classes have let out for the summer, Princeton University is a great place to spend a Sunday morning taking in the beautiful campus. 

You can start along Nassau Street. This first photo was taken at the corner of Nassau and Witherspoon using the "miniature" effect:

As I headed toward the University Chapel, I stopped at the Rothschild Arch and snapped this photo. The Latin phrase means: "Dedicated in love to mother and son." 

The University Chapel was open and an organist was practicing while I snapped away. The Chapel has many beautiful stained glass windows and its architectural design is quite impressive. The first photo is of the window above the altar, while the second is a close-up of the uppermost part, showing Jesus's crucifixion. 

After I left the Chapel, I headed for Prospect Garden. This botanical joy had many flowers and plants around a sculpture and fountain. I was able to take some great photos of roses, lavender, amaryllis, and a purple coneflower (thank you, Twitter!)

All in all, a great day to be out and about in Princeton. I hope to visit again soon!

The War Over Iraq

With some combination of "militants" and "terrorists" storming through parts of Iraq and American-trained Iraqi soldiers caving faster than you can say "Maginot Line," naturally, talk in Washington has turned to who "lost" Iraq. Republicans, never slow to pin everything from a rainy day to the impending socialist takeover on President Obama, have been shrill in their criticism. The President has been "taking a nap" according to John Boehner and was, according to John McCain, in such a hurry to leave Iraq that he forfeited the victory "won" by George W. Bush and the vaunted "surge." 

The DC media, who have not met a war it did not like since Vietnam, an inchoate threat it would not mindlessly regurgitate directly from GOP talking points, or an opportunity to second-guess Barack Obama, has joined the pile on, echoing Republican assertions that something, anything, needs to be done, and please, do it fast, and make sure you do not think through the repercussions because every complicated policy decision has to be hashed out in the span of a news cycle.

While others can better rehash the litany of fuck ups, erroneous predictions and straight up lies that were told in selling the Iraq War, the fact of the matter is that the things that are roiling that country now have been known for some time - sectarian differences between Sunni, Shiite, and Kurd, endless struggles among those groups for the valuable oil reserves in various parts of the country, an authoritarian "leader" whose reflexive unwillingness to mend religious rifts that have built up literally over centuries suggested that all we had accomplished in toppling Saddam Hussein was installing a new strongman, just one who was sympathetic, not antagonistic, toward Iran. Not a small thing, by the way.

There is nothing wrong with Monday morning quarterbacking decisions that have been made, but if you are going to do that, a little honesty is probably in order. For example, the "surge" that Senator McCain is so fond of trumpeting was a lot more nuanced than simply sending more troops into harm's way. We also bribed, sorry, paid, the very Sunni militants we had been fighting to turn their guns against "terrorists" instead of us, tacitly wrote off the southern part of the country to the acolytes of Muqtada Al-Sadr (remember him?), gave a wink and a nod to nominal Kurdish independence in the north, and had little to do in Baghdad other than cement (literally, with walls) the ethnic cleansing that had largely separated Sunni from Shia. Of course, those facts don't fit comfortably on a bumper sticker or in a narrative that demands that we believe some go for broke strategy magically worked. [1]

As for the idea that some legacy force should have been maintained and that such a force would have made a difference when the people wearing the uniform of the home country refused to fight is laughable. The last status of forces agreement (SOFA) we signed had the name "George W. Bush" on the dotted line, not Barack Obama. When the current President sought to extend the SOFA, Iraqis refused to grant American soldiers immunity from prosecution in its courts, a non-starter that helped ensure our departure. [2] That fact notwithstanding, American troops left more than two years ago, at which point the "standing up" (as Shrub put it) of Iraqi forces was long past its due date. If the leaders in Iraq have done so little to engender the support, trust and loyalty of its own army, one, I might add, we spent north of $25 billion (not a typo) training, why is it our responsibility to now pull their chestnuts out of the fire? 

The fact is, our record of nation building in the Middle East is woeful and the mission creep now being advanced by people like McCain and his running buddy Lindsey Graham will do little but require that we take ownership of a problem for which we will not be able to impose a solution. The sectarian battles that are playing out in places like Iraq and Syria do not end in some Middle Eastern George Washington riding in on a white horse and creating what we think of as "democracy." In Egypt, a massive uprising of students who DID want something closer to the freedom we know and love were left in the dust because the only two factions that had the organization to take advantage of the political vacuum were the Muslim Brotherhood, who won the free election for President, and the military, which overthrew that leader when the people started rebelling against him. In Libya and Tunisia, halting progress is often rewarded with steps backward that no amount of American intervention will resolve. 

If what Mike Allen has reported is true, that is, that the Obama foreign policy distilled down to a bumper sticker would read "Don't Do Stupid Shit," not involving ourselves in Iraq is a no-brainer. We would be inserting ourselves on the side of a leader who thumbed his nose at us, at other major parties, and surrounded himself with a coterie of flunkies and sycophants who would not have looked unfamiliar in Saddam Hussein-era Iraq. We also cannot be expected to invest blood OR treasure into a country whose own people refuse to fight for its leader. What does it say that a band of a few thousand (at best) was able to overrun a major city like Mosul when tens of thousands of troops were at the country's disposal? 

As others have noted, the first rule of digging yourself out of a hole is that you stop digging. At some point, we need to say enough - having left behind the cookbook for how to run a "democracy," we need to allow the Iraqi people to decide whether they want it. If Republicans think so little of our $600 billion a year Department of Defense (not to mention the untold billions that go to the NSA and CIA), that they are incapable of defending us in the event these extremists DO take over Iraq, what, pray tell, are we paying for now? 

END NOTES

1. That McCain would fetishize a "go for broke" strategy is unsurprising coming from someone who picked an obscure (and unvetted) Alaska Governor as his running mate and thought it a great idea to suspend his 2008 Presidential campaign when Wall Street melted down. 

2. Even if we had signed a SOFA, the residual force was expected to be fewer than 10,000 troops. 

The Curious Case of Bowe Bergdahl

Last weekend, President Obama announced that the United States had negotiated the release of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, who had been held by the Taliban since 2009. In exchange for Bergdahl's release, the United States turned over five "high ranking" Taliban commanders who had been held in Guantanamo Bay for more than a decade. These men were taken into the custody of the nation of Qatar, where they will remain for a year before being fully freed. 

The reaction from critics was immediate and over the top. Initially, the complaints had to do with the high price paid for Bergdahl's release, but quickly morphed into questioning whether Bergdahl was even worthy of release because of the suspicious nature of his capture, which may have occurred after he deserted his fellow troops. The story quickly snowballed and consumed news cycles for days, as allegations that other troops had died looking for Bergdahl popped up, others speculated that Bergdahl had been "flipped" like the fictional character Nicolas Brody in the TV show Homeland and others suggested the President had engaged in an impeachable offense for failing to provide notice to Congress as required by a proviso inserted into a recent Defense Appropriations bill. The fact that men were being held without due process in Gitmo for years on end was of no moment for those suddenly concerned about the rule of law. 

Of course, much of this narrative was driven by Republicans whose motivations were belatedly (as usual) discovered - John McCain had voiced support for a deal in the past, while others deleted anodyne tweets of support for Bergdahl in the wake of all the blowback. The same party that labeled anyone who questioned George W. Bush after 9/11 as flirting with treason now openly questioned the propriety of securing the release of one of our prisoners of war and much of the D.C. media gave them a pass. 

Indeed, the conduct of many in the media was even more shameful than that of the Republicans, who, after all, would find a way to criticize Obama if he declared his love of mom and apple pie. The President has been in office long enough that we have become desensitized to the odious, incessant, and unfair invective hurled at him by the other party, but the media's complicity in driving the narrative of Bergdahl as at best a deserter and at worst an enemy of the nation, was a travesty. The tone on Fox News was to be expected, but TIME Magazine put a photo of Bergdahl on its cover under the headline "Was He Worth It?" and the supposedly "mainstream" Washington Post joined the chorus of questioning the deal, allowing Allen West space on their website to publicly call for the President's impeachment. 

All of it reported without any context, little verifiable fact, and an almost reflexive desire to obscure the truth instead of illuminate it. It took days for the media to get around to reporting relevant information, like Bergdahl's condition at the time of his release (not good), that the claim that others died searching for him was tenuous, that the Taliban required secrecy regarding the negotiations in order to complete the deal, and that the "reporting" requirement that people claimed the President ignored may not have been ignored at all, and even if it had, its legality, as a limit on the President's authority as commander-in-chief was at a minimum, in question. In the meantime, Bergdahl's family was maligned, a welcome home parade for him was canceled because of threats that were directed to the town he comes from, and he has been tried, convicted and sentenced in the court of public opinion.

And these were just the facts about the instant case missed by the media. They ignored entirely the fact that George W. Bush had released hundreds of prisoners from Guantanamo and that other countries (most prominently, Israel) have done similar exchanges. Further, the idea that somehow the Taliban are unique enemies ignores history. Nazi scientists were recruited after World War II to lead our space program (look it up - "Operation Paperclip"), men who fought us in the rice paddies of Vietnam were leaders in that country when we re-established full diplomatic ties in the 1990s, and many of our closest allies were onetime foes (e.g., Germany, Japan, Italy, Mexico, England) who were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of our soldiers over the course of our nation's history.  

Of course, this is of a piece with what passes for "journalism" inside the Beltway these days. Republicans stir a pot to get Eric Shinseki fired and reporters happily pile on, ignoring the fact that a bill that would have helped address the scandal they were gleefully reporting on was filibustered by the same Senate Republicans who wanted Shinseki's ouster. Once Shinseki was unceremoniously let go, those same Republicans negotiated a deal while the media moved on. 

What is particularly egregious about what now happens is that the benefit of the doubt, and indeed, the cheerleading the media did before the Iraq War without a hint of skepticism of anything other than those who questioned that war's justification, has now been flipped on its head so that even the most specious claims raised by Republicans regarding anything having to do with the Obama Administration is immediately reported as immutable fact, except the "facts" usually turn out to be at best shaded truths and at worst total fabrications (see, e.g., the litany of Obamacare falsehoods starting with death panels and ending with insurance death spirals, Shirley Sherrod, the IRS "scandal," etc.). The mea culpas get buried 20 pages into the newspaper (if anyone is bothering to read them anymore) or left to the Rachel Maddows of the world to point out. 

Such would have been the case with Bergdahl, regardless.The same Republicans screaming "impeachment" for negotiating his release would have done the same had he died in captivity.

Roses

Summer has brought a newfound appreciation for flowers. Here are some photos from a rose bush in my neighborhood. 

Mad Men S7E7 - Waterloo

Napoleon's reign lasted over a decade and through his own will and genius the French emperor expanded his country's footprint, accumulated vast wealth, and made more than his fair share of enemies. Of course, his overthrow, brief return to power, and ultimate defeat at a place that, two centuries later, is now part of our lexicon as a place where you make your last stand, suggested that last night's "mid-season" finale, Waterloo, would result in someone's undoing. The obvious candidate was Don Draper, who, like the little French general, was mercurial, fearless in the face of opposition, reckless, and ultimately undone by his own ego. He was the only one who did not know his indefinite leave over Thanksgiving 1968 [1] was meant to be a graceful exit for committing the high crime of honesty in front of a client, but having (mostly) toed the company line after his return, he became the target of a palace coup by Jim Cutler, who leveraged Don's interruption of a meeting with executives from Phillip Morris [2] into a breach of contract action to terminate Don's partnership with the agency. 

Ultimately, Waterloo was much less about Don than Roger, his on again, off again, partner in crime and whose tortured relationship over the years could fill its own lengthy analysis. Roger Sterling was always the ultimate example of a man "to the manner born" - his father established Sterling Cooper with Bert Cooper way back in 1923 [3] and shortly thereafter, a long and fruitful business relationship [3] with American Tobacco, maker of Lucky Strike cigarettes, basically ensured that Roger would have to do little else besides count his money (and conquests) until he passed to the great beyond. But a funny thing happened on the way to "you know where." [4] Roger took some off-handed advice given to him by Don in a dimly lit bar one boozy night that set off a series of events beginning with Roger's decision to leave Mona for Jane. [5] The resulting financial squeeze made him vulnerable to a pitch to sell the agency to Putnam, Powell, and Lowe. [6] In the merger, he did not rank a box on the updated organizational chart, [7] but that mattered little as long as tobacco money continued to roll in. When the partners hung out their own shingle, it was American Tobacco that provided the ballast to do so.

When that seemingly never-ending stream of revenue dried up, [8] Roger was at sea. For a while, he took to trolling Pete Campbell, going so far as sneaking a peek at his calendar, where a planted 6 AM meeting with a representative from Coca-Cola sent Roger on a wild goose chase. [9] But somewhere between his LSD awakening, [10] seduction of Megan's mother, [11] and letting Don loose with Dow Chemical, [12] Roger got his mojo back. Sure, his bedroom had turned into a low rent 60s version of Caligula [13] and his daughter alit for upstate New York, leaving young Ellery in her family's care, [14] but Roger Sterling was again an account man, if not a leader of men. 

So it was interesting that the fulcrum for Waterloo was a very un-Roger like power play to protect his erstwhile Don Quixote instead of jettisoning him and cruising through to retirement on a wave of Harry Crane's spreadsheets and Jim Cutler's Vitamin B-12 shots. [15] Bert's lecture that Roger was not a leader surely stung, so perhaps in Bert's memory Roger finally decided to act instead of count his money. And sure, Roger's motivations may not have been entirely noble - after all, he was able to recover Joan's million dollars (plus an additional half million!) she thought Don lost when he torpedoed her, Bert and Pete's plan to take the firm public, [16] affirm his position as President of the firm while having the benefit of McCann's deep pocket, put Jim Cutler in deep freeze, avoid having to make Harry Crane a partner and oh yeah, pocket a nice payday for himself - but he still closed the deal. Not bad for the low low price of having taken a shvitz and held an early morning meeting with Jim Hobart. 

Roger's efforts to pull Don's chestnuts out of the fire were met with a surprising resignation from the enigmatic Mr. Draper. Perhaps it was, as the sound in his voice on that long-distance call with Megan indicated, a weariness over the constant battle just to get his job back, or the renewed bond he had with Peggy, but Don was surprisingly non-plussed when Roger presented him with his plan; [17] however, when it came time to sell the idea to the one person who they absolutely needed - the hollowed soul of Ted Chaough - Don poured on his incandescent charm, offering Ted the opportunity to go back to the roots that grounded them both - the purity of the pitch. In the balance, Don also put a lie to Jim Cutler's belief that Don was a charlatan - an all hat and no cattle illusionist whose fragility and weakness was exposed before the executives from Hershey's. [18] 

For Don, a man who once refused to sign a contract [19], to agree to both become part of McCann and sign a five-year contract to do so may seem surprising, but after watching his protégé slay Burger Chef he knows the future is in good hands. The juxtaposition of Peggy's pitch to Don's iconic Kodak speech [20] is interesting. The latter was delivered at a time when the country was looking hopefully to a new tomorrow, but Don's pitch was all about looking toward the past, about going back to a place where we know we are loved. [21] Now, the country had met its future - literally, men had landed on the moon less than 24 hours before the Burger Chef presentation - but Peggy leaned on the same yearning for a simpler time to close the deal. In a present that felt more disconnected than ever, when the communal experience of staring at the television deadened peoples' lives as the mood music of chaos, war, and unrest filled the screen, she offered the exact form of nostalgia Don did so many years ago - a place where we get what we want - a connection with the ones we love. 

That Don was sitting there as Peggy had the executives eating out of her hand was no doubt a point of pride, but, with the new corporate plan in place, may have been a more concrete handing off of the baton as Peggy assumes a greater role and Don a more secondary one. This generational transition was similarly done in 1963 when Roger spoke of both the decades of work he and Bert had put into the company but also identified Don as his partner "for the next 40 years." [22] Now, just six years later, it is Don who has found a mellower place that will surely be tested as it appears Ted will be returning to New York and another ghost is added to the list of those who seem to haunt him. [23] 

And to you, readers, I want to thank you for reading my recaps and sharing your thoughts about Mad Men as we all look forward to next year.

You can also follow me on Twitter - @scarylawyerguy

END NOTES

1. In Care Of, Season 6, Episode 13. 

2. The Runaways, Season 7, Episode 5. 

3. The firm's creation is dated to the 40th anniversary party held in late 1963. The Gypsy and the Hobo, Season 3, Episode 11. 

3. The press release SCDP issues announcing its severance of ties with American Tobacco notes their nearly thirty years of work for the client. Chinese Wall, Season 4, Episode 11. 

4. The Doorway Part I, Season 6, Episode 1. 

5. Six Month Leave, Season 2, Episode 9. 

6. The Mountain King, Season 2, Episode 12. Of course, Don was on a walkabout in California dealing with his own drama and might have been able to head off the whole thing at the pass. 

7. The nascent elevation of Guy MacKendrick was mercilessly snuffed out by Lois and her rogue driving skills. Guy Walks Into An Advertising Agency, Season 3, Episode 6. 

8. Hands and Knees, Season 4, Episode 10. 

9. A Little Kiss Part I, Season 5, Episode 1. 

10. Faraway Places, Season 5, Episode 6. 

11. At the Codfish Ball, Season 5, Episode 7. 

12. Commissions and Fees, Season 5, Episode 11. 

13. Time Zones, Season 7, Episode 1. 

14. The Runaways, Season 7, Episode 4. 

15. The Crash, Season 6, Episode 8. 

16. For Immediate Release, Season 6, Episode 6. 

17. As Don noted, when McCann acquired PPL (and Sterling Cooper) back in 1963, instead of being a cog in that large machine, he, Roger, Bert, and Lane formed their own agency. Now, six years later, they were running into the arms of the suitor they had collectively rejected. Shut The Door, Have A Seat, Season 3, Episode 13, Waterloo, Season 7, Episode 7. 

18. In Care Of, Season 6, Episode 13.

19. Seven Twenty-Three, Season 3, Episode 7. This was the nadir of Don and Roger's relationship, with the former making a condition of his signing a contract that he and Roger have no further contact.  

20. The Wheel, Season 1, Episode 13. 

21. Indeed, instead of going with the obvious pitch of the Kodak Carousel being a "spaceship" Don referred to it as a "time machine." The Wheel, supra. 

22. The Gypsy and the Hobo, supra. 

23. RIP Bertram Cooper, you soup sipping, avant garde art collecting, ball-less wonder. I didn't like your shabby treatment of Don of late, but, like your one-time secretary Ida Blankenship, who you once called an astronaut, you died watching the real ones land on the moon. 

Mad Men S7E6 - The Strategy

"You never say thank you." 

"That's what the money's for."

- The Suitcase Season 4, Episode 7 [1]

On Peggy Olson's 26th birthday, her night was ruined by her lush of a boss who wasn't satisfied with her tag line for Samsonite and so, made her miss a birthday dinner and with it, a boyfriend who couldn't tolerate being second fiddle to her work. Of course, what was happening that night had little to do with a tag line for a suitcase, it was about a man who did not want to hear the news of the passing of the one person in his life who knew and loved him, as flawed as he was. It was about someone not wanting to face the cold reality of life, and so, took out that frustration and fear on the only person he knew could take it. But in the end, after a night of soul baring and emotional intimacy, when Don finally made that fateful call and confirmed what he already knew to be true, he and Peggy shared a tender moment, his hand gently enclosing hers, appearing to cement a bond that had been long in forming. 

It's no surprise that the few glimpses of Don's desk we see include a photo of him and Anna Draper, but four years (and a few weeks) later, he and Peggy re-convene in that same office, but with quite a bit of water under the bridge. Instead of deepening a bond that had been built ever since Don put Peggy on the Belle Jolie account, [2] had deepened when Don visited Peggy in the hospital where she was recuperating from the birth of her child, [3] become more complicated when Peggy came to the rescue after Don crashed Bobbi Barrett's car, [4] and survived the launch of Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce, [5] The Suitcase was a high water mark after which Peggy and Don's relationship dissolved, slowly at first, but over time, much more quickly. First, Megan supplanted Peggy as Don's emotional nourishment; [6] then, when Megan quit the firm to try her hand at acting, Don blamed Peggy, [7] riding her mercilessly until she quit and took another job. [8]

The merger of SCDP and CGC brought Peggy back into Don's orbit, [9] but by this time, Don's blackened soul and Peggy's unrequited desire for Ted were on a collision course. Peggy has been nursing a rather stiff grudge against Don for "breaking" Ted, for crushing his spirit by dangling the threat of the revelation of their affair to a client [10] and shaming Ted, who Peggy viewed as virtuous, into absconding to California with his wife Nan and two boys in tow. [11] Of course, that was just the cherry on the sundae for years of verbal abuse, dismissiveness and humiliation that Don piled on her, but the tent poles for The Strategy were these two beautifully acted (and written) scenes between Peggy and Don that took place in Don's old office (now occupied by the odious Lou Avery) that buried the hatchet of all of that rancor. There, after Peggy had her tantrum, drunk dialed Don and tried to get pissy with him, each laid bare their fears and insecurities. 

The pitch for Burger Chef was not about mom's battle with fast food any more than Don cared about what was being offered for Samsonite way back in 1965 (a year Peggy and Don ruminate over in one of the scenes). Instead, it stood as a convenient proxy for Peggy's own perception of herself - of being a single woman at 30 unable to relate to being a mother and unsure about what families do, and to give Don an opportunity to be tender and paternal - to be supportive in ways he rarely was when the power dynamic was reversed, to acknowledge that he feared having done nothing and having no one in his life and not wanting Peggy to suffer the same fate. To tell her, because only he can and have it matter to her, that she is doing just fine. Because to both of them, nothing outside the office will ever seem as important as what happens in the office, because Peggy knows Don better than anyone and heard in his floating of the pitch from a child's point of view that he wasn't wild about the agreed upon strategy. But here, instead of being competitive with Peggy, of bickering over her desire to be placed on accounts or dismissing her ideas as kernels that he turns into CLIO award winning material, he is instead charitable and mentoring - walking her through the creative process that goes on inside his head without rubbing her nose in it or feeling the need to save the day. 

The call back to The Suitcase was unmistakable but also distinct. The Don of 1969 is a world-wearier person. For all the attention we draw to his lack of empathy or (self) awareness, he is stung by the slings and arrows of bad fortune. He may blanch at most of the rules placed upon him by the other partners (although it seems he's broken most of them in spirit if not by their letter), but he found an untapped reservoir of good will toward Peggy that was absolutely endearing and afforded him the wherewithal to put himself in service of someone who he obviously values. The two scenes between Don and Peggy are interesting in that the way they were scripted placed Peggy in the power position - she was the boss, but there was almost a Yoda/Luke Skywalker vibe to it - she'd like to underscore the possibility that the pitch could involve the mother coming home from work, but Don knows that is a story that people are not yet ready to hear. He isn't pressing to make his idea the winner, but rather, nurturing and nursing her in the way a teacher might aid a prized pupil who is on the cusp of achieving something great. 

And because of that, she finds her theme - family - whether it's around a kitchen table or strangers sitting in a restaurant, who you are with defines who you are. In so many ways, the entire arc of Mad Men has been about that quest to, as Bob Benson put it, find comfort in an uncertain world. Don long ago noted that he felt as if he was just outside his own life, trying to scratch his way into it, [12] but everyone else has wrestled with those same demons. Joan walked into a marriage with a man who thought nothing of sexually assaulting her in a fit of pique [13] because marriage and appearances mattered, it was not long after Pete married Trudy that he was telling her father he did not love her, [14] Peggy's romantic liaisons sometimes bring her short-term enjoyment, but the one long-term boyfriend she had ended up with a knife buried in his chest [15] and her swoon over Ted ended spectacularly; the marital failings of the Roger Sterlings and Don Drapers of the world are well known and need little comment. 

So it came as no surprise that Pete had no problem bringing his new girlfriend Bonnie east to show her off at the office, but left her cooling her heels when he visited his daughter Tammy in Cos Cob. Sadly, his daughter barely recognizes him and recoils behind her nanny when he arrives (and who can blame her, that sport jacket would frighten young children). When his estranged wife shows up hours later (no doubt knowing he would have to wait until she returned home), Pete does what Pete does best - acts like an asshole - but Trudy was engaged in her own tit-for-tat and when he tried to moralize about her dating habits, buried him with the same caustic tongue that warned him about opening his fly within 50 miles of their home, [16] basically telling him he no longer matters in her (or their daughter's) life. So much for "family." That Bonnie does not like "New York Pete" is unsurprising, but the reality is that "California Pete" is not that different, save for the lengthening side burns and more casual office attire. 

Meanwhile, Joan proves she's learned some lessons the hard way. Having (finally) tossed Greg out on his ear [17] and taken a pass at Roger's occasional flirtations, she was more than happy to have Bob around to give little Kevin presents or take a day trip to the beach, but when Bob pulls an engagement ring out of his (loud) sport jacket, she demurs. She'll wait for love and go solo because although the idea that we all need comfort in our lives, and particularly for those living through the turbulence of the late 1960s, she's unwilling to accept an "arrangement" with Bob, who she subtly "outs." [18]

The mood music, that is, the sturm und drang that propels the narrative, is familiar. A major account dangles in the balance, seats are being re-arranged around the table (Harry sure is getting paid back nicely for leaking word of the firm's pursuit of Phillip Morris to Don), and some reckoning is likely to occur, but beneath that, and where this show has always shined brightest, is in bonding the audience to the characters and the characters to one another. If you've invested seven seasons worth of viewing the trials and tribulations of these people, you couldn't help but swell a little at the sight of Peggy, Don, and Pete sharing burgers and sodas after all these years, all those battles, and all that heartache. The image of Don and Peggy slow dancing to Sinatra's My Way, its lyrics suggesting "the end is near" felt equal parts ominous and poignant. When Peggy softly put her head against Don's chest and he kissed her tenderly on the top of her head, it was hard not to think of a father and daughter sharing a wedding dance, but maybe it was just simply two people who long ago formed a familial bond that each had carelessly threw away and now hoped to get back.  

END NOTES

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2MV-x924KA

2. Babylon, Season 1, Episode 6. 

3. The New Girl, Season 2, Episode 5. 

4. Ibid.

5. Shut the Door, Have a Seat, Season 3, Episode 13. 

6. See generally, A Little Kiss, Season 5, Episode 1 and 2. 

7. Lady Lazarus, Season 5, Episode 8. 

8. The Other Woman, Season 5, Episode 11. 

9. For Immediate Release, Season 6, Episode 6. 

10. The Quality of Mercy, Season 6, Episode 12. 

11. In Care Of, Season 6, Episode 13. 

12. The Mountain King, Season 2, Episode 12. 

13. Ibid.

14. Ibid.

15. The Better Half, Season 6, Episode 9. 

16. The Collaborators, Season 6, Episode 3. 

17. Mystery Date, Season 5, Episode 4. 

18. The return of Bob Benson will surely please some, but this storyline had the feeling of nothing more than a throw away to close the Bob Benson "loop." The loss of Chevy's XP allows him to leave SC&P and go in house General Motors, never to be heard from again. Farewell, Bob. 

Grounds For Sculpture

Today, I planned on heading to the Grounds For Sculpture for some spring photography. Unfortunately, about half of New Jersey seemed to have the same idea; however, the area surrounding the Grounds have been turned into their own sculpture garden of a sort, including works by Seward Johnson, who founded the Grounds more than two decades ago. As I discovered, Johnson's work is similar to that of Jeff Koons, each artist creates larger than life sculptures using familiar iconography as their focal point. 

Seward Johnson - God Bless America

Situated at the intersection of Klockner Road and Sloan Avenue right across from the New Jersey Transit station in Hamilton, this homage to Grant Wood's American Gothic rises 25 feet in the air. The first image addresses the sculpture from the front, while the second was taken from the side and beyond, using the good cloud cover today as an arresting backdrop. 

Andrej (Andrew) Pitynski - The Partisans 

A little further down Klockner Road is what I later discovered to be a controversial work entitled "The Partisans" by the Polish sculptor Andrej Pitynski. The sculpture depicts Polish soldiers during World War II, but without knowing that ahead of time, I thought these could have been soldiers from any war. 

Andrej (Andrew) Pitynski - Spirit of Freedom

Another Pitynski can be found on East State Road on the way to the Grounds For Sculpture. Unfortunately, it's behind chain-linked fence, so getting a good picture (without a ladder) is a challenge. 

Garret McFann - The Four Amigos

Next up is an unusual sculpture by Garret McFann of what appear to be four Mexican "banditos," but with flat tops instead of heads. Not sure what to make of this one.

Seward Johnson - Los Mariachis 
Seward Johnson - A Turn of the Century
Seward Johnson - Whispering Close
Seward Johnson - Time For Fun

My last stop was along a patch of grass right in front of the NJT Station, where Johnson had a massive installment of five sculptures depicting couples dancing amid the traditional mariachi players of Mexico. The juxtaposition was interesting, considering the couples were all dressed in attire more closely associated with the 19th century (I learned in researching that they are modeled after paintings by Renoir). Again, the cloud cover today offered an interesting contrast and strategic use of black and white also added to the effect.

Next time, I'll get to the Sculpture Garden earlier, but I'm glad I took the trip and got these amazing photos. 

Mad Men S7E5 - The Runaways

Back in Season 4, and just off the nadir of Anna's death, and his own bottoming out in a haze of Canadian Club and reckless womanizing, we first heard Don Draper in voice over, he said:

When a man walks into a room, he brings his whole life with him. He has a million reasons for being anywhere, just as him. If you listen, he'll tell you how he got there. How he forgot where he was going, and that he woke up. If you listen, he'll tell you about the time he thought he was an angel or dreamt of being perfect. And then he'll smile with wisdom, content that he realized the world isn't perfect. We're flawed because we want so much more. We're ruined because we get these things, and wish for what we had. [1]

The Runaways was a lot about flaws, about wanting more, or getting the things we thought we wanted but discovering we wanted something, anything, else. And when that realization hits, our inclination may be to run away, whether that is literally so, as Stephanie did (turning her back on a college education and dropping out from "society"), as Sally threatens to do (unimpressed with the wealth and prestige her parents have separately accumulated and wanting nothing more than evading the overbearing thumb of her mother), or as Megan appears to want (able to pursue her career without living hand-to-mouth but too fearful to leave her husband and trying to make it on her own). It is not coincidental that this episode echoes that mid-Season 4 vibe. Like then, Don is trying to claw his way out of a hole he has dug for himself, except this time, it's not the death of the one person who knew everything about him and still loved him [2] that he is trying to overcome, but rather, the crumbling of his marriage and his nascent attempts to regain his good name at work. 

So it was apt that Stephanie Horton, the niece of Anna Draper we last saw as a sun-kissed college co-ed calls for help as she's devolved into a seven-months pregnant hippie whose "old man" is locked up. Don may have only been, according to Stephanie's mother, "a man, in a room, with a checkbook," [3] and maybe he is that to Stefanie too, but Don's inclination is to help. As luck would have it, Stephanie is in the City of Angels and Don offers her Megan's place as a temporary home until he can get there. Megan, planning a party and hanging out with her friend Amy, seems sympathetic, but once Stephanie gets there, their interaction is decidedly chilly. It goes south when Stephanie comments on Megan's engagement ring (which was Anna's) and the whole thing dissolves in backbiting and Megan's writing of a $1000 check to move Stephanie along before Don makes it out to see her. You see, Megan can't countenance the presence of others knowing Don's secrets when that redounds to making her look the fool - someone who has tolerated a mountain of bad behavior (and may be engaging in some of her own - but more about that later), is living this odd fiction of a bi-coastal, but on-life-support marriage, or just the fact that Don has this odd past that she would just as soon not be reminded of. 

By the time Don arrives, preparations are in full effect for a late 60s hippie shakedown - complete with banjo-led jam session and Megan engaging in a revealing pas de deux with a fellow long hair that doesn't sit well with Don. When Harry Crane shows up with his latest paramour, he and Don alight to a bar, where Harry shares the news that the firm is in discussion with Phillip Morris to rep their cigarette, "Commander." Of course, Don realizes the consequences of this, he's persona non grata in the tobacco world because of "the letter" he wrote after American Tobacco left SCDP, [4] and realizes this is a management ploy to force him out. When Don returns to Megan's "pad," she graciously offers up her friend Amy for a threesome. Don protests, but not too much. The next morning, Stephanie's call sends Megan off again and Don heading for the exit. 

Upon his return to New York, and with the confidence of that Don Draper, Don strolls into a private room in the Algonquin and reminds the Phillip Morris executives just what they would be losing if they forced SC&P's hand and got Don to quit in exchange for their business. The not-so subtle jab did not sit well with Lou Avery or Jim Cutler, but swaggering Don chews up guys like Lou and Jim for lunch and washes them down with an Old Fashioned. Jim Cutler may have angrily shut the door to his cab in Don's face, but the effect was akin to that of a fly being swatted away by an elephant - Don barely registered a response other than his well-known dismissive, and unspoken "fuck you." 

Indeed, this snippet echoed even further back in the show's history, to another California jag Don went on during yet another tumultuous time - Betty's kicking him out of the house in the wake of his affair with Bobbi Barrett. [5] Back then, after escaping to California and renewing his energy at Anna's home, [6] Pete Campbell let Don know about the pending merger Duck organized between Sterling Cooper and PPL. [7] This information allowed Don to deftly knee cap Duck by letting the PPL team know he (Don) did not have a contract and was planning on leaving the agency if Duck led it. [8] Unspoken in his threat was how much weaker the firm would be without his singular talent. Now, faced with a conspiracy to minimize him, Don pulls a similar stunt, reminding the Phillip Morris executives that he and Lou have the same amount of experience working with tobacco, but Don has the added benefit of knowing the other side's strategy (and oh yeah, he's Don Draper and the other guy is Lou Avery). In both instances, Pete and Harry were not enamored with the devil they knew, but the devil they did not know looked even worse, allowing Don to avoid whatever fate would have otherwise befallen him. 

The Runaways had an incomplete feel that also closed loose ends. Ginsberg, who blew onto the show with so much promise, dissolved in a weird, conspiratorial puddle, his sliced nipple (?!) the result of perhaps some undiagnosed mental condition or just the whirring of that IBM computer (I'm guessing the former). Betty tuned up her petulance to 11, first, scrapping with Sally after Sally broke her nose horsing around with her friends and then, speaking in an impolitic manner during a dinner party she and Henry threw. Betty's feelings of frustration are understandable - she questions whether her children love her, and she is watching as other women go into the work force, earn their own money and put the home maker lifestyle behind them, while she just burns through cigarettes, nursing whatever petty grudges she has. She wishes she could run away from a life that once upon a time was fully formed and accepted, but, in the exponential societal shifts occurring in America in the 1960s, is quickly becoming passé.  

And what of Megan? The obituary for her marriage to Don has been written for some time, just waiting to be published. Because we are not privy to what goes on off screen, we do not know if Don has again asked for another chance (likely) or if Megan simply likes the "bread" (to use Stephanie's term) Don provides, which allows her to cut $1000 checks without a thought. [9] But Megan's facilitation of a three way with her friend Amy may have just been an inelegant way of disguising some other affair she's having. Her flirtation with another party guest harkened back to her Zou Bissou Bissou days, [10] but this time, Don was not her intended target. And maybe she just wanted to underscore Don's amorality by watching him with another woman (even though, in fairness, he didn't seem overly enticed by the idea), or run away from their marriage in a haze of drugs, or wash away her own guilt at whatever she is doing in Los Angeles without his knowledge, or wearing the ring of a woman who meant more to him than she (or anyone else?) ever will, but appealing to Don's darker side rarely turns out well for others (or him). 

As we head into the home stretch of the first "half" of Season Seven, it appears corporate lines are being drawn - basically, the partners, save Roger, are on one side, aligned to torpedo Don in one way or the other [11], with Roger, and now Harry quietly drifting to Don's side. Out of loyalty? Perhaps. Out of an interest in securing their own place within the hierarchy? Definitely. The wild card, as always in Peggy. It was promising that Don and Peggy had what passed for a civil conversation in the elevator. When Don needs Peggy most, he can sometimes step in it, [12] but can always appeal to her interest in doing good and creative work. In the meantime, it is still thrilling to watch Don work his creative magic even as his personal life is a complete and utter mess. 

PS - Godspeed, Martian. 

END NOTES

1. The Summer Man, Season 4, Episode 8. 

2. The Good News, Season 4, Episode 3.

3. Ibid.

4. Blowing Smoke, Season 4, Episode 12.

5. A Night to Remember, Season 2, Episode 8. 

6. The Mountain King, Season 2, Episode 12. Though in fairness, Don probably recaptured some of his mojo in Palm Springs as well. The Jet Set, Season 2, Episode 11. 

7. Meditations in an Emergency, Season 2, Episode 13. 

8. Ibid.

9. $1000 in 1969 is equivalent to $6,564 in 2014. http://www.dollartimes.com/inflation/inflation.php?amount=1000&year=1969

10. A Little Kiss Part I, Season 5, Episode 1. 

11. How Don's impromptu "pop in" to the Phillip Morris meeting didn't violate the "terms" of his return to the agency is beyond me. 

12. Shut the Door, Have a Seat, Season 3, Episode 13. When Don advised Peggy he's leaving Sterling Cooper to open a new agency, he simply assumes she will come with him. It is not until he goes to her apartment and makes a more heartfelt plea, that she agrees to leave with him. 

Mad Men S7E4 - The Monolith

When the chairman of Madison Square Garden approached Sterling Cooper to spearhead the ad campaign that would result in the destruction of the original Penn Station, Don Draper observed that "change is neither good nor bad, it simply is. It can be greeted with terror or joy, a tantrum that says 'I want it the way it was,' or a dance that says, 'Look, something new!'" [1]

The Monolith, the room-sized computer that those of us in 2014 snicker at while tweeting from smart phones that have more computing capacity than was used to put a man on the moon in 1969, is met with consternation from the creatives whose bullpen is torn down to make room for this latest technology, but as with most things produced on Mad Men, it's a handy metaphor for what is going on inside our fictional advertising agency. Where once there was simple novelty at the appearance of a Xerox copy machine, [2] now copywriters sulk that their hangout is being destroyed and fear that their jobs might be next. 

But Don, as he usually does, has it right - change is agnostic, it is how we react to it that matters. Adults once took for granted that their word would be heeded, unquestioned, and final. But the "grown ups" are discovering that their children were not as clueless as they assumed. Sally's eyes were opened to the seedier side of adulthood long ago, [3] but now as a teen, she is unafraid to challenge her father and call him out on his lies. [4] 

So too is Roger and Mona's daughter Margaret, who has gone full native and shacked up with some hippies in upstate New York, shirking her responsibilities as mother and wife to lead a pastoral existence where there are no rules. When her parents try to bring her back, she cuts down her mother by reminding her that she spent most of Margaret's childhood nursing a bottle of gin. Roger, more simpatico with the live-and-let-live vibe, turns on his daughter when she sneaks off in the middle of the night to shack up with one of men at the commune, [5] only to be dismissed when he tries to forcibly remove Margaret. She calls him out as an absentee father who was never there for her when he tries to underscore her responsibility to her son Ellery. Roger may have a rotating cast of long hairs coming in and out of his suite at The Algonquin, and he's more than happy to dose and stand naked in front of the window, [6] but his conservative view of parenting runs smack dab into the counter culture and the result is a muddy suit. 

Don's problem is quite the opposite. He is the one being treated as a child. He can't even reel in a small-time account without Bert tsk-tsking him and leaning into the fact Don was placed in a dead man's office. His former protégé is now his boss, directing him to turn in tag lines for a new client like he is some sort of junior copywriter and being summoned to her office for meetings. His reaction is predictable - he has a temper tantrum, reflexively reaching for a bottle of alcohol to drown his sorrows and stumbling out of the office in the middle of the day like the swinging dick he once was. It is not until the following morning when Freddy gives him the kick in the ass he needs. "What do you want?" Freddy asks. "I want my job back." Don retorts. And while Freddy's response, "Do the work, Don," may not be what he wants to hear, it is what Don needs to hear, because Freddy basically tells him the world has changed and if you want to get your job back, stop feeling sorry for yourself and go back and get it.

On the other hand, change has given Peggy more power but she is not mature enough to wield it properly. Having Don foisted on her Burger Chef account would lead a more experienced person to tap into Don's deep reservoir of talent and skill and treat him decently and humanely; but instead, Peggy's instinct is to humiliate and belittle him. Perhaps it is just desserts for the years of suffering she experienced, but having been handed an opportunity to take on a new, and high profile client, she is ill-prepared for how to respond - indeed, she views it as a suicide mission handed to her by higher ups waiting for either she or Don to crash, instead of a chance to shine. Lost in all of this conduct is the nuanced and complex relationship she and Don share. Perhaps she has taken to heart Don's long-ago admonition to forget about her childbirth and move on, [7] erased the night of Anna's death, [8] or just simply can't let go of the fact that she thinks Don destroyed Ted, [9] but instead of rising to the occasion, she has a tantrum of her own. 

Of course, age is not determinative of a person's capacity for reacting well to change. Lou is no more mature than Peggy when it comes to Don's return. He feels threatened and is looking for any opportunity to kick Don while he's down. The rest of the agency seems to simply want to move on, with Joan dismissing Don's presence like that of an annoying gal in the steno pool, Bert telling Don the firm worked perfectly well in his absence, and the copywriters Don used to make shudder now conscripting him to move furniture with them. So it is not surprising that Don spent weeks sheltered in his office reading Phillip Roth and hanging that Mets pennant on the wall as a small reminder of Lane. No one likes to be treated like a child, but when Freddy tells Don to snap out of it and stop sulking, he is telling Don to forget the fact that his co-workers are treating him like shit, that Bert Cooper is pretending he didn't build this new agency, that Lou Avery would sooner pour gasoline than water on him if he was on fire, that his former secretary is now his boss, or that Joan, who he once counseled not to sleep with Herb from Jaguar, [10] treats him like a stranger. Do your fucking job. Be an adult. Embrace change. Do not be a monolith. We shall see how long this lasts. 

PS - Pete adapts to change with lightening speed. He went from feeling remorse that his ex-father-in-law had a heart attack to glee over being able to "kill" him by signing Burger Chef, in a nanosecond. 

END NOTES

1. Love Among The Ruins, Season 3, Episode 2. 

2. For Those Who Think Young, Season 2, Episode 1.

3. See, e.g., Mystery Date, Season 5, Episode 4, At The Codfish Ball, Season 5, Episode 7.

4. A Day's Work, Season 7, Episode 2. 

5. The rank hypocrisy regarding infidelity on the show is not limited to Roger. Don would not accept that Megan so much as kissed a man on her soap opera (To Have and To Hold, Season 6, Episode 4) and he shut down Betty's nascent attempt at re-entering the world of modeling (Shoot, Season 1, Episode 9).  

6. The Phantom, Season 5, Episode 13. 

7. The New Girl, Season 2, Episode 5. 

8. The Suitcase, Season 4, Episode 7. 

9. The Quality of Mercy, Season 6, Episode 12. 

10. The Other Woman, Season 5, Episode 11.