Men men men men men

I still shake my head over the reluctance of some men to acknowledge that this is the year 2020 and it's no longer appropriate to regard women the same way we look at furniture or a painting or something.

I happened to be watching MSNBC the other night when Chris Matthews came on to do his "Hardball" show and said it would be the last show, that he was retiring, had not lost interest in politics, but...

It didn't take a genius (good thing!) to figure out that retirement wasn't exactly Chris's idea, what with it being Monday, and the eve of Super Tuesday, and election season in full frenzy and Chris seeming to be the kind of guy who feels America is better off with him on TV nightly...

Gone too late.

He said, “The younger generations . . . are improving the workplace, we’re talking here about better standards than we grew up with, fair standards. A lot of it has to do with how we talk to each other, compliments on a woman’s appearance that some men — including me — might have once incorrectly thought were okay were never okay. Not then and certainly not today, and for making such comments in the past, I’m sorry.”

Sort of a 1/2-assed apology, but what do you expect from a man whose final words sought to link him to Humphrey Bogart, the hero of "Casablanca"?

“We’ll always have ‘Hardball.’ So let’s not say goodbye but till we meet again.”

It may be a long while before we meet Chris again on a television show. He ankled out of the studio, leaving Steve Kornacki to have to fill 55 minutes of dead air. That was completely unprofessional, too.

Here's what I have to say. Matthews seems to be implying that he was pushed out because he complimented women. But what happened was, Laura Bassett, a journalist, said that she was getting ready to appear on "Fastball" in October, 2016, to talk about sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump. And she said that Matthews began talking about her clothing, makeup, and dating life, asking, "Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?”

And she said Matthews said to the makeup person, “Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her.”

Added to some other ill-advised comments on and off the air Matthews has been said to make, that was enough for NBC to cut him loose.

Earth to Chris Matthews: there are over 149 ways to pay a compliment to someone. "It's nice to see you! That's a very nice jacket you're wearing! I enjoyed your thoughts about the best choices to make at the Asian Buffet!" are three examples.

Whereas, "Why haven't I fallen in love with you yet?" is not on the list.

It's 2020, and women are tired of being feeling like they're not enough if they don't measure up to some male standard of "beauty" and they don't have to put up with it anymore, so either raise your consciousness or fade away...