Archives for June 2024

Thursday, June 13, 2024

I was seventeen. She was 23. I was smitten. So was any man who knew of her. That included Mic Jagger, Bob Dylan, and David Bowie. She was the embodiment of the 60s in France, known as yé-yé. Cool, smart, sophisticated was the embodiment of this cultural movement and no one did it better than Hardy. (pronounced “Ardy.”) Dylan invited her to his room at George V in Paris and played two songs off his new album Blonde on Blonde: “Just Like a Woman” and “I want you”. She was so in awe of him she missed the hints.

I heard her music and her voice. It was quiet, smooth, and irresistible. I was in Switzerland to learn French. I didn’t learn much. I guess I thought by being in a French speaking country it would magically sink in. It didn’t. But Francoise sang in that sexy quiet voice-  in French. I didn’t understand much, but I understood, “Viola.” One of her hit songs. 

She sang of seeing you with the others, and how it hurt – “Viola.” There it is. The pain and the agony of being in love and that person could care less.

Ah, such torment. When you’re seventeen everything is emotional and simmering right below the surface.

A few years before I saw a Life Magazine article on Catherine Deneuve. She wrote, “I want to abandon myself to passion.” Yes, yes, please.

How irresistible. How passionate. Then I saw Catherine in a movie and she wasn’t that good. And she smoked. Bummer.

But Francoise? Ah. Beauty. Passion. Sophistication. Style. Three different designers begged her to wear their clothes and she did. When she did their sales exploded. Her style was timeless.

Later in life I read how she was deeply into astrology. How could she? The bloom was off the rose.

But I will always remember.

Francoise passed away yesterday at age 80 from cancer.

Adieu.

Wednesday, June 12, 2024

I listened to an interview with John Bolton last night. This guy is a bad dream. He keeps hanging around and every once in a while someone gives him a job. He’s like Ken Cucinneli. Guys that have nutty dangerous ideas and get a chance to screw up the their world when given a chance.

I remember when Bolton was first on the scene, his big quote that kept being reported was that you could wipe off the top two floors of the UN and not lose anything. He got appointed to the U.N. as our ambassador. when he left that job the Secretary General, who was famous for always saying something positive, said of Bolton that he alway showed up on time for meetings. That was the only positive thing he could say about the man.

More recently Bolton wrote a book and ripped off the signature line from Hamilton. Yes, he was in the room where it happened. Did he tell us anything? No. The best thing about his tenure in the State Department was Fiona Hill.

So what did Johnny boy tell us last night? That he wouldn’t work for Trump again. That Trump was dangerous. Wow. You had to work for the guy to learn that? 

What about Joe Biden? Well, he wouldn’t vote for him because he doesn’t agree with his policies and thinks Biden is unfit for office. Other than making, repeatedly, that blanket statement he doesn’t go into details. Of course not, why would he? If he did he’d be caught out on facts. 

So what’s he going to do in November? He’s going to vote for someone else. A protest vote. Great. Good thinking. Maybe, the right has a fruit cake he could get behind? Or an independent one? I dunno. Is the former heroin addict still in the race?

He and Tom Cotton seem to use the same schtick. They don’t like what’s going on. They never do. So they come up with some hare brained scheme to make it worse.

These people never have an idea how to make something better. Their only solution is to wreck whatever has been done.

We now seem to live in a post fact society. Some say facts don’t matter. They invent nonsense and try to pass it off as truth. They always have magic bullets somewhere in their solutions. Covid? It will go away. (Nonsense, it took real science and politicians to enact that science to defeat Covid. The nut jobs like bolton and Trump have an answer that is some form of, “Well, I don’t know.”) The alliance that has kept Europe safe from war since WWII. Get rid of it. Why? Oh god, it’s either, “It costs too much,” or it’s “We don’t need it.” Tell that to the people of Ukraine.

Um. Let’s dwell on Ukraine for a moment. Russia has stomped on Ukraine for centuries. So some of these politicians we have think, “It’s okay because they’ve been doing it for years.” Let’s see, it started with Catherine the Great, and has continued on and off since then. Fiddler on The Roof? It’s a play about the Russians coming into Ukraine and killing people and taking their grain. Stalin? Remember him? What did he do to Ukraine? Came in and took all their grain and the people starved to death. He caused the greatest famine in the 20th Century. So yeah, Russia has been messing with Ukraine for years. Centuries actually. So should we say, “Hey, it’s none of our business?” 

That’s what people like Bolton and Cotton would say. Or Marjorie Taylor Red (not Green, Red let’s show her true colors. Except, she’s too stupid to realize she’s being a useful idiot to Putin.)

And then there’s the whole Covid thing. There are people wandering around saying you don’t need to get vaccinated, and they have various reasons. All silly. I just say to them, “Do you think the American Indians would have preferred to get vaccinated or let at least 80% of their population be wiped out by disease?”

Bernaz Diaz who was one of the conquistadors with Cortes wrote an account of the conquest of the Aztecs. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it. Even if you don’t like history books. It reads better than any international best selling thriller. What did he say about the effects of disease on the Indians? 

Diaz wrote about marching into villages and no one was left. That the wind blew through and it was eerily quiet. No one was there. Yeah. Let’s not vaccinate, because you know, “I don’t like it.” 

Then there are the people that didn’t get their kids immunized against the basics. Stuff we never thought about,  just did it. Now? Amazingly (not), there have been outbreaks of diseases like measles. Where? In areas of the country where well off, well educated people who think they know better didn’t get their kids vaccinated. Oh well, if you get measles as a kid there is a distinct possibility that you will be sterile so I guess the upshot is at least they won’t be able to reproduce. Tough on the kids. Let’s bring out some love from Tom Cotton shall we? He’s big on being mean to people with some form of tough love.

Or how about Bill Mahrer pontificating, “If you keep yourself healthy …” Yeah Bill, you think the millions of American Indians who died weren’t healthy?

I gotta go. Where’s the TV clicker?

Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Hunter Biden was found guilty on the three counts that he was charged with in relation to having bought a gun. A gun he never used, never loaded, and owned for eleven days.

These charges and his income tax charges were negotiated in a plea deal, which fell apart when various Republicans in Congress made a stink. I remember when the charges were brought, various prosecutors spoke of how unusual it was to charge someone solely with these charges. Typically, these charges are brought when the individual has committed some other crime, like say, storming the Capital and assaulting police officers. In fact, the prosecutors I heard said none could recall a time when this was charged alone.

Shockingly, those who were lambasting the Justice Department and the judiciary over Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions were more restrained and muted over this conviction. Quoting “No one is above the law,” etc. That’s not to say they didn’t take swipes at the judge presiding over Trump’s trial and praising the one at Biden’s. Strange isn’t it?

Speaking of Trump’s 34 felony convictions, let’s put that in perspective: Al Capone got convicted on 22 felonies, Jeffery Dahlmer 15, Martha Stewart 4.

So ya see, Donald is in a league of his own, and he’s just getting started. He’s got three more trails coming up. His minions are doing everything they can to slow walk and obstruct the proceedings. Georgia is really bad. Not only are three judges holding up Fani Willis’ RICO case against him, but the local Republican officials are trying to pass rules and laws that basically say if they don’t like the results of an election they don’t have to certify those results.

Meanwhile, in Europe the far-right has won seats in Germany and France. The party in France that won is a pro-Nazi, “Hitler was right”, party. They sympathized, aided and abetted the Nazis during WWII.

Meanwhile, in our country over forty Republican Congressional representatives voted to defund NATO.

The thing about these kind of people is they make claims with no evidence. They make promises with no plan. They just say things. The part I don’t get is people believe them.

Yes. I’ve heard folks are dissatisfied. People working a minimum wage job can’t earn a living, can’t pay for college, can’t support a family. I’ve heard the right wing saying that minimum wage jobs are entry level jobs and they’re for high school kids to earn pocket money. So what’s going to happen to a person who is working a job like that and has to take care of a kid? Or two? Are all those entry level job people at McDonald’s and Burger King going to magically move up the ladder? 

And then there’s the whole prices are increasing and wages aren’t. I heard one economist say that to make the minimum wage commensurate with what it was in the 1970s the wage would have to be $30 an hour. This seems about right. I know people who have told me they can’t survive on $25 an hour, but can just make it on $28.

The other thing folks who seem to complain and are dissatisfied with economic conditions is that when they were growing up, college was affordable. You could actually go to college, get grants or cheap loans, work a minimum wage job and actually get an education. Now this is not the case. It seems that colleges are now in the business of hoarding their reserves, and raising their tuitions. The government no longer does much to help out. In fact, years ago the government got this peachy idea of charging students a lot more money for a student loan and when times got better and those students wanted to renegotiate, like any sane person with a high interest mortgage could do, they were specifically told no by Congress. It was against the law.

And let’s touch on fascism as long as I’m on a run here. Fascism was coined by Mussolini. He said he could have called it Corporatism, because it’s the colluding of business and government. Mussolini came to power on a pledge “to make the trains run on time.” He didn’t. But he said he would. He didn’t. He said he would. He didn’t.

Like most autocrats they say stuff like, “I will fix it.” Yippee. Excuse me, exactly how? Yeah, you never get that answer. Trump is running on grievance and has no policies for anything. Pretty much, how he was when he was in office. “Covid? It will go away by itself.” (like that ad for medicine to combat toenail fungus. “Dad what’s that?” “Oh nothing.” (Doctor, “it’s an infection.”) “it will go away.” “No it won’t it’s an infection. You need medicine.” …

Okay, enough downbeat stuff, let’s talk American might and how when you swing a big stick you can change the world. Who’s the greatest oil trader of all time? Who stopped the rise of gas prices?  

Yep. Joe Biden. He released oil from the Federal strategic supply when prices were starting to climb. 100 million barrels. Who’s could compete? Who wanted to try? (answers: no one and no one.)

Then when prices dropped he bought that oil back making tidy profit for the U. S. of A. of half a billion bucks. Trump? What did he ever do about oil prices? Nothing.

So let’s talk about the supposed Biden Crime Family. Big expose! Truth. Joe Biden and his son use the same accountant. He and his brother use the same lawyer. That seems to be it. Wow. Truth!

Now, just for grins let’s look at the Trump family and their associates.

Ivanka got a bunch of copyrights from China.

Jared got two billion from Saudi Arabia.

Interestingly, while Jared was handling the foreign affairs portfolio for Dad, over 30 assets we had in China were murdered. And let’s not forget the Washington Post reporter who was killed and dismembered by the Saudis after having chummy talks with Jared. This after Jared was fresh off trying to set up a back channel to Russia that our CIA and NSA wouldn’t know about. and there was that Russian server pinging and transmitting to a server in Trump Tower. When told about it the server went down and another sprang up. What was going on?

Ah but why go on about this nepotism? Let’s look at the number of people in the former Trump administration in trouble with the law. Depending on how you want to look at it the list is at least 30.

This doesn’t count the fake electors or the insurrectionist on Jan 6 or his admin folks who are in trouble with the law or had to leave amidst scandal.

Aside from the multiple law suits Trump faces, many question remain, but the biggest one for me is –

What was said in those meetings between Putin and Trump?

And in other news: Caitlin Clark’s basketball team is drawing bigger crowds than the men’s NBA finals. Why is that? I have a guess. These women actually play basketball. Although some are trying to be thuggish toward Clark and some say that she just has to toughen up. Yeah. Kill the golden goose. 

I enjoy women’s hockey and soccer much more than the men’s games. Why? They actually play the game without the muggings and the antics.

Jennifer Lawrence recently said she prefers women directors. Not all the histrionics, yelling and screaming. Apparently, women directors are much calmer and not – what’s the word I’m looking for? – rectums? (close enough).