A Blog for the People...
Did they have to eliminate all the dark characters and all traces of ethnicity to cast all those beautiful people who could pass as white? That was a show for Harry's American wife Megan if ever I saw one; she missed her calling...
Even the gals on SNL seem to acknowledge they do their best work in drag, and to be honest? There's nothing at all challenging there; more shadow boxing than punching down even...
I think both a harder, truthier, less PC humor, as well as a more thoughtful and witty, sharper yet wholesome style will replace the blander meanness the American culture has come to settle for in the past decades.
The old stars are fading fast, and no one wants to see them replicated really.
Burning a Christmas tree outside the NY Fox workplace clearly sends a message to the team. He's outta there.
Chris is too smart to stick around and see what comes next...
A burning cross?
Before there was a Harry Potter children's series, Rice gave us the popular 80s stories of the Vampire Lestat.
Her books remain. =The Queen of the Damned lives on...
If you look for tenderness, it isn't hard to find; you can have the love you need to live...
But if you look for truthfulness, you might just as well be blind...
It always seems to be so hard to give.
-- Joel, Billy
It is telling that Jeff Bezos himself has a glowing tribute on his Twitter site to his employee Fred Hiatt and condolences to his family for his sudden cardiac death, prolonged by medical intervention until the family could gather and say their goodbyes. (And ensure everything medically possible had been done for Fred....)
Not true of his Amazon Edwardsville warehouse workers...
(Workers, not family or teammates. You don't wait so long to try and help, or even acknowledge the sufferings of, your missing and presumed killed in action family and teammates in America. You get in there and ask, "What can I do to help?")
Bezos will miss Fred after the tornado tragedy, no doubt. I suspect his hand- selected successors will be as gentle with national coverage of the big boss post tragedy as that which Fred would have led...
Btw, what evening Amazon warehouse shift starts at 2030, even in peak season? 8:30pm. ?
How long until centralized company HR computers can confirm who was still clocked in, and whose shift had ended already but might still be inside, nit having badge swiped at the door to get out?
Is Amazon waiting for biological family members to step forward to report the missing so they know how many bodies / employees / people to look for? Sad.
The OSHA investigation will be interesting, because with the deaths comes a way to formally breach the company veil in terms of training, , management and worker safety standards inside Amazon. Here the warehouse is in smithereens, but the answers from corporate will be telling about standard business practices and how the systemically shortchange the American worker, despite established labor laws.
It just doesn't make sense that this far out, responders and rescuers don't know exactly how many warehouse workers were officially in on the job, or had just clocked out and were inside waiting out the storm. Or waiting to pick up another shift with the mandatory downtime enforced rest period in between...
Were workers trained on how to evacuate the warehouse or where to gather in case of inclement weather? The building had no basement.
Bezos should know by now the names of his presumed dead employees, and in death, treat their memories the same as his deceased Washington Post newspaper employees. The factory workers enabled him to buy the newspaper and chase his space dreams...
They died on the job.
Even employee and beloved colleague / team member Hiatt wasn't working at the end, but spending holiday time with family. Nttawwt.
In death, Fred Hiatt still has something to teach. An unfinished lesson about.... "speaking truth to Power". But of course, that's a cliche in the biz
Bezos need not be confronted outright at all. Just go find the facts, journalists. Report what you learn and confirm. Don't trust your unnamed sources without verification. If your boss says he loves his workers, Mama say, "Check it out !"
(Last one updated for the unapprenticed newbies who came up making a name in the biz fetching coffee, buying Christmas presents to cultivate sweeter relationships, drinking in the right holes, and collecting tips... Of course, your mama's love you! Check it out, wha? And your lovely boss too! 💕 👏)
Workers to be too, those being smuggled across the borders...
Don't look away this Christmas time, America. Maybe ask, who's showing up to work those shifts to put presents under your family trees?
Equal treatment for American labor. Get into those workplaces and enforce labor laws. Make sure the person on the badge who's been hired is the worker who shows up to lift the boxes, not a relative or friend.
To hell with charitable contributions, Amazon makes so much -- and your stock is reaping rewards -- because they treat their workers cheaply, maximizing profits at human expense.
Jeff Bezos, be not proud.
He should be demanding that all his warehouses figure out a way to automate the shift count of the workers scheduled, noting who shows and who fails to show for a shift, so the next time an act of God happens, he is prepared to say, "These are our people. Together, let's work to find them. They worked for our company... They're ours."
Not slaves, just American workers.
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Of course, scheduling in advance means you lose flexibility in letting workers go early when trucks don't show, adding same day shift signups, and OT mandates and opportunities when the lines are volume heavy and slow moving, etc.
That can be hard on the body, not to mention make but impossible to guesstimate how many people were actually working, and where, at any time:. they jump you from line to line with the volume. (It's one reason the spread of Covid was rampant inside the factories last year and couldn't be tracked by line or shift, even. Also, lowered immunity of many newcomers working several physical jobs and neglecting sleep.)
The practices that benefit Amazon, and bring revenue to local regions, in the end aren't healthy for labor. If you better factor in human costs, the goods coming to you from most likely China are costing this country more than you'd think.
We all know that now. Now what?
The candle factory knows the numbers of workers accounted for, and the names of the 110 workers they say were on the evening shift when the Kentucky tornado touched down and trapped workers inside.
Amazon, by comparison, has no head count for the numbers of workers scheduled, or the names of those who showed up to work that shift. Rescuers in Edwardsville, Illinois sound discouraged as the rescue mission turns into one of recovering bodies.
Sadly, the company can't even tell them how many employee bodies to look for...
The deplorable American workers have become disposable overnight, while the people in the press who cover American news stories were out drinking, celebrating themselves, even collecting a few prizes along the way...
Sad.
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Added:. Tell lil Virginia, the hippopotamus she ordered up for Christmas might be delayed. Workers' deaths slow the supply chain too, you see....
..."I'll be dead. Yo, yo yo..."
Think on these things?
In death, as in life, Fred, like Mr. Rogers, still has much to teach those still alive.
-- I Wanna Be a Cowboy (1985)
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NYT Kathleen Kingsbury: "An editor know for his dogged reporting..."
They really should catch and edit that already. Less glowing tributes, more old-school quality anonymity...
Just get the job done dammit. They praised his name on his printed paychecks during all the war years ... Day's work, day's pay. That's it. Just do it. The job...
"Mind over matter, will make the Pooh unfatter...". Parity, friends. It's healthier for all of us
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Added: a little help for our friends above ...
Should be known, not know. "Known for" ... not "know for." Can you hear it, at least, if it doesn't jump out in copy? Can you hire a programmer who knows enough English to code the computer to catch such errors? Do it in memory of the late beloved Fred ... yoyoyo!, and the work he left behind, unfinished, entrusted to your ladyfingers...
No number yet of those killed inside.
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In other news,
Fifty-three people were killed in Mexico when a truck trailer allegedly bringing them to work in America flipped and killed those masses huddled inside ...
Pray for the workers when you make your year-end deductible charitable contributions, and check your market returns / earnings / income?
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"But how much, baby, do we really need? ... Cheer up, sleepy Jean! Oh, what can it mean?"
Ain't that funny? The neighborhood tree in Washington Park. Mayor Lightfoot's looking into putting up another, with security. We'll see; Christmas tree on the South Side ain't a menorah...
Dumb move because it's likely black men will fare worse under this policy.
Believe it or not, Malcolm -- now in Florida horse country -- is sometimes my best weather source here, as he listens to the scanners. Told me the Hudson bridge temporarily was closed the other morning because of the freeze and untreated icy conditions. Told me of Friday's storm a few days ago.
Started about noon. Going overnight. Some places up north have winter storm warnings until 6am. More than 200 flights cancelled at the airport.
Nasty rush hour predicted; stay safe tonight...
This is the permanent winter snow cover then.
It's the beginning of the end of celebrity worship in America, and preferential treatment for some Blacks over other African-Americans who were never saddled with the 1619 taint ...
God bless the honest immigrants then, black or white, in the end, his green could not buy him out of this one without an admission of the lying. Even in Kim Foxx's Chicago!
"If you can't fake it there ..."
Meanwhile in Minneapolis, what amazes me so far in the Duante Wright death / Kim Potter trial is the extent to which it all was captured on video: the shooting, the fleeing, the major-impact collision, the girlfriend being ordered out the car, the confusion, the surrounding of the Buick and finally, finally getting the 20-year-old's lifeless body out the driver's seat and starting first aid...
His mother saw the body first, via video chat on the phone, while the girlfriend was still in the car after it hit so hard the second car. Duante's body wasn't buckled... His neck whipped around like a newborn baby with no support, when the cops pulled him from the car.
The jurors are seeing all this, in addition to the stills of his lifeless body taken from the video. Enough evidence of this type, the defense argued today. We get it already.
But you wonder why Officer Potter, who knew how many people were in the vehicle and why it crashed, wasn't faster in reporting up to the scene that she had shot the man in the Buick, and done more to try and help him after the fact, at least.
Now let me get this straight... if a jeweler, who is Jewish, is tied up and robbed, why that's a hate crime, but mentally ill torching Christmas trees, or plowing people down in Christmas parades, well suck it up, bub?
Lol. The nice thing about having conservatives back on the Court is we won't see two-tiered justice systems here, no matter... equity. After abortion returns to the states, affirmative action too will topple under the legal theory that justice is blind, your skin color doesn't count in a court of law, for or against you. Blacks will sign on to this. No special preference in the classroom, trading off for no outright discrimination by the cops and courts...
The jeweler, btw? Tied up and robbed in Paris, not here. In America, he'd a been shot dead. (If you have guns, why learn knots?)
It's not about religion or skin color or special hate crimes, friends. The families of the parade dead and all the kids awaiting Christmas who saw video of the tree on fire could teach you that...
Crying doves vs. crying wolf.
In time, religion and faith will reassert their role in ordering American society, albeit for mixed (separate but equal under the First Amendment) conservative demographics.
Lots of our newcomers bring their own faith traditions and will assimilate to accept others practicing theirs. What won't be tolerated is trying to keep religion out of the marketplace...
We did that when Christianity was dominant, legally granting minorities special rights and set asides. Legal challenges curtailed some unconstitutional practices, but not all.
Pluralism and the lifting of more conservative American voices means a more equal playing field for those on the bottom, as well as those voices who will fight change, now comfortably ensconced with other artificial elite at the top...
I think the Court is just getting started in the work Trump voters hoped to see. Fair competition, fair fights for all.
It starts with justice for Jussie. Send a message, we hope that jury does, and then lock the liar up. Work release. He's unrepentant.
It's more a diplomatic snit-fit, admitting China's dominance and pulling your diplomats to make some unclear point....
=We don't like what you're doing, but of course, we will continue to tolerate it on non-humanitarian, economic grounds because as we sell out traditional American values here at home, China kinda owns us...
The wealthiest young Americans are immersing their children in Mandarin, not Spanish: "Look East for your future fortunes, little lady", the Horace Greeley's of today might advise...
Fwiw, my money's still on America. Underestimate us at your peril.
I can see how celebrating Christianity, the birth of Christ the King, would be threatening to many who believe the State, and not families or private religions, is most powerful in reorganizing society according to the whims of the rich and corrupt...
Same as it ever was. It's likely no coincidence this fire was set on one of the the holiest days in the Catholic calendar -- the Immaculate Conception.
This was a terrorist act designed to spread fear in the hearts of all who see the burning symbol and wonder, who will speak out in America when they come for our Christian flesh?
Burning tree, burning bush ... these are signs of what is coming. Heed such warnings. There's likely more Christians in this country than you can count, or even outvote in many places.
Divided we fall. (The country more than the Christians who comprise a good majority of it still.)
In NYC, an arsonist burned to the ground a Christmas tree outside the Fox news studios, presumably to send a message to the people inside and the deplorable Christians at home watching...
It's a January 6-style act of violence that will likely be given a pass in the national media because the hate is directed at Christians. Imagine what the Jews would do with a blatant attack like this -- it would likely lead nightly news coverage for a few cycles.
American Christians will likely be told re this act of terrorism in a major US city:. Suck it up. As if we have the hatred and violence coming to us...
Sad.
The American public follows these news stories. When it's revealed via email, in court, that America's news reporters are becoming newsmakers themselves by inserting themselves into the story by trying to influence the outcome/narrative spin, you lose public trust and shame your profession. You chuck your honor and ethics to unfairly help a friend or relative from your place of influence, here trading in early information, not yet reported publicly.
That's not a crime but a journalistic breach of ethics that helps no one in the end, least of all your celebrity friend, still in denial, who appears to think he is on trial for being gay, not for filing false police reports, costing a strapped city hundreds of thousands in investigation-related costs, and worst of all -- trying to inflame racial and political tensions in a mixed city that has no tolerance for anyone who would ignite the hatred that helps to burn a city down, just to advance his celebrity career...
Sad.
I like that within the national party, Republicans have been conducting a bloodless civil war casting aside the evangelist establishment neo-con hawks, who for too long represented religious extremism in the party. You might not like the newcomers, but few are there riding their parents' pasts. Fresh names are good; they bring excitement and by withholding votes, change. No need to drop your wife, daughter or son on us to publicly serve their country.
When forced to listen, and think ahead to election and facing voters, they represent all the people better, I think.
The Democrats are nowhere near beginning this process. Stuck on identity politics that have become losing propositions overall now, nationally the Dems are alienating more potential voters than gaining allies through poorly targeted attempted outreach dollars.
Blind or ignorant, they lash back if you attempt to dare educate them on the reality of other peoples, other places. Education is a top-down, safe-space place now in too many public universities, where the taxpayer and student dollars serve the tenured elite, who too often refuse to entertain questions about the value of their contemporary scholarship and accountability to American society, as well as international standards, for their work.
Natural attrition had claimed many older politicians, but many grandstanding grandparents still persist in Washington, drinking at the trough. All about the children, naturally.
Today we learned Devin Nunes is walking away from representing Cali in Washington, choosing to work in media comm for Donald Trump. If the past is indicative, he'll have greater opportunity in his new role to bring about needed change in America than as a representative.
If you have a history of epilepsy and medication side effects are unpredictable, you can likely gain medical documentation to show you are disabled -- medically unable to work full time. This qualifies you for a monthly disability payment, and a child payment for children of the disabled. You are permitted to work too, up to a certain monetary level not to be exceeded each quarter.
One of the late WaPo editor Fred Hiatt's contributions to American journalism was reporting by anectdote.
He swept in a diverse range of educated and credentialed new voices, few with reporting training or backgrounds. Hired more to check a box, his writers told us tales based on their experiences, which ironically made the pool of those communities and lifestyles reported on smaller, as much of the diversity didn't really run deep...
That, along with the legacy of distrust sowed nationally by the neocons who championed fruitless Mideast wars at American expense, accounts for the lack of trust in today's media mouthpieces.
But using anectdote-style reporting, a great tribute to Mr. Hiatt might be a detailed look at his heart attack at 66. "Get vaccinated, get vaccinated, get vaccinated again!" Is a fine and simple media chant but for those with a history of heart issues, it's. a bit more complex...
Hiatt's heart history, and a timeline of his vaccinations, booster and Covid history -- if any -- might be instructive. He's just one man, but we need to admit that Covid and perhaps vaccines affect people with preexisting conditions differently.
Reporting by antectdote doesn't teach that much, as the sample set is limited and pliable, but surely some of his latter-day hires might be wondering if there is a Covid cardiac connection to the death. Maybe after expressing heartfelt condolences for the career help, they might ask questions too about why he died so young and if there were contributory factors that others still alive can protect against?
RIP Mr. Hiatt. We Americans will carry on from here, reporting the facts and following up on whether the initial information was reported correctly. It's never too late to unspin a story, even or especially when it's so costly to American society and beyond...
plays in the Fiesta Bowl at 1pm New Year's Day under new head Coach Freeman.
(I didn't realize Brian Kelly resigned effective immediately; I thought when they moved on and signed elsewhere, they at least stayed to finish out the season... My bad.)
Our first significant snowfall in the East Metro. From the third floor, it's beautiful! Our Guardian Angels Church bazaar was yesterday and today.
Never ceases to amaze me all the non Christians who love the cookie scene, pictures with Santa, fresh cut trees and fellowship, Merry Christmas everyone!
(Hopefully we're not overranking Georgia in college football's top four as a gift too?)
Based on how they finished the season. = number five.
A farce at number three, admitting you don't want a matchup again and hope number two Michigan beats them?
Number four and you serve the nation a Tide - Dawgs rematch so soon? No thank you. Nobody wants that, least of all the players, coaches, teams or non-SEC alum and fan base. Northerners like their college football too.
Stick Georgia at number five, avoid the (re-)scheduling issues and please the most you can with the remaining games scheduled. The regular season is over. We don't need a CFP this year to tell us who is national champion. That contest ended yesterday.
I don't think at the end of the season, with last night's big game factored in, Georgia showed us much...
Besides, wouldn't the LSU nation especially love to see how their coach to be fares playing Alabama, if ND rather than the beatdown Dawgs, are ranked as number four?
If you let Georgia back in, do you think they will be seen as legitimate if the beat Alabama again so soon in a matchup this year? Easy way to avoid that ...
Georgia didn't want it bad enough yesterday. Drop them to number five in the nation.
We'll know at noon. I'd like the unhappy Georgia Bulldog fans to be even more unhappy when they realize what they lost yesterday.
Did they think it was a warmup?
Alabama vs. Notre Dame in Texas.
Cincinnati vs. Michigan in Florida.
Winners meet in the 2021 CFP championship game.
* 5) Georgia. Best football games of the season often determine who get there, with the latter-day bowl set up. Last night's SEC championship was the peak of the college football season.
There will not be -- should not be -- an Alabama-Georgia rematch this year, greedy fans. This is not the pro, but the collegiate level.
Georgia finishes their season nationally at number five, not that there's anything wrong with that -- still bowl worthy and big bowl eligible, but out of running for the crown...
That will likely go -- deservedly -- to 'Bama, which has proven all year the can win the hard games, when it matters, against the top opponents.
Competitively, that's your national college champion right there... Alabama. Any questions?
Cincinnati, Michigan and/or Notre Dame can try and top them in the bowl season now, but everybody in the know knows it won't take a CFP game to settle the final question of who is undoubtedly number one again this year...
Roll Tide.
They didn't run to the woods, but to the city in the Kia. Likely will not go free before their trial dates now. Flight risk.
The Crumbley parents.
Likely they are having an OJ in the Bronco moment as it hits them what their son has done.
Would the earlier search warrant have looked for any other guns the parents might have owned in the house? Likely not, right? You're not going to take as evidence from the home unrelated weapons like hunting rifles, I don't think...
With $4,000 in cash, and knowledge perhaps of small backwoods Michigan stores with no cameras, the pair might be planning to stay in Michigan, not hit the road for Florida.
This one might end like the Brian Landrie search, with two bodies being found out there, in time.
There's little they can do to help their son now. He belongs to the State.
(Not my thinking, but theirs perhaps...)
They might just want to end it, and check out together. OJ was lucky in that way -- he had a good friend in A.C. Cowlings who seems to have had the wisdom needed at the time of that slow-speed chase that ended in no additional loss of life.
Anyone's.
Imagine if the parents of the two Columbine teens had been held responsible for their children's actions back in the day...
Imagine if the divorced-and-moved-on wealthy father in the Sandy Hook killings had to answer what he knew about his mentally ill son's gun actions and what he did to prevent that massacre...
Imagine if Kyle Rittenhouse's parents, apparently ignorant of their son's actions in intimidating a friend into buying him a gun, had to pay to defend their boy themselves, being responsible for their continual negligence in raising him.
The Michigan parents, and school too, bear responsibility for not searching the child's backpack and person after the teacher alerted school authorities to the threat.
Child never should have remained in school.
Part of the problem in not involving parents sooner -- holding them accountable for the actions of the children they are responsible for raising -- is the adult parents are immature.
Adults put societal problems on children, robbing them of innocent childhoods. They are not mature to be trusted to make good choices. Adrift in a world of adult problems filtering into their lives via the institutionalized big-school warehouses, they can get lost and their troubles go unseen or ignored.
Not this one.
The teacher who reported and photographed the child's literal ask for help should get a million-follar prize for doing (likely pronoun) her job.
If only she had thought to question him herself harshly to learn more about his access to guns, or asked him to unzip and dump the contents of his bag in front of her, four other families might not be burying their children this weekend.
Parents, not the State, are responsible for raising children. Let's keep repeating that message until more parents accept responsibility and control of their own.
So stick around because we might miss you, with all this visual!
In the spirit of the Advent season, NYT reporter Jason Horowitz and Pope Francis's people conducted an interfaith gift exchange, like pro athletes on rival teams do post-game jersey swaps...
Horowitz gave the Pope a dreidel to play a Hanukah game with, and the Pope gave Horowitz a miniature creche celebrating the birth of the Christ child, the greatest gift of all.
It's like the gift of the Magi, shining brightness in a naughty world.
Four to go: two regulars, two alternates...
Trial begins next week under the direction of the female Asian-American judge.
Voir dire has been interesting, if you are into that. Prosecutors are out of strikes; juror number 10 sounds ... interesting. No word yet on his race (it's all about identity cues in this world they've created) as those stats are released at the end of the day...
The first 9 are 6 White, 1 Black and 1 Asian-American, for what you can glean from those statistics
To me, the fuller background details during questioning are of more interest.
Number 10:
-20 years in IT, before he trained as an Explorer to be a cop but decided not to go down that path because he might have to use the gun. So somewhat critical of Potter's actions and lack of my muscle-memory instinctual response that comes though continual training/practice.
What killed me was when the old gal, 49, put out her resignation statement days after the killing saying she enjoyed "every minute" of her long career on police forces
Tone deaf, as those minutes included the ones where she took a life... Not convicting her on that, but accountability matters in all public unions, I believe.
Local attorney Earl Gray is good, but I hope she is locked up. She chose deadly force to protect herself and others that didn't cost her life. It caused needless death. She should lose some precious freedom in the tradeoff that cost Durante Wright all of his, despite his alleged criminal background.
Accountability, liberty and justice for all. Negligent and reckless, she was that day. Let's see what the 12 chosen think after they hear the court-admitted evidence and arguments.
With the world watching on, Gray is going to have to be careful not to overstep and appear offensive, like with the dirty toenails line in the Georgia case...
1222021
(Imma jump ahead then and reset my calendar 100 years today to combine DST wit VBD = 1222121 )
Better, or wait 20 days plus the calendar change? 12222121
"There are Fears that still reverberate...."
1 Corinthians 13: 4-8
"Love is patient, love is kind, love is merciful... It does not celebrate wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
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In other news, Napheesa Collier of the MN Lynx announced she and her boyfriend are expecting a baby girl next May. The father is a (white) personal trainer/ coach who has worked with Candace Parker in the past. Surprise!
Biological women's sports are unique in presenting this scheduling/team rebuilding challenge with relatively little notice to the coaches trying to plan for team needs. Nttawwt, but why not be open and acknowledge our team-members are in their peak biological years, overlapping their peak playing years. Egg freezing is nice if you're into artificial procedures and outside assistance to create your families but natural pregnancies are more likely to occur than those planned, and costly, procedures, I'd bet.
But I wasn't thinking of Collier so much but Maya Moore. She's bigger in recent photos, and stepped aside from her career to build her family, working to free her husband from prison before marrying him. I can't find a pregnancy confirmed on online, but talk about a woman you hope procreates! A true Christian, Moore followed her heart and soul in walking away from pro sports and pursuing peace in her own time. Love is patient, love is kind, Love never ends, indeed. She was tested, and gave us a real life example of using her gifts for goodness. It can be done! Thy will...
when I left you. You closed the door and left me blind, by and bye...
Don't let the sun go down on me? Although I search myself, always someone else I see...
Just allow a fragment of your life... to wander free? Because losing everything is like the sun going down on me.
-- John, Elton.
(or, in my best George Michael voice... "Ladies and gen'lemen... Mistah Elton John!" You know that live version, right...? Massive applause line as he comes out. March 25, 1991 London calling...)
"Don't discard me -- baby no! -- just because you think I mean you harm..."
Remember those civil-rights workers buried in the ground...
Oh Common Ground... is it a word or just a sound?
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~ Lou Reed, "Good evening, Mr Waldheim". (Listen to the whole thing; I don't do it justice here typing the snippet...)
Are you buying BOTH coincidences Baldwin is pushing? The gun was mysteriously loaded with live rounds AND it was faulty and went off on its own, with no one pulling the trigger? Hm.
Time has passed, but some things have changed, even in Hollywood.
The only way to learn the truth, it seems, is to bring negligence charges and get him to tell that story to a jury to determine credibility.
Imagine if investigators back in 1981 had been more diligent in investigating Natalie Woods' death, there wouldn't be the perception today Wagner got away with murder.
That SUV in the Waukesha parade? Would you believe me if I told you it just ... malfunctioned at the most inopportune time? Would you believe it more if the accused driver was a handsome rich actor?
I wouldn't. Own your deadly actions, or defend to yourself credibly. No excuses for the upper classes; what kind of message of safety is sent to workers still on sets? How about, workers' lives matter?
Be skeptical, America...
#LibertyAndJusticeForAll
#SabbaticalBreak
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Added: In my opinion, Robert Wagner is/was (he's 91 now, not prosecutable in practicality) a switch hitter, iykwim, as a young man coming up during Hollywood's Golden Age. He caddied for the stars at the golf club and later hung with them as pals at the track and on their boats/yachts. Heavily bearded times, Wagner admits, with so much behind the scenes still arranged for those "under contract" by the studio bosses during what turned out to be their waning days...
(Early Hollywood history is fascinating -- how the industry shaped America, as well as a study of how Jews dominated in film production the way early Irish did local politics and public service jobs; early Greek immigrants did food joints and restaurants, etc.).
My former books editor at The Palm Beach Post in South Florida Scott Eyman chronicled those times and highlighted some key players in his earlier (better) books. (Mary Pickford, John Ford, Ernst Lubitch -- what a touch that man had!; the Lion of Hollywood Louis B. Mayer, etc.) Note: I didn't say all the power players in the early industry were Jews, plenty of peripheral players like Marlene Dietrich say, were just very Jew-connected, nttawwt...
Eyman later shifted his academic reporting style to co-writing with Robert Wagner three books, two biographies and a memoir of place.
My friend, my lunch buddy, my editor (!) essentially sold out and shot a quick bestseller up the NYT book charts based on the strength of Wagner's popularity in the old-lady book-buying public. He helped sell Wagner's story of the night his wife -- twice-over -- died off his boat after an evening of heavy drinking with Christopher Walken. You know the allegations if you follow news stories and read widely who said what. If you can think like a non-swimmer, drunk and in the dark, it's not likely she really wanted to take herself ashore, or into the water.
(The disinterested witnesses who later reported hearing a woman's voice calling for help, and the Captain's later corrected story kind of tipped things for me...)
But of course, her husband was never charged; Walken and the Captain never testified under oath and the story never added up . (All that bruising on a drowned body...?)
Inho, again, Wagner was a switch who used Woods' stronger talent and fame, but never achieved more than B-list work -- not that there's anything wrong with that, if your wife can accept your homosexual dalliances too. Woods put up with a lot, I suspect...
Wagner went on to sell himself as one of Hollywood's leading men in his relationships off screen and on. Nttawwt. Just miscategorized as straight memoir instead of that gauzy romantic memoir-fiction-lite Hollywood was better known for during its storytelling days when happy endings were most profitable before the industry began to turn out the highly profitable blockbusters that started with Jaws and has morphed into repackaging old product, especially those simple comic-book superheros characters...
Feeding the global market, the stories being sold by Hollywood and the media today are dictated by international tastes. Hence the "guilty White America" schtick that sells so well except at home.
I don't think enough people will remain loyal to helping Baldwin and the people working the Rust set hide the facts and bury the dead with compensation.
(Btw, is Alice Sebold going 50-50 off the profits of her rape bestseller with the wrongly accused man who served 16 years off her false testimony? Apologies are nice, but she profited off a fiction narrative that cost another part of his life and his most precious freedom.)
True justice has not yet been served but we wait in joyful hope...
Let's not wait for Heaven or End Times to put our talents to service in the name of finding truth and justice here on Earth? 'Tis the reason for the season and all that, the prince of peace born in poverty in a stable to light up the world for the rest of us stumbling in darkness.
Just keeping the lights on in our own Dark Ages is all that's asked, of the sighted and the blind using all resources at our disposal.
Human beings and so much in the natural world are not disposable though. When we see the artifice turned deadly, shouldn't it be our human obligation to light it up and put a shine on reality? Not hundreds of years later, today?
More profitable to wait, of course, but in their own times, as lot of people have turned their talents into the cause of turning profits at any price... Sad. I can see selling out when you're younger and hungry, but old age should be especially a time of questioning, gathering facts, sowing justice.
"Whatsoever things are true... Think on these things?"
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Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me--put it into practice.
~Philippians 4:8
"Nothing you can do that can't be done. Nothing you can write that can't be run..."
