The intent of this blog is to promote human equality, human progress, human peace and justice, and optimism. To accomplish this, to encourage the discussion of ideas after identifying and discovering problems, and then creating positive solutions for "we the people," in order to provide for the "general welfare" and "domestic tranquility" of America now and its "posterity" into the future. To encourage an emphasis on separation of religion and state for all, no matter if this is for those "of faith" in a Maker / Creator (Deists, God-loving people, Christians, various people of spirituality) and atheists or agnostics.

Archive for the ‘Reviews’ Category

Short & To the Point: CBS News This Morning Story About Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Bravo to CBS News Sunday Morning and your report about Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. What a wonderful ride down memory lane to the “Deja Vu” album we purchased at the end of the 1960s while just young kids. We loved listening to “Our House” and “Teach Your Children,” etc. America needs these values portrayed by this wonderful band. Glad to hear there is a 50th anniversary remake. What is disappointing is to hear the rift between the band members and hearing that this rift will likely never be fixed because it is like trying to put together a “thread which has been broken.”

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Short & To the Point: Words of Free Enterprise & Constitution

Joe Scarborugh’s used of the words, “free enterprise” is like those who use the word constitution to make a point related to the discussion which assumes we all agree on how the wording is used. In one short phrase and without explanation, Scarborough intended “free enterprise” to be contrary to the word, “socialism.” With the references I have for Scarborough suggesting the Republicans should support regulation of capitalism, the phrase “free enterprise” becomes ambiguous to those who say, “rah, rah, rah” to “free markets” and “free enterprise” and with no concern for REGULATING free enterprise. Same is true with pro-gun NRA people who make a claim that the 2nd Amendment is for individual rights when there are many who say no to such crap and that it is more about, since its conception, defending white people while not allowing black people and indigenous folks to get away with the same murder with guns that white people do. Mention the word, “constitution,” and such white racists believe you are supportive of their ideas of the 2nd Amendment to protect white people. Same thing. Ambiguity with words. Actually, I believe socialism AND free enterprise can co-exist and are NOT contrary to one another. Socialism fits in when there is infinite demand in capitalist markets. The concept of socialism for taking over business by the government dose not fit the picture I have of socialism. Socialism can can play a role in helping to balance supply and demand. In fact, the example of centrally planned supply side economics with big business is more like government control advocated by socialism. Just because it is a bunch of wealthy fat cats who have done well financially due to liberals and conservatives, red and blue, Democrats and Republicans over time (and never give the appreciation for this balance of power which helped them achieve what they achieved), does not negate the fact that they use socialist and communist centrally planned economics to destroy free enterprise. One more example of ambiguity in words. It’s centrally planned economics by big corporate monopolies, stupid, not socialism, which causes America’s problems. It is tough to explain in being “short and to the point” because of the ambiguity of words. Yet, I am in a catch-22 with a bunch of dolts in America who refuse to read as extensively as my blue-collar dad who served his country in the Pacific in World War II. He read extensively and it was detailed articles in newspapers which, for the sake of short-sighted dolts today, have been cut back and we in rural America are denied the delivery of newspapers in print copy. Go to hell to such an America because even newspapers are working to destroy America.

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Sixty Minutes: The Richie Boys

What a neat story about the Richie Boys, as told this evening (May 9, 2021) on Sixty Minutes. The guys interviewed explained how proud they were to be Americans and to serve the nation they could turn to as Hitler threatened these guys in Germany and they lost family to the Holocaust. Stupid people of the American idiocracy make false claims about the Holocaust not existing, as they claim that Trump won the 2020 election and Biden lost. They have only false information they love to spread and have loud big mouths and people who enable them to spread the lies. These Richie Guys appreciate what America did for them.

The Proud Boys and Qanon and other idiots of this sort need to take lessons about how to appreciate what they have in America. They need to stop the BS regarding the gun folks of the NRA and the violence they promulgate. These idiots in American white supremacy need to express appreciation for what they have, whether it comes from liberal or conservatives, black people or gay people or whomever. Shame on this hypocrisy and vicious attitudes of white supremacists who work to scare Americans.

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Jeff Vander Meer Interview, New York Times Book Review (Sun., Apr. 18, 2021)

​Dear Editor:
Jeff Vander Meer said, “It’s more important that books be laboratories and experiments and it’s up to readers to be moral.” 

What a nice expression for which so many of us could agree.  Those of us who would support such a statement are most likely to also be moral, too.
It brings to question as to what is moral?  What is morality?  What are moral values?  At this point, this expression is taken from simplicity to a more complex one.  A man named Timothy McVeigh got his plan for a homemade bomb from a book titled, The Turner Chronicles.  This man was executed for the Oklahoma City bombing.  Was he moral when he grabbed at the contents of a book with an intent to murder which ultimately turned into genocide?  As a librarian, this has been a question I have struggled with for some time now.  I am against censorship.  I am against the book burning perpetrated by Hitler in Germany.  I am against the Southern bastards who had burnings of Beatles recordings in the good old Dixie crap.  I am against someone of another religion who asks that I burn my infant baptismal certificate.  Should I have stood firm about my position with regard to the immoral reader named Timothy McVeigh and The Turner Chronicles?  I believe this takes the Vander Meer quote a step further than just a simplistic consideration.  What is the answer?
Stacy Abrams of Georgia recently said that we should stand firm on our values, but compromise on the actions we take to support those values.  These words, values and morality, are too generic, especially in light of a society in which too many are in control who obtain their values from Parker Brothers Monopoly games, the words of an unintelligent atheistic Russian Jew named Ayn Rand with her “virtue of selfishness” (clarify:  I have known many American Jews who are wonderful people and who do NOT follow the principles of Ayn Rand), and from the false ideas of being “free” generated by a pediatrics doctor for the Baby Boom generation named Dr. Benjamin Spock.  Libertarians and other “free thinkers” today believe in “free markets” and go along with supply side economics as if it would be endorsed by Adam Smith, the one who defined capitalism.  Their “values” are that such “free markets” would be better. 

Not only do individualistic selfish snots help boost Rand’s ideas of “virtue of selfishness,” but in actuality, they go AGAINST the moral values of Adam Smith.  Adam Smith’s writings were Wealth of Nations, not “wealth of individualism.”  Another writing by Adam Smith was the Theories of Moral Sentiment.  Adam Smith, a contemporary of the American Founding Fathers (located in Scotland), was also a theologian who based his values on the moral sentiment of Jesus Christ.  Christ who was degraded as being one to seek to be a “king over Israel,” based on the example of King David and Joseph who became a leader in the land of pharaohs in Egypt.  Christ was dealing with a miserable autocratic government in line with the example of a Trump regime and its autocratic ways based on evil values with a love of money, hatred of neighbors, and pitting one American against another. 

May I remind people that Smith’s definitions of capitalism, falsely blamed by lousy and evil Karl Marx, is really supply AND demand.  Supply-side economics is a reprisal of Medieval crappy economics of an autocratic aristocratic lousy society.  Marx missed the point and has plunged the world into real stupidity about values. 

Thus, I have a problem with “it’s up to readers to be moral.”  We live in the days when there are generations which did not experience real difficulty in life, called world war, economic depression, world war once again, and then “cold war.”  Baby Boomers embracing Monopoly, Ayn Rand with “virtue” of selfishness, stupidity of notions from Dr. Spock in training young people, and supply-side economics.  Where are the values of “the reader?” 

My World War II-generation mother often spoke to me about how bad the teaching of young people was, due to Dr. Spock.  I would say, “I don’t get it, Mom.”  She said, “someday you will.”  To Mom in heaven, “I get it now” as the Dr. Spock generation is causing hell on earth and I would rather fix things to relieve this earth of a “hell on earth” and not face the only possibility of going to Heaven RIGHT NOW.  Morality is not of one mind today, as much as it was more likely with the generations which faced a great deal of hardship and had an appreciation in overcoming those hardships with the America in which I was born. 

A writer in the old pre-Gannett newspaper, The Palm Beach Post, once challenged Tom Brokaw and his thoughts that the World War II generation was the “greatest” generation.  This writer, who was part of the World War II generation, proclaimed that it was his PARENTS’ generation, or the World War I generation, which was the “greatest.”    His EVIDENCE was the historical facts that the World War I generation lived their adult lives, from out of high school until they died, with World War I, Prohibition, the Great Depression, World War II, and sometimes into the years of the “cold war.”  He proclaimed that much of the World War II generation were kids during the Great Depression and a large part of World War II, and then served in World War II.  This writer addressed the ideas about morality. 

When Stacy Abrams mentioned compromise on actions, not values, it also brings to mind a speech by Roman Catholic Bobby Kennedy, Jr., when he discussed how legislating morality about abortion does not work as well as regulating abortion.  He used examples of how regulating abortion, contrary to the likes of asses like Rick Santorum  (who is purposrtedly not even liked by his relatives in Italy) or Rick Scott or DUH-Satan (DeSantis) of Florida, in addition to asses like Abbott of Texas and Kemp of Georgia, Johnson of Wisconsin, Gaetz of Flordia, as well as Trump and the Trumpicans.  This later group of folks might proclaim they have “moral values,” but their UNCOMPROMISING actions are to make things illegal and destroy what they find go against their values. 

At the end of the day, Vander Meer’s ideas about the moral reader ignores the ideas about democracy and compromise on ACTIONS while maintaining values.  An autocratic government like that envisioned by Trump and his followers,destructive forces against democracy, negates the domestic peace of America by ignoring the justice necessary for WE THE PEOPLE of all kinds.  Peace with an autocratic leader might be peace, but it lacks justice for so many people. 

Having an ass of a Supreme Court justice, appointed by Trump, Amy Coney Barrett, does not help to improve peace and justice, but destroys justice for many.  Barrett is purportedly affiliated with LGBTQ hate groups, in addition to the hate groups which wish to legislate morality regarding abortions while falsely validating those who use guns to kill people in abortion clinics.  Might as well say she is affiliated with the “Hitler Youth.” 

Barrett’s morality might be good.  Her justification of actions which are absurd and irrational, is unacceptable.  Even with her actions, I refuse to compromise my MORAL VALUES regarding murder and hatred of folks who were BORN gay, made by our CREATOR.  She says it is not right to murder babes in the womb, but it is okay to hate those who are born gay and outside the womb.  People who might be males but have XXY chromosomes or males who are not bathed enough in testosterone while in the womb or born with two genitalia or ….  I can go on and on about how our Creator gave us life, besides the fact that we are ALL created as females, but our genes help us develop in the womb to be what we become.  Amy “Conan the Barbarian” Coney Barrett proves she is affiliated with the same Satan which Jesus Christ faced in his 40 days of life on earth, following his baptism. I don’t want someone imparting justice to America who is like this bitch, the “Barbarian.” 

As Jesus Christ said, while hanging from a cross, “Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do.” 

Go ahead, New York Times, don’t publish what I write here, which is similar feelings to many Americans (perhaps MOST Americans, according to the polls).  Saying morality is up to the reader is a bunch of crap from bleeding heart liberals who ignore what is really happening in America today. 

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Gun Issues Discussion on Morning Joe (4/9/21)

I don’t like statements (4/9/21) from those who speak with pessimism and saying, “getting to that middle ground [on gun control] in this political system.”  Perhaps he was correct, but this pessimism should not be happening because it does not give the American confidence in our system at all and that is exactly what Trump and the NRA want.  You are playing into the hands of the devil called Trumpican redneck white bastards.  I say this as an educator and no one wishes to listen.  STOP THE PESSIMISTIC prophesies and talk about SOLUTIONS that we can do in working together, even if that means getting rid of the GODDAMN … I am saying GODDAMN … filibuster in the U.S. Senate and other means (get rid of gerrymandering, get rid of fraud in the form of Republican electioneering in a voting area – as I have observed – and other means).  STOP THE GODDAMN PESSIMISM.  I am serious.

STop the statement, “it will never happen” when we CAN overcome obstacles.  An administrator at the college where I was a professor would say, “you run into obstacles, there are two ways around them  One is to make sure we learn how to jump over them and the other way is to find a way around it.”
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REVIEW: Hooked, by Michael Moss, on Morning Joe (26 March 2021)

Interesting discussion on Morning Joe, 26 March 2021, regarding the impact of the food giants in creating the scenario of craving food and ultimately drugs, for the purpose of selling foods. The author interviewed was Michael Moss who wrote the book, Hooked.

The increased numbers of obese people and diabetics is the result of this. Without locating the exact sources, the evidence has been out there and pronounced in documentaries and other sources in the health field. Type II diabetes may be of genetic inheritance, but there are many who, with the genetics, have fallen to diabetes at an earlier age than the generation before this one, from which the genes were inherited. Fast foods were not part of the earlier generations. High fructose corn syrup, developed for the purpose of selling more Iowa corn by creating cravings for sugar, was not part of that earlier generation.

Add to this “food giant” quest from the perspective of love for money, hatred towards human beings and prioritizing money over humans, and we have what Moss described this morning on Morning Joe. Moss is not the only one who has written about this phenomenon.

Since when does hate override love in America to such a point that stupid jackasses like the Republican Congressperson from Nebraska and others, defend the 2nd Amendment by playing lip service to it with a hidden agenda of hatred of one another, especially the hatred of some white folks of those with colored skins. These people need to be locked up, along with those of the big food giants because they all, with love of money, create a hell on earth with divisiveness and pitting American against American. Then they use evangelical fundie religious s***s of people to place the fear of this earth and pushing everyone to go to a heaven, in order to get away from the hell they create on earth. They are lousy evil people. Jesus Christ made it known his distaste for the love of money. Paul repeated it in a letter to Timothy. These s***heads hide the truth, but the truth will set us all free, not send us off to heaven, based on the hidden agenda of human beings.

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REVIEW: Morning Joe & book, The Whiteness of Wealth

Thank you, Dr. Dorothy A. Brown (author of The Whiteness of Wealth: : How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans–and How We Can Fix It), adding to the author, Heather McGhee (The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How we Can Prosper Together). The problem is evident with regard to taxes which are designed for the most wealthy individuals in America and that means white people benefit more. Well said.

My problem is in the sub-title of the book. As Stacey Abrams says, “we stand firm on our values, but can compromise on our actions.” I stand with Dr. Brown in the values of human equality which she points out in the title. I have some concerns about the part of the sub-title of “how we can fix it.”

Yes, Dr. Brown gives us some good insight on solutions for the problem. And we should all recognize her for coming up with solutions and standing forth with such solutions. Thank you, Dr. Brown.

My problem, though, for which I have written over and over again, is that people look at capitalism through the lenses and perspectives of the wealthy white people for more than 200 years now. They have played lip service to the ideas defined by Adam Smith whose intent was to change economics of supply siders who are white aristocrats since the Middle Ages (the Dark Ages). The industrial revolution, according to these people, is the result of capitalism. It’s the result of the aristocratic white folks who thought it would be nice to play lip service to Adam Smith. In fact, I argue that the industrial revolution has merely been a repeat of the agribusiness and agricultural plantation systems. The level of impact may have been better for the white Europeans who flocked her voluntarily to work in sweat shops where many died, but the concept is the same as enslavement of Africans. Yes. Slavery is far worse. No denial of that. But the CONCEPT is very similar. Do I make my point in this regard?

What America is facing, as a result of this twisted version of capitalism is something in which the wealthy Roosevelts tried to twist back and who is it that attacks such people? White wealthy ones which newspapers at the end of the 19h and beginning of the 20th Century identified as “fat cats.” I use those words, but sad to say, no one follows suit. Perhaps if I say, “white fat cats?” Sadly, there are many African-Americans who do follow suit with wealth and become “black fat cats,” too. As Whoopi Goldberg said, “we all need to get on the same page.”

Marx, too, opposed this capitalism defined by white supremacist aristocrats. To solve the problem, he suggested something which was adopted by the former Soviet Union in the same way the white aristocracy adopted capitalism to fit the status quo which had already existed. Whether czars or monarchies of Europe, it’s the same thing. Communists using the Marx ideas by playing lip service to them, but creating a the same type of centralized planned economic system which the czars had, but calling it something different and tossing away religion, due to the fault of religion being controlled by hypocrites, and proclaiming a religion of atheism. After all, religion was the “opiate of the masses.” Yes. But God and the spirituality of God is NOT the opiate of the masses. That’s the point people don’t get. Even the Founding Fathers in America, in spite of their embracing enslavement of a people, had a better idea than Marx with regard to their Deist beliefs.

Taking theologian, Adam Smith’s ideas, and turning those ideas to their own favor and continuing the status quo which favored their wealthy asses (they called assets), gave us the industrial revolution and the herding of people into cities and urban areas so they could create a caste system which favored their asses. They allowed small business to thrive in America, but it thrived best in rural areas, not urban areas where big corporate conglomerates and monopolies could rule and drive small business out of existence, creating the same type of centralized planning and control which the Soviets used and which now still exists in Russia. The communists only used black Americans for their own benefit to gain control of the world. Does one think they truly had the human condition in mind? Give me a break. Adam Smith found out that free markets create monopolies and this went against the ideas of Jesus Christ, so he changed his mind in his later years. However, the aristocratic white fat cats embraced Smith’s earlier ideas which give us this idea that “free markets” are good and overlooking what ultimately happens with “free markets” as competition in a capitalist economic system is destroyed and supply side monopolies which regulate the markets as they are able to, with s*** like Citizens United Supreme Court Decision, destroy (deregulation) government regulation – by a third party.

In this sense, These white fat cat aristocrats love deregulation because it means they can also invoke Jim Crow and other laws in “private business” and they work to stop the government from interfering, as we are watching as it happens today in Georgia (and other state) voter suppression laws.

Thus, I see tax reform through the lenses and perspectives I just defined. I agree with the author who spoke on Morning Joe. Tax credits are designed for the wealthy ones which consist mostly of white people. No doubt about this. My take on this is what conservatives in an earlier era in my life said and for which no conservatives today even mention, while CLAIMING to be conservative. There is too damn much of this political spectrum. People saying, “I have to follow what the conservatives are saying.” Or. “I have to follow what the liberals or progressives are saying.” Ultimately, the entire political spectrum is looking at this through false lenses and working to bring people aboard their “ship.” Even the liberals and progressives are doing the same and thus get attacked as being “socialists” or “communists.” Their values are good, but their solutions get sidetracked by false perspectives. I have yet to hear anyone, except some like Joe Scarborough, even come close to saying what the Progressive Bull Moose Party said in the teens of the last century. Who was the leader of this movement? Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.

My solution is to abolish the income tax and the sales tax. Replace it all, at national and in states like New York, with the value added tax. It becomes a more transparent tax added to the value of products and not seen by the average person, including not requiring the bull manure of paper work which the average person in America needs to do to file income taxes. For small business people, too, this is better, plus the elimination of the sales tax. They sell the product at the price determined by manufacturer, producer and government. In addition to small business (or other businesses), government could reduce expenses, as well. Business and individuals no longer face a regressive tax which penalizes making an income and, if done properly, could lower the overhead and make for better profit margins, rather than looking for tax credits which help fund corporate welfare primarily for the white fat cats. Think of how much money it costs America to support, financially, tax collectors, accountants, and lawyers, so we have more money for education and healthcare for all, which is sorely needed as teachers, professors, nurses, are often the first ones on the chopping block of economics and commerce. How about putting accountants and lawyers on the chopping block instead and in the process, helping non-white people to succeed in a better human equality environment?

Again. Thanks to Morning Joe in bringing these authors to light. I hope we hear more about this.

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New York Times Book Review (March 14, 2021 by Ted Genoways): Mark Bittman Book: Animal, Vegetable, Junk

After reading a review written by Ted Genoways, Professor Cornwell is interest in locating and reading this book, Animal, Vegetable, Jun: From Sustainable to Suicidal. It contains a “sweeping history of our sources of food, tracking the shift from agriculture to agribusiness.” It will be interesting to understand the path for the future, as Bittman sees it, as we move forward with the nominee for the head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture nominee, Tom Vilsack.

What caught Cornwell’s attention was the discussion about how agribusiness has hurt farming and agriculture in smaller rural areas. The reference was to “ranches,” which can be compared to large or factory farms. It is understood that such farms in “rural areas” have been hurt. Professor Cornwell then asks, what about non-factory farms in rural areas such as Upstate New York? Cornwell has always spoken up about the destruction of small business, the backbone of America as it developed, with big corporate “boxes” created by “free market” methods with which Cornwell has no stomach. It has been written that “free markets” are good for some who pick themselves up from nothing and become huge corporations in the process, only to then destroy the “free markets.” This idea can be considered analogous to another an issue discussed in another book review in this edition of the New York Times (“Pilgrim Law,” by Frances J. Bremer in a review of Tobey Pearl’s book, Terror to the Wicked: America’s First Trial by Jury That Ended a War and Helped to Form a Nation). This would be idea that religious organizations which have seen discrimination against their own people but then they become the “discriminators.” Same thing with “free market” advocates like Libertarians and anarchists as big corporations are developed into monopoly-style businesses and then work, like Roman gladiators, to destroy the competition. Religious groups work to destroy the competition, the same as Roman gladiators did to Christians and others in the arenas of Ancient Rome. Dictatorship.

To justify this sense of being “unchecked corporatization” and “laissez-faire economics,” The discussion centers on the “delineation” between this activity in America to what Joseph Stalin did to agriculture in the former Soviet Union. Professor Cornwell has been discussing facts that there IS no delineation between centralized economics of big corporate monopolized industries of ANY kind, to what the big communes of the former Soviet Union. Both are based on supply side economics with no concern for the demand side, which is truly a major part of capitalism and capitalist competition which can be controlled by regulatory practices from a third party: the government. Otherwise, we end up with the supply side of the economic picture regulating itself, similar to a government which controls the supply side by removing corporate businesses completely. Both are dictatorial and in the case of the USA, there is too much influence by the big corporate giants and the 1% of those who own the resources, of our government by way of PACs and lobbyists. Does this type of lobbyist and PAC influence exist in Senator Bernie Sanders’s home state of Vermont? Do not big corporations exist in Vermont only in more densely populated areas of the state, thus helping to make the small businesses more like King David, the underdog, when fighting the big Goliath of the industries?

New York state and other states, too, lose out (perhaps Vermont, too?), due to the hills. Such states were once the largest producers of agricultural goods in the USA. Between Prohibition and the development of factory farms, New York is one state which has been hurt. After all, with soil in hilly areas, big factory farm equipment is unusable. Cornwell’s late father mentioned this when asked why there are no factory farms in New York. Was he correct?

In the hills of Pennsylvania, the observation which could be made is that its industry was the coal industry. Now, without the coal industry, what about factory farms on the hills of Pennsylvania? One could say that Upstate New York and Pennsylvania, with the hills, are hurt by the factory farms.

What was not mentioned in this review of a book was the impact of the fast food industry on the increased obesity and rates of type II diabetes in America. Certainly, America as the breadbasket of the world is one of honor for America. However, in documentaries discussing the low cost of fast foods, those who are low income have turned to the fast foods. In America, which parts of the population generally fall more into the “lower classes?” According to documentaries about the increase of diabetes, which groups of Americans have seen an increase in diabetes to a great extent?

Into the picture comes big pharma. We are delighted at the great role America takes with big pharma, yet we ignore the fact that lower class people are usually those who suffer from larger unemployment or work at jobs which do not provide healthcare insurance (as was done to America by lousy, lousy, lousy former Governor Rick Scott of Florida, now a lousy, lousy, lousy U.S. Senator and the goons who are attempting to destroy Obamacare, designed to help stimulate CAPITALIST COMPETITION, not SOCIALISM, as the liars who wish to destroy it make a lousy false claim. Professor Cornwell is angered by this attitude and its strong influence with money, over people of America.

Yes, there is a wonderful thing for lower cost fast foods. But how much fast food can one eat and then purchase trade name meds at ripoff prices. Fast food and this food industry today, with many of its retailers, do little or nothing to provide foods which are better for diabetics. Yes. “We have the bananas,” but the foods which are highlighted are GF or gluten free. All for those types of diets. Fact. Cornwell’s mother and maternal grandmother rarely ate fast foods. The diabetes developed later in life. Go ahead, twist it all around because of not being comfortable if there might be some truth to this and the truth hurts.

Thanks so much for big fat corporate conglomerate agribusiness and the fast food industry. The fast food industry like McDonald’s, was run by vicious people like Ray Kroc who worked diligently to locate new restaurants in places where there were nearby “mom and pop” restaurants. They grabbed at the “instant gratification” movement. Being blamed for this “reality” today is the development of fast food businesses, due to females of the 1960s who wanted to get out of the kitchen and go work in jobs. Oh, really? What a sad thing to consider. Perhaps it was the big corporate misogynists who just found a way to take advantage of this situation and then work for “anything goes” ideas resulting in sexual harassment?

The bumper sticker was, “Women belong in the House [of Representatives], not the kitchen.” With many female Democrats going to the “House,” Trump and his misogynist friends don’t like that. In fact, he gropes women and gets away with it, along with all the other crap for which he gets acquitted.

Today, McDonald’s wishes to replace employees with robots. Wonderful. And how is this move going to justify what happens to the supply siders in their thrust for dictatorship in America. Then we have people out of work and turning to drugs, then beef up law and order because “idle hands is the devil’s playground.”

Reading the book might help clear up anything, should there be a misunderstanding here. Do we await the availability in Upstate New York libraries or purchase one? Is there a library which rents all the newest books and checks them out to patrons? Hmmmm… That would be nice.

Folks can be thankful for the reviews in the New York Times. Folks can stay abreast of the latest books and that works, too.

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TELEVISION REVIEW: Interview of Eddie Murphy (Coming Back to America) on CBS This Morning (March 15, 2021)

In the 1980s, I enjoyed watching Saturday Night Live. It was exciting to watch so many great comics on the show. My interests in the NBC series has dropped to a far lower level today, but I do recall Eddie Murphy on SNL and remember his great comedy. It was nice that he was not allowed to use foul language repeatedly, such as the f*** word over and over again, as much as I have seen otherwise. I have to say the same thing about Dana Carvey whose standup routines are full of the f*** word, over and over again. One time using the word, oh, well. But repeatedly?

In Murphy’s interview on CBS This Morning (March 15, 2021), he discusses his sequel to Coming Back to America. The interview is a nice discussion of the making of the new film. For instance, Eddie Murphy describes the audition his daughter had for a role in the movie.

When he gets to the part about how the same white person used in the current movie is played by the same person who appeared in the 1988 version, he mentions something which was a shocker, being that this is the 21st Century. Murphy tells how the white character is in the film because “the studio insisted that one white person be present in the film.” What?

The interviewee, Gayle King, is just as shocked. She brings up the issue about all the times there were so many all-white casts in movies. In light of this, Ms. King finds, as many viewers might, that it is not consistent to insist there not be an all-black cast when there were always so many all-white casts.

For example (my example, not one provided by CBS This Morning), a PBS documentary, Betty White: First Lady of Television (now on Netflix), directs our attention to The Betty White Show (1954) in which she introduced, as a regular on her show, a young black tap dancer named Arthur Duncan. (See also story about Arthur Duncan thanking Betty White). Mr. Duncan later appeared as a regular on The Lawrence Welk Show for many years.

In trying to be positive by acknowledging what black people have experienced, I acknowledge that they have suffered a great deal and suffer, even today, judging by Murphy’s experience described on the CBS program. I don’t feel ashamed, though, for acknowledging the plight of those in the LGBTQ community over the years. Sad to say, Eddie Murphy, exposing his beautiful body clad in nothing but a diaper, on SNL, he attracted the attention of many gay men who found it quite appealing. Eddie Murphy snubbed gay people with an animosity which is unacceptable. Perhaps he has apologized? I have no idea. Markie Mark (Wahlberg) reacted in the same manner when he modeled underwear for Calvin Klein and gay men found him quite attractive. In other words, it is ok for men like Murphy and Wahlberg to gloat over women in bikinis or underwear, but not for gay men who gloat over other men. The problem is not the existence of such views on television. The problem is a lack of confidence in oneself. I only hope these guys have grown up in this sense.

Many of us in the gay community are forgiving of such travesties, but some are not as forgiving. I am one who is forgiving. I must admit that Mr. Murphy was attractive, but his appearances on SNL never drove me to write letters to Murphy expressing delight. I also feel an empathy for Murphy and any experiences many others may have when dealing with management and studios which dictate that one white person be included in a movie with black characters and there be no “all-black cast.”

Following Murphy’s interview on CBS, I listened to a Rachael Ray Show interview on CBS channel 12 in Binghamton (WBNG). Ms. Ray interviewed Whoopi Goldberg. In addressing the societal problems in dealing with this pandemic, Ms. Goldberg said, “we need to all get on the same page.” Right on! It is called COEXIST. Add to this, Aretha Franklin’s R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

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MOVIE REVIEW: The United States vs. Billie Holiday

With wonderful Legends Radio (WLML 100.3 FM) in Palm Beach County, I often listened to many singers of the Great American Songbook. Driving home from my work as a professor in Lake Worth, FL, I would have my radio tuned to Lorna O’Connell on Legends Radio, listening to songs “spun” by a wonderful person who would share quite a bit of information about the music she played. There were many artists, from early American jazz and swing bands to contemporary artists singing GAS, such as Michael Bublé, John Pizzarelli, Ann Hampton Callaway, Rod Stewart, Tony Danza, Sir Paul McCartney and many others. We have been able to listen to others, like Johnny Mathis, Nat King Cole, Natalie Cole, Keeley Smith and her husband, Louis Prima.

At least once, every hour, we listened to a selection by Frank Sinatra. We also have had the opportunity to listen to other members of the “Rat Pack,” from Dean Martin to Sammy Davis, Jr. Many others, too numerous to mention now.

One of my favorites was singer, Billy Holiday. I fell in love with Billie Holiday’s unique form of singing. “All of Me” and many others were songs I wanted to hear.

I knew about Holiday’s life as I have read about her and had seen Diana Ross in the 1972 film, Lady Sings the Blues. The latest film about Billie Holiday, starring Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday. I learned much more about this great lady who was trashed by the forces of J. Edgar Hoover, NEEDLESSLY, led by Federal Bureau of Narcotics commissioner Harry J. Anslinger. Sad to learn about the shameful award presented by President John F. Kennedy to Anslinger. Shameful, shameful, shameful. According to other sources, JFK had denied Sammy Davis, Jr., an invitation to his inaugural ball, causing a rift between Frank Sinatra and JFK. Puts JFK down a few notches in my mind. Frank Sinatra purportedly worked to stop the lousy treatment of Sammy Davis, Jr., by white segregationists at hotels where the “Rat Pack” appeared. Shameful, shameful, shameful.

One of the most shameful stories about an African-American is the way Billie Holiday was treated by the lousy latent homosexual and “drag queen,” J. Edgar Hoover. While Hoover is never mentioned in the film, but if one has any knowledge about this lousy figure, they would understand what I am saying regarding the work of Anslinger.

Billy Holiday was also really twisted around by the man she married and the man who truly had a love for her, James “Jimmie” Fletcher. Fletcher, the role played in the film by Trevante Rhodes, is an agent of the FBI who double-crossed Billy, but then did a turnaround. The portrayal of this situation really leads us to wonder whether we should admire Fletcher or not? I must say that Rhodes was part of a great cast who performed admirably and effectively as they portrayed the life which surrounded Billy Holiday.

The theme of this film is about Billie Holiday standing up and not backing down in defending what was the truth and knowledge about the truth. She sang a song, “Strange Fruit,” which is a poem written about the lousy Jim Crow treatment of black folks when they were lynched. When this song was played at a Black History Month event at the college library where I was a professor, the young people, of all skin colors, were in tears. That might be sad, but the truth sometimes hurts. However, the “truth will set you free.” Sad to say, Billy Holiday wanted this truth to set her and her people free, but she ended up being arrested several times, under the smoke screen of partaking of drugs, for which many white people do and never get imprisoned for doing so. One can justify the “truth setting her free” because she died and went to heaven, but I find that disgusting of people who refuse to fight the hell on earth. Anslinger arrests Billy Holiday while she is on her death bed. Shameful lousy human being was this man whom so many admire and JFK gave an award. May those who admire this piece of you know what go to hell. I am not GOD to be able to judge this, but I sure can hope that such people do because they work to create a hell on earth and divide America.

God bless Billy Holiday, a person who was raped at age 14. “God bless the child.” For Billie Holiday sang a song which was NOT a “song of the South,” but one which inspired lousy southern white supremacists to object. These foul folks of Dixie objected so strongly that they tried to find anything under the sun against Billie Holiday. They got her. Shameful people. Disgusting people.

After watching Billy Holiday performed by Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues, I have a benchmark to compare the performances. Although I bought so many of the Diana Ross and the Supremes albums as a kid and adored their singing, I must say this. Andra Day’s performance of Billy Holiday surpasses that of Diana Ross. Ms. Day’s speaking voice sounded so much like Billy Holiday. But one has to explore whether it was like a Marni Nixon dubbing for actress Audrey Hepburn, in the role of Eliza Doolittle, in My Fair Lady or not. According to sources I checked, Andra Day did all of the singing. WOW! She did such a great job and deserves an Academy Award for her performance!

One more thing. Up until I viewed this film this past week (on Netflix), I had read about claims that Billy Holiday committed suicide. It appears this FAKE story was one more attempt to put Ms. Holiday down, by white supremacists.

Again. God bless Billy Holiday. And thank you, Andra Day, for your performance of Ms. Holiday.

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Movie Reviews

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