July 19, 2024

 Howdy folks. I don't have much to say about the circus of the past week except to comment that, as usual, there is a lot to be suspicious about. If anyone should know that, it's me, the subject of the biggest and most successful cover-up in American history. Besides the Trump Photo-Op, however, what's really upsetting is the continued call for Biden to step down. I will never support Adam Schiff again, whose commitee was completely ineffective in convicting Trump of anything. If Pelosi was my representative, I wouldn't vote for her either, and if they do succeed in ousting Joe, I will be sitting out this election and I am sure many other Democrats will, too. In fact, if they get rid of Joe Biden I will probably un-register from the Democratic Party.

Again, I would ask all these clowns...who do you suggest as a replacement? Kamala Harris? Really?

Now, I don't dislike Harris. I don't think she's as dumb as she initially came off, but she is not Presidential material. Not even close. If you want Trump to win, pick her. Who else ya got, Mr. Schiff? Nobody? Yeah, that's what I thought. So sit down and shut up. You couldn't stop Trump with all your impeachments and commitees, and now you want to replace the only guy who's ever stopped him with an unpopular VP who has zero gravitas. Good Lord, I can't stand these people. Them and their corporate media accomplices.

May God Bless America. I don't have a Monty movie for you but I do have "Johnny Tremain"(1957). Have you ever seen it? If not, you've no doubt heard the name, if not from the movie then from the famous book. The movie was one of Walt Disney's historical classics, and I think I may have seen it in grade school as a "study film" for American history. This time around, I was alerted to it after seeing Richard Beymer in our last film, "Terminal Station". In looking up his IMDB stats, I saw he was in "Johnny Tremain" just four years later, as a very tall 19 year old playing a Boston revolutionary. I remembered the title of the film and thought, "what better time for a movie about American history, especially one made by Disney and co-starring Richard Beymer," and I was right on all counts. Man, I would love for people to see this instead of the BS on the news and the Repub convention. How about something of value for a change? Hal Stalmaster (the brother of legendary casting director Lynn) stars as the fifteen year old Johnny, who in 1773 works as an apprentice silversmith for his grandfather. When his hand is injured in a smelting accident, he has to find another means of support and is encouraged by "Rab Silsbee" (Beymer), the assistant to silversmith Paul Revere, to join the cause of The Boston Observers, a secret resistance group intent on defying the Redcoats. They speak in code and print up surreptitious flyers annoucing meetings in the upstairs loft of Sam Adams' house. (On a side note, I wonder where he brews the beer?) Johnny, an eager patriot, is given the job of blowing the whistle annoucing Paul Revere's legendary midnight ride, and you get goosebumps watching because it's as if you are there, a witness to the founding of our country, and you are also there for the Boston Tea Party. Before that, Johnny - non-political at first - tries to align himself with the wealthy Mr. Lyte, a British-loyal landlord who owns the building Johnny's grandfather lives and works in. He tells Lyte he's a blood relative, showing him a silver chalice given to him by his late mother that proves it. Lyte, a scoundrel, has Johnny arrested and prosecuted for this, claiming theft and fraud, and asks for the death penalty. Basically, Johnny is saying he's an illegitimate son of Lyte (played by a beardless Sebastian Cabot who resembles Jon Lovitz). Lyte persecutes him until he is rescued by Rab and the Observers who start planning their resistance. It all comes to a head at Lexington Concord when a shot is fired by an unseen gunman. The dialogue ("who cares who fired it?") could be applied to this week's false flag Trump photo-op, and did you see his ultra-creepy posing next to the firefighter's uniform representing the man who was killed in the "assassination attempt"?  If you can find a clip of it (from the RNC), look at the expression on his face.

So yeah, I'll take Walt Disney and Johnny Tremain over the BS that is America these days. If the Democratic traitors are successful in kicking Biden out, I will quit the Democratic Party and won't vote for whoever they choose to replace him.

I'm done, folks. If you want to continue to believe in Adam Schiff and Anderson Cooper and George Clooney and all of these effing a-holes, and especially Nancy Pelosi, then good for you. Me? I'm all done, and I was really done a long time ago, after Obama shafted Hillary in the 2008 primary. Now it seems he's leading the charge, from behind the scenes, to oust his former VP.

When you pick on an elderly person, you are on my shitlist. Fuck you, Adam Schiff. And again, Kamala Harris is your choice as a replacement? And they say this with a straight face. She, of all people - not Newsom, not Hillary (well, the Dems don't have many possibilities) - she is the one to beat Trump? Hey folks, news flash: nobody even voted for her! It was Biden who picked her. The Democratic voters voted for Joe Biden. Name me one person who voted blue because she was on the ticket. 1500 Black women just signed a petition for Joe to stay on. Kamala Harris is a lightweight to put it mildly. She got her start because of a liason with Willie Brown. For a long time I didn't think she had two brain cells to rub together and I'm still not far from that assessment. And suddenly, according to Schiff and his shot-caller Pelosi, she's not only a popular VP (haha) but the person to replace Biden and beat Trump.

That's why I'm gonna quit the party. I have effing had it, and if you are in Schiff's district I urge you to vote him out. He was 100% unsuccessful against Trump. So was Pelosi. Only Joe Biden ever beat him, and that's the guy they want to get rid of. I say we get rid of all the traitors instead. Vote every one of them out, and boycott Hollywood movies.

Current ones, of course, not the classics. 

Thank God for Walt Disney. Wednesday (July 17th) was the 69th birthday of Disneyland, making it one of the most important days in American history. 

Well anyhow, I am currently on a Big Big Train binge, probably nudged in that direction by Pat (thanks, buddy). In the last few days, I've listened to almost everything they've put out in their 30 year career. I had no idea they'd been around so long, since 1994. They have fifteen studio albums, and right now, my favorites are the middle ones, starting with "The Difference Machine" in 2007. I also like "The Underfall Yard"(2009, mentioned in the last blog), and the epic "English Electric Part One"(2012). It's successor, "English Electric Part Two"(2013) has one major opus, the fifteen-minute "East Coast Racer", but it is at this point that the band start to descend - just a tad - into what I will call Coldplay-ism, where everything starts to sound a little samey in a big wash of over-vocalised emoting. The melodies become less daring, more predictable. This is not a knock on Coldplay (oh hell, maybe it is), and I've seen Marillion accused of this, too. But anyhow, starting with English Electric Part Two, I like about 60% of that album, and then about half of the two that followed: "Grimspound" and "Folklore". After that, it's hit-and-miss. Oh, and their second album "English Boy Wonders"(1995) is a gem, also, but with shorter songs, a different singer and a harder edged, guitar-based sound. All told, if you take the middle albums and cherry-pick the good stuff on the later ones, they have hours of great material, and the more I listen to them, the more I hear an original sound. They even use a brass section on occasion and have a top-shelf drummer in Nick D'Virgilio.

So yeah, if you are a progressive rock fan and you've not yet heard BBT, check them out, and start with the compilation album "Ingenious Devices", which is comprised of four or five of their classic, long-range epics.

That's all for today. I'm still waiting on my latest proof copy of "Pearl the Wonder Girl". It should be here any day, and I practically guarantee I'll have it by the next blog, after which I can provide the purchase link if everything looks good. Sorry for the delay and thanks for hanging in there. God Bless America. Stay tuned.