The Return of the Website 2023

Short and simple:

To put it short and simply, my website was “AWOL” since I can’t remember!  It was at least the past year or so, if not more!  However, in the true “scouting tradition” I didn’t totally give up, nor let it bum me out – I just ignored those feelings – until the time came for me to dig, sniff and experiment around with the original platform once again, and lo and behold…”Viola!”  It was still hiding there, partially due to something called “Square” which apparently merged with Weebly – my original site platform  in 2007 – sometime this decade, as a monetization vehicle for “selling”.  Not sure what kind of selling, although the images are of pottery and ceramics and household stuff.  Hmmmm…

As my site and life is predominantly centered around music, media and wordcasting, the Square model did not fit – and that’s okay!  They who do other things do not traverse my online world, we do not counter-judge one another and we still exist harmoniously, and that, as the late Teena Marie sang back in 1981, is “square biz”!

Not to belabor the point, because soon I have some other current common nonsensical events to blogplain about, I’ll just ask that when you have some free time, you to check out the (slightly) new look of I.M.I.J Produckshunz (pronounced “image productions”), 2023 two-point-OH! http://www.imijproduckshunz.com/

The home of Cheetah Media & Freelance Services (CMFS).  We are here for your needs, if our lifetime expertise allows.

Many Thanks, Be Well and best wishes in all you (legally and ethically) Do.   ~ Cheetah NJB

Trump Fatigue

Men and women run for offices and jobs all over this great country. Then they win or lose; serve with anticipated dignity or move on back into their former private lives – some with a renewed following – but they step aside to allow others to try their philosophies and luck.

THIS is how we DO it in America since 1776 insofar as I was taught in American History classes and know it.

I am not that much younger than thee, Donald, so do not dismiss me, mister “rich guy”!

I and all of my ilk, who were raised in the metro New York area know you as a long-time buffoon, not to be taken seriously, except that you built a “tower” in Manhattan, New York City, at around the same similar towers with your name on them, were imploded in Atlantic City, New Jersey, just ninety minutes south of us!

What is wrong with YOU, Mr. Trump? What makes YOU so special that you can buck the system time and time again to break our time-tested successful RULES?

Now, upon hearing that you are trying for a THIRD time to run for President of The United States, am seriously ill and afflicted with trump fatigue, as I am sure that millions of other Americans are also suffering. This is worse than COVID-19 as you hold the only “vaccine” to cure it, as Jim Jones held the only “Kool-Aid” over his cult. You keep turning up like a bad penny!!

Please stop and take your madness to another country; maybe you could unseat Putin in Russia!

Do you even remotely understand the metaphysical nature of how we citizens interact with our historic founding government principles which have led to our consistent, concrete society? You “endorse” a Hershel Walker because his is a sports Negro, who you are used to supporting, are comfy with because he is non-intellectually threatening to your old slave-master mentality. Step away from your mirror, think about this, which you just read, and really SEE who you are. We will understand your tears.

Please stop the madness. Get a hobby, like sailing around the globe in a rowboat to set a Guinness World Record, or something. Toe the line as so many real MEN before you have, and set your EGO aside for the good of mankind and America, the Beautiful.

As a person in the music entertainment/radio industry in these USA from 1978 – 2012, and again, not many years younger than you; I “SEE” though you, as I alluded to above. I oppose wholeheartedly your re-entry into the Presidential fray and pray…that the GOP will rise-up and have a traditional convention, which pitches other men and women as candidates for the 2024 race against you; of whom I pray to the heavens one of them wins the nomination.

You provided yet another example of why I #boycott, like back in the 1960s, (maybe even to my continued poorness) modern day #corporate rich guy intrusion into private and popular venues, traditional entertainment platforms and companies on and off the internet. Your ilk has NO clue about the needs of the people and would legislate upon the backs of those who can least afford to sustain it! All you want is to try to continue to lie and glorify your ego. You need mental counseling, sir.

C’mon people! Do not just lay down; don’t give your money to the same cult places, the corps who tear down what we are used to enjoying to try to recreate our historical truths, fought-for freedoms and grace in its place!

Guest Post! “The Recent Abortion Decision and ‘The Browning…’ “

Editor’s Note: Achilliad is currently focusing upon positive personal projects and does not necessarily agree with the following Guest Post by a friend named Sharon, who I’ve known almost all of my life, in its totality, because to do so means some are illogically ignoring the heart of the principles the USA was founded upon, upon the backs of those who can least affort to bear the costs of same. Nevertheless, we feel it is a good conversation piece, given the magnitude of the errant decision. Stay positively peaceful.

Remember the most important issue about this ruling, it has less to do with women having abortions and everything to do with the Browning of America. At the pace we are on with white women having less children, “People of Color” are outpacing white people in population. At the rate the U.S. population was going, white people in the U.S. had been slated to be the minority in 2044. Hence the reason, bigots in particular, pushed for the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Also, it is the reason for locking down the southern border, while our border with Canada is wide open.

Additionally, Black people, particularly Black women had been outpacing white people percentage wise in obtaining higher education beyond high school, thus getting better jobs and starting businesses. This demographic shift is too much for [the] bigots to handle.

I should add that there are some demographers that believe with the next U.S. Census in 2030, we will hit the tipping point when white people will be the minority in the U.S.

~ Sharon

Making Ourselves Obsolete, Part II: Our House

I surely wasn’t going to dignify the apalling Fresh Prince with a blog on this topic and am not doing so here.  However, when an obvious copycat threatened comedian David Chappelle this week, my need to (for what is it worth) educate kicked in.

Call the “ Audience Behavior Police”! These nuts are slapping and stabbing at the wrong people!  “Shooting the messenger”!  Its prime-time for lunatics who need to be in mental institutions! A gun with a knife sticking out of it? What is this, an Austin Powers movie??

A society who increasingly cannot laugh at its imperfections is a society in trouble, which needs a moderation ointment to promote healing.

Its a moral decay in one sense, since the role of comedy historically goes back to Shakespearean time – or further… Back then they might throw a tomato or an egg to express displeasure with an act – or one could always just “boo” or hiss – but  never  charger the stage!

That… is patently uncivilized behavior!  There is such a thing as Theater Etiquette. *

We must appreciate satire, understand and study it from sexual jokes to parody and creative critiques of the issues of the day!  I wonder, did this guy who rushed Mr. Chappelle in the midst of his show have “appreciation classes” in grade school?  I for one, remember music appreciation, sex education and driver’s education – or have these non-adacemic classes been labeled “too expensive during the past thirty years or so?  “Hygiene class” is another example which comes to mind.

Would you run up to the movie screen and slap at or slash it when displeased with the actors or a scene?  Next thing you know someone will want to hold the projectionist responsible for the content of a movie (do they still use human projectionists, or is it computerized now?).

Exacerbated by information overkill and the greed-driven catalyzing of extremist hate broadcasting, on and off-line, it feels like a minority of prejudiced, partial-misanthropes are trying to drag us backwards in time, taking away what previous generations (like mine) achieved in the 1960s and 1970s, to better life, such as voting rights, abortion rights and women’s equality while ignoring today’s plagues of gun violence, lenient bail rules, and unjust war in Ukraine and the dumbing-down of citizenry.

I’ve noticed that one of the first signs of a society’s house of cards collapsing is the encroachment of extreme intolerance and anarchy. You can see the backsliding today with the pro-life zealots and increasing, daily gun crime in our largest urban city and people carrying guns in their vehicles; you can notice it on the roads while driving with more speeders and less/misplaced courtesy outside of the traditionally accepted “rules of the road”.  We cannot go back to puritanical times, no mater how some pruds might pine for it.

Maybe Chappelle and other comics should take up Marshall Arts; it would be truly hilarious to see one of these stage intruders decked by a defensive “karate kick”, Bruce Lee-style, and fall away from his intended victim, the entertainer!  Having tried stand-up comedy for a while during my career, I can tell you that it is an art and its not as easy or cavalier as it looks. Those who do it well and effectively are truly talented.

Due to the signs of the aforementioned upheavals and other’s I’ve probably left out, the biblical saying from Matthew 12:22 comes to mind, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”  There are plenty of examples throughout history of this coming to pass.

In order to save society, not become known as the “DSA” (Divided States of America) and maintain a majority of more moderate thinking, a  famous quote by our President John F. Kennedy is worth restating, “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country!”

I am encouraged for our reunification because I notice that, as when George Floyd was murdered on-camera for all to see, today’s youth are keenly watching the pending injustices unfold – and seem to be boiling again, raising their voices to oust the zealots who would take us back in time, at the “mid-term” voting polls.

*Suggested reference material:  “The Reasonable Audience; Theater Etiquette Behavior Policing and the Live Performance Experience” by Dr. Kirsty Sedgman

“On The House” by John Boehner , My Book Report

With a name like his, that’s spelled like his is, you’ve got to have a sense of humor – which he definitely does – given the way kids parody phonetically when you are growing up!

His first chapter was the most difficult for me to read because he came-off like a tattle-tale snitch against his colleagues’ perks! He betrayed himself and his Congressional members by outing their rather innocuous inside restaurant, Congressional bank and other fringe benefits, which I think he could have handled better; more friendlier to the legacy of “smoke-filled rooms” and all of that mysterious symbolism.  That was Boehner’s power trip boner; taking down legends like Charles Rangel and Dan Rostenkowski was shameful, IMO.

After that, the book became much more palatable, entertaining and almost autobiographic to read – with many photos! 

Regardless of his political party, this is one self-deprecatingly, often funny and pretty down-to-earth type guy (who tears-up a lot, adding to his credibility with this writer)!

There are many frank and amusing passages which produce laugh out loud moments during the fast paced read, which takes you inside of how our legislative branch works these days, and his road to becoming one of it’s recent leaders.  You’ll  learn Mr. Boehner’s four passions: The USA, golf and two others you’ll have to learn by reading the book!

Sadly, apparently, the only black American he ever interacted much with was President Barack Obama, because there isn’t mention of any others, except a brief sentence describing Vernon Jordan’s relationship to President Bush.  Boehner wrote  some things about Obama that I was surprised to learn!  I would have thought that President Obama would have been a bit more humble about his winning the majority vote twice, in an effort to better deal with and reach across the party lines according to the Boehner’s accounts.  He doesn’t even, at least, give him more credit for his unifying oratory skills!

His impressions of the 45^th President’s propensity to talk before thinking are spot-on.

The best chapter is the next to last, when he astutely talks about the relations between the press, government and citizens who consume it via a cautionary analysis regarding information overload and the potential for “weaponizing” of the news.  Instead of like when I was a music radio disc jockey, we’d play the save five songs (or so), sixteen times a day for “x” amount of hours and days to sell advertising via the spots contained therein.  These days, the songs are replaced with exaggerated and often unproven statements designed to “gin you up” – as Mr. Boehner writes – to get angry about something and keep you coming back for more of that poison.    Its a must-read chapter in this very readable book.

Its the fine print overlooked when government deregulated and allowed inside, the devil of corporate-controlled broadcasting, and specifically with regard to market ownership limits and radio stations specifically.

He ironically even touches upon the current unprovoked Russian attack on the peaceful country of Ukraine, almost as if he were predicting it! Wow.

4.5 golf balls 

Book Report: “A Boob’s Life – How America’s Obsession Shaped Me…And You” by Leslie Lehr

In a prior post, I promised to review at least one of the books on my summer 2021 bedside reading stack. There may be another one, but this tome clearly engaged more of my curiosity and summer reading time than the others. One of my favorite aisles at my local public library is the “New Best Sellers”.  So, when “A Boob’s Life – How America’s Obsession Shaped me…And You” (Pegasus $27.95 9781643136226) caught my eyes, I knew it was not another mid-summer night’s walking in my sleep dream, put on the brakes and stepped-back to examine it; soon adding it to my borrows that day.

Upon the early pages, I thought, “Geez, another angry b**** book,  I’m not gonna read much of this for long – take it back to the library…”  I never did so, even though she vituperates several natural and innocent bastions of male comeuppance, like Playboy magazine.  Moving through the chapters, it is so detailed, that she must have been constantly taking notes, or has an incredibly accurate memory of events!

Ms. Lehr writes from a – z about her family life; giving the reader a whole tour, from the time her Princeton grad father baptized her over a swimming pool diving board to be able to do “whatever [she] put her mind to”, to secret family photos , the infatuation with Marilyn Monroe and her dysfunctionally abusive, former U.S. Marine Corps first husband (no surprise there).  That she pulls back the curtain on the fallacies of major beauty pageants, the misogyny of a certain “President” who many recently suffered under and coins phresh phrases like “comparative empathy” and “breasts have the power to feed or kill us…” (Whoa!), kept me turning the pages. I could understand it when she wrote how, “Breast cancer ruined an entire color for me.”

Although I believe that she aimed this autoboobography primarily at the female feminist demographic, I, as a man, learned much about the female experience, including several new words and phrases for my vocabulary; the favorite of which is “de`colletage”! I also learned, “oeuvre”, “hand bra” and about “messy leaking”.  Wow.  I love any work that sends me to my huge, big dictionary!

Honestly, this read gave me a new respect level for women, who are truly a whole different species (as I’ve always maintained), with very special “plumbing” needs. I’ve adjusted, am “scared straight” and will revisit case-by-case, while remaining a suave bachelor “breast man” (lol) in those flirty situations “in the hunt”, for that extra special one, whose I can tenderly examine and care for:-j

In a personal ironic twist, a chapter in this book about boobs reminded me of when I sold Christmas cards door-to-door in my boyhood neighborhood for a microscope and other prizes!  OMG  It is during this point in the book where she sounds miffed, as we follow her booby journey from pre-puberty through a tragic adult happenstance.

“A Boob’s Life” is clever, amusing and modestly entertaining initially, uncomfortable for the medically squeamish (like me) in the middle – with a nice photo album section mid-stream – and inclusively optimistic by her last word – “life”.  No matter what shape your gender is in, I recommend it with five (5) out-of-a-possible-five lipsticks –

(I couldn’t locate any pix of ‘five boobs’ to use).

Mutiny on the Albany with a Bounty

The #MeeToo concubine convened their virtual covenants for many weeks and years, and now the feminists saw their chance to seize an American state house without an election.  They would attack the very manly and effective bachelor, Andrew Cuomo, Governor of the great and historic state of New York, where a female Lieutenant Governor, which he hand-picked (so they say), was in the wings to take over once they successfully railroaded him.

He must not have noticed, during his three elected terms and while being just a man, that minority group members of his legislature (Assembly and Senate), who were soft and too politically correct had entered.  If he did notice, he knew that, from his father Mario Cuomo’s legacy, that they would surely know that the Cuomo brand always took care of them and thus they’d be fiercely loyal to him!

Unfortunately, this breed hadn’t done their homework nor attended those same classes; apparently, much of the climate of the workplace shifted – and not for the benefit of the traditional American male.  This sad time for manhood in the U.S.A. began with the removal of the stigma of illegitimacy of out-of-wedlock births, IMO.

I’m told that he made “enemies” within his own political party along the way,while in the Statehouse and ask, what powerful leader doesn’t make enemies while trying to govern? This crop are betrayers, pure and simpletons.  Did they ever have a ‘pow-wow ‘ with him, or was it all kinds of ego-trips, nannying, Shakespearean backstabbing (see Julius Caesar) and conspiracy in-silence against him?

Surely “President” Trump has more enemies that Cuomo due to his blatant and childish name-calling and boorish behavior.  So how come nobody pushed him  to resign the race after we all heard him brag about how he’d “grab some pussy” (literally with his hand) off of women he met?   This is troubling for Americans of all stripes.

You can’t be a great leader by always being “Mr. Nice Guy”; as the saying goes, “you can’t please everybody”.

His main coquette and accuser of inappropriate behavior, “Executive Assistant #1”, as described by the traitorous Attorney General’s investigation report – which Governor Cuomo asked for in a move sure to be second-guessed – was at his mansion on NYE, 2019, when he supposedly touched her breasts while taking a “selfie” photo.

Hmmm…why would she go to his mansion on one of the most festive nights of the year, without knowing that a party-for-two might ensue?  In that selfie, its apparent to me, that Andrew had a few – his face was kinda flushed (reddened)! lol

In another photo, supposedly the same strumpet was “working” with the Governor poolside.  He was in shorts on a lounge chair and she. in what looked like swimwear, not far from him and a notch below, as-if sitting on the pool deck facing him, with her laptop.  Did they go for a swim at some point?  As the next saying goes, “It takes two to Tango”.

The gold-diggers even used the Governor’s Italian heritage and habits against him.  Even before I watched the movie, “The Godfather”, growing up in New York City, I always noticed Italian guys’ friendly habits of kissing on the cheeks; they were the first group I noticed where the men would hug one another.  I never gave it a second thought and eventually, this way of men expressing closeness filtered through all the  other ethnic groups!  Amusingly, I remember the first time I tried to embrace my own Pops at the door, upon coming home after a long-time-no-see period; the ole WWII veteran stiffened-up like a board, right in front of my mother – who admonished him to hug me in-return!

This latest Bill Cosby/Al Franken/Weinstein/Trump/et al moment for America was definitely an unnecessary mutiny, the spoils of and repercussions thereof yet to be felt and seen by that state and our society.  It seems that, with the aid of any motivated adventuress, all men of standing are now vulnerable to be sullied and soiled, possibly losing their careers and whatever wealth. Yes, each of the aforementioned men had their own nuanced peculiarities, but they and their accusers are all culled from the same kernel.

Andrew Cuomo as Governor, was never a Captain Blythe, in my book.  On the occasions that I wrote him a letter on behalf of my elderly mother or myself, I always received a personal phone call reply from one of his underlings and not some form letter.  My concerns and issues were successfully addressed in each instance! Speaking of “mothers”, he probably resigned after talking with his 89 year-old mother, Matilda; they can make you take the high road, ya know. These modern-day women’s libbers, never seem to remember that the man, upon whose head they they place a price…has a female mother who they are also disparaging.

His rap game with chicks may have been ill-timed, weak or crude, but those in power are used to getting what they desire and at the end of the day, he was a great Governor from my home state (and I’ve seen many in my times) who didn’t deserve to be seized, shamed and set adrift. I pray he takes a nice long vacation to a place where the women lavish themselves upon him, and who knows, maybe he goes forth with a fine, non-judgemental and loyal female companion.

As for the NYS Attorney General James, I thought she was busy with the former President and his tax evasion! She may be the “Mister Christian” in this sad saga and definitely had a gender-based bias.  Although going against his conflicted fight it or serve the public nature, maybe Cuomo would have been exonerated by the “court-martial” (impeachment) like that twice- impeached President!

 From “America’s Covid19 leader Governor” to  “I Stand Accused” (a classic Issac Hayes song) in only a year.  Wow. By the way, can you imagine this scenario happening to Russia’s Vladimir Putin, for example?  Nyet, me neither. And there is something positively manly to be said about that.

Book Revu!! “The Watergate Girl – My Fight for Truth and Justice against a Criminal President”

In The Watergate Girl, My Fight for Truth and Justice Against a Criminal President [Henry Holt & Co. $28, 9781250244321], Jill Wine-Banks combines vignettes from her inspirational and touching personal memoir with her work as the first Washington, D.C female Assistant Prosecutor, which happened to be during the Watergate Scandal, helping to develop the case against President Richard Nixon and his associates in the early 1970s, into an exciting read.

You’ll not want to put this book down (even though I did so, in order to sleep), as it may remind you of the immorality of the current White House (page 141).

Over 47 years ago, Ms. Wine (as she was known as at that time) dutifully made her way, with educational skills and class without sass, up the sexist boy’s club legal ladder, ultimately to become General Counsel of the US Army during the Carter Administration; but on the way, became an assistant Watergate prosecutor. This refreshing page-turner is far from all dry legalese, as plenty personal spice and feminine reality becomes the mortar between the jurisprudence.

I couldn’t help but compare her description to the current group of “plumbers” , thugs and the GOP criminal wannabees (Senate Majority leader), who are against most of our open society citizens and hell-bent on undoing us better than Nixon tried to do, via narrow loopholes in our eighteenth-century-modeled Constitution.

The parallels of history repeating itself (Epilogue) in a very scary way are very apparent. For example, Mr. Trump assaults challengers to his lies with outrageous stories like Phyllis Schafly did, post, H2Ogate about the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) for American women!

Additionally, you’ll be able to draw the comparisons between the way both men hate the news media, act in ways that show they think they are above the law, to the similar street protests – excited in the Nixon case by the dismissal of Special Prosecutor, Archibald Cox – against their policies and policing; the corruption is the same. We only need another “Jilly Bean” (as one of her K Street colleagues nicknamed her) these days to save us similarly.

If you lived through the Nixon-Watergate scandal years, you already know that “law and order” really translates to a code that suggests police mistreat and incarcerate anybody except angry Caucasian-American men in-general. There are so many names which were the backdrop of my undergraduate university years in this book, like Ehrlichman, Haldeman, John Mitchel, Leon Jaworski and Judge Sirica, plus a neat photo section, that the read was like a reunion! Two other great names that she writes about are the first black American elected to Congress from Texas since emancipation, Congresswomen Barbara Jordan and and Brooklyn’s own, Elizabeth Holtzman!

“The Watergate Girl” could be required reading for a Political Science class these days for anyone under fifty years of age, who wants to understand how history is repeating itself in a very negative way due to the criminality of Donald Trump and his hand-picked gang of (often only “acting”) administration members. You will learn what the “Saturday Night Massacre” was all about. I came away reassured that we cannot, in good conscious, re-elect a man who has openly obstructed justice, soiled the office of the United States Presidency, cavorted with Russia (who would like take us over for many reasons), was impeached and continues to selfishly be a pall on the highest and most respected executive office in our country.

Although I borrowed this volume from my fantastic, new local public library, I plan to purchase a copy for my personal collection. I am not a television watcher, so can only take her word for her MSNBC accolades. Yet, anytime I read a book, cover-to-cover in seven days, it is worth five, compellingly fun, fascinating and readable stars in my “book”!

Strange, I’ve Seen That Plague Before…

Once upon a time, Albert Camus wrote a book called “The Plague”. Loosely summarized, it is about how the cremation of dead rats spread a mysterious viral disease (Bubonic plague), which infects humans and its social ramifications. IMO, it was written in true Orwellian style!

Every so-often, some disease or virus comes along which is supposed to end life for humans as we know it; only this time, with the twenty-four hour daily news cycle in super-breaking news mode, America’s presidential election year and the information super traffic-jam highway often bumper-to-bumper, the (don’t believe the) hype machine is on full-blast, especially in the big market cities.

As I write this, there are 145,000 cases of COVID-19 worldwide and 30,000 are said to be in Italy. There are 7.8 billion people on earth as of early 2020, therefore the infection is less than 1% of the population of Earth! Yet, the news media and politicians are verging upon spreading widespread panic, especially if you listen or watch too much coverage of it.

Do you remember the “SARS” panic, which started in China in 2002? (Its a form of coronavirus!) How about “The Swine Flu” which had a noticeable outbreak in 1976, during the Richard Nixon presidency? Or “Cholera”, which brought New York City to its financial knees in the 1800s? How about “Ebola”, which reappears from time-to-time since 1995? If you are on either side of my generation, then you have the mark of a “Smallpox” vaccination on your left shoulder! All of these viruses came and went; changed economies and lives – and we are still here. Interestingly, the best methods for avoiding contamination are the ones most of our ole-school, common sense mothers taught us: wash your hands under warm, soapy water while you recite the alphabet immediately when you come home and in the meantime do not touch any orifices on your body with your fingers!

I’m surprised that the guy who is running for re-election as President of the USA hasn’t decried it as “fake news”, or accused some far-eastern country of “bio-terrorism”! I bet that he tried to, or even blame “the Democrats” for wanting to hurt his chances. Truth of the matter is that his weak oratory skills and lack of a policy forming, diplomatic mind are exposing his basic lack of credentials for the job. I am also shocked that people have not taken to the streets to protest or question his lack of leadership in forming a nationwide policy! Are we just skeptical “sheepole” nowadays, due to our convenience devices having dumbed the populace down? Education is key in these instances,to separate the truth from agenda-driven conspiracy theorists.

Fear not, the dedicated international scientific community will develop an antidote or vaccine to this latest “pandemic” (a very scary-sounding word, by the way) in-spite of how this “President” has poo-pooed and dismissed their findings during the past four years. (“Shhhh… I read where it is based upon Vitamin C…) And it must be a cooperative effort internationally [see: the risk of alienating our historical allies]
As a spokesman for St. Patrick’s Day festivities in Richmond, Virginia USA said recently, ““We want to be thoughtful but not live in fear. We have been monitoring the current news daily and we believe common sense is king here. We are asking people to use their common sense. If you are sick, stay home. If you have concerns, stay home…”

And yet, something still seems suspicious, with genocidal implications, about how this all came to be; and I am not pointing at China. Nyet, No…this could even be a self-imposed plague, in-theory, planned so that the current abomination in the Oval office could take credit for “solving” it – until the Genie escaped the bottle.
Therefore, if you know someone who has “the cooties”, please comment!
Ask, what compelled them to be “tested” and how? Otherwise, we need to ask more questions to QUALIFY the genesis of this “plague”… And also… Why do some people not believe the obvious biological origins of plagues like this these days?

**Please be sure to flash on over to my satellite, musik-only blog to listen to whazzup! https://achilliadsmyvinylrecordshoppe.wordpress.com/ Thanking you in-advance.

A “Loving” Movie Revu

I’ve made it a point to live in a few cities which were unkind to my black American slavery ancestors, partly due to my years as a radio disc jockey and lately, just because we can now. The latest was in Virginia, the state which, ironically, is the setting for the 2016 movie, “Loving”, which I recently rented from the public library after seeing the trailer prior to a different film.

Directed by Jeff Nichols, this isn’t just a romance story as its title might suggest. The Lovings and this “Commonwealth” state were the centerpiece for a landmark US Supreme Court case, Loving v Virginia and the 1967 decision which erased laws that made interracial marriages criminally illegal in the United States. I didn’t know this – or probably forgot the nuances of that high school American history lesson – until watching this movie revived those facts. This was going on while I was a young teen growing up in New York City where everybody went steady with anybody you liked! Wow. Scary.

“I’m pregnant” are the first words uttered by Mildred, played by Ruth Negga (interesting surname for this type of story, don’t you think?) to which Richard Loving, played by Joel Edgerton (famous for his role in “Black Mass”) replied, “Good. That’s real good.” The progress of the story tries your patience to get into, but is worth the wait. It could be categorized a docu-drama and used as a teaching tool!

All through the film, I kept asking, “who ratted them out?” Getting rousted out of bed in the middle of the night and offed to jail by the mean ole KKK-ish sheriff, played to the hilt by Marton Csokas (“Noah”, “The Equalizer”, “Aeon Flux”), cold southern drawl and all. “That’s no good here..” – pretty good for a New Zelander – just for being in love. They even threw Mildred in jail while pregnant and in her bath robe! One thing that hasn’t changed to this day is a woman getting pregnant out of wedlock, I noticed. Richard didn’t hesitate to ‘make an honest woman’ out of Ruth, however. You’ll see some slightly amusing “city-country-city” cultural moments among the uncomfortable heartbreak.

This is a reminder of many shameful episodes of America’s racial integration past, the vestiges of which some among us still struggle to eradicate. Watching it conjured emotions of anger, sadness and resolute hope deep inside. I couldn’t help wondering if this is why Virginia gives me a kind of weird vibe sometimes; like suppressed parsimony is in its soil.

During the end credits, they show photos of the original couple portrayed and I cheered the Casting Director, Francine Maisler.

I feel this film with four stars and can’t help wondering how the Supreme Court would have ruled if the man was a black American and the woman Caucasian; would it have even gotten the same attention and to the Chief Justices?

Pickhit: Thank you to WordPress for noticing that this is the date of my 10th anniversary here. Thank you, dear reader for reading my words!