-“Fine” Klu-Kluxers and Others

von am 2. Februar 2020 um 16:46
Veröffentlicht in: Polemics, Politics, Text

“Fine” Klu-Kluxers and Others

During a Klu-Klux-Nazi rally in Charlottesville on August 11 to 12, 2017,
civil rights activist Heather Heyer was killed when a Klu-Kluxer
rammed his car into anti-fascist demonstrators.

Donald Trump comments:
“You had people that were very fine people on both sides.”

Why be “soft” on Klu-Kluxers and US-Nazis?
You don’t want to chase voters away, do you, Don?
No sir! They may be a bit put off by the fact
that Don has non-Aryans in the family,
but then nobody’s perfect.

Klu-Kluxers

“You know what I am? I’m a nationalist, OK? I’m a nationalist.”
(Thank you Don! At last a true word! – Actually ten words.
We’ve been waiting. And we have not been waiting in vain.)

And good old Don has the one-“staters” in the bag
by establishing the US Embassy in Jerusalem
with David Friedman as Ambassador.

Friedman on Jewish two-staters: „They are far worse
than Kapos – Jews who turned in their fellow Jews
in the Nazi death camps.”

And here’s Bibi on his best friends:
I know what America is”
America is a thing you can move very easily,
move it in the right direction.
They won’t get in our way…

And Don is certainly not in Bibi’s way.

Bibi & Don

Don and Bibi have a piece plan for the Palestinians.
They can sort of have a state which is peppered with settlements
that may be a bit larger than the grains of that condiment.

You have to hand in to Don. He’s a terrific Don.

And here’s a history lesson from our eminent historian:
“Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time,
he wanted to expel the Jews.” He got the idea from the Mufti of Jerusalem.
Here’s Bibi’s report: “Haj Amin al-Husseini went to Hitler and said,
‘If you expel them, they’ll all come here.’”
“So what should I do with them?” Hitler asks.
“Burn them!” the Mufti replies.

I guess Hitler replied, “Why that’s a splendid idea.
Why didn’t I think of that?
Thank you so much, Haj Amin, my dear friend!”

And thank you, Bibi, for filling us in.
We will now set about rewriting history.
‘Cause we thought it was Hitler’s idea.

If you laugh at this absurdity,
the laughter chokes in your throat.

I just want to tack this on to show
what helps give Don and Bibi free reign.
Hamas’ Motto is “We love death
more than you love life.”

“How do you negotiate with people who believe
that the only way they can get to Heaven
is in little pieces”?
– The Economist

 

-Herbert Kuhner

-Harry`s Film Impressions (34)

von am 25. Januar 2020 um 14:55
Veröffentlicht in: Film, Text

Marilyn and a Guy Called Joe

When Laurence Olivier directed Marilyn in The Prince and the Showgirl, she and Paula Strasberg her “dramatic coach” made him wish he had never been born. And after completion of the film, Larry went away limping and clutching his crotch.

A quarter of a century later, he saw the film again and here’s what he had to say: “I was as good as can be, and Marilyn! Marilyn was quite wonderful, the best of all.”

A good film and good performances had come from all the suffering, and Larry the gentleman had given Marilyn her due. That’s noblesse oblige!

Marilyn wasn’t the first artist who couldn’t deal with a career – or life, for that matter.

Yes, Marilyn often came late or simply stayed away. Those are diva airs, and there’s no excuse for that. Punctuality is the most essential part of professional behavior. But it must be said that in her film compendium there is no bad acting.

She was singular.The film Marilyn was a vamp, but a vamp with a vulnerable quality. And that’s a quality she had in real life.

There wasn’t much noblesse oblige in Arthur Miller’s After the Fall, which is the dramatic depiction of his marriage to Marilyn. It is the put-down of all put-downs of the female sex –nothing but venom. Never in the history of the stage has there been a heroine who was less of a heroine and none more negative than Maggie, the Marilyn character, with perhaps the exception of the Bard’s Lady Macbeth.

Maggie has not one saving grace, nor any redeeming qualities – and not an iota of charm. No one can deny that charm was something that Marilyn had oodles of. Or was the charm she exuded only for celluloid purposes?

Billy Wilder put it this way: “Marilyn was mean. Terribly mean. The meanest woman I have ever met around this town,” but Billy added: “or as utterly fabulous on the screen.“

Well, Billy survived the film and Some Like It Hot became a comedy classic.

There’s no denying that on a professional level Marilyn was hard to deal with. Larry, Billy and others have attested to that. But they all gave her her due.

But not Miller – nary a good word.

He married a vamp, but he wanted her to take on the attributes of the average homebody.
Actually she wanted that too. She had the best of intentions. She made such efforts for Arthur, even going as far as to convert to an anti-feminist religion.

Maybe he thought that religion might help purge her. Anyway she must have really loved him to go through all that rigmarole.

Religion has always been an instrument for oppressing women. The linchpin of every faith is depicting sex as Satanic and the female as the magnet for attaining the Satanic clinch. And of course, there is the aspect of the female as a reproductive machine with no fun at all.

No doubt about it, the marriage must have been rocky. After the divorce, he moaned: “She was highly self-destructive. “All my energy and attention were devoted to trying to help her solve her problems. Unfortunately, I didn’t have much success.”

Isn’t that a kind of stress and tell?

Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn

Joe DiMaggio, the husband prior to Miller, had a hard time living with the ghosts in her past and the nude calendar photos, and he couldn’t bear the male world gawking at her. The subway air shaft and her billowing skirt for The Seven Year Itch drove him out of his mind. Joe was an old-fashioned guy, not suited to be the husband of a Hollywood sex symbol. But he was the one who loved her.

Times change! Today there’s hardly an actress not shot in the nude – and some even in slam-bang action.

Marilyn was exhausted and checked in at Cornwall University Medical Center for to recuperate. She was forcibly transferred to the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic and locked in a cell. After three days, when she was finally permitted to make a call, she called Joe.

He rushed to the clinic from Florida and appeared there the next day. At the reception desk he demanded, “I want my wife!” He placed his hands on the desk and said, “And if you do not release her to me, I will take this place apart, piece of wood by piece of wood.”
Marilyn was released. It was six years after her divorce from DiMaggio.

No doubt about it, Marilyn was emotionally unstable, but that did not prevent the Kennedy brothers, Jack and Robert, from having a dalliance with her.

Did they compare notes?!

Excuse me from inserting an ethical note, but starting up with someone who has emotional problems is something you don’t do, unless you’ve made up your mind to stick it out.

While filming Something’s Got to Give with Dean Martin, Marilyn went AWOL to attend President Kennedy’s birthday Party in Madison Square Garden on May 19, 1962. Her rendition of “Happy Birthday Mr. President” was a swan song.

Marilyn was fired and rehired for Something, but the film had to be scrapped due to her permanent unreliability. Marilyn died on August 5th.

After her death, she became the sex goddess of all time. There will never be another like her.

Joe DiMaggio claimed her body and planned her funeral. He excluded all those he deemed morally responsible for her death.

Husband number one, the policeman, and number three, the playwright did not attend.
Even if “three” was on DiMaggio’s negative list, the ballplayer, who was a true gentleman, would not have tried to prevent him from attending.

Three did not pay his last respects. Can you imagine that?! At least he should have been there to thank her for inspiring a play.

For the next 20 years, Joe had a half a dozen red roses delivered to her crypt three times a week. His last words on this earth were, “I’ll finally get to see Marilyn.”

 

END

– Herbert Kuhner

-Harry`s Film Impressions (33)

von am 15. Dezember 2019 um 14:11
Veröffentlicht in: Film, Text

Black-and-White and Color

In the old days, there were black-and-white films. Then color came in. There was Technicolor, and the cheapie versions were Cinecolor, Eastmancolor and trucolor. Color was mostly for luxury A-Films. It was a matter of cost.

Later directors chose between color and back-and-white. It depended on what suited the film better.
Black-and-white can have a stark effect. Color invariably looks glossy. Color-TV sank the black-and-white film. Oil paintings and watercolors didn’t cancel out graphics.

Fortunately, now-and-then, there still is a director who reverts to using an effect that has gone out of fashion. That’s not hindsight, but rather foresight.

 

 

Cinemascope and the Widescreen

New chapeau always becomes old hat,
and old hat keeps making a come-back as new chapeau.

Way back in ’53, I saw The Robe, which was the first film shot in Cinemascope. This was definitely new chapeau, but I didn’t like this headwear at all. I preferred the rectangular screen at the time, and I still do.

Cinemascope may be good for a panorama, but close-ups are no-go. And as far as being supine goes, lying down in Cinemascope is fine, but if someone assumes an upright position, we get a panorama to his right and left.

Cinemascope was always a variation. It never replaced the rectangular screen – till now. It has made a come-back with a new name, “the widescreen,” and this elongation, is doing what Cinemascope couldn’t do. It is killing the rectangular screen, and its bantam cousin, the flat panel screen, is replacing the regular TV-screen.

I guess I might as well resign to it. I’ll try to get used to looking at a film through a mail slot.

The widescreens have not only taken over Cineplex Complexes and your TV-set, they are ubiquitous. They can be found in restaurants, pizzerias, ice-cream parlors and what-have-you. Not only are they equipped with “surround” sound, they literally surround you.

 

 

 

A Celluloid Stinkbomb

You knew the film was a stinkbomb
before you saw it,
but you went anyway –
and you were right.
They win and you lose.
You paid for the ticket, didn’t you?

(If you watched it on TV,
you still lose.
You wasted your time,
didn’t you?)

 

 

to be continued . . . 

– Herbert Kuhner

-What’s the Difference? and Other Political Aspects

von am 14. November 2019 um 18:41
Veröffentlicht in: Polemics, Politics, Text

What’s the Difference?
and Other Political Aspects

 

What’s the difference
between Them and Us?
Their scoundrels are imposed on them.
We elect ours.

You can force dictatorship on a population,
But you cannot force democracy on a population.

There’s not a bad side
and a good side.
There’s a worse side
and a better side.

It seems that the most important aspects
are often externals.

There are many who seek political shelter
under the wrong roof.

Inhumanity seldom leads to humanity
but invariably to more inhumanity.

Regretfully those who are oppressed
often end up emulating their oppressors.

Is Compassionate Conservatism
related to Communism with a Human Face?

Individuals may have the right to possess more
when others have something,
but they do not have the right to have much
when others have nothing.

The question that has to be asked
is whether those dedicated to a good cause
are as dedicated
as those who are dedicated to an evil cause.

Dictators who approach death
invariably murder at random.

Revolutionaries who murder women and children
are fighting for a world
in which it is decent and honorable
to murder women and children.

He who lives by the sword
will die by the sword –
in the meantime: Duck!

Your heart should be in the right place –
the same goes for you mind.

The question is –
do you need a lie to cling to
in order to face the future?

I regret that there’s no one in charge up there.
I’d like to have someone to blame for the mess.

 

Them and Us

We voted for Nixon
and got Kissinger,
who was even more versed in duplicity
than the man we voted for.

We voted for Bush and Cheney.
What’s the difference between them?
Dick was slick.

My foolish view:
Henry and Dick are the American
arch-villains of our time.

Henry (the Kiss of Death) Kissinger
and Dick (Darth Vader) Cheney.

Dick Cheney as Darth

 

It’s a Topsy-Turvy World

 

“There are alternate facts.”
– Kellyanne Conway,
not Eric Blair, alias George Orwell

Truth isn’t always truth.
It is somebody’s version of it.!”
– Rudy Giuliani
(What a lovely way to describe lies!)

You’re entitled to your own opinion,
but not your own facts.
– Daniel Patrick Moynihan

 

Divine Commands

 

God told Abraham that Isaac had to go, before reneging.

Bush fils also got commands from above, but there was no reneging:
“God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did.”
(Thus spoke George W. who went AWOL during the Vietnam War.)

The Middle East was a mess before Bush and the thousands of casualties he caused.

Is it less of a mess now?

 

Bowing and Bussing

 

Previously Obama and spouse bowed upon entering the royal ambiance.
But George W. had him beat. He held the royal hand and kissed the royal mouth.

And by the way, what’s the result of Bush’s Divine consultation?
“God told me to invade Iraq”

Where’s Iraq now? Gone with the wind, as is part of Syria.
Of course, the Advisor is to blame.

Franklyn D. allegedly said of Chiang Kai-shek, “He’s a bastard, but he’s our bastard!”

You could say of the Middle-Eastern royals. “They are barbarians,
but they are our barbarians.”

God told Abraham that Isaac had to go the way of all flesh on the express route – before reneging.

Bush fils also got a command from above, but there was no reneging

Binding-of-Isaac

 

Bussing Bush

 

Michelle will never forgive the Birther-in-Chief Trump
for calling the location of his predecessor’s birth into question.
Right-on!

She grabbed her husband’s predecessor and planted a kiss on his sallow cheek.
He’s the man who invaded a Middle-Eastern country to displace a dictator and establish democracy there
Eeni- meenie-miney-mo!

George Bush fils set off the Sunni-Shia Song and Dance that is still going on
with ever-increasing intensity. It was the Dance of Death for four thousand Americana and hundreds of thousands Iraqis. Yes, he’s a real sweetie pie!

You might as well buss Deadeye Dick Cheney, or for that matter, Henry the Kiss-of-Death Kissinger

 

 

“Fine” Klu-Kluxers

 

During a Klu-Klux-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, August 11 to 12, 2017, civil rights activist Heather Heyer was killed when a Klu-Kluxer rammed his car into anti-fascist demonstrators.

Donald Trump comments: “You had people that were very fine people on both sides.”

Pastor Darrel Scott backs him up:” It seems we’re giving these counter-protesters a pass,” saying “let’s not act like they did not go with the intent to shut that protest down by any means necessary.”

(Actually, when there is a demo, the “Antifa” element comes onto the scene, ready to beat back!)

Yes, fellows you’ve got a point. In World War II, there were also “very fine people” in both the Axis and Allied sides.

 

via GIPHY

 

Don the Predator

 

“I moved on her and I failed, I’ll admit it. I did try and fuck her. She was married….I’m automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them.

It’s like a magnet. I just kiss, I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it.

You can do anything – grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
– Trump, in 2005 at the age of 59.

This has been described by Trump and his supporters as merely “locker-room talk.”

 

Good for the Evangelicals

 

Yeah, Don might be a groper and worse, but he’s the right man for the Evangelicals. Yes, Evangelicals support this predator since he’s working to outlaw abortion.

If a lady gets pregnant after having been “predatated” by such a predator, it’s her tough luck.

Don is right there to bring the knitting needle back into play again and to bring back the backstreet abortion.

There are two elements here: the dirty talk and the description of sexual assault.
Dirty talk is a common male form of communication, like it or not!

In this instance, Trump was either engaging in „boasting,” or presenting an accurate account.

Assaulting women is a criminal act and perpetrators belong behind bars.

The wealthy and the famous cannot accommodate all the female fans that come at them with one thing in mind.

Why would anyone who has women constantly volunteering to bestow their favors on him try to “impose” themselves on others? The answer is simple. ‘Cause that’s the way they want it. It’s the predatory instinct.

Primitive millionaires and celebrities think that wealth and fame gives them the right to live out their despicable fantasies.

When money is no object, you don’t have to worry about shedding someone you want to shed.

Question: “What did you unload?”
Answer: “I unloaded a wife.”

 

Don

 

Good Enough to Grope

 

Jessica Leeds tell of how she was ushered from economy into business class on a flight in the 1980’s to a seat next to our locker-talker. Don, true to his boasting, did his “locker room” bit and Ms. Leeds fled to her original seat.

 

Don the Mimic

„Oh, I was with Donald Trump in 1980,“ Trump said, mimicking Leeds‘ accusation. „I was sitting with him on an airplane, and he went after me on the plane!“
„Yeah, I’m going to go after you,“ Trump said dismissively, waving his arms. „Believe me – she would not be my first choice. That I can tell you!”
No, but since the stewardess brought her to the seat next our locker-room man,
he did his locker-room bit.

Yeah, she was good enough to grope, but she didn’t have the appeal of a porn star.
Rudi comes into the picture:
“I don’t think there’s a slight suspicion it’s true. I know Donald Trump. Look at his three wives! Beautiful women, classy women, women of great substance!” He names the lollapalooza in question and widens his eyes in disbelief.

Don

Paternal Pride

 

Donald Trump: “My daughter is beautiful, Ivanka!”
Howard Stern: “By the way, your daughter –“
Trump: “She’s beautiful.”
Stern: “Can I say this? A piece of ass.”
Trump: “Yeah!”

“Take Your Hand Off!”

Trump spoke dismissively of arresting officers who protect suspects’ heads
while putting them in police cars. “You can take the hand off!”
If Trump becomes a suspect, should police not protect his head
while hustling him into a police car?

 

Consiglieri

 

Rudi made a slight error when he kept the Command Center in the Twin Towers
after the first attack in 1993. BANG!

Rudy Giuliani, prosecutor and then Mayer cleaned up New York. Rudy sent the mobsters packing. He got rid of the competition.

Later, he became Consiglieri to the Biggest Don. Now The Don is tottering, as is Rudy.

That’s the way the cookie crumbles.

 

from Mike: a piece about my late friend and mentor Emile Capouya:

Like all idealists Mike wanted to change the world, and he wanted it to be a better place when he left it. Somewhere along the way, like most of those who share that ambition, he realized, that when the time came to say adieu, it would be a worse world. But he, like all the others in that club, never stopped trying. He had his flaws like all of us, but he was a good guy and one of the good guys.

Mike, like all thwarted idealists, was mad at God and man in that order. You can’t be mad at man without being mad at God. It’s like being mad at an egg rather than the chicken. Since God allegedly made man in his image, the result is not a very pretty picture, which certainly reflects on the Deity. And if you don’t believe in God, God can stand for the system of the universe.

 

– Herbert Kuhner