The White House: ‘President Obama Addresses The United Nations General Assembly’

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Erik Schneider

President Obama Addresses the United Nations General Assembly (2014) - Google SearchSource:The White House– President Barack H. Obama (Democrat, Illinois) addressing the United Nations in New York City.

Source: The New Democrat

“President Obama delivered an address to the United Nations General Assembly on September 24, 2014.”

From The White House

Assuming the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action goes into effect (and the Islamic Republic of Iran has all the incentive in the world to make that happen) I believe this will be an opportunity for the world with the United States leading the effort, but not being the only player in it, where we use international diplomacy and military coalition power to expand human rights and fight authoritarianism and terrorism around the world.

We could see the days of unilateral, preemptive war are over (otherwise known as the Iraq War) and that instead America as the liberal democratic leader in the world works with Europe and even the Arab League to end authoritarianism. And oust dictators who would rather murder their own people than voluntarily leave office.

That military options are always on the table, but never the first option until no better options are available. With the developed and responsible world acting together and many times that is America and Europe we can end the conflict in Syria both with the Syrian dictatorship there and the fight against ISIS.

We don’t stabilize the war by invading Syria and attempting to occupy another country about the size of California. But working with Turkey, Kurdistan and Iraq, to defeat ISIS there and get Bashar Al-Assad out-of-power there and hopefully install a responsible, transitional, government, there with Syrians governing their own country. Instead of the Arab League, or United Nations, European Union, or even United States trying to do that for them.

Liberal internationalism, which is what President Obama was advocating for in this speech, is not about being a hawk at least not in the neoconservative sense. Or being a dove in the social democratic sense, but being smart with all of your available resources that you have including your allies.

What Hillary Clinton and others call Smart Power, where you’re strong not so you are strong enough to police the world and always use military force. And where military force is always your first option if not only option. But you’re strong enough to defend your own interests including your own homeland and help your allies who need it and are trying to do the same thing. As well as potential future allies who are simply fighting for their own human rights.

What President Obama is saying is that the free and responsible world should reject and fight ISIS and other authoritarians. And that the United States will play our special and strong role, but we can’t and won’t defeat ISIS ourselves. That Europe and Arabia, needs to play their role as well, as well as Asian powers like India, Pakistan, Japan, Korea, Australia and others. As well as powers in Africa that are emerging as responsible countries with strong developing economies like the Federal Republic of Nigeria and others.

America is the liberal democratic leader in the world a role that we’ve had at least since the end of World War II, but we’re not the only player when it comes for fighting for freedom and human rights. That other countries need to play their part as well.

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Anita Ekberg & Jack Palance: The Man Inside (1958)

Posted on September 27, 2015 by kireschneider
Jack Palance & Anita Ekberg

Source:The Daily Review– Jack Palance & Anita Ekberg, in The Inside Man

Source:The Daily Review

Patrick (No Last Name) played by Sam Carter is a jewel thief who pulls off a big heist in (somewhere in Europe) Europe. Milo March (played by Jack Palance” is a private detective hired to track down Patrick and the jewels that he stole. Trudi Hall (Swedish Goddess Anita Ekberg, Miss Sweden) is also after the jewels that Patrick stole.

Milo and Trudi run into each other and find out they are both after the same score, but have different motivations and reasons for tracking it down. They also discover that people are after them, because they’re after that jewelry score and decide to work together on this case. This is a fairly simple and I believe not a very well executed movie. But with a good plot and writing and besides, it has Anita Ekberg and Jack Palance in it.

I saw a couple of Anita Ekberg movies this weekend: The Man Inside and 4 Four Texas that also had Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin in it. I know that a lot of people will probably disagree with me on this. But Anita is not the Swedish Marilyn Monroe and Diana Dors is not the English Marilyn Monroe. They were both better than Marilyn. Anita and Diana both grew up while remaining their hot baby-faced adorable goddess features with their great voices throughout their lives.

Unlike like Marilyn who had a childish, or at least adolescent personality and maturity level to go with her baby-face up until the day she died in 1962 only at the age of 36. Anita, same generation as Marilyn lived to 83 and only died last year and look incredible her whole life and had a great career as an entertainer.

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CBS News: 60 Minutes Presents Crime and Punishment: The Capture of James Whitey Bulger

Posted on September 26, 2015 by Derik Schneider

CBS News

Source:The New Democrat

James Whitey Bulger
To say that James Whitey Bulger is not your average criminal would be like saying that Larry Bird isn’t your average basketball player. (Another famous Boston figure) I’m not a criminologist obviously and yes it also snows in Minnesota, (thanks Captain Obvious) but Whitey is a criminal genius. And if he gets to spend any real-time outside of his cell in the hell hole that he’s going to die in his fellow inmates are going to be able to learn a lot from him. Unless they’re serving life without in prison as well. Here’s a guy whose guilty of at least nineteen murders and yet up until recently hasn’t spent much of his life in prison. He’s been on the streets for most of his life.

Neo-Nazis
I think the only way you can become a Nazi especially as an adult is like the guy in this story. Is that by in large you’re a good person and you’re doing well in life, but suddenly you find yourself out of work and your bills are piling up and you go years without at least a full-time job. You lose your home and perhaps now living a one-room apartment, or maybe in the basement of your parents home. And you’re trying to figure out where you go from there and you run in people you should have nothing to do with. And they start telling you about the dangers of the other races. In this case non-Caucasians in America especially non-Anglo Saxons. I have a hard time believing that a good person whose grown up with people from other races and ethnicities would suddenly become a racist for no apparent reason.

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Lee Estrada: NY Giants Chronicles: The 1960s and 1970s

Posted on September 26, 2015 by Ederik Schneider

Source:The Daily Review

I believe Bob Papa had the best line when he said that the New York Giants by 1964 were in transition. The great teams and success that they had in the 1950s and early 1960s was gone by 1964. And Giants running back Alex Webster (not Barney Rubble) had a great line as well when he said in 64 that the Giants had a bunch of players who played a year too long. They were an aging team that was carrying a lot of aging veterans who were past their primes and should’ve retired after the 62 or 63 seasons and simply no longer had it in 64 and the Giants collapsed and finished in last place in 64. And guys like Y.A. Tittle, Frank Gifford and Alex Webster, all retire after the 64 season. Leaving the Giants being forced to start rebuilding in 65.

To give you an idea of how good the Giants were from 1964-80. They never made the playoffs and had I believe had two winning seasons. The worst team in the NFC East in the 1970s. Again one winning season and year after year competing with their arch-rival the Philadelphia Eagles for last place in the NFC East. Two of the biggest markets and cities in the country and two of the most storied franchises in the NFL and yet they were consistently competing for last place in the NFC East. I think the problem with the Giants of this era was that they fired Allie Sherman too soon after the 68 season and then not finding a good head coach for them until Ray Perkins in 1979. They had several different head coaches during this period that all had one thing in common. Losing season after losing season.

As great as Wellington Mara was for the New York Giants franchise he made a lot of mistakes in the 1960s and 70s. Not having the right general manager and head coach in the 1970s and poor drafting set this franchise way back. Also not finding a replacement for Yankee Stadium which was really a baseball park that the Giants shared with the guess who. All of these things that contributed to the Giants essentially being asleep as a franchise especially in the 1970s. Even the Chicago Bears who were pretty bad in this period as well-managed a couple of winning seasons and made the playoffs in the 1970s. But they did make a few good draft picks in the mid and late 1970s like Harry Carson, George Martin and Phil Simms that set them up well for the 1980s. But by in large the 1970s was a bad decade for the New York Giants.

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The Lip TV: ‘Whitey: The United States of America V. James J. Bulger’

Posted on September 26, 2015 by Rik Schneider

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Source:The Lip TV– talking about the life of Boston-Irish mobster James Whitey Bulger.

Source:The New Democrat

“WHITEY: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. JAMES J. BULGER is the documentary about infamous Boston gangster “Whitey” Bulger, and we get the first look at the movie, direct from its premiere at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival. Director Joe Berlinger explains to us the fascinating story of Bulger, the true story behind the inspiration for Jack Nicholson’s character in the Departed, and the long manhunt and eventual apprehension of one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives in this BYOD.”

From The Lip TV

Off the top of my head I don’t know of more successful (and I don’t mean that as a complement) Irish-American mobster than James Whitey Bulger. He is the baddest Irish gangster as far as the amount of damage that he’s done in his life to other people. Being personally responsible for at least nineteen murders. And not being convicted of any of them until his early eighties.

Here’s a guy who started his criminal career in his early teens and was able to keep it going until his early eighties without spending much of that time in prison. We’re not talking about John Gotti, or some other uneducated Italian mobster. We’re talking about an educated intelligent mobster who used his knowledge of the real world to work the system during his criminal career.

The mind-control program that Whitey was part of in Federal prison in the 1950s certainly didn’t help him. And if he doesn’t go through that it would’ve been a great thing for society. He would have spent more time in prison as a result with fewer people being murdered by him. But he was already a bad guy to begin with that had no issues killing anyone who he thought was a threat no matter the consequences that came from it. Not so much to him, but the relatives and friends of his murder victims.

The Federal prison mind-control program was a mistake and should have never been started. But you can’t say that is the reason why Whitey became the serial murderer that he became. Again, Whitey was doing horrible things before gong to Atlanta and then later Alcatraz.

You could say that Whitey Bulger is the worst piece of garbage that was ever thrown out (and I’m being nice) and again when it comes to his criminal career I would have a hard time arguing with that. But he did have people in his personal life that he loved and took care of. Long-term girlfriends and people who loved him.

As they say, Whitey was someone who was able to compartmentalized. He didn’t bring his work and I guess evil at home which just made him even more dangerous. Because it meant people around him didn’t know who he really was and he really operated. And fewer people who could turn him in and put him away.

Whitey isn’t the baddest Irish mobster because of all the people he murdered. But how he was able to murder all of those people. The intelligence and skills he brought to his criminal activities.

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AMC: ‘Myra Breckinridge Backstory (2001) ‘The Making of a Legendary Comedy’

Posted on September 26, 2015 by Erik Schneider

AMC_ Myra Breckinridge Backstory (2001) ‘The Making of a Legendary Comedy’

Source:Classics At Dusk– left to right: the absolutely hilarious & off the wall Mae West & and her great comedic sidekick, the absolutely hilarious and off the wall Raquel Welch. Even if I’m just one of 5 people who like this movie, these two women alone by themselves make it worth loving the movie the movie for me.

Source:The Daily Review

“MYRA BRECKINRIDGE Backstory with Raquel Welch, Gore Vidal, Rex Reed, David Brown and Michael Sarne”

From Classics At Dusk

“This making of special aired in 2001.

This making of special aired in 2001. Don’t watch this if you haven’t seen the movie. It gives the whole storyline away.

This special on model Gia Carangi [1960-1986] aired in 2001. The audio and video is very bad on this one. I’m sorry about that. This copy is all that I have.

Myron Breckinridge flies to Europe to get a sex-change operation and is transformed into the beautiful Myra. She travels to Hollywood, meets up with.

This interview aired in 1990 about an etiquette manual Ms. Barrows had written called Mayflower Manners.”

AMC_ 'Myra Breckinridge Backstory (2001) 'The Making of a Legendary Comedy'Source:AMC– part of the cast from Myra Breckinridge.

From AMC

“Myra Breckinridge 1970 trailer”

Raquel Welch

Source:AMC– Hollywood Goddess Raquel Welch as Myra Breckinridge.

From Agrimenso

Hollywood Goddess Raquel Welch in the very first scene of Myra Breckinridge. This movie really was a sort of a sexual fantasy of what life would be like if radical feminists were running the world and you that in the very first scene of the film.

“It’s too awful for that dubious distinction. But American Movie Classics featured the film and advertised it as such in its half-hour AMC “Backstory” series recently.

Doubtless, worse movies have been made, but they’re so inconsequential they’ve been forgotten, or they have become kitsch, that is to say so pretentiously dreadful they’re beyond consideration.

In terms of money spent, importance of cast, publicity, major studio participation and chutzpah, “Myra Breckinridge” (1970) is in a class by itself as cinematic refuse.

The film is and always has been a terrible, miserable, obscene, unsanitary waste of celluloid by people who should know better.

Producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown thought it would be a sexy, daring comedy from which 20th Century-Fox would earn millions to refill studio coffers emptied seven years earlier by the “Cleopatra” disaster.

Instead, “Myra” plunged the studio into worse debt, nearly destroying Fox and ruining the careers of almost everyone involved.

Zanuck and Brown went on to make subsequent hits of “The Sting,” “Jaws” and “Driving Miss Daisy.”

“Myra,” however, was the nadir of their careers and the definitive loser in Hollywood history.”

From UPI

Just to respond to the story from UPI: Myra Breckinrdige was way ahead of it’s time, maybe even 10 years. Even in the Cultural Revolution of the late 1960s and early 1970s, I just don’t think there were enough Americans, even enough hippie Baby Boomers and Beatnik Silent Generation babies to even understand the movie, let alone enjoy it. And if was made today, it would probably be killed by radical feminist political correctness and be called sexist and homophobic.

Myra Breckinridge is one of those movies that looks better as it ages, because it was so ahead of its time. I think the makers of the film calculated wrong thinking that this is a 1970 movie probably made in 1969 and that this movie would be perfect for its time in the 1960s and the cultural and sexual revolutions. With young Americans experimenting and trying all sorts of different things even when it came to their sexuality.

But very few people were talking about transgender sexuality and sex changes back then. It was very new and then you throw in all the pornography in the movie (which I personally don’t have a problem with) and it was a tough movie for a lot of people to see which is why it was a financial flop when it came out.

If this movie came out 25-30 years later perhaps even 20 years I think this movie would have been very successful. (Especially on Cinemax) I’ve seen this movie like ten times now and have blogged about it multiple times and it was one of my favorite comedies. I’m laughing through most of this movie with Raquel Welch being at her hottest, sexiest and cutest, all in the same movie.

Raquel was so funny in this movie and this is where you really get to see her sense of humor and great comedic timing. John Huston playing Buck Naked, I mean Buck Loner in this movie a sex starved, or sex addict head of an acting school. (Of all things) Getting blow jobs and sexual massages on the job and trying to run his school at the same time.

And of course you can’t talk about Myra Breckinridge without talking about Mae West. Where she also plays a sex starved star in the movie a man-loving woman who can’t spend more than five seconds with a young stud (Tom Selleck) without making a pass at him. And of course you get to see Mae sing Hard to Handle which was perfect for her and her character in this movie.

And of course Gore Vidal with without his book with the same title this movie isn’t made. (Which might not have been a bad thing) But his great comedic ability and willingness to take big risks is how he writes the book that he did and how this movie gets made. I believe movies are judged by how they look as the years go by and later in history. And Myra Breckinridge to me looks like a great comedy.

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CBS News: Baseball Great Yogi Berra Dead at 90: An icon of Sports and Quotes

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Derik Schneider
The Quote Master

The Quote Master

Source:The Daily Review

I think it would be fairly easy just to write a piece about Yogi Berra featuring a lot of his great one-liners. But we’re talking about one of the top 3-5 catchers in the history of Major League Baseball. And yes he was a great comedian, but how many catchers do you know of that were great behind the plate who also have a career 285 bating average with 358 home runs and 1430 RBI. At least statistically we’re talking about a better hitting catcher than Johnny Bench who is still the best all around catcher of all-time. Yogi is at least the best all around catcher pre-Johnny Bench who came up with the Cincinnati Reds in 1967.

As far as his humor I love people who put things in a very direct way telling it exactly how it is and using humor with it. Especially when they’re not making fun of someone, or some group of people. Who can say ironic things and stuff that they know can’t be true, but do it so well and intentionally that you have to laugh at it. Like the Yogi line about baseball being 90% half mental. Well anyone with a basic understanding of mathematics knows that can’t be true. But he was so clever about how he said that, that you had to laugh at that. Or saying obvious things, but doing it with perfect timing that again you have to laugh. “When you come to a fork in road, take it.”

“You can observe a lot just by watching.” Which of course sounds like Captain Obvious under attack and everyone must duck, or get hit in the head with useless information that they’ve known since they were born. But if you’re not someone who tends to be very good about knowing your surroundings and tend to miss things that are right in front of you, that little piece of obvious information can help you. And tell you to pay attention so you don’t miss what is going on right in front of you.

“It aint over till it’s over.” Good message for players who are down a lot in a game, but still have time to turn it around. And instead of thinking, “damn we suck! We’re not only going to get blown out, but we might not bother to score!” You would have Yogi saying something like, “relax, I know its 6-0, but its only the 3rd inning. Besides I got a guy in there who can actually pitch now. So just relax and play the game right and we’ll get back in it.” Telling his players there’s a reason why a World Series is seven games and games themselves are nine innings, because you don’t win those things early on.

Yogi Berra, again one of the top 3-5 catchers of all-time, but similar to Billy Martin and Phil Rizzuto if he wasn’t playing and managing baseball, he could have been a great comedian and talk show host as well. Because of his ability to put things exactly as they are with a little touch of great wit. Which is what great one-liners are. The ability to use common sense to make fun of life and even people in life. The ability to state the obvious without someone saying,”no shit Einstein! You got any other brand new discoveries you would like to share with us?” And because of that and I think especially the humor he’s going to be missed for a long time.

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C-SPAN: ‘John Boehner Resigns as Speaker of the House’

Posted on September 25, 2015 by Rik Schneider

John Boehner resigns as Speaker of the HouseSource:C-SPAN– U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner (Republican, Cincinnati, Ohio) announcing his retirement.

Source:The New Democrat

“Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) announces his resignation as Speaker of the House. Watch the complete press conference here:C-SPAN.”

From C-SPAN

I don’t buy the regular guy line bit at all. John Boehner started off coming from a working-class German-American family in Cincinnati, Ohio which is very common there. But went to college and worked his way through there and became a successful small businessman in Ohio before running and getting elected to the House of Representatives in 1990, which was a bad year for Republicans who lost seats in the House thanks to a recession and an unpopular President Bush, the country getting ready to go to war with Iraq.

Go up to 1994, as House Republicans win the House for the first time in forty-two years, he becomes Chairman of the Republican Conference. The fourth ranking Republican in the House. Becomes Chairman of the Education and Workforce Committee in 2001, House Majority Leader in 2006 replacing Tom Delay.

John Boehner has spent most of his time in Congress as a House Republican leader, or committee chairman and has been there since 1991. We’re not talking about Joe Jones construction worker from Cleveland (or Cincinnati) who works very hard everyday, so his kids can have a better life than their father and hopefully retire with a decent pension and Social Security. We’re talking about a man with a successful business career, who became Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2011 and has held that job ever since.

So not only is Speaker Boehner not a regular guy, but I sure as hell don’t feel sorry for him. We’re talking about a man who was never popular in his own caucus. And forget about House Democrats who don’t have much of say in who leads the House, John Boehner who was always in danger of losing his speakership because of his Far-Right and yet he decided to stay on and work through it anyway.

Whatever you think of John Boehner and as a Liberal Democrat I have a laundry list of issues with him myself and not bothering to take up immigration reform in the last Congress even after the Senate passed their own bipartisan bill is just one example, he was really one of the last adults in the House Republican Conference. Someone who at least knew how to govern and do what was right at the end to prevent current House Republican man-made crisis’ from becoming even worst.

I hope Mr. Boehner remains Speaker, at least until the government funding issues are resolved. Because if you look at his possible replacements when you get past House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, or a bunch of Tea Party radicals there that rather use the government funding debate to try to force their policies on everyone else than to govern. Which means in a divided government working with the other party.

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David Seaton: Ron Paul Interview (1988)

Posted on September 24, 2015 by Ederik Schneider

Ron Paul

Source:The New Democrat

Ron Paul, sounding less radical even as a Libertarian than I was expecting from him in 1988. He was talking about eliminating the income tax, which is something I would like to do, but then replacing it with a national sales tax, which is also something I want to do. Which is a top for another post. And he was also talking about sending more money and power back down to the states. Not eliminating public education, but making private education available to students. Very radical for lets say a Progressive, or Social Democrat on the left whose never in favor of eliminating, or even lowering taxes and not in favor of reducing the power of the Federal Government at least as it relates to the economy. But for a Libertarian not very radical.

Generally when you hear libertarian political candidates speak they say they’re going to repeal at least two amendments from the Constitution, eliminate the income tax, the New Deal, Great Society, pull all Americans troops out of Europe and Japan on day one of getting into office. Even if they know enough about that government that doing even a few of those things are not very practical. Because of the opposition that would come from both Republicans and Democrats. But also the voters as well. But by the time Representative Paul ran for president in 1988 he was already in his sixth term in the House and had a pretty good idea about how Congress worked. So he wasn’t proposing to repeal a bunch of constitutional amendments and that sort of thing, because he knows how difficult that is.

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A&E: Biography- Raquel Welch

Posted on September 24, 2015 by Erik Schneider
87673

Source: A&E– Hollywood Goddess Raquel Welch 

Source: The Daily Review

The photo shots and video footage of Raquel Welch are absolutely incredible. Rarely will you ever see a woman that is this hot and adorable at the same time with incredible sex appeal as well. She’s truly a goddess and then you throw in the voice, the way she moves, the singer and that she’s a hell of an actress as well and we really are talking about not only one of the best looking entertainers of all-time, (arguably the best looking) but one of the best entertainers of all-time as well. A many ways both Raquel and Sophia Loren represent what Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield could have been if they just bothered to grow up personally and took care of themselves. Two incredibly attractive women who both had a lot of talents.

Raquel Welch

Source: The Daily Review Plus– Hollywood Goddess Raquel Welch 

Hollywood at least at first probably just saw Raquel as a sex goddess. The 1960s and 1970s version of Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield and just wanted to use her for her looks and sell her that way. As far as her movies and the rest of her appearances. So they overplayed her sex appeal, but in the same time period she was given very good roles that also brought out her other talents. Her comedic side and the great voice as well. With the work she did for Vietnam servicemen and servicewomen. Movies like Fathom, Lady in Cement with Frank Sinatra, 100 Rifles with Burt Reynolds and Jim Brown and of course Myra Breckinridge, which I at least believe is one of the funniest movies of all-time. Where you got to see her great comedic timing in it.

I believe since Raquel has always had that hot baby-faced adorable face, the incredibly sweet sexy voice and high energy personality and that she’s known these things and again unlike Marilyn Monroe and Jayne Mansfield she’s lived very well and has taken care of herself and has been very responsible with her life by in large, (except for the marriages) she has aged so slowly and still remains a red-hot baby-faced adorable goddess in her mid-70s today. Who is still active in Hollywood and has other careers going for her in writing and in fashion. To me she’s a goddess in the best sense of the word. Both physically and professionally as far as her talent, intelligence and professionalism. And is one of the most impressive women I’ve ever known of.

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