Month: July 2024

Focusing on the Foreground

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All of us have to do a myriad of things to keep the plates spinning.  Hopefully 95% of this stuff goes right.  But 5% goes wrong and we need to clean up the mess and take our lumps and move on.  And while all of this is going on in the foreground, in the background evil lunatics are working ceaselessly to put an end to the America that provides the space in which we can hustle along to give our families the slightest taste of the good life.  We can have a week’s vacation at the beach.  We send our kids to the best college we can afford.  We own a home in a town where gangbangers don’t hunt down our kids in the streets.

So, this week we witness the Democrat party melting down because they can’t force their brain-dead figurehead to leave the presidential race.  And when that sideshow act gets stale, they try to eliminate his competition the old-fashioned way, with a “lone wolf” spotted an eight-shot head start at point blank range by the secret service.  And of course, once they fail, the Left declares it time to lower the temperature.  At least for today.

Today, Donald Trump picked J D Vance as his running mate.  Of the favorites listed I guess he’s probably the best choice.  The kabuki theater that is the Republican Convention will drone on until, I think Thursday when Trump gives his acceptance speech.  From what he’s said Trump has had a revelation.  Being spared death has convinced him that his message will be that he wants to unite the country.  Well, I don’t know how that can happen.  I think almost half the country wanted the shooter to succeed.  I mean, it’s admirable to want to unite America but I don’t think it’s one country anymore.  It’s not even two countries that tolerate each other.  It’s diametrically opposed enemies looking to get a permanent advantage in order to conquer the other.

So, while we struggle to keep the balls in the air, out of the corner of our eye we see this absurd pantomime that claims it’s “our democracy.”  Today they kept Morning Shmoe of the air.  He and his demented bride couldn’t be trusted not to start calling for Donald Trump’s blood on the day that Joe Biden was “brining down the temperature” by postponing the release of campaign commercials that probably feature Trump dressed up as Hitler.  Of course, Scarborough is hardly the only or even the most unhinged of the left-wing pundits.  Over the last couple of weeks Joy Reid at times has appeared to be close to an epileptic fit.  I have to assume if they’re allowing her on the air, she must be dosed with Thorazine or something stronger.

Well, as we slouch toward Election Day we are sure to see a lot of crazy things.  Will any of them be worse than the last couple of weeks?  I’d like to say no but I’d be a fool to do it.  If Biden’s numbers slip much lower, I wouldn’t be surprised by any crazy thing, up to and including a nuclear attack.  Joe Biden is demented and the people who pull his strings are various types of maniacs.  I want to believe that behind the scenes there are a few sane individuals that can keep the crazy people in check.  But I’m far from convinced of that.

I’ll tell you.  When I think about the biggest personal challenges I’m facing, and some of them are kind of daunting, I’m glad that I have them to keep me from thinking about this other stuff 24/7.  Because this is bedlam.

2024 Summer Movie Talk – Part 6

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Film Noir (Crime)

So once again there is some chicanery going on here.  Because of my previous list I have to leave out all of Alfred Hitchcock’s movies that should be in this category.  “Strangers on a Train,” “Dial M for Murder,” “Rope” and whole bunch of his stuff is right near the top of this genre.  But consistency was never my strength.  Laziness is.

I have emboldened the movies I particularly like.  Take that as personal preference.

I’ve reviewed some of these movies separately if you want my detailed opinion on them search the site.  So here’s a list of what I think is some pretty good noir.

  1. THE MALTESE FALCON (1941)
  2. HIGH SIERRA (1941)
  3. MURDER, MY SWEET (1944)
  4. DOUBLE INDEMNITY (1944)
  5. THE BIG SLEEP (1946)
  6. THE STRANGER (1946)
  7. THE BLUE DAHLIA (1946)
  8. THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946)
  9. GILDA (1946)
  10. OUT OF THE PAST (1947)
  11. ODD MAN OUT (1947)
  12. DARK PASSAGE (1947)
  13. THE LADY FROM SHANGHAI (1948)
  14. KEY LARGO (1948)
  15. SORRY, WRONG NUMBER (1948)
  16. THE NAKED CITY (1948)
  17. WHITE HEAT (1949)
  18. THE THIRD MAN (1949)
  19. ALL THE KING’S MEN (1949)
  20. D.O.A. (1949)
  21. THE ASPHALT JUNGLE (1950)
  22. IN A LONELY PLACE (1950)
  23. KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952)
  24. THE BLUE GARDENIA (1953)
  25. THE BIG HEAT (1953)
  26. SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS (1957)
  27. TOUCH OF EVIL (1958)

If I left out one of your favorites or if you detest one of my listed films, feel free to speak up and make your opinions known in the comments below.

Guest Contributor – War Pig – 14JUL2024 – Unsung Hero

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war pig

So many are sending encouragement to Trump, but he lived with relatively little damage. I am angry with the media, pundits and celebs who are apparently forgetting the bystander who was killed and the two critically wounded. I still have not heard THEIR names mentioned. The dastard murderer’s name we know well, hearing or reading it dozens of times everywhere.

How about the media and pundits showing some respect for the bystanders who caught bullets, hmmmm?

The man who died sacrificed his life to shield his wife and daughters from the bullets. He died a bona fide HERO. And how about his family who saw him take the bullet and die before their eyes?

On Saturday, July 13, 2024, a shooting occurred at a campaign rally for former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. The incident resulted in the death of Corey Comperatore, a 50-year-old former firefighter who was attending the rally with his family. Comperatore was fatally shot while trying to protect his family from the hail of bullets.
Corey Comperatore: A Hero
Corey Comperatore, a devoted father and volunteer firefighter, was hailed as a hero for shielding his family from the gunfire. According to reports, Comperatore threw himself over his family members, including his wife and two daughters, to protect them from the bullets. His selfless act ultimately cost him his life.
Other Injured Victims
Two other individuals were injured in the shooting, including a 35-year-old man who was shot in the leg and a 42-year-old woman who was shot in the arm. Both victims were treated at a local hospital and are expected to recover.

 

 

 

 

Trump on the Firing Line

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So, I wanted to write a post on the assassination.  But I’m kind of at a loss.  Where to start?  Most of Donald Trump’s secret service detail looks like an aging, out of shape girl scout troop.  Then we have the anti-sniper unit, they must have been on a coffee break.  Eventually after the shooter emptied a magazine at the president, they got around to killing the guy on the roof in front of them.  I guess that was nice of them under the circumstances.  Then the press goes through some histrionics but their takeaway is that preventing retaliation by insane Trump followers is the most important mission of the security agencies.  Trump’s political enemies prosecute him in every jurisdiction where they can assemble a kangaroo court and then they hyperventilate on the television about him retaliating against them with lawfare if he wins.  What’s wrong with this picture?  We live in a permanent upside-down reality.

But we already know all this.  Basically, we are waiting to find out if Deep State will thwart the will of the people of this country and essentially prove that they can and will do whatever it takes to maintain control over our lives and enact their agenda, which is basically make us into serfs.  We’ve got four months more or less.  Maybe they’ll get lucky with the next psycho.  Maybe his aim will be better or his weapon a little more robust.  Or maybe Trump will survive to election day, and they’ll cheat him the way they did in 2020.  Or maybe they’ll let him win the election and then just stonewall his every attempt at reforming the system with crooked judges and bureaucratic obfuscation.  Who knows, they might have a more effective bioweapon this time or a deadlier RNA vaccine as a follow up.  But the chance of him fixing things seems remote.

Watching Trump on that podium and seeing his defiance after they came within an inch or two of blowing his head off, I was grateful that a man who didn’t have to put up with any of this madness cared enough about this country to try and fix the awful mess we’re in.  Trump is this enigma.  Trump is a businessman, or a salesman, or a huckster, or a con-man or a flim-flam artist depending on whether you like him or hate him.  But he’s definitely one thing.  He’s an American.  And I’m an American.  Now to a lot of people that word no longer has any meaning.  But to a lot of us it still does.  So, I recognize in Trump someone who is trying to save the world we used to live in.  He wants to stop the wholesale destruction of the way of life that we all loved and took for granted.

Now, at this point I’d give him considerably less than a fifty-fifty chance of saving this country.  He’s up against the Democrats, the Republicans, the Deep State, Wall Street, the rest of the globalists of the world and now the lunatics of the Left who want to blow his brains out.

I doubt he’ll win.  But I can’t doubt his courage.  He’s proven that under fire.