Remembering a different life...

The following is a updated repost of  one of the first blog entries  in Oct.  2006.   

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I was bouncing around the web a couple of weeks back and stumbled on zabasearch.com. It is a site than helps you locate addresses of people. So out of curiosity I typed in the name of my best friend from High School. Sure enough a result for his name came up. Not sure if it was the right person rather than call, I sent a note with my business card attached saying, if this was who I thought it was, to please write back.

A couple of weeks went by... and I forgot about it. I honestly didn't expect to hear anything back. Then the other day I got an email and it was indeed from him. It is an interesting experience in a way. I really have not heard from him since I attended his wedding. At the time I really envied him. He was marrying a wonderful gal and starting to build a life. They now have a five year old son with a daughter on the way due in December. He said it was amazing to hear from me couldn't wait to hear all about what I have been doing over the past few years.

I will confess, I have mixed feelings about that.

For the most part, I have not kept in touch with anyone from my High School days. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed High School, had great friends and good memories. Yet it really was a whole different life. Like many LGBT kids in the mid to late 80's I was closeted and terrified of coming out. On some level every day had some undercurrent of fear of my "secret" being discovered. The ultimate put-down was to say something was "gay" or to be called a "fag". You saw the kids who were even slightly effeminate or "different" getting tormented on a daily basis.

So you kept your mouth shut and your eyes closed. When you watched those 80's brat-pack movies, while your friends oggled Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy, you didnt admit to anyone, not even to yourself that you thought Rob Lowe and Emilo Estavez were really hot.

Add to that, the media was full of stories of this new "gay disease" called AIDS, and the Reagan and first Bush Administrations were not interested in getting any information about it out to the public. So like a lot of gay kids I didn't know what to think. Could I get AIDS by coming out? By even holding hands or kissing a guy? Was it really God's way of getting rid of homosexuals? The fear you felt was this huge cloud that hung over you every day. You really did wonder if you were destined to be miserable and alone for your entire life.

And of course at time I thought I was the ONLY gay kid on earth. Now I know that there were in fact more than a few. Even at my own school. But at the time, the sense of isolation was overwhelming. But then, time moved on. I left and in many ways never looked back.

I moved to Europe, studied there, came back to WI and went to college, after graduation worked, traveled back to Europe, then even moved to Asia. Eventually, I came back to the US and settled in Chicago, and then I came out.

Like many people, for me coming out was a frightening and painful process of self-discovery and acceptance. I think back on the fear I felt in those days and it seems like I am watching a movie of someone else's life. A life that I would not ever want to revisit. Yet in truth it was MY issue, not my friends. They had no way of knowing what I felt. The whole traditional High School experience of the first date, first dance , first kiss, first umm... "whatever", while a given for everyone else, was just not possible for a lesbian or Gay kid in South Central Wisconsin in the 1980's. Or at least not for me.

Many Gays and Lesbians who should be my age never lived to see today. The statistics on suicide for LGBT youth in the 1980's and 90's will give you nightmares. I am so amazingly fortunate to have the family that I do. My parents are the two most incredible, supportive and amazing people in the whole world. Coming out to them while scary as hell, was truly the end of an old life and the beginning of a new much brighter and happier one.

( Just in case I haven't told you - Thanks Mom & Dad.)

I marvel at many of today's LGBT kids with "Gay Straight Alliances" and alternative proms. When I read about kids taking their same sex partner to a high school dance, I can only smile and be amazed at how, at least in some places how far we have come. Though certainly for thousands of LGBT youth in America the reality has not changed from the one I knew .

Over the years I didn't stay in touch with people back from "back home". One wedding, an occasional Christmas Card was pretty much the limit of my contact , and even that soon stopped. Someone recently asked me why I didn't keep in touch with people from those days, and honestly I didn't really have a good answer. Hence my card to my friend.

I know what you are wondering. Will I tell my old friend (s) that I am gay? Will I open up my life now to those people from my life "then"? Does it even matter?

Honestly? I don't know. I'll keep you posted...

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FLASH FORWARD  Twelve  years...  October 11, 2018

It is worth noting,  the friend I wrote about  in  2006 , like so many other  amazing friends from my life  have shown me  in words and deeds  what I have always suspected,  my friends are in general, a lot wiser than I am.   As  I mark today's  National Coming Out Day there are straight allies in my life who  I still cannot thank enough,  

From the friend who answered that  letter in 2006,  and reminded me  why were friends in the first place, and  still today  reminds me to laugh at life  more than  30 years on.  Then there is  the Lawyer in Dallas who challenged my own  stereotypes of how I thought friends  would react to my coming out,  and instead ended up teaching me invaluable lessons about  acceptance and true friendship, traveling half way around the world to surprise me at my wedding.

There is the couple in Georgia whose friendship has literally spanned two oceans and three decades, who always knew, didn't care, and have always loved me for who I am.  The Career Air Force officer and his wife in Germany, who I had the honour of being a Groomsmen at their wedding, and years later are still sharing their adventures with me. To the School Teacher from Boston, who lived a remarkable  life of  always seeking the best in people, taught me to do the same  and  whose passing has left me  missing him every day.   All these amazing people, along with so many others I am blessed to call my friends.

And as always, my incredible family who just by being themselves  encouraged me,  and gave me strength  to just .... be myself.

And yes,  to those who,  for reasons political,  social,  and religious  felt they could not  continue our friendship,  I thank you as well.  Not because  I don't miss you,  for believe, me,  I  do miss you , every day. Yet  I owe you my thanks for  showing me that the choice to live authentically does not come without cost, and therefore must not, ever be taken for granted.  

Lastly,  to my amazing husband  Eric.   Who without even trying,  provides me with  living proof every day  that taking those steps to come out of the closet were by far, the best ones I have ever made.

We just saw the Launch of Pence 2020

Last night Indiana Governor Mike Pence did exactly what he needed to do   He showed conservative Republicans that not only was he one them,  but moreover,  he showed them that he was not, Donald Trump.

You see, even before Donald Trump came along, many conservatives inside and outside the Republican Party loved Mike Pence, and they really wanted him to run for President. They saw him as one of the few GOP  Governors who hasn't completely destroyed his own state. A clear social conservative, a strong opponent of women's rights , and   against "the gays",

Not only that, he has a college degree and great Presidential candidate hair!

The far right swooned over Mike Pence  back in 2015 when he,  and his fellow Republicans thought they had found a way to strike back at the advance of LGBT rights, under the banner of "Religious Liberty." It is the claim that If you don't let people discriminate against certain groups  (Gays)  in public accommodation, it is a violation of freedom of religion. Because their religion says those certain groups (Gays),  are icky, and going to hell.

Despite bad press, the move rallied  social conservatives who, were feeling  rather bruised and battered in the wake of recent advances in LGBT rights.  It  made Mike Pence an even bigger  hero in many of their minds and hearts.    Rumblings of a "Draft Mike Pence" movement for  2016 started to be heard in places far outside of Indiana.  

Yet when  the resulting backlash and business boycotts  cost Indiana hundreds of  millions of dollars in lost tourist, convention and business investment revenue,  Pence's  Presidential aspirations fell faster than hotel bookings in Indianapolis.  Many pundits at the time said that Pence's  moment had clearly come and gone.

Then Donald Trump picked him as his running mate.  Which for the past few months seemed to make Pence's  chances even worse,  As  the Trump campaign seemed  to be running some sort of bizarre experiment to see  if they could make each week in the campaign a bigger disaster than the previous one. So heading into Last night's Vice Presidential candidate debate,  Pence, had an impossible task. Defending his running mate, and the unhinged, reality free, racist, sexist, borderline fascist episodes of political Turrets Syndrome,  that have defined his candidacy.

Pence knew that Donald Trump was indefensible, so he did the only thing he could.   He didn't even try.

Faced with facts,  Pence didn't even attempt to spin them, instead he went to the "Conservative Happy Place". That magical land that exists only  in the right wing mind, where negative polling numbers are "rigged", outrageous statements, even when caught on video, simply didn't happen, and "far right" is always right. So any inconvenient facts, no matter how easily proven,  can be denied.

Mike Pence's  debate performance was the political equivalent of  the Shaggy song "It Wasn't Me." Only in this case it was  "It Wasn't Him" (Trump)

Last night's debate was a textbook study of the American political dialogue for the last 8 plus years.   Democrats point out the reality of what is said, proposed and believed by Republicans.  Then in response, Republicans  flat out deny  everything they have said, proposed and done. What is left, is two people having two completely separate conversations, where one side is obsessed with detailing the facts, and the other is equally obsessed with pretending they don't exist. So any chance of finding solutions or common ground becomes pretty much impossible.

It is worth noting that prior to Pence's election as Governor of Indiana he was a conservative talk radio host. Coming from the world of the Rush Limbaughs, Glenn Becks and Sean Hanitys, blissfully bulldozing past facts is pretty much their bread and butter. Any information that doesn't support the established talking points is quickly brushed aside as "liberal bias".

The result? Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate, Governor Tim Kaine looked like a man trying to herd cats. It simply didn't matter what the truth was, Pence was't going to budge an inch. His personal reality was going to remain intact no matter what,    It may not have helped pull Trump out of the electoral hole he is currently in,  but  Pence also didn't  do any damage to his Party or  their ticket.

As a result, Conservatives watching totally ate it up. Mike Pence has once again become their smooth silver haired telegenic champion against all those liberally biased "Facts".   Pence even went out of his way to channel the spirit of the great Conservative patron saint,  Ronald Reagan.

“There they go again,” Pence replied  at one point, in response to Tim Kaine's barrage of facts.  A clear  reference to conservative hero Ronald Reagan’s famous line — “There you go again” — during the 1980 presidential debate against Jimmy Carter. He later went on to quote  Reagan on the subject of  nuclear war.

The Washington Post summed Pence's performance pretty well....

"If Tuesday night’s vice-presidential debate was about Mike Pence helping Donald Trump right the ship in the 2016 presidential race, it was an abject failure. But if it was about making Mike Pence look good — possibly for a future presidential run? — it was a success. By largely parrying Tim Kaine’s many attacks on Trump and avoiding direct, in-depth defenses of Trump’s most controversial policies and provocative statements, Pence did plenty of good for himself, if not his running mate."

So weeks still to go before the 2016 votes are cast, let alone counted, let the posturing for 2020 begin....

Hey Trump Supporters, If this is really what you want... Go for it.

Ok... When I sat down to write this blog post, I was all set to give example after example of how the modern day GOP/Trumpian/Nativist/Fill-in-the blank/ Pseudo-conservative moment, has completely lost its mind and gone totally insane.

What prompted that original intention? Well earlier today, I tuned in to the local talk radio station here in London and the topic was … The Donald, and his chances of actually winning the Presidency. Citing the Brexit referendum result as a potential harbinger of things to come in the US. The show was being broadcast from New York City.

There was a whole line of callers who praised Trump’s “Plain spoken manner” while completely excusing his racism, sexism, negativism, vast catalog of lies,insults, bankruptcies, welched business deals, massive scams like his fake Trump University and his overall emotional and mental instability, and unsuitability for the Presidency. 

So I called in, got on the air, and calmly explained how the electoral college works, and that comparing the US Presidential election to the UK EU Referendum was a wildly inaccurate analogy. After a very rational conversation with LBC’s excellent host, Maajid Nawaz, the next caller was a total bucket of right wing nut-job talking points of how evil, dishonest, and crazy Hillary Clinton is.

So I was all set to log on here and cite example upon example of how Trump is the greatest scam ever perpetrated on the Republican Party. I had scores of sound bytes, video clips, and quote after quote showing as clear as clear can be, just how hateful, stupid, anti family, anti American and just plain mentally deranged, Trump and his supporters really are.

But.. you know what? I don't care.

For over a decade now I have blogged about the lies, the hypocrisy the bigotry and greed on the American Right. Frankly, I'm tired. I'm tired of the same people who are on their third and fourth marriages, serial adulterers who while cheating on their spouses, boast of how they pray the loudest on Sundays,   but then get caught hiring sex workers on Saturday night, who sexually harass their subordinates, and feel they have the right to use the power of their elected, or corporate executive offices to hide all of it; Telling me that I'm the sinner, and therefore discrimination against me must be allowed as a protected religious freedom,

I am tired of being told by draft dodgers, that war profiteers are somehow more patriotic and "support the troops" more than people who actually served our nation in war. I'm tired of being told that Ronald Reagan, the American President who tripled our national debt, more than doubled the size of the Government and had a family life so dysfunctional, you could have roped them off, and charged admission to view them ; somehow is the model for fiscal conservatism, smaller government and "family values".

So this is what America has come to; Republicans who only serve the wealthiest of the wealthy, Trumpian TeaBaggers who wave the Constitution like a banner, but understand none of it.  American Talibangelicals, who scream hysterically about the threat of "Sharia Law", but want to impose their own fundamentalist extremist beliefs on the rest of us.    

All while a Cartoonish Reality TV nutjob leads them all ranting about birth certificates, walling off the US Southern border  and some undefinable mysterious yet DEFINITEY coming Muslim /Mexican /Fill-in-the Minority  invasion of the United States..

Add to this sad cast of misfit toys, Mike Pence,  a running mate  who, upon finding himself  un-re-electable  as a Governor, thanks to the damage his policies inflicted on his state's economy;  Promptly abandoned all his personal integrity to hitch his fortunes to the Trump sewage plume. All part of a campaign managed by  one of the leading gargoyles of  America’s  white supremacist movement.  The editor and chief of the  “Alt-Right”     

So I say go ahead America, vote them in. Destroy the U.S. Government. Refuse to raise the debt ceiling. Let the good faith and credit of the United States collapse. Destroy what is left of the middle class. To hell with the long-term unemployed. Eliminate Social Security and Medicare. Repeal the Affordable Care Act and bring back a health care system of economic Darwinism. (Survival of the Richest).

Drag the United States of America into a new gilded age of the super rich, and the super poor and nothing else. Make us into a country doesn't build, doesn't invent, doesn't achieve. Turn the United States into a country that says sacrifice is for suckers, and greed is God. 

The rest of the World may, for a little while, lament our demise. But soon, they will move on, quite content without us. 

China, Russia, (definitely Russia), India, and many others will smile and applaud, as a Trump Presidency completely destroys what is left of the American Manufacturing sector.   Mexico, Japan and South Korea will quietly cheer when the talking heads on FOX News gleefully announce the idea of a living wage in the United States is dead and gone.   

While at the same time, taking heads over on the FOX Business Channel will be insisting that bank executives who, when they crash the economy again, and need to be bailed out by taxpayers, must still receive multi-million dollar bonuses, as those are necessary to "keep America moving forward".

In November go ahead and elect Donald Trump and Mike Pence. Shout hallelujah as Pence  leads the charge to legalize discrimination against anyone who isn't a white, (supposedly ) heterosexual, evangelical Christian.   Chant “drill baby drill!” as the National Parks are handed over to Oil Companies, Timber Companies and Mining Corporations. You won’t need to worry about helping your kids with their homework as the GOP finally will finally be able to eliminate science from public schools. 

Go ahead, teach American kids, that the Earth is only 6,000 years old, and the human race began with two fully formed people, who rode around a garden on dinosaurs, chatting it up with talking snakes. All those students in India, Japan, South Korea and China  thank you in advance for freeing up all that space at Universities. As American students won’t be able to fill out the applications let alone get in. But hey, all that “book-learnin’ “ is just a liberal plot right?

In short, go for it. Turn the United States of America into DonaldTrumpistan. Then when Mexico and Canada put troops on their borders to stop the influx of illegal immigrants from the U.S., you can beat your chest proudly and talk of "American Exceptional-ism'. All while waiting in the breadline at your local soup kitchen, trying not to wonder out loud why all that promised wealth hasn’t trickled down to you. Or why the rapture hasn't beamed you up yet.

There is no point in trying to reason with Donald Trump’s supporters. Reason involves facts and reality. Two things they have learned to be quite comfortable living without. So I say to my Republican and Libertarian friends, good luck. The rest of the world thanks you, for all you are doing ... to eliminate their competition.

Well done indeed... I'm sure the mythical Ronald Reagan you worship were he ever to have actually existed, would be very proud.

Donald Trump is the Champion of White Supremacists

Donald Trump  the KKKandidate of choice of  racist sociopaths...

He's Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaccckk!

One of  the great silver linings  in the dark cloud of absurdity, bigotry and outright stupidity  that is the Republican Party of 2016, is  what  has, as a result of those clouds  made a glorious comeback...

The first of course is Berkley Breathed beloved , iconic  and legendary comic strip Bloom County.

From USA TODAY

Donald Trump's inflammatory rhetoric might have awakened satirical comic strip Bloom County, its characters and creator up from a 25-year-nap.

Now Opus the Penguin, Milo and other wacky denizens of Berkeley Breathed's Pulitzer Prize-winning strip are headed for a comeback, more than a quarter-century after the strip went dark.

According to the new strip Breathed posted on Facebook on Monday, Opus awakens after what he discovers from Milo is a 25-year nap.

But that apparently was just the tip of the Trump inspired Iceberg. That's right... Keith is back!

Poltico reports:

Former MSNBC and ESPN host Keith Olbermann is getting another show, but this one isn't on TV.  Olbermann will host a bi-weekly series for GQ magazine called "The Closer with Keith Olbermann." The news was first reported in POLITICO's Morning Media newsletter.

Keith Olbermann will "be providing commentary on the election, with the flexibility to delve into other timely issues when relevant,” a GQ spokesperson told POLITICO's Joe Pompeo. Olbermann will also be joining GQ as a "special correspondent."

The move to GQ not only brings Olbermann in front of the camera for the first time in more than a year, it also marks a return to politics for the veteran host, whose commentary on MSNBC made him a household name. Olbermann left MSNBC for Current TV, and subsequently re-joined his original TV home ESPN, which he left last summer.

Welcome back Keith,  we have sorely missed you .   Your return comes at the time we need it most.

Remembering a September Morning

(The following is an updated repost  of an entry from Sept. 11th, 2011)

Today the media, and the blogposphere will undoubtedly be full of all sorts of remembrances and commentary around what is the 15th  anniversary of the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001.

To be honest I really don't like to dwell on the topic. Not out of any sense of personal pain, but more out of respect, for those people I know who were far closer to the events of that day than I was. My experience that day was a somewhat surreal one.

I had gotten up very early and caught a flight from Chicago Midway to Houston. I was heading there for work. It was about 20 minutes into the flight, the seat belt sign had just turned off, and people where shifting about, getting comfortable. I had just pulled out my laptop to work on the presentation I was going to be giving later that day. Suddenly the seat belt sign came back on, and the crew announced that everyone was to return to their seats and prepare for landing, the flight would be returning to Chicago.

The Pilot then came on the speaker system to say that there was nothing wrong with the plane, and we were returning to Chicago because the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) had ordered the flight to return to "clear air traffic". He said that was all the information they had, and he apologized for the inconvenience.

Everyone on the plane thought the same thing. (Not terrorism.) Chicago Midway had upgraded to a new Air Traffic Control System earlier in the Summer and a few weeks prior, there had been a series of glitches that had delayed several flights.  Everyone groaned, made comments about "Government Efficiency" assuming it was yet another problem with Midway's system that was going to mess up  our day.

This  assumption that was bolstered when the captain came back on the loudspeaker  and announced  that we were not returning to Midway but rather we were diverted to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.

The woman sitting next to me was happy about this thinking at least it might be easier to get on the next flight out to Houston. I nodded, and said "I hope so", thinking of how I might salvage the rest of my schedule that day and make my afternoon meetings on time.

It took us about 30 minutes of circling over O'Hare before we could land. Sitting in a window seat I watched as the line of planes waiting to land stretched to the far horizon and oddly enough, no planes were taking off. I commented on this to the woman next to me, and she said "wow Midway's systems must be really screwed up!" I laughed and said that what we get for Ronald Reagan having fired all the good Air Traffic Controllers. She laughed and said she had forgotten about that.

We landed and had to wait an additional 20 minutes to get a gate. but finally pulled up to a jetway , and we all lumbered off the plane into the gate area I was getting annoyed because people were not clearing the area in front of the door but were all standing around the televisions that were tuned to the CNN Airport Network. I was about to say a loud "excuse me!" when I happened to look up at the TV and saw CNN  replay footage from ABC of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center.

CNN then cut to live shot of a column of smoke and ash where the World Trade Center Towers were supposed to be, but weren't. I called my office and my boss told me not to come in, The area in downtown Chicago around the Sears Tower was being evacuated. I called my parents and let them know I was not in Houston, got on the CTA Blue Line and went home.   The rest of that day I did what most Americans did, watched the news, and when the images became overwhelming, I put on my roller blades and went blading along the Lake Michigan shoreline.

It was brilliant sunny day. One of those late Summer, early Fall days that you get in Chicago that make you appreciate what a beautiful city it is. As I stopped at Oak Street Beach and admired the downtown Chicago skyline, I didn't think that somehow the "world had changed". But rather I found myself thinking how the United States had  sadly, finally  joined the rest of the world.

Before that that morning, Terrorism was something that happened in other places, Israel, Lebanon London, Belfast , places far away. Even the first World Trade Center bombing for many people, didn't seem like international terrorism. After all, the people responsible were caught when they tried to get the deposit back on the rental van they had used. (How sinister could people that dumb be?)    That is what changed I think, it was the moment America lost the illusion that somehow our two oceans would keep us safe from global terrorism.

For friends of mine who lived in New York on that day,  I understand  that  today  is a much different  experience for them.   A good friend of mine is  a New York City Police Officer  who  lost an arm in the attack that day.   Another friend of mine worked  for an investment bank housed in the  North Tower,  she had a doctors appointment so she didn't go into work  that morning.   For her, today  is a reminder of  the  friends and co-workers  she lost  that day.

For the numerous friends of mine who have served, and currently serve in both Afghanistan and Iraq with the American and British Armed Forces, they deal with the effects September 11, 2001 on a far different level than most people ever will.

So this evening, as many Londoners and ex-pats attend the 9-11 memorial service at Westminster Abbey , people all over the world will remember the events of that day, pray for those who were lost, and show solidarity and support for friends and family for whom this anniversary is far more personal than political.

God Bless America, God bless us all.

Donald Trump on Immigration - We have seen this before...

MSNBC's  Rachael Maddow  gives  what may well be the best , and most accurate analysis of how we got to this place.  Where an emotionally unstable,  racist sociopath  is the Republican Presidential nominee.

Gene Wilder, 1933-2016

from BBC News:

Gene Wilder's distinctive looks helped him create roles that he made his own.

His performances combined sentimentality, comedy and suppressed rage, often veering between idiocy and apoplexy. Films such as Young Frankenstein, Silver Streak and The Producers established him as one of Hollywood's top comedy talents.

But behind the corkscrew hair, the bulging organ-stop eyes and the twitchy mannerisms, lay a much gentler, more reflective individual.

He was born Jerome Silberman in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on June 11, 1933.   He later described his childhood as "sane but disturbed" and was always drawn to acting by the "chance to be someone else".

When he was eight years old, Wilder's mother had a heart attack Her doctor took the confused child to one side and told him: "Don't ever get angry with her, you might kill her." He turned to leave and added: "You can make her laugh, though."

For years Wilder harboured the belief that any harsh words would end his mother's life.

His parents sent him to a military school in Hollywood where, as the only Jewish boy, he recalled the bullying that made his life a misery. He quickly returned home where he became involved with the local theatre, making his first public performance at the age of 15 in a production of Romeo and Juliet.

He took a course in Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of Iowa before moving to England to pursue his studies with the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He felt stifled by his acting lessons in Britain, but became the first American to win the English Schools Fencing Championship. He admitted he had always worshipped Errol Flynn.

In 1956 he was drafted into the US Army where he found himself posted as an aide in a psychiatric ward, helping to administer electro-shock therapy to patients. On his discharge, he went back to acting, having changed his name to Gene Wilder, partly, he later said, because he could not imagine a Jerry Silberman being asked to play Hamlet.

He also became an outspoken critic of the US involvement in Vietnam and would later oppose the invasion of Iraq.

In 1961, he had a small part in a production of Arnold Wesker's Roots and made his Broadway debut as the comic valet in The Complaisant Lover. His breakthrough came in 1963, when he starred alongside Anne Bancroft in a Broadway production of Bertolt Brech's play, Mother Courage and Her Children. 

Bancroft was then dating her future husband, Mel Brooks, who invited Wilder to look at a screenplay provisionally entitled Springtime for Hitler. At the time, Brooks lacked the money to turn it into a film so, in the event, Wilder's first cinema role was that of Eugene Grizzard, the undertaker captured by Bonnie and Clyde in the 1967 gangster film.

A year later Brooks finally began casting The Producers. Wilder's role as the neurotic accountant brought him his first Oscar nomination in 1968, for Best Supporting Actor.Wilder was liberated by the spontaneity of Brooks's direction and the pair enjoyed an extremely successful partnership.

In 1971, he gave a tour de force performance as Willy Wonka in the film adaptation of Roald Dahl's children's novel. Wilder stipulated that he would not take the role unless Wonka's opening scene saw him pretending to be crippled and leaning on a cane. It became one of the film's most memorable moments as Wilder halts, tumbles forward then leaps back on to his feet.

"I knew that from then on," Wilder says, "the audience wouldn't know if I was lying or telling the truth."

In Woody Allen's 1972 comedy Everything You Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask), Wilder played a doctor who was in love with a sheep.

Wilder was reunited with Brooks for the 1974 spoof Western Blazing Saddles, and the inspired lunacy of his trigger-happy Waco Kid, burnt out at 29, helped create a worldwide hit. In the same year Young Frankenstein brought him and Brooks another Oscar nomination, this time for screenwriting.

He spoke of an almost "telepathic rapport" with Richard Pryor, and the comic duo blundered their way through a series of films, including Silver Streak in 1976 and Stir Crazy in 1980.

"I have an affinity with people who've had a tough time in their lives," he later said

When Pryor's ill health prevented his appearing again with Wilder in Hanky Panky in 1982, the part was rewritten for the doyenne of the Saturday Night Live line-up, Gilda Radner. She became Wilder's third wife and occasional co-star, but died of ovarian cancer in May 1989.

 Radner had been misdiagnosed in the 10 months before her death and, for the next five years, Wilder channelled his energy into saving "the hundreds of other Gildas out there".

In 1990, he established a Los Angeles cancer detection centre in her name, and even went to Congress to speak out for early medical screening for women at risk. Gilda's Clubs sprang up all over America.

Wilder married again in 1991, and later returned to performing. For two years, he starred in the NBC sitcom Something Wilder and, in 1996, made his London stage debut in Neil Simon's Laughter on the 23rd Floor. He continued to act, notably appearing as the Mock Turtle in a star-studded US TV version of Alice in Wonderland, but he was becoming increasingly disenchanted with the limelight.

"I don't like show business, I realised," he explained on a Turner Television tribute. "I like show, but I don't like the business."

He was scathing about 2005's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Warner Bros remake of Willy Wonka, describing it as a money-making exercise. The same year he published a very personal account of his life, Kiss Me Like a Stranger: My Search for Love and Art.

Over the following seven years he published three novels, My French Whore, The Woman Who Wouldn't and, in 2013, Something to Remember You By: A Perilous Romance.

For all the vicissitudes he suffered in his personal life, the boy who kept his mother alive with his funny voices succeeded in conveying his own quirky brand of humour to millions of others.

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The world is a sadder  and darker place without Gene Wilder...

Meanwhile... over in Damage Control-Land

While Donald Trump and Nigel Farage had their little " We love to hate" fest down in Mississippi, over on MSNBC,   Trump Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway  (one week into her new job) was trying valiantly to contain the dumpster fire that is her candidate.

Clearly this  is Kellyanne's  role. To go on television and pretend  everything Donald Trump has said and done while running for President up to this point, never happened.       

In a digital age, where everything Conway would like to simply sweep under the rug is there to see and hear,  that is  pretty tall order.

Good Luck with that Kellyanne...

Donald Trump & Nigel Farage - Two Racist Peas in a Pod.

From the "birds of a feather, flocking together department..."(Via the Huffington Post )

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JACKSON, Miss. - Nigel Farage, a key figure in the successful campaign to get Britain out of the European Union, lent his support to Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Wednesday, saying Trump represented the same type of anti-establishment movement that he masterminded in his own country.

Farage appeared with Trump before a cheering crowd of thousands at a rally in Jackson, Mississippi. Farage partly based his Brexit drive on opposition to mass immigration to Britain that he said was leading to rapid change in his country. Trump summoned Farage on stage in the middle of his appearance, shook his hand and surrendered the microphone to him.

“I cannot possibly tell you how you should vote in this election. But you know I get it, I get it. I’m hearing you. But I will say this, if I was an American citizen I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton if you paid me,” Farage said.
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Now for those of you outside the UK who may not be familiar with Nigel, and his political Party , UKIP (The UK Independence Party);   Ukip is part of the group Europe of Freedom and Democracy (EFD). The group includes representatives of the Danish People’s Party, the True Finns Party, the Dutch SGP and the infamous Italian Lega Nord – all of them far-right. Nigel Farage is co-President of the group along with Lega Nord’s Francesco Speroni, who described multiple murderer Anders Breivik as someone whose “ideas are in defence of western civilisation."

Mario Borghezio, another member of the group, declared in a radio interview that Breivik had some "excellent" ideas. Farage’s reaction was to write a strongly-worded letter to Borghezio, asking him to withdraw his comments or Ukip would pull out of the EFD. Borghezio not only did not apologize, but responded with an extraordinary speech in which he raged: "Long live the Whites of Europe, long live our identity, our ethnicity, our race… our blue sky, like the eyes of our women. Blue, in a people who want to stay white."

Nigel Farage did not withdraw from the EFD. He continues to co-preside over it, along with the leader of the Lega Nord.

Last May, during a Pre-Brexit radio appearance on London's main talk radio station,   The UKIP leader endured a 'car-crash' interview as radio presenter James O'Brien quizzed him over racism, expenses and his party's links to far-right European politicians  prompting the party's director of communications to step in and try to bring the interview to a halt.

Like  his new BFF Donald Trump,  whenever Farage is confronted with his Party's clear racist  and far right extremist ties,  he  (wait for it...)  blames the media!    So is it really any surprise that this is who Donald Trump, the Republican Presidential Nominee invites on stage to speak at a nationally televised campaign rally.  

Birds of a feather indeed...

The Latest Episode of: "What Donald meant was..."

One of the things supporters of Donald Trump cite as reasons for supporting him is; “He tells it like it is!” and “He means what he says!”. Yet never before in modern American history has a campaign and political party had to spend so much time clarifying how what their candidate “really meant” is different from what he actually said.

The latest episode of  “Donald Trump said what?!?” comes to us from a rally yesterday in North Carolina, where the Republican nominee suggested the  way to prevent  Hillary Clinton from appointing judges should she be elected President,   would be that “2nd Amendment people” might have a way to stop her.

The reaction on both sides of the political spectrum has been swift and fairly predictable.  Sane people are horrified and crazy  people and their apologists are blaming everybody BUT Donald Trump for the controversy.  The New York Daily News  devoted its entire front page to calling for Trump to either end his campaign,  or for the GOP to finally walk away from him,  (Good luck with that...)

But  all of that really is not the issue.  Also the issue isn't did Donald Trump mean somebody should shoot Hillary Clinton, because clearly he didn't mean that..   But the fact remains,  he SAID that, and he said that knowing full well that  it could be interpreted as such.

Here is the reality of Donald Trump,  he said it because he thought it would sound good. He said it because he thought the crowd there would like it.  There was no thought process beyond that.  He gave no thought  as to would it be a wise thing to say or an appropriate thing say, or even a potentially dangerous thing to say.  Donald Trump's  train of thought never makes it that far down the track.

We are now in a time when  there is no point in asking if this latest episode of the Trump un-reality show will be too much for the Republican Party to bear.  It's not.   The fact is the GOP has decided that this is who they are, and the real tragedy is, they are right.  This really IS who they are, and what they have become.

Trump is the political equivalent of the guy in a youtube clip who,  moments before the totally predictable,  horrible accident, turns to his buddies and says "hold my beer  while I try sumthin..."   He is what it would look like if  MTV's  Jackass  was  political campaign.  

Donald Trump is not stupid,  he just can't be bothered to think any of this through.

I'll say it again, Donald Trump is not stupid.   Donald Trump,  is a fool.   Like most fools,  he will do and say foolish, reckless, dangerous  and profoundly stupid things, with no thought to any potential consequences;   simply for the short term gratification of  being  the center of attention.

Like most fools,  he will make make mindbogglingly bad decisions, without a moment's hesitation, if those bad choices feed his ego.   If  anything bad does happen  as a result,  like most fools he will contort himself  incoherently  and attempt  to blame anyone and anything but himself.

So,  I have to ask my Republican friends one simple question;    Have you ever watched  Star Wars?

Donald Trump reportedly asked "Why can't we use nuclear weapons?"

Republicans...   Have you completely lost your minds???  Stop this insanity NOW.

Watch: What are some major concerns about Trump's handling of national security? Hayden and #morningjoe weigh in. https://t.co/FyFoSmJlJI

— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) August 3, 2016

Mocking Gold Star Families - What the Trump GOP has become...

During the last night of the Democratic National Convention there was an incredibly moving speech by Khizr Khan, the father of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in 2004 in the Iraq war. All the major networks except one, showed Khan's remarks in full. Can you guess which one didn't?

From Media Matters:

Fox News ignored a speech by the father of U.S. Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in 2004 in the Iraq war, instead opting to air commercials during the speech. Fox later went live to a song by pop singer Katy Perry after the speech.

During the final night of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, PA, Khizr Khan spoke about the honor he felt to be present at the convention with his wife, “as patriotic American Muslims with undivided loyalty to our country.” Khan’s speech was preceded by a video that showed Hillary Clinton calling Captain Khan “the best of America” and explaining the circumstances of his death, for which he was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

Not only did Fox keep it's panel of pundits talking over  the speech, but then  they  cut to a commercial from a Donald Trump super-pac that uses  the terrorist attack on the US diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.  Clearly  there was an editorial decision made at FOX that the speech didn't fit  their anti-Muslim, pro-Trump narrative.

 If that wasn't enough, there was this response, during the speech, from Conservative celebrity and Donald Trump enthusiast Ann Coulter.

The first tweet referenced a speech by respected CNN and Washington Post Journalist Fareed Zakaria, (whose name Coulter  apparently couldn't spell...), and the second  was Coulter's usual inability to contain her own racism  and insulted Captain Khan's mother.

This is what the Republican Party and  American conservative movement has become.  A pathetic gaggle of internet trolls who are so consumed by racism and bigotry that they attack a Gold Star family  because of their faith.

In case you missed it,  THIS is what FOX News was determined not to show their viewers, and what sub-human gargoyle, Ann Coulter was attacking..

Republicans,  if you have any, and I mean ANY sense of decency, love of country or respect for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation;  You will vote for Hillary Clinton in November,  this is no longer an election, it is an intervention.

The Republican Party we saw on display last week in Cleveland Ohio, the Party of Donald Trump and Ann Coulter, is an affront to everything our nation stands for.    It is cancerous growth on our Republic and must be removed. 

Okay, I Get it... You Don't Like Hillary.

I get it, you don’t like her…

You “feel” she is dishonest, you say she lied, (about what exactly, you never actually specify…but I get it..) Setting aside the fact that she is the most investigated Presidential candidate in American history, by both the Media, and her political opponents.

Setting aside Millions of Dollars and hours of government resources have been spent repeatedly investigating her and had found no crimes, ever. Setting aside that she sat and testified for 11 hours about a tragedy that happened on her watch, and yet the men whose lies took  America into the war that created the terrorists responsible for that tragedy,  have never even been questioned under oath.

Setting all that aside… I get it, you don’t like her.

Setting aside the fact that there has been an entire cable news network that for the last twenty years has been near singularly dedicated to accusing her (with no evidence or proof whatsoever) of everything from bad fashion sense, to first degree murder. Setting aside the fact that she is the most experienced and qualified candidate to seek the Presidency in a generation. Setting aside the fact that she is held to a standard of public transparency and critique that NO male candidate for the same office, has ever been held to…

Settling all that aside… I get it, you don’t like her.

I know you feel Bernie was robbed, and you know what? He wasn’t. I have a news flash for you . The overwhelming majority of American voters don’t do what the DNC subliminally tells them to. Hillary Clinton won more votes. It’s not a rigged system it is math. Even without “Super-delegates” (Which we all agree are stupid and are now being reformed, thanks to Senator Sanders…) She still would be the nominee, because (again.. math,) she won the most delegates.

Setting ALL that aside…. I get it, You don’t Like Hillary Clinton

I know you feel both parties are part of a rigged system that deliberately excludes third and more parties. You are right. It does, and you are correct in saying it is wrong. But guess what? There is no way whatsoever that this system,( rigged against the Libertarians and Greens though it may be), is going to change in the next 84 days between now, and first week of November.  So the reality is, neither Gary Johnson or Jill Stein have a snowballs chance in hell of winning the election, assuming even they are able to get on the ballot in all 50 states.   

So like it or not the choice is between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. (Who, I get it… You don’t like. ) But it doesn’t change the fact that, these are your choices. 4 years (at minimum) of President Clinton or President Trump. Where there will be at the very least one, if not two or more appointments the United States Supreme Court, in addition to the current vacancy. 

I know you tend to tune out when people talk about the Supreme Court, because it is very abstract. But as you apparently are willing to accept at least 4 years of a Trump/Pence administration, you should at least be intellectually honest about that means in real life terms.

The following are taken directly from the 2016 Republican Party Platform:

Appoint anti-choice Supreme Court justices:

"Only a Republican president will appoint judges who respect the rule of law expressed within the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, including the inalienable right to life and the laws of nature and nature’s God, as did the late Justice Antonin Scalia.”

Appoint anti-LGBT and anti-Obamacare justices:

“Only such appointments will enable courts to begin to reverse the long line of activist decisions — including Roe, Obergefell, and the Obamacare cases — that have usurped Congress’s and states’ law-making authority.”

Legalize anti-LGBT discrimination:

"We endorse the First Amendment Defense Act, Republican legislation in the House and Senate which will bar government discrimination against individuals and businesses for acting on the belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman."

Make Christianity a national religion:

"We support the public display of the Ten Commandments as a reflection of our history and our country's Judeo-Christian heritage and further affirm the rights of religious students to engage in voluntary prayer at public school events and to have equal access to school facilities."

Privatize Medicare, the health plan for seniors:

“Impose no changes for persons 55 years of older. Give others the option of traditional Medicare or transition to a premium-support model designed to strengthen patient choice, promote cost-saving competition among providers."

Support traditional marriage but no other families:

"Children raised in a two-parent household tend to be physically and emotionally healthier, more likely to do well in school, less likely to use drugs and alcohol, engage in crime or become pregnant outside of marriage. We oppose policies and laws that create a financial incentive for or encourage cohabitation."

I could go on and on.   This stuff  is just the tip of the right wing fundamentalist iceberg. But I hear you cry that Trump, really doesn’t believe all that far right claptrap, so we don’t have to worry about it! So…. You are saying Trump is lying when he says he supports the GOP platform “100 Percent”. Funny, I thought it was because she was liar you didn’t like Hillary?

Then there is the fact that Donald Trump has already indicated he cant be bothered with the day to day aspects of being President. All that stuff he plans to farm out to the Vice President, while he is busy “Making American Great Again”

From the New York Times:

One day this past May, Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., reached out to a senior adviser to Gov. John Kasich of Ohio… according to the Kasich adviser (who spoke only under the condition that he not be named), Donald Jr. wanted to make him an offer: Did he have any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history?

When Kasich’s adviser asked how this would be the case, Donald Jr. explained that his father’s vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy.

Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of?

“Making America great again” was the casual reply.

So it is not an unreasonable assumption to make, that it is a Vice President,  Mike Pence who will essentially be picking who fills any vacancies on not just the Nation’s highest court, but up down the federal judiciary.  Where you may like to think Trump doesn’t really believe the right wing stuff in the GOP Platform , you can be sure Pence is a true believer, and he will want the populate the federal bench with like-minded gargoyles

Setting aside all the other issues we could talk about, like immigration , climate change, consumer protection, or the fact that a Trump / Pence supreme court would issue rulings that make Citizen’s United look like child play. Let’s just take one issue; Donald Trump has pledged that, if elected, he would appoint justices who would reverse the landmark Supreme Court decision establishing marriage equality nationwide. "It has been ruled upon. It has been there. If I’m elected I would be very strong in putting certain judges on the bench that maybe could change things, but they have a long way to go," he said on Fox News Sunday. "I disagree with the court in that it should have been a states' rights issue.

I get it, you don’t like Hillary Clinton, but how do you feel about me? 

Because voting for Donald Trump, or voting in a way just to vote against Hillary Clinton, you are either way, voting FOR Trump, Mike Pence and the entire GOP platform. Which in turn is a full throttle commitment to use the power of government to dissolve my marriage, and declare that discrimination against me in  public accommodation is a protected form of Religious expression.

In very real and practical terms you are voting to put my civil rights up to a public vote, and even if that vote in your state says I should have equal rights, discrimination against me in employment, housing or any other sort of public accommodation should be perfectly legal, if someone feels their “God” thinks Gay people are icky.

But I get it, the fact you “feel” you can’t trust Hillary is waaaayy more important than my being able to one day move back to the US with my Spouse,  or my having the same civil rights as you ... I get it, the fact that a Trump Presidency would do untold damage to our nation’s economy, global standing, national security, and environment is just the price we need to pay to give the Libertarian Party a serious shot at 2020!

I get it, the fact that women’s reproductive rights, minority voting rights, and consumer protection rights and access to affordable health care for millions of Americans will all be wiped away in the first year of a Trump Administration isn’t nearly as important as showing you didn’t “Sell out the Revolution!” and were not co-opted by the party machine!

So by all means, “be unsure” of whether or not you can “bring yourself to vote for her”. I get it… you don’t like her…. Or lots of other Americans either, ...apparently,

Donald Trump's Fairy Tale Moment...

Maybe it was a sixth sense that something truly awful was happening… But around 3 am here in London I found myself wide awake, wrestling with a bout of acid re-flux and insomnia. So I got up, quietly made my way down the hall from the bedroom to the living room and turned on CSPAN.

The stage was set in  ALL CAPS glory with “TRUMP! “emblazoned in larger than life letters above a wall of American flags. After a graceful and well spoken introduction by his daughter, "The Donald" came out. Soaking up the adulation of assembled masses of Republican National Convention delegates.     Clearly savoring the moment, Donald Trump smiled, and began his speech, accepting  the Republican Party's  Presidential Nomination.

After watching  the speech,  my first impulse was to sit down at this keyboard and  write a massive, detailed point-by-point rebuttal  of everything Trump said last night that was either an out and out lie or at best, wildly contorted half truths taken deliberately out of context.    But you know what?   It doesn't matter.  

 The past three days, watching the sad, very very angry spectacle that was the 2016 GOP convention, one thing has become all too clear;    People who support Donald Trump for President of the United States don't care that he is lying.    The reason is  very simple,  they like the lies.    The lies affirm their world view and confirm their beliefs.     

The victory of Donald Trump in the 2016 Republican Presidential Primary is the culmination of the shift  of the Republican Base away from facts.  Well, OK,  not all facts.  But away from ANY facts or information that doesn't support their existing view point.   When confronted with facts that contradict those views they simply ignore them, if  facts don't match the talking points, they simply don't exist,  or are part of an "elitist  conspiracy" to discredit their point of view, obviously.

This isn't new. What we saw this week in Cleveland is just the end result of what has been happening on the American Political right since 2008.

For the GOP base, if you believe President Obama is a foreign born Muslim, even his actual birth certificate will never convince you .  It must be a fake, because your belief in the Birther conspiracy  is more important to you than the truth,  so you can never accept the fact that the President of the United States is an American, born in Hawaii and a practicing Christian.    

For the GOP base the talking point that both the deficit and national debt  have "skyrocketed" under President Obama is so sacrosanct  as to even defy Math. The fact that the numbers prove otherwise simply doesn't matter,  "Math clearly has a "liberal bias".  

Likewise If you believe the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi was the result of  "Hillary Clinton hating America", and was the worst attack on Americans since Pearl Harbor,  there is no amount of facts or logic  that will dissuade you of that notion.  Even nine Republican led investigations, clearing Clinton of any negligence isn't credible to you .  They all must have clearly been co-opted by  "The Clinton Machine".

Unemployment must be up, (it is down). Violent Crime must be on the rise (it isn't, it has fallen).   America clearly IS the highest taxed nation in the world (actually No, we rank 30th out of 34 industrialized  nations).  

I could go on and on but  why?    If you really want to see for yourself the Washington Post has an excellent fact check of Trump's speech here.     But what's the point?  Trump voters  have no interest in reality. 

Last night has shown the world, that in 2016,   the Republican Party has adopted  willful and aggressive ignorance,  as their overarching  political ideology. 

The New York Times is reporting that should he be elected, Donald Trump plans to hand all responsibility for  domestic and foriegn policy off to  his Vice President, and his role would be, (according to his son) simply to "Make America Great Again".  

"One day this past May, Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., reached out to a senior adviser to Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who left the presidential race just a few weeks before. ... according to the Kasich adviser (who spoke only under the condition that he not be named), Donald Jr. wanted to make him an offer nonetheless: Did he have any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history?

When Kasich’s adviser asked how this would be the case, Donald Jr. explained that his father’s vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy.

Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of?

“Making America great again” was the casual reply."

Did you catch that? Let's be clear here, because this is important. If you are voting for Donald Trump this November, you are voting to elect Mike Pence as essentially  American Prime Minister with Trump as some sort of ceremonial head of state / constitutional monarch.

Friends of mine on both sides of the Atlantic have been asking me on a near daily basis what I think is going to happen come November.   They  nervously point  out that no one expected Trump to get this far, and ask me to seriously handicap the possibility of a Trump victory in Novmember.

I take a deep breath, and remind them that winning the GOP nomination and winning the General election are two very different things.  I dutifully point them to Nate Silver's careful and detailed  assessment, of polls, voter demographics, social and economic trends.  All of which give Trump about a 20 to 25 percent chance of winning.    Honestly though,  who knows?   I would like think that the great mass of the American electorate sees Donald Trump for exactly what he is;  A narcissistic sociopath  with delusions of political grandeur.     

Which then begs the question, of those who are voting for Donald Trump.  Why? If you are a Trump voter, I can only surmise that you clearly have decided that facts do not matter,  and you want to see Trump  set fire to American democracy,  just to watch it burn. 

No plans,  no policies  other than banning all Muslims and building a wall.   No answers other than "believe me, it will be great!"

 

What the world saw in Cleveland, Ohio last night will either be the death knell of the Republican Party as we have always known it.  Or, the death knell of American Democracy as we have always known it.  Either way,  it  will be the triumph of willful ignorance over common sense.