Marine Le Pen, invitée du 20h de TF1 (Interview after being sentenced)

I'm in the US, not even in France, but I know that Le Pen is "pour France" and not for the EU. And I know that the charges were trumped up. (As if no other French leader had ever done anything even remotely wrong.) Le Pen leads in the French polls, which is exactly why the Marxist judges have ruled against her.

Cher: Moonstruck (1987): Snap Out of It!

The Viewpoint of the Insane Is Not Sustainable

The viewpoint of the Insane is not sustainable: We tried it post WWI. We tried it in the late '60s. We were trying a sad version of it again under Obama/Biden (except that no interesting literature or music came out of this brief period, and certainly no great leadership).

And now it's a shocker when Trump, a la Cher, slaps us and tells us to "snap out of it!" We're not running a day-care center, we're running a country. No more psychiatric verbiage, no more academic verbiage, no more of any of this BS.

Some addenda:

The climate changes, by itself, every 15,000 years or so. We're not responsible for it. (It changed by itself long before humans ever existed.) All of the money that you're donating to left-wing NGOs doesn't help anything.

Polar bears were once, thousands of years ago, simple brown bears who migrated northward and eventually turned white because of their white-colored environment. If the polar ice caps are melting, they'll just move south again. 

The Animals: We Gotta Get Out Of This Place (1965)

I'm finally going somewhere!

I haven't traveled anywhere since I came home, tail between my legs, from NYC to Austin in 2010. My lack of going anywhere since then: No money, and no one to go with. And then, once I started making money, still no one to go with. And I was still mentally whipped, with no real desire to go anywhere, sadly.

BUT---I AM going somewhere in May!! I'm going to San Francisco to see a low-brow Joan Crawford play, and I'm going to enjoy every second of my fun 3-day trip! (Last time I visited SF for a Joan-fan meet-up was in 2006, for showing of Mildred Pierce with a personal appearance by Ann Blyth.)

Aside from Joan stuff, I also have an earlier history with SF: I got my Master's in Creative Writing from San Francisco State in '95, and I lived in the Richmond District and visited the beach while I was there... I wasn't particularly HAPPY during that time, but I was, for sure, in an interesting setting:

Aggressive Russian Jewish women literally pushing me out of the way to get onto the bus! But the Russian tchotchke shops were cute. Only a few streets over, however, were the disgusting Chinese restaurants with their front windows of live fish squirming and struggling in a half-inch of water. Viewing this sadism has affected me to this day. I'd thought that such dumb cruelty was the secretive province of small boys or such. But no----here it was in a shop window for anyone to witness---and no city official ever shut this down. 

I'd never seen such an overt public case of sadism and hope to never see such again. (Was I still in America or in some Third-World country?)

I was only there for under 2 years, but my friend Kathy flew out to visit me during this time, as did my brother and his wife-to-be. Both Kathy and my brother no longer talk to me---why? I think I was more interesting to them when I lived in a more interesting place. They didn't particularly care about me, they just wanted to visit San Francisco!

I've been such a stagnant wimp since 2020, when COVID struck, with my cushy work-from-home job---I'm very grateful for the job and the money, but...I have been basically STUCK IN MY HOME for 5 years! I haven't seen anyone or done anything!

Oh, and I've also felt guilty about possibly leaving The Cats. Well----they'll be OK for a mere 3 days! :)

I'm very much looking forward to getting out of here and doing something!

"The Kid" 1921 ("Leeta" song by Gene Simmons pre-KISS)

"The Kid" (1921) Chaplin film excerpt with a 12-year-old Lillita MacMurray ("Lita Grey," as later renamed by Chaplin) as a "flirtatious angel."

Chaplin would soon get Lita Grey pregnant at 15, ask for an abortion, then be forced to marry her by her litigious family. A couple of years later, after she'd asked for only $10,000, Chaplin was forced to pay her over $600K (with $100K each for his two sons). She soon blew the money and went on vaudeville tours to earn a living.

Song "Leeta" is from a band that Gene Simmons was in long before KISS.
No clear evidence that this was based on "Lita Grey." Gene Klein knew how to spell, and knew some film history.
I like this song, though, and think it does fit with the "Kid/Lita" film clip.

Ted Hughes: Stronger Than Death

"Who is stronger than death? Me, evidently..."
Hughes died at 68, so obviously he wasn't literally "stronger than death."
I think what he meant was that he had survived terrible emotional griefs 

that had killed others close to him. Why was he stronger than they were?

"I've never felt more comfortable with anyone..."

Last year, my mother showed me a recent note from my father. (The two had divorced in 1978 after 15 years of marriage.)

My elderly father wrote in the 2010s: "I've never felt more comfortable with anyone than I have with you."

Which is a very sweet thing to say in remembrance of a former love. BUT.........

My god, I grew up with these two, and they were anything BUT "comfortable" with each other.

They were absolutely awful with each other. 

One example: In the '70s, when my father led my mother into the bedroom one early evening, I just assumed---based on former examples---that he was taking her in there to beat her up. (They emerged smiling, so I was wrong.)

As a 5-year-old, I was forced to sit in the back seat while my father taught my mother to drive. He usually screamed at her the whole time. I remember crying and begging not to have to go along with them any more----one of my very first memories.

Other bad memories: The only time my mother took me anywhere was when my father was acting badly and she wanted to get away from him. We went to a junior-high basketball game. We went to a high-school play. We went to the Six Flags amusement park. None of these things were done as a normal thing---they were all done because my father was acting so badly at home that my mother needed to escape.

RE "I've never felt more comfortable":  I lived with the two of you up until your divorce: You two were NEVER "comfortable" with each other, at least from what I witnessed. But then you married in '62; I wasn't born until '65. Maybe you had a really good few early years that I just didn't know about.

Only a few years ago, in a supermarket parking lot, my elderly mother offhandedly mentioned that I had been bad for her marriage! (We hadn't been talking about "relationships" or any "family problems." This remark just came out of the blue.) So maybe it WAS me, the baby, that allegedly turned both of you into assholes! :) Yeah, right! :)

NPR CEO Katherine Maher appears before Congress

Katherine Maher was once the head of Communications at Wikipedia (2014 to 2016).
(Wikipedia has been completely controlled and censored by leftists for the past 15 years or more; Maher did nothing to correct this bias.)

In 2020, Maher tweeted that Trump was a "deranged fascist" and a "racist."

Maher became the CEO of National Public Radio (NPR) in 2024.

And now this left-wing lunatic wants government money for NPR?

Just listen to this station today for even 1/2 hour. It's not what it used to be even 10 years ago. What was once a mildly interesting station is now a full-fledged propaganda outlet for Socialism/Illegal Immigration/Criminals et al.

 

One early example of its decline from my personal life:
Back in 2017, I'd moved into my new apartment, and the cable was not yet ready. So I had no TV, and the only radio without commercials was NPR---the only thing I had to listen to. I'd been expecting tales of literature and history and sociology and such...

 

But no: At one point came a story about a family picnic: A white family was holding a family reunion at a park. A black guy intruded on them, held a gun on them, robbed them. According to NPR, the family then invited the black robber to sit down with them, and they all ended up jolly friends. Like hell.

I'd never listened to NPR for more than 15 minutes while travelling in my car until this time. But at the above point, I realized that they were BS and propagandist. I've never listened to them again.

 

So, yeah, I'm completely on Trump's side when it comes to defunding any org led by Katherine Maher, especially given her past corrupt Wikipedia rule, and then her 2020 leftist tweets (while she was a so-called journalist).

Tammy Wynette: I Don't Wanna Play House (1967)

Tammy Wynette: Til I Can Make It On My Own (1976)

Tammy Wynette: Help Me Make It Through The Night (1974)

Written by Kris Kristofferson.
He could write but, unfortunately, could not sing.

John Lennon: Out The Blue (1973)

The best song from what is primarily an Apology Album to his wife.
The next year's "Walls and Bridges" was a Remorse Album.
Then a 5-year break. Then the 1980 "Double Fantasy"---
not that great, but special because Lennon was shot after recording it.

All my life has been a long slow knife
I was born just to get to you
Anyway, I survived
Long enough to make you my wife...

A wild, original man meets a poseur Marxist. And utterly loses self.
(Sorry so harsh to Yoko---but I've never, in even one interview, ever heard her say
anything actually insightful, though she was much touted by the alternative press 

of the time, and John, as being somehow "profound.")

Stabbing Someone to Death

Last night, I dreamt that I was stabbing a particular person to death [won't state here who exactly]. And the stabbing took a while, but I kept at it.

I've NEVER in my life had any dream as violent as this. I've had worse EMOTIONAL dreams, where I FELT bad, but nothing like where I was actually MURDERING someone!

(I need to stop re-reading all of my Manson books!)

During the second part of the dream, I contemplated the prison consequences: 

First, in the dream, I was only THINKING about my future life in prison.
Next, I was actually within a women's prison, moving down the halls, meeting various people, trying to figure out things like what I'd get to do while in prison.
I was then informed that there was no one to take care of my cats. I couldn't believe this fact. THIS was the most awful thing to me! (Not the murder I'd committed, mind you...)

I woke up feeling completely, awfully drained.
But then did my grocery shopping as planned. 

Charles Manson: My World (1967)

Charles Manson, 1934

 

NEA President Speaks

The below is Becky Pringle, the President of the National Education Association, speaking in 2024---NEA is the trade union that runs our country's schools.
I don't even have kids, but I'm shocked by this idiot.
WHY has she been allowed to run the NEA? Could it be... GASP!... DEI? Why else?
Does anyone---ANYONE---really want the teachers and students of the United States influenced by this emotionally/politically unbalanced dimwit?
And why is everyone on the stage behind her a black female? Black women are about 6% of the US population. How did 6% hijack the entire NEA? 

And could they (and DEI policies) be the reason that school Reading/Math scores in the US 

are the lowest that they've been in 30 years?

For serious things, like education and medicine and business: 

Put those with merit back in charge. Enough with this incompetent DEI BS.
TAKE BACK THE COUNTRY. (Or, as someone once said: "Drain the Swamp.")

p.s. Dear EU countries:

Given this historical knowledge, that minorities do not want to (cannot?) assimilate into your country, why on earth would you continue to allow all of the Middle Eastern immigrants into your countries? And given the results, why do you not do anything about it?

Kris Kardashian: I Love My Friends (1985)

Kris Kardashian created this vid for her 30th birthday in 1985.
Pretty embarrassing! :)  But, hey, it was only supposed to be a home-vid!
And, Hi, OJ!
(Daughter Kim, years later, released this on her website.)

Meghan Trainor: Mother (2022; featuring Kris Jenner)

Of all the hangers-on in Hollywood: 

I actually think Kris Jenner is sexy and has some star quality! :) 

(More than either Trainor or Markle, for example.)
About the same as Kim. And much more than any of the other generic daughters.

(This song is utterly stupid and meaningless---but wildly catchy---

and Kris Jenner looks hot---and is a lot more interesting to look at than Trainor!)

Julia: The Beatles (1968)

ABBA - The Winner Takes It All (1980)

ABBA - Knowing Me, Knowing You (1982)

A breakup song that doesn't make you, the listener, feel like shit.
When you listen to both The Beatles and ABBA, you get good vibes, 

even in the midst of their own personal misery.

ABBA - Dancing Queen (1976)

Great pop music transcends all decades. This song is so happy and inspiring!

ABBA - Waterloo (Eurovision Song Contest 1974)

First time Sweden had ever won Eurovision! This made the group a Star.

Muriel's Wedding (1994) Waterloo

I tried about 10 different YouTube videos for this, but NONE would appear here!
I guess just click on the link for the great movie clip!

Charles Manson: 1986 Interview with Charlie Rose

One very false thing: Manson has his long-lived prison rules about survival. I understand those in their context of prison. But then he applied those same rules to wimpy young people out in the universe, at a time in American history when liberals were encouraging young people to let criminals into their lives (you're "square" if you don't). Manson intentionally warped the young minds because he could. That's not Christ-like. That's evil. 

 

(I agree with his point that you're ultimately responsible for your own actions----but that's a mantra for much-tougher people, not for malleable teenagers.)

A '50s convict meeting '67 liberalism/philosophy. Manson milked said "philosophy" to its ultimate degree: Death if WE feel like you deserve to be killed. To a much larger degree, this was exactly the same mind-set during the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution. And the same mind-set recently with Luigi Mangione murdering a health-care executive (and ignorant acolytes online applauding this).

Manson misses the ULTIMATE philosophical point: It's not about #MeToo. Yeah, we all know that your upbringing and life in prison as a youth were bad. The whole point is: DO NOT try to reproduce this Bad upon the universe---which you did. For all of your philosophizing for the media, you did a Terrible Wrong.

The Beatles: From Me To You (1963: Royal Variety Performance)

PBS = "White People Bad"

I grew up watching PBS, but for the past 15 years or so, the vast majority of their programming has been about "evil white people" being mean to "noble" blacks/illegal-immigrant Mexicans/native Indians (the latter originally from Asia, if you want to go there). In the past few years, the station has gotten impossible to watch for purely historical shows without any overt Marxist bias.

Oh, but WAIT! When it's FUND-RAISING season for PBS, they all of a sudden start programming POPULAR programs! I just watched an interesting multiple-part series on Leonardo da Vinci. And on "Country Music Duets" (including George/Tammy).  Oh, and on the Bee Gees. (And then there's Rick Steves' "The Alps.")

Given that PBS does not run Henry Gates programs during their fund-raising, perhaps they should realize that the majority of Americans are sick of the racial BS. (I will never forget watching Mia Farrow on Gates's show giving a dramatic YAWN when her English heritage was revealed. What a posing, left-wing creep Farrow is. ALL heritage is interesting, you idiot.)

90% of the time today, all PBS programming is racial and left-wing Marxist. I'm pretty centrist, but I've had enough of their BS. If Trump wants to cut federal funding for either NPR or PBS, I have no problem at all with that.

In honor of Charles Manson, I always close/lock my windows after 10pm.

When I live in an apartment on the 2nd floor, I can keep my back bedroom windows open at night to let fresh air in.
But for the past few years, I've lived on the ground floor of my complex. For the past couple of years, it's usually pretty quiet around here (oh, except for last Sunday with the clueless menopausal neighbor constantly wheeling her laundry past my window until 1am!---but that wasn't threatening or anything).
When I re-read Manson stuff (or "In Cold Blood" stuff), I freak out more, although the Manson "legacy" is almost always with me: DON'T LEAVE YOUR WINDOWS OPEN AFTER 10PM, HOWEVER SAFE YOU THINK YOU ARE---even in the very wealthy hills above LA.

I keep thinking of Abigail Folger actually waving a hello to one of her future killers as they passed her bedroom. And, according to her killer, her last words were calling out for her mother.

So...The weather is very nice in Austin right now; I wish I could leave my windows open and enjoy the fresh late-night air. But I'm now locked-in for the night.

"We Are the World"!

For every country: Note that it's the outlier who's capable of making peace---
NOT the one who's beholden to his own country's defense industry
and/or religious or Marxist ideology.
GO TRUMP!

Charles Manson: My World (1967)

OUT OF TIME: If Manson was going to do songs arranged like this, then OF COURSE his music wasn't going to be a hit in 1967, 1968, 1969. This sounds like late '50/early '60s TV stuff.
I personally think it sounds good, but... It also sounds like it's coming from a suited Dean Martin-style character.
Which doesn't match up with the sloppy hippy Manson, who looks like he should be jamming some psychedelic stuff.
As Manson himself said: He grew up in the '30s. His favorite music was from the '40s and '50s. He said it was his co-dwellers (didn't want to say "Family") who were so into the Beatles out at Spahn Ranch.
Ironic that he looked so "hippie/slippy" but sounded so circa 1956.

Charles Manson's first prison interview (with Tom Snyder, 1981 excerpts)

I've got 8 books in the Manson portion of my "True Crime" library, ranging from "Helter Skelter" to "Manson In His Own Words" to Squeaky Fromme's scattered recollections.

I don't think Manson is scary, and I don't think he's insane. He's actually fairly philosophical.
One of his main tenets: "Do what you will."
Philosophers such as St. Augustine, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche have said exactly the same thing.
And Aleister Crowley and modern Wiccans espouse the same.
Applied to the nights of the Tate/La Bianca murders: Manson actually did NOT order anyone to kill anyone. I think he was playing mind-games and "suggested" things----according to his philosophy, every person was responsible for his/her own behavior.

I agree: You are responsible for yourself. Technically and intellectually, I don't think that Manson was guilty at all. But he WAS doing a "thought experiment" that led to murders.

 

Similarly, Manson's frequent rants about what "the system" and his family had done to him are equally false. 

Despite all actually serious injustices against him as a youth, he was, as an adult, ultimately responsible for himself. In his pure recognition of the falsity of society, he could have moved beyond/above it, and taught others to do the same. He chose not to. He instead chose to perpetuate ugliness and incite murder. That's not in any way "Christ-like." Manson claimed to be Christ. But the strength to "turn the other cheek" was completely foreign to him. 

Being "Christ" is about the power of TRANSCENDING your background/current situation, and offering something better.

In the final assessment, Manson could never just admit he was wrong about the Hinman/Tate/LaBianca killings. NO, he didn't actually kill anyone---so, according to his own philosophical/intellectual reasoning, he was "innocent." And I do see that point. His entire criminal background up until this point was cheesy thefts, etc. He had no history of violence. But he thought it would be "interesting" psychologically to see if any of the people that he was living with were capable of violence if he goaded them. And they were.

Had I been a member of the parole board, I would have kept Manson in prison for 25-30 years. I think Manson was kept in jail after that point just because of his talking. He wasn't a violent criminal.
 

Compare to Ed Kemper: History of animal torture/killings of family pets as a child. Shot both his grandmother and grandfather to death in 1964 at age 15. Was released from California prison in 1969 only 5 years later. (WHY was he released only 5 years later after 2 murders, California?) Between 1972 and 1973, Kemper murdered 6 girls and then his mother and her friend. Turned himself in after the latter.

THAT psychotic type of criminal is who California prison officials have been giving early-release to for the past 50 years. Because they "present" as "normal."  But never Manson, who never put up a front about how weird he was.

LOVE ME: Two Hoots and a Holler

KISS: Black Diamond (1975)

KISS: Hard Luck Woman (1976)

KISS: C'mon and Love Me (1975)

KISS: Detroit Rock City (1976)

Kinda Sad, Kinda Annoying.

OK, I'm in my 50s. I live alone (with 5 cats). My new neighbor is around my same age, maybe 5 or so years older.

A few months ago, she moved in to the apartment next door that had been empty for over 2 years.
Upon her first moving in, I heard a loud crash outside our doors one post-midnight. When I stuck my head outside my door to check what the hell had just happened, I saw a big pool of a wine-colored liquid spilled all over the sidewalk... No, not blood! It was actually WINE, which she'd spilled upon trying to tote her wheeled vehicle of dozens of bottles of wine over the front doorstep. We introduced ourselves at this point. (OK, still hope for a funny sort of friendship!)

Next time I saw her, I was watering plants in my backyard (with a hand-held watering can). And she was physically running around the sidewalks of apartments behind ours, then peering into my backyard while I was sitting right there without saying anything to me! I finally said to her, "What are you looking for?" She needed/wanted a faucet so she could water her tiny backyard with a hose. There wasn't a faucet.

This past Sunday, I was trying to sleep on my couch when I started hearing someone with a cart wheeling by my apartment around 11pm. I'd doze off, then the cart-pusher would come by again, on and on, until 1 in the morning. Finally, when I heard the wheels for the umpteenth time, I peered out the window---it was my neighbor, doing her laundry at 1 a.m. on a Sunday night. My ground-floor apartment is inches away from the sidewalk.

At her last pass, I opened my door and stepped outside: "Do you have to make many more trips?"

"No, this is it!" She said cheerfully.

And then I had to be the Bad Guy/Karen and give a few mini-lectures: "Wheeling stuff on the sidewalk is kind of loud after midnight. It woke me up." "I don't think you're supposed to do laundry after 10pm." "I think it sounds especially loud for the guys living next door and above the laundry room."

Her response: "Well, on Saturday, the water wasn't really working."
Me: "But 1 a.m., whatever the day, is kind of late."
Her: "Well, you just need to tell me."
Me: "But I'm telling you right now..."

I felt so sorry for her, that I didn't even report it to the apartment management. She wasn't trying to be an ass, she was just scatter-brained.

Like I said earlier, she's around my same age-range. We're both single; she has two dogs, I have five cats. But I have not yet tipped over into the "crazy-lady-range."

Today (Monday), I was pulling into the parking lot of the apartment complex while she was walking her two dogs. She looked right at me, and I smiled at her (feeling bad about our Sunday meeting), but either she didn't see the smile or just chose to walk right on.

We're kinda at the same stage of our lives. I'm supposed to be more tolerant at this stage. I AM. But I'm still NOT. I'm still intellectually functional. I still look better. I still want something better. (And I still would not wheel my laundry up and down sidewalks at 1 a.m. because I am POLITE.)

I'm A People: George Jones, 1966 (country Dada)

Funny how the natural absurdist humor of country folk later got labelled "dada-esque" 

and warped by so-called "intellectuals."

GANGSTA'S PARADISE - TRUMP EDIT

I can't share this enough.
The powers-that-be tried to block him from social media, jail him, bankrupt his business, KILL him.
And despite all of that propaganda, they fuckin' FAILED.
GO TRUMP!

Tammy Wynette: Help Me Make It Through The Night

Invisible Tears: Ned Miller (1964)

See an earlier post for Charles Manson's version of this song.
Not trying to be "cool," but Manson's version is actually more interesting and, yes, a bit better.
(Though it's a great song---who could mess it up? Maybe Billie Eilish or a rapper...)

Paul McCartney: Maybe I’m Amazed (1970)

John Lennon: How? (1970)

The Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand (Ed Sullivan Show, 1964)

"From Me To You" - The Beatles 1963

Nothing More Boring Than John-n-Yoko

I think we've been living through this same kind of "performance" bullshit for the past 8 years.
Posing. "I'm such a good, profound person."

What Lennon will be remembered for is his joyous music with the Beatles ('63 thru 64), and his contemplative music with the Beatles ('65 thru '69). And then his first two emotionally raw solo albums ('70 and '71) and his '74 "Walls and Bridges."

Yoko is in her '90s now, and she's about to die----but she has nothing to do with the best part of Lennon---his music---other than briefly inspiring some separation-angst songs for "Walls and Bridges." 

His early years with her were godawful posing, per the late '60s/early '70s trendy Marxism of the time. Once the political radicalism was gone and they had nothing left to pose for, they separated for a year-and-a-half in '73 and '74. Once they got back together, Lennon made no new music for 5 years. And then ONE album in 1980 before he was shot to death.

George Harrison once said: "We had no idea how mentally ill John was."

No sane man utterly cuts off his creativity in order to make peace with his woman. Same for any other person, male or female. A real mating allows the creativity. The only creativity Yoko apparently "allowed" was when John agreed with her (politically) and worked with her (only). And he was mentally weak enough to go along with that.

The Biased "Globalist" (aka "Marxist") BBC

Just based on this past Sunday's BBC viewing for a couple of hours:
(1) A driver in Mannheim, Germany, plowed his car into a city crowd, killing 2 and injuring 11. The BBC headline for this news: "Car accident in Mannheim." Car ACCIDENT! Now, we still don't know the motive or background of the man who did it. He's described in media outlets only as a "40-year-old German citizen." (Just as the car attacker in New Orleans on Jan. 1 was a "US citizen"---albeit a Muslim radical.)
(2) When ostensibly having a serious discussion on the Trump/Zelensky dust-up on camera last Friday, the BBC interviewed Alexander Vindman, of all people! (Former National Security Council officer who testified at Trump's first impeachment trial re a Trump/Zelensky phone-call about Hunter Biden's involvement in the Ukraine Burisma company, and who "retired" in 2020.) Since 2020, Vindman has appeared hundreds of times on various media outlets, ALWAYS as an anti-Trump spokesperson. The BBC did not offer any counter-interview to this overt political clown.