Day 102: Alt-Candidates...Whose Your Favorite Candidate Now!

Doesn't take much to be President.

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States. Article 2, Section 1, The Constitution of the United States


Here are a few of my fave candidates.

Day 101: Eve of Destruction?

Are you a cup half full or half empty person? "The Eve of Destruction" was a  #1 Billboard hit in 1965.

If you are an optimist you'll say, "that is 55 years ago and despite all our troubles we're still here."

On the other hand, you could remind us that "human beings (homo sapiens) have been earth 200,000 years.  55 years is only .0275% of our time here and we may be pressing our luck."

Regardless, here are some awesome versions of Barry McGuire hit.


CLICK HERE TO PLAY VIDEO

Day 100: FACEBOOK Style ...This is for everyone who has been down from Day 1...Well Day 3

I'm going back in time and it's not necessarily a sweet dream. Yet...I'm still safe and I hope that you are too.

The news...March 23, 2020

Headlines

Presidential Polls

DAY 99: COMING DISTRACTIONS...JUNE 29-JULY 3

What do "The Eve of Destruction", Pat Paulsen, Condiments, Blexit, and Darby O'Gill and the Little People have in common?

They will be featured in Don's Basement next week.

That's all you need to know.

Day 98: Tulsa, The Center of the Universe

Last week during the run up for President Trump's rally, it felt like Tulsa was the center of the universe. This week I looked at the rally from the right and the left and  Dr. Whiteside's warning about the rally and response from the left, right, weird and hateful. Yesterday, I learned about the murals of Tulsa.

Today...it's the center of the universe.

But isn't everyday.

Day 97: The Murals of Tulsa...What You See is What You Get

There are many ways to look at a city and it's history. Tulsa has chosen the path of public street art.
Here is what I found.

Day 96: Paging Dr. Whiteside...A voice from the Emergency Room

Tulsa World is a the daily newspaper for northeastern and eastern Oklahoma. It has a circulation of over 90,000 readers. I hadn't heard of it until I read about and watched President Trump's rally last Saturday.

On June 19, the Friday before the rally, Dr. Samantha Whiteside, an emergency room physician wrote an op-ed for Tulsa World, "I'm a Tulsa emergency physician and conservative, and the Trump rally is a terrible idea." In her piece, she notes the increase in new covid-19 cases, the 15% positivity testing rate (had been as low as 3%) and that the rally is "short-sighted at best and reckless and dangerous at worst."

She concludes, "As a physician, my oath is to do no harm, and to sit silently on this matter feels wrong. I was raised in a conservative, pro-life, Southern Baptist household and continue to have these values today with my own family. It’s not about President Trump. For me, it doesn’t matter if the rally is for a Republican, Democrat or Queen Elizabeth herself. It’s a terrible idea."

As part of the Rashomon series, I wanted to see how Dr. Whiteside would be treated on social media.

Rachel Maddow posted the op-ed on her Twitter feed. The tweet received 5,500 retweets, 17,400 like, and over 900 comments.

Some supportive...




A few concerned about the Dr.



Stupid...



And the inevitable Hitler reference..



And the equally predictable...



DeAnne Lorraine is a former Congressional Candidate vs. Nancy Pelosi. In the March primary, Lorraine received 4,635 votes or 1.8% finishing 5th in a 5 person contest. Yet, she has 307,500 Twitter followers. 

Take a deep breath lefties...Maddow has over 10 million. But still. Lorraine has a lot of followers. She isn't some lunatic in a basement somewhere.

This is her first response to Dr. Whiteside's op-ed.

Only a few commenters took that bait.



Most did the equivalency route.



Obnoxious.




Scary.




The Rashomon effect?

Maybe it's me but the only plausible explanation for Dr. Whiteside's op-ed is that she wanted to help people not get sick.

In recent weeks, I have found myself getting upset about "cancel" culture on the left. It doesn't seem  that "cancel" culture is owned by the left or right wing. It is a thought shortcut and doesn't reflect too well on anyone.

Day 95: Allow me to Retort...Another side of Tulsa

LOL—this is perfect—@realDonaldTrump’s return last night to Hail to the Chief in C minor instead of a major key https://t.co/saiZfQMToU

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) June 21, 2020

Here is another look at Saturday's Trump Rally.

Day 94: Tulsa Time...The President's Rally

Day 93: FACEBOOK style...

What do all these countries have in common? 

Guess right and you will receive a don shearn marketing services HANGOVER HAT.

About a week ago, I friend wrote in an E-mail... "I get the feeling that a lot of young folks on the left are reading Orwell as a guidebook, not a warning."

Three days later, I see this shirt on Pinterest or some such scrolling thing. The Orwell shirt is a thing.
This site  has 1,768 listings for 1984, Orwell, or Orwell adjacent shirts.

Jokes:

So I met some chess players in a hotel lobby the other day, and they were bragging about how good they were at chess. In other words, they were chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.

Day 92: Tulsa Time...Right-Left-Outside-Inside

We used to say that there were 3 sides to every story. What you said. What I said. And what really happened.

Don't know if I can get there from here but will try to look at the Tulsa Rally from the political, material and spiritual side.

I hope you will join me.

Southwest corner of 46th Street North and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. MIKE SIMONS/Tulsa World

Day 91: John Wayne...Patriot, Maniac or POS?

A few weeks ago, A Facebook friend posted a quotation from James Baldwin's 1972 memoir, "No Name in the Street."

...a black man who sees the world the way John Wayne, for example, sees it would not be an eccentric patriot, but a raving maniac.

 I commented that 30% of Americans saw the world that way. As is occasionally the case with Facebook comments (both mine and others), I have been thinking about that statement. To break it down, I wondered how did John Wayne see the world in 1972 and how many people today see the world in that same way.

Demographics:

John Wayne died in 1979. According to 2020 census estimates approximately 40% of the United State population had not yet been born (or were under the age of 5) when Wayne died. 

Hollywood Career:

Wayne appeared in over 170 movies from 1926 through 1976. He appeared on the top ten list of favorite movie stars every year between 1949 and 1973 with one exception – 1958. In 2006, Emanuel Levy wrote. " The movies of John Wayne have grossed collectively more than any star, male or female of his generation; the amount is roughly estimated at $700 million in the United States alone.
Based on annual polls, Variety named him the box-office champion of all time. Indeed, Wayne has been the only movie star with 32 pictures on the Variety compilation of all-time money-grossers."

"NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Feb. 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- The most popular film actor of the 20th century, John Wayne, is once again in the top five on The Harris Poll's annual list of "America's Favorite Movie Stars," this year landing the fourth spot. More than 38 years after his death, Wayne is the only late actor in the top 10 and has never fallen out in over two decades."

(Note on this poll, John Wayne is listed as the top choice of conservative, Republican, men 70 years and old. He ranked 3rd amongst those 51 to 69 and is not in the top three of any other age group.)

John Wayne on John Wayne:

The best place to start and finish is John Wayne's interview with Playboy Magazine in May/1971.
Here is the transcript.  (It's 12,000 words, about a 40 minute read for Don's Basement completists) The interview made the rounds on Twitter and the media in 2019 when screenwriter Matt Williams posted this Tweet.

Here are what some would say outspoken and others reactionary, racist and homophobic excerpts from the interview.

PLAYBOY: What kind of films do you consider perverted?

WAYNE: Oh, Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy—that kind of thing. Wouldn't you say that the wonderful love of those two men in Midnight Cowboy, a story about two fags, qualifies? 

 WAYNE: "What kind of a nation is it that fails to understand that freedom of speech and assembly are one thing, and anarchy and treason are quite another, that allows known Communists to serve as teachers to pervert the natural loyalties and ideals of our kids, filling them with fear and doubt and hate and down-grading patriotism and all our heroes of the past?"
PLAYBOY: You blame all this on liberals?

WAYNE: Well, the liberals seem to be quite willing to have Communists teach their kids in school. The Communists realized that they couldn't start a workers' revolution in the United States, since the workers were too affluent and too progressive. So the Commies decided on the next-best thing, and that's to start on the schools, start on the kids. 

PLAYBOY: Angela Davis claims that those who would revoke her teaching credentials on ideological grounds are actually discriminating against her because she's black. Do you think there's any truth in that?

WAYNE: With a lot of blacks, there's quite a bit of resentment along with their dissent, and possibly rightfully so. But we can't all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.

PLAYBOY: For years American Indians have played an important—if subordinate—role in your Westerns. Do you feel any empathy with them?

WAYNE: I don't feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them, if that's what you're asking. Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.

PLAYBOY: What about welfare recipients?

WAYNE: I believe in welfare—a welfare work program. I don't think a fella should be able to sit on his backside and receive welfare. I'd like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living... Why are we allowing ourselves to become a mobocracy instead of a democracy? When you allow unlawful acts to go unpunished, you're moving toward a government of men rather than a government of law; you're moving toward anarchy. 

PLAYBOY: You seem to have a very blunt way of dealing with people. Why? 

WAYNE: I've always followed my father's advice: He told me, first, to always keep my word and, second, to never insult anybody unintentionally. If I insult you, you can be goddamn sure I intend to. And, third, he told me not to go around looking for trouble.

PLAYBOY: Many pessimists insist that our nation has lost its dignity and is headed toward self-destruction. Some, in fact, compare the condition of our society to the decline and fall of the Roman Empire and the last days of Sodom and Gomorrah. Are you that gloomy about the future of America?

WAYNE: Absolutely not. I think that the loud roar of irresponsible liberalism, which in the old days we called radicalism, is being quieted down by a reasoning public. I think the pendulum's swinging back. We're remembering that the past can't be so bad. We built a nation on it. We must also look always to the future. Tomorrow—the time that gives a man or a country just one more chance—is just one of many things that I feel are wonderful in life.

In conclusion...

When I was growing up I was a big John Wayne fan. Loved Hondo, Rio Bravo, The High and Mighty (trying taking a plane ride after that movie). He kind of lost me with the The Green Berets. I honestly don't remember the '71 Playboy interview....fags...white supremacy, selfish Indians. Yeesh. 

There is always the issue of separating an artist from his work. This is a particularly difficult problem with Wayne because so much of his work seems to reflect the world view of ... remembering that the past can't be so bad. We built a nation on it..

As to the point of this exercise, I don't know how many Americans would subscribe to the whole John Wayne package but that core believe resonates with Make America Great Again. 

Here are my thoughts...

Day 90: Romare Bearden, the coolest artist I never heard until about a week ago

While searching for images that described the street musicians from my days in Berkeley, I came across Romare Bearden's work.

Romare Bearden (1911-1988) and possibly Gypo, the cat

One of the joys of exploring the Internet rabbit holes that are the foundation of Don's Basement is learning about artists and their works. I am not alone in being late to Romare Bearden appreciation.

"Many artists and art historians consider Romare Bearden one of America's most important and inventive artists. But he's hardly a household name." Needa Ulaby, NPR 2003

Born in Mecklenburg, North Carolina in 1911, his family moved to New York City when he was 3 years old. Although raised in Harlem, he maintained his connection to the South with summer trips.  He and his wife, Nanette Rohan, whom he married in 1954 established a residence in St. Martin, her ancestral home. The merging of rural Southern, urban Northern and Caribbean sensibility infused his his work.

“I think the artist has to be some- thing like a whale, swimming with his mouth wide open, absorbing everything until he has what he really needs. When he finds that, he can start to make limitations. And then he really begins to grow.” Romare Bearden

Here are some selected works.

The Cotton Pickers: 1942 Oil

Three Thirsty Souls: 1946 Oil

Three Folk Musicians 1967 Collage

Carolina Morning:1972 Serigraph

The Street (Composition for Richard Wright): 1974 Felt Tip Pen

Trains, Through Freight: 1974 Print

  Circe Turns a Companion of Odysseus into a Swine: 1979 Screenprint

Jefferson Cooley's Evening Guitar: 1986 Collage

For much more information, check out the Romare Bearden Foundation. (I donated because I took so much content from them)

Here is an NPR Podcast about Romare Bearden. 7:00

This video is from the Foundation. 6:32

Reagan V. Berkeley...Can you tell me please, who won?