Story

Here is the 1997 Vanity Fair piece about Richard Jewell, by Marie Brenner. Jewell, you may recall, was a wrongly named suspect in the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park bombing in Atlanta that killed one and wounded many others.

A security guard working the Olympics site on the day of the bombing, Jewell was a hero too good for the FBI to believe.  Calling attention to a suspicious bag eventual confessed bomber Eric Rudolph planted in the park, Jewell and other security helped clear the area for 13 min. until the bomb finally exploded.

Jewell saved countless lives, but he FBI suspected he was a "lone hero" searching for affection, a "failed cop" seeking a name for himself.

The Atlanta Constitution carried the story into the mainstream.

Brenner's piece is working its way to the big screen.  Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill, who teamed together most recently on The Wolf of Wall Street, are set to star.

Jewell was pretty much tried and sentenced for the crime in the court of public opinion before the FBI cleared him the following year.  He subsequently sued a lot of people and institutions, winning a great deal of money which he said went mainly to his attorneys.

Richard Jewell died a decade after the Olympics bombing.  He was 44.


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Yogi

Happy 90th to Yogi Berra.


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Brothers

Equally stupid brothers.


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stretching exercises

I'm like this guy, only 30 years older and bald.

Gotta start doing some stretching regularly.

Lose some weight.

Sitting at a desk 10 hours straight every day isn't good, either.

Might have to get my pot card activated.


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Mass Delusions

But Matt Stys, an Iraq veteran and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War based in Colorado, told Common Dreams that the revelations point to something far more insidious: the permeation of military propaganda into every aspect of U.S. life.

"I think it's detrimental to the youth, specifically, seeing these images on a television of the NFL supporting the military," said Stys. "It indicates to them that adults think this is right."

"Should we be perpetuating war or should we be looking at peace, understanding, and education?" Stys asked. "We're not defending our country or freedom—we're destroying other countries and other countries' freedoms."

I cringe every year when Oregon plays its Spring Game to "honor the troops," which it started doing under Chip Kelly and carried over in the Helfrich era.

The idea has no redeeming value.  None.


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The Frauds

In recent decades, American politics have been dominated by a series of escalating ideological conflicts that have come to be known as “the culture wars.” And, with Christian moralizers like Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz and Bobby Jindal entering the 2016 fray, this is unlikely to change any time soon. So, as we brace ourselves for another GOP primary defined by “traditional values,” one question it’s worth asking is: Do these conservatives (and their supporters) have any right to claim the high ground?

Republicans such as Huckabee and Jindal love to use their religion as a prop: They judge and preach and condemn under the cover of Christianity. And they assume this grants them a kind of moral superiority. Well, it doesn’t. Huckabee and Jindal are political hucksters. They fancy themselves Christians, but their preachments are foul and their values are un-Christlike. They are exactly what many other current GOP candidates are as well: political entrepreneurs. If they climb atop the Christian cross, it’s because they want to be seen by more people. They’re chasing votes, not salvation.

Hear, hear!  The word from Salon.


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No Pain, No Gain

I've been binge-watching television and movies at Netflix to take advantage of my free trial, and for another reason...

I have a bad back and it has knocked me down and nearly out. Came on as I spent the afternoon cooking on Wednesday.  Maybe I stood in one place for too long?

Every false move causes me wrenching pain, but if I sit still or lie down the discomfort diminishes.

Sitting down and standing up are the challenges.

Who put the grease on the down-slide?

I finished Bloodline's first season, moved on to the first and second seasons of House of Cards, which I avoided for a long time.

Lots of drama.

Best thing I've seen lately though is the doc about the Portland Mavericks, The Battered Bastards of Baseball, though two other docs, Muscle Shoals and 20 Feet from Stardom, are close seconds.

Hmm...I may have to go see that other kind of doc soon--maybe something is seriously wrong.


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The Mavericks

I finally watched "The Battered Bastards of Baseball," the story of Bing and Kurt Russell's Portland Mavericks baseball team that played in Portland for four seasons, 1973-1977.

I included a chapter on the Mavericks in my history of baseball in Portland last summer just as this film was being released.

While I covered some of the highlights of the Russells' tenure here in Portland, the film provides an in-depth look at why the Mavericks flourished in Portland at a time when the city was written off as a baseball town.

Fantastic film, I watched it at Netflix.














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Huckster!!

Collage by Buddy Dooley

My favorite right-wing nutcase is in!

The field is growing nicely and will make for great entertainment down the road as the nutters try to clown each other into submission.

How many!?

We're not done yet, so a lot of potential fun remains.

Once Santorum and Christie jump in we'll be able to get serious about selecting a truly worthy asshole for the ages.


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Kill List

Collage by Buddy Dooley

American presidents reverently end their speeches with the audience-approving Benediction, “God bless America.” What they are really communicating is that God favors America. That, today, America is God’s chosen people. Even more! They are equating America with God. Which— in the magical twinkle of a rationalizing mind’s eye—means that America is God—white America, that is. As political leaders like to assert: America is today’s embodiment of Jesus’ teaching that “a city set on a hill cannot be hidden,” and by inference, his followers, “are the light of the world.” (Matthew 5: 14-16) With a “manifest destiny” that swept our white forefathers across the American continent, over the bones of indigenous people and on the backs of black persons forced into slavery—today’s continuation of which includes a trail of bodies, citizens killed by police “while being black.”

America also sees itself as “the leader of the free world,” possessing the gold standard of morality, and thus determining which countries need to be liberated and which are state sponsors of terrorism. America’s unmatched military force allows it to live in a parallel universe, and assume the role of judge, jury and executioner over much of the world with its economic power, sanctions and “kill lists.” A dominant majority of its citizens are conditioned to believe that they are the “good guys” and those who resist America’s policies “the bad guys.” All of which means that other people worship lesser gods, and therefore don’t count, and are disposable.

Rev. William E. Alberts unleashes his brilliance and exposes the heart of the matter.


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Before You Eat Them

It does not matter to the corporate rich who wins the presidential election. It does not matter who is elected to Congress. The rich have the power. They throw money at their favorites the way a gambler puts cash on his favorite horse. Money has replaced the vote. The wealthy can crush anyone who does not play by their rules. And the political elites—slobbering over the spoils provided by their corporate masters for selling us out—understand the game. Barack and Michelle Obama, as did the Clintons, will acquire many millions of dollars once they leave the White House. And your elected representative in the House or Senate, if not a multimillionaire already, will be one as soon as he or she retires from government and is handed seats on corporate boards or positions in lobbying firms. We do not live in a democracy. We live in a political system that has legalized bribery, exclusively serves corporate power and is awash in propaganda and lies.

Before you eat them, make the rich panic.  Chris Hedges on revolution.


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As Usual

The 5K hardcore Timbers' Army fans are in Providence Park tonight as I briefly turn to the futbol stream. Noticed a lot of the dilettantish, more decorous fans are missing.  I see a lot of empty seats in the prime seating areas.

What a surprise.

The glow may finally be off soccer in Portland.  The Army can't support the franchise, as dedicated as it is.

The faddists have disappeared, a normal occurrence in everything.


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Poem of the Day

Aubade

I work all day, and get half-drunk at night.
Waking at four to soundless dark, I stare.
In time the curtain-edges will grow light.
Till then I see what’s really always there:
Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify.

The mind blanks at the glare. Not in remorse
—The good not done, the love not given, time
Torn off unused—nor wretchedly because
An only life can take so long to climb
Clear of its wrong beginnings, and may never;
But at the total emptiness for ever,
The sure extinction that we travel to
And shall be lost in always. Not to be here,
Not to be anywhere,
And soon; nothing more terrible, nothing more true.

This is a special way of being afraid
No trick dispels. Religion used to try,
That vast moth-eaten musical brocade
Created to pretend we never die,
And specious stuff that says No rational being
Can fear a thing it will not feel, not seeing
That this is what we fear—no sight, no sound,
No touch or taste or smell, nothing to think with,
Nothing to love or link with,
The anaesthetic from which none come round.

And so it stays just on the edge of vision,
A small unfocused blur, a standing chill
That slows each impulse down to indecision.
Most things may never happen: this one will,
And realisation of it rages out
In furnace-fear when we are caught without
People or drink. Courage is no good:
It means not scaring others. Being brave
Lets no one off the grave.
Death is no different whined at than withstood.

Slowly light strengthens, and the room takes shape.
It stands plain as a wardrobe, what we know,
Have always known, know that we can’t escape,
Yet can’t accept. One side will have to go.
Meanwhile telephones crouch, getting ready to ring
In locked-up offices, and all the uncaring
Intricate rented world begins to rouse.
The sky is white as clay, with no sun.
Work has to be done.
Postmen like doctors go from house to house.

Philip Larkin


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Funny

Ohman worked for the Oregonian out of college for many years.  Now in Sacramento.

This is brilliant.  How do you move a designated behemoth out of the way when you're trying to change the status quo?


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May Day, 2015: Portland, Oregon

Mayday! Mayday!
We're going down!

The bankers and the landlords
are taking us to town.

The police are serving discord,
workers are dying in the drown!

Mayday! Mayday!
The unions are busted!

The new jobs pay nothing
and the rents are entrusted.

The rich have the bling-bling,
the poor their grime encrusted!

Mayday! Mayday!
We're going down!


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