MEME OF THE DAY

MID-DAY MINI-RANT

The biggest financial "drain" on "the American taxpayer" by any category of humans isn't Puerto Rico or Puerto Ricans, isn't African-Americans, or "people of color," or Muslims, or atheists, or "liberals" or Democrats, or or or or or...

It's "white" people in red states. [Look up the stats.]

[and PS: I've got plenty of "white" family and friends in red states, but facts is facts folks, and I'm sick of the liar-in-chief ignoring them to stir up his "base" etc.]

A FACE IN THE CROWD

the toddler with the round head above all the rest (top right) is me, my brother Robert next to me and other siblings and cousins and neighborhood kids on Hixon Place in South Orange NJ 1943

me in my mother's arms among siblings, cousins, aunts, and my grandmothers Lally (from Ireland, far left) and Dempsey (on my mother's right side, she would move in with us for the rest of her life a few years later), and great Aunt Allie (in glasses next to grandma Lally, Aunt Allie lived with us for several years before she passed, and was a book buyer for a department store, introducing me to books with gifts she gave me on birthdays and Christmas) South Orange NJ winter of 1943-4

I'm the one pointing, on a visit to my oldest brother at a Franciscan place in Northern NJ, with my parents and some siblings, and my Aunt Ethel (third in from the right standing), whom I adored but who intimidated me with her stylishness and quick cutting wit, and her husband and kids, c. 1949

me bottom left next to my sister Irene, and cousins Kathi, and Micki, behind us cousins Rod (AKA John), Rosemary, and sister Joan, behind them my mother, Aunt Peggy, and Aunt Rose, Belmar NJ c. 1950

me with cowboy hat hanging down my back, my sister Joan directly behind me, and cousins MaryLynn and Micki behind me to my right, and other family members, South Orange NJ c. 1950

same time and place as above but with my next door cousin David in front of me and our dog "Blackie" in my sister Joan's arms

me in flannel shirt down front with my sister Irene (in green) behind me, next to our cousin Rosemary (who often stayed at our house as her father had passed and her mother worked) and my sister Joan (in black) and our mother to my right with my uncle John behind her and the boarder in our house, Jack, behind him and three of my aunts and both grandmothers, South Orange NJ c. 1951

very tan me at lowest point in this photo beside my dad and brother Robert, with my mother,, sister Joan, grandmother Dempsey, brother Campion (AKA Tommy or Father Campion), and sister Irene, Belmar NJ c. 1951

me in back in floral shirt, my three brothers to my right, "Father" Campion, "Buddy," (AKA Jimmy), and Robert leaning down over his wife "Sis" (AKA Marie), Buddy's wife Catherine holding baby Cathy, my mother Irene behind her, next to her mother, my sister Joan (in pixie haircut) down front, sister Irene (to distinguish them the clan and neighborhood referred to my mother as "Big Irene" and my sister as "Little Irene"), and our father, James (AKA Jimmy), South Orange NJ 1955 

KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE

If you're looking for a brief escape from the news, one of my guilty pleasures is KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE.  It helps if you saw 2014's KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE, but even if you didn't, there's enough action movie tropes to keep you entertained, if you like that sort of thing. And I do when done very well, a la the BOURNE trilogy, or done so over-the-top campy it's hysterical, a la KINGSMAN: THE GOLDEN CIRCLE.

Sometimes I like Julianne Moore's acting and sometimes it grates on me, but in this flick, she may have created the most deliciously comic villain in the history of these kinds of spy/acton flicks. And I won't even mention the unexpectedly brilliant more-than-a-cameo performance by Elton John, playing himself. Those two performances were worth the price of the ticket for me.

The first KINGSMAN film was set mostly in England and filled with a great British cast, some of whom return for this sequel, like the main leads Taron Egerton and Colin Firth. But the USA plays a bigger role in this one, hence the presence of a great "American" cast as well, including the underutilized Halle Berry, the always entertaining Channing Tatum, and the unfortunately wasted contribution from Jeff Bridges.

If you're up for a little spy movie action in spectacular settings, or on CGI enhanced studio sets, with a lot of comic relief thrown in, you could do worse. [Oh and PS: the plot and subplot speak with surprising clarity to the current drug "epidemic" and its historic/political origins and manipulation, even if in a comic-book fantasy parable way]

THE QUOTES JUST KEEP GETTING BETTER

I don't even know if this is true, but it's too good not to share:

George Clooney........ This was his response after Trump accused him of being a "hollywood elite".
"Here’s the thing: I grew up in Kentucky. I sold insurance door-to-door. I sold ladies’ shoes. I worked at an all-night liquor store. I would buy suits that were too big and too long and cut the bottom of the pants off to make ties so I’d have a tie to go on job interviews. I grew up understanding what it was like to not have health insurance for eight years. So this idea that I’m somehow the “Hollywood elite” and this guy who takes a shit in a gold toilet is somehow the man of the people is laughable. People in Hollywood, for the most part, are people from the Midwest who moved to Hollywood to have a career. So this idea of “coastal elites” living in a bubble is ridiculous. Who lives in a bigger bubble? He lives in a gold tower and has twelve people in his company. He doesn’t run a corporation of hundreds of thousands of people he employs and takes care of. He ran a company of twelve people! When you direct a film you have seven different unions all wanting different things, you have to find consensus with all of them, and you have to get them moving in the same direction. He’s never had to do any of that kind of stuff. I just look at it and I laugh when I see him say “Hollywood elite.” Hollywood elite? I don’t have a star on Hollywood Boulevard, Donald Trump has a star on Hollywood Boulevard! Fuck you!"

MID-DAY MINI-RANT

Is it a coincidence that Puerto Rico is a part of "America" that happens to be predominantly inhabited by "people of color" and the fact that the response from the supposed person in charge of our government and his minions has ranged from nonexistent to tepid? Yeah, I didn't think so either.

QUOTE FOR TODAY (TO WHICH I CAN SAY: ME TOO)