Those Purloined Files at Mar-a-Lago

While pundits want to speculate about indicting Trump, or not -- as if that's all that matters! -- I'm just not ready yet to cut to the chase. Consequently, I still want to know who the people were that decided what not to take and what to take from the White House to Mar-a-Lago? Trump didn't do that alone.

So, I want to know about that process. After the decisions were made, who then physically gathered up the stuff that filled all those boxes that ended up in Florida? 

By the way, now I can't help wondering if all that "stuff" actually went straight to where the FBI found it on August 8th. Truth be told, we don't know all of what has happened to that sort of "stuff" since Trump first started stealing souvenirs and secret documents, to squirrel away and occasionally show off  ... whenever that was.

Thus, I need to know who secreted the stuff to the cars, or the helicopters, etc. Then who carried the purloined files into Trump's home/headquarters/club -- Mar-a-Lago? Then let's know, for sure, how many files have been photographed, or simply removed from those boxes and rented, or sold, to the highest bidder? 

All of which reminds me of an old saying about an ancient game, a highfalutin pastime that distills a war waged by kings and their courts into a board game -- chess.

Dig it: There would be no game of chess if the pawns refused to play.

 

VCU Men's Basketball Non-Conference Schedule

From VCU:

The VCU Rams will kick off their 2022-23 campaign on Mon., Nov. 7, when they will host Manhattan at the Siegel Center. That season-opener is the first of a nine-game non-conference home slate, which includes a first-ever visit from Vanderbilt, as well as road trips to Memphis, Temple and the Barclays Center. 

Additional home contests with Morgan State (Nov. 12), Kennesaw State (Nov. 26), Vanderbilt (Nov. 30), Jacksonville (Dec. 7), Radford (Dec. 14), Northern Illinois (Dec. 17) and Navy (Dec. 21) are on the schedule. Note: An opponent for one non-conference home date, Dec. 11, will be announced at a later time.

Vanderbilt will be making its first appearance at the Siegel Center. The Rams scored a 48-37 victory at Vandy last season in Nashville, Tenn. A pair of VCU’s 2022-23 home opponents, Jacksonville and Navy, are coming off 20-win campaigns in which they reached their conference championship game in the Atlantic Sun and Patriot League, respectively.

At the Barclays Center, VCU will return to the Legends Classic, presented by Old Trapper, Nov. 16-17, in Brooklyn, N.Y. The Rams are set to face Arizona State on Nov. 16 at 8:30 p.m. Then, the next day (Nov. 17), VCU will face either Michigan or Pittsburgh (ESPN2).

The Rams will also make high-profile road trips to Memphis (Nov. 20) and Temple (Dec. 3). It will be VCU’s eighth all-time meeting with Memphis.

Led by sixth-year Head Coach Mike Rhoades, VCU is coming off a 22-10 campaign, which culminated with the second round of the Postseason NIT. Last season's starting point guard, Ace Baldwin Jr. -- who was named to the A-10's all-conference second team -- returns to lead a veteran Rams squad that has added six newcomers, including three transfers.

More basic info about game times, TV networks, etc., will be released at a later date. The A-10 will announce the Rams’ league schedule in the coming weeks.

Note: VCU season tickets are on sale now and can be purchased by visiting VCUAthletics.com/tickets or by calling the VCU Ticket Office at 804-828-RAMS.

-- Logo art from VCU.

The 14th Amendment's Text

Note: The 14th Amendment was passed by Congress on June 13, 1866, which was a little over a year after the end of the Civil War. On July 9, 1868, once it had been ratified by the necessary 28 of 37 states, the 14th amendment became part of the law of the land; its text is displayed below.

AMENDMENT XIV

Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2.
Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

Section 3.
No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.
The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.
The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

*   *   *

The Big Why

We've all heard countless times about the Big Lie -- the falsehood that in 2020 Biden stole the presidential election and Trump actually won. But what about the Big Why?

OK, now Trump is claiming the FBI seized his passport(s) during their August 8 visit to Mar-a-Lago. Which means it's possible that it could be true, partially true, or totally untrue. And, if it's true, it does make sense to wonder why the FBI took his passport(s). In context, that's just one of many Little Whys.

Meanwhile, now that I think about it, why would anybody assume that all of the stuff the FBI hauled away from a basement in Trump's clubhouse that day was put there at the same time -- on January 20, 2021? It seems to me that for any number of nefarious reasons Trump could have been squirreling away sensitive government documents during his entire time as president. Plus, we don't know the FBI found all the stuff it hoped to find.

So, now this FBI search and seizure story reminds me that I have always wondered why Trump moved his principle residence from New York to Florida, when he did, in 2019. To me, it never was explained satisfactorily. Could it  be that Trump decided it would be better to store and market the purloined secrets at Mar-a-Lago than any of his other pads?

Maybe it's all connected?  

Which, of course, circles us back to the Big Why – in the first place, why did Trump steal those particular records?

Anyway, at this point, we do all know why Trump is now being called, "Benedict Donald." 

The Coldest Warrior

Note: The piece below this note is an OpEd I wrote for Richmond.com 23 years ago; did the Nixon illustration back then, too. It was published to coincide with the 25th anniversary of Nixon's resignation. So the anniversaries mentioned in the first graf date from 1999.

*

August 9, 1999: August is usually a slow month for news, especially political news. So we are spoon-fed anniversaries to contemplate: Hiroshima’s 54th; Woodstock’s 30th; it was 25 years ago that Pres. Richard M. Nixon took the fall. The entire culture shifted gears the day Nixon threw in the towel.

The brilliant strategist, the awkward sleuth, the proud father, and the coldest of warriors had left the building. August 9, 1974 was a day to hoist one for his enemies, many of whom must have enjoyed his twisting in the wind of Watergate’s storm. It was the saddest of days for his staunch supporters, whose numbers were still legion.

Either way, Richard Nixon’s departure from D.C. left a peculiar void that no personality has since filled in anything close to the same way. For the first time since his earliest commie-baiting days, in the late-‘40s, Dick Nixon suddenly had no clout. 

Upon Nixon's departure, concern for social causes went out of style for a lot of young Americans. It was time to party. Soon what remained of the causes and accouterments of the ‘60s was packed into cardboard boxes to be tossed out, or stored in basements.

Watergate revelations killed off the Nixon administration’s chance of instituting national health insurance. On top of that, many people have forgotten that he was also rather liberal on environmental matters, at least compared to the science-doubting Republicans who have followed. Although he was a hawk, Nixon was moderate on some of the social issues.

Nixon's opening to China and efforts toward détente with the Soviets are often cited as evidence of his ability to maneuver deftly in the realm of foreign affairs. No doubt, that was his main focus. Still, at the bottom line, Nixon is remembered chiefly as the president who was driven from office. And for good reason.

Nixon’s nefarious strategy for securing power divided this country like nothing since the Civil War. Due to his fear of hippies and left-wing campus movements, Nixon looked at ex-Beatle John Lennon and instead of a sarcastic musician, in his view Nixon saw a raw power to galvanize a generation’s anti-establishment sentiments. Fearful of that imagined potential, the sneaky Nixon administration did everything it could to hound Lennon out of the country.

Nixon deliberately drove a wedge between fathers and sons. To rally support for his prosecution of the Vietnam War, he sought to expand the division between World War II era parents and their baby boomer offspring. The families that never recovered from that time's bitterness were just more collateral damage.

However, Nixon’s true legacy is that since his paranoia-driven scandal, the best young people have no longer felt drawn into public service. Since Watergate the citizens who’ve gravitated toward politics for a career have not had the intellect, the sense of purpose, or the strength of character of their predecessors. We can thank Tricky Dick for all that and more.

So weep not for the sad, crazy Nixon of August, 1974. He did far more harm to America than whatever good he intended.

Some commentators have suggested that he changed over that period, even mellowed. Don't buy it. The rest of us changed a lot more than he did. On top of that, Nixon had 20 years to come clean and clear the air. But he didn’t do it. He didn't even come close. In the two decades of his so-called “rehabilitation,” before his death in 1994, Nixon just kept on being Nixon.

So, spare me the soft-focus view of the Nixon White House years. Tricky Dick's humiliating downfall should be a lesson to us all -- he surely got what he deserved.

*   *   *

The Kidnapping of Brittney Griner

 

In a way, Russia has kidnapped Brittney Griner. News reports say the Biden administration is working to arrange a trade to gain her release. No doubt, swapping violent gangsters for famous athletes surely must be a tricky business.

Officially, Griner's jailers say she broke their drug laws. Now she has to pull nine years. Like millions of people in lots of places, I hope Griner is released from imprisonment soon and comes home safely. 

Still, there's a trend in motion that isn't helping that cause. Her captors already know America wants its All-Star basketball player back much more than the Russian bosses want to hold her prisoner. Right now, with Griner's victimhood story at the top of the news, her celebrity status is being enlarged. Moreover, that's only making the ransom price go up.

Maybe the best thing the professional news business could do to help Griner's cause is talk about something else for a while. For the time being, we know Boss Putin and his drinking buddies are reveling in glee as they watch the pain this whole matter is inflicting on the USA. That goes double for how it is making Americans get pissed off at Biden for being unable to free Brittney. 

Meanwhile, it looks to me like a new crime wave is coming: The kidnapping of particular people -- especially well known Americans -- in order to extract a ransom of some sort, is going to be a bigger and bigger problem in the future. After all, it's not hard to do on a low budget. Even easier when the kidnappers are professionals working for/in cooperation with an authoritarian government. 

Rogue nations and other audacious mobster organizations are bound to use kidnapping for ransom more and  more. Hey, why wouldn't they? It's a crime older than dirt. And, naturally, the media will probably go on helping to promote the kidnappers' work.

Bottom line: Don't go to Russia.  

-- Photo: NPR

Evil's Second Coming

Note: This reaction-to-9/11 piece that I penned was originally published by STYLE Weekly on May 15, 2002. At that time, 20 years ago, most periodical publishers in Virginia (and elsewhere) were not much interested in running opinion pieces that questioned the Bush administration's post-9/11 policies and tactics in any way. Which, of course, helped pave the road into Iraq.

 

So, looking back on it, I have to thank Rozanne Epps, an editor at STYLE Weekly, for deciding to run this one on the Back Page. As far as I know, it was her call.

Evil's Second Coming
by F.T. Rea

Washing in on what poet William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) might have called a “blood-dimmed tide,” the specter of evil suddenly emerged from the periphery of modern life eight months ago. In the blue skies of the time before 9/11’s sucker punch, the notion of pure evil had an Old World air about it. Absolutes, such as good and evil, had no seat at the table of postmodern thinking.

After 9/11, a generation of Americans suddenly learned a bitter lesson: Evil never went away. Living in a land of plenty, it had gotten to be a pleasant habit to avert our eyes from evil-doings in lands of want. Evil had gone out of style, as a concept, only because times were so easy.

The last American president to get much mileage out of the word "evil" was probably Ronald Reagan, with his “evil empire” characterization of the USSR and its sphere of influence. Now, 20 years later, we have a president who sees “an axis of evil” — an alleged phenomenon that puzzles most of the world’s leaders, or so they say.

George W. Bush apparently has little use for Franklin D. Roosevelt’s stalwart advice to a nation in need of a boost in confidence — “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Rather than urge his people to rise above it, Bush chooses to color-code fear. The propagandists of the Bush administration have been successful in cultivating the public’s anxiety since September. Whether that’s been done for our own good remains to be seen. Perhaps it has, but this much is clear now — all the official danger alerts about nuclear power plants, bridges and crop-dusters have been effective in keeping most of the natural questioning of the administration’s moves at bay.

To hear Attorney General John Ashcroft tell it, the architects of 9/11 are the personification of the most virulent form of evil ever known. Although much of the evidence that would establish his absolute guilt in connection with 9/11 remains a state secret, Osama bin Laden is said to have shot to the top of the chart.

Forget about Joseph Stalin, Adolph Hitler, Idi Amin and Pol Pot. They were amateurs.Then again, evil, like beauty, has always been in the eye of the beholder.

Wasn’t it evil to deliberately dump tons of potent pesticide into the James River during the ’70s to make a greedy buck? Once it was in Virginia’s water, Kepone wasn’t so different from a bio-terror agent in the same water.

With the news seeping out of the cloisters about child-molesting priests and the Catholic Church’s systematic cover-ups, whose betrayal was more evil, the molester or the higher-ups who hid and facilitated his crimes?

Whether evil exists in some pure form, off in another dimension, is not my department. What’s known here is that in the real world evil is contagious. Lurking in well-appointed rooms or hiding in caves, evil remains as it ever was — ready to spread.

None of this is to suggest that al Qaida shouldn’t be put out of business. It isn’t to say that knocking the Taliban off was a bad idea. There’s no question here about whether the United States should protect itself from the networks of organized terror that are hell-bent on destroying the modern world.

Still, today’s evil is the same evil our forefathers faced in their wars. Evil hasn’t changed; technology has. With modern weapons in their hands, the fanatics of the world have the potential to wreak havoc like never before.

What has changed is the extent to which the hate festering in the souls of the world’s would-be poobahs and their psychopathic followers can be weaponized. It’s worth noting that the weapons of mass destruction that are scaring us the most were developed during the arms-race days of the Cold War by the game’s principal players.

So another question arises, who is more dangerous to civilization, the guys who spent their treasure to weaponize germs, or the guys who want to steal the stuff and use it on somebody?

Decades ago this was a concern expressed by some in the disarmament movement. Its scary what-if scenarios always included the likelihood that the Super Powers would eventually lose track of some of their exotic weapons. Looking back on it now, it seems obvious there was no way any government could keep all that material locked away from the greed and hate of determined free-lancers.

A man with a briefcase-style nuclear device may be no more evil than a man armed with a knife. Either danger could kill you just as dead. Those of us who feel connected to others, those who care about humanity's future, understand which killer we ought to fear the most. The “rough beast” of dreadful evil “slouching towards” us is traveling on the back of technology of our own making.

While we watch out for terrorist invader cells in the short run, with a handy color code to guide us, it’s time to think more seriously about how to get rid of a lot of very dangerous weapons in the long run.

-- 30 --

 

Arthur Getz

• So far, Arthur Getz (1913-96) has been the most prolific New Yorker cover artist -- in all, 213 covers from 1938 to 1988. Three of them are below.

• The one to the left ran on July 20, 1957.

• The one on the right appeared on the September 1, 1962, cover. 
  

• The cover art below was published on May 1, 1948.

• It seems Getz was one of those 20th century artists who was sometimes put down for being "too commercial" by snooty folks viewing it from within the fine art world. But I wonder if Getz was really too commercial, whatever that meant. Or were some of those critics maybe just a little envious of Getz's confident eye for design and his striking ability to deftly portray a mood.  

Remembering Bill Blue (1946-2022)

This obituary for Bill Blue was written by Ralph DePalma. It was published on July 20, 2022, by the Key West Citizen. 

* 

Once in a while, a special person comes along and has an impact on your life, music and everything special. Bill Blue impacted everything and everyone he touched.

On July 14, Key West lost this extraordinarily talented and well-loved blues musician to cancer. William Andrews Blue was born in Aberdeen, North Carolina, on July 23, 1946. The family moved to Yorktown, Virginia, when Bill was very young. His life was changed forever on Sept. 9, 1956, when Elvis Presley appeared on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” The following Monday morning, Gibson guitars had their best-ever sales day.

 

Like millions of young men, Bill was amazed by Elvis and started playing the guitar. One night in Richmond, a very scared young Bill Blue got on stage for the first time at the Crossroads Coffee House and played a few of his own songs. He was very young and very good. He went on to make a living playing guitar all of his adult life — he even later got to meet Elvis.

 

Bill’s life changed again when he met Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup who wrote, “That’s All Right, Mama”, the first song Elvis recorded. Crudup was living in a shack in a migrant worker camp (aka “truck farm”). Bill and Big Boy put together a band and started performing locally. Around the same time, Bonnie Raitt’s new manager, Dick Waterman, was gathering old blues musicians to tour. Crudup got a call and was asked if he could put together a band and join their tour. The following week, Bill Blue was playing with Crudup while touring with Raitt — pure serendipity.

 

Crudup, who passed away in 1974, never received any royalties for his work. Blue wrote a song about Big Boy called “On the Road for Big Boy,” and played it at almost every gig. Bill began touring on his own, sharing the stage with B.B. King, ZZ Top, the Allman Brothers and countless others.

 

His first musical gig in Key West was at Sloppy Joe’s on July 4, 1979. Bill was going through some tough personal times, and touring had taken its toll. Key West became a safe harbor, a port in a storm that lasted for more than 35 years.

 

When Bill arrived in town, he hooked up with a group of musicians and formed a band called “Bill Blue & the Nervous Guys.” Regular gigs at Sloppy Joe’s put the group on the music map in Key West. In the mid-1980s, Bill had a houseguest for six weeks — St. Petey Twig, known today as Barry Cuda. The two had met while touring Northern Europe. On his way to New Orleans, Cuda stopped in Key West to see Bill and play a few gigs. He began rolling a 350-pound upright piano to and from gigs around Key West and never made it to New Orleans.

 

One night, in 1994, while performing at Sloppy Joe’s, Bill’s high school sweetheart walked through the front door. Bill and Beverly immediately made eye contact. On a break, they spoke, reconnected and began to fall back in love. Coffee Butler performed at their wedding — Bill’s fourth. They lived in a small houseboat. Beverly sang backup at Bill’s gigs. She dove for lobsters behind Garrison Bight. It was an amazing 25-year love story.

 

The Green Parrot was hallowed ground for Bill. He was the first to play music, in 1983, at this most famous venue. He probably performed on the Green Parrot stage hundreds of times, to tens of thousands of adoring fans. It’s a cathedral of Bill Blue music.

 

Early one morning in 2013, Bill and I walked into an eerily still and empty Green Parrot to shoot photos for his “Mojolation” album cover. As Bill casually strolled passed the stage, you could feel a ghostly chill from his thousands of fans in this special place. We had searched all over Key West for a cover shot. As we walked past the stage, full of instruments ready for the next gig, we both instantly knew we would get the photograph we needed.

 

Bill loved the Green Parrot stage and especially his sound check fans. Caffeine Carl would often perform with him, and they would both rip up the stage. Carl performed Bill’s song, “Hunker Down,” at the recent Key West Blues Festival, and someone posted a video of the performance on Facebook. Bill saw it and sent Carl a message, “Thanks for doing my song … made me feel better … love you buddy.” Nothing could have made Carl feel better.

 

Bill’s life was an extended blues music set at an amazing gig. He could equally entertain a small group in a club or a huge crowd of thousands. Bill could master a solo acoustic ballad or rip up the stage with slide guitar magic. Over the years, Bill Blue was always ready to help a friend in need. I’ve joked that he’s raised enough money to buy Miami — probably not too far off. Bill had a sense of self that was confident but not overbearing. Bill Blue’s life is a series of legendary and sometimes outlandish stories, that will be told and retold forever.

Note: Bill Blue was a member of the Board of Directors of the Bahama Village Music Program. He helped raise thousands for the music program. His family has suggested in lieu of flowers, donations may be made to BVMP, https://bvmpkw.org/donations.

*   *   *

The Mad Don Zone

During the late-1980s and early-‘90s, some of the most power-hungry Republican pundits and politicians started going to school on the way ascending phrase-makers, such as radio personality Rush Limbaugh and Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga), used rhetoric to cleverly frame issues and repetition to paint opponents as villains. 

Essentially, the word management strategy called for saying simple things about complex problems. Saying stuff their anti-intellectual audience enjoyed repeating to sound in-the-know. So, no highbrow wordsmithery. 

And, if the message runs on a continuous loop and is amplified by broadcast media, a low-information, right-wing audience might buy almost anything you're selling. Moreover, if the manipulative messages ride on the backs of long existing resentments and hatreds, that tailored message can gather a substantial following ... especially if all of the players stick to the script.

Well, it worked. Like a charm.

And, for a long time most of the Democrats acted stunned. It was like they had been sucker-punched by a focus group strategy. It was a strategy that really had little to do with solving real problems. It had everything to do with promulgating propaganda to put college professors, unions, minorities, artists of all stripes, governments, etc., in bad light.

For example, instead of saying religious intolerance and racism were lingering problems that each generation of Americans needed to step up and help ameliorate, the swaggering Limbaugh/Gingrich conservative pundits and politicians repeatedly told the fools propping them up that liberal Democrats were hellbent on crushing their “freedom.” Now we can see that brainwashing process was equivalent to pouring gasoline on what were small white nationalism fires. 

Then, in 2000, George W. Bush’s advisors thought they could use the hordes of haters on the right. And the haters on the right thought they could use the traditional Republicans like Bush. Well, it turned out both sides of that unholy alliance were sort of right. 

Meanwhile, self-styled populist/mobster Donald Trump was listening and watching. Then came the Tea Party -- a hate-driven reaction to the election of Barack Obama in 2008.  And, after they accepted Sarah Palin as a legitimate VEEP nominee, Trump knew the Republican Party had become totally shameless.  

Subsequently, Trump saw his path to the White House open up. With the "birther" issue greasing the wheels of the Mad Don's gold-plated bandwagon, Democrats couldn't harness the will, or find the way, to stop a rather silly slogan -- Make America Great Again. 

Like it, or not, Trump surely knows how to strike a pose and sling red meat phrases at his adoring mob of cultists. Hey, they still love wearing those damn red MAGA baseball caps. 

*

To cut to the chase: With the January 6 Committee’s hearings, the Democrats (with the help of the two remaining traditional Republicans in the House of Representatives) have seized the moment. For the first time in over 20 years savvy Democrats are winning an important  propaganda war. The staging of the seven hearings, so far, has been a marvel.

Republicans are flabbergasted. The Committee's Episode 8 is airing in prime time (8 p.m. ET) on a list of networks and web sites on Thursday night.

2022's truth be told, for the sake of the USA's future as a democracy, this is not a word war Democrats can allow Trump to win. Stay tuned...

-- 30 --

The Perpetual Threat

Like a lot of people who follow politics, I think Trump will eventually be running for president, AGAIN. You know how he must hate the publicity the January 6 Committee is generating, all of it at his expense. So, I say, if it's coming, anyway -- then the sooner the better. 

After all, if Trump starts fundraising next month for his 2024 presidential campaign, which we all know he's eager to do -- in spite of his advisers who say, "better to wait" -- it will drain off a lot of dough that would be helping the 2022 campaigns of Republican candidates, in races up and down the ballots, coast-to-coast. Plus, as a ranting, headline-making candidate, he will immediately become the all overshadowing issue in most of those races. 

Moreover, I expect that factor will damage more Republican candidates than it helps.

So with Trump's festering jealousy over the media attention other politicians are currently enjoying, together with his likely belief that being an active candidate might discourage some prosecutors from indicting him, and his insatiable need for more adulation and money, my guess is Trump will indeed announce his candidacy sooner than later. 

Does Mar-a-Lago have an escalator?

Remember, if things don't go well for him on the campaign trail, none of this means impulsive Trump will feel obligated to stay in the race. So what has he got to lose by announcing early? Thus, if his poll numbers fall off of a cliff and his rallies stop drawing big, adoring crowds, that could make him throw his lunch at a wall and call it quits.

Or, for the matter, there's no telling what such bitter disappointments would do to America's first Mobster-in-Chief. 

Nonetheless, candidate or not, 76-year-old Donald Trump will likely remain a perpetual threat to steal the political spotlight, any damn way he can, for as long as he possibly can. Win, lose, or draw, that much we can count on from Trump.  

-- Art and words by F.T. Rea

Fan District Softball League Hall of Fame

The FDSL Hall of Fame plaque

The Fan District Softball League, which first began playing a regular schedule of games under the FDSL banner in 1975, established its Hall of Fame in 1986. The first class inducted was selected by the 12-team outfit’s designated team representatives/captains. 

To be eligible for the Hall that initial year one had to have retired from play and be considered to be among the league's founders. Ten names were selected as the first class of Hall-of-Famers.

The same rule held true in 1987, when six new names were put on the original plaque in a second column. However, by 1988, a few of those who had been inducted into the Hall had un-retired. So, in 1988, eligibility to the Hall was opened up to anyone who seemed deserving; in a third column nine names were added to the original plate, filling out the space on that large plate.

Those already in the Hall got to vote, as well as the usual captains. The meetings to select new inductees were always quite lively, as were most FDSL meetings. That's enough said on that topic. However, after discussion, the voting process and its result were probably no more twisted than any hall of fame’s way of choosing worthy names.

For 1989 six additional names were added on a small plate under the original. The class of ‘90 included seven names. In 1991 no vote was held. In ‘92 the last five names were tacked on to the list. No one remembers if there were any more Hall of Fame meetings.

In all, 41 players and two umpires were tapped. That finished list, as it stands, leans heavily toward guys who made significant contributions to the league in its early years. Thus, a few guys who came along in the last six or seven six years, who maybe ought to have been considered, probably weren't given their due. So it goes... 

The 43 men who were inducted into the FDSL’s Hall are as follows: 

Ricardo Adams, Herbie Atkinson, Howard Awad, Boogie Bailey, Yogi Bair, Jay Barrows, Otto Brauer, Ernie Brooks, Hank Brown, Bobby Cassell, Jack Colan, Willie Collins, Dickie deTreville, Jack deTreville, Henry Ford, Danny Gammon, Donald Greshham, James Jackson, Dennis Johnson, Mike Kittle, Leo Koury, Jim Letizia, Junie Loving, Tony Martin, Kenny Meyer, Cliff Mowells, Buddy Noble, Randy Noble, Henry Pollard, Artie Probst, Terry Rea, John Richardson, Jerry Robinson, Larry Rohr, Billy Snead, Jim Story, Hook Shepherd, Pudy Stallard, Durwood Usry, Jumpy White, Barry Winn, Chuck Wrenn.

The Fan District Softball League folded after the 1994 season. It had lasted 20 years, which was a wonder in itself. There are plenty of true stories from those years at Chandler Ballfield that are almost unbelievable.

 --30 -- 

Life in a Single Frame

An abstract cartoon?

As a kid I had a few recurring dreams that routinely woke me up in a panic. Some were violent.  

In my mid-30s, I started trying to make art based on a couple of those haunting dreams. The image above is the result of one of those attempts in 1983. There was a sense of swirling inward or converging to the dream that I tried to capture and depict. At the time, I was happy with the finished product. I remember thinking then that it was sort of an abstract cartoon.

Anyway, the recurring dreams of my childhood weren't all scary. I liked the ones in which I could fly. Waking up was always a disappointment. One of those other un-scary recurring dreams left a mysterious image tattooed on my memory, but I didn't know what it meant. Rather than a storyboard of a scene, it was just a single frame. In the frame was the shadow of a man that was being cast upon the leaf-covered ground. It looked like a black-and-white photo that had been tinted subtly with earthy colors. 

There was no clue as to who the man was; no sense of what he was doing. The image did move, ever so slightly, then the picture faded to black. Or maybe it just disappeared.

As an adult, my recurring dreams gradually stopped. Occasionally, something would remind me of one of the scary ones, but the spooky feeling those dreams used to leave as an aftermath was gone. And, by then I didn't even think about the shadow man image any more. 

Many years later, one afternoon in the fall, I was walking along a Frisbee-golf course fairway as it skirted the woods. Suddenly I stopped in my tracks, looking down at the mysterious man from my childhood on the ground. 

The shadow moved ever so slightly, as I stood watching, knowing at that moment that the shadow man dream of my childhood had been a preview of me with the body and stance of a man in his 50s. 

A connection was made and the circle was complete.That was my own "La Jetée" (1962) moment. So far, the only one. 

 

*

 

Note: To read brief film notes about Chris Marker's "La Jetée" and/or to watch it (28 minutes), please click here. It is in French with English subtitles (hit the CC).

 

-- Art and words by F.T. Rea

In the Crowd

My age group, commonly referred to as, "the baby boomers," has been a crowd-loving generation. For many of us, some of our favorite memorable moments took place when we were in a crowd at an event. 

We grew up with our thinking being shaped by the same media -- LIFE Magazine and MAD Magazine and from watching the same cartoons on television. In our teens and twenties my generation poured into live music festivals in crazy large numbers. We baby boomers went to boot camp in crowds and we protested war in marching crowds. It was a thrill watching "Jaws" (1975) as part of a sell-out crowd. 

Now, as geezers, the remaining baby boomers are learning to avoid crowds. After going to nearly every VCU men's basketball game ever staged at the Siegel Center, the last Rams basketball game I attended was in March of 2020. 

Hey, everybody can see that people of all ages are getting shot in crowds. Especially young people who tend to be out and about. And those same young people, at least the smart ones, can see that crowds are an epidemic's best friend. Thus, in reaction to how dangerous being in a crowd seems to have recently become, isn't our society bound to change its ways, to adjust? To cope? 

After all, it's just math: The bigger the crowd, the more risk is presented. Some shooters are looking for big crowds. Germs prefer big crowds, too.

OK, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying anyone ought to avoid crowds. That's your business. However, I am saying that in 2022 the entertainment industry has not only taken a hit in the last couple of years, it is going to have to change with the times. For the foreseeable future, for some people, being jammed shoulder-to-shoulder for a couple of hours, with a lot of attendees you don't know, has somewhat less allure than it once did. 

Which has to mean this probably isn't the best time to borrow a bunch of money to build a new large sports arena. Or to build any sort of entertainment venue designed to accommodate big crowds. And, look on the bright side, some niche forms of entertainment actually work better in small rooms, anyway. 

Bottom line: If presenting over-produced rock n' roll shows in big-ass stadiums goes out of style, well, that won't necessarily be a bad thing.

-- 30 --

About Timing

During six riveting episodes of the January 6th Committee's hearings, the testimony of witnesses and the displays presented have revealed significant new things. The hearings have also underlined important things we already knew.

That the testimony we've heard has largely come from Republicans is quite noteworthy. Some of what those witnesses have told us about Donald Trump and his underlings has been shocking. But, of course, a lot of it has not been all that surprising. 

For instance, before yesterday I didn't know that on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump seemingly wanted his gathering MAGA mob to be able to evade metal detectors. Yikes! Don't you need a license to carry a gun on the street in D.C.?

Still, I'm not particularly surprised that it appears Trump intended to conjure up a "Second Amendment solution," by leading an armed horde to the Capitol to do his dirty business. However, today I have to believe that blood-red loose thread about circumventing the metal detectors that Ms Cassidy Hutchinson revealed yesterday -- under oath -- should be pulled hard, ASAP. 

Hopefully, we will see more of Trump's accomplices and assistant accomplices find the courage to step up and answer the panel's questions. Meanwhile, what should we think of Hutchinson and Arizona's Speaker of its House of Representatives, Rusty Bowers, and other star witnesses whose recent testimony has been memorable and particularly damning? 

Should we expect them to regret having been in the Republican Party during Trump's time in office so damn much that they leave the GOP? 

Should we expect them to change their minds about political issues such as climate change, or immigration, or abortion? 

Should we expect them to simply become members of the Democratic Party? 

To all such questions my answer is, "No." Nonetheless, Democrats should be grateful for their Profiles-in-Courage honesty. There's no doubt about it, those witnesses aren't just facing being shunned by Republicans, they are facing real danger. 

Moreover, not only have Bowers and Hutchinson done their duty to help bring the truth to light, they have shown the world that in 2022 it's possible for one to be a Republican and to be an honest person at the same time. And, speaking of time, this is not the best time to criticize Bowers or Hutchinson or the other brave witnesses for what differences we might have with them over political issues not related to their January 6th Committee testimony. 

Still, that doesn't mean that we should forget how Vice Committee Chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) or any the witnesses stand on various political issues. While we are still hoping for more witnesses to come forward, this just isn't the time to dwell on such differences. Bad timing can ruin a good plan.

And, in closing, let's not forget to harmoniously sing the praises of the January 6th Committee's splendid sense of show-biz timing for choosing to abruptly schedule and present its blockbuster Episode Six when it did ... right before a holiday weekend. 

Live TV is cool.  

--  My illustration.

-- 30 -- 

Picasso’s Richmond Period

  

Picasso’s Richmond Period: a 14-week romance at the VMFA   

By F.T. Rea 

Published Feb. 18, 2011, in the Richmond Times-Dispatch  

It was built … now they are coming.

“It” is the newly renovated Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. “They” are the art lovers, tourists from all over the East Coast and your neighbors in Richmond. 

Beyond the stunning museum building itself the special attraction is a 176-piece collection of Pablo Picasso’s favorites, which is on display at the VMFA in ten galleries. No doubt, this eye-popping exhibition is about to make Picasso images and conversations ubiquitous in Richmond.

Thus, Richmond is embarking on a spring fling with the notion of all things Picasso.

Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris opens to the public on Sat., Feb. 19 and will be at the VMFA through May 15, 2011. Then it moves on to San Francisco. (Admission is $20; free to VMFA members and children six and under. Discounts are available to seniors, students and groups. The museum is open every day.)   

“This exhibition is without a doubt a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the American public,” said Alex Nyerges, now entering his fifth year as the VMFA’s Director.

An art show to rival this one has probably never be presented in Richmond. So, don’t be surprised by the number of way-out-of-town accents you’re going to hear in Carytown shops and the Fan District’s restaurants over the next 12 weeks. The impact on this city’s economy is expected to be significant.

In the long run, though, perhaps local school children will be the greatest beneficiaries of this chance to see a collection of objects that did much to shape the world’s art history over eight decades -- art that most people only ever see in photographs.

It will be interesting to see how many kids’ art shows will have Picasso-influenced pieces in them over the next year. So, don’t scold the sixth-graders for putting both eyeballs on the same side of a face ... they will just be having a little fun.

Nyerges said, “An exhibition this monumental is extremely rare, especially one that spans the entire career of a figure who many consider the most influential, innovative and creative artist of the 20th century.”

Since this collection of Picasso (1881-1973) paintings, drawings, sculpture, etc., is showing in just seven cities, worldwide, how did Richmond end up being the only one on the East Coast to have it?  

There are two parts to the answer: How the collection came to be, and how the VMFA got to be one of just three museums in America to be in on this unprecedented tour.

In 1985 the Musée National Picasso opened in a renovated 17th century mansion in Paris. The art in the museum came directly from Picasso’s estate. To settle the inheritance bill with the French government his heirs donated the pieces from Picasso’s collection of his own work. For most of his life he had kept certain favorite pieces.

Now the museum in Paris is being renovated, so to get some of the art out of the way -- and to make some money to defray renovation expenses -- a traveling show was put together by Anne Baldassari, the Paris museum’s director. She also oversaw the installation of the show at the VMFA.

At the media preview (on Thursday morning) Baldassari said, with a decidedly French accent, that she’s a little bit jealous of the display capabilities of the VMFA.

Aside from whatever pull Nyerges has to bring in such an attraction, it seems the Richmond museum’s fancy new look itself -- a $150 million upgrade -- played a significant role in the decision made in France to include it on the tour.

Then there’s the exhibition’s presenting sponsor’s backing: Altria Group said the right underwriting number to Baldassari and her colleagues. Altria also kicked in significantly on the previously mentioned renovation at 200 N. Boulevard.

This time Richmond stepped up to the plate and hit a home run. It beat out other cities because it demonstrated it offered a better opportunity for the French museum to cash in on schlepping Picasso’s private collection to America for a limited run in three cities.

While it may not always be true when talking about sports stadiums, or convention centers, etc., in this case “it” was built properly, and now “they” are going to come in droves. This Picasso show is going to change many perceptions of Richmond, Virginia.

“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary,” once commented Picasso.

The Picasso masterpieces show is simply dazzling! Don’t miss this chance to peruse and ponder Picasso’s fascinating diary.

-- 30 --

The Enemy. Oh, Yeah.

With all the disinformation swirling in the air, these days, it has been easy to get distracted, even fooled. 

Oh, yeah.

Sometimes, it's not all that clear what is the truth. And, lingering habits can trump reason. 

However, with recent events in mind, by now women in the USA ought to be able to see through the fog of conflict and confusion to identify their absolute worst enemy. 

It's not foreigners. It's not folks who live in the wrong part of town. It's not a religion, or an ideology, or a philosophy.

Today the true enemy of women living in the USA is the Republican Party -- a political party that has become a backward cult, quite happy to pursue an anti-female agenda. 

Oh, yeah. 

-- Illustration assembled by F.T Rea with apologies to Walt Kelly. Feel free to borrow and share it.  

Bad Habits Poisoned Roe

With four-and-a-half months to go until the mid-term elections, it's a good time to remember that without Donald Trump's pivotal 2016 victory, his appointees -- Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett -- would not be members of the Supreme Court. And, when it comes to the right to choose issue, it's very unlikely Hillary Clinton would have appointed anyone of that nefarious trio's ilk to serve on the Court. 

So, as you read this, without Trump's disaster of a four-year term in the White House, Roe vs. Wade would still be standing. Sadly, we know Roe is kaput. 

It won't surprise me to soon see news clips of Trump bragging about having poisoned Roe, as he had promised to do. By the way, speaking of "stare decisis," has the Supreme Court ever before wiped away a "right" that it crafted in the first place?

Moreover, two groups, in particular, must bear much of the responsibility for Trump's 2016 win and thus today's decision that struck down Roe vs. Wade: 1. Republicans who were semi-revolted by Trump. Still, by habit, just couldn't vote for a Democrat. 2. Democrats, who, because they were bored with politics and/or they found Clinton too annoying, simply didn't vote, again. 

No doubt, today it's easy to see that ever since Trump won in 2016, Roe has had one foot in the grave. Today, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett are happily shoveling dirt on its coffin. 

Bottom line: Blame? It wouldn't be wrong to say that Americans' bad habits, to do with elections, deserve a large portion of the blame for the poisoning of Roe ... then it took a while to die.

-- 30 --