All Things Equal! The Life and Trial of Ruth Bader Ginsburg!

 

The "Notorious RBG" came to the Orpheum Theater on Thursday night in the form of singer dancer actor  Michelle Azar. The one woman shows features Azar talking for 100 minutes as RBG running from her childhood to her death in 2020. It really is fascinating to get the gist of many people's favorite Supreme Court Justice speaking about her mother, father and husband Marty. Her daughters, her grandkids and her struggle in pre-feminism America to get thru Harvard, Cornell and Columbia. She got zero job offers out of law school in the 1950s due to 3 things. She was Jewish, a mother, and a female. No law firm wanted that back then. Thus, RBG had to fight her way to respect.

Azar nails RBG from her look to her voice and she never pauses. It's really a grueling role, I am sure. We get photos in the background of her various adversaries and friends as she speaks about them, either in a positive way or in that Brooklyn fuck you tone. 

The play takes place in 2019 or so thus RBG talks about Roe V Wade being untouchable (oops) and her good friend Antonin Scalia, her polar opposite politically but commonality about opera and classical music brought them into the same orbit.

Yes, she does talk about why she didn't retire from the bench while Obama was President because "I thought Hillary would win" as most of us did). Oh yeah, Trump is mentioned numerous times not in a good way, her various cases she ruled on, cases she brought before the court, and how the loss of Marty Ginsburg and "Nino" Scalia affected her deeply. The 4 bouts of cancer, the disrespect from fellow justices and her famous "I dissent". 

The show was written by Rupert Holmes, yes, the Pina Colada guy. Holmes will fool you because he is a great writer. Anybody remember the 1972 song about cannibals in a mine, Timothy? The guy is diverse for sure.

 The skit of Kate McKinnon as the "Notorious RBG" is featured in its entirety.

The crowd was pretty vocal in its responses to RBG's victories and her witticisms about politics. Lots of applause, lots of screams and a genuine interest in the America prior to the fascist garbage of today.

2026 America and it's direction?

From the great beyond, Ruth Bader Ginsburg says, "I dissent" as did the crowd.

It's a great time.

A Beautiful Noise!

 A Beautiful Noise, a Neil Diamond story, begins with silence. Old Neil sits in a chair across from a therapist, neither are speaking and establishing that Neil is not comfortable talking about his life. The therapist knows nothing about Neil, his songs or his life. To understand this man, she pulls out a book of Diamond's songs, the lyrics and the motivation. Ya see, Neil is a man who has never been comfortable in his own skin. He's depressed, lonely and suffers from imposter syndrome. From there we go on a journey of the life of Neil Diamond, warts and all.

The thing about jukebox musicals authorized by the estates or families is that the controversy is avoided. The MJ musical ends before the allegations of pedophilia thus they are never covered. But this one, A Beautiful Noise, is dark and gritty like Diamond's voice. 

Young Neil, played by an understudy Joe Caskey (who was very good) writes songs for other people, disdaining the spotlight. The Monkees lived off Diamond's natural shyness and desire to stay out of the limelight. But then he meets Ellie Greenwich (Heidi Kettenring) a tough talking record agent who insists he sing his own songs. He starts at coffee houses supporting his wife and two kids, meets Marsha Murphey (a great Mary Page Nance) who becomes his second wife. Old Neil continues to open up about the songs, in effect telling his life story. 

The songs are performed like tribute band adoration. The crowd at times (especially the front rows) was really into it and I'm not sure they realized it really wasn't Neil Diamond on stage. Oh have fun I say.

Act 1 ends with Sweet Caroline and the audience participates as they should. Act 2 opens with, depending on my mood, my favorite Diamond song, Brother Loves Traveling Salvation Show, with a full choir and dancers, It's quite good. 

Old Neil admits to the therapist he cannot perform any longer due to his doctor's orders. Performing is the only time Neil feels not alone. Now the whole therapist patient thing may sound corny, but it really keeps the show on track. Robert Westenburg as old, tortured Neil is fantastic and Lisa Renee Pitts as the therapist are both solid narrators. 

All in all, this is better than any jukebox musical I've seen. The story is real, the reactions are real and the darkness is real.

If you are a Neil Diamond fan, you will love this show.

Now the sound at the Orpheum. It wasn't bad. At first, the band was so loud I worried that they would drown out the story, however, they toned it down and everything was decipherable. 

And finally at the end, after the Holly Holy sing along, you get to do the Sweet Caroline sing along yet again. It wasn't Fenway Park, but it was fun. So Good So Good So Good!

Another Weekend Another Decade!

 Who likes this chaos? This daily batshit crazy behavior that makes you forget yesterday's batshit crazy. This is madness.

Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller. The two most disgusting anti-American people in this regime. Noem is in office for one reason. She kissed enough Trump ass and he think her plastic is hot. Miller is simply put, a white supremacist bordering on Nazi. He may still get there if he hasn't already. Miller is on a mission from Satan to turn America into a white homeland. Miller is somewhat Jewish which makes it even worse that this high school geek has achieved power and will have his revenge on the liberals, gays, Hispanics and blacks who crammed him into locker after locker. Noem is just unqualified, period.

A failed Governor of a flyover state who is ridiculed for her manufactured looks, her lies and her cosplay with giant cowboy hats, tactical gear, and other Halloween costumes. But what really is bad is her complete fealty to Trump. Kissing his ass at Cabinet meetings and lying about murders committed by government goons, Noem is the epitome' of all that is wrong here. Not to mention her bank accounts getting huge because of her boy toy Corey Lewandoski's money laundering and bribe taking. She will take the fall for this, if not soon certainly at the Hague.

Measles is back. Raging through a detention center in Texas (what's up with that creepy color coded pajamas the detainees wear) measles, which had become eradicated for the most part in this country until the biggest nut in this nation, RFK Jr, kissed enough Trump ass to get a job as a health advisor, THE health advisor. Now it's a disease, easily preventable, that is back. Kennedy is even more of a menace than Noem. She only kills dogs and 2 or 3 people; he kills thousands with his anti vax bullshit. Kennedy is a nightmare.

Don Lemon was arrested the other day by Pam Bondi's hooligans. What for? Lemon covered a bunch of protestors invading some MAGA church because they thought the "pastor" was an ICE agent. Taping it and asking questions, like a journalist should, Lemon was busted only because Trump has had a hard on for the black and gay journalist for years. Lemon tells the truth about Trump and is fearless about it. The Donald cannot fathom it when he is called out on his lies and criminal behavior. Whatever judge draws this bogus case will throw it out faster than a Trump casino dies.

Some of the Epstein files dropped on Friday and they were worse than imaginable. Once the DOJ realized what they'd done, releasing info that Trump was accused of child trafficking, holding "slave auctions" for 13-year-old girls, and Trump dropping packages into Lake Michigan, they deleted them from the website saying they were fake. Yeah, like his "tan". This guy cannot go away fast enough.

Finally, we have Tulsi Gabbard. Who knows what this Russian agent is up to? The Director of the DNI was in Atlanta, on the phone with the Rapist, seizing voter machines and ballots from the 2020 Georgia vote, which he fucking lost. The man child, 6 years later, still cannot accept his crushing defeat. Seizing voter data and votes is a pretext to finding some "irregularities" and thus "proving" the 2020 election was "rigged". Which then leads to calling off the midterms until we know "what the hell is going on" leaving the Republicans in charge, declaring martial law and staying in office forever. The motherfucker is so brain diseased he actually thinks this could happen. Gabbard in the meantime, has been accused by a whistleblower of acts so egregious that the allegations are locked away as their release could endanger national security. Well Jesus on a cracker, Gabbard has been a Russian puppet for years. She's another Trump appointee who he thinks is "hot" yet still unqualified, in fact dangerous. Gabbard's Russian handlers must be rubbing hands together on what they already obtained but now that she is compromised, she's of no use to Boris and Natasha.

Tulsi, a word of advice, stay away from high rise windows,

Pretti Good! Defund ICE!

What is the fucking difference here? On the left we have some murderous Nazi shooting some innocent in the head and on the right, we have a murderous loser about to shoot a guy for not being afraid of him. Alex Pretti was an ICU nurse working with veterans at the local VA. He was not happy with the foreign invasion of Minneapolis by an organization full of untrained bullies, thugs, and Trump worshippers. He went to the protest brandishing the "weapon" those authoritarians all over the globe fear, the cell phone. ICE decided that this man without fear continued to tape them as they rushed him, shoved him and a woman to the ground and as this nurse did what he did for a living, help the woman up. ICE shoved him to the ground, took a gun from his back waistband and cleared it, then stepped back and shot Alex Pretti in da head. Then, as Nazis tend to do, the pumped 9 more bullets into his dead body. High fiving, calling it so cool like Call of Duty, these emotional adolescents in tactical gear showed who they are. Little boys who love power. Little boys who for whatever reason have fulfilled their lifetime goal of being somebody and not a locker stuffed geek exacting revenge on society.

There is nothing worse than cold blooded murder of a citizen by so called law enforcement, but the response of Trump and his minions is about as bad. What did they do? They do what all moral lepers do when they fuck up. They lie and they smear the victim. Kristi Noem, as despicable a person as Stephen Miller, made false claims about the confiscated gun, the circumstances and smeared the dead man with an accusation that he was out to "massacre law enforcement". Greg Bovino, the lil Nazi in the SS trench coat, parroted the same bullshit followed by Miller, various Republican sycophants, really dumb Senators and then by The Master himself, Donnie Trump. As the bullshit became obviously bullshit, not only did Noem and her mob boss double down, they got worse. The Twitter bots went to work. Fake pics of the victim in drag, the ultimate MAGA insult (due to their obvious repression) were posted by trolls and bots that permeate that awful social media site (yeah I'm still there trying to fight the good fight)..

The videos are obvious. If you deny that this was an execution of a citizen for daring to protest, or at best a colossal fuck up by these legal goons, you are a lost soul again. You are blind, deaf and probably very stupid. Or very dishonest.

My anger at this event and at the murder of Renee Good is beyond anything I can believe. I was alive at the time of Kent State. That was appalling enough. This is worse and I'll tell you why. Back in 1970 the world was a different place. The news was the news. The pictures were the pictures. Facts were not challenged. People were mostly disgusted with Nixon and his warmongering crowd of neo cons. There was no social media, no twitter, no Fox News telling its brain-dead audience that Nixon was being railroaded. Therefore, the facts were the facts. There was no Kristi Noem lying on behalf of a criminal enterprise. There were no whores like Sean Hannity and Megyn Kelly out there promoting the horseshit emailed to them by the powers that be. 

RIP Alex Pretti, Renee Good AND the nameless immigrants murdered by ICE in other places. Yes, it's a shame that their deaths were mostly uncovered by the media and that it takes white victims to get the press off their asses to cover it.

Alex Pretti did more good for society in one fucking hour than Noem and her hooligans do in a lifetime. A VA nurse that had the respect of everyone he worked with as opposed to a failed South Dakota Governor hired for her fealty to a madman (and that he probably thinks she's hot). 

2025 sucked. 2026 appears to be gearing up to be even worse. Strap in folks. And remember, the 2nd Amendment exists for everybody, not just white men with tiny dicks. Is that a threat? No, it's just one of those pesky facts.

Fuck ICE

NATO Dis!

"We never needed NATO. We never asked anything of them. You know, they say they sent troops to Afghanistan, and they did. BUT THEY STAYED BACK A LITTLE, A LITTLE FURTHER AWAY FROM THE FRONT LINE."

Donald J Trump

Yes, he said that because he can't shut his fucking mouth. He shat on the families of European men and women who died in Afghanistan supporting America. The Moron in Chief ladies and gentlemen.

The utter cruelty and ignorance of the man is unlimited. 

For a POS like Trump who says something outrageous daily, to add to a Top 10 of horrible things to come out of his filthy mouth is impressive. This is a Top 10 moronic statement. But for the guy who called American dead "suckers and losers" why would anyone be surprised?

Of all people, the rather mellow Rod Stewart summed it up best. 

Now the Creature in Chief will never apologize. But what he will do is Truth Social more bullshit ignoring that he said it. And voila!

Bugger off you orange twatwaffle.

Liam Cornejo Ramos!

 If the image above doesn't break your heart you aint got one. And trust me I know since about 2015 the people without a heart or one filled with hate have slithered out into the open.

5-year-old Liam Cornejo Ramos came home from his preschool in Minneapolis the other day, he was "detained" by ICE because he is definitely the "worst of the worst" in his own driveway. ICE thugs marched him up to his front door where they forced him to knock on the door so they could arrest anybody else in the house. Hey, it worked. ICE used a 5-year-old child as bait so they could send him and his Dad to a Texas concentration camp. How fucking low can one go?

Liam's school has had 3 other "detentions" of its students in the past weeks. His teachers are in tears, they describe this little boy as kind and loving and very bright.
Unlike ICE baboons who are assholes and bitter men who will take revenge on everyone for stuffing them in lockers in middle school. I'll take kind and loving any day of the week over bullies and felons and J6 racists.

ICE is now going door to door without warrants busting down doors and terrifying decent people for the crime of being brown. Anne Frank comes to mind. But ya know that 40% of this country would have turned her in to the Gestapo as sure as they exist. That's the rub. The fact that 4 out of 10 Americans would snitch to a glorified gangster organization called ICE is disturbing enough, but to be supportive of masked goons in Amazon vests and guns kicking in doors tells me my old man fought Nazis in 1944 for nothing. Congrats Adolf and Benito you win.

Buckle up Minneapolis. Throw these bums out of your fucking city. You're doing a great job!

If that little boy is your enemy, you are a lost cause. That's the problem. Lost causes don't give a shit as long as their white nationalist dreams get closer.

Jackass In Chief!

 The guy isn't even trying to sound reasonable any longer. Just in the past few days, The Asshole in Chief, has written a mash note to the prime minister of Norway stating he was no longer interested in peace. Why? Because the Nobel Committee refused to give a war monger a peace prize and somehow, Trump thinks the prime minister of Norway gives out the prizes. Oh yeah and he's taking Greenland from him. Ok but since Norway doesn't own Greenland it was a bit like a madman telling The Mayor of New York that he was taking over Buffalo. But Trump goes on.

The yesterday we have a damn near two-hour rambling screed in the White House press room with all the greatest hits. 2020 election was stolen, Minneapolis is overrun by commies and black people, economic lies, holding up pictures of "the worst of the worse" like a DUI brown guy, Switzerland happily awaits his arrival blah blah for an hour and 44 minutes. Now the press, what's left of them, is used to a liar yelling at them but this was a new experience. A senile old man screaming at clouds. I'm not sure he is even capable of pretending to be a decent human being what with that rotting brain rather it be from dementia or syphilis or RFK's brain worm. 

Today after arriving at Davos, Trump continued on insulting the countries of NATO to their face. It's like Putin himself is channeling Donnie as he attempts to kill NATO to allow Russian expansion into the old USSR again. It's almost like Trump, Putin and Xi have divided the world into three separate empires. You back off here and I'll back off there. Taiwan is fucked. Ukraine is fucked. Greenland is fucked. NATO is fucked. As long as this bird brain (sorry birds) is in charge, or rather allowed to remain in charge, the United States is also fucked.

25th Amendment anyone. Sorry as I start laughing. The 25th allows a cabinet to vote to remove the President. Some cling to this idea as hope. Cmon now. You think Kristi Noem or Pam Bondi or Marco Rubio or Doug Burgham or Bessent or that idiot Ag Secretary, the $3 a day to eat woman, are going to do the right thing? EVER? Keep dreaming.

The only way out of this is to impeach this monster a third time. But of course, the pussies in the Senate would never cross their mob boss lest they be threatened with death from the millions of goons out there who have waited to be fascists for years. Well, I can think of another way out but leave that to McDonalds.

Midterms are 20 months out. Lots can happen in 10 months. Americans forget a lot and with this regime it's an everyday occurrence that batshit crazy doesn't enter the room. We fucking killed over a 100 people on boats, kidnapped a sitting President, seized oil tankers like a goddamned pirate, and sent feds to Minneapolis to shoot people in the head and arrest US citizens for daring to protest the Orange King. All of this seems like the distant past now. Americans forget. That's how this ogre got reelected. Forgetfulness.

I worry for my country. I worry for my fellow citizens of color, gay citizens, women and all the rest. The decision to put this loudmouthed Orc back into office is the stupidest thing America has ever done and for crissakes there's so much to choose from. 

As we wait for the midterms, where in a perfect world the GOP would lose every race possible, we cannot do much but endure this blabbermouth and his insanity.

Hold on and don't let go. EVER!